Small Fragments of Darkness (5)
Thanks to placing a fragment of Ifrit's flame in Babel, the magicians' village, I was able to enter without any real pushback. On top of that, Ifrit must've felt sorry for the humans living in such a scorching environment, because he absorbed some of the surrounding heat and cooled things down a bit. That let me get on decent terms with the village chief who runs the place—a pretty positive outcome, all things considered. The village is super exclusive to outsiders who aren't fellow magicians, after all. Without that kind of help, getting close would've been tough.
I could've probably snuck in disguised as a magician, but... the position I'm aiming for isn't just blending in as one of them. I want to be the one inspecting the mana stones coming into the village. Ah, but I don't need to do the inspections myself. I can just whip up some magic or tool to handle it. Either way, I still need to build a connection with the chief.
And so, I got acquainted with Babel's chief and, after a bit of persuasion, landed the job of checking incoming mana stones. What follows is a summary of my conversation with him.
"Thank you for bringing that sacred flame. Thanks to it, the village temperature has dropped a lot, making it much more livable. But how did you cross that scorching Blazing Desert?"
"That's a secret. More importantly, in exchange for leaving this flame here, I'd like to ask one favor."
"What kind of favor? If it's within my power to grant, I will."
"I've heard a lot of outside mana stones come into this village. I'd like you to let me handle their inspection."
"Why would you want to do something like that? Mana stones are crucial materials for our main export, magic scrolls, and they're managed very carefully..."
"Some mana stones carry dangerous energy. A tiny amount of dark energy. Ignoring it and using them could lead to big problems."
"But..."
"If you don't want to, no hard feelings. I'll take the sacred flame back. I brought it out of pity for your villagers, but if you can't even grant this, oh well."
"S-Sorry! Please reconsider! I'll make the position for you right away!"
Yeah, with some half-baked persuasion like that, I got the gig inspecting incoming mana stones. Of course, I didn't do it alone—the chief assigned one extra helper.
"Are you the one who brought that flame?"
"That's right."
The young magician stared at me—or more precisely, at my horns. His eyes screamed, What kind of human has these?
"Why would you want to do something as tedious as inspecting mana stones?"
"Hm? Didn't the chief tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"Never mind. You'll figure it out soon enough once you see it."
With that lackluster exchange, the young man and I opened the door to the warehouse storing incoming mana stones. In the corner of the small room—maybe a few pyeong in size—sat a few wooden crates. That was the haul from one shipment.
"Don't even think about pocketing any mana stones on the sly. I'll be watching you with both eyes wide open."
"No worries. This much isn't worth anything to me."
What matters are the fragments of darkness hiding inside some of them.
I opened one of the crates, revealing it packed full of mana stones. Hmm. Up close, that's a fair amount. Inspecting them one by one... sounds like a pain. I could probably find them if I looked directly, but... the fragments are so tiny, and I'm so huge, it's no easy task. Like finding a single black grain in a desert of sand. Annoying and exhausting. Times like this call for tools, right?
Let's see. Make it shaped like a small hand trowel, something I can hold easily. Add precise detection to the scoop part for even the tiniest dark energy. Sound an alarm if it picks up anything. Control button on the handle so it only activates when pressed. Not bad for a quick make—looks pretty legit.
I scooped up some mana stones with my simple trowel-shaped detector and hit the button. No alarm, so I dumped them into an empty "cleared" crate. Ignoring the young man's puzzled stare from behind, I kept scooping. Then—
Beep—!
"Hm?! What's that noise?"
"Finally found one."
I removed about half the stones from the trowel, pressed the button again—no alarm—so I transferred the rest to the cleared crate. Then I tested half of what I'd set aside; no sound, so cleared. Sound? Halve again and repeat. After narrowing it down...
"Got it."
I'd isolated a pinky-nail-sized mana stone infused with a fragment of darkness.
"What's so special about that stone that you went to all that trouble?"
"Take a good look."
I pulled a black diamond from my pocket and held it to the stone. A tiny fragment of darkness seeped out and flowed into the diamond.
"Did something just come out of that mana stone?"
"Mm. Good eye. You've got sharp vision."
I'd figured he might miss it since it was so small, but luckily, he'd seen it clear as day.
"What was that just now...?"
"A tiny fragment of darkness. It lurks in a rare few mana stones."
In fact, after digging through nearly a whole crate, this was the only one.
"Like impurities mixed in. I'm the one collecting and sealing this energy."
"Sealing it...?"
The young man looked skeptical, but what could he do? He'd seen it with his own eyes.
"Can't just leave this energy be. This village gets the most of these stones, so... what might happen if we ignore the fragments? That's a secret."
"A secret? You say it so ominously, but it's just a secret?"
"One thing's for sure: it wouldn't be good for the world. Make scrolls with stones like this, and bad things could happen."
"Bad things... You don't mean it's connected to defective scrolls, do you?"
"Defective scrolls?"
I echoed back, and he explained calmly.
"Yes. It's rare, but sometimes perfectly made scrolls fail to activate, go way stronger than expected, or trigger completely different magic. People have gotten hurt or died because of it."
"Huh."
Defective scrolls, eh? Hadn't considered that. I'd chalked up the occasional mana explosions during scroll-making to failed crafting.
"Not certain, but it's possible. Want to test it?"
I pointed to the uninspected crates. Find a stone with a fragment, and we could experiment. But the young man shook his head vigorously.
"Trying it myself... that's a bit much. My life could be on the line."
Fair enough—not worth risking your neck. So, if we remove all the fragments and make scrolls without any defectives popping up... that'd probably confirm it.
"Anyway, if those fragments might cause defective scrolls, we can't ignore it. Could you make more detection tools?"
"Hm? More?"
"Yes. We'll pay well. If it cuts down on defectives, it's worth it."
Hmm. Money's not the issue. Ah! Right!
"No need for payment. Instead, send the stones with fragments to the Life Temple."
"The Life Temple? Are you connected to them somehow?"
"That's... a secret."
I pressed a finger to my lips for emphasis. Better to hand them off to the Life Temple, where I can control things, than leave them with humans.
"Have your people send them there, and I'll pick them up occasionally. Stones with fragments are useless to you anyway... saves you disposal costs, right?"
Better than trying to use them and causing issues—cleaner for the magicians.
"I'll talk to the chief about that. But he'll probably agree. Defective scrolls have been his headache too."
"Appreciate it."
If it goes through, it'll be super convenient.
And so, I made a few trowel detectors and handed them to the magicians. They finalized the deal to send fragment-infused stones to the Life Temple for me. Perfect. Way more efficient delegating than doing it myself. Use your brain, save your body. Now I just swing by the temple now and then to collect the darkness fragments from the stones. Clean and simple.
While setting up this system to slowly recover Erebos's fragments, I remembered something important I'd forgotten. For monsters humans or other races can hunt, this works fine... but what about ones too strong for them? Wait for humans to get stronger? Who knows how long that'd take? Lizardmen or giants could smash most monsters, but they're tied to their environments and can't roam freely...
Hmm...
I pondered deeply. What if I make lethal weapons for strong monsters and use them to absorb the fragments from their mana stones? Something like... the Hero's sword, say.