There is Something Wrong with This Game

ℙ012 – Mana Stone and Artifact

The next day, Ruri browsed the forum with an astonished expression.

When she had logout from the game yesterday, it was already nighttime. She just sleep as it is in her pod, still in the nude without doing anything else.

Her Capsule Pod was the best of the best with comfortable massage chair that also can be turned 180 with a few touch button. Of course the chair can be used as a bed to sleep on, and it's as comfortable as the bed in a suite hotel.

And only when the morning came, she wake up then opened the forum with her Terminal Bracelet (T-Bracelet).

It didn't take too much time for her to learn the current situation from the hot topics in the top list.

"Arachnia..."

That was the name of the boss Hecate provoked yesterday. It seems Arachnia bore great hatred towards Hecate because she massacred too much spider in short amount of time.

Since Hecate fled too quickly, Arachnia wasn't able to see her face and marked her as the culprit. But because of that, Arachnia decided to just put the dirty water to every human race.

Ruri didn't think the problem could be escalated so quickly and affecting the entire continent.

"...I'll pretend I didn't know anything."

There is no witness that saw Hecate was the true culprit behind all of this. The only one that know the truth of this incident other than her, is probably the GMs.

However, the game manual and ToS clearly said that they won't interfere in any decision made inside the game. It's very unlikely they will blabber her secret to the public. Except something that can destroy the game balance happened, they won't personally move. 

As long as she didn't say anything, her secret will be safe!

With that thinking, Ruri became more relaxed. She closed the holo-screen and went to the dining room to prepare her breakfast. But, she did not enter the kitchen to prepare her food and just sit in the dining chair.

With a simple wave of hand, a plate of Spaghetti and a cup of Orange Juice appeared out of nowhere.

"Itadakimasu..."

Ruri sat on the dining chair while silently eating spaghetti with delight. Her legs keeps swaying back and forth as she relished its flavor, making the bell on her ankle chime every time she moved her legs.

The spaghetti sure was delicious, like it was made by professional chef from 3-Michelin star restaurants. However, that doesn't mean Ruri can make this kind of dish with her skills.

  Spoiler ; ;

Item Name:	Super Deluxe Spaghetti
Type:	Consumable - Food
Rarity:
Durability:	15/15
Chef:	Celia
Effect:	Recovers HP by 500 Increases Max HP and MP by 30% for 3 hours. Regenerate HP and MP by 5% per 10 seconds for 3 hours. Stamina regenerate by 10% per 10 seconds for 3 hours. All Stats +10% for 3 hours.
Details:	Special spaghetti made by Intermediate Chef Celia, using special ingredients and processed with extraordinary skills, she manages to take the taste of the dish to another level. People who taste this dish will feel its aftertaste for a long time.

; ;

Item Name:	Iced Orange Juice
Type:	Consumable - Drink
Rarity:
Durability:	20/20
Chef:	Ferlbond
Effect:	Recovers MP by 48. Recovers Stamina by 40. Regenerate MP by 1% per 30 seconds for 10 minutes. Increases Fire resistance by 25% for 10 minutes.
Details:	Juice made from extracted Oranges and cooled with Natural Ice originated from Ice Palace. Perfect for quenching your thirst in hot weather.

Yes, with her ability to bring out the game items into reality, Ruri did not need to personally cook anymore. Many kind of items can be obtained through the game, including food.

In the game, dishes was considered as a delicacy as well as a buff items. And with the system assistance from Chef Sub-class, making them is not that hard. Many in-game restaurants and food-stalls owned by Lifestyle Players sells them with price around 

100~10.000 depending on the taste and their buff effects.

Hecate wasn't short on 

Gold, especially when she had joined a sizable guild. So she had stored tons of delicious food items in her storage and kept ~30 items of 10 types of food in her inventory.

In Ruri's view, the price of those foods was cheaper than buying instant cup noodles!

But, it has also a downside.

"Thanks for the meal."

After she finished eating the food, what should she do with the plate and bottle?

In Ascension, dishes mostly served with a Ceramic Plate and the drinks uses either Ceramic Cup or simply Empty Bottle as its container. In the game world, both items can be easily mass-produced with magic and sells very cheaply at NPC shop. It also not that difficult for players to create and design their own versions.

When players done eating the dishes, they can chose to washes the plate and reuse it. Or players can just simply toss it away and it will gone automatically after its durability reached zero.

But in reality, each time Ruri bring out those dishes, the plates and bottles will not disappear!

At first, Ruri simply washes the plates and cups. But eventually, her dish rack already full of those things. Even if she break them into pieces, the shards still remains. This is equivalent as increasing trash out of nowhere. It was too troublesome for her since she had to pay garbage processing service to dispose them away.

However, she can't sell them online either, especially when those things mostly have unique design. It will cause very awkward suspicion if the original designer recognizes them.

But, it's not like Ruri did not come with a solution.

"My dish rack was about to full again... Perhaps, is it about the time for another [donation]?"

Every month or so, Ruri carrying out trash dumping in the name of "donation". All of the unused plate and cups was simply gifted to the orphanage. This will create prestige and as well as advertising Rucien's name.

Ruri has already investigated that none of the people and the kids there plays VRMMO, especially Ascension. And it was very unlikely they will sell the donation they received for money. Because if they does and people find out about it, their orphanage will be considered ungrateful and rude.

Even if they does, the suspicion would be placed towards them, not her. She won't have to worry her secrets leaked out.

With that said, Ruri cleaned the dishes with automatic dishwasher and walked into the bathroom for a quick bath. She then took out another item from her inventory.

; ;

Item Name:	Mid Grade Mana Stone
Type:	Misc
Rarity:
Durability:	100/100
Crafter:	Hecate
Energy:	10.199 MP
Details:	Mana Stone created by coalescing a lot of mana into small area. This stone have various method of use.

That was the Mana Stone created by her yesterday before she logged out.

In the game, Mana Stone was mainly used as a power source to use artifacts. Artifact that can warm the water bath, floating ship that flying in the sky, even Hecate's blacksmith furnace used this stone.

However, although this stone was not that rare, it's also not easily obtained. This is because, only Spellcaster 3rd classes like Archwizard, Archwitch, and Scholar, who have learned the skill Mana Stone Creation that can make it.

Many aspect of life in Ascension uses artifacts, so there is no shortage of demand for Mana Stone.

But, it's not like Mana Stone was required to activate an artifact. Players can chose to pour their own MP and that basically same as using Mana Stone to use the artifact.

For the people with high INT and Max MP like Hecate, using their own MP surely not a problem for them. Nevertheless, it will become different story for people with non-caster classes that have low INT, like Thief or Swordsman classes.

And there also problem of power consumption. It was no problem with using own MP to activate small artifact. But it will be impossible task to use own MP to empower large scale formation, or maintain Flying Ship in the air.

If it's already that scale, it's better to just dump bunch of Mana Stone and be done with it.

When Ruri take out an artifact from the game, of course she was unable to activate it. She had no mana in her body, no matter how much she gununu-ed, nothing happened.

But, what if Mana Stone was used instead?

The answer was... Yes, she can.

Ruri's bathtub was modified into bigger size and include water heater artifact. It shapes like a dragon head fountain made of gold. When the tap opened, the water in the bathtub will be siphoned and it will came out again from the tap as a warm water.

Although her house is installed with its own water heater as well, implementing magic related tools also have its own charm.

Ruri opened the lid next to the dragon head tap. It reveals a container with a similar Mana Stone inside it, except it was smaller. Originally it was a melon-sized Mana Stone worth of ~40k MP which she created several months ago before she resetting her build. But now, the Mana Stone has reduced significantly into peanut-size.

Even without looking at description window, it was clear that it has no much mana left.

Without further ado, Ruri replaced the Mana Stone and closed the lid, then she opened the dragon head. Not long after, hot water poured from the dragon head.

"Yup, with this it should last longer."

Sure enough, with Mana Stone in hand, even muggles can use artifacts!

Satisfied with the result, Ruri smiled softly. She quickly rinsed her body and entered the bathtub. The water temperature was just right, around 36-38 C.

"Puha~ This is heavenly...!!"

Ruri carefully ran her fingers through her wet hair. The sensation of touching her own smooth hair was very pleasant.

Unlike Hecate, whose hair was shoulder-length, Ruri herself continued to grow her hair down to her waist. She never bothered to go to the salon for a haircut.

Beware, ecchi GIF

Many people feel that maintaining such long hair will be difficult, but she does not think so.

In order to maintain her long hair, she just needed to make sure it was clean and tidy. All she needs to do is stick to the anti-dandruff shampoo and keep her hair from getting tangled by brushing it consistently. Other aspects like moisturizing, hair vitamins, and many more can be simply ignored.

Even if she roughly treated her hair, hair damage can be eliminated after drinking Elixir!

*PIPIPIPI* *PIPIPIPI* *PIPIPIPI*

Ruri did not spend too much time in the bath. Fifteen minutes later, her bracelet sounded the alarm that has been set before. The time was already 07:45, just about 15 minutes before school starts.

"Oh, it's the time to go to school, huh..."

She immediately get up from the bath and walked back to her room without even drying her body.

Droplets of water splashed around as she stepped in the changing room, but it quickly dried as the automatic blower activated. Ruri ignored the wind that dried out her body and keep walking towards her room.

The school concept was already changed after VR technology introduced.

After people reach 16 years of age and qualified to use Capsule Pod, they can apply to their school to attend their class via Virtual Network than physically walked to the school.

Of course there are condition and restriction that must be fulfilled before the application is approved, and Ruri already got the approval when she was charged out from the hospital with the help of the doctor.

She no longer need to walk out from her house to go to school.

Sitting once again in her Capsule Pod, Ruri's consciousness drifted to the network.

; <td colspan="3"> <td rowspan="3"><big>Head</big> <td rowspan="2"><big>Weapon</big> <td rowspan="8"><big>Armor</big> <td rowspan="2"><big>Underwear</big> <td rowspan="2"><big>Accessories</big> <td rowspan="2"><big>Set Equip</big>;

Upper:	None
Middle:	None
Lower:	None
Left:	None
Right:	None
Body:	None
Lower:	None
Garment:	None
L. Arm:	Gaia T-Bracelet W-091 [Terminal Bracelet made by Gaia Technology. ] Internal storage: 12 TB. Internal RAM: 64 GB. Cloud Storage: 750 TB. Energy Consumption: 0.7 Watts per minute. (+50W with Holo-screen active)       Bundled with a built-in solar charger.       Waterproof.       The latest communication technology. Having all the capabilities of a smartphone, it can be used as a means to make video calls, messengers, take photos, record videos, play games, browse the internet, and many more. Large storage and RAM, can run Crysis.       Adjusted to automatically send an emergency signal to the nearest hospital when it detects an abnormality in Ruri's health.
R. Arm:	None
L. Leg:	Cat Bell Ribbon2 [White Ribbon with a Cat bell attached. ] Purchased at Ascension NPC shop. Just an ordinary item without any special effects.
R. Leg:	None
Shoes:	None
Upper:	None
Lower:	None
	None
	Exhibitionist Condition: Expose All Private Area.
	Stress Gain -80%