Verification: “Schrödinger’s Cat” Lv. 2

As soon as we arrived at the inn, I told Misha about the strange change that had happened to Schrödinger’s Cat.

“A description was added that says, ‘Makes the existence of an item in a dropped state ambiguous.’”

“Dropped…… item?”

Misha placed a hand on her chin and groaned, “Hmm,” then—

“That means items you get after defeating monsters, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Making their existence ambiguous…… Come to think of it, you said it was added, right? In that case, what was written in the original description?”

“‘Makes the existence of one cat in a closed space ambiguous.’”

“That one also makes existence ambiguous, huh~…… Judging from the effect, it probably means making things appear and disappear.”

After thinking silently for a while, Misha reached this conclusion.

“We can make a hypothesis, but seeing is believing. Tomorrow morning, let’s go to the dungeon first thing and verify it!”

The next morning, we descended into the dungeon.

The Piptat dungeon I set foot in for the first time—the true home of adventurers. But I did not really feel moved by it.

I wanted to try it quickly.

So much so that I had not been able to sleep last night either.

Misha said,

“……Then, for now, let’s look for something that seems like a small fry.”

We explored the dungeon and found one goblin wandering around.

“First monster sighted. Magic Arrow! Magic Arrow!”

Misha fired two Magic Arrows in a row.

“Gii!?”

The goblin staggered. I cut down the dying goblin in a single blow.

I removed a small device attached to the belt at my waist. It was a palm-sized rectangular device, one of the items you received when registering with the Adventurers’ Guild.

It was called a retriever.

I brought it close to the goblin’s corpse.

The goblin’s corpse emitted light and disappeared. It left behind only a small black stone—a magic stone—where it had fallen.

Magic stones.

They were items that could be harvested when monsters were defeated, and they were also fuel indispensable to our society. For example, to keep cooling things in a refrigerator, it was necessary to supply this magic stone.

Therefore, magic stones could be “sold.”

They were an important source of funds for adventurers to make a living.

As I collected the magic stone, Misha spoke to me.

“……Could you use Schrödinger’s Cat?”

“No, there’s no reaction at all……”

Dropped items did not always appear, but if they did, they would appear together at the timing when a monster was converted into a magic stone.

“Does it react when a dropped item appears……?”

At my words, Misha tilted her head.

“That might be part of it, but…… could it be because I dealt damage?”

“Damage?”

“Yeah. Since I fired two Magic Arrows, I dealt more damage than you, right, Ios? In that case, maybe it wasn’t judged to be your prey.”

“I see……”

“I won’t interfere next time, so try doing your best alone.”

Once again, we found and attacked a single goblin.

In the previous fight, Grail had made fun of me, but it was not as if I would lose to a mere goblin. I simply could not beat Grail in processing speed.

I defeated the goblin without any danger.

“Phew.”

I took a breath.

Then, I brought the retriever I had pulled from my waist close to the goblin.

The goblin became light and changed into a magic stone—

And I felt “something.”

I hurriedly opened Schrödinger’s Cat. Then, the following choices appeared inside my mind.

……What was this?

I did not really understand, so I tried choosing 5 Gold.

Then—

Clink.

5 gold appeared beside the magic stone.

……Huh?

Misha spoke to me.

“What is this 5 gold?”

“There was a reaction from Schrödinger’s Cat…… and I chose it.”

Since it was difficult to explain, I wrote down the image I had just seen on paper exactly as it was and showed it to Misha.

Misha stared at it.

“Could this possibly be all the items a goblin has a chance of dropping?”

“……I think so.”

I had obtained goblin dropped items several times in the past. They should all have been among the things written here.

“As expected of goblins. So shabby.”

Misha laughed softly, then continued.

“What bothers me are the letters E and D beside the items, and the 23:59 in the title……”

After thinking with a hum, Misha asked me.

“Hey, can you still check Schrödinger’s Cat now?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

Goblin Dropped Item 23:57

When I checked, it had changed like this.

“……Oh? It changed from 23:59 to 57……”

“Isn’t that the recast time?”

“Recast time?”

“The time until you can activate the skill next.”

“Does that mean I can only choose once a day?”

That felt kind of subtle.

Misha shook her head.

“I wonder…… It might be once a day per species. In other words, maybe you can’t choose from goblins alone until tomorrow.”

“I see.”

Certainly, with the way it was written, that might be true.

Misha nodded.

“All right, then let’s hunt a goblin and an orc in order. That should tell us the settings around that.”

I defeated a goblin.

……

…………

“Schrödinger’s Cat isn’t activating.”

“For now, that means there’s a twenty-four-hour restriction for the same species.”

Next, I defeated an orc. An orc was a monster with the face of a pig, and its strength was no different from a goblin’s.

Then—

Schrödinger’s Cat activated again.

I chose 7 Gold.

“Schrödinger’s Cat reacted.”

“I see.”

Misha grinned and continued.

“It looks like we managed to prove that orcs are richer than goblins.”

“Yeah.”

I laughed softly and collected the magic stone and 7 gold.

“Schrödinger’s Cat activated with the first goblin and this time. In other words, is it a twenty-four-hour recharge per species?”

“As far as we understand, yes.”

Misha thought silently.

“You need to be the main source of damage, but it’s an ability that lets you reliably obtain the dropped item you aim for……”

There, she looked startled and continued like this.

“Hey, there’s a monster I want you to defeat as a test.”

The monster I ended up fighting was a “Gray Ghost.”

It was a ghost wearing a gray cloak, and the parts where its eyes were shone red. It was an incorporeal ghost, but vivid-looking hands with long claws peeked out from both sleeves.

“It’ll probably be fine as long as I’m not the main source of damage.”

Saying that, Misha timed it and supported me just a little with magic.

At the same time as I defeated it, Schrödinger’s Cat activated.

……Until now, only E and D had appeared, but now S had come up.

As I hesitated about what to do, Misha opened her mouth.

“Is there an Alchemy Stone?”

“There is.”

“Yay! Choose that!”

I did as I was told.

With a small clink, a golden stone rolled out.

I collected it together with the magic stone.

“What is this Alchemy Stone?”

“That, you see—”

After a pause, Misha continued.

“It sells for 100,000 gold.”