by Hiro Ainana
It was beautiful—and much more precise than human alchemy tools.
My recipe was meant for a human Transmutation Tablet, but it turned out that these techniques had generally been adapted from the elves, so their tablets were a much more efficient version.
“Does this look right for the settings?”
“Yes, I think that should work splendidly.”
From here on, the process was similar to making any ordinary magic potion, just with slightly different settings.
The two of them were well versed in alchemy, so they had no problem figuring it out.
In the back of the workshop was the same extra-large Transmutation Tablet setup I’d seen in the magic-tool workshop, but they explained that they would be using the smaller kind until they got a feel for the recipe.
Worn out from all the gabo-fruit grating, Goya was stretched out unmoving on the couch. Perhaps we could give him one of the recovery potions later.
“This is easier than I expected.”
“Fool!”
Tuya looked a little let down until his master bonked him on the head with a staff.
“That’s because Satou made the recipe so easy to understand. Besides, only a human could have come up with this potion!”
I was a little confused.
Why was it “only a human” and not “only Satou” specifically?
“What do you mean, boss?” Tuya asked, evidently as confused as I was.
“When we elves get tired, we simply rest until we’ve recovered. But humans have shorter life spans, so sometimes they need to keep working even if it requires the help of a potion like this.”
That made sense. If I were going to live for hundreds of years, I guess I wouldn’t be in a rush most of the time, either.
…Huh? Then why were Miss Jia and the others using potions to overwork themselves, and why did they need those void suits in such a hurry?
“This is remarkable.”
“Quite a collection, isn’t it?”
Leaving the rest of the potion production to Tuya, the master of the workshop was now showing me around their archives, which boasted many of the elves’ potion recipes and advanced research notes.
The shelves were stacked all the way up to the ceiling, some fifteen feet off the floor.
“It’s not a library, so you can’t take anything with you, but you’re welcome to read whatever you like. The banned books have been moved elsewhere, so you don’t need to worry about that. Just don’t teach these recipes to other humans, please.”
When I asked why, she explained that it would threaten the “diversity of recipes.”
But if I developed new recipes that utilized the knowledge or ideas I found here, I was welcome to spread them as much as I liked.
The master gave me a passkey to the archive, which was designed to look like a dancing frog, so I could easily come here and read while the others were sleeping.
“What sort of things are in the banned section, if I may ask?”
“Special recipes like elixirs, youth potions, cure-alls, and so on. They all require nigh-unobtainable ingredients like blood gems, giant monster fish liver, the scales of grown dragons, and so on. Or otherwise rare materials like Holytree Stone. There are other forbidden potions, too, like demonic potions and necromancy elixirs and such, so you mustn’t make those.”
The rare ones sounded rather intriguing. Even without the instructions, I’d love to find out what kind of potions there were and what ingredients they required.
That way, I could gather the ingredients and bring them here to get them made if I really needed them.
Youth potions, in particular, sounded like something I’d like to stock up on as soon as possible.
I knew it sounded selfish, but I wanted the head priestess of Tenion Temple to live as long as possible, and not just because she could revive my comrades if necessary.
At any rate, the ordinary archives contained potions like aphrodisiacs, stimulants, and other such things.
Finding this unusual, I asked Master Aea about it, and she said they were intended for married couples who were struggling to have children.
Normally, most couples conceived within the first hundred years or so, so these potions were rarely necessary, the master noted cheerfully.
As usual, I couldn’t quite keep up with the elves’ strange sense of time.
There were a lot of potions I couldn’t make with my Transmutation Tablet; when I worried about this aloud, they gave me an old one that no one was using. Elves were quite generous.
The actual library was in the lower part of the World Tree, comprised mostly of books from elves who were sleeping in the mystery area and those who had simply run out of space at home.
I’d have to get permission from Aialize or the elders to go there. Then I could bring Arisa and the others to browse around.
“Space is much freer than you youngsters think.”
About half a month had passed since we started living in the tree house when we got the chance to hear an elder elf give a lecture on Space Magic.
It was strange to hear such elderly-sounding words coming from the mouth of someone who looked like a young boy.
His white-robed elf assistants and apprentices stood behind him as silently as statues, giving off a rather intimidating air.
As usual, Goya had shown up, too, but quickly fled when he saw the elder and his entourage.
“Y’see the holes in that there box? Put your face close and have a peek inside.”
We took turns looking through the large holes in the box.
The box on the outside was a cube about three feet around, yet inside it was easily a hundred square feet of space.
“Ah! Master’s face is so far away!”
Pochi, who was looking through the hole on the other side of the box, waved to me excitedly. For some reason, it sounded like her voice overlapped on itself, though that might have just been my imagination.
Maybe it was because the distances between us inside and outside the box were so different.
I waved back at her, pulled away from the hole, and then looked at Pochi.
Her tail was wagging away as Liza held her up.
“Is this Space Expansion?”
“That’s right, lad.” The elder elf nodded. “Magic Bags and the like are made with a subversion of the Space Expansion spell called Garage.”
Space Expansion constantly used magic power, so it wasn’t well suited to being sustained for long periods of time.
The Garage spell created a subspace proportionate in size to the amount of magic initially used to invoke it; this magic then circulated internally through the subspace it created, meaning that it required only a minimal amount of magic to maintain.
Opening and shutting the gate required magic, which was used to restore any magic that had been consumed in the subspace.
The “Item Box” skill had a similar effect as Garage, with the additional feature of an inventory list that the skill user could view at any time.
The “Inventory” skill that heroes used worked in basically the same way as well, but since the subspace itself was created by the goddess Parion, it could store a virtually infinite amount of items.
…But my “Storage” skill didn’t use magic power at all, so how did that work?
Maybe it just happened to have similar functions but actually worked in a totally different way.
“Now we will use a Holytree Stone to fix the Garage spell to a bag.”
The elder elf reached into the pouch around his waist and pulled out a sapphire-like gem.
“Prettyyy?”
“So sparkly, sir.”
Tama and Pochi gaped.
“Lady Aaze has given me permission to use a Holytree Stone for thee, Satou, but as they are quite valuable, we shall only use one.”
Hmm. Considering how important they are, maybe we shouldn’t use one at all?
From what I’d gathered during our stay in the elf vil
lage so far, Holytree Stones had a lot of awfully important uses.
So I suggested using a core to make a Magic Bag instead.
“I have heard tell that humans use high-grade monster cores as a substitute for Holytree Stone, but not only will this reduce the amount of space it creates, the tool can break in less than a thousand years if left unmaintained. Thus, I cannot recommend such an inferior product.”
The elder elf shook his head, but a thousand years of effectiveness seemed fine to me.
It might have seemed inadequate to the elves, but with a human’s life span, I’d say even fifty years was plenty long enough.
“…Well, if you insist, I shall not argue, lad. We shall have Hiya prepare the necessary cores.”
“What grade of cores might be required? We’ve gathered plenty on our travels, so I’d be happy to provide them if they’re usable.”
I had a good store of monster cores, so there was no need to trouble my chant teacher, Hishirotoya, about it.
I showed the elder elf the grading scale that human alchemists used for cores and asked him what kind would work.
The ones I had on hand from level-30-and-up hydras, wyverns, and so on turned out to be a perfect fit.
In our travels through the Muno Barony and from the old capital through the Black Dragon Mountains, I’d gathered a pretty good amount. There were more than enough for each of my group members.
This way, we could also make a large bag to carry Nana’s giant shield and a backpack for transporting game that we wouldn’t have to worry about dirtying with blood.
“Now, then… Aside from the parts that require Space Magic, my apprentices can take care of the rest of the work. I must go and help Lady Aaze, so once I have explained a certain amount of the procedure, I should like to leave it to my helpers and come back only for the finishing touches. Is that all right?”
The elder looked apologetic, but I was the one putting him out during this busy time, so I wound up feeling guilty.
“That’s more than enough—thank you. Is it all right if I watch your apprentices work so that I can learn?”
“Indeed, that was my intent from the start. Please feel free.”
The elder nodded generously, but I saw the elves behind him frowning a little, so I decided I would go alone to watch the work.
That was five days ago.
I took time off from training to go to the workshop where the Magic Bags were being made, and I helped out the apprentices while I learned their techniques.
At first, the apprentice elves were distant with me, but when I readjusted their magic tools to function more efficiently, they opened up a little.
By this point, they had accepted me enough that they invited me along on their tea breaks.
Incidentally, Goya had stopped showing up after the first day. According to Arisa and the others, he was instead going to the training grounds whenever Mia was there.
“Satou, would you mind fine-tuning the Transmutation Tablet?”
“Wait. Me first.”
“Not so fast! I need Satou to help process the monster stomachs we’re using for the inner walls of these bags!”
I helped the elves with each of their requests in turn, feeling a bit like the office gofer.
“You’re pretty popular, Satou.” Hishirotoya teased me when he came to see how I was doing, but I couldn’t say I was looking to be popular with guys, pretty as these ones might be.
The “inner walls” the last elf mentioned were what we used to form the interior of the Space Magic subspace.
A subspace tended to have small gaps and such, so having a physical wall helped keep it together and protected the objects stored inside from any negative effects of being stored within an unstable subspace.
Monster stomachs were the best material for this inner wall, so I provided the necessary amount of hydra and wyvern stomachs from my Storage.
Like the “Item Box” skill, Magic Bags couldn’t hold living creatures. Unlike the former, however, it turned out that this was a deliberate prohibition put on Magic Bags during the creation process.
In the past, living things placed inside Magic Bags sometimes died of lack of oxygen or tore through the inner wall and escaped into subspace.
So setting up Magic Bags so they couldn’t hold living beings was a method of avoiding such accidents.
That being said, the Magic Bags we were making this time included permission to contain magic-made creatures, like golems.
Golems didn’t need oxygen and wouldn’t rampage inside the bag without orders.
“You’re amazing, Satou. On your first day, just seeing the beginnings of the control device surprised you, but now you’re using projection and sealing devices and even transcribing magic circuits without a problem.”
“That’s only because you’ve all guided me so well,” I responded as the elves admired my work.
I was being a little modest, but it was true: The elves here seemed to like teaching people, and they’d helped me learn a lot.
The devices in question were used to incorporate control circuits into the cores.
I was indeed surprised the first time I saw the magic circuits carved directly into cores that had been “formatted” using a special device. That must be how the tiny detailed magic circuits I saw in the multi-legged golem before were made, too.
As I was reflecting on all this, the elder elf came into the workshop. He was here to do the finishing touches today.
“Hmm. These are better made than usual.”
The elder elf inspected the prepared materials and nodded, looking satisfied. “Your skills have improved, you lot.”
“That’s all thanks to Satou.”
“Mm. Talented.”
“He helps us out with even the most tiring work, and his ‘Magic Manipulation’ is nearly as good as yours, master.”
For some reason, the apprentices all hurried to shift the praise over to me. I was quick to say “Oh, that’s not true” like a proper Japanese person, but the elves scolded me that this was “unnecessary.” I was glad that my help had been useful, but they didn’t need to flatter me that much.
Once this little scene was over, I watched the elder elf and his aides finish the process.
“… Garage Kakunouko.”
“… Set Rune Conferment Jutsu Shiki Kotei Fuyo.”
“… Preserve Rune Conferment Jutsu Shiki Hoji Fuyo.”
“… Cyclify Magic Maryoku Junkanka.”
Once the elder had invoked his spell, the apprentices activated shorter spells one by one.
I made a mental copy of the four spells with “Parallel Thoughts,” then noted them all in the memo tab of my menu while I watched the elder elf work.
“Now we must set this in place while the magic is stable.”
The apprentices’ spells were just stopgap measures until the magic device could be activated.
One of the assistant elves used Magic Hand to put the device inside the Garage.
“Activate.”
Once this was finished, the elder elf said a key word in Elvish, and the magic device activated and fused with the walls of the Garage. With this, the Magic Bag was complete.
Great. I managed to memorize the steps and the chants.
Once I learned how to chant properly, I should be able to reproduce the whole process.
Just imagining a Magic Bag made with the enormous stomach of a whale was a thrilling prospect.
As I was contemplating this, the elves moved on to the next bag.
Since I still couldn’t chant, it was frustrating not to be able to help.
“Is this the last one?”
“Affirmative.”
The elder elf’s voice sounded tired.
Even if he was just doing the finishing touches, making ten Magic Bags in one day must have been pretty exhausting.
All I could do was offer intermediate magic recovery potions and nutritional supplement potions to help him get through it.
; …Were my potions the reason he couldn’t stop partway through?
No, I must be imagining things.
“The rest is in your hands.”
I bowed respectfully to the elder elf as he left the workshop.
“A pink flowerrr!”
“Mine has a yellow paw mark, sir.”
“Mm. Rabbit.”
“The chick design on mine is the winner, I insist.”
The girls were showing one another the embroidered designs I’d put on each of their Magic Bags at the sewing workshop.
They were modeled after a cute pochette; the flap could be unbuttoned, allowing for large things to be put in or taken out.
The sewing workshop had plenty of dyes, so the younger girls and Nana chose bright colors.
Arisa went for a dramatic black base with a red line, while Lulu’s and Liza’s bags were a sophisticated brown.
The main body of the bag was already complete, so it took only a few minutes to sew everything up.
“User registration now.”
“…User registration?” I repeated.
“Required.”
The elf assistant nodded.
Just as the name implied, this feature restricted the opening and closing of the Magic Bag to the individual registered as its owner.
That seemed useful, so I thought maybe I could add the same feature to the girls’ weapons and any dangerous magic tools. Unlike Holy Swords that were gifted from gods, the ones I made had no restrictions on who could use them.
In addition to this type, which linked the magic tool to its registered user, there was also a kind that utilized a magic tool as a key. The key I’d been given for the alchemy archives was one example of this.
Since I wanted to try it, I decided to use that kind for the game-carrying bag, which everyone would be sharing.
Using a key-style ring would be fashionable, too.
“Now our Fairy Packs are finally finished!”
Arisa struck a triumphant pose with her completed bag. Not very ladylike.
“Fairy Pack?” The assistant elf blinked.
“Well, yeah.” Arisa smiled confidently. “‘Magic Bag’ sounds kind of dull, since the elves made them for us and all. ‘Fairy Pack’ has a much nicer ring to it, don’t you think?”
