Take the Treasure and Erase the Trail

The exchange was drenched in madness and excitement.

“They say the silver mine shaft collapsed!”

“What? The southern fleet sank in the storm, every last ship?”

“Damn it! Wheat prices have been cut in half! Stocks are crashing!”

And amid that uproar, there were lower, more secretive whispers as well.

“They say the Kran Kingdom is massing troops at the border...”

“Border trade stocks are already in the gutter. You don’t think war’s actually going to break out, do you?”

It was the kind of place that never knew a quiet day, no matter when you came. Some people lost money; others made it. At a glance, it looked like nothing more than a gambling den. And yet, for investors who kept their heads, it was a field of opportunity.

I checked the price board.

I stared, wide-eyed. ...I knew it would rise, but still. Just how many times had it gone up? I bought it at 10 copper a share, so... Good heavens. Seventy-nine times.

It didn’t quite compare to Black Forest Forestry, which had once soared by more than a hundredfold, but even so, seventy-nine times was unbelievable. So that hunch of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mine really did pan out.

With the southern sea route blocked for so long, all the freight had been dumped onto the overland routes. That little inland transport company, on the verge of bankruptcy, had been transformed into a goose laying golden eggs.

Next was Amos Magic Tower.

I’d bought it at 30 silver, so it had only risen by 20 copper. It crawled like a beetle. This was supposed to be the kind of stock that moved slowly.

It hadn’t gone up much, but I wasn’t disappointed. I hadn’t bought it back then for the profit anyway. As if a commoner holding a few stock certificates was going to get admitted to the tower just like that. Still, I’d wanted to give myself even a sliver of hope.

For now, I should sell Blue Wagon Transport.

I pushed through the chaos and headed down to the second basement vault area. Inside the private room, I placed my hand on the crystal orb.

[Checking mana wavelength.]

[Match confirmed with registered user.]

I was disguised as Jeren, but my mana wavelength was unchanged, so authentication wasn’t difficult.

[Please state the password.]

“I live by my own rules.”

[Authentication complete.]

The iron door slid open, revealing the storage compartment. I pulled out a thick bundle of stock certificates.

[Blue Wagon Transport: 15,000 shares]

[Amos Magic Tower: 150 shares]

I put the Amos Magic Tower certificates into my subspace. I had no intention of selling those, not now.

“Blue Wagon Transport. Sell the entire lot.”

“All of them?” The broker’s eyes widened. “The market’s not great these days, but this is one of the few stocks still rising. You might want to think it over carefully.”

“I’ve already thought enough. Dump them at market price.”

“Understood.” The broker clicked his tongue, looking as if he hated to do it. “15,000 shares, filled in full. Total: 1,185 gold. After the 20 percent cut for transaction tax and fees, that comes to 1,161 gold.”

Fifteen gold had swelled into 1,161 gold. Less than what I’d made selling the magic stones yesterday, but still an absurd sum. At this level, it wasn’t just enough to stop worrying about money for life. It was enough to live well and then some.

Is there anything else worth investing in?

I went back to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the counter and laid down a single gold coin. “Access to the information reading room. Issue me a pass.”

“Yes, sir.”

I went straight into the reading room. Thick reports. Documents packed with numbers. I climbed the ladder and began working through the upper-shelf materials first.

......! It took me a full two days. ......Nothing.

I closed the documents. There’s nothing that really looks ready to rise. No, that wasn’t the worst of it. Something else was bothering me.

A subtle unease hung over the entire market. The whispers I’d overheard the day before kept echoing in my ears. Rumors that the Kran Kingdom was massing troops at the border.

Could they really be planning to go to war with the empire? I couldn’t be sure. But staking your entire fortune on a market that smelled of war wasn’t investing. It was gambling.

War-related stocks? Too reckless. I could make money from magic stones; there was no reason to throw my fortune at a probability that wasn’t even certain. Waiting is an investment too. When the time came, I’d move then.

* * *

After leaving the exchange, I headed straight for the hideout. [Invisibility] [Space Stitching]

Beyond the collapsed entrance, my own private space awaited. I checked the waste stones I’d laid on the charging magic circle first. ...It’s barely filled at all? That was probably because I’d placed the most expensive high-grade waste stones first. High-grade stones take time.

But the moment I touched the magic circle, something felt off. Wait... the mana’s gone down. It was as if the water level in a huge reservoir had dropped by the width of a fingernail.

A tiny difference, one I might have missed if not for my hypersensitivity to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even the faintest trace of mana. Thinking it was just my imagination, I checked it again and again. The more I did, the more certain I became. Wasn’t this supposed to be limitless?

For some reason, I had thought this place was like a spring that kept pouring out mana without end. But no longer. Once it’s shown a limit, the mana here could vanish before long.

I couldn’t even guess what “before long” meant. I’d come back from the tower intending to train again, but what if this place disappeared before I had the chance?

“That won’t do.”

The reason someone who had once expected to live their whole life stuck at 1st Tier had climbed to 3rd Tier was this place’s mana. Mana that never dried up no matter how recklessly I poured it out. A training ground sent down by heaven.

Once the mana here was gone, it would be a luxury I could never enjoy again. Then there was only one answer. Before it dries up. I’m going to suck it dry, every last drop.

I immediately disguised myself as Jeren and made a round through the market. First I bought up a mountain of food. As long as I stored it in subspace, it wouldn’t spoil. I could stockpile enough to hide out for months without worrying.

Next I visited the textile wholesaler I’d become a regular at. Silk thread, gauze silk, plain cotton, hemp cloth... I swept up every scrap of thread and every bolt of fabric I could find.

After stuffing those mountains of materials into my subspace, I returned to the hideout.

Haa... From here on out, it was a race against time.

My training was unlike that of other mages. It wasn’t about sitting still and steadily accumulating mana; it was about pouring it out and emptying myself over and over. This was only possible here.

I sat at the worktable and picked up a single strand of silk thread. Training was a nice word for it, but in truth it was the work of engraving a magic formula into one thread.

Mana naturally hated mixing with material objects. If I forced it in, it would either be repelled or burn through the thread before it could hold. Match the mana wavelength to each and every fiber. Then let the formula seep through the microscopic gaps.

Sssss—! Crack—

The thread blackened and crumbled into ash. Failure.

“Again.”

It snapped, unraveled. It looked fine, then shattered. Piles of thread turned to cinders stacked up around my feet. Out in the open, I would have run dry and collapsed long ago. But here, in a space of infinite mana—When I was exhausted, I filled myself up again; when I was full, I poured it all out once more. That endless repetition was training.

My fingertips grew raw and my eyes blurred. I had no idea how many days had passed when—

Shrrrk. A transparent strand slipped through my fingers. ......I did it. I succeeded!

A faintly shining thread. When I flicked it with my fingertip, a clear metallic ring echoed out. [Enhanced Mana Thread]

It was on an entirely different level from the [Transparent Thread] I’d made before. I could even weave cloth with this. Once I got the hang of it, the second and third attempts came much faster. I threw myself into mana weaving like a madman. Spinning thread, weaving cloth, stitching mana into every seam, one stitch at a time.

* * *

Time flew by in a blur. I ate when I was hungry, slept when I was tired, and repeated the cycle over and over. I couldn’t tell exactly how much time had passed. Only when I saw that the food I’d stored in subspace was nearly gone did I guess that at least several months must have gone by.

Should I go out and buy more food? But that didn’t seem necessary. The mana in the cave had started to run dry as well. The fresh, invigorating air brought on by the dense mana had vanished, replaced by a musty stench I could actually smell.

Even the mana stored in the reflux magic circle had just been used up when I recovered my mana a moment ago. It’s completely dried out. There’s hardly any difference from the outside now. That was truly disappointing.

Still, thanks to it, my mana core has grown to the skilled level of 3rd Tier. And inside my subspace, the fruits of my obsession had piled up as well. [Enhanced Mana Thread] [Magic Armor Cloth] Things I’d woven through thousands of rounds of exhaustion and recovery.

Those alone are enough to make me feel strangely secure. That wasn’t all. The magic stones I’d charged. Unfortunately, not every single one of the thousands of waste stones had been fully recharged. Only some of them had.

Still, I managed to charge all the high-grade magic stones. I’d also charged quite a number of medium and low-grade stones. Twelve high-grade. One hundred forty-one medium-grade. Eight hundred eighty-nine low-grade. The rest were still waste stones.

Can’t be helped. Even this is better than nothing. I had no intention of selling them now. I was going to use them myself. From here on, I’ll need magic stones for training. There isn’t another place like this one. I wouldn’t be short on magic stones for a while. Just looking at them made me feel full.

Still, I should be able to leave here without any regrets now. This precious underground space had lifted me from 1st Tier to 3rd Tier. My own fortress, my own kingdom. Now that the mana had dried up, it was no longer a fortress or a kingdom. It was nothing but the wreckage of a damp, dark cave. I’m leaving without looking back.

There was one thing that still nagged at me. But where the hell did all that mana come from? I had put the question aside while I was busy training, but now that the mana was gone, the traces of its source stood out clearly. Beneath the floor. A thin remnant of mana stretched down into the underground depths.

...There’s something down there. Mirror of Resonance, 3rd Tier Transmutation Formula. Thanks to my mana growing to skilled 3rd Tier, I could now peer much deeper. Beneath the bedrock floor, I found a sealed space. ! A hidden room with no entrance, sealed tight on every side. No dangerous presence. Space Stitching. Space folded, and my body was drawn into it.

“...What is this?” A room about the size of a small chamber. Silent, as though no one had entered it for hundreds of years. And in the very center of it sat something. A giant sphere at least a meter across. A bead? Faded ash-gray. A rough surface that looked like stone, or perhaps metal.

When I touched it, only a cold chill lingered there; I couldn’t sense anything special about it.

─! Then, all at once, something brushed through my fingertips. A faint vibration. ...! A familiar energy. It was incredibly slight, but I didn’t miss it. It’s like a remnant of mana... then could it be?

At last, I understood. The source from which that enormous mana had poured forth. There was no doubt. It was this. This sphere had been holding it. I couldn’t believe it. What in the world was this sphere? But when I looked at it again, the faint residue I’d just sensed had vanished without a trace. So it’s completely finished? It had become a useless husk, like a dead tree or a weapon reduced to scrap iron.

Still, just in case. I didn’t hesitate. Leaving a thing like this behind when I couldn’t bear to let even a single drop ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of mana go to waste—it made my stomach ache just thinking about it. If I stored it in subspace, it wasn’t like it would add any weight. No harm in taking it. And if, someday, mana ever returned to this place? Then it might become a spring that moved once more.

Swoosh— The sphere was silently sucked into the seam of subspace. The empty chamber was left with nothing but dust.

Let’s not leave any sign that I was here. I had no idea why the sphere had been here in the first place. I couldn’t even begin to guess. But if someone ever came snooping around and tried to trace its whereabouts, that would be a nuisance. No one needs to know I took it.

When I returned to the hideout, I erased every last magic circle I’d carved into the walls and floor. The reflux magic circle, the charging magic circle—every trace that I had ever used this place was wiped clean. Now it was nothing more than an empty, collapsed cave. The place that had lifted me from 1st Tier to 3rd Tier.

So long. And thanks. I had no regrets. I’d sucked out all the sweet juice, and I’d taken every treasure worth taking. I pulled the hem of my coat, woven from Magic Armor Cloth, closed around me and stood before the passage leading to the surface. Let’s go out into the wider world. Whatever game waited beyond that door—I wasn’t afraid of it anymore.