âYouâre leaving in three days, right? When exactly?â
I ask as we finish having breakfast.
âIn the morning. Thereâs a large caravan headed to a town close to the beast kingdom, so weâre going to be making use of one of the horsebuses.â
âNot an escorting quest?â
âItâll cost money, but itâs nice to take it easy once in a while. But if the number of escorts decreases on the way somehow, weâll step in.â
âThere are a lot of ways to get aroundâŚâ
âWhy donât you come with us too?â
âI better not. I think Iâll just be imposing too much if I keep going like this.â
âDonât be afraid to be spoiled by your two big sisters over here. Especially Chris.â
I look over at Chris, and her face is bright red. Sheâs teasing her.
âThat sounds tempting, but no. Iâll show you how much Iâve grown next time I see you.â
âI see. Weâre going to take it easy for a short time, but what about you? Are you going to accept quests?â
âYes. I accepted a medicinal herb picking quest yesterday, and was asked if I didnât want to pick more. They practically begged me to do it, because the alchemy guild and the chemist guild have been pressing them. Apparently their inventory is gone because no one has been accepting these quests lately.â
âWhat a simple soul you are.â
âThey told me theyâll give me a bonus if I pick a lot, so Iâm planning to pick them all day long for two days. And sorry about yesterday, I had something on my mind. No, thatâs just an excuse, isnât it?â
I lower my head to Chris, and she whispers âall rightâ.
Iâm busy for the next couple of days.
I pick medicinal herbs in the morning, have lunch, and practice alchemy. Once Iâm done with that, I go to the guild, sell materials, and buy magic stones.
Magic stones can be bought in the guild, but can also be found in general stores in small quantities. Theyâre sold as fuel for magic items, so the average citizen can buy them. Apparently magic items like the lanterns that adventurers use in dungeons and monster repellent are popular.
However, I find out that monster repellent magic items are always in high demand, so theyâre expensive and hard to find. Thereâs a store that sells them, but the prices are out of my reach for the time being. I ask them if five gold coins isnât too expensive, and they tell me itâs actually cheap.
And so, because of this, adventurers who donât have a lot of money to spend buy disposable monster repellent. The effect is pretty low compared to a magic item, but I hear thereâs a lot of demand for those too.
I go around some stores looking for magic stones, and I find out through Appraisal that the quality of magic stones can vary even if they come from the same type of monster.
Also, big doesnât necessarily mean high quality, and there are processed and unprocessed ones. Different magic items take magic stones of different sizes and shapes, so there are way more unprocessed magic stones, that people can then have processed to match their magic items.
I buy unprocessed high quality magic stones, fifty of them. I also buy ten lumps of iron ore, leaving me with two silver coins.
Iâm going to have to make a living with medicinal herb picking for now.
âStatus open.â
Name â (Sora Fujimiya ) / Job â (Jobless) / Race â Otherworlder / No Level
(Magic Energy Control Lv6) / (Basic Daily Life Magic Lv5) / (Spatial Magic Lv4) / (Alchemy Lv5)
(Cooking Lv2)
Since my Appraisal level has gone up, I decide to check the descriptions of the jobs again, and learn that itâs actually possible to change jobs. But it comes with a warning that once I pick a job, Iâll be unable to change it until Walking levels up.
So the worst timing would be just after I level up.
But in order to increase the success rate of Alchemy, I should become an alchemist to receive its correction effect.
I canât fail. After all, Rurika and Chris are leaving tomorrow.
I pick the Alchemist job, and the (+1) in my stats changes.
Magic and dexterity have a +50 correction, and everything else is gone.
Did my MP get the same +50? Apparently the affected skills also receive a similar correction in terms of proficiency.
I canât help but wish I knew about this sooner, but I didnât know if I could change jobs, so I think I still did the right thing. From now on, Iâll be more proactive when it comes to picking jobs.
âLetâs begin.â
I concentrate, and picture a transmitter. Iâll make a magic stone its core, and iron ore its base.
A pendant should do nicely for its actual shape.
First, I send magic energy to ten magic stones, and the magic stone in the center thatâs connected to the others starts changing into a darker color. The other magic stones on the other hand gradually lose their color until theyâre transparent. They look like glass.
When I grab the remaining magic stone, it cracks and turns to dust. Did I put too much magic energy into it?
Next, I try to be careful and hold back the amount of magic energy I pump into it. I try to make sure the light that connects the magic stones doesnât break, and make sure not to fill it up too much again. Because Iâm doing it more slowly, it takes more than twice as long as the last one.
I grab the magic stone, and this time it doesnât break. After using Appraisal on it, I see it has become a sorcery stone. Its quality is low, perhaps because of the low amount of magic energy.
I do some image training to remember the feeling of making magic energy flow into it, and its amount.
Just as Iâm about to start again, I stop, and check my status. After checking my MP, I drink a mana potion.
I slap my cheeks and get ready to start again. I donât have to get it right on this one, I have three more chances. Iâm going to remember the feeling from before, and slowly increase the amount of magic energy.
But as a result, my stomach is full, because every time I use Alchemy I drink a mana potion. I couldnât drink another one if I had to. Maybe I will after some time passes.
I made four sorcery stones in total. Two are low quality, one is average, and one is high. Now I need to picture a transmitter while using iron ore to make the base, and Iâll be done.
After taking a break, I start working again.
If Iâm going to use the low quality sorcery stones, I have to use both to make up for their low quality. Maybe I should make a bracelet instead of a pendant. First I use the ore to make a bracelet, then I insert the sorcery stones while sending magic energy into it. And of course, I increase its strength to make sure it doesnât break easily on impact.
âThatâs one, and the rest⌠I should make them pendants.â
I make the bases and chains, and attach sorcery stones. Nice, I donât need any other artistic skills. I just have to design them by imagining something I know. This is definitely not plagiarism or anything. But I wonder if theyâll recognize them when they see it.
I line up the three items I made, and send more magic energy into them. These are made to look like the spirit amulets I heard about before, but rather than having the effect of telling others theyâre all right, they have a function to search for their location.
âAll right, Iâm done.â
Itâs like a main telephone and extensions. By sending magic energy to the main pendant, I can find out where the extensions are. If I hand this to them, it will save me the trouble of looking for them when we can get together again. I just hope they donât throw them away.