Chapter 38 – Plan

Read on Ka​tRea​dingCaf​e

–

As a result, the Gothic Lolita-style dress ended up in my inventory.

“The dress meets its owner, and it suits you so well.”

He said it in a theatrical tone that didn’t suit him at all and gave it to me as a gift.

It wasn’t my style, but it was a gift, so it was hard to refuse.

Besides, Yuika, who was next to me, was begging me with her eyes to accept it, so I had no choice but to put it in my inventory on the spot.

More than anything, I didn’t feel too bad when I tried it on… ahem.

But I have no intention of wearing it in front of others. If anyone, it would be Andreina-nim, and maybe I would wear it if she asked.

Ah, speaking of Andreina-nim, I also stopped by the cathedral on the way back.

Originally, Andreina-nim should have gone to the clothing store with me, but she stayed at the cathedral for those who were being resurrected.

Everyone there saw my outfit, but only Andreina-nim didn’t, so I showed her the new clothes briefly, worried that she would be disappointed if she found out later.

Looking back, isn’t this similar to a child showing off their new clothes to their parents…?

Anyway, as expected, Andreina-nim seemed quite pleased. She even said that she wished I would dress like that more often, just like Yuika did.

If I wasn’t in a position where I had to go down to the dungeon, I would have, but I couldn’t, much to Andreina-nim’s regret.

Basically, once you go to the dungeon, your clothes get dirty, whether it’s a lot or a little. As someone who wants to cherish the gifts as much as possible, it was more comfortable for me to wear clothes that didn’t matter if they got dirty, like the ones sold in bulk at the store.

So, in the end, the gifted clothes were destined to remain in the inventory for a long time.

Unless something special happens, they will stay there forever…

“I’m home… Hwaaam…”

As soon as I got home, a yawn burst out. It was only afternoon, but I felt sleepy, so it seemed like the aftereffects of staying up all night were still lingering.

Should I just go to sleep? I shook my head, blankly thinking with my body bent over. If I did, I would wake up in the middle of the night, like when I woke up in Andreina-nim’s room.

And if that happened, my sleep pattern would be disrupted. I let out a yell to clear my head.

“Heup!”

At the same time, I slapped my cheeks with a sound, and the drowsiness disappeared thanks to the stinging pain and heat.

This is the best way to wake up. Holding my slightly swollen cheeks and groaning, I recalled what I had to do before the drowsiness returned.

“First, I need to prepare to go to the dungeon tomorrow.”

I thought that I would get sleepy again if I just kept thinking, so I took out Doll 505 and slowly continued to speak to myself.

“The most important thing is to strengthen Doll 505.”

Now, the rabbits in the 1st floor were no match for me. However, it is also true that some damage occurs in the process. When they come in large numbers, there is a problem of breaking through Doll 505 and running straight to me.

To solve this, I had to increase the size of Doll 505. The power is enough, so I need to widen the attack range.

Of course, if I was going to stay on the 1st floor forever, I could ignore the collateral damage and maintain the status quo. Except for the humiliation, I wouldn’t die even if I got hit by a rabbit a little.

But I can’t stay on the 1st floor forever. I am getting closer to the invisible limit every moment, so I have to think about the next floor at any time.

And if I go down to the next floor, the current Doll 505 would not be enough.

On the 2nd floor, there was a beast that could be called a proper predator, not a herbivore like a rabbit.

I took out the Dungeon White Paper from the inventory and immediately opened the part that explained the 2nd floor.

[Monsters appearing on the 2nd floor: Rabbits, Wolves]

[The background is the same forest as the 1st floor. However, it tends to be darker than the 1st floor even during the day.]

[Rabbits appear at the same frequency as on the 1st floor. However, be careful because wolves are always lurking near the rabbits.]

[Wolves move in packs of at least two. Be careful because they show a pattern of one drawing attention and the other ambushing the rear.]

[Therefore, go down with a party of at least two people, or be prepared to block the rear ambush even if you are confident.]

“At least two people…”

It’s a pack after all. I sighed and muttered.

The reason I decided to strengthen Doll 505 was not only because I didn’t want to be hit by rabbits, but also because the 2nd floor required at least two people.

To be blunt, I wasn’t the kind of person who could form a party with anyone.

It’s not that I don’t want strangers, but it’s clear that no one would want to form a party with someone like me, who is shy and easily frightened.

If I were someone else, I wouldn’t want to go to the dungeon with someone like me.

How can you go with someone who acts like that in a place where lives are at stake? Of course…! It’s not that there’s no one who would go if I asked them to go to the dungeon with me.

First of all, there’s Yuika, Yuika, and Yuika. But I don’t want to ask for help with such things.

More than anything, Yuika’s lock point was on the 4th floor. Even though she doesn’t seem to fit in with the dungeon, going down to the 4th floor means she’s much stronger than I thought.

It’s rude to ask such a person to go to the 2nd floor with me, where they can’t even get magic stones, just to make things easier for me.

For that reason, other people who could grant my request were also rejected. Andreina-nim is out of the question from the start.

So, in the end, there was only one option left. To further strengthen Doll 505 and make up for the lack of personnel.

Of course, another way would be to make a higher-level doll, that is, a ball-jointed doll that can perform more diverse movements than an ordinary wooden doll, or an autonomous doll that moves without being controlled, but unfortunately, those two skills are currently locked.

[Handicraft Lv. 3 is required to activate the ball-jointed doll production.]

[Handicraft Lv. 5 is required to activate the autonomous doll production.]

I clearly didn’t get the impression that they were locked when I looked at the status window, but when I tried to check if I could make them, those phrases appeared.

If it wasn’t possible, they should have shown it in advance. So that I wouldn’t be disappointed after expecting it.

I pouted my lips while looking at the status window and sighed, muttering.

“How do you raise handicraft?”

As far as I know, handicraft means the talent to make or handle something with your hands.

In that sense, I belong to the side that has no handicraft. No, it’s not just that I don’t have it, it’s at the level of annihilation…!

The only reason I was able to make Doll 505 look decent was because I had Handicraft Lv. 1 as a general skill, otherwise it would have been a round ball with only arms and legs attached.

Anyway, what are the ways to raise handicraft? This answer also came to mind surprisingly quickly.

“Mass production of Doll 505…!”

As I said before, handicraft is a general term for the talent to make or handle something with your hands.

It’s clear that I don’t have the talent to handle something with my hands, so the answer is to work hard to make it.

In other words, I had no choice but to do production grinding to level up my handicraft…!

Of course, there were problems with this method as well.

First of all, money was the problem. I called up the store window.

[Gold held: 34,000G]

[Firewood logs: 1,500G]

I currently have 34,000 gold. Considering the 20 magic stones that I haven’t cashed in yet, I have a total of 54,000 gold.

The number of firewood logs that can be bought with that money is exactly 36. And the number of firewood logs needed to make one Doll 505 is 4. So, I can make a total of 9 Doll 505s.

But… can I reach level 3, the minimum handicraft level for making ball-jointed dolls, by making only 9 dolls?

I may be able to reach level 2 with what I’ve done so far. But it was clear that level 3 was absolutely impossible.

“More than anything, what’s important to me right now is not ball-jointed dolls…”

Going back to the main point. As someone who needs to prepare for the 2nd floor, what I need most is a front line, a tanker.

Doll 505, which barely exceeds 30cm when standing, cannot fully protect me. And unlike the rabbits, which could barely ignore Doll 505 with their numbers, the wolves on the 2nd floor could directly harm me on their own.

And if I think about the guy who will attack from behind, it’s truly a headache… Huh?

“Wait, wait a minute. Then I have to bring at least two dolls that I can control, right?”

There is no option for me to move directly. It’s not a rabbit, it’s a wolf.

There’s no way I can fight him with my amateur swordsmanship, so naturally, the only thing left is to bring two or more dolls.

And all the dolls must be equipped with cores so that they can be operated.

“Wait, wait a minute… What did I need to make a core?”

I was about to panic for a moment, but I managed to pull myself together and called up the status window to go to core production.

[Core Production]

[The grade of cores that can be made is basic.]

[To make a core (basic), you need 30,000 gold and magic stones (the number varies depending on the type).]

[Currently, Marionette-nim has 34,000 gold (34,000/30,000) and 20 low-grade magic stones (20/20).]

[Would you like to make a core (basic)?]

“…Huh?”

Is this a dream? I rubbed my eyes and read it again slowly.

Of course, it was exactly the same without a single word changed.

“It’s, it’s too expensive…!”

My entire fortune? After making this, I’ll only have enough money for one meal, are you serious…!

“Ah, no. When I first bought it, it was 40,000 gold without using magic stones…”

If you think about it that way, it doesn’t seem that expensive. Rather, now that I can get magic stones, it might be better than the first purchase when I only bought it with gold… No, is it really better…?

The plan I had set up was disrupted by the unexpectedly high production cost, and I felt dizzy.

“Uuuuu…”

In the end, I couldn’t hold back and fell on the table, and Doll 505, which was right in front of me, shook and rattled.

It sounded like it was saying, ‘You have to hunt hard, right?’ and I became depressed.

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
Novelpia is acting a bit strange today, isn’t it?

Huh? Stop the nonsense and just upload on time?

(Deep breaths) Got it…

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
You must think that I’m evil to always want to kill Kat, but there’s a reason, you know?

You must know the translator that go by the name of Ruminas right? The TLer for a lot of noob novels on Fenrir like ‘I became a murderer at the academy’ and ‘The main character’s body was stolen by the villainess’!

Look at this totally not forged evidence of Rumi being harassed by Kat!!!

So go kill kat!!!

Placeholders