“Fufufu, knife. This is nice.”
The tremor in the crystal cave beyond the Yoshikawa Gate was in the local news, but since there were no casualties, it was reported as old ruins naturally collapsing.
That isn’t exactly what happened, but apparently they don’t want to bring human experimentation done by otherworlders to light, so that is how it’s being reported. The extend plates embedded in the back of seekers’ necks is otherworld technology, so they don’t want that tied to human experimentation and slavery and have public opinion sour.
In any case, I was let go after being questioned, and I’m back in the Kawakoshi Maze Hotel. I’m borrowing their basement to test what I found this time. It’s all been appraised, and it seems I found quite the loot this time.
The one that catches my attention the most is the knives.
Apparently the four-armed dolls I found in that facility are autonomous magic devices called four hands, and their knives are called lock knives. They deal no special effects on their target, but they are quite sturdy because a fixate effect was applied to them
Also, lock is not a mistake, and they are not supposed to be rock due to being hard as rocks. I heard they are lock knives because the fixate applied to them is like being locked with a key.
All of this to say that although I haven’t tried them yet, there is a good chance they won’t break if I shoot them out of my Storage Spaces. And so, I kept all thirty-six lock knives.
The light armor I brought back is also called lock armor, since a fixate effect was also applied to it. It’s thin and light so the slender four hands could wear it, and it suits me perfectly on top of my protect tights.
The protect tights are made of synthetic resins, so they’re also both light and sturdy, but they were made with shock absorption in mind, not defense. I think this leaves me with a pretty nice defensive balance.
I also learned after looking into it that the mana jewels that power four hands are not regular ones, but ones with better performance called high mana jewels. It’s hard to tell the difference, but if I look at them closely, I can see they have a thicker color than mana jewels.
If I equip the searcher drone with one, it will recover quicker than it spends, so it can basically operate forever as long as I maintain it.
And so, I sold three mana jewels for a million and a half yen, but since high mana jewels are rare, I plan to keep all nine. As for the four hands I brought back without damaging it…
“Rise.”
“Hou, it’s moving.”
It looks like it will listen to orders from me and my familiar Tina.
It doesn’t look like it will attack me like it did in the ruins. This basement was made with that in mind, so it’s strong enough to withstand a magic device rampaging, but I guess my fears were unfounded.
The way the flower on its head moves reminds me of that dancing flower toy from a long time ago. Also, I’m happy that it listens to me, but Tina… This flower doesn’t work on people, does it? Actually, I’m too afraid to ask.
“Tina, can this four hands fight?”
“No problem. The combat protocol is still inside it, so it should still have the same combat power.”
“That’s good. The way it jumped on me like a grasshopper in the ruins makes me think it should be a reliable ally.”
“Even though, if what I saw in your memories is correct, it didn’t hurt you one bit.”
“My skill is better than it looks.”
“I know that.”
Incidentally, Tina now has a collar with the association mark that shows she’s a familiar, but she wears it as a bracelet. She decorated it because she said it wasn’t cute, but is it okay to modify this? Oh well, I will know if someone gets mad about it.
I’m thinking I want to take the new members of my group with me on my next exploration.
I don’t feel like entering the Yoshikawa Gate after the mess that happened there, but since I’m now level ten, I’m thinking this is a good opportunity to go to another dungeon and use my new Storage Gate with the Analysis function.
———————————
Pity, pity.
Abandon shame to survive.
Return to being a beast to survive.
Continue the madness to survive.
Crawl on the ground to preserve your life.
People don’t know the meaning of this.
All that is left is how it is.
Thanks for the treat.