Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 25
Chapter 25: Cheat Title
In a good mood after getting her equipment sorted, Sora opened the door to the tool shop with Kuro.
Inside, however, there were no shelves displaying products.
Unlike Kirie’s shop or the armor shop, the space was empty, with a row of long, test-tube-like objects neatly aligned on a shelf behind the counter.
Could those be the items?
With that thought in mind, Sora stepped inside.
A bell chimed, signaling her arrival, and as the door behind the counter opened, a girl who looked to be in her teens appeared.
She was dressed in a green robe and wore a large, pointed hat of the same color, giving off a very witch-like impression.
When she made eye contact with Sora, she said:
“Welcome. How can I assist you today?”
“Sorry, I’d like to sell some items.”
“In that case, please place the items you want to sell into the basket here.”
She pointed to a large basket beside the counter.
Following her direction, Sora looked at the basket and saw the prompt displayed in front of her: ?Please select items?.
Below that, the drops she had collected throughout the day were listed:
????????????????????????
Item List:
– Slime Jelly x125
– Metal Jelly x5
– Skeleton Bone x5
– Forest Wolf Meat x1
– Forest Wolf Hide x1
– Forest Wolf Claw x1
????????????????????????
By the way, here’s how much each of the drop items is worth:
– Slime Jelly: 10 El per item
– Metal Jelly: 300 El per item
– Skeleton Bone: 200 El per item
– Forest Wolf Meat: 50,000 El per item
– Forest Wolf Hide: 10,000 El per item
– Forest Wolf Claw: 30,000 El per item
????????????????????????
…Wasn’t the price for the Forest Wolf’s drop items insane?
The price difference was literally by two orders of magnitude.
The amount of El obtained from killing a Forest Wolf together with Kuro was around 500.
Was it a bug that the dropped items are priced 100 times more than the monster itself?
No, rather, I’d feel more at ease if you told me it was a bug.
When I asked the girl who runs the shop about it:
“Ah, the Forest Wolf is a rarely appearing monster in this forest. Its meat is such a delicacy that even royalty would be impressed.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, and the hide and claws are top-notch as well. The hide is used to make fabrics presented to royalty, and the claws are materials for creating powerful weapons. So, many merchants want them, but the Forest Wolf is level 20. To hunt it, you need to send at least five soldiers of level 10 or above, and it’s not something you encounter often— the last time it was hunted was around 100 years ago.”
“Seriously?”
“Sora, your vocabulary seems to have disappeared.”
“Of course, Kuro. You should also take a look at the buyback prices for the Forest Wolf’s items.”
“…………..?”
It seems that Kuro’s mind was also blown.
She looked back and forth between the box for items and my face, showing a confused expression that said, “What is this?”
As a seasoned player, I gave her a piece of advice.
“Kuro, make sure you never sell these valuable items. Hold onto them.”
“But isn’t it better to have a lot of money?”
“That’s true in real life. But in games like this, keeping valuable items usually leads to good things.”
“Good things?”
“For example, if there’s an NPC who wants the hide or claws, you can give them the items right then and there. And in fantasy games, you might be able to get rare items that you can’t obtain through normal gameplay.”
“Rare items…”
“For example, Kuro, this is a good case in point. Because you kept that starting clothes, you were able to come into the forest and party up with me like this.”
“Ah, so keeping valuable items can be advantageous?”
“Exactly. You understand quickly—good job.”
“Got it. I’ll remember to keep valuable items!”
Satisfied, Kuro’s eyes sparkled with understanding.
As I patted her on the head, I praised my quick-learning little apprentice.
However, Kuro’s gaze dropped, and she suddenly murmured in a small voice.
“But food ingredients lose freshness every 12 hours, so I think it would be better to sell them now.”
“Baka! Didn’t you hear what the shopkeeper said? It’s high-quality meat, it would be a waste not to use it.”
“……..Do we need to eat in the game?”
Kuro looked at me as if I were strange.
It took me about 30 minutes to explain to her what eating in a game entails.
…………………………………
After explaining to Kuro what the point of eating in a VR game is, Sora, who had sold everything except for the Forest Wolf materials, made the following purchases.
– ?Potion?: Recovers 100 HP each. Bought 20 at 100 El each.
– ?Magic Potion?: Recovers 50 MP each. Bought 10 at 200 El each.
In total, I spent 4,000 El and was left with only 600 El.
However, my equipment was now well-equipped.
Here’s a rough summary of my current stats:
— — — — — — — — — — — —
??Adventurer?: Sora ?
?Level?: 22
?Profession?: Enchanter
?Skill Level?: 21
?HP?: 440
?MP?: 220
?Strength?: 22
?One-Handed Sword Proficiency?: 28
?Carry Weight?: 220
?Upper Body Equipment?:
– ?Starting Clothes?
– ?Stealth Dark Coat?
– ?Iron Breastplate?
?Lower Body Equipment?:
– ?Starting Clothes?
– ?Leather Shoes?
?Total Defense?: E
?Right Hand?: Silver Sword
?Left Hand?: None
— — — — — — — — — — — —
Although my total defense rating is E, the actual breakdown is unbalanced: my upper body has a defense rating of D- while my lower body is rated F-, making my legs extremely vulnerable if targeted.
Since this game apparently has part destruction mechanics, I need to be cautious not to have my legs taken out.
As I was thinking about this, Kuro, who was walking next to me, glanced at the status screen and said, “Sora, you have a lot of things to point out overall, but especially your weapon proficiency growth is weird.”
“Really? Is that so?”
“Weapon proficiency increases based on how often you use it and the damage you deal. It’s reflected along with the experience points you get when you level up…”
“Ah, I see. The calculations around that can be pretty confusing.”
“You can understand how weird your situation is by looking at my stats.”
With that, Kuro opened her status screen and showed it to me.
— — — — — — — — — — — —
??Adventurer?: Kuro ?
?Level?: 16
?Profession?: Martial Artist
?Skill Level?: 8
?HP?: 320
?MP?: 160
?Strength?: 16
?One-Handed Sword Proficiency?: 18
?Carry Weight?: 215
?Upper Body Equipment?:
– ?Battle Dress?
– ?Iron Breastplate?
?Lower Body Equipment?:
– ?Battle Dress?
– ?Iron Boots?
?Total Defense?: D-
?Right Hand?: Night Cherry
?Left Hand?: None
— — — — — — — — — — — —
“From what you can see, basically, proficiency goes up by 1 per level-up, and no matter how much you fight, it increases by about 1 more at level 5.”
“Ah, I see.”
So the proficiency level efficiency for normal players is around that pace.
In contrast, my proficiency level went up to 17 from fighting the Demon Lord, and from something I gained in that battle, my overall proficiency increased by 1.9 times.
This is indeed… insane.
Looking at Kuro, who tilted her head cutely and said, “Right?” I folded my arms in front of my chest and thought, “Hmm…”
“There wasn’t anything related to weapon proficiency in the skills, right?”
“If that’s the case, then it might be a title.”
“A title?”
“Before we came here, the guild leader noticed that there seems to be something called a title.”
Hmm, a title.
I looked closely at the status screen, but couldn’t find anything like that.
Usually, titles would appear above the player name, but it seems I don’t have one.
“No, no, touch the name.”
“Touch the name?”
Following Kuro’s instructions, I touched my player’s name.
Then the screen changed, and a single title was displayed.
— — — — — — — — — — — —
?Title?: Vessel of a Hero
A title given to those who do not give up even after being defeated by the Demon Lord.
Provides the following effects at all times:
?Increased Experience Points Gained?
?Increased Weapon Proficiency Growth upon Level Up?
— — — — — — — — — — — —
Ah, so the reason my level and weapon proficiency are rising so rapidly is because of this…
With the revelation of yet another cheat ability, I was no longer surprised.