Allen traveled to the S Rank Dungeon's lowest floor.
'Ah! Master Allen, welcome welcome!!'
As soon as he got there, a Wraith C summon ran at him.
"Hey, Maria, is everything growing alright?"
'But of course! Just look! Look!!'
The 30cm tall french doll-looking Wraith C summon spoke proudly, pointing at the fruits of her labor.
Merus' ten days of rest were over, so he came back to the S Rank Dungeon's last floor again, tasked with growing recovery items again.
Continuing to do so alone would be a heavy burden on him alone, so now he was accompanied by grown Wraith C and B summons.
When Allen's Summoner Level went up, he also gained ten more slots.
Then all the Insect A summons he had on the northern regions had been defeated by the Demon King's Army, leaving him with an excess of open summon slots.
Thanks to all that, he was able to give Merus some company.
Merus, and a Wraith C and B summons were growing the Grass type recovery items.
Having to work around the clock would make Merus feel depressed again, so Allen tried to be mindful of that.
'Is Merus doing well too?'
'Yeah, I'm fine.'
(He wasn't able to return to the Divine Realm during those ten days after all.)
Merus had been free of any duty for ten days, but he did not have any specific place to go to, so he just wandered around aimlessly.
His power as former First Angel was not enough to bring him back to the Divine Realm.
As an angel he also did not have as much power as a demi-god, so he probably needed something akin to a passport to go back.
He seemed like he wanted to see his twin Lupto, but that was not possible.
Visiting Prostia had been tricky too, but there were many other countries and cities that did not allow outsiders all over the world.
Thinking of finding ways into them made Allen excited about future adventures.
At least Merus did not sound dissatisfied now.
There did not seem to be much emotion on his face as he just grew recovery items incessantly.
In his past life, Allen would also pull all-nighters farming experience endlessly, or trying to gather items. He felt like grinding was also part of games.
Grinding meant repeating a simple task many times for a long time.
Allen would never hesitate to spend days repeating the same actions.
He could not allow himself to falter.
One could not expect immediate rewards.
Unlike Merus, the Wraith C summon tugging on Allen's arm looked quite happy to have been summoned again.
As a summoner, Allen was always in contact with his summons, but watching the Wraith C's actions still brought a smile to his face.
After his [Growth] Skill reached Level 8, he was able to bring all summons' stats to the same level as A Rank summons.
Now he could stop avoiding putting summons with smaller Blessings into his holder.
He also had gained endless choices when fighting.
Now that his Summoner Level had gone up, and he had been using [Growth] for a while, he had learned a few more things.
[Special properties of grown summons]
-(1) [Growth] does not add more Blessings or Awakened Skills
-(2) Command can only be used on B Rank summons
-(3) Kingship can only be used on A Rank summons
(1) meant that [Growth] only increased stats.
B Rank summons would have stronger Blessings and Special Skills, but would not gain any extra ones they did not have before.
But Special or Awakened Skills that scale with stats would become far stronger with [Growth].
(2) and (3) showed that [Growth] Rank and Summon Rank were different.
Command could not be used on a grown C Rank summon.
Kingship could not be used on a grown B Rank summon.
Even if a B Rank summon was taken to [Growth] Rank A, Command would still not be able to be applied.
To enhance his options in battle, Allen had at least one of each summon in his holder now.
Considering he was planning on raising his Skill Levels even more, he had many Fish type summons since they raised his Mana, followed by Bird A summons that could leave [Nests] for travel, and lastly Wraith type summons, since they aided with communication.
There were some rules about Blessings too, though he already knew those before obtaining [Growth].
[Summon Blessing rules]
-(1) Multiple Blessings of the same type do not stack
-(2) When multiple Blessings of the same type are present, the strongest one is applied
As an example of (1), both Wraith A and B summons had a [Physical Resistance] Blessing.
No matter how many Wraith B summons he had in his holder, the Blessing's effect would count only once.
The same applied to Wraith A summons, having many would not increase the Blessing's effect.
Even if he had both a Wraith A and Wraith B summon, the effect would not get stronger.
Allen did not mind letting a monster hit him to test those effects.
As an example of (2), Dragon B summons had a [Breath Attack Resistance] Blessing.
Dragon A had [Breath Attack Nullification], a better version of [Breath Attack Resistance].
If he had both a Dragon A and B summon at the same time, the Dragon A's [Breath Attack Nullification] Blessing would take priority.
[Growth] could enhance his options when fighting, but there were rules and limitations as well.
"It's Allen!"
"Hey, Kurena."
Allen was watching the Merus and the two Wraith summons grow recovery items, advising them on how to work more effectively, when a different set of figures approached them.
One of them, with pink hair and a greatsword on her back, Kurena, quickly ran towards Allen.
Merle and the other members of the group hunting Iron Golems also walked towards Allen.
Allen's Army and the Hero's Army were training together in the S Rank Dungeon's last floor.
It was past noon, so they had just left the Iron Room where Iron Golems spawned.
They were probably going to take a lunch break.
"Is it true you found a new type of accessory?!"
Kurena asked with a hint of excitement.
"Yeah, I did. I see Maria told you everything."
Kurena's eyes were twinkling. The Wraith C summon had told them the news of the earrings Allen bought.
"Yayyyy!!"
"Here you go."
"Hm? Umm, I put it on my ears, right?"
Allen took out one of the earrings Peromus worked hard to obtain from his Grimoire.
Kurena snatched it from Allen's hand, the sweat covering her almost making a splashing sound.
She quickly tried to put it on, but she did not know how to equip it, trying to place it on her ear.
Peromus had succeeded in obtaining the 6 earrings Ignomas had sold from the treasury.
It had cost 4000'000 gold coins in total, but that was still around half the original asking price.
Ignomas had sold them at around half their market price, but the merchants were trying to get more than four times their price.
Peromus managed to haggle down to double their market price, but the merchants seemed to know Allen wanted to buy them no matter what, which worked against him.
But they had still saved around 4000'000 gold coins from Allen's Army's budget, so Peromus had worked well.
(I still feel like Allen's Army budget is going down too fast.)
Still, Allen's Army's accounts were depleting rapidly.
Once they bought the necessary items and made the underground deals to make Rosalina win, there would be no money left.
Allen's Army was also supporting the lifestyle of Allen's party.
Allen would spend money on anything he deemed necessary without question, and he was spending enormous sums on Magic Stones.
He had saved up a considerable sum from his previous work, but he had spent without regard and now everything was almost gone.
During the last two years many adventurers had realized Magic Stones seemed to be booming in the market for some reason.
That was around the same time when Allen began going to the S Rank Dungeon, and gathering Magic Stones en masse.
Then the Talent Change Dungeon was opened too, so the adventurers who underwent a Talent Change were able to hunt more powerful monsters and obtain better Magic Stones, but that was still not enough supply for Allen's Army's demand.
Merus, who was not too far from Allen now, also used a large amount of Magic Stones to continue growing recovery items.
Before he had focused on making Mana Seeds, but now he changed to Heaven's Blessings.
That required even more Magic Stones than before, eating away at their budget at a faster rate.
Meanwhile the adventurers who had gathered all the Magic Stones had plenty of resources now.
They would likely invest their money into new equipment, like rings and necklaces that improved their stats or offered various resistances.
Many adventurers had lacked the funds to obtain rings that enhanced stats by 1000 in the past, but now they were slowly getting there.
Other adventurers could obtain even better ones.
According to Duke Grandvelle, the demand for mythril was also in an upswing, even if prices were also increasing.
Allen's Army was also selling rings and necklaces now.
The Hero's Army had not been active for long enough to do that yet.
Though if they sold too much at the same time the prices could go down, so they had to be careful.
While the summons on the north had been wiped out, the world was in relative peace now, and humans were slowly getting stronger.
That was the current state of the world.
"Here, let me help you put them on. How does it feel?"
"Ohh! Thank youu!! I-I feel the power!!"
Allen went closer to Kurena, helping her put the earrings on.
Once she had them on, Kurena began to swing her orichalcum greatsword.
Allen had obtained the six earrings.
Kurena was starting to sound like the S Rank Dungeon's last boss Gordino.
"Put them on for me too."
(But Dogora, you already wear earrings.)
That seemed to be one of this world's seven mysteries, Dogora wore earrings.
He already did that back when they lived in Kurena Village.
"There you go."
"Thank you. Heheh."
Dogora had asked for it, and Allen obliged.
He also seemed to notice his stats increasing, so he went to swing his weapon together with Kurena.
"Hrnghh…I also want one like that."
"Now now, try to compromise a little."
"Okayyyy."
The very expressive Merle looked dissatisfied receiving a plain earring, different to the more luxurious ones Kurena and Dogora obtained.
Formar put his on by himself.
If the earrings all had different effects, Allen had considered spreading them out carefully amongst the party, but there were only two types in the end.
One for the frontliners, another for the rear guard.
-The four frontliner earrings: 10% increase to physical attack damage, Strength +2000, Attack +2000
-The two rear guard earrings: 10% increase to magic attack damage, Mana +2000, Intelligence +2000
The frontliner earrings were given to Allen, Dogora, Kurena, and Shea.
The rear guard earrings were given to Cecile and Sophie.
With Luck and Peromus' additions, Allen's party had grown to 11 members.
Earrings could be worn on each ear, so in total he would need 22 earrings.
He bought those earrings that cost 10000 gold coins from the shop to make up for the remaining ones, but he still wanted to get better ones eventually.
Merle's golem did not get stronger depending on Merle's equipment.
The only thing that affected the golem's stats were the stone slabs placed in the Magic Board, and any Skills Merle used that boosted its stats.
The golem had impressive stats, but buffs did not work on it.
But that also meant that debuffs from monsters did not work on it either.
All in all, everything seemed to balance itself out.
While he thought about having to find more earrings for his friends, the hero Helmios also spoke to Allen.
"Hey Allen, how are things in Prostia?"
"Yes. I'd like to discuss something though, do you mind if I join you for lunch?"
"Sure, go ahead."
Allen had come to see Helmios for a reason.
He had not eaten lunch yet either, so he decided to eat together with Helmios' party and the leaders of Allen's Army.
