Skill Level MAX
Magi Control (Lv 1)
Controls Magi.
With the upgraded skill, he ran a battery of experiments.
What he learned was this:
1) Magi could no longer be erased. The old skill had wiped Magi out entirely. Now, complete removal was impossible.
2) Magi could be absorbed. He couldn't destroy it, but he could take it in. In practice, that still meant he could clear Magi from farmland the way he always had.
3) Magi could be injected. Whatever he absorbed, he could pour into something else.
He drew Magi out of the fields and forced it into the stones he'd stacked nearby. Once a stone hit its limit, no more Magi would go in, so he simply switched to the next one. Stones, after all, were everywhere.
When his mana ran dry, he picked up one of the charged rocks.
"Hmm..."
Magi pulsed from the stone.
"Can I actually use this?"
Mana stones were the raw material that went into everything from artifacts on down — energy sources packed with mana. Compare them to Earth's oil or electricity and you wouldn't be far off.
"Could Magi Stones work the same way?"
The more he turned the idea over, the stronger the smell of money grew.
"Farmland Magi is already cleared. Maybe it's time I paid a visit to the Vampires Duchy."
Vampires Duchy. The Gray Magic Tower.
The moment he arrived, the Deputy Tower Master came out to the entrance to meet him.
"Young Lord Elwin!"
"Good day, Deputy Tower Master."
The man beamed and ushered him inside. The reason for the warmth was soap production. How many months left on that? For six months he still needed the mages' help making soap. After that, the profits would be his to claim.
In the tower's reception room, the Deputy Tower Master rubbed his hands together like a hunter eyeing prey.
"Ahem."
Elwin produced the Magi Stone he'd brought.
"Oh...? And what is this?"
"A stone we found in Ireland. It holds Magi, so I brought it along."
"Ohhh..."
The Deputy Tower Master turned the Magi Stone over in his hands, examining it from every angle. Time passed. Then his face fell.
"A pity."
"A pity?"
"This stone contains nothing but pure Magi. Put another way — there is no mana in it at all."
"Isn't Magi a form of power the same as mana?"
The Deputy Tower Master shook his head.
"Both are power, yes. But magic was built on mana as its foundation. The energy a mage channels is mana. The energy an artifact requires is mana."
His explanation rolled on. In short, the vast tower that was magic itself had been raised on a foundation of mana. You could alter parts of the structure, but swapping the foundation from mana to Magi would be extraordinarily, almost impossibly, difficult.
"And that isn't the only problem."
"There's more?"
"The difficulty alone is one issue, but almost no one possesses specialized knowledge of Magi. Finding people who could use or develop it would be nearly impossible."
In other words, unlike mana stones, Magi Stones had no value — because there was no way to use them.
"Furthermore..."
"There's still more?"
"With mana stones, density is everything. The same would hold for Magi Stones."
"And so?"
"If we rated this Magi Stone's density on a mana-stone scale... it would have no commercial value whatsoever."
"I see."
The conversation ended there, and Elwin left the Gray Magic Tower. The Deputy Tower Master saw him out with an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."
"Not at all. Until next time."
The problems the Deputy Tower Master had listed came to three.
1) Magi Stone density. That, he suspected, would improve as Magi Control leveled up.
2) This world's magic was founded on mana. That was the real wall. Building an entirely new magical system that ran on Magi instead of mana was no small task.
3) Almost no one knew anything about Magi. The Deputy Tower Master had said "almost none," but in practice it looked like none at all. Magi flooded Monster Island, and even the Gray Magic Tower standing on that island had no such expert.
"So... is this just useless?"
Putting Magi Stones to work would mean a long, brutal road.
"So much for that."
He moved on to another new village. This one wasn't even an outpost — just empty land.
"Wanderers will keep coming either way, and they'll need ground to live on."
He took up position on the farmland and activated Magi Control. Magi from the soil flowed into him, then into the stones piled at his side. He repeated the process a few times and shifted to the next plot.
"Ugh... what a pain."
Before, all he'd had to do was move his body. Now he had to haul rocks around too.
"This isn't an upgrade. It's a nerf."
He had no choice but to bring a laborer along. The man shifted stones while Elwin focused on Magi Control.
Days passed, and Magi Stones piled up.
"What am I supposed to do with these?"
The Deputy Tower Master had said they were useless — but you never knew. A use might turn up. Or, failing that, an entirely new magic built on Magi...
"Hmph. It's not impossible."
He might never raise a tower as vast as the current magical system, but a small one? That, he could manage. And then these Magi Stones would finally have somewhere to go.
"Right. For now, I stockpile."
He brought a wagon and loaded it full.
From then on, every time he cleared Magi from farmland, the Magi Stones he produced went onto the wagon. Before long he had more than three wagonloads.
"Next time the transport team comes through, I'll send them to Iron."
Whatever got developed would happen in Iron, so storing them there made sense. When the next merchant caravan arrived, he had them haul the lot to Iron.
Ireland Merchant Group.
Having finished hauling construction materials, they were now bound for Iron on the Young Lord's orders.
The road to Iron was not easy. The village of Iron lay outside Frontier territory, far to the west. You followed the southern coastline west, then at a certain point turned north — and only then did Iron appear. They took that route to pass through goblin territory, where the monsters were relatively weak.
As they traveled the coast, a hunter rode up.
"Seventy goblins spotted ahead."
"Well done."
The caravan leader rose and gave the order.
"Seventy goblins forward. Combat in twenty minutes. Battle stations, everyone!"
They held their pace and shifted into combat formation. Twenty minutes later—
"Huh?"
No goblins in sight. The hunter returned.
"The goblins changed direction and left, sir."
"Fortunate. We continue as planned."
But the same thing happened again and again — all the way until they cleared goblin territory.
New village. Temporary administrative office.
As usual, he cleared Magi from the farmland, then spent the leftover hours reading reports. One of them held something strange.
"Huh? The goblins avoided the caravan?"
Monsters sometimes fled from large armies on the move — but "large" meant thousands of soldiers. A caravan, even a big one, ran only a hundred to two hundred strong. Nowhere near enough to send goblins running.
"The only unusual detail... they were hauling Magi Stones?"
The vanished scent of money drifted back.
He gathered the information and ran the experiment at once. The result:
"The goblins fled at the sight of Magi Stones."
They seemed to read the Magi in the stones as a higher predator.
"Is it only goblins for now?"
If Magi Control leveled further, he could raise Magi Stone density — and then...
"Orcs. Later, trolls. Could I even make ogres turn away?"
He ran several more trials and confirmed it: goblins fled from Magi Stones.
"From now on, only bring me small pebbles."
He poured farmland Magi into stones the size of a thumb.
"What if I made these into necklaces and sold them?"
Price them low enough, and every household in Ireland would buy one. At the very least, children would be safe from goblins.
"That's it! That's the way! You upgrade a skill, it better make money! This is how it's supposed to work!"
From that day on, the Ireland Merchant Group had one more flagship product: Magi Stone necklaces. Effect: keep goblins at bay.
People were skeptical at first, but once the results proved out across the territory, they bought them one after another.
The faster Magi Stone necklaces sold, the harder he worked clearing Magi from farmland.
"New villages! Let's build more new villages!"
The new settlements were just a bonus.
Vampires Duchy. The Duke's study.
The Duke and his two daughters had gathered there. The Duke turned a Magi Stone necklace over in his hands, examining it.
"Elwin truly is remarkable."
At the praise, Alencia's face brightened.
"He's accomplished so much lately. We have to protect him, no matter what."
"I agree with my sister."
The Duke looked at both daughters, then spoke again.
"That said, we cannot keep blocking the duel forever. As you well know — if the link to the continent is severed, Ireland cannot survive."
Food, clothing, shelter: the three necessities of human life. Two of them still depended on the continent.
"We must explain the situation to Elwin and get him to accept the duel. Who will take this on?"
"I'll... do it."
Alencia forced the words out.
The Duke rose with the Magi Stone necklace still in hand, patted Alencia's shoulder, and left the study — necklace still clutched in his grip.
A new custom had taken root across Ireland of late: gifting Magi Stone necklaces to one's children. Even so, the Duke did not give one to either of his daughters.