Chapter 57: Forest Wave First (5): Blue-Green Crystal

The soul of “Torquetum” had drifted off into space.

Seeing this, Bid-san and Hoss-san looked at me in exasperation.

“Wof. You went overboard.”
“This is a bit too much, honestly.”
“I’m sorry.”

I really piled it on too much.
Actually, I’ve still got about two more things, but I’ll save those for when they come back.

It took a few minutes for “Torquetum” to return from the far reaches of space.

“…You, honestly.”
“That was too much. That was way too much!”
“…There are things you should do… and things you shouldn’t…”
“I’m really sorry.”

I dropped to my knees and apologized to the angry girls.
I truly felt bad.

Pakira sighed and looked at the blue-green glowing crystal chunk placed on the table.
She picked it up, examined it closely, and set it back down.
Lupinas and Liv did the same.

“A Blue-Green Crystal.”
“It’s a Blue-Green Crystal.”
“Blue-Green Crystal… yeah.”

It was indeed a Blue-Green Crystal.

“Where on earth did you get this?”
“From the Full Moon Bazaar? No… but this isn’t something you can get for just any price.”
“…A rare find… maybe…”
“That came from a fish.”

Bid-san gave a wry smile.

“What?”
“Huh?”
“Um, I received it as a reward from a Class I Explorer, Gymnema.”
“…It really was… a fish…”
“That fish-headed one?”
“Why did that guy even have this?”
“I honestly don’t know that much.”
“Hm. Even a fish can be Class I, huh?”
“What an unexpected way to obtain it… truly.”

“Also, this is for you, Lupinas.”

I took out something like a black plate and handed it to her.

“What is this?”
“It’s a Relic Plate I was entrusted with by Haiyaan.”
“A Relic Plate… you say?”
“Yes. If you use it, you’ll obtain the relic [Battle Cry].”

Lupinas took the plate.

“So that’s a Relic Plate.”
“Haven’t seen one since back then.”

I see—Hoss had seen one before.

“…[Battle Cry], huh.”
“What kind of relic is it?”
“It’s made from samples of shouts everyone collected.”

Hearing that, Lupinas suddenly remembered.

“Oh right. It was a relic that provokes enemies and draws their hostility, wasn’t it? A must-have for tanks.”
“Now that you mention it, yeah. The sample collection.”
“The one where we gathered voices.”
“…Lupinas’s shout…”
“Please forget that!”

[Battle Cry]—a relic created in a lab from samples of various monster cries.

That was the day before we left Heizen.
Haiyaan asked me to give it to Lupinas.

I remember that rabbit saying, “Now we can hear Lupinas-san’s unrestrained screams.”
So I hung him up for it.

“Thank you, I’ll gladly accept it. Then, I’ll use it right away—‘Activate.’”

The Relic Plate vanished instantly.

“Ah, your soul vessel—”
“It’s fine. I know the capacity of my soul vessel. So this is [Battle Cry]… I see.”
“Well? Think you can use it?”
“It’s worth trying.”
“…Now then, the problem is this. Whether we can buy it.”

The three of them stared at the Blue-Green Crystal.

“…First, we need to check its market value.”

It seemed like they were planning to buy it.

Personally, they’ve helped me a lot, and we’re close, so I wouldn’t mind just giving it to them for free.

But if I did that, I feel like they’d all get mad.
Even among close friends, manners matter.

Money, though… hmm. Oh, right.

“By the way, do you have other crystals?”

“Other, as in Red, Blue, Green, Blue-Red, or Red-Green?”

“Do you have them? I actually need Red, Blue-Red, and Red-Green.”

A barter trade. I absolutely need those three types.

The three of them looked at each other and checked their pouches.

“I’ve got three Reds, two Blue-Reds, and one Red-Green.”
“I have two Reds, one Blue-Red, and four Red-Greens.”
“…Heh… Liv has… zero.”

Why the smug face?

“Liv, didn’t I tell you to save some?”
“If you don’t spend money quickly, you’ll die, you know.”
“Why do you have zero? You had quite a lot.”
“…If you use it… it disappears… that’s truth.”
“That’s why I told you to plan ahead!”
“We’re reinstating the allowance system.”
“…No way…”

Liv slumped.

“She’s still reckless with money.”
“Hard to argue with that.”

“So, will you trade with just what you have?”

“With numbers like this?”
“It’s not worth it.”
“…This isn’t an equal exchange…”
“Yeah, no way.”

I got completely shut down.

“But hey, value differs from person to person.”

“Hoss…”

My savior. Much appreciated.

“If Woof says that’s enough, then I think it’s fine. And if you’re still unsure, treat it as an advance payment.”

“…Hmm.”
“That makes sense.”

The mood changed. Thank you, Hoss.

Lupinas asked:

“By the way, what are you using them for?”
“They’re conditions to use a restriction-type relic.”
“A restriction relic—you have one?”
“Yes.”

Restriction Relic [Dimension Crack].

Effect: Vibrates and tears space-time.

Usage Conditions:
[Vibration]
Red Crystal
Blue-Red Crystal
Red-Green Crystal

Uses: 6 times.
Each use consumes one of each crystal.
Once used up, [Dimension Crack] disappears.

Because of this limitation, I can’t use it carelessly.
Each use consumes three crystals total.

Terrible efficiency… but that probably means it’s extremely powerful.

It’ll definitely be a trump card for the current dungeon anomaly.

But spiders… spiders move in swarms.
I’ve had a terrible experience with them once.

“Using crystals to activate it—that’s surprising.”
“Do you mine crystals in the great forest?”
“No, from monsters. Some monsters drop crystals. For Red, Blue, and Green, you hunt Earth Spirit Warriors.”
“Blue-Red and Red-Green come from Crystal Beasts—wolves, deer, boars, cows, bears made of crystal. But what drops is random.”

So it’s basically gacha.

Why are crystal types always gacha…

“The exception is the Blue-Green Crystal. It only drops from the High Crystal Gacha Rock Turtle, and the drop rate is insanely low.”
“…The drop rate… way too harsh…”
“We’ve been hunting for so long and still haven’t seen one.”
“And it’s incredibly tough. Without my restriction relic, I couldn’t defeat it.”

That sounds like that map-wide weapon.

“It’s that tough?!”

Also, is it really okay to use something like that in a forest?

“High Crystal Gacha Rock Turtle… brings back memories.”

Hoss nodded nostalgically.

“So, will you trade it with me?”

“Well… trading for just this amount…”
“Yeah, it’s not quite enough.”

“Actually… I need 18 in total. Six of each type.”

Exactly enough to use them all.

Lupinas looked disheartened.

“We’re nowhere near enough.”
“Then we’ll earn them in Forest Wave.”
“…Crystal Beast hunting…”
“But in First, Crystal Beasts don’t appear.”
“Really?”
“First has goblins and orcs.”
“Then Second?”
“Yeah.”

Either way, that’s where we’ll go.

“Torquetum” looked fully motivated to hunt.

“Oh, one last thing I forgot to mention.”

“What, there’s more?”
“What is it?”
“…Prepared… mentally…”

“Actually, we found Haiyaan’s original body.”

I almost forgot to mention it.

The three of them froze, staring at me.

“…Hm?”
“His original body?”
“…His… body…”

Their reaction was surprisingly weak.

It felt like my big reveal totally flopped.

Curse you, rabbit.