Episode 1047
Episode 1047
Whether the two friends were flustered or not, the dragon and the Dragon Contractor fiercely clashed.
Lee Han mobilized all his experience from battling the Ghoul King and the King of Frost Giants as he threw the bone.
"By my master's command... freeze!"
Launching an ice clone, casting illusion magic as a decoy, twisting trajectories with psychokinesis, summoning creatures to distract—faced with that overwhelming magic, Eandurde couldn't help but think:
'Is all this really necessary?'
"Huff, huff... Eandurde. Lend me a hand. There are more bones here—want to hide them somewhere in the mansion?"
"...Yes."
Eandurde replied in an uncharacteristically subdued voice.
This was by far the most trivial command she'd ever received.
"Basil, you—"
"Go over there and eat your snacks."—...?!
The baby basilisk felt vaguely humiliated, but the snacks looked too delicious to dwell on what exactly was demeaning about this.
'That craftsman mage truly possesses exceptional skill.'
Lee Han watched the sleeping Jowurin, panting heavily.
After playing every possible game one could play with bones, Jowurin now slept contentedly atop the chains.
Catching flying bones and retrieving them, finding bones hidden in mansion corners, dodging and throwing bones, even sneakily gifting bones to the knight standing guard outside—every game would have fallen flat without Craftsman Gashupa's handiwork.
Not only could meat, fish, and all manner of sweet desserts be attached to the bones, but they produced a satisfying crunch and cheerful sound when bitten into, with an added soft texture for when they were played with using forepaws.
'Could he be a craftsman with dragon connections? How else could he make them so perfectly suited?'
"You worked hard, Eandurde."
The junior cleaning up the bone items shattered by Jowurin's excited chewing shook his head.
Of course he was tired. Keeping pace with an excited Jowurin required moving as swiftly as during arena battles.
But admitting this as hardship wounded his warrior's pride.
'Not tiring at all!'
"I'll repay you properly later. It bears repeating—I'm really fortunate you and Jowurin became friends."
"......"
Eandurde felt embarrassed by those words.
In the past she would have denied it, but now she had no choice but to admit it.
Jowurin was undoubtedly her friend.
"Right. Then keep watch over your friend. I need to remove these chains first."
"......"
Eandurde found herself newly impressed.
Showing absolutely no leniency despite this being a dragon and Dragon Contractor.
This might truly be the embodiment of the Einrogard spirit.
"What? I took Jowurin's side last time, so it's fine if I don't this time."
"That's... not quite the issue, I think..."
Still, being the good junior she was, Eandurde began keeping watch. The happy Gold Dragon snored away in deep slumber.
"I thought the conversation had resolved things earlier."
"Ah... perhaps it will be resolved through conversation? His Highness isn't that bad of a person."—?
"?"
The baby basilisk and Eandurde stared at Lee Han in disbelief at this contradiction between words and actions.
If it could be resolved through conversation, why remove the chains while she slept?
"If I break the chains, she'll be less stubborn, making persuasion easier."
"Ah."
"And if persuasion fails, we'll need to escape."
"......"
No matter how she looked at it, the latter seemed far more sincere, but Eandurde held her tongue.
Truthfully, she still felt slightly guilty about bringing her respected senior here in shackles.
'How should I break them?'
Lee Han pondered seriously.
In some ways, he seemed more focused than during Einrogard's final exams.
But there was no helping it—this was a problem of equivalent difficulty.
He had to sever the magically-treated chains without waking the sleeping Jowurin!
'Her resistance to pure magical shock is practically perfect.'
Thanks to some tactless mage's advice, the chains were completely impervious to brute-force magical destruction.
The structure of the chain dispersed magical shocks in all directions, meaning that attempting to break it purely through accumulated magical damage might take decades.
'But physical resistance...'
Lee Han glanced at Jowurin, who was smiling blissfully in her sleep.
Even while asleep, she had carefully tucked Lee Han's stolen sword into her embrace. Clearly, she was wary of any physical weaknesses the chain might have.
"Frost, take form."
Lee Han cast a simple low-tier Frost Element Magic spell.
For spells below the 4th Circle, as long as one had properly mastered the elemental application, there was no need to learn each spell individually—adaptation was quick.
Frost was an element Lee Han had a fairly high understanding of, enough to have perfected his Doppelganger Magic.
Thanks to his experience with water and lightning, controlling frost had become even easier. Lee Han swiftly altered the shape of the frost in midair.
'Dagger.'
A dagger made of frost materialized in the air.
In truth, frost-formed blades, arrows, and conical projectiles were common offensive spells among Frost Element mages.
In terms of difficulty, it was around the 2nd Circle—nothing particularly challenging.
Ting.
Lee Han lightly flicked the dagger against the chain. The frost seeped in but dispersed harmlessly.
'As expected, frost alone is meaningless. I need something sharper and harder to deliver a proper impact. If I use Psychokinesis and apply Enchantment Magic to strike... there'd be sound and vibration, though.'
Sss...
Even if he compensated for the lack of physical destructive power with Psychokinesis and Enchantment Magic, the noise and shockwaves were still a problem.
Jowurin was sleeping right on top of the chain—wouldn't she wake up immediately?
'Noise... What was the principle behind soundproofing magic again? There was a silence-type curse in Black Magic, wasn't there? Or was it about erecting a barrier? That might work.'
True to his reputation as the future leader of the Einrogard Black Magic School, Lee Han improvised a soundproofing spell on the spot.
Diret would have shed tears of emotion if he had seen it.
'Vibration is the issue.'
If he struck too hard, the chain would shake and wake Jowurin.
Then...
'Should I cut it instead? Focusing on sharpness rather than brute force.'
Sssb...
Considering the spells and methods at his disposal, slicing cleanly was harder than breaking through sheer impact.
But difficulty wasn't an excuse to give up. Lee Han pondered again.
'To think I can't rely on Small World or Arna's help in a situation like this...'
Grumbling unreasonably, Lee Han scrutinized the frost dagger.
'If I use Bible's Enchantment Magic series to enhance sharpness and draw out Aura with my own mana, who knows what might happen?'
Though the chain dispersed mana upon contact, Lee Han had mana to spare. He could always replenish what he used.
But now, planning it out, the dagger's durability became the issue.
If he were smashing it with brute force, he could just strike once and be done, but if he was cutting through, the dagger would need to endure longer.
'Damn it. I should've practiced Frost Element more. Even Earth Element would've been better.'
Senior...
With a mad thought, Lee Han considered ways to increase the dagger's durability.
Aside from using high-level elemental applications, was there another way?
'If I pour in more mana... That's insane.'
Lee Han dismissed the idea as soon as it came to mind.
Overloading a spell with mana beyond its intended capacity was foolish—like blindly increasing flame intensity or dumping in more salt while cooking.
Besides, due to his innate constitution, Lee Han already cast spells with far more mana than most mages, often teetering on the edge of instability.
Yet, the thought lingered strangely.
Lee Han felt an odd dissonance within himself.
Now, he felt like he could do it.
Before, merely controlling his overflowing mana and keeping up with standard spells had been overwhelming, but now, with accumulated experience, he felt he could wield it more flexibly!
Unbeknownst to him, the confidence from everything he had built up until now was unconsciously seeping out.
'Right. Let's give it a try. It's not like this will break anything... probably.'
- Senior!
Lee Han prepared to cast the spell, intending to summon an ice dagger with several times more mana than usual.
Under normal circumstances, it would have failed or backfired mid-casting.
"O ice..."
It was an utterly bizarre sensation.
Far more mana than he usually controlled spilled out in all directions. The uncontrolled mana seemed ready to cause the spell to fail at any moment.
Yet, the mana neither scattered nor caused any issues. Lee Han realized he could control it.
Bound by his formidable will, the mana swiftly returned to form, taking shape.
What emerged resembled the original spell but was distinctly different.
Only then did Lee Han comprehend what he had done.
'Magic refinement!'
In the Empire, beyond the standard <Fire Arrow> spell, there existed variants like <Garcia's Fire Arrow> or <Vagni's Fire Arrow>.
These were the results of later mages reinterpreting and refining relatively basic, common spells.
Naturally, they had to be significantly superior and distinct from the original—otherwise, they'd be dismissed as jokes and forgotten.
Theoretically, what Lee Han had just cast was the same.
A spell rebuilt entirely beyond the original's mana limitations.
'...'
Hmm. Now that I think about it, this is a bit... ambiguous.'
Lee Han regained his composure.
Though initially thrilled, upon reflection, this refinement held little meaning for anyone but him.
Drastically increasing the power and performance of low-tier spells was good, but what mage would recklessly pour in such excessive mana for it?
Still, it was more than sufficient for Lee Han. Examining the ice dagger he had just summoned, he resolved:
'With this, I might just pull it off.'
Strengthen the cutting force, summon an aura, and somehow land a hit...
So absorbed was Lee Han that he didn't notice Jowurin, now hungry, sitting up and staring intently at him. He smirked ominously at the ice dagger.
Lee Han...!
"!?"
Startled, Lee Han hastily dismissed the ice dagger and turned his gaze.
Jowurin, who had been the happiest dragon in the Empire mere moments ago, now stared at Lee Han with the aggrieved, sorrowful expression of one who had lost everything.
Lee Han had tried to flee!!!
"I'm not sure what you mean, Your Highness. As a student of Einrogard, I was merely practicing magic."
Without batting an eye, Lee Han lied and called for Eandurde.
"Why didn't you call me?!"
"...I've been calling you this whole time...!!!"
The second most aggrieved person in this mansion-cave was Eandurde.
As Jowurin tossed and turned, trying to rise, she had been calling for the Senior, but Lee Han, lost in his magical world, hadn't noticed.
"No. Are you saying it's my fault!?"
"Yes..."
"How could you be so absorbed in magic? That doesn't make sense."
-......
"......"
While Eandurde and the Baby Basilisk stared in disbelief, Jowurin suddenly cried out in a frantic voice.
Once Lee Han saw the gift Jowurin had prepared, he'd change his mind!
"I doubt any gift would make me want to keep wearing these chains... Wait. Don't tell me it's some preposterous, outrageous gift related to a dragon's physical form?"
As Lee Han's voice grew stern and icy, Jowurin hastily denied it.
No!
"Phew. I knew I could trust you."
(You clearly didn't...)
Grumbling under her breath, Jowurin guided Lee Han deeper into the cave.
This was a space Jowurin had never shown even to guests visiting the mansion.
Here! Right here!
"?"
Tapping the ground with her front claws, Jowurin pointed at a dark hole. From within, a strange vortex of mana swirled, reminiscent of a dungeon.
"That looks like a dungeon. What is it?"
It is a dungeon?
"......"
Lee Han seriously pondered whether to first ask why this was in the mansion or why this was a gift.