The New Gate (LN)

“Kuu, the ground has calmed down. It doesn’t feel unusual at all.”

Yuzuha, now in human form, and Tiera arrived at the place where Filma and the others were. Just to be sure, they were asked to investigate the Ley Lines. 

“I figured something was up since two gods showed up.”

I don’t want something to happen, but I can’t help but think that it is likely.

But other than the fact that the Ley Lines were active, there was nothing to be concerned about, Yuzuha said.

If Yuzuha and Tiera, who can perceive the demon’s miasma, demon’s power, and such things with their senses, said that they feel nothing together, then there must really be nothing.

It’s a bit disconcerting, but if there’s no trouble, then there’s nothing to worry about.

“Can you fix him?”

Yuzuha said, touching the cracked armor and looking up at Shin.

Like Schnee, none of the members considered 08 an enemy, even though they had fought. They even looked rather worried; the reason why they were hostile was because of the circumstances.

“Like I told Schnee, the personalities, uh, you know, the stuff on the inside? I don’t know what’s going to happen to that. The body is the same as fixing a weapon, so as long as I have the right materials, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Shin was not sure about this. It’s an entirely different territory from blacksmithing. 

But he also thought there was a reasonable chance that the core was not destroyed to pieces, so it could likely be restored to its original state. He didn’t mention it, though, since it was just a guess.

“08, he cried the whole time.”

Yuzuha’s ears and tail are drooping listlessly. Yuzuha had been through a heartbreaking experience before meeting Shin, so perhaps she could understand 08’s feelings.

“…right.”

Shin felt that 08 seemed to have become desperate, but he thought they must be similar, just feeling differently. Because at the very root of it all was the wish to see Reed.

While he was thinking about this, Yuzuha came up to him and hugged him tightly from behind.

Her tail was tangled around her legs. He tried to turn around to see what was going on, but could not because Yuzuha’s head was pressed against his neck.

Shin was a little surprised by Yuzuha’s behavior, as she had never been so clearly pampered in human form since she was growing up.

However, although he was surprised, he did not try to pull her away.

He decided to let her do as she liked for a while, assuming that she must have felt something about what he had said and done to 08.

Schnee, perhaps feeling the same way, did not try to stop her.

“I’m fine now.”

“I see.”

Untying her tail, Yuzuha went into baby fox mode and climbed on Shin’s head.

Shoulder would make it a little more difficult to do work, Shin also appreciated this.

Considering her original size, it should be quite heavy, but Shin felt that it was as light as it looked.

He wondered if this was also an ability of the divine beast, but he did not stop moving his hand.

“The core seems to be alive.”

Shin, who had been fiddling with the gauntlets and the armor of various parts, analyzed and observed their condition and came to that conclusion.

“Is everything alright?”

“I still don’t know about the personality, but the armor’s auto-repair function is activate. If the core was broken and completely stopped functioning, it would not be activated, so it should not be completely broken and unusable.”

The parts of the doll were made separately.

Then, when assembled as a single doll, each part would function as a single piece of equipment instead of being independent of each other.

If an automatic repair function was attached, the doll would repair itself regardless of whether it was the internal mechanism or the exterior that was broken.

However, the core must be present.

If the core was destroyed, the other parts of the doll would stop functioning even if they were intact.

Conversely, the fact that the doll’s functions were still alive means that the core had not completely stopped functioning.

“That’s all I know right now. We’ll have to wait until Berett and the others get here.” Shin continued.

After completing his investigation, Shin headed for the place where Iira Suura had fallen, leaving 08 to Yuzuha, who said she would watch over him.

“This is what Shibaid was talking about.”

He had received word from Shibaid, who was investigating, that a drop item had fallen at the spot where Iira Suura had fallen.

Shibaid did not retrieve it because it was a special metal whose quality as a material increased when a blacksmith retrieved it.

“I’ve never heard of anything this big. No wonder Shibaid was puzzled. I don’t know the mechanism for dropping items other than the material over here.”

Shin said, looking at the 30-cemel sized chunks that stained the ground red.

People called it 『Armadite』 meaning true steel born of divine power, as it still glowed red in the ground where the flames of Iira Suura still lingered.

In games, it was often written in Japanese katakana, and even scavengers like Shin and others sometimes forget that it exists.

Unlike rare metals such as Orichalcum and Adamantite, it was a special metal seldom found in the ground, and its properties were unknown until it was collected and analyzed. Furthermore, even if it was analyzed, its properties were random.

It was hard to find true steel with the same properties, even among the same type of true steel, which was why it was unfavorable as material.

Despite these disadvantages, its properties as a material were unparalleled in THE NEW GATE.

It was said that even the highest quality Chimeradite could be surpassed if only the right quantity was available.

However, the random nature of the material, the probability of obtaining it, and the small quantity made it impossible to make a decent weapon.

In fact, even Shin and the others who went around hunting gods had no equipment made of pure Armadite.

Even the box at the Moon Shrine, where materials can be obtained, did not have this. The only way to obtain it was to defeat a god or a being of equivalent power. That was the only way. It was needless to say, how difficult the conditions were.

The average drop rate was 1 percent, according to the experts. The amount per drop was about one pebble.

Moreover, the nature of the drop was not stable. Even the ‘Rokuten’ gave up on the idea.

However, this did not mean that Armadite equipment did not exist. There was a time when a large guild with a large number of members had the manpower to gather materials and  asked Shin to make equipment for them.

Given the amount of materials they gathered, only a small knife was made, but its basic performance alone exceeded the 『True Moon』; this might give you an idea of its high performance.

However, since this knife had such high performance, many players wanted to use it, and there were stories of various disputes over it. The name of players who used Armadite knives did not become widely known, so it may have had to be put in storage.

“If it’s this size, I can make a weapon of a decent size. I never thought I would be able to get the material I dreamed of in a place like this…”

The ‘Rokuten’ guild has six members and was more like a party than a guild, although each member’s strength was high.

However, a large merchant guild was keeping a close eye on the market, so even if they tried to buy materials, they would not be able to do so.

They were always charging high prices, and among the rarer items, Armadite was the most sought after by players known as informants.

Shin recalled that Reed was doing his best to keep up with the merchant-related business, but he was propped up on the table, saying that this was impossible.

After all, as far as Shin knew, no player used Armadite equipment, and it was regularly talked about why the management implemented such a thing.

That was the way Armadite was treated just before THE NEW GATE became a death game.

Shin thought it was one of those things that are common in games, called end content. Although he has heard it called an “official bug,” which seemed like overkill.

“It’s just a chunk, but it has the same durability value as the Ancient-grade.”

Whatever it is, when he used 【Appraissal】 on it, Shin’s eyes were struck by a list of values that would make even a Chimeradite look like a stone.

Just by attaching a handle to this lump and turning it into a hammer, it was going to be about as good as the lower Mythology-grade weapon.

“Is this number because I got it in this world? Or was it this much over there too?”

Most of the true steel Shin had was about the size of a ping-pong ball and did not have the same durability value as the one he now held in his hand.

The timing and conditions of the appearance of Iira Suura this time were a little strange, so he guessed that might be the case.

“Amazing! It’s like a mass of magic power!”

Sety, who came nearby, was impressed by the Armadite. Since she was familiar with magic power, she seemed to see it clearly.

“We treated it as a mineral, but it might actually be something else. I know because I’ve trained my magic perception, but like Sety says, it’s a mass of magic power, it feels like it’s compressed and materialized.”

Magic power was molecules and atoms, and Armadite was a collection of them that has become visible matter. That was how Shin imagined it.

This time, Iira Suura has disappeared along with the gauntlet.

Therefore, it was unthinkable that a part of the gauntlet remained and Iira Suura’s magic power was lodged in it.

It would have made more sense if it was said that Iira Suura’s magic power crystallized and remained.

“I feel like it’s closer to 『Drop of Erathem』 than a magic metal like Orichalcum.”

“Didn’t you already work with it once?”

“I’m not sure how to describe it, at that time, it wasn’t as clear cut as it is now. Somehow, it feels like it’s become clearer since I came here.”

When it was a game, it was like, “It’s amazing how vivid it feels,” and although it was not indistinguishable from real life, it was quite a good reproduction.

The reason it was not overly realistic was because the system allowed PK, the act of killing a player.

It was said that making the game too realistic increases the likelihood that people would think about killing people or animals in real life or something like that, and this was considered a countermeasure.

This was a common design in games in which players could fight each other or in which humanoid NPCs appeared.

There were plenty of games with violent expressions, so it was beyond Shin’s knowledge as to how effective it actually was.

So, the game was made in such a way that real-life technology could be used to some extent. However, now it’s already beyond the level of making things like that.

The experience from the game era was useful here, but the majority was still jobs and skills, and the rest was proficiency. Shin, too, was helped by an incomprehensible sensation more than once or twice.

“I don’t think anyone can become like Shin just by improving their skills, though.”

Sety, who heard Shin’s explanation, twisted her head while putting her hand on her chin.

“Because you will experience various things in the process of improving your skills. If you include that, wouldn’t you end up in a similar place?”

“Hmm, is that what it is?”

“It seems that it’s not possible to practice with Orichalcum or Mithril now. There is that too. I’ve heard it said that the production job is only real when the level of the skill you use as your main skill is maxed out.”

As skill levels increase, not only does the level itself become harder to raise, but special conditions may be added to level up.

This was a common pattern in the production system, where level advancement was halted unless the job-specific item was crafted using rare materials.

If a blacksmith was just creating weapons and tools without regard to their quality, they would not be able to reach the level they had been trained for.

For blacksmiths, one of the conditions was to use rare metals such as Orichalcum and Mithril to make some sort of tool.

Of course, there was no point in having the right materials if the product was not of proper use.

As the skill level increases, the quality of not only the materials but also the quality of the products made became more and more demanding.

Ultimately, the skill level would be X (ten) if one can create a usable product using Chimeradite. The minimum grade was the lower Mythology-grade.

Whether or not one could produce more than that depends on the training one receives after reaching X skill level.

The reason why few players have mastered production was that simply raising the skill level was not enough.

“It’s easier with combat skills. It’s not like you have to collect a lot of valuable materials.”

The more combat skills were used, the less MP they consumed and the faster they were activated.

Unlike production jobs, materials were not consumed like water, so the cost burden was incomparable.

With that said, many skills, such as the most advanced ones, were difficult to learn, so just because it was relatively easy didn’t mean it was easy.

“Well, chat is over for now. Berett and the others have arrived.”

Sensing the approaching responses, Shin turned his attention to a part of the mountain. After a while, the ground shook.

At first, he could feel a slight vibration, but it grew louder and louder until finally, he could clearly see that the ground was shaking.

Even though the response came close to him, he could not see it. This was because it was moving underground.

Suddenly, the ground cracked, revealing a huge spiral-shaped protrusion. It was a drill equipped at the tip of Miraltrea, which was used to move underground as well as for excavation. Following it, each vehicles emerged.

When all the vehicles were out of the ground, Berett got out of the first vehicle.