CH 301

The eight tornadoes attack the giant praying mantis.

One is skillfully blocked, then one is dodged, and then one more, but that’s what I expected.

The next tornado scrapes its wing.

Good, it lost its balance.

Then it all happens very fast.

As the giant praying mantis loses its balance, tornadoes start swarming it.

The grinding caused by diamond dust focuses on the praying mantis’ joins as they carve its body, which quickly turns to pieces.

“Kahelone, it’s over. Now let’s see what I can use here.”

I call out to Kahelone while putting on the same glove with the 《Purify》 effect as always on my left hand to harvest materials.

I’m feeling pretty good as I approach the torn apart praying mantis.

“Kya! There’s so much green sludge… Hum, Rust? W-what are you doing with that?”

Asks Kahelone as I grab a scythe with my left hand, and check for curses with my right hand while being careful not to touch it. It looks like she has come out of the passage.

She’s being careful not to step anywhere the praying mantis’ fluids have splashed.

“I’m thinking of taking this to use as materials. Ah, or do you want to take them because we’re on the church’s grounds?”

Kahelone shakes her head as hard as she can. I’ll just put them in my backpack then.

Kahelone clearly looks relieved when I do it.

Great, she’s not going to ask to share it because of where we are. I can feel a clear purifying light reaction of magic elements and curses from this scythe.

I pick up other parts that catch my eye and put them in my backpack. Kahelone looks a bit creeped out by it.

I don’t know what I can do with these materials, but I feel there’s something dangerous about them, that makes me think they really are connected to Zwei. Was Kalin’s hunch right yet again?

“Oh?”

“What is it, Rust?”

Says Kahelone as she walks towards me, clearly feeling relieved about not having to see the praying mantis’ remains anymore.

“Well, the scroll that was cut is gone…”

“Ah, I saw it. The pieces fell on the ground, and shortly after burned with a deep blue flame and disappeared without a trace. I thought for sure it was a mechanism you put in place to protect secrets related to alchemy.”

“A deep blue flame… No, it wasn’t that important, and it wouldn’t warrant such strict security. Hm…”

I think about the magic circuit I use on 《Polish》 scrolls.

Almost every part is just widely used stuff. The magic circuit itself has maybe three parts that are originals made by me. It was a bit hard to balance the whole thing, if I remember correctly. Does the blue flame mean Zwei collected it? I can’t imagine for what purpose.

Kahelone looks concerned as I think about this.

I let out a small laugh when I notice her concern, and tell her it’s nothing, before asking her to continue guiding me to where Ghan’s body was.