Chapter 201
Chapter 201
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Request
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Lim Gu-seong brought a woman the next day to drive the car.
The reason he'd found a driver was to load Ignis into the vehicle and send her off to Cheongju for some hunting.
"Ah, hello. I'm Gu Hye-jin."
A woman with an ordinary face and her hair tied back in a ponytail bowed her head in greeting.
I showed her the luxury van parked in the lot. Naturally, it was one I'd brought from the original world.
"Your job is to drive this vehicle back and forth to Cheongju every day. Think you can handle it?"
"Yes, yes! Just leave it to me."
"Ignis, she'll take you to the area crawling with those spider monsters. Your job is to clean up the beasts there."
Cheongju wasn't all that far. The roads had been steadily cleared using prisoners, so vehicles could travel there without much trouble.
"Understood. So the liege's orders are to wipe out the monster scum in that place."
"That's right. No need to push yourself too hard."
"Got it. Leave it to me."
Ignis thumped her ample chest confidently as she spoke.
I gazed fondly at her, the reliable source who would soon shower me with heaps of skill points.
To solve the water problem in the zombie world, I went looking for Lilliana.
"You're asking where the mansion's water comes from?"
"Yeah."
"I contracted with a water spirit."
"A spirit? Lilliana, you can handle spirits too?"
"It's not some contract where I command them like a spiritist would. These are spirits even weaker than the lowest grade—just faint wisps of consciousness. That's why even without a spiritist's affinity, a simple contract is possible."
"Can I do it too?"
"If you have my magic device and a mana stone, it's not hard. It's a straightforward contract that supplies water equal to the mana stone's capacity. Their consciousness is so dimmed they can't even take orders beyond that."
In the end, it all came down to mana stones again.
At this point, weren't they basically the dimensional reserve currency?
'I need to stockpile a ton of mana stones in the original world.'
I resolved to dump all the insane amounts of money piling up there into buying mana stones.
"The mansion's water comes from a contract bound directly to the estate itself. And this is something that came out of my research into it."
Lilliana showed me a metal magic device about the size of an orange, perfectly round, with mystical patterns engraved on its surface.
"This little thing?"
"See the hole? That's where the mana stone goes. I don't know about modifications, but you can't fit anything bigger than that hole. It'll steadily supply water until the mana stone runs dry."
The hole looked like it could just about fit a mana stone from a mid-grade Corrupted Being.
The real issue was whether it would work once I took it to the zombie world.
"How many do you have?"
"Just that one. It's a prototype I made to test before applying it to the mansion."
"Can't make more?"
"I can, but I'm out of materials."
"What kind?"
"Spirit stones, naturally. You probably have mana stones, so just get me spirit stones. Since it's contracts with ones weaker than the lowest grade, the spirit stone's rank doesn't matter."
Spirit stones, huh...
I figured I could test if it worked in the zombie world first, then decide.
"If I ask later, could you make a few more?"
"Hehe. You know the price, right?"
Lilliana shot me a greedy look as she spoke.
"Not enough even after all the blood I squeezed out for you?"
"Sigh... Un-ho, you really are stingy... The total blood you gave me doesn't even hit a liter. Pathetic for experiments!"
"Told you, should've done honest business."
Thanks to her attempted scam, I'd snagged a mid-tier grimoire for peanuts. A straight deal probably wouldn't have netted even a liter.
"Hmph!"
Lilliana turned away with an adorable sniff, looking miffed.
For now, I took the single magic water device she'd given me back to the zombie world to test if it really worked.
Eileen and Albert went to visit Charles, a comrade who'd entered the labyrinth with them. He'd injured his leg in the labyrinth and was recovering at an inn after treatment.
"How's Brother Charles's leg?"
"Uncle Charles, you okay?"
"Thanks, everyone. It's all thanks to you guys. All healed up."
Charles lightly lifted his leg to show he was fine.
Even after becoming Park Un-ho's disciples, Albert and Eileen would drop by the inn now and then to check on Charles.
When Albert had been laid up after getting thrashed by Ignis, Eileen had often come to check on Charles.
Having shared life-and-death struggles, their camaraderie was truly tight-knit.
"Speaking of, it's been a while, Albert. What happened to you?"
"Haha, brother... Embarrassing, but I ended up bedridden for a few days from master's training too."
Albert scratched his head sheepishly.
Charles felt a pang of envy toward the bashful Albert.
He couldn't help it.
While Charles had been laid up with his leg injury, Albert had become a sword master's disciple.
A sword master, of all things...
For someone from a backwater village like him, even dreaming of such a figure was a stretch—becoming a knight's squire was reality's harsh barrier.
So when he heard Albert had become a sword master's disciple... the envy had twisted into something uglier: jealousy.
Tormented that he'd felt that toward a cherished little brother he'd adventured with for so long, Charles had spent sleepless nights.
A glint of resolve entered Charles's eyes.
He dropped to his knees before Albert and pressed his forehead to the floor.
"Al-Albert!!"
"Brother Charles?! What's this all of a sudden?"
Albert was startled by Charles suddenly prostrating himself.
"Just one favor!!"
"Brother, between us, what favor? Just tell me. No need for this. Get up."
"I'm so jealous of you. A sword master's disciple... I know it's shameless, but please, just let me meet him once!"
"Brother Charles..."
Albert looked at the prostrated Charles with guilt dawning in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, brother. I was thoughtless. I've been clueless to your feelings this whole time... just bragging away. This isn't something to feel shameless about. Anyone would envy it—my fault for not noticing."
"Sorry."
Albert helped the prostrated Charles to his feet.
"Brother Charles! Don't worry! I'll take responsibility and talk to master about it!"
"R-Really?! Th-Thank you! Albert!!"
"No need for that between us. Compared to how you led us clueless rookies back in our adventurer days, this is nothing."
Charles gripped Albert's hand tightly, his face full of emotion.
Their heartwarming camaraderie warmed the inn room.
However, Eileen's face, watching the scene, was shadowed faintly.
Getting water running in the apartment wasn't that tough.
Just fill the rooftop water tank.
If Lilliana's magic item worked, water worries in the zombie world were solved.
"My lord, this tiny thing can supply water? Then it's an incredible treasure."
Seolhwa stared in admiration at the metal sphere engraved with mystical patterns in my hand.
An ordinary person wouldn't believe it, but she took my word as gospel.
"Not sure yet. We'll see when we try."
As Lilliana had instructed, I slotted a D-rank mana stone into the device's hole.
The engraved patterns began to glow faintly, and a small, transparent orb of water formed right before my eyes.
"Th-This is..."
Seolhwa gasped at the sight.
I felt a connection through the magic device to the spirit. And I understood why Lilliana called it weaker than the lowest grade.
A thin, fragmented emotion—like intent—flowed through.
《Want... mana...》
'If you want mana, keep this full of water always.'
《Yes... promise...》
The water orb slowly floated toward the tank and slipped inside. As the mana stone's power drained, water gushed from the tiny droplet.
-Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.
Clean water began filling the tank in an instant.
Seolhwa gawked at the spectacle, mouth agape and eyes blinking rapidly.
"This... is insane..."
Wasn't this too good to be true?
I didn't know how long it would last, but...
Lilliana had warned not to let the device get too far from the spirit.
As long as I managed the distance properly, built a secure spot to store the device, and kept an eye on depletion to swap mana stones, it should be fine.
For now, the water supply artifacts were urgently needed in two places: Cheonbu Gate and the survivor camp.
Since they didn't require high-grade spirit stones, acquiring them wasn't hard.
The magic shops in Slumber sold them too, though they were rare enough to command a steep price.
I bought two on the spot for the urgent needs and had Lilliana make more artifacts.
But this was something I might need to keep using in the zombie world ongoing.
I'd bought spirit stones out of urgency, sure.
But shelling out that much gold every time felt wasteful.
"Master, low-grade spirit stones can be obtained on the labyrinth's 4th floor."
Fortunately, Marie had dug up the info from the Adventurer's Guild.
The 4th floor was low-level.
Should I go myself?
It didn't suit my level at all.
I couldn't even pick up quests there.
Might as well hit the 11th floor for gold and buy them—that'd be the better deal.
Way too inefficient.
'Just flex and farm them?'
On second thought, nah.
Coldly put, this was for the survivors, not me.
I didn't feel like burning my own gold on it.
As I paced the mansion pondering what to do,
"Master~!"
Only two people called me like that.
Unfortunately, it wasn't Eileen's lovely voice.
My irritation spiked.