Chapter 793 – Unsuccessful hunt
*Boom*
Aiko crushed everything in her path, thanks to the synergy that the Meteor Hammer introduced.
That was because the Meteor Hammer with the chains were counted as both blunt and ranged weapons.
That meant that most of her passives applied to it, amplifying the already devastating damage further.
The wolves were not a problem for a while, until that fucker appeared.
[Wolf Champion appeared.]
That thing had intelligence, which always commanded those wolves to retreat when Aiko got close.
'Should I get a new outfit?' Aiko felt like she could solve this with that, but was that really the case? And what if she had to change outfits every time she encountered an obstacle?
'What if later I will need to go and pay for everything?' With each monster defeated, more different and unique clothes appeared, but the problem was that those clothes had to be bought.
She couldn't just take them like the common clothes, since they were, in one way or another, special.
Aiko frowned. How was she supposed to get through that leader's skill to sniff her out...?
'Can I cover myself with something?' Aiko tilted her head, but if it dripped off of her, then it would still alert those dogs.
Aiko sighed gently. Should she just use something with a bigger range? That was always possible.
'But I don't want to return so many times.' Maybe if she had more room around her, she could extend the force and flight behind the Meteor Hammer, but with branches and trees everywhere, that was difficult.
That was another reason she couldn't use her sling, but...
'I don't want to go into a melee.' Aiko nodded her head seriously.
[Soul Points: 47,665]
She had plenty of Soul Points, so she could also try and feed the Spirit Slime.
'What if I upgraded the house instead of the slime?' Aiko thought about various things and what to do, but she couldn't make up her mind.
It was possible that feeding the Spirit Slime would yield good results, but with her luck, it might take more than that.
Moreover, while the better house would speed up the growing process, it didn't show exactly by how much, so the effect could be miniscule.
'Let's return home for now.' Aiko nodded her head seriously before retreating once again.
...
The safe area was growing by the day. The colours were also slowly returning and spreading, but it would still take a lot of time before the whole safe area was coloured.
'I also feel like the walls are getting wider and wider.' Aiko had this gnawing feeling like those walls were slowly drifting away from the centre, but she couldn't find anything that would indicate that.
More houses inside? She couldn't see anything new. More room inside? Again, no, there was nothing that would indicate that the space got bigger.
The only reason why Aiko thought so, was because the walk towards her house took longer, or at least that was what she believed.
However, with nothing to back her up on that, it was difficult to say if that was true.
Aiko shook her head before walking past a new shop.
"Hm?" Aiko immediately turned around since something caught her interest.
[Mortar]
"Hm?" Aiko's eyes sparkled slightly. She never saw such a slick cannon before, so she entered the shop.
It had many strange cannons and even cannons that were attached to carriages, but most of those things were very expensive, so Aiko didn't pay much attention to them.
What interested her was the cannon aiming upwards and another cannon that was loaded by many small cannonballs
"Interesting~" Aiko giggled, quite liking them, but this was something that she couldn't currently use.
"Hmmmm..." Aiko narrowed her eyes. There was no rule that said she couldn't cause deforestation, right?
"Or maybe I should burn it?" Since her normal means didn't work, and she didn't really want to go head-to-head against cooperating wolves, she had different ideas.
However, both of those things would require her some money.
Well, axes wouldn't cost her anything, but transportation would cost her. As such she couldn't make up her mind again.
Again, the burning part would be the most effective, but how was she supposed to retrieve the loot while the whole place was burning?!
"Gosh, this is troublesome." Aiko was even considering heavy armour, which she never wanted to see before.
Heavy armour would allow her to tank some hits and if she got a shield and some weapon, she would pretty much become a complete tank and would be able to take them on as long as she had stamina.
"I don't know how much stamina I have in this place." Aiko groaned unhappily. She was never tired yet, but that didn't mean she wouldn't tire out.
"Let's check the slime house upgrades first." Aiko nodded her head seriously. Maybe it was time to see if she could somehow speed up the growth of those little things.
...
Inside the tiny house shop. She found the slime home again, but she couldn't find anything better.
Coming over to the other side, which seemed like new, she found some nice things.
A purifying device that would allow her to imbue water with Mana, allowing the water to be saturated and very healthy for any kind of monster.
That would mean that the river or whatever that was that ran through the cave, would have its water improved greatly.
It felt like a worthwhile investment, but Aiko would first check the others, since these upgrades required Soul Points.
There was a device for air, soil and pretty much all elements and a few more. However, the effects... Aiko didn't know if it would help slimes.
She already understood that slimes didn't need to eat the usual food, but they liked the Soul Points, so what would happen if she fed them more Mana? Would they grow quicker or change in some way?
"I wonder if I could see the effects..." Aiko narrowed her eyes.
Each device at its lowest quality cost 1,000 Soul Points. That was a pretty steep price for something that Aiko didn't know if it would work.
However, without taking at least one, she couldn't take any tests.
[Water Purifier]
Aiko bought one, since this seemed like the most useful one. Pretty much all creatures needed water to survive. Some less, some more and some used it to balance their internal acidity, so everything should be fine.
...
Aiko went over to her home to see if anything would change if she placed it into the small cave home for slimes.
However, when she touched their home a window popped up.
[It's not advised to nourish the water as it would make survival difficult.]
So it seemed like slimes didn't either like the water imbued by Mana or it was poison to them? Or maybe it would change the landscape? It was difficult to say since the message was too vague.
'Maybe I need to defeat more Waves to make it tell me more information?' Aiko tilted her head.
[That is correct.]
"Stingy." Aiko stuck out her tongue.
[That is also correct.]
"HEY!" Aiko yelled at the message. She felt like she was being bullied again. "You will get it from my companions!"
[That is impossible. This space is too small to host another.]
"Hm?" Aiko didn't expect she could invite the others, but-
"What about the Spirit Slime?" Aiko felt like she could extract some information through this.
[Everything you see inside this place is fake. Unless you nurture it past the normal means, it will never be able to become real.]
"Does that mean that I'm something like a Soul creator?" Aiko tilted her head.
[Not quite. Please clear more Waves to get more answers, Princess.]
"So stingy." Aiko sighed, but it was not like she didn't want to clear those waves.
Aiko looked around. Maybe she could find out from touching the house more?
...
It took her a while, but she did figure it out.
[Luminescent Ore][Description: It improves the growth of Cave-based Monsters.]
'Hmmmmm.' Aiko didn't see anything like that in the shop, so this was troublesome.
"Gosh..." Aiko sighed. She threw this work into the back of her head and entered her home.
It was oddly cosy inside and kind of reminded her of Mei's room, but the scent or anything was not there yet for some reason, making Aiko slightly sad.
"If I knew I would be stuck in here I would first return." Aiko nodded her head.
[This place is one time thing.]
"Why?" Aiko tilted her head again.
[You bullied the space too much even if it tried to trap you.]
"..." Aiko was speechless. She never expected this kind of answer.
Was she so skilled that everything went like this or was violence always the answer...?
"How about bringing those that are directly tied to me?" Aiko suggested that.
[You can bring over the [Seed].]
"Why is it special?" Aiko couldn't understand why that one could be brought in or bought in?
[Because it has the trait of [Comprehension].]
"Ah, since Soul has a lot of information that thing would fit right in." Aiko nodded her head seriously.
[Indeed.]
Aiko was happy that she could summon at least someone, but was that a good idea? What if she couldn't bring anyone else in.
[With each Wave, this space gets 'bigger'. You will be able to invite more overtime, based on how big their Souls are.]
The system was suddenly explaining things, making Aiko suspicious of it.
"What is your plan with this?" Aiko tilted her head, but she was trying to find out anything she could from this.
[We cannot say...][We are sorry, Princess...]
