VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～

Hi there,

Just something small to point out this chapter. While “investigating” the name of the item they received for beating the boss. I ended with the name Rubrum, which is apparently the word for “Red” in Latin. (Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong)

Just a quick small bit of trivia is that most of the sources for the name in the original text linked to a monster in older Final Fantasy games called Rubrum Dragons in Japanese. However the localization for those games changed them to “Ruby Dragons”.

Well, just some random thing I felt like pointing out, enjoy the chapter.

We had become tired after this last fight, so we decided that stopping at floor twenty was a good idea.

There were stairs leading to further floors, but in everyone’s eyes it was reflected that continuing would prove to be difficult.

If a boss came out here, it was expected that it would become harder from now on.

Therefore, no one was against retreating here.

Furthermore, there were five treasure chests in front of us.

It’s the same number as the number of people here, so would it be OK for each one of us to pick one?

「Good work everyone. Well then, shall we open these treasur-」(Hind)

「Hind, I’m hungry…」(Philia)

「Ah, eh…uh, hmm?」(Hind)

Immediately after I placed a hand on a treasure chest, Philia-chan’s vigor plummeted.

Our hunger gauges haven’t decreased that much though…is it a matter of her mood?

I rummaged through my inventory and took out the last remaining pudding.

「Here you go.」(Hind)

When I handed it to her along with a wooden spoon, the little girl thanked me and immediately started eating.

Even Albert, who was always calm, started to show an embarrassed expression on his face.

「Sorry that this is happening so often, Hind…however, it seems like my daughter has taken a liking to you. It’s rare for her to show this amount of selfishness to other people.」(Albert)

「I get the feeling that she has taken a liking to the food rather than me though…」(Hind)

「…That’s not true, I was happy that you revived me first.」(Philia)

Eating while wearing a blank expression, she denied my words.

Behind Philia-chan, Selene-san was trying to keep Riizu, who was raising her eyebrows, in check by wrapping her arms around her from behind.

It’s not like…I revive people to gain likability points though…

When I told her that, as you’d expect, Philia-chan tilted her head.

「I guess it’s like that. You are recognizing me as a player. To be recognized by someone like you, makes me happy.」(Philia)

With that, as if she had gotten tired of speaking, Philia-chan shut her mouth.

Oh, that’s wrong. She only opened her mouth to eat the pudding.

Albert nodded at her daughter’s words in agreement, to be honest, I was a bit shaken by the fact that they held me in that high regard.

…Wait…ah, that’s right! The treasure, the treasure chests!

Let’s get rid of this delicate and tepid atmosphere by moving things forward, yeah. That will be fine.

「…I-In that case, shall we check the contents of these treasure chests? I doubt these ones will have any traps placed on them after all.」(Hind)

Once we simultaneously opened the chests, the contents inside all of them were the same.

They felt warm when we picked them up, they were fist sized clear red stones.

It seems like they are called 『Rubrum Stones』, they are classified as elemental stones and others…others?

While shaking on the back of the camel, I inspected the gems.

When it comes to elemental stones usage, you could place them in the grip of a weapon, and in the case of a staff, you could place them on one end of it…

「Leaving aside the fact that this stone is clearly of the fire element, I wonder what the other usage for it is?」(Hind)

「When we touched them a pop-up saying “Do you want to use it?” appeared but…it would be scary to use them here.」(Selene)

「It would be troublesome if they started blowing fire, let’s do it once we get back home. Leaving that aside-」(Hind)

Riizu was glaring at me.

Though it’s true that I was currently riding a camel with Philia-chan.

「Why are you not riding one with your father!? When we came here you did that, right!?」(Hind)

「I feel bad for the camel because dad is heavy. It looked exhausted by the time we were reaching our destination.」(Philia)

He should weigh around 150kg if you add the armor and the greatsword after all…I wonder if it’s his policy? He refuses to unequip his gear.

Philia-chan is light, but even if she removed all her gear, she should weigh between 30~40kg.

If we count that as the reason, I guess it’s not that odd that she moved over here.

By the way, the reason Philia-chan doesn’t have her own camel is because “It’s scary to ride one alone”, or so she says.

Even when they ride a horse, it seems like they usually ride one together too.

When it comes to fights, he positively seeks them out and acts as some sort of barbarian. I actually don’t get Albert’s standards and the way he acts. Isn’t he just too overprotective…?

Albert looked over here in sadness as if he was saying “Philia-chan, come over here”.

I don’t think I can consider this action of hers as one of being independent of one’s parents though.

If you hate it that much, take off your armor and put away that sword, I would honestly prefer it if she rode a camel with you.

「In that case, wouldn’t it be fine if you rode one with me or Secchan!? We are lighter than Hind-san!」(Riizu)

「Riizu seems like the type of person that’s quick to anger so no. Selene becomes frightened if I get close to her」(Philia)

「I-I’m sorry. For still not being able to get used to you…」(Selene)

「Riizu. We’ll arrive in Waaha shortly, so it’s not something you should be that bothered by?」(Hind)

She has grown strangely attached to me, but she’s not one to pull pranks like Siesta-chan and remains silent.

In reality, it was as if I was holding a slightly heavier doll, so it was not as if I was against it.

It was as if I was looking after a relative’s child, a feeling akin to babysitting.

I’ve rode along with quite a few girls by now, so my feelings have gone numb in a sense.

「Whatever! I’ll go to your room once we log out, you better prepare yourself, nii-san!」(Riizu)

What should I be prepared for…?

I exchanged glances with Philia-chan and we both tilted our heads.

Once we returned to the guild home, we moved close to a source of water and placed the 『Rubrum Stone』on top of a metal plate and used it.

We were curious about what kind of item it was, so even if it was quite late, everyone remained without logging out.

Once we used it…

「So hot!」(Hind)

I retracted my finger in reflex.

It didn’t blow fire, but it released heat high enough that it warped the air around it.

「A-Are you OK, Hind-kun?」(Selene)

「It didn’t really happen immediately after using it, but that’s some terrifying heat. Actually, look…」(Albert)

The iron plate started to turn bright red and smoke came out of it.

The liquid that was once a plate started to spread on the ground, like that, the surroundings started to melt and the gem proceeded to start sinking.

…

「-Wait, this is bad, Hind-san! How are we going to stop this!」(Riizu)

「W-Water! For now use water!」(Hind)

「Leave it to me! Everyone, step back!」(Albert)

Using the buckets we had prepared beforehand, Albert drew water from the canal and threw it on top of the stone.

A large amount of vapor was produced and when it seemed as if it had settled down we cautiously came closer…

The 『Rubrum Stone』 had stopped emitting heat and was laying there.

T-These are so hard to use…

It seems like they are the type of items that don’t get consumed on use, but on top of taking a bit of time to increase its temperature, it seems like it’ll be impossible to throw them and use them as a way to attack.

Watching these chains of events, Albert finished it with this.

「As an item, it is hard to use. However, there’s the fact that it’s possible that you’d be able to deal high rank fire element attacks if you attached them to a weapon.」(Albert)

「W-What do you want to do? If you leave it to us, we could use them for your greatsword and axe.」(Selene)

After Selene-san suggested that, Albert crossed his arms and started to think.

And after exchanging some words with Philia-chan, he said this.

「In that case, make Philia’s axe an elemental weapon. In our case, there are a lot of times where we lack attacks with magical properties after all. Since I want to request mine to be non elemental, you can keep the remaining stone.」(Albert)

「Are you sure? This item, I believe it’s extremely valuable given the current state of the game.」(Selene)

「I don’t mind. They might be difficult to work with, but you guys have something in mind, right?」(Albert)

Albert said that as he looked at us.

Well, I guess he guessed that by looking at our faces…if it’s this item, the number of uses it has is limited.

As a test, we all said out loud what we were thinking, and it turns out that we were thinking the same thing, namely…

「Fuel for the furnace.」(Hind)

「Fuel for the furnace…maybe? If everything goes well, the amount of alloys I can make will increase.」(Selene)

「Fuel for the furnace, right? I can’t think of anything else.」(Riizu)

The answer we arrived at was this one.

If it turned out that it was impossible to use within the firebrick, it would have no other use like the rest of the elemental stones. (TLN: As in, no other use but to add elemental properties to gear)