Act 04: Selective Breeding It"s been a while since I visited the library.
I hadn"t been there since my lectures started and I was finally able to visit today.
The other day, I received permission to read the prohibited books so I rushed there at full speed.
The prohibited section was attached to the library, but the librarian"s antechamber separated it from the main section of the library. Furthermore, it was closed off by a heavy locked door.
The lock was suspicious; it looked like an ordinary lock but it wasn"t.
I didn"t understand it very well, but it was opened by a mysterious kind of magic and, even if you had the same lock, you couldn"t open it unless you had the permission to do so.
It was probably something like biometric authentication.
Incidentally, you didn"t need a key to get out of the prohibited section.
It seemed like it automatically locked.
I showed my permission slip to the librarian in the antechamber. They opened the door and guided me to the bookshelf that contained the books I was looking for.
Not many people used the library and there was no one else in the prohibited section.
Are the only ones in here right now myself and the librarian?
"The medicinal herb books you are looking for are on these shelves."
"Thank you."
The librarian left when I walked up to those bookshelves.
I rummaged through the bookshelves at once.
A chain was attached to the books on the bookshelf to restrict browsing.
The chain was quite long and I could take it to a desk located near the bookshelf.
I picked out a few books and sat down at the desk.
The books there were older than the ones in the library and turning the pages made me feel a little nervous.
I carefully flipped through the pages, searching for the information that I was looking for.
I was looking for a medicinal herb that would give a higher effect than the ones that were used in Advanced HP potions.
I"d read most of the books in the library related to medicinal herbs.
Those books contained information on medicinal herbs used for low, intermediate and advanced potions, but they didn"t contain any information on herbs that were more effective.
I went there thinking that there would be something in the forbidden books, and it seemed like I was correct.
As I"d expected, there were bits and pieces of information about medicinal herbs that weren"t mentioned in the library books.
It wasn"t just that, either, the books there contained additional information on the same herbs found in the library books.
Yup.
There was also information stating that you could get a great result if you dealt with medicinal herbs in this way or that way.
What kind of effect……? I pretended that I didn"t see that.
I continued reading the books in a trance, but as one would expect, I got tired after reading several books.
Should I take a short break?
I thought that and noticed that someone was next to me when I looked up.
"Eep."
My body shook in surprised and I screamed unintentionally.
A white porcelain mask, no, face, was vaguely floating in the darkness.
The Head Magician was there before I"d even noticed.
Mm, you are the Head Magician, aren"t you?
He looked down emotionlessly at the book. He was handsome so his face looked like a mask.
"Head Magician?"
He turned towards me when I called out to him and smiled slowly.
"Are you looking for medicinal herbs?"
"Yes, I am but…… When did you get here, Head Magician?"
"A little while ago. I waited, wondering when you"d notice my presence."
"You should have said something."
"You were reading so diligently, so I didn"t want to disturb."
I was certainly focused on reading, but was I so focused that I didn"t notice someone this close to me?
I didn"t even feel anyone come in here at all.
I was really surprised when I saw that someone was next to me as soon as I looked up.
The Head Magician turned the page while my heart was still throbbing in my chest.
"Is there someone you wish to kill?"
"Excuse me?"
I was befuddled at what he was talking about.
Why did he ask that so suddenly?
"All the herbs in this book are poisonous ones, are they not?"
When I looked at the page that the Head Magician was pointing at, there were certainly only poisonous herbs on it.
Or rather, this book, itself, was a collection of poisonous herbs.
H-hey, didn"t I tell you that poisonous herbs could also be used for medicine depending on how you processed it?
I"m not intending to use it for its original purpose, you know?"
"Some poisons can also become medicine depending on how you use it."
"Ah, that"s true."
I nodded. I felt like he had meant something else when he agreed with me. It"s true, you know?
It"s really true, you know?
"So, what are you looking for?"
"Mm, I"m trying to find medicinal herbs that are different from the ones used in the current HP and MP potions."
"You"re looking for medicinal herbs that aren"t used in the current recipes?"
"Yes."
I explained to the curious Head Magician about what has been happening in the research inst.i.tute, and I told him that I was looking for medicinal herbs that would be more effective than the ones used in advanced potions.
The Head Magician, who finished listening to my explanation, said, "Is that so?" He put his hand onto his chin and pondered.
"You make potions by mixing medicinal herbs and water together and then concentrating magic power into it, isn"t that right?"
"Yes."
"Did you know that plants also contain a small amount of magic power, Sei-sama?"
"Huh? They do?"
This is the first I"ve heard of it.
According to the mead magician, all living things in this world had magic power, although the amount varied.
That was what he had noticed while researching, so it wasn"t widely spread.
Thus, he gave me advice based on that fact.
He told me to pay attention to the magical power of medicinal herbs if I wanted to raise the potion"s effectiveness.
It is said that the effectiveness of medicinal herbs used in potions could be increased by the magic power concentrated into it during the potion making process.
The Head Magician thought that the magic power I concentrated into potions during the manufacturing process was the reason why my potions were 50% more effective than potions made by others.
"If a medicinal herb can retain your magic power, then the effects would increase."
"Something like that is possible?"
"I wonder?"
*Slump*
That was the important part but it doesn"t seem like the head magician has any expectations.
As the Head Magician said, I feel that the effects would increase if the medicinal herbs held the same amount of magic power as I do, but the problem is, how do I get medicinal herbs to hold the same amount of magic power as me?
"I"m sorry I couldn"t be of any help. I can help you if the topic is about magic……"
"No, I can use the magic power of plants as reference. Thank you."
He looked really apologetic but thanks to his advice, I was able to see a little hope.
It was the right time to return so I decided to leave the prohibited section and return to the research inst.i.tute.
It was the first time I"d heard that medicinal herbs have magic power, so there"s a high probability that the researchers didn"t know about it either.
They were, however, more knowledgeable about herbs than the Head Magician was.
If I consult with them, they might be able to come up with a good plan on how to put my magic power into plants.
I parted with the Head Magician, a little excited.
I returned to the research inst.i.tute and tried to ask the researchers about the herbs.
There were some people who knew that medicinal herbs had magic power.
However, none of them thought about preserving their magic power in medicinal herbs and they were all surprised when I told them about the Head Magician"s advice.
People normally wouldn"t think that the effects would increase if you put your magic power into the herbs, right?
That"s why no one knew how to bestow magic onto medicinal herbs.
Well, it can"t be helped if they don"t know.
I just have to try various experiments.
"So won"t you help me, Jude?"
"This is so abrupt. How should I help you?"
I thought that Jude, who was smiling bitterly while offering his helping hand, was a very kind person.
The first thing I confirmed with him was if he could create water that contained magic power.
If cut flowers are dipped in coloured water, then the petals would be dyed in that colour, right?
I thought about putting that into practice by soaking the herbs in water that contained magic power.
However, I didn"t know how to create water containing magic power, so I asked Jude, who seemed most likely to know.
Jude had apt.i.tude in water attribute magic.
Unfortunately, he didn"t know.
We tried to produce water containing magic power with his water attribute magic but it didn"t go very well, even though we tried various experiments, such as putting more magic power into the water creation.
"I think that it"s a good idea, but you"re the one who has to produce the water, right Sei? So it would be no good if it"s produce with water attribute magic, right?"
"I thought that it would be fine if I thought about that later."
He said that after we tried various experiments and he was surprised when I replied with what I thought.
Jude was right, I couldn"t use water attribute magic.
It was a waste to try to create magic water using water attribute magic, but I thought that it would be nice as a starting point.
I gave up on trying to create water containing magic power with water attribute magic and tried to do the same thing I did when I bestowed magic to tools.
Magic can be bestowed to minerals that would become the item"s core, so I thought that I could also apply that to water.
The result was a complete failure.
I did the same thing I had when I bestowed magic, but I could feel that it didn"t work at all.
This is, that.
The feeling of it not working.
"Even so, it"s innovate to bestow magic to water."
"Really?"
" To the best of my knowledge, I"ve never seen anyone try something like this before."
"Well, they don"t understand the use of water with magic power, so they wouldn"t try it if they don"t think of its use."
When I said that, I remembered that there was a thing called holy water in games.
Was that used to attack the undead?
Games were also set so that monsters would stay away for a while.
How did one make holy water again?
Did I just need to bless it?
I felt like I heard something like that somewhere before.
So, how do you bless something?
Jude called out to me in a worried voice when I took the beaker with the distilled water and hummed.
"What"s wrong?"
"Well, I was thinking about how to bless something."
"Bless?"
"Is there no holy water in this world?"
"Holy water? I haven"t heard of that before."
There was no holy water in this world.
Then, blessing water might not exist either.
I confirmed with Jude just to be sure, but he didn"t know after all.
It felt like it would turn into a conversation about magic and I felt that it was faster to ask the Head Magician about it.
I looked outside and the sun had gone down before I had noticed.
Time pa.s.sed by while I was doing experiments with Jude.
It would be better if I asked the Head Magician about this matter tomorrow.
We decided to stop experimenting for the day.
"Holy water?"
The next day, I asked the Head Magician about holy water during our magic lecture.
I simply asked if he knew how to bless something with holy attribute magic but he didn"t seem to know anything.
I wondered if it was called something else in this world so I explained how I had arrived at this point.
I didn"t imagine the Head Magician"s eyes shining when I talked about the effect it had on the undead, did I?
Thus, we stopped the lecture and I told him about the concept of magic in games in my original world.
"Blessing seems like it would be able to strengthen the body as well."
"I see. Blessing has various effects in your world, doesn"t it Sei?"
"Magic, itself, doesn"t exist so people make it up."
"Even so, it"s an interesting concept. We have body strengthening magic but we don"t have any that specialise in the undead."
"Does that mean that undead demons can"t be defeated by magic?"
"Not at all. We don"t have specialised magic to defeat undead demons, so we usually defeat it with fire attribute magic."
The Head Magician must have noticed something at that point because he put his hand to his chin and pondered.
There was no such thing as blessing but did he remember something else?
"It"s not aimed at undead demons but there is a type of magic that annihilates demons."
"There"s something like that?"
"Yes. There"s no details about it, but it exists."
The Head Magician had wiped his usual smile off his face and said that in a serious tone. I looked at him and gulped.
I don"t think it would be any normal type of magic if only the existence was pa.s.sed down through the ages.
If it"s unattributed, then I can only think of life magic, but they wouldn"t conceal something as simple as life magic.
Which means that it is a completely different type of magic?
"What is it called?"
"I don"t know what it"s called. But, the person who used that magic left a record."
"Then……"
"It"s a technique used by the Saint."
I knew it.
I vaguely realised that half way through the conversation.
But isn"t it a problem if the details of a 【Saint】technique are unknown?
How would the Saints that come after learn the technique?
"The details of the technique aren"t recorded, are they?"
"Yes, most of the records only talk about the effects of the technique and how fast it wiped out the demons."
"How did the past Saint learn that technique?"
"We don"t know."
Jesus.
There wasn"t any more information on the technique. We continued our lecture after that and the day ended.
The next morning.
I pondered as I watered my personal garden in the corner of the medicinal herb garden.
I thought about the 【Saint】technique that the Head Magician told me about yesterday.
It was hard to create water containing magic power right now, so I half-heartedly gave up.
It might be too early to give up, but what was important wasn"t the water containing magic power, but the medicinal herbs which could retain my power.
Medicinal herbs, themselves, contained moisture, so I thought that I could alter the external water used and put my magic power into that, but the moisture inside the herbs would probably change as well.
However, the problem was how to influence it externally…….
According to the Head Magician, blessing type magic didn"t exist here but there was something similar.
It was a 【Saint】technique that annihilated all demons and not just the undead.
I"ve also heard this from the civil official before.
It was said that the technique didn"t bless but purified.
From what I"d heard, it didn"t seem like the technique would give the effects I"d hoped for.
However, it was the only piece of information I had.
It"s fine to just try it out.
The problem was that I didn"t know anything about the technique.
The only thing written in the doc.u.ments were the effects of the technique. They were only simple descriptions. Many doc.u.ments only stated that the demons had been annihilated.
Also there were doc.u.ments that stated: as an after effect of the demons being annihilated, the miasma had cleared.
Even the name wasn"t recorded, even though it would have been if it had been any other magic.
How do I use a technique with just the description?
I didn"t know what kind of intentions they had for hiding it, but it was a headache inducing topic.
Now then, what should I do?
Magic, magic, I thought as I released my magic into the surrounding garden.
I only targeted my own field.
It would be bad if I affected other people"s fields as well.
I paid close attention to the medicinal herbs in front of me, but of course, nothing changed.
It was probably useless just to bathe it in my magic power.
Something might happen if I continue to bathe it in my magic power.
I thought and waited for a while but nothing happened. My magic power felt like it would run out so I slowly stopped.
"『Area Heal』."
I chanted and a magic circle appeared on the ground. A white haze covered with gold lamé surrounded the field.
I looked at the medicinal herbs once again when the haze had dissipated and……
I felt that somehow the plants were healthier than before.
『Heal』also affected plants……
But that wasn"t the effect that I had wanted either.
It"s no good. It only became healthier.
It isn"t going very well.
I sighed.
I squatted down in order to observe the medicinal herbs and waited for my magic power to recover.
People mostly consumed potions to recover, but HP and MP would recover naturally if left alone.
The magic manipulation technique I learnt in the magic lectures also influenced my MP recovery speed.
I could see it when I looked at my status while recovering my magic power.
My magic power recovered faster than it did when I had first started my lectures thanks to my training.
I stood up when my magic power had recovered to a certain point, and began releasing it once more.
Then I chanted all the holy attribute magic that I had learnt thus far in lectures.
I thought that one of the effects that I wanted would stick.
Well, my expectations were crushed.
I tried some ordinary magic without learning from my mistakes but those were also failures.
I thought that 『Purification』, which recovered abnormal status such as poison and paralysis, would be effective but it wasn"t.
I looked up at the sky while feeling disappointed, and realized that the sun had risen to a good height.
I had to go to the Royal Palace soon to attend my lecture.
I finished the watering experiment there and returned to the research inst.i.tute to get ready.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: SenjiQ