The Saintess (5)

Bad news. The saintess has become completely hooked on the game room's rat races. What a worldly person. Is she really a saintess?

Until the day before yesterday, whenever she died and came back, she'd either rest quietly at the inn or visit the village chief. But…

"Goshujin-sama～, the saintess is here again～?"

"… I don't want to see her. Alright, tell her I'm already asleep, so she should go home. Also, this order was given in my sleep. I repeat, this order was given in my sleep."

"Wooow, what amazin' sleep-talkin'～. There's no doubt yer asleep if yer talkin' in yer sleep like that!"

So I sent her away yesterday. And when she got whiny about it, Ichika brought her to the game room to calm her down.

The result: "I'm not moving around, so this counts as resting," she said before starting to play. She fell head over heels for the rat races and ended up clutching betting tickets alongside the other gambling villager adventurers.

"Bibibi! Go, Bibibi! That's an order! Ahhh no, noooo, why are you running backwards?!"

"It's no good, Saintess-sama. Bibibi has only won once. Bibibi the loser is pretty famous."

"Is that so?! No wonder the odds were so high…"

By the way, that one win was when a villager adventurer who'd lost everything and was on the verge of ruin bet it all as a last-ditch effort. As expected, it'd be troublesome if I drove a villager to bankruptcy, and villagers should be milked steadily over time rather than squeezed dry all at once. That's more profitable in the long run.

I put items in the dungeon. The villager adventurers collect items from the dungeon and exchange them for money. After they cash out, I recover a moderate amount through gambling. The recovered money turns into DP, which I use to prepare more items for the dungeon. It's a great system, running smoothly. And on top of that, they generate DP just by staying here.

So anyway, here's what it was like when the saintess came today:

"Second-class land in the kingdom, five hundred gold coins, and I'll grant you the rights to hold rat races. How about it?"

"I refuse… Oh, it's almost race time, isn't it? I think Onsoku is running today～"

Her concessions have clearly increased, and she starts visibly fidgeting when I mention the races. Hm? You're leaving already today? Is that so? Please take care.

… Amazing work, you rats. You guys are truly excellent subordinates. Keep letting them win just enough to drag them deeper into the swamp.

Right, next time she barges in, maybe I should take her money with a dice game. Just like I did with Hero Wataru.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

That day, I had another visitor besides the saintess while I was lounging around in my room. It was Kantra the blacksmith.

When I was called and went to the dining room, Kantra was waiting with an iron short sword.

"Oooi, Kehma-dono! Take a look at this!"

"Hm? What, did you manage to make a magic sword?"

"Fufufu, well, it's one step toward that. Though it's thanks to the advice I got from Kehma-dono… I call it the Sword of Light!"

The sword Kantra brought had a pommel that was a light-type magic tool.

… It's basically like sticking a blade on the back of a flashlight. Why'd you make that part glow?

"Wait, the advice I gave you was about taming monsters and incorporating them, right? Why'd it turn into a magic tool?"

"Ah, I'm working on that too, but… there aren't any good candidates for taming around here. So instead, I combined it with a magic tool."

"A magic tool as a substitute for a monster, huh."

"Exactly! Did you know? The cutting-edge research right now is trying to make magic swords by turning swords into magic tools. But naturally, that reduces the sword's durability, and you'd need an alchemist who can forge swords in the first place. With my method though, I just attach a sword to a magic tool pommel made by an alchemist, so the blacksmith-made blade maintains its strength! It's revolutionary!"

Is it revolutionary? For a Japanese person, it's just a "might as well try sticking it together" kind of idea.

Just then, Nerune, who was waiting tables nearby, spoke up.

"Wouldn't it be more convenient to keep magic tools as magic tools～ and swords as swords～?"

"… Ah."

Kantra's speech stopped.

"T-that's true too. What Nerune-dono says makes sense. Hmm, I thought it was groundbreaking, but…"

Err, sorry about our girl. But a sword of light could work as a flashbang if used well, so maybe it's worth trying various combinations?

"More importantly, how did you get that magic tool? You mentioned something about an alchemist earlier, but can you actually make them yourself?"

"Hm? Ah, yeah. I can make simple magic tools. They're not as good as magic swords, and dungeon-made ones are definitely better quality, though."

Is there a skill for that? Or is it a craft technique like blacksmithing?

"If you don't mind, could you teach me how to make them? I'd like to try."

"What, you're interested? Hmm… I'm not really supposed to spread this around, but for Kehma-dono it should be fine. You've helped me out a lot."

"Yeah, got it."

"… Then, let's move somewhere else. The forge would be better; it has tools there."

And so, I ended up learning how to make magic tools from Kantra.

If I apply magic tool crafting to golems, I might be able to create the long-awaited "golem that can use magic." I'm getting excited.

We headed to Kantra's forge. I brought Nerune along since it was magic-related.

When I asked if he could teach Nerune too since she was listening with sparkling eyes, he agreed right away. But wait, weren't you not supposed to spread this around…? Kantra, you're the type of dwarf who can't say no when asked, aren't you?

When we arrived at the forge, Kantra pulled out pens, iron plates, and various small tools from a cabinet and spread them on the table.

"A magic tool, as you know, is a tool that produces effects when you channel magic power into it. Making one isn't hard at all as long as you understand the key point. And this is that key point."

What Kantra showed us was a magic stone.

"… A magic stone, isn't that the energy source that powers magic tools?"

"That's right. But magic stones are also the main material for making magic tools. For example, this magic stone was taken from a water-attribute monster, and it can be easily made into a water-type magic tool."

Saying that, Kantra ran his pen across the magic stone. Looking closely, the tip of the pen was a needle, and he was carving something into the magic stone. "You can strengthen the effect by drawing special patterns. Draw them with firm strokes," he said, covering the magic stone with geometric shapes that looked like combinations of squares and triangles.

Then, he used the needle pen to carve a magic formation onto an iron plate about ten centimeters square. He etched incredibly detailed patterns and characters… "Here, you do it like this, swoosh. This pattern represents the water attribute," he said. How can you do that freehand? "This part is especially important. The trick is to draw it all at once with momentum," he continued, pointing at the text portion and teaching me not to make mistakes with the characters… Ah, I can read the characters he wrote: "Pour Water," "Convert Magic Power," "Absorb Magic Stone." Heh, nothing to it with the translation function.

While he was doing all this, the magic formation was completed.

"Now, once you've drawn the magic formation, you melt this magic stone into it. Like this."

When Kantra placed the magic stone onto the magic formation, the stone dissolved into it.

The instant it fully dissolved, the formation glowed blue. It seemed ready to use now. When he placed an energy-source magic stone on the formation, water came out from the designated spot.

After that, you just build it into a tool and it becomes a magic tool. Kantra skillfully assembled a water pitcher with practiced hands. The magic tool "Pitcher of Spring Water" was complete.

From start to finish, about ten minutes. It was done in no time.

"See? Easy, right?"

Kantra said with a smile.

—I don't get it at all!!