Chapter 23
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: A Thousand Fairies
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A civil servant's day invariably begins with the commute to work.
No matter how groundbreaking his alchemy experiments the night before, Ian's routine never changed.
He was buried in paperwork back at the office when an unexpected system notification popped up.
The number of fairies born thanks to Lara has exceeded one thousand!
Lara's unique trait 'Cradle of Fairies' has grown!
The mana required for Lara to create fairies has decreased!
'Huh?'
Born fairies exceeding a thousand? What did that even mean?
'Already that many have been born?'
It was truly astonishing.
It hadn't been long since he'd granted Lara her freedom, and yet those tiny fairies had already multiplied to such numbers.
The memory was still vivid, even after some time had passed.
Those mischievous baby fairies wreaking havoc in his lab.
'They were really cute.'
They were probably thriving in Eltea Forest by now.
'But how do I check... Ah, the faction menu.'
Come to think of it, he'd unlocked the faction feature.
He'd completely forgotten about it.
Better late than never—he opened the faction window to take a look.
A straightforward faction window.
It didn't feel out of place at all.
The faction feature wasn't exclusive to alchemy in the first place. Even non-alchemists could unlock it through other classes.
By gathering lots of subordinates, securing a base, obtaining a noble title and fief, or various other methods.
Ian had experienced it a few times himself, of course.
'Every time I tried developing a territory, it got utterly destroyed.'
Bitter memories, to say the least.
But what was different this time was that the leader was listed as Lara, not him.
It made sense since she was the head of the fairy faction, but it felt refreshingly novel to Ian.
It was like delegating faction growth to a subordinate.
'This is great. It grows on its own without me lifting a finger.'
Managing it personally would have been exhausting, but this was perfect.
[TIP! You can grow your faction in various ways!]
[TIP! The basic method is subjugating enemies to expand territory, but that's not the only answer.]
[TIP! Try growing your faction in your own unique way!]
'Ddol Ddoli doesn't have a faction, though. Probably because it's alone without subordinates.'
Well, Ddol Ddoli probably didn't need one anyway.
It was strong enough on its own.
"Senior Investigator, sir. You seem in a great mood today."
Ian's musing was interrupted by a voice.
It was one of his subordinates from the same division.
"Did something good happen?"
"Nah, nothing like that."
"Then why are you grinning from ear to ear?"
"Grinning? Me?"
"Yes, sir. Your smile's practically reaching your ears."
"Is it?"
Ian tilted his head at his subordinate's words. Smiling that much?
A quick glance in the mirror confirmed his mouth was curved upward. Oh, so he'd been walking around like this all day.
"Well, something good did happen."
"What is it? Share with us little guys."
"Pass."
"Huh?"
"It's a secret."
"Aw, come on, that's no fair."
His subordinate grumbled, but Ian had no intention of spilling. How could he explain acquiring such a cheat-level skill?
'To think I'd get a skill this broken.'
Death Avoidance.
That was the name of Ian's newest skill.
A unique racial skill of the devil race, obtained by applying the special immortality attribute extracted from a devil soulstone to himself.
Type: Skill
Rank: Unique
Description: When receiving fatal damage that would lead to death, transfers the source of your life force to a pre-designated location. As long as this life force source remains intact, the user cannot die.
He hadn't tested just how overpowered it was yet.
And he couldn't, really. It wasn't like he could deliberately die just to check.
All Ian could do was trust it.
Even if he couldn't use it right away, surely it'd save his life someday.
'Anyway, now I've got a spare life too.'
But what thrilled him even more was unlocking a new specialization branch.
Description: A forbidden research field that applies the mysteries of life synthesis to one's own body. The alchemist becomes both subject and experimenter in this extreme challenge to transcend personal limits.
⚠ WARNING: This specialization is extremely dangerous. Most experimenters ultimately lost their lives.
'Now I can finally apply life synthesis to my own body.'
This was an enormous gain.
He could perform human synthesis experiments without needing test subjects.
In the extreme, he no longer had to painstakingly procure subjects or expensive materials to build homunculus bodies. He could just use himself.
Ah, how incredible!
Of course, Ian had no plans to dive in recklessly.
The system warning was clear—it was insanely risky.
He'd only attempt it when conditions were perfectly safe.
That said, he wasn't fully suppressing his greed.
He aimed for caution, but temptation kept bubbling up.
'But if self-synthesis fails, isn't it fine? Death Avoidance would just save me anyway.'
If the penalty for failure was death, then Death Avoidance should trigger, right?
'That would be perfect.'
It'd effectively nullify the penalty.
'Should I just test it? Worst case, I die...'
Such reckless thoughts were brewing when his subordinate's voice cut in.
"Oh, right. Congrats on the Starlight Medal. You're a knight now."
"Knight? I can't even swing a sword."
Receiving the Imperial Starlight Medal and being personally knighted by the emperor had elevated Ian from commoner status, but it didn't excite him much. His daily life hadn't improved dramatically.
Ian wasn't interested in power to begin with.
But others apparently saw it differently.
Why else would everyone he met shower him with congratulations?
It was right after lunch, and he'd already heard it from twenty people.
"Still, it's a promotion. Even the high-and-mighty won't mess with you now, Senior Investigator."
"They never did. Do you think wizards are pushovers?"
Thwack!
Ian flicked his subordinate's forehead. The man rubbed it with a wince.
"Ow!"
"Enough chit-chat. You just came from seeing the Deputy Director, right?"
"Yes. Ow, that hurts."
"Is he busy?"
"Nah. Just smoking with nothing to do."
"Tell him to quit smoking indoors. Anyway, got it. Good work."
Ian waved off his still-rubbing subordinate and sauntered to the Deputy Director's office. He shrugged at Bren, who was staring daggers at him, then threw open the window. Bren chuckled.
"Coming in like it's your own home now. Promotion's gone to your head—you don't even see a small fry like me anymore? Won His Majesty's favor?"
"Come on, what kind of talk is that? But seriously, doesn't the smoke bother your nose? Must be nice."
"Not really."
"Lucky you. Nose goes numb to your own smoke, huh?"
"You're not here just to gripe. What's up today?"
"I've been thinking."
"Thinking?"
Ian sat in the guest chair across from Bren's desk and continued.
"The empire's been pretty chaotic lately, right? Northern barbarians are about to stir up trouble, and suddenly these weird black mages are babbling about summoning the demon king."
"True enough."
"And that's not all. Complaints about frequent monster incursions are piling up. Southwest border's had five waves in a week. The people's anxiety is through the roof—worried about another massive invasion."
Bren narrowed his eyes at Ian's fluent rundown.
"All valid points... Surprisingly insightful. Didn't think you cared beyond slacking off."
"Hey, who do you take me for? Anyway, the empire's in turmoil. As a loyal servant of our great emperor, it breaks my heart. The empire's prestige is unshakable, sure, but who knows? Life's unpredictable."
"So, what's your point?"
"Feels like it's time for me to step up."
"You volunteering for fieldwork?"
"Exactly! Knew you'd get it, sir."
Bren's eyes narrowed further. What? Ian stepping up himself?
"You eat something bad? Or sleep wrong?"
"Ate fine, slept great."
"Weird. Our slippery Ian volunteering? Doesn't add up."
Bren eyed him suspiciously. Ian shrugged it off.
"Always getting duped, huh? Doubting my loyalty to the empire and His Majesty?"
"Not doubt—reasonable skepticism... Ah, never mind. Sir Ian Starlight Knight is a paragon of loyalty, I see."
Bren took a sip of water and went on.
"Ignored advances from countless noble ladies these past days, brushed off Duke Vallua's offer clean. Must mean no interest in romance or promotion—just the empire's peace. Right?"
Bren smirked. Ian let out a disbelieving laugh.
"Where'd you hear that nonsense?"
"Not 'hear'—it's everywhere just walking around. Man who ignored noble ladies' advances. Man who dismissed a bigwig's proposal without a listen. Same guy."
Ian clicked his tongue in exasperation. What kind of rumors were these?
'When did I ignore countless noble ladies? And what bigwig?'
The ladies were probably from the banquet. The bigwig offer sounded like Director Blake's proposal...
Unbelievable. Why were the rumors spreading? And so exaggerated?
"Makes sense. You'd ignore that stuff. Why bother with human nobles when you could hold an elf princess?"
"Deputy Director."
"What? Duke Vallua? Who cares. Marry into Eltea, command hundreds, thousands of elf knights. Am I wrong?"
Ian was too baffled to respond. Bren laughed heartily before sobering.
"Jokes aside, if you want to step up as a magic investigator, I'm thrilled. Where to?"
"Thinking southwest."
"Southwest? Monster central. You sure?"
"Positive. That's why I'm going—prime monster farming... I mean."
"What?"
"Ahem. Anyway."
He'd almost spilled his true intent. No point advertising he was there for soulstones.
"Southwest border's seeing near-wave-level monster incursions lately."
"Yep."
"I'm going to investigate the cause. That frequent? Gotta be some anomaly."
"Hm, logical."
Bren nodded approvingly, patting Ian's shoulder.
"Good. Our division's 100% success star stepping up? Perfect. Raise the division's name. I trust you."
"Yes, sir."
Permission granted. Ian clenched a secret fist.
'Nice. Mission accomplished.'
One thing Ian keenly felt while advancing his alchemy research: soulstones were sorely lacking. Too lacking.
Synthesizing a basic homunculus needed just one soulstone, sure. But unlocking attribute extraction changed everything.
No probability on extraction itself, but applying the extracted special attribute? That had a success chance.
Meaning he could blow a precious soulstone extracting an attribute, only to fail applying it to nothing.
In fact, Ian had wasted over a dozen soulstones in the past few days.
Gathered from graveyards, black markets, slum back alleys rife with daily murders. All gone to failed attribute applications.
'This rigged probability game's insane.'
So Ian resolved: stockpile soulstones. Only way to raise success proficiency.
That's why he'd come to Baldergran, the empire's southwest border city swarming with monsters.
Battlegrounds were the easiest, legal spots for souls.
"Welcome. An honor to meet the empire's newest famous Starlight Knight."
The man giving a light bow was Lordric, the knight governing Baldergran as castellan.
"Honor? You're too kind. Just a lowly Magic Bureau civil servant."
"Nonsense. How could we slight a hero endorsed by His Majesty? Come, let's head inside. You must be hungry—dinner first."
"No need. Not here for hospitality. Straight to the site."
"You sure?"
"Not a matter of sure. Faster we pinpoint the monster incursion cause, sooner our citizens sleep soundly."
His words were flowery, but Ian's real thoughts were:
'Hurry up and show me—I want those soulstones ASAP.'
"Ah, such dedication! I had no idea..."
Lordric lacked mind-reading, so he was deeply moved by Ian's apparent selflessness.
'No wonder His Majesty awarded the Starlight Medal! That citizen-first heart!'
"Very well! If that's your will, I'll guide you myself!"
They headed to the south gate. Ian returned soldiers' salutes as they ascended the ramparts. A stench of blood hit him, revealing the brutal scene outside: once-green fields turned crimson sea. All that blood from monsters?
'Jackpot! Monster corpses everywhere!'
Ian's eyes gleamed momentarily. Greed stirred.
Ah, he wanted them all! Gulp them down!
'How many test subjects is that? Heh.'
But he schooled his expression.
"Hell of a battlefield."
"Indeed. Just last night. Goblin horde with trolls—four hundred strong. Horrific..."
"Our casualties?"
"See for yourself."
Lordric pointed below. Amid monster piles, human soldiers stood out. Ian sighed softly.
"Fortunately, not many dead. But if this continues, our losses will mount soon."
"Leave that to me. That's why I'm here."
Lordric's gaze grew intense. Ian averted it awkwardly, descending to head outside the gate.
Soldiers carrying bodies on stretchers saluted. Ian nodded vaguely, plunging into the corpse pile.
"W-Wait, wizard sir! It's filthy! Don't come too close...!"
"Filthy? Doesn't bother me. You all do your jobs."
Ian knelt amid the bodies, placing a hand on a nearby corpse and closing his eyes. Intestines squished under his palm, but his face stayed neutral.
"You fought well. May the light take you."
He bowed. Soldiers murmured in awe at the central official praying for lowly grunts.
Some teared up. A capital bureaucrat honoring foot soldiers personally!
But Ian wasn't just praying.
His left hand closed a soldier's staring eyes, while his right reached deep into a adjacent monster corpse.
A faint blue glow emanated from his touch—unseen by all.
Soul Extraction
[Target: Troll corpse selected.]
[Soul found in troll corpse.]
[Extracting soul...]
[Extraction successful!]
[Acquired 'Troll Soulstone']
'Whoa, total goldmine.'
The soulstone's quality was solid. Fresh kills—no damage to the soul.
'Gonna make plenty of spares with these.'
Unaware of the admiring stares, Ian buzzed with joy, working quickly.