Chapter 225
Chapter 225 Strongest Sage, Figures Out Poison"s Origin
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Seems like my prayer was answered, we didn"t have to wait an hour before there were movements at the warehouse .
『 . . . Someone super suspicious is coming here . 』
One man is approaching the warehouse while pulling a cart .
A bag in the cart has 『Mandragora Powder 30kg』 written on it .
But just that wouldn"t have been worth mentioning .
The man is wearing a mask that covers his whole face .
Judging from the mana flow, the mask is a kind of gas mask .
He must be putting that mask on to protect himself from some kind of toxic substance .
『But he"s pulling a cart . Then it"s not related to Storage magic?』
Indeed, the man doesn"t seem to be a Storage mage .
Judging from his mana, he probably can"t even use chantless magic .
However . . . The man is most likely related to the poison .
『No looks like it is . . . Look at the cart"s mana reaction . 』
『 . . . There"s traces of mana on the road it pa.s.sed by!』
『That"s right . 』
There are traces of life force absorbing poison on the cart being pulled .
No mistake, that cart has been used to transport the poison .
『Wonder what"s inside that cart? Mandragora Powder is written on the bag, but . . . 』
『Looks like it really is Mandragora inside . . . But Mandragora powder is one of the materials used to create life force absorbing poison . 』
Mandragora is a type of magic plants .
As the plants would emit harmful screams when pulled out of ground, the current era"s technological level is incapable of ma.s.s producing it, thus it"s considered a luxurious good .
30kg of such powder . . . meaning the organization providing this has to be quite large .
The man pulling the cart opened the warehouse door while we were talking .
『 . . . The door"s open . Should we sneak in?』
『Nope, we"re gonna observe the situation from here . No one would find us outside thanks to stealth magic, but we can"t be sure what stuff are there inside a cramped warehouse . 』
From this distance, it"s possible to completely grasp how it"s like inside with Pa.s.sive Detection .
No need to go out of our way to brave danger by going inside .
『If he goes there bringing Mandragora, a raw material, inside . . . 』
『Either someone inside is going to take the Mandragora, or they"re really producing the poison inside . 』
I concentrate on Pa.s.sive Detection .
It"s no big deal if he goes to warehouse just to put the Mandragora powder and take the poison .
However . . . This is just a hunch, but I don"t think that"s correct .
And I guessed right .
『『Eeh!?』』
Alma and Ruli who were probing the warehouse like me let out their voice in surprise at the sudden emergence of mana reaction inside .
A spell was suddenly activated in the middle of the warehouse .
And not in a scale possible by chant magic .
It"s a complex spell that would need quite a level of mastery even in my past era .
The spell seems familiar to me .
Exchange-type, matter transfer spell .
The target is-- .
『Exchanging the Mandragora powder with the poison huh . 』
When mana on the magic circle had subsided, the Mandragora powder in the cart the man was pulling had been changed to the life force absorbing poison .
They"ve exchanged them through matter transfer magic .
『Transfer magic . . . Is it similar with the Instantaneous Movement magic you used Mathi-kun?』
『Yeah . But I"d have never thought they were using that . . . 』
The transfer magic circle used here was the one the past me created .
It should have been situated deep underground, but it must have got brought out to surface after several thousands years .
. . . That"s good and all .
The problem is how did they even find that magic circle .
Even if the magic circle got to the surface, it should be hidden with strong camouflage I put on it, it should have been impossible to find .
『That . . . ?』
『I mean the transfer magic circle . That magic circle should have been connected to a hidden room in the ruins . . . The reason how they could find it is bugging me . 』
『Maybe they discovered it by chance while they were exploring the ruins?』
『I don"t think it"s that simple to find . . . Well, at least now we know where the enemy is . Now we just need to think up our raid plan . 』
That transfer magic circle is connected to a hidden room in the Sixth Source .
That room was created due to a 『Certain Circ.u.mstance』 but only less than 10 people knew the existence of that room in the past .
The Camouflage put on both the magic circle and the hidden room was of the highest level even by the past me standard .
It"s not something that could have been 『found by chance』 .
Even the past me wouldn"t have been able to find the hidden room unless I knew beforehand that the room existed .
If that room truly had been found . . . it wouldn"t have been possible unless it was by those whom I have confided in regarding the room"s existence .
And those people who knew about the room were all either heads of a state or great mages .
Don"t tell me, the ringleader who"s been absorbing life force is someone among them?
. . . This might turn out bigger than I thought it"d be .