Chapter 18
1.
Doloris was a wise woman.
She never, ever revealed all the cards in her hand.
That was why verifying the gloves was no different.
Simply checking whether the enchantment had succeeded and what level it had reached could be done with a basic appraisal device purchased inside the Tower.
Among the artifacts discovered in the Tower, there were items for this sort of simple verification.
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[Charon's Magnifying Glass]
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Measures the enhancement level and grade of the target equipment.
Mana consumption per use. Can be used 100 times per charge.
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If she visited the appraisal center again, she could have them appraised in detail.
However, that would leave a record. She had already revealed far too much information.
Doloris was, in truth, already regretting her previous visit to the appraisal center.
Her lack of caution at the time must have caused the information to leak.
That was not what she wanted.
She had simply been too flustered then. She had wanted to confirm whether he truly was a Descendant of Fire, regardless of all other considerations.
So she entered the Tower, bought only a few simple things, and returned to the estate.
And then.
In her study, she examined the gloves through Charon's Magnifying Glass.
She wondered what she should do if the enchantment had succeeded. What sort of praise and reward should she give him?
As she looked at the gloves through the magnifying glass.
“……?”
She rubbed her eyes.
She thought she rubbed them about ten times.
- Blink, blink.
She looked closely at the displayed figures again.
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[General-Purpose Work Gloves]
[☆☆☆☆☆]
[Enhancement Level: +20]
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+20?
Doloris's hand stopped.
A starless pair of work gloves at +20.
Doloris's expression went blank. When a person received a shock beyond their comprehension, their thoughts simply stopped.
She slowly rose from her seat.
She quietly walked around the study about fifteen times.
Once she had regained some semblance of awareness, she reached into the air and opened her subspace.
- Vrrrrr.
A storage room where she kept the equipment she had worn and used in the past.
She reached out and took out a book.
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[Grimoire of Magic]
[★★★☆☆]
[Enhancement Level: +18]
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It had been the auxiliary weapon she cherished during the days she climbed the Tower.
She no longer used it now that she had switched to unique equipment that could not be enhanced.
It was equipment she had used well until then. She had stored it away so she could pass it down to Ruby someday.
She could not even count how many resources, how much money, and how much time had gone into it.
Counting it all would be inefficient in itself.
But that equipment was only +18.
She carefully removed the gloves Lionel had made for her.
She put the work gloves on her hands. Frost formed over their surface under Doloris's cold, but.
“…….”
She felt it the instant she put them on.
Pure, uncontrollable power.
Something that could not fit inside the vessel of starless equipment was trapped within them.
Doloris did not particularly like enchantments, but she knew the basic principles.
Low-grade equipment could not withstand high-level enchantments.
Why?
Because it could not fully receive that power, and the equipment was liable to be destroyed.
Just as a cup would shatter if you tried to force as much water as the ocean into it, equipment with few stars could not withstand the pressure of a high-level enchantment.
That was why the Dwarf Company had restrictions in place.
The enchantment limit for starless equipment was +5.
The enchantment limit for one-star equipment was +10.
Beyond that, attempting an enchantment was impossible from the outset.
It was not a matter of failing an enhancement and destroying the equipment. The attempt itself was rejected.
There was a reason even a company that had become thoroughly money-hungry refused to allow it.
At least two stars.
Therefore, these gloves were.
An object that should not have been able to exist in this world.
- Knock, knock.
“Yes.”
- Ah, Your Grace. You've returned. I was just about to report that Young Master Lionel has woken….
“Yes.”
The conclusion had been reached.
She calmly drew a breath and….
- Whoosh!
Ran toward Lionel at full speed.
2.
Present.
I was being carried somewhere in Doloris's arms.
As usual, she seemed to have intended to hold my hand and take me somewhere.
But perhaps she had noticed that my hand was badly swollen, because she simply pulled me into her arms.
So it really was Doloris who had applied the medicine.
She hugged me tightly, wearing a remarkably serious expression.
- Thump.
But from our bodies pressed together, I could hear her heartbeat.
It was a little fast. Her stride was fast, too.
Doloris took me to a room I had never seen before.
When she opened the door, I saw a room with a distinctly old-fashioned atmosphere.
A sofa that looked soft.
A bed.
A chessboard.
Bookshelves.
Exercise equipment…? Though it was just an absurd amount of weight piled on.
There were countless other objects I could not identify, too.
It was a chaotic room that seemed to cram a wide variety of tastes into one place.
“…….”
What was this room?
At a glance, I could not tell what the owner of the room liked.
Doloris headed toward the sofa while holding me.
Then she sat on the sofa and carefully lowered me onto her lap.
We were facing each other.
Our eyes were at the same level, and Doloris's blue eyes looked into mine.
She continued to slowly stroke my back.
“Can you tell me how you did it?”
She asked calmly, and.
After organizing my thoughts for a moment, I opened my mouth.
I could not tell her everything.
I slowly explained what had happened the previous night. Only the objective parts.
When I first attempted the enchantment, I had done it without knowing what I was doing.
Starting with the second attempt, I struck the specific circles that appeared.
If I did well, the success rate rose accordingly. I could see that.
What was surprising was that the Dwarf enchantment room also provided probability information through the interface.
So explaining it was not difficult.
“The success rate changes according to skill….”
“Yes.”
Doloris first gave a small nod.
As the level rose, the difficulty increased.
If I made a mistake, the chances of destruction increased.
“I have good eyes.”
That was what I had always said until now.
Before, Doloris would have stared intently at me at least once.
But now, she did not even try to distinguish whether I was telling the truth.
She simply smiled faintly and nodded.
Then she reached out and gently squeezed both my cheeks.
“……?”
Was this praise?
[Yeah… I think it probably is….]
I suppose it was.
“Enchantment is a matter of skill….”
Doloris withdrew the hand that had been squeezing my cheeks and slowly stroked my head.
“The Dwarf Company always calls it luck.”
“……”
“When anyone steps into their shop, they all see the same screen.”
That was actually something I had been very curious about, too.
Enchantment was not the sort of concept that could simply be replaced with a machine.
But the community said that all you had to do was let a machine do the striking in front of you and pray.
If the mechanism for enchanting equipment was similar.
Then the Dwarf Company was mindlessly pounding away with machines at the delicate parts that needed to be handled carefully.
No wonder the probabilities were so damn awful.
“Lionel?”
“Yes.”
- Nuzzle….
Doloris held my face against her chest and whispered.
“Congratulations on becoming the first enchanter in the Outer Tower.”
“…….”
The first in the Outer Tower….
It was a remarkably weighty phrase. I could not quite feel it myself.
But hearing her say it made it feel real.
Doloris's embrace was warm. She smelled nice.
If I added a little personal bias, I wanted to stay like this forever.
“And.”
Doloris paused for a moment, then.
“From now on, only enchant things in a safe place.”
“…….”
“The world may not leave you alone.”
She said it with a gentle smile.
But I thought I more or less understood what she meant.
She seemed to be phrasing it as indirectly as possible because I was a child. As a thirty-year-old, I understood.
“Yes.”
Apparently satisfied with my answer, Doloris stroked my head once more, then.
Carefully lowered me from her lap.
Then she went to get something and soon returned.
In her hand was a beautifully wrapped box.
It even had a ribbon tied around it.
“……?”
What was this?
Doloris set the box down in front of me and untied the ribbon herself.
Inside the box was.
“…….”
+20 General-Purpose Work Gloves.
They really did look plain, but sitting on red velvet silk.
They somehow looked like a completely different class of item.
“Why wrap them like this….”
Doloris smiled.
“We're going to hold an auction.”
“…An auction?”
Doloris was the one who had just said that the world would not leave me alone.
And she was going to auction these?
Perhaps reading my expression, Doloris gently added.
“Ah, whether or not you sell them is up to you, Lionel.”
“I see.”
Doloris lifted the corners of her lips and slowly opened her mouth.
“Once you enter the Tower, there's a place where people communicate. We call it the community. It also has an auction house.”
“An auction house.”
“I want our Lionel to see for himself just how extraordinary, and just how absurd, what you accomplished really is.”
“…….”
Oh, this was a kind of lesson.
No matter how much Doloris praised me verbally, it might not really sink in.
She wanted to show me directly how the world evaluated it.
I had been curious about it myself.
What sort of evaluation would a pair of +20 work gloves receive?
Doloris was an excellent educator.
She knew how to scratch an itch.
“Aren't you curious?”
“Yes….”
“Whenever there's good news from now on, I'll pass it along to you, Lionel. Unfortunately, the Inner Tower's auction house can only be viewed after you've entered the Tower at least once.”
I see.
……Yuna?
[You mean, can we access the auction house?]
Can I do it too?
[Uh~ I'm your noona~]
Nice.
Then we would not have to wait at all.
When I gave a small nod, Doloris smiled faintly.
“Good. Then let's look at the results together as soon as they come out.”
After putting the box away again, she stroked my head one more time.
“Your hands are so swollen today, so get plenty of rest.”
“Yes.”
“Lionel….”
“Yes?”
When I raised my head at her call, Doloris was staring intently into my eyes.
Wait a minute. Could it be?
Doloris grabbed me around the waist with an expression of deep distress—as though the sky were falling. No, that was a slight exaggeration.
Then she firmly seated me on her thigh again.
“Don't lie..”
Fuck, she caught me.
I had lied without realizing it.
The truth was, I had been planning to go out again that evening.
“No lying. You're getting plenty of rest today. Got it?”
“Yes….”
- Bzzzz….
“Good.”
Her words were gentle, but her eyes demanded that I rest today, no matter what.
Damn, this was crazy.
I had spent ten years unemployed, and now that I was finally trying to hustle a little, I had suddenly been forced into a work-life balance I had never asked for.
[Hustle…?]
I'm a professional.
It's work.
Anyway, Doloris seemed a little reassured only then and released her hold on me.
“If you get bored, Ruby's library is on the third floor.”
“I see.”
“Yes. Ruby will be sorting the books she bought yesterday and practicing. Go watch her there, and read some books with her.”
It sounded like a real nuisance, but I had to go.
Ah, I had a good idea.
I would use the community while I was there, and Ruby could read her books.
Perfect.
“Yes, understood.”
This was not a lie.
I was going there, after all.
Doloris nodded with a satisfied expression, then.
Suddenly pressed her forehead against mine.
“Lionel?”
“Y-yes?”
“If I find out you've gone to the workshop tonight….”
“……”
“You'll be sleeping with me from now until you become an adult, all right?”
Doloris smiled sweetly and.
Said something truly frightening.
3.
Doloris left for the Tower to put my gloves up for auction.
From what I heard, equipment had to be authenticated before it could be listed in the auction house.
They had to verify that the enhancement level and enchantments were exactly as displayed, and that the item was not counterfeit or a scam.
Well, scams had to be prevented.
And one more thing.
This was something I had just learned: there were two ways to register an auction item.
Simply put, online or offline.
Apparently, there were offline stores every fifty floors of the Tower.
But most transactions were conducted online.
And there was one more distinction.
Anonymous and real-name listings.
Most people seemed to choose anonymity.
Real names were only used by businesses or high rankers above a certain grade.
Apparently, there was a risk of being targeted by looters while climbing the Tower.
I was never going to climb the Tower. Never, ever.
So it was not information I needed.
“It'll be anonymous, right?”
Doloris was a high ranker, but putting a pair of +20 work gloves up for auction felt a little beneath her.
They were absurd equipment, too.
People would start wondering, Who made them?
I knocked on the door of Ruby's magical library.
- Knock, knock.
There was no answer.
Then I'll just come in~
I opened the door and entered.
Ruby was fast asleep, buried beneath her books.
“She's asleep again.”
They said mages had such good energy efficiency that they could practice even while sleeping.
It did not seem like something I needed to worry about.
I plopped down in a spot that looked suitable and.
“Show me the auction house.”
[Uh, but first, there's something I want to tell you before we get to the auction house.]
“What is it?”
Why was she acting so ominous?
Oppa, talk to me for a moment. That's how it sounded in my ears.
[First, since oppa has never entered the Tower… technically, you shouldn't have an account in the first place, right?]
“Right.”
[But I made this account arbitrarily, so it's basically a ghost account.
.
]
“…Really?”
[So, just in case. Don't do anything too reckless, okay?]
“What are you suddenly talking about? What reckless thing would I do?”
[……. ]
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[Rhythm Game Minor Gallery Gal-log]
[Posts (125,561) Comments (356,469)]
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Yuna brought up a suspicious-looking interface.
Good grief….
“……”
The past suddenly came back to me.
All right.
I won't.
“I quit the gallery too, remember? You trust me, right?”
I was confident about this.
I had definitely quit.
Ignoring Yuna's warning-that-wasn't-quite-a-warning, I opened the auction house.
A translucent screen appeared in the air of the library.
[Inner Tower]-[Auction House]
“……”
The screen was filled with countless pieces of equipment arranged in rows.
They started with swords and armor, then went on to tools whose names I did not know.
There looked to be even more if I scrolled down.
All the listed equipment appeared to have been authenticated.
The number of stars and a short flavor text were displayed alongside each item.
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[Shadow Dagger] [★☆☆☆☆]
[Enhancement Level: +4]
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『It holds darkness at the tip of its blade.』
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[Current Bid: 4,200 gold]
[Time Remaining: 1:19:46]
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Okay, 4,200 gold….
All right, 4.2 million won.
The price range was quite broad.
Some cost only a few dozen gold, while others cost tens of thousands.
Even just looking at this was pretty interesting.
What was even more interesting was.
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[Mirror of Mirage]
[Unique Equipment] [★★★★★]
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『If it was seen, it was a lie, and even if it was not seen, that too was a lie.』
— End, Descendant of the Stars —
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[Current Bid: 10 gold]
[Time Remaining: 3:01:14]
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The equipment looked remarkably good at a glance.
Why was it only 10 gold?
Just as I was wondering that.
[💬]
An icon that looked like a speech bubble caught my eye.
When I pressed it.
[💬 Comments (47)]
A screen expanded.
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[Anonymous1]: Why is nobody bidding on this? It looks good? I just bid 10 gold
ㄴ[Anonymous2]: Newbie? lol
ㄴ[Anonymous3]: This guy only lists it and never sells it. He just lists it to show off
ㄴ[Anonymous4]: For real, he lists it every day and ignores bids
ㄴ[Anonymous1]: Ah.. then why does he list it?
ㄴ[Anonymous2]: Because of people like you lol
ㄴ[Anonymous1]: FFS
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Wow….
So you could leave comments on each item in the auction house.
You could haggle, share information, and.
Flex like this, too.
This was fucking ridiculous.
Then, now that we're at it….
Should I search for my equipment?
I returned to the main page and typed General-Purpose Work Gloves into the search bar.
The screen flickered once, and the results appeared.
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[General-Purpose Work Gloves] [☆☆☆☆☆]
[Enhancement Level: +20]
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[Current Bid: 3,000 gold]
[Time Remaining: 6:23:55]
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Oh, 3,000 gold?
Nice. Not bad. They were worth a bit more than I expected.
I could see why Doloris had said she would put them up for auction.
It looked like she had listed them five minutes ago.
“……I can't resist the comments.”
I pressed the button to check the comments, and.
[💬 Comments (211)]
“What?”
It had only been five minutes.
There were 211 comments.
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[Anonymous1]: ????? What is this?
[Anonymous2]: Is this a fucking bug? It makes no sense
[Anonymous3]: Wow lol who broke through the probability?
ㄴ[Anonymous2]: Don't show off how clueless you are. Whatever the probability is, starless gear can't be enhanced past +6 in the first place
[Sakpung]: ?
ㄴ[Anonymous5]: I'm a fan, Sakpung~ When are you restoring the +20 Mana-infused Armguard you fucking wrecked? You should be using ten-star gear~
ㄴ[Sakpung]: I'm not enhancing anymore
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The reaction was incredibly heated.
[Oppa, wait, the comments are lagging really badly.]
[The comments keep increasing?]
[💬 Comments (217)]
[💬 Comments (224)]
[💬 Comments (231)]
The number was rising in real time.
- Click.
“……”
- Click.
“……”
- Rattle, clack.
- Rattle, clack.
- Rattle, clack.
I started refreshing the comment section.
[Oppa.]
[Oppa?]
I began enjoying the reactions as I read through the comments.
This, this is the stuff….
Posting proof of an All-Marvelous run and reading the comments.
[There he goes again….]
How long had I been watching them?
With Yuna's lament serving as background music, the comments soon surpassed 1,000.
But then.
- Ding.
- Ding.
[Current Bid: 10,000 gold]
[Current Bid: 13,000 gold]
[Current Bid: 17,500 gold]
The price began to rise.
“It was only 3,000 gold a moment ago…?”
Someone kept raising the price.
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[Anonymous165]: Why is the price rising so much? It's just a pair of work gloves
ㄴ[Anonymous1770]: (Link)
ㄴ[Anonymous1770]: Look at this
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I clicked the link out of curiosity, and.
The screen expanded.
The Enchantment Gallery on the Inner Tower community.
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[✪][Request for Featured Post) Estimated Specs of +20 Work Gloves]
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(Photo of a graph)
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Oh, what the hell.
The post was incredibly long.
It was packed so densely with formulas and graphs that I had to scroll for ages.
“I don't wanna read it….”
[Sigh]
Fortunately, there was a helpful three-line summary at the very bottom of the post.
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1. Since there is no data on work gloves above +6, the figures were estimated through simulation
2. The utility of every enhancement increases acceleratively as the level rises (similar to an exponential function)
3. Based on this, for the same equipment slot, +20 General-Purpose Work Gloves ≒ +10.5 Mana-infused Armguards.
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“……”
+10.5 Mana-infused Armguards?
I did not know exactly what that meant, so I returned to the auction house, and.
And then.
- Ding.
[Current Bid: 60,500 gold]
The value of the work gloves had already.
Reached 605 million won.
[Current Bid: 60,500 gold]
The value of the work gloves had already reached 605 million won.