Darc lets out a big sigh when the sword disappears from his hands.
“Hey Sora, was this sword level two the first time you saw it?”
“I’m pretty sure it was a regular mithril sword at first. It didn’t have a level.”
“Really?”
Yes, I didn’t see a level when I first used Appraisal. No doubt about it.
I’m pretty sure it happened after we took down that orclord.
“Hm… So did something happen at that time?”
I start to think back to when we defeated those orcs, and try to give Darc as detailed of an account as possible.
The dwarves are surprised, but the beast people not so much. I think it’s down to a difference in their knowledge, and the dwarves knowing how threatening orclords are.
“You defeated a lord… But that wouldn’t do it.”
Darc tilts his head, but I can’t think of anything else.
It would be one thing if the weapon raised its level on its own, but…
“But master, couldn’t it be that killing a lord triggered it? Or was it the magic energy? Did it change because it flowed through it?
Asks Haine, and Darc shakes his head.
“The first question is whether taking down a lord changed the weapon, but if that was it, I would’ve seen more weapons with levels. I’ve serviced a lot of weapons that defeated monsters of that level, and I know weapons I made did it too.”
Darc is able to say that with conviction because a lot of adventurers who brought him their weapons told him about their adventures.
After all, adventurers like to brag, so if they take out something big, they’re going to talk about it.
“Couldn’t they be lying?”
“Most of it was true. I can tell right away if I just check. There were always people who went out to hunt with them.”
I guess it would be easy to figure out by talking to people around them, or the guild.
At first I wonder if that’s the sort of thing you can just ask, but it makes sense to want to ask about people’s accomplishments because of named quests, for example.
Then there’s also the fact that the people themselves or ones they know will talk about it while drinking. Argo and Siphon use that move to gather information.
“Anyway, if you could do that by beating a lord, there would definitely be more of these out there. It could be that doing that doesn’t guarantee a weapon will level up, but might do it. But I still think there would be more of them.
I think it’s rarer to make magic energy flow through a weapon while fighting like that…”
He then adds that it’s not like he’s seen every weapon that exists.
But he has a point. If beating an orc leveled up people’s weapons, surely there would be more of those weapons around. There are plenty of chances to fight lords in dungeons. In Majolica’s, you just have to go to a boss room.
But magic energy… That should be rarer, but if that was the case, wouldn’t all of the mithril weapons in our party be level two?
Or could it be that it doesn’t happen to weapons made with Alchemy?
I start thinking back again. The orclord named Loyd was strong. Now that I can look at it with a cool head, I could’ve very well have died there.
Hn? Loyd?
“What?”
Darc asks right away, sensing that I’ve thought of something.
“I just remembered that the orclord we beat had a name.”
“A named monster?”
Darc is surprised, and I nod.
Yes, that orclord had a name. I saw it on Appraisal.
“I see… A named monster? Maybe that’s the condition.”
The beast people here don’t know what we’re talking about, so Darc tells them what a named monster is.
He makes a special point of mentioning that they should run if they ever come across a monster that can talk.
“That would make sense. Or maybe it has to be a named lord class monster. And maybe it has to be the weapon that deals the finishing blow.”
That would narrow it down a lot.
Darc also says it might have to be a good weapon, but I don’t think just any regular weapon would damage a lord. In fact, I don’t think people with iron swords would face one anyway.
“All right, let’s keep going then!”
Darc is satisfied with that, and raring to go.
We nod, and we’re about to get going, but then Mia shows up out of breath.
“Sora, Hikari…”
She tells me that Hikari returned to the village by herself.
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Thanks for the treat.