Orichalcum (1)

I let out a triumphant shout, then calmly began making plans. What the hell did we come here for in the first place? Farming, obviously. Normally I live by the motto of getting in, getting shit done, and clocking out fast, but today I needed to be extra careful. Turning into that giant monkey Nord had probably drawn a ridiculous amount of aggro. We had to finish up quick before anyone else figured this place out. Getting pinned as the culprit behind the disappearances would be a total shitshow.

“I’ll seal the ruin’s ceiling. ᛒ (Berkanan).”

Veronica spread her black wings and soared into the air. It seemed the transformation rune could partially alter just certain parts of the body. But wings? Hell yeah, I loved it. Any Korean worth their salt would slap wings on their avatar.

With a low rumble, Veronica—who had become a flying bicorn—used the magic she activated in her divine mode, the same one that had sealed the zombie well, to roughly patch up the ceiling. Obviously she couldn’t fill in an entire thick layer of bedrock by herself. Think of it as just slapping a lid on top.

After finishing her flight, Veronica slowly descended. It looked like even with wings, her movement speed wasn’t that fast.

“This should keep us from getting discovered during exploration. It probably won’t collapse under normal conditions.”

“Thanks. I was planning to exit through the well so we wouldn’t draw any aggro on the way out.”

We entered through the hole Yerna had burst out of for her ambush. Since there was no way they’d set traps at an emergency escape route, we moved cautiously but still reached the deepest part of the hidden chamber pretty quickly.

Whirrrrr…!

What was humming away was a square pillar that looked like a tumbler. The mana pouring from the square pillar connected to a magic circle on the floor. The moment I saw it, my inner archaeologist kicked in and I instinctively understood.

“No dust. The magic circle looks brand new too. The fact that Yerna messed with it means this must be the core of the ruin.”

“Everyone, don’t touch anything recklessly. Franc, Veronica. I’m leaving this to you two.”

At Dana’s request, Franc and Veronica used their knowledge to investigate. It seemed Yerna had been camping out here ever since the disappearances, because the place had a lived-in feel. It was like breaking into a criminal’s rented room after arresting them and searching for evidence of their crimes.

“There are no dangerous items or traps over here. I’ll keep searching deeper, so everyone start investigating from this side.”

Franc said after checking half the room. Veronica flipped through a book she’d picked up and muttered,

“That magic circle matches what’s described in this book. Take a look.”

“A book? The hell?”

I took it when she offered, but I was a bit skeptical. It didn’t seem like anything important. This place was basically a business hotel for Yerna. She would’ve left any valuables somewhere safe. Just as I thought, the book wasn’t anything special.

The book was titled Doppelganger, a simple name for a grimoire. While the title was written in the language of Narmer-Nile, the contents were in Romanian. Makes sense. How many people would write a book in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a language close to hieroglyphs? It wasn’t a stone tablet, after all.

I skimmed through it quickly. To summarize, it was a manual for creating a doppelganger that resembled the user using specific materials.

I immediately caught on to why this book was here.

“That bitch Yerna must’ve seen this book and made a doppelganger. She couldn’t use the spell originally, so she brought a specialized text to study it.”

“Senior? There are magic formulas here too.”

Where Larilura pointed, there were indeed calculation formulas written in Yerna’s handwriting. Dana, who had already glanced over them first, tossed the paper aside like she’d touched something filthy.

“This is fucking disgusting. It’s a method for making homunculi using human blood and flesh.”

“Let me see.”

I read the writing on the paper. Thirty percent was in Yerna’s handwriting, while seventy percent was someone else’s. It looked like the kind of back-and-forth you’d see between people like her.

A homunculus referred to a golem that closely resembled a human. It was classified as a type of alchemy. In this world, there were many legends about humans being shaped from clay. A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠homunculus was basically a clone golem inspired by those stories.

Obviously, making one was insanely difficult. It was a spell banned in many countries for ethical reasons.

‘Reconstructing blood and flesh into human form using light mana… Yep, no doubt about it.’

Just reading it made me feel like I could smell blood. The fact that it used light mana made it even creepier. It was like reading the journal of a serial killer who used medical tools to dissect people and turn them into furniture.

“So that’s why she kidnapped adventurers and killed them here.”

That moss field might have been the production site for her doppelgangers. Maybe the kidnappings weren’t completely random after all. Well, even a sociopathic piece of trash like her would know that doing something like that would eventually get her killed.

“…Do you think she knew a pursuer was coming and was preparing a counterattack here?”

“That seems likely.”

I agreed with Larilura’s deduction. Yerna ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was being chased by Tabula’s organization. She had probably been hiding here, planning to use the doppelganger in that moss-covered space to fight them off.

I skimmed through the inhumane research notes. I didn’t even want to look at them, but I figured there might be some evidence. My effort paid off big time.

The handwriting that filled seventy percent of the research notes—someone else’s script appeared in parts of it. At least three people had been involved in this research.

The handwriting of whoever wrote that appeared occasionally throughout the records. It looked like they had been exchanging results like letters, and someone had added annotations like a professor editing a thesis.

“Wait a second… I’ve seen this handwriting somewhere before.”

“What?”

Dana grew interested. Handwriting analysis worked in this world too. Even though Yerna operated in the shadows, she held the public position of a famous professor. If I recognized this mystery editor’s handwriting, it meant I’d seen this bastard’s penmanship somewhere before.

“Look at this. Dana, doesn’t this ring any bells?”

“…It does look strangely familiar, but I can’t place it.”

Dana frowned as she read the passage I showed her. Just like how Koreans could identify handwriting by how someone wrote the letter, Romanian handwriting had its own distinct personality. For a couple of PhD holders like us who were used to reading handwritten papers and books, distinguishing handwriting was easy.

“If even you don’t recognize it… then it probably wasn’t from Carmine University.”

Or maybe it was from the materials I’d collected while writing my thesis? Nah, that didn’t feel right. While the others continued investigating, I searched through my memories. Then it hit me.

“…Holy shit. Isn’t this Abidus’s handwriting?”

“Abidus? That black mage?”

Franc, who had finished checking for traps, responded to my mutter. That’s right. It was the handwriting of that damn unicorn who had controlled the giant golem and tried to turn Nefertiti into a figurine while in heat.

“It’s identical to what I saw in that bastard’s lab. The way he writes lowercase o, the curves on lowercase p and uppercase M—it all matches a left-handed writer’s style.”

I remembered being annoyed that the villain wrote surprisingly well. But why the hell was his handwriting showing up here?

I tilted my head. ‘…Is Yerna part of Immortalis?’

Honestly, the chances were low. That group was supposedly full of perverted, pockmarked black mages. If Yerna had been a black mage, she never would’ve become a professor. She would’ve been caught and arrested long before that.

“The only common point is that they’re not human, right~?”

“Is that it? When religious orders say ‘human,’ they usually include elves and dwarves too.”

Franc and Larilura chatted. Every country had different opinions on which races counted as “human.” It was like how Christians fought over interpretations of the Bible. In that sense, when Veronica had spoken of “humans cursed to be restricted from using runes,” she had been referring to all the common races—humans, elves, dwarves, and so on. In Germania, everything except the divine races was considered human. In their language, the word for this world, 【Mannheim】, literally meant “home of humans.”

“……Hmm?”

I was thinking along those lines when a faint intuition flashed through my mind. I pressed my temple. Non-human races. I’d met all kinds of races while living in this world, but lately it felt like most of the non-humans I’d encountered were absolute bastards. I’d make an exception for Franc, Veronica, and the other bicorns. But the unicorn Abidus, that ogre, and the elf Yerna had all been dominated by some kind of supremacist ideology.

The fact that Abidus and Yerna had a connection didn’t feel like a coincidence.

“Even criminal organizations don’t just growl at each other all the time.”

Scum like this often hung out together as long as you didn’t touch their turf. Maybe the criminal organizations in this world were the same. They were pathetic bastards who lived by aesthetics they’d made up themselves to look cool. Just like how the Yakuza and Russian mafia would link arms over AVs and drugs, these pieces of shit probably had some kind of connection too.

A unicorn and an elf. It was a combination that went together like kimchi and ramen! Though to me it felt more like pineapple kimchi and mint ramen. These motherfuckers have committed some serious sins.

“We can figure out Yerna’s relationship with the others later by looking through that bitch’s memories.”

Dana said that, then brought over a box that Franc had confirmed was safe. The look of anticipation on her face suggested its weight was very satisfying.

—Clack!

Franc picked the lock in under a minute and opened the box.

“Holy fucking shit.”

The moment I saw what was inside, I mentally renamed the box “Treasure Chest.” Packed tightly inside were three gold bars the size of wallets!

“Sssssshit!! Gold bars—!!”

“I-I’ll appraise them!!”

—Clink.

Franc touched the gold bars, then nodded with a delighted expression. It meant they were pure 24K gold!!! I almost had a seizure like the client whose ten-billion-won request for an heirloom back scratcher had been sold.

“This is insane!!! How much is all this worth?!”

“Waaaaah!! It’s so bright I can’t even look at it♡!!”

We were losing our minds. Just judging by the weight, this was easily in the hundreds of millions! I had no idea why she’d brought such a huge sum to a place like this. Had she liquidated her assets before hiding? Or was she planning to make some kind of deal? A bribe? Who the hell cares?! It’s ours now!!

“I’m happy, but at the same time pissed off. That bitch Yerna was filthy rich.”

“Hmm. Gold, huh. I’ve only ever touched gold dust used as a magic material.”

The only ones staying calm were Veronica and Dana. Veronica I could understand—she still didn’t know much about the human world. But had our lab director become numb to money after dealing with it for so long? We must’ve looked like idiots getting this excited.

“Why are our wives so calm? Do they not know what gold is used for?”

“Husband dear. Shouldn’t we finish up quickly and get out of here before we get beaten? If we can’t take this home, it might stop being our money, you know?”

I was holding hands with Franc and Larilura doing a little victory dance when Dana grabbed me by the earlobe. Oh right, we were still exploring. If we got arrested now, the gold and everything else would go down the drain.

“Alright, alright. So the only thing left is… that thing?”

We swallowed our drool as we stared at the long-awaited artifact.

“Veronica, can you analyze what it is?”

“There’s no need for analysis. I recognized it the moment I saw it. That is an alloy of orichalcum and mithril.”

“Orichalcum?”

It was a familiar word to me, a 21st-century Earthling, but it seemed unfamiliar to the sisters from this world. Everyone except me reacted like they were hearing it for the first time.

“It is also called the mountain’s brass. A rare metal said to have gone extinct in modern times… It appears to be lightly mixed with mithril. It seems to be absorbing something from the natural environment here.”

“Ah, so this is it.”

This metal must absorb and condense light mana. Maybe because I’d been late in explaining it to the party, none of them seemed to realize yet that this ruin was a mana power plant.

Veronica perked her ears up at my response.

“Do you know something about it?”

“I’ll explain later. But can we take this with us?”

“There is no problem. Aside from being a valuable item, there is nothing particularly dangerous or remarkable about it itself. It is simply connected to the structure of this underground tomb.”

“I see.”

If we compared it to a nuclear power plant, this was an important part but not the generator itself. Makes sense. Even if you raided a power plant, there was a limit to what a few people could carry. Taking the expensive core parts was good enough.

Just seeing Veronica’s eyes sparkle told me this was an incredibly valuable item. Was this why she hadn’t reacted to pure gold earlier?

‘I’m looking forward to hearing what kind of metal this is.’

—Thud.

I pulled out the orichalcum square pillar. It had been embedded for a ridiculously long time and was hard to remove, but fortunately the ruin didn’t collapse or anything after I took it out.

“Take the stone tablet underneath as well. That elf tampered with it, but it will still be quite useful.”

Veronica said. Instead of asking questions, I quickly pried the tablet ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠loose and stuffed it into my bag. It was best to follow an expert’s advice. Asking questions would just be a waste of time. And the more loot we had to carry, the more anxious I felt. We needed to get out of here fast if we wanted to keep all this stuff.

It was a very tomb-raider way of thinking, but I won’t deny it. Archaeologists are a species that have been looting other countries’ ruins for generations to display in their own museums. If you have a problem with that, go complain at the Louvre. Hahaha.

“Let’s take the book too. It’s already been thirty minutes since I caused that commotion.”

It was about time for the Germania Kingdom soldiers to start reacting. Let’s exercise our rights as legitimate ruin-raiders and make a swift escape.

“The book? The doppelganger book? What if it’s designated as a forbidden text?”

“There is no problem. It creates a doppelganger from natural materials. As long as it doesn’t use human flesh and blood, it is ordinary magic. You could even call it a derivative of spirit transformation techniques.”

Veronica smiled as she stacked the loot into the bag she was carrying in her pony mode.

“Human magic is quite interesting. Though it doesn’t seem to suit my aptitude.”

“A doppelganger, huh. I’m kinda tempted.”

If I trained shadow clone techniques, would it help in fights? Of course I had no intention of using it anywhere else. For example, if my wives asked me to bring out my clone in bed, I would absolutely refuse. No matter how identical it looked, asking me to watch Franc and Dana embrace someone who wasn’t me? Are you insane?

Ah, but if Franc and Dana increased to ten or twenty people… No, better not think about it.

‘I’m not making a homunculus anyway, so I couldn’t use it for that kind of thing.’

With those thoughts, I gathered up all the looted items and headed back to the surface. We’d appraise everything properly once we returned to Cudseus.