Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 60 (Part 2)
The small statue, about half the size of his palm, depicted a person wearing an apron and what looked like a chef’s hat. The figure’s waist was thick, reminiscent of Committee Member Habinon.
“It’s the typical image of a chef. Let’s see.”
He closed his eyes and infused a small amount of mana, carefully controlling it to read the magic circle embedded within.
“It seems related to summoning?”
It was still unclear what exactly it was. He focused more, deciphering the runes one by one.
A rune he didn’t recognize suddenly appeared, which startled him, but he used the context of the surrounding runes to infer its meaning.
After fully analyzing the magic circle, he set the statue down.
“It’s definitely a summoning artifact. This item is designed to store something and summon or reverse-summon it.”
It was a rather old artifact. There were quite a few unknown runes, and the arrangement of the runes was different from what he was familiar with.
“Should I try summoning? Hopefully, nothing weird comes out.”
It wasn’t a magic circle for summoning a living creature. Since it was an artifact that stored items, there shouldn’t be any danger.
“Summon.”
He infused a bit of mana and recited the activation word engraved on the magic circle.
The statue of the figure in the apron and chef’s hat extended its left hand forward. Unexpected items appeared in the spot where the hand pointed.
“What the…?”
What appeared were a kitchen knife, a cutting board, a pot, and a frying pan. They were all made of black material, giving them a rather antique look.
“This can’t be all.”
The summoning process for the statue occurred in two stages. What had just happened was only the first stage.
“What’s next? Summon?”
The statue retracted its left hand and then extended its right hand. A few more items appeared in the spot the hand pointed to.
Two bowls and two plates, along with two forks, knives, and spoons. Unlike the first set of items, these were pristine white.
“Cooking utensils and tableware? Ha, this is surprising.”
Rodin wasn’t disappointed. On the contrary, he was quite astonished as he looked at the summoned items.
This artifact had nothing to do with combat. It was merely a set of tools necessary for cooking and dining, stored and summoned through magic.
This wasn’t something to be taken lightly.
He didn’t know when this artifact was made, but its existence implied that artifacts had been so common at that time that they had permeated everyday life.
“Even the cooking utensils and tableware are imbued with magic.”
The cutting board had a magic spell for enhanced durability, the kitchen knife for sharper cutting, and the pot and frying pan were imbued with heating magic. All the magic was useful for cooking.
The second set of summoned items also had similar enchantments.
The forks and knives were enhanced for sharpness, the spoons for durability, and the plates and bowls had spells to maintain warmth. These enchantments were all designed to assist with dining.
“There’s another spell I don’t recognize.”
In addition to the familiar enhancement, sharpness, heating, and warmth retention spells, there was one more spell common to all the cooking utensils and tableware. However, its nature was unclear because the runes and their arrangement were unfamiliar to Rodin.
“It’s somewhat similar to a Clean Up spell, but different. Maybe I’ll figure it out with use?”
For now, there wasn’t much to do. He had already had dinner, and he didn’t have any ingredients to cook with.
“Oh!”
He opened his backpack and took out some herbs and a nearly finished potion that he had brought from the Advanced Library 3.
The potion was still incomplete, so there was about 15 liters of it. When it was fully finished, it would reduce to about 10 liters.
“Can I use this?”
He needed to heat it, but he wasn’t sure if the pot from the artifact was suitable for such a task. He worried that the herbs’ aroma might linger and render the pot unusable for cooking.
“Well, let’s give it a try.”
He poured the unfinished potion into the pot. Fortunately, the pot was large enough to hold all 15 liters with room to spare.
“Heat.”
He used magic to control the temperature, maintaining it at an appropriate level without letting it get too hot.
Next, he drew out his mana like a thread and infused it into the potion.
Too much mana would be wasteful, and too little would prevent the potion from forming correctly. He needed to carefully inject a consistent amount of mana evenly.
* * *
Rodin stayed at the inn for another day. Not because the food was particularly good, but to finish the potion he was making.
Carrying herbs around took up too much space, so he decided to complete the potion to reduce his load.
“You’re the first person I’ve seen buy 400 bottles at once.”
“Really? Don’t they buy a lot at the Magic Tower?”
During the day, he bought a large number of empty bottles at the general store to store the potion. The shopkeeper gave him a strange look for buying only empty bottles and no potions.
“There’s no Magic Tower around here. You’d have to go to the big city far to the west to find one.”
“Ha ha, is that so? Here’s the money.”
Each bottle cost 5 silver. He bought 400 bottles at once and received 10 extra bottles as a bonus. The shopkeeper offered to give him a discount, but Rodin opted for the extra bottles instead.
When making a 10-liter potion, the actual yield is often slightly more than 10 liters, so 400 bottles wouldn’t be enough.
That morning, he holed up in the inn to finish the potion. In the afternoon, he transferred the completed potion into the empty bottles.
“Now I understand why the instructors sighed every time a potion was finished.”
Sitting on the floor, he ladled the potion into the bottles. It was exhausting. His back felt like it was going to break.
It was so tiring that every time he filled a bottle, he found himself staring at the remaining potion, thinking, “Why isn’t it decreasing?” He must have had that thought dozens of times.
“Haah, this is tough.”
He ended up with exactly 407 bottles of healing potion. He packed 400 of them in his backpack, wrapped in padding.
“I’ll sell just 7 bottles.”
The current price for healing potions was 30 gold.
The potions were smaller and lighter than 30 gold coins. Converting them to money would only add to his load.
So, he decided to sell the potions only when he needed money, as that was the best way to avoid unnecessary bulk.
* * *
Rodin stayed at the inn for two nights and left on the morning of the third day.
As he passed through the city, he sold 7 bottles of potion at the general store. With the money he earned, he bought a horse at the horse market.
The horse cost 108 gold. The price had risen a bit. Originally, horses were traded for less than 100 gold, but as the war dragged on, demand increased.
Interestingly, supply had also increased. It seemed that horses captured or stolen during the war were continually entering the horse market.
Rodin mounted the horse and left the city, heading east again.
He passed through the east gate of Stren. Fortunately, no one had yet demanded to check his identity.
“I really need to sort out the identity issue.”
To do that, he would have to go to a big city. The only major city he would encounter while heading east was Bontis.
The city of Bontis was the easternmost point of the Riyaz Kingdom and served as a gateway to the neighboring Beros Kingdom.
From the city of Stren, which he had just left, it would take ten days of riding to reach Bontis. It wasn’t possible to ride at full speed the entire way, so he estimated it would take about a month.
“I’ll get there eventually.”
Rodin, who had been leisurely traveling, suddenly pulled the reins and stopped the horse.
He sensed both hostility and the presence of others up ahead. Someone had been lying in wait, targeting him.
“Haah, I knew something troublesome was going to happen.”