Ch.40Chapter 40: The Secret of Physical-Magical Energy Conversion

Valt answered nonchalantly.

“How would I know? They all seem to want to hang out together, so let them be. Isn’t it more fun with more people?”

“Of course! I’m happy about it! More friends for me!”

Lisa, who had been hanging on Valt’s shoulder, was now fully seated on his massive shoulder, glancing back slightly.

Lisa was small enough to comfortably sit on Valt’s shoulder.

At first, Lisa had merely clung to his arm, but she gradually found enjoyment in climbing up Valt’s body, and now she perched on his shoulder like a cat.

Valt didn’t mind much, so Lisa quite frequently climbed onto his shoulders.

The elevated view from Valt’s height gave her a strange sensation, as if seeing the world differently.

Lisa’s field of vision captured people of all varieties.

Arias, Lati, Victor, and Robin were the usual crowd that hung around together.

But behind them followed Airin, Solfin, Riduin, Yuria, and Seirun.

It was truly a multi-racial integration.

Arias spoke up, looking at Lisa.

“L-Lisa, come down! You’re making it hard for Valt!”

“Huh? No way! I’m light, right Valt?”

Valt, oblivious to Arias’s feelings, nodded.

Lisa was so petite that he hardly felt any discomfort.

It felt similar to having a gnome on his head.

“Yes, you’re not heavy at all.”

“B-but still!”

Arias actually wanted to climb onto Valt’s shoulder too, but her dignity as an elven princess wouldn’t allow it.

Besides, she was taller and lankier than Lisa. Valt might find it uncomfortable.

‘Why am I so tall! I wish I were smaller!’

On the opposite shoulder from Lisa sat Lati, the smallest of them all.

She was in her fairy form, no bigger than a fist, rather than appearing as a 10-year-old child.

Because of this, Lati was sprawled out completely on Valt’s shoulder.

“Heehee~! This is prime real estate! Isn’t that right, gnome?”

Lati seemed able to communicate with the gnome. Fairy folk don’t make contracts with spirits. With similar dispositions, they simply remain friends.

[Valt’s body… good… solid like earth….]

“Kyahaha, that’s right! It’s so wide and sturdy! This shoulder is like a playground for me!”

Behind them, Victor, Robin, and Seirun were engaged in conversation.

“Wait, you feinted in that situation? Did you plan that, or was it reflexive?”

“One cannot predict everything. My body moved that way on its own.”

“Impressive, Seirun. That’s beyond the realm of reflexes. It’s intuition. You dodged my arrows remarkably well too.”

The three seemed to be reviewing events from their match.

“Hey, beastkin. Why are you following us?”

Solfin unnecessarily shows wariness toward the beastkin of similar build.

Yuria perks up her ears and grins broadly. She looks cat-like, different from when she was confronting Airin.

“Hmm? Can’t I just hang out with everyone? I stand out too much among all the tiny people. It’s nice here with more big folks around, isn’t it?”

“If you’re after Valt, you’re dead.”

“Huh? Why not? I’m interested in Valt too! Besides, you’ve already been rejected, haven’t you? Hehe.”

“Kyahaha, this cat wants to die, it seems.”

Seeing Solfin and Yuria growling at each other, Valt interjects.

“Don’t fight. If you fight, I’ll send you back.”

“Okay~ Valt~ Yuria will behave~.”

“Tch!!”

It seems Valt is quite popular among different races.

People on the street recognize Valt’s group and cheer.

“Waaah!! V-Valt Geruntu!! And Solfin Drakan and even Airin!! I’m a fan!!”

People crowd around them. Among them are even children.

Thud-

“Ow, waaaaaah!”

Eventually, a child falls to the ground, pushed by the crowd.

It could lead to a serious accident.

Valt extends his massive arm, gently moving people aside.

Rather than being offended at being pushed away, people are thrilled to have touched Valt’s muscles and make a fuss.

“S-so firm!!”

“Kyaa!! Like stone! So cool!!”

As Valt bends down, the crying child immediately stops crying.

“Are you alright, little one?”

About five years old, perhaps? The boy looks at Valt and holds out a piece of paper with an adorable pronunciation.

“I’m a fan! Please sign this!”

A smile forms on Valt’s lips.

“Am I not scary to you?”

“N-not scary!! V-Valt is cool!!”

It’s common for young boys to be fascinated by grand displays of action.

“Lisa, come down.”

“Aw, but I was enjoying it.”

As Lisa climbs down from his shoulder, Valt places the little boy there instead and asks:

“What’s your name?”

“Kent! It’s similar to your name!”

Hearing the name, Valt signs the paper with magic and walks for a while with the child on his shoulder.

“Hold on tight.”

The child on Valt’s shoulder exclaims with sparkling eyes:

“Woooooow!!”

Though it was a small gesture for Valt, in this child’s memory, Valt will remain a great hero.

Seeing this, all the neighborhood children rush toward Valt.

“Lati, climb up to my head. Cast a spell to keep the kids from falling.”

Valt carries about a dozen children, spreading his arms wide on both sides!

Thump, thump, thump!

The sight of Valt brings smiles to the faces of everyone around.

***

Given the large number of people, the group secured a spacious venue where everyone could sit.

Lisa, who enjoys taking the lead, steps forward and cheerfully announces:

“Hello! I’m Lisa Valentine!! Let’s introduce ourselves!! I think we’re all gathered here because of Valt, so nice to meet you all!!”

The first to respond to Lisa’s introduction is Seirun. They’re from the same prestigious swordsmanship family and both are Margraves.

Caldrian in the north, Valentine in the south.

They inevitably have to be mindful of each other.

“Oh, the Magic Sword Valentine. I thought I sensed both aura and mana circles.”

Lisa blushes at Seirun’s admiration.

“I’m not that skilled… hehe, this is embarrassing.”

But the polite Seirun shakes his head.

“Not at all. Valentine swordsmanship is the type that develops with time. If you train diligently, you’ll surely become strong.”

Hearing Seirun’s words, Lisa exclaims:

“Seirun Caldrian, approved!”

“Huh?”

Seirun is bewildered by Lisa’s declaration of approval.

Lisa crosses her arms and proudly states:

“You can be friends with Valt! As his first friend and adjutant, I can assure you of that.”

A noble daughter of a count family claiming to be the adjutant of a barbarian prince.

But the impact of these words was not small.

“Is that true…?”

Riduin, who followed out of curiosity about Valt, asks while looking at him.

Finding the situation amusing, Valt merely shrugs.

Lisa’s face brightens.

“M-Master Magician’s apprentice Riduin Brinche! Valentine? I’ll teach you some useful spells. I want to be friends with Valt!”

“Riduin Brinche, approved!”

Starting with Riduin, everyone begins making strange promises.

Yuria even offers to transform into beast form and give rides.

“Yuria Lycant!! Girlfriend candidate number one!”

“Yay!”

“What? Then I’ll give piggyback rides in dragon form.”

“Solfin Drakan!! Back to girlfriend candidate number one!”

People finally realize that Lisa is joking to break the ice.

Valt watches the scene with a smile.

‘Kuk kuk, they look like they’re having fun. Lisa is really good at this sort of thing.’

Thanks to Lisa, the tense atmosphere relaxes considerably, and finally, mealtime begins.

Riduin, who had the most questions, asks Valt:

“Valt, how do you have such incredible magical power as a 1st Circle mage?”

Since it wasn’t really a secret, Valt shows the physical-to-magical power conversion item on his finger.

“Th-this? You created that enormous magical power with this?”

Valt nods slightly. Riduin’s expression remains astonished.

“B-but how strong are you?? This item should be reducing power, not amplifying it? Yet that much magical power comes out?”

Of course, it’s also due to the characteristics of physical magic, but Valt doesn’t see the need to explain that far.

When Riduin asks about the item, Valt also asks Riduin something he’s curious about.

“Well, that’s how it happened. Let me ask you something too. This conversion item, is it easy to obtain?”

There are two types of junk items.

One is junk items that are easy to obtain.

The other is junk items that are extremely difficult to obtain.

For example, cursed swords that drive humans insane fall into the latter category.

From Riduin’s answer, this conversion item seems to be the latter.

“It’s definitely… an item that mages don’t use, but it’s extremely rare… to the point where it’s strange that Valt has one.”

Feeling uneasy, Valt asks again:

“Is it that rare? Is there no way to produce it?”

Even if Valt knows a lot about magic, that’s about types of magic, not theoretical knowledge like this.

In response to Valt’s question, Riduin sighs and says:

“You don’t know much about magic, do you…? But how on earth do you use such magic… Listen carefully, this is a high-difficulty conversion magic, much harder than converting aura to magical power.”

Even converting aura to magical power, both derived from mana, is classified as quite difficult conversion magic.

“How difficult?”

“Aura and magical power are forces processed from mana, so they have commonalities that make conversion possible, though difficult. But physical force is a very ordinary power that can be used without mana, so converting it to magical power is extremely difficult. In terms of difficulty… it would require 9th Circle… no, 10th Circle.”

Valt, who had been thinking of something like a bicycle generator, is shocked by the mention of 10th Circle.

Electricity and magical power are apparently different.

“10th Circle? Doesn’t that mean it’s impossible? Then where did this item come from?”

Riduin’s gaze turns to Solfin.

“It wasn’t us. We can’t make such things.”

Realizing the meaning of Riduin’s gaze, Valt mutters:

“Dragons….”

Riduin responds to Valt’s words with regret:

“Yes, that item was probably made by a dragon for fun. Only dragons with too much time on their hands would create such an inefficient item. What mage would invest time in creating something like that? It’s definitely not human work. They couldn’t do it even if they wanted to.”

Valt, still feeling disappointed, asks again:

“Are you sure? Is it really that difficult?”

When Valt asks again, Riduin begins a longer explanation:

“Since you don’t seem to understand, I’ll explain in more detail. First of all, there’s no need to convert physical force to magical power. If you want to use magical power, you can just use the mana that exists in nature… Do you understand so far?”

That would be true for normal races, not barbarians.

“Yes.”

Riduin’s kind explanation continues:

“What is mana? It’s a basic energy that already exists in nature, right? Almost nothing can be involved in its creation or destruction. This item first converts physical force to mana. This is already incredibly difficult at this point. How do you convert physical force to mana? To be precise, this is a kind of mana generator that can create mana based on ordinary physical force… it involves creation-related magic… and then that converted mana is transformed into magical power. That part is actually simple.”

Solfin, Lati, and Arias, who have basic knowledge of magic, also look surprised.

“Creation? That’s an amazing item, isn’t it?”

“Yes, creation magic. That’s magic that can only be used by those of 10th Circle or higher. Only dragons or gods use such magic. In summary, this is an insane artifact that creates new mana in nature using physical force. There’s one of these items at the Magic Tower too, but my master doesn’t research it anymore. He just says, ‘Haha, a dragon played around with creation magic, what an astonishing thing.'”

As Riduin speaks with certainty, Valt falls into contemplation.

“Hmm… this is troublesome… I thought things might get easier…”