kscans

Chapter 262 - The Meeting with Magam 3. Lively Discussion (Part 1)

Putting aside the topic of magic and magic power, which seemed to involve personal information, an inoffensive topic that overlapped with both of their interests was...

"Magic Stones, you say?"

...where they settled.

As a resident of the Salt-Sour Mountain, Yuri routinely hunted monsters and obtained Magic Stones. Just a short while ago, the Magic Tool Creation skill had been added to his repertoire, so he now had to consider how to use them. Above all, since he had accidentally created something like an Artificial Magic Stone, Yuri was curious about how Magic Stones were generally treated.

"Yes, for example... where can you get Magic Stones?"

"...Where?"

Magam raised his voice in doubt. Where else but from monsters would one get Magic Stones?

"Ah, no... I know you can get them from monsters, but are there any other ways?"

Unable to bluntly ask, 'Is the method of artificially creating Magic Stones known?', this was the best Yuri could do. But because his question was roundabout, Magam's answer was also slightly off from what Yuri intended.

"Other ways, you say... Ah, humans can also produce Magic Stones."

"Is that so?!"

"They can. However, 'collecting' such Magic Stones is considered taboo from an ethical standpoint."

"...I understand."

It was probably similar to stories about making soap from human fat, or binding books with tanned human skin. Still... he was a little interested... no, no...

Yuri gave his head a small shake.

"...But... in that case... for example, are there any stories of digging up the ruins of an old grave and finding heaps of Magic Stones? Or digging through peat and finding an old corpse..."

The latter example Yuri gave was known in his world, Earth, as a Bog Body, or a Bog Man. Due to the special environment of a bog, high acidity, low temperature, and low oxygen, the skin and internal organs were well-preserved, but on the other hand, the acid in the peat dissolved calcium phosphate, so the bones were generally not well-preserved. Some Bog Bodies were so well-preserved that their living appearance was clearly visible, so he thought that perhaps Magic Stones might also remain.

For Yuri, who had spent his past life on a twenty-first-century Earth where excavation surveys of ancient bones and remains were not uncommon, this was not a particularly strange idea, but in this world, it was somewhat heretical. Faren, listening from the side, felt that the conversation was heading in a rather unsettling direction, but Magam paid it no mind. For one who aspires to scholarship, intellectual curiosity is one's guide, and reputation and appearances are secondary. His well-bred disciple seemed a little taken aback, but scholars are more or less all like this (note, from Magam's perspective). Yuri didn't dislike these kinds of topics either, so they continued to cheerfully get excited over slightly grotesque stories, oblivious to the person cringing behind them.

"No, Magic Stones are surprisingly unstable things, you see."

"They are?"

With the roles of offense and defense now reversed, it was Yuri's turn to raise his voice in doubt. Magic Stones were unstable? He hadn't heard anything about them disappearing or changing if left lying around.

"No, once they're removed, there's no problem. But if they remain in contact with the tissue of a corpse, they gradually disappear. It's thought that they get caught up in the process of the corpse's decay."

This was new information for Yuri, but it seemed to be a reasonably well-known fact in the outside world. That was because...

"There was once a fool who tried to desecrate the Saint's Tomb to steal its magic stone. That incident brought this to light. It was an irreverent affair, but thanks to it, we learned about the nature of Magic Stones. So, for that reason, you won't find Magic Stones in the corpses in graveyards or ruins."

"I see..."

"However, Magic Stones embedded in Golems or magic tools can remain if the conditions are right. That's one reason why Ruin Robbers and Grave Robbers are a constant problem."

Because the words 'Artificial Magic Stone' had not come up in the conversation so far, Yuri strengthened his conviction, in a completely wrong direction, that this must be a strictly concealed technology. If Magam had heard him, he probably would have laughed loudly and dismissed it. In this world, 'Artificial Magic Stone' was thought of in the same way as Cold Fusion or a Perpetual Motion Machine in his world, Earth. That is, it was the kind of thing that might become reality in the distant future, but for now, was received as an absurd tall tale. However, Yuri, unaware of these circumstances, renewed his resolve to conceal the Artificial Magic Stone technology he had established for the sake of security. Well, it was certainly safer that way.

Magam, on the other hand, was thinking, 'If he's hunting on the Salt-Sour Mountain, he must have many opportunities to obtain Magic Stones. It's only natural that he'd want to know how to use them.' He, for his part, harbored no suspicions whatsoever.