The Great Desert
Satou here. The word desert makes me think of Arabian Nights . A magic carpet, a genie in a lamp, riding a camel, getting blown off course by a sandstorm and stumbling into a mirage city… It’s all very mystical and exciting.
“One, two, three… Only ten giant golems? Don’t underestimate me.”
Tossing her lavender hair over her shoulder, Arisa held out her emerald-green staff, made with a clearbough from the World Tree.
She pointed it beyond the sand dunes that shimmered in the heat haze, where ten twenty-foot golems were charging toward her, kicking up sand.
“Disintegrate!”
Moments after she spoke, an advanced Space Magic spell burst forth from her staff, forming spatial waves that overtook the golems.
Vwoop! With a strange sucking sound, chunks of the golems’ torsos disappeared.
MVA.
MWA.
MOWA.
The golems’ final cries echoed forth as they crumbled away.
I’d created them using Stone Object and Create Earth Servant, but even though they were each level 30, they’d been destroyed as easily as papier-mâché.
At this rate, Arisa could probably take on a whole city’s army unharmed.
“Heh-heh, piece of cake.”
Twirling her green staff, Arisa smirked triumphantly.
She was wearing a cutesy magical-girl-style outfit, but somehow her expression made her look more like an unfortunate minor character.
“Arisa, amaaazing?”
“Piece of meat, sir!”
Tama, with her short white hair and cat ears and tail, and Pochi, with a brown bob cut and dog ears and a tail, went running up to praise Arisa.
We were in the desert to the west of Labyrinth City to test out their new equipment, so the pair was also wearing their new full-body round armor.
I’d gone heavy on the orichalcum in the alloy that made up this new armor; unlike the blue prototype armor, this version was sparkling gold. The interior used the shock-resistant silver hide of the giant monster fish.
It was a little too flashy, so I’d had them wear the prototype round armor with a plain-looking veneer when we went back to Labyrinth City.
Since we weren’t planning on any close combat today, they weren’t wearing their helmets, which would have limited their vision.
“Arisa, watch out.”
“Whuh? …Yeek!”
Arisa got swept up in the tidal wave of sand created by her own magic.
She must not have put up a Space Magic defense wall.
I used my Magic Hand, a sort of magical telekinesis, to pull Arisa out of the sand.
Tama and Pochi had quickly fled and were hiding behind Nana.
“Blech, my mouff iff all gritty… Thanks, master.”
I put down the sand-covered Arisa and used Everyday Magic to clean her up.
A quick inspection confirmed that her magical-girl-style dress armor was unharmed. I had made the metal parts of this one into an orichalcum alloy, too, so it was sparkly gold like Pochi’s and Tama’s.
“Arisa, are you all right?”
Liza, a scalefolk girl with her crimson hair braided behind her, knelt in front of Arisa to check on her.
Her characteristic tail and the orange scales around her hands and neck were hidden by her armor.
Making metal armor that could hide her tail was actually pretty difficult. To cover the gaps, I’d combined a flexible orichalcum alloy and cloth weaved from the silver hide of a giant monster fish.
“I’m fiiine! I just let my guard down a little too soon.”
Arisa smiled back at the worried-looking Liza.
“Master, I have completed assessment of the armor’s new Fortress function and the Space Magic Floating Shield movement capabilities, I report.”
Nana, a homunculus who looked like a high school–age human, gave her report with her usual blank expression.
The defense wall feature of her new armor had protected her completely from the sand wave, so not a single strand of her long golden hair was out of place.
I’d installed this Fortress function for withstanding attacks from extra-large monsters like areamasters.
It used components from Space Magic spells like Dimension Pile and Deracinator so it could create a thirty-foot-tall, fifty-foot-wide transparent defense wall, capable of stopping large-scale attacks regardless of the user’s own physical strength.
However, because it couldn’t be moved once it was placed, one had to choose carefully the timing and location in which to use it.
Because of these properties, and the way the lines I used to reinforce it looked like a stone wall, I’d decided to call it Fortress.
It originally used a high-cost magic circuit designed for defending a base, so it had to be charged with a magic furnace or a Holytree Stone engine, like the umbrella equipped on the prototype armor.
“Master, the folding-style umbrella works well, too.”
Lulu was in front, holding a parasol-like defense wall.
Her long, straight black hair was resplendent in the desert sun, enhancing her charming beauty.
The fancy maid-style golden armor didn’t hurt, either.
“Looks like the expansion speed and the connection with the Holytree Stone circuits are fine, too. What about the folding mechanism?”
“It’s perfect.”
The transparent defense wall hovering over the parasol folded up and disappeared back into it.
Just as I thought. A parasol complements a maid outfit so well.
Arisa and Mia wanted their own, so I would have to make more later.
“Satou.”
Mia came over and clung to my side.
Looking down, I saw her slightly pointed elf ears peeking out from beneath her light-turquoise pigtails.
Her equipment had a gold base like Arisa’s, but the fabric parts were blue as opposed to Arisa’s red.
“Can I?”
“You want to test out your Spirit Summoning?”
“Mm.”
I nodded permission; I’d gotten good at understanding Mia’s short sentences.
Mia held up her new staff, built specifically for summoning spirits, and started a Spirit Magic chant.
This elemental staff was made from a bough of the World Tree and Earth Pearls. It consumed one pearl each time it was used, but in exchange, it dramatically saved on magic power usage.
“… ? Create Sand Giant Suna Shouryou Souzou.”
When Mia’s spell was complete, the sand at her feet rose and formed a gigantic humanoid shape.
The sand giant was level 40, but it was highly resistant to physical attacks, especially cutting and piercing attacks. Like Nana’s Fortress, it was perfect for defending against giant monsters.
“Less magic.”
Mia was probably saying that the spell used less magic power this time than it had when she used it in Bolenan Forest.
“Maybe it’s because you used the sand here?” Arisa suggested. “Or perhaps the elemental staff helped?”
“Mm. Both.”
“Huh. Then maybe we should bring a bunch of sand next time we fight a giant monster.”
“Please.”
Mia nodded.
“All righty. Garage!”
Arisa used the Space Magic spell without a chant, and a white rectangle appeared over the sand.
This spell created a subspace in which the user could store things. In Arisa’s case, it could create a space around the size of an old-fashioned Japanese house. Magic was required to open and close the space, but unlike the “Item Box” skill, taking objects out or placing them inside didn’t exhaust any magic. It could also store living creatures like golems.
“Mia, order the dirt giant to put sand in the Garage, will you?”
“Mrrr. Sand giant.”
Correcting Arisa’s mistake, Mia ordered her spirit creation to pour sand into the Garage opening.
I’ll pick up some spare sand later, too.
“All right, let’s try Lulu’s Acceleration Gun next.”
I pointed at a golem that I’d sent past the sand dunes as her test-fire target.
“R-right!”
Lulu produced a vivid black rifle from her Fairy Pack.
I used the spike Lulu had received from the black dragon Hei Long to create the barrel of this gun. The handle and other details were even made from Hei Long’s scales.
The rifle was around the length of a spear, too long to be held like a normal rifle, so it had to be supported at the hip and secured with magic before firing.
Arisa wanted me to make the barrel break-action-style, as seen in manga such as The Five Star Stories, but I refused, since it would be less powerful that way.
“Let’s just use normal bullets for now.”
I handed Lulu some steel ammunition.
Lulu produced a cable from her battle-maid outfit and connected it to the back of the Acceleration Gun.
“I’ll put magic power into the cylinder now. Charge!”
BEEP.
When Lulu said the trigger word, an electronic noise was emitted from the Acceleration Gun, and the cylinder attached to its back snapped up. Then power ran from the cable connected to the Holytree Stone furnace hidden in the maid outfit’s subspace and into the gun, charging it rapidly.
The magic cylinder had a 32 gauge, which could be adjusted to change the strength of the gun.
“It might be better to charge it before battle.”
“Y-yes.”
The magic cylinder began to emit a blue glow.
“Activating virtual barrel… Spread!”
BEEP-BOOP.
A sixty-foot energy barrel appeared in front of the Acceleration Gun.
Lulu peered through the scope, aiming it at the far-off golem.
“Targeting complete. Activating Dimension Pile to hold barrel in place… Hold.”
An invisible stake suspended the long, heavy barrel of the Acceleration Gun in place.
It would probably be better to stabilize the barrel with Dimension Pile before activating the virtual barrel. I recorded this note in the memo tab of the social-networking column.
“Activating acceleration magic circle… Accelerate.”
PING.
The Acceleration Gun was supplied with three shots’ worth of energy from the magic cylinder’s gauge, and three magic circles appeared around the barrel.
“Firing.”
Lulu pulled the Acceleration Gun’s trigger.
There was a loud boom as the bullet fired from the barrel, leaving a red streak in the air as it hit its target and blew the golem to pieces.
“It’s a lot stronger than the guns you’ve used so far.”
“With three acceleration magic circles, it can reach subsonic speeds.”
I had used the Acceleration Gate spell from one of the scrolls I received through the collection request I placed at the explorers’ guild.
I had added the disposable virtual barrel because of the required distance to accelerate the bullet with Acceleration Gate and the way the sudden acceleration would burn up the barrel.
I was also nearly finished creating a floating fortress with five Magic Cannons. But based on the amount of power and required magic for that project, I’d prioritized this Acceleration Gun first.
“Subsonic, huh? C’mon—make something that could at least beat a rail gun.”
As usual, Arisa casually spouted a ridiculous suggestion.
“A rail gun? How fast are those again?”
“I heard they can reach Mach 20.”
That sounds pretty insane.
“I can’t make it go twenty times faster than this.”
With that, I inspected Lulu’s Acceleration Gun.
Thanks to the virtual barrel, the real barrel was only slightly heated, with no actual damage to the individual components.
“How was the recoil, Lulu?”
“There was none at all, sir. It’s quite different from any live ammo gun I’ve used so far.”
So it had no recoil? Maybe I should try to make it even better than a rail gun, then.
I’d have to test some things out for myself first, though.
“But since you have to shoot it with the barrel so low, it’s a bit difficult to aim. And I think it might be easily affected by the wind.”
“I’ll work on improving the sights next, then. And I might be able to steady the bullets’ trajectory with rifling.”
I’d chosen not to use rifling—spiral grooves carved on the inside of the barrel—this time in order to reach subsonic speeds.
If I wanted to improve the acceleration and the accuracy, maybe I should add rifling to the virtual barrel instead?
That way, there wouldn’t be any wear and tear on the actual barrel.
“More importantly, master, can’t you get rid of all those beeps and boops?”
“Doesn’t that make it easier to tell what’s happening?”
“I dunno… It kinda takes all the coolness out of it.”
Wait, really?
I looked at Lulu for confirmation, and she hesitated, then nodded slightly.
“All right. I’ll see if I can get it to speak, then.”
“Let the great Arisa choose the lines for when it fires and stuff!”
I don’t even know if it’s going to work yet… She always gets so carried away.
If I could actually find a way to produce voice clips, I might be able to make tools that could chant spells and things like that.
“Master, I wish to test the new Foundation Flexible Sword as well, I request.”
With that, Nana created a transparent sword with her Foundation ability.
It was based on the code from the Practical Magic spell Flexible Shield but altered to produce a sword instead.
It was primarily for parrying and driving away swarms of enemies, so it wouldn’t work against stronger foes. At best, the sword was only about as strong as an iron sword forged by me, but since it was based on shield code, it was fairly sturdy.
“I’ll produce a golem for you to test it on.”
“Understood, I declare.”
I thought about various issues as I watched Nana fight the golem with her Flexible Sword.
“It’s pretty boring.”
“And fighting with a transparent weapon seems to be more trouble than it’s worth.”
Arisa and Liza offered their opinions.
“It’s only for support anyway, so that seems about right, doesn’t it?”
Since it moved semiautomatically, there wasn’t much strain on the user, but that meant its movements were also a little easy to read.
But I figured that was a fair trade-off; this balance seemed preferable.
“Our enhancements are coming along nicely.”
“Well, beating a floormaster looks tough, so I want to make sure you’re all as well equipped as possible.”
I nodded at the satisfied-looking Arisa, then looked around at the others.
They had all gotten even stronger since they first fought an areamaster just a month ago.
They’d retrained with the elf teachers in Bolenan Forest, learned new moves, and improved on their cooperation. The elves also helped me work on new equipment for them.
After we saved Zarigon and wound up bringing down an areamaster, they’d kept on leveling up. By the time they were level 47, they’d beaten more than twenty of them, which, combined with the ones I’d beaten on my own, meant we’d exterminated most of the areamasters in the Upper Stratum of the labyrinth.
We would probably have to start hunting in the Middle Stratum instead pretty soon.
Our private orphanage and soup kitchen in Labyrinth City were both basically running themselves without any help from me except financial support now, which helped me really focus on training my party and exploring the labyrinth.
We were starting classes for kids who wanted to become explorers, too, but because I had hired people to run those, there wasn’t much more to be done on my end.
I still had other land and buildings that I’d bought along with our mansion, so I was thinking about opening an explorers’ school, but that wasn’t in the works yet.
I would probably have to come up with hunting grounds where the students could get hands-on practice in the field first.
“That’s it for testing out new equipment. Arisa and Mia, I’ll need you to learn about five new chants each. Is that all right?”
“Okey-dokey.”
“Mm. Sure.”
The manufacturing devices I used to develop new equipment couldn’t produce right-angled magic circuits, so they weren’t suited to making magic tools that required durability, like armor and weapons.
As a result, I used the devices to produce prototypes, but I still needed Arisa’s and Mia’s magic for the final touches.
“Flying Shoes? Did you make these?”
When Arisa spotted the shoes I’d taken out of my bag, her eyes widened.
“No, these were a salvage find. I thought they’d be handy to wear while testing these Floating Boards. Even if someone falls, they won’t get hurt.”
Next I produced a surfboard-size magic tool and placed it beside the shoes.
Like the Floating Shield, the board was a magic tool that used the Practical Magic spell Floating Board and could hover in the air if infused with magic.
I ran some magic into the board to make it float, and the girls all stared at it in wonder.
“Whaaa—?”
“Can it fly through the sky, sir?”
“No, it only goes up to waist height or so.”
Like the original spell, the height coincided with the amount of magic spent, so that was the maximum limit for this one.
Unlike the Flying Shoes, though, the board didn’t require any rare ingredients to make. That meant I could probably mass-produce them like my Magic Swords.
I wasn’t sure if they’d catch on, but I thought they could theoretically be useful for carrying luggage or preventing carts from jostling around.
I had a feeling they might already be in use in places I hadn’t yet visited, however.
“Fuuun?”
“Want to try it?”
“Aye-aye!”
I lifted Tama onto the Floating Board, and the other kids all gathered around.
“I want to ride, too, sir!”
“Master, I wish to ride as well, I request.”
I agreed to let each of them try riding it with my assistance first before flying solo.
In the meantime, I took out the next magic tool and set it on a dune.
“What’s this one?”
“A prototype I developed before I made Lulu’s Acceleration Gun to test out the magic circuit.”
“I thought it was some kinda weird gate.”
Since the original spell was called Acceleration Gate, I’d made this prototype into a hexagonal frame to test it out.
“Try throwing a rock through it.”
“Whoa, that’s fun!”
As soon as the rock Arisa tossed went through the Acceleration Gate, it zoomed away at a high speed.
“Maybe you could use it as a catapult or something?”
“Like, Satou, heading out?”
“Yeah, exactly!”
I imitated a line from a well-known mech anime, and Arisa nodded rapidly, like I’d read her mind.
So I lightly jogged up to the Acceleration Gate and passed through it.
It felt like my body was being pulled, and I zipped forward at what must have been around forty miles an hour.
“Master, Arisa informed me that you are developing a magic tool for rapid acceleration to the battlefield. Please allow me to help you test it as well.”
When I got back, I glared at Arisa for having fun at the ever-serious Liza’s expense.
Arisa was hiding behind Lulu in an apologetic pose; she probably hadn’t actually expected Liza to take her seriously.
“Mind helping me out, then?”
At that, Liza nodded enthusiastically.
As soon as Liza and I started testing it, Pochi, Tama, and Nana lined up to help. Even the rear guard joined in to measure distances.
“Heading ouuut!”
Holding a Floating Board, Tama zipped through three Acceleration Gates, zooming forward at subsonic speeds.
One gate alone provided plenty of speed, but when we tested how far it could go, we determined that my group could withstand up to three Acceleration Gates with “Body Strengthening” in place thanks to the superhuman physique they had at level 47.
Obviously, because going at supersonic speeds would be dangerous for their bodies, I forbade that.
Of course, even subsonic speeds were still dangerous, so I had them all wear full-body armor and helmets for safety.
WHUMP! While riding the Floating Board, Tama crashed into a sand dune.
“Arisaaa, how faaar?” Tama shouted.
“Let me see… 3,640 feet.”
“Yaaay, a new recooord—?”
“It is! Congratulations.”
Equipped with a megaphone, Arisa was calling out the numbers from a measuring device.
“Amazing, Tama, sir. I won’t lose, either, sir!”
Spinning her arms, Pochi worked up speed and jumped into the Acceleration Gate.
There was a tiny pop! and Pochi shot forward.
“…Ah!”
Losing her balance in midair, Pochi went into a tailspin and crashed down into the sand.
Before she did, her round armor’s emergency spherical defense wall had activated—she was probably fine.
Sure enough, she came flailing up out of the sand.
“Pbbbt. I failed, sir.”
She shook herself off like a dog, sand spraying in all directions.
“3,116 feet, Pochi. Better luck next time.”
“I’m ashamed, sir.”
“Don’t worry, Pochi…”
“I’ll do better next time, sir!”
Pochi struck a pose and came running back to challenge Tama’s record again.
Liza and Nana tried it next, but both were heavier than Tama and Pochi, so they landed in the range of two thousand feet.
“Waaaah, siiir!”
As soon as she launched herself again, Pochi went into another tailspin.
Her expression was downright gleeful; I figured she must have ruined her balance on purpose this time.
“Masterrr…?”
Already in a runner’s pose, Tama looked at me with sparkling eyes.
She probably wanted to try going into a tailspin like Pochi.
“You can copy Pochi if you want, but you might bite your tongue if you try to talk while you’re spinning. Be careful.”
“Aye-aye, sirrr.”
Tama grinned broadly, giving me a dramatic salute.
I watched as she sprinted up to the Acceleration Gate, then deliberately went into a tailspin in midair.
There was a huge grin on her face as she flew right into a sand dune.
Her angle must’ve been better than Pochi’s, because she actually went through the dune and popped out on the other side, rolling along the ground.
Pochi ran up to her with concern, sand flying everywhere, but then the two looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Nya-ha-ha-ha!”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha, sir.”
It sounded like they were having a lot of fun.
“I guess I’d better do some work of my own.”
I took out two scrolls from Storage: Sand Control and Desert Mirage, both acquired through my collection request at the explorers’ guild.
“Let’s start with Sand Control, since that seems easier.”
When I used the scroll, I was able to freely move about a cup’s worth of sand.
Then I tried using it from the magic menu.
This time, the amount of sand affected was considerably larger.
“Whoa!”
“Mrrr?”
When they saw the moving sand, Arisa and Mia let out surprised yelps.
Even Lulu, who’d been keeping an eye on me from the start, let her mouth hang open in surprise.
“Sorry, sorry.”
Apologizing to the three, I continued testing out the new spell, making walls and statues out of sand.
The former only went up to about half the size of the barriers I could create with the Earth Magic spell Wall, and the statues required some concentration to hold their form.
Curious about the sand creations, the other kids gathered around curiously.
“Doesn’t seem super useful.”
“Yeah. It can do stuff like this, too, but it’s not very practical.”
I made a sword out of sand, lashed it around like a whip, and turned it into other weapons like an ax and a spear.
“Hey, could you make some kind of high-frequency blade?”
Arisa made an interesting suggestion.
Though I wasn’t able to make the high-frequency blade, I discovered that I could vibrate the sand on the outside of the weapon while moving the rest and create a chain-saw-like effect.
“Now, that’s cool. I guess you could basically call this move Sand Chain Saw?”
“Mm. Water version.”
As Arisa gave the move a name, Mia requested a Water Chain Saw–style spell, so I promised to try making it later.
That seemed to be the gist of the Sand Control spell. I moved on to Desert Mirage next.
“Sky cityyy?”
“It’s floating, sir.”
“Master, there is no girl falling from it, I report.”
Strangely, Nana made a reference to a classic anime film. Arisa must have been filling her head with useless information again.
They started re-creating all kinds of memorable scenes—Mia producing homing pigeons with Spirit Magic, Arisa pretending to play the trumpet, and so on—so I just ignored them and returned to testing out the new spell.
“So it just makes the scale bigger, I guess?”
When I used Desert Mirage from the magic menu, the city looked a bit bigger and more realistic, but that seemed to be all.
Huh? That used a surprising amount of magic.
“Hey, master…” Arisa tugged on my sleeve. “…Did that mirage just become real?”
“Wow. You’re right.”
A mirage with a real physical form seems like a self-contradiction, if you ask me.
“I’ll go check it out.”
I used “Skyrunning” to fly up to the floating city.
A normal mirage would get farther away the more you approached, but I was able to enter this one just fine.
“How is it?”
Ever the worrywart, Arisa contacted me with the Space Magic spell Telephone.
“The buildings are very Arabian Nights, but I can touch them, and there seems to be real water flowing in the canals.”
My map read this area does not exist on the map , like when I had been in a shadow jail created by Shadow Magic.
I used “Skyrunning” to search the mirage from above and confirmed that there was no one to be found in the city.
I checked a few houses and the palace in the center, but there didn’t seem to be furniture or anything of the sort, either.
Checking my log, I found that I’d acquired several new titles.
> Title Acquired: Tower Master
> Title Acquired: Mirage City Master
> Title Acquired: Illusion Lord
> Title Acquired: Otherworld Master
> Title Acquired: Otherworld Lord
As usual, there were some weird titles mixed in there.
“But since it’s a scroll, it should be an intermediate spell, right? Maybe it’s some kind of Space Magic, not Light Magic?”
Arisa made a good point.
I selected Desert Mirage from the magic menu and viewed its detailed information on the AR.
“Advanced…”
“What?”
“It’s an advanced composite magic spell, apparently.”
In fact, it was a composite of three kinds of magic: Light, Shadow, and Space.
No wonder it required so much MP.
“Advanced? But I thought scrolls could contain only intermediate spells and below.”
Indeed, Viscount Siemmen’s scroll workshop that I frequented couldn’t make advanced magic scrolls at all, never mind a composite of three kinds of magic.
“Maybe it’s because it’s from a labyrinth.”
The Sandstorm Labyrinth, where this scroll was found, no longer existed, but there might still be other surviving scrolls. In addition to the explorers’ guild, I decided to put in requests with the merchants’ guild to try to collect more scrolls from other lands.
“……Huh?”
For just a second, deep inside the mirage city, I thought I caught a glimpse of a child-size figure.
I saw a flash of something purple near their head, so I thought maybe Arisa had come up using Space Magic, but her position hadn’t changed on my radar.
There was nothing else shown on my radar or map, either—maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me.
“What’s the matter?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
It was extraordinarily hot and bright in the desert, so that sort of thing probably happened all the time.
“All right…”
After that, I tried making some golems and such, and I found that the mirage I created could still be maintained.
However, doing so cost about one hundred MP per minute, probably making it impossible for anyone but me, since my magic recovered at an insane 180 MP per minute.
The exits could be opened only by the mirage’s creator, even on the inside, so it could probably be used for some hellish purposes.
However, Arisa’s Space Magic would allow escape from inside the mirage, which meant it wouldn’t be possible to trap demons or teleporting monsters inside.
Technically, it could probably be used as a high-capacity storage area, but I already had my limitless Storage system.
At best, maybe it would be useful as temporary accommodation for refugees or for imprisoning captured bandits?
“Butterflyyy?”
After testing the new spells and equipment, as we took a break in the shade of a small airship I produced from Storage, Tama found a bright-red butterfly.
“In the desert?”
“You can see through it to the other side.”
Arisa and Liza tilted their heads at it.
“Can’t touch iiit?”
“Ah! It ran away, sir.”
Tama tried to catch the butterfly, but her hand went right through it. According to my AR, it was a harmless apparition called a “ghost papillon.”
As we looked on, it split into two butterflies, then three.
Tama and Pochi each chased a different ghost papillon.
The fleeing butterflies must have triggered her animal instincts; Pochi crouched on all fours, her tail swishing as she locked on to her target.
“Hiya, sir!”
Pochi sprang at the ghost papillon, then suddenly disappeared from sight.
“Pochi?!”
She must have gotten caught in quicksand.
I used “Warp” to teleport over to the spot where she’d disappeared, then dove into the sand after her. My radar showed her location, but I couldn’t catch her with my Magic Hand.
“Magic Power Armor.”
I surrounded myself with magic, preventing sand from getting into my eyes and nose as I pushed through the quicksand to chase after Pochi.
Soon I came clear of the sandy darkness into an open space.
Activating the Practical Magic spell Mana Light from the magic menu, I lit up my surroundings.
Sand was still falling from the ceiling and flowing at the bottom of the cave like water, where I found Pochi lying unconscious.
“Pochi!”
Lifting her up, I checked to make sure she wasn’t hurt.
“Meeeew…?”
Behind me, Tama hit the floor with a thud.
She must have dived into the sand after me.
I used the Space Magic spell Telephone to contact Arisa.
“Thank goodness. Liza was about to dive in after you, regardless of how I tried to dissuade her. You three are all right, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. Wait there—we’ll be back soon.”
“Okey-dokey.”
Judging by my map, it looked like Nana was holding Liza back from jumping in after Tama.
“Pochiii?”
“Mmmrgh… Tama?”
Pochi’s eyes fluttered open.
“Ah! Master, sir!”
Pochi jumped to her feet.
“Does anything hurt? Can you breathe?”
“Pochi’s fine, sir.”
At that, I put a hand to my chest and sighed in relief.
“All right, let’s—”
As I started to speak, I noticed that Tama was staring into the cavern, her ears standing at attention.
“What’s the matter?”
“Is there something there, sir?”
“Something’s weeeird—?”
Tama’s instincts were almost always right in these situations.
I looked in the same direction, and the words Barrier: City Core/isolation mode appeared in my AR display.
There must be an invisible barrier there. Checking my map, I saw there was a blank space on the other side.
“Want to check it out?”
“Aye-aye!”
“Yes, sir!”
I took the two of them with me toward the barrier.
When I reached out to it, I felt something like a faint wall of air.
As with other barriers I’d found before, I was able to pass through it easily.
I used “Search Entire Map” from the magic menu to get information about this blank part.
There was a hidden door deep inside the vast room, with a spiral staircase on the other side leading to one lower room.
That must be where the City Core was kept.
“Ouchie.”
“Gweh, sir.”
I heard two cute little complaints from behind me.
Tama and Pochi had run into the barrier on the other side.
A similar thing had happened when we visited the giants’ village at the Mountain-Tree barrier.
“Are you all right?”
“Don’t worry, be happyyy!”
“This is nothing, sir.”
As the pair rubbed their noses, I was able to pull them inside by their free hands.
I opened the hidden door and headed down the spiral staircase with Tama and Pochi in tow.
Just to be safe, I had Arisa and the others take the airship up into the sky to wait.
“Sparkly!”
“Very pretty, sir.”
At the bottom of the staircase was a dome-shaped room about 150 feet in diameter; a glowing, multifaceted, crystalline white object was floating above a slightly raised area in the center.
It looked just like the City Core I’d seen beneath Muno Castle.
Sure enough, my AR display read City Core: Faetarias .
There was a low staircase leading up to the core, surrounded by glowing stone canals, but the water seemed to be frozen.
The City Core was flickering faintly, its light terribly weak.
I walked up to the top of the stairs leading to the core, but it gave no reaction.
In Muno Castle, the City Core had spoken to me… Oh, but when I’d looked at the barrier, I had seen the words Barrier: City Core/isolation mode .
“Wait right there for a minute.”
“Aye-aye!”
“Yes, sir.”
Motioning for Tama and Pochi to stay back, I walked even closer to the City Core.
It still didn’t react, so I steeled myself and tried to touch it. Just in case, I set my name field to blank .
…… ?
As soon as I touched the core, a voice that wasn’t quite male or female echoed from it.
> Skill Acquired: “Flue Empire Language”
I see—so that must have been the Flue Empire language just now.
I put skill points into the new “Flue Empire Language” skill and activated it.
There was no further reaction for a while, but then the City Core glowed a little bit brighter, and the voice spoke again.
“<Welcome, O King who rules over a superior territory. Do you wish to register this land as a satellite city?>”
I’d heard this line before. It must be a preset line for City Cores.
“<No, not really.>”
When I responded honestly, the City Core’s light weakened as if it were disappointed.
“<O King, please take control of this land.>”
“<Why?>”
“<A lord’s permission is required to lift isolation mode.>”
“<…Aren’t you no longer isolated already?>”
“<Isolation mode refers to being cut off from contact with the underground vein network.>”
I get it. So it’s basically like a stand-alone mode.
“<Is there a problem with staying in isolation mode?>”
“<If the mana source is cut off while we are not connected with the underground vein network, we will run out of the magic that was accumulated during rotation period seventy-two. Without a source of magic power, the City Core unit will disintegrate again.>”
The City Core dimmed weakly.
Arisa once mentioned that no one had heard of any new City Cores being made since the age of the Flue Empire. It would be a shame to lose a precious City Core to lack of magic power.
“<All right. I’ll register this place as a satellite city, then.>”
“<Understood.>”
Light gathered around my head, and a blue-crystal crown manifested there.
Through the City Core, I felt this land’s mana source reconnecting with the underground veins.
Since it had been left alone for so long, there was a considerable amount of resistance when the source reconnected.
Overall, it felt very strange.
“Happyyy?”
“It got brighter, sir.”
Tama and Pochi seemed excited about the City Core’s transformation.
Even though they couldn’t understand what the fading core was saying, the kindly duo seemed to have been worried about it.
“<Register other assistant administrators?>”
The glowing blue City Core now flickered brightly as it spoke.
“<What’s an assistant administrator?>”
The City Core explained that it referred to any nobles with peerage.
“<Do assistant administrators get any special privileges?>”
“<An assistant administrator is granted a terminal and can use it for communication as well as utilizing the City Core’s powers relative to their authority.>”
Communication between terminals?
“<How far apart can they communicate?>”
“<Within the city and its immediate surroundings. If the sender is close to the City Core, they can transmit anywhere within the territory.>”
That wasn’t very far.
Not to mention, it cost way more MP than spells like Telephone.
I was guessing it used the Practical Magic spell Signal.
I could easily imagine my kids playing walkie-talkie, but if it was just for fun, it’d probably make more sense for me to use my prototype production equipment to make a magic tool for communication.
Out of curiosity, I asked if I could make Tama and Pochi assistant administrators, but it responded that slaves did not qualify.
“<Would you like to annul the slave contract?>”
“<Can you do that?>”
“<Yes. Would you like to proceed?>”
“<No, not right now.>”
If I ended their contracts without talking to them first, I could imagine the beastfolk girls begging me not to abandon them, so I decided to leave it at that for now.
I also asked if the City Core was capable of removing a Geis, but unfortunately, it responded that this was impossible.
“<Reconnection with separate storage space complete. Displaying a list of contents.>”
A semitransparent board displayed in front of the City Core, and a golden door appeared behind it.
“Mew!”
“A door, sir!”
“It’s apparently a storage space.”
At a glance, I saw some interesting items on the list, so I decided to check it out with the beastfolk pair.
“This picture’s pretty…”
“That wooden horse is cool, sir.”
When Tama stopped to stand in front of the painting, Pochi and I explored the rest of the treasure.
There was a huge quantity of gems, gold coins, and the like, and even a small amount of bluecoins.
We also found artwork, sculptures, and rare magic tools like transparency cloaks and a wooden Pegasus, as well as magic devices that needed bluecoins to power them.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any weapons or armor.
The bookshelves were full of books, but most of them were administrative documents from before this area became a desert, so I didn’t find as many spell books and magic-tool design specs as I had hoped.
“<Is it all right if we take this treasure with us?>”
“<Of course. It is yours by rights as the current lord of this territory.>”
Since the City Core gave us permission, I put all of it in Storage.
The one exception was the painting Tama had taken a liking to, which I let her put in her Fairy Pack.
“<O King, requesting permission to ascertain present conditions.>”
City Cores from the Flue Empire era didn’t emit passive signals, so it was asking if it could actively emit one.
Of course, that would also mean revealing its existence to potential enemies.
“<Are the other City Cores in isolation mode as well?>”
“<That is very likely.>”
In that case, even if we risked sending out an active signal, it probably wouldn’t reach the intended recipients.
“<Do you know where the other cores are? If you give me their locations, I can go check on them myself.>”
“<O King, we are in your debt.>”
Judging by the map the core presented, there was a total of 243 other locations.
Even if I used “Warp,” it would probably take a while to check on them all.
They’d been dormant for hundreds of years. Why not let it wait until at least after lunch?
“City Cores, huh? We gonna make a new kingdom here?”
When I told her about the City Cores and the Flue Empire treasures we’d found underground, that was Arisa’s response.
“No, that’d be way too much work.”
“Awww, c’mooon.”
It might be fun to make an oasis as a stopping point for desert travelers, but managing a whole city? No, thank you.
“Besides, they’ll probably be busy restoring their magic for now.”
I’d provided the core with 90 percent of my MP, plus one forged Holy Sword battery’s worth of excess magic.
Because the amount of magic required for the City Core was significantly larger than even my own MP, it was still far from fully charged. However, the core had said that this would at least be enough to defend itself from any natural disasters and such for a while, so it could recover the rest normally from the underground veins and mana sources.
“Master, appropriately shady area located, I report.”
“Thank you, Nana. Lulu, could you take the airship down?”
“Right away, master!”
The airship landed in the shade of a few rocks around three hundred feet high.
Since it was a bit too hot and sandy for eating lunch outside, I used Stone Object to make a Shinto shrine–style torii gate and building. I considered making it a Parthenon-style temple instead, but I was in more of a Shinto mood today.
Though I was a little cautious, I didn’t get any mysterious flashbacks like when we saw the broken-stone torii- style Travel Gate back in Seiryuu County.
“A stone torii is one thing, but having the shrine itself be stone, too, is a little strange.”
“True.”
I had to agree with Arisa.
Next, I used spells like Air Curtain and Air-Conditioning to adjust the temperature around us.
“Cooool?”
“It feels very, very good, sir.”
Even Tama and Pochi, who’d been playing around in the sand, must have been worn down by the desert heat.
“Is this the shrine office? There’s a veranda inside.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think it’d be right to make a bathroom inside a temple, so I decided to use it for that instead.”
I had still made only the exterior, not any furnishings for inside.
“Y’know, my cousin lived at a shrine. I used to play there a lot until sometime in grade school. Being in one now feels kind of homey.”
Huh, I didn’t know that.
“We used to eat both fresh and roasted corn plus sweet potatoes on the veranda all the time.”
Leave it to Arisa to have more gastronomical associations with a temple than spiritual.
“I’ll set up a bath inside so you can all clean yourselves off.”
Brushing the sand out of Arisa’s hair, I used Stone Object to make a bathtub and a drainage channel in the office area. This spell was almost too convenient.
The tub was really more like a pool, so I set up some partition screens around it.
“Master, you should bathe with us.”
“Mm. Together.”
“Sorry, I have other things to do first.”
Arisa and Mia tried to drag me to the bath, but a robe would make it tough to get rid of all the sand, and I didn’t feel comfortable getting naked in the tub with the older girls.
“Awww, but this was my chance to see your—”
“Arisa,” Mia warned.
“—Ahem. I mean, my chance to serve you, master.”
I sent the grumbling Arisa off to wash up behind the partitions, then used Everyday Magic to clean myself off before skimming some of the documents I’d acquired underground.
“How great is the power of the gods…”
This grand introduction marked a passage of the lord’s journal describing how the great desert came to be.
“…But we mere mortals could never fully control the dragonflame orb, which contains the power of the dragon god.”
Huh. This “dragonflame orb” wasn’t mentioned in the list of materials I’d learned about in Bolenan.
The closest thing I had was a true-dragon pearl. Taking it literally, maybe this dragonflame orb was an item containing the flame breath of the dragon god?
“Everything turned to ash. The demon lord’s forces, our armies and cities, and the very earth of the empire burned away, and even our underground vein was destroyed. I doubt the day will ever come when man can live on this land again.”
The journal ended there.
There were no bones or anything in the City Core room, so the lord must have abandoned the core and left.
Huh?
But when I restored the core from isolation mode, it was able to connect to the underground vein just fine…
Well, whatever.
More importantly, I wanted to look into this dangerous-sounding dragonflame orb.
Just in case, I searched my Storage and the map, but I didn’t find any such item.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“What’s up, master?”
Arisa wandered over, fruit-flavored milk in hand.
“I was reading about how this desert came to be.”
“Whaaat? I thought you might’ve found some secret Flue Empire art or spell books…”
“There were a few spell books, too. Want to read them later?”
“Of course I do!”
“Me too.”
Arisa and Mia looked excited.
Drying Mia’s still-wet hair with a towel, I asked if they had any requests for lunch.
“I want somen noodles! And then for dessert, I’ll have an entire half of a watermelon!”
Arisa’s request sounded like a child’s summer vacation ideal.
“Meeeat?”
“I want meat, too, sir.”
“Dry your hair off first, you two.”
Tama and Pochi came running over sopping wet, so Liza chased them down and dried them.
Okay, but maybe you could put clothes on first, too, Liza.
“Somen and meat, huh? Then how about char siu pork, omelets, and some diced cucumbers and tomatoes?”
“Now it sounds like your average chilled-noodle dish.”
Chilled noodles might be nice, too.
I’ll make some tomorrow.
“Oh, I know! Let’s have nagashi somen!”
“Sure, why not? I have enough bamboo.”
“Bamboo?”
Mia tilted her head, so I gathered the kids around and explained the Japanese tradition of nagashi somen, a noodle dish served flowing down a bamboo flume.
Then I produced some bamboo from Storage, halved them vertically and trimmed the knots, then linked them together with Treespirit Pearls.
“Water Spirit.”
Mia used the Spirit Magic spell Create Water Spirit to summon a water pseudo-spirit called an “undyne.” It used its water manipulation abilities to control the flowing water for the nagashi somen.
“Ooh, the water’s looping around.”
When the water reached the bottom, it moved through the air and back to the top of the flume.
This way, any noodles that weren’t picked up on the way down would be carried back to the top, too.
“Very impressive.”
“Mm.”
Mia blushed and nodded at my praise.
Lulu and Liza helped me boil the noodles and prepare the toppings.
Mia had a few extra requests, and I made some sweet-and-salty boiled monster mushrooms as a result. They would’ve made a good topping for sushi rice.
For some reason, we wound up with more varieties of char siu than actual noodles, but nobody here would have a problem with that.
“All right, here goes.”
Once preparations were complete, I had the group line up along the bamboo flume and started pouring noodles down from the top one helping after another. If I didn’t pour enough, the girls near the end of the flume would never get any.
“Fancy.”
“This is very elegant, I declare.”
Mia and Nana seemed to be enjoying scooping up the noodles.
“Too haaard!”
“Mr. Noodle keeps slipping away, sir.”
Tama and Pochi weren’t as good with chopsticks as the others, so they were having a tough time.
“It’s delicious. The texture of the char siu changes if mixed with the cucumbers or omelet slices.”
“I wanna tryyy!”
“Me too, sir.”
After a few rounds of noodles, Liza quickly turned her attention to the pork, and Tama and Pochi followed suit, piling their plates high with meat instead of noodles.
“Ooh, I found some pink noodles!”
At Arisa’s words, Tama’s ears perked up.
“Yellow noodles.”
When Mia chimed in, Pochi turned around, too.
The beastfolk pair ran over to look at the colored noodles, which Arisa was happy to show off.
“Colorfuuul?”
“Do they taste different, too, sir?”
“They taste the same, but it’s said that eating colored noodles will bless you with good health.”
Arisa made up a fictional legend to pique Tama’s and Pochi’s interest further.
“I wanna get blessed, too, sir.”
“I’ll catch the next ooone?”
I had mixed in some colored noodles just for fun, but it seemed they were popular with kids even in a parallel world.
Tama and Pochi stood with their chopsticks at the ready, so I sent some colored noodles flowing their way.
To make it easier to catch, I used Magic Hand to slow the noodles down as they passed the pair.
“I’m so fast, it’s like they’re frozen in place, sir!”
That’s because they are.
“Got ’eeem?”
“Hiyaaaa, sir!”
The two swooped down like birds of prey to scoop up the no-longer-flowing noodles.
They’d given up on chopsticks and were using their hands.
“Slipperyyy?”
“This is fun, sir. I want to eat more, sir.”
Well, I’m glad they like it, at least.
“You mustn’t grab them with your bare hands. Here, use these.”
“Aye-aye.”
“Sorry, sir.”
Liza scolded the pair, then took their chopsticks away and gave them tongs instead.
I decided to join in on the fun, too. Most of the food we ate in the labyrinth was filling and nutrient-rich, so it was nice to have a light, refreshing lunch for a change. The cool noodles felt great as they slid down my throat.
When I realized the kids were getting bored of the regular noodle soup base, I offered them some sesame sauce, then enjoyed my own noodles with various condiments.
“Watermelon’s the best dessert on a hot day.”
Once we’d finished our nagashi somen lunch, we sat down on the veranda and feasted on watermelons.
I’d given out big watermelon halves to whoever wanted them, to be enjoyed with spoons.
Needless to say, this was Arisa’s request.
“The char siu was tasty, but watermelon is yummy, too, sir.”
“Oui, oui…”
Pochi and Tama had loaded their plates with so much pork that you couldn’t see the noodles underneath, but clearly their appetites were still totally intact, as they were now practically shoving their faces into the watermelons.
“Careful, you two. If you eat watermelon seeds, they’ll grow inside your belly.”
“Mew!”
“Oh no, sir!”
Tama and Pochi looked horrified by Arisa’s joke.
“So instead of eating the seeds, you spit ’em out like this! Pbbt!”
One must spit the seeds out like so if he wishes to properly enjoy the summer of his youth!
Upon hearing Arisa’s words, I remembered something another person had once said to me.
Sitting on the veranda, Arisa looked back at me, and her smile called to mind that of a green-haired young girl.
“C’mon, master, don’t pick the seeds out with a toothpick! Live a little!”
Ichirou! Thou mustn’t eat like such a lady!
Arisa’s violet hair fluttered in the warm desert breeze.
At the same time, overlapping with what was in front of me, I saw a girl’s silver hair rustling gently in the summer breeze.
The flashbacks kept coming, one after another.
What’s going on?
“…Master?”
A willowy hand brought me back to reality.
I shook my head lightly, trying to dispel the strange sensation.
Looking at Nana, I remembered that this was the same daydream I’d experienced when we were playing by a stream in Bolenan Forest.
“Oh, it’s nothing. The desert sun must’ve worn me out a bit, that’s all.”
“Please take care of yourself, master,” Liza said gently.
Just then, Lulu came back from the kitchen prep area.
“Master, I made fruit punch.”
“Mm, yummy.”
“The fruits floating in the sweet syrup are very cute, I report.”
Mia and Nana were pleased with the delicate dessert Lulu had made.
There were pineapple and kiwi pieces floating in it, too, so vivid that just looking at it made me feel refreshed.
The sweetness of the syrup was delicate enough to draw out the natural sweetness of the fruits without being too overpowering.
“It’s delicious, Lulu.”
When I complimented her work, Lulu gave me a glowing smile.
Lately, her smiles were even more radiant than usual; maybe her inferiority complex was finally starting to fade.
She’d also prepared a big bowl of some of the fruits Rei and Yuuneia had given us when we last visited Paradise Island on our way back from Bolenan Forest.
“Bananas are yummyyy.”
“I like apples and pineapples, too, sir.”
“The kiwi is delicious with yogurt, I report.”
All the fruits were fresh and delicious.
We relaxed for a while and enjoyed the tropical fruit.
“I’ll be back in a bit.”
While the kids were taking a post-lunch nap, I decided to go around the desert to check on the other City Cores.
“Be careful, okay? Don’t do anything crazy.”
I waved at Arisa to reassure her motherly concerns, then headed up into the sky with “Skyrunning.” Once I was up high enough, I used “Flashrunning” to proceed toward my first destination.
“…This area sure is huge.”
No wonder they called it the “great desert.”
It was divided into several different areas on the map, bigger than any other location I’d traversed so far.
If I didn’t have a skill that let me travel faster than a jet plane, I would probably go crazy trying to get around.
“Was this all made by that dragonflame orb thing?”
There were several tall mountain ranges at the border of the desert.
I was curious whether the explosion had created the mountains and why the transformation into sand had stopped at that border.
“Sand, sand, sand…”
It was strange that the desert consisted of so little other than sand.
There were some monsters, but in such few numbers that you would never run into them unless you were very unlucky indeed.
“…Oh, an oasis!”
In the far western corner of the great desert was a small oasis.
Instead of being part of the great desert, this area was called the Vustelue Emirate, home to a tribe called “the people of the sand.”
According to the information from “Search Entire Map,” the land was almost four times the size of the Ougoch Duchy, but the population and number of cities were only around that of a single county in the Shiga Kingdom.
I was tempted to take a detour and check out this new land, but I held off, since I was in the middle of searching for the City Cores buried in the sand.
Once my group defeated a floormaster, finished this leg of training, and went back to visit Seiryuu City, we could go on a tour of the other lands.
I went around to each of the 243 points and found only two living City Cores. The rest contained only crystals that seemed to be the remains of a core.
Many of them were still intact, so I put them in Storage to see if I could repair them.
Like the first City Core I’d found, I registered the domains of the two other living cores as part of my territory and left them each a Holy Sword’s worth of magic power.
I also set seal slates at each of the City Core points, which I thought might be helpful for crossing the desert and sightseeing in other lands.
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