Ai bolted forward, eyes gleaming, and snatched the ring out of my hands before I could even react.
“Holy crap. How did you...”
Ai trailed off, staring at the engraving in wonder.
“Is this thing really that rare?”
“R-Rarer than rare! You can’t rent anything that gives a bigger stat boost than 80, and there’s barely any rings that go over 50!”
Seeing them overawed for once brought a satisfied smile to my face. True, it had been old man Eld who’d given this to us, so it wasn’t like we’d obtained this ring ourselves, but I was still proud of it nevertheless.
Guess he’s not going senile after all.
Chances were he had connections with whoever had obtained such a large amount of enchanted equipment. And he’d probably negotiated for one of the higher-tier ones to give to us.
“I don’t believe it. Why does a scruffy old geezer like you have this ring?” Ai grumbled, reluctantly handing the ring back to me.
Honestly, I didn’t even care that she was acting like she was superior to us anymore.
“Oh yeah, so what does S stand for here? What stat does this ring raise?”
“Hmph, why don’t you try it on and find out?” Ai retorted, pouting.
Sighing, I equipped the ring. The moment I did, I felt a tangible surge of power flow through me. “Wh-What the hell...? This...raises your Strength, doesn’t it? L-Let me try something real quick.”
The difference was stark. I had to see how much stronger this had made me.
I took a few steps away from the group and drew my sword. It was a longsword, which was perhaps too big a weapon for a hybrid Scout-attacker like me, but I was fond of it. That being said, because of how low my Strength was, I’d had a lot of trouble using it effectively. It felt like the sword was swinging me around more often than it felt like I was swinging it around. But now it felt perfectly comfortable in my hands.
“Holy shit! This is amazing!”
The long blade which had always felt so heavy before was now as light as a feather. It was unbelievable that a single ring could create such a huge difference.
The Strength Ring I’ve been using until now is practically worthless compared to this guy!
Going off of how it felt, it seemed as though this ring increased my Strength by four times as much as the Strength Ring had.
“Hey, you done yet? My lecture’s not over, you know.”
Chisha’s words snapped me back to my senses, and I awkwardly scratched my head as I sheathed my sword and returned to the group.
“Wait, hang on, so you guys can rent things like this? That’s insane...”
“Didn’t you hear what I said? That ring’s super strong! As strong as two rental equipment pieces combined!” Ai said hotly.
On the flip side though, that meant literally anyone could rent a ring that gave half as strong a boost as this. And that was still a much bigger boost than the Strength Ring.
“Aha ha ha, I can tell exactly what you’re thinking, geezer! But just so you know, the rental system isn’t as convenient as you think.”
Chisha handed me a page on which she’d written down how the rental system worked. Despite how tough she acted, her handwriting was surprisingly girly. She’d put hearts for dots and in various places she’d underlined sentences with side notes like “Pay attention to this bit!” and “Look at how cool this is!” and “Kya ha ha ha ha!” It took me a while to decipher everything she’d written, and by the time I was done I had a headache. But to sum it up, it appeared only adventurers based in Freelea who were between ranks D-C could rent equipment. Furthermore, each adventurer could only rent a single piece at a time. Adventurers weren’t allowed to sell the equipment they borrowed or lend it out to other people, and there were harsh penalties for those who broke the rules.
“Since each person can only rent one piece, it’s not like you can just get super strong off of equipment alone. Plus, all of the equipment you can rent is crappy bronze stuff, so aside from the enchant boost all of their defensive stats are garbage.”
“I see. So if you wear nothing but enchanted equipment your defenses would be paper thin.”
I could see why the Guild had limited it to one piece per person, and also why they were restricting it by rank. A single piece of weak equipment wouldn’t lower your defensive stats enough to cause too much harm, and frankly it was only weaker and mid-tier adventurers who could really get a lot of value out of enchanted equipment like this. Hence why you needed to return the equipment once you reached B-rank. Whoever had come up with this system had put a lot of thought into it. It prevented adventurers from relying too much on enchanted equipment, but still gave them a significant enough power boost that they could take on tougher foes. This undoubtedly made it safer for newbie adventurers to go out and explore.
Baltore stepped forward and said, “I see. I understand just how strong enchanted equipment can be now. But what about that wristband? That Power Band doesn’t seem to have an engraving, so it’s not enchanted, right?”
“Ah.”
I turned to look at the Power Band Chisha was holding and saw that Baltore was right. It was the only piece of equipment with no engraving on it, which meant no enchantment.
“Wait, you don’t know?” A wicked grin spread across Chisha’s face.
“Yeah, we don’t,” I said, figuring there was no point in hiding it.
“Would you mind telling us?” Geeko asked. His interest had been well and truly piqued now.
“He he he. Well, I suppose we could. But you better keep your promise then.”
“Hm? Yeah of course.”
I’d almost forgotten, but we had indeed promised to give Ai and the others all of the junk items we’d collected in return for the information they were giving us. Thinking back on it now, that was probably because those pieces of equipment actually had some hidden value to them, but since I’d already given my word it was too late to change my mind now.
Satisfied by my reply, Chisha nodded and said, “Heh. All right then, I guess I can tell you! Behold, this equipment that seems pointless is actually...” Chisha raised her Power Band high into the air and struck a dramatic pose. “One of the pieces of equipment that raises Strength growth rates according Rex’s List!” Chisha exclaimed.
“Growth rates? Rex’s List? What do those words mean?”
I had no idea what Chisha had just said, so it didn’t sound as impressive as she’d probably intended it to.
“Whaaat?! You don’t even know about Rex’s List?! Okay, but surely you’ve heard of Rex, right?”
“Rex? I think I’ve heard the name before but...”
I couldn’t recall where. As I wracked my brain, the three girls looked at me as if I’d come from a different universe.
“What, you don’t even know Rex?! Did you guys live under a rock or something? Were you raised by monsters in the forest?!” Ai shouted.
“Even toddlers know who Rex is!” Mia said, joining in on the teasing.
“Y-You brats...”
“C-Calm down, Geeko!”
Honestly, I sympathized with him, but it would be pretty immature of us to get worked up over what some preteens were saying.
“By Rex, do you mean that famous solo A-rank adventurer? I can’t say I’ve ever met him, but I have heard of the famous Aloof Adventurer’s exploits.”
Thankfully Baltore and his repository of knowledge had come to the rescue once again.
“Blegh, your info’s so outdated!” Ai said, sticking her tongue out.
“Wow, you guys really don’t know anything! Poor souls...” Mia said, giving us a pitying look.