The Soul Stone of Witch Win

“Ah!”

Mew, who was wiping her eyes with her index finger.

She’s startled when she sees the customer.

It’s Americano.

“Miss Americano! You’re here?!”

“Hello.”

“Welcome!! Hehe, I’ve been waiting for you~!”

Mew greeted Americano with a hop, as if she was never gloomy.

She jumps over the counter and circles around Americano.

“What brings you here today? You came because you were worried about me, right?!”

“Well… I have some business too.”

“You came to see me last time for something, remember! How could I forget. If I had gotten even a little notice from the main house, I would have made time to see you. It’s not because you’re less important than the main house, not at all!”

“Haha. In those cases, prioritize the main house.”

Mew was still in high tension.

Though the shop was in ruins, she brought out a chair and table.

She served tea and snacks with utmost care.

Almost overbearingly so.

The effect of the [Valedictorian] title disappears when reaching level 30.

However, it remains permanently applied to those already affected, maintaining a +30 favorability.

Add [Charm] on top of that, and Mew was showing crazy amounts of goodwill.

Or so Americano guessed.

“You came today for that too, right? I may not look it, but I’m the best magician in Gospel! If you had gone to another magic shop, I’m certain you would have been disappointed by their inferiority.”

Mew sat across from her.

She spoke boastfully.

“I’ll give you the best service to make up for keeping you waiting. It’s the least I can do for someone like you, Miss Americano!”

“…”

Americano took out [Soulstone of the Witch Win] from her inventory and placed it on the table.

“It’s a Demon King Stone, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to equip it to gear?”

“Not yet. Before that, I want to know what effects it has. I thought another witch might know more easily.”

“Another witch?”

[Soulstone of the Witch Win]

What effects could it have?

Knowing that would help decide what equipment to put it in.

“There’s a witch I, defeated, in the Tower, and I sealed her soul.”

“A witch?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, it must have been difficult to catch her while she was escaping. I thought you were extraordinary from the first time I saw you! May I appraise it then?”

“Yes.”

That’s why she had shown it.

Mew placed a handkerchief on the table.

It had a magic circle engraved on it.

The appraisal method was different from Gusta’s.

While he tapped with a small hammer to appraise, Mew used magic.

“When a witch is sealed in a Demon King Stone, generally, what kind of effects, are produced?”

“From what I know, it usually gives effects related to magic power like magic amplification, magic resistance, magic manifestation, and other magic-related effects. But the exact effects aren’t well known. There aren’t many items with sealed witches on the market. This is all I know.”

“I see.”

“Yes. The Demon King Stone is imbued with the power of the sealed soul. Usually their special ability.”

Mew rolled her eyes from left to right.

Then she smiled brightly.

“To put it simply, though this might be unpleasant, I’ll tell you as a precaution.”

Precaution?

“For example, if you seal an ability user in a Demon King Stone, their ability will be imbued in the stone.”

“…”

“So you need to be careful! It seems no one has noticed yet, but ability hunters will surely appear before long!”

“I see…”

If that’s true, I’ll definitely need to be careful.

As she finished appraising [Soulstone of the Witch Win].

“By the way, since you defeated and sealed a witch, do you know which witch it was? I heard you can learn the opponent’s name during battle. Like Little Witch so-and-so.”

“It’s Witch Win.”

“…”

Flinch.

Mew flinched.

She completes the appraisal.

Looking at the results,

“…It’s real.”

Mew muttered softly.

“W-Witch Win… Big Sis Win was defeated by you, Miss Americano?”

“…? Yes.”

Her reaction was quite big.

Mew corrected her misconception.

“I thought she was just a minor witch at best…”

Anonymous.

That title was etched into Mew’s mind.

The reason she was called back to the main house was because Anonymous had put Witch Win, an Archwitch candidate, into a comatose state.

Currently, the main house was in a state of panic.

A great commotion had spread through the witch community as well.

The situation was so serious that there were even opinions to find and execute Anonymous.

Amidst all this, Mew had realized.

The killer of Witch Win.

The fact that it was Miss Americano!

She could unveil the identity of Anonymous, whom the witches were so desperately searching for.

Report it?

She had no intention of doing so.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that had come to her.

“…?”

“Ah, no, it’s just. Hehe.”

Mew couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

“I just thought that Miss Americano was far, far, FAR more amazing than I had imagined. That’s all, Miss Americano.”

“I see.”

Mew’s eyes sparkled.

“What was Witch Win like? Please tell me your impressions! I really want to hear about it!”

“…”

“I’ll pay you!”

“You don’t have to, pay.”

It wasn’t such a difficult request anyway.

She met Witch Win on the 25th floor.

She shared her impressions.

Hmm…

First of all, the thought that came to mind was,

“That witch was, the first one, to kill me?”

“The first? After being summoned?”

“Yes.”

“Wow..! That means you hadn’t died even once before that?!”

“That’s right?”

Witch Win’s fierce carpet bombing.

She was disgusted by that vast quantity.

It’s not like magical power springs up infinitely from somewhere. Pouring out such a massive amount of magic at zero time was too much of a cheat.

Fortunately, she changed her approach in the next round, allowing for a reversal in a moment of carelessness.

‘If she had fought like in the first round, she could have won, but the witch was quite foolish.’

She should have listened to Witch Win’s side too, but

This was Americano’s experience.

From her perspective, Witch Win had tried to end the game quickly and ended up being quickly defeated herself.

“Basilisk, Orc Elite Troop, Mountain King Ogre, Mountain King Lord Kobold, Ultra Iron Golem, Giant Water Slime.”

Mew counted on her fingers.

Six.

“Except for getting caught in the Giant Mist Spider’s web, it’s practically a no-death clear.”

“A death is, still a death.”

“Even so.”

Mew looked down at her hand that had counted and exclaimed in astonishment.

Seeing her astonished expression made Americano feel oddly good.

It seems her climbing performance was better than expected.

“When facing the Basilisk…”

“When defeating the Mountain King Ogre…”

“When confronting Witch Win…”

Her words didn’t stumble when talking about those times.

Even an [Outsider] seemed to enjoy boasting, as the words flowed smoothly.

She finished talking about the [Giant Water Slime].

“And the last one?”

“The last one…”

Hmm…

“No comment.”

She turned her head away.

“Eeh, how can that be! It’s the last one, you should finish with a flourish!”

Still, no comment.

She turned her head and closed her mouth.

Mew pouted her lips.

She changed the subject.

“So you cleared all of that without dying once, but lost to the witch?”

“Yes, I was toyed with.”

Is it because she’s also a witch?

She really liked it.

It felt worthwhile talking since the other person enjoyed it so much.

“Hee. I see. Among all those monstrous beings, only Big Sis Win. As expected, Big Sis Win is on a different level. That genius of hers is something else.”

Big Sis.

Mew called Witch Win ‘Big Sis’.

“By any chance…”

“Yes, she’s my sister. Well, all the witches of our Justitia family are sisters born from the same mother. We’re all each other’s big and little sisters.”

The answer came before she could even finish asking.

“Big Sis Win was born 2 years before me. She was a genius recognized by the Grand Witches in the witch community, and now we meet again like this.”

“I’m, sorry?”

“You don’t need to apologize. We weren’t particularly close, and she probably doesn’t even know my name. She had an extraordinary ability to draw aggro, so I thought she’d be killed before long… but still, wow…”

She holds up [Soulstone of the Witch Win] to the sun shining through the hole in the ceiling.

“Big Sis Win is really pretty.”

“…”

Americano drank her tea.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t been drinking it.

Mew looking at [Soulstone of the Witch Win] as pretty.

She said one thing.

“I’m not giving it to you.”

“Even if you offered, I wouldn’t take it. It’s an item that no one but the Hero would dare to use anyway. More importantly, I’ll tell you the appraisal results.”

She wrote the results on a piece of paper.

<Appraisal Results>

[Soulstone of the Witch Win. It contains Big Sis Win’s soul and magical power. Due to its strong anti-magic power, I can’t appraise it in detail, so I’ll write brief information below.]

[Function] [Magic Enhancement]

[Function] [Magic Emission]

[Function] [Magic Enchantment]

[Function] [(Unknown)]

“This is all I could find out. It would be the same even if you went somewhere else.”

“I see…”

She asked.

“It says Magic Enhancement, but specifically, how does it, enhance?”

“It means you’ll receive an enhancement effect when using magic through the soulstone. Since it’s Big Sis Win’s magical power, it must have tremendous power.”

“…”

A material for a World Item.

Compared to what she expected, the functions seemed bland.

Magic. Magic. Magic.

She’d have to hope for the enhancement level or performance.

‘Well, I used it as a test in the first place.’

She had expectations.

Not big ones.

‘So this is how it is.’

She lightly dismissed it.

“Has your curiosity been satisfied?”

“…These functions, what’s, so good, about them?”

“Hmm, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly. Let me go through each function.”

Mew cleared her throat and began explaining.

“Magic Enhancement will be effective for all skills that use magic power. Since there’s hardly anything that doesn’t involve magic power, it’s truly an all-purpose effect!”

“Magic Emission is a function that allows you to use magic power at its maximum capacity. You can apply it to skills that need explosive power. You can also temporarily maintain maximum performance, so it works well with doping skills.”

“And Magic Enchantment is a bit tricky for warriors to use. It works well with buff-type skills, but warriors don’t use those.”

“It’s more useful in areas like enchantment, alchemy, and metallurgy rather than buffs. Since you’re a swordsman, you probably can’t use this function effectively.”

“And as for the unknown… the anti-magic power is so strong that I just can’t penetrate it. Ah, I boasted confidently earlier, but now I’m embarrassed! Hehe.”

To summarize,

Magic Enhancement improves skill effects.

Magic Emission is good for self-buffs.

Magic Enchantment is good for skills that buff other things.

Unknown is unknown.

“…”

It didn’t look particularly good.

“The unknown, is it really, unknowable?”

“This is the limit of my abilities. With Big Sis Win’s anti-magic power, you’d need to be a Grand Witch to look into it. I’m not saying this because you’re inadequate, Miss Americano, but… it would be very difficult.”

It seemed so.

Still, there wasn’t absolutely no way.

“Demon King Stones can be, attached, right?”

“Yes… Oh.”

Mew caught on.

She jumped up from her seat and shouted.

“I’ll recommend something for you!”

“It’s okay.”

“Ah…”

Her raised hand drooped.

“You already have a place in mind, I guess?”

“Yes.”

Americano rummaged inside her robe.

She took out her hand that she had tucked into her chest and placed it on the desk.

“Ribbit.”

[Dream Frog]

“A frog?”

“I want to, equip it, to the ring this one is wearing, is that possible?”

“Um… I’m not sure if it will work, but…”

Mew said with a bewildered face.

Then she steeled her resolve.

“I’ll do my best!”