MTL NOVEL Chapter 186: Gemstone
"Looks like everything's nearly been unloaded now." Brook said as they exited the main cave with everyone else.
"My god, just how much stuff did you guys bring?" Enlil frowned, "I can't pay for all this."
"Everything's been paid for already so don't you worry." Helena winked as she walked up to meet them while rolling something on a hand cart.
"Is that a goddamn aquarium tank?" Romer said as Ereshkigal tapped on the empty glass tank.
"Oh yeah, It's kinda small and in retrospect it might have been a bit silly to get you an aquarium when...you know...there's going to be a lake over your heads."
"What do you mean 'small'? This thing's the size of a dresser..." Enlil sighed.
"I mean, you can use it to host a pet lizard or snake I guess." Brook chuckled.
"No, we're not getting any pets." Enlil scowled.
"You have a place this big to yourself and you don't want a single pet?" Helena gestured to the wide open grounds around them.
"I'm going to be living mostly in the cave." Enlil spat.
"Then you won't mind what we do with the rest of the encampment will you?" Helena grinned.
"I...you..." Enlil growled but was unable to piece together a response.
"Don't worry, the entire place will still all be yours. We're just gonna make it look nicer."
"Mostly be yours." Rivera said as she floated down from the sky, "That is, depending on how the talks went."
"RIVERA?!" Enlil and Romer cried out in shock and horror, "What are you doing here?!"
"I thought I told you she was here." Brook frowned.
"You just said you were following your mom! I thought you meant her orders!"
"Brook, I thought I taught you to be more clear with your words." Rivera crossed her arms and shook her head.
"Was that before or after I started training as an assassin?" Brook scowled as she put her mask back on to avoid looking embarrassed.
"Talks went well. Enlil has agreed to the arrangement. So how's the magical environment analysis?" Roko asked.
"Well, I think I've got a good enough grasp on the conditions to make a conclusion even if preliminary." Rivera replied, "And by the looks of it, putting up a large scale long enchantment should be possible."
"So all this work wasn't in vain!" Helena clapped, "Let's go!"
"Though before I can say for certain, I need to see this holy power in action." Rivera stated, "Can you call princess Corissa here?"
"You want her to cast sanctuary again?" Helena guessed.
"Just as well too." Roko added, "It's been a while so chances are the enchantment needs refreshing anyway."
"Aight. I'll call her over." Helena pulled out her phone, "She should still be making lunch."
"Does she ever do anything other than cook?" Ereshkigal frowned.
"Well that depends. Does anybody else here know how to cook?"
"No." Romer said.
"No." Enlil scowled, "I mean...I try but I don't like to."
"I'm not old enough to hold a knife apparently." Ereshkigal crossed her arms.
"I can cook but it's been like a millennia since I've done so." Rivera added.
"I can cook..." Roko frowned, "But...I guess I've always just been too busy?"
"Ya see?" Helena smirked.
In a few minutes, Corissa arrived in front of the cave and the situation was explained to her.
"Oh..." Corissa said with a nervous smile, "I've never actually casted this spell a second time so I don't know how effective it will be..."
"All the same, we need to try." Rivera replied.
"Alright then..." Corissa gulped, "I'll give it a shot."
Taking a few deep breaths, Corissa clasped her hands together and concentrated before extending her arms out, "Sanctuary."
A while light burst out from underneath her feet and spread out, lighting up the ground below them with a gentle light before disappearing.
"...Was that it?" Ereshkigal asked.
"Well we can ask Enlil." Helena said, "Enlil?"
"I...feel like a huge burden had just been lifted from my shoulders." The old man said, straightening his back.
"Seems like it's effective then." Romer nodded, "Although...that didn't really extend out very far now did it?"
That's true." Rivera looked around, "That might've been enough for a small room but not the entire grounds."
"S-Sorry." Corrisa looked down.
"Did you do anything differently?" Rivera asked.
"Um...I think I used an incantation when I first used it." Corissa said.
"An incantation in this day and age?" River raised an eyebrow, "Alright then, give that a shot."
"Oh. Ummmm..." Corissa smiled nervously, "I...I don't remember it?"
"Oh brother." Brook facepalmed.
"Give her a break, we all forget things sometimes." Romer smiled.
"Right right, I forget a lot of things at my age." Enlil nodded.
"Will the men please shut up for a moment?" Rivera scowled.
"I didn't even say anything." Roko frowned.
"I don't think anyone but you even know about the incantation." Helean thought aloud, "You dove into the water to cast the spell so not even I can help you."
"Uuuu...maybe I can do this without the incantation?" Corissa said nervously.
"I guess we can set up a perimeter of this smaller spell so it kind of protects against monsters." Brook suggested.
"That'd leave the interior completely unprotected." Rivera countered, "Which from Enlil's behavior wouldn't do well for his paranoia."
"I-I'm sure I can handle it." Enlil said.
"Really?!" Corissa looked hopefully.
"Corissa, don't listen to him, he's just being a simp."
"What's a simp?"
"It's the majority of men that get to talk to you."
"Regardless." Roko sighed as a confused Corissa looked at Helena, "I don't suppose there's a way to find out the incantation?"
"None that I'm aware of." Rivera replied.
"Not even that Mystic Transcriber thing?"
"That process reads your mana to write down the spells you are most attuned to." Brook explained, "That doesn't tell us anything about incantations."
"Is there no way to find out the incantation?"
"Not really." Rivera shrugged, "Incantations can really power up your spells but with how long some of them take and how finicky they can be, they're rarely used in modern times."
"So we're stuck." Roko crossed his arms, "Until Corissa remembers the incantation at least."
"I'm sorry!" Corissa yelped, "I'll do my best to remember!"
"I mean, maybe you can come up with a new incantation." Romer tried to say encouragingly.
"That's not how that works." Rivera rubbed her temple.
"Why do you have to be so mean to the poor girl?" Enlil cried, "She's just doing her best!"
"Yeah!" Romer backed up the old man, "Stop being mean!"
"Aren't you married, Romer?" Rivera shot the dark elf a piercing glare.
"Ugh...h-how'd you know?!" Romer grimaced.
"And Enlil, you're much too old to be doing this kind of stuff."
"A man's desires never dies!" Enlil replied passionately.
"Give it up mom." Brook shook her head, "These men are the type to never back down from their degeneracy."
"So true of all men." Rivera sighed.
"Uhh...I'm right here." Roko said, unsure of how to take these statements, "Regardless of the incantation or not, is it even possible to create a long term enchantment of it? You've seen it in work now so you should have some idea."
"Hmmmmmmmmm..." Rivera closed her eyes and thought for a long while, "Having seen it in action...it should be possible."
"Really?!" Corissa said hopefully.
"Well, if it wasn't possible, we'd be out of luck on all fronts." Rivera sighed, "That said, the nature of your magic that goes against magic is...troublesome. Most forms of enchantments probably won't work. Except for one."
"Do tell then." Helena smiled, "What is that method?"
"I'm sure you already know. Don't you...Roko?"
Rivera regarded the sick human with a smirk, drawing everyone elses' attention to him as well. The young man sighed and began to explain,
"Whatever magical enchantments exists, we cannot rely on magic to sustain it. Even if magic has ways to perpetuate itself, holy magic will destroy it. So we need a way to perpetuate its effects without the use of further magic. Something solid. That exists. That can move magic. What physical objects do we know that can carry on magic?"
"Well, you can enchant most anything. It's just that the lifetime of standard enchantments usually depends on the skill of the enchanter." Romer crossed his arms as he thought.
"Yes but this isn't a normal spell, it's holy and it's not a normal enchantment, it's self operating." Roko continued, "A system that can't operate with other systems must be run on its own. If holy can be programmed to perpetuate itself, then we don't need to worry about the system but the hardware. Or rather, the vessel."
Everyone just stared at Roko blankly. Roko sighed, "Here's a hint." and pulled out his phone.
"OH!" Helena shouted as she pointed at the phone, "Gem enchantments!"
"Right. We've seen a giant gem run an entire system meant to overlook and even change the state of the entire elven race. So it's quite possible that if we capture holy in a gem, we can train it to cast itself. Ideally. What's more the gem is a solid real object that won't be disintegrated by holy."
"How convenient that we learned about it so recently." Ereshkigal nodded.
"I think this might work!" Corissa grinned.
…
"To be honest." Rivera said, "I didn't expect you to actually get it."
"Then you should've answered it yourself." Roko replied.
"Okay, fine, you're so annoying." Rivera rolled her eyes.
"So what gem are we using?" Helena asked, "Diamond? Tanzanite? Something even rarer than that?"
"Very much so." Rivera frowned, "Every gem has it's own sort of magic that it best resonates with but this is very much like anti-magic so normal gems just don't have the structure to contain something like that."
"But you said it was possible." Enlil said, "So there must exist at least one type of gem that could do it."
"Just one that I can think of."
"What is it?" Helena asked anxiously.
"Noumenite."
"Noumenite?" Roko frowned, "I've never heard of that."
"It probably doesn't exist in your world." Rivera replied, "From what I heard magic doesn't exist in your world. Noumenite is a special gem that is formed in high mana density environments."
"You don't say?" Roko smirked.
"Don't even think about it Roko." Rivera said, "These gems emerge under highly condensed locations in snowy climates."
"Snowy huh?" Roko thought aloud, "Perhaps Kaguya has some?"
"Unlikely." Rivera continued, "Noumenite are a highly restricted and controlled material. It absorbs all kinds of magic really easily. Theoretically you could weave the entirety of your phone's enchantments onto a noumenite the size of a pebble."
"That's really impressive." Helena whistled, "But...that's theoretically right?"
"I've never handled noumenite myself." Rivera crossed her arms, "Never even seen one outside of pictures. Most scientific information is carefully curated."
"Can we create a noumenite?" Roko asked, "In my world we can create artificial diamonds."
"Not much is known about the formation process. There's more rumors and legends than anything else. From the noumenite needing 'the touch of spring' to needing the blood or soul of an innocent creature frozen and buried in the snow."
"Hmmm...I still think we should ask Kaguya is she knows anything." Helena frowned.
"Give her a call then." Rivera shrugged, "Though I doubt you'll discover much."
"Alright, give me a second." Helena took out her phone and pressed in a number. In seconds, the call was answered and Helena put Kaguya on speaker for all to hear.
"Hello?" Kaguya said, "Do you need something, Helena?"
"Yeah we've been discussing the sanctuary enchantment and we've come to a few conclusions. Namely that we need something called noumenite."
"Noumenite?" Kaguya's response was tempered, giving off no impression either way if she was already aware of this gem.
"Yeah, apparently it only shows up in snowy places so I was wondering if you have discovered any in Fuyuki."
"...Is Rivera there with you?"
"Yeah."
"Then you should know that the discovery and handling of noumenite is something closely monitored by magical authorities. If we did discover any then we'd have to immediately turn it over as hazardous material. Proper submission of noumenite can be quite lucrative as well. Finding even a nominal piece of noumenite, if legitimate, could award you with enough money to live for a year, at least in my country. Do you think that if we had any lying around my country would still be as poor as it is?"
"Sorry. Just needed to ask you know."
"Perfectly understandable. I'm glad you thought to ask me about it and I'm sorry I can't help."
"All the same, thanks for the information. What are you doing right now?"
"Me? I'm with Mikado looking over the secret passage Brook talked about. It's really poorly lit here and not well maintained. I think we're going to have to make some adjustments."
"Aight, then I'll leave you to it. Keep up the good work Ms. Class President."
"You know I always do my best."
And with that, Helena ended the call.
"There's a secret passage?" Enlil asked, excitement brewing in his eyes.
"You can get excited about that later." Roko sighed, "Right now we still have to deal with this noumenite problem."
"You don't need to worry about it." Rivera stated, "As this is part of my plan, I'll be the one responsible for sourcing it."
"I thought this was my plan." Roko frowned.
"It's our plan." Rivera rolled her eyes, "Unless you think you can find a material as rare as that on your own."
"Probably not." Roko admitted.
"Then you'll just have to trust me. I am one of the foremost leaders in magical studies, I do have quite a bit of sway in this department."
"Then we'll leave it to you." Helena saluted, "I wish you luck."
"I will probably need it." Rivera sighed.
"I can't help but notice you're not complaining quite as much as usual about getting more work."
"Shut it, Roko. I don't need your sass right now."
"I'm just saying, could it be because you're looking forward to getting your hands on material as rare as noumenite?"
"...Maybe."
"Well I'm glad you're finally getting to have a bit of fun here too." Helena grinned, "We should all be enjoying the renovating process a little bit."
"Since when was renovating a process people enjoyed?" Rivera scoffed.
"I mean, Enlil's enjoying it."
"It's this or I live in constant fear for my life." Enlil gave a thumbs up, "So yeah, I'm kinda enjoying it."
"Poor Eresh though." Helena sniffed, "She's never going to have a proper mother with a father like this."
"Hey! I can raise a child on my own!" Enlil snapped.
"Said the paranoid man." Brook smirked.
"I don't need to take this from you." Enlil scowled, "I can do this perfectly fine on my own. Present situation notwithstanding."
"How brave of you." Rivera said sarcastically.
"Besides, it's not like I didn't try to get Eresh a mother." Enlil muttered.
"Oh? Do tell." Helena teased.
"No no no, you're not getting anything out of me!"
"I'm interested too." Corissa smiled.
"Well...if you really want to know I guess-"
"Stop." Helena said, "I no longer want to know."