The next afternoon.After returning from the dungeon and resting for a full day, our party gathered in the Student Council Room.Beatrice was resting for health reasons, and the remaining six of us sat together.Yulina had no share of the loot, but she said she would attend in Beatrice’s place and collect Beatrice’s portion for her.With everyone watching, I opened Beatrice’s subspace pouch and distributed the gold bars we had brought from the dungeon.“The total number of gold bars from this expedition is 100. I’ll take 20, and we’ll divide the rest.”I distributed the gold bars according to each person’s contribution.Fifteen to Ciel, fifteen to Bell, ten to Chloe, and ten to Melga.The remaining thirty were Beatrice’s share.Yulina was excluded from this expedition’s distribution.“……”She stared blankly as everyone picked up their gold bars.Judging by her expression, she very much regretted that promise she’d made to join the dungeon exploration in exchange for not receiving any rewards.Still, Beatrice would definitely share some gold with her, so Yulina wouldn’t be going home empty-handed.Being an imperial princess, it wasn’t like she was short on money.In any case, the pile of dull yellow gold bars in front of each person—Ciel silently stacked them beside her, while Chloe jumped up and down in place, dancing with excitement.Bell was frozen with her mouth hanging open at the fortune she was seeing for the first time in her life, and Melga gave the bars a cursory glance, then tossed them aside like he didn’t care.It was pretty amusing to see everyone’s different reactions.“Next is the distribution of the elemental stones.”Clink—.I laid out the ten elemental stones.I picked up five of them and slipped them back into my coat.“As the one who led this expedition, I’ll be taking five. No objections, right?”“Mhm.”Everyone agreed. They were acknowledging my performance in the exploration.As for the remaining five elemental stones—The fire-attribute stone went to Bell, the wood-attribute stone went to Chloe, and the steel-attribute stone went to Ciel.The water and earth stones were handed to Beatrice.Melga asked:“What about my share?”“Yours is here separately. It’s much more valuable than some rocks.”I handed him the bundle of blueprints tied together with string.Melga’s eyes flew open as he examined them.“T-This is!”“Right. They’re the blueprints for the dwarven mechanical guardians we defeated. There are even blueprints for the Dungeon Keeper. The automated production lines are recorded as well, so make good use of them.”At that, Melga burst into roaring laughter.“Kehaha, exactly! This is the real treasure, much better than some stones with elemental power!”“Oh, and you can take the various parts we salvaged from the dungeon back to the workshop and use them as well. That should be enough, right?”After clearing the dungeon, we had stuffed as many broken Dungeon Keeper parts as we could into Beatrice’s subspace pouch.Each and every one of them bore the touch of ancient dwarves—OOPArts with plenty of room for disassembly and analysis.If he properly analyzed these blueprints and parts, he’d be able to reproduce ancient dwarven technology in no time.Grinning from ear to ear, Melga said:“Yeah, that’s more than enough. Honestly, I don’t even need the gold bars. What would I even use that pile of gold for? You can just keep them. Ah, but I do need research funds and material costs, what should I do about that?”He didn’t care about the monetary value of the gold itself, but he did need research funding and materials—that was what he was thinking about.I looked at him and recalled some information.'The dwarf triplets are single-minded maniacs who only care about inventions.'It was bad enough that the Meister Academy had to restrict their use of the storeroom and tell them to stop burning through material costs.Understanding the situation, I made Melga a proposal.“In that case, Melga, if you entrust your gold bars to me, I’ll give you a dividend equivalent to a fixed portion of the principal every month.”“Dividend?”“That’s right. I’ll handle the hassle of converting them to cash. You just withdraw what’s deposited into your account every month.”What I’d just said was a tactic often used by con artists.They promise to pay a monthly dividend on the principal, then disappear with everything.But I had no intention of scamming him. I’d grow Melga’s money far beyond its current amount and support him, so it was mutually beneficial.“Heh. If you’d really do that, I’d be grateful. My brothers and I know nothing about managing funds anyway. I’ll leave everything to you except one bar. Now that I think about it, I should melt at least one down for research.”Just as Melga gladly accepted the proposal, Chloe spoke up.“Mr. Melga, that’s a textbook scam method, you know? It’s been in the papers several times. Are you sure you’re okay with it?”“Hey now, would Loen really scam me? And even if he tried, the diligent girl sitting next to him would keep him in check.”Melga glanced at Ciel, and she nodded as if to say she’d handle it.Once the matter of Melga’s gold bars was settled and we finished dividing the spoils of the dungeon, Yulina spoke in a trembling voice.“S-So. I really don’t get anything?”I shrugged.“Didn’t you say that yourself before? That you’d join the expedition in exchange for not getting a share.”“……”“Beatrice is going to share with you anyway, so what are you worrying about? It’s not like an imperial princess is short on money.”“That’s true, but still……”Yulina fidgeted with her hands, casting quick glances at the gold bars and elemental stones everyone else had received.“Hm.”Seeing how dejected she looked, I played the generous man and handed her one gold bar.“Here, it’s not ‘take this and get lost’ or anything. Just take it. Think of it as a small token of my goodwill.”Tap, tap—.I patted Yulina’s shoulder and gave her a broad grin.“Y-You…”Watching her expression change moment by moment was quite a sight.In any case, that concluded everything related to the Aether Dungeon expedition.***Once everyone had left and the Student Council Room was quiet again—The gold bars stacked beside the desk—I’d ask Alfredo to liquidate them all later.Counting the gold bars Melga had entrusted to me, it would be at least over ten billion.'If I dumped this all on the market at once, the value would plummet.'The intrinsic price of gold wouldn’t fluctuate much, but the value of “ancient dwarven gold bars” as antiques or research materials would drop sharply.I’d have to ask Alfredo to pace the sales properly.And instead of converting all the gold into cash, I could keep a portion of it and use it in the forging of the Azoth Sword.Gold was an excellent alchemical catalyst.'Dwarven gold bars are high-grade, with purity close to 100 percent.'If I melted and refined them well, I might be able to produce at least an [Epic]-grade item.After the gold, I took out the elemental stones and examined them one by one.The ore, infused with elemental power, reflected light on the table like gemstones.At first, I’d planned to forge the Azoth Sword using only materials that matched my origin attribute, but this was a good opportunity to use all the elemental stones.If I made an Azoth Sword that contained all Five Elements, it would be a versatile artifact capable of handling any situation.On top of that, the interactions between the elements would create countless variables, so its range of possible uses would be virtually limitless.The difficulty of forging it would rise accordingly, but that was a price worth paying.And there was another reason I’d made this decision.It was because of a new trait I’d acquired from the dungeon: [Elemental Affinity].Ting—.I opened my trait window and checked the new trait.[Elemental Affinity]You have gained the blessing of the Aether Dungeon. You obtain affinity for a specific element.Enhances your affinity for the chosen element. Only one element can be chosen at a time.Currently selected attribute: [Fire]I read the description and thought:'[Elemental Affinity] is similar to [Overload] in some ways.'If the [Overload] trait temporarily boosted certain stats, [Elemental Affinity] boosted a specific elemental affinity.And unlike Overload, this enhancement wasn’t temporary. Once chosen, it could be maintained semi-permanently.For example, if I had to fight fire-attribute guardians, I could just select the water attribute with [Elemental Affinity], and my water spells would grow more powerful.Then, if the situation changed and I had to fight steel-attribute mechanical devices, I could switch my [Elemental Affinity] to fire.Even though I could only choose one attribute at a time, it was a powerful trait that allowed me to strengthen my elemental affinity as needed.With this trait, I was perfectly positioned to make full use of an Azoth Sword imbued with the Five Elements.If I could truly control that power through the Azoth Sword, my combat strength would become three or four times what it was now.I sank into thought, recalling all the various materials I’d need to forge the Azoth Sword.'I’ll need to ask Alfredo to acquire the components.'I was in the middle of organizing the gains from this expedition and planning for the future when—Knock, knock—.Someone knocked on the Student Council Room door.“Come in.”After a brief pause, the door opened slowly and a student slipped in hesitantly.A familiar teal ponytail and pointed ears. A slightly anxious expression—an elf.It was Kiriel.I quickly scooped the elemental stones off the table and tucked them away.“You’re here. I take it you’ve made up your mind. Where are your friends?”“…I came alone.”“Oh? You can finally walk around by yourself now? I should praise you.”She’d always hidden behind her aide friends till now, but it seemed she’d decided to handle things on her own after resolving herself today.Kiriel grumbled at that.“What are you talking about, I always could walk around alone. They just get anxious and follow behind me everywhere.”'Well, that’s understandable.'I could sympathize with the aides. After all, she was a tomboyish president who could explode in any direction at any moment.Kiriel flopped down onto the sofa and asked me cautiously:“Can I really raise my grades if I study with you?”I answered straightforwardly.“Yeah. It depends on how hard you work, but at the very least they’ll go up from where they are now.”“I won’t get as fast as you, though, right?”“Of course not. I’m a genius and you’re an idiot.”“……!”She flinched, about to snap at me, but then sat back down and swallowed her anger.I guess she understood her situation pretty well.“You even fixed your habit of blowing up in anger. That’s a good sign.”With that, I took out some documents and handed them to Kiriel.Before I taught her Spirit Studies, I wanted everything clearly settled with a contract.“Read it and sign.”I’d written it in a way simple enough for Kiriel to understand, so there shouldn’t be any issues.She frowned and read slowly, then asked:“Uh, just one hour a week? Is that enough to actually study?”I leaned back in my ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) chair and sighed.“I’m a busy man, you know. I can’t just dedicate myself to your studies all day.”Right now I was taking forty credits a semester while handling Student Council work.That wasn’t all. I had to collect in-game hidden pieces, make money in various ways, meet different people and raise their favorability.On top of that, I needed to train my combat abilities, practice magic, and craft artifacts. And I had to prepare for the main story’s hostile factions, too.It was a situation where even three or four bodies wouldn’t be enough.The only reason this kind of lifestyle was even remotely sustainable was because Union’s practical-focused curriculum didn’t give homework for theoretical subjects.I continued.“And one hour a week is enough. You’re good in the field. Written study is just the foundation for going into actual combat. All I’m going to do is translate your innate talent into words and formulas.”“Hmm, well, I am pretty talented.”I flattered Kiriel just enough to nudge her toward signing.“Hurry up and sign.”“Okaaay. But what’s this special clause here?”“Nothing important. You can ignore it.”I’d written, in font barely the size of a sesame seed, that any discoveries or acquisitions found in the Boltimir Territory and its underground would belong to the discoverer.It was to clearly establish ownership of the profits from this expedition—the gold, elemental stones, and so on.After all, the Aether Dungeon lay beneath the Black Forest and the Lake of Wrath in Boltimir Territory.Of course, when we explored the underground of the abandoned Eredor Territory school building, there hadn’t been any issues, but it was better to put such things in writing to avoid trouble later.“Well, I’m sure nothing weird will happen. Here.”As I collected the signed contract from Kiriel, I spoke.“Good choice. Study hard from now on. Since you’re here anyway, shall we start the lesson right now?”“R-Right now?”Kiriel’s ears perked up in surprise, clearly not expecting that.“Yeah. It’ll be annoying to try and match our schedules later, so let’s just get it over with while you’re here.”“Ah, uh.”The moment I said we’d start immediately, Kiriel got visibly flustered.Then she thought for a moment, and her eyes lit up as she said:“Books! I don’t have the textbook on me! Let’s do it next time, after I bring it.”“There’s no ‘next time.’ I have the Spirit Studies textbook right here. I also have the last midterm exam paper and the quiz sheets.”“……”I took the exam papers from the shelf, brought them to Kiriel with a pen, and said:“First, we’ll test your current level and see how well you’ve reviewed. Solve the quiz and midterm you took last time all over again.”

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