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Volume 8 Chapter 4 Part 2

Translator: Kell

“Oh, I know this one.”

“Did you find something good?”

“If you can master it, it’s a powerful item. But there may not be anyone who can actually use it.”

I picked up a machine that looked like a little ball with a jumble of parts attached to it. It’s a gadget called High Concentration Mana Permeation Device, which is used in highly-advanced manufacturing facilities.

Without the necessary manufacturing Skills and the equipment, it’s pretty much useless, but the items made with it are all extremely powerful. The Epic Gears, in particular, had, quite literally, epic capabilities. In this world, where the average gear is just bad, one such item can be used as a strategic weapon in war.

If a person succeeds in collecting such equipment, they may even be able to single-handedly destroy a country. Some gears are so broken that they can make sure you don’t run out of mana.

For example, if Fire Bomb, which you can cast in rapid succession with a small amount of mana, became as powerful as Steam Explosion, waiting for the caster to run out of mana would no longer be a viable strategy. You could try to kill them in their sleep, but the raiding unit might get wiped out before they could even do so.

And the most important matter is the person who made it. In BBO, it took a reasonably high level of manufacturing Skills to make this item. Unlike the Wisdom Stone, it’s not something you can just take out of a monster and use as is.

Therefore, if unlike in BBO where a High Concentration Mana Permeation Device could be obtained directly from somewhere, someone had to have made it. Who in the world would that be?

If there was someone who made it, there must have been a reason why. In other words, there must have been someone somewhere who could make high-level equipment that would require a High Concentration Mana Permeation Device. From what I’ve seen so far in this world, they’re not being used at all by the public. Their existence alone could drastically change things.

“Do you know where you got this?” I asked. “Or who made it for that matter. If you have no idea, then maybe you know at least when you obtained it.”

“Unfortunately, most of the things in this section are basically unidentified items. We don’t even know why they’re here. But we’ll do the best we can to find out. I just need a little time.”

“That would be great, thanks.”

If they have no idea, I probably can’t expect much, but if there’s no hope of getting any information at all, the king would not ask for some time.

Some people might ask for time to pretend like they’re looking into the matter seriously, but I don’t think the king is that kind of person.

“Would you like to take this as reward?” he asked.

“No. This in itself is of no use to me. I may need it if someone comes along who can use it, but for now, no.”

The High Concentration Mana Permeation Device requires a high level of manufacturing Skills to use. At the moment, I don’t know anyone in the smithing profession who has reached that level.

In Count Meigis’ domain, training for smiths is going well, but I would not be surprised if it took around ten years to reach the level where they could use this. In other words this item is of no use to me.

“Okay. Then we’ll keep this so that I can give it to you when you need it. Whenever you need it, just let me know and I’ll give it to you. Don’t worry, though. It won’t count as part of your current reward.”

“Are you sure about that? It’s part of the treasury. I mean, sure, it’s useless at the moment, but still.”

“Knowing you, you will have done plenty of other feats by then, so we’ll have every reason to give it to you. Actually, considering the things you can do, I can’t complain if the treasury is emptied out one of these days with just the rewards to you.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not gonna ask for everything. There’s no point in getting something you have no use for.”

“I’m glad you’re not greedy. Then again, maybe you don’t need to be greedy. You probably got more wealth than you could spend in a lifetime.”

I mean, I can get greedy too. I just declined because there’s nothing that I want, but if the treasury was full of things I wanted, I was going to try asking for them all. I don’t know if he would’ve agreed, but there’s no harm in trying.

“All right. I’m gonna go back to digging for junk.”

At any rate, the item I just found provided information, but it wasn’t something I wanted. I just hope there’s something I want among the remaining items in the treasury.

I resumed digging through the piles of junk one by one and continued to examine them to see if they were useful or not. Eventually, I found one item.

“I think I can use this.”

I picked up what looked like a small, decorated nail. It looked like it would only be useful for a little carpentry work, but this item is actually called an Enchant Shaft, a type of enhancement item.

It’s made with roughly the same level of manufacturing Skill as the High Concentration Mana Permeation Device, except this can be used even without any smithing Skills. This item can be hammered into a weapon to add any characteristics you desire.

It can be used to simply boost your own power, but to be honest, Steam Explosion’s power has already reached near the limit of what one person can handle. If I increased its power, there’s a high chance that it would become even more difficult to control. Right now, I’m even using Skill Level Limiter to reduce its power.

But… Using equipment that has been enhanced with something like Enchant Shaft will allow for a different fighting style than my usual brute forcing with Steam Explosion. There’s a special fighting style employed by a Sage—simultaneously casting several spells, working like unmanned fighter jets controlled remotely and for long periods of time, attacking and causing confusion. In BBO, Sages using this method of combat were called Aircraft Carrier Sage.