Equipment Farming (10)
Even though I got distracted for a moment, I hadn't forgotten our original goal. Our purpose was to replace our equipment. Out of everyone, the one who needed it most urgently was Theo. Faye's sword wasn't anything special, but it was serviceable enough to use without any real issues, and my boots were already tough to beat with anything better right now. Theo, though? He'd been running around with beginner mage bargain-bin gear this whole time. If I compared it to an RPG, it was like a level 30 character still equipped with a mid-tier level 10 weapon. Obviously, handing him any decent level-appropriate weapon would make him way stronger. Now that this was reality, the game-like clear grading system didn't exist anymore, but the feeling was pretty much the same.
That's why I picked out Theo's equipment first. It was a staff just over a meter long—easy to carry around.
“You’ve really been using something like this until now? You guys went into dungeons with gear this bad?”
After the swap, Sepia picked up the old staff and was impressed enough to say that. No further explanation needed. Theo looked extremely pleased too.
“Theo. You like it?”
“Yeah. If I’d known good equipment would make this much difference, I would’ve emptied my emergency fund ages ago.”
“That good, huh?”
“Putting it in numbers should make it easy for you to understand, Luna. Casting speed increased by thirty percent, and power went up around twenty percent.”
When he put it in numbers, it really hit home. Guess I really am a jaded adult now.
“That’s insane! Sepia, if I used good equipment too, would I get something like that?”
“Not sure. The expensive shoe-type items I’ve seen only had movement-related effects. You’re the first person I’ve seen using them as a main weapon, so I can’t say for certain.”
“Ugh… the sorrow of a non-mainstream class…”
“Well, it might just be that I never paid attention because I wasn’t interested. I’ll look into it properly from now on.”
“Please do!”
I grabbed Sepia’s hands and shook them earnestly. No matter what, she was a good kid. She’d handle it well on her own.
After buying Theo’s staff, next up was Faye’s equipment. The reason was simple: nothing had really caught my eye for my own gear. There was one pair of shoes that boosted jump power, but someone who could already hop up to the second floor without breaking a sweat didn’t need it. Jumping any higher than that would just make landing a bigger problem.
After some thought, the item Faye chose was a scabbard. It was a magic tool that channeled mana into the sheath and automatically applied a flame enchantment to the blade inside. In simple terms, it added fire-attribute damage to every draw strike. If you started swinging right after drawing, you could probably trigger the effect a few extra times.
It was a compromise since we didn’t have enough money for a brand-new sword, but Faye seemed very satisfied. That was good enough. It wasn’t like we’d bought something useless.
It was honestly a little disappointing that my own equipment stayed the same, but dragging things out when nothing could be done wasn’t my style. Besides, it wasn’t like I walked away completely empty-handed.
“…Sepia. Do you take reservations for that one?”
“The one you saw at the end? Hehe. You’ve got a good eye after all. Fine. I can’t hold it forever, but I’ll keep it for you if it’s within two months.”
After sealing that secret, shady little promise with Sepia, we headed back.
Attack Magic Testing Ground.
Like a modern shooting range, the long room was divided into lanes. At the far end stood a single training dummy. When attack magic struck it, the facility calculated the power and displayed the result as a number. Basically a damage meter from the game.
This place was for verifying the strength of attack spells. A bit farther away was a separate testing area for close-combat users. Since it was the simplest and most certain way to confirm your skills had improved, I used it often too. Gamers like me tend to live and die by every single percentage point of damage.
If a tiny change in stance raised the number? Nothing motivated me more than that.
The reason we were here now was to test the effects of the equipment we’d just bought.
Theo closed his eyes and focused. I couldn’t sense it clearly, but the staff was trembling faintly, so he was clearly circulating his mana. His lips moved slightly as he formed the chant. I deliberately tried not to listen—and even if I did hear it, I made sure not to remember it. Listening to that stuff always made my hands and feet itch like crazy.
Thanks to my diligent effort, I managed to protect my sanity until the spell was complete.
“…Fireball!”
The moment he spoke the trigger word, a sphere of flame shot forward and slammed straight into the dummy on the opposite side of the room.
With a thunderous BOOM, flames exploded outward, swirled violently… and then vanished as if sucked away into nothing. The number appeared on the wall.
Theo let out a cheer the moment he saw it.
“It went up!”
Seeing him that happy, it was clear the equipment upgrade had been worth it.
“Four hundred seventy-three? Is that high?”
Faye, who had been watching Theo’s magic with us, tilted her head.
I wasn’t an expert on magic either, but I’d seen Theo hit the dummy here a few times before, so I could give a rough explanation.
“Last time he used Fireball it was just under four hundred. So it rose by right around twenty percent.”
Theo wiped his forehead with a handkerchief and added, “There weren’t any interruptions this time and I could focus completely, so the number came out high. It’ll probably drop a little in real combat. Still, once I get used to this staff, the results should even out.”
“The difference from the weapon is huge…”
Faye stared at Theo’s new staff with open envy. I gave her a light push from behind.
“You bought a new scabbard too, didn’t you, Faye? Why not test it out?”
“Huh? Here? But this is the magic testing ground.”
“There’s a dummy either way, so what does it matter? Theo, is there some rule against using swords here?”
“Not that I know of. There’s a perfectly good sword training hall, so nobody would come all the way here just to swing a blade.”
“See? He says it’s fine.”
“Hehe… Then here I go!”
The second she got the green light, Faye dashed toward the dummy with her sword and scabbard in hand.
Ah. The dummy was pretty far away here, so that must be inconvenient. The close-combat testing area I usually used had the dummy right in front of you.
“So, what now?”
Theo, who had returned after switching places with Faye, asked.
“Wouldn’t it be smart to save up a bit more money first? For me and Faye both. I think we should get at least one more person a new weapon before we head into a dungeon.”
“No. I’m not talking about the dungeon.”
Not about the dungeon? I turned my gaze away from Faye and looked at Theo. His expression was unusually embarrassed. What the hell was he about to say that made him look like that? It wasn’t an expression I particularly wanted to stare at for long.
“It’s about Faye. No matter how you look at it, she likes me, right?”
Ah. Saying something like that with a straight face would be embarrassing. I decided to listen with a more generous heart.
“You talked about making a harem from the very beginning, Luna. So what are you going to do now?”
“Aha. So that’s what this is about. Hmm, yeah, I guess that’s true…”
Making a harem. It had been my way of preventing the bad endings I’d seen for the heroines in the game. But here’s the thing. As far as I knew, the trigger for a bad ending was ‘reaching the main story ending without being paired with the protagonist.’ There might be other conditions, but that was the one I was sure about.
But what came after they were paired? Since the whole point was to stop the bad ending in the first place, once the trigger was avoided, the rest didn’t really matter. Coldly speaking, the most efficient way to achieve the goal would be to just take their virginities, keep the other girls on the line, and move on to seducing the next heroine.
But that would make me trash.
There are things you shouldn’t do even if they’re efficient. Fortunately, our protagonist Theo didn’t seem interested in becoming that kind of garbage. That was probably why he was asking me this in the first place.
“I’ll ask one thing first. Do you like Faye?”
“Of course I like her.”
“Not as a party member—as a woman. I’m asking if you see her as a romantic partner, not just a convenient girl to fuck when you’re horny and then fight alongside.”
“Your word choice when talking about a girl is…”
“Answer.”
The reply came quickly, like he’d already thought about it several times.
“Of course I like her. But…”
“Ah. That’s enough then. Isn’t that plenty? What more do you need?”
There would be plenty of small problems. Building a harem wouldn’t be easy. But somehow it would work out. That’s what it meant to be the protagonist.
“Start by going on a date or something. There’s that whole ‘confirm your feelings’ thing, right?”
“Will that really be enough?”
“Whether it’s enough or not depends on how you handle it. Still, you already know what Faye likes, don’t you?”
“What Faye likes… Should I take her on a tour of the sparring halls?”
“That’s for you to figure out. I said I’d help, but I can’t spoon-feed you everything from the start, can I? Faye will be honest about what she likes and doesn’t like, so it’ll be good practice.”
“Hmm…”
Theo pulled out a notebook and started scribbling notes, already planning things out.
Whew. Guess it sounded convincing. Truth was I was just winging it since I didn’t know much either. What else could I do? I had zero dating experience myself. When I got back to the dorm I’d have to secretly peek at the communication crystal Casey was always glued to and study up.
Still… managing things after the harem was formed, huh. That was a tricky problem. In most harem stories, the legal wife usually kept everything under tight control and managed the rest. Even though Faye was the first member, she might not have the right personality or skills to handle the other girls. Either Faye would have to awaken as the proper main wife, or we’d need to bring in a heroine who could actually manage the group properly…
There was more work ahead than I’d originally thought. Building the harem was already hard enough—this was going to be a real pain.