From Today, I Withdraw All Support
"......Is it really that good?"
In truth, Existence None had all but tipped into a full-blown fit. The post had gone up on the gallery only after I'd told him where he sat on that tier list, and the rapture pouring off it — the sheer happiness — was a little beyond me.
In the original work, these beings are hardly drawn as flawless, immaculate Transcendents. They feel joy and sorrow the way ordinary people do, and they move according to whatever they personally decide is reasonable: transcendent powerhouses, nothing more. Even so, there had been a certain dignity to them. A certain weight.
And yet here he was, posting a declaration like that alongside messages this giddy.
"......Is he actually okay?"
This was the head of a faction that governed an entire dimension. It was, regrettably, a moment that called for concern on a cosmic scale.
The Winter Tree Magic Tower had recruited a new mage!
......That particular piece of news stirred neither ripples nor disputes of any kind. Naturally. He was a mage of a mere two stars. Wanderers of that caliber weren't exactly thick on the ground, but now and then one would come of their own accord and pledge themselves, and from the faction's point of view it was welcome news all the same. A mage who held stars. A cultivator who had set foot on the path. A martial artist who had reached the pinnacle. An Augmenter who had awakened dominion. None of them were beings one could raise with any ease.
Even so, everyone knew it would do nothing for the city's balance of power, nor for its contests of strength.
"This Jin fellow. Nothing shady trailing behind him?"
And so the only people reacting to the matter were the ones it actually concerned. The question came from Iraine, 6-Star mage and Chief Mage of the Winter Tree Magic Tower.
"No. The identification is forged, of course, but he doesn't appear tangled up in any other trouble — not at a minimum. If it happened in another country, that I couldn't say."
"No need to look that far. Anything else unusual?"
"As I said before, he's on the very verge of 3-Star. And he resonated with the Winter Tree."
"Hmmm. So there was a reason he came this way specifically."
Iraine blew a soft breath across the nail she'd been filing. The sandpaper that had been grinding keratin of its own accord went still.
"So aside from that, nothing stands out. That it?"
"Yes. We've checked from several angles. That's the result."
"Then there's no problem. Approve it by the usual procedure, and once he's actually 3-Star we'll have a word with the old men. Whether to call him into the Inner Tower."
And with that, the matter was closed. Iraine rapped the desk twice and declared it so.
"What's left, obviously, is the Clear Void Gate."
"Yes. Contact has come in from the Eight Extremes Hall and from Sejin."
"And the Tower Lord?"
"No separate reply was sent. They seem inclined to watch and wait."
"Again? Well. That's what happens once you get old, I suppose. What's the point of a drug that only turns the outside back?"
Blasphemy burst out right in front of him, and the mage seated across from her didn't so much as blink. It wasn't as if this were the first day, or the second, that Iraine had talked like this. Even the Tower Lord had, for all practical purposes, let it pass.
"The Eight Extremes Hall is definitely champing at the bit. Sejin's probably just trying to get a foot in. Anything after that?"
"They appear to be preparing to move on their own."
"Just the two of them feels a little thin, doesn't it?"
"Which is why they seem to be recruiting the mid-sized and smaller factions. The great powers, our Tower included, have all taken a step back."
"If the Eight Extremes Hall were in better shape, they wouldn't be rushing like this. They've placed a gamble."
Iraine let out a short laugh and shook her head. In the end it was little more than a dogfight between two factions already on their way down. The other side didn't seem interested in blowing the board wide open either, so one of the two — perhaps both — would probably meet the final curtain in ruin.
"Still, I'm bored out of my mind. Should I stir up a little trouble?"
"......I cannot agree with that."
"But if I ordered you to, you'd do it, right?"
"I wouldn't have a choice."
Iraine slapped the shoulder of the mage who had answered so gloomily.
"Fix your face, asshole! I don't actually want to get mixed up in this sort of thing. I was joking."
"......"
The trouble was that the word joke did not sound like a joke. She left him staring after her with a distinctly distrustful look, and she was already on her way out of the room when she whipped around and shouted.
"Ah! Damn it! I forgot to ask!"
"What is it?"
"That new mage who just joined."
"Yes."
"Is he hot?"
"......"
That same day, once my hours at the Magic Tower were done, I left the temporary lodgings at once and headed for the inn. Ironic as it sounded, if security was the concern, the inn was a far better choice than the Tower.
"......Eek."
The moment the inn's madam caught sight of my face, she went a little pale and turned her head away. The trauma from last time had clearly left its mark.
"Heh heh."
Well, it must have been a situation she never could have imagined. I still remembered that midnight face, all lit up at the thought of fleecing one easy mark. It had been nothing more than punishment sized exactly to the crime. I'd restored the room completely afterward, in any case, and the lodging fee had come to more than triple the original price. Strictly speaking, there wasn't a single part of the transaction on which she'd taken a loss. I'd simply set what I considered a fair usage fee.
Once I was inside the room, I drew the materials from my spatial pouch at once: a few bundles of medicinal herbs, a glass vial of demonic-beast fluid, and refined spirit-stone powder. I laid them out in order across the desk, set a small brazier in the center with a dull thud, and across the floor I laid a containment formation against any unexpected explosion, then a soundproofing spell on top of that. The whole sequence flowed as smoothly as water. Needless to say, this too was something I'd taken from the archive.
Alchemy, pill refinement, synthesis — I'd taken in, more or less, the whole of it. If only my realm and my experience caught up, becoming a Grandmaster on the level of a Transcendent in a heartbeat wouldn't be difficult at all. A simplified compounding of the sort I meant to attempt now ought to be well within my reach.
......Or so my calculations went.
"......Shaking, are we."
I knew the fruit in my hand was worth a fortune beyond reckoning. Flash it anywhere, and I'd probably die without a mouse or a bird ever knowing. Which was why what I intended now was the extraction and dilution of the Jade Dew Fruit's essence.
Treating the Jade Dew Fruit like some cucumber face pack was a standard that belonged to Transcendents alone. Including myself, there probably wasn't a single ability user in Hyeondeok City — at the very least — capable of enduring the fruit's potency raw. The base compound sat at roughly one part in a thousand. The batches I strengthened a little, to about one part in two hundred, I would use myself.
With a soft slice, I pared off a single piece of the flesh, which resembled an oversized plum. At the same instant a fragrance thick enough to sting the nose — sweet to the point of cloying — flooded the entire room.
"Haaah."
I let the breath out against a scent fierce enough to make my head swim. Anyone of weaker reason might have bitten into it without a thought. And the price of that little ruin would, of course, have been their life. I had no desire to burst apart and die from an overdose of medicinal potency.
"......Good."
Once the mind that had briefly wavered cleared again, I went straight on with the established procedure. A thin trickle — and from that single piece of Jade Dew Fruit, I rendered every trace of its potency down into one liquid, enough to fill a third of a small cylinder. While I waited for a few more drops to fall, I compounded the other prepared materials in the brazier into a base. The result was a translucent liquid deep enough to fill the vessel entirely.
I transferred a portion into another bowl. Then, leaving only a little of the finished Jade Dew concentrate aside, I poured all the rest into the brazier.
Fwoom—!
A small detonation rose with it. Inside the brazier, where the two liquids had met, everything was quiet — but the blast itself had been fierce. Without the soundproofing spell, it would have been enough to kick up a commotion. And then the result showed itself: a full cauldron of elixir, its surface flashing as it announced its presence without the slightest restraint.
"......This is almost disappointing."
It had succeeded so easily that all my earlier worry felt ridiculous.