Chapter 105

Mana coins are coins.

Mana bills are paper money.

Everything in the world is made of mana patterns.

A wildflower, a breeze, myself, and you too.

However, formless mana that hasn’t yet become anything drifts through the air.

There existed special materials that could store this formless mana.

Mana herbs like mugwort and garlic,

Mana blood like horse blood and chicken blood,

And expensive mana stones occasionally found in deep mines.

These were refined, condensed, or coated to make mana coins and mana bills—the currency of our world. Using mana coins and mana bills, even ordinary people who weren’t mages… that is, mana beginners, could use magical tools.

Until now, that’s all I knew.

But according to the cube, the reason they could store mana was because they contained the “Philosopher’s Stone.”

-Something that can become anything because it hasn’t yet become anything… the Philosopher’s Stone is a substance that gathers that possibility and makes it bloom as desired. Administrators created it in the early days of creation to facilitate creation and research, but unexpected side effects led to a ban on its production.

“Side effects? What were they?”

The cube drifted smoothly over the Stone of Wind.

-Demigods were born from the Philosopher’s Stone. Spirits are also representative of the demigod race.

“Demigods?”

-Spirits, giants, magical beasts, nephilim, and so on… beings with power similar to Administrators but bound to the Akashic Record in other ways. Parts of them are made of divine bodies, but the rest consists of the Philosopher’s Stone. Half of them transcends the universe, while the other half is bound to it.

“But… why was their birth considered a side effect?”

-They had the potential to be born as perfect Administrators. However, they were caught by the Philosopher’s Stone and born in an incomplete form. The demigod races kept increasing, but the birth of true Administrators became rare. The Administrators believed the Philosopher’s Stone was producing deformities.

“Deformities…”

Everything in the world was made of mana patterns, or Akashic Record entries, but magical power was different. Magical power existed separately from mana and was the power to freely manipulate mana. In a way, it was a power free from—no, a power that governed—the laws.

In contrast, though the Philosopher’s Stone could transform into anything… it was ultimately a substance made of mana.

No matter how extraordinary this substance might be, it was still just an object defined by the Akashic Record.

‘From the perspective of true gods, demigods might well appear as deformities.’

With these thoughts, a question arose.

“So magical power transcends the universe, while the Philosopher’s Stone is bound to our universe? Because it’s a substance defined by the Akashic Record?”

-YES. That is correct.

“Then… where does magical power come from? From outside the universe?”

The cube drew a circle in the air. Then it spoke in a dejected voice.

-Regarding the origin of divine bodies… I don’t know. I’m not sure if I never knew or if my memory is incomplete.

Well. For the cube, this was already remembering an enormous amount.

My head became complicated.

There can be no disagreement about the existence of gods. The cube right in front of me was evidence of that…

But where did these gods come from?

Why weren’t there such gods on Earth?

People of the Star Continent acquire knowledge from the second dimension through memory stones. But I’ve never heard of memory stones existing in the second dimension. Why do we have them and they don’t? What’s the difference?

Why are the gods of our dimension like this while gods of other dimensions remain intact…

Unable to find answers to these questions, my thoughts turned to discontent.

Why is the world in this state?

How much more will it deteriorate in the future?

Given all this,

‘How can I not be greedy?’

I wanted to become stronger as quickly as possible.

To properly understand all of this,

To change this damn world…

Fortunately, there was one way to become stronger right now.

That was ‘evolution’!

I turned my gaze to the Stone of Wind.

“So this is a wind spirit? But it’s dried up with only the shell remaining?”

-Yes. It appears that its core components—the divine body and Philosopher’s Stone—are depleted.

“Then is it dead? Is there a possibility of reviving its consciousness?”

-Even demigods are half-immortal. If sufficient Philosopher’s Stone is supplied, the consciousness can be awakened.

I turned my gaze to the anvil. The rice-grain-sized Philosopher’s Stone.

“Would that be enough?”

-It’s too small. The purity is also lacking.

“…Then how much is needed?”

-With Philosopher’s Stone of over 90 percent purity… about twice that size should be sufficient.

Twice the size…

The cost of making that rice-grain-sized Philosopher’s Stone was 1.5 Morning. For the same size at 90 percent purity, I’d need to refine about 2.2 Morning.

Twice that size would be 4.4 Morning. In Earth money, that would be about 440,000 won.

Not a small amount, but considering it’s the cost to awaken a wind spirit, it’s incredibly cheap.

‘I have plenty of money anyway.’

I had about 2,000 Morning from the resources seized after defeating Han Se-hoon’s group. Since I’d been too busy to spend money, it was all still in my subspace storage.

“That’s cheaper than I expected. Twice this size, right?”

I examined the rice-grain-sized Philosopher’s Stone.

I was about to open my subspace storage to take out money when the cube interrupted.

-Excuse me, Administrator? That’s not it.

“What?”

The cube circled around the Stone of Wind. The Stone of Wind was elongated like a sweet potato and just the right size to fit in a hand.

-Not that. Based on the current size of the wind spirit here, about twice that amount is needed…

…What?

Wait.

So that means,

How much…?

* * *

“180,000 Morning…”

My mind went blank.

But,

“I have to get it… by any means necessary.”

Yes,

I had to.

Eighteen thousand Morning wasn’t the issue. I needed more, infinitely more money.

“To think the Philosopher’s Stone had such utility…!”

When I ran [Simulation] to confirm the cube’s words, I discovered something surprising. It wasn’t just about evolving the Stone of Wind.

When using the Philosopher’s Stone as a medium, the success rate of evolution increased dramatically.

Something that would succeed maybe four times out of ten now succeeded more than nine times out of ten.

Moreover,

‘I can evolve Iron Blood again!’

Iron Blood, which had already undergone one evolution, had less than a 5 percent chance of successful evolution when I ran [Simulation]. There was a 60 percent chance Iron Blood would be annihilated and a 35 percent chance it would be severely damaged.

Unfortunately, even with [Simulation], I could only determine the probability of evolution results but not predict them accurately, so I had resignedly given up on Iron Blood’s second evolution.

I couldn’t risk our Iron Blood on such a gamble.

But now!

Things were different. With enough Philosopher’s Stone!

I could evolve both the Stone of Wind and evolve Iron Blood once more. Safely!

…I needed to get money.

I immediately went to find Pan-Dalus.

“What’s the matter?”

“I need money.”

“Hmm? How much? I can support you within reason.”

“For now, I need about 180,000 Morning.”

“One-One hundred and eighty… th-thousand?! Ahem! I’m sorry. I can’t support that. Even selling the entire Solas Magic School wouldn’t be enough. Are you planning to build an army?”

“Then how much can you support me with?”

“Expedition preparations have left us short on funds. But since it’s you asking, I could allocate about 5,000 Morning from the budget.”

“5,000 Morning…”

I held out my hand.

“Then give me that much at least.”

“Hmm…!”

“No, wait. Since you’re giving it anyway, be a little more generous. Give me 10,000 Morning. I can at least earn my keep for that much.”

“W-what are you saying? No. Even if I wanted to, the budget is insufficient. Why do you need such a large sum?”

“Don’t be like that. You must have quite a bit saved up, don’t you?”

“A-are you suggesting I empty my personal savings?”

Facing the astonished Pan-Dalus, I didn’t change my expression.

“Yes. Because money isn’t the issue. Isn’t the fate of the world at stake?”

Having decided to do whatever it takes,

There was no room for shame.

* * *

“Heheh… so the more money you spend, the stronger you can become?”

“It’s not quite that simple… but essentially, yes.”

“Heheh, you really are remarkable.”

A wide-open space.

Pan-Dalus and I had come to Experimental Ground #1, which had the best view in Ganda’s Stairs.

I had already received 10,000 Morning and was discussing ways to obtain the remaining 170,000 Morning.

“Good. If that’s the case, I’ll gladly cooperate. But as I said earlier, it’s not easy to quickly earn around 170,000 Morning. Even if such valuable items existed, the market would need enough money to purchase them.”

“…We’ll have to try anyway.”

“Indeed! You’ve got spirit. Now, show me what you have.”

Woong!

One Mobility disc.

I took out one set each of beam hilts and booster boots from 10th class down to 7th class.

“These ancient relics are in excellent condition!”

Pan-Dalus examined the items with sparkling eyes.

“But they have a limited usage time?”

“Yes. Usually they work fine for about a month, but after that, they stop due to power depletion. However, they recharge inside relic sites like cities or stairs.”

“Oh! That’s good. They’ll sell very well.”

“How much can we get for each?”

“Let’s see…”

Pan-Dalus tried all the beam hilts, Mobility discs, and booster boots before stating a price.

“Mobility discs at 700 Morning each, beam hilts from 10th class at 15, 30, 70, 300 Morning. Booster boots at 30, 60, 150, 500 Morning each.”

“…Is that all?”

“Hey now! ‘All’? I’ve considered the market price for items with similar performance. I’ve even added a premium for them being rare relics.”

“Hmm…”

Cube! How many Mobility discs do we have left?

-Including the one you just took out, there are 151 Mobility discs remaining.

I couldn’t sell all of them. I needed them too. If I sold 100, that would be 70,000 Morning.

What about the personal equipment?

-There are 387 sets of 10th class combat equipment, 273 sets of 9th class, 81 sets of 8th class, and 27 sets of 7th class remaining.

Similarly, leaving some for myself and selling about 300, 200, 60, and 20 sets respectively… that would total 60,100 Morning.

Altogether, 130,100 Morning… still 40,000 Morning short. Damn it! One! Hundred! Eighty! Thousand! Morning! You are…!

“And as I said, it will take time to sell them at their proper value. There’s no nearby market that can absorb hundreds of ancient relics at once.”

Pan-Dalus estimated it would take more than a year. But I couldn’t wait that long.

So I had to sell that.

That one.

Cube. How many of those do we have?

-That one? With your current authorization, you can only mobilize up to 5th class equipment. There are seven units of 5th class and twenty-one units of 6th class.

Another benefit of getting the cube.

Actually, I hadn’t been able to properly utilize my subspace storage until now. I had used it intuitively, but it was like fumbling in a dark warehouse, and delicate operations like inventory management were impossible.

Only recently did I discover that this was because the storage’s auxiliary ego was damaged.

I learned this thanks to the cube.

It had absorbed the damaged auxiliary ego and started serving as the storage’s ego.

‘Thanks to that, I can now take this out too.’

“Put one 6th class on standby.”

-Issuing master code… issued. Standby complete.

The list of transportable supplies increased by one more item.

[T-rans-por-tay-shun!]

Space tore open and a giant appeared.

A height of three meters and sixty centimeters. A complex body assembled from metal plates of unknown material.

A nearly two-meter sword hung at its waist, and sharp horns protruded from its head.

In battle, it could emit wings of light and fly at high speed.

-Standing by.

Its telepathy reached me with a heavy sensation.

“…You bastard.”

Clang!

I kicked its shin.

Of course, as its master, if I told it to die, it would self-destruct immediately, but…

Coming face to face with it, I felt a surge of irritation.

That’s right.

It was a Guardian.