Volume 6 - CH 1.10

And then I will have to deliver Roxanne and Sherry to Palmasque so that they could buy another mirror or two.

「Sherry, what is the next thing on your list now that you managed to create a Club?」

「A Wood Stick. I am going to need two planks in order to make it.」

「A Wood Stick…… so something like a cane, I assume? Is it any different from my Wand?」

I asked as I passed the needed amount of planks to Sherry.

「Wands strengthen the power of magic that the person holding it is using. On the other hand, stick-type weapons can be used to beat up monsters, as well as strengthen the power of magic for a bit. Miss Roxanne said to me a while ago that Priests and Shrine Maidens tend to use that kind of weaponry if they are in a vanguard position.

「Ah, so it is useful for both combat and magic strengthening. Got you.」

The price of the sticks was about the same as the price of Wands, so sticks are probably weaker in the magic-boosting department. If the strength was not related to price, then pretty much no one would be buying wands at all due to them not being efficient enough.

Considering my current style of fighting, I think the wand is still a better choice for me?

I do not know what is going to happen in the future, but I maybe I will have to find a good candidate to use the stick at some point. There is nobody that I have in mind for it yet, but we will probably have a difficult time in the future as the demons get stronger, so someone using magic, and then attacking the monsters with a stick that has 「MP Absorption」 Skill might be a good fighting style.

Personally, I do not think that I will be able to absorb MP with a magic attack. The only way that I can recover my own MP is only because of Durandal’s 「MP Absorption」 Skill, and when I have Durandal out, I usually tend to not use magic at all, instead switching to a more physically oriented build, so even if I put 「MP Absorption」 on my wand, or a stick, I do not think either would recover MP while casting Spells.

「O-Okay, I am going to start making it then.」

Sherry has the planks in both her hands and recites the incantation for the 「Item Fusion」 Skill. In the next moment, a dazzling light flows out, and then stops before long, revealing a brand-new Wood Stick in Sherry’s left hand.

A walking stick is left in her hand.

「Oh, it was a success.」

「Well, there is supposed to be a large chance of failure when creating new weaponry if you have not been training for a long time, or at least I heard that that is how it normally supposed to be, so in a way, this is actually somewhat anti-climactic.」

「Just think about it as a testament to how amazing you are, Sherry.」

Besides, making a wooden stick from two planks leaves me with a feeling of it being wrong. To begin with, it is strange that clubs and sticks (round, cylindrical weapons,) are being made from square boards. Where is the logic in that? I was always convinced that a flat wooden shield could be made from a flat board, and round or cylindrical weapons would have to be made from logs of wood. There is no other choice for me but to think that the magic of the Skill has something to do with it.

「Thank you for the words of encouragement, master. Here you go, one Wood Stick, a weapon that can both cast magic and be used in melee combat.」

「Certainly, this looks like something that could hurt a man pretty badly if he were to be struck by it. By the way, are there any other weapons that can be used both for physical attacks and the purpose of enhancing magic?」

「Aside from the sticks, there is also a weapon called The Holy Spear that strengthens magic. It is quite valuable though, and can be hard to get outside the auctions, so not that many people are using them.」

「Oh, so there actually is such a weapon?」

It might be a good weapon for someone with a healing-oriented Job to attack from the rearguard.

We then continued to talk about the possibility of strengthening our weapons while we were eating breakfast.

「Now that we have upgraded our armor, we should work on our weapons next.」

「Our weapons?」

「Because Rabbit Skill Crystal is available for purchase. Besides, we might have no pressing problem on the current floors of the Labyrinths, but the Rub Shrubs on the thirteenth floor are quite strong.」

I start the conversation while munching on Rabbit Meat which Roxanne grilled.

「But master’s magic can take them out in one hit.」

「To be honest, it is not as easy as it looks like.」

「I see. So it something more akin to a trump card rather than something you can just use over and over again, right?」

Yeah, it is just as Roxanne is saying. In my present condition, I cannot cast two 「Meteor Crash’s」 or more in a row, because I simply do not have enough MP to pull something like that off. That, and if I take into account efficiency of MP consumption and the risk of getting exposed to other people, it is not a good idea to go around shooting meteors in the Labyrinth in general. It should be reserved as a trump card against Floor Bosses or when we are surrounded by the enemies with no other way of getting out of such a pickle.

「Yeah, that is right.」

「Certainly, the monsters from the twelfth floor onward are quite strong. And moreover, from the twenty-third floor onward, monsters will be getting even stronger than they are now.」

Sherry says in support.

Monsters from the twelfth floor onward will be a lot stronger in comparison to the first eleven floors, and the difficulty level will only increase again from the twenty-third floor onwards. Well, the point is, the higher we move, the stronger the monsters become, so we have to be as prepared for it as we can possibly be.

「So as you can see, at the very least I need to upgrade my Wand. Incidentally, is there a Skill Crystal that increases the power of magic attacks?」

「There is: Goat Skill Crystal.」

「Goat, huh? In that case I will ask Luke to make arrangements for the acquisition of that one. So I guess all that is left now is Sherry’s Club.」

Until now, I have not asked Luke to arrange for a Skill Crystal that increases the power of magic attacks, because I was operating under a rather simple assumption: do not fix that which is not broken. But now I know that the issue of my magic is quite broken, so I have to fix it before it ends up causing us some serious problems or even injury during the Labyrinth exploration.

「My Club?」

「「Chant Interruption」 should be attached to Sherry’s weapon. Roxanne can dodge attacks herself, so I am not too worried about her performance, so what remains is your Club.」

「But we need Kobold Skill Crystal for 「Chant Interruption」.」

「「Chant Delay」 will be of no use if only Sherry’s weapon has it.」

I have my Durandal that can interrupt the chanting of enemy’s Skills and Spells, Roxanne can dodge even magic attacks and Skills without any issues, so the only one who is lacking any sort of special combat-oriented ability is Sherry. Therefore, I am going to have her attach 「Chant Interruption」 to her weapon. Then, Roxanne can take on the monsters from the front as a vanguard while Sherry can hit it from the side with 「Chant Interruption」.

「Thank you. Still, it is going to be a waste to attach 「Chant Interruption」 to a Club. If it were attached to a war hammer or a flail, it would sell for good price instead.」

War hammer? Flail? So both these weapons and Club are all classified as hammer, it seems.

「Hammer is good but how about spear?」

「Spear?」

Sherry can use both hammer and spear.

「There will be merit in attaching 「Chant Interruption」 to a spear, for it has a long reach.」