Shujinkou Janai! - Ch 12

[Ahh. So, in other words, even though you won a lot after gambling like an idiot, you let yourself get carried away and used up all of your money for a bunch of prizes?]

[……Well, that’s about right.]

Persistently persuaded through the door, I ended up listening to Rex’s story.

Well, it was so complicated that I didn’t really understand the details, but I could guess the gist of what he was saying.

[That’s why, could you lend me some money? I’ll pay you right back.]

Rex said this with a serious expression on her face, but frankly speaking, because of this one incident, my trust in Rex fell to zero.

I don’t care how good of an adventurer he is, I won’t trust him with anything related to money.

[Hey. I wonder if you’d seriously pay me back.]

[Of course. Have I ever lied to you?]

[No, but even I won’t be lied to by an old man I just met yesterday.]

The fact that he repeatedly reminds me of this also makes him suspicious.

[I just had a target in mind before. If you want, I can come back tonight to return it.]

[I hope you’re not going to gamble them away again.]

I’m feeling scared if gambling was a normal thing for this guy.

What’s even scarier is that I can imagine him both losing all the money I lent him and winning a lot of money back from a mere 1000 wen.

Letting out a sigh, Rex looked at me, who seemed to have no faith in him……

[I didn’t mean to show you lot much, but I guess you leave me no choice. If you don’t trust me with the money, how about you follow me?]

[Eh?]

I was surprised at his sudden suggestion, but this Hero just grinned.

[————-I’m gonna show you real alchemy.]

※　※　※

[Geez, I wonder what you’re up to now.]

I was a little disgusted with myself for actually following him with such words.

While I grumble my complaints, I’m also somewhat excited to see what this man will do next.

[We’re here.]

[……Eh?]

I couldn’t help but let out a doltish voice.

After all, the place we went to was somewhere I had been training just a few minutes before……

[The Adventurers’ Guild?]

What does he plan to do in a place like this?

As I had such a question in my mind, Rex went to the reception desk and handed the 1000 wen he borrowed from me.

[You just used the 1000 wen here. What the heck are you even going to do here?]

[I just told you earlier, didn’t I? I’m going to do Alchemy.]

Rex said, before heading to the back of the guild.

[That is…… an Alchemy Pot?]

I followed him to a huge cauldron.

In addition to the training grounds, the guild also has facilities open to the public for use by Adventurers of various professions, which can be used temporarily by paying money at the guild.

One such facility is this Alchemy Pot.

The Alchemy Pot is a facility for Alchemists, and I knew that when you combine multiple items and pour magic power into it, you can synthesize them into a different item.

[Old man, you can also do Alchemy!?]

[I’ve only dabbled in it.]

As he spoke, Rex held up his hand over a metal tray in the room and dropped two daggers on it.

[W- What the heck are those?]

Knives with an eerie design, clad in a red aura.

No matter how I look at it, those two definitely aren’t ordinary equipment.

[They’re the prizes from the casino I just told you about. They’re called <Goblin Slaughter>. It’s a fail drop of an equipment that comes out of treasure chests in dungeons, mainly from mid or late-game dungeons.]

[Heehhh……]

[I’ll say this now, but even though I said it’s a fail drop, these are still Magic Weapons. This thing has more than 5 times the attack power than your sword.]

[F- Five times……]

I can’t help but exclaim.

That being said, I can see that the knives on the tray are amazing.

[C- Can I touch it?]

[Sure, but I wouldn’t recommend it.]

[Why not?]

At my words, Rex looked as if he just heard something really troublesome, and taking out a pen and paper from his inventory, he started writing something down.

【Goblin Slaughter】

A knife made of Orichalcon, made by a man who gave up being an Adventurer after being defeated by Goblins in the past.

Due to a curse against Goblins, damage to Goblins is tripled and damage to other races is reduced to one-third.

Also, Goblins injured by this knife have their abilities permanently reduced by 10% (Inflicts only once during battle).

Because of its strong curse, this knife can’t be unequipped once equipped.

[No, how much does he want to kill Goblins!!!?]

I exclaimed as I read the description.

The guy who made this thing’s desire to kill Goblins is too high.

[I mean, this really is a freaking fail item!!!]

Goblins are the weakest monster, and of course, there are stronger subspecies of them, but even their strength isn’t that high.

Above all, that damage reduction against Non-Goblins to one-third is too painful.

If they can’t even switch equipment due to the curse, they will be fighting at a much greater disadvantage.

Even if that thing has five times as much attack as my current equipment, I would never want to equip that.

[Just because he lost to a Goblin a long time ago, he had seriously started to detest Goblins. What’s the point of all that if it’s just to reduce a Goblin’s abilities by 10%?]

At the very least, a Movement Inhibitor-type ability would have been useful, but having this ability is nothing short of harassment.

[Don’t look down on that debuff ability though. Look, you can equip two of them. If you use two knives, that would be a 19% ability debuff.]

[No matter how I look at it though, it would just be faster to kill them.]

When I astoundedly said this, Rex only laughed, saying “You’re not wrong”.

[Well, only Goblins appear in the <Goblin Cave> west of Rikushia, so you can use it if you wanna hole yourself up there. The <Sage’s Staff> you can get at the far end of that cave is a rather useful item, and is a useful item in the early game.]

As he made such a follow-up, the expression on Rex’s face changed.

[It’s just, well…… The main issue is what I’m gonna do here.]

Then, he picked up the tray on which the knives were placed and without hesitation, he threw the knives into the Alchemy Pot.

[O- Oi!?]

I hurriedly tried to stop him.

The Alchemy Pot is only for synthesizing items.

It’s supposed to be used to make Healing Potions or to add effects to existing Potions.

[Well, just watch.]

As I felt as if something outrageous was about to happen, his movements without hesitation in it sent a shiver down my spine.

[No way……]

I’d never heard of the Alchemy Pot being able to synthesize equipment.

If such a thing is actually possible, the world’s common sense, the history, will change.

While I watched with bated breath, Rex held his hand over the Alchemy Pot and sent his magic power.

The Alchemy Pot then vibrates……

[Weapons really could be synthesized……]

Hearing me mutter those words, Rex suddenly chuckled……

[No, of course, that’s not possible.]

[Ehh?]

With a poof, black smoke billowed out of the cauldron.

At that moment, the two words “Synthesization Failure” popped into my mind.

If your Alchemy Skill isn’t good enough or if the materials you put in are wrong, the Alchemy will fail and there will be nothing left but the trash left over by the alchemical materials.

Moved by my tremendous premonition, I rushed to the cauldron.

[T- The knives……]

I hurriedly looked into the cauldron, but I couldn’t see the silhouette of a knife at all……

There was that ill-shaped hunk of metal that bore no resemblance to the knives though.

[O- O- Oi! They just turned into scrap iron!]

No matter how much of a fail weapon that is, this is just cruel!

When I reflexively snapped towards Rex, he responded.

[Scrap iron? Where in the world are your eyes looking at?]

[Eh?]

Maintaining a relaxed attitude, Rex picked up that “lump” and wiped its surface.

That lump, which had had the black soot around it removed, was glowing with a mysterious radiance that was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

※　※　※

[T- Thank you very much.]

With the weapon shop old man’s rather frightening voice calling from behind us, Rex and I moved forward at a brisk pace.

After he did that, Rex took one knife after another from his inventory and repeated the same process.

After he finished doing whatever that is, he then hurried to the weapon shop and offered the owner, who was about to close his store, the failed results of synthesizing the knives, “Orichalcon Lumps”.

Although it had not been processed in any way, Orichalcon is a rare metal whose value easily exceeds Gold.

That ill-shapen hunk of metal, the ruin of what once was an Orichalchon Knife, could be sold for a whopping five million wen each.

While my eyes widened at the ridiculous amount of money being exchanged, Rex sold the Orichalcon Lumps without hesitation.

The total amount was already over 100 million wen, although the shopkeeper finally cried out after the 22nd piece was sold.

The sight of all that happening makes me feel crazy.

(W- What the heck was that? This guy has been penniless until a moment ago, begging me for a mere 1000 wen. This is, this is just……)

As I left the store, my head still over the clouds from that unrealistic transaction that had just taken place before my eyes, Rex abruptly stopped.

[Ahh, that’s right.]

Then, Rex, who was walking in front of me, tossed something toward me.

“”

I reflexively accepted it and found it to be a 100,000 wen Gold coin.

When I realized that it was a hundred times more than the 1000 wen I had lent him earlier, I hurriedly called out to him.

[Look, I promised you, didn’t I?]

Saying this with a grin, Rex walked away in a good mood without looking back this time.

As I looked at his back, as he seemed to be really happy with the day’s events…..

[……That doesn’t look like Alchemy at all.]

I couldn’t help but murmur helplessly to myself.