Equipment Farming (1)
The black mages’ raid event happened on the final day of midterms.
In other words, midterms were over and all we had left to do was wait for the results to be announced.
I heard the grading process turned into a complete mess because a black mage attack interrupted the last exam. Still, the academy professors and staff—who rake in those fat salaries—somehow managed to spit out final scores. I have no idea how they did it, and I don’t particularly care.
The results, probably soaked in the tears of countless faculty members, were finally being revealed.
The moment the classroom door opened, every head snapped toward it.
Professor Ines walked in with her usual steady stride. The arm that normally only carried the attendance sheet now held an extra document.
The classroom stayed completely silent until Professor Ines reached the front and swept her gaze across us.
It was a tense atmosphere, completely different from normal.
The test is already over. Getting nervous now isn’t going to change a single thing, so why are they even bothering?
Professor Ines ignored the heavy mood, calmly checked attendance, then pulled out the document everyone had been waiting for.
“Hmm.”
Her eyes scanned the page once before she began reading from the top.
Note: These are dungeon exam rankings only.
The classroom remained quiet as she read every rank from first to last. When she finally looked up from the paper, Professor Ines spoke.
“What I just told you are the rankings alone. These are also limited to the dungeon exam. Your overall scores and detailed evaluations have been sent to the crystal messenger in your respective dorms, so check them on your own.”
“Professor, I have a question.”
A male student raised his hand.
“Go ahead.”
“I heard that at the Imperial Academy, excellent grades grant special privileges. Could you tell us from which overall rank those privileges begin?”
“Special privileges?”
Professor Ines let out a small snort of laughter.
“I’m aware of that rumor. However, remember this: every student at the Imperial Academy is officially equal. No matter how outstanding your test scores are, no special privileges are granted.”
“But aren’t there facilities that lower-ranked students can’t use?”
“That is a restriction placed on those who fall short in ability, for the sake of everyone’s safety. Just as no adult would hand a real sword to a child who has only just begun learning.”
“…Understood.”
“To add one more thing, while the academy itself grants no special privileges, it is fairly common for individual professors to personally take on students they favor. That falls entirely under each professor’s discretion, so I cannot give you a specific rank requirement.”
No one else had questions. Professor Ines gave a few formal announcements and left the classroom.
The instant the door closed, the room exploded into noise.
As always, the chatter was completely meaningless.
Then someone suddenly brought it up.
Since they had used different party names during the exam, it wasn’t easy to remember right away. Still, when the entire class gathered, at least one person was bound to recall. The first student who remembered turned to look somewhere, and the rest of the gazes followed.
The leader of B-4, who had suddenly become the center of attention, noticed the stares and…
“……Mmmh…”
…No, she hadn’t noticed at all.
Whether people were staring or not, she kept her eyes closed and bobbed her head rhythmically back and forth.
In other words, she was asleep.
“…Ah. It’s the princess.”
“The princess’s party? Yeah, that makes sense for first place. I’m jealous of whoever got grouped with her.”
Once they confirmed the identity of the top ranker, the students nodded in understanding and moved on to other topics.
Meanwhile, the girl in question continued dozing off, completely unaware that every eye in the room had been on her just moments ago.
I recognized that female student. To be exact, she was also a heroine from the game.
The ‘Lazy Princess,’ Aurora Premia.
In the game she was an incredibly strong supporter. We currently didn’t have a supporter in our party, and since she was a heroine, I had naturally planned to recruit her eventually.
But not right now.
Faye still hadn’t fully adjusted to our party yet. Adding another person now would probably just tangle everyone’s coordination.
We needed to solidify our foundation first.
After all, this was only the end of the first semester of freshman year. There was no need to rush. We could take things one step at a time.
“And for that reason—the First Reflection Meeting!”
“You came up with another weird thing, didn’t you?”
“What’s with that bored reaction? Come on, show some enthusiasm.”
“Yeah, yeah, fine.”
The applause was half-hearted at best.
Well, I’ll let it slide this time.
“Even if you suddenly call it a reflection meeting, what exactly are we reflecting on? And it’s just the two of us.”
Just like Theo said, the only person I had called for this so-called reflection meeting was Theo himself.
I could understand why he looked confused. But there was a reason for it.
“Because what we’re going to talk about today is your ability.”
“My ability? You mean Hypnosis? I’ve been using it pretty well, haven’t I?”
“No. No, no. Not even close.”
What is hypnosis?
It is an utterly wicked ability that lets you freely manipulate another person’s mind.
With just a little malicious intent, ruining someone’s entire life would be child’s play.
“But your hypnosis is way too weak. Even when you tried to hypnotize the count’s daughter last time, you struggled quite a bit.”
“I do find that inconvenient myself. But the ability is designed that way from the start—what can I do about it?”
It was true that the mountain of conditions attached to hypnosis was unavoidable. The ability was simply that overpowered. That was exactly why so many stories slapped all kinds of restrictions onto hypnosis powers.
Even in the rare cases of all-powerful hypnosis, the protagonist would only use it for perverted things or there would be invisible limitations.
“Yeah, you’re right, Theo. That part can’t be helped. But even taking the conditions into account, struggling that much against the count’s daughter doesn’t make sense.”
High magic resistance means high resistance to hypnosis. Okay, I can accept that.
However, Theo’s hypnosis basically grows stronger the stronger Theo himself becomes.
If I were to put it in game terms, it would be something like ‘skill level × Theo’s stats × hypnosis persuasiveness’ calculated against the opponent’s ‘magic resistance × rejection.’ I’m not exactly sure, but it’s not like I can look at the script.
In short, the reason he struggled this time was because both his skill level and Theo’s own stats were lacking.
No matter how high the count’s daughter’s resistance was, if he simply overwhelmed her with superior power, that would be the end of it.
“Get it? If you had been stronger, you wouldn’t have had to go through all that trouble, you noob.”
“…Is that so? By the way, Luna. Could you do me a favor and show me your chest for a second?”
Suddenly asking to see my chest? Come on. We’re in the middle of an important conversation and this guy is spouting what kind of nonsense?
“There. Is this enough? I’m trying to have a serious talk here, so stop derailing the subject.”
“Okay, okay. I get it now, so the noob isn’t me. That’s plenty.”
“What are you even talking about?”
“Never mind, it’s nothing. Let’s get back to the topic. So what do you want to do about it?”
“Ah, right. Basically, if you want to make your hypnosis stronger, you need to become stronger than you are now, Theo.”
“Mm. Jiggle…”
“…Are you listening?”
“Huh? Oh, of course I am. But we’re already going to dungeons often. How exactly are we supposed to get stronger from here?”
“Here’s what I’m thinking. For the hypnosis ability, it seems like we should practice by using it more frequently inside dungeons. Right now you can only stop monsters for a moment, right? How about practicing with the goal of making hypnotized monsters attack everything around them—including their own allies?”
“Like a confusion spell? How would I… Never mind, I’ll think about the method myself. And?”
“Next is the most obvious one. There’s a way to raise your specs both easily and quickly.”
“Aha.”
Even though I had spoken vaguely, Theo caught on immediately.
Of course he did. He had seen it right in front of him when we went to persuade the count’s daughter.
The easiest and fastest way to raise specs.
Equipment, of course. Or as gamers like to say—gear carried hard.
“The stuff the count’s daughter showed us looked ridiculously expensive. Aside from the transfer to Faye, couldn’t we just ask her to give it to us?”
“As if that would work.”
“Right~?”
The gear we were currently using could be generously called mass-produced at best.
My weapon was nothing more than sturdy boots with thick iron plates attached, and Theo’s weapon was basically budget gear for newbie mages.
Faye’s sword—as a viscount’s daughter—was a little better. A high-quality, sturdy steel blade. Even so, in this fantasy world, equipment with zero magical effects could hardly be called good gear.
Claire’s equipment was the best among us. She was a former holy knight and current saint candidate, after all. Even at the absolute minimum, it would be at least as good as standard holy knight division supplies.
“Luna, do you have a lot of money?”
“No. I have some, but it’s hard to say I have a lot.”
“Same here. Neither of us has money, so how are we supposed to buy good equipment?”
“That’s… well…”
Mmmh…
After groaning and pondering for a moment, a good idea popped into my head.
“I don’t know!”
“That’s a really confident ‘I don’t know.’”
“But there’s someone who would know. We just have to go ask!”
“Someone who would know?”
“Yeah. The owner of the general store near the academy. We’re somewhat close. She’ll never give us a discount even if we beg, but if we ask for ways to earn money, she might tell us.”
When you don’t know something, you’re supposed to ask the experts.
Since Sepia is an expert at making money, she’ll definitely give us good advice! It’s not like we’re going to open a competing general store or anything.