Inox smiled after his words and stood up. "It's not that I blindly trust you; in fact, I barely know you. But I do trust human nature. It's in your best interest—and will continue to be—to keep the secret, because we're going to get rich..."
He nodded to himself before taking in everyone's reaction. Darkness returned his gaze with an unusual calmness, Dust nodded, and Kazuma nodded too. Aqua, on the other hand, looked the prince right in the eyes.
"Will you buy me wine?" she asked.
Inox nodded before replying, "You'll have enough money to buy it yourself."
But Aqua frowned instead. "Buy me wine. Delicious wine." She flashed her white teeth. Inox tilted his head and then nodded a couple of times.
Deep inside the forest, in the Goblin Kingdom.
"My Lord, two out of every ten Berserk Riders we sent to the Sirs of each territory have died at the hands of adventurers..." The captain entered a beautiful and majestic building.
Sitting quietly while observing a map on the table was a goblin with attractive features. He was a meter tall, with pointed ears and eyes that had ringed patterns similar to an onion's.
"It's fine, that was to be expected. Send a dozen of the new elite Nature Mages to each Sir to accompany the Riders," he ordered, his eyes never leaving the map.
The captain, however, didn't leave immediately. Instead, he stood there for a moment, looking at his lord.
"Is something wrong?" Karmac asked.
"Sir, forgive my arrogance, but the higher-ups in Axel City likely already know of our existence. Aren't we going to do anything?"
At the captain's words, Karmac let out a soft chuckle. "There's no need."
In Axel City.
"I'm getting married." Rosco smiled, lightly patting the table beneath him as he looked at the people across from him—his construction crewmates.
One of them, a big guy with bulging muscles, raised his eyebrows and looked away, smiling as he nodded and took a drink from his glass. "You've been saying that for a long time. You won't even tell us the name of the girl you want to marry..."
Another, a skinny guy, let out a snort as he slapped Rosco hard on the shoulder. "Why don't you just forget about this woman, whoever she is? You're going crazy."
The smallest of the group just shook his head. Rosco looked at the three of them; he had shared more than just a job with them, he had shared a decade of his life. He slowly lowered his head, blinked a few times, and forced a smile.
"Inox... from what I've found out, some adventurers bought his tomatoes for 10,000 Eris each."
At his words, the others froze, their faces twisting in bewilderment before looking at their boss.
"Sure, those adventurers just wanted to show off for a girl, but those tomatoes actually increase physical and magical strength. If they aren't worth 10,000 Eris, they must be worth at least 5,000, maybe even 3,000. Regardless, growing them would make you a filthy rich man."
A brief moment of silence fell over them. The big guy cracked his neck while letting out a weary groan. "Let's say it's true. What are you gonna do? Steal the seeds or the tomatoes from the guy? And then what?" He winked, forcing a smile.
"You don't understand, those kinds of vegetables don't exist in Axel City." Rosco looked down, biting his lower lip. His legs were shaking, and his back ran cold with sweat.
He felt like he was standing on the edge of a void, his feet heavy but his gaze resolute. "I'm going to kill Inox and steal his method for getting those plants. I'll grow tomatoes and get rich."
He looked into his comrades' eyes. Their jaws dropped, every cell in their bodies screaming with anticipation, as their beers slipped from their hands and crashed to the floor.
"This is the fifth one. Is it really that impossible to get a random effect?" Inox muttered, spending a few moments experimenting with the Grade 1 random corn.
His muscles hummed with power, his physical strength and agility increasing by 50%. In that moment, he felt capable of taking on the Berserk Wolf from back then.
He pulled out the sixth boiled cob and started eating. The taste was irresistibly sweet—naturally, the kind of thing a person would never tire of eating.
He blinked.
Once his mouth finished chewing the last kernel of boiled corn, he let out a small burp.
His eyes closed. A single heartbeat was enough to slightly detach his consciousness from his body. His hair stood on end as his DNA completely reconfigured itself.
He exhaled a breath of air so cold it was tinted blue. The slightly distorted world in front of him began to clear up. Without him noticing, frost had begun to creep all over the kitchen.
"Huh..." Inox murmured after a moment of contemplation. He quickly checked his hands but noticed nothing strange. Then he looked around the kitchen and felt a vague sensation, something akin to having a phantom fifth limb.
Almost subconsciously, his mind could control this new appendage, which felt much like magic.
He stepped out of the kitchen and looked up at the sky, which was just about to fade into the black of night. He clenched his right fist and touched the dirt.
Crack!
Crack!
The ground beneath him began to freeze, spreading out like a drop of oil in a hot pan.
"Mmm, hahaha, HAHAHA!" He let out a loud, booming laugh. "Random, huh?" he muttered, reveling in this new power.
"It's a shame the guys aren't here. I wanted to show off a little..." he mumbled, shaking his head. Suddenly, the group of four people who had beaten up Kazuma flashed through his mind. With an idea brewing, he decided to head out and look for trouble.
As he walked through the streets of Axel City, people looked at him strangely. Some were curious; others were slightly frightened.
It wasn't until a few moments later, when he caught his reflection in a puddle, that he realized why.
Half of his face was frozen a deep shade of blue, and the air he exhaled was stark white.
"This is definitely a bit terrifying," he thought, raising a hand to brush through his hair. "This power is random, so it's highly likely that the next time I get an effect, it won't be this one," he reasoned to himself.
He walked briskly past a place where strange girls wearing skimpy outfits and pointy tails lingered. He continued exploring all of Axel City, but he couldn't find the people he was looking for.
An hour later, the effect of the random corn wore off. Without it, he didn't dare continue his search, so he quickly returned to his own territory.
When he arrived, he spotted Kazuma, Darkness, Aqua, and Dust gathered in a circle in the middle of the garden.
Isn't that where I planted the Grade 2 living watermelon? he wondered. He closed the front gate behind him and walked over to the others.
"Guys, what are you..." Before he could finish his sentence, he saw the spot where the sprout of the Grade 2 living watermelon was supposed to be.
Right where the sprout should have been sat a massive watermelon, at least a meter in diameter. It rested on top of several large green leaves. On one side, a thick root grew in the shape of a helix, forming a bowl at the top. Resting inside that bowl was a second watermelon, half the size of the main one, positioned exactly like a projectile in a catapult.
The Grade 2 living watermelon had finished growing. Its leaves shifted slowly, while its helix-shaped root bobbed up and down.