Golden Experience

First, Azalea followed the mysterious hero as a bat and infiltrated the underground ruins. Blanc targeted Azalea, summoning herself, and then I targeted the Kenzaki sword, which Blanc was equipped with, to summon myself.

In this way, we successfully infiltrated the secret base of the hero, seized the valuable artifact, the research results and the researcher himself, and left while the hero – the player Hideo was paralyzed with fear.

The researcher was a dwarf named Stanislav. He had no surname, and it wasn’t clear if it was a cultural trait of dwarves or if he had been disowned by his family.

When I confirmed that the [Fear] towards Hideo had subsided, I immediately conducted an [Appraisal] on Stanislav. Although I easily bypassed his resistance and successfully peeked into Stanislav’s information, there was no visible reaction from Stanislav. In other words, he was likely an NPC.

Noticing this, I immediately cast [Subordinate], took control of Stanislav, stashed everything valuable in the room into my inventory, let Blanc escape to the town where Magenta and the others were, and then followed suit.

“Like a phantom thief! It was kind of cool, right? If you can transform, maybe we can create a unit in that direction? With Lyra, it’s just three people, which might be perfect.”

“A trio of phantom thieves? Are we talking about the third generation or something related to the cat’s eyes?”

“They’re more about disguises than transformations!”

More than that, it was probably about time for Hideo’s [Fear] in that basement to subside. The resistance check for [Fear] was conducted with MND, but it seemed that the duration of the status abnormality after activation changed based on the difference in the total attribute values. This was discovered during the verification of [Appraisal], noticing the correlation between the success check and the duration of [Fear].

Until now, due to this mechanism, the duration was thought to be constant. Additionally, when I activated [Fear] on an enemy, I usually killed them or used [Subordinate] right after, so I never paid attention to the duration.

According to the [Appraisal] activated in the confusion, considering the difference in attribute values between Hideo and me, he should be recovering around now. If he comes to this town in pursuit, I might consider dealing with him. However, since we came from here in the first place, there should be no clear evidence linking the undead that attacked the town and me to Hideo. He probably won’t come here.

“Now, thanks to the specifications of the artifact, I understand how to use it, and from the research records you wrote, I’ve figured out what you did to Hideo.”

“I apologize.”

“According to this, the characteristic [Metamorphosis] seems to have been extracted from ordinary insects. Insect-type monsters are born as adults, and they don’t grow through metamorphosis. However, ordinary insects undergo normal metamorphosis. In fact, ordinary insects exist as data. I just thought of them as simple objects.”

That doesn’t mean they exist as NPCs.

Until now, they were only recognized as food for small monsters. Still, upon reflection, being recognized as food also meant that they existed as data.

In the herb cultivation business in the city of Rifure, they sometimes swarm around the herbs as pests. They are scattered with an insect repellent made from the leaves of Camphor Treants, and without it, they would have damaged the herbs. Since the herbs exist as data, the fact that they can be damaged implies that insects have some kind of data.

“But according to this research record, only certain characteristics can be extracted, and no attribute values can be extracted at all.”

In other words, insects have characteristics like [Metamorphosis] or [Shell], but they have no attribute values, placing them in the position of completely non-combat mobs, just like destructible objects. They may have LP as a measure of resistance, but they likely have no other numerical values.

“I see, you captured a large number of these insects, put them into the Alchem Extractor and injected them into Hideo to create that transforming hero. Oh, so it wasn’t enough with just one. Well, I don’t think that the ability to metamorphose one insect is equal or enough to metamorphose one human, so I wonder if there’s some kind of cumulative value.”

If that’s the case, for example, an insect queen like Sugaru might be able to undergo metamorphosis to human size with just one use. Alternatively, since a single insect may not be recognized as a character, it might require a cluster of them to have an influence comparable to a character.

In summary, insects in alchemy possess some useful data and can be used as materials, much like ingredients in cooking or herbs in potion-making. Considering the commonalities found in the verification of alchemy, cooking, and potion-making, there is a possibility that these materials can be used interchangeably. For instance, using ingredients for alchemical materials or cooking with herbs. It might be possible to create potions or dishes using insects.

“Oh, by the way. It happened a long time ago, but ants once offered insects as a meal. I didn’t eat it, so I don’t know, but in a way, that was essentially cooking insects. It’s interesting, but if we were to research it, no amount of time would be enough, so let’s leave the research to Stanislav. We just need the results.”

“Yeah, yeah! I’ve had no idea what you’ve been talking about since earlier.”

“…Speaking of which, wasn’t the original Kamen Rider supposed to be a genius with an IQ of 600? Is Blanc okay with that?”

“The ones from the Heisei and Reiwa eras were usually only good because of their faces, so it’s fine!”

It didn’t seem like that was the case for all of them, but well, anything was fine.

The important thing was that with the Alchem Extractor, it was possible to add characteristics.

“For now, let’s try various things with this. Blanc will continue to deal with Shape—”

“Huh?”

“Hm?”

“No, no, no, no, Hideo has already done a lot of experiments, right? Isn’t it unnecessary to investigate? Can’t we do it right away?”

“Doing it right away is probably not a good idea. Even though we’ve claimed this town, it’s a small town without even city walls, and if a knightly order comes from a nearby garrison after hearing the town has fallen, it could be a problem. It would be too late then, and it’s better to control a city that serves as the center of this area at least. Also, there’s the imminent angel attacks, and with just Giant Corpses and Flesh Golems as escorts, we won’t be able to settle down and do various things.”

“But still—”

“Master? Originally, it was because you wanted to wage war that we embarked on this expedition, right?”

“That’s true, but even if I found something else I wanted to do, it’s a bit much to just throw it away.”

“Key items of importance are already in Rare-sama’s possession, and even if we don’t do it right away, there’s no need to worry about them running away.”

“Ugh, you guys and your logical arguments… You bunch of mothers…”

For this time, it seemed unlikely that Blanc would be defended. In fact, I had come to this place alone due to the urgency of the situation. If this were to be discovered by someone like Deas, there would be a troublesome lecture waiting. It wasn’t something that didn’t concern me.

“Well then, that settles it. I’ve been experimenting in the square in the Tore Forest, so come over after things calm down. Bye-bye.”

“Ah! Wait—”

Ignoring Blanc’s protest, I flew to the World Tree in Tore Forest and summoned Stanislav there.

“Well then, I’d like to get started right away, but the angels are coming soon, aren’t they? Let’s wait until that’s over.”