30. Iron ingots won't drop
30. Iron ingots won't drop
"Is this good enough?"
Asagi asked, watching me diligently cultivating carrots. From a distance that was just barely within earshot of her usual tone, I answered her question while becoming a machine that plants carrots, sprinkles Bone Meal, and harvests the grown carrots.
"Beep-boop. Good. Beep-boop."
"...That's not funny at all, so stop it."
"Yes, ma'am."
There was nothing else to do anyway, and with only exhausting manual labor left, I tried to liven up the mood, but it didn't work. Honestly, I feel like I'm going to die of boredom too. I've already swapped with Ranma at the Monster Farm over six times. That means I've been there more than 12 times in total. Arrows, Bone Meal, and Rotten Flesh—which is useless for now—and various other things have started to pile up, but not a single Iron Ingot that I wanted had dropped.
I feel like I'm going to lose my mind.
When am I supposed to collect seven of these? And that's not even the end of it, is it? Right now, I'm hunting as if I'm performing a Rain Ritual until an Iron Ingot drops, but once I finish collecting the seven Iron Ingots, I have to perform a real Rain Ritual. I need to collect glass bottles before that, but even those haven't dropped. If I'm unlucky, won't it take until the Cauldron is filled with water twice? If that happens, a month or two won't be nearly enough.
I have plenty of time, but most of it is useless. It's not that I don't have thoughts of expanding the living area, but since it's better to replace all the flooring once Cobblestone drops, I can't just expand randomly. If I expand with Oak Slabs, the area I have to replace later just gets bigger. There's no need to go out of my way to suffer right now.
But there was one thing I needed to build.
The Monster Farm I made at the beginning.
It seemed like a good idea to make it again. This time, a little further away.
It might seem useless, but I really need this right now. Because I need spider webs. I thought it would be better to make a bed later using a Monster Tower, but thinking about it now, that wasn't the case. I can't stand just enduring this machine-like work until all the Iron Ingots drop.
"We need a bed."
"Hmm?"
I spoke up abruptly while harvesting carrots. Asagi's eyes went wide at my words.
"We can't keep borrowing Asagi-ssi's bed, can we?"
"Uhh... umm... I suppose so?"
"At the very least, we need to collect enough spider webs to make beds for Ranma and me."
"Isn't it dangerous?"
"We have this."
I triumphantly pulled a bow out of my Inventory. I had already collected over a stack of arrows. With this, it's possible to catch Creepers safely. It has the disadvantage of needing arrows, but if you have arrows, the bow is the most powerful among the basic weapons. Was the damage 9 when fully drawn? If it's a critical hit, it's 10. It's a crazy weapon that takes off five hearts in one shot.
Aiming and hitting the target is a separate issue, though.
It didn't matter since Asagi would be the one shooting, not me.
"Oh? A bow?"
"Yes. I combined the ones I took from the Skeletons, so the durability is maxed out."
"How many shots can it fire?"
"It can be repaired indefinitely, so it has infinite ammo. Arrows can be harvested from the Monster Farm, so that's not a problem."
"What about Endermen?"
"..."
Honestly, there's no answer for Endermen. If an Enderman appears, there's no other way but to build a trap like last time and make it charge at us by making eye contact. If it teleports and takes a Dirt Block again without us making eye contact, we'll have to risk our lives to fight it just like before.
When I didn't say anything, Asagi laughed as if it were amusing.
"Is fighting the only option for Endermen?"
"If we can't avoid making eye contact."
If I build a ceiling on the third floor of the Monster Farm, Endermen won't spawn. But if I do that, the Skeletons won't burn in the sunlight and will remain there. Skeletons are monsters that shoot arrows. If they gather, we could all die, so we can't have a ceiling if we want to deal with the Skeletons safely.
That means I have to let the Endermen spawn as well.
My head hurts, damn it.
Asagi nodded at my words. She seemed willing to fight the Enderman.
"It's not good to take too much of a break from combat. My skills might get rusty."
There's nothing like real combat to keep from getting rusty. That's what Asagi said. I was anxious. If she says that and gets properly caught by an Enderman and gets injured, there might be no answer then.
Since Ranma and I would be hitting it together anyway, one Enderman might not be that threatening, but we haven't been hit by a monster's attack yet. I wish it were like Minecraft, where you just lose a few hearts and that's it. But I can't see hearts either.
This must mean that reality correction is in effect.
So, that means if we get hit, we could break a leg or an arm, or if we're unlucky, we could die.
"We could die, you know?"
"I felt it when I fought an Enderman last time. I can handle one Enderman on my own."
At my words, Asagi answered with a confident smile. Hmm. Reassuring, but anxious. If she gets hit once and gets eliminated, wouldn't I be next? A look of distrust naturally formed on my face. As if she read that look, Asagi's expression changed to one of slight dissatisfaction.
"What's with that look?"
"Huh? What? What kind of look did I make?"
"The look that says you don't believe me."
"No way. I know how strong Asagi-ssi is. The Hawk Technique. Wow!"
When I exclaimed in admiration while imitating Asagi's Hawk Technique, Asagi's face turned red. She seemed quite angry, trembling her shoulders. Did I look like I was teasing her? Not at all, I was complimenting her so she wouldn't get mad!
"You don't trust me."
"I'm telling you, that's not it! This is really unfair. I think Asagi-ssi is stronger than Ranma, you know?"
"Hmm..."
As I protested, Asagi narrowed her eyes and scrutinized me. It was a look that tried to dig deep into whether this bastard was lying or telling the truth. I'm sincere.
At that moment, Ranma, who had finished hunting at the Monster Farm, came out.
"Finished them all! Swap!"
"Alright!"
I thought this was my chance and quickly got up. It was because Asagi's eyes looked like she wanted to tear me apart. As I ran away, Asagi clicked her tongue, "Tsk!", behind me. I felt a chill run down my spine. I must have felt too close to Asagi-ssi lately. My brain wasn't like that, but instinctively, I was trying to cross the line like a close friend.
I shouldn't do this. Asagi is a killing machine. Even if it's a Wooden Sword now, I still have no guarantee that I'll survive when I make her a stone sword, iron sword, or diamond sword later.
I quickly ran to Ranma, shoved an armful of carrots into his hands, and ran toward the Monster Farm. When I gave him carrots instead of bread, Ranma looked at me with a dissatisfied expression, but I ignored him. Eating only bread isn't good for your body! You have to eat apples and carrots too!
Entering the Monster Farm, I strode forward and beat the shins of the spawned monsters to death. I am the Shin Slayer! Bring your shins here! I'll kill you by only hitting your shins!
I was hunting for a while like that, and finally. Finally, I succeeded in obtaining the item I wanted.
A rectangular, silvery ingot.
An Iron Ingot.
An Iron Ingot had finally dropped. That wasn't all. Perhaps Ranma had even caught a Witch; although a glass bottle didn't drop, five Glowstone Dusts did. With this, I can make one Glowstone.
Great! This is how I'll build up, one by one! Now I just need to get six more! Since I got one in a single day, even if none drop today, wouldn't I be able to collect all seven in a week!?
Thinking that, I happily tapped the walls and caught monsters, then came out of the Monster Farm. Asagi and Ranma were facing each other, chewing on a carrot each.
As soon as I saw them, I shouted immediately.
"An Iron Ingot dropped!"
"What!?"
"Is that true!"
At my shout, both Ranma and Asagi were surprised and ran toward me. I held out the item that was safely kept in my Inventory, lifting it with both hands toward Ranma, who had come close to me, and Asagi, who had stopped a little further away like a ghost.
A silvery ingot, reflecting the sunlight and sparkling, was held in my hand.
"Oh... ohh!"
"Does this mean we can make a Cauldron now!"
"Huh? No? We still need six more."
Asagi was incredibly happy, but her expression stiffened at my words. I had hunted all day and got one. She seemed to have expected that this would take at least a week, but since it's a probability game anyway, there might be cases where a lucky person gets them all in just one day.
"The drop rate for an Iron Ingot is 0.8%! We're the lucky ones! We'll be able to get up to seven Iron Ingots right away!"
"0.8?"
"Yes! 0.8%!"
"Does that mean if we kill a thousand, eight will drop?"
"If you calculate it simply, that's the case, but since the dice roll every time you kill one, it's possible that even if you kill a thousand, none might drop, you know?"
At my words, Asagi's expression stiffened rapidly. She seemed to have thought that getting an Iron Ingot was easy until now.
Still, the fact that an Iron Ingot dropped now is a huge deal. At least it's confirmed that they do drop. If it hadn't dropped for a week, I might have suspected, "Did this bastard get patched?" Since I don't check every single patch.
"Let's keep going until we get all seven Iron Ingots!"
"........"
I shouted energetically and raised the hand holding the Iron Ingot. It meant let's fight on. Ranma and Asagi didn't raise their hands. They seemed devastated after hearing the drop rate, but there's no way they can stop hunting just because of that; they have no choice but to hunt until they collect all the Iron Ingots anyway. Same goes for me.
For now, let's sleep today.