MTLNOVEL Chapter 15
“So, where is this water you’re talking about?”
I showed the elderly woman the jar of water in front of me.
“This is it.”
“Ho-ho. What a handy blessing. Is it a special type?”
“Yes. I can’t go into the details, but it’s quite a useful ability.”
The special types of blessings range from useless ones to very rare and powerful ones. It’s not surprising if it seems like my ability involves teleporting something.
“Well, let me check it for you.”
She took the water from the jar and dripped it onto a device. Then she read out the numbers that appeared.
“This is water from a Dungeon Rank II.”
It was only when I heard the appraisal result that I realized it was the second-lowest difficulty rank.
“For each jar, you’ll get 25 silver coins. Is that alright?”
“That’s fine. I have about 50 jars. Is that okay?”
I asked, wondering if it was too much, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“We’re good on our end.”
It seemed like there was no problem. Perhaps the demand for water was that high. I decided it was best to keep collecting water.
She approved, so I started lining up the jars one by one.
“Now, let me move this.”
She brought out something like a pump, connected the jar to the water tank, and started transferring the water.
“This magic tool is convenient.”
“Without this, it would be hard labor.”
Indeed, I felt tired just from carrying the water. While it wasn’t a priority right now, eventually I should consider buying these kinds of magic tools.
Before long, the water transfer was complete.
“That’ll be 12 gold coins and 50 silver coins.”
She handed me the money. Given the amount of work involved, I might have thought it was quite a profit, but in reality, if someone had an Item Box, they would need to clear space beforehand, and if not, transporting it would take labor.
When I thought about it that way, the reward seemed fair, maybe even a little low.
“Thank you.”
Smiling happily, I took the money and continued to touch the jars, letting Eve collect them one by one.
“Is that everything?”
I checked around to make sure I hadn’t missed any jars, glancing around. That’s when I noticed something odd.
“Hm. Is there something else?”
The old woman noticed my attention and asked.
“I’m about to ask something strange, but is it alright?”
“For a young person, you sure are polite. What is it? I’ve already sold you a lot, so feel free to ask.”
Taking her up on her offer, I pointed to a shelf in the corner.
“What about this stone? What is it?”
There were transparent stones stacked messily on the shelf.
“That’s a defective Dungeon Core.”
“Huh. A defective one?”
“Usually, dungeons are ranked from I to VII, but there are two exceptions.”
She began explaining as if teaching a student.
“First, there’s the dungeon with a unique name that hasn’t been explored by humans yet. It’s not classified by rank, and it’s been around for an unknown amount of time, constantly repelling any invaders.”
I’d heard of those kinds of stories before—dungeons that have existed for ages, repelling every intruder without fail.
“The second exception is the Special Dungeon. These are dungeons that either have only one room, contain rare ores but no monsters, or connect to different places through teleportation magic circles. They’re dungeons where the difficulty can’t be measured.”
I hadn’t known about those. I realized that much of the knowledge I had was from when I was a kid in Eriku, and it was limited. There were plenty of gaps and mistakes in what I knew. Now that I was out in the world, it might be a good idea to gather more information.
“So, even in Special Dungeons, you can get cores, but these don’t react to magic tools like the others. That’s why they’re called defective.”
“I see. A useless Dungeon Core… but why is this one here?”
Even though they were stacked messily, there was some meaning to their presence. I waited for the old woman to respond.
“If you crush them and mix them with paint, they become a tool for drawing magic circles. They still have some magical power left, you see.”
That solved the mystery. Still, a useless Dungeon Core… I felt a strange pull. If it works, it might be worth a gamble.
“By the way, how much are all of these?”
“That’ll be 12 gold coins.”
It was almost the exact same amount as the gold coins I had just received.
The exam is tomorrow, and I still have things I need to prepare. I also need money for lodging and other expenses…
“Master, what are you going to do?”
I heard Eve’s voice. She’s saved me in many tight situations before. More than anything, I was questioning if I would really be able to pass the exam. The old woman had said that the difficulty level has been increasing every year. I could only use two types of magic; I wasn’t sure if that was enough to get through.
After thinking for a moment, I replied:
“I’ll take all the Dungeon Cores.”