Relic [Fairy Incarnation]...the only Relic that a fairial can use.
By getting bigger, its allure increased. Different from Mineha-san somehow.
So this is what a mature lady looks like.
She smiled warmly and handed over a parchment document.
"Sorry to keep you waiting~ It's been confirmed~ This is a request to extract four bars of Monoceros magic silver~"
"Mm."
Four bars. If each one fluctuated between 300,000 and 500,000, then a million would be about right.
It really is worth a million oro. Verelent-san... thank you.
"This is the request acceptance form~ The request acceptor and~ the hireling~ please each sign~ If you can't write~ I can sign on your behalf~"
"Unnecessary. A pen will do."
"Here you go~ Please sign right here~"
First Pakira-san. Then me. And lastly Juicy-san. Once we finished writing, we turned them in.
The receptionist looked at Juicy-san's name twice. Ah, it must be the honorific.
"Okay~ Confirmation complete~ I'll accept the request~"
Without commenting on it, the receptionist set down a card and a key.
And also a golden monocle with a single-wing ornament and a grip handle.
The card was metal, with engraved patterns. The key was a bit large, with a number engraved on the keyhead.
The monocle was the handheld type, with a single-wing ornament attached. What is this?
"U-Um, um, Pakira-san. What are these?"
"Hm. You'll find out soon enough. Let's go."
With the card, key, and monocle in hand, Pakira headed outside—wait, into the Guild?
Where were we going?
Just as I was wondering, one of the many reception counters at the Delvers' Guild had become a gate.
In front of it stood one of the red-haired Fawn receptionists, holding a spear.
Pakira showed the card to the receptionist, and the gate opened.
We passed through the gate and descended the stairs.
The Guild's underground. This was different from the basement where that massive Return Circle was.
Lanterns lined the corridor at even intervals, and numbered doors were set into the brick walls along the way.
Pakira checked each door one by one, comparing the key to the numbers.
We watched in silence.
"This one."
She inserted the key and opened the door. It was a small room.
On the stone floor, a magic circle glowed with a pale blue light. It looked somehow familiar.
"Could this be..."
"Let's go."
"A-Anyway, I, wuf, my heart is pounding!"
"Mine too."
"Na!"
We stepped into the magic circle. The scenery before our eyes changed in an instant.
When I came to, I was in a small, rugged space.
There was a door, so I opened it and stepped out into a corridor lined with stone walls.
It was immediately clear this wasn't the Guild. I asked.
"Could this... be the dungeon?"
"That it is."
"H-hold on, could this... woof. Be the dungeon where monokeros live?"
"That it is. The monokeros dungeon can only be entered or exited through the teleportation circle beneath the Guild. Only those with permission may come here."
Right. The teleportation circle. That made sense. Travel was exclusively through the teleportation circle.
Which meant there was no way in from the surface.
"So it's to prevent overhunting, huh."
"Indeed. And then there's this."
Pakira showed me a monocle fitted with a feather ornament and a handle.
"Wof? The feather looks really nice."
"Is this... a legendary?"
"Mm. It's called the [Eye of Fortune]. Look through it and you can discern the value of things. In other words, it lets you tell whether monokeros have magic silver."
Eye of Fortune...? Fortune.
I held my breath for a moment.
"Th-that's determined by color, right?"
"Indeed. It's said to appear as a green light."
"H-hold on, that's amazing! So convenient!"
So green means it's rare.
"Now I can identify magic silver."
"Um, um, so if I use it at the Junkyard, I can identify treasures too?"
"That's right. You'll be able to tell the value. Though this Legendary one itself is very precious, so its lending is restricted."
"..."
Some strange sense of guilt welled up inside me.
"So does it only appear as a green light?"
"Seems so."
So it only identifies rare items, huh. It's completely an inferior version of the Wheel of Fortune.
I had no idea something like this existed.
"That's about enough explanation—shall we try using it?"
"Um, um, Wof! I'm excited!"
"Na!"
"..."
The Monoceros are beyond here.
Following the stone wall, the passage suddenly opened up into a vast space with a grassland.
Sure enough, a herd of Monoceros was running across the grassland.
They were six-legged monsters that looked like horses with long, thick single horns.
The ceiling was normal rock but it glimmered with light. Luminescent moss, maybe?
The same stuff grew on the ceiling of the Junkyard too, so it wasn't dark there.
It had a pleasantly moderate level of brightness.
"Fumu. Fumu fumu."
Pakira surveyed the monoceros herd through her Eyes of Fortune.
"Oh, oh, oh, um, woof! Did you find any mithril?"
Juicy wagged her tail back and forth, bouncing with excitement.
She looked ready to pounce the moment she spotted one.
"Hmm. Doesn't seem like there's any in that herd."
"Wof! Then, um, woof. Next!"
"..."
I tried using my Relic, the Wheel of Fortune, too.
No glow at all. That herd was a bust.
While walking across the grassland, we encountered a pack of small monsters.
Three-eyed rabbits. Copper-rank, lower-tier monsters. They charged at us immediately, but they were no match.
Pakira sliced them with wind blades, Juicy punched them to death with her bare fists, and I fought with my knife.
"Oh, oh, woof woof! This is fun!"
Impressive. She matched the three-eyed rabbits' jumps precisely, landing hits and kicks right on their third eyes.
Almost one-shot kills. Must have been her Relic, the Weakness Scanner.
It lets her see the weak points of opponents weaker than herself. Even Pakira looked surprised.
Not to be outdone, I blocked the three-eyed rabbits' attacks, deflected them, and cut them with my knife.
It was cruel to stab them when they were already wounded, but I went for the third eye. All right. One out of three down.
The daga knife won't do here.
It's the second knife I bought for 50,000. A strange blade — single-edged, curved upward, with an odd shape.
A bit heavy, but thick and powerful.
The three-eyed rabbits come jumping in clusters, lashing out with claws and fangs.
Annoying and a real pain. But — not to brag — I've gotten stronger too.
I combine the body movement and knife work I learned from the witch, fighting back against the three-eyed rabbits.
Honestly, if it's just about winning the fight, [Banish] would be the easy way. One touch, and they vanish.
But that vanishing can become a bit of a problem.
If I'm not careful, I'll lose the subjugation parts or the rare material pieces.
And sometimes I end up erasing the knife in my hand too.
It's handy, but the fact that I can't control the degree of it is a real flaw.
On top of that, my [Banish] can't be used away from my hands.
Its range is limited to my wrist. Another drawback.
And so we annihilated the herd of three-eyed rabbits.
"Um, um, uh, Pakira. These three-eyed rabbits — where are the subjugation parts?"
"These things aren't worth much coin. Their meat isn't very tasty either."
"Um, woof. But I still want to know!"
"I'm curious too."
Even if they're not worth much, they're still worth something. Pakira let out a sigh.
"The subjugation part on these is the third eye. That third pupil right there."
"Huh... by the way, how much is each one worth?"
"If they're not in good condition, zero. Even if they are, maybe a hundred oro. At the very best, five hundred oro or so."
"...So they're worthless if they're damaged?"
"That's right. That's why they don't amount to much. Not worth the effort of preserving and carrying them."
Ah, since they're living things, they're delicate. That really doesn't seem worth it at all.
In other words, even if they'd buy them, there's just no demand.
"W-Wof, sir. I... I kept aiming for the third eyes and smashing them."
"I... I did pretty much the same thing."
"Na!"
"That settles it, then. Let's go find another group."
And so, leaving the three-eyed rabbits' carcasses behind us, we went searching for the next group of Monoceros.
After walking for a while, we found one. A herd of Monoceros. More than the first group we'd encountered.
Pakira used her [Eye of Fortune].
"I can see it! One green one."
I used my [Wheel of Fortune] too. Sure enough, one green.
With a herd of several dozen here, and only one — wait.
There's a yellow one.
Near the green-glowing Monoceros, there's a yellow-glowing Monoceros.
No other yellow glow anywhere. No other green one either.
"..."
It's bugging me.
There's no question that the Eye of Fortune is an inferior version of my Relic.
That's why I can't see green or above.
That's precisely why a Monoceros with a yellow super rare glow is bugging me.
It's near the green-glowing Monoceros, and about a size bigger.
"Uh, um, woof. Pakira. The Monoceros with mithril. How do we take it down?"
"We don't take it down. We're after the horn."
"............"
The problem is how to get that Monoceros's horn.
Heading for a Monoceros that isn't our target would be unnatural.
Letting these two know about my Relic is... I don't actually mind.
Pakira and Juishi. These two, I can trust.
But, at this timing... to expose it, that is... All right. I'll tell them.
I'll tell them. About my Relic.