Vermin
After his visit to the royal palace, Roy ran into a problem.
The surge in his mana was more than welcome, of course — but the spirit under contract with him had started appearing and vanishing as she pleased, without so much as a summons. At this rate, he could almost believe she wasn't a spirit at all, but a youkai whose power had swollen with an extra tail.
"Noah. Let's have a serious talk about terminating our contract."
"Huh? No! I like Master so much — why would you even say that?"
Noah plastered herself against Roy's side and poured on every coo and wheedle she had.
"You think that's going to work? Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused me?"
"Hmph. That was your fault first. If you were going somewhere so thick with delicious mana, shouldn't you have summoned me first? I'm the one who feels slighted here."
"…There were other people present. We made a promise last time, didn't we? That if you showed yourself without being called, I'd dissolve the contract."
Noah peeled off his side in a hurry, scampered up onto the bed, pulled the blanket over her head, and peered out at him with wounded eyes.
Roy ignored the performance and pressed on.
"What is that tail for, anyway? What are you gathering all that mana to do? Aren't spirits supposed to keep their true bodies in the Spirit Realm and stay hidden until their masters call them?"
"I'm not gathering mana. I'm reclaiming the power that was originally mine. And right now… I can't enter the Spirit Realm."
"Reclaim it for what? And why did you lose it in the first place?"
"Aww, why so many questions? Clingy men are never popular, you know. Stop interrogating me and come stroke my head instead."
"……"
"Don't worry so much. My growing stronger benefits you as well. One day you'll thank me from the bottom of your heart."
"Haah. Then at least only appear when I call you, all right?"
"Your mana has increased plenty by now. With what you have, my simply taking form won't affect you in the slightest. And I keep this beautiful tail and these ears hidden when I go out, don't I? Hmm?"
From under the blanket, with only her eyes peeking out, Noah pleaded with a misty gaze.
Suddenly branded a clingy man, Roy let out a long sigh.
"Don't sigh like that. It makes my ears itch. Or were you truly planning to abandon me? That would be far too sad… We were only just starting to grow close."
"……"
"Please don't cast aside this poor little cat, Master. I promise I'll behave from now on."
Roy furrowed his brow and glared at her.
He was torn. He needed to scold her sharply here — yet somehow the atmosphere refused to cooperate.
I can't keep letting her lead me around like this.
Roy steeled himself. Today he would settle this properly with the creature.
But then Noah sprang from the bed and latched onto one of his arms.
"What are you doing all of a sudden? You're heavy."
"Heehee. Master. I've got good news for you."
"……?"
"Stop scowling. Do you remember the power I told you about last time? Rejoice. I believe you can use it now."
"What…?! Say that again."
"With your current mana, you should be able to use the thing I mentioned. Of course, the fact that I now have two tails helps as well."
Roy's eyes flew open.
Already? Had he reached that level already?
"You said the Dragon's Breath I drank at the palace was a lesser grade than Elven Liquor, didn't you?"
"I did. But it was still enough. You can feel it yourself, can't you?"
"Is that so? Then can we test it right now?"
"Of course. Fufu. You're adorable, you know. One moment you're furious, and the next, the second magic comes up—"
"Quiet and get ready!"
Roy put the new ability to the test.
It was only half a success for now — but anyone watching would have stood with their jaw hanging open.
"How was that? Not bad, right?"
Roy spoke between ragged breaths. His mana was completely drained.
"Uh… but the mana consumption—"
"That's because you insisted on testing such a powerful spell. Don't worry. You'll grow further, and so will my tails."
"In other words, you want me to help you grow more of them…"
"Heehee. Why? Don't you like that? The more tails I gain, the stronger you become too, don't you?"
"……"
Roy had no answer.
Had he not lived every day grinding himself raw, determined to stand at the absolute pinnacle of magecraft? For that goal he would take help from a spirit — or a spirit's grandfather, if it came to it.
"Don't get cocky. This is a one-time pass. If you ever pop out in front of people again without permission—"
"I understand, Master. I'll be good from now on, so please forgive me. All right?"
Noah clung to Roy, who was on the verge of collapsing from mana exhaustion, and rubbed her cheek against him again and again. With no strength left even to reply, Roy toppled over and drifted quietly into sleep.
The mana drain was one thing, but the mental fatigue had been severe as well — all because of the newly unlocked ability: Rapid Arthema, which flooded the brain with vast quantities of mana to accelerate magical calculation to near-instant speed.
Noah looked down at the sleeping Roy and murmured to herself.
"Still so far. Not even close to that person's feet…"
The spirit's golden eyes held a more distant light than usual.
Even while scrambling to prepare for the palace after the prince's summons, Roy never once skipped school. The same held true now, when he was up to his eyes preparing magic weapon shipments for the border.
Based on the last round of tests, classes had been divided by level, and lessons proceeded accordingly. With his previous life's memories plus the mana boost from Elven Liquor, Roy found himself attending most of his classes in A Class. Naturally, the material was pitched at a fairly high level — high for the other children, that is. To Roy it was yawn-inducing.
The boredom was worst during the shared sessions that ignored class divisions entirely. The lecture he was sitting through right now was one of those.
"…And so, monsters drawn by the mana of a mana vein gather and form a dungeon. Some grow stronger by devouring the surrounding plants and animals; others are empowered by particular forms of magic. Certain specimens even absorb inorganic matter — metal, stones, rocks, water, even soil — and grow powerful that way. Because those stones and rocks once belonged to the mana vein itself, they can draw mana through them."
Today's lesson covered mana veins and the dungeons and monsters associated with them. The younger the students still were, the more fascinated they tended to be by such topics, and hands shot up one after another with questions.
"What kind of monsters get stronger through magic?"
"Golems, for example. Ancient mages would prepare golems in advance to deal with physically specialized enemies like knights. Magic takes considerable time to cast, so an opponent who only needs to draw the sword at his hip is a serious headache. Imagine having to fight someone with a bow as well. Compared to a mana-charged arrow, a spell's effective range is pitifully short."
The children who excelled at magic rather than sword or spear nodded in deep agreement.
"But creating a golem is advanced magic that requires vast magical power. Controlling one freely demands even more mana and finer control. So the ancients devised golems that used more powerful mana stones as cores, allowing them to operate on less of the mage's own mana. Some even moved on their own using the core's mana, without any command from their master."
"Ooooh!"
The students listened with bright, curious faces, wondering if they might one day make such things themselves.
"It's said ancient mages built these golems to serve as gatekeepers for their laboratories. You might find them in magic towers or ordinary residences as well — or in dungeons, of course."
"But what does that have to do with dungeon monsters?"
"I was just getting to that. So then — what becomes of golems whose masters have vanished?"
"Don't tell me they still move even without a master?"
"What did I say a moment ago? Among golems built with powerful mana-stone cores, some can move on their own. Depending on the sophistication of the magic formulas inscribed into the core beforehand, even quite complex behaviors can be ordered — and those orders persist after the master dies. You can see the same principle in the way the effects of ancient relic magic weapons discovered in dungeons still function to this day. We are using only a tiny fraction of the magic that was lost in antiquity."
"Whoa… so they're still alive?"
"Alive? Just because something moves doesn't make it a living creature. These things don't act from self-awareness; they move according to the magic woven into them. Ordinarily they stop once the mana in the core stone is exhausted. But what if a mana vein can supply them with mana endlessly?"
"Is that possible?"
"The techniques have been lost, but among the ancient arts there were said to be magic circles that continuously drew mana from a mana vein. A mage skilled enough to create a golem might well have built one that used a vein's mana to move forever. It all depended on the mage's level."
Then someone else raised a hand.
"What happens if the monsters eat up all the mana in the mana vein?"
A brief silence settled over the room.
Then laughter burst out from every direction.