After finishing the honeyed Orens, Mom cleared her throat and began to speak.
“Ahem. Al, what are you planning to do with this?”
Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about anything. The only thing I knew right then was that it absolutely had to be kept a secret.
“W-well, let’s start by testing its performance.”
“Yes. Maybe it’s not as remarkable as we thought…”
“That’s right. There’s also the possibility that its performance is trivial.”
“…”
If we ignored distance, it already had extraordinary abilities. If this applied to quantity as well…
First, we’d test its performance. This was the 9th floor of the labyrinth, so we’d try to see if it could contend with a Minotaur.
As I searched for Minotaurs with Ashera, we happened to spot one walking alone.
“Ashera. First, I want to know if it can enter alive. Can we paralyze it or put it to sleep?”
“I’ll give it a try.”
Saying that, Ashera, though clumsy, used her Vernier and charged at the Minotaur.
She probably grabbed the back of its head with her small hands and inflicted a status abnormality.
The Minotaur collapsed on the spot as if crumbling and began to sleep pleasantly.
“It got both paralysis and sleep.”
“Oh. If paralysis works, then for Ashera it’s just trash.”
“Yeah.”
Apparently, as long as Ashera was with me, the Minotaur completely became trash. Pitiful…
I quickly tried to put the fallen Minotaur into the hole, but it showed no sign of fitting.
It might have been stuck due to its size, but there were no small creatures here.
Whether a living creature could fit here would have to be put on hold.
I drew my dagger and tried to stab the Minotaur, but the blade wouldn’t go in.
Reluctantly, I activated the ultra-vibration and beheaded it.
This time, it seemed like it might fit, but it appeared to be getting caught because of its size.
As I tried various things, it seemed that the more magic I put in, the bigger the hole would become.
I immediately poured in magic to enlarge the hole. When I had used about a quarter of my total magic, I was finally able to get the Minotaur into the hole.
I didn’t feel anything when I’d put in just a skewer, but when I put in something the size of a Minotaur, there was a sense of incongruity in the magic.
It didn’t seem like it would be resolved right away, so I thought it was okay for now, but I wanted to meditate later and check the magic.
“Shall we go back?”
“Yeah.”
At this point, there was nothing more I could do, so I called out to Ashera and returned to the campsite.
“El, I got one Minotaur into the hole, but I used a quarter of my magic.”
“Only a quarter…”
“Yeah, it seems this magic isn’t very fuel-efficient.”
“I see.”
“Also, since I put the Minotaur into the hole, I feel some kind of weirdness with the magic power.”
“Weirdness? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think it’s fine. But since something’s bothering me, do you want to resonate magic with me in a meditative state?”
“In a meditative state? I’m fine with that, but…”
I held El’s hand and entered a meditative state. Come to think of it, we hadn’t resonated magic in a meditative state since the time he taught me magic control.
It was a bit nostalgic, thinking that had been almost ten years ago.
Once I entered meditation, the source of the weirdness with my magic power became immediately clear. Inside me, there was something like a room made of magic that took up about a quarter of my total magical capacity.
I felt El’s magic next to me, but I began to unwind the meditation.
When I awoke, El was standing next to me with a bitter expression. It was still too early to come to a conclusion. I decided to continue testing a little longer.
“El, can you give me some magic power?”
“Yes…”
Saying that, El touched my shoulder.
“Brother, I can’t give you magic power…”
“I figured. Then, can you summon the Minotaur?”
“I’ll try.”
El quickly opened a magic hole and poured in mana, making it bigger. When it reached about the same size as when I had inserted the Minotaur, the Minotaur came out of the hole.
“El, how much magic did you use?”
“About a quarter.”
“I see…”
I cut off the Minotaur’s arm with an ultra-vibration and called out to El.
“El, can you put this arm into the hole?”
“Understood.”
El seemed to immediately make a hole and then insert the Minotaur’s arm.
“Then, in this state, let’s do magical resonance while meditating again.”
“Yes.”
I took El’s hand and entered a meditative state together.
Earlier, there was a room inside me, but this time there was a much smaller room inside El than before.
I discovered most of what I wanted to investigate, so I ended the meditation and gradually awakened.
In front of me stood El, with a serious expression.
“El, try to bring out the Minotaur’s arm.”
“Yes.”
El made a hole and brought out the Minotaur’s arm.
I understood various things, but since I hadn’t fully organized them in my mind yet, I tried speaking my considerations aloud.
“El, it seems that the ‘hole’ reduces my total magical power by the same amount as the object put into it.”
“It seems so, yes.”
“If you take something out of the ‘hole,’ the total magical power returns, but the reduced magic itself doesn’t come back.”
“Yes.”
“The reduction in total magical power only affects the person who put something into the ‘hole.’ It doesn’t affect the other side.”
“Yes.”
“I feel like anything that isn’t alive can go into it… but we’ll need to test it.”
“Yes.”
“Whatever we put in, both you and I can take it out. However, in order to take it out, we need to use the same amount of magical power that we used to put it in.”
“That’s right.”
“As for distance… I somehow feel that distance doesn’t matter.”
“I feel the same way.”
“There’s nothing we can do for now. As for the distance, we can verify it between the Blue Ring and the royal capital after creating a domain in the capital.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
The verification of the hole was temporarily complete. It wasn’t something that could be used immediately, but depending on how it was used, it seemed to be very useful.
She must have been waiting for the verification to finish. My mother spoke to me.
“Al, I was listening to the performance beside you, but in the end, how is it?”
“Yes. It’s difficult to find a suitable time to use it, but I think it’s very useful.”
“I see. For example, what kind of usage could there be?”
“For example… let’s say I get stranded somewhere and have no food.”
“Uh-huh.”
“If I can have Ao take it and put food into the hole, I can survive the hunger.”
“I see. And anything else?”
“Other than that? We can simply use it as a warehouse.”
“Even though the total amount of magical power decreases?”
“I think it depends on the decrease in total magical power and the usefulness of what you put in.”
“That’s true…”
“When I get back, I’ll check what determines the amount it decreases—size, weight, or material.”
Mother didn’t seem to intend to say anything more beyond that.
Since I used quite a bit of magical power for the temporary test, I reported to Naga.
“Naga, I used magical power for the current test. I have 2/3 remaining, and El only has 1/2 left.”
“I see, it went down that much from full…”
“I should have tested with something a little smaller.”
“It’s the right time for camping anyway, so it’s fine.”
After that, everyone returned to their respective camps.
Today’s campout ended up being me and El, Mother and Ashera, and Ms. Naga.
It was the first time it was just me and El, but since we had both been asleep until just a moment ago, there was no helping it.
I was planning to keep watch with El until we got sleepy, so I didn’t think we’d be able to make it all the way to Ms. Naga.
Ao showed up for the regular check-in when everyone was starting to sleep, and today again it was ‘no problems.’ Blue Ring seemed peaceful today as well.
I tried thinking about the hole without making any noise to avoid waking anyone, but to be honest, the performance of that hole felt kind of like an item BOX.
It had quite a few limitations, but it was an ability that gave you a sense of potential. I wanted to check if time passed inside it once we returned to the royal capital.
If used in combination with the domain, magic consumption could be ignored. So many dreams expanding.
But first, before the item BOX, we had the Earth Dragon battle.
The first thing I thought about was who would fight the Earth Dragon… but the most realistic option was the three of us: El, Ashera, and me, as El had mentioned before.
But would Mom and Ms. Naga be convinced? If we left it unresolved and argued right in front of the 10th floor, it would be bad for motivation.
It couldn’t be helped. I guessed I’d have to try talking about it at breakfast tomorrow morning…
I let out a small sigh, and El, who seemed to have heard it, glanced at me.
“It’s nothing,” I replied quietly and looked around.
There was no sign of monsters around; everything was calm.
Even though we were inside the labyrinth, we continued keeping watch leisurely.
Ashera woke me, and I slowly opened my eyes.
“Good morning, Ashera.”
“Good morning, Aldo.”
I greeted everyone and started getting ready for breakfast.
Today was the Earth Dragon battle. In order to increase carbohydrates a little, I would have them eat half a slice of black bread each with jam, and a hot dog with black bread.
“Today is the Earth Dragon battle, so more carbs.”
“Carbohydrates?”
“It’s nothing. Just a hot dog and black bread.”
I served breakfast to everyone and finally placed the dish with jam.
“I’ve gotten used to it, so it’s fine that Al says strange things.”
I could only give a wry smile at Mother’s words.
As breakfast was about to end, I began talking to Mother and Naga about what I had thought about last night.
“Mother, Naga, I have something to talk about.”
Seeing my demeanor, the two of them seemed to listen seriously.
“It’s about the Earth Dragon battle.”
The atmosphere between the two of them sharpened all at once.
“I’m sorry, but I think it would be best if just the three of us—El, Ashera, and I—take on the Earth Dragon…”
I think there was even a murderous intent coming off me, but the two of them said nothing and just silently stared at me.
“I’m sorry…”
When I apologized, the two of them looked at each other and forced smiles.
“It’s strange that I’m considered useless in battle, isn’t it?”
“I feel the same way. Even though we had our secret potion…”
“Do you think that potion could reach the Earth Dragon?”
“That… would be impossible, I think…”
“Ha, it can’t be helped. Then shall the ‘Ice Witch’ and the ‘Healer of Fresh Green’ stay behind together?”
“Rafina. Stop calling me that!”
Mother shrugged her shoulders.
So Ms. Naga also had an epithet… I could understand it, considering how talented she was.
“Mother, Ms. Naga, I’m truly sorry for having you bring me all the way here…”
“Al, if you go any further, we’ll just look miserable, so please stop.”
“Yes. I’m sorry…”
In the slightly somber atmosphere, Ms. Naga spoke jokingly to me.
“But in the fairy tales of future generations, I might appear as ‘the Healer Elf’… maybe.”
Thanks to Ms. Naga, my previously downcast face slowly brightened just a little. The ‘Healer of Fresh Green’ had indeed, even if only slightly, been healing everyone’s hearts.
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