That's right, the way Leon saw it...
Of all the items he'd pulled from the Drop Treasure Chest this time, the most precious wasn't any of the things sitting out in plain view. It was hidden within the Moon-Cloth Pack blueprint, a seemingly unremarkable added enchantment: the Item Box.
According to the instructions, only by mastering the ability to attach the Item Box magic to an object could you craft a true "Wonder Pack."
But who said the Item Box magic could only be used to make backpacks?
Couldn't it just as well be used to make the leg-pouches, arm-pouches, waist-packs, wallets, Magic Stone Pouches, suitcases, that adventurers commonly used, or even the pockets on a cloak or clothing?
With just a little brainpower, this small Item Box magic had enormous potential.
That was exactly why Leon valued it so much.
Once Leon had finished explaining, everyone understood at last. So that was why he'd sent them all the way to North Street to buy high-grade fur, cloth, and magic thread, the sort of things only magic tailors used. It was because the quality of those materials directly determined the final volume of the "Wonder Pack," and there was no room for the slightest sloppiness.
Just think about it. Other Familias typically needed a large number of Supporters to handle the carrying and logistics, whereas Leon and the others, with a comparable head count, could carry four or five times as much as anyone else, with the prospect of reaching six or seven times down the road.
What kind of concept was that?
It meant Leon's group could bring their loot back to the surface fully intact, never again forced to grit their teeth and abandon so much as a single copper coin for lack of storage space!
Monster Drop Items, the various materials the Dungeon itself produced, large quantities of food and water, plus all the odds and ends and tools that made the adventuring experience better, all of it could be stuffed into the packs, with no more flinching and agonizing over what to leave behind.
And that wasn't all. Beyond the dramatic boost to earning efficiency and exploration experience, their endurance and how long they could stay in the Dungeon would also get an indirect boost. With such ample storage space, they could naturally carry more supplies, extending how long they could keep fighting in the Dungeon.
Of course, the precondition for all this was that their minds could hold up under the strain of prolonged campaigning in the Dungeon.
After all, neither magic nor elixirs did anything for mental fatigue. Aside from gritting it out by sheer willpower, the only other cure was sleep.
Once they understood what the arrival of the "Wonder Pack" meant for everyone, no one could stay unmoved!
Laurier shot her hand up high, unable to hide her excitement:
"Hehe, a Wonder Pack with several times the base capacity, and you can make it in all kinds of styles."
"Leon, Leon, good Leon! When exactly is your craftsmanship going to get good enough already! I want a quiver with five times the volume!"
"The quiver I usually use is way too small, it barely holds any arrows at all."
"This has been bugging me for ages!"
The moment Laurier finished griping, Aura, sitting beside her, didn't stay silent and play the reliable listener the way she usually did. Instead she joined the discussion on her own. The girl gave a small nod, her tone earnest:
"Back when we were clearing the shallower floors, the quiver problem wasn't that obvious. Apart from special situations like a Monster Party or a Monster Rex subjugation battle, in other fights we didn't run into many monsters at a time, so the battles were short."
"That way, when we cleaned up the field and collected loot afterward, we could gather up the reusable arrows while we were at it. But as our exploration went deeper, the fights got more frequent and the monsters more numerous. A lot of the time, before a single skirmish was even over, our quivers had already run dry. Without arrows, for us elves, our combat strength clearly drops a great deal."
"In a situation like that, we'd have to fall back on magic, but apart from Mr. Leon, magic is every Adventurer's trump card. It can't be used just anytime."
Kureha, cradling a steaming cup of tea in both hands, cut right to the heart of it:
"Quiver capacity and your arrow reserves are already seriously limiting your combat endurance, especially when you're punching above your level against stronger monsters."
As monster levels rose, they grew larger in size, with longer health bars, and the difficulty of subjugating them shot up sharply, which naturally drove up arrow consumption as well.
Leon rubbed his chin, exchanged a glance with Jeanne, and then spoke:
"So that's it. As the intensity of the fighting goes up, the equipment really has started falling behind... that's an oversight on my part."
"Good thing you brought it up yourselves. A problem like this is fine on the surface, but in the Dungeon, any little oversight can get magnified by the place itself and turned into a fatal weakness aimed right at us."
Jeanne gave a soft snort:
"As long as you know that. The Familia's funds are plenty flush right now. We don't even need to touch the reserve fund. The earnings from the last Expedition alone are enough to cover updated equipment for our whole group this time around."
At that, awkwardness crossed Leon's face.
He'd poured nearly all his energy into "paying to level up," and he really had been neglecting the matter of equipment updates. Well, maybe there was a touch of stinginess in there too.
After all, the way he saw it, spending tens of millions or even over a hundred million Valis to buy high-end gear was nowhere near as worthwhile as putting that money toward paying to boost his stat points. That was the choice with the best bang for the buck, as far as he personally was concerned.
But his force of habit had overlooked one thing entirely:
This "pay to level up" Cheat ability was something only he could use. For everyone else, pouring gold into equipment updates was the most concrete path to getting stronger.
"Ahem, anyway... I'm going to go back to grinding proficiency. I need to get the success rate up close to the limit as fast as I can and turn out a finished product sooner."
With that, Leon tipped his head back and drained his tea, then got to his feet, full of energy, and headed for the basement.
"Oh, right, almost forgot something."
He'd taken only a few steps when something occurred to him. His feet halted, and gripping the stair rail, he turned his head to Iri:
"Iri, when they do their daily training and mock battles later, you join in too."
"Eh?"
Iri blinked. She'd never imagined Leon would actually have her take part in combat!
But... she really wasn't good at fighting!
A certain wasteland survival game's special training mode surfaced in Leon's mind, something he'd been itching to imitate for ages. But without a top-tier healer to backstop it, that hell-mode approach was too risky. One wrong move and something could easily go wrong.
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