It’s actually foolish to have high expectations.

Twenty-one total chances.

The probability that an essence will drop within that is extremely low, and on top of that, the color must be green, which has only a one-third chance.

But...

‘If it comes out, then I won’t need to find Hiphramagent’s essence separately.’

I still don’t know Hiphramagent’s stats or passives.

But whatever they are, I don’t think they’ll be better than this combination.

Arbet’s raw stats rival a grade 2 monster and come with special stats perfectly suited for a tank.

Woomdal’s passives are similar.

‘Yeah, this combo is definitely way better than most grade 2 essence combos.’

Maybe because I clearly recognize that in my head.

Thump-thump!

My heart starts pounding hard.

Even trying not to expect much, I couldn’t help but feel a spark of hope...

Flash!

The device activated and a synthetic monster was generated right at the center, and the first trial began immediately.

“Behel—raaaaaaaah!!”

Perhaps because the battle started surrounded by dealers finishing their casting?

The fight itself wasn’t that difficult.

Not that it was easy either.

‘Anyway, the first trial was a bust.’

The battle lasted about 15 minutes.

Since I held the main tank role firmly, there were no injuries.

‘Oof, my shoulder’s sore.’

I managed to endure by using skills, equipment, the priest’s healing, and various buffs well, but it wasn’t an easy enemy by any means.

‘A synthetic monster mixing grade 4, 3, and 5 monsters like this... if we raised the grade just a bit more, it’d be insanely hard.’

I’ll have to be careful not to exceed an average grade of 3 in future synthetic monster combinations.

Well, that’s not the important thing right now.

Flash!

Second attempt.

Flash!

Third, fourth, fifth.

Flash!

By the sixth attempt, I had kept going nonstop without rest, but unfortunately, no essence dropped.

And...

‘Please!’

After the seventh failed attempt, I stopped the raid.

It was my gut as a gamer.

Now is not the time.

As the saying goes, nothing comes for free.

This world runs on the law of equivalent exchange.

And I haven’t sacrificed anything yet.

Yeah, so...

“Put this guy on hold for now. Let’s do the others first.”

“What? Suddenly stopping here? Everyone was just getting used to the fights.”

“Not my problem if you don’t understand. It’s a commander’s order.”

“No, why are you acting like it’s someone else! The commander is Mr. Yandel!”

Damn, unnecessarily sharp-tongued.

I brushed off Raven’s criticism with a barbarian-style laugh and headed to where we stored the magic stones.

Thousands upon thousands of magic stones with name tags attached over the past few months.

‘Let’s try Ainard’s first.’

Looking over the magic stones, I came back carrying three buckets full of stones.

“Bjorn! Can I put them in this time?”

“Ainard, you want to do it?”

“I think the rolling sound when inserting them looks fun!”

I wondered how that could be fun, but I told him to go ahead.

After all, this combination was for him.

“...Huh? Mine?”

“Yeah, so put them in carefully. If an essence drops, put it in a test tube and feed it to you immediately.”

By the way, the essence combos I prepared for Ainard were three in total, more than any other expedition member.

That’s because he changed class to spearman.

There was a lot to remake starting from the bottom...

‘It’s unlikely all three combos will drop, but it’d be nice if any did. That way he’ll be fine.’

I set the passives and actives to suit a spearman, while slightly sacrificing stats to focus on those with strong fighting spirit.

“Alright, let’s do it!”

After reorganizing formation, Ainard enthusiastically put the magic stones into the device.

Clatter.

The first device responsible for stats had a grade 3 monster with fighting spirit and combat stats.

Clatter.

The second device setting passives included a grade 4 combat support skill [War Machine].

Clatter.

The third device, active skill slot, aimed for grade 4 combat buffs [Indomitable Spirit] and [Nerve Stimulation], completing the first combo.

“Come on! Give me an essence!”

Ainard cheered from afar, motivated by the idea of an essence being his.

The first battle took about 25 minutes.

‘Raising the average grade by 0.6 made it much harder.’

By the way, there were injuries during the fight, and nearby machines got damaged, so we had to wait for drones to come repair them.

But what on earth was this?

“Oh! Essence! Essence!”

An essence dropped on the first try.

And the color was blue, representing the top priority [Indomitable Spirit].

‘It just came out on the first try...?’

I was dumbfounded watching it.

At the same time, I felt a bit bitter.

‘...Maybe I should have stubbornly kept going with mine first.’

If I’d continued, maybe mine would’ve dropped at this timing.

That thought kept coming back.

“...Then shall we collect it?”

Raven approached and put the essence in a test tube, finishing the first combo.

Then we waited while drones repaired the machine before starting the second combo.

Clatter.

Since there was room thanks to the essence on the first try, I put that stone back into the stats device.

Clatter.

For the passive slot, I put the grade 4 defensive essence [Endurance], which maximizes the efficiency of [Crouch].

Clatter.

For the active slot, I put the grade 5 core skill for spear barbarians, [Focused Fire], like shield barbarian’s [Giant Form].

“It’s, it’s here!”

Since the synthetic monster was mixed from three large monsters, it looked very powerful.

Though maybe because the average grade dropped a bit?

The fight itself was much easier than before, and we quickly used up the remaining tries.

One, two, three, four...

At the fifteenth try...

“Hey, essence!!”

An essence dropped, but unfortunately the color didn’t match, so it was just put in a test tube.

‘Phew... well, that’s normal.’

Tsk, still, since it’s a core skill, I really hoped for that essence...

Should I go sacrifice more offerings now?

I thought that, but suddenly changing tactics here would ruin my prestige as commander.

‘Well, it’s just probability after all.’

So I kept burning through the remaining tries.

Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen...

The chances quickly dwindled, and with only three tries left before finishing, at that moment—

“...Oh! Bjornnnnn! Essence! Essence! The yellow one you mentioned!!”

...What is this guy, seriously?

Ainard got two essences in a flash.

At least the heavens have some conscience — the third combo’s essence didn’t drop.

‘Phew, since the first two came out well, I reworked the combos and made the best one.’

Though catching three essences while killing fewer than a hundred monsters was absurd.

‘He... is going to become a monster when he goes back.’

With the Fresh Growth, Hiphramagent, and the grade 3 Speardiver, plus two customized essences.

Even just swapping essences at the shrine would make Ainard insanely strong.

“So now, will you go back to fighting the one we were fighting earlier?”

“No, I’ll do the others first...”

Not having the courage to keep grinding my essence combo right after such ridiculous luck, I summoned other synthetic monsters for quite a while.

Amelia, Misha, Elwen...

Even if not combos prepared specifically for these three, there were many combos to summon.

The expedition members also suggested combos they wanted, and the vice commander requested some too.

For example, essences needed to present to the royal family?

Most combos were suitable for knights.

‘...If I hadn’t used the magitech propulsion, I could have tried way more times.’

Looking back now, I regret spending so many magic stones.

Of course, most stones inserted into the propulsion were grade 6 or lower...

But I did use some higher-grade stones as well.

Luckily, we gathered many high-grade stones on Library Island, and the ones brought from the royal family were mostly high-grade too.

One day, two days, three days, four days...

The raids continued day and night, and through them, I realized one thing.

‘Drop rates... seem higher than outside.’

During tests with lower-grade monsters earlier, nothing dropped and I thought the rates were abysmal.

But that must have been a particularly unlucky period.

That’s why Ainard got two essences from those offerings.

“Already twenty days have passed.”

Twenty days since starting the factory raids.

To summarize mid-point:

Amelia, Elwen, and Misha each got an essence, and Muul Armin, who received my essence combo recommendation, also got one.

Additionally, other expedition members collected eleven essences with leftover magic stones, and seven essences were collected for the royal family.

“Why hasn’t mine come out again?”

“How many tries has it been now?”

Surprisingly, that record held for three days.

“We’ve probably killed thousands of monsters by now. Strange. Is the device broken?”

Even the members who’d been raiding together for three days started to voice concerns.

‘Now.’

Feeling the optimal moment sharply, I stopped the raid. Then hastily grabbed my combo stones.

“Ainard.”

“...Yes?”

I called out to Ainard, who was leisurely resting while chewing jerky.

“You put the stones in.”

“Oh? Sure.”

Without ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) asking why, Ainard agreed immediately.

A bit worried, I carefully explained and checked which stones went into which devices.

‘Yeah, at this point, even he won’t mess up.’

Indeed, Ainard inserted the stones into the correct devices perfectly without a single mistake.

But...

Eight times, nine times, ten times...

Putting the stones in correctly didn’t guarantee an essence drop.

Eleven, twelve, thirteen...

As the attempts continued, my heartbeat quickened a little.

Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen.

They say little drops of rain soak your clothes without you realizing it — that was exactly how I felt.

Soon only five tries remained.

Perhaps because blood rushed to my head, even ideas I’d never normally consider flashed through my mind.

‘Goblin.’

Yeah, I’d use Sven Parab’s intuition.

It seemed like an ability that activated only when misfortune was about to strike.

‘I’d tie it up somewhere and threaten to smash its head if this essence doesn’t drop this time.’

Then maybe I could perfectly time the drop.

It sounded absurd, but it seemed worth a try.

Just then, I glanced at the goblin.

‘What’s up with it now?’

The goblin, a little way off, was staring at me.

Like someone desperately needing to go to the bathroom.

Seeing its fidgeting, I wondered if it was reacting to the thought I just had.

But then...

“Commander, may I speak with you for a moment?”

The goblin who called me aside said something completely different.

“...I have a feeling we need to leave here soon.”

The goblin’s intuition activated.

“Stronger than ever before.”