“Hn… So that’s… You could have woken me up…”
Says Chris with a rare pout, after hearing about what happened last night.
“We did try… But then…”
Rurika starts whispering in her ear, and Chris goes silent as her face turns red.
“Are we going back now?”
“…I want to make the cure here.”
If it goes badly and I fail, I can get more laurel tree fruit.
How does that work though? Would that count? I think it’ll be fine as long as we don’t leave this floor. In fact, both Hikari and I are carrying more than ten fruits.
And I think Yuini would’ve told us if we couldn’t pick more than ten fruits each.
Anyway, I ask everyone to keep watch, and start putting together all the things I thought about last night.
All I have of the cockatrice at this point is the magic stone.
If the laurel tree fruit is necessary, should I just use it along with a full potion, or should I throw in the magic stone?
Using the magic stone should increase its effect, so maybe I should use it just to be sure. I want to avoid a scenario where I spend a lot of magic energy because I don’t have enough ingredients. That might make it fail too.
I could’ve done this last night, but there was a lot on my mind, like Chris still being down.
…Maybe that’s just an excuse.
I prepare the ingredients, and focus.
I need more than just magic energy, I need to calm down. I keep thinking about when I used the Creation skill in the dungeon and collapsed, but that was a special environment.
And this time I have MP Consumption Reduction too.
How many fruits should I use… They’re not that big, but I don’t think I need to start dumping a lot of them. Not to mention that if I start using them like that, I’m going to run out.
…I should be able to at least check the alchemy recipe… I see. When you make medicine from laurel tree fruit, you can make several with one fruit.
But apparently that lowers the effect too. It should result in potions of lower quality.
It’s time, so I activate the Creation skill.
I don’t know if it’s because I have a clear image on my mind or because I’m getting used to it, but it’s the first time that I activate the skill and get a feel for when I should infuse magic energy.
I mix in the potion and the liquefied fruit, add in the magic stone… And after infusing magic energy, it’s done.
I check my status panel, and confirm that I did lose a lot of MP.
It’s always like this the first time I make something, but thanks to MP Consumption Reduction, I still have more than half.
“Master, is it done?”
“Yes, I think this will work.”
【Sora’s petrification cure】. Effect – Heals petrification. Quality – Good.
After casting Appraisal, I see that the ‘incomplete’ tag is gone.
…Let’s just ignore the item’s name.
I’m pretty sure the liquefied laurel tree fruit won’t degrade in the Item Box, but I might as well use it all. And so, I end up with six cures.
Then we eat, and get moving again.
“Where are we going?”
Asks Sera, and I tilt my head.
“Ah, are you asking if we’re going back the way we came, or to the eighth floor?”
That makes sense. From here, the eighth floor is closer than the entrance to this floor.
Not to mention that it’ll be easier to walk as the forest opens up.
“Should we keep going and return through the eighth floor?”
We don’t need to keep exploring this dungeon, but it might not be bad to move forward anyway. And if it gets us back quicker, all the better, but I also see that there aren’t any monsters up ahead.
“Master, when’s the next time we are going to have minotaur steak?”
Hikari sounds very interested.
I do get the feeling that strong monsters taste better. Some are poisonous, but that shouldn’t be a problem with Appraisal.
Incidentally, apparently strong monsters are still tasty even if they are poisonous.
How do I know this? Apparently there are gluttons in every era, and I’ve heard it from people who read the records.
That means that if you could remove the poison, you’d be left with just tasty ingredients, but the actual method is a mystery.
I should be fine anyway thanks to Status Ailment Resistance, but…
“I don’t know. I could do other things with the meat.”
“Stew then!”
We walk while having this peaceful conversation. Of course, we don’t let our guard down, but no monsters attack.
I can tell with Map that there aren’t any nearby in the first place.
We eventually reach the place where the staircase to the eighth floor is, but we see something unexpected.
I start wondering why there’s a gate here, but I see there’s a path in front of it. If we follow this path in the opposite direction, it will lead us to the staircase that leads to the sixth floor.
“A gate?”
Asks Rurika. I know, right?
It’s built into a wall, and there’s a design on it, but its color is different from the color of the walls.
“Isn’t the staircase here?”
“It should be.”
I say to Rurika. We are being guided by Map, so we should be in the right place.
Something else about this gate, is that there are no joins. No matter where I look at it from, it just looks like a big flat board.
“It doesn’t budge.”
Sera tries pushing it, to no avail. If it’s just a wall, does that mean that this is a dead end? Is there no eighth floor to begin with?
There’s nothing we can grab on to pull it either.
Rurika also tries to move it, but the result is the same.
“Should we go back then?”
I ask, but my voice is drowned out by a low rumbling sound.
I turn to look, and see the wall slowly cracking open.
And in front of it, is a perplexed Mia.
“Hum… What did you do?”
“I touched it… And suddenly…”
It looks like no one’s more surprised than her.
“Should we advance?”
Beyond the wall, there’s a staircase. I don’t see anything suspicious about it, and as we go down, we eventually see the pillar where we can register.
We register there, and go back like we planned.
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Maybe a forbidden area at the end? Mia opened it so maybe a holy seal. It could be no one from kingdom has gone beyond this floor
I’m confused about the start didn’t the leaders of kingdom say if u take more then 10 each the tree will wither
The implication here is that it only causes a problem if you actually take them out of the floor. Sora turned them into petrification cures first, so he should be good.
Yeah he’s pretty good at getting around the system
Thanks for the treat.
“I don’t see anything suspicious about it”
He says, after the gate refused to open for anyone but a saint. Is this why they were allowed in the dungeon?