Ch. 18

[What do you mean?]

[Simply put, I can only manifest my abilities with the materials I have absorbed—gold, silver, copper, iron, bronze, emerald, sapphire, ruby, pearl, onyx, and amber. Only those ten.]

[…I take back my excitement!]

[My abilities require a foundation to work with. Like this body! Didn’t I tell you? Creating something from nothing is difficult.]

So, it could only use what it had absorbed?

It was a simple yet frustrating system. No wonder it drooled over metals all the time.

Wait, something didn’t add up.

[You said you could absorb them, so I put them in, but… pearls aren’t metal. Neither is amber.]

[Exactly. That’s why I told you, human words cannot fully describe what I am.]

[Can you explain in a way that actually makes sense?]

At my question, the snake-shaped Rai shook his head before sighing in exasperation.

[Do you remember when I first introduced myself as a spirit of minerals, but then settled on metals?]

[Yeah, that was just last week.]

[Minerals are part of my domain. And so are all things classified as metals. The same goes for gemstones. But I introduced myself as a metal spirit because it was the closest term humans would understand. You know about Orichalcum, right? That rare metal extracted from meteorites? It doesn’t come from the ground, yet it’s classified as metal. And it falls within my domain.]

[That’s… complicated.]

[Pearls and amber fall into the same category. Since they are considered gemstones, they fall under my domain. Honestly, I even debated introducing myself as a solid spirit… but that wouldn’t be accurate either, since there are plenty of solids—like wood and grains of sand—that I have no power over. Even among stones, many are beyond my reach. Do you understand now?]

[So, in short… you make up your own rules?]

[Perhaps. But I was simply born this way. I didn’t decide what I can or cannot do.]

Of course, Rai was a spirit, and spirits didn’t think like humans.

Sometimes, our conversations felt completely out of sync.

[Then who does decide?]

[Nature. Or perhaps the god of this world. What’s certain is that we are closer to divinity than humans. We live far longer and are far superior.]

The snake’s obsidian-like eyes gleamed with an eerie light.

A black gemstone… onyx.

It was indeed classified as both a stone and a gemstone, meaning it was also a mineral.

Seeing Rai in this light, I had to admit—he was hard to categorize.

[Well, at least I understand one thing. The more metals I feed you, the more useful you become, right?]

[Exactly. As long as I have mana, I can also increase the amount of any material I have absorbed.]

[So if you absorb a diamond, you can produce more of it?]

[Of course.]

Yes!

I clenched both fists in excitement.

“I was destined to be rich!”

[However, Master’s mana is far too weak to handle diamonds.]

Rai’s tone suddenly became very serious.

[With your current mana capacity… you could probably mass-produce copper. Maybe a handful.]

Why did that feel like an insult?

I was pretty sure he just looked me up and down in judgment.

“…Your eyes are being disrespectful.”

[Perish the thought! My gaze is filled with nothing but respect and loyalty.]

“That’s just a rock.”

[A very shiny rock.]

“You sure know how to talk your way out of things. Anyway, so the issue is mana?”

Training mana was annoying, but it wasn’t difficult.

I just needed to put in more effort.

For the sake of my comfortable future.

After all, money was always a good thing. Life was all about having goals.

I rubbed my chin, staring at my metal-eating pet snake.

At first, I had written it off as useless, but if I played my cards right, this thing wouldn’t just produce gold—it could potentially create diamonds.

Suddenly, it seemed a little cuter.

…Alright, fine. I was a pretty fickle person.

“Oh, right. Since you’re a pet, you need this.”

[What is it?]

“A ribbon.”

That way, people wouldn’t be scared of it. A snake with a ribbon was cute.

A big ribbon would be even better.

It would make it obvious that it had an owner.

[…Are you serious?]

“What about it?”

[Are you seriously serious?]

“You don’t like ribbons?”

[I do not.]

“Then how about a bell? A bell snake—”

[A ribbon is truly an excellent idea! Have I ever told you? I’ve always wanted to wear a ribbon.]

Oh, good. I was glad he liked it.

Now, what kind of ribbon should I get?

I was having fun.

Even if I was the only one enjoying myself.

From then on, I started gathering all sorts of metals and rare gemstones.

But I was only allowed to leave the academy four times a year.

So the amount of metals and gems I could collect was limited.

“…Sigh.”

“Geenie, why the sigh? Something on your mind?”

Mia looked at me with concern. She was always unusually interested in me.

“I want to leave the academy. It’s so suffocating here.”

“I see. I have a problem too.”

“…You?”

Mia was a recognized genius in alchemy.

Her mind operated on a level I couldn’t even comprehend.

She even thought studying was fun, which was already beyond my understanding.

For her to have a problem?

“Yeah, it’s a serious issue.”

“What is it?”

“There’s a storage room in the alchemy lab where we keep experimental metals.”

“Oh?”

Oho. Now that sounded interesting.

I’d have to tell Rai about this.

“But last night, a thief broke in!”

“…Huh?”

“All the metals in the storage room disappeared overnight! We’re talking tons of material, but not a single trace was left behind.

The professors are in an uproar because they have no idea how it happened.

The room was protected by security magic, so no human could enter… It’s a total mystery.”

“Oh… oh my.”

“I mean, unless it vanished into thin air, how could so much metal disappear overnight? Isn’t it strange?”

I had a very good idea who the culprit was.

And I knew them very well.

…I decided to keep my mouth shut.

“Haaah… so all practical lessons are suspended until we replenish the metals. This is the worst! No experiments, no classes—it’s a disaster!”

“…Yeah, sounds terrible. I’m so sorry for you, Mia. Stay strong.”

Shouldn’t she be happy that classes were canceled? Mia really was a special kind of person.

Still, Rai was surprisingly fast at what he did.

That snake barely stayed by my side during the day. He spent most of his time hunting for food on his own, only returning to me at night.

And lately, he was looking noticeably plumper.

So it wasn’t just my imagination.

“I’m feeling down. So, Geenie…”

Mia had that I want something expression on her face.

“As a way to cheer me up, can you summon Undine?”

“You again… Undine isn’t a toy, you know.”

“But she’s so fascinating, and cute, and lovable! Just seeing her makes me happy… Undine is like a little fairy.”

“Hm, well… I suppose she is pretty adorable. Fine! Why not?”

I normally wouldn’t summon Undine for such trivial reasons, but I was feeling a bit guilty today. So, I decided to indulge Mia’s request.

“Undine.”

Maybe it was because of our soul contract.

Whenever I summoned a spirit, my voice felt… different.

Even though I spoke the same way, it was as if my words were traveling along an entirely separate path.

Like my voice extended beyond this world into another.

Whenever I called Undine’s name, I felt like, if only for a brief moment, I was something other than human.

Bloop.

Water gathered in midair, forming Undine, who spun around me before flitting between Mia and me like a tiny bird.

Undine always seemed to know what I wanted.

Whether I was calling for training or simply to play, she just understood.

“She’s beautiful. Is it because she’s made of water? She sparkles in the sunlight. I never knew spirits could be like this. I wish I had one too!”

“Then get one.”

“Ehh, but I have zero affinity. I can’t become a Spirit Mage. I can’t even gather mana…”

“But you have talent in other areas, Mia. That’s just as amazing.”

It had already been two months since I had formed a contract with Undine.

Now that I had real experience handling spirits, I finally understood why Master Yael had emphasized certain things so much.

Mental strength, affinity, mana.

Lacking any one of them was unacceptable. And as a child, I was lacking in everything.

Mana shortages were the least of my problems—what drained me the most was my mental energy.

Every time I summoned a spirit, my head would grow heavy, and my entire body would become exhausted.

Even the slightest strain would make me dizzy and give me nosebleeds.

I had no idea how one was supposed to train mental fortitude, but every day, it felt more and more impossible.

Right now, my limit was summoning Undine for about twenty minutes.

And that was if I didn’t give her any commands.

The moment I made her do anything, my mana drained at several times the normal rate.

If I attempted to use actual Spirit Magic, my limit was barely two or three minutes.

In that sense, Rai was remarkable.

I didn’t want to admit it, but the fact that he didn’t drain any mana while summoned was an incredible advantage.

According to Rai, he wasn’t technically summoned.

He was merely waiting in the physical world of his own volition.

Apparently, for a spirit to remain in the Middle Plane by choice, they needed a few things:

First, they required a contractor.

Second, they had to be a colossal big shot, either a Spirit King or a being born from the Spirit Realm itself.

…Basically, he was just bragging.

‘That guy’s personality really is something else.’

Regardless, I was still learning a lot about spirits.

I still hated studying, but practical experience was proving much more helpful than theory.

“Geenie! You said lower water spirits are called Undine, right? What about the others?”

“Mid-tier water spirits are called Undaine. I read that they look like fish.”

“Whoa, when can you summon one?”

“Hmm, usually, it takes about twenty years of summoning lower spirits before a person can succeed in summoning a mid-tier one… assuming they even have the talent for it.”

“But you’re a genius, so you’ll do it much faster, right?”

“My real goal is a high-tier spirit. It’s called Endairon. Among spirits that humans can summon, it’s the strongest. Of course, there’s also the supreme-tier Elethestra… and the Water Spirit King, Elaim, but those are beyond human reach. So my goal is just a modest high-tier spirit.”

I smiled, but Mia muttered that there was nothing modest about that goal.

“Did you know? The mana cost difference between a lower and mid-tier spirit is more than five times. And for high-tier, it’s another ten times more than mid-tier. For supreme-tier, I don’t know the exact numbers, but if the pattern holds, it would require about twenty times as much mana. I can’t even imagine that. Can humans even control something like that?”

“Well, if we’re setting goals, why not aim for Elethestra, the supreme-tier water spirit? How about it? I feel like you could do it, Geenie!”

“If I was going that far, I might as well aim for the Spirit King. Unless I was an ancient human, though, that’s impossible. I prefer realistic goals.”

The ancient humans were supposedly different from modern ones.

They had wielded both magic and swordsmanship, commanded spirits as household pets, and possessed power that rivaled celestials and demons alike.

They were, undeniably, the most beloved race of the Creator.

Some theories suggested that humanity had weakened because they had disappointed the Creator.

That during the Celestial-Demon War, humans had made a fatal mistake—one that caused them to lose their divine protection entirely.

…Not that any of that had anything to do with me.

I rolled across the grassy field, enjoying the earthy scent and warm sunshine.

It was the perfect weather for a nap.

“All that aside, my real goal is to get rich!”