Curiosity
Curiosity
[ Magical Pharmacological Analysis of the Blood Rock Sect's Corruption-Inducing Substance ]
- Subjects addicted to the substance exhibited the following characteristics: pronounced aggression, amplification of negative emotions (especially feelings of inferiority), and a tendency to accept physical harm.
- Of particular note, all substances producing such effects demonstrated potential utility as Blood Rock Sect brainwashing agents. Further targeted research appears warranted.
...And the last one: a paper from the Society of Magical Pharmacology.
Ian stretched after finishing every book on the Blood Rock Sect that the librarian had recommended.
Most of it confirmed what he already knew, though he'd also gleaned a fair number of more concrete details.
"Looks like the high-grade intel you have to buy through the guilds."
At the end of most of the books, a line read: [ For the latest and most detailed information, please inquire with XX Guild. ]
Given the nature of the Blood Rock Sect, it stood to reason that related information carried substantial value.
"Works in my favor, honestly."
Ian possessed information as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
If that information commanded a high price, so much the better.
He couldn't just sell it indiscriminately, though.
The fact that information commanded high prices meant it held commensurate worth. Carelessly selling off a piece of intel could ripple back and affect the story.
So he planned to approach any sale of information with caution.
The first option was to leverage Sylvia as a patron—someone with at least a baseline grasp of the subject matter.
The second was to peddle minor intelligence through Kirtos's anonymous chat.
He'd already roughed out the concept for that second approach.
"While I've got the time, maybe I'll go ahead and register."
Tucked away in a quiet corner of the library.
Ian pulled out his Kirtos terminal.
And opened a room.
【 ★FREE TODAY ONLY★ Authenticated Divinations from a Master! Free readings—today only. (First 3 people) 】
"Title like that ought to do the job, right?"
How to sell information as safely as possible.
After mulling it over, he'd settled on the faintly niche method of fortune-telling.
His reason for occupying this ambiguous position was simple.
'Because I won't have to disclose the specifics of what I know.'
Suppose, for example, the academy grounds were going to violently shake sometime tomorrow...
- Much anger plagues you. You appear to be enduring, yet a knot rests in your heart. Anger is fire. The issue is not yours alone. Such fury must eventually erupt, and that moment draws near. Mind what lies beneath your feet for roughly three days.
Just that level of vague explanation.
The truth was, Ian had zero confidence he could deliver it convincingly.
'But people who are into this sort of thing will hear a mess and interpret it like gospel.'
He had the shamelessness to pull it off.
After all, didn't he actually know real facts?
Once word of mouth built up a bit, getting his hands on some operating funds would be quick work.
And with Sylvia as a solid patron, he had no intention of getting greedy.
Next, the instructions.
He typed out a simple usage guide below the chat window, the kind that would display automatically.
— A diviner trained under the tutelage of the Great Oracle Mano.
— For an accurate consultation, please provide the client's name, faculty, age, and other personal details in as much detail as possible.
* Direct chat inquiries are respectfully declined. Please observe proper decorum.
"Hm, hm. Good."
Ian nodded in satisfaction at the truth-laden phrasing.
How did he receive tutelage from a great oracle?
Back when he played Fanta X Aca, he'd raised an oracle character and gotten an EXP book from that very Great Oracle Mano.
"Makes me a disciple, doesn't it."
That was enough bait.
Ian rose from his seat.
He'd check back in a few hours to see if any fish had bitten.
◆
"I need an offensive tool."
North side of the academy.
A place where perilously jutting peaks stretched out as though threatening anyone who ventured near.
Ian was trekking through its foothills with Sylvia and a hired guide.
"...You called out of the blue. Was this what you had in mind?"
"What, were you expecting something else?"
"Huh? No, I was not! You said there was a hidden dungeon, so..."
There was indeed a hidden dungeon here.
The goal: find a usable attack item.
He'd been leaning on earth magic—physical at its core—but it had its limits in explosive power and range. That was the nature of extraction and transmutation abilities: the farther the target from the caster's body, the exponentially harder they became.
In short, for the scenario looming right in front of him, he needed a little help from his gear.
The reason he'd lured Sylvia along was to offload the guide's hiring fee. On top of that, if things got dicey, she could serve as combat support, and it gave him a chance to demonstrate his own information-gathering prowess to his patron. Wins all around.
"This is the spot."
The moment the guide stopped, Sylvia sidled up and whispered.
"Is this really the place? What kind of hidden dungeon is supposed to be out here?"
Leaving a grumbling Sylvia behind, Ian bowed his head to the guide.
"This far is sufficient. Thank you."
As soon as he sent the guide back, Sylvia looked flustered.
"W-wait a moment. Do you even know the way back?"
"Don't worry."
This was the very edge of the northern mountain foothills.
The guiding magic from the map that had been sent out with the combat training announcement still lingered; he could use that for navigation on the return.
Ian descended further in.
After a brief bout of grumbling, Sylvia followed right behind him.
A V-shaped valley where the energies of two mountain ridges converged.
After wandering beneath it for a short while, he discovered a small burrow.
"This is the entrance."
"...That's the entrance? There's nothing here."
Sylvia swiveled her head around.
To the right, to the left—nothing but the mountain ridges.
"What kind of nonsense are you—"
Ian placed his hand on the ground.
"See this hole?"
"...Yes. Looks like a snake burrow."
"This is the entrance."
"...What do you mean?"
Swallowing her retort, Sylvia closed her eyes.
She must have been using mana detection.
Her eyes instantly grew round.
"It's real! I can feel mana inside, but only through this hole! But how do we get in? The hole's way too small."
"We dig."
"...We dig? Just the two of us?"
Despite her bewilderment, Sylvia started rolling up her sleeves.
Something about the sight radiated such practical life experience that Ian inadvertently let out a snicker.
"What are you laughing at?!"
Leaving the irate Sylvia behind, Ian placed his hand on the ground.
"Hmph!"
Then a deep breath.
Extraction and transmutation.
The excavated earth piled up to one side in an instant.
The burrow was now wide enough for one person to enter at a time.
Sylvia's eyes went round.
"Wh-what, how did you move that much dirt at once?! Have you been hiding your strength this whole time?!"
Hiding his strength, her ass.
Heavy equipment work had always been the most specialized domain of the original Pongpongi.
It was just that the endlessly esoteric techniques the academy taught never gave him a chance to show it.
"Cut the jabbering and let's go in."
After a moment of bafflement, Sylvia pattered in right behind Ian.
The earthen tunnel lasted only a moment.
A cave soon unfurled before them.
At the sight, Sylvia murmured without thinking.
"A real, actual dungeon. I can't believe there was an uncharted dungeon right near Lichten Academy."
Hundreds of guilds, small and mid-sized combined, operated around Lichten Academy. It was a given that they'd scoured every possible location. And yet a completely unknown dungeon had been sitting here?
Sylvia stared vacantly at Ian's back as he walked ahead.
◆
Sylvia was, fundamentally, a busy person.
But her brand of "busy" existed on a different plane from other people's "busy," because she was the heir to a massive trading company and its deputy guild master.
As a result, most of her daily life was work.
Which meant she'd never had the slightest interest in people who weren't business-related.
But lately, that had changed.
There was someone who piqued her curiosity.
— [Ian]: Sylvia. You free? Let's go somewhere for a bit. Right now.
When that Kirtalk message first arrived.
Of course she wasn't free.
Sylvia was on the verge of her head exploding from a deluge of company work.
And yet, before she knew it, she'd replied:
— I have time to hear what it's about, at least. What is it?
Ian Blackangus.
This man provoked her curiosity.
The Ian she was experiencing was a completely different person from the one in the rumors.
The Ian Blackangus everyone talked about was a guy who hit on anything that moved, displayed bizarre obsessive behavior when rejected, and consequently dragged every ugly rumor in existence behind him wherever he went.
But the Ian she had experienced?
He pinpointed monster weaknesses. When she offered compensation, instead of a confession, he requested some random rock. He then strapped that rock to his back, calling it a magic staff. She'd watched his once-scrawny frame gradually put on muscle. And if you sent him a Kirtalk, you'd be lucky to get a reply within ten hours.
'...What is this person?'
To Sylvia, Ian was someone who brought her curiosity to a maddening boil.
And that person had messaged her first.
She'd thrown work and everything else aside and come running.
'Because he knows the Frost Bear's weakness and might actually be a hidden heavyweight, that's why!'
She repeated that excuse in her head to soothe her conscience, but the truth was, she'd simply been curious.
And now... here she was, inside the dungeon.
"You really don't disappoint, do you."
"Hm? You say something?"
"Nothing at all."
Gazing at Ian as he walked ahead, Sylvia felt her curiosity balloon even further.
'...Did he change?'
She'd noticed from the moment they'd first met—in that mud pit in the corner of the Aether Class building—that Ian was changing.
But this degree of transformation bordered on a complete rebirth.
He knew the location of a dungeon no one else had found, and he'd excavated in a single burst what would have taken several people hours of toil.
'...Or was he hiding his strength all along?'
The Ian walking ahead of her, calmly outlining the dungeon's layout, was impossibly intriguing.
"...Inside, it's probably going to be mostly trash mobs. It isn't a very big dungeon. The boss, though, requires a bit of caution. The reward, on the other hand, is substantial."
Even his dungeon briefing was impeccably clean. And his voice was cool—no, composed.
She'd become curious about the person called Ian.
Just how much strength was he hiding, how many things did he know, and what kind of past had he lived.
'No, wait.'
Sylvia suddenly realized something.
So focused had she been on Ian that she'd let slip something she shouldn't have glossed over.
"H-hold on. About dividing the reward!"