“Hey, sis!”
“Finish what you were doing.”
“It’s okay! I was just putting some final touches on things while waiting for you!”
As soon as Plona spotted me, she sheathed her sword and bounced over, shaking her arms in response to my words.
If that’s the case, then I can’t say much since I was the one running late.
I lightly nodded, and Eleonora, who had been standing with her dagger reversed, brushed off the dust on her clothes and swayed her thick tail as she approached me.
“Master.”
“How’s it going? Can you handle it?”
“Yes. I still have quite a long way to go, though.”
Glancing at Eleonora’s hand, I could see the faintest bit of callus on her palm if I looked closely.
Dragonkin skin is so tough that you could stick your hand in a roaring campfire and not even get a smudge of soot on it.
But if just wielding a dagger could get her to such a level, then it goes without saying what an intense effort she must have put in.
Nonetheless, it’s commendable, and it was my job to put the brakes on Eleonora.
“Don’t overdo it. Being strict with yourself isn’t a bad thing, but if you keep comparing yourself to Plona, you’re just going to wear yourself out.”
In the last three years, Eleonora has achieved the most dramatic growth both internally and externally among our group.
Having completely overcome the malnutrition of her slave days and hitting a sudden growth spurt, this year, the now-adult Eleonora has changed so much in just three years that I wouldn’t recognize her.
She went from being a head shorter than me to almost my height, her youthful face has matured significantly, and her previously skinny frame has transformed into a long and feminine silhouette, giving off a vibe closer to that of a lady than a girl.
Outwardly, she still seems slim, but perhaps it’s because she’s a Dragonkin that she has such a strong and solid impression.
Of course, she just became an adult, so the girl-like feeling is still there, but more than that, she exudes the presence of a warrior who is no longer just a child needing protection.
Still, it’s a bit sad to hear Eleonora say she’s not there yet every time she looks at Plona.
For Eleonora, Plona is her mentor and sparring partner, so it’s natural for her to make comparisons, but no matter how much the Dragonkin girl is in her physical prime, it’s just unreasonable for her to expect to win against Plona, who has the body of a former Knight and the powers of a Vampire.
Having ambition is great, but anything taken too far is bound to exhaust you and break you in the end.
Responding to my concern that she might overdo it, Plona nodded vigorously.
“Yeah! I can guarantee you she’s not in any danger of losing face with me around!”
If a Dragonkin who learned how to wield a sword from a former Knight could ever lose face, then that has to be hell on earth. In that kind of world, I wouldn’t feel confident about surviving either.
Seeing Plona’s compliment made Eleonora shy, and she slightly turned her head. Although her expression remained flat, watching her tail wagging around like that was quite amusing.
*
“Oh oh oh! Yes, this is it, this is it!”
The platinum-haired Elf, Lavina Vercheria, squealed with excitement, her emerald eyes sparkling.
This woman also has a very Elf-like face; when she keeps her mouth shut, she looks quite beautiful.
But given the situation, I had long learned that this girl wouldn’t keep her mouth shut, so I quietly covered my ears.
Sometimes, giving up is undeniably beneficial for mental health.
“Dark magic is just so fun! The scope is so wide and abstract that it’s hard to handle, but if used correctly, the possibilities are endless! The spirit’s properties are also remarkably unique—”
The price of Blood Supplement is horrendously expensive; it’s outrageous.
Even Eleonora, who usually sticks by me without relenting, was so overwhelmed by Lavina’s chatter that she huddled in a corner, peeking over to this side.
As one could guess from the chaos and noise, the place Eleonora and I are in is none other than Lavina’s home and lab.
While her house is just a stone’s throw away from mine, I can confidently say it ranks as the number one place I do NOT want to go in this Underground City.
But even so, we dove headfirst into this scorching fire, unable to hold back the tears from a story so tragic it simply couldn’t be told without it.
“Please let me research dark magic in exchange for the Blood Supplement! I know how to use almost all standard magic or have at least seen it, but I’ve never had a chance to see dark or holy magic!”
Lavina’s answer when I asked what she wanted in exchange for her invention, the Blood Supplement.
I thought, “That doesn’t seem so bad,” and accepted, never imagining that such a sacrifice would follow.
‘Can’t you just keep your mouth shut for a sec?’
Yeah, everything else is fine.
Although it’s part of Lavina’s hobby, her perspective as both a researcher and magic expert is honestly quite helpful to me.
The dark magic Stella taught me was mostly focused on practical aspects.
For example, limiting the abstract concept of darkness to shadows in order to reduce consumption while also shortening activation time, the method for instantaneously analyzing and roughly predicting magic used by an opponent, and the method of discarding and modifying spells just before activation—these sorts of flexible, long-duration combat spells, in short.
On the other hand, Lavina has focused on systematizing theory and exploring possibilities from multiple angles.
Even though I possess the overwhelming advantage of bypassing the complex calculation processes when using dark magic, it doesn’t mean I can make the impossible possible.
In that sense, Lavina’s research provides me with useful options.
She clearly distinguishes what I can and cannot do with my current powers, presenting new possibilities like, “Theoretically, this type of magic could be used.”
Of course, most of the magic devised purely on feasibility tends to be impractical and weak in combat. But confirming my limits quantitatively rather than intuitively has been immensely helpful.
Plus, they say even a dog can recite a verse after three years; even if it’s unintentional, if you gather various knowledge, you naturally develop a discerning eye.
About two years ago, inspired by the diverse possibilities she had suggested, I brought one idea to Lavina and asked for her advice.
Looking back, that was the seed of disaster.
Once Lavina said, “If developed well, it could actually be possible! I’m interested too!” and escalated her dark magic research from hobby to serious study, hellish days began.
Even though this Elf can be a bit obnoxious, it didn’t take long for me to realize my thoughts of “This much I can handle” were way off the mark.
Not understanding how different a casual hobby research is from serious research conducted by a truly crazed scientist was my biggest blunder.
Every day, waking up and heading to Lavina’s lab to undergo all sorts of tests for two hours before starting the day, by the time I could no longer wrap a single shadow around my fist, I’d dive straight into life-threatening training with Stella.
Once training ended, I’d suck Eleonora’s blood for about six hours and faint. When I finally woke up, it’d be right back to Lavina’s lab.
I’ve been doing this for two years.
My body is tired to the point of death, but the sheer volume of research has fried my forehead, making it feel like my eardrums will burst.
Now that it’s a magic spell I proposed in the first place, I can’t back out, and if I finish it, it may actually prove useful, so I can’t just give up.
Moreover, with Lavina currently crafting Blood Supplements for me, I can’t possibly neglect the cooperation she requested in exchange for it, can I?
Well, that doesn’t make the difficult things any easier, especially not for my eardrums or my mental state.
At least on a normal day, it would be over in two hours, but on days like today when Stella and Plona are off hunting? There’s no hope.
No, to be precise, only I was dragged along. The sweet and cute Eleonora just wanted to stay with me.
Even she couldn’t bear it anymore; Lavina’s incessant chatter made her cover her ears and curl up in a corner with a dazed look in her eyes…
“So, anyway, to sum it all up, I think we’ve discerned all the necessary processes from start to finish, right? Although, there’s still room for improvement in terms of efficiency, but we’ll have to see by actually using it. The spirit’s metrics suggest that if everything is activated correctly from the first to the final process, it should theoretically be possible.”
“Uh, it can work?”
The first tip for reading information: if you’re unsure about reading all the text, just read the beginning and the end.
Just doing that is often enough to grasp the writer’s main argument.
With that insight, my half-dazed mind perked up at the “to sum it all up” part, reacting to “theoretically possible.”
‘Did you just say it can really work?’
You’re kidding, it really really really can work?
I was thinking it seemed like a long shot, with every new element adding to the impossible scale of magic, leaving me worried it was practically unachievable, but now I finally received the OK sign.
Of course, at my current level, it’s likely going to be a struggle, with failure likely leading to exhaustion, but… the fact that I’ve managed to get this far is a victory in itself.
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