Anyone Who Gives Magic Stones Is a Good Person

The thought of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠enhancing Corneline did cross my mind, but bumping the enhancement rate itself still looked like the better play.

"Do not approach this angel!"

Judging by that reaction, if I kept teasing her she was going to cry.

The success rate had only gone up by two percent, and yet enhancements were landing at a freakishly high clip.

Is this thing rigged too?

I shoved every successful piece into a corner and kept on smashing. This method of enhancing was called a first pass, as I recalled.

"This is all that's left?"

I wrecked the last remaining gauntlet and looked over the first-pass pieces that had survived. A mountain of gauntlets had vanished in an instant — fewer than twenty left, the rest converted into experience.

I set aside the single artifact with the best base stats and put the rest back under the hammer.

A great success, popping off a +1 of all things. Lucky.

If that's how it is, no point holding anything back.

I threw every remaining piece at the hammer except the great-success one, but nothing climbed past +3.

Seo-yoon's temporary gauntlet was done.

"Kinda disappointing, honestly."

Maybe Mitsu and Unddung's exclusive weapons had spoiled me. My standards had gotten way too high.

I was still sitting with that letdown when Unddung piped up.

"Master, if you enhance it now, it looks like it'll succeed, it does!"

"For real?!"

If this one blew up, Seo-yoon wouldn't have a weapon to wear — but if it succeeded, that was a different story.

"When Unddung talks, you listen!"

I brought the hammer down on the temporary gauntlet.

The gear I'd been about to give Seo-yoon turned to dust and vanished.

"How did this happen?"

"Huh? I was talking about my exclusive weapon, I was..."

I stared Unddung down, and he promptly went to fetch his exclusive weapon, Conviction.

"Shall this humble one deal with him, Princess?"

"......Deal with him."

"D-Did I do something wrong, did I?"

For the sake of the stream, Mitsu dragged Unddung off-camera.

"This angel shall join in the beating as well! It looks like fun!"

Corneline must have been bored, because she trotted after Mitsu.

I considered using Give It Back Right Now!, then I checked the restoration materials and my heart sank.

I had plenty of magic stones. That wasn't the problem. Dumping S-Rank Magic Stones on something like this was just too wasteful.

"We'll sort out a weapon later — let's try armor first!"

"I'll think about selling."

At this point, aside from relic items that dropped from the Tower, I had a stranglehold on every artifact circulating on the open market.

"Please make an offer first~"

The chat was in open revolt. And what exactly were they going to do about it?

I just kept grinning, and the viewers seemed to catch on — they looked about halfway to giving up.

"Alright, back to enhancing!"

I thought I heard Unddung screaming somewhere in the distance, but it was drowned out by the ring of my hammer.

Armor enhancement ran a little differently from weapons. I was the only one who could grant stats beyond raw defense, so I stopped at +1 and stockpiled the rest.

Even like this, I figured I could sell them for a fat profit. Seo-yoon would only be running the lower floors of the Tower anyway, so it wouldn't be a real problem.

"That's it for today's stream!"

By the time I'd finished with the armor I was running on fumes, so I ended the stream. The moment it cut, the room felt hollow.

I was wondering why it had gone so quiet when Unddung — whom I'd completely forgotten about — popped into my head.

"Don't tell me they're still beating him?"

I vaulted through the rooms of the Mirror World hunting for the kids, and found them in my room.

"Guhhhh..."

I walked in on the horrific sight of Unddung very nearly dead.

"This humble one has no face with which to meet the Princess."

"This angel has done no wrong. I merely tried to stop Mitsu Unni!"

As punishment for beating Unddung to the brink of death, I had the two of them kneeling with their hands in the air. I'd told them to deal with him, sure — but I hadn't expected them to beat the kid into paste.

I was still in the middle of chewing Mitsu and Corneline out when it happened.

"Huh?"

So even chewing them out counted as deepening the bond, apparently.

"The Saviour's expression has grown fearsome!"

"What's wrong with my face."

I'd merely resolved to apply a little more of the rod of love, that's all.

I wouldn't even need to land the last hit anymore — auto-hunting was on the table.

"Be more careful from now on, okay?"

I listened to my familiars' chorus of agreement and nodded, satisfied.

With everything on the to-do list crossed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠off, boredom set in fast, so I pulled up the Hunter Gallery. If it weren't for the Tower cooldown, I'd have packed Seo-yoon off to the Tower that instant. A shame.

"The World Awakened Championship?"

I'd heard of it. An annual tournament where awakened hunters sparred in a bracket — the World Cup of awakened hunters, basically.

"If we enter, Mitsu would be the pick."

"This humble one shall follow whatever the Princess commands."

If they just let her in, she'd probably steamroll the whole bracket without breaking a sweat.

I kept scrolling, and a post snagged my interest.

"An SS-Rank Magic Stone?"

Even when I enhanced an S-Rank Magic Stone, S+ was as high as it went. And now there were rumors of a strictly superior stone showing up.

I was about to search whether it was even real when a message arrived from the Heavenly Mandate Guild. The contents were in Chinese, so I ran it through a translator — a simple invitation.

A message that arrived at the most exquisite possible timing.

"It does look like a genuine SS-Rank Magic Stone, honestly."

Even at a glance it was bigger than an S-Rank Magic Stone, and the color ran deeper. I hadn't even cleared Hard Mode yet, so how they'd gotten one was a fair question — but I'd find that out when I got there.

"Kids, pack your bags."

It wasn't like they'd try anything stupid when I was bringing my familiars along, right?

"What does the Princess mean by that?"

My familiars stared at me, thrown by the sudden order.

"We're going on a trip."

We'd been running ourselves ragged. It was about time we took an overseas vacation.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the SS-Rank Magic Stone.