Volume 21 Chapter 6, Jewel

One day, a few days after Peach’s Divine Power Intoxication.

Haku reported to Kousuke.

“Father, the Tower Level has reached LV5!”

“Oh? Does that mean that a new item has been unlocked?”

“Yes”

All the 4 attribute Towers had reached level 5 a few days before, except for the Northwest Tower.

He had confirmed that in the Northeast Tower, which was the first to reach level 5, unique items were unlocked at the same time it reached Tower Level 5.

The other two towers, the Southeast and Southwest, also had unique items unlocked at the same time they reached Tower Level 5.

The only tower left was the Northwest Tower, where Haku was responsible for administration, and it was finally unlocked.

The unique items unlocked at the Northwest Tower were as follows.

Name: Wind Jewel

Installation Cost: 300,000 pts (Divine Power)

Description: A unique item from the Northwest Tower. It can create a wind attribute barrier.

Since the Northeast Tower was <Earth Jewel>, the Southeast Tower was <Water Jewel>, and the Southwest Tower was <Fire Jewel>, the 4th Tower’s item was as expected.

It was not known at this point what role these four jewels would serve.

In the first Tower managed by Peach, its effect was only that the surrounding dependents appeared to be able to learn earth-based magic more easily.

It was not yet confirmed whether the same thing would happen in the other Towers, and it was still not certain whether this was the jewel’s actual effect.

It could have been because each Tower specialized in one of the four attributes in the first place, so it would be possible to create a dependent that originally corresponded to each of the four attributes.

“Have you installed it yet?”

“Yes. It’s placed where everyone else is. They were kind of happy about it, you know?”

“I see.”

When Haku says “everyone,” she was, of course, referring to the floor where the mini-dragons were.

Mini-dragons were classified as dragons, so in a sense, they were the same species as Haku.

Incidentally, both the mini-dragons in Northwest Tower and those in Amamiya Tower had already evolved.

Since there were multiple evolutionary paths, it was difficult to specify the conditions of evolution, but it was certain that they had become as strong as the other species.

“Evolution… Oh, come to think of it, wasn’t the Treasure Jewel series also qualified as a target for the right eye at one point?”

He confirmed this with Earth Jewel, but then he remembered that he had never checked the other jewels.

Since Haku was right in front of him, he decided to check what was going on with the <Wind Jewel>.

It was just installed, so there might be nothing there, but just in case.

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Accompanied by Haku and Mitsuki, they headed for the floor where the <Wind Jewel> was located in the Northwest Tower.

Mini-dragons were gathered around the jewel.

Evolved individuals such as rock dragons and hell dragons were also in the same state.

Normally, mini-dragons would be feared by anyone other than the best adventurers, but the way they crowded around the treasure ball and pecked at it with their noses, they didn’t look threatening at all.

However, even though they were pushing each other away, it may have been more of a playful gesture.

Anyway, it seems that <Wind Jewel> was an interesting presence for the dragons.

He checked with his right eye and found <Evolution Sprout> in the same way as the <Earth Jewel>.

He tried to see if he could give it DIvine Protection like he did with his dependents and members, but unfortunately, it didn’t work.

“I guess it doesn’t work out that conveniently, does it?”

He muttered with a wry smile, but then a thought occurred to him.

He wondered why he hadn’t noticed it before, but he would reflect on it later.

For now, he wanted to try to do what came to his mind.

The first thing he did was to ask if he could do something, so he called Sylph over.

“Sylph, are you there?”

“Yes, yes. Did you call for me?”

“Yes, I did. Can you give this jewel Sylph’s power?”

Kousuke pointed to the jewel, and Sylph began to wander around and touch it.

“… Hmmm… is it currently difficult?”

It was as he had expected to some extent, so he wasn’t too depressed, but for a moment almost missed the important part.

“Well… Hmm? Currently?”

Kousuke, noticing Sylph’s subtle phrasing, tilted his head.

“That’s right. If I continue to put my strength into it, it might break.”

“Oh. Like exceeding the allowable amount or something?”

“Yes, yes. Something like that.”

As far as Sylph was concerned, it seemed that he was not wrong in his prediction that it would be a vessel to accept a fairy’s power.

However, to accept that power, the jewel itself was still too fragile to accept power.

So, if the vessel could be made strong enough to accept the power…. Then, after thinking this far, he suddenly thought of something.

“… After all, it’s the same as what I see with my right eye…”

Sylph and Haku looked at Kousuke, who fell to his knees in shock, in wonder.

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“Well, now I’m stuck. I guess I’m back to square one.”

What had worked with Sylvia and the others and their dependents turned out not to work with the jewel?

It was too naive to think that Divine Protection could be given to an object in the first place.

“The point is how to strengthen the jewel so that it can withstand the power of the fairies, right?”

Kousuke was troubled, and Mitsuki, who was standing beside him, asked him this.

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

“Can’t you strengthen it with Divine Power, like when you create a sacred object?”

“….What? Ah!”

He realized that he had been thinking too hard after hearing Mitsuki’s advice.

He had been thinking of it as strengthening the vessel of the soul, and it had never occurred to him that simply strengthening it with Divine Power might be sufficient to make it more durable in accepting the power of the fairies.

If that was the case, that would be within Kousuke’s area of expertise.

He decided to ignore his own criticism that he had not thought of this.

With Peach’s permission, he went to the floor of the Northeast Tower where the <Earth Jewel> was located.

While Peach, who had recovered completely from the Divine Power Intoxication, looked over, Kousuke checked the state of the Divine Power in the <Earth Jewel>.

If it had originally been enhanced with Divine Power, Mitsuki’s idea would not have worked in the first place.

Fortunately, it was not enhanced with Divine Power, so it turned out that there was room for Kousuke’s modification.

The problem, however, was how to strengthen it.

There were two ways to strengthen the item: to embed the jewel into an item and strengthen it as a whole, or to give Divine Power to the jewel itself and strengthen it.

Depending on which method was used, it would depend on whether the goal of the project could be achieved in the first place.

Normally, it would be better to strengthen the jewel itself, but it was not clear whether that strengthening would allow the fairy’s power to be accepted.

“Oh, I see. So, that’s the reason why that was done in the Vermilion Castle?”

Vermilinia Jewel and Vermilion Castle always existed as a set.

The jewel itself was too small to be used as a vessel for growth.

Of course, it would be possible to do so by packing them in, but it would be more stable to strengthen them as a set with an exterior.

Vermilion Castle itself was also a powerful castle, so he thought it had something to do with it, but if it was used for this purpose, it would make sense.

“Hmm. This doesn’t seem to be working.”

“There’s still some other way~, I’m certain.”

Peach, seeing Kousuke resigned, mistakenly consoled him.

“Oh, sorry. It’s not that.”

After apologizing for a moment, he discussed the thoughts he just had.

“…So, if you look into Vermilinia Jewel in detail, will you find anything~?”

“I mean, I can find out, or rather, I can use it as a reference, I should say?”

He wondered why he hadn’t looked into it before, but he never thought about that in the first place.

However, there was hope that now he might have some understanding of how Vermilinia Jewel worked.

He didn’t realize it yet, but Kousuke was going steadily on a path as one of the tool-making Gods.