Three orbs of light drifted lazily out of the chest and settled on the floor.
Among them, the familiar silhouettes of a Familia Invitation and a Grimoire stood out immediately.
"An invitation and a Grimoire, huh. The usual suspects. Still, exactly what I need right now."
"But... this thing?!"
"Could you be a little less on the nose? This is so shameless it's making me uncomfortable."
Leon picked up the gleaming gold bar, his expression caught somewhere between a laugh and a groan.
Name: Gold BarOrigin: Marfa ContinentType: Currency EquivalentEffect: Upon use, deposits 100,000,000 Orario standard gold coins (unit: valis) into the Myriad Arcana Genesis reserves.Description: I shall sortie in gold bar form.
"You think I'd sell my dignity for gold?!"
Leon felt personally attacked. His mouth kept up the outrage, but his hands moved with the speed of a man who'd already made his decision.
"System, deposit it. Now."
The instant the command left his lips, the gold bar vanished from his palm with a soft whoosh.
"Heh. You know me so well."
He stared at the nine-digit reserve balance on his interface, and the corner of his mouth curled into something insufferably smug.
With the reserves handled, he wrestled down the screaming urge to blow it all at once and forced his attention toward the Grimoire.
Compared to the Grimoire: Scorch and Grimoire: Fireball, whose covers had been etched with flame patterns, this one's edges were laced with frost. He didn't even need to check the description to guess what was inside.
He flipped open the cover, which had a texture that bordered on obscene, and read the first page. His eyebrows shot up and he leaned back in surprise.
"Oh ho. Now that's something. Not bad at all..."
Name: Grimoire: Frost ArmorOrigin: World of WarcraftType: GrimoireEffect: Encases the caster in an eggshell-shaped frost shield, boosting physical and magical defense while absorbing a set amount of damage. Inflicts Chill on contact. When the shield breaks, all targets within range are Frozen.Chill: Reduces target's attack speed and movement speed.Freeze: Immobilizes the target. Frost-type magic deals increased damage to Frozen targets.Description: What kind of mage doesn't have a shield?
Leon read through the full description and smiled.
Born from his own potential, this magic understood him perfectly.
When it came to not dying, Leon yielded to no one.
His build was already ridiculous. Between all his skills and passives, his survivability was through the roof. But that wasn't enough for him. He still insisted on hanging back as a rear-guard turret, avoiding frontline combat like it owed him money. And now the Grimoire had handed him a magic shield on top of all that.
Well, that settled it. He was fully committed to stacking defenses, and there was no turning back.
"Frost Armor, a classic. The mage's ice shield, bane of melee fighters. Anyone who touches it gets slowed, and it's especially nasty against Agility-type enemies since it cuts both movement speed and attack speed. And that's before the AoE Freeze when the shield pops."
He turned the Grimoire over in his hands, clicking his tongue in satisfaction.
Chill and Freeze, like Scorch's Ignite, were special status effects. Chill provided pure crowd control, giving a mage room to kite. Freeze was stronger still, locking targets in place entirely and amplifying all follow-up frost damage.
Sure, in raw destructive power, frost magic couldn't match fire's brute force. But frost had its own edge: unmatched crowd control.
The old saying held true: fire for PvE, frost for PvP.
"That said, Frost Armor is purely reactive. It doesn't create openings. In a fight against another person, it's still a bit passive. If only I had Frost Nova too..."
Leon tucked the Grimoire away, a flicker of regret in his eyes.
"A little disappointing, but Frost Armor is still solid."
"I just hit a Valis jackpot, so funds aren't a problem. What I need to do next is grind hard in the Dungeon, push my Excelia and base stats as far as they'll go. With Frost Armor covering me, I can afford to play a bit more aggressively without getting myself killed."
His mind made up, he picked up the Familia Invitation and focused his thoughts:
I need a midfielder. Ideally an Agility-type swordsman with strong offensive power, a roaming flanker who can cover both wings.
He repeated it three times.
The black envelope ignited from one corner and dissolved into ash within seconds.
Leon let out a long breath, opened his eyes, and the anticipation in them was unmistakable.
"A swordsman... there are so many characters who fit that profile. I wonder who'll show up?"
Faces flashed through his mind one after another. He fell backward onto the bed and stared at the Magic Stone lamp on the ceiling, spacing out.
After a while, he pulled himself together, sat up, and reverently brought out the large treasure chest that Goliath, the Floor 17 boss, had dropped.
"Deep breath. Stay calm."
"Since a floor boss dropped this, it should be something special, right?"
He opened the chest.
"Gah! My eyes!"
He'd opened enough of these by now that you'd think he'd learn, but the flash caught him full in the face all over again. Golden light poured out and he threw up an arm to shield himself.
When the glow dimmed enough to squint through, he looked inside.
His eyes went wide.
"Holy shit!"
"One, two, three, four..."
"F-four orbs?!"
"Is this... am I using up a lifetime of luck right now?"
His face cycled through disbelief and something close to terror. His fingertips were shaking.
"Screw it."
"Damned if I do, damned if I don't. Let's go."
He shoved superstition out of his head, locked his gaze on the orbs as they burst, and watched the items materialize.
One Grimoire.
One unknown elixir.
One unknown contract.
One unknown item.
Setting the Grimoire aside for now, Leon reached for the elixir first.
Name: Holy ElixirOrigin: Isekai Wandering GourmetType: ElixirEffect: Fully heals most severe injuries, including severed limbs and blindness.Description: Stronger than an Elixir. Weaker than a Panacea.
He read the description and went still, his face blank as he turned it over in his mind.
On one hand, this thing could regrow severed limbs. Consider Naza's high-performance prosthetic, a magic device that cost hundreds of millions of valis. That single price tag was the reason Miach Familia was drowning in debt.
On the other hand, nobody in his Familia currently needed it. It was the ultimate emergency card with no immediate use.
As for letting outsiders know about it? He wasn't an idiot. A single batch of his cooking was enough to make top-tier adventurers fight over scraps. If word of this got out, he didn't even want to imagine what would come for him and his Familia.
"Right... putting this away for now."
He placed the Holy Elixir into his battered suitcase with the care of a man handling a newborn.
Then he turned to what remained.
"Is this... a contract?"
He picked up the rolled parchment. A bold red wax seal held it shut. He pulled up its info through the System.
Name: Mansion Construction ContractOrigin: Handyman Saitou in Another WorldType: Contract DocumentEffect: Upon use, a Master Builder will fulfill the contractor's Familia headquarters construction to specification. Upon completion, the mansion comes equipped with anti-detection, anti-curse, soundproofing, alarm, pest-repelling, temperature-control, and cleaning barriers. (Daily wage: 10,000 valis)Description: You've got the mansion. Where's the land?
Leon read through the contract terms several times before he fully understood.
In short, it was a scroll that summoned a Master Builder NPC. Pay the daily wage, give the specs, and the builder would construct a Familia headquarters at incredible speed. Leon had heard of this particular craftsman. Given the right conditions, the man could raise a mansion from bare ground in seven days.
Even so, Leon's expression didn't change as he slid the contract to the bottom of his storage case.
Build a Familia headquarters now? Was he out of his mind? Nothing screamed "please come rob me" louder than that. Evilus would notice in a heartbeat, and a few Magic Swords later, the whole place would be rubble with nobody to blame but himself. Orario had plenty of chaos still ahead. Better to wait until things calmed down.
Beyond the security concerns, there was the matter of standing. Their Familia didn't have the reputation to justify a headquarters. Even if he swallowed his pride and asked Lady Demeter to vouch for them, it wouldn't matter if they couldn't back it up with strength.
And of course, the most critical issue:
"I've got the builder. Where exactly am I getting the land?"
He sighed, then picked up the box containing the magic device.
Click. The lid popped open.
"Glasses?"
Name: Gale-Force Reading Glasses (monocle variant)Origin: Fairy TailType: Magic DeviceEffect: Enables reading at 32x speed. Mental energy and focus consumption remain unchanged.Description: Learning makes me happy!
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