by Hiro Ainana
I hurriedly drew the magic back out of the spear. This time, I was careful not to remove it all at once.
It could break like a hot cup that’d been doused in cold water too suddenly, and I didn’t want that.
The spear was still tinged with magic, but the strange vibration had stopped. I tried swinging it a few times. Luckily, the balance hadn’t changed, and the red streaks didn’t seem to have left any cracks or scratches on the surface.
The red streaks closely resembled the hardened circuit liquid of magic-tool creation.
Since this spear was made from monster parts, maybe it was exposed to the same components as monster cores, or even made up of a crystallized version.
After a quick appraisal of the spear, I realized its performance had greatly improved.
I didn’t exactly remember what its stats had been originally, but I was pretty sure it had been similar to the steel spear, and now it was nearly seven times stronger.
It still didn’t compare to my Holy Swords, but it was an unusual increase in performance.
Its name had even changed, from Black Cave Cricket Spear to Magic Cricket Spear. I had to wonder what the naming standards were exactly.
It was being treated as a completely different item from before the transformation, as the name of its creator had changed to a blank.
I must have forgotten to change my name back after I created those anti-paralysis potions before.
> Title Acquired: Magic-Spear Smith
> Skill Acquired: “Imbue Magic”
> Skill Acquired: “Weapon Enhancement”
The kids entered the room, following Liza.
“Oh my. Is it over already?” Arisa asked.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I noticed that the plate-mail-clad skeletons had collapsed to the floor, their bones scattering everywhere.
I guess when their master perished, the underlings disappeared, too.
“I’m sorry, Liza. Your spear looks different now.”
“…Is this a pattern, not cracks?”
Surprised, Liza stroked the surface of the Magic Cricket Spear.
Then she slowly swung it in the air a few times experimentally.
“Perhaps it’s my imagination… But it’s as if my senses travel all the way to the tip of the spear now, even more so than before.”
With that comment, she gave a more powerful strike, and the red streaks lit up in response.
“I see! Could it be that you’ve remodeled it so that I might learn to use Spellblade?”
I wanted to correct her misunderstanding, but she seemed so happy that I couldn’t bring myself to tell her.
The next morning, I would end up confessing that I had almost broken the spear and meekly apologize.
“Wait just a minute! There’s a hidden door over here!”
Arisa pulled back the tapestry behind the throne and beckoned to me.
According to my “Analyze” skill, the coat of arms on the tapestry belonged to Marquis Muno.
My “Trap Detection” skill was sounding the alarm, so I had Arisa pull back while I disarmed the snare.
Then I stepped into the hidden room. For some reason, there were two slimes in the corners of the room, so I disposed of them and put the remains in Storage.
After ensuring there were no more dangers, I called the others into the room.
“Wooow!”
“So shiny, sir!”
“How very remarkable.”
“Whoa, what is this?!”
Everyone entered the room and exclaimed with surprise at the piles of treasure.
There was a heap of what must have been ten thousand gold Shigan coins, statues made of precious metals, and jewelry on display.
Along the walls of the room, there were piles of boxes full of equipment. Mithril weapons were lined up on beautiful display stands. The objects wrapped in oiled paper were probably paintings of some kind.
There wasn’t a single rusted item or speck of dust in here.
The slimes had probably been for cleaning and rust removal. I should’ve captured them without killing them.
I told the kids that they could look at whatever they liked, and everyone began searching the room.
Pochi and Tama ran around the mountain of gold coins, Liza asked my permission before inspecting the weapons, Mia examined the silver musical instruments with an inscrutable expression, and Arisa scooped up gold coins with both hands, cackling something about filling a bathtub.
Everyone seems to be having a great time.
As for myself, I discovered a magic satchel like the Garage Bag wrapped in oiled paper in the corner by some wooden boxes.
It was stuffed with books and documents. Most of it was territorial tax revenue reports and information on a proposed mining site, but there were some intermediate and advanced spell books, too. Sadly, there weren’t any scrolls.
The bag itself was about the same size as my Garage Bag, but its capacity was far less. Still, even ten cubic feet of space was pretty impressive.
As I put the Lesser Garage Bag in Storage, Nana appeared in the doorway, carrying Lulu.
“This is amazing.”
“Is it a treasury? I inquire.”
“Looks that way.”
Marquis Muno’s family must have hidden away this treasure for the revival of their house. But from what I’d heard, it didn’t seem like any relatives of Marquis Muno were around anymore, so it was probably fine for us to do as we liked.
It’d be a good reward for exterminating that wraith.
After I told everyone to let me know if they wanted anything, I joined in on exploring the items.
> Title Acquired: Grave Robber
> Title Acquired: Treasure Hunter
I acquired a rather insulting title in the process, but I ignored it as I rummaged through the loot.
“Master.”
Liza beckoned to me from the back of the room. Enshrined there was an egg-like object the size of a truck.
The AR display called it Magic Cannon: Noble Blood. The very same weapon of mass destruction that the older man had told me about. If the corpse we’d found in the mountains had gotten here alive, a new massacre might have taken place.
“What could it be?”
“Probably some kind of magic tool. Can you check those weapons again and see if there’s anything we can use? I’ll take care of this.”
“Understood.”
Once Liza had gone to the other side of the room, I put the Magic Cannon in Storage and created a Magic Cannon folder for it and all the related items and materials.
It was best to lock away a dangerous thing like this. As long as it was in my Storage, nobody should be able to misuse it.
It was our tenth morning in the Muno Barony, three days after we’d defeated the wraith.
We were still staying in the fortress.
“Perhaps the children and the elderly could live here somehow?”
After Arisa made this remark, we had called the old folks and the young bandits and started fixing up the fort.
I wasn’t very enthusiastic at first, but once we started, it reminded me of making a secret base as a kid. I ended up enjoying it, reliving a bit of my childhood.
We repaired the broken well and fixed up one of the barracks to a habitable state, then gave the old folks some cloth and fur that they could use to mend their flimsy clothes.
Next, we dug a field in the courtyard so that they’d be able to grow food starting in the spring. For produce, I gave some gabo fruit to the leader of the elderly. They were the same ones I’d confiscated from the thieves before.
We had the kids teach us what wild grasses were edible and collected them while the beastfolk girls and I went wild-boar hunting.
Aside from the edible wild grass, we collected an abundance of gourds that bore a resemblance to winter melons. They weren’t good to eat raw, but they would likely work well in stew or stir-fry. Mia was very pleased.
As for the immediate food su
pply, we all worked together to make smoked food and dried meat in large quantities. I took the monster meat out of Storage, but I told everyone that we’d hunted in the mountains.
To ensure their safety, I placed a normal Holy Stone in the center of the fort. Since the leader of the elderly group had a relatively high level, he should be able to supply it with magic.
I made a wooden frame around the Holy Stone so it’d look like it was part of the original fortress, which landed me a few shady skills like “Disguise” and “Destruction of Evidence.”
Then, after we stayed three days to make sure that the undead monsters wouldn’t be resurrected, we decided to depart from the fort.
Before we left, we held a memorial service with the kids and old folks for the bones I’d found in the mountains. This wasn’t so much to mourn the dead as it was to ensure that they wouldn’t come back again.
Then just as we were saying our farewells to the fortress, the children called out to stop us.
“Umm, Mister Merchant? This is a thank-you gift from all of us.”
The girl Totona’s little sister handed me a small pouch.
Inside was a collection of beautiful pebbles that they’d gathered by the riverbank. It was most likely the children’s treasure. The mix even contained real gemstones and ore.
I reached for one stone from the collection and gave the rest back to them.
“I’ll take one, but you should hang on to the rest of them, all right?”
“Okay!”
The girl hid bashfully behind her older sister.
After receiving words of thanks and farewells from the old folks and the kids, we descended the mountain.
We’d stayed a little longer than planned, but since we weren’t in any particular rush on our journey, it wasn’t a big deal.
Our carriage took us past the riverbank where the old folks had been encamped and across a sturdy stone bridge. Then, at the crossroads with the main road on the other side, we changed our path to follow the dried-up river.
Sitting on the warm carriage floor, I rolled the pebble I’d gotten earlier between my hands.
“There were much prettier gems in that bag. Why’d you choose such a plain one?”
“It’s a treasure to me.”
Arisa peered at the pebble in confusion, so I gave a somewhat pretentious response.
This opaque red pebble was called a “Serpent’s Blood Stone,” and it was used as raw material in alchemy.
Like the dragon powder I’d bought in bulk in Seiryuu City, it was one of the components of a universal antidote. I was still missing other materials, so I couldn’t make one just yet, but it couldn’t hurt to have it on hand.
Apparently, Totona’s little sister had found it in the dried-up river along the main road.
After I did a map search for Serpent’s Blood Stone, I found that there were a large number in the dry riverbed.
Thus, we took a little detour to collect the stones and camped out nearby for the night.
The barbecued wild boar we ate that evening was exceptional.
Forest of Giants
Satou here. In my twenty-nine years of life, I’ve never once thought that I want to become the kind of person who saves people. I’ve led a life totally free of aspirations toward being some hero or savior, but apparently, I can’t get away with that in a parallel world.
It was our fourth day since leaving the fort and our fourteenth day in the Muno Barony.
A lot had happened in the past four days.
Starving villagers attacked us three times. We handled these encounters in the usual way, so there was nothing much of note about this.
Real professional bandits came after us, too. They must’ve robbed some knights or something, because the two leaders were decked out in impressive full-body armor, armed to the teeth, and mounted on warhorses.
This was good luck for us, since we needed more horses to enter the large forest. We acquired both their horses after we’d taken care of them.
In addition, though the river along the highway was dry downstream, it provided us with plenty of water once we got farther upstream.
While we were camping out by the river, fish monsters like flying eaters and kelpies attacked us.
The danger didn’t stop there, either: While she was drawing water in the river, Pochi got bitten on the butt by a piranha-like fish.
It wasn’t poisonous or anything, but since it wasn’t a monster, I was slow to deal with it.
A magic potion fixed her up right away, but Pochi still stayed away from the water for a while after that.
I continued monitoring the demon in Muno City; he had increased the number of doppelgängers from one to eight, and they were all ambling through the towns and cities.
Occasionally, the demon himself would wander into the blank area under the castle, but he would soon return to the map with his HP and magic depleted.
The City Core was probably located somewhere in there, so my guess was that he was trying and failing to seize control of it.
During my observations, I noticed something troubling: The demon was able to trade places with his doppelgängers instantaneously. Luckily, the switch cost a lot of magic, so he probably wouldn’t be able to pull that off too frequently. If I had to defeat him, I would need to dispose of the doppelgängers first.
Another item of note was the group of demi-goblins I’d learned about before.
There had been only a few settlements the first time I checked, but their number had increased. Two days ago, the total population had swelled to more than ten times what it had been before.
However, most of them were level 1, so the population was soon halved as many of them were eaten by nearby monsters and beasts. At this rate, there wouldn’t be enough of them left to pose a threat to the count’s army before too long.
At the moment, we were taking a lunch break on the dry riverbed near the intersection between the main road and the side road into the forest.
Liza and Nana were preparing the kitchen area, Mia and Arisa were setting up the quilt and kotatsu, and Lulu was washing the vegetables in water I’d collected.
Tama, Pochi, and I were taking care of our horses, old and new.
It was getting cold, so I thought hot pot would be a good lunch for today. The ingredients were meat from a two-headed bird that had attacked us along the way, a generous helping of mushrooms, and cabbage.
The village we’d visited that morning had been growing a lot of cabbage, so I’d traded a quantity of our food to get some.
It was a bit smaller and yellower than the cabbage I’d eaten in Japan, but the AR display said it was cabbage, so there was no argument there.
Pochi and Tama had finished caring for the horses, so I put them in charge of plucking the feathers from the wings of the double-headed bird after it had been bled out.
They put the carcass in a large bag so that the feathers wouldn’t fly everywhere and set about plucking with great focus. The creature was considerably larger than both of them, so de-feathering it was difficult work.
Once the kotatsu was set up, Mia went to help prepare the vegetables, and Arisa supplied magic to warm up the space under the table before coming to consult with me over how best to season the hot pot.
“I think miso should be good for the seasoning, but the problem is how to make the broth.”
“True enough. We don’t have kelp or dried bonito flakes, either…”
We’d gotten miso and soy sauce at a high-class food store in Seiryuu City, so those were no trouble.
If anything, I regretted not buying any rice at the time. Usually it wasn’t a big deal, but I didn’t want to have hot pot without rice.
Well, there was supposedly plenty of rice in the Ougoch Duchy, so I’d just have to remember to stock up there.
Liza tilted her head as she watched the two of us.
“Master, couldn’t we simply boil the bones of the double-headed bird to create the stock?”
&
nbsp; Oh right. I guess that’s how Liza makes the stock for her stews.
Since we were making hot pot, I’d gotten all hung up on having a Japanese-style stock.
“Yeah, let’s go with that for now.” I nodded sagely at Liza, as if I’d known it all along.
Arisa looked like she wanted to say something, but I pointedly ignored her.
“Dooone!”
“Master, the wings are all plucked, sir!”
Tama and Pochi gleefully held up the featherless bird for my approval.
“Wow, it’s totally plucked clean. Great job!”
“Aye!”
“Thank you, sir.”
Pochi giggled and wagged her tail with gusto as I patted her head.
When I petted Tama, her tail stood upright, and she pushed her head against my hand.
As I doted on the two of them, Liza set about separating the meat, bones, and guts of the bird.
This bird’s internal organs were actually ingredients for a stamina recovery potion, so instead of eating them, I stowed those away.
I put the pot on the fire with some water inside, then added the bones that Liza had extracted to boil up the stock. It started smelling a bit strange, so I added some herbs to improve the fragrance.
Nana was in charge of scooping out the meat and scum that came off the bones, since she was particularly good at repetitive tasks. Her face was too expressionless to read, but she appeared to be enjoying herself.
Because the stock would keep indefinitely in Storage, we ended up mass-producing it in two large cauldrons.
“Chicken dumplings! I want chicken dumplings, too!”
Arisa waved her hand in the air insistently.
I guess that is a hot-pot staple.
“Good idea. Do you know how to make them, by the way?”
“Huh? Don’t you just mix minced chicken with other stuff and roll it into balls?”
…Yeah, that “other stuff” is the part I’m asking about. It’s fine to make requests and all, but I wish she’d remember how to make the things she’s asking for once in a while.
Given what I’d learned on my journey, flour and eggs would be a good bet for holding the filling together.
As Mia intently sliced mushrooms into thin pieces, I worked nearby to mix the minced chicken with flour and the orange chicken eggs we’d gotten in the fortress.
