The First Commission
The muffled footsteps of monsters echoed through the chilled silence.
Amid that silence, I pulled several potions from my backpack and slipped them into my pocket.
Before long, whiiiick! Gerik let out a whistle.
That was the signal.
“Everyone, prepare—!!”
As the vanguard, Kairon charged forward with a thunderous boom!, and the escorts instantly drew their swords.
The monsters reacted.
They bristled their fur, roared, or scraped the ground with the horns sprouting from either side of their maws...
Of all the reactions, the Death Knights’ disciplined sword draws stood out the most.
Clang! Their blades were pulled free with crisp precision, gleaming in the sunlight as they flaunted their razor edges.
But that was the limit of it. The monsters—and the Death Knights—didn’t move easily.
Perhaps because of the commands they had received from their master, the dark mage.
Honestly, when Gerik had explained the plan, I had my doubts.
The dark mage had no reason to let us live and go back.
If we survived this, we would head straight to the city and tell the knights there.
The knights would then come to this village to exterminate the dark mage, forcing him to fight them.
Even with hordes of monsters and Death Knights at his disposal, taking on a properly equipped knight squad would be tough.
So the dark mage’s defeat was already a foregone conclusion.
Without reason to spare us, he should have fought us to the death.
Yet here he was, sending us away. Maybe he intended to make a big profit this time and then move on.
Either way, it was good news for us.
“Run—!!”
Kairon unleashed a roar even more beastly than the monsters themselves and charged ahead.
The caravan guards followed immediately, and behind them the escorts matched the pace while scanning their surroundings.
The monsters stayed put.
Instead, those blocking our path simply made room, shifting aside.
That meant we no longer had to worry about the front.
I glanced back.
Gerik’s hardened expression was already fixed on the carriage.
He would probably run a little farther, then turn sharply toward it.
“Sera, get ready.”
Sera’s eyes twitched nervously as she scanned the surroundings, but she still obeyed my request.
Once I confirmed she had nodded, I mentally sketched out the plan.
The magic she used was like a smoke bomb, obscuring vision.
If that was the case, I couldn’t rely on my eyes to see through it.
I needed to guess the distance roughly.
I calculated the carriage’s position as it grew farther away in my mind.
Thirty meters… thirty-eight… forty-nine…
Of course, this entire strategy was only usable once the monsters reacted to Gerik’s movements.
If they stayed calm while I hauled the carriages, there was no need to take risks.
Yet for some reason, I couldn’t imagine that happy ending.
Intuition existed, after all.
Maybe the goal wasn’t just calling the knights here, but something else.
Perhaps the dark mage wasn’t after the caravan’s goods but the greatsword instead.
It was an overthinking, but my intuition insisted on it.
As I pondered the distance and the dark mage’s motives, the caravan guards broke through the monsters’ encirclement, and I and Sera just escaped as well—
“Lulu, if something goes wrong, make sure Kairon doesn’t go berserk… please.”
Fortunately, Gerik gave the signal.
One hundred and thirteen meters.
The distance was confirmed. Now all I had to do was mess with the mana flow.
Just as I finished my judgment, a clack of unfamiliar footsteps sounded.
Gerik had turned in the opposite direction.
Would he run straight ahead, or feint while turning to hide his purpose?
I looked back at that exact moment, and the sound of armor clashing rang out.
A sound that should never have come from Gerik.
Krrroooar…
Following it was a low, guttural growl, like a beast mimicking human breathing.
I whipped my head around and saw the Death Knights closing in on the carriage.
Not the caravan’s supply carts, but the one carrying Gerik’s greatsword.
It was confirmed.
The dark mage’s target was Gerik’s greatsword.
To be precise, the mana residue clinging to it.
Amazing master.
Creating a Death Knight required using mana residue—the so-called souls—of non-alchemists.
Back then, only those who could sense mana residue could make Death Knights.
Now the world was better; even a special lens let anyone do it.
I had read that in a book.
The dark mage intended to multiply the Death Knights using the mana residue on the greatsword.
By realizing the opponent’s goal, my own had become clear.
It was time to act.
“Sera, now.”
“I-I don’t know!”
“I do.”
“No, that’s not it…”
Kroooaaarrrrrrgh—!!
The monsters’ roars echoed.
“Hau?!”
Sera couldn’t finish her sentence. She frantically gathered mana, and the black sphere that formed in her hand shot skyward…
Fwoom!
With a short, sharp sound, a pitch-black cloud descended around us.
It wasn’t just smoke—visibility was zero. People ahead who were running blindly panicked and screamed.
The monsters were no different.
From the thudding sounds, they clearly couldn’t see either.
But Kairon wasn’t just a monster.
He could only use tools, yet he was a smart creature that knew how to assess situations.
“Ignore everything and run straight ahead!! Trust me!! Run toward the magic user behind you!!”
“R-run!”
“You bastards!!”
“Aaaagh!!”
With that single yell, the caravan guards and escorts regained their composure and charged forward.
“Sera, run ahead. I’ll catch up soon.”
“A-ah, what are you—?!”
I didn’t have time to answer.
I immediately unzipped my backpack and dumped out the items I had prepared in advance.
Then I felt each one in my hands to confirm its shape, then began kneading them together to form identical parts.
I could do this even with my eyes closed.
These were things I had made myself, and I had repeated the process countless times at Aaron’s estate.
Whenever a greenish light flashed, the parts snapped into place.
The result was a four-legged golem.
Assembling one golem by hand took about a second.
With my assembly skill thoroughly mastered, I continued kneading with both hands.
By around fifty seconds, the monsters’ roars were growing close.
It was time to stop.
Instead of a golem core, I placed the mobile explosive potion I had prepared yesterday inside the completed golem’s heart.
Pipit?!
“Just keep moving forward.”
They probably wouldn’t understand the words, but I had explained anyway.
It seemed they listened better when I gave detailed instructions.
Soon the explosive potion settled in the golem’s heart.
Then, like blood vessels in the body, it spread through the golem’s frame.
“Will it move?”
Pizzzat!
It was working.
All that remained was setting the direction they would run.
That was easy too—just loosen the parts of the mana flow I had bound.
One hundred and thirteen meters away…
Once the golems had their direction locked in, I clapped my hands together.
“Start.”
Pipipit!
Pibbaat!
Nizoral!
Pibbit!
Pivibit!
Saassaladas!
The golems moved in the directions I had set.
Even though I couldn’t see a single inch ahead, I knew they wouldn’t go wrong.
So now it was time to create the golems that would haul the supplies.
This crafting didn’t require complex assembly.
I would control them directly with my hands.
I had already opened the lids of five mana potions and inserted straws.
I recalled the memory of creating clay statues back at Aaron’s estate whenever I got bored.
Squish-squish- Greenish light flashed, and ten dolls formed.
Reinforced with multiplication alchemy, their durability had been boosted.
Joints are all there, and movement is smooth.
I pulled mana threads from my ten fingers and connected them to the dolls.
If I willed it, I could even use their toes, giving me up to twenty dolls in total.
But for escape routes, I left the toes free.
Sighing at my own greed, I inspected the dolls’ movements one last time before waiting for the signal.
Soon the signal came.
At first it was vibration.
Like an earthquake had struck.
Then came the wind as if I was being hurled, accompanied by a deafening boom as if the sky had collapsed.
Kwaaaoooaoaoaoaang—!!
The first explosive potion golem had detonated.
At the same time, I felt the monsters’ roars heading toward the blast.
“W-what is this?”
And Sera’s voice reached me.
I couldn’t tell where she was, but she was definitely nearby.
“Sera?”
“You—you just… what did you—?!”
“A golem.”
“A golem?! You just blew up a precious one?!”
I knew that automatic golems became expensive after the alchemists vanished, but I never imagined I would get this rough a reaction.
“Let me go. I’m busy.”
“H-huh… s-sorry.”
“By the way, why are you here, Sera?”
“Of course I came to be with you!”
“Really?”
I answered vaguely and sent the material procurement dolls forward slowly.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-
The footsteps grew distant.
The moment the dolls disappeared from my sight, I tilted my head.
“Sera, can you see ahead?”
“Y-yes, it’s my magic… b-but what’s that? Is that another golem…? No, the mana threads are connected, so it’s a doll…”
“I’ll explain later. Please make the area ahead visible too. I didn’t realize it would be this dark.”
Before I finished speaking, Sera’s finger tapped my forehead.
The complete darkness that had blocked my vision was now bright.
Thank you.
I couldn’t finish the sentence again.
One of the golems that had reached the monsters exploded.
Kwaaaoooaoaoaoaang!! The sound of flesh and blood splattering mixed with the monsters’ screams.
“Th-the golems… those golems are so expensive… insane… insane… turning golems into bombs… but why is the explosion power so strong…?”
Following Sera’s sigh came explosion after explosion after explosion.
Even as the blasts and booms continued without pause, I calmly controlled the material procurement dolls.
With vision restored, it was much easier.
The instant the ten material procurement dolls reached the carriage, I poured mana into them at full force to haul the carriage.
The carriage was incredibly heavy, but as long as the mana was sufficient, it could be solved.
That was because the material procurement dolls I had created gained strength with every mana injection.
And thanks to the elixirs, I now had an abundance of mana and as many mana recovery potions as I wanted.
I sucked on a straw—
Owuuuuek.
“Wh-what… is that a mana recovery potion?!”
Uuuuek, uek… y-yes, it is.
“Hey, Lulu, this—this is super expensive mana potion… ten gold coins…”
Feeling the mana surge, I slammed all that mana into the dolls.
I repeated the process.
Potion, use mana, potion, use mana, potion, use mana, potion, use mana…
Ten carriages reached in front of me and Sera.
I confirmed one of them had a greatsword tied to it, then scanned the surroundings widely.
I spotted Gerik staggering about a hundred and forty meters away.
I had set the route so he wouldn’t get caught in the explosions, but seeing he was unharmed, I relaxed.
“Sera, get on a carriage. Quickly.”
“Eh? O-okay!”
I climbed onto the lightest one and pulled ten more mana recovery potions from my backpack to hand to Sera.
“Sera, whenever I say, open one and feed it to me.”
Sera stared at the mana recovery potions as if hypnotized and nodded vigorously.
Since she looked like she wanted to steal one, I pulled out another from my backpack and tucked it into her pocket.
“Here, Sera, drink this.”
“I love you! I’ll feed you while working hard!”
“Yes.”
I gritted my teeth and channeled mana.
With every fiber of my being tingling, all my mana surged like an explosion.
The material procurement dolls I had filled with my mana began running like mad.
“Potions, please, oueee, ouek…”
I needed tasty potions right now.
Potions that could satisfy my empty stomach to the point of craving.
Uuuuuueeeek…
I would definitely make them. Definitely.
I engraved the goal once more in my mind and focused on controlling the dolls.
The rumbling of the carriages was drowned out by the continuous explosions.
That’s why I missed the sound of armor clashing coming from right beside me.
“Lulu!”
“Ah.”
When I snapped back to my senses, the Death Knight’s sword was rushing toward my left arm.