Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 153 (Part 2)

From that day onward, Rodin hastened the speed of his carriage. Having already obtained what he needed, there was no reason to delay any longer.

The journey was peaceful. Perhaps due to a volcanic eruption nearby, there were no attacks from magic beasts.

“I can’t step outside.”

“Just hold on a little longer. It’ll be fine once we get farther away.”

Even just stepping outside for a moment left soot smudged on the face. When washing up in the morning, murky water flowed down.

“Big Brother Rodin, isn’t there a way?”

“Should I use purification magic?”

“Even if you use it, it only works for a moment.”

Bianca pouted and went inside the carriage. She was probably going to cling to Larry and whine for a while.

Left alone, Rodin took out a dagger from his subspace. It was something he had stolen from Harrison Richmond’s closet.

“I found out what it is, but… what a shame.”

The dagger only looked like a weapon on the outside; inside, it contained magic that enhanced mana conversion. It was essentially a portable mana cultivation chamber.

Its mana conversion rate was quite high. Rodin had tested it twice, and compared to the Mana chamber he made himself, its efficiency was far superior.

The only downside was that it didn’t have a magic circle for concentrating mana. For Rodin’s personal use, that made it somewhat lacking.

“Would it be about the same for Bianca, no matter what she uses?”

The inner walls of the carriage were engraved with a mana-concentration magic circle, which increased the mana density and thus improved cultivation efficiency.

When comparing the two, the amount of mana obtained was almost the same. Still, the cultivation chamber was slightly better.

“The Frouval didn’t know how to directly manipulate mana, after all.”

The dagger was definitely a treasure worthy of being called a top-class artifact.

If not for the carriage’s Mana chamber, which was practically a cheat space due to its combination with the mana-concentration magic circle, the dagger would have been considered a treasure anywhere.

Moreover—

Whoosh!

Rodin threw the dagger outside the moving carriage. The dagger disappeared somewhere into the forest beside the road.

“Recall.”

Rodin murmured quietly and opened his hand.

The dagger, which had been thrown somewhere into the forest, suddenly returned to his hand, as if it had skipped through space.

“So it also has Spatial displacement magic.”

It had been configured with owner recognition, so it now responded to Rodin’s commands. However, the owner could be changed at any time—Rodin had already figured out how through the magic circle inside the dagger.

“Everything’s great, but the efficiency is disappointing. If only I could combine it with a mana-concentration magic circle…”

As it was, the dagger wasn’t quite suitable for Rodin’s needs—especially since he prioritized mana density over conversion efficiency.

Still, the dagger’s mana conversion rate was undeniably top-notch. If combined with a mana-concentration magic circle that increased mana density, it would become an artifact with no shortcomings, even for Rodin.

“But there’s no space inside to engrave another circle. In the end, I’ll have to make a whole new one from scratch.”

Fortunately, there was no need to go out of his way to gather materials.

Since the day he left the Richmond Marquisate, Rodin had been placing mana stones on mithril plates to produce magic stones. So far, he had made 24 magic stones. Additionally, he expected to produce another 12 magic stones every three days.

Aside from that, he already had most of the materials needed for crafting, including mithril. The materials he didn’t have on hand could easily be purchased cheaply from the market.

“With a third of them being high-grade… The mana stones are sufficient. The only issue is processing the mithril.”

Simply using raw mithril wouldn’t produce an artifact as efficient as the dagger. The mithril had to undergo several special treatments to achieve that level of performance.

“By the way… Spatial displacement and owner recognition, huh…?”

Rodin placed greater importance on the dagger’s other two enchantments.

In particular, spatial displacement was a spell he had been pondering ever since he became a 7th-circle mage.

Now, at a moment when he truly desired it, an artifact with Spatial displacement magic had appeared before him. If he could study it, perfecting his own Spatial displacement spell wouldn’t be too difficult.

—

“Young Master, the sun is setting.”

“Oh? Shall we rest here today?”

“I’ll inform Karis.”

“Okay.”

The carriage veered off the road and came to a halt. The carriage driven by Karis naturally pulled up beside it.

“Big Brother Rodin! Are we resting here?”

“Yeah. It seems quiet here. Let’s skip setting up tents and just sleep in the carriage tonight.”

“Sounds good.”

Bianca came over, and Rodin unfolded a table, then took food out of his subspace.

“Where’s Larry?”

“Brother Larry! Come out, quick!”

“Coming.”

Larry appeared, his body drenched in sweat—he must have been training inside the carriage.

“You should rest when it’s time to rest.”

“I’m fine. It wasn’t that intense of a workout.”

“Let’s eat.”

“Hehe. This is nice too, Big Brother Rodin.”

Taking food from the subspace eliminated the need to prepare meals—they just had to take the food out, eat, and clean up.

After the meal, Larry immediately returned to his carriage. Seeing that, Bianca also tried to head into another carriage where Larry was.

“Bianca, you’re planning to train, right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Want to try training outside?”

Rodin took the dagger out of his subspace once more. Its surface was engraved with a meticulously crafted magic circle etched in magic power rather than mana.

“Huh? Outside? The efficiency will drop. I need a lot of mana, you know.”

“It won’t drop that much. Give it a try here.”

“Hmm… Okay. If you’re suggesting it, there must be a reason.”

Rodin lightly tossed the dagger. It flew a short distance and embedded itself deep into the ground.

“Activate.”

The dagger vibrated slightly, then began to emit waves of magical energy.

Although Bianca couldn’t feel it, Rodin could sense the range influenced by the dagger’s magic circle. It formed a temporary training space with a radius of two meters—four meters in diameter—centered around the dagger.

“Here’s fine?”

“Move a bit closer to the dagger.”

“Here?”

“Yeah. Try training there. Afterward, tell me how it feels.”

When Rodin trained the mana cultivation using the dagger, its mana conversion efficiency was similar to that of the carriage, though the quality of the mana was inferior.

However, that was just how it worked for Rodin. It could have different effects on others, so he wanted to verify it through Bianca.

Bianca sat down and began cultivating. The surrounding mana naturally flowed into her body.

‘Her mana absorption rate seems better than before.’

It was a change that had occurred after Bianca consumed an elixir obtained from the ruins of the Kingdom of Rophelia. Her cultivation efficiency had slightly improved—equivalent to about a five-point increase in talent if expressed numerically.

Larry had experienced a similar effect. His mana efficiency had improved slightly, speeding up his growth compared to before.

‘I didn’t expect the elixir to have that much of an effect.’

The elixir had no noticeable effect on Rodin. The most it did was increase his magic power by a tiny fraction.

Hyung_Otaku2

•