Polymath Redux – Course laid in
Chapter XV
“Did you just say the Magician’s Chasm?”
Stella asked as she turned a pale gaze towards Rio.
Indeed the effects that the Magician’s Chasm has on magicians is on an entirely different level than those suffered by normal people. Strong non-magician types are for the most part oblivious to the effects of rampant mana as they do not have a continuous interaction with them. The more weaker non-magician adventurers start suffering from the signs of mana fluctuation as they do not have a high tolerance as those who constantly fight beings of strong magic, however even then the most that could happen to those is passing out from long term exposure.
Even all that is only the tip of the iceberg for what actual magicians feel when drawing near the chasm’s effects. Since magicians have a constant interaction with mana they can feel the fluctuations in mana as easily as one feels the changes in temperature. However that was simply the beginning, continued exposure can cause nausea and a loss of a sense of balance. Even more exposure and the magician can start to feel the mana inside their bodies boil, which affects their ability to cast magic.
The worst part is that since the mana is constantly fluctuating and rampaging the magician is unable to fall unconscious and continues to suffer from quickly deteriorating body conditions until they die or leave the premise.
All in all, a bad time.
“What was your brother even doing there?”
Wolf asked, curious as he knew the effects of the chasm well. Normal people and magicians wouldn’t be able to get near it, meaning that Morialia’s brother wasn’t a normal person.
“He… he said he wanted research more about the effects of the chasm. Be- because he’s a magician he said he might be able to create a new spell.”
Morialia answered hesitatingly and with an unconfident answer. Of course this was all still just an act put on by Mordred to seem more convincing.
“A new spell…?”
Stella pondered. If one was able to study the effects of the chasm then it was indeed possible to create a spell with similar effects to the chasm, perhaps something like a spell to cause ‘mana fluctuation’ in enemy magicians, preventing them from casting spells and incapacitating them. If that was indeed the case it could potentially be one of the powerful anti-magician spells.
The notes alone on what Morialia’s brother documented could be worth a small fortune. Rio and Stella couldn’t exactly say they were uninterested upon hearing this, in the end they too were magicians and if this new spell went public it could affect them just as much.
“What should we do?”
Leona asked, however the question was more aimed towards the ones who would get most affected by the fluctuations, Rio and Stella. Everyone turned to look at them; while the product of research interested them, if they couldn’t even get closer then there was no point.
“Wait, how did your brother even get close to that place? Normal people would collapse if they even got near it, magicians would suffer tremendously until they died. The only people who could even get there are non-magician adventurers that are at least SS rank.”
Stella asked the little girl.
Morialia tried to act surprised for a bit before taking out a small artefact. It was a breathing apparatus, similar to an underwater breathing apparatus. It was in the form of a mask that covered their noses and mouths. It had an odd mechanical look to it but otherwise it didn’t feel all that dangerous.
“What’s this?”
Piquing Rio’s attention she took a deeper look into it. She was supposed to be the resident artefact expert of the Hywel Knights but standing before her was an object she had no knowledge about. How could this be?
“My brother invented it. He said it was… umm… a ‘mana dispersion unit’? I’m not too sure about it, sorry. But, but, but he said that this would help him survive in that place.”
In truth there were areas in [Hellgana] in much the same vein as the Magician’s Chasm, of course only 100x worse since it had enough force to even affect Mordred’s character. The mana dispersion unit was something sold by an NPC for characters to venture into those kinds of places, otherwise the character would suffer periodic damage until they died. In any case Mordred had dozens of them, but this world’s mana fluctuation was like a gentle breeze to him thus making it unnecessary for him.
In this world such an equipment never existed.
“Mana dispersion unit… if we have this then it might be possible for us to get close.”
Rio tried putting it on to test how it felt. There was no discomfort of any kind, in fact she couldn’t even feel the natural mana in the air once she put it on. She was still able to cast magic spells normally but without the sensation of mana around her. This invention was extraordinary; to the point of making why this brother of Morialia never bothered publishing it to the public a mystery.
“This is amazing!”
Rio exclaimed with glee, as an artefact fanatic she was excited. Stella tried putting it on after her and felt the same sensation.
“Wow. It’s like… I’m normal.”
She said with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Hey, what a rude fellow.”
Wolf replied back feeling a bit insulted.
“Morialia, do you have any more of these? With these it would be possible for us to get close enough to the chasm to find your brother.”
However Morialia shook her head. Well, the truth was that he did indeed have a bunch of them but didn’t feel like sharing them. The reason for this was that these were a one-time use equipment that couldn’t be remade and with no way of reproduction it would be foolhardy to give them away in spades.
“No, brother only made two… I’m sorry.”
She answered negatively.
“What should we do? Leave someone behind?”
Leona asked.
“No, you don’t have to worry about that, give me one day and I’m confident that I’ll be able to create a duplicate.”
Rio answered with confidence in her eyes. The truth of the matter was that she wanted to disassemble it and see how the contraption was made. Her tinkerer spirit was brimming with fire and the desire for knowledge.
“What if you mess up this one in the process?”
Stella asked, seeming a bit dubious in Rio’s abilities.
“I won’t!”
There was a brief moment of silence in the room followed by a hearty sigh.
“I guess we’ll go with that, Rio, you’re confident you can make a duplicate by tomorrow?”
Leona asked.
“Yes! Leave it to me!”
“Then we’ll go with that. Is that okay with you Morialia? Can you wait one more day?”
“Okay…”
Morialia replied looking a bit dejected.
“Don’t worry Morialia, we’ll find your brother.”
Leona assured her, not knowing that the ‘brother’ was already dead at the bottom of the Magician’s chasm. In reality the only thing waiting for them at the bottom was the Spectral Eater field boss. The field boss itself wasn’t too powerful but many players had reported it being a bit too ‘annoying’ due to its regenerative abilities and mental ailments that it would cast on players.
The key to defeating that monster, other than brute force from strong players, was team coordination.
“Okay…”
With that it was decided that the Hywel Knights would set out early tomorrow morning for the Magician’s Chasm.
…
“Yda? Have you packed your stuff?”
Early next morning it was also time for Morgana, Yda and Grimal to leave for the Baliazoural empire’s capital. Normally a trip to the enemy capital would take at least 4 or 5 weeks round trip but Morgana had a special thing to remedy that horrendous waste of time.
“Y- yes mistress…”
Yda answered with a slightly unprepared voice but she had trusted her mistress. Right, that man, Mordred would never let mistress die so at the very least some level of safety was guaranteed. Yes, that was it.
Yda thought as she came downstairs with a large sack over her shoulders. Grimal had asked her if she wanted him to carry it for her but she declined, she didn’t have the pride of a master to let her subordinates do the dirty work for her.
“Sorry Rena, it might be a little lonely but we’ll be back in a week maximum.”
Morgana turned to Rena who was looking a little dejected that everyone was leaving. Mordred had not returned yet and was told he might be gone for a few more days and now Morgana, Yda and Grimal were also leaving for a few days. Things would be getting a lot more lonely and with Irina being gone most of the time it was going to be like the old times again.
“It’s okay, I’ll be seeing you all in a week’s time.”
She answered with an uneasy smile. Noticing her uneasiness Morgana gently stroke her hair with a smile.
“We’ll be right back.”
Rena nodded.
“Okay. Have a safe trip.”
Morgana smiled back and the three of them rode onto a horse driven carriage that was prepared for them. The driver would obviously be Grimal with Morgana and Yda seated in the carriage. Grimal had perfected his human figure, all of the traces of his devil heritage had been carefully hidden away, anyone taking a look may think he was a good looking butler and nothing more.
With the sound of hooves tapping across the stone floors they were off, leaving the Vardis inn in emptiness once more. Since she had patrons over the past few days Rena had almost forgotten about the loneliness and fell into a dejected mood once more.
“Just a week.”
She told herself.
…
As the carriage had proceeded towards the front gates of Solaris, Morgana’s group had met with Morialia’s group. Though they pretended not to know each other, Morgana and Morialia crossed gazes with each other, prompting Morgana to smile mischievously. All the members of Hywel Knights were there, meaning that there was a lot of spectators coming to see them leave.
“Wow, that’s the Hywel Knights.”
Yda said in a surprised voice, since the Hywel Knights were practically celebrities at this point. There was no one who didn’t know their name. Morgana giggled a little seeing Yda act like a child.
“Hmm? That kid…”
Yda said as she examined Morialia.
“Is she someone you know?”
Morgana asked.
“No, it’s not that. It’s just that she kind of looks like a miniature version of mistress.”
Indeed, Morialia’s look was based off Morgana, only in a child’s form. Most people would’ve just passed it off not even noticing, but Yda was rather perceptive when it came to Morgana.
“My, you’re certainly right.”
Morgana replied. Denying it would’ve been suspicious so going along with it in a manner that suggested that she never knew was the more appropriate reaction. Before they could make further observations the carriage started moving again, past the gate and leaving Solaris. Since she wasn’t a fighter or adventurer, for Yda it was the first time she had ever actually left the safety of the walls of the large capital city.
After the carriage had proceeded for a while and once Morgana confirmed that there were no presence near them she lightly knocked on the walls of the carriage, signalling Grimal to stop.
“Is something wrong Mistress?”
“Mmm? Well, I figured if we went at this speed we wouldn’t make it back in time.”
Answering her question but still leaving her confused, Morgana exited the carriage.
“Is something wrong, miss?”
Grimal asked.
“Just a moment.”
Morgana undid the tethers connecting the horse and the carriage. She lightly cast some sort of spell that made the two horses pulling the carriage run back to the capital. At this odd sight Grimal and Yda was considerably confused, was the mistress going to run with the carriage instead?
However that was obviously not going to be the case. Instead Morgana took out a small whistle from in her pocket and blew on it. The loud ringing echoed through the forest and before long two shadowy figures were dashing towards their location at an incredible speed.
“What’s that?! A monster?!”
Yda shouted out in panic, Grimal sensing his master’s anxiety prepared for combat but was stopped by Morgana. The two shadowy figure arrived, revealing themselves to be horses. However they weren’t simply any horse, they were Mordred’s pet used for fast travelling, indeed these shadow horses were even faster than Mordred at top speeds.
A bulky frame, large sinister red eyes. Constantly enveloped in a shadowy mist. It was the shadow horse. Truly a horse only the grim reaper would man, the horses themselves seemed as though they could devour souls.
Though there were two horses, in reality they were one; sharing a single consciousness but controlling two bodies separately. Together they were known as ‘Sleipnir’. Morgana connected the tethers to the shadow horses and got back into the carriage with Yda.
“Mistress, just what are those?”
Yda asked.
“Sleipnir, the shadow horse. With them we’ll be able to reach the Baliazoural capital in a day or two.”
“Eh?! No way…”
Even monster carriages weren’t that fast. In comparison, normal horse driven carriages would take 2 or so weeks to reach the Baliazoural capital. With monster driven carriages it would take about a week and a half, so to state that these shadow horses would only take a single day was nearly absurd.
Morgana replied with a smile and knocked on the walls once more, signalling Grimal to proceed.
“Then, shall we go?”
Rebirth Online World 