CH 132

Chapter 132 – Intermission – I’m looking forward to it!

Slowly, I approached the light.

I felt like I was swaying in a body of water, slowly surfacing towards the light.

This… Is a dream, isn’t it?

And now I’m trying to wake up…

Once I realized that…

“Oh, you’re up. Good morning, Yuri, how are you?” Mika asked me.

“Good morning, I’ll go call someone.” Hime said.

“I’ll leave it to you.” Mika told Hime, then turned back towards me, “How are you feeling, Yuri? Your complexion seems good, so I guess you slept well?”

“… Good morning, Mika. What day is it?” I asked her.

“Good morning. There are four days left until the update. You’re barely safe.” She told me.

Those are some good news. I was worried that the update would have already occurred by the time I woke up, but I still have four days left until it.

Since it’s like this, I can still get enough rest before logging in.

“I’ve brought them.” Hime said.

“Thanks for the hard work.” Mika told her.

“Hime, good morning, and thank you.” I told her.

“No worries.” Hime said.

“Then, see you later.” Mika told me.

“See you.” Hime told me.

“Yeah, see you later.” I told them.

Ah, I want to log-in as soon as possible.

But I can’t overdo it, so… Guess I’ll just take it easy for the time being.

******

“It’s cold enough to snow outside…” Mika muttered.

“Cold.” Hime agreed.

“It certainly does look cold.” I replied.

It’s already winter.

I can only look at the outside from the window, but I can tell that it’s very cold out there from staring at the cloudy sky and from Mika and Hime’s words.

But this room has perfect air conditioning, so I’m not cold at all. I’m actually very comfortable right now.

… Sometimes that makes me feel lonely though. I want to get cold together with Mika and Hime.

“By the way, it seems like your absence has finally been noticed by people on the forums.” Mika told me.

“Simple deduction.” Hime commented.

“So they were able to figure out I wasn’t the one making the items anymore?” I asked.

“Yeah, they got suspicious because no steel items with Options were being sold.” Mika explained.

“Plenty of Alchemy items too.” Hime added.

“I guess Mii and Muu worked hard.” I commented.

“Seems like it. You’re on pretty good terms with those boys, aren’t you?” Mika asked me.

We’ve certainly worked together a fair amount of times before, but I’d say that the person I’m closest to on Works is Lolita, not the twins.

I’m definitely not at the level of elementary schoolers.

“We did make quite a few items together, as I don’t know anybody that is as good at Alchemy as the twins are.” I replied.

“Amazing joint works.” Hime commented.

“That Great Wolf Doll is surely amazing, but isn’t it a bit too hard to manage, Hime?” Mika asked.

“Is it too hard?” I asked too.

“It’s hard, but it’s fine.” Hime replied.

“I guess we went overboard when increasing the number of arms… Maybe we should go back to the initial state? Increasing to 60 arms was too much.” I wondered out loud.

Hime’s current main doll, the Magic Doll – Beast Type – Great Wolf, was equipped with 40 internal arms on our first remodeling.

However, Mii and Muu went wild after that and added another 20 arms.

Since Hime was able to perfectly handle the Great Wolf Doll so far, we thought she’d be able to handle it.

In fact, during the test process, Hime seemed to have no problem wielding all 60 arms at once.

But apparently it was too much even for her.

I suppose that’s a lesson to us. Even Hime has limits.

“But when you aren’t using them, can’t you put the arms away? You don’t necessarily have to use them all.” Mika commented.

“I don’t think that’s possible… The Magical Gloves can only wield ten threads, so Hime has no choice but to link many arms together.” I replied.

“One thread commands ten arms.” Hime said.

“Wow… That sounds rough.” Mika said.

“To move each arm individually, we’d need a more complex mechanism that improved the Magical Gloves, but I don’t think there is any recipe for that. It would need to be an original creation.” I told them.

“So even a pro like Hime needs help at times…” Mika muttered.

“Sometimes.” Hime replied.

It would have been nice if Magitech had a mechanism to help out with the Magical Gloves, but there was no such thing.

I also couldn’t find any recipes that seemed to point in that direction, so… If the major update doesn’t add anything to help with the Magical Gloves, I’ll have to try making something myself.

… But I don’t think I’m actually able to create something like that.

Ideally, it would be nice to make something that allows precise movements for each individual arm. It should be possible for Hime to manage it if we had some sort of outside aid like that.

I mean, it’s Hime that we’re talking about, and Hime is amazing.

Though with the current method, trying to improve the doll any further will just put a bigger burden on Hime, so that’s no good.

“You’ve recently done nothing but things for Hime, you know? Make a weapon for me next time!” Mika exclaimed.

“Well, did any new high-rank material appear?” I asked.

“Ah… I don’t think so…?” Mika muttered.

“Royal Steel.” Hime said.

“Oh, right! There was this boss drop!” Mika exclaimed.

“Oh my? That sounds promising.” I commented.

It’s true that I’ve only been making new weapons for Hime recently, but there are limits to what I can do with the current materials and recipes available.

If I don’t get new recipes or high-rank materials, then I won’t even be able to experiment with making something better.

So, with a new material that is a boss drop, I can have expectations of it being of a pretty high rank, so that might help.

“I haven’t obtained many Royal Steel ores yet, and there seems to be no recipes for it just yet.

“Also, everyone who tried processing it ended up failing.” Mika explained.

“That sounds like an amazing material.” I replied.

“If it’s Bucket, then it might be possible.” Hime said.

“Yeah! People on the forums were also thinking you might be able to do it, but since you were on a temporary retirement, then it couldn’t be helped…” Mika told me.

“Perhaps this is finally the tier above steel that we were hoping for.” I said.

“I’ll be looking forward to your results with it!” Mika exclaimed.

“Looking forward to it.” Hime said.

In the major update, new recipes and items will most likely be added.

Though of course, many other things will probably be added too.

New combat-related systems and new field areas will probably be added too, since the majority of the players are combat-focused.

It’s only natural for Mika, who is one of the top combat-focused player Pioneers, to want to strengthen her equipment in preparation for that.

However, Mika’s current weapons are still top-tier, so it’s hard to improve those.

And that’s why I appreciate learning about this new rare material.

“So, when do you think you can log-in?” Mika asked me.

“I’m getting used to things well so far, so I think I’ll be allowed to by the day after tomorrow.” I replied.

“Oh, that’s faster than I thought! I’ll tell Lalalu and the others about it!” Mika exclaimed.

“Nice to hear it.” Hime said.

“Thanks. I’ll have to send a message to everyone once I’m back, and I’ll also need to go back to managing the store, so I’ll be busy for sure.” I commented.

“Ah! Right! On the day of your log-in, leave some time available at night, okay?” Mika suddenly told me.

“Leave it free.” Hime nodded.

“Huh? Is there something scheduled?” I asked.

Mika giggled, “That’s a secret, Bucket.”

“Secret.” Hime nodded.

“Eh? Tell me…” I told them.

My temporary retirement will end on the day after tomorrow.

Frontiers is waiting for me.

And the big update is right around the corner, so I’m looking forward to it!