EP.123 The General Store Owner is a Treasure Goblin (2)
"Suhan, please...!! Take good care of it!! Be gentle with my baby, don't let it hurt."
"Sigh~ Alright, alright. I got it. Trust me and wait, you won't regret it."
Should I say it's like watching a family member enter the operating room?
It's not like unique equipment is alive to feel pain anyway.
Because of Rebecca's fuss, I felt like I needed to be extra careful with the enhancement.
I placed my hand on her head to comfort her as she looked clearly anxious.
"No one has ever regretted getting their weapon enhanced. So just relax and wait."
Honestly, I'm not sure if reaching +12 is possible in just two days.
I wondered if I should have asked for more time, but I decided not to start with a weak mindset.
The cost for reaching +12 is infinite.
Like Fran, I could stop at +11 for better cost-efficiency, but I wanted to get Rebecca to +12.
'Excluding what I need to keep for myself, the money I can spend on her...'
Checking my balance, I suddenly felt confident.
It seemed ridiculous to think I couldn't reach +12 with this much money.
'This should be more than enough. I wonder if she'll get too excited when she reaches +12?'
Suddenly, I remembered when Rebecca first wore high heels, and a strange thought crossed my mind.
Rebecca, who had felt too good from the sensation.
She's fine with them now, but I remember it took quite a while for her to get used to the comfort of high heels.
I couldn't help but chuckle imagining how Rebecca would react.
'Come to think of it, there are lots of things I promised to do for them that kept getting postponed.'
Shine, Ariane, Vine, and Fran got their enhancements first, but they still haven't had their bead enhancements done.
Rebecca was the only one who had her 5-star bead enhancement done, with only unique equipment enhancement remaining.
'Got to solve them one by one.'
Plus, there are still characters I've summoned but left neglected.
Gabriel.
A character whose performance makes them essential to develop, but I haven't even gotten familiar with them yet.
'Wait, isn't this supposed to be my healing time? Why do I keep thinking of things to do when I'm trying to rest?'
I don't owe anyone anything, so why do I feel so rushed?
As I was getting anxious about the mounting tasks, I grabbed what was making my mind confused and said,
"What's the meaning of this?"
I couldn't figure out what she was thinking.
Rebecca had thrown off her shoes and was wiggling her feet, brushing against my calves.
'Where did that girl who was crying over high heels go...'
I'm starting to think I shouldn't have comforted her.
Isn't this foot play clearly a gesture meant to appeal in that way?
When I glared at her, Rebecca winked seductively and replied,
"What~?"
"It tickles."
"Hmm, in this situation, is that all you have to say about it tickling?"
Rebecca's eyes turned sharp at my words.
"...."
I probably shouldn't ask what I should say in this situation, right?
Worried about being called impotent again, I decided to stop joking around.
When I let go of her foot, Rebecca moved her toes again.
This time even more seductively than before, she played with my calves.
'I'd be crazy to just sit still after being provoked like this.'
Before pouncing on her, I grabbed her ankle one more time.
And I licked her toes.
"Kyaah! You crazy bastard!"
Usually, high heels ruin feet.
But the unique equipment high heels I gave her actually made her feet look prettier.
Truth be told, Rebecca's feet were pretty to begin with.
She screamed, bent her knees to pull her feet away, and curled up into a ball.
With a bright red face, Rebecca glared at me and shouted,
"W-why did you lick that!!!"
"Isn't this what you wanted?"
"No it's not?! Who would want such perverted things!!"
"If you're going to provoke a pervert like me, you should have been prepared for this much."
I clicked my tongue at Rebecca's naivety.
"How could anyone think a normal person would lick feet!"
"Well, start thinking that way from now on. Since I do it."
"Huh...."
Rebecca was so shocked she could only gape with her mouth open.
"Every part of you from head to toe is delicious to me."
"Pervert."
"I'm the pervert you chose though."
When I responded so shamelessly, Rebecca seemed to have nothing more to say.
I moved closer to Rebecca and placed my hand on her thigh.
"How's the place where you were injured last time?"
When we went to catch the kidnapper, I couldn't pay attention to Rebecca because I was busy taking care of the others.
Rebecca wasn't very friendly either, probably because other people were around.
'I should have paid more attention though.'
While I wasn't paying attention, Rebecca got somewhat hurt.
How could we have known that bastard would use the seal on Rebecca of all people?
Unable to use her abilities, Rebecca had to carry out a more difficult suppression operation than others, and naturally got injured in various places.
The thigh where I placed my hand was where she had been injured then.
"That healed ages ago. As you can see, there's not even a scar."
The subject change seemed to work well as she answered, having calmed down a bit.
"Did you really just let it heal naturally without proper treatment after coming back here?"
At the time, Rebecca had insisted on letting her wounds heal naturally since Fran was already exhausted from treating the criminal.
In reality, for an Awakened, it was a shallow enough wound that natural healing would be sufficient.
But given the situation, I couldn't help but feel annoyed.
"It still doesn't make sense that the criminal got treatment while you couldn't."
I wanted to check if any scars remained.
And I didn't bother holding back that desire.
"I need to check if there really aren't any scars."
"Eek?"
After reducing her body weight, I lifted her up and moved her to the bed.
I planned to strip her clothes off completely and thoroughly check if there were any spots that hadn't healed yet.
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
"Ah... damn it."
Reality hits hard.
In the sleepless dawn.
Rebecca was sleeping soundly beside me, and I attempted enhancement using the power of moonlight.
Clang!
Flash!
[Failure]
'No!!'
Bang!!!
I slammed my fist on the table along with an instinctive "No!", something I did without thinking despite trying not to wake Rebecca.
After taking a deep breath to focus my mind, I start enhancement again.
Clang!
[Success]
'That's right.'
Clang!
[Success]
'Yeah!! Keep climbing up like this.'
Clang!!!
[Success]
'Level 9! Let's go!!! Time to climb higher!'
Claaang!
'This feels good, level 10!!!'
It keeps climbing.
The feeling was incredible.
I needed to ride this wave-like feeling and keep climbing up.
Claaang!
[Failure]
'Phew, there's still a chance. Don't give up.'
I slipped a bit, but I couldn't give up here.
If I lost this feeling now, I might never reach level 12.
"What are you doing?"
"Ah."
Clang!!
[Failure]
I lost the flow.
Rebecca, who had woken up, looked at my strange behavior with questioning eyes.
"I was doing enhancement."
"Already?"
"You think I asked for two days for nothing? Got to work hard."
"Is it really such a long and difficult process?"
Rebecca looks at me with concerned eyes.
She seems to have seriously misunderstood something.
"Well, it's hard to say if it's difficult or not - it's kind of ambiguous."
It was hard to explain since it wasn't so much physical exhaustion as it was mental drain.
"How do you do this enhancement thing? Can't I help?"
I asked for two days because I couldn't make Rebecca like Ariane, and getting help from her now would defeat that purpose.
"No, it's fine. I'm getting paid for this, so I shouldn't accept your help."
"Are we really keeping track of such things between us?"
"You kept track when you paid me, didn't you? So just leave it to me."
At the mention of money, Rebecca went quiet as a mouse.
"Tch."
"Get some more sleep. It's still dawn."
"I can't sleep without you."
"Alright. I'm coming."
The moonlight's energy felt like now was the perfect opportunity, but I didn't want to ignore Rebecca's whining.
Surely I could reach level 12 with two full days of attempts?
With that naive thought, I stopped the enhancement and got into bed beside Rebecca.
"...thinking about it now."
I think I should have kept pressing on then.
Two days, as promised to Rebecca, have passed.
"Hmm."
But Rebecca's unique equipment still showed no change.
There were times when it seemed to hold brilliant light, but to me, it looked hopeless.
The times without light lasted longer than the times with it.
"You're the first hopeless case I've ever seen."
Even Ariane had reached level 11 several times.
But this one...
What's level 12?
As if cursed, it kept failing at level 10.
Level 11?
Haven't even seen it.
"What's the problem here? Is it because it's not dawn?"
I didn't want to disappoint Rebecca, who was waiting with expectations, with news of failure.
"Sigh. Let's try to climb up this time? Last time, it's the last try, okay?"
I prepared for another climb.
Rebecca will be back from class soon.
Even if I couldn't reach level 12, I really wanted to at least see it reach level 11.
Clang!
[Success]
Clang!
[Success]
Clang!
[Success]
With three clean consecutive successes, the high heels reached level 7.
This level is always easy to reach.
Level 7 wasn't anything special to me to celebrate.
The problem is that once these high heels start slipping, they can fall all the way down to level 4.
'Is this about the same level as Ariane?'
The value had long since exceeded what Rebecca had paid me.
If Rebecca knew how much money had gone into these high heels, she'd be shocked.
Even if we melted gold to make high heels, it wouldn't cover the cost that went into this.
"Come on, climb up! You little thing. You've eaten enough already!"
Clang!
[Failure]
"Ah. Damn."
Maybe I shouldn't have called it names.
Clang!
[Success]
After a brief stumble, it's best to quickly shake off the failed result.
Taking a deep breath to compose myself, I start enhancement again.
The high heels, now at level 8, gather strength for another try.
Clang!
[Success]
Clang!!!
[Success]
With two quick enhancements, we finally reached level 10.
"Phew...."
My heart was pounding.
I don't understand why enhancement toys with people's hearts like this.
Knock knock!
"Suhan!"
"Ah..."
The complaint slipped out involuntarily as my flow was interrupted not once, but twice.
Then I decided to change my thinking.
"Perfect timing. Come here."
"Huh? How did it go? Did it work?"
"Hold my hand."
"???"
For the level 11 enhancement of the high heels.
I took her hand and pulled it toward the enhancement window.
Of course, Rebecca couldn't see the window I was looking at.
But since it was her equipment being enhanced, I hoped this would help somehow.
"You can't see it, but if this works, your precious high heels will start sparkling."
"Even when you explain it like that, I don't understand any of this?"
"Just pray."
"Pray?? Really pray??"
"Yes, you need to pray earnestly for your high heels. I'm not joking, I'm serious."
"Ah, okay. For my baby, there's nothing I won't do."
Rebecca gulped, squeezed my hand tight, and concentrated while moving her lips.
Seeing her eyes closed, she seemed to be praying seriously.
'She's cute.'
You crazy fool.
Is this the time to be distracted by a woman?
I need to focus.