CH 130.1

Chapter 130.1 : Goma’s Castle

Three days had elapsed since we traversed this jungle. Despite the ruins spread across one part of the dungeon, we hadn’t found any fairy plaza so far. That’s why on the first and second day, we had no choice but to sleep inside one of those available ruins while taking turns for the night watch. Fortunately, Natsukawa-san found a fairy plaza in the collapsed building on the third day, that is today.

As expected, by the third day everyone had come to realize just how great, and important the sense of security provided by the fairy plaza was. The reason being no one got enough sleep during the first two nights since we’d lookout rotation. Though I’ve been used to this kind of experience thanks to my experience in sleeping outdoor in the middle of mountains, I was forced to admit that my mental strength was about to reach its limit.

Fortunately, we did not encounter powerful monsters in the first two nights. But, we didn’t let our guard down in case that giant dragon flying in the sky above us suddenly attacked us on a whim. In the end, we didn’t see that dragon again except for the first day when we encountered it. The first encounter might be just a coincidence, or else, the dragon could really be flying around, but only once every few days over its territory. Since we’d yet to receive the information about the dragon in our email, we still had no idea just how powerful that dragon was.

As a result, we were advancing through the jungle without a hitch while beating the jungle’s native monsters who dared to attack us. And our encounter with gomas’ troop surged the closer we were to their stronghold. On the other hand, we barely encountered any monster the closer we were from the gomas’ fortress. Maybe it was better to think that we’re already right on their turf.

Though I was getting tired of fighting the gomas and govus, there was surprisingly a nice loot from them.

And that was the discovery of 『Magic Stone』.

Magic stone was slightly different from the core, it was the crystalization of mana. Basically, it was separated by elements such as fire, water, or wind. Applying an impact, or draining the elemental mana sealed inside would give some sort of reaction from the magic stone. For example, fire would come out when you struck fire elemental magic stone.

The majority of govus, the gomas’ elite warrior, were using a simple enchanted weapon that had this magic stone in it. It was mainly used as an arrowhead to turn it into a fire arrow or a thunder arrow. Some of them used it for their spearhead.

We knew from the mail magic circle that telling us that magic core wasn’t core, but it was literally a godsend for us due to its utility value.

「I can use it for a lot of things with only this much!」

Kotori-san was fired up as she saw mountains of magic stones of various colors shining like gems.

It seems she was going to use these magic stones with alchemy to create an enchanted weapon.

It seems that she used the material from the monster with magic stone in its body to create an enchanted weapon. Since the manufacturing process was the same even with magic stones, it seems we could strengthen our existing weapons in that way.

「… My bad, I failed.」

But it didn’t go as smoothly as we expected. Even though combining an iron sword with fire elemental magic stone should’ve resulted in a flaming sword, and yet the result was a sword with a warm blade, good enough for a butter knife or warming you up in the freezing night.

It seems the effect wasn’t that significant with just one or two magic stones. This enchanted weapon couldn’t be put into practice unless we used a bigger magic stone or a magic stone with higher purity.

On the other hand, the result was the same even after she bundled together a lot of magic stones. Maybe Kotori’s mastery wasn’t high enough.

I guess she’ll become more and more dextrous from now on… her half-failed product opened another possibility.

「Uhm, IT’S DONE!」

She finally succeeded after numerous failed experiments.

「You mean alchemist with magic stone only.」

「This looks like a red ring.」

The first successful prototype was a red ring made from fire elemental magic stone. It was simply the fire elemental magic stone whose color resembled that of ruby, shaped into a small ring.

「Yes, it’s possible to produce fire when you wear this!」

Kotori-san inserted the ring into her finger immediately.

「… FIREEEEE!」

A small fire formed in front of Kotori’s small fist along with her shout. Its size was that of candlelight, small enough to disappear just from your own breathing.

It… far surpassed my expectation, in a bad way.

「I call it, 『Ignition Ring』! Fufufu, how’s that? Kotori is awesome, right?」

I was at a loss upon hearing such a confident remark from Kotori. Sakura didn’t say anything about this, but she kept glancing in my direction. Hey, don’t rely on your big brother at this kind of moment.

「Uhm, that’s,」

「The heck, it turned out to be just a simple device. If that’s all you got, a lighter is still better for us.」

Asuna who saw the result of the experiment stated her unrestrained opinion as Kotori’s bosom friend.

「Mu~, ASUNA-CHAN YOU DUMMY!」

Despite her pout, maybe because of this small achievement, or because her 『Ignition Ring』 had the power comparable to that of lighter, Kotori learned new magic.

『Magic Alchemy Formation』：Carve the basics of alchemy formation with your own magical power. Now is the time to start the endless journey of magic research.

Thanks to this 『Magic Alchemy Formation』, the result of alchemy which was almost equivalent to losing gacha up until now could be adjusted to a certain extent in accordance with Kotori’s will. But, since Kotori-san’s proficiency wasn’t high enough, we couldn’t expect a great result for a while. It’d take a while before we could strengthen our weapon with alchemy.

But to my surprise, Kotori-san found a creative way to make full use of 『Magic Alchemy Formation』’s potential.

「Fufufufu, no~w, guess what is this?」

Kotori-san showed her next creation with the same triumphant look on her face.

「Uhm, it looks like nothing but a normal smartphone though.」

I replied to her. I mean, the item she held in her hand was really a smartphone. The smartphone with a minor mascot character as its wallpaper should be Kotori’s smartphone.

「Corect, Souma-kun! This is a smartphone!」

「Eh, Kotori-san, the battery of your smartphone should hav―― NO WAY!!!」

And then, after showing an even prideful expression on her face, Kotori exclaimed.

「After I’m done tinkling around with thunder magic stone, NOW WE CAN RECHARGE OUR SMARTPHONE!!!」

「OOOOH!」

That was great indeed. Just like me, the other party members were also looking at Kotori-san’s latest invention with great interest.

I’d turned off my smartphone ever since we had arrived in this dungeon which was simply lacking a power outlet to recharge our smartphone to save its power but then, now we could recharge our smartphone.

「We can recharge straight to full charge with only this small piece of magic stone!」

Sure enough, the battery icon of the smartphone was filled to the brim.

We took a lot of thunder magic stones from govus. Our stocks were more than enough to let every single one of our party member’s smartphones be fully charged.

「NOW WE CAN USE OUR PHONE AS MUCH AS WE WANT TO DO PHONE CALLS!」

「No, Kotori-san, a phone call is impossible you know.」

「Eh?」

Though Kotori-san expression of opening her eyes wide in wonder was so adorable, to be honest, it made the hair on my back stand knowing her thinking that smartphone being ON again was equal to being able to make a phone call again.

「I mean, a phone call is――」

PIRURURU! That loud ringtone had interrupted my train of thought.

「Is that your phone, nii-san?」

「EH!?」

She was staring in wonder at me.

Even after the electricity had been cut off, I kept it in my uniform pocket out of the habit. But it wasn’t until I was reminded by Sakura I realized that my normally silent smartphone was ringing. It kept trembling inside of my pocket.

「N-No way, it got connected!」

After I took out the phone in hurry and opened the lock carefully, the screen displayed the name of the one who called me, Takanashi Kotori.

「… Hello.」

「Hello, Souma-kun! It’s Kotori~!」

Yeah, I know. I mean, you’re the only one who talked with your phone right in front of me while showing such an innocent look on your face.

Though I could hear her voice from here, there was no mistake that her voice was also coming from over the phone.

It was connected. Now, I couldn’t help but agree with her that Kotori-san’s phone and mine were connected.

「Just… how in the world!」

「Maybe, Kotori might’ve changed the smartphone into a magic tool.」

My question received a direct answer from the class rep.