Chapter 142.1

142 Part 1

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 142

Let’s Harvest The Food Of The Mountains!

“Cutting through stone?”

“Yeah.”

Nodding, Akane took out a pebble that looked like it had been by a fire, and lightly hit it against the tip of the dagger.

When she turned her hand over, the pebble had been cut through, silently and smoothly.

“This baby makes quarrying work look like a walk in the park!”

“Ooh, what about its sharpness for the usual stuff?”

“Ugh… Hmm, other prototypes seem to be able to do various things, such as a club that increases its sharpness against beast-type monsters and a spear that increases internal destructive power against large monsters.”

Akane escaped from Haruki’s line of sight and started speaking quickly.

It would appear that the short sword’s damage capabilities for usual monster killing wasn’t all that high.

“Hmm… Wait a minute.”

A club with increased sharpness, and a spear with increased internal destructive power.

Neither of those abilities seemed to be useful at all.

If those weapons had the ability of the other weapon, then it would be actually useful.

“Didn’t you get the abilities for each weapon wrong?”

“I’m sorry, but there’s no mistake here. When requested for a detailed appraisal for the various items I made, I got these results that were opposite of what I had expected. Apparently, there are many abilities that can appear depending on the processing method.

So at this point, I haven’t been able to develop the abilities I aimed for. However, it may be possible to give sharpness to swords and destructive power to hammers.”

“Oh!”

If it were to become possible to give weapons whatever ability that you wanted, it would definitely be a revolution in the adventurer world.

In addition to the production company, class, name, and price, a weapon’s special ability would be stated for every piece of armor and weapon for sale in the store.

Even for gear with the same class and name, the price will change significantly depending on what kind of special ability they each have individually.

Adventurers could also choose gear with an emphasis on special abilities.

Thinking of a future where stores would be full of armor with special abilities for sale, Haruki smiled.

“…That’s good.”

“Right!? That’s why these materials are about 1.5 more expensive.”

“Hmmm.”

After having heard that these materials could make up for revolutionary products, the fact that they would be 1.5 more expensive than their regular counterparts didn’t sound so appealing to Haruki anymore.

Akane must have realized what Haruki was thinking.

She smiled bitterly and then started talking.

“The development of these weapons isn’t that easy. I’m sure you can’t make a weapon that you can wholesale to the store even if I were to buy all of your materials.”

“Is that so?”

The materials he had obtained in the garage dungeon alone were close to 200 pieces.

It would be a big pain if all of those materials were to end up ruined during product development.

However, weapons with special abilities were different from other very appealing products that racked up demand.

They would suppose a complete change in how adventurers equipped themselves.

No matter how much production cost, it would definitely be profitable.

Considering that, selling them for 1.5 times the price of their regular counterparts felt a little too cheap.

Wouldn’t she pay him a little more for them?

Akane raised her index finger in front of the frowning Haruki.

“If you sell them here, you will get special benefits.”

“Ooh, what kind of benefits?”

“You get a prototype for free.”

“…And then you’ll say my free prototype will be this questionable short sword?”

“It’s not questionable!”

Akane seemed to have lost her temper, but then she quickly put a smile on her face.

“Well, I’ll give this to you as a free sample, but I’ll give you something else as well.”

“Can I specify the type of gear?”

“Of course.”

“OK, I’m sold!”

Considering the future profit of Ichibishi, selling those materials for 1.5 times more expensive than their regular counterparts was still considerably cheap.

But if you can get free prototype stuff before others could get them, the story changes.

To be offered a rare prototype that hadn’t even hit the shelves yet completely for free…

There was no way that Haruki would let such an opportunity pass.

Haruki would get the chance to flaunt a piece of gear that was one of its  kind before the entire town.

“I’ve never seen that kind of gear.”

“What is that?”

“Who’s that adventurer?”

It was definitely going to stand out.

This’ll increase my presence!!

“Eeehehee…”

Akane and Karen shook their heads in disapproval in response to Haruki’s delusional laughter.

＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊

Haruki sold all of the materials from the purple werewolves to Akane.

The profit was split between Haruki, Karen, and Kagemitsu, all who participated in the fight against the rare-species deer.

Haruki made a deposit to Kagemitsu via Ichibishi, adding in the request fee as well.

With this, there were no other payments waiting for Haruki.

Even though he had made lots of profit, his wallet still felt a little sad.

However, he should be able to get back on his feet quickly with future hunts.

Haruki went to the 16th floor of the garage dungeon with a fresh state of mind.

After arriving at the 16th floor of the Garage Dungeon, Haruki and the others looked around for the changes in the dungeon’s layout.

“Ooh… So it’s like a forest stage after the 16th floor… Amazing.”

“I didn’t get to check the floor the last time I was here.”

Back then, they had returned to the surface as soon as they activated the gate on the 16th floor.

So Haruki and the others were actually seeing the 16th floor for the first time.

Unlike the grassland type they had seen up to the 15th floor, the entire 16th floor was like a forest stage.

There were no roads, and the trees seemed to be very close from one another.

Most of the light falling from the ceiling was being blocked by the leaves of these trees.

It would be easy to get lost in this forest by stepping in without a plan.

“These trees seem to be disconnected from the rest of the dungeon.”

The ground and dungeon walls were full of energy, but the trees were not.

From this, it could be inferred that the trees could be taken out of the dungeon in the same way as the hot stones in Nakasatsunai.

“They may not be as good as those materials we got from the Dungeon Lord of Asahikawa Dungeon, but should we take some with us anyway?”

“Yeah. Maybe they’ll sell for a reasonable price.”

“Right.”

Haruki casually approached a tree and pulled out his Magic Sword.

He swung at the light that was shining around its base.

The tree made a loud noise as it fell to the ground.

Haruki quickly cut its branches off and split it into pieces of about 2 meters long each.

“…Hmm?”

Haruki noticed something unusual as he stored the logs in the magic bag.

“There’s something nearby.”

“Yeah…”

Karen seemed to have noticed it as well.

Haruki and her corrected their posture and stared into the forest.

Haruki’s Detection had already caught the signs of three living things.

Perhaps they had heard the sound made by the tree as it fell, and decided to draw near.

Holding his Magic Sword along with his Short Sword, Haruki readied himself.

As they stood still holding their breath, three monsters appeared from the woods.

Their bodies were white and uneven, like roots.

Green leaves sprouted from their heads.

They were moving the roots that split from their bodies like limbs.

Each of them was holding a club in their hand which was the same color as their bodies.

(What on Earth are those things?)

At first glance, Haruki could tell that they were some kind of plant-based humanoids.

However, he didn’t know exactly what kind of monster they were.

They were plant-based monsters, but they were holding clubs.