kscans

Chapter 182 - The Lord and I, 6. Bone and Silence (Part 1)

Having successfully concluded their meeting with the lord, Yuri and his companions were steadily making their way to Laurenzen. However, there were a few among them who could not rest easy in the swaying carriage.

"...Hey, Yuri-kun, we couldn’t ask you at the lord’s mansion, but..."

"What are these ‘Magic Bone Tools’ you mentioned?"

"Um... well..."

He was questioned by the members of the party who had apparently been itching to find out. A premonition that this might become troublesome briefly crossed his mind, but he quickly reconsidered. It was probably fine. He had already been made to confess about the Mottled Blade Sword. Compared to that, what was the big deal about bone tools? Besides, he couldn't think of a use for them anyway. It would be a win if he could earn some favor with Katra, Dalia, and Adon.

...It seemed Yuri was the only one who thought that way.

"No... using that Mottled Blade Sword as the standard is the problem in the first place..."

"That was a matter that was decided to be sealed away, after all..."

"You don’t intend to hide these Magic Bone Tools, do you?"

"Then we’ll have to think about how to handle them properly."

Yuri looked on with a puzzled expression as the group put their heads together with sighs. It was just processed bone. What were they making such a fuss about?

Seeing Yuri's baffled and wide-eyed expression, the group let out another deep sigh.

"...Hey Yuri, the idea of making weapons from the bones and horns of magical beasts didn't start with you, you know?"

That much, Yuri could understand. Alongside stone tools, bone tools had likely existed since the dawn of human civilization.

"...No, we don't need to go that far back..."

"There have long been attempts to use materials from powerful or magical beasts in weapons, hoping to borrow their strength."

"But... it never really worked out well."

"Is that so?"

He seemed to recall that in the light novels he read in his past life, materials from magical beasts were in high demand for all sorts of weapons, armor, and even as ingredients for potions.

"They’re perfectly fine as materials for crafting or pharmacology. And leather and such are fine as materials for armor. But bone... it’s a bit tricky when you look at it as a weapon."

It went without saying, but bone tools in general had the drawback of being more brittle than stone tools and having less piercing power. The only real advantage was that the materials could be consistently obtained as long as one was hunting. So, what about the bone and horn materials of magical beasts?

"They certainly contain magic power, but..."

"If you process them poorly, they lose their crucial elemental magic."

"And old materials have already lost their magic power from the start."

"Furthermore, bone that's completely dry is prone to cracking. You have to soak it in water to soften it before you can work with it, but..."

"Doing that makes the essential magical essence leak out."

"Apparently, you’re supposed to soak it in adjusted magic water for processing... but it’s a secret technique, so they won’t teach it to outsiders..."

The half-elf Katra, Dalia, and the elf Nagara all explained in turn... but as he listened, the part about "adjusted magic water" rang a bell for Yuri.

(It’s probably just soaking it in an isotonic solution or physiological saline...)

...Well, he understood enough that blurting that out would lead to nothing good, so he kept his mouth shut and played dumb. Incidentally, the reason Yuri had succeeded in processing them was apparently because they had been stored in his god-made Storage, which prevented any deterioration in quality.

"So, Yuri-kun, what exactly are these ‘Magic Bone Tools’ you speak of?"

"Um..."

Yuri had prototyped knives, arrowheads, and netsuke-like trinkets. Since Yuri didn't use a bow, he hadn't yet confirmed the effectiveness of the arrowheads. The netsuke gained a talisman-like effect that varied depending on the element, and as for the knives...

"...They're weaker to impact compared to Magic Stone Tools, but on the other hand, they're light and they float. Above all, they take on the element of the magical beast they came from, huh..."

"It’s a bit of a mixed bag."

"Unlike stone tools, the magic element is fixed from the start."

"What about those with little or no magic power?"

"I wonder... I haven’t checked that far."

"What if the user’s magic element is different from that of the bone tool?"

"Who knows... I didn’t go so far as to compare what happens when you purposely channel a different element of magic into them."

Weren’t you only supposed to have Water and Earth Magic!? The group desperately held back the urge to shout this at Yuri, who was holding Magic Bone Tools, specifically knives, of the fire and earth elements. Right now, figuring out the properties of the Magic Bone Tools was the priority, not interrogating Yuri.