I Level Up With In-app Purchases

EP.103 By the Words of the Saintess (5)

To show them that their thinking was wrong, the only option was to demonstrate it personally by taking action.

Unless I said, “I’m doing this, are you just going to stand by and watch?” they wouldn’t take the initiative.

The nobles aren’t fools either; if we succeed in purifying the land, they’ll want to claim some credit for themselves.

It was necessary to create a situation that could change their minds, so they could fight against the contaminated areas again.

‘I didn’t know Suhan was thinking the same thing as me.’

Until now, I couldn’t go around freely talking about these thoughts I had.

What good would it do to speak up?

When no one would take it seriously.

At some point, I stopped talking to Shasha about it too.

She tries to stop me when I bring up these topics, saying it’s dangerous.

So I thought Suhan would be the same.

But he wasn’t.

‘He was thinking similar thoughts to mine.’

To be honest.

‘It was unfair.’

It made me misunderstand, thinking he was determined to entice me.

I’m doing this crazy thing to reclaim my homeland, the desert, but he didn’t even have that motivation.

It was purely a sense of duty that he had to do this for humanity.

That’s why I couldn’t help but find that guy even more endearing.

‘Ugh!’

Is it because I’m thinking of Suhan?

Suddenly, my lower abdomen felt warm, and that secret place below tingled subtly.

How long has it been since I’ve been with that guy, and yet I found myself wanting to see his face again.

‘I need to hold back.’

Today was particularly a day when I didn’t feel like attending class.

The joy of having my eyes fixed and not having the loved one to share that joy with by my side created a strange feeling.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

“That general store over there is losing customers gradually.”

Curious about what happened to Ash’s General Store after the bet with Rebecca, I took a walk around that area.

It wasn’t completely devoid of customers, but compared to the bustling Ash’s General Store of the past, it could only be described as deserted.

‘It’s on the verge of bankruptcy.’

The owner of Ash’s General Store had accumulated bad karma, so it was understandable.

Moreover.

“When did this one open up?”

Across from Ash’s General Store, a large new general store had opened up.

The location choice was a blatant attempt to steal Ash’s General Store’s customers.

And it seemed to be working well, as students who should have gone to Ash’s General Store were crowding the store across the street.

“Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.”

Even excluding such special circumstances, the number of students seemed low.

‘Is it because my goods have entered the Academy?’

The bet between Rebecca and Ash’s General Store had an unexpected promotional effect.

Since that day, the volume of orders coming in from the Academy had been increasing.

While making a lot of money was good, if I kept supplying the Academy with so many items like this, I might run out of things to sell at the general store.

Although business wasn’t great since people didn’t know the location of the general store, there were still ‘rules’ that even a general store had to follow.

For a store selling goods, I disliked the idea of not having enough items for customers to buy when they came in.

“Still, the money is quite nice.”

From the beginning, I never considered rejecting Academy orders, even before having these concerns.

So, what’s next?

‘Time to draw.’

It was time to spin the gacha.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Remembering how frustrating it was when I couldn’t keep drawing equipment for Ariane after promising to get her some, I invested quite a bit of money to draw her weapon.

In the process, I did draw several unique pieces of equipment, but the frustrating part was that Ariane’s specific item didn’t come out.

However, thanks to drawing Ariane’s unique weapon in the last spending spree, I felt at ease spinning the gacha as much as I wanted.

I was confident I could recover the money even if I spent it.

“Is this my weapon?”

“Yes.”

This way, I could sell the unique equipment to Ariane at a high price.

“Ooooooh!!!!!!! It looks so cool!!! Can I touch it?”

“Of course.”

Ariane’s unique equipment was a dagger.

It was simple yet elegant, with unknown inscriptions on the blade in a luxurious green color. Even to me, it looked like a well-crafted weapon.

“Do you like it?”

“It fits perfectly in my hand. Wow~ It’s like it’s sticking to my palm, isn’t it?”

“That’s not possible.”

Ariane repeatedly put down and picked up the dagger, as if she couldn’t believe it.

The unique equipment must fit her hand so well that it seemed to stick to her palm.

“You’ll like it even more once you try using it.”

“I don’t even need to try it out. I absolutely must buy this!”

As expected of a rich man’s daughter, she had the right attitude towards purchasing items.

“How could I not like this? It’s absolutely perfect! Give it to me right now!! I’ll definitely buy it! It’s good that you brought something expensive. This should be enough for the trade, right?”

Ariane pulled out a pouch from her chest.

It was larger than Ariane’s hand, but too small to be a monster by-product.

“Is this the payment?”

It seemed Ariane intended to pay for the unique equipment in full.

I wasn’t sure what she had brought, but since she said it was a fairly high-quality monster by-product, I was expecting it to be similar to the price Vine had paid.

“Yes. Take a look.”

After telling me to check the item, she started swinging the dagger around to get a feel for it.

‘It’s Ariane, not just anyone else. She wouldn’t have lowballed the price, right?’

I opened the pouch to check inside.

‘What’s this?’

At first glance, the sky-blue sparkling thing looked like it might be a diamond, but since she said it was a monster by-product, it seemed to be a special part.

‘Special parts are really expensive.’

Gulp—!

This would sell for even more than the basilisk by-product Vine had given me.

As expected, it was an incredible display of generosity befitting a young lady from a duke’s family.

And that generosity inevitably spilled over into her desire to possess the item.

“Don’t you have anything else?”

“Is that not enough?”

“It’s not that this isn’t enough! I was just thinking that since you got me such a good weapon, maybe you could get other good parts too.”

So, does she want to cover her entire body with unique equipment?

That’s not possible, is it?

“I’m not that capable, you know.”

“I’ll have you know, I’m from a duke’s family. I’ve touched all sorts of good things, but I’ve never had a weapon that I liked this much.”

Ariane keeps praising me, trying to persuade me to get her all the other equipment as well.

But since my ability only allowed me to provide Ariane with the dagger, I firmly shook my head.

“Don’t expect anything more than that. Even if I had more, I wouldn’t give it to you.”

“Why not~ I’ll pay you properly for it.”

“Instead of coveting other items, why don’t you try something else?”

“Something else?”

“That weapon I gave you is actually a growth type.”

“Growth… type?”

Since this world didn’t have the games I played in my previous life, I needed to explain in detail about unique equipment enhancement.

I thought it would take a long time to understand since this concept didn’t exist here, but surprisingly, she grasped the words perfectly.

“So, boss, you’re saying that if I apply money to this weapon, it can become stronger?”

“But you need a bit of luck. If you fail, it might become weaker again, so you have to be careful.”

“That doesn’t matter. Anyway, if I apply money, this thing gets stronger, right?”

Ariane said this was the first time she’d seen something so unusual and that she was curious about how it worked.

“Want to try it now?”

“Yes!! Do it right now!! How do we do it?”

“Wait a moment.”

Actually, since this was my first time enhancing too, I didn’t know how to do it.

Since it was bound to look strange to her, I asked for the dagger, told her to wait here, and went into the storage room.

When I opened the enhancement window, I saw a square box with a hammer-shaped UI button next to it.

I tried pressing the hammer shape first.

[No target for enhancement.]

“So, do I put it in here?”

When I brought Ariane’s weapon to the square box, the physical dagger went right into the square window with a pop!

Helpfully, it was written below that the equipment wouldn’t be destroyed up to +3.

+1: Enhancement Success Rate (100%)

Clang!!!

Success!

+2: Enhancement Success Rate (98%)

Clang!!!

Success!

+3: Enhancement Success Rate (90%)

Clang!!!

Success!

Up to +3, it succeeded smoothly in a direct sequence.

From here on, there was a chance of destruction, so I decided to ask her as we went along.

Since I wasn’t the owner, I couldn’t keep enhancing indefinitely.

“Ariane.”

I went outside and showed her the unique equipment I took out of the square box.

“This is +3.”

“Wow! The weapon has gained some strange power? It feels like it’s gotten stronger than before.”

Ariane, being the equipment owner, was clearly feeling the change.

In reality, that weapon’s basic stats were much better than its original abilities.

=================================

Zesberos [+3] (SSR)

One-handed Dagger

Base Attack Power: 271

Physical Damage Increased by 12%

Critical Hit Damage Increased by 9%

Poison Damage Increased by 5%

=================================

The name of Ariane’s dagger was Zesberos.

The base attack power was 256, but after enhancing to +3, the value increased by 5 each time, reaching 271.

“From here on, it really starts to cost a lot. You need to use separate scrolls to prevent destruction. Plus, the money you put in will keep increasing.”

“If you’ve enhanced it three times, how much have you done?”

“This is just the beginning.”

+4 could be considered the start of the real climb.

When I played this game in my previous life, there was no enhancement system, but I knew what it felt like from experiencing enhancements in other games.

“How many times can you enhance it?”

“The limit is said to be +12, but probably after +9, the success rate will drop below decimal points. It’s as good as telling you not to do it. In my opinion, it’s better to stop at +9 or +10.”

How much money has been lost due to enhancements in other games?

I gladly shared my know-how, drawing from that experience.

Sadly, it didn’t seem like my know-how transfer was very effective in reaching Ariane’s ears.

“+12!”

“You shouldn’t think it only gets enhanced. Destruction prevention is possible, but there’s no enhancement maintenance. If you fail, the enhancement level can drop sharply. You could go from +9 back to +3, or from +11 back to +3.”

The fact that there were items to increase the success rate but no items to maintain the enhancement level proved that this enhancement system would undoubtedly become a money-sucking hippopotamus.

“I don’t care! Keep going!! +12! Absolutely +12!!”

Is this how far she’s going to show off being from a noble family?

She was talking as if she couldn’t see anything else now that she knew +12 was the maximum.

She’ll change her mind about demanding +12 no matter what once she painfully learns the reality.

Of course.

“…Let’s make sure we calculate properly, kiddo.”

I decided to check the value of the item this kid had brought first.

I knew there was no limit to the money poured into enhancements.

I knew she had the ability to pay off credit, but if I didn’t set a limit, she’d be sitting here for hours.