Chapter 16

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Translator: MadScientist

Chapter: 16

Chapter Title: [Censored]'s Scale Fragment

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After acquiring the Auto Harvest skill,

Lulu and I started dashing around the tower, harvesting everything in sight.

"Daddy-nyang, there's a ton of grass here too-nyang!"

First, with a single click, I harvested the Recovery Herbs we'd seen everywhere.

"Daddy-nyang! This place has blue fruits-nyang!"

Next, I harvested the Wild Blueberries we'd first spotted on the third floor.

"Daddy-nyang! This time it's a lake-nyang! Let's harvest the lake-nyang!"

I wondered if that would even work...

But out of curiosity, I tried using the skill on the lake as Lulu suggested.

The skill sucked up the lake water and even harvested everything inside it—an incredible sight.

"...It actually works?"

I couldn't fathom why such an amazing skill was only C-rank; it was way too convenient.

Anyway.

One question started nagging at me around this point.

"Just how huge is the capacity of this Emerald Cauldron?"

It felt like it should be full by now,

but even after draining the lake dry, the Emerald Cauldron (SS+) didn't show any max capacity warning.

"No way... is the capacity infinite or something?"

...Nah, that couldn't be. Logically speaking?

If it were, using it on the ocean would suck up the entire sea?

I was lost in such silly thoughts,

watching the lake water get vacuumed up and wondering if there was anything else worth grabbing,

when suddenly:

"...Huh? ...[Censored]'s Scale Fragment? What's this?"

I'd picked up something that looked seriously ominous at first glance.

With something so unusual getting registered as material,

I decided to pull it out of the Emerald Cauldron and take a look.

Retrieving registered materials was simple—just reach into the Emerald Cauldron and think of the item, and it'd appear in my hand.

The [Censored]'s Scale Fragment I pulled out was...

Thud-!

"...Isn't this a 'fragment'?"

It was far too massive to call a mere scale fragment.

This thing was about the size of my bathroom door back home.

If a single scale fragment was this big, how enormous was the original creature...?

"...Damn."

Ah... I'd peeked into another abyss I shouldn't have.

But with the lid already off, backing down now felt wrong.

I steeled myself, determined to make something of this, and asked Lulu about it.

"Lulu, do you know anything about this scale?"

"Nyang?"

Sniff sniff nyang...

Sniff nyang...? Sniff nyang nyang...!

"Nyang! It's a fish scale, but that's all I know-nyang!"

"A fish scale...?"

A fish with scales this size even existed?

A blue whale's scales—if it had any—wouldn't be this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠big.

...No way, right?

This scale wasn't connected to that mythical creature from the recipe last time... was it?

"Nyang...? Daddy-nyang... are you hurt-nyang...?"

"Huh... what?"

I glanced at Lulu, wondering what she meant,

and realized my face had gone pale, sweat soaking my clothes without me noticing.

"Daddy-nyang... don't get hurt-nyang..."

Lulu had noticed something was off and came over to lick my face.

Her eyes were glistening; if I didn't snap out of it, she might start crying.

...Kids really do catch adults' anxiety easily. That saying was true.

"Thanks for worrying, Lulu. But Daddy's not hurt at all. I just... had a scary thought."

"Really-nyang...?"

"Of course. Thanks to Lulu, I'm all good now."

Yeah. As her dad, I couldn't stay anxious.

I hugged Lulu tight as she clung to my shoulder, licking my face.

With nothing else worth grabbing in the tower, I headed out.

Right after leaving the tower,

I calmed the teary-eyed Lulu with some meat

and logged into the gallery to explain what happened to the PhD.

"No way, he nailed it?"

As expected from my trusted Tower GPT.

With just that hint, he went straight for the jugular: you really hit the nail on the head.

"Hmm... maybe I should show off a recent pic of Lulu...?"

Honestly, it bugged me that only I knew how adorable she was.

I wanted to post her photo on the gallery and unleash that lethal cuteness on the world,

but some stalker had been sniping posts looking for me since yesterday, making me wary of the gallery.

So showing it just to the PhD, who seemed to get the hint, should be fine, right?

"PhD... you say that, but you're really just worried about me, huh?"

Tsk-tsk aside, he's a good guy at heart.

I regretted not finding a buddy to gush over Lulu's cuteness with,

but the PhD was spot-on, so I'd follow his advice.

"Oh, right—I forgot the most important part."

After telling the PhD about the mysterious scale,

he went AFK with "wait a sec" and didn't return for about ten minutes.

"Oh, that's a thing?"

Visible across all same-theme towers, but first come, first served.

The world had some seriously wild stuff.

"Hehe... teasing the PhD... is fun..."

I wasn't usually this playful,

but his reactions were hilarious,

and since this was my first real heart-to-heart with someone, I couldn't stop poking fun.

"...Is this what friends feel like...?"

I'd never had anyone I'd call a friend, so I wasn't sure,

but if I did, it'd probably feel like this.

Anyway,

back to the chat with the PhD.

"Uh... yeah... huh...???"

Now that he mentioned it, yeah?

Couldn't I make something with this using alchemy?