Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Assault-Type Magitech Armor: Sirius (1)
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Blue Tower's official mage, Lua Polaris.
Her daily routine mostly began with reviewing her research in the lab.
Checking if there were any anomalies in the data from last night's experiments.
Confirming the content of the paper she would publish soon.
Verifying if the magitech device's output matched last night's.
Lua spent her days like that, every single day.
And naturally, most of that research wasn't conducted under her own direction.
There was someone else who assigned her the research tasks.
“……Lord Johan.”
In the lab located within the Blue Tower.
There, Lua desperately called out the name of the one who had given her the task.
The master of the Illusory Archive Celestia, Archmage Johan.
The head of the Celestia Secret Society had issued her new instructions.
Unable to leave due to the restriction of staying in the library, Johan conducted research on magitech devices through Lua Polaris.
Remote communication devices that transcended distance limitations.
Mana auxiliary devices that continuously accumulated external mana.
And recently, he had even instructed research on remotely controlled magitech puppets.
Thanks to pouring her time into research every day to meet Johan's demands, Lua Polaris's magical prowess was rising at an accelerating pace.
“Lord Johan, Lord Johaaan…….”
However, that didn't mean Lua could fulfill all of Johan's demands.
There were times, like now, when she had to make a pitiful protest toward him.
For example, the research she was currently conducting—on multipurpose magitech puppets.
Creak, creak.
On the desk in the lab, a small wooden puppet was moving.
Crude wooden carvings stuck to a large magic stone, forming a human shape—a magitech device.
It was the prototype of the magitech puppet that Johan had ordered developed.
“I'm… a mage who can craft magitech devices… not a blacksmith or carpenter…….”
Lua, staring at the crude puppet she had made, turned her gaze with a troubled expression and protested to Johan.
It was a polite way of saying she couldn't proceed any further.
Wiggle, wiggle.
Her toes, dangling in the air after kicking off her shoes while leaning back in her chair, indicated she had reached her limit.
“To move to the next stage… we'll probably need proper equipment and parts, right?”
The term prototype naturally implied there was much room for improvement in the magitech device.
The most obvious issue was its size.
The magitech puppet was something Johan had ordered developed, considering potential possibilities since he hadn't yet found a suitable vessel.
Even without Johan, it had potential for autonomous combat magic.
It could be equipped with combat-purpose magitech and deployed to battlefields.
Or used for polar expeditions where humans couldn't easily reach.
It needed to be versatile in many ways.
To achieve practicality, it at least needed to be about the size of a person.
The same went for the precision parts required for that.
With Lua's skills, limited to simple crafting, procuring parts for a massive magitech puppet was impossible.
- “No need to worry. Crayton says he'll send a skilled craftsman.”
As if understanding Lua's concerns.
Static, static.
Johan's voice echoed toward Lua from beyond the brooch.
A skilled craftsman.
Crayton had decided to send her the personnel needed for magitech puppet development.
“Y-Yes…? Mr. Crayton is sending a craftsman?”
Hearing that, a flustered voice escaped Lua's lips.
Lua knew well how busy the northern battle mage, Crayton Lukbart, was.
Along with his duties in the magitech corps, he also went out hunting magitech books to raise his library access privileges.
And yet, to find and send a skilled craftsman amid all that.
Lua was starting to feel awe at Crayton's resourcefulness.
- “A capable dwarf craftsman, he says. Proceed with the magitech puppet research alongside the dwarf Crayton is sending.”
“H-He brought in a dwarf……?”
- “Yes. Long-term, we'll need to work with the dwarf craftsman on magitech satellite production too.”
Moreover, Johan's words didn't end there.
Lua let out an involuntary gasp of admiration at what followed.
—A dwarf craftsman.
The race known to surpass humans in precision handiwork was going to assist her research.
If a dwarf craftsman was truly joining, Lua had no more objections.
The only downside was that her own schedule was getting tighter.
Of course, mentioning that to Johan wouldn't help at all.
- “Anything else to say?”
Thud.
Lua bowed her head and planted it into the stack of papers in front of her.
“……No. That's all.”
- “Get the details from Crayton.”
“Yessir-.”
In the end, Lua couldn't refute Johan further and had no choice but to accept the new workload.
Hoo.
A deep sigh escaped her lips.
Before the weary, hollow eyes of the fatigued Lua, the crudely made wooden puppet continued its march.
“…….”
Creak.
Lua's gaze fell on the magitech puppet walking across the desk.
Creak, creak.
The staggering puppet looked like a drunkard.
It wasn't just Lua's immature control skills; even maintaining balance was challenging.
If this tiny size was already so hard, controlling a larger one would be even tougher.
Such thoughts briefly crossed her mind.
“Wouldn't it be better controlled by someone with sharp instincts or battle sense rather than precise calculations…….”
Lua Polaris's eyes fixed on the magitech puppet.
No matter how she thought about it, it didn't seem like something for her.
She couldn't even imagine herself piloting a massive magitech puppet.
* * * * * *
The top floor of the silent Illusory Archive.
In the middle of the empty library, I closely examined the magitech book in my hand.
A magitech book brought to me by one of the Secret Society members, Crayton Lukbart.
It was magic used by earthly black mages to summon beings from the outside world.
In a sense, it could be seen as a type of summoning magic.
Crayton had brought me this new magic to gain access to the Second Archive.
“Feels completely different from demon-summoning spells. Most of the ritual is dedicated to enforcing binding constraints, huh.”
Black magic for summoning non-human entities.
I felt strong interest in the contents of this magitech book.
It contained rituals that even piqued my curiosity.
Crayton himself, who brought it, didn't seem too fond of it, though.
Either way, his passion was commendable.
I was even considering opening the Second Archive to him soon.
“Lots of intriguing parts. If I refine this, it might yield a good spell soon.”
Rustle, rustle.
As I turned the pages of the magitech book in my hand, I organized my impressions in my mind one by one.
Summoning or necromancy spells were things I, confined to Celestia my whole life, could never create.
Due to the lack of information on souls or entities outside the library.
But now, the knowledge I lacked was gradually being filled.
“…….”
Various possibilities flashed through my mind.
If I invested a bit more time.
And encountered a few more spells.
Someday, I might reach true omnipotence.
Such thoughts began to take root in my mind.
“Omnipotence, huh…….”
All those possibilities stemmed from an unexpected encounter in this library.
A bond born of chance.
As I recalled it, my fingers quietly closed the magitech book's cover.
“If even that has to be a spell I create, it should become part of the history etched in this library.”
Thud.
My gaze, having closed Crayton's magitech book, shifted to the empty library floor.
The analysis of the magitech book was now complete.
That was enough indulgence in sentiment.
Now, it was time for the next step.
“Let's take a look at that mug in person.”
If there's magic, you use it.
That absolute axiom had been etched in my mind since the first day I entered Celestia.
Swish.
I raised my hand toward the air.
Then snapped my interlocked fingers.
Snap.
Right after I lightly snapped the fingers I'd raised into the air.
“…….”
Fwaaaah!
The magic to summon something from beyond the world shone brightly.
Slide, slither.
From the vibrating library floor, dark shadows began spreading in all directions.
Spreading darkness.
The black shadow expanded its domain.
Something pulsating within asserted a clear presence.
- …….
Wriggle.
Living tentacles stretched out from the shadow.
Wriggle, wriggle.
The darkness draped over the floor scattered thick poison in all directions.
A taboo forbidden to humans.
The otherworldly being claiming guardianship of cursed contracts began to manifest.
- Kieeeek—!
A shrill scream erupted from within the shadow.
A mere projection, unable to manifest its true body.
Yet it began exerting clear physical force within the subs paces.
Thud, thud, thud.
The library floor shook violently as the tentacles thrashed.
Rumble.
The shadow on the floor absorbed the light.
The shadow from the world's edge tried to expand its domain outward.
- Kieeeek……?
Crack, crackle.
Space shattered simultaneously around all magitech books in the library.
Noise overlaying the subs pace with another dimension's phase.
And from beyond that noise, red eyes began appearing one by one.
Static, static.
Eyes densely filled the fractured, spreading spaces, asserting their presence.
Bookshelves. Covers. Open pages.
Red eyes emerged from countless places.
All those eyes stared in one direction.
The black shadow in the library's center.
Countless magitech books glared at the shadow beneath my feet.
- …….
The shadow on the floor clearly recognized it too.
Wriggle, wriggle.
The riotously moving shadow suddenly stilled.
The change was so abrupt it felt like the library brightened in an instant.
“Ha…….”
As I let out a hollow chuckle and stared at the tentacles.
Swish.
The tentacles, now shrunken to a puddle's size, pulled something out from the shadow.
A gem glowing with green light.
The creature, holding a gem I'd never seen before, meekly placed it before me.
- Kiehk…….
Tap, tap.
Then it tapped the gem and quietly stopped.
My gaze, surveying the alien scene, alternated between the objects before me.
The black shadow.
The eyes watching the intruder.
And the small gem placed in front of me.
My mind soon reached a conclusion.
“Guess this is its idea of a gift.”
- …….
Wriggle.
No response came from the tentacle.