Apparently, becoming an Honorary Researcher didn’t come with any duties—or any rights, for that matter. It was more of a symbolic title, though I wondered if “honor” was really the right word for it. Rache-san’s take on these people was that they were “mad scientists,” so if I wasn’t careful, I might just end up being branded as one of them. Well, as long as I don't go around telling people, it should be fine.
Regardless, I needed to achieve my goal and get out of here quickly. They say he who touches pitch shall be defiled; if I stayed here too long, I felt like I’d just get sucked deeper into their madness.
“Ah, excuse me. I forgot to mention this earlier, but we actually came here hoping you might be able to spare some Pandora Gifts.”
“What? Is that so? As a request from a comrade, I would certainly like to cooperate, but...”
Val-san’s expression clouded over. As luck would have it, they had just recently conducted an experiment on dungeonification using Pandora Gifts. It seemed they had used up every single one the Research Society had in stock. When it came to matters involving other people’s timing like this, even having high Luck didn't help. I was genuinely disappointed.
Incidentally, that experiment had supposedly ended in failure. Far from creating a dungeon, nothing had changed at all, leaving the researchers quite dejected. I’d figured as much; if it had been a success, they likely would have been aggressively touting it as a major research breakthrough.
“However, we have no immediate plans for further experiments. If we happen to get our hands on more, I shall secure them for you, comrade.”
“Really?”
That would be a huge help!
Since almost all items classified as "duds" seemed to naturally gravitate toward the Research Society, this was far more efficient than trying to track them down myself. I couldn't get them right away, but coming here had definitely been worth it.
Under the guise of providing research funds, I decided to pay a reservation fee for the Pandora Gifts. For now, ten gold coins should suffice. It was significantly higher than the market price, but since these items were worth more than that to me, I didn't begrudge the cost.
With my business concluded, I expected the researchers to let me go soon, especially since I’d just funded them. Just then, Shiroru, who had been wandering around and observing the lab, sent a thought transmission.
『What is this?』
I looked at what Shiroru was interested in. It looked remarkably like a match from my previous life—a short wooden stick with a round, red tip. However, it was a bit large for a match, roughly the length of an open palm. Dozens of these mock-matches were scattered across the floor.
“I wonder what they are?”
“Ah, those are items called Item-finding Rods,” Val-san explained, peering over my shoulder as I examined them with Shiroru.
Apparently, if you visualized the object you were looking for and threw an Item-finding Rod into the air, it had a low probability of pointing in the direction of the target. Since they weren't consumables, they could be used repeatedly.
On paper, it sounded like it could be useful, but the general consensus was that they were dud items. The primary reason was that you couldn't tell whether the effect had actually activated. If they glowed or gave some sort of signal upon activation, that would be one thing, but they offered no reaction whatsoever. On top of that, the activation rate was reportedly so low that you could never really feel the effect. Between the inability to confirm activation and a success rate that was little more than a placebo, they were dismissed as being the same as having nothing at all.
“That is why we thought that if we gathered a large number and threw them all at once, a statistically significant trend might appear.”
For instance, if there were a ten percent chance of a rod pointing in the correct direction, throwing a hundred of them should result in about ten sticks pointing the same way. They figured they could get a reliable result by taking a majority vote from a large sample. It wasn't a bad idea, but...
“Unfortunately, the activation rate is apparently so infinitesimally low that it is difficult to get a clear result no matter how many times we throw a hundred of them.”
That was a shame. The probability must have been truly abysmal.
However, where probability was involved, Luck usually played a role. It was possible that if I were the one using them, the result might be different.
“Do you mind if I try it out?”
“Hmm? I do not mind, but...”
Val-san was clearly unenthusiastic. They’d already experimented extensively with no results, after all. Since I wasn't doing anything special and was just throwing them normally, he likely expected the same outcome.
Well, we’d find out soon enough.
I gathered the Item-finding Rods in both hands. Then, keeping Shiroru firmly in my mind, I tossed them into the air with all my might. The sticks lost their momentum in mid-air and tumbled down, clattering across the floor of the Research Institute.
“Wh-What?!”
Val-san let out a cry of pure shock. While not every single Item-finding Rod had landed the same way, nearly half of them were pointing directly at Shiroru. I hadn’t told him what I was visualizing, but with a result this blatant, the answer was obvious.
When he grilled me for the reason, I simply told him that I had high Luck. I kept the specific numbers and my skills a secret, of course. I didn't think he was a bad person, but if I told him the truth, I’d likely be dragged into all sorts of tedious experiments.
Regardless, Val-san was ecstatic over this new insight into the influence of Luck. While Luck was a stat that didn't typically increase with level-ups, it could be temporarily boosted with potions. He was almost certainly going to start conducting experiments involving Luck from now on. No matter how much they bolstered their stats, though, they probably wouldn't reach a level anywhere near mine... but there was no need to tell him that. They’d find out through their own research, and even if I did tell him, he’d just end up trying to verify it through testing anyway.
As a reward for providing this new discovery, I was given ten of the Item-finding Rods. Based on the results I’d just seen, ten would be more than enough to be useful for exploration.