CH 88

Chapter 88 – Upload

TL: This is the start of volume 3, the Otherworld Visitor Arc.

“Hmm… Hmmmm…”

At the moment, I was sitting on the bed in my room at the Fukuzawa residence, hemming and hawing to myself as I looked at the <Shop> screen.

“What is the matter, milord? You’ve been looking quite troubled for a while now.” (Shiki)

“Shiki… Well, yeah.” (Bouchi)

Shiki, the Familiar I had bought as a bodyguard, spoke to me in a concerned tone. He was normally lurking in my shadow, ready to protect me at any moment, but right now he was outside tending to his kunai and shurikens.

In the meantime, Sol, my other Familiar, was out patrolling the skies to gather information.

“Is it some new business idea?” (Shiki)

“So, it’s nothing like that. Right, didn’t I mention it before? About buying an uninhabited island and living a comfortable life there.” (Bouchi)

“Come to think of it, yes.” (Shiki)

“I have a lot of money now, and I was thinking that it was about time to get serious about moving out.” (Bouchi)

“In other words, you’re thinking of leaving here then? And that means buying an uninhabited island.” (Shiki)

“I’m still contemplating some things about the uninhabited island. Like… how big it should be and where it should be set up.” (Bouchi)

“I see. But it should be in Japan, shouldn’t it?” (Shiki)

“About that… I’m not too particular about it.” (Bouchi)

“On that note, I found something convenient… It was uploaded.” (Bouchi)

“Up…? What does that mean?” (Shiki)

“Actually, there’s an interesting thing about this <Shop> skill. Sometimes, new products that weren’t there before get uploaded to it. The most interesting of those is… this.” (Bouchi)

I gazed at the screen, unable to hide a smile on my face. The words written there were ‘Skill Seed’.

And the two that were for sale were none other than <Impact> and <Rotten Path>. Until now, there had been no column for Skill Seeds. But when I checked recently, I found that they had been uploaded as a new product.

“As expected of milord, you can even buy skills. This one is utterly impressed.” (Shiki)

“Well, it’s ridiculously expensive though.” (Bouchi)

<Impact> was ¥500,000,000. <Rotten Path> had an unbelievable price tag of ¥1.5 billion.

After looking into it more, <Impact> belonged in the common skill category, while <Rotten Path> belonged in the unique skill category. It was the same skill category as my <Shop> skill, so it made sense considering how expensive it was.

I would be happy to have more skills, but it wasn’t something I could afford right now. It might be something to consider buying when I had the funds for it though.

However, there were still only these two new items uploaded. From this, I figured that only the skills that I had seen with my own two eyes would be uploaded. After all, there were no new skills uploaded until just before clearing the dungeon the other day.

In other words, whenever I met someone with a skill, it would get uploaded. This was something I was really looking forward to in the future.

“So when milord was saying that you found something convenient, were you talking about the skills?” (Shiki)

“No, I was talking about this—a [Teleportation Crystal]. A telecrystal, for short.” (Bouchi)

“A telecrystal… I see.” (Shiki)

“Well, this is my first time making one.” (Bouchi)

“….I see.” (Shiki)

It sounded as if I’d had it for a while, so Shiki seemed to misunderstand. I didn’t want him to have the wrong idea, so I coughed my throat to clear the somewhat strange air.

“With this, no matter where you are, you can teleport there instantly as long as you’ve been there once… In other words, it makes instant travel possible.” (Bouchi)

“Wow, so no matter where milord sets up the uninhabited island, you can always come back to Japan if you want to do business.” (Shiki)

“That’s right. So all that remains is purchasing the uninhabited island itself and figuring out where to set it up, especially the location. If possible, it should be in a place with mild waves and climate, where there are no vicious monsters. We wouldn’t want the precious uninhabited island that we finally got our hands on to get destroyed, would we?” (Bouchi)

“Certainly. A life in a violent, stormy environment can be difficult.” (Shiki)

In that case, it might be good to go to the south…

“But if milord doesn’t want the environment to destroy the uninhabited island, why don’t you use the thing you got the other day?” (Shiki)

“The other day?” (Bouchi)

“Yes. The Dungeon Core.” (Shiki)

“…! The Core, huh?” (Bouchi)

“After dungeonization occurs, the dungeon won’t be destroyed unless the Core itself is destroyed. Even if there are some damaged places, they will be repaired given time. Even if the monsters die, they will respawn.” (Shiki)

“…That does sound convenient.” (Bouchi)

“Hmmm. It would have liked to sell it for ¥1 billion, but that sounds good too. Considering the safety of the base, it might be wiser to just use it.” (Bouchi)

Since the Core had a selling price of ¥1 billion, it was painful to just use it. But as Shiki said, it was hard to abandon the idea of using a dungeon as my base of operations.

“….Alright! I’ll go with your suggestion, Shiki.” (Bouchi)

“Is it really alright? This one was just voicing an opinion.” (Shiki)

“Hahah, it’s fine. Your thoughts are definitely correct. Even if we find a base, it’s pointless if it’s fragile. If it’s a dungeon, it doesn’t matter how extreme the environment is, right? Nice idea, Shiki.” (Bouchi)

“Thank you, milord. Then shall we?” (Shiki)

“Yeah. I have a rough idea on where we could set it up. Let’s head there now.” (Bouchi)

“What about Sol?” (Shiki)

“Ah, well she’s too far right now to reach by <Telepathy>. I sent her pretty far away to gather information. Well… I’ll let her know later.” (Bouchi)

“Understood. How are we going to head south, milord?” (Shiki)

“With what I mentioned earlier… this.” (Bouchi)

From the <Box>, I withdrew a diamond-shaped stone that had a sapphire gleam to it.

“Hmm? This…” (Shiki)

“—[Teleportation Crystal]. If I hold this in my hand and think of the place I want to go to…” (Bouchi)

I reached out and grabbed onto Shiki’s body as I said this.

“…and crush it.” (Bouchi)

As I said that, I gripped my hand and crushed the [Teleportation Crystal] in my hand. The view before my eyes changed, and in the next moment, I saw a vast, blue ocean spread before my eyes.

“T-This is…!?” (Shiki)

Shiki’s surprise was understandable, with the white sandy beach suddenly appearing below his feet and the precipitous cliffs before him.

“Surprised? This is Yonaguni Island in Okinawa.” (Bouchi)

“Y-Yonaguni?” (Shiki)

“It’s an island at the westernmost tip of Japan.” (Bouchi)

It was a solitary, distant island in the deep ocean around 90 minutes by plane from Naha and about 30 minutes from Ishigaki Island.

“When I was younger, my father took me here once. My father loved traveling, so he took me around a lot.” (Bouchi)

When I was little, I had been half-forced to go sightseeing to various places in Japan, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south. But it was never out of the country. My father was uncomfortable going to places where Japanese wasn’t the spoken language, so I never had the opportunity to leave the country.

“Well, because of that, I had the opportunity to come here, I guess.” (Bouchi)

“Huh… So this is Okinawa. It’s a hot place, just as rumored.” (Shiki)

Shiki let out an emotional sigh as he looked up at the sun shining brightly overhead.

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“Milord, what will you do next then?” (Shiki)

“This is where the newly uploaded product comes in. Let’s see… here it is.” (Bouchi)

The next thing I took out of the <Box> was…