The Battlefield
Satou here. I once read in a book, “A journey is made up of meetings and partings.” The people you meet and the unexpected reunions are all part of the real thrill of a journey.
The tweeting birds heralded the arrival of morning.
For some reason, my body felt heavy. Opening my eyes and looking blearily at my chest, I saw a willowy little hand hanging on loosely to my shirt. Shifting my gaze to the side, I found Lulu fast asleep, latched onto my left arm.
We hadn’t been this close when I went to sleep; she must have snuggled up to me, mistaking me for Arisa.
Next, I checked my opposite side.
There I saw Mia, her frowning uncomfortably in her sleep as two large mounds pressed down on top of her head. Above, the owner of the pair in question slept peacefully, one arm around Mia and the other flung across my chest. Fast asleep, the two really did act like sisters.
I would’ve felt bad waking everyone up, so instead, I let the girls’ soft warmth and pleasant scent lull me back into a light doze.
The fact that my gaze locked onto the heaving of Nana’s chest for a moment before I did so could be attributed to my male nature.
I put a lot of effort into shutting down the physiological phenomenon that might normally have occurred in the morning—I’d appreciate a little forgiveness for enjoying my position here.
“Master, breakfast will be ready shortly, so please get up.”
Liza, who’d taken the dawn shift of the night watch, came over to wake me up. The slight chill in her voice was likely just my imagination.
I felt a bit guilty now, to the point where I almost wanted to apologize, but I bit it back and simply wished her good morning instead.
Our voices had woken up Lulu and Mia. Coldly pushing aside Nana’s embrace, the elf gave a short, simple, “Morning.”
“M-Master, I-I’m sorry! I was so tired, I just—”
Realizing that she was clutching my arm, Lulu hurriedly scuttled away from me. Her pale skin flushed red all the way to her ears.
“A-and to think you had to wake up to an ugly face like mine first thing in the morning—”
Lulu started to apologize with increasing self-loathing, but I cut her off.
“I don’t mind lending you an arm anytime you might need it. Besides, I think you have a lovely face, Lulu. I just wish I knew how to phrase it so you’d believe me.”
“L-lovely……?”
As if she couldn’t believe her ears, Lulu gaped like a fish.
I didn’t want to sound like a pickup artist, but I hoped that maybe it would at least alleviate Lulu’s complex a little bit…
It’s pretty amusing to watch her pretty face warp between expressions, but I should probably get up now.
I smiled at Lulu gently as I started sitting up.
Meeting some strange resistance, I pulled off the blanket to find Pochi and Tama fast asleep, clinging to my shirt.
So these two were the culprits of that weight and warmth I’d felt earlier.
I pinched their noses lightly to wake them up before I told them to change out of their pajamas into clothes for the day.
After Mia pushed them off, Nana’s breasts remained upright in a way that valiantly defied gravity. The sight was so bewitching that my hand threatened to move on its own, but since there were children watching, I forced myself to control those urges.
Noticing my line of sight, Mia rather irritably squeezed Nana’s chest to wake her.
“—Start-up sequence initiated. Execution completed. Mia, utilization of chest buffer unit as means of awakening resulted in excessive pain levels, I report.”
“Mm, sorry.”
Nana sat up stiffly with a robotic stream of muttering. I believe the short version was something like, “Don’t wake me up by grabbing my boob. It hurts.”
Mia apologized briefly to Nana, patting her own slim chest rather glumly.
After that, Pochi and Tama, Lulu and Nana began changing clothes, so I moved to the other side of the horse-drawn carriage and did the same.
“Satou.”
“What is it, Mia?”
Thanks to my “Quick Change” skill, I was already decked out in new clothing.
“Dry.”
Mia handed me a towel, took off her pajamas on the spot, and turned her back toward me.
“Night sweat.”
Oh, so she wants me to wipe it off for her?
Mia had been emotionally attached to me from the beginning, but after I saved her from Zen, she’d started playing the excessively vulnerable spoiled child like this.
I didn’t mind giving out hugs or whatever, but it was probably best to take care with things like this, so I gave her some advice.
“Mia, you shouldn’t randomly undress in front of a member of the opposite sex like this.”
“Mm.”
She replied with a short response and a nod, but I wasn’t sure she understood.
Guess I’d better ask Liza or Lulu to talk to her about it again later.
“Okay, all clean.”
“Thanks.”
I finished wiping down her back and held the towel out to her. Instead, Mia spun around and stood there with her arms open, waiting expectantly for me to wipe her front as well.
Obviously, she wore underwear on her lower half, but only her long hair covered her upper body.
“Here, too.”
“Mia, you can wipe the front by yourself.”
“…Satou.”
“No, you’re not changing my mind on this.”
Mia entreated me with her best pleading puppy-dog eyes, but I wasn’t falling for it. I had zero interest in her innocent little body, but something still felt increasingly immoral about the situation.
I had no desire to walk the precipitous path of a lolicon, so I firmly denied her request.
Finally relenting, Mia reluctantly accepted the towel and dried herself off.
Judging by the movement of the points on my radar, Lulu and Nana seemed to have finished getting dressed. I left Mia behind the carriage and returned to the rest of the group.
Breakfast on our second day out of Seiryuu City consisted of deer meat and a soup with cooked beans, onions, and a wild plant that resembled garlic. Honestly, I could’ve done without the meat first thing in the morning.
Nana ate her usual wheat porridge, but this time it was topped with some shredded cheese. Liza was so considerate.
“Arisa, if you’re going back to sleep, at least eat breakfast first.”
“Mm’kay.”
Arisa, who’d been on the dawn shift with Liza, was dangerously close to dozing off.
I made sure she didn’t face-plant into her soup before finishing breakfast.
As soon as she was done, Arisa passed out on the spot.
I decided that, since she didn’t appear to be a morning person, Arisa should stick to the first shift of the night watch from now on.
As I reflected, I spent the rest of the time before our departure practicing spell chants.
Mia occasionally offered advice, but it was hard to understand what she was getting at with her short words and gestures, so her consideration went mostly to waste.
I’d have to figure out a way to improve communication so we could understand each other without so much effort.
After we’d left camp and traveled for a while, I caught glimpses of a black shadow in the sea of grass covering the hills.
My AR display labeled it a Large Fanged Ant Corpse.
That was the type of monster Lilio and the others had encountered before.
“Satou.”
“Hmm? What is it, Mia?”
Mia, who’d been playing in the younger group’s reed pipe orchestra, approached the coachman seat.
“Stop.”
She probably had to go to the bathroom or something. There was a well-trodden meadow on the side of the highway, so I asked Nana, who was practicing driving the carriage, to pull over and stop.
“Piggyback.”
“Right here?”
“Mm.”
I didn’t really understand, but Mia’s odd request seemed more solemn than normal, so I let her climb onto my back.
Pochi and Tama gazed at Mia somewhat enviously. I didn’t mind giving them rides later, but they’d have to wait their turn.
“There.”
I looked where Mia was pointing.
There was a path beaten into the hill. From the size of it, it looked like an army had passed through, not just animals.
There were several more large fanged ant corpses peppering the path. Clearly, a battle had taken place here.
“Take me.”
“All right.”
With Mia still on my back, I stepped onto the trail.
I asked Nana and Liza to watch the carriage.
“Like Mize said.” Mia muttered a little as we followed the path.
Mize was the ratman warrior who’d protected Mia from Zen’s monsters and brought her to Seiryuu City. Since he wore distinctive red headgear, I tended to think of him as “Red Helmet.”
“To protect me…”
I see. There must have been a fight between the monsters and the ratman warriors here.
“Zeze, Poro, Jene, Mitoro, Hoze, Rada, Kyuze…”
Mia murmured the names of the warriors. After twelve, her voice broke off.
Clear droplets fell from her eyes and scattered on the wind.
“Mia, let’s go back.”
“Wait…a little longer…”
I took her down from my shoulders to carry her in my arms, wiping away her tears with a handkerchief.
I checked the map, guessing we could bury them if any bodies were left in the field. I couldn’t find any in this area, so I broadened the scope of my search.
Huh? Of the twelve warriors Mia had named, five of them were alive in the town nearest here, Kainona. They seemed to be in captivity at a slave market.
The remaining seven were nowhere to be seen. After a few tweaks to the search settings, I found six of them buried at the base of a grove near the town. The last one hadn’t even left a body behind…
“Mia, there might be survivors in the town nearby. Let’s look for them when we get there, okay?”
“Mm, okay.”
I knew for a fact that the survivors were there, but I couldn’t explain that without revealing the secret of my Unique Skill, so it was the best I could do.
“That will be ten gold coins each.”
“Wow, that’s a hefty price.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, good sir. We are simple, honest folk, and we would never dream of overcharging.”
The way the balding slave merchant was eyeing my wallet was uncomfortable.
Once we arrived in the town of Kainona in the early afternoon, I visited the slave market by myself. Since it was a pretty small town, the shop had only about ten slaves.
“A truly honest person would be shocked to hear that. Isn’t the market price less than three gold coins?”
Ratman slaves were normally inexpensive, since they were small and not good at heavy lifting. Since they weren’t kept as pets, either, the market price could be as low as three silvers. In this case, the price would be a bit higher, since they had combat skills, but even then, three gold coins was the most I could expect. In fact, my “Estimation” skill put the price at twelve silvers—less than two and a half gold coins.
“Since slave traders from a mining city will be coming to buy them in a few days, the price has unfortunately increased fractionally.”
He probably figured I’d be easy to get rid of, since I looked so young. I used my “Negotiation” skill to the fullest, but I could drive the price down only from ten to six.
Normally, I would have just paid and left it at that, but I was irritated that he’d thought I was a sucker, so I took a more underhanded route.
I put some skill points into “Coercion,” which I hadn’t used since I’d gotten it in Seiryuu City, and activated it. That should make this a little easier.
“I’ll give you fifteen gold coins for the five of them.”
Smiling pleasantly, I gave the slave merchant my final offer. Naturally, my eyes were deathly cold.
Perhaps thanks to the “Coercion” skill, the slave merchant’s status changed to Panic. His stamina seemed to be gradually waning, too.
I took a single step toward the pale merchant, whose mouth flapped open and closed soundlessly.
“Y-yes, I believe we can make a deal at that price, indeed.”
With this level of effectiveness, this was turning into intimidation or blackmail rather than negotiation. I even received the title of Intimidator. I’d have to avoid using this skill again unless an emergency arose.
Well, the price was still much higher than the market value, so it wasn’t as though he was incurring a loss.
Finishing the slave contract, I had a bored-looking clerk buy some used hooded overcoats while I was waiting for the paperwork to be done, then had the ratmen put them on.
Since the coats were intended for humanfolk, they dragged on the ground on the much shorter ratmen. They might have looked suspicious, but it was probably still safer than revealing them as demi-humans.
I took the ratmen with me back to the inn where the others were waiting.
Arisa had said that she would take care of negotiations, but I was still surprised to see that she’d actually gotten permission for the beastfolk girls to stay in the room. I’d have to ask her about her tricks later.
“Ah, Master! Did you really find them?”
“I told you I was good at looking for people, didn’t I? Now, could you please call Mia?”
Arisa was surprised, but I brushed her off and sent her to get Mia.
At Mia’s name, there was a stir among the ratmen. They must have been speaking in their language, because I acquired the skill “Gray-Ratman Language.”
“Okeydokey. I can’t imagine they’ll be allowed inside looking like that, so please wait in the stable or the carriage.”
“All right. I’ll have them wait in the carriage.”
I took the ratmen to our horse-drawn carriage in the courtyard of the inn.
Just after they were all inside, Mia arrived.
“Zeze, Jene, Mitoro, Hoze, Rada!”
Mia called their names, hugging all of them. The ratmen, too, celebrated the reunion with cries of “Brinsiss!” in hard-to-understand Shigan language. They were likely trying to say princess.
However…
“Master, the inn’s landlord says that dinner will be…”
The peaceful atmosphere immediately crackled with hostility when Nana arrived.
“““Devil doll!!”””
“““Protect the princess!”””
Three of the ratmen seized the straw cushions, and the other two evacuated Mia into the back of the carriage.
Nana drew her short sword for self-defense and started buffing herself with magic. I guess Nana was always ready for battle.
“Enemies detected. Master, permission to eliminate them?”
The ratmen’s moniker “devil doll” probably referred to Nana and her homunculus sisters.
During the incident in the Cradle of Trazayuya, they had served the Undead King Zen, who’d captured Mia, so it was possible they’d battled with the ratmen in the past.
At any rate, if I did nothing, a brawl would break out on the spot. I had to quickly intervene.
“Nana, I forbid you from taking combative actions. You guys, too—put down the cushions. That’s an order. And the two of you who are trying to protect Mia, please let go. She’s clearly upset.”
Nana immediately lowered her sword but didn’t deactivate her magic buff.
The ratmen didn’t hear my order and started wheezing heavily as their status changed to Breach of Contract. So this is what happens when a slave breaches an agreement? They weren’t wearing enslavement collars, so nothing was physically compressing their necks, but they were clearly in pain.
The two in the back released Mia, and the status effect deactivated. Mia quickly pattered over to the other three ratmen, standing in front of them and holding her arms out wide.
“Drop the cushions,” she pleaded.
Despite their visible suffering, the ratmen were still holding the straw cushions at the ready.
“Satou is an ally.”
“B-but the devil doll’s a servant of the evil lord, isn’t she?”
“Nana is an ally, too.”
So they called Zen the “evil lord,” huh? Now that I could understand their native language, their words sounded much more fluent.
I was concerned that the ratmen wouldn’t know who Nana and I were from only our names, but hearing the word ally and Mia’s tone, they lowered the cushions and were no longer in breach of contract.
“Ah’m Satou, ’n’ dat’s, uh, Nana.”
I tried to give introductions in the ratmen’s language, but it was harder to pronounce than I’d expected. I guess since the language was made to match the structure of their mouths, it was hard to speak it as a human. I gave up and switched to Shigan language.
“I’m on my way to bring Mia to her hometown. Nana was under the control of the evil lord before, but now she’s our friend. She isn’t going to harm Mia. Don’t worry.”
“Did you buy us to serve as escorts for Princess Mia?”
I shook my head. Instead, I explained that Zen, who’d captured Mia, was dead; that Red Helmet was safe; and that I’d heard a rumor that the ratmen were being held as slaves, so I bought them in order to return them to their home. The lie about the rumor came courtesy of my “Fabrication” skill.
After our discussion, I told the ratmen to eat their fill and rest for the night, and that I’d take them to the foothills on the border of their country the next morning.
I’d actually planned to let them rest for a few days, but they seemed to be in better health than I’d expected, so I sped things along.
They had probably been able to endure slavery because they were hardened warriors.
Leaving the beastfolk girls and Mia to watch over the ratmen, the rest of us went to gather supplies.
With Nana as an escort, I sent Arisa and Lulu to buy the food and goods we’d forgotten to procure in Seiryuu City. Enough for the ratmen, too, of course.
I went to pick up hiking equipment for the ratmen, musical instruments and a bow and arrows for Mia to hunt, a thin board for the cards, and miscellaneous crafting and woodworking tools.
Unfortunately, since it was such a small town, I could find only about half the things I wanted.
Transport for merchandise wasn’t very well developed here, and demand was probably low for some of these items, so I guess that was inevitable.
Still, I successfully snagged at least a few things, like what Mia had asked for and the wooden board. For the instrument, I found a secondhand lute with a broken string. While I happened to discover two short bows, they came with only twenty bronze-tipped arrows total.
I found common items, like a stepladder, table, work surface, and chairs, without any problems. Most of them were used, but that was probably just because this world was so different from contemporary Japan or any consumer-driven society.
Because most of the tools I wanted were made-to-order, I decided to hold off until the next time we stayed in a big city. Still, since I’d bought a few secondhand tools, like a file, a chisel, and a wooden mallet, I figured I’d be able to do some crafting.
For the board to hold the study cards, I had the carpenter cut it down to a proper size and round the corners. At first I was told it would take three days, but he let slip that he’d do it overnight for three times the pay, so it would be ready in the morning.
For the ratmen’s transportation, I purchased a cart and two donkeys to pull it. There weren’t any horses for sale, but I figured they would be fine if the donkeys carried their things once they got to the foothills.
The next day—the third morning since our departure from Seiryuu City—we ate a mediocre, overpriced breakfast and left the town of Kainona.
Before heading to the border of the Gray Rat Emirate, we stopped by the place where the ratmen’s comrades were buried.
“I, Misanaria of Bolenan Forest, implore all the trees of the Shiga Kingdom. Grant a restful sleep to the brave ratman heroes who gave their lives in battle to protect me.”
Mia whispered in Elvish to the trees that marked the ratmen’s graves. As if in response, the branches fluttered gently, though there was no wind. As if the spirits dwelling within were answering her plea.
Accompanied by the lute, Mia sang an Elvish funeral song.
The rest of us placed offerings of the cheese and dried meat the ratmen had loved beneath the trees and poured out alcohol as a burial rite.
One of the ratmen dug up a saddlebag buried near the grave site, took out a piece of paper, and handed it to me.
“This’s our treasure. For you, Satou. As thanks.”
“Hoze, don’t trouble Sir Satou with such a worthless scrap of paper.”
The small sheet was covered in tiny, cramped writing.
It contained strangely detailed information related to pottery. But it was the written characters themselves that caught my eye most, not the contents.
I called Arisa over and questioned Hoze while I waited for her to arrive.
“No, I really do appreciate it. By the way, where did you get this?”
“One of the humanfolk lost in the mountains gave it to me. He was strange.”
I thanked Hoze and dropped my gaze back to the paper.
“You called for me?”
“Yeah, look at this.”
“Huh? What is it? A note about pottery and how to make ceramic glaze? …Wait, it’s in Japanese! Did you write this, Master?”
Yes, the memo was written in Japanese characters. The paper itself looked like it had been torn from a high-quality lined notepad from a stationery or convenience store.
The scant information I gleaned from questioning Hoze suggested the notepad’s owner was most likely Lilio’s former boyfriend, whom I’d suspected was Japanese. He had met Hoze before visiting Seiryuu City. I could almost feel the wheels of fate in motion. I was willing to bet I’d meet him in person sooner or later.
I slipped the note through my pocket and into Storage in a folder labeled Japanese.
After spending a little more time there, we journeyed toward the foothills near the border.
“Sparklyyy?!”
At Tama’s exclamation, I looked up at the mountain and saw there was indeed something reflecting light about halfway up. With the help of my “Telescopic Sight” skill, I detected what looked like the tip of a spear. Quickly, I checked my map.
“Someone’s coming to greet us.”
“Mm?”
“That’s Red H— I mean, Mize and his friends.”
The map showed Red Helmet and no fewer than thirty other ratmen. I guessed it was a unit searching for survivors.
I spoke to Zeze, who was serving as the ratmen’s representative, then used a smoke signal to make contact with the group.
“Brinsiss and Zatew. Thank yew.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
I delivered the ratmen to Red Helmet, who’d come to greet us.
As usual, his expression was uncannily aloof in a distinctly human way, despite his rat features.
Red Helmet’s comrades were riding a monster that resembled a six-legged boar. They all held the title Beastmaster, so they probably trained monsters.
They also had a number of short, stocky deer called “dulldeer” to serve as beasts of burden. These were apparently bred specifically for transporting things in the mountains. Since the donkeys I’d bought would be unnecessary, I decided to sell them in town.
“Kyuze! You’re alive!”
“Vice Captain Poro protected me.”
There was another surviving ratman warrior in Red Helmet’s group—likely the one I’d assumed had left no remains.
I wonder why he didn’t show up when I searched the map that afternoon.
Maybe the map’s search was limited to the territory I was currently in.
But, no, I’d seen Red Helmet’s dot on my radar when he was outside this area, so maybe that was just the default search range.
As these considerations distracted me from the ratmen’s happy reunion, Red Helmet came to talk to me.
“Zatew, zir.”
“Oh, I can understand gray-ratman language. You don’t need to speak Shigan.”
“You are certainly knowledgeable. I’d like to offer this bell to you. It was entrusted to me, but the great elves made it. It doesn’t have any special effect, but it’s proof that its owner has earned the trust of elves or fairies or the like. Since you have gained Misanaria’s trust, it seems fitting that you should have it, Sir Satou.”
It seemed like such an important object that I refused to take it at first, but he would hear nothing of it, insisting that it was also thanks for rescuing his comrades from the humanfolk peacefully.
Red Helmet had planned to track them down even if he had to fight the Shiga Kingdom, so we’d unintentionally prevented a regional conflict.
After a lengthy back and forth, I ended up being forced to accept the Elvish bell. Its official name was the “Silent Bell of Bolenan,” and according to Red Helmet, it was made from the branches of a World Tree.
Mia accepted the bell from Red Helmet and attached it to my girdle. With no ball inside the bell, it didn’t ring. Maybe it was like identification papers for elves.
> Title Acquired: Friend of the Ratmen
We decided to drop by the town of Kainona again to sell the donkeys and wagon.
The trip to and from the border had taken a while, so by the time we arrived back in Kainona, it was already nearly evening.
Other than the completion of the study cards and the resultant praise from everyone, there were no events of note on the journey.
I asked Arisa and the others to get us a room at the inn we’d stayed in the day before and headed alone to the shop where I’d bought the wagon and donkeys.
Luckily, I made it to the store before closing and convinced them to buy everything back at about 80 percent of the original price.
Like the food we’d had there that morning, our dinner at the inn wasn’t very good, but the fried mutton wasn’t so bad. A bit heavy on the salt, perhaps, but it didn’t reek or anything, so I gave it passing marks.
In the middle of the night, I secretly slipped out of the inn by myself and visited the red-light district.
Unfortunately, since the town’s population was fairly low, the red-light district was quite small. There were about ten stalls serving food or drink and just two bars.
But no shops where I could enjoy myself with a pretty lady, by the look of things.
The ladies of the night roaming around the stalls in search of customers were all either too young or too far past their prime, so I ignored them.
Of the two bars, I entered the one with the relatively classy-looking clientele. The other bar was full of shady characters making a racket inside.
Luckily, there was a healthy distance between the two establishments.
I sat down at an empty table, and a woman with nice features and a shapely chest came to take my order. The way she carried herself was somewhat unnatural, but it emphasized her cleavage perfectly.
“What would you like to drink, young merchant?”
“Do you have mead? If not, I’m open to suggestions.”
“We unfortunately don’t have mead, but perhaps I can interest you in some Kainona sheep’s milk liquor?”
Evidently, this was the town’s specialty. They say these things only ever taste good to the locals, but I think taking in the local cuisine is part of the fun of traveling.
I ordered a glass of the sheep’s milk liquor and a dish of mutton and bean stew. The waitress’s face was way too close to mine. Don’t tickle other people’s cheeks with your blond hair, please.
My order arrived before long, so I tried a sip of the sheep’s milk liquor, and—gross. The raw, sour taste was even worse than I’d expected. The moment it entered my mouth, the animal stench pierced my sinuses, and I choked immediately.
Not even the koumiss I tried a while back was this sour…
Maybe that drink had been made with a Japanese person’s taste in mind, though. In the end, I wound up ordering an easy-to-drink Shigan beer instead.
The stew, on the other hand, had a mild, lightly salted taste. The fat from the mutton mixed deliciously with the generous portion of beans. I would’ve preferred more meat, but it was perfect for an accompaniment to my drink.
“Hey! There’s not enough salt in this! Don’t be stingy with the seasonings, man!”
“Keep it down, drunkard! You think I’m gonna dole out the salt at a price like that?!”
“What an old cheapskate. I hope that witch boils you in a cauldron and eats you!”
“Why, you—”
…I overheard a quarrel between a patron and the shopkeeper.
So it wasn’t an intentionally sophisticated flavor, huh? Well, it was tasty either way.
Drinking by myself was lonely, anyway. I bought a round of drinks for the locals and joined in on their rumors and gossip.
> Title Acquired: Moneybags
Each time I made another order, the waitress would “accidentally” press her chest up against my back as she brought it over. What a great place. Maybe I’d splurge on coppers for the tip instead of pennies.
Most of the gossip revolved around the goings-on in Kainona, but other topics included the starfall, a new colony of ant monsters near town, and the increase in damage from wolves in the neighboring Kuhanou County.
Also, though it seemed more fable than rumor, I heard tell of a witch who supposedly lived in a forest in Kuhanou County. According to the others, she gave medicine to good people but snatched up whoever recklessly harmed the forest and boiled them in a cauldron.
They might as well have rounded out the fantasy with details like “lives in a house made of candy” for good measure.
Now, then. I’d enjoyed myself thoroughly, so I stood up to leave. The waitress, who at some point had started drinking next to me, took me by the arm and led me to the second floor of the tavern.
The other customers whistled and jeered at us, and I finally realized the tavern doubled as a love hotel. I supposed waitresses doubling as prostitutes was a time-honored tradition in any world.
…I tipped the waitress generously and received service that was very devoted indeed.
The next morning, I placed a few silvers on her bedside table and left her sleeping contentedly. It was my thanks for an eventful night.
I changed clothes and asked a charmer who’d come to the tavern for business to wash me thoroughly. Hopefully this would erase the scents of perfume, woman, and various other traces.
In spite of my precautions, I still got the adulterous-husband treatment when I returned to the inn.
Mia and Arisa were the only ones who were angry; Tama and Pochi had no idea what was going on, and Liza and Nana didn’t seem to see any problem with it. Lulu’s expression was inscrutable, but she showed no signs of sadness or anger.
“Impure.”
“Honestly! You have so many girls here! Why must you go out and have affairs?!”
As a guardian, I would think laying a hand on any of my wards would be a much worse offense than any so-called affairs. I’d appreciate it if they’d overlook me getting my kicks elsewhere every once in a while.
And thus, the morning of our fourth day since leaving Seiryuu City began with a cute little domestic uproar.
For a change of pace, we wandered around the morning market awhile before leaving.
I didn’t see much in the way of new goods, but at least we were able to buy an assortment of ingredients. We bought half a sheep at a butcher’s shop, too, so a meal of mutton and vegetables seemed like a good dinner for that night.
We passed through the gates of Kainona just behind the villagers who’d closed up early at the morning market.
The slope down to the main road from the gate was flanked by steep hills on both sides, making visibility poor until we reached the road. Since there were no traffic signals, either, I imagined there were a lot of accidents.
The farmer and his wife in front of us had some trouble slowing their cart on the slope and zipped right into the intersection with the main road. They almost collided with a horse, which reared back and came to a sudden stop.
“You’re blocking the road, fools! Clear the way!”
The man on horseback hurled abuse at the couple when they blocked his path. The husband, who’d been pulling the cart, dropped to the ground as if the horse had kicked him, and his wife kneeled next to him, apologizing to the mounted man.
Behind us, a few gatekeepers came up to investigate.
Seeing this, the man hastened to steer his horse around the cart. At that moment, our eyes met unexpectedly, and for that instant, his gaze filled with hatred.
Hey now, I don’t think I was glaring at you, so what’s that all about? I don’t even know you.
But the moment quickly passed, and the man took off down the main road before the gatekeepers arrived.
“Master, was that not the man from before?”
“Who?”
Apparently, Liza remembered this person.
“He was the official who tried to take our flying ant cores back in Seiryuu City.”
“Oh, that small-time crook?”
So that was the accountant from the duke’s army who had tried to rob us of the girls’ hard-earned spoils.
I didn’t remember his name, but I guess some part of my mind registered him as a “small-time crook” because the small scale of his crime was impressive.
Checking his status on the map, I discovered his affiliation had changed to None.
Maybe the duke’s army found out about his embezzlement or something and fired him?
I didn’t care that much, so I shook off the memory of the man and drove our carriage forward.
The farmer had been injured when the horse kicked him—his status had changed to Bone Fracture. When I examined the details, I saw the injury was to his clavicle. His HP gauge was holding steady, so there probably wasn’t any long-term damage.
The gatekeepers finished their interrogation and went back to their posts. Because the situation was being treated as an accident, they wouldn’t chase down the man responsible.
The farmer’s wife lifted him into the cart and then tried to pull it with her slender arms, but I stopped her and offered one of the lower-grade recovery potions I’d bought in Seiryuu City.
Both the husband and wife refused to accept it, but I insisted that he drink it anyway, and he recovered. I guess even low-grade stamina recovery potions could heal a simple bone fracture. I placidly accepted the couple’s overzealous thanks, and we moved on.
After we’d been on the move for a while, Arisa voiced a complaint.
“If you give away magic potions to strangers, there’ll be no end to it!”
“Don’t worry. I just wanted to know whether a low-grade stamina potion could fix a bone fracture.”
That’s right. Helping them was just incidental. It definitely wasn’t because the desperate struggle of the farmer’s wife had gotten to me.
“I suppose I’ll go along with that explanation.”
Arisa shrugged with a “You can’t fool me” expression on her face.
I’m telling you, it was secondary!
I wanted to try something, so I had Liza take over as coachman.
Behind the driver’s seat, I waded through the group as they sang anime theme songs with Mia’s lute and sat in the back to watch the sky. This had become my go-to spot for contemplating things like spell development.
Opening the map, I began my investigation.
First, I checked and saw Hit-and-Run hadn’t been added to the crimes for the crook’s bounty.
Searching through the map, I investigated the categories of bounties. There seemed to be only six: Theft, Assault, Murder, Sexual Assault, Arson, and Treason.
Huh? The earlier incident aside, why didn’t I get the bounty Assault when I punched and incapacitated some thugs back in Seiryuu City?
“What’s the matter? You look perplexed.”
Arisa, who’d snuck up close to me, peered at me with concern.
“Oh, I was just thinking about Yamato stones’ bounty column.”
“In that case, you should just ask me! Your precious Arisa knows everything!”
Arisa puffed out her flat chest in a strange pose of pride. Please stop before Pochi and Tama start copying you.
“First of all, there are seven types of bounties.”
“Not six?”
“Nope! Theft, Assault, Murder, Sexual Assault, Arson, and Treason are the most common, but there’s also one called Infidelity.”
Infidelity? In the back of my mind, I remembered the corrupt priest shouting, “You infidels!” and spraying spit everywhere.
“You only get that one by doing things like going against the teachings of the deity you were baptized under, betraying or showing contempt for that god, stuff like that. I’ve never actually seen it myself.”
So if you haven’t been baptized, you can’t get the Infidelity bounty?
Curious, I posed the question to Arisa.
“Most likely. You can’t violate the conditions of an agreement if you never made one in the first place. Once you’re baptized, you receive the blessings of a god, so most people get baptized sometime between the age of seven, when they start an apprenticeship, and adulthood.”
Right, since gods in this world existed close by, religion had practical benefits.
“And when there are epidemics, people who’ve been baptized are given priority. The only people who don’t get baptized are usually either too poor to give offerings or nobles and direct descendants of royalty.”
“I understand the first example, but why not royals?”
I would think in a world with real divine rights and blessings, statesmen would be the first to take the initiative and get baptized.
“When kings and dukes take their positions, they have to make a contract with the City Core. They can’t do that if they’ve been baptized. People like viceroys who are in official positions only look after the City Core as agents of the king, so they can still be baptized.”
“Wait, Arisa. I can’t process all this information at once.”
I stopped Arisa’s verbal torrent for a moment.
“What is a ‘City Core’? Is it like a Labyrinth Core?”
“Oh, yes, sorry. And this conversation is off the record, by the way. City Cores are located underneath the castle, but only royalty and their direct descendants know about them. I only heard about this when I snuck into my big brother’s lessons as the crown prince… Our heads would roll if anyone found out what we know. Be careful.”
Arisa winked and stuck out her tongue. She seemed to be maintaining that expression to get me to rebuke her, but I ignored it and asked for more information.
“All right, I won’t tell anyone. So can you give me more details about these City Cores?”
“Okeydokey. I told you that dukes and kings make contracts with them, right? Well, once they do that, they gain the ability to manipulate the power source beneath the city.”
So there were sources beneath cities, too? Come to think of it, when I was talking to Nadi about Mia’s treatment, she’d mentioned a mana source inside Seiryuu City’s castle.
“They can use it for Ritual Magic like defending the city from monsters or enriching the surrounding soil. Since the range of the magic is so wide, people tend to think it’s pretty ineffective, but Ritual Magic can adjust the climate of the whole territory, relieve water shortages, and increase productivity. If the range is more focused, they say it can even defend against attacks from intermediate and greater hell demons.”
Pretty impressive.
“Arisa, if the City Core is that important, doesn’t that mean that cities and towns can only exist near mana sources?”
“That’s right. Sources big enough for a whole town or city are quite rare. Most of them are small sources like spirit reservoirs and monster reservoirs.”
According to Arisa, a spirit reservoir was a place with such abundant magical power that rare plants and animals lived there and flowers bloomed out of season, among other things.
Monster reservoirs, as the name implied, were places where monsters settled. When I scanned Trazayuya’s documents for more information, I learned that normal animals transformed into monsters when they breathed in the miasma of a monster reservoir.
My thoughts were wandering off track, so I had Arisa continue her explanation.
“Nobody’s heard of new City Cores being made since the age of the Flue Kingdom, and they’re kept very firmly under wraps.”
“Wouldn’t wars break out all the time in that case?”
“They do sometimes, but since large battles tend to attract the attention of hell demons or curious dragons, most of them are limited to small skirmishes.”
I see. So the existence of hell demons and dragons served as a deterrent for wars between humans.
I apologized for veering off topic again and asked Arisa to go back to explaining City Cores.
“Let me see. I believe they have other functions like Conferring, Reward, Verdict, Acquittal, and so on. Conferring is used for appointing knights, promoting nobility, and so on. Reward is used to bestow honors. I heard it can give the recipient a buff effect. Conversely, if someone has crimes in their bounty column, they get de-buffed.”
I asked how effective these were but didn’t get a clear answer. Arisa didn’t know, either.
“Does Verdict punish criminals?”
“Certainly not. Criminals get their heads chopped off, and that’s that as punishment goes. When Verdict is used on someone who’s been accused of a crime, it determines whether they’re guilty and adds the crime to their bounty accordingly.”
Oh, what a great system. No room for false accusations there.
“But Acquittal can blot out crimes from the record, so rulers and royalty can make it like the most inconvenient ones never happened.”
Which was why it was so important for statesmen to be rigorous and fair.
Apparently, the original purpose of Acquittal had been to erase the crime of murder from knights and soldiers in war.
“Say, Arisa. Do you have any idea why I didn’t get the Assault crime when I hit someone in Seiryuu City?”
“That only happens when there are serious injuries, like lacerations or bone fractures. People get into fistfights at bars all the time, after all. In cases like that accident earlier, I believe the use of Assault is determined mutually by both parties.”
Maybe that man didn’t get the Assault bounty because the farmer and his wife thought they were at fault themselves, then?
Right, when I essentially helped Zen commit suicide, I suppose it didn’t count as murder because Zen himself didn’t think of it that way.
Upon close consideration, it did seem like I’d killed a person, but I didn’t truly feel that way. Perhaps his unearthly appearance had made me feel more like I’d sent a spirit to heaven.
Either that, or my high mind stat was just reassuring me that it was only a game. I wasn’t the kind of person who liked to hem and haw about things, so I just left it at that.
Ah, I killed those lizardmen and dragons, too, didn’t I…? Why didn’t I get the Murder bounty then, either? Maybe because it was self-defense?
“Arisa, are there situations where someone commits murder but it doesn’t show up in their bounty?”
“Of course. Poisoning or assassinating someone without being found out, for example. I think there are exceptions like self-defense and duels and things like that, too.”
Hmm, maybe that applied to using Meteor Shower and fighting off that lizardman, then.
Though the lizardman had attacked me first, I had definitely wronged the dragons that I killed with my godlike power. Opening the Graveyard folder in my Storage, I once again prayed for the souls of the fallen. After I’d finished my loop of the Shiga Kingdom and come back to visit Seiryuu City, I decided I would construct a proper grave site in the Valley of Dragons.
While my thoughts were elsewhere, Arisa supplied an additional tidbit.
“Oh, and if a king or duke kills someone in his own territory, it isn’t considered a crime.”
That was pretty awful. With that level of privilege, it’d be no surprise if corrupt rulers threw their weight around like gods of their regions, like the marquis Zen had defeated.
At the time, I was so overwhelmed by the deluge of information that I forgot to ask why someone who’d been baptized couldn’t make a contract with a City Core. And it would be a long time yet before I found out.
Perhaps because of the incident earlier, I had the urge to practice the alchemy I’d been putting off for a while when we took our afternoon break. If I learned how to make potions myself, I could give them out more freely.
With a sidelong glance at the rest of the group, who were playing a game with the study cards, I set up the beginner’s alchemy set.
“Now he’s doing alchemy? How can one person be so multitalented?” With my “Keen Hearing” skill, I heard Arisa muttering about me somewhere.
Paying her no mind, I set up camp on a corner of the waterproof sheet and continued my preparations with the help of one of the books I’d bought from the old gnome. A lot of the instruments looked like tools for science experiments.
I browsed the textbook by using the menu without taking it out of Storage. This would come in handy for experimenting, since I would have my hands free.
The book was titled Rudimentary Alchemy. The old gnome had insisted I read this first. Actually, it was more of a pamphlet than a book. The thin volume had only twenty or so pages.
The book began with descriptions of the tools. It also included illustrations, to ensure that even a complete beginner wouldn’t get confused about which was which. Now I understood why that old fellow wanted me to read this first.
To begin, I took out a mortar and pestle. Instead of familiar white porcelain, this mortar was pale pink. With my “Analyze” skill, I discovered that it was made of agate. I thought agate was a gemstone…
Following the book’s instructions, I took out some dried herbs from the bag labeled Reagent One and ground them down with the mortar and pestle. Then I added water to a small bowl and whisked the mashed herbs into it with a small metal tool.
The whole process took about five minutes from start to finish. Well, since it was the first recipe in the introductory manual, it was bound to be simple.
> Skill Acquired: “Formulation”
I immediately invested the max amount of points into the new skill and activated it.
The aqueous solution I’d made was called an “antipyretic medicine.” When I analyzed it, its name read Antipyretic Medicine [Quality: Lowest], described as a liquid medicine that reduces fever. It has an extremely weak soothing effect. This was my first time making medicine, so I guess a low-quality product was only to be expected.
I also noticed that the name of the person who produced the item was listed in the item’s description.
When I appraised Liza’s spear, it contained the information Creator: Satou. This field didn’t show up in the AR display, but I was able to toggle it on by fiddling around with the settings in the menu. It was hidden by default.
I was glad I noticed this before I made any items or medicines that could get me in trouble. I decided to start blanking out my name when I made items in the future.
The next page of the pamphlet read, If you have a Transmutation Tablet, proceed to Chapter 2. Otherwise, turn to Chapter 4. This was beginning to feel like I was playing through a branching story rather than reading an introductory guide to business software or what have you.
Chapter 2 concerned the basics of the Transmutation Tablet, used for making potions.
According to the explanation, medicines created normally and potions made with the Transmutation Tablet were considered different even if their effects were similar.
Potions required MP and a magic catalyst called an “elixir,” but in return they had the advantage of taking effect immediately.
I proceeded to follow the instructions for creating a potion with the Transmutation Tablet.
The first step was preparing the tablet. It was a black board with a highly textured surface, possibly made of bituminous coal. The surface was engraved with shallow grooves in a black magic–esque pattern. On top of the tablet were six metal rods, finely engraved with designs like those on the tablet.
After I finished setting it up, I placed my hands on the corresponding marks and spoke the key word to activate it. All I had to do was say, “Transmutation Tablet activate” in normal Shigan, and magic was sucked from my hands as the grooves shone with red light. It was beautiful.
I could operate the Transmutation Tablet by moving my fingers along the indentation. In a way, it reminded me of the touch screen of a tablet computer.
I set up the Transmutation Tablet as the book instructed and placed a metal beaker in the center of the six metal rods. Then I poured the medicine I’d made earlier into the container. This would serve as the base of the potion.
Next, I gradually added the ready-made elixir, Reagent Two, while stirring the mixture. Then magic had to be added before the reagent settled on the bottom.
Placing a hand on the tablet, I transmuted the potion.
The metal rods radiated a bright red, and the reagent powder in the beaker lit up. It wasn’t reflecting the light of the rods—the powder itself was glowing. When the light faded, the process was complete.
> Skill Acquired: “Transmutation”
Of course, I maxed out the “Transmutation” skill as well.
The completed potion was the lowest-quality antipyretic. It would be a waste to just toss it, so I put the liquid into Storage without the beaker.
Now it was time for the real deal.
Since I had three elixirs for stamina recovery potions, I began transmuting them according to the steps in the textbook. The practice helped, of course, but my new “Formulation” and “Transmutation” skills had enabled me to make high-quality recovery potions.
Once I put my techniques into action, I gained the titles Doctor and Alchemist.
According to the pamphlet, potions had to be kept in dedicated vials or the magic would seep out along with the potion’s efficacy.
The vials had simple magic circles drawn on them with special ink to prevent any leaks.
Since I had the “Analyze” skill and my AR display, this part didn’t really apply to me, but the book said that ordinary people used the magic circles to determine what type of potion was inside.
Though this wasn’t in the textbook, I discovered in Trazayuya’s documents that it was possible to create up to five potions at a time by adding ingredients in bulk.
There was an added note that producing multiple potions at once required twice the MP and led to a slight decrease in quality, which was probably why it wasn’t in the textbook.
I made another stamina potion, followed by a pain-relief potion.
As I put away the Transmutation Tablet, I thought about what I’d like to concoct next. Maybe antidotes and anti-paralysis potions and others like those.
Each kind of poison required a different antidote, so the beginner set didn’t include any premade elixirs for them. Dragon stone could make a handy all-purpose remedy, but since I was missing a few ingredients, I couldn’t make it right away.
Paralysis potions, like antidotes, came in all varieties for different kinds of ailments.
The main components of the elixir were monster cores and a stabilizer. Because I had plenty of cores and a little bit of the stabilizer, I could theoretically keep mixing up potions, but I wanted to wait and try creating a wider variety.
I decided to buy a bunch of ingredients when we reached the next town.
Quite pleased with the unexpected success of my alchemy experiments, I returned to the horse-drawn carriage to resume our journey.
I felt bad about ignoring everyone all day, so instead of researching spells, I spent the rest of the trip to the campsite playing with them.
Since I was far too musically disinclined to join in on the anime song chorus, I proposed a classic game of word chains instead.
Arisa loved the sound of her own voice, so I let her explain the rules, and then the game began.
Despite being the one who’d proposed it, I had some trouble. I kept forgetting that the pronunciations of words translated into Japanese and words in the actual Shigan language were different.
I suffered defeat after crushing defeat, but along the way I started to get the hang of it and barely managed to preserve my dignity.
It was an unexpected failure on my part, but both the younger and older girls had a blast. I expected it’d probably become a staple on our travels.
As we all enjoyed the fun, the carriage brought us out of the hilly area and arrived at the campsite right in front of the mountains that bordered the county.
“This is tough,” I grumbled as I watched my arrow fly past the target.
Now that we’d finished setting up camp, Mia was teaching us how to use the short bows we’d procured in the town of Kainona.
After watching me shoot, the beastfolk girls, Arisa, and Nana all wanted to try it, too, so Lulu got roped into it, and we all ended up practicing together.
However, archery was harder than I’d thought.
On my first shot, far from flying straight and true, my arrow simply dropped to the ground.
“Watch.”
Mia showed me a test shot. Unlike in Japanese archery, here you were supposed to hold the bow parallel to the ground.
Everyone else took a turn, too, but they fared no better.
Surprisingly, Arisa was the only one who did well. She bragged inanely that she’d once joined an archery club for a single week in her previous life.
Nana managed to avoid snapping her chest with the bowstring, but Pochi nicked her hand with it, and Mia had to use Water Magic to heal the red welt.
In the end, Mia was the only one who could use the weapon at a practical level, and only Arisa and Tama succeeded in firing their arrows forward. Their accuracy was low, but they could probably bluff with it, at least.
Tama had more accuracy and power with throwing stones, and Arisa could use Psychic Magic without a chant anyway, so Mia would be the only one to use a bow.
I figured I probably wouldn’t touch it, either, at least until I found suitable prey and acquired the “Bow” skill.
After our practice session, I took Pochi and Tama with me to retrieve the arrows from the thicket behind the tree we’d been using as a target.
The arrows were marked on my map, so we could take a carefree stroll as we collected them.
Along the way, I found some medicinal plants that could serve for potion making.
“Herrrbs?”
“Yeah, they’re called russet wort. They’re used to make magic recovery potions,” I explained as Tama peered into my hand with great interest.
“Tama’ll pick ’em, too!”
“So will I, sir!”
“All right, let’s gather them on our way back, then.”
Once we’d recovered the arrows, the three of us picked herbs on our way back to camp. I wasn’t sure whether it was because of her “Collecting” skill or simply her sharp eyes, but Tama found the most.
After we returned to the camp, Liza asked me what the evening’s main dish should be.
There wasn’t much left of the venison Tama and I had caught, so we decided to use the mutton we’d bought in Kainona.
I took it out of Storage via the Garage Bag and passed it to Liza.
Since it had been in Storage, where the objects remained in stasis, it was just as fresh as when it had been butchered.
Liza was a little taken aback at how fresh it was, but she must have assumed it was a feature of the Garage Bag or something, because she accepted it without comment, cut out the parts we’d be using on the worktable I’d bought, and gave the rest to me.
Thanks to the eager help of the younger kids, preparation for dinner ended earlier than expected. The girls’ hungry gazes were boring into Liza, and out of consideration for her, I told them to play with the study cards until dinner.
Because we were waiting, I decided to challenge myself with an attempt to make a magic tool.
I’d already read through the Foundations of Magic Tools book that I’d purchased in Seiryuu City.
Generally speaking, a magic tool was a device that allowed the user to produce a certain magical effect without a spell. The patterns called “magic circuits” within allowed them to do this.
Simple circuits could be made without any special equipment, but complex ones required a dedicated workshop. The simplest way to understand it was the difference between electrical circuits built from bulbs, batteries, and wire, and electronic circuits with semiconducting components.
In order to configure a magic circuit, one simply had to create a specific pattern with “circuit solution.” The book also called the solution “magic liquid.”
Circuit solution came in different degrees of magic resistance depending on the purpose, but I figured the orthodox approach would be fine for now.
First, I drew an ink circle on a thick wooden board I’d bought in Kainona. Then I carved the circle lightly into the surface of the wood with a dagger. Finally, I poured circuit solution into the groove I’d made.
I made the simplest circuit solution first, which required melted copper, monster core powder, and a stabilizing agent.
The stabilizer was the same one used in transmutation, so I’d purchased it along with the monster repellent powder before we left. It was surprisingly inexpensive; I’d have to buy it in bulk in the next town for making potions.
I used a melting pot and a magic tool resembling an alcohol lamp to melt down the copper. When I pressed the button on the lamp, it absorbed some of my MP and produced a high-temperature flame like a burner.
Only a magic tool could burn without fuel like that.
Incidentally, I’d found the burner and melting pot in my spoils from the Cradle. It had probably belonged to Trazayuya or Zen.
> Skill Acquired: “Metalworking”
Was melting metal the only necessary condition for obtaining that skill?
Next, I added the core powder and the stabilizer to the liquid copper inside the pot. There was a light pop and a small puff of red smoke—but no smell.
I poured the completed circuit solution into the grooves of the wooden board. This time, I smelled something scorching as smoke rose from the hot liquid burning the wood.
Maybe I should’ve let it cool a bit before I poured it.
> Skill Acquired: “Magic-Tool Crafting”
I gained another skill as soon as I completed the process, so I maxed out both and activated them.
Now, the next step was to verify that the circuit worked, but I had no idea how to do that. All Foundations of Magic Tools said was When you have completed the process, try letting magic flow into it.
The authors had probably neglected to describe this detail because it was so obvious to them.
“What are you making?”
Noticing that I’d reached a good stopping point, Arisa, who’d been ignoring the study cards to peek at me curiously for a while now, joined me to talk.
“Magic tool number one.”
“Really? You can make those yourself?”
“I guess so. Want to test it out?”
“May I?”
Arisa looked so excited that I felt guilty.
“Try letting magic flow into it.”
“No problem! To use a magic tool, you just have to send the power from your right hand to your left, right?”
Thanks for the explanation. Now I could sneakily pull off some trial and error.
“All righty, here goes!”
Arisa poured her magic into the tool, and the dull copper glowed a reddish gold.
“All right, that should be enough.”
“So what happens now?”
“Once you put it in, the magic will flow through the circuit.”
“Nice, nice. Then what?”
“That’s it. It goes around the circuit till it runs out.”
“What? Really?”
“This is my first time making something like this, so it’s not gonna be complicated.”
“Aw, man, you got my hopes up there…,” Arisa complained, extremely unsatisfied.
Really, I’m not sure why you would expect a simple circle to do something complicated.
Losing interest, Arisa went back to the spell book she’d been reading.
I waited until her magic ran out of the circuit and the copper returned to its original color.
Now it was my turn to try. Judging by Arisa’s MP gauge, I needed to use only a tiny bit.
Cautiously, I put my hands over the magic circuit and imagined magic flowing from my right hand into my left.
The next moment, my creation burst into pieces in a flash of red light.
I reacted instantly, grabbing the overcoat I’d put nearby just in case and catching the fragments of copper and wood before they flew everywhere.
“Enemiiies?”
“Watch out, sir!”
Tama and Pochi rushed over at the sudden explosion. Liza and the others peered in my direction, too.
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing. Sorry for startling you.”
I apologized to the group and returned to my experiment.
Reviewing my log, I saw that I’d gained all sorts of skills and titles from that little mishap.
> Skill Acquired: “Magic Manipulation”
> Skill Acquired: “Overload”
> Title Acquired: Magic-Tool Designer
> Title Acquired: Magic-Tool Engineer
> Title Acquired: Agent of Destruction
The skills seemed helpful, so I put some points into each.
Since “Overload” seemed intended for sabotage, I changed it to “inactive” afterward. It could come in handy if I ever needed to destroy dangerous magic equipment.
I re-created the same circuit and tried infusing it again. Since I had the “Magic Manipulation” skill now, I figured it should be okay, but I moved a few paces away from Arisa before starting the experiment in case any debris went flying.
This time, I supplied the magic without any problems. Perhaps because I had crafted it with my newly acquired high-level skills, the circuit circulated the energy more than ten times longer than the first one.
Once I had mastered this, I had the feeling I could potentially use it to make a condenser or an MP battery or something.
I continued experimenting until it was time for bed, working through the practice circuits in Foundations of Magic Tools.
As a result, I realized that magic circuits shared many similarities with electrical circuits in both structure and function. Some sections would have been identical if you replaced magic with electricity.
However, there were also circuits with features that seemed physically impossible—they weren’t totally interchangeable.
There were many that I would’ve liked to try prototyping, but I didn’t have the gear or materials. I had some tools in my spoils from the Cradle and the Valley of Dragons, but it was so difficult to find the right ingredients that I just gave up.
I’d have to buy them in the next town. My shopping list was so long I was afraid I’d forget things, so I used the Memo function in the social networking tab to prioritize.
After a satisfying dinner with plenty of mutton, we enjoyed some after-dinner tea.
Liza, who looked like she’d been mulling something over for a while, made up her mind and approached me.
“Master, I would like to carry out some training with Pochi and Tama to ensure our skills remain intact. Is that all right?”
I’d been a bit nervous about what she might say to me, but since it was nothing major, I readily agreed.
Of course, real swords would be dangerous, so I cut down a nearby tree and fashioned wooden swords and a wooden staff roughly the same shape as a spear.
“Master, I would like to participate as well, I entreat,” Nana said.
“Sure, that’s fine,” I said, watching the beastfolk girls enjoying their practice. I fashioned a wooden rapier for her.
“Just don’t use Magic Arrows during training.”
“Restriction registered. Master, your command has been accepted, I report.”
Nana nodded expressionlessly.
The beastfolk girls were level 13, so since Nana was only about half their level at level 7, I gave her permission to use her Foundation Magic’s Body Strengthening spell. It would make for an appropriate handicap.
I let them engage in one-on-one and two-on-two practice battles. Since I was serving as the referee and on-call medic, I didn’t take part in the training.
As expected, Liza came in first by a long shot, followed by Tama, Pochi, and Nana.
Tama’s skill lay in evasion, thus she had a knack for earning a draw by dodging her opponent’s attacks until time ran out. Pochi’s attacks were about as good as Liza’s, but she was too focused on offense, at the expense of defense and evasion, so Liza used those openings to defeat her.
Poor Nana didn’t win a single match. She might have been able to win by a narrow margin if she could have used her Magic Arrows, but for now it seemed that the beastfolk girls’ higher levels and energy were too much for her. However, she was the best defender of the four. She’d probably be a good tank once her level was higher.
After the four of them cleaned off the sweat from training, they ate some soup that Lulu had reheated for them, and I put them to bed.
While I was on first watch with Arisa, a vampire bat attacked us. Though the name made it sound like a monster, it was just a normal bloodsucking bat.
I reached into my coat to pull my Magic Gun out of Storage and shot it down through one of its wings.
Then, nocking an arrow to the short bow, I acquired the “Bow” skill by pressing it into the bat as it flopped around on the ground.
I didn’t want to torture the animal, so I used a knife to kill it instantly once I’d acquired the skill.
The next day, the fifth morning since our departure from the city, I awoke to see a mountain of prepped and stripped vampire bats.
When I’d checked my map the night before, I hadn’t seen any nests nearby, so they must have attacked a bunch of times until morning.
As a result, we had grilled bat for breakfast. They smelled pretty good, but I couldn’t bring myself to eat any. I just pretended to taste one and left the rest to everyone else.
Arisa and Lulu felt the same way I did, so the grilled bats disappeared into the stomachs of the beastfolk girls. The three of them gleefully ate their fill, bones and all. I guess maybe they were tastier than they looked.
I’m on a journey through another world—maybe I should work up the courage to try it next time.
As I made this resolution, the carriage brought us out of Seiryuu County and into Kuhanou County.
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