Tower Reaching into the Underworld (7)
I set my spoon down and said it right in the middle of dinner.
“By the way, I don’t have a weapon.”
“Weapon? Why? Did you lose it or something?” Dana asked as she reached for the main dish sitting proudly in the center of the table. With this many people, we could finally order the expensive stuff.
“That black mage bastard turned it into complete dog food. So I’m thinking of getting a new one custom-made.”
“Oh? What are you gonna use?”
“A spear.”
At my answer, Dana froze mid-sip of her beer. This girl drinks before work and drinks again at dinner. What a life.
“A spear? Weren’t you a sword guy?”
“Back when we did ruin exploration in university? Can you even call that using a sword? I probably cut more jerky with a dagger than I ever swung a blade.”
University expeditions weren’t really expeditions. They were mostly just carrying luggage, interpreting runes, and running away. Back when I couldn’t handle mana, I was even less useful in a real fight than Pachirisu.
Dana paused while slicing the meat she’d taken and tilted her head.
“But why a spear of all things? You know it’s a terrible weapon for ruin exploration, right?”
“In places where I can’t use a spear, I’ll just punch things. And besides, when I thought about what to make with this, a spear seemed like the best choice.”
Thud.
I pulled out the mithril wrapped in cloth and set it on the table. Why was I carrying this lump of metal around? Because if it got stolen, it would haunt my dreams for three years straight.
“Excuse me. What kind of metal is this?”
It just so happened that I’d placed the mithril right in front of Tirsi’s water glass. She moved her cup aside and touched the ingot.
“……Mana?”
She must have sensed the mana radiating from it, because Tirsi’s mouth fell open in shock.
“Eh? This, this isn’t mith…?! Heh?!”
“You’re thinking exactly right.”
“Y-you can’t just casually take something like this out in a crowded place…!!”
Tirsi hissed in a tiny voice, then tremblingly pushed the mithril back toward me. I took it and hid it again, figuring she wanted it out of sight. She let out a huge sigh of relief, then drank cold water to calm her pounding heart. She shot me a glare that said she was still a little mad.
“You scared the hell out of me. Where on earth did you get something like this?”
“As compensation from last time. That whip-wielding lady gave it to me.”
“I… didn’t receive anything……”
Tirsi, who had instantly understood, muttered in the most depressed tone imaginable. So that armpit woman really had only given it to me. Figures.
“Want me to share a bit?”
“Huu… No, it’s fine. That was given to Nord, wasn’t it? All I did was buy a little time at the end. Hmph. Hmph.”
Tirsi stabbed at her chicken with unnecessary force. Even someone as kind and generous as her couldn’t help feeling a pang of regret when she realized she’d missed out on mithril. I remembered her not being particularly greedy for rewards when we took down that bandit group, but once the reward reached mithril-tier, even she reacted like this. I guess even mages consider mithril an incredible prize.
Yeah, I’d probably feel the same.
If Nefertiti had only given mithril to that gold-rank adventurer team that drew the black mage’s aggro and left me with nothing, I would’ve cursed her out in my head for days. Did you bury your conscience with the pharaoh in his pyramid or something? I might’ve even gotten whipped for saying that. Not a light slap, but a full-blown thwack-crack-boom.
“Nord. Is this… that thing?”
Tap tap.
Franc touched her wedding ring as she spoke. The nickname “dwarf blacksmith race” wasn’t just for show. She knew exactly what our rings were made of.
I showed her the ring on my finger and answered.
“Yeah. They said there wasn’t enough to make a sword. So I had a little shaved off to make the rings, and the rest will become a weapon.”
“Smart choice. Oh, but just in case, you’re not making mine, right? It’d be way too wasteful for throwing knives, and too light for a hammer.”
“Yeah, I asked and they said the same thing.”
Mithril throwing knives? That was the kind of insane extravagance only a nouveau riche idiot would pull. Making a hammer out of it would be pointless too—the metal was so light it wouldn’t have any impact. With the small amount we had, it would probably end up as some ridiculously heavy toy hammer. Maybe if I reached master rank and could use aura, the story would be different.
“Anyway, I already wrote up the contract. The shaft should already be done. All that’s left is the spearhead.”
“Huhu~? Then the next exploration will be both the debut of my Ringling 3.5 and senior’s new weapon, right?”
Larilura said as she tore her bread into tiny pieces and dipped them in soup. With that psychedelic pink hair and her four-dimensional brain, I had no idea where this random logic came from. She suddenly threw up a V-sign and shouted.
“Alright! Let’s have a contest to see whose weapon performs better♡! The winner gets to ask the loser for any one favor☆!”
“I’ll accept as long as your favor isn’t ‘hand over the enchantment magic book.’”
“……Hiiing. Senior, why are you so cold to me lately?”
Larilura sulked and started complaining.
“I even made the suggestion while fully prepared to hear something harsh like ‘don’t wear clown clothes anymore’ if I lost! How can you look at your adorable junior’s determination like that?”
“Like a clown throwing a tantrum?”
“Anyway, if it’s about the book, you can just borrow it and read it, can’t you?”
“That’s~ not~ what~ I~ mean! Don’t you understand this feeling of wanting to collect every single book written by the person I admire and respect as a fan?!”
“Nope.”
I didn’t understand at all. I declared it flatly, but the women—specifically Dana and Tirsi—were nodding in agreement.
“I get it. If it were Professor Hairomain’s essays, I’d carry them in my personal luggage too. If they got lost, it would be a tragedy I couldn’t bear to witness with open eyes.”
“I understand too. Letters exchanged between a beloved author and their friend while they were alive can sell for absurd amounts at auction to maniac collectors, right?”
Their perspectives seemed similar yet somehow different. Even though both women were scholars, their personalities and ways of thinking were quite distinct.
I swallowed the meat in my mouth.
“Well, whatever. I only need to copy the practical magic tips anyway. I’ll take that bet. So you better work your ass off, got it?”
“Of course! Ahaha♡ That’s exactly why I love our senior~!”
“That ‘exactly why’ doesn’t mean ‘because he’s easy to take advantage of,’ does it?”
“…………♡”
Answer me, damn it. I glared at Larilura, who was just giggling foolishly, but she only avoided my eyes. Fine, whatever. I just had to win. Though I wasn’t sure what I’d even want from her if I did win. Maybe I’d ban her from ever mentioning that proposal again.
A few days later, I headed to Clara’s weapon shop carrying the mithril ingot.
If you’re going to make the spearhead out of mithril, the shaft can’t be ordinary either.
That had been Clara’s response. To create a weapon worthy of being called mithril-grade, the shaft had to be custom-made from the start. Of course, that didn’t mean making the entire shaft out of rare metal. Even if it became as heavy as a bench press bar, my strength could handle it, but I simply didn’t have the money for that.
So after ordering the custom shaft and waiting several days, I finally went to meet Clara today.
“Sorry, Nord. Is it heavy?”
Franc asked, looking at the box I had tucked under my arm. It contained a golem core. I’d thought she was going to sell her share, but she said she wanted to make something with this core, so I ended up carrying it for her.
“Hehe. Not at all.”
I answered with a laugh. It really wasn’t heavy. It had felt heavy when I first carried it back from the mages’ guild, but this time it was no problem at all. Maybe because it was split into three pieces? Or because Franc was walking beside me? Either way, it wasn’t difficult in the slightest.
I held Franc’s hand as we entered Clara’s weapon shop.
“Oh my? ……Fufufufu.”
Clara, who had been carving something behind the counter, covered her mouth when she saw us. She seemed to have instantly figured out what had happened between us. Holding hands while wearing matching rings made it pretty obvious to anyone.
“Welcome. After you took the rings and didn’t come back, I was worried something had gone wrong.”
“There were some twists and turns, but it became a chance to feel my wife’s generous heart and affection once again. Where’s the spear shaft I ordered?”
“It’s finished. We were lucky to have the right materials.”
Clatter.
Clara brought out the shaft to show me. It was made of wood, but one touch told me how incredibly solid it was. The length seemed a bit short considering the spearhead, but it would still be longer than the sword I used before.
“It’s made from wood taken from a tree monster. I shaped it to perfectly fit your grip. Now all that’s left is the spearhead.”
Haa, haa.
Was she getting excited just from talking about it? Clara stared at me with eyes full of unmistakable excitement. Damn it. We both have partners, so let’s not go there.
Under her silent urging, I placed the mithril ingot on the counter.
“It’s here!! I’ve been waiting for this!!”
She looked as happy as a bride welcoming her husband home from a long business trip. It looked like beams of light might shoot from her eyes.
“A-ahahaha……”
Even Franc’s mouth twitched a little at that reaction. I understood completely. The fact that she didn’t say anything rude was already admirable, my dear Franc.
That aside, what exactly did this auntie’s husband do for a living? He wasn’t some kind of humanoid robot, was he?
“No, you don’t have to go that far……”
“What do you mean, ‘that far’?! Just look at the quality of this brilliant mithril!! I became a blacksmith just so I could work metal like this!!”
“Then you must have wasted half your life until now.”
I wanted to skip this pointless chatter and get to the main topic. I took out the commission fee and contract and placed them on the table.
“Here’s the production fee. Please complete it exactly according to the blueprint we discussed last time. Also, my wife would like to make a request as well.”
“Yes! Please tell me!”
“Um, well…… I want to process this golem core together with the throwing knives I bought last time.”
Franc pulled out the knives from the armor enchanted with Portable Subspace magic. Not the ones dropped by that damn clown-legged woman—I’d forgotten that thing’s name—but the throwing knives we’d bought here. The circus juggling knives were quite large, about the size of a meat cleaver. The ones from the shop were about the size of a fork.
“What kind of processing did you have in mind?”
“I’m learning golem creation magic. Could I imbue this knife with the functions of a golem core?”
“So you want to use it as both a golem core and a throwing knife?”
“Yes.”
At Franc’s confirmation, Clara crossed her arms and calculated for a moment, then nodded.
“It’s possible. However, I don’t recommend using the entire core. That stone is a core obtained from defeating a golem, correct?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
“Then leave half of it untouched. Once processed, it will deviate slightly from the standard materials used in golem creation magic.”
“I’ll do that. I wasn’t planning to use golems as my main force anyway.”
Franc set down half of the golem core. There was only one reason I had given her the golem creation magic.
I gave it to her so she could use it for things like unlocking locks.
I hoped she would think about it. The bastards who hide treasures in safes and treasure chests set up all kinds of traps to prevent theft. Poison needles shooting from locks, collapsing floors, toxic gas—there were way too many. Disarming those traps was the main job of adventurer thieves.
I can’t let our Franc do that kind of dangerous 3D work.
In that regard, golems were perfect. They might not match Franc’s dexterity, but for ordinary locks, she could just control a golem to open them instead. If it got destroyed by a trap? Even if an instant golem died, neither I nor Franc would bat an eye. It would be a shame if the core broke, but that was it. If you had to choose between your life and money, anyone who wasn’t an idiot would choose their life. And adventurers were professionals who protected their lives while still aiming for the money.
“Once it’s finished, I’ll send a note to the inn! I’ll stay up all night if I have to to make it perfect, so don’t worry!!”
With those words as our farewell, we left Clara’s weapon shop.
Now there’s nothing left to prepare.
All I had to do was practice swinging the new shaft I’d received and keep training Arrow of Lightning.
Let’s rent a training room at the mages’ guild like Tirsi suggested.
If it was an indoor training room, I wouldn’t have to worry about people coming by like at the inn’s well and could train comfortably. According to Tirsi, the training rooms were private spaces where others couldn’t see inside. Mages hated showing their research to others, after all.
And so, for the next week, we each devoted ourselves to our respective tasks.
I focused on spear training and magic practice.
Franc trained with her Puppetry knives and self-studied golem creation magic.
Dana was busy laying the foundation for the lab, and Tirsi was adjusting her schedule with the alchemy school.
Larilura worked on tuning and test-driving Ringling 3.5, and during her personal time she learned the formula combination magic I had used for the proposal. This girl really was floating off in her own world again.
Anyway, while each of us trained and prepared for the ruin exploration, we also gathered information about the adventurers who had entered the ruin ahead of us.
And what we heard was this.
Hey, did you hear? That horrifying story about the underground tower.
Yeah. They say horribly grotesque monsters no one has ever seen or heard of are crawling out. This job definitely isn’t going to be── smooth sailing.