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Volume 4 Chapter 9.4

Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes

Mio had to interject into Hiroshi’s ridiculous enchantments, especially since he joked about it like it was some kind of prank. Nonetheless, it wasn’t like Hiroshi was planning on listening to that. There were even some enchantments mixed in that Haruna had never heard of, like the enchant/special ability Passive Barrier. And there was the whole “hidden function” thing. Just so many things that were questionable.

「Right, it’s complete. Wanna try holdin it？」

「……The heck is this sword supposed to be, Excaliber……?」

「I named it Defender Sword, mate. Someone like Doul uses it ‘n bam, Barold don’t even got a chance.」

　Haruna simply commented at this clearly overprotected sword, half fearful and half exasperated. Hiroshi just had a smug grin on his face as he continued saying very alarming things.

「Only misgiving I might have is that since the material’s iron, I wasn’t able to strengthen it with a 100% Passive Barrier rate or a high parry rate. I guess 200% power up for all defense on lower level materials cranks up the difficulty for other enchantment types.」

　At this questionable statement of Hiroshi’s (Seriously? You’re dissatisfied?) Haruna’s feelings went straight past exasperation to a sort of respect. To put it clearly, this sword was strong enough to help a rookie adventurer clear out a stone ant nest.

「Sensei, how’s the output for this sword’s passive barrier？」

「It absorbs 5,000 from any damage not blocked by defense. It ain’t no problem with Doul or Juli’s regular attacks, but intermediate level skills’ll pierce right through it.」

「And with the efficiency rate, it does feel a bit meh」

　(You think that’s “meh”?) thought Haruna to herself as she listened to Hiroshi and Mio’s conversation with a faraway look in her eyes. But in fact, absorbing 5,000 damage, once you got above a certain level, attack inflation increased by drastic numbers to where 5,000 became very “meh” indeed, at least in Fairy Tale. However, you only truly began to feel that way once you got into the realm of the shut-in player. Take Tatsuya for example, who was near the edge of the 200’s in level, only a few digits away.

　Besides, the weapon had more than excellent capabilities in terms of guaranteeing reduced damage, and for those like Hiroshi or Douga with fantastic defense, with all the other enchantments loaded onto the thing, 5,000 damage absorption was actually pretty crazy.

　In the first place, criticizing these numbers would completely end up ostracizing other popular, similar functioning intermediate defensive absorption spells.

「So, Hiroshi-kun……」

「Hm？」

「If I recall, when you get Absorb to proficiency 75 or so, if your Knowledge is around 300 then that’s how much defense gets added to your stats. And you still think it’s “meh”……」

「Yup, cuz its invocation rate is only 70%. A lil difficult to compare it with Absorb, which always activates.」

「And I do get that part, but when you consider how it activates without any cost or cooldown, isn’t it a little dismissive to call it “meh”?」

　Haruna, who could theoretically be seen as the “sanest” member of the group, interjected into Hiroshi and Mio’s conversation, which had completely dropped any sense of sanity. If Tatsuya and Makoto were here with her, they would have most definitely agreed. 

「My senses have been dulling recently, but I still think that Hiroshi-kun really lacks common sense when it comes to making things……」

「Whaaat? Such a horrible thing to say mate……」

「Well yeah, I bet if a level 1 beginner made a weapon that could easily take out stone ants and all that, people would be saying some stuff……」

「Nah, but level 1 players increasing their defense wouldn’t change their papier mâché stats.」

　Hiroshi’s products were always questionable, and recently he had been making more intermediate/advanced weapons, so Haruna didn’t question that aspect, but now that he had mana-modified the longsword that she had made, she was forced to once again recall that common sense did not apply to this man.

「Haru, Haru」

「Yes？」

「This is probably just a result of critical manufacturing, but still, you can make the basic form of said weapons, so you’re not any different from him, Haru.」

「You’re one to talk, Mio-chan, making all those weapons without even batting an eye……」

　Mio thrust the unavoidable truth before Haruna, who still managed to squeeze out a retort. Either way, any outsider would see all three of them as the same. More normal workshop members like Teres or Nora would undoubtedly give a firm agreement that Haruna couldn’t talk.

「So Haruna-san, seems like there are plenty of regular enchantments we don’t know round here. What exactly were normal enchanting crafters like？」

「One of the people I knew was very popular, and they said they were on the edge of intermediate. Also, it appears that all they could do was strengthen the performance of commonly known enchantments.」

「Ah～. Yeah, that’s cuz ya can’t git original enchantments to succeed until ya git into advanced. ‘N then if ya wanna level ‘em up ya gotta enchant ‘em durin’ the manufacturin’ process or apply ‘em to the treatment sequence. That way ya raise ‘em quicker. Yeah, I can see why they had trouble with it.」

「Is that so」

「It sure is mate. Actually, Haruna-san, yer boutta git into intermediate at the rate yer goin’.」

「Whaaa！？」

　Haruna exclaimed in pure amazement at what Hiroshi pointed out. However, come to think about it, this time they had practiced using enchantments from the refinement step and continued to use the applications of initial enchantments in both alchemy and potionmaking. If they were going along the lines of Hiroshi’s explanation, then there wasn’t a single reason why Haruna shouldn’t finally be getting into intermediate level.

「Well, it ain’t anythin’ too weird. Alchemy, enchanting, ‘n crafting have many applications in the manufacturin’ field, so it ain’t rare at all to find people who git to intermediate before learnin’ Making Mastery.」

「Really now」

「Yup yup. And then ya got Mio, who also got alchemy ‘n enchanting to intermediate first.」

　Haruna looked from Hiroshi over to Mio to confirm, and Mio affirmed it by nodding.

「Well, once ya git into intermediate, ya can restore an even wider assortment of enchantments from documents, so when we got time imma teach ya summa them.」

「Right」

「Now then, from tomorrow onward we have the stall ready to go, ‘n then we couldn’t give Makoto-san a proper birthday celebration with all the hustle ‘n bustle after the pre-celebration.」

「……Yeah, but the pre-celebration was already so magnificent that I dunno if we can top it.」

　Hopping onto the obvious change in subject, Haruna pointed out a potential issue. Sure, they were in a pinch that particular day, but they had still ended up celebrating Makoto’s pre-birthday with luxurious food and expensive beverages. Making the actual party celebration any more grandiose than that sounded like a very tiring process, which was a turn-off for her, but then again, it wasn’t like she wanted to not celebrate it.

「She said the same thing ‘erself, so this time around we drop the act ‘n just git sum new booze  ‘n food that Makoto-san likes to eat, ‘n then we’ll prolly end up washin’ down cake with sum tea.」

「Mm～、I really do feel sorry about this, but there aren’t any other options right？」

「Well, I do got pen, paper, every kind of screentone ‘n a printin’ press chillin’ over here, but I guess it’s up to her if she wanna use it, eh」

「Hiroshi-kun, when in the world did you get your hands on a printing press……」

　Either way, Hiroshi had apparently gotten all of that ready as if it were perfectly normal. Haruna just had a genuinely exasperated look on her face.

「Cuz with that ya can make doujinshi ‘n much more. By the way mate, it can also do offset printin’ ‘n book makin’ all on its own.」

「Sensei, that’s clearly skipping a few steps in the technological process」

「Eh, the peeps down below have basically the same gear, so don’tcha think it’s pretty normal？」

　Mio wasn’t exactly sure how to counter Hiroshi’s overqualified comparison with the abnormal people of the earth. True, their technology was completely isolated from the standards of the overworld residents, but at least they weren’t imitating something they shouldn’t even be able to make and then completing products that would make anyone nearly wet themselves in shock.

「Well, anyhoo. Now we gotta ask ‘er what she wants to eat tomorrow……」

「I’m back～」

「Oh. Speak of the devil, or however it goes, eh?」

　Makoto and Tatsuya got back at just the right time to find Hiroshi and the other two rather restless over the next day’s discussion. Neither of them could possibly know this, but anyhow, they showed up to the forge where everyone was.

「Bro, Makoto-san, welcome back」

「Sup my guy, glad to be back」

「Hello. Are you done with the weapons? Also, what’s for dinner？」

　Looking at the facial expressions of the student trio, Makoto gave a quick greeting before immediately jumping to what she was most concerned about.

「Weapons are done, mate. We’re gonna get to dinner in a minute here. Anything ya had in mind, Haruna-san？」