Chapter 62 - Chapter 61: DO☆GE☆ZA
The third month of Water, the fifth week of the month.
According to the calendar, summer is almost here, but in reality, it is already a hot day that makes one want to shout, "This is midsummer!"
Mika was staring down the old woman who ran the appraisal shop.
"........................."
"..................You do have it, right?"
"......No, not today."
"You really do have it, don't you?"
"..................."
It wasn't a sunny day, or rather, I had only arrived yesterday, but while strolling aimlessly down the main street after school, I happened to pass by the old woman's appraisal shop.
At that time, two men who looked like adventurers came out of the appraisal shop, which was rare.
Since I had never met another customer at the appraisal shop, I somehow felt like I should just drop by the shop for no particular reason.
When Mika entered the shop with his usual cheerful greeting, the old woman looked at him with a startled expression.
And she hurriedly tried to hide something.
Mika had never seen the old woman so flustered before.
And he was convinced that "something was up."
"Those people just now, they came for appraisal, didn't they?"
"There's no fool who would come here just to eat."
"What did they get appraised?"
"There's no way I'd tell you? Would you ask an appraisal shop owner who talks so carelessly about such things to appraise you?"
There were no confidentiality obligations set, but if one's mouth was too loose, it would affect business.
It was a matter of course.
Mika was convinced that something was up, but he had no leverage.
He was already being selfish, so he couldn't interfere with business.
Mika let out a long sigh.
Deliberately, exaggeratedly.
"......I understand. I'm sorry for suspecting you strangely even though you've always taken care of me."
He bowed his head obediently.
Carefully, ostentatiously, slowly.
The old woman made a face as if she felt guilty.
"I've been treated so well by you, yet I said such rude things as if I suspected you......."
Saying that, he made a sad expression.
He lowered his head slightly, lowering his gaze diagonally downward just a little.
Surely, this angle should have looked the saddest.
"Stop such trivial tricks. I see through your intentions."
Tch, was I found out?
Did I go a bit too far deliberately?
"I understand. I'll give up for today."
Mika raised both hands in surrender and decided to reluctantly back down.
If he forced the issue, it might affect the future arrival of puzzles, which would be troublesome.
When Mika backed down easily, the old woman looked at him with a surprised expression.
"You're giving up so easily today. What happened to your usual 'DO☆GE☆ZA'?"
No, no, no, I don't usually do dogeza!
Well... I do it quite frequently when begging, though.
Before the puzzle, Mika had long since thrown away his tiny pride.
Once you do it, doing it twice, three times, or even ten times is the same!
"Well, today isn't a 'sunny day' anyway."
He put a little force into "promised."
At that moment, he suddenly remembered something.
Mika had something he wanted to ask the old woman.
"I've always wondered. How do you appraise things like 'cursed'? Can you tell even what kind of effect it has?"
Yes, he had been curious about how the appraisal shop owner was appraising things for quite some time.
He had thought it was natural for the appraisal shop owner to appraise things and hadn't thought deeply about it, but upon closer inspection, it was a mysterious story.
Mika could tell if he was cursed or the strength of the curse with his magic power, but he couldn't tell the effects.
How was the appraisal shop owner appraising such details?
"How? It's a hunch. You can tell just by looking."
A hunch!
Mika was speechless.
What? So you just look and say something like 'It's probably this, isn't it'? Is that okay?
At the old woman's unexpected answer, he was dumbfounded, or rather, what could he say.
Mika stared blankly at the old woman.
"Well, some people call it a [Skill], but it's just a hunch."
"......Skill...?"
What did that mean?
"If you've been in business for a long time, you'll see all sorts of things, right? Then, you gradually start to understand what is good and what is bad."
He understood that.
That was the so-called "having a trained eye."
"Then, gradually your nose becomes sharper too. 'This one smells,' 'It smells like something,' that sort of thing."
He also understood that, vaguely.
Mika had some experience himself.
When he took on jobs as a programmer, he often felt, "This project looks dangerous."
And those projects usually ended up in flames.
To clean up the mess, the programmers would enter a death march.
"Well, you can't explain it just by talking. It's not something you can explain with words."
"I see..."
Indeed, he vaguely thought, "That's how it is," but it was something Mika couldn't understand.
But, he was slightly caught off guard there.
Ninetiana.
Ninetiana's overly sharp detection of her presence... Could that also be a [Skill]?
Ninetiana's detection of her presence, which reached a level that Mika could never reach even in a lifetime.
Could that not be a [Skill] acquired through experience as a scout?
It's not like in a game where you can see what [Skills] someone has. But in this world, is an excellent ability that has reached a certain level called a [Skill]?
It wasn't something like a qualification or something visibly provable, but he certainly thought it deserved to be called a [Skill].
Mika was about to thank the old woman for hearing a nice story, but for some reason, the old woman was sighing.
"What's wrong?"
Mika spoke up, but the old woman shook her head as if giving up.
"...In that sense, you've also become quite sharp-nosed."
Saying that, the old woman took something out from under the counter.
Placed on the counter was a small knife decorated with ornaments.
It seemed the old woman's mind had changed.
"It seems she got it from a ruin somewhere. Apparently, a very strong 'unclean one' was holding it."
"Unclean one" was probably a spirit-type monster.
"The adventurers just now. They seem to have come all the way to Sarbengeal thinking they could sell it high somewhere. But everywhere refused to buy it. They said they were even refused pickup and were in trouble. Well, I suppose this one wouldn't be a problem."
Even at the church, items with strong curses were sometimes refused pickup.
Well, if you paid a certain amount, they would take it and seal it.
The old woman looked at Mika with a serious expression.
"This small knife is the same as the ring I showed you before. It's an item that has sucked up a considerable amount of blood. Probably, the number of lives taken by this small knife is greater. ...Actually, I don't even want to show you such a thing."
The ring shown before.
He had received many "cursed items" from her, but this was the only one Mika couldn't receive.
Mika himself could barely hold it in his hand, let alone try to exorcise it.
This knife seemed to be even more dangerous than that.
"......Um, thank you as always. Really......"
Mika bowed his head carefully.
He really had the old woman listening to his every whim.
Even though he couldn't give anything back.
"...It's fine. I said I'd show it, so I had to. I didn't want to show it to someone like you who can feel the curse, though."
The old woman said as if giving up.
But, she immediately twisted her mouth into a frown.
"Really! You've become sharp-nosed, really!"
"Hahaha... I'm sorry."
Mika could only produce a dry laugh at that.
He had just happened to pass by and just happened to drop by.
Had his nose become sharp without him noticing?
Mika took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
"Limiter Off, Absorb."
Muttering that, he concentrated his consciousness.
He would have to approach this knife with considerable resolve and magic power.
Remembering the time with the ring, he concentrated magic power in his left hand.
...Not yet. I had to gather more back then to suppress the waves.
If handled incorrectly, it could explode.
Gathering and maintaining it required considerable concentration.
But, to handle this knife, he would need more magic power than when he handled the ring.
Even so, Mika still had room to spare.
About half a year had passed since then, and Mika's magic power and handling had grown.
...Okay.
Gathering sufficient magic power, Mika carefully grasped the knife.
Strong waves transmitted, and magic power was drained at an amazing rate, but he was suppressing it without any problems.
The old woman watched Mika with a worried expression.
Mika gathered more magic power and attempted to interfere.
It was tight and tight overall, but even so, there were places that accepted interference, and after fiddling with various things, it definitely "loosened."
...I interfered...!
The corner of Mika's mouth rose slightly.
Without a doubt, this knife was a terrible cursed item, but Mika had succeeded in interfering with it.
"Wait, wait, are you really okay?"
Seeing Mika like that, the old woman spoke up in a panicked manner.
"Yes, no problem."
"If that's the case, that's good..."
Mika smiled brightly and placed the knife on the counter.
When the old woman reached out to put the knife away, Mika spoke up.
"Grandma."
Mika straightened his posture.
The old woman's hand, who had been called, stopped.
After confirming that, Mika slowly knelt down and prepared for dogeza.
■■■■■■
The first month of Fire, the third week, Tuesday.
According to the calendar, it was summer, and hot days continued every day.
In such days, Mika decided to seriously begin researching flight magic.
Moving by flying would undoubtedly increase speed, and more importantly, he was thoroughly fed up with transporting Red Lizard Stones in this damn hot weather.
Considering risk and return, the return outweighed the risk in Mika's mind.
However, he also thought that if he made one mistake, anything could happen, so the research was progressing slowly.
Today, he had come out to the town to relieve his stress from such research.
Well, the destination was decided.
Mika entered a suspicious shop without a sign on the back street.
Actually, the sign was placed at his feet, and for those who knew the shop's existence, it seemed it didn't matter whether there was a sign or not.
And the shop owner wasn't looking for new customers, so there was no trouble with this.
Mika looked at the counter right after entering the shop.
An old man who looked somewhat tired smiled at Mika.
"Oh, welcome. Take your time."
"Yes, thank you."
Mika looked at a cloth bag worth a large gold coin behind the counter.
I want to become an adventurer who can have something like that soon.
Looking at the Magic Bag, Mika couldn't help but sigh.
Actually, this shop.
It seemed to be a famous shop among "those in the know," and it seemed they could get by just with regular customers even without a sign.
And new customers were almost exclusively those introduced by regulars, and customers like Mika who said they "happened to see it" hardly ever came in.
Magic Tool Shop.
This suspicious shop on the back street specialized in magic tools.
Most of the items lined up on the shelves were things Mika didn't know how to use or what to use them for.
Still, it was interesting just to look at what was available.
Rings and wands with special effects were not sold at ordinary weapon shops, armor shops, or tool shops.
Such items were handled at magic tool shops like this one.
So, even the talismans found at tool shops fell under the jurisdiction of magic tool shops in strict classification.
However, those were mass-produced items, or rather, items with effects that were merely matters of the heart, so they were not handled at magic tool shops.
Potions were also sold at magic tool shops, so it could be predicted that they were phenomena caused by some kind of magic power.
Mostly, for a medicine that realized such rapid recovery.
It would be surprising if magic power wasn't used.
Flasks, scales, and mortars were also on the shop shelves, and he thought, "Is this a magic tool too?" but unfortunately, these were ordinary tools.
So, why were ordinary flasks and scales placed in a magic tool specialty shop?
"Those are tools necessary for alchemy."
"Alchemy?"
Indeed, he had the image of mixing various materials.
"It's not limited to alchemy. These tools are also necessary for making magic tools. However, the quality is top-notch. If you normally make magic tools, you don't need this level of quality. So, if you were to buy them, it would be people doing alchemy or very limited research."
"Hee~..."
Honestly, he didn't know how the quality was good, but it seemed they were placed to meet a very niche demand.
But, there are people researching alchemy...
He remembered reading in a book before that "alchemy had fallen into disuse."
It had fallen into disuse, but it wasn't lost or forbidden, so it wasn't strange that there were people researching it.
"Alchemy creates not only gold but also 'silver-type rare metal Mithril' and 'copper-type rare metal Orichalcum', right? And also 'gold-type rare metal Hihiirokane'."
"Foh foh foh, you know well. I also nibbled at it a little in the past, but that is really difficult."
"You were researching it!?"
A loud voice slipped out, and Mika's voice echoed through the quiet shop.
Mika covered his mouth with both hands and looked around.
"Foh foh foh, are you interested in alchemy?"
The old man looked at such Mika and asked laughingly.
"Yes, a little..."
And so, the old man taught Mika about alchemy.
Alchemy.
It was said to be a field of magic that originally aimed to create precious metals from base metals.
But, it would be subdivided into several fields.
・Research aimed at creating gold.
・Research aimed at creating rare metals like "silver-type rare metal Mithril".
・Research aimed at achieving immortality.
And so on.
"Potions were also born from alchemy research originally."
"Is that so?"
"It was accidentally born from immortality research. However, the mage who created the potion seemed to have thrown it away saying 'It's a failure!'."
"You threw away such a great thing!?"
"Foh foh foh, are you surprised? One of his disciples noticed 'This is a great thing, isn't it?' and started selling it as side work while researching, which was the beginning."
What could he say, one might call it a pure scholar fool.
He wanted to evaluate the attitude of pursuing immortality without looking away, yeah.
"The potions of that time didn't have the effect they have now, it seems. Now, research has advanced considerably, the effect has increased, and the price has dropped."
He never thought there would be such a familiar result of alchemy.
"But, if you talk about specific results, you could say there's nothing else."
"Oh my..."
That was a pity.
"As a field derived from alchemy, there is [Enchantment]. Now, this is the mainstream."
Giving special effects to rings, wands, and talismans was said to be magic in the field of [Enchantment].
Or rather, all items classified as magic tools belonged to this [Enchantment] in a broad sense.
"I can't teach you the specific method. Giving the power of fire to a sword, giving the effect of increasing stamina or life force to a ring, this Magic Bag is also a product of technology belonging to that [Enchantment]."
The old man pointed to the Magic Bag hanging on the wall.
[Enchantment] seemed to have developed to a point where alchemy was incomparable in terms of practicality.
"What about rare metals? Do you have any interesting stories?"
Mika intended to either create or refine "copper-type rare metal Orichalcum" sooner or later.
It would be helpful if he could grasp some hints for that.
"Rare metals... That is really difficult."
Saying that, the old man looked into the distance.
"All magic power resides in everything in this world. ...Do you know that?"
Mika nodded.
"There is an exception to that. That is rare metal."
"......Eh?"
Wasn't it the reverse?
He had the image that rare metals like "copper-type rare metal Orichalcum" were full of magic power.
"'Silver-type rare metal Mithril', 'copper-type rare metal Orichalcum', 'gold-type rare metal Hihiirokane'. These contain absolutely no magic power."
The old man stated it firmly.
This was a somewhat unexpected story.
Absolutely no magic power contained.
"Who investigated that...?"
"Anyone can investigate. As long as they have tools and materials."
Was the investigation method wrong?
If they really contained no magic power, why were rare metals considered precious?
"But, rare metals are very precious, right? Why are they precious?"
"That is, of course, because they have excellent characteristics."
It seemed that all rare metals had very excellent magical characteristics.
In the example of giving the power of fire to a sword mentioned earlier, using rare metal as a catalyst yielded several times the effect compared to not using it.
"But, that doesn't make sense, right? Why does the effect increase when using rare metals that don't have magic power?"
He couldn't accept it.
"Foh foh foh, yes. That's right. That's why everyone is scratching their heads."
The old man smiled bitterly.
Anyone would think "That's strange" if they heard such a story.
"When researching rare metals with alchemy, first you think of a method to extract magic power from the metal. Since the actual object is in that state, you try to make it the same state."
I see.
He didn't know if that metal would really become a rare metal, but he understood trying to make it the same state.
"But, you can't even get that far first. So, you try to [Enchant] even just the magical characteristics, but that is also impossible. I'm at a loss."
The old man shrugged his shoulders.
"Aren't rare metals alloys?"
Instead of pure gold, pure silver, pure copper, what if you mixed them with things that made those characteristics easier to obtain?
"Well, everyone has tried all sorts of ways. Mixing with other metals is also naturally done..."
It seemed to be no good.
"Well, even if you are interested in alchemy, it's just right to make it a hobby. Don't even think about dedicating your entire life to it."
Mika thanked the old man and left the shop.
He aimed for a fortune through alchemy, but it seemed to be a rather steep road.
"...Well, it's natural, isn't it."
If it were that easy, someone would have already achieved it long ago.
Just hearing the words of someone with some experience was a sufficient harvest.
"I think it was a better stress reliever than I expected."
Muttering that, Mika started walking towards the dormitory on the back street.