Chapter 13

This is the epilogue of the casino chapter.

Radd-kun, once again!

"Ah, so you're saying that you won a fortune gambling but got carried away and exchanged all your money for prizes, right?"

"…Pretty much, yeah."

After being persistently persuaded through the door, I ended up listening to Rex's story.

While I couldn't understand the details of the complicated story, the gist of it was probably something like that.

"That's why I need money. I'll pay it back soon."

Rex said this with a serious face, but to be honest, my trust in him is zero after what just happened.

His adventuring skills aside, I can't trust him with money.

"Hey, are you really going to pay it back?"

"Of course. Have I ever lied to you?"

"Well, it's a bit suspicious when I hear it from a guy I just met yesterday."

The fact that he keeps emphasizing it makes it even more suspicious.

"I have a plan. If you want, I can come back and pay you tonight."

"Are you going to gamble it all away again?"

It's scary how that seems like a normal possibility with him.

Even scarier is that I can imagine both a future where I lose the money I lent him and a future where he comes back with a huge win from just a thousand wens.

Seeing that I don't trust him, Rex sighed and said,

"I didn't really want to show you this, but there's no choice. If you don't trust how I'll use the money, why don't you come with me?"

"Huh?"

Surprised by this sudden proposal, I looked at him, and the hero smiled.

"---I'll show you real alchemy."

* * *

"Geez, what am I doing?"

I feel a bit annoyed with myself for following him so easily.

But at the same time, I'm a bit excited to see what this guy will do next.

"We're here. This is it."

"…Huh?"

I couldn't help but let out a surprised sound.

This is where I was just training…

"The Adventurer's Guild?"

What could he possibly need here?

Ignoring my puzzled look, Rex went to the reception and handed over the 1000 wens he borrowed from me.

"You're using 1000 wens here? What are you planning to do?"

"I told you already. Alchemy."

Saying this, Rex headed to the back of the guild.

"Is this… an alchemy cauldron?"

What we found was a huge cauldron.

The guild provides various facilities for different types of adventurers, which can be used temporarily by paying a fee.

One of these facilities is the alchemy cauldron.

An alchemy cauldron is a device for alchemists, where multiple items can be combined with magic to create a new item. I knew this much from my studies.

"Can you do alchemy, old man!?"

"Just a bit."

As he said this, Rex placed his hand over a metal tray in the room and dropped two short swords onto it.

"What are those?"

The knives had a red aura and a creepy design. They clearly weren't ordinary equipment.

"These are the spoils from the casino we talked about. They're called 'Goblin Slayers.' They usually come from treasure chests in the middle to late stages of dungeons."

"Wow…"

"Let me make it clear, though. Even though they're considered 'junk,' they are magical weapons. They have five times the attack power of your sword."

"Five… times…"

I was speechless.

Hearing that, the knives on the tray seemed even more impressive.

"Can I touch them?"

"I don't recommend it, but go ahead."

"Why not?"

In response to my question, Rex made a face and took out a piece of paper and a pen from his inventory, writing something down quickly.

"…Here."

He handed me what seemed to be an explanation of the knives.

【Goblin Slayer】

A knife made of orichalcum by a man who gave up adventuring after losing to goblins.

Due to a curse, it deals three times the damage to goblins but only one-third the damage to other races.

Additionally, goblins injured by this knife will have their abilities permanently reduced by 10% (once per battle).

The curse is so strong that once equipped, it cannot be removed.

"Man, how much do you hate goblins?!"

After reading the explanation, I couldn't help but shout.

The hatred for goblins is too intense.

"Besides, this is a really bad item, isn't it?!"

Goblins are the weakest monsters, and even their stronger variants aren't that strong.

Worse, the damage to other races is reduced to one-third.

If you can't change equipment due to the curse, you'll be fighting with a huge disadvantage.

Even with five times the attack power, I wouldn't want to equip this.

"Man, you really hold a grudge against goblins. What's the point of reducing their abilities by 10%?"

At least a debuff that hinders movement would be useful, but this is just a nuisance.

"The debuff is significant too. Look, there are two knives. If you use both, it's 19%."

"Even then, it's faster to just kill them normally."

I said this in exasperation, and Rex laughed.

"True, but… the cave to the west of Rikxia Town, the 'Goblin Cave,' only has goblins. If you stay there, these knives are useful. The 'Wand of the Sage' at the end of the cave is a pretty handy item, so it's somewhat useful in the early stages."

After this somewhat lukewarm endorsement, Rex's expression changed.

"But, the main point is from here."

He picked up the tray with the knives and unhesitatingly threw them into the alchemy cauldron.

"Hey!?"

I tried to stop him in a panic.

The alchemy cauldron is for combining items.

It's used for making potions from ingredients or adding effects to existing potions, not for combining weapons.

"Just watch."

His confident movements made me shiver with a sense of impending disaster.

"No way…"

I had never heard of combining weapons in an alchemy cauldron.

If it were possible, it would change everything.

As I watched in anticipation, Rex placed his hand over the cauldron and sent magic into it.

The cauldron started to vibrate, and then…

"Really, combining weapons…"

Hearing my mutter, Rex smiled and said,

"No, it's impossible, of course."

"Huh?"

With a dull thud, black smoke rose from the cauldron.

The words "alchemy failure" flashed through my mind.

If the alchemist's skill is insufficient or the materials are wrong, the alchemy fails, leaving only the original materials as waste.

Driven by a terrible premonition, I rushed to the cauldron.

"The knives…!"

Looking inside, there was no sign of the knives… just an oddly shaped lump of metal.

"Hey! They turned into scrap metal!"

Even as a bad item, this was terrible.

When I confronted Rex about it,

"Scrap metal? What are you looking at?"

"Huh?"

Maintaining his calm, Rex picked up the "lump" and wiped its surface.

Once the black soot was removed, the lump glowed with a mysterious light I had never seen before.

* * *

"Thank you very much."

We walked quickly, hearing the weapon shop owner's somewhat fearful voice behind us.

After that, Rex kept taking knives out of his inventory and repeating the same process.

He then rushed to the weapon shop and offered the failed alchemy results, the "orichalcum lumps," to the shop owner, who was about to close.

Even unprocessed, orichalcum is a rare metal worth more than gold.

The oddly shaped lumps, the result of the failed alchemy of orichalcum knives, sold for five million wens each.

As I watched the incredible transaction, Rex sold the orichalcum lumps without hesitation.

By the twenty-second lump, the shop owner was in tears, but the total was already over 100 million wens.

The sight made me feel like I was going crazy.

(What the…? This guy was broke just a while ago, and he was begging me for 1000 wens. Now, now…)

After the unreal transaction, I left the shop in a daze, and Rex suddenly stopped.

"Oh, right."

He then casually threw something at me as he walked ahead.

Reflexively catching it, I found a 100,000 wens gold coin.

Realizing it was a hundred times the 1000 wens I lent him, I looked up in surprise.

"See, I kept my promise."

Rex smiled and walked away without looking back, looking very pleased.

Watching his cheerful back, I could only weakly mutter,

"…Alchemy isn't supposed to be like this."

Rex's money flow

2.1 million wens → 0 wens → 100 million wens (New!)