Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, even a difficult job can be unexpectedly easy if you split it into smaller parts. Even a large-scale program can be viable if cleverly split. Though the hard part can be deciding where to split the work.”

 

“Whip?”

“Whipywhip!”

 

Pochi and Tama are having fun playing with the newly created whip-swords, which were Arisa’s idea--she and Mara had fun creating them, and I added Magic Circuits so they could be used without injuring the user…Since they are completely useless in real combat, they were toys; and Arisa wanted me to play with one while wearing cosplay from an anime that was popular in her Earth.

 

Pochi, who’s unable to manage the whip-sword finally ends up with her whole body wrapped in it--I won’t quite say that it’s expected, but it’s really like Pochi.

 

“H-Help!” She struggled for a while, but she eventually gave up and asked for help.

 

I walk over and looked at her, she looks up with teary eyes. I gently tap her on the nose, and then untie her.

 

“Thank you!” She stretches a few times, and then stood up on her toes and licked my face few times, then nuzzled against me for a second.

 

“Pochi, like this!” Tama calls out, manipulating the two whip-swords in her small hands, entangling them around a tree branch, then uses them to climb up the tree, unwinding them as she passes the branch. Standing on the top of the tree she entwines a wooden bucket on the ground and pulls it up.

 

Wow, she’s good with them--to borrow a phrase, she ‘really nimble’.

 

I give Pochi her new equipment, “You might find this one suits you better.”

“Amazing! It’s big!”

 

Emerging from Pochi’s shortsword emerges a blade of Magic that is almost 3-meters in length--it’s the same kind of Magic as the Spell Magic Blade, it can cut well; but it is a little fragile. In addition, it is weightless, so it can’t be used like a normal great-sword which uses it’s massive weight to shear through things it can’t cut with sharpness.

 

Though, some day I plan on perfecting the Inertial Control Magic Circuit, which I will combine with a Weight Manipulation Circuit that I found partially designed in Trazayuya’s documents, so the sword can work like a true Great-Sword.

 

Because of Arisa begging, and using other forms of persuasion, I had Mara make other ridiculous weapons such as a lance with a drill mechanism, gauntlets that could fire like a rocket punch, a shield-pile bunker combo that Arisa liked in another of her Animes.

 

Everyone was confused about them--though Mara asked my permission, which I obviously granted, and she sent schematics on drills, explosives, and Pile-bunkers for the Dwarves to use with their mining.

 

I also give the drill blueprint to Doa and Kiya, the ones who constructed the Golem Tank--so soon it may have some kind of drill in the future; they also began to rapidly design automatic mining drones.

 

***

“Hey Tek, you really like Mithril, don’t you?” Lau commented as she watched Tama and Pochi playing around with their new equipment.

 

“Well, Mithril is the only metal that can be used to construct Magic Swords.”

 

Mara told me that she can’t use iron or lead because they diffuse Magic Power, while even though brass, copper and silver can conduct Magic Power, they are too soft to be used for weapons.

 

Bronze is hard, but can’t transmit Magic Power.

 

In the end, Mithril was the only usable metal that Mara could use for the weapons I asked for.

 

“Oh My? What about Orichalcum? It can be used for bother weapons and armour, you know?”

 

“Right, for sturdiness and Heat Resistance, there’s Hihiirokane--for weapons I would suggest Adamantite, since it’s harder than diamond, although it’s quite heavy. There’s also Magic Silver which is good for making Magic Tools.”

 

The things that Aze and Lua casually brought up are rather legendary metals on Earth. I’ve only ever seen Hihiirokane in the blast furnace that the Dwarves used to smelt Mithril.

 

“I have no way of obtaining those metals.” I speak with a sigh.

 

“You can just make it with Alchemy.” Aze sounds almost confused as she tilts her head and places a small fingertip on her chin.

 

“You can make it with Alchemy?” Excitement colours my voice, and I move instinctively, and grasp Aze’s hands.

 

“Yes, i-it’s simple you know? Orichalcum is made from copper, brass and also the Philosopher’s stone.” She stutters with a red face.

 

“Aze, I can’t exactly use the Philosopher’s Stones unreservedly.”

 

“Didn’t we give you several the other day?”

 

“I’ve already used them, for the Circuits in Living Armour, and spare Circuits for the Airships.”

 

“Then I’ll give you another one!” She nods with a pleased expression--I can see Lua behind her rolling her eyes.

 

“It it alright? To give them out so readily?”

 

“I-It’s fine…” She looked away, pouting her full lips--I want to kiss them. She twitches as though she heard my thoughts, before recovering and turning back.

 

“It’s really fine, moreover, thanks to the way you saved the World Trees, we have acquired around a thousand from the other clans.” She paused for a second, before tilting her head, “Oh yeah! I forgot; when I said that you wished for Philosopher’s Stones, at the High Elf Assembly, they shared some.”

 

I squeezed her hands, which I was still holding, causing her to let out a strange sound.

 

Apparently, a long time ago, people of the Ifurueze clan got addicted to one of the creations of the Furu Empire--the creation was an expensive Magic Tool, and they paid Philosopher’s Stones in compensation.

 

“Although those Philosopher’s Stones were recovered a thousand years later, we lost a lot during the war with the Demon Lord, the one which lost us a Light Ship. Afterwards, we used them to repair the broken Lightships--so we have much less than the other clans.” Lua sounds embarrassed as she explains, since Aze seems slightly distracted--blushing and looking up at me through lowered eyes.

 

I see.

 

However, the Furu Empire, huh?

 

When I feel like I have heard that name, I look in storage and see that it’s the country that a lot of its money had been stored in Dragon Valley. I quickly take out one of the coins and show it to the two.

 

“Te-Tek, that coin is?”

 

“It’s a thing called the Crimson Treasure of the Furu Empire that I acquired.”

“Oh my, how unusual.”

 

I hand the Crimson Treasure to Lua, the long-lived Elf appeared to know of it.

 

Lua hold the Crimson Treasure in the light and checks it over, “This is a Philosopher’s Stone, isn’t it?”

 

“That’s right.” Aze nods a few times.

 

Eh?

 

“Well, it’s not the Philosopher’s Stone itself, but it seems to have been processed a bit--but if you use it as a catalyst it should be even easier.”

 

“By any chance, can it be used in the creation of Magic Items?”

 

“Yes--especially since it has already been processed. I will teach you about it later.”

 

I happily accepted her offer.

 

I accompany her to the World Tree, and learn the way to use The Crimson Treasure, as well as how to make the Magic Metals--well, I take Mara with me for that knowledge. She seems to fear Elves a little, but for the chance to learn how to make these secrets--she stays close to my side and holds onto me; I can feel her shivering even while holding me.

 

The Aze inside the Memory Deposit is divinely beautiful, like a Demi-God, like Lerriril said back then--and she demonstrates the intelligence of a creature that has lived for around 100 million years, unlike the usual ditzy Aze.

 

As compensation, I give around 1,000 Crimson Treasures for the information, since it’s likely that they will find them useful.

 

***

As soon as Mara got back, she made an anvil and hammer from Adamantite, then used them to forge an Orichalcum Sword. She used the Catalyst during this incredibly complex forging process--I didn’t understand what she was doing, but she wanted me to be in the room and watch the procedure--some kind of Dwarven custom; when learning to make a new and complex procedure, they would invite the most important person to them into the room--as a form of luck…since in legends the first Dwarf to make Mithril only succeeded because his mate was there and spotted something he missed.

 

So, I sat in the room and watched Mara, and she would sometimes glance at me with a blush, before working on the metals.

 

She succeeded in her first try with forging the sword--it was much stronger and sharper even than the Fairy Sword that Dohar Made. With a shout of excitement she showed me the sword, swinging it a few times before presenting it to me--and giving me an enthusiastic hug.

 

She muttered quietly, “I need to make something--”

 

With a crimson face she rushed over to the forge and started working on something; something that looked like an earring, but it was also shaped like a hammer. I was going to ask her what it was, but she quickly hid it and asked me to show off the sword to the others.

 

Respecting her wishes, I left the room.

 

I bring the experimental swords and go to where Arisa and Mia are training.

 

“Wow, that’s a gaudy sword.”

“Gold.”

 

When I tell them that it’s Orichalcum, Arisa gets excited and asks to play with it--she then swings it around while singing some song I didn’t recognize.

 

I quickly create a Magic Circuit that spreads Magic Power over a the sword, making it look like a blue rose--the petals and thorns can’t be touched since they are illusory but they also add a Magic effect to the sword that makes it poisonous when it cuts the opponents. None of us would be able to use this sword, but I decide to wear it on the other side of my belt, across from the Fairy Sword.