Chapter 40: Rank E

The day after I found out my Inventory skills.

In the afternoon, we played knights at Kurena’s. When I got home, I had to put Mash and Muras to bed before preparing dinner. In the meantime while it’s dark, I’ve decided to test my skills while washing the laundry.

(Well, now that I’m full of mana, I’m going to summon the E-rank summons next.)

While stepping on a large barrel of laundry, I look at the Grimoire and examine the E-ranked summoned beast.

(I should be able to summon E-rank Insects and Beasts with Create. Let’s start with Insects first.)

(Create E-rank Insect.)

As usual, I thought in my mind that I would be able to create an E-rank Insect.

But nothing comes out. If it were a normal beast, a card would appear in front of me with a light.

(Huh? Why didn’t it work? Don’t I have enough mana? But I have 233?)

It reminded me of the time years ago, when I was a kid I didn’t have the mana needed for creating G-rank summons because it required 5 mana. But now, I have mana 233. Thinking that there’s no way I’m short of mana, I look at the cover of the Grimoire.

There, in silver letters is a log message. 

“Boom!”

I burst out in surprise. I was so surprised that I almost fell out of the wooden barrel.

It is said to require a magic stone in order to use that function.

I remembered that there was an E-ranked magic stone in the child’s room. I peeled off the wooden floor of the room where Muras slept and picked up six horned rabbit with magic stones lying beside a bag of silver coins. They are as small as a pinky nail. They were purple in color, so they could not be mistaken for pebbles.

In addition, the magic stone is purple, as are the magic stones of Albaheron and Great Boar, both of which were paid for tax collection. They are almost spherical in shape. The Albaheron magic stone is about the size of a thumb and the Great Boar magic stone about the size of a table-tennis ball.

And the large amount of Silver coins was obtained by selling Albaheron’s flesh in the market. There are about 342 Silver coins.

I returned to the wooden barrel and continued washing laundry. Grabbing the magic stone, I remind myself to activate the create skill as I did just before.

(Okay, this time. Create Insect E!)

But nothing happens. 

(Okay, this time. Create Insect E!) 

No card is created, and I wonder if it’s happening again, so I check the Grimoire log again. The exact same log is running, saying that I’m out of E-ranked magic stones.

(Hmm? I have a magic stone then why isn’t it operating.)

Apparently, I’ve thought of something. I open the Grimoire’s Inventory page.

(Are you telling me to put them in here?)

For the time being, I put the stone in the Grimoire’s Inventory page.

(Then, once again, I will try to create an E-ranked card!)

Then a card with “E” in the upper right corner appears in front of me.

(Oh! It’s done. I see, so this is how you use Inventory. Hmmm… E rank Insect is a butterfly. I’ll try summoning one.)

I don’t know how big it is, so I tried to summon it from the card.

The card glows, and a butterfly is summoned.

“Oh! It’s huge!”

I rush it back to the card because the summoned butterfly was over a meter long in size. A much larger version of a swallowtail butterfly was floating in the air. I didn’t even have time to look at the details in the Grimoire.

(Oh man, even an E-ranked Insect could be over a meter tall.)

I don’t think I can casually summon them in the yard anymore. I have a family at home. I’ll be in big trouble if they find out.

(Okay, so let’s see Beast E, too. Oh! A Sabertooth Tiger! Now that the Insects and beasts are done, I guess I’ll have to synthesize them.)

(I’m going to try Synthesis.)

I open the synthesis page of the Grimoire. There was a change there, too.

Previously, on the left side of the page, there was a space where I could put two cards to be synthesized. Then, on the right side, there was a single space where the completed card would appear.

However, the space on the right side remains unchanged, but there are three spaces on the left side.

On the left side, there are two spaces on top that are large enough to hold a card. And one space below it that looks like something to put something in. It’s not the size of a card.

(What? Do I need a magic stone for synthesis too?)

I have a bad feeling about this. For now, I think I’ll put E-rank Insect and E-rank Beast on the left and synthesize E-rank Bird. Even if the ranks change, the synthesis pattern is the same.

I chanted “Synthesis” in my mind, but nothing happened. It seems that I really need a magic stone now.

I place one of the magic stones in the space under the card of Insect ranked-E and Beast ranked-E.

(Synthesis!)

Finally a card is created.

Creating also requires a magic stone. It takes one magic stone to create, and one magic stone to synthesize. Birds can be synthesized at once, but grass needs to be synthesized twice.

“Allen, it’s almost dinnertime!”

“Yes, Mom.”

It seemed that he had been working very hard, and also a lot of time had passed.

When I entered the mudroom, I found Theresia. In the living room, Mash and Muras are also there. Muras is cackling at the sight of Allen. Muras also has brown hair and green eyes, and she’s an energetic girl of one year and three months. She is now able to crawl around the house. Soon she’ll be able to walk.

When Allen was about the same age as Muras is now, Theresia used to work in the fields when Allen was sleeping. Now that Muras was over a year old, Theresia tried to work in the fields again. When I said that I’ll take care of the field she said “Don’t push it”.

Allen cooked lunch with Theresia. It was a light lunch, but for a family of five, it was a good amount.

“I’m home.”

Rodan is back. Allen had been working in the fields with him from morning until almost 10 o’clock, but he went home first to do the laundry.

It was our daily reunion. Rodan then bites into a potato and mutters to himself.

“We’ve got a growing family now, so I think we’ll have to make our room bigger. I think Allen needs a room of his own now, don’t you Allen?”

He seemed to think that the current children’s room was too small.

“What? No, I’m fine with the current one we have. We don’t have any money.”

“Yes, you do. You’ve earned it.”

Rodan said, “We can buy the necessary wood to build a room.”

(Come on, I’m earning money to make you a commoner, don’t try to spend it on unnecessary things.)

I sold all of Albaherons meat, which amounted to 342 Silver coins. Of course, the money belongs to Rodan, the family head. I gave it all to him.

However, in terms of Silver coins, I need 5,000 Silver coins to make my whole family commoners. That’s still not enough. I can’t afford to be luxurious right now.

I didn’t tell Rodan or Theresia that I was saving up to make them commoners from serfs.

“No, look, let’s just save it in case you get hurt badly again or if Muras gets sick.”

“Oh, really?”

Rodan smiles at Allen.

“Oh! by the way father. Did you finish the construction of the moat in the village?”

“The moat? Yes, it’s finished.”

This village has a fence made of wood. However, because there were gaps in the wall, low-ranked magical beasts like rabbits with horns could easily come in. We can get delicious meat from the magical beasts but villagers are worried about their little children.

For years, they have been trying to dig the soil around the walls to create a moat. This is to prevent the magical beasts from entering.

Most of the serfs participate in this project between January and March, when there is no work in the fields. Allen also participated this year with Rodan.

Now that the moat is complete, the horned rabbits that bring E-rank magic stones to the village can’t get in.

(Oh no, I wonder if Kurena has some magic stones in her house.)

Allen thought that he should hurry up and look for the magic stones.