Yukinari: “It sounds game-ish, but that’s amazing!”
Shigenobu: “Yeah, up until now, all I could do was hand over new equipment I made. With this strengthening ability, I might be able to make better equipment than new equipment!”
Yukinari: “Won’t materials be a problem?”
Shigenobu: “I’ll tell you the necessary materials later so we can gather them.”

Hm… is it possible to make our current equipment stronger? Some equipment seem to have something like level restrictions, so this might be a good solution. In other words, Shigenobu is going to keep learning blacksmith-type skills. It’s a similar situation to mine.

Yukinari: “So? How about you, Hagisawa?”

Hagisawa trembles as he looks down.

What? Did he draw an abysmal miss of an ability? Something like a human bomb or self-destructing? He has a tool creation ability, so it might operate on a concept of scattering spectacularly. 

Hagisawa: “W-woahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”

With overflowing excitement, Hagisawa takes a guts pose and turns to us.

Meguru: “From your attitude, I assume you got something good?”
Hagisawa:“Yep!”
Meguru:“What is it? Stop putting on airs and tell us.”
Hagisawa:“Yep yep!”

Meguru-san also seems interested. In our current situation, just what kind of amazing ability did Hagisawa get? Considering the trend so far, is it a tool making ability? Cost reduction? Or is it a battle-oriented ability? Creating of bombs by using magical power? 

Hagisawa: “It’s trade.”
Meguru:“Trade?”

Buying and selling… what? Maybe he can buy materials or something? If that’s the case, then that’s incredible. 

Hagisawa: “Yeah. it seems like I can convert anything I obtain into points!”
Meguru: “Doesn’t that mean you can convert the materials we are having trouble hiding, like what we got from Metal Turtle, into points!?”    

That’s amazing!

Hagisawa: “Also, I can use points to create materials that we’ve already acquired!”

Wow! He just awakened an extraordinary ability! Even though it’ll increase our point consumption, being able to gather needed materials without fighting is just priceless. 

Hagisawa: “With this, we’ll be able to order even better things from Hanebashi… Japanese luxury goods… uhehe.”

…This is bad, he sounds like he’d rather satisfy his appetite than make good equipment. Definitely a Hagisawa-type thing to do.

Meguru: “This’ll make it easier for Shigenobu-kun to make good equipment for us, right?”
Shigenobu: “It does. If acquiring points becomes easier, I’ll be able to make better equipment!”

Moving forward like this feels incredible.

Shigenobu: “Also, if you use the ore that we collected, we should be able to manage the Eight Bird problem to some extent.”
Yukinari: “Ah, I think we’re about to reach the point where dangerous mamono will start appearing in groups. Be careful.”
Hagisawa: “It’ll only be dangerous if we get excited and overdo it. Anyway, I got something good.”
Meguru: “Say, isn’t it about time to get Minori? She might get angry if we don’t.”

We nod at Meguru-san’s words. I’m a bit injured… and my magical energy has decreased considerably from using transfer so many times. Isn’t this a good time to take a break?

Meguru: “Then, shall we return?”
“Yeah. Until Minori-san’s ready, Hagisawa needs to convert the unneeded materials into points.”
Hagisawa: “Of course, what else would I do!”

With those words, we quickly transfer back.

“Fighting at night is making me hungry.”
“Well… we’re usually sleeping at this time.”

Meguru-san wakes Minori-san from her nap and together they start to prepare. Meanwhile, Shigenobu hands over the materials that we no longer need to Hagisawa and he converts them into points using his expanded trading ability. The materials disappearing as they become light in front of us is an amazing sight.

Yukinari: “Would you be able to sell other people’s things with this?”

I suddenly have that thought.

Hagisawa: “Hm? Hey, Hanebashi, could you bring your bone sword?”
Yukinari: “Sure.”

While I’m doing as he asked, Hagisawa uses his ability.

Will you sell the item in your possession?
Yes/No

Yukinari: “For some reason, a confirmation window appeared…”
Hagisawa: “Then, let’s try the next experiment. Sakaeda.”
Shigenobu: “Hm?”

Hagisawa points to an ore Shigenobu often uses.

Shigenobu: “What this? An approval window appears for this too?”
Hagisawa: “Apparently this ability will ask whoever seems to be the owner of the item for approval.”

I see. In other words, what enabled the point conversion to proceed without any trouble earlier was that Shigenobu passed the items to Hagisawa, along with its ownership.

“How many points did you get in total?”
Hagisawa: “After disposing of all the trash…87,000 points.”

Wow… up till now, the best we’ve been able to gather up with everyone giving it their all within a 2 hour period is about 4,000 points. The efficiency is at a completely different level.

Hagisawa: “The Metal Turtle shell can be converted for a high price. Hanebashi, maybe you should focus on them?”
Yukinari: “By the way, how much are they?”
Hagisawa: “One shell can sell for over 5,000 points. It seems I can also sell entrails, and even the corpses of mamono!”

Isn’t that perfect!? We might be able to out earn Taniizumi and the others while they’re stuck doing useless things. 

Shigenobu: “The points of the battle group seem to be personal assets for the time being. The equipment that I make for them also seems to be for personal use only.”

One way or another, not showing this to Taniizumi and the others seems like it would be bad. The battle group is also difficult.

Shigenobu: “Should I make a second metal turtle sword, strengthen our equipment, or make new equipment?”

Minori-san and Meguru-san come in together while we’re all troubled over Shigenobu’s words. Of course, Meguru-san has already explained all of this to Minori-san.

Minori: “I heard about it. Dai-kun sure is amazing~”
Shigenobu: “Yeah! The efficiency of earning points has gotten much better, so I’m worried about what to do from now on.”
Minori: “It really has. What will you do?”
Shigenobu: “For now, whether it’s making something or strengthening… I will try to improve the armor of our vanguard, Yukinari and Meguru-san.”

At Shigenobu’s prompting, Meguru-san and I take off our mini dragon hide covered armor and hand them to him.

Shigenobu: “Etto, the number of times I can strengthen these with the materials we have now…”

Shigenobu lights the workshop fire and uses his expansion ability. Seems like he’s strengthening the mini dragon hides with ores. A lot of the materials has hidden within the workroom are in his hands.

The armor transforms into a gentle light that rises before Shigenobu’s eyes. He then combines it with the fire to create a round membrane.

Shigenobu: “Minori-san.”
Minori: “Right.”

Minori-san replenishes the magic energy of the hammer I bought in Japan for Shigenobu. He then uses it to hit the membrane many times. We meanwhile give Minori-san space to recover. Eventually, Shigenobu strikes the light membrane especially strongly with a gatsun. The light bursts and is absorbed by the armor.

Shigenobu: “Alright! Complete, I’ve strengthened it as much as I could with the materials on hand.”

He then hands the two pieces or armor to Meguru-san and me.

Mini Dragon Hide Armor + 5 | Effect: Shock Resistance, Wind Resistance

Ooh… there’s a +5 attached. When I try equipping it, my defense power is about twice as high as before. Since the mini dragon hide armor has a plain, high level of defense, won’t this become pretty stiff?

Shigenobu: “I used a lot of points, but I think they’ve become considerably stronger.”
Yukinari: “Completely… how do we compare with what the battle group has?”
Shigenobu: “If it’s only about defense, I think it’s the same. Compared to the equipment I made last time, it’s only a matter of time until I can strengthen our equipment to a higher level.”
Yukinari: “Does that mean the day of the decisive battle is approaching?”
Shigenobu: “No…”

Shigenobu mutters with some regret.

Shigenobu: “To begin with, Lv wise, I don’t think we can beat them in terms of abilities. We’re still uncertain to the effects they’ve been granted. No matter how good our equipment becomes, it’s still hard to say.”
Meguru: “…That’s true. Still, I think it’s within the range we can exploit though.”

Meguru-san answers such as she puts on her armor.

That’s certainly true.

Meguru: “Is it possible to make armor or shields with the Metal Turtle materials? If we used equipment like that…”
Shigenobu: “It’s difficult. It would take three times as many points and materials as a sword.”
Minori: “It’s rare to even find one to take down…”
Hagisawa: “I just turned them into points!”
Yukinari: “It can’t be helped; we wouldn’t have had enough points if we hadn’t sold them. From now on, let’s aim for getting more.”

I encourage to Hagisawa as he holds his drooping head in shame and guilty. 

Yukinari: “It’ll work out if you search for other high selling materials and ores. Hagisawa, do your best as our breadwinner.”
Hagisawa: “Yeah! Hanebashi! I’ll definitely do it!”

However… I feel as though we were able to procure some powerful armor. I feel as though the mamono in the places that have been giving us a hard time will feel like small fry.

******

Cheat sheet

Yukinari Hanebashi:
1) Teleport objects /Self to Earth
2) Point/yen conversion. (Tells others it’s a shopping catalogue)
3) Remote viewing
Kitchen knife, boxing gloves, wallaby coin

Meguru Hiyama:
1) Teleportation
2) Clairvoyance
3) Material transfer (uses pillars of light)
Metal turtle sword

Minori Himeno: Has a polite/formal way of speaking
1) Healing/recover mana
2) Charge with mana
Crowbar??

Shigenobu Sakaede
1) Black Smith
2) Mining Correction
3) Equipment Strengthening
Hammer??

Dai Hagisawa
1) Craft things
2) Identify
3) Trade
Hammer??

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<Chapter 33
Chapter 35>