Chapter 519: The Blood Sanctuary (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 519: The Blood Sanctuary (6)
A swordsman's weapon is the sword.
So, what is a mage's weapon?
There are a few types.
First is the Staff.
A supplementary tool for mana, shaped like a long staff that can be used to support oneself while walking. It is useful for maximizing destructive power by concentrating mana.
Second is the Wand.
Unlike a staff, this is a supplementary mana tool in the form of a wooden stick, about 20 to 30 centimeters long. It accelerates the flow of mana to increase spell-casting speed.
Finally, the third is the Orb.
A supplementary tool in the form of a transparent crystal sphere, about the size of two adult male fists put together. It allows you to store a cast spell and use it whenever you wish.
However, this is merely a description of their common forms and functions.
A high-grade staff not only increases firepower but can also increase spell-casting speed.
The same goes for a wand.
And apparently, a weapon that is a hybrid of a staff and a wand has been actively researched recently, but let's skip that.
I opened my mouth, speaking to her as she watched me with an eager expression.
“First off, I’m thinking of using an orb.”
“Hmm, an orb.”
Of the three types of weapons, I chose the Orb.
A supplementary tool that stores magic to be used when needed.
In truth, it was my only option.
For me, who could handle mana with such ease, I needed neither an acceleration of its flow nor a maximization of its destructive power.
However, the story changes a bit when I use a sword.
This is related to why magic swordsmen never became mainstream and eventually died out.
How should I explain it?
Should I say it’s like trying to draw a triangle with one hand and a circle with the other?
And even that is less difficult for me because I can handle mana more easily than others.
If it were anyone else, it would probably feel like drawing not flat shapes, but three-dimensional figures with each hand. Like a cube, or a dodecahedron.
Compared to that, a triangle and a circle are so much easier.
Thanks to that, I can use both, and they can supplement each other at the right moments, but it’s still not easy.
Especially in a tense situation where my head could be lopped off at any moment.
“An orb isn’t a bad idea. If things get dicey, you could use its magic to open up a path in an emergency.”
Angela responded positively.
But that was only for a moment.
“Then wait a minute…”
Her brow furrowed slightly.
“Are you saying you’re going to fight with a sword in one hand and an orb in the other?”
I shook my head.
“That’s not it.”
I can’t hold a weapon in each hand.
My focus would be split between both hands, and if something happened, I’d be in trouble without a free hand.
There’s a reason why Hunters who used dual swords tended to die early.
“Remember this, Angela.”
“What…?”
“Dual swords lead to certain defeat. Got it?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Angela nodded, a slightly surprised look on her face.
Good, it seems she understood.
She asked again.
“Then what are you going to do…? Are you going to hold an orb and not a sword?”
“No. Didn’t I tell you? I came to ask you for a sword.”
“…Which means?”
“We just have to combine the orb and the sword into one.”
“Uh, hmm.”
To think she couldn’t arrive at such a simple conclusion.
She’s more conventional than I thought.
“…How are you going to combine them? Are you going to stick that huge crystal sphere onto a sword?”
That’s impossible.
Attaching that large crystal sphere anywhere would create problems when swinging the sword.
It’s not just a matter of weight, but of balance.
So, I thought.
“We make the orb very small.”
“…How small?”
“Well. Small enough to be attached in place of the pommel?”
“……”
The pommel.
It’s the fitting attached to the back of a sword’s hilt.
Its basic purpose is to prevent your hand from slipping and losing your grip on the sword.
Additionally, it acts as a counterweight, shifting the sword's center of balance toward the hilt.
Sometimes people use it to crack open an opponent's skull, but let's skip over that.
“Think about it. If we attach an orb to the pommel, wouldn’t that be a weapon truly befitting a magic swordsman?”
“Well… I suppose so, but.”
“And I have one more idea on top of that.”
“…What is it?”
“Using swordsmanship to draw spell formulas.”
“Is… that possible?”
“It’s difficult with swordsmanship alone. And later on, there’s the disadvantage that the opponent can read your moves. So, to compensate for that, if I use the blade, the tip of the sword, and even the movement of the pommel in a complex way to draw a magic circle…!”
What I desire isn’t simply to use a sword and magic in tandem.
It’s the perfect union of the two skills.
Not casting magic after using the sword, but having magic naturally overlay the act of swinging the sword.
A magic swordsman in the truest sense.
And a magic sword in the truest sense.
“You will witness the birth of the world’s perfect magic swordsman.”
When a person finds a firm goal, they naturally begin to burn with passion.
Until now, I had been lacking that.
Money, fame.
I had experienced to a sickening degree the things any human might dream of at least once.
But not anymore.
Once I had a clear goal, my creaking body began to move smoothly, as if it had been lubricated.
It was as if not just my body, but my mind as well, had returned to my twenties.
It’s the same even now.
I’m not usually one to share my inner thoughts with others, yet here I am, chattering away excitedly.
“Alright, fine. I get it.”
After understanding everything I had explained with shining eyes, she asked with an indifferent gaze.
“So, the first priority is to make a conventional orb small enough to be attached to a pommel, right?”
“That’s right.”
“And who’s going to make that?”
“Well, obviously… you, Angela?”
“Me? I’m a blacksmith.”
Hey, what’s with this act?
If Angela were just an ordinary blacksmith, I wouldn’t have asked her to make an orb.
An orb is a special object made from a crystal ore whose mana conductivity and absorption rates have been amplified through some method.
This is effectively in the realm of a craftsman, not a blacksmith.
So, if you ask a blacksmith to make an orb, you can’t complain if they kick you out.
But she’s different.
“You can make it, an orb.”
Her abilities, as I’d observed, were not limited to blacksmithing.
She was skilled in all manner of handcrafts.
In fact, it would be more fitting to call her an artisan than a blacksmith.
She let out a deep sigh.
“Haa… yeah, well… making an orb is possible. It’s possible, but.”
“But?”
“Do you know something?”
“What is it?”
“That orbs lose all their effects if they’re shrunk below a certain size.”
“……?”
“In other words… the orbs currently on the market are already at the smallest possible size.”
Huh.
This isn’t good.
“There’s no way?”
“You’re asking me to do something that hundreds of magic researchers have failed to accomplish?”
Angela asked back, her tone incredulous.
I opened my mouth in a desperate plea.
“But you’re a genius, Angela.”
“Uh, every single one of those researchers was called a genius in their day.”
“……”
This is a disaster.
“Actually, besides the size, there are many other problems.”
“…Like what?”
“The biggest problem would be… its durability, I guess.”
“Ah.”
The orb is a less popular weapon compared to the wand and staff.
Its effect is appealing enough not to fall far behind the other two, but it has a fatal flaw.
Its durability.
“You know, right? If you’re unlucky, it can break just from a light drop.”
As I said before, orbs are made from specially treated crystal ore.
Yes, crystal.
The same crystal that can be easily shattered if one puts their mind to it.
Worse, the special treatment makes it even weaker than ordinary crystal.
“…What if we wrap it in a shock-absorbent material?”
“Well, that’s not a bad idea. But I’m telling you, we can’t shrink the size.”
“……”
Ah, seriously.
Isn’t there a good way?
*
After ten days of diligently making the rounds, I realized something.
“There’s… no way…?”
I asked the skilled mages participating in the operation.
Was it impossible to reduce the size of an orb?
They all said the same thing.
-“It’s impossible.”
-“As far as I know, the current size was only achieved after ten years of research.”
-“Hmm, I don’t think it’s possible to go any smaller.”
-“Besides, since it’s a niche weapon, research isn’t very active.”
They said it was impossible.
Every single one of them, without exception.
But I didn’t give up.
Who am I?
A magic swordsman whose path is different from others.
So, to try it for myself, I paid a hefty price and bought an orb.
Three of them, in fact.
So, what was I going to do with them?
“I’ll have to carve it.”
I’m going to carve it.
I’ll try to reduce its size by shaving it down, little by little, very thinly.
Is that possible?
It is.
After all, back in the day, people used to call me a sculptor.
Of course, it was a skill I learned for the sake of delicacy with the sword.
I slowly brought the sharply honed carving knife to the orb.
Delicately, and carefully.
The moment I shaved off a layer so thin that not even a precision machine could replicate it.
Scrape!
Fwoosh…
“…Ah.”
The abundant mana I had felt in the orb vanished without a trace.
The second and third attempts were the same.
Fwoosh…
Fwoosh….
“Hmm.”
It seems it really is impossible.
*
Several large buses drove in a line down the road.
A few hours passed.
The well-paved road ended, and a road bearing the scars of destruction appeared.
There were old scars, and scars that looked as if they had been carved just a few days ago.
This was a stark example of Romania’s current state.
“What a wreck.”
It meant the nation’s strength had declined so much that it lacked the capacity to even properly repair its destroyed roads.
I wonder what it feels like.
The feelings of a citizen watching their own homeland slowly fall to ruin.
I don’t know for sure, but it must be an unimaginably devastating feeling.
“Though I’m feeling pretty devastated myself.”
In the end, I had failed to create a unique weapon for a magic swordsman.
The only silver lining was that I had asked Angela for a sword that was a perfect fit for me.
‘It would have been absolutely perfect if I could have combined it with an orb…’
I hadn’t given up yet.
Just as you can’t be full from the first bite, a goal can’t be achieved in a single leap.
I planned to start researching in earnest after this job was done.
Even if I had to mobilize every means at my disposal.
‘So for now, I have to forget.’
To do that, I had to forget about it for the time being.
Because not even a single speck of distracting thought could be allowed to interfere with this operation.
Just as I was soothing my bitter heart to maintain a clear mind.
Shrieeek-
KABOOOM-!
With a deafening roar, black smoke began to rise from the lead bus.
The lead bus stopped in its tracks.
As the buses following it also came to a halt on the road, one by one.
The driver, who had received the situation report over the radio, shouted with a terrified expression.
“I-It’s an attack!”
A brazen group had appeared, attacking the bus carrying the Orthodox Church’s volunteer group.