Chapter 704
“So, so. This was it… Wait, then the storeroom you said you got from a graduated senior was here?!”
Diret had answered, “Don’t talk nonsense,” when they had spoken through the artifact last time, so Diret was startled all over again.
Lee Han looked puzzled, as if asking why Diret was making a fuss about it only now.
“I told you earlier.”
“Th… that’s true.”
Seeing the junior act as if this were the most natural thing in the world made Diret feel a little calmer.
For this junior, meeting a graduate in the punishment ward and being gifted a secret base was apparently nothing more than everyday life.
So Diret, too, should calmly…
“…No. He’s the strange one.”
Trying to steady a heart that was only growing more unsettled instead of calming down, Diret checked the artifact.
The old senior who had installed this notebook-shaped artifact here had obviously placed it this way to secure the mana needed to run it.
Artifacts with magic built into them were convenient tools that helped mages, but there was no such thing as a tool that could use magic without any price.
Most important of all was securing mana. The stronger the magic an artifact was trying to use, the more the required amount of mana increased exponentially.
This notebook-shaped communication artifact used a simple method of exchanging letters.
Even so, it still needed a considerable amount of mana. That was even more true because the artifact itself lacked any strong function for collecting or generating mana.
Even Diret had to periodically charge an artifact like that with mana and leave it soaking in reagents to keep it running…
“So it’s linked to the mana flowing through the secret base.”
While watching another senior’s method with interest, Diret realized it belatedly.
“Wait. There’s no reason for you to keep this fixed here, is there? If you carried it around, it would charge on its own.”
“What?”
“This artifact. It’s fixed here so it can draw mana from the room.”
“Ah. It can do that too? It was fixed in place, so I just left it alone…”
“If you want, I’ll separate it for you.”
Once Diret got Lee Han’s permission, Diret pulled out a wand and a paper knife, carved a few simple sigils, and started the work.
Separating an artifact linked to the mana of a space was trickier than it looked.
You needed to be well versed in enchantment magic, and you had to understand the exact flow of the mana in that space. Otherwise, you could burn out the artifact or cause mana to surge through the room and trigger unexpected effects.
Lee Han watched Diret work with close attention and admiration.
“That’s incredible. Have you studied enchantment magic too?”
“Not formally. Just a little, because I needed it. If you study dark magic, there are a lot of cursed artifacts, so you need to know at least a little enchantment magic too.”
“…”
Without even realizing that Diret had just said something that would reduce the popularity of dark magic, Diret focused on the task.
Sssst—
With a burning sound, the book separated. After carefully checking the place where the notebook had been linked, Diret handed the artifact to the junior.
“Here. It’s still a pretty useful artifact, so make sure no one steals it.”
“How about disguising it as another grimoire?”
“Not a bad idea.”
Lee Han picked up a quill and wrote, On the Great Life and Achievements of Gonadaltes across the notebook.
Seeing that, Diret patiently advised him.
“No one will steal it, but if people catch you carrying that around, they’ll think you’re insane.”
“I see.”
Lee Han erased the title and wrote The Diary of Bibele Verdus instead.
Diret silently snatched the notebook away, erased the title, and wrote Whispers of Einroguard.
“This will do. At this level, no one will care about it.”
“Thank you, senior.”
“If something happens, or if you need help, contact me. I might not reply immediately, but I’ll answer as soon as I check it.”
Lee Han nodded, his eyes shining with emotion.
What senior from any school would ever look after a junior like this?
One senior like Diret was worth more than a hundred seniors like Yukbeltire.
“Wait. This mirror too… Ah, is this the other communication artifact you mentioned before?”
“Yes. The other person was completely deranged.”
Grumbling, Lee Han bad-mouthed the person on the other side of the mirror.
That person had treated Lee Han like some socially stunted eccentric just because Lee Han was slightly acquainted with Ilendil and was taking the dark magic group.
Hearing that story, Diret flew into a rage.
“Who was the bastard?”
“An outrageously rude person. On top of that, the moment that person heard I was from House Wardanaz, that person thought I was a weirdo.”
“And what else?”
“…Senior, why aren’t you getting angry with me about that part too?”
Diret, who had almost let that part slide without thinking, immediately realized the mistake.
“That’s incredibly rude!”
“Thank you. Besides that… after hearing rumors, that person tried to get me to join the research.”
“This is driving me mad. I block Yukbeltire for a moment, and now they’re popping up everywhere…”
Diret let out a sigh.
Personally, Diret almost felt that Einroguard’s first-year protection rules should be expanded and applied to second-years too.
Right now, the junior standing in front of Diret looked like a defenseless, fragile lamb.
And outside the fence, countless senior wolves were surely waiting, drooling.
“Don’t worry, senior. I can refuse.”
“…Right. You’re no pushover either.”
“?”
“Be careful when you talk to other students. Don’t get swept up carelessly. Are you still talking to this person?”
“I talked from time to time last year. The information was useful…”
Diret nodded as if that made sense.
At Einroguard, cooperating with a classmate or senior wasn’t always because the other person was admirable or pleasant to work with.
There were more cases than you would think where you had no choice but to join hands just to survive, or just to keep your research moving.
Even if the other person was garbage, it was better to stay in contact if that meant getting useful information.
“They haven’t figured out who you are, right?”
“Don’t worry. I acted perfectly, so they’d never suspect it even in a dream. A rough, rude third-year… no. A fourth-year now, I suppose. Anyway, that’s my cover identity.”
“They think White Tiger Tower?”
“…That’s right!”
In truth, the other person seemed to think Black Turtle Tower, but Lee Han was being considerate of Diret.
Diret was a student of Black Turtle Tower, not White Tiger Tower.
“Hm. That may actually be a good disguise.”
“Right?”
“Then I’ll move this artifact too.”
Diret began extracting the core spell engraved into the mirror.
Since it was an even more difficult task than the notebook from earlier, Lee Han helped Diret from the side.
“Can you set out the reagents here and stabilize it?”
“Yes.”
“What about some mana-radiation enchantment here… no. That’s probably still too much.”
“I learned it while assisting Professor Verdus.”
Lee Han immediately cast <Bibele’s Mana-Radiation Enchantment>.
The technique was close to perfect, and Diret felt bitter, not knowing whether to praise him or feel depressed.
But putting that aside, the junior at Diret’s side really was a near-perfect assistant.
No matter what reagent Diret asked for, Lee Han brought it at once without asking again, there was not a single basic spell Lee Han couldn’t use, and above all, he didn’t need rest.
“This is… strange.”
“?”
“It doesn’t look like a very old artifact. The spells inside are recent.”
Einroguard was full of artifacts more than a hundred years old.
The notebook Diret and Lee Han were using to communicate had been found in some antique storeroom, after all.
When you examined the magic inside those artifacts, you could feel the traces of age.
Magic had fashions too, and it developed over time, so someone with a sharp enough eye could distinguish the era.
This mirror artifact contained comparatively recent magic, and it was clear that the mage who had made it was extremely precise and highly skilled.
FLASH!
Lee Han’s notebook shone and absorbed the new spell. Diret did a quick estimate of the required mana and clicked Diret’s tongue.
“This is going to need a lot more mana than I expected. Still, it should be fine.”
“…”
Lee Han knew it would be fine, but because Diret was worrying over him a little less than expected, he felt slightly disappointed.
Couldn’t it maybe not be fine?
If it wound up consuming a truly absurd amount of mana…
“Do you have any other artifacts to move into the storeroom while we’re here? We may as well do them all together.”
“Hm. I do have a paper artifact…”
Lee Han pulled out the scrap-of-paper artifact he had received after climbing the reward tower as the top first-year student last year.
It was the communication artifact that had been divided among Giselle, Adenart, Anglago, Salco, Shiles, Tijiling, Nigisor, and Lee Han.
Diret looked surprised at an artifact that let eight people talk together rather than just one-to-one.
“It should get harder every time the number goes up.”
“To be honest, I’ve never used this even once.”
At Lee Han’s words, Diret nodded as if that sounded about right.
An artifact like this obviously needed to be charged with mana, and Lee Han’s friends were all first-year students.
For students like that, gathering the required mana could be harder than expected.
“Right. So—”
“Wouldn’t it be better to sell it?”
“…I was about to tell you a few ways to charge it… Hm?”
Diret and Lee Han stared at each other as if asking what on earth the other was saying.
“Uh, wouldn’t it be better to sell it? I’ve hardly used it.”
“…No matter how desperate you are for silver coins, this is the kind of thing you shouldn’t sell. Do you know how useful it is to be able to contact your friends?”
“I don’t think it was all that useful for me…”
Lee Han thought back on the messages he had received last year.
Most of the paper birds his friends had sent were annoying, troublesome requests for help.
“Enough. Don’t sell it. I’ll tell you how to charge it, so pass it on to your friends.”
Diret slipped the stack-of-paper artifact into the notebook and began explaining.
“First, gather the rotten blood of an underground corrupter—”
“Senior. I don’t think my friends can easily go hunt underground corrupters.”
“…Right. That was my mistake just now. I’ll explain an easier method.”
Diret explained an easier one.
On a night when the moon’s energy was strongest, you took out a silver cup, filled it with pure water, and let it sit under the moonlight for two hours, at which point mana would gather thickly in it…
Hm. Maybe it’d be easier to just find an underground corrupter, kill it, and sell the blood.
The method was more annoying than expected, and Lee Han thought that to himself.
*****
As befitted someone who would be invited to the ceremony if there were an award called Einroguard’s Finest Senior, Diret helped with all the remaining little tasks too without a single complaint.
Finishing up the secret base, moving supplies into the hut outside…
How did he get a ghost chicken?
Diret wondered inwardly.
No matter how Diret looked at it, it was not the kind of animal a first-year ought to be able to get.
“This hut—who made it? It’s way too neat.”
“Professor Bagreg.”
I shouldn’t have asked.
Regretting the question, Diret asked another one anyway, since the subject had already come up.
“For what purpose? Don’t tell me it was to attack people where no one could see?”
“Haha. No one comes to the underground lecture hall anyway, so there’d be no need to build a new one for that. This hut is for raising the basilisk. It hatched, so I’ve been carrying it around, but once it gets bigger, I’ll have to keep it here.”
Lee Han said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
At the moment it was light enough to cling to Lee Han like a bracelet, but basiliskes were originally large monsters.
-?!
Naturally, to the baby basilisk, Lee Han’s words came as a devastating, sky-falling shock.
The tail sticking slightly out of his sleeve trembled as if it had been deeply wounded, and Diret said in flustered surprise,
“Uh… junior. I think the basilisk was shocked by that.”
“What? It’s probably hungry.”
“No… I think it looks a little different from that…?”