Chapter 115 — Lab Recluse (2)
"You're a finicky fellow. You contain mana, but your absorbent property is just as immense as the force you release."
To the count, the crystal had now been promoted from an "object" to a "fellow."
"The task is to make the fellow release its power without absorbing mana..."
And then a tedious process repeated itself.
The count issued instructions to Helen.
Helen carried them out.
The count, having written something down or made an observation, adjusted the conditions slightly and gave Helen a new instruction.
Helen carried it out.
Roan started to feel increasingly drowsy,
but he pulled himself together watching the two absorbed in the experiment.
Helen seemed to enjoy participating in the count's experiment, offering opinions and asking questions while following his orders.
Helen, was she always a STEM type?
'Hmm. They get along unexpectedly well.'
Surprisingly, the count gave gentle instructions without talking down to Helen.
And Helen was accustomed to following someone's orders.
Whether she harbored goodwill or hostility toward the other party, her body had spent a lifetime moving according to instructions.
So their teamwork was better than expected.
By the end of the experiment, which concluded while Roan endured his drowsiness, the relationship between the count and Helen had changed markedly from the beginning.
"Count, I shall come at the time you mentioned tomorrow. I learned a great deal thanks to you."
"Very well. Helen."
Helen bowed politely to the count.
The count smiled and spoke to Roan.
"She isn't very human-like. Helen, that is."
Helen stared directly at Roan.
Probably... that was a compliment...?
"Hmm."
"Usually, when humans see a beastman like myself, they either recoil in horror or insolently call me cute... In any case, there have been no favorable reactions. Ahat."
Roan flinched inwardly.
He had thought her tail was cute...
But since he only thought it inwardly, it was probably fine...?
"At any rate, Your Majesty has also endured a tedious time, you've worked hard! Starting tomorrow, I shall put in effort together with Helen, Your Majesty!"
And then the count shooed Roan and Helen out of the laboratory and locked the door.
"...What's he planning to do alone in there..."
"Still, he seems to possess more common sense than I initially thought. Let us observe him for a while."
In the meantime, Helen seemed to have let go of some of her hostility after seeing the count's diligent side as a researcher.
**
The count set up his temporary laboratory in the palace in Basel on February 1st.
February passed swiftly.
The first week of February.
The count began conducting basic research.
It involved observing the crystal's characteristics and identifying commonalities or differences with existing ores or magic stones.
Alongside this, experiments to discover simple changes were carried out in parallel.
What produced the most dramatic result
was the experimental outcome when strong physical force was applied.
"Please step back, Master. Count."
Gathered in Roan's private training ground
were Roan, the Count of the Dark Pit, and Helen.
As expected, the subject used was a fist-sized crystal.
The count judged that using a crystal larger than that would be dangerous no matter how much of a shielding suit one wore.
That was why even now the count was clad from head to toe in a bright yellow mana-absorbing shielding suit.
Standing behind the mana tracking camera, the count issued instructions in a voice muffled by something.
Helen's power began to gather at the tip of her sword.
"Hup!"
With a short shout, the tip of Helen's sword split the air, aiming for that tiny point, the crystal, without the slightest deviation.
"Kgh?!"
"Oh?"
"...?!"
The crystal made contact with Helen's sword.
The thought that something was rippling there lasted only an instant. The first to react was Roan, who stood beside the count.
Clenching his teeth, Roan pressed down on the count's body and pulled Helen close, deploying the "Star Cloud Shield."
Helen let out a short cry,
but the count was in a situation where he didn't even know what had happened.
Immediately after, an explosive roar and shockwave slammed into Roan's shield. A massive machine weighing several hundred kilograms in front of them toppled sideways with a heavy thud.
A situation that would have been sufficiently dangerous if they had let their guard down.
However, Roan blocked the crystal's explosion that poured onto the shield with puzzlement, as the force was weaker than what he had experienced in the cave.
And then.
The real thing came next.
The moment Roan bore the force with his shield and felt relieved.
Yet another storm swept through the training ground.
As if the force deflected by the shield was being amplified further.
Roan's body, bracing the shield, slid backward. The sight glimpsed through the transparent star clouds was—.
The count's mana tracking camera being shattered to pieces.
Roan, who possessed mana, realized it at that moment.
'This isn't blocking... it's reflecting!'
The "Star Cloud Shield" had reflected the mana.
And that this was precisely the true nature of the "mana storm" the soldiers of the West Blood Territory had felt.
When he had blocked the crystals pouring down as the cave collapsed with the "Star Cloud Shield," the aftershock of that mana had grown large enough to be transmitted several kilometers away.
Realizing anew how terrifying the explosion inside the cave he had blocked truly was, a chill ran down Roan's spine.
"Master!!"
Helen's scream rang out from behind Roan.
Yet Roan silently kept his mouth shut and bore the entirety of the explosion and the machine's fragments. He could see the count's hunched body flinch and tremble at the clamorous noise.
Only after confirming there were no more explosions did Roan swiftly dispel the shield so as not to be found out.
And he removed the hand that had pressed the count down so he could lift his head.
"The explosio—... Graaagh, my mana tracking camera!!!"
The count recoiled in shock with a face Roan had never seen before, and with a half-weeping expression began frantically gathering the machine's fragments.
The crystal that had caused the massive explosion was blown far away by the reaction of the force it had emitted and was nowhere to be seen.
Roan sensed through "Detection" that startled servants of the castle were appearing, panting for breath.
But the count's experiment did not stop.
"Uheuggh... my precious mana tracking camera... When am I going to fix this..."
He despaired with a tearful face,
but the next day he brought back a similar machine (a mana tracking camera prototype) he had left at Dos Castle and resumed the experiment.
This time, with the machine placed far away just in case.
Because they didn't know whether it was due to Helen's holy-power-infused sword energy
or due to pure physical force,
the count said he had to continue the experiment even at a loss.
As a result, not only the count but also Roan was able to discover several new facts.
One.
When strong physical force was applied, the crystal exploded.
It was the same whether it was in the form of sword energy or pure physical force.
This was identical to the characteristics of some magic stones.
Two.
The moment the crystal received physical force and exploded, all the mana contained within it instantly scattered in all directions and was depleted.
The crystal shattered and became an empty husk,
but its mana-absorbing property did not disappear.
Three. This was a fact only Roan discovered.
Unless it encountered the "Star Cloud Shield,"
the crystal's mana storm was actually not as fierce as he had thought.
Unlike the first crystal Helen destroyed with sword energy,
the mana storm emitted by the subsequent crystals released a single burst of intense mana at the moment of explosion and then subsided.
A feeling similar to a sudden strong gust of wind.
It was exactly the level of explosion at which Roan had first blocked with his shield and felt relieved.
Thanks to this, the count's second machine survived safely.
Of course, it was only knights like Roan or Helen who considered it nothing,
but to people with the physical abilities of an ordinary demon like the count, it was force threatening enough.
'It was an incredible spell. The reward.'
Roan felt the power of the "Star Cloud Shield" viscerally.
It blocked mana entirely,
and even amplified and deflected that force.
'In the end, there was no useless spell.'
The very first one he obtained, "Starlight."
That spell, which he had thought he might only use as a substitute for a cellphone flashlight in emergencies,
played a major role in discovering the ruins and finding the crystal.
The second one he obtained, "Blessing of the Stars."
That blessing, considered useful only for increasing concentration to cast spells, was actually something that blocked mental magic.
The "puppetization" the count had cast on the door the day he arrived in Basel was his trademark spell that even Roan knew well.
The story of the human soldiers and knights who, until the count permitted their death, were wrecked on the battlefield and stood at the very front of the Evirgio army as meat shields to wage war was famous even here in Basel.
The reason the Lord of the West Blood Territory said he was cruel was also because he turned human mages into puppets and made them do and tested all sorts of things they could never do with a sane mind.
That much was the count's most frequently used and most powerful weapon.
However, the "Blessing of the Stars" had blocked that spell as if it were nothing. That must have been why the count had been so startled that day.
And the "Star Cloud Shield" that deflected mana.
Mana attacks were deflected with greater repulsive force than attacks using holy power or only physical force.
He hadn't experimented with anyone,
but he was able to solidify his conviction through this opportunity.
He would find out for sure if he experimented with Aina soon.
'Could this be a quest given by the Goddess?'
Seeing the quest rewards behave like this,
it was a suspicion that arose naturally.
'As I thought, I need to go to Spros.'
The capital of Merde.
In Spros, there were various facilities the Hero used. The guild. The tavern. The forge. The shops. The temple.
Naturally, what he enjoyed as emperor were superior to those, but the elements hidden in each facility couldn't be accessed without infiltrating Merde.
It would be troublesome if the Hero discovered them first.
'Besides, it feels like I might be able to use a Goddess chance.'
Among the hidden elements in the game,
there was also a way to dream of the Goddess and ask for her help.
It wasn't an official strategy.
Originally, the Hero had to follow the priest or holy knight tech tree, then put effort into prayer and training to raise their holy power.
In order to hear the useful advice the Goddess would give by appearing in dreams, like she did for Helen.
But I don't have time.
And besides, I'm a player, aren't I?
Even if I use petty tricks, surviving is the best.
The only disadvantage was,
I live in Evirgio,
and I have horns on my head.
'...I'll have to set a date.'
Roan resolved to use his disguise tool and visit a temple in Spros.
"It seems the count was quite distressed."
On the day the first week's experiments ended, Helen spoke to Roan with a worried expression.
"Hmm?"
It was two days after the crystal's explosion.
"It seems he still hasn't been able to gather all the fragments of the tracker."
"Hmm. The explosion was fierce, after all."
"He said he is attached to it because it was the first machine he personally built..."
Roan looked at Helen with an odd expression.
Perhaps because her fundamental nature was that of a Saintess.
The worry that surfaced on her face was genuine.
Seeing that expression, a twinge of guilt also rose in Roan's heart.
The machine had only been knocked over by the pure crystal's explosion. The reason that machine was smashed to pieces was because it was hit by the force of the blast reflected by Roan's shield.
"You've become... quite close. With the count."
"Of course, there are many parts of him I cannot understand.... But I think the way he immerses himself incredibly in the task at hand is worthy of emulation."
"Hmm."
Roan rested his chin on his hand and stared at Helen.
There would be synergy if the two of them grew closer.
**
The second week of February.
The count fidgeted and began repairing the machine again using the fragments Roan had ordered his subordinates to gather.
Because he was fixing the machine while simultaneously conducting research on the crystal, his face grew increasingly pallid.
He was cutting back on sleep to secure time for work.
"...Count. When did you last sleep?"
"The day before yesterday!"
"...You must be short on sleep."
"I am fine! I merely need to drink the fortifying beverage I concocted."
The count, who had been drinking a strangely yellow-glinting beverage, saw Roan's sidelong glance and thrust the cup toward him.
The vivid color, the bubbling fizz, the refreshing scent...
Why did it bring to mind the real-world "Red Bull" drink?
"Shall I pour you a little?"
"...I'm fine. Just make sure to rest properly while you work."
"Is there not a lack of time, Your Majesty?"
Roan's expression, which had briefly become somewhat sympathetic at his words, returned to its original state at the next statement.
"Mustn't I finish this task quickly to make use of the right to experiment on Your Majesty? Ahahat☆"
Was it just his imagination that the count's laughter sounded twisted?
The count discovered that if the crystal was finely ground using a specific material,
it could be turned into powder while retaining its mana without releasing a shockwave.
The crystal powder began absorbing mana while simultaneously releasing the mana contained within itself. It was a bizarre cycle.
For full-scale cultivation experiments, soil from the East Yellow Territory and various other regions was airlifted in.
It was Roan's judgment, thinking inwardly that he needed to investigate how distance from the Corrupted Land affected the soil.
The count, not knowing the reason, merely expressed gratitude for Roan's assistance, saying he needed soil under diverse conditions.
And so,
February welcomed its third week.