We finally arrive in the training room. Geoffrey and Chloe are already present.

"Hey. Is Marca coming later?"

"Hello. No, she's... uh...", Geoffrey stutters around.

"Miss dwarf is dealing with the womanly day of the month stuff?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Alright. Just another reason to postpone the full introductions. Everything okay on your side? No new side effects from the familiar bond?"

"No, everything is fine."

"Good to hear. And you Chloe? How are you holding up?"

"...fine. Mostly. Just a lot of work. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with that bond."

"Alright. So, as I said in the meeting Anna may join our group. She has not decided yet. I just wanted to show her around so she can get a better idea of what she would get into."

Anna is happy to meet other people than me, that kinda hurts... "Hey-o!"

"Hello, little girl."

"Geoffrey, can I leave her with you for the day? Just show her a bit what daily training is like. Just don't overdo it. We don't want to scare her off yet. And when she is either out of SP or wants to give up can you escort her to my home?"

"Yeah, I can do that."

"Are you fine with that, Anna?"

"Uh-huh."

"Good. So other order of business, something happened and Lucia will also join us."

Chloe is surprised, "The holy maiden? How? I thought she'd just be in unnecessary danger due to... your relationship."

"That's a good thing, right?", Geoffrey sounds confident, "With her class, she should have some powerful spells."

"Not quite... We're not entirely sure what exactly happened but... she's neither holy nor a maiden anymore. We're still trying to understand exactly what is going on but the system considers us now, uh, married. I'd like to hold a proper wedding at one point but please don't tell her yet. That's supposed to be a surprise."

Chloe hesitates, "Uh, congratulations, I guess? I don't know, is that what you say in this situation?"

"That works, yes. We can discuss the details next time when everyone is present, right?"
Geoffrey responds, "Yeah, sure."

"Alright. Chloe, can we deal with the vault business now?"

"Y-yeah, we have all the necessary permissions."

"Good, then see you later, Anna, Geoffrey."

"Later!", Anna waves us farewell.

We start walking towards the vault.

"Oh, right, Jared, I've already told Geoffrey, but Therese got our group an exemption from most duties like participating in the gate defense. So if we have better plans, we can do whatever needs to be done."

"Hmm... That might be useful. Though for now just keep helping with the gate anyway. While this group needs to grow stronger, a lot, with all the people getting wounded we can't afford to weaken the gate defense any further than they already are."

"I understand."

"I guess we can't cut in line for some Class Cores? Seeing where we stand we'll need a ton of them."

"No, there are none left. All our teams together find about two or three in a whole year."

"That's a very low number. For how many thousand soldiers?"

"No idea, but somewhere between five and ten thousand."

"Ok, so hogging all the cores for us would only add more problems. We need to find more sources of class items."

So about... a thousand teams? She said once that teams don't fight bosses, so they'd clear nine floors at most. Given how our group started the average is probably closer to five floors cleared per visit.

I assume a year has about 52 weeks as well. So... let's say that rounds out to 250000 floors cleared for... three... cores...

Over eighty thousand floors... for... one core...

Maybe the drop rate increases with dungeon depth? Please?

"I should never do math again. It ever only ends in depression..."

"What are you talking about, Jared?"

"I tried to get an estimate of how many floors we'd need to conquer if we wanted the Class Cores in the regular fashion. It is... not happening..."

"Do I want to know what number you arrived at?"

"Nope."

"Fine. And the 'Joker Core' you showed us?"

"That is still only a theory. If we can trade the glitch items via a trader then yes, it would be a start, but of course only one per person. If not... then it is a dead end. Glitch monsters are already rare, the drop rate doesn't seem to be that high and then I need twenty of those drops per core. Of course, that assumes that we manage to give me all the kills of them. More realistically you can assume that to be half or less. I estimate in the worst case we would get one or two cores a year."

"That should still leave us with enough to eventually outfit our whole group."

"But not many beyond that. And who knows how much time we really have left. Everything could be over any day now."

"..."

"Sorry."

"No, you're right. Also, what exactly do you hope to find in the vault, Jared?"

"A miracle?"

"That's... your job."

"I know. But in all seriousness, I just want to know if there is anything to work with."

"Then don't get your hopes up."

"I won't. But there's always the option of trying the same method that gave me the 'Joker Core fragments'. That is at least an angle no one could try so far."

"I know you explained that one, but I didn't really get it..."

"Don't worry about it. It doesn't even make sense unless you've played a certain game I enjoyed in my previous life. Though the similarity is just pure coincidence."

We walk the rest of the way without exchanging a word, Chloe is simply lost in thoughts.

Chloe greets the burly man who handles the vault today, "Uh, we haven't met before, have we? I'm captain Chloe."

"Ah, Therese warned me of you two. Call me Ted. Or Teddy if you like. So, what can I do for you?"

"I'm Jared. We're here for several reasons. First, of course, is handing over dungeon loot, then we'd like to have a look into the vault's inventory."

"Yeah, I can help you with that. Okay, then hand the stuff over. I'll take care of the paperwork later. You don't have to bother with it."

"Thanks, that's helpful. Here. I left a portion of the food items with my servant, I've some malnourished kids to take care of. I hope that's no problem?"

"Don't worry about it. As Lord of this fortress, it would be your property anyway."

I hand over the remaining loot. Compared to what I got in total I held back about one percent. The people still get enough. I fully cleared the dungeon, that should make a clear difference.

"I'm not sure I can agree with that logic. There are still people out there starving."

Chloe pats me on the back, "It is okay. That is still way more food than other groups gather in a month."

"My word, that's more like three months' worth. How'd you get so much?"

"Sorry, it is not repeatable, so it doesn't really matter."

"Shame. Now, give me a sec. ...and done. Here, Chloe. Here's your receipt for the delivery."

"Thank you."

"So, what exactly did you want from the vault? Therese didn't say what exactly you were looking for."

"At a minimum, I need another 'Sun Guard Ring'. If we have one, I'd like another caster robe as well. After that, I just want to check what special items we have available for emergencies."

"We should have those, one moment", Ted begins searching the vault.

Chloe takes me aside, "What do you need those for? The special properties of rings with the same name don't stack."

"Those are not for me but for Lucia."

"W-wait, what!? What have you done to her!?"

"Calm down. We can discuss that when we have the whole group together. Lucia is fine. Mostly."

"Seriously, I can't leave you alone for one minute..."

Ted returns, "You're in luck, this was the last robe. If you no longer need it, please return it. Well, not that we have another spellcaster waiting for one but..."

"Yeah, we know. We're trying to change that. And a ring?"

"We have three left after that one. Can you sign here that you've received those two items?"

"Sure."

"Thanks, here are the items."

I put the robe and ring into my inventory. Hmm, now that I look at it, there's some other stuff in my inventory. Did Lucia's inventory also merge with mine?

Hmm... if so we could use that as a substitute for long-distance communication. Too bad I don't have a pen and paper on me to test it.

...I'll totally forget about this option when it would be useful, won't I?

"Can I now see what else we have in the vault?"

"Yes, sure. But don't expect too much."

We dig through the available items. There isn't anything that seems immediately useful. I even try to see how the glitch items react to them but overall it is just a bust.

There are a dozen Class Core Fragments but as with the Joker Core variant, you need twenty to create a full core. No one knows where they came from, they were already there before they started tracking inventory ages ago. As the base for glitch items, I could get Class Core Ex Fragments but of those, I'd also need twenty, so they are useless.

The robe would let me create a towel, a +5 VIT 'armor'. Pointless fanservice, I guess.

The Sun Guard Ring would produce something useful.

Except for the part where it still is a glitched item that I can't use without nearly dying again...

Then there's a normal diamond which would serve to create glitch sapphires. I've currently no use for either.

A shovel, whatever that does in the vault, could be used to turn glitch items into +5 VIT Defense Cloaks. No clue how that is related.

And most 'importantly', a broken sword - this is not a garbage pile!! - turns into a comic. Too bad it is not translated into a language I recognize.

The whole experiment took over three hours with no satisfying result. Great.

"So the only real find is this ancient book."

"Why do you bother with it, Jared? You said yourself that you can't read its language."

"I have a suspicion that Elly can crack it."

Elly always has access to a lot of knowledge she shouldn't. Maybe it is finally time I confront her about that?

I probably won't like the answer...

"Unless it is forbidden for this book to leave the vault?"

Ted answers, "Well, it is only gathering dust here, so if you have an expert, by all means, get them to work on it."

"Alright, thanks."

Now that I take a closer look at it, the book's language appears to be similar to the glitched-out texts like my second Blood Mage skill. Well, minus the continuous changes these characters have. Does that make it easier or harder to decipher?

Eh, that will be Elly's problem.

Though the characters do seem kinda familiar. Like I should know them. Do they belong to a second or third language I learned in my last life?

"You found anything in it, Jared? You've been staring at the book for a while."

"No, nothing. I had a feeling that the characters were familiar but I don't recognize them. Though I think Elly might have an idea."

Of course, I can just as well expect too much from her and everything was just a stupid misunderstanding.

"How many glitch items do you even have, Chloe?"

"Uh, four. Does that suffice?"

"Not quite, I have twelve and need twenty for a core. But just knowing if it works would be enough for today. If the trade works, we can come back with the others next time."

"Yeah, sure."

A bit later we arrive at the trader's house near the marketplace.

We try to use the trader's service to transfer the glitch item but it doesn't work.

"Great, so that was a bust..."

"And the plan of laying claim on those items via a tax change?"

"I already asked Justo. For the purpose of collecting the glitch items, it would work but I can't retrieve them from the vault. In fact, I can't retrieve anything from the vault until I unlock the permission at a fortress lord or title level past twenty."

"That's... quite high."

"Yeah. And even then it would only work like an extended inventory, so I still can't retrieve the glitch items."

"Sorry to hear that. What now?"

"I guess that was it for today, Chloe. Or did you have anything else?"

"No, not... really. I guess I'll check up on Marca. ...when will you introduce... Lucia to us?"

"No idea. I hope in the next few days. She still needs to get used to the changes. Hmm... how about you bring everyone over the day after tomorrow around noon? By then Marca should be back to top form, right?"

"Yeah, we can do that. See you tomorrow then."

Before I forget, what class could I get from the Joker Core today?

Don't think that is for me either. I can already turn 100 MP into 200% MAG damage. 70 MP and 50 SP for STR plus MAG... if I use this three times it costs 210 MP and 150 SP and does 300% STR+MAG. Or I could just cast two spells and possibly hit a weakness for what 800% MAG?

Yeah, pass. I'd like a better way to turn SP into damage than I currently have but this is clearly not it.

After this series of disappointments, I head to the gate again. My MP has barely gotten past 2000 by now, so I cast two rain spells which put me firmly past the exp threshold needed for Lore Seeker level 5.

Can't wait for the next dungeon trip to start experimenting with the new [Magical Secret] skill. Cost-free rank 0 spells should have a use.

3QGN73

All the buildup towards a use for the glitch items from other people and then there is none. Even without that, I think Jared currently gains more than enough "free" power.