NBAA Vol. 8 Chapter 2 Part 4
A few minutes later, Reito and the others were guided by her to the dining room of the old castle.
Using Space magic to bring out stored ingredients and water, Reito prepared dishes with the “Cooking” skill while the other members helped out.
“Wow, it’s been decades since I’ve been able to taste someone else’s food~”
“What? You can eat food?”
“No, I can’t. But I want to enjoy the atmosphere, so I have this with me.”
“What do you mean…?”
Even though she couldn’t eat anything, Honemin was the first to grab a fork and knife and wait at the table.
For some reason, she was wearing a gown she’d pulled out from somewhere. The reason was that it was bad manners to eat food naked.
While watching Reito and the others cook, she talked endlessly, perhaps happy to be talking to someone for the first time in a while.
“I was surprised to find out that the old man had become a merchant. When we first met, he was a muscular old man, but now he’s a feeble old man, huh? I’d like to take a look at him.”
“If that’s the case, you should go and meet him. He is doing business in front of the Great Labyrinth, so I’m sure you’ll be able to meet him easily.”
“No, no, the moment I go outside in this form, adventurers will hunt me down. In fact, people who meet me for the first time will mistake me for a skeleton and attack me.”
“How do you move without eyes, skin, or muscles? Do you compensate for your lack of eyes with a skill like ‘Mind’s Eye’?”
“That’s an interesting idea. But my body is covered in invisible magic. It acts as a substitute for muscles and skin.”
“Seriously?!”
“That’s strange. My ‘Magic Detection’ doesn’t show any reaction, that it is….”
“I can’t feel it either…”
“That’s thanks to this magic tool.”
Honemin pointed to her pinky finger. No one noticed until she said it, but her pinky finger had a green magic stone like a barrier stone attached to it. A complex pattern was engraved on its surface.
“I don’t know if it exists in this era, but this is a ring of magic seal that suppresses magic powers. If you wear this, no magic will leak out and it won’t be possible to sense it even with the ‘Magic Detection’ skill.”
“Wow… that’s an incredible magic tool. Maybe it’s a holy artifact?”
“It’s not that impressive. And I modified it. Even though I may look like this, I’m an alchemist!”
“What… an alchemist?”
“Hey, Reito! The pot is bubbling!”
“Whaaat?”
Reito was surprised by the unexpected words as he used the “Fireball” magic to make the pot he was heating boil over. He quickly turned down the heat.
“You… were an alchemist?”
“Yes. It’s a pretty rare job, isn’t it?”
“Well, even if you say it’s rare…”
“I’m surprised, that it is!”
Everyone except Reito was surprised to learn that Honemin was an alchemist, a profession generally considered unpopular. She continued.
“By the way, I’m a single-occupation job.”
“Single-occupation?! Are you kidding me?”
“Single-occupation… what?”
“Normally, people have two jobs, but there are very rare people who only have one job. We call those people single-occupation.”
“That’s right. That’s why I can only use the skills of an alchemist.”
There was one person out of several million who could only learn one job. However, that didn’t mean that a single-occupation was inferior in ability. In fact, they have the advantage of being able to learn skills faster than normal.
“The advantage of a single-occupation was that, in exchange for only being able to learn one job, you learn skills faster and have a higher rate of proficiency improvement. So, by the time I reached level 40, I had mastered almost all of the alchemist’s skills.”
“I see, so you’re specialized in one job.”
“Well, that doesn’t change my weaknesses as a magician. I’m not good at sports, and I never really developed any combat skills.”
“Eh, I wonder about that… I have the alchemist’s job, but it’s quite useful in combat.”
“Oh, so you were in the same job as me, Reito? If so, you should have told me sooner~”
Honemin, upon learning that Reito had the same job as her, patted him on the shoulder in a familiar manner. Reito had something else he wanted to ask. He was curious about what she had said earlier about modifying the magic tool.
“You said earlier that you modified a magic tool, but is that really true?”
“That’s right. The development and modification of magic tools is not something that only the Dwarves have the monopoly of.”
It was said that only the Dwarves, who have high technical skills, could develop magic tools. It was common knowledge that most magic tools were developed by them, except for the sacred treasures and holy swords left behind by heroes. However, according to Honemin, any alchemist could create magic tools, even if they are not Dwarves.
“I’ve never heard that an alchemist can modify a magic tool…”
“Well, it seems that there are fewer alchemists compared to the past. There used to be a lot of them. At least in my time, the magic tools that were in circulation in the empire were improved by alchemists.”
“Empire…I see, the time when Honemin was alive was the era of the Baltros Empire.”
It had now been destroyed, but until several hundred years ago, the Baltros Empire, not the Baltros Kingdom, ruled over human territories.
In the past, at least up until the time of the last emperor, it was a peaceful country with kind people, but now it had fallen into ruin, and the Baltros Kingdom had expanded its territory instead.
“Were alchemists not treated poorly in the past?”
“Not at all. In fact, they were favored as a valuable job. For some reason, they seem to be treated poorly in this day and age, but as time has passed, the high level of alchemist’s abilities seems to have been forgotten.”
“Indeed…”
The fact that alchemists were treated favorably hundreds of years ago was surprising, but according to Honemin, the evaluation of jobs changes depending on the era, with some favoring others over the others.
“So, was there a time when support magicians were favored as well?”
“I wonder. I never heard of the job of support magician in my time, so I don’t know. Ah, but there was a time when beginner magicians were considered unpopular.”
“You’re kidding me! It’s the same job as the legendary hero Lunot!”
“Lunot…?”
Reito tilted his head at the sound of the name, but he immediately remembered that he had a relative named Lunot.
According to Dain, a long time ago there was a heroic beginner magician named Lunot.
“I know that name too. It’s the name of one of the legendary heroes, the strongest magician who has defeated a dragon alone using only elementary magic.”
“He’s a famous hero, isn’t he? I thought it was just a fairy tale because I couldn’t believe he could defeat a dragon using elementary magic, which is called life magic…”
“Oh, that hero’s name is also known in Wakoku. I heard that he created a dragon with ice magic, that he did.”
“What kind of hero is that?”
Reito could use elementary magic, but he couldn’t use it like the legendary hero. Even if he used Enchantment Boost magic, he wouldn’t be able to create a giant dragon with the magic of Ice Block.
However, it seemed that even the job that the legendary hero had was treated poorly in the era before the hero was born.
“I know about this guy called Lunot too. I’ve never met him in person, but I’ve heard various rumors about him. However, it was only after he was summoned to this world that the job of beginner magician began to be reevaluated. In other words, it seems that Lunot’s success has reevaluated the value of the job of beginner magician.”
“Summoned?”
“Unlike us, he is a hero, a person from another world who was summoned (Blah blah blah)”
Unlike Reito, Lunot was a human who came to this world with his body from the other world.
(But Lunot…no way.)
Reito thought of his relative, a boy named Lunot. In his previous world, Reito used to play with him a lot as a child. His name was unusual, so he might have really been summoned to this world.
“Anyway, going back to the topic, can Honemin make magic tools?”
“You can make pretty much anything as long as you have the materials. Ah, but making one from scratch takes a lot of time and you need a lot of materials. It’s pretty easy to modify magic stones to enhance their effects.”
“Is there a way to do that?”
“You just carve a magic mark into the magic stone. Do you know what a magic mark is?”
“You mean the pattern engraved on the blade when using a magic sword?”
“That’s right.”
Reito recalled the five patterns engraved on the Extermination Blade. By pouring magic power through these patterns, the blade could be endowed with the magic power of each attribute.
But according to Honemin, it was possible to increase the effect by engraving magic marks on magic stones in the same way.
“In my case, rather than fighting on my own, I just made magic tools and gave the modified tools to other people. As a result, I was recognized for my achievements because it greatly increased their fighting power, but to be honest, I was only developing magic tools just for fun.”
“You became a hero just for fun… What a guy!”
“As long as the result is good, the process doesn’t matter. There were times when the crisis would not have been overcome without me, and all ends well.”
“I think that way of using it is a little different…”
“Anyway, now that I know that you’re an alchemist, I won’t let you leave. If you’ve come this far, I’ll teach you my techniques. Ah, I don’t think I can do the complicated techniques to create magic tools, but…”
“Ehhh…”
Honemin said she’ll teach him the techniques even though he didn’t ask.
Reito looked annoyed, but when he thought about it, it was rare to get the chance to learn a technique from a legendary hero. So he decided to let her teach him.
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