Chapter 58 - 058＿Winter Labyrinth
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058＿Winter Labyrinth
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Pinica, who came through an introduction by Sage Daguldor, amazed Rodney.
Pinica actually managed to create a car's transmission, suspension, and other parts all by herself.
Rodney had given her the basic structure and concepts, but she had taken them from far from perfect and turned them into reality. What a wonderful root power 'Create Transmutation' is, he marvels.
「R-Rodney-sama. H-how is this?」
「O-oh, it's good. You're amazing, Pinica. The parts I couldn't make at all are steadily taking shape.」
For building the car, Pinica created all the necessary parts. When those parts were assembled and the car was completed, he seriously thought, Pinica might be a god.
「Should we wait for the snow to melt and do a test run?」
「Y-yes.」
Pinica even improved the generator's power generation efficiency. Even though it was the generator for an ancient weapon's beam cannon, she was able to further improve it.
That was not due to the power of root powers, but to the innate talent she was born with. Rodney felt that while her root powers were impressive, her rare talent was more useful.
Thanks to the improved generator, the beam cannon's output also increased. It was decided to test-fire that as well after the snow melts.
「Pinica. Good work. Here's this month's pay.」
「Ah, thank you very much.」
Opening the leather pouch handed to her by Rodney and looking at her first pay, Pinica froze.
「What's wrong? Was it not enough? Sorry, but considering the pay of others, I can't give too much. Please bear with it.」
「N-n-n-n-n-n-n-no! I-it's the opposite. It's too much.」
One large gold coin. That's enough to live in the royal capital for five months.
The basic pay of a domain soldier who had served for over fifteen years was two small gold coins per month. She had received five times that in just one month, and only for creating prototypes.
It was a huge sum that Pinica, an orphan raised in a facility, had never seen before. It was only natural that she was astonished.
However, Rodney felt Pinica's talent was so wonderful that even paying twelve large gold coins a year was not a waste.
「No, thanks to you, everything I was stuck on got done. I'd like to give you even more. But as you might expect, I can't really do more than this, so I'm truly sorry.」
「No no no no no no. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I've never seen such a large sum of money. Thank you so much!」
Pinica, deeply moved, bowed her head many times.
「You can rest tomorrow. After that, I'll have you create ship parts, but is that okay?」
「I-I'll do, do anything. I-I'll do my best.」
There was still time until the snow melted. Thinking that, Rodney tried to leave the research facility, but then he remembered.
「I want to make something useful for farm work. I'll draw some diagrams and hand them to you next time.」
When the snow melts, they would proceed with cultivation. Since there wasn't much flat land, the arable land they could expand was limited, but he wanted to expand as much as possible.
If residential areas were insufficient, they could build on mountain slopes. This lord's mansion was also built on a small hill. He wanted to use the flat land for food production as much as possible.
While Pinica rests, he draws diagrams of farm tools.
These were things that could also be made with Rodney's 'Shape Processing.' If it could be completed in one go, using 'Shape Processing' would be fine. But in most cases, it required repeated trial and error. For Rodney now, that time was precious. So he leaves it to Pinica.
The reason he felt time was precious was because he was exploring the Lone Island Labyrinth.
They installed a stone bridge from the land, connecting to the Lone Island Labyrinth. He also had Pinica help him install that bridge. She was proving very useful.
The central part of the Lone Island Labyrinth still had no resources. But as they went deeper, there were ruins like Machu Picchu.
There, there were humanoid Selvanui that looked like bipedal lizards. Those Selvanui actually had wings. In other words, they could fly.
Rodney named the lizard Selvanui 'Dragonewt' and ingested its Life Light Stone orally.
The root power he acquired was 'Thunderclap,' and if someone else acquired it, they would get 'Thunderbolt.' Both 'Thunderbolt' and 'Thunderclap' were root powers that called down lightning on a target, but their power was such that even a True Steel Giant would take damage. Even if it survived, it had the effect of being electrocuted and immobilized.
However, there were problems. The Dragonewts were few in number, and furthermore, they were extremely strong. They were covered in scales as hard as a True Steel Giant, were fast, strong, carried a spear as a weapon, could fly, and even breathed out a breath weapon. They were simply troublesome opponents.
Their breath came in many different attributes, such as fire and water. This was also extremely troublesome.
The Blue Wolf Tribe, a warrior race, did not have emission-type root powers, so they had a very poor matchup against Dragonewts, being attacked unilaterally from the sky. However, they had a good matchup against True Steel Giants.
True Steel Giants were hard and strong, but their movements were not that fast. The fast-moving Blue Wolf Tribe could attack unilaterally without taking damage. Moreover, some of the elites could even wound a True Steel Giant's body.
Currently, they were sending domain soldiers and the Blue Wolf Tribe into the Abandoned House Labyrinth and the Lone Island Labyrinth to hunt.
・Up to 6th floor of Abandoned House Labyrinth ⇒ Retainers lead domain soldiers in rotation
・7th floor of Abandoned House Labyrinth: Snowman, White Bear ⇒ Knight Hortus leads 10 domain soldiers + 50 Blue Wolf Tribe
・West side of Lone Island Labyrinth: Green Snake, Black Viper ⇒ Knight Roxwell leads 10 domain soldiers + 50 Blue Wolf Tribe
・East side of Lone Island Labyrinth: Iron Giant, various True Steel Giants ⇒ Knight Rodmel leads 10 domain soldiers + 50 elite warriors of the Blue Wolf Tribe
・Central ruins of Lone Island Labyrinth: Big Tarantula, Big Alligator, Dragonewt ⇒ Rodney, Yulin, Emilia, former chieftain Feld, retainer Hobart
Putting this many personnel into labyrinths was not something done in winter.
After writing the diagrams for farm tools and what they would be used for and handing them to Pinica, Rodney headed for the Lone Island Labyrinth.
The snow clearing by the Blue Wolf Tribe was thorough, and he went from the lord's mansion to the harbor, then across the bridge to the Lone Island Labyrinth. The stone bridge had thick pillars that could withstand rough waves. It was also wide, about two meru, and even carriages could pass.
They crossed the bridge and landed on a sandy beach. From there, as they proceeded toward the center, a heat that was the polar opposite of winter greeted Rodney and his party.
Emilia and Feld fought the emerging Selvanui as if competing. The two had good compatibility and were competing in a way that honed each other's skills.
With 'Ice Water Manipulation,' he stops the Big Alligator's movement. Then Emilia and Feld leap out.
「Yay! I win!」
「Hmmph. Young lady, that was my prey just now.」
「First come, first served, Feld.」
「Grrr. I'll win next time!」
They had good compatibility... or so it seemed.
Watching those two with a strained expression was the retainer Hobart. He was the youngest brother of Count Banyusas, but now he was a retainer of the Forvas House.
Hobart had studied the Bolasas Knight Swordsmanship, but his skill was average. The Bolasas Knight Swordsmanship was a combat art that was the Banyusas Count house's family style, an orthodox school that used swords, shields, bows, and horseback riding.
Even if his sword skill was average, in this world, if you had good root powers, you could become a monster. Hobart had been allowed to acquire four root powers as a parting gift from Count Banyusas: 'Steel Arm,' 'Strong Legs,' 'Fortitude,' and 'Luck.' They were all intermediate root powers, but the one that stood out was 'Luck.'
This 'Luck' was obtained from the Life Light Stone of a Selvanui in the labyrinth of Zabalujeen Territory, ruled by the Count Banyusas House. Within the kingdom, this Life Light Stone was not produced in any labyrinth other than that one, so it was valuable.
The Count Banyusas House designated this Life Light Stone as a family secret and had not even presented it to the royal family.
It was not a root power that increased combat ability, but it had the effect of improving luck, such as making attacks more likely to hit enemy weak points and making rare items slightly easier to obtain.
Rodney focused on the luck improvement. He thought that if he brought Hobart on explorations, items would drop more easily. However, so far, his luck had not manifested because Emilia and Feld would defeat the Selvanui before Hobart could even act.
「If you keep up with those two, you'll get worn out. Don't worry about it.」
「Y-yeah...」
Rodney placed a hand on Hobart's shoulder.
「Feld is useless in Dragonewt fights. That's your chance.」
He had tried to teach emission-type root powers to Feld and a few Blue Wolf Tribe members, but no one could use emission-type root powers well. When it came to physical enhancement-type root powers, they could use them better than humans, but they couldn't even activate emission-type root powers.
Rodney and the others thought there was probably a racial compatibility issue, so they stopped giving emission-type root powers to the Blue Wolf Tribe. If individuals wanted to learn, they would let them, but otherwise, they no longer actively recommended it.
「We've arrived at the ruins.」
The forest trees opened up, and on a small hill stood stone ruins that looked like ancient remains. The memory was fresh of how Rodney and the others living in Dedel Territory thought, Ruins again here?
「Hobart attacks the Dragonewt first. Got that, Emilia, Feld?」
「Okay.」
「Understood.」
As with other Selvanui, when someone with 'Luck' participated in combat, the item drop rate increased. This was common knowledge within the Count Banyusas House.
They discovered a Dragonewt. It was a Selvanui with a body as sturdy as Rodmel's. Two types of scale color were confirmed: brown and green. The brown ones had superior defense, while the green ones had superior speed.
Hobart fired the root power granted to him by Rodney, 'High-speed Rotating Scatter Bullet.' The attack, which boasted the highest speed among emission-type root powers, could not be dodged even by a green Dragonewt.
The 'High-speed Rotating Scatter Bullet' hit the Dragonewt, and it was severely cut up, but it was still alive. As expected of its defense.
The Dragonewt, spreading its tattered wings and flying up into the sky, opened its mouth toward Hobart, who had high hate.
「Big Brother, breath is coming.」
「Yeah!」
From its mouth lined with countless sharp teeth, a breath of fire was exhaled. The breath rained down toward the ground, but Rodney activated 'Mist Disperse' to erase it.
「「'High-speed Rotating Scatter Bullet'」」
Emilia and Yulin simultaneously activated 'High-speed Rotating Scatter Bullet' and hit the Dragonewt. The double 'High-speed Rotating Scatter Bullet' ravaged the Dragonewt, and it crashed to the ground. Then Feld rushed in and sank his sharp claws into its throat.
「Yessssss!」
Feld, who had dealt the finishing blow, let out a battle cry.
He brought the Life Light Stone and rejoined Rodney and the others.