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, forging a blade that the dwarves scorned for its soulless form, though it proved effective against corruption energy and ideal for mass production among the racial alliance forces. Reluctantly, the dwarves crafted more molds, establishing a production line where blades were shaped, assembled with handles, and distributed swiftly. As output ramped up, Shota hit his personal limit at twenty molds, strained by his finite divine energy, prompting him to seek Queenie's assistance despite her firm refusal and the need for escalating bribes to sway her.

Having Queenie supply the divine energy made things far simpler for me, as I no longer needed to strain myself channeling it into 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 wasn't overwhelming since I primarily drew on Queenie's divine energy.

This method proved highly efficient, using her divine energy instead of depleting my own reserves.

Thanks to that, I filled all twenty molds without any issues and then shifted to the additional molds set aside earlier, which I couldn't utilize before.

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

They had paused earlier upon seeing my limit at twenty, believing they could avoid further tarnishing their cherished pride and passion.

But that brief relief vanished the moment I devised this workaround.

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 stayed silent through the previous batches, but now they voiced concerns and halted the process immediately after the first blade, detecting the anomaly instantly.

After halting the assistants, the dwarves stepped up to inspect the displayed blade.

Not merely one or two, but every dwarf sensed the oddity in this fresh batch. Something invisible eluded their sight, yet they instinctively knew the blade felt wrong.

Soon, the dwarves requested a prior sword for comparison.

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

However, their comparison method struck as unusual.

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

Confusion spread across everyone's faces as they stared at the dwarves, who firmly pressed the issue.

Eventually, several corruption energy samples were readied for them.

Following their instructions, we ensured the samples matched as closely as possible, though truthfully, perfect balance was impossible—we simply aimed for fairness.

Once prepared, the dwarves tested the swords against them.

"It’s weaker."

The dwarves delivered that verdict, and they weren't alone; all observers witnessing the outcome shared the same conclusion.

Denial proved impossible with the evidence laid bare.

The swords' reactions to the corruption energy differed starkly between the samples.

Clearly, one outperformed the other by a wide margin.

Squinting at the results, they couldn't resist reexamining the swords, puzzling over the invisible flaw. Visually, the blades appeared identical.

Unable to spot it unaided, they directed their gaze toward Max, hoping his tools might reveal the issue.

Even so, I already grasped the root cause.

It stemmed from the varying purity of divine energy.

Having encountered this before, I recognized the problem instantly from the test results.

I held back from speaking, curious if more insights would emerge.

But the measurements confirmed the flaw.

The sword forged with Queenie’s divine energy simply lagged behind the one crafted solely from my divine energy.

This outcome aligned with expectations, given Queenie’s divine energy carried the propagation attribute. That trait granted her an inexhaustible flow of divine energy, yet it rendered the power less potent.

Thus, it fell short of the blade made purely from my divine energy.

The version using Queenie’s energy included only a faint imprint of mine, which provided its strength.

Once they uncovered this...

"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 masterful forging.

But such details held little relevance now.

Stripping away the layers, just one core element stood out.

This boiled down to quality pitted against quantity.

After all, only Queenie’s vast divine energy enabled this scale of blade production. Though inferior to those made entirely from my divine energy, they weren't utterly feeble.

They still impacted the corruption energy samples noticeably.

Thus, they sufficed for arming the standard troops.

As this reality settled, the choice narrowed to favoring 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 looked to me, expecting endorsement of one faction.

Yet only one choice truly aligned.