Asumpfre Sunken Ruins (9)
As more of the raiders came back from the showers, the sorting gathered speed. Each time one of the eighty sacks opened in their hands, an endless spill poured out — jewels and coins fouled with mud, candlesticks and necklaces, crowns, and weapons and armor so eaten by rust they looked fit only to be thrown away.
Earth-attribute users raised a broad pool in the clearing where the finds were heaped, and the supporters tossed the mud-caked haul into the water. Water-attribute users filled it clean and set about washing the mud away; when that was done, wind-attribute users lifted the pieces into the air, and a fire-attribute user joined them to blast the moisture dry. Whoever remained then sorted the cleaned finds, setting coins, gems, and precious metals apart from gear so rusted it stood one step from the scrap heap.
Twilight sank, and the day went dark. Supporters brought in poles fitted with lamps and lit the dim encampment bright as day. A few hours later, in a scene that might have been a night market, the sorting of the cleaned metal coinage came to an end. Every copper coin rusted past use was thrown out, whether or not it had been nothing but copper to begin with, and only the gold and silver were kept. What remained was 317 gold coins of 85 percent purity, fifty grams each, and 771 silver coins of 72 percent purity.
"Three hundred and seventeen — how many kilos is that?"
"Fifteen-point-eight kilograms."
"A modest little haul."
Diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, topazes — gems were heaped besides all of that. A raider with a gemologist's license looked them over and shook his head. Most of the stones, he indicated, were scratched, split, or shattered, and their value was gone. The raiders who had been dragged into the work let out sighs, their faces sunk, for the equipment was largely rusted past even archaeological worth — scrap — and of precious metal, only a few gold candlesticks and silver candlesticks had turned up. Truly... truly...
"It's a bust."
One of the gathered raiders muttered it, and the others gave small nods of agreement.
"What is this. Aside from the byproducts off the aberrants the Master killed, there's nothing here worth any money?"
"Wow... As a hunt and a subjugation, it's a success. As a dig, it's a total failure."
The raiders who had sweated through the day let their laments spill. Right on that cue, with their sighs for background music, Choi Soohan came hauling a cart loaded with goods imbued with Phase Power.
Hwayeon, a smile tucked out of sight, looked over what the cart carried, then clapped lightly, drawing the eyes of the thoroughly disappointed ability users, and spoke.
"The ordinary excavation bore no fruit, but the special excavation achieved a very great result. These are the fruits of that success."
A murmur ran through them. Only those of team-leader rank and above had known a special excavation even existed, and the locations of items imbued with Phase Power had been given to Hwayeon alone, so the rank and file were already staring wide-eyed at the cart Choi Soohan had dragged in.
"I believe this will rank among the finest achievements in the history of raid teams. First, this wardrobe..."
Choi Soohan carefully lifted the black gothic wardrobe and set it down on ground spread with thick cloth. The raiders who had dug alongside Hwayeon, and had already seen what the wardrobe could do, could not hide their excitement, and those who had not yet seen it were swept up in that atmosphere, gazing at the thing with open expectation.
"A brief test, immediately after the discovery, confirmed it. Place equipment inside the wardrobe, and..."
Hwayeon opened it, drew out a curved sword that looked somewhat worn, and held it up before the crowd. The blade had been scrap on the verge of snapping and splitting apart — and now it had become something roughly handled, yes, but with life still left in it!
That one? The curved sword that had looked worse than a wooden stick? It recovered that much?
"It maintains its present condition, of course, and it has been confirmed to restore whatever is cracked, rusted, or worn."
The murmuring exploded into cheers.
"Whoaaa!"
"A random auto-restore?! That's incredible!"
"That wardrobe's been buried at the bottom of the lake this whole time. If it's still that intact, the wardrobe itself must have an option on it, right?"
"That's insane. That one piece alone beats everything we processed yesterday plus all the stuff scattered around here put together."
"Hold on. So you're saying it can restore those junk gem fragments too?"
Franc confirmed it as well, thoroughly pleased, an expression on her face that said of course, and slipped her arm through mine.
"Above all, it restores even equipment that bears Phase Power. The curved sword in my hand was the second we found — enhanced durability, and enhanced cutting power. When we first dug it from the earth it was rusted and moss-grown, on the verge of crumbling. After roughly half a day inside the wardrobe, it has been restored to something shabby, yet no longer a problem to use."
"Whoa!"
"Jackpot!!"
"That's an artifact, right? I'm right, aren't I?"
Wow. The curved sword held Phase Power too, two options on it, a rare-grade weapon — and it couldn't even buy a glance.
Next, Hwayeon drew from the wardrobe a set of upper and lower garments made of chain shaped like clothing, and held the chainmail up before the ability users. The set, rusted and snapped through and full of holes, looking unfit for any use, had also come back far sounder than when it was first taken out, though it was still gouged here and there. At her explanation cheers burst out again, and the raiders began to show a keen interest in the cross-spear Choi Soohan had brought.
"Next is the cross-spear. The cross-spear is an ego-type, and it has been assessed to carry the effect of the Berserker's Curse."
At the words ego-type, people nearly erupted again — then faltered at the Berserker's Curse.
"The ego dwelling in the cross-spear appears, however, to have submitted to the Master. We will decide the spear's disposition after further investigation."
I took the cross-spear from Hwayeon — nearly ten feet of it — and whispered, low enough that only Nuhodi could hear.
"Spray that red aura, and I'll snap you clean in half."
I lifted the cross-spear high. It began to hum, announcing its presence to the people gathered there.
"...Whoa."
"Whoa..."
"The Master isn't caught by the Berserker's Curse."
"Is the Master seriously a diamond spoon — past even a gold one...?"
Last of all, a square iron plate inscribed with a magic circle was brought out, and a treasure chest with it.
"The final result. This iron plate is a historical relic of the Phase World, and the treasure chest was discovered beneath it — an item the Master recovered with his own hands."
Setting the plate aside for the moment, they opened the chest, thick with moss and rust, and showed the raiders what lay inside: large, clean, pristine gems, heaps of platinum coins and gold coins, and six stones no one could identify. Hwayeon lifted one of the stones and gave a small nod.
"Enhancement Stones. Six of them."
"Ooooooh!!!"
Enhancement Stones? Oh — those are Enhancement Stones?
Cheers broke from the crowd, and my sister, overcome with delight, threw her arms around my neck.
"I-I've never seen an Enhancement Stone before."
"Me neither."
I had first learned such a thing existed when I received the Cheonchongun Sword and checked the item's grade through my Certifier.
An Enhancement Stone was a peculiar stone found only in the Phase World. Rub it against a weapon, a piece of armor, or some other object, and the stone crumbled, scattering as blue light; that light sank into whatever you had rubbed, and the object became an item imbued with Phase Power. Scientists had researched the principle and the material, and in the end they had learned nothing. The options it granted were random, though they tended to follow whatever the base material was made of — rub one against a staff of lightning-struck wood, and an option tied to lightning would appear. An item bearing Phase Power was durable, of course, slow to break and long-lasting, and it gained special abilities besides. Fail, however, and not only the Enhancement Stone but the very object it had been rubbed against was annihilated. A gambling item, in the most literal sense.
One of them traded at the same price as a mid-to-high-grade Phase Stone worth 10,000 TP. Ten billion won apiece. For ability users of E-Class and below, it was what they called a lottery ticket you picked up on the road in the Phase World, if luck was with you.
As the uproar swelled, Hwayeon raised a hand and settled the crowd, then lifted the iron plate so that everyone could see the magic circle. Under the focused gazes of people wondering what this one would be, she set the plate down on the cloth spread over the ground. She worked a technique for wielding Phase Power, circulated the Phase Power within her body, and set her hand to the plate — and a pitch-black human figure of fog appeared, a shape one might well suspect to be a priest in a black robe.
The monologue that spilled from it pulled off a remarkable feat. It stamped one single expression across the face of every ability user gathered in the clearing.
The presentation ended. I watched the ability users rejoicing that the real jackpot had been something else entirely, then went over to my sister and my lovers, who were talking beside the wardrobe.
"If it has a restoration function, what if we gathered all the damaged gems and put them inside? The gems might find their original forms again."
"What if the wardrobe has a limit on how many times it may be used, or on how long the effect lasts?"
"That ought to be a matter of checking the wardrobe's Phase Power. Seoha and Franc can perceive it, so the two of them will need to look."
"Then rather than me, it should be Seoha who... Ah, Seoha. You have come at just the right time. From where you stand, can you tell what state the wardrobe's Phase Power is in?"
The state of its Phase Power?
At Franc's words I looked the wardrobe over carefully, and I could see Phase Power concentrated along the inner wall. Looking closer, the back was two plates layered one over the other, and between those plates a magic circle lay. When I told them what I had found, my sister brightened and ran a hand along the wardrobe's back.
"A magic circle means it's the rechargeable kind! I don't know how large a charge it needs, but so long as we have Phase Stones, we can refill it without limit and keep using it!"
"Rechargeable?"
I looked at her — smiling, bright — with a puzzled face, and she explained, grinning.
"Items that hold Phase Power divide into two broad kinds. The first is made, at the time of crafting, from materials already imbued with Phase Power. The second has a magic circle engraved into it during crafting, so Phase Power can be charged through the circle. In the first case, once the Phase Power dwelling in it is gone, it returns to an ordinary object. In the second, so long as you replenish what was spent with Phase Stones, you can use it practically forever."
The price, of course, was overwhelmingly higher for the latter.
"The flow of Phase Power doesn't look much different from when we first found it."
Hwayeon took that in. "Even better news, then. A curved sword on the very edge of total destruction recovered this far in half a day — some five hours. Give it ten, and it might find its perfect form. And yet the Phase Power in the wardrobe has barely decreased. Charge it once, and it will last a long while."
Hoh... that's not bad at all.
Hwayeon turned. "Choi Soohan. Move this wardrobe into Seoha's tent."
"Yes, Madam."
Choi Soohan, who had been sorting the finds alongside the supporters, moved the wardrobe at once on Hwayeon's order. I caught my sister's face tightening at that Madam, but I let it pass and spoke to Hwayeon and Franc.
"I have something to say. Let's take this somewhere else."
"Then we go to your tent."
Cross-spear in hand, I followed after Choi Soohan, and Franc, Hwayeon, and my sister came with me. Raiders resting at a distance saw it and began to gossip. I focused the Mana Sieve on my hearing, and their talk came drifting through, faint among the ordinary noise of camp life.
"Hey, hey. Look over there. Doesn't it seem like only beauties gather around the Master?"
"That's obvious. Capable people always have pretty faces swarming them like flies, and at the Master's level..."
"Come to think of it, I heard every pretty girl on our raid team who thinks she's got something is dying to catch the Master's eye. Not that a single one seems to have actually made a move."
"Of course they haven't. Try it and you'd just get measured against the ones already beside him — looks, family, ability — and wash out."
"Heh heh heh. They wouldn't even measure up to the Master's pet. That Plauvis."
"Ah, you mean that angel of a girl? She was something else too. In all kinds of ways..."
"No matter how pretty a woman is, breaking through that position to get near the Master is impossible."
"More than that, isn't it more surprising there's no strife? Every one of them is more than enough to be called a heroine."
"Yeah! Seriously! A normal harem has a nerve-war every other day. I want a harem like that too..."
"Shh! Shut your mouth! Didn't you hear about the Team One member who got struck by lightning this afternoon?!"
"Ghk."
...Dropping that lightning was worth it.
I left behind the sight of the others tearing into the ability user who had nearly let his mouth run, and stepped into the tent. Choi Soohan, having set the wardrobe down, bowed politely at the waist and made to leave.
"Don't go. You're coming in too."
"Yes."
They settled onto the air mattress and fixed their eyes on me, so I showed them the cross-spear I had brought. The spearhead was not some ornate crescent bristling with points. It was three short swords joined in the shape of a cross. I had laid cloth over the blade for the time being and bound it with cord, and I unwound it as I spoke.
"There's a soul in this spear that claims to be Nuhodi."
Wooooong.
"Be quiet."
It hummed on as if the claim were no claim but the truth itself, so I gathered Mana Sieve at my fingertip and flicked the shaft. A clean ting rang out, and the humming died.
"Nuhodi — that's the name that came out of the iron plate with the magic circle, isn't it?"
"Yeah. She..."
I told them the whole of the vision I had seen the moment my hand touched the cross-spear, and my sister, face grave, summed it up.
"So the black-robed priest and Nuhodi were lovers, and she claimed the city called Dalbu — the one we think is the true name of the Asumpfre Sunken Ruins — was headed for destruction. She wasn't believed. Then, for the crime of insulting the priest, she was made a slave instead, kept fighting in the colosseum, and in the end, as the price of losing once, she was tortured and died submerged with the city. That's what you're saying."
Trust her to fit an entire tragedy into one breath.
"Yeah."
"Honestly. I will never understand why men refuse to listen to women."
"Isn't that a little too much hindsight?"
When I objected, my sister crooked her index finger, set her posture as if to tell me to listen well, and spoke.
"I don't know exactly how high the black-robed priest stood, but high status is certain. In an age when learning hadn't developed, a priest who served a god held tremendous rank. Right?"
"Th... that would be right?"
"Someone in a love affair with a priest like that — Nuhodi couldn't have been low-born either. Right?"
"That... would be right?"
"From the circumstances in the account held in the magic circle, there's a strong chance the woman called Nuhodi had some special power. And the priest didn't accept her warning, did he?"
"That would... be right?"
I kept agreeing, and my sister clapped once, as if to say there, you see.
"See! And then they drove her into the place of something like a medieval witch, made her fight hundreds of times as a criminal, and just because she lost once they tortured her in a torture chamber until she died with the city. The black priest even left a will saying he regretted it!"
"And what does any of that have to do with men and women?"
"You don't listen to us either."
"..."
"If you'd gone with us, you wouldn't have had to suffer like that hauling the Pisorsaurus back."
"..."
"You grumbled inside that you'd suffered for nothing, while you were getting rid of the Pisorsaurus's corpse, didn't you?"
"Kh."
How petty, snagging me like this...
The thought that I had taken another clean hit from my sister made me scowl at her grinning face, and Franc and Hwayeon let out soft bursts of laughter.
Hwayeon spoke up. "Seoha. Mind if I hold the cross-spear?"
"Yeah."
I clenched the shaft hard once, a warning that I would allow no nonsense, and passed it to her.
"...It won't show me the memories. Had it been anyone but us, I would have taken your story for a tale well invented."
With that, she returned the spear to me.
"Nuhodi's past doesn't seem bound up with ours, so let us set it aside for now. We'll take the cross-spear, put it under seal, and seek a use for it."
"Yeah? If I added what I saw to this iron plate, wouldn't historians be rather taken with it?"
"If there were something that could prove the vision true."
"Ah..."
So that was why she had taken the spear in hand. I was staring at the cross-spear, feeling awkward, when Hwayeon stroked the wardrobe's exterior and spoke.
"In any case, the greatest result of clearing these sunken ruins still seems to be this wardrobe."
"Heh. I think otherwise."
My sister said it with a triumphant face, and Hwayeon and Franc turned puzzled eyes on her.
"The greatest result, and the real reward, is the fame Seoha will gain. The raiders all saw him hunt a great many of them, High-Rank Variants included, didn't they? Through those people, a concrete description of the power Seoha holds will start to spread from the very bottom of the ability-user world."
"Ah... true. Seoha's image is rather unclear, after all."
"But Seoha's power went out over the airwaves with the Japan incident, did it not?"
Franc had asked it with a face that didn't quite follow, and my sister shook her head, light and easy.
"Say what the mass media has made known of Seoha's power is a scale from one to ten. The ability verification made one, two, and three known, and the Japan incident made nine and ten known. Do you see what that means?"
"Ah! You mean they cannot gauge the exact measure of his power, and feel only vaguely that he is strong?"
"Exactly. Now, once it spreads far and wide through a hundred and thirty-six mouths that he simply puts down High-Rank Variants and Peak-Rank Variants, Seoha's standing, and our Grand Blue's, and the foundation under us, will only grow more solid."
Only then did Franc nod, the look of someone who understood. I was included in that, of course. My sister ran a loving hand over the wardrobe as well, then held up a chestnut-sized diamond with a serious crack through its interior.
"Then tomorrow, let's use the wardrobe's restoration and return the damaged gems and artworks to what they were. Gems of this size barely exist even back in reality, so if every one of these cracks disappears, the gems alone should recover what this deployment cost us."
"Then the Enhancement Stones and the income from byproducts would remain as pure profit."
"Mm-hm. Seoha brought back so many High-Rank Variants that the total revenue in goods should clear three hundred and seventy billion won with room to spare."
"...Incredible. And this is profit from a mere two days."
They turned looks of fresh amazement on me, and I shrugged. Choi Soohan, who had kept silent and only listened, flashed her eyes and offered me a reverence that went too far.
"As expected, Master is extraordinary."
"Hm?"
"The results of this entry may fairly be called Master's achievement alone. The other raiders played roles that do not even amount to side branches."
"Uh... well. If it hadn't been for them, we couldn't have collected the corpses or separated the byproducts..."
"That much would be quite enough with supporters alone. One C-Class ability user's worth is a hundred supporters. Bring nothing but three hundred supporters, and you would save seventy percent of what this deployment cost."
Th-there's a gap like that in what they cost?
Choi Soohan nodded, as if she had settled some thought of her own.
"If any qualification exists in this world for the making of a king, Master alone would meet it. You were born with power and charm such that it would be no strange thing for you to rule the world — and with luck besides. What passed yesterday, and today, has made me realize that fact anew."
The praise was burdensome enough to itch at the nape of my neck. I was scratching hard when, absurdly enough, Franc and Hwayeon nodded as if they were of the same mind. It was ridiculous. Still, the thought that they saw me as that great lifted my mood, a little.
My sister, of course, was looking at Choi Soohan with discomfort.