Chapter 306
Chapter 306 Strongest Sage, Seeks Weapon
"Direct control over Dragon Veins" mana!?"
"You"d be really strong if you could do that . . . "
"Yeah . Strong . . . And on top of wielding unlimited mana, it"s also possible to inject your mana into Dragon Veins" to cast magic through the veins . "
Having Dragon Veins connected to your magic circuits means turning the veins into part of your body .
Hence, you can cast magic through Dragon Veins .
. . . Of course doing so is incomparably harder than casting magic with your own body .
"Through Dragon Veins . . . Is it like when I cast that augment magic that one time!?"
"Yeah close enough . But since it"s a direct connection between Dragon Veins and your magic circuits, using your mana to control it . . . done right, it can be way more flexible than that . . . It"s like having the entire lands as your weapon . "
Hearing that . . . Alma"s eyes are beaming .
"Awesome! Sounds so strong!"
"But . . . Considering it"s got the name 『Man-eating Blade』, there must be something more to it than just strong right . . . ?"
Ruli asked with a worried look .
. . . Then too Alma seemed to realize the risk .
"I mean, can human"s magic circuits even be connected to Dragon Veins safely?"
That"s exactly the problematic point with [Man-eating Blades] .
Difficulty to control mana or low quality and such are problems that crop up only after your magic circuits have been connected .
The mana flowing in Dragon Veins . . . vastly dwarfs that of a human"s, even before we get to quality and stuff .
As such, even if you"re paying close attention to prevent mana influx, you still need extremely durable magic circuits to bear such power .
And even people who possess st.u.r.dy magic circuits would easily get swallowed up by the vast mana were they even slightly let their guard down .
During the era I lived in, there were casualties by [Man-eating Blades] practically every month .
The power contained in Dragon Veins was just that tempting .
The swords which were initially called [Dragon Veins Blades] received the name [Man-eating Blades] during that period of time .
As I reminisced the past . . . Grevil opened his mouth .
"Of course it"s not safe . Those abominable swords claimed countless lives during the era I lived in . "
"Wait, you"re saying 『Man-eating Blades』 were present during Grevil-san"s era!?"
"Yes . Or rather, those swords only existed in that era . . . I have no idea how Mathias-san came to know about those swords . . . But since they were quite famous back in the day, it wouldn"t surprise me if records of them remained in some doc.u.ments . "
Grevil explained and covered for my knowledge about the swords .
Then . . . Grevil turned toward me with an apologetic look .
"Mathias-san, to tell you the truth . . . There is only one 『Man-eating Blade』 remaining now . "
"Eh? . . . Weren"t there tens of thousands of those swords?"
『Man-eating Blades』 were a very popular weapon during my era .
After all it enables one to wield enormous amount of mana for free .
It"s got its risks, but since risks naturally come with battle to begin with, many people didn"t care about it .
As such, in its heydays, around 3000 [Man-eating Blades] got ma.s.s-produced every year, it was said that there were around 50,000 of those swords in the whole world .
Since the swords were still being ma.s.s-produced when I reincarnated myself, the final number should be even higher than that .
And yet there"s only one remaining?
"Indeed . . . There were tens thousands of those swords during the height of popularity . However, presently there is only one remaining . . . Although there might be other swords that I"m not aware of . "
"Was there some kind of incident?"
"Rather than incident . . . There were just too many accidents . The mortality rate of swordsmen who employed [Man-eating Blades] climbed up to 25 times of magic combatants who didn"t . As I could not overlook the ever increasing numbers of victims . . . I decided to ban the production of the swords and destroy all the existing ones . It was me who issued the order . . . My apologies . "
I see .
So that was why I couldn"t find even one of those hugely popular swords with Active Material Detection .
Ugh why"d he do that . . . the thought did cross my mind for a bit, but he did the right thing as a king .
The mortality rate of that sword users was abnormal indeed .
A king who would look the other way at the huge amount of casualties for the sake of national power . . . would probably ignore it, but Grevil was a kind king who valued human life .
That he couldn"t overlook the ever increasing number of victims is probably true .
"What about other countries?"
"Other countries did keep using [Man-eating Blades] for a while . . . But once they realized that those swords were responsible for reducing magic combatants" numbers, which harmed national power, they abolished it as well . "
I see .
In the end those swords were disposed of as good for nothing huh .
Well, [Man-eating Blades] are not especially powerful weapons for sure .
There are ways to cast high-powered magic even without enormous mana anyway, and those swords are more suited for inexperienced magic combatants trying to push themselves beyond their limit . . . something like that .
There were occasions when I employed those swords myself, but once I had ama.s.sed enough mana and usable magic, I was actually stronger without that sword .
Must be also why past countries rejected [Man-eating Blades] .
But I need this weapon now .
Our opponent, the demon won"t wait for me to get stronger the honest way .