EP.125 The General Store Owner is a Treasure Goblin (4)
"sigh Phew~"
It's been a while since I've come to the waterfall.
WHOOSH
I wonder if it has accumulated good energy during all this time?
Looking at the refreshing cascade of water makes my troubled mind feel clear and open.
"This feeling really is the best."
I don't think I can leave this place anymore.
I don't even want to try summoning anywhere else.
Standing still in front of this waterfall, I feel like invisible mystical energy is gathering.
"This is it. This is the spot."
After finishing my mental preparation, before officially starting, I looked at the new characters I hadn't summoned yet.
"Hmm."
Someday I'll summon characters I don't know about yet.
When that time comes, I need to create situations where I can help the kids in every scenario.
'I can't do it yet, but someday I'll have to make it happen.'
Well then, let's start seriously summoning characters after a long time.
I wet my dry lips and opened the shop window.
It was a moment that required desperate prayer.
Clap!
I clasped my hands together.
Just like when I steadily pressed enhance, this one will take quite a bit of time too.
After all, I was planning to spend an amount that would take a long time just to use up.
Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash!
Several beautiful shooting stars fell across the dark dawn sky.
Almost in a trance, I kept rolling the 10x gacha over and over and over again.
Whether getting bad results or good results, I keep pushing forward steadily without wavering.
Orbs start piling up in the item window.
They quickly surpass double digits and reach triple digits.
If I synthesize these orbs again and again, they'll become the stepping stones to make the kids 5-star.
"Haah..."
The moonlight disappeared and the dawn sun slowly rose.
I kept clicking summon while watching the moonlight fade away.
I make my final sprint in the cool, dewy dawn air.
While contentedly watching the orbs pile up, occasionally getting startled when an SSR pops up, checking the results and clicking my tongue, these actions repeated several times...
"Is this not bad?"
Finally, my spirit bomb reserves hit bottom.
Checking today's harvest and the drastically reduced remaining money, I gave a bitter smile.
"Easy come, easy go... it's all gone already."
Of course, since I went all out from midnight until sunrise, the word "already" might not be quite fitting.
Looking at the fully filled orbs makes me feel satisfied even without eating.
However, considering how much money I spent, the results weren't satisfactory, leaving me feeling empty.
No matter how much money you throw at it, without luck in this field, you can't get the results you want.
"I didn't expect this many duplicates."
Actually, it's not like I didn't get SSRs.
Since the spending unit changed, it wouldn't make sense not to get SSRs.
The question is whether I got results worth the investment.
This summoning session isn't bad considering the number of SSRs that came out.
But the reason I can't be purely happy is because there were too many duplicates.
"Duplicate...duplicate...duplicate...duplicate...duplicate...duplicate...."
This is probably because I've gradually accumulated quite a few SSRs.
At first, there were no duplicates because I hadn't summoned much, but now that I have quite a few SSRs, the chance of getting duplicates has increased.
"I've summoned 11 characters so far. 11 doesn't seem like that many."
Shine, Fran, Rebecca, Ariane, Vine, Gabriel, Solar, Gaon, Peter, Marsha, and Kahori.
There were still more characters left to summon than the number I had already summoned.
So in the end, this summoning session wasn't very good - that's the final verdict.
'In the past it would've been fine just making them 5-star, but now that we can create orbs to enhance 5-stars through synthesis...'
No matter how you look at it, duplicates can't be considered a good result.
Until now duplicates didn't matter, but with orb synthesis available, summoning new characters is overwhelmingly more beneficial.
But I can't really complain about the SSR duplicates because.
"At least they can be used for synthesis, so it's better than not getting any?"
It somewhat aligns with my intended goals.
"At this rate, I should be able to make all the kids 5-star?"
I've been continuously synthesizing since finishing the summons.
Seeing the SSR synthesis orbs pile up brings an automatic smile to my face.
And the 5 new SSRs from this summoning session.
As expected, when the amount spent changes units, tons of SSRs came out too.
First, the first SSR was a male character.
[ Name: Kento (SSR) ]
[ Grade: A-class ][ Skills:]
[ Stats: Power (B) HP (A) Agility (B) Magic (C) Charm (B) ]
Kento is a typical sword character, but there was no reason to raise him since he's inferior to Gabriel.
[ Name: Hathaway (SSR) ]
[ Grade: A-class ][ Skills:]
[ Stats: Power (C) HP (C) Agility (A) Magic (A) Charm (A) ]
Hathaway is an earth attribute character who can transform to create wings.
She was a good character to use in special fields since she can fight in the air.
She can summon a huge barrier to trap enemies inside, and enemies inside are stunned and unable to attack for 1 turn.
'I should raise Hathaway too. She'll be really useful when special fields come up.'
Of course, she's not tier 1 level.
But there were fields where Hathaway could show potential similar to tier 1, and she needed to be developed for those times.
Though she is an unfortunate character who gets put in storage after clearing those fields...
'This is reality after all.'
Unlike being stuck in storage, here she'll find her own place and contribute based on how much I develop her.
Especially the barrier skill, I think it's an ability that helps a lot in battle.
The third SSR was a non-student character after a long time.
[ Name: Erintina (SSR) ]
[ Grade: S-class ]
[ Skills: <4 Elements><Weapon enhancement><Spirit summoning>]
[ Stats: Power (B) HP (C) Agility (S) Magic (S) Charm (S) ]
Doesn't she look like a Tier 1 character right away?
She's also one of the more popular characters.
With her tall, slender figure and beautiful appearance.
Combined with her ability to use elemental magic attacks through spirits, you can probably guess right away which character model she's based on.
The remaining two SSRs are buried deep in storage, so I won't bother mentioning them.
Still, even SSRs with poor performance aren't completely useless.
'Even if I don't raise them, I can still sell exclusive equipment to the SSRs I've pulled.'
Just thinking about the money they'll bring in made me smile contentedly.
Like a savings account buried in the bank, they'll bring me a lump sum of money too.
And there was one thing I had to do to cash out that savings.
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
"I totally failed the written exam!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Whoa, Ariane. You startled me."
"I failed, I failed~! What do I dooo~!"
"That's why you should have studied when the teacher told you to."
"Don't comfort her. She's the type who says this but only got three wrong."
"...Is Ariane good at studying?"
"She's from a Duke's family, of course she is."
The written exam was already prepared for through advance studying before entering the academy.
Most noble families do it that way.
While practical skills are important too, they know that rankings are largely determined by the written exam.
"I'm so stressed. I need to eat something sweet."
"Something sweet? I want some too."
The exam stress made the girls especially crave sweets.
"We're almost done. Just hang in there a bit longer."
"Right, we just have the practical exam left."
The written exams were over, and only the practical exam remained.
For the students in this class, it was practically like being given time to run wild.
"It's not like we need to stress about preparing for the practical exam."
"Mm-hmm."
The girls smiled confidently, having no doubt they wouldn't fail the practical exam.
"By the way, what's everyone going to do after exams are over?"
It was time to start thinking about post-exam plans.
"We should go somewhere fun!"
"Yeah! Of course we should go somewhere!"
Everyone's eyes sparkled in unison as they talked about going out.
"What should we do for fun?"
Since classes would continue at the academy even after exams, they couldn't go anywhere too far.
"Let's ask the manager first. Ask him to come with us."
"Huh? The shopkeeper?"
"????"
Everyone was shocked by Ariane's sudden declaration.
But Ariane insisted they absolutely had to bring the manager along.
"How about going to a nearby valley for three days, Friday through Sunday?"
"A valley sounds nice."
"There's a small waterfall too. It's an hour away from here, and there's a villa. If I mention it, they'll prepare everything for us to enjoy our stay. Since it's private property, no one else will come in, so it's perfect for just us to have fun."
"But what's this about inviting the shopkeeper?"
"Don't you want the manager to come?"
"It's not that I don't want him to..."
"It would be nice if he comes. He's a good cook after all."
At Vine's words, everyone swallowed hard thinking about the shopkeeper's cooking.
"Even if he says no, I'm definitely bringing him along."
Ariane's eyes flashed dangerously.
"Could it be..."
Shine looked at Ariane with concern and carefully asked.
In fact, Fran was also looking at Ariane with suspicious eyes.
"Do you have feelings for the shopkeeper?"
Otherwise, trying to bring an acquainted shopkeeper on a trip wouldn't make sense.
"I hesitate to say this to a friend, but I'm second in line."
As Fran was firmly staking her claim, Ariane jumped up from her seat and exclaimed.
"That's not it! We need to bring the shopkeeper so he can do enhancements!"
"Ah!"
"Wow~ Such deep meaning...!?"
That was it.
The reason Ariane wanted to bring the manager to the villa.
It was all about enhancements.
"I'm going to monopolize the manager for three days straight and ask him to do enhancements."
"With his personality, would he really do that quietly? I feel like he'll refuse later saying it's troublesome."
"Won't he do it if we keep pestering him?"
"Hmm...true, the shopkeeper always gives in when we pester him."
When we say we're hungry he cooks for us, he finds and sells us good items, and he even enhances the items he sold us with his enhancement ability.
"Come to think of it, the shopkeeper has done so much for us."
"But we haven't really done anything for the manager."
Sure, we paid him money.
But can the help he's given us really be compensated with just a few coins?
"Suddenly feeling really guilty, or is it just me?"
"Me too."
"The shopkeeper is also my lifesaver."
"What? How did that shopkeeper end up being your lifesaver?"
The atmosphere became particularly solemn when Fran added her comment.
"...Asking him to do it all day might be too much. I should just keep him for a few hours."
Ariane seemed to be reflecting on it too.
"Since it's come to this, let's invite the shopkeeper and treat him well! How about it?"
"Yes!"
"Yeah!"
"But is it okay to ask him to cook for us too?"
"No, before that, will the manager even agree to come? We need to convince him first."
All the students became gloomy.
They needed to persuade him, but they weren't confident they could succeed.