Chapter 247
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 247
Chapter Title: Iter and a Breakthrough
“Bella. It can be about Varchino or something else. Please, tell me everything you've seen or heard recently.”
Loan listened carefully to Bella's dream stories, meticulously storing them in his memory.
Later, he could cross-reference them with the Administration's records or messenger pigeon reports to verify their accuracy.
It would also undoubtedly be helpful when assigning missions within the Administration.
“I'll pass this on to Director Lazarus. If you have another dream or hear something like a directive again, please inform the Administration immediately. And if you're struggling, or feel like you're about to succumb to the darkness again, you must tell us that too.”
“Yes...”
While he couldn't change anything right away, he had to keep accumulating records.
If he could discern any patterns or omens, he could go to the spirit realm himself, examine the darkness, and find a clue.
He was confident that his mana would no longer blur as it had before.
While Loan was finding unexpected hope in Bella's misfortune,
Gradin, faced with the opportunity of a lifetime, poured all his focus into his work.
“Ooooh!”
Hearing a series of gasps from the dwarves gathered behind him, Loan's curiosity was piqued, and he walked over.
The new sacred artifact was completed sooner than expected.
It was a bracelet that emitted a strange light, different from that of meteoritic iron.
It had such a subtle luster that one might mistake it for matte at first glance, and though one side was open, it formed a perfect circle.
There were no other special decorations,
but its simple and refined shape was beautiful in its own right.
As the dwarves cleared a path for Loan to approach, Gradin handed him the bracelet.
“Try it on.”
Holding it in his hand, he saw its thickness was impossibly uniform.
It wasn't cast in a mold; it was forged with a hammer.
How could it possess such perfect balance and uniformity? This, too, was like magic.
Loan was genuinely impressed.
“It's truly magnificent.”
Gradin looked back and forth between the bracelet and Loan's wrist, his eyes filled with anticipation, urging him to put it on.
He slid his hand in, gently prying the opening with his fingers, and the bracelet slipped on without resistance.
Its circular shape was perfectly restored, and it settled comfortably on his wrist.
When he lightly attuned his magic to it, he felt no difference from when it was a bowl. The form had changed, but its essence and properties remained the same.
Would it really work properly?
Loan stimulated the grain of magic flowing in a circle along the bracelet's shape.
The bracelet lifted from his wrist, maintaining a constant distance as it began to rotate in place.
“Oooooh!”
The dwarves buzzed with excitement at this precursor to magic.
Loan gradually expanded the rotating grain of magic to envelop his arm, then his shoulder, his head, and finally his entire body.
The Convection surrounding his body was pushed away by the bracelet's power, scattering into the surroundings.
Dust spread out in concentric circles. At the same time,
with a flash, Loan's body seemed to stretch like light and vanished in an instant.
Just as those who witnessed Loan disappear from right in front of them let out cries and looked around, above, and to the sides,
Loan reappeared beside Bella, beyond the wall of dwarves, as if blinking into existence.
Naturally, Bella was startled to see Loan suddenly appear before her.
In truth, the moment he entered the spirit realm, he had located Bella's spiritual form and rematerialized beside her, but to those unaware, it must have looked like true teleportation.
“Oooooooh!”
The dwarves immediately changed direction, swarming over to surround both Loan and Bella.
Amid the flood of various exclamations, Loan gazed down at the bracelet.
As he reined in the flowing power, it settled back onto his wrist like an ordinary bracelet.
It was an experiment that confirmed both its potential and its limitations.
He realized he could use the bracelet in this way, not just for traversing the spirit realm.
However, doing so would inevitably require him to temporarily release the Convection surrounding his body.
He had to draw in Convection, resonate it with the bracelet, and then envelop his entire body with the power, which meant there were restrictions on using it consecutively.
But once he entered the spirit realm, he could travel instantly regardless of distance, making it a magical tool that was practically cheating.
“Thank you, Gradin. I really like it.”
“Hah... What did I do? Changing a material's properties while maintaining its abilities is hardly as easy as it sounds. In any case, I never knew it was something so incredible.”
The other dwarves looked at Gradin with envy.
It was only natural; for an object this magnificent, the creator's name was sure to be recorded in history.
Just as Alik had named Sheville, Loan asked Gradin to name the bracelet.
Gradin thought for a moment before speaking.
“I'll call it Iter.”
“Iter... It means 'journey'.”
Loan was quite fond of the bracelet's name.
It would be an excellent companion on any journey. And in a moment of crisis, it could be a chance for survival.
After bidding everyone farewell and expressing his gratitude, Loan headed for the Honor Division.
He intended to tell Werner he was leaving for Varchino first, but he was also curious about how much progress had been made in the research.
He also wanted to see the plague toxin and the insects with his own eyes one more time.
Werner was in the middle of a discussion with some mages.
When Loan said he would be leaving for Varchino first,
“Let's go together. It's been a while since I left the Magic Tower, and I'd like to see the sights.”
he suggested accompanying him instead.
Loan had no reason to refuse. He asked about his other matter.
“Have you made any progress regarding the plague toxin?”
Werner's lips twitched into a subtle smile, as if he had been waiting for that question.
“As a matter of fact, we've had a very surprising breakthrough. This way.”
As he walked ahead, a subtle excitement was visible in his posture.
What was he about to show him?
The place Werner led him to was one of the laboratories located in the innermost part of the Honor Division.
Unexpectedly, Sophie was standing guard at the entrance.
“Loan!”
“When did you get here?”
“A few days ago. The northern barrier is quite stable, so only a few remained behind while the Honor Division is returning to the Union. I came with the Commander as part of the advance team.”
Just then, the laboratory door opened, and Magda stepped out.
Loan's head naturally tilted up. Magda looked down at him with a very bright smile.
“We got here quickly thanks to you. You've been flashing all over the place, I see.”
“Ah...”
“Is it a type of magic that strains the body or mind?”
As always, her first instinct was to worry. It was also an insightful question.
Loan smiled faintly.
“Yes. Since it's a method of travel that dematerializes the physical body, there were side effects. But I've managed to overcome them and have countermeasures in place.”
“I'm sure you figured it out on your own. I was being nosy. Well done.”
Instead of patting Loan's head, Magda gently tidied a stray lock of his hair with her long fingernails.
She then gestured for him to go inside.
Opening the laboratory door and stepping inside, he was hit by a wave of cold. It was colder than one of Shion's blizzards.
Looking at the magic circles drawn on the ceiling and floor, it seemed magic had been implemented to drastically lower the temperature.
From behind him, Magda said,
“It's to prevent the plague toxin from escaping outside.”
Nodding, Loan thickened his Convection to block the cold and walked forward.
After passing through the cold section, a wall of fire spread out before him.
This, too, was made of magic.
Magda placed both hands lightly on Loan's shoulders and recited an incantation.
A transparent film enveloped Loan's entire body. More accurately, it formed a protective barrier outside his Convection.
“You can go in now.”
Following Magda's advice, Loan passed straight through the flames.
He didn't feel the heat at all. It was a simple but remarkably stable and effective barrier.
Only after passing through one more barrier of cold and one of heat could Loan finally see the main laboratory.
Inside the area, which was protected by two or three layers of safeguards, a significant amount of the plague toxin was being cultivated, and numerous mages were conducting experiments with it.
Werner said,
“It's quite a nasty piece of work. We succeeded in eradicating it, but there was the drawback of having to kill the infected person along with it.”
“Pretend you didn't hear that. Obviously, that can't be called a success.”
Magda picked up the conversation.
“Still, clearly confirming that fact is important. In other words, it proves that while this plague toxin combines, replicates, and divides on its own, the mutations in that process ultimately lead to its weakening and demise.”
Werner shot a glare at Magda for embarrassing him before speaking.
“All solutions involve some trial and error.”
“In any case, if this plague toxin doesn't find a living host, it will naturally disappear over time, but that period is very long. If re-contact occurs before it's sufficiently weakened, the timer resets. Just inhaling it from the air is a problem.”
If it touches the skin, cutting it off immediately can increase the chances of survival, but once it gets inside, it's difficult to handle.
If perfect quarantine isn't achieved, it's a toxin that can cause an outbreak at any time.
Loan, too, knew that there was no suitable solution.
After his mind became sharper, he had reviewed his own research on the plague toxin,
but even if he had found a way to alter the toxin's nature, it would clearly be difficult to do anything once it had already affected the body.
However, something Magda said particularly caught Loan's attention.
“Did you say re-contact before it's sufficiently weakened? Then, if contact is made when the plague toxin is in a weakened state, can the damage be reduced?”
At his follow-up question, Magda and Werner looked at each other with surprised expressions.
“As expected...”
Werner shook his head. Magda answered.
“Yes. I started with the premise that a complete cure is impossible. So, I had no choice but to shift the goal from treatment to prevention.”
“Ah...”
A paradigm shift.
A series of methods for doing so unfolded in Loan's mind.
Among them, the most plausible one was related to weakening the plague toxin.
Indeed, what came from Magda's lips was the same as Loan's thought.
She pointed to a sealed glass bottle on the table.
“These are samples showing the process of the plague toxin's demise in sequence. Its power gradually weakens, then becomes strongest right before it disappears.”
Each glass bottle contained a magic circle that expressed the toxin's strength through the intensity of its color.
Indeed, the red hue grew progressively fainter, until the last bottle, which showed an intense color.
This was presumably the one right before dissipation.
Magda pointed to the faintest one.
“We used the toxin from this weakened phase to create an antigen. We tested it on rats and unpurifiable ghouls, and then on a captured dark priest. It was effective, but not fatal.”
“A dark priest?”
Loan's gaze naturally followed to where Werner was pointing.
It was the very same dark priest he had captured in Versa and dragged along with Convection, the one he had later asked the Security Division seniors to transport. He was inside an area isolated by an ice barrier.
They had likely been conducting torture for information and plague toxin tests concurrently.
The process must have been quite painful.
The man who had been so glad to be rid of Loan,
“Oh... What took you so long?”
was now welcoming him.