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Path to Prosperity - B1 Chapter 16
🕑 Added 2024-06-29 12:05:17 +0000 UTCReceptionist Olivia stared at the youth opposite the counter, her lips parting and closing repetitively. She had so much to say, but not a single word escaped her lips.
In the meantime, Percy smiled brightly at her. His vibrant smile was a huge contrast to his appearance. His clothes were drenched in blood and sweat, his entire body was riddled with tiny cuts, and he didn’t look well overall, either. Percy was evidently exhausted and in pain, yet he smiled vibrantly at Olivia, sliding a small parchment across the counter.
“I hope I’m not too late. I know we should accept missions before going into the wild, but it shouldn’t matter whether I hunt first before accepting guild missions, right?”
The parchment was a guild mission, and the description was rather simple. The quest giver requested the death of five Berserk Rabbits. They asked for the Berserk Rabbits’ ears to prove the kills. They were of no value and thus not relevant to Percy.
Olivia took a few seconds to respond to Percy. One of her coworkers nudged Olivia in the back, and she squealed in surprise. Olivia’s ears flushed, and she was having difficulty maintaining her composure, yet she somehow did it
“If you do not care about the experience guild missions provide, it doesn’t matter. However, the whole purpose of accepting guild missions is money and the additional experience.”
Percy didn’t understand the experience system and how guild missions were supposed to improve his Tier, but the same applied to his Ego. His Ego used Prosperity to upgrade his Tier somehow. Maybe the Guild learned how to reproduce a similar principle with guild missions.
“Okay, but that means I can accept and complete this quest…” He points at the parchment before rushing back to the wall of missions – as fast as his pained and exhausted body allowed him to move. Percy returned with another parchment, a request to hunt three Berserk Rabbits, “And this mission.”
Olivia looked at the pieces of parchment before her attention drifted to Percy, who was about to retrieve the Berserk Rabbits from his large bag.
“Their ears are enough. We don’t need their bodies, or do you want to sell them to the Guild?”
Percy pulled the Berserk Rabbits back and unsheathed his dagger after ensuring he was allowed. Olivia gestured to him to proceed. She wasn’t too worried about getting jumped at.
“I would like to keep the corpses. Merchant Erdwin offered me a decent price yesterday,” He said quietly while getting started.
Percy unsheathed the dagger and worked swiftly. He severed the monsters’ ears and put them on a piece of cloth, which Olivia had retrieved. Olivia counted them and nodded.
“Usually, we would have to confirm a few things: Usually your Bronze Guild Emblem updates your mission progress and confirms your contribution in the hunt,” Olivia explained before looking at Percy’s rough appearance, “But you clearly had a ‘fun’ time with some rabbits. That’s for sure.”
She smiled at Percy, who could only curse quietly, “It would have been great if the Berserk Rabbits had been my only problem.”
“What?”
“Nothing important. Don’t mind me,” Percy responded with a smile.
Olivia didn’t inquire any further. She retrieved ten copper coins and slid them over to Percy, “You picked the missions with the lowest reward. We have a plague of Berserk Rabbits this year, so you might not find many profitable missions related to them. But don’t be dissatisfied. You can still earn a small fortune from selling their corpses. They’re still worth a fair bit.”
Percy pocketed the copper with a smile, “I know. I’m not dissatisfied.”
But he was curious.
“How extensive is the plague of Berserk Rabbits? I encountered the pack of eight Berserk Rabbits quite quickly but didn’t see any other Berserk Rabbits on my way.”
Yesterday, the Berserk Rabbits pack wasn’t big, either. Is there really a –...
“We hired some Adventurers to focus on their dens specifically. They kill more than a hundred Berserk Rabbits every day, which is still not enough to contain all of them,” Olivia explained before Percy could finish his thoughts.
“Oh…”
That was good to know. Maybe he had to prepare better for potential encounters with packs of dozens of Berserk Rabbits.
“Thank you for telling me,” Percy thanked Olivia. He sheathed the dagger once he realized that it still rested in his hand and turned around to leave the Guildhall. “Have a nice day. See you tomorrow, or maybe later today. I might come back to read some more.”
He left the Guildhall after that and headed to Butcher Kevin.
Meanwhile, Tom, the male receptionist from before, appeared next to Olivia, “Do you want to bet that he did not only fight Berserk Rabbits?”
“Did you see his dagger? It was drenched in blood and cracked. Fighting a bunch of Berserk Rabbits doesn’t create such cracks.”
Tom nodded, “At first, I was surprised to see a kid like him with such a good dagger, but it’s already broken. What a shame.”
“Stop talking like that, “Olivia said sternly, studying Tom briefly.
“What? He is a fun kid. A lot more than I expected from his kind.”
“Your prejudices and betting addiction will kill you,” Olivia sighed deeply.
“Is that an invitation to a bet?” Tom winked.
“Scram.”
**
Butcher Kevin was busy with other jobs but promised to preserve the Berserk Rabbits and finish them in a few hours. He couldn’t promise anything but said he should be done by afternoon. Percy wasn’t in a hurry and left with a smile.
He returned to the inn, ready to change clothes and relax a little when Bertha found him. She cursed him quietly for looking like a mud-wallowing pig and urged him to use the well in the backyard to clean up before coming inside.
That was what Percy did. He cleaned up properly before changing into his other set of clothes. His attention was drawn to a subtle change in the interface.
[Set of Clothes(Linen)– Low Quality– 0 Prosperity]
The quality of his linen clothes deteriorated from average quality to low quality. That was interesting and unexpected.
Why did the quality decrease? The clothes are damaged and drenched in blood like the iron dagger, but its quality deteriorated. Shouldn’t there be a Damaged tag as well?
Percy was confused, but he had a theory. He searched Bertha and showed her both the iron dagger and the blood-drenched linen clothes.
“I know you’re no expert, but do you think I can repair the dagger and the clothes?”
He cleaned the dagger at the well so the faint cracks in the blade were visible. Bertha was busy cleaning the inn but put the cleaning rug aside to study the dagger. She nodded slowly while appraising the weapon and smiled.
“The dagger shouldn’t be a problem. As long as you don’t try to hack through any fortified bones, it won’t break. Repairing might be worth it, but you might as well purchase a new dagger and sharpen it properly instead. I’m not sure if it’s worth it,” Bertha shrugged lightly before scowling at the clothes, “Don’t even try to get this much blood out of linen clothes. You’re better off purchasing new clothes. Linen clothes of that quality tear too easily, and their properties change once they are soaked in blood. I doubt it’s necessary to go into detail, but blood-soaked linen clothes will fall apart after a few days and smell awful.”
Percy thanked Bertha for sharing her opinion. He retrieved his dagger and returned to his room.
The dagger can be fixed without losing quality, but the clothes will be permanently damaged. Thus, the quality will decrease. That makes sense.
It was annoying, but he would have to purchase new linen clothes once every few days.
“Maybe I should buy clothes made from better materials soon. Or a proper armor…when I have more money,” Percy mumbled, his eyes drifting to the iron dagger. He put it on his bed and studied its interface for a while.
Do I need a new dagger? This one won’t survive another fight with monsters like the Hill Hog mother. And that was just a Common Monster like the Berserk Rabbits. It won’t break against Berserk Rabbits, but how can I fight with everything I’ve got if I cannot even rely on my weapon? I’m putting my life on the line…
But even if Percy needed a dagger, it wouldn’t be enough to purchase an iron dagger like the one on his bed. It was not durable enough even though Percy had used 30 Prosperity to upgrade it.
I guess the blade didn’t break because of the upgrade. An ordinary iron dagger would have shattered mid-battle.
Thinking about his Ego and the dagger’s upgrade, Percy used [Consume] on Prosperity.
I don’t have much money on my hands, but what about my Prosperity? There is a…bit…
The iron dagger before him was already stronger than an ordinary iron dagger, but was it possible to go even further? Percy focused intently on the silverish-golden threads around him and noticed a subtle change.
The silverish-golden threads separated from him and connected to the interfaces all around him. The other end connected to the iron dagger, his leather bag, the leather pouch, and his clothes remained, but some interfaces changed as the silverish-golden threads merged into them.
Iron Dagger
Damaged/Average Quality
36(76) Prosperity
What’s the use of this cha–...Ohh..
Something new formed in the interface. Something was added.
Iron Dagger
Damaged/Average Quality
36(76) Prosperity
~[Reinforce]~, ~[Sharpness]~
The words [Reinforce] and [Sharpness] appeared in the interface but were barely visible and crossed out. But despite being barely visible, Percy noticed something particular right away.
[Sharpness]’s glow is stronger.
Percy first thought the words were related to enchantments because he saw an image of an Artifact’s interface drawn in one of the books Olivia had given him to read. However, all Percy could recall about Artifacts was that they had special effects, which were added through Runic Enchantments. They were infused with mana to create these special effects.
His knowledge wasn’t anything special, but it was weird that the words were crossed out and Sharpness was brighter than Reinforce.
Following his gut feeling, Percy stopped using [Consume] for a second to affirm one of many theories.
[Iron Dagger – Damaged/Average Quality – 36(76) Prosperity]
“The interface changes only when I use [Consume] on Prosperity. So it’s related…like I guessed,” Percy smiled and used [Consume] on Prosperity again. This time, he didn’t waste any time and willed his Ego to use Prosperity on [Reinforce]
[Iron Dagger’s Durability improved. 20 Prosperity has been deducted.]
Percy nodded slowly, his hair standing up to its end while inspecting everything around him, the interfaces and the iron dagger. The gray crossed-out area of [Reinforce] glimmered weakly, but the glow was more apparent, and it was more visible. It gained color after 20 Prosperity was added to improve the dagger’s durability. That was what Percy had been hoping for.
He used more Prosperity.
[Iron Dagger’s Durability improved. 30 Prosperity has been deducted.]
[Reinforce]’s lit up. It glowed brighter than [Sharpness] after using Prosperity for the second time. Simultaneously, Percy felt a subtle change in the iron dagger’s appearance. It wasn’t much, but the metal was slightly darker than before.
Percy licked his lips and let his mana stir. The mana within him surged to his weapon, which began glowing and vibrating like in the battle against the Hill Hog. However, this time, the vibration didn’t seem to inflict any damage to the iron dagger.
The mana conductivity shouldn’t have improved from increasing the durability. If anything, the iron dagger can endure the meager amount of mana I’ve infused better than before, thanks to the durability enhancement. It’s sturdier than it used to be when it was still undamaged.
Percy flashed a smile at the iron dagger and chose to go one step further.
Maybe…
[Iron Dagger’s Durability improved. 49 Prosperity has been deducted.]
Or not
The iron dagger’s color darkened again, but the change he had hoped for didn’t appear. He expected something to change about [Reinforce] after infusing 100 Prosperity into it…but it didn’t work like that. Percy tried using more Prosperity on [Reinforce], yet not a single Prosperity was drained. It didn’t work.
The [Reinforce] tag was still crossed out, but the dagger was sturdier than before – sturdier than any iron dagger Percy had seen in his short life. The tag glowed brightly as well.
Is that the limit?
It was a little disappointing, yet not really. Percy knew he shouldn’t feel dissatisfied and disappointed. If anything, he should be happy.
With that in mind, Percy also tried using Prosperity on [Sharpness].
[Iron Dagger’s Blade has been enhanced. 69 Prosperity has been deducted.]
[Sharpness] stayed crossed out like [Reinforce], but both tags were clearly visible and glowed faintly.
Only 99 Prosperity could be used on each of the tags… 100 Prosperity is a threshold for the iron dagger… It’s something an iron dagger of average quality cannot cross. No. I don’t know if it’s because of the quality, material…or maybe both?
Percy was curious about the answer, but he knew it would remain uncertain. That was fine. Percy made a mental note for later and smiled at the iron dagger after releasing his control of [Consume].
[Iron Dagger – Average Quality – 184(216) Prosperity]
He noted the disappearance of ‘Damaged’ but also that two different numbers were still added to Prosperity.
The dagger is not in perfect shape, but was using Prosperity to enhance the dagger’s durability enough to remove the Damaged label? Or rather, the damage is still there, but it doesn’t affect the dagger much. The damage is not extensive enough to label it damaged anymore…
Percy predicted that the dagger’s foundation was strengthened alongside the rest of the weapon through increased durability. That didn’t mend the damage inflicted on the blade but made it considerably more challenging to destroy the blade. That was…better than expected, even if it drained most of his Prosperity reserves.
I won’t have to replace the iron dagger, so I made a profit. Hunting another Hill Hog with this blade will be much easier.
He improved his dagger and learned new things about his Ego’s abilities and limits. That was more than he could have hoped for. It didn’t cost much either. Still, he was curious about the crossed-out tags of the iron dagger. It tormented his mind.
I cannot use more Prosperity to the dagger. Does that mean Enchantments are too taxing to be added to the iron dagger, and the Ego doesn’t allow me to add the runic enchantments because of that limitation…or do I have too little Prosperity to complete the final step and add a runic enchantment? Maybe 100 is a threshold, but what if…
Percy was deep in thought. He figured from the goods in Erdwin’s shop that Artifacts were worth a fortune. Maybe his Prosperity was the only reason he couldn’t add a runic enchantment on the iron dagger.
Or, which would be a shame that his Ego couldn’t add runic enchantments.
“But if that’s the case, it wouldn’t show me the option…right?”
Percy had a lot to mull over, but he knew there was no conclusion.
He learned a lot today, but his understanding of the Coin of Prosperity and [Consume] was too low.
One step at a time. I’m not in a rush. Calm down and…
His stomach grumbled.
…eat something!
