「I heard quite the interesting story today. Let’s meet up again sometime.」

「I guess the next chance would be when A-chan arrives at Griffis.」

「Fufu, although, I feel like we would meet again due to the upcoming event.」

We, who had received word that Touka-chan had already finished her errand, stopped our conversation and parted ways for the time being.

On departing, the event was brought up. Now that I thought about it, I decided to ask about something I had been curious about.

「A-chan, is there a place around here where it’s easy to grind for levels?」

Even though Rin-chan said that there was no need to advance for now, since I was going to aim for Griffis in the distant future, sometime before the event I’d like to get my level past 50.

That was my thinking, anyway.

A-chan thought for a bit and then replied.

「Level grinding, was it? Fumu, let’s see…..Since you excel in blunt weapons, I think the《Scorching Cavern》 is good.」

「Shounetsugankutsu?」

「It’s a place with ancient ruins of flame, and it is a cavern at the northwest corner of the perma-scorchlands. Aside from the temperature alone, you’ll need to have a counter plan for the heat, but compared to the monsters that appear at the World Tree, their strength is just moderate. As there are a lot of hard monsters that spawns, it’s not suited for swordsmen, but it should be just right for ya.」

Attracted to the words ‘perma-scorchlands’ A-chan had mentioned, the dungeon’s name made me feel that it would be packed full of fire-attribute monsters.

Although, it might actually just be a wasteland. I mean, “scorched” didn’t have to mean that it was a scorchingly hot landscape. It might instead have been a place that had already burnt down, after all.

「’Tis also not bad if you just normally grind for levels at the ancient ruins. Or maybe at the interior of the scorched lands…..no, I obviously can’t recommend that.」

「Is there something?」

「I’ll just say that if you go, you’ll understand. I can’t really recommend it, but if you want to go, then you should. If you die, you won’t lose anything but time.」

「You’re right. If I feel like it, then I’ll check it out.」

“Bye bye.” While saying that, I waved my hand, and with impeccable timing Touka-chan arrived.

「Nee-sama, Arthur-san, thanks for waiting.」

「We didn’t wait that much, you know?」

「’Tis fine, ’tis fine. Touka-jou, I wish you well.」

「Arthur-san too, let’s play together again someday.」

This time, we had definitely finished our salutations, and to make our preparations before heading out to the《Scorching Caverns》, we went to the marketplace at Fias.

☆

「《Refrigerated Tomatton》….」

『Tomatton(トマットン)』

『tomatton(とまっとん)』

『Your pronunciation is too rough』

『T o m a t o』

『↑ That’s just basically in english isn’t it?』

『That’s just a tomato』

Looking at the item sold at the storefront of the town’s general store, I had a complicated mood that I couldn’t really describe.

The name of the item was -Refrigerated Tomatton-. It was not really anything special, just a huge tomato cooled in ice water.

「Nee-sama, it seems that it’s a consumable item.」

「Are you going to eat this? No, it’s not like I dislike tomato, but carrying something like this…something like-!」

「I know what you’re saying, but it’s a necessary thing, so let’s just accept it.」

The perma-scorchlands were a place that had once become wastelands due to a certain calamity. The ground having been wrapped in extreme heat there, plants couldn’t grow and most of the creatures had gone extinct, it seemed.

In exchange, monsters that「ate heat」settled in from somewhere. They turned the heat that they ate into energy, which was not only used for sustenance but for attacking as well.

For that reason, when going into the perma-scorched lands and its surrounding areas, you’d need to have heat resistance, which would help you greatly.

What I was recommended was an area that seemed to be at the corners of the perma-scorchlands, so of course there was a need to prepare some sort of heat resistance measure.

After hearing that story, we decided to spend some time at the town’s general shop to buy a heat resistance increase item.

「No matter how you look at it, it’s just a tomato that was cooled, isn’t it?」

「Touka-chan, do you hate tomatoes?」

「Not really.」

「They have quite the size, but it can’t be helped. The effect time is….for just one, it’s two hours. That’s quite a while.」

「Should we buy two for each of us? And also….I also need to buy some potions, too.」

「Since that gorilla made you use them, after all.」

During the fight with the gorilla yesterday, Touka-chan took quite a large amount of damage.

It seemed she intended to buy enough potions to make up for the amount she used then.

Potions had quite the weight to them, so Touka-chan, who had low strength, couldn’t really carry that many in her inventory.

That was why you needed to resupply whenever you used one, I think.

「Since it has come to this and I have plenty of room for them, I guess I should also buy some.」

Thanks to the money that Konekomaru-san had given in exchange for the Mysteria Rabi parts, my wallet was quite swollen.

Soon, I predicted that there would be quite a large expense, and the number of enemies that used magic had also increased, but it should be about time that I bought potions rich in -that-.

What I would choose was a medium-grade potion. The one called something along the lines of mid-potion.

「Hmmm…..for one that restores 300 health, 5000 iris, is it?」

「Isn’t that reasonable for an NPC shop?」

「You’re right. I also wanted an item that heals big, so I’d like to buy some.」

Regarding healing items, there were those that healed by value and those that healed by percentage. In any type of game, there was a tendency for high-level players to prefer the latter.

The benefits of the ones that healed by value lowered as you leveled up, whereas the ratio recovery ones scaled with your growth, showing the same effects as you grew.

That was why the prices for ratio-type recovery items in the same bracket were broken down even further by healing speed.

In other words, if you were to use potions with the same healing ratios, there would be demand among players for potions with quicker healing speeds.

Based on the conversation up till now, you might have only seen fixed healing potions to be worthwhile in the beginning, but at least in WLO, that was different.

Certainly, a fixed healing potion’s recovery amount was static and depended on the type of potion. If it was a +100 fixed healing potion, then you would restore 100 HP. If +200, then you would restore 200. The values were fixed. But that recovery amount would not be tied to the amount of HP the user had.

It had absolutely no relation to the player’s growth from leveling and would always heal the same amount.

And naturally, the price depended solely on the amount it healed, so to an outsider, the price/effect relationship was easy to understand.

To low-level players, those were cheaper than ratio recovery potions, they worked quite well, and as long as they didn’t level up too high, it was another way of saving some money.

Furthermore, fixed healing potions, unrelated to their prices, were all set to restore the designated value over a minute’s time.

That was the greatest charm of the fixed healing-type item, that in a minute, you could have already received the highest amount of healing.

For example, if a player with 100 HP was on the verge of dying, if they used a 500 HP potion, in just ten seconds, their HP would have rapidly recovered.

Under these circumstances, potion crafters continued to research every day, and apparently even something like factions existed as well.

They either focused on raising the total amount of recovery possible by the fixed-healing type potions or focused on raising the healing speed of the ratio-recovery type potions.

There were also those who pursued potion flavors and other effects aside from the healing aspect, such as making them smaller……Crafting itself sure seems to have its own fun to it.

By the way, NPC shops mostly sold fixed health potions. The effect was always uniform and their comparatively high prices were the norm.

And also, regarding healing items, they didn’t always need to be potions. They could be drinks, or other foods, like sweets. Anyhow, right now was a period of trial and error.

Taking the opportunity to mention it, this event’s ranking reward, the Raise Potion, will fully heal you and remove all debuffs upon usage. It was an item that did that, but 「you could use it if you didn’t die and you could use it even if you died.」It was an all-purpose recovery item, it seemed.

As it was still just the opening phase for the game, such an item being distributed was certainly extraordinary.

「It sure is weird to try and clear the area while eating a tomato.」

「Maybe someday, something like an eggplant or cucumber will also appear.」

『I hate Tomato』

『I hate Eggplant』

『I hate Cucumber』

『I hate bell pepper』

『I like spring onions』

『↑ you musn’t be picky with food!』

『Isn’t liking safe from that? Bobo doubts』

『Just who is this Bobo?』

「It’s not bad to be able to eat everything, you know?」

It wasn’t that weird for games to have vegetable-themed monsters, but if they did actually appear, I felt like it would be demotivating.

——————————————-

Vegetable noots:

Refrigerated Tomatton is an item of sadness that came in which the devs can’t, or honestly just don’t want to make a cooler drink.

The taste is fruit-flavored and sweet, it seems to be quite famous in Fias.