《After Being Transferred to Another World I Became a Magical Swordsman》 1 Episode 0 Gamers and Other World Transitions I, Kaede Suzumiya, a college student who is a net-gamer, fought back a headache as I operated the keyboard incessantly. The boss''s HP bar on the screen disappeared just two seconds ago. And my HP (real HP) is running low. I haven''t slept for about four days now. "Don''t sleep yet, you have to participate in the distribution ....... I think. I think, but my body won''t let me. I plopped down on the keyboard and let go of my consciousness. The reason why this happened is because of me three days ago. I had finished taking the credits I was supposed to take this year, and in my euphoria and sense of freedom, I had crammed my schedule full of games that I was addicted to. My euphoria was so great that I didn''t even notice that I hadn''t had any sleep during those three days. The first two days were fine, but after that, it got really tough. I hadn''t slept for three and a half days, including the time before I started the game. My head hurt and my fatigue was at its peak. I should have quit then, but at the time, I was determined to keep going until the next weapon dropped, but for some reason, the weapons that normally had a drop rate of at least one in two hours didn''t drop for about ten hours. I was about to call off my plans and go to bed, when the call arrived. A message from the organizer of the boss defeating PT: "Please gather at the fixed time in 15 minutes. That''s right, it''s 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. Time to fix. Fixed" stands for "fixed party," and as the name implies, it is a party with a fixed number of members that repeatedly defeats the same boss at a fixed time in order to gain experience and drop items. If you fail to do so, all 11 members of the party except yourself will be inconvenienced. No matter how much it hurts my head, I have to do it. With this determination, I moved to the meeting place, performed my assigned duties as usual, and defeated the boss. It took about two hours as usual. The result is the scene you see at the beginning of this article. When I woke up, I found myself not in the familiar ceiling of my house, but in a forest. As I hurriedly looked around, I saw that the trees in the area I could see were mainly broad-leaved trees, about one meter thick, growing at a certain distance from each other. The ground was black humus-like soil, overgrown with weeds. Of course, I don''t remember ever coming to a place like this. I don''t understand. You suddenly feel strange and check your clothes. I don''t remember changing my clothes, but I''m not wearing the jersey I wore when I was playing netgear, but my current attire is a plaid outfit for going out and sports shoes. Judging from the brightness, the tilt of the sun, and the temperature, it must have been around 4:00 PM. As the vegetation is similar to that of Japan, the climate will not change that much. I decided to move on from here, so I got up and started walking, but here I felt strange again. I felt that my walking pace was much faster than usual. Thinking that it might be something, I try to jump vertically. I don''t remember jumping that hard, but I jump about one meter off the ground. Moreover, when I fall, I feel an inexplicable sense of discomfort. Also, my legs, which were not very strong to begin with, were able to catch my body from a height of one meter without any difficulty. What a dream. ....... What a dream. I said to myself and pinched my cheek. It hurt. By the way, I''ve heard that "even if you pinch your cheek in a dream, your brain creates pain on its own, so pinching your cheek is not enough to judge whether it''s a dream or not. I thought that this was probably the case, and thought about what to do, but then I reconsidered, "If it''s a dream anyway, let''s enjoy it. But even if I wanted to have fun, this is just a forest. At any rate, you need to get out of the forest, so you think of a way to get out of the forest. When you''re in trouble, you''re told to follow the ridge, but unfortunately, you can''t use that method because this is flat land. There are no stumps in the area, or even any signs of human activity, even if I tried to guess the direction by looking at stumps. There was no sound of water, and I had no idea how to proceed. When I was looking for a stump, I noticed that the vegetation here was similar to that of Japan. The plants growing here are vaguely familiar to me. Well, I guess my brain is not imaginative enough to create something I don''t know in my dreams. There''s no point in thinking about it, so I''ll just follow my instinct and go straight in one direction. Normally, this would be a bad idea in the forest, since I would lose my sense of direction while dodging trees, and I would not be able to go straight, but this is my dream. But this is my dream. My dream cannot be such that the forest continues even if I keep walking. Therefore, if I keep walking in one direction, I''ll eventually find something. Maybe. As I continued, I found something strange. No, I don''t know if I should call it a thing. At first glance it looks like a dog. But if you look closely, there are many differences between it and a dog. It''s about 10 meters away from here, so you can''t see much detail, but it''s still distinctly different. Its ears are sharper than I''ve ever seen before, its body hair is green, and its long fangs stick out from its upper jaw. I''m not an expert on dogs, and up to this point, you might have thought it was a breed of dog I didn''t know. But there was too big a difference for it to be a breed of dog. It had six legs. It has six legs, but they are not like insects, and the hind legs are split in two like Sleipnir. In spite of this, I don''t feel any unnaturalness in its gait, and it walks slowly as if this is its normal state. Of course, such a creature does not exist on Earth, and it has not appeared in the MMO I was playing. For the time being, it''s inconvenient to have a name for it, so I''ll call it Green Dog. At any rate, it doesn''t seem to be a safe creature, so leave the scene quietly so as not to be noticed. I was afraid that I might not be detected by its scent, but fortunately I was downwind of it, and I was able to leave without being noticed until the green dog was out of sight. After checking my surroundings and making sure there was nothing dangerous, I thought about the creature I had seen earlier. It''s clearly not Japanese. Since my brain is a gamer, I must have created a game-like creature in my dream by randomly piecing together real-life creatures. If this is the case, then perhaps the rest of the game is also game-like. But there is no keyboard, no mouse, and no graphic user interface here. I don''t know how to operate it, so I''ve decided to say everything I can think of. A translucent window appears in front of you. A translucent window appears in front of you, and you squeal. I was so startled that I looked up, but the window seemed to follow me. I guess I''m the kind of gamer who brings games into my dreams... I check the status while talking to myself. Name: Suzumiya Kaede Age / Race / s*x : 20 / Human / Male Level: 1 HP:51/51 MP:1012/1012 STR:16 INT:42 AGI:22 DEX:34 Skills: information manipulation analysis, complete mastery of otherworldly languages, magical qualities, martial arts qualities, otherworldly, affinity for all attributes Is this high? I don''t know how to look at it, but MP seems to be very high. INT and DEX are also a little high. When I looked at the MP and wanted to know what it was, a window much smaller than the status screen appeared. MP 1012.00/1012.00 Description: Amount of magic power. It is consumed when using magic and some skills. The average magic power of the human race in this world is 10. The left side shows the current amount of magic power, and the right side shows the maximum amount of magic power. 0.1% of the maximum amount of magic power is recovered every minute from the point when the magic power falls below the maximum value. The decimal point is rounded down. It seems I have a lot of magic power. I also appraised HP, but it seems to be a numerical value of health and sturdiness, with no fixed amount of natural recovery. I looked at the status screen again to appraise the status further, but I thought I saw something there that I shouldn''t have missed, so I looked twice. --A person from another world, fully mastering the language of another world. I appraise it with trepidation. Otherworldly Unique/rank 10 Description: Coming from a different world has a wide range of effects on your status, skill acquisition rate, etc. The effect varies depending on the rank of the world you came from. The higher the rank, the higher the rank, and the higher the rank compared to this world, the greater the improvement in ability. If you come from a world with a lower rank than this world, your ability will decrease. Is this the reason why I could fly so high? No, that''s not the problem. Of course I care about that, but there is something more important. Another world? It''s true that the pain when I pinched my cheek and the terrain seemed strangely real, but is this not a dream, but another world? But at least the vegetation is Japanese... But that dog is clearly not from Japan, and I''ve never seen it before. Would something completely unknown to me appear in my dream? I''m not an expert in brain science or dreams, so I don''t know the details, but I don''t think that anything I don''t know much about is likely to appear in my dreams. Even if I think about it, it doesn''t make any sense. If it''s a dream, it won''t be long before I wake up. If you don''t wake up for a day, there is a high possibility that you are in another world. If it''s a dream, there''s no problem, and I''ll just assume that this is another world and act accordingly. I don''t have any evidence, but for some reason I feel like I''m in another world. Information Manipulation Analysis Unique Description: You can analyze what you see. You do not need to touch the object, and it does not consume magic. It can also analyze hidden information that cannot be determined by appraisal. With your consent, you can hide the status of the object when it is appraised. It is probably because of this skill that information can be appraised earlier. From the way it is written, it seems to be a higher level skill than appraisal. It also seems to be able to manipulate information. It says that it''s unique, and if it''s a rare skill, it might be troublesome if someone sees it, so it''s nice if you can rewrite your status with this. I don''t know if I can rewrite my own status with this method, but I can try. Since I was able to appraise my status earlier without chanting "appraise" or "information manipulation analysis", I guessed that I probably didn''t need to chant, and I thought that I wanted to hide the "otherworlder". The moment you do, the "otherworlder" display changes to "otherworlder (hidden). Apparently, the status is updated in real time without reciting it again. I wonder if this makes it invisible. Let''s reappraise "Concealment". Otherworldly (Concealment) Unique/Rank 10 Description: Being from a different world has a wide range of effects on status, skill acquisition rate, etc. The effect varies depending on the rank of the world you came from. The higher the rank, the higher the rank, and the higher the rank compared to this world, the greater the improvement in ability. If you come from a world with a lower rank than this world, your ability will be reduced. This is not shown in the appraisal. This seems to work fine. There is no guarantee that there is no other way to know a person''s ability in this world, but it is better than nothing. ¡«There is a possibility that some skills, such as "predisposition," are not particularly rare, but since it is impossible to determine which ones are rare, all skills are hidden for now. It seems that status can also be hidden, but even if it is hidden, the fact that it is hidden itself will be revealed. I don''t know if these values are normal, but I don''t see much point in hiding them. MP is not decreasing, so perhaps hiding does not consume magic power. When I thought about appraising my other skills, I noticed a green dog looking at me from about 10 meters away, in the direction I had just walked, although I wasn''t sure if it was from earlier. "Grrrrr... It seems to be threatening me. It doesn''t look like he''s going to let me go. 2 Episode 1 Green Wolf and the Magic of the First Ti... The green dog isn''t that big, and judging from the way he was walking earlier, I think he might be able to fight, but I don''t have any weapons on hand to fight him, so I try to escape. I dash in the opposite direction of the green dog, but I can''t run as fast as I want because of the underbrush and roots of the trees. There is a sign that the green dog is following you. After running about 50 meters, you check behind you. They''re closing the distance! When I started running, the distance between us was about 10 meters, but now it''s about half. I thought that he would catch up with me, so I thought about what I could do while running. I look to my right and diagonally in front of me, 20 meters away, at a height of about two and a half meters, I see the branch of a rather thick tree. You decide that the dog will not be able to climb the tree, even if it has six legs, and run toward the tree. Judging from the way he jumped earlier, he would be able to reach the branch if he jumped as hard as he could. I turned around and even changed direction, which slowed me down considerably. I came close to the tree, but the distance between me and the green dog was probably less than two meters. I jumped as fast as I could and stretched out my arms to the branch. I succeeded in catching him. The green dog tried to catch me as I jumped, but it didn''t seem to reach me. Thank God. I used the strength of my arm to climb up the branch, but the green dog was still looking at me threateningly. I wondered if he would go away if I waited like this. ....... I waited for about 10 minutes, but the green dog showed no sign of leaving. It seems to have stopped threatening me, but it is still sitting there looking at me. He is ready for a long battle. If I wait like this, night will come. I''d rather not spend the night in a forest with such an unidentifiable creature, and I don''t feel like sleeping on this branch, even though it''s quite thick. I don''t know if I''ll be able to find anyone if I run away from here, but I''m not going to be able to do much if I wait around. I need to get out of here somehow. I remembered that my status was displayed earlier, and I looked for other commands. Equipment!¡¡"Item! There was no response to "Equipment", but when I said "Item", I felt as if something was leaving my body. After a second or so of waiting, a gray window with what looks like a white frame appears. It''s different from what you''re used to seeing in MMOs, but it looks somewhat like an item box. In the upper right corner, the word 0/1012 is displayed. Is it the capacity? I plucked a couple of leaves from the tree and tried to put them into the box, but they disappeared from my hand as soon as I tried to put them into the item box, without even moving my hand to the box. In the item box, there is a picture of a leaf with the number 2 written on the bottom right corner. If you turn your attention to the leaf in the item window, a pop-up window-like object will appear. Leaf of Pole Tree Description: A leaf of the Pole tree. It seems to be functioning as an item box. When you try to take it out, a leaf appears in your hand, and the number in the lower right corner of the picture becomes 1. It seems that you can save all the items in one box. In the upper right corner of the item window, the number 1/1012 is displayed. I put the leaf back into the item box, but the number is still 1/1012, which means that 1012 is the number of frames. 1012 is the same as the maximum value of MP. The capacity of the item box (?) depends on the maximum MP. may depend on the maximum value of MP. Tear one of the leaves in half and put them both in the box. The number in the lower right corner of the picture is 3. It seems that the torn leaf is counted as one. When I thought that I wanted to take out the torn leaf, I did so. If it were not like this, I would have had to take out many leaves until I found the one I wanted. It seems to be a very useful feature, but it doesn''t seem to provide the initial equipment. No, is the current outfit the initial equipment? It''s certainly better than barefoot and jersey, but it doesn''t feel like combat gear. It occurred to me to take out a pore leaf and examine it. Pore Leaves Description: A leaf of the Pole tree. They contain oil and burn well when dry. The oil content may be similar to that of pine cones. Either way, it is unlikely to be useful in the current situation. It seems that information manipulation analysis can tell you more than what is displayed in the item box. I''ll try to appraise the green dog. Green Wolf RANK:F HP 35/35 MP 0/0 STR:32 INT:1 AGI:30 DEX:2 Skills. Brains . Doesn''t seem to have any skills. What is the standard for rank? The letter "F" does not give the impression of strength. The naming is what it looks like, except for the legs. But his STR and AGI are higher than mine, and I''m level 1. I still don''t feel like fighting. I wish I had a weapon, but I don''t. There''s a ...... skill called "magical aptitude". Maybe you can use magic. When I tried to look at the status, the status showed up. It seems that no chanting was required. The reason why I needed to chant last time may be because I chanted as if I were going to say it anyway, rather than with the intention of seeing the status. Name: Suzumiya Kaede Age / Race / s*x : 20 / Human / Male Level: 1 HP:51/51 MP:508/1012 STR:16 INT:42 AGI:22 DEX:34 Skills: Information Manipulation Analysis (Concealment), Complete Mastery of Otherworldly Languages (Concealment), Magical Qualities (Concealment), Martial Arts Qualities (Concealment), Otherworldly (Concealment), All Attribute Affinity (Concealment) MP is decreasing. When I activated the item box, I felt as if something was leaving my body. Was that MP? Considering the time since you used the item box, it seems to have consumed about half of your MP. It''s fine if the MP is consumed by creating an item box when you first activate it, but it''s annoying if the MP is reduced every time you open the item box. I don''t know if it''s safe to use the item box even when it''s empty, but I don''t have a good feeling about it, so I''ll hold off on using it until I get to a safe place. I''m not sure if this is a good sign or not, so I''ll hold off on using the item box until I get to a safe place. I''ve just appraised the skills that I didn''t appraise earlier, and found that the magic and martial arts qualities will greatly speed up the learning of magic and martial arts, and increase the ability of magic and martial arts. All-Attribute Affinity is a skill that allows you to use magic of all attributes, and Complete Mastery of Otherworldly Languages is as you see it. Magical Qualities (Concealment) Unique Description: You can learn magic much faster. It also increases your ability to use magic. Does not show up in the appraisal. It looks like this. The latter part is the effect of concealment. The latter part is the effect of concealment. It''s not very nice, and I think it could be described in more detail, but it may mean that the range of the effect is wide. In a card game I used to play in Japan, it was said that "cards with short text are strong". It must be so. I hope so. Although it would make learning magic much faster, I haven''t learned it yet, and I don''t know how to practice it. I don''t know how to practice it, but I can''t think of anything else to do, so I''m going to try some things. I think I''ll try to use fire magic for now, since it seems to have a high attack power. I close the status window, look at Green Dog, and try to cast the spells I can think of. Fire, Flame, Fire Arrow, Melee, and Razor. "No? ....... No? You''ve never learned magic, and you can''t use it? I was hoping for something like this, where a fireball flies towards the green dog and the green dog becomes a fireball. ....... It''s a shame, but when I looked at the green dog, I saw a fireball that was a little smaller than I had imagined. "Whoa! I was so startled by the sudden appearance of the fireball in front of me that I almost fell out of the tree. The fireball has disappeared. I wonder if it''s the image that counts. I climbed up the tree again and re-evaluated myself, and found that I had added fire magic to my skills. I wonder if I can attack with it. "Grrrrrrr! The green dog seems to have been alerted. It would be easier if he ran away, but there was no sign of that. This time, I made a fireball and imagined it flying toward the green dog. Then, a red fireball about 30cm in diameter appeared in front of me and flew towards the stray dog at a considerable speed. The speed is about 40 km/h. The green dog tried to avoid it, but the fireball seemed to hit him in his left leg. The flames from his left foot hit his body, and the green dog became a fireball. This is not Green Dog, but Red Dog. While he was thinking about nothing, the struggling green dog stopped moving. £ÜTetera! I heard a sound I''ve heard somewhere before. I looked around, but of course I couldn''t find anything that could be the source of such an electronic sound. Besides, I felt as if the sound was coming directly into my head. I wondered what it might be, so I checked the status again. Name: Suzumiya Kaede Age / Race / s*x : 20 / Human / Male Level: 2 HP:51/81 MP:508/1512 STR: 20 INT:48 AGI:27 DEX:39 Skills: Information Manipulation Analysis (Concealment), Complete Mastery of Otherworldly Languages (Concealment), Magical Qualities (Concealment), Martial Arts Qualities (Concealment), Otherworldly (Concealment), All Attribute Affinity (Concealment), Fire Magic 1 Your level seems to be increasing. I just noticed that fire magic has a number 1 next to it. The other skills don''t have it. I''m going to try to figure out what the difference is. Fire Magic Level 1 You can use fire magic. Magic efficiency increases as level increases and INT increases. What is magic efficiency? I try to pay attention to the magic efficiency part and try to appraise it, but I cannot. I wonder if the text of the explanation is out of scope. From the sense of the word, it seems to be the size of magic relative to MP consumption. Hmm, MP? I look at the status again. MP is still 508. But it was 508 before the fire spell. Isn''t it depleted? It may have been reduced by a decimal point, but I haven''t appraised the MP before using the spell, so I can''t compare it. Maybe I should appraise my MP and then try to cast a spell. While I''m thinking about this, I hear a crackling sound. I look over and see that the area where the Green Wolf died is on fire! Has the fire spread? Fortunately, it doesn''t seem to have spread much, but it seems to have some firepower. Water! Water! "Aguameti! In my haste, I chant something strange, but it has no effect. In my haste, I seem to have lost sight of the importance of imagery. Calmly imagine water coming out of a fire hose. After a slight sensation of something being pulled out of your body, the water spurts out and the fire is extinguished. Looking at your status, you see that you now have Water Magic 1. MP is 507. I can imagine that I was consuming MP to the nearest whole number. In this display, the decimal point is truncated, so it actually consumes MP after the decimal point. That seems to be the case. But it''s fuel efficient. When I sprayed water, it splashed on me, but it felt very real. There is a high possibility that this is not a dream, but another world. I don''t know how I came to this world, and I don''t know how to get back. But I was surprisingly calm. When I think about it, my days on Earth are just boring classes and going home to play net games. My parents died in a car accident two years ago, and I have no siblings. I have no desire to stay on Earth. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. ...... I hope I''m not dreaming. I hope I''m not dreaming. The green dog is already dead, so we start moving. I''ve heard that the green dog is blackened and doesn''t have the convenience of automatically becoming an item like in the game. I store the corpse in the item box in case it might be useful. I let go of my hand a little and tried to think, but to no avail. You have to be touching it to store it. If not, it can be used for theft or whatever. Even though it was a dog with six legs, I didn''t feel particularly guilty about killing the creature. Was it the experience of killing each other in FPS? Well, it''s much better than being stuck in guilt. It was getting dark, and I was thinking that I would have to find a path or something, or else I would have to stay in the wild, and as I walked through the same broad-leaved forest, I heard a sound different from that of the trees in the forest. You put your hands over your ears and focus your attention. "Aaahhhh! A scream? I don''t know what''s going on, and I don''t think the situation is peaceful, but I''m sure there are people there. I''ll go check it out. 3 Episode 2 Merchants and rock spears We approached the place where the scream could have been heard until we could see it. After a little bit of running, the forest breaks up and there is a grassland-like area, with a road about 5 meters away from the forest, and a wagon parked about 15 meters away from here, with a green dog nearby. The scream might have come from there. The scream seems to have come from a person who was attacked by a green wolf. There were three of them, but one of them seemed to be injured. A man with red hair is holding his left arm, and a large sword is lying beside him. I wonder if the scream came from this man. There is another smaller man with a sword (his hair is green. ) is fighting against a green dog, but there are three green dogs left, and the situation doesn''t look good. As far as I can see from here, there are about four dead green dogs, but this includes the ones from when there were two of them, so it must be tough for one person to fight three of them. Behind him, a fat man who looks like a merchant is holding a sword, but he is trying to hide in what looks like a wagon behind the smaller man. The horse seems to be safe. I''d try to help him, but the only magic I can use right now is that fireball. If I''m not careful, I''ll get people in trouble. I''m going to have to do this on the spur of the moment, but I''ll see if I can''t use some kind of ice magic. If it''s an ice spear, there''s no need to worry about collateral damage. I imagine something like an ice spear, but it doesn''t produce ice and it doesn''t consume MP. What''s wrong with that? Since ice was impossible, I tried to imagine a rock spear. I feel a slight MP consumption, and a rock spear is generated. It''s called a spear, but it''s actually just a pencil with a length of 20cm and a diameter of 5cm. If you imagine it flying towards the green dog, it will fly towards the green dog who was about to jump on the small man and hit him. The speed seemed to be the same as that of the fireball. The stone spear, which flew in a straight line toward the dog as if it had no effect of gravity even though it was about 15 meters away, hit the green dog''s paw, but after biting into it about 3 cm, it shattered. Although the spear was shattered, the damage was not small, and the green dog tangled its legs. A small man hit him in the neck and he died. The other two dogs were also decapitated by a small man before I could fire my next spear. The man who killed the green dog looked around and waved his hand towards me, as if he had confirmed that there were no enemies. I don''t know if waving is a friendly action in other worlds, but from the look on his face, he seems friendly. As I approached the wagon-like thing, a small man spoke to me. A man who looks like a merchant also seems to have come out of the wagon. The injured man is tending to himself. He seems to be okay. "Thank you for your help. By the way, you look like you''re from the forest, but you''re not equipped as an adventurer. Why did you come out of that place? "I found myself in the woods. I don''t remember much and I don''t know why I was in the forest. I don''t know why I was in the forest. I decided to cover it up with amnesia for now. If I pretend to have a partial memory, it will be less likely that I will be blown up. I don''t know if I was attacked by a demon or something. I''m not sure if you''ve been attacked by a demon or not, but your clothes are clean and you don''t seem to be hurt. ....... In any case, you saved my life. I''d like to return the favor, so wait a moment. ¡¡Hey, Karak! The merchant-looking man seemed to be named Karak. After a short conversation with the small man, he speaks to me. You saved me, I thank you. My name is Karak, and as you can see, I''m a merchant. You say you have amnesia, but I might be able to help you. Do you have any identification or money? The item box was empty (it now contained three leaves, including one that had been torn off, and a charred green dog. The item box was empty (it now contained three leaves, including one torn off, and a charred green dog) and there was no ID or money in the pockets. No, he doesn''t seem to have any. My name is Kaede. My name is Kaede. It seems that Mr. Karaku doesn''t have a last name. Perhaps surnames are reserved for special people. I don''t want to get into trouble, so I''ll just use my first name. Is that so? I don''t know why you''re doing this, but without money or ID, you can''t even enter the town. In return, I''ll give you a deposit, lodging, and guild registration. I can''t give you more than that because my life depends on it, but I''ll let you know if there''s anything you don''t understand. I''ll let you know if I have any questions. With that, Karak-san handed me five silver coins. "Excuse me. Are these silver coins from ......? "Hmm? You don''t even remember money? Yes, it''s a silver coin. If you don''t understand, I can explain it to you, but you''ll have to wait until we leave. If you don''t understand, I can explain it to you, but you''ll have to wait until we leave. I put the silver coin in my pocket for now. The first aid seems to be over, and the carriage begins to move with the small man who has finished collecting the dead green dog as its leader. I sit down on the luggage box, but the vibration is so strong that my buttocks start to hurt. Let''s start with the explanation. First, let''s talk about gold. This is silver. ...... According to Karaku''s story, the value of money is as follows. 1000 iron coins = 100 copper coins = 1 silver coin 100 silver coins = 10 gold coins = 1 large gold coin One iron coin is worth one tell, and based on the price of the lodgings I''ve heard about, I''d say that one tell is worth about 10 yen. It is amazing that the most expensive coin is one million yen, but if all the coins are coins, it must be a large amount. As I later found out, there are also platinum coins equivalent to 100 large gold coins, which Karak did not have. They are mainly used for merchants and large national transactions. Well, I guess I''m not related to that. But this carriage is loaded with a lot of stuff. If item boxes were widely used, there would be no need to use a wagon to carry them. It occurred to me to appraise Mr. Karak. Name: Karak Age / Race / s*x : 35 / Human / Male Level: 7 HP:32/32 MP:11/11 STR:9 INT:11 AGI:10 DEX:8 Skills : Life Magic Low . No, I''m too high? The only skill I have is life magic. I don''t know what life magic is, but I guess it''s useful for daily life. I asked about life spells, and it seems that they produce flames that can be used to start a fire, or produce water that can be used as a bidet in a toilet. MP consumption is about 0.1 per spell. The average status of an adult male is about 10. That means I''m pretty high. However, I can''t find any reason why I can''t use the item box. I''m going to appraise the smaller adventurer to see how high he is. Name : Mors Age / Race / s*x : 22 / Human / Male Level: 14 HP:114/114 MP:21/21 STR:22 INT:18 AGI:33 DEX:19 Skills: Life Magic, Swordsmanship 1 STR is not that different from mine and AGI is higher than mine . The others are also higher than Karak''s. If strength and speed are simply proportional to status, then Mr. Mors has almost twice the strength of Mr. Karak. So this is the difference in levels. Considering my last level up, it seems that my status will be much higher than this by the time I reach level 14, so maybe my status and skills are still high. At any rate, I''m relieved to know that my status is not abnormal if I ignore my level. I think I can make it as an adventurer. It would be nice to have a high status and be able to dominate, but it would make me look bad. In the end, I don''t know why item boxes are not used, so I''ll ask. "Why don''t you use an item box to carry goods? "That''s a skill you can only use if you have magical qualities. All the wizards with magical qualities are high rank adventurers or soldiers, so it''s expensive to hire them. The amount of items you can carry isn''t that large, so it''s only used for transporting high quality foodstuffs for nobles. The items in the item box don''t last long, so noblemen and wealthy merchants may use the item box for food storage, but it''s not something that ordinary merchants would use. It''s not something a normal merchant would use. Apparently, the item box is a skill that can only be used if you have a magical background. It seems that the item box is a skill that can only be used if you have a magical aptitude. The martial arts skill is probably similar. If this is the case, there''s no need to hide it, so I''ll leave the magic and martial arts qualities uncovered. After that, I listened to Karak''s explanation of the world, and we arrived at a town. There was a wall about two meters high, and a gate in front of the road with a guard sitting there. They did not seem to be very diligent. Let me see your ID. When you stand in front of the gate, you are asked to do so. When you tell the guard that you have no ID, he asks you to pay a silver coin as a deposit and touch the white board. When you touch the white board, a part of your status will be displayed. Name : Suzumiya Kaede Age / Race / s*x : 20 / Human / Male Level : 2 Punishment: None Skills: magical qualities, martial arts qualities, fire magic, earth magic, water magic Apparently, it''s a degraded version of Appraisal . Noticing that his last name is displayed, he hurriedly hides his last name. It worked. "Eh, ......, no problem. Welcome to Ayn. Welcome to Ayn. A guard looked at it, handed me a thin metal temporary ID with my name and the name of the town on it, and let me pass with a forced smile. The town seems to be called Eyn. Apparently, they didn''t see my last name. Mr. Karak and the others showed their IDs and went inside. The injured man seems to be okay. I wonder if there''s some kind of potion that would be useful for them. So this is goodbye. If you need anything else, come to the Karak Shop. If you need anything else, come to the Karak Shop. There''s an Adventurer''s Guild down the street, where you can register as an adventurer, bring your guild card and temporary ID, and you''ll get your silver back. You''ll get your silver back. With that, Mr. Karak left. We''re going to the Adventurer''s Guild, would you like to follow us? Mr. Mors invites me. To be honest, I don''t know anything about etiquette, so I''m grateful. "Yes. Yes, please. Please. With that, I start walking down the path to the guild. It''s already getting dark. The scenery of the city looks like Europe, but there are no lights, and the streets alone look like medieval Europe. There are not so many people, but there are not no people either. You can see a few people walking around. Some of them seem to have animal ears or tails. Beastmen existed in the MMO I played, so I guess it''s natural for them to exist in a fantasy world. The clothes of the people are mainly the kind of clothes you''ve seen in RPGs. However, the clothes are not too shabby. Sometimes there are adventurer-like people wearing armor and carrying swords on their hips. I said it was a medieval European style town, but there didn''t seem to be any shit on the streets. I was relieved. There were many buildings that looked like private stores, but many of them were closed, probably because it was late. Even those that are open are sometimes preparing to close. The tavern-like stores seemed to be open, but I wondered if the adventurer''s guild was okay. I wondered if the Adventurer''s Guild was safe, but I guessed that Mr. Mors, an adventurer, must have forgotten that the Guild was closed. Mr. Mors suddenly remembers. You''re a wizard, aren''t you? You don''t seem to have a wand. Do you need a wand to do magic? I seem to have the makings of a magician. I''ve been able to cast spells without a wand. Is this because of my nature? It''s not that you can''t cast spells without a wand. But it''s not very practical because you don''t get any speed when you cast a spell. The magic quality is a great skill, but it''s not that effective. Maybe you''ve always been a fast spellcaster. The explanation is as follows. The power of the spell depends on the INT, the level of the spell and the MP consumption. The power of magic depends on your INT, spell level and MP consumption. The reason why you use a wand is that flying a spell without a wand is powerful, but not fast. A spell that flies slowly will be easily avoided. There seems to be a difference in the speed of spells cast with and without a wand. It is said that there are few people who can cast spells at a practical speed without a wand. Therefore, wizards who mainly use healing spells that do not fly may not use a wand, but wizards who fight basically use a wand. The longer the wand, the faster it is, but the more difficult it is to maneuver, so the right length varies from person to person. The mainstream wands are usually 60cm to 1m20cm in length, but some special wands are said to be over 3m in length. Also, it is said that the speed and power of spells such as the ones mentioned above, which send rocks flying, are not related. It''s a fantasy. Maybe that''s why the rock spear shattered when I hit the green dog with it. While I was thinking about this, I arrived in front of the guild. The whole building looks solid and sturdy. The guild is a two-story square building, probably made of bricks, with a triangular roof made of red tiles. There is a double wooden door on a stone step with a sturdy, undecorated metal handle. Above the door is the name "Adventurer''s Guild" written in large letters, with a symbol on either side of the words that looks like a sword crossed on a round shield. The words "Adventurer''s Guild" were written in a script I had never seen before, but somehow I understood what it meant. Perhaps it was because of my complete mastery of otherworldly languages. I thought I was conversing naturally in Japanese, but perhaps I was unconsciously speaking another world language. Then, we''re going back to the inn up ahead. With that, Mors and the others left for the inn. They didn''t seem to escort us into the guild. Well, let''s go into the guild. 4 Episode 3 Guilds and Inns Open the wooden door and enter the guild. The inside of the guild is as simple and sturdy as it looks from the outside, with a wooden counter in front of the entrance that is divided into four compartments like a bank counter. The first counter on the right is larger than the others, about 3 meters wide, and is labeled as a purchase counter. The three counters on the left are not marked with anything, but they are probably doing anything other than purchasing. Of the three compartments, the one on the left is empty, and the other two tables are occupied by women dressed in guild uniforms. Her age is around 20 years old. The woman on the left has blond hair and blue eyes, while the woman on the right is brownish-black, but also has blue eyes. The woman on the right has dark brown hair but also has blue eyes. Both of them are quite beautiful, so it''s a pleasure to look at them, and it''s nice to know that there doesn''t seem to be a lack of dark-haired people. There is a possibility that dark eyes are rare, though. The guild uniform (?) is designed in blue. The guild uniform (?) is a blue-based design with a white collar. It''s long-sleeved and generally not revealing, but it''s more neat than plain. From the right wall to the door you just entered, there are hooks all over the wall. The walls are color-coded, and each color is labeled with a rank: G, F, E, D, C, B, A, S. G is probably the lowest rank. G is probably the lowest. On some of the hooks, a small whiteboard-like board about 20 cm long and 30 cm wide is hung, on which the rank, request, remuneration, and remarks are written. The writing is not as detailed as ballpoint pen writing on paper, but it can be written in some detail. For example, it looks like this. Rank: G Request: Collect Zunana grass. Reward: 30 Tel per plant. Quantity: As many as you have. Remarks: No need to accept. The request will be fulfilled on the spot when you bring in the Zunana grass. Collect plants of 15cm or more in length from the root. If the length is more than 10cm but less than 15cm, the price is 10tels per plant. If the length is less than that, it cannot be purchased. Also, it is sometimes confused with the similar poisonous plant Dokuzunana, but please note that the stem of Dokuzunana is square and that of Zunana plant is round. Is the term "cm" also used in this world? Or is it a result of my skill in translating it so that I can understand it easily? Either way, I don''t mind. I wonder if Zunana grass is not translated, or if proper nouns are not translated. But the characters that come to mind are in katakana, and the characters written in katakana are not. If the grass is not in the original world, the translation may be half-hearted like this. In my case, the only way to identify it as Dokuzunana is to appraise it. This is if I accept the request. It seems that there are a lot of requests from G rank to E rank, but from there, the number of requests decreases as the rank increases, and there are none from B rank and above. If you look at the few C ranks, you''ll see that they''re all about Orc hordes and Gargons. I guess there is no need for B-rank or A-rank. I don''t know what Gargon is, but if Orcs are the highest rank in this town, I''m relieved to know that it''s not a world where you''re likely to be eaten by a dragon if you go outside the town. That is, of course, if my image of a pig-faced, demented-looking fat giant is correct. I took my eyes off the request board and looked to my left to see a tavern. Round tables are lined up, and around one table there are four cheap wooden chairs. There is a counter on the far left, where a bearded man with the look of a bar owner is standing. I guess he buys drinks and food there. There were a few customers, and about five groups of two to four adventurers'' parties were drinking and talking. Many of them did not seem to be of good character. The ratio of men to women is about 4:1. The armor seems to be mainly leather armor. Weapons are hidden by the tables, and the only visible weapon is a rude large sword carried by a large man. I couldn''t find any stairs to the second floor, but I wonder if there are stairs in the staff section. I couldn''t help observing, but it would be annoying to stand at the entrance too much. At any rate, I''ll go to the window directly in front of the building. The receptionist is the blonde one. As I approach her, I think about how I should talk to her. If I just tell her what I want, the damage will be small even if I''m wrong. "Excuse me. I''d like to register. "Yes, registration. The registration fee will be three silver coins, is that okay? Yes, please. Yes, please. You take three silver coins out of your pocket and place them on the counter. I have one more silver coin left in my pocket. "Now touch this. Touch this. After putting the silver coins under the table, the receptionist presented me with a box made of iron or something much larger than the one I had touched at the gate when I entered the city. When you touch it, the top of the box will display the same status as the one displayed at the gate. Name : Kaede Age / Race / s*x : 20 / Human / Male Level : 2 Prize/Punishment : None Skills : magic qualities, martial arts qualities, fire magic, earth magic, water magic Isn''t it common for magic to display STR, HP, and other statuses? The receptionist looked at me as if she was surprised, but she quickly came to her senses and placed a silver metal plate on top of the box that looked like a guild card, about the size of a large business card. The metal plate then glows a pale blue for a moment, and letters appear on the metal plate. ------------------------------------ maple/man/man Rank: G Award Punishment: None Requisition completion history:. Defeat history:. ------------------------------------ The guild card seems to contain only the bare minimum of information. The request completion history, kill history, etc. are blank. Killing green dogs before is not counted. I wonder if the history of kills will be written automatically. I''ll tell you about the guild then. "Yes. Yes, please. Yes, please. He''s going to explain it to me. "I don''t have to tell you, do I? I was wondering what I would do if he said. "As you can see, this is the guild card. I''ll start at the top. I''ll start at the top. "The first row has your name, race, and gender. The second row is your rank. G is the lowest rank, then F, E, D, and so on up to A. The highest rank is S. However, there are currently no S-rank adventurers. However, there are currently no S-rank adventurers, so the current highest rank is A. Rank advancement will be determined by the guild based on the completion of requests, demon slaying history, and other factors, but there will be an exam for D and higher ranks. You may also be demoted if you do not complete enough requests. The third level of reward and punishment is "bandit" when you do something wrong. If you do something wrong, even if it is not related to stealing, such as murder, you will be marked as a "bandit". Killing a bandit does not make you a bandit, and neither does dueling a bandit who dies as a result of a mutually agreed upon duel. There''s a duel? ....... I''m a guy too. If there is a culture that says it is shameful not to accept a duel that has been sold to you, then run away gracefully! If you challenge someone to a duel, you must have a chance of winning. I don''t want to fight a duel with such a person. The fourth and seventh levels are automatically added when you complete a request or kill a demon. If you kill a bandit, it will also be written in your kill history. The guild card only allows you to see the last three achievements, but the guild also allows you to see more achievements. Theft Are bandits considered demons? ....... If the guild is the only one that can check more than three, then I''ll have to remember how many I''ve killed when requesting four or more. I guess you could just throw the corpse into the item box and see how many you get. Lastly, guild cards cannot be forged, so there is no way for someone to impersonate you. Lastly, it''s impossible to forge guild cards, so you can''t be impersonated. If you try to forge a guild card, even if it''s an attempt, you will be charged with death. Guild card Scary! Is forging a guild card that serious a crime? That''s all I have to say about the guild card. Next, I''ll explain the request. Over there is a request. The receptionist points to a wall with what looks like a whiteboard on the right. If you want to accept a request other than the ones marked "No need to accept" in the remarks section, bring the request board over there with your guild card and accept it. However, you can only receive requests up to your current rank, and you can only receive three requests at a time if you are G rank, but you can receive up to five requests if you are E rank or higher. Please note that if you fail to complete a request during the request period, you will be charged double the amount of the reward as a penalty. However, if there is a natural disaster or other force majeure, this will be taken into account. This is a measure to prevent adventurers from accepting unreasonable requests. Please follow the instructions on the request board for requests that are marked as "no need to accept". For example, you can show your guild card''s history of defeats for defeat requests, or bring the actual item for collection requests. Even if you have already received three requests, you can still complete the request marked "No need to receive". The white board That whiteboard-like thing is called a request board. It''s a good idea to keep an eye on the date the request was made, as it will show the date and whether or not it has been paid off. You can''t get paid if you bring the history before the date of the request. Please note that you will only be reimbursed for requests that were made within 30 days of the day they were made. In addition, once you have used the history to clear a request, it will be marked as cleared, so you cannot complete more than one request at a time. If there is a request to kill one fish and a request to kill two fish, it is possible to kill three fish to complete both requests. You can also buy medicinal herbs, demon materials, and other items not related to the request at the counter. You can also bring the corpse as it is, but it will take a lot of baggage, so it is recommended that you check the parts that can be sold beforehand and bring only those parts. You may have magical qualities, but there is a limit to the capacity of your item box. If you have any other questions about individual requests, please feel free to ask. Do you have any questions? No, sir. No, not really. There seems to be a very convenient system. I wonder if the reason why requests are written on the request board instead of on paper is because paper is not widely used. My item box seems to have a capacity of 1012, so it won''t fill up too much. I''d hate it if there was a weight limit. "Then you are now a guild member. As a guild member, I expect you to act with awareness. Would you like to accept a request? I don''t recommend it at night since visibility is poor and you''re vulnerable to surprise attacks. "It''s already dark today. I''ll leave it for tomorrow. Yes, I understand. That''s a wise decision. I leave the guild and head for the gate. The sun has already set. There are no more stores preparing to close, and the only stores open are those that look like bars. The streets are almost empty. I reached the gate. I''ve been given a temporary ID, and I''ve registered as an adventurer. "Oh, touch this. Touch this. I touch the same white board I came in with, and the gatekeeper checks it, takes my temporary ID, and hands me a silver coin. I put it in my pocket, thanked the gatekeeper, and asked him where I should stay today. Thank you very much. By the way, do you have any recommendations for a cheap place to stay? "If you go straight to the left at the corner there, you will find "Haneyasume Tei". It''s popular among adventurers. It''s cheap, but the food is good and it''s safe. "Thank you, I''ll try it. I turn left at the corner where the guard told me to go. The alley looks like a residential area. It doesn''t seem to have as many stores as the street to the guild. Go straight for about 30 meters, and you will see a two-story wooden building with a sign that says "Haneyasume Tei. It''s not a new building, but it''s not rundown either. It looks like an ordinary inn. It may be cheap because it is not in a good location. Thinking about this, I open the door of the inn and go inside. The inside of the inn looks like a normal inn like you see in RPGs. Next to it is a building that I''m not sure if it''s a bar or a restaurant. "Welcome! Welcome. I was greeted by a girl who looked to be about 12 or 3 years old. The girl who greeted me went into the back of the store, and soon a well-dressed woman came out. 5 Episode 4 Bell and Iiya Welcome. It''s 600 yen a night. 600 per night. Okay. Here you go. Here you go. Give her a silver coin. The woman takes the silver coin, counts out 40 copper coins from her pocket, and hands them to me with the key. The copper coins are about the size of a five-yen coin, with no holes in them. The coin is about the size of a 5 yen coin, with no holes in it. The word "10" and some sort of coat of arms are engraved on it. The crest looks like a downward-pointing sword and an upward-pointing spear crossed diagonally. It looks like the school emblem of Kaiko High School with a spear instead of a pen, but the sword is a straight sword as often seen in RPGs. The silver coin was about the size of a 500 yen coin, and had a similar coat of arms engraved on it, so it might be the coat of arms of this country or something. Here''s the key. Here''s the key. It''s the first room on the second floor. You can eat twice a day at the restaurant next door if you show your key. You can eat twice a day at the restaurant next door if you show them your key. Up to sixty terps a meal is free, but anything over that will cost you extra. Be careful. The lady pointed to the stairs. Partnering with a bakery may indeed be an efficient way to get a discount. It''s also nice that there are no fixed hours. The key appears to be just a wooden stick with letters written on it. I wonder if it is some kind of card key. I''m tired today. I feel like I''ve moved a lot, but I don''t feel physically tired. It is possible that I just don''t realize it. But mental fatigue is different. Too many things have happened today. Wanting to sleep quickly, I walked up the stairs and entered my room. The room was about four and a half tatami mats in size, and there was a bolt on the door, so I took it down. It seems that the door is bolted when the key is inserted from outside. The position of the key and the position of the bolt are not in contact, but I wonder if it is safe. I felt a firm hand when I unlocked the door, so perhaps there is some kind of useful magic tool in widespread use. It doesn''t look very strong, but if there''s a loud noise, the shopkeepers will notice, so there''s no need to use the key alone for security. There is a possibility that a material that is very strong and cannot be broken easily is used, but if there is such a material, it would be used for weapons, and I don''t think the bolt is strong. To begin with, the bolts are brass-like in color, but the weapons are silver. It''s hard to imagine that a cheap inn key is made of better material than a weapon that can kill you. Well, just in case, I''ll always carry my stuff with me. I have an item box anyway, so I won''t be bothered if I have more stuff. Yes, the item box. I''ve been avoiding using it because of the possibility of consuming MP, but it''s okay here. Check your MP in the status bar, and think "item box", and the item window will appear. On the screen is a leaf (Pole Leaf), a picture of a green dog, and silver and copper coins. The green dog in the storage was blackened, but in the photo it seems to be alive and well. "It''s as if he''s alive. I checked his status, but his MP is not decreasing. I wonder if MP is consumed only on the first use. The display in the upper right corner is still 4/1012. Unfortunately, the number of slots in the item box does not seem to increase even if the maximum MP increases. Now you can use the item box easily. There was a spherical light with a button. When I pressed the button, the light went out. I forgot to eat and fell asleep. The bed was not bad, but not good either. The bed was not bad, but not good either. The next morning, I woke up to the sound of bells. It was good to hear the bells, but I couldn''t tell what time they were ringing. From the way the sun went down yesterday, it seems to me that a day is about 24 hours long, but I don''t know how much difference there is. It may be just 24 hours. Well, I don''t have a clock now, and I haven''t seen one since I came to this world. There is no way to measure the time. In the first place, what is a minute? I''ve heard something about cesium, but of course you can''t measure time with that. Hmm? I think I''ve read something about a minute in the MP section. Let''s check the MP. MP 1512.00/1512.00 Description: Amount of magic power. It is consumed when using magic and some skills. The average magic power of the human race in this world is 10. The left side shows the current amount of magic power, and the right side shows the maximum amount of magic power. 0.1% of the maximum amount of magic power is recovered every minute from the point when the magic power falls below the maximum value. The decimal point is rounded down. It is fully recovered. After using the item box yesterday, my MP was about 500, and it didn''t recover even though my level went up. According to my calculations, it has been more than 11 hours since I used the item box yesterday. I put on my shoes and went downstairs to find an old lady cleaning the room. I put the key in the lock and turned it to the left, and felt something solid, and pulled the door, but it didn''t open. I guess it''s locked. I don''t really need to lock the door since I don''t have any luggage and the money is in the item box, but it''s a habit. Good morning. I greet him. Greetings are important. Good morning. If you want to eat, the restaurant next door is already open. The old lady returns my greeting. I was curious about the time of the bell, so I asked her. "I heard the bell. What time is it? What time is it? What time is it?" "Uh, ......, 6 o''clock, I think it''s called." Only bureaucrats use the term "what time". The bell rings once every four hours of the day, when the sun is at its highest point and around the quarter hour. Where the hell did you come from that you don''t know this? Ah-ha-ha. .... Hahaha I try to smile and cover it up. If the bell rings only three times a day, it means that normal people are not very strict about time. "Well, don''t worry, we won''t pry, as long as we know you''re not a bandit and you pay us. I''ll be fine. Did I fake it? For now, I''ll pretend that I did. I went to bed without eating last night, so I''m hungry. Let''s go eat for now. You can''t fight a war if you''re hungry. Well, the request I''m going to take today is not for fighting but for gathering herbs. I leave the inn and enter the restaurant next door. There were only about three adventurers in the room. Come on in! Even though it''s early in the morning, the owner is very excited. He also looks like an old man in a tavern. He is wearing a white cloth that looks like a towel on his head. I wonder if it is a twisted headband. The man I saw yesterday who looked like the owner of a guild tavern had a similar appearance. I wonder if all the restaurants in this world look like this. "That''s a key! You''re a guest at the inn! Which one do you want? I don''t know if I should be talking to you in such high spirits. ....... I''ve just woken up and the volume is too loud. I''m getting a headache. "Uh, do you have a menu or something? This is it! Choose well! They''re all good, though. You seem very confident. I don''t care about the tension anymore. I''ve decided to accept that he''s like that. I''ve given up. At any rate, I decided to order the "Green Wolf Set Meal". The reason was that it was just 60 ter and I was curious about what it would taste like. It had attacked me, and it seemed to be an omnivore, but I was curious if it would taste good in this world. I don''t think there will be anything inedible in this world. "Hey, there! The food came out in about five minutes. In about five minutes, the food came out. It consisted of grilled meat with sauce and dark bread. The cooking was pretty good, but I''m not sure about the taste. "...... is good. Good. Surprisingly, it was so good that I couldn''t help saying it. It looked like a dog, but tasted like a slightly lighter version of pork. The bread was soggy and not so good on its own, but it went well with the meat. I don''t know which part of the meal was the set meal, but it was a wonderful meal that satisfied both the taste and the quantity. I can understand why the guards recommend it. They must have a lot of confidence. Now if only the owner would be a little less excited. I was planning to go to the Adventurer''s Guild later today to get a request, but I realized that I hadn''t prepared lunch. There are probably no convenience stores in this world, and no canned food. I finished eating and asked the owner what I should do. I''m sorry. I''m an adventurer. What should I do for lunch? "I''ll make you lunch for 50 Tells! It''s bread with meat, and it''s good! If it''s going to be a long day, go to the store next to the Adventurer''s Guild and buy some hard-baked bread and dried meat! If you''re going to be here for a long time, go to the shop next to the adventurer''s guild and buy some hard-baked bread and dried meat. If you can''t use the water magic, don''t forget to bring water!" "Then I''ll have that bread with meat in it, please. Then put your hand in your pocket and take out five copper coins from the item box. This will be less conspicuous than taking them out of an empty box. You can''t do that if you''re taking out a large item, but the Adventurer''s Guild will know anyway. "Oh! Here it is! The shopkeeper brings out a loaf of bread wrapped in a large leaf, probably made beforehand. I wondered if it was a leaf with an antiseptic effect. The bread is quite large, about 40 cm long. It is too big to carry in your hands, and you don''t have anything to put it in, so you store it in the item box. I took the copper coin out of my pocket, but it was in vain. "Brother, is that an item box? That''s awesome! If you''re a magician, you don''t have to be an adventurer, you can easily get a job in the army or with a noble family! I''m sure being an adventurer is romantic, but... It seems that magic is a very rare skill after all. I thanked him, left the store, and headed for the guild. Today is my first request. I guess I''ll start with the standard herb gathering. I''ve already killed the green dog, but I''d like to get a weapon before the fight if possible. To do that, I need money, and I need to earn it first. That''s what I''m thinking about as I walk. ...... Huh? This place looks different from the place I passed yesterday. I thought I was walking in a straight line. ....... I look to my left and right. Now I seem to be standing at the intersection of narrow alleys. "Ah! I can''t help shouting. I should have been able to get back to where I came from if I had walked straight back in the direction I came from, but now I don''t know which direction I came from. It seemed that I had walked a long distance, and no matter which direction I looked, I couldn''t see any scenery that looked like the inn or its surroundings. Oh, I think I came from that way. Maybe it''s this way. Maybe it came from here. It must be. It must be. At any rate, I decided on a direction to walk based on my baseless conviction... or hunch that I''ve developed over the years, and headed straight in that direction. It''s a hunch I''ve developed in the half a day since I came to this town. Oh, that one looks like the one where the inn is. We can finally go back! Kaede happily walked in that direction, forgetting that she hadn''t turned at any intersection other than the one where she got lost on her way here from the inn. ....... A few minutes later. "Hey! It''s not this way! Kaede''s voice echoed in the quiet back alley. There was no one to answer her. 6 Episode 5: Lost Child and Blacksmith I''m lost. If there were someone, I could ask for directions, but there is no one, no sign of anyone. Well, it''s not like I can sense people or anything. However, since we are in a city, we must be inside a wall. In other words, if I go straight, I might run into a wall somewhere. And so on and so forth, and go straight down the street. You''ve come to a dead end. A T-junction. It''s not a city wall, but an abandoned building. Somehow we''ve ended up in a place that feels like an abandoned slum. To be honest, I don''t want to stay long. But if I turn back, I''ll just keep getting lost again, so I turn right to see if I can find a way to go in the direction I just walked. After a few minutes of walking, you find what looks like a store. The only sign on the door says "Kurosmith". Thinking that if there is someone there, he might be able to ask for directions, he opens the door and tries to go in. Who are you here through? I jumped up when I was suddenly approached by a voice. You look down and see a short man with a long beard and a sturdy physique looking at you. I wonder if he is a dwarf. No. No, I wasn''t referred to you, I got lost. ....... No. I answer honestly. If I lied, I''d be found out soon enough. "Hmm. I don''t know why you wandered into this place, but it''s an arms store. If you''re not interested in weapons, get the hell out. "Hmm. Don''t be nice to me. And if you knew how to get home, you wouldn''t have any trouble. No, I''m an adventurer and I''m in the market for a weapon. Can I take a look? I don''t mind, but how much money do you have? Thirteen hundred and fifty. That''s not enough to buy a knife. From the way you move, I''d say you''ve got a talent for martial arts. It seems weapons are not cheap. I think the knives on the earth did not cost more than 13,500 yen if they were not expensive, but mining and industry must be underdeveloped. Is it possible to detect martial arts talent by movement? I''m glad he didn''t cover it up. I had amnesia and found myself penniless in the woods. I managed to get enough money for lodging and guild registration, so I thought I''d work as an adventurer. "I see. You''ll be strong enough, if you don''t die. With your size, you should have a one-handed sword and a shield. I''ll make you a one-handed sword for 10,000 and a shield for 5,000. Come back when you have more money and want better gear. Come back when you have more money and want better gear. I look at the weapons around me. There''s definitely an atmosphere of good equipment, or a sense of style. And don''t tell anyone about this store without permission. I''m not going to sell my equipment to someone who can''t use it properly. If you didn''t have any talent in martial arts, I would have forced you out from the beginning. Normally, the guild would introduce you if they recognized your skills. You were the first one to tell me to leave. ....... Anyway, I got to know a good weapon shop. I guess it''s a hidden gem. It''s an unexpected good fortune. All right. I''ll come back when I have enough money. "Oh. Go get yourself some money. Don''t die. I wondered if this was a kind gesture from the dwarf. I opened the door and walked out, feeling refreshed. Then I open the door again and come back inside. "Excuse me, which way to the guild? I was screwed. Ten minutes later, I''m in front of the guild. The blacksmith shop and the guild were closer than I thought, but it was hard to find. I wouldn''t have known if I hadn''t asked the dwarf for directions. Oh, by the way, I forgot to ask the dwarf''s name, and I didn''t have time to appraise him. Well, I remembered the location of the store, so if I ever go there again, I can ask him. Anyway, I arrived at the guild, though I took a detour. Probably not more than an hour had passed since I left the restaurant. I entered the guild and looked at the G-rank requests. There are no requests for killing in the G rank. In addition to yesterday''s request to collect medicinal herbs, there are other requests such as tilling the soil in the field, carrying luggage, and carrying lumber. I don''t feel like a G-rank adventurer, and I don''t have much confidence in my strength, so I decide to take the request for gathering herbs. You don''t have to accept the request, but you have to ask what kind of herb Zunana grass is. The blonde receptionist from yesterday is there, so I talk to her. It''s not so much that I know her, but it''s better than never having spoken to her at all. As I approached him, he smiled at me from the other side. "Hello, Kaede. What can I do for you today? She seemed to remember my name. Perhaps a guild receptionist should be able to remember the names and faces of everyone who comes in. "Hello, um, ....... "Hi, I''m Saris. Please call me Sally. Hello, Sally. I wanted to know what zunana grass was. When I called her name, I thought I felt a slight chill in my back, but I didn''t care. I guess I just came to another world and my body is not used to it. "Yes, it''s zunana grass. It''s a grass that grows in the forest, and it''s scattered one by one. It has a distinctive leaf shape, with one small leaf shaped like this attached to each small branch growing from the stem. This town has a forest on the side I came from and a grassland on the other side. I''ve never been to the meadow side. It''s a versatile herb that can stop bleeding if it''s roasted and boiled down, or it can be mixed with other medicinal ingredients to make it more effective, but it doesn''t grow in clusters, and for some reason it only grows in forests where there are demons. In addition, the adventurers who enter the forest are better off hunting demons, so there is not much supply of them, and we need as many as we can get. The supply is small, and we need as many as we can get. It''s a constant request. He then shows me a picture of a wooden stick with a small blue marble on the end. It looks like a heart. It looks like a heart. I wonder if it''s a pentagram or something. However, being an adventurer is a job that even a normal person like me can easily get. It would be nice if there were adventurers with a sense of safety who live by collecting zunana plants. I can live without fighting demons just by gathering zunana grass. Isn''t there anyone who does that? It''s hard for adventurers to live on zunana grass alone because it''s scattered all over the place and 90% of what looks like zunana grass is docu-zunana, so it''s hard to collect enough of it. In addition, if you go into the forest for a day or two, you may encounter demons, and if you can deal with that, hunting demons is a better way to earn money. Even if you don''t die, if you get injured, you''ll spend a good amount of money on potions, and you''ll end up in the red. For adventurers of that rank, the income is more stable and they are less likely to get hurt. That''s why Zunana grass is not very popular. It seems that this is the reason why Zunana grass is not popular despite the fact that it seems to be an easy job. It''s not a full-time job, but I wonder if information manipulation analysis can help. It would be useful if it could be used like sonar or radar. Thank you very much. I think I can handle it, so I''m off! "Okay. Have a good day. Have a good day. Sally sends me off with a smile. When Sally smiled at me, I felt a chill again. I hope you don''t have any problems with your health. ....... When I walked out of the guild, the chill went away. I wondered if the air in the guild wasn''t good for me. I go out of the city. There seems to be no need to show ID or disclose your status when you leave. It seems that people who have committed crimes in the city and become bandits will be allowed to escape, but since there is such an outer wall in a mere city, they will not be able to live if they cannot enter any city. I suppose I could make a band of thieves or something. But if we continue into the forest, we''ll probably get lost. I wonder if there is any good magic. I try to think of a map or a compass, but nothing works. I didn''t notice it when I came here, but when I look at the forest, I see that it slopes slightly and the town is at the top of a hill. If you go up the hill, you will be able to return home. Zunana grass seems to be scattered throughout the forest. Can''t we do something with information manipulation analysis? I try to imagine something like a radar, but without success. In the first place, I have never seen a real zunana plant, so I can''t imagine it. I''m going to look for it steadily. Perhaps it''s because we''re in a forest close to the city, but I feel that the distance between trees is much wider than when I first came to this world, but it''s still a broad-leaved forest. The undergrowth is full of green grass that I don''t understand, but there are dandelion-like plants growing in places. The fact that there are so many dandelion-like plants growing in such close proximity to the path, and yet they are not being picked means that they are probably of little use. After walking for about five minutes, I found a pentapetalous plant, so I plucked it from the root and examined it. The stem broke easily with a little effort. It was about 25 cm long and the stem was square. Poisonous plant Description: Poisonous plant. Causes diarrhea and abdominal pain if taken orally. Similar to Zunana plant, but the stems are square and can be distinguished. It is not a poisonous plant. If it were as strong as aconite, it could be used in battle, but it is useless as a laxative. Well, there''s plenty of room in the item box, so I''ll keep it for now. The inventory is at 5/1012. The description of Dokuzunana in the item box says only that it is a poisonous plant. At any rate, I know that Dokuzunana is a pentapetalous plant. The similarity between the two plants suggests that zunnanakusa is also a pentapetalous plant. I''m going to look for pentapods and pick them all. There would be no problem if I picked poisonous plants in vain. It was about an hour later, I thought. I finally found the first zunnanana plant, after having collected eight dokuzunana plants. Zunnanakusa is also a pentapod. It''s not so different from Doc''s nana except for the round stem. Anyway, now you can imagine it. Put the zunana plant in the item box and try to imagine it again. No response. It seems that it cannot be used like a radar. As you look up, you see a red triangle in the grassland, which looks like this. If you get closer and look underneath it, you will see that there is penny grass growing there. It is Zunana grass. I heard that it is not possible to imitate radar, but I wonder if you can see it if it is in your field of view. There are about three ¨‹ marks in the area visible from here. I tried to collect all of them, but they are all zunnanakusa. If you use this, you may be able to live on Zunana grass. But fighting demons is more romantic. With that in mind, I walked around in the forest and collected ¨‹ all the time. The request form said to bring something larger than 15cm, but I couldn''t find anything smaller than that. I wonder if there is a reason why they don''t collect the smaller ones, since they seem to grow even if they are overfished. I''ll ask next time. We walked around in the forest until evening, eating bread on the way, and collected about 200 zunana plants. That''s 6,000 ter, or 60,000 yen. That''s enough to live on. That is, if the number of herbs doesn''t dwindle. Even after collecting such a large amount, I could not find anything smaller than 15 cm. I wonder if Zunana grass grows from the ground in a state of 15cm or more from the beginning. If that is the case, it is no wonder that they grow as much as they can even if they are overfished. At any rate, the sun was setting, so I decided to return to the city. I didn''t get lost. 7 Episode 6 Shield and Tail I showed my ID at the gate and entered the city. Although it''s evening now, it''s not too dark yet, and the town is quite lively. It is not as densely populated as a big city like Tokyo, but it is as crowded as a small shopping street in a rural area. Most of them are normal people, but about 10% of them have ears or tails, and most of them have cat ears or dog ears. The majority of them are cat-eared or dog-eared. If you check them, you will get cat-eared or dog-eared. I don''t feel comfortable appraising people I don''t know without their permission, but I don''t have enough information about this world. The means to gather information without being suspicious is valuable, and I''ll try to appraise as many people as I can. As a result of my investigation, I found out that all the people on this path are either human, cat, dog, or rabbit. The ratio of people to cats, dogs, and rabbits is about 90:4:4:2. The average status is about 10. INT is about 7. The average of AGI and STR of the adventurer-like person was a little higher, but it was about 30, and DEX varied a lot. DEX varies from person to person. A wizard-like person had about 30 INT, but other stats did not seem to change much. HP is about 30 for most of them, but MP is only about 8 for most of them. Their levels are about 5 to 10. The HP of most of the adventurers seemed to be in triple digits, but the maximum was 183. Is it a difference in level or a difference in physique? It is possible that it is both. People with bows tend to have high DEX. Their MP is also a little high, about 20, probably due to their level. In the case of those who seem to be wizards, HP is about 60, AGI, STR, and DEX are about the same as ordinary people, but INT is close to 30. MP is about 20 to 30 like an adventurer, but is it usable? Well, he has a staff, and as long as he is a wizard, he can do something with it. If he can shoot 30 stone spears, he can be a good fighter. His skills are not that high. No one had any magic or martial arts skills, and adventurers only had one or two swordsmanship skills or one or two magic skills, while ordinary people had no skills other than life magic. It seemed that almost everyone had life magic. I don''t have it, though. And I could only find two people who had magic 2. Most of the wizards had only one attribute, and the number of those with two attributes was small, though not as small as those with level 2 magic. If I increase the number of attributes I use in the future, I''ll stand out, but it''s too late now, since people know I have magical qualities. I''m not going to hide it. While you are thinking about your skills and status, you arrive at the guild. Now comes the first report of the request. Well, it''s a request you don''t need to take. "Hello Sally. I''ve collected some zunana grass. "Yes, please put them out here. Mr. Sally will take care of it. She''s got a big smile on her face. It seems that the receptionists at the guild have a great attitude. "Here you go. She takes out about 200 sticks of zunana grass and puts them on the counter. "That''s a lot of weed. Did you bring Doc''s weed too? "No, sir. No. I''ve checked them and I think they''re all zunnanas. What? ....... Wait a minute, please. Wait a minute. Sally brought a box from the back of the room and put a bunch of zucchini into it. "......!¡¡It looks like it''s all zunnanakis, 203 of them! How did you get all that? You didn''t just buy them, did you? I''m sure you''re not the only one who''s had it. I''m not sure if you have a magic tool or not. I''m not sure what you mean by that. I have a little ability that allows me to identify Zunana grass just by looking at it from a distance. That''s amazing! You can live off of zunana grass! And what''s with the appraisal? Please calm down. The appraisal is ...... not shown in the status for some reason, maybe the herb search is something like that. "I''m sorry, I''m distraught. Anyway, here''s the settlement. Two hundred and twenty-three zunana plants will cost you sixty-nine hundred ter. He then offers me six silver coins and nine copper coins. You take them, toss them into the item box, thank him before he asks any strange questions, and walk away. Thank you, sir. That''s all. "Okay. We look forward to seeing you again. ...... Nice face, polite attitude, good property. ....... As I left the guild, I thought I heard Sally say something, but I couldn''t quite make it out. If it was something important, she would have called out loudly, so it probably wasn''t a big deal. I made 6,090 Tel in just one day. That''s a total of 7,440 Tel with what I had. You can buy a shield even if you pay for lodging. I don''t think it''s worth it to have just a shield, but it''s good to have one in your item box so you don''t have to pack it. Besides, as long as the shield blocks the attack, you can attack with magic in the meantime. You don''t need any mental concentration to use magic, and you can do it while fighting with your shield. In the meantime, go to the inn and pay for two days of accommodation. There seems to be no discount because the price is so low. I don''t remember the route I took the last time I went to the blacksmith, so I went back to the guild and went to the blacksmith. I wasn''t thinking, and I wasn''t lost. I opened the door and entered the blacksmith shop. The last time I was there, the owner was tending the store, but now he seemed to be gone. Instead, I hear a rumbling sound from the back. Excuse me! Shut up! I can hear you! Wait a minute! It seems that there is no such thing as a customer service manual in a blacksmith shop. Well, the last time was terrible. I appraised the dwarf, and found out that he has high STR, DEX, and HP. His name seems to be Dverag. Since I''m bored, I''ll observe Dverag''s smithing. He seems to be forging with a furnace, but when he''s finished, he plunges it directly into water to cool it down. It''s done. You''re here so fast, have you collected the money yet? I''ve only got enough to pay for the shield, so I thought I''d get you one. I''m a wizard, so a shield will do me some good. You''re a wizard and you use a sword and a shield? It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. It''s not common to be a magic swordsman? Well, it will come out sooner or later, so let''s be honest. Honesty is the best. I can cast spells at a practical speed without using a wand. I can also cast spells while moving around. You''re not actually a famous wizard or something, are you? It''s not something that a youngster like you can do, and I''ve never heard of anyone being able to do magic that fast without a wand. I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. I''m not sure if this is a good idea, but I think it''s a good idea. You can''t help it. I can''t remember what I was doing before, but ...... Well... I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one. It''s still subtle and gentle. And the shield. A small round shield would be good for a man of your size. Try holding it. It''s a circular shield about 50 cm in diameter. It has a fixture that attaches to your arm. You put it on and try to move your arm, but it doesn''t feel right. It''s a little heavy. How about this one? This time you are given a shield of about 45cm in diameter. It fits better than the previous one, but it feels a bit shaky. The weight is probably about right. Wait for me to adjust it to your arm. Mr. Dwellerg removes the metal fittings, gives it a good beating, and then puts it back on. You can take it off, too? I put the shield on, and this time it felt right. That''s about right. Did you bring the money? "Yes. Thank you. Now, about the sword... He says as he hands you five silver coins. Mr. Dveragh takes the silver coins and tosses them carelessly into his pocket. Hmm? What do you want? I thought a one-handed sword of this size would be good for you. Mr. Dveragh opens his hand, expressing that it''s about a meter long. No. I was just wondering if you''re going to harden it or something. "Hardening? What''s that? If it''s fire, you use it before you strike. Apparently there''s no such thing as hardening in this world. No. If you heat it up and then cool it down afterwards, the metal gets harder. What? Don''t be ridiculous. If you heat the metal after hammering, it will become softer. That''s why I don''t heat the metal after it''s struck. If you hit it badly, it often breaks in a strange way, so that''s where you should show your skill. That''s where the skill comes in. Well, it only works about one in three times. Mr. Dverag was proud. Is he taking advantage of the stiffness caused by the strain created during processing? No, I''ve already said that, but what if there really is no effect of quenching in this world? The effect of nasuna is also a bit different from that of Earth. ....... It is also possible that the carbon content is not just right. Well, I''ve already said that, and if I succeed, I''ll have a powerful weapon. Charge! "Yeah. That''s because the warping of the metal is removed when you hit it. But it can be hard depending on the temperature before it cools. Hmm. "Hmm. If you say so, let''s try the one that failed earlier, though I don''t think it will make any difference. He plunges the blade of his sword into the fire, removes it after a while, and plunges it into the water. I don''t know what temperature it is, but I''ll take it for now. Mr. Dveragh takes out the sword himself. Mr. Dveragh takes out the sword himself. The shape of the sword has changed and it is warped to the right. I don''t know what temperature it is, but I''ll take it. Mr. Dveragh flicks the sword with his fingers and changes his expression. "It''s hard! Really? This is awesome! It''s ....... Mr. Dveragh finishes his rant and throws the blade of another sword into the fire to burn it. He''s not listening to me. The second sword has also been warped. But it still seems to be hard. After a while, Mr. Dverag came to his senses. "Oh, I know that hardening makes iron hard. The distortion can be managed depending on how it''s hammered. But this is too hard and it might break. If you heat it again at a relatively low temperature for a while and then cool it down slowly, it will soften slightly. Okay. Well, if you cool it slowly, it will take a long time to find out. I''m going to study the method of quenching, so come back the day after tomorrow. If you can make a good weapon with this method, I''ll give you a sword for free. I''m closing for the day. He was thrown out of the store. I''m sure it''s a bit harsh, since I taught him how to harden swords, but I''ll accept it if he gives me a free weapon. I''ll take this as a kindness from Mr. Dveragh. I put the shield in the item box and headed home. Well, not home, but on the way to the inn. I eat next to the inn and then enter the inn. Today I ordered the Gargon set meal for an extra 10 teru. It was as good as ever. I don''t know why, but my body and clothes seem to be clean without washing. I don''t know why, but my body and clothes don''t seem to get dirty without washing. It would be nice if there was a bath. I fell asleep thinking about this. 8 Episode 7 Slaves and Herds I wake up to the sound of bells. I feel like I''ve been living a very healthy life since I came to this world. I wake up at 6 a.m. and go to bed a little after dark, like an old man. The blacksmith has told me to come back tomorrow, so I''m going to look for herbs again today. I only have enough money to pay for two days of lodging, and it''s not enough to feel safe. But first, I need to eat. I go to the same restaurant as yesterday and show them the key. Come on in! The tension is as high as ever: ....... I wish I happened to be having a high tension day. ....... Well, thanks to you, I''m awake. It''s even better at waking me up than Messhakis! The menu is presented to me forcefully, as if it remembers what I did yesterday. "Which one is it today? "Which one today? But the food is good. But the food is good, so I''ll take that as compensation. "Orc set meal, please. I say while holding out two copper coins. The Orc set meal is 80 ter. As usual, the naming sense is very simple. Well, it''s better than trying to be fancy and not knowing what''s written on it. Even if you say "mireligue alla panna con i broccoli", all I know is that it looks like it has broccoli in it. The orcs I know are humanoid, but they don''t seem to care about that. Well, demons are demons, I guess. "Oh! A piece of grilled meat with sauce and the same bread as last time are served. I said, "Is it ready? That''s fast! Here it comes! Here it comes! I''m welcoming it. I wonder how they are cooking it. The level of trust in LS on Earth and in the other world was too different. I ate my food in one go without saying a word. I hadn''t had the habit of saying "Itadakimasu" since I was on Earth. I''ve always eaten alone. ....... It''s still good. It is lighter than Gargon meat, but there is a lot of it. This is probably the reason for the 10-tel difference. After I finished eating, I was about to buy a lunch box (bread) for today, but I remembered the existence of the item box and decided to buy in bulk. "I''d like to buy about ten pieces of bread for lunch, is that okay? "Item box! I don''t have that many, so can I buy them tomorrow? I don''t have that many, so can we do it tomorrow? If it''s okay if it''s a little late, I can make them now, but what do you say? Then I''ll take 10 tomorrow, just one today. I''ll pay you the money now. Then give me the silver. Oh! I''ll do it! I receive a loaf of bread and 45 copper coins, put them in the item box, and leave the store. Today, I''m not going to the guild, I''m going to go straight to the forest and collect all the herbs I can. The city in the morning has a different vibrancy than in the evening. A variety of stores are preparing to open their doors. There is nothing special about the kinds of stores. There are restaurants, grocery stores, butcher shops, clothing stores, and so on. I didn''t find anything unusual in the grocery store, but the butcher shop has a lot of monster meat. I wonder if they buy it from the guild or something. On the other hand, ordinary meat was nowhere to be found. Green wolves, orcs, gargons, and goblins. What, they eat goblins? Well, Orcs are humanoid, but goblins look filthy to me. ....... Perhaps the image of goblins on Earth is different. Goblin meat is the cheapest, but it''s not particularly cheap, about 20% cheaper than Green Wolf meat. Orcs and Gargons are almost double the price of Green Wolf. It may be that they are in short supply, as they are highly requested. There''s a burnt corpse of a green wolf in the item box, but is it edible? ....... I don''t feel like eating it, and I don''t think I can sell it, so I''ll leave it alone. I''d be grateful if the day when I eat it never comes. Clothing stores are not so different from those in Japan. The only difference in the clothes themselves is that they are now sewn by hand instead of by machine. The only difference is that the clothes themselves are now sewn by hand instead of by machine. However, most of the clothes sold are second-hand, and the only new clothes seem to be custom-made. The strange thing about this world is that no matter how much you use your clothes, they do not get dirty as long as you use them normally, and even if they get muddy, you can easily clean them just by soaking them in water. For this reason, many people wear one piece of clothing for a long time, and reuse of old clothes is also popular. However, as is to be expected, when clothes are torn or the fibers are damaged, they do not seem to be repaired automatically, and if they are used for a long time, they will wear out and become loose to some extent. It seems that clothes shops buy and repair such clothes, and then sell them as cheaper second-hand clothes or use them to make bags for packing. If the initial MP is related to the capacity of the item box, then the capacity of my item box is extremely large. If that''s the case, then I won''t be in need of a baggage bag. As I walked along, I casually appraised the store keeper of a rather large butcher shop, and discovered a new fact. Name : Minie Age / Race / s*x : 15 / Human (slave) / Female Level: 5 HP:27/27 MP:8/8 STR:7 INT:4 AGI:7 DEX:8 Skills: Life Magic Slave . When I appraised the people on the street in the evening, I thought I appraised a lot of people, but I didn''t see any of them. They don''t look like slaves at first glance, as their nutritional status doesn''t look that bad and they don''t wear collars. But were there slaves in this world? Well, I don''t want to buy a slave at the moment, and I don''t think I have the money to buy one. I don''t know how much a slave costs, but the store keeper in the small store was an ordinary person, so I guess it''s not that cheap. They are human beings, and they need to be maintained. If you feed them like dog food and make them work all the time, the maintenance cost might be cheaper, but I don''t intend to do that if I use slaves, and even if I do that, it might cost more in the medium or long term if the slaves get sick. I walked along thinking about this, but when I reached the gate, I stopped thinking, pulled myself together, and went outside. Today I arrived earlier than the time I started picking herbs yesterday, so I can expect some results. Yesterday, I walked around collecting medicinal herbs (zunana grass), but today I''m going to collect them at a run. Aim for 400 plants! You run up to the spot marked with ¨‹, bend down quickly, snap the herb from the root, stand up, put the herb in the item box, and start running again. All this in just three seconds! I show my unnecessary agility and retrieve the weed. I didn''t take any rest except for eating lunch, but I didn''t show any sign of fatigue and kept on collecting herbs. With tremendous concentration, he collected the herbs single-mindedly. When the sun went down and it became dark, I finally realized that I was far into the forest. You''ve come too far into the forest. Let''s hurry home. The forest at dusk is much more eerie than at noon. The trees make it even darker and the visibility is not good. I get the impression that demons might pop out from strange places. I don''t want to stay long. Or rather, I want to go home as soon as possible. I equip my shield just in case and start running up the gentle slope. Perhaps it''s my martial prowess or something, but I don''t feel tired at all. But then I was attacked by a pack of green dogs! "Gurururu......" "Gurururu......" "Gurururu...... There were five of them. Whether it''s because there are so many of them or because it''s nighttime, one of them immediately jumps at me, unlike the last time I encountered a green dog, but I dodge it in the nick of time as my AGI (quickness) has increased with my level. I imagine a fireball flying toward the center of the four remaining creatures. The fireball isn''t very powerful when it hits, but against the green dog, it is highly effective due to the burning of its fur. Two of them seem to have succeeded in dodging the fireball, but the other two are burned on their front and back legs respectively. The one with burns on its hind legs had flames spread all over its body. The remaining four animals. "Gaw! Two of them jumped at me at the same time, but I dodged one of them and caught the other one with my shield. Thanks to my talent in martial arts, I think I''m moving pretty well. After the attack is over, I fire another fireball near the wounded one. Luckily, the wounded green dog and the green dog that just jumped at me become red dogs. A wolf... There''s only two left. We need meat. Let''s kill them with spears. It looks like their level has risen again. I send a rock spear at the green dog in front of me. It took about 0.5 seconds, but it seemed to hit it well. The other green dog is to the left of me... what? Where is it? Where is it? Just as I thought that, I felt a large impact on my left arm. Luckily, the green dog seems to have crashed into my shield. I lose my balance, but quickly regain my footing and slam another spear into the green dog. It hit him in the neck and he stopped moving. That was close. I was lucky that I hit the shield, otherwise I would have been injured. The green dog moves monotonously, but its STR is quite high, and depending on where it bites you, your life may be in danger. And the town is far away. If I''m going to be a solo adventurer from now on, I''m going to have to find a way to deal with them all at once. I throw all the green dogs into the item box and run towards the city again. After about half an hour of running, I can see the outer walls of the town. Just when I thought I was finally home, it happened. "Gah! "Aieeee! Wolves? Wolf? Suddenly, a green dog jumped at me. Because I was running, the green dog passed behind me and landed on the ground, but I was so startled that I screamed. Fortunately, it was only one, so I quickly dealt with it with a rock spear. Green Wolf must be killed. No mercy. I put the corpse in the item box and head back to the city, keeping my eyes open this time. It looks like you need to think about spying on the enemy. You show your ID, pass through the gate, and finally relax. You''ve made it back safely. You decide to sell the zunana grass and the green dog at the guild. I''d be happy if I could sell the blackened green dog, but I doubt it. Hello Sally. I''d like to buy some zunana grass. "Hello Kaede, did you bring a lot of zunana grass today? When I entered the guild, I was greeted as usual by Sally with a smile. I wonder when these people are resting. "Yes. We were up late picking zunana weed, and it got dark on the way home. We were attacked by a pack of green wolves. "What? Are you okay? Are you hurt? You''re very concerned about a single adventurer. He''s a good man. Yeah. There were five of them, but I managed with fire magic and earth magic. The shield did the rest. I show him the shield I bought from Mr. Dverag''s store. I''m sure the shield was attacked by green dogs several times, but the iron shield is unscathed. I''m not sure if that shield is the Dove ......, but it''s nothing. It''s a nice shield. It''s a good shield, after all. He probably reacted this way because he was from the guild and knew about Dverag''s blacksmith shop. "Yeah. But it still needs a little more firepower to take on multiple targets at once, and it takes time to shoot. This is a great achievement for a single wizard! At least it''s not a G-rank or F-rank result. In the first place, wizards are supposed to be in the rearguard with a long staff, providing firepower and using recovery magic, not alone with a shield against a group of demons. How in the world do you fight? Apparently, it''s not right for a wizard to go solo. Should I expand my party? But I don''t know if I can trust any of the new party members I''m looking for, and with the talent I have, there''s a good chance I''d be left behind if I formed a party with other adventurers. I''m only level 3, but I already have higher stats than most of the adventurers I''ve seen so far. There are probably not many high rank adventurers in this town, since there were no requests for B rank or higher, but still, if you''re going to form a party in this town, you''re going to have to form it with those people. I think I''ll put the party on hold for now. I''m not sure if I''m going to be able to do that. That''s not normal. In the first place, when you use magic, you have to concentrate your mind for at least three seconds. It''s not something you can just invoke while flicking off a demon with your shield. Oh, by the way, I remember Dverag saying something like that. 9 Episode 8 Magic and The Eye It seems that my fighting style is not that of a wizard. Is there some other benefit of the cheat-like transfer to another world besides the status? I''m not sure which is it, but I don''t know. I''m not sure which, but it doesn''t matter if I don''t know. I don''t see any disadvantages, so I''ll take it with a grain of salt. If anything, you''ll stand out. You don''t have to concentrate on the weapon, so you can use more magic as a swordsman. The number of moves is important, and the barrage is power. One day I want to be able to create a barrage. I can''t do sword fighting right now, but from the way I''ve handled shields, I think my martial arts abilities will take care of that. Ah, I guess that''s what you get for having a talent for magic and a talent for martial arts, isn''t it? I''ve never heard of anyone who has both. You''ll be able to find a lot more information on the web at ....... I''m not hiding anything!¡¡I''m not sure what to do.¡¡I''m not sure what to do.¡¡I''m not hiding anything!¡¡Here it is! I don''t want to keep talking about this. I''m afraid I''ll make some weird comment. To divert the topic, I take out a bunch of zunana plants from the item box. In the lower right corner of the picture of the zunana grass is the number "697". You can''t take them out all at once, so you take them out three at a time and put them on the counter. Ms. Sally looked at me suspiciously, but when she saw the bunch of herbs, she seemed to give up. That''s 697 herbs. I won''t poke fun at you. I won''t poke fun at you. I''m going to throw away common sense when I talk to Mr. Kaede. I''m not even 20 years old and I''m still like this... I wonder what kind of out-of-order I''ll be by the time I''m 30... And then he brings me the box where he examined the herbs last time. I wondered how they counted them the last time I was here. Is there a magic herb counting machine (counter) in the counter? Just a counter. "Yes. It''s all zunana grass. That''s 20910 tells. By the way, you said you killed a green wolf, but killing green wolves is also a regular request. They''re cheap, though, at 10 Tel per animal. If you show me your guild card, I''ll pay for it, but what do you want? Also, if you have any corpses, I''ll buy them as well. The materials will be processed at the counter over there, though. Sally pointed at the counter. In Japanese yen, that''s about 210,000 yen! I could get rich on herbs alone. I wonder if the shortage of zunnanakusa is serious enough that they would buy it at the same price even if we sold such a large amount. Maybe there is no shortage, but the more you have, the better. "Oh, please. I say, handing in my guild card. "That''s six of them. I thought there were five? Sally looks at me with a frown. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty is a picture even when she''s staring at you. ....... I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. I see. "I see. Then put the body on the counter over there. Put the body on the counter over there. I put seven green dog corpses, including the charred ones, on the counter. There are three charred ones and four decent ones. "...... Another one added? I love the peepers. I don''t have a fetish for peepers, but I do like a good peepers. I killed it before it registered with the guild. "I see. I can''t sell this charred one. If you remove the skin and roast it, you can eat it, but it''s not for sale. The others are fresh from the item box, so I''ll buy them for 200 Tel per fish. If you don''t want them, we can dispose of them for you. If you burn it with fire magic, it can be used as emergency food, and there''s still plenty of room in the item box. I''ll keep it. She''s a girl, but she''s saying scary things like peeling off her skin. Well, in this world, there is nothing cruel about such things. "Then I''ll take the charred one home with me. "All right. That''s a total of 21770 Tel. That''s a lot of money, and you can leave it with the guild, but ...... you don''t need it if you have an item box with that much capacity. A smiling Sally handed me 2 gold coins, 1 silver coin, and 77 copper coins. I didn''t count them, but when I put them all together in my inventory, the number went from 68 to 145, so I guess I''m right. I''m a little disappointed that they stopped using the "eyes. Thank you very much. See you later. Thank you very much. We look forward to seeing you again. I thanked him again and left the guild. I didn''t feel a chill when I went to the guild. Was it a coincidence? As I walked along the road to the bakery, I wondered. I wondered if I had neglected combat too much, even though all I had done was gather herbs. Sure, I have a shield, and I''m planning to get a sword, or rather, I''m going to buy a normal one if the tempered sword isn''t ready tomorrow. But my current main weapon is magic. However, I''m only using the magic that I made at random, almost on the spur of the moment. My MP is over 2000 after yesterday''s level-up, and the natural recovery rate is over 2 per minute. Isn''t it a waste to use only spells that consume less than 1 MP when you have that much magic power? It''s certainly convenient to be able to shoot without worrying about MP, but I''d still like to have spells that are strong enough to consume MP. If I could use teleportation, I could escape from danger, but I feel that I can''t use it. Even if I could use it, I''m afraid of failure. I don''t want to be stuck in a stone. So, first I have to find out what kind of spells I can use. It''s already dark today, so I''ll do it tomorrow, but let''s try some experiments in a shallow part of the forest. As I was thinking this, I came to a restaurant. Come on in! He was in his usual high spirits. Perhaps it was because it was late, but there were only two other customers in the restaurant. A big man with a big sword on his back, and a man with a big metal shield and a spear on his back--they looked like knights, but their armor was leather. They seem to be chatting, but I can''t hear what they are saying from here. I don''t have the taste to eavesdrop. Hmm? Appraising people on the street without permission? That''s just for statistical information, I don''t remember anything about each person. One green wolf set meal. "Hey, there! In a normal restaurant, this line would be something like "kashikomarimashita". I don''t know how they prepare it, but it''s always better to have good food served quickly. There are only the Orc set meal, the Gargon set meal, and the Green Wolf set meal on the menu, but this small menu may be the reason for the speed. I finished the Green Wolf set meal quickly as usual, and left the restaurant. It''s only been two days since I started coming here, but it''s become a routine for me. I go back to my room. I''m really tired today. I''m tired of being tired, so I''m going to bed. Come to think of it, I''ve never heard the noon bell or the 6pm bell in this town. Maybe it''s because I''m out of town at that time, and the restaurants are open. I wake up at the sound of the bell again today. Now that I''ve earned some money, I''m going to buy some equipment today. I''ve paid for three days of lodging so that I don''t spend all my money on equipment and find myself without money for lodging. This way, if you run out of money, you can always go back to gather herbs. Even if you don''t plan to fight right now, you need to be ready to fight when you need to. Go to the restaurant and eat the Green Wolf Set Meal, then pick up the bread and put it in your item box. I was told to come to the blacksmith today, but he might not be open this early in the morning. Looking at the street, it looks like the stores are getting ready to open. So, I decided to develop magic. For now, I want as many attack spells as possible, especially spells with high firepower, spells that can deal with multiple players at once, and spells that can be used for searching for enemies. I don''t really have an idea of what kind of spells I want to use for spying, but I''m guessing wind magic or something like that. Thinking about what kind of magic to use, you head deeper into the forest, and stop when you''ve walked about five minutes into the forest. The grasslands on the other side of town offer too good a vantage point for people to see me, and if I go too deep into the forest, I''ll end up like I did yesterday. I have to go to the blacksmith today, so I don''t intend to stay too late. For now, I''ll start with water magic. This is because there is a possibility of fire spells spreading when I study fire magic, and I want to prepare spells for extinguishing fire. Water magic doesn''t seem to have a very high attack power, but I guess it can be used if you suffocate it. I''ll leave the status up and study it while considering the MP consumption. I don''t think that less MP consumption is necessarily better. It is said that the power of a spell increases as its MP consumption increases, which means that a spell with low MP consumption may look powerful, but it is only as powerful as it is. The reason why a fireball, which consumes about the same amount of MP as a stone spear, can almost kill a green wolf in a single hit is probably because the direct damage from the burn when the fireball hits is the damage from the magic attack, and the fire that follows is a physical phenomenon. When the stone spear hits the green dog and shatters, the rock spear just shatters, it doesn''t disappear. At any rate, I''ll try spraying water as I did when I extinguished the green dog. It''s like the hose on the Earth''s fire truck, but it consumes about 1 MP every 3 seconds. The fuel consumption is ...... delicate. It''s fine for me, but it won''t last more than two minutes for an average wizard. In the meantime, I try to increase the power and imagine that the hose gets bigger. The diameter has doubled. The MP consumption has also increased by a factor of four. You try to make it bigger and bigger, but the MP consumption does not exceed 10 per second, and the water power diminishes when you try to make it bigger. Is there a limit to the amount of magic power, but not to the instantaneous output? The water magic experiment was over, but I still had almost 90% of my MP left. Even a wizard would run out of MP if he fired the last one for a few seconds, but with my magic power I can manage for a little over three minutes. From what I''ve heard, there''s no particular disadvantage to running out of MP, except that you can''t use magic. Otherwise, ordinary people with only 10 MP would have a hard time. Well, now that I can extinguish fires and the ground is flooded, it looks like the fire won''t spread, so I''m going to develop a fire spell with maximum power ...... and stop being afraid. I''d like to find out how to use a high-powered spell, though. Imagine making a fireball, and then put more magic into it. The image of putting magic power into the fireball was easy to grasp, probably because of my magical background. After consuming about 3 MP, I stopped adding magic power. There was no change in his appearance, but he was using four times as much magic power as usual. I try to make it land on the ground far away. The radius of the explosion seems to be wider than usual fireballs. I tried to make a normal fireball land on the same spot, but it is still the same. It''s about 1.6 times larger than usual. In case of emergency, you can uproot it by pouring all your magic into it and releasing it. If you don''t stay away, you''ll be caught in the middle. I try to move the fireball at will to see if I can use it as a light, but it consumes MP quickly as it gets farther away. Normally, rock spears and fireballs are generated at a distance of about 30cm from the body (they''re not hot, but I don''t feel like sticking my hand in them), but the further away they are, the more magic power they consume. This is not very useful. I can''t really use it as a regular spell. It can be used for one-shot spells and surprise attacks, but if it cannot consume more than 10 MP per second, it will be a slow surprise attack. I''m not sure how to use it. ......? 10 Episode 9 Sword and Barrage I was so focused on controlling the magic from a distance that I forgot the most important thing. --The barrage is power. If you''re going to get caught in the middle of a big spell, why not just carpet bomb the place? So I''m going to see if I can make multiple fireballs. Two for now. That was easy. I''ll try sending them all together. The power of the explosion is the same as usual. The MP consumption is exactly double that of usual. The magic-added projectile consumes 4 times as much MP, has 1.6 times the range, and covers 2.56 times the area. The cost per area is also cheaper. 1.6 times? 1.6 x 1.6 x 1.6 is 4,096 divided by 1,000, so it''s roughly 4. MP consumption is also 4 times. Magic control also doubles the distance and consumes 8 times the MP. That''s 2 to the 3rd power. Is magic consumption proportional to the third power in many cases? Especially fireballs. If the range of the explosion is increased by 1.6 times, then the firepower at the center of the explosion is almost 4 times that of a normal fireball. The ground where the fireball hit was also heavily scorched. I thought it was because of the range, but the firepower may have been different. At any rate, I''ll continue to examine the barrage. It seems that up to 7 bullets can be generated at once, but beyond that, the generation speed drops. Up to seven fireballs can be fired in rapid succession with an interval of 0.5 seconds. The diameter of a normal fireball is about 70cm, so if you line them up in a horizontal line, you can burn down a distance of about 5m. The MP consumption is not as linear as that of spraying water, but the maximum consumption is still about 10 per second. It seems that our hypothesis was correct. With the current MP, the maximum output lasts only about 3 minutes at most, but so far the maximum value is increasing by 500 per level, and it will continue to increase. In the first place, though, I don''t want to deal with a demon that can fire this kind of firepower for three minutes and not die. Okay. I think I can handle multiple opponents with this. Now I need to strengthen my rock spear. It seems that the power of the rock spear increases when you spend MP on it, and I was able to generate up to seven spears at the same time without slowing down. However, the size of the rock spear increased with MP. It''s a similar expansion. I don''t understand the principle. I don''t understand the principle of magic, because magic itself is not subject to the law of conservation of mass. If physicists were to ask about magic, they would be very upset. Or maybe physicists are supposed to find the cause of magic? Oh well. The amount of water also increased when the MP consumption was increased, and this is probably a special case of fire. Water and earth depend on quantity, while fire depends on heat (temperature?). Water and earth depend on quantity, while fire depends on firepower (temperature?). The other thing is to find the enemy. ...... How do I do that? Close your eyes and try to feel the presence of your surroundings. Concentrate on ....... I see it! Swing your fist in the direction you feel the enemy is. A thump! There''s a crunch. It was a woody feel. It hurts. Oh, it''s broken. I need to go to the hospital. I''d claim my fee, but there''s no one around. I don''t have any enemies. Which is why I chose this place. My hand hurts. My skin''s peeling. I remember the guildie said something about healing magic. I''m trying to picture my hand healing. Imagine it scabbing over and then coming back together over time. Done. It''s healed. But my bones feel sore. Maybe it''s cracked. Imagine the crack healing. The pain went away. So this is recovery magic. I thought it was some kind of green light that came out, but there was no effect. I used about 2 MP in total. It''s okay because it''s me, but a normal wizard would probably run out of MP in one shot if he tried to fix a serious injury. That''s why they have potions and such. Of course, you''ll need them if you don''t have any wizards in your party. I think I''ll buy some just in case. Anyway, spying. It seems that we can''t sense their presence, so we have to think of some other way. I tried to imagine a sensor made of wind touching a tree 1m away, but it didn''t increase my MP consumption. I can feel it. Oh. Is it okay that I''m controlling it at a distance? Keep stretching it out. The longer I stretch it, the more magic power it consumes, but it doesn''t feel like it''s consuming it at an accelerated rate. And the consumption seems to be very small. I reached the limit after extending it about 20 meters. It seems that I can''t extend it any further. It seems that it only consumes magic power when it is extended, and it does not consume magic power if it only senses the sensation. Sensor (tentacle?) I feel a sensation on the straight line where the sensor (tentacle?) is located. I don''t know if it''s because I have sensation in a part that doesn''t exist originally. When I touch the leaves of a tree, they do not move. It seems to work as a sense organ, but it cannot interfere with objects. But this means that even if I touch it, I can''t see it or know what''s there. Let''s try to extend the current wind distance to the plane. The MP consumption increases at an accelerated rate as the distance increases, but it seems to be proportional to the square of the distance. Since the original MP consumption is small, it doesn''t bother me much. It consumed 1 MP after 4 meters. If you extend it to 20m, it consumes about 25 MP, which is light for me. However, the information is so jumbled that I can''t understand what''s going on at all. I tried shooting a fireball, but all I felt was an impact, and I couldn''t tell where the impact came from. Rather, the impact is as if I were hit in the head with a frying pan. This is terrible. I don''t think I can fight. It occurred to me to try to imagine that the information was plunged directly into the information manipulation analysis. Then, I imagined this forest cut into black and white slices in my mind. That''s my information manipulation analysis teacher. However, even if I knew the shape of the slices, it would not be of much use to me, so I made an image of searching for only living things while thinking of information manipulation analysis. The slice in my mind turned into a dark circle with only my position glowing white. As expected of an information manipulation analysis, this was something different. You can try to see if you can see anyone other than me after you enter the city. Since some of the demons are short and some of them fly, I decided to line up 50 boards, 10 meters long and 20 cm apart. Let''s call them tentacles. The tactile plates have eaten up a lot of my magic power. I''ll leave the management to Information Manipulation Analysis and keep them deployed. I don''t think I have 500 MP left. It''s almost noon. Let''s go to the blacksmith''s after we eat. The radar-like screen in my head disappeared when I felt it was in the way. As the city approaches, I feel the presence of many people. It seems that you can sense the presence of people even when the touch screen is not displayed. This may be useful. When I looked at the status, I noticed that the tentacles are not wind magic, but perception magic. Its level is 3. I appraised all spells other than perception spells, and they were all level 3. I just increased the power, range, and number of bullets. With this in mind, I showed my ID to the gatekeeper, passed through the gate, and walked down the road to the forge. I wonder if the tempering is done properly. I''m sure it''s not that difficult, since it''s a technique that came out relatively early in the original world, but this is my first time in this world. Someone should have thought of it. I open the door to the blacksmith shop. As usual, Mr. Dverag is working on something. "Excuse me! "Shut up! Shut up and wait! As usual. But this time, he''s tempering the sword after he''s finished beating it. Thanks to this, the waiting time has increased to about 10 minutes. The sword isn''t bent. It seems to have worked. "Oh. Hardening is amazing. The charcoal iron that came out recently is hard, but it''s different when it''s hardened. But ordinary cheap iron doesn''t become very hard even if you try to quench it. Well, I only use charcoal iron anyway, so it''s not a problem. Charcoal Iron....... I wonder if he means steel. I guess ordinary iron is wrought iron. It is made in a lump iron furnace or a reverberatory furnace. I don''t know how it''s made, but it''s not made in a converter. If it is made in a converter, it is not surprising that wrought iron has been exterminated. Even if a converter is used, it is possible that steel is more expensive because of the phosphorous contained in iron ore. Wait a minute while I bring you the sword. I hardened it yesterday. Mr. Dveragh then brings a sword from the back. It''s got a scabbard and a length of about 80cm. It''s rather large. Try swinging it a little. So I pulled out the sword and swung it straight vertically. It feels right. "Oh! I wonder if swordsmen used to do that. The swing is totally useless, but the movement itself is solid. You''d be somewhat better at it if you did some swinging. A martial artist''s talent is to be feared. I''ll do it later. "It''s easy to handle. Thank you. I should be thanking you. I''m able to hit better and more consistently than before. But is that okay? This is a technique that could have been a secret, but you taught it to me so easily. Yes. I''d rather you spread the word. Technology is only as good as the people who use it. If good weapons spread cheaply, we can increase our strength and I can live safely. I''ll put the sword in the item box for now. You''re young and you know your stuff. Well, let me know if you need anything in the future. By the way, you''re not wearing any armor, do you need it? By the way, you''re not wearing any armor. There''s a big difference in defense between having armor and not having armor. If the weight of the armor makes you unable to move, it would be a disaster, but I guess leather armor is okay. I''d like to get some lighter armor, but I didn''t have the money, so I thought I''d get some later. If you want something that won''t hinder your movement, would leather armor be better? "Yeah. Then leather armor. We only make sheet metal armor, but I know a good leather armor maker. It''ll probably cost about 15,000 yen. Is that store okay? Is armor more expensive than swords? Well, the sword I got was free, but it would probably cost more than 10,000 if you bought it normally. The 10,000 is for a sword that has not been tempered. Well, it''s a normal price for me now. It''s enough for a day of herb gathering. You can afford it. "That''s the store, please. It''s the armor shop two doors to the left of the guild. They sell cheap armor for beginners, but if you tell them Dverag sent you, they''ll get you some good armor. "All right. I''ll be off then. I wonder if it''s someone like Dverag again. ....... But the fact that he also sells cheap armor for beginners suggests that he''s a kind person. I guess I''ll go there anyway. 11 Episode 10 Armor and Walls Enter the armor shop. Compared to Mr. Dveragh''s store, it has a much easier atmosphere to enter. It''s probably right, though, because Mr. Dverag''s store doesn''t intend to sell to ordinary people, both in terms of its location and its policy. "Excuse me. Oh, you''re a customer. Are you a new adventurer? A young female clerk in a modest work uniform answers. She looks about sixteen or seven years old. She''s probably just an apprentice or a hired clerk. I don''t feel that there are other people in the store or at the back of the store, even with the search ability strengthened by the tentacles, but I wonder if she is out. Her hair is greenish and semi-long. Her eyes are blue. As for her breasts, for the sake of ......''s honor, I''ll keep my mouth shut. ¡¡...... What? I sensed a threat. I hurriedly replied. "Yes. I was in Mr. Dveragh''s store and asked him where I could buy some armor and he told me to come here and tell him that Mr. Dveragh had referred me. The shopkeeper stared at me, but when I told him that Mr. Dverag had introduced me, he turned away and then looked at me suspiciously. What, you''re a new adventurer and Mr. Dveragh introduced you? Do you have something to prove, ......? "Oh, I have a sword I got from Mr. Dverag''s store. It''s a one-handed sword. You take the sword out of the item box, scabbard and all. You got it? You didn''t buy it, did you? And what do you mean you have an item box and you''re a swordsman? ....... But the sheath and the bundle seem to be Dverag''s. ....... Uh, do you mind if I take a look? "Yes, of course. Then I hand over the sword, scabbard and all. I''m sure Mr. Dveragh has only recently started making tempered swords, so they may not be his usual ones. If he doesn''t approve, I can go to him and ask him what I should do. But he''s scary and he''ll probably kick me out. ....... It''s not the same as Dverag''s sword that I''ve seen, but it looks like Dverag''s sword. The center of gravity isn''t shaky, and it''s a nice sword. Do you mind if I try a few slices? If it''s Dverag''s sword, I don''t think it''ll wear out like that. It was a boxy girl! No, that''s not the problem. It''s a test cut, but it should be fine. I don''t trust a sword that can be broken by a test cut. "Yes. It''s fine. All right. I''ll be right back. The shopkeeper then brought a furry object from the back and slashed it with the sword. I wonder if it''s okay for the clerk to do such a thing so easily. Hmm? A shopkeeper? There''s probably no one else in this store but the shopkeeper, who can cut things in the store without permission, and is skilled enough to tell if it''s Dverag''s sword or not. Maybe this person is not a clerk or an apprentice, but a craftsman of this store? He''s so young! I''ve never seen a sword that can cut this well. I''ve never seen a sword this sharp before! I can''t say for sure that it''s Mr. Dverag''s, but with a sword this good, it would be a shame if it didn''t have good armor. All right, I''ll make you some good armor. What kind of armor would you like? I''d recommend Gargon leather. It looks like she approves. But I wonder if a woman this young can do it. I was imagining someone more like Mr. Dverag, a skilled craftsman! I was expecting someone more like Mr. Dveragh, a skilled craftsman. Well, since Ms. Dverag acknowledged the work, her skill must be solid. "What kind of materials do you have? "First of all, the Gargon leather I mentioned earlier. It''s the Gargon leather I told you about, and it''ll cost you fifteen thousand if it''s custom-made to your size. It''s a bit thicker than metal armor, but it''s much lighter and easier to move around in. It''s also green wolf leather, but it''s not fireproof, so it''ll be a problem if you''re dealing with a demon that uses fire. I don''t recommend it if you plan to use it for a long time. The advantage is that it''s cheap. It''s easy to work with and costs about a tenth of the price of Gargon leather, which is why I have it in my store as a beginner''s armor, but if you''re going to make it to order, it''s not worth it to spend so much on materials, so I wouldn''t recommend it. I''m not sure if it''s the Gargon leather armor that Dverag recommended for the price. What kind of hard work is involved? I don''t want to ask too many questions, but I''m also scared. Besides, it''s better to know than to not know. "The flames will spread to your whole armor, and you will become a fireman. It won''t take long for the flames to burn out, but by then you''ll be in a lot of trouble, and even if you survive, the demon that caused it will be right next to you when you lose your armor. I''ve never heard of an adventurer who wore green wolf leather gear and survived a fire. I''ve never heard of an adventurer wearing green wolfskin gear and surviving a fire. It''s probably just equipment for beginners. Even though it''s cheap, I don''t want to get burned. I''d rather not. I''d rather not. So you''re saying we should go with Gargon leather? There are so many materials to choose from, how much are you bringing? About 20,000 ter. "Then I guess it''s Gargon leather. I''d recommend wyvern leather because it''s more expensive than the leather armor type, but it''s going to cost you about 10 million to get a complete set, and this store doesn''t have anything that expensive, so you''ll have to either bring in your own materials or let me know your budget and then I''ll get the materials for you. I''m confident in my skills, but I don''t have a lot of money. The shopkeeper puffed up his chest. You don''t have many breasts either. I don''t care about that. Gargon leather. Gargon leather, please. Gargon leather. I''ll take your measurements then. Stretch your arms out a little. Oh, yes. Then the clerk is measuring the length from my shoulders to my elbows and my waist. She was measuring my waist with her hand behind my back, so I couldn''t ...... feel my breasts. It''s a cliff. But ticklish things tickle. Don''t move. For some reason, I felt pressured to stand still. I felt like I couldn''t go against it. I felt that something terrible was hiding behind the normal tone of voice. I''m done. It''s going to be 16,000 terahertz with your size, are you okay with that? The tone is scary. I think he''s angry. But 1000 tells is a lot of money. I''m not going to let the pressure get to me! "Yeah, but you just gave me one. Are you okay? The pressure intensifies. I''m still worried about my breasts. ....... I can feel the pressure building even more. But I''m not giving in! "One, two, three. You''re okay, right? Yes! I''m fine! I''ll give you two gold pieces. I couldn''t handle the pressure. The clerk takes them and gives me back four silver coins. I put them in the item box. It''ll be ready tomorrow evening, so come back after the evening bell rings. "Ha! I''ll do that! I''ll do that! I''ll leave you to it! The fear is etched in my mind, and I hurriedly leave the place. Useless thoughts about women''s breasts, no, no, no, no. I join the guild to see what''s up. It''s not that I wanted to get out of the sight of the armorer as soon as possible. Oh, hello, Kaede. I need to talk to you. Is this a good time? Today was a rare day for Sally to speak to me. Her breasts were relatively full. "What is it? I wondered what she was talking about. Is there a problem with the overhunting of medicinal herbs, or is it that the price of medicinal herbs has fallen and the market is in turmoil, so don''t bring them in anymore? I''m talking about the rank up. "Yes. It''s a medicinal herb. It''s already at ....... - What? Rank Up? It seems I was mistaken. Is the shortage of medicinal herbs more serious than I thought? Yes. Yes. Your guild''s contribution and ability were judged to be sufficient for promotion after the Zunana grass and green wolf incident, but the fact that you haven''t received any chore requests may cause problems later on, so you will need to complete at least one chore request in order to move up. Please consider this if you wish to advance in rank. Do I need to complete chore requests to rank up? Even though the guild is an organization of adventurers, it''s not enough to be strong. I understand. I''ll see what I can do. With that, I go to check the G-rank request board. There was one interesting one among the garbage cleanup and luggage carrying. Rank: G Request: Iron ore transportation Reward£º2 Tel per 1kg Quantity£ºAs much as you can carry Note: The mine is located 5km from the town on the grassland side, and the ore will be transported to the smelter. As much as I can carry? This is a request that may test the limits of my item box. Is there any other request I should take, no. "I''ll take this request. I went to the request board (there were five identical boards stacked on top of each other. I picked up the request board (there were five identical boards stacked on top of each other, the one at the top) and handed it to Mr. Sally briskly. You''ve brought me another strange request. ....... Well, this is just another chore, so there''s no problem. It''s a waste of the item box, though. "Oh, is this a weird request? It''s not as popular as the Zunana grass. It''s not as popular as Zunana grass. 600 teru for lodging, and if you carry 50 kilograms at a time, you''ll have to make six round trips. If you can barely make enough money to pay for lodging, adventurers won''t want to do it. The same kind of unworthy request as the Zunana grass: ....... But my item box is a treasure trove. I have an item box, so I''m good. I don''t know what the limits of the item box are yet, so I''d like to test that out as well. The more magic you have when you first use the item box, the more space you have. It seems that the more magic you have when you use the item box for the first time, the more slots you have. There is also a story that the capacity of each box increases when the player''s level increases. The magic qualities themselves are quite rare and not much information has been released, so there may be something else going on. Is it correct to say that the number of slots is the MP at the time of initial activation? It could also be the initial MP. As for the capacity, we''ll see if we can squeeze as much as we can into one frame with this request. You''re right. Thank you for the valuable information. I''ll be going now. Huh? I had planned not to work today, but I ended up accepting the request. Well, it''s still noon and I didn''t have anything to do in the afternoon except for shopping, so I guess I''m okay. 12 Episode 11 Iron and Gravel At any rate, I''m going to check the location of the refinery that Sally told me about. However, the refinery is two houses down from the gate on the grassy side of town. The location has been confirmed. It''s a one-story brick building, though it''s larger than the Adventurer''s Guild. It is more utilitarian than the guild, and has an unpretentious design. The signboard is made of stone and says only "Refinery" on it. The gate is open, but you can enter only after you bring iron ore. Make sure you have your guild card and leave the gate. This is the first time I''ve been on this side of the city, but it''s a nice sight. I''ve never seen anything like it in Japan. It was said to be a grassland, but it was more like green hills in places, and there were paths leading from the top of the hills to the top. It was a spectacular sight to see the carpet of green that went on and on. It would be easy to cultivate it into good farmland, but why not? I wonder if it has something to do with demons or something. Also, in Japan, if you want to build a road through a hill, you have to go through a low place. I don''t see any demons at first glance, and I can''t see any signs (from the tentacles. I don''t feel any presence (due to the tentacles, which I try not to use because it''s distracting and an invasion of privacy), but when the time comes to fight, it''s probably better to attack from a high place. The fact that you''re high up means that the demon can see you more easily, but it also means that you don''t have to worry as much about being caught off guard. In the meantime, there''s no point in looking at the scenery or thinking about it, so you equip your shield and start moving. I took out my sword, pulled it out of its scabbard, and threw it in with the scabbard. If you get into a fight, you can take the sword out of the item box. Emptiness Battoujutsu! Something like that. I don''t think it''s a sword-blade technique when the scabbard is not used. I''ve found that I don''t get tired when I run at the same pace as on my way back from gathering herbs, so I run at that pace. I think my speed is about 20 km/h. I can beat a marathoner. While running, I think. If the fireball I''m using now is about 40 km/h, is it only twice as fast as running? That''s pretty slow. You might want to consider using a staff. I can handle a sword with my right hand, and my left arm only has a shield on it, so I can at least hold a staff. If it''s too long, it''ll get in the way, but if it''s just to assist my magic speed, it won''t need to be as long as a standard staff. I''d like something about 30cm long, but it might have to be custom-made. I might ask for a recommendation when I go to pick up the leather armor tomorrow. And then I thought of a magical idea that would give me speed without using a wand. It seems to require no particular preparation, so I''ll pick up a pebble about 3cm from the ground and try the experiment. The thing I came up with is a gun. No, it''s more like a slingshot than a gun. I don''t intend to use air pressure, and I don''t intend to make it explode. I''m just thinking that if I use magic to apply pressure to a pebble, the pebble will fly away at high speed. At any rate, I''ll give it a try. If my hand gets caught in the pebble, it will definitely hurt, so I throw the pebble up lightly and try to activate the spell with the image of concentrating the pressure on it. You hear a buzzing sound, but the stone doesn''t fly, or rather it is already on the ground at the point where the spell is activated. This time, you visualize the spell being cast, and then throw the stone at the target to cast the spell. A buzzing sound is heard and the stone flies away. The speed seems to be over 40km/h, but not 80km/h. It''s too slow for the effort. The stones are small. Well, there''s a chance that they''ll be useful, so I throw about 20 pebbles into the item box and start again. Checking my status as I move, I see that my status says "Pressure Magic 1". Where''s the wind spell? You don''t intend to use it regularly, so you hide it for now. When I checked the status on the road, I didn''t find anyone who had it, so there''s no need to make it stand out. There is no need to stand out unnecessarily. You may feel that you stand out enough with medicinal herbs, but there is a difference between standing out out out of necessity and standing out unnecessarily. As I was thinking about this, I could see what looked like a tunnel. I think I''ve traveled about five kilometers, so that must be it. Unlike what I had imagined when I heard the word "mine", there was a hole in a raised area of the grassland, and a lot of stones were piled up around it. A man is coming out of the cave and adding more stones to the pile. It might be iron ore. Anyway, I approach him and talk to him. Excuse me. I''m from the Adventurer''s Guild, and I''ve been hired to carry iron ore. I wondered how "Excuse me" was translated, but that didn''t matter now. The man I spoke to was a man who looked like Mr. Dveragh, but he was somehow different from Mr. Dveragh and seemed younger. His clothes are made of jeans-like material and look like something a coal miner in Australia would wear. I am completely prejudiced. It may be different from a dwarf''s point of view, just as Japanese people can''t tell the difference between Caucasians. "Oh. Then show me your guild card. So I show him my guild card. "Okay, no problem, but you look pretty weak, is that all right with you? "Yes, I have an item box, so I''ll carry as much as I can in my item box. The miner looked surprised. It might have been my imagination, but... I don''t know why you''re carrying ore when you have an item box, but there''s no problem with that. The iron ore is there, so take as much as you can carry. He points to a pile of reddish stones that have just been added. It''s shaped like Mt. Fuji, about five meters high, made of iron ore, and the slope is rather gentle. When I touched the mountain, I plunged the iron ore into it. I must have plunged about 200 kilograms into the mountain. A miner called out to me. He said, "Is it really possible to carry that much stuff in an item box? I''ve heard that they can carry 200kg at most. Is that so? Well, I''ll chalk it up to the otherworldly. Yes, for some reason my item box seems to be too big. I''ve never seen the limit before, so I wanted to try it out. "I see. Then take as much as you want. All the guys who were hauling iron ore recently quit. We dug it up, but we can''t carry it. The stockpile at the smelter is about to run out, and I was thinking of hiring people or buying slaves for a high price, but slaves are expensive and I can''t hire people right away. I''ve sent a request to the guild, but if they''re willing to carry this much, I''m grateful. Will you continue to transport them from time to time? Yes, I don''t know how long I''ll be in this town, but this request is worth it to me, so I''ll continue. ...... and it looks like the capacity has been filled. I just put in about two tons of iron ore, and the bottom right corner of the iron ore says 2011. There was no response when I tried to put any more into that frame. "Oh, it''s filled. What are you doing? You''re still in there. "What? Yes, one slot has been filled, but there are still slots available. I thought about putting it in another slot, but it went in as usual. We continue to cut down the mountain. Are you really human? Are you sure you''re not an incarnation of the item box or something? "I think I am human, but ...... You continue to break down the rocky mountain at a steady pace. Four of the item boxes are filled, and when there is less than one left in the fifth box, the miner calls out to me. He said, "That''s enough. I don''t know how much you can carry, but there''s no place to put it in the smelter. If we carry them, we probably won''t need to ask the guild for a while. We can get people before we run out. If you go into the refinery and talk to the right people, they''ll tell you where to put it. We''re slowing down because we can''t get the raw materials. I''ve lost a good paying job. Well, it looks like I can make enough money. You run back to the city in high spirits. Despite the fact that I have over 10 tons of stuff in my item box, my speed has not slowed down at all, and I reach the city in about 15 minutes. Show your guild card to enter the city, and turn right to enter the refinery. There''s some kind of unfamiliar tool like a cauldron, and there are people working around it, though most of them are dwarves. I wonder if it''s something similar to tatara ironworks.¡¡But it seems small for that. The people working look rather bored. The door of the smelter was open, so I went in and talked to the people I saw. The one closest to me was a dwarf, but it was easier to talk to a human than a dwarf. I''m an adventurer who brought iron ore, where should I put it? "Hmm? You''re an adventurer? You say you brought the ore, but you don''t have it. Do you have it somewhere? A thin-skinned man with a sense of science! He''s wearing work clothes. He is wearing work clothes, but if he wore glasses and a plaid dress, he would look exactly like that. I wonder if the item box is rarely used to carry iron ore. You can use the item box, so I''m carrying it. Here. He takes out an iron ore from the item box and shows it to you. I immediately put it away because it hurt to have the rock dig into my hand. Hmm, I didn''t give out much in the way of rewards, but there''s no problem if you want to use it, just follow me. He said and led me to the ore yard. The ore pit is a slightly elevated hole with a gentle slope, near an unfamiliar tool. It may be to carry the ore easily from the ore yard to the smelting equipment. The scientist said, "Keep it here," and returned to the place where he had been. The iron ore is released into the hole. I realized that I had forgotten an important thing when I had ejected all the ore in the hole. I wonder how to count this ore. You check your guild card in a panic. In the "Completed Requests" section, it says "Hauled iron ore 2011kg unaccounted for". I wonder what kind of system this is. ....... At any rate, it seems to have been counted, so I''m relieved and release the remaining four slots. It seems that the capacity of the ore yard is just barely enough. I wonder if you can tell that much when you''re an artisan. The guild card says "Iron ore transported, 9972 kg, unaccounted for. That''s about 20,000 Tel. If I wanted to buy wyvern armor, I''d have to carry 500 times this amount, but it''s more than enough to live on. What''s going on here? What the hell are you doing at ......? Where did you get this much ore from? The dwarves came to check on me, but they asked me strange questions. I''m not sure if there are any other tunnels besides that one. There''s a mine about five kilometers from town. I''m not asking where! That''s unreasonable. You asked me where it was. Where''d you get it from? I got it in an item box. Is the item box really that big ......? No, that''s none of my business right now. He was mumbling something and then suddenly started shouting. "Hey, guys! Iron ore''s here! Get ready for full operation! Don''t be slow! Sir! But I said the iron ore has to be brought in... ouch! The young-looking dwarf replies, but the master smacks him on the head to shut him up. Shut up! You can''t blame them, they''ve got what it takes. There''s about ten tons of it, so get it moving! At the sound of his voice, the people who had been sitting around rushing into action. Adventurers, you''ll be rewarded, so you can go home now. I don''t know what''s going on, but you''ve done well. And they send you away. I wonder if dwarves are impatient creatures. Or do they have a habit of wanting to get rid of people? Well, there''s no reason for me to stay here, so I''ll just take your word for it and go back to the guild. Now I''m moving up in rank. 13 Episode 12 Medicine and Cane Return to the guild from the refinery and report back. You''re up in rank. "Hello Sally. I''ve completed your order. "Yes, sir. Can you give me your guild card? As usual, Ms. Sally is smiling and helpful. I also give her my guild card with a smile. I felt Sally''s smile twitch. I''m not going to go into it. ...... I''m not going to go into it. ...... Yes. It weighs 9972 kilograms, which makes it 19944 tell. I went into the back, mumbling something, and then Sally came back and handed me the coins and guild card. I threw them all into the item box. The guild card says "Rank F" on it. There are four iron coins. The iron coins seem to have been minted, but the shape is a little awkward and the iron itself seems to have many impurities. I guess they can''t afford to spend so much money on the cheapest currency. I thanked him and left the guild. I''m a little rich again. It''s likely to disappear soon, though, because you still have to gather the things you need for your life as an adventurer. At any rate, you go into the general store next to the guild. It''s about half the size of a convenience store on Earth. Welcome. What can I get for you? An old woman talks to you. The store is in a very good location, but the old woman seems to be the only clerk. Perhaps appearances are deceiving. There are shelves in the store and products are placed on them, but the layout is different from that of a convenience store where security is considered. There are no cash registers or coolers, of course. Instead of drinks, there are potions. The caps of the containers are different depending on the type. The container is a wooden cup (but about twice the size of a plastic bottle lid) with a wooden lid, and the space between the lid and the container is sealed with some kind of glue. I wonder how to open it. It says that the price is high for the quantity, but that it is a good time to buy because the price is a little lower than usual. Is there something wrong with it? Did something happen? Did the old woman get confused and buy too much by mistake? Compare the price of the potion with the appraisal result. As expected, the potions are quite expensive. A single bottle of the potion, which is said to restore about 2 HP, costs 1200 Tel, which is enough for two days'' lodging. However, if it can restore 1/15th of a normal person''s strength, is it cheap? If it''s simply 1/15th of your body weight, that''s about 4kg of your body''s functions restored. I don''t know what constitutes HP, but the fact that two recoveries are sold at such a high price suggests that they are quite useful. Since I don''t want to find myself in a situation where I can''t use recovery spells, I''ll buy about five of them. It''s unlikely that I''ll be in such a situation, and I don''t know if I''ll be able to use the potion at that time. In the first place, it says that if you use one bottle, you can''t use the same kind of medicine for 30 minutes. You can replenish it when you run out. Potions that restore magic are also expensive. A potion that restores MP 7 times costs 1000 Tel. It may be useful, because it can instantly replenish the amount of magic that a wizard with 30 MP would take 4 hours to recover, but it is unnecessary for me. An MP of 7 or so could be recovered while I''m taking out the potion and drinking it. That may be an exaggeration, though. The limit of continuous use of magic recovery potions is looser than that of strength recovery potions. Even so, it is said to be ineffective for five minutes. At the end of the shelf of potions, I found about 20 dusty containers. They are price tags - like the request boards used in guilds. The price tag?¡¡It says "100 Tel" on it. That''s cheap. Let''s check it out. Magic Recovery Acceleration Potion Description: Increases the rate of recovery of magic power by 10 times. The effect lasts for 3 hours. This is a potion that is just for me. I can recover nearly 3,000 with just one bottle. There is no limit to the number of uses. And it''s cheap. I have no choice but to buy it. I grabbed all of the potions on the shelf, placed them on my hands and arms, and carried them to the old woman, balancing them dexterously with the HP potion. It''s not a magic potion, it''s a recovery acceleration potion.¡¡Are you sure you want to do that? Yes, I''d rather have this!¡¡I rather don''t understand why this stuff was gathering dust! Well, maybe it''s because normal people have less MP. I don''t know why this stuff has been dusting around." "Well, you know, the potion is cheap because it requires very few ingredients, but that''s all. It''s useless even for adventurers if it doesn''t work quickly, and even if you use it for a long time, you''ll recover more if you drink a series of magic potions in the same amount of time. Magic potions are useless while they work. It''s only used by people who work with magic in a safe place, not for combat. "I see. Well, I have a use for it, so I''ll buy them all. By the way, how do I open this lid? You don''t know anything about that, do you? Of course you can use life magic, right?¡¡Just say "open" and it''ll open. If you don''t know better, don''t push it. I don''t care if you buy it, but if you die you''ll lose a customer. I don''t have any life magic, but I suppose it''s not impossible to use given my skills. I don''t know if I should just say "open" or if I should just imagine it. I don''t know. I''ll try not to overdo it. Also, please take this. I offer you eight silver coins and an HP potion. I thought I might not have enough, but I had exactly twenty bottles of Recovery Acceleration Potion. Thank you. Please come again. If we''re both still alive, that is. Then the old woman smiled. Please don''t make jokes that aren''t very funny. I have trouble responding. She passes off the old woman''s joke with her unique Japanese skill (Aisowarae), and throws the medicine into the item box while pretending to put it into her pocket, and leaves the store. I''m tired of being shoved into the item box every time. But it was a good purchase. What should I buy next? I don''t think I needed anything in particular. Oh, a cane. There were no wands in Mr. Dverag''s store. I looked around and found a store that had wands. It wasn''t recommended by Mr. Dverag, but it was near the guild, and if it was a strange store, it would have been weeded out. At any rate, I went to the front of the store. The store was labeled as a "Mage Shop. There was a wooden staff about 1.2 meters long standing there. There was no door, and although it was selling magical items, it looked like a used bookstore in a shopping district. There are no shutters or anything like that, but I guess we don''t need to worry too much about security since stealing makes us bandits. Besides, this is in front of the guild, so it would be easy to be found if you tried to steal. In addition to the long staffs, there are also staffs about 60cm long and magic tools that look like a smaller version of the light in the inn. When I appraised the magic tools that looked like the light in the inn, I found out that they were called "magic lamps". As the name suggests, it seems to be a light that uses magic. It says that it runs for about eight hours with one MP. It seems to be very fuel efficient. It is also reasonably priced at 500 Tel. While I was looking at the lantern, I was suddenly approached from the back of the store. Are you interested in magic lanterns? The person who called out to me was a woman who looked like a wizard. By a wizard, I do not mean an old woman with an eagle nose and a high hat. I mean the kind of loli wizard you often see in romance novels. Short blue hair, blue eyes, short stature, chest armor that is not as thin as an armorer''s, and a 1m20cm wand in her hand. She''s a perfect Lolita wizard in every way. No, no, no. I''m not looking for a wand, but I saw it and just had to have a look. It''s a short wand, like this one. I was just looking at it when I saw it. "Huh?¡¡You''re a funny guy, aren''t you? There is no such cane. A wand of that length will only increase the speed of your magic by a few times at most. Even if your magic is a bit faster, it still needs to be at least ten times faster to be useful in battle. The loli wizard looks puzzled, then starts laughing. Cute. I''m pretty quick with magic, so that''s fine. I''ve been fighting with a sword and shield while using magic, but the shield is attached to my arm so my left hand is free. I need a staff that won''t get in the way. I''d like a cane that won''t get in the way." "So now you''re going to use magic while using a sword?¡¡I hope you''re not joking. But if you have the money, I can make one for you. It''ll cost you about 2,000 Tel for that size. I can''t return it if you say it''s useless later, though. Apparently, they''ll make it for you. But I wonder if there is a need to wait for them to make one. "Can''t you just cut down the one you have around? I don''t mind if it costs a little more. He points to a 60cm long cane, which has a price tag of 4000 Tel. "Cut it down ......!¡¡I''m not sure what to do with it.¡¡Wand the ....... Puku puku ....... I think he was laughing at me. I don''t know what I said that was so funny. I''m not sure if I''ve said anything that''s too funny, but I''m pretty sure I''ve said something that''s too funny. (He seems to be saying, "A cane has a function depending on its part, so there is no point in cutting it down. I see. That''s right. I''ll take that, please. I waited for the loli wizard, who had fallen down from laughter, to get up, then handed him two silver coins and left the store. Lori, who seemed to have finally recovered from her laughter, said, "I think it will be ready tomorrow afternoon. The equipment, including armor, will be ready by tomorrow evening. The day after tomorrow I''m going to go hunting. I''ve paid for all my gear, and I''m not in trouble with money. If I hunt, my level will go up and my rank will go up easily. I didn''t fight today, and I wasn''t tired, but I didn''t have anything to do, so I quickly went back to the inn, ate at a restaurant, and went to bed. Tomorrow I''ll kill time by gathering herbs until noon, and then go pick up my gear. 14 Episode 13 Armor and Set Meal I wake up at the sound of the bell, go to the restaurant, eat, and then leave. This is the basic cycle of my life. But today, I woke up a little earlier than usual. I woke up, but not at the sound of the bell. I go downstairs. It''s even earlier today. The innkeeper is probably still preparing the food. The innkeeper, who was cleaning, called out to me. I wondered when he was sleeping. Do you have a recommendation for a restaurant that is still open at this hour? At any rate, I ask him. You have some money to spare, and sometimes you want to eat a meal at a restaurant other than the one next door (it''s important to note that you don''t want to be exposed to the loud voice of the old man at the restaurant every morning. If you''re looking for a place to eat near the guild, that''s probably a good idea. It''s a little bit expensive, but there''s a restaurant for adventurers with unstable activity hours, and it''s not as good as the one next to ours, but it''s good. I''d recommend the adventurer''s set menu, it varies from day to day, but it''s good. A restaurant near the guild, or maybe a set meal restaurant?¡¡Let''s go there for now. We''ve reached the guild. There is indeed a restaurant open, so we go in. I''m not sure if it''s the one the innkeeper mentioned, but there is no other restaurant open. It must be this restaurant. Come in! I felt betrayed. It is true that this restaurant is different from the one next to the inn. The owner was also a woman, unlike the neighboring restaurant. However, there was no difference in the volume of her voice, so I could not expect the quiet meal I had hoped for. No, the volume has not changed much, in fact it seems to have worsened. The owner''s voice is lower than a standard woman''s. She is tall and well-proportioned, and looks manly, but she is a woman. Naturally, her voice is higher than that of the owner of the restaurant. That''s why her voice stings my ears even at the same volume. Give me back my peace of mind. "Oh, adventurer''s set meal, please. ...... I order from the innkeeper''s recommended menu, completely depressed. The price is 100 Tel. Naturally, I get a response. "Hey there! is the reply. The innkeeper was kind enough to give me two ! mark on it. You''re welcome. As usual in this world, the food comes out fast, but it doesn''t soothe my broken heart. I try to eat. The menu consists of some kind of stir-fried meat and vegetables and bread. It''s not as good as the restaurant at the inn, but it''s good. The bread is similar to that served at the inn''s bakery, or rather, it seems to be the same. Maybe they buy from the same bakery. I paid the money and left the store, my heart but my stomach satisfied. "Thank you! Please stop. My life is already zero. I''m going to collect herbs. You should be able to collect herbs until midday. Then I''m going to have some food and pick up my gear. It''s nice to eat in the forest because you can relax. Thanks to the tentacles, I don''t have to be so careful. Looking forward to the meal, you continue to gather herbs today. When I find a herb, I run up to it, crouch down, snap it off from the root, and store it while standing up to move on. This takes about 3.5 seconds. I''m used to the work, I''m even skilled at it, but I wonder if my speed is a little slow because of the tension. Anyway, I just keep collecting Zunana grass. After about an hour of collecting, I found something that caught my attention. It''s zunnanakusa. But it''s not just zunnanakusa. It''s about 12 cm long, and although the price is lower, it''s at a level where you can buy it. But there is no ¨‹ mark on it. This may not be zunnanakusa, but it may have some value. I will try to evaluate it without picking it. Zunnanakusa (immature, useful) Description: An immature herb. It has hemostatic and potentiating effects. It has a hemostatic effect and a potentiating effect. The potentiating effect may refer to the fact that it becomes more effective when mixed with other medicinal ingredients. If there are useful things, there may also be useless things. I would like to see the useless ones, so I think only of the immature forms of zunana grass. Since it is not good to overexploit even the small ones, I will leave the immature zunnanakusa alone. The mark has increased. There are about ten times as many as zunana plants. I''ll try to identify the closest one other than the one I''ve just seen. Zunana plant (immature, useless) Description: Unripe Zunana plant. Causes diarrhea and stomachache if taken orally. Hmm? Isn''t this a description of dokuzunana? But in the appraisal window it says "Zunana plant". If I don''t believe this, I don''t know what I''m supposed to believe. Does a useless, immature zunana plant change into a dokuzunana? Or is it a completely different kind of immature plant that turns into a useful one as it matures? Considering that the guild does not buy plants smaller than 10 cm, it may be the latter. Dokuzunana may have been a mutation that caused it to grow in a poisonous state in the past, but now that it is no longer eaten by animals, it has multiplied. I don''t know why the stems are square, though. And that''s all for now. I came here to pick zunnanakusa. I change the display to show an image of ordinary zunana grass. The lowered tension seems to have returned, and my speed has increased slightly. Several hours passed as I continued to gather herbs. The sun was almost overhead, signaling noon. I sat down and took out a loaf of bread from the item box. After all, it is good to eat in peace. The forest soothes me with its tranquil atmosphere that I can''t believe it was ravaged by the herb gatherers just a moment ago. Now that I''m back in the swing of things, I decide to head back to the guild to pick up my gear, and head up the gentle slope of the forest to the guild as usual. The Zunana grass is not a burden, but it would be better to deliver it quickly. When I entered the guild, I found Sally at the counter. One of the two windows is occupied by other adventurers, but luckily hers is empty. Hello, I''m here to deliver some herbs. I only have until noon today, so I''m a little short. You take the herb from the item box and place it on the counter. The item box was labeled 252. Yes. That''s not much. That''s only 252. That''ll be 7560 Tel. As if she had given up, Sally disposed of the zunana grass as usual, and handed me the coins. I feel bad as I toss it into the item box. It wasn''t much, after all. I leave the guild, thinking that maybe I should have picked up a few more. Anyway, I need to get the wand. So I head to the wand shop. It''s that loli wizard''s store. "Excuse me, is your wand ready? There was a loli wizard, so I called out to him. "Pfft, pfft ...... "Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft. You''re a rude loli. Well, she''s a loli, so I forgive her. "Oh, excuse me, I was just... The wand is already in place. The wand is already ready. It will only increase your magic speed by about 2.5 times, so you''d still be better off running up to it and using it as a melee weapon. The loli wizard then takes out a small wand from the box. I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I think it''s a good idea. It''s such a delicate size. Thank you, that''s all I need. "Thank you, that will be enough. There is a vertical joint near the middle, and it is heavy for wood. I wonder if there is an iron core in it. There is still some time before I receive the armor. I should go and test the power of this staff. I think the guild has a request to kill it, but I don''t want to hunt long enough to accept the request. I''ll go into the forest and gather herbs while going a little deeper. If you find a green dog, you can cast a spell on it. Equip your shield again, grab your staff, and go out into the forest. You fire a spear of rock for a test. Obviously the spell is flying faster than before. It must have been about 100km/h. If I use a wand like the one the loli wizard had, will it be a spell that lands the moment it is cast? I don''t know if I''ll use it, but I''d like to have a long wand just in case. I''ll get around to it. As for the armor, it occurred to me that I don''t need to shoot the spell at the monster from the top of the fur, I could just cast it directly into its body. I thought of this and tried to make a rock spear appear directly in the tree, but I couldn''t do it. It seemed to be impossible even if a part of the generated area overlapped with the tree. It''s a pity, but it''s a good thing that I found out that it''s impossible. I left my right hand open and used it to collect herbs. As I proceeded to the back while gathering herbs, the tentacles caught the reaction of the green dogs. There is only one of them. You quickly fire a rock spear at its head. The rock spear, which was about the same size as before, flew at the green dog much faster than before, but it still shattered when it hit. Tetteret! I leveled up. It was a bad hit and the green dog was killed in a single blow, but judging from the injuries, it seems that the increased speed doesn''t change the power. It was getting dark, so I headed back to town. My MP had increased by 500 after all. Name: Suzumiya Kaede Age / Race / s*x : 20 / Human / Male Level: 4 HP:141/141 MP:2011/2512 STR:28 INT:60 AGI:37 DEX:49 Skills: Information Manipulation Analysis (Concealment), Complete Mastery of Otherworldly Languages (Concealment), Magical Qualities, Martial Arts Qualities, Otherworldly (Concealment), Affinity for All Attributes (Concealment), Fire Magic 3, Earth Magic 3, Water Magic 3, Pressure Magic 1, Perception Magic 4, Restoration Magic 2 I think my speed on the road back to the city has increased because my AGI has increased. I don''t know how much it''s increased. I guess I didn''t go as far as I thought I would because of the herb gathering, but I soon arrived at the city. I heard the bell ringing. Best timing. Instead of smashing through the gate ...... at the same speed, you show your guild card and go inside, aiming for the armor shop. Hello, I''m here to pick up my armor. "Yes, it''s ready. Try it on. Try on the armor. The structure of the armor was completely different from that of Japanese clothes, but somehow I understood how to put it on. The structure of the armor is completely different from that of Japanese clothes, but somehow I understand how to equip it. I check if I can move smoothly with the leather armor on. It felt right. It''s fine. It feels good. "Okay, come back to my store if you need anything else. Of course I''ll charge you. Okay, I''ll leave you to it. With that, I went back to the inn with the armor on, and experimented in my room with something I was curious about. I thought to myself, "I''d like to store my armor in the item box. You do. Now you want to equip the armor instead of taking it out. This is also done. The same thing seems to be possible with shields. You can use this to move lightly and change quickly in battle. Like a magical girl. Well, in the case of magical girls, they can move faster in battle gear. Anyway, I put all my gear in the item box (keeping my clothes, of course) and go out to eat. The loud voices of old men at the restaurant do not bother me much in the evening. I ate my food with a tolerant heart and went back to the inn to sleep. Tomorrow I''ll accept a request to kill a monster in earnest. 15 Episode 14 Ranks and Hordes Today I woke up to the sound of bells. I ate a good meal and went to the guild, enduring the high tension as usual. I take a look at the F-rank requests for defeat and extermination. Hmm? What''s the difference between a kill request and an extermination request? Sally was nowhere to be found today, so I asked a random receptionist nearby. It would be rude to call her random, but... Excuse me, I have a question. "Yes, what is it? What''s the difference between a request for defeat and a request for extermination? They''re both requests to kill demons, right? How do they distinguish between them? Is it the strength of the demon? But there was no particular distinction between the two depending on the rank of the request. Yes, that''s right, basically you don''t have to accept a request to kill a demon. It doesn''t matter where the demon was defeated, and it doesn''t matter if some time has passed since the demon was defeated. This is mainly for demons that are more likely to cause damage if their numbers increase. I think it says that you don''t have to accept the request to defeat it. That was a blind spot. If you''re not sure what you''re looking for, you may want to check with your local library. You can''t kill a monster that has been killed before. Naturally, the reward is higher than that for the same monster, because of the restriction. If there is a request for extermination, they will do it, if not, they will do it. "Even if I kill a demon in a place that is the target of an extermination request, will I still be able to fulfill the extermination request? In short, if the demon disappears from the place, it''s fine. Yes, it can''t be accomplished. We have no way of knowing if this is true or not. If you have received the order, the guild card will tell you if you have accomplished the request, but if you haven''t received the order, it will only tell you when you killed the monster. The original guild card, which was made in the old days, seemed to know where the monster was defeated, but unfortunately, the guild card does not reproduce that much. In other words, the reason why extermination requests require an order is because the incomplete function of the guild card cannot determine if a previously defeated demon is the subject of the request. If this function is applied, it might be useful for interrogation. For example, you could have the player accept a request to "tell me what you think", and then bombard him with questions while observing his guild card. It may not be useful for getting people to talk, but it may be useful for judging the truth of what they say when they do. Well, that''s none of my business. I don''t want to be interrogated. "All right. I''ll go check on the request. Okay. Have a good day. I go through the requests again. However, there was no F-rank extermination request. I wonder if it''s because they don''t want to leave urgent requests to an F-rank. Instead, there were requests to kill Green Wolf and Big Mouth. I got the rewards when I was G rank, but I wonder if the rank doesn''t matter. I guess it doesn''t matter if you don''t need to get them, because the requests you can get are within your rank. It would be interesting to kill the demons listed in the C-rank requests and report them, but there is no need to take unnecessary risks. Besides, even if I could rise through the ranks in such a way, it doesn''t mean it would be a good thing. Even if I have high magic and other specs, I''m not an experienced adventurer. There will be requests that require such things. Let''s just go with it. ............! So I''m going into the forest without accepting any requests, since I''m only going to do requests for killing. I''ll show you the power of the magic barrage! Well, I don''t want to run into a situation where the barrage will come into play too much. Today, I''m heading deeper into the forest without gathering any herbs. After ten minutes of running, using the speed I''ve gained by leveling up, I finally encounter the first dog. A green dog. I put on my gear from the item box and fire a rock spear at it, deliberately missing its vital point. Now that I''m up to the next level, I should check its power while I still have time. The rock spear that I randomly shot at the body pierced the green dog at a higher speed than before and shattered it. However, the green dog seemed to have already suffered a fatal wound and only twitched its legs. While I was watching, the green dog seemed to have died, so I put it in the item box and moved on. It seems that demons, including Green Dog, have magic stones inside their bodies, but I have yet to see one. I have never seen a magic stone. Also, it seems that magic stones are not sold in their original state in general stores, and small ones are crushed and used as batteries for magic tools, while large ones are processed as they are. Well, I don''t feel like dismantling a green dog just to see it. I don''t think I''ll get a chance to use this sword yet. I''d like to use it, but I don''t think it''s a good idea to waste it. As I walked deeper into the forest, five green dogs appeared at once. I fired five rock spears at them and killed them immediately. My INT didn''t increase by much, but the green dogs were dying in an interesting way. I guess the wand has made it easier to aim, but this is very useful. Thanks to this, I don''t have to use my sword at all. Just as I''m about to start stripping, I notice a large number of reactions on the left side of the tentacles. You quickly turn your head to the left and see a bunch of green dogs. How many are there? I don''t know. I don''t even want to count them. How do I escape? ....... If I tried to burn them all down with a fireball, I''d have a forest fire on my hands. ....... There are so many of them, but they are finite, unless they come from spawn blocks or something. It''s better to reduce the number for now. So, take out a potion of accelerated magic recovery from the item box, open it, and chug it. Opening the potion was done by image. Then I started shooting rock spears with all my magic power. The pack of green dogs fell down, but I stepped over them and came closer and closer. The fanfare of leveling up echoed in my head continuously. As you hit, you make the most of your tentacles to find obstacles and retreat. But the violence of numbers is a terrible thing, and a few green dogs appear, having escaped the rock spears. And while you''re dealing with them, they close the distance between you and them. Through this repetition, the distance between you and them has become much smaller. The density of the green dogs seems to be decreasing, but there are still many of them. There are only about two meters left. In the beginning, there must have been five times as many as this. Suddenly, one of the green dogs jumps out at your face. I quickly thrust my right sword into it. I felt a thud, and the sword pierced the green dog''s neck. It was my first time using a sword, but for some reason, the sword went in unexpectedly easily. He then pulled the sword straight out without hesitation and held it at the upper level. The rock spear was still firing with all its might. The momentum does not seem to be waning. --I can go, I thought, amidst the background music of the slightly slowing fanfare and the barking of the green dog. I stopped retreating and stayed where I was. I stopped using my rock spear to kill the approaching enemies and decided to reduce their numbers by running straight into the pack as much as possible. Cut down two approaching green dogs at once. As the power of the rock spear increased with level, so did its penetrating power, and the rock spear was now capable of skewering two green dogs with a single blow. The sword is also incomparable to what it was at the beginning of the battle. The sword, which had initially lost a lot of momentum just by killing one green dog due to its increased skill, strength, and speed, now could slice through three green dogs at once and still retain its momentum. The relentless barrage of powerful rock spears and swords made the initially seemingly hopeless battle with the green dogs seem a little more manageable. As the corpses piled up, it became easier to be attacked from above, so I retreated little by little and just kept slashing at the green dogs. I knocked down a green dog from the left with my shield, swung my sword to the left to stop it, and swung my sword to the right to cut in half the upper body of two green dogs that had attacked me at once. I look to the side where the pack was coming from, but all I see is a series of dead green dogs. There are no more biological responses left on the tentacles except my own. I''ve won, against the green dog pack. Now, after the fight comes the cleanup. I have to collect these things. I realize that I don''t need to touch them, so I lightly step on the corpse of the green dog and store it in the item box. As I store them, I look at my status. I don''t remember the number of fanfares, as I was so absorbed in the game that they were just background music. Name: Suzumiya Kaede Age / Race / s*x : 21 / Human / Male Level: 17 HP:631/631 MP:755/9112 STR:90 INT:148 AGI:112 DEX:124 Skills: Information Manipulation Analysis (Concealment), Complete Mastery of Otherworldly Languages (Concealment), Magical Qualities (Concealment), Martial Arts Qualities (Concealment), Otherworldly (Concealment), All Attribute Affinity (Concealment), Fire Magic 3 Earth Magic 3 Water Magic 3 Pressure Magic 1 Perception Magic 4 Restoration Magic 2 Swordsmanship 2 My skill level has not increased, but my status has increased rapidly as my level has increased. My magic level will increase as I develop it, so it won''t be a problem even if it doesn''t increase along with my level. Maybe. My MP seems to have been in a bit of danger, but that fight that seemed like an eternity actually lasted about three minutes. If I had run out of MP without realizing it, I might have been in danger. But it was a fruitful three minutes, that''s for sure. I''ve finished collecting them. It seems there were 513 green dogs. Considering that the battle lasted about three minutes, that means I was killing less than 200 per minute, or about 3.5 per second. The number of rock spears fired per second should be about 14, so even if we don''t consider the slashes, 4 spears would have killed 1 fish. He might have wasted his spears on those who were already dead. This remains as an issue. As I was feeling very tired, I decided to go back without going any further. And then I look at my hands and realize. I''m covered in blood. Even though my clothes don''t get dirty easily, it''s only natural that I''m covered in blood. But I can''t just go home like this. Maybe I should find a river and bathe in it with my clothes. And then I realized. Why don''t I just wear a water magic mask? For the time being, flush the equipment with water and store it in the item box. There is an item box that won''t take long to clean, so it''s better to leave it to the experts than to let amateurs clean it. The wand doesn''t seem to need any maintenance, so I''m going to leave it as it is. So I''m going to cover my head with water magic like a hose. It''s like a shower coming out from 30cm above your head. The water will be poured over your body as well. For some reason, this is the only way to wash the clothes in this world. And they dry quickly. I''ve finished taking a shower. Your clothes are still wet, but they will be dry on the way back. On the way back to the city, my speed has increased considerably. It was obvious that the scenery was flying backwards at a faster speed than before. After about ten minutes, I arrived at the gate. The gatekeeper who was checking my guild card didn''t look particularly strange, so I''m sure I''m not dressed that strangely now. It''s Eine! I''m back! 16 Episode 15 Maintenance and Materials Well, first of all, I have to report to the guild. Open the door of the guild as usual and talk to Sally. Hello, I''m here to report a request. "Hello, I''m here to report a request for the defeat of the Green Wolf. "Yes, please give me your guild card. Have you killed about 700 wolves today? Sally takes the guild card, laughs, and makes a rather accurate guess. But the actual number is 513, including the ones we met along the way. That''s a margin of error of less than 30%. There weren''t that many. That''s 513. I feel defeated. I should''ve looked for 200 more. I need to find another swarm. "Is ......?¡¡Yes, 513 of them. By the way, where the hell did you get this green wolf from? Seeing my frustrated face, Sally smiles more and more. The smile seems a little unnatural, but I''m sure it''s just my imagination. A little over ten minutes into the forest, we came upon a large pack of green wolves. There were about this many of them while I was rooting them out with magic and swords and stuff. When Sally heard my story, she looked at me a little quizzically. "Green wolves are ......?¡¡Is there only one pack? Yes, there is, but is there anything else? No. Green wolves don''t normally form packs that large. A pack of five or so at most, and occasionally a pack of a hundred or so has been discovered, perhaps as a result of a good leader, but I''ve never heard of a pack of five hundred. In other words, I was pretty unlucky. ...... Or was it good? I was able to defeat them eventually and figure out how to fight them. If I hadn''t, I probably wouldn''t be here, so I guess it''s a blessing in disguise. Anyway, I''ll settle up. There were 513 of them, so that''s 5130 Tells. By the way, do you want to sell the Green Wolf''s corpse? "Yes. I''m thinking of selling them all, but do I go to the counter over there? I''d appreciate it if you could refrain from selling them all right now. The guild has facilities to store some foodstuffs to keep them from spoiling, but we don''t have that much capacity. It''s a guild rule, so if you still want to sell them, we''ll have to buy them from you, but can you limit it to around 100?¡¡You can use the magic stones, but it''s a waste to let the meat rot, and it''s not good for hygiene. ...... That''s true. Not everyone has an item box. Of course, storing foodstuffs and transporting them to other cities is not an easy task. I don''t have anything against the guild, and I''m not in need of money, so I''ll comply. "All right. So, 100 of them are at the counter? "Yes, this way, please. Sally moves to the purchase counter. I put the green wolf corpses on the counter, starting with the ones in good condition, but Ms. Sally is throwing them all into something near her feet. There must be some kind of storage (?) slot at her feet. I wonder if there is a storage (?) slot at her feet. It might be reasonable, if you think about it. After handing over the 100 fish, I return to the counter and receive the money. Each fish costs 200 Tel, so that''s 25,130 Tel. I thank him and leave the guild. Now all that''s left is the blacksmith. The armor was not damaged by the attack, and the dirt came off easily. However, the shield and sword seem to have been abused quite a bit, so I''ll have them checked out. I didn''t notice any increase in resistance when swinging my sword, but I can''t rely on that since my STR was going up and up during the fight. I opened the door to Mr. Dverag''s store. Mr. Dverag was unusually tending to his store. Hello, I''ve been using my sword and shield a lot in battle, and I''d like to have them serviced. Let me see them. "Here they are. Here they are. Mr. Dverag observes and pokes at the sword and shield, but eventually hands them back to me. The shield is in no need of repair. The core of the sword isn''t warped, but the blade needs to be resharpened. Can I have 500? "Yes, that''s fine. Say so and offer 50 copper coins. The item box counted them. Okay, I''ll be done in about half an hour, what do you want me to do? "Well, there''s nothing much to do, so I''ll just keep looking. "Okay. Mr. Dverag moved to the workshop and started sharpening his sword. "You''re pretty good with a sword, after all. It''s not like you can hunt them all in two or three days. "How do you know? You can even tell what you fought with the sword? That''s the blacksmith. Yeah, pretty much. The fine scratches on the shield indicate that it must have been attacked, but when the shield is not distorted at all, that narrows it down to a certain degree, and then the scratches on the sword can almost identify it. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you.¡¡I''m not sure what to make of that. Kurosmith SUGEEEEEEEE!!! Yeah. That''s right. I think it''s because of my higher level that I can now cut them all down at once. "I see. ......, it''s done. Then he hands me the sword. The sword shines as bright as new. In fact, it may be slightly worn out. But I think you should change the sword sometime. A tempered iron sword is strong for an iron sword, but it''s only iron. It''s no match for superior monster materials or special metals. They''re expensive, though, so that''s only if you''re rich. That''s right. I would love to have such a sword when I have the materials or money. A sword made of dragon material would be romantic, and if it''s strong, it''s worth it. You''ll be able to use a sword made of those materials if you live, but in that case you''ll probably have to leave this town. There aren''t many people in this town. If you want a good sword or shield in another place, go to a dwarf store. Dwarves take pride in the weapons they make, and if a half-skilled man opens a store, they will try to crush him. It''s a stain on the pride of the Dwarves. So there''s no such thing as a bad dwarf blacksmith. Well, I''m the best of the bunch. Mr. Dwellerag laughs. He is a good man to introduce me to other good stores besides his own. "By the way, how much does a sword made from a dragon cost, ......? I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but it''s a good idea. I''m not sure if you''ll be able to find the right one for you. Dragons that aren''t sub dragons haven''t been found for hundreds of years, so you can''t get one. There are only a few national treasures. If there were real dragons, there''d be an uproar over the destruction of some country right now. They''re expensive! You can''t afford it! Besides, real dragons are said to destroy countries. Dragons are indeed of a different class. It''s super expensive! What kind of sword should I aim for then? "If it''s a sword that can cut properly and you want to switch to it, it should be around 5 million. In the event that you''re looking for the best way to get the most out of your business, you''re going to want to make sure that you''re getting the most out of your business. A sword made of all metal lizard metal is more durable, I mean, it won''t break or spill, but it''s about four times the price. The blade alone is stronger than the Aryu in terms of hardness and sturdiness, so I recommend it. It won''t set the person you cut on fire, though. I''m not sure what to make of it. I''m not sure what to make of that. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. I''ll ask. What''s Metal Lizard Metal? There''s a big B-ranked lizard called the Metal Lizard, and it''s called the Metal Lizard because its body is covered in an insanely hard metal. They sometimes appear out of nowhere, but if they appear in a town like this where there are few proper wizards, they can do a lot of damage. It''s covered with 4cm thick metal armor that can be used to make expensive weapons, so swords can''t penetrate it and shields are useless because it''s big, heavy and strong. It''s a monster famous for killing swordsmen. It''s armor is called Metal Lizard Metal. There are some scary things out there. Well, I doubt I''ll ever meet one. I thanked him and left the store. It''s still light, so I decide to pick up some Zunana grass and go home. I go out the gate again and enter the forest. I go about my business as usual, gathering herbs. After about five minutes of gathering, a green wolf appears. I silence him with a rock spear. Go back to gathering. The wolf makes a nice little noise as it pounces on the herbs. After about eight minutes, the green wolf appears again. I hit it again with my rock spear and collect it. At this rate, I continued to collect herbs and kill the green wolves that appeared, but I felt like there were too many green wolves. Well, it doesn''t matter as long as the income is high. I can''t sell them right now, but each green wolf, including the reward for killing it, is worth 210 ter, or seven herbs. They may be attracted by the smell of blood on your clothes which cannot be washed off. I take out one green wolf corpse and put it on the ground to resume gathering herbs. The green wolves still attacked me, but the number of them did not increase because I left a dead green wolf. I guess it doesn''t matter if it''s the smell of blood on my clothes or the smell of a real corpse, there''s always a smell. It was getting dark, so I decided to cut it short, have dinner, and go to bed. I guess I can pay up tomorrow. 17 Episode 16 Attacks and Encounters I finished my usual routine and walked down the road to the guild, but I felt something was wrong. I can''t say where, but the atmosphere is different from usual. The town is noisy, or rather, it seems to be buzzing. You reach the guild and enter. The guild was different from the usual one. All the counters, which are usually quite empty but always have one or two guild girls, were closed, and all the request boards had been removed. All the request boards were removed. There was no one except for a man with a cane standing there. The counter says, "An emergency has occurred. All adventurers who are able to fight should immediately assemble in front of the gate on the forest side. Something must have happened. At any rate, you leave the guild and head for the forest gate. Unlike usual, there is no gatekeeper, but instead, Sally and the other guild receptionists are standing near the gate with weapons. Around them are newcomers, I guess. The adventurers, who are not very big and do not have great weapons, are looking at the gate with nervous faces. In front of the gate, slightly off to the side, there is a long, thin mat about 2.5 meters wide, with two men who look like wizards standing near it. What''s going on? I asked Sally, who was standing nearby. Judging from the situation, it might have been a monster attack. It smells dangerous. Maybe yesterday''s green wolf pack was a sign of that. "Yes, the adventurers who went to investigate yesterday''s green wolf pack found a large number of them heading in the direction of this town. If it hadn''t been for that incident, more damage would have been done. Thank you very much. A blessing in disguise. Does this mean that the battle to defend Ein is about to begin? So we''re just supposed to defend the gate? No. There are many large demons in the herd, such as the Gargon, that are capable of rushing forward, so even if we only guard the gates, the walls will be breached. The walls here are not as thick as in the Fortress City. So, leave the gates to the new adventurers, and go out to the front lines and kill as many monsters as you can. In order to protect the city, it is important to gain enough distance to retreat. Of course, you will be rewarded according to the number of monsters you defeat. The price will be a flat rate, three times the reward for a normal kill request, or double the market rate based on past extermination requests if there are no kill requests. Okay, I guess I''ll just have to fight my way to the front. But I''m not ....... I''m just a newcomer to the guild.¡¡Don''t I have to stay in the back? I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one who''s had to deal with this. I can''t let her play here just because she hasn''t registered yet. I''m embarrassed to say that the guild in this town is not full of strong adventurers, and to put it bluntly, we are a weak branch, so we don''t have enough strength for a raid of this magnitude. So please leave as soon as possible. Are you ready to go? "Yes, I have a complete set in my item box, so I''m ready to go. With that, I put together my sword, armor, and shield from the item box and grabbed my short staff. It''s not been long since I''ve been in this town, but I''m still attached to it. If I can prevent the city from being attacked, I''ll do my best to help. And I don''t want to feel the same way I did after the car accident on Earth. All right. You''re the main class in this attack, so please make sure you don''t get injured and leave the front line. "Yes, I''m off. Yes, I''ll be there." He said and ran off. It''s a very strict request not to get injured while stepping forward, but I suppose it''s because they expect a lot from me. Well, we can expect to increase our level, so let''s go deep into the forest, killing as many enemies as we can. If you''re slightly injured, you can use healing magic to get by. On the contrary, defeating enemies will make you safer as your level increases. It''s better to level up as much as you can before strange enemies appear. It would be nice if only green wolves appeared in the game. ....... Drink a potion to accelerate your magic recovery while running. This will increase the speed of your magic recovery, but it''s best to save it while you can. There is a lot of magic power, but it is not inexhaustible. At full power, you''ll recover about 910 seconds plus recovery, or about 1.5 MP per second. First of all, I found the first pack of five Green Wolves, so I changed my running direction and ran straight into them, cleaving them with my sword. With one sword, the two on your right will have their upper bodies sliced open, and with the next sword, you''ll slice through the green dog that was looking for an opportunity along with the one that jumped at you from the left. With his next sword, he slices through a green dog that was watching for an opportunity along with one that jumped at him from the left. If you don''t have time to collect the corpse of the remaining green dog, you''d better run forward. I run further. Ahead of you are two pig-like creatures with fierce-looking faces. You cut through them as you pass each other and keep going. As I slice through the pigs, I think I see another adventurer diagonally to my right, but it doesn''t matter. All I had to do was kill the ones I could find. No mercy. It''s like a frifo in a FPS. Now a pack of green dogs. For a moment I thought about casting a fire spell, but I''m afraid of wildfire. I don''t want to waste time putting out fires, so I decide to use my rock spears. I fire seven spears toward the front of the pack, and use my shield and sword to deal with the incoming pack. I''ll use my sword to kill the ones that my right hand can reach, and use my rock spear to kill the green dogs that my sword can''t reach due to time or location issues. The sound of leveling up echoed. The sound of leveling up echoes. It''s not so much a background music as it is a sound. This time, the herd wasn''t as big as last time, and I killed it quickly. You can only level up once. I decided to keep going. In order to protect the city, you have to move forward. There are limits, of course, but basically all the monsters running toward us in the forest are enemies. After a short run, there was a slightly larger reaction this time. When I looked, I saw a boar about 1.5 meters tall charging toward me. I wondered if it was a Gargon. It was quite fast and huge, but it was a boar and probably not good at turning. In the first place, I can''t imagine an animal of that size and speed being able to turn with such agility. I don''t have time to evaluate it. So, I generated seven rock spears at once, put in an additional 0.5 seconds of magic, and when the distance between me and the boar was about 5 meters, I released them and flew to the right as fast as I could. It seems that Gargon is not good at turning. The boar passes by on my left. I wondered what I would do if I had successfully turned. I''ll take the opportunity to evaluate it. Gargon RANK:C HP 2252/3500 MP 0/0 STR:251 INT:1 AGI:63 DEX:3 Skills I guess demons are brainy. But STR is high. If you get run over, it''s likely to be a disaster. It also has a lot of HP and is tough. Seven spears of rock with more than twice the magic power of normal spears, and you still have almost two-thirds of your HP left. I observed Gargon with the intention of hitting him with another spear of rock when he rushed at me again, but something was wrong. He tried to turn toward me, but his legs got tangled and he fell down. I thought he was playing dead or something, so I appraised him, but his HP had dropped to zero. That''s just as well, considering. If Gargon was hit by an attack that took almost 30% of his HP right away, he would have bled to death in no time. In this world, unlike in games, it is not enough that your HP does not drop to zero. If you are injured, your HP will decrease. Store the Gargon in the item box, then proceed further. It would be a shame to proceed without picking it up. Gargon has a high rank and is one of the monsters most likely to destroy the wall. You should destroy it as much as you can. Generate 9 rock spears, put 10 magic power into each spear, and let them float. If you hit Gargon in the head with one of these, he will probably die. Kick the ground as hard as you can and leap to find your prey. It''s easier to see from a height than from the tentacles. I found my prey. Two Gargons are running on a course about 10 meters to my left. I hit them with my rock spear ahead of them and the gargons died instantly. The spear must have reached their brains. The sound of a "tetteret" echoed. As far as I could see when I jumped, there were no more monsters the size of Gargon, but they all seemed to be running from a similar direction. It might be even easier to find prey over there. I stowed the Gargon in the item box and started running in that direction. Sure enough, the demons came at me from the other side. I destroyed the green wolves and pigs with my sword and my newly created spear of rock, and gave Gargon a large spear of rock. That''s how I''ve been running, but I haven''t found any demons in the last five minutes of running. I was wondering if I''d gone too far, if I should go back. Then I heard a disturbing sound: "Gyoaaaaaaaaaaaaa...... As I wonder if I''ve gone too far or if I should go back, I hear a disturbing sound, or rather, a roar. Could it be that the demons that attacked the city were fleeing from him? I think I''ll run back, but I''d better report what kind of demon it is. I jump up once to figure out the source of the roar. There''s some kind of silvery mass reflecting the sun''s rays, and it''s moving toward me. I jump up again and activate my appraisal. Metal Lizard RANK:B HP 2798/2800 MP 0/0 STR:1237 INT:4 AGI:163 DEX:6 Skill: Metal Armor You have a skill . You have a skill: Metal Armor. Your HP is low for your rank, but your armor (skill) probably prevents damage from getting through. ...... Ah, our eyes met. I''m not sure what to do. I''m not sure what to do. I''m not sure if I''ll be able to get away with it. For now, I''ll try to escape by dashing. Oh no, it''s following me. What should I do? 18 Episode 17 Combat and Armor Now, I''ve been teased by a strange thing (Metal Lizard). The other side is faster, but the difference in speed is not that great. For the time being, I ran away in a different direction from the city to buy some time and think about what to do. I took off all my gear to increase my speed. What did Mr. Dverag say? I''m pretty sure it''s hard to beat a wizard in a town like this where there aren''t many strong wizards. I think I can get around that by using as much magic as most wizards. And I''m big, hard, heavy, and strong, so swords won''t penetrate and shields won''t do any good. So, if there''s a wizard, how do we defeat it? You didn''t say. I barely even know how a normal wizard uses magic. So what to do? Option one, run. The city would be badly damaged, there''s no wizard strong enough to run away, and if we survive, we could be killed for dragging this thing into town. Rejected. Option two, possessions. Nothing that could be of use. Rejected. Option three, fight, that''s it. Now, how are we going to fight it? Fortunately, it doesn''t have much HP, so its armor probably isn''t that tough. Even a rock spear for Gargon would be enough to kill it. However, it would be difficult to do so because it is said to be a swordsman killer. Now, what is the advantage of a wizard over a swordsman? Probably, there are some reasons why a wizard can manage it. First, distance. They can attack from a certain distance and are less likely to be attacked. Then there are special attacks and attacks with high power. I don''t know about the rest of you, but at least fire and water are the privilege of wizards. You have recovered almost all of your MP so far, and the recovery is quite large. You can also use recovery spells, so there is a good chance that you can recover from a non-fatal attack. It''s better to try different things. If other wizards can do it, I should be able to do it in some way. If you need 1000 wizards, it''s impossible, but I don''t think it''s that much for B rank. The Metal Lizard looks like a huge, silvery, stocky lizard with a tough frontal armor, but the back armor looks smooth and flat. It was about 2.5 meters tall and 10 meters long. If it were a tank, its frontal armor would be thicker, but Mr. Dveragh didn''t say which part of its armor was thicker, and since we couldn''t see anything other than the front, I''d like to believe that its frontal armor wasn''t particularly thick. The first step is to take out only your staff while running, and generate a rock spear while continuing to run away. It seems that it is impossible to use a swordsman''s sword, but how about a rock spear with a lot of MP? You run for about a minute, putting in 10 magic power per second. The distance that seemed to be about 150m at first has shrunk to about 100m. The spear of rock that had absorbed about 600 magic power became 2.1 meters long and 50 cm thick. It flew at a speed of about 100km/h. Both I and the metal lizard are running as fast as a car on a public road, but the lizard is a little faster, so the relative speed may be higher. It doesn''t seem to have anything to do with its power, though. The rock spear landed soon after it was fired. But the spear shattered, and the metal lizard didn''t flinch or slow down. No luck. Fire magic is next. There''s a chance that the lower armor is weaker, so I''m going to bet on that and fire slightly lower this time. And it might tip over off balance. I run for another minute or so, recharging my fireball. The distance between you and the rock spear is about 40 meters. There is no change in appearance, but the radius of the explosion will probably be 10 times larger. The explosion is about seven meters in diameter. There''s no point in getting caught in the explosion by charging any further, so I quickly release it. The fireball hits the lizard in the lower jaw and explodes. You turn around while running in the same direction as before. I couldn''t see what was going on behind me because of the smoke. "Gyoaaaaaaaaaaa...... The roar of the Metal Lizard echoed in the battlefield as the forest ended and the battle moved to the grassland. ...... You did it! The next thing you know, a lizard jumps out of the smoke. I don''t feel like it''s working at all. The distance was only about 30 meters, and I had used up all my moves. I thought it might be possible, so I sprayed it with water, but it still had no effect. The water-soaked armor was glistening in the sunlight. Then it could be a magic I don''t know about. There was a way. Since ancient times, in Japan, the strongest attribute of metal is electricity. If it''s electric, it might be able to pierce the lizard regardless of its armor. And since there is no more distance between us, we change direction and try to escape further. Change direction to the right and avoid the rush. You succeed. It seems that the lizard is not very good at changing direction, so it makes a U-turn and comes towards me. I use the spell as if electricity is going towards the lizard. I didn''t feel like my MP was being used up. I remembered that I couldn''t use the ice spear when I tried to use it in the past. While I was thinking about this, the lizard caught up with me again. Once again, this time I tried to avoid it by turning to the left, but unfortunately the hem of my clothes got caught in the lizard''s left leg. I was blown off at once and crashed into a tree and stopped. Thanks to my status, I don''t think I''m fatally injured, but I feel like my ribs and arms are broken. Use recovery magic to heal them both. It took about five seconds, but I was cured. However, thanks to the time loss, the lizard had finished changing direction and was chasing me again. In a panic, I change my direction to face the lizard rather than perpendicular to it, and distance myself from it again. But my attacks are not getting through. I''m running out of time. I haven''t used up that much MP, and my body doesn''t seem to tire easily, but my mind does. If I move too slowly due to mental fatigue, I may get run over. No matter how powerful my recovery spell is, it can''t cure instant death. I have to come up with a way for the attack to work. Do you have any ideas? I''ve got one simple idea. I''m going to stall for a while, and then I''m going to put a giant rock spear through the armor. It''s also called "Goryoshi". It''s simple, but easy to understand, and has a high attack power. Even though he is a warrior-killer, it is not unlikely that he cannot resist the overwhelming momentum. Generate a rock spear and start putting magic into it. I''m going to plunge about 3,000. As the lizard approaches again, I change direction to the right and dodge. Keep dodging as if you''re working to buy time. I don''t get tired, but the lizards don''t show any signs of fatigue either. It''s not so easy. When I forgot how many times I changed direction, I finally spent 3000 MP. The rock spear was three and a half meters long and about one meter thick. It was now a pillar. He was distracted by the rock spear''s ejection, so he dodged to the right, but released it. --The rock spear is now a pillar. At the same time, he was kicked in the right shoulder. It was almost like we were shooting at each other. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and heard a dull thud in the air as I flew forward. I bounced on the ground a couple of times and finally stopped. I couldn''t raise myself up, so I used a recovery spell and then raised myself up. --The distance between us was about 100 meters because I was blown away, but the Metal Lizard was definitely running toward us. You get up and run away, but try to appraise the Metal Lizard again. Metal Lizard RANK:B HP 2797/2800 MP 0/0 STR:1237 INT:4 AGI:163 DEX:6 Skill: Metal Armor You''ve only taken 1 after all that work, you d*mn lizard! You''re only one rank higher than Gargon, a B rank, so why are you so strong? ....... A hard, heavy, big product like you would be easy ...... if it weren''t for your shitty hard armor. I''m not sure what to say. Wait a minute. You''re saying we could just smash through that metal armor? Yeah, that armor''s hard as shit, but it''s metal. Then we might have a shot. I charge the spell on the run. My body, perfectly healed by the healing spell, feels much better than it did a moment ago when I couldn''t even stand up. I won''t be so stingy with the 3000 magic this time. I''m going to use up all of my magic, leaving only 1000 for emergencies. You have about 6,000 magic power left, including your recovery. If you run away for 10 minutes, you''ll have about 1000 left after recovery. I''m getting used to the lizard''s movements. It probably won''t catch up with you when you cast your spells. Taking advantage of the fact that I''m not tired, I continue to buy more time. If this doesn''t work, I''ll have to use every bit of MP I have left to create a spell. In that case, I''m not sure if my spirit will last. It may be one or two hours, but if you''re playing tag for ten hours, you''re not going to be able to concentrate. Ten minutes have passed. I pull the Metal Lizard in close and use all my leg power to avoid the rush. The direction, of course, is up. I figured it couldn''t attack me from above because of my heavy body. My body passes about 70cm above the Metal Lizard. Below me I can see the sleek back armor of the Metal Lizard. I reach out my hand to that back armor. At this point, the distance between my hand and the back armor of the Metal Lizard is less than 30cm. This is near the limit of the distance at which magic can be cast without loss. From that position, I activate the spell that I have been charging. The spell to be cast is a pressure spell deployed in a circle with a radius of about 3cm. A thumping sound is heard, and a hole is made in the Metal Lizard''s armor with a radius clearly larger than 3cm. "Gyoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa............ The Metal Lizard cries out, but its voice soon becomes quiet and inaudible. £ÜTettere! It seems to have finally died. ...... Victory! The corpse was stored in the item box. The dead body was stored in the item box, although it must have been quite heavy. The item box''s storage capacity is a mystery. Now, let''s go home while hunting the remnants. Incidentally, I used a principle used in anti-tank shells such as HEAT shells, which says that if you apply a certain amount of pressure to a metal, it will behave as if it were a fluid, even if it is a hard metal. Originally, this phenomenon is caused by using specially processed gunpowder to shoot out a metal that itself behaves like a liquid by this phenomenon at a very high speed, but I thought it would be okay if I could apply pressure directly, so I tried it, and it was a great success. However, it was something I saw on wikipedia or something, and I had no proof of it. It seems that the Yugonio elastic limit (the pressure at which a solid becomes fluid) exists even for mysterious metals in other worlds. 19 Episode 18 Triumph and Determination Go back in the direction you came from. Just look for trees felled by metal lizards, or the ravaged ground. You won''t get lost. Now that I''m close to the spot where the Metal Lizard found me, I start to climb up the hill. Just then, a large number of Gargons appear ahead. They''re coming towards me. They''re a little too far away to be caught by the tentacles. You put more magic into the rock spear and pierce its head. Although I used the same amount of MP as before, the spear pierced deeper than before and still shattered. Thinking that this would only hurt the corpse unnecessarily, I decided to reduce the power next time. As he ran further, five more pig-like creatures appeared, and he hit the nearest one with his sword and killed it. Then, the remaining four pigs run away. I''m disappointed, but there''s not much need to kill a demon on its way to the other side of town, so I put its corpse in the item box and start running again. After another five minutes of running, a pack of Green Wolves arrived ......, but they bypassed me and ran away. I''m not sure if it''s because I''m tired or because I''m wasting my time. Well, to be honest, I''m tired, and it''s nice not to waste time fighting. I''ll just keep running. The oncoming monsters all avoided me, so there were no more battles. I finally arrived at the village about 20 minutes after defeating the Metal Lizard. "Kaede! You''re alive! Sally comes running up to me. I want to tell her not to kill me without permission. I want to tell her not to kill me without permission. ......, I''m alive as usual, but please don''t kill me without permission. The other adventurers say that the demons started retreating a long time ago, and the adventurers returned to the village, but only Kaede hasn''t come back!¡¡The other adventurers said that they saw someone who looked like Kaede running deep into the forest!¡¡What are you doing?¡¡I was worried about you! But I was told to fight as far forward as possible to gain enough distance to retreat. ...... I don''t remember saying anything like that. I just said that I wanted you to fight in the front line. I didn''t ask you to commit suicide by going out there alone. "Yeah, ....... I don''t remember if he said that or not, but I do remember him saying that. I''m not sure what to make of this. Suspected: ....... Well, actually, it''s probably my fault. I''m not sure what to make of it, but I''m sure it''s a good idea. "Oh, you encountered a Metal Lizard?¡¡We need to get some wizards together quickly, but there aren''t enough of them in this town, so we need reinforcements. ...... We''ll need reinforcements from ......." "Oh, ......, we defeated it, but it was a Metal Lizard. Hello? Huh! Looks like it''s back from the dead. I already killed the Metal Lizard. I think that''s why the demons retreated. Apparently, for a demon, its information network is quite fast. I''ve been running from the time I defeated the Metal Lizard to the time I got here, and it was quite a distance, but you managed to complete your retreat before I got here. I''m sure you''re a wizard with a sword. You can use fire magic, too.¡¡I''m sure you can use fire magic, but can you use wind magic? "Wind magic? I don''t remember using any such thing. In the first place, the spell I created to use wind magic was not wind magic, but pressure magic and perception magic. "Yes, didn''t you burn it with flames from above while floating with wind magic? I''m sure you''ll be able to figure it out. I don''t know what you''re talking about. There''s no way you can make a hole in a Metal Lizard''s armor. It''s not a Metal Lizard, it''s another demon, isn''t it? Where''s the body? Uh, it''s in the item box. Here. Then you place the corpse of the Metal Lizard out of the way near the gate from the item box. "Oh, that''s probably a real Metal Lizard. Where the hell did you get ...... from? You said item box, my item box is a bit large. I''m sure you''re not the only one. Sally''s eyes are wide open as if they are about to fall out. "''A little'' big''? I see. Okay. But there doesn''t seem to be a hole, is there?¡¡...... Yikes! He can''t see the hole, so he jumps on the metal lizard''s back and puts Sally down. I''m not sure what to do. I point to a neatly circular hole in the Metal Lizard''s back. I''ve never heard of a spell that could open such a thing. And please don''t lift it without permission. Sally''s face turns red. Are you scared?¡¡I wonder if she was that scared. I''m sorry. But you understand now, don''t you? "Yes. I understand you''re something other than a wizard. And please don''t put me down. I''ll climb down myself. With that, Sally begins to climb down the Metal Lizard''s back toward its tail. I''m sure you''ve heard of it, but I''m not sure how much magic it consumes. No, it''s more like a lot. Even a fire wizard''s magic power will run out. So, usually, you need about ten C-rank or higher wind and fire wizards each, and fire the whole shell. The armor is strong, but the inside is very weak. If they were also strong inside, they would be A-ranked, but since they are fragile inside and have no way to attack in the air, they are B-ranked. That''s tough. I don''t know what the rank of the wizard is, but it''s probably too many for Ein, who rarely gets a C rank request. I could probably manage on my own. Actually, I could. When I cast a fire spell at his feet, he was more focused on the explosion than the heat, so the heat must not have penetrated. "I see. I''ll do that next time. Can you fly? Well, we haven''t developed wind magic yet, but we''ll figure it out, I guess. I think I can handle it. I see. Let''s go report to the branch manager. With that, Sally ran off towards the guild. "Okay. Good luck with your work. I put the Metal Lizard away and send her off with a smile. What are you talking about, Kaede is coming too! What? Me too? About five minutes later, I entered the guild. We usually talk at the counter, but Ms. Sally goes to the back once, and then she comes out and takes me upstairs. Here. The door of the room where Ms. Sally stopped was labeled "Branch Manager''s Office". This was the first time I had ever been upstairs, let alone in a branch manager''s office. I''m getting a little nervous. Knock, knock. Ms. Sally knocked. I guess the culture of knocking hasn''t changed even in other worlds. "Come in. Ms. Sally opens the door and I go in. Ms. Sally closed the door without going in. There was an old man in the room with a scar around his eye. He was an old man, but a muscular old man. Suddenly, the old man moved. "I''m sorry! And then he bowed to me. I wonder why. What did I do? "Well, I don''t know, but please raise your head. I don''t remember him doing anything strange to me. It''s uncomfortable to be bowed down by a muscular old man. I don''t feel comfortable being bowed down by a muscular old man. "Well, but the abnormal behavior of demons has been reported for some time. It''s our fault that we couldn''t determine that it was a sign of a powerful demon attack. If you hadn''t killed the Metal Lizard, it would have taken us at least five days to get enough wizards to defeat it. You would have had to lead us in a different direction from the city, but there would have been many deaths. Thank you. Yeah. It took a lot of effort (physically) to kill the Metal Lizard, but it was worth it. It''s good that people are saved. I''m not going to force you to help me, but it''s good to help. "By the way, about the reward, is 100,000 enough to include killing the other demons, and of course I''ll buy the materials separately if you want to sell them. "Sure, I''ll keep the materials for now. I want to make a sword. I''ve heard that metal lizard armor makes a good material for swords. It may be strong enough to be used as armor. It may be heavy, but you can protect only the parts that would die instantly if attacked, such as the breastplate and helmet, and use recovery magic for the rest. I see. By the way, I have a favor to ask. Yes, what is it? A favor? Can you teach me how to defeat a Metal Lizard? I need you to keep quiet about this Metal Lizard thing, because if word gets out, it''s gonna be a mess. "Do metal lizards swarm or occur all at once? If so, that''s horrible. If so, that''s terrible. It''s tough to deal with more than one of them. No, there has never been a case of two or more Metal Lizards appearing at once, but only the guild members and adventurers know that, and even if you tell that to the people on the street, not everyone will agree. Is that so? Oh, yes. That''s right. But there are people who need to be taught. It seems like the guild knows him, so I think he''s okay, but I should ask him. But I want to make a weapon out of the armor, and then I''ll have to teach Mr. Dverag how to get it, and I''ll have to get that big corpse out of there, what should I do? Dverag is tight-lipped, he doesn''t talk to the general public much, so it''s okay, he''s like a guild member and he knows what he''s doing. The corpse probably doesn''t need to be taken out here, you need special equipment to process metal lizard armor. We don''t have that in this town. Heat it up, pound it, mold it, quench it, and you''re done! Isn''t that it? Well, I don''t think it''s that easy to shape that d*mn hard stuff. So we''ll just send the material to a place that has the equipment and have it made?¡¡How long will it take? Well, ...... most of the large scale and specialized blacksmithing facilities are concentrated in Herrera. It''s a dwarven mining town, but it''s deep in the mountains, and I think it would cost less money and time to go there myself than to have it transported. You''re leaving this town: ...... I''m not sure what to make of this. It''s also the last day to pay for the inn. Yes, that''s what I''ll do. I''ve decided to leave this town. 20 Episode 19 Preparation and Tsubai It takes about ten days to reach Herrera by horse from here. I think it is safe to say that my running speed is about the same as that of a horse. It takes about three days to get to Tubai, and then about seven days to get to Herrera. The road between Herrera and Tubai is well maintained for transporting metal products from Herrera, and there are inns along the way, but there are only a few villages near Herrera and Tubai, and few people live in between. The lodgings are expensive because they are built in places where it is not so easy to transport goods and run an inn, and the food is not bad, but it tastes salty. Well, I''m used to eating junk food on Earth, so it should be easy for me. If the food is as spicy as Szechuan food, I''ll be in trouble. On the other hand, the road between Eyn and Tubai is not well maintained, and there is no accommodation, so you have to camp. Camping alone is difficult, or rather, usually impossible, because of the lack of caution, but you can manage it by using a tentacle board. The town of Tubai is one of the biggest in the area, and if I hadn''t defeated the Metal Lizard, I would probably have been sent here. It''s only "big" in this area, and its outer walls are not that big, but there are many people here. As it is a neighboring town of Herrera, it seems to be a trade center with other towns in the area. So far, this is a summary of what I need to know for my journey. I''ll be preparing for it this afternoon. It seems like it''s been a long time, but it''s actually still before noon. However, there are not so many things to prepare. I''ve already greeted all the people who have helped me, and the only thing I really need to prepare is food. When I went to greet Mr. Dverag, he told me not to bargain when I buy weapons from dwarves or ask them to process materials. Dwarves take pride in their smithing and don''t haggle, so haggling is as rude as saying, "Your weapon isn''t worth it," and you can''t complain if you get kicked out. So I''m going to the grocery store. To buy tableware. It''s good that I decided to buy food from the store and go on a trip because I don''t want to eat only bread, but I can''t take the dishes from the store with me. So you buy some dishes, have them put the food on them, and store them in the item box, so you can always have a good meal. Even if one dish takes up one item box, my capacity is sufficient. At the grocery store, there was a beautiful ceramic plate. But that''s not what I want. I pick up a wooden plate that was placed nearby. It''s for an adventurer, after all. It''s no good if it''s easily broken. Then there are chopsticks (there are chopsticks in this world. If you have an idea, you can easily process them and they are easy to use. Fifty wooden plates and ten pairs of chopsticks cost 3000 teru in total. The next step is to procure the essential food. The place is the inn''s restaurant. Welcome to the inn! The innkeeper welcomes you. Hello. I''m going on a trip and I''d like to have as many set meals as there are plates here, is that okay? Of course I''ll pay for it. "Oh!¡¡It''s nothing to do with the inn, so you''ll have to pay as stipulated, but if you don''t mind, I''ll take care of it!¡¡I''ll save you the trouble of washing the dishes! Looks like it was okay. We still have money to spare. I''ll take 20 for the green wolf set, 20 for the gargon set, and 10 for the orc set. "Yes!¡¡I''m going to have to start cooking now, so it''s going to take about 10 minutes. I knew that the food that came out so quickly was from the stock. ....... I''m sorry. No problem. I''d like to eat it while it''s still hot, so as soon as you serve it to me, I''ll store it in the item box. I handed him 3 silver coins and 80 copper coins. Oh! The owner of the bakery takes them, throws them into the box without counting them, and starts cooking. The owner puts the food on a plate from the end of the line, and I throw it into the item box. Finally, I received 50 loaves of bread and left the store. It''s now past noon, and what I''m going to do now is sleep. The way to travel in this world where there is no accommodation depends on the danger level of the place and the members. First of all, when the danger level is relatively small and the skill level of the members is low, or when most of the members are non-combatants. In this case, you should sleep during the day and travel at night. The reason for this is mainly a matter of vigilance while you are sleeping. The danger level is relatively high at night, but the fact that you are moving means that almost everyone is awake, so it is easier to be alert. The rest time, when the number of people awake and available for vigilance is small, is brought to the relatively safe daytime. If the danger level is relatively high, they will move to the daytime instead of the nighttime. In this case, it is less dangerous to be in an encampment where you can choose a place that is easier to intercept than when you are on the move. In my case, I can use my antennae and vision during the day, and I am awake. When I sleep, I am alerted only by the antennae, and my reaction is delayed. It would be better to sleep in the daytime. And so I went to sleep. I woke up at the evening bell, returned the key, left the inn, and exited the city through the gate on the meadow side. Farewell Eine. I continue to move at a speed that even a short-distance runner would not achieve on Earth. In this world, depending on your AGI, you may be able to run as fast as a short-distance runner with as little energy as a brisk walk. It is not as fast as a horse running a short distance in a horse race, but it is not inferior to a horse or carriage running a long distance. They keep running until it gets light, eat when they are hungry, and sleep when it is daytime. It''s an unhealthy life that reverses day and night, but at least I''m exposed to sunlight and I think I''m producing some vitamins. I think I can live without eating dried shiitake mushrooms. When I went to bed, I used some random grass as a pillow. I thought that I should have bought a cloak or something, or even a bedclothes, but fortunately the dirt on my clothes was not a problem, so I could not stand it. I repeated such an unhealthy or healthy life for two whole days, and arrived at the city before noon on the third day. It was certainly much bigger than Ein. Even so, the procedures for entering the city seemed to be the same as in Eyn. It''s been a while since I''ve been to the city, and I''m not in a hurry. I ask the guard for a recommendation. "Excuse me, do you have a recommendation for a place to stay? "What''s your budget for a night at ......1? I want to recover from my trip, so I''m willing to spend a little more, but I don''t want to be stuck in a hotel on the road. I''ll take a thousand. ...... Then go straight there and turn left, Kusamakuratei. Thank you very much. "Thank you." You say this and follow the route as you are told. How is it that I decided to go to an inn because I didn''t like Kusamakura, but ended up at Kusamakura? Kusamakura-tei was a three-story stone inn. It looks sturdy. It''s pretty big for a place called Kusamakura. Let''s go in for now. "Welcome, are you staying? There was a place that looked like a hotel front desk, where I was greeted by a shopkeeper. It seems to be designed more like a guild than a hotel reception. And of course, there is no elevator. Yes, I''m staying. I''m staying here alone until noon tomorrow. I''ll stay until noon tomorrow. "Then one night, single occupancy, including today''s dinner, tomorrow''s breakfast, and lunch, will cost 900 Tel. "All right. I don''t want lunch. "That''s a 50 percent discount to 850. Can I pay in advance? It''s a little cheaper. It''s only natural to pay in advance. "Yes, please, and do you know where I can buy a cloak? And do you know where I can buy a cloak? "Yes, sure. The key is here, and the room is 203. If you need an adventurer''s cloak, it''s straight ahead, at the intersection of the two roads, on the left. Thank you. "Thank you, I''ll go there. You don''t need to unpack anything, so you just take the key and go out. The key doesn''t look like a key, it''s just a straight stick. The key is just a straight stick that doesn''t look like a key, but something like a card key. I followed the directions and found a store that seemed to be related to furs. There was no armor, but there was a cloak. The shopkeeper was a tall man. The shop keeper was a tall man. "Excuse me, I''d like to buy a cloak for when I''m camping out. Please give me this amount of money. He takes out four silver coins. He takes out four silver coins and says, "Oh, in that case, I recommend this one. I''ll give you 4,000 instead of 4,200. That''s pretty good. I wonder if I''m being offered something strange. Let''s try it with the power of appraisal. What exactly do you recommend? "First, the outside, the softer Gargon skin, which is used for armor because it''s scratch and fire resistant. It''s a little hard to the touch, but it''s sturdy and has good protection. It is better to use it when you sleep on the ground. The lining is soft, and it is made mainly for sleeping on the ground outdoors, so it is the best choice for bedding. I''ve examined it and I think I''m right. I''ll buy it. I''ll buy it. I hand over the coin. I asked him to put on the cloak on the spot. It is indeed a little stiff and heavy. It was hardly a burden, but I felt the weight. Since I don''t need anything else in particular, I go back to the inn, store the cloak in the item box, and go to sleep. There seems to be little difference in the light mages. 21 Episode 20 Brawls and Explosions I was awakened by the evening bell. But from here on, there are plenty of lodgings along the way, so there''s no need to live day and night in reverse. I could continue sleeping like this, but I was hungry and wanted to see the city, so I decided to go outside. Sometimes it''s good to go into a store that you see without asking anyone. So I decided to have a meal at a bar-like place that I saw near the inn. It was a bar-like place, different from the ones I''ve been to so far. I went up to the owner and ordered the first dish I saw, "Estard". It was not as fast as the restaurants in Ayn, but the food was served on the spot. Although the place is noisy, it seems to be a quiet place to eat compared to Eyn. It seems to be more comfortable in a crowded train than in a room with only two people. Is the difference in speed due to the large number of menus? When I sit at a random seat and eat a stew that is neither good nor bad, the people around me become noisy. I looked around to see if I had done something wrong, but it seemed that I was not the center of the commotion. Two large adventurer-like men diagonally behind me were glaring at each other. I don''t want to disturb their quiet meal. Suddenly, one of the men strikes the other. The other man catches him, but they both lose their balance and fall toward you. The other guy catches him, but they both lose their balance and fall towards you. You can''t let them fall on you, so you sit down and reach out to push the guy back, putting all your strength into it. Magic would be a bad idea, of course. And the man who was about to lose his balance towards you is blown to the other side, both of them together. But they didn''t blow off horizontally like in the manga, they just fell about a meter away. I stand up and say to the men. I get up and say to them, "Hey, I don''t mean to bother you, but if you''re going to fight, could you do it outside? What the f*ck! Don''t interfere in our fight! ...... Are you mad? Why are you so angry with me? Oh, because you got blown up. That''s annoying. Do you want me to just shut up and let some guy fall on me and crush me? I don''t know if that''s a good idea to say to a drunk. ...... If you want to fight, go ahead, but please do it outside. Just as I''m about to say this, one of the guys hits me. But it''s too late. He''s no better than a green wolf, a maggot. I grabbed his fist and twisted his arm. I can''t use ancient martial arts, but it''s enough to subdue a drunk. Just as I was thinking this, the other one came at me. Doesn''t the law of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" exist in this world? Come to think of it, it may not have been widely applied even on Earth. Anyway, since my arm was blocked, I had no choice but to kick him. Before he hit me, I gave him a kick in the midriff. "G...... back...... The man fell to the ground. There were groans and cheers all around. Before I knew it, a crowd had formed around me. After a little while of thinking about what to do with these guys, the sparse crowd broke up and a man wearing the same clothes as the guards came out and took them away. Would you like to accompany me to the guard station? What? Isn''t that self-defense? What kind of unreasonable thing is it to get involved and then be taken away? I think it''s self-defense, but I haven''t seen the situation, so I need you to follow me. "No, this customer was just eating a normal meal and got caught in the middle of it. I was watching him closely. The owner of the restaurant defended me. The owner of the restaurant defended me. The people around me said, "Yes, that''s right. The shopkeeper defended me. We need to make sure you''re not a bandit. Guild cards are useful. I wonder if the rampaging adventurers will become bandits. The guard checked his guild card, wrote down his name, handed it back to me, and left. He gave me the card and left. I''ve never seen you around here before. Are you an adventurer or something? "Yes, I''m an E rank adventurer. Yes, I''m an E rank adventurer. I don''t need my gear in town, so I keep it at the inn. "That''s a lot of speed for an E. You have a promising future. I''ll give you a gift in return. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you. Do you have any recommendations? He recommends a dish called "homed". I liked the name better because it was simpler and clearer. I ordered it, and it was pretty good. However, it was just a slightly different flavored version of the Gulgong set meal in Eyn, and I didn''t feel much difference from city to city. It was only a three-day trip by horse, so I guess it was natural. Now that I''m full, I''ll go back to the inn and go to bed, as I feel I didn''t get enough sleep. I was awakened by the morning bell. I thought there might be some negative effects of the change from day to night to a normal life, but there were no problems. It seems that my body has become more adaptable since I came to the other world. After eating breakfast, I asked the guards for directions, and they told me to go straight from the north gate, turn left at the end of the gate, go out of the city, and go straight down the road to Ellera. Ellera is in the mountains, so it may not be physically straight, but it is a straight road. I''ve been running lightly from Ein to Tubai, but from here on I''m going to try to run almost as fast as I did when I fought the Metal Lizard, or even faster than I did then, at a speed that would use up all my strength quickly on Earth. In most of my battles, I''ll need to buy time due to my magic consumption limit. Of course, you can buy time to save your spells while fighting, but if you can run away, you can do so more safely. I''ve never run out of breath in this game, but it''s important to know how fast you can run. You don''t want to run out of energy when the time comes, and you don''t want to waste your time by preserving more energy than necessary. Fortunately, it''s a very important road, and most of the high-risk monsters in the vicinity have already been dealt with, so there won''t be many dangerous monsters along the way (though it''s dangerous for merchants and other ordinary people, of course). In addition, the path is surrounded by a 30cm high grassland, so you have good visibility. So I decided to keep running until I got out of breath, and take a break when I got out of breath. I kept running. The scenery flew by so fast that I felt like I was on a roller coaster, but I didn''t care. On the way, I saw a merchant and a man in a carriage who seemed to be his bodyguard looking at me, but I didn''t care. After running until noon at a speed so fast that I thought it was safe to run on the highway, let alone on a horse, I discovered a surprising fact. I''m never tired. After eating lunch in the middle of a grassy field as far as the eye can see, I thought to myself, "Maybe I''ll get tired if I carry a load or something.¡¡I thought, "Maybe I''ll get tired if I carry a pack or something on my back," so I put on my armor, took my sword, and tried to run with a slightly too-well-burned green wolf. I slowed down, but I didn''t get tired even in the evening. There was no point in slowing down unnecessarily, so I decided to put them all away. It was getting dark by now, so I kept running and decided to stay at an inn I found about half an hour later. The inn was a wooden two-story building, not very big, with the same appearance as the one we saw on the road. It might be a chain restaurant. Next to the building, there is a space surrounded by a fence that is rather large for the size of the inn itself, and there is a horse-drawn carriage. At the entrance of the inn, there is a sign saying "Tubai Herrera No. 9. The inn is located at both ends of the road, and it must be a chain since it is numbered. It''s much more efficient than having individual lodgings on the road. When I entered, an old man who seemed to be the owner spoke to me. Welcome. Would you like a room? What room? How much do you charge? The old man pointed to the price list. The old man points to the price list. Price list Private room: 2,000 yen per night, half board included Sleeping room 400 Tel per night, no meals 150 per meal Parking: 500 Tel per car per night Oh, it doesn''t have to be an inn, does it? You just need to provide security. It''s probably cheaper than hiring additional adventurers to guard the place at night. It would be nice to be able to organize members on the assumption that everyone is awake during the day. I chose a private room because I wasn''t really in need of money. The meal was some kind of hard bread and smoked meat. There is nothing to do at night in this world. After a day of running, I fell asleep thinking again that I was living a healthy life. I don''t know if it''s healthy to run for half a day at a speed faster than a car, and then continue to run with a charred corpse of a six-legged wolf. I woke up to the sound of bells, much higher than usual. I hadn''t thought about how to get up in the morning, but it seemed that the inn was preparing a bell for me. I ate breakfast - the same menu as dinner - and left the inn to start running again. The road gradually became more wooded and slightly uphill again. It''s not quite a mountain yet. But I could see the outline of a mountain in the distance. By the time we ate lunch, we could clearly see the towering mountains. After finishing lunch, we started running, and after a few hours, the grassland we had been running on turned into a forest. Although it was a forest, the density of trees was not very high, but it was quite different from a grassland. This is the only road that has been cleared of vegetation and made into a path. It is not particularly paved with stones, though. The slope is getting tighter. It could be called an uphill climb. Further on, the path turns. The path is made to be diagonal to the slope. If you were on foot like me, it would be fine, but since the road was made for transportation by horse-drawn carriages, it must have been made at a lower angle. It would be possible to take a shortcut by going off the road, but there was no need to risk it and save time. It was getting dark, so I went up the slope for about an hour looking for a place to stay, and found one. It was Tubai Herrera No. 20. The food was exactly the same as the food I had twice at No. 9. I wonder if people who travel by carriage eat that for ten days straight. I went to bed thinking about this, woke up, and started running again today. However, after about 30 minutes of running, the tentacles detected a strange reaction. It''s probably people. There are seven of them, but for some reason they are moving away from the road in the forest. The speed at which they are moving doesn''t seem like adventurers. The party composition is also strange. Focusing on the tentacles, I could get more information, but there are six adults and a boy or girl, and the boy or girl is not moving by itself, but is being carried. Maybe they''re bandits. 22 Episode 21 Rescue and Mediation I''ve found a response that looks like a bandit. At first, you have to decide if it is really a bandit. It''s no laughing matter if you attack the bandit and find that he is innocent and you have become a bandit. On the other hand, if you try to get close to the bandit but he is really a bandit, you will only be giving up the lead. While I was thinking about this, I noticed that the group was about to leave the area of the tentacles. I hurriedly chase after them. As I chase after them, I prepare a set of six pressure spells. Pressure magic is useful in that you can put magic power into it beforehand, so that you can strike directly at the enemy''s position immediately when you want to surprise them, even if they are far away. It consumes more magic power, though. I don''t have any special training, and I don''t know how to get close enough to appraise them secretly. What you should do is to jump on the spot and appraise it when you see it. That''s what I used against the Metal Lizard. When I jumped, I saw a group of men. Sure enough, one of the younger ones seemed to be being carried in a carrier. Probably a girl. I appraised one of them and found out that he was a bandit. Her status is that of an ordinary adventurer. The image of "bandit" came to mind, and when I jumped again, I saw that all the men had ¨‹s on their heads. It''s like an FPS. Once you know they''re bandits, there''s no need to be shy. You decide to kill them quickly. If you try to kill them, the hesitation may slow down your release. And since it''s just pressure, I can''t think of any part of the body that can be killed with certainty. So the strategy is this. Approach it at once and fire the spell at the part of the body that is less likely to be killed, but still has high suppression power if pressure is applied. That''s it. So, which part of the body is the least likely to be killed, and yet the most likely to be suppressed if pressure is applied? --The vitals, of course. From what I saw earlier, all the bandit-like people are men. There is no way to counterattack if you hit them with this first. Now that I''ve saved some magic power, I''ll move on to the attack. Dashing up to a distance of three meters, I launched my spell at the six men''s vital points. That''s it! At that moment, a symbolic part of the men''s bodies caved in. Physically. It couldn''t have been painful. The force of the blow was so strong that the part seemed to be digging into his belly rather than writhing around between his legs. A groaning man hurriedly catches a girl who was about to drop to the ground. She looks to be about 17 years old, with reddish brown hair and short stature. She holds the girl and moves away from the men. Even if they pretend to be attacked, she can handle them with distance. I thought so, and when I got away from them, I examined each of them, but they were all dead. Something must have happened to their internal organs. I didn''t feel too guilty, even though I had killed people. Maybe it''s because I''m used to killing each other in FPS, or maybe it''s because I''ve already killed other animals. Anyway, what to do with this girl. As for the reward for defeating the bandits, if you get one, just bring your guild card with you. I don''t want to carry her neck, and I don''t think those bandits are equipped with much. I''m going to appraise the girl for now. Name: Smitha Age / Race / s*x : 18 / Dwarf / Female Level: 7 HP:36/36 MP:9/9 STR:16 INT:12 AGI:8 DEX:63 Skill: Life Magic Status Abnormality: Forced Hypnosis High DEX!!!¡¡He''s a dexterous type! Is it because he''s a dwarf? No, that''s not important right now. Is he being put to sleep by this hypnosis? I wonder if healing magic can help. ...... No, it''s not the same as healing your own body, even the ends, or healing your whole body in a situation where you''ll die if you don''t heal. It would be a disaster if I messed with it too much and got into a situation I couldn''t recover from. Fortunately, you don''t seem to have lost any HP, so perhaps the forced hypnosis won''t affect your health immediately. She seems to be a Dwarf, and it''s likely that she was kidnapped from Ellera. Let''s just carry her back to Herrera on a princess''s back. I slow down a little, get back on the road, and start to climb the hill. I''m still faster than a horse, though. Shortly before I left the forest, I saw what looked like a man on a horse on the road, but he had passed by the time I left the forest. About an hour into the run, the scenery changes. It''s all bald mountains. Every tree had been cut down and left as a stump. Wondering what had happened, we climbed further up the mountain, and after about ten minutes, we came upon a gate. The gate was marked Herrera. I was checked for my guild card as usual, and then I found myself surrounded by guards. Hey, isn''t that Smitha the kidnapped girl?¡¡You seem to have defeated some bandits, but are they the ones who took her? No weapon was thrust at me. I think it''s because I can confirm that they are not bandits. "Yes, we found them carrying the child. I brought them here after I defeated the bandits. He seems to be under compulsive hypnosis, where should I take him? "Compulsive hypnosis. It can be easily cured with a potion, but I can''t leave him in the hands of someone I don''t know, even though he helped me. I''ll take him here, if you don''t mind. Yes, of course. By the way, where can I get a weapon made? It depends on the materials and what you want to make, but I think it''s better to go to the agent''s office than to the workshop directly. You can find it at the end of the street. And when the bell rings in the evening, could you come to my office?¡¡I think I have a reward or something for you. Thank you, sir. I''ll give Smitha to the guards and go to the agent''s office. I wonder if the dwarves will kick me out again. Thinking about this, I made my way to the agent''s office and opened the door, only to be greeted by an unexpected sight. There were no dwarves. At the counter on his right was a man of human race. There was one at each of the three counters. There was also a door on the other side of the room that I came from that I could enter through. I talk to the person closest to me. Where do I go to get Metal Lizard armor made into swords, armor and shields? "Oh, if you want Metal Lizard metal, I think you should go to Mr. Smith''s workshop. ...... He''s not very sharp. Her name is similar to Sumisa''s. I wonder if there is a connection. I''ve been out searching for your daughter since she was kidnapped, and I don''t think they''ll take her on when she comes back. That''s too relevant. It''s not surprising that they share the same name. "In that case, your daughter has just been rescued. She was put to sleep, but she seems to be okay. "Oh, you''re lucky. She''s been looking for someone to help her find her way around the city, but she''s been hard to find lately. If you''re not on the road and you''re gaining distance, you might have taken the road halfway and then gone into the woods, but that would make it much harder to find you. ...... I''m sure you''ll be able to understand why. It is more correct to say that I discovered the scene unilaterally rather than encountering it. Well, I''m not going to talk about that. I''m not going to say anything about that. A person who arranges weapon processing would have a hard time responding to such a comment. "Right. By the way, where is this workshop and how much does it cost? It would not be good for business if he gave his daughter away for free, no matter how much he had saved her. If she hadn''t been kidnapped, she wouldn''t have had to go looking for her, but now she''s being made to work on weapons for free. So I''m not going to go that far. I think it depends on the sword or shield, but a one-handed sword is about 1,000,000 if you bring in the materials and don''t decorate it for practical use. A two-handed sword would cost around 1.3 million. The way is number 5 on the map here. He points to a board showing the buildings in this area. I take back what I said. It''s expensive. I''ve got a little over 100,000. Of course it''s not enough. "Um, ...... is there a place where I can sell some of my armor, ......? You can buy it from a place that does processing. In the event that you have any kind of questions regarding where and how to use the internet, you can call us at the web site. It''s about three million per kilogram. What? I have a whole one, but how many kilos is it? Could it possibly be enough to buy a sublong sword? It''s a shame to use it up so easily, even if you got it in a short time, because you need to make armor as well. I don''t feel any inconvenience with my current sword, and I''m sure it''s sturdy enough. Even if it doesn''t have any special effects, you can get by with magic. I understand. Thank you very much. It looks like I won''t have to do any favors. I don''t know which one of us is the bandit, the one who says "I saved your daughter, so you should process her weapon for free. Anyway, I had to see if I could really sell it, so I went into the workshop. Then a nearby man of human race approaches and talks to me. What can I do for you at the Sumin Workshop? Sumin Workshop. I wonder if he is an ancestor of Mr. Sumizu or something. "Yes. "Yes, I''d like to ask you to process metal lizard metal and buy the leftover metal lizard metal. "Oh, Metal Lizard Metal? Metal lizard metal is in short supply because metal lizard hasn''t appeared recently. How many kilos do you have? "Well, I have a whole one in my ...... item box, how many kilos can I get from one Metal Lizard? The man looks at me like I''m stinking. "A Metal Lizard in the item box?¡¡A Metal Lizard is a thing that''s almost 10 meters long, right?¡¡I don''t know much about item boxes, but do they really hold that much? "Ah... I don''t know why, but the item box has a large capacity, and for some reason it can hold a lot. I don''t know why, but my item box is very large, and for some reason I can fit in there. I''m not sure what to make of it. Can I assume that it is about 10 meters long?¡¡If so, it would weigh about 1400 kilograms. I don''t think you can buy all of them at once, because you''ll be short of funds. In addition, we have just been informed that Sumitha has been found, but the master will not be working today, so we will have to wait until tomorrow. ...... When the man said that much, a dwarf with a slightly softened atmosphere of Mr. Dveragh came in with Smitha, who seemed to have woken up. 23 Episode 22 Banquet and Steel Plate "Smitha''s saved!¡¡Let''s have a party!¡¡Bring the booze!¡¡......?¡¡You got a guest?¡¡Sorry, we''re closed for the day. Come back tomorrow. With that, he was driven out of the workshop. The door closes behind me. I saved a girl and the owner, her parent, threw me out of the store. In modern Japan, this could be a problem, or is it better? I''m sure it''s not. That''s for sure. Dwarves have a habit of kicking out people in their workshops. Since it''s no use getting kicked out, I''d better find a place to stay. But there''s no way to tell if it''s a good place to stay or not. I should ask the guards. When I went to the gate, the guard from when I checked my guild card came to talk to me first. He''s a bit more friendly than before. "How''s the equipment procurement coming along? "Oh, ......, it''ll probably be tomorrow or later. I got kicked out of the workshop. ...... What?¡¡You got kicked out of the workshop?¡¡Did you bargain or something? I didn''t bargain or even negotiate. No. "No, it was her parents'' workshop. They kicked me out. Sumise-san''s workshop?¡¡Do you use any magic-related materials?¡¡Well, that''s okay. I just wanted to thank him for talking to me and he asked me to invite you to join the party at his house. What do you say? A dwarven banquet. ....... I''m not sure about that. I think so. In the original world, I was neither strong nor weak when it came to drinking, but I wonder how I am now. I can run without getting tired, but the amount of food I eat hasn''t changed at all. I''ll have to try it to find out. The best way to find out is to participate. You can also ask me to do some processing for you. I''ll go. Okay. Do you know where it is?¡¡I''ve given you my name, so you can just walk in and show your guild card to anyone nearby who doesn''t look drunk. He should be able to help you. "Okay. I''m off. That''s pretty out there. ....... I wonder if the Metal Lizard''s armor is made of magic-related materials. It seems to be a physical material. I came back to the workshop again. The door was unlocked. When I entered the workshop, there was a door on the side, and I could hear voices coming from there. When I entered, I found Mr. Sumizu. I''m sorry, I''ve been invited to a party. "Oh?¡¡You''re a guest from a while ago. Is that you by any chance, Kaede?¡¡You''re right, you''re a bit slender for an adventurer. Thank you for saving my daughter. It was just a while ago. ...... I''m not sure what to say. His breath reeked of alcohol, but he didn''t sound like a drunk. Smitha seems to be drinking with some women in the back. I don''t know if it''s alcohol or juice. "Yes, I use magic, and I''m not that fit. "Yes, I use magic, and I''m not very fit," she says, showing her guild card. "You''ve come to my workshop to use magic?¡¡Don''t tell me you''re here for Smitha? Mr. Sumizu''s eyes became suspicious. He had nothing to be ashamed of. No, I''m not. ...... I''m sure there are a lot of good ones out there, but if you''re looking for a wand, don''t bother ordering one, you can usually find a practical one.¡¡I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. ...... I''m not trying to be mean or anything, I was just talking about wands. No, I also use a sword. I''ve got a metal lizard in my item box that I killed, and I want you to use it to make me a sword and armor. I''ve also heard that you can buy metal lizard metal to cover the cost of processing, so I thought I''d ask you to do that. I wonder if paying for it with armor might be bargaining. ....... I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that will work for you.¡¡The item box means 100 kilos or so? "No, there''s a whole corpse in there. My item box is very large, and the Metal Lizard itself was killed by me. You don''t need a sword to kill a metal lizard, but you must have a reason. The money will be processed when I buy the armor. Drink up! He said, handing me a wooden mug of sake that he had taken out from somewhere. I drank it in one gulp as I was told. The strength was a bit high, but I didn''t feel drunk. I drank as much as I was told, but there was no sign of drunkenness at all. A few hours later, there were many drunken people sleeping in the room. I wasn''t drunk, but I had no reason to stay awake, so I fell asleep. Incidentally, people in this world don''t seem to throw up when drunk. There was a woman there, so I was glad not to see her throw up. The next morning, when I woke up to the sound of the bell, I found that other people had already started working. I could hear the sound of hammering iron coming from the workshop. Mr. Sumizu was not there, so I went to check the workshop. It seems that Mr. Sumizu was giving instructions to the others in the workshop. When he seemed to have settled down, I called out to him. "Excuse me, what should I do with the Metal Lizard? "Oh, Metal Lizard, I saved the big disposal area yesterday, we''ll take care of it there. So I went with him. There seemed to be about five other people following me. We arrived at a large area surrounded by a low wall. However, the ground was made of stone and there was no grass growing. This is a place to deal with these big guys. It''s just that we haven''t thought of a way to transport big demons up here, and now it''s just used as a demolition center occasionally. Just leave it there for now. He points to the middle of the processing area. I put out a Metal Lizard around there. "Well, let''s start the process. You can use fire magic, right? You can use fire magic, right? "Yes, you can, but what are you going to do? "You''ve never dealt with a Metal Lizard before? It''s difficult or impossible to remove the armor as it is, and cutting off the armor is out of the question, so you have to burn off the inside and leave the armor alone. You can''t just cut off the armor. Is that the way to dismantle it? However, aside from the legs, the armor around the back seems like it would weigh more than 100kg for a single large plate, but what would you do? With this in mind, I create fireballs as I see fit and shove them into its mouth. About 50 fireballs later, the metal lizard began to burn solidly. Even though the air permeability seems to be poor, the fire is quite strong. I''m not sure what to make of this. You can use magic, but since you''re solo, you can''t have a vanguard protect you and shoot magic. You can use magic as fast as you can with a 20cm staff, and you can use magic while fighting with a sword, so there''s no harm in having more. It''s also good to have armor, because one person can act as both vanguard and rear guard, and armor doesn''t disrupt your concentration. "Well, I''ve never heard of it, but it doesn''t seem like a lie to me. 20cm is pretty short, what kind of material do you use for your staff? Well, it''s just a regular one I bought in town. If there''s nothing written on it, it''s probably made of iron core and copper skin. I''m sure you can make a much faster cane for a lot more money, but what do you think?¡¡......, it looks like it was burned. The metal lizard had crumbled into a pile of metal parts on the ground. But there''s not as much as it first appears. I wondered if it had shrunk. It might have swelled up when heated. The armor plate on the back looked like a single piece, but it was actually a rectangular armor plate of about 50cm x 70cm, attached together. It looks easy to use. Since it still seems hot, I''ll wait for it to cool down and continue talking about the wand. "Does the material of the wand change the speed of the spell? "Yes, it does. Ask Smitha for the details, she knows more about wands than I do. I specialize in weapons and metal armor. I work with wizards on materials that need to be magically processed. I think I remember you saying something like that. I wonder what is magical about Metal Lizard. "I don''t see any magical elements in the Metal Lizard''s armor, but does it need magical treatment? "Yeah, it won''t bend no matter how hard you hit it or heat it up, that''s where magic tools come in, if you expose it to magically drained water for a while, the magic power will be drained from the armor and it will become as soft as hot iron, don''t touch it with your hands or anything, process it with magically insulated tools, then put magic into it, and it will return to its original hardness. It''s back to its original hardness. That''s how you process it? What do you mean it doesn''t bend when heated?¡¡Do you know what thermal expansion is? That sounds like a lot of work. Is there anything I can do to help? No, it''s a job that requires a lot of experience, and I can''t leave it to amateurs. Can I pay you for the armor and about two kilos of leftover materials? That''s fine. If I want to make a staff, can I use metal lizard metal for that too? You can sell it for as much as you make it, which is more than you can get in cash. It''ll probably take a week or more to process, so if you want a wand, you can explain it to me in the meantime. It looks like we have a deal. 24 Episode 23 Cane and Sword After receiving his approval, I cooled the metal lizard metal with water magic, stored it in the item box, and returned to the workshop. --Incidentally, the shape of the metal did not change even after being cooled rapidly. I heard that a single armor plate would be enough for the material, but I couldn''t cut it directly, so I left it with him. I was asked what I should do with the leftover metal lizard metal, but I heard that it was difficult to manage, so I decided to buy it. He said that he would remove the magic from one piece at a time and store the remainder in a container that does not allow magic to pass through. If you are storing them for a short period of time, you don''t need to go that far, as long as they don''t come in contact with creatures with magic power such as humans, magic tools, magic stones, or other metals with high magic density. The structure of the equipment will be decided after the removal of magic power. In the meantime, I need to get a wand. I''m going to try to talk to Sumisa, who was already awake, about the wand I want. ...... Hello, Smitha, I need a wand. You''re Kaede, right?¡¡I don''t remember you, but I heard you saved me. Thanks. ¡¡So what kind of cane do you want? I want a wand that''s about 20 centimeters long, strong, and can accelerate magic like a normal wand. You can''t have a wand that''s not long enough to accelerate magic like a long wand.¡¡Do you even know how a wand works? "You can''t do that. "No, you don''t. "You don''t understand. What''s ......? "I''m only going to explain this once, so listen up. The structure of a cane is ....... The explanation is as follows. First of all, a wand can be divided into four parts: the magic collection part, the acceleration part, the release part, and the outer shell. The wand is divided into four parts: the magic collection part, the acceleration part, the release part, and the outer shell. The magic collection part is, as the name implies, the part that collects magic power. The magic power is collected by passing a thin copper rod through the wood used to make the wand. The collected magic power is then released near the base of the wand, on one side of the acceleration part. It does not have to be copper, but copper is used because it is cheaper. The accelerator is a part that collects the magic power released from the magic collector and accelerates it. It is made by covering an iron rod of about 1cm in diameter with copper, gold, or some other metal. The acceleration power of the wand changes to some extent depending on the material of the metal coating. It is said that if magic power is stored in the coating when the wand is made, it will produce acceleration force. I don''t know why. It is also said that magic does not move between different metals unless it exceeds the allowable amount, and even if it exceeds the allowable amount, the speed of movement is much slower than the acceleration, so it has little effect on the magic that passes through the core. The tools used to process metal lizard metal are also made based on this principle, and several of them are stocked with metal lizard metal that has been drained of its magic power. If you store too much magic power, it will only increase the acceleration power for a little while, but the excess magic power will be dissipated, so it is meaningless. The reason why the acceleration power differs depending on the coating is because the amount of magic power that can be stored is different. There is no difference in the material of the core, but the core is made of iron for processing and strength reasons. The release part is the part that releases the magic power, and it is made of the same metal as the core, crushed and powdered, mixed with clay, and baked. It is said that the magic power pushed into the release part is pushed out by the magic power coming from behind, and is released with momentum. Incidentally, the released magic power moves around the user at a high speed if no instructions are given, so the user does not need to use the tip of the wand to cast accelerated magic. The outer shell is mainly made of wood, but this is simply because of the combination of strength and weight, and if you are fighting or marching for a certain length of time, holding something heavy will slow you down or make you lose concentration due to fatigue. Unlike my walking stick, a normal walking stick is long, and depending on the length of the stick, it can be quite heavy. However, if the cane is bent too much, the acceleration part of the cane will not work, so lightness is not always enough. In other words, if your wand is short and you only hold it in your hand during battle because of the item box, it should be sturdy. However, my case is different from the norm, so there is no need to stick to this principle. My magic power and fighting style are completely different from those of other wizards. I''m going to suggest that. "Okay, let''s make a very long staff that can accelerate magic and can also be used as a sword! "I don''t know what you''re talking about. You''re right. If someone had said the same thing to me in the same situation, I would have thought he was out of his mind. But I''m very serious. I''m f*cking serious. "Let me explain, I have a lot of magic power and I can cast spells while fighting with a sword, so it''s possible. "That''s not an explanation. That''s not an explanation." - Oh, shit, I skimmed too much. You''re right, it''s not clear. I''ll explain it from the beginning. First of all, the acceleration of magic power by the wand increases with the amount of magic power in the coating, right?¡¡If the amount of magic in the coating exceeds the magic allowance of the metal, the acceleration will increase for that period of time. "Yes, a wand that''s freshly charged with magic will have a higher acceleration rate. In five minutes it will be almost as good as the old one, but it will be a little more powerful. I wonder if the power is due to the fact that some of the magic released from the coating enters the acceleration part. "So the magic in the coating can be used to accelerate for a certain amount of time. And by using other metals on the outside of the coating, you can slow down the dissipation of the magic power. You''re not going to put magic power into it every time you use it?¡¡It takes about half the magic power of a normal wizard to cast a spell with a wand that''s about eighty centimeters long.¡¡That''s twenty shots of magic. You''re right. For a normal wizard. But my magic is 500 times more powerful than a normal wizard''s at my current level. 500 times more resilience. 5,000 times more with the potion. That''s no problem with my magic. And you can use metal on the outside of the coating to make it stronger. If you use metal lizard metal or something, you can use it as a sword. If you believe that you can use ...... magic and a sword at the same time, how can you use metal lizard metal to cover the coating?¡¡It won''t melt, will it? Oh, ...... I hadn''t thought about the processing. Is it made by casting? By the way, I think there was a Japanese manufacturing method for injection needles or something like that, where a metal plate was rolled up to make a hollow needle. I wonder if it is possible to make such a needle. It seems that metal lizard metal without magic power is soft enough to forge. How about we roll up a sheet of metal and cover the perimeter? I''ll think about it. After about ten minutes, she looked up. After about ten minutes, she looked up and said, "There might be a way to do it, though it would take money and time. But I think there are some problems with the way you did it, so I''ve put together a revised plan. This might help. Smitha shows me the board in her hand and begins to explain. First of all, if you make the outer shell metal, the magic won''t be able to reach the magic collection part. This can be solved by separating the handle part of the outer shell of the Metal Lizard Metal and making it into the magic collection part. Also, if you want the outer shell to prevent the diffusion of magic power, it is better to fill the inside with casting. The metal lizard metal will be used as the outer shell and magic collector. Also, for the sword''s strength, the sword part will be made entirely of metal lizard metal. I think I''ll make only the blade part and attach it later. The tip of the sword will be the release part, so the core will also be metal lizard metal for strength. Even so, the strength of the metal lizard metal will be lower than that of the original metal lizard metal because it is mixed and baked, so the tip of the sword should be made so as not to interfere with the release of magic power. It will be thinner, but it should still be reasonably strong. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. "Oh, yes. He spoke quickly, but I could only vaguely understand what he was saying. In other words, "I can make it, but it will cost a lot of money"?¡¡That''s about right. "By the way, how much does it cost? Well, if you bring in Metal Lizard Metal, the cost of iron, silver, and processing should be about the same as a piece of Metal Lizard armor.¡¡I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out the best way to get the most out of it, but if you''re making something like this for the first time, you''re bound to make mistakes, and then the cost will go up. The price will probably be decided by the accountant, so you should listen to that and make your decision. If it''s something you make often, like a sword, a craftsman can make a decision, but for something like this, I can''t. It''s not something that can be applied to other things, so the cost of the experiment is all on Kaede. In other words, it''s very expensive in general, but it''s not unreasonable to pay for it now. Then there is no problem. If it fails without limit and the cost goes up, it''s a problem. "Okay, that''s the deal. "Hold on, I''ll get the accountant. According to the accountant, if the processing cost goes well, one armor plate will be enough to make change. I paid for the armor plate in advance, and asked him to use the metal lizard metal that I left with him earlier for the weapon. He said that he would start work on it tomorrow, since all the materials and experiment fees had been paid in advance. It will take at least a week. When we had finished our discussion, Sumisa suddenly asked me. You said that you have a lot of magic, but if you waste it too much, it will be gone soon. How much magic do you have? "Well, it''s about the equivalent of 500 normal wizards. Actually, it''s a bit more. Stop joking and tell me the truth. I''m serious. Seriously? The Metal Lizard was crushed by the power of your magic. I''m sure you''re right. I''m not sure what to make of that. I''ll agree with you that 500 times is a lot, if not more. Keep this to yourself. What? You''re going to get chased into some weird places. You could be experimented on, or locked in a refrigerator-like machine and used as a device to produce magic power. There might be mad scientists in this world too. I don''t know.¡¡I don''t know about that, but I''m sure there are experimenters out there. Even if I don''t leak it, they could find out about it from someone else. I will. Try to be unnecessarily inconspicuous at best. Hmm? Do I stand out when I''m a mage? I don''t know, that''s out of my jurisdiction. 25 Episode 24 Coal and Ajit Well, I''m done with weaponsmithing. From here on out, it''s the domain of the craftsman, and I don''t want to mess with it. So I think I''ll do what adventurers do best: adventure. I don''t know if there are any orders to kill them around here. I also need to find a place to stay. If possible, I''d like to get as many potions as I can. I''m going to finish them one by one. Let''s start with lodging. When I asked for a recommendation, I was recommended a place called "Suiri-tei", so I went there. It''s not cheap, but it''s not expensive either. Information is also important when choosing a place to stay. I''ve gotten used to going to new places. There is a saying that people don''t care about you as much as you think they do, so you should just take it easy. Welcome, are you staying for the night? 1,000 Tel per night, breakfast, lunch, and dinner included, with 100 Tel less for each additional meal. I was greeted with a very polite attitude for an innkeeper in this part of the world. The person who greeted me was a young woman. I''ve heard that there are many dwarves in this city, but I think there are many humans in the hospitality business. Well, I suppose it is natural that a clerk who throws out a guest at an inn would be in trouble. "Yes, I''d like to stay for seven nights, but can I eat one meal first?¡¡Of course I''ll pay for it. That''s about the shortest route to weapons processing. If it''s not enough, we can add more. I''m hungry because I had breakfast very late. I''m starving." "Okay, can you pay for one night''s stay and one meal, 800 Tel in advance?¡¡Breakfast will be served immediately in the dining hall. So I handed over the money and went to the dining hall to eat. The meat was a little salty, but it was good enough. There were not many leafy vegetables, but there were a few things that looked like wild vegetables, probably because of the topography of the mountain. I paid for 7 days'' lodging in advance, including the 800 I had paid earlier, and went out after asking about a place that sold potions. However, the store was next to the guild. It looked like a general store. I bought all 30 or so of the magic recovery acceleration potions, which cost 120 Tells each, and finally headed for the guild. My rank had risen one rank to E after the last incident. I found a reasonable request for extermination. Rank: E Request: Exterminate Red Wolves Reward: 50 Tel per animal Quantity: As many as you can kill Note: You need to go into the mountains from the road because they are probably not near the road. This is an extermination request with no fixed number. The purpose is probably to prevent demons from appearing on the surrounding roads. Judging from the amount of the reward and the rank, Red Wolf is not very strong. His name also sounds like a relative of Green Wolf. So, I quickly accept the request. Unfortunately, the receptionist was a man. You go backwards along the path you took to get here, and turn left into the forest a little while after the bald mountain ends and the surrounding area becomes a forest. There is still no response from the tentacles. So we start looking around. The search is easy. Use the fully-deployed tentacles to look around, and just keep moving. The ¨‹ function is not very useful, because it only works if you can see it. After about five minutes of movement, three wolves appeared about 20 meters away. I got as close as 10m and hit them with a rock spear, and they all died in one hit, but I think they reacted a little too quickly. The spear was positioned at the edge of the body. The speed of magic should be higher. If it had been 20 meters away, it might have missed. With this in mind, I zigzagged parallel to the direction of the path and hunted the red wolves I found. I killed about 20 of them, but one of them dodged my spear. I got close and hit it with the second spear, and it died. Of course, I collected the corpse. After another half an hour of hunting, I found a strange reaction on the tentacles. These are two human-like reactions that don''t move from the spot. I sneak out of the shadows to examine them. It was a bandit. The ground behind them looks like the mine in Ein. Could it be a bandit''s screw? I don''t feel like dealing with them alone, so I decide to leave. I remembered the direction of the road, so I went straight to the road and came to the place where I found the bandits going into the mountain. I remembered some of the scenery and it made sense. After remembering the place, I headed for the city. I came back to the guild. I wondered if the guild was the right place to report the discovery of the bandits. When I went to the guild and told them that I had found what looked like a bandit hideout, I was summoned by the chapter leader. "Is it true that you found a hideout in the mountains? "Yes, sir. There was a hole in the ground and two bandits were guarding it. Hmm. ...... I thought the bandits were running fast, not even on the most direct route, but I guess they have a hideout in the mountains. Thank you for the report. I''ll organize a strike force soon. We''ll pay you when we get confirmation. Yes, sir. And don''t tell anyone about this. If the bandits are big enough to set up a hideout, there''s a chance that people who haven''t become bandits are helping them for money, so we''re going to call out to them and gather them one by one. "Yes, sir. So that''s all I''m going to say about that, stop by the guild tomorrow morning. Come by the guild in the morning and we''ll decide on the schedule for the attack. When the report was finished, I left the branch manager''s office and reported the request. I received a reward of 2,600 Tells for a total of 52 animals. I had nothing left to do, so I went to the workshop. "Do you think you can make the staff?¡¡How does it look? "I can''t because I haven''t drained the magic from the metal lizard metal yet. That''s true. Metal Lizard Metal is used in almost every part of the weapon. I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not. I think some army was doing that as a countermeasure against guerrillas. Was it defoliant? No. They use charcoal and stuff to refine metal. That''s why they cut down most of the trees around here. Don''t they use coal? We dig that, too, but it''s for cold places. If you use it for smelting, you won''t get any metal. Oh. ...... I remember there was something like that on Earth. I think I heard it in history class or something. How did we deal with it? As I recall, coke is used for iron refining: ...... Oh. Coke. You can make coke from coal. I saw a coke making method somewhere when I was in high school. If I had learned some ancient martial arts like a normal high school student, it might have been useful in battle, but I never thought that my useless knowledge would be useful in such a situation. Fortunately, thanks to my martial arts background, I did not need to learn ancient martial arts. You can make coke, you know. You can make coke by burning coal like a charcoal briquette, and then removing the impurities. ...... I don''t understand. I''ll put you in touch with someone in the fuel industry who might be able to help you, but you''ll probably have to pay for the experiment, okay? If it turns out to be useful, can you buy the technology from me? It''s a bit of a hassle to get a patent or something, but I don''t think it''s a good idea to offer the technology and lose money on it. If you can really refine metal with coal, it''s possible. You should go here, to Igni''s fuel shop. He drew me a map. Maybe I should go there next time. I feel like I''ve been developing so much lately that I haven''t been adventuring much. I don''t know if I''m a magician or a technician. "Excuse me, is this the right place for Igni''s fuel shop? "Yes, that''s right. Are you here to buy charcoal? The man who answered was also a human. No, I know a new kind of fuel, and I was told to come here for it. "New fuel? Yes, I heard somewhere a long time ago that there is a fuel made from coal that can be used to refine metals. Well, we''re a charcoal shop. ...... Coal is not our specialty. The method of making it is similar to charcoal, but what do you think? Of course, we''ll pay for the experiment. In that case, ...... I''ll ask my master about it. After a while, a stout man of human race came out. I thought he was a dwarf. Is it true that you can make a decent amount of fuel from coal for refining? Well, the process is not perfect, so I can''t say for sure, but I think it''s possible. Well, we have a bit of production capacity, and if you''re willing to pay for the research, I see no reason to refuse. Either way, we won''t lose anything. That''s true. That''s true. Of course, if we succeed and use the technology, we won''t give it away for free, will we? Yes, I know. Now tell me, how do you do it? Yes, you can cover the coal with bricks or something to prevent air from getting into the coal and heat it from around it. When you do that, something like gas and oil will come out. Those are impurities. The gas that comes out will burn, but it is poisonous, so be careful. "Gas: ......? What is a gas? Gas is like air that burns. It''s used as a fuel to heat coal. I''ve heard of burning air before. Is that what you''re talking about? Yes, coal needs a higher temperature than wood, so we use it. The liquid that comes out can be used like oil, though it''s not edible. "I see. Okay, let''s try it. How much are you willing to invest? "This will do for now. I''ll give you a large gold coin. I''ll lose my money, but I can sell the metal if I need to. A lot of gold. That''s a lot of gold. I think I''ll start experimenting today. Maybe you''re not a technician or an adventurer, maybe you''re a capitalist or an inventor. In the case of the inventor, he''s just ripping off the achievements of the greats of the past. It''s not like it''s going to diminish. 26 Episode 25 Armor and Shotguns The next day, when I visited the guild with the problem of exterminating bandits, I saw the receptionist beckoning to me. It''s a girl today. Cute. Please show me your guild card. "You must be Kaede. You have a nomination request and a reward for completing the request. When you show your guild card, you''ll be given three gold coins and a request board that looks like two request boards stacked with the writing side in the middle. On the side you can see, it says, "For the sake of confidentiality, please make sure no one is around before opening the package. I wonder if it is safe to say that I am carrying a secret. Thank you. I put the board in the item box, thanked him, and left the guild. Shall I open it at the inn? When I opened the package in the inn room, I found the contents of the request written on it. Rank: E Request: Defeat bandits Reward: 50,000 Tel divided among the participants, and an additional 500 Tel for each person defeated. Quantity: All bandits Remarks: Gather at the guild one hour after the morning bell rings on the 15th, and show the request form to the receptionist. Operation will be decided depending on the number of people gathered. The 15th day is tomorrow. We can''t just go around asking, "We''re going to kill bandits tomorrow, do you want to join us? We can''t just go around asking people if they want to join us. What will they do if they don''t get the necessary number of people? Perhaps they will change the day. I looked at the guild card to see if the three gold coins were just for information, but there was no record of bandits killed on the guild card. I wonder if this is some kind of guild-style cover-up. The fact that it disappeared probably means that the reward has already been paid. There is no way to confirm whether the amount of information is included, but the fact that a strike team has been formed may mean that it has been confirmed. That''s just a guess, though. It''s still a long day until tomorrow - or rather, there''s still a whole day to go - so I went to check on the workshop, but they said it would take until the day after tomorrow to remove the magic power. Next is the charcoal shop. Hello, how''s the coke? Coke is that coal that can be used for refining. I did as you said and built a small facility, but all I got was a hole in the end of the coal. Oh. A lot of holes means it''s probably finished. I think you should thin the ?????? area where the coke is placed to make it only at the edge. The coke is the one full of holes. I think it burns at a higher temperature than charcoal when you light it. "Oh, ??????, can I try to burn it? Of course you can. The charcoal maker scrapes off the coke and begins to build a fire. Although he is a charcoal dealer, he mainly sells charcoal, not uses it. With nothing else to do, I looked around and saw what looked like a coke-making device. It even has some kind of device to move gas around and use it. It''s very complete. I wonder if it was made by a dwarf. It seems to be ready. It seems to be very fast, but in this world, there must be some kind of magic. Hmmm... ?????? That''s a lot of firepower for such a small amount, this could be a great fuel. This could be a great fuel, but it''s not enough for refining. Apparently, it is. Do we need to parallelize ?????? to get the quantity? I think we can secure the quantity by making several identical ones. The problem is profitability. ?????? "It''s a good fuel for heating, but it''s too expensive at present. It''s a good fuel for heating, but it''s too expensive for refining, and it''s better to use charcoal. If we could turn the whole coal into coke, which could be used for refining, it would be about the same as charcoal, but nowadays coal is retailed for home fuel, so it would be much cheaper to buy it directly from the miners. I think it''s possible if you reduce the thickness of the area where the coal is placed. I think we can do that by reducing the thickness of the area where the coal is placed, alternating the area where the thin coal is placed with the area where the flame is burned for heating. That sounds like a good idea. I''ll give it a try, but for now, I''ll just make one, and if I can make it, I''ll make another one. "Yes, please do. How much money do you have left? You haven''t spent a single gold coin yet. That''s a lot of money. I see. Let me know when you need it. I will. I think we''re good for the time being. He left the store. At this rate, it may not be difficult to put it to practical use. I have nowhere else to go, so I''m going to have lunch and then go on an adventure. It''s another day of killing Red Wolves. I''ve killed about 30 red wolves and gained one level. My sword and magic levels did not increase. By the way, I''ve been using my wand to speed up my magic, but I haven''t improved the magic I use with it. That was enough for now, and considering the MP consumption, I don''t think I can make a spell that is simply fuel efficient and strong. However, it would be nice to have a spell that is easy to use. I''m going to hunt bandits tomorrow, so I''ll just prepare spells for opponents and try the rest the day after tomorrow. There are some skills that are good for opponents in games, but they are definitely not efficient in this world. It''s flashy, and it''s the kind of skill that involves attacking unrelated areas with flames. So, what is the best magic for opponents? First, the power. This is not so necessary. Unlike other animals, humans do not have thick fur. They may have heavy armor, but for the time being, assume a lightly armored opponent. Next is speed, and the faster the better. To do so, you must wait for a new wand. You can buy a replacement wand, but it won''t be as good. There is no way to change this. Now, what do you want at the expense of power? Small rock spears flying at the enemy in large numbers, that''s it. The hideout was like a cave, so I was afraid to use fire, and water is not very penetrable. There was a wind attribute, but it was also not suitable for attacking. It would be a good target for an opponent who had some means of long-range attack, like floating or something. Hmm? Maybe if you don''t float, but let the wind go around your body at high speed, it would be strong enough to prevent long range attacks? I tried to use magic with that image. I feel that a very fast wind is blowing around me. If I put up an umbrella, it might be blown away. It seems that this consumes 10 magic power per second. The grass around me also looks as if it is being blown by the typhoon. As a test, I picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it up to my head. The stone flew straight up and landed on my head. If you don''t have enough power to blow up a pebble, you won''t be able to block even a pebble. Even if I shift the trajectory, the distance is not enough. Rather than that, why don''t you make a wall directly on the surface of your body with magic power? The wizard in the game must have used such a skill. I was a physical firefighter, so I had nothing to do with such assistance, and only had a few doping skills that increased my personal attack power. I tried to poke my hand with a stone, but the magic pushed the stone away and I couldn''t grab it. It would have been convenient if it had only repelled the harmful ones, but it doesn''t seem to do that. I have no choice but to use the spell on my face and poke my cheek with the stone I picked up. The stone was blocked by the spell and did not reach my face. There seems to be no problem even if you poke it rather hard. Instead, the status of the stone shows that it consumes a little bit of magic power every time it is poked. I think this is an attempt to offset the attack with the magic used to make the armor, and make up for it. This is the most natural explanation. I found out through various tests that this spell, like other spells, can have a lot of magic power in it beforehand. Also, it seems that clothes are considered as a part of your body and are not removed. But weapons were not. I don''t know the criteria. I decided to cast this spell on all parts of my body except my hands. The reason is that, like a tentacle plate, once deployed, it does not consume magic until it is attacked. You can''t sit on a chair or eat food, so you have to cast it when you leave the city. Incidentally, I tried this by eating a leaf that was not poisonous. Always protect your eyes, just in case. No matter how many tentacles you have, getting something in your eyes is always a problem. That''s enough for defense. Next is attack. I was originally going to develop offensive magic. I''m not going to use magic to strengthen my body like in the game. One wrong move and you could end up exploding in a heap. Scary! I don''t think I can use wind magic. I don''t think it''s very offensive. Water magic, I''m not going to put down a mob, I''m going to kill bandits. Rejected. Fire magic, I don''t feel like using it in a cave. I''d strangle myself. Earth magic then. A small rock spear would be like a bullet and small enough for a man. Unlike a beast, a man can easily be killed by a bullet in his limb. Instead of miniaturization, what we want is numbers. Until the new cane is completed, the speed will not be that fast, but once the barrage is set up, there is no way to avoid it. If a human being is 40cm wide and spears are lined up horizontally with a width of 30cm, there is no way to avoid them. However, it is not possible to deploy magic in a long horizontal line. The point where they start to fly would be too far from the body. So, it is like a shotgun. It doesn''t fly like a real shotgun, but like the shotgun in Mohand. In order to increase the suppression power, the bullets are 1/50th of the normal bullets, and 7¡Á50=350 long spears fly like a shotgun. I thought that 1/50th might not be enough firepower, but looking at the bullet hole, it seems to have bitten into the tree about 2cm. Even at this level, it would be enough to buy some time. Besides, there would be another spear flying at me in 0.5 seconds. The impact of such a large number of spears is not insignificant. As for anti-personnel magic, I''ll use my magic armor and my rapid-fire shotgun. 27 Episode 26: Bandits and Group Battles The day of the bandit hunt arrived. Besides me, there were two E rankers, two D rankers, one C ranker, and one B ranker. That''s six people. Two of us were wizards, and the rest were warriors. Considering the scale of the damage, the bandits numbered between 30 and 50. The number of bandits here is much smaller than that of the enemy, but I heard somewhere that D-rank and above are the most elite of adventurers, let alone E rank. I think it was in a tavern. But was the ratio of adventurers like this? I don''t know, but I think there should be more adventurers in the lower ranks, considering the number of requests. At any rate, we gathered and sat down at a large round table on the second floor for introductions and a strategy meeting to ascertain our strength. The head of the branch seemed to have a policy of leaving things to the adventurers, so he said to the wizard, "Take care of the rest," and went away. I''m Rixe, a D-rank one-handed swordsman. I have a short reach, but I have a shield. He showed me his sword. The blade is about 40cm long, which is short for this world. The shield is a round shield, but it looks bigger and stronger than mine. Well, I don''t need a shield, but I can use magic armor, and there''s a good chance that I won''t need a sword with a wand function once it''s finished, so I''m not looking for that much protection. Anyway, this is how I introduce myself. I''m not going to tell you what my favorite food is, but rather what magic I can use and what my strengths and weaknesses are in combat. I will introduce myself in the order of the people sitting at the table. There was an E-ranked two-handed swordsman, an E-ranked one-handed swordsman with a slightly larger weapon and a smaller shield than Rixe, and finally it was my turn. I''m Kaede, an E rank magic swordsman. I''m an E rank magic swordsman, Kaede. I have a fairly fast rate of fire and a large number of bullets, so I think I have the ability to dominate. I''m looking forward to working with you. I will show you my sword, shield, and staff. A man who looked like a wizard, but had not yet introduced himself, made a comment. He is a lightly dressed man with a staff about his height. "Wait a minute, what''s a mage? I''ve never heard of one. A mage is a swordsman who uses magic. He can use magic while attacking with his sword or repelling attacks with his shield, so he uses both. I don''t think you can use magic while swinging a sword, but you''re fighting with that weapon.¡¡I can''t even use it while running. ...... I''m not sure if that''s how it usually works. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. I''m not sure what to make of it. I''m sorry if I''m being rude, but when I appraised it, it had almost 40 MP. On top of that, it has three attributes, fire, water, and wind, and it also has magical qualities. It seems that even a pretty good wizard has this level. If you think about it, even 40 can fire 80 rock spears. If you hit them, you can kill 80 people by yourself. Compared to a warrior who has to get close to the enemy and hit them with his sword, a magician who only has to pass through the line of fire is not so inferior. Oops, I didn''t introduce myself yet. I''m a B rank wizard, Magus. The speed of magic is rather fast, reciting time is a little over two seconds with a rock spear or fireball. I''ll be your leader this time. He''s a B-rank wizard who can use wind and fire, which means he''ll need 20 of these guys to defeat the Metal Lizard. I wonder if the reciting time refers to the firing speed. It''s usually said to be 3 seconds, so it must be excellent. After that, the other people introduced themselves. The other wizard seemed to be of D rank, and the rest were all warriors. There were swords of all sizes, but no spearmen. I''ve seen them in the blacksmith''s shop, so it''s not as if they''re not being used. After the introductions, Mr. Magus stood up. I haven''t heard the plan yet, but are we leaving? Now that the introductions are over, I still don''t understand how Kaede fights, can you show me in the training area? I don''t mind, but ...... I don''t want to stand out for nothing. I don''t want to show off unnecessarily, but it would be a problem if something happened to me when I fought with people who didn''t know what I was capable of. This is the way I need to stand out. The training ground was close to the guild. It was high and covered by a wall that looked sturdy, but not as sturdy as the outer wall. Just swing your sword as far as you can and fire off two spells in a row. Just use spells that don''t consume too much energy so they don''t affect you later. So you activate the shotgun spell while swinging your sword. It consumes five magic power and fires twice a second, so it''s easy. Is it like this? I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one who has a problem with this. Yes, it''s like this. I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it''s a good idea. It''s still too fast. I''m not going to save and fight, and I''m not going to hide. How are your defenses and magic power? When the battle begins, I deploy defensive magic all over my body. After that, depending on the situation, I protect only the vital points and replenish the defenses that have been breached when there is no need to attack. Since you can use healing magic, you can manage some injuries. Also, the magic power can last for 10 or 20 minutes of continuous shooting. I''m not sure what to make of that. I''m not sure what to make of this.¡¡I''m not sure I''d be confident as a wizard, but there''s no doubt that I can be an asset. Can you be a vanguard? Vanguard. It''s scary to be in the front, but I guess it''s expected of me. Let''s give it our best shot. I''m afraid of ......, so I''m going to shove more magic into the armor on my face. You can''t afford to get killed by a headshot. "Yes, I''m going vanguard. "Okay, I''ve got a plan. The vanguard is Kaede and ....... In the end, I was in the vanguard with a C-ranked warrior, and Majis was behind us as the main party. The remaining two D-ranked and two E-ranked warriors became the sub-parties to guard the back entrance, about 100 meters away from the entrance, from a distance. The specific plan was for me and the swordsman to kill the guards by surprise, Magus to surprise the guards at the back entrance at the same time, and then the sub-parties to set the back entrance on fire to seal it off, and after Magus joined us, the entire main party to attack. There was a high possibility that the raid would be detected early, but they decided to go ahead with this plan since it would allow them to fight an enduring battle. By the way, there is no problem of smoke. It has been used for a long time, but there has never been such a problem. The warrior said that I would take the lead as a scout while the defensive spell was working, and the warrior would catch up with me when the battle started. As we were moving along talking about this, we arrived near the hideout. As for the exact path, it seemed that Magus had gone to check it out with the guild members yesterday, so we didn''t have to look around for it. As planned, everyone is in place. They didn''t seem to have noticed us at this stage. When the signal was given, I generated four ordinary rock spears and hit the two guards in the face and the center of gravity respectively. The spears hit well, and the guards fell without making too much noise. The other side seems to be doing well, too, and Mr. Magis comes running quickly. It''s obvious that he''s running fast. He must be using some kind of magic. In no time at all, Mr. Magus has arrived. I take the lead and enter. I''ve created a large number of rock spears, slightly smaller than usual, for the first shot. If any bandits come out, I''m going to beehive the first one with this. It doesn''t matter if they have armor or not, as long as they are large enough. If it doesn''t penetrate, it will just blow them up. It''s important to have a strong magic ready when you have time. The best weapon is the one that can kill you the moment you encounter it. Mark bandits with information manipulation analysis just in case, and keep five rock spears in stock. You don''t want to get any civilians in trouble. I thought I saw Mr. Magus'' eyes widen, but it was too late. About 30 seconds after I entered, the first bandits appeared. The three of them seemed to be talking about something. I presented them with rock shotguns, which I had prepared, and all of them seemed to have been hit hard and died. I quickly prepared the next spear and moved on. The two men behind me seemed to be following me. The cave was winding, but it was a straight path up to here. For the number of people we were expecting, we hadn''t encountered many people so far. ...... And there''s a door. I can hear laughter from inside. Is this the main part? The people behind me seem to have followed me breathlessly, and in ten seconds I''ll use my magic to break down the door and charge in. I fire off a volley of spells to keep them out, and then the warrior charges. Mr. Magus will cover in the back. There may be civilians in the area, but the plan is to basically wipe them out. We don''t have time to worry about them. I prepared four 200-round piles of rock projectiles, each about 15 cm in diameter, for a total of 800. Behind me, I thought I saw Mr. Magis'' eyes widen, but he didn''t say anything. Time to go. I shot 200 of the 800 spears at the door. Not exactly at the same time, but with a slight time lag. With a roar the door blew open and the spears flew inside. He jumped out and shot 200 rock spears at a wide angle to the left and right. The rock spears flew across the room. The remaining 200 spears were shot in the front direction and the remaining two charged. They were about to attack with their weapons, but something was wrong. It was quiet. The room was about the size of a high school classroom. The room is about the size of a high school classroom, but there''s no sign of anyone still alive. They seem to have been wiped out. I was somewhat disappointed, but I decided to go on. We defeated the remaining three bandits without much trouble, and came within sight of the fire. I went back with Majis and met up with the sub-parties. We didn''t find any civilians. Is that it?¡¡The end?¡¡I didn''t get a chance to fire my shotgun or use my magic armor. Well, I''d rather not have to use armor. 28 Episode 27 Post-Processing and Coal Shop We rejoined, and Mr. Magis gave the following instructions. There were at least thirty of them. There were at least thirty of them, and I don''t feel that they were trapped simply because Kaede''s strength was stronger than expected. So I think I''ll just move on to collecting the loot. "You''re so strong for an E rank? I''m not sure I would have believed it if I hadn''t seen it with my own eyes, but it''s true. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re going to be doing and how you''re going to do it. I''m not sure if you''ve seen this before, but I''m sure you''ve seen it before. I''m sure you''re not the only one who has a problem with that. "I''ll talk to the guild leader about that later. Anyway, that''s just the beginning. If you''ve got a lot of items in the box, you''re going to need to take them out and give them to me. If there''s not enough room, we''ll split up and take it. Kaede, are you okay? "Yes, I''m fine, but I also have an item box. It has a large capacity, so feel free to use it. I''m sure you don''t have anything that can''t fit in my item box. I''m not sure what to make of this.¡¡It''s not like there are going to be any raids, so it''s more like a break. Even if it was a trap, there''s no reason for it to cause this much damage. I understand. I''ll take a break, thank you. I don''t need to rest because I''m not tired, but there''s no point in forcing myself to work. I''ll take your word for it. While I was sitting idly at the back door, I was approached by someone who seemed to have finished collecting the materials. "I''m on my way back, but keep an eye on the perimeter, Kaede move to the middle, I don''t need to keep an eye on you, but if anything happens, please cover me. You don''t have to be careful, but if anything happens, cover me." I wonder if they''re relying on me too much or if they''re treating me well. ...... You don''t have to be careful, but if you get within range of the tentacles, they''ll know. We arrived at the guild without being attacked. I waited in the room where we had gathered before leaving for Majis to call the chapter leader, and he came out shortly after. It looks like you succeeded in defeating it. I heard that Kaede did most of the work, but is she really an E rank?¡¡Can I see your guild card, please? Yes, please. I''ve heard that Kaede did most of the work.¡¡There weren''t more than a hundred bandits, were there? I''m sorry, I took your job. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out the best way to get the most out of this. It''s a joke that you can fire them repeatedly. You have to save up for that kind of power to be able to fire repeatedly. I''m struggling too. ...... Maybe we weren''t struggling at all. ...... I see. I''ll have to think about moving up in rank. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out how to use it. What''s a consumption catalyst? When you learn magic, you put magic power into a magic stone, right?¡¡That''s a magic catalyst. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. ...... I''ve never seen a big magic stone before. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. I don''t remember. I was rescued from amnesia in Ein, where I was staying before I came here, and my memory of what happened before that is pretty much gone. The truth is, I was the one who saved her. I''ve heard of amnesia, ......, but this is the first time I''ve seen an actual case of it. I''ve heard of it, but I''ve never seen an actual case. I don''t mean to pry, though. I''m not going to pry. There''s always a chance of something weird getting into the guild. Spies from other countries. It''s not uncommon for guild members to have their reasons. "It''s not uncommon for guild members to have their reasons. It''s customary in the guild not to pry, and instead to pretend you don''t know anything about the people you belong to. Is that how it is? Are there any spies in the guild? I''m sure there are spies in the guild. But they''re not criminals, and if the guild tries to keep them out, they''ll just hide. It was proven a long time ago that it''s not worth the trouble to change conventions for the sake of it. Well, let''s talk about the reward later. It seems that Kaede has almost finished, but the basic reward will be split as planned, right? Yes, of course. I wonder what would have happened if I had refused. I''m a little curious, but it''s not something I''d bother to try. We''ll settle the bill, including the loot, and we''ll be able to complete the order tomorrow. "Will the guild dispose of the loot? I''ve always imagined that the members of the guild would split the loot. I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it''s a good idea. In the event that you''ve got a lot of money, you''ll be able to take advantage of the fact that you''ll be able to get a lot more. So that''s what happened. If you think about it, it is natural. You would not be convinced if someone said, "A bandit stole this from your house, but I killed him, so it''s mine. The way of thinking is different between Japan and this world to some extent, but it is not surprising that it is not so easy to separate the two. I can see the adventurer who asks the bereaved family for at least a memento. I''ve never seen a Mohawk in this world. Do you have any objections?¡¡If not, we''re done. There were no objections, so the meeting was dismissed. The bandit killing seems to have ended quite early, and it is now past noon. It''s probably too late to remove the magic, so I''ll go see if I can find some coke. When I went to the charcoal shop, they told me that they were still experimenting and took me to the experimental site. It was a corner near the charcoal kiln, though. "Oh, maple!¡¡This is a great fuel!¡¡This is great fuel! It can be used for refining, and it''s so hot! Before I knew it, I was being addressed as "sir". In the back of the room, there was what looked like a coke-making machine, and an unfamiliar dwarf was working on something. I''m curious about what he''s doing, but I feel like I''ll get kicked out if I talk to him, so I leave him alone and talk to the charcoal maker. "Have you completed it to a practical level yet? I''m not sure what to make of this. I''m not sure if the technology is as developed as it is on Earth, but if you can get bones and metals that are harder than tungsten from demons, I''m not sure if the technology is as developed as it is on Earth. There is also a story that the reason why science did not develop much near the equator of the earth is because the environment was relatively easy to live in thanks to the blessings of nature even if it was not developed. But they are still refining iron. No, I''ve heard that it''s more efficient if you put them side by side, but I haven''t done that yet. But it''s profitable enough at the current level, so I was planning to start production if I could get your permission. Oh, I''ll introduce you to Iggy, the blacksmith from the Mining Association, whose dwarves are building the device for us. Oh, my name is Kaede, nice to meet you. He ignored me, or rather, I didn''t feel like he was paying attention to me from the start. Mr. Sumiya also shrugged his shoulders. I''m glad he didn''t kick me out. As we were talking about coke, Mr. Igg finally looked up. "Oh, you''re the one called Kaede?¡¡What are you going to do with this amazing technology? What do you mean, what are you going to do? What do you mean, what do you mean, what do you mean, what do you mean? It''s a good thing I created the technology, but I didn''t think about how to sell it. It would be a problem if someone came to me with an unknown technology and asked me to buy it, especially if the technology would generate a lot of money. It''s not like the organization has the money to change it all at once. "What should I do? "You didn''t even think of that when you came up with this shit!¡¡You''ll get cheated one day! You''ll be cheated one day!" The dwarf who seemed to be the least familiar with such things admonished me. I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure it out. I''m sure you''ve heard of it, but I''ve never heard of it. "It''s like an artifact technology fee, or is it a ''patent''? That''s what they''ve been doing lately. I''m sure it would be great for those of us who don''t have a lot of money right now, but is it a good idea?¡¡I''m sure you can make a lot of money selling it to organizations with a lot more money. Is there an artifact technology fee, or is there some kind of artifact copy thing?¡¡And maybe there''s some kind of tax on it? Maybe it evolved into a patent. That is, if the system is the same as Earth''s patent system. I don''t know what an artifact is, I just think of it as a strong item. Oh well. You said that we could make a lot of money selling this technology, but would we? No, it might make money for a while, but once it''s sold, it''s over. On Earth, coke was used to make steel, and steel was used to make coke. It would be a waste to just sell it, and those who bought it would have a monopoly. Rather, if I were to make a system where I could get paid every time coke was made, I would always be able to profit and the technology would spread. Let''s do that. That''s good. Yes, that''s fine. I''ll get the accountant. Wait here. Mr. Iggy went away with an agility that did not match his height. Suddenly Mr. Sumiya, who had been silent until now, spoke up. "By the way, can I have a part in this? Yes, I''m not going to stay in one place forever, and I''ll probably have to leave the equipment to you, so you can make a reasonable profit. That''s good to know, I was worried I might lose my job, but I think I might need to hire more people. I''m glad to hear that. He has a man with him. I''m sure the accountant is a man. I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one who is interested in this. Can I get about 50% of your profits for the patent? Fifty percent ...... would be ...... 29 Episode 28 Contracts and Negotiations "Fifty percent ...... or ......? I thought I heard wrong, so I asked again. I don''t think it''s 50 percent. It''s not like a pharmaceutical company that invests a huge amount of money in development. If you''re not going to provide all of the equipment, it''s going to be tough for you to get 90% of the artifacts. ...... Ninety percent?¡¡What''s the deal with patents in this world? I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out what''s going on.¡¡I''m a little rusty on this stuff. I''ve never signed a patent contract before, and I''ll have to get someone from the commercial guild to help me determine the details of the contract, but I''d say 70 to 50 percent of the profit is about right for a patent. ...... Is that how it is? ...... Does this mean that the technology is protected?¡¡I''m not sure if this is too much for the level of culture in this world. Well, I guess there are geniuses and the like in every world. Perhaps this level of civilization is also due to the excessive convenience of magic tools. But, wait a minute, if we get 50% of the monopoly, won''t this technology be used only by the mining society here? For example, if we cut the percentage in half, if the technology spreads twice as much, it''s a win-win situation. Isn''t that a possible direction? That may not satisfy the people in the mining association, but if that''s the case, why not give the rights to others? It''s like an agency. I have an idea, but I''m not sure if it''s procedural, so can we talk about it when the commercial guild is around?¡¡If we can do that, the patent fee will be much lower, and you''ll have a better chance of making a profit. "Oh, there is such a way?¡¡I don''t mind as long as it''s profitable, and if it''s flawed, I might have to decline, but I don''t mind the proposal itself. "Then please do that. Is it okay if we start now? I''ll go get the president of the mining association, so please wait for me. I''ll go get the president of the Coal Mining Association. Mr. Iggy was still doing something around the coke oven. After a while, a healthy-looking old man and the man from before came. I heard that the price is lower than 50%, but are you sure?¡¡To be honest, I thought even fifty percent was pretty cheap. Yes, but it''s a bit of a special system, so can I explain it in detail when the people from the commercial guild are here?¡¡I think it would be boring to have to hear the same thing twice. "Fine, I''ll go with the people from the commercial guild, can we do it now? I don''t mind, but is it okay with the Commercial Guild? I don''t think it''s a good idea to suddenly bring in a new contract without an appointment. ...... In the event that you have any questions regarding where and the best way to get in touch with us, please do not hesitate to contact us. It''s one of the biggest cases in the city, except for special materials. "Are special materials a big deal like that? The expensive materials are very expensive, like when some of the Sublime Dragon materials were brought in about ten years ago. In the event that you''ve got a lot of money, you''ll be able to take advantage of the fact that you''ll be able to get a lot more out of it. Sorry, that''s not a hoax. I brought it in with an item box. I don''t think it will disrupt the market because I don''t have a lot of money at the moment, maybe. Well, that''s no problem, let''s get going. Let''s do it. I''m looking forward to your patent ideas for your invention of coke. I''m sorry, I didn''t invent coke, it was a great man in the past. I keep apologizing in my mind. I didn''t do anything wrong. I''m going with the coal dealer to follow the mine president. A little while later, I joined the Commercial Guild. Unlike the Adventurer''s Guild, it was a clean, white building. We entered the building, but instead of a counter like the Adventurer''s Guild, it looked like a university lab building with a small reception desk. There was a woman sitting at the reception desk, just like the Adventurer''s Guild in Ein. However, she is not a friendly-looking receptionist like in the Adventurer''s Guild, but a person with a harsh-looking face. She looks like a secretary with glasses in modern Japan. . "I''m here to discuss a patent contract, please act as an intermediary. What kind of patent contract are you talking about? A patent on a fuel for refining that burns hotter than charcoal and cheaper than charcoal. What''s ......?¡¡Did the ...... Coal Mining Association develop such a thing? No, it was developed by a boy there, but I''m pretty sure it works or I wouldn''t be here. You call me a boy. They say Japanese people look like children. But I''ve seen people who look Japanese here too: ....... In the event that you have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. The receptionist was a little distraught, but quickly recovered and began to perform her duties as faithfully as she looked. The intermediary was a young man, also a human being. I feel like I''m only talking to humans even though this is a city of dwarves. I wonder if it''s not just the intermediary, but also the negotiation that is the main work, that is left to the tribesmen. "My name is Kaichi, and I''ll be your intermediary. Oh, by the way, it''s going to be a special contract, will this person be okay with it? ...... I''m sure you''ll be able to figure it out. I''m not sure what to do. You know me, I''m Geinta, please take care of me. Mr. Kaede takes me into one of the lab-like rooms. When he finally entered the room, he operated some kind of magical device while encouraging us to sit down. Finally, he took a seat and opened his mouth. "Since you''re here today to mediate a patent contract, do you need an explanation of the patent system? I don''t know much about the patent system in this world. I don''t know much about the patent system in this world, and I don''t know much about it in the original world either. You might as well ask. If you guys don''t mind, I''d like an explanation. Sumiya-san and Gainta-san nodded. They don''t seem to think I''m insane. "Well, let me explain, a patent is a system whereby the party using the patent pays a set amount of money, rarely goods, to the patent holder to protect the developer of a new technology or product, the discoverer of an artifact, etc., for a percentage of the profit or sales, depending on the case. The system is designed to protect the developer of a new technology or product and the discoverer of an artifact. If you try to avoid paying the patent fee by dishonest means, you will be severely punished. Generally, the amount of money is 90% of the profit for small magic stone artifacts and 80% to 50% for new technologies. This amount is negotiable, but the market price tends to depend on how much value the technology adds and how much profit is generated by doing business without it. Hmmm ...... Negotiation, this is going to be a hindrance if we want to spread it widely. I understand, but is it possible to make a patent agreement without negotiation? "No, I don''t think it''s possible, but I don''t think there''s any way to make a contract without a price. "Oh, I may have worded it wrong, but for example, we would declare in advance, ''If you use this technology, you will get 50% of the profit from it, and you can use it as you like within that range. "Um, ......, that''s a bit beyond me, I''ll go get the branch manager. Mr. Kaichi left in a hurry, and shortly after, a small, fat man who looked like a merchant entered. Hello, my name is Naiaki, the head of the Merchant''s Guild Herrera branch, I heard that you want a special patent contract, please explain in detail. Yes, I would like to receive about 30% of the profits, 10% to the Mining Association, and 10% to the coal merchant, how about that? How about that?" "The people who use the patents get paid?¡¡What''s the difference between that and lowering the patent fee? No, the important thing is to get the Coal Miners'' Association and the Coal Miners'' Association to promote this technology, and I''ll get a portion of the profits from it, and the rest will be divided between the Coal Miners'' Association and the Coal Miners'' Association. In this way, as the number of users of this technology increases, I, the miners, and the Coal Mining Association will all benefit, and the technology will develop. The technology can only be developed by spreading it. I have a feeling that the technology will develop more if I suggest blast furnaces and other things, but it would be better to wait until coke spreads before spending that much time on it. On Earth, it seems to have spread together with coke, but here, it seems that coke can be used to make iron without it. Mr. Naiaki was silent and thoughtful, but suddenly looked up. That''s a good system!¡¡But that could lead to too much price competition, and it is only through monopolies and oligopolies that technology can maintain high profit margins. That''s true. ...... Then how about setting a fixed price per kilogram and charging a patent fee per kilogram? That way, the competition would be based on quality, not price. No matter who wins, we won''t lose anything, and we will be more than grateful for the competition because it will drive out the poor quality products. I''m sure you''ll have no problem with that, Miyas, but you''ve been listening quietly for a while now. I''m fine with that. There''s a limit to what we can do on our scale. I don''t mind either, there are only so many mines that aren''t being mined and there are plenty of bigger ones than this one, so it''s useless to try to monopolize them all. Both of them agreed, so I started to wrap up the conversation. We''ll set a fixed price based on the cost, and then we''ll sign the contract, if you don''t mind. "Oh, I''d appreciate it if you could wait three days or so. Mr. Naiaki says apologetically. It''s not a matter for a single branch manager to make a decision on, so he or she must contact the guild master. It may take that long to get permission from the guild master after exchanging information in a hurry. ...... Technology that may increase the production of metal. So there''s a lot of other things you have to go through. ...... Sounds like a bureaucracy. In fact, it''s like bureaucracy. You can even say that it''s light-footed for a bureaucracy because it doesn''t take months or years. We left the guild and disbanded for the day. I went back to the inn and went to sleep, but when I checked my status before going to bed, I found that my MP limit had increased by 1. I wonder if it''s possible to grow even if your level doesn''t increase. 30 Episode 29 New Patents and Nations It was the day after I had killed the bandits and negotiated the coke deal, but I had nothing special to do today, so I decided to spend the day hunting like an adventurer. As before, I hunted for red wolves as I moved around, but I didn''t find any bandit hideouts today, and I ended up hunting about 50 red wolves. I then headed for the guild. I had to pick up my reward from yesterday. Hello, I''m here to report the extermination of the Red Wolves, and can I also get my reward for killing the bandits? The receptionist looked at the guild card, then looked up and said. The receptionist looked at the guild card and immediately looked up and said, "Kaede, I was told that the head of the branch would like to speak to you directly about the banditry. "Yes, I''m fine. We talked about the request itself on the day of the meeting, and he said he would think about it. The other day my rank was just raised, and now it''s going to be raised again?¡¡I''m not sure what to make of it, but I''m sure it''s worth it. Kaede, you can sit down for now. Yes, sir. The first thing is the reward, 500 Tel for each bandit, 19,000 Tel for 38 bandits, 8334 Tel for the base reward and 12666 Tel for the share of the loot, total 40,000 Tel. That''s pretty neat. I wonder if they adjusted the loot distribution. Well, if you get 40,000 tells, you''re doing well. It may be a small amount of money for a metal lizard, but it''s a lot of money in general. That''s a lot of money for a single request. And as for the rank, just from what I''ve heard from Magus, I''ve learned that he''s at least D rank. And you can kill people with it. And as for the ability?¡¡Is there something I''m missing? I don''t want to be told that I need more than three years of work experience. But Kaede lacks some experience, and if you''re ranked D or higher, you need at least some experience with escort requests, so I''ve written down your abilities on your guild card, so that only guild members can see it, of course. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re going to be doing. Five times, it''s going to take longer to rise in rank than before. And since it''s called an escort, you''ll probably have to move around the city. If I were to run as fast as I could, it would take me days to get here from Tubai. It would be easier if I could just shove all my stuff into the item box and dash off with it. That''s not escorting, that''s not escorting. He''s just a courier, and I wouldn''t trust him even as an escort. Not until we have the weapons, anyway. Yes, I can''t leave the city right now, so I''ll do an escort when I have time. There''s no need to rush into anything, but I''d like strong adventurers to stay at a reasonable rank. The guild is also short on high ranks, so that''s all I''m saying. Since the conversation seemed to be over, I left the room. You have to go to the reception desk again, because they don''t seem to be able to pay for your request. It''s true that the number of people who came to the reception desk to ask for the bandits to be killed was only about that many, and only one of them was of B or C rank. It is possible that the level of adventurers in this town is just as low as Eine''s. However, if this is a city with a high level of weapon production, and if it''s a city where a single metal lizard is a once-in-a-decade event, there probably aren''t many high-ranked adventurers. High rank adventurers will use good weapons, and if there are many high rank adventurers, they should be able to get more good materials. It''s also possible that there are too few demons, but given the situation where there are many demons in the forest, it''s hard to imagine people going ''hooray, I got something'' when they see a strong demon. In the first place, if the average level of adventurers is high, there will be a lot of them even in Eirn where the level is relatively low. If that were the case, there is no way that swords that have not been tempered would be used. They would break sooner than they could withstand. The fact that such a sword is used means that the adventurers in this world are at a level where they can use such a sword practically. In other words, adventurers in this world are not that strong, and even B-rank adventurers are rare. With this in mind, I settled the request for defeat, and went home to sleep. It would not be surprising if the weapon making process had started tomorrow. The next morning, I took the morning bell to Sumizu''s workshop, where I met Sumisa, who told me that the production of the staff was going well. People in this world wake up early. I was told that it would take about three more days because of some processing that needs to be done by Mr. Smith''s side. Next is the Commercial Guild, where we''re meeting. They meet up roughly, saying something like "some time after the morning bell", but I can feel it somehow. I was the first one to arrive, and within ten minutes, everyone was there. Let''s go. Mr. Geinta led me into the commercial guild. We''ll talk about the details at the meeting. The room has a soundproofing spell that prevents information from leaking out unless you make a lot of noise, so it''s used for important business meetings that don''t involve the Commercial Guild. There''s a fee for using it, though. Today, Mr. Naiaki will be acting as an intermediary from the beginning. The new patent has been approved, and the new system will be called the New Patent, and although we haven''t had a vote on the new system yet, we can use the system right away in the form of a provisional approval, but no new system has ever been approved provisionally and not passed a vote. I told the guild master about this system, and he was very excited and praised it, and assured me that he would force it through, so there''s nothing to worry about. "Special restrictions? "Special restrictions?" "Like not taking more than a percentage? Yes, restrictions on who we can offer this technology to. I don''t understand. Isn''t this new patent a system to spread the word? I don''t understand. Isn''t the new patent supposed to be a system for spreading the word? "Specifically, the government will review who can sell the technology, and only those who pass the review will be allowed to provide the technology. Sales outside of Japan are prohibited, and anyone who works in the field of this technology will also be screened by the government. So, you''re saying that the technology will be monopolized only in Japan?¡¡Well, it''s necessary for the government. War. I guess there are things like war and balance between nations. What about war? There hasn''t been a war in hundreds of years, and as the amount of metal smelting increases, it''s okay to sell it to foreign countries, it''s simply a way to monopolize domestic profits, a way to earn foreign currency. Hey . Return my serious thought. Money, after all. Well, that''s not a problem. I don''t want to pursue profit by antagonizing the country. Mr. Miyas and the others are nodding. Okay, by the way, what would be a good price? Mr. Geinta replied. "For now, we''ll sell it at a price slightly lower than charcoal, and then adjust the price when the name spreads to some extent, and fix it when the price stabilizes to some extent. "Then, won''t the people we''re spreading the word to have to change the price from time to time as they''re told until the price stabilizes? Until then, we''ll only be spreading the word to people we know to a certain extent, who will understand if we change the price, although it will slow down the growth of the business. That''s okay, I''m in no hurry. "Then, for now, can we sign a regular patent contract for fifty percent of the profit, and when it stabilizes, we can sign a new patent? At this point, Mr. Niaki interrupted me. At this point, Mr. Naiaki interrupted. They agreed, but I still have a few changes to make. Basically, it''s okay, but as long as we don''t have enough production equipment, you can use my patent fee for capital investment. "All right, that''s it then. The contract seemed to be settled. All that was left to do was to sign the contract on the board that Naiaki had brought with her, which was filled with magic stones, and the contract was concluded. I wonder if this is some kind of contract magic. Or maybe it''s an artifact. Wait a minute. When I was about to leave the room, Mr. Gaither stopped me. I''m talking about capital investment. We''ll increase it to some extent, but there''s a good chance we won''t be able to mine the coal in time if we add too many facilities. Are there really that many people?¡¡You''re right, they haven''t been digging much. But since the little earthquake a while back, the people working in the mines have been collapsing from time to time, and the symptoms seem to be a kind of magic overload, but it doesn''t seem like there''s any increase in magic, so I don''t know why. I don''t know what''s causing it. Too much magic, or too much of it, can have negative effects. If we reduce it beforehand, it won''t overflow. If the earthquake was caused by something else, that would be a problem. The problem is ...... Have you tried reducing the magic before entering? I''m not sure what the problem is. It''s a road that leads to some of the most productive areas of the mine, and production drops off considerably, so now we''re kind of mining in the shallow areas. So it''s stretched. So you''re saying that someone who can use a lot of magic should go scouting? Try it. If it doesn''t work, just run back. I''ll do it. I''ve got a lot of magic, so I think I can stay active for a long time if I can reduce it as much as possible. I don''t care, but the wizard who scouted ahead of me is also a pretty good wizard with a lot of magic power, do you have any ideas? Yes, I have an idea. I''m not sure what you mean by that. A wizard with a lot of magic power is probably only talking about three digits. Two digits are different. You may want to enter with about 1000 magic power left for self-defense, and spend more magic power depending on the situation. I''ll show you the difference in magic power! 31 Episode 30 Room and Demons It doesn''t matter if it''s day or night in the cave. I''m going to start setting up now, is that okay? Oh, ......, we''re fine, but are you okay?¡¡I don''t want you to die. Take it easy. Mr. Gaither is worried about me. Well, I don''t want to push myself too hard. I''ll come back as soon as I feel it''s too dangerous. "Well, I''ll send one of the miners who hasn''t been in the cave lately to guide you, though he won''t be able to go deep enough. Thank you. I''ll call him on my way back, and you can wait here. A little while after Mr. Ga-inta left, a miner came to us. He''s a man, but he''s probably a dwarf. Oh, you''re the one who''s going to take care of that mine, follow me. Then he walks away quickly. That''s a dwarf. I hurriedly followed him. After a while, the man stops in front of what looks like the entrance to a tunnel. It is about two and a half meters high. It is about two and a half meters high, which seems high for a Dwarf. I can''t stay long at the entrance of that tunnel, I''ll turn around as soon as I get there. Wait a minute. I haven''t finished my preparations yet. I need to reduce my magic power, so can you wait for ten minutes? It''s going to take 10 minutes. ...... Okay. The guide then sat down on the spot. I looked at him and began to put in magic power to deploy pressure magic as far away as possible. It''s an experiment in invisible sniping with pressure magic. After ten minutes of incessantly releasing magic power, I have consumed about 6000 magic power. That''s just over half of the maximum. I''ve just realized that I''ve done this much. Even after all this, it still consumes about 12,000 times as much magic power as a pressure spell that consumes 0.5 magic power, which is not even close to 30 to the third power. Even if you multiply 30cm by 30, the distance you can reach is only 9m. It would be better to wait for a normal wand to be made, instead of talking about invisibility. I activated the spell, feeling a little discouraged. The ground about 6 meters away is slightly gouged. About five centimeters. I''m ready, I can do it. "Oh, I didn''t feel like I consumed any magic, but if that''s okay with you, let''s go. With that, the guide started walking again. After a while, he stops, points to the path on the left and says, "This is it. He stops and points to the road on the left and says, "This is it, I''m leaving now, you''re on your own. With that, the person who was guiding me left. I wonder if it is already harmful to ordinary people. If it were not harmful, there would not be much of a problem with not being able to enter one of the branches. As for the lights, when we left, the guide left us a miniaturized version of an inn light. I wondered if it would be possible to return home without a light. I don''t feel anything strange when I enter the room, but I''m going to check the status just in case. There doesn''t seem to be a general way to know how much MP you have, but I''ll be able to keep monitoring it as I explore. Name: Suzumiya Kaede Age / Race / s*x : 21 / Human / Male Level: 21 HP:821/821 MP:5216/103542 STR:116 INT:181 AGI:143 DEX:154 Skills: Information Manipulation Analysis (Concealment), Complete Mastery of Otherworldly Languages (Concealment), Magical Qualities, Martial Qualities, Otherworldly (Concealment), All Attribute Affinity (Concealment), Fire Magic 3, Earth Magic 3, Water Magic 3, Pressure Magic 1, Perception Magic 4, Restoration Magic 2, Swordsmanship 2, Magical Adaptation unknown Yeah, MP is normal, MP max is about 10,000. ...... Hmm? I''m sure you''re not the only one. And there''s a skill I don''t recognize. Demon Adaptation. And what''s unknown? For now, let''s give it a test. Demon Adaptation Level unknown Adaptation to magical elements. Not enough information. No matter how hard I tried, Information Manipulation Analysis did not give me any more information than this. I have never thought about this before, but perhaps there is a limit to information manipulation analysis. Or perhaps there is a condition. What is a magical element, and is it not magical power? I re-evaluated MP, and found that MP is magical power. This result suggests that the magical element is something related to magical power. There is a high possibility that it is also related to the maximum MP value. Is too much magic power too much magic element?¡¡However, it is also possible that it is not due to magical elements, but to magical power. There''s too little information to make a judgment, so I''ll just keep going. It''s a little creepy, but for some reason a hunch or something tells me it''s safe to proceed. As I progressed, my maximum MP increased rapidly, finally surpassing one million. With such an increase in MP, you''d think that the recovery speed would increase, but it hasn''t even recovered, let alone increased. There was absolutely nothing. After walking for a while more, the maximum value stopped increasing. The maximum MP is now 8754289, which is a serious problem. If I''m not careful, it''s going to hit the 10 million mark. If the recovery rate is the same as before, the recovery rate will be one million per minute, which is too fast to use up. My MP hasn''t recovered since I came here, but I haven''t heard of any aftereffects of magic overload, and I''d like to believe that it will recover once I leave here. This MP anomaly is probably the cause of this incident. I don''t believe that two mutations of this magnitude could occur at the same time. It''s also possible that it was triggered. When I searched the point where the MP increase had stopped again, I saw a hole in the bottom of the wall. I poked it with a slightly less powerful spell, and it collapsed, so I looked inside. About two meters down, you can see what looks like the inside of a solid house, which is not the inside of a mine. It didn''t look too dangerous, so I jumped down from the hole and went inside. The interior was a 10m square, 2m high space surrounded by blue-grey walls. The place where I came in looked like it had been burned by fire. There is only one desk at the end of the room, and I can see something around it. Other than that and what appears to be a lighted magic tool hanging in the center of the room, it''s a bleak room with almost nothing in it. As I approached the room, I found out what it was. First of all, there was a human bone, a human bone that had fallen around the chair next to the desk. I was not shocked, as I had already killed many people, but if I had just arrived here, I might have panicked. Then there was a bunch of thin papers on the desk, like a notepad, and a sword. It was a beautiful sword with a hint of blue in it, and although it was unsheathed, it didn''t show any signs of age compared to the other things around it, and I could believe that it was brand new. He took the sword and tried to swing it, and it felt right. For some reason, the sword seemed to want magic, so I poured some magic into it, and something about it seemed to change. When I thrust the sword into the ground, it felt like a piece of tofu, but it was much lighter than a normal sword, and it pierced through to the base. I put the sword away and tried to poke the ground with Dverag''s sword, but it just flicked off. I think I may have found a great sword. I put the sword away with a smile on my face. This sword is not for practical use yet. The iron sword I''ve used so far is not that powerful, but I have a lot of trust and experience with it. I won''t start using this sword until I''m outside. I''ve also collected your notepad. There is no particular need to read it here. The light given to me is too low to read, and I''m afraid of running out of oxygen with fire magic. I retrieved the notebook, but then I remembered the light in the center of the room. There is a good chance that it was meant to illuminate this room. I wonder if I can get enough light to be able to read it, even if I have to look at it a little. The light has a string attached to it, just like the ones in Japan. I suppose it is enough to pull the string. I approached and pulled the string. There was a click, and The light went out. I don''t mean that the light went out, but physically. I quickly shielded my eyes and immediately heard a sound as if the light was cracking. It seems that I am not injured. I open my eyes and see what''s left of the light, and move toward the hole to turn back, but then I feel something gathering in the center of the room. I turned around and saw that something blackish was forming in the center of the room. It is about three meters away. After about five seconds of observation, it takes shape and becomes a kind of six-legged monster with no clear outline. It is about 1.5 meters wide and 1 meter high. The outlines of the flames, for example, appear to be somewhat blurred, as if they were blackened. However, the outline seems to be getting clearer with time. It does not have six legs like a green wolf, but six legs like an insect, but each leg looks like a bear. To be honest, it''s quite creepy. I hurriedly put on my usual gear and hit it with a large number of rock spears. As you watch, you deploy your magic armor. When the spears hit something, all of them disappeared with almost no reaction. It''s as if they''ve been absorbed. The demon-like thing itself didn''t seem to waver in the slightest. I tried to cast a pressure spell just to be sure, but all I heard was a "buzzing" sound. It''s the same as when I cast it on air. It''s safe to assume that it doesn''t work. As I was thinking about what to do, a monster with a clearer outline came flying at me. In a single leap, it completely destroyed a distance of three meters and jumped at me. I don''t know if physical attacks will work, but I immediately thrust the sword in my right hand. The sword stabbed into the demon without any resistance, as if it were slicing through the air. As it was, the sword sank to its base, and the demon''s momentum continued unabated as it closed in on me. Suddenly, I felt a response. It was just as my hand struck the demon when the sword had completely sunk into its base. But it didn''t stop the demon''s momentum, and it seemed that the demon was going to push me away, but the demon put pressure on my body for a moment, and then it landed on the other side. I wonder what it wanted to do. I turned around and looked at the monster again. The demon seemed to have become much smaller than when I saw it before. It seems to be about 40cm high. It''s probably not my imagination. Is it possible that I should hit this thing directly with my body? I thought so, and when I tried to hit it, its volume disappeared in an interesting way. There was not much of a response, so it did not feel like a hit. Before I could hit it ten times, it had disappeared, leaving behind something that looked like a magic stone from a light tool, and a much larger, blackish magic stone of about 30cm in diameter. I wonder what it was. 32 Episode 31 Dragons and Reports I wasn''t happy to see any more strange things, so I decided to go straight home. The appraisal would have to wait until I left the cave. Since it came out of the mine, I have to tell Mr. Gainta about it. I don''t think I should take it home without permission. There were no artifacts on Earth, but if treasure came out of the ground, the owner of the land would have had some rights. Widen the hole a bit more and jump back to the mine. I''ve gotten used to jumping onto scaffolding that''s almost two meters above me. When I first came here, the idea of jumping onto a scaffold of this height did not occur to me until I consciously thought about it. Now it''s a natural feeling. Even if I jumped up, the reason I came here in the first place wasn''t to find artifacts, but to get rid of my magic overload. What am I supposed to do? I can''t be sure. The place where the problem was increased the MP limit, so the status might tell me. It''s a human detector. So I opened the status and looked at the MP column. Let me guess from the change in MP. MP:673122/94528637 MP:676564/94528637 MP:685732/94528637 MP:689238/94528637 Huh! There''s something wrong with the way I''m recovering. It used to heal by the minute, but now it''s increasing at an irregular pace. Also, the limit is wrong. It''s almost a hundred million. To be honest, I can''t even follow the lower digits with my eyes. ...... Well, it''s recovering, so things have certainly changed since the time when it stopped recovering. I''m going to look at the skills to see if they are affected. Skills: Information Manipulation Analysis (Concealment), Complete Mastery of Otherworldly Languages (Concealment), Magical Qualities, Martial Arts Qualities, Otherworldly (Concealment), All Attribute Affinity (Concealment), Fire Magic 3, Earth Magic 3, Water Magic 3, Pressure Magic 1, Perception Magic 4, Restoration Magic 2, Swordsmanship 2, Magical Adaptation unknown No change. I don''t know if it''s gone up or not because it''s unknown. I don''t know if it''s gone up or not, but it''s gone up to almost 100 million. I don''t think it can go up this much, considering the pace at which it came. Could it be that the demons that disappeared after the bare-knuckle attack didn''t just disappear, but were absorbed? It seems to have been formed by gathering something from the surrounding area, and since it happened in the same place and at the same time, there is a high possibility that this something is related to the maximum MP or the excess of magic power. Did you really absorb (eat) it? It doesn''t seem to have any immediate effect on your health, but I don''t feel good about it. Let''s just say that my MP has increased. MP has stopped rising and is recovering, so I guess I should report this too. But seeing MP is rare and there''s no need to tell, so I''ll just play along. The pressure of feeling like you have too much magic is gone!¡¡or something like that. If you say something like, "I don''t know, but I feel like it," they will interpret it on their own. It''s not like they''re asking for your opinion as an expert, anyway. Thinking about this, I walked up the hill and came back to the entrance. It was already midnight outside. Thank God the path was easy to follow. Otherwise, I might have been lost in the mine. From the outside, it looked like a forest, not a building, so we could have escaped by crafting the ceiling of the mine a bit, but we would have been in a lot of trouble if they had dug a hole in the ceiling that led to the ground. There is a high possibility of a cave-in. Everyone had gone home for the day, so I figured I''d report back in the morning, had some food, and went back to my room. Time for appraisal and reading. First, the sword. It''s quite long, about a meter and a half, but it''s slender and doesn''t feel too heavy. It''s about twice as heavy as Dverag''s sword, but from where I stand right now, it''s not that heavy. The color is somewhere between blue and black, and there is no decoration. It does have a tsuba. Anyway, here''s an appraisal. Magic Sword Artifact Description: A sword that is magically connected to the user and strengthens itself with the magical power granted by the user. It seems to be an artifact after all. If you''re looking for an artifact, you''re going to have to look at the artifact itself. I''m not sure how it works as an artifact, though. I''d like to have it. I''ll just steal it. No, that''s not a good idea. We''re going to be business partners for the rest of our lives, and you''re going to have a guilty conscience. Next. Something that looks like a light from a demon. A lantern. An artifact. Description: A magical stone product that emits light through stored magical power. When I tried to put magic power into it, it emitted a quantity of light that exceeded that of LEDs used for room lighting in Japan. Obviously, the amount of light was greater than that of the magical lanterns found in hotels. In addition, for some reason, it was not glaring even when I looked directly at it. It''s a strange light. By the way, I wonder how to turn it off. There''s no button or switch on it. It''s just a ball. It''s just a ball. I''ll put it in the item box for now. Next is a black ball. Wisp Core Description: The core of a wisp. Conducts and holds magic power very well. The name of the wisp should be "magic stone". It is not the core of a wisp. In other words, this is probably not a magic stone, but the core of something that looks like a demon, probably a creature named Wisp. I''m not an expert, but what you''ve written seems to be very useful. This should be mine, since it came from a demon I defeated during my work as an adventurer. I''ll report it to you. The lantern also came from a wisp, but it''s an artifact, so there''s a good chance that it was originally there. It may be like a mourning god, but we should consult with it. I wonder if this will be treated as if a demon stole something from you and you defeated it. In the case of a thief, the thief is basically the property of the adventurer who defeated the thief, but this suppression was at the request of Mr. Gainta. We''ll have to negotiate that later. Finally, at last, something that looks like a notepad. Since it was found with the artifact, it may contain information from that era. If it''s a diary or something, it''s a laughingstock. The first page seems to be the cover. It is faded, but you can faintly see the characters that say "report". There is a high possibility that the pages have deteriorated, so you turn the pages slowly and carefully by hand. It would be better to use tweezers or something, but unfortunately I don''t have any here. ---------- -- ------------------------- August 4, rain Failed to defeat the dragon, probably due to the betrayal, lack of magic. I couldn''t get the wizard in time. We succeeded in guiding the dragon to appear and deploying a magic formula, so it is expected that the dragon has already recovered, though it probably took some damage. I told the location of the wizards who could not participate in the defeat, and dispersed as many wizards as possible to various places and let them go. I propose that we concentrate as many wizards as possible to defeat them again. There is no more time left. We will now begin our journey home. August 15th, fine The continent of Parmen has been destroyed, completely consumed by the flames of the dragon, and few survivors can be expected. This has probably killed about 60% of the wizards, and it is no longer possible to secure enough wizards to defeat the dragon by normal means. We must defeat them even if we have to consume wizards. I should have done so sooner. We will probably reach King''s Landing in about two days. I hate my ability to do nothing but gather information. I had to leave King''s Landing because of the lack of wizards. The quality of my wizardry is also deteriorating rapidly due to magical disorders. With dragons appearing every two years, I wonder if this world is reaching its limits. August 16th, weather unknown It was supposed to be the day before we arrived at King''s Landing, but King''s Landing has been destroyed. The dragon fire seems to have stopped halfway between here and King''s Landing, and now I''m in a shelter, but that''s no comfort. It''s over. August 17th, weather unknown. I''ve got a bad case of demon damage. Looks like I''m done here. ---------- --I think I''m done here. ------------------------- And it''s written in something that looks like ink. The words seem to be different from the language used in this country now. It says "report," but there was only text on the first page. And the writing style is not like a report. There are a lot of dangerous things in there, but let''s try to summarize the information for now. First of all, it seems that dragons are to be defeated by wizards. From the way it is written, it probably requires a lot of wizards. I''m not sure about "inducement to appear" and "deployment of magic", but from the way it''s written, it seems to be something like limiting where dragons appear. Do dragons appear suddenly one day? I don''t understand it, though it says something about a two-year interval. Deploying a technique probably means an attacking technique. If you fail to defeat it, the country or continent will be destroyed in a few days. I wonder how big it is. Next, there is the magical disorder. I honestly don''t know what the symptoms are, but it might have something to do with the overload of magic power from the cave I explored. The new skill that came with my assault on the cave is also a magical adaptation. From the way it''s written, I wonder if magical disability is also a cause of lowering the quality of wizards. King''s Landing and the Parmen continent are probably continents and countries from the time this was written. This information is useless now. I guess the shelter is that building. I think the walls were a slightly blueish color, which we don''t see often here. The person who wrote this seems to be a wizard, but the weapon he had was a sword. There is no description of the circumstances surrounding this. Well, I don''t hear of any widespread use of dragons or magical disorders, so it''s none of my business. I''ll dispose of the remains here. The family probably won''t survive. 33 Episode 32 Sword and Magic Light So, I went deeper into the cave and found a hole in the wall and a room. Is that the source?¡¡What was in there? The next morning, I was sitting at a table in the charcoal shop, reporting to Mr. Gaither about yesterday''s events. It was supposed to be used for business meetings, but it seemed that all the customers at the charcoal shop were regulars. I''ve never seen it in use. My first thought was to go to the Tankokai, but upon reflection I realized that I didn''t know where it was. I had no choice but to go to the charcoal shop, where I was immediately summoned. "A lantern, a human bone, a sword, and a report. I defeated a demon on the way, is there any problem that the loot is mine? The room is not mine, by the way, so the contents of the room are yours as well, since you are only paying to rent the coal mine, which is common property. Mr. Geinta thinks for a moment and then replies. So that''s it, I''ve got your word for it. I take everything out of the item box and place them on the table. The wisp core is also there. "I''ve never seen a sword like this before, it''s rather slender but the blade is long, I feel like it would break if I swung it hard enough, is it for poking or something? I don''t know, but it seems that the sharpness improves when you pass magic power through it, so I''m going to use it from now on. I didn''t see how sharp it was before I passed it through the magic, but I''m pretty sure that passing it through the magic had some effect on it. In the event that you have any questions regarding where and how to get the best results, you can contact us at the web site.¡¡I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. Then Mr. Gainta cut off his words. "Hmm, ...... a paper report and a nice ...... artifact? I think so, the performance of this sword is beyond that of any other sword, and this report is also written in a different language. He pointed at the report. As I flipped through it, the paper didn''t seem to have deteriorated much. It might be like Japanese paper. Can I have a look? Without asking for an answer, Mr. Gaither turns the page. "I don''t know the language. ...... Wait a minute, you just said "report", how did you know this was a report? "Oh, ....... That was careless. I could read it so naturally that I completely forgot that I originally couldn''t even read the title. It would have been better if I had lied about it, but I guess it''s too late now. I''ll give it a try. "Well, the format of the report is similar to the one I know... The format of the report is similar to the one I know." "You stuttered for a second there, and how do you know the format if you can''t read?¡¡It looks like a diary, except that it''s written on paper in characters I don''t know. I dug my own grave. You''re right, it''s just the date, the weather, and the contents, exactly the format of a diary. No choice but to be honest. "Yeah, I can read this, sure, it said something about dragons, but that doesn''t seem to be a concern anymore. If it''s an ancient language, and it turns out you can read it, you''re going to get recruited by countries, and if you refuse, or even if you don''t, you''re going to get kidnapped by other countries. If you refuse, or even if you don''t, there is a rather high probability that you will be kidnapped by another country. A high probability? And I''m the one who revealed it, but you''re the one who exposed it. I did try to hide it. But wouldn''t it be better for Mr. Geinta if I was kidnapped? Mainly in terms of patent fees. Well, I''ll take that as a favor. If he sells the information to the government, I''ll be laughing my ass off. "Yes, I''ll do that. I don''t know about the sword, but the lantern is not that rare of an artifact, it''s probably the most common artifact, but it''s original and has high performance, so if you don''t need the money, you can use it for your adventures. I''m not sure what to do with it. "By the way, how much would you get for it if you sold it? You could build a house of some size in King''s Landing, though it wouldn''t be inside the inner walls. That wasn''t a mistake. The artifact was indeed of a different class. What is this wisp core anyway?¡¡Let''s just say it''s a black stone. I won''t make the same mistake twice. By the way, what is this black stone? It came from a black demon that suddenly appeared while I was exploring the room. "Artifacts and black demons?¡¡You''re not going to tell me it''s a wisp, are you?¡¡It''s not something that can be defeated by an individual, and it''s most likely a demon that wandered in from somewhere else, right?¡¡What did it look like? "Well, ......, it was a blurry, six-legged demon that didn''t work with swords or magic. ...... You''re lying, right?¡¡I don''t know how many legs it had, but black and blurred outlines are famous characteristics of wisps. ...... So maybe this black stone is a wisp magic stone?¡¡If so, you could build a castle out of it. A castle? ....... I''ve got another bad one. There are more and more reasons to be targeted by the government. What if the country''s spies or something are listening in on us around here? There''s no soundproofing equipment here. "What is the Wisp Stone, and is it strong? It''s not strong on its own, but when you use an offensive magic tool, you can use a wisp magic stone to store magic power, and it can be used to defeat wisps. Maybe it''s like a magical version of a headphone amplifier? Or maybe it''s like a fission bomb that fuses hydrogen with . Uh, by the way, how do you properly defeat a wisp? I don''t know much about them, but I''ve heard that you can use an artifact boosted by a wisp core to freeze the air. By the way, how did you beat it?¡¡If there''s another way to do it, it might be a great discovery. Freeze them with air, and they die. Something like that. I beat him to death with my bare hands. "Mm. ...... I don''t think a wisp would die from that. ...... But when the wisp''s burn marks were found, I''m pretty sure I heard that the person who found it collapsed from magic overload, if that''s what happened. Is that the cause? The wisp is likely to be a mass of magical elements. But this is a bad story. "If this gets out, I''m afraid I''ll be hounded by all sorts of people, so can you please keep quiet about this ......? "Yeah, I''ll keep my mouth shut, I''m not going to betray the trust you gave me. Yeah, thank God you''re a good guy. If Mr. Geinta was a bad guy, I''d be in a basement somewhere reading aloud from an ancient text in a week or so. At best, I''ll be careful on the streets at night. I don''t know what I should do if they come at me head-on, wielding the power of the state. I''ll practice the fast-moving wind magic that Magus used. That''s all I have to report, is there anything else you want to tell me? No, not really, if the mines are back to normal, we should be back to full capacity within a month, maybe more depending on demand. By the way, how do you plan to sell the coke? "We''re offering some free to customers of the charcoal shop and looking for buyers. The production system isn''t quite up to snuff yet, but it''s already starting to sell like hotcakes, or rather, there''s a lot of competition for this high-performance blacksmithing fuel. It''s a little bit different from the original plan, but it doesn''t matter as long as it sells. I hope they will take it to their hearts'' content and raise the reputation of coke. "Okay, I''m planning to leave town when I have the weapon, but I''ll come back to collect the patent fee when I''m free. I''d like to see what you''ve got. It''s a shame to stay in one place when you''ve come to another world with the power of non-death. You don''t have to do that, there''s a 10% tax and fee deducted from the patent fee, but that includes services that can be received at other branches, although you need to tell them in advance that it will be expensive. I didn''t hear that, fees. I''m not asking you. The Adventurer''s Guild doesn''t charge taxes, but I''m sure they''re deducted from the beginning. I see, so I can pick it up on the road. "Outside the country, the guilds of each country are half independent, but they are connected to each other to a certain extent, usually you can deduct the money, but in your case it would be better not to, you know why? It''s a patent that can only be used domestically. If you don''t release it to the rest of the world, it also means you can''t get support from outside the country. Other patents also seem to be one-to-one, so there may be many cases in which foreign countries do not matter, but if the patent is explicitly closed only to foreign countries, it is still a different story. "Okay, for now, you can keep my share of the investment until you don''t need the capital investment anymore, although I may tell you if I need the money. Thank you, that''s what I''ll do. I''ll leave you to it. I leave the charcoal shop and head for the weapon shop. I wouldn''t be surprised if it was finished today. I also want to know about this sword. After all, a cake is a cake maker and a sword is a blacksmith. When I entered the workshop, I saw Mr. Sumizu nearby. He doesn''t seem to be busy. "Excuse me, I picked up a new weapon along with some artifacts during my adventure, could you show me what it is? "Sure, I''ll take care of it. Let me see. I took out my sword. I took out the sword. "It seems that the sword can be strengthened by passing some magic power through it. As I was saying this, Mr. Smith yelled at me. Put that weapon on the ground right now!¡¡Put that weapon on the ground right now, and then we''ll talk!¡¡It''s dangerous! ...... What, is this dangerous?¡¡I''m not sure if this is a cursed weapon or not. 34 Episode 33 Magic Sword and Pre-Vision I put the sword on the ground for now, and Mr. Smith explains. It''s a strong sword, but you shouldn''t use it if you don''t want to die. It''s suicide to use magic with it. "Excuse me, what exactly is this sword? I''m sorry, what is this sword?¡¡If it''s enhanced with magic power, it''s called an "overkill magic sword," and no one in their right mind would be able to handle it. It''s got a name. Then there''s the burn mark. That''s the word I heard from Mr. Ga-inta. Why is it dangerous?¡¡And what''s a burn mark? A burn mark is a place where an artifact can be found, it''s called a burn mark because it''s usually burnt somewhere. The sword is dangerous because it sucks up all your magic. "Sucks up all your magic?¡¡But even if the magic power runs out, your health won''t get worse, right? I''m sure you''re not the only one. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out what''s going on. If you''re lucky enough to get the sword out of your hand, you''ll be able to move your body. If you''re lucky, the sword will leave your hand, but if not, it will eat up all of your magic until you die. Scary!¡¡But how does she know that? That''s dangerous, but how do you know about that?¡¡It doesn''t have much to do with blacksmithing, does it? I''m not sure if you''ll be able to find a way to get the best out of it. By the way, I did some human experiments on condemned prisoners to see what would happen if they held the sword when their magic ran out. I was wondering if there was a mad scientist in this world, but there is one right in front of me. He''s a mad scientist. But I don''t think it matters much to me if he just sucks up all my magic. I have a lot of magic, so I think I''ll be fine. I don''t think I''ll run out of magic. I''m sure you won''t run out of magic. I''m not sure what to make of it. If an ordinary adventurer were to carry it, he would run out of magic in less than a minute, and in 30 seconds he would be a corpse with no external injuries. What, an ordinary adventurer with only 20 MP can hold it for a minute? That''s easy. Now I can heal an adventurer in a second. In the first place, an ordinary adventurer''s magic power would be exhausted in about two seconds just by shooting a rock spear full. It''s no problem at all if that''s the case, it takes less than 30 seconds for my magic power to heal one adventurer even while casting magic at full power. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for.¡¡I''m not sure what to make of that. In any case, if you''re going to use it, keep it in its sheath except when you''re fighting, and if you feel any discomfort, even during battle, take your hand away immediately. Yes, sir. I don''t know about the wand, but I made the sword part, and I guarantee its performance. Oh, you finished that? Oh, you finished that? All right, where is it? Smitha''s got it, so go ahead and ask her to explain it to you, because it''s not like a normal sword. It''s not the same as a normal sword." I decided to go see Smitha and ask her about the sword. It''s a good idea to hold it when you''re using magic. That''s it. The explanation was not as long as I expected. I received the sword. The sword is silver in color, but the border between the magic collection part and the sword is slightly different in color. This is probably where the magic is blocked. Oh, thank you. You can buy the extra metal, right?¡¡We don''t have the money here, so you''ll have to pick it up at the Commercial Guild. Just show them your guild card. No problem. How much is it, by the way? I''ve got about 100 kilos left over after materials and processing costs, so about 300 million, which is too much to buy in bulk unless you''re in my workshop. Artifacts and inflation are terrible. Is this country okay? I''m not sure what to make of this. By the way, I forgot to make the armor. I also want to make armor, will that be okay? That''s your father''s domain, he''s already drained his magic and there''s no urgent work to do today, so he can start making it today if he needs to. Mr. Sumizu again. It''s twice the work. At any rate, I thanked her and spoke to her again. Excuse me, I''d like some armor as well. Metal Lizard''s?¡¡I''ll make you some, but what kind do you want?" "Metal Lizard?" "Metal Lizard armor is powerful, but wizards don''t usually use it. ...... It''s too late to tell you what''s normal now. I don''t know. If it''s too heavy, it will reduce mobility, but if it''s too light, it''s useless as armor. Magical armor is enough if you want to use something like that. I wear armor because I don''t always trust it. If you think about it, I can recover from a fatal wound with magic as long as it doesn''t kill me instantly. Let''s just prevent instant death. I can recover with magic if I only prevent instant death. That''s why he''s got that crazy amount of magic. You wouldn''t die even if I killed you. If that''s the case, I''ll have it made for you today, touch this. What he gave me was a box similar to the ones you see in guilds. It''s like the ones used for status displays. An automatic measuring machine?¡¡I touched it for now. I was told that I could leave now, so I left with the sword in my hand. I hold it with my left hand, but I don''t feel any problem. The length of the blade is about 60cm. It''s much shorter than the Demon Sword, but it''s a normal length for a sword. Since it''s still noon, let''s try out the two new weapons right away. I take out the magic sword and hold it in my hand. I check my MP, but it''s still at the upper limit. It seems that MP is not being used enough to recover. If the enemy is too weak, it won''t be a good target for a test, so I go deeper. I go deeper, but I don''t encounter any demons. After about five minutes of advancing at full speed, I felt that the atmosphere of the forest had changed. There was something noisy. I wondered why, and after another minute or so, I felt a reaction on the tentacles. It looks like a sheep. I''ve heard that there is a kind of sheep called Rush Sheep. They are basically mild and not particularly harmful, so I heard that there are no requests to kill them. It''s safe because it doesn''t fight back too much when you attack it, but its meat isn''t particularly good and it''s not worth hunting. It''s neither useful nor harmless, just a simple demon. It seems to be a demon. Sorry, but you''ll have to be the target of my test. But first, magic speed. I held my staff proudly. I fire seven spears of rock at Lash sheep at once. The rock spears landed with barely enough speed for the eye to follow, and the poor, stupid Rushpee was minced. But the tentacled response did not diminish, in fact it increased. A swarm. A swarm, and a very dense one at that, about as dense as the swarm of green wolves I''d seen in Ein. It''s coming at me, and it''s clearly attacking me. Is this the kind of monster Rush Sheep is?¡¡Where''s the mild-mannered one? To see the size of it, I approach it and slash it with my magic sword. It slices through the Rush Sheep without any resistance. You use a rock spear to moderately reduce their numbers, and slash at them with your left bladed staff. The bones are easily sliced, though not without resistance. You turn your attention to the tentacles. The herd seems to be quite large. The area of the tentacles is already covered with rush sheep, and yet more rush sheep are being added from behind the herd. I don''t know, but I''m getting deja vu. Hasn''t this happened before? Isn''t this going to be another one of those rare demons or something?¡¡And these guys are being chased by it. So let''s just go scout it out. It''s best to deal with it quickly. There''s not a demon out there I wouldn''t leave alive if I tried to escape. Then there''s no need to needlessly slaughter these poor, stupid rush sheep. Let''s run for it. I''ll try to imagine some kind of wind magic that Mr. Magus used. It worked, though I didn''t know what to do with it. MP is still capped as usual. I don''t know if it''s the wind, but it feels like something is pushing me back. My speed is increasing rapidly, and it''s becoming like a mini-game of dodging trees. It''s quite hard to dodge. I wonder if I can fly. Turn your body slightly upward and increase the force. You fly, but it''s more of a leap than a flight, and the ground moves away quickly. Keep moving away. In a panic, you tilt your body slightly downward to direct the force downward. A little while later, the ascent stops, and now you are falling toward the ground at a great acceleration. Oh no, slow down, slow down. Maybe it''s just a matter of image, but this spell doesn''t move in a way that ignores the relationship between the magnitude of the force and the acceleration, it''s simply a spell that pushes you from behind. What I''m trying to say is that when you accelerate downward, not only is the force to go upward against gravity directed downward, but gravitational acceleration is also added. You can''t decelerate in time. Seeing the ground approaching at a considerable speed, I give up on a soft landing and deploy my magic armor. As a last ditch effort, I used the remaining magic power to slow down slightly, and I hit the ground. 35 Episode 34 Crabs and Spiders Before the collision, I was flying at an angle, accelerating. I tried to offset the downward speed by directing the force slightly upward while keeping the sideways speed. Because I was still accelerating sideways, I hit the ground at an angle as if a low-flying swallow had accidentally hit the ground. At any rate, the armor withstood the impact of the landing, but the whole body was hit hard. In this case, "hitting the whole body hard" is not a secret word, but a literal meaning. If the armor hadn''t been functioning, there is a possibility that the ground would have worn down my body like a grater, and there is also a high possibility that I would have hit my whole body hard in the sense reported on TV because the impact was not distributed. I survived. But of course, if I had landed at such an angle, the ground would not have allowed me to stop, and I would have been blown away with a bounce. I think I''m going faster than a car. Maybe even faster than a salamander. I don''t know how fast a salamander is. I don''t know how many times I bounced, but I hit something that looked like a tree, and the tree caught me, creaking and cracking. I''ve been hit twice, and it''s not easy, but the armor is still alive. I''m alive too. . You''re so sensitive, you should take it more gently. As I stood up, I suddenly saw a familiar face. As you stand up, you suddenly notice something unfamiliar. It''s a girl slumped on the ground about five meters away. She is wearing very simple clothes, but she is a beautiful girl. "Hello? I greeted her for the time being. Smooth communication starts with greetings. Hearing my greeting, the girl opened her mouth. "Oh, ......, that ....... Did I scare her?¡¡The silence hurts my ears. What''s with this uncomfortable atmosphere? Of course you''re right. If a man suddenly flew into the air and crashed into a tree, this would be the reaction. The girl doesn''t say another word, just keeps her mouth agape. There is no sound other than the ticking sound from earlier. Where does the ticking come from, anyway? I think it''s coming from behind me. I''m about to turn around when a shock hits me. The magic armor seems to have taken care of the attack itself, but something gouged the ground. When I turned around, I saw a tall crab-like spider-like creature. It must have been ten meters tall. Buried in the ground is a pair of scissors that must have been swung down from its body and is over a meter wide. Isn''t this the monster that the girl was scared of? Maybe it''s this thing that''s responsible for Rush Sheep and the others. At least I know I can take the attack. I can handle it. The problem is the girl. I don''t think she''s gonna be safe in a fight. I mean, if she could survive that, she wouldn''t have reacted like that when I charged at her. While I was thinking that, the demon pulled the scissors out of the ground. Okay, let''s get its attention for now. As long as the girl moves away, we''re in control. As far as I can see, her attack can''t get through to me. It''s hard to imagine a demon that my attack can''t penetrate. So I decided to distract it. I tried hitting the demon''s face with a rock spear and a fireball. Thinking that it might be vulnerable to water, I sprayed it with water and moved behind it to the other side of the girl. The demon seems to be distracted. The demon turned to face us, snapping its scissors. The clicks seemed to be the sound of the demon beating its scissors together. Perhaps it was a threat. I ran straight away from the monster. The crab is following me, but it''s a little slow. It would pull away. I deliberately slow down and run further. After a while, it catches up. I must have gotten a long way from the girl. Now the battle begins. At first, I try to slash at the legs with my two swords, which are at least a meter thick and can be easily reached from here. The leg was cut off with a spang sound. The blade of the staff only bit into the leg, but the magic sword cut it off. However, even with the magic sword, it felt a bit stiff. If I didn''t have the sword, I might have had trouble cutting it off. However, I have the magic sword in my hand now, and I have a huge amount of magic power to support it. Because it has eight legs, it didn''t lose its balance even if it lost one of its legs, so I started to cut off the rest of its legs. It had been about two minutes. The demon''s legs were cut off in vain as it swung the scissors down and around, leaving only its body and the scissors on the ground. Despite its size and strength, it was surprisingly weak. The only thing it was fast at was swinging the scissors, but that was all. If you get underneath its body, it won''t hit you, and even if it did, it wouldn''t matter. I didn''t know how to finish it off, so I climbed up on the spider and stabbed it with my magic sword, and it stopped moving. When I examined it, it was dead. Its name seems to be Giant Spider Crab. It''s a big spider crab, just like its name. I''ll just throw him in the item box with his severed leg and go check on the girl. I took out the crab''s hand and showed it to the girl. He takes out the crab''s hand and shows it to the girl. The girl was puzzled, but then she looked at me as if she had made up her mind and said. I want you to be my master! What, master?¡¡Out of the blue?¡¡A confession at this time?¡¡The suspension bridge effect? I don''t think it''s a good idea to become a master because of the suspension bridge effect. You should think about this before you do it. "My husband is ........." You can''t just say that out of the blue. This kind of thing should be done after you get to know each other better. ...... It may not be much help, but I''ll do my best!¡¡Please don''t throw it away! I''m sorry.¡¡I''m not sure what to make of this.¡¡I''m not sure what to make of that. I''m not sure what to say. I''m an adventurer named Kaede. And you are? "Yes, my name is Catherine, and I''m a slave, nice to meet you! I''m a slave ....... ...... Well, you''re a slave, which means you''re a ...... What does that mean? I''m not going to be asked to be a slave master. But it doesn''t seem like a sales pitch. "I was sold by a slaver and was being transported to Tubai, but on the shortcut, the wagon was attacked by that demon and the slaver died. And since you killed the demon, my ownership will be transferred to you. Mm-hmm. I see. What was taken by the thief belongs to the one who killed the thief. So it''s the same with demons. Yeah... What should I do? I don''t want to use the slaves, so I''ll just sell them. No, I''ll wait and see if I can use them. I don''t know much about this world, and if I''m going to continue using Earth knowledge for business, I''m going to need people. I want to have as many reliable people as possible. I have a lot of money, so it''s not a problem. In short, if you can use it, there is no reason to refuse. Okay, trial period! "Trial period, huh? "Yeah, I''m an adventurer, as I said before, and I''m not going to take a slow learner with me. So I''m going to start today and see if I can be useful before I leave this town, so what can you do for me? "Well, ......, I can make magic tools, ....... I''ll see if I can be useful before I leave town. I have knowledge of... ...... Knowledge? ...... Does knowledge mean you can''t use it? "...... Yes, it does. That''s no good. Why do you remember all this if you can''t use it? It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re going to be doing and how you''re going to do it. However, I never learned to use magic until now, and finally I was sold as a slave. That''s a pretty bad past. It''s hard to sell them off when they''re not going to be of any use to you. Can you make magic tools if you can''t use magic? I''m not sure what to do, but I''m sure you''ll be able to figure it out. Can''t I just practice on the magic stone? It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for and what you can do to help. There is a quantity of ......". Hmm ...... So it''s not good because it''s hard for magic to pass through. I think there''s a way to fix it. I think I''m forgetting something. I looked through the contents of the item box, and found out what I forgot. A wisp core. It''s supposed to be a good conductor of magic. "Can you try practicing with this? I handed her the wisp core. Catherine takes it with a dubious look on her face. "Kuro Demon Stone ...... What''s this?¡¡The only black magic stone I know of is the wisp magic stone. "The Wisp Massive Stone. There''s no such thing here. Besides, the wisp magic stone is very easy to pass magic power through, you know?¡¡I''m sure even I can pass magic through the wisp magic stone. But this magic stone still can''t pass magic ....... Catherine froze when he said that much. "...... came through. Can we use it for practice? "Maybe. If it''s a wisp magic stone, it''s a huge waste of money. I''ve heard that wisp cores can be recharged many times. They don''t consume anything. You can practice with it, but I''m going back to town for now, if that''s okay. I''m not sure what to make of this. ... I''m just an E rank adventurer, okay?¡¡I''ll take that for now. Maybe not just any adventurer, but... He takes the Wisp Core and puts it in his item box. I feel like he''s getting weirder and weirder. It''s always better when the master is strong. ...... Please don''t tell me who you are. I''m not pretending. On the way home, I did an evaluation of Catherine. Name: Catherine Age / Race / s*x : 18 / Human / Female Level: 4 HP:25/25 MP:150/150 STR:7 INT:8 AGI:7 DEX:25 Skill: Inert Magic High MP . DEX is also high. Try to check the inert magic of a skill you don''t recognize. Inactive Magic Power Unique/Rank 3 Description: Makes the magic power in your body inactive. The activity of the magic power is significantly reduced, but the maximum magic power is increased. Thinking that this might be the reason why I couldn''t use magic, I walked through the forest at Catherine''s pace. It took quite a while, but the town finally came into view. 36 Episode 35: Slavery and Shelling I thought I would be stopped when I came back from the forest and showed my guild card, but I was just bypassed. Catherine didn''t have a guild card, but I wondered if there was any other way to check. I went back to the inn and got another room. I''ve taken another room at the inn, so you can practice making magic tools there, and the results will determine what you do in the future. If it''s useful, you''re welcome to it, but if it''s not, you''ll probably have to sell it or something. I''m not going to take a slow learner just because I can afford it. "Um, is it okay for a slave to have a room by himself? Hmm?¡¡Isn''t a slave usually given a room? It''s true that an inn is like an inn, and slaves may be able to sleep together. But I have some money, and there is no need to cut costs. No problem, I''m going to go run some errands. That''s right. Errands. We came back here from the place where we saw the giant spider club, but we didn''t encounter any returning demons during that time. The way it retreated from the Metal Lizard makes me think that there might still be a boss. The Giant Spider Club was definitely a bit strong. But even though I''ve gotten stronger, I''m still not as good as Metal Lizard. I''ll report it to the guild just in case. I might be able to defeat the boss by myself, but I don''t want the town to be damaged by the fleeing monsters. When I entered the guild, the atmosphere inside was rather hectic. There was only one person at the reception desk. You talk to the receptionist. "Excuse me, I have something to report about demons. "I''ve already heard that Rush Sheep and Red Wolves have attacked, is there anything else? They''d already reached it. The gates were fine, so either it hadn''t been long since the assault, or there were no demons like Gargon that could do effective damage to the outer walls. Anyway, Rush Sheep. I let you off the hook, and now you''ve returned the favor. Anyway, something''s wrong. A spider. "Yes, I found a giant spider crab about two hours ago, and I killed it immediately. "Two hours ago, a giant spider crab. Where in the forest is it located? Two hours ago, the Giant Spider Crab. Where in the forest is it? - From here, go out the gate on the Tubai side, turn left, and it''s about an hour and a half''s walk on a woman''s legs. Okay, I''ll report back. What are you going to do now, Kaede?¡¡I would be very grateful if Kaede, who is said to be a rank fraud even though she is ranked E, would participate in the defense. Defense. I''m not sure what to do, but I''m sure you''ll be able to do it. On the other hand, if you dispose of the boss class, there''s a good chance the mooks will retreat. It might be safer to kill the boss as soon as possible. Kill any demons that appear in the process, but not to the extent that they interfere with your big game hunting. I''ll go look for the big ones and kill them. I had a similar problem in a town I was in before, when I crushed a big one, it stopped attacking. I understand. You must have a constitution that makes you prone to trouble or something. You seem to be strong, but try your best not to die. Of course. I left the guild and ran to the outside of the gate. When I met the Metal Lizard, fortunately or unfortunately, I was just running along and met him. This time it might not go so well. I need a more convenient means of searching for enemies. So I''m going to start practicing flight magic, which I failed earlier. Spying with magic is useful, but visual scouting is still the basic. Even if the magic doesn''t reach far, the light does. So, this time, I''ll just focus on floating. The last time I used this spell, I imagined that it works by pushing a part of my body straight. Then, if I lift my legs, I should be able to float straight. Let''s try it. My legs are caught. I turn halfway and hit my head on the ground. Apparently, this is not good. I wonder if I need to align my center of gravity with the direction of the force. Now I jump forward, parallel my body to the ground, and apply force to the front side of my body. I was able to float. This makes it easy to scout. It''s hard to land, but ...... you can manage it even if you crash. But it hurts, so I''d rather not. I went up about 10 meters. You can see your surroundings clearly. I could provide forward thrust by using the side of my foot. In the meantime, I tried to gain altitude to see if there was anything. There is something wrong with the forest in the distance to the right. It''s too far away to see very well, but the color is different, brownish. It also looks like it''s moving. The rest of the forest is lush. Obviously it''s different there. I flew over there and found out what it was. A bunch of those big giant spider crabs. They''re that big and they swarm? I don''t see anything else strange. Probably there is no other big change. They''ve been driving those poor, stupid Rushpees away. I''m gonna make Rushpe feel better about what he did to me. Kill them all. I just got to the top. There''s a lot of them. Disgusting. When I killed them earlier, I cut off their legs and then crushed their bodies, but if they can fly, why don''t I just kill their bodies from the start? I heard that metal lizards attack with magic from above. So I''ll give it a try. It''s the familiar rock spear, a rock spear of such a size that you can make it in 10 seconds. I''ll blow your beautiful head off!¡¡The spear bites into the spider about 10cm and shatters it. Considering the size of the spider''s head, it doesn''t seem to have much effect. In fact, the spider is fine. With the same amount of magic power, I try fireballs and spraying water, but they have no effect. If I take more time, I might be able to do something, but there are a lot of enemies. There are 200 of them. Where the hell did they come from? It''s a sea of spiders. Well, what should we do? Sword for now. I''ve seen that a magic sword can cut their heads off. I''ll do a dive slash. I''ll increase my forward speed and slash the head while lowering my altitude. And then I''ll charge straight into the ground. In a panic, I raise my upward thrust as fast as I can to gain altitude, and succeed in getting back up from the ground. After all, this flight magic is difficult. It doesn''t seem to be suitable for steep descent. In the first place, a dive attack is a maneuver of an airplane, and it may not be compatible with this spell, which is more like a helicopter that uses thrust directly upward to fly. So, what is an offensive maneuver that is compatible with a helicopter? There is no such thing. Helicopters aren''t that kind of vehicles in the first place. It may be able to fly in some strange ways, but it''s not for actual combat. So what should we do? Shoot a hellfire? Maybe not hellfire, but something like a real cannonball might work. In the first place, a rock spear flies straight without any thrust, and a fireball explodes. If it explodes after being stuck, it can blow up the inside. It''s like a fireball inside a thick rock spear. I tried it, and I was able to make it. I tried it on a spider, and it exploded after biting into it. However, the explosion was not so good. In addition, it exploded without penetrating much, so it was almost the same as exploding on the surface. What should I do? First, penetration. We can do something about that. Basically, the power of magic is proportional to the magic power consumed. And of course, the thicker it is, the more powerful it becomes. So we can make a long and thin rock spear. It consumes more magic power and has a smaller cross-sectional area. That''s the bullet itself. The explosive part raises the temperature anyway. For some reason, fireballs explode after they land, so this should be fine. It''s not hot even when it''s near you, and in fact the magic of the fireball is like flying explosives. It''s done. It''s a rock spear, 2m long and 5cm in diameter, with flame magic encased near the tip. It takes about two seconds to make. I''ll put it into the spider''s head. The rock cannonball struck and shattered from the tip. Only the first half is broken. But the second part soon hits the spider''s head and shatters as well. The explosion occurred when the first spear shattered, but it was a surface explosion. It makes no sense at all. Apparently, the ratio of length to thickness was too extreme. I had no choice but to shoot several spears of different thicknesses, knowing that it would reduce the efficiency, and found out the thickness that would not break. The rock spear, 2m long and 8cm wide, bit firmly into the spider and exploded and scattered from the inside. It took about three seconds to generate. That''s within the practical range. In addition, the rock spear might have the effect of a fragmentation grenade. This is the first spell I''ve developed properly. It''s a shame it doesn''t have a name. I''ll call this spell "Exploding Shells". While generating 10 explosive shells at a time, I''ll try the dive slash again to practice the flight spell. Or rather, since you''re not dropping bombs, there''s no need to swoop down. You can just slash while flying straight up. The problem is that you have to pass through the area just in front of the spider to slash properly, but I got the hang of fine tuning it as I flew around. Even if you can''t do a steep descent, this is a practical level. Follow the moving swarm of spiders, and just keep slashing and shooting explosive shells. After a while, there were no more demons around. It seems that the spiders had no means of attacking in the air. In fact, I think it took me longer to store the corpse in the item box. There''s no overlap, and the speed is at the level of bullets, unlike when you plunge a spear of rock into a pack of green wolves. It''s not like the days when you were a noob. One hit, one kill. The defeated demons probably won''t return to Lisbon, and I don''t want them to, but I look around and don''t see any demons coming back. This isn''t the capital of Portugal, though. There were 208 spiders, and they all fit in one item box. It''s a mysterious standard. 37 Episode 36 Magic Tools and Destinations After storing a large number of spiders, I jumped up again and flew towards Herrera, looking around. About a third of the way to the city, I saw the retreating demons. It seemed that these were the bosses after all. We move on to the guild to report. You are on foot from the entrance of the city. If you land on the guild from the sky, you cannot pass through the gate. There''s no chance of being hounded for smuggling. It''s not a country. The gates are not on high alert like they were in Eyn. It seemed normal. Maybe the guilds are not moving fast enough. Or was the situation still not too bad? When I reported the results of the battle at the guild, I was taken to the chapter leader''s office. I feel like I''ve been called to the chapter leader''s office a lot lately. So, I heard there were 208 giant spider crabs, is that true? Is it true?¡¡Do you want me to show you the bodies? "No, I''m not questioning whether it''s true or not. It''s written on the guild card. It''s on the guild card. That''s convenient. I''ve prepared a reward for now. It''s not much, but I have a lot on my plate, so bear with me. With that, he gave me two large gold coins. That''s more than twice as much as the Metal Lizard''s reward, even though I didn''t fight half as hard as the Metal Lizard. No problem. What happened to the corpse?¡¡Giant Spider Crab meat is good, it''s a rather expensive food, you can even buy one. You''re eating that thing between a spider and a crab? It''s true that there is a lot of meat, but the spider ...... is also a spider. That''s something. Well, there have been people on Earth who are said to eat everything but tables. "I''ve got them all in my item box, so I''ll sell one. How much? How about 70,000 Tel? I''m fine. By the way, does this kind of thing happen all the time?¡¡I''ve been seeing a lot of weak demons being chased away lately. I''ve encountered a lot of irregular demons, like metal lizards and spider swarms. It''s also possible that, like some wines, there are several once-in-a-decade events within a decade, including a once-in-a-century event. It''s rare, but it''s been happening for over 200 years. I''ve heard people say it''s getting more and more frequent, but I think it''s within the realm of bias, because once it happens, it doesn''t happen for a while. Is that how it is? It''s never happened in one place in a row, at least not yet, and there''s no guarantee it will. Well, I''m thinking of leaving this town, do you have any recommendations? The weapon is finished. Business negotiations are over. Catherine is here too, but ...... that''s no reason to stay in town. All that''s left is armor. It might be useful to be able to make mage gear, but I can''t wait until I know when that will be. Well, if you''re confident in your skills, there''s one place where you can raise your rank quickly, there are many short term escort requests for just one day, and the reward for short term escort is more than double the normal escort request for almost a week. I''m not sure if that''s a bad request or not. ...... I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. I don''t know. I''m not sure what kind of city it is.¡¡It''s not a normal request, obviously. "Decibatore, a frontline city in the middle of a battlefield between man and demon. You can find a lot of people who are looking for the best way to get the most out of their life. You''ll find a lot of strong demons in the area between Decibatore and Photoren. About 20 percent of them leave their belongings on the way and retreat, that''s how dangerous it is. Oh, man. Why do I have to go to such a place? I''m not going to die yet. ...... In the event that you''ve got a lot of money to spend, you''ll be able to take advantage of it. ...... often. It''s not always possible. ....... I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. In the event that you''ve got a lot of money to spend, you''re going to want to make sure that you''re able to get the most out of it. You can''t take on a demon that''s been reduced in number by Decibattle. "Yeah, ....... I thought they were relatively strong, but I didn''t realize they were world class. I''m not sure if it''s that strong or not, but it''s certainly possible to retreat. Most of the attacks won''t get through to me, so I can just fly through the air and escape. Catherine is going to be staying at Photoen, but if you want to be tied down by that, you can sell her or something. I''m not used to the feeling of buying and selling people, but that doesn''t matter when you happen to have a slave in your possession. This is a different world, and Japanese common sense does not apply. The collection of prejudices you have collected while in Japan can be used as bait for the Green Wolf. "Well, let''s go there then, it might be interesting to stay longer. After all, it''s nice to be able to fly and escape at any time. I can afford it. If you fail to complete an escort request, your karma may drop and you may become a criminal, but I''ve completed requests without doing anything wrong. My karma is probably at the upper limit of 20. In reality, if you do something against the law, you will be a criminal at once. But reality is cruel. Well, thank you. Actually, I got word from headquarters a while ago that the situation in Decibatore was worsening, and I was told to gather forces, but we have adventurers who stay temporarily to procure weapons, but not many who can work on the guild side. So that''s it. I guess my question was a good one. "If I''m supposed to gather forces, does that mean I''m going to have to do something for the guild over there? The guild doesn''t generally tie up adventurers unless it''s an emergency, so it''d be great if you could just escort us to the transport and destroy any demons you see in the process. Of course, it would be most helpful if they could be on the front lines and take down requests at a fast pace, but I''m not asking for that much. I guess we''ll just have to wait and see. I don''t know how strong the demons are over there. By the way, how do I get there? I''ve got a good offer for an escort, it''s about two weeks to Photoren, and it includes three meals. So I decided to accept the offer. Apparently, there was a shortage of people to take the job, and they said that Catherine would be fine and that they would wait until the armor was finished before leaving. I was forced to take the role by the guild at every turn, but I guess that''s what they mean when they say that their interests are aligned. When I returned to the inn from the guild after depositing the spider and receiving and depositing the money, it was already starting to get dark outside. I visited Catherine''s room to ask her about the progress of her mage making practice. I feel like I''m not treated like a slave anymore. I don''t see any reason to treat her badly, so there''s no problem. I have plenty of money. How''s the magic tool going?¡¡Can you make it? "Yes, it''s easier than I thought it would be. But we need magic stones to make it, so it''s not possible right now. A magic stone. Can I use that spider? I have a dead giant spider crab. Can I use that? I''m not sure if I''m going to make it or not.¡¡You don''t even know if it will work. "Oh, don''t worry, I''ve got plenty. My item box is a bit large. Hey, ......?¡¡Well, if it''s okay, it''s okay. ...... What kind do you want?¡¡I think the disposable type would perform better. What kind do you have? The disposable ones that I''ve tried, and that have been put to practical use, are warding, detonation, levitation and acceleration. Can you describe them? Yes, warding is a fixed warding that can withstand the attacks of demons of the same rank as the material, and its size is a circle with a radius of about five meters. The explosion is something that explodes when you put magic power into it, but you can detonate it using a magic wire or something. It is powerful enough to kill people in a radius of about 10 meters, levitation is commonly used and can stay at a height of about 10 meters for about five minutes, acceleration is about the same as wind magic and can be maintained for about an hour. Hmm, they all sound pretty useful. Let''s rule out explosions for now, since we don''t have a magic line. We have enough firepower. I can use levitation and acceleration myself. You could have Catherine use them, but I can''t think of a situation where she would be on the front lines. Maybe she can move a ship. By process of elimination, it''s a ward. It might make guarding her easier, so it''s a good idea to have it. Warding is fine, the rest can be done without magic tools, but why isn''t something so useful being used? "Okay, the reason it''s not used much is because it''s expensive. The reason why it''s not used much is because it''s expensive, but it''s hard to use and has a short duration. You can make them reusable by reducing their performance, but even then, their lifespan will be short, and their lifespan will be shortened even more if they are refilled by people with more magic power. It''s only used for encampments by large merchants who can afford to have many replenishers, and then there''s the large stockpile of explosive grimoires in some guild branches. In the end, money. It''s not easy to dispose of them. It''s not something that can be easily disposed of. Unless you''re in the military, you probably don''t dispose of such things in large quantities. In this world, it''s a guild. With that, the armor was received and the day of departure arrived. 38 Episode 37 Travel and Stores "Hello, I''m Gurtia, a D-rank adventurer and the leader of this escort. I''m good at spotting enemies, but I''m pretty weak in combat, even for a D-rank adventurer, so I''ll be relying on you, Kaede, if we run into any monsters. "I''m Kaede, leave it to me. I can spot a monster within a radius of about 20 meters, but beyond that it''s tough. I also have an item box. And this is Catherine, a slave ......, I think.¡¡She''s a future mage, but she''s basically useless as a guard. I''ll provide more than two guards for you. I''m also capable of aerial reconnaissance. By the way, Catherine has already completed one warding grimoire by today. You can already call yourself a wizard craftsman. "I''m Catherine, please. "Oh, you can fly, that''s reassuring. There''s not much danger along the way, so you probably won''t need it, but I''ll be there if you need me. This is Wompe, your escort. I''ve heard that the item box is large. If you could pack as much as you can spare, it would shorten our journey. Yes, we have plenty of room. I wonder where he got that from. Mr. Wompe had brought a covered wagon pulled by three horses at the front and a heavy wagon with a kind of cart at the back. Both the cart and the wagon were filled with weapons. I wondered if they were going to use this many weapons. It''s a fortified city. "All right, take all you can carry. So I quickly put the swords and spears into the item box from the back of the wagon. When I killed a spider the other day, I noticed that if you imagine that items are stored in succession while moving your hand, you can put all the items you touch into the item box at once. This way, you can store a full load of swords in about 10 seconds. If you really try, you can do it faster, but I''m afraid you might cut your hand. You are dealing with a blade. It will heal, but it still hurts. I''m up to level 26 after the last kill, but I don''t feel like trying to see if the sword will stick. Wait, how much can you put in there? I''ve heard it''s big, but I''ve never heard it''s so bottomless. Maybe we can take the whole wagon, I have a few whole giant spider crabs in my item box right now. "Oh, yeah. Give it a try. In. In. It''s in. What the hell? ...... So, instead of a carriage, I was to escort the horses. There were only three horses, so the three of us were on horseback, and I was the only one flying in the air. Is it safe to keep flying so high?¡¡You don''t want to run out of magic and lose your escort, do you? "No problem, no problem. Through this kind of exchange, the party of one flying man and three unaccompanied horse riders, which was not exactly a merchant''s escort, descended the mountain to the opposite side of Tubai without encountering any enemies. Incidentally, we moved by night. The guards are me and Mr. Gurtia, taking turns. We decided that there was no need for us to be on opposite sides of the day and night, since I would basically crush the enemy anyway. The only time we move at night is when our allies can be of help. The food was flour kneaded in hot water. And dried meat. They would get off their horses and knead it in a pot of boiling water. Fire was made by burning wood from the ground with a small magic stone. Water was brought from the river. What are they going to do in the meadow? It tastes like something I''ve eaten somewhere before, but there''s something missing. I wonder what it is. I''ll eat it. It''s a kind of preserved food. Maybe it''s a kind of soba-gaki. The second day was similar, a peaceful scene of three horses and a man flying in the sky, but the problem arose before the preparation of the third day''s dinner. I''m bored, soba-gaki. At least give me soy sauce. If you don''t have anything else, that''s fine, but why go to the trouble of eating something that''s not that good when you have something that is? So I have a suggestion. "Hey, there''s a giant spider club, would you like to try it? The dried meat is okay, but I get tired of it, and it''s rather expensive to buy here. Apparently, this is the only thing he eats on every escort. That would be boring. Incidentally, dried meat is not seasoned with a lot of spices like in Japan, but is seasoned with salt mainly for preservation. Salt is not a super luxury item, but it is not cheap. There are oceans, but the technology to produce salt from them may be underdeveloped. I wonder if it would be profitable to make sun-dried salt on a large scale, though I don''t know if it would be good for us. To do that, we need to secure land along the sea. No way. "Well, I don''t know how to cook it, does anyone know? Just cut the legs and boil them. It''s good. Simple is best. Simple is best. So I cut the crab (it''s not a spider, it''s a crab. So I sliced a part of the leg of the crab (it''s not a spider, it''s a crab, because I''m going to eat it) with my magic sword and threw the whole shell into the pot. After boiling, the color turned red. It''s a crab after all! The problem was the taste. The problem was the taste. I was a little nervous, but I took a mouthful of crab that I had distributed to everyone. Oh, my God!¡¡This is my favorite crab meat! We''ve got a lot of fine food here that you can''t even eat on Earth. Wonderful. Of course, it was a big hit with the others. And so the peaceful escort ended after only seven days, while we ate the other meat that was in the box. It was a heartfelt and peaceful journey for the demons as well, as we proceeded to annihilate the small fry that we came across that were less than rank D. Incidentally, Red Wolf was not good. As a frontline city, Desibatore is so feared that children who don''t listen to them are told that they will be thrown into Desibatore to make them listen to them, and I heard many horrible rumors about Desibatore along the way. Due to the nature of the city, there are always demons wandering around the city, and it is said that demons enter the city every day. In fact, the level of danger is extremely high, and there used to be a city called Brokens in front of Desibatore, but it fell about 50 years ago. However, it was not destroyed by a single demon attack, but rather a strategic retreat to limit the damage due to the gradually increasing pressure of demons. After that, Decibatore, which used to serve the same purpose as present-day Photoren, was unable to keep up with the increasing number of demon attacks, so it abandoned its outer walls and turned into a frontline base using its inner walls and wards, and its original role was taken over by Photoren. Because of this environment, almost all of the residents, including the innkeepers and shopkeepers, are of C rank or higher, with B rank being the most common among them. For this reason, 50 years have passed since the city became a frontline city, and various anecdotes remain, which I was told along the way. For example, an old friend of mine was invited to a house built by an adventurer who was injured in Decibatore and had to live in a safe city, and found that the house had no stairs despite being two stories high (according to him, if there were no stairs, why not just jump?). The adventurers who came back from Desibatore were sleeping in their houses and keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings", "A band of bandits attacked an old man who was on his way back to his hometown, feeling the limits of Desibatore life as he declined with age, and he was destroyed by them alone", and so on. Of course, not everyone who couldn''t keep up with them retreated, and I heard that there were many dead. I don''t know what to say, but are they really human? Well, if it''s just physical ability, I''m probably not that different from a B-rank adventurer. But I guess that''s to be expected in an environment where there are people who can run around at speeds of over 40 kilometers per hour and people who can jump 10 meters in a vertical leap. When we stress, some of them change into something different, and the rest die out. This sounds like cells I''ve heard somewhere. I wonder if the soil is acidic or not. On the first day of arrival at Photoren, I decided to take care of Catherine. I don''t mean to sell her, but to build a workshop. I''ll be the owner, and Catherine will be the workshop manager, stockist, vendor, and other duties. I asked Catherine if she would like to try it, and she said she would if she could. Fortunately, Fotoren, a major consumer of magic tools and a major producer of magic stones, is said to be the best location for a magic tool workshop, so we decided to buy it quickly, and with the guild we headed for the real estate agency. The money was obtained by selling Metal Lizard Metal. It came to about 280 million ter. But are you sure you want to do this?¡¡There''s a good chance we''ll be in the red. It''s okay, it''s okay, I''ve got about 300 million, and even if there''s a deficit, if I get better at making magic tools with it, that will also increase my wealth, and even if there''s a deficit, I won''t ask you to pay for it, so just give it a try. Is that how it is? Rich people think differently. That''s the way it is. I''ve only recently become rich, and it''s more of a Japanese thought process. No, if it was a stereotypical Japanese thought process, they wouldn''t invest it, they''d put it in savings. While we were talking, we came to a real estate agency. Or rather, I thought it was a real estate agency, but it was actually a commercial guild. Excuse me, I''d like to start a mage shop, do you have any recommendations?¡¡If possible, I''d like a place that can be used for living. If you''re looking for a magic shop, this is the place for you. What I was introduced to was a small store divided into two rooms. It looks like one side is for living and the other side is a store. The selling price was 7 million yen. I don''t think two rooms in a store is too expensive. I''ll take that one then. I take out 70 large gold coins and put them on the table. I received all the money in large gold coins. I don''t want to be given platinum coins, which are not for everyday use. So you''re going to make a quick decision? Yeah, why not? No, I''d love to, but it would save me a lot of trouble. So the decision was made. Catherine had studied accounting as well, so she would be in charge of the store. The salary will be three thousand ter a month, and if the monthly profit after taxes exceeds three hundred thousand, I''ll give you ten percent of it. I can''t believe I''m getting that much! However, if the performance is so bad that we cannot expect improvement, we will take appropriate measures, and the remaining amount should be deposited in the commercial guild. It''s not as if the Suzumiya Group has that much money either. I understand, I''ll do my best! And the name of the store is Caederine''s Mage Shop. I just thought of that name. What? ...... What do you think? Isn''t that a great name? What? Huh. You got a problem with that? Honestly, I don''t know. My perfect naming sense was denied. ...... --After that, after many twists and turns, the name of the store was decided to be "Kaede Catrine". Not much has changed. We left 300,000 Tel as the initial capital, told them to contact us through the Commercial Guild if they needed anything, and disbanded. The wisp core is no longer needed and is in the item box. 39 Episode 38 Exams and Marathons After I finished setting up the store, I headed to the guild. I was going to accept a lucrative request for an escort. The guild was much larger than Herrera''s and Eine''s. First of all, the building was long and wide. It''s made of stone and looks very sturdy. There were at least 15 counters. They were lined up in a row, and there were many adventurers. Some of the counters are empty. The number of requests is about the same. There are even a few B-rank requests. I''ve never gotten a single request in the city before. No A''s, as expected. I tried to find an escort request. Nothing. There are escort requests to other cities like Tubai and Dolin, but none to Desibatore. I looked around from G rank to A rank, but I couldn''t find a single request for Desibatore. I had no choice but to ask the receptionist. "Excuse me, where can I find a request for an escort to Desibatore? "You can find it over there. Do you have the qualifications? The receptionist points to a request board at a distance. But do I need qualifications?¡¡Not adventurer rank? "Qualifications?¡¡Isn''t the Adventurer''s Guild qualification enough? Yes, because there are many differences in the abilities required from the normal escorts that adventurers receive, we have our own set of qualifications. Is escorting a cart full of goods into an item box and escorting it from the sky considered normal escorting? Where can I get those qualifications? "You can get it at the counter over there, but the exam is only held in the morning. It will take another whole day. It sounds like a very big test. I thanked him and went to the counter he pointed me to. This is the counter for requesting transportation between Phoren and Desibatore. Transport?¡¡Not an escort? The receptionist is an old man. I feel like I''m missing out. Excuse me, I''d like to take the certification test. What''s your rank, adventurer? E. They say I''m good enough to fight, so they want me to do some escort work to get my rank up. That''s why they call it Decibadre Transport. Are you stupid? Rude. I want you to say "courage" or "manly spirit. No, I don''t think so. ...... Decibatore transport was recommended by the guild leader, and he said they were short on manpower. It is true that there is a chronic shortage of manpower, but ...... it is not so tight that we have to send them to their deaths, which branch chief said such a joke? Herrera, the branch chief. Herrera. ......?¡¡I''m sure Herrera was a very good one. ...... Well, that''s all right, let them take the test. The test starts in the morning and takes a whole day. That''s what I heard earlier. I''m a very busy man, no problem. Do you have a fee for the exam? If you pass, you get it back. If you don''t pass, you get it back. If you pass, it''s free. Is that to prevent cold feet? "Okay, so I just come back tomorrow morning? "Yes, tomorrow''s assignment is ......, and you''re the only one who signed up. You''re wonderfully unlucky, you know. Oh, is that what you''re like? Well, as long as you do the exam perfectly, you''ll be fine. What happens if you don''t? ...... I stayed at the hotel feeling quite anxious, and the next morning. The next day morning, I stayed in the hotel feeling quite uneasy. An old man with a strange hat was standing in front of me. "Answer me! Yes, sir. Stop messing around!¡¡Shout! I have no choice but to respond like this. Sir!¡¡Yes, sir!¡¡Sir! I know what the guy was talking about yesterday. He''s not Gun-soo, he''s a sergeant. A little milder than the sergeants I''ve known, but I guess that''s the difference between a senior sergeant and a regular sergeant. "All right, follow me then! He got the message. Well done, translation magic. I''ll give you the right to translate my wonderful name. The sergeant took me out of the city. It''s on the Decibatore side, and of course there''s still a battle going on with demons. The density of demons is much higher than in the forest, there are at least 20 demons in the area we can see. There are at least 20 of them in the area you can see, and they look as strong as Gargon. The walls themselves look reasonably solid, and you can see adventurers fighting in the distance. There''s a straight path running through it. You want me to carry it here? About 50 meters away, you see a black wolf, about a meter tall. It''s hard to distinguish between a dog and a wolf, but it looks vaguely like a green wolf. "I see a black wolf over there!¡¡Kill it! What, out of the blue? What''s wrong!¡¡If you can''t do it, you don''t pass! Sir!¡¡Yes, sir!¡¡Sir, yes, sir! It''s your superior''s order. I''ll use wind magic to accelerate and get close enough to kill him with my sword. You used magic!¡¡You used magic! What if you use magic in a stupid situation and you run out of power when you need it? "Sir!¡¡Don''t worry, sir!¡¡Sir! You''ll find out when you''re done!¡¡I''ll take the test for now, you''ve passed the test, decide how much you want to pack. Oh, that''s normal. You look like a sergeant because you had the same line at the beginning. What should I do? I answered in a weird way. Let''s hope the translation magician is using common sense. "Weight? Oh, it''s the weight of the cargo you''re carrying at one time, you''re supposed to keep your cargo within that range when transporting it, and you''re supposed to take the test fully equipped and carrying that amount of weight. ...... Hey, why are you talking like you''re carrying your own luggage?¡¡Isn''t it an escort? I''m not sure if this is a good idea, but I think it''s a good idea. "I have an item box, is it possible to use it? "...... You''re a swordsman with magical abilities?¡¡I thought magic was just for non-combat assistance. No, I use both, in combat. No, I use both, in combat. ...... Are you already a Desi Battler before you took the exam? I don''t know, I feel like if it was a book or something, it would have been written as "freak". "No, I''m just an average magic swordsman. I''m not lying. If I''m the only one, then I''m the average. All right, I was wrong to try to teach common sense to the Decibator Trees, so I''ll just carry a 0kg item box, and we''ll measure the capacity later. Accepted. Something doesn''t add up, but it was probably accepted. "Okay, what''s the test like? "First, you''ll take this card and do 50 laps around the perimeter of Photoren, and then, if necessary, a combat test. He handed me a board slightly smaller than a guild card. It says "0" on it. It may be a similar system to the guild card. "Okay, is it now? Yeah, it takes a while, so the test will be in the morning. The distance from the entrance to the Photoren to this side is about one kilometer. If it''s a square, it''s 4 kilometers per lap, or 50 laps, or 200 kilometers. At 80km/h, that''s 2.5 hours, which is a long time. And the speed may be slowed down by demons. ...Hmm? Well, even if we run, there''ll be demons, right? Of course, you have to run by kicking them away or running away, that''s what the test is for. If you kill a single demon along the way, it will be recorded on your card, and you will not be rewarded, but depending on the number and type of demons, you will be exempt from the D class and below combat tests. How many will be exempted? Fifty Kuro Wolves, a hundred Hami Crabs. That''s a lot. I guess I''ll just kill the ones I see with magic. I''m going for a run. Yeah, go ahead. And so I start off. I don''t have any particular meaning, but to make me feel like an athlete, I crouch start. ...... I didn''t feel like I was getting any faster. That''s true. The main source of acceleration at the start is magic. I''m going counterclockwise from the front of the wall, the side with the demons. My speed, accelerated by wind magic, is about 100 km/h, so it shouldn''t take me more than three hours to complete a lap, even if I have to slow down for corners and kill monsters. That''s about three minutes per lap. It was two minutes later that I reached the first corner. It''s not a mile wide by any stretch of the imagination, this fort. Well, it''s still the same thing. Taking advantage of the fact that I wasn''t tired and had plenty of magic power, I didn''t slow down and went around the corner as fast as I could. What?¡¡I''ve lost my footing. I hurriedly used magic to fly back to the course. There seems to be an ocean next to the fort. The path seems to have been made by shaping the cliff. It may have originally been a rocky beach or something. It''s not very wide, only about three meters, but it''s not a bad road. As I regained my composure and ran, a further threat fell on me. It was a beach, a training facility familiar from sporty comics. Halfway down, the road became wider, but it turned into a sandy beach. It was extremely difficult to run. I gave up running and flew away, floating slightly above the ground. Finally, the sandy beach was over, and we came to the next corner. The narrow road and the sandy beach made a total of about one kilometer. It seemed like a long time, but in fact it took less than a minute. This was the same grassland that we had seen when we first came here, with some trees here and there. The grass was low and it was very easy to run. After about three minutes of running, I was grateful for the terrain and came to the next corner. After another combo of sandy beach and narrow road, we turned the last corner and reached the starting point in about a minute. It took me less than 9 minutes to get here. The distance is about 12km. ...... How many hours does it take to do 50 laps of this? 40 Episode 39 Marathon and Gliding Thinking while running. If we estimate 10 minutes per lap, 50 laps will take 500 minutes, or about 8 hours. That''s about eight hours. Of course I won''t get tired after 8 hours of running, but I wonder if I should take an exam to test my endurance when I know I won''t get tired after that. In the end, though, I had to run. This time, I thought as I slowed down to avoid falling off the scaffolding and turned a corner. Come to think of it, I''ve been told to run 50 laps, but I haven''t been told to run 50 laps. I think I was faster than my current speed when I flew purely in the air without using my legs. ...... Doesn''t this mean that I''m being dragged down by my legs now? Try floating in the air for a while and accelerating. I can feel my speed gradually increasing. That''s what I thought. Soon the next corner comes. I couldn''t make the turn, but it doesn''t matter, there''s no need to fly along the wall. In order to avoid personal injury, I increased my altitude, and at a certain point, my acceleration suddenly slowed down. It was about two and a half meters from the ground. If I lower the altitude a little, the acceleration returns. I don''t know why, but if you just want to move fast, this seems to be the best place. Perhaps magic has something like the ground effect of an airplane. But I don''t think the magic is actually creating wind or lift. I accelerate steadily, probably rounding the next corner in less than two minutes. The acceleration is still going on. It seems that I am flying in a semicircle, with the outer wall inside the semicircle, rather than turning without killing my speed and turning the next corner. If you were to check the trajectory with a car navigation system or something, it would probably look like a track in a track and field stadium. Well, if the guild''s expected route is a track, I''ll probably run into the audience area and then come back to the original course. But I can''t help it, because I''m faster. I pass the starting point, gaining more speed on the straight. It probably took me less than five minutes. I look at the card, and it clearly says "2 laps". The acceleration seems to weaken as you get faster, but it''s still there. I don''t feel any air resistance, but the magic must be doing something with its magic power. No, if the acceleration is constant, the kinetic energy per unit of time increases as the speed increases. If the decrease in acceleration is only due to that, then how much more can you accelerate? I don''t feel like doing ....... It would be nice if the acceleration stopped at a convenient transonic speed, but if the instantaneous output of the magic power fell below the output needed to cancel the shock wave as soon as it reached the speed of sound, and the explosion scattered, we would be blinded. If there was a news report the next day, it would have said something like "the whole body was hit hard". If the body or head is safe, there is a possibility that it can be regenerated, but I don''t want to even think about trying it. Even if it goes up, it should be limited to the speed of a bullet train, about 300 km/h, or 25 laps per hour. I think I can get away with that. I''ll deploy the magic armor, though. At higher speeds, even a flying pebble can become a weapon. A stationary pebble hitting your head when you are flying at 300 km/h is equivalent to being hit in the head by a pebble flying at 300 km/h. Not to mention if you hit a tree. You should also avoid taking things out of the item box. I''ve never taken something out while speeding up, but if it comes out while stationary, it''s suicidal. On the other hand, if it comes out at my current speed, I can make a powerful weapon just by stuffing a rock in the item box, so I''ll try that later. I''m on to the next round. It''s getting a little hard to fly along the long side of the city. The power cannot keep up with the accelerating turn. I decided to fly in a slightly circular orbit. The shorter side is almost ignored. The path is also ignored. Just fly over the ocean. The azure sea is not calm, but it is not rough either. It will not affect your flight. Hopefully the laps will count. ...... Despite my fears, the card recorded my third lap. The time is probably faster than before. It should have taken less than four minutes. From there, I continued to accelerate steadily, and by lap 6, I was probably under 3 minutes. But I didn''t slow down, and finally, on lap 20, I think I completed a lap in about two minutes. I felt like I could still accelerate, but I didn''t want to risk it. Now that I finally have enough magic power, I''m ready to kill the demons. But I can''t use weapons. It''s in the item box. I''m not going to try to get it out at this speed, and slowing down is a waste of time. So I''m going to use magic. That''s what I was going to do in the first place. At any rate, I aimed at the left edge of the tree in front of me and fired a rock spear at it. When I turned around, I saw that the tree was partially gouged in the exact place where I aimed. It seems that the speed of the rock spear is determined not by its relative speed from me, but by its relative speed from the air or something at the point of appearance. There is no such thing as an absolute velocity from space. Unless the theory of celestial motion is correct in this world and the universe is not expanding. I don''t know the exact definition of ...... space. Anyway, it is nice to know that if I aim at a target, it will fly there. I didn''t have to calculate the speed at which I was flying and shoot magic. But instead, by the time it lands, I''m flying far ahead of it. So I had to make sure I killed it with the first shot. So I''m going to use the explosive shells I used at that time instead of the blue persimmon ...... that killed the crab. I don''t care if the demon explodes and disperses peacefully, since I''m not going to collect the corpse anyway. The monsters I saw here were obviously weaker than those crabs, but overkill is just fine. We have too much power anyway. I circled the area with about ten cannonballs around my body, hitting every demon I saw. When I had ten rounds left, the card said "40 rounds, 1524 points. I don''t know what defeat points are, but when I looked at it after killing the black wolf, it had increased by two, so I guess I''ll be exempted from the E rank battle test with about 100 points. I don''t know how much the D rank is, but let''s just annihilate them without slowing down. I kept going around, and the goal was in sight. On the last straight, I didn''t slow down at all, but kept accelerating until the end, and then slowed down. Then I started to decelerate, but this took a surprisingly long time. Before I knew it, I had passed over the land and stopped, probably about two kilometers from the ocean. When we thought it had finally stopped, it was now being launched upward. I looked down and saw that the fish was about 2 meters in size from above?¡¡It looked like a vicious tuna. Its teeth were sharp. Its mouth was open, so it must have been trying to eat me, but the magical armor must have blocked it. That''s annoying. I fired three of my extra explosive shells at the fish as it tried to dive, and it came back to the surface. I''ll have it for dinner today. I tried to store it in the item box, but it wouldn''t go in. It''s still alive. Come to think of it, there''s not a single hole in the tuna''s head. I slit its neck with my magic sword, stowed it in the item box, re-accelerated toward the gate, and returned to the city. It was quite hard and over five meters long. I didn''t over-accelerate on the way back to ...... and end up going back another kilometer or so, you know? I''ve completed 50 laps. ¡¡I''ve also defeated a demon. "......?¡¡You started running in the morning, right?¡¡Did you finish already? Yeah, I think I went a little faster. I think it took me about 2 hours to complete 50 laps.¡¡I don''t know. You''ll never catch me. Here''s your card. It''s really over. ...... Two hours, seven minutes, nearly a fifth off the fastest time. What the hell did you do? I didn''t do anything illegal. I was never asked to run. I think we should announce this fairly. "I flew around the track at a height of a little more than two meters. It''s faster than running. How much money did you spend on this?¡¡You don''t look that rich. ...... What?¡¡Money?¡¡What are you talking about? I didn''t spend any money. Why? Didn''t you just stuff a bunch of magic tools in your item box? No, sir.¡¡I just used magic. I see. So that''s how people with low magic power usually maintain their flight. That''s tough. I think about it as if it were someone else''s problem. Actually, it''s someone else''s problem. "What happened to your magic? "I have a little bit of magic power, so... I have a lot of item boxes. I have 7 (a little) more than normal people. But I''m talking about the number of zeroes. But I''m talking about the number of 0''s. "A little ......?¡¡I''ve never heard of such a thing even among decibatoreans,......, but even for decibatoreans, the time is abnormal. It''s not a problem if you''re fast. I''m not sure what to make of it.¡¡Do I need to take the combat test? The points are ...... 15,000!¡¡It''s not a new record, but it''s the level that the C class hunted at full capacity. ¡¡What did you kill? "What? It must have been about 1500 when I saw it. You think that''s a tenfold increase at once?¡¡...... Oh. Do they count the ones you kill after you''ve completed 50 laps? Yeah, as long as you''ve been running for less than 20 hours, it counts. I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but I think it''s a good idea. It''s not a normal fish by any stretch of the imagination. ...... It''s a good idea to take a look at the website and see if you can find anything that might help you. I was flying over the ocean when I was attacked by a fish. I''m not sure if tuna is a proper noun in this world too. Of course, it''s because of translation magic. No, sir. It''s probably a little over five meters long. It looks like a tuna. Are they very hard? Do they have sharp teeth? Yes, probably. The boat killer ...... is definitely a 12,000 point monster, but ...... do you have any proof?¡¡If you don''t have anything to prove, you''ve got a point. Boat killer. I''m not sure if you can sink a boat and make it a nice splashy boat or not. Either way, there''s a way to prove it. The real thing. Here. You take out a fresh tuna. It was heavy, so I tried to hold it down with acceleration magic. I didn''t want it to smell fishy, so I held it through the magic armor. It''s a surreal sight to see a person holding a large tuna. Are you going to use it as a weight to move the elevator?¡¡You''d have to freeze the tuna first. Is it going in the item box? ...... Oh well, who cares now. At any rate, you have passed the test and have been awarded a rank of C for annihilation. I thought the rank you could get with the card was D. "Well, there are standards up to C. It''s just that there was no one who could run 50 laps in less than 10 hours and earn 10,000 points, so it became an unknown fact. You see, I''m right in front of you. I haven''t measured the capacity of the item box yet. Yeah, we''ll get to that. --Later on, as expected, I ran out of weights when measuring the capacity of the item box, so I had no choice but to have the words "over 275,000 kg" engraved on my transporter card. Incidentally, it is said that this fish has only a hard shell, but the flesh is delicious. ...... A shell for a fish. Where are the scales? 41 Episode 40 Interest and Prices I''ve successfully completed my certification, but the purpose of coming here originally was not to get certified. The purpose of my visit here was not to get certified, but to receive requests. The time I''ve earned through magic and spells has been consumed to some extent by the capacity of the item box, but it''s still early afternoon. It would be best if I could go to Decibatore today and sleep there. Are there any escort requests today? There''s a request board over there, but since the capacity of the maple is limited, the guild is talking about forming an escort party for the maple with fast and strong people. What, you''re going to escort me? I''m not sure what to make of this. It''s a great way to make sure you''re getting the most out of your time and money. I didn''t ...... escort the package, but putting it in the item box is kind of the ultimate escort, so I guess it counts. Okay, when do we leave, how long will it take and what are the rewards? "I can''t tell you exactly, because we have to gather the members, but we''ll probably have five B-rank members with 15 hours or so by tomorrow or the next day, and they''ll be able to concentrate on escorting us without carrying any luggage, so I think it''ll be faster. "Is five B ranks profitable ......? The escort fee alone is going to be a terrible price. "Kaede, do you know how much a kilo of dried meat that you can buy here for 300 Tel will cost in Desibatore? About 500 Tel? If you carry one kilo, that''s 200 Tel, if you carry 20 kilos, that''s 4,000 Tel, that''s about 40,000 Yen, that''s a reasonable day''s wage for an adventurer. You''re wrong. That''s about 2,300 Tel. I don''t know what you''re talking about. 20,000 Tel for a 10 kilo haul is enough to live on for a month in a normal town. Don''t they need food over there? We''re fighting demons in Desi Battleye, aren''t we?¡¡Can''t we just eat them? If you don''t have dried meat, why don''t you eat grilled meat? I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. What kind of cave is this where you can''t even dry meat? I''m not sure if I''ll be able to carry a thousand pounds in my item box if it''s that expensive.¡¡It''s going to ruin the economy. ...... It''s a good thing that the adventurers in Decibatore don''t pay much for transportation. There is a stockpile of food, but if we were to release it, we would have to force the relatively weakest to return to Photoren, which is a last resort. Are you suggesting that we go out there and actively disrupt distribution? If you''re not careful, you could make a fortune, or start a full-fledged Kaede Group. It''s a great way to make a fortune. ...... It''s not going to be that much of a fortune, probably. And by the way, how much of the 2,000 tell difference will be my share? I''m thinking of subtracting 200,000 Tel per adventurer other than Kaede from the total, for a total of 1,000,000 Tel, and then the guild will get 10% of the remaining amount as an intermediary fee, in exchange for which the guild will procure all the goods to be carried. In other words, the 500 kilos would be the escort fee, and the rest would be my share. Are you going to carry all that dried meat? No, dried meat is less than a tenth of what I''ve given you as an example, buckwheat flour and wheat flour are the main ones. Buckwheat flour ...... is ...... I think I ate something that looked like buckwheat noodles on the way here. I haven''t seen noodles or soy sauce. I''m not going to hold my breath. ...... Well, I''ll just eat crab and tuna. If the symptoms are magic overload, you might get more MP if you eat meat from Decibatore. Just like in the coal mine. Yes, sir. How much are we supposed to carry? We''ll take as much as we can carry, no less than ten tons. Let''s see. ...... At 2 million per ton, that''s close to 19 million. Subtracting the guild''s share, that''s 17.1 million, enough to start a small company. I''ve already started one magic store with a perfect naming sense. "Okay, by the way, do you usually transport and sell these items privately rather than through the guild? Yes, the guild doesn''t want to make any money off of Decibatore''s transportation, and it''s best if Decibatore is well supplied. Oh, the guild seems to be on the side of justice! It''s an ally of justice, protecting citizens from the hands of demons without seeking profit! It''s more profitable to increase the supply of magic stones than to make money from them. 10% tax is applied to every stone sold, and 20% of that goes into the guild''s pocket. I was wrong!¡¡I was just looking for money!¡¡I was more money-hungry than ever! Even in Japan, where they impose a consumption tax on ordinary food, they don''t double up on consumption taxes! I did not rage ....... It never occurred to me that I would have to get rid of the Guild of Evil and Tyranny. There''s money to be made, I get it, the guild gets it. That''s enough. The buyer buys because he judges that it is more beneficial to buy at that price. If you can''t buy a magic stone, you can use a wisp core. If you can''t buy a magic stone, you can use a wisp core. ...... Oops, I''m about to be executed, so I''ll leave it at that. I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. It''s for my benefit and that of the guild! I''m sure you''ll be able to make more money if you bring back some demon corpses on your way home, since you can''t carry anything but demon stones and particularly expensive parts, so you might as well throw them away. Throwing them away is outrageous! It''s a waste of resources!¡¡Think about the environment! I''ll just have to carry them around. I think I''ll pay a little bit of money because I think I might get in trouble if I get ...... for free. It''s a win-win situation. It''s easy to make the biggest profit temporarily, but it''s more profitable to make it sustainable in the end. "I''ll give that a try, maybe I''ll even consider opening a store. "If you have that item box, that might be a good idea. Are we done negotiating for now? Yes, that''s fine. Okay, what''s the reward?¡¡Decibatore cards? What''s a Decibatore card? It''s inefficient to carry bulky and heavy coins to Decibatore, so we use a card that records the amount, like a guild card. You can withdraw cash from the guild and charge it back. It''s a good idea to keep some money in your account, because you can''t use cash in Decibatore, and even if you could, the price would be way below your means. It''s a good idea to have some money in your account.¡¡How much should I put in? It''s free if you''re a licensed transporter. ...... You should consider buying things at a price of nearly 2000 Tel per kilo, and lodging is about 1000 Tel per night. As long as the guild doesn''t die, I don''t see a problem. Hmm, that''s convenient. But the prices are so high. Ten times as much, if not more. "Then, I''d like to be paid in full with a Decibate card. Well, I can get by with that. I can''t imagine a situation where I''d be in need of money, and if you''re broke, eat crab. It''s a luxury food. All right, you''ll get your reward at the guild over there. All right. And so the plan for a large scale transport of six adventurers was put together. On second thought, it would have been faster if I had flown over the ocean by myself, but I didn''t want to get lost, so I did as the guild said. --Two days later, I was in the guild''s room with five other adventurers, with over eleven tons of stuff in my item box. It''s time for introductions and a strategy meeting. As you can see, I''m a two-handed swordsman with a B rating in annihilation, and I''ll be in the vanguard. Nice to meet you. This guy looks like a shabby warrior. He carries a large sword on his back. "Doss, Annihilation B, two-handed swordsman. Right wing, please. He''s another ugly warrior-looking guy. A large sword on his back. "Tressl, Annihilation B Two-Handed Swordsman. I''ll take care of you. ...... He''s just like him. I''m Quaton, a shield swordsman in the vanguard. I''m a shield swordsman in the vanguard. My name is Sink, I''m a bowman with a B annihilation rating. He''s also a disgusting man. I can''t take it anymore. . . It''s rare to find a bowman, but if you''re going to be a bowman, make it an elf or something. I''m Kaede, I''m a magic swordsman with C annihilation power, I''ll leave the strategy to you. I''ll say hello too. Unon answers. "We''re all fast this time, and have plenty of annihilation power. Unless they are bombed from the sky, they won''t even be an obstacle. We''re going to break through in a straight line, running in a huddle, no problem? "Yes, sir. Well, you seem to be good at it, so I''ll leave it to you. It''s a brainy strategy, but if you have enough strength, it''s easier to break through head-on without any tricks. 42 Episode 41 Distance and Barrage I''ll follow the two vanguards out through the thinly-opened gate in the outer wall. The rest of us are following. I didn''t notice it when I went out for the test, but I can see what looks like the remnants of a rock-paved road ahead. It doesn''t look like it''s going to serve as a road at all, but it can serve as a landmark. Let''s go. said a shabby man, and started running in the direction of the path. His acceleration was clearly different from the adventurers I''d seen before. In the blink of an eye, I''ve reached a speed that would be hard for me to keep up with without magic. Well, it''s slower than me running with magic, but I guess it''s too much to ask for that much. My magic power is six or seven orders of magnitude different. The rest of the pack followed me without showing much difficulty. I have to run for nearly fifteen hours, so if it''s too hard for me now, it''s not worth it. I notice that the people behind me are keeping a 10-meter gap from me, and I also keep a 10-meter gap from the front. I guess it''s hard to move when you''re too tightly packed. There are almost no trees in the area, only short grass, so the visibility is good. Even if there is some distance between us and them, they will not be able to destroy us by surprise. After running for ten minutes or so, you will encounter a demon. It was a pack of about five black wolves. There were a lot of them within sight, but this was the first time I''d had a battle. This time I''m the one being protected, so I don''t do anything if I don''t have to. It might take away from my job. I''m sure they''ll call on me if they need me. Now, how are we going to handle this? And while I was watching, the battle was over. It wasn''t even a battle. The two vanguards looked at each other, nodded lightly, increased their speed a little to increase the distance between them, and then cut down the Kuro Wolves in one fell swoop. The one on the left took out two and the one on the right took out three. Perhaps he slowed down when he swung his sword, but by the time the battle was over, the distance had returned to normal. Not too dangerous. That''s what I call an overkill party. The rest of the trip went smoothly. I didn''t even need to touch them. The vanguard kicked out the enemies in front of us, and there were no demons following us from the sides or behind. The number of demons that had the misfortune to attack us from the front was about five or sixty. The rest seemed to be out of work, which was probably a good thing. Let''s get some food. Let''s go. After another 20 or so demons had been sacrificed, the vanguard, a guy named Unon I think, said. As planned, he took out the food that was given to him when he stored the items, and threw it to him. After making sure that Unon finished eating, he threw the next meal to Quaton. The food looks like a simple version of a curry mart. A cookie on a stick, if you will. You''re going to be thirsty, but you don''t need to give them water because they have their own mages. I''ve never eaten one, so I don''t know if I''ll be thirsty. As for the order of eating, it is said to be customary that the order of eating is counterclockwise from the vanguard to the last person in the middle. The advantage of this may be that you don''t have to think about or remember the order, rather than the order itself. A little later, it was my turn. I put it in my mouth and chewed it, although I was a little nervous about what it would taste like. ...... It''s hard. I tried to bite into it as if I were eating a calorie-maker, but it didn''t even feel like I could bite into it. I''m not sure if this is something that the average person can eat. Normally, I can hold a dead branch without thinking about it. But if I exert myself, it will break. In other words, if I don''t put any effort into it, I can guess that my strength is at the level of an ordinary person, much lower than my status. So I tried to bite it and couldn''t. This probably means that I need enhanced jaw strength and tooth strength. If you can''t bite down like this, you are not qualified to be a decibatore, I guess. The taste is not very good either. It is soggy, with no sweetness and a sour taste. On top of that, it sticks in your mouth. It''s terrible. But I can''t be the only one to eat something decent in this situation, so I have no choice but to eat it. Yeah, it''s bad. Three bottles of this may be enough to provide nourishment in a small amount, but couldn''t they have done something about the taste? Well, I managed to finish it. It was not good, but not inedible either. The party went on smoothly, with the tension dropping but not the speed. But then, after about an hour of driving. There was an explosion nearby. An explosion with a radius of a meter or so. "It''s an e-prindle!¡¡Stragglers! Ixprondr ......? There are no demons around. There was nothing around, and then suddenly there was an explosion. I looked around and saw that the guards were looking up. I looked up and saw a huge bird-like thing. It looks to be about a kilometer high. "There''s only one!¡¡Keep your distance! With that order, the distance between each of you increases to twice as much as before. A strategy to reduce the damage. Immediately after, there''s another explosion. About halfway between me and the vanguard. I think the gap was only about 10 seconds. If you keep getting hit, you''re bound to get hit at some point. I''ll try to shoot it down with magic! Aerial attacks are to be dealt with in the city!¡¡It won''t reach us anyway, use it for defense! They can''t reach us? It''s worth a try. You can''t reach them, but even a normal decibel trekker can''t load a ton of supplies into an item box. It makes no sense to talk about normal now. Besides, magical armor is already in place. As far as the explosion range is concerned, it should be able to withstand it. "Defense is up!¡¡I''ll try to shoot it down! I''m going to shoot it down!" I say, and fire a single explosive shell upwards, aiming for the Ixprondor. I''ll see if I can reach it first. But because we launched it straight up, the shell was left behind by us. Since Ixprondr is also chasing us, the shell passes far behind Ixprondr. But in terms of distance, it did reach us. It took about two seconds. "It arrived!¡¡And fast! People around me shouted. It''s true that my magic is fast to begin with, but I''m also using a special wand. It''s only natural that I''m fast. But even so, I feel like I''m not going fast enough. It takes two seconds. Ixplondor''s, while not as well controlled, has no bullets, and unlike a sudden explosion, it can be avoided on sight. There''s still a chance it won''t be evaded, so we''ll just have to wait and see. Let''s see, we''re going about 40 kilometers per hour, and the bullet speed is about 12 times that. If we look at it from above, we should shoot at an angle of about 1/12. When I fired at that level, I reached a place not far from the monster. As I fired the third shot, I heard a roar and my vision turned red for a moment. It seems that I was hit by a bullet. However, as expected, the explosion only gave me a faint warmth, and did not damage me. The warmth might have been my imagination. "Is your magic okay? He called out to me as he ran. He didn''t seem to be that upset. He didn''t seem to be that upset, as expected of a Decibatore. Yes, I can withstand hundreds of shots like that. I have plenty of magic power. This is not a metaphor. In fact, it recovers faster than it consumes. "I was wondering what kind of trick the item box had, but it''s just a monster! I don''t like the word "monster. I''m just a Desibatore among Desibatoreans, even before arriving at Desibatore. I''m just a Desibatore! As he shouted this, the explosive shell he fired flew in a trajectory that almost hit Ixprondr. As expected, it was dodged just in time. ...... But if it''s dodged, there is a way. You can block all the areas that can be avoided. The barrage is power. Create a batch of 100 fireballs that consume less magic, and send them flying at slightly different angles. At the same time, an explosion will occur nearby. This time you''re able to dexterously get through. Bloody hell. But being able to dodge means that there is a good chance that you won''t be able to dodge very far. Unless, of course, the bird is very confident of its evasive ability. In that case, there is a way to deal with it. It is a very cerebral solution. Just don''t give the bird any room to avoid. It looks like the bird is pretty big, so it should be possible. We''ll use the shotgun magic we used against them on a much larger scale. There''ll be over 10,000 of them. I can''t deploy more than that for lack of space. I''d still look like a rock hedgehog to the outside world. I shoot the same way as before. The rock shot flew straight up and exploded on the way. There is an explosion with a radius of about one meter, and in the aftermath, the spear disappears from twice that radius. My eyesight has been enhanced, and I can see the birds and the projectiles from here. If I''m not mistaken, the bird also dexterously dove into the gap and made it through almost unscathed. Remarkable dexterity. Having observed this much, I noticed that no new explosions had occurred in the last ten seconds. This means that the rock-splatter explosion was actually caused by Ixprondr. If you think about it, the previous explosions had occurred on the ground. Just like the fireball that hit the ground. So, was Ixprondr''s attack actually an invisible projectile attack, rather than a bulletless attack? He tried to fire the same shot again, but it still exploded in midair. And then I was caught in the gap. There''s no explosion on the ground. Looks like you''re right. No matter how many of them there are, they can''t be reaped at full range. It doesn''t matter how hard you are to prevent bullet magic. It seems that air and flying dust cannot prevent it, but other than that, it is basically stationary. It turns into a physical phenomenon at that point. I don''t know what to do. 43 Episode 42 Dust and Logging I should have fired two shots, but there was not enough space. Even if you fire one shot and then prepare the next one, the second one will come flying at you. On the other hand, given the evasion speed, if you make the range any smaller, they will evade you. You have to fire immediately after the first shot, like a tandem warhead, but faster than their rapid fire. Oh. Tandem warheads have smaller explosives in the front, right?¡¡Of course, this is because it is powerful enough to detonate the explosive reactive armor. So how powerful does it need to be to detonate magic? I''ve never seen a magic that didn''t turn into a physical phenomenon when something hit it. I don''t know what this "something" is, but for the time being, it detonated when the spells collided with each other. No matter how small it is, magic is magic and not air, so there is a possibility that even a tiny spell can detonate an enemy spell. Let''s give it a try. First of all, we need to make the spell small. First of all, prepare a rock spear, which is no more than a grain of sand. I''ll shoot a bunch of them at the birds in the sky. It explodes right above my head, about 30 meters away. Apparently they were flying too close, but it seems to have worked. I can hit it with this while preparing a big shotgun. In order to prevent attacks, I released grains of sand, but the speed of the shot production did not seem to be slowing down. Isn''t this a very bad magic?¡¡Basically, all of the bullet magic is invalid. Now that the shotgun is ready, fire it. As I watch the spear fly... Oh, it self-destructed. It seems he tried to explode at us while grains of sand were flying at him, and was hit by the explosion right in front of his mouth. It seems that he was hit by an explosion in front of his mouth. Did you ...... do it? I tried in vain to raise a flag that I had not done it, but the bird fell straight to the ground. But the bird fell straight to the ground, though it looked like it was falling straight down from my point of view. Oh!¡¡Seriously, he dropped an Ixplundle while running! "It''s quite manageable. "It''s quite manageable," I reply while catching and storing the bird. It''s a piece of cake, to be honest. You can fly up to it, and there are many other ways you could have done it. I just didn''t do it because it would have been a problem for the guards if the target had suddenly taken off. It''s a good thing they did, because that''s how they created the magic. An anti-air wizard with the strength of a warrior and the ability to move!¡¡I want one in my party!¡¡Come join us! I wonder if the group was originally a party. It''s true that they seem to work well together. No, I prefer to play solo. But I decline. I don''t know what''s so sad that I have to keep fighting with such an uncomfortable party. There is no one faster than me, and there is no reason for me to be in a party all the time, let alone on occasion. I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one who has a problem with this. You knew. But unlike the others, this one can''t be revealed. This spell could be a wizard''s greatest weakness. I''d lose a lot of firepower if I used it. I''m not going to reveal it unless I find a way to counter it. I''ll give it a name, though. I''ll call it "Magic Outburst" or something like that. It doesn''t match the actual situation, but it''s better if it doesn''t match the actual situation. It''s better if the name doesn''t match the reality, but it''s better if it doesn''t match the reality, because it''s hard to guess the principle with this name, even if you say it by mistake. "Well, it''s just a coincidence, isn''t it? Well, I covered it up for now. Since I was not pursued, it seemed to have gone well. After that, we drove straight on without any significant incident, and arrived at a place that seemed to be a desi-batrep. Here we are. Apparently, this is Desi Battley. I say "apparently" simply because this place doesn''t look like a city. It doesn''t look like any city I''ve ever seen. First of all, it''s a basic rule that every city has a magnificent wall, but there is no such thing here. There are three concentric circles of what looks like the remains of a wall, with a moat between them. There is no water in the moat, but it is a magnificent moat, about 5 meters wide and 3 meters deep. If you jump over the moat, you will find something that looks like a wall. However, it is completely different in appearance from the ones in the city so far, and there are some demon shells or something protruding from the 3-meter-high wall, which seems to be made of kneaded earth. Are they trying to replace the rebar in the reinforced concrete? When you reach the wall, the first person jumps on it as if it were a matter of course. Does this mean that they can''t afford to build a gate to lower their defenses? The inside of the city was completely different. There were no buildings of more than two stories, and even those were sparse. Most of the houses are made of wood and have many doors and windows. There were so many doors that it seemed as if they were going around putting a door in every room. When I looked at the place where there seemed to be a commotion in the distance, I saw a demon-like creature and a human fighting. It seems that the doors are to prepare for a sudden attack by demons. Is there no peace for the Decibatoreans? While I was observing these things, I arrived at the guild. It seems to be located near the center of the city. Around the center of the city, the density of buildings is increasing, and there are some stores, but even in the center of the city, there seems to be no peace of mind, and the guilds are full of doors. Well, this city has a diameter of less than a kilometer, so if the demons are not defeated on the way, it will be reached in no time. I''m here to report a transport request. I show him my guild card and transporter card. "Oh, you mean the party I was contacted about yesterday, the item box? "Yes, where should I put it? I''ll show you the way now, the escort has been requested here, so you''ll have to go through the formalities there. I''m going to take you there now, the escort has completed his request here, so you can go there to complete the procedure." The guild member walks away and leads me to a place that looks like a food storage facility made by digging a hole in the ground. Well, it''s just underground, but it''s like a small warehouse. It seems to be much stronger than a normal warehouse, though. "Just let me in here. You''ve filled it to the brim, but there''s still a lot of food left in the item box. "Next, this way. And with that, the guild members walk out of the guild. Is he trying to disperse them? But the destination is the food store next to the guild. I just need to get in here, too. What he showed me was a pantry slightly larger than the one in the guild. I put my stuff in there too. After going through several houses, we finally ran out of food. "That''s a lot of space. We''ve got what we asked for. Is the reward a card? "Yes, that would be great. When I handed over the card I had gotten at Photoren, the guild member put the card in a kind of box, fiddled with something, and handed it back to me. On the card is written "18950000". That''s nearly 20 million dollars. Please keep it up, the transport has been putting a lot of pressure on my strength, now I can concentrate on fighting for a while. "Yes, I will. It''s a big advantage for us, too. This is very profitable. I''ll start a shipping company that doesn''t rely on guilds. It''s a good idea to have a shop that can sell your products. ......1 Even if they take about 10% of your products, it''s cheaper than setting up a sales office here. If you''re looking for the best way to get the most out of your business, you''re going to want to make sure you''re getting the most out of your business. Well, for now, I''ll just go through the requests. It would be a shame to leave without doing any trade. Unlike the other cities, the requests were only for killing. And they were not rank-based. Among the requests to defeat the black wolf and other demons, I found a strange request. A request to kill Rank: Any Request: Cut down the trees around Desibatore. Reward: 50,000 Tel per tree Quantity: As many as you want Remarks: Be careful, they are hard. We recommend using weapons made of special materials or axes. Trees ......?¡¡It''s a tree and you want to kill it? And yet the price is 50,000 Tel. What are you going to do with a tree? What are you going to do with it? If that''s the case, they won''t be asking you to kill trees, they''ll be asking you to procure them. I''ll ask the guild members. "Excuse me, is the request to kill this tree just to cut a normal tree? "Yes, that''s right. If the demon''s territory expands, the logging will be delayed, and if the logging goes well, there is a possibility of pushing it back. ...... Well, it''s a pipe dream now. I see, I''ll go cut some trees. Cutting down trees is very important. In Japan, it was said that mankind and the forest should coexist in harmony, but in this world, trees seem to be mankind''s enemy. But in this world, it seems that trees are the enemy of mankind. Seeing as how the forests of Eine and Herrera were not so much the domain of demons, this may be a story limited to the demon front. It''s not like you''re going to be able to do it alone. "Well, I can fly, so if it comes to it, I can escape. If it looks dangerous, I''ll run. I can fly, so if something happens, I can escape. But if there''s a demon that can kill me now, even by surprise, then I''ll probably join the battle regardless of whether I''m going to cut down a tree or not. "Well, I can''t force you, but be careful. The transport capacity alone is enough to push back the front line, if not maintain it, it''s too good to lose. "Yes, it''s fine. You''ll be able to find a lot more than just a few of these in the market. With that, I leave the guild. I climbed up into the sky and found that there were no trees on the Photoren side. There seems to be a five-fold difference in the number of demons on the Photoren side and the other side. It would certainly be impossible to cut down trees in this situation. I descended to the side of the forest and tried to cut them down with my magic sword as I passed them. It snapped. It''s not hard at all. I was so vigorous I cut two of them. Getting carried away, I held the staff in my left hand and the magic sword in my right hand and spread out my hands to cut them all down. After cutting down three trees with the magic sword in my right hand, I saw a tree on my left, so I cut it down. Crack! Ouch. Very painful. I think I might have cracked my hand. I couldn''t cut it, on the contrary, the tree took the cane with it. When I stopped, I found that the cane had cut into the tree by 10cm, but the trunk was 30cm thick. This is impossible. It''s only as sharp as an ordinary sword. It''s not as sharp as a magic sword. Well, it''s a staff, and it''s also a strong sword, so it can be useful. Anyway, it can cut a magic sword. And they cost 50,000 Tel a piece. That''s good. It''s not as good as transportation, but transportation is over once you''ve transported as much as you need. It''s not like logging, which can be accomplished in any number of ways. So hold the magic sword in your right hand, spread it out as wide as you can, fly past the left side of the tree, and cut it down. Fifty thousand telltales are reaped row by row. On the way, I got into some demons, but I don''t care. This is not a battle, it''s a harvest. Demons and trees are just crops to be harvested. I glided along for about three hours, cutting down trees, and then decided to return to the guild. I was so tired that I forgot that I had been running for 8 hours before I got here. ...... Speaking of which, I cut down more trees in three hours than I can count, but I doubt most people can cut that many. I think it''s obvious that I can make millions in a day. I wonder what they will say when I go to report it. Well, I guess it''s too late to ask for common sense at the point of transportation, but it''s wrong to ask for common sense at Desibatore. You can''t say you''re floating around in Decibatore, okay? 44 Episode 43 Front and Purchase I entered the guild full of doors to report in. You talk to the receptionist, who sits at one of the two counters and is so muscular that you think she should be an adventurer herself. I''m sorry, I''m here to report a request. "Oh, can I use your card? Yes. I give him two cards at once. "Oh, you cut down a tree while you were alone, that''s nice. The number of trees is ....... Hmm?¡¡What''s wrong with this thing? "Does it ever break down? I haven''t heard anything about what to do if the guild card malfunctions. I''ve never even heard of a malfunction, but it says 1211 cards. Did I cut that many? Hmm, I think I cut at least 500, but I don''t know if I cut that many. ...... Are you sure? You''ve never had a guild card lie to you before, have you? Is that so ......?¡¡Can you give me a moment to check with the Mayor of Desibatore? In the event that you''ve got a lot of money to spend, you''ll want to make sure that you''ve got it in your pocket. And he''s an E-ranked soloist, so it''s strange that he doesn''t suspect anything. "Yes, that''s fine. All right, I''ll get him. The man who came out was a gray-haired but muscular man. The watchtower reported that trees were falling at an alarming rate, is that you? Ah, ......, yes, that''s me. That''s you? I was puzzled for a moment, but then I thought about it, and it only helped me to talk faster. "Oh, I''ve seen the site, it''s amazing. ¡¡Can you use that thing continuously? I''m not surprised at all. Awesome. The receptionist was surprised, so it''s probably not normal, but this is the mayor of Decibatore. This is the mayor of Desibatore, but he looks like the head of a guild. It''s not that much more tiring than a normal fight, you could go all day if you wanted to. ...... Well, in that case, I have a mission I''d like to ask you to undertake, if you don''t mind. What''s the plan? Pushing back the front lines. We''ve been on the defensive for a while now, but they''re just going to push us around, so we''re looking for an opportunity to counterattack. I''ve been looking for an opportunity to counterattack. So, what do you want me to do? All I ask is that you cut down the tree, I''ll take care of the rest, and I''ll get you an escort if you need one. Oh, I''d rather you didn''t go in there, because I don''t want you to get caught. If it''s a demon, it''s okay to get involved, but if it''s a person, it''s not good. I''m trying to be careful, but it''s not very efficient or reliable. "Okay, but we can''t afford not to protect the city, so please set a time to cut down the area around the city, and do it all at once. ¡¡I''m not entirely sure what the effects of large-scale logging will be, so I want to gather my forces in the city for the first large-scale logging. "Understood, can we start tomorrow afternoon? I''m a little short on time to get the word out. Can''t it be the day after tomorrow? Well, it''s already night. All right, we''ll start at noon the day after tomorrow. By the way, when do we start to see results after logging? "If you''re asking when it will affect the front line against demons, it will be soon after cutting, because demons won''t spring up where there are no trees. ¡¡It will take about half a year for the demons to lose their momentum, but if you can push them back far enough that it has a significant impact, you will be able to take back the Brocken site, so you don''t need to worry about it for now. "Is it the momentum of the demon? I know what a gush is, but what''s momentum? The momentum of the assault would be higher without trees. Demons lose their power when they''re away from a lot of trees. Even if there are no trees, their power will remain the same for about three months after they are cut down, and then it will gradually decrease for about six months until it loses momentum. ¡¡Some people say it''s caused by magic, but I don''t believe it, because magic doesn''t recover fast. Is that also the reason why the demons you hunt around here are inedible? I''m not sure if it''s the same thing, but I''m sure it''s the same thing. I don''t really care if it''s a magical element or not. "Okay, so in short, I should just cut the tree without worrying about it. That''s it. Well, that''s it for today. Yeah. So, I''ll sleep and prepare for tomorrow. I got my Decibatore card. Oh, I should get a place to stay. Do you have any recommendations for a place to stay? "If you have money, it''s relatively safe near the center. All right, I''ll look for a place to stay around here. I leave the guild and enter the first inn I see. The shopkeeper was an old man who looked like he could make it as an adventurer. I don''t think you can come to this town without being that big. "I''d like to stay here. How much? "Fifteen thousand a night with half board, fourteen thousand without. 1,000 for food. But I have a bad feeling about what you just said, "Other than that, there''s not much difference between them. I''ll ask about it. What kind of rice? "Wheat flour kneaded and boiled with zunana grass, buckwheat flour kneaded with hot water, and dried meat. I had a bad feeling about this. I''ve never heard of using zunana grass in cooking, but the rest is even worse. No food, please. Can I use my credit card? "Yeah, no problem, just hold up your card. In this store, you just touch the card to the box. I wonder if other cities will introduce this system. I wonder if other cities will introduce this system, though money and other issues may come into play. The room wasn''t particularly special. The bed is a bit old, but it''s solid. I wonder if it was prepared before Decibatore became the front line. I ate the Green Wolf Set Meal that was in the item box for dinner and went to bed. The next morning, I woke up at a similar time as usual, probably out of habit. No bells were ringing, but I''m not even sure if there is such a thing in this city. If everyone went to bed at night and woke up in the morning regularly, we would be overrun in no time. Nevertheless, I have nothing to do today. The call is not only to avoid human casualties when cutting the area, but also to prepare for the effects of large-scale logging. If we cut down the trees without permission, and the demons that have been driven out of their homes attack the town all at once, we won''t be able to see anything. I could go out and hunt the demons, but I''m going to go with the idea I had the other day. I''m going to collect the demon materials that have been discarded at Decibatore and sell them at Photoren. I''ll secure the sales route later, but first I need to prepare the goods. Also, maybe we can sell the lumber. I have some money anyway, and I''m thinking of starting a company to make money using item boxes. In this world, would it be called a business association?¡¡Well, I don''t care either way. On the other hand, the fact that I have so much money means that I don''t need to earn much, but it''s too late to prepare money when I need it. Besides, even if I lose some money, it is unlikely that I will run out of money, and there is a good chance that I will make money. It''s not a bad bet at all. Is there any reason not to do it? But I won''t think about the company until I get to Photoren. First, procurement. We''ll go to the guild. Because demons are guilds, and guilds are demons. It might be a bad idea to buy them without telling the guild. "Excuse me, I''d like to purchase materials for demons, is that okay? ...... Ah, the item box. ¡¡It''s not like the guild is regulating the sale of items in this city, but you should be aware that you will be taxed outside of Desi Battleye. Sales are taxed everywhere, but you should ask about that system in Photoren. "Okay, by the way, do you have any recommendations for places to buy? Well, if you go out that door and go right two doors down, you''ll find a store that sells food and medicine, and if you ask them, they might be able to buy it for you. Thank you, I''ll go there. I walked out the door, and two doors to the right, I saw a store that was quite large for this city. It was about twice the size of the guild, with what looked like a sturdy warehouse next to it. Or rather, I think this is one of the stores we went to when we brought in the food. I''m sorry, but I was told that this might be a good place to stock up on materials for demons. Item Box Adventurer, how much do I get paid? Hmm . It''s not for sale yet, so I don''t know the market price. Well, I don''t know the market price, but what is it? I don''t know what the going rate is.¡¡How about a tenth of the price in Photoren? I don''t mind if you bring me some food for that. Oh, that''s cheap. Oh, that''s cheap. Well, it''s probably just garbage in this town. And if you think about it, even a tenth of that might be a fair price. Well, it doesn''t matter, because transporting demon materials from here to there means that they will return to here. There''s no problem at all if the luggage on the way back increases. Then, I''ll go and bring some ingredients. ¡¡By the way, I felt like there was a lack of ...... food in this inn. Is there a need to bring pre-cooked food? I''m not sure what to do, but I''m sure I can find something. ¡¡But I''ve also heard that some people want to eat something else, so you''re welcome to bring it, and I''ll color the price. I''ll do that, I''ll pay you in money for now, and I''ll bring you the food when I get it, just let me know when you get it. ¡¡Shall I pay the money in advance?¡¡I''ve got a couple of giant spider crabs in my item box, so that''s fine. Well, how about a million for one for now? I''ll take that. The deal is done. The item box is great. 45 Episode 44 The Company and Slaves The business meeting was quickly settled. It''s still morning. Maybe I''ll go hunting. No, but when the logging starts, it''s possible that I''ll have a whole day free, and that day will be precious. It might be a good idea to finish setting up the company, which will take a long time before then. I''m planning to hire a president, though. I''ll give him the money and let him do the hiring and equipment, perfect. If you don''t have time to run your own business, you can make more money by hunting monsters or transporting goods. In order to do that, you need to secure a candidate for president who is good, trustworthy, and can throw away trivial common sense. Yeah. That''s quite a tall order. I don''t think it''s easy to get one without connections. But I do have one thing that can help me get it. Money. Money is power. Of course, spending too much money to make money is a bad thing, but considering the amount of money I''ve made so far, I think spending a little money won''t be a problem. I wonder where I can find materials for demons and food, but where can I find human resources? Slavers, perhaps?¡¡Or perhaps a commercial guild. Slavers may be simple laborers, but they don''t seem to have many talented people in the sense of brains. If they were so talented, they wouldn''t be slaves in the first place. By the way, there was a Kaede Catrine in Photoren. I''ll ask her about it while I''m looking around. So I jump over the wall and leave the city. I jumped over the fence and left the city. Then I reinforced my magic armor and flew. Unlike the test, it''s a straight line, so I''ll probably get up to speed in no time. Based on my experience of hitting trees, I think that with this strength, I should be okay even if I accidentally exceed the speed of sound and get hit by a shock wave. There should be little damage to the surrounding area, or rather, only the demon will suffer damage, it doesn''t matter. Get off the road and accelerate as fast as you can. The area between the photoen and the decibatore is a relatively narrow strip of land surrounded by the sea, and the photoen blocks all of it, so you can''t get lost. This was done to avoid human casualties. You can see demons in some places, but you don''t need to worry about them, and if you get caught in one, just consider it bad luck and give up. The acceleration in a straight line was still tremendous. It probably took us less than five minutes to reach the speed we had reached when we went around the periphery of the photon. It continued to accelerate, and when it reached three times the speed of the photon, it happened. With a thump, the ground in the vicinity gouged. At the same time, the acceleration stopped. Some kind of demon in the area of the tentacles moved unnaturally to the side, or perhaps it was blown away. It was a little noisy, and it stopped accelerating, but there was no other problem. With a roar and a shockwave, I fly. It would be very tasty if I could fulfill the request to kill them just by doing this, but unfortunately I don''t know if they are dead or not. When the meteorite hit Russia, there were no fatalities, only injuries. It took less than an hour for me to reach Photon with the pollution. Of course, I slowed down before approaching Photoren. Of course, I slowed down before approaching the city, but I didn''t want to kill innocent people, let alone bandits. It feels like yesterday, but it was a long time ago. Let''s start with the magic store. As I walked, I checked my guild card and found that the area where I could check my kill record was filled with black wolves. Perhaps black wolves are vulnerable to shockwaves. I arrived at the Mage Shop. The place looks nicer than the last time I was here. I wondered if it had been cleaned. When I entered the store, Catherine was earnestly tinkering with a reddish magic stone. After a while, Catherine takes her hand off the stone and speaks to me. Hello. ...... Oh, hi. Yeah, how''s it going? I''m doing great, I''ve been making these magic stones for warding, and they''re selling like hotcakes. ¡¡They seem to be doing pretty well. I''m sure you''ve never actually made a wizard''s tool before, but that''s it. Is it really that easy to make a grimoire?¡¡I''m not sure if it''s a good idea or not. So, how much money do you make? Except for your salary, it''s deposited in the Commercial Guild. ¡¡I was going to give it to you when you came in. I was going to give it to you when you came. ¡¡...... Is that the magic stone of warding? I''m sure you''ll be pleased to know that I''m not the only one who''s a fan of your work. It''s certainly a bigger magic stone than the crab''s. With 100,000 Tells, you can only use it in a few places. It''s only the equivalent of two trees in Decibatore. Can the magic stone of warding be used in battle?¡¡What good are they if you can''t attack them without being attacked? You can attack with magic from within the wards. ¡¡You can attack with magic from within the wards. It seems to be used to protect the wizard in the rearguard. Instead of magical armor. That sounds useful, but it''s too costly for me to use. "Oh, well, good luck with that. ¡¡By the way, I want to hire a merchant to set up a merchant association. "You''re building a merchant association?¡¡If that''s the case, it''s probably the Commerce Guild. ...... What do you sell? I''m thinking we could make a fortune hauling demon materials from Desibatore. ¡¡I''ll see what else I can get my hands on. "Oh, you have an item box. ¡¡If you want to be a store keeper, you can be a slave trader, but if you want to be in charge of a business association, you should be in a commercial guild. Do you trust people from the Commercial Guild? You don''t want them running off with your goods or money. Well, they can be trusted if they use contract magic. ¡¡You can trust them if you use contract magic, though it will cost you about 50,000 Tel because of the disposable magic stones. That''s a little pricey, but it''s good news. In a sense, the most difficult item, trustworthiness, can be solved with a piece of wood. All right, I''ll use that. ¡¡Good luck with that. With that, I left the store and entered the commercial guild. The receptionist is a handsome young man. "Excuse me, I''d like to hire a merchant, what should I do? "What kind of business do you want to hire and what kind of role do you want to play? I''d like to hire someone who''s good at what he does and who I can trust to run the business, even if it costs a little more. That''s quite a tall order, but if you have a lot of money, there are rumors that you might be a good fit. Money. The sixty million I earned yesterday from a day of lumberjacking should be no problem. I''ll be cutting a lot more tomorrow. That''s about 60 million, isn''t it? The receptionist''s eyes widen in surprise. The receptionist looks at you in surprise. "d*mn ......, you don''t need that much!¡¡It''s about 20 million at most. Surprisingly cheap. No, a person can''t just buy something once and be done with it. I forgot, 20 million a year is pretty high. "Well, is that per year? I''m not sure about 20 million a month. Even if it''s 20 million a year, there''s still a possibility of a deficit. "No way. It can''t cost that much a year. ¡¡One of the merchant companies of a certain size went bankrupt, and the daughter of the company became a slave. A slave. It''s certainly convenient, but 20 million for those specs seems cheap. Is 20 million really that much?¡¡It seems manageable. "No way. ¡¡The price of a normal slave is 3 million or less. ¡¡You can''t just buy a slave and leave it, because you''ll have to pay for it afterwards. In other words, slavery is a kind of contractual payment in exchange for a tighter employment contract, lower pay, or no pay. It''s not as convenient as I thought it would be, but it''s not enough to be a problem. I''d like to buy one, but where do I go?¡¡And can I use my Decibatore card? "There''s a slave dealer around the corner, they should accept the card, it''s a big store. Thank you, I''ll go there. I''ll go there. With this in mind, I open the door of the slaver. "Welcome, what kind of slave are you looking for today? Unlike the other stores, I was greeted as soon as I entered the store. I wondered if it was because it was an expensive item. "Oh, I''m looking for a manager. ¡¡I''m looking for a manager. I heard you have good slaves. Are you talking about the daughter of Brokens?¡¡What is your budget? That''s no way to negotiate. Don''t fall for that trick. Don''t tell them how much you have, just say it a little lower. "I can''t tell you how much I''m bringing, but I''ve heard that 17 million is the going rate. "You''re about 5 million short, the going rate is about 22 million. ¡¡Why don''t you take a look for now? While we were talking, something that looked like tea was placed in front of me from the side. Is this a strategy to make it harder for me to get in?¡¡It may be effective for Japanese people, but is it also effective in this other world? This view may be too far-fetched, but... I''m sure you''re right, but we won''t know if you have the ability until we talk to you. This way, please. You are led to a reception room, where you meet the slave. He is not particularly slave-like in appearance, and is neatly dressed. She was a little tall and beautiful with a good figure. Her breasts were ample. However, this is of no concern to the management of the business, and it is not that I am going to entrust her to guard the store. Anyway, let''s get down to business. There is no need to use honorific language. "As chairman of the board of trade, I''m thinking of entrusting you with the management. "I''d love to!¡¡That''s what I''ve been studying for! Hmm, that''s a good feeling. Your motivation will be fine, it''s just a matter of your ability and our circumstances. It''s not a normal business association. First of all, if you join us, you''ll be required to use contract magic. ¡¡For the sake of confidentiality, this is absolutely necessary. ¡¡Is that a problem? No problem! Let''s test your abilities and our situation all at once. It''s like a job interview. Now, please tell me why you want to work for us. ...... It''s not like I''m applying for a job. Let''s just go straight to the point. My business is not a normal business, it''s a business for selling materials of demons that I hunt or buy from Decibatore, or for selling my patents. ¡¡Therefore, it''s going to be different from a normal business association, is that okay with you?¡¡And if you''re okay with that, how would you run it? "I don''t think that will work, sir. ¡¡First of all, there is a good reason why almost no demons from Desibatore are coming to us now. ¡¡The reason is that the cost of transporting them is not worth it, except for the magic stones and some particularly useful parts. ¡¡Also, there is no need to create a merchant association for a single adventurer to sell what he or she hunts, and if you have a patent at the moment, you can just maintain the current system. Hmm. At any rate, I don''t see anything wrong with it. I don''t know if it''s capable, but it''s not completely useless. I''m a pretty special kind of adventurer, with an almost limitless item box, or at least the bottom of it has never been reached. ¡¡The other day, I shipped 11 tons of food to Decibatore. ¡¡Don''t you think it would be feasible to have this kind of capacity? If that''s true, I''d love to do it. I don''t see the point in lying. But some people lie for no reason at all, and I''d appreciate it if you could show me some proof or something. Evidence or ....... This is the Decibatore carrier card, it weighs over 275,000 kilograms, does that make it somewhat believable? "Fake ...... is impossible, it''s a death sentence. ¡¡As for me, I''m fine. I just need the capital. Well, you can use this amount of money for the time being. ¡¡I don''t know if I''ll be able to scale it up that much. I show you my Decibatore card. ¡¡The face value is almost 80 million. That''s a lot of money? It seems like a lot from what I''ve just heard. "That''s no problem. ¡¡I''m sorry, I''d like to buy it, but can I have it for 22 million with contract magic? Talk to the slaver. "Yes, then give me your card. ¡¡To be honest, I was expecting a little more of a discount. To be honest, I was expecting a little more haggling. You give him your card. He operated some kind of box, touched it, and returned the card to me with the face value of 22 million deducted exactly. I then asked him to use a contract spell with the basic conditions of ''not running away with the money, basically obeying orders, and keeping secrets'', and left the store. Shall we go then? "Yes. I have to be back in Desibatore by noon tomorrow. I have to be back in Desibatore by noon tomorrow. ...... Oh, what''s your name? Oh, I didn''t hear you say that. Mercia. Well, it''s none of my business. 46 Episode 45 Undergakings and Medicinal Herbs Well, good luck with that. "Yes, sir. I told Mercia and Catherine what I was going to do, gave them the money, and left Photoren. There are three basic policies. The first is that Kaede Catrine''s Armory will become a part of Kaede Trading Company. Mercia told me that Catrine''s skills are quite good, or perhaps even the best in all of Photoren, so I decided that it would be a shame to let her run the store. Secondly, even if I''m not around, the shop should be in the black, or even in the red, but only a small amount, so that even if we have enough money, we won''t expand too much. For this reason, even if you have enough money, do not expand the scale of your business too much. Of course, other stores are also competing seriously to earn money, and there is no way they can easily beat other stores that have already secured their base. That''s where I come in. ¡¡If I can purchase even a small portion of the products at a much lower price than other stores, I can make a whole lot of money, which is a huge advantage. Of course, selling the items I brought in at a lower price doesn''t mean that the profit margin of other products will increase, but it does reduce the fixed cost of having a store. Besides, if I process and sell the goods I brought in at Kaede Trading Company, I can also gain an advantage there. For example, when I make dried meat, it usually goes through adventurers, guild, dried meat processor, and grocery store twice before it gets to the grocery store, but in my case, it goes through adventurers, Desibatore grocery store, and me = merchant. On top of that, the purchase price at Desibatore is about 1/10th of that at Photoren, so there''s no way I won''t have an advantage. Incidentally, meat from Desibatore is inedible as it is, but if it is dried, the poisonous substance is removed and the meat becomes safe. Meat from Photoren is also dried because it may cause the same kind of symptoms as those of Desibatore, though not as severe. It is said that the meat with the symptoms deteriorates very slowly until the poisonous substance is removed, so it can be identified. Even so, it is said that if the environment is not prepared for drying, the meat will rot before the poison is removed. It''s just that they are not transported in Desibatore because it''s not worth the trouble of transporting them or processing them in Desibatore, but the meat of demons from Desibatore is rather good quality, and many of them are relatively expensive here. If it could be easily transported, it would be a treasure trove. However, if you expand the scale of your business too easily, you may be diluting its merits. You should take a look at the situation and decide whether to increase the size little by little. Lastly, the type of business. For now, it will be food and possibly materials for demons. Of course, meat will need to be processed into dried meat before it can be sold, and we will need the equipment and manpower to do this. This is, of course, for the purpose of making the most of my advantage. I don''t see the point of having a furniture shop if I''m selling demon materials and meat from Desibatore. Besides, a grocery store can even process the food you bring and take it to Desibatore. Needless to say, demon materials will be sold to the surrounding blacksmiths and armor makers rather than retail. This does not require any processing equipment, so there is no cost involved. I''ll just sell it when I get there, and I don''t need it. So, this is how we are going to do it for the time being. I''ve given Mercia 40 million yen, and I''ve left it to them to secure all the personnel and equipment. I''ll give him some basic policies and ideas, but I doubt he''ll have any say in the actual management. I''m an amateur, and it''s a pain in the ass. I decided to buy about 10kg of bread and go back to Desibatore. Bread is light but bulky, and it is not so easy to find in Desibatore. If you''re going to stockpile it, it''s better to bring it to Desibatore to trade with demons. On the way back, you will fly at almost the speed of sound, but unlike on the way there, you will stay slightly below the speed of sound. It was interesting to see the scenery physically blow up, so I continued to do it, but I felt it was bad for my ears. It''s not good for the environment either. We arrived at Desibatore without any problems. It was already late in the evening. ¡¡It was a good idea to go to Fautren while we still had a day to spare. I stopped by the grocery store to ask about the progress of the demon collection. How''s the demon collection going? "I''ve collected quite a bit. At the price of Photoren, I think I''ve got about a million teru worth. Is that a lot? I''ll do the math. A simple calculation shows that there are about 3333 kilograms of dried meat, which is quite a lot of meat alone. If each cow weighs 600 kilograms, that''s more than enough for five cows. Is it mainly for food?¡¡Or is it mainly demon materials? Most of it is food. The parts that can be used as weapons are usually profitable to bring back, and the armor that can be used to make equipment here is also profitable to bring back, so there''s not much left. There''s not much left, that''s why they stay. Where is it? It''s piled up there. ¡¡Inedible monsters don''t get damaged easily. The shopkeeper points outside the store. The shopkeeper pointed outside the shop. When I looked over, I saw a pile of demons, not so much ...... high, but piled up. One-tenth of the price of a Photoren, so 100,000 in all, right? Yeah, I guess I owe you 900,000 for the Giant Spider Club. Yeah. ¡¡By the way, I bought about 10 kilograms of bread from Phothren, would you like to buy some? That''s why I bought it. I have a set meal for myself. There is no need to eat bread that is not particularly good. How about one kilo for 3000 Tel?¡¡Ten kilos will go moldy before we sell out. You have mold? I''ve never seen it before. Must be the overly convenient item box. Well, let''s look on the bright side, there''s always the possibility of getting penicillin. I don''t know if recovery magic is a substitute for antibiotics. Yeah, please add that to the 900,000. Okay. I give him the bread, put the demon in the item box, and leave the store. I have nothing to do, so I go back to the inn, have dinner, and go to bed. ¡¡It''s a healthy life. It may be too healthy, but we''ll be fighting and logging tomorrow anyway. There''s no need to do it at night, when visibility is poor. ¡¡There is no need to do it at night when visibility is poor. The next day, I woke up at the usual time. There is nothing to indicate the time, but I feel that my sense of time has become more accurate. The logging is supposed to start at noon, so I''ll go to the guild before noon and have a look around. I haven''t seen much of the ground since I just randomly flew into the air and cut down trees while flying at high speed last time. I didn''t even see any demons that could harm me, so I just slashed them and rolled them in. At any rate, I observed from the sky, at a rather high altitude. It''s important to get the whole picture. The long and thin land is divided into forest and grassland by the Desibatore. There is a part where there are no trees, like a summer ski resort, but I must have cut them down. I was going to go down to the ground and observe, but when I got down to the ground, I was already surrounded by demons. Two in front, one behind, and two on each side. They look like a reddish Gargon, though they''re a size larger than Gargon. It''s a bit bigger than Gargon, but weighs ...... no less than 500 kilos, which would be good for making dried meat. He holds up his magic sword. ¡¡Since it''s going to be made into meat, it''s better to cut it with a sharp sword than to crush it with magic. As I took a step toward the demon in front of me, the demon behind me lunged at me. I turn around and cut it with my sword. As he turned around, he felt the demon behind him coming at him with his tentacles. A little later, on both sides, a plan to make it impossible to react in time. Nice coordination. Impressive. --But it''s pointless. I slice the demon in front of me sideways, then spin around and slice three of them with the same momentum. Of course, the demons on the wrong side will pass right through, but there''s no way a demon that''s not a boss can penetrate magical armor. You end up slicing through the bounced monsters with your magic sword. No matter how great the coordination of a tank with empty hands, it can''t do a single scratch. In fact, in the worst case scenario, you''ll be blown away by the explosive reactive armor. So there you have it. Stow them in the item box while they''re still fresh, and continue your reconnaissance. Trees are spaced about three meters apart, which seems to be a lot more than in Japanese forests. However, the undergrowth is quite low, so visibility is not that bad. The undergrowth is ...... zunana grass. I hadn''t noticed it before, but it was all over the ground. When I checked it, I found it was still zinnana grass. And there are no immature ones. This is scary. Is it just a coincidence that this is a cluster of plants?¡¡But other places also have low undergrowth, so it''s not surprising that it''s the same as here. I''m sure of it because I checked it when I was cutting down the trees. This could be very lucrative. Let''s say you can cut 3 trees per second at 30 ter per tree. That''s 3,600 trees in an hour, or 324,000 tels. That''s not so great. It''s not even worth it while fighting demons. It might be even more unprofitable if you consider the time it takes to carry them to the photoren for processing. I don''t know how much it will be reduced to dried meat, but it won''t be less than 100,000 ter. It shouldn''t take much time, about three times that. And an hour. Yeah, subtle. But that''s assuming three plants per second. It would take less than a second to cut three zunana grasses with a lawnmower. When you are cutting a tree, you can cut all the weeds by just cutting close to the ground. The problem is how to collect them. The best way is to use air, like a vacuum cleaner, to collect things that aren''t too heavy, but I haven''t used any wind magic that uses wind. I''ll try it for now. Imagine cutting the root of the zunana grass with a magic sword and pulling it with magic. Oh, it''s being pulled well. But it doesn''t feel like wind, it feels like it''s being pulled by a string. The speed is about 30 km/h?¡¡Not bad. Looking at its status, it doesn''t have any additional magic skills, so it must fall into one of the categories it has. It may be the range of Wind Magic 5, which was added when he flew at the speed of sound. As I was cutting and pulling the surrounding zunana grass, I found out that this magic pulls objects in a straight line. It''s a familiar behavior. Oh, so that''s what I was trying before I made the tactile plate. Then I thought that I could make a plate like the tactile plate, and tried it, and succeeded. The surrounding zunana plants are pulled together. The grass behind the tree is not pulled, so there is a high possibility that it cannot be pulled through the wall. You can''t see the magic consumption because the magic recovery is too fast, but it''s not much when you try to pull them while shooting a spear with your spare magic. It''s about one per second or less. However, if you do it while cutting down a tree, you will be flying at over 40km/h. I thought it was a little slow, so I increased the magic consumption, and the speed went up to about 50 km/h. The magic power consumption is about 2.5 per second, which is more than enough magic power to be used while flying at 40 km/h. Come to think of it, the magic sword must be eating up magic power too, but I don''t feel like my magic power is decreasing even though I''m holding it. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that magic swords are said to use magic power regardless of the owner''s will. Well, it took me a surprisingly long time to study magic. It''s a wonder I haven''t encountered any demons other than the first one until now. It''s almost noon, let''s go logging. Gale lumberjacks, let''s move out. 47 Episode 46 Logging and Rewards We arrived at the guild. The number of people in the guild is a little higher than usual, but far from the number of adventurers I''ve seen in this city. Maybe ten or so. It would not be a laughing matter if we were to be overrun during the pre-mission gathering to expand the area of control, so it was only natural. Whoever is here is probably a liaison or something. Unlike the special requests I''ve received directly from the guild, there doesn''t seem to be any strategy meeting. That''s true, I''m just going to chop down some trees, and it would be more efficient to have a strategy meeting with the defending adventurers and their party. Instead, the mayor declares. The mayor declares instead, "We will begin cutting down the trees within the hour, and each of you will take your assigned position. ¡¡Logging will end with the explosion, but be on the lookout for more demons. The adventurers walked out of the open door one after another without answering. They don''t seem to reply loudly like the military. Incidentally, the explosion is said to be caused by the use of an explosive magic tool and a warding magic tool. The explosion is triggered by trapping an explosion tool made of a relatively small magic stone inside a ward made of an even smaller magic stone. It is said that the use of wards makes the sound louder and thus allows for relatively inexpensive communication. This is only by Decibatore standards, though. National defense is a costly affair in any world. ...... Recently, there is a story that a lumberjack is planning to eat up the budget by himself. I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. I''ll check with the remaining mayor. My role is different from the others. I''d like you to wait a quarter of an hour before you start, because there''s a speed difference between you and the other adventurers. ¡¡And after the explosions and the logging stops, you can join us in defeating the demons in the cut area. Well, we''re doing it this way to prepare for it, so of course. If we could have just carried on as usual, we wouldn''t have had to wait until today in the first place. We waited for about 15 minutes, checking our weapons even though we didn''t really need to, and then left. From the air, I descended to the side closest to Desibatore. Holding the magic sword in my right hand, I flew at a speed of about 40 km/h, skimming the left side of the tree. As I found out when I tried it again, there is no time to hunt for medicinal herbs. It''s not a problem of magic control, but a simpler problem of the blade length of the sword. The blade length of a sword is about 60cm, while the diameter of a tree is about 30cm at a height of 1m. Thanks to the fact that it has been only 50 years since the fall of Brokens, the diameter of the tree is only about 30cm, but there is still a margin of 30cm. Of course, there would be a little more room if only a few of them fell down, but there was no room to cut the herbs. While I was flying with this thought in mind, the trees seemed to have finished cutting one row, and we came to a beach. In some places, the density of the trees was different, so there were some leftover pieces, but there would be no problem if we cut them all together later. There were some other trees that were cut but didn''t fall down properly, but for now, the goal was to reduce the number of trees as much as possible. Turn around and cut more trees. At this speed, it''s easy to control. Now that I have more time, I''m thinking again about what I can do about the medicinal herbs. The first problem with picking herbs is the difference between the height of the herbs and the height of the tree to be cut. You can''t just tear off the head of the herb, so you have to cut the herb right through the ground. If you don''t have enough height, you won''t be able to make the sword long enough, so you need some height to cut. I''ve been trying to pull the herbs using a magic board that pulls the herbs, but it''s not working. After all, to use resources effectively, it is necessary to reap the benefits of both. In the meantime, acrobatic flight. Raise your right hand and hold out your magic sword to the left, extend your left hand as far down as it will go, then thrust your staff toward the left and lose altitude slightly. For a moment, the blade slightly sliced through the Zunana grass, but not after that. First, the magic sword. ¡¡It''s impossible for me to fly through the trees while holding the sword in my back hand and lifting it upward to keep it level. Next, the blade. The blade will cut through the grass to a certain extent, but it''s not a blade all the way to the root, so the undergrowth in that area will hit your hand. Also, if I really try to use the blade close to the ground, the stones on the ground will hit my hand, so I keep it about 15cm away from the ground, which naturally reduces the yield. It may not be a problem if the root is not there, since it will be used for medicine anyway, but this is not the way to collect the tip. Incidentally, I was able to recover it. It flew into my hand by magic, and was stored where it hit me. But this amount is meaningless. I have no complaints about it, or rather, I have only complaints about it. I guess it''s magic. Cutting magic: ...... Is it some kind of wind magic?¡¡I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not. I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but it''s a good idea. Then wind magic. In RPGs, you see wind magic cutting monsters, but I don''t understand the logic behind it. I''ve heard that foxglove is a kind of chapped skin, and plants probably don''t chap. Do you freeze part of it and then thaw or fold it?¡¡It''s hard to do, and it''s twice the work. I''ve never cast ice magic before, and it doesn''t have range because it doesn''t shoot. I guess I''ll just have to follow the traditional RPG approach and use some kind of wind cutter. I tried to shoot it at a nearby zunana plant, but it didn''t even fire. It''s a miracle if it works. I''ll have to find another way. Something a little easier to visualize, something that can be cut, and something that can be cast as magic. ...... There are only a limited number of cutting tools that can be shot out. I don''t think Hitler''s electric saw is a cutting tool, it''s a gun. Then there''s the ...... water cutter. There is already magic that releases water, and if you speed up the magic, it might be possible to cut. Just for kicks, let''s make the water magic thin and release it, about 3mm thin. The water successfully hit the zunana grass about 10 meters away and shook it. It just shook it. Despite hitting the root, it shook a lot, but it was far from disconnected. The speed of the water should be enough, what am I missing? Oh, by the way, the speed of magic has nothing to do with its power. I forgot. So we should just increase the MP consumption while keeping the slenderness. When I tried this, the Zunana grass was cut when I increased the magic consumption by 10 times. However, it doesn''t seem to have much penetrating power, and rather than the water penetrating through the grass as I had imagined, it just cuts the part it hits a little, and it seems to take a while to cut the grass behind it. The efficiency is as subtle as ever. The thickness of the grass is about one-tenth of the usual one that consumes 1 magic power per 3 seconds, so even if you multiply the magic power consumption by 10, the calculated magic power consumption is only 1 per 30 seconds, which is garbage. Because the distance is so close, there is no need to let out the water from the hands, so the water is released from the bottom of the feet, just above the ground. Instead of one, use fifteen on each side, which will cut down the trees to some extent, and thanks to the lack of penetration, you don''t have to worry about collateral damage to the adventurers. I use my right hand to cut down trees, my left hand to collect herbs, and my feet to mow. After about five hours of this lumberjack-turned-lawnmower destroying nature at an accelerated rate, I heard a poof. It was the signal for the end of logging. I cut off the logging and headed back toward the city. I cut down any demons I see along the way with my magic sword and store them in my item box as I head back to town. On the way, I see a group of adventurers. It seems that they are still fighting, but the front line has moved up from the city. They seem to be in good shape. He hunts the demons a little further away from the adventurers, and after a while, when he seems to be free, he talks to them. "How''s the war going? "As you can see, it''s going well. ¡¡The wizard''s magic is wearing off, so it''s going to be a little tough if it goes on much longer. That''s why they''re done cutting. Well, it''ll be getting dark in an hour or two, so it''s about time. "Okay, thank you. With that, I left the adventurers and continued my demon hunt. It doesn''t matter if there are two parties with enough strength to destroy the demons in one party. It''s also a hassle to deal with the demons you''ve killed, so it''s best to go solo. After half an hour of hunting, the demon defeat was over. I didn''t realize there were so many demons when I cut down the tree. I had already cut down a tree once before, so they might have been evacuating to avoid being cut down. They''re the kind of creatures that retreat as soon as a metal lizard dies, so it''s not surprising that they have that kind of brains. Well, the more prey, the better. Return to the guild and pay up. With a total of 2,431 trees cut down and the demons killed, the total income was 123,454,000 ter. I''m worried about the national defense budget. I guess it''s better to spend money than to be pushed around, and there aren''t many front lines, so I think we''ll be okay. However, as expected, there will not be lumberjack jobs forever. When I was worrying about the financial resources, I was summoned by the mayor. Is it a strategy meeting or a consultation on lowering the compensation? Well, you''ll know what I mean when you hear it. "Oh, you''re here. Yes, everything seems to be going well as far as I can tell, but is everything okay? Even if there was one tree per four meter square, it would have to be about 100 meters by 500 meters. As I recall, it''s about ten kilometers to the Brokens site, and about three kilometers across. It would take about 600 days to finish cutting. ...... That''s a long way to go, and the total cost will exceed 60 billion ter. What kind of national budget is that? "Yeah, we''re good. ¡¡I think I can manage tomorrow on a schedule like today''s, but I need to talk to you about something. What is it? We''ve got enough money left over from the past to cover the cost, but if we have to push back to Brokens, we''re gonna need more money. ¡¡I''m sorry, but can you make the fee around 5,000 yen a piece? I knew it. Even a tenth of that is six billion Tel, plenty of income. The reason they couldn''t use it is that they didn''t have enough adventurers to use it, and the war situation was getting worse because of it. In Japan, if you have a budget surplus, it will be reduced the next year, but in other worlds, there is no year-end road construction. I understand. ¡¡In exchange, can I have a day off from time to time?¡¡And if possible, I''d like to have the corpses of the demons that were left behind after they were eradicated. "Thank you. ¡¡I don''t care about the demons, I''ll inform the adventurers about the corpses of the abandoned demons. ¡¡As for vacations, the guild is not in a position to bind adventurers. ¡¡We don''t want to be forced to take time off at a reduced rate. I wonder how much money the guild has. I wonder how much money they have. I wonder if the entire defense budget of a country is being spent on this city. 48 Episode 47 Bombing and Explosion I finished my story and went outside. The zunana grass is labeled in kilograms, probably because it was cut into small pieces or because it was not picked one by one. It was 100kg. ¡¡If each plant weighs 10 grams, that''s 10,000 plants. I guess we can''t consume all of it, so we should sell as much as we can and think about the rest later. Do you want to try to extract only the active ingredients?¡¡I don''t see much value in using ....... Even if a small amount of the drug has the same amount of active ingredient as a large amount of the drug, it will just be trapped by the upper limit. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out how to use it. I feel like it''s a waste of time to spend two years just doing routine work after having come all the way to another world. Let''s see if we can''t shorten the time. Let''s start by analyzing the reasons why logging takes so long. First, there is the problem of demon disposal. If you cut down a tree, but the demon escapes before you can cut it down, you will have an influx of demons that have been driven out of their homes into the town. Because there is a limit to the amount of time that can be spent dealing with this problem, it is only possible to cut down trees for about five hours a day. The second problem is simple logging speed. After solving the problem of the demons, we can only cut about 1/20th of a square kilometer in five hours, so it will take six months to retake Brokens if we cut 20 hours a day. This could be doubled by increasing the speed of flight. You may have to sacrifice the Zunana grass, though. That''s about it. To achieve this, we need to get rid of a lot of trees. I don''t know if there''s anything you can use to accomplish that. ...... Oh, by the way, you have surplus magic. I''ve only been cutting trees for five hours or so, and I haven''t used half of my magic while cutting. It would be better to store up magic power all day and throw it into the forest at once. You can then boost it by logging for five hours. This will be more efficient than doing it purely with magic power. For more information, see ...... Burning or blowing up the tree is a good option. If it burns, it burns, so why not blow it up? There was some kind of warding magic, so it would be strong if we used that as well. But it''s not a good idea to go that far on your own, should we consult with them? I''ll just prepare the magic power. Imagine an explosion, not a fire magic, but a pure explosion of magic tools. And a warding spell to confine the explosive power. Both of these things can be done with magic, since we have magic tools. It''s relatively easy to imagine. The fact that you are sure of their existence is a big deal. I don''t know how long I can store the magic power that can be activated, but for now, I''ll divide it about three to one between the explosion and the ward. Of course, the warding will break down, but there is no need for the warding to endure. It is enough that even a part of the blast is reflected and destroys the low positions on the ground. I''m thinking of setting up the wards about 30cm above the ground, so that only the lower surface faces the ground, and firing a lot of magic explosions just above the ground. I went to bed praying that I would have enough magic power to use it until tomorrow, if possible. The next morning, my prayers were answered, and the magic power had accumulated. There was no way to check, but I had a feeling. At any rate, I decided to go to the guild to ask for permission. I arrived at the guild. ¡¡The mayor was awake. "I''d like to destroy a tree with a big spell, is that okay? "Big magic, how big?¡¡I''ve never heard of a spell that could take down a tree. Is it that hard?¡¡Can it be burned? I wondered if there was any reason why it hadn''t been burned, but I had to ask. If it can be burned, it''s the easiest way. No, it''s not possible. Three days after it''s been cut, it will become scaly and flammable, but a tree left standing in the demon''s territory is not something that will burn. It''s not a matter of wildfire or anything, it simply won''t burn. . I don''t know how powerful the magic would be to shatter the tree, so I''d like to try some things at the beginning of today''s felling time, is that okay? "Sure, I''ll pay you if you can fell the tree. ¡¡If it doesn''t, you can just go ahead and cut it down, or you can give up and go home. ¡¡I can''t ask for anything more than a cheap tree to cut down. Okay, let''s give it our best shot. Just before noon, I came to the guild as yesterday. The same orders as yesterday were given to the mayor and we started to act. Unlike yesterday, I flew through the air and went a little deeper into the forest. There''s a good chance that there will be more collateral damage than yesterday. It''s been about 15 hours since I started storing magic. ¡¡My available magic power is 530,000. More precisely, it''s about 540,000, but that''s trivial. At any rate, I went into the forest for about two kilometers to check. Prepare a 10m x 10m area with about 12 magic wards and about 48 magic explosions. The explosion spell seems to be a bulletproof spell, but from what I''ve heard, I think the spell of the ward activator can pass through the wards. If that''s the case, the wizard shouldn''t be able to use the wards on the mages, unless there''s some other way. Well, test fire for now. ¡¡It''s only enough magic for one strong wizard at best, but I have high INT and a warded blast spell to trap the explosion. Activate a ward 30cm above the ground, fire four projectile explosion spells using 12 magic power per shot, and retreat. The whitish ball explosion spell bypasses the ward as expected and lands on the ground. The inside of the ward turns black, and a moment later, the ward breaks and an explosion occurs. Then, a few moments later, a tree falls. ¡¡It seems to have worked. After that, the black wolf that I had checked on the tentacles before the experiment but hadn''t dared to look at came falling down. Its legs exploded, and then it was blown off the ground as the wards were broken and it fell. It was powerful, and it took less magic than expected. Unlike the explosions I''ve seen before, it wasn''t red, so the explosion magic might not be the expansion of air due to heat, but simply the phenomenon of an explosion. In any case, I was able to confirm that this magic works. All we have to do now is to increase the scale of the explosion and shatter it. If the demon breaks the wards before the explosion, it''s no use, so we''ll have to change the procedure a bit. First, put away the blade wand and intentionally slow down the magic. Then, ascend into the sky and fire about 10,000 shots at once at the ground. Evenly distribute them over a square about a kilometer on each side. Even though it''s a bullet, it doesn''t have a shape as an object, so it doesn''t take shape even if it stores magic power, and it becomes a bullet only when it shoots. Thanks to this, it can fly without interference. Perhaps I should have used it to shoot birds. After overtaking a flock of bullets flying to the ground, deploy a ward about 5 cm above the highest point on the flat ground, and leave upward. Immediately after impact, there is a deafening roar. The ground of the forest turns black, and for a moment it seems to rise, and then the trees and monsters are launched. Then the trees fell and the monsters fell. The forest, which used to be green all over, is now black with torn grass and fallen trees. Together with the corpses of the demons, it is a picture of hell. It''s a wonderfully destructive force. I thought I heard the sound of an increase in level mixed in with the explosion, so there''s a possibility that it will be even stronger tomorrow. Of course, there was no Zunana grass left even with the current power, but there was no choice. It''s a bit of a surplus anyway. Due to the difference in elevation, there were about ten trees left, but we cut down the trees in those areas and completed the cutting of one kilometer square. I checked my guild card and found that I had cut down an astonishing 42,562 trees. If the reward per tree is reduced by a factor of ten, why not just cut down 20 times as many trees? It''s not logging, it''s blasting and dismantling, but since the guild card allows it, I guess it''s okay. I quickly collected the demons - many of which had their legs torn off and their bellies damaged, but there seemed to be some usable meat - and the hard wood, and headed back towards town. On the other hand, I started to cut down the trees while mowing the lawn. It''s not as efficient, but it''s also a good way to collect Zunana grass and save magic power. Since I won''t be using the full amount of magic, I''ll use the surplus to blow up the forest tomorrow. After about four hours, you hear an explosion that is much quieter than the forest explosion. You finish logging, hunt some demons, and return to the guild. The explosion was a success. You hand over your guild card to a staff member who was waiting with the mayor. I heard a tremendous explosion coming from deep in the forest.¡¡......445,000 bottles? "Yes, about a kilometer square, magically boom. That''s great ...... great, but ...... how much magic did you use? Roughly ...... ten thousand wizards, I''d say. That''s about 54 wizards each, which is a little strong. "...... Okay, so we know that no matter how hard we try, we can''t imitate them. ¡¡Can you do the same thing tomorrow? Yes, that''s the plan. Please don''t make it sound like I''m not human. From my point of view when I was on Earth, 20 hours of running to Photoren is more than enough to be human. I knew it was out of the ordinary, but this much? ¡¡I think we''ll be done with Brokens in 30 days. Maybe three, 40 days. ¡¡What do you do with the trees after they''re cut down? We''ll burn the trees as soon as they''re burnable, and then we''ll take control of the area we''ve cut. ¡¡Once we have control of the Brokens, we''ll rebuild the outpost. Rebuild it. Well, there won''t be any exterior walls left. I don''t know how we''re going to do it with the demons attacking us, but I''m sure we can manage. We could push the front line up to the front and then build behind it. However, the narrowest point between us and the demon''s territory is Brokens, and it gets thicker from there, so it might be hard to control. Oh well. Construction is not my area of expertise, I''m sure the experts will take care of it when the time comes. You don''t have to do everything by yourself. For now, just focus on destroying the forest with your magic and status. I understand. ¡¡In short, all I have to do is cut down the trees and blow them up. That''s it. ¡¡You got it. We''ll figure out the rest when we get there. 49 Episode 48 Stores and Warehouses The next morning after receiving the demons and rewards, I fell asleep. I woke up at the usual time. I''ve never been woken up while sleeping by a demon before, but besides the fact that the inn is near the center of town, I may have raised the front line. When I checked my status, I found that I had added 5 explosion magic and 5 warding magic to my skills. My level has gone from 27 to 30, and my INT has gone up to 280, though I don''t remember the original value. Since the stats have been increasing in an equilibrium fashion up to this point, they have probably increased by about 1.1 times. It seems to have increased significantly every 10 levels, so it may have increased a little more. So I can increase the blast range. Thinking about this, I had the Green Wolf Set Meal for breakfast. I don''t think I''ve had a breakfast like that since I came here. Well, I guess I''m consuming an unusual amount of calories for that. In fact, I''m rather worried that I might starve to death. I''d like to go to Photoren once, since I''ve accumulated a lot of demons. Even if I had ten employees, and they were all NEETs and the store was closed, I''d have enough initial capital to live for a year, so there''s probably no need to worry, but I''d like to increase the scale of my business. Now I can use tactical grade magic to destroy demons, bring back materials and food, and after a while I''ll even have some coke-related income. I don''t know what''s going on because I''m not involved in places that use coke or anything like that, but judging from his reaction, it''s not like there''s no income. It may take months or years, but once the capital investment is settled, there will be income. I might as well make the investment myself, with my current flight I can make it to Herrera and back in half a day. With this in mind, I crossed the outer wall of Decibatore. This morning, I''m going to save my magic power and hunt demons as usual. It''s a strange thing to conserve magic power when you have almost infinite magic power. It would be useful if there were more tools that could use magic outside of the speed limit of 10 seconds, like the magic sword. Well, if I''m going to go to Photoren anyway, I''d like to have some time to spare. Maybe I should tell the mayor that I''ll take tomorrow off from logging. It won''t take more than half an hour to just fly in and blow it up, and if we can keep the magic power for two days, we can just dump it into the forest the next day. Yeah, let''s do that. I''ll use wind magic to speed up the process a bit, and slam the magic sword into a big black Gargon. According to the guild card, this thing is called Galden. Well, I don''t care, it''s just a demon that I can kill while I''m thinking. To me, it''s more of a food and resource than a demon. Now I''d probably put it in the same category as a metal lizard if one appeared. Go get a dragon or something. Oh, don''t do that. If they come out now, it''ll interfere with my trip to Photon. If you''re going to come out, do it the day after tomorrow when we bomb them all, and die in the process if you can. While thinking about such trivial things, I eradicated the demons, cut down the trees that were left behind in some places, and stored them in the item box. The speed of the battle was too slow and the enemies too weak compared to a battle using the full power of magic, and it was impossible to do without thinking. The fact that the magical armor is impervious to attacks also adds to the lack of tension, and the fact that the trees near the front line have been destroyed makes the visibility even better, making it even more difficult to stay alert. It''s not a battle, it''s just work. It''s no different from picking herbs. After hunting demons like this, we gathered at noon, blew up the forest, and logged until evening. Nothing unusual, just a peaceful day in Desibatore. Logging (bombing?) In the meantime, I''ll ask about tomorrow''s report. By the way, I cut 50032 trees today, finally reaching the 50,000 mark. "I''d like to go to the photo-ren tomorrow morning, is that okay? "As I said before, the Adventurer''s Guild cannot bind adventurers. ¡¡Of course it won''t be a problem, but I''d like to know if you have any plans for when you''ll be back. I''ll be back tomorrow afternoon or evening, if nothing happens. Tomorrow afternoon or evening, if nothing happens.¡¡I heard it took you about fifteen hours to get here. Oh, when you were being escorted. After the bombing on the way, it was hard to tell which one of us was being escorted. That was because of the escort. ¡¡It wouldn''t have taken you more than an hour to get there by yourself. You don''t even need an escort. ...... It''s true that the magic would have slowed down the escort. ...... The first time I came here, I didn''t know my way around, so that was a big help, but now I''m going to be on my own. All right, you go ahead. They didn''t ask me why I was going to Photoren, but I think I''d better transport some food as well. Maybe we should ask the guild over there. "Okay, that''s it. Permission was granted as usual. I''m going to sleep, preparing warding and explosion magic for the day after tomorrow. It might be a good idea to charge up a non-corporeal type of magic and keep it on hand when this logging is over. It''s inefficient to prepare magic in front of a powerful demon. The next day, I traveled to Fautren at slightly less than the speed of sound to conserve magic power, or rather, to protect the ecosystem, and visited the Kaede Catrine Armory. I don''t know where the Kaede Store itself is. When I entered the store, I saw an unfamiliar woman. She was sitting at a table that looked like a counter, so she must be the store keeper. "Excuse me, do you know where the Kaede Store is? If she is the store keeper of Kaede Catherine, then I should be her employer, or rather the owner of the store, but I can''t help but use honorifics. I don''t know what kind of honorifics are used in this world. I don''t know what kind of honorifics are used in this world, but... "Well, if you go down the street here, you''ll see four shops on your left, but they''re still preparing to open. Oh, well, thank you very much. It''s only been a few days since we started working on opening the store. I think it''s quite fast that the location of the store has been decided as of today. Well, I can''t say for sure until I see the store. I hope I''ve reached the stage where I can leave the demon. When I went to the place I was told, I found a two-story building that looked like a store. The gate was open, so I took a peek and found it to be quite spacious. The area of the first floor was about twice that of a convenience store. Is this size normal for a business with about 10 people? There is no such thing as labor standards in this world, and if you are a slave, you might even have a zero-day workweek. If there are 10 people in the store, it seems to be very large for a single store. As I was thinking about the size of the store, I saw Mercia, so I asked her about the progress. "How''s the store coming along? We''ve got the employees and the space, we''ve filed with the guild, so all we need to do is stock up on merchandise and get the building ready to be used as a store. Oh, that could have come at the right time. I''ve brought some demons. Do you have the facilities to make them into dried meat? Yes, that''s already in place, though we don''t need much equipment, so we''ll just use the warehouse. Do you have a warehouse in addition to this building? "You got employees, this building and a warehouse? ¡¡How much did it cost? It could be rented, but somehow I can''t imagine renting a store in this world. I bought this building for 10 million ter, the warehouse for 3 million, and three slaves as employees for 7.6 million. ¡¡I plan to hire about five more. All slaves. Well, considering confidentiality and trustworthiness, slaves are probably more efficient unless you have a long-time friend. The warehouse seems pretty cheap. Is it small? No, it''s bigger than this one. ¡¡No, it''s bigger than this one. This is the center of the city, so it''s more expensive. Land cost. The building itself may not be too expensive. All right, it''s going well. ¡¡Should I put the demon in the warehouse? That''d be great. ¡¡Would you mind waiting a moment while I show you around? Yeah. Mercia went upstairs, gave some instructions, and came back. Shall we go then? Yes. The warehouse was about 500 meters away from the store. The store was on the main street, but the warehouse was about a quarter of a mile down the street, turn left, and go about a hundred yards. The building itself is a one-story structure, but its size differs greatly from that of the store. It''s probably five times the size of the first floor of the store. It''s a big place. How many demons should I leave? How many do you have? There''s a certain number of them. ...... There are 4023 Kuro Wolves, 1327 Guldens, 2256 Red Gulgons, 6257 Hami Crabs, that''s about it. ¡¡There''s also a giant spider crab, what do you want? The Red Gargon is, as the name suggests, a red Gargon. It''s one size larger than Gargon. What? ...... How in the world do you get that many? ...... It''s a byproduct of the anti demon warfare, blowing up the forest a bit. It''s not all byproducts, though, as many of the actions are done for demon materials. I''m sure you''ve heard of the massive counterattack going on in Decibatore right now, and if you gather up all the demons that will be defeated there, that might be the case. ...... Well, I think Galden is the best tasting of the bunch. ¡¡It''s a shame to turn giant spider crabs into dried meat. Well, how many should I leave behind? Well, ......, can you show me their condition? Oh, I''m just throwing them in the item box without draining their blood or anything, is the floor okay? Yes, this warehouse has trenches that can be used as a countermeasure, and I think it was originally designed to handle meat and other items. If you look closely, you will see that the ground of the warehouse has trenches dug at even intervals, with a gentle slope towards the trenches. That''s very thoughtful. Let''s put it down. I said, and placed a rather good-looking Galden on the ground. The neck was cut off, and blood was pouring out, but... "This one''s in pretty good shape. ¡¡Probably more than half of his legs are blown off. It''s in good shape. ¡¡It is indeed in good condition, and there is no sign of decay. ¡¡At this level, we can process about fifty of them before they rot. "Okay, then we''ll leave about fifty of them here. ¡¡Do we need to buy more? Yes, it takes a long time to make dried meat, so we''ll have to buy more until then. ¡¡If they are not for storage, the poison will be gone in ten days and we can start selling them. Is it that easy to buy them? Do you have the means to buy it? Yes, we''re weaker than the stores we used to have, so we won''t be in the black, but I think we can keep a small deficit while we''re buying. You''ve got enough money. ¡¡When do you want me to bring in the next one? That depends on the pricing. ¡¡If you have all the materials you need, it''s easy to lower the price. Yeah, right. ...... "It would be bad to destroy all the other companies in the same business, so keep the price slightly lower than the other stores and sell moderately. "Okay, I''ll adjust the inventory so that it will run out in about 10 days after we start selling. Five fish a day? Five cows in a day sounds like a large scale production, but I guess it''s no use comparing Japan to here. On Earth, we take the trouble to grow them, but here, they just spring up by themselves. Okay, that''s how I want it. Well, whatever it is, it looks good. 50 Episode 49: Aryu and The Breath Now that I''ve taken care of the store side business, I''m going to buy some bread and return to Desi Battley. If nothing happens, the profit will not decrease even if I leave it for 20 days or so. I don''t intend to destroy the market unnecessarily, unless you want to increase the number of employees and increase the production volume at once. There is a high possibility that they can make a lot of money by mass-producing the product, lowering the price drastically, hiring employees from the surrounding butcher shops that have gone out of business, increasing the production further, and then returning the price to the original level when the surrounding butcher shops have been destroyed. It would be a different story if we were talking about creating a new market rather than a city-level business. Like steel manufacturing. The return flight is subsonic. It takes some MP, but it''s only an hour or so, and I don''t think it''s enough to hinder two bombings. The increase in INT should cover it, probably. I arrived at Desibatore in the early afternoon, but after eating, I went to the guild and found out that they were closed today for large scale logging. This is because they don''t have enough people to deal with the demons that have been spilling out due to the large scale logging. They said they would only maintain the status quo when I''m not around, because it would cost too much and produce too little results to proceed with the logging without me. Well, even if they can maintain the status quo without having to defend themselves all the time, it''s a big improvement. It seems that the distance between the forest and the city has increased significantly. Speaking of distance, I rarely see any fields in the vicinity of Photoren, and the distance between towns seems to be quite large, but I wonder what they do for food. Do they eat only meat? Well, there must be a reason. The distance between towns is something I can''t help but think about. I gave him some bread and meat at the grocery store, and then went out to hunt again. I dove into the forest, but the number of demons seemed a little smaller than usual. Is this due to the fact that we haven''t done any bombing? However, the bombing was done yesterday, and it''s not the time of day when the bombing would have any effect. Well, it''s probably just a coincidence. Even demons need to rest once in a while. You enter the depths of the forest, and slash a few more monsters as you go, and put them into the item box. Not indiscriminately, but with a focus on Galden. It''s more of a commodity than a reward. The amount of money is not much to begin with, but the reputation and size of the store is an asset. I think it''s worth more than the money you can get from killing some demons. Perhaps in response to my wish, there were more Galdens than demons today. Or rather, the number of Galden itself was the same as usual, but the number of other monsters decreased. In particular, I haven''t seen any Kuro Wolves. Is it Kurowolf''s closing day today? I''ve heard that black wolves don''t taste good, so I don''t really need them. You go around killing demons and report to the guild. I''m sorry, I''m here to report... I''m sorry, I''m here to report it. ...... There''s still a huge number of them. The Decibatore guild is as responsive as ever. The Decibatore guild was as good as ever. I''m not sure if it''s my imagination or not, but I thought there were fewer Kuro Wolves today. Or maybe there weren''t any. I''m sure there were reports of that. ¡¡Well, it happens from time to time that the kinds of demons change. ¡¡Especially when the environment is changed on a large scale. Is that how it works? Yes. ¡¡Well, there''s talk of something similar happening before the Sublong, but it''s most likely due to the effects of logging, and we were just talking about how it makes defense easier. "Aryu!¡¡Are you okay? A dragon is the second most dangerous demon I''ve ever heard of after dragons. If it comes out, the city might be in danger. I''m sure that with the current strength, the damage will be great, but I don''t think it''s impossible to defeat it. ¡¡It''s a frontline city, so it''s got a lot of power. ¡¡It''s not every day that you see a sublime dragon, so don''t worry about it. "Yeah, ...... I wonder if that''s enough. "Sublong is like a big earthquake. ¡¡You can take precautions, but when it comes, it comes, and you can''t stay vigilant. "...... I understand. ¡¡Well, if it doesn''t come often, we''re fine. Yeah. ¡¡If a sublong comes out, it''s a great chance for the big guys. ¡¡I''m not sure that a wizard with a lot of magic and the ability to use wind magic is the kind of wizard you want to be around to kill a sub dragon. Does wind magic work on dragons? No, but I don''t know any wind attack magic. Maybe they use it to fly, like the Metal Lizard. Well, it''s better if we never meet. Let''s hope it never comes into play. With that, I leave the guild. I saved up my explosion and warding spells for almost a whole day, but I went to bed after confirming that there was no particular problem. The next morning, as usual, I set out to hunt demons until noon. However, the number of demons suddenly decreased when I entered the forest. Fewer than yesterday. In order to find the place where the demons are, I move forward, gaining altitude. I gained about 100 meters and flew a few kilometers. I had a bad feeling about this, so I slowed my pace. Somewhat in the distance, you see an unfamiliar red mass. It was probably about a kilometer or so away. It looks like it''s coming towards you. You use your appraisal magic to bring up a window and immediately lose altitude. If it''s an enemy, we can''t afford to be spotted like we were with the Metal Lizard. Confirm the results of the appraisal when the mass is no longer visible. Ignis Wyvern RANK:A HP 2578213/2578213 MP 5792889899/5792889899 STR:563 INT:2792 AGI:450 DEX:252 Skills: Wyvern Breath, Flying Wyvern...... A joke MP of 5.7 billion, a skill with a name that sounds like a breath attack, and a full stats so high that I think it''s no longer a bug, INT. ...... Sublong? I''m not sure what to make of that. No, I said come back the day after tomorrow, but you really don''t have to come, you know? I''m sure you''ll be able to find something to help you out. So, let''s ask them to go home. But there''s no way to ask it to leave. Should we try bombing it? No, it''s not a good idea to do it on our own. We should report back to the guild and ask for their decision. Then we''ll retreat. We''ll lose altitude to avoid being spotted and speed up towards Decibatore ....... Just then, we hear the earth shaking. When I turned around fearfully, I saw the lump from before - or rather, it looked like a normal dragon - speeding towards me. Even at a quick glance, it''s going at least 60 kilometers per hour. It''s impressive to see a dragon over 10 meters in size knocking down trees as it goes, but we can''t just watch. We can''t retreat either, the damage to the city would be too great. It''s less than five kilometers from here to the city. At the speed we were going before, but at the speed we''re going now, we''ll probably reach the city by the time we''re done reporting. ...... It''s no use, let''s distract them for now. I''m not sure what to do, but I''m sure I''ll be able to handle it. You''ll probably have to fight them anyway, even if you report them. So, I''m going to cast an explosion spell. We don''t have time to get close to it, so we''re going to cast an explosion spell without using a ward. Normally, it would take a kilometer square to blow up all the trees and monsters at once, so I concentrate my magic on one point. The wyvern doesn''t seem to notice and continues running, and the spell lands about three meters to the right of the wyvern. Immediately, with a roar, the trees around the wyvern were torn to shreds and a cloud of dust rose. If he had continued at his current pace, the wyvern would have been out of the smoke in about the same amount of time, but he was nowhere to be seen. You did it! I rejoiced at the success of my surprise attack as I closed the distance. The smoke didn''t clear for a long time, and when we were about 50 meters from the blast point, we finally saw the wyvern. The wyvern was alive. Or rather, he was looking at me. I saw the wyvern open its mouth. Breath? I get a bad feeling and rush to the side to change direction. But I''m too slow to change direction, probably because I''m too fast at the moment. Moreover, my speed is in the direction of the wyvern. I can''t even keep my distance. You see the wyvern gasping for breath. You decide that you can''t dodge it and spend your magic power to strengthen your magical armor. At this point, more than a thousand magic power has probably been spent on the armor, but it''s better than nothing. After about 0.5 seconds, the breath was fired. My vision turns red, but the armor is holding up for now. No, it''s not broken, but it''s different from the way it''s endured so far. It feels as if the armor is being shaved off, or rather disassembled, by the breath. Feeling the armor thinning, I poured more magic power into the armor and endured for how long? The breath stopped. I don''t think more than a second passed. But the damage to the armor was not small. I estimated that I had lost about 80% of my magic armor. Even if the original armor used about 1000 magic power, that''s 800. It would take 80 seconds to replenish the armor, even without using any other magic. If the second shot came during that time, you would not be safe. I don''t have any burns, but I can feel the heat on my hands and other thinly armored parts. This is not good. I''m guessing you can fly, and there''s no way you can escape into the air. Even if you try to flee at the speed of sound in the opposite direction from the city, there''s a good chance you''ll be caught up while accelerating. There is no way that a flying wyvern is slow. Based on its AGI, it would certainly be quite fast. Even if you try to keep your distance from them, the speed and range of their breath means that you won''t be able to evade them on sight. I guess I''ll have to sneak into its pocket. Once you''re in the pocket, the breath won''t be able to reach you easily, and even if your movement distance is small, you''ll be able to avoid the wyvern from a large angle. In terms of other stats, physical attacks are still manageable with magic armor. I wondered why I hadn''t taken any damage from the bombardment, but if I had no other choice, I had no choice. I made up my mind and plunged at the wyvern''s feet. 51 Episode 50 Close Range And SugarCane The wyvern has two legs and looks like a dragon. Its color is generally red, and its wings, unlike those of birds, are flat and somewhat shiny. The wings seem to be held together by six bone-like appendages on each side. From the tips of these bones, there are stingers. Of course, it would not be able to jump up with these wings. There is a possibility that it flies by magic, or that its wings are functioning by magic. Its body shape is that of a normal bird with a slightly stocky body. The size of the creature was obviously off the scale, and its wingspan would be close to 30 meters. While observing it, I closed the distance and landed diagonally in front and to the side of the wyvern without losing too much momentum. It almost rolls, but I force it to stop by braking it with acceleration magic. I land right next to the wyvern, and my claws swing down on it. The speed is faster than the magic I can cast without a wand, but it''s avoidable on the ground. The wyvern seems to have only two legs, so I was hoping that it would lose its balance, but it seems to be using its wings to keep its balance and doesn''t seem to be losing its balance at all. One of its two legs is on the ground, but it may not need it. I''m going to use as much of my magic power as possible on the magic armor to buy some time. After that, I''ll attack, but if I have to, I''ll use my magic sword. The ground is a great advantage for this tactic. At low speed, the magic of acceleration is more efficient, and you can use your legs to avoid using magic. Flying in the air would reduce the margin of magic in some ways. Her next attack was a blow with her wings. It is not very fast for its status. I could easily dodge it by using magic and flying a little later. Since the distance between me and the wyvern is less than two meters, I guess it can attack at close range but cannot use its breath. Even if I could use it, it would be easy to avoid from this position. Since I had enough time, I tried to slash at it. It would have been dangerous if I had slashed him with my staff and had been hit, so I used my magic sword. Because nothing good has ever happened to me when I slashed at such a hard opponent with an edged staff. If it was wood, it would only hurt your hand, but in this situation, it would be fatal. In that respect, I trust the magic sword. I swung it at the wyvern''s wing, and it dug into the wing as expected. However, about three centimeters into the wing, the sword suddenly stopped moving. Suddenly, the sword stopped moving. As I hurriedly pulled the sword out, the claws on my legs attacked. The sword was easily pulled out, but there was no time to dodge it, as expected. I took the attack with my magic armor, but I did not feel the armor being cut off at once like a breath. The amount of armor depleted by the claw attack would be compensated before the next attack came. Even if you continue to receive the attack while strengthening your armor, you might be able to replenish your armor, although it would slow you down. After thinking this far, I feel a sense of discomfort. I have a feeling that the pace of magical armor reinforcement has increased. The magic power increased when he hit the wisp, but now it''s instantaneous output? I wonder if that''s possible even through a sword. I''d like to give it a try, but I don''t have that much time. After the claws, the wyvern used not only its claws and wings, but also its tail. It was difficult to avoid the attack with its long, thick tail and spikes. The weight of its magical armor is much heavier than that of its claws. Its movement is even greater than that of a claw attack. It''s a relief that it doesn''t seem to come at you continuously. He chases after the wyvern as it pulls back its tail, intentionally cutting its relatively low wing shallowly this time. The sword only made a wound about 1cm deep and 5cm long, but this time it did not stop. The shallow cut seemed to be okay, but it also seemed to heal quickly and not much blood was spilled. Well, it''s good that I can use all my magic power. Dodge claw attacks and attack again. While I was cutting the wyvern like this, I could clearly feel the output of my magic increasing. It was about 1.5 times higher than before. The magic armor has also recovered to the point where it can withstand two breaths, so I''ll take my chances while the wyvern swings its tail. The situation may tilt in our favor if we continue to fight, but it will be troublesome if we are out of range, especially if we gain altitude. I want to do as much damage as I can before that happens. You can kill two birds with one stone by increasing your magic power, and even better if the damage to your wings prevents you from flying. I store the blade staff in the item box, approach it with acceleration magic, and thrust the magic sword at the wing with both hands. The sword slowed down before it could penetrate more than 5cm, but it did penetrate. "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! This is the first time he''s shouted. It tried to knock me down with one of its wings, but due to its position, the power was not that great. The margin of armor is increasing rather than decreasing. However, the penetration of my sword is also subtle. The sword is thrusting at the edge of the wing, where it is not very thick, but it is still more than 30cm long. Even so, even if you thrust the sword with all your might, it will not penetrate more than one centimeter per second. It is not hard, but rather highly viscous. The sword will definitely enter, but it will not enter all at once. After the sword had entered about 10 cm, it changed its mind and started swinging its wings, which I was still attached to. It''s hardly an attack, but the dragon''s wings don''t have much support, so I''m about to be knocked off. I managed to resist with acceleration magic, but as expected, I was shaken off in less than three seconds. The wounds I had inflicted seemed to be starting to heal, albeit more slowly than the shallow wounds. With the previous attack, the magic power available per second has increased to about 30, so defense is much easier. However, I don''t know how much damage I''m doing, so I''ll show the status of the wyvern again. You will get hit, but it''s much better than fighting without knowing the situation. Ignis Wyvern RANK:A HP 2566272/2578200 MP 5246724122/5722415129 STR:561 INT:2767 AGI:448 DEX:250 Skills: Wyvern Breath, Flying Checking the status of the wyvern while being careful of the breath. The damage is so small, it doesn''t seem to have taken off even 1%. ...... I feel like my stats are generally lower than what I saw before. Also, MP consumption is high. Is this because it''s being used to repair the damage? I''ll try slashing the wings again and see what happens. Ignis Wyvern RANK:A HP 2566116/2578199 MP 524669769/5722404388 STR:561 INT:2765 AGI:448 DEX:250 Skills: Wyvern Breath, Flying Oh, it''s going down . It''s working. I don''t think the damage I''ve done so far is worth the MP consumption, but there must be a reason. It''s definitely working. I''ll continue to poke it with my magic sword. As I cut the wyvern with my magic sword, I found a similarity in the situation where it suddenly stopped cutting. The sword turns black. The blackness starts from the point where the sword is stuck in the wyvern, and when it reaches the root of the blade, it becomes impossible to cut. When it reaches the base of the blade, it cannot be cut. The black part of the sword that reaches the base reaches the hilt and disappears around my hand. It seems that this is how the sword is prevented from remaining black. Oh, it''s not disappearing, I''m sucking it up. Status check. Name: Suzumiya Kaede Age / Race / s*x : 21 / Human / Male Level: 30 HP:1091/1091 MP:129771393/129771393 STR:190 INT:280 AGI:209 DEX:214 Skills: Information Manipulation Analysis (Concealment), Complete Mastery of Otherworldly Languages (Concealment), Magical Qualities, Martial Qualities, Otherworldly (Concealment), All Attribute Affinity (Concealment), Fire Magic 3 Earth Magic 3 Water Magic 3 Pressure Magic 1 Wind Magic 5 Perception Magic 4 Restoration Magic 2 Swordsmanship 2 Explosion Magic 5 Warding Magic 5 Magical Adaptation Unknown Magical Activity MP is still increasing. I didn''t even remove 10% of the wyvern''s MP, but it''s still a big deal. I wonder if the magic element activation in the skill column has increased the speed of magic consumption. This means that the wyvern might be worth slaying even after it is defeated. In order to do that, I have to kill it first. But the wyvern finally took off, as if it had learned that it had no chance on the ground. I was too careless to close the distance in the air, as there was a high possibility that I would be hit by another breath, so I tried to follow up with magic, but it was nullified. It was similar to the way the wisp was disabled. The wyvern maintains its 200m height and flies toward the sea. I had no choice but to accelerate and track it from the ground. The first time I was hit by the breath, it wasn''t very close and it wasn''t a direct hit. Since I had more than three times the magic power available to me, I had more armor to spare, so my main goal was not to avoid getting hit, but to limit the damage even if I did get hit. Ideally, we should hit it when it lands, but if it keeps flying, we should attack it. Their acceleration was fast, but their cruising speed did not seem to be that fast, so we were able to track them steadily. It didn''t seem to be releasing breath or attacking aggressively, but it was not oblivious to my presence as it occasionally turned its head toward me. It would be nice if the flight consumed MP, but it seems to consume less than one MP per second. It''s better that it doesn''t regenerate, but it''s not enough for me to expect it to stop me from flying. I flew at about 300 km/h for about 10 minutes. Thankfully, the wyvern landed on a nearby island. The wyvern doesn''t seem to be paying attention to me, he''s just laying there. Maybe he''s trying to recover. I gain altitude and look at the island to see if I can see anything strange. The island is almost circular, with a radius of about five kilometers. Most of the island is forest, but there is a part of the island, about 100 meters square, that has a different kind of vegetation than the rest of the forest. The area where the different plants were growing was close enough to the wyvern that it seemed easy to land, so I landed while paying attention to my breath. This plant looked familiar to me. I think I''ve seen it before when I traveled somewhere, ...... I think. Anyway, let''s have a look. Sugar Cane Description: A grass that yields sugar. It grows in areas with high levels of magical elements. Oh!¡¡It''s sugar cane! This is wonderful.¡¡It''s the first time in a long time I''ve had something sweet to eat! ...... What the hell am I doing so close to a wyvern? I shake off the temptation of the sugar cane, cut off a few dozen of them with my magic sword, store them in my item box, and head for the wyvern. 52 Episode 51 Subjugation and Materials I''ve enhanced my magic armor, but I''ve learned my lesson about scouting from the air, so I start preparing to look for wyverns from the ground. The first breath was a certain distance away, and it wasn''t a direct hit to the center of the breath, but it was that powerful. If you were to be hit head-on at close range, you might not be able to survive. As for the magic armor, it reached the limit of reinforcement after I had poured about 10,000 magic power into it, so there would be no point in spending any more time on it. The thickness of the magic armor is about 30cm, so it probably has something to do with the distance you can handle magic. The amount of magic consumption fluctuated during the battle, so it''s not certain, but it''s probably something like that. There are also enough explosion spells to blow up a forest of one square kilometer, and enough warding spells to blow up a forest of two square kilometers. There''s not much difference between these spells if I add some more now, so I''ll leave them as they are. I also have enough pressure spells for about 3,000 magic power. When I was looking for a way to counter the shakedown earlier, I noticed that if you hit the back of the magic armor with pressure magic, you can accelerate forward rapidly, so I prepared this one. If you try to accelerate too far, the impact will be too great, and it is not suitable for continuous acceleration, but the advantage is that it does not consume magic power at the moment of activation. Of the one minute of harvesting, including storage, I spent a whopping 10 seconds on this experiment. I wasn''t just harvesting sugar cane. Now all we have to do is find it and kill it. From the way the sword is cutting, it''s impossible to decapitate it with a single blow, so there''s not much point in taking it by surprise. So I''ll just watch out for the breath and go straight in the direction where I think the wyvern is. I don''t use magic to accelerate, I just run. This is because the acceleration spell used to avoid being hit by a wyvern''s breath is more efficient when the speed is low. But it''s a hassle. If magic worked, I would have blown up the whole forest. The trees here are similar to those near Decibatore in terms of hardness, so it would be a waste to use explosion magic just to improve visibility. As a result, we had to search steadily. Thankfully, we found the wyvern in less than a minute. The wyvern was in a slightly hollowed-out area of the forest with no trees, probably a wyvern nest. It wasn''t as bad as that time, but it had the same atmosphere as the mine when the wisp was there. Looking at the wyvern''s status, it seems that its maximum MP is slowly recovering. The wyvern''s status shows that its maximum MP is slowly recovering, but it''s not recovering more than one MP per second, so it won''t affect this battle. The distance is about 10 meters, so let''s slash at it. Just as I was about to ......, the wyvern turned to look at me, and the displayed MP of the wyvern blew up by several hundred million at once. After that, the wyvern opens its mouth. So this is the sign of the Breath. But that''s why I walked all the way here. Don''t panic, and use your acceleration and pressure spells to pass to the right side of the wyvern. In less than half a second, he was under the wyvern''s feet and thrusting his sword into its wing. The breath, having lost sight of its target, shot straight into the forest, scorching the trees in its line of fire. It goes on to burn the surrounding trees in a radius of about 10 meters from the area directly hit by the breath, then disappears. I thought trees in demon territory didn''t burn. Well, it''s certainly powerful, but it doesn''t matter if it doesn''t hit you. All you have to do is to keep attacking it with your sword and drain its MP. While observing the power of the breath, I sink my sword into the wyvern''s wing. The sword turns almost completely black, except for the base, and I can feel the magic power activating. Perhaps the maximum value has increased as well, though I can''t feel it here. After about ten centimeters of cutting, the wyvern moves its wings to draw its sword, as if the post-breath stiffness is over. Well, there is no need to hold on to it here. He pulls the sword out quietly, holds it up again, and brings his wings into view. The sword gradually loses its blackness from the tip and regains its original blue color in about five seconds. Come to think of it, this blackness is being removed by my hands, isn''t it? I couldn''t feel the blackness being absorbed when I touched the wing, but I wondered if it would go away if I cut it with my hand on the blade. It''s best to try it out. Anyway, I slashed at the wyvern again. And then, instead of thrusting, I was hit by the wyvern with a slashing motion and lightly pressed my hand into the blade, which was about 5mm deep. Spat! It cut. The blade went in cleanly. The sword, which was about four centimeters thick, dug almost all of its blade into the wyvern. "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaa! The wyvern cried out in anger. That''s a hell of a cut. To give you an idea of how sharp it was, it sliced through his hand to the bone when he lightly pushed the blade into it with his dominant hand. It was not because of the sharpness of the sword that I was only injured to that extent, but because my hand collided with the wyvern''s wing at the point where it cut that far, preventing my hand from going any further. I quickly healed it with a healing spell, but it was almost severed. I checked on the wyvern, but it didn''t look the same. The wound hadn''t healed. Maybe he''s running out of resources to heal, or maybe he''s trying to conserve them, but either way, he''s definitely cornered. I''m going to try to finish him off quickly. You''ll be able to find a lot more than just a few things that you can do to help you. The wyvern cut straight through, just as I wanted. With a straight cut, he managed to cut off about half of the wing. That''ll work. You use your acceleration magic to jump up and try to cut off the head... and succeed. The blade is not long enough to sever the head, but it is still connected to the rest of the body, but it is already useless. The wyvern''s body relaxes and he falls to the ground. That was a lot easier than I thought it would be. But I can''t let that happen. You must slay the corpse to save firepower. I put my hand on the side of the blade and cut into the wyvern, but I don''t feel like I''m absorbing as much as I did when it was alive. After about three slashes, the wyvern was almost ineffective, so I gave up and stowed the wyvern. I tried using a rock spear, and it seems that the magic power available per second is about 200. The maximum magic power is now 1.2 billion. It doesn''t really matter now, because you still can''t use it all. The time is not even noon yet. The explosion spell has been prepared, so we should be able to blow up today as planned. Cutting and chewing sugar cane on the way home. Slowly, flying at the speed of a bullet train. The sugar cane is slightly sweet, but to get the most out of it, you need to refine it. If I''m going to do this, I want to do it on a large scale. Then we need to grow it. But we don''t have the space. If we start to farm carefree near Deshbatore, we will get angry. There is a place where we can farm without causing trouble: ...... I''m sure there is. Or rather, that''s exactly where I was just now. If you do it on an island, you won''t bother anyone. There is no reason why it can''t be done, since it used to be grown on islands like Hawaii, albeit in different sizes. The farming method also has its place. It is a very smart farming method. In ancient times, mankind acquired fire, and its blessings have contributed greatly to the development of mankind up to the present. The bounty of Mother Earth and the bounty of the forest are also indispensable to mankind. There is a truly human way of farming that makes the most of these two. --that is, slash and burn. Afterwards, as usual, I went to report to the guild after finishing the blasting and hunting of the remnants. I somehow missed the timing of the wyvern report, but I guess I can finish it while I''m at it. The person at the reception desk was not the usual mayor, but a regular receptionist. Hello, I''m here to report a request for logging and killing. ¡¡There was also a wyvern. I''d appreciate it if you could just let it go. "Oh, there''s a huge number of trees as usual. ...... Hmm?¡¡I thought I just heard a wyvern. Yes, it''s called Wyvern Ignis. Ignis!¡¡I''ll get the mayor!¡¡I''m getting ready to retreat! I''m going to get the mayor! ...... Oh, I forgot to tell you that I killed him. I forgot to tell you that I killed him. - Oh, it''s okay, I already killed him. "Nah. No need to retreat. We killed it. ...... Well, it''s a maple. ¡¡Either way, I''m calling the mayor. After saying that, the receptionist retreated to get the mayor. Shortly after, the mayor comes out. I heard you killed a wyvern. Here''s your guild card. ...... It looks like you''re right. We haven''t decided on a reward for the Sublong yet, so we''ll see what happens. Yes, and what about the ranks? I''m not surprised at all. ...... I''ve long since given up on common sense. ¡¡The rank of ...... will be judged to be A class in terms of strength, but the rank will be raised to C, maybe even B. Two ranks higher. "Does A rank mean that I have to kill a lot of sub dragons? It''s not possible. If there were that many dragons, humans would have been destroyed long ago. ¡¡It''s a matter of leadership. Leadership? Yeah. ¡¡A-rank adventurers are required to have not only fighting ability but also leadership ability. ¡¡An A-rank adventurer must be able to lead a large scale extermination mission. It''s a far cry from what I''m used to as a soloist. I''ll wait for the results. ¡¡You''ll be able to find a lot more information on this website. "...... Okay, so can we start preparing to retake Brokens now? Sure, we''ll get to that point soon. That''s why we''re cutting down the trees, so there''s no reason to stop. Of course. All right, it''s going to be busy. Yeah. ¡¡I''ll leave you to it. I finish my report unexpectedly easily, so I go back to bed. A healthy bedtime as usual. By the way, I got the materials for the dragons easily, what should I do with them? 53 Episode 52 Island and Meat Morning is here. I really want to take care of the cane today, but I haven''t talked to the guild yet, so it wouldn''t be a good idea to take a break from logging. If I go to the guild now and say, ''I''m taking today off,'' they won''t have the means to stop me, but that''s not the same thing. Why don''t we just refine the sugar here? Sugar is made by crushing and squeezing sugar cane, I believe. The juice from the sugar cane is then boiled down and concentrated. ...... Crushing can be done in any way. In order not to waste the juice that comes out during the crushing process, you need a saucer for the liquid, but if you have one, you can just smash it with a blade or something. If you use a magic sword, it may smash the whole container, so use a blade. It''s made of metal lizard metal, and it''s durable and safe. You can get a tool from ...... to narrow down the problem. Pressure magic is also promising if we can make something that slowly compresses over time. Boiling down is easy enough, but I have to be careful not to burn the sugar. But we can''t do it here because we don''t have the tools. Sugar cane is finite. No choice but to put the sugar refining on hold. Let''s head for the other important factor in obtaining sugar, securing farmland. We''ll find an island that looks just right. If we don''t burn down the whole island, we might be attacked by demons, but considering that island has sugar cane, it would be a waste to burn it down. There were many islands near there, so we should find a reasonable one. If you''re going to grow sugar cane, you''ll need workers, so you''d better have some water as well. Well, we can get enough water for human use with magic tools, and depending on the nature of sugar cane in this world, it may not be a priority. However, if trees are likely to grow, the island must be large enough to be managed so that it can be pulled out before it becomes too big for the demons to grow. Well, I guess it''s best to look for it. I followed the same route as yesterday to visit the island where the wyvern was. I couldn''t remember the route, but as luck would have it, Wyvern''s island was easy to find. As we gained almost a kilometer in altitude, we could see a lot of islands. Or rather, they are so many islands that if you were to enlarge Matsushima, it would look like this. I don''t know why the terrain is like this, but the islands are flat and there are no volcanoes, so it''s easier to use than hotspots. An island with a radius of about one kilometer, two islands away from Wyvern''s island and about ten kilometers away, seems to be the right size. I landed on the island. There was a Galden near the landing site, so I took the opportunity to chop off his head and stick it in the item box. I floated around the island for a bit, but didn''t find any plants that looked particularly valuable. I can''t find any water, but I guess I''ll have to rely on my magic tools. Now we just need a port: ....... There''s a boat killer in the waters near the demon realm. You''ll get nice boats. If you use a lot of Metal Lizard Metal, you can probably avoid being sunk, but I doubt it. Even though it''s a personal hobby of mine, I don''t think it''s a good idea to ignore profitability, since sugar is a business. The strength of the boat killer will determine how much of the stuff you need to use. If this world is full of wooden ships, we can use thick iron ships. If that''s not possible, I''ll have to use flight magic to lift a basket full of people and carry them. I don''t want anything to happen while I''m gone, and I''d rather avoid that if possible. If I build a sturdy ship, I''ll need a port. The area around this island is sandy, so it''s not suitable for a port. There is a way to alter the terrain with magic, but it seems difficult. Depending on the draft of the ship, we''ll need to dig to the bottom of the sea. We should look for another island. I''ll fly again, this time focusing on the coastline. We''ll be looking for places that are adjacent to deep water. There were countless islands just from about a kilometer above us, so we should be able to find them. We thought so, and searched for the right island while maintaining an altitude of about 100 meters. You can tell how deep the ocean is by looking at the colors. The sea is a mixture of light blue, blue, and green, but the deeper the sea, the more blue it is, and the shallower the sea, the more light blue it is. Well, we''ll find a suitable island soon enough. --about 50 minutes later. Nothing. Not one of the islands was the right size for the deep water. In fact, none of the islands had deep water, even if you didn''t care about size. It seems that it is impossible to use a ship with a deep draft. So a ship made of heavy metal would be difficult. But they need to be large enough to be defensible. If we leave the ship off shore like a landing ship and travel by small boat, we''ll be easy prey for demons. No. Landing ship. Landing ships didn''t always use small boats. Hovercrafts, helicopters, and the like could be used to avoid demons while landing. The ship itself should be heavily armored and able to withstand the attacks of boat killers. A merchant ship that looks like a heavily armored assault ship, that''s it. I don''t know what the ship is for anymore, but if we add more things to it, it will be able to transport large numbers of people. It would require a huge initial investment, so the size would have to be considered, but it is an option. In that case, let''s just blow up the island. It''ll take about three days to burn, so blow it up beforehand: ...... No, you can''t do that when you don''t even know whose land it is. I''ll go to the commerce guild tomorrow and ask them if we can use it. If not, I''ll have to try to convince them. Should I bring some golden favors to the guild? Well, I guess I''ll just have to wait and see. If it''s just to prepare sugar for me, I can just harvest it from around here, and I don''t think it''s a good idea to rush to increase production by doing evil. Anyway, I should go home. I also need to think about the wyvern material. It''s a shame to leave it idle. I''ll ask Mercia about it later. I''ll ask Mercia later, but it wouldn''t hurt to ask the guild as well. The guy at the grocery store might be able to tell you, but he''s a merchant. You can expect more accurate advice from a place that is not that profitable no matter how you use it. "Excuse me, the wyvern material I got the other day, do you have any suggestions on how I can use it? "If it''s a wyvern, I''m sure there are plenty of buyers for it in the Photolens. Today''s receptionist was polite, perhaps she knew that I had defeated the wyvern, but she didn''t react in any particular way. But it''s a shame to sell it. I don''t have a lot of money. If you need a lot of money to build a ship, you may need to sell it, but if you spend that much money to build a ship, it would be a bad business decision. No, I don''t want to sell it, I just think it would be a good use for myself. It''s not my area of expertise, but I''m sure you can find some good uses for it in your own business. I''m sure it''s armor. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. I''m not sure. "Is it stronger than Metal Lizard Metal''s gear? In terms of sturdiness, the Metal Lizard Metal is a bit better, but bones are lighter than metal, and weapons can use magic to create fire, so overall, the wyvern is better. Hmm, that''s a little subtle. "By using magic, do you mean using the owner''s magic? Yes, swordsmen often do not use magic, so they can make good use of it. ¡¡You don''t need to concentrate, just swing it and the flame will come out. Oh. I''m not sure what to make of that. It''s not like a magic sword that''s gone too far, the output is small enough that it might still work. I''m not sure what to make of it. In any case, it''s not bad to have a weapon that can use magic outside the realm of magic use. Even though the number of magic power has increased during the defeat of wyverns, the amount of magic power available per hour is still limited. Well, it''s not as good as a magic sword, so I''ll hold off for now. It''s faster to fight with magic if it works, and the sword is too overwhelming if it doesn''t. Then there''s meat. Can we eat wyvern meat? No, it may have other uses. I wonder if this was the right way to ask. I''ve heard of people eating them after they''ve been dried in a place with good conditions for a year or so, but basically they''re like the meat of a demon in the demon realm made worse, so they''re not something you should eat. Is it called "magic overload"? Yes, I wouldn''t recommend eating it. All right, thank you. Magic overload, or was it magic element overload in the appraisal? . Is it good? I think I''ll try a little bit of ......, it was fine in the cave. If it''s bad, it might increase your MP. If not, I''ll eat a little bit at a time and see how it goes so that it doesn''t become lethal. It may be a little early for lunch, but I decided to go out and grill some thinly sliced meat, cut into 5cm cubes, at a place that was open. Since I didn''t have any tools for grilling meat, I cut a stone that was lying around flat with my magic sword, washed it with water, and used it as a griddle. All that remains is to heat it from above with magic. If you use a fire magic with less power and longer duration, you can get by without a plate that can easily conduct heat. Soon, I could smell a good aroma. "Hey kid, what are you cooking? A couple of adventurers passing by suddenly asked me. "We''re Wyverns. I''m a wyvern. ...... You''re a maple, I''ve heard you''re a monster, but you shouldn''t do that, you''re better off eating normal food. I''m not sure what to do with it, but I''m sure it''ll be fine. The meat was cooked nicely. Just to be sure, I cut the meat into 1cm thick pieces and put them in my mouth. It tasted wonderful, like a slightly thicker and firmer version of expensive Japanese meat. The consistency was not unbearably tough, but genuinely chewy. There was no deterioration in his physical condition. "Oh no, I ate it. ...... Are you okay? "It''s good!¡¡It''s good! Oh, yeah. ...... He was attracted to me. 54 Episode 53 Banquets and Airstrikes The meat is good, but it''s uncomfortable to eat alone. Do you want some?¡¡I have plenty of food. I''ve got plenty of food. ...... Eating a wyvern is suicide for most people, except you, right? Oh, no, sir. ¡¡We have the usual stuff, like the giant spider club. Oh, I''d love to try that. How much? If you charge money, it''s like a hard sell. ¡¡I''ll do it for free. I just wanted to have dinner with you for some reason. I''ve been a bit of a loner since I came to this world, after all. It''s fun to be alone, and I don''t feel the need to make a lot of friends. You don''t mind that the food is expensive? "Yes, we have a lot of it anyway. ¡¡So it would be nice if there was a place with better cooking utensils than this stone, do you have one? So far, I had only the ingredients and relied on what my companion had for cooking utensils. If it was just me, this stone would be fine, but for three people, it''s a little cramped. What do you say we pay you to do the cooking for us?¡¡We''ll pay for it. "Oh, there is such a place. ¡¡What''s it like? It''s like a bar, but without the booze. ¡¡This way. A bar. It''s a standard place to gather information in games. There was one in Aen, but I didn''t know there was one here. What kind of alcohol do you have? I''m not sure what kind of liquor you''re talking about," he said. "We''ve got some kind of harsh liquor that''s been brought in and watered down, and it''s not very good but it''s expensive. The problem of transportation: ....... Do you really want to drink that much sake? I''m not sure I want to drink that much.¡¡I don''t think there are a lot of decent ingredients in Desi Battleye. The other day, I saw some food that was probably brought in by Kaede, but that''s basically it. ¡¡Well, it''s old, but it''s well-equipped and skilled, and I''m sure they''ll do it for you if you ask. We followed him as he talked, and soon we arrived at a place that looked like a bar. It certainly has the feel of an old tavern, but it''s spoiled by the large number of doors that seem to have been retrofitted. The adventurer - I didn''t get his name, by the way - goes in through the best door of the bunch. There were no customers inside, and the place was deserted. "Master, can I have some food? What are the ingredients? You call the owner "Master"? The owner is called "Master." It''s more like a bar. I thought so, and looked at the master who appeared out of nowhere. ...... Yes, this is a decibatore, after all. The master was a muscular old man who looked like a master (physically). Well, he seems to be skilled. Not in cooking, but in fighting. The reason he''s cooking and not adventuring is that he probably got an arrow in his knee. "Giant Spider Club, your maple has it. ¡¡I''ll pay for it. How do you cook it? Uh, ...... maple, what do you want? What kind do you have? You can bake it, boil it, it''s good. ¡¡The other dish is ...... I don''t have the ingredients. I don''t think I had any other ingredients on hand, except for meat. The rest is zunana grass, which is treated like a weed around here. What do you recommend? "Boil it, it''s more expensive but probably tastes better. ¡¡What should I do? That''s a difficult answer to choose from. ...... I''m not sure if I''d choose the expensive one for the money, or if I''d just ignore the recommendation. I don''t know. I don''t care either way. ¡¡I''ve got a lot of material, so I can do both if you want. Then take out two legs of giant spider crab. I don''t know how many pounds each, but it''s probably double digits. There''s no way I can eat that much. ¡¡Are you going to have a party? A banquet. Might not be a bad idea. "A banquet might be a good idea. ¡¡We could raise money to pay for the food. That''s a good idea!¡¡If we can use a lot of meat, I''ll gather the people. The adventurers are in favor of this idea. It''ll be a good opportunity to get to know the people of the city. "No problem. ¡¡Is this enough? Yes!¡¡Let''s get started. And so the master begins to cook. He peels the shells off and chops them up, as wild as it looks. I''ll go get some people who are free! This is how the feast began, but an unexpectedly large number of people showed up. A total of thirty adventurers gathered in the tavern, waiting for the food. Perhaps they were hungry for some decent food, but they thanked me profusely. A few moments later, the food is ready and the feast begins. "Cheers! Apparently there is a culture of toasting here too. Instead of raising the glass to the top, they lower it to the bottom. "Oh!¡¡That''s good! "The freshness is different. It''s an item box. It seemed to be generally well received. Or rather, the meat was extremely well received. We even had to add more meat because we ran out halfway through. There is only one problem. "This would be even better if we were drinking alcohol. "Well, it''s no use, we''re supposed to start drinking at noon. As has been said, the toast is not to alcohol, but to water. We''re about to go into battle, so it''s not a good idea to drink. The reason why there were so many people left in the city just by calling out to them was because they were waiting for the bombing to start at noon, not because they were here for sightseeing. It was a job. I guess it''s best to have a party at night, I might have made a mistake. I may have made a mistake, but it''s okay because it was well received. The party continued until just before noon, when it was time to break up the forest. I''m heading for the blast site from the air. I''ve been informed that the bombing will be on a larger scale starting today. As soon as I see that there are adventurers guarding the area behind me, I can start at my own time. The dense forest near Desibatore has already been cleared and the view has been improved. This will probably be able to handle a slight influx of demons. A good vantage point means that it will be easy to concentrate the firepower of a large number of people if you want to. It doesn''t increase the overall firepower, but it does increase our ability to respond. Well, this time my job is just to blow things up. Unlike in the past, I''m going to use 20 square kilometers of magic power to roast the forest. It''s only about three kilometers wide, so I''ll quickly fly about seven kilometers away and cast the first blast spell. Swoop down and deploy the warding spell. Oh, swooping is getting easier. Perhaps because I have more magic power to use, it''s easier to change the trajectory of my flight abruptly. I wonder if there will be any more sub dragons. With this in mind, I took off a little more smoothly than usual, and looked at the explosion site. As I expected, the roar of the explosion was accompanied by trees blowing away and clouds of dust rising. This is not the usual scene ....... The distance of the trees has clearly increased. I was so distracted by the battle that I didn''t notice it, but it seems that my level has increased. Even with the same level of magic power consumption, the firepower of magic is clearly different. This seems to be enough firepower even if you are a bit stingy. As a result of the verification by blowing up a nearby tree, it was found that the same level of firepower could be obtained with about 80% of the previous magic power. The explosion range is increased by 20.5%. Since the magic power is 20 times that of the previous version, the simple calculation is 25 times. 25 square kilometers: ...... The area we''ve cut so far will be no less than 5 square kilometers. The area we need to cut down before Brokens is 30 square kilometers. Oh, we''re past Brokens. I''m gonna go ahead and check it out. The coastline narrows from where I was, and after a kilometer or so, it becomes a kilometer wide. This narrowing is where Brocken was located. From there, it continued to be about that thick for about two kilometers, and then widened slightly again to a strip of land about ten kilometers long, maintaining a width of about four kilometers. At the end of the strip of land, the width of the strip becomes indistinguishable, and it looks like a continent. It seems that the places where Desibatore and Brokens are located were like peninsulas connected to each other. It''s possible that it''s a very large connected island, but I heard something about a demon continent, so it must be a continent. I don''t know why the terrain is like this, but it doesn''t make much sense to think about it in a world where the tide doesn''t seem to be rising and falling. I haven''t had a chance to look at the night sky, but there may be no moon. I''ll have a look at it this evening. Well, let''s just blast our way to Brokens. I don''t know if I should blow up Brokens itself, so I''ll leave it alone for now. From in front of Brokens, we''ll blast towards Desibatore with explosive magic and warding magic with the same level of firepower as before. To be able to carpet bomb an area of 20 square kilometers with this much power is still amazing. In addition, it can take off and land vertically, and it can blow up easily, making a strategic bomber that can be launched from a certain aircraft carrier look like a real bomber. From the watchtower of the Decibatore, you can see the trees sinking into the dust and smoke with a roar from a short distance away. It would be a shame if the bodies could not be recovered because the explosions were too fast, but if necessary, we could just punch into the demon''s territory. It is not enough to conserve resources. Even if we conserve it, it''s still harmful to humans. While I was thinking about this, the planned area of the bombing was finished. As far as the eye could see, it was a mess of smoke and fallen trees. The view of the forest, which used to be overgrown, has improved a lot. It''s not surprising, though, since we finished in one day what was supposed to take six months or so to cut down. Now, let''s start collecting. 55 Episode 54 Ship and Magic Tools After I had collected the bodies at random and reported the results of the explosion, which amounted to more than 1.02 million of them, the guild''s work was fast. In no time at all, the mayor, adventurer party leaders, and shopkeepers had gathered for a meeting to discuss the plan to retake Brokens. Of course, the reward for the logging was immediately written down, and the amount of 5.2 billion Tel was written on the Decibatore card. Naturally, the meeting was held with the mayor acting as chairman. Normally, in a large-scale invasion of a demon territory like this, supply would be a bottleneck that would slow down the advance, but this time, there was a way to solve it by force. Of course, that means me, but I can''t carry food that I don''t have, so I''ll have to gather food from the vicinity of Photoren. It''s not my job to get the food, so I''ll just carry it. The second problem is that we need to build a fort while fighting demons in a place where we can''t easily transport materials. It was supposed to be a place where materials could not be easily transported, but I could do it. As you can see, I can''t carry the people who use the materials, so it''s not a total solution. In addition, when I wasn''t carrying them, I would occasionally spread explosive magic in front of the fortifications to assist in the battle. It''s a lot of work for me, but I''m the only one who can do it, so it can''t be helped. It may be quite hard, but it''s not impossible. I heard somewhere that "impossible" is a word for liars. There were other minor policies, but they were not so important. At most, we would build a small wall and a moat with a small group of elites, and as soon as they became somewhat usable, we would take less strong people and accelerate. If you can manage the beginning, the rest of the fortifications will snowball, and the beginning is important. Due to the burning of the cut trees and the preparation of food, the operation will start in a week. So, Kaede, you''re up. See you later. By the time we broke up, the sun had set. It''s been a long time since I slept after midnight. There''s nothing to do at night. Tomorrow I''ll prepare to build a ship with photoluminescence, and in the evening I''ll blow up the area near the planned construction site. I''ve heard that it''s okay to blow up the area where Brocken was originally located, so I can blow it up tomorrow without any worries. The next day, I found myself in the vicinity of a reputable shipyard in Fautren. Not a shipyard, but a shipbuilder. The goal, of course, is to get a ship that can withstand a boat killer. You talk to a man in a shop-like place next to the shipyard, with a sign that says "Shipbuilder Biones". "Excuse me, I''d like to order a ship, how can I help you? "Let''s talk, go to the back room. You are taken to a room where you are seated in chairs across from a rather large table. What kind of ship are you looking for? I thought it would be better to start with the end goal rather than think about it like an amateur. I''m looking for a ship that can withstand a boat killer''s attack and run head-on into the demon''s territory, and a small, flying ship to go with it. The flying ship would be used for landing. ...... What''s your budget? I have about this much on hand, but I''d like to save some money by using materials I have on hand. Then I show him my Decibatore card. If you can''t make it even if you show them the amount in Japanese yen, which is about 50 billion, then you can''t make such a thing. "What? ...... I don''t need this much, is this real? It''s like asking to be executed for showing off a forged card, isn''t it? I''m not sure I''m going to be able to do that. ...... Yes, you''re right. ¡¡I''m sure you''ll be able to confirm with me when the deal is done. ¡¡So, what are the materials? A dead wyvern or some metal lizard metal. Who are you ...... Metal Lizard Metal is not suitable for ships, but wyvern bones are very good ship material, what size? The wyvern itself is about 15 meters from head to tail. ¡¡I''d like to keep the parts that can be used for weapons. I''d like to keep the parts that can be used as weapons, but..." "The best materials for wyverns are their claws and fangs, so not so much. ¡¡It''s a strong handle, but it''s not worth the trouble. "I see. ¡¡Then you can use it. ¡¡How big will it be and how much will it cost? Assuming the backbone is made of dragon bones, it can hold about 30 people. ¡¡The cost will depend on the material. Thirty people, that''s not so bad. It''s a wonder they don''t use them around Decibatore. I''m surprised they don''t use it around Desi Battleye. No, that''s because the road works as a test. The material? ¡¡Do you have any recommendations for strength? "In the realm of demons, I think mithril is a good choice for underwater armor. ¡¡It''s light, strong, and works well with bones, and it''s getting cheaper these days. Is mithril a metal that can be sold cheaply? Is it cheap, Mithril? Mithril is getting cheaper all of a sudden. ¡¡There''s a new fuel that''s good for mithril refining, and they''re producing a lot of it. ¡¡But it''s still quite expensive as usual. Mithril can be refined with regular fuel? It''s a bit of a pipe dream, but if the fuel you''re using is magical, it might have a bit of a magical metal feel to it. So how much would that cost? "I think it''ll be between 130 and 170 million. That''s a lot of money. Now for the landing craft. What about the flying boat? "We can make the hull, but we''ll have to ask a magician to make it fly. ¡¡The fuel consumption would be very low, but what would you use it for? It''s used to bring people and things ashore from the main ship, so it doesn''t matter if the fuel consumption is a little low, but make sure it can fit on the larger ship. ...... I hadn''t thought of that. ¡¡I hadn''t thought of it that way. If we want to fly it, it will have to be light, so we''ll have to sacrifice some strength. Don''t worry, we''re going to make it float vertically and then move it. Once it''s out of range of the boat killer, it''s ours. I''ve already burned the island to the ground. It''s going to be a very strange ship. ...... Can you wait until Mithril''s ship is finished? Yes, I can''t operate it properly without it. Okay. ¡¡Can I sign the contract now? Yes. This is how the business meeting about the ship was settled. I paid the money in advance at the commercial guild, dismantled the wyvern in a warehouse-like building next to the shipyard, handed over the bones, and left the shipyard. The ship was not that big and the materials were easy to process, but it would take a couple of weeks to complete. I decided to drop by a store on the way, but when I got to the Kaede Catrine Armory, I found that it had changed quite a bit from before. Compared to the past, the number of magic items in the shop was completely different. Before, there were only 10 at most, but now there were almost 50. I didn''t pay extra for them, and it''s not that they are unsold, but that they were probably the result of purchasing magic stones with the money from the sales. The quality is also quite high. I didn''t even appraise it, but I didn''t even think to question it. Is it called a "wise eye" ......?¡¡If you''ve seen a certain amount of magic stones at Decibatore, you can tell the quality of the stone by its color and brilliance. There is no doubt that this is a magic stone of a satisfactory level. In fact, I may be unconsciously doing something similar to appraising. The appraisal I''m using isn''t technically appraisal magic. If you look down a little, you will see the price tag. The cheapest one had a ridiculous price tag of 200,000 Tel. Judging from the size of the magic stone, the cost of the magic stone was probably 10,000 teru. If it sells for that, it''s worth a fortune. I decided to ask the shopkeeper how it was going, and asked him to act as an intermediary. The clerk was not a woman like before, but a man who was not muscular, but looked like he could fight if he wanted to. "Is Catherine there? Who is it, sir? ¡¡Who are you?" "I don''t want you to ask me to meet the manager right away. When I thought about it, there was no way he knew my face, there was no picture of me. I think he was subtly alarmed. "Oh, you don''t know me. ¡¡I''m Kaede, and I''m the owner of this store. And I''ll show you my guild card. My rank is still the same as before, but it will probably go up because of the Brokens'' recapture. In fact, I think I already knew that my rank would increase. In Decibatore, at least for me, rank isn''t that important, so I might be putting it off. I don''t think there''s any need to rush rank up either. I''m sorry, .......¡¡The manager is in the back room, but I have to take care of the store. ...... "Oh, I can get there myself. I''m fine. Stick to your duties. You''re a shopkeeper and a security guard. I guess the anti-theft system is not completely perfect. When I entered, Catherine seemed to have just finished her work and was taking a break. Hey. ¡¡How''s it going? The store looks like it''s making a lot of money. Yes, it''s very profitable. ¡¡We''ve sold more than a million tellers so far. That''s amazing. I''m not sure how much money she makes a year, even if only a portion goes into her pocket. ...... Do mage shops usually make that much money? No way. ¡¡It seems that my skills ......, or rather my traits, are very suited to being a grimoire maker. Is that so? Yes, my speed is too slow to be useful as a magician, but I can actually make fast, high quality magic tools because I can work with a lot of volume and precision. The reason why he couldn''t use magic, or rather the inert magic power that was in his skills, was probably the reason. If we could find people with inert magic and have them practice with the Wisp Core, we might be able to mass-produce elite grimoire makers. I''ll think about it. Well, it doesn''t matter if it''s profitable. Well, if it''s making money, it''s not a problem. - That''s great. You can use the profits to invest in the store. Yeah. ¡¡I have some armor I''d like to make, can I make that too? Armor from a mage?¡¡What kind of armor? There is a light, highly protective armor that uses the owner''s magic power for protection, and I thought I''d try to copy it. Oh, that sounds good. I wonder if it''s safe, though. Isn''t there a patent on it? "No, not at all. ¡¡It''s just difficult to make, but it''s a major technology. All right, do what you want. ¡¡It''s good to experiment. Yes! I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one who''s had a bad experience. After all, Catherine is also a member of the Kaede Merchant Association. Mercia seemed to be a relatively sensible person, but I guess the head of the Chamber of Commerce has to be a normal person, otherwise the people working under him would have a hard time. The right person for the right job. 56 Episode 55 Sugar and Atmospheric Pressure Now, on to the Kaede Trading Company. I''ve taken the liberty of ordering a ship, but it''s not just for me to get sugar, it''s for the business of the Chamber of Commerce. If they rely on me for their infrastructure, I won''t be able to move freely. That''s why I came to the Kaede Chamber of Commerce. Unlike the Catherine''s Shop, this one looks like a normal store in town. The store seems to have been completed, and there are regular customers. Well, they probably haven''t finished making the dried meat with the ingredients I brought yet, so the taste is probably irrelevant. "Is Mercia there? It''s faster to ask than to observe, so I quickly talk to the waiter. The waitress looks familiar, and it''s not surprising that she remembers my face. He is the owner. He''s the owner. ¡¡I think the manager is in the warehouse. Yeah, I''ll go there then. I remember where the warehouse is. I followed the same route as the other day and got there without getting lost. I showed my directionlessness in Ayn, but I''m not so directionless that I can''t find my way to a place I''ve already been. In the warehouse, the employees (two men and a woman) are dismantling Galden, and Mercia is watching them. I wonder if he is supervising. "Hey, Mercia, how''s the store doing? Yes, it''s not too bad, about where we expected it to be. Mercia turns around and replies. I wonder if she actually knew I was here, that she could respond correctly to someone who was suddenly speaking to her out of the corner of her eye. Not so good, huh? "I think the store is slightly in the red at the moment. ¡¡We just buy and sell things that can be bought at other stores at normal prices, so there''s no way we can compete with the stores that have been doing business here for a long time. Well, you can''t win. I''ll have to start selling the meat I bring in. "Yes. ¡¡The profit from sales is small now, but it''s a waste to let the employees I''ve prepared be idle, so I''m selling what I''ve purchased to train them as shopkeepers. Yeah, I''d say that''s a very sensible way to run a store. Since we have an advantage in terms of purchasing, there is no need to play strange games in other areas. Everyone is trying to make a living in business, so there is nothing that can be done by playing a strange game. There have been successful tactics such as selling at a huge discount, destroying other stores, and then raising the price to make a profit, but that was only possible with cheap procurement routes and tremendous scale. It might be possible to do it in my place, but it would be resented, so it''s best to do it the normal way. It''s unlikely to succeed, though, since the meat is being force-fed from the demon realm. The plan is going well, I guess. ¡¡By the way, I found some sugar cane on an island I stopped by the other day, and I''m thinking of growing it. "Growing sugar cane?¡¡I don''t think you can get permission to grow sugar cane, do you have permission? No permit? Is it possible that the reason we haven''t found any sugar so far is not because we don''t have any farmland, but because it''s forbidden? "You need a permit to grow sugar cane?¡¡What do you mean? Sugar cane does not cause demons, but it does increase the number of demons from nearby demon territories, so it is generally not allowed to be grown. I''m thinking of growing it on an island. Can you manage that? On an island?¡¡That''s a possibility, but there are no islands with good farmland, you know? That''s what we''re going to build. ¡¡If we use magic to wipe out all the trees on the flat, forested islands in the demon realm, we''ll have fertile, demon-free islands. I''ve heard that flying demons are rare even in Decibatore, so building a shelter would be safer. What about ships and ports that can reach the island in the demon realm? "I''ve already ordered a ship to carry people to the shipyard. ¡¡We don''t have a port, but we''ll use small flying ships instead. ¡¡And I''ll carry the supplies. Mercia gave a little thought to my words, then gave a small nod. It might be possible to get by with that. ¡¡But that would require a lot of initial cost, and if it fails, you''ll be in the red.¡¡Didn''t you want to keep the business small to reduce the risk? It''s about meat, which has always been an important industry here. ¡¡I have the money, and I''ll take the responsibility once the permit is granted. "Okay!¡¡Shall we go apply now? You''re so quick, I can''t help but notice a twinkle in your eye. By the way, I remembered that Mercia came to my house because she wanted to do business. If a big and interesting deal suddenly came to her, she might react like this. "Can I have the dried meat? It''s a job I can handle without me, but I just thought you should know about it. ¡¡I have experienced people I can leave it to. "Is the manager not as busy as you think? "In a normal store, the manager would also be the clerk, so I don''t have much to do. ¡¡However, considering the future, I would like to keep a certain number of well-trained employees, so I hire as many as I can. In other words, you''re not working. It''s not like you''re slacking off. Are you going to apply? "Yes. Well, that''s why I went to the commercial guild to apply. Apparently, it''s not something that can be decided only by the members of the commercial guild, and it will take some time to ask the mayor of Decibatore. To be precise, they said that the commercial guild could give permission, but to avoid problems, they would ask other places, but the result was the same. Will the permit be granted? Mercia murmured in a worried voice. I''ll go directly to the mayor and see if he''s okay with it. Assuming the application goes through, go ahead and get the people and other things you need. What if it doesn''t? What if it doesn''t?" "Well, we''ll probably lose some money, but there''s a lot of money in logging. ¡¡I''ll give you about 100 million through the commercial guild, so keep it within that amount. "Understood. ¡¡The workers will be slaves? That''s the best way. Regular workers are a pain in the ass. Sugar cane is a slave. I don''t want to turn it into a black company, but I don''t want them to want to go home after I brought them to the island. I feel that the permit has already been approved, but I can''t help it because I feel it will be approved. "Now for the last task of the day, making sugar from sugar cane. He pulls out a piece of sugar cane. "That''s important, because it''s not good to prepare sugar when you don''t know if it can be produced. You''re right. ¡¡Do you have any tools for sugar production? I don''t know. ¡¡I don''t know. I''m not an expert in that area, and it''s probably been about a hundred years since most sugar production stopped. ...... "If there was, does it still exist? ¡¡...... Hmm?¡¡Almost? Yes. ¡¡It''s a very small amount, and it''s in a distant country, but in Mecklenburg, sugar is produced for the nobility. A faraway country. ...... You can''t go to a distant country at this time when you are preparing to attack Brokens. Considering the construction of the outer wall, it will be necessary to stay close to here for a while. It''s enough that we know that we can make sugar. ¡¡Let''s try some other things. ¡¡Got a big pot? There''s one in the warehouse that we use to boil the dried meat. Let''s go back to the warehouse. Back to the warehouse to start the sugar production. The first step is to crush the sugar cane and extract the juice. Under Mercia''s watchful eye, we covered a 60cm-diameter skillet with a cloth she had brought from somewhere, and put about five cane stalks into it. Then, water is magically added to the pot so that the cane is properly soaked, and the pot is heated. The cloth will be used later to remove the cane. Will it work? ...... "Well, if it doesn''t, we''ll try something else. "Well, if it doesn''t work, we''ll try another method." While talking like this, we wait for the temperature to rise. The heat was not low, but it took a long time to heat up because of the large amount of water. After about 20 minutes, the water was finally hot. The next step is to squeeze the juice by magic. Okay, here we go. "Yes. Two pressure spells are generated inside the pot, facing each other, and the cane is sandwiched between them. The pot is fixed rather firmly, so it won''t fall over if the water inside moves due to the pressure magic. When I looked inside, I found that the cane had been crushed perfectly. I looked inside and found that the cane had been crushed perfectly, "Okay, now we can probably get the juice out, including the sugar. ¡¡Let''s pull it out. Yes! Hold the edge of the cloth and squeeze it to remove the sugar cane. I held it with my bare hands, but I didn''t get burned, so I went on. The squeezed cane was placed on the lid of the pot, and all that was left was to boil it down. But. It''s a long story: ...... Yes, it is. It''s too long to evaporate all the water in a pot that is 60cm in diameter and taller than that. Should I just use magic to heat it all at once? But that might burn the sugar, and if you''re not careful, you might break the pot. No, there''s another way to make water evaporate faster. Okay, let''s lower the pressure. We can lower the boiling point. Kiatsu......, what''s that? It''s the pressure of the atmosphere. ¡¡You''ll see. Then I cast a warding spell on the inside of the pot, and use the spell as if I were pulling the air out of the pot. Then, the water will decrease in no time. It''s amazing!¡¡This is the power of Kiatsu? Well, that''s about it. Let''s finish up. Turn off the fire. Yes! After confirming that the fire had stopped and reducing the pressure further, the liquid finally disappeared from the pot, leaving behind a black lump. I took it out, crushed it into small pieces, and put it in my mouth. Oh!¡¡It''s sweet, try it. "...... Yes!¡¡It''s so sweet! The sugar seems to have been successfully refined. The amount of sugar we had boiled down was less than 300 grams, and it was not white, but it was a success. Now that we''ve got the sugar out of the way, let''s go finish blowing up the rest of the decibatore. 57 Episode 56 Sugar and Taxes Today''s bombing went off without any problems, except for the fact that I was almost late for lunch because the sugar production took an unexpectedly long time. Now I''m free until the recapture of Brokens, which will start in about six days. But first, I have to make some arrangements with the mayor to get permission to grow sugar cane. When I went to the guild to report, the mayor was just there. "Excuse me, I have a favor to ask. "What is it?¡¡What is it?" "Well, I''ve been assured that my rank will be raised to C, which means I''ll be able to move up in the Fallen Guild. Why don''t I go to the Decibatore guild? Yeah, in the Decibatore guild the adventurer rank is just a decoration. ¡¡The color of the guild card changes from C rank, but we didn''t have the luxury of carrying equipment and materials for that purpose. The reason for the past tense is because I''ll be transporting all of it now. And even then, I''m not sure it''s a good idea to reduce the guild''s equipment. ...... Well, that''s not what I''m asking for. I''m planning to grow sugar cane on the island, and I need your permission to do so. "Sugar cane?¡¡Isn''t agriculture supposed to be under the jurisdiction of the Commercial Guild? Yes. ¡¡But I heard that the town mayor will be consulted regarding the sugar cane, so I came to consult with him. ...... I''ll have to talk to him. ¡¡I''m not sure what to make of it, but I''m sure it''s a good idea. Well, as the ruler of the city, it''s only natural. Even if almost all of the inhabitants of that small town are adventurers who could be the main force in any other city. "How many kilometers away from here should we be to avoid any impact? Well, ......, I believe the impact distance for sugar cane is about two hundred kilometers, but if we''re talking about an island, we''re talking about forty kilometers from the front lines because of the ocean in between. The impact distance is probably the radius of the impact of sugarcane. If it''s the ocean, it''s a fifth of the distance, but that''s still a long way. ...... By front line, do you mean the border between the cut and uncut areas? "Generally, yes. ¡¡I''m not sure if I''m going to be able to do this, but I''m sure I''ll be able to do it. So, you''re saying we''re in Desibatore now, and when we take Brokens back, we''ll be in Brokens? That''s what I''m saying. The island we''re going to use is about 60 kilometers from Desibatore. ¡¡I don''t think it''s even close to Brokens. Well, that''s not a problem. ¡¡I''ll let them know you''re okay with using an island that''s at least 40 kilometers from both Brokens and Desibatore. ¡¡If you want to do it faster, I''ll write you a letter and you can take it with you. Oh, I got permission. Now if we don''t get blocked by other bureaus, the application will go through. I''d be grateful if you could do that. ¡¡Speaking of which, when and where should we go to retake Brokens? "You still haven''t told me. ¡¡Six days from today, in the morning, you can pick up your belongings at the Photoren Guild and then come to our guild. As he said this, the mayor took out a piece of paper from somewhere, wrote something on it, folded it in four, and went into the back. When the mayor came out a little later, he was holding a folded piece of paper with a blue magic circle imprinted on it, glued tightly shut. Part of the pattern of the magic circle was a coat of arms like the one seen near Desibatore. I wondered if it was something like the way a letter is sealed with a seal. Is it paper? "Hmm?¡¡Yeah, it''s demon skin paper. ¡¡It''s a bit pricey, but carrying heavy writing implements here would be costly. ¡¡I don''t charge for it. It''s a bit pricey, but carrying heavy writing materials here would cost a lot. I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but it''s a good idea. I''m not sure if this is a good idea, but I think it''s a good idea. Thank you very much. ¡¡See you in six days. Yeah, you got it. I thanked the mayor and left the guild. It''s not yet night yet, you''d better go back to Phothren now and deliver this paper to the Commercial Guild. It''s unlikely that they''ll give you a permit as soon as the paper arrives, so the sooner you give it to them, the sooner they''ll give it to you. So, I''m going back to Photoren, going back the way I came a while ago. With my current magic power, I can break through the speed of sound easily, but I won''t have much chance to use it because of the damage to the surroundings. Even so, the acceleration is still different from before, and it takes less than three minutes to reach subsonic speed. As a result, we will arrive at Photon in less than 40 minutes. You go straight to the Commercial Guild. Unlike the Guild, there are only two reception areas at the Commercial Guild. You tell the receptionist at the nearest one what you want. "Excuse me, I have a letter from the mayor of Desibatore, what should I do? I show her the letter, which still has the magic circle floating on it. It is indeed from Desibatore. ¡¡Please wait a moment. Soon after, the receptionist retreated into the back of the room and a small, fat, calm-looking man came out. I don''t know if he''s actually calm or not, but he''s not going to be the head of the branch just because he''s calm. However, he was not a stranger, he was the head of the commercial guild, Photoren, who I had talked to the last time I came to get permission to grow sugar cane. "Oh, it''s you, Kaede. ¡¡That letter is about the effects on demons? Yes, I was able to get your permission, but with conditions. As I handed the letter to him, he held a magic stone over the letter. Then the magic circle changes from blue to red and the letter is unfastened. After reading it, the branch manager nodded lightly and began to talk to me. I understand, I can give you the go-ahead, but I''ll tell you about the taxes and such now, if that''s okay with you? That''s very fast, much faster than I expected. He originally said that he could get the permit by himself, and maybe he just wanted my opinion as a reference. It''s also possible that he wanted the money, but also wanted a target to shift the blame to in case of damage. He kept the letter in his pocket as if he had finished reading it. "Oh, can I bring Mercia?¡¡I''m sure Mercia will take care of that. "Okay, I''ll be waiting. It''s no laughing matter that while adventuring or traveling, you might accidentally become a wanted man for tax evasion. Even in some games, tax evasion is a Karma 60 minus, and you will be hounded by bounty hunters and guards as a criminal. The tax office in Japan is also scary. Although you won''t be killed, if you accidentally spend the amount of tax you evaded, you will have to pay almost 15% interest per year in addition to the additional amount, and you can''t escape the tax even if you go bankrupt. In short, you should pay your taxes. Mercia had finished supervising the dismantling of the demon and was at the Kaede Trading Company. She might have been training the employees, judging from the way she was watching the shopkeepers at the corner of the store. Mercia, is this a good time?¡¡We''ve got a permit to grow sugar cane, and they want to talk to us about taxes and stuff. "Okay, I''m on my way. ¡¡Okay, I''m on my way. Make sure you do everything I say. "Yes, sir! When I told her what I wanted, Mercia instructed the clerks and then followed me. It seems she was training the newcomers after all. I hurried back to the Commercial Guild and found the branch manager sitting near the entrance, waiting for me. "Would you two like to hear the explanation? "Yes, I''ll be there. Yes, I''ll join you. He then stood up and walked into one of the back rooms at a slow speed befitting his size, and after making sure we were in the room, he soundproofed it. It''s going to take a while, so please have a seat. After making sure we were seated, the head of the branch started talking about the conditions. The talk was not as long as I expected, but it was not short either. It was not as long as I expected, but it was not short either. The company would take 20% of the gross profit minus an amount determined by the number of employees. The fixed amount depends on the rank of the employee. 10,000 Tel per month is deducted for each slave, and 20,000 Tel per month for each regular employee. In other words, if you hire a lot of people for the same size of business, the tax will be lower. However, you will have to feed them, which will result in higher costs. In addition, sugar is taxed at 1000 tels per kilo. If you import sugar from outside the country, you will have to pay a tax of 10,000 tels per kilogram. It is normal to impose a tax on imports from abroad, but the reason for imposing a tax on domestic sugar cane is that, due to the nature of sugar cane, the cultivation of sugar cane needs to be managed, so the tax is said to be a way to cover the cost. Finally, there is a port charge of 20,000 Tel per month for the size of the ship I ordered. I''m not sure if this is a tax or not, but it doesn''t make any difference to the payer. That''s all about the taxes, and now I''m going to introduce you to someone who knows a lot about growing sugar cane. He said that he was the grandson of a man who used to grow sugar cane near Desibatore, and that he was interested in sugar cane cultivation. Not only is he interested in it, but he has also heard about the technique from his grandfather, and is sure to find it useful. He is currently working as an ordinary farmer in a small village a little inland from Phothren, but the commercial guild is willing to persuade him. The price of a three-year contract, including fees, is a whopping 10 million ter. ...... Isn''t that a lot of money? "All technologies that are worth money are expensive. ¡¡You can sell something and make a new one, but you can''t sell information twice, you know. Are you confident about your ability to persuade and be useful?¡¡I don''t know the man. I can assure you of that. I can assure you of that. Mercia is sitting there listening, not participating in these negotiations, as if she thinks it''s my decision to make. So, what if I follow his instructions here and don''t succeed? Well, I can''t compensate you for the loss, but I can reduce your fee to one million. You''ll take one million? Yes, because he has a life of his own, not to mention the guild. Well, it would be cruel to drag out a farmer and then say, ''You failed, so no reward. Let''s do it. "All right, then. ¡¡Can I pay with my Decibatore card? "No problem, thank you again. I paid the money like that, and also opened an account for the store at the Commercial Guild, and deposited about 500 million Tel there. Preparations for sugar cane cultivation are going well. By the way, I haven''t raised my guild rank yet. 58 Episode 57: Duel with aristocrats On my way to the Adventurer''s Guild after leaving the Commercial Guild, I was suddenly curious about what was going on with the coke. It hadn''t been long since I started making it, and it was only natural that I wouldn''t get any patent money, but I wanted to see what was going on. There are still a few hours left in the evening, so I''m going to take a quick flight. The guild can wait, there''s no hurry. You fly over the road to Herrera and look at the scenery. The height of the sky is only 50m or so due to the magic, so the scenery is flying at a very high speed. When I came here, it took me about a week, but at the current speed, it will take me at most three hours. It is much longer than Desibatore, but from this time, we should arrive in the evening. After about 20 minutes of flight, I saw a field away from the road. I hadn''t noticed it when I was coming, but at my speed, 20 minutes and 200 kilometers or so away is a long way from Phothren. Maybe it''s a demon thing like sugar cane. I didn''t find much on the rest of the flight. It took me about two hours to see Herrera. Perhaps it was because I took a shortcut by entering from above, instead of going down the mountain honestly when I came. As I was about to enter from the air, I remembered the gatekeeper and rushed back to the gate. When I landed in front of the gate, the gatekeeper looked surprised. Even the innkeeper routinely leaps over the outer wall, so why should he be surprised by someone appearing from the sky? Even when I approached him with my guild card in hand, he didn''t even bother to check my identity, let alone alert me. I have no choice but to call out to him to bring him back to reality. "Hey, gatekeeper, work work work. "Oh, yeah, ......, okay, you''re free to go. ¡¡Is that flight magic or something? Yeah, it''s just flight magic. ...... Oh, so you''re ''only'' flying after all that. I quickly walked through the gate and headed for the charcoal shop. I think I heard the gatekeeper say something, but I''m sure he''ll stop me if he needs to, so it probably doesn''t matter to me. Compared to the last time I left the city, not much has changed, so there''s no reason to get lost. The only thing that has changed is that the percentage of blue-ish weapons in the weapon stores has greatly increased, and the town has become more lively. In particular, there are more swords with colors between silver and blue on display than iron. The same is true for armor, except that armor itself is less numerous than swords. Has there been an outbreak of metal-grabbing monsters like the Metal Lizard? While I was thinking about this, I arrived at the charcoal shop. Well, to be precise, I arrived at the place where the charcoal shop used to be, but the shop had changed. Or rather, there was no charcoal shop. It seemed that the building of the charcoal shop had been demolished and a new huge building was being constructed. Stones and other building materials are piled up on a huge site that seems to have overtaken the former plot. Did the charcoal shop go out of business? I looked around and saw a small wooden sign. It read, "If you have any questions about the charcoal shop, please contact the Coal Mining Association. It seemed that both the coal shop and the association were safe. When we went to the place where the association used to be, we found that it was also very different from before. There was much more activity than before, and smoke was rising from the buildings in the back, which were not there before. As I watched, a cart carrying coke came out from the back and hurried away. The coke seems to be useful. The coke seems to be useful, though it seems to be overpowered by the blue metal. I showed my guild card at the counter near the entrance, and was taken to Mr. Gainta. I sat down in a good quality chair and waited for about five minutes before Mr. Gaither came out. "Hello, Coke, how are you doing? "Very profitable. ¡¡Now that we have a little more equipment, we''ve made three months'' worth of sales in one week. That much? ¡¡I don''t think we have enough iron for that. Do you sell it in other cities? Iron?¡¡What are you talking about? Huh? Oh, I guess I didn''t inform you. ¡¡We found out that we can refine mithril much more cheaply with coke than before, so we raised the price of coke and sent the entire amount to mithril refining. ¡¡I''ve taken the liberty of raising the price, but I can''t wait for the maple to change so much in a week. So that blue metal was mithril? When I think of mithril, I think of it as a rare material, like holy silver. ...... I''m sure you''ll be able to find a lot more than you think. I''m not an expert in smelting, but I don''t think there are that many ores. I don''t have a problem with the price increase, I''d do it too. ¡¡By the way, I heard that mithril is easy to refine, but where do you get the mithril ore from? I''ve heard that it''s easy to refine mithril, but where do you get the mithril ore from?" "There''s no such thing as getting mithril ore, you can just throw a stone and it will hit mithril ore, in fact, there''s even a story that even the stone you threw was mithril ore. ¡¡It''s more rare to find a place without mithril ore. What? There''s that much mithril ore? But they didn''t make that much before, did they? You didn''t see many blue swords before. You can''t make a lot of mithril ore if you spend a lot of money to refine only the high-grade parts of it. ¡¡And that''s only natural if you''re going to burn it directly. Direct burning of magic stones: ...... So you''ve been refining them that way, no wonder there are so few. I''m not sure what to make of this. No, but as long as they say they burn, they do. I didn''t know that. ¡¡By the way, have you heard from other cities that they want to use your coke production technology? "Yes, there are many. We''ve only decided on two locations yet, but we''ve had more than one merchant association from one city come to negotiate with us. I''m glad to hear that, but do you want to give it to all the ...... that seem to be in trouble and have them compete? It doesn''t matter who wins, we''ll still make money. No, if the competition gets too fierce, there''s a good chance someone will do something wrong, and if one of them goes under, we won''t get paid for it. In other words, if we focus on one of them... No, after all, we need coal to make coke, so at this point, we''ve decided to only provide the technology to organizations that have their own coal mines. "No, after all, we need coal to make coke. This time, there is a possibility that there will be a competition for coal mines, but it will be different from the procurement competition that will occur permanently, because it will end when it is settled. I think it''s good. ¡¡It''s only a matter of time before the capital investment is completed and the patent fees start pouring in to me. ¡¡Any other problems? The Kingdom of Basis is willing to act as an intermediary to sell this technology abroad, free of charge. This kingdom?¡¡Since they''re not asking us for money, are they planning to use it as a diplomatic card? Yes, because it''s an extremely useful technology against demons. ¡¡And I have some bad news. What kind of bad news? My lord''s drummer son. ...... The story is that the eldest son of the lord of this place is trying to raise taxes on the lucrative mining industry. This kind of mining is essential to fight demons, so the tax is greatly reduced. It seems that the lord''s eldest son doesn''t like that, and is insisting on paying more tax. The lord and his second son are sane, but the lord is currently in the capital and will not return for about a month, and the second son has less power than the first son, so he cannot stop him. Isn''t he an idiot? What is he thinking, a son of a lord defying the decision of the country without the approval of his parents? I''m sure he''s not thinking about it. All right, I''ll go smash it. ¡¡I can snipe it from a distance with pressure magic. Wait, wait. They won''t do much good if we leave them in peace. If the heir of the lord of the city that is the foundation of the coke business is like that, we can''t do business with peace of mind. He''s like a bandit. He should be eliminated. "No? It doesn''t matter if he''s the undisputed son of a drummer, if the lord''s eldest son is assassinated, it''s a big deal, he''ll become a bandit. Hmm, I see. So we should just do it fair and square without assassinating him. I think there is a duel system in this world. That wouldn''t make me a bandit. "All right, I''ll take care of it. ¡¡I''ll beat you up in a duel. "I don''t think so. ¡¡He''s been trained as a knight, and including his expensive equipment, he''s probably a D-rank. ¡¡There''s no way he''d accept a duel from a higher rank. Is that so? Well, I was careless. I forgot to raise my rank in the Photoren guild. So now I''m still rank E. Oh, no. "What do you think my rank is now? "What''s that all of a sudden?¡¡Aren''t you supposed to be a C or B? No, I''m actually an E. "What''s ......? ......? And this is how I ended up challenging the lord''s drummer son to a duel. So I asked him not to reveal me to people who know my ability, and then I made a plan to make him accept. The plan goes like this. Tomorrow afternoon, my eldest son (Radomkos or something like that) will probably pass by the square to tell me to pay my taxes here. The square is very crowded in the morning, with many people making small talk before work. In the midst of all this, I challenge Radomkos to a duel in the most condescending manner possible, asserting in a high voice that I am an E rank. Radomkos is said to be proud and high-minded, so if he is challenged to a duel by an E rank in public, it is unlikely that he will refuse. If you let him accept, all you have to do is beat him up in the most humiliating way possible, and your mission is complete. Since Radomkos has a bad reputation with the people of the city, no one will complain if you do it. You''ll get what you deserve for making me your enemy. 59 Episode 58 Duels and Executions The day of the mission has arrived. The countermeasures are in place. The countermeasure was to see if my magic would work on a plate with the same kind of ability as the high grade armor that Radomkos wears on a daily basis, which is said to prevent the activation of magic inside and weaken magic on the surface. I was just testing to see if my magic would work on a plate that had the same ability as the high quality armor that they have against magic - which is said to prevent magic from working inside and weaken it on the surface - and I was preparing equipment for a duel. As a result, it turned out that the spell did not fail to work at all, and did not even decay, so I did not take any countermeasures. As for the equipment for the duel, I only prepared F-grade equipment in order to avoid being run away from or being told that I won by the power of my equipment. Radomkos is on his way to the square. He should arrive in about five minutes. Copy that! A member of the Miners'' Association, who had come running from the lord''s mansion, informed us. Aerial reconnaissance would be quicker, but I don''t want to risk them finding out that I''m a wizard who can fly high. Until I get a duel, I''m going to play the part of an overconfident E rank adventurer with a righteous indignation. Radomkos'' footsteps were slower than expected, and after about six minutes, Radomkos appeared in the square. He is easily recognizable by his dark blue armor, called Arc Mithril, and his gory decorations. In addition, he has a knight guarding him a bit behind. I also entered the square, and when Radomkos was approaching the center of the square, I spoke to him. "Hey, you''re Radomkos, aren''t you? "Hmm?¡¡What are you?¡¡You''re a lowly commoner, you talk to me, and you call me by my name, do you want to die?¡¡Call me Master Radomkos. I can feel the endless aura of a jerk. ...... I''m not sure what to make of this, but I think it''s a good idea. Anyway, the provocation continues. "Shut up, I heard from Mr. Gaither. ¡¡"Shut up, I heard from Mr. Gaither.¡¡Take it back. What do you think I''m saying? ¡¡I have a reason, I can pay more taxes for this noble man, I should be happy. What the hell is he talking about? "What?¡¡Who would be happy to pay taxes to a crazy a**h*le aristocrat like you, are you out of your mind? "...... What? Radomkos puts his hand on the sword at his hip. You''re really easy to provoke, thank God you''re weak in the head. If you weren''t so weak, you wouldn''t have suggested such a tax increase in the first place. One more push. Are you going to do it?¡¡Do you think a lousy aristocrat can beat this E rank adventurer, Suzumiya? I''m not lying. "E rank?¡¡All right, let''s duel. ¡¡Let''s see what happens to those who make an enemy of the noble me. A crowd of onlookers steadily gathered around us, forming an almost circular crowd about three meters away from me and Radomkos. It''s a good idea to take a look at the actual information on the web. This is a great way to make sure that you get the most out of your time with your family and friends. ...... On the contrary, if you look closely, you can see that one of the knights looks familiar, maybe you''ve talked to him before when you were fighting off bandits. You know what I''m capable of, so why don''t you stop me? As I looked at him, I made eye contact with the knight. The knight made a gut-punch-like gesture toward me. Does he hate you that much, Radomkos? Radomkos is staring at me, oblivious to this. It''s only natural, though, since his full-face armor is further narrowing his already narrow vision. "Okay, let''s duel. ¡¡If you want to escape, now is the time. I''m a nobleman, I would never do such a thing. ¡¡...... Hey, you there, bear witness. I''m sure you''ll be pleased to know that I''m not the only one who''s had it. I understand. I''m not sure what to make of this. Now, before the duel, we need to decide on the terms. If I win, you''ll cancel the tax hike, right? "Well, if I win, I''ll take all your money and feed your corpse to the demons. ¡¡To be honest, this isn''t even close to a duel with the noble me, but I''m going to win anyway, and of course the condition of victory is that I kill my opponent. It''s not even close. How much money do you think I have? "OK, I''ll kill you. "Since I''m ranked D and you''re ranked E, why don''t you have a little fun? What''s the difference between D and E? I''m not sure which is stronger, the E rank strongest or the D rank weakest? I''m not sure what to make of this. So let''s get started. As soon as I said that, Radomkos came running towards me with his glittering silver sword held high in the air. It''s a good idea to take a look at the particulars of the particulars. It was supposed to be ......, but the opponent was too weak. You''ll be able to get a lot more than just a pair of shoes. "Gah! Radomkos shouted in pain, but the sword was repelled by the armor. I''m not sure what to do. My sword''s blade is now partially dented, and it''s even spilling. On the other hand, the armor on the other side has only a small scratch on it, and the sword seems to be intact. It is not a matter of martial arts or swordsmanship, but the hardness is too different. It''s like using a plastic sword against a Japanese sword. Why do you have such power ......? What cowardly means did you use ......? No, you''re just too weak, is that it? As I said this, I slammed my broken sword into the body of Radomkos'' armor with great force. If the sword can''t take it, you can use your momentum to crush it before it breaks. "Aha! The armor dents, and Radomkos is blown about two meters away. A circle of onlookers spread out to avoid it. Radomkos struggles to stay on the ground. The weight of his armor may have caused him to fall, but the damage seems to have been severe. The victory condition is ...... I have to kill him? If that was the victory condition, then there was nothing to be done. That''s what I was planning to do originally. Thinking to that point, I look at the sword that was broken from the middle by the attack earlier. If I just want to cut off the head, swinging it down as hard as I can will be enough. See you later. I said, and held the sword at the top. That''s when Radomkos shouted. "Wait!¡¡Listen to me! Hmm?¡¡Is there something more? I''ll give you a will. What is it? Please don''t kill me!¡¡...... Yes, the money. ¡¡I''ll give you some money. ¡¡How much? A million? You''re begging for your life at this point. ...... I''m not sure what you mean by "noble", but I''m not sure you''re really a knight. I''m not sure if you''re a knight or not. I''m sure you''re not the only one. I''m not sure what to make of it.¡¡It''s not your money? As I''m thinking about it, I suddenly notice a lot of noise around me. Or rather, a unanimous call to kill. Even the knight guards are joining in. Is that what you want, knight? Well, I can''t help him in this atmosphere. There. "You''re missing four digits, people are saying this, you should be ashamed of your actions and the victory conditions you set for yourself for causing so much resentment. After I said it, I realized that almost all of it was my own fault. This time, I raise my sword and try to cut off Radomkos'' head. The others quieted down and watched. "Wait! I hear from the onlookers. Who is it this time? "My lord!¡¡"Lord Farza! Some of the onlookers shouted. "My lord?¡¡I thought you weren''t coming back for another month. A man with a well-built body that contradicted the image of a nobleman stepped forward from the onlookers with a tired look on his face, leading a knight. What are we going to do with this? "Well, my lord, the only way to win this duel is to kill your opponent, what should we do? I''m sorry, but let''s call it a draw, without the tax hike, of course, since we''ve come here earlier than expected to stop it. Well, that''s fine with me, but if he stays, there are going to be other problems ....... Of course, Radomkos will be dealt with accordingly. Then the lord said. "Father!¡¡You''ve come to save us! Radomkos clung to the lord. The lord kicked Radomkos. He kicks him. The lord then orders the knight behind him to... "Shut up. You''re no son of mine. ¡¡Seize him! Ha! Why, Father? I told you, you''re no son!¡¡You''re nothing but a filthy criminal. ¡¡I came back here to execute you!¡¡Shut him up! "Ha! One of the knights takes off Radomkos'' helmet and beats him unconscious. One of the knights takes off Radomkos''s helmet and beats him to death. I''m sorry, but I need to talk to you at the mansion. You said the lord was a decent man. You said he was a decent man. He''s not going to make you smoke anything. Yes, sir. As soon as I reply, Mr. Ga-inta comes out from behind the onlookers. "Sorry about that. The lord apologizes again. According to what I heard at the mansion afterwards, the servants rushed to contact the capital as soon as Radomkos started talking about increasing taxes. The magnitude of the incident was so great that it was immediately decided that Radomkos would be stripped of his noble status and executed, and Master Farza left the capital to execute it. He arrived here as fast as he could, day and night, with many horses and wagons. Fortunately, Radomkos''s deed was so poor that only Radomkos was executed, Farza and the others were not executed, and the lord will continue if we allow it. He seems to have been a good lord, and I guess it''s thanks to the trust he''s built up over the years. Of course I said yes. The execution of Radomkos will take place tomorrow and he will be beheaded, but it''s not something worth watching. I didn''t ask for anything in return or compensation, but my lord has agreed to help me with the procedures of the mining association, at least to this extent. It seems that the authority of a single lord cannot be used to reduce taxes. There were some who tried to do so. This is how the incident of the nobleman''s son raising taxes came to an end. 60 Episode 59 Fish and Herbs As I fly over the road to Photoren, I notice that I have a book in my hand. It was given to me by Mr. Gainta when I left Herrera. He said it had come out of the mine after I left Herrera last time, but he gave it to me because no one but me could read it anyway. Perhaps it''s a property of flight magic, but even if the speed increases, the magic power consumption increases, and I don''t feel any wind. I could read it while flying. So I thought, and opened the book, looking down from time to time to avoid getting lost. The contents were about dragons. It describes the conditions under which dragons appear and how to deal with them. There are two main conditions for the appearance of dragons. First, the density of "magical elements" in the atmosphere must exceed a certain level. Magnesium is a word I''ve seen in the context of magic poisoning. It seems to be difficult to distinguish because it is invisible, but it is easy to distinguish because when the density of magical elements exceeds a certain level, it causes various adverse effects. Mainly, it is said that sub dragons and other strong demons spawn in large numbers, and that the maximum magical power of human beings decreases in general. As far as I know, I haven''t heard of anything that has lowered my maximum magic power, so I''m relieved. I''ve only seen one sublong once, and it was far from a mass outbreak. Secondly, the trigger for the birth of dragons occurs in places where there is enough magical element. The amount of triggers varies depending on the amount of magical elements, but it is said that magical stones are used to force explosions when they are intentionally generated. It is said that magic stones help the creation of dragons. It is said that wisps are created under similar conditions, and that they are a kind of wasted dragon. There are also instructions on how to defeat them. Most magic doesn''t work on it, and it burns up as soon as you slash it with any sword, so it is impossible to kill it. As a result of researching how to deal with it, he found out that he could prevent it from happening again for a while by freezing it with a spell called "Magical Freeze", which was made on a very large scale by magic tools and a large number of wizards, and sealing it deep underground. Incidentally, two continents were wiped out before that method was found. It''s a horrible story. This was the main content of the book. It''s a thin book (not the kind sold at Ariake in summer or winter, but literally thin), so it doesn''t go into that much detail, but I''m relieved to know that everything is okay now. Should I look into "The Magic Freeze" just in case? No, there''s no hurry. As long as there are no signs, the chances of a dragon being born in my lifetime are probably quite low. Even if there are signs, it will take about five years for dragons to appear naturally. ...... Well, it is too late to wait, because by the time dragons arise naturally, wizards will be useless and the dragons that appear will be unpredictably strong and unmanageable. But it seems that the ancient civilization did not try that hard. If they had, they might have died out sooner. I don''t feel like trying it either. As I finish reading, I realize that Photoren is almost here. I''ll have to get my rank up this time. I don''t think I''ll ever run into a situation where I''ll need to cheat on my rank, and I don''t want to. You enter the city through the gate. I landed about 100 meters in front of the gate and ran to the gate so that I wouldn''t be surprised, but I don''t know how effective it is. I went straight to the guild, presented my guild card to the receptionist I saw, and talked to her. "Excuse me, I''d like to raise my rank. "You''re from Decibatore, aren''t you? ¡¡One moment, please. The receptionist takes your card and goes into the back room. A few moments later, the receptionist came out with a new guild card in her hand. The new guild card was blue in color with a coppery stripe across the top. Does the design change as you move up in rank? Yes, I can confirm that. ¡¡Congratulations on the shortest time between registration and promotion to C rank. Thank you very much. Thank you." We took quite a few detours, but this was still the shortest record. I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but I think it''s a good idea. If the knights in ...... are at a level where even the Radomkos can become knights, then it''s not so bad. In that case, I would be worried about the security of the city. With this in mind, I left the guild. Then, I realized that I was hungry. By the way, I haven''t eaten breakfast. I remember hearing that there is a restaurant with good fish dishes a little further towards Desibatore from here. I feel like I''ve been eating a lot of grilled meat lately, so fish would be nice once in a while. After a short walk, I found the restaurant I was looking for. On the door, there is a large fish symbol. It is a familiar fish symbol on Earth, a combination of a triangle and an oval. Perhaps the image of a fish is similar in other worlds. Well, I don''t know of any ocean that is crawling with fish that would sink a ship and eat people. You enter a restaurant, take a seat, and wait to be asked your order. This seems to be the norm in this world. "What can I get for you? A woman who looks like a waitress comes to take your order. "Do you have any recommended fish dishes? Even if there is a menu, it is meaningless if you cannot read it. Or rather, you can read the menu, but even if you can read the words "Eratana''s Leches", you don''t know what it is, so it''s no different from a spell dish written in French in katakana. Also, what the heck is "Desibatore style of Nerquin"? Is it called "Desibatore" style? If so, I''d recommend these Elatana retschis, they''re at their best right now. It was a lucky guess. The price is not very expensive, 240 Tel per meal. But it''s not cheap. So be it. I placed my order, and after a while, the food came out. It was a little slower than the restaurants in Eyn, but the restaurants in this world work fast. The fish that came out was kind of tough. It was a whole fish, about 40 centimeters in size, with stinging jaws and fins. It''s not a scorpionfish, but more like this: ...... There''s something about this fish that gives me a sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. I think it''s a black bass. It''s probably a salted fish. I wonder if it''s good. ...... Well, since it is recommended, it must be good. I cut a little piece of fish called "elatana" and put it in my mouth. ...... It''s just plain good, tasting like a high-class river fish. It looks like ayu fish, though it is quite large. Ayu with a lot of volume is the best. Even at this price, it''s worth the reputation. I devoured all the meat in less than 10 minutes. However, there was still some meat left on the bones and near the spines. However, the tableware in this restaurant is a wooden knife-like thing and something that looks like a broken spoon. Unlike chopsticks, they are not suitable for this kind of detailed work. It was time to exercise the power of my jaws, which had been strengthened by my ...... status. I''ll try to chew the remaining meat off the bone. ...... It''s very tasty. The cracker-like texture and the taste of eratana are a perfect match. If I''m not careful, it might be better than eating the meat alone. As I ate, I noticed that the elatana was completely gone, leaving the backbone and head. "Thank you for the meal, please pay the bill. "Yes, that''ll be 240 yen. ¡¡Please come again. ...... Oh, where are the other bones? The waiter asks me with a strange look on his face as he takes my money. "Oh, it was so good that I ate the whole bone. ¡¡Thank you for the food. And with that, I leave the restaurant. "Are you from ......? I heard such a voice as I was leaving. You''re right. Now that you''re hungry, let''s do some work. Burning a field is not just a matter of lighting a fire here. You have to blow up the island you''re planning to plant on beforehand. Farming has become very noisy. While worrying about the future of slash-and-burn agriculture, we move to the island and dive bomb it. The bombing, made more powerful by the defeat of the dragons, struck the entire island, blowing up the trees with a roar. About a minute after the bombing, the island regained its tranquility. Thanks to the disappearance of the trees, I found out that there is a lake on the island. It might be useful for something. I got closer and took a peek. The water seems to have saved it from being bombed to some extent, but the water is muddy and there are fallen trees. There are also a lot of remnants of zunana grass floating around. There are no fish in sight, and it seems to be no more than a water source. Better than nothing, I guess. It seems that we need to let it burn for a few days, so we decide to collect the blown-up weeds and go home. I''ll take a good rest tomorrow, since I won''t be able to rest for a while once the Brokens attack starts. --Two days later. I''m heading back to the island. To burn the trees and secure the farmland, of course. Mercia would take care of the rest once the demons were taken care of, so that''s pretty much all I had to do. In other words, all I have to do is to burn the island down to the ground where it was the day before yesterday. That''s what I thought, but what was waiting for me was a field of lush zunana grass. I couldn''t believe my eyes. ...... I blew it up the day before yesterday, didn''t I? I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. No, but I''m sure we recovered the wreckage, but what happened? Well, whatever the reason, there aren''t many places where you can collect zunana grass without trees. I mowed it down with water magic, put it in the item box, and set it on fire. The large barrage of fire magic swallowed the trees and turned the island into a sea of fire. Okay, that''s it. I''ll come back tomorrow to check on it. I''ll have to ask Mercia about how to use the large amount of zunana grass. We burned it today, so it won''t be on the island anymore, but it''s still a lot to collect. That''s what I thought as I left the island and came back the next day to check on it. --The next day, I came to see what was going on, and what I saw was a lush, green field of Zunana grass. 61 Episode 60 Medicinal Herbs and Secrets The zunana grass that I mowed yesterday and turned into a sea of fire on top of it has fully recovered. There is no mistaking it, there are no trees, there is a pond, it is clearly the island of yesterday. Apparently, the life force or resurrection power of the Zunana grass surpasses even that of the bamboo, the most powerful bio-weapon of the earth. I wonder if this resurrection ability is correct for a plant, no matter how many zunana plants there are in the realm of demons. I can''t imagine that the seeds would remain after being destroyed to such an extent. Do they spring out of the air, or are there invisible seeds dancing in the air? If so, there''s really nothing we can do about it. ...... Is it not a plant, but a fungus or something? If you think that there is some kind of mycelium in the ground, and the zunana grass is a kind of mushroom (spawn) that grows from it, it might be possible to explain it. Then, there is one way to try. I cut the Zunana grass with magic, and while collecting it, I create a huge explosive shell about five meters long. The magic power used is about 4,000 for the shell itself and 50,000 for the explosive. It would take a level of magic power that would eradicate trees in a 300-meter square, but if you want to create a crater, you have to do something like this. To avoid damage, jump up high in the air and hit a suitable flat area. The huge bunker-buster-like cannonball, with its magical strength, bites into the ground about five meters and explodes. Like a boulder thrown into water, it blows the surrounding earth and sand high into the sky. Afterwards, the earth and sand that had been flung up to a height of about 100 meters fell to the ground, turning the island into a brown wilderness (with ponds and craters). It is unlikely that any more will grow. If it does, there''s nothing we can do about it but either make it our main business or plant sugar cane in the hope that it will live in harmony with the weed. However, this island is occupied by the sow thistle, and there is no room for sugar cane. Originally, the island was an island where trees and zunana grass coexisted, but who made it into such an ecosystem? ...... Well, there''s no point in looking for the culprit, I''ll just find a way to make good use of the zunana grass. I''m sure you''ll be able to find a way to make use of it. On the other hand, if I were to come all the way here to hunt for Zunana grass, I could make more money by destroying demons. If that''s the case, I''m going to go to Mercia, the conscience of the management of Kaede Merchant. So, I think we can make a lot of money if we collect a lot of Zunana grass and sell it. A few minutes later, I was explaining the situation to Mercia and asking for her opinion. A few minutes later, I explained the situation to Mercia and asked for her opinion. What is it? First of all, even though zunana grass is always in short supply, the supply of hundreds of kilograms of it every day, or even close to a ton, would quickly become saturated. ¡¡Even if the price is reduced, there is a limit to the demand considering the time required to reuse the product. ¡¡In addition, when Brokens is retaken and the defense line is completed, there will be a large supply of Zunana grass from the forest cut from Desibatore to Brokens. ¡¡...... unless it takes a long time to build the defense line. But we can''t deliberately delay the Brokens. ...... The other question is how long the Zunana grass will continue to grow. ¡¡In general, when you cut through a demon''s territory, the peak of zunana grass growth in that area is about three months after you clear the land, and then the yield suddenly drops. ¡¡This is probably the biggest reason why there is currently no cultivation for zunana grass. It takes less than an hour to clear a field, and you can burn it down every three months. ¡¡We can burn it down every three months, and when the zunana grass stops growing, we can turn it into sugar cane fields. If an environmental group or something were to ask, they might be outraged, but there is no such thing in this world. On the contrary, the guild is taking the initiative in burning down the forest. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for, and how you can use it. "If you can use the amount, why not concentrate it to increase the effect? With a few exceptions, the effects that can be produced with the same type of material do not change no matter how much is consumed, since the effect limit of potions depends mainly on the amount of Zunana grass consumed. What are the exceptions? If you drink a large amount of Zunana grass soaked in Desibatore wine mixed with other ingredients, you will recover more magic power than usual. ¡¡Of course, you''ll be too drunk to do any magic. "What''s decibatore?¡¡Does it have to be that? It''s supposed to be a distilled version of regular liquor. ¡¡Regular liquor doesn''t seem to work as well. ...... Maybe it''s alcohol extraction? I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. Where can I get some of that Decibutre liquor? Well, they basically make it from regular alcohol when they take it to Decibatore, so I don''t think they have it in stock. ...... Okay, I''ll make it then. If you don''t have it, you can make it. From a nearby liquor store, I bought a large amount of cheap but high alcohol (I drank a little of it, and it was surprisingly good with a light flavor), and distilled it with magic. One hour later. After multiple distillations, the liquor had been successfully distilled into something like 10 liters of Desibatore liquor. I threw about five kilograms of zunana grass into it, filtered it through a cloth, and distilled it, and was left with about 300 ml of a viscous, bluish liquid. Of course, the alcohol was collected separately. ...... is it done? I ask Mercia, looking at the bright blue liquid, which is quite toxic. Well, ...... I''ve never heard of this method, and I don''t want to hear about it. I don''t even know the color of the potion to begin with. What should I do? ...... I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. Zunana Plant Extract Description: Zunana plant extracted with alcohol. Contains about 5% alcohol and 82% water. Looks like it''s finished. The distillation of the alcohol may have been poor, and there is an excessive amount of water. "Okay, maybe it''ll work. ¡¡What about the other ingredients? Depends on the type of potion. The one that requires the most strength is the restorative. The effect of the potion is directly related to life. Strength. I''m not a professional herbalist, so I don''t know the exact formula, but I''m pretty sure it should be a mixture of charred demon meat. "Understood. And so the creation of the new potion continued, and after another hour. After another hour, the ingredients were added and stirred, and what looked like a 100ml potion was completed. Appraisal. Restore Strength Potion Description: Restores strength 80 times. ¡¡No other potion of the same type will have the same effect for about 30 minutes after use. ¡¡The amount is equivalent to two doses. 80? I have nearly 1000 HP, but normal human HP is like 30, or even 100 for an adventurer, right? ...... Resurrect the dead? No, you can''t do that if you''re dead. Oh, I''ve created something horrible. ...... What''s wrong with you? I have a vague idea of what I''ve seen, but apparently this drug is capable of reviving a dying man in one shot. I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one. ¡¡Is it really that great? Maybe. ¡¡I wish I had someone to test it on. I can''t go out of my way to injure you or make you injure me, and I have no way to prove it. You could go to a sanitarium. It''s a possibility. ...... You''re going to say, ''I''ve made a new drug, and I want you to be my test subject''? Some people have no choice but to die, and if there''s hope, it''s a gamble that could benefit both of us. ¡¡And the restorative potions are somewhat effective against diseases. You mean like a medical experiment? Well, I don''t think the appraisal will be wrong, and if it can be done, so much the better. Well, let''s just go for it. ...... I went to the clinic, thinking that there was no such thing as a convenient patient. But there he was. Are you sure you want to do this?¡¡You''re risking instant death. "Yeah, you''re not going to make it. ¡¡I can''t live like this, I''ll only cause trouble for my family, and now this. ¡¡Death or recovery, what could be better? When I told the story to the healing center, a patient came forward. The patient was a thin man of about 30. He used to be a skilled adventurer, but unfortunately, he was hit by a goblin arrow in the knee, and the wound caused him to become ill. He can no longer walk, and his wife and children are working to support the family, but life is getting harder and harder. His HP score is 21/96, almost a perfect match. I understand. ¡¡Here, take this. Mercia gives the man half of the medicine she made. "Okay, here we go. Then the man gulps down the potion. The man gulps it down. And then the man begins to suffer. Did I get it wrong? Are you okay? "...... And then the man stopped suffering. I thought for a moment that he was dead, but he didn''t look that way. He looked surprised. "...... I can move!¡¡I can move! In fact, he was not dead at all. On the contrary, the man threw away the cloth that had been draped over him and stood up strongly on his feet. Even his body, which was supposed to be skinny, became the body of a muscular adventurer. Is this recovery?¡¡I wouldn''t be surprised if it was some kind of crazy doping. No, this is not the time to be thinking about this. I have to get some data. "Um, ......, are you okay? "Oh, yeah. ...... It''s like I''m back in my prime. ¡¡Is that some kind of secret potion? Before you know it, you''ll be speaking to me in honorifics. It''s not a secret. ¡¡Was your body like that in its prime? "Yes, a little slower, but not too bad. ¡¡You saved my life. No, I have my own agenda. Are you sure you want to do this for free? That''s what it''s always been about. ¡¡Well, we''ll leave you to it. It can''t bring back the dead, but it can revive a weakened body. It''s a terrible drug. When it becomes widespread, there may come a time when people will say, "I managed to survive with only a fatal wound, ....... "You''ve perfected the method of consuming large amounts of zunana weed. I don''t think it''s such a small problem anymore. ...... It doesn''t matter if it''s a small problem or a big one, bigger is better than smaller. In the meantime, I''ll put all the finished products in the item box. You might be able to use them when someone gets injured in the battle of Brokens. 62 Episode 61 Guilds and Drugs After completing the experiments on the human body with the new potion and confirming the usefulness of the Zunana grass extract, I decided to work towards its mass production. Even though the potency of the potion was high, it would not be a viable business if I had to refine it myself. It is only when you build a system that brings in money even if you leave it alone that you can say you are a truly competent businessman. ...... is no longer a businessman, but an investor or an entrepreneur. "So I''m going to build a device that can efficiently mass produce the extract. "But you need permission before you can mass produce it and sell it, right?¡¡I don''t think permission will be easy to get. That''s right. If you want to sell potions on a large scale as an apothecary, you''ll need permission from the Apothecary Guild. It is highly unlikely that a merchant guild with the potency and production power to wipe out the existing apothecaries would be allowed to enter the market. So, here goes. I''m thinking of selling it as a material, not a medicine. Ingredients, huh, ......? Yeah, the extract is not a drug, so you don''t need a permit to sell it. But you do need a permit to sell medicine made from the extracts. ¡¡What pharmacist would buy it? I could sell it to adventurers in combination with other ingredients, since the mixture would be effective enough, but I''m thinking of asking for permission without doing that. I''m not sure what to do, but I''m going to try to get permission. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out a way to get permission to sell the new drug in exchange for the right to process it. I''m not sure what to make of it, but I''m sure it''s worth it. If we dilute it, we will have an existing drug that can be used in large quantities, so the demand is likely to increase. This will create a win-win situation, which is not possible when people are competing for the limited demand (pie). Adventurers will be able to take on more dangerous and lucrative enemies, and everyone will be happy. In addition, if you get a little injured or use magic and consume some medicine, that would be great. I might be able to do that. ¡¡Shall we go to the Medicine Man''s Guild right away? No, my presence won''t change the outcome anyway, I''ll leave that to you. ¡¡We don''t have much time before the battle of Brokens. I don''t have a lot of time before the Brokens. Huh. ...... So where are you going, Kaede? "I''m going to Herrera for a while. ¡¡I''m going to Herrera. ¡¡I have an appointment. I''ll go to the apothecary''s guild. ¡¡Can I take the potion you just gave me to prove its effectiveness? Yes, you''d better take it with you. I''ll also give you the extract before mixing it with the other ingredients. Mercia left for the Apothecary''s Guild with them. I left for Herrera. It took me about two hours to reach Herrera, which is still a long way. It took me about two hours to get to Herrera, which is a long way. Hello Mr. Gainta, I''m here today to get some tools that have nothing to do with coke or mithril, is that okay? "...... I''ll do my best to help, but the Mining Society is not a blacksmith shop. ¡¡Is it something that can be obtained at the Coal Mining Association? I don''t know. ...... It''s a kind of tool used for distillation. Do you have any recommendations on where to get it? If you want distillation equipment for liquor, the blacksmith shop behind the guild does it. Thank you, I''ll go there. Thinking about it, it''s wrong to ask for a distillation unit in a coal mine. When I was working on the coke, the prototype was completed so quickly that I forgot about it. So I went to the store to order it. I didn''t even have to order it, there was a device in the store that looked like the one I wanted. It was made by Mithril. "Oh, excuse me, ......, is this a distillation device? You ask the dwarf who seems to be the owner of the store. If what you bought thinking it was a distillation device was actually a washing machine, you would be blind. Hmm?¡¡Oh, yes, it''s used for distilling alcohol. The shopkeeper replied in a very friendly manner for a dwarf. "Can I buy this? You can buy one if you have the money, because we don''t take reservations. You can buy one if you have the money. 5.3 million ter a unit, so it''s not something you can easily buy on your own. ...... You''re going to keep making something that expensive? It takes a long time to make one. ¡¡If you can afford it, you should make it. I''d like to buy it. Can you show me how to use it? Do you have the money? The shopkeeper looks at me quizzically. If a young man who looks like an adventurer wants to buy a device that can build a house, anyone would do so. In such cases, it is best to prove it. "Yes. ¡¡If it has the performance you want, you can buy it right now. Then you take out 53 large gold coins from the item box. Can I check? "Yes. You hand over the gold coins. I''m surprised. ¡¡A young man from a noble family or a large trading house? The owner takes a quick look at the large gold coin and hands it back to me. There is no need to check the details. If you make something that can''t be understood otherwise, you''ll be a bandit immediately for counterfeiting money. "Can you explain how to use it? Yes, I''ll do it. The usage was not so difficult. All you have to do is build a fire, put the distillation target inside, and it will do its job. It is said that a human being has to judge where to stop distilling. Incidentally, there is no particular reason why it is made of mithril, but because it is cheap and strong. It seems to me that mithril is about to take over the position that iron used to hold on Earth. It''s so eroded that it wouldn''t be surprising if the age of mithril reinforced concrete came. All right, I''ll buy this. I declare, and hand over a large gold coin. "Thank you. ¡¡I''ll have to disassemble it to carry it. When will you take it out? "Oh, I can carry it myself. ¡¡I have an item box. I don''t think you can do this. ¡¡Even though mithril is light, it''s still a piece of metal. No, I can do it. ¡¡Do you mind if I try? I don''t care if it''s yours now. ...... Permission granted. I touch the distillation device and try to put it in the item box. And sure enough, it works. There you go. "Is the ...... item box that useful? Yes, they are. ¡¡It''s very convenient. It can keep your lunch hot, or carry tons of iron ore easily. Depending on the object, it can also be used in combat by simply dropping it from the sky. I''ll leave you to it. ¡¡I have more business to attend to. Oh, yeah, ......, you can come by if you need me again. It was surprisingly easy to get it. I''ll be free for a whole day tomorrow. Well, there are plenty of things to do, such as mass-producing the extraction fluid. There''s also the possibility that I''ll consume a lot of it during the Brokens battle, and there''s a ton of zunana grass in the item box. It''s enough for me to start working on it without waiting for the ship to be completed. When I returned to Photoren, Mercia had already returned to the store. We can start tomorrow. ¡¡What about Mercia? "It''s not going to happen today or tomorrow, but it''s going to happen this week. ¡¡The effects have already been confirmed by the other side. I see. ¡¡I won''t be here for a while, starting the day after tomorrow, so you''ll have to handle all the pricing and negotiations. All right. ¡¡If you''re ready to start tomorrow, does that mean you''ve already got the tools? Yes. ¡¡Do you have room at ......? It''s a manufacturing facility, right?¡¡If so, the warehouse would be better. Okay. Then we put the distillation equipment in the warehouse and worked hard to produce the Zunana grass extract. We couldn''t increase the efficiency per hour, so we mobilized the clerks and worked day and night in shifts. The next day at noon, when about five liters of extract had accumulated, a man who looked like a researcher came to the warehouse. Perhaps he hadn''t slept enough, but he had a big smile on his unhealthy face and was calling out for Mercia. Who is this guy? Before you can ask any questions, the man opens his mouth with a ghastly smile. "Mr. Mercia!¡¡That potion you brought with you is a horrible adulteration!¡¡Please stop manufacturing it now, it''s a waste of extract. Who the hell are you? Don''t just show up out of nowhere and say whatever you want. Mercia, who is this guy? ...... Mr. Dimec, researcher for the Chemists'' Guild. ¡¡By the way, what''s a shoddy product? A researcher. Well, think of him as a dwarf with a penchant for blacksmithing. Here. ¡¡We made a potion from yesterday''s extract, but it was nearly four times as effective in such a short time using the same amount of extract. ¡¡The composition of that potion is that poor. With that, Mr. Dimec took out the medicine. Upon examination, it does indeed say that it restores about 350 HP. I guess it''s almost the same as the one we made, in that it''ll save you if you''re not dead. Don''t worry, we''ve only made the extract. That''s good to know. ¡¡I''d rather you sell it to us than make something like that. ¡¡I''ll return it to you with double the effect. You''re taking half of it? Anyway, I''m making this for use in Brokens. If a professional can medicate you, there''s no reason to refuse, so I''ll ask. I''m maple, the owner. ¡¡I''m leaving for Brokens tomorrow morning, and I need as much medicine as I can make before then. "Are you Kaede? ¡¡Of course I can, it''s going to revolutionize potionology. ¡¡I''ll show you how to find the best formula for this dimek, even if it takes two nights. I was slightly pressured by the unusually high level of tension. Perhaps this tension is due to the fact that I''ve already been here all night. Shouldn''t you take your medicine? "Oh, yeah. ¡¡I''ll take care of it. Like this, the potion production plan was set. By the next morning, 150 potions (400 HP recovery per potion) were ready (I had to pay the processing fee in cash this time to secure the quantity). Dimec collapsed as soon as I handed him the finished potion, but he seemed to be just sleeping, so I had the shopkeepers carry him away. Now, it''s time to go to the guild for the battle against Brokens. Let''s bring in a large amount of healing potions and show the demons how scary it is to be an adventurer who keeps fighting even after getting an arrow in the knee. 63 Episode 62 Domination and Mt. Bota The first thing I was asked to do after going to the guild and being informed of the details of the mission was to pack a large amount of building materials into an item box. The first thing I was asked to do was to fill the item box with a large amount of building materials, but not materials for building a full-scale wall. It was more of a barricade than a wall. Until it is safe enough for craftsmen to enter, full-scale construction is not possible, so there is no need for building materials for that purpose. In addition, the building materials for the exterior walls are currently in the process of being processed, so there is no way to transport them. However, this does not reduce the amount of luggage, but rather the opposite. What should work as a wall with a solid structure is covered to some extent by mass and volume alone. The amount of building materials needed for this is tremendous. Excuse me, I''m here to pick up some building materials from the guild. I know what you''re talking about, here''s the building material. ¡¡...... But are you sure you want to carry all this by yourself?¡¡It''s more of a mountain than a building material. The man pointed to a pile of rocks that was nothing more than building material. It was about twenty meters high, and the radius of its base was several times that. He said that it was a waste rock from the old days when coal was mined in this area. Yes, it is. ¡¡...... But this looks like it would be harder to store than to transport itself. Is that how it works? That''s how it is. ¡¡Please move back so we can start storing it. ¡¡There''s a chance it might collapse. Since this place is a little far from the city and I have confirmed that there is no one around except the man who is guiding me, I just confirm that the guide has left and start storing quickly. I put the item box to full use and walk straight to the center of the mountain. Recently, I found out that if you pay attention to the item box, you can store things within a small radius of about 50cm from you. Using this, you don''t have to climb the mountain, but rather, you can store and cut down the mountain from the edge and head for the center of the mountain. It''s like digging a tunnel through a pile of rocks without any support. Naturally, the mountain collapses with a roar, and debris falls on my head, but just in case, I deploy my magic armor and stow it away. When I arrived at the other side, the pile of rubble had turned into two smaller piles, bordering the place I had passed. As I returned to the starting point, cutting down the larger of the two piles in the same way, I saw the guide in the distance with his mouth hanging open. I felt bad about keeping him waiting, so I approached him and spoke to him. He said, "It''s going to take some time, so you can go back to the city. "Oh ......, no, I can see some unusual things. ¡¡I''ll just keep looking until I get bored. "I see. ¡¡Okay. Everything seems to be fine, so I go back to work. The collapses, which had been flashy at first, became more and more subdued as they became lower and lower, until finally I could walk past them and only a few rocks would fall. I ran around the site again with my magic and finished the work. Incidentally, I tried to put my hand on the ground once during the process, but the ground could not be stored. Considering the extent to which the ground would be stored, I was glad that it was not. It wouldn''t be funny if the city was stored the moment I used the item box. After that, I stored the other pile of rubble in the item box, and finally, I received a large amount of food from the guild''s warehouse and left Fotolen. The mission itself would begin in Desibatore. When I arrived at Desibatore, there were already more than a hundred adventurers gathered in front of the guild. About two-thirds of them were carrying large shovels on their backs, used for digging holes. This is the number of elite adventurers who have been chosen for their ability to fight on the front lines in the battle for Brokens. After the construction of the temporary camp, more than ten times the number of adventurers will participate in the full-scale construction of the castle, along with craftsmen, to complete it at once, so the final number will be even higher. "Oh, Kaede, you''re here. ¡¡Did you get the building materials and food? I landed on the ground and was greeted by the mayor. "Yes. I''ve got it. ¡¡And tons of food. The food prepared this time was mainly dried meat and buckwheat flour. They were stored in cloth bags weighing about five kilograms and were placed directly in the item box. It would have been nice if there had been some solid food, but there wasn''t much that could be eaten quickly on the battlefield. There was about 50 kilograms of bread, but it was hard and not very tasty. If there is enough room, I am thinking of serving some food that I brought personally. All right, all right. ¡¡When you arrive, leave about a ton of buckwheat flour on the ground. Yeah, I don''t mind, but ...... why? "I don''t think a maple that can kill a wyvern solo is going to be easy to kill, but just in case, you know. ¡¡You want to have enough food for your own retreat, but you don''t want to slow down your march. ¡¡That''s what I''m saying. "I understand. ¡¡Well, I''m not going to die. Speaking of not dying, there''s that drug. A new medicine was developed the other day, do you want to use it in the guild?¡¡I''ve already gotten permission from the Medicine Man''s Guild to use it here. I''ve never heard of it. What kind of medicine is it? HP to ...... No. ¡¡It''s the kind of potion that would revive a dying adventurer in a heartbeat. ¡¡In fact, I used it on a former adventurer who was dying of an illness, and it seems to have restored his strength to his prime. I said as I handed him a bottle of the potion. I handed him a bottle of the potion and said, "It''s actually an improved version of the potion. "This container belongs to ......, the Apothecary''s Guild, I believe. ¡¡"This container is definitely from the Apothecary Guild. It says ''Super Super Strength Recovery Potion Revision''. "What? ¡¡...... Maybe so. ¡¡I didn''t know the drug had a name. I think the naming could have been a little better. The word "super" and "super" overlap, and it''s the first drug to be commercialized. Did the researcher come up with the name in the heat of an all-nighter? I''m sure you''ll be glad to know that I''m not the only one who can''t get enough of this stuff.¡¡I''d be grateful if I could use it, but I''m afraid the government might complain if I used it without permission. The mayor asks, looking at the cap of the container. The limit is the same as the HP recovery amount. I wonder if there is a way to identify the cap. I wonder if there is a way to tell if the cap is diluted or not. ¡¡This is a new drug made entirely from the current ingredients. ¡¡There are many of them, so use them all you can. ¡¡If you want to advertise it, you can do so for free. I''m curious about what happened to the Chemists Guild, but I''ll take it with a grain of salt. ¡¡...... By the way, why did Kaede make that?¡¡I''m not sure what to make of it.¡¡No matter how insane it is, ...... I''ll take that as a yes. ¡¡I''m not the one who made this potion. ¡¡I just brought it from the apothecary''s guild out of the goodness of my heart to protect the city (and also to get some test subjects and results). Also, I only provided one type of material, but that''s a minor thing. Well, the Apothecary''s Guild is a big deal, isn''t it? ¡¡I''ll distribute these to the adventurers who join us. With that, the mayor began to hand out the medicines. After the medicines have been distributed, the mayor begins to finalize the plan and begins to march. In short, we gather and charge in, slaying demons as we go. I build a wall a little farther back at the Brokens site, and a moat a little farther back as a line of defense, ready for the building crew (as we call the adventurers and artisans who can''t participate in the assault). I will be in charge of scouting from about 100 meters above the adventurers advancing. I''m planning to burn them with fire magic if the need arises, but I''ve been told not to waste it, so I''ll stick to scouting for now. I watch the adventurers from above, but as I expected, they are elite and are not afraid to charge into a place full of demons. Their movements seem to be uneven, but in fact they are moving at distances appropriate for their weapons. The wizard, who was originally the main rearguard, was not following due to his endurance and marching speed, and only the archer was left in charge of the rearguard, though he seemed to be a little biased toward the front. The adventurers continued on their way, covering the nearly 60 kilometers in less than two hours, and began to sweep away the demons in the area. From here, I descended to the ground and went around destroying demons in a radius of several kilometers. Once the cleanup is complete, it''s time to build. "Control complete!¡¡Hold the line of defense!¡¡...... Kaede, take care of the wall. The person giving the orders seems to be an A-rank adventurer. I don''t see any particular difference in ability between him and the others, but I wonder if it''s a matter of leadership. Understood! The leader instructs me, and I begin to set up a wall in Brokens, slightly closer to the demon territory than the narrowest point. I set up a simple barricade by crunching down rubble as I fly. No matter how narrow it is, it is still about a kilometer long, so the height of the wall will not be very high, maybe two meters at most. However, it is not enough, but it is useful. We don''t expect a temporary camp to function perfectly from the start, which is why the adventurers are the only elite until the moat is built. "The wall is complete! Copy that!¡¡All retreat to the back of the wall. Groups A and B, start building the moat. Group C, defend! The adventurers were divided into three groups of equal strength, with one group without shovels on their backs defending the wall and the rear of the unit, while the rest took up positions about 100 meters behind the wall and began digging the moat. This digging is scheduled to continue for a week without a break, and is the most important part of this operation. I''m not a member of any group, so I''m free to go except in case of emergency. I''m not a member of any group, so I''m free to do what I want except in case of emergency. ...... I wonder if I can use magic to dig this hole? 64 Episode 63 Elimination and Resurrection There was no sign of anyone around us using magic, but as long as we saved the magic for emergencies, there would be no problem using it to dig a hole. In order to finish digging the hole quickly, I deployed a pressure spell in the ground and started to cast it. This is a basic spell with a magic power of about 0.5 that I have used against bandits. As planned, the spell is deployed about 30cm underground and makes a buzzing sound. Then, a little later, the earth rose up and was blown away ....... If you think about it, it''s no wonder that a single moment of magic can''t blow away a lump of earth so easily. The explosive magic that blew away the earth and sand when removing the Zunana grass is the kind of magic that consumes enough magic power to blow away hard trees in square kilometers. However, using that fuel-efficient magic would not be very efficient, and more importantly, it would be dangerous. All right, let''s try to develop some magic for a while. In the first place, the spell I''m using to interfere with objects from the outside is converting magic power into pressure or explosion, which is the cause of its difficulty. If you don''t want to attack, but just want to move things, you can use magic in that way. Therefore, the spell you use should be one that affects the entire area of the target with something like gravity or magnetic force. In other words, it is like creating a field that interferes with all the objects inside. It is not so difficult to imagine. Aside from gravitational fields, even an ordinary high school student on Earth knows that electromagnetic fields can be easily created by humans. Using this magic on the area that I just tried to lift up, I try to carry it outside the moat, to the place where the second wall will be built. Then, the target soil moved quickly to the target point as if it were a landslide moving upward. When I moved a little further and tried the same thing again, the same phenomenon occurred. The spell, which I activated after building up magic power on the spot for about 10 seconds, dug a hole in the spot where I was with a wall about 4 meters deep and a radius of about 5 meters, and piled up a lump of earth of the same size on the side of the wall. I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I think it''s a good idea. ...... Some kind of magic has been created that looks like a large piece of heavy machinery. I''m a heavy machine myself. If this doesn''t work, I was thinking of using water pressure to break the ground and use an item box to move it, but to no avail. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what''s going on here? An adventurer who was digging a hole some distance away approached us when he saw the hole, or rather the soil that had been dug out of it, was obviously bigger than the time it had taken to dig it. He doesn''t seem to want to skip work to talk to us, though, and continues digging in the dirt nearby. You said it would take a while to dig a hole, so I thought I''d use magic to shorten the time. ¡¡I''ve just succeeded. This spell ...... could be called an upside-down landslide, as it looks. It might also be useful for stopping multiple opponents. ...... Although it would be faster to kill them normally. I''m not sure what to make of it.¡¡Don''t do it. Don''t do it. "Why not? I wonder if there have been any failures before. Magic is the lifeblood of a wizard, and no matter how much you have, you should save it for emergencies. ¡¡If you die in order to save time, it''s not worth it. Oh, you''re worried about magic power? It''s a useless worry for me, since my MP is still stuck at the upper limit even when I use all my magic power. The only thing that restrains me from using magic is the amount of magic power used per unit of time. Even so, the amount of magic power used per unit of time has increased greatly compared to the past. "Don''t worry, no matter how much you use, you won''t lose much magic power. ¡¡You''ll recover faster. Hey, hey, hey, that''s ...... Otherwise, he wouldn''t have flown so high just to scout the area. ...... Is that what you think?¡¡There''s something wrong with that. There''s nothing wrong with that. ¡¡I''m not sure what to make of this. You can''t just dig a hole without permission and then say, ''You can''t just dig a hole. If you want to use ......, please ask permission from Artem on that platform. When I looked in the direction the adventurer pointed, I saw an adventurer with a small bow in his hand on a platform about three meters high and piled up with earth. He seemed to be looking at me, and our eyes met. I wave my hand in his direction to ask for permission, and fly up to him with my magic. Can I use magic to dig?¡¡I''m going to be digging like that. "Yeah, it looked like you were doing something, so I watched. ¡¡I''ve never seen magic like that before, where did you learn it? I didn''t learn it. ¡¡I just made it. You made a spell at ......?¡¡What do you mean? What do you mean?¡¡No, it''s just an image, using magic. ¡¡See? I''ll just improvise a spell and make it work. It''s a spell to make water float around a fire to create a blurry light. It has no meaning. ...... I''ve never seen that spell before. "I just made it. ¡¡Is it unusual to create magic? I''ve never even heard of anyone making magic today. ¡¡Well, we''ll talk about that later, since we''re still in the middle of a battle. ¡¡Of course you can use magic, but when I tell you to, join the attack, okay? "Okay. ¡¡I''ll do it. Permission was easily granted. Artem instructed me to open the place where I would dig, and the place where I would dig was opened. I entered the area and used the upside-down landslide in succession. The adventurers who were in charge of the area I dug are preparing the moat for use, which has been made roughly useless by magic. The work was carried out much earlier than originally planned, and when the moat and walls were half completed, Artem gave the following instructions. "Change!¡¡Team A to defend, Team C to work on the moat, Team B to take a break! It''s time to change shifts. The battle for Brokens is going to be a week long, and as expected, not everyone can keep working. Naturally, there will be time for sleep. ...... Three shifts (but the working hours are two-thirds instead of one-third, and of course you can''t sleep in peace), a working time that would make a black company look like a black company, but it''s not so impossible. Some people believe that "impossible" is a word for liars. It doesn''t seem to have much support. The reason I brought the rubble here was to make it as safe as possible. Half of the adventurers here are sleeping in groups of about six each between the first and second walls, and the other half are heading towards the wall I built. A little while after Group A reaches the wall, Group C moves to the moat, and the shift change is complete. But my work is still the same. I''m not needed at the moment, but since my ability is unique and cannot be replaced, I''m treated as a member of the "Kaede Team". The position of the group is very flexible, and you can be anywhere you can hear instructions. Unless there is a special situation, you are free to sleep and eat at any time. I''m told that if I use magic to protect myself when I sleep, it should be enough to wake up adventurers, but my defenses are not that high, and my senses are not dull. I wonder what the mayor who gave this order thinks of me. Anyway, I continue to work on expanding the moat as usual. The adventurers who had been instructed hurriedly moved around the area, building up the moat and walls. The work was about 80% done. The sound of explosive magic - a very small one that was supposed to be used in the event of a bombing call - is heard. Something had happened to the defense line. A voice ahead of me says it''s a large pack of demons. I hurriedly gained altitude and searched for my target. Then, about 50 to 100 meters away from the wall, I saw a group of black lizard-like monsters about four meters long charging toward the wall. I quickly assessed the area within the range that would not involve my allies and bombarded it with magic. It''s no good if you can''t get around the front of the pack, so leave it to the other adventurers. I don''t know what the demons are, but the power of the magic is steady. With a roar, the lizards are torn to pieces, and those that don''t are blown to pieces and become immobile. I didn''t get a chance to examine them one by one, but it was clear that they would die if left alone. After I finished blowing away the swarm of probably 200 demons, I looked at my feet and saw that the lizards I had failed to kill - Kuro Lizard, according to the appraisal, just as they looked - were almost completely wiped out. The lizards that I had failed to kill - Kuro Lizard, according to the appraisal, and they were still looking like it - were almost all dead, and I was down to the last three. I see an adventurer with a sword slash at one of them, then leap back to dodge the Kuro Lizard''s counterattack. As expected of a high-ranked adventurer, he backsteps about five meters, a move that would be impossible for a human on Earth. He also dodges the attack of another Kuro Lizard near the landing site without losing his balance, and keeps his distance. However, this adventurer''s evasion skills aside, it seems that he was fatally unlucky. The adventurer was just off balance when the Kuro Lizard landed, and his kick was a clean hit. The adventurer is struck in the back and waist area, and blown nearly 10 meters away. The adventurer was sent flying backwards, so there was no follow-up blow, but even for an adventurer with a body strong enough to leap over five meters on his own, that was not good. At best, he would have broken at least a bone in his hip, and at worst, a fatal wound. Thinking that I might be able to get away with some recovery magic, I descend while watching the lizard that attacked the adventurer being beaten to a pulp. I land on the ground and try to talk to the adventurer. But there''s something wrong. "...... Good. The adventurer then stands up and returns to his post as if nothing had happened. In the adventurer''s hand, he is holding a sealed container of a medicine with a lame name. A mysterious recovery that would only happen in a game on Earth was happening in reality as if it were natural. The friends of the adventurers who call out to the returning adventurers don''t seem to be particularly concerned. ...... It seems that the adventurers of this world are quite adaptable, as this happened less than two days after the drug was developed. In the end, except for a few bombings by me and a few super-healed adventurers, nothing happened and the wall and moat were completed to the extent that they could protect the carpenters and the other adventurers. It was so easy that it was almost anticlimactic. With magic that blows up enemies over a wide area, healing potions that bring you back to life instantly if you''re not dead, and heavy machinery, it''s not surprising that we have all this. 65 Episode 64 Completion and Cheers After the moat was completed, the work went extremely smoothly. I brought in all the materials, burned away the demon hordes when they appeared, cleared the area to be built, and provided medicine when people were injured. ...... Wow, ...... is that too much ...... work for me? Well, it''s not a problem at all because my income is extremely high and I''m not too busy for what I do. I''m a novice at architecture, which is my main work, so I have no role to play. And so, by the time a week had passed, the outer wall was more than half finished. It seems to be stronger than the exterior walls of most towns, let alone the crumbling ones of Decibatore, but the pace of construction seems to be quite fast. Already, in some parts of the city, the wall and the adventurers seem to be able to handle the hordes of monsters without me using explosion magic. The extra adventurers that are left over from the easier combat are being sent to places that are less well protected, so the work is getting easier and easier, and I''m about to lose my job. Incidentally, I remembered that I had read in a book about dragons that there was a possibility that dragons would appear if you triggered an explosion when the maximum human MP was decreasing due to an increase in magical elements, so I checked my MP before using the explosion spell. Rather, it had increased. Even though I hadn''t gained any levels or dealt with any wisps or wyverns, it was constantly increasing. Specifically, about 3.5 million a day. The rate is slow, and the increase in MP doesn''t mean anything to me right now, but it''s a big number. I checked with the other adventurers, and while their MP didn''t seem to be increasing, it didn''t seem to be decreasing either. Of course, it took me a long time to defeat even a sub-dragon, so why should I let a dragon appear? As I was spending my days like this, I got a new job. I was now at the materials yard in the middle of the planned construction area of the city for the job, which was to be done about six times a day. In front of me was a huge pile of hundreds of magic stones. They were not stripped from demons, but were all pre-processed tools for construction. They are not disposable, but reusable. The new job is to fill them with magic power. Normally, people who have a lot of magic power would not fill the grimoire with magic power, as it would cause the grimoire to deteriorate faster, but it seems that I am different. I had filled the magic power into the tool with the intention of throwing it away, but no matter how many times I used it, it did not deteriorate. After I found this out, I began to use reusable items in preference to disposable ones, and the amount of magic tools I could use increased, which greatly improved my work efficiency. The amount of magic tools that can be used has greatly increased the efficiency of the work. However, since there was originally not much time to refill a large amount of grimoires in this front, reusable grimoires, which are heavy and have a short effect time, were only prepared in small numbers (compared to disposable ones) as a substitute for disposable ones. Thanks to this, I''ve been sent out every four hours to fill up the grimoire. "Finished?¡¡That''s a convenient way to fill up. Maybe I can make it. ¡¡It''d be easier for both of us if there were more of them. We could scavenge them from the city, but at this rate we''d be finished before we could do that. That''s true, too. As soon as the filling started, a man who looked like the leader of the carpenters came to pick up the magic tools. The filling takes very little time because we have discovered a convenient filling method. This method was also found by chance. Since there are so many of them, I just scattered the magic power to the place where there is a grimoire, and to my surprise, I was able to fill it, that''s all. Of course, you usually have to touch and fill them one by one, which is very tedious. You can try anything. By the way, it seems that you can also collect it, but since I don''t see the point in recovering any more magic, I''ll just leave the extra magic. How many more days does it take to finish this work? I asked the carpenter who had finished collecting the magic stones and giving instructions. The ship that will be used for the farm is probably already finished, and even though we have paid in advance, I don''t think we should leave it too long. We''ve only got three days or so before we''re ready to defend ourselves. ¡¡The inner walls and the city won''t be ready until January or February, though. The city. Unlike the current Desibatore, Brokens will be more than triple-structured, and will be a city where ordinary people can live. It''s a great way to make a virtuous circle that will make it even easier to defend. I''ll be home sooner than I thought. ¡¡A week, maybe. "It''s good to go home, but bring me supplies, okay?¡¡Protecting the city isn''t the only thing. Yes, of course. ¡¡Yes, of course. We''ll be bringing in supplies on a regular basis. Even with the quality and quantity of Brocken''s pioneering troops, there are still many points where my abilities are forcing the transportation to maintain them. If I were to leave suddenly, there would be a possibility of serious trouble. The day when I am completely free from Brokens is far off. Two more days passed, and on the evening of the third day. The construction proceeded at the same pace as before without incident. The only thing that happened was that about five demons that could withstand my explosion spell - rock demons like Basa-Mos - attacked me. When I saw that they had withstood my explosion spell, a group of adventurers gathered in a fighting stance, but when I used a smaller version of the bunker buster spell against Zunana grass, they sank easily, and I felt disappointed. I heard that the materials can be sold at a high price, so I made sure to collect them. And now, the last stone has been piled up, and the outer wall is complete. Finished! The leader-like person who piled up the last stone announced the completion of the outer wall. At the same time, a cheer goes up from behind the wall, and the carpenters start to make a big fuss. "Let''s celebrate!¡¡Bring the booze! "There''s no liquor, it''s not safe yet, wait till you get home. ¡¡Do you want to die of a demon attack? Why don''t you just drink the potion when you die? If by "that potion" you mean the potion with the lame name, it won''t bring back the dead. Maybe. I didn''t expect it to be finished in two weeks. ...... The building crew is making a big deal of it, but the adventurers guarding the outer walls can''t be too careful. There have been only a few small-scale banquets in Fotoren. However, this is still a big step forward for the country, which has been struggling against the demons for a long time. The country has regained an important stronghold that had been controlled by demons for 60 years. Thus, the battle for Brokens came to an end. The building of the city inside Brokens is to begin, but I''m going back to Fautren. On the way home, I dropped by the guild and saw that almost 5 billion ter was deposited, and I thought to myself, "I don''t need to do business anymore. I''m not sure what to do, but I''m sure it''s a good idea. But if you think about it, there''s not much else you need to do if you quit your business. Since you can economically conquer the world ...... and work, you should contribute to society through activities that are in demand. Okay, justification over. I went to the Kaede Chamber of Commerce and found Mercia. "I''m back. ¡¡How are you doing? "Kaede!¡¡You''re back early. ¡¡Sales of dried meat are going well, but we ran out of stock about two days ago. ¡¡Since then, we''ve been getting daily calls from the apothecary''s guild, mostly from Dimek, asking if we have more Zunana grass extract. ¡¡It''s getting annoying. By the way, we haven''t even produced Zunana grass yet. ...... If a new material with tremendous potency is developed, or if the technology is right in front of you but the material is not, it is no wonder that researchers are in a panic. There is no need to rush because no one else will beat you to it, but I guess it is the nature of researchers. I''ll take the Zunana grass and the demon out of the item box and put them in the warehouse. ¡¡What happened to the ship? "Oh, yes. ¡¡I got it. ¡¡It''s tied up at the port for now. Thanks. ¡¡We''ll start exploring tomorrow. ¡¡Zunana grass needs a new island to burn. ¡¡I''ll go blow it up now. Oh, tomorrow? Is that too much to ask?¡¡I''ll pack up the food and stuff, we just need people and supplies. ...... No. ¡¡If you want to cultivate the land to collect Zunana grass, we can start tomorrow. ¡¡You''ll need to tell us about the sugar cane ahead of time, though, because we''ll need to call in someone. Oh, we can''t just do it with amateurs, can we? Zunana weed can be revived by uprooting, mowing, blowing up, or burning, not by growing it. I''ll just have to gather enough people who can weed. ¡¡We can get the sugar cane after the zunana grass stops growing. It is possible to speed up the process by firing bunker buster magic, but the environmental damage is too great. It''s possible to speed up the process by firing a lot of bunker buster magic, but the environmental damage would be severe. "Yes, I think we''ll be ready before noon tomorrow. ¡¡Will you be living on a ship until you settle down? No, we''ve actually got a place to live. One of them was to be dismantled because it would interfere with the construction of the inner wall, but we decided that if we were going to destroy it, we might as well do it. Pulled out of the ground with the application of an upside-down landslide. The residence? In the item box. We pulled the whole thing out. ¡¡It was originally a warehouse, but that''s a lot better than a rocking ship. I don''t understand. ...... Well, that''s why I''ll see you tomorrow. It''s a fast construction method that surpasses the prefabrication method, the "pull-out-the-foundation method. It builds faster than a tent and is quite strong. I can set up a zunana grass farm in three hours. 66 Episode 65 Zunana and Wakame It was time to go. There were thirteen of us on board: me, Mercia, the captain (who Mercia had hired), three crew members, and seven employees who would be in charge of harvesting. The number of people on board is small compared to the size of the ship, so we don''t feel cramped. How do you decide the course of a ship?¡¡Is there a compass or something? In the cockpit, there is a rudder and a large lever to adjust the thrust of the magic stone, but there is no compass. I''m guiding you this time, but I wonder if you won''t get lost otherwise. "Rashinban?¡¡What''s that? It''s a device used to keep ships from getting lost during voyages, and it''s supposed to show detailed directions. It is said that there is a way to decide the direction to go by turning the compass with its base while saying, "I''ll turn the compass," but it must be a special case. However, this is probably a special case. It is dangerous to rotate something that is heavy, and there is a high possibility that the compass will not move in the desired direction. In other words, it has no meaning as a compass. I urge you not to use it. What is the use of looking up the direction? ¡¡Why don''t you use an anchor? Anchor? Yes. ¡¡It is a magic tool that shows you the direction of the other one when you use two of them in a set. ¡¡The fuel consumption is so great that you can leave them alone for years, but they''re slow to react and require some skill to use. That''s convenient. ¡¡Couldn''t it be used in combat? No. ¡¡It''s too slow to react, so the battle will be over before you can wait for the anchor to point you in the right direction. ¡¡At most, you can use it to carry things from the city when you enter the forest and return. That''s about it. I thought something like a GPS would be useful, but I guess it doesn''t work that way. I wondered if there was another way to use it. What happens to the other one when the other one breaks? When both are present, the direction of the pair of anchors will be a lighter color, but when the other one is gone, the whole thing will be a darker color, so you can tell. ...... Oh. Are there any magical tools that can be used to communicate with the island? There is no such thing. ¡¡If there were, the guild would have used it by now. Can''t we use ...... to communicate with the anchors? Anchor communication?¡¡How would that work? We could hold them and smash them together when something goes wrong. You can only tell them something''s wrong, right? We could line them up in a row and tell them in what order to break them. ...... I hadn''t thought of that!¡¡Why didn''t you tell me about it earlier? It''s expensive, but it''s the kind of long-distance communication technology that the guilds and the big merchants would love to have! I just thought of it. ¡¡I mean, I only just found out about the anchor. I mean, I only just found out about the anchor." "I''m sure someone could come up with something like that, but it seems that no one has. I wonder if it''s because magic is too convenient that the technology for making use of good materials, such as medicine, has not developed much. "Well, if you want to use it, you can use it in our house, or you can teach it to the guild or something. ¡¡I''ll leave that to you. Are you sure? It''s not as advanced as medicine, and it''s not like we''re using anything special. While we were talking about this, we arrived at our destination. The distance to the island was only a few hundred meters. Wait for a moment. ¡¡I have some work to do. I forgot that we still had some work to do before we could set up the house. I''m going to level out the area where we''re harvesting the zunana grass so that it''s easier to harvest. If I''m harvesting the grass, I don''t mind leaving it as it is, but from now on, my employees will have to mow the grass, sometimes using magic tools. If you are going to use magic tools, it is even better to remove the unevenness of the ground. The work itself is simple: just walk around the island while activating the upside-down landslide. If you walk around with the intention of making the ground flat, it will happen. It took us less than half an hour to flatten the entire island, leaving the pond behind. Finally, I set up my house in the right place and the job was done. All right, we''re done, you can come now. Return to the ship and tell the captain. The island is flat. ...... What the hell is ...... What the hell is going on? - Nothing, just a little leveling. ¡¡Steve can finish leveling an island like that in 20 minutes. "Steve ......?¡¡Well, I don''t care. ¡¡If you want to get to the island, you''ll have to take a landing craft. Copy that. ¡¡I''ll fly, you take the rest. ¡¡If you can fly, that''s fine. People don''t usually fly. ...... Apparently, there was no one else who could fly, so everyone got on the landing craft except for me, the captain, and two crew members. It was the job of the lone crewman to take the controls. "All right, go. At the captain''s command, the landing craft lifted off the water and flew smoothly toward the island a few meters above the surface. I had planned to support the boat from below if anything happened, but it didn''t. The boat arrived safely at the island and landed in front of the house. It was pretty smooth. I practiced a little during the test. ¡¡I couldn''t do it for too long because the fuel consumption was too sensitive, but I could at least get a feel for it. "In such a short time? Maybe landing craft are easier to handle than we thought. Or maybe the crew you''ve hired is good at it. All right, let''s test the magic tools. I took out the magic tools I had prepared for mowing the Zunana grass, and had the employees test them. I heard that it was a kind of earth magic, but it seemed to be quite useful. It seems to be reusable, so we can use the excess magic power of the employees. We also have the right tools for transporting grass around the island. We also found out that the pond on the island was full of edible plants. The pond probably helped them to escape the violence of the land clearing. It was a kind of wakame seaweed that grows in fresh water, and since it looked tasty, I collected it at random. It would be a good source of food for my employees. Half an hour later. After leaving the food, anchor, and other necessities at home, we gathered at the ship again. "So that''s it then. ¡¡Did you forget anything? "I think so, sir. All right, let''s go. ¡¡Good luck, boys. Yes, sir. Five of the employees will remain on the island to work on the harvest. We need them to work hard for the stable supply of zunana grass. We''ll pay them well, and we''re planning to increase the number of employees so that they can work in shifts. All right, see you later. ¡¡Let''s go! Roger that. The landing craft we used to get here lifts off again. The landing craft that we used to get here floats up again, and flies over to the ship without any trouble, and lands quietly. Then the boat turned back the way it came and carried us to the city. Incidentally, on the way, a stupid boat killer hit his head on a solid ship and floated away, so we collected him. We still have enough to eat, so we''ll sell them in the store. It might be a good idea to catch a boat killer. One week later. The first liaison boat to the island (which we named First Zunana Island) sailed for First Zunana Island. Apart from the crew, there were only three people on board: me, Mercia, and a new settler. The ship arrived at the first Zunana without incident. Our objectives were to transport additional people, collect the Zunana grass we had cut, and collect the wakame seaweed (which in this world is called "numeza", but in essence it is wakame). The wakame was quite tasty. We arrived at the island with the landing craft and took a look at the landscape, the zunana grass was as vigorous as ever. The island, which had been almost devoid of grass due to land clearing, was now a verdant grassland. It seems that the mowing team has been working hard, and about a quarter of the island has been cleared of grass, but around that area the grass has grown taller, and about half of the island seems to be untouched. The ship has arrived!¡¡Assemble! The call goes out, and the mowing team returns around the ship with mithril scythes. They were mowing an untouched area on the other side of the island. All right, we''re here. ¡¡Looks like they only mowed about half the island, did anything slow them down? With this many people, I expected it to take less than three days to hunt the entire island. But you''ve left half of it untouched. "No, we''ve already mowed it many times. ...... Over there. One of the mowing team members pointed to a pile of weeds high in the air. Then what happened to that area? He points to a lush field of grass that looks completely untouched by human hands and asks. ...... No way. You can mow all day and it will come back. ¡¡You mow all day and it comes back. I don''t get it. ...... I''d like to see these guys in a fight with bamboo and badass fungus. I''d like to see how these ecosystem-destroying bio-weapons are defeated by the medicinal plants. "Well, it''s a good thing we have so many resources. ¡¡It''s a little creepy, but keep up the good work. "Okay!¡¡I''ll do my best! "And these are the additional men. ¡¡To be honest, we don''t have enough Zunana grass at the moment, so we''ll be adding more. "Oh, more people? ¡¡I''d like to see this island completely mowed down one day. Well, maybe in a couple of days it will be back. ¡¡I''ll probably be back in a couple of days. If there''s not enough Zunana grass to grow, I''ll use another island. ¡¡...... Is there anything else you need help with? In the event that you''ve got a problem, you''ll be able to contact your doctor. I have prepared potions, but there may be other problems. There is one. ¡¡It''s that pond. ...... "What about the pond? ¡¡Is it dead? No, the pond itself is fine, but the nemesas have been eaten by fish and their numbers have dwindled. ...... I wonder if the sudden change in environment has increased the number of fish. ¡¡Anyway, our dinner table is in trouble. What the hell? It was surprisingly small, so I was eating it with care. What a d*mned fish. We can''t let it live. 67 Episode 66 Elatana and Zana Coca After I had completed the planned transfer of people and the transportation of the zunana grass, I immediately began preparations for the extermination of the zanacocha (the name of the small herbivorous fish that had been devouring the nemesas). After talking to Mercia and others to get permission, I headed for the site. The work site is in the ...... lake. It''s not an island, but inland. The goal is to catch the fish. Is this a good place? "No problem. ¡¡By the way, how do you catch a fish alive? Our guide and observer is a fisherman who usually catches fish in the lake. He uses magic to scoop them up. ¡¡Here we go: ...... "I''m going to use magic to create a kind of net to hold all the fish together. It was easy to lift the fish, but it was a little difficult to think of a mechanism to drop only the water down. Oh, ......, that''s great. ¡¡Magic is so useful. When I pulled up the net, about a hundred fish, Eratana, came up. I didn''t want them to die, so I left some water inside. I magically cooled the water to a temperature that would not burn the fish and caught them. What should I do? I completely forgot about the means of transporting the fish alive. You can''t just put them in an item box like food and be done with it. Do you have a tank or something?¡¡I''d like to transport some fish. "Water tank?¡¡What''s that? ¡¡No such thing. Well, here we are. ...... "If we fill the boat with water, we can use it as a ...... moving fish tank! Don''t be absurd. No way. It didn''t work. Why not? You don''t need a ship to move on water. We can carry the boat to the island and dry it after use. ...... I don''t expect you to be convinced, so I won''t try to convince you. There is no other way to transport live fish. ...... You can''t use an item box. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that will work for you. I''m not sure if it will work on fish too. You''ll be able to find a lot more information on this in the following article. "What should I do ......? The next thing you know, the fish has disappeared from your hand. When you look at the item window, you see Eratana. Is this thing alive? "Oh, it''s alive ....... I took it out. The fish was alive and well. They were swimming around in a large magical fish tank. I wondered if it was possible to store living things. If you think about it, there must be bacteria and other invisible creatures attached to the things I always store. If you can store them, it is not surprising that you can store living things. If there is a demon that cannot be defeated, I might try it. ...... I don''t want to go head-to-head with a sublong, should I test it with a suitable demon? I''ve found a way. ¡¡I''ll go get it. I''ll leave you to it. Okay. ¡¡Thanks. I ran around the fish tank with the item box for about five minutes and got 50 fish. The permission I got was for 50 fish. I came back to the island with them. Now it''s time to use the fish. Of course we''re going to use the fish. "Come on, Elatana! "Oh! Release the fish. That''s the only way. Because this fish, Erratana, which I ate a long time ago, looks just like a black bass. What could be more suitable for getting rid of small fish that are in the way without damaging the water plants? In Japan, even releasing black bass into the water has been banned, and in some places, even releasing those caught has been banned, making black bass the "forbidden ultimate weapon against fish. Its success was as expected. As soon as it was released into the water, it was like, "Yeah!¡¡Fresh fish meat! It devoured Zanacocha with such vigor that I almost shouted, "Fresh fish meat! When I took it out of the item box, it was a little listless, so I used a long potion with a long name, and it might have worked. It started rampaging right after I used it. ......1 hours later, when Eratana, who had devoured Zanacocha, began to cannibalize itself, we were all shocked. It''s a good idea to have a good appetite, but cannibalism is not ...... a good idea. I guess I carried it in the item box and the medicine made it too energetic. I don''t think they eat this much on a regular basis. ...... I''m not sure what to make of this, but I''m sure it''s a good idea. Don''t underestimate the scientific knowledge of the people of Earth. ...... It''s a banned use in Japan, and it has failed to be controlled in Japan. It seems that some of the strongest ones are still around, and even if it recurs, these guys will take care of it. ¡¡They''re good bouncers for Nemeza. "What''s the point of bouncers fighting each other? ...... The result is slightly different from what I imagined, but I don''t care. If there are any eggs left, these guys will eat them all up. I''m not sure if I''m going to be able to do that.¡¡I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out what''s going on with the sale of mages and the sale of the Eternal Powered Super Duper Recovery Potion. I forgot the name. I don''t remember the name. This is what happens when researchers who don''t have any sense of naming make random additions every time they make an improvement. "Wasn''t it called Eternal Power Hyper Ultimate Extreme Recovery Potion? The employee corrects me from the side. I can''t tell if it''s right or not. I''m not sure if that''s correct or not, but it''s "Eternal Energy Extreme Hyper-Enhanced Recovery Potion. ¡¡...... The name doesn''t matter, but they said to bring as much extract as they made, and sales seem to be going well. ¡¡I''m not sure what to make of it. ¡¡So far, so good. That''s good. ¡¡What about the grocery store?¡¡And what kind of magic armor is that? It''s treated as if it''s an extra. It was supposed to be the main part of the business. The butcher shop is doing well, at least. ¡¡The butcher shop is doing well for the time being. It''s too small compared to the rest of the business, and it''s more of a place to keep people and train them. ...... "Oh, yeah. ¡¡It can''t be helped. The magic armor is armor that has been finely crafted to look like magic tools. ¡¡It''s useful because it allows you to use magic power that swordsmen don''t use to increase defense with light equipment. ¡¡It is extremely difficult to make, but ...... Can you make Catherine? I''m sure it has something to do with the fact that she can''t use regular magic, but she seems to be unusually good at detailed work. ¡¡She said that her work pace per day has recently slowed down slightly, but with her unparalleled magical power and production speed, she has been able to generate a frightening amount of revenue. How much per day? How much per day?" "Per day, ...... would be about 100,000 tell. ¡¡That''s 50 times more than my competitors. In Japanese yen, ...... is about a million yen a day. It''s a monster, or at least I think there''s something wrong with it. It''s at a level where my peers want to complain that it''s cheating and illegal. It looks like there''s nothing wrong with letting it go. ...... The food storage at the warehouse is almost finished, isn''t it? I think it''ll be ready tomorrow. We need such facilities in order to store a large amount of demons before they are made into dried meat without rotting. The butcher only needs big equipment and manpower. He''s useless. It''s a delicate business, but it''s a pain in the ass. The profits may be slim, but they''re useful in other ways. ...... In the meantime, we''ll get people to get used to it. Even Mercia is treated as a training facility: ....... It''s better to be in the black. I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one who has a problem with that. ¡¡I''ve always wanted to go see another frontline city. "Other frontline cities?¡¡Is there anything interesting there? No, not really. ¡¡I only know Brokens and Desibatore, and I''d like to see some other frontline cities anyway. ¡¡I thought King''s Landing would be interesting, but I''m sure I''d get bored easily if I went somewhere without demons and such. King''s Landing seems to be troublesome because of the different common sense. In the front line city, you can move freely to some extent. I want to see what other guilds are doing and what kind of demons they have. You mean sightseeing?¡¡The store will be in trouble if it''s left unattended. ...... You''re relying on me for transportation and stuff. ...... "Well, it''s like sightseeing. ¡¡I''m going to be back in a short time, and transportation will probably be manageable for a certain amount of time if I can get a pantry going!¡¡So do you have any recommendations for frontline cities? I''ve never been to one, but I''m sure I can find one. ¡¡I''ve never been there, but it''s a rare place to fight an aquatic demon. I''ve never been to Minatonia, but it''s rare to find a place that fights aquatic demons.¡¡I think we should just leave them alone. ¡¡It''s not like aquatic monsters are going to invade the land. ...... But it seems that they do. ¡¡It seems that fish and shrimp are invading the land. What the hell is that? ...... I don''t know, but it sounds interesting. ¡¡How do I get there? Well, let''s see. ...... Look here. ...... The next day. I was about to leave the city when the members of the merchant association saw me off. I was about to leave town when I was seen by the members of the Chamber of Commerce.¡¡I''d like you to come back when the anchor response disappears. ¡¡I would also be very grateful if you could come back within 10 days if possible. ¡¡Also, if you have something that would be good for business, that would be even better. Mercia, a kind-hearted hired hand, sends me off with kind words. I think I''ll build a transport ship so you can get by without me. Anyway, this is how I departed from Photoren and started my journey to Minatonia. It was a graceful journey, dodging birds and almost hitting mountains at near the speed of sound, about 100 meters above the ground. This is a good way to see the scenery. 68 Episode 67 Demon Net and The Championship We flew as we were told, and in less than a day we arrived at what seemed to be the city we were looking for. It was a city that jutted out into the sea and had a wall built against it. With its red brick roofs, it''s easy to spot. ...... at first glance, it looks more peaceful than Photoren and less like a frontline city. As I descended to the ground and passed through the city gates, I realized that the city was strangely bustling. There were people everywhere, and people everywhere. I''ve never seen so many people even in a relatively large city like Photoren. There were also food stalls, and it looked like a festival of the earth. Is it always like this at ......? No, I don''t think so. If there are always this many people here, there should be stores, not stalls. It might be a real festival or something, and I wonder if I can find a place to stay. I found a suitable inn and went in, where I found a well-dressed woman working as a shopkeeper. I asked her. "Excuse me, can I stay here? "Hmm?¡¡Oh, the room is not open yet. ¡¡Didn''t you make a reservation? Reservation? Well, you can''t get a room at a hotel the day before a salvage festival without a reservation. A salvage festival? ...... No, I didn''t even know there was a festival. Well, if there''s no accommodation, I''ll just stay out in the open. I don''t think it''s dangerous for me to stay out in the open, and if it''s the wrong time of the year, it can''t be helped. But you came here to see the sights, and you''re camping out? ...... I would welcome a festival, because it would be more interesting for sightseeing. You should do that. ¡¡I recommend you to stay on the flat land side because it''s quite safe. ¡¡I''m sure there''s plenty of room in the Riviera, but ...... it''s not possible. The Riviera? You''ve never heard of the Riviera? It''s a very expensive hotel for aristocrats and wealthy merchants. ¡¡It''s so big and so expensive that not many people stay there, so even at this time of year there are rooms available. ¡¡Even so, the cheapest rooms seem to be booked up. ...... How much does it cost per night, by the way? "The cheapest room is about 300,000 yen. ¡¡You can live for a year with that much. All right, thank you very much. Three hundred thousand, three large gold coins. ...... I don''t know if my money sense is wrong, but it doesn''t seem too expensive. If you''re a master lumberjack in Decibatore (but you don''t cut down trees, you blow them up), you can make that amount in less than five minutes. I heard that the cheapest room at that price is occupied, but you can stay in any other room for less than three million yen. Okay, let''s go. This is necessary for rest and relaxation, a necessary expense. I asked the guards for directions (I thought they would find me since I was wearing armor, but they couldn''t due to the crowds, so I finally had to use my appraisal to find them) and headed in the direction they told me, toward the center of town, and a building that looked like it appeared. It was as tall as a four-story building, and as wide as a block of land that had been cut through by more than ten houses. The depth of the building must be equivalent to that of a four-story building. It is probably the largest building I have ever seen in this world, excluding its exterior walls. I wonder how much it costs to maintain. It could be an entire suite. The sheer size of the building makes me feel a little self-conscious, but I make my way into the front building. Standing in front of the reception counter made of smooth bluish stone, which I had never seen before, I was asked what I wanted. "Welcome. ¡¡Are you staying? Oh, the honorific. I don''t know if it''s the correct honorific for a hotel on Earth, but it sounds like it. It''s not strange that it''s different since we are not on Earth but on another world. "Yes, I''m staying. ¡¡I don''t have a reservation, but are there any rooms available? The Alpha rooms are occupied, but the Beta and Gamma rooms are available. Type ¦Â?¡¡Type ¦Â? Type ¦Ã? I don''t know the difference between them. There is a price list at the counter, and it says 300,000 per night for Type Alpha, 500,000 per night for Type Beta, and 1,000,000 per night for Type Gamma. In other words, from the bottom to the top, alpha, beta, and gamma. The letters are not alphabetical (I can read them as such), which may be a combination of the adventurer''s rank. Well, I guess I''ll go with beta for now, since it''s a substitute for camping. "Well, let''s go with Beta. The hotel''s service was excellent, as the impression I got from the appearance, the front desk, and the price. The room was larger than the Guild of Decibatore, even though it was for a single person, and it even had a bath. The only drawback is that it is too big and uncomfortable. It doesn''t feel like a ''place to stay''. Then I asked the innkeeper (I don''t know what he was called, but he was an employee of the inn, something like a butler) what the salvage festival was, and I went to sleep to prepare for the next day. Apparently, a salvage festival is a festival using tools such as "demon nets" and "big demon nets". A "demon net" is a kind of seine net that is pulled by a small group of adventurers, who pull out the aquatic demons themselves and beat them to a pulp. Because it is aided by artifacts for this purpose, it is said that it can pull out most of the monsters with the magic power of a normal person. It is said that just one of these artifacts is enough to create a network of demons in a wide area. The weight of the demons defeated by the magic tools by the day before the last day of the three-day festival will be compared, and the top party will receive a prize. The big demon net is a bigger version of the one drawn by many people, and is used on the last day. There is a record that once, a long time ago, a dragon was pulled out of the net and a disaster occurred. It''s a terrible thing to do, but it''s necessary because if you don''t do it, the demons will accumulate in the sea and accidents are more likely to happen. Well, the probability of a second accident happening when I''m here is close to zero, so there''s no point in worrying about it. The next day. I had come to the guild''s special registration desk to participate in the salvage festival. There were about ten counters set up, but only one was in operation at the moment. There was only one party in front of me at the counter. "Next, please. "Yes. I go to the counter and show my guild card. "Are you alone?¡¡Even if you are a C-ranked wizard, it is highly unlikely that you will have enough magic power to prepare a net solo, so I don''t recommend it. There is no one I want to team up with. It''s not like I''m aiming to win. There is also the option of forming a stray party, but I don''t think that will be necessary. If I''m not enough, it probably won''t be enough even if I gather the magic of everyone here. That''s why you have to have the dragons draw the net. "All right. Registration complete. Good luck. Okay. There''s still time before the festival starts, that is, before the artifact is activated. We need to get a good spot before then. On the part of the beach near the front of the city, there are already groups of adventurers standing at roughly even intervals. The number of adventurers seems to be six, which is the maximum number for any group. Even now, demons seem to be crawling up from time to time, and battles with demons are taking place here and there. Well, it looks like it''s all filled up, but there''s still a good spot at ...... I found it. Now that I''ve found a good spot, I''m going to set up there. It''s on the ocean. There''s no one around, and the artifact is in effect. No one is doing it because there is no reason to fight on the sea, but it''s not against the rules either. "Hey, what''s with the wizard? "It''s not like you can''t use a net ...... on the ocean, but what''s the point? I''ve never heard of it. I mean, it''s a waste of magic power. The adventurers tied up on the narrow land are talking about something, but it''s none of my business. It''s not my fault that there''s no room. I thought about using an upside-down landslide to create a new land, but I decided against it because it might have a negative impact on the ecosystem. The start is announced by the bell in the tower in the center of the town. At the top of the tower is a large, glowing red jewel. It seems to have been found in a burnt-out area a long time ago, and its glow used to diminish by the time of the festival. The last couple of years, though, it has not lost its glow even during the festival season. While I was gazing at the jewel, a fat man came up to the tower. I wondered if he was an important person or something. I wonder if he''s a big man or something. He''s going to say something like ...... "Let the salvage festival begin! What, they''re just going to start without saying anything? There were cheers from the people around me, and they all started to prepare the nets at once. And then there''s the chanting of the spell to make the net. "Demon net, deploy! I also cast a spell, make a net, and pull it in. The magic consumption seems to be at a level where it recovers before you can see your MP decrease. The speed of the pull is comparable to that of a party of six, since it is forced by flight magic,....... If you''re looking for the best way to get rid of them, you''re going to have to find a way to get rid of them in the air. From hermit crab-like creatures to ordinary fish-like creatures, they all fall prey to the pressure magic. They are stored in the item box. Incidentally, it seems that the monsters cannot be stored alive. "Demon net deployed! Once you''ve decided how to deal with the demons, the rest is just work. All you have to do is to move around as you see fit, efficiently pulling them up and down, then pulling them up and down again. Your item box will fill up with demons in no time. I wonder if this pace is fast enough. The results were revealed the following evening at the end of the salvage competition. The winner was Kaede, a mysterious C-rank wizard from Decibatore!¡¡This is the first time in history that someone other than a party of six has won a tournament, and it''s an unprecedented feat for a solo player to win by three times the margin of second place!¡¡Now, Kaede, what would you like to say? I made a mistake, I completely forgot about the honesty and the fact that if I win, I''ll be conspicuous for nothing. Well, there''s no reason to avoid standing out. ...... Well, let''s play it safe for the interview. Let''s play it safe for the interview, and I''ll advertise it. That''s great, thank you very much. ¡¡Thank you very much. It will be a good advertisement for our company. "Oh, Kaede, you''re safe!¡¡What a boring interview for the results!¡¡Can I ask you to redo ......? He asked me to redo it. I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I think it''s a good idea. "Whether you''re a dragon or a boat killer, you''re no better than a killifish in my hands!¡¡Come at me! "Yes, thank you very much. ¡¡Kaede will receive the first prize, a giant mithril harpoon, and a second prize of 100,000 Tells!¡¡Let''s have a big round of applause! When I received the harpoon on the platform with one hand, I was greeted with applause and cheers from the people around me. I wondered what was so funny about this huge harpoon that was three meters long. Well, this was fun, so that''s good. The salvage festival seemed to be ending without a hitch. But as we started to pull out the second main event, the big monster net, something strange happened. I was in the back of the boat pulling the net, but there was a noise in front of me. I listened carefully and heard, "It''s Mr. Revere! There he is!" "There he is! and so on. Mr. Revere...... sounds familiar. I wonder if there is such a celebrity. The scene ahead seems to be a reaction to something more terrifying than a celebrity. ...... While I was thinking about it, everyone around me was running away. What the hell is going on here, Mr. Revere? 69 Episode 68 Leviasan and a Flock of Fish I don''t know what Mr. Revere is, but anyway, ...... Run away. I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it''s a good idea. This is a double-edged sword that will make you feel uncomfortable if the group around you is not related to you, but it is the only way to go when you don''t understand the situation. You run in a direction away from the sea, moderating your pace so that it does not differ from those around you. Then, a little while later, I noticed that I could hear a voice in the distance. There''s the winner!¡¡I''m sure you and the boat killer were no better than killjoys!¡¡Do something about it! I don''t think either of them are the reason we''re running away right now. "You''re neither a dragon nor a fish!¡¡I don''t know what he is, and I don''t know if I can beat him. I''m sure you''ve heard of it. There must have been places in Japan that worshipped some kind of raging god. Even though they are raging, I''m not sure if they can be defeated. If they are actually gods of floods but also bring prosperity to the farmland, then the person who defeats them becomes a war criminal who destroyed the city. "What are you talking about, Leviathan is a sub-dragon!¡¡I''m sure it''s an enemy to be defeated! "...... What, an enemy with an honorific title? I''m not sure what else you''d call it, but this many adventurers gathered here and we all ran away!¡¡And I don''t have an honorific title! No honorific title? I''m an enemy. I don''t know. I don''t know. I''m not sure if that''s a good idea. I think I''ve seen this word before in a card game or something. But what is this guy trying to get a C-rank adventurer to do? Well, it''s my fault for underestimating the dragon. Anyway, if he''s dealing with a sub-dragon, there''s not much else he can do here, where adventurers seem to be weaker than in Decibatore. OK, I''ll go beat up Leviathan. ¡¡So, where is this sub-dragon? "Okay, I''m going to hit Leviathan. If you run away, the damage will only get worse, so the best thing to do is to hit it. "Over there!¡¡I can''t see them from here, but they''ll be coming ashore in a minute or so! The man who was talking to me was probably over 30 years old. He seemed to be a wind wizard, and like me, he was floating above the crowd and approaching me. When I asked where the enemy was, the wizard pointed in the direction from which people were fleeing. But from here, it''s still too crowded to see. "Okay, let''s go. Lead the way. Since we''re going to defeat it anyway, it''s best to get close. There''s a guy from Leviathan, he''ll show us the way. Don''t be absurd!¡¡I''m weak, I''m weak, I''m weak, I''m weak. It''s just an excuse to get away, chicken. I''m not sure what to say. ...... Indeed, the magic power was just about to go from 1 to 0. I''m not sure what to say. I''m not sure what to do. I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it''s a good idea. Nanbu. It''s no use, I''ll go alone. When I reached the beach, there were already about ten adventurers gathered there. About 50 meters from the shore, to be exact. Is it correct that the people gathered here are from the party that will fight the Sublime Dragon? I asked for confirmation. A muscular man in the middle replies. You''re right. There''s no way to fight them on the water, so we''ll meet them here. ...... Well, with four B-rank players as our main force, there''s a good chance we won''t be able to fight them off even if we all die. Yeah. ...... Are you still going to fight? I''m not sure what to make of this. It''s a good thing we have wind wizards to fight. It sucks. I guess it''s tough being a high rank adventurer. Can you fight with a wind wizard? "You can''t fight without them. If you get hit by a breath, it''s over, so you stick to your feet and poke them with your sword, and when they attack, use wind magic to send them flying out of range. It hurts just to be blown away, though. A slender swordsman standing beside me joined the conversation from the side. I''m not sure what to make of it. Can you win with that? I thought you had something more like a decisive weapon. We can''t win, not with this many. ¡¡We''ll be lucky if he leaves with just a leg injury, otherwise he''ll just die. The only saving grace is that Leviathan can''t fly. I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one who has a problem with this. I''m sure you''ll be pleased to know that I''m not the only one. I don''t want to say it because I''m grateful that I can''t fly and I don''t want to lower morale unnecessarily. Well, I''ve already killed an Ignis Wyvern solo, so I''ll go first. "A wyvern solo?¡¡Is that a human? That''s rude. I''ve got a strong sword. I can use magic and fight with it. No, you can''t. You''ll heal faster. "No, you can''t. You heal faster." The slender swordsman replies. I can feel the difference in atmosphere between this city and Decibatore, even though they are in the same frontline city. "Just keep slashing until it doesn''t heal anymore, and then cut off its head! "No, I can''t cut it. It seems that you underestimate the power of my magic sword. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. "Well, it''s manageable. I''m going to go try it out, it might reduce the damage. The Leviathan-like shadow was already about a kilometer away. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for and what you can do to help. In short, now that we know that there is no way for the Sublime Dragon to pursue us by flight, we are completely in a fight. Then! "Don''t do it because you''ll lose your magic power!¡¡I''m prepared to take some damage! And there''s only so many ...... of them on the ocean, so they''re gone. See you later. You''ve been reckless. ...... I''m not sure what to make of that. The Leviathan''s legs didn''t seem to be very fast, and we had to fly about a kilometer before we encountered it. It was huge, or rather long. The width of its body is much smaller than that of the Ignis Wyvern, but judging from the part sticking out of the water, its length alone is probably over 150 meters. Perhaps it is not good at searching for enemies, or perhaps it does not recognize us as enemies yet, but I am a little hesitant to pay attention to it. Well, of course you do. The first shot is important. You can attack a defenseless enemy by surprise, so it''s different from the rest of the battle. Aim for the neck, of course. Leviathan always moves with his neck out of the way. There''s no way not to target such an obvious weak point. I held my sword vertically with my right hand and placed my left hand on the blade, being careful not to make a loud noise. It''s a great way to make sure you don''t make a big noise. It''s ...... perfect. It''s not a one-hit kill, as the blade is only about a fifth of the thickness of Leviathan''s neck, but it''s the best damage you can expect from a surprise attack. Leviathan looks at me as I fly towards the other side and opens his mouth wide. Thinking it was a breath, I made a wide turn diagonally downward to get the best angle. But the leviathan didn''t breathe out. I thought it was going to scream, but it didn''t. No, it seemed to be making a voice, or rather a sound, though it was too high and I could only hear it faintly. Even if he does make a sound, it is nothing more than a squeak. He approached the spot where he had just slashed, slowed down this time to slash again at the side, and then turned toward the enemy''s head. Because of its size, Leviathan moves slowly and doesn''t seem to be very strong. It has stopped moving towards the city, and if it keeps going like this, I''ll have its head off in less than ten minutes. It would be much easier to kill than the Ignis Wyvern. With that in mind, I slammed my sword into his neck again, and something hit me in the stomach with such force that I yelped. Oh! I look down to see what it is. Then I saw a fish - a bigger version of a boat killer - falling toward the surface. As soon as the fish landed on the water, another similar fish came out of the water, this time in a school. "Hey, stop! They jumped out of the water, obviously aiming for me, and hit me in the legs, stomach, and face. It''s a shock that makes me scream as it hits me on top of my magic armor. With the current armor, there is almost no damage, but it would be fatal to any adventurer. More importantly, the visibility is getting worse. I retreated to the sky and looked around. After reaching a height of about 20 meters, we were finally able to escape the range of the fishes. But the fish are still flying towards me. I don''t care what happens to the fish that can''t reach me. Instead, I looked over to check on the Leviathan itself, which I had taken my eyes off. --Hey, I got eyes on it. His mouth is open. Oh no, the breath is coming. Just as I thought that, a breath of blue flame hit me. For a sub-dragon that lives in the water, the breath seemed to be fire, but I quickly lost the time to think about that. The firepower was high. The magic armor, which was almost fully deployed, was being cut down at once. The armor had 80% of its magic power remaining: ......5%...... Finally, the breath breaks. The remaining armor is only about 20%. Even though it moves slowly, its power is incomparable to that of Ignis Wyvern. If it takes one more hit, it won''t be able to survive, and you need to avoid it. The rule of thumb is to get close to it to avoid the breath. However, the fishes that wait for me around the dragon are still gushing out like a fountain. Even if I try to escape to the sky, the second breath will be completely unavoidable this time. It''s no way easier to defeat than Ignis Wyvern. Let the fish protect your blind spot from the breath and hit them with a powerful breath. In addition, I was like the misfiring princess in a hunting game, firing breaths at my allies without caring if they were involved. It''s a real pain in the ass, and I may have been too proud to try to fight it on the ocean. But there''s no time to think about what to do. There''s only one way to go now. Plunge back into the school of fish. 70 Episode 69 Minatonians and Desivatres First, I have to close the distance before the second breath comes. At maximum speed, I aim at Leviathan''s body and run into the wall of fish. Once you''re in range of the jumping fish, your vision is instantly blocked. The shaking is intense as a large number of fish collide with you in any direction, but the armor reinforcement is faster than the damage from the collision. However, this is not the case for visibility. The general direction of the fish should be correct, so if you get within the range of the tentacles, you will be able to see their position, but you will have no idea what they are doing. As you push forward through the fish, you see a very large reaction on the tentacula. It''s probably Leviathan, though I don''t know which part of Leviathan it is. At any rate, if you stick close to it, it will rarely breathe, so keep your distance. But this reaction, it''s moving so much. The neck and other parts of the body that I saw before were almost immobile, like a fixed battery. But the part I''m approaching now is swinging from side to side with a period of about three seconds and a width of about five meters. And then, just as I thought it was moving aimlessly, it suddenly made a big move toward me and tried to knock me down. I tried to attack it, but it didn''t react much, suggesting that it was a part of the body that wouldn''t take much damage even if cut. It should not be in a position to be hit by a breath, but it is still very painful to not know what is going on around you. You can''t even tell which way to move to a better position to fight. I''ve been using the tentacles only for scouting, and that was enough, but I''m going to increase the number of them. I''ll try doubling the number of plates for now. I can see the outline slightly now. It doesn''t consume much MP, it''s a very fuel-efficient spell to begin with. Double it, then double it again. While moving to avoid being hit by the breath, increase the number of tentacles. Then, when you have increased the number of tentacles to 32, you will be able to understand the situation around you almost completely. If you want to avoid attacks by flying needles, you should have no problem in a normal fight. You should not fight at a distance of more than 20m, but it is the same if the opponent is a sub-dragon with breath. The head seems to be out of the area of effect, but the situation suggests that I am near the tail. First, I fly toward the upper part of the body, and then I scratch the body with my magic sword. I can faintly hear the high-pitched sound I heard before the school of fish came out. If that''s a scream, it''s probably working pretty well. After moving for a while, you reach the neck area where you cut it before. At most, it moves from the tail to the head, and that''s "a while" away. The last time I fought here, I was dealt a strange hand, but I can''t lose to Leviathan, whose plan has been exposed and a countermeasure has been made. Even now, fish are still coming at me from all over the place, but as long as I know they''re coming, they won''t do any damage. Thinking of this, but not being too proud, I maintain a close range to avoid being hit by the breath and cut off the head little by little. The enemy is shouting and swinging its head from side to side, but it''s no use. Unless I fold his neck in half, he can''t hit me with his breath. That''s the position. I solved the problem of the sword not being long enough by cutting it twice diagonally like a woodcutter does when cutting a tree. In less than a minute, the head is cut off, leaving about half of it. It''s a wonder it''s still alive. As I raised my sword to strike again, Leviathan behaved differently than before. He suddenly bent his head downward from his left and right. But still, it was not in a position to reach me with its breath. The angle of its neck reaches its limit, and it stops with only its eyes looking at me. I see Leviathan glaring at me through the fish for a moment, but that''s it. When I stopped looking at the head and started to disconnect again, Leviathan moved again. It forced itself to look at me. I hear a cracking sound, like bones breaking. Of course, it''s not mine, it''s Leviathan''s. I thought for a moment to avoid the breath, but it was obviously too late. It was probably preparing for the breath that it had stopped to stare at me, and the breath was already about to be released. The replenishment of the magical armor was not advanced enough to withstand the first breath. Thinking that he would not die, he held his magic sword sideways in the direction of the dragon for protection at least. A moment later, the same overwhelmingly powerful flames I was hit with last time covered my vision. The atmosphere from the flame itself is the same as last time. However, I don''t feel the sensation of my magic armor being cut down all at once like I did last time. When I look at my hand, I see that the magic sword, which should be blue, is glowing red. ...... Is this the cause? You''ll be able to get a lot more than just a pair of shoes. Fortunately, it seems that the breath was just a feeble attempt at a counterattack. The breath didn''t last as long as the first one, and it ended without doing any damage to me. Immediately, Leviathan stops moving and begins to fall. The fish is still rushing towards me, but Leviathan himself seems to be dead. With a touch of my hand and a thought, the entire body of the fish is stored in the item box. This means that the fish that''s running into me is no longer my enemy. In other words, they may be hostile to me, but I have no reason to fight them. There is no reason for me to stay within the range of the fishes, so I quickly gain altitude and look down at them. Yes, the fishes are just food to me now. I fire off a few blasting spells that I thought wouldn''t work on the dragons anyway, saving them from unnecessary damage, and knock down all the fish that were near the surface. This is how I got the materials for the sub-dragon and the evening meal, and returned to the city. When I returned to the city, the adventurers were surprised to see me return, but I asked them to give me some explanation, or rather, to agree with me. If word got out that I had defeated the sub-dragon, I would not be able to move freely. The guild also said that they didn''t mind if I hid the fact that it wasn''t a request, and that they would pretend that Leviathan had died, though I didn''t know what that meant. In addition, I gave him the large amount of fish I had obtained in exchange for him processing my portion of the fish. The fish were sold cheaply at the festival, and people were sitting in the square eating them. As I was looking at the anchor I had brought with me, thinking that it was like a picnic, the color suddenly disappeared from the anchor. Thinking that it might be broken, I tried shaking it and tapping it, but there was no change. Then it occurred to me. It was broken, but the pair of anchors that should have been in the photoen. This anchor is not for use as a normal compass, but for emergency communication, to call me from the photolens. It would be fine if I broke it by mistake, but if something happened on the other side, it would be a big problem. There is no possibility that the same thing happened here, such as the emergence of a dragon. I''ve already paid for it. I haven''t heard anything about needing to check out, but just in case, I''ll give the gold to a nearby adventurer and ask him to contact you. You sure you want to take this much? I''m in a hurry. I''ll be back. Then I''ll be off." I hurriedly took off toward Fotoren, flying low to accelerate. Even if I''m not here, there''s a good chance that Brokens and Decibatore will be able to stop it, but if it''s a sub-dragon, the damage will be enormous. If it was something that could be left alone, it wouldn''t have called me in the first place. As I reached Brocken, the front line of the attack, I noticed a commotion in the middle. I wondered if they were organizing a strike force against some kind of attack. But the voice that greeted me as I landed there to jump in was unexpected. "Hey Kaede, you''re late. It''s already over. One of the adventurers I had talked to before was laughing and talking to me. No matter how you look at him, he doesn''t look like he did before he fought a powerful enemy. What do you mean it''s over? "The monsters attacked, metal lizards and all. You could''ve made a lot of money if you''d come faster. Oh, come on. If Kaede joins, we''ll lose our share. I''d rather have fewer people since we have enough strength. "That''s true, haha. The adventurers are making a lot of noise while saying this. One of the adventurers looks up and sees what looks like the corpses of several metal lizards on fire. Apparently, three or four metal lizards are nothing more than an efficient money-grab in front of Brokens'' adventurers. They''re making a lot of noise because they''re preparing for a feast. "Is it okay to have a banquet here?¡¡"Is it safe to have a party here? "We''ve wasted a lot of strength from Photoen and other places, so we have plenty of strength. ¡¡It seems like you brought a lot of stuff with you to Desi Battleye, but do you have anything good to eat today? It''s useless. ...... Well, I don''t know if it''s good, but I''ve brought some food. ¡¡I''ll provide you with some. Then you take out a fish from the item box. What came out was a fish that looked like a tie, but with a strangely desperate look on its face. "Oh, that''s a snapper!¡¡I never thought I''d eat one here. "A snapper? "Yeah, it''s a good fish. The sea around here is not safe enough to catch fish, so there are no fish to be found. The closest fishing village to Photoren is Nono, which is half a day''s walk away. While saying this, the adventurer tells the others about the fish. "Hey, Kaede''s got the snapper!¡¡Is there a cook available? I''m here! The adventurer-like cook raises his hand. I''ll take care of it. I''m on it! As he said this, the cook made a crunching sound as he cut up a large amount of fish. It''s a brilliant move. By the way, can you handle this? No, you can''t. It''s not the kind of fish you can handle. He couldn''t handle fish like the puffer fish that had been rejected in Minatonia. About half an hour later, the banquet was ready. I, who was not involved in the battle, joined in as a food provider. "Here''s to extra income! Even though we were in the same frontline city, it seemed that the strength of Minatonia was different from here. If you think about it, it''s hard to believe that this city, or rather the people here, can be defeated by a demon in a matter of hours. I feel like a fool for rushing back. Well, the Metal Lizard is not a sub-dragon. 71 Episode 70 Development and Expansion I''m back. Brocken was done by the time I got here. I was told to call the guild, so I called them, but they were done? I''m sorry. No, I don''t think Mercia has anything to apologize for. It was about two hours after we arrived in Brokens. It wasn''t even evening yet, and I had heard what I thought was the cause of the call, and the party was over, so I had returned to the merchant''s office to report it. The feast was not a long one, and it was not entirely for entertainment. When there is a large group of adventurers, it is better to have a party like this than to have a formal meeting. Information is exchanged, and since it is a frontline city, no one drinks to the point of collapse. The main topics of discussion today were the changing appearance patterns of Brokens, and the distribution of today''s rewards. Of course, it wasn''t all serious talk, there was also laughter at wizards who mismanaged their magic, and talk about what they would buy with their rewards. It''s not a laughing matter, but for adventurers who have become accustomed to super-healing potions, anything other than instant death is considered an injury. We talked like that, and then broke up when the food was gone. If this were a safe city, there would be a drinking contest, and if not, the day would go on, but in a front-line city, a banquet is just that. I''m on vacation, and I''m sorry I called you here for nothing. ...... I''m just finishing up some things over there, no problem. I just finished what I had to do over there, so it''s not a problem. You seemed to have enough time this time, but that''s not always the case. Is everything alright at the Chamber of Commerce? It''s a little late to be transporting zunana grass by boat, and the recent commotion has put our inventory in jeopardy, but that''s about it, although the apothecary guild is still insisting that we bring in plenty. How about we build a facility on that island over there and bring it to you in liquid form, then I''m sure that ship will be able to transport it. That''s what we should do. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that will work for you. Reba ...... defeated the Sublime Dragon again? Yeah. I was fishing and it got caught in the net. It''s long, so I thought I''d cut it into appropriate lengths and turn it into dragon bones. I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one who''s done this. And you don''t need a lot of ships. I''m not sure what to make of that. I''m sure you''ve heard of it, but I''m not sure if you''ve seen it. ...... Oops, saying this makes a big boss appear. I don''t want a dragon or something to come out. "Don''t you need a ship? Not enough pace? Building a distillation facility over there isn''t too bad in terms of cost, so I was thinking of doing it anyway. I was thinking of doing it anyway. Well, then we don''t need it. We''ll have a whole lot of material left over. We''ll just have to make a battleship. No, I can''t... No, thank you. And the distillation plant? Can we just take the one we have and move it over there? That''s fine. We''ll be able to buy highly concentrated decibatore from the liquor stores. I''d also like to add some employees. Are you sure you can handle such a large scale? We are rather short. We''ve raised the prices, and we don''t have a shortage in this town, but considering the amount of medicine consumed in other towns, we''ll only be able to do so much once it becomes available. "Then no problem, let''s increase the amount of medicine so that we don''t have a surplus. Do you want to explore other islands? We don''t need it right now because we can''t keep up with the harvest, but we''ll need it eventually. I''ll do it in my spare time. After destroying all the trees with magic, the Zunana grass underneath them will grow the next day, so it won''t be a problem until we have the employees ready, but it won''t hurt to make a harvesting area. Also, I caught a lot of fish over there.¡¡It''s not like meat here, you can eat it as it is. "We don''t have any fish here, even though we''re near the sea, so I think we''ll sell well. What kind of fish? Like this one or this one: ...... You take a fish out of the item box. One fish per species, as a sample. "Wait a minute, you can''t eat that. Mercia stopped me when I had taken out about five fish. I hadn''t noticed it because I hadn''t looked at the type of fish, but the appearance of the fish was a bit peculiar. It was swollen with air and had small fins and tiny spines on its belly. It''s a blowfish, to put it bluntly. It''s called a puffer fish. It''s said to be poisonous, but can''t it be eaten depending on how it''s handled?¡¡You can detoxify it with magic. What are you going to do with it? Blowfish is good, though. ...... It seems that people in this world are not as picky as the Japanese. I''ve heard that even foreigners are turned off when they see Japanese people eating puffer fish. ...... I''ll have a look at it later. Well, I''ll think about the puffer fish later. Everything else looks good, right? "Don''t think about it. The other fish are fine. They have not been processed, but they will not deteriorate in the item box. You can also boil or bake it before selling it. "Do you heat these too? He points to a tuna-like fish, which is not a boat killer. It can be grilled, but tuna should be eaten raw. You don''t eat fish raw, do you? "Is that what ...... is for? It''s true that we don''t see sashimi very often here. I feel the difference in food culture. Let''s leave it at that. Well, just leave it in the store like that. I''m going to carry the distillation equipment and zunana grass and cultivate a new zunana grass field. "All right. Please do. Well, let''s finish the job quickly. For now, I''ll throw the distillation equipment into the item box, along with all the related equipment (mainly magic rocks that act like fuel). I''ll take this with me. "Okay. The people at the apothecary were getting annoying, so honestly, it''s a big help. "This too? How much do the Apothecary''s Guild want concentrated liquid? Even though we have enough here, there are plenty of other cities, so I understand that they want it, but I wish they would think about our situation a little bit. We don''t know the size of the market, and we don''t know how much we should produce yet. We took off from the warehouse and headed for the island of Zunana grass (the first Zunana island, I believe). After a short flight, Zunana Island came into view. Along with it, you see other islands of reasonable size. I''ve got my bombing spell ready, and I''m going to secure some farmland while I''m at it. I''ll talk to them when I give them the equipment so that they won''t be surprised. So, I went to the office buildings on the island (there were three more, including a small one with a chimney, besides the one I had set up. The number of employees gathering medicinal herbs has also increased, and Zunana Island seems to be growing steadily. "Yes. I''ve brought the distillation equipment, where do you want me to put it? "What, owner? Where did it come from and when? I just came from the sky. You got room? Yeah, yeah. I''ve already got a cabin for that. This way. We were led to the smallest of the additional buildings. Is this why only one of them had what looked like a chimney? I placed the distillation equipment I had brought with me in the position I was told, and although there were a few gaps, it fit well. It''s pretty good work. It looks like they called in a carpenter, because they''re making a lot of money. They said it was selling like hotcakes, so they raised the price several dozen times, but the sales didn''t drop. I heard they raised the price, but I didn''t know they did that. The price is so high that if they had expanded their production steadily, they might have found themselves in a conglomerate or something. If we don''t, supply and demand won''t match up, we might as well ask Mercia and increase the number of employees at once. How many more people do you think you can put on this island if you use it to its full potential? There are 8 people on the island now, but I''d like to double that to 16, not including the distillers. If we had 24 harvesters in total, we could probably run the island at full capacity. "That''s about right. The production pace would probably triple. From what I''ve heard, it seems that tripling the production rate won''t be enough. Okay, I''m going to explore the other islands and go home. I''m going to explore the other islands and distill the Zunana plant stock. We''re in, aren''t we? No. Just tell them there''s gonna be a loud noise. I don''t get spooked by noises. I''m fine. It''s pretty loud. I''m sure it''ll be fine. I''ll be back. We climbed up into the sky and spotted a couple of neighboring islands. The first is the one on your right. When I invoke my usual blasting magic and warding, the trees and bumps on the top are blown away at once with a sound of explosion. All that remains is a burnt field of potential farmland. This, too, is doomed to be overrun by zunana grass tomorrow. After the other island was blown away in a similar fashion, we looked at the first zunana plant and saw that it was also causing a commotion. The employees who were harvesting the zunana grass were pointing at us and talking about something. I''m not going back to the island because it''s too much trouble. Good luck with your explanation, bearded employee whose name I don''t know. It was still early evening when I came back to Photoren. I had done all the work I needed to do, and I was bored. Since I have no time anyway, and since I have a nice tuna and a sharp knife (also known as a magic sword), let''s try to spread the Japanese food culture. To eat sashimi, you want soy sauce, but the best seasoning is salt, which brings out the flavor of the ingredients. From what I''ve eaten in the past, the fish here seems to be quite tasty, and that should be enough. Let''s show them the power of Japanese food, which is popular even in foreign countries. By the way, we also have Leviathan in stock, but it seems to be too hard for ordinary people, so I''ll put it on hold. 72 Episode 71 Convocation and Reinforcements Hey, how long is this gonna go on? "Hey, ....... About three hours after I started selling fish sticks on the spur of the moment. About three hours after I started selling fish sashimi on a whim, there was a long line in front of Kaede Trading Company. Sashimi of a tuna-like fish. Honestly speaking, it''s not good enough for me because there''s no soy sauce, no wasabi, and the only substitute is salt. In addition, there are not many foreign countries on the earth that eat raw fish, so I thought it was inevitable that it would not sell well. We advertised a little, but at first, as expected, few people tried to eat it. The few who did buy it were all adventurers who wanted to use it as a punishment, adventurers who wanted to show off their courage, and adventurers who liked new things ....... That''s why the general public didn''t bother with it. I thought it was a failure for a while, though I didn''t have the money for it. However, it was well-received by those who ate it, and when I started to think that it was time to stop, the number of people started to increase, and it became a little queue. The line itself became an advertising effect, and the line was so long that I thought it was some kind of event. Okay, it''s ready, take it away. "Okay!¡¡I''ll add more! It was a good thing that there were so many customers, but there was a slight miscalculation. I couldn''t keep up with the fish. Of course, this restaurant does not have a chef''s knife, nor does it have anti-parasite freezing facilities. In other words, the only way to cut the fish is with a magic sword, and the only way to tell if there are parasites is by appraising them. Very busy. I''m not going to do it again tomorrow. I''ll dry the fish. We''ll dry them and sell them piece by piece. How about hiring a chef to do it? "It''s selling well. If we''re going to eat it fresh, we need it to be fresh. What facilities do we have to store it besides the item box? We can provide facilities to store food, but we can''t go that far. ...... Well, no. Somewhat unfortunately. Okay, now we''re ready. One of the reasons I started selling sashimi was because I thought it would be a shame to just harvest the fish, which is also a resource, and leave it to rot. However, I had no intention of becoming a chef just to get rid of the stock. In that respect, I would be grateful if the sashimi didn''t have to be sold so fast, and if it could be sold without much effort. While I was wholesaling three pieces of tuna with my magic sword, the tentacles told me that someone had come to the back door. Judging from the reaction, it''s someone I don''t know, probably a man. I also hear a knock on the door. "There''s someone at the back door. I''ll go check it out. It''s been quite a while since the line was formed. I wonder if someone has come to complain. If that''s the case, they should have just walked in without knocking. He said he was from the Adventurer''s Guild. Can I come in? If there''s a hygiene problem, I''ll have you stand a little further away. Yes, sir. The person who came in was, as expected, a stranger. As expected, it was a stranger, since I don''t know the entire staff of the Adventurer''s Guild. The Adventurer''s Guild has summoned all adventurers in the area. Please report to the Photoren branch. Right now? I''m still working on the fish. The line is still long. If it''s an emergency, we''ll have to go, but if we suddenly stop, we''ll have a riot on our hands. I''ll put the blame on the guild. No. No. It''s a relatively low emergency, and the guild hasn''t completely decided what to do yet, so we''ve only called for a meeting. Please meet me at the Photoren Guild in one hour from now. The riot seems to have been averted. "Understood. When the conversation was over, the staff still ran somewhere. He must have gone to the other adventurers. "Mercia, I need you to cut the line at the end of the 50-minute window. "Yes, sir. Mercia gave the order, and a few of the employees followed suit, leaving the store. I continued to process the fish, and after about 45 minutes, the line was over. All right, you''re in charge. I''ll leave the meat and fish where they are, so you can dry them. You can dry the fish too, right? "No problem. We''ll never sell this much. Even if we did, we''d be out of stock. You leave the store and head for the guild. It''s rare for the guild to call me without an emergency. If this city or Brokens were under attack, an emergency call would be made first. But this is not an urgent call, and it''s at night. I wonder what this is all about. Hello. I''m here because I''ve been called. Is this the right place? I got ready and entered the guild at the exact time, but the atmosphere inside was different from the previous calls. In the place where the request board usually hangs, there is a large map made of paper - perhaps the scale is small, but the individual towns are small and the area is large. There didn''t seem to be as many people as there should have been for the time we had set for the meeting, but I wondered if we had come too early. For the time being, I tried talking to the receptionist. "Yes, you must be Kaede. The demon attack on this area was quickly suppressed by the adventurers, but it seems to have occurred in other areas as well. So you''re saying we should head to support? Yes, the reason for the delay is that we''re still deciding how to allocate our forces. It''s a long way from here. Is that okay? It''s happening in several places. ...... Well, I can go almost anywhere. I''ve got everything I need in my item box. Thank you very much. Because of the item box, the mobility of the flight magic, and the firepower of the magic, we have decided to ask Kaede to provide sole support to Forchheimer. The location is here. Please ask the local guild about the rest. The receptionist pointed to a point on the map. The place she pointed to was a town facing a forest (a normal one, not a demon''s domain). It''s probably about the same size as Aen. It''s not that small of a town, but considering what happened to the Metal Lizard in Ein, there may not be much room. "All right. Are you leaving right now? "Not absolutely right away, but as soon as possible, please. There is a possibility that the damage may spread. Yes, sir. I''ll be there. Thank you. You confirm the approximate route to Forcima and run out of town. The destination is an unknown land, and this time there are no obvious landmarks like the sea, so I''m watching the road. It''s a little slower than going straight, but it''s better than getting lost. Even so, it took us less than half an hour to get to Forcima. The power of magic had been further increased when he fought Leviathan. The maximum speed was about the speed of sound anyway, so the time taken for acceleration and deceleration must have been reduced. Of course, the MP did not decrease even with such acceleration. On the contrary, my MP has been increasing even when I am not fighting against dragons and wisps. I don''t really feel that my magic is increasing, though. However, there is something wrong with the city. I don''t know why, but something seems to be wrong. It''s true that the town itself is different from the others, with walls that look quite white, but that''s probably not the source of the strange feeling. When I looked at the city while dropping down in altitude, I found the reason. There was no liveliness. Normally, in a city of this size, there would be a certain number of people walking the streets, even at night. But right now, there were no such people in the city. There are people themselves, but they are all standing around the buildings with weapons in their hands. Does this mean that demons have already entered the city? At any rate, I look for a building that looks like a guild and go down there. I''ll have to enter the city without going through the gate, but I''m sure that''s allowed. Who is it? One of the people with a spear asks me while I''m standing guard in front of the guild. He looks weak, if I may say so. I can''t sense any adventurer-like atmosphere. In addition, one of them is clearly a receptionist. I''m an adventurer from the guild of Fotoren. I''d like to join the guild. "Oh, yeah. Reinforcements would be great. We''re short on strength. ...... Whoa. While we were talking, a green wolf came charging towards us. I didn''t realize it was a green wolf until after I had reflexively disposed of it with magic. I missed you, Green Wolf. So that''s how we ended up in this situation. Can I ask the guild what to do now? "Well, yes. Please do. ...... The people of Photoren are strong after all. ...... After the approval, I opened the door and went inside. The atmosphere inside was different from any other guild I''ve seen. Or rather, it was not the atmosphere of a guild. The guild was full of people with children, old people, and people who obviously had nothing to do with the guild. It was a shelter. There was not even a foothold, so I used magic to fly near the ceiling to the counter. Of the three counters, only one has a receptionist. My name is Kaede, and I''m here as reinforcements from the Photohren Guild. What can I do for you? "Uh, Kaede? Are you alone? The receptionist looked at me with a worried expression. Yes, I''m alone. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. I even defeated the Sublong once by myself. Two times to be exact, but one of them is an unofficial record. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out how to use it.¡¡Are you sure? I have no reason to lie. You''ll just die from being forced to do an impossible job. ...... That''s right. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that will help you out. I understand. Okay. Even the guild''s guards are like that, so the decent forces are probably concentrated in that area. As I headed for the gate, killing the occasional demon with my rock spear, I saw a group of adventurers, a little more decent than the ones before, fighting the green wolf. Perhaps they were outnumbered, but the situation didn''t look good. Two of the adventurers were still alive, but they had fallen to the ground. The remaining five or so adventurers are also struggling, having been attacked by multiple green wolves from before. Then I hear more footsteps. Looking deeper, you see a Gargon charging at you. I hurriedly took out my bladed staff and flew my rock spear to cover him so as not to misfire. The rock spears, which were much more powerful than the ones used to deal with Gargon and Green Wolf, blew them all away. The adventurers turned to look at the reinforcements who had suddenly blown away the enemies from behind. "Thank God!¡¡Reinforcements? "Yes, I''m Kaede from the Photoren Guild. I''m a mage. As I replied, I stepped in front of the adventurers and unleashed a large number of rock spears, and began to sweep away the demons that had gathered around the gate. 73 Episode 72 Forests and Abuses I use my magic to blow away the nearest enemies, and start treating the adventurers, starting with those who seem to be seriously injured. I want to save medicine as much as possible, so I''m going to treat them manually with magic. Are you okay? Oh, yeah. ...... Thank you. Who are you, anyway? I''m a reinforcement from the Photoren Guild. My name is Kaede. I''m from the Photoren Guild. My name is Kaede. ...... You''re one of the adventurers who fought in the Decibatore? Yes, I am. I''ve finished healing you, so can you help me defend the gate?¡¡I''m going to go kill some demons. Judging from the battle we just fought, I don''t think we''ll be able to add to our strength by fighting with the adventurers here. I''ll go kill some demons. We''d love to join you, but we''d only be slowing you down. Sorry, but please. The adventurers seemed to understand this, and left the outside to me. Got it. After watching the adventurers begin to move, I jumped up to a suitable height and began to fight the demon. However, the battle itself is quite simple. First of all, the demons are weak, and in the vicinity of the Decibatore, they can be used as a check, or if they are not, they can be killed easily by attacks that are not even a check. The only annoying thing is the number of them, but even then, it''s only about the level of Decibatore. This can''t even be called combat, it''s just work. As expected, the work of clearing out the demons that had accumulated in the city and elsewhere was done in less than half an hour by simply scattering small rock spears, being careful not to misfire. As for the outside of the city, I went around the walls and rained down rock spears on them. With this much reduction, the adventurers should be able to deal with them for the time being. I''m worried about the demons coming out of the forest, so I''ll ask the guild what to do. We''ve already crushed most of the ones that gathered outside, so can we ask you to continue defending the area?¡¡I''m out of time, so I''ll go to the guild and see what they have to say. As a result, the adventurers who had originally defended the town were now in a situation where it didn''t make much difference whether they were there or not, but there was nothing we could do about it. There are demons in the city, and we can''t afford to slow down to match the pace of the normal adventurers. Besides, it seemed that the attack was not limited to this city, so if it was going to be quick, it had to be quick. When I entered the guild, the receptionist from earlier was still there, so I reported to her. We''ve defeated most of the monsters in the city, and enough of the ones outside that we can defend ourselves for the time being with the strength we have here. But there are still demons coming out of the forest, what should we do? I''m not sure what to do.¡¡...... I''m afraid I can''t judge, I''ll go ask the branch manager. The receptionist then retreated to the back. Not long after, the receptionist came out with an old man. From the flow of the conversation, I guessed it was the branch manager, but unlike the other guilds, he didn''t seem to be able to fight at all. He seems like a nice guy, though. "Oh, I''m the head of the Forchma guild. Is the city safe? "It''s fine for now. But with the new demons coming out of the forest, the city''s strength will be ...... Will it be tough without you? Yes. It''s not as if you can just leave some restorative medicine behind. "Even so, I can''t keep you here indefinitely. We''ve got other cities to deal with. There''s been a string of attacks. ...... It would be nice if we could destroy the forest, but that''s impossible under the current circumstances and in such a short time. The only thing we can do is to hope that we can get adventurers of D rank or higher from other towns, which is probably impossible. Is it okay to destroy the forest?¡¡It would be easier if we just set it on fire or something. If I could do that, I would have done it already. But trees don''t burn unless they''re left alone for a while after they''re cut down. Is that so? If you use firewood, you can start a fire, but you can''t expect it to spread, so it''s better to cut it down. I didn''t know that. Apparently, there was no need to worry about forest fires when using fire magic. "Is it safe to erase the forest? It''s common knowledge that demons come out of the forest. As far as the mountains of Herrera are concerned, it should not be so difficult to cut them down, unlike the demon realm. The fact that the forest has been left untouched in spite of this means that it needs to be left untouched for some reason. It will affect the harvest of crops from next year. But it''s better than having the whole city destroyed right now, if that''s possible. I could crush it with my magic if I wanted to, but if we''re not in such a hurry, why don''t I just stay here until the other reinforcements arrive? "...... That''s impossible. The guilds in the nearby towns can''t afford to send adventurers. What about the reinforcements from Fotolen?¡¡It''ll probably be a few days before anyone but me arrives. It seems that Photoren has sent a lot more reinforcements than just me. It will take some time, but I wouldn''t be surprised if they come to this city. I''m also prioritizing my city. I''d like to prioritize the city I''m in as well, but you''re a C-ranked player with the greatest strength, and I can''t keep you in this city alone forever. C-rank is the most powerful? I''m not sure what to do. I''m not sure what to do. "If you can, please. Are you sure about your magic power? I can afford it. Then let''s get going. You can''t lose magic. Yeah, just take it easy and hurry up. All right. I''m off. After we left the guild, we gained altitude and saw the forest. I wanted to see if there were any people, so I approached the forest, but there were demons everywhere, and it didn''t look like there were any people. I have an explosive spell on standby, along with a magic armor to use in case something happens, so I just need to use it. I haven''t tried it in an ordinary forest though. I''ll need to adjust the power, but the trees in Desibatore are strong, and I''ll probably only need half the power of a normal tree. So I released it with about half the density of the Decibatore. A moment after it landed, the spell blew the trees away with an explosion, sending pieces of wood and tree trunks high into the sky. Clearly overkill. ...... In the first place, it was a mistake to equate trees that could not be cut down at a decent speed without bringing out a magic sword with ordinary trees that grow everywhere. Having reflected on my mistake, I lowered the power to about one-tenth that of the Decibatore and tried again. The sound was still the same, but the trees were still living, just jumping around a little. It seems to have worked. It may have been a little too strong, but I figured it was better than having leftovers, so I went with it. If you go straight from the city to the depths of the forest and spread out your explosion magic, the forest will break up a little further on. The forest seems to end here. It''s so easy that it''s a bit of a letdown, but there''s nothing wrong with finishing early. When I returned to the guild, the branch manager was still near the counter, so I reported directly to him. It seems that the safety of the city has not yet been confirmed, and the evacuees are staying in the guild. We''ve blown up most of the nearby forest, sir. I don''t think they''ll be coming out of the woods any time soon. "Shall we go to ......?¡¡Isn''t that too soon? That''s about right. It''s a much softer tree than the Desibatore and it''s not as big. I don''t care how many wizards from Desibatore you are, it''s still not right. ...... Technology advances, you know. Thanks to this, we were able to push the battle line back to Brokens. In fact, it was mostly magic and INT. "...... is a world I can''t imagine. I''m not really familiar with Decibatore, so if you''re from there and you say so, I guess you''re right. "That''s right. By the way, what should I do next? Move to another city? If this city is safe, ...... I can''t say for sure because I don''t know what''s going on, but Forthema is probably the most dangerous. You''ll have to go there tomorrow, and we''ll get you a place to stay for the day. I''m not sure what to do.¡¡Are you sure you want to sleep? It''s nighttime. You can''t move around. Besides, even adventurers need to rest. That''s funny. ...... Most adventurers I know would stay up and fight for at least a few days if there was an emergency. They can cover a half-day''s distance on foot in about two hours, and they can run through a forest at night as well. That''s what an adventurer is. By Decibatore standards. "No, I''m fine. These nights are much safer than Desibatore''s days, and I''m not so tired that I need to sleep yet. If you''re young, but still a Desibatore adventurer, you''re still a monster. ...... If your magic is good, I''d like you to move now. I''m not a monster. If I had been on Earth and seen me now, I probably would have felt the same way. "All right. Which way do you want me to go? "Go straight left out of the guild and you''ll see a gate. The door is closed. ...... Shall I have someone take the key and show you the way? "No, I can jump over the gate. Is it straight out of the gate? Yeah, go straight down that road and the first thing you''ll see is a forte. Okay, I''ll go now. We leave the guild again, this time going out the gate. I''m busy, but the city is dying even while I''m taking my time. I''m not in the mood to rest. I flew along the road, but the distance of half a day on foot was much closer than I expected. I think it took less than ten minutes. The town of Fortamer is similar to that of Fortima. I took a quick look around ...... and found that the situation was much the same as in Forcima. It seems that demons have entered the city, but the places where people are holed up are probably safe. I guess the reason I was sent to Forcima in the first place was because of the urgency of the situation, but it might have been dangerous if I hadn''t been asleep. When I went to the guild, they asked me to do the same thing as in Forcima, so I just dealt with it. The quality of the adventurers was much the same as in Forthema, and the demons were similar. In the end, I ended up blowing up the forest, and they were worried about my magic power. I wonder if there''s a manual for this, as they recommended lodging and treated me like a monster. My work here was over in about two and a half hours, and I took off for the next city. At this rate, I''ll be saving nearly ten cities a day. Incidentally, the next city is called Fortate. That''s confusing. 74 Episode 73 Return and Bomb After saving exactly seven cities, including one with a confusing name, we arrived at the eighth city, Mauchma, but it was a little different from the others. The gates were well guarded, and the monsters fighting the adventurers outside the gates seemed to be pushed back by the adventurers. In particular, there seemed to be room near the front lines, where the quality of the adventurers was so high that it looked like a one-sided slaughter of the monsters by the adventurers. My instincts have been cultivated since I came to this world, and I wouldn''t call them long-standing, but if they''re right, we don''t need reinforcements here. I decided that there was at least enough time to gather information, so I headed towards the guild-like buildings. From the looks of it, there are no civilians in the city, but they seem to have started sweeping up the demons that have entered. I can see a man who looks like a gatekeeper in armor slaying demons with his sword, and a man who looks like a Mohawked adventurer using fire magic to set demons on fire. There seemed to be no trouble there either, so we went straight to the guild. The interior of the guild was much the same as the town we had been in. Except for the relatively small number of evacuees and the cheerful faces of the evacuees, it is a guild and a simple refugee center, just like any other city. The receptionist was standing by, and the way to the place was clear. "Hey, I''m here with reinforcements from Photoren, do you need ......? "Reinforcements from Photoren?¡¡I thought they arrived a while ago. ...... Oh, so that''s what they are. I was aware of this when I saw the town. It was strange that there were demons in the city if they had enough strength from the start, and I felt that the adventurers on the front lines were too strong for the quality of the demons. Reinforcements from Forchma''s and Fotoren''s sides must have departed and met up here. When I was coming here from the previous town, I saw a group of adventurers going in the opposite direction of me, but they were probably part of the reinforcements. I knew it. I flew by magic to the Forchma side and then came this way. I flew by magic to the Forchma side and then proceeded to this side. We met up here, right? "Oh, that''s what the adventurers who came before you said. So you''re Kaede? That''s right. They must have heard about me. When I was told that there might not be enough reinforcements to go around, I was told that it would be alright because the wizard with a lot of magic power was ahead of me. So I need to find out where to send reinforcements, so can you tell me what cities you''ve been to so far? A wizard with a lot of magic power. That''s what I thought. You''re not wrong, but did you ever think about what would happen if I was killed? Well, maybe they didn''t worry because they knew that they could beat me even if they were asleep. Also, I''m a swordsman, right? "Well, forchima, forthema, fortate, for...... Here are the names of the cities I''ve saved so far. The names were confusing, but he managed to remember them. "Hey, isn''t that every city down there? Isn''t it too soon after we got the call? I''ve used magic to burn down the entire forest and left the rest to the local adventurers. I''ve already burned the entire forest with magic and left the rest to the local adventurers. I''m going to report this to the branch chief now. Do you have any other urgent matters to report? Nothing in particular. Okay. I''ll be in touch with the Photoren Office, so Miranda can tell you the rest. Miranda, you take care of the rest. Okay. I''ll explain the plan to you. I was expecting to have to wait for a full response, but apparently I was wrong. A little while ago, the person who had been standing behind the first receptionist came to the front. "Have you decided what you''re going to do next? "Yes. "Yes. They want you to return to the Photon branch by sunrise five days from now. Five days from now? That''s a lot of time. Yes, he wants us to be back by then, even if we still have work to do here. Any reason? They''re testing a new weapon. I haven''t been told the details. Experimenting with a new weapon. I''m guessing the timing is to fix the current situation. I wonder if the reason for calling me is to consume a large amount of magic power. All right, what should I do until then? Well, ...... we probably have enough strength without you, but can we wait for the branch manager to tell us what to do just in case? How long will it take? About ten minutes at most. I''ll wait then. The answer I got in about five minutes was that there was no specific work I needed to do, so I could do whatever I wanted. So I decided to go to Photolens as soon as possible. At first I thought of going somewhere to reinforce him, since I wasn''t that tired and there were still four days to go. However, I don''t know where I should go now. Besides, the new weapon was also a concern. In the end, I don''t see any other option but to go to Photoren. Then you can decide whether you want to rest or work. So I tell them that I''m going back to Photoren, and take off for Photoren. I brought a different anchor from the one I broke, so I don''t have to watch the road on the way back. We started slowing down too late and went a little too far, but it still took us less than 20 minutes to reach Photoren. To check the situation, I went to the guild first. When I went to the reception desk, I heard my name called from the other side. "You must be Kaede. "Yes, I''ve just returned. I''ve just returned. ...... something seems to be okay now. I''ve forgotten his name. Can you please direct your report to the Branch Chief?¡¡As soon as Kaede returns, she should be taken to the branch manager''s office. Understood. Excuse me. Nice to meet you, Mr. Kaede. Have a seat. The Branch Chief was an old man. He didn''t look as strong as an adventurer, but he seemed capable. In a large guild with a lot of functions, the head of the branch would be a suitable person. Yes. He sits down on a chair that looks much more expensive than other guilds. You''re early, as expected, but did you have any problems defending Forchheimer? Yes, we crushed the forest, thinned out the demons, and handed it over to the local adventurers and the adventurers from Fotolen. Hmm. No problem. So you''re here to talk about the new weapon? Yes, I need you to escort a ship to the final stage of the production of a new weapon, the Demon Bomb. The reward is 30 million Tel. Judging from the name, I guess the new weapon is a bomb made of magic stones. I''m not quite sure what the ship will be used for. Also, it''s very expensive for an escort. "It sounds like an important request, so I''m willing to take it, but a ship to make a bomb? "Yeah, I heard that once you have the first one, you can make an almost infinite number of demon bombs in a chain, but the problem is where to make the first one. The problem is where to make the first one, deep inside the demon''s domain. Why can''t we go closer? Do you need a lot of magical power or something? It''s possible, but it''s a safety issue. I''ve heard that the second and subsequent demon bombs can be made from the aftermath of other demon bombs, but normal demon rocks can''t be detonated without the aftermath of other demon rocks. How can you know that if you''ve never made one? I don''t know the details either, but that''s what the researchers say. I don''t know the details, but the researchers say so. This is the reason why magic stone bombs have not been put to practical use despite the fact that research has been done in this area. But you can''t say that after this incident? I''m sure you''re not the only one. If there were ten of you, you might have been able to get by without a magic stone bomb. ...... You''re about nine people short. I can''t alter myself either. So you want me to protect the ship from the blast while you do it farther away because the bomb is dangerous? No, the blast is only a problem if you keep your distance. The problem is what happens after the explosion. After? "According to a group of researchers who are against the production of magic stone bombs, they can attract dragons. That''s why they''re testing it as far away as possible. "Sublong: ...... This reminds me of something I read in a book about dragons. I think it was written in a book about dragons that an explosion using a magic stone could attract dragons and then defeat them. It was a long time ago, so I don''t think dragons will appear now, but it worries me. "Yes. I don''t know if dragons will actually appear or not, but if they appear in the depths of the demon realm, there''s no problem, just leave them there. "In other words, you want me to cover your retreat in that case. That''s what I''m saying. The ship itself is one of the only ones in the country that is extremely powerful against sub dragons, but it can''t handle sub dragons without the support of adventurers. As far as I can tell, we''re in the clear. There are no signs of the dragons mentioned in the book, and they probably won''t appear. I''ll prepare a magic tool called the "magic freeze" that is supposed to be used in case a dragon appears, just in case. It''s unlikely that I''ll use it, though. Okay, I''ll take it. I''d rather you didn''t have to do it, but if it comes to that... Okay. I''d love to have your job, but if I have to do it, I''ll do it. That''s reassuring. ...... That''s all for now. Now, if you''ll excuse me. I''m lucky, I''ve got a job that''s both easy and lucrative. You can get 30 million Tel just by sleeping on a ship, and in some cases you can even get materials for sub dragons. You may not get all the materials, but it''s more than enough to make the job worthwhile. It''s like picking up a thousand-yen bill on the street. Now, let''s prepare the magic freeze. By the way, I don''t know where Catherine is now. Maybe I''ll ask Mercia. 75 Episode 74 Time and Money When I asked Mercia, it was easy to find out where Catherine was. She seemed to have already finished her own work today, and was teaching the new magic artisans hired by the merchant company. I haven''t heard anything about it, but I guess it''s not a problem since it''s not much of an investment and they seem to be making a profit. It''s been a while, how are you doing? I''ve gotten used to it and can make it more efficiently now. I make it twice a day until I run out of energy and then use the rest of the time for teaching and resting. So you''ve become more efficient. I heard that the amount of production hasn''t increased in spite of that. Yes, that''s true. ...... Why is that? I thought it might be a sign that a dragon would appear, so I appraised Catherine. In the event you''re not sure what you''re looking for, you''ll be able to find a lot more information on the web. There is almost no magic left, so it''s not that she didn''t use all of her magic during the creation process. The maximum value of the dragon is not decreasing, so it is not related to the dragon. "I don''t know ....... I''m not sure. ...... Well, the unit price of magic tools has been on the rise lately, so it seems that revenue is increasing. Is that what you came here today to talk about? "No, it has nothing to do with that. I''m in the market for a magic tool called "Magic Freeze", have you heard of it? I don''t know of any magic tools by that name. ...... Is it a spell that freezes things? I don''t know. What are you going to use it for if you don''t know what ...... it is? Maybe it''s used to freeze dragons. I don''t know, I didn''t find any details in the book I was given, but I''m sure there''s no other way. Maybe ....... "Well, just in case, make something like that. I want one that can be enhanced with wisp cores. I''d like one that can be enhanced with a wisp core, because from the status of the people around it, it doesn''t seem to have any precursors. "I don''t know if it''ll work against dragons, but okay. If you want to take advantage of the wisp core''s output, I think you should use a disposable that cools the entire space. "Whole air. The range is going to be very wide, but will the power be enough? Normally, it''s tough, but if you use a wisp core, it should be powerful enough to freeze the air for an average demon. Will it kill them? I don''t know if it''s enough to kill a dragon, but it should be enough. Okay, that''s it then. Yes, sir. Before leaving the store, I appraised the newcomers and found that they all had inert magic. Like Catherine, they all had much more magic power than the average person. Maybe they''ve learned how to make use of their inert magic while I was away. Well, I''m done with my business. I wonder if there''s anything I should have done. ...... Speaking of which, how is the potion going? As far as I can tell from the situation around me, there''s a possibility that I don''t have enough potions, no matter how many I have. Or, rather, it is highly likely. If that were the case, he could have told me, but if he forgot to tell me for some reason, that would have been terrible. Come to think of it, I don''t even know exactly how much Zunana grass concentrate they are making and how much they are selling it for, let alone what they have in stock. I''ve heard that the business is doing well, but that''s all. It wouldn''t hurt to know while there''s still time. So, I decided to ask Mercia about the situation. "Hey, what''s going on with Zunana grass these days? "We''re still selling as much as we make, and we''re told to make as much as we can. Have there been any particular shortages lately? Demand is increasing, but supply has been low in relation to demand since the beginning. How much are you short and how much are you making now? We''ve tried to streamline production as much as we can, but it''s only about 10 liters a day, or 300 pills. The price has been revised due to the recent uproar and now it''s about 500,000 Tel per liter. What are the bottlenecks in terms of cost and production volume? The bottleneck is the size of the farmland on the island, but even if we expand the farmland, we will soon run out of distillation capacity, so with the current system, the limit is probably less than 15 liters per day. I''m also a little worried about the shipping capacity. Daily profit exceeds 4.8 million tels: ...... We can build a house every day, but we still have a shortage of medicine. If we were to increase production by a factor of ten, would we still be able to sell out? On the islands we''ve seen so far, if we don''t think too far ahead, we should be able to increase production to about 100 times the current level. However, Zunana farms are like slash-and-burn farms, so you should keep your production at about 10 times the current level, considering the rotation. ...... Major merchants are transporting the goods to distant cities, so I think that 10 times the current amount would be enough to sell out quickly even in normal times. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. "How low can it go? Even if the income is too low for the risk, increasing the production of medicines will help the war between humans and demons, so I would like to do it if possible. But if it''s too unprofitable, I''m not sure it''s a good idea for the Chamber of Commerce to take the initiative, so I''ll just ask. At best, it will be 70% of the current price, and at worst, about half. In normal times, it could drop another 30% from there. I did a quick calculation and found that if you increase production by 10 times, your income will increase by 4 to 7 times. If you increase production by a factor of five, the increase in revenue per day is about 19 million. If you have ......, you can recoup the cost of building mithril transports, which cost 190 million Tel per ship, in 10 days. What a rags to riches business. And on top of that, you can contribute to society. Is there any reason not to do it? "Okay, let''s just see how it goes and increase it tenfold. "...... I had a feeling you''d say that, but we''re going to need more ships. Are you okay with that? We have enough money, of course, and this Leviathan we''ve just taken down is so long that if we chop it into pieces, we can build ten ships of the same level as before. What else do you need? We''ll need six new ships and about six new distillation units if they''re as good as the current ones. Six ships? Six ships, that''s a lot. I don''t think we''ll need the same number of distillation units. Why do we need so many ships? Why do we need so many ships?" "If we increase the number tenfold, the distance to the island we''ll farm will increase. Also, the magic-powered ships can''t travel back and forth between here and the island as often as they should because of the magical equipment they carry. On the other hand, non-magic powered ships are useless near demon territory. So each ship has to go back and forth between here and the island. Seems inefficient to me. Why don''t we just find a nice island and accumulate the goods there and then take a big ship? "...... That''s a good idea!¡¡That would certainly be efficient! You look as if you''ve never heard of this method before. You look as if you''ve never heard of this method before. "No one has thought of it before?¡¡What did the other ship-using merchants do? I think our business is the first to use ships to continuously send large amounts of goods to the area around the demon territory. If you think about it, it''s definitely something you''ve never heard of. Am I too far ahead of my time? Is that so? Yes, we are. ...... Well, I''ll leave you the materials and money later, so if you think it''s better to transport it that way, so be it. I''ll probably be on the next job by the time I finish the first one. "Okay, sir. What about the distillation unit?¡¡It would be difficult to transport it to the island without Kaede, but if we were to gather it now, ......". It''s true that one of these machines could build a house. I don''t think there''s any place that keeps six of them in storage. "I''ll try to scrounge some up. "I''ll try to scrounge some up, and if I don''t have enough, just use what I can scrounge up. All right. Is there anything else? No, sir. All right, well, I''ll go out and recruit. Okay, I''m going to go post a job. A job offer. It might be easier to attract people if you write that it''s a homey place to work. Apparently, the benefits are pretty good, but the work involves interacting with plants on a nature-rich island and endless weeding called ....... There''s no problem in terms of cost, but it might be time to mechanize some of the work. With that in mind, I''m going to make the island explode. I used to do this slowly and thoughtfully, but now it''s just a process. It''s a simple job of casting explosion spells on the islands you see, and finally throwing in one of the many anchors you brought with you. There are so many islands to deal with that you''ll lose track of them if you don''t do this. We repeated the process a dozen times. By a rough estimate, we have created a potential zunana farm site that is about nine times the size of our existing farmland, so we are done. I wanted to start a sugar cane farm, which was the original reason why I started picking zunana grass, but I''ll put that off for now. I would have liked to take a break, but that''s not going to happen. I had to finish collecting the distillation equipment before I left. Therefore, as soon as I finished cultivating the land, I had to go to the blacksmith shop in Herrera at the speed of sound. Excuse me!¡¡Please sell me a distillation device! "Oh, you''re the rich kid from last time!¡¡I''ve got one just like it. I''ll give you 5.3 million. I''ll buy that too!¡¡But I need six of them. Can you get me five more? I don''t have that many. ...... Do you have any other locations? I''m the only one in town that makes them, no one else does. When do you need it? From what I hear, it''s about six days from today until the ship arrives. Considering the travel time, ...... I''d say five days. I don''t mind paying a little more. I can''t do it in five days, I can''t even make two ...... If it costs about ten million a piece, I can get another blacksmith to make them, but that''s impossible, right? Double it. That''s about 5 million per unit, for a total of about 25 million. To be honest, it''s not worth it to make them for a daily income of 500,000 ter. But ...... No, I''ll take that. I''ll pay you in advance. He takes out 5 white gold coins and 53 large gold coins. This is not just a money-making scheme, but also a form of front-line support. Since he was going to make a lot of money anyway, it wouldn''t be wrong if he gave some of it back to the market. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!¡¡I don''t like the idea of charging more for the same product. ...... Well, okay. I can make two of them myself, so you can pay me 50 million for all six. Thank you very much. The day came when the ship arrived in no time. I was busy, but I managed to finish all the work I needed to do. I''ve got the magic freeze ready. Now I can concentrate on my "simple task" of guarding the ship from the absent Sublong. 76 Episode 75 Weapons and Budget After finishing my preparations to be away for the trip, I was waiting for the ship to arrive with a few other guild members. I''m sure the general public hasn''t been told that the ship will be arriving today, but judging from the number of spectators, word must have gotten out. I''m looking forward to seeing what kind of ship it is. After all, this is a ship that is said to have caused the country to collapse just because the development of one piece of equipment took longer than planned when it was built. Her name is the Dragon Killer. The name suggests that it can slay dragons, but in reality, it can only slay sub-dragons with the help of adventurers. However, it is a ship that can take on dragons without the help of a strong adventurer, so it must be strong. That''s the extent of my knowledge of ships, but I wonder what kind of huge battleship it is. As I looked at the sea with such expectations, I saw something that looked like a ship around the horizon. Perhaps this planet is bigger than the Earth, but the horizon seems much farther away. It looks like a ship is coming into view. Is that it? "...... I can''t see it yet. Colt, can you see it? I''ll ask the chief, but he doesn''t seem to be able to see the ship yet. He''s old enough to know better. Even my eyes can barely make out the ship. I can''t see it either. No. It''s still a long way off. A young man, who seemed to be one of the higher-ups in the guild, could not see it either. About 15 minutes later, Mr. Colt spoke up. Oh, that''s it. It''s not every day you see a ship without sails that big. Finally. ...... Do you have good eyesight too? "Considering the time, I''d say you could see the ship 20 kilometers away. ...... I''m sure you''ll be surprised to hear that. Maybe it wasn''t just his powers and magic, but his eyesight as well. It was another fifteen minutes before the ship arrived. By this time, people were calling out to each other, and the beach area was packed with people. I could see the ship perfectly, but it was rather ...... small. No, it''s bigger than the size of a standard ship in this world, and the ship is actually anchored slightly outside the harbor because the harbor is not deep enough. However, compared to the large warships of Earth, the ship seems small. The length is probably about 70 meters, and the width is about the same. Something like a large cylinder piercing the deck is conspicuous. If that were the main gun, it would have a caliber of over one meter, but firing such a gun at a ship of this size would probably sink the ship itself. It is still understandable that it is smaller than a battleship, but it is half the length of a modern warship, which has become smaller. The metal parts that hold the guns in place seem to be far less durable than the turrets of battleships. In addition, the deck is crammed with a variety of other equipment, and it looks extremely unstable. If it is not careful, it might tip over just by turning. It may be managed by magic, but it makes me worry about it. ...... Is that equipment enough? It seems that my fears were unfounded. After that, we got on the ship and received an explanation about the ship, and it seems that the ship is equipped with a high performance attitude control magic device. As a result, the ship seems to be able to maintain its posture to the extent that it does not capsize even when it turns at an angle near the limit of its engines (or other magical devices). On the contrary, it is said that the high turning ability is one of the strengths of this ship. And now that the explanation was over, we were getting into the explanation of the anti-aircraft equipment. There are many flying demons in the area we are going to, so they want to explain it to me. I wonder if he needs to explain it to me. "Look, this is the Dragon Killer''s most powerful anti-aircraft equipment, the sixty-four anti-aircraft guns!¡¡Its firing rate is 64 shots every 3 seconds, and it can take out most flying demons!¡¡To make this continuous firing possible, an ancient magic tool is used. ...... I see. And this is the anti-aircraft warding magic tool!¡¡It is the most powerful warding that has never been broken!¡¡Theoretically, it can only be broken by a sublime dragon or dragons. Amazing. ...... And this is ...... There''s some cool weapons here. After that, six more anti-aircraft weapons alone were introduced. It seems that the ship is strong and well equipped for anti-aircraft. It made me feel bad that I had doubts about the specs of this ship until now. Just as I thought the explanation of these weapons was over, the person who was giving the explanation started walking towards the front of the ship. Is there more? And this is the main anti-aircraft weapon of this expedition!¡¡It is the largest of its kind currently in use. ...... "Oh. It''s a wand!¡¡I''m sure you''ll be pleased to know that we''ve got a lot more than just a few of these. ...... Wands? What''s with the wand? I''m not sure if it has any special features or not. Yes, it has the ability to super-accelerate magic! That''s just a long wand. ...... You might want to use something else. Other equipment seems more powerful. Why the wand? Well, ...... wands are strong too, you know.¡¡In the event that you have a lot of time, you may want to take a look at the following tips. Sometimes you miss and they bombard you. ...... "Is the bombing of ...... going to be okay? I''m fine. Are you okay? I wonder if there''s a reason. Do they just put up wards? No, we don''t use warding as a rule, but the deck and weapons are quite sturdy. You''re assuming you''re going to get hit! Why don''t you use the powerful weapons you have?¡¡Why don''t you use the powerful weapons you have? No, it''s a ...... budget problem. Basically, we don''t want to use it unless it''s an emergency. ...... I thought it was a money problem. ...... This ship is very important for our national defense, but we can''t use our weapons because of money? Why don''t we get more money for it? There are no other ships that can compete with the Saryong, are there?¡¡If we explain to them that we''re in such a bad situation, they might be able to help us. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. ...I''m sorry. What! The adventurers are the reason we can''t move the armaments on this ship! Don''t these greedy adventurers know a little something about consideration? No matter how much credit they take, the national defense budget is limited, and some adventurers must have taken advantage of it. It''s not your fault, ....... It''s the adventurer''s fault. It''s not me and it''s not him. ...... I don''t know why, but it hurts my heart. It''s not my fault. It''s not my fault by any means, but if the reason I can''t use my weapon is because of what my peers have done, I''d like to at least make up for it. Thank you very much.¡¡We''ll be entering a sea area full of flying demons in about 10 minutes, so please be ready. ¡¡The flying demons are usually some kind of explosion, so be careful of invisible bombardment. "Yes, sir. Is it okay if I try out a few shots? It''s a problem if you run out of magic power in the real thing, but I''ve heard that Kaede doesn''t have that problem. There is not a single cost other than the magic power required for shooting, so feel free to test fire. I understand. After confirming that the commentator nodded, I immediately began to prepare. The tip of the cane is placed next to a reclining chair or something like that. I sat down in the chair and found that I could look up at the sky while keeping my neck in a comfortable position. The cane was in a good position, and the environment for shooting seemed to be well prepared. I couldn''t find any equipment that would protect my seat from bombing, but I guess that meant I had to protect myself. With this in mind, I tried firing one of the explosive shells into the sky. I couldn''t see the ...... bullet. No, I could see it almost like an afterimage, but this is abnormal with my current kinetic vision. While I''m thinking about this, a bird that looks like an Ixprondr comes into view. I fired a shot at it, and almost at the same moment as the shot was fired, an explosion occurred around the bird''s wings, and the bird fell toward the water. The distance between us must have been farther than when we fought at Decibatore, but this time I didn''t need to set up a barrage. I wondered if the length of a staff could make such a difference. A little while later, we seemed to have entered the demon dwellings in earnest, and I was averaging about ten demons per minute. The number of targets is large, but the number of bullets I can fire is much larger than that, and they never miss. I can''t even call it a battle, it''s more like a one-sided annihilation. In the middle of the game, another wizard came to check on me, worried about the depletion of my magic power, but when he saw the demons being wiped out as soon as I entered his sight, he looked rather sorry for the demons and left. After about half an hour of such work, the person who had first explained the ship to me walked towards me. He said, "We''re about to make a series of sharp turns, so please be careful. There are many islands in this area, so you may have to make some turns close to the limit. "Careful of what? I looked around and saw that there were indeed a lot of islands. It''s going to be hard to dodge them. But we also have an attitude control system. It''s not like it''s a cartoon where the ship is tilted to the point where people are rolling around on it. The ship will tilt a lot, so don''t fall off. Also, the island itself is home to flying demons, so there will be more attacks. "Oh, you mean that? Then don''t worry, I''m ready to go. I have all my belongings stored in the item box, and there is no way the ship will tip over enough for me to fall. For a ship of this size, even if it tilted, a plastic bottle would probably roll over at most. I was so sure of this, but... But when the island in front of us got a little closer, the boat tilted. The angle was probably about 30 degrees. Whoa. I was unprepared and fell out of my chair. Thirty degrees is about the angle of an escalator. If it were a ski resort, it would be classified as an advanced course. I quickly regrouped, sat back in my chair, and used magic to stabilize myself. Judging from the fact that the inclination of the ship itself has not changed, the attitude control system must be working well. I feel that the ship is turning at a huge angle, but I guess that''s the way it is. As expected of a ship whose main selling point is its turning ability, even in another world. I remember seeing an Osumi-type transport ship on TV a long time ago, and it had an insane maneuver where it made a right-angle turn with almost no turning radius, but this is a turn that surpasses even that. As I was shooting down the birds, thinking about the maneuverability of this ship, I suddenly felt a vibration in my body with a dull sound. If my senses were correct, it was probably coming from below. After a moment''s delay, the slope of the ship increased dramatically. Hey, could it be ......? 77 Episode 76 Kraken and Detonation Experiments We collided with a demon!¡¡It''s probably a Hardecraken!¡¡Prepare to rebuild! I hear a voice behind me. I''m still looking at the sky and shooting down new birds, but the tilt of the ship doesn''t seem to be returning to normal, in fact it seems to be getting bigger. Just as I was beginning to wonder if I should use some kind of pressure magic to get the ship back to its original inclination, I heard the next voice, as if it was finally ready. "Attitude control system, all units at maximum capacity, commence operation! Soon after the voice was heard, the ship''s posture started to return. At the same time, I began to hear the sound of the ship''s attitude control system kicking in. ...... Crack? I have a bad feeling about this. I''m sure you''re not neglecting your maintenance, though, are you? "Third control unit malfunctioning due to overload!¡¡We''re clear to navigate, but any further collisions are dangerous! "Hardecraken in sight. They''re heading right for us!¡¡Estimated 20 seconds to recollision! Try not to hit it in the side while it''s turning. It''ll take more than three of us! "We can''t. If we stop turning now, we''ll run aground! I had a bad feeling about this, and it was coming true. He must have been stingy with the budget for maintenance before I started working with Decibatore. Or maybe they didn''t originally expect to be attacked from the water while turning. Either way, it''s clear that the ship is about to capsize. To be honest, I don''t have much confidence that we won''t damage the ship, so I don''t want to do it if I can help it, but I guess we''ll have to try to support it with magic. If it looks too tough, I''ll try to use my magic to help. "Kaede!¡¡I don''t know how many times I can do this, but I''m going to try. I don''t know how many times I can do it, but I should be able to manage about a quarter of it! It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re going to be doing and how you''re going to do it. If the neck is as thin as that of a sublime dragon, you might be able to cut it off, but you can''t hope to do that with a Kraken. He has a limited stock of pressure and explosion spells, so he can use them to defend himself a few times. It had survived the first collision (in exchange for one of its four attitude controllers). It may have been necessary to contact the captain, but there was no time for that. I''ll check with someone nearby. ...... Okay!¡¡I''ll get someone to take over for you in the sky, so you take the ship! The guide also looked at the entrance to the ship and tried to run, but he must have decided that he didn''t have as much time as I did. He immediately agreed to my proposal. "Got it! The only thing left to do was to make good use of magic. There were four large scale spells: warding, pressure, explosion, and armor. Armor is probably only useful if you want to jump into the water and use it as a decoy, and warding will probably cause you to hit the ship if you use it while turning. Explosive magic is out of the question, so the automatic magic to use is pressure magic. It will push the ship back and offset the tilt. First, check the situation. Since I can''t use the antennae to search the sea, I lean out of the ship and look down at the sea, and I can see a huge white shadow through the water. There is still a distance of about 15 meters between us and the ship, but judging from the relative speed, the collision should take about three seconds. The object is as big as a whale, and it is rushing toward us. If it had struck the side of the ship while turning, it would have been understandable if the control system had been overloaded. However, the ship''s armor plate is made of metal lizard metal, so it is unlikely to be broken through. This is a very expensive project. Why don''t they just use that money to build more attitude controllers? After confirming this much, I magically jumped over the deck, and floated in the sea near the port side opposite the squid, waiting for the impact. Immediately after, the ship tilts toward me with the same sound I heard last time. Reaching out to the ship, I fly toward the back of the hull, activating my pressure magic over the widest area possible. I don''t do it all at once, partly to avoid capsizing the ship on the other side, but mostly to avoid punching through the armor plate. The armor plate seems to be made of thick metal lizard metal, but it is clear that it will be pierced if I invoke pressure magic with all my might to push the ship back with a single blow. With a few careful but quick bursts of magic, the ship''s posture returned to normal. The distance I needed to push back was from almost the front of the ship to the center, and the pressure magic I consumed was about a tenth of my stock. There seemed to be no damage to the ship from the pressure spell. If you look closely, you can see that part of the armor plate is slightly flattened, but it must have been there all along. Even if the flattened area is a circle about the same size as the area of effect of the spell, it is from the beginning. ...... From the beginning, but I''ll make it a little less powerful next time. Just in case. I flew right over the Kraken to attack it while I still could, but it was still in the water. I put in a few explosive shells, but they didn''t seem to have any effect. Perhaps it was because the shells could only be made on the spot, and the explosion spell he had prepared could not be fully utilized. The acceleration spell also doesn''t work well in the water, so we should assume that attacking with a sword will be tough. I couldn''t think of any other spells that would be easy and effective to use underwater. Incidentally, I thought of magic freeze for a moment, but I gave it up immediately because freezing the sea with it would be no different from running a ship aground. The best way I could think of was to protect the ship with warding magic and kill it with explosion magic. I was supposed to get paid for resting on the ship, but how could this happen? Now that I''ve decided that, I''d like to go ahead and do it right now, but I''ll need the cooperation of the ship operator to carry out this plan. Of course, I don''t know where the captain is, and I don''t have time to run to contact him because I have to support the ship in case of another collision. I looked over the ship to see if he happened to be on deck, and my eyes met with a wizard. It was probably the same person who came to check if my MP was OK at the beginning. He was leaning out of the ship and looking at me, as if to check the situation. He looked like a veteran, so he might at least know where the captain was. I''m sorry, but I''m running out of times to do this, so I''m going to deal with the Kraken!¡¡If there''s nothing else I can do, just give me a moment, I need the ship to go straight! "All right, I''ll let them know! When I shouted for help, the wizard used his magic and literally flew away. I''m going back to where I started, replenishing the pressure magic I''ve lost, and preparing for the next collision. However, even though the replenishment speed has been greatly increased by the extermination of the sub dragons, it is still unlikely to keep up with the consumption. The number of times you can endure a collision will probably increase by one at most. I observe the ship, pushing back the occasional impact with minimal magic, but the ship shows no sign of going straight. It is in the process of dodging an island while continuing to turn to the right as fast as it can. Unfortunately, we''re in one of those waters where there doesn''t seem to be much room for error. I know I have no choice, but I wish they would hurry up. After enduring several collisions, my remaining magic was about three collisions'' worth, and I was beginning to worry that maybe they hadn''t heard from me. Finally, the long-awaited message came. It says it can go straight for about seven seconds after a minute or so, and that''s the limit. We''re going to have to use a massive explosion, so I need you all to stay inside the ship as much as possible! Honestly, it''s pretty short, but we don''t have time to wait a second time. While propping the ship up with the few remaining pressure spells, he checked the ship''s speed and watched as the people on deck fled into the ship. The wizards stayed above to protect the ship from the birds, and they were preparing their warding magic. When they were ready, a loud voice rang out on the deck, which had become somewhat quiet with the absence of people. "Three seconds! Hearing this, I steeled myself and prepared to activate the warding spell at any time. Just three seconds later, the ship regained its angle and started to go straight. As soon as I see it, I protect the ship with a warding spell that covers the ship''s entire course and quickly jump right above the Kraken. Then I immediately activate the explosion spell. If you''re too stingy to defeat it, you''re out of luck. Immediately after that, my vision turned red and my tentacles were rendered useless by the shock. There was no time to wait. However, the magic armor, which is as strong as ever, can withstand it. Except for special attacks such as the Sublime Dragon''s Breath, it is invincible. I prayed that the warding magic was holding out, and waited for my vision to clear. After what seemed like seconds, the spray and everything else that had been blown up high in the sky finally cleared, and I was able to see. The result was almost perfect. The warding magic seems to have protected the ship almost completely, and it is resuming its turn. The Kraken is floating, showing its belly. The Kraken was floating with its belly (?) showing, and when I touched it, I was able to store it in the item box. When I touched it, I was able to store it in the item box. Seeing this, the wizards made some noise again, but it was too late. After that, we reached our destination without any serious incident. Even though it was deep in the demon realm, there were almost no demons on the land. The wisp core was prepared without delay, and the countdown began. Most of the crew is either inside the ship or inside the wards, watching. I''ll take the air as a precaution. "Three, two, one, detonate! At the same time as the voice, the wisp core shattered, creating a black explosion that was clearly different in quality from a normal magical explosion. I watched intently to see if a dragon would come out of it, but there was no shadow that looked like one. I''m almost relieved that everything is okay, but then I notice something strange. The black haze that had been there after the explosion was not clearing. The ships were beginning to evacuate as if in a panic. The plan was to stay here for a while longer, but it seems that something unexpected has happened. We were too high up in the sky to get a clear view, so we couldn''t see the situation clearly. Just after I started to lose altitude to see what was going on, it happened. I thought I saw something glowing near the center of the haze, and the next thing I knew, the light spread over all the land in my field of vision. There was no trace of the huge forest of trees, and all that remained was a bare patch of blue ground stretching to the horizon. A terrible creature had come out. Upon examination, it turned out to be a dragon. It''s MP is so high that I can''t even count the digits, and judging by the flames, it''s easy to see that it boasts a ridiculous amount of attack power. It''s covered in a black shroud, but the shroud alone is probably as powerful as the main body of any sub-dragon. However, I was still unable to feel a subtle sense of danger towards the dragon. Why is that? It''s small. The dragon that finally came into my sight was only about 50cm long. It seemed to be unaccustomed to moving its body, and its wings were twitching. What, a dragon that looked like the last boss of an ancient civilization that had been destroyed? 78 Episode 77 Dragons and Ancient Documents The dragon may not look like much, but don''t let your guard down. In fact, its breath burned up at least all the land within sight of me in a single blow. It is small, but it doesn''t seem friendly at all, so I approach it to cut off its head. I get behind it without it noticing and draw my sword as soon as I''m within range. The neck is less than ten centimeters thick, and even if it is a little stiff, it is still thin enough to be cut off with a single sword. That was a lot easier than I thought, dragon. Just as he thought this, the dragon turned around. As the target moved, the sword missed its original target and wounded its head. Then I got a bad feeling and pulled my sword back. It wasn''t a big attack, and the hardness was softer than Saryong. Why did I draw my sword when the attack was going well? The answer came to me when I checked the magic sword in my hand. The blade on the side that had slashed the dragon was torn to shreds, and the tip looked like it was about to break. Perhaps the dragon''s body destroys the sword just as a sub-dragon blackens it and dulls its sharpness. If he had swung it out, it would have broken, which explains why he used to defeat them with magic. However, although he avoided breaking it, one of the blades was completely ruined, so he would only be able to use it once more. There is no way to win if the weapon is broken, and I didn''t bring a spare magic sword. When he thought about it, he remembered the existence of a magical tool that looked like a magic freeze. The reason I brought it was for just such a case. The distance is close enough, I should be able to get there now. So, he took a short distance and tried to get the magic freeze from the item box. Then came the first physical attack by the dragon. Fast. The small dragon instantly accelerated to nearly the top speed of those sub-dragons, and kept its momentum to bite you. It didn''t do much damage because of its magic armor, but it did take about 20% of the magic armor that I had put all my magic into. I didn''t expect to lose 20% of my armor to a mere bite, not even a breath. On top of that, the armor seems to be repairing slower than usual. I hold up my shield as if to make it disposable in case of a follow-up attack, but the dragon is just floating there, as if it doesn''t really want to fight. I''m not sure what it''s doing, but I''m glad it''s not chasing me. However, since it is looking at me, it is unlikely to let me take it by surprise. Even if you can''t surprise her, now is your chance. Activate the small warding spell, activate the wisp core magic tool on top of it, and leave immediately. I thought it would be a bad idea to let him get away, but it turns out that my fears were unfounded. The dragon does not move, and the effects of the spell take effect. With a sound like air being sucked in, the dragon was enveloped in white smoke. It was probably the result of a sudden drop in temperature that turned all the water vapor into ice. You can''t see the dragon, but you can''t hear its voice or sound. "Did you ...... it? I couldn''t help but say that out loud, and then I realized that I had raised the flag that I hadn''t done it. In order to avoid becoming a victim if you didn''t do it, you take evasive action just in case the breath comes. It was a few seconds later that the breath came. Thanks to my speed, I succeeded in evading it in the nick of time, and the breath disappeared into the sky. If I hadn''t noticed the flag, I might have been turned into charcoal by now. The breath almost cleared his vision, but the dragon didn''t seem to have been harmed at all. The power of the magic tool was high, but maybe the magic freeze was something else. In any case, there was no choice but to finish him off with a single sword strike before the sword broke. He switched swords so that he could use the living blade, and was about to accelerate towards the dragon when the dragon''s movements changed again. "Quaaaa ...... It let out a small cry and then began to gather black magic around it. It''s a bit fickle, and I''m not sure what it''s trying to do, but it''s got a lot of firepower, so it''s dangerous to ignore it and go for it. After about 20 seconds, the magic that had gathered around the dragon turned into flames and began to circle around the dragon. There were so many of them that it seemed impossible to get close to the dragon without getting hit. Thinking that its firepower might be low, I took out a lump of rock from the item box and threw it at it, but it evaporated in an instant, leaving nothing behind. I took advantage of the fact that the other side wasn''t actively attacking me and watched for a while, but the fireball seemed to be sustained by the magic power gathered around it and didn''t seem to disappear. In addition, since a while ago, the fireballs sometimes leave the dragon and scatter around. If you''re not unlucky, you won''t be hit by too many of them, but when I looked behind me and became worried about the ship, I saw that the fireballs were just about to fly into it. I hurriedly threw a rock at it to cancel it out. Thank God the fireball was slow. From the looks of it, the ship had already stopped running and was loading its largest cylinder, keeping a distance of about 500 meters from the dragon. According to what I heard, it was the final weapon against the dragons, and only one bullet was made due to material constraints (apparently, the resources that could be invested were invested in one bullet). The main body of the bullet is made of blue metal, and there is a chain attached to the back of it for collecting it after use. While I was guarding the ship, thinking that it might be a way to break through this fireball field, the bullet was fired with a roar. Naturally, fireballs attacked the shells, which were only fast enough to be tracked by my eyes, but they were able to burn through the chains, but did not damage the shells. I don''t know if it was coincidence or skill, but they hit the dragon in the head. "Kyaaaaaaaaa...... The dragon screamed. He was bigger than the dragon, but he was hit by a special bullet designed for use against sub-dragons. A little later, the fireball field around the dragon was disrupted and disappeared. "Kwaaaa...... The dragon begins to gather magical energy again to rebuild the fireball field. But it would take as long to create as the first time. Besides, the dragon had stopped moving until he triggered it. This was a chance of a lifetime. I sped up and tried to decapitate the dragon. Then, when I was in the middle of the unfinished fireball field, something strange happened. The magical acceleration suddenly cut off. I don''t know what caused it, but I don''t have time to look into it. I was on a straight course to the dragon, so of course I couldn''t reach it if the acceleration was cut off. In fact, if I fell into the sea and slowed down, I would only be a target for the dragon. The ship''s chain of ammunition had also been broken, so it would not be able to fire a second shot. I tried pressure magic and explosion magic, but they did not work. Is there nothing I can do? Just as I was thinking this, I noticed a white lump in the lower part of my vision. Perhaps the ice that had formed as a result of the seawater being caught in the water when I activated the magic freeze had happened to escape the fireball and remained. If you use it as a foothold, you may be able to reach the fireball before it is born. Considering the current fall speed and distance, the distance is a bit short. But there is no other way. Determined to reach it at all costs, he threw a rock backwards from the item box to gain reaction, and tried to adopt a posture that would allow him to gain buoyancy. As a result of my ingenuity to the limit of my soul, I was able to reach her just in time. He immediately jumped up with all his might, crushing the ice under his feet, and swung his sword at the dragon''s neck. The sword sliced through the dragon''s neck, and the sword shattered from where it had cut the dragon. As I swung my arm out, the blade of the sword was completely broken, with only a small piece of metal barely attached to the hilt. A few moments later, the dragon''s head fell off and disappeared in a black mist. Only a few moments later, the main body of the dragon also disappeared, leaving behind only a black magic stone that looked like a wisp core. A cheer went up from the ship as they realized their victory. It was a sudden appearance of the dragon, but it was a victory. It seems that we won half by luck. Incidentally, the bluish rocks left behind in the burned ruins were also rare, so I collected some of them along with the magic tools and shells that had fallen into the sea. According to the appraisal, it was mithril ore. What awaited me on my triumphant return was a peaceful life with no demon attacks, no dragons, and no dragons. ...... Instead, I had to read aloud endlessly surrounded by scholars whose eyes were bloodshot as they tried not to miss a single word. In the next room, they were discussing how to translate my story and the original document, and I could hear the scholars babbling on and on. In the midst of all this, I turn the pages of an ancient document with dead eyes and read it aloud. I don''t have a good grasp of what is written on the pages. I gave up trying to memorize the contents of the text when I reached 30 hours of reading aloud. The reason why I did this is. This time I found out that dragons are real, and I had to think about countermeasures in a hurry. While we were talking about it, I found out that I could read an ancient document that the country had been keeping unreadable. There was no need to hurry, because the part I had read so far said that once the dragon was defeated, there would be no more dragons, no more sub-dragons, and the demons would subside, but that didn''t stop the scholar. According to other books, the dragon I defeated was a poorly made dragon that had been seen only twice in the age of ancient texts, and it was said to happen when the timing happened to be right. However, according to the record, even if it is a badly made dragon, it is still safe for a while after defeating it, so it is just lucky. By the way, the specs of a real dragon are as follows. First of all, both the real and the fake dragons have the same basic property of gathering magic power from their surroundings. The reason why I can''t use magic anymore is probably due to the depletion of magic power. It will be a problem if we have to fight for a long time. Also, it''s about 50 meters long. It''s shorter than Leviathan, but it''s still big. Lastly, the most serious problem is that when a dragon is damaged to a certain extent, it shifts from magic gathering mode to fighting mode, and its fighting ability rapidly increases. The effect is. The eyes glow red. The speed of the dragon is about three times faster than in magic gathering mode, and the power is about 50 times stronger. The breath burns up to the surface of the ocean (if it lands on land, it will destroy the continent, or rather, it did). If it lands on land, it will destroy the continent. That''s about all we know. Enough with the bogus effects! I''m really glad that the real thing didn''t come out. Incidentally, the country that produced the book seems to have been destroyed after being attacked in combat mode, so I don''t know if the information is accurate or not. If this is true, I wonder how the ancient book survived without burning. I hope that I am wrong. However, there are only a few ancient documents with such intriguing contents, and most of them are as boring as a mathematics textbook. Still, if you are told to read them because you need them, you have no choice but to read them. I wonder how this happened, and how many more books are there. I finished reading another ancient textbook (about the effects of free magic on fish breeding, which I gave up understanding after about five pages), and was about to start the next one, when I was finally released from this reading with the sound of slamming footsteps outside the door. "Adventurer''s Guild called. The Adventurer''s Guild says they''ve found a sub-dragon. And two of them! I thought they weren''t coming out. 79 Episode 78 Yaryu and the Blade Cane Two sub-dragons, should I go with them? Yes, right now if you can. We''ve come a long way from Desibatore and the others, and it''s difficult to even gather enough strength quickly enough to fight one of them. How far is it from here? The second closest city, Krakenia, is about a day''s ride away by horse, and the closest city, Ikarinia, is about three hours away, but the task force is in Krakenia in case it falls, so we''ll head there first. That''s close enough. I''m not in Desibatore, I''m in Akkaden, which is about two days away by horse. If it is far from Desibatore, then it is probably inland, on the other side of Desibatore from this city. Since the strength of adventurers generally decreases the further away they are from the realm of demons, the lack of strength seems to be quite serious. In other words, it is not surprising that there are few adventurers who can be counted as a force against the dragons. And there are two of them. If left unchecked, they will probably die, or perhaps the nearest city has already died. You have no choice but to go. All right, do you have a map or something? "No map, but there''s almost a straight road between the cities, so you shouldn''t get lost, just go through this gate ...... According to the description, as I feared, Krakenia is just on the other side of the Decibatore from here. The lack of magic swords is tough, but adventurers have dealt with dragons without magic swords before, albeit in large numbers. If you have a blade staff made of metal lizard metal, which is physically one of the strongest except for magic swords, and magic mobility and defense, you should be able to get by. Okay, I''ll go then, I''ll go now. Besides, I''m tired of reading. I know I need to do some research now that I''ve found a sub-dragon that apparently won''t appear if I defeat it. I think I''ve figured out the language system pretty well now, so let''s let the scholars do the rest, shall we? Then I flew around for an hour or so, being careful not to lose my way. I had arrived in Krakenia. The city itself is pretty ordinary. But there are a lot of people. It''s not an unusual crowd like at a festival, but more like a lot of people squeezed into a city that is supposed to be empty. As far as I could see from the air, it was not uncommon to see people camping out in the open. I wondered if they were refugees. The first place I was told to go was to the Sublong task force of the guild in this city. This was the first time I''d ever seen a dragon-control headquarters (until now, I''d killed dragons as soon as I encountered them before they were built), but it was different from the huge "¡ð¡ðcontrol headquarters" I''d seen on TV. In this world where there is not that much information to gather, this may be just right. All of them are unfamiliar to me, but one of them seems to be the one to talk to me. "So you''re Kaede. I''ve heard rumors about you. "Well, yes. What kind of rumors? What kind of rumors? I''ve heard that you can fly at the speed of a sublong, and that you can withstand a sublong''s attack, is that true? I''m not sure if it''s true or not. In the event that you''ve got a lot of money, you''ll be able to get a lot more than that. If you can fly at low altitude without thinking about the damage around you, you can make it faster than the dragons we''ve seen so far. If you exceed the speed of sound near the surface, the shock wave will be terrible, so you don''t want to do it in a city or where there are people. "Oh, I see. Then we can use one of the strategies I''ve been preparing. "Prepared? Yeah, in case Kaede comes and her abilities are as rumored. To be honest, I thought the probability of using it was low, but I''ve prepared a number of special strategies. After all, with the strength we have, we have little chance of winning in a proper fight. That''s how bad it is. ...... So, what''s the plan? You don''t mean to say that you''re going to let me go in alone and take them both out, and then run away when they get dangerous, do you? I mean, that''s already not a strategy. "Basically, we''re going to stand by, and Benov over there will give us detailed instructions, but we''re going to stand by and try not to provoke the dragons. The "other side" is probably Ikarinia. But I don''t understand the meaning of the operation. "Stand by?¡¡Do I need to do that? "No, here''s the problem. According to the reports we''re getting now, we''ve managed to lead the dragons into the forest, but we don''t know when they''ll attack again, in fact, we haven''t heard from them yet, and it''s not surprising that they''re already attacking us. It''s a great way to make sure you''re getting the most out of your money. I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. ...... I''m not sure what to make of this. I''m not sure what to make of it. I''ll give you six days to do something. By then, reinforcements should be arriving from Desibatore. I don''t want to do a decoy mission. I don''t want to do a bait-and-switch. Well, while the swords may reduce our firepower, the magic gives us much greater mobility. Even if there are two of them, you can distract them and run into the forest and then shake them off. Come to think of it, I wonder how adventurers without speed like me would have left the dragons they led into the forest behind. I don''t think it would be easy to lose them. ...... Let''s not think about it. I understand. "Yes, please. And give this letter to Benov. The distance was about three hours, but Icarinia was less than ten minutes away at my speed. This might be the limit for communication, but if we let the Sublime Dragon run amok, Krakenia would not be safe. Unlike Decibatore, the inhabitants here are not all fast runners, so Ikarinia is practically the last line of defense. I''m supposed to protect it from two dragons by myself. What the hell do they think I am? I gave the letter to Mr. Benov, and he promptly set up a defense system around me. It sounds good to say that I''m the axis, but it looks like they''ve almost abandoned their preparations for self-defense, and they''re just trying to ''let me know as soon as the dragons come this way''. It seems that someone is always reporting my whereabouts so that I can be contacted at any time, and the letter probably said that I would take care of most of the problems. I guess I can''t blame them for not finding any adventurers of the same level as the ones in the previous Decibatore. It''s rather a miracle that I was able to guide him. I myself was bored because I had to stay where I could be reached during that time. It is stressful to have nothing to do but wait. So at first, I went to the church, which was like a field hospital, and cast healing spells. However, all the patients had recovered by the end of the first day, and I had nothing to do. On the second day, I did some cooking and dismantled some demons in the item box to remember how to use the sword that I hadn''t used recently. I thought that nothing would happen, but on the third day, things started to happen. At first, I thought I heard a shout from afar, but someone else heard it and shouted the same thing, and it was transmitted to me like a message game. "Saryong approaching! The information was minimal, probably to convey the information as quickly and accurately as possible. But I know what to do. I immediately cast a spell and take to the air. The direction seems to be the same as the one where the dragon was before. I''m off! How do I cover the adventurers? I''ll be enough to get away! If you want to use me as a disposable, but if I''m even weaker than the lowest of the Decibatore, it''s more dangerous for me to stay. I''m not going to be able to afford to worry about that when I''m dealing with two sub dragons, so I''m going to ask you to stay back. While flying, I catch one of the dragons. It seems that this sub-dragon is the same size as the Ignis Wyvern. The distance between us is not too great, so we can''t afford to take too long. As soon as I spotted the wyvern, I accelerated to full speed and slashed at it with my blade staff. But as I thought... I''m not sure what to make of this. The wound on the dragon is about three centimeters deep, but this is what you get when you slash it while flying at subsonic speeds. It is still incomparable to the magic sword. The wound also heals quickly. However, I seem to have achieved my original goal of distracting the dragon. The dragon, recognizing me as an enemy, turns toward me and suddenly spits out a breath. My position was not prepared for the breath, but the acceleration spell, whose output had been greatly increased by repeated battles with dragons and sub-dragons, easily evaded it. He also accelerated up to the other one and slashed it in the same way. This time, I put my hand on the blade as I had done with the magic sword, but it didn''t seem to make any difference. However, the metal lizard metal, which never spills its blade even after being abused so much, is a fantasy metal. Now that I''ve accomplished my goal of catching both of them, I accelerate to subsonic speed again and head deeper into the forest. This forest is not the realm of demons, but it''s pretty huge, so if I can lead them deep into it, it''ll be easier to do something. The dragons are chasing after me, and they''re shooting their breaths at me. I move up, down, left, right, and right to avoid them, but even though there are two dragons this time, I feel that the frequency of their breaths is too high. While I''m busy flying and avoiding them, I take a moment to appraise them, but their MP is probably almost double that of the dragons I''ve seen so far. It would be quite difficult to take on two of them with a sword that is significantly less powerful. However, our goal this time was to buy time, not to defeat them. I''ve drawn them deep enough into the forest. I decided that it would not be a problem to shake them off, and in order to avoid damage to the surrounding area, I opened up the acceleration magic that had been stabilized at subsonic speed. Assuming that the breath would be prevented by the magic armor, I spared myself the trouble of evading and accelerated. You can see the shockwave raging on the surface, but you continue to accelerate. Judging from the speed of the dragons so far, they should not be able to keep up with me at this speed. Still, I continued to accelerate until I reached the center of the forest, just in case, and then I finally looked back. --The dragon was still following me. Was I wrong about the speed of the dragons, or were these guys just extra fast? If I continue to train to the other side of the forest, damage is inevitable. I gave up trying to escape, slowed down, and turned toward the dragon. I was told to buy some time. ...... I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one who has a problem with that. 80 Episode 79 Absorption and Recapture If we''re going to fight, we need to know what''s going on. Both of them have about 30 billion MP. Ignis Wyvern''s MP is 5.8 billion, so it is much higher than that. Their other stats are about the same or slightly lower than Ignis''. In addition to breath and flying like Ignis, he also has "Degraded Space Magic Grip". I''m not sure what is degraded about it, but it seems to have high performance in terms of magic power. However, in the case of the dragons, MP is also HP, which means that their durability is also high. Since I ran out of MP in the last dragon fight, I''ll keep an eye on my magic power. It''s not decreasing at all at the moment, but I thought I might be able to find out the cause of the problem. By the way, the current value is about 3 billion, most of which was increased when the dragon was defeated. This should be enough to check the situation. As usual, I decided to fight at a close distance to avoid the breath. I fire off a few spells, but they don''t seem to have any effect on the dragons. When dealing with multiple opponents, the basic rule is to focus on one of them. Following this theory, I stuck to one of the dragons and began to attack it intensively. The battle went smoothly. It is true that the damage is much smaller than that of the magic sword. However, even though it was a sub-dragon, it was an opponent that I could defeat even if I wasn''t the one who was prepared to take a lot of damage from a city with one of the strongest defenses in the country such as Decibatore. There is no way that you can''t deal damage with a sword that can take the head off a dragon in a single blow if it is a magic sword, aided by high-powered magic and high status. On the defensive side, you have enough protection to take a hit from a breath, and the speed of reinforcement of the barrier has increased as well as the output of the magic. If the attack is not painful, the number and strength are not so frightening as long as the time is extended. He simply stabs his sword at the parts he sees, such as the wings, legs, and neck, and breaks away when the breath comes. It will ignore any allies in its line of fire, but since there is no coordination, it doesn''t feel like a nuisance. It''s a simple battle with no single blow, but the continual attacks are slowly draining the dragons'' HP. The dragon consumes magic power to heal its wounds, but that doesn''t change the fact that it reduces its own power. In addition, the body''s healing power seems to be lower than that of the previous dragons. As a result, the dragon''s HP, MP, and MP are reduced. As a result, the dragons'' HP and MP are being reduced at an accelerated rate. The only thing I was worried about was the degradation of my grip on spatial magic. About an hour has passed since the battle began. The magic of one of the dragons has already been reduced to about 60%. In contrast, my HP and MP are completely intact. It''s not a matter of strategy, but simple specs that give me the edge. In fact, that would have been the case if these dragons had been like other dragons. But it wasn''t just the numbers that made this time''s enemy different from the previous ones. "Giaaaaaaaa...... The injured dragon suddenly let out an unprecedented roar and spread its battered wings, unable to recover from the damage caused by the magic power. This is the degrading space magic seizure? You don''t know what will happen, so you stop attacking and keep your distance. As you keep your distance, you watch out for the other dragon''s breath, but the nearly unharmed dragon shrinks its wings and closes its mouth as if to protect itself. The other dragon, which is almost unharmed, shrinks its wings and closes its mouth as if to protect itself. From its reaction, he judges that it is a ranged attack regardless of friend or foe (although he doesn''t know if the other dragon considers it a friend) and speeds up to get away from it. But it seems that he was too late. I felt something like magic power being sucked out of a 50 meter radius around the injured dragon. The leaves of the trees in the area shriveled and the undergrowth wilted. It seems that I was the target of this absorption of magic power. My MP, which had remained at its maximum value since the start of the battle, began to slowly decrease. I say slowly, but that''s based on my total magic power. The drain was over in only about two seconds, but I lost about 2.5 million MP and 100,000 of my maximum magic power. I wondered if the magic in the air had decreased, and my recovery seemed slower than expected. Incidentally, the other dragon didn''t seem to lose any magic power, probably because I protected myself. What was even more dramatic was the change in the other dragon. His body had recovered 80% of its magic power, and his magic power was fully recovered. It was too powerful a recovery effect. Considering the fact that this effect has never been used before, there should be some kind of disadvantage or restriction, but there is no such thing. In games, there is a standard limit to the number of times you can use the item, or the time it takes to reuse it, but there is no guarantee of that. There is no guarantee, but fortunately I rested well before coming here, so I can fight for a few days without resting. In any case, it wouldn''t be a bad choice to try the simplest strategy, which is to keep grinding away with maximum firepower. It''s good to know that the degraded spatial magic grip is no longer a threat to me, regardless of the amount of recovery. Now that I no longer have to fear anything more than taking a series of breaths, I can attack more boldly. As a result, the pace at which I could cut down the dragons increased by about 30%, and in less than 30 minutes I was able to cut down the dragons to the point where the previous drain came. Immediately after that, the drain was activated, and the dragon''s HP and MP recovered at once. The MP and HP after recovery are almost the same as after the last recovery. There seemed to be no way to reduce it by repeating the process. Still, you keep grinding, and the dragon recovers about five times. The bottom of the recovery was not yet in sight, but a question arose. The non-drained dragon is dutifully defending itself every time it is drained, but why is it able to avoid the drains? I''m focusing my attacks on one of the dragons, but I''m also slashing the other one when I happen to get close to it. And when I was using the magic sword, I would suck up magic power from the sword stuck in the wound. I also touched the blade of the sword at that time, almost the same condition as Aryu. In other words, I should be able to hold more magic power than Aryu''s wound. In spite of this, my magic power is being sucked out of me, while Saryong''s is not. It''s possible that it''s an effect of the Degrading Space Magic Grip, but according to the appraisal results (which for some reason I couldn''t see until I''d eaten one), the Degrading Space Magic Grip seems to be just a drain. This is highly unlikely. Since the amount of MP and maximum drain is very small, being able to prevent MP drain itself is not a big problem. However, being able to prevent drain may mean more than that. After all, even though I''ve moved my magic power, I''ve only increased the maximum magic power by touching the black part of the magic sword. I''ve never actively manipulated anything used to increase that maximum value. In other words, if the drain can be prevented, there is a possibility that the source of the maximum magic power can be consciously manipulated. It might be possible to perform drain from a sublime dragon via an ordinary sword. For the time being, I try to absorb it properly, but I can''t get the feeling. The best way to observe the drain is to try to activate it. So, I started cutting again. It took me a little more than 20 minutes to finish, thanks to my familiarity, and I succeeded in activating the drain. I kept an eye on the activation and concentrated on the sensation of the magic being sucked out of me. ...... I think I''ve got a slight sense of what that feels like. It''s a good idea to keep that feeling in mind as you chip away at your HP and repeatedly trigger the drain. When the sun was setting and the eighth drain was triggered. Finally, I was able to clearly recognize the feeling of my MP being drained. Based on that sensation, I pull it back in the opposite direction. It succeeded. You couldn''t get it back, but you didn''t lose any magic power or its maximum value. As far as I can see from the status, no skills have been added, so I guess this is not a skill but a technique. Now it''s time for the real thing, the direct absorption of the magic power of the Sublime Dragon opponent. First, accelerate and thrust the blade as deep as possible. Even so, it won''t penetrate more than ten centimeters, but based on my experience with magic swords, this should be enough. Now, instead of relying on the performance of the sword, I start to suck up the magic power. Then, I was able to feel the magic power being sucked up. It''s not as sharp as the magic sword, but the damage is incomparable to what it would have been if I had just slashed it normally. And just like the magic sword, this sword also sucked up magic power and pierced deeply. From that point on, it was one-sided. I only had to slash it a few times repeatedly to remove about 60% of its MP and HP. On the other hand, the dragons activated their drains in succession, but the recovery from the drains did not keep up with the damage. It took less than five minutes for one of the dragons to sink to the ground after I first started sucking its magic power. At this point, the other dragon had no chance. It was midnight when I returned to Akaden after killing the remaining dragons and reporting back to the task force. It was midnight when I returned to Akaden after reporting to the task force. As usual, there was still a light on in the laboratory where I was reading an ancient document. I wondered how many days it had been. I opened the door and walked in, and one of the researchers in the hallway came running towards me with a smile on his face. For some reason, the researchers in the other rooms heard this and gathered around. The researcher at the front of the group talks to me in a loud voice. "Did you defeat the Sublong? "Oh, yeah, we defeated it. I was so intimidated by his bravado that my tone of voice went crazy. But the researcher didn''t seem to care about that at all, on the contrary, he raised his tone even higher and continued to ask questions. It''s a good thing that I''m not the only one who has a problem with this. I''m sure you''re not the only one. "What ......? With that one word, the air in the place froze. He looked so unusual that I spoke to him in a casual manner, but I wondered if I should have been a little less rude. I thought so for a moment, but that didn''t seem to be the problem. Clearly, this was not a normal situation. The noisy researchers were silent, some looking up to the sky, others nodding off. I wonder what happened while I was gone. Is the world going to die? ...... Someone murmured, echoing in the quiet hallway. 81 Episode 80 Meetings and Weapons "Ho...... perish!¡¡Why?¡¡Please explain. ...... Dragons in six months! The second-last of the dragons to use magical elemental suction is ...... "According to the results of my analysis of the ancient texts in Kaede''s absence... "The dragons! Dragons! Perhaps it was a reaction to the quietness, but as soon as they heard it, they all started talking at once in a loud voice. So I don''t know exactly what the story is about, but apparently it''s about a full-fledged dragon coming in about six months. None of these things were in anything I''ve read. I wonder if he has analyzed the way I read by comparing the contents of my reading with those of ancient documents. I''m amazed at his speed, but I can''t understand what he''s saying when he''s talking to so many people at once. "Please don''t talk all at once, um, can you explain ......? At any rate, ask the person who seemed to be explaining most calmly as far as you could hear. This is the person who said something about ancient documents. "Yes, according to the ancient texts, although the dragons have been defeated once, the situation of dragons still remains the same and seems to be getting worse. The reason for this is probably because they were defeated instead of sealed by the demon freeze. I''m not sure what to make of that. ¡¡And the reason for this deterioration is the Sublime Dragon''s magic absorption attack? Yes. I''ve already analyzed almost all of the available ancient documents, and from several sources, it is almost certain that the appearance of dragons and the increase in the appearance rate of sub dragons is due to an increase in the amount of magical elements in the air. Among these effects, relatively minor increases in magical elements cause a decrease in maximum magical power and an increase in the rate of appearance of sub dragons, while more severe effects cause ....... It is true that there could be other powerful magical tools, but it was a little strange that it was written "defeat with magical freeze". I''m not sure if that was the reason. "You mean a magic power absorption attack? When I thought about it, I realized that a while ago, a lot of wizards in Decibatore had failed to manage their MP and had become a laughing stock. If you''re in Desibatore, you must be a very high level wizard, so it''s hard to imagine that you could easily make a mistake in managing your magic power. The decline in magic power may have started back then. And what about the six months? "It''s the period of time, calculated in the time of the old document, from the time the dragons started using their magic absorption attacks until the dragons spontaneously appeared. This time it is probably due to the fact that after the dragon''s breath and the dragon''s death, the magic power that made up the dragon diffused into the air, causing the magic element in the air to increase all at once and jump over the threshold value, so it may actually be shorter than that. So, ......, is the magic freeze ready? I''m sure it''s impossible, but I''m going to ask. I''ve never even heard of a successful creation of an artifact for combat. I don''t even know of a successful case of creating an artifact for combat. "Probably not, or at least not within the time frame. It is impossible to deal with this hypothesis in half a year, no matter how much data we have. I have to start from the basic theory. I knew it was impossible. But you say this as if you could do it if you had the time. If I could, how much time would I need? "Well, the method of making the magic freeze you described is now impossible, and it would be impossible to make the same thing by any other method, which means it will take a long time just to understand some of the theory and know what to make, and then somehow make it into a size that can be transported and manufactured. You''d have to be a superior to know the exact time frame, but six months is physically impossible. ...... I understand the situation. I didn''t want to know. It''s almost a complete dead end. There''s an enemy out there that''s so powerful that one of them can destroy the world. So far, so good, because you can get by by defeating it. Even if you defeat it, it will come back, and to stop it from coming back, you have to seal it, but you won''t get the sealing tool until after the world is destroyed. It''s not worth talking about. If this were a game, the twittersphere would be ablaze and the related communities would be filled with ramblers. But unfortunately, this is probably the reality. The saving grace is that it''s only been a short time since the story broke, so there may be a way to deal with it that hasn''t been found yet. Otherwise, I would have started gathering materials to build a shelter in a panic. However, if you can find a way to prevent them from spreading after defeating them without freezing, it''s possible. A proper dragon may indeed be exceedingly strong, but we can choose when and where to fight it. What are your plans? "There will be a meeting later. The meeting will be held at a later date, but the date has not yet been set. We decided to do what we might need to do until the date was set. Specifically, the establishment of a system for further mass production of zunana grass and the preparation of weapons. The reason why we need to increase production is because there is a high possibility that the number of demon attacks will increase. There is a limit to the amount of strength we can bring in from Decibatore, and we can''t leave that area open. As a result, we can''t always take as much action as we did in the last attack. In such a situation, a medicine with that much effect would be able to help to some extent. Of course, the amount of medicine consumed will increase accordingly. Well, this was not too much of a problem since we could just burn the island and throw the materials and money to Mercia. The problem was the weapons. A magic sword is not something that can be easily obtained. It is natural that ordinary people would be in danger of dying just by holding it. It would be possible to get a Metal Lizard Metal sword, but the current one is sufficient for a sub-dragon, and clearly insufficient for a dragon. I looked around at weapon shops, but there is no way they sell ready-made equipment of that level. Whether or not we need to prepare a spare will depend on the outcome of the meeting. After that, I went hunting in the place where the sub-dragon was said to have appeared, and while I was gathering information, the schedule was set, and soon the day of the meeting arrived. I didn''t count the number of days, but it seemed to be very fast. Incidentally, I''m included in the participants because I almost single-handedly defeated the small dragon last time, and I''m expected to be a mainstay in the event of another battle this time. After all, there''s nothing we can do if we don''t buy ourselves some time first. The meeting began with greetings, followed by an explanation that even a one-day delay in response would increase the strength of the dragon, that the change would not be small, and that we needed to start acting as soon as possible, and that this meeting would be given the authority to proceed on its own. This privilege was probably quite unorthodox, judging from the excitement in the hall when the authority granted to the meeting was announced. The agenda then shifted to the status of the analysis of the magic freeze, how long it would take (six months even if they were prepared to shut down all other functions such as the laboratory), the current estimated amount of magic elements in the air and the longest period of time before dragons would occur naturally, and the prediction of damage (destruction) in the event of a natural occurrence of dragons based on the previous dragon extermination. In the end, it was decided to think of a way to prevent the natural occurrence of dragons. In the end, the chair arrived at this conclusion. I don''t disagree, and no one else seems to disagree either. But no one else seems to have come up with a way to do it either. A grim silence prevailed, just as it had when it was announced that Sublong had used a magic absorption attack. Eventually, the silence became unbearable, and one of the participants spoke up. "If we can defeat ......, we might be able to buy some time with the means at hand. It was a skinny man who spoke up. He must have been a representative of some laboratory. "What do you mean? The chairman asks. One of the biggest problems in stalling is that calling the dragon early and killing it will not reduce the amount of magical elements in the air. In fact, if the dragon is struck by a breath, the magical elements contained in the large amount of wood and other materials that are burned by the breath may spread into the air at once. In fact, the last time it was struck, the breath burned through a large area of the demon''s domain, and in some places, the burned area reached the Brokenside, halfway between Brokens and the dragon''s appearance. The increase in the amount of magical elements in the air was due in large part to this. If it becomes possible to buy time just by defeating the dragon, for example by somehow preparing a magic sword and taking off its head in one shot, it is not impossible. That would be a big improvement. The magic freeze is too complicated to create in a short period of time, but there is a magic tool that collects magic elements in the air and regenerates worn out magic stones and wisp cores. After the dragon''s death, the magical elements that spread will be collected there. "So you can contain it?¡¡If such a thing were possible, wouldn''t they have done it in the days of the old texts? Not completely. There''s probably not enough suction to absorb even twenty percent of the dragon''s magical energy, no matter how many we have. So a single hit of the breath will increase the magic element rather than ...... the previous burn. That''s true. The magic power of dragons is extremely large. This is why sealing them up can buy you a long time. However, it is known that if the magical elements contained in a large area of trees are all released at once, each breath will reduce a small dragon by half. If only 20% of the magic element is sealed, it will result in an increase in magic element. However, this time there are places that have already been burned. Considering this point, the conditions are relatively relaxed this time. Incidentally, if you call a dragon at sea, it will go to the nearby land, so that idea does not exist from the beginning. However, the mood that was beginning to brighten at the prospect of finding a way to buy time was suddenly interrupted. "You say that as if we can defeat it. ...... The person who interrupted the conversation was a relatively young man. This man is also a researcher of some kind. This is a problem that everyone has noticed from the beginning, but it is difficult to solve. I thought everyone would be depressed again, but I was wrong. Everyone is looking in one direction. I turned my head to see if there was something in that direction, but there was only a wall behind me. "Oh, is that me? I was looking at them like they were someone else, but after a moment, I realized that it was me. "I heard that last time you lost your head and scored with a single blow. The same could be said for the whole thing, if you cut off its head. I don''t think there''s anyone else who can do it. Almost everyone in the room, including the chairman, looked at me expectantly. After all, I''m the one who has to deal with this? Trust sounds good, but isn''t there some kind of strategy? Above all. "I don''t have the weapon anymore, sir. It''s not like I lost my head with a single blow last time. The dragon''s strength itself can be solved to some extent by the fact that we can now use magic freely. However, if you want to remove a thick neck, you will need a huge magic sword or a lot of magic swords. According to the data, I would need at least 10 swords if they are like the previous ones. I''ve never seen anything like it before, and I don''t think I can get that many. Hmm, were those weapons overkill swords? Yes, we''ll probably need quite a few. Of course we''ll help you as much as we can, we''ll get you whatever you need, whether it''s magic tools or wisp cores or whatever you can get your hands on. ...... How many of these do you think we''ll need? It''s a good idea to have at least 10, but depending on the situation, you may need more. After all, there is no such thing as a sword in the ancient texts. Knowing that I would be told it was impossible, I answered. It''s not that I don''t like fighting, I''m willing to try if others can''t do it. But I was wondering if there were any other possibilities. But the answer I received was unexpected. "Okay, so that''s not a problem. I''ve received reports of broken weapons, so I''ve been looking into the whereabouts of the excess swords, and it looks like I can get you about 200 of them. ...... I think you missed one digit. 82 Episode 81 Speed and Weight The meeting, which lasted for two days including breaks, is finally over. In spite of the length of the meeting, the strategy that came out of it was a simple one. "Take them out alone, with as much equipment as I can carry. This was the conclusion. The reason for not preparing other combatants is not to reduce the number of deaths or to cut costs. The reason is this. There is no way to have enough dragon-effective weapons. And in order to use them, you need to get somewhat close. Even if you assume a suicide mission, you''ll be using valuable weapons as disposable. On the other hand, with me, even if you don''t have any valuables, if you get hit, you''re already defeated, so the damage won''t be as bad. In addition, since I have an item box, my payload is practically unlimited, and my unused weapons won''t be destroyed by attacks. You have mobility, and can even use your shipboard weapons in the air in some cases. And the only ship that seemed to have any chance of coming along and being useful, the Dragon Killer, was currently undergoing repairs, and was in no condition to go into battle. Of course, handling an unfamiliar weapon is no easy task. That''s why I''ve been receiving some weapons and even moving around to ask how to use them. Specifically, there was a disposable acceleration tool that could kill a normal person in a very short period of time (Catherine and other excellent tool craftsmen put all their efforts into making it, but unfortunately they could only make 23 of them due to the lack of materials), and an explosion tool that had the best performance possible at the moment. (The one we were trying to make when the dragon came out seemed to have lost its effect due to the dragon''s influence). One of the most surprising was the main gun of the Dragon Killer. He didn''t teach me the detailed principles, but he did teach me how to handle it, and I managed to get it to fire. To my surprise, it was lent to us as a part of the ship. It seems to be due to the structure of the ship, but I wonder if it''s okay to lend out such a thing. I was asked to keep it intact if possible, and to bring back the bullets if I won. What I was doing until just now was going around collecting magic swords. It seems that magic swords used to be common weapons, and are still found in many facilities, but since they are dangerous to ordinary people, they are usually wrapped up tightly and stored in warehouses. It takes a long time to transport them, so I had to go and get them myself. It seems that I had been told about it, and not many people were surprised to see me coming to retrieve the magic sword from the sky. There were a few towns where the residents had evacuated to remote places, though I wondered what they had been talking about. Of course, I''m slowing down to avoid shock waves, and no damage has actually been done. And so the preparations proceeded steadily. Then the time of departure came. From now on, I will leave Fotoren and head for the area where I fought the dragon last time. A total of 200 people gathered at the port to see me off, including people from the guild, the craftsmen involved, and the merchants, but even this was less than I had expected. Since even a day''s delay would reduce the success rate of the mission, it was decided not to hold a grand departure ceremony, and also to forgo the participation of those who would have to travel a long distance to reach Photoren. To be honest, this was still a lot, and I was glad that there was no departure ceremony. "I''m off then. "Good luck! The words of the guild members were probably all the same. The timing of some of them may be a little inconsistent. "Have a safe trip home! "Stay alive and bring back good materials! Use the power of our magic tools to crush your enemies! The artisans and merchants gave various words of farewell. To avoid panic, only those involved in the mission were informed about the dragons, so many of the merchants did not know that the mission was to defeat them. However, many of them seemed to be aware that they were going to fight a powerful enemy, and many of them looked worried. On the other hand, the guild members and craftsmen who knew what was going on were more calm. This was probably because they had done enough to say that if this was impossible, it was impossible no matter what. There are many people in the town who are watching us from afar, but they might have realized that this is related to the rumor that the Dragon Killer was damaged and that all the skilled craftsmen quit their usual jobs and started doing something. They seem to be cheering me on, but I don''t think they know what they are cheering me on for. With such support, I fly away from the port. I accelerate to the point where I don''t affect my surroundings. I have one of the anchors from the ship, a counterpart to the one placed on the seabed near the place where the dragon appeared, so I can''t go in the wrong direction. The journey seemed much longer when we were under attack, but it seemed much shorter from the air. The scenery is not bad. We often pass over land, but after flying a certain distance, the land is completely devoid of trees and becomes a grassland. The scenery of the forest, which had been the domain of demons, was not very good, but the dragons had burned it all down. However, the weather was not so good. Thick black clouds obscured the sky in many places, and even though it was morning, it was dark in many places. It never rains, but it always seems to be like this after a dragon battle. This is also said to be an effect of the demon element. As I flew through the demon realm, I found a place where not even grass grew in a radius of about 30 meters on one of the areas facing the sea. As he flew past it, the anchor that had been pointing in the direction of travel flipped backwards. Apparently, this is where we were last time. The terrain, or rather the scenery, had changed so much that I hadn''t noticed it, but the shape of the land was indeed similar. This is where I''ll use the wisp core to cause an explosion, just like last time, but this time I''m solo. This time, I''m solo. With this in mind, I set up a wisp core and a timed detonation tool near the center of the grass. The first equipment to be used is an orthodox type of magic sword and a magic tool for acceleration. Needless to say, the sword will be used for emergency evacuation, and the grimoire will be used for attacks that require extra power. The reason I don''t have a sword in each hand is so that I can concentrate as much power as possible in one place. At first, I was going to carry two weapons, but after experimenting, I found that the resistance would only kill my speed faster, so I changed it. Weapons are more powerful when held with both hands. After confirming that both were intact, I activated the mage. At the same time, I accelerate upward just enough to keep my MP in check. The ideal scenario this time is to cut off the dragon''s head as before (preferably before it goes into battle mode), and then use the magic tools to absorb the magical elements. The number of magic swords and magic tools is limited, and many of them have special shapes that make them difficult to use, so I want the power of a single blow even if I have to rely on gravity. When I was close to the clouds, the bomb exploded. At about the same time as the explosion, a black haze appeared around me, and I could see it gathering at the point of detonation. And by the time the sound of the explosion reached my ears, about six seconds later, the dragon was almost complete. ...... It''s huge. The ancient texts said it was about 50 meters long, but from here it was probably 1.5 times that. Its neck is also about a meter and a half to two meters thick, so it would be hard to cut it down. It would be possible to kill it without cutting it off completely, but like a human being, a small cut would not be fatal. Based on my experience with the Sublime Dragon, I''d have to cut it off almost completely. The size of the sword is much larger than expected, and the current sword is not long enough or strong enough. He chooses a sword that is clearly not meant to be held by a human being, with a thick blade about a meter and a half long, which makes up about 10 of the 200 magic swords. However, for me right now, supporting an ordinary sword is not much different from supporting a sword of this size. After confirming that the dragon is complete, I begin my descent, accelerating with magic to avoid any unforeseen problems. No matter how complete the dragon is, it doesn''t seem to be very vigilant upward, and the enemy still hasn''t noticed us at an altitude of less than 500 meters. In order to get an advantageous start, you use the magic tool of acceleration. At the same time, an intense pressure that would kill a normal person was applied, and I accelerated far more rapidly than before. And with my sword, I slammed into the defenseless dragon''s neck at a speed I had never experienced before. The dragon screams. A tremendous force is applied to my hands and shoulders, and I feel something in my arm break, along with the sensation of the blade being cut away. I might have been paralyzed, but for some reason I felt no pain. I could feel the recoil of the sudden deceleration in my neck and legs, but I continued to cast the acceleration spell downward in order to gain as much power as possible. It felt like a long time, but in reality, the power of my fall was killed in an instant, and I became stationary. At the same time, I shifted to a flying position and started absorbing magic power, which I hadn''t dared to use until now in order to concentrate on attacking, in order to counter the magic grip. As expected, I was a target for the living dragon. As I tried to break away with my sword, the dragon attacked me with its tail. Judging from my past experience, I decided that I could dodge it, and activated the acceleration spell horizontally. However, contrary to my expectations, the tail grazed my leg. Although it didn''t break, the power of the attack from the huge body was quite large, and I felt that the magic armor took a lot of magic power. It''s better than being broken by a lack of replenishment, but you still want to avoid being hit as much as possible. So far, I''ve lost about 10% of my magic power in total. Then, while recovering from the spell and getting ready for the next attack, you see a sword that is half the size of your own. He realized the reason for the delay in his evasion. The sword was heavy. I hadn''t noticed it when I was standing still in the air or falling, but weight is not only difficult to support, but also difficult to move. As long as I am holding a heavy weapon, my movement will be slower than usual. On the other hand, if I took out the weapon and tried to attack while accelerating, I would have to decelerate rapidly the moment I took out the weapon. This is unavoidable before an attack, but at least put your weapon away after the attack. There is a limit to the number of large swords, the number of magic tools, and your own magic power, and since the previous attack only cut off about 30% of his neck, it is assumed that the small swords do not have enough firepower. I''ll be able to use it to block a small amount of magic power from being sucked up by the loss of concentration by re-activating the magic absorption. It seems that this is not a skill but a technique, so I can''t just activate it once and leave it. The dragon has not yet shifted into battle mode. There seems to be no other way but to use the greatsword for a short battle. I stashed my old sword in the item box, accelerated upward to gain distance, then reversed and held my new sword in front of me. 83 Episode 82 Dragon and Fire Ball He charges the dragon again at full acceleration. However, its speed is naturally much slower than the first attack. It''s not the same as when he was able to get above it unnoticed and accelerate as much as he wanted. Even so, the distance is enough to make the dragon look like a pea, but it''s not long enough to travel at the speed of sound, and besides, you can''t take advantage of the slight effect of gravity. I would have been very grateful if the dragon had just sat back and watched, but of course that didn''t seem to be the case. Even though I was slower than at first, the time it took me to reach the dragon was only a few seconds at most. It seems to have decided that I don''t have time to hit it with my breath, so it fires a large number of fireballs at me almost without motion. Rather than shotgun shells, the fireballs looked more like a flock of giant birds that I had seen on the news. The speed must be less than the speed of sound, but since I''m approaching the dragon myself, the relative speed must be several times higher. It''s not like I''m in a shooting game, but I don''t really feel like running into something like this. Inevitably, you''ll have to slow down and make a large detour to dodge the swarm of fire at once. There''s nothing but sea and grass around me, and it would be easier if I could just breathe out some breath. The dragon, however, seems to know that even though I''ve slowed down, I can still reach it quickly by accelerating straight away, so it just fires a series of similar attacks at me. Fortunately, the dragon doesn''t currently use deviation fire (a technique that predicts the enemy''s future position and attacks it instead of the enemy''s current position), so there''s no problem in approaching the dragon in a circle. Furthermore, the closer you get to the dragon, the narrower the area where the bullets are scattered, making it easier to dodge in exchange for increased damage when hit. When the distance between you and the dragon is reduced to about a fifth of the initial distance, you can even fly almost straight towards the enemy. "Gyoaaaaaah! The dragon roared. Unlike the small dragon, it was a wild, earth-shaking roar. The dragon''s roar was different from the smaller dragon''s, and it was a roar that shook the earth. The dragon, perhaps frustrated by my inability to take the fireball, changed its attack even further. This time, it scattered fireballs about a meter in diameter in all directions. There was no way to get around it, and it would be difficult to put away my weapon and leave at this distance and speed. The density of the barrage is greatly reduced instead of the range, so I manage to dodge them. I can''t do anything if they keep firing at me, so my path itself is mostly toward the dragon. Of course, this also increases the relative speed of the fireball. The few seconds it takes to reach the dragon feel like minutes. The distance was getting closer, and the intermittent fireball was impossible to dodge calmly. It was pointless to go around in a big circle, so I accelerated mainly to the dragon''s side, and only slightly to the direction that seemed to be less dense somehow. At first I was lucky enough to avoid the fireball, but of course such luck cannot last forever, and when I was almost to the dragon, I was hit one after another. As soon as the fireball struck me, or more accurately, my magic armor, it immediately exploded, shaving off a large amount of my magic armor. The power of two fireballs is equivalent to a single Saryu''s breath. With its current magic power, it would not be broken, but if it had been in the last battle against the mini-dragon, it would have been cut down and it would have been hit straight away. So, even with her magic diminished, she reached the dragon and thrust her sword with all her might. The result was nothing short of disappointing. The dragon was almost unharmed. He hadn''t paid attention to it before because he had enough acceleration, but even though the sword and magic absorption would allow him to attack the dragon to a certain extent, it wasn''t particularly effective, and it was probably just as effective as a normal sword against other hard monsters. At any rate, the dragon was almost completely unaffected by the attack. The sword, which would normally be torn to shreds, was only slightly damaged this time, confirming that it was not an attack at all. And now I''m in a situation where I''ve lost speed at close range of the dragon. It''s the dragon''s turn. The first thing it fired at me after I was shaken off using my tail was a fireball. It was the same as the first one, a fireball with a high density in one direction. I put away my weapon and tried to avoid the fireball by accelerating in the direction of distance, but I was still hit by a large number of fireballs all at once. The distance was too close for the fireballs to detonate, which reduced the number of direct hits, but even so, the amount of magic power lost was probably ten times greater than when I was hit on the way to the target. To be able to endure this much, I''ve become quite sturdy. As he accelerated further and tried to get some distance, the dragon''s movements changed. It''s familiar--a preliminary breath motion. I immediately gave up on my breakaway and began to orbit around the dragon. And the breath fires in the direction I expected. I''ve seen this before with sub-dragons and small dragons, so I guess I''ve gotten used to it. But when I avoided the breath and saw its trajectory, I was astonished. It was nothing compared to those of the smaller dragons and sub-dragons. It had a range of kilometers, and even at that range, it was so thick that its shape did not change. If that range is supported by firepower near the root, even the current me would be vaporized in a matter of seconds. I''m not sure if I''m going to be able to do that, but I''m sure I''ll be able to do it. ......, but now is not the time to think about that. The breath is a big move for the dragon, and its movements are fixed. If it doesn''t hit you, it won''t matter, so it''s a good chance to get some distance. By the time the dragon unleashes an additional fireball at me, I''ve already surpassed the speed of the fireball. I managed to break free. I''m back in the game, but things are not looking good. At any rate, if I ran straight into it, it would attack me, but if I slowed down to avoid the attack, it wouldn''t be able to attack me. This is not a boss that is designed to be conquered, unlike in games, and even ancient civilizations that mass-produced magic swords were destroyed, so it may be natural, but it is unreasonable. There is no option to retreat, and considering the damage caused by a single breath from a small dragon, it''s obvious what will happen if you let this thing run wild. But that''s not to say there aren''t any hints. We just found it. It''s a bomb. There''s only one strategy. Since there''s a chance I can''t catch up to the dragon, the worst thing that can happen is that it loses sight of me and goes to attack somewhere else. So the distance I can get is limited. In order to maintain speed within that range, a straight line trajectory will be taken. Since it would be useless to take all the bullets, I will try to intercept the spell itself by flying it in front of me. Naturally, the magic you cast must be faster than mine, so you can hold two blades at once. The speed that is still lacking will be made up for by constantly putting magic power into the wand blade, but it will only be a small consumption at this point. It''s not a good strategy, to be honest, but it''s the only way to go. I made up my mind and started the assault again. The dragon must have been gathering magic from the surrounding area while I was preparing, but thankfully it didn''t close the distance and attack me. Even so, as soon as the dragon sees that I''m in range, it shoots a fireball at me, just like last time. It''s met by the spears of rock that I''m firing in rapid succession. The first group of fireballs collided with the rock spears, causing a series of explosions. Perhaps the fireballs are spreading out due to the distance between us and them, but there is no large scale induced explosion. There didn''t seem to be any holes in the cluster of fireballs, but I couldn''t turn back now. I continued to fly straight ahead, hoping to avoid being hit as much as possible. But to my surprise, I didn''t get hit by any of them. Perhaps because I was firing my rock spear straight at the dragon, it was as if the bullets were only dodging around me. Now the fireball cannot reach me. The dragon may have noticed this, but it is already at a distance where I can reach it faster than I can hit it with my breath. I then use a series of acceleration spells. By the time of the clash, I had activated three of them. I put away the blade staff I had been using for defense, and aimed precisely at the same position where I had first slashed. The effect of the acceleration spell was so great that I could feel the sword gouging through the dragon''s flesh at once, even though it was damaged. I put more energy into it and pushed the sword in. Crack! I let go of the sword, knowing that if I tried to resist it, it would stop moving completely and I would become a target this time. The sword is completely destroyed, and from the wound that is now visible inside, something like metal or bone is peeking out. With such hard armor and bones, there was nothing he could do. It would be impossible to cut off its head. In desperation, I let go early enough to maintain the speed I had been able to maintain, and barely managed to break free. But then, bad things happen. "Gaiiiiiiiiiii! The dragon screams. And unlike before, it chases me with its wings. And at an uncanny speed. This meant that the dragon, which was more than enough of a threat even in its fixed turret state, had gone into battle mode. The speed and power of the dragon left me helpless, and I was blown away for several kilometers while clawing at it. It hurt like hell. I feel like my body is broken in many places. I was able to heal my injuries quickly with magic, but I was nearing the end of my magic power. In the first place, even if I had magic power, I don''t have any proper means of attack anymore. It''s physically impossible to cut the dragon unless you use its bones, and magic has no effect on dragons. There are no examples of dragons being defeated physically, even if we refer to ancient texts. Find another weakness: ...... I''ve never attacked a demon stone before, but I wonder if it could be a weakness. In comics, it is common that such an easily recognizable core is a weak point. In the case of the small dragon, I believe it came out of its head. When I looked at the dragon, it seemed to be trying to physically chase me, and was just turning towards me. I guess we''re kindred spirits. I pull the Dragon Killer''s massive main gun out of the item box and fire off a round. Hopefully it will actually kill the dragon. I have 10 and some acceleration tools left. I''ll put all of them into this acceleration. If this doesn''t work, I''ll run out of magic and it''ll be game over. It''s time to close the store. 84 Episode 83 Subjugation and Ore The Dragon Killer''s cannon was so large that it couldn''t support itself as it fell and shot, but the bullets it fired were slow. It was a wonder that it had hit the target in the last Dragon battle. Well, in the first place, in a battle where the speed of sound is the standard, we don''t expect that much from machines. The point is that all you need is a bullet that can pierce the dragon. I activate all of my acceleration magic tools and accelerate the shells at once. I''m going to use up all of my own magic. Since the front is blocked by shells, it''s impossible to prevent the enemy from attacking. And if I had the time, I''d use it to accelerate. But the shells, made with all the materials in existence, seemed to have real anti-dragon performance. They were able to catch all the fireballs fired by dragons charging at them and extinguish them without exploding. It was as if ordinary flames had been sprayed with water. The dragon, perhaps underestimating me, doesn''t try to evade me, but instead charges straight at me. Thanks to this, I managed to collide with the dragon head-on while almost running out of magic. At the same time as I made contact with the dragon, I felt a magic power from the enemy''s head that seemed to surpass even my previous breaths. This may have been the purpose of the assault. However, the Dragon Killer''s cannonballs were able to catch even that, and we were only able to see a few sparks. The material itself is probably some kind of artifact, but what it''s made of is a mystery to me. In order to make the most of its power, he pushes the cannonball into the dragon''s head with all of his magical power and physical strength. At last, however, his magic power ran out. He had used his magic in a way that had never happened before, so it was understandable. The magic tools of acceleration in the item box are also running out. However, I found one item in the item window that seemed to be a breakthrough. It''s an explosive tool. There''s no time to lose, I trust my armor, take out all the armor I have, and detonate it. Just before I was blown away with the explosion and fell into the sea, I saw the dragon''s flame that was illuminating the tip of the shell weaken and stop moving. Then, as the surface of the water approached, I saw the dragon''s body slowly tilt and begin to fall. It had won. I was thrown straight into the water, but there was no time to relax and bask in the afterglow of victory. If I could have solved the problem by just defeating it like this, it is possible that the ancient civilization would not have been destroyed. First, go to the surface. My clothes were wet and heavy, but my status seemed to be effective even after my magic power ran out. I almost brushed the water with all my might and poked my head out. The corpse of the dragon that had fallen nearby was not as swift as the previous, smaller one, but it was still going to disappear, and its shape was starting to crumble. Naturally, it seems that the magic element is being scattered through the air, and the maximum value of magic power is increasing at a tremendous rate, but it is still not enough. Based on the data and the pace at which the magic power is rising, it seems that if I just wait, the magic power will remain high enough to generate another dragon. However, I have enough magical power to take away the magical elements from the sub-dragon, and I have a track record of absorbing magical elements without any problems. I approached the dragon and started absorbing magic power to fully demonstrate my power. The next day, I returned to the Chamber of Commerce to find something to do while waiting for the report from the guild. He wanted to know the effects of defeating the dragon and collecting the magical elements from it. After absorbing so much magical energy, my magical power has become so large that I can''t even count the digits. In terms of units, it''s like a Jo, or a ditch, or something like that. I''ve heard it said that what matters to physicists is the number of digits, and that it doesn''t matter if the first digit is 2 or 5. It''s a strange thing, because it doesn''t affect my physical condition at all. I guess it''s a different world from the one we originally came from. However, I still don''t know if the magic element has really been reduced to a level below which dragons can reappear. By the time I returned, I had planned to summarize the situation and prepare for a victory party and debriefing, but it seems that both I and the guild had underestimated my speed. On the way out, I still had the self-restraint to not affect the battle, but on the way back, I didn''t even have that. At most, he slowed down to avoid hitting people with shock waves after passing through the demon''s territory. Of course, there was no way I could prepare in time or gather any data. With nothing else to do, I delivered the leftover supplies to the guild and went to the merchant''s to find something to do to pass the time. Standing in front of the Chamber of Commerce, I immediately spotted Mercia on the second floor. Her tentacles, which had been enhanced during the fight with Leviathan, were now capable of distinguishing people to some extent. "Have you noticed anything unusual lately? I talk to Mercia, who is sitting on a chair with her eyes closed. It''s not like she''s asleep, it''s more like the prayer pose we saw on Earth, but I''m not sure if there is such a religion in this world. I wonder if there is such a religion in this world. "...... Kaede!¡¡I''m not sure what to do.¡¡Where are the dragons? Mercia, perhaps not expecting me to return, jumped up with exaggerated surprise. I''m a little ahead of schedule, but if I''m going to make it back alive, it''s going to be today. I beat it. I''ve used up all my magic tools, but I''ve won anyway. Now I''m waiting for a report. My prayers were answered. ...... No, I''m glad, really. Nothing much has changed here either. It hasn''t been that long. We just need a little more farmland, that''s all. Do you have enough ships? We have enough for the farmland, but the supply of Zunana grass extract itself is far from sufficient. The demand was high to begin with, and now it is being consumed in cities far away. The price is also returning to the level it was before the production increase. After so much increase, they still don''t have enough? And the prices are returning too quickly. Considering the time lag caused by distance, the increase in demand must have occurred before the decision to increase production was made. It is frightening to think what would have happened if the production had not been increased. After Kaede''s departure, there was a discussion about what to do if the dragon was defeated, and there was talk of exporting the zunana plant out of the country. "Export! During the few days I was gone, what kind of discussions were going on? I''m not sure what you mean by "export" when we were talking about a shortage in Japan. ...... More farmland? About 10 times more. "Okay, let''s get more farmland. Can we increase it tenfold? "Ten times?¡¡Isn''t that a bit much? Last time I looked, there are more than enough islands. The cost of ships will go up, but if we increase the thickness and make them all mithril, we can make it. As for human resources, if we can get the people we have now to lead us, we should be able to get by. "...... As for the human resources, it looks like it could be done. However, ships can not be built if there is money. If we increase the number of ships by that much, we will probably have to use close to fifty ships. That would mean a shortage of mithril. Running costs would also increase, and that''s just absurd, isn''t it? In fact, I would say that most of those problems have been solved. I didn''t just say "10 times" without thinking. "First of all, mithril, where do you think mithril came from? Well, I think it comes from the mithril ores that exist all over the ...... continent. That''s before smelting. I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it''s a good idea. It''s true that there were no basic books in the facility that could withstand the dragon''s attack, and there was not much information that would be useful even today compared to the number of ancient documents. Nevertheless, as a result of deciphering a large number of existing ancient documents, many shocking new facts have been discovered. And this is one of them. This time, after slaying the dragon, I appraised the surface of the earth and found it to be correct. As far as I could tell, the surface of the area that was burned by the dragon''s breath was all high-purity mithril ore. Anything in the demon realm could be taken by anyone at will. Furthermore, my magic power, which was in the wrong order of magnitude, was recovering, and there was a mountain of ore in front of me. Of course, I had no reason to hesitate. I took out the mithril ore I had found from the item box. This is ...... very pure. It''s the first time I''ve seen something with such a clear color. Yes, the purity of the recently formed ore is much higher than that of ordinary ore that was probably formed a long time ago. While normal mithril ore has a slight blue tinge to it, the one I have is almost entirely blue, more like a mithril ingot than a stone. I went there just as the bracelets were shot last time, and there''s a lot of this stuff. In the item box. How much is a lot? ......? A lot. A mountain of mithril? Enough to build 50 ships with? Literally, "a mountain." It''s not a big mountain, but at least it''s bigger than those hills when loaded with ore. Maybe if we refine it, we can fill the seas around Fotolen with ships. After all, my current magic can easily peel off the surface of the surrounding land (if I don''t even think about the damage to the surrounding area). It won''t take long to build up a mountain or two if I start stripping the ore with no restraint. "Ore, no. What was the item box again? ...... 85 Episode 84 Celebration and Strategy Meeting Well, that''s it anyway. If we don''t have enough, we can go get it, and we can get as much mithril as we want. Can you recruit people? ...... Yes, if we can keep up with the pace of ship construction, we should be able to get enough people. Then do so. Any other problems? No, sir. It''s fun to see the store grow. After that, we negotiated with shipbuilders and refiners to make a detailed plan for the construction of the ship. He decided on a construction pace of about one ship every two weeks. I asked two shipyards to build it, so it was actually one ship per week. In the original world, this would have been an astonishingly high pace, but in this world, it is rather on the slow side. Then, while we were preparing the distillation equipment, high performance scythes, and transport equipment that would be needed in connection with the increased production, the date for the victory party was set, and when we had finished selecting and converting the island into new farmland, the day of the victory party arrived. The venue was Photoen. The attendees were mainly guild members, researchers, artisans, and people from the large merchant companies that supported them with transportation and materials. Those attending from our side were myself, Mercia, and Catherine, who was attending as a representative of the Kaede Chamber of Commerce. It seems that the artisans are gathering with other artisans, and Catherine is in that gathering. The only noblemen or important people in that direction were the lords of Fotolen. The venue was just an ordinary large hall that was rented out. There were a lot of people, but it was just a victory party for the people concerned. There were no troublesome rules regarding admission or seating order, and the organizer''s greeting began as soon as people had gathered in the hall. Incidentally, the host is Breiva, the guildmaster of the Adventurer''s Guild of the Kingdom of Basis (this country). "Welcome, everyone!¡¡We will now celebrate the success of our mission to defeat the dragon! Loud cheers went up from the tables here and there. I don''t know if it''s proper etiquette for a guild master, but it''s much better than being formal. I joined them in cheering. I waited for it to subside, and then Mr. Breiva spoke again. This operation would not have been successful without the intelligence, equipment, transportation, and other behind-the-scenes elements. Therefore, this victory is a victory for everyone present! The crowd cheered again. ...... However, no one can argue that there is one person in particular who has performed exceptionally well. With those words, the Guildmaster turned his gaze to me. At the same time, a few of them looked at me and started nodding. Well, I knew he was talking about me when he said that. I was the only one who had fought the dragon directly, despite the fact that the entire guild had been involved in the preparations. "Kaede the Adventurer, step forward! As soon as those words were spoken. As if it had been planned, the people in between me and the guild master''s small magic loudspeaker (apparently a valuable item) split off to the left and right, creating a path. If you look closely, you can see that even the arrangement of the table seemed to have been designed with this in mind. Was that what they were aiming for? As I reached the loudspeaker, the guild master spoke to me again. Of course, his voice was also transmitted through the loudspeaker to the whole hall. Do you have your guild card with you? Yes. It''s going to be renewed. Give me your old card. ...... I have a bad feeling about this. But of course, you have no choice but to refuse. I handed over my guild card, and the guildmaster smiled and pulled out a card. But it was clearly different in appearance from any guild card I had ever seen. First of all, the thickness was different. In what world is there a guild card that is more than three millimeters thick? The design was also clearly special. The body of the card is white with a gold border. My name is engraved on it in the form of mithril or something embedded in it. Not only that, but it seemed that everything was engraved with shining metal, except for the parts that were frequently rewritten, such as the request completion and defeat history. In addition, next to the guild''s coat of arms, the national emblem shines brightly, which is not present on ordinary guild cards. The ...... glittering everywhere hurt my eyes. I wonder how much money was spent on the processing of the guild card. Finally, when I looked at the bottom right corner of the card, I understood the guild''s intentions with the thought, "Oh, so this is the pattern ....... There was a large "Rank S" and the words "Basis Kingdom Adventurer''s Guild" stamped in large letters. The name of the country was emphasized more than on a normal card, probably to enclose it. And the most important reason is, of course, the rank. As if to prove it, the guildmaster declares in a high-pitched voice. "Adventurer Kaede, in recognition of your outstanding contributions to the Adventurer''s Guild and your outstanding abilities, you are hereby promoted to the first S Rank Adventurer in the Guild''s history! There was an incomparable cheer from the entire hall. Some of them started calling for Kaede, and some of the researchers who ran into the crowd of artisans who questioned whether it was the tools'' fault explained about the hopelessness of the dragon and the freakishness of me defeating it. Both are embarrassing and should be stopped. The guildmaster seemed to try to contain the commotion for a bit, but he soon realized that he couldn''t do it. And then he went back to his seat and started drinking with the people around him. Perhaps the victory party was originally about drinking and making noise, and my promotion announcement was a prelude to that. Seeing this, I was left behind with a guild card in my hand that shone so brightly that it hurt my eyes, and I tried to return to my seat. But now that the Guildmaster was no longer an obstacle, there was no way that the crowd that wanted to celebrate me would let that go unnoticed. My magic and power are not precisely controllable enough to unleash on friendly people in this chaotic situation. So I couldn''t resist, and I was quickly torn apart. I don''t remember much of what happened next. I''m not supposed to get drunk, but ...... The next thing I knew, it was the following evening. Not the next morning, but the next evening. The participants continued to make noise until the sun came up, and then went to bed and woke up in the evening, that''s all. As if that had been anticipated, today''s meeting was set for a little after dusk. Unlike the victory party, this was a serious meeting to think about the future. The number of participants had been narrowed down to a few representatives from each position. As yesterday, the guild master announced the opening of the meeting, but without the use of a loudspeaker. We will now begin the meeting on countermeasures against demons after the defeat of the dragons. Tupone, please explain the current situation. An elderly man who looked like a researcher stood up with a reply. The other day, we successfully defeated a dragon, but now we have two issues to deal with. One is the dragon. Based on the concentration of magical elements, we believe the next dragon will appear in 15 years at the earliest. So we need to be ready to deal with the next one by then. Some of the artisans and merchants voiced their surprise. Some of the artisans and merchants shouted in surprise, but the researchers and guild members seemed to have already figured it out and were calm. After that, there was a discussion about the specific method, but the following was decided. First, we will analyze the ancient documents and make it possible to create artifacts other than the basic ones. Then, using the technology we have developed, we will somehow complete the magic freeze (the blueprints have been found). Now that it is possible to decipher ancient texts, research on artifacts is advancing at an unprecedented rate. Many of them are difficult to create due to processing problems, and there are too many missing materials regarding their principles, but for some relatively simple ones, they have succeeded in combining existing artifacts to achieve different effects. This is apparently an extremely significant discovery for an artifact that until now has only performed its intended function: ....... The right to participate in the production and research is on the condition that the merchant company that participated in this operation, so I''m thinking of joining the Kaede Chamber of Commerce. My knowledge from my time in Japan may come in handy, and I may be able to make a lot of money with artifacts. I don''t really need to make any more money, but it''s boring to live without doing anything. In addition to the artifacts, I''ve also decided to prepare for another fight in case the freeze doesn''t succeed. This is mainly a stockpile of powerful magical artifacts. After the topic of dragons was settled, the next question was posed. The second problem, which we have just discovered, is more pressing: the appearance of demons. As it turns out, there may be sporadic outbreaks of special demons over the next few years. This time, some of the guild members were surprised. What do you mean by special?¡¡What is the scale of the outbreak? The question came from the head of a branch of the Adventurers'' Guild in some large city. I''ll explain one by one. First of all, the cause is that the unevenness in the concentration of magical elements caused by the appearance and disappearance of dragons creates an unevenness in other places, and as a result, places with extremely high magical element density appear. The frequency is, on average, about once a week. They number in the thousands to 10,000, and most of them are thought to be flying types. "Once a week, 10,000 flying types!¡¡Once a week, 10,000 flying types! That would destroy the planet even without dragons! The branch manager shouted. With 10,000 flying types to deal with, it''s no wonder he reacted this way. Fortunately, I don''t think it will go that far. It is said that demons born due to anomalies in the magical element will disappear within a day after the outbreak is over because they are predicated on anomalies in the magical element. Considering that the duration of the outbreak was about half a day, it was actually only a day and a half. You don''t even have to worry about it unless you happen to be in a populated area. Some of the cities may be affected, but it won''t be the end of the human race. "...... I''m sorry, I was distracted. I''m sorry. The branch manager apologized and took his seat. Mr. Tupone opened his mouth again. The question is, how much damage can we mitigate? The problem is how much damage we can do to mitigate it. With the facilities we have now, we should be able to narrow it down to a radius of about a hundred kilometers two weeks ago, so I would like to ask the large merchant associations to help with the evacuation. Of course, there should be a reasonable reward from the government. We can work out the details later. The members of the Chamber of Commerce nodded. Of course, it won''t be a charity, but that will be discussed later with the relevant people only. But demons move. If there are thousands of flying demons, some of them may reach other cities and cause damage. We need to take countermeasures against them. ...... However, there are limits to evacuation. However, evacuation will be limited. The city, the fields, and the people in the surrounding cities must also be protected. ...... To do this, we will need someone who can take on thousands of flying demons. ...... I felt the eyes of the people in the conference hall turn towards me. This is definitely going to be my job, isn''t it? Yeah, I knew that. 86 Episode 85 Artifacts and Magic Stone Connections I''ll join you in defeating them. ...... But I can''t always be in or near the guild. I may have to travel a long way, and it''s hard to show up at the guild every day. I don''t want to be tied down for several years for an outbreak that could come at any time. However, we need you to stay near the Photoren, because with our current information network, ....... Mr. Tupone countered. Of course. I want to minimize the damage as much as you do, and since the Guild is close to the national organization, I''m sure you''re thinking about it more sincerely than I am. When I opened my mouth to make a suggestion for that purpose, I was met with a counter-argument from a different direction than I expected. It was the guildmaster, Mr. Breiva. No, we can''t bind adventurers for that reason. But it''s an emergency. We have no other choice but to ask Kaede for help. ...... "Aside from the dragons, this is a city-wide problem, and it''s happening far away from Kaede. It would be great if you could help us, but we can''t force you to rescue a city hundreds of kilometers away. Kaede is a powerful force to be reckoned with, but he''s an adventurer, not a knight. You know that, but we''ve been relying on him too much so far. Hearing this, the meeting fell silent again. I don''t know the rules of the guild in detail, but I''m sure Breiva is right. No one could argue, and Tupone looked down in silence. I remembered that freedom was one of the advantages of being an adventurer. I''ve heard somewhere that the reason adventurers don''t take requests directly from the country or town, but rather through guilds even in urgent cases, is to protect their freedom. ...... But I am not saying that we should abandon the place of outbreaks. No, I''m not always in the photo-op, but the point is, you need an alternative means of communication, right? I''m in trouble because I don''t have that. ...... Don''t tell me you have that? I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it''s a good idea. It''s not a panacea, but there are ways to transmit information over a distance. Is it some kind of ...... artifact? No, this. I pulled out a pair of anchors. At first, most of the participants looked puzzled when they saw them. However, when they were told that they were a means of transmitting information, the researchers must have realized a new use for the anchors. Their puzzled expressions turned to astonishment. Two of them almost stood up, made a clattering sound with their chairs, and sat down again. The non-researchers remained puzzled. I would have told Mercia that she could spread the word if she had to, but from the looks of it, she didn''t. This is a normal anchor. In normal use, the two are linked together to indicate each other''s position, but if you break one of them like this... As I said this, I put all my strength into the hand holding the anchor and broke one of them. Because of the distance between them, the color of the other anchor disappears immediately. When the other one changes color, you know something''s wrong. Now almost everyone seemed to understand what I was saying. A voice rises from the crowd. "Breaking and using magic tools is another great idea. ...... The reason no one had thought of it before was probably because they had a preconceived notion of how to use magic tools. I''m not sure what to make of it, but I''m sure it''s a good idea. If I wasn''t an adventurer, this country would have been turned into a high-purity mithril deposit by a small dragon by now. "I crushed a magic stone anchor with my bare hands. ......? I don''t think that''s the problem. "Anyway, if I keep one of these in the Photoren Guild, I can check things out without having to go back to the guild. "Great. That''s great. ...... But if you move too far away, you can''t just move it. ...... No, that won''t be a problem for Kaede. Yes. In a couple of weeks, you could probably travel from one continent to the other and back. Normally, the speed of sound is not exceeded, but if you don''t consider the damage to the surroundings, it will be even higher. The speed of sound: ...... No, that''s fast enough. It''s not enough to cause damage if you''re trying to rescue people. Surely this can''t be done with an A grade. ...... The meeting came to a successful conclusion at my suggestion. At that time, I was asked if I could use Anchor Communications in the Chamber of Commerce, and I agreed. I agreed, because it seemed troublesome to charge money for a new use, let alone a new tool. There are plenty of other ways to make money besides anchoring. It would be much more important for me to be able to move freely. Now that I was free (except for the outbreak), my first task was to create an artifact. I''ve done enough fighting that I don''t feel like going out of my way, and making artifacts is a new field that seems quite interesting. In addition, it seems that Kaede Merchant''s artifacts department is reputed to be small but highly skilled ....... After the meeting, I found out all the information about it that had been disclosed to the people concerned. However, that information is only what I could find in the old documents and the basic experiments conducted by the guild. From that point on, there are trade secrets involved, so we need to do our own research and development. So, I immediately went to Catherine and started my experiments. There are other craftsmen in the company, but their skills are not as good as Catherine''s, so they are treated as assistants for experiments that do not require mass production. "How much do you understand about artifact creation? In order to determine how much explanation is necessary, I ask her. "All the experiments that were done in limited release. I don''t remember much of the information in the ancient texts, but I do know the basic structure and the magical tools used in the experiments, such as the Concentration Lamp and the Blue Flame. The basic structure is the name given to a number of structures that often appear in the blueprints of ancient texts. Artifacts are classified according to the number of structures they have: 1 structure, 2 structures, 3 structures. ...... At present, there are successful replicas of up to 2 structures. At present, there are successful replicas of up to two structures. They are like components in an electronic device. Concentrated Magic Lamp" and "Blue Flame" are the names of two-structure artifacts that have been successfully replicated. Incidentally, all the artifacts that have been replicated before the decipherment of the ancient texts, such as the familiar Magic Lamp, have a single structure. The Magic Lamp has a three-digit structure, and I think it would have been uncomfortable to count it. However, there must have been a great deal of experimentation between the deciphering of the ancient texts and the creation of the two-structure artifact. Knowing all that, was Catherine about to become a researcher? "How do you know so much? "Because after the dragon-related work is done, all of us mages gather to learn about the artifacts. In other words, the development of the artifact and the participating groups were already decided when I went out to defeat it. If so, it''s a quick story. Well, let''s try the two-structure experiment first. "I''ve already succeeded with the second structure. You''ll need a larger magic stone. ...... The biggest one I have is ....... He said, and took out from the item box the magic stone of the sub-dragon that appeared after the first dragon was defeated. They are about 50 centimeters in diameter. The biggest one is the black magic stone from the first dragon, but I have a bad feeling about that one, so I won''t use it. The largest one is the black magic stone from the first dragon, but I have a bad feeling about that one, so I don''t use it. ...... That''s a pretty impressive magic stone, does it belong to a sub-dragon? "After I killed the smaller dragons, two of them came out at once. This is the biggest one I have. Will this work? "I didn''t know you fought such things. ...... But you should be fine with something like the Giant Spider Club. Okay. Then get me a blue flame. Throw the large magic stone into the item box and take out a magic stone with a diameter of less than 30 centimeters. I understand. I''m not sure what I''m doing. I don''t know what she''s doing, but I''m guessing it''s some kind of advanced technology. In about ten minutes it was done. It''s done. Catherine proudly holds out the magic stone. When I activated it, blue flames, different from those of ordinary magic tools, burst forth with great force. Surprised by the unexpected power, I hurriedly put out the fire. It was indoors, but it seemed to have prevented the fire from igniting. Two structures with this much power: ...... The magic stone is also very durable. It''s a performance that makes it ridiculous to make ordinary magic tools. But since you can''t increase the number of structures, the range of applications becomes smaller. I think the Sapphire of the Sublime Dragon can be used for at least three structures. It''s a bit of a waste to use that much for three structures. I''ve got an idea: ....... How about connecting the structures with each magic stone? Currently, due to the way to connect them and magical interference, it is said that you can only create a structure by placing it almost in a straight line. Therefore, the number of structures that can be used depends on the diameter of the magic stone. In the case of an ordinary complex magic tool, if the diameter is doubled, it is possible to make something eight times as complex as the volume of the tool, which shows how difficult it is to increase the number of structures. If you wanted to make 100 structures, you would need a magic stone with a diameter of about 15 meters. Of course, there is no such thing. Then, why don''t we just connect the magic stones? That''s a natural idea. That has already been tested and failed. Of course I know that. "Of course I know that, but there must have been something wrong with the way it was done. "Of course I know that, but it must have been a problem with the way it was done." This is a natural idea, and there have already been experiments with the same idea. However, it''s just a piece of magic stone (from my point of view) that''s been cut to fit. Even if it were not magic but water, most of it would be leaked out. If you remove the unevenness more finely and make it fit perfectly, you may get a different result. So, how do you do it? "Well, let''s give it a try. While saying this, I took out two magic stones of the same size as before, and shaved them to make a flat surface. The magic image is a belt sander. First, imagine a rough surface and make a rough plane, and then gradually make the surface finer. This is done while removing shavings, and in about five minutes, the two magic stones have a surface that reflects light like a mirror. They pressed them together with more magic. Something that can be used to fix it: ...... I rummaged through the item box and found a decibatore tree that I had cut down a long time ago. The wood in the demon realm would become brittle over time, but it was durable enough to hold the demon stone until then, so I cut it down and forced the demon stone into it to hold it in place. Use this to create the three structures. While I know the structure, it''s safe, please. "All right. Now, the Blue Focused Magic Lamp. Catherine begins to make the same magic tool as before. She seems to be concentrating even more than when she was making the two structures, but her speed doesn''t seem to be slowing down much and she finishes the work in less than 10 minutes. "Now, try to activate it. "Okay, sir. Catherine activates the magic tool. If successful, it should emit a blue light (different from a laser) with a certain degree of directionality, like a flashlight, but there seems to be no ...... light emitted. No? Do I need to polish it more precisely? Or am I treating it wrong as a magic tool in the first place? I started to think about the cause of the failure, but Catherine seemed to be nodding her head in a different way than I was. It feels like it''s working, but ...... As she said that, Catherine was looking at the magic tool. Then she covered it so as to block out the ambient light, looked into it, and shouted, "It''s working! "It''s working! What? It doesn''t look like it''s glowing at all. ...... When I did the same thing as Catherine, I found that there was indeed a faint blue glow. However, although the light was bright enough, it was not visible even in a room. Can we call this a success?¡¡It may have been activated, but with this kind of power? The magic stone connection was successful!¡¡No one has ever succeeded before, and it''s been a long-held dream of mage craftsmen, along with artifact duplication! I didn''t know that attaching magic stones was such an important technology. The fact that the experiment was not appropriate may have been due to the underdevelopment of the technology as well as the awareness that ''artifacts are different from magic tools, so I''ll give it a try, but it''s probably impossible anyway''. However, the fact remains that it cannot be put to practical use as it is. ...... So, let''s just aim to improve efficiency to a practical level. "Yes! 87 Episode 86 Magic Stone and Sugar For now, let''s try to scrape it cleaner. The reason why the connection didn''t work was probably because the two magic stones were not completely connected. The magic element or magic power must be leaking through the gap. In order to reduce this, I polished the two magic stones more precisely than in the first experiment. Both appear to be perfectly flat. ...... But are they really flat? I realized now that I had never worked with magic with such precision before. "Is it done? "......, let''s check it out. I thought for a while about how to check, and then I remembered a method I had seen on TV. I thought about how to check it, and remembered a method I had seen on TV a long time ago. The method was to put ink on one of the boards and stack the two boards on top of each other, and if the ink spread over the entire unpainted board, it was a success. If only a part of the board is covered with ink, you can shave off that part. This is not a method to check the flatness of the surface, but to check if the two surfaces are perfectly aligned, but it is perfect for the magic stone connection. I''m going to look in the item box to see what I can use as ink. The magic stone is red, so I look for something in red that will stand out. Then I saw a bright blue liquid that looked poisonous. It''s zunana plant extract. ...... is it good? It''s a bit of a waste of ink, but it''s not something you''d use in large quantities. Put a drop of the extract on one of the magic stones and spread it thinly. Put the other magic stone on top of it and peel it off immediately. Because the extract is less viscous and lighter in color than real ink, it didn''t stick as nicely as I had expected, but at least the magic stone turned blue overall. It seems to have been scraped cleanly. Okay, try this. This is an experiment in connecting magic stones, so it doesn''t have to be a three-dimensional structure. I reattached the magic stone, fixed it, and handed it to him. "Okay. I''m going to make a lantern to test the artifact as well. Catherine took the stone, worked on it for about 30 seconds, and then took her hand off the stone. It was probably finished. The magic lantern is one of the easiest artifacts to make, as it could be duplicated even in the days when people could not read ancient texts. It''s done. With that, Catherine turned on the lantern. The reason why I knew that she had activated it even though she hadn''t turned it on was because the lantern emitted a light so strong that it was clearly visible even in bright light. I have never seen a lantern with such power. Is this more than a magic stone that is not connected to ......? No, it''s only 20% of a normal magic stone. No, it''s about 20% of a normal magic stone. The magic stones it''s made from are too powerful to be used in magic lanterns. ...... But it''s good enough for practical use! I''m not sure what to make of it. Considering the strength of the two-structure, it seems that even 20% of the three-structure would be enough to make something powerful, but 20% seems somehow insufficient. Anyway, if you polish it up nicely, it will be ...... What''s going on? After the experiment, I realized that I forgot to remove the extract of zunana grass that I used as ink. That may have caused the percentage to drop to 20%. This time, I shaved the magic stone in the same way as the previous one, made sure that it fit perfectly with the Zunana grass extract, and then wiped it off properly. I gave the completed magic stone to Catherine to experiment with. ...... This is the same as ...... the first one. Should I not wipe it off? "Looks like it. The finished lantern was only barely visible in the dark. What really matters is not how well the surface is polished, but what you put in between. "I''m going to try a few things. Can you make a ...... magic lamp out of Green Wolf''s magic stone? No problem. Even though I have a budget to spare, I don''t feel comfortable consuming too large a magic stone for an experiment. The magic stones for the experiment cannot be reused because the magic carved on them will shift when they are removed. It may be possible to use one of the two, but it is a basic rule of experimentation to eliminate errors in other conditions. However, with the Green Wolf''s Demon Stone, wasting 100 or 200 of them does not hurt or itch. I shaved off a hundred or so at a time to make a flat surface, and made up whatever liquid I could think of to put between them, and tried it out from one side to the other. After a few hours of experimentation, I came to know what were the strongest materials. The strongest liquid I had on hand was the Zunana grass extract that I had tried first, but the efficiency increased even more when I mixed it with the powder from grinding magic stones. It seems that the performance also depends on the quality of the magic stone, and the powder made from the center part of a large magic stone, about one-fifth of its length, was the most effective. Zunana plant extracts, which were used for medicinal purposes, can be further boiled down to increase its efficiency. The final result is a poisonous purple liquid ......, or rather a paste. It is a triple-concentrated extract of Zunana grass, with a lavish amount of powdered wyvern magic stone in it. The output is still about 50% of the raw material, but since 40% is the limit for non-Wyverns, this is still an exceptional performance. It''s done. I feel like I''ve made something amazing. I''m still a little dissatisfied, but I think it''s true that ...... is a great product. It''s within the range of structures 4 and 5. ...... So, let''s try structure 4. "You mean skip structure three? Oh, I didn''t think so. I felt that I had already succeeded in structure 3. I handed Catherine a large magic stone with the finished paste and waited for her to finish the magic tool. As I watched, I suddenly became curious and assessed Catherine''s magic power. Then I noticed something strange, and asked her when the magic tool was completed. ...... Are you sure about your magic power after making such a large number of magic tools? The maximum value hasn''t changed, but the calculation doesn''t match the production capacity I''ve heard before. I know that a craftsman with a lot of magic power has a high production capacity, but I''ve never heard that the same magic power can produce a large amount of magic tools. I''m curious about the reason, so I''m going to ask even though I know it''s okay. "...... Huh?¡¡Didn''t you hear? About what? Since the dragon was defeated, the amount of magic I can use has increased. I don''t feel like I''ve gained much lately, but I think I''ve gained about thirty percent since before the dragon was defeated. And it''s not just me, it''s all the wizards. I''m not listening to ....... The victory party turned into a drinking game before we could talk about anything serious, and the meeting afterwards was all about the problem and not about the other effects. I guess they didn''t bother to talk about it because they expected that all the participants, including me, would have heard about it from somewhere, and it had little to do with disaster countermeasures. No, since I myself was known to be a wizard in the first place, they might have thought that if they were going to ask me, it would be from my side. But fortunately or unfortunately, I live a life where I don''t care about magic power unless I''m dealing with a dragon. In the first place, even if you use magic at a level that doesn''t harm the people around you, your MP will remain at the upper limit. And since MP is a value based on the average, if the average is pushed up, there is no change even if the absolute amount of magic power increases. There is no way to notice that the amount of magic power that one MP represents has increased by 1.3 times. Is it me too? If the value of MP has not decreased, then it must be so. ...... Don''t you know how much magic you have? It''s probably increasing, but you''ll never run out of ...... magic. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re doing. In the event that you''d like to get more information on this, please visit our website. A pressure spell or a rock spear would be a real-life reenactment of the destruction of the earth by something, and a water spell would be a flood that would wash away the world. Even the relatively peaceful movement magic would be destroyed by a shockwave. ...... I feel like I''ve stopped being human. I''d like to share even a hundredth of ...... that with you. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re doing. I''m not sure what to do with it. "Okay, activate it whenever you want. "Okay. I''ll go to ....... After a short pause, Catherine activated the Blue Focused Magic Lamp. At that moment, an intense blue light was emitted from the magic stone, illuminating the wall. Catherine squinted her eyes at the glare. "It worked. The magic stone was connected to ...... in just one day. Catherine seems to be impressed, but if you have time to be impressed, let''s proceed with the research. There are still a lot of magic tools to try and a lot of discoveries to be made. The day will be lost if I am moved every time. Let''s move on to the fourth structure. Are you sure you don''t want to make the other three?¡¡There are more and more strong-looking ones for attackers. ...... "Sure, there are powerful magic tools for single use, but there are more interesting things in the fourth structure. There is no need to rush into making a slightly stronger magic tool, since other adventurers can handle all but the largest outbreaks. If we spread out too many powerful magic tools, adventurers will lose their jobs. There is a difference between annihilating demons in one or two places and reusable artifacts. I don''t remember any artifacts with four structures, but what''s an interesting artifact? "Magical Element Suppression. It''s said to be able to harden and kill demons that have been spawned by demons over a large area. It seems that the Demon Freeze is an enhanced version of this. "...... in four structures? I''m sure you''ve heard of it. It''s only useful in this situation. I''m not sure what to make of it.¡¡If you use a long wand and work hard, you can get the results you need without me. You can''t do that against an airborne demon. ...... I don''t think so. I''m not sure how many of them there are, but I imagine the wizards in Decibatore (who are probably in Brokens right now or out on the road as reinforcements) could handle something like that. Apparently, flying demons tend to be regarded with more caution than those on the ground. Well, it''s still useful. The structure is this: ...... I''m a little nervous about testing it in a public place. Try it here first. It''s a magical tool that turns wood into sugar. I''ve also written the structure of "Demon Subduer", but it''s not as easy to experiment with as the magical tool of light. Even if it doesn''t affect people, that was in the time when the ancient texts were written, and we don''t know how far it will go in this day and age. So, below is a diagram of the structure of the four-structure artifact "Wood Sugaring", which has a nice and peaceful effect. This is a magical artifact with the literal effect of turning wood into sugar, a dream come true. The other 4 structures, such as "Hair Regrowth", seemed to be in high demand, but they are disposable, and I chose the sugar one because I didn''t want to spend a large magic stone and paste for hair. In the first place, I couldn''t find anyone who would be a good test subject. I''m glad to hear that, but with the ......4 structure, you''ll need three magic stones. All right. I thought I could get two structures with one magic stone, but it seems it''s not that simple. I had no choice but to shave both sides of one magic stone parallel to each other, then combine it with a magic stone shaved only on one side, and apply paste to it to make a combined magic stone with three magic stones lined up in a straight line. Since the magic stones are joined together twice, the theoretical output is about a quarter. The combined magic stone is then turned into a magic tool, just as Catherine did with the three structures, and placed on the desk. "Is ...... enough wood? I take a relatively clean piece of wood from the item box, carve its surface with my magic sword, cut it into a reasonable size, and place it on the desk. I put a tray underneath it to catch the sugar, and I''m ready. Now, let''s go. Okay. Catherine, who seemed to have gotten used to the experiment, checked and immediately activated the magic tool. Then, the piece of wood on the desk turned into sugar. The wooden tray and the top of the desk on which it was placed. 88 Episode 87 Fire and Magic Stone Fortunately, the sugared desk was cheap, and I had to replace it with a better one. Perhaps I had underestimated the artifact, thinking it was just a tool for making sugar. An artifact made from a magical stone that could be used for military purposes could not possibly be used only to make a small amount of sugar. Even more frightening, the Sugar Wood Artifact was a magic artifact that could be used multiple times and filled with magic power. It could be used to mass produce sugar and even demolish a wooden house with one tool. It was worth spending three magic stones, but it was still a very cost-effective tool. Judging from the fact that it can be filled with magic power, magic stones may have been valuable even in ancient civilizations. At any rate, by preparing lumber and metal equipment suitable for the output of the magic tools, it became possible to produce sugar in a stable manner. I never thought that the plan to mass produce sugar, which had been blocked by the Zunana grass, would be realized in this way, but as a result, Kaede Merchant Company would have a new main product. The company had already grown so large that they could handle this and that related to sales without my involvement, so my job was as simple as filling the "wood sugarizer" with magic power from time to time. Except for the research and development, I''ve been watching from the sidelines, providing only money and goods, but it''s been fun to see the store grow like a management simulation. While the sugar sales system was being set up, I received a request from the guild and came to the city of Soltin for a meeting about it. A demon outbreak was finally going to happen. It''s about five days away from Fotoren (by carriage or other common means of transportation). It was not a great distance for me, and it would not be a great distance for the adventurers returning from Decibatore who would be my reinforcements. The meeting went smoothly, partly because of the small number of people present. The following is a summary of what was told to me. The fact that most of the area within the predicted outbreak zone (a radius of about 100 km) is just wilderness or mountainous terrain, with only a few small villages, makes matters easier. There are several small and medium-sized cities in the vicinity, including Soltin, where the task force is located, but their guards and the residents of the villages have already been evacuated, so my job is to kill the demons before they get out of range and reduce their numbers to a point where the wizards guarding the towns can kill them. Successfully completing this mission means that I''ll be able to wipe out nearly 10,000 demons and monopolize their materials. We will be able to get a lot of materials for artifacts. After deciding on the scope of the mission, the meeting quickly ended. The details would be determined by each of us, and each of us would do our part. The merchants and guild members would remain in the city, while the adventurers would move to their respective posts. Do your best so that we don''t have to do our jobs. The adventurers who were leaving the city with their long anti-aircraft staves called out to me as I began to fly. The adventurers running to their posts were faster than the average warrior, even for wizards, but they were ...... wizards who had originally been in Decibatore. This should come as no surprise. There are still four to six hours before the predicted time of the demon''s appearance, but the predictions have only been narrowed down to a 100 kilometer radius, so we need to find a place where the signs are appearing. I accelerate, careful not to exceed the speed of sound, and look around in the sky. I''ve been told that it''s easy to tell when there''s too much magic in the air because of the swirling black clouds. I was right, and in less than thirty minutes, I found the black swirling clouds. It was just outside the 100km radius, but thankfully there was nothing but a small village nearby. In the meantime, I put up a warding spell to prevent damage to the village, and watched the cloud, waiting for the demon to appear. While I was watching, the unnatural black clouds, which were different from normal cumulonimbus clouds, grew in size and blackness. After about thirty minutes, when you have grown tired of watching the clouds, the horizontal expansion of the clouds ends and a strong downdraft begins to blow. The clouds did not disappear in the downdraft, but rather began to expand downward, indicating that the clouds were not made of water vapor. But there are still more than five hours to go before the monster appears. Too much time. I thought that it would be quicker if I just collected the magical elements like I did right after defeating the dragon, but I didn''t want anything strange to happen. I had no choice but to wait and process the large number of magic stones in my possession so that I could connect them. One magic stone, two magic stones: ...... When I finished processing the 173rd magic stone, things finally started to move. The black clouds that had covered the sky disappeared, and in their place, black flying demons covered the sky. The demons seemed to appear in multiple waves, but there still seemed to be a thousand or two thousand of them. Although there are many of them, the area where they appear is almost the same size as the clouds, so for the time being, I cover the area with warding magic. You''ll have to enclose dozens of cubic kilometers at once, but that''s covered by the violence of MP. Let''s try to kill one of them. I approach it at subsonic speed, swing my magic sword, and drop the head of a bird-like creature with large black wings. When I dismantled it, I found out that the bird was carrying a large magic stone like the one I used in my experiment. The magic stone is good, but the other materials seem to be of delicate quality. It has an air of a cheap product made in Country C. I guess it can''t be helped if you think it was mass-produced in an instant using a strange black cloud as material. After some thought, I decided to give up on the other materials and just collect the magic stones. There''s nothing wrong with collecting other materials as well, but even asking me to kill dozens of them in one go is like asking me to eat pudding with a shovel. You might be able to get by with a shovel, but when you''re dealing with thousands of them, the shovel ranks up there with a bucket wheel excavator. It''s impossible. Before I could even think about it, birds, dogs with wings, and other flying monsters were attacking me. Just in time, I''ll let you be my test subject. I get a little distance from the demons, take out "Demon Suppression" from the item box, and activate it. The next moment, the demons around me began to freeze and fall to the ground. It''s an excellent tool, as all of the demons within a hundred-meter radius have been wiped out, and the ones outside of the radius are flying funny and lowering their altitude. However, it seems that the target was not only demons. I''m using flight magic as if I''m maintaining altitude, but my altitude is dropping. When I noticed this, I increased the power to maintain altitude, but I must have been affected myself. This means that the theory that "magical element suppression" does not affect humans is a lie. ...... If you count me as a human, who probably has more magical elements than all the demons in this place combined. I''m not sure if you''ve seen this before, but I''m sure you''ve. There are so many of them, so you need to be able to destroy them, but you don''t want to destroy the magic stones, so you use fire magic instead of explosion magic like you do in Decibatore. I went out of the wards, poured millions of magic power into the wards, generated enough fire magic to fill the wards, and threw pebbles at them to detonate them. The sky turns red. The magic that focuses on heat and fire dyes the sky and even the ground inside and around the wards with red light. Thanks to the wards, I can''t feel the heat, but I can feel the wards consuming my magic power. The current me would have no problem if it took 100 or 200 million of my magic power, but the old me would have dried up. The flames burned for several tens of seconds and then disappeared, leaving a large amount of magic stones at the bottom of the warding. I had expected the corpse to turn into charcoal, but it seems that not even charcoal remained. Should I be happy that I didn''t have to dismantle the body? As I cooled the magic stone and stored it in the item box, I saw a new black cloud forming next to the warding I had put up. I''ve heard that demons keep appearing from the same place, but maybe the wards interfered with their reappearance. There was still some time before the next summoning, but this outbreak was said to continue intermittently for half a day. Since it was a hassle, I decided to try my luck a bit laterally. The first step is to set up a ward near the surface to protect the ground from damage, but not to interfere with the cloud formation. Then, from underneath, we launch a fire spell with several thousand times the magic power of the first fire spell, extending the duration of its effect. Confirm that the fire magic has reached the center of the cloud, and detonate it with the magic accelerated by the wand. The area around the cloud will be engulfed in flames. The strategy this time is to prepare the flames before the demons are born, and destroy them the moment they come out. If this succeeds, I won''t have to keep watching for the appearance of demons. I watched the flames for a while, but they did not seem to go out even after a few minutes had passed. There''s no damage to the surrounding area. The deployment was a success. For about an hour, I looked up at the sky, scouting my surroundings from time to time near the surface, where the light was as bright as day even though it was evening. Red and black balls began to fall from the red sky and hit the wards one after another. When I approached to check, I found that they were the same magic stones that the other demons had dropped. Due to the violence of MP, my job of watching the sky and eradicating enemies turned into a job of just collecting the magic stones while guarding the fire. In half a day, I was able to collect about 9,000 magic stones. When I returned to Soltia with a smile on my face, the adventurers who were guarding me came flying in. ...... Are you alright? I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that the sky was ablaze when you were there.¡¡I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. It''s probably my magic. I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but I think it''s a good idea. 89 Episode 88 Warehouse and Miniaturization "...... Are you really human? That''s rude. It''s just that I''m a little more serious now that I''ve reached S rank. It''s just that my first attempt at magic with a long duration worked better than I expected. What am I if not a human being? I''m just a normal human with a lot of magic. Obviously not a normal human. ...... I''m not sure I can speak for others, since this adventurer is also a former resident of Desibatore. I''m not sure what to make of this. The people of Desibatore are also insane in the eyes of ordinary people. It''s just like that. That''s what I''m talking about. ...... You seem to have been convinced. The rest is the work of the Chamber of Commerce and the local adventurers, so my job is done after giving the report. Normally, we should have had a party afterwards, but the residents had evacuated and there was no time for that, so we broke up. At this rate, the outbreak will not be too much of a burden for me. The only hassle is that I''ll be stuck here for almost a day. If I just cast a spell that lasts longer and go home, I can handle it in just the time it takes to get there and back, but I''m afraid of failure. While I was thinking about this, I arrived at Photoren. There''s something strange about ....... There are a lot of people here. Is there some kind of event going on? To find out, I entered the city through the gate and walked to the place where there were many people. Then, I began to understand the situation. It didn''t seem to be an event. I couldn''t see what was at the head of the line, but all the people lined up were merchants pulling carts and wagons. The line seemed to be moving slowly, but without stopping. There were many people in the line, but it seemed that the number of people in the line was not as large as it appeared from a distance, because it was stretched by the carts and wagons. Judging from the length of the line from afar, it would take less than an hour to get to the front, but I couldn''t bring myself to go that far just to see what was going on. If I went to the trade fair, I would at least know what was going on. So I left the line and headed for the Kaede Chamber of Commerce, but again my steps were blocked by the crowd. These people seemed to be ordinary people, not merchants. The line was still moving, but ...... at this rate, it would take me four or fifty minutes to reach the store. I briefly considered giving up the usual route and taking a side road, but the terrain of Photoren is rather complicated. Taking an unfamiliar path was not a wise choice. So, I decided to fly. Although it is not common in Photoren, which is close to Decibatore, there are some people who take shortcuts by flying. As I was flying, thinking that I should check the reason for the queue since we were going in the same direction anyway, I saw the head of the queue. Coincidentally, it was the same place as my destination - rather, it was the Kaede Chamber of Commerce. In the hands of the people leaving the business, there was a bag with something in it. I say "something," but I can only think of one cause. Sugar. I left for Soltia just as the sales were being set up, but I had no idea there was such a commotion. I couldn''t bring myself to go in through the main entrance, and the back door was full of employees coming and going, so I went upstairs through an open window. I could hear the noise from the first floor, but the second floor seemed to be relatively calm. It seems that a lot of work is being done at the site. Kaede Trading Company doesn''t only deal in sugar, and we don''t want the headquarters to be clogged up with sugar-related problems. Kaede, ......, where are you coming from? The back door was busy, and I couldn''t bring myself to go in through that front door. ...... But it looks like it''s a big deal. It''s a big deal. It''s tough because it''s just now starting to sell, but I think it will settle down once it''s spread to a certain extent. Well, I guess that''s what you get when you open a store that sells rare things. The line will not be as long as it is now. In fact, it would be annoying if it did. I saw the merchants'' line, too. Now that I think about it, there must have been a warehouse used for sugar production where the procession of merchants was headed. "Yeah. The Kaede Merchant Association is growing, but it''s not a large merchant association with sales channels all over the country. Besides, if we make too much money on our own, people will resent us. So it''s just right to spread the profits around. I don''t think it would be easy to assassinate me, but there could be other insidious methods besides targeting Mercia and using force. Do it. I''m afraid of incurring the wrath of the big merchants. I think the Kaede Chamber of Commerce is pretty well-liked by both the common people and the Chamber of Commerce at the moment. I think they''re running around pretty wild. ...... Are they well liked? I''m sure there are people who don''t think it''s funny that a recently established business association has grown to such a large scale in no time. "Yes. In the event that you have any kind of questions regarding where and how to use the internet, you can call us at the web site. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out how to get the best out of it. ...... And there''s no business association that would want to make enemies with you, Kaede. "...... me? It''s a good idea to take a look at the actual information on the web, as well as the information on the internet. I''d say that only a few percent of the countless merchant councils in the world have anything to do with me. I''m sure there are only a few out of countless merchant associations that have anything to do with me. ...... Incidentally, other than combat power, there are cases where the information is not accurate, but we leave it as it is because it is convenient. What kind of misunderstanding is that? ...... No, I kind of get it. If I heard a rumor that the owner of that merchant association burned down an area the size of a city in a few seconds without any prior knowledge, I wouldn''t think that the owner was mild-mannered at least. The only person who actually fought people, aside from bandits, was the son of a nobleman''s drummer, but it''s hard to imagine that rumors can convey that much. It would be nice if they would refrain from making enemies out of fear, but I''m not convinced. How about taking some kind of image strategy? For example, dashing into a town where demons have appeared, burning them down (of course), and smiling at the burning ground and burning demons behind you: ...... would be counterproductive. It''s not about combat power, it''s about waiting for your image to become normal through commerce. Apart from the current queue, is there anything else you''d like to change? We''d like to add a warehouse to handle sugar. Our budget is covered by the sales, but it''s a bit big, so I''m asking for Kaede''s permission. A warehouse. It may be a big investment, but looking at the sales of ...... Zunana grass and the sales of sugar, it doesn''t seem that big. I''m sure Mercia would not be reckless enough to leave this much to me. You can add one or two warehouses at your own discretion. ...... You say that as if there is something other than a business association. Yes. I''m not sure what to make of this. It''s not that they have a close relationship with the Tubai Chamber of Commerce, but they were one of the major merchants that participated in the creation of the artifact. I''m not sure if it''s related to the Tubai, but I believe it was one of the big merchants that participated in the creation of the artifact. Tubai is the city we stayed in on the way to Herrera from Ein, but the Tubai Chamber of Commerce is a remnant of their old headquarters, which is now in the city of Dry. "...... How? In the event that you''re not sure what you''re looking for, there are a few things you can do.¡¡For the three structures? Or perhaps you don''t think that the binding magic stone can be used for ...... I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but I think it''s a good idea. The details of the method have not been disclosed, but Catherine said that the magic tools department of the Tubai Trading Company is originally excellent, so it might have been a normal success. It seems that it wasn''t a bonding magic stone. However, if there are merchants that excel in simple processing techniques, should we consider collaborating with other merchants ......? I''m not going to monopolize bonding stones forever anyway, and I''m going to start selling them in the near future, even if I have to keep the process secret because of the problems of abuse. In the first place, the production of artifacts seems to be moving forward, but the ultimate goal is to create a magic freeze and create a system that can survive the appearance of dragons again and again. For that purpose, cooperating with a trustworthy merchant association was an option from the beginning. Well, it''s not too late to try the magic stone of Arktorrent. ...... Let''s just ask Catherine for more information. Technical matters are Catherine''s domain. Are there any more topics related to the Chamber of Commerce? "Yes, we can handle the rest on our own. I think Catherine is in the workshop. "Mm, ....... When I entered the workshop, Catherine was looking at the magic tools with a difficult look on her face. It''s a good idea to take a look at your own personal life. The size of the magic stone is not large, but considering what I heard earlier, it might be from the Tubai Trading Company. Is this the research of the Tubai Trading Company? That''s right, ......, Kaede? I''ve heard they''ve completed the three structures. Catherine''s seen it, so I thought I''d ask her about it. What''s it like, the triad at the Tubai Workshop? Well, the ...... itself isn''t very powerful. The output of the artifact itself is large enough to fool the average person, but the operation is unstable, like a magic tool made by a beginner. So you''re saying it''s no big deal? No. It''s unstable, but the technology used is probably very advanced. I''ve only seen it from a distance, so I can''t be exact, but I think they''ve shrunk the magical structure itself a bit. Miniaturization, you mean. If the technology becomes more stable, this could be a great weapon. I''m thinking of joint research. ...... What do you think? "There are things we can do independently now, so I think we should wait and see. I think it''s better to wait and see. If you show them the binding stone and ask them for help, they probably won''t refuse. If it''s ......, then I guess we''ll just have to wait and see. It''s hard to imagine that it''s too late, because the binding stone we have seems to be a very strong card. It''s hard to believe that it''s too late, unless someone else succeeds. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out how to use it. As he said this, he took out a few of the larger stones that had fallen from the outbreak. There will be more outbreaks in the future, and if these can be used for artifacts, then we can use them as much as we want. Catherine picked up one of the stones, looked at it, opened her eyes a little and put it on the desk. Then she picked up another one and looked surprised as well. When she had finished examining all the stones, she tilted her head slightly and said, "These are wonderful stones. It''s a wonderful magic stone. It has a lot of magic power, and I think it''s of the highest quality, except for the one from the sublongue. ...... Is this from a fire demon? Maybe not, but why? The quality is definitely great, but the attributes are too biased towards fire. I''ve never seen a magic stone like it. Most of the demons turned to ash before I could see them, so I can''t say that they aren''t fire demons, but I don''t remember seeing any fire demons. I''ve never seen a fire demon in my life. ...... Hmm?¡¡Fire? That''s the attribute I used to eradicate it. ...... 90 Episode 89 Water Droplets and Fire In fact, when I destroyed that demon, I took out the magic stone with fire magic that left no bones. Is there a connection? The other possibility is that the magic element already had the fire attribute when it was gathered, but there was no such description in the outbreak. It''s hard to say, because as far as I know, there is no precedent for the use of fire magic of such power. But considering that dragon''s breath turns earth into mithril, it''s not impossible. In the event that you''ve got a lot more than one of these, you''re going to need to have a lot more than one. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out why later, but can you use magic stones with attributes? I''ve never seen anything as strong as this, but basically you can use it. If you make a magic tool that is in line with the attribute it is imbued with, you can increase its output and extend its lifespan. ...... I''m not sure if there''s much of a difference,......, but it''s subtle. I''m not sure what to make of it. I''m not sure if you''ll be able to find the right one for you. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out what''s going to happen when you get to this point. ...... That''s what I was thinking. You can''t experiment in the city. We can''t experiment in the city. It would be a disaster if the building was burned down by the ignition device. No, not really, sir. Really? Fire magic generally has an image of creating havoc on a large scale. I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but I think it''s a good idea. In this case, it is water magic. In this case, it''s water magic. Oh, so magic with the opposite attribute is less powerful? I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out what you need to do. I said that and took out a relatively small magic stone and handed it to Catherine. Catherine looked at the stone for a moment and then nodded. I''m going to try ''running water'', which has no failures and the results are easy to understand. Then I''ll try ''running water'', which is easy to see the result without failure." Catherine said, and turned the magic stone into a magic tool. The fact that it was easy seemed to be true, and Catherine finished turning it into a magical artifact in a few tens of seconds, without concentrating as she did when she was making the artifact. She placed the pots and pans she had on her desk and was ready to experiment. If it''s a magic stone of this size, it should fill up the pot in about 20 seconds. ...... I''ll start it up anyway. Catherine said, and lifted the magic stone on the pot. However, no water came out at all. Oh, so she''s waiting for me to tell her what to do. When you''re ready, you can start it up. No, it''s already up and running. ...... I''m already up and running. You can''t even measure the effect of attributes from the amount of water that is produced. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. I''m not sure what to make of it, but I''m sure it''s worth it. ...... No way. I''m sure you''ve heard of it. Catherine and I stared at the magic stone for about ten seconds. The second drop fell into the pot. "Is this the effect of the attribute? I''m not sure what else to make of it, but ...... it seems to be far more potent than it looks. If you make an explosive magic tool, you might be able to destroy half the castle with one. That''s scary. If you go that far, you''ll have a problem finding a use for it. At any rate, explosions are out of the question. For now, explosions are out of the question. They''re not directional and their attack range is too wide, so they can only be used for suicide attacks on demon territory. If you try to use it to defend a town, it will blow up the town you are defending. If it''s a flamethrower, it could be used as a battle magic tool. Well, it''s true that it could be used if it''s directional. The problem is that it''s a little too big, but the fact that it''s so powerful should be welcomed. If you can make good use of that much power, it will be much easier to repel large-scale attacks by demons. But who''s going to buy such a thing? I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that will help you out. A large scale merchant ...... is like a purveyor. There were a lot of magic tools used in Decibatore, so it could be a large-scale merchant that deals in such weapons. It would be difficult to have a sales channel unless it is a large and trustworthy business association like the one gathered during the Dragon War. The Kaede Chamber of Commerce is too young, so it would be a problem before the scale. However, is there any chance that we can sell our products to such a large merchant association? Let''s just go to the sea and see how powerful it is. Can you make a ''flamethrower'' or something? Yes, you can. It will take longer than "running water", so please wait a bit. ...... This is how the experiment of "flame-throwing" using fire magic stones came to be conducted. I borrowed a little boat for transporting Zunana grass (I carried the Zunana grass for that), loaded up Catherine and other magic tool related technicians who had somehow increased in number, and headed out into the deserted waters. Since this was only an experiment within the trading community, as soon as the safety was confirmed, I picked up the magic tools and started the experiment. When I activated the magic tool, flames came out from a distance from the magic stone. The flames were about 20 meters long, with a maximum thickness of 5 meters. The directionality of the flames seemed to be moderate, and while they were not at a level where an average person could hold them with their bare hands, they could be handled if a long handle was attached. If you don''t think about the cost, it''s a pretty good piece of equipment. There was a cheer from the ship. Seeing that the flames were stable, the ship slowly began to circle the flames. The purpose of this was to collect detailed data on the performance of the special equipment, as it was necessary to sell it. Ten minutes passed, and when the ship was about to go around the flame, the magic tool ran out of magic power and the flame went out. I made sure of that, took the tool, and returned to the ship. I thought it looked pretty good. What do you think? "I think it''s the best flamethrower ever made. It''s amazing! If it''s only about firepower, it surpasses a B-rank mid-level wizard. It seems to be well received by the engineers. I don''t care if I''m using it, it looks powerful enough to be used for defense. ...... At this point, one of the artisans muttered something significant. "This isn''t an artifact, it''s a regular ''flamethrower'', right? All the eyes in the room focused on the craftsman who mumbled something disturbing. I''m not sure what to make of this. ...... looks very interesting. Fortunately, there are no people in the vicinity, and unless you sink the ship, there will be no damage from the experiment. You''ll be able to get a lot more than just a few of them. I''m sure the blue flame will do the trick. Catherine asks me with a happy expression on her face. I don''t care, go ahead. With all the attention around her, Catherine turns the magic stone into an artifact. We all looked at each other expectantly for about ten minutes. Finally, the artifact is complete. "I''m going to do some experiments, but don''t get too close to ......, okay? "I know. Safe travels, Kaede. The artisans of the Kaede Trade know about my power, and none of them seem to be seriously concerned. They''re pretending to be serious and praying for my safety, but their faces are clearly smiling. It''s like they''re in a bad mood. As I leave the ship and get some distance away, the ship turns around and starts to take a position where it can leave at any time. I can hear them laughing from time to time, but they seem to have a sense of safety. When I was sure that I was far enough away from the engineers coming out of the back of the ship, I activated my magic tool. An extremely thick blue flame spewed out from the magic tool. It was over forty meters long and nearly seven meters thick. The stability and directionality of the flame seems to be stronger than that of the "flamethrower", and the flame does not leak out to us, but the hot air is transmitted to us. After a moment''s delay, the sound of seawater evaporating echoes, and more intense heat rushes in. In addition, the air expanded by the heat almost swept me away, and I quickly used magic to control my position. After enduring a few seconds of activation, the situation stabilized. The cheers from the ship can be heard up here. The firepower of this weapon is more like a degraded version of the Sublime Dragon''s Breath than an enhanced version of a magic tool, so it''s no wonder the engineers are overjoyed. With it, they could have cut down the Decibatore tree without me. It''s a pity that the requests for large scale felling have disappeared with the securing of Brokens. It''s also useful for combat, in case a large number of demons suddenly attacked. ......? If you think about it, even if it is directional and doesn''t cause damage to the sides or back, not many people would be willing to unleash this much firepower near a city. In the first place, no matter how many handles you put on it, activating it without magic armor is just suicide. ...... What are you going to use this for? 91 Episode 90 Battery and Company It''s good that it has high firepower, but the firepower is so high that I can''t find a use for it. Since it is an artifact, it is difficult to fine-tune its power, and if you reduce its power by forcing it to bond with magic stones, the strength of this magic tool will be lost. If that''s the case, "Flamethrower" is good enough. If you make a robot, you can use it without worry. ...... There is no such thing as a humanoid battle robot in this world, or even in Earth technology. For now, let''s go back to the ship and discuss it. I''m not sure what to make of that.¡¡What about the recoil? I''m not sure if I''m going to be able to do this, but I''m sure I''ll be able to do it. I''m sure she hasn''t seen the aftermath of the magic tool. "It''s impossible to put it to practical use like that. I mean, the blast and heat would have killed you if you weren''t a high ranking adventurer. Even for those high-ranked adventurers, only adventurers with high defense would be able to survive unscathed. Unless they had magic armor or similar magic, they would probably die instantly. Aside from the blast, there''s nothing you can do about the heat in the flesh. Is it really that bad? "How can it not be terrible when flames like that are burning right in front of you? Besides, I was almost blown away by the blast right after it started. In terms of safety, a suicide plane without fuel for the return flight is still better. I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. I''m glad you understand. "Well, that''s only if you use it by itself. If you add a mechanism to protect yourself from the aftermath, you can use it. It doesn''t have to be a robot, it just has to be able to protect itself from the heat and blast generated by this magic tool. It''s not hard to find a way to use the magic tool for that purpose,....... Even on Earth, there are weapons that cannot withstand the aftermath in the flesh. The aftermath. ...... Magic tools that cool space are difficult to control. I think it''s hard to use it to protect yourself. There are no existing ...... magic tools that can do that. And warding spells will not be able to withstand it. By the way, most of the magic tools I''ve seen so far are offensive, and I don''t remember seeing many defensive ones. If the warding system was that powerful, it would have been used by now. Artifacts also start with six structures, I believe. Using 6 structures to protect yourself from an artifact with 2 structures is a bit ...... questionable. In the first place, due to the magic stone binding, the power is reduced to a few tenths. I thought for a while about a better way, and came up with a more realistic way. "Well, how about combining physics and magic? "Combine physics and magic with ......? Yes. Isn''t there an artifact that fixes the position of an object in the air? Yeah, it had two structures. I think it was called "fixed point support" or something like that. It''s not weak, but it''s an artifact that was thought to be of little use because it only lasts about thirty minutes compared to the cost of a two-structure artifact. But for recoil suppression, even a tenth of that is more than enough. You can use it to hold a large piece of mithril armor in place. As for the heat, we can cool the armor with magic tools. Metal lizard metal might be ideal, but it would be too expensive. On the other hand, mithril, which is now being mass-produced by coke, can be kept within a realistic price range. The function of the armor can be enhanced with magic tools? There are plenty of mithril. I''ve got plenty of mithril. Three days later. Three days later, after much trial and error, a new weapon using combined physical and magical armor was completed. The reason it was completed so quickly was probably due to the fact that the mithril could be shaped in a short period of time, thanks to the use of shipbuilding artifacts. The final form of the weapon was a hemispherical shelter with a magically adjustable barrel. It is a powerful piece of equipment with the durability to withstand a rush by a Gargon and the firepower to burn up a half-hearted demon in an instant. What is the use of ......? It''s a good thing we made it on the spur of the moment, but ...... we were faced with the problem of not knowing what to do with it again. It is a powerful weapon, but who would buy such a thing? If it was before we defeated the dragon, there would be no need to build such a sturdy defensive position now that the situation is stable. The only Brokens that might need it are the ones I can fly to at any time. The only Brokens that might need this are in places I can fly to at any time. ...... I was told that someone from the Kononsa Trading Company would be coming to take a look, so he might be able to ...... come up with something. I guess we''ll have to hope for that. It''s a good idea to take a look at the website to see if you can find any useful information. The "flamethrower" with attributes is quite practical, so we asked them to come and take a look. Just as we were talking about this, we heard a knock at the door. It seems that Mercia has brought someone from the Kononsa Trading Company. It''s a nice ship. It''s been a long time since I''ve seen such a fine ship. An hour or so later, our ship was on its way to an uninhabited island for experiments, carrying Mr. Intaizee, who was in charge of the Kononsa Trading Company. Mr. Intaizee seemed to like the speed and stability of the Zunana grass transport ship, and his face beamed. Now that mithril is cheap, it''s probably easier to build a ship of this size. It''s true that we''ve been building more ships since coke came out,......, but the operating costs for a ship of this size are not insignificant. There are not many things that cost that much to transport. Operating costs ...... Ah, magic power. I''m not sure what to make of it. I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. ...Oh, they''ve arrived. While we were chatting, we arrived at the destination island. The island has been used for artifact experiments, so it''s burned and pitted here and there, but there are still some parts that are intact and some trees (which look like palms) that are still growing. Incidentally, when it is used up, it will be put to good use as a production site for zunana grass. So, let''s start the experiment right away. The area is safe, so please don''t worry about it. The moderator is Catherine. It could have been Mercia, but ...... Catherine is in charge of the magic tools. I put the green wolf cage on the ground and set up the magic tool right in front of it. The target is a tree that originally grew on this island. It was decided that the fire-sensitive green wolf would be the best test to see if the aftermath could be contained. Incidentally, the method of preparation was quite simple: I forcibly grabbed it, pushed it into a cage, and closed the lid. Let''s start with the ''flamethrower''. The reason why the name is changed is because this magic tool is so far removed from the common ''flamethrower''. It''s not that I''m hiding it. It''s not that I''m hiding it, but I''ve already told you that the magic tool I''m going to show you is one that uses magic stones with attributes. When I activate the "Flamethrower", huge flames will come out of the magic stone. The palm tree that was used as a target to demonstrate the power of the gun burned down in about 10 seconds and slowly collapsed. The palm tree used as a target to demonstrate the power of the magic stone burst into flames in about 10 seconds and slowly collapsed.¡¡It''s so powerful! Of course, the green wolf that was placed underneath the flamethrower is still flailing about in its cage. Of course, the green wolf placed under the flamethrower is still running wild in its cage, proving that there is no significant aftermath. "What do you think? Will it sell? I''m sure you''ll be able to find a lot of people who''d like to buy one of these. ...... If the price is 100 times higher than the usual magic stone, I''d like to buy quite a few. ...... A hundred times! In the event that you have any questions concerning where and how to use the internet, you can call us at the web site. You''re kidding, right? When I asked him that, he laughed and replied. It''s not a joke. For example, you''ve encountered a Metal Lizard before in a weak guild town, right? You know ...... very well. I''m sure the guild hid that case from you. ...... Large scale merchants are scary. It''s not just the size, but also the fact that they deal in weapons. I''m not sure what to make of it. I''m not sure that Ayn''s budget will allow for it, but it would make a big difference if it was around Tubai.¡¡You can''t do the same thing with a hundred ordinary magic tools. So you''re putting it in a town where the adventurers aren''t as strong, just to be prepared. The cost is almost the same as regular grimoires, so it''s almost like a rip-off. ...... If it''s too cheap, it''ll take away adventurers'' jobs. I don''t have a choice. It''s an unavoidable rip-off. "Mercia, do you think that''s enough? I don''t know much about this industry, so I''ll check with Mercia. It''s not a good idea to show your lack of knowledge in front of the person you''re discussing business with. ...... The person you''re discussing business with will know that you''re just an adventurer, so it''s a little late for that. It''s not a bad idea for us. I''m not sure what to make of it. Please negotiate with this Mercia for details. ...... And one more thing, there is a magic tool that I finished today. ...... Would you like to see it? I''m referring, of course, to the attributed artifact that I have no idea what to do with. The name given to it during development was ''Super Flamethrower''. I''d love to see it. "Well, it''s very powerful, so we''ll have to ward it off just in case. As I say this, I double-activate the warding spell that covers the ship and the other participants. Only the archers can be protected from the aftermath by armor. I''m not sure what to make of this. In the event you''re not sure what you''re looking for, there are a few things you can do. After that, I did a thorough safety check and, just to be safe, I reattached the double warding to the triple warding. Let''s go! I activate my "super flame turret" and use acceleration magic to offset the fact that I am about to be blown away. Even the aftermath of heat surpasses the powerful explosion of this magic tool. The effect is so great that not only the tree that was the target, but even the palm tree that was out of the line of fire is blown away with a cloud of dust. After the smoke cleared, all that remained was a crater around the magic tool and a straight line of charred ......, or ashen, trees and underbrush that ran the length of the island. I''m not sure what to say about this,......, but it''s tremendous. This is the first time I''ve ever seen such a thing. If it''s this powerful, it''s probably too much for an arms dealer to handle. You can change the direction of the shot. You can also change the direction of fire. I open the cold armor of the turret and take out the safe green wolf from inside. The safety of the man inside is intact, though. "Even as I was building the ......, I had a sneaking suspicion that it would be useless, but guess what? Well, better late than never. I decided to ask him if I could use it. But Mr. Intiese denied it with all his might. It''s useless!¡¡No way!¡¡There''s more to this magic tool than a flaming cannon!¡¡There''s a perfect use for it! Is there a ......? You''re not going to destroy some country, are you? 92 Episode 91 Resurrection and Orihalcon "What is the use? I asked, hoping that he wouldn''t say something like "destroying neighboring countries". But Mr. Intiaze''s answer was completely unexpected. "Have you ever heard of the metal orichalcone? Orihalcon. It''s probably one of the most famous metals in fantasy. In general, it ranks higher than mithril, and is considered a rare and expensive metal. But in this world, I''ve never even heard of it, let alone seen it. I wonder why that name comes up here. "I know the name, but I''ve never seen ....... "I''m sure there are few people who have seen it. The only existing orichalcon in Japan is used in a dagger that is a national treasure. There are not many people who even know its name. I''m not sure what to make of it, but I think it''s a good idea. "Like mithril, it''s refined. I can''t think of any other reason why a flame like that would be required for metal. I don''t know how it works, but it seems that magical metals are difficult to refine. That''s true. Refining orichalcone requires a tremendous amount of firepower. It might be possible to do so with that magic tool. Using that violent firepower for refining?¡¡It seems endlessly dangerous. ...... Isn''t that pushing it too far? That''s where the engineers come in. We can''t make this kind of magic tools, but making devices to utilize them is our specialty. I''ll take care of it. The Kaede Chamber of Commerce does not specialize in making machines. We don''t have any know-how or experience, but we just had the materials and ideas, so we forced ourselves to make them. It''s not surprising that they have the power to control dangerous things, since they are a merchant association that deals with magic tools for battle. It''s a great idea, but it''s not the only way. I''ve never seen a magic tool that can produce firepower comparable to this. If you throw it into lava, it might reach a certain temperature, but it would be difficult to extract the metal with it. The most common method is to apply the ore to a sublime dragon''s bracelet. You can only make a few grams in a short amount of time, but it''s the most efficient way. ...... This was an unexpectedly violent method. If you can make a pet sub-dragon, you can make a target, but I''ve never heard of such a thing. In other words, he must have thrown the ore into the air during the battle, where the dragons'' breaths could reach. I felt I understood why the orichalcon was not used. Is there a more gentle way? There is a way to put the ore on top of a pile of magic stones and cover the surrounding area with hundreds of flame mages, heating them all at once. This method is not very powerful, and only about 0.5 grams of ore can be produced with 300 magic tools, but it is a safe way to produce orichalcon. ...... These are the only two methods that have been put to practical use. It was even crazier than I expected. I don''t know how you made the dagger. The reason why they pile up magic stones to make a foundation is because they can''t make a foundation that can withstand that much firepower for a long time by any other method. Even when the demons were obliterated by the fire, only the magic stones remained unchanged. So this firepower may not be in vain. Yes, that''s right. Of course it can be used for cultivation, but I think Orihalcon is more important. It can also be used for cultivation. You can use it for cultivation, but I think it''s more important. Well, they are probably left untouched for a reason. By the way, what kind of metal is this orichalcon? It''s the strongest metal there is. The dagger, a national treasure, has a blade only about 0.5 mm thick, but it is said to have sliced through a dragon without spilling a single blade. ...... The dagger itself is too small to do any effective damage, though. It will be interesting to see if it can be mass produced. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that works for you.¡¡If you can refine it, we can make a weapon for you. "Of course I''ll sell it to you. I''m sure you can. ...... I''m sure you''ll be able to deal with the Kononsa Trading Company. The government doesn''t seem to want to interfere too much with Kaede Merchant Association. Is that so? "There was a time long ago when adventurers who achieved great things were involved in politics, but nothing good ever happened to them. Since then, it is said that the nobility and the state have avoided any direct contact with adventurers. Does this ring any bells? ...... Now that you mention it, I''ve never met anyone who could really be called a national figure, even when I''ve been involved in national disturbances. I think there was always something between me and the country, whether it was a guild or another business association. I hadn''t really wondered if it was because they wanted to prevent me from getting involved in politics. Some people think that your case is fine, but conventions are hard to change. But conventions are hard to change, and I can''t say that there won''t be unavoidable circumstances. If possible, I hope such a thing will never happen. The country, the nobility, and so on seem to be a pain in the ass. The nobles in particular give me the worst impression, since I can only remember Radomkos. As for me, I don''t want to get involved. Politics and all that. I''m sure the people of the country will be relieved to hear that. "Well, if you get a chance, I''d appreciate it if you''d let them know. It''s not good for an amateur to get involved in politics. It''s best for the country and for me to stay out of it. Yes, ma''am. I''ll let them know. By the way, can we start discussing the details of the purchase? Of course not. I''m not going to participate in that because it''s Mercia''s job. Is there anything else? There are many places where you can''t make a field. There are a lot of places where you can''t grow crops, but many of them are due to lack of water. Water Magic: ...... I think I''ll give it a try. After seeing the ship off back to the harbor, I headed back to the island alone. Of course, it''s to see if I can''t get some attribute other than fire onto the magic stone. The way to determine whether or not an attribute has been added is by appraising it. I didn''t notice it because I don''t usually appraise magic stones, but it seems that magic stones with attributes can be identified by appraisal. First, prepare a powerful water magic. The power of the water, which has a diameter of about 30 centimeters, about the same as the magic stone, is gradually increased. "......, that''s about right. Try hitting a nearby tree with water that has been increased in power. With a thud or a crack, the part of the tree that the water hit disappears. After that, the remaining part of the tree fell down like a falling doll, and was blown away by the continuing spray of water. The power was probably sufficient. I fixed the magic stone with a warding spell to prevent it from blowing away, and hit it with the completed water magic. After about 30 seconds of spraying, the water overflowing from the warding reached my feet. As I looked, I saw that the poor island that had been burned, blown up, and blown away was now going to be washed off the surface by the water. I felt sorry for it, so I stopped spraying water and flew over the muddy ground with my magic to collect the magic stone. It might have been better to do it on the sea. However, despite all the efforts of ......, there was no attribute on the magic stone. I kind of expected that. With the current magic, the amount of water would increase along with the magic power. In other words, the concentration of magic power (or magic elements, but I can''t tell the difference) in the water does not change. Water is a liquid, and its volume is almost unchanged. This is the crucial difference between fire magic and water magic. Because the volume of water increases with magic power, the density does not increase. How about wasting your magic power on ......? If you imagine the amount of water in a tap while releasing enough magic power to make such a release of water, you can create water with a high density of ...... magic power. Let''s give it a try. It would be a pity to do it on an island, so I''ll move above the sea and activate the magic. It''s really just a faucet, so there''s no need to use warding magic. While wasting magic power, I poured water on the magic stone. And after about ten seconds have passed. "...... is ready. The magic stone now has the water attribute. Now you know that you can add attributes other than fire. I looked at the list of my skills to see what I should try next. I can''t help but be curious about the words ...... "Recovery Magic". I wondered what would happen if I enhanced this spell. It sounds interesting, but there is one problem. Restoration magic doesn''t have any magic tools. However, when I went through the item box, I found something that seemed to have potential. It was a potion made from the extract of Zunana plant. A potion made from a grass that grows in places with a lot of magical elements, it has an immediate and uncommon effect. It is extremely likely that it has some kind of magical element to it. It should be worth a try. Hold the container of the potion with the lid open in your hand and cast a recovery spell at the potion with almost all your might. Then the potion begins to glow. I don''t remember using any light magic. Something strange is happening. You stop the spell and appraise the potion that is still glowing faintly after you stop the spell. The result says something like "restores 350,000 HP" or some such nonsense. That''s strange. I think something is wrong. Like, mainly the digits. For example, the order of magnitude is wrong. The HP of a Sublime Dragon can heal an entire body, and a Gargon can heal a thousand. I can only say that you are crazy. Anyway, it''s important to try it out to see how well it works. I left the Green Wolf I used for the experiment at the Chamber of Commerce, so I flew to the demon realm. Just as I landed, I spotted Galden. "Is this the right one? I approached him from above without being noticed, and swung my magic sword down while appraising him. With a crisp sound, Galden''s head falls off. His HP is instantly blown off, and he is reduced to zero. I quickly sprinkle the potion I just gave him on it. I wait for a few seconds. ...... A new head sprouts out of Galden''s supposedly zero HP. 93 Episode 92 Resuscitation and Granting ...... What the hell is this? Galden''s head sprouts out and he jumps at me. I was puzzled as I repelled it with my magic armor. The original head of Galden had indeed fallen to the ground, but another head was growing out of it. I don''t think there was much material in Galden''s head,...... but if it can be used by other creatures, it would be possible to recover an infinite amount of material by chopping off heads, applying medicine to them, chopping them off, regenerating them,...... and so on. In the case of Galden, the head was cut off and drugged. In Galden''s case, the body is a better material than the neck. So I sprinkled the potion on Galden''s neck to see if I could regenerate it. ...... did not regenerate. "Not fresh enough? Crunch. I cut off the head of the Galden that jumped at me again and quickly poured medicine on it. But it didn''t regrow. It doesn''t seem to be planarianizing. In the human sense, if one of them regenerates, it is the head. Then, what is it in the case of demons? A part of the body, not the brain, that could be the main body is ...... It may be the heart or a magic stone. I don''t know where the heart of a demon is, so I''ll assume it''s a demon stone and give it a try. Crack, crack. With a "crunch, crunch, crunch" sound, I cut Galden into three pieces, leaving the magic stone in the smallest part in the center. Then, I was going to apply the potion to both of the cut surfaces. ...... Oops. The recovery power of this potion was beyond my imagination. Just by applying the potion to one side, almost the entire body of Galden had grown back. Apparently, the standard for regeneration is the magic stone. If I split the magic stone in two, wouldn''t two Galden be born? Crack. Poor Galden receives his fifth fatal wound of the day. This time, only half of the magic stone remains in each half of his body. It seems that no matter how many magic swords you use, you can''t easily cut magic stones, and the cut surface is a little rough, but ...... it''s okay. You''ll be able to get a lot more than just a few. The ...... body has grown back. You did it!¡¡You''ve got more Galden! Galden has unexpectedly turned into a planarian. However, upon closer inspection, this regeneration is a little different. The resurrected Galden was smaller than the original one. When I cut one of them again, I found that the magic stone had not regenerated, and that the regenerated Galden had a hemispherical magic stone. Checking the status, he cut more magic stones to make a quarter magic stone. This time, Galden was so weak that it was clearly visible at a glance. It was stronger than Green Wolf, but much weaker than Gargon. Furthermore, its name had been changed from "Galden" to "Lesser Galden". Apparently, when the magic stone gets smaller, even the name deteriorates. But isn''t this deterioration an opportunity, depending on how you look at it? The reason why the demons in the demon realm couldn''t be eaten as they were was because they had too much magical element. But I don''t think this little monster has that much magical energy. If this thing can be eaten as is, then this attribute-giving potion can be used for mass production of food. If there were any ethical or animal rights groups in this world, they would be furious, but there are no such groups in this world. If you cut off all but the magic stone, put a drop of medicine on it, and then cut off all but the magic stone and make a device called ......, it is an automatic meat producer. For now, I''ll think about the device when I get back to the merchants'' association, and continue with the experiment. If a demon that has left a demon stone can be regenerated, then it should be possible to create a demon from the demon stone in the item box. Thinking this, I searched the item box a bit. The first thing I saw was a dragon''s magic stone. No, no, no, no. The small one might be easy to kill, but it would be a disaster if I failed. Furthermore, the dragon had so much HP that even if I used all the medicine I had, there was a good chance it wouldn''t be enough. For the same reason, dragons are no good. After thinking about it for a while, I came up with the Metal Lizard. It is rare to find a demon with such a high demand for materials. In addition, since it relied on armor and had little HP, it would only need a drop of medicine. I sprinkled the potion on the magic stone with high hopes. Then I jumped backwards in preparation for the large body to regenerate. ...... doesn''t regenerate. I wondered if the demon in the item box would not regenerate. A little discouraged, I took out some safe looking magic stones and sprinkled some medicine on them. Then, demons came out of some of them. Two out of three of Gargon''s magic stones and one out of two Green Wolves were successfully regenerated. When you think about it, the other demons took out the magic stones in the usual way, while the Metal Lizard took out the stones by burning everything but the armor. It is a common practice in games to have a time limit for resuscitation. The problem may be the time between the demon''s death and the time it is put into the item box. When I thought about it and tried it out, I found out that my hypothesis was correct. A demon that has been killed for a long time cannot be regenerated. The border is about two minutes. The border is about two minutes. ...... Now that you''ve tried everything you can safely try alone, I hope you''ve tried everything you can safely try alone. Kill the regenerated demon, and look at the item box while storing the demon. Other than dragons, dragons, and metal lizards, I found some interesting magic stones at ....... It''s a magic stone with attributes added by my magic. I''ll have to try this. But all the magic stones I''ve made so far have taken a long time to make. So first I''ll fly up into the sky and regenerate a green wolf from the magic stone. I''m going to cast compressed fire magic on it and burn it up in an instant. I used the green wolf because it''s relatively safe if something happens to me. Even if it''s enhanced, it''s still just a green wolf. It''s nothing to be afraid of. Thinking that, I regenerated a demon from a magical stone, but then I realized that I was wrong. The creature that regenerated was not a green wolf. "...... Fire Wolf? The demon that appeared was not a Green Wolf, but a Fire Wolf. It was not a Red Wolf. It''s status is closer to Gargon than Green Wolf. In a normal town, it would be a very powerful demon. Its fur is on fire, but the fire wolf itself seems to be undamaged. The fire wolf was right in front of me, threatening me. ...... It fell and crashed into the ground. That''s right. It was not on the ground that the fire wolf regenerated, but in the air above the demon''s domain. The fallen fire wolf seemed to have survived with its enhanced status, but its legs were broken and it seemed to be losing its breath. I want to see what it''s made of, so I''ll give it a quick death blow. As soon as the fire wolf dies, the flames that covered its body are extinguished. But the fur that remained afterwards was clearly of a higher quality than that of the green wolf. If you took it to an armorer, you could probably sell it for a good price. At last, he had created a powerful new kind of demon. If we do the same thing with metal lizards and the like, it will be even more interesting. Sublong and dragons are out of ...... question. However, the magic stone, this potion, and other magical attributes seem to be a dangerous technology. Should we seal it off? No, that''s not true. The people of this world will probably have to fight dragons again and again as long as they maintain their civilization. Even the ancient civilizations that developed many powerful artifacts were probably defeated and destroyed by the dragons. Instead, we should apply this technology to increase our strength. I''m not saying that ...... can handle all the dragons that come along, but I would like to defeat at least one of them. With this technology, it would not be impossible. Attribute magic stones are also essential for the development of the "Magic Freeze". Anyway, let''s focus on the immediate problem. It''s a good idea to try fire wolf fur, but the original green wolf is a bit dull. As for the armor, the material of the green wolf is only suitable for beginners. I would like to experiment with a demon of the level of Gargon, which can be found at ...... for intermediate players. Even if Gargon is slightly strengthened, it will not be as strong as Sublong. So, the method is the same as with Green Wolf. I jumped up into the air, burned Gargon, and poured a potion on its magical stone to revive it. As expected, the Gargon appears, its body ablaze. His name is "Flame Gargon". I thought it was Fire. Like the Fire Wolf, the Flame Gargon that emerged from the magic stone was pulled down by gravity and landed with a crash. However, the Flame Gargon did not seem to have taken any damage. It seems that the materials used for the Green Wolf and the Gargon are different. I wanted to see what the demon born from the Attribute Demon Stone was capable of, so I didn''t kill it right away, but invited it to attack me. The name change didn''t change the fact that it was a simple demon. Come on! I don''t avoid it, but take a stance to catch it. When Flame Gargon saw that, he said. "Gaaaaaaaaaaa! The Flame Gargon saw this and slowed down with a roar that you wouldn''t expect from a Gargon. ...... The Flame Gargon slowed down with an uncharacteristic roar of "Gaaaahhh! Hey, I thought you were going to rush me. 94 Episode 93 Fur and Tower It was fast enough to dodge, but it didn''t look like it needed to be dodged. To see how much firepower the Flame Gargon had, I used my magic armor to catch it. The flames enveloped me and my vision turned red, but as expected, the breath was not powerful enough to damage me or give me a sense of danger. I don''t feel my armor being cut off like I did when I was hit by the Sublime Dragon''s breath. But the trees that were caught in it didn''t seem to be so bad. Behind me, I could hear the crackling sound of moisture exploding in the trees, and the sound of branches breaking. When I turned around, I saw that two trees had almost fallen and were leaning against the next tree. The area of the breath was unexpectedly wide, and there seemed to be more than a dozen trees caught in it,......, but only two of them had fallen, and the rest seemed to have only carbonized the surface. However, it was also quite powerful. It''s just that it looks weak compared to the breath of a sublime dragon that burns through trees as soon as it hits the ground, or a dragon that can reduce a percentage of the continent to ashes in an instant. The trees here are strong enough that the fire magic I was able to use when I first came to Decibatore was no match for them, and I had to develop a way to focus the explosion magic with warding magic. To carbonize the surface of this tree would mean that it is spreading more power over a wider area than the fire magic I used back then. At the very least, it''s not at the level where you can just hand someone a magic stone and a recovery potion and say, ''Go collect materials by defeating it over and over again while reviving it. Now I kind of understand the strength of Flame Gargon. It''s probably a B-rank. A few adventurers from Decibatore could take it on. Now, in order to check the level of the materials, I drop its head and take out the magic stone. The magic stone, of course, goes to the item box while it''s still fresh. "...... won''t go away. I can understand why a living Flame Gargon would be engulfed in flames. It''s the type of thing you see sometimes in games. But the corpse in front of me is still burning, even though it''s been dead for tens of seconds. Thinking that it was an optical illusion or something, I threw in a tree branch from the item box. The branch then bursts into flames, making a crackling sound. Apparently, the flames are not just for show. Suddenly, you put the corpse in the item box. When I took it out again, the fur flames were gone. I''m only a novice when it comes to furs, but I can tell the quality of this fur. It has a different luster. The fur is sturdy yet supple at the same time. It may be that only the skin is used as a material, but it is unlikely that the skin will be useless if the hair is of this quality. The problem is that it doesn''t burn,......, and even if I were to lighten the fire magic, the fur would not catch fire. If you put a little more magic into it, it will ignite, but it''s not as flammable as most furs. That''s an acceptable score. I''ll report this result to Mercia. I have other uses for the firewolf. "So, ......, we have a strong healing potion and a special demon. What do you mean, "......"? When I finished my explanation, Mercia gave me a dumbfounded look. I''m not sure what to make of it, but I''m sure there''s a hint of fun in it. I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but it''s a good idea. Without knowing the quality of the product, I can''t say for sure. I don''t think you can tell the effect of the potion just by looking at it, but ...... here it is. Here it is. ...... It''s kind of shiny. It''s glowing, isn''t it? I''m not sure if this is a good idea, but I think it''s a good idea. I''m not an expert in this kind of experimentation, so can I ask the Medicine Man''s Guild to test it on humans?¡¡I''m sure they''ve got the know-how to do it. ...... Are you going to use this on humans? You''re not going to use it? To be honest, I hadn''t really thought of that. Even the drug it was made from was more than enough to heal a human. Isn''t it going to be weird? "From what I''ve heard, there''s no one else who can make this medicine but you, Kaede. If anyone tries to use it in a strange way, we can just stop selling it. Hmmm. ...... Considering that a single drop can regenerate a demon, it seems that you can do a lot of evil just by securing it before you are discovered. If you bring in a set of dragons'' magic stones and medicines, for example, you might be able to destroy a whole city with just those medicines. It may be called a restorative potion, but it is like a biological weapon. It would be difficult to gather enough fresh magic stones from powerful demons, an item box to store them, and enough medicine to replenish millions of HP, but when you consider the power ...... or rather the intimidating effect of gathering them, you cannot be optimistic. There seems to be very little conflict between humans in this world, but I don''t know if that will last if just one random item box owner can make a sub-dragon appear all over town. Now that we already have a drug that can almost certainly cure humans, the risk is too great to justify the return. No, let''s not do that. Depending on how you use it, you could call down dragons all over town. It''s too dangerous. "...... Sure, it can bring back even sub dragons if it''s not good. I''m not sure if it''s worth the cost to call up a demon and defeat it. In the meantime, can you show me the materials you got? "Oh. Is it safe to leave it here? Mercia was in one of the merchant''s warehouses. I don''t see anything that needs to be sanitized, but I''ll check. "It''s fine. There are only a handful of facilities related to the Apothecary''s Guild where fresh demons are not allowed. And this is just a warehouse. That''s the world we live in, isn''t it? In the Earth sense, pharmaceutical facilities would require special clothing to enter. "This is the Fire Wolf, and this is the Flame Gargon. I place the two corpses on the ground, and Mercia bends down to observe them. Apparently, Mercia has some knowledge about fur. ...... The Flame Gargon is amazing. I''ve seen Rapid Bear fur once, and it''s probably better than that. "Rapid Bear? In Japanese, it means a fast bear. I wonder if it can get good fur. It''s a B-ranked bear, which means it''s one of the best fur-bearing bears you can find. Of course, the quality of the fur is the best I''ve seen. ...... No, it wasn''t. B rank. I''m not sure what to make of it. In the event that you''ve got a problem, you''ll be able to contact us at any time. Well, this one seems to be difficult to mass produce. What about the wolf? "If you look at the fur alone, it''s a C-rank high. It''s going to be relatively expensive just because it doesn''t have any extra scars on its body. ...... Hiring adventurers to take it down is not going to work. If you''re not sure what to do, you can always try to find a way to get the best results. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out how to do it. I''m not sure what to make of it. And it''s got flames all over it. If you try to kill it by ordinary means, there is a high possibility that you won''t be able to defeat it cleanly. There''s already a way to deal with it. Or rather, it''s the same method we used to defeat this thing. "The same ......?¡¡I''m sure you''re not the only one who can''t handle your sword, right? If you ask me, I didn''t even explain how I defeated the Fire Wolf. Well, I''ll explain it now. The first thing to do is to prepare a tower of some height and a cage made of metal lizard metal, right? ...... No way. Mercia''s face changes from understanding to surprise. It''s a good idea to have a fire wolf in the cage and let it crash into the ground. If it doesn''t have legs, it can''t get out of control. Drop its head, take out the magic stone, and the rest is an endless loop. The hint may have come from a game that existed on Earth, as well as how to defeat the Fire Wolf. In that game, there was a demon tower that would purposely boil enemies and then push them to the ground or, in the worst cases, plunge them into lava to collect items. I didn''t play it, but I remember watching a video of it while playing an online game. "That''s awesome ....... Efficient, right? I say with a half smile, and Mercia laughs back. "Yeah, it''s great. If you build it along a river, you can use the power of the waterwheel and transport it, so it''s perfect. ...... But you can''t run it 24 hours a day, and you''ll need an item box to manage the magic stones. I''m not sure if I''m going to be able to do that. Is it difficult to hire? I don''t have a lot of time because I''m one myself, but an item box holder would have been quite valuable. The Kaede Chamber of Commerce is quite popular, so if you advertise widely, you should be able to get a few people. Of course, it will cost a certain amount of money. ...... I don''t care, just do it. This project must be worth it. It will provide a stable supply of furs and meat in large quantities, and will also allow for future development. For example, if we build a tall tower out of mithril and crash it into the ground, which is covered with metal lizard metal that does not absorb shock, we could mass produce more powerful materials. It may take some time to get there, but ...... it will certainly be interesting. 95 Episode 94 Towers and Insulation "Let''s go for the hundredth time! With a shout, a metal cage was dropped from a height of about 20 meters, hitting the ground and making a loud noise. While I was away from Fotoren on a small errand, Trapper ......, or rather the first demon material mass production factory, was completed. It was being tested, and Mercia and I had come to check it out. Is there any distortion in the cage? ...... dimensions unchanged, no problem! The experiment is a success! The first step was to check the strength and basic structure of the cage without the demons in it, but this seemed to work. Now it''s time to experiment with the demon. I''m a little worried about this one. I''ve added a few things to ....... Mercia was right, there had been quite a few changes made to the first demon material mass production factory (let''s call it the tower for the sake of convenience) in order to operate this facility with small item boxes. The most significant of these changes is the automatic lifting mechanism of the cage. The cage, made of 100% metal lizard metal to withstand prolonged abuse, was not something that could be lifted by the staff. On the other hand, there was no way to secure an item box with the capacity to hold such a thing. To overcome this problem, the tower was built along the river, and the cage was lifted by the power of a waterwheel. Kaede, the magic stone. "Okay. Here, use this. It was also an experiment to see if the equipment could work without me, so I was supposed to be left out of it, but the ...... item box carrier wouldn''t arrive at Photoren until tomorrow. So I''ll be in charge of storing the magic stones for today''s experiment. First set, hurry up! I know! After receiving the magic stone from me, the staff hurriedly put it on the pulley and pulled the rope to raise it up. Because of the power output, it takes a while for the cage to go up, and the stones will get old if they are kept on it. For this reason, nine cages are used for every three magic stones. It seems that the engineers had a lot of trouble with this structure. ...... I don''t know much about it, so I can''t explain it. For the time being, I''ve offered a generous reward. While I was watching, a demon was summoned (or more accurately, revived) from the demon stone, and soon after, a cage was dropped and a roaring sound was heard. Kill! The ones who thrust their spears into the cage were a pair of E rank adventurers hired by the guild. I could have hired higher-ranked adventurers for the cost, but I decided to go with this rank to make sure I could finish them off even if they were weak. The cage seemed to be functioning well, and the attack went smoothly. The adventurers took the magic stone out of the corpse''s belly, handed it to the pulley operator, and then sent the remaining corpse to the dismantler. Now the magic stone has gone around. After the adventurers have finished with the cage, the next cage is dropped from the tower after a safety check, and the two other adventurers finish with it. There were six people in charge of the cage, three pairs of two, plus two backups, for a total of eight. It''s a big deal. ...... Mercia, who was watching the situation, muttered. The number of people in charge of dismantling the tower is twice as many as those in charge of stopping it, and the number of staff operating the equipment is even greater. As a result, when the tower is up and running, there will be about fifty people working here. The same number of people would be available for transportation, so the total would be 100 people. I''d like it to be this large, considering the amount of metal lizard metal consumed. ...... Huh?¡¡Isn''t that too fast a pace? A wolf weighing about 60 kilos is dismantled every 30 seconds. That''s 120 wolves an hour, 960 wolves in eight hours. Even if only 30% of the meat is edible, that''s 19 tons of meat and 960 pelts a day. Just by building one of these, the food problem of Photoren will be solved in one shot. ...... will not be enough, but it will be almost enough to meet the demand for meat. You can still have a surplus of furs, but the meat will go bad. I had left it to Mercia to make the adjustments, but now I''m starting to worry. I''ll let you keep the stock for now, but I assume you''ll be exporting it outside of Photoren in the future. Oh my god. I didn''t realize that things had progressed that far without my knowledge. How are we going to export it? We''ve discussed that with the Chamber of Commerce. ...... Oh, so you''ve already decided on the measures? I''ve come to the conclusion that the returning maple will take care of the transportation equipment. ...... If it doesn''t work, then it doesn''t work. If not, you can reduce the operating hours of the equipment. You''ll get your investment back a little slower, though. Hey. No plan, huh? Sure, we''ve managed this kind of problem before, but shipping food long distances is a little different. Canned or bottled food is hard to come by in this world, and the consumption of dried meat is not that high. Another way to make mass transportation possible is to use ...... Freezer ships? I knew you had an idea! The efficiency of a freezer increases with the size of the freezer. Considering the power and duration of the artifact, an entire large ship could be used as a freezer to transport large amounts of meat without it spoiling. "It''s there, but it''s Catherine''s domain. Let''s go back to Photoren. The experiment is going well, and a B-rank adventurer from Decibatore has been hired for emergencies. There''s no need for us to be watching. That''s right. ...... "Mr. Gadde, we''re going back to the city, please send a ship. Roger that. The tower is on the river near Photoren (called the Photoren River. The tower is located at the upper reaches of the river that flows near Photoren (called the Photoren River, which is an inaccurate name), so it is accessible to Photoren by boat. Since there is no way to enter the river with a large ship that can cross the demon''s domain, we use an ordinary wooden ship. It''s a rather small boat, so I thought it might rock, but the boatman seems to be very skilled, so it didn''t rock too badly. "Catherine. I''ve got an idea for the transport! I knew it! Catherine seemed to have expected me to come up with the idea for the transport, and was already standing by with the experiment ready to go. Or perhaps Mercia had anticipated it and had her on standby. I''ll need a cooling artifact for now. I want something with a long duration. "Cooling!¡¡I''ve got it ready! It seemed that Catherine had thought of cooling as a way to transport meat, and she had prepared a pile of cooling artifacts. What are the specs? The duration is two hours for each one, but the output was not enough to keep ...... a large amount of meat cool. If you put 50 kilos of meat in a crate, it wouldn''t be underpowered. ...... You''ve already tried that. If every 50 kilos of meat consumes one magic tool in two hours, it''s impossible to carry it properly. Even a magic stone weighs a kilo, and if it takes four days to transport it, the baggage and the magic stone will weigh the same. If you consider the time it takes to recharge the magic power, it''s not worth the trouble. What we need is insulation. "Thermal insulation ......? Catherine asks back. It seems to be a word that is not well known in this world. It''s a word that''s not very well known in this world. "It''s a partition between the outside and the inside with something that doesn''t conduct heat easily. ...... For example, if you wear a lot of clothes, you''ll be warm, right? Yes. Especially with fur, it''s very warm. This is because the fur interferes with the transfer of heat and traps the body heat. ...... The same can be said for cold things. The same can be said for cold things." "It is precisely the air that the fur contains, but I don''t think I need to explain that much. So you dress your meat? ...... I hadn''t thought of that. How do you cool it? "No, we should insulate the whole container. ...... No, basically, the bigger the vessel, the more efficient the insulation. So let''s insulate a whole ship and use it for transport. The surface area to volume ratio is not something you should talk to a mage craftsman about. I''ll just tell them the structure and Mercia will order the ships. I''ll experiment with the ship when it''s finished. ...... I''d like a freezer on the surface too. It''s not good to load them raw. Are you going to use elasticity for that too? Just stuffing them with demon hair should make a big difference. For example, ....... I don''t remember when I put it in, but I had some good iron ingots in my item box, and I used magic to press them together to make a kind of box. I made two boxes: one that would hold about 1.5 tons of meat, and one slightly larger than that. First, place the larger one on the ground and cover it with the hair of demons (mainly green wolves). Put the smaller one in there and fill the space in between with hair, and you are done. It is a very hastily made piece of work, and the processing is very crude, but it should be enough for the experiment. "Try the experiment with this. "Okay. It''s going to take some time to get results from ....... Oh, ...... you can make another box of the same size and put the same magic stone in that one without insulation. We can compare them and see the difference in performance, right? As I said that, I took out an additional block of iron and made another box of similar size. On closer inspection, the dimensions may be different, but ...... it won''t have much of an effect. I didn''t know iron was that easy to form. ......? Pressing is great, isn''t it? If you try to make a complicated shape, it will break, but you can easily make a plate. If you bend it, you can make a box, so it has become very convenient. I don''t think it''s a matter of processing technology. ...... The results of the experiment were carried over to the next day, and I went back to the inn to sleep. ...... The next morning, just after I woke up, there was a knock on the door of the inn. That was unusual. I wondered if something had happened during the insulation experiment. "Kaede, please help me. ...... With that in mind, I greeted my visitor, but to my surprise, it wasn''t Mercia or anyone from the Kaede Chamber of Commerce. It was a familiar guild receptionist with tears in her eyes, asking for help. Did you encounter a pack of demons? No, sir. It''s about a request. ...... Without really understanding, the receptionist took me into the guild. At that moment, I felt a strange atmosphere in the guild. The guild was crowded with adventurers. There was also a sense of urgency and wariness in the area. This alone is understandable. If there was a strong enemy, it would be possible. But there was something else that was fatally wrong. The sense of urgency and the will to fight - or perhaps we should say hostility - was not directed at the outside of the guild, but at the inside. It was as if to say, "Everyone is an enemy except me. 96 Episode 95 Request and Transportation In the midst of the tense atmosphere, a man emerged from the staff compartment. He was clearly no ordinary guild employee. He was almost two meters tall, and his muscles were overwhelmingly large, even through his clothes. It would be more accurate to say that he was an adventurer returning from Decibatore. As the man walked, the adventurers who were crowded around the request board took a few steps back. The man walked slowly through the space created and stopped at a place where a D rank board (coincidentally, the same rank as my request) was hanging. In the still air, the man takes out a request board from his pocket. As soon as it was hung on the hook, the guild came back to life with noise. And it''s dozens of times louder than usual. I got it! Don''t push it!¡¡That hurt! Give it to me! Before I could confirm the contents of the request, adventurers were rushing to the request board. It seems that there are not many request boards, and they quickly disappear from the hooks, and some even try to take them by force from the adventurers who have already secured them. The guild was in chaos. However, in the midst of the chaos, one by one, people began to emerge from the crowd with the request board in their hands. They run through the guild in a straight line and slap the request board on the counter where the receptionist is. "I''ll take that! "I''ll take this one too! It seems that the adventurers can''t do anything about it at this stage, and no one tries to take the request board. The adventurers who failed to get the requests start to choose other requests with dejected faces. Since all of the adventurers were of D rank or higher, it seemed that no one was seriously injured, though some were slightly injured. No one had been identified as a criminal on the guild card. None of the bandits were detected by the information operation analysis. Now I understand why the staff member who brought the request board was unnecessarily strong. If it had been an ordinary receptionist, she would have been caught in the middle and seriously injured. The guild had probably anticipated this catastrophe. And the receptionist brought me to the guild to show me this situation. So, ......, is this a request I made? But was the reward I offered that unbelievable? In the first place, the number of requests is different. There must have been no more than ten people who succeeded in getting the order. On the other hand, I received requests for 24 people. The reward was the same for all of them, 2,000 Tells. Even if it is a safe request, this salary should not be too high for an adventurer of D rank or higher. ...... The reward was decided after consultation with the guild. What do you mean?¡¡Was the reward too high? I''ll ask the receptionist who brought me here why. "It''s not a matter of compensation, it''s a matter of what you asked for. ...... "What request? I''m not sure if it''s a question of the reward or the request. I found myself in that situation. ...... Level up: ...... By the way, there is such a thing as level. I hadn''t heard the level-up sound since I killed the dragon, and hadn''t paid attention to it. I was a little curious, so I checked my status for the first time in a while. The level of ...... had surpassed 2600. I see. No wonder it doesn''t go up. I can''t imagine what experience level 2600 requires. I''m sure I won''t be able to increase my level unless I kill another dragon or kill a bunch of dragons. So, the guild is in trouble. ......, but what can we do about it? There is no such thing as not sending out requests. If you put the request elsewhere, it will only cause more trouble. I''m not sure what to do, but I''m sure there are ways to deal with the flood of requests that come in. "Measures? It''s a system that''s been around for a long time and has been largely forgotten by the guild. ...... It''s like a reverse auction. Reverse auction: ...... It''s a form of competition to see who can get the lowest price. But how easy is it to revive a system that has been out of use? Is that something you can do right away? "It''s not going to be ...... right away, but I think it will be possible this evening. It''s not so difficult to prepare if we can just get the place ready. Sounds good. But will I be involved in this? The guild should be able to do it all by itself. So what am I supposed to do? Change of orders. I mean, you''re agreeing to a reverse auction. Yeah, that''s not a problem. You review the documents presented to you and sign the bottom one. The guild will take care of everything else. Well, I''m curious, so I''m going to check out the venue in the evening. After I left the guild, I decided to go see the insulation experiment. When I opened the door and entered the room, Catherine was already there. I don''t see Mercia at the moment, but it looks like one of the staff saw me and went to call her. She''ll be here soon. How are you doing? It''s still frozen. This is great. ...... Catherine mumbles as she picks at the meat in the insulated box. The meat in the uninsulated box seems to have already melted completely. It won''t spoil in this amount of time, but it won''t keep for a long time. It''s more effective than I expected. I had imagined that the coldness would be different, but it seems that the magic stone, which would have lasted two hours without insulation, lasted all night. It seems that the hair of the green wolf is more insulating than I thought. Yeah. However, it seems that we still need a lot of magic tools. We''re almost out of magic. Well, it''s this size now. The whole ship is at ....... Thank you for your patience. While we''re talking, Mercia seems to have arrived. It''s a bit early, but she must have been nearby. Mercia, have you checked the results? "Yes. I''m sure you''re aware of that. ...... However, this is still a large amount of magic stones required. You can''t have as many as you''d like, even with reusable grimoires. I think the solution is to make the ship bigger. An export ship doesn''t carry goods one day at a time, does it? It''s not a distance that can be carried by a small ship. They don''t go back and forth every day. They''d use a bigger ship to carry it all at once. Of course. We''ll probably have to transport about 150 tons at a time. "That''s about 100 times the amount of the experiment. ...... How many times as many magic stones do you think we''ll need to carry a hundred times as much cargo? Well, I''ve heard that the larger the ship, the more efficient it is, so I''d say ......50 times. "No. Actually, we don''t need even half that. When the scale is doubled, the volume increases up to eight times, but the surface area only increases four times. The volume is proportional to the volume, and the heat coming in is proportional to the surface area, so just doubling the volume by a factor of eight will double the efficiency. A hundred times the volume is difficult to calculate by heart, but it is larger than ......8 times eight, so it is easy to see that the efficiency is more than four times higher. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure it out.¡¡Is it that much less? "It should. Besides, the insulation material used in this experiment is a rough one. If you make it thicker and pack it tightly with hair, the efficiency should jump. Five in a box is practical enough. Five in a box is practical enough. If you reduce it further, ...... you might even be able to transport it to other countries. ...... Isn''t there a logistical revolution in the transportation of meat? Well, I don''t think they''re going to actually do it, because shipping to other countries is going to cause a lot of problems. Anyway, that''s theoretical. If it cannot be realized, it is meaningless. In the meantime, order a ship for the experiment. Even if it doesn''t work, there are ways to improve it or use it in other ways. Also, please look for fibers with high insulation properties. Fine wool might be good. The thinner the hair, the harder it is for the air to move between them. No matter how difficult it is for air to pass heat, it is useless if the air moves with it. The role of the fiber is to interfere with that. I get it! I''ve done my part with the insulation, and while I''m killing time by hunting and adding attributes to magic stones, night has come. There was a notice posted in the guild about a reverse auction for a death request. The reward for starting the auction is 2000 Tel. It''s the same price as when there was a flood of requests. When I arrived at the venue, the auction had just started. "2000 Tel! Sixteen hundred. One thousand! The prices kept going down as the levels went up. And finally, the time came. "Zero! "...... minus 100 tells! Minus ......? 97 Episode 96 Auctions and Borders "Is a minus a minus a minus? I wondered what it would be like to receive a negative reward for a job request. I asked a nearby guild employee about it. ...... We don''t have a system, but I think it''s possible if we work with the existing system. "Existing system? There''s no rule that says you can''t make a request for the delivery of coins, just that it doesn''t make sense. There is no rule that says ''delivery of coins'' should not be a request. ...... That''s a good idea. If you use the penalty system, you may be able to block non-payment. It''s not a reverse auction at all, it''s just an auction. "Minus 2500 Tel! While we were talking about this, the price of the request went up. Apparently, safe leveling is in high demand. And ...... "Ma, minus 5,000 Tel! When the price reached minus 5,000 Tel, the bidding finally ended. However, this was only one bid out of dozens of bids. Now that we have some idea of the market, the auction will be a little smoother, but ...... this auction is too long to see it through to the end. I think I''ll leave this to the guild members and take a break. We''ll hear the results in the morning. Next morning. When I checked the guild''s requests, I found the results of yesterday''s auction posted on one of the bulletin boards. Average price, 4700 Tel. Lowest price, 3000 Tel. Highest price, 15,000. It''s a wild ride. ...... The highest price is out of this world. The highest price was probably decided at the end or before the last auction, when there was nothing left. However, there are some discrepancies in the dates because the requests of several days were put up for auction at once, but they are basically the same request. I''m not sure if there is any systematic reason for such a difference in the prices. I don''t know. It''s good to make money. If we could create a system where the person in charge of dismantling gets priority for the last order, we would not have to worry about a shortage of staff. As for the auction, it was only the first time that the price fluctuated wildly, but it will stabilize as the number of auctions increases. Then, there is nothing to do. The meat export is awaiting the completion of the ship, and the insulation material is in the process of detailed investigation, so there is nothing for me to do. I''ll just take a request from ....... I don''t have a money problem, but I don''t have time to waste. Today''s request is for the highest B grade. It asks you to enter the demon realm, hunt down demons, and reduce the number of demons that try to get close to Photren. But it doesn''t sound like a very interesting request. Judging from the reward, it doesn''t seem urgent either. On hold. "Are you looking for a request, Kaede? I was about to move to the C-rank location to look for an interesting request when I was approached by a receptionist with an apologetic look on her face. I don''t remember her name, but she looks familiar. "Yes. I was wondering if you had any interesting requests. ...... I don''t know if it''s interesting, but we''re expecting an outbreak. An outbreak? If that''s the case, you can call me as soon as you can. There''s no need to look apologetic or anything. Any special circumstances? Too many, too little time? No. If that were the case, you''d be in a bigger hurry. You should have been approached when I came into the guild, or even when I was at the inn. Other than that, I can''t think of any other reason ....... The location of the forecast is very far away. "Far? "Yes. It''s very far. Of course, demons don''t always appear nearby. That''s why movement speed was required as a condition for defeating the outbreak. There''s nothing wrong with that. Maybe it''s on the other side of the planet? How far are we from here and how many days do we have left? Uh, about seven hundred kilometers. We''re looking at about a week before it happens. ...... Actually, that''s in another country. A foreign country! That sounds interesting. What''s the name of the country? "The Republic of Neurel. There''s an adventurer''s guild over there, but it''s a different organization. ....... It''s going to be a big ask. It seems that the political aspect is more troublesome than the distance. But I guess that''s the fun of traveling. "Okay. I''ll take it. If some big problem arises, I can just force myself to run away. In that sense, I can accept requests from outside the country rather comfortably. Best of all, you won''t find a more interesting request than this. The guild is grateful for the offer.¡¡It''s great for the guild, but the Kaede Chamber of Commerce and ...... I''m sure Mercia will take care of it. In the first place, the Kaede Merchant Association was created with the goal of being able to operate without me. The management of the company is thrown to Mercia, and I''m only directly involved in it when we start a new business. I don''t want it to be a problem if I go abroad for a little ...... business trip. "Okay. Now, before you change your mind, let''s get the order!¡¡I''ve got the location notes and the letter of introduction here!¡¡Neurel''s guild card is separate from Basis, so please be careful! As she said this, the receptionist quickly processed the orders and handed me a bunch of boards with letters and maps on them. It seems that preparations were underway even before I announced my order. I wonder what she was going to do if I refused her request. Oh well. I''ll go tell Mercia and the others about this. I''m going to Neurel for a while. I told Mercia as soon as I arrived at the trading post. "Neurel ......?¡¡Oh, you mean Neurel. It''s a city with delicious fish. I can''t believe you''re going to another country. ...... "No, Neurel. No way. ...... Why? It''s just that outbreaks aren''t limited to this country. Not only Neurel, but you may have to travel to other countries more often in the future. Thank God I don''t have to worry about language. The Chamber of Commerce is at ....... "Can you run ...... without me? While anticipating the answer, I''ll just ask. It''s more of a confirmation than a question. "No, I''m fine!¡¡I''ll get it done!¡¡...... By the way, how long will it take? "A week at the most. I may stay longer. Mainly because I feel like it. I''ll bring my anchor with me as usual, so I can come back if something happens. It''s not a distance you can normally travel back and forth in a week. ...... I understand!¡¡Leave it to me to take care of the Chamber of Commerce! Now, Mercia will tell everyone that I''ve left. It''s not like I''m moving, so there should be no need for me to greet people here and there. I''ll just pack up my stuff in an item box so I don''t have to prepare anything. ...... Okay. Let''s go. I exit the city through the gates and take out a map from the stack of boards they gave me. The border with Neurel seems to be a long way inland from Fautren, beyond Herrera. I speed up, trying not to lose sight of the landmarks on the road. It''s a long way across the country. I''m careful not to exceed the speed of sound, so the flight itself is monotonous, but it''s quite fun to fly while looking at the scenery. Unlike airplanes, there is nothing to block your view, which is also a big advantage. ...... almost there. I found a town just before the border, and quickly slowed down my speed and altitude. In terms of the route, I could just keep going straight, but I couldn''t just plow through the border from the air. I need to get a guild card for the other side, and I need to go through the immigration procedures. If the currency is different, you''ll need to change money. I flew slowly at low altitude to the border town of Kazaniak, and presented my guild card to the gatekeeper. Welcome to Kazaniak! 98 Episode 97 Cards and Fruits The town of Khazaneeq was quite busy. However, most of the vehicles on the road were wagons, and there didn''t seem to be many adventurers. I wonder if adventurers don''t travel much even though trade is active. First, the ...... guild. From the bundle of boards given to me at the Photoren, I took out something about leaving the country. According to it, I should go to the Kazaniak branch of the Adventurer''s Guild, not the merchant counter. It seems that the guild handles the departure procedures for adventurers on behalf of the country. It also says that a letter of introduction is required. This may be the reason why you don''t see many adventurers going to other countries. I received a letter of introduction in Photoren, so that''s not a problem. The guild office I went to was a small building. There were only a few request boards, and only one counter of the type you would find in a normal guild. Instead, there is a counter labeled "Border Relations" that is not found in other guilds, indicating that the procedure is carried out here. ...... Not many adventurers use that counter, though, and the receptionist who handles it seems to be bored. "To Neurel?¡¡Unfortunately, without a letter of introduction from the branch manager, permission is ...... denied. When the receptionist noticed me approaching the counter, she assumed I was here to leave the country before I could say anything, and told me I needed a letter of introduction. The fact that he assumed I didn''t have a letter of introduction suggests that there are a lot of adventurers who try to leave the country without one. Or perhaps there are not many adventurers who have a letter of introduction. I have a letter of introduction. Are you okay with this? "Referrals!¡¡...... I''m sorry, that was rude. May I have your guild card and letter of introduction? When I present the card and the letter of introduction, the receptionist places them both on some sort of device and begins to compare them. The name is Kaede, and the home base is Photoren ....... The rank is ......S!¡¡I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. I''m not sure if you''re asking me that, but ...... I don''t know any other maple trees. I don''t know of any other maple trees. There might be one or two other maple trees in this country, but not me. Well, it looks like you already have permission, so I''m going to give you what you need. First of all, there''s this, ......, and then there''s this. The receptionist handed me a letter of introduction (different in design from the one given to me at the photo-ren) and an ornate container that looked like a slightly larger version of a potion jar. "...... What''s this? The letter of introduction is for the purpose of getting a guild card made at the Neurel Guild. Please submit it to the guild branch in Neurel, wherever you are. You can''t get an S-rank, but you can get a B-rank when you leave the country if you have an A-rank ......, so you should be able to get that when you register. I see. You may be able to register without this, but it would be troublesome if you start with the lowest rank. I guess they are trying to avoid that kind of trouble. Also, this shows that the Kingdom of Basis is backing you. In short, it means, ''If you do anything strange to this person, Basis won''t keep quiet. On the side, in addition to the decoration, there was a large carving of the national emblem of the Kingdom of Basis. It''s the same kind of thing they use in period dramas when they say, "Can''t you see this crest? I guess it''s a relative of those used in period dramas when they say, "Can''t you see this crest? ...... I don''t want to use it as much as possible, because if I actually use it, I might get into trouble with the government. But it''s not very well known, so many people may not know what it is even if you show it to them. In such cases, please remove the lid from the tube and use the document inside. Isn''t ...... well known? Well, I didn''t even know these things existed until now. I guess it''s not something you see very often, even in Ortheon or Neurel. If you are a nobleman, it may be common knowledge. However, I would be a little worried if I was given such a thing when I was about to go abroad. Is there a situation where this would be needed often? Let''s just ask. Is this a place where you''ll need it often? It''s not frequent, but it''s far more frequent than ...... the Kingdom of Basis. The ...... Neurel identification system is not as advanced as the one in Basis. Identification system: ...... I''m sure you''ve heard of it. So please be careful, especially in town. It''s not like Basis where criminals can''t enter the city. It''s not like Basis where criminals can''t get into town. You should be careful with your luggage at cheap hotels, but ...... you don''t need to worry about that. It is possible that the innkeeper could be a criminal and still be in business without being discovered? I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but it''s a good idea. Also, it''s not advisable to trust just because someone is a big shot. Unlike Basis, the central power is weak. If we have a bad politician, can''t we just get rid of him? Is it corrupt? I wouldn''t want to stay in a place that''s crawling with people like Radomcos. I''d rather stay out in the open than stay in a place like that. Most of them are fine. But, for example, there was a big guy from Neurel who tried to get into Basis last year. ...... What did he do in Basis? "When I tried to make an ID to enter the country, I got a bandit check. I was never allowed to leave Kazaniak and I was repatriated. ...... was the problem before that. The guild card also covers crimes committed outside the country. And then what happened to him? You''re not just going to let him walk around in Noirel, are you? They''ll find embezzlement and execute him immediately. As long as they have an excuse to investigate, they move fast. In other words, if you don''t have a pretext, you can''t even investigate. I guess it''s tough to be in a country where there is no overwhelming power. Well, if it''s embezzlement or something, it''s not really my problem. You can''t even get a tell from me if you fight with me. It''s best to stay out of it. If you use [Information Manipulation Analysis], you might be able to find criminals, but it''s going to be a hundred percent trouble. On the other hand, if you don''t go into it yourself, you''re unlikely to get into trouble. If you don''t go into it, you are unlikely to get into trouble. That''s what I''m talking about. ...... That''s about all you need to be careful about. Thanks for the heads up. After receiving the necessary items, I headed for the border. The border is not a huge barrier. It seems to be larger than the gates of Photoren, with two gates, one for wagons and one for people, but the structure of each gate seems to be the same as the gates of the town. Well, that''s understandable. The borders outside of the town don''t even seem to be guarded, and there''s no reason to go to the trouble of guarding only the borders of this town. The gates are probably more procedural and symbolic than a physical separation of countries. I don''t know what kind of judgment the guild card or the country will make if you break through the border from the outside. I.D., please. When I presented my guild card, the guards let me through the gate easily. I was prepared for the hassle of airport procedures, so I was quite disappointed. Well. That''s how I got into Neurel. ...... There was one problem here. I didn''t know where I was going. Sure, I already know where I''m going to end up. It''s a town called "Soyl". But the outbreak won''t happen for about a week. It won''t take long to get there, and even if we arrive the day before, we still have six days to spare. I wonder if I should have checked out some of the popular tourist spots. Well, I''ll ask around. Just as you start walking, you see a sign. About ten kilometers to Dillmere. The text itself is just a plain guide. However, I was strangely curious about something that looked like a fruit. I don''t know why. But my intuition is telling me that this fruit is good. At any rate, I know where I''m going. I stop looking for someone to ask questions and start running in the direction of the sign. Ten kilometers away, it''s as good as nothing. In less than five minutes, I arrive at the gates of Dilmere. And as usual, I present my guild card to the gatekeeper. ...... The gatekeeper doesn''t take it, and smiles. You''re from Basis. In this country, you can just walk right through. If you''re suspicious, we''ll stop you and check your luggage, but it doesn''t look like it. ...... That was it. This is no longer a basement where criminals are judged by their IDs. You can get a new guild card from the Dilmere Guild. But first, ...... One of these, please. In a store next to the road, there is a fruit. I spotted it and went to buy it without hesitation. It''s a seuil. Three hundred limes. ...... lire? What I''m holding in my hand is a tell. I forgot to change it. Oh. Seeing the look of disappointment on my face, the old man at the stall looked into my hand and nodded in agreement. He nodded in agreement. "Oh, you''re from Basis. Don''t worry. You can use that in Dillmere. How about fifty Tel? Can you use ...... Tel? It''s a city near the border. "Yes, sir! Give the man some money and take the fruit. The fruit looks like a darker version of an apple, and is quite tasty. As I walked along, I took a bite of the fruit, which I heard was called seiyuu. "Boom! And then I blew up. 99 Episode 98 Soy Sauce and False Accusations As soon as I took a bite of the fruit, which is a local specialty, what I felt was not the sweetness or sourness I had imagined. It was sour. It was almost like the funny story about drinking soy sauce mistaken for Coke. Or rather, soy sauce. "Pfft, pfft. An old man selling fruit laughed at me. I knew he''d do it, but he reacted just as I expected!¡¡It''s what all first-timers do. It''s not meant to be eaten on its own, you know. "Squeeze ...... for seasoning? I tossed the seyou into the item box, drank some water, and mumbled. I throw the seyou into the item box, drink some water and mumble. I see what you mean. Soy sauce. I knew I could find it, but I didn''t expect it to show up as a fruit. I approached the fruit vendor without saying a word, with a subtle expression on my face. "Oops. No claims, no returns, okay? There seem to be two types of ...... s¨¦oules. What is the reason for this? If you look closely at the shelves where the products are placed, you will see that there are two types of sauces: a slightly white saucer and a more reddish saucer. I bought the red one, but the white one is priced at about a fifth of that. "Oh, you mean that. It''s a difference in origin. Where? Seuil is supposed to be a speciality of Dilmia, but the quality of Dilmia''s is poor. What''s that? What''s that? It''s a special product, but it''s inferior? So maybe it''s... Imported? That''s right. You can tell where s¨¦ouille comes from by its color. The red one is Soyl, the white one is Dillmia. That''s bullshit. ...... I wonder if they don''t like the white fruit. He seems to be too enthusiastic in his sales talk to sell the more expensive one. How can you say so much about something you are selling yourself? After the change of lords. He turned all the seuils in Dillmere into this because he thought it would increase the yield. And then they raised the taxes on that shitty territory ....... It''s nothing, okay?¡¡If you''re going to buy a Seewool, make sure it''s the red one. ...... Apparently, Dilmeer''s used to be red, too. Lords who go out of their way to make soy sauce bad. Yeah. I don''t think we''ll get along. I don''t think we''ll get along. It''s best to stay out of it, and I don''t think we ever will. In that case, I''ll take ten more red ones. "Oh, good. I''ll give you one of Dilmyre''s too, so you can experience how bad it is. ...... You have an item box!¡¡No wonder the one you were about to eat disappeared so unnaturally! Now that you mention it, I''m getting a little curious. I decided to try it out in my room at a random inn. I used a boat killer for the experiment. It is a fish similar in appearance to tuna, caught in Photoren. It was left over from the sashimi I had made earlier, but the soy sauce had run out and I was not satisfied with the result. Using a magic sword disinfected with fire magic and water magic, slice it thinly. Then, squeeze a little of the seiyu onto a suitable plate, dip the sashimi in it, and try it. That''s it! This is exactly what tuna sashimi is supposed to be. The quality of the soy sauce is not bad. The quality of the soy sauce was not bad either. It may have been corrected because I hadn''t had it for a while, but it was definitely better than the cheap stuff in Japan. I''ll definitely have to keep the soyel and buy a lot of seiyuu to take home. Now, ...... Next, the much-despised seuil from Dillmere. I was thinking earlier that I wouldn''t get along with the lord, but it''s certainly not right to dislike something without even eating it. If it''s good, I''ll have to apologize to the lord. I reluctantly squeezed the seiyuu, dipped a little in the sashimi, and tried it. "......? As soon as you put it in your mouth, you can taste the faint flavor of soy sauce. And then there''s the overwhelming salty and sour taste that tries to drown it out with all its might. You can''t taste any umami at all. It''s so bad that I feel like I''m going to get sick just by holding it in my mouth. I thanked my lucky stars that the first seiyuu I bought was from Soyell. If I had taken a bite of it, I would have fainted. I hurriedly drank some water and cleaned my palate with sashimi dipped in a decent amount of soy sauce. Now it was confirmed. I have nothing to apologize to the lord, and no reason to do so. Or rather, the lord should apologize. Apologize to the soy sauce. It was so bad that I even felt angry, but thanks to the palate cleanser, I quickly regained my composure. At the same time, I noticed that there was some noise around me. The noise is not outside the window, but rather around the first floor of the inn. The air in this town is rather dry. If there were a fire, it would be a disaster. I decided to stop tasting and go downstairs to see what was going on. I''m afraid I can''t give out any information about you, sir. But with the news that a criminal has entered the inn, we can''t just leave. ...... The reason for the commotion was due to the arrival of the guards. Five guards or knights were talking to the innkeeper in full gear. Apparently a criminal had entered the inn while I was tasting soy sauce. I don''t want to get involved, so I''ll change the inn. I don''t want to get involved. Is it true that criminals have entered the inn? Yes. You''ll have to help us if you can. My lord says the criminal is a young man with dark hair and eyes, and he''s not carrying any luggage. "No luggage? I don''t know if having no luggage is a characteristic. They say he has an item box and used it to steal money from the lord''s mansion. ...... A young man with black hair, black eyes, and an item box: ....... I don''t know why, but this sounds very familiar. It''s probably a different person with a similar appearance, but I don''t want to raise any suspicion. Let''s just make sure the name is different. If we have that, we can use the guild card to prove he''s not the same person. "That guy''s name isn''t Kaede, is it? I take out the guild card from the item box and ask him, showing that I am Kaede. "Yes, yes. I''m an adventurer from Basis named Kaede. ...... Eh? "What? Apparently, there is a Kaede who has a similar name and appearance to me, has an item box, and came from Basis at the same time as me. It''s a great coincidence. I''ll take it from here. I feign casualness as I try to leave the inn. "Wait a minute. And then, of course, I''m stopped. What can I do for you? "Would you mind accompanying me to the cell, or rather the prison? Almost as soon as I said this, two of the guards walked up behind me. I''m falsely accused. But I have no way to prove it. The guild card of Basis has not penetrated this country, and there is no way to prove the contents of the item box. Even if they could, they would just say that they hid the stolen items somewhere. The lack of a guild card is such an inconvenience. Why don''t you say no? You will be forced to accompany me. After all, it''s a direct order from my lord. As I talked with the guards, I felt that their response was unnatural. It was too polite a response to a criminal. They must not be thinking about the possibility of being falsely accused, and if they were, they would have seized him quickly instead of asking him to accompany them arbitrarily. If he was treated as a bandit, he might even be executed on the spot. However, the guards did not seem to be in the mood to make such a move. The tone of voice is clearly not that of anger at criminals. It''s not alarm. It''s more like pity, or perhaps apology. It is also unnatural that the order came directly from the lord. It should be the role of the guards and knights to catch bandits, let alone in court. I don''t know how it is in this country where there is no king, but at least in Basis it should have been. It''s suspicious that you''ve been falsely accused in a town you''ve barely been to. "All right. I''ll go with you. If this false accusation is a setup, then the culprit is the lord or someone around him. If not, there are other ways to clear your name. In any case, it is not a good idea to force the issue here. It would be like saying that you are not falsely accused. You can always force your way through. Let''s just hold on for now and figure out what to do. Thank you for your cooperation. Thank you for your cooperation. Now if you''ll excuse me, I have to go to ....... And with that, the guard cuffed my hands. Upon examination, it seems to be something that removes magical activity. I guess it''s for wizards. I tried it on my magic armor, and indeed, I felt that my magic output was slightly reduced. Specifically, about 0.5% to 1%. In other words, it''s an error. Next, I tried to check the physical strength of the armor, but when I put a little effort into it, I heard an unpleasant cracking sound, and I hurriedly relaxed my arm. Watch out, watch out. I almost broke the handcuffs. The guards, unaware of this, surround me and start leading me somewhere. Well. I wonder what the hell is going on. 100 Episode 99 Cages and Lords I''d appreciate it if you''d keep quiet. What I was brought to was a kind of dungeon. Inside, there was a metal cage labeled "For Wizards", and I was locked in it. According to the tentacle plate, the bottom of the cage seems to be a very thick piece of metal. I wonder if they increased the weight of the cage to protect it from item boxes. I''d rather have you steal as much of my lord''s stuff as you want, and I don''t mind if you break out of jail. But if you want to run away, do it after we''re gone. They''ll blame us and we''ll end up in jail. I don''t think I heard a guard say that. Is the lord hated by the guards as well? "Domur. If any of the lord''s men hear you say that, you''ll go to jail for it. ...... Whoa, whoa, whoa. You''re not being asked, are you? At the very least, there seems to be no one else in my tentacles but me, the two guards, and the guards. The guards are also laughing at what I''m saying, so they''re probably not ''the lord''s men''. Maybe he didn''t hear you. And if what I just said is true, please leave quickly. You can''t break out of here. I said, and the two guards looked at each other and laughed. "Then we''ll take your word for it. I hope you get out of there alive. And while you''re at it, steal some evidence of embezzlement from your lord. "Domur, you''ll get caught soon enough. ...... The guards are trying not to laugh. He thought it was a joke. Then, when the guards made sure the cage was locked, the guards waved them out. The guards seemed to be waiting around the corner from the cage. I can''t see the guards from my position, and they can''t see me from theirs. I guess it''s a double defense, with handcuffs that are supposed to block magic and a structure that is impervious to projectiles. Just as I was thinking about this, I heard a cracking sound from my hand. Ah! I looked and saw that the part of the handcuffs that connected the left and right sides had been split down the middle and separated from each other. They couldn''t even be called handcuffs anymore. It''s just an eccentric shaped bracelet that weakens the magic just a little bit. Incidentally, the guards must have heard my voice, but they showed no sign of moving. In addition to the fact that he seemed to be unwilling to do anything, the cage seemed to be sturdy, so he must have a sense of safety as long as he kept the key in his hand. Well, it''s not safe at all. I put my hand on the cage. It seems to be made a little heavy, but the capacity of the item box depends on MP. And right now, my MP is a number that makes counting the digits a chore. I reminded myself, and the cage was easily stored in the item box. After confirming this, I head further into the prison. It seems that the only way to escape from here is through the guard''s place. However, there is actually another route to somewhere else in this prison. That route is covered with a lid, and the lid seems to be disguised to blend in with the surroundings, but the tentacles clearly indicate the existence of another route. I don''t know where I''m going, but I''m going to go there. If something looks bad, we can turn back, and maybe we''ll find something interesting. You put the lid in the item box and walk through the unlit underground passage. After about thirty meters, you come to a dead end. On the ceiling of the dead end is a disguised lid, just like the entrance. I stopped ...... when I tried to put the lid into the item box. From the top of the lid, I heard what sounded like a door opening. Then there was a human-like reaction on the tentacles. One is quite fat and the other is relatively thin. "Well, that''s quite a feat. They seem to be talking inside. I can hear their voices. I wondered about eavesdropping, but then I realized that the room connected to the prison was not normal. There is no way that a bandit''s hideout ...... could be located in the city, but it is possible that it is something similar. If it is a bandit''s hideout, that''s a good thing. We can take them down and escape without worry. Right? No, not at all. But this success was only possible because of the reports of my men. And that''s ....... Of course I haven''t forgotten. The adventurer who came to save the dastardly Dilmir... ...... Kaede, is it? Kaede, sir. Hmm? I don''t know why I''m hearing my name. It''s so annoying. If only Dilmyre would go under, we''d have a monopoly on selling Seewool. "Well, don''t say that. That''s nice of you to say. You came all the way from Basis to take the blame for the money I embezzled!¡¡Ha ha! Ha-ha. ¡¡Indeed. Haha. ....... You''re telling a very interesting story. I mean, isn''t this the lord''s mansion above the passage? What they''re talking about fits perfectly, and it makes sense that the lord would have a hidden passage. Maybe it''s an emergency escape route. "Good. I''ll make a new ledger for the wizard, and you can help me. "All right. How much shall we pretend that maple stole? "Right. The amount he embezzled and ...... he''s a famous wizard in the other side. I''m sure he''s got a lot of tell. Shall we pretend that the tell in the warehouse was stolen uprooted? No. His item box is probably not that big. He''s probably got a hundred ...... gold pieces and ten million tells. You''ve got a good eye. I''ll leave it at that. That''s a great idea. The weight of a hundred gold coins is nothing but an error, and I''m not a wizard, I''m a wizard-swordsman. And by the way, a hundred gold pieces are a million tell. A hundred thousand tells is a lot of gold. ¡¡Are you okay? So, this Kade, he''s locked up in a wizard''s prison, isn''t he? And I''m not sure he knows my name yet. It''s no wonder I can''t remember the value of a gold coin. By the way, I don''t know who Mr. Kaede is, but if you''re talking about Kaede, you''re not locked up anymore. "Yes, of course. You''re strong, but you''re still a wizard. With those handcuffs and the heavy cage, you won''t escape. You can escape. The handcuffs have little effect on magic suppression, and the handcuffs are not strong enough. If you''re a Decibatore, I''m sure there are some pure wizards who can break them. If you are a warrior, you can break them just by hooking them on your index finger and pulling. ...... What can I say, there are so many things to complain about, I''m getting tired of it. I''m not sure what to say. I paid a lot of money to build this. Even if there are no guards, you won''t get out until you die. Exactly. If you can get out of there, I want you to get out of there. ...... Hmm. Apparently, the lords want me to come out. I''m getting tired of eavesdropping, so I''ll live up to your expectations. "Hello, villainous lord. I''m Kaede. I politely removed the lid of the hidden passage and walked up to the room with a polite bow. What?¡¡Who are you? ...... Why are you here? Didn''t I tell you to come out? Apparently, the lord did not know my face. I even politely introduced myself. Of course he didn''t. It''s Mr. Kade, isn''t it? "Why?¡¡That cage is ....... The one who was puzzled was the skinny guy. From what he said, he might be a subordinate of the lord. In addition, there were two men in the corner of the room who seemed to be guarding him. Incidentally, they were all treated as bandits by the [Information Manipulation Analysis]. You mean this? I took out the cage I had stored earlier from the item box. The floor sinks under the weight. "Huh!¡¡How many pounds do you think that thing weighs? And these handcuffs are defective. I raised my arm and showed him the shredded handcuffs. The security system here was absolutely terrible. They even provided a route to the scene of the false accusation, which was a nice touch. So, can you please die for now, ......? Heee! When I stepped towards the lords, they threw away the documents in their hands and tried to run away. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for, and what you can do to help. I''m not going to go after them and kill them. I don''t think it''s a good idea to kill a lord of another country out of the blue. But I don''t want him to escape, so I put up a warding spell under his feet. Gah! Buh! The invisible wards caught their feet, and they fell down with the momentum they had started with. They would have been knocked to the floor, so I kindly put up a ward near the ground to catch them. Incidentally, the warding magic is much harder than the carpet on the floor. It was an expression of my kindness to catch him firmly. If possible, it would be best to have them investigated and brought to justice in this country. Dumping them in the sea around Desibatore is also an option, but it is not a priority. You could tie him up in the main street with the evidence of injustice, or prevent him from moving and deliver the documents to another lord with a good reputation. That''s the way to go. Well, I don''t care as much about Seuil''s grudge (I don''t care as much about Seuil''s being caught. I don''t care as much about being captured as I do about Ceille, and I''m sure it''ll be over soon), so there may be some mishaps when we capture the lord. When I was thinking about how much pain ...... or even how big the accident is likely to be, the lord suddenly opened his mouth. Now!¡¡Do it! Hearing those words, the guards in the corner started running towards me at the same time. Both of them seemed to be a bit bigger than the adventurers in ...... Decibatore, but they were not as good as the others. But the lord seemed convinced of his victory. He points at me and gets into a mocking stance. "You fool, you''ve let your guard down!¡¡I don''t care how many adventurers you have, a wizard with his magic stolen can''t beat a swordsman! Apparently, the misconception that I''m a wizard has not been cleared up yet. 101 Episode 100 Bounty Earners and Guards From two corners of the room, two guards came running at the same time. It might be useful to keep the misunderstanding that I can''t use magic, so I took out an appropriate stone from the item box and threw it at them. The stone hit the right guard cleanly, sinking it with a cracking sound. While I was doing this, the left guard came slashing at me, so I dodged and kicked him. ...... It''s kind of weak. I think there are a lot of wizards in Decibatore who can win without using magic. It seems those muscles were just for decoration. It''s almost a pity to compare him to a swordsman. So, two E rank adventurers were defeated by ...... in an instant. They were E rank? I think they were weak even if they were E rank. ...... I wonder if Basis and this country have different standards for rank. ...... But those adventurers were useful in a way. I heard a great noise! The Oval Office! The sound of the guards being defeated brought the guards who seemed to be in the house to this room. Ten, twenty ...... more to come. It''s hard to believe that a mere lord would have them stationed at his mansion. Perhaps he had done so much evil that he was afraid of assassination. The reason why I am thinking this is because all the guards who gathered seemed to be weak. He could always run away, he could always kill his lord. In addition, all the guards who gathered seemed to dislike the lord. Rather than coming to protect the lord, they seemed to have gathered because they heard a loud noise and were forced to pose as protectors because the lord was being attacked. As proof of this, no one came to attack me. Rather, they are cooperating with me. They''ve even taken a cramped posture to open up a firing line for me to cast a spell on the lord. Whether or not I''ll take advantage of it is still up in the air. Since I was in such a situation, I decided to take the means of negotiation. "The man is not a lord. He''s a criminal who embezzled! As I said this, I took out the ledger I had retrieved earlier. The evidence of embezzlement was clearer than ever. "So you made up ......!¡¡You''re using a false ledger to blame me for what you''ve stolen!¡¡You thief! The lord turns red in the face and refutes me. You''re the one who tried to blame others for your crimes. You''ve got a big face. "Hey. What do you think? What you''re saying is probably true. ...... Should we tie him up? When the guards heard what we said, they began to discuss it. It seemed that the lord could hear us, and his face began to bleed even more, turning red and then black. My blood vessels are about to break. With that expression on his face, the lord angrily shouted at the guards. Kill that man now!¡¡Do it now!¡¡Anyone who doesn''t is a traitor!¡¡If you don''t, you''re a traitor! I''ll make up some charges and have you and your family hanged! ...... Wouldn''t that be confessing to a willful false accusation? I''m not sure what to make of this, but I think it''s a good idea. Before I could even get a word in edgewise, the guards came at me with swords drawn. "d*mn it!¡¡No hard feelings! Oh, I have a sister! I decide to use my magic armor to defend myself and catch them. Cutting it down with a counterattack seems like something a villain would do. Half the reason is that the guards aren''t treated as bandits, so if I counterattack poorly, I might be in trouble when I return to Basis. Once the attack was stopped, self-defense would be established. Incidentally, the lord was trying to escape during this time, so I trapped his legs again with warding magic. That was all I intended to do, but there was a warding spell on the ground where he fell, and the lord seemed to have hit his face. "Buh-beh! What? Why?¡¡I can''t reach him! Me neither!¡¡Aah! After establishing self-defense, I unleashed some light pressure magic around the area and blew the guards away. Some of them seemed to be slightly injured, but I wasn''t going to take care of them that much. So, what should I do now? Just as I was thinking this, a new force appeared. The window of the office shatters and a man jumps in. For a moment, I thought I saw some decent lord turn into a shit lord (I don''t know his name. I think I saw it in an appraisal, but I couldn''t even remember it), but it was too early for that. At any rate, I''m sure he''s not a bandit. As I was wondering what to do, the other side gave me an explanation. "Hey, Rhaegar! "Hey, Zoey Mars. This is the guy we''re going to kill, right?¡¡Are we going to get paid for this? "Oh, yeah. Yes!¡¡I''ll give you 20 million lire in cash, plus an additional reward from his estate! So hurry up and take him down! It seems that the newly arrived man, Rhaegar, is a reinforcement for the lord''s side. From what I''ve heard, he''s not a subordinate of the lord, but a bounty hunter with money. Incidentally, it seems that Zoemers was a reference to the lord. I have acquired very useless knowledge. "All right, guards. Secure the windows and exits so we don''t get away. And information. Anything you can tell me about this guy. Right. Sounds like he''s getting paid well. Unlike the others, he''s got a plan. He''s at least a dozen times more capable than his lord. As usual, they are not treated as bandits, so I''m watching them carefully, ready to crash through the wall and escape at any time. They seem to be exchanging information over there. "My attacks aren''t getting through! Maybe your swords aren''t good enough. It''s not like that!¡¡It''s like there''s an invisible wall. ...... They can''t reach us! Actually, it''s an invisible wall. Shit. You''re not getting the point. ...... Enough of that, give me some other information. Where you''re from, your fighting style. I don''t care what your style is, you''re asking me where I''m from. I don''t know, I''ve never really looked into it, but there may be some differences in tactics depending on where you''re from. If it''s a city like Decibatore, you can get some idea of its strength just from the name of the place. "He''s from a frontline city! The guards didn''t seem to be able to answer the question, but the lord answered instead. He didn''t even remember my name, but he knows where I''m from. Well, I''m from Japan, so I can''t say it''s the right answer. Frontline cities?¡¡What''s that?¡¡...... It''s a little tricky. Guards, stay back, you''re slowing us down. You''re no use to us. Rhaegar ordered the guards to fall back and heathed the two swords he carried on his back. Then the lord gave additional information. "No, it''s not a front city in this country!¡¡It''s the Basisians! It''s a Basist!" "Basist?¡¡...... Frontline City is not Decibatore, is it? That''s right!¡¡It''s the Desi something! I''m not sure if this is a good idea or not. You''ll be able to find a lot more than just a few of them. "...... Hey, guards. "...... What is it? "You''d better save your life. See ya. With that, Rhaegar jumped into the incoming window and ran away at once. The speed of his decision and the speed of his escape were astonishing. Perhaps that speed of escape is the secret to survival as a bounty hunter. "Hey! That Rager''s running away? Isn''t that bad? Oh, I don''t wanna die yet! Seeing that Rhaegar had escaped, the guards seemed to get scared. They scrambled out of the broken windows and open doors. The only ones left were me, the lord, the men who were helping him embezzle, and the three guards. The guards, however, did not appear to be loyal to the lord. Rather, their expressions showed their disgust for the lord. And yet, if they were to remain here, ...... I don''t know. Is it possible that you are really being held hostage? ...... "If I run, they''ll kill my daughter. I see. So they''re holding my daughter hostage. Then it''s no wonder you''re staying. But this guard may be too concerned about his daughter to keep his cool. "Hey. Who''s giving the order to kill the girl? "The Lord ....... The guard almost called out the lord, and then added the honorific title with a pained expression. I see. But who would follow the orders of an arrested criminal? "...... Oh. I see. The guard''s expression hardened. I''m not sure if you''ve heard of it or not, but I''m sure you have. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re doing. We''ve apprehended a criminal. We need backup. All right. ...... Oh. What a farce. Is this what we''ve been fighting for? I feel like I''m mentally exhausted. At any rate, the false accusation has been resolved with minimal damage. With the a**h*le lord gone, the taste of the fallen s¨¦ouille may return to normal. I guess that''s the only saving grace. 102 Episode 101 Provinces and Sewoil A few days after the arrest of the lord. The arrested lord was handed over to the lord of a neighboring territory (apparently named Eilden) to be executed. Due to an "accident" that occurred during the transportation, the lord was already in a state of disarray when he arrived at the neighboring territory, but he was going to be executed anyway. But he was going to be executed anyway, so there was no problem. As soon as I saw that, I left Dilmere and moved on to Soiel. You never know what kind of trouble you''ll get into if you stay in Dilmere forever. Soil is a safe place to stay. Unlike Dilmere, I''m too far from Basis to keep up with my movements. From the time when I was contacted, even if the information that I received was that I had requested reinforcements from the Decibatoreans, it would not have told me if the reinforcements were actually coming, who they were, or the incidents they were involved in after they arrived in Neurel. Information travels not that fast in this world. I''m sure it is. As I used flight magic to follow the map, I saw a town that looked like Soiel. It seemed to be a very cold city, with snow on the ground. I don''t think I''ve ever seen anything like it in this world. Thanks to my magic and status, I don''t feel the cold. If I hadn''t been protected by magic, I might have frozen in the sky. Thankful for the magic, I lowered my altitude and arrived at the gate of Soiel. "Master Kaede!¡¡Welcome to Soiel! As I entered the city, three guards at the gates greeted me with a pose like a salute. It''s a very polite city ....... Why do these guards know my name? Why do some people run into the large building that seems to be the lord''s mansion when they hear the greeting? Why is there a sign on the high-class inn near the entrance of the town that says, "Closed for five days due to the stay of Lord Kaede"? ...... Ah. This time it really is the same person with the same name, Kaede. Perhaps I was mistaken because I arrived at the exact time he was scheduled to arrive. I have to hurry up and clear up the misunderstanding of the guards. I''m an adventurer from Basis. ...... You must be Kaede, the one who came to us about the demon outbreak. I''m sure you''ll be pleased to know that I''m not the only one. ...... is right. The man who came out of the lord''s mansion ran up to me in surprise and told me, "The lord is ready. It seems that the lord is ready. This way, please. I don''t know what''s going on, but it seems that my name has already been passed on to Soiel, and for some reason, he''s going to give me extremely good treatment. I may have come to save the city, but I''m still an adventurer sent by the guild. I feel like I''m not being treated right. Well, I guess I''ll find out when I get there. Following the man''s lead, I entered the lord''s mansion. He led me to a reception room where I was to speak with the lord. Welcome, my lord. My name is Sophia and I am the ruler of Soiel. To my surprise, the lord of Soiel was a woman. She was also quite beautiful. I''ve never heard of a female lord in Basis. Well, if you ask me if I''m familiar with the situation of lords in Basis, I''m not at all. "Thank you very much. I''m Kaede. By the way, I''m just an adventurer, so please accept my hospitality at ....... I return the greeting and try to find out the reason for this treatment. No, sir. No, it''s because you are the one who will save Soiel. Sofia replied to my question with a look that said, "Of course not. Does this mean that this is the culture of Soiel? Or is there some other reason? As I don''t know the culture of Neurel, let alone Soiel, I can''t decide. Mercia might be able to tell me right away, but unfortunately she''s seven hundred kilometers away right now. Okay. Hold off on the conclusion. I''ll let it play out. Now, let''s move on to the reason why I invited you, Kaede. "Why ......? I don''t think it''s a ...... question about the response to the outbreak. If it was related to the outbreak, he would have said so from the beginning instead of starting off like this. This is about Zoemers. I received a call via a message bird. My guess, which has been off for some time now, seems to have come true. My guess, which has been wrong for some time now, seems to have come true, though the accuracy is still a bit sketchy, since neither the content nor the method of transmission of the information is correct. I''d say my batting average is about 20%. [Information Manipulation Analysis], do your job. Is it possible that we shouldn''t defeat it? If you think about it, Dilmia is like a rival company to Soiel, cultivating the same seyou. The top leader of Dilmia had become an incompetent like Zoemers, and the competition was getting easier, and I might have intervened in an unnecessary way. Huh?¡¡That''s no reason to be hospitable. No, not at all. You''re more than welcome. Actually, the lord of Eilden is a relative of mine. Thanks to Zoemarth''s fall, we''re going to get Dilmere. ...... You mean you''re going to take the whole territory in the wake of the fall of the lord? It''s a bit of a stretch, though. Is that even possible?¡¡I mean, if it were, you''d be talking to me about it at ....... "No problem. Neurel is such a country. It''s a lot different than Basis, where there''s a lot of power at the center. Too different. ....... Neurel seems to be a country beyond my imagination in many ways. In fact, I wonder if it even exists as a country anymore. It seems that there are laws that can judge the lords, so there must be at least some restrictions. "So, I''ve decided to give you a gift. You can choose one of these. As she said this, Sofia took out four boards with letters on them. I don''t know. This was supposed to be a joyous occasion, but I had a feeling that it would be troublesome. But I can''t say no. At any rate, I turn one of them over. On it was the name "Barumia" and an explanation. According to the description, "Barumia" is ...... "City! It was the name of a city. In other words, a territory. I can understand weapons and artifacts, but I don''t think I''m getting a territory. Rejected. I passed that board and turned to the next one. The name on the board is "Noble". It''s a town in the south of ...... Neurel. I ignored the board and flipped the other two boards together. One of them is the name of a city in the south of Neurel, like the other two. The contents of the other two were different from the previous three. It was not in the south of Neurel, but in the north. Incidentally, it seems that all these four territories belong to Eilden or Sophia. ...... I appreciate the sentiment, but I''m afraid I''ll have to pass! Even though it doesn''t seem to be a very big city, I have a feeling that getting a territory from another country would be troublesome. I''m confident that this premonition will come true. Hmmm, ...... is no good. So what territory do you want? ...... Why is it assumed that I will receive the territory? I think there is a limit to how much you can take, even if you have defeated the lord. Or perhaps this is an attempt to extract you as a thank you. If you think so, this treatment makes sense. Yeah. I think we should keep our distance. As for me, I prefer Seyou. Okay. Then go to ...... where the seyou is grown. You don''t need a territory. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out how to get the best out of it. ...... I understand. I''m sure you''ll be pleased with the results. The only problem is that when they are transported by ordinary people, they tend to lose their freshness. ...... I understand. I''ll come and pick it up. Okay. It looks like we managed to avoid being taken in. And they say we get good seuils every year. Excellent. Negotiations were a great success. There''s nothing to blame! The rest of the conversation was just the usual stuff about the range of demons, places to protect, places to stay away from, and the schedule for the day. The meeting ended without any problems, and I was on my way to the inn for the day. "Miss Kaede!¡¡I''ll take you to the inn! ...... By the way, I wonder how long this treatment will last. 103 Episode 102 Meerin and the Tailbull The next day . I decided to go out and hunt for a while, as I felt uncomfortable in the city and was treated too well. If I leave without saying a word, it might cause a commotion, so I try to go out from the front of the town. "Are you going somewhere, Mr. Kaede?¡¡We''ll provide you with an escort. ...... But as he was about to leave the town, he was stopped by the guards. It seems that this treatment is still going on. I don''t care if I''m escorting someone, what am I supposed to do if I''m being escorted? Wouldn''t having an escort slow you down, Kaede? Fortunately, before I could say anything, one of the other guards made a comment. But, Captain, we''ve been instructed to treat Kaede as if she were a high-ranking noblewoman from another country, and we can''t go out without an escort. It''s true, that''s what the order says, but think about the reason for Master Kaede''s presence and our fighting strength. We''ll be protected from the other side. What are you going to do by forcing us to be slow? Apparently, the person who gave me the tsukomi was a troop leader. I mean, I''ve been treated like a high ranking nobleman. ....... I came here as an adventurer, and I want to be treated as one. The food at the inn was very good, so please treat me like a noble. In particular, the stewed food at the Tailbrook was very good. --I couldn''t say anything about it, so I decided to have a cup of tea. I''m just checking things out. I''ll be fine on my own. I don''t know what I''m doing here if I''m protected. "Yes, sir. I''d really like to have an escort, but I don''t have the right person. ...... I''m sorry. The guards who sent me off with that look of concern. I wonder if I look unreliable because I''m young among the high-ranked adventurers. If this were Basis, I don''t think any of the guards would be worried about a decibatore going into a forest that wasn''t even demon territory. In fact, I''d be more worried about the impact on the ecosystem if the demons were defeated one by one. Fortunately (?) Fortunately (?), it seems that no matter how many demons you kill, they''ll keep coming back, and the concept of ecosystem protection doesn''t seem to exist in this world. So far, there are no signs of an outbreak in the surrounding area. There are still two days to go before a major outbreak is predicted, and signs of a major outbreak do not occur until just before the outbreak, so it is natural that there are no signs at this point. ...... is pretty different. But the forest of Soyl was quite different from the forest of Basis. The biggest difference at a glance was that there was snow on the ground. The trees are mostly coniferous, and the landscape is very different from that of Basis, where the trees are mostly broad-leaved. The biggest difference, however, is the lack of demons. In Basis, you would expect to encounter a dozen or so demons in an ordinary forest, and in Decibatore or Brokens, you would expect to encounter a hundred or so, but not a single demon was to be found. The signs of an outbreak didn''t mention anything about demons running away, so it can''t be because of the outbreak. I was thinking of searching for demons from the ground, since flying would make me stand out, but I thought it would be better to search from the sky. After thinking this far, I finally encountered the first demon. It was an ox demon with a body slightly smaller than Gargon''s and an unusually huge tail. Its tail was almost twice as long as its body, and it had a large knob on the end. The tail is almost twice as long as the body and has a large knob at the end. It looks like it could be used as a weapon when wielded,......, but the tail is so large in relation to the body that you start to worry that it might be wielded in reverse. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for.¡¡I''ve heard that name before. It''s also quite recent. Or rather, it''s an ingredient in a dish I had yesterday. As soon as I noticed it, I took out the magic sword from the item box. I then quickly close the distance to the Tailble and swing it down on his neck. In order to minimize the damage to the ingredients, it is important to use a sharp blade to finish him off. For now, I got one. I decided to fly around a bit to look for more monsters. I also used [Information Manipulation Analysis] to uncover the location of all the tail bulls in the surrounding area. The five words "ecosystem protection" do not exist in the dictionary of this world. I''m sure it was in my dictionary, but I can''t find it now. It appears to be a loose book, but I won''t replace it. --And thirty minutes later. I''ve got a lot of tailbleed in my item box, and I''m looking for other demons with a big smile on my face. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a tailble. I thought I had hunted down all the tail bulls, but ...... were they still there? It''s a good idea to take a look at the website and see if you can find anything that might help you. You''ll be able to find a lot more information on the web. It''s bigger. It was taller than the trees around it, and the hump on its tail alone seemed to weigh as much as a normal tail bull. His name is King Tail Bull. Yeah. Cheesy as usual. Either way, it''s good to know it''s worth eating. I take the magic sword in my hand and approach King Tale Bull. On the way, the King Tail Bull seems to have noticed me and swings its tail towards me, but it''s too late. Before the tail could reach me, I thrust my magic sword into the King Tail Bull''s neck. Because of its thick neck, I couldn''t decapitate it with a single blow like a normal tailbleed, but I seemed to have defeated it. I put the defeated King Tail Bull in the item box and started looking for my next prey. There might be some other tasty monsters out there. As I continued to find and kill demons, evening came. The total number of demons I killed was 1,075. Not a bad result. In addition to the low density of demons, I was careful not to damage the ingredients too much, so my pace was not very fast, but thanks to the large size of the forest, I was able to hunt for a long time. Well. Now that I''ve hunted, I''ll have to think about cooking. You can try to do it yourself with the help of Seewool, but ...... you''re staying at an inn with good food, and now is a good time to go back to the inn for a meal. I''ll ask around. When I returned to the inn after hunting, the food was prepared immediately. In spite of the short notice, the food seemed to be freshly prepared in almost no time. Today''s meal was also delicious. When the meal was over, the chef came out, and I casually asked him. He said, "The food was excellent again today. I''d like to ask for the recipe. I''m glad you liked it. If you''d like, I can prepare the recipe for you. Are you sure? I didn''t think you''d give me the recipe. Of course. You can make it and sell it there. There''s no competition with Basis, and we''d be happy to sell our specialties. Specialties: ...... Oh. It''s true that most of these dishes are made with sauces. This inn may also have something to do with the producers of sauces. Then, please! Then, about two hours later, a thick stack of papers arrived at the room where I was staying. Are these all recipes from ......? I flipped through the sheets of paper with trepidation. On it, there was a detailed description of everything from the amount of ingredients and seasonings to the heat and cooking tips. The same goes for the second and third pages. Using the item box, I counted that there were about seventy such pieces of paper. I thought paper was precious in this world. ......? I''m not that good a cook, but I''m sure there were cooks in Kaede Trading Company. I think they can cook for you if you just prepare the ingredients. By the way, as far as I could ascertain, all of the dishes with recipes used seuille and a local liquor (called meilin, apparently), and there was also a note in the recipe that said, "Come to Soyl and we''ll sell it to you anytime. I can''t help but feel that this is some kind of trickery, but it''s okay because ...... is delicious. The only thing I regretted was that there was no recipe for the King Tail Bull among the demons we killed. The only thing I regret is that there was no recipe for King Tale Bull among the demons we defeated. Is it the same as Tale Bull? ...... I''ll ask him about it tomorrow. 104 Episode 103 Seouyu Fields and Up-and-Down Crafts "I killed a king tail bull yesterday, can I cook it the same way as a tail bull? "Kin ......, sorry. May I try again? "King Tail Bull. It''s a big tail bull from the forest. ...... Can you kill that thing? I mean, I could, I did. It seemed to have a lot of power and durability, but it didn''t seem like a very strong demon. If you gather a few Desibatoreans, you can probably defeat it. Some people may be able to defeat it by themselves. It''s a demon that the previous lord had given up on trying to defeat after being beaten back by a 30-man strike force. ...... A 30-man strike force ...... might have just been a bunch of random people. Well, let''s not mention it too much. The strength of a monster that has already been defeated is not very important. The problem is not the strength, but the taste. How should I cook it? My hunch is that it should be the same as the Tailbleed. ...... But since it has never been defeated, it''s hard to say for sure. If you can provide a little something, you can figure out how to cook it. ...... If you think about it, the fact that it has never been defeated means that it has never been cooked. If you are asked how to cook such a thing, even the most skilled cook would be in trouble. Well, I''ll prepare the meat later. I can''t carve it here. The King Tale Bull doesn''t fit in this room. Thank you very much. ...... By the way, how did you defeat the King Tail Bull?¡¡I''m sure you''ll be able to figure it out in the future. I just walked up to it and decapitated it. I couldn''t get it off with a single blow, so you might want to use a blade with a large cross section. "...... I see. I can see now that this is not helpful. Thank you very much. Apparently, it was not helpful. Well, we only failed because we only had a few adventurers to defeat it, but I think we can defeat it if we gather enough adventurers. After finishing my meal, I decided to take another look at the forest today. I''m sure I killed a lot of them yesterday, but there were already some tail bulls back in the forest. As I moved around hunting them, I saw a familiar black cloud. It was almost certainly a sign of an outbreak. "...... a little early, isn''t it? According to what I had heard before I came, tomorrow would be the day of the outbreak. But from the looks of things now, it won''t be more than thirty minutes before the outbreak. I guess I was right to come here to check on it. If the location of the predicted appearance is too far away, will the accuracy of the prediction also decrease? Fortunately, there are no trees or other objects directly under the cloud that need to be protected. The seyou field is a little farther away from the cloud, so it should not be engulfed. As usual, I placed a fire spell to create a ward in the air, prepared to collect the magic stone, and waited - and lo and behold, a demon appeared underneath it. All the outbreaks so far have come from the air, so I was caught off guard. In order to protect the Seyou field, I shot a small flame spell in front of it and tried to check it. But the demons didn''t care about that, and instead increased their momentum and charged into the fields. Do you guys have something against Seyou?¡¡Are you working for Zoemers? Either way, it looks like we can''t take it easy. I''ll cast a massive warding spell to protect the Seuil field. Then I made sure there was no one in the area of effect and cast a high-powered fire spell. With a roar, the demons and the trees in the forest were blown away. But Seyou field is safe. The magic stones were picked up by ...... at first, but there were so many that I gave up halfway. The sky suddenly turned black.¡¡The sky suddenly turned black, and now it''s red. As I returned to the city, one of the guards called out to me. I''m fine. The forest was blown away a little, but the fields of Seuil are safe. That''s what an outbreak looks like. It''s my fault that it turned red, but I always use ...... fire magic, so I guess it''s safe to say that''s how it goes. "The forest is ...... going to blow up? "Yes. But we probably shouldn''t go check it out right now. The ground is pretty hot and you could get burned. "The forest is blown away, and the heat is high. ......?¡¡How can you just walk back out of a place like that and ...... Decibatore is a horrible place ......? It''s pretty fun once you get used to it. "No, you''ll die before you get used to it. With that exchange, I entered the city. I was going to go to the lord to report, but he said he was out for a while to do some research, so I had to wait at the inn. A little while later, the lord returned and I was invited to the lord''s house. I''m sure you''re aware of the fact that according to the report of the investigators, the outbreak occurred earlier than expected ....... "Yes. A few of the forest is ...... blown away as if it was caught in some kind of explosion, but for some reason only the Seyou field is unharmed? It''s not the demon, it''s what happened when the demon was defeated. I protected Seyou with warding magic. The damage to the forest should be smaller. Should the damage to the forest have been smaller? No. There was not much use for the forest, and it would be a great help to have a new farm. I was surprised when I saw it because it was such a bizarre sight. ...... Did you go to see it yourself? You may have climbed to a higher place and seen it from a distance. So, here''s the receipt for the Seewool. I''m sure you''ll be fine without it while I''m here, but you can''t be sure nothing will happen to you. Also, there was a report that there were a lot of magic stones in the forest that blew up. Shall I have ...... collect them and have them delivered? No, I have to go back to the other side soon, so if you could dispose of the demon stones there. If the demon stone had been imbued with attributes, it might have been necessary to retrieve it somehow, but this time the power output was a little suppressed so as not to destroy the Seewoo field in the unlikely event. That shouldn''t be too much trouble. Thank you. I''ll see what I can do for you next time you''re here. "...... Food, if you can. Not a territory. After such an exchange, I left Soiel and returned to Photoren, returning the inro on the way. Now that I had some new food, I headed back to Mercia. Oh, Kaede. Welcome back!¡¡I was worried about Neurel''s manipulation of me, but it looks like ...... it was okay. The first thing Mercia did was to find out what Neurel was up to. It''s not so much Neurel as it is Soyl''s movement. There was a breach. But you didn''t get caught, did you? No. I was about to be forced into a territory as a reward, but instead I received a Seuil. They say we get them every year. You''re stuck with ......! Hooked on ......?¡¡What''s that? Well, maybe we can make some connections. ...... Oh. Mercia doesn''t know the value of a Seewool. "Seuil is a fruit of Soil... I know!¡¡It''s used as a seasoning, isn''t it?¡¡No, I want to know why we get it every year! Because ...... there''s only a limited amount produced each year? That''s not the point. ...... That''s enough. I had a feeling that was the case, and it''s much better than receiving territories. ....... Just don''t take the territory, please. ...... "Oh. I understand. It is true that going to another country every year to receive specialties may have some political problems,......, but if you think about Seewoo Yu, Meiling, and those recipes, it is cheap. By the way, the king tail bream can be cooked almost the same way as regular tail bream. It''s not that it tastes bad because it''s big, but it tastes good. After this, I consulted with Mercia, and got a cook who could make use of the recipe, and a restaurant for him to take it to. The only problem was that there was someone other than me and Mercia who knew about the capture. The source of the information was the seal, but I didn''t know about it at the time. 105 Episode 104 Provinces and Nobles ---------- The Royal Palace ----------------------- The day after Kaede returned to Fotolen. In the royal palace, the upper echelons of the nobility, the military and the guilds were gathered for a meeting. There was no time to waste, so only those near the royal capital were gathered. ...... Still, there were more than 20 participants. The king is also scheduled to attend, although he has not yet arrived. What will these people be discussing when they get together? ...... "The capture of Neurel. Even though we expected it, ...... we''re in trouble. "It''s not so much Neurel''s idea as it is Soyl''s. Well, the situation is still the same ....... This is about Kaede. When he left the country, Kaede was given an inro, in which a recording device was placed, and from the contents of the device, the capture was discovered. Incidentally, although Kaede did not seem to know it, the recording device was neither a secret nor a secret. They are kept in order to be used as evidence in case something happens. If Kaede had known about it, she probably would have put it in the item box and never taken it out. "Hmm. There is even a possibility that Kaede will be pulled out if this continues. So we''ve gathered to decide what to do. ...... Anyone have any suggestions? "He should be executed immediately! As soon as the chairman finished his question, Count Gengar, one of the participants, shouted. "Lord Gengar, I don''t think so. Kaede the adventurer has brought benefits to the country and has done no wrong. There''s no reason to execute him. "But Kaede the adventurer went to a neighboring country to pick up some local products!¡¡It is treason to establish friendly relations with a neighboring country! ...... Neurel is a friendly country, and it was Basis that sent them as reinforcements. But isn''t the fruit a private contract? I''m not sure what to make of that. I''m sure you''ll be pleased to know that I''m not the only one. "But ...... Even after all this, Gengar still persists. The reason is simple. Kaede is a hindrance to Gengar. For Gengar, who was in control of the back market where the illicitly sold Zunana grass was traded, and was profiting greatly from it, Kaede Trading Company was a thorn in his side. Gengar wanted to destroy it at any cost. "Gengar, you can''t do that. When Gengar interrupted his own words, he immediately tried to refute ...... them and immediately closed his mouth. This is because the person who interrupted Gengar was the king, who had entered the conference room before he knew it. Let''s assume for a moment that there was a reason to execute Kaede. How would you execute him? "How would you ...... The king sighed as he looked at Gengar, who did not understand the meaning of what he was being told, and asked the Knight Commander. I''m not sure what to make of it. "...... I think it''s impossible. I don''t think it would last more than five minutes. I don''t know. I wasn''t surprised when you said five seconds. It''s insane to make an enemy of the man who slayed the dragon that turned a continent into a clearing. ...... I think it would be best to give Basis territory before other countries do. Hearing the king''s statement, the conference room was filled with surprise. That''s understandable. Receiving the territory would mean becoming a noble. Adventurers have not become nobles for several hundred years. You''re giving an adventurer a fief? "Yes. The adventurer, Kaede, has done well for himself. ...... And you have just the land for it. The king then pointed to a point on the map. ---------- ---- ------------------------ ...... Then, a few days later. A letter arrived at my door. The letter was decorated in such a way that you could tell at a glance that it was something unusual, and it had a number of large seals stamped on it. When I opened the envelope and looked inside, I found that it was an invitation to bring Mercia to King''s Landing in recognition of her achievements as an adventurer. Kindly, it even told me what route to take and where to stay. As for me, why Mercia? ...... I''m not sure, but it''s best to talk to him. He should know a lot more about commendations than I do. At any rate, I peeked into the business and found Mercia easily. "Hey, Mercia, I got a really nice letter. "Not to the Chamber of Commerce, but to Ms. Kaede? It''s unusual that it didn''t come through the guild. What did it say? It''s a very ornate piece of writing, but ...... in short, it''s a commendation for my achievements, and it''s asking me to bring Mercia to the capital. "An award ......?¡¡I''m not sure what that means. As for me, I don''t really want to leave Photoren. ...... Who is the sender? The sender is ....... I didn''t see that. I was so distracted by the fancy decorations that I forgot to check the sender. Thinking that I might have been a little upset about receiving a strange letter, I read out the name on the letter. "Terrabad-Basis. "Boom!¡¡Keho, keho ......". As soon as I read out the name, Mercia blurted it out. "Mercia, are you okay? That''s my line!¡¡It''s from the king! "The king?¡¡But that''s not what the letter says: ...... You don''t have to write it down, no one will notice. No, I''m here. But if you ask me, having the same surname as the name of the country seems to be very royal. I don''t know if it''s a good idea to put your name in front of your name, or if it''s a bad idea to put your position in front of your name. ...... Maybe it''s different in this world. So, you''re saying that I''ve been summoned by the king of this country? That''s what it means. ...... What am I supposed to do? There''s nothing to do but go. Well, it''s best to be cautious, but as for the king himself, I don''t think we have much to worry about. Is that so? I''m sure you''re not the only one who has a problem with this. ....... I''m not sure what to make of it. I''m not sure what to make of it. When you say aristocrats, do you mean the ones who blame others for their crimes, arrest them, and try to confiscate their property? "No, sir. No. I don''t think anyone is stupid enough to think that they can arrest Mr. Kaede head-on. Assassinating him while he''s sleeping, that kind of thing. There actually was such an idiot. Well, assassinating someone while they are asleep would not be a problem as long as you maintain your magical armor. But is there any reason why the nobles of this country would have to kill me? If I kill the item box owner, I won''t be able to get its contents. "Who would benefit from assassinating me? "I think Mr. Kaede, or rather the Chamber of Commerce, is in the way. There''s been very little damage, but they''ve been messing with me more and more. Strangely well-equipped bandits appear in unnatural places, or try to assassinate me while I''m on the move. ...... Mercia is talking about it like it''s nothing, but ...... assassination is important! If you''re looking at Mercia in front of you, it seems to be an attempt. ...... What happened to the assassination attempt? I''m not sure. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. There were only about thirty of them, but I don''t think the result would have been any different even if there had been three hundred. Are the guards that good? He''s a former Desibatore. I see. Apparently, Mercia was in a position where she needed an escort without my knowledge. Well, with the protection of the Decibatoreans and their magic tools, it seems that Mercia doesn''t need to worry. And the mastermind behind all of this is a nobleman in King''s Landing? I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but I''m sure it''s a good idea. The most suspicious ones are Count Masheron and Count Gengar. What''s so special about those two? They are both families that have been making money from the black market of Zunana grass. For both of them, this business would be a thorn in their side. Count Gengar, in particular, seems to have relied heavily on black market transactions, so it''s not surprising that he would use any means at his disposal. He once tried to sink a ship. There was no such thing as a black market for Zunana grass: ....... I''m sure you''ve heard of it. Yeah. That''s a nice backhanded compliment. ...... Okay. Shall we destroy it? "Shall we shut it down? We''re on the same page. Let''s use the trip to King''s Landing to crush the people who''ve been causing trouble. But to treat them as criminals just because they were dealing in black market Zunana grass would be too rough. We need to find some other way to expose the mastermind. ...... Well, if they''re going to go out of their way to assassinate me, I might as well take advantage of it. 106 Episode 105 Mercia and Acting Skills A few days after the letter arrived. We''re all ready to go and we''re about to leave Photoren. "Okay. I''m off then. "Have a good day!¡¡Have a good day!" "Have a good day! I told them I didn''t need to see them off, but there were many employees of the Chamber of Commerce gathered at the gate of Photoren, moving in unison to see us off. I''ve left you in charge of the Chamber of Commerce while I''m gone, sir. ""Yes!" . I''m sure you''ll be pleased to know that I''m not the only one. ......I don''t remember the Kaede Chamber of Commerce being an army. ...... There''s something strangely well-organized about these employees. In order to combat sabotage, we asked some of our employees to develop some combat skills, so we asked people from the guild to give us guidance. ...... When we came back, some of our employees were like that. "Guild relations? Mainly a guy named Gun-soo. There weren''t many people who were directly instructed, but it seems that those people gave similar instructions to other people. Mr. Gun-soo ...... sounds familiar. Yeah. He''s a nice guy, but he''s a bit of a jerk. He''s a nice guy, but it''s no wonder he''s like that when he''s really teaching. ....... And that tension is contagious, apparently. Thanks to this, the defense of the Chamber of Commerce has been greatly enhanced. I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one. ...... So we can use them as bait without worry. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re doing. I prepared a high quality carriage and good horses, and increased the speed by not loading any luggage, but it will still take about five days to arrive. This is not only for the purpose of my protecting Mercia, but also for the purpose of making it easier for the enemy to get to us. I have already prepared for the interrogation ...... and welcome party for the attackers. If we just beat them back, we won''t know who is our enemy. "Yes, sir. The guards should follow us, pretending to be careless so that the attackers can easily come out. All right. I''m on it. This time, Mercia has prepared two guards. I''m not sure what to do, but I''m going to do it. Lake and Mathias. They were Decibatoreans, who looked like ordinary villagers you could find in any town. Their strength is low, but they excel at spotting and fighting against others, making them ideal for this mission. ...... By the way, "low strength" by Desibatore standards means "a little stronger than the main class of other front-line cities. The two of them, under our direction, began to steer the carriage or lie down on the back of it with sleepy faces. And so we slowly approached the capital. The first, second and third days were uneventful, but on the evening of ...... the fourth day, the day before we were scheduled to arrive, things moved. Do you have a minute? Before dinner, we were gathered in my room talking. Lake, who had just returned from a reconnaissance mission, made a gesture to cover his ears. Seeing this, I activated one of the artifacts that Catherine had made for me before I came, a muffling charm that prevents voices from leaking out. What''s wrong? The well at the inn has been drugged. Oh. At last. I was worried that you might not come to assassinate me since you''d be arriving tomorrow. "In the meantime, I''ve thrown a small anchor in the perpetrator''s luggage. He seems to be a low-level guy, so we don''t want to catch him and alert the authorities. What do we do now? Well, ......, why don''t we just pretend we don''t notice it and eat it?¡¡That''s a good idea. Do you have the antidote? I don''t, but I don''t need it. I checked the sleeping potion in the well and found that it is a slow-acting sleeping potion that interferes with a person''s magic to induce drowsiness. ...... In short, it has little effect on the strong magic of the Decibatore. The concentration of the drug makes it only mildly drowsy at best. Why do you need it? It''s a major sleeping pill. I''m not sure if it''s a good idea, but it''s a good idea. ...... And it''s not well known that it''s less effective against desibatoreans. There''s no such thing as a daredevil trying to drug a desi battler in the first place. ...... So the strategy of letting your guard down with your appearance has worked. I''m going to go with that then. I''ll have recovery magic ready just in case. ...... What about Mercia? I always wear an anti-poison magic tool, so I''m fine without it. I''m not sure what to do, but I''m sure it''s a good idea. I''m not sure what to make of it. I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. ...... That means the potion they gave you won''t work on any of us. "Okay, let''s go get some food. Sleeping pills are slow-acting, so if you go to bed too early, people might get suspicious. After dinner, we''ll have a chat and if anyone feels sleepy, we''ll start sleeping. "Got it! "Understood. After confirming everyone''s replies, I stored the magic tools in the item box and headed for the dining room. When I appraised the water and food that came out, I found that it did indeed contain the medicine that Lake had mentioned. The other guests were in a similar situation, so there was no doubt that the medicine had been planted in the well. We then pretended not to notice the medicine, ate our meals, and returned to our room as planned. But while we were waiting for the attack, there was one problem. "Hey. How long does it take for that potion to work? Two to five hours, depending on the formulation. It''s been almost five hours. All three of us can''t remember how long we''ve been asleep. We''re running out of things to do to pass the time. However, we can''t leave the room, because we''d be exposed as being in high spirits. Maybe your medication was too weak. ...... It is possible that the magic of the potion was blown away by the magic of the ...... maple. It''s a good idea to pretend to be asleep at this time of night. ...... Wait a minute. Do you hear something? I listened carefully, and sure enough, I could hear what sounded like something walking. "Footsteps. Ten of them. And those footsteps are from a guy who knows some martial arts. I think they''re attackers. "......, hurry up and pretend to be asleep!¡¡If they find out you''re awake, they might call off the attack! If they find out we''re awake, they might call off the attack! I''ll pretend to be asleep.¡¡I''ll hurry up and pretend to be asleep! We exchanged this conversation in a panic, then hurriedly lay down on the ground and started pretending to be asleep. It''s like students on a school trip who are afraid of the teacher''s patrol. "Soo, soo ...... And this is where Mercia''s lack of acting ability is revealed. "Soo, soo ......," she said. I thought Mercia was a relatively perfect human being, but I didn''t realize she had a weakness in this area. There are too many things wrong with her, but it''s the assassin''s fault for giving her a potion that doesn''t work or has no effect. At the very least, it should have been written somewhere that the potion would take effect after a certain number of hours. But fortunately, thanks to my low voice, the assassins didn''t seem to notice me. Suddenly, the door to my room was opened and about ten men with swords came in. Good. It looks like the medicine is working. But isn''t the way you''re sleeping unnatural? ...... Mercia''s performance was immediately noticed. You can see that the intruders'' eyes are drawn to Mercia by the reaction of the tentacles. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. The result is black. They''re all bandits. Because they were drugged to sleep. It''s not like natural sleep, of course. ...... Now the credit goes to me. ......? I guess I''ll start with the easy ones. I kicked away the intruder who tried to attack Mercia. Two of the guards also moved at the same time, and the intruder (probably the leader, judging from the way he spoke) was blown up by the simultaneous attacks of the three of them. The intruder (probably the leader from the way he spoke) was blown up by the simultaneous attacks of the three men, but probably because he was careful not to kill them. The intruder quickly got up and gave instructions to the others. It doesn''t matter how strong they are, as long as we surround them!¡¡I''m not sure what to do.¡¡I''ll take care of the weak ones on your side by myself! I''ll take on the weak ones on that side by myself!" We looked at each other when we heard that poor instruction. "Hey, Matthias, they''re taking advantage of you. Lake, too. ...... Well, it''s Kaede that''s being taken advantage of the most. Why don''t we just capture him? Will do. --About ten seconds later. About ten seconds later, all of the intruders were captured and piled up in a corner of the room. Now it''s interrogation time. It''s time to use Catherine''s magic tools. 107 Episode 106 Information Gathering and Man-made Tan... "That was surprisingly difficult. I thought I could get there in about half the time. ...... It''s been a long time since I''ve done anything like this. I didn''t realize assassins were such sensitive creatures. ...... Lake and Mathias murmured to each other as the assassins were captured and piled in a corner of the room. Apparently, they didn''t like the fact that it took ten seconds to capture the assassins alive. If they had been allowed to kill him, it would have taken less than a tenth of that time. Incidentally, most of the assassins were unconscious, and even those who were conscious seemed to have completely lost their will to fight. One of them, the one who was talking about taking credit when he came in, suddenly began to suffer as if he was mumbling something. According to the information manipulation analysis, he seems to have taken poison. I wonder if he had it in his back teeth. "Okay. Let''s interrogate him first. As I say this, I invoke the recovery spell and force the assassin to recover from the poisoning. The other assassins don''t seem to be trying to kill themselves, so he''s the one most likely to have information. In addition, I used a magic tool to prevent any sound from leaking out so that they can''t talk to each other later. ...... What did you do? "It''s just recovery magic. You can''t get any information if you''re dead. Recovery spell?¡¡Why?¡¡If you took that potion, why do you have magic? Why, you ask? ...... I don''t think that''s the right thing to say after you''ve given me a potion that doesn''t work at all. It was hard for me to know when to act. "If you want the magic potion to work on the maple, bring a mug of the undiluted potion. If you mix it in the well, even we won''t be able to kill it. "Is one mug enough? ...... I feel like I''m being told what to do, but I don''t care, I''m going to keep talking. Well, never mind the drugs, let''s get to the interrogation. I''m not sure if this is a good idea, but it''s a good idea.¡¡It''s useful, but it takes a lot of time.¡¡There''s a good chance you won''t make it on arrival day. I don''t think it''s a good idea to use ...... too risqu¨¦ a method in the inn. No. It''s a very peaceful way. It''s just a question. I take out a set of mages from the item box. It''s just a bunch of different kinds of magic tools, so it''s not exactly the same structure as the ones on Earth. ...... Its function is to mimic the lie detector that we had on Earth. Well, it measures your pulse and the current flowing through your skin to see how you react, so it''s not really a lie detector. I don''t have any experience using such a thing, I just know the principle, so it won''t work unless the results are easy to understand. Well, if it doesn''t work, you can try decibatraining or questioning. "Was it Zoemers who gave you the orders? I''ll ask the question under an appropriate name. The assassin waits a moment, but gives no answer. But since Zoemers is not from this country and should have been executed by now, it''s probably a bad answer. That''s fine. It is only when you know the reaction to an incorrect answer that you can distinguish it from a correct answer. After that, I continue to give the appropriate names and the names of the nobles and merchants of the country. The most noticeable reaction to the magic tool was when Mercia mentioned the name of Gengar, a candidate for the main suspect, as she had predicted. There was a slight change in the reaction of the magic tool that detects the pulse, but the biggest reaction of all was the device that detects magic power. As magic is triggered by images, magic power may have a strong connection with the mind. "Kaede, you haven''t answered any of my questions, but if I ask you a ...... question, will it tell me anything? "Yeah. I can''t use it as evidence, but I think it will help you gather information. While answering Mercia''s question, I continued to question the assassin. After naming all the candidates, I asked about the organization behind them. According to the magic detection response, the client seemed to be Gengar and the organization behind him. Also, it seems that there are similar assassins lurking in the town next to this one. You''re a mind reader, aren''t you? As I explained to Mercia and the others what I had found out, the assassin opened his mouth for the first time in a long time. From the reaction, it seems that this lie detector (although it''s really just a magic detector) is doing its job. "Well. For now, all we know for sure is that you''re going to be tortured in the Decibatore style after this. "Kaede, it''s not torture, it''s questioning. @. "Well. It seems that the magic tools Kaede brought are quite reliable. Next day. After having a meal in a neighboring town to check the authenticity of the information obtained from the lie detector, we fought off the assassins as we had done yesterday, and watched as the second team of assassins was taken away by the guards. The process of repelling the assassins was almost the same as yesterday. It was so uninteresting that there was no change at all. The medicine still didn''t work, and Mercia''s acting skills were still zero. The only thing that had changed was that the time between the start of the battle and the completion of the capture had been reduced by about two seconds. Well, now the authenticity of the information is doubly confirmed. "Now that the culprit is almost certain to be Gengar, ......, how should we destroy him now? "Gengar is a nobleman, even if he is corrupt. I''m sure they''ve taken measures to prevent him from being treated as a bandit. If he was a bandit, we could kill him with a single stone. ...... As Mercia and Lake are discussing, it is true that defeating a Gengar that has not been treated as a bandit will be quite a hassle. But killing Gengar isn''t the only way to destroy him. "Hey... Gengar''s been having money problems lately, hasn''t he? "Yes. Originally, Gengar''s territory was so desolate that he was almost running at a loss. He''s probably making a small fortune now by brokering backroom deals. "Then why don''t you attack the organization that''s doing the brokering? ¡¡They''re probably a bunch of bandits, aren''t they? Sabotage is a hindrance and a hassle because it is done by people with money and power. If you destroy the source of the money and the organization, the fool with the money becomes just a fool. Thanks to the kind assassins, I now know where Gengar''s backers are. That''s a crazy idea. ....... But if we push them too hard, they might try to attack us with abandon. If that happens, we''ll just have to turn the tables on them. Right now, the Kaede Chamber of Commerce is full of Desibatoreans guards. Mathias answered Mercia''s question immediately. "Good. Okay, let''s go with that plan. It''s a good idea.¡¡...... By the way, wasn''t today the day we were supposed to arrive at King''s Landing?¡¡If we don''t leave soon, won''t we be late getting there? You''re right, we won''t make it if we don''t. ...... We took an early meal (with an ineffective potion) so that we could get to the raid as soon as possible, but it was already evening. It seems that the audience is the day after tomorrow, but what about an audience the day after we arrive? ...... Well, we''ve invited the raid, and we''ve got the information. We don''t need to travel by carriage anymore. You''re right. No more horses. I''ll just leave it somewhere else. The suddenly sacked horses were taken to the lake with puzzled expressions on their faces. A few moments later, Lake returned and announced in a high-pitched voice. "We''ll ride from here to King''s Landing! Well, I''m not from Decibatore, and I''m not a very fast runner. ...... "Don''t worry. Mercia can just ride in that carriage. The carriage is unnecessarily sturdy to handle situations like this. And it has a strong suspension. "What ...... is the function of this carriage, I wasn''t really involved in its design? Of course, it''s for getting around like this!¡¡That! As soon as Lake called out, the three of us grabbed the carriage and the three of us lifted it . No, it''s not a carriage anymore. It''s a rickshaw, the Desibatore version. All right!¡¡Let''s go! Yeah! We speed up, keeping in sync with each other. The vehicle is quite light and the road is suitable for running, unlike the Desibatore movement, so it is very easy to increase the speed. Although the demons sometimes spotted us, they must have seen our speed and decided that they couldn''t catch up with us. They didn''t even chase us. Well, even if they did, the demons would be the victims of a traffic accident. "Hey!¡¡You''re fast! You''re too fast! Don''t worry!¡¡This thing is using a lot of Metal Lizard Metal to withstand the speed we''re going! I don''t think that''s the problem! We hurried on our way to the royal capital, listening to Mercia''s cries echoing vainly in the evening sky. It was about two hours later that the twelve-hour journey to the capital was completed. 108 Episode 107: The Royal Capital and Decoy "Oh!¡¡So this is King''s Landing! About two hours after our departure. About two hours after our departure, we arrived in front of the royal capital, carrying the carriage (or whatever it was) that carried Mercia. As the capital of the country, the city seemed to be quite bright even after the sun had completely set. You can see the scenery through the gates, and the design is more elaborate than in Fotoren or Herrera. It''s not as bad as Desibatore. The biggest feature is probably the huge castle peeking out from the top of the gate. Was this your first visit to the maple tree? You seemed to be used to being in a crowded place, and I thought you had experience in King''s Landing. No, I don''t. I''m used to crowds in other places. Even as we talked, we slowed down in step. We can''t just drive into the gates of King''s Landing at this speed. The gates here are pretty empty at night too. The last time I came here, there was a huge line to get in. ...... Yeah. There are almost no demons around the capital, but the roads along the way can be a bit dangerous. If you can get a decent escort, it''s better to arrive at night. Mercia, who hadn''t lifted a finger from the carriage when we were speeding, seemed to notice that we were slowing down and showed her face. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. What''s that ...... thing? It''s a carriage. When the gatekeeper saw us carrying what used to be a carriage on our backs, he shouted in confusion. I''m not sure if it''s because we''re in the capital or because the gatekeepers don''t use honorifics in other cities. Well, I understand the feeling. I don''t know how to explain this, but I don''t think rickshaws are common, and the closest thing is probably horse-drawn carriages. It looks like there are no horses. When Matthias answered the question, the guards grew more and more confused. Maybe we should have just stowed the carriage in the right place and arrived on foot. Well, the more conspicuous we are, the more likely we are to attract Gengar and his underworld, and that''s better for a short battle. I left the horse in the last town because he''s slow. I had to hurry a bit. I''ve heard of people switching from carriages to horses to increase speed, but I''ve never ...... heard of leaving a horse behind. Excuse me, may I ask what city you''re from? All three of us are from Desibatore. I''m from Fotolen. The four of us take out our IDs and show them to the guards. I see you''re from Decibatore. ....... I''m not sure if there''s anything wrong with your ID, but can I check to see if there''s anyone else in the carriage? "Yes. The guard checked the inside of the carriage and led us into the city. With this reaction, the guards probably hadn''t been told about the audience. If we had been escorted by a muscular adventurer who looked overtly like a Desibatore, the conversation might have gone more quickly. It was a mistake to choose a guard with a carefree appearance in order to catch the enemy off guard. So, what are we going to do now? For now, let''s go to the inn. I''m tired. ...... "Wasn''t Mercia resting in the carriage?¡¡She could have slept. During the ride, Lake explained to me how wonderful this carriage was. It must have had high performance cushions in addition to the suspension so that people could rest properly inside. They even tested it to see if people could sleep in it. I would like to see the face of someone who can rest in a vehicle moving at such a speed. The ...... time savings is tempting, but I wouldn''t want to ride it again if I could help it. ...... Hmm ...... still room for improvement. I got on the plane myself to make sure it was comfortable. All those who wanted to get in ...... besides me, like Verd, Gust and Reilly, were unanimous. All the applicants are decibatoreans! None of the others would come forward. ...... Apparently, the carriage was not well received. We''ll have to rethink the carriage design later, but I thought you said you''d already found us a place to stay? "It should be. It''s called the Tail of the Dragon. ...... Yeah. That''s the inn we always use when we come to King''s Landing. You know who took it. This way then. The inn we arrived at with Lake''s guidance was quite luxurious, as it had been taken by someone related to the king. They seemed to be particularly careful about security, and checked our IDs when we entered the inn. The clientele seemed to be mainly merchants and adventurers, rather than nobles. Not that there was anything particularly interesting. But the problem is Gengar. I''m sure you''ll be able to find something that will help you out. In the end, the adventurers we defeated gave us only one base of operations. Perhaps the perpetrator of the raid was near the end of the organization and was not in a position to give much information. Incidentally, it seems that one of the locations is usually operated as a tavern. If the organization had only a base of operations that such an idiot knew about, it would have been destroyed before we could do anything about it. But it''s going to take a while to find out what else is going on. I have a plan for that. The one who raised his hand was Lake again. He''s good at fighting against other people, and he seems to have a lot of knowledge about killing bandits. What''s the plan? First, Kaede will go to their base. And then we fight them?¡¡That doesn''t sound like a plan to me. ...... No, we''re just going home. I''m sure they''re not stupid enough to think that Kaede is just here for a drink. As long as Kaede doesn''t make a move on them, it''s unlikely that they would fight with him without any preparation. He''ll either run away, or else he''ll set a trap for his next visit. "So if it runs away, we should find a place to run to. What if they set a trap? Given the power of Lake and the others, it should be easy enough to follow them if they escape. If we choose the right people to follow, we should be able to find the location of their hideout rather easily. However, if the opponent does not escape, the situation will only become more complicated. I''ve also thought of what to do if a trap is set. If they set a trap, we''ll go near the building and stake it out. And then? Then Kaede will hit their base. Mercia will be safe here at the inn. I see. This inn is reliable. ¡¡By the way, the store is supposed to be trapped, how safe am I? If you hit them, they''ll run away. That''s where you''ll be. I see, even if they don''t run, you''ll force them out. That way, we can locate their base by tomorrow. And what about my safety? This is a well-thought-out plan. How is that? We''re gonna use the non-lethal maple as a decoy. Hey, escort. That was a terrible dereliction of duty. You''re about to send your client into the middle of an enemy trap all by himself. It was Mercia who asked me to protect her. You don''t need to protect Kaede. ...... So, the client was Mercia, right? But then again, Lake and the others would have to follow Mercia''s orders. I''m sure Mercia wouldn''t want to send me, the owner of a business association, to such a dangerous place alone. So I''ll follow Mercia''s decision here. In order to make the dangerous mission a little more sane, I left the decision to Mercia. I''m sure Mercia will live up to my expectations. "Okay. I''m sure you''ll be happy to hear that. ...... Huh? 109 Episode 108 Booze and Explosion After Mercia''s betrayal, I''m now a decoy, and I''m on my way to the tavern that is the base of Gengar''s underground organization. The purpose of today''s trip was to alert them to my presence. If you run away or make contact with another base, Lake and the others can track you down and find out where you are. So I immediately opened the door to the base. The tavern that is the base of Gengar''s organization looks like a normal tavern. The only difference is that the entrance is extremely narrow, making it difficult to enter and exit, and there is a large space within the walls. This is probably to make it a little more difficult for the attackers to move in case they are attacked by a large number of people, and also to provide a space for the underworld to use. "What?¡¡...... order? I''m not sure if you''ve heard of this, but I''m sure you''ve heard of it. He made eye contact with some of the other customers in the restaurant. He also seems to be gesturing with his hands to keep out of my sight. Well, I can see him perfectly on the touch screen. Apparently, several people, including the owner, knew my face. ...... Well... They asked me what I wanted to order, but come to think of it, I don''t know much about the kinds of alcohol in this world. The only one I know the name of is decibatore, but I believe it was distilled so much to make it more portable that it was almost nothing but alcohol. So, I guess I have to do it this way. "Give me a recommendation. I say this and take a seat at a random table. This way, I could see how the other person would react. Even if I am poisoned, I can use recovery magic and pretend to have drunk it all without a care in the world, which will make them even more cautious. Forty-tell. Is that enough? As I said this, I took a coin from the item box and placed it on the table. Forty tell. That''s pretty cheap. Well, I don''t really care what kind of liquor it is, as long as the owner notices it, I''ve accomplished my goal for today. If I wanted to, I''d prefer it to have a lower alcohol content. While I was thinking about this, the sake came out. The liquor that came out was just plain liquor, with no particular signs of poisoning. According to [Information Manipulation Analysis], it is called "Undine''s Tears". It seems to be high in alcohol content, but the amount is small, so to avoid unnecessary caution, I''ll just drink it normally. ...... Huh?¡¡It tastes good. The alcohol should be quite strong, but it''s strangely easy to drink. It doesn''t seem to be a mixture of ingredients to mask the taste. Forty ter is a pretty good price, I think. Tears of Undine. I''ll check it out next time. ...... Well, with the amount of money I have on hand, I don''t need to worry about the cost. With this in mind, I left the store. I was on the alert the whole time, but I was not attacked. Apparently, they thought it would be a bad idea to attack now. "So, have you found out what they''re up to? The next morning. The next morning, we gathered in our room at the inn and had a strategy meeting. Lake and the others had been working on espionage after I came back, but they seemed to have returned during the night, and we were finally able to get together. Both of them must have been up almost all night, but they didn''t look too tired. Well, it''s quite doubtful that any desi battlers would be upset after one or two all-nighters. I''ve got it pretty good. But I could only find one other hideout, so I need more impact. "...... impact? Yeah. They''re planning to take down Kaede with only the members of their two bases, but we''re going to show them that''s not enough. They''re planning on setting up a trap in the tavern to ambush the maple, but if we can get through that trap head on, they''ll give up. Did you find out what the trap is? We''re sure. But if Kaede knows about the trap, there''s a chance she''ll find out that we''re aware of it by our movements. Are you okay? I''m fine. I''ve confirmed that it''s a trap that you can easily get out of, Kaede. So I''d say you''re safe. It was Mercia who answered for Lake. If Mercia, who has a different common sense than the Decibatoreans, says so, then it must be safe. I can go to the base without worry. By the way, how did that drink taste? "It was pretty good. Maybe it''s because I haven''t had it in a while. It can''t be my imagination. It''s said that the tears of Undine were used to lure and kill the maple. It''s a very expensive liquor, and you can''t get it for a lot of money. Can they even identify the kind of liquor I drank? Apparently, Lake''s intelligence is real. ...... It''s kind of a shame to destroy it. Should we fight to keep the alcohol out of it? "No, that won''t be necessary. No, there''s no need for that. They said they''d move the expensive liquor to the other base beforehand. We''ll go and get it in a hurry. It''s not a crime to take something from a bandit. "Oh, I thought you said the snacks were pretty good, too.¡¡I''ll take care of the snacks too, Lake. Yeah, I got it. What are you guys up to? We were about to have a strategy meeting on how to destroy the black market, but before we knew it, we were talking about how to secure alcohol and snacks. How did this happen? "Don''t worry. Don''t worry, we''ll focus on finding the unknown locations first. We can always destroy the known locations later. I see. He''s thinking about his job. That''s right. A Desibatorean intelligence officer can''t be that careless. "By the way, didn''t their organization deal in some rare foods?¡¡If we go to another base, we can find that too, right? "Ah. Oh, that''s right, there was talk about that. But if they''re doing well in foodstuffs, they won''t go out of business just because zunana grass is cheaper. I guess we can''t expect too much ....... Apparently, I''ve been underestimating the intelligence officers. We''re only talking about drinks and snacks. I don''t know why Mercia is even in the mix. I feel that Mercia is being poisoned by the Decibatoreans lately. I''m not sure what to do. You got it. ...... I''ll get my share, right? Of course! I have no choice. I''ll do my part as a decoy. Hmm? When I heard that the store had opened around noon, I immediately tried to enter the store that was the base of the underground organization, but I felt a little strange around the entrance. Compared to yesterday, the reaction seemed to be a little different. ...... Oh. It seems that the space that was empty yesterday is now quite full. It''s not a person or an ordinary object, but rather a spherical, ball-like object that is packed tightly. Judging from the shape, it''s a magic stone or a magic tool. I walked into the store, preparing to use defensive magic to protect myself and escape if the need arose. Unlike yesterday, there didn''t seem to be any other customers today. In addition to that, the inside of the store has been made a little smaller by the impromptu construction, and the space between the original wall and the new wall is filled with the same ball as the entrance. The liquor bottles have also been replaced with spheres except for the visible ones, and the ceiling and floor are also filled with the same spheres. It was all very suspicious, but the intelligence team and Mercia told me that the trap was safe for me. Believing this, I pretended not to notice the manipulation and took the same seat as yesterday. "Same as yesterday, please. "Okay. I''ll go to the warehouse and get the stock. The owner, unlike yesterday, took my order and walked out. A few seconds later, the walls, ground, and ceiling around me all exploded at once. It was carefully placed so that the blast would be concentrated right where I was. In addition, the explosives were packed with metal fragments, all of which were turned into scattered bullets by the blast, which seemed to be designed to kill. ...... Hey. Who said it was safe? Come out. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for. 110 Episode 109 Weapons and Provinces Immediately after I cast a defensive spell, a massive blast of magic tools that had been planted in the underground organization''s base rushed towards me. The ground was also destroyed, so I cast a defensive spell as I was blown away, and waited for the explosion to end. The blast seemed to be directed rather upward, and I was blown high into the sky. Fortunately, the blast magic didn''t last too long. Soon the explosion was over, I landed, and the flames and smoke began to clear. "...... Wow. This is terrible. ...... The building that had been their base was blown up from the first floor, and the surrounding buildings were almost completely destroyed. However, the explosion was momentary, and perhaps it was fortunate that the magic tools emphasized explosive power rather than heat, so no fire seemed to have broken out. And strangely enough, there were no civilians involved. Not a single person. Given the time and place, it''s hard to imagine that there were no people there by chance. Then there''s the possibility that-- Well, I guess we''ll find out later. A few hours later. Mercia and I were waiting in a room at the inn for Lake and the others who had gone to destroy Gengar''s organization. "Oh!¡¡Great catch!¡¡We''ve got some pretty good booze. And the snacks are perfect!¡¡Of course, we''ve destroyed every last one of Gengar''s cells. Of course, we''ve destroyed every last one of Gengar''s gangs, except the ones we thought might have information. "I only turned in the ones I thought might have information. But I''ve got some questions I need to ask them. We''ll talk about the food later. What''s your excuse? When they heard what I said, they nodded their heads. It was as if they had no idea what I was going to say. "...... what are you talking about? You guys knew that the base I went to was going to blow up all the buildings around me! Lake and the others knew about the explosion beforehand and evacuated the surrounding residents. I can''t think of any other way to do it without causing collateral damage. That''s right. I told you in the beginning that I had checked the traps properly. Then where''s the talk about safety? If it''s safe, then the only dangerous places in this world are in front of dragons and sub-dragons. At least Desi Battley is a safe place. That''s impossible. "Come on, maple. Think about it. Was maple hurt in the explosion?¡¡Did it get a scratch? No. I noticed it just before and used a defensive spell. I did get blown into the air, though. Any illness or poisoning? No. Explosion magic is not a bacteriological weapon, and the explosion was instantaneous, so there was no lack of oxygen or carbon monoxide poisoning. I don''t even know if explosions caused by magic tools eat oxygen in the first place. Any burns? No. Look, it''s safe! You''re right, it''s safe. ......? When people say things like this as if it''s natural, it certainly seems safe. I feel like I''m being deceived. ...... I don''t care about that, let''s talk about food. I''ve got some good meat. What''s that ......? Well, it''s certainly not as important as the meat. It''s just an explosion, right? Yeah. I''ll get you a drink! We''re having an audience tomorrow, so no alcohol ....... There''s nothing in this world that can give a decibatore a hangover, so don''t worry. Mercia''s ...... maple''s recovery magic should be able to handle most of them! That''s right. Then I''ll have a little ....... And so the night before the audience passed. The next day. We woke up to the sound of bells as usual. "Finally, an audience. ...... Are you sure it''s okay for me to go? I''m sure the king will be annoyed if I go alone.¡¡I know very little about the trade association. That''s true, but ...... I''m not sure what to do if I were to receive a territory. I don''t have any experience in territory management. Mercia probably doesn''t either, but if you''re an adventurer and a merchant, a merchant is probably better suited to run a territory. However, Mercia told me in her spare time that this was unlikely. Basically, the country''s stance is to keep adventurers out of the country, and even if the king wanted to give me a territory, he''d probably face too much opposition. Well, I don''t need a territory, so please don''t give it to me. It would be too much work. ...... Oh, by the way, do I need to go to the royal castle for an audience? The letter about the audience didn''t say where I should go on the day. Does it mean that I don''t have to tell you? No, sir. No. You''ve been assigned a place to stay, and I think you''ll be fine if you wait here. "Is that what ...... is for? I''ve never had an audience with an adventurer before, but if it''s the same as a merchant or something, we should just wait. Mercia and Lake agreed. I guess we should just wait. I don''t know much about the customs of this world, but I''ve never found anything wrong with the information that Lake brought to me. Except for the ...... safety stuff. --A few minutes later. "Miss Kaede. We''ve come for you. About ten guards came to my room. I checked their status with [Information Manipulation Analysis] just to be sure, but it didn''t seem to be a trap set by the organization. Thus, Mercia and I were taken by the guards to the royal palace. We stopped in front of a richly decorated door. "Are you ready for an audience? What, an audience out of the blue? Isn''t there a more complicated procedure for an audience? There are some circumstances. It''s an informal audience. Even if it''s unofficial, how is it so easy to meet the king? ....... Why don''t you keep your weapons? As I was thinking about it, Mercia asked the guard a question. I''m sure I''ve heard that before meeting the king, you have to leave your weapons with him. Isn''t it supposed to be deposited before entering the palace? Normally, yes, but in Kaede''s case, she has so many weapons that it''s not practical to keep them. The King has also agreed to this. As long as you are willing, it doesn''t matter if you have a weapon or not. ...... You''ve been blunt: ....... I''m not sure if you''ve heard of this, but I''m sure you''ve heard of it. After such a conversation, I was ushered into the presence of the king. The king was a man of mature age. He was not as big as the warriors of Decibatore, but he was much more powerful. The king spoke to me. "Thank you for coming. Kaede the Adventurer, Mercia the Merchant Chairman of Kaede Trading Company. "Oh, thank you for ....... I didn''t know how to respond, but when Mercia, who was standing next to me, dropped to her knees, I mimicked her and replied. I replied, mimicking her. You''ve done more since the founding of our country than any other man since you took back Brokens, defeated dragons and sub-dragons, and put down the demon outbreak. Then the King broke off. To reward you for your achievements, I would like to bestow upon you the title of Count and a fiefdom. The air in the room froze for a moment at the sudden statement. Mercia''s expression is normally normal, but her movements are frozen. "...... territory, huh? What I had feared had happened. I''ve just heard that you don''t give territories to adventurers. I''d prefer not to, but how could I say no? Domains. Of course, there is no precedent for granting territories or nobility to adventurers, and there was naturally some opposition. But a territory is a territory, so I managed to convince them. "......GivesFiefdom...... Is it possible that the land is not wanted by others? Maybe the land is too thin, too unsafe... "The tax revenue is negative because we''re too busy dealing with demons. The inhabitants are too powerful to rule properly. No one wants to keep it, so it''s now under the direct control of the royal family. ...... I''m sure you''ll like it. It was worse than I expected. What is there to like about it? You can certainly give it to adventurers, but ...... it would be a nuisance for me to receive such land. In this country, are we supposed to be punished for slaying dragons? That''s not all. Not only that, no nobleman has ever entered that city in the last 100 years. On the contrary, ''I''ll give you the city'' is the highest form of threat in this country. Isn''t that the worst? Is that ......?¡¡I''ve heard of that city before. Is it Decibatore, by any chance? Correct. And Brokens, too. I''m giving you all the land south of the outer wall of Photoren. Including the demon realm. That''s an awful lot of land, isn''t it, ......? If we could cultivate it, it would be several times the size of this country. And that''s a lot of expensive land. I''m not saying for free. We''ll give you the same amount of money every year for the defense of the front cities as we''ve been spending on the defense of Desibatore. We''ll even exempt you from state taxes. ...... I thought I was going to be forced to deal with unwanted garbage, but actually I was treated exceptionally well. I don''t know if that''s safe for the country. You look suspicious, don''t you? With all due respect, sir, I don''t see the benefit to the country. ...... What? Brokens, the most important defense center in the country, will be protected by the greatest hero. That''s more than enough change for me. In addition, Kaede has contributed more than enough to this country ...... and this world. In fact, the past has been strange. Well, if that''s what you''re talking about, what''s wrong with accepting it? I''m curious about the taxpayer subsidies, but as for that, if there''s any left over, we can just give it back. 111 Episode 110 Job Search and Reclamation The negotiations went smoothly after Desibatore was mentioned. The country wanted to give up Desibatore, and Desibatore was ideal for my territory. How could it not go well? Even though it''s my territory, Mercia and the Kaede Chamber of Commerce will be in charge of the management of the territory. It seems that there is no precedent for the Chamber of Commerce to be involved in the management of a territory, but since the territory of Desibatore itself is so unique, it seems that the permission has been granted as if it were a case of "if you eat the poison, you get the dish. There are a lot of former Desibatoreans in the Chamber of Commerce. So, about a month after I went to the royal palace. My appointment as Lord was officially announced in Desibatore. It was to be ......, but... I''m sure this is the correct place for the inauguration ceremony, right? It should be, but ...... The venue was the tavern, which is the largest building in Decibatore today. However, there was no sign of any participants in the bar. "Oh, it''s Kaede. It''s unusual for you to come to the tavern. What''s wrong? And then he said to me. "Huh?¡¡Is this the right place for the inauguration ceremony? I ask a familiar adventurer who approached me. "Oh. I''ve heard of it. I''m sure you''ve heard of it, but I don''t think it''s safe enough for the nobility to come here, no matter how safe Decibatore is now that they''ve taken Brokens back. ....... In fact, you don''t even see them, do you? ...... I see. In the event that you have any questions concerning where and how to use the internet, you can call us at the web site. "......, the new lord is already here. Huh?¡¡But the guy who looks like that is ...... The adventurer then looks around. "I don''t see him anywhere. Well, I guess it doesn''t matter to Decibatore and Brokens who the lord is. The new lord may have some spirit to come this far, but this is not a land that a nobleman can treat properly. "Actually, that new lord is me. ...... "...... Kaede is the lord?¡¡But Kaede is an adventurer, right?¡¡Adventurers aren''t allowed to be nobles. ...... When I went to the palace the other day, I got this. I''m not sure if you''ve ever heard of this, but I''m sure you''ve heard of it. Incidentally, my family name is "Desibatore". It is said to be a custom in this country to give the name of the territory you own. ...... Really?¡¡That''s great news!¡¡Hey guys, I heard the new lord is a maple! "The new lord is a maple!¡¡"The new lord is a maple! The new lord is Kaede!" A number of adventurers leave the tavern shouting such things. In a little while, a large number of Desibatoreans gathered in the tavern. Through the windows, you can see adventurers kicking the roofs and walls towards the tavern. In the past, Desibatore was not a place where everyone could suddenly gather just because something happened, but since the front line became Brokens, it has become like a resting place for Desibatore people. ....... The tavern was quickly filled by the Desibatoreans who wasted their overwhelming mobility. Some of them went to Brocken to tell him the news, so there may be more to come. "I''m sure everyone here already knows that ...... Decibatore and Brokens are my territory from today! Oh! Finally, a lord worthy of the land! ...... But what does a lord do in Decibatore? I''m sure you''ve heard of it. I looked at Mercia. I heard in King''s Landing that the first job of a lord is to hire guards and maintain security. ...... Is that necessary? ...... No, sir. Next is tax collection. ...... Desibatore is a tax-free zone, isn''t it? ...... Apparently, Desibatoreans don''t commit any criminal acts. If you commit a crime in Desibatore or Brokens, you will make enemies of many Desibatoreans. This is because the Decibatoreans know best how scary it is. And as for people from outside committing crimes in Decibatore, that is also unlikely. Even though it is relatively safe now, Desibatore is not a place where anyone can come. Moreover, even if you managed to sneak in and commit a crime, you would be confronted by a dozen of Desibattreans. Does this city need guards? No, it doesn''t. In fact, in addition to Mercia, there was talk of dispatching people from the country to assist in the management of the territory, but as soon as they heard that the destination was Decibatore, there were no more applicants. I guess the government decided that they couldn''t bear to send people who didn''t want to go to Desibatore by force, so they decided to leave it entirely to us. Well, judging from the current state of affairs, I don''t think it would have helped much even if someone who understands the internal affairs of a normal place had come. "Huh?¡¡Is it possible that the lord doesn''t have a job? But you see, if a sub-dragon appears, Kaede will have to defeat it. I don''t know if it''s the lord''s job to defeat the sub-dragon. At least, as far as I know, the lord''s job did not include defeating the dragons by himself. This knowledge was probably correct. "There''s no work in peacetime! What a mess. We became lords, but there was no work for us. When I think about it, I''m grateful that Mercia has a business association and can''t stay in Desibatore all the time. ....... "Is there anything inconvenient about living in ...... Desi Battley? I felt that doing nothing was not a good idea, so I asked a question like a questionnaire sent out by a government office or a company. "Nothing in particular. "No. No. If I had to guess, I''d say food.¡¡If I had to guess, I''d say food. You can''t get fresh food in Desi Battleye without using the item box. ...... That''s it! By the way, the king also talked about the development of Desi Battleye . In the past, farming was unthinkable in Desibatore, but now it seems to be possible. Let''s start cultivating! Thus, my first task as a lord was to cultivate the land. However, the land reclamation itself was to be done mainly by adventurers from peasant families, so I didn''t have to do it. My job was to find the people who would participate in the reclamation. In other words... "I''m going to bomb the demon territory outside of Brokens. This is what I mean. ......... Is this really the job of a lord? 112 Episode 111 Medicinal Herbs and Weeds The cultivation of the land seems to be going ...... well. About an hour after the cultivation began. When I returned from bombing the demon''s territory, I found that the field had already been plowed and was almost like a normal field. It seems that some tree stumps are still being removed at the edges, but it''s only a matter of time before the stumps are wiped out by the might of the Desibatoreans. So far, so good, but ...... there is one problem. My question was answered by Mercia with a worried look. "What''s wrong? It''s the zunana plant. Zunana plant. ....... It''s a useful herb, but if you''re in a place where there''s a lot of magical elements, it can grow endlessly and cause problems. I once tried to grow sugar cane, but it was blocked by zunana plant. Fortunately, at that time It''s been a long time since desibatore has been at the forefront, but I wonder if it''s still as common as ever. Are they still growing here? For now, it seems to be fine. ...... Mercia said, looking around. Right after that, a voice came from a corner of the settlement. "d*mn it!¡¡Zunana grass is growing! "Looks like ...... wasn''t all right. "I knew it, ....... While talking about this, we headed towards the adventurer who had raised his voice. There was definitely a grass that looked similar to Zunana grass growing underneath his feet. To be sure, we used [Information Manipulation Analysis] to evaluate it, but it seemed to be the same plant that had grown there. Other Desibattoreans gathered nearby, having heard that Zunana grass had grown. Desibatore agriculture was suddenly in danger of coming to a halt. Did this grow after the plowing?¡¡Not like it was there before? "No, definitely. I''m pretty sure I pulled out every single zunana weed from the roots. ...... I asked the person who discovered it, Desibatore, but he said he was sure. In addition to the one that was first discovered, there are several other shoots that look like it. Is there any way to prevent zunana weed? "No. Desibatore is always like this. It''s been a long time since the front line was in Brokens, and I thought it wouldn''t grow back. ...... I don''t know, either. In the first place, zunana grass was something that was usually in short supply, and that was a problem. ....... Don''t you know anything about it, Kaede? What do I know? ....... At any rate, all you know is that it will grow even if you blow the entire surface layer of the island together with magical bombardment. I''m sure you''ll be able to figure out what''s going on, but I''m not sure if you''ll be able to. ...... water surface. Hydroponics might be an option. But securing fertilizer is a problem. I thought hydroponics was based on chemical fertilizer. Yeah. Hydroponics seems to be tough. So, the best thing to do is to prevent the invasion of zunana grass seeds (I don''t even know if they grow by seeds). ...... How about quarantining it for now? Quarantine: ...... Are you going to build a partition or something?¡¡Considering the vitality of Zunana grass, I don''t think it will be quiet enough for that. ...... No. I''m not sure what to do, but I''m going to do it. Bring the soil in from outside the Deshbatore and ...... if that doesn''t work, we''re out of luck. I''m sure we can get there!¡¡...... But how do we block it? Well, ......, how about turning it into a plant factory? I took out mithril from the item box and used pressure magic to stretch it. Then I bend it into a rectangular shape and weld the edges together with fire magic, and the container is complete. If you put a large planter in here, you can grow some plants. With that, I took out a lantern from the item box and illuminated the inside of the container. I''m sure you''ll be happy to know that I''m not the only one who has a problem with this. ...... Something amazing was created in an instant. ...... I''m not sure what to make of it. But yes, this could be a great way to farm in Desibatore! The only problem is that we''re dealing with zunana grass. The only problem is that it''s dealing with zunana grass, and we won''t know if this equipment is really enough to isolate it until we try it. "...... Let''s put some soil in here and see what happens. Do you have a planter? No, we don''t have any at Decibatore. We don''t have any in Decibatore. We have demon shells lying around. Demon''s shell? "Demon shells? Can demon shells be used as planters? I''ve never used one, but a flower lover at Desi Battley used to bring seeds and stuff into Desi Battley and plant flowers. He used a giant sparer crab shell as a planter, I think. Decibatore and flowers ......? I don''t know if I''ve ever seen such an unsuitable combination. What did you do about the zunana weed then? I''m pretty sure I pulled it all out with all my might. I knew they were growing back. ....... I wonder if there was really any point in going to that much trouble to grow flowers in the desibatore. In any case, I''m not going to use the shell planter, because I don''t want to have weeds growing in the field. Even if I use soil from outside, it will be useless if the seeds are attached to the shell. If you don''t have a planter, you can make one. If you don''t have a planter, you might as well make one. I pressed it into place with magic, and welded it to the floor of the container. I''m going to put the soil I got from ...... outside of Decibatore, I think, around Eyn. I didn''t bring any crop seeds with me, so I can only check to see if any zunana grass will grow. Finally, I put in a lantern. I wondered if it was possible to farm in such a box. ...... Surely this would provide soil and light, and water could be managed with magic. ...... A former farmer, Desibatore, observes the completed agricultural container with great interest. And then he muttered to himself. This is very convenient. It doesn''t seem to weigh much, so we can carry it around and farm anywhere. No, it''s just a lump of mithril filled with soil. ...... Oh, let''s try it!¡¡Hold it over there! Mercia tried to stop them, but the Decibatoreans were unconcerned. Finally, the Decibattlers, standing one by one at each of the four corners, put their hands on the corners of the container. "Ready! With a shout, the container was lifted up. This is certainly not the wrong use for the container, but ....... 113 Episode 112 Towers and Mist blows "...... Hey, maple. A little while after the agricultural container was lifted. One of the Desibatore adventurers who had been moving around with the container to test its strength came back and called me. Apparently, there was something wrong. "What''s wrong? He said, "This container is very sturdy, but if you tilt it ...... or speed up, the soil inside seems to spill out. The adventurer then points to the container that has been reduced by the spilled soil. Yeah. Well, I guess so. It''s not designed to be carried. But they''re strong enough to carry it. If it''s strong enough, it can be carried. I don''t know. I don''t understand. There''s a difference between carrying and being carried. There''s a difference between carrying something and carrying it. ...... But it''s not unusual to carry something that''s not designed to be carried. It''s not all that different from lifting a ship and carrying it over land. You make it sound like it''s normal to use a ship to go overland. I''ve never done it with a large metal ship. What else is there to do ......? Apparently, it was a mistake to expect common sense from the Desibatoreans. Well, if you can pack soil, etc., or make the enclosure high enough to prevent spillage, transportation will be possible. Let''s leave aside the question of whether there is any point in going to such lengths to transport agricultural containers. At any rate, if we mass-produce these, the vegetable problem will be solved. Also, I have an idea on how to prepare fresh meat. "...... is that it? Mercia seems to have an idea what I''m talking about. Yeah. That''s it. It''s a nightmare for the demon to use a healing potion to revive it from the demon stone, knock it off the mithril tower, rip off the flesh and take out the demon stone again. It''s a nightmare for demons. That''s the kind of equipment that should be used to produce meat for the town of Decibatore. Maybe that''s the kind of thing that throws demons off? "Maybe that''s the one where you push the demon down?" There was a Desibatore who knew about it. Perhaps it is rather famous. There aren''t many of them, but it''s a fancy device. That''s exactly what it is. ...... I think there''s room for improvement. Room for improvement: ....... I think I know what to expect. That tower has a lot of unnecessary features for decibatoreans. Maybe we can get rid of the tower and just have a cage? Yeah. That''s one of the improvements. Is that ......? Isn''t it a waste of time to put the demon stone in the cage and then revive the demon?¡¡Why not just do it the normal way? You mean without the ...... safeguards? Yeah. It is true that even a cage is a waste of time, assuming that the Desibatoreans will use it. So, what do we need? A magic stone and a restorative? The healing potion is a waste, so it would be useful to have a special sprayer or something so that we can get out only the amount we need. That''s all you need. ...... Yeah. Mist spray. I was going to build a massive tower, but it turned out to be much smaller. ....... Mercia, can you make a foghorn? I''m sure we can. It will have to be custom made, and it might cost a bit more, but ...... at least it''s a lot cheaper than building a tower out of metal lizard metal and mithril. "Yeah. Compared to a tower. That tower is no longer a solid piece of cost, you know. Mercia was even worried that someone would try to cut it down and sell it. Compared to that, there is no way a single mist spray can cost that much. So, ...... and then there''s the building. Is that not good enough for you? Yeah. The only reason the Decibatore was on the front lines in the first place was because Brokens were taken, right? Yes. We''ll have to be on the defensive to prevent that from happening again. Well, let''s use ...... mithril to build a wall a few meters thick. I''d also like to make it a little more habitable. The situation in Decibatore is much better than before, but the condition of the buildings is still terrible. I''d like to fix this place up anyway. Yeah. I think I''m starting to feel like a lord now. ...... What exactly are you planning to fight? Demons? No demon would want to fight in a city like that. ...... It''s a good idea to have a good environment to rest and relax, so that you can be more effective when fighting. ......? What are we going to do with all this power? 114 Episode 113 Communication and Flashing "Well, let''s look at it the other way around. If Brokens is better defended, fewer Desibatoreans will be stationed at Brokens. "...... So you''re saying that it will be easier for the Deceiver Treasures to go elsewhere. That certainly seems to have a big impact. ...... The Desibatoreans are the largest force of adventurers in this country. If they are concentrated only in Desibatore, the damage caused by demons will increase. Even now, some of the Desibatoreans are fighting in other frontline cities, but if we can increase the number of them, we can reduce the damage caused by demons. But we still need to call for help in case something happens suddenly. When you say call, do you mean to other cities?¡¡Even with the fastest means of communication, it would take a long time to contact cities other than Desibatore from Brokens. ...... It''s true that Desibatore is far from the normal towns . Indeed, Desibatore is a long way from a normal town, and it would take a Desibatorean nearly half a day to reach Phothren. If you want to reach other cities from there, it will take several days. But ...... actually has a solution to that. We use an artifact to communicate. "Artifacts?¡¡I don''t think there were any artifacts that could be used for communication. ...... Mercia is right, there are no artifacts that I know of that can be used directly for communication. Communication is very important, so if there was such an artifact, it would have been the first thing that came to my attention. However, there is one that could be used in place of ....... I have an artifact that blocks magic. I said, and took out an anchor from my pocket. This anchor is a counterpart to the anchor that Mercia has, and in an emergency, it can be shattered to communicate an anomaly. This method of communication is still used to some extent today, but ...... crushing is not the only way to make the anchor''s reaction disappear. It''s a good idea to have a good idea of what you''re looking for and how you can use it.¡¡You can use it as many times as you want without destroying it. Oh. ...... That''s not all. If you use that magic tool, you''ll be able to communicate more accurately. If you just want to use it multiple times, you can use the normal method of shattering the anchor, or just prepare a lot of anchors. However, if you use [magic power blocking], you will be able to flash the anchor thousands of times. If you do this, you will have a different use for it. Until now, anchors have only been on and off. But if you use the [magic power blocker], you can make it blink. If you change the pattern of the blinking, you can transmit information in many ways. In short, it''s like Morse code. "I see. ...... That sounds useful. ...... "That''s not all. You can make as many blinking patterns as you like, for example, by assigning letters to it. ...... "You mean, we can have perfect communication? Yeah. That''s what I mean. There is a time lag in the response of the anchor, and it will not be possible to communicate as much as you want, but ...... you will be able to communicate over long distances much faster than before. This is not ...... going to change the world, is it? Yes, it might change a lot. But that''s okay. It''s too much trouble to have to rely on birds and humans for communication in a world where artifacts are so convenient.