“Waaah······!”
Trie clapped her hands together, looking around in awe.
Watching her, I felt like I was out of breath.
Was Trie always this beautiful?
Colors of light spread from all directions, illuminating her so brightly.
“Wooow······.”
The fireworks lasted only three seconds, and soon the forest was plunged back into darkness.
It was so dark I couldn’t see a thing, so I pulled out a Luminous Artifact to light the way.
Only then did Trie turn to face me.
“Schlus! What was that just now?! How did you do it?!”
“Ugh.”
*Thud.*
Excited, Trie ran towards me and must have tripped over a tree root because she fell on top of me.
Her head hit my solar plexus, and I fell backward.
As I rubbed my sore head and opened my eyes, I found Trie sitting on top of me.
“Ah······ I’m sorry!”
“It’s fine.”
“More importantly! How did you do that just now?”
“I’d really prefer if you’d get off me.”
“Ahhh!”
Trie jerked back in surprise, getting up quickly.
I felt an awkward heaviness on my chest that made me blush.
“Hehe, I’m sorry. But really, how did you do that? Huh? Huh?”
“I just dismantled the spell, that’s all.”
“All of that at once? How? How on earth?”
“The spell for the mines is extremely simple. Once you detect them, dismantling several at once isn’t difficult.”
“But who in the world can dismantle hundreds of spells all at once?! I’ve never seen anything like it in my life!”
Trie shook my shoulders repeatedly, captivated.
Honestly, seeing her this excited was a first for me too······.
I mean, there wasn’t a single person in this world with a computational power stat of 48.
Most Majins can’t even exceed a stat of 30, except for a few.
In moments like these, having such a stat felt a bit overpowered.
Though, in close combat, it was essentially useless.
“I find you even more amazing. I never thought you’d complete the spell that quickly just from hearing about it. To be honest, I thought it would be impossible even if we stayed up all night…”
“Eh, we won’t stay up all night.”
“I’m not kidding. I was genuinely impressed.”
I had underestimated Trie’s magical abilities.
If I went by the original story, she’d only be able to use the most basic spells and wouldn’t even understand high-level spells.
Given that the original story maintains that until the later parts, and here we are in the early chapters, it made no sense at all.
No way would this world suddenly implement original settings that strayed from the original.
“Hehe, it’s all thanks to you, teacher.”
“Teacher?”
“Yeah, you! Schlus-sensei. You told me to not think too hard and just accept it. Just as you said, by clearing my mind and accepting it, suddenly the spells started to form!”
“······.”
So you’re telling me that one bit of advice that anyone could give led to your sudden enlightenment?
In the original, nobody ever gave me such easy advice, so I was hopeless at magic, huh?
Hah. I couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous it was.
“Hah······ Haha······ Uhahahahaha!”
“What? Why are you suddenly laughing like Professor Sergei?”
“Just found it funny. It was this simple······.”
“Wh-what’s funny?”
“Nothing.”
“Why are you cutting me off after making me curious?!”
“Hahaha.”
Maybe Trie did have a talent for magic.
It just never appeared in the original.
How far that talent could go remains to be seen.
So it’s not like Trie needs to give up on magic right now.
Honestly, it sounded absurd, but according to Trie, she could become a magic knight.
If Trie becomes a magic knight, standing at the top of both magic and weaponry, there wouldn’t be a better supporter than her.
“All those magical teachers who came and went just made me feel frustrated, but today I feel like my eyes have opened. I think I can mark today’s advice as a repayment for teaching you swordsmanship!”
“Stop talking nonsense. Once the midterm exams are over, we’re diving straight into magic lessons.”
“Huh? For real? That’d be great!”
“My classes might be pretty tough. You’d better brace yourself.”
“Ah······.”
I found talent, and I can’t just let it go to waste.
I definitely need to test how much talent there is.
The very thought of teaching Trie had me sighing before, but now I was actually looking forward to it.
“Hehe. Guess I’ll have to call you teacher now?”
“I don’t call you master either, you know.”
“But I will. Schlus-sensei!”
“Don’t cling to me······.”
“Hehe.”
Trie hugged my arm and smiled.
What a silly girl.
If she keeps this up, the guys might misinterpret and think she has a crush on me.
She’s definitely not your ordinary noble girl······.
Before I knew it, we had arrived at our residence while chatting noisily.
[Quest Completed]
[You received 10 shop coins as a reward.]
The quest was clearly to escape Whist Forest before dawn······.
Was this really the difficulty level of a five-star quest?
If I had used my abilities, it could’ve been done easier.
I began to question how the quest difficulty assessment worked.
“Tonight, don’t ever approach Whist Forest again.”
“Got it, teacher.”
“Just pick one: either formal or informal speech.”
“I don’t wanna! Then goodnight, Schlus-sensei!”
“······.”
Trie laughed playfully and disappeared around the corner of the corridor.
I sighed, pretending to head back to my room, then sneaked back outside.
Nobody saw me, right?
Given that my acute instincts didn’t react, I was sure of it.
As soon as I escaped the residence building, I began to run towards Whist Forest.
‘There’s not much time left.’
I had to bring back Enlightenment and Vafe tonight.
Trie had already looked at the map, so once the sun rose, she would find her way to the minefield around the rocky mountain.
So I had to retrieve it beforehand.
The problem was, the mana energy concentration would start increasing soon.
Aside from the mana erosion issue, the magical beasts posed a bigger threat.
Using ‘Selection and Concentration’ boosts my strength for five seconds, making it manageable against one or two, but I had no means of stopping a horde of magical beasts charging at me.
So I needed to grab Vafe quickly before being surrounded by magical beasts.
‘I’ll probably arrive faster than I thought.’
Thanks to dismantling the mines earlier, a considerable hole had formed at the minefield in Whist Forest.
Because of that, I was able to cross straight through without having to go around the forest.
I had been cursing a bit when I was stuck in the forest with Trie, but I guess I owe her a thank you.
Just a little.
“Is that it? Huh······.”
After running around like crazy, I finally exited the tall tree-filled forest.
Suddenly before my eyes was the rocky mountain’s rugged terrain.
The incline was steep, but there were plenty of protruding edges, so it seemed like I could climb it like rock climbing.
“It looks more manageable than I thought.”
I had done some rock climbing during college.
Well, it didn’t seem as hard as back then.
There were plenty of places to step on and climb.
It felt more like going up a narrow hiking trail.
The trail was about half the width of my foot.
As I scraped my hands to climb, I soon found myself at the top.
It didn’t feel like I had climbed much, but looking down, it felt significantly far.
How long would it take to get back down?
“······Is this it.”
Right in front of me,
I saw a crack in the rock.
It seemed wide enough for about two people to enter, but I couldn’t tell how deep it went.
“Ah!”
I shouted, but there was no echo.
Was there something beneath that absorbed sound?
Anyway, it was certain that Vafe was down there.
It felt a bit unsettling, but I had to check it out.
“Huh······.”
With the Luminous Artifact in my mouth, I slowly lowered myself, placing my feet against both walls.
If I slipped a little bit, I’d fall and die.
After going down about twenty meters, I spotted a hole punched through one side of the wall.
That must be it.
Instinct told me so right away.
Since the original only described retrieving Vafe from the bottom, I thought I had to go all the way down, but I didn’t expect a cave to be in between.
Looking at this, it seemed the parts I hadn’t described were also very well depicted.
I grew to like this world more and more.
Of course, it would have been even nicer if I could have viewed it from outside······.
“Whoops.”
I dove into the cave.
Unlike the entrance, the inside was quite spacious.
The smooth walls and ceiling indicated that this was definitely not a natural cave.
As I stepped further in, even more artificial features came into view.
Stairs, and murals.
Vafe was originally a weapon left behind by an ancient Majin, and when the tide of battle began to lean toward humans, he sealed Vafe so it wouldn’t fall into their hands.
This was the sealing place.
“Ah.”
As expected, I bumped my nose into a transparent barrier.
It was quite an intricate barrier.
Since it was sealing a weapon, they would have put in some effort.
But this one seemed not to have much knowledge of barrier arts.
*Baam······!*
After concentrating on the spell for a while, the barrier shattered.
I didn’t even need to use ‘Selection and Concentration’.
Well, in the original, even Hertlocker, Eric, and three spy agents could break through it, so…
“Oh.”
Once I entered, the cave narrowed down further, culminating at what looked like an altar.
There was a central empty circle with six candles placed on it.
I used Ignition Magic to light each candle one by one.
*Dududududu······!*
Suddenly, vibrations shook the entire cave as something began to rise from the center of the circle.
A black sphere.
Not just black; it seemed like······ nothingness itself.
It absorbed all light around it, making it appear as if that one spot had been cut out of reality.
Just to be safe, I pulled up the details.
[Vafe]
[Classification: Weapon]
[Description: An ancient, nameless relic left by a Majin. It transforms into the most suitable form for the user.]
So this is Vafe?
It looked unsettling beyond my imagination.
How did Hertlocker think of grabbing it without even knowing what it was?
Truly a remarkable guy.
“Huuh.”
I took a deep breath.
I reached out to touch the sphere.
“······!”
The moment I did, the sphere’s form began to collapse, and it started sucking my fingers in.
Startled, I lost my balance and fell backward.
“Did it just get absorbed······?”
What? It absorbed into my body?
Why wasn’t it transforming into a weapon?
Panic set in as I clenched and unclenched my right hand.
