episode_0059

“So what’s the Thunder Grass for? Can I just chew and eat it?”

Acel asked, keeping Aleph floating beside him with telekinesis magic. Aleph immediately answered his question.

[The most effective way to use Thunder Grass is to boil it down and consume it in the form of a potion or elixir. There’s no big problem with separating the leaves and stems and eating them directly, but then you won’t be able to absorb all of the Thunder energy (雷氣) contained in the Thunder Grass. It might be easier to think of it as drinking water with a hole in your chin.]

“Means I shouldn’t just eat it, then.”

[That would be better.]

Acel confirmed Aleph’s answer and let out a long breath.

The method of refining and boiling Mana Grass is already widely known, but that doesn’t mean the process is easy at all. Mana Grass is a material that even ordinary alchemists wouldn’t dare touch for fear of ruining it.

They say Marietta, a great alchemist, handled Mana Grass with ease, but among the alchemists currently remaining, there was no talent who could do as Marietta did.

There was no way he could easily entrust Thunder Grass to such people. If they messed up even once, the energy contained within would evaporate, so he had to at least ask someone trustworthy. Or do it himself.

‘I don’t know alchemy at all.’

Unfortunately, Acel was a stranger to alchemy. Let alone potions, he had never even held common herbs in his hand.

The field of study he invested his time in was solely magic, and other fields of study were merely in the realm of hobbies for him. And alchemy hadn’t even entered that realm of hobbies.

Things have become troublesome. It was a difficult situation to boil Thunder Grass himself, and also difficult to entrust Mana Grass not listed in any encyclopedia to another alchemist. Just in case, Acel asked Aleph how to handle Thunder Grass. As if it were obvious, Aleph told him the recipe for a potion made from Thunder Grass.

[1 Thunder Grass. 1 Fragment of Thunder. 1 horn from a monster that causes lightning or 1 scale from a Thunder Dragon. A drop of blood from a high-ranking cleric to neutralize these. And finally, sugar is needed. These are just the ingredients. The manufacturing method is even more complex, and with your current abilities, Master, you won’t even be able to imitate it. Would you still like to view it?]

“No, it’s fine. The ingredients are bizarre enough to be absurd.”

Acel clicked his tongue and tucked the Thunder Grass he held in his hand into his embrace.

A Fragment of Thunder refers to a small orb where hundreds of streaks of lightning converge and fall. It is a phenomenon classified as a type of natural disaster, and the place where the orb falls instantly transforms into a lightning zone, turning everything in the vicinity into ashes.

It is a beautiful sight from afar, but a terrible disaster that takes one’s life the moment one is mesmerized by its appearance and approaches it. However, even this is a story from decades ago. It has been nearly a hundred years since a Fragment of Thunder last fell.

Which means finding it itself is a hardship.

The same goes for monsters and Thunder Dragons. I don’t know about the past, but currently, all monsters that possessed lightning have gone extinct. Dragons, including Thunder Dragons, had also disappeared long ago.

The only things he could obtain immediately were a cleric’s blood and sugar. As for the rest, even if he spent any amount of time, it wasn’t even certain whether he could find them or not.

It was a situation where he might have to give up the process of manufacturing it into a potion altogether.

Acel sighed deeply and calmed the Thunder Grass’s mana pulsating in his embrace.

For now, it seemed best to leave the Thunder Grass as it was. It was better than approaching it carelessly and wasting it. If it really came down to it, he could just tear it off and eat it himself.

Thinking that, Acel turned around. Aleph, floating in mid-air, moved along with him.

“Aleph, recommend some useful magical tools here.”

[Those helpful for growth and those helpful for combat. Which would you like me to recommend?]

“One of each.”

[Confirmed. Please wait a moment.]

Aleph stopped writing for a moment, then immediately began writing again.

[Thunder of Praise. It is an elixir that allows you to contain Thunder energy in your body for a certain period after drinking it. It is an energy completely different from mana, and even ordinary people can gain superhuman strength and cognitive abilities for a short time the moment they consume it. Cromwell made the Thunder energy contained through this elixir his own, gaining great help in his rank advancement.]

“Hmm.”

[For combat, I recommend the Ice Peony. It’s a ring-shaped artifact; when mana is injected, it freezes the wearer’s surroundings for a certain period. It’s good for exploiting an opponent’s opening or delivering a dagger—]

“……What.”

The sentence suddenly cut off. Acel furrowed his brow and glared at Aleph, but Aleph showed no reaction, as if time had stopped. It just floated in the air, relying on Acel’s telekinesis magic.

Before long, Acel realized the cause was his mana.

To be precise, it was the mana Aleph absorbed. When the mana that had filled the book ran out, Aleph also stopped functioning.

Ultimately, in order to operate continuously, Aleph also needed the power source called mana. Despite acting like a living creature, in this respect, it is similar to a magical tool. Is it because it underwent Cromwell’s modifications, or was it such an existence from birth?

He strongly wanted to find out, but now was not the time. Acel placed his hand on Aleph’s cover and poured mana into its interior.

At that moment.

Kwarurururu!

Aleph began explosively sucking up Acel’s mana. The absorption was enough to cause mana exhaustion in an ordinary magician immediately. The amount of mana draining away was unusual, to the point where even Acel felt a momentary sense of weakness. He immediately gritted his teeth and dropped his hand from the cover.

Then, the mana absorption stopped as if by a lie. The bright blue current connecting Acel’s fingertip and the book cover crackled and flared up, then slowly died down. Acel briefly looked down at the lightning that bloomed between his fingers, then looked towards Aleph and opened his mouth.

“……What in the world are you doing.”

[I am a grimoire that operates on mana. I am merely paper that can do nothing unless I contain the mana of the one I have taken as my master.]

Was it because it absorbed mana? The writing that had stopped began to appear again. However, its tone felt even more urgent than before.

[I will be honest with you. There is a daily activity limit that exists for me. It begins from the moment I first absorb my master’s mana and decreases over time or whenever I write. And when it completely disappears, I stop functioning like just now.]

“…….”

[To increase this set activity limit, there is no other way than to build a bond with the master, or forcibly inject a massive amount of mana like you just did, Master. However, the latter method is a makeshift solution, so the amount of mana I absorb increases dozens of times over.]

“……Why didn’t you explain this from the beginning?”

[I apologize. I did so because I thought you might not take me if I told you. I have been confined for hundreds of years, and I remember those solitary days without missing a single one. That is why I wanted to avoid being not chosen by the master I finally found and going back into the box.]

“……Haa.”

Acel sighed deeply and took hold of Aleph, opening it.

“According to you, the fact that you’re operating now means you’ve exceeded the set time. How much time is left?”

[10]

“10 minutes?”

[9…… 8…… 7…….]

“Are you a crazy bastard.”

[Pleasedon’tabandonmeIbegyoupleaseunderstandmewhojuststaredatplantsendlesslyinahorriblemoldyboxIwilldefinitelyhelpyoudidn’teventellyouwhatitemsyouneededinthevault]

*Snap*.

Aleph’s words stopped there. Acel looked at the book that hung limply as if it had lost its vitality for a moment, then sighed and fastened Aleph to his waist. Perhaps because their skin didn’t directly touch, Aleph hung there obediently.

‘A series of strange events.’

Thinking that, Acel began to move his steps to find the magical tool that Aleph had told him about. After quite some time, he found the Ice Peony, trapped inside a frost-covered glass case. Acel took it without hesitation.

Such tools were quite helpful in researching magic and creating spells. For him, who was constantly researching to handle ice magic at a high level, the Ice Peony was undeniably an attractive option.

He had already gained an excessive amount of knowledge on the theoretical side to the point of being sick of it, but had never used the ice magic spells in practice. If he confirmed the output of ordinary ice magic using the artifact’s power, it would be good for stabilizing the spells he had already created.

In the first place, the artifact’s performance itself was decent. There was nothing to lose by taking it.

Now only one thing remained. Acel immediately conjured lightning and set out to find the Thunder of Praise.

Before long, he found a glass bottle carefully stored in a metal box. Liquid in the shape of swirling lightning writhed inside the bottle, and Acel smiled with satisfaction and took it.

After that, he searched for other potentially useful items, but there was nothing worth giving up the items he had taken for.

Even so, there were a few things he coveted.

If I had known this would happen, I should have pressed for five from the beginning. My regret is profound.

Still, well, I’ve definitely secured this much. The elixir is excellent, and the Ice Peony would cost a fortune to obtain outside. Needless to say about Aleph.

Honestly, just Aleph alone was enough of a gain.

“Did you get everything?”

When he returned to the party that had gathered, Friede asked with an exhausted face. Acel answered with a bright smile.

“Yes. Three, I’ve definitely secured them.”

“Alright… I won’t check specifically. I trust you.”

Saying so, Friede led the party out of the vault.

As the people disappeared from inside, the vault door automatically closed and reactivated the locking mechanism. With a *kiiiiik* sound of magic activating, geometric patterns appeared and vanished. Acel watched the sight for a moment, then returned to the Academy main building with the party.

Time had already passed into the early evening. The streets were full of students bustling around despite having taken temporary leave, and the setting sun adorned itself in orange.

Occasionally, students who seemed to be dating were seen passing by, holding hands and laughing. Thanks to the perception-hindering magic Friede used, they didn’t notice Acel’s party.

“Our schedule is complete… But we still need to do what needs to be done.”

Back in the Headmaster’s office. Friede said so as he had the four people from Wihajm sit down, then immediately bent at the waist and spoke in a serious voice.

“Once again, I offer my sincere apologies to everyone here. From now on, I will absolutely, absolutely make sure such a thing never happens again. I will personally eliminate all the accumulated evils and pests remaining in the Academy, so don’t worry. As soon as the Sword Demon (劍鬼) returns to duty, I will slowly start changing the Academy. We need to normalize things a bit.”

“Keep your word. This is the last time. The moment Acel gets caught up in the Academy’s mistakes or power struggles again, that will be the Academy’s last day. And I’ll take Acel back with me.”

Is that okay?

Ena asked, glancing sideways at Acel. Acel smiled wryly and nodded.

While it was true that his purpose for coming to the Academy was to gain experience and interact with various people, Acel had no intention of sacrificing his life for it. If that were the case, he would have become a labyrinth explorer or a mercenary long ago.

“I will bear that in mind.”

Friede nodded. With that, all the scheduled events were finished. The party chatted for a moment, then started heading towards their respective destinations.

Norium returned to Wihajm with Irina, and Acel decided to just stay in the dormitory since his temporary leave would end soon anyway.

As a result, only Ena was left floating. Though she could go anywhere on the continent if she transformed her body into lightning, she showed no sign of returning; instead, she hummed a tune while strolling around the Academy grounds with Acel. It was clear from her appearance that she was happy.

However, despite that, she couldn’t look Acel directly in the eye. It was better than a few days ago, but still not as good as before. Despite that, she thoroughly pushed away any woman who approached Acel.

“……What? What pushed me?”

Thanks to being covered by the perception-hindering magic, the person pushed by Ena didn’t even notice her and disappeared along their way, looking puzzled. Acel let out a low murmur as he watched that scene.

The time spent with Ena is certainly enjoyable. But now it was time to return to their respective rooms. They couldn’t keep hanging around outside like this forever.

So Acel set out to introduce Ena to the accommodations with the best facilities on the Academy grounds. Since she showed no sign of leaving today, it was his consideration to at least let her sleep in a good place.

“I’ll just sleep in your room.”

And a bomb-like answer returned.

“Excuse me?”

The time when the moon was full. A time when the number of students wandering the streets gradually decreased, and conversely, people began filling up the restaurants.

At Ena’s sudden declaration, Acel couldn’t help but retort like that.