The day after we celebrated the girls returning and them leveling up, Liza and I went to a weapon store near the Adventurers Guild.
“Looks like a nice store.”
As a result of the hot climate here in Arcatia, there were a lot of open-air stores with no doors at the front. Can’t they have a poster girl outside? Even the shop had some old beastfolk dude trying to bring customers in. Oddly enough, more stores specialized in weapons made from bone and horns than in weapons made from metals.
“We got a customer, Toppa.”
“Looks like we got a customer, Tappo.”
Two dwarves welcomed us to the shop. They were both wearing something on their heads that resembled cow skulls. They also had a lot of accessories made from bones.
“Yo, we don’t serve new faces ’round here.”
“That’s right, we don’t do business with new faces ’round here.”
“We’re here on Lord Tiga’s recommendation.”
Liza spoke before handing the two dwarves a letter.
“Surprising, it really is from Tiga.”
“Shocking, it really is a recommendation from Tiga.”
The two of them looked at the letter, then looked at Liza, then back to the letter several times.
“Well, all right. Have a look.”
“Well, okay. Have a look for something you want.”
The dwarf called Tappo sat down, while the other dwarf, Toppa, disappeared into the workshop.
“They have weapons made from metals here.”
“That’s right, there are some stubborn folk who insist they only use weapons made from metal.”
Minus the mithril-alloy longsword on display behind the counter, every item in the shop was made from iron. That being said, only about 10 percent of the weapons were made of metal, while the rest were all crafted from bone or horn materials.
“Were the white weapons crafted with necromancy?”
“Most were. Once I learned how to craft them with necromancy, I realized how bothersome it was crafting them with ordinary tools.”
“Mostly, yeah. A lot of the handmade stuff is cheap, but some of it is sturdier than what I can make with necromancy, which I’m not very good at.”
The dwarf who went to the workshop returned and joined in the conversation.
We looked around at the weapons while listening to their explanations. Most bone weapons didn’t perform as well as steel weapons, and there was nothing better than weapons made from the mithril alloy.
“Aren’t metals, like mithril, more durable?”
“You think we can make that outside our village?”
“We can’t craft anything with mithril if we’re outside our village.”
When I thought about it, even in Bolehart, the dwarven autonomous region, the only place where mithril could be processed was the special furnace hidden underground.
“Depending on the item, bone can be more durable than steel.”
“Generally, steel is better at cutting.”
“In that case, why are there so many items made from horns and bones?”
I was curious, so I asked.
“It’s hot here, so steel weapons are more likely to rust.”
So it was a problem unique to areas with humid climates.
“There’s even a monster known as the ‘last ivy’ that causes rust with the liquid it secretes.”
We had fought and defeated a last ivy before, but our weapons were protected with magic, so we didn’t know how dangerous the liquid it produced was.
“Well, that’s not all.”
“Yeah, that’s not all.”
“…Which means?”
“There’s no steel nodes around here.”
“It’s not cheap moving materials out of the labyrinth.”
It made a lot more sense why weapons and other items made from metal were more expensive.
“Adventurers usually bring their materials.”
It reminded me of a popular game where adventurers would hunt monsters and then improve their equipment with the parts that got dropped.
“Do you not have any magic weapons?”
“We do, inside.”
“They’re inside.”
I asked them to show us, and, surprisingly, they quickly led us farther into the store. No doubt thanks to Lord Tiga’s recommendation.
“Most of them are items that dropped from monsters in the Castle and the Demon City.”
“There’s a lot of cursed items here, too.”
“Naught we can do about that. Necromancy works better if the miasma is thick.”
“Naught to do about it.
“It’s only natural that curses are most likely to appear.”
I didn’t know necromancy had those sorts of conditions when using it. If I used the miasma stored in the Malice Urn and Chaos Jars we recovered from the demon lord–worshipping cult Wings of Freedom, I might be able to craft a weapon on par with the saber dropped by the demon lord, the Golden Boar.
Well, if we’re talking about that kind of weapon, there’s still the Black Flame Bone Sword made from the rib of the Boar King sitting in my Storage.
“This is a Magic Spear.”
“That’s a rare one. Someone found it in a shrine in the Demon City.”
It was a Magic Spear with both a large ice stone and a small dark stone slotted into it. It seemed to be named the “Frostbane Bone Spear.” I assumed when one charged it with magic, the spear would coat itself in frost. I wondered if the dark stone was there to suck the heat out of it. The base material for it appeared to be Taurus horns. It was a little heavy.
“How much is this?”
“Around two hundred copper.”
“I think twenty thousand copper is a more suitable price.”
Since their copper coins were smaller than those in the Shiga Kingdom, I figured it would equate to around 180 gold coins. Well, I assumed that was accurate.
“I don’t have that many copper coins on me at the moment. Would some gems or precious metal ingots be okay instead?”
“Sure, that’s fine.”
“Yeah, we prefer that.”
I lined up the gems on top of the table. I had put them in my Storage earlier in preparation. Each of them was worth around ten gold coins.
“Whoa! That’s perfect!”
“This ruby is huge. One of them would go for around thirty thousand copper coins.”
“This steel is somethin’ else! That’ll fetch around ten thousand, no, twenty thousand copper.”
They were more pleased than I imagined they would be.
The ruby was man-made. I’d taken an old, bashed-up ruby and repaired it with the Stone Object magic spell. The steel was also made from confiscated goods of thieves and pirates, turned back into ingots using Forge Magic. The latter was reworked a bit to adjust the carbon content, but it didn’t take much effort. The dwarves argued over whether they would make them into ingots or keep them as gems. Eventually, they decided on ingots. I handed the Frostbane Bone Spear to Liza. Once she finished analyzing it and comparing its abilities, she decided to add it to her collection.
…Hmm?
I didn’t notice it when I entered, but there was a barrel haphazardly stuffed with bone weapons, the price of which was written on the barrel. The weapons with low durability could be bought for around five copper pieces.
““Those are traded-in items and newbie necromancer weapons,”” the dwarves explained as I peered into the barrel.
“They’re rather cheap.”
“Only necromancers can repair bone weapons. Bone weapons that are just tied together with a string for a quick fix will break after a few strikes. They can be sharpened, but they become fragile at a much faster rate compared to metal weapons, so I wouldn’t recommend it.”
It seemed cheap bone weapons were for one-time use only. I told the dwarves I’d come again as I took my leave from the store.
“Let’s add the bone armor to the new items the Hero’s Rest sells.”
The day after my friends set out on another expedition into the labyrinth, I laid out the prototype weapons and armor and showed them to Roro.
“Bone armor? While I don’t know a lot about equipment, they look well-made.”
While Roro was checking out the bone chest plate and helmet, it seemed she noticed the one-handed longsword that had been singled out from the rest.
“…Is there something different with this longsword?”
“Can you work out what? This is a magic weapon.”
I’d tried to make a downgraded version of the Frostbane Bone Spear I’d bought with Liza. However, I’d messed it up. I didn’t know if I messed it up due to using a Taurus champion’s horn, or if I got too carried away and poured too much magic power into it, or if using an ice crystal in place of an ice stone was a bad idea. Thinking back, it was no surprise I messed it up. I needed to be more careful.
“A magic weapon?! I can’t sell such a wonderful product here! It won’t sell!”
“Don’t worry, we’ll keep it behind the counter on display. It’ll be something new adventurers can set their sights on.”
Knowing that you’d be able to eventually use a strong weapon was a huge point of motivation in a game, after all.
Even with its special abilities, in terms of performance, the weapons I had given to my friends were two ranks above it, and it was around one rank higher than the late-model, forged Magic Sword that was touted as the “Hero’s Blade,” so it wouldn’t cause that many problems. I decided to place a golem in the shop as a deterrent against thieves.
As I was talking with Roro, a customer entered the shop.
“Hello!”
“Ms. Tia! Hello.”
Both Ms. Tia, the self-proclaimed “pupil of the Great Sorceress,” and Fen, the man who looked like a wolf, entered the store. Fen didn’t say anything, instead choosing to lean against the wall near the entrance and stare at Roro.
“Roro, do you know him?”
“No. He’s Ms. Tia’s bodyguard. I think.”
Roro responded as I whispered in her ear.
“Don’t mind Mr. Fen. He doesn’t mean any harm,” Ms. Tia said, shrugging her arms.
Fen mustn’t have been too pleased with how Ms. Tia worded that, as he approached the counter where Ms. Tia was speaking with us. He had a fierce look in his eyes.
“Ah, you frightened me. Did I upset you, Mr. Fen?”
“No. This weapon—may I touch it?”
As I gave Fen my approval, he picked up the failed longsword and channeled magic into it. The air surrounding the blade began to freeze—I could tell without holding it that the temperature of the blade had dropped, too.
“That’s a lovely Magic Sword. Did it drop somewhere around the Castle—? Wait, Hephaistos… If I can see the name, it wasn’t found in a treasure chest somewhere… Someone made it, right?”
I was shocked by Ms. Tia’s accurate appraisal, when she lunged at me over the counter. I wished she wouldn’t press against me with her chest—albeit it was rather small.
“Yes, I asked a blacksmith versed in magic weapons to craft it for me.”
Of course—that was a lie. Hephaistos was one of my many aliases. Ms. Tia went on to ask me how I got to know him, so I said I knew him from my time in the Shiga Kingdom.
“Tia, pay for it.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
Fen gripped the weapon as he tested its weight, before asking Ms. Tia to deal with the payment as he sauntered out of the door. I’d never even said it was for sale, so it didn’t have a price, but he seemed enamored enough by it to forget himself and walk right out with it, so I didn’t mind.
“U-uhm, how much is it?”
“One thousand copper pieces.”
““One thousand?!”” both Ms. Tia and Roro said.
“Y-you’re kidding, right?”
“Yeah, it was a joke. I’ll take three hundred pieces for it.”
“Oof…”
“Is that too much? You can still return it, if so.”
Compared to how much I paid for the Frostbane Bone Spear for Liza, I thought three hundred copper pieces was a decent price.
“Ugh, I doubt I’ll be able to. All right, then. I’ll have the money by tomorrow.”
Roro recommended Ms. Tia sit down. As soon as she did so, she drooped her head on the counter like a salaryman who’d just finished an all-nighter.
“Ms. Tia, cheer up.”
Roro spoke, offering her one of our new items—fruit water.
“Wow, that’s so good! What is it?”
“It’s a type of magic medicine. It’s a nutrient supplement.”
I noticed that many of the fruits I bought at the market could be used as materials for potions, so I decided to create something like a nutrient supplement version for Arcatia, using the products introduced by Echigoya. Since stamina-enhancing materials are inexpensive, I could make it much cheaper than those sold in the Shiga Kingdom.
“That wasn’t in the recipes I gave you, right?”
“You’re right. There wasn’t a recipe for it, but when I was reading the explanations about the materials, I realized I could use them, so I tried making it.”
“You made it? In this short amount of time?” Ms. Tia almost squeaked out in surprise as she clutched her empty cup.
“Just…what are you?”
“I’m an employee at Hero’s Rest and a relative of Roro’s, I guess.”
I wished she wouldn’t look at me with such doubt in her eyes.
“Ms. Tia, would you like another?”
“Yes please.”
Roro refilled Ms. Tia’s cup with fruit water as Ms. Tia gulped it down, reminding me of a salaryman who was going through a hard time and self-soothing himself with alcohol.
“How much is this?”
“Once cup is around five copper pieces, we’ll say.”
“That’s so cheap! At least make it twenty copper pieces.”
“Is that considering our competitors?”
“Well, that too, but it’s so cheap, I can see some idiots getting addicted to it.”
I had a similar worry. When I worked back at my company, there was someone who drank way more energy drinks than recommended and really did a number on themselves.
“Got it. Then we’ll change the price.”
If it was too expensive, our regulars wouldn’t buy it, so I decided to offer a more watered-down version for five coppers, and the one that Ms. Tia drank for twenty coppers.
“It goes without saying, but I’ll keep the recipe a secret, okay?”
“I’ll make it public eventually, but for now, please buy it here at Hero’s Rest.”
“All right. Looking forward to it.”
After Ms. Tia stretched and sorted her feelings out, she made a huge order for magic medicine. Of course, she also ordered the new fruit water, too. Since she chose a large bottle the size of one sho (about seven and a half cups) to take home, it seemed she really liked the fruit water. As we were chatting, I mentioned to Ms. Tia that I had mastered all of the recipes she had given me, so she told me a place where I could buy new recipe books and find materials that explained all of the ingredients. I decided I’d visit there the next day.
Five days after Ms. Tia’s order, Roro and I, having finished preparing the order, went out to buy materials.
“Big yawn.”
Roro smiled, pointing out my yawn. I hadn’t had much sleep.
“Even though we’ve plenty of time till it’s due, you really pushed yourself, didn’t you?”
“It’s nothing. I’m fine.”
The reason I was so exhausted wasn’t because of Ms. Tia’s order. It was because I had been struggling to incorporate the divine stone Castle circuit board into Nana’s golden armor. Since the weight of the armor increased as a result, I wondered if I should have installed emergency thrusters so she could evade attacks quickly. As I was busy scanning through the notepad displayed on the AR, I looked at Roro walking beside me.
“Are you finished shopping?”
“Yes, Mr. Satou,” Roro confirmed.
Her beauty rivaled Lulu’s. She was beautiful enough to cause kingdoms, even continents, to fall, but as we were in Arcatia, an area with a low human population, it was hard to find anyone who would agree. Though, even if there were more humans, it seemed they shared the same beauty standard as that of the Shiga Kingdom, meaning she would become a target of ridicule, similar to Lulu. It was probably best that Roro lived in an area where they didn’t care much for humanfolk.
“You blasphemous fool!”
I was startled by the sudden insult, but it didn’t seem to be aimed at me.
“Mr. Satou, over there.”
Roro tugged on my sleeve, pointing me in the direction of the insult. There were some men who looked like necromancers arguing with a group of ratfolk priests, who were being led by a head priest. I realized I hadn’t seen many head priests around. That was because there weren’t any temples here in Arcatia.
“You necromancers, you just toy with the dead!”
“Come again?! We only use the skeletons of those who made a pact with us when they were still alive!”
“Hmph! A pact, you say? You force them into servitude, denying them peace in death! It’s unforgivable!”
“I don’t need your forgiveness! Are you denying a poor man’s wish to provide for his family even after death?!”
“You heretic! You prey on the poor!”
Their argument was really starting to heat up.
“I’ll release you from this evil, so-called necromancer! —”
“Stop!”
Some children threw an object covered in dirt right at the side of the priest’s face as he began to chant a spell. It hadn’t rained here for a few days, so I assumed it was runosaur dung.
“What are you doing?!”
“Don’t kill our dad a second time! Thanks to Dad working even after death, our sick mother and younger sister are able to eat!”
“That’s right! Our town wouldn’t be here without the necromancer’s skeletons doing all the dirty work!”
“If we didn’t have necromancers, it’d be difficult to turn bones and fangs into weapons.”
“We can’t mine steel around these parts, so weapons would be stupid expensive.”
Other villagers and adventurers spoke up in support of the necromancers and the children.
“Grrr, what on earth is this? To think the necromancers have their Magic Hand in every pot like that.”
The priest groaned with a look of unbearable frustration on his face.
“There’s nothing I can do now. I’ll need to negotiate with the chief priest back in my nation for a holy war—”
“Sir Mokro! You’re here!”
Just as the priest was mumbling threats, a woman wearing a robe intercepted him.
“…Ms. Tia? Mr. Satou, that’s Ms. Tia.”
Just as Roro said, the woman in the robe was the Great Sorceress’s pupil, Ms. Tia.
She calmed the crowd that had gathered before persuading the priests to go to the Great Sorceress’s tower with her. She was good at that.
“I’m back.”
“Roro, welcome.”
“Roro, lonely.”
“Roro, souvenirs?”
As we opened the door to Hero’s Rest, the hamsterfolk children came bounding toward us, almost tripping over themselves in the process. The youngest one actually did fall over, only coming to a stop when Roro gave them a hug. I put the paper bag I was carrying on the counter and took out an imperfect branch cucumber that was given to us while shopping. A branch cucumber was exactly as it sounded—it was a vegetable from a plant that grew in the labyrinth. The cucumbers were small and thin like branches.
“Mashter, cucumber.”
“Mashter, please.”
“Mashter, quick.”
The hamsterfolk children that had just previously been getting attention from Roro had all gathered around me suddenly, their eyes sparkling as they looked up at me. Ever the opportunistic bunch. Just as Nana said, that was one of their cute features.
The reason they all called me “Mashter” and not my name was thanks to Nana correcting them. When they called me that, it reminded me of the seal children in the capital.
“Wait a moment—”
The branch cucumber I received had a damaged, broken end, so I cut it with the Magic Blade I summoned with my fingertips before giving it to the hamsters, who then began gnawing on it as soon as I handed it to them. The three of them were gluttons. As they chomped down on it, I saw them reaching for the damaged part I had cut off.
“This part isn’t good.”
I quickly picked up the damaged end, causing the hamster children to look at me questioningly.
“It’ll make you sick.”
Hearing my reasons for it, they gave up, wearing sad expressions as they did so. Of course, that didn’t stop them from feasting on the main part of the branch cucumber.
“Is Roro here?”
Before I could change the sign outside from “PREPARING” to “OPEN,” a customer had come in. It was one of our regulars, Ms. Nona.
“Welcome, Ms. Nona.”
“Sorry for barging in before you open, but I would like three Candles of Direction and twenty of those delicious preserved-food meals. Oh, and one of those insect repellents—the trial version.”
“Guys, could you bring the preserved foods out for me? The ones that smell nice!”
“Got it.”
“Nice smell one.”
“We’ll bring it.”
The hamsters all ran to the storage cupboard, battling it out among themselves to be the first.
“How many insect repellents would you like?”
As the main climate here was a tropical one, insect repellents were a must-have.
“Oh, Mr. Satou is here, too. I guess how many I want depends on how much they cost. I’d like at least one, but if it’s too expensive, I mightn’t be able to buy it.”
“Is it all right if I make it the same price as the Candles of Direction?”
“Huh? That cheap? I’ll take five! Five insect repellents!”
I didn’t make much profit off them, but they were cheap to make, so I didn’t need to make them any more expensive. I had secured Hero’s Rest’s future profits with the recipe, after all. I planned to share it with the Alchemy Guild.
“Thank you for your patronage. I’ve prepared a basket for the insect repellents. Care to try it? It’s a test product, so it’ll be free.”
“I’ll try it! Thanks, Mr. Satou! This is awesome!”
Ms. Nona smothered me with a hug. I peeled her off me as I headed toward the front door of the store, changing the sign to “OPEN.”
“Ack! Ms. Nona! Touching is forbidden!”
“Ah-ha-ha. My bad, my bad. I won’t go touching your sweetheart, Roro.”
Roro flushed bright red as she turned away.
“M-my sweetheart…”
“Ms. Nona, the shop manager is rather innocent about these things, so please don’t tease her.”
“Sure thing.”
While I told Ms. Nona off, the hamsterfolk children returned from the storage room with the preserved foods. The youngest one fell over—like always—but the other two acted quick and saved the preserved foods.
“Yo, Roro. Are the weapons I asked you to sharpen done yet?”
“I heard you came up with some new preserved foods. Do you have any left?”
“Insect repellent! Sell me an insect repellent! The ones that don’t smell weird!”
While Ms. Nona was paying, more customers flooded in. It seemed it was worth stocking up on various new products as the number of regular customers increased.
“I heard you buy scrolls here for a high price…”
“Mr. Satou, there’s someone who wants to sell their scrolls.”
Oh, my first one since I put out an advertisement.
I Warped over to the count and moved in front of the man holding the scrolls. He looked like a merchant.
“Thank you for waiting. I’m Satou. I hear you have some scrolls to sell?”
“I have around ten.”
“Ten! That’s wonderful!”
The other customers and Roro all looked shocked—probably because I jumped for joy.
“Look and be amazed! Eight of them were made in the Shiga Kingdom, an official item from the Siemmen Workshop.”
“That’s amazing.”
I could see the official Siemmen Workshop stamp on the scrolls. However, unfortunately, it was all magic I already had. I was excited to see the remaining two scrolls.
“They’re two scrolls that dropped in the Bloodsucker Labyrinth, Sticky Net and Holy Light.”
The first one was a sticky throwing net, a nonlethal binding spell, and the latter was a spell that shot a holy beam at the undead. There was a Holy Magic spell with the same name. However, this certain spell was Light Magic. The Holy Magic spell was an offensive spell that shot out something like a laser, whereas the Light Magic spell worked similarly to Turn Undead.
“This is some rare magic. I’ll buy both of them for thirty coppers each.”
“Huh?! You’ll buy them for that much? And what about the other eight?”
“I’ll pay one copper for each.”
“Why is it that cheap?”
I don’t know how he got his hands on them, but it shouldn’t put this merchant in the red.
“My apologies, but it’s a request from my friend who is a collector. I can buy scrolls that don’t have a high price, but he has a direct trade with the Siemmen Workshop and gets them that way, so that’s why they’re all the same price.”
The merchant accepted the price and took jewels that equaled the full amount as payment before leaving. I gave the merchant a set of some of our new products as a gift. Since he was the kind of person who would come to Arcatia, which was deep in a labyrinth, I felt he would be able to open up a lot of new trade routes for us.
“Is Roro here?”
Once the customers left, a tired Ms. Tia came to the store. Everyone who came to the store always asked the same thing.
“Welcome, Ms. Tia. You look exhausted.”
“Aah, I’m exhaaausted. I can’t deal with stubborn priests. We were so right not to build a church here.”
Dear, dear, Ms. Tia. If you keep talking like that, Roro will find out who you really are.
“What did those priests come here to do?”
“Hmm, apparently, a high-level undead was sighted in the Temple of the Evil God. The Temple of the Evil God that Ms. Tia was referring to was the common name for a temple in the labyrinth created for an evil god. I checked on my map, but there was no sign of any demons or demon lords.”
“It’s a popular hunting spot for beginner adventurers, and there’s only ever low-level undead there, so they wanted to get rid of it sooner than later.”
“If they just want to get rid of a high-level undead, can’t they just send a mage or a Magic Sword user?”
“If they just want to defeat it, then yeah, but we need to purify the area so it doesn’t come back, you see.”
I handed Ms. Tia, who was slumped over on the counter, a fruit juice nutrition drink.
“Ahh, this is what I need. I’m nothing without it.”
Ms. Tia perked up as soon as she saw the bottle. She hurriedly opened the bottle.
“You didn’t put anything weird in this, right?”
Ms. Tia grinned as she gulped the drink down.
“Mr. Satou would never do such a thing!”
Roro immediately shot back. She took Ms. Tia’s joke too seriously.
“I’m sorry. It was just a little joke.”
Ms. Tia shot me a look asking for backup—Ms. Tia had a soft spot for Roro, it seemed.
“Lady Tia!”
The door to Hero’s Rest shot open as a woman dressed in a similarly designed robe to Ms. Tia’s rushed through.
“Lady Tia, Lord Mokro is causing a stir again.”
“Aghhh, agaaaain?” Ms. Tia groaned, obviously displeased.
“Sorry, Roro. I’ll be back another time.”
She spoke as she reached for the bottle, gulping down the remaining drops before giving us a small wave and leaving the store.
“Roro, you here?”
Once Ms. Tia left, the lizardfolk woman came into the shop. She was a business owner who supplied Hero’s Rest with candles.
“Hello, madam.”
“I hate to ask again, but do you know where our Shashi has gotten to? He’s disappeared again.”
Didn’t she mention he disappeared last time, too?
“Have you seen him anywhere?”
“No, sorry, I haven’t. Do you have any idea where he could be, Mr. Satou?”
I opened my map and found him in the Woodland Labyrinth, not too far from Arcatia. It looked like he was with a necromancer who was a friend, and they were being escorted by undead that were controlled by the necromancer. Their tank was a level-20-ranking undead, so I figured they were out hunting.
“I saw him walking toward the main gate with a friend who looked like a necromancer earlier. They had some undead with them, so I wonder if they were going out to work?”
“Is that so? I hope that’s the case…”
The woman seemed worried as she mumbled to herself before thanking us both and leaving.
It seemed mothers worried about their children even in isekai worlds, too.
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