Albion's Rewards and a One-Month Hiatus
"Then I'll see you in the next broadcast...!"
"Everyone, you all worked so hard yesterday…."
"Good work, everyone!"
After arriving at the promised tavern, we exchanged simple greetings and clinked our glasses together. They weren’t glass beer mugs, so the sound was a little dull, but it had a nice atmosphere all its own.
"Mmm…."
I tilted the mug back without hesitation. The cool carbonation sliding down my throat felt just as refreshing as always.
"Rainel could have joined us…."
I’d heard he almost used the strategic weapon “Hal” at one point… but since he didn’t actually do it, it was fine. Still, it was a shame. He’d been one of the fans since the second broadcast, so I’d wanted to meet him.
"Then… since we’ve toasted as promised, shall we take a look at the items now?"
At my suggestion, all the fans nodded. Honestly, I would have been happy to enjoy the warm atmosphere a little longer, but most of the people still watching the stream were probably eager to see the Albion subjugation rewards.
◈ A treasure chest containing the rewards for defeating Albion.
I took Albion's Treasure Chest out of my inventory and set it on the table. The fans stared at it with sparkling eyes, and my own heart was pounding so hard I couldn’t think of anything to say. I took a slow breath, steadied myself, and gently lifted the lid.
Two streams of silver-blue light poured out of the chest.
◈ Leather shield crafted from the hide of Niblord’s ferocious ruler, the ancient white dragon Albion.
◈ Dragon scales are stronger than anything. No attack can pierce them.
◈ Total HP +10%
◈ Defense +510
◈ Durability 200/200 • Level Limit 65
"Whoa."
The very first item took my breath away. Of course a drop would be stronger than a crafted piece, but I never imagined Unique-grade gear could be this good. If Unique equipment was already at this level, just how powerful must Epic-grade items be…?
What I could say for certain was that these specs were far superior to anything obtainable from the Tagirion raid.
"Ah, thank you for the sponsorship, AquaColor…."
It was exactly what I wanted to say. After all that suffering, it finally felt worth it. And there had been two silver-blue lights from the chest earlier. One more piece of equipment remained.
◈ Warhammer forged long ago by a dwarf who sought to slay Albion.
◈ His final masterpiece has not lost any of its power.
◈ Strength +260
◈ Attack +1090
◈ Durability 150/150 • Level Limit 65
A warhammer. The second item was a warhammer. Its raw stats were lower than the one I was currently using. That was only because I had enhanced my Tagirion-raid warhammer to its limit, though. If I poured the same effort into enhancing this one… I would definitely become much stronger.
"…."
None of the fans said a word. They simply watched me in silence.
"If I hit the heretics with this… won’t they repent much more sincerely?"
"…Isn’t being a heretic a sin in the first place?"
★ The auction results were exactly as expected. Albion's Leather Shield went to the warrior who served as our tank. After all, he was the only shield user among the tanks, so it was only natural.
…Still, how does a tank party have only one person using a shield? That’s kind of amazing.
Next up was the auction for Some Dwarf's Warhammer. Obviously I was the only one in the party who used a warhammer, but basic etiquette still mattered. I couldn’t just take it for free. The warrior had paid nine thousand gold for the shield earlier, so I was ready to pay a fair price too.
Just as I was about to start the bidding, one person quietly raised their hand. It was the alchemist fan—the MVP of the Albion raid.
"Um, I have one suggestion. Is that okay?"
"Ah, yes…."
When I nodded, he took a breath and continued.
"Wouldn’t it be better to just give this warhammer to Lene?"
"…Huh? What? N-no, that’s not…."
I waved both hands in refusal, but he shook his head and kept speaking.
"Honestly, I don’t think we could have cleared it without Lene yesterday. In fact, the raid probably wouldn’t have even opened. So there’s no need for her to pay, is there?"
No way. We had cleared it together as a team. Taking an item for free by myself made no sense. I was grateful for the alchemist fan’s kindness, but this was simply not acceptable. Besides, there was no way everyone else would agree. The whole point of raiding was to split the gold earned through auctions.
And if I had bad intentions, I could just sell it without equipping it. There was no reason for everyone to accept a proposal that only benefited me….
"I’m fine with it."
"Me too."
…Huh?
I couldn’t understand it, but for some reason every single fan was nodding.
"R-really, you don’t have to push yourselves… I have plenty of gold…."
"It’s really fine. Like he said, without Lene the raid wouldn’t have even started."
In the end, I couldn’t go against the opinion of all fifteen of them. I ended up receiving Some Dwarf's Warhammer for free.
"Th-thank you…. Haaah…."
★ Of course, the reason the fans gave Lene the warhammer for free wasn’t because they were running some charity.
‘I’ll pay you back in gold tomorrow.’
‘Ah, it’s okay. This only happened because of me anyway….’
If you looked at contribution in the raid yesterday, every fan would have ranked Lene first without question. But that wasn’t because they were her fans. It wasn’t because she had dealt the most damage, either.
The reason was potions.
The raid had started suddenly. Naturally, most of the fans weren’t prepared for it. Their gear was perfect since they were top players in New Dimension, but they didn’t have nearly enough potions to retry an unfamiliar raid multiple times. Potions were quite expensive in New Dimension, after all. Someone who carried around massive stacks of them at all times would be considered the strange one.
And that strange person was me.
Because I wandered around performing heretic inquisitions, I always carried as many potions as possible so I could respond to any situation.
‘Ah, I’ll share my potions.’
Right after our ninth failed attempt, when everyone realized they were running out of potions, I handed mine over without hesitation. In a situation where we were already short on supporters, we obviously needed far more potions than in a normal raid. As a result, the value of the potions I gave the fans came close to ten thousand gold.
Even if we added up the base reward from the Albion subjugation and all the auction gold, we would still be at a loss. Of course, the first attempt at any raid usually meant accepting a deficit, but the fans didn’t think that burden should fall on one person alone.
Fortunately, they had talked about it before I arrived and all agreed. That was how something like this became possible.
"Hehe…. Thank you everyone…."
There was no way I could have known any of that at the time.
After the auction ended, we continued our pleasant meal.
"Everyone really worked hard this time. Let’s have another toast…!"
"Cheers!"
And then—
"Then I’ll see you in the next broadcast…!"
With that, my stream came to a successful close, setting new records for both peak and average viewer count.