Chapter 37: Magical Study
After that we continued peddling and for some reason the accessory salesman stayed with us.
I was getting a transportation fee so I didn't complain, but I couldn't get why he was doing this.
It seems the incident with the thieves made him really like me. The accessory salesman revealed what he was and said that he wouldn't stop lecturing me until he got off the carriage.
Incredibly, his objective was to go around and learn the faces of the peddlers invading this area, and give a warning to them after riding with them. He was an assassin for the merchant association.
During that he saw my quality and wanted to polish me, or something...
On top of that the accessory salesman held quite a bit of power in the association. On the surface he was kind, but he was famous for not taking disciples or teaching things to others. I found out when a merchant I met later complained to me about it.
As for what he taught me, first was how to obtain jewels and things to work them with. The accessory salesman gave me letters of introduction to give to an acquaintance of his at a mine so I could obtain these.
Next was how to work precious metals into accessories. It seemed like there were a lot of different elaborate designs that he was working on now. I myself am an otaku when it comes to drawings so I had some knowledge for this. When I tried making something that felt like the design he liked it.
He also sold me tools for crafting cheaply.
There was a magical tool used for fuel that only existed in this world. It was a magical stone similar to coal.
As expected the shield reacted to it, but it was pretty pricey so I couldn't go about absorbing it.
There were a few things that looked like what you would call rock polishers and burners in my world. They were used to make accessories.
He said that it was common sense to take iron or other hard metals to a forge and make then into molds. Well, after doing this much I was able to make it correctly thanks to my crafting skill.
And the main part started here.
Working on enchantments.
As I thought you needed to be able to use magic to do this.
I was growling at the spell book in one of my hands after being unable to perform magic when the accessory salesman called out to me.
"Can you not use magic hero-sama?"
"Yeah, my subordinates said that I have to tune my magic power, but I doing really get what magic power is."
"Ah, I understand...that's what it was."
For some reason, the accessory salesman pulled something out of his breast pocket that looked like small and transparent shards and brought them to me.
"What's this?"
"The fragment of a certain rare ore. It is expensive."
"Hmm...."
"You are able to read the language correct?"
"Kind of...if it's something easy."
If you spend almost a month touching on and seriously working with this world's letters, then you'll start learning them.
I still can't read difficult wording, but I'd become able to read easy things.
"The what's left is just magic practice. If you can just feel the magic that will be enough."
Ummm...that's something that's pretty difficult you just said.
While thinking that, I rolled the shards he passed me about in my hands.
The shards slowly began to glow.
It was like...how to say it. There was another hand in myself that I hadn't know about until now, and I guess it felt like it had started to move.
There was an organ that had been with me without my knowing it and right now I was confronted with it's existence. That's how it felt.
It was like a bird who didn't know how to fly flapping it's wings for the first time...
"It kind of, feels weird."
"In truth you can feel magic without using something like this, but it seems you grew up without knowing it, so I thought I would test it out. It looks like it was a success."
"...I see."
While opening the magic book I had deciphered I started reading.
I felt it as I matched the additional arm called magic with my own arms.
The writing started to glowed. This was what only I could read, the magic carved into myself.
'The shield hero gives his power and commands you. Now, read and solve one principle and protect his person!'
"First Guard!"
A target mark floated into my vision. As a test I tried choosing myself.
A pale light latched onto me.
I checked my status and saw that part had improved.
"Ohhh..."
"It seems you were able to learn it. Then I will teach you how to enchant."
The accessory salesman ignored my amazement and started lecturing me.
I finally managed to learn it, but he put it aside just like that...
And so, from the accessory salesman's lesson, I learned how to enchant items.
I added magic to the gem I had crafted. The way the magic equipped on a gem affected it was something you could control.
At first it took a lot of time, but now that I could use magic, the shield also corrected my work. I became able to do it in a few tries.
For more difficult things, it seemed I could mix in power from other gems or other sources like taking out the magic from medicine.
"Well, that is about it for the basics. Please learn the rest on your own and make use of it in your peddling."
After saying that the accessory salesman left the carriage.
This is how, on top of being able to prepare medicine, I learned how to craft things.
I came to need ore for crafting, so we went to the town with the mine that had been introduced to me.
"Hmmm...that person has recommended you?"
A man who was well built like a miner looked at me suspiciously, but after looking at the accessory salesman's letter he was surprised and asked me.
"This is definitely his seal. But to think that guy who's so strict with money would give a recommendation..."
"What do you mean?"
Listening to his story, it seemed the accessory salesman was well known among merchants for being extremely cheap.
It seemed the miner was suspicious of me who had such a cheap person's recommendation, but after seeing it was real he was just surprised.
"Since that person introduced you it's fine. How much do you want to pay? With this letter it's very negotiable."
"Um, would you let me mine too? Like that it should be even cheaper right?"
"Eh? Ah, well...if you do that then you can get it for almost free but..."
I was interested in the mining skill.
I left Raphtalia and Firo in charge of the peddling, and went into the mine carrying a pickax.
Pickaxes resounded and echoed throughout the cave. It was actually kind of noisy.
The air seemed stagnant and stifling.
However, I guess it was to be expected from a different world, there were exposed crystals in the wall that emitted watery light.
"This mine is safe as long as nothing extreme happens. You can dig wherever you want, but the chance of cave-ins is not zero so please be careful."
That makes sense.
We went a little further into they cave after miner said this. He must have been guiding me to a stable area.
I slowly raised my pickax.
As I did a point on the wall shined with a light in a cross pattern.
What? Should I just dig into here?
"Tei!"
I gave the pickax speed and swung it down.
With a metallic clang, cracks appeared on the wall.
The cracks started crackling and spreading as the wall crumbled.
"Uwah!"
This wall is really brittle.
"Ha?"
The mine was looking at me uncomprehendingly.
"You broke that hard bedrock with one swing...?"
...it was hard?
It might have been thanks to my mining skill, after one swing the wall broke, and in no time at all gemstones rolled out.
Only, my level must have been low since there were walls that wouldn't break no matter how much I swung at them.
"Alright I'll take these with me."
"R-right."
I put the gemstones in my bag and left the mine walking quickly.
By the way, if I was near the mine I could dig into the ground with a how like I was plowing and mine gemstones.
It seemed they were unexpectedly easier to find in this area.
Though a problem was that the gems found close to the mine tended to have poor quality for magic.
According to the knowledge of my world, in famous places you could dig like you were in a field and gems would roll out.
I guess because it was a different world. It seemed like high quality gems were stuck deep in the earth.
You created a ruby bracelet!
Quality Good->High quality
As a test I tried making it, but the materials used were good so I was able to make a pretty good piece.
I'll also try adding magic to it.
Ruby bracelet (fire-resistance+)
Quality High quality->Normal
Uu...added magic made the quality fall quite a bit.
Like this I also started working with equipment, and my peddling journey continued.
By the way, making accessories inside the carriage was pretty hard, so I could only make them before we rested for the night.
On top of that, whether it was gems or completed works, even using the shield, my level and tree expansion weren't good enough to alter them.
I guess I'm just an expert at selling things.
By the way, I was able to sell that bracelet for 80 silver coins after taking 2 days to make it. Just making the ring for the foundation took time.
It seemed that the value of gems in this world was less than that of my world.
It looked like it was worth it to make new designs to match the fads. It was a somewhat inconsistent theme.
It seemed there were always different booms. Even it different worlds it looked like there were still fads.
Or rather, the most expensive gems were the ones I didn't know about.
However, thinking about the days it took to produce something was a fine line.
Even then, we were earning quite a bit of money. It was a good time to start making full scale equipment.
The conditions for the Iron Ore Shield have been unlocked. The conditions for the Copper Ore Shield have been unlocked. The conditions for the Silver Ore Shield have been unlocked. The conditions for the Lead Ore Shield have been unlocked.
Iron Ore Shield
True power sealed...equipment bonus, smelting skill 2
Copper Ore Shield
True power sealed...equipment bonus, smelting skill 1
Silver Ore Shield
True power sealed...equipment bonus, attack power from demon-type 2% cut
Lead Ore Shield
True power sealed...equipment bonus, Defense Power 1
The skills I got seemed to imply it would be better to leave it to the old guy at the weapon shop. I guess it's not like you can do everything well.
The lead shield looked like it had had it's skill overwritten due to an earlier shield.
I probably won't use this skill.
Like that our days as peddlers continued, and one day this happened.
It was just as we were heading to a town in the south.
From a reliable source, one of the accessory salesman's acquaintances, we heard that there was a place that wanted a lot of herbicide.
From the sound of it only the speed of the heavenly bird...Firo could make it in time.
It wasn't like we were merchants of death, but we could get a lot of money, so we headed toward a town in the southwest.