Offer a Tribute and Become an Archmage - Chapter 147



Only Noblemtl

Episode 147.

A carriage heading north.

The carriage’s emblem was a shield. It was a shield with a snowflake design on it.

“Are you okay?”

Inside the carriage was a woman who looked like she was made of ice.

Countess Belita von Enheide.

He was the current northern Count.

“The signs from the North are not good. There has been plenty in Alovato’s territory.”

The north is not very windy.

Even in that harsh environment, the Orcs form tribes and reproduce. They are excellent warriors who have powers far superior to those of humans and do not fear death. It is unknown when they will cross the northern border again. There are many excellent knights in the north. However, they all depend on Count Enheid. Her absence itself causes morale to drop and creates anxiety that the sturdy wall may collapse at any moment.

“If I tell His Majesty the King, it will not be difficult to bring that wizard to the North.”

The North is the shield of the kingdom.

The king is also not unaware of this fact. Moreover, the only two black knights in the kingdom are the Margraves. They are among the superhumans who can externalize the imagery inherent in chivalry.

That’s the Black Knight, isn’t it? So if you ask, he’ll probably bring the wizard of Gradas without much difficulty.

The justifications are more than enough.

“It doesn’t matter.”

But the count cut off his vassal’s worries with a single stroke. The count stared blankly out the carriage window, then took out a wooden stick from his bosom. It was a strangely carved piece of wood.

*

“I’m rich! Kyahahahahaha!”

Inside the carriage returning to Gradas.

Ronobe laughed vulgarly as he tossed and caught the pouch in his hand. He kept feeling the weight of the pouch as he tossed it around, and when he opened it, the inside was filled with a golden glow.

“Wow!”

Look at this splendid golden color!

I wanted to show off by inviting all the neighbors, including my cousins ​​and my eighth cousins.

“You’re rich! You’re shining! Give me some too!”

“Oh my! Where are you going, a commoner who dares!”

Ronobe, who had been yelling at Rirun, who was whining about wanting it, carefully packed the purse in his bosom. His chest was swollen to the point of bursting because of the purse, but this appropriate weight was incredibly ecstatic.

‘I only touched fairy tales and now I find gold coins!’

It was such a shame that if this had been a bed instead of a carriage, I would have been having a fit.

“How much is it?”

In response to Benny’s question, Ronobe whispered in his ear. Benny’s pupils widened.

It was such a huge number.

‘A whopping one hundred gold coins.’

I thought the Allobatos were a family of nothing special. They had only recently been granted the title of Baron. However, they were a more substantial family than I had thought. When I asked them for their neighborly favor, they gave me a hundred gold coins.

Of course, it wasn’t given from the beginning.

The elders of the Alovato family came to visit Ronobe and asked for various information under the pretext of having a cup of tea.

‘You must have been trying to figure out my level.’

Magic, family, current assets. I wanted to find out about those things and show my affection. I didn’t know at first, but Ronobe quickly figured it out and seemed like he was going to try to take advantage of me, so I told him in advance.

‘If we charged just one silver coin as an entrance fee to every visitor, we would earn ten gold coins in a month.’

Most of them will be commoners, but there will definitely be wealthy nobles among them. If they have a serious illness, they will pay more, and even if they don’t, there will be many old nobles who come to recuperate in order to live longer.

Would they just pay an entrance fee? They would want special treatment for one reason or another, and the Alovato Estate would earn hundreds or thousands of gold coins a year.

When Ronobe pointed this out, the elders of the family could not bear to turn their backs on him and gave him one hundred gold coins as a gesture of neighborly kindness.

‘One hundred gold pieces a year.’

There were really endless things you could do with a hundred gold coins. With copper or silver coins, you could make dozens of country bumpkins work, but with gold coins! With this, rebuilding Hopper would be no problem. If you think about how much it cost to build a house in Sist, it would cost about twenty copper coins, so wouldn’t it be possible to build a magnificent castle?

‘I guess I’ll have to exchange half of it.’

It cannot be used as a gold coin.

In order to hire workers, you have to exchange money anyway. In this day and age, exchanging money is a huge hassle, and even exchanging money costs a lot of money, but Ronobe didn’t really care about that.

‘Elicia will take care of it.’

If I went to Gradas Castle to exchange my money, I wouldn’t have to worry about the quality or the price being hit. Plus, I’d have an excuse to see Elysia, so it wasn’t a bad thing.

“There is a lot to do.”

Sist will take care of Venom.

By the time Ronobe became a noble, the power structure of the Sist had already tilted heavily toward Venom. It doesn’t matter if you leave them alone, they’ll take care of it.

The problem is Hopper and Petri.

‘You can leave Petri alone for now.’

Restoring a copper mine is not a job that can be done in a jiffy.

Uribe may be preparing, but in the end, you have to use the power of a wizard to save money and time. In the end, it is something that Ronobe has to make good use of Lirun and Peter.

‘Rilun is fine as is, but…’

Peter is not.

Peter uses magic to turn the earth’s crust into leather, but it’s not quite up to the task of clearing away the boulders in a collapsed mine.

Peter is still young. He hasn’t learned how to use magic in various ways. As proof, he’s still being beaten by Lirun with magic. It was partly because of the compatibility of magic, but Peter also has a lot going on right now, so he can’t focus on his magic training.

He was studying two subjects at the same time, and he was also practicing magic, so he was a very busy guy.

‘There’s no rush.’

If you’re in a hurry, you’ll have to wait.

Just do them one by one, slowly.

I haven’t decided what to do with the dungeon in the hopper either. It takes over a week to get to the hopper by carriage.

“I need to think about it calmly.”

*

A week later.

The group arrived at Hopper and immediately unpacked and set up temporary barracks.

“I didn’t know there was a dungeon underground.”

Benida lived here. He had an expression on his face that said he had never dreamed that there would be a dungeon full of monsters underground. And even more so, that the underground cave they were hiding in when the forest fire broke out would be like that.

“Baron Jun. When do you plan on going in? If it’s a dungeon, it’ll probably require a lot of preparation…”

Despite his cautious words, Liam seemed to be in a state of fever. He had only been training lately and had not been in much combat.

The same goes for the Mick that came along with him.

‘It’ll take some time for the workers to arrive. Maybe a week.’

I helped the migrants and laborers from Alovato, but they said it would take some time because they had a lot of work to do. I was planning to organize the hopper a bit until then.

There is a dungeon, but there is also Ronobe, Beni, Rirun, Peter, and finally, the apprentice of the great wizard, Sir Mick. It was a party that had nothing to fear.

‘There are plenty of potions.’

It would be nice to have more meat shields, but since the dungeon is cave-like, it would be quite narrow for many people to enter.

This much is good.

“Let’s get rid of the aftereffects first.”

The dungeon will be cleared in two days.

Of course, there was some backlash.

“Why am I…”

“Then are you going to play? We’re risking our lives?!”

“no…”

It was Mick.

It was unfair from Mick’s point of view.

I came to act as the master’s messenger, but this little punk didn’t read the book I told him to read and just wandered around, and now he’s going into a dungeon. And on top of that, I put him in the party as a matter of course, so it was ridiculous.

“You’re also Peter and Lirun’s teacher. Why wouldn’t an adult go in when the kids are?”

“No, why am I a teacher…”

It was Ronobe’s skilled trick of selling even his disciples and including them in the party. It wasn’t really a trick. Appealing to affection. To be honest, Ronobe couldn’t do anything else.

“Didn’t Sir Mick say that dungeons don’t appear without a reason?”

The difference is whether it is a natural dungeon or an intentionally created dungeon. However, there is no change in the fact that there is something in both. It is obvious that there will be something that will be helpful, either financially or magically.

“Dungeons are dangerous…”

Ronobé gently pushed Peter’s back with his leg. Peter, who was writing on the floor, was pushed back and grabbed Mick’s trouser leg.

“Peter is going in too… Is the person who said he would cut down the dragon scared? Ahem.”

“…! Who said that!”

No matter how decent he may seem, a man is still a man.

Peter said he was going in too, so I couldn’t say that the man in charge wouldn’t go in.

“What I mean is that we need to prepare a little more safely. No one knows what’s inside the dungeon. And these young guys with such a bright future ahead of them…”

“You can’t buy experience with money. With Sir Mick and me, you’ll be fine.”

“Ahem.”

Mick warned that it was dangerous, but Ronobé thought differently.

‘There’s nothing special there.’

There are just some big bugs. I’ve already checked the size of the cave and the number of monsters through the gap. It’s bigger than I thought, so I couldn’t check everything, but it’s not as dangerous as Mick thinks.

‘If it’s really dangerous, just stop it.’

It’s a place that’s been quiet even after living in Hopper for over ten years. You don’t have to worry about the aftermath because all you have to do is block the entrance with ice.

“Well, I can’t just leave it alone just because it’s dangerous. I have to rebuild Hopper anyway.”

Ronobedo nodded at Liam’s words. It might actually be more dangerous to leave it alone. The reason why unexploded bombs are dangerous is because you never know when they will explode.

That dungeon is no different from a dud or a time bomb. No one would want to see the village they were planning to use as their castle ruined by a dungeon. Especially if it was their hometown where they had fond memories!

“I guess we can just organize it carefully.”

I won’t put Peter and Lirun in the lead from the beginning. I have an idea, too. I’ll put Liam in the lead at first. If it’s okay, I’ll take Lirun and Peter.

“I see. Well, I have to sort things out anyway…”

When I say this, Mick seems to understand.

*

And two days passed.

“Going in.”

Kugu Palace.

Ronobe broke down the wall at the entrance to the dungeon.

It was a pretty tightly blocked place, so it took some time to break it down, but it was done quickly.

“Peter. Have fun with Lirun.”

“!!”

“Hello~”

Leaving Lirun and Peter behind, Benny, Ronob Mick and Liam headed to the dungeon.

“Inflammation.”

Because it was underground, extracting the oil was easy. When the oil was floated and set on fire, the space inside was clearly visible.

“It’s wider than I thought.”

“It’s a little cold.”

The dungeon sloped slightly downwards, going underground. Since the sun did not shine through and it was underground, it was quite cool. The smell was damp, full of grass and mold, but there was also a subtle rotten smell.

“Sir Mick, what do you usually call a dungeon?”

“There are two types of dungeons.”

First is the naturally occurring dungeon.

“This world is filled with the power of miracles. That’s why we become magicians. But it’s not the exclusive domain of humans.”

“It’s the same with beasts.”

“Yes. They live in animals, plants, and even rocks and old trees on the roadside. Dungeons are often one of them. Strangely, stagnant miracles have a negative effect on humans. That’s what a dungeon is.”

A stagnant miracle.

It attracts beasts and insects and exerts strange influences on them, which are what we call monsters today.

“The second is an artificially created dungeon. It is usually the work of wizards who have isolated themselves from the world.”

Wizards who study the power of miracles isolate themselves from the world and devote themselves solely to the study of magic. Most of them die alone underground while studying…

“It’s also called a lich. It is said that the corpses of wizards who died with a lot of foolishness are moved by a miracle. After a long time.”

“Are the bones alive and moving?”

“I heard there are cases like that. I’ve never seen it myself, so I don’t know.”

They say that once you become a lich, you are no different from a monster, and are the same as enemies of humanity. There are places that are just abandoned and used without becoming a lich, but after a long time, they still have traces of magic and become dungeons, so it is difficult to say anything carelessly, according to Mick.

“It’s more diverse than I thought.”

While I was amazed by the diversity of the dungeon.

Shudder.

Ronobe’s footsteps stopped.

“Benny, can you see?”

“huh.”

Ronobe kept floating oil and, with a staff in one hand, searched the surroundings. Most of them ran away to avoid the light or ran away when they sensed a presence.

But not now.

“That’s right. Two.”

The smell is of those who hold damp earth, and the sound of their footsteps is strangely loud.

‘Those guys back then.’

I tried blowing the burning oil far away.

Shashasha. Two fairly large foxes were approaching at high speed.

“Come!”

Liam planted the tower shield into the ground. It was a huge rectangular shield that could protect my entire body.

It was something I got from the Alovato family.

Unfortunately, there was no time to test Liam’s shield.

“Wind and air.”

“The window at your feet.”

Crunch, bang!

As soon as Mick’s sword was pulled out, one of the raccoons was split in half, and Ronobe’s magical ice spear emerged from under the ground, pinning the raccoon to the ceiling. Ronobe and Mick looked at each other and grinned.

“It wasn’t my turn to come forward.”

Benny aimed his bow, but didn’t need to shoot, as Mick and Ronobe killed the giant raccoon in one shot.

“The monster’s level isn’t that high. The fox’s shell isn’t as hard as I thought. Even Sir Liam’s sword can easily pierce it.”

The level of the fox wasn’t very high.

If you’re careful, you could easily kill Liam.

“At this level, it may be possible to call in adventurers and deal with it without putting in any effort.”

“Are you an adventurer?”

“Yes. Unlike mercenaries, adventurers are those who mainly deal with dungeons and monster hunting. If you ask them to do it for you, they will help you clear dungeons without you having to put in any effort. Of course, it will cost you a lot of money.”

“There was something like that.”

I didn’t know.

However, there was no reason to ask an adventurer for help, and there was no reason to do so. If there was a dungeon, it meant there was something inside. If you asked an adventurer to help you, you would have to hand over the miracle at the end of the dungeon to them or buy it for a price.

‘Lirun and Peter also need to experience real combat.’

Magic training is good, but there are still many things you won’t know until you actually experience them. Ronobe knows this better than anyone else.

“Can you sell something like this?”

“Well… I guess I can sell them if I want to. After all, they are people who were affected by the miracle.”

“There was no monster inside!”

Unfortunately, there was no monster.

“Poison?”

“There is no poison.”

“Okay. Then let’s go further.”

The dungeon was larger than I thought.

Since it was a natural dungeon, there were no traps or anything, but there were more raccoons inside than I thought.

Most of them were taken care of by Lonobe and Mick, but when there were many at once, Liam and Benny also came into play. Even in the dark, Benny was always right. The iron arrow, with its tremendous tension, pierced the carapace of a giant raccoon in one shot, killing it instantly.

“Ugh! You son of a bitch!”

Everyone hunted without much effort, but Liam was not one of them. He fought with the fox with his shield, sweating profusely, and soon ended up in a bloody fight, bleeding profusely.

“Whoaaaaap!!”

Push back with a shield, then stab with a sword.

The raccoon with its mouth pierced screamed and fell to the ground, dead. Liam, covered in green blood, howled in victory, but it didn’t last long.

“It’s noisy, Liam.”

“… yes.”

“It smells, so wipe off the blood.”

“…”

Because Lonobe had persecuted him. Mick smiled as he watched Liam slump in relative deprivation.

“He’s strong. He’s perceptive. He’ll be a good knight.”

“It’s still a long way to go.”

Liam’s performance is not that great compared to the cost of entry. Even now, he is grinding the rocks into powder and feeding them with Ronobe’s magic, but it has not had any significant effect. He needs to be rolled out more.

“Baron Jun! This guy, there’s something strange on his back. Take a look!”

“What is it?”

There’s something on the back of the fox that Liam caught.

“It’s a mushroom. It’s nothing special.”

“Ugh…”

It was so wet that mushrooms appeared to have bloomed.

It’s not that unusual for moss or mushrooms to grow on an animal’s body.

“I’ll take care of it just in case.”

“Or so.”

You never know what parts of the civet’s carapace and body could be of value for money, so it’s better to take them all if you can.

“Can I eat this?”

“Well… the smell isn’t that great.”

No matter what, it’s still a raccoon.

It seemed a bit difficult to eat.

I thought there might be some people who could make some money since it was a dungeon, but it seems life isn’t always that easy.

“Oh, oh, oh! Woof!”

“Again, why is that?”

Liam fell backwards.

“Oh, I just moved! I was cutting mushrooms! I was going to kill myself in a fit of rage!”

“…?”

mushroom?

“Come to think of it.”

When we shine a light, mushrooms have been blooming all over the cave for some time now.

Dungeons and mushrooms.

Mushrooms blooming on a tree?

One thing comes to mind.

“Corderygosporum militaris?”

End