The Useless Metal Spirit
I wandered through the market streets accompanied by two knights, receiving suspicious glances from everyone around me.
I browsed the general store, checked out the weapon shop, and even poked my head into the bookstore when I spotted one. But nothing really caught my eye enough to buy. Maybe it was because the environment I lived in was so luxurious—nothing seemed good enough.
Then, just as my stomach started to growl a little, I discovered a fruit stall.
There were quite a few fruits I’d never seen before, so I debated whether I should try buying some.
“What’s this?”
“Have you never tried it before, miss?”
“Yeah, first time seeing it.”
“It’s a fruit commoners eat all the time. It’s called Porya. It barely has any sweetness, but it’s easy to grow so it’s cheap and great for filling your stomach.”
“Hmm. Maybe I’ll buy some.”
It looked similar to an apple but much larger, and its dull color didn’t make it seem particularly appetizing.
The price tag said three for 10 coppers. Since I rarely had the chance to buy anything with my own money, I had no idea if that was expensive or cheap.
The Crancia continent used a unified currency across all nations.
That was one of the achievements of the great hero Mites, the emperor who unified the continent about five thousand years ago. Even now, long after the empire had fractured into separate countries, the unified currency system remained in place.
Besides unifying currency, Mites had also created a common language and standardized maps, among many other things. He was one of those historical figures who came up in almost every class.
“Hansen, is 10 coppers a fair price for this?”
“Usually you can get five for 10 coppers, but they say this year’s harvest was poor, so this isn’t a bad price at all.”
One copper felt roughly equivalent to about a hundred won back in Korea.
The coins came in denominations of 1 copper, 5 coppers, 10 coppers, and 50 coppers. One hundred coppers made one silver, and one hundred silvers made one gold. The average commoner’s monthly living expenses were based around one gold.
That meant one gold was worth about a million won, though nobles could easily spend a gold on a single meal.
Ten golds made one golden, the highest denomination. Probably worth around ten million won.
The coins were made from different metals, and because they were heavy, people used promissory notes when dealing with large sums. As for me, I received one gold per month as allowance.
For a child, that made me quite wealthy.
“I’m getting hungry, so I’ll try some.”
“It might not suit your taste, my lady. We have other fruits as well.”
“But I’m curious about this one.”
“If you insist, then.”
“Ma’am, could I have three of these?”
I pointed at the Porya. The fruit stall lady, who had the kind of face you’d see anywhere, gave me a business smile and placed three Porya into a brown paper bag. If I shared them with the knights, it would be just right…
“Ah!”
My sudden yelp made Philo and Hansen flinch and immediately drop into defensive stances.
I stared at them as they reached for their swords, my face on the verge of tears. This couldn’t be happening.
“I don’t have any money.”
“…Ah, if it’s money, I have some on me.”
I only realized now that I hadn’t brought my coin purse. It was because I almost never carried it around. Thankfully, it seemed Hansen had money with him.
“Thanks.”
I took out one of the Porya from the bag he handed me, took a bite, and waited for him to finish paying.
But the moment Hansen started doing what could only be described as the “I-lost-my-wallet dance,” the already tasteless Porya became even more flavorless.
I should’ve listened when Hansen tried to stop me. This really has no taste at all. It’s literally flavorless. So this is what commoners eat as a staple?
“Philo, do you have any money…?”
“I don’t either.”
What now? This stomach-churning silence was unbearable.
The fruit stall lady’s face had gone ice-cold. I quietly slipped the half-bitten Porya back into the paper bag. What was I supposed to do now?
[Rai?]
[Yes, Master.]
Rai was currently hanging from my waist, though he was hidden beneath my school uniform cloak. People usually freaked out at the sight of a snake, so this was the only way when we were in crowded places.
[Do you have any money on you?]
[Why would a spirit have something like that?]
[But you’re a metal spirit, aren’t you? Spit some out.]
[Ugh, no way.]
[If you had any conscience, you’d be useful sometimes. I know you eat every metal and coin you come across. Hurry up and cough it up while I’m still asking nicely.]
Even as I said it, I wondered if I sounded like a thug.
[Master, you ate bread this morning, right?]
[What about it?]
[Can you spit that back out?]
Of course I couldn’t… Damn it. Getting talked down to by Rai of all people really hurt my pride.
[It’s the same principle. Eating and spitting out are completely different techniques. Absorption doesn’t require mana, but spitting things out consumes a lot of mana. Plus, shaping it into coins requires advanced skill. It’s impossible for you right now, Master.]
[Ugh, having a metal spirit is so useless.]
[…Master! Aren’t you being a little too blatantly discriminatory? You only ever pamper Undine! You’re always scolding me!]
[That’s because you never do anything worth praising.]
[Ugh… I can’t make coin shapes, but… I can spit out a little silver.]
[Oh? Do it right now.]
A lump of silver wasn’t exactly currency, but it had value, so I could probably use it instead of money. With renewed hope that I could pay, I pulled the Porya back out.
I took a leisurely bite, then immediately freaked out.
“Pfft—!”
When chewed fruit shoots up your nose, it hurts like hell.
I rubbed my stinging nose and ground my teeth.
[You… Did you seriously just drain all my mana?]
[No. I left a little?]
This was ridiculous. It wasn’t even gold—just a bit of silver—and it took this much mana?
When a large amount of mana was drained at once, stomach cramps usually followed. And right now, that was exactly what was happening.
[Fine, let’s see how much you made.]
The silver fragment Rai spat out with a clink fell at my feet.
Something was rolling away. I followed and picked it up. It was a silver piece the size of a grain of rice. Oh my god. He used up all my mana… to make this tiny thing?!
[Hey! I’d rather you just make a Water Ball!]
[What? My silver is way better than that! At least it can be used as money!]
[This isn’t even enough to buy one Porya!]
[No way!]
[You idiot!]
Who asked for a silver booger?! I wanted to live elegantly, but Rai’s utter uselessness sometimes made me so angry I couldn’t stand it.
Rai really was an astonishingly useless spirit.
Whether she felt sorry for me or pitied the knights who were fidgeting nervously at my furious expression, the fruit stall lady gave me one Porya for free.
I couldn’t believe it. Wandering the market completely broke. Getting free food! It wasn’t like I didn’t have money—I had several dozen golds sitting in the bag I’d left back at the lodging.
With that much, I could buy… I could buy so many Porya…
[Rai, how many Porya could I buy with 10 golds?]
[I’m not a spirit of mathematics, you know.]
He really was bad with numbers. Like master, like spirit, I guess.
[I’m a liberal arts type too… Wait, is there actually a spirit of mathematics?]
[I don’t know. Maybe?]
[You’re a spirit! You should know these things!]
[Come on, Master. There are so many different kinds of spirits. You don’t know every single human, do you?]
[Well, that’s true, but…]
Having pointless little conversations with Rai in my head had become far too natural for me.
He felt less like a spirit and more like a friend I could talk to anytime.
[And by the way. Your mana efficiency is terrible.]
[That’s because your mana pool is too small, Master.]
The problem was that he was such an annoying friend.
[I’ve been training pretty hard, you know?]
[It’s still nowhere near enough. I keep telling you it’s not that I’m useless. I could do so much more if only your vessel were…]
[You want to die?]
[I’m just saying, not yet. Ahem.]
[Tsk. When you fixed that rusty lock before, you didn’t drain this much mana. What’s the difference between that and this? I can’t tell at all.]
Mana, the essential energy needed to handle spirits, was like the air that filled the world. But to use it as I wished, I had to ‘conquer’ it and store it inside myself.
That part was the hard one.
Mana had a free and wild nature, so forcing it to stay inside a human body required breaking a serious sweat.
Every morning, I sat with my eyes closed in the lotus position.
I tried to sense the mana.
And then I had to engage in a silent battle to capture it and tame it.
Mana was like sand slipping through my fingers. I had to drag the escaping grains back into my body and circulate them inside me over and over until they grew familiar with my system.
I made mana flow through me like blood through my veins.
Some people called the process ‘carving mana into oneself.’ Others described it as ‘melting’ it.
To me, it felt like taming. Everyone made mana theirs using different senses and wills.
The amount of mana was not something that could be increased overnight.
It was a difficult process that could only be built up slowly over an entire lifetime through daily training.
There were no shortcuts or lucky breaks.
At least, not as far as I knew.
[It’s the difference between something coming from something, or something coming from nothing, I suppose.]
[Are you about to start talking in riddles again?]
[Fixing or refining an object is completely different from creating something new. First of all, when I absorb something, it means turning its ‘form’ into ‘nothingness.’ Take a coin, for example. The moment I absorb it, it loses its original shape and becomes complete nothingness.]
[Hmm.]
[Obviously, to give it the shape of a coin again, you need mana for it to be ‘born.’ On the other hand, fixing a broken object only requires filling in the shape you already remember, so it’s much easier. Fixing a lock is an example of something coming from something.]
[I think I get it.]
[The conclusion is that creating something from nothing is far more difficult, which is why it requires several times more mana.]
Both Undine and Rai were like this. Finding an efficient way to use them despite my lack of mana was an extremely urgent issue. I was getting tired of being completely useless every time I ran out of mana.
It was frustrating and incredibly damaging to my pride.
If I was going to be lazy, I should at least have no pride. Why was a person like me so complicated?
[Master, you don’t need to worry about it so much. You’re still a young human. As time passes, your mana will naturally increase.]
[…And how many years is that ‘time’? How much more do I have to gather before I can actually feel like you’re useful? Will that day even come?]
[Of course! Maybe in thirty or forty years? It’ll pass in no time.]
His standard for “no time” was seriously off. There was something I sometimes felt when talking with Rai. This guy had a surprising amount of life experience.
[Rai, how old are you? I mean your age.]
[Age? That’s something only humans care about.]
[Just answer me. Even a spirit should at least know how many years it’s been since they were born.]
[Hmm… I think it’s been about 12,000 years, but I’m not exactly sure. Counting time is meaningless and tedious.]
Did I hear that wrong?
Twelve thousand? Not one thousand two hundred, not one hundred twenty… And definitely not twelve.
Were spirits naturally immortal? No wonder he seemed a bit dumb… Wait, did this guy have dementia?!
[You’re over ten thousand years old? That’s impossible!]
[Among spirits, I’m actually on the younger side. Most disappear after a few thousand years.]
[A few thousand is already weird!]
[Humans still don’t know much about us… Master!]
That startled me. Why was he suddenly shouting? I had just been about to throw away the Porya core I’d finished eating.
[What’s with the commotion?]
[Over there! The mat right next to that general store!]
With my mouth still full of Porya, I turned to look where Rai was pointing.
He was always excitable, but this time he was especially worked up.
The mat near the general store… Did he mean that one?
[The spot with the kid?]
What caught my eye was an incredibly dirty boy.
A gaunt young boy who looked like he hadn’t eaten for days was guarding a mat covered with various random items.
[Yes! Go closer! Hurry!]
What the hell is going on?