Have Magic - Chapter 117



Only Noblemtl

Embrace the Magic (117)

Fortunately, nothing happened overnight. Bianca slept in past midnight, but it was hard to call it an incident.

Breakfast was also prepared at the top of the crowd. It was a meal that Daniel Sangdang took great care of. There was a lot of meat, and the decorations were also gorgeous.

But it was worse than Matthew’s food. Bianca, who woke up late, didn’t even eat half of it because she had no appetite.

But everyone else ate it all.

Rodin, Larry, and Matthew were not the type to waste food in the first place. Not to mention Charis and Jenna, who would save food and then throw it away.

“excuse me.”

“Yes, Wizard Bettner. What’s going on?”

Daniel’s friend, the 4th circle wizard Betner, came to visit. He looked very cautious.

Rodin guessed why Bettner had come looking for him.

I felt a lump of magic in Bettner’s pocket. It was a magic stone. Perhaps the purpose was to resolve my curiosity about it.

“Can you give me a moment?”

“Yes. There’s nothing else to do until departure. What’s the matter?”

“Daniel gave me this this morning. He said he took it out of the troll’s belly yesterday.”

“Yes, I have a few.”

As expected, what Betner took out of his pocket were black stones that Rodin had named ‘magic stones’. Betner carefully held out five walnut-sized magic stones.

Rodin also took out the magic stones from his pocket and showed them to me. There were three in total.

There was one magic stone that Rodin had personally taken out yesterday, and two magic stones that Karis had taken out from the stomach of a troll that had been beheaded.

“What on earth is this thing?”

“I don’t know. I can only guess.”

“I guess it’s fine. I’m going to report to the magic tower, but I don’t know anything.”

Wizards belonging to the Magic Tower were obligated to report on any unusual phenomena occurring in the world. There were no disadvantages to not reporting, but they usually tried to keep this obligation.

“Mr. Bettner, do you also feel something from this stone?”

“Yes. It’s filled with magic power.”

“Have you heard, Mr. Bettner, that the world is filled with mana?”

“Yes. That’s what you hear when you learn magic.”

Other magicians who couldn’t sense mana also didn’t deny the existence of mana. If there was no mana, the existence of the training room would make no sense in the first place.

“This stone, I call it a magic stone. Oh! I named it yesterday, so don’t worry about it. Anyway, the magic stone absorbs all the mana in the world and stores it as magic.”

“Uh… so if it absorbs the surrounding mana and becomes a stone filled with magical power… isn’t that… better than a magic stone?”

“yes?”

Rodin’s voice rose at the sudden remark.

Rodin couldn’t understand the comparison between a stone filled with magical power and a magic stone.

Even though they are similar, it is ridiculous to say that the magic stone is better.

I wondered if Bettner had misunderstood the magic stone or magic gemstone.

“Isn’t that right? A magic stone is something that turns a mana stone into a stone with magical power, right? At that time, it converts only the amount of mana the mana stone has into magical power. But this one gathers surrounding mana, converts it into magical power, and stores it, so it seems better than a magic stone.”

“Mr. Bettner. It seems you don’t know what a magic stone is.”

“Are you saying I’m wrong?”

“Yes, you are wrong. The essence of the magic stone lies in ‘purification’.”

Bettner wasn’t the only one who didn’t know much about magic stones. All the magicians of this era mistook the stones that turned mana into magical power for magic stones.

“Refined?”

“Whether it’s mana that exists naturally or mana inside a mana stone, it’s not just pure mana. It’s mixed with all sorts of impurities. That’s why in ancient times, something called a magic stone was created. It was made by removing the impurities from a mana stone, condensing it into magic that was easier to handle.”

In fact, Rodin was confident that if he put his mind to it and studied hard, he could create a magic stone within a few months.

The reason I haven’t studied it yet is because I don’t have enough time. Also, I didn’t think it was necessary right away.

The time invested in Proval’s welcoming class alone was more than five hours per day.

I also read the books of the Magic Empire for 3 to 4 hours every day.

I also had to train in magic.

Now, I was carving a magic circle on the carriage, and I couldn’t miss the physical training with Larry at dawn.

“What happens if you use something that has impurities in it?”

“It’s okay for mana stones to have some impurities mixed in. That’s what they are. Think of the shock-absorbing chariot of the Thrasian Tower that Bettner belongs to. When you create an artifact, its efficiency decreases and its lifespan shortens.”

It was a disparaging remark about the shock-absorbing carriage of the Thracian Tower. Still, Bettner could not deny it.

It was a phrase that kept coming up among magicians while creating artifacts on the magic tower.

It seems like I can’t fully use the power of the mana stone.

It feels like a pointless waste of energy.

This conversation kept coming up. Even Bettner said something similar.

“It’s a chronic problem with the current artifact.”

“It’s chronic, but you can still make artifacts with mana stones. Since mana originally exists in the natural world, the risk is low.”

The difference between mana stones and magic stones was well recorded in literature and other places.

If you use mana stones as they are, the success rate of creating artifacts will drop, and their power will be lowered. Also, since their energy efficiency is low, the artifacts’ lifespan will be short.

“Are you saying that magic is dangerous because it is artificial?”

“That’s right. If magic is mixed with impurities… how should I explain it? Oh! You know that? It’s a problem that can arise when a wizard increases his circle by force.”

“Are you talking about a magic explosion?”

“Yes. That’s what happens. Magic power runs wild and is out of control.”

Today was the first time in Bettner’s life that he had heard of ‘refining’. If it weren’t for Rodin, he would have still thought of magic stones as simply stones that had gathered magical power.

“What about yesterday’s trolls?”

“They weren’t going berserk. They were just sensitive and violent because they had this uncomfortable lump of energy inside them.”

“The magic stone can be used just by refining it.”

“Yes, refinement. That’s the problem.”

The Magic Towers had long ago figured out how to convert mana into magical power. About a dozen places, including the four great Magic Towers, knew how to do it.

However, I did not know how to remove the impurities. I continued to research, but there was no progress.

“Refining… will it be difficult?”

“For example, let’s take training. A magician accumulates refined magical power within his body. He receives mana through his human body and filters out impurities.”

“People have to do things differently.”

“That’s why it’s difficult.”

While talking to Bettner, the upper deck was ready for departure.

Daniel, the top podium member, was waiting for departure time, looking only at Rodin and Bettner.

“I learned a valuable lesson today.”

“No problem.”

The conversation ended. Betner returned to the upper carriage, and Rodin also entered the carriage driven by Jenna.

* * *

Two days.

It was a peaceful journey. There was another monster attack, but it was a small group. There weren’t many of them, so I could easily deal with them with just mercenaries.

Meanwhile, Rodin transformed the carriage Jenna drove into a magic training room. Like the carriage Karis drove, he also combined it with a mana accumulation magic circle.

“Hmm.”

Perhaps because one thing I had to do was finished, useless thoughts were making my head dizzy. I was particularly curious about the magic stone.

“If I think about it, I was lucky.”

Rodin made a big mistake when he was making potions at the special forces training camp. The problem was that he had been providing potions every month without a single failure.

I didn’t know at the time that there was a success rate for making all artifacts, including potions. I learned this when I came out into the world and talked to the merchants of magic items.

Fortunately, not many people knew the success rate of artifacts. Even among merchants selling magic items, only those who had received many items from large stores knew.

I heard from them that the success rate of the potion was around 70%. It may seem low, but it was actually quite high for a potion.

The success rate for creating persistent artifacts was around 30%. The success rate for creating triggered artifacts was only 20%. Even this was when it was a simple magic of the first circle.

Higher level magic has a lower success rate.

The shock-absorbing carriage of the Thrasian Tower can be completed in about 10 attempts. The recently started production of the refrigerated carriage was only successful in about 3 out of 20 attempts.

The reason for the difference in success rate was the absence of the magic stone.

“I didn’t think it was necessary.”

For Rodin, crafting artifacts was not a matter of chance. He had failed because of a mistake in combining magic circles or runes, but he had never failed because of a mana stone.

Since I always succeeded without making any mistakes, I never really felt the need for a magic stone.

But two days ago, while talking to Bettner, my thoughts changed a bit. I wanted to make a magic stone and make a proper artifact at least once.

‘An artifact made from a real magic stone and an artifact made from a mana stone. How much of a difference is there in performance?’

For Bettner, the difference between using magic stones and mana stones was explained in terms of success rate, efficiency, and lifespan.

Rodin had not been interested in the success rate part of this because it was meaningless.

“Life span doesn’t mean anything.”

I wasn’t going to create an artifact that would be used for hundreds of years, generation after generation. I was just going to use it for a few years anyway.

Then, when its lifespan is over, it can be remade. Lifespan was not an important factor.

“As the efficiency increases, the power also increases. How much of a difference is this? Have I been taking the magic stone too lightly?’

Perhaps the magic stone’s effects were much greater than expected. Even if its power increased by just 20%, it would be worth researching.

‘No. Even 10% is big.’

Rodin did not start his research from scratch.

Although it is only briefly mentioned in the Proval Welcome, the Magic Empire’s book contains quite a bit of information on the principles of creating magic stones.

‘It’s not like I’m researching from scratch. It’s worth a try.’

The essence of the magic stone is to change mana into magical power and remove impurities.

Among these, converting mana into magic power was surprisingly simple. It was also something that the Magic Tower had succeeded in a long time ago, and Rodin also quickly came up with several methods in his head.

“I need to focus more on my research.”

I just made plans to do some research. But things didn’t always go as planned.

“Stop.”

As they passed the top, Rodin shouted urgently. Jenna pulled the reins of the carriage, and Charis also stopped the carriage.

“Why are you doing that?”

“This is going to be a hassle. We’re surrounded. Haa, it looks like they’re not going to let us go.”

“Charis.”

“I get it.”

Charis moved her carriage to the left, between the carriage above and Jenna’s carriage, forming a formation to protect Matthew, Larry, and Bianca.

I didn’t question Rodin’s words.

Rodin’s skills were inferior to those of the previous masters, but in some areas, including his senses, he was far superior. Since Rodin said he was surrounded, he must have been surrounded.

“What’s going on, Wizard Rodin?”

“They’re like demons. There are about 200 of them. They seem like small demons, but they’re already surrounded.”

“Masuda! Get into defensive formation!”

“It’s a demon!”

The formation was created in an instant.

The carriages with people inside formed a circle, and the carts formed an outer circle. The mercenaries stood between the carts, and the wizard Betner climbed onto the roof of the carriage.

“Brother Rodin! It’s the devil again?”

“Yeah. There are quite a few, but there won’t be much danger. You don’t have to worry.”

“Are there really this many demons?”

“Yeah. I’m curious too.”

Rodin’s gaze, which had been answering Bianca, turned to Daniel Sangdangju. It was a question of whether he knew anything.

“No, it’s not. This is the first time we’ve met this often. Usually, we meet once every ten days.”

“Could it be related to the monster noise I heard before?”

“Yes, it will.”

The last person to give an answer was Derek, the leader of the mercenaries. He was a silver-plated mercenary who had fought the trolls alone for quite some time.