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Volume 1 Chapter 14-1: Additional Refining

「Tomorrow we should focus on clearing the first floor and heading up to the second ja. We’ll be moving forward with that in mind.」
「W-wait a moment Hotaru-san. Do we have to hurry that much to go up higher? Right now we are able to earn enough money for our daily livelihood and we’ll be able to earn enough to pay off the debt, so I don’t think we need to be in a rush to climb the Tower. Well, I’m not against going up further in a little while though.」

I didn’t know for certain but I didn’t think they ran all around Japan even in the Three Kingdoms era either. In fact I once saw a show that said they spent most of their time hanging around their estate eating dango and stuff.

「I see…well Soujirou’s opinion has merit too. As a weapon, my opinions may be far too aggressive if I consider it properly ja. What do you think Sistina?」
「Well….it is my first real combat, so I feel that rushing to climb the Tower can easily result in accidental misfortune.」

Right? Right? If we do our best on the first floor then there isn’t a big reason to push ourselves too soon. It’d be better to train ourselves patiently and raise ourselves steadily.

「However, from the feeling I got during combat today, I don’t feel like the first floor is challenging enough. I agree that we should go to the second floor tomorrow.」

Gwaaa! Et tu Brute!? If the two girls ganged up on me I had no chance of victory.

「Haaa…fine. But I insist we move our base to Reitoku before we head into the Tower.」
「Alright, I’ll agree to that ja. Where do you think we should move Soujirou ja?」
「Hmm~ I was thinking about an inn of some sort near the Tower or a town with a transfer circle near the Tower…do you have any ideas about lodging Sistina?」

I didn’t know any Towns besides Mikrea or Reitoku, so I didn’t know about the specifics of lodging in other places.

「….If we plan on making our living solely on exploring Towers then I recommend we go all in and move to the Chaotic City of Fresberg that contains the Tower of Zachil, it would make an ideal base.」

Sistina finally spoke up after thinking for a short while. The town she spoke of was the one the merchant Will had brought up.

「Why should we make that town our base? If it’s called Chaotic, then won’t the entire place be a mess?」
「Indeed. It is most likely the largest of the cities situated around Towers. There are plenty of people and goods flowing in and out of it, furthermore the prices of commodities are fairly high. However, that city has the Tower of Zachil in the middle of it. It is a Master Tower said to be the greatest of all Towers. For that reason, the city contains many transfer circles that connect to different cities, making it convenient for travel.」
「Oh? So you’re saying that if we set up our base there, we will be able to easily travel to all the other Towers as well?」

Sistina nodded firmly. Personally I didn’t really feel the need to enter so many different Towers. However, I remember that the Tower of Zachil was written on that signboard I saw at the start…and that Tower piercing the sky that I couldn’t help but gaze at….

That was most likely the Tower of Zachil.

I felt some desire to see it for myself.

「Furthermore, that city is more receptive to allowing immigrants, so we would be able to purchase or rent a house instead of having to stay in an inn. If we avoid staying in the middle near the Tower, the rest of the city is fairly normal, plus it has the greatest assortment of merchants, goods, and services in the area.」
「Hmm, it doesn’t sound bad ja. What do you think Soujirou?」

Certainly it would be helpful when we needed to upgrade our equipment later. Sistina said that in order to get better equipment than what we have now, we would have to get ones made out of materials from the dungeon. Those would only be readily available in towns with Towers.

Fresberg would easily be able to provide all our needs if we chose it.

「Alright, however I definitely want to rent or buy a house. For now I believe we should stay in an inn here in Reitoku and enter the Tower here so we can climb to the 2nd floor. As we earn some money we can check out the situation for housing and locations…how about it?」
「I have heard that the Tower of Zachil has high traffic which makes fighting on the lower floors is difficult. I agree that we should take the chance to use the Reitoku Tower as practice for the lower floors.」
「Good, then let us proceed to the Reitoku Tower under the premise that we will be earning money and experience for our eventual move to live in Fresberg ja.」

Finally Hotaru-san summarized our plan of action and brought the discussion to a close.

After that we went to bathe and headed back to the inn.

I was starting to get flustered thinking about punishing/thanking Sistina tonight when Hotaru-san suddenly smacked my head.

「Wait a moment Soujirou ja. I have some things I want to confirm.」
「What ya want?」

smack

Ow…

「First appraise Sakura ja.」
「Oka~y」

『Sakura Rank: D+ Refinement Lvl: 33 Essence Lvl: 47
Skills: Empathy Sense Presence Agility Enhancement
Hit Correction Magic Power Enhancement』

「Fumu, even with all that fighting Sakura’s Refining didn’t go up by much ja…」
「Ah, now that you mention it…」
「That’s where this comes in.」

Hotaru-san pulled out one of the magic stones she had stored in her pouch.

「I see…use Additional Refining?」
「Can you try ja?」

I definitely had to. If this worked and raised the Refining Level then I would be able to establish a baseline for that skills use.

Once we discovered how to raise Refining Level then I could reliably raise my weapons. The biggest issue I had, was that if I used it improperly and accidentally destroyed one of my weapons, I would be in trouble.

That said I didn’t have a single weapon that I was willing to practice on because I didn’t want any of them broken.

『………』
「Sakura-chan!? But….」

As I was hesitating Sakura-chan conveyed her feelings to me. It was a strong feeling that reverberated in my heart without any room for doubt.

『Please use me.』

Was what I felt from her.