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Chapter 25: Dragon Soul

The Magician weapon is a staff. Although, that doesnt mean I cant equip other weapons. Equipment has stat restrictions, and as long as you meet those requirements, you can equip it no matter what your class is. The same types of weapons dont always have the same restrictions (some staves have an Intelligence restriction and others have a Wisdom restriction), but basically, the stronger the equipment is, the more strict the stat restrictions are.

By the way, even if you dont meet the requirements, that doesnt mean you cant hold it or wear it. You can wear it, but you wont receive the benefits of equipping it. If you hold a weapon like a nail bat and hit something with it, you wont deal damage if you dont meet the requirements, and even if you put on lots of layers, the system will calculate damage based on what you have equipped. By making use of this, you can dress up beyond the normal equipment slots, and there are even outfit coordination competitions organized by players who wear a lot of accessories and compete to be the best dressed.

But, back to the main topic

Even if its possible to equip other weapons, skills can only be used with the specified weapon, and most Magician skills require a staff, so staves are practically the only option.

In addition, weapons and armor have a Durability bar, and if it falls to zero, the weapon breaks and becomes unusable. Even though Magicians dont attack directly, using skills causes the weapon to deteriorate. So, youll need to buy a new weapon or repair it.

Repairing a weapon restoring its Durability can be done by either bringing it to the weapons shop NPC or by having a Blacksmith, a production class, use Repair Weapon on it. Although repairing is cheaper than buying a new weapon, the weapons Max Durability decreases each time you repair it, so youll need to buy a new weapon eventually.

Since my levels been going up a lot, Ive had to buy new weapons before my old ones got used up (theres higher-ranking equipment every 5-10 levels or so), so it hasnt really been a problem until now. But when you make it past level 45 and the level up rate gradually slows to where youll level up maybe once or twice a day, the interval between weapon replacements will also increase. The price of the weapon increases depending on how strong it is, so I cant replace them too frequently, but The Durability really is decreasing a lot, and Ive been considering it for some time now, so maybe I should just go for it and buy a new one.

Actually, Ive been wanting to buy a weapon with MP Drain. To be frank, Ive been using a ton of MP potions lately. Their individual cost isnt that high, but Ive been going through them really quickly.

Fortunately, Brandenburg has monsters that drop materials for MP Drain: Dragons.

Dragons are powerful monsters that are standard in fantasy worlds. That said, there is a lower ranking type of dragon called a Lesser Dragon that cant really fly because its so slow (apparently, the explanation for that is that theyre not good at flying magic. Well, western-style dragons physique isnt well-suited for flying anyway), but theyre still dragons. Dragons are the reason I started playing a VRMMO in the first place, so I have strong feelings about them. During the dragon ride, I was scared of the high altitude, but when it comes to fighting them, it stirs my imagination and my excitement.

The day we decided to go dragon hunting, I told Alexia about how excited I was to see a dragon for the first time, and she laughed at me and said I was sort of like a little kid. That was a bit embarrassing. When we defeated the dragon, I got so excited that Irene, who was drawing the dragons attention, got mad at me.

The dragon material we got from that battle, the Dragon Soul, is a roundish, palm-sized crystal with green flame in the middle, and applying it to your weapon gives it MP Drain. By the way, the color of the flame changes depending on the dragons strength, apparently. It sells at a high price, so it should be a rare item, but maybe Im just really lucky since I got one from about one in five kills. Because of that, I collected more than I needed. In other games Ive played, it took me more than a month to get a rare item, though. Is this game balanced right? Well, every class uses MP, so even this drop rate might not be enough to meet demand.

After several more days of leveling up, we collected over a hundred Dragon Souls and sold them at the Guild (actually, trading with other players would probably be more profitable than selling them to NPCs, but it seemed like it would take a lot of time to trade all of those, so I gave up on that idea). Then, I took only the necessary amount to the weapons shop to have a new staff made, along with a matching staff for Alexia and a rapier for Irene.

It seems like Alexia is really happy about it since shes in such a good mood, but is she really that happy from getting a new weapon? I kind of want to try it out too now. Im looking forward to tomorrow.

Brandenburgs blacksmith, Bartel, was in a good mood, humming as he walked over to the Adventurers Guild. The daily life of craftsmen like him is a constant cycle of buying monster ingredients collected by the Adventurers Guild, making things like weapons and armor, and delivering them to weapon shops (though there are some who also run weapon shops). Likewise, he came to the Adventurers Guild today to pick up materials. Normally, an apprentice would pick up the materials, but theres a reason why a craftsman such as himself came to pick them up.

Recently, theres been a sudden improvement in the quality of materials. After all, it is, perhaps, a craftsmans nature to become motivated after acquiring good quality or rare materials, as theyll be able to create better things. He is also this type of craftsman, preferring to visit the Adventurers Guild himself to see them as quickly as possible rather than wait in his workshop.

Hey, Im back. You got anything good today? Bartel called out to the guild employee who usually assists him.

Ah, welcome, boss, the employee responded. Normally, this employee would give him a friendly greeting, but today in particular, he was slow to respond.

You seem down, whats wrong? Bad business?

Nah, if anything, business has been good, but

Thanks to all the good quality materials these days, the Adventurers Guild had been making a considerable profit from selling them at high prices. Then, when high-quality equipment was up for sale, adventurers rushed to buy new equipment, and now, Brandenburg was having a bit of an economic boom. Therefore, Bartels question was reasonable, and the guild employees vague answer worried him.

Boss, what do you make of this? the guild employee asked, showing him a crystal. However, inside the crystal is a beautiful flame pattern.

Thats a Dragon Soul, right? What about it?

A Dragon Soul is a rare crystal that can only be obtained from the corpse of a dragon that has lived for many years. Its a valuable crystal that has the property of absorbing surrounding mana and is said to reduce mana usage for spellcasting when placed in a staff. However, although it was incredibly valuable, brilliant mages would have at least one, so Bartel had seen several of them in his many years as a blacksmith.

But this one sure is beautiful. To get a Dragon Soul, you gotta tear into that thick flesh and take it out, so if you arent good at it, the crystal will get chipped. Was it the usual guys again?

Lately, an adventurer trio showed up in Brandenburg. One of them seemed to be a student of the prestigious Stolbrussen Magic Academy. She was accepting quests as part of a class, but this was the first time a student went all the way to such a remote area, so there was a bit of a dispute in the Adventurers Guild about how to handle her achievements. In the end, they decided to let the academy make the call and just report everything to them, but If the school found out that one students achievements put top-notch adventurers to shame, they might determine that it was a false report. Although, if the Guild found out that she was the academys worst student, they would laugh it off as some sort of joke.

Yeah, its the usual group. When you look at those guys, its like your standards for adventurers get all messed up. I hear the higher-ups are seriously considering setting up an exclusive high-paying quest.

It even made him wonder if monsters could really be wiped out this easily, if they could calmly deliver hundreds of materials every day without batting an eye. His opinion of other adventurers was becoming more strict in comparison, and the evaluations he gave them during quest completion was becoming lower. A guild employee who was a former adventurer told him thats not normal, so dont compare them to those guys and started correcting him.

So, about that Dragon Soul, we have this many of them, he said, placing about five bags filled to their limit onto the table with a thud. When Bartel opened the bags in disbelief, they were packed with Dragon Souls. Bartels face stiffened with astonishment.

Woah, youve gotta be kidding! The Dragon Soul market will collapse if this many of them are introduced to it!

Top-quality Dragon Souls sell for several dozen platinum, and even the price of low-quality ones is absurd, ranging from 200 to 300 gold. Even so, if this many of them get collected, the price of Dragon Souls in circulation will collapse. Even if theres a demand for them, the number of mages in Brandenburg who could afford to buy them at their original market price can be counted on two hands. If they wanted to sell them all, they would have to lower the price considerably.

Yup. Maybe I shouldnt have approved this purchase But as you can see, theyre very good quality. I couldnt just let them go.

But if you cant sell them, theres nothing you can do about it.

Yup. Ahh, s**t, I shouldnt have given in to such a weird desire, the guild employee said, holding his head in his hands.

Well, why not try negotiating with the Guild in the capital? Theres a lot of nobles there, so I bet theyll sell. You could probably make a profit even if you use dragon transport.

I guess well have to do that. Man, its such a hassle to have to owe the main branch.

Seeing the guild employees face twisted into a deeply reluctant one, Bartel laughed.

Although Chaos and Alexia have been known as heroes throughout history, not all of their actions are praised. In particular, their actions concerning Dragon Souls have received criticism from historians. Because they were mages, they used staves, but there is an anecdote that they favored staves with Dragon Souls above all others. Originally, they tended to be favored by high-ranking mages, but the anecdote that they were favored by two mages who were heroic enough for their names to go down in history spread among mages of the era. Especially in the Weichsel Empire, where there were many noble mages, they made full use of their financial strength which led to the overhunting of dragons.

Due to the overhunting of the era, in the present day, dragons can only be seen in fossil form. It can be said that this abhorrent incident is what later inspired the enactment of the Monster Protection Laws. Furthermore, it wasnt only dragons, but all monsters that were killed for being evil, and monster populations dwindled as mankinds dominance grew. There is even a study which reports that the number of different varieties of monsters recorded in monster preserves may be less than one fifth of what it was in Chaoss era, showing just how severe the monster hunting was.

In addition, in Alexias diary, there is a segment which implies that Chaos had fun when they hunted dragons together to collect Dragon Souls, and there have even been protests from monster protection organizations that Chaos and Alexia should not be treated as heroes, as this heinous slaughter is not an action befitting a hero.

However, this can only be said because of the modern perspective that monsters must be protected due to the decrease in populations. Taking into account the circumstances at the time, with the threat of monsters becoming more active due to the evil gods influence and with mankind at a disadvantage, it must be said that this is an unfair assessment, and this criticism towards them is misdirected, as they were not directly involved with the overhunting itself.

Also subject to criticism is the infamous Weichsel Empire Recruit Training Method that Alexia brought about. Before criticizing it for treating people inhumanely or for the slaughter of monsters, it must be taken into account that this was necessary for training elite soldiers within a short period of time to face the evil god.

Rather than distorting a part of history and imposing modern views onto it, it is important to broaden your perspective and know the full history when you discuss history.

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