Chapter 196.1: Spoils of War (Part 1)
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Having used the Mechanical Prowler as a pin cushion, Mira finally sent her Dark Lords and Holy Lords away. At the same time, the Mechanical Prowler that had turned into a pile of junk fell loose.
「Oh wait, maybe it's...」
Mira seemed to remember something as she turned around and began to rummage through the pile of scrap. After some time she took out a red orb, a black chunk of metal, and the sharp blade brandished by the Prowler.
「I knew it! These are definitely worth more than five million!」
She carefully stored it all in her Item Box, her eyes twinkling like she was dealing with pure gold. Those were the three most valuable drops the Prowler had.
A certain question had been in Mira's mind for a while. What had happened to all the drop rates from the game, now that it was reality?
Back then monsters would just drop materials on defeat, but now it was necessary to cut open the monster's remains to access them.
It was also possible to add the bodies of monsters to a special tab in the Item Box, so they could be carried to various monster butcher shops in cities, who would break apart the bodies and take out the raw materials.
By breaking a body apart, one or two materials could be obtained. The number varied depending on which shop one visited, and the butcher's skill.
The rare materials also required a more skillful butcher to obtain. The rarer the material, the more skill it would take, and the more butchers would charge.
But then there was something else that anyone who played a game likely thought before. If one of the rarest items an enemy could drop was a horn for example, then a player who did not get it would likely think 「But I can literally see the horn right there.」
Chance was the only deciding factor back then. Now that everything was reality, Mira realized that it was possible for her to take such a horn herself.
So she decided to test it out, and this was the result. She had obtained the red orb which was the Prowler's power source, the chunk of black metal that shielded it, and the blade that had gouged out so much of the Holy Lord's shield. All of them were hidden within the rubble.
Basically, unless a material was only rarely produced by a monster inside their body, even rare materials could be obtained from all monsters.
「So this must mean that Machina Guardian is also...」
Machina Guardian could drop ten different items. Some would drop more often than others, but even the most common ones were extremely valuable.
Once they defeated it, chances were they could rummage through the scrap and obtain all the rare drops, just like with the Prowler. And that meant obtaining items that Mira had only heard about in the game, and never seen for herself.
(Did Soul Howl mention that I could take all the drops yesterday..? Yes, he did!)
Chuckling to herself recalling that as if it was some devious contract, she headed to the main boss room with renewed motivation.
While it was true that obtaining rare materials was easier now, there were new limitations now that this was reality. For instance, if she wanted the monster's hide, she had to make sure the monster was defeated in a way that did not damage its hide. Which was far more realistic and difficult, compared to the game where the way a monster was killed did not affect such drops. It was important to keep an eye on which parts of a monster one attacked.
But in contrast to Mira's overflowing confidence, she actually only knew the names of the items and their description.
「Oh, so everything is already in place.」
Mira muttered satisfied as she entered the boss arena. It looked like a completely different place from how she had left the arena the day before.
The biggest difference was a gigantic castle front gate placed fifty meters away from the entrance. Long walls spanned on both sides of it, dividing the arena into two regions. It was clear at first sight that the walls were incredibly thick and resilient too.
Then there were countless cannons lining up those long walls. They were all rhythmically fired by golems in sequence too, who would not miss a single beat to take care of their duty.
It was like watching a siege defense. And it also showed that the strategy they had come up with the night before was in full action. Mira looked around, impressed by Soul Howl's regained power, and then used Sky Stride to run up to the top of the wall.
「Is everything going alright?」
She asked that the instant she reached a spot atop the wall that looked like a turret. 「Pretty much,」 was Soul Howl's reply, his eyes focused on Machina Guardian.
「As you can see, it's already learnt. Most frontal attacks don't hit anymore.」
On the other side of the wall, where the main battle was being fought, was only Machina Guardian. The boss was skillfully moving around, fending off the incoming cannon fire. Rather than being hit, it redirected the cannonballs. It seemed to understand they would explode if it blocked instead.
It moved quickly and with much dexterity, each of its movements precisely calculated to deflect the incoming cannonballs, which then exploded violently on the ground a safe distance away from it. Soul Howl was firing from a wall, instead of just a single turret like the night before, with enough power to obliterate an A Rank monster, but Machina Guardian still managed to survive while taking hardly any damage, silently observing Mira and Soul Howl. It was eerily overwhelming to be in that situation.
「And what if everyone fires at the same time?」
Mira asked that while watching the fight. Machina Guardian had eight legs, and it was using four to deflect the cannonballs. So she knew there had to be a limit to how many cannonballs they could deal with at the same time.