NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 98
“So… this is a core made from a used-up core?”
“Yeah, though I’m not the one who figured out how to make it. That was Kaiser and Carol.”
After returning to the royal capital, I had been discussing the new core with Eve.
She seemed fatigued, so I asked if she wanted to rest, but she simply replied, “This much is nothing,” so I decided to take her word for it.
“Animals rely heavily on instinct. In some ways, they might get closer to the truth than rigid, overcomplicated thinking.”
As she gazed at the blue-glowing core before her, Eve reached her conclusion.
“So, we figured out that Carol’s core can be made just by soaking it in a hot spring, but we still don’t know the conditions for Kaiser’s core. No matter how much I ask, I can’t seem to get a clear answer…”
Kaiser was trying his best to explain both processes, but the language barrier was making it impossible to understand.
“I see… then let me ask him.”
With that, Eve turned to Kaiser and began speaking.
Kaiser gestured animatedly as he explained, and Eve nodded along with an “uh-huh, uh-huh.”
After about five minutes of this exchange, Eve finally lifted her head.
“I understand now. I know how to make the blue core.”
“How is it made?”
Unlike the hot spring, it was unlikely to have such an obvious condition. I had spent an entire day trying to figure it out…
“The answer is eggshells.”
“Eggshells?”
“You know how Kaiser’s crystal bird eggs occasionally show up in your meals, Master?”
“Oh yeah, I think she laid one just yesterday.”
Though, since Eve had been too absorbed in her analysis, we had eaten out, so I hadn’t had any boiled eggs yesterday.
“Apparently, Kaiser dropped a used-up core into the powdered eggshells that Eve had been storing.”
At first, I had been using the eggshells as an extra source of nutrients for expanding the farm, but at some point, their effects had hit a ceiling and stopped.
Even so, I figured they might still have some use, so I had kept them in storage…
“There’s no way I could’ve figured that out.”
Sure, Kaiser was involved, but expecting someone to make that connection was just unreasonable.
“Animals don’t act based on logic. It’s pointless to expect them to. Even that dungeon the other day had plenty of inconsistencies.”
True. At first, it seemed like the dungeon had no intention of being cleared, but when we reached the deepest part, there wasn’t even a boss—just cores and treasures lying around.
And then, hidden in a nearly impossible-to-find location, there was a broken staff as some sort of secret reward.
“So I basically wasted an entire day…”
What Eve had solved in five minutes had taken me an entire day with no results. I sighed, feeling dejected.
“Not necessarily.”
Eve’s words made me look up.
“Master worked hard so that I could focus on my analysis. That made me happy.”
She smiled at me. Seeing that, I felt my mood lighten, and I playfully responded, “What even is that?”
“Now then, Master. About the effects of these two types of resurrection cores…”
After asking Eve for further analysis, she took some time before arriving at a conclusion.
“First, the hot spring core. This one seems to simply store magical energy. Even the smallest core holds about as much mana as a hundred average mages combined. A skilled magic user could freely draw upon and replenish their mana with it.”
“So, basically, it’s like a battery?”
Back in my previous life, there were rechargeable batteries. In this case, the hot spring was the charger, and the core was the battery.
“Exactly. If you run out of mana, you can just recharge it in the hot spring. With this, Master will never have to worry about running out of mana.”
In this world, the usual method for recovering mana was through mana potions. Drinking one would restore magical energy.
During our last dungeon attempt, I had suffered from mana depletion, so I had been planning to craft some potions for future use.
“Well… that kinda makes the alchemy tools I bought a bit pointless.”
I had sold some orichalcum ingots at the bank to purchase tools for smithing and alchemy, but now it seemed like there was no need to make mana potions.
“Still, this could sell for quite a high price.”
Unlike potions, there was no need to drink it, making it much more convenient.
During combat, refueling mana requires an ally to hold the frontline. If someone drinks a potion, there’s a gap where magic can’t be used, which could cause the entire battlefield to collapse.
But with this core, replenishing mana could be done continuously without disrupting the fight.
Without a doubt, high-ranking dungeon explorers and national mages would treasure it immensely.
“Yes, and since Master is the only one who can create them, you should price them ridiculously high. This recovered dungeon core…”
If I were to sell it, calling it a dungeon core outright might give away too much information. I needed a better name…
“Let’s call it ‘Magic Stone.’ In the RPGs from your past life, magic stones were often used for recovery, weren’t they?”
That was a fitting name.
Thus, I decided to call this mana-restoring core the “Magic Stone” and began scheming how to sell it to high-rank explorers and national mages for an absurdly high price.
“Now, about Kaiser’s eggshell core…”
Since it didn’t have a name yet, I just referred to it as it was.
The core was made from eggshells, which nurture growth. It wouldn’t be surprising if it contained some incredible abilities.
I looked at Eve with anticipation.
“Since Master seems eager, I’ll be direct.”
Meeting my gaze, Eve answered.
“It certainly holds immense power. If converted into a core, it ranks at Level V.”
“So, then…!”
“However, at present, it has no use.”
“W-what? Why not?”
“This ‘Kaiser’s Core’ absorbed the power from eggshells, so it’s incredibly strong. But it lacks a system to function. In human terms, it’s like having a body without a brain. As a result, it’s nothing more than a crystal bird’s magic stone. That’s all it is.”
“So unlike the hot spring’s magic stone, it can’t be used to extract mana?”
I fell into thought at Eve’s explanation…
“Well, I’m sure I’ll figure something out eventually.”
If it had that much power, there had to be a way to put it to use.
With that mindset, I decided to take a break for the day.