Chapter 41
Chapter 41
Ch. 41 .｡.:✧ Alicia (1) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Ah, no! Investor! Can you listen to what I’m saying till the end for once?”
“Go ahead.”
“I don’t even have a highest-grade mana stone processing certificate yet. I’ve merely been getting a feel for it by randomly processing highest-grade mana stones. If I take on a new type of highest-grade mana stone without professional knowledge, the result will be…”
“Hmm. Please proceed with the work.”
“Listen to the end, I said!!!”
She ended up shouting.
It was too frustrating…
Was this person even listening to what I was saying?
Perhaps it was just a coincidence that he discovered my talent.
Suddenly, I had such a suspicion.
“I’m really sorry, Investor. Can I ask you just one thing?”
“What is it?”
Without realizing it, I bit my lip and held back the somewhat rude words.
And then, I blurted out the question I had been dying to know for a long time.
“Investor…! What did you see in me to entrust me with such expensive mana stones?”
I said it.
The moment I became curious about the answer, I also became afraid.
That he might answer ‘just because’, ‘I have excess money to waste’, ‘I was bored’.
That it was simply a coincidence.
Even though I knew asking this wouldn’t benefit me, I ended up asking anyway.
It might be better for both of us if I didn’t ask and he didn’t answer…
“I saw the low-grade mana stone you processed.”
“Pardon?”
But what came out of the Investor’s mouth was an answer I never, ever expected.
Why was he mentioning my low-grade mana stone here?
“As soon as I saw it, I knew. The person who made this is ridiculously foolish.”
“Ah…”
“To think you’re still touching low-grade mana stones with this skill. It was so frustrating that I came straight to Basel. If no one was giving you highest-grade mana stones, I thought I should personally raise you. It seemed much faster and cheaper that way.”
Really… I never imagined it.
He saw my low-grade mana stone that everyone just called foolish, and thought of having me process highest-grade mana stones?
If it was someone else’s story, I absolutely wouldn’t have believed it.
But since the Investor, who does everything recklessly, said it, I had no choice but to believe it.
“It’s the same with this. Whether it’s a type of mana stone you’ve never touched before or whatever, it doesn’t matter. You have to handle it first to improve your skills.”
“But… I wanted to show you my improved skills… I don’t want to show you my clumsy side.”
“How long do you expect me to wait for that? Just practice with mine. I want to see your clumsy beginning too.”
“Investor…”
Something welled up from deep inside my chest.
I really hadn’t cried much in the past few years.
But every time I met the Investor, tears kept wanting to come out.
The person who recognized my efforts.
The person who recognized my talent that even I didn’t know about.
And the person who waited for me persistently.
A person I was so grateful for that I didn’t know how to repay him.
I didn’t want to disappoint such a person.
I wanted to show him only my best results.
But he said he wanted to see my clumsy side and my growing side too…
Perhaps the Investor had a bit of a perverted personality.
“Sob, I’m sorry! I said something too weak!”
With a fresh resolve, I looked at the mana stone emitting an ominous light once again.
The crystal structure still didn’t make any sense to me.
But that wasn’t a reason to give up.
It wasn’t an excuse to do the ugly thing of laying the groundwork for failure from the start.
I was too rude.
The Investor was ‘investing’ in me.
He was putting a huge sum of money into me while taking on the risk of failure.
How dumbfounded he must have been to see me make excuses, saying I might fail.
“I’ll do it! I’ll do my best! I’ll make the best result!”
What the Investor wanted wasn’t a result of a certain quality.
It was a result of me doing my best.
I finally realized that now.
“That’s a great attitude.”
“Hehehe…”
Only then did the Investor smile with satisfaction and ruffle my hair.
It was warm.
The feeling of connecting with someone, this warm sensation was a first for me.
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“Making a fuss over nothing.”
“Hehe.”
It was absurd.
She made such a big deal out of it.
She even warned me that the efficiency might be lower than the raw stone.
“How can this kind of insane performance come out?”
“I was very surprised too…”
In the end, the result was a mana stone with a fainting-inducing performance.
From the moment Tay opened the box with an embarrassed face, I felt an ominous energy emanating from it.
The moment I touched the finished product, I had the illusion that my blood vessels were clearing up.
It turned out the mana flow was so fast that it felt that way.
I think I’ll need to adapt to use this properly.
There are difficulties in using it even if the performance is too good.
That’s how absurd the performance is.
“The analysis showed additional effects.”
“What effects?”
“It stores mana inside. Although it’s a small amount, it seems you can store mana and take it out to use later. I don’t know much about handling mana, but…”
“Wow.”
It was true.
When I held it in my hand and tried manipulating it, I could feel mana being absorbed inside.
Then the black crystal inside the mana stone started emitting an even more ominous light.
To take it out, it was the reverse.
When I reabsorbed the mana, the crystal lost its light again and returned to the appearance of an ordinary jewel.
As Tay said, the storage capacity wasn’t at a meaningful level.
But if I took it out to use when mana exhaustion hit, it would be enough to avoid exhaustion.
It was something I really needed, as I consumed a lot of mana.
“Hahaha…”
I couldn’t help but laugh absurdly.
I had never seen anything like this before.
I never thought the mana stone that came out after defeating a Heavenly King’s avatar would be such an irregular item.
If I had known earlier, I would have stalked the Heavenly Kings for 12 rounds and memorized the locations of their avatars.
All this time, I had been chasing the main heroines’ asses, trying to conquer them…
I felt regret.
“Good work, Tay. I think I’ll bring a similar mana stone next time too, so I’ll be counting on you then.”
“Yes… Leave it to me… But I’m… so sleepy right now…”
“Get some good rest. I’ll come pick up the second mana stone tomorrow. Shall I leave the payment in a check?”
“Hehehe. Actually, you don’t need to pay.”
“I’m not going to rip off a kid.”
Even though it was her first attempt, such a crazy item came out.
Then what about the second and third results?
If the mana stone that came out after defeating an avatar was at this level, just how high-level would the mana stone from defeating a Heavenly King’s main body be?
My heart was pounding wildly.
I thought there was a clear limit to the performance of mana stones.
I thought past a certain point, the efficiency wouldn’t match the money invested.
But higher realms I never imagined kept opening up.
Thanks to that, it became much easier to spec up.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“…Coming.”
I was about to leave the workshop, but Undecided’s feet wouldn’t move easily.
She kept glancing at Tay.
After exchanging gazes with Tay for a while without a word, she abruptly turned around.
Was it something like ‘I know without saying’?
The two seemed to have gotten close in the meantime.
No, I was doubtful they had any common ground to begin with…
“That black mana stone is mine. When the second mana stone is finished, I’ll give it to you. How do you want to use it?”
“…As a ring.”
“That would be too heavy for a ring.”
“…I like. Rings.”
“You dummy.”
If it was made into a ring, it would be as huge as a ring pop candy.
It was absurd to wear that and fight.
It made no sense.
“How about a necklace?”
“…Don’t like it.”
“I’m planning to make my new mana stone into a necklace too.”
“…Then. Me too, necklace.”
See, it’s easy to handle.
In the end, we decided to make both into necklaces.
Thanks to Tay’s quick hands, the second mana stone was also completed soon.
Although not at the level of the mana stone born from Belphegor’s demonic energy, it was still a historic quality mana stone.
All that was left was to craft the mana stones into necklaces.
After entrusting the production to a reliable workshop, what I had to do was…
“Ah. I’m bored to death.”
Not much, really.
Today, I left Undecided in the hotel room and came out alone.
Every time the water rose, she would cling to my back and throw a fit…
From Undecided’s perspective, it would be much more comfortable to rest in the hotel room.
So what should I do now?
In the past, I might have gone to the casino at this timing.
Since I had the ‘Inspect’ trait, I could see all the cards, so winning money was a piece of cake.
The problem was that if I did that now and got a bounty on my head again, there would be no answer.
It would only increase the risk of being chased by Jill.
Anyway, with Cornelia’s unlimited financial support, I no longer needed to engage in fraudulent gambling at all.
Should I look for another source of entertainment?
“Kyaaah!”
“…?!”
Just then, a faint scream came from inside the alley.
Startled, I turned around, but no one in the plaza paid any attention.
It must have been such a small sound that only I heard it.
But one thing was certain, it wasn’t an auditory hallucination.
Someone was in danger.
The moment I realized that, my body reflexively leaped out and headed in the direction of the scream.
No matter how far I went, there were only dark alleys.
It didn’t look like a place a woman would come alone.
Just as I was worrying that I might be too late,
“Ugh…”
“Tsk.”
I heard a tongue-clicking sound from beyond the corner.
A girl holding an oriental-style fan stood on top of the thugs.
Her face seemed familiar.
Seeing the rabbit ears on her head, it was clear.
“Hmph. Fighting in such a brutish way, just like a short dwarf.”
Alicia.
A noble lady of Palana who followed Yerina well.
But why was Alicia here?
‘Could it be to find me?’
The paranoia caused by Jill was acting up again.
Could it be that Yerina also remembered the previous rounds and sent Alicia to find me?
Well, that was roughly my delusion.
Of course, I knew that couldn’t be the case, so I could calm down quickly.
“By the way, where on earth is this man named Yoo-jin?”
“…”
No way.
She really came to find me.
The delusion I was going to laugh off suddenly became reality.
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