Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure Chapter 2039: Quantity versus quality

Previously on Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure...

Shota channeled his divine energy into the mold, successfully forging a blade that, despite the dwarves' disdain for its soulless creation, proved effective against corruption energy and ideal for mass production. With handles attached and tests confirming its reliability, the group established a production line, scaling up from one mold to twenty as the dwarves reluctantly crafted more. However, Shota soon hit his personal limit, unable to control the energy beyond that point or sustain the heavy expenditure of his divine reserves. Turning to Queenie for her divine energy, he faced firm rejection at first, but ultimately persuaded her through bribes sourced via Haley's network, exploiting her indulgent nature.

Thanks to Queenie supplying the divine energy, the process turned out far simpler for me, as I no longer needed to strain myself delivering it to the molds.

Still, I had to channel some divine energy to infuse the creation attribute into the molds, allowing them to shape into blades, but the amount required was minimal since I primarily drew from Queenie’s divine energy.

Utilizing her divine energy in this manner proved highly efficient compared to expending my own reserves.

Thanks to this approach, I managed to fill all twenty molds without any issues and then proceeded to the additional molds set aside earlier, which I couldn’t utilize before.

The dwarves observed this and kept crafting more molds, yet their expressions revealed clear dissatisfaction.

They had paused earlier upon noticing my limit of twenty, leading them to believe they could avoid further tarnishing their cherished pride and passion.

But that brief relief vanished once I implemented this new method.

Yet a complication remained.

"Wait, it feels different."

The dwarves monitored the blades closely as they emerged from the molds, being the experts most attuned to their nuances.

They remained silent through the earlier batches, but now it appeared they had concerns to voice, halting the process immediately after the initial piece as if detecting the anomaly instantly.

After instructing the assistants to stop, the dwarves stepped up to examine the displayed blade.

Not merely one or two, but every dwarf seemed to sense the alteration in this fresh batch, detecting an intangible flaw despite the blades appearing unchanged to the eye.

Eventually, the dwarves requested a prior sword for comparison.

They intended to juxtapose the two blades to pinpoint the discrepancy.

However, their method of comparison struck as unusual.

"Bring out some corruption energy samples." The dwarves abruptly demanded this.

Confusion spread across the faces of everyone present, though the dwarves pressed the issue firmly.

In the end, several corruption energy samples were gathered for them.

Following their instructions, we ensured the samples matched as closely as possible, though truthfully, perfect balance was impossible, so we aimed for the closest approximation.

Once prepared, the dwarves tested the swords against them.

"It’s weaker."

This verdict came from the dwarves, yet they weren’t alone in that assessment—every observer witnessing the outcome shared the same view.

Denying the evidence proved impossible when it lay so plainly before them.

The swords’ interaction with the corruption energy produced strikingly distinct responses from the two batches.

The superior performance was unmistakable.

Squinting at the results, they couldn’t resist re-examining the swords, puzzling over the unseen difference, for visually, the blades appeared identical.

Unable to discern it unaided, their only recourse was to consult Max and check if his tools could reveal the issue.

Even so, I already understood the root cause.

It stemmed from the varying purity of divine energy.

I recognized this instantly from past encounters, grasping the flaw the moment the tests concluded.

I held my tongue, hoping to uncover additional insights.

But the measurements confirmed the issue clearly.

The blade forged with Queenie’s divine energy simply underperformed compared to one crafted solely from my own divine energy.

This outcome aligned with expectations, given Queenie’s divine energy carried the propagation attribute, granting her an inexhaustible flow but rendering it comparatively less potent.

Thus, it fell short of the blade infused purely with my divine energy.

The version from Queenie’s energy contained only a faint imprint of mine, which lent it its original strength.

Once they pieced it together...

"So it’s a matter of different materials...But in a way, this could be considered a matter of how much effort was placed into the sword. So it’s the difference between a sword with a soul and a sword without one."

Typical of the dwarves to frame it through the lens of artistry.

Yet that perspective held little relevance at present.

Stripping away the details, one core element stood out above all.

This boiled down to quality against quantity.

After all, only Queenie’s plentiful divine energy enabled such large-scale blade production. And though these fell short in power against those made entirely from my divine energy, they weren’t ineffective by any means.

They still impacted the corruption energy samples noticeably.

Thus, they sufficed for arming the standard troops.

As this reality settled in, the choice narrowed to prioritizing quality or quantity.

"Of course it’s quality. These are special weapons in the first place." The dwarves contended.

"No, it has to be quantity. We need to mass produce these things to supply our soldiers so they can deal with the corruption energy monsters." The officials countered.

Ultimately, they all turned to me, awaiting my endorsement of either position.

However, only one option truly warranted backing.