Chapter 184 - Chapter 183: The Witch and the Spaelement
Mika ran through the wide road of District 3, heading for the magic tool shop Paraleira had told him about.
He turned off onto a side street and plunged straight into a somewhat desolate road.
A plot of land close to the Second Wall.
In other words, that meant it was an old area for District 3.
There were some shops around.
A few bookstores and general stores, and a desolate restaurant.
I wonder what kind of people come to a shop in such a location? But it must be people like Mika.
Arriving at the shop Paraleira had told him about, Mika looked up at the building.
It was a three-story, dilapidated building.
Concrete was used, but if a big earthquake came, it would surely collapse.
"......Well, I'll go in."
Mika pulled the wooden door and entered the shop.
To the left upon entering was a counter, and a young man was on duty.
On the narrow shelves inside the shop, goods were placed chaotically and haphazardly, with some items covered in a bit of dust.
As soon as Mika entered the shop and looked around nervously, the young man at the counter stared intently at Mika.
But he didn't try to speak to him about anything.
Not even a single word of "Welcome."
Normally, one wouldn't think of buying at such a shop.
After a quick check of the interior, one would probably leave quickly.
Mika looked at the young shop clerk.
It was clearly visible that he was thinking, "What is this brat?"
That kind of expression.
"I was told by Paraleira-san."
"......Eh?"
"Can you show me up there?"
When Mika said that and handed over the envelope, the young shop clerk was clearly confused.
Wait, did I get the wrong shop?
But as the young shop clerk flustered and looked toward the back of the shop, a suspicious-looking old man came from the back.
"............Did you hear this from Paraleira?"
"Yes. Just now."
Mika answered when asked by the suspicious old man, but the old man also made a face as if thinking a little.
The old man took the envelope Mika held out and checked the seal.
Then he opened the envelope and glanced at the written content.
But he immediately put the paper back into the envelope.
Looking closely, the seal Paraleira had pressed on the envelope had disappeared.
It seemed to be something that disappeared once opened.
I've never seen anything like this before.
"So, if Paraleira told you, that means it's like that......."
The old man crossed his arms and muttered that.
"Mine are expensive, you know?"
"If it's something worth the quality, isn't it natural that the price is appropriate?"
When Mika said that, the old man nodded.
"Understood. Follow me."
Saying that, he headed toward the back of the shop.
Mika silently followed the old man and entered the door at the back of the shop.
It seemed to be the back yard.
Winding through the lined shelves, there was another door, and as soon as he opened it, there was a narrow staircase.
Following the old man, he climbed the stairs.
(............?)
Climbing the narrow stairs carefully, he felt something strange.
It wasn't dizziness, but a sensation where the back of his head felt somewhat numb.
(Something is wrong? What is it?)
Mika instantly expanded his mana range and became alert.
At that moment, he became even more confused and couldn't help but stop in his tracks.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, no, it's nothing."
Saying that, Mika released the expansion of his mana range.
And then, he climbed the stairs.
(............This staircase. Going down.)
It looked like an upward staircase.
And indeed, Mika had been climbing the stairs.
But the terrain he grasped by expanding his mana range was going downward.
(Evidence of that......).
On the second floor they arrived at, there wasn't a single window.
Because it makes you mistake it for the second floor, but it is actually underground.
(Making you perceive that you are going up, while actually going down. How can you pull off such a trick?)
Stepping forward as if climbing the stairs, but actually going down.
If you did that, normally you would stumble and roll down the stairs.
It was exactly about to happen like that, so Mika released the expansion of his mana range.
(He's quite on guard. Is it camouflage for a robbery?)
Normally, one would think they had climbed to the second floor.
If there was another route to actually go to the second floor, going to the second floor from there would mean there was nothing there.
(A door right after opening, then stairs... thinking about it, it's full of suspicion. There must be other traps.)
It was a shop that looked quite dangerous.
What kind of shop is Paraleira introducing?
Mika was a bit dumbfounded.
But......
(Thinking about the circuit diagram, did he think it wasn't at that level and wasn't enough?)
It seems he was unconsciously doing reckless things again.
Thinking about it, the fact that he needs something that ordinary shops don't handle means he has stepped outside the general public.
Mika looked around the second floor he had reached.
Looking around, there wasn't much to see.
Because the room he climbed the stairs to was just a room with a counter and a few tables.
The back of the counter was blocked by a wall, but considering the building's area, it should be quite wide.
And, on the other side of the counter, a woman who could be described as alluring.
She wore a robe and had the atmosphere of a witch.
"Oh my, how rare. Such a cute boy."
The alluring witch said in a light tone, but her eyes were sharp as she looked at the old man.
It was clear she was blaming him for letting such a brat pass.
"It's an introduction from Paraleira."
"Paraleira......?"
When the old man handed over the envelope, the alluring witch checked the content.
"Fu~n......"
The witch who had checked the content looked at Mika over the counter.
From top to bottom, carefully.
But that gaze was quite sharp.
It was an uncomfortable feeling just like an official interrogation.
"......What do you want?"
The witch glanced at the old man, and the old man went down the stairs and returned.
"I don't have that much knowledge about materials....... I showed Paraleira-san the circuit diagram, and then she told me to come here."
"Circuit diagram? Do you have it now?"
Mika took the circuit diagram out of the Magic Bag and handed it to the witch.
The witch spread it out on the counter.
Tap, tap, tap, she tapped the handwritten symbols and values Mika had drawn with her fingertips to confirm them, and quickly grasped the whole picture.
Then, she lightly gasped, but didn't make a sound like Paraleira did.
"............I see."
She didn't ask unnecessary things like what this was.
She tapped her fingertips on the circuit diagram...... tap, tap.
"Where is the bottleneck in your mind?"
The witch turned her gaze to Mika and asked such a thing.
But it was a bit difficult because the counter was high.
It wasn't that she couldn't see above the counter, but it was hard to explain while pointing at the circuit diagram.
Did the witch notice quickly? She pointed to the table behind Mika.
Then, she came out from the counter and sat at the table facing each other.
"I think it's probably tight all over, but I think these parts here and here, and this part here, can't withstand it."
Mika explained the parts he thought couldn't withstand it with materials available at ordinary magic tool shops.
The witch listened to Mika's story in silence, saying neither "yes" nor "no."
"............That's what I'm thinking."
After finishing the explanation, Mika looked at the witch.
But the witch had her arms crossed and was staring at the circuit diagram.
"Suppose......."
So, the witch said as if muttering.
"Let's say we review the materials exactly as you say."
Then, she pointed to one point on the circuit diagram.
"In that case, now a load will be applied here."
Then, her finger slid smoothly and pointed to another part.
"If you review that part, now it's here."
Next, she pointed to three places with tap, tap, tap.
"After that, this part can't hold out."
Mika stared at the parts pointed out and quickly calculated in his head.
Then, just as the witch said, the places he thought were safe were also overloading their durability values momentarily.
Mika couldn't help but look up and cover his face with both hands.
"............Isn't everything useless?"
He groaned it out.
He wanted to shout, "I can't do this!"
Perhaps Mika's appearance was funny, because the witch chuckled...... and laughed.
"It seems you are trying to make quite a strange thing, but if you place an order, I will make it for you."
From the witch, a feeling of being slightly amused seeped out.
"I roughly understand what you want to do, and well...... how about four hundred, including material costs?"
Naturally, it wasn't four hundred Rats.
It was four million Rats.
Of course, Mika shook his head.
"It's not something to be made by asking others."
"Is that so? I don't know what you will use it for, but isn't it quite an important thing?"
"That is true, but this is a prototype."
"......Eh?"
The witch, who hadn't been surprised even when seeing Mika's circuit diagram, widened her eyes for the first time and was surprised.
Mika took out prototypes number one through number five he had made so far from the Magic Bag and lined them up on the table.
"I am practicing to be able to withstand gradually larger outputs. This circuit diagram is also one of them."
The witch stared at number one, which was ring-shaped, through number five, which was wristband-shaped, and then shifted her gaze to the circuit diagram.
"Increase the output......? Are you planning to make a magic tool with even larger output than this circuit diagram?"
The witch's gaze slowly turned toward Mika.
Mika received that gaze and nodded firmly.
"At least, I need ten times more. If possible, I want to take it to fifteen or twenty times."
With that much mana, I think I can make rare metals somehow.
............If my original idea isn't wrong.
(If the foundation is fundamentally wrong, I can't make it even if I had a hundred times!)
You can't know unless you try this.
How much will I throw into such a gamble?
(Some people say alchemists are 'crazy'. That's how little progress alchemy has made so far.)
There was a momentum to throw millions of Rats, or even ten million Rats, into such a thing.
If they thought I was crazy, I couldn't argue back.
The witch looked at Mika with a dumbfounded expression.
Since Mika said it so calmly, she might not be able to judge if he was serious.
She looked at Mika's face for a while, but eventually sighed "Phew......".
"At that scale, it's better to use a 'Spaelement'. Or rather, stop this circuit diagram and try with that from the beginning?"
"A Spaelement?"
Spaelement.
It was the crystal used in magic tools that Mika had also used to measure or absorb mana.
Visually, it was no different from ordinary crystals, but it seemed to have powers of various attributes and various effects.
It wasn't that a spirit had transformed or was dwelling inside...... no, it was called a Spaelement because the legend says so, but actually, it was just a crystal with special power.
It was also written in the book Paraleira had lent me, but I didn't plan to use it.
The reason for that......
"How much is it? As an output ten times or more of this circuit diagram?"
"For something at that level, it might not work with just ten million. You might need two to three million."
It's extremely expensive.
Unless it's something very small with limited uses, even the cheapest ones can't be bought for one hundred thousand Rats, so I haven't tried it even for practice......
"Is it difficult with ordinary materials?"
"I don't think it's impossible, but the scale will become quite large and the material costs will be high. If you fail even once and it's ruined, it might end up being cheaper to use a Spaelement?"
"Even if you use a Spaelement, can you fail? And if you ruin the Spaelement......."
Please spare me the replacement cost.
Even if I can pay, I don't want to waste it.
"In the case of a circuit using a Spaelement, it's normal to construct it so that the Spaelement doesn't take damage. Even so, it's not absolute, but you don't need to worry that much...... If it gets ruined, you'll want to die."
Even if you are careful, it seems it still gets ruined when it gets ruined.
Or rather, the witch's eyes had become like dead fish.
She must be remembering what happens when it gets ruined.
Namu Namu......
"Without even being able to test, using such an expensive item immediately is, as expected, a bit......."
"......Well, you can at least test it."
"Eh?"
It seemed the witch had returned from the far side of her memories.
"It won't quite be a test operation, but at least you can try flowing mana temporarily to see if it breaks immediately. Well, that Spaelement is also quite expensive."
It seems there is also a test Spaelement before the main event.
"By the way, how much is that?"
"Well......, considering it needs to withstand mana of this scale, it might cost five to six hundred thousand Rats."
"Indeed, that's quite a lot."
"Still, isn't it better than trying a Spaelement worth over ten million immediately?"
"That is true......."
This is a quite troubling problem.
I know from the book that it is a high-class material worthy of the prefix "super" and has excellent performance.
However, I have never handled it before, and I must study how to assemble circuits when using a Spaelement.
But, if I can overcome that, the probability of success seems higher than using ordinary materials.
Success in this case doesn't mean generating rare metals, but only the stability of the assumed output mana.
(But, as expected, it's too expensive.)
If I can master it, it should be an option, but it's not something I should reach out to immediately.
Mika lightly shook his head and slumped his shoulders.
"I don't know how to assemble circuits using a Spaelement....... I don't know how to learn either——."
"There is, a good book."
As Mika was listing reasons for refusal, the witch smiled and interrupted.
Then she stood up and went inside the counter.
Going to the other side of the wall, she held a book as if embracing it and returned immediately.
"This is a masterpiece written about the Spaelement. It deepens understanding and covers practical examples widely. Of course, it also clearly shows how to incorporate it into circuits."
The witch placed the book she brought in front of Mika with a thud!
It's huge.
It's thick......
Looking at that book, now it was Mika who had eyes like dead fish.
Will the days of reading books come again......?
(I want to read novels as much as I want......).
Unfortunately, it is a study book.
Mika flipped the cover lightly, and then flipped it over and over......
At first glance, it certainly had diagrams and the detailed explanations were easy to understand.
But, it's huge.
It's probably about A1 size.
To be honest, it's so big it won't fit in the Magic Bag.
The thickness easily exceeded twenty centimeters.
(Indeed, I think knowing about the Spaelement is knowledge you won't regret having......).
Whether to use it in this magic tool or not is one thing, but it is knowledge that will be useful in the future if you know it.
Perhaps sensing Mika's inner movement, the witch reached out her hand smoothly.
"One gold coin."
So, she smiled brightly.
Basically, books are expensive in this world.
Because printing technology hasn't developed, everything is handwritten.
Considering the amount of text in this book and the concentrated knowledge, this price can be said to be reasonable.
Even so, one million Rats......
"............Can I use a card?"
"I'm sorry. We don't accept cards."
Only cash! You!
It's like an underground shop from a generation ago!
Although gradually, even dangerous shops started accepting cards.
Mika took out a large gold coin from the Magic Bag and handed it to the witch.
"Thank you. I think it will go better if you definitely use a Spaelement, so please read it carefully."
"............Yes."
Mika replied with a sigh.