Chapter 358 Excavation...

"It's better than expected..."

The garden area was better than expected.

He used quite a stable magic spell, and the ground was cut precisely from what I can tell.

It was cut in a square manner and this one was a precise cut, good enough to not be visible from normal means, but the way this grass was subtly disturbed was enough to let the gardener know there was something different about this one for certain.

They could tell there was something weird and if they looked closely at the ground, the small deep lines that shouldn't be there were the most likely cause of this new change.

Thankfully, it wasn't around her favorite flowers. The boy didn't take the greater risk.

Well... these lines were a problem too anyway, but even I couldn't tell from these lines alone just how deep the thing was hidden or just in what exact place it was.

I had to get the place right, and I didn't want to destroy this place more than needed.

It was chilly whenever I thought about the face my gorgeous aunt would make if she found out... which she definitely will.

"Well... no magic or skill. That's the rule. Maybe you should just ask them what to do about this.

I will just go there and tell Haze about this thing. We will do as she says..."

"What do you mean to tell her...? You think Alf will be alright after that?"

She realized the gravity of the situation and stopped using her teleportation skill.

she looked at me with a confused gaze, worried about me.

She didn't know how I would be able to get out of this crisis.

I couldn't use magic or else I could have just covered everything perfectly and they wouldn't have anything to feel weird.

But... well, it's not like I only had my magic and skills.

"Don't worry. It will be alright. Just don't talk about this thing. Especially don't tell aunt Haze."

I patted her head for a moment and stepped into the flower fields.

It was on the far right side of our house and this place was just filled with gorgeous flowers, small plants, and fresh greenery.

This whole block that we were standing in was the best place among them and one can easily tell that these flowers were somewhat different from the surrounding others.

They were more lively, more alive, and fresher than the flowers of similar species in other areas.

These were flowers grown by my great aunty. They were the flowers that were captivated by her and the flowers that loved her.

They were special ones, and I had to be careful while doing anything here.

I had something that can recover the damage done by my foolish brother, but that thing can't be used for large areas. In the first place, making that thing requires a lot of rare things.

So I had to be careful while excavating in this area.

I channeled some Mana and took out a square metallic cube with blue mechanical patterns from my storage space.

"Using storage space is alright, right?"

She was speechless... as she neutrally would.

She could read the things about the thing that I just took out from my storage space, and they were just that shocking.

My storage space, the blue bracelet that my dad gave me years ago to calm my anger at him, the same bracelet that master modified, now had a lot more space than maybe even Rein's storage skill.

And it contained a lot of things that I might need immediately.

There were many useful things there, not as useful and dangerous as my weapons and elixirs, but there were definitely many of my self-made medicines and potions.

There were some other 'normal' things too, so it was as good thing as my white crack.

The thing that I took out was one of those great things.

This small cube was a compact GPR. A small version of something that was as big as a big box, which was enough to crush the flowers here.

But this compact and a bit different version was different from that.

This one was an artifact that I personally made. And this was definitely useful here.

"My skill says that thing is revolutionary... and also that it is something that uses normal materials. Your master was definitely amazing..."

"I made this one, ma'am..."

"...?!"

She was speechless again. And I knew this one was definitely revolutionary.

Mages were rare and even more were the mages who could use high-grade underground surveillance magic.

My (: Scan) could do it if I focus solely on the ground, but I don't think even Rein can pinpoint the location of a 'small' thing under more than twenty or thirty meters without using magic or some skill.

So we could use this GPR in some situations that required better and more compact devices.

I had a few other inventions, and I was thinking of giving mom the sole authority over their production after I patent them.

It was the most profitable that way and mom knew the best how to sell and mass produce these kind of things.

Magic engineering was something that created artifacts or devices that normal folks can use. And this one was one of the things in that field.

Well, I want to show uncle this too, but the three men of my dear house are busy decoding my great handwriting by themselves.

They are doing it for days and I know they haven't finished even now.

'Those guys...'

I shook my mind and just put the metallic box down.

It was a simple device. The use was also simple.

One just had to press a button on top of this box and it will show the underground imagery surveillance of the ground in a thirty meters radius and sixty-meter depth on a projected three-dimensional screen.

The use was easy, and the floating screen stayed like that until the box was picked up from the ground.

The only downfall of this device was that it was a consumable product. Or more like the battery inside, it was consumable.

I had to make the battery separately, and it would be the main profit if sold to the public or a specific group of people.

This device can be used by adventurers, treasure hunters, or architects so the market was large and the demand would be amazing... anyway, that wasn't important right now.

The screen with the underground scan was presented before us and we could see the images that were similar to the vague image we always get after using a detection spell.

The image was vague, but just like how mages could decipher those images instinctively, the experts who knew how to read a normal GPR report can easily decipher this image.

And the two of us could also read it, so according to this thing... there was something underground. And it was somewhere around ten meters deep inside the ground.

"He took out ten meter-deep ground in pieces and put the gift box there? What was everyone else doing at that time?"

My confusion was genuine, and I really needed the answer to that. Fortunately, she knew the answer...

"Well, they said they took turns hiding the things. Everyone waited in the grand hall while others hid their things and some people had already hidden theirs, like your uncles and aunts, so they didn't need to.

No one knows where others hid their gifts."

"Good..."

It was good that they took turns, but anyway, the current situation wasn't good.

Ten meters weren't that deep if I said so myself, but it was fatal for this flower field.

I can't actually dig the pit too wide... I had to be careful.

"It can't be helped."

I sighed and took out another thing from my storage space.

It was a long, snake-like silver machine, and it looked just like a snake.

The scales on its body were divided into different sections, the heavy body, the blue eyes of the machine, and there was a triangle transparent display with Dwarven inscriptions.

"A dwarven artifact?"

"Nope. Check it with your eyes."

She was shocked and confused but when she checked the details of the artifact...

"Y-you made this too, didn't you?"

She was shocked, her eyes wide open, and it was a genuinely cute expression.

Though I used dwarven language as the main programming language in this one, I was the one to make this 'artifact'.

Yes, this was an artifact. Not everyone can use this one, but this one can also be mass-produced.

Though the materials were rare and this too used the same kind of 'battery' as the metallic GPR box, this one can be used for longer periods of time and its use was also great.

This snake was an artifact recovery item. Something that can go to narrow places or even go into a dungeon or similar place and survive the area from there.

It can also be connected to a separate display that can show the vision of the snake, which... was actually too expensive to mass produce.

Anyway, if one had this box and snake together, they can use it together.

So... I entered the coordinations of the box that we located with this special metallic cube and the snake dug into the ground.

This one was an artifact and can only be produced with a dwarf's hands... it had a small storage space to store the recovered artifact and the intelligence to recognize the artifact itself after all.

The snake vanished inside the ground and after a while came back from the same small hole it dug in this beautiful garden.

There was a small storage device inside its mouth, which was as big as the small-size storage devices available on the market.

I caressed the snake after taking out a big wooden box with the letter to the next gift stuck on it, patted the cute snake that reminded me of a certain mother, and put everything back.

After that, I took out a weird test tube with a weird bubbling green liquid inside it. Which made Rein feel weird as soon as it appeared.

"Body fluid of a forest tod, the essence of desert earthworm, the saliva of large red ants, dung beetle's extracts... the fuck is this?!"

She was first shocked by this weird liquid, but then she was angry at the weird things that this liquid was made of.

It was amazing her eyes can read the ingredients of my original fertilizer, but the ingredients are definitely known to everyone in the outside world.

This fertilizer, or more like recovery fluid, was made with the richest earthly things that helped the earth.

Just some drops were enough to return the partially damaged flower garden to its best state and it will further increase the growth of the flowers, which will be good overall.

"I call this <Drop of natural rectory>. It's a lifesaver, so erase that disgusted expression, please."

The frown on her face deepened, and she looked at me with an even more bewildered expression...

I shook my head at her and dropped a drop of this liquid on the cleaned-up hole of the snake, the lines that were still visible on the ground, and the surrounding area around the lines that were harmed because of the whole ground coming out.

As soon as these drops touched the ground, the distorted ground started reacting to the liquid. It flattened on its own and became the same way the other parts around this area were.

The lines started disappearing, and in just a few seconds, the lines were completely gone.

She was surprised by the sudden and instantaneous effect, but the fact that this small test tube contained the most disgusting things and had a smell even worse than that didn't go well with her.

She couldn't tolerate the bubbles in this liquid or its strong smell, so I just stored it back in my storage space.

Maybe she was sensitive to this kind of smell... or maybe she just didn't like the creatures that this one was made with.

She just looked down even after I stored that thing back, calmed her thoughts, and then looked at me with a sad expression.

"Don't take out that thing while I'm around... please."

She was on the verge of crying and… now I knew this one was somewhat serious. Well... I also didn't want to waste this one liquid if possible… not that it was as important as her.

I hurriedly patted her head and took her out of this flower garden.

We got the gift, so there was no need to be here anymore.

She wasn't feeling well, and it DEFINITELY wasn't good.

We set down on a bench some distance away, and I handed her some fresh orange juice to calm her internal reactions.

"It's just bad, on... it's bad..."

I didn't feel anything while making or using this thing, but from her reaction, this thing is definitely fatal to others...

"Sorry..."

I didn't know the things that I think are just normal could be fatal for some other individuals. And mostly the things from the great forest and our tower home. Some of those things might actually be deadly outside.

Or maybe some of those things can affect a particular species differently than some other species. Maybe?

There can be any kind of psychological reaction, physical discomfort, and natural hate towards a certain kind of smell or weird-looking thing.

I… have to look deep into this one.

'Haaa... at least we got the gift. And from the looks of things, this one seems like something unique...'

It was a square box. A wooden square box and when I carried it with me, and… it was definitely the heaviest thing in all the gifts I had received today.

It was something unique and I really wanted to have a look at this one, but Rein wasn't feeling well, so... I had to take care of her first.

It was early evening anyway... we had time.