I Said Make My Abilities Average! (LN) - Volume 18 - Chapter 126

Chapter 126:

Storage Magic

“WHAT’S OUR NEXT MOVE?”

After surveying the situation for themselves, the Crimson Vow had reached the conclusion that what made the local monsters so strong was their intelligence, not their physical abilities. However…

“There’s no point in telling the guild master,” said Mile. “This is normal as far as the locals are concerned. No one will think it’s a big deal for a jackalope to lead us into an ambush, or for an orc and an ogre to form a two-man cell…”

“Right. That’s business as usual around here,” Mavis agreed. “They wouldn’t find anything strange about it.”

Reina and Pauline were silent.

“But why are the local monsters so smart?” Pauline eventually wondered aloud. “What could be the reason? And how long has that been the case?”

“………”

No one had an answer for her.

“It’s not a stretch to assume that the monsters that came from another dimension long ago grew soft and weak in our peaceful world,” Mile mumbled. “After all, there was a marked difference in strength between the monsters from the old continent and those from the invasion…but there wasn’t much of a difference in intelligence. If anything, the monsters that have spent all this time in conflict with the humans of our world seemed a bit smarter. Considering all that, I doubt the monsters on this new continent have retained superior intelligence as one of their old traits. That leaves only one possible answer…”

“They got smarter after coming here?” Reina was as quick on the uptake as ever. “And it wasn’t all that long ago when things changed…”

“What? How do you know that?” asked Pauline.

“If the monsters had always been this smart, the humans on this continent would have gone extinct a long time ago,” Mavis replied. “Or, at best, they would have been displaced to areas where monsters are scarce.”

“Oh, I see…”

Though any single monster’s intelligence was a far cry from any individual human’s, had the continent been populated by a host of advanced creatures, humanity would have been overrun and overthrown ages ago. Monsters boasted big, tough bodies, formidable strength, superior stamina, and high fertility rates. Some among them could even use magic. The only reason humanoids had the upper hand on the old continent was because the creatures were stupid and uncoordinated. If they had ever acquired even the slightest bit of intellect, things would have gone very differently.

“And it’s not something that happened all at once, either,” Mile added.

“Exactly,” Mavis agreed.

The girls were right. Had the change come on suddenly, it obviously would have caused a stir—one that the guild master would never have neglected to mention. To go unnoticed, the change in the monsters must have taken place over decades or centuries. 

Even now, the monsters could be getting smarter by the second…

“………”

The quartet lapsed into silence as this possibility occurred to them.

“Still, there’s no reason to worry!” Mile piped up after a long pause. “The locals have managed this long, and I doubt the situation will dramatically worsen in the next few years, or even decades. Besides, while the monsters are evolving and getting smarter, so are we humans. With stronger and more advanced weapons and armor, fortified bulwarks, and a growing population, humanity will be ready to show those monsters who’s boss!”

Mavis agreed. “True. We should have faith in the people of tomorrow—and focus on living our lives to the fullest.”

“I guess you have a point,” said Reina. “It’s not our job to prepare for every little crisis that might occur. We can leave those matters to the future humans of this continent and the world at large, and focus on doing what we can as individuals. Besides, it’s not like we have a way to fix the problem.”

“Exactly. For now, let’s stick to our original plan and take it easy!”

“Yeah!” the other three chorused.

In the past, the girls might not have been quite as measured in their decision-making. However, the four members of the Crimson Vow had spent the past six months receiving a noble’s education, and they had each acquired their own territories and subjects to protect.

(When they had left these lands behind, they had made sure to leave their deputies in charge, so their current absence certainly did not count as a dereliction of duty—or so they told themselves.) 

Thanks to this crash course, the girls had learned exactly what they could and couldn’t do, and which matters had to be delegated to the Crown rather than a lord. There were certain things they knew they had no choice but to accept, and it was with this in mind that the Crimson Vow unanimously decided to table the issue of the monsters’ overwhelming strength.

“Taking it easy is all well and good, but I’m less enthusiastic about staying at F-rank,” said Mile. “I know we can still go hunting for dailies, but won’t that prevent us from taking on standard extermination jobs? And escort missions are completely out of the question. That rules out taking on escort jobs while we travel and making money on the side, or getting a free carriage ride on the condition that we help out if the merchants come under attack.”

“It would eliminate those options, yes,” Pauline confirmed. “Which means that we either have to make the trip to the capital on foot or pay for a passenger carriage.”

“………”

Though none of the girls were exactly strapped for coin, they were still incredibly averse to the idea of spending money on a carriage ride. Up to this point, carriages had been something they were paid to ride as part of an escort mission, so while they knew on an intellectual level that paying the fare was an option, it was a bitter pill to swallow. Such was human nature.

“Let’s try to come up with a better plan. We can stay here until we think of something,” Pauline suggested.

The other girls nodded vigorously.

“Oh!” Mile abruptly shouted.

“Wh-where did that come from?” a startled Reina groused. 

Mile’s next words, however, made her freeze.

“We forgot to test your and Pauline’s aptitude for storage magic!”

“Oh!” Reina and Pauline were the ones who shouted this time.

“I-I can’t believe we could forget about something so important… Ahhhh, I’m a failure as a merchant!”

“It totally slipped my mind. I can’t believe we didn’t think to check that first thing, especially after experiencing firsthand how big a deal it is for a hunter to have storage magic!”

The two girls shook their heads in mutual astonishment. 

“I-I don’t blame us! We’ve had a lot to do since we came to this new land, and it’s been one thing after another… Anyway, we should wait until tomorrow to try it out. It’s dangerous to experiment with magic indoors, even if it’s just for storage.”

Mile made a fair point. Pauline and Reina reluctantly nodded in agreement.

In their heart of hearts, they wanted to test their abilities without a moment’s delay. Alas, there was no telling what might happen if they botched a spell as high-level as controlling a pocket dimension. They were experienced enough as mages to know better than to argue with Mile’s reasoning.

“Don’t look like that, guys! You’re scaring me! Tomorrow we’ll go to the forest and do some trial runs. Okay?”

“………”

In anticipation of the day to come, Reina and Pauline were unlikely to get a wink of sleep that night.

***

“Uggghhh…”

“Hrrrgggh…”

The following day, Reina and Pauline were fighting an uphill battle in the forest near the port city, a hunting ground for rookie hunters.

During Mile’s previous attempts to teach them storage magic, Pauline had managed to craft the subspace itself, but its capacity had been limited, and she could only maintain it for a short period of time. Reina, meanwhile, had never gotten past step one.

As such, Reina’s training was focused on forming the subspace pocket. Pauline’s regimen involved filling her storage with pebbles, then having Mile distract her through a number of means—talking to her, presenting her with difficult riddles to solve, tickling her—so that she could learn to keep the magic going longer.

Unfortunately, their practice didn’t yield much in the way of results.

“Come on, Reina, you watch me take things in and out of storage all the time! Try to visualize, like, tearing open a rift in the space-time continuum, then wedging that hole open… And after that, you build a warehouse and shelves inside that space… Call it ‘mental compartmentalization’!”

“That terrible pun drove the image right out of my head! Thanks a lot!” said Reina, sulking.

For Reina, who had no idea what the space-time continuum was, Mile’s explanation was lacking in specifics. As they say—smart people make bad teachers. People who can figure things out on their first try have trouble relating to those who stumble and fail to grasp the concept. They can’t understand what part is unclear or why the other person is struggling so much.

“At least you managed to form the subspace, Pauline. Now all we have to do is teach you to increase its capacity and keep it functioning at all times, whether you’re upset, distracted, or even sleeping. Take this—coochy-coochy-coo!” Mile cried as she reached out to tickle her student.

“G-ggh, agh, hrghhh… Ahhhhhh!!”

A stream of pebbles shot out of nowhere in front of Pauline.

“Well, you’ve learned to hold it longer, at least while you’re not doing anything else…but it still falls apart the moment you get distracted. When it comes to storage magic, you’re the equivalent of an unhatched egg. Needless to say, you have a ways to go before you can call yourself a full-fledged storage user. Reina, you won’t even count as an egg until you can create your own subspace pocket.”

“Ugh…” Reina and Pauline groaned, chagrin written all over their faces.

Mastering storage magic would be a tremendous boon to any hunter. The same was true for a merchant, of course. Neither Reina nor Pauline could afford to give up over such minor setbacks as these, so it was little wonder that both girls kept up their struggle until they were red in the face.

“It’ll take more than this to make me quit! Do you have any idea how hard I’ve worked? How much I’ve endured to boost my magic skills to their current level?! I’d never waste the chance to have a mage who knows storage magic as my own private tutor!”

“Exactly! As both a hunter and a merchant, I consider storage magic a dream worth striving for! Anyone who would squander this opportunity has no right to call themselves a full-fledged merchant! I’ll see this through, even if it kills me!”

Reina and Pauline each gave voice to their determination. They were clearly prepared to train for however many days it would take to get the hang of storage magic.

“Sounds like a lot of work, but best of luck to you, girls!” said Mavis, the sole bystander.

Mavis had no aptitude for magic, so she had opted not to participate in the training session. Even Reina, a gifted mage, and Pauline, who had declared with a frightening intensity that she would sell her soul to the devil to learn storage magic, were having a rough time. Mavis, who wasn’t a mage at all, had decided that she had no business trying.

“Storage magic, huh? Sure would be handy to have. Unlike you mages, we swordsmen have to lug around bulky, heavy weapons and armor—and we consume a lot of water, too. Factor in the miscellaneous equipment and spoils we have to carry, and it really adds up… I don’t need to worry about drinking water when I’m traveling with you guys, but I still have to carry my own supply in case of an emergency. I may have more stamina than a mage, but it seems like the drawbacks outweigh the advantages.”

Having benefited significantly less from Mile’s guidance, compared to the two mages, Mavis was in a bit of a huff.

“It would be great if I could at least have a place to stash my backup blade. You know, like one of the characters from Mile’s folktales… How did it go, again? ‘I am the bone of my machines’…”

On a whim, Mavis drew the sword at her hip and thrust it into the empty expanse before her.

Shlorp.

The sword disappeared—almost as if it had been absorbed into the void…

“Huh?”

Her trusty sword was gone.

This was a catastrophe.

“Waaaaah! Where’d my sword go?! Come back!”

Shlorp.

It reappeared.

Her newly recovered sword in hand, Mavis looked stunned. And then…

“…”

“……”

“………”

“WHAT THE HECK?!” Reina, Pauline, and Mile all shouted.

The first to master storage magic was the dark horse challenger: Mavis.

***

The subsequent investigation confirmed that Mavis had fully mastered storage magic and was able to maintain her subspace without any conscious effort.

That’s right—whether she was otherwise occupied or even asleep, her storage magic would remain intact. Its capacity was also quite large.

I guess it’s true that Mavis has always had an aptitude for magic. Her Austien heritage prevented her from casting more overt spells, but she could already use body-enhancing magic and Wind Edge, with her sword as an intermediary. She’s also demonstrated flexible thinking, strong conviction, and formidable spirit power countless times in the past, whether it was through mouth-to-mouth healing, her “We are the inferno” fire attack, or the Mav-ius Strip.

What’s more, the “folktales” I told her, combined with her overall powers of imagination and adoration of swords both famous and divine, have led her to strongly envision “that” as a real thing… And by “that,” I mean the Reality Marble known as Unlimited Blade Works.

Mavis can’t cast magic outward…or rather, emit the thought pulse needed to command the nanomachines without the medium of her trusty sword. But opening a subspace pocket doesn’t require a grand display of magic via the multitudes of nanomachines in the vicinity. The few nanomachines inside her are enough to get the job done. Unlike combat magic, storage magic calls for a vivid mental image and faith, not sheer power.

Oh, and plus, Mavis now has the nanomachines that service her two blades, along with the ones in charge of her left arm. Maybe those exclusive nanomachines can render her thoughts more accurately and for a longer stretch of time…

While Mile was lost in thought, Reina and Pauline had burned themselves out to pure white ash.

It was hard to blame them. The two girls were quite confident in their own abilities, and yet Mavis, a swordswoman who wasn’t supposed to have any magical talent at all, had effortlessly mastered the magic they had both struggled to grasp.

They couldn’t believe it—or rather, they didn’t want to believe it.

“Reina? Pauline? It’s no use. They might as well be walking corpses.”

“Er… I feel like I should apologize…”

***

Of course, since Mavis wasn’t using Mile’s brand of pseudo-storage magic (read: inventory space), her storage didn’t boast an unlimited capacity or the ability to halt the passage of time. It was just ordinary storage magic. Its capacity was roughly that of a six-tatami mat room.

“That’s more than plenty!”

“Screw you!”

When Reina and Pauline learned this after rebooting their systems, they tearfully berated their friend.

“I’m sorry, guys. I really am!”

“Don’t you dare apologize! It makes us look even more pathetic!”

Reina had a point.

Distress written all over her face, Mavis looked to Mile for help…and yet, despite her troubled expression, her eyes were sparkling with joy. 

Storage magic would allow her to carry water, food, camping gear, backup weapons and armor, and game in large quantities. In the future, long after the Crimson Vow had disbanded, she could work as a “hassle-free hunter” who could carry bedding, cooking supplies, and ingredients, either flying solo or joining random parties on a temporary basis in between her lordly duties. In her capacity as a lord, she could also help out countless people in times of disaster by transporting large quantities of emergency supplies to places where carriages couldn’t go.

“Hee hee. Hee hee hee…”

No one could blame her for the squeal of delight that escaped her lips.

No one could blame her, but still…

In the background, Reina and Pauline glared at Mavis with faces like thunder.