CH 166

“Fuah! Look at how big they are. Doesn’t this negate the need to develop the land and construct a town, Master Rust!?”

Says Shellrule while rubbing one of Eve’s bamboo walls and sighing with excitement and admiration.

“Use the pendulum to take a good look at the ground, Shellrule.”

I say while pointing to a magic element line running in the ground. I taught everyone in the Kagero Institute a simple method to see magic elements.

Shellrule then takes out her pendulum, and squints while carefully observing the ground.

Her pendulum has a monster bone in the tip of the chain carved into the shape of a curricular pyramid. It’s also hollow, and has that monster’s magic stone inside. It’s a very good item.

“Wow. Are the roots connected to magic element lines? Are they taking in magic elements directly?”

“Correct! Good job Shellrule, it looks like you’ve been training. Wonderful.”

I compliment her efforts without holding back. Back when she first joined the Kagero Institute, she couldn’t see magic elements at all, just like all the other apprentices. But in such a short amount of time, she progressed to the point where she can see magic elements as well as a master ranked alchemist.

“…! T-thank you very much!”

Shellrule hangs her head for some reason, and I continue my explanation while thinking it looks adorable.

“As you saw, Eve has stretched its roots along the magic element lines of the monster repelling barrier, and it’s borrowing magic elements from them a little at a time. A transmuted beast alone couldn’t hope to maintain all of this by itself.”

“I see. So if it stayed like this forever…”

I shake my head.

“It probably wouldn’t hold for more than half a year. And it slowly weakens the monster repelling barrier. That’s why we also did this.”

I touch Eve with my right hand, and say another keyword.

“Eve, 『Sleep』.”

Eve’s movements become slower, and the growth of the entire town that was still going on stops.

“This should make it last longer. In the meantime, we can develop the land and build an actual town. Also, the bamboo houses are not fit for cooking.”

I say the last part to Shellrule with a joking tone, but rather than laugh, she just looks at me with a sparkle in her eyes.

“Hey, Rust! I’m done here. Are you done over there? I’m going underground.”

Says Master Halhammer while approaching us. It looks like he finished giving everyone else instructions while I talked to Shellrule.

“I’m done too. Shellrule, please check Eve’s condition here.”

“Understood! I studied how external factors can cause a transmuted beast to go berserk. Leave it to me! Although I can’t imagine that happening with a transmuted beast made by Master Rust…”

She energetically accepts this task, and I go meet up with the members who are going underground.