Chapter 27 (1/2)
Chapter 27 – I Choose You (2)
Gourmandi showed up dressed in rags. His bones were blackened with dirt, appearing to have been unwashed for a long period of time, and they had an old stench to them. I think I knew why he was avoided by others despite being a venerable lich. Aside from his rags, he wore a golden monocle which was so clean that it sharply contrasted with the rest of his vintage fas.h.i.+on.
“I heard that you wanted to meet…me.”
Laila stood next to him with a threatening look on her face. Seeing how Gourmandi was being wary of Laila made me think that she hadn’t dragged him here through words only, and I could sense his extremely careful att.i.tude before me.
‘Mind’s Eye.’
I was indeed curious because liches were normally known to be Lv8 monsters. His stat window was soon explicitly revealed to me.
Name: Gourmandi (Value – 94,000)
Race: Lich
t.i.tles:
? Mad Scientist (Lv7, Int+9)
? Essence Reaver (Lv6, Int+7)
Stats:
Str 75
Agi 75
Con 75
Int 98(82+16)
Magic Power 85
Potential(392+16/395)
Skills: 38 skills exist.
A stat distribution worthy of a lich indeed. But what caught my eye in particular was his Intelligence; a whole 98. Most magic wouldn’t even be able to leave a scratch on his bones. Furthermore, he would be able to learn a skill at a speed that was dozens, hundreds of times faster compared to others. Perhaps that being the reason, the number of skills he had reached 38.
‘His skills are all over the place.’
Perhaps for the sake of his experiments, he had learnt decomposition, blacksmithing, even going so far as to learn sewing. I realized anew the role Intelligence played, seeing as how the majority of these skills were in the range of Lv6~7; though of course, his long life span must have been a contributing factor.
I spoke to Gourmandi, who appeared to be on edge.
“I hear you are quite skilled.”
“It is nothing impressive. Ah, has my product perhaps caused some damage? The majority of my customer base is made up of eccentric demons or magicians so…I had never expected for a Demon Lord to use it. I-I-, I am truly, sorry.”
His gesturing was almost exaggerated.
Judging by his reaction, it seemed that the status of a Demon Lord was indeed nothing to laugh at, even though I had only awoken in 100 and barely made a reputation for myself.
“I saw that quite a lot of your product was placed in the Dark Store.”
“That is…the Dark Company accepts most things as long as you were to apply. I…and I heard that the majority of Demon Lords would personally trade with those with fame, instead of using the Store.
It seemed that the Dark Store was more of an ‘open market’ rather than a store which was tailored for Demon Lords, which was why he appeared to be rather mystified that I had bought his product from the store.
I took out a Jewel of s.p.a.ce from a pocket instead of replying.
“Is this also your product?”
“Th-, that’s right. It is a ground-breaking product considering that it allows one to see what is within a demi-plane in real-time, but for some reason only one has been sold so far. I had felt some misgivings when another one sold out several days before but…”
It even sounded like he was complaining as to why no one would recognize his art. But it was only natural if you thought about it. What fool would use 2,000 points to obtain a single small demi-plane.
Finally, Gourmandi furtively looked at me.
Correct. I was the one who purchased it.
‘He’s definitely not merchant material.’
He was far from being a merchant. If I did well, things may work out more smoothly than antic.i.p.ated.
“Do you have any thoughts of partnering with me?”
“Do you mean partnering, as in working together?”
“Indeed. I plan to do something with those ‘Jewels of s.p.a.ce’ in your possession.”
Gourmandi stared at me with a curious light in his eyes. He had no actual eyes so he couldn’t give off much of an expression, but that’s just the kind of feeling he gave off.
Clap!
I clapped my hands once and the door behind me opened, from which 100 or so slimes appeared. The slimes each had their own distinctive colors. There were even some types of slimes that didn’t exist within the abyss.
Gourmandi breathed out in wonder.
“Amazing. There are a considerable number of mutated slimes. Their individual values are also very excellent. I am also experimenting on mutations but never before have I seen this much variation.”
Mutations he said. It looked like that was how Gourmandi viewed these slimes of all variety. He was a scientist for sure, seeing as how he examined them without missing a thing despite his frightened state.
I didn’t know what an individual value was, but I shook my head.
“These slimes evolve upon reaching the point of limit.”
“Yes? What does…”
I singled out a slime at a critical juncture of its growth. I had purposely left it alone as a sample. The slime was fed a live lava spider, and soon a change began to occur.
[‘Slime’ has been promoted to ‘Magma Slime’.]
[The growth limit has increased by 50.]
“Just what exactly…!”
Gourmandi was astonished, unsurprisingly.
Normally, slimes had thus far adapted by changing their forms according to the nearby environment and evolving. A long period of time would go into this process.
Magma slimes were a rare species that lived near volcanoes. Of course it wasn’t that a regular slime would turn into a magma slime by going to a volcano. That was common knowledge and only normal, but what had occurred at this moment, right before Gourmandi’s eyes, must have appeared no differently than a ‘miracle’.
“Only I am capable of making this happen. I also plan to sell these slimes by placing them in ‘Jewels of s.p.a.ce’.”
“It will be hard. There was only one time in the past 30 years that a Jewel of s.p.a.ce was sold, and frankly even I had forgotten all about this item…however.”
Gourmandi once again looked at the evolved slime. The joints of his bones were slightly trembling as he then spoke.
“My friends would find it to their liking if it were sold to them. A slime that evolves! Could you possibly let me know what kind of magic or alchemical process was used?”
I played silence. After all, there was no way I could tell him that it was a product of coincidence borne from the fusion of two Authorities.
Gourmandi filled in the blanks of my silence on his own.
“I-, I apologize. It is simply outrageous to ask for such key technology. I had lost myself for a moment there. There is an alchemical method for turning stone to gold, but it is impossible for a species to change color apart from chimeras which was why…”
He had personally witnessed it. It was inherently different from a chimera which was a mix of two different species. That was the reason why Gourmandi couldn’t not be excited.
It was then.
Kyu!
The shadow kaim rubbed its eyes as if having just woken up, and slowly came over flying. Gourmandi’s gaze naturally landed on the shadow kaim, and at the same time he received a shock and became slack-jawed.
“Kaim! Is that not a kaim?”
“So they say.”
“But a kaim has no wings…moreover its individual value is unbelievable for a kaim…”
“What exactly is this individual value?”
He had been mentioning this ‘individual value’ since a while ago which made me feel some doubt. Upon hearing me ask, Gourmandi slowly took off the monocle he was wearing.
“All species have a limit, and the potential growth of each individual species differ from one another. This monocle I have created shows the potential growth of each individual. It examines all aspects of bone, skin, muscle shape or internal organs, quality of Magic Power and the like, thereby compiling an overall statistic. I had experimented on every type of monsters over the past 300 years, and for each individual species I had used hundreds, thousands of specimens to compare their data and reduce as much errors as possible.”
A torrent of words poured out of him. Humblebragging. A product that resulted from 300 years of labor…it definitely didn’t seem like any ordinary item.
Laila came forward to speak.
“My Lord. Regardless of how he puts it, it is a truly useless item. Please do not be deceived.”
She openly displayed her dislike for Gourmandi on her face. As Gourmandi shrunk back out of fright, Laila continued to speak.