Chapter 241

Valenciaunos dashed forward with gleaming eyes at the mention of expensive reagents, and Tenitia let out a soft sigh before following him.

Duke Sererassie created a wide and shallow swamp on the ground using earth magic.

“You’re bringing it when I asked you to.”

She chuckled haughtily.

Squish.

The swamp, reaching up to their ankles, wasn’t particularly threatening.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you just stood there?”

Once Sererassie solidified the swamp as hard as a rock, the situation changed.

“!”

The Infiltrators stuck to the ground were no match for the Doroysen swordsmen.

“We’re going too!”

“Don’t lose to the knight of Solletarass!”

“Move in pairs!”

Quite a few were decapitated, and many more were consumed by Valenciaunos’s flames, leaving only blue crystal-like fragments behind.

The Doroysen magicians approached and asked.

“Master Sererassie, do you know anything about this crystal?”

“I can lend you the experimental apparatus; can I learn a skill in return?”

“It wasn’t an easy decision for us either. Two friends, who have studied together for thirty years, were killed today by Duke Valenciaunos and his adversary knight. But we must know what we must know, right?”

Sererassie pondered for a moment.

‘The refinement itself isn’t hard. Showing it is no problem. The important thing is how to apply it when drawing circuits.’

‘But the method of refinement is owned by the Ivory Tower. If this is a leak, then it is a leak.’

‘I can’t carry the byproducts of Infiltration without purifying them. I can’t afford to discard this much. It would be quite nice if you could bring about 3 kg. They wouldn’t care much about a leak in the refinement method.’

She quickly finished her self-justification and headed to the magicians’ tent with Valenciaunos.

“I need holy water and sulfuric acid. If there’s no sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid will do.”

“Here you go.”

“And I need the black oil from the desert, refined as clear as possible; olive oil can substitute.”

“Both are here.”

“Of course, you have salt, right? If you bring me cooking salt mixed with pepper, I’ll pour it in your nose.”

One magician flinched, and Sererassie chuckled as she dipped the crystal fragment in oil.

“Valen, watch closely. This sister is going to show you something amazing.”

Valenciaunos watched Sererassie’s magical hand movements after a long time.

Her pale hands, marked with numerous tiny scars, moved quickly as if playing the piano.

With a composed face and a serious smile, she focused intently on the apparatus and reagents with her two differently colored pupils.

Tap, scrape, crackle, whoosh, rustle.

The process of melting, burning, heating, solidifying, crushing, and then re-melting with another reagent before gathering the remains into powder unfolded.

“Whoa.”

“My goodness.”

“……”

The Doroysen magicians stared wide-eyed, unable to miss a single moment.

In the deep night, the purified crystal powder and refined crystal were finally created.

Sererassie felt fatigue for the first time and swayed, while Valenciaunos supported her from behind.

“You’re a heavenly magician.”

Sererassie answered with a coy smile.

“Of course. Let’s hurry back. I have a lot to show.”

* * *

Philius couldn’t understand at all why they ‘returned’ to his tent but decided to just give up on understanding.

‘For now, it would be wise to be satisfied that I survived with Yulia. The knights must have already moved, but I still need to convey the detailed news. Crown Prince Valenccius and Ironblood Party leader Marcus are here, and they have obtained peculiar crystal fragments from the Infiltrators.’

He whispered discreetly to a serving attendant.

“Go out and send a letter to His Majesty.”

Nod.

The attendant was caught by Tenitia on the way out of the tent and tumbled back inside.

“Crown Prince. What nonsense are you up to?”

Philius sighed deeply.

‘This is maddening.’

His eyes had been vacant for a long time.

While Tenitia and Philius engaged in a silent standoff, Valenciaunos, Sererassie, and Marcus were discussing while fiddling with the crystal pillar.

Sererassie cast a soundproof barrier and lowered her voice.

“Valen. You do know that not all old things are evil gods, right?”

“Indeed. Some old things were worshiped as gods, like Ammon or Eustatia, and then there are some that can coexist, like the death gods that certain black magic schools or necromancers serve.”

“This one is similar. If Ammon is closer to a benevolent god, then this one is closer to a malevolent god. Thus, we refine it before using it.”

Valenciaunos’s eyes sparkled.

“What’s the effect?”

“There are three main effects. The first is resonance, the second is enhancement, and the third is form.”

“Resonance?”

Sererassie stood three crystal pillars, each the size of a finger, in a row on the table and zapped one with electricity.

Crack!

Then, sparks flew from all three pillars.

Crackle!

“This is what I mean. These crystals are all one mass in the end. It’s like what they call confluence. So if you change the structure like this—.”

Sererassie shaped the three pillars into a triangle and zapped them again.

Crackle, crack, crack!

Yellow lightning started to swirl restlessly between the blue crystals, amplifying continuously.

Sererassie absorbed the amplified lightning and shot it into the sky outside the tent, then spoke.

“What do you think would happen if we used mana instead?”

Valenciaunos smiled with satisfaction.

“I like this! So, what about the form?”

This time, it was Marcus who replied.

“The decline of this region didn’t start just a year or two ago. Those Infiltrators we saw earlier are people who died at least several decades ago. Moreover, this region gets quite humid in summer.”

“That’s enough time for zombies to become skeletons and then to decay.”

“And yet there were still burnt flesh remaining.”

Valenciaunos recalled some old things he saw before his return.

The more one absorbed the powers from other worlds, the stronger and more solid they became, losing their rationality and physical form.

‘If it has maintained that level of condition after decades of corruption… it’s very stable. Moreover, if it was refined, then it would have likely lost its toxicity, and if it circulates even a little in the Ivory Tower, the Church would consider it safe enough.’

“Then can we turn it into medicine for consumption?”

Sererassie and Marcus widened their eyes simultaneously.

Two pairs of eyes with different colors and materials glared at him.

“Don’t say something ridiculous.”

“Please don’t say something ridiculous!”

“Why, why?”

Sererassie shook her head.

“Are you an idiot? Why do you want to consume it all? No matter how much it’s refined, it ultimately comes from another world. Of course, you can use strong powers as you just demonstrated. But—.”

“But?”

Marcus quickly picked up the thread.

“I don’t know much about this, but according to the old materials, the more you consume, the more you need to maintain your physical form.”

“Oh. Then we can’t do it.”

Valenciaunos quickly averted his gaze from the crystal pillar on the table.

‘This isn’t a life to live for just a year or two.’

He had already lived to 57 years and was acutely aware of the pitfalls of actions that didn’t consider the future.

Didn’t he live like a bandit for years, only to have his body wrecked and suffer for decades?

‘I’ve already had all sorts of things done with the spirit essence transplant in Yongchan. I can’t afford to consume anything with side effects here. Absolutely not!’

* * *

I gave up the plan to consume the refined crystal and turned my gaze toward Tenitia’s white mechanical armor standing to one side.

It hadn’t been completely repaired yet, but at least its form had been restored.

“Marcus, can this crystal also enhance that mechanical armor?”

Both Marcus and Sererassie nodded simultaneously.

“Of course.”

“That’s what I intended from the beginning.”

I smiled satisfactorily and gave instructions.

The situation wasn’t good, but it was advantageous.

“Then I’d appreciate it if you could do it by tomorrow morning, if possible, given the circumstances.”

“What?”

A spasm crossed Marcus’s face.

The differently colored eyes swiveled in various directions.

“Why that look in your eyes?”

I asked why he was reacting that way, and Marcus clutched his nape as if in utter frustration.

“No, I mean, what are you asking me to do here? I don’t have any equipment!”

“An artisan—.”

“Don’t say that! …An artisan chooses their tools. Bringing iron ore to a blacksmith without a forge, anvil, or hammer won’t result in a great sword or armor.”

“You said you could do it?!”

“I’m seeing this for the first time too!”

At that moment, Sererassie cleared her throat.

Marcus and I turned to look at her.

“Well. Those magicians over there had thick silver wire and iron wires for crafting, so couldn’t you manage something? I can do the fusion magic, after all.”

Marcus squinted his eyes.

“Duke Sererassie, are you telling me to directly engrave the circuit diagram? And not even for a small magical tool but for three mechanical knights?”

Sererassie nodded.

Her clear voice reverberated inside the tent.

“Of course.”

I solemnly turned to Marcus.

“Duke Marcus. Whose pocket do you think the comprehensive workshop budget comes from?”

Marcus gritted his teeth.

“Have you ever seen a pathetic bandit like this!”

“If you were so good, why didn’t you win back then?!”

I burst into laughter, and Sererassie and Marcus began to dismantle Tenitia’s mechanical armor gauntlet with iron wires, silver wires, and crystal pillars in hand.

“Damn it! Shit!”

Marcus cursed, but I didn’t pay him any mind.

Philius sat beside Yulia, watching this side.

His eyes were completely vacant.

I left the two mechanical knights in charge of observing them and led the platinum-armored Tenitia outside the encampment.

“Lady. You need to stay sharp. If we’re not careful, we could all die here.”

* * *

As night deepened, the Milky Way shone brightly in the sky, and blue-glowing crystal Infiltrators wandered through the foliage-laden forest.

Lady Tenitia remained vigilant of her surroundings, and I lowered my voice.

“I understand why King Doroysen is attacking this barren land. The meteorite was not a complete lie.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The meteorite didn’t fall recently. It was a clever lie. It could date back decades, if not centuries, perhaps tracing back to the era of heterogeneous races.”

Lady Tenitia’s eyes widened.

“…Abandoned mine.”

“It’s a very stable substance for a byproduct of ancient things, so it might have been circulated as a reagent at one time. For magicians or knights, even in its unrefined state, it wouldn’t pose a significant threat, and once they learned the refinement method, there wouldn’t have been any problems.”

“But for the mine workers, it must have been deadly. Even more so for the nearby villagers.”

“It wasn’t exactly a pleasant place to live anyway, so everyone likely left quickly. After the territorial disputes created confusion, it probably got forgotten.”

She whispered urgently.

“Earlier, the Crown Prince tried to communicate with the King through his attendant. Half-dazed from fatigue and shock, he seems to have acted compulsively, feeling the need to do something, and made a feeble gesture. I managed to catch the attendant, but the knights must have already sent out the message away from our sight. The Sword Master will likely arrive soon.”

I shut my eyes tightly.

Ensis had lived for 260 years.

It’s possible he was still a king when the meteorite fell.

Even if that’s not the case, the probability that he knows about this crystal and its effects and is actively using them is quite high.

Before my return, the Ironblood Party leader Marcus, having refused his oath of allegiance, led mechanical knights and magic troops to plunder everywhere.

Doroysen was probably busy with border defenses too.

However, in this timeline, Marcus had been cooped up in the capital for a year, and the injured Sword King was baring his fangs again at the Empire.

I couldn’t let the Infiltrator Sword Master grow stronger.

He had been the one who covertly tainted the knights and ministers of his kingdom, concealing his identity before my return.

To capture him, it wouldn’t be a beheading operation but a full-frontal battle against the great power of Doroysen.

I remember how much blood Jeilliris had to spill.

I couldn’t let her get the title of butcher again in this life.

“Lady Tenitia. Have the wyverns returned?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Fortunately, they haven’t run too far away.”

“Send a letter to His Majesty asking for assistance to the city. I will seek out the main body of the crystal meteorite. I must act before Ensis arrives or smash it somehow.”

“It’s dangerous. There’s a chance you might have to fight him.”

Lady Tenitia sent me an unusually earnest look.

I marshaled all my courage, raised my chin, and said confidently.

“Don’t worry, Lady. I’m Valenciaunos. I have it all figured out.”

I couldn’t engage in a full-frontal battle with the Sword Master.

But after gathering enough crystal fragments, I may be able to amplify them all at once to attack from within, or strike a blow against Ensis, who will be stabilizing his body with the crystal fragments after smashing its core.

…That might be possible.

…Please.