WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise
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◈ I Made Magic Easier by Changing the Formula ◈
Chapter 28: The Secret of the Gray Orb
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Ssssss...
Three snake-type Pogonas crawled out of the deep darkness within the cave. They were even larger than the Pogona we had just killed, raising their heads as their gray scales gleamed sickeningly.
“Hans, leave this one to me.”
Nen shot forward like the wind.
Thwack!
Before the poisonous mist could spread through the air, Nen’s dagger traced a precise path and cleanly severed the first snake’s neck. Carried by its momentum, the dagger spun smoothly and neatly separated the remaining two snakes’ heads from their bodies.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
It was over in the blink of an eye.
The three snake-type Pogonas collapsed to the ground without even managing to spit out a mouthful of poison.
“Ah! This is impossible. I’m this fast?”
Nen shuddered again. She looked astonished by the unreal change in her body and her overwhelming power.
I smiled as I watched her.
‘The new breathing technique is working exactly as intended.’
I had expected this much already. Still, seeing Nen move like the wind with my own eyes filled me with even greater satisfaction.
‘But the gray orb’s mana increased again.’
At the exact moment the Pogonas’ lives ended, I stared intently at the gray orb in my subspace.
‘Just as I thought.’
Something strange happened when the faint mana contained within the dead Pogonas was about to disperse into the air.
Like a starving fiend, the gray orb swallowed every last bit of it.
‘So it wasn’t refilling on its own over time?’
Why had the orb’s mana increased?
‘Could it be an artifact that absorbs the mana of dead creatures?’
After killing Kalik’s Kran scouting party, I had not had the chance to inspect it. I had been too focused on giving Nen emergency treatment to check my subspace.
‘And this...’
Its concentration was in an entirely different league from that of mana crystals.
‘It’s incredibly pure!’
Perfectly refined mana.
It was strange.
‘This might be far more incredible than I thought.’
Still, I could not be certain yet. We had only taken down a few demon beasts.
‘It could be a coincidence. I should investigate further.’
I dismantled the magic circle at the entrance and retrieved the mana crystals. I erased every trace so thoroughly that no one looking into the cave would find any sign that people had stayed there.
“We’re done here. Let’s leave, Nen.”
“Are you planning to leave Rowen for good?”
“Yes. I have nothing left to regret.”
Nen nodded with a bitter expression.
“It’s a wise choice, Hans. Rowen is finished now.”
“Finished?”
“The Count has already given up on defending the territory and is considering retreating to Bellat, the southern military city. I believe he thinks reinforcements are unlikely to come.”
“Reinforcements aren’t coming?”
“I don’t know the details either. But I hear the situation in the Imperial Capital is complicated right now. That is why the Count told me to go quickly and protect Miss Ellen.”
There was a war, yet something was wrong within the Imperial court as well.
That likely meant the war would take a very bad turn from here on.
It made sense. Otherwise, Kran scouting parties would not be roaming around Rowen’s outskirts as if they owned the place.
‘What a disaster.’
The Imperial court was turning a blind eye.
The great nobles of the city were pulling out too.
That was why the lines of refugees went on without end.
“Then you need to head straight for the Imperial Capital, Nen.”
Nen nodded.
“I need to attend Miss Ellen.”
“I’m planning to go to Ruber Village.”
“Ruber Village?”
“It’s farther south, past Bellat.”
“I need to go to Bellat as well. I plan to find a carriage there that will take me to the Imperial Capital.”
“That works out well. Let’s travel together as far as Bellat.”
Our paths overlapped, so I suggested we travel together until Bellat.
Nen’s face brightened slightly.
“Yes, I’d like that.”
“Then let’s go.”
We immediately left the narrow cave.
* * *
The forest brush shook violently.
Men clad in black leather armor gathered together. Another elite Kran scouting party. A robed mage was among them as well.
“There.”
Five corpses lay scattered across soil stained dark with dried blood.
Scout Captain Boros stopped in the middle of them and nudged one body with a boot tip.
“It’s Squad Leader Kalik.”
“Every one of them is dead.”
Five elites, including Kalik the Sword Expert.
They had become corpses, lying around like discarded baggage.
“What about their belongings?”
“As you can see, there’s nothing. Not only the pouches of gold, but their swords, armor, emergency rations, even a single tinderbox. Everything was taken.”
The subordinate pointed at Kalik’s body.
The man lay facedown in the dirt, naked except for his underwear.
“Everything but the underwear. They stripped them quite thoroughly.”
Boros’s eyes narrowed.
“Was it that maid bitch?”
Dekan, the mage standing beside Boros, giggled.
“No way. I watched Kalik slice her flank wide open with my own eyes. It was a wound that should have spilled her guts.”
Dekan licked their lips.
“For someone in that condition to cut off Kalik’s head? It would be like a dying rabbit tearing out a tiger’s throat. Impossible.”
“Then who killed Kalik?”
Boros crouched and examined Kalik’s corpse.
His neck had been cut cleanly through in a single strike.
There were no other wounds.
“Bandits? They took every valuable thing.”
“There is one suspicious detail.”
Dekan looked around and called out.
“We’ve kept searching, but we cannot find that maid’s body. It is nowhere in this area.”
Boros’s expression hardened.
Boros remembered the old knight who had been dying at Kalik’s hands.
‘Master!’
‘Nen... Run...’
Boros frowned.
“The maid called Nen survived and left this place? She could not have killed Kalik.”
“She could not have done it alone. She must have had help.”
“Find her at once. Her injuries were severe, so she could not have gone far.”
Killing intent filled Boros’s voice.
“Bring her back alive. First, cut the tendons in her hands and feet so she has to crawl, then peel the flesh from her bones. Kran’s way.”
Boros ground their teeth.
“I will soak Kalik’s grave with that bitch’s blood so he can rest in peace. Move!”
“Yes!”
They scattered in every direction.
Yet even after a long time, they found nothing.
“There are no traces.”
“No bloodstains either... No footprints.”
Boros’s brow twisted.
“There’s no helping it. I do not like this, but...”
Boros took out a black horn and smeared it with their own blood.
Crunch!
The horn was drenched in blood.
Boros raised it to their lips and blew with all their strength.
Bwooooo...
In an instant, the space before Boros split open in blackness, and a beast crawled out.
Grrr...
It resembled a wolf, but was twice as large.
Crimson eyes gleamed amid its black fur. Thick red fluid dripped from its mouth.
A sticky aura of darkness surrounded it.
It was a demon beast.
“Smell this. Find whoever killed him.”
They dragged Kalik’s corpse before the demon beast.
“No matter how thoroughly they erase their tracks, they cannot erase the darkness left by the life they took.”
“If you find him...”
Boros smiled wickedly and whispered into the demon beast’s ear.
“Every last bit of his marrow will be yours. I will cut him open alive and let you feast on his warm entrails.”
Grrrr...
A greedy growl leaked from the demon beast’s throat.
Its crimson eyes filled with madness, and it kicked off the ground.
Boom!
Toward its prey.
* * *
“Hans.”
Nen, who had been walking ahead, suddenly stopped.
“I know this is shameless of me, but could you give me a little time? Just a little.”
“What is it?”
“I know where my master’s body is. It isn’t far from here.”
Nen’s eyes reddened.
“I can’t leave the body for stray dogs and birds to tear apart. I want to bury my master.”
“Let’s go now.”
I followed Nen off the path and through the brush.
At the entrance to the route where she had fled from Kalik’s group, an elderly knight lay in the grass.
Dead, with a long wound across the chest.
“Master...!”
Nen dropped to her knees before the body.
She sobbed for a moment, then rose and dug into the earth to bury the body.
That was when it happened.
Grrrr...
The nearby brush shook violently.
A low growl.
‘?’
A huge black beast.
It radiated a strong aura of darkness.
‘A Dark Hound.’
A summoned demon beast called forth by offering one’s blood as a sacrifice.
Once it memorized a scent, it could track its target to the ends of the earth.
‘That is how it found this place.’
It had followed the lingering darkness left where Kalik’s breath had ended, using the demon beast’s senses.
‘What a nuisance.’
Summoned demon beasts had one troublesome trait.
Even if killed, they would restore their form and revive after a while.
To cut off the source, one had to kill the caster who summoned them.
‘For now, I’ll bind it.’
Shrrrk...
Transparent threads poured through the air.
Yelp! Yelp!
The Dark Hound thrashed wildly.
But Reinforced Mana Thread was not something a mere lower-grade summoned demon beast could break.
Then men in black armor appeared.
“To bind a summoned beast. You’re no ordinary man.”
“The maid is over there, Commander Boros.”
“It is surprising that she is alive and well. Her flank was certainly cut open, was it not?”
Boros turned toward me.
“You, then. You took in that maid and cut down Kalik.”
“That’s right. I did.”
With that answer, I launched a surprise spell.
[Needle Storm]
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Dozens of Mana Needles poured from my fingertips.
“Argh!”
“Gah!”
The people lined up behind Boros became human pincushions and collapsed before they could even scream properly.
Only Boros and the mage remained.
“Why did you let yourself get struck so helplessly, Dekan? Aren’t you a third-tier mage?”
“That bastard ambushed me... Leave it to me! I will kill him without fail.”
Dekan hurriedly aimed a staff at me.
But I had no intention of standing around and watching.
[Seam Connection]
In an instant, I stood behind Dekan.
[Third-Tier Transformation Formula: Stitching Seal]
[Silence] was one of the attacks mages feared most.
I had modified its formula.
It bound the mouth as if stitching it shut, making the target unable to recite a chant.
“Guh, ngh...!”
Fear shook the startled mage’s eyes as their mouth moved helplessly.
‘Ever since I was a first-tier household mage, I have researched how to deal with people like you using weak mana.’
Now that I had become proficient in the third tier, even a beginner third-tier mage was nothing more than a flick of my hand.
Slice.
Dekan’s head fell soundlessly.
All of it happened in the blink of an eye.
“Now you are the only one left.”
“You dare... Even Dekan!”
A bluish aura burst from Boros’s entire body.
A Sword Expert of the same level as Kalik.
“Hans! Leave that one to me!”
It was Nen.
Her eyes had grown frighteningly cold.
She clearly intended to personally judge the leader in black armor, one of the same kind as Kalik.
“...Have it your way.”
I stepped back and subtly moved my fingers.
Transparent [Reinforced Mana Thread] flowed from my subspace and wrapped densely around the area like a spiderweb.
It was a safeguard in case Nen was pushed back.
“A worthless maid bitch has gone mad!”
Boom!
An aura-laden longsword tore through the air in a terrifying arc.
Clang!
Sword and dagger collided head-on.
Nen was forced backward.
She was clearly lacking in the density and weight of Boros’s aura.
“Heh heh... Not bad, but you have a long way to go.”
Crack! Clang!
Boros’s sword struck again and again with tremendous force.
Nen desperately blocked the strikes, but she looked precarious.
Tsssk...
For an instant, Boros’s sword tip grazed Nen’s shoulder.
Part of her maid uniform tore away, and bright blood sprayed through the air.
Nen paid it no mind.
It was as if that much pain meant nothing to her.
Clang! Clang!
Even while physically outmatched, her breathing did not falter in the slightest.
Hnnng, haaah!
The unique breathing technique I had designed.
‘...The breathing technique is working properly.’
The supreme breathing technique that turned the Mutant Core from a curse into a blessing.
“Pant, pant... Why... Why are you not falling?”
Boros’s sword strikes, which had displayed overwhelming power, visibly slowed.
In contrast, Nen’s complexion remained as calm and untroubled as when the fight began.
Clang! Clang!
Nen, the tireless maid.
At last, her dagger slid Boros’s blade aside at an angle and darted forward like lightning.
Stab!
A cold blade pierced Boros’s throat.
Crash!
The huge figure in black armor collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
“I... I won, Hans! It is all because of the breathing technique you taught me.”
Nen looked at me with a flushed, incredulous expression.
Her eyes held overwhelming emotion, joy, and gratitude.
I smiled.
“Well done, Nen.”
As Boros fell, the demon beast they had summoned scattered like smoke.
One Sword Expert, one mage, the remaining six men, and one demon beast.
The gray orb in my subspace glowed more heavily.
‘It absorbed mana again.’
There was no room for doubt now.
The secret of the strange orb that devoured death.
Mana accumulated when enemies were killed.
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