The Cruel Sorcerer of Earth (9)
I don't have a good impression of the word laboratory. If I dig a little deeper and replace it with the term lab, it's pretty much the same feeling a field-experienced veteran gets when he hears the word tent. To explain it so that even ordinary people could understand, for this world's Master Nord, a laboratory was almost the same as the words barracks or dormitory.
There are some good memories, but far more bad ones.
Ugh, fuck.
That's why, when I stepped into the black mage's laboratory with the guild masters, I was able to remain calmer and more composed than anyone else. The fact that I didn't bat an eye at the table with the skull on it or the wooden barrels reeking of rotting corpses was simply because I held not even the slightest positive expectations toward the word laboratory.
"It's worse than I imagined."
Cromwell said, covering his mouth with a handkerchief. It was an incredibly pretentious gesture. I felt a little sorry, but I couldn't help thinking it didn't suit his face at all.
─Swish, swish.
Nefertiti, who had been examining every corner of the laboratory, stepped further inside.
"No traces of mana."
"Since the black mage is dead, the magical traps he installed won't activate."
Edlyn, the guild master of the Gilpy Guild, spoke while casting a shield spell without an incantation. A translucent shield enveloped everyone present.
─Shwaaaaaah!
I activated Beast Regression and joined the search. The black mage bastard's laboratory was full of things that turned the stomach. I'll skip describing what was there. To put it simply—the way this guy trapped souls inside golems involved a shamanistic method of sticking a person's head in dirt, letting it rot, and then transferring it into a stone.
"...We'll organize a specialized team for dismantling the boxes. Shall we postpone opening them here?"
"Yes. Let's do that."
Everyone agreed with Carlyle's suggestion. There was no need to crack open those wooden barrels right now. It wasn't like we couldn't guess what was inside them anyway.
─Rustle, rustle.
Cromwell, who had been flipping through books, clicked his tongue.
"There's nothing special in the books. Eighty percent are forbidden texts, but they're all ones already managed by the mages' guild."
"Religious texts?"
I asked. Was that unicorn bastard a heretic?
"No. They're formulas and introductory methods for black magic. Aside from that, there are just ordinary earth golem magic books."
"He must have hidden the important research documents somewhere. Maybe a magic item that conceals mana, or a physical safe?"
Edlyn said while staring at the laboratory that looked like an earth cave carved by magic. She spoke as if glaring at it would reveal where things were hidden.
─Thud!
Cromwell closed the book with a loud snap and sighed.
"I'll recover the forbidden books here myself. It's not good to let the retrieval personnel handle them. Even one volume leaking out could lead to the birth of a new black mage."
"Do as you see fit. Forbidden books don't sell for money anyway, right?"
"They would if you could sell them. If you had connections in the underworld."
After hearing that, no idiot said, Oh, I have those connections! I roughly understood while listening to their conversation.
These people don't know about the relationship between Nefertiti and the black mage.
Truthfully, I didn't know either. But I did know there was some kind of connection. However, the other guild masters seemed completely unaware of whatever grudge or enmity existed between them. It looked like Nefertiti had joined the black mage countermeasures alliance without revealing her personal circumstances.
I'll ask about it later.
After some thought, I decided to do that. I wanted to ask if Tabula had any connection to these guys, but the timing wasn't right. There would be a chance to ask later.
Though I doubt there's any real connection.
Tabula was a macho villain who openly despised mages. The guy called Abi-something treated warriors like Nefertiti and me as barbarians. The two of them were far too different in personality and genre. They might have been rival factions within the same organization, but their atmospheres and behaviors were complete opposites! It would make more sense if they were like yakuza or mafia fighting over territory, constantly at each other's throats.
─Clatter.
We searched the small laboratory for nearly thirty minutes, but there were no visible research results. Just piles of silver coins, magic books, and materials for magic items.
"Hoo. At this rate, the golem's core will be the only loot."
Cromwell wiped his sweat with the handkerchief. The golem's core, huh. Did I have any claim to the core of the giant golem I had smashed? Thinking about it suddenly made all this hard work feel meaningless.
I had already taken an epic item. Why should I suffer looking for something that wouldn't even help me?
"Do we really have to recover the research results?"
"If the black mages have connections, his disciples or colleagues will eventually come to retrieve them. It's important to prevent their wicked techniques from being passed down."
"I see."
So it's not my job, then. I suddenly wanted to go home. It seemed better to leave it to the capable guild masters or the specialized team Carlyle mentioned.
Hit by a wave of reality, I stepped back. With the mindset of someone searching for his girlfriend's dildo, I rummaged through the laboratory—including under the bed—but nothing came up.
...Wait. Am I an idiot?
I carved the Ansuz rune onto the floor. Immediately, the souls trapped inside the wooden barrels appeared before my eyes.
Yeah, I'm an idiot.
Fuck, I should have done this from the start.
Having confirmed the existence of the souls, I glanced around cautiously. Fortunately, it seemed only I could see them here. The black mage's act of binding the souls to this world had helped. Sneaking Nord, approaching them without the guild masters noticing.
"Hoo. The black mage must have created some kind of secret safe somewhere around here. If only we knew where it's hidden... It's not easy."
I deliberately spoke in a way that could be taken as muttering to myself, even if the guild masters heard it.
─The black mage's safe...?
The dazed souls began to regain their senses. They were reacting to my voice, which was clearly audible thanks to the power of rune magic.
They're reacting faster than I expected.
It was the complete opposite of the golem souls that had been almost wraith-like! Could it be that those wooden barrels were ritual vessels made of shamanistically processed earth that damaged the souls' self-awareness? Seeing that the barrels still smelled of rotting corpses, it seemed the souls' self-awareness hadn't completely vanished yet.
"If we can just find that safe, we can rest easy and hold a proper memorial for the victims."
─Memorial...?
Will you set us free...?
The owners of the corpses trapped in the barrels realized I was speaking to them and answered.
─That bastard... used to hide things over there......
A soul that looked like an adult male pointed at the wall above the table. Perhaps because the corpse still remained, the soul's form was clear, and hatred toward the black mage still lingered.
Okay, thank you.
I moved while pretending not to know anything.
"Hmmmmmm... For example, wouldn't he have hidden a safe in a wall like this?"
─Tap, tap. Crumble.
I knocked on the spot the soul had indicated. The guild masters stopped their search at my words.
"Lord Cromwell? This won't collapse if I touch it, right?"
"Haha. Just Cromwell is fine. Since it's a space reinforced with magic, there's no worry of it collapsing."
"I see. Doesn't this spot seem a bit suspicious?"
Channeling Sherlock Holmes, I casually recited information I'd read in mystery novels.
"The earth knows the answer. Shall we approach this rationally?"
"What do you mean by rationally?"
"Let's work backward from the conclusion. If he made a safe and hid it, the black mage would have dug up that spot frequently, right? Even if he reinforced it with magic afterward, the moisture content of the earth would be different."
I scraped the nearby wall with a pen. Then I picked up the spilled dirt and acted like a ridiculously professional CIA agent.
"This is wilderness, but inside the pit, the soil has cohesion. Soil moisture dries out when exposed to air for a long time. Yet this wall alone has noticeably damper earth compared to the others."
I didn't know if it was actually true. I was just running my mouth. Still, as long as it sounded somewhat plausible, it was fine. The earth might not know the answer, but the souls did.
"The black mage told us while attacking. He said he wanted us to test the performance of his new golem. If he recorded the results of that production before executing his plan and then hid it──"
Having truly become an otherworldly green juice salesman and pseudo-science multi-level marketing employee, I declared with the confidence of a legendary detective.
"The newly covered earth around the safe would be made of the wet soil from deeper in the strata, right?"
Finishing my words, I struck the wall hard with a fist empowered by Beast Regression.
─KWAANG!!
─Rumble! Thud!!
A large stone rolled out from the wall. It was about the size of something artificially hardened. As an amateur archaeologist, I knew a bit about geological layers. A rock of this size wouldn't come from several dozen meters deep in this wilderness terrain.
─Tap, tap.
I knocked on it as if checking the inside of a watermelon. The hollow sound made the guild masters widen their eyes.
"It wasn't a safe. It was a stone vault. With my strength, I don't think I can break it without damaging the contents. Would you help?"
"I'll do it."
Edlyn stood up and used magic. Flames like those from a welding torch burst from her gauntlet. As expected of an adventurer guild master, all her magic was cast without incantations.
Chiiiiiiiiiiiiik─!
Whether it was magic that included physical energy rather than simple flames, the stone shattered like pieces before the flame torch. The contents were a large wooden box. When we opened it, an incredibly thick book—almost encyclopedia-sized—emerged.
"Oh my god..."
Edlyn, eyes wide with shock, seemed more astonished by my reasoning than the contents themselves. She looked at me and lost her words.
─Dash!
Cromwell ran over frantically and scanned the book.
"Let me see! 'In conducting experiments to confine souls inside golems, I realized that the process of confining a human soul within a skull must be a prerequisite'── That's it! This is undoubtedly the black mage's research results!"
Good. Official certification from an expert secured.
I brushed the dirt off my hands and touched the wooden barrel containing the souls.
Thank you very much, everyone.
─Oooooooooh......
We are being purified......
─Ahh, thank you. Thank you so much......!
The souls that came into contact with my hand ascended and departed for the afterlife. About five souls pierced through the laboratory ceiling and vanished into the sky.
"What's wrong, everyone? Let's head back now."
I gave an awkward smile to the guild masters, who were still staring at me in a daze.
"We need to make proper graves for these people too, don't we?"
"Ah, y-yes!"
The three guild masters from the rural backwater, who had been standing there stupidly before finally moving. Only Nefertiti nodded as if to say Good thing I brought him, which was strangely amusing.
When we came out of the laboratory, the sun was already setting. The adventurers who had been lying or sitting while waiting without being able to return home stood up at the appearance of the guild masters (and me). Those lucky bastards had been standing guard in front of the laboratory the whole time. They really had it good.
"ZZZ…♡"
No, fuck. The one with the absolute best luck was in our party.
"Tsk. I'm so jealous I could die."
I burned with jealousy toward Larilura, who was sleeping with her head on Franc's lap. It was already unfair that my premium seat had been stolen, but she was even sleeping while I was working?
"Still, since she came along to help with this subjugation out of loyalty, I'll let it slide."
I'm a man whose arm bends inward. Franc looked at me and chuckled.
"Hehe. She fell asleep, so I let her use my lap. Sleeping without a pillow would make her neck stiff."
"As expected, my girlfriend is the kindest in the world. By the way, where's Tirsi?"
"She went to help. Since she's from the mages' guild, she must be busy."
"Really? I haven't even properly thanked her yet."
I guess I'll have to visit the mages' guild later to see her face. Since I received a certificate from Cromwell that lets me purchase high-grade magic, maybe I can learn something like a finishing move besides the Munge-Munge Gun.
But what would a druid's finishing move even be? If it were Vectorman's, I might have an idea.
"Nord? What's that in your hand?"
"Hm? Oh, this? Half of the loot."
To Franc's question, I handed over the leather pouch and the book. This was the black mage bastard's loot that I had shamelessly negotiated for after the guild masters were impressed by my incredible reasoning (scam show).
Materials that could be used for enchantment magic. A pouch of silver coins. And a Narmer-Nile style earth golem magic book.
"This is only half?"
Franc looked surprised at the expensive-looking magic materials and the pouch of silver coins. Though honestly, this was probably closer to thirty percent than half. The real jackpot was still being collected.
"It's half. We agreed to split the shattered core of that huge golem over there fifty-fifty with Miss Nefertiti."
It was the core that powered such a massive golem. Its uses would be quite numerous. Still, if the core was contaminated with black magic, there would probably be a separate purification cost.
"Really? That's great! Hehe. For some reason, I feel proud too."
Franc smiled brightly at my words. Seeing her rejoice as if it were her own achievement made all my hard work feel worthwhile. Long live our mom.
"Ah, but why the magic book? Are you going to learn golem magic too?"
"I was thinking about it, but it seems I have no aptitude for it."
I had roughly learned the usage from Auntie Edlyn, but it turned out that despite being a druid, I had no talent for earth magic.
For me, that is.
I smiled while watching Franc look at the magic book with curious eyes. Telling her that dwarves had aptitude for fire and earth magic would only be a waste of breath. It seemed learning magic would be something for Franc a little further down the line.