Orichalcum (2)
With the Orichalcum in hand, we surfaced and slipped out of Mozriun under cover. We moved in secret not only to avoid the undead, but also to keep from drawing attention. Imagine it—if I were a cop and saw a group strolling out of a place exploding with gunfire and blasts, I'd remember every face. That was why we left without a trace.
"Good heavens! Why are you so late?!"
The moment we stepped through the entrance, a soldier from the Germania Kingdom's forces broke formation and rushed toward us. He was probably the administrator assigned by the kingdom.
"You must evacuate at once! Surely you heard the explosions in the city?!"
"My apologies. We thought it was too dangerous and delayed our departure," Dana replied with the excuse we'd prepared. Something was happening downtown, so we couldn't move recklessly. It was a perfectly reasonable story.
"The entry records—"
"Already taken care of!"
The administrator, frantic to evacuate civilians, gave our belongings only the most cursory inspection—like roasting beans in a lightning storm. He probably assumed anyone who had entered through proper channels couldn't be the culprit.
"What is this slab?"
Despite his nerves, the man pointed at the one item that stood out: a plain stone slab with no markings, like a floor tile. I cleared my throat.
"It's just a magical item. One of our party members uses earth magic."
"Ah, adventurers. Understood. No problem, then. Since we don't know what's happening inside the city, I suggest you head as far away as possible."
"Of course. The other adventurers and merchants have already evacuated, I take it?"
"You were the last ones."
With that polite dismissal, we were ushered onto the plains leading to Kudses. The kingdom's forces, led by what looked like their commander, were heading in to search the city.
"Senior, why was that guy in such a hurry~?"
Larilura tilted her head, clearly puzzled. Maybe because she hadn't seen the scale of what I'd done. If she had, she would've wondered why anyone would willingly enter such a dangerous place.
"Someone might have caused a terrorist attack. Even if the walls collapse, the undead will just wander the plains. But without cover, the open fields are far easier to manage than the streets inside the walls."
"Aha! Now I feel a little guilty♡"
"If you're talking guilt, we should feel guilty about looting the ruins."
I answered quietly and pulled out the "ordinary slab" that had passed inspection without issue. Crack. Veronica's rock lid shattered under raw strength. Thanks to the rampage—or perhaps Gertyr's awakening—my baseline power had risen a notch.
Vwoom!
I poured mana into the magic circle etched on the slab and pressed my hand against it. My fingers sank into the surface like water, and I retrieved the grimoire of clone magic from the subspace.
"Portable Subspace. Or perhaps something even higher?"
"I don't know human magic systems, so don't ask me for names. It seems they simply used this circle and Orichalcum to store mana in a pocket dimension."
Veronica re-explained the slab's value. The biggest worry while escaping had been the baggage inspection. Normally, checking travelers' belongings wasn't done in this world, but emergencies changed that. The underground tomb's space could be hidden—Franc and Veronica had collapsed the area where Yerna had been hiding with earth magic. The real problem was the items we'd farmed. If we were searched on the way out, everything would be exposed.
Veronica had suggested hiding with rune magic, but that risked discovery. Questions like "Where did the foal you entered with go?" would be awkward. So she proposed the slab instead—a magic circle that sent items into subspace, just like a game inventory. We loaded all our loot into it, concealed the circle so it wouldn't break, and passed inspection.
'We could have claimed rightful ownership, but…'
We had no idea how far the Compilation Battalion's reach extended. We couldn't risk it.
"Veronica, isn't this an ancient civilization artifact too~?"
Larilura clung to my shoulder, dipping her finger into the slab and pulling it out again. The subspace connection seemed fascinating to her. Somehow, she'd already started calling Veronica "big sister."
"Not quite artifact-grade. Modern subspace technology has reached this level."
Dana answered while removing her gauntlet to wipe sweat. Veronica didn't know the current state of human magic.
"Still, it's ridiculously expensive, right? Enough to buy about a hundred of our two-silver husband and arm them all with weapons, with plenty left over."
"Couldn't you just say 'a few gold'? At that rate, you're a slave wife too."
"Call me 'master,' not wife. I won't put you on the secondhand market until you're broken."
"Larilura. If you see a Kitai male slave being discounted at the slave market in about fifty years, buy him for me."
"Absolutely not☆ Ah, but if it's within five years, I might consider it!"
After some nonsense, I tucked the slab back into the bag.
"Connecting space to space can be replicated with modern magic. But linking to another world or sending living beings—that's an entirely different level of problem."
It was the difference between circumnavigating the world and traveling through space. We continued talking as we returned to Kudses. Since the carriage was one-way, we'd prepared to camp on the way back. One night outdoors, and we'd reach the inn by lunch the next day.
"What do we tell Lillian? Even if we say her professor was a bastard, she won't believe it."
"What else? We say we couldn't find anything."
"Shame, but that's all we can do. …Let's write a letter."
I wrote a heartfelt letter to the poor master's student Yerna had deceived, expressing my condolences. Thanks to her, we'd dealt with Yerna before she could cause more trouble, so the gratitude was genuine.
"—Well then, it's time to hear Nord's explanation."
When I returned after dropping off the letter at the inn, Franc spoke. Though usually gentle and kind, her charisma when I caused trouble made me shrink. If Dana was the type to smack your back while scolding, Franc was the type to sit you down with a blank face until you confessed everything. Which was scarier? Franc, by a factor of three.
"By 'explanation,' you mean… that thing where I went berserk."
Nod.
All four of them nodded as if asking what else it could be. After confirming they were of one mind, their gazes suddenly turned to Larilura.
"Four? Why, why?"
Larilura looked confused, then quickly caught on.
"…Ah, I see. I'm not supposed to hear this, am I?"
She looked slightly hurt, her eyes drooping. Unlike Franc, Dana, and Veronica—who knew my circumstances—Larilura was missing a lot of context. The wives and Veronica had realized my rampage was tied to being Odin's successor. That's why they'd glanced at her.
Dana, flustered by the reaction, quickly corrected herself.
"N-no, we don't mean you have to leave. It's just… we're worried you won't be able to follow the story…"
"Larilura, you can stay too."
I intercepted Dana's words. Larilura's face brightened with joy.
"Aha♡! As expected, Senior has a good eye for people! I'll keep my mouth shut and keep it a secret for life♥!"
"We're not telling secrets. I'll just explain roughly what happened."
"Oh, is this exclusion? It really is exclusion, isn't it? But that makes sense!"
Larilura did an up-and-down headbang to cheer herself up. I felt a bit uneasy, but I trusted her. She was sharing dangers with us now. Shutting her out completely just because we might part ways someday didn't feel right. It would be like excluding a hardworking employee at the company because they might quit soon. My cousin had gone through something similar, and it lingered for years—every holiday, they'd rant about their old company and lecture everyone about finding a good job. The company had isolated them to hide internal secrets, so my cousin got revenge by spilling everything they knew.
'Larilura will probably be fine.'
Thinking that, I raised my hand.
Shwaak!
Beast Regression activated, covering my palm.
"Let's start. This is just my theory, but—"
I began explaining. The story started with the idea that Beast Regression seemed to be a technique for refining a special kind of mana. To summarize: the more that mana—the ancient gods' mana—accumulated, the stronger Beast Regression became. The trigger for increasing that mana was anger. Because of it, I seemed to have developed a bit of anger management issues. I'd lost control and rampaged because I couldn't resist the fury. The spark had been Franc collapsing. That caused the special mana I'd built up to go berserk, amplifying my magic. That was the gist.
"Anger… So it was because of Franc?"
Dana rested her chin on her hand, looking troubled after my explanation ended. She stole glances at me. It was painfully obvious. I spoke seriously.
"Dana, if it had been you who got hurt, the result would've been the same."
"…Does it show that much that I thought that? It shouldn't."
"If you don't want to be found out, stop acting cute. You were probably thinking something like, 'What if I get hurt and our husband doesn't care?'"
"Ah, fuck, why does the guy who knows everything have to say it and make me embarrassed?!"
I caught the flying pillow with a Taiji-inspired move. That's why I said it, sis.
"Anyway, from now on, take better care of yourself. If you go somewhere and get beaten up, a bounty goes on your husband's neck that same day. Behave yourself."
"Don't make it obvious that I'm leashed by an idiot, you bastard."
Dana growled like she wanted to pounce and bite my neck if the family weren't around. Franc chuckled and raised her hand.
"But according to Nord, only magic power was enhanced, right? That doesn't seem to match how incredibly powerful it felt."
"Yeah. I was going to mention that too."
This time, I explained the underground tomb's functions. Like a three-hour movie, I considerately inserted breaks. That's what civilized people do. The reasoning was mostly conjecture—there was no evidence—but no one objected to the logical flow. Half of me felt happy to be trusted; the other half felt burdened.
"To think that eerie tomb was actually a ruin that gathered holy mana… It's hard to believe right away. Then, do you remember the technique for the magic you acquired?"
"Not at all. I was completely in a trance."
If there had been some technique, maybe. But it felt like a tail had grown and I was moving it as naturally as my own body. Since I hadn't even thought about how to do it, nothing remained in memory.
'Hearing that, it's a shame. Would've been nice to learn at least one thing.'
As I thought that, Larilura groaned.
"That elf's clone stole the ruin's mana and regrew limbs like a troll, right? Senior controlled the city's mana and beat it down?"
"Yeah. It looks like they modified the magic circle there to send mana directly into the clone. It was a double-layered structure to reduce the risk of the main body getting hurt in battle and to avoid mana poisoning. In this world, even criminals can't be idiots. Or they're strong enough to compensate for their stupidity."
"……You're really okay?"
"I told you I'm fine. Thanks to the mana drain and enhancement, I was strong enough to rival a Master Class, so I didn't take a single hit."
Though it wasn't really my own power, so it wasn't something to brag about. At my words, Franc tilted her head.
"Master? Like a Sword Master?"
"If we're putting it that way, it'd be closer to an Archmage, I guess."
Yeah. Let's go with Archmage. Spear Master doesn't have the same ring to it. The Master Class that follows after Archmage—superhumans of this world who could snatch national-level positions with just their personal strength.
'At Master Class level, individuals can do so much that it's rarer for them to belong to a nation.'
Adventurers like Gold, Platinum, or Mithril get scouted to better places, but among those who stubbornly stay and uphold their beliefs, Master Classes sometimes emerge. Even then, there are only about two among adventurers. The current Master Class adventurers supposedly had unshakeable resolve from the start and stayed because they believed they'd succeed wherever they were. Plenty of rookie adventurers try to mimic that old-man mindset and end up splitting their legs. Sounds just like some master's student I know.
'Everyone thinks they're different from others.'
Then they dump a million won into a gacha game and fail to pull the character they want, and they learn their place. In this world, the stakes aren't money—they're lives.
Anyway, having freely drawn on the darkness and negative mana filling the city, even I could coldly assess that I'd reached that level. Master Class. The rank just below the absolute top among adventurers. Since Grand Master is practically an honorary title, Master is the highest practical rank. Of course, that didn't mean I'd always become that strong whenever I rampaged. Even a swordmaster can't do much with only a toothpick as a weapon. My base mana capacity wouldn't have been enough to completely pierce the underground tomb's ceiling.
"I don't want to imagine it, but even if I end up like that again, I probably won't get that insanely strong."
In games or comics, you can watch a rampage and think "It'll work out somehow~," but when you're the one losing control, it feels different. Like carrying a grenade in your pocket that might go off at any moment. Even real anger management patients supposedly experience high stress in daily life. My boiling point is high, but the scale of what happens after I cross the threshold is extraordinary, which makes it troublesome.
'……What if I had more mana?'
There probably weren't many special cases like Mozriun. Now that I knew the cause, I'd try to control my anger too. I'd have to become a master of full-concentration Lamaze breathing or something.
"My dear. Bring out the Orichalcum. Let's test its function."
"Huh? Ah, right."
I took out the white rectangular prism from the slab. If we could analyze this magic circle properly, carrying luggage would become much easier. Was there a way?
Fwoosh!
Veronica shone the prism with the Sowulo rune, symbolizing the sun. The light-attribute mana that flew around the Orichalcum swirled and settled beneath the pillar.
"……When I stopped controlling the mana, it flowed downward. This really does seem to be the Orichalcum from the legends."
Veronica reacted like an archaeologist discovering a city only heard of in legends. I looked at the light-attribute mana pooled like water and asked,
"My explanation is done for now. I want to ask about this Orichalcum too."
"Of course, I intended to as well. Now, where to begin……"
Veronica chose her words, then raised a finger.
"Orichalcum is a metal from the ancient civilization era, passed down orally among the Bicorn clan. It was discovered after the mythological era ended, but by then our clan had already separated from other races, so we lack precise knowledge."
"What? You don't even leave records in writing?"
I was slightly surprised. Given that Veronica had been researching rune stones, the Bicorns' level of knowledge was high. For a divine race, passing down such knowledge only verbally?
"The Prophet commanded it. Not to leave knowledge in writing."
Veronica added simply to my surprise. A religious reason, perhaps.
"Let's return to the topic. This alloy appears to have a small amount of Orichalcum embedded in mithril. It was used to condense the light mana you mentioned."
Swish.
Veronica held up the rectangular prism. The light-attribute mana pooled at its base had vanished.
"Orichalcum's effect is as a mana conductor. In that regard, it's similar to mithril, but the level of preservation is decisively different. The ones who built the underground tomb used this Orichalcum to fix mana and channel it into the magic circle connected to the subspace. That's why the mana remained even after so many years."
"A mana conductor. Would it be useful for enchantment magic?"
As far as I knew, that was the most practical application for a medium that transmitted mana.
"It's too wasteful for something like that. Don't we have a perfectly good use for it right now?"
But Veronica raised the corner of her mouth as if to say that was absurd.
"We came to this country to obtain magical materials. Orichalcum would more than suffice as one. And it won't disappear just from being used."
Fwoosh!
Veronica poured mana into the prism as she spoke.
"Let's head to the sea. The final material needed for Seidr is there."