Chapter 377

Chapter 377

For Sale. Fallen Lady. Never Used.

Episode 377: Paracelsus’s Spirits (2)

“Where should I start explaining…?”

“From the beginning! Please tell me from the very beginning, Junior!”

Faye, with tissue stuffed up her nose, jumped up, speaking with a nasal twang. Of course, to avoid repeating the same mistake, she held onto her chest with one hand.

“…Senior Faye, haven’t they gotten bigger lately?”

“It’s not bigger, it’s swollen, isn’t it? You’ve been touching them every day lately, Junior.”

“Eh. No way… have I?”

It’s possible since I’ve been putting my hand into Faye’s chest like snacking when no one’s around.

So, if I touch them more, do they get bigger…?

As I tilted my head, looking at Faye’s chest, Iris and Elisha, who were also curious about the dungeon’s information, started to urge me.

“You! What did you say earlier? Did you say artificial spirits?”

“Why would an alchemist study spirits? Master, don’t keep it to yourself, tell us too.”

Iris said, subtly approaching. I guess she was trying to act cute…

Unfortunately, my sides were already occupied by Carla and Faye. And Iris was approaching from Carla’s side.

“That’s enough.”

“Heh?”

Iris, who was about to approach, was stopped with her forehead grabbed by an outstretched arm. The owner of the arm… Carla warned in an extremely solemn voice.

“Master’s side is my place, his only slave. Iris, please look elsewhere.”

“What…?”

Iris looked up at Carla with a bewildered expression. She was smiling as usual, but her face showed a determination not to yield.

Carla, now proud of being my only slave, had her nose in the air. Helpless Iris, realizing she couldn’t win against Carla, hesitated for a while and eventually looked back… towards her disciple, Elisha.

“Ha… Teacher, really. If you were going to do that, you should have gone to Faye’s side.”

Elisha sighed, pulled Iris away, and lifted her up. Then she placed her on my back.

…Not piggybacking. She placed her on my shoulder like a sack of rice.

Iris, however, didn’t seem to mind and, dangling, started urging me again.

“Alright! Master, explain again! What do you mean by artificial spirits?”

She spoke in a calm voice, as if nothing had happened. But her body was honest, glancing at Carla and quickly closing her eyes when it seemed like their eyes would meet.

Is she a child?

I chuckled and nodded.

“Alright. It’s close, but we still have some time before we arrive, so it should be okay. So, first, it’s about what happened after Paracelsus created the Philosopher’s Stone…”

After Paracelsus created the Philosopher’s Stone, one of the three great achievements of alchemy, he aimed for the other two: the Elixir and the Homunculus.

He especially focused on researching the Homunculus and, in the process, began researching artificial spirits, believing that spirits had more perfect bodies than humans.

Of course, he secretly conducted his research, knowing that he would be in big trouble if his research results were discovered by the spirit users, especially the elves, at the time.

He died before he could finish his research.

His abandoned workshop quietly fell asleep… but at the end of the War of the Gods, the forces of the God of Tainted Unity accidentally discovered it.

As a result, the defense systems trying to protect the workshop and the monsters trying to break through and occupy it clashed.

It was considered a major battlefield and became a dungeon sealed as a whole… that’s the simple explanation.

“So, the monsters and golems of the God of Tainted Unity are fighting on the surface, and various traps and incomplete spirits appear inside the workshop.”

“Th-that happened… well, I heard Paracelsus was over 100 years old when he created the Philosopher’s Stone.”

“Amazing. Putting aside why he thought spirits’ bodies were perfect, creating incomplete spirits means he had some achievements.”

Faye nodded, bewildered, and Iris was impressed.

Then, perhaps sensing something strange, Iris started struggling. When I gently lowered her from my shoulder, she clung to my upper body.

Unlike Faye, there were no obstacles, so she was clinging like a cicada.

“But Master, I heard Alfheim has known about that dungeon for a long time and periodically collected spirit stones. Yet, they didn’t know it was Paracelsus’s workshop?”

“Yeah. Alfheim only explored the outer part of the workshop. The place they used as a spirit stone warehouse and where they roughly dumped the failures.”

“Failures… dumped…”

Iris frowned, as if something bothered her. Well, unlike Elisha, who had lived since before the Great War, spirits wouldn’t be a distant existence for Iris.

“Just so you know, incomplete spirits have no self-awareness. If they did, they wouldn’t be regenerated by the dungeon’s loop.”

“Ah.”

That’s right. Even if you encounter a loop in a loop-type dungeon, the attackers’ memories are not erased.

Monsters, due to the blessing of the Evil Gods, are part of the dungeon… or rather, they became the cause of the dungeon itself, so they repeat the loop together.

Other intelligent beings are not caught in the loop. At most, they return to the place they first entered.

But the spirits in this dungeon are regenerated every time the loop occurs. Just like monsters or the surrounding terrain.

“Iris, you know best what that means, right?”

“…It means they take the form of spirits and wield spirit-like abilities, but they’re just a mass of simple power without a soul.”

“Exactly. I think Paracelsus might have encountered the same problem as Fafnir.”

One achieved it through magic, and the other through alchemy, but they both succeeded in creating a physical form.

However, self-awareness didn’t properly develop in the bodies they created.

“Paracelsus’s ultimate goal was to create spirits that belonged to the Eurelia Continent, not the Spirit Realm. That’s why they often have slightly different attributes from the existing spirits we know.”

“What kind of different attributes are you referring to?”

“Usually, the spirits of the Spirit Realm have a lot of overlapping attributes with elemental magic, right?”

“Indeed. Spirits are a race where the power of nature has gained flesh and consciousness, and elemental magic is magic that attempts to mimic this world… nature.”

“Right. But Paracelsus’s spirits have somewhat unique attributes because they’re artificially created.”

For example, the spirit of emotion. Joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure aren’t found in nature but are discovered in humans.

“Besides that, there are spirits of luck, space, and illusion, but although they mostly handle unique powers, their combat abilities themselves aren’t very strong, so you don’t need to worry… huh?”

“Th-those… thooosseee…”

Iris suddenly trembled. I poked her soft, trembling cheeks and asked.

“What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly like this, Iris?”

“Th-those aren’t spirits!”

“Eh.”

Iris, suddenly enraged, started jumping up and down like she was on a pogo stick.

It’s an act of being unable to contain her anger… but she’s quite different from Faye in many ways.

I decided to calmly soothe Iris.

“What do you mean those aren’t spirits, Iris?”

“Luck? Emotion? Space? Illusion? How can those be spirits, Master?!”

“Well, isn’t it normal?”

Perhaps it’s because non-elemental spirits often appear in old fantasy novels. It’s quite a familiar concept to me.

Well, it doesn’t seem to be the case for Iris, who was born and raised on the Eurelia Continent.

“Normal? What part of them is part of nature?! Aren’t they all born from human perception?! Emotions originate from humans, and luck is also someone’s perception of judging it as luck! It’s the same for everything else! It’s not the composition of the world, but the world tailored by humans!”

“I guess so. But what does that matter?”

“Well…!”

“Aren’t humans also part of nature?”

“Huh?”

Iris paused for a moment. After organizing her thoughts, she calmly continued.

“Humans are also one of the living beings in this world. There’s no reason not to belong to nature. And above all… didn’t you, Iris, try to replace spirit power with elemental magic because you thought the same way?”

“!!!”

Is the power of spirits the power of nature? Then, how is it different from magic? Are they really just similar in appearance and completely unrelated?

The old Iris came to an answer after this worry. Or she believed what she wanted to believe.

They are no different. Humans can realize nature… spirit power.

But the current Iris, perhaps because of her long failures or for other reasons, seems unable to believe even her own conclusions.

So, when I pointed this out, Iris closed her mouth with a shocked expression.

After that, she didn’t jump around and continued to contemplate quietly, and everyone moved quietly, considerate of Iris.

…Except for the clueless Faye.

“J-Junior? About the golems fighting on the surface and the research logs in the workshop…”

“…I’ll give you everything, Senior Faye, so please be quiet for now.”

“Hup!”

Walking with Faye, who had covered her mouth with her hand, a small encampment came into view.

It was the Alfheim guards protecting the dungeon.

Finally, we’ve arrived.