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379 - Hammer, Anvil, and Enhancement Stone 4
379 - Hammer, Anvil, and Enhancement Stone 4
379 - Hammer, Anvil, and Enhancement Stone 4
TL/Editor: raei
Schedule: 5/week
Illustrations: Posted in discord
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The charming heroic act of soliciting donations of spare enhancement stones from the temple and royal knights was quickly thwarted.
Neither the temple nor the knights had any enhancement stones to spare.
As a result, Han Se-ah's cheeks puffed out in a pout. She was denied the typical "hero's move" of smashing other people's yard pots, barging into bedrooms, and ransacking closets to pilfer every last gold coin.
How could there not be a single one left when there was a chance to get free enhancement stones if she played her cards right?
"Ah, there's nothing here. I thought the temple might not have any, but I didn't expect the knights to be out too."
-Of course they wouldn't have any... Who hoards enhancement stones instead of using them right away lol-For real, buy an enhancement stone and just sit on it? Only a real weirdo would do that
-Looks like they did buy some though, since they're saying they already used them all
-Han Se-ah's intelligence <<<<<<<<< Knight's intelligence
-LOL If they offer to enhance your equipment for money, who wouldn't do it? You'd be crazy not to. Of course they bought everything up, obviously nothing's left.
Whether Temple Knights or royal knights, knights are obsessed with strength. To prove themselves to the Goddess they worship, or to demonstrate their loyalty to the leader chosen by the Goddess, knights always crave power.
It's not like switching out a trusty old weapon for new equipment. Just a stone or two can instantly enhance the gear they've used for over a decade. If there's a knight who wouldn't pour gold into this, they'd be like a mage who's given up on research.
Even adventurers and mercenaries desperately seek good equipment as it's their lifeline and livelihood. How could knights of all people lack such ambition?
"Well, at least we got to see the city. Does this mean we'll head for the 51st floor first thing tomorrow?"
"I think we should have one day to rest. So today in the city... Oh?"
After coming up empty-handed, we ended up back on the 50th floor at the Harpy District. We were about to discuss whether to spend the night in the city or find an inn in the district, but that became pointless.
In less than half a day, not even a quarter of a day, a huge mansion had been built.
"Is this really our lodging?"
"The location's right, but..."
Our group could sense it was still night without looking at Han Se-ah's stream clock, even though the sky never darkens in this 24-hour dim world. Those who've reached the upper echelons don't lose their sense of time so easily.
In fact, Han Se-ah's stream clock showed it was just past midnight, the time when she usually starts debating whether to end the stream.
According to Granny Shasha's boastful declaration, they should've just started tearing down the workshop to prepare for building. But not only was the preparation done, a two-story mansion was already built and its exterior was being refined. No wonder we were surprised.
"Oh, Squishies? How'd you know to come back already?"
There was nothing to see in the Harpy District, so we were naturally planning to pass through the stone dwarf workshop district.
As we stood there dumbfounded, admiring the building, a stone dwarf with a large sack on his back called out to us in a gruff voice. I didn't know his name, but the voice sounded familiar - probably one of the dwarves who volunteered to build earlier.
It was impressive how casually he talked about demolishing a workshop and whipping up a two-story mansion between late afternoon and just past midnight.
"No, we just finished our business..."
"Business? Oh right, you said you were going down to the underground city. What'd you go looking for down there?"
"Some enhancement stones."
The stone dwarf chattered away like a talkative taxi driver, but our stunned group just kept gawking at the mansion.
Well, it wasn't some tiny hut, but a two-story mansion. We called it a mansion rather than a house because it was big enough that they were already building fancy walls and preparing flowerbeds for a garden.
At that size, they'd probably just put up the outer walls, and the interior must still be unfinished. As I was thinking this, the dwarf reached up to pat Han Se-ah's lower back, then held out the sack.
"We've got the inside all sorted too, so you just need to bring in furniture as you like. Oh, Granny Shasha said she put in some beds just in case. And for enhancement stones, there were a few left in the empty workshop, so take these."
"En-enhancement stones?"
"That's right. Looks like that Kuku fellow hid them, not wanting to give them to the harpies."
And so, Han Se-ah ended up with a two-story mansion and a sack full of various enhancement stones in just one day, without lifting a finger.
...At this point, I was starting to wonder if we could call her useless.
Was she actually accumulating luck to use in Heroes Chronicle?
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Raei Translations
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The stone dwarves may have been captives of the Harpy Empire, but I guess craftsmen are craftsmen. They seemed to know human nobles' lifestyles well, as they'd neatly completed a human-style mansion rather than a harpy one. All that was left was to ask Emma or Sebastian in the city to send some workers to manage the estate.
The runaway princess Katie remarked with a sharp eye, "What an unusual style..." but for country girl Grace, military student Roland, and homebody gamer Han Se-ah, the differences were imperceptible.
She said there was an aesthetic difference between the city mansion the princess gave us and this 50th floor stone dwarf mansion, but as long as each room had a bed and there was a kitchen where we could all gather to eat, that was good enough.
"So these are enhancement stones? They're pretty. I can see why they're used as gems."
Anyway, we ended up with enhancement stones after all that trouble. The stones in the sack were evenly distributed by type, as if they were 50th floor clear rewards or tutorial enhancement stones for season 2.
They were almost fist-sized, so they felt more like well-cut cubic zirconia than gems, but the mana emanating from inside was clearly different from regular gems or mana stones. Given their size and that it wasn't one stone per enhancement, it didn't look like we could enhance much.
Of course, this wasn't my speculation, but information I learned from Han Se-ah pretending to be a genius mage and opening the enhancement window.
"This ruby-like one the size of a fist is for enhancing melee weapons, and this rainbow-reflecting crystal that looks like it could be a fuse in a horror game is for ranged weapons. And these metal plates that seem like they could be used as currency if collected are for enhancing armor. Since they gave us leftovers, there's just enough for one enhancement each."
-Sounds like total bullsh*t but I hate that I understand it all lol
-Doesn't look like a ruby but I guess it's red so it's a ruby? Well, not wrong I guess
-If it's red and round, it's a ruby lol Who cares about other gems
-Red ruby, blue sapphire, green emerald, yellow topaz, we don't accept other colors, only primary colors lol
-Saying there's just enough for one enhancement, looks like this really is an enhancement tutorial. What a dumbass, clearing floor 50 and doing the 41st floor tutorial on floor 52
Han Se-ah was a player in a virtual reality game, and no matter how much Heroes Chronicle touted its realism, it was bound to have basic system windows.
Starting with the stream camera drone, there were inventory and status windows, and system windows for reading other NPCs' star ratings and so on. So naturally, if enhancement stones appeared, an enhancement-related system window would pop up.
Regular enhancement stones could enhance equipment just by transferring mana. Special enhancement stones could only be handled by stone dwarf craftsmen. Equipment couldn't be enhanced infinitely, and so on. She was explaining these basic systems to the group as if telling the viewers.
Looking at her, I suddenly thought, 'Can she handle this?'
"Wow, amazing."
"So we just need to transfer mana?"
As if confirming my thoughts, everyone's eyes sparkled brightly. From Grace admiring the rainbow-reflecting crystal to Katie who looked eager to enhance her sword, they all gazed at Han Se-ah with shining eyes.
Han Se-ah, Han Se-ah the First scout. She had various images as an 18-star failure, mecha p*rno girl, chemical terrorist, mad scientist, pioneer of explosive art, and so on, but that was her image as a streamer outside the game.
Viewers may have teased her as an all-purpose pack mule, but to our group, Han Se-ah was seen as a genius mage.
More precisely, she was "a genius beautiful mage who uses high-level magic effortlessly with innate talent, chosen by the Goddess as a hero, a believer who's also cute and lovely with a touch of country innocence after coming up from the countryside."
'Inventory, minimap, skills, and now enhancement stones.'
Some might feel nauseous hearing this, thinking even the most sycophantic brown-noser wouldn't suck up this much, but that was only from the viewers' perspective.
When the hero lady pulled items out of thin air, memorized tower maps with magic, and used newly learned spells without mistakes, wasn't it natural to idolize her when she could even recognize other races' treasures at a glance?
Especially since it was just a few weeks ago that even mages bought enhancement stones to study their principles.
In other words, she was now rattling off knowledge about a new material that didn't even have properly established research papers. It was like a long post on a superconductivity forum being more accurate than future expert papers.
"As expected, Hanna is amazing!"
"Huh? Uh..."
"You can tell at a glance? You can even analyze items from another world mined by a different race...!"
"That's incredible, Miss Hanna!"
"Amazing!"
That thoughtless mouth should be grateful there wasn't another mage here right now.