Chapter 4-21 : Salamander’s Cave Ⅲ (part 1)
Three days had passed since Nord began investigating the Salamander’s nest.
Even though he sweated a lot every day, his expression was lively as if he forgot how hot the nest was.
On the other hand, Iris and Kate were just chilling, watching him working these past three days.
It was good that they didn’t have to do any hard tasks and fight monsters, but they eventually got bored. They didn’t understand at all what Nord had been doing, so they didn’t find anything interesting in his work.
「Say, Nord-san, how much longer do you need to investigate this nest? It’s been three days.」(Iris)
「Just a little longer. I’m almost done. The next experiment is the last one.」(Nord)
After replying without turning his face to Iris, Nord took out a rather big box from his backpack.
The whole surface of the box was black and had a grid pattern on the lower half. There was a slit about three fingers wide on the upper part of the box.
After putting the box on the ground, Nord took out a leather bag from his backpack and began to pour the stuff inside the leather bag into the slit of the box.
Hoping that they might find something interesting to watch, Iris and Kate approached Nord and looked at the box curiously.
「Are those Ice Fang Bats fangs you are pouring?」(Iris)
「Yup. I have a lot of these, by the way. They’re actually quite pricey but Leonora sold them to me very cheaply for some reason.」(Nord)
「Ahh, very cheaply, huh? I see.」(Iris)
Iris and Kate looked at each other and smirked. They knew very well the reason why Leonora could sell Ice Fang Bats fangs very cheaply.
*/TL : Sarasa outplayed Yok Baal in his own game and managed to buy tons of Ice Fang Bats fangs at a ridiculously cheap price from him and then shared some of them with Leonora. (I forgot which chapter)
Even though Nord bought them cheaply, the number of fangs he bought was not small.
Imagining how much the cost of all the Ice Fang Bats fangs Nord poured into the box, Iris and Kate could only sigh.
「By the way, Nord-san, what are you gonna do with them?」(Kate)
「This black box is an artifact that can increase the amount of magical power in an area, and you need raw materials like these fangs as fuel.」(Nord)
As he said that, Nord activated the black box, and then it started making “gouuun gouuun” noise.
Kate wanted to know what Nord was aiming for, but she got an explanation about the box instead.
Increasing the surrounding magical power was probably not his real goal. Nord was a researcher, so he was expecting something to happen from doing it.
Without explaining further to Iris and Kate, Nord took the magical power measuring artifact and began measuring the amount of the surrounding magical power while writing something in his notebook.
「Hmm… The amount of magical power has increased but nothing is happening… Is it because the ice-attributed magical power is still dominating this area…? Alright, how about this?」(Nord)
Nord took out a leather bag containing flame stones that Iris and Kate collected the other day. He then poured the stones into the black box and activated the box.
This time, the “gouuun gouuun” noise coming from the black box was louder than before.
As always, Iris and Kate began to feel dizzy when they imagined the cost of the flame stones that were being used as fuel. Unlike them, Nord didn’t seem to mind it at all. He opened his notebook and began to measure the amount of magical power.
「Oh, it’s looking good. The ice-attributed magical power is dropping while the fire-attribute one is increasing. I can’t wait to see the results~」(Nord)
「N, Nord-san, what are you aiming for exactly!?」(Iris)
Iris, who suddenly had a bad feeling, asked Nord with a voice louder than the noise from the black box.
Nord then turned his gaze to Iris and answered with a voice as loud as hers.
「I want to find out what kind of conditions are required for Salamanders to spawn other than extremely high temperatures, and I’m thinking that a high amount of magical power is probably one of the conditions.」(Nord)
Right after Nord finished explaining, the black box stopped making noise and the area fell silent again.
Iris and Kate looked at each other and muttered.
「Conditions… for Salamanders to spawn…?」(Iris)
「Don’t tell me… He’s going to…」(Kate)
Nord returned his gaze to the measuring tool and glanced at his notebook.
「The magical power has increased but still, nothing is happening… Seems like I have no choice but to use ‘those’ as fuel.」(Nord)
Saying that, Nord reached into his backpack and took out another leather bag.
What he took out from the leather bag this time was a few red scales about the same size as his palm.
The crimson color of the scales looked pretty but it made Iris and Kate uneasy because they were familiar with those scales.
When they saw those scales, the bad feeling swelling in Iris and Kate’s hearts was getting stronger.
「N, Nord-san… aren’t those…」(Kate)
While hoping that the things she saw were not what she thought, Kate asked Nord with a bit of a trembling voice.
「Ah, as you can see, these are Salamander scales. They’re quite precious, so I didn’t want to use them, butー」(Nord)
「Waiー」(Iris)
「ーI need stronger materials as fuel, so it can’t be helped. Hm? Did you say something?」(Nord)
Nord threw the Salamander scales into the black box.
Iris tried to stop him but it was too late.
Right after, the black box made a much louder noise than earlier.
The black box then started to shake for some reason.
「H, Hey, it’s shaking! Is that normal?」(Iris)
「I don’t think there’s a problem. Look! The amount of fire-attributed magical power is increasing drastically!」(Nord)
While saying that, Nord showed the measuring artifact to Iris and Kate with a happy face, but they didn’t care about it.
They lost interest in the experiment the moment they had a bad feeling about it.
「That’s not what I mean! I think this weird box is broken!」(Iris)
「It can’t be. I just bought it in South Strugg before I went to your village. This is the first time I’ve used it, so I don’t think it’s already broken.」(Nord)
「South Strugg? Did you buy it from Leonora-san?」(Iris)
「No. She didn’t have any in stock at the moment. I bought it from the other alchemy shop in that town.」(Nord)
「「……….」」(Iris & Kate)
Iris and Kate’s faces turned pale as they heard that.
Most of the Collectors in the village knew that the owner of that shop was a scammer.
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i knew he was an idiot he’s basically going to spawn another salamander and our cute little bear is going to have to fight it but on a brighter note sarasa’s new anime came on yesterday
The box sounds like a lure, rather than an essence magnifier. Nord didn’t ponder the ramifications of standing in a salamander’s nest, without proper testing precautions? D:
Didnt scam alchemist go broke? It was written in prevous chapters
The other shop should have been closed right?