by Hiro Ainana
What the plunderers had done was unforgivable, but they did at least dispel my worries about the mysterious yellow-robed mage, so I figured I owed them that much.
“All right. But if we can’t publicly execute them, we’ll at least have them stoned to set an example. If they survive that, I’ll dispatch them to Violet.”
“Good enough for me.” I nodded.
Stoning was a pretty cruel method of execution that had existed since the Stone Age.
Normally, it meant a certain death, but since the demonic potion had toughened those plunderers up so much, maybe they would survive.
I left the guildmaster to take care of the rest and put the west guild behind me.
Surely the demonic-potion-hating guildmaster would follow up about the big noble behind Sokell, even if I didn’t.
“I don’t want to go home in a nasty mood after interrogating a plunderer, so maybe I should cheer myself up first?”
Muttering to no one in particular, I looked around thoughtfully.
By the time I left the guild, it was late in the night, which meant I couldn’t go to the pleasure quarter. Instead, I decided to head to the underground lab in the Ivy Manor and make some equipment for Sumina and the other explorer women.
Of course, they would be simple things made from monster parts, not the unique equipment I’d made for my group.
“Maybe I’ll start with some handy maze ant equipment?”
I looked through the collection of recipes left by Trazayuya, often called the sage of the elves.
“Let’s go with something simple first.”
I made some breastplates and shoulder guards with adjustable leather or string straps, plus some wrist and shin guards.
Multitool came in handy for this, but not as much as producing “Spellblade” on my fingertip.
It was especially convenient for relatively low-level monster materials, since it could cut them or bore holes through them with practically no resistance.
“Ah, crafting is so fun.”
I had actually started humming to myself without realizing it.
It was hard to tell what was what if I lined them up on the floor, so I set them up on the mannequins I normally used to make things for Arisa and the other girls.
Because they were made with golem-crafting technology, they could be posed like dolls, too.
I didn’t make them into golems or living dolls because then I wouldn’t be able to put them away in Storage.
“Hmm, it’s a little plain…”
I had tried to shape the armor in a style suited for a woman in a fantasy world, but it was missing something.
I didn’t think it looked too bad or anything, but the explorers I’d seen in Labyrinth City seemed to default to a more flamboyant style, so I wanted to fiddle a bit more.
“Oh, this’ll work nicely.”
My eyes fell on some spare lumber from the production process.
I messed around with it a little before attaching it to the armor.
It wouldn’t make the armor’s defense any higher, but they do say that man cannot live on bread alone. It’s important to have a little fun.
“Hmm, I might’ve made this a little too anime…”
It looked like something out of a Saturday morning fantasy show, but its stats were as high as any metal armor, so that was probably all right.
However, on its own, it would have far too many revealing gaps; I made some leather armor and a skirt to go underneath.
I aimed to make it cute and modest, with a little bit of a sexy tinge to the cuts.
For the leather, I used sea serpent hide, of which I had plenty. It wasn’t as strong as the armored rat leather I’d used for my companions’ camouflage armor, but it should provide the same protection as the average armor worn by a labyrinth army soldier or a garnet-badge explorer.
“The boots might be a bit of a pain.”
For my companions, I’d made high-level boots with slip- and wear-resistant soles, comfortable for long walks and extra quiet for stealth, but those used all kinds of unusual materials, so it might cause problems for making that kind of thing for Sumina and the others.
Instead, I decided to simply use sturdy and slip-resistant hydra leather for the heels and make the rest out of sea serpent hide.
“All right, time to mass-produce this.”
With my model outfit complete, I optimized the process and started making more pieces.
Removing the carapaces from the maze ants was a pain, but with my Magic Hand and “Parallel Thoughts” combo, I was able to finish before long.
I could make about forty sets in one go, so producing a bunch of them was a piece of cake.
“Hmm…”
I looked down thoughtfully at the finished sets of identical armor.
Originally, I’d planned to give them all matching sets, but maybe I could make something a little fancier for Elder Sister Sumina and the other veteran explorers?
Admittedly, part of it was just that I was sick of making the same thing, but it had also occurred to me that the women in their late twenties and older might not want to wear such a cartoonish fantasy-like outfit.
For them, I decided to make a more refined inner layer and use soldier mantis carapaces for the exterior.
These carapaces were a bit too large to use as is, so I cut them down and used the Earth Magic spell Polish to shave them to the perfect size.
The designs were similar otherwise; at a glance, it didn’t look much different from the ant armor, but this version’s defense was more than twice as high.
I made shields by cutting a labyrinth beetle’s back down to the proper size and attaching a handle—not much labor at all.
However, I was tired at that point, and I decided to load up on some sugar while I contemplated what kind of weapons to give them.
“Hmm. It’s a little better with magic than bronze, lighter than bronze or iron, but its attack power is a bit lower…”
Looking through the materials I had on hand, I tried making prototype weapons out of the scythe arms or spikes of various monsters.
I followed the directions in my documents, but the cheaper kinds had rather low abilities. Thinking in video game terms, they’d be perfect for raising a newbie fighter’s skill levels.
“Oops, the best-looking recipe is in a different document.”
I flipped to a different set of instructions, murmuring to myself.
This set was a guide to making pseudo–Magic Swords and spears.
It included the Antwing Silver Sword that Sumina and the others had been admiring earlier in the day.
“…Hmm? It’s speckled silver and gray…”
I made a test Antwing Silver Sword right away, but unlike the sword I was familiar with, this one wasn’t just gray.
I looked over the instructions again.
“Ah, so it’s important to control the temperature precisely…”
I had given myself a margin of error of one degree Celsius, give or take, but evidently that wasn’t good enough.
“Heh-heh. Finally a worthy opponent.”
Entering mad-scientist mode, I experimented with the temperature control to get it down to zeros for the first nine decimal places.
That would normally be impossible, so I used the Air Control spell to even out the heat in the room, then used Liquid Control to keep the various liquids from evaporating and altering the temperature.
On top of that, I used “Magic Manipulation” to slow the flow of magic through the transmutation tools and keep everything level.
Then finally…
“It’s silver.”
I held up the beautiful silver sword, grinning triumphantly at my own handiwork.
Now, this was a sword worthy of the name Antwing Silver Sword.
Putting the speckled silver-gray prototypes away in Storage, I made an elegant scabbard for the finished silver sword.
Maybe next I could make swords out of scythe arms from guardian ants
and soldier mantises?
As I let my imagination wander, I started mass-producing weapons to suit the explorer women’s skills.
They weren’t quite as high-performance as a Magic Sword, but they were as good as or better than the standard equipment of the labyrinth army, so it was probably best to refrain from making anything better.
If they were too powerful, they might attract unwanted attention.
Everything’s best in moderation anyway.
“Wow, new equipment!”
“Damn, look at this! It’s a Magic Sword made from a guardian ant scythe!”
“And this one’s a soldier mantis broadsword with armor to match!”
“Amazing! Who in the world are you, Lord Kuro?”
“I can try on this armor, right? I won’t get in trouble?”
“Ooooh, a rosethorn spear!”
“This shield is cut from a beetle’s carapace, you know!”
“This is crazy. I can’t even imagine how much it would cost to get stuff like this made…”
The next morning, I showed the mass-produced equipment to the explorers staying in the Ivy Manor and was met with rave reviews.
My creative side was thrilled to have my work be so well received.
Feeling pretty good about myself, I looked around again.
“So pretty…”
Elder Sister Sumina was head over heels for the sparkling Antwing Silver Sword I’d made.
It was meant to be just an example, but I couldn’t very well ask for it back now.
Making that sword had been pretty difficult, so I didn’t really intend to make any more. If she liked it that much, I was happy to let her keep it.
“So that’s a real Antwing Silver Sword.”
“Yeah. If you mess up the temperature, they come out gray.”
The blond noblewoman appeared at my side, gazing at Sumina rather enviously as the latter held up the sword.
“Would you have preferred that one?”
“No, no! I’m delighted with the clothes and the rapier you gave me, Lord Kuro!”
I had planned on giving her and her noble friends equipment like the other explorers, too, but they said they intended to resign from the explorer business. I gave them light armor and steel rapiers for self-defense instead.
These favored gaudiness over practicality, so they had the unrealistic appearance of a squad of lady knights.
“Sumina, I’ll have you and the other explorers bring the plunderers to the west guild and collect the reward money. Then you can use that money to find housing in Labyrinth City until you can live on your own again.”
“Lord Kuro, I suppose it would be inconvenient for you if we stayed here…wouldn’t it?”
The noblewoman fluttered her eyes at me, but I responded bluntly.
“Yes, it would. I have much work to do.”
The girls who still needed more healing from Lelillil and the ones who knew about the cultivation would be staying awhile longer, but I planned to release the others right away.
“Of course… You serve the Hero, after all.”
Eluterina looked dejected, but it wouldn’t suit Kuro’s character to comfort her, so I ignored her and turned to the bag-carrier girl Polina.
“I have something to ask of you.”
“What is it?”
I asked Polina to help me come up with a cover story so that the newly freed women wouldn’t draw any suspicion.
“Why not say that we were being sheltered in the Blue People’s hidden village?”
This suggestion came not from Polina but from Eluterina, the blond noblewoman.
“The Blue People?”
“Yes. Haven’t you heard of them?”
According to her explanation, this was a nickname for blue-skinned humanoids said to very occasionally appear in labyrinth villages inside the labyrinth.
Blue People aside, I was quite interested in seeing one of these labyrinth villages, so I decided I would go have a look with my companions when we had a chance.
“I’ve heard of them, too.”
Timidly, Polina shared what information she had.
According to the rumors, some people encountered them when they got lost deep in monster territory.
As long as you didn’t antagonize them, they were apparently perfectly friendly, but if you did attack one, you’d be killed without mercy.
The women were all beauties of every shape and size, and the men were said to be handsome, too, with wavy, seaweed-like bangs.
There were even rumors that they could evaporate into mist.
“Are you sure these Blue People aren’t actually vampires?”
The blond noblewoman was quick to refute my theory.
“Oh, no, Lord Kuro. I’ve met someone who has been to the Bloodsucker Labyrinth in the Saga Empire, and they said vampires are bluish-black, beastly creatures who don’t understand language.”
This girl’s awfully knowledgeable. Somehow, she reminded me of Nadi, the woman from the general store in Seiryuu City.
“Let me think…”
I contemplated their proposal for a moment.
“…All right. That should work.”
With that decided, I spent some time solidifying the cover story with Eluterina, Polina, and Sumina.
“What the hell’s going on here?!”
“We are the Lord Kuro Fan Club. Lord Kuro is about to perform a miracle, so just sit and watch.”
Using my Clairvoyance and Clairaudience spells to make sure things were ready for me to teleport into the labyrinth, I found Elder Sister Sumina arguing with a guild employee.
I’d sent her out from the first area of the labyrinth’s upper stratum to make sure I could teleport there, but maybe I should’ve sent along someone who was a little better at negotiating.
Pretending not to have heard the phrase “Lord Kuro Fan Club,” I started removing the earthen walls keeping the plunderers imprisoned.
Of course, I had already blocked all the exits with gigantic walls to prevent them from escaping.
“Graaah!”
“Let’s get ’im!”
As soon as the walls were gone, the plunderers charged at me like starving animals.
I beat them down with the human-suppressing spell Remote Stun and the monster-suppressing spell Short Stun.
The upper-ranking plunderers who were at least level 30 or enhanced with the Demonic Body buff were able to resist the former, so I hit them with the latter.
One of them weaved around the falling plunderers and tried to hit me with a poison needle, but my “Sense Danger” and “Abduction” skills allowed me to knock him out before he could do anything.
Where was he hiding that poison needle anyway?
First, I used Mana Drain to take the plunderers’ magic so they couldn’t use that annoying Demonic Body. Then I tied them up with magic-sapping thornfoot ivy that I’d found in Storage.
I had instructions for how to make the mage-constricting thornfoot ivy, too, so I decided to try it out when I got a chance.
Next, I picked up the plunderers with Magic Hand and teleported to the labyrinth guild area, where Sumina and the others were waiting.
“Whoa, where’d they come from?!”
“Lord Kuro! Excellent work as always!”
Sumina’s shout interrupted the startled guild clerk.
“Take these captured plunderers to the guild. You, clerk, we need more people. Help us bring these plunderers to prison.”
The clerk looked doubtful at my haughty command, but as soon as she laid eyes on the more famous plunderers among the captured lot, she became very cooperative.
“So you’re responsible for all this commotion, are you?”
“Guildmaster.”
The guildmaster appeared on the other side of the crowd, looking bored.
Sebelkeya was nowhere to be seen, but Ushana was with her as always.
“These are the plunderers from the bases you saw last night. I searched for anyone
who might’ve been working the fields, but I didn’t find anyone. Most likely they were killed by the plunderers or the mastermind behind them.”
I used my “Fabrication” skill to make up that story.
Eventually, the guildmaster would probably hear about the former captives who would claim they had been sheltered in the Blue People’s village, but those girls were convinced that they’d been growing gabo wheat and gabo barley, not destruction stalks and ruination weeds.
Besides, I seemed to be the only person with any idea how to make the magic circle required to cultivate those plants effectively, so they should be fine.
I didn’t think the guildmaster or the higher-ups of the Shiga Kingdom would want to poke the hornet’s nest anyway.
If anything did go wrong, I could always step in and help the girls escape to some far-off kingdom.
I accepted the reward-slash-hush-money from the guildmaster, gave the money to Sumina, and had her rent out some tenement houses.
Since there were nearly two hundred people in total, they basically rented a whole neighborhood.
“I’ll leave you in charge for now. Polina and Eluterina will be along later.”
“Y-yes, Lord Kuro! You can count on us.”
Sumina and the crowd of forty-six explorers proudly puffed up their chests.
Still, I wasn’t planning on just heartlessly leaving them in the lurch from now on.
I would provide them with support for the next few months until they could be independent again.
“I’ll send a merchant named Echigoya along in the next few days. If you need anything, talk to him.”
With that, I gave them some money for their immediate living expenses.
Now, I didn’t have the fake name “Echigoya,” so I’d have to have Tifaleeza give it to me with “Name Order” later.
“And you can sell this plunderers’ equipment and use that money for whatever you need.”
The armor was probably next to worthless, but there were some monster weapons and such that might fetch a decent price.
The cursed weapons and magic tools were dangerous, though, so I was keeping those.
Over the next few days, I planned to release the rest of the girls at the Ivy Manor in small batches.
