Chapter.4 Eyelids (19)
***
Crackle, crackle!
That night, the professor went into hiding in the industrial district northeast of Tobrunn. According to the plan shared with Rakshasha, the time for the operation to be completed was 1 am. It was about an hour from now.
Although it was called an industrial district, it was not a place with grand factories lined up. It’s just a row of shabby houses close together with workshops at the level of home craftsmanship.
This was the other side of Tobrun, famous for its various artifacts.
‘In a small workshop like this, the peripheral devices of the artifact are made according to the given drawing, the circuits are counted inside, and the structure is completed by receiving delivery from the Magic Tower, engraving the spell, and processing the mana stone.’
At first glance, it appears to be a fairly balanced division of labor, but the share going to the workshop workers was ridiculously low.
‘They say they only give you enough to glue your mouth, and most of the magic power used in processing is taken as a fee for using the iron.’
Even without this kind of knowledge, just by looking at the gloomy atmosphere of the streets, one could see how difficult the lives of the people subcontracted by the Magic Tower were.
And at the end of this workshop street was the facility that the professor was targeting.
Ugh- Ugh-
The closer I get, the stronger the feeling as if my hair is standing on end.
‘I think I’ve come to the right place.’
An old wooden building built almost against the wall northeast of Tobrun. The most important item in this operation was sleeping inside.
The professor slowly approached the building, looking around.
‘What an empty space like this in Tobrun, where the population density is so high that the alleys are so narrow that it’s difficult for people to pass by.’
There wasn’t a single building built around the wooden building, which had a strange purple glow, putting the buildings on Workshop Street, which had been densely packed until now, in disrepute. It’s not that anyone told you not to live there. People naturally avoided that area.
‘No matter where you go, people are reluctant to go to hate facilities.’
The building in front of the professor, ‘Gongmaseok Storage’, was one of those representative hateful facilities.
***
Gongmaseok.
Although it has the grandiose name of Void Mana Stone, it is ultimately an industrial waste.
In Tobruun, as many cheap magic items are made, they are also used a lot. Items such as the teacup that maintains the temperature of the tea used by the Rakshasha and the small boat that moves back and forth on the river on its own are all items made in the Magic Tower and are moved using the lowest grade mana stones.
The problem is that the remaining mana stones are empty after all the mana has been used.
Mana has the property of gathering from low concentration to high concentration. But what if a medium that can contain magical power, like a mana stone, is artificially emptied?
It enters a state of ‘magic power of 0’, which does not occur naturally, and becomes a strange stone that emits purple light and strongly pushes away the surrounding mana. This is called a gongmana stone.
‘And more than 100 kg of ball magic stones come pouring out of Tobrun every day.’
Mana is energy that is consistent with vitality. Of course, living people also naturally have it to some extent, so when they are around Gongmanseok, they feel uncomfortable, get tired easily, and become anxious if the exposure time is prolonged. That’s why there isn’t a single house near the empty magic stone storage. No matter how hard it is to make a living, you can’t crawl into a place to die.
In addition to this one, there are about two other repositories of empty magic stones, which is why Rakshasha frowns at the word empty magic stone. Because all of the empty magic stone repositories are located in the slums. It was natural for anyone living or doing business in the slums of Tobrun to dislike Gongma Stone.
‘Still, we need to install this outside the village. The people at Magic Tower are doing too much.’
Gongmaseok is a very difficult waste to dispose of. If you bury it in the ground, the moisture from the surrounding land will drain and it will turn into useless land, and if you throw it into the water, the water quality will deteriorate.
The only advantage it has is that if you collect a lot like that, the mana that was pushed out by the mana repulsion field of the empty magic stone will flock to one magic stone, filling up mana like beans in a drought, creating mana stones.
That empty mana stone storage place is a facility for recovering mana stones that appear from time to time. The reason why that facility was built in the city was probably because they were concerned that citizens might take the recovered mana stones, so they were placed in a place where they could be monitored.
Squeak –
When I opened the door, the old door of the unmaintained facility screamed, and a group of purple lights trapped inside the thin wooden wall came out through the crack.
Ugh-
[Ugh, I feel bad.]
The professor felt the same way. Feeling nauseous, as if suffering from extreme motion sickness.
“It has to be that way. “If there were this many empty magic stones accumulated, any remaining magical power left in the body would have already disappeared far away.”
So, even though the Mana Stone Storage is a fairly important facility for producing Mana Stones, it is located on the outskirts of the city.
Knights who accumulate mana in their bodies through training, as well as wizards who criticize anything that is bad for water-based mana, such as an old man with red eyes when eating health food, do not even want to go near a magic stone. Even if my magic skills had been a little higher, I wouldn’t have even thought of this method. There is no way to build up mana as an attribute unless you really gain skill.
The sense of newly acquired mana disappeared, and a feeling of emptiness filled my chest, as if I had lost an arm.
And that futility thrilled the professor.
It’s only been a day since I started learning magic, so how much of a loss do wizards who have dedicated their lives to magic feel?
“Then let’s get ready.”
The professor took out the rags he had been wearing when entering the city from his inventory and replaced them with the clothes gifted to him by the Rakshasha.
‘The top… there’s no need to wear it.’
What he is about to do from now on is an illegal act on a national level. It would be best to look as mute as possible.
‘Hey parasite.’
[huh? Did you call me?]
‘Uh. You said last time that you could stimulate infectious agents in my body, right? ‘Can you help keep the infectious agent from concentrating on the surface of the face?’
[Hide your face… Then there is no need to use such troublesome means. Tear off the skin on the shell face.]
‘…What?’
[Didn’t you hear? Since at least the skin on the outside is good, I suggest making a wider wound. I’ll take care of it.]
The professor was reluctant, but decided to listen to him. I haven’t had any nightmares lately, and the parasite has been quite cooperative.
When he scratched his face with all his might with a piece of a stone that had fallen nearby, a deep wound appeared diagonally across his face, accompanied by a sharp cracking sound.
‘Ahhh! ‘That’s it!’
[uh. This should be enough.]
As soon as he finished speaking, a sweet scent wafted out. The blood that came out of the wound trickled down and covered my face, and then new skin tissue covered my face.
[braided. If you do this, no matter who sees it, you will be muted.]
The professor traced his face with his hand. A face completely covered in lumpy flesh. Indeed, anyone can see that his face looks like a mute.
‘hmm. Is it better than you thought? thanks? But why are you listening to me so well these days? Disgusting?’
[It’s almost disgusting. just. Anyway, as a renter, you have to be cooperative with your landlord. In the end, you have to live so I can live too.]
…. I don’t know. It’s clear that it’s a good thing, but I still can’t completely trust him.
“Anyway, the face is fine. Clothes too. “The last one is of course this.”
The professor turned over a leather pouch the size of his face from his pocket. Thanks to the pre-drilled holes for the eyes and mouth, there was no inconvenience in breathing and seeing
.
[Are you stupid? If you’re going to turn it over, why did you change your face?]
‘If you don’t know, stay still, dude. This is a tradition, a tradition.’
A long-standing tradition handed down from the past. People who have been terrorizing large institutions have to write something like this! The face inside is just in case the mask comes off during battle!
“Hehehe…. Look forward to Isaac…..”
The professor smiled grimly as he approached the pile of magic stones.
***
PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEICK
While the professor was wrestling with the magic stone in the storage room, a sharp sound cut through the silence of the night.
‘It’s a signal!’
If all goes according to plan, we need to fill a bag full of magic stones and run to the magic tower right now. But…
“I-I-IK!” “Why doesn’t this come off like this?”
– Speed Wagon: So I told you to read the strategy carefully. When you collect Gongma Stones, they have the property of sticking together. The mass is considerable compared to the volume, so if it gets stuck like that, it cannot be moved until it is cut off. As far as I know, the gongmanseok is heavier than iron of the same volume?
“You should have told me about that a long time ago!”
The original plan may not always work out perfectly. So, we had to proceed with the work while revising the plan at some interval, but this part of ‘running with a ball’ was impossible to modify. Without this, the plan itself cannot be established at all!
The professor’s hands were covered in blood from fingernails that had fallen off while he was trying to remove the tangled ball stone.
“Ugh! Shit! good! If you can’t take them all, just one! “I’m only taking the biggest one!”
[The biggest one?]
“Yes! this!”
Sigh!
The professor put his hand under the pile of magic stones, which had completely melted and turned into crystals.
– Soy Sauce Gay Bar: How can it be so big that they just carry everything?
– Jokass: Can you lift it? Even if the weight of the gongmanseok is about the same as steel, it would easily weigh several tons, right?
“If I can’t do it anyway, this operation will go away!”
Huuuu –
The professor took a deep breath and immediately used his whole body to pull the ball stone.
Crunch crunch!
The professor’s entire body muscles swelled as if they were about to burst, and blood bulged out. It really looks like a monster.
“Ugh! Ugh!!!”
– Soy Sauce Gay Bar: Hey, common sense tells me it’s impossible! It’s not just lifted up, it’s a gongmanseok that melts together and takes root in the ground! Usually, things like that are done by pulling a crane or something!
“shut up! “Power lifting is not about lifting the weight you can lift, but lifting the weight you cannot lift!”
Deuk deuk!
Fishit! Fish sit!
Blood vessels in my excessively swollen thighs and shoulders burst and leaked blood. At the same time, the motionless ball of magic stone began to shake little by little.
– Holly: Oh, that…!
“Kaaaaak!”
Jump! Jump!
The Gongma Stone, which received force beyond its limit, began to crack. My fingers dug into the area the professor was holding, and I felt something like a hard core at the end. The professor used all his strength to pull up the part where his fingers had dug in, using it as a handle!
“Woah!”!
Tsk-!
Finally, the chunk of the Gongma Stone broke apart and the crystal located at the center of it was pulled out.
It looked like a huge crystal and was almost three times the size of the professor’s body, even if all the magic stones on the outside were removed.
“Whoa whoa!” Hehehe! Look! It works! “All you bastards who said no, come out!”
– Heungan Mandu: Wow! Magic! The power to cause miracles!
– Soy Sauce Gay Bar: Um… wizard? Is that how you project your will into the world?
– Jokass: Special brain muscle magic of a water (li) wizard.
Coo!
The professor put down the huge magic stone crystal and regenerated the broken arm joint, looking at the magic tower wrapped in blue mana in the distance.
“Originally, I was planning to sneak inside and sprinkle a lot of empty magic stones… but with this many, there’s no need for that!”
Wow –
I could see explosions and flames rising near the west gate in the distance. There was no time to relax. Because the operation was already in progress.
***
‘Has it really begun?’
3 minutes before the operation was carried out.
The Rakshasha had infiltrated the Magic Tower as previously discussed with the professor.
The luminescent signal used to communicate with guild members from a distance blinked urgently in her arms.
‘[Everything is in place and perfectly prepared.] Hmm, it’s worth the effort to raise it, isn’t it?’
After much deliberation, the Rakshasha chose to use the eyes of the citizens.
Now that interest in mutes is at its peak, surprisingly, live grade 8 mutes are being sold on the black market. Recently, there was a rumor going around among old nobles that perfectly grilled mute meat had no risk of infection and that eating it could give the mute its vitality. Thanks to this strange trend, the mutes captured on the black market were being sold at an exorbitant price of 70,000 shillings each, and Rakshasha used the guild’s public funds to purchase all six grade 8 mutes on the market.
About six of them were enough. The goal was to attract the attention of the Tobrun Guards and Knights anyway. If you cause an explosion with the ‘detonation’ scroll prepared in advance at the agreed upon location and then release the mute in front of the citizens who are startled by the commotion and run out…
Tidik, tidik, tidik.
[From Shadow No. 3. Citizens are in confusion.]
[From Shadow No. 1. Three prepared wind catchers deployed.]
[From Shadow No. 7. Confirm that the knights are moving in the castle. Estimated to be moving towards the west gate.]
[From Shadow No. 5. Two wind catchers deployed. Adding to the confusion, the citizens were led to the outskirts of the city.]
Her guild members had originally been trained to function in this direction, not in combat. We were informed that all the crew members were moving without any disruption according to the operation, and we waited expectantly for the next signal.
‘Armed troops flock to the west gate and pour a large amount of empty magic stones into the magic tower where only the wizards remain, creating a temporary mana vacuum. Is this truly an unimaginable operation?’
Gongmaseok. A substance that everyone avoids. The man talked about an object that was shunned by wizards and treated as trash because it was an incredibly heavy subject and not easy to process, as if it were a precious thing that would never exist again in the world.
‘He’s such an interesting guy… Oh?’ Suddenly, with an earth
–
shattering sound, wizards started clamoring and clinging to the windows of the magic tower. An unplanned commotion.
‘That’s strange. We had decided to take a quieter approach to our preliminary planning?’
Sensing that the situation had changed, the Rakshasha approached the window of the magic tower while remaining hidden.
“Phew!”
And when she looked out the window, she let out a sigh, forgetting that she was in hiding.
Cooung- cooung-
A huge purple pillar was approaching from a distance, engulfing the city at night.
***
