Using Gacha to Increase My Companions and to Create the Strongest Girls’ Army Corps

Chapter 78 – Three Conditions

It has been a couple of hours since we started our Black Orc hunt.
5 have been hunted, but I have yet to get even a single manastone.

Do we need to change our method of hunting? Such thoughts crossed my mind, and time passed with me finding no solutions to the problem.

[Okura, how much more should we hunt?]

[Sorry… I hate to say this, but could you guys keep going for a bit more?]

For regular adventurers, hunting 5 Black Orcs in 1 day is more than plenty.
When I started out as an adventurer back then with Noru, we usually also stopped at that number.

But we can’t stop yet… Not while we have nothing to show for the experiment.

Our current arrangement is hard to come by.
I want to at least figure out some part of the mystery behind manastone acquisition.

[Well, that’s cool too… But we’re pretty tired here, you mind letting us rest for a while?]

[Yes, of course.
I’m really sorry…]

[No need to apologize so much.
We still have time to spare.]

We started the hunt in the morning, it’s still noon-ish right now.

There’s still time until sunset, but considering we still need to walk back to town, we don’t really have too much time left.

[Even so, Estel’s support magic is really amazing.
I never thought that we would be able to defeat Black Orcs so easily.]

[That’s right.
It almost feels like a dream, that even I can hunt them too.]

[It really makes me want a mage in our partyー]

[Fufu, feel free to praise me more.]

Having experienced the boons of support magic again through combat with the Black Orcs, Grin-san’s team praised Estel to the skies.

Estel’s attack magic is where she truly shines, but even her support magic is amazing.

[sigh… Have we made any progress?]

[Hーmm… It looks like simply partying up with us is not enough.]

We decided to take a short break.
As that was happening, we quietly discussed our situation a slight distance away from Grin-san’s team.

It’s not like we’re doing anything special, so there shouldn’t be too many conditions we need to fulfill.

If it’s not enough to just join our party, we need to meet the remaining requirements… But I have no clue what they are.

[Maybe it just doesn’t work, if we aren’t the ones to deal the finishing blow?]

[But isn’t it still too early to assume? It’s fine for us to think a little about it some more before drawing a conclusion.]

It’s a possibility that only me, the owner of the smartphone, and the girls that I have summoned from the Gacha are able to generate manastones from defeating rare monsters.

If that is really the case, then there’s nothing we can do.
It would be something we can’t fix no matter how much we think about it.

[Even if you say that… What other conditions would we need to meet?]

[We wouldn’t be having this discussion if we knew…]

[Should we list down the differences between us and Grin-san?]

The 4 of us started to brainstorm, but we were hitting a wall.

[…..Rare monsters, partying up…the differences… Ah!]

Just when I have lost hope, Noru, who was muttering something, suddenly raised her voice after realizing something.

[There is something we haven’t tried yet!]

[Oh, did you figure it out?!]

I didn’t expect it to be Noru who’d solve the puzzle.
Noru does have her smart moments albeit rarely.

This should be good.

[There is something we all have, but they(Grin’s team) do not!]

[Stop beating around the bush, and tell us already.]

Noru spoke smugly, perhaps because she’s the 1st one to figure it out.
From her tone, it’s not hard to imagine what her face looks like under her helm.

I had a sudden urge to pinch her cheeks, but decided not to as this was a positive moment for her.

[That is―― Gacha equipment!]

[W, why didn’t I think of thatー! ….
Jokes aside, that’s something we easily overlooked.]

[It was something we already had, so we naturally didn’t take it into consideration.]

Noru pointed at me as she confidently told us her answer.

I see… So that’s it.
It is indeed something that we have, but Grin-san’s team doesn’t.

The 4 of us have had Gacha equipment from the start, it didn’t so much as cross our minds as we have become accustomed to it.

Noru deserves credit for noticing this.

[Hーmm…that means… I’ll need to give Grin-san’s team Gacha equipment, then let them hunt with it.]

[That’s right.
However, we still need to figure out the variables regarding what Gacha equipment they use.
Like do they need to land a finishing blow with a weapon, or would simply wearing the armor be enough?]

It’s good that we have figured out the reason, but I have to give away Gacha equipment…..
Well, I suppose it’s fine if I limit it to SR rarity and below.

Then there’s the thing regarding weapon or armor, it’s important that we figure out the details for that too.

It will be helpful as reference, for when we hand out gear to other adventurers in the future.

Regarding weapons, I’d need to give them something on par or better than what they originally have.
I also can’t just hand over something they aren’t familiar with using, I’ll need to prepare weapons meant to be borrowed.

But, if just equipping a ring works, there’ll be less hassle overall.

Here’s hoping it’s the latter.

[For now we can lend weapons to the newbies, and an accessory for Grin-san.]

[…Mmm.
Sounds about right.]

We’ll just try doing both, as we aren’t sure which works.

We’ll hand the veteran Grin-san an accessory, and weapons for the newbies.

This shouldn’t sound too unnatural to them… Maybe.

[‘Scuse meー]

[Nn? What’s up?]

[I’d like you all to use these to hunt, after we finish resting.
Will that be okay with you guys?]

I went over to Grin-san’s team and talked about lending them equipment.

The accessory I handed to Grin-san was a Ring of Protection, which raises defense.

[What’s this, a ring?]

[It’s something Estel made, it’s imbued with her magic power.
I’d like to test its efficacy, if you don’t mind trying it out.]

[Whew, that’s Magic Gear!? Are you sure you’re okay with me borrowing it?]

Grin-san looks at the ring I handed to him curiously, and I explain what it is.

There’s stuff like the necklace I have that’s made by mages, so I played it out as if it was crafted by Estel…..
Then a new term ‘Magic Gear’ comes up.

I wanted to ask him about the details, but it’ll be weird for me to not know so I’ll ignore it for now.
I should ask around about it some other time…..

[Er, yeah.
And Almiro-san and Camilla-chan can use these.]

[I, is it really alright for us to borrow such wonderful weapons!?]

[Oohー, this one is longer and sturdier than the one I haveー]

[Use them as if it was your own.]

I handed Almiro-san and Camilla-chan a Gacha Iron Sword and Iron Spear respectively.
I burned through most of the R rarity stuff back then with the House Extension, thankfully I still had some left…..

I remember hearing from Gants that the weapons are of good quality despite being only R rarity.
These should be equal or better than what the newbies are using.

They were surprised as they received the weapons, but there were no problems.

[…..Okura.
Where’d you pull those weapons out of? It didn’t look like you were carrying all that stuff when we were traveling.]

[Ah… I, it’s Estel.
Yes, the weapons were stored in the bag using Estel’s magic!]

[Huhー, she can do that kinda stuff too.
Mages are amazing eh.]

Grin-san threw a suspicious gaze at me, for pulling out the long sword and spear out of nowhere.

I used Estel’s magic as my excuse in the heat of the moment, and he bought it.

T, that was a little close… I may not have shown him where the weapons come from, so it’s normal for him to have reacted as he did since I pulled out the stuff kinda suddenly.

Thankfully he bought my excuse…

[P, phew…]

[Onii-san, you really are using my magic as your excuse for everything.]

[Uh yeah, sorry ’bout that.
It’s just that using your magic as the answer for every situation seems to work for some reason…]

[Well, not that I mind.
But, just don’t overdo it and make it sound more suspicious, use it in moderation ‘kay.]

I’ve made use of Estel’s magic as the “excuse” for most things and it worked out, so she gave me an appalled look.
Sorry about that.

This excuse is certainly convenient, but if I overuse it I might get called out by someone who is actually knowledgeable in magic.

We should research the details regarding magic sometime soon, along with Magic Gear as well.

[Alright.
We’ve had our break, let’s get back to it!]

[Yes!]

[Yeーs.]

Having received new equipment from me, Grin-san’s team got up enthusiastically to continue our co-op hunt.

I wanted to hand out stronger equipment to them, but the SR limit might be the most suitable this time.
The SSR and above stuff’s yabai, so I can’t just give those out willy nilly…

[Okay, we should start too.]

[Understoodー]

We head out to join Grin-san as well.

After another round of hunting mobs, the Black Orcs have begun spawning from the forest depths.

We went with the same formation as before, with us dealing with the surrounding mobs and Grin-san’s team on the Black Orcs.

Please… please let it work this time! If this also fails, I wouldn’t know what else we are missing.

I stared at my smartphone with apprehension, while watching Grin-san’s team hunt the Black Orc.

After a series of interweaving attacks, the Orc finally crumbles down and dissolves particles of light, the finishing blow being a strike to its chest from Camilla’s spear.

Here goes nothing…

[O…ohh! It’s here, the manastone!]

[Mufufuー, this is all thanks to my intuition amirite!]

My smartphone vibrated in my hand, with the usual manastone +1 notification.

Noru nodded in satisfaction, happy that her prediction was correct.

That did it… we did it! We have finally figured out the requirements! With this, our future Gacha life will be rose colored for sure!

[Oh, it works when Grin-san deals the finishing blow too.
That means it works so long as they have Gacha gear equipped, more manastones for us.]

[With this, we can make use of the plans that Noru thought of.]

We went and asked Grin-san to deal the finishing blow this time, and had them hunt 1 more Black Orc.

The result, was the +1 manastone notif on my smartphone.
We now have the answers for Gacha equipment requirements.

[What’s up, Estel?]

We were all celebrating that we had figured out all the requirements, but Estel was still frowning.

What’s wrong? We did what she and Noru’s had suggested, but she somehow doesn’t look quite as happy…

[With all that being said, I wasn’t expecting there to be so many requirements.
I’m still a little skeptical as to whether we have really gotten all of them.]

[Well at least we made it work, we can plan things out from here.]

From the top the 3 conditions are: defeating a rare monster, being in a party with me, and having some form of Gacha gear equipped.

I’m sure we can make something out of this…..
Can we?