I thought it would be a good idea to prepare for the next extra stage.

Practicing magic is great and all, but I can more or less do it during the next stage if needed.

There weren't many opportunities in the dungeon for this, so it would be a waste if I didn't prepare.

Firstly, I started enchanting scrolls with armageddon.

Since I don't really need all that mana right now, I might as well store it for later.

I don't know what I will have to face in those three remaining extra stages.

But I wish I thought of doing this earlier.

If I started right after defeating that turtle, I would have almost twenty of them by now.

So far, I only made three of them.

When I was making the first one, I did it in the library.

And...that didn't end too well.

Everyone inside completely freaked out and called the guards.

Since I was already making it, I couldn't really stop halfway.

The guards, who promptly arrived, feared to even get close to me.

Apparently, I was using so much mana, that even a non-magician could clearly see it.

They thought I was going to blow up the castle with it, but I assured them I wasn't.

It made quite the scene, but I explained it was just preparation for the future.

Well, luckily the king looked like he understood what I meant.

After all, he knows all about the extra stages and the dungeon I was in.

But he made me promise I will be extra careful to not accidentally destroy the castle with this.

I made the other two scrolls in my room to not cause a scene again.

Also, although I don't really like heavy armor, some light equipment might be nice.

I only really had the bracelet and mantle from the dungeon.

So I made a deal with the king.

If I spar regularly with his knights and the hero to make them gain experience, he will introduce me to someone, who will help me get better gear.

Of course, I only have to spar with them for the duration I stay here.

And in those few days, I could feel all the people sparring with me getting better.

Especially Dan, the hero.

Speaking of Dan, even though I meet him every day now, he is still reluctant to speak to me.

All he does is greet and say goodbye to me when we start and end our training session.

Not that I mind, but seriously, where did all of his enthusiasm go?

The first day, he acted like he was on top of the world.

And now, he is mostly silent and just does whatever he is told to do.

Since he is training so diligently, he is steadily getting stronger, so I guess that's good for him.

But why is he so depressed now?

I don't get it.

...

Well, I'm sure he will be fine.

He's a hero after all.

Anyway, today is finally the day, when I'll meet a certain person.

It's the kingdom's best magic tool craftsman I kept hearing about on my way to this city.

Darius, the coachman driver who drove me here, was the one to escort me.

We drove in yet another carriage through the city.

But it wasn't too far and we arrived in about half an hour.

I exited the carriage and looked at the place we arrived at.

It was a long mansion-like building.

When the guards outside the front door saw me, they readied their spears.

But Darius stepped forward and whispered something to them.

They then opened the door and let us through.

We entered into a long hallway with doors everywhere.

Right away, Darius talked to the man who greeted us near the entrance.

Meanwhile, I took a look through the few opened doors on the sides.

There were people running around carrying things, sitting on a chair fiddling with something or messing with some big mechanism.

It was a really busy place.

I wonder what all these things do?

The few magic tools Darius showed me were pretty intriguing, so all of these must be similarly interesting.

When those two finished talking, the man promptly exited through one of the doors.

He went to inform the owner of this place.

In the meantime, we were told to wait in the break room.

Following Darius, I entered the break room through another one of the doors.

There were three tables with several chairs and in the corner I could see some strange devices behind a counter.

Other than us two, there was nobody else.

Darius sat at one of the tables while I decided to look around.

More specifically, I wanted to check out the stuff in the corner.

Well, Darius told me to not touch them, so I just looked.

Most of those devices have mana flowing through them, but I can't quite tell what they are supposed to do.

There are several different metal boxes lined up and some smaller items lying on top of them.

It kind of looks like cookware, but why does it have such specific mana patterns inside it?

As I look around, someone else enters the room.

It's an old woman with wrinkled face.

She is wearing some brown robes and her short gray hair looks quite messy.

Her sleepy eyes under the glasses look around the room until they finally land on me.

They widen for a second before frowning.

"So, you are the one?"

...could this be the owner of this place?

I barely feel any mana coming from her.

How can she even create all these magic tools with that little mana?

Darius gets up and walks toward her.

I stop looking around and also walk her way.

"Edona, you should stop staying up so late."

The woman called Edona turns at Darius and makes a really annoyed face.

"Shut up Darius."

"Why don't you introduce us instead?"

"Yes yes..."

Darius sighs and starts the introduction.

"Miss Reiza, this is Edona, my sister."

"And she also happens to be the owner of this place."

"Oh, just happens to be, huh?"

"You really never change Darius..."

After scolding Darius, she looks at me.

"My name is Edona, the best magic tool creator in the Armundis kingdom."

"So you are the one I am supposed to assist?"

...

Her reaction to me is quite different from other people.

It's more like the reaction of when I first met Darius.

Well, I guess he did say they are siblings.

"...I'm Reiza."

"The king...promised your assistance."

"Yeah, I know."

"The king already gave me payment for this so don't worry."

"Well, follow me."

We follow her outside the break room and go through one of the other doors, which leads to a spacious room.

There were people inside the room, but nobody even looked at us when we entered.

They just kept doing whatever they were doing without even batting an eye.

We walked through the room and reached a door.

Edona pulled out a key and inserted it into the door.

I felt mana inside that lock...

Even that door is a magic tool?

The door opened and revealed spiraling stairs leading downwards.

After locking the door behind us, we descended down.

At the bottom, there was yet another door.

But that door was ignored as Edona extended her palm toward a wall instead.

The place, where she touched the wall glowed for a bit and a hole in the wall opened up.

A secret entrance?

I didn't even feel any mana from it until she activated it.

Interesting.

We entered a dark room, which was illuminated as soon as we entered.

There were some glowing spaces on the ceiling.

And the room was filled with various objects.

I could feel mana from everything here.

"Firstly, try this."

She handed me some sort of glove with a hole on the palm area.

I took it and examined it.

As I was doing that, Edona explained the finer details.

"When you wear it, you can insert pure mana into it and it will instantly turn it into a fire lance and shoot it out."

Hmm?

But I can already do that myself.

"...not too useful..."

"...and I already have this..."

I showed her the bracelet on my left hand I got back in the dungeon.

She furrowed her brows while adjusting her glasses and squatted to take a closer look at it.

"This...is..."

"Where did you get that?"

She seems interested in it.

Is this perhaps something amazing?

"...the dungeon."

"I see..."

She stands up again and puts a hand on her chin while closing her eyes.

After a few seconds of silence, she turns around and heads toward the end of the room.

"Well, if that thing is your standard, there aren't many things I can provide."

She pulls out something from a box and presents it to me.

It's a peculiar black belt with some strange yellow patterns engraved on it.

"If you pour mana into this side of the belt, your weight will decrease."

"And if you pour it to the other side, your weight will increase."

"You can jump over a small village using this."

"The weight increase isn't all that useful to regular people, but it should be useful for you, right?"

Hmm, that sounds quite useful.

It wouldn't be too obstructive either.

"But I don't think the king's payment would be enough for this."

"I spent a ton of money developing it and it wasn't cheap to reproduce either."

Money huh...

I still have ten azure coins from the dragon.

Will that be enough?

"Well, I don't suppose you have about two azure gold coins on you..."

"So how about you help in one of my experiments instead?"

...well I do have them.

But I guess I could help in an experiment as well.

"...what experiment?"

"Since you rejected the glove so readily, I suppose your own firepower is quite high, right?"

"It's more than you could ask for."

As Darius interjected, Edona frowned at him.

"...well I guess it was my mistake to expect less if you have that much mana."

"The king did call you an ancient monster after all."

She nods to herself.

"Basically, there is a certain piece of defensive magic item that I want to test the limits of."

"Our available magicians couldn't really scratch it, so I can't say how good it is yet."

Hmm, I wouldn't mind doing that.

Actually, I'm kind of interested in it myself.

"...alright, I'll do it."

Edona happily nods and we exit the secret room and walk upstairs again.

We then return to the hallway and enter a door at the very end.

This room is also very spacious and just like last time, the people inside completely ignore us when we enter.

"LISTEN UP NOW!"

"WE ARE GOING TO TEST THE NULL AEGIS AGAIN!"

"PREPARE THE PEDESTAL!"

After Edona's loud yell, everyone suddenly stops what they are doing and looks at us.

When they notice me, I start hearing some murmurs from them.

After a few moments, they finally started moving to prepare for this experiment.

It took a while, but finally after a few minutes, I was presented with a strange shield.

It was more like series of gradually larger circles with empty spaces between them.

Those spaces weren't very big and they seemed to be held together by some magic formation.

It was put up on a pedestal in front of a wall that seemed to be reinforced with something.

I stepped forward while everyone watched me from afar.

"Alright!"

"Whenever you're ready!"

After receiving a signal, I start gathering mana.

[Fire lance]

My spell flies toward the shield and as it approaches it seems to slow down.

It then starts to turn back into pure mana as the shield absorbs it.

Hmm, so it absorbs the attacks?

"Hey, don't tell me that's all you can do."

...

I gather more mana and shoot again.

[Fire dart]

This time, it gets closer to the shield but the result ends up being more or less the same.

"Come on now, we tried that already."

...

[Night's fury]

A giant blast of darkness is shot out toward the shield.

The blast explodes and envelops the area in darkness

I hear a few screams on the side lines but pay it no mind as I focus on where the shield is.

After several seconds, the darkness subsides and reveals the shield.

It's still unscathed.

"Heh...so even you can't damage it."

...

Don't mess with me.

I cut a finger with my nail and blood starts to trickle down.

[Blood flow]

The blood then creates a magic circle in the air.

"W-wait...what are you-"

[Hell glare]

With a swing of my hand, a concentrated blast of dark flames is shot out and hits the shield.

Then, an explosion strong enough to shake the building surfaces.

The spectators lose their standing and fall down while screaming.

I keep my sights on the explosion waiting for it to dissipate.

...

Finally, after almost a minute, the flames go away for the most part and reveal...

A hole in the supposedly reinforced wall leading to the garden.

The pedestal is completely gone as well.

And the shield...

...

I can't find it.

Did I destroy it?

I step forward and look more thoroughly.

And in the rubble, I notice what seems to be broken pieces of the shield.

Yep, I did it.

I turn around at the spectators and look at Edona.

"...is that enough?"

16 days left to return.

Bonus:

How come there are no problems with a language barrier anywhere?

Even the hero from another world can communicate no problem.

I'll let you answer that...

"Oh how nice of you!"

"Well you see..."

"My origin world had over a hundred different languages and it was a major pain if you wanted to travel."

"I really hated that aspect and that's why a singular language is something I tried to enforce on this world the best I could."

"It's really one of the few things I enforced as much as this..."

Wow.

You can do good things too?

"Of course I do!"

"Everything I do is perfect!"

Yeah yeah...

Also, why can the hero understand?

Isn't that weirdly convenient?

"The world from which heroes are summoned happens to be my origin world..."

"I 'borrowed' the language from those parts they are summoned from..."

A petty thief huh?

"Eeh...let's just call it...getting inspired?"

You can't call it getting inspired if you literally copy everything...