Making Gold (4)
Making Gold (4)
"What?"
Raize snorted at her fellow mage's stupid question. It was that absurd.
"Um, so... what do you think would happen if a world came where anyone could use magic?"
"What kind of outrageous nonsense..."
It was unthinkable. Anyone being able to use magic? If that were possible, the Magic Tower wouldn't be racking its brains over not finding disciples, and she wouldn't have any reason to be suffering here doing research.
"That couldn't possibly happen."
"But, even now, people use scrolls to use magic, right? In a way, isn't that like anyone being able to use magic?"
"We don't call it using magic when they just mimic it like parrots without knowing the operating principle. That's using a scroll."
"Anyway, isn't it possible that a tool that lets anyone become a mage, like a scroll, could be created?"
"You're asking what would happen if such a thing came out?"
"Yeah."
Raize fell into thought for a moment. A world where anyone could use magic - the mere thought was terrifying.
Magic was, by tradition, the exclusive domain of mages, and mages selling magic tools or scrolls was a blessing bestowed upon ordinary people who had no chance to access magic.
If a world came where anyone could get their hands on that, the world would fall into great chaos. It was something that shouldn't exist.
"If someone made such a thing."
"If they made it?"
"Probably, every mage would try to kill them?"
Raize answered like that and urged Kahou to stop with useless thoughts and just focus on research.
"...So, you're saying this will replace all mages?"
"Yep! That's right!"
Noah, who had taken a stimulant to flush her brain, made herself neat and clean, and returned, began explaining by setting down the tool she had invented.
Her expression as she explained the tool she made was so animated that Dojin couldn't bring himself to tell her to quit and go sleep.
"I got a hint from Mr. Deokgu's words! To 'replace' something. This is a tool that replaces mages!"
"Huh... how does the principle work?"
"Ah, I'll explain again. So, by decomposing all the circuits of the magic circle into 0s and 1s... each time it's activated, it implements that magic circle in that way... based on the Gold Pillsburg Principle..."
An onslaught of theories and formulas that Dojin, a high school graduate in arts and sports, could barely understand ensued. The more he listened to the explanation, the more his head felt numb.
A phrase he had glimpsed online flashed through his mind.
─Medieval people aren't stupid. At least not compared to you.
Dojin reflected on how he had thought of them as uncivilized medieval people from a fantasy world until now. He couldn't properly understand a single theory they established, so wasn't he, in fact, the truly uncivilized one?
In the end, having understood none of her detailed theory, Dojin requested from her.
"Explain it simply."
"Hmm... showing you directly would be faster than explaining with words!"
Saying that, Noah placed the staff into Dojin's hand. The staff was heavier than it looked, which meant its specific gravity was high, and that meant the staff was solid gold, just as it appeared.
"...Is this gold by any chance?"
"Yes! Gold had the best cost-performance ratio!"
"R-really?"
Dojin, who was about to scold her for using such an expensive material, firmly closed his mouth at the words that gold was the most cost-effective.
Come to think of it, this otherworld was a fantasy world where metals more expensive than gold were plentiful. Mithril, orihalcon... rare metals that Dojin had never even heard of existed...
Dojin silently turned the staff this way and that. The balance point was perfect, however it was made. Though it would probably be soft, it was good enough to be used as a staff.
Dojin pointed the staff at a tree in the yard and shouted, just as Noah had done earlier.
"Bang."
However, nothing happened. As Dojin looked at Noah with an expression asking what this was about, Noah, who had been grinning brightly, explained the detailed usage method.
"The important thing is the image!"
"Image?"
"Yes! Bring the desired image to mind and feel as if you are shooting it out."
"Image huh..."
Shooting it out, well, there was no question then. In Dojin's world, the most famous thing that shot was a gun.
Dojin imagined a gun and tightened his grip on the staff. Then, with a huge vibration going Kwaang-!, something shot out from the tip of the staff.
Zzzzzzzip-!
"Kyaak!?"
The sonic boom that arrived belatedly made Noah cover her ears. Noah, startled, looked at the tree.
The tree, having been hit by something, was broken and had fallen.
"M-Mr. Dojin? Just what on earth did you imagine...?"
"A gun... no, I didn't know I could make it this strong."
Was image important? Dojin, being a high school student, couldn't possibly have seen a real gun, and what he imagined were scenes from movies or dramas where buildings or cars all explode with one shot.
Thanks to that, power far surpassing that of an actual firearm was realized.
This time, Dojin extended the staff while imagining a slightly weaker firearm, something with enough power to punch holes through a human body.
However, with a pfft-shhh─ sound, the staff stopped working.
"...Is this broken?"
"Huh? Ah─ looks like it's out of magic power."
"Magic power?"
"Yes. You just need to replace the magic stone. It's attached at the back, right?"
Sure enough, the magic stone attached to the tip of the staff had used up all its magic power and was turning to ash.
"This thing... so it works as long as there's enough magic power, right?"
"Huh? Yes, theoretically that's true... but having a magic stone is safer, so don't get any strange ideas and... M-Mr. Dojin!?"
Magic stones were plentiful if you went to the mansion warehouse, but going there was bothersome, and Dojin was also curious if he could use it without a magic stone, so he simply changed his grip on the staff.
Gripping the middle of the shaft with one hand, and grabbing the tip of the staff with the other. A grip like holding a spear. Dojin was satisfied with the quite pleasing posture and brought the desired scene to mind.
What he imagined was a powerful attack that could even defeat the Wolf King, the only foe he hadn't been able to overcome.
What could that be? The first thing that came to mind was a nuclear explosion, but that was too excessive. The possibility of sweeping even Dojin himself away was high.
So, something a bit weaker than that─ the next thing Dojin thought of was a beam attack, the kind you'd see in giant robot comics.
A beam attack that spews an intense ray of light from the weapon in hand. The tool he was holding happened to be exactly that form.
When Dojin finished his clear imagination and held the will to emit it, the staff, grasping that will, immediately began calculating the corresponding magic.
Magic was, after all, a general term for all actions that changed the world and caused the phenomenon one desired. For a mere task of spewing out a heat ray, the staff didn't use that much calculation.
In an instant, the calculation corresponding to the incantation was finished, and an intense heat ray shot out from the tip of the staff.
Dojin was startled by the magic power that began leaking out like a bottomless jar, and astonished by its power.
Fwoooosh─!
A powerful heat ray was scorching the garden wall. Dojin, shocked, tried to stop it, but he hadn't learned how to stop it.
"M-Mr. Dojin! The sky! Aim at the sky for now!"
"O-okay!"
Hearing Noah, Dojin unconsciously raised the staff upward. Thus, all the buildings along its trajectory were slightly singed, and next, a magnificent, huge pillar of fire erupted inside the mansion grounds.
"How do I turn this off!?"
"Just put it down!"
At those words, Dojin thrust the staff straight into the ground. Fortunately, the incident of the staff absorbing the planet's magic power and firing an even stronger spell did not occur, and the pillar of fire simply disappeared.
But.
"...What do we do about that?"
Dojin pointed at the roofs of the next house, the house after that, and the house after that.
Countless singed roofs, and spoke.
Noah, with a devastated expression, fidgeted with her fingers, then opened her mouth.
"Let's pretend we don't know."
"...Should we?"
"There are no mages in the mansion... if we just keep quiet, no one will know!"
"I guess so...?"
In the end, Dojin decided to go along with Noah. If just the two of them kept their mouths firmly shut, they wouldn't know.
They actually testified to the guard force member who came in the afternoon that they didn't know what happened, and the incident of Dojin's mansion, lacking a single mage, being suspected did not occur.
Eventually, a rumor was born in the city.
The dragon has returned!
That kind of rumor.
Intelligence Artifact.
They decided to give that name to the tool Noah made.
"Because it's a magic tool that thinks and calculates on its own!"
Dojin asked her again, worried.
"This, you don't have to announce it, right?"
"Announce it? Hmm... it's fine!"
"Really?"
"...But if I announce this, mages will probably try to kill me, right?"
"No way, for that..."
Dojin said that but subconsciously thought it was possible. By tradition, vested interests fight to protect their rights, and the group called mages was a group that would even overthrow a nation to protect their magic.
Noah burst out laughing, telling him not to worry.
"To begin with, I made this on the spur of the moment, so I don't really remember how I made it either."
The Intelligence Artifact was a masterpiece so excellent that even she herself didn't know how she made it, and simultaneously, a great mystery.
At that time, it was as if a god possessed her. She felt a splendid melody continuing in her head, and she merely played that melody.
"Then this... is it really okay for me to have it?"
"Yes, of course. Ah, you're not going to cut me off because I can't make this again, are you? Mr. Dojin?"
"No way, for that."
Hearing Dojin's words, Noah giggled and answered that she would really go sleep now. Even with the help of stimulants, she had already been awake for far too long.
She couldn't even remember how many hours she had been awake. 200 hours? 300 hours? It was definitely over 100 hours.
"Haaham... then I'll go get some sleep... Mr. Dojin, hang in there with your work today too..."
"Uh, yeah."
Dojin guided Noah to her room, then stopped by the warehouse and inserted a magic stone into the back of the staff. Seeing the magic stone work, Dojin realized it was quite inconvenient to carry the staff around.
'Can't it get smaller? Like a necklace...'
And at that moment, the staff, grasping Dojin's will, immediately began to shrink.
Atoms and electrons began to compactly gather together without gaps. Gathered like that, they became a single necklace.
Dojin snorted as he looked at the staff that had suddenly become a necklace. As if this was such a difficult task, the magic stone he had just inserted turned to ash.
"Yeah, yeah, you're so great."
After inserting a new magic stone into the necklace and hanging the necklace around his neck, Dojin momentarily lost his balance and staggered. Come to think of it, this was a 1.5-meter-long solid gold bar. The weight was no joke.
"...Hmm, it'll be fine, right?"
After moving around a few times, Dojin adapted to the weight and immediately gathered his equipment and headed to the dungeon with Eunha.
In front of the dungeon, Raize and Orion, who were already gathered, greeted the two.
"...That's a necklace I haven't seen before? What's that?"
"Ah, this? Just an accessory..."
"Really?"
Raize showed a bit of interest but passed over it without particular suspicion. Whew, Dojin let out a light sigh.
Of all people, he couldn't let her, a mage, find out about this.
"But that thing, isn't it a magic stone?"
"Huh? Huh?"
"Why is there a magic stone embedded in the necklace?"