Chapter 1-9: Alchemy, Golems, and the Return to the Forest

Can you hear me, everyone? This is Tenma reporting live from the scene.

The Celia Volcano here in Kukuri Village has finally erupted!

The eruption is massive, and so far, five or six eruptions have been confirmed this time. Even the Ricardo Barrier and Merlin Barrier we prepared are about to be swallowed up.

That’s all from the scene… Ah! Another eruption—it’s coming this way!

Everyone, if I make it out alive, I’ll see you again!

“Tenma!! Are you listening to me?!”

“Y-Yes! I’m listening!”

“Don’t lie! You’ve been spacing out this whole time!”

She noticed.

Goodbye, everyone… Whoa, that was close. I nearly drifted off again.

“Tenma, why didn’t you run away?!”

It looked like she was about to start the whole loop again.

That was when the barriers… no, Dad and Grandpa stepped in to save me.

“Celia, let him off around there. What Tenma did may have been dangerous, but it wasn’t wrong.”

“That’s right. Even if Tenma had fled, there was no guarantee those Dragon Snakes would have gone back into the depths of the forest. In the worst case, they might have expanded their hunting range and attacked villagers who entered the forest—or even attacked the village itself. Tenma prevented that before it could happen, so isn’t that enough?”

“…Fine.”

She reluctantly calmed down, but then added,

“However, you are forbidden from entering the forest until we confirm that the shallow areas are safe! Understood?!”

“Aww…”

“Answer me!”

“Yes! Understood, Mother! I will not enter the forest until the safety inspection is complete, ma’am!”

“Good!”

My joke was completely ignored.

“Anyway, we should check the area around the village and the shallow parts of the forest as soon as possible to make sure there aren’t any dangerous monsters nearby.”

“That goes without saying, but we should also notify Margrave Haust. It would be useful if anything unexpected happens.”

After saying that, Ricardo and Merlin left the house to make preparations.

The next day, Dad, Grandpa, Uncle Mark, and I dismantled the two wolves and six Dragon Snakes I had stored inside the Dimension Bag.

From the wolves, we removed their magic cores, pelts, fangs, and claws. We cremated the rest of their bodies, buried the ashes deep underground, and built graves over them.

The wolves’ fur was a brilliant gold and silver.

Incidentally, I had thought Shiroumaru’s fur was white, but after washing him with warm water, I realized it was actually closer to silver-white.

As for the Dragon Snakes, there were six of them, each around four to five meters long. Their hides were surprisingly easy to remove, and since all we needed to do was separate the magic cores, hides, fangs, skulls, livers, and meat without any special processing, we finished with them faster than with the wolves.

I decided not to sell the materials from the wolves and stored them in my Magic Bag—an advanced-grade bag capable of holding around 1,000 kilograms.

The six Dragon Snakes yielded 1,200 kilograms of meat. Each one weighed around 400 kilograms in total, with roughly 200 kilograms being edible.

Of that meat, I stored 400 kilograms in my bag, distributed another 400 kilograms among the villagers, and sold the rest to a merchant caravan that was scheduled to arrive soon, along with three Dragon Snakes’ worth of hides and the other materials.

Everything sold for a total of 300,000 G.

Dragon Snake meat had just the right amount of fat, yet its flavor was light and surprisingly delicious.

The currency in this world is called G, or Gold. In Japanese yen, 1 G would be roughly equivalent to 10 yen.

There are copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins. Copper, silver, and gold coins each come in two types: regular coins and large coins. Platinum coins only have one type, making seven kinds of coins in total.

The ordinary coins are simply called copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins.

Starting from the lowest denomination, their values increase by powers of ten—1 G, 10 G, 100 G, and so on—with a platinum coin being worth 1,000,000 G.

An average family of four living in one of the central cities spends around three to four gold coins per month, or about 30,000 to 40,000 G.

In a rural village, a family can live on less than one gold coin per month.

In Kukuri Village, the average monthly cost of living is only around five or six silver coins. However, that is mainly because most food expenses are covered by game hunted in the surrounding area.

Half a year passed after that incident.

At last, the safety inspection was completed, and I was finally allowed to enter the forest again.

During those six months, I had focused heavily on practicing Alchemy’s “Transmutation” and the “Create” ability of Creation Magic.

As a result, I successfully learned how to transmute weapons and create golems.

Weapon transmutation worked by using materials in the surrounding environment to create whatever weapon I pictured in my mind.

However, the image had to be extremely precise. If my mental image was vague, the resulting weapon would have problems with both performance and durability.

Well, I had always intended to use them as disposable emergency weapons anyway, so that wasn’t much of a problem.

Golem creation worked differently.

By infusing metal, a magic core, or a magic stone with magical power and applying the appropriate technique, it was possible to create a golem core.

By placing that core inside a body created through alchemy, a golem that obeyed its creator’s commands could be completed.

A core made from ordinary metal could only execute simple commands.

However, when a magic core or magic stone was used, depending on its quality and compatibility, it was even possible to create something resembling artificial life.

Naturally, the difficulty increased dramatically as well.

Incidentally, a magic core is one of the defining characteristics of monsters. It is a condensed mass of magical power found inside their bodies.

Smaller ones are only around two or three centimeters across, while historical records state that a magic core measuring an entire meter was once discovered inside an Ancient Dragon.

As a general rule, golems made with cores created from magic cores or magic stones are stronger.

After such a long absence, I finally set foot in the forest again.

However, out of consideration for Celia, I only intended to take a walk near the outer edge of the forest.

“Go get it, Shiroumaru!”

“Yip!”

Shiroumaru dashed after the tree branch I threw.

Over the past six months, the young wolf had grown to around fifty centimeters tall. His silver-white fur glittered as he sprinted toward the flying branch.

Slalin and I watched him together.

Incidentally, Slalin was peeking his face—or whatever counted as his face—out from the basket on my back.

I was using my detection ability to scan an area with a radius of roughly five kilometers when I suddenly picked up several dozen signals at the very edge of my radar.

I immediately called Shiroumaru back.

It was getting long, so I split it here.