Chapter 11.1

Chapter 11.1

「Finally found it……」

In one corner of the mountain range dubbed “Spirit Spire Mountain”, having walked about three days along the mountain road since leaving Wulls, Mio finally found what they were looking for. A little further up the animal trail from where they currently were, there were several trees with indigo-colored fruits hanging from them in clusters. This particular location could not have been found without Mio’s vision and observation skills.

「Finally……」

「Seriously, even though this place is called Spirit Spire Mountain, it’s weird to just have such a bustling place on the side of a mountain……」

There were heaps of corpses all around them. As they kicked them off the cliff, Tatsuya and Mikoto grumbled at Mio’s report. On their way here, they had thought earnestly about how to escape when two field boss class enemies had appeared. If they hadn’t received wyvern laser armor from Hiroshi the other night, they seriously wouldn’t have felt like fighting.

「Hey, Mikoto.」

「What？」

「Were there ever these kinds of Dark-type monsters on Spirit Spire Mountain, not to mention teeming with miasma？」

「The Dark-type makes sense from the mountain’s name, but I don’t think there were ever ones that scattered miasma around……」

「That’s what I thought, yeah……」

While feeling all sorts of unsettling things, they decided to regain their composure and continue processing the corpses. At length, assembling all of the parts for proof of subjugation became tedious, and they ended up kicking off nearly all of the small-fries from the cliff. The only opponents that they would divide into blocks for dissection were maybe hellhounds and evil tigers. Incidentally, both of those were big field bosses, and as if that weren’t enough, they would scatter miasma all over the place. If they didn’t process them fast enough, they would end up having to fight another large wave of monsters, attracted by the smell of blood or the miasma exiting the corpses.

「Yeah, I think we should report this to Their Majesty or Elena and check some things with them」

「Agreed」

It was unlikely that anyone currently had a grasp on the distribution of these strange monsters in Spirit Spire Mountain. To add to that, Tatsuya and the others were not locals, so they didn’t know how different it was from usual. There was always the possibility that this was normal, and the distribution in the game version was the weird one. However, judging from the vegetation and whatnot, there were quite a few oddities here. Amongst them were types that clearly belonged in the southern countries, not fit for growing on this comparatively cooler mountainside.

And most importantly of all, befitting the transformation of most of the miasma-affected monsters, a lot of them were deformed. It was a good thing that their deformations made them not-so-strong, but it still didn’t feel very pleasant.

「So, Mio. You think we can get the solmizen？」

「No problem. But it would be better for neither of you to touch it」

「Hah？」

「Why？」

The two of them questioned Mio. It was just fruit, right? Mio decided to answer their queries by showing them.

「……Kay」

「Wahwah！」

「Wait a sec, what is this all of a sudden！」

With no prior warning, Mio threw the solmizen fruit that she had cut off at the two of them. Frantically catching the fist-sized fruit, they soon realized the meaning of what Mio was saying.

「The heck is this！」

「I only put a bit of pressure on it and it’s already freakin’ bruised！」

「Once it falls to the ground, it immediately rots. If you poke it with your finger, it rots. Even if you treat it with care, it rots within half a day.」

「Then just being quick won’t solve this, dammit！」

Mio gave a supplemental explanation without changing her expression. Tatsuya made a loud quip upon hearing how ridiculously easy it was for it to rot. Not heeding what he was saying, Mio smoothly moved up the tree, carefully selecting fruit and chopping it off. She immediately stored it in her pouch before leaping down.

「This is probably the best time to eat it.」

She said, taking out the solmizen that she had put away earlier and splitting it into three equal parts before handing them to the others. Watching Mio as she bit into her portion to show that it was safe, the other two bit into it with all their might. Transparent fruit juice dripped down from the white flesh. After slowly tasting it, Tatsuya and Mikoto murmured their honest feelings.

「……There’s hardly any taste actually.」

「Yeah, you might even argue that water has a richer taste.」

「And that is the reason why solmizen isn’t for eating.」

The two of them couldn’t really comment on this individualistic fruit. Fruit is usually sweet for the purpose of having other creatures carry seeds. So to them, this tasteless, easy-to-rot fruit was seriously picking a fight with the structure of the natural world and the ring of the struggle for existence.

「By the way, if you mix it with saliva or gastric juice or heat it up, it stops rotting.」

「So we won’t ruin our stomachs by eating it？」

「Yeah. Also, maybe because of the taste, bugs or birds won’t prod it, and the ones growing on the trees don’t rot even if you grip them tightly.」

「That is one weird fruit……」

As Mio conveyed such precise information, Mikoto spontaneously let out her own thoughts with a tired face.

「Now that you understand, I’m counting on you to monitor our perimeter.」

「Roger that. How much you need？」

「They’re great as ingredients for medicine, so I’ll take as much as I can.」

「Alright.」

Nodding at Mio’s words, the two of them continued to monitor their surroundings. As they minutely kicked away the small fries, they waited for Mio to finish her work. When she had finished gathering the most ripened fruit she could get from three trees, Mio panicked as she jumped down to them.

「Tatsu, activate repatriation magic！」

「Something happen？」

「Three indefinite-name wyverns have appeared！」

「Alright, let’s get outta here.」

Providing that there continued to be no small-fry companions, they could probably win against their opponent with ease, but they were seriously tired and did not want to deal with three of these creatures at the same time. Besides, they already had an abundance of wyvern material in storage. Therefore, the minute he heard Mio’s report, he used repatriation magic and furtively opened a gate. The three of them leaped into the gate as fast as they could so that they could quickly return home. Deprived of their prey, the wyverns would continue to soar around and around in the sky above with roars of fury.

Around the same time that Tatsuya and the others were huffing and puffing up the mountain…

「Ya provided quite the tough stuff……」

Looking at the ore that had been procured, Hiroshi quipped with an exasperated tone.

「Didja not think of the possibility that I might not be able to process this stuff？」

「Indeed, just a bit. Be as that may, I daresay that ye should be able to manufacture at least this much. Ye did after all proclaim that Haruna’s sword was makeshift.」

「Well, based on our equipment, it’s a mite risky to refine, but sure, I could manufacture it. But yikes, how’d ya get yer hands on all this magic iron ore and mythril ore so quickly……」

「Well, you know. Once connected to royalty, always connected to royalty.」

As Douga clearly dodged the question, Hiroshi let out a wry smile as he accepted his answer. There was also the fact that the staff Tatsuya had made was of wood, and in Hiroshi’s case, he hadn’t made truly decent weapons via forging lately, so you could say that these materials were perfect for limbering up.

「Riiight. Imma borrow some ingredients for the hammer ‘n anvil.」

「Help yeself. Feel free to use what remains as well.」

「I appreciate the thought, but I’m a mite lost with what to do with this amount……」

Hiroshi fretted over the ore as he looked at it. Quite honestly, if he were to manufacture daggers for two people, he had to at minimum make them by using different distributions of the same metals for the anvil and hammer, otherwise the tools would be lackluster. He honestly wanted to make a new smelting furnace as well, but he didn’t have the materials nor the time. The minimum necessary products were a hammer, anvil, and two daggers. Thinking along those lines, it would be difficult to make a longsword, battle-axe, or war hammer, which required a lot of material.

「For what I can make, I’d say it’s lookin’ like a one-handed sword or dagger, rapier, and a spear tip……」

「And I don’t even use this sword much, so making a new one is kinda…」

「Yeah, yer right……」

Even if they were both makeshift, steel and magic iron mythril alloys were leagues apart in both offense and durability. However, there was honestly no point in only increasing Haruna’s battle prowess. On the contrary, in this situation, rather than Haruna with her all-rounded capabilities with both firepower and quantity of techniques, it was more necessary for Hiroshi to have better weapons, as his only two options for attacking were to strike or smash the opponent into the distance.

「Well, for now…Let’s start by makin’ the tools ‘n the two daggers.」

Hiroshi conveyed his plans as he loaded the two metal ores onto the cart.

「Since I’ve come this far, can I go ahead and watch？」

「Sure, but it’s hot and it ain’t nothin’ interesting.」

「What do you mean? I doubt I’d ever get another opportunity like this to see you making weapons.」

「Well, truuue, but……」

Hiroshi replied in a slightly tired manner to Elena’s words. It wasn’t like having someone watching prevented him from concentrating, but he also couldn’t exactly relax when a female he barely knew was just there, watching him work. Not to mention that in comparison to the time he had made Haruna’s sword, the workspace here was several times more narrow. To be completely honest, the odds were not in his favor.

「Just don’t complain to me when ya feel hot.」

「Yeah, I know.」

「I swear to Alfemina-sama that I will not complain a single bit.」

「Yer comin’ too, Elle……?」

(Well, whatever…) He sighed, pushing the cart close to the smelting furnace. The people from the gallery followed behind him one after the other. By this point, he already had Haruna, Rayna, and even Douga with him. Even if it wasn’t to the point where it got in the way of his work, it would be quite the stifling atmosphere.

「It’s hot and dangerous, so don’t come over here.」

Warning them once again about the workplace, he set to putting fire in the smelting furnace as he pumped a large amount of mana in. The smelting furnace that Hiroshi had reformed with magic was ridiculously fast for being a “used” product, and then in the span of time that was truly a blink of the eye, reaching a temperature hot enough to melt the metal.

「First, for the anvil and hammer.」

Muttering the procedure, he grabbed extremely rough amounts of magic iron and mythril ore, tossing them into the furnace. Then, as an addition agent for the alloy, he put a wyvern fang in, commencing refinement.

「Is it really okay to mix them up？」

「Yeah, cause I’m making alloys. In actuality, mythril is after all silver, and as it is it’s a bit soft and unsuitable for heating, so as a general rule, ya gotta make an alloy with some other metal mixed in.」

「Oho, I see.」

Douga accepted Hirshi’s explanation. But of course you would normally never mix the natural ores together. First you would need to ensure their refinement before measuring their weight and deciding the ratios. Then you would have to melt them once again before making them into an alloy; otherwise, it would be difficult to get the highest quality products. It seemed that this time around, Hiroshi would be using that technique to its fullest with crafting magic.

「Now then, this here’s where the refinement of the magic steel begins.」

While muttering that, he began pouring in an amount of mana that was nothing like before. Up until now, he had already been using an amount that would make the average magician gape in awe, but this time around, it was the amount on par with a ritual at worst.