Chapter 466

In a display of speed akin to lightning, Tatsuro and the others swiftly neutralized the golems one after another.

Tatsuro and Ai quickly disabled five of them, and then Leah arrived, using Smithing Skills to precisely extract the cores and force them to stop.

After that, a one-sided trampling began in various spots, and the golems-about fifty in total, each one enough to make an ordinary person prepare for death-were wiped out in about two seconds.

Scattered around the area were five golems with their limbs cleanly torn off, rolling on the ground, and piles of wreckage where heads had been violently gouged out, precisely pierced with holes only in the heads, or in the worst cases, reduced to unrecognizable forms.

As Tatsuro, true to his usual waste-not spirit, neatly stored the wreckage in his Infinite Item Field, Leah emerged from one of the machines, holding what seemed to be a core serving as a Magic Brain, her face showing an unprecedented level of grimness.

"What's wrong, Leah? You're making such a scary face."

"This is a joke... This invention... It's the worst... As a fellow engineer, I can't forgive it..."

Leah said this while her hands trembled as she lined up five cores on the floor.

Then, without a word, she smashed them one by one with a hammer.

From the shattered cores, a viscous, reddish-black liquid oozed out.

"To put it bluntly, the engineer who probably made these is the lowest scum."

With criticism in a tone unusually strong for Leah, Tatsuro and the others could vaguely guess what the cores were made from.

"To get straight to the point, the material for these cores is living human brains. They were created by cutting open the skulls while the victims were alive and then deforming the brains using Smithing Skills. In that process, the victims must have endured hellish pain and suffering..."

"Ugh-"

Ai must have imagined the scene, as she involuntarily covered her mouth with her hand.

Tatsuro hugged her waist and used Life Magic to adjust her condition.

"And the worst part is that even in the core state, their human consciousness seems to have remained intact. No wonder they could perform advanced operations-they were being enslaved while retaining full human thought."

In the end, she spat out the words and swung the hammer again, completely destroying the cores.

Tatsuro and the others killed tamed monsters for food or to sell, but they made sure to do it instantly without causing unnecessary pain, and they intended to handle the remains respectfully afterward.

But this creator, even if it was a necessary step, inflicted excruciating pain and killed in a way no one should experience in a lifetime.

Furthermore, after death, they were used at will as mere brains.

The victims must have lived through hellish days.

"Brain-based cores...? No way... right?"

"Leela? Do you have some idea?"

"No. Just that there was someone who researched something similar a long time ago."

"How long ago?"

"When I was still young, Ai. That person was a Clear Elf born as a shrine maiden of Dispel Magic, named Setepuenberkelp. Due to his nature, he wasn't suited for combat alone, so for a time, he acted as a caretaker for child Clear Elves. Back then, he taught me various things like fighting styles, magic usage, and life skills."

"Huh. There was such a person. I've never heard of him.So, what kind of research did this Clear Elf do? It might be relevant this time-tell us."

"Sure. I'll tell you everything I know. That person-"

Setepuenberkelp. This man was one of the oldest Clear Elves, created in the early days-the first generation.

As a shrine maiden of Dispel Magic, he possessed exceptional analytical abilities, and as an individual, his thinking capacity and creativity far surpassed others.

He was asked by the gods to teach basic common sense to the second-generation Clear Elves who received their favor, and he instructed many of them.

At the same time, by supporting those children, he helped defeat dangerous beings.

Thanks to that, he even earned the nickname "Father of the Clear Elves."

However, he had another side.

That was his aspect as an inventor.

Setepuenberkelp specialized in Dispel Magic, which wasn't suited for direct combat, so he began creating magical tools that could invoke other magics to compensate.

In doing so, he devised a magic that became the prototype for Smithing Skills, developed combat using magical tools, and made it possible to assist magic with staves.

"He was the first in human history to create magical tools, and the first to make staves usable as magic assistance equipment."

"What an amazing person. And he researched cores using brains, just like these?"

"Yes. If magic involves human imagination, then if the staff itself could have thinking ability, stronger magic could be used. That was his idea."

That's when he focused on the organ where living beings think-namely, the brain.

He started experiments to see if he could do something with monster brains, repeating trials with various monsters' brains.

But he found that low-intelligence monsters didn't work well, so he obtained unclaimed corpses for various reasons and began using human brains.

However, with dead human brains, it was theoretically impossible, and from empirical rules in monster experiments, he reached the point where it might be possible with living humans.

"But he froze the experiments there. It was too inhumane. And he strictly told me, who was slightly involved in the experiments, never to tell anyone. I can't imagine someone like him doing this. He was a person of excellent character, respected and trusted by many Clear Elves."

"Then, could it be that someone who knew of his research stole the documents or something and completed it themselves...?"

"I can't say. He probably kept the research materials on human brains without discarding them, but could anyone deceive a master of Dispel Magic like him and steal them?"

"But if that person stopped being a Clear Elf, something like that could happen, right?"

"Yes... That's true. But it would still require considerable skill..."

If Setepuenberkelp fell in love with someone, formed a relationship, and abandoned his status as a child of god, he would lose most of his extraordinary powers as a Clear Elf.

But even then, with years of accumulated skills, knowledge, and high levels, he would still be much stronger than ordinary elves, even if no longer a Clear Elf.

If someone could outwit such a person, they must be quite capable.

"There might be someone like that ahead. We need to stay alert. Alright, let's go."

"Yeah."

For now, there was nothing else to do here, so Tatsuro and the others started walking down the single path leading onward.

From here on, there were no traps, no branching passages, just a straight path ahead.

Perhaps due to the atmosphere turning a bit gloomy after the core incident, they reached the next room without unnecessary chatter.

"Something's glowing. What is it? ...Magical Power?"

"It looks that way to me too. What about you, Leela?"

"Me too, Ishtar."

There was no door in particular, so blue light spilled out from there.

Through Spirit Eye, it was clear that it was emitted by pure Magical Power with no attributes.

But with Leah's All-Seeing Eye, she understood more deeply what kind of Magical Power it was and was astonished.

"I hate to admit it, but the engineer here is a genius... Let's go."

"Ah, hey Leah. Don't go too far ahead!"

Eager to see the source directly, Leah quickened her pace, almost leaving everyone behind.

Surprised by her sudden action, Tatsuro and the others hurried to the room emitting the light at a jog.

"A huge machine-ah, here it's a magical tool, right? Hmm? Magical tool is fine? That."

"I think it's fine, but... what is this?"

What was there filled a large room about 50 meters square entirely with magical tool-related items-a massive magical tool installed.

To describe it simply, it was like a huge rectangular box-shaped balance scale in the center.

However, only the left dish, facing front, moved up and down; the right side wasn't a dish but a pipe, endlessly spewing glowing blue liquid, discharging it into a pool-like structure made of transparent glass.

At the bottom of that transparent rectangular reservoir, there were multiple holes about 30 cm in diameter, through which thick pipes connected, seeming to flow the liquid underground.

Also, from the ceiling, pipes with suction mechanisms like magical tools extended, drawing the liquid from the reservoir and sending it to the upper floors.

"So the blue light we saw was coming from this liquid. Does that mean this liquid is Magical Power?"

"To be precise, it's ultra-high-purity magic liquid. It's the stuff used as fuel for magical tools. Just one scoop of this would be worth who knows how much."

"I saw magic liquid at the department store in the city above, but nothing as high-purity as this. And to mass-produce it-if this were announced publicly, it would overturn the world's energy market."

"I get that it seems amazing, but do you understand how it's made, Leah?"

"Yes. I can understand it. I want to take some notes, so wait for the explanation, sis."

"Okay. Got it-"

Using a tool that outputs her thoughts as paper, Leah documented every technique used in this machine without omission.

Once she organized her thoughts, she explained the mechanism of this magical tool to Tatsuro and the others.

"To put it simply, this is a magical tool that converts World Force into magic liquid. First, the magic circle inscribed on the left dish absorbs World Force from the atmosphere. The absorbed World Force travels through the pipe under the dish into the central huge rectangular box. The box is divided into several layers: the left half converts World Force into Magical Power, and the right half further converts that into magic liquid. The finished magic liquid is discharged, flows into the reservoir, and is stored. Honestly, to have perfectly completed and realized this theory-I feel jealous of that talent. It's truly amazing..."

Leah's earlier anger had somewhat faded, and she was simply entranced by the cutting-edge technology before her.

But amid that, Tatsuro felt a slight doubt about what was said and voiced it honestly.

"I've used magic liquid a few times for things like clocks, but I don't really understand what kind of liquid it is. If you can make Magical Power, is there a need to turn it into magic liquid?"

Magic liquid serves as fuel needed to operate magical tools-like gasoline on Earth-but strictly speaking, what magical tools require is Magical Power.

So, if pure Magical Power could be made, Tatsuro didn't understand the need to liquefy it.

In place of Leah, who was busily examining the magical tool, Leela answered Tatsuro's question.

"That's because, Tatsuro, pure Magical Power will dissolve into the atmosphere and disappear if not liquefied. But magic liquid, once liquefied, doesn't evaporate like water, so while it takes space, it's excellent for storage. Therefore, if you want to store the energy called Magical Power long-term, liquefying it like this is the best way. By the way, there is technology to solidify it, but with liquid, you can revert it to Magical Power with a little effort, whereas with solid, the effort multiplies several times, so unless there's a special reason, it's not done."

"Oh, so that's the reason. Thanks for explaining, Leela."

"You're welcome."

Leela said that and smiled brightly.

If it weren't Tatsuro here, it was a smile that would surely cause instant infatuation, but Tatsuro felt nothing in particular and turned his gaze back to the reservoir filled with magic liquid.

"With this much abundant energy produced almost inexhaustibly from World Force, it can supply the large-scale concealment magical tool, those golems with massive Magical Power earlier, and all the magical tools needed for living."

"That's why they can hole up in a place like this. By the way, isn't this the cause of the World Force accumulation?"

Ai thought that since it was a magical tool using World Force, it might be involved, but Ishtar shook her head.

"This isn't it. In fact, it's even helping consume World Force. Because pure Magical Power has less impact on the world than World Force."

"Then, maybe we could secretly make one at our base too. We could even break into the energy market."

"You'd just attract weird grudges from vested interests, and since we're not short on money, better to use it just for ourselves. Besides, the energy industry is basically a national enterprise, so troubles might come from entire countries?"

"Ah... Yeah, that's true. We're already making waves in the food industry, so let's keep this for our own selfish purposes."

"Without having to equip Return Stones each time, if we run pipes with magic liquid throughout the base, we might be able to do something like those 'outlets' you mentioned from your world, bro?"

Apparently having enjoyed it enough, Leah joined the conversation at some point.

According to her, installing this at the base would allow magical tools that previously required swapping like batteries via Return Stones to connect to pipes flowing with magic liquid, enabling them to run until they break just by turning on a switch.

"That would be pretty convenient. It'd reduce the gramps' chores."

"Neigh!"

Jeanne also neighed happily upon hearing that her retainers, the gramps, would have it easier.