Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Who Else But Me to Do This? (1)
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“Mm... No mana stones. Same with the crystal orbs.”
“You said they’re not easy to get.”
After one round of combat had ended.
Greg nodded as he looked at the corpses of the skeleton soldiers and mages.
“Right. Crystal orbs aren’t exactly common drops.”
Skeleton mages would drop crystal orbs with a certain probability upon death.
From what he remembered when Regin had compiled the data, it was around a 1 percent chance.
‘I wrote up a post organizing drop rates for each item.’
It wasn’t perfectly accurate. But it was a probability table he’d made with minimal error after communicating with various users.
According to that, the drop rate for crystal orbs was 1 percent.
‘Compared to demand, it’s definitely a tough item to obtain.’
The thing Alice had been searching for in the rabbit burrow was also a crystal orb.
In fact, when he’d heard it was something a whole kingdom was after, he hadn’t been surprised because crystal orbs were that rare.
“You’re a mage, so you’d know, but crystal orbs are magical tools made by fusing hundreds of regular mana stones.”
“That’s right.”
Mana stones were used universally everywhere, from potion ingredients to all sorts of applications.
Hundreds of them had to be poured in to create a single crystal orb.
‘Alice was after an ancient crystal orb, so its value is on another level.’
Even regular crystal orbs held that much worth. What about an ancient one a kingdom was pursuing?
“I’ve heard crystal orbs are similar to scrolls in some ways. I don’t know the details myself. What exactly is similar about them?”
Greg glanced at Regin as he explained during a brief break for maintenance.
He knew how valuable crystal orbs were, but not precisely what they were.
“Crystal orbs and scrolls share the trait of disappearing after one use.”
“Nothing else in common besides being one-time items?”
“They both contain specific spells—that’s another similarity. In the past, spellcrafters even researched crystal orbs.”
“...And they ultimately failed, of course. Too hard to make, too hard to obtain.”
“Exactly. Plus, their uses are a bit different. Crystal orbs are rather finicky.”
The spells a crystal orb could hold were limited.
Since it was made by fusing mana stones, it had plenty of mana inside.
But the moment you tried something complex or mixed multiple spells... it couldn’t maintain its form and shattered.
“Crystal orbs can only hold enhancement spells for a specific attribute.”
They granted the user pure enhancement of a single attribute.
In other words, one-time artifacts. ...And that alone was enough to shift the tide of battle.
‘Limited utility, but their firepower surpasses scrolls.’
If they could just cut down on the resources needed to make them, they might have been as popular as scrolls.
On top of that, there was another issue.
“Crystal orbs are too big and heavy to carry many.”
The decisive difference between paper and spheres. Regin with his inventory might not care, but other adventurers could barely manage one or two.
That was another reason spellcrafters gave up on researching them for expeditions.
Still, one or two as emergency items were manageable.
“Since you can get crystal orbs like that, I get why people compete on the 6th Floor.”
“...Heh. Yeah, that makes sense.”
The 6th Floor was probably where explorers hunted the most.
Because it was a place to obtain such expensive items as crystal orbs.
In fact, that made it even more annoying.
There were plenty of parties making their main income by selling crystal orbs they picked up.
...Which meant fierce competition.
“If we weren’t staying here and were just heading up, it’d be one thing... but since we decided to hunt while searching for the Saint’s Sword, we’re bound to run into them.”
“...”
“Explorers have an unwritten rule not to touch items in each other’s pockets or bags...”
“But items before they go into bags are fair game.”
On the 4th Floor, you had to watch out for raiders. Here, it was a slightly different crowd.
“Right. They call it stealing. Not everyone does such shameless things... but more people than you’d think pull steals on the 6th Floor.
Crystal orbs are valuable, so it’s hard for us to yield them, right?”
“Of course. If a crystal orb drops, we take it. No intention of getting stolen from.”
To prepare for the future, there were plenty of things they needed to gather.
He couldn’t let some 6th Floor stealing parties take them away.
Regin smiled and nodded as if it were obvious.
“My style is to grab everything I need.”
This time was no different.
Regin crouched down and began rummaging through the skeleton soldiers’ corpses.
He pulled out a leather pouch and started scooping the powdered bones into it.
“Hm? Collecting bone dust?”
“It has its uses.”
No crystal orbs, but it wasn’t like there was nothing to gain.
‘Bone dust is one of the items used in various crafting materials.’
Above all, bone dust made excellent fertilizer.
He remembered that in DAT, certain plants grew efficiently with bone dust.
Rafflesia was one of them. The Rafflesia in the 1st Floor hidden stage couldn’t be harvested alive, but he’d discovered that somewhere on a higher floor, it could be farmed live.
‘The whole point of this expedition was to gather materials to permanently cultivate Rafflesia.’
It might seem like just fertilizer. But how much would it take to grow that massive flower?
Better to collect it bit by bit.
Regin gathered the bone dust with a cheerful heart.
“Do you have a hobby of growing plants by any chance?”
“Hm?”
“Bone dust doesn’t sell for much even if you take it out. Seeing you bother to collect it, I figured you must have some plants you’re raising.”
“Hm. Not raising any right now, but I plan to.”
A very precious plant, Rafflesia.
For mass-producing regeneration scrolls.
* * *
Crunch!
After that, Greg and Regin continued hunting skeletons.
A typical group consisted of about five soldiers, with one or two mages mixed in.
It took around ten minutes of walking to encounter one, so the battles proceeded more regularly and stably than expected.
‘Not that it wasn’t tiring.’
Greg swung his axe while clashing head-on with skeleton soldiers.
Regin expended mana each time he tore a scroll.
Repeating that over and over naturally built up fatigue.
Crunch!
“Let’s check that way too.”
“Yes.”
Even as combat fatigue accumulated, the two pressed on with the hunt without a single complaint.
‘It’s not a place to slack off. The 6th Floor is so vast that even reaching the escape portal takes a couple days on average... and since we’re searching for the Saint’s Sword, we have to keep moving nonstop.’
They encountered other parties here and there along the way. But they passed without major issues.
The biggest factor was no crystal orbs dropping.
You’d only fight over something if an item actually dropped.
‘Crystal orbs do have a low drop rate for sure. We’ve fought maybe ten times already... and still haven’t seen one.’
Thinking it might be even lower than 1 percent, that’s when it happened as they moved.
“Hey!”
It was as they passed what looked like the ruins of an old house.
A man’s voice called out.
“Sorry, but you can’t pass through here.”
A man with a sword crossed his arms, blocking Greg and Regin’s path.
His tired-looking expression and cocky attitude were something else.
He evoked memories of street punks from childhood alleys.
“Why can’t we pass?”
“Our party’s hunting here first.”
“We don’t care what you get. We just need to go straight through.”
“How do we know we can trust that?”
When Greg glanced toward the end of the ruins and spoke, the man snorted.
“How do we know you’re not a stealing party? Go around.”
Behind the man stood what appeared to be his party members.
‘Controlling a hunting ground, huh.’
One of those things you often ran into in RPGs.
With competition involved, people were bound to claim or monopolize good spots.
The funny thing was, in DAT, even though everyone except players were NPCs, they still enforced control.
‘Looks like they’ve decided to repeatedly hunt in this sector.’
In their case, it seemed they’d started controlling to prevent conflicts over crystal orbs.
Greg and Regin just nodded and turned their steps elsewhere.
The 6th Floor was so vast that controlling one sector didn’t hurt much.
‘They’re probably not driven by possessiveness or anything... just measures to keep hard-earned crystal orbs from other parties.’
Past the 11th Floor, hunting grounds for desired items became limited.
Control might get annoying then, but this felt different.
Not a guild, just a party unit trying to survive somehow.
“Judging by your expressions, you’ve clashed with other parties over crystal orbs a few times before.”
“Could be.”
“Explorers who’ve been stolen from on the 6th Floor often team up with like-minded people afterward and hunt under control like that.”
“The 6th Floor’s so big, it probably doesn’t hit them hard.”
“Yeah. Doesn’t even look like a great hunting spot.”
“I agree.”
It might’ve been a casual remark from Greg, but Regin didn’t take it lightly.
‘Aside from skeletons spawning in higher numbers... it’s a place with no real advantages.’
He hadn’t memorized the entire map.
But certain areas were etched in his mind.
The spot that cocky guy had been controlling was one of them.
Unfortunately, it was a place Regin had given up hunting.
‘The terrain sucks for fighting, and respawn intervals are long.’
What good was high spawn rate?
Monsters took forever to kill, and even respawning took quite a while.
“Let’s head that way.”
It wasn’t a place he cared about anyway, so Regin decided quickly.
‘We have to roam the 6th Floor until we find the Saint’s Sword anyway. Better to find spots that are good for hunting and yield a lot.’
Thanks to the man blocking their path, it was easy to steer Greg toward the place Regin wanted.
Greg had been proud of his navigation and choosing their destinations so far.
But with that route blocked, he had nothing to say.
“...Greg.”
“Regin.”
And so, both their steps halted simultaneously at the place Regin indicated.
Without needing to say who first, they drew their axe and scrolls.
Just like before facing the raiders on the 4th Floor.
Regin’s nose twitched in disgust.
“I smell blood.”
“...Yeah. Human blood, probably. Skeletons don’t bleed.”
A faint blood scent, but they didn’t miss it.
In a 6th Floor teeming with skeletons, it stood out.
“Hnngh.”
As they cautiously advanced, a woman’s groan came from the collapsing house ruins.
“...You crazy bastards. Chasing me all the way here?”
Clack!
The moment a stone hit Greg’s foot and made a sound.
The groan stopped, replaced by a sharp, wary voice.
Soon, a woman emerged.
Long brown hair, light clothing made of black fabric.
Twin daggers gripped reverse in both hands—she looked like a classic assassin-class type.
“...”
She glared sharply at Regin and Greg.
“...And who the hell are you?”
“...”
“If you’re with those guys from earlier, I’ll slit your throats right now.”
Traces of blood she couldn’t hide even under black clothes.
She knew they were visible, yet the woman didn’t back down.
Instead, she tensed up like a wild beast on guard.
‘Victim of a stealing party, huh.’
He quickly assessed the situation.
Not wounded by skeletons, but by fellow humans.
Regin thought coolly and asked her.
“...How long since you escaped?”
“What?”
“How far away are those guys chasing you—I mean that.”
“...Why do you ask?”
The blood hadn’t stopped flowing yet.
And there were good hunting spots nearby.
“If they’re still pursuing and closer than we think, we should move too.”
He didn’t know who was chasing her.
No way was he standing still and getting swept up like a noob.