I Made Magic Easier by Changing the Formula - Chapter 34

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Made Magic Easier by Changing the Formula ◈

Chapter 34: Red Bear of the North

──────

“Stand aside, Hans.”

Braen raised his axe high and stepped forward.

“Do you think I’d rely on my grandson over a few low-grade pests like these? Watch from the back.”

Thoom!

A tremor seemed to shake the entire mountainside.

“Get lost!!!”

A roar that made the mountain itself seem to howl.

The demon beasts charging at the front froze in terror and dropped where they stood.

Yelp!

As the fiercest one tucked its tail tight, the entire pack fell apart.

They all turned tail and began fleeing madly up the slope.

“Bwahahaha!”

Braen casually slung his axe over his shoulder and laughed heartily.

“Did you see that, Hans? A truly strong person can drive off enemies with sheer presence without ever crossing blades. Those things got the fright of their lives, so they won’t dare come near here for a few days.”

“I’ll finish them off, Grandpa.”

[Seam Connection]

[Reinforced Mana Thread]

Taut, sharpened transparent threads spread around the fleeing wolves.

Slice. Slice.

Still running at full speed.

It was as though they had thrown themselves into invisible blades with the momentum of their escape.

The faster they ran, the faster they were cut apart.

Thud. Thud.

It happened in an instant.

The thirty Black Wolves that had filled the slope fell in pieces, frozen in their fleeing poses.

“If we only chase them away, they’ll come down again in a few days. Then you’ll have to come out here at dawn every few days, Grandpa.”

I walked down the slope and withdrew the Reinforced Mana Thread.

“I cleaned them up properly, so you won’t have to lose sleep at dawn anymore.”

“...Heh heh. Look at this boy.”

Braen gave a booming laugh.

“You really did it for your grandfather?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you’re right a hundred times over. Chasing them off only works for the moment. Let your guard down even a little, and they return to the same spot. It was starting to get hard on this old body, making the rounds of the ridge every dawn.”

Braen smiled broadly in satisfaction.

“I truly have a fine grandson. To think you could wipe out demon beast wolves like this all at once. Well done, Hans.”

“It’s only natural for a grandson.”

I had to hide the bitterness in my heart.

Braen was the Red Bear of the North.

A legendary mercenary who could sweep aside demon beast wolves like those with a single finger.

But the problem was that he could barely use the power of his mana core.

He had only managed to drive the demon beasts away by wringing out the mana in his body to roar at them.

He was like a tiger with broken claws and missing teeth.

As his grandson, it hurt to watch him like that.

‘Don’t worry, Grandpa. I’ll definitely heal you.’

It had seemed hopeless when I first saw him, but now I could gradually see an answer.

Swish, swish.

For now, I decided to deal with the wolf corpses quickly.

The mana would be absorbed by the gray orb on its own, but useful materials would vanish if they were not harvested quickly.

“What are you doing now, Hans?”

“I’m collecting materials.”

I pulled out the Black Wolves’ fangs and selected their hard front claws.

“Their teeth and claws make fairly good materials for armor and weapons. They fetch a decent price in a big city.”

“You’re not wrong. I dissected plenty of demon beasts myself back in the day. But why are you leaving all that good meat behind?”

Braen clicked his tongue and strode over to me.

“Move aside. At that pace, dawn will break before you finish.”

He smoothly drew a palm-sized dagger from his waist.

Slice. Swish. Swoosh.

His hands were invisible.

By the time I pulled a single fang, Braen had split an entire demon beast apart.

The hide came off in one piece, and the meat was neatly piled by cut.

“Here are the claws you like.”

Plop.

“Take the teeth too. Oh? This one has a lower-grade mana crystal lodged inside it. Here.”

Plop. Plop.

His dagger never stopped moving as I hurriedly caught and stored everything.

“Grandpa, your knife skills are incredible.”

“I was a mercenary for decades. How many years do you think I spent catching, skinning, and eating everything from mountain animals to demon beasts on battlefields?”

Braen shrugged as though it were nothing.

“These Black Wolves are delicious when you roast the hind-leg meat. Wild garlic growing on that slope over there is best for getting rid of the gamy smell.”

“Did you enjoy demon beast meat too?”

“It might look like this, but it tastes incredible. Try a piece when we head down later, and you’ll change your mind completely.”

He smiled contentedly at the neatly stacked chunks of Black Wolf meat.

“But Hans... Didn’t you say you were First Tier? My eyes may be old, but I can tell that the magic you used earlier was at least Third Tier.”

“I’m actually Third Tier. I’ve reached the proficient stage.”

Braen’s eyes widened.

“Reaching Third-Tier proficiency at your age isn’t easy. Who was your teacher?”

“All I did was read spellbooks in the special archive of the Rowen Library.”

Braen stared at me in surprise.

“You expect me to believe that? They wouldn’t let a commoner like you read the spellbooks in the special archive.”

“I worked as an assistant librarian and dusted the books. I skimmed through them while I did.”

“You understood magic from just... that?”

“Yes. I got lucky.”

“How could you call that luck? Third Tier without even attending the Academy, just by reading books. Books you only stole glances at in secret... Hah. I’m so dumbfounded, I have no words.”

Braen could not hide his excitement despite his surprise.

“Hans, you’re clearly the kind of mad genius I never saw even when I traveled the continent as if it were my own backyard.”

“I wanted to read spellbooks so badly that I think I remembered them after seeing them once.”

“No matter how desperate you are, that’s impossible unless you were born with it. Ahem! Well, you do have my blood, so of course you’d have a good memory. This grandfather of yours never forgot the layout of a dungeon once he’d entered it.”

Braen looked me over.

“There’s one thing I’m curious about. When I first saw you earlier today, you definitely felt like a faint First Tier. My senses are not that dull.”

“I hid it with a sealing formula so people wouldn’t notice me. Unless I reveal my mana myself, anyone who sees me will think I’m an early First-Tier mage.”

“Are you saying you made such a sealing formula yourself?”

“I hated wasting mana by letting it leak out. It turned out to be quite useful for hiding my identity too.”

Braen broke into a wide smile.

“Good! There’s nothing more useful in a fight than deceiving others and hiding your hand! Even I was completely fooled, so there can’t be many people in the entire Empire who could recognize your true level at a glance.”

Then he deliberately widened his eyes.

“Still, I’m displeased that you dared to deceive this grandfather of yours so thoroughly.”

“You’ve been hiding something from the family too, Grandpa.”

The laughter vanished from Braen’s face at once.

“The legendary mercenary I read about in books, the Red Bear of the North. I recognized you at a glance the moment I first saw you.”

“...My outdated name appears in books too?”

“It was written of as a legend among heroes.”

“What legend?”

Braen bitterly smiled as he fiddled with his tobacco pipe.

“I’m just an old mercenary who was foolish enough to fight well without caring for his own body.”

“Why did you hide it? Even Mother doesn’t know at all.”

“That name has too much blood on it. There are plenty of people with grudges against me all across the continent. Nothing good would come of my precious daughter Roni and my son-in-law Carter knowing about it.”

“I understand. That’s why I told you earlier that I was a First-Tier lifestyle mage.”

“They say blood will tell. Even the way you lie is exactly like mine.”

Braen laughed and patted my shoulder.

“Good. Then let’s keep each other’s secrets.”

“Yes, Grandpa.”

He looked deeply pleased to have become someone who shared a secret with his grandson.

But I could not simply smile along with him.

“Grandpa.”

“What is it?”

“When you chased away the Black Wolves earlier.”

“Ahem. They fled in terror at a single roar from me. Wasn’t that impressive?”

“It really was. But...”

I looked at where his mana core was.

“Weren’t you in tremendous pain the moment you roared?”

Braen’s expression hardened instantly.

“...What are you talking about?”

“Your mana core... The mana strands are broken and can’t connect. They’re circling around the core.”

“...!”

“Whenever you breathe or move, mana savagely scrapes the inside of your body like blades, causing terrible pain. You’re enduring it through willpower alone.”

The steady gaze in Braen’s rock-like eyes wavered.

“If you force yourself to raise your presence like earlier, it will truly be dangerous. The moment the last remaining strands holding together rupture all at once, your core could explode on the spot.”

I calmly met his eyes.

“If you don’t act quickly, your core will become increasingly impossible to repair. When did it become like this?”

“Phew...”

Braen let out a long breath before speaking.

“You saw through it, Hans.”

He no longer denied it.

He gently stroked the axe handle lying on the ground with a rough hand as he continued.

“It has been twenty years.”

“...Then did you meet a powerful enemy on the northern front back then?”

“No. There was no one on the northern front back then who could have made me like this. The cause was something else.”

Braen’s gaze moved toward one place.

“Right there.”

“Huh? Where?”

“There.”

He pointed to a flat clearing nearby.

At its center stood a well.

“There’s a well?”

“It’s not a well. It’s something that looks like one.”

Braen abruptly stood and walked over, stopping in front of it.

I followed him.

“Twenty years ago, Garnen happened upon this place. You must have heard the name. Garnen was quite the mage.”

My eyes widened.

“Do you mean Mage Garnen...?”

“You know the name after all.”

“I read about Garnen in Mages of the Continent. Garnen was an exceptional mage, but disappeared without a trace twenty years ago.”

“That’s right. Garnen was one of my few true friends.”

Braen gave a bitter smile.

“One day, Garnen came to me and asked me to uncover the secret of this well together. Garnen said some magnificent ancient treasure was hidden within.”

“An ancient treasure? That is interesting.”

“My ass! There was no such thing. Nothing but a terrifying monster.”

“There was a monster down there?”

“I encountered something unimaginably vicious and alien. We fought a desperate battle with our lives on the line, and though I eventually killed it, I ended up like this as well.”

Braen’s voice sank.

“Garnen never made it back out. Garnen died the moment the monster did. I could not even retrieve the body. My beloved weapon, Tellus, was lost somewhere inside as well. I was thrown out, and afterward, the barrier of the well closed. I could never enter it again.”

The well had hardened into earth.

Braen stared down at it helplessly.

“After that, I tried everything to get in again, but it was useless. It’s impossible even to dig underneath and crawl in. No matter how much I dig, I always end up in the same place.”

He rummaged through his pocket and lightly pulled out a coin.

Plink.

He threw the coin toward the darkness inside the well.

Sss.

The coin vanished without a trace.

“Did you see? If I throw something in there, it swallows it whole like that. But if I go down myself, nothing happens.”

“That is strange.”

“It is more than strange. It is grotesque. For the past twenty years... I have wanted to retrieve Garnen’s body and reclaim my beloved Tellus, but I still have not been able to.”

I looked into the well again.

To think its dry earthen floor had swallowed the coin whole.

[High-Precision Vision]

‘...What is that?’

My eyes narrowed.

Above the center of the well, which had looked like an earthen floor, was an exquisitely woven wall of mana.

‘A phase barrier!’

It was highly unusual.

I had never seen such an alien and bizarre Spell Formula before.

“Hans? Do you see anything unusual?”

Braen asked with hopeful eyes.

“There are definitely some strange formulas.”

I stepped back from the edge of the well.

“But I’ll solve this later.”

“You’ll solve it? Can you really uncover that secret?”

Braen looked astonished.

“It will take some time, but it is not difficult.”

I turned and looked Braen directly in the eyes.

“But healing your mana core is more important than that bizarre well right now.”

“You’ll heal me?”

“Yes.”

Braen laughed as though I were absurd.

“Do you think I didn’t want to be healed? If it were possible, I would not have remained like this.”

He waved a hand.

“It is impossible. I sought out skilled physicians and high-ranking priests, but after examining me, every one of them told me the same hopeless thing.”

“...”

“So I gave up. I let go completely twenty years ago. I decided to treat this dreadful pain as part of my soul and quietly grow old until I died.”

Braen approached and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“I am moved to tears by your admirable desire to heal this grandfather of yours, but let us stop now. There is no hope for me. I do not want you wasting your precious strength on something futile.”

His resignation ran deep.

It was a resignation like a great wall, made solid by the long passage of twenty years.

“Trust me just once. I can heal you perfectly.”

Braen’s expression stiffened.

“It is more than enough that you noticed my injury. Stop this. Your joke has gone too far.”

“It is not a joke.”

“I know my body well. My core is completely ruined. It is practically unusable. Even forcing mana out is something I cannot do for much longer.”

“Are you planning to die like this?”

Braen’s eyes widened.

“...You knew I would die soon too?”

I nodded heavily.

“It is a miracle that you have survived this long with your mana core in that condition. If it is not treated immediately, then at most, within a few months, Grandpa will...”

“What can be done? If that is my fate, I must accept it. I have seen an intelligent grandson like you, so this grandfather has no regrets even if I die now.”

“You can live a long, healthy life.”

“Heh heh... I appreciate the words, but I know my body well. If I have one wish, it is to uncover the secret of that well before I die, retrieve Garnen’s body, and swing my beloved Tellus one more time.”

“I’ll uncover the well’s secret for you. But only if you accept my treatment. Otherwise, not a chance.”

“You insolent boy! Why can’t you understand no matter how I put it? My body cannot be healed.”

“Will you give up without even trying? You are the Red Bear of the North, the legendary mercenary!”

When I refused to back down to the end, Braen reluctantly nodded.

“...Fine! This old body will return to dirt soon enough. How could I stop my precious grandson when he says he wants to try healing me? Go ahead and do as you please!”

Good.

I had finally persuaded him.

“You made the right choice, Grandpa.”

Before Braen could change his mind, I hurried close.

Without hesitation, I placed both hands near his mana core.

Tsss!

I gathered precisely controlled mana at my fingertips.

The same delicate sense I had used to unravel the phase of the curse in the underground waterway of Bellat Fortress.

Reading each misaligned strand and returning it to its proper place.

Tssss...

Threads of refined mana from my core traveled through my fingers and flowed freely into the mana channels inside Braen’s body.

The mana strands were torn apart horribly, like rags.