Chapter 269

Stark wandered over and stared at the mineral in Frieren’s hands.

"What is that? It’s really pretty."

"Here."

Frieren handed it to him.

Stark hurriedly accepted the stone and turned it over in his hands several times. Aside from being unusually beautiful, however, he could not see anything particularly special about it.

Fern, meanwhile, noticed that the heating magic circle nearby had gone out.

She looked toward Haruto in confusion.

"Did the heating circle stop working?"

Frieren answered with a slightly smug expression.

"This is Magic-Sealing Ore. It’s a mineral that nullifies magic."

"Judging from the purity of this piece, it should be able to negate all magic within roughly three meters."

She looked toward Stark, who was still holding the ore.

"Stark, move farther away."

Stark obediently backed up four or five steps.

As soon as he moved outside its range, the extinguished heating circle suddenly lit up again.

The mushroom soup began bubbling once more, filling the morning air with a gentle simmering sound.

"This stuff is extremely rare."

Frieren’s smugness only deepened.

"Even a piece the size of a pebble can sell for several gold coins."

"A chunk this large could probably buy a mansion with a garden."

Her chin lifted slightly.

After all, she was the one who had found it.

"That valuable?!"

Stark stared at the beautiful stone in his hands in amazement.

Fern was surprised at first as well, but quickly calmed down.

She looked at Frieren and pointed out the obvious problem.

"But if we carry something like this around, we won’t be able to use magic."

"We can’t take it with us. That would make traveling far too dangerous."

The farther north they went, the more frequently they would encounter monsters.

If their magic was constantly being suppressed, they would have no way to respond properly when danger appeared.

"That’s true."

Frieren nodded.

No matter how reluctant she was to abandon such an expensive mineral, she knew better than to endanger the entire group over a valuable rock.

"I can carry it for you."

Haruto spoke up.

"Once we reach a town, you can sell it there. That way, you’ll get a good amount of money for the rest of the journey."

If Haruto stored the Magic-Sealing Ore inside the Gourmet Restaurant, it would not affect anything outside.

It was no trouble for him, so he had no reason not to help.

"Thanks."

Frieren’s eyes immediately lit up.

She accepted the offer without a second thought.

She had already been regretting the fact that they would have to leave such a valuable find behind.

Haruto’s suggestion solved the problem perfectly.

Once they sold it, they would have plenty of travel funds.

Which meant Frieren could buy more grimoires.

And more strange materials.

"Oh, right. Let me show you something interesting about this stone."

Frieren suddenly smiled mysteriously and took the Magic-Sealing Ore back from Stark.

"If you pour a large amount of mana into it..."

She began continuously feeding mana into the mineral.

As more and more mana entered the crystal-clear ice-blue stone, it started shining brighter and brighter.

Within moments, brilliant white light flooded the entire area.

"It glows really brightly!"

Frieren’s voice came from inside the glare.

Fern and Stark were in no mood to appreciate the explanation.

Neither of them had been prepared, and both had been staring directly at the ore when it suddenly flared.

Only Haruto had anticipated what was coming.

The moment Frieren raised the stone and started channeling mana into it, he calmly pulled out a pair of sunglasses and put them on.

No matter how dazzling the light became, it did not bother him in the slightest.

He even casually picked up a spoon, stirred the mushroom soup that had resumed simmering, and tasted the broth.

Then Haruto reached out, took the glowing ore from Frieren, and stored it inside the Gourmet Restaurant.

The blinding light vanished instantly.

It took Fern and Stark quite a while before their vision returned to normal, and both looked at Frieren with obvious complaints written across their faces.

Frieren ignored them.

Instead, her gaze drifted toward Haruto, who had already crouched back beside the pot.

She knew about his Gourmet Restaurant.

Haruto had used it several times inside the Ruins of the King’s Tomb, and during their journey together he frequently retrieved all kinds of ingredients, tools, and even bizarre cooking equipment that Frieren had never seen before.

Until now, she had assumed it was some extremely advanced spatial storage magic operating outside the usual system.

But Haruto had just used it to store Magic-Sealing Ore.

There was only one reasonable conclusion.

The Gourmet Restaurant was not magic at all.

The thought passed briefly through Frieren’s mind, but she did not ask.

Everyone had abilities and secrets they preferred to keep to themselves.

Haruto was their companion now, and as long as that secret posed no danger to anyone else, Frieren had never been the type to pry.

So she simply looked away and changed the subject entirely.

"Actually, if we can figure out how to use Magic-Sealing Ore properly, it might make preserving monster bodies much easier."

"Hm?"

Haruto stopped stirring the mushroom soup.

His eyes immediately brightened.

"Go on."

During the time he had spent learning this world’s magic from Frieren, sealing magic had proven to be one of the most troublesome branches.

It demanded extraordinary precision in mana control.

Even with Frieren personally guiding him, he still had not fully mastered it.

Unfortunately, sealing magic was also exactly what Haruto needed most for collecting monster ingredients.

Once a monster died, the mana maintaining its body rapidly collapsed. The flesh disintegrated along with it, making it impossible to preserve a fresh, intact carcass without some way of stabilizing that mana.

"This is only a theory. I haven’t tested it."

Frieren crouched beside the campfire, picked up a dry twig, and began drawing a simple diagram in the dirt as she explained.

Unlike humans or elves, monsters fundamentally relied on enormous quantities of mana to maintain their physical structure.

Their bodies were almost like intricate buildings constructed around mana.

While the creature remained alive, that mana kept the flesh stable.

But the moment it died and its life functions ceased, the mana inside lost control and began collapsing violently.

That collapse was not ordinary mana dispersal.

It was a destructive magical phenomenon, fundamentally similar to an offensive spell.

And that violent collapse was precisely why most monster corpses could not be preserved.

"Magic-Sealing Ore can probably nullify magical phenomena."

Frieren tapped the diagram with the twig.

"So my guess is that if you insert a high-purity piece of Magic-Sealing Ore into a monster’s body at the exact moment it dies, the ore should nullify the entire mana-collapse process."

"That would preserve the corpse intact."

"It would probably be much simpler than using sealing magic."

As for why no one had discovered such an application after all these years, the reason was obvious.

Magic-Sealing Ore was simply far too rare.

Even a pebble-sized fragment could sell for several gold coins.

An ordinary mage might live their entire life without ever seeing a fist-sized piece.

Who would willingly waste something that valuable experimenting on monster corpses?

More importantly, whenever people obtained Magic-Sealing Ore, they usually used it to create equipment capable of defending against magic.

Almost no one would think of applying such a precious mineral to something as obscure as preserving monster materials.

Only after learning how monster bodies were constructed had Frieren even considered the possibility.

Haruto listened with growing excitement.

If Frieren’s theory was correct, this would be enormously useful to him.

Even when he did not have time to cast a sealing spell, he would still have a way to preserve monster ingredients intact.

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