Chapter Fourteen: Magic Practice
For whatever reason, the accessory dealer insisted on riding with us from that point on.
He was paying us for the trouble, so I couldn’t think of anything to complain about. Still, I didn’t know why he wanted to come with us.
After the incident with the bandits he apparently had grown fond of me, and he started to reveal things about himself, and he took to lecturing me on various topics when we were on the road.
Anyway he said that there were traveling merchants messing up trade in the area, and that the merchants guild sent him out to keep an eye on things. Basically, the guy was one of the guild’s assassins.
And he had seen potential in me, wanted to see how I developed. Furthermore, this guy was apparently a pretty powerful member of the guild, though afterwards I heard from other members of that guild that he wasn’t well known for sharing and teaching others.
The first thing he started talking about was how to procure the materials you would need to imbue jewels and things with power. One of his acquaintances at a mine was able to help us with that.
Next he spoke about how to form precious metals into accessories. Apparently you could chose from a number of different designs. I have always been a bit of an Otaku, so I picked a design that sort of fit my sensibilities. It turned out a little differently than intended, but I still liked it.
We were also able to get tools necessary for the process, and we got them cheaply.
Some of the tools didn’t exist back in my world, such as a material for burning like coal. It was called a magic stone.
The shield started to respond to it, but the material was too expensive to just let the shield absorb it.
There were things that, back in my world, would have been called grinders. There were also things like burners, too. They were used to form the accessory.
Iron and other hard materials could be brought to a forge where metal molds could be used to form smaller items. Anyway, my crafting skill made the process a bit easier than it would have been otherwise.
There were other tools that were needed for making higher-level items, but they were too expensive to think about buying now. That’s how our finances were looking.
That brings me to the main problem: how to imbue something with magic.
If you couldn’t use magic, you couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t use magic yet, so I was sitting there with the book in one hand, muttering along, when the accessory dealer started talking again.
“Hero, are you unable to use magic?”
“That’s right. I’ve asked my helpers here how they do it, but they just say to ‘synchronize with my spirit.’ I don’t know what they are talking about.”
“Ah… yes, I think I am beginning to understand.”
The accessory dealer reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, translucent piece of something.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a piece of very valuable ore.”
“Huh…”
“Can you read?”
“A little… if it’s simple.”
I’d been studying the writing for about a month now, and if I focused hard enough, I could read it. If it was very complicated then I couldn’t follow it, but if it was simple enough, I could.
“Then let’s work on your magic practice. If you can learn to feel the power, that’s enough.”
Ugh... This sounded like torture to me.
I was worried about the prospect of study, but I reached out my hand and took the shard of ore. It began to glow.
What… What did it mean? It was like… like feeling a hand move that you didn’t know you had—yes, it was like that.
Or it was how a bird must have felt when it opens its wings for the first time and flew.
“Something feels weird.”
“You can actually feel your magical power without the aid of that stone, but you were raised without knowing that. I thought it might help you, so I handed it over. Turns out it was a good choice.”
“I guess so.”
I thought back to a concept I had translated from the magic book and began to recite it.
I imagined magic as another arm, and then I tried to image that that other arm was MY arm.
Some words appeared. It was only for me—my own, private magic.
“I am the source of all power, hear my words and understand them. Protect them!”
“Fast Guard!”
I became aware of a target marker blinking in my field of vision. I chose myself as the target to practice the spell.
I was suddenly covered in a soft light.
I checked my status screen to see that my defense had risen dramatically.
“Woah…”
“Looks like you were able to figure it out. Now allow me to show you how to imbue an object with magic.”
The accessory dealer ignored my impressed reaction and immediately moved into his lecture.
It had been a big step for me, but apparently he wasn’t impressed.
I listened to his lecture, and pretty soon I had learned how to imbue an object with magic.
I tried imbuing the jewel that we’d made with magic, which involved controlling the natural tendencies of the stone.
It was a little difficult at first, but I could use magic now, and the skills from the shield were helping. Eventually I was able to produce a few pieces. Apparently there were more advanced techniques, like using different stones and mixing their properties, or absorbing the magic from different plants and then imbuing other objects with that magic.
“Well, that’s the gist of it. I think you can figure out the rest by yourself. I hope it helps you and your business.”
The accessory dealer gave a final farewell and then climbed down from the carriage.
Now I had another skill besides compounding—I could craft magical jewels.
We would need different ores to use in the crafting, so we visited the mining town we’d stopped by earlier.
“Ah… so he sent you here, did he?”
A large man, a miner, was looking me over suspiciously, but I showed him the letter of introduction the accessory dealer had given us.
“Yeah, that’s his handwriting. But to think you’d be introduced by him? He’s very strict about money.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?
I listened to the miner’s gossip. Apparently the accessory dealer was well known as a miser.
He’d thought it suspicious that a guy like that would introduce me, but he accepted it once he saw the letter.
“Well, if he sent you here then sure, you can buy from me. How much are you looking for? I think I can accommodate you.”
“You think I could go mine them out myself? That should help keep costs down, right?”
“Huh? Oh, well… If you want to do it yourself, then it would basically be free, but…”
We talked it over, and before long Filo, Raphtalia, and I were down in a cave with pickaxes in our hands. The rhythmic clanging of our pickaxes echoed in the silent cave. Honestly, it was a real racket.
The air was so stuffy and hot—I couldn’t stand it.
The walls rippled with glowing veins of ore—much different from the last mine we’d been in.
“This is a pretty safe and stable cavern, so you should be fine to dig and mine anywhere you want. Having said that, there is always a chance of a cave-in, or of falling rocks, so do be careful.”
That only made sense.
From the way he made it sound, there were a number of caves, but he had led us to the richest one.
I raised my pickaxe and brought it down against the stone wall. When I did, a glowing cross appeared on the wall.
It was just like when we were looking for Light Metal.
“Hiya!”
I swung the pickaxe with all my might.
The impact echoed in the cavern, and the wall cracked. The crack slowly expanded, creaked, and the wall fell apart.
“Huh?”
The miner was staring at me, wide-eyed.
“You broke through that hard stone with one hit?”
Was it so hard?
Thanks to my collection skill, I was able to break through the rocks easily, and pretty soon there were piles of ore rolling out from the cracks. And yet, no doubt because of my level, I still came upon walls that I couldn’t break into, no matter how severe my effort.
“Please take this.”
“Oh, okay.”
We stuffed the ore into a bag and hurried from the mine.
By the way, even outside the mine itself, we were able to find ore pretty much anywhere we swung our pickaxes. Apparently it was really easy to find in the area.
The only problem was that any ore found near the surface tended to be of poor magical quality.
Back in my world, I think I had heard that if you find a place rich in ore, it would be everywhere, and easy to take too. Maybe things were different here, and good ore was somehow a function of its depth below the surface.
You made a Ruby Bracelet! Ruby Bracelet: quality: good to excellent
I tried out my new skills and, I guess, because the original materials were good, ended up with something very nice.
Now it was time to try imbuing it with magic.
Ruby Bracelet (fire resistance up): quality: excellent to normal
Damn… I was able to imbue it with magic, but I lowered the quality rating in the process.
We went on with our travels, and I tried crafting different accessories in the back of the carriage.
You know, crafting in the back of a moving carriage is not an easy thing to do. When I thought about how long it took compared to the relative ease of compounding medicines, I wasn’t sure if it was any more profitable. And on top of that, I let the shield absorb both finished pieces and raw materials but was never able to unlock anything. Apparently my level and tree were not advanced enough.
I’d have to focus on sales.
By the way, that bracelet that I made sold after only two days for 80 pieces of silver. But it took a long time to make the base of the bracelet.
And it seemed like jewels were less valuable in this world than they were in mine.
I wondered if the design of the accessory, and how in-line it was with the current fashion trends, would affect the price I could get for it? Would its design affect its price? The very idea struck me as ironic.
But apparently they were in the midst of a popularity boom, and apparently there were fashionable trends in this world too.
I guess I just didn’t know what jewels could be sold for a good price. Even still—I was making money. Pretty soon it would be time to buy all new equipment.
Iron Ore Shield: conditions met Copper Ore Shield: conditions met Silver Ore Shield: conditions met Lead Ore Shield: conditions met
Iron Ore Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: metalworking skill 2
Copper Ore Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: metalworking skill 1
Silver Ore Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: damage from demonic monsters reduced by 2% Lead Ore Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: defense 1
I was unlocking a bunch of abilities that seemed better left in the hands of the guy from the weapon shop. It didn’t make sense to try and do EVERYTHING on my own.
The Lead Ore Shield seemed to be taking the place of something else.
I don’t think that skill will see much use.
We had been traveling like that for a few days when we arrived at a town in the South. That’s when it happened.
The accessory dealer had told us that there was an area that was desperately in need of large quantities of weed killer.
We’d have to travel quickly to reach them in time, but that’s what the bird-god… That’s what Filo was for.
If we stood to make a lot of money, then there was nothing to debate. We hurried to the Southwest.
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