Chapter 52

*Calm yourself.*

The spirit of lightning, Dajin, spoke to me thus.

“…Calm?”

I could scarcely believe my ears.

To suddenly shove an artifact of unknown origin into someone’s mouth and tell them to calm down.

If someone suddenly injected an unidentified liquid into your arm with a needle, and then said, “Please, calm yourself,” could you calm yourself?

How could one possibly remain calm, not knowing if what was in that syringe was a beneficial medicine or a deadly poison?

No, even if it was medicine, that’s still a problem. Even the best medicine can sometimes turn into poison depending on the symptoms and the patient’s condition, can’t it?

How could you possibly know if I might have an allergic reaction, or suddenly start vomiting or suffering diarrhea?

You crazy deer-brained b*stard.

“Calm down, you say?”

Artifacts aren’t some all-purpose stat-boosting method effective for every character. Therefore, I demanded an explanation from Dajin in a stern manner.

“…Oh, well, yeah.”

Dajin seemed genuinely taken aback by my vehement reaction.

“Ahem!”

Lir tapped me on the back, clearing her throat, as I spoke disrespectfully to Dajin.

“What is it?”

I turned to look at Lir with a cold expression.

With a clipped, cool tone, Lir hesitated for a heartbeat, then whispered into my ear, her voice small.

“Maybe… just a touch of courtesy…”

“…Courtesy?”

Lir, are you determined to drive me mad as well?

“Am I supposed to be polite right now? Some artifact of unknown origin just burrowed its way into me.”

“Well, it’s… still an artifact, isn’t it? Perhaps it’s a beneficial object? Calm down, first…”

Lir seemed to view artifacts abstractly, as something like ‘any weapon you acquire is good’. Given her lack of information about them, it was perhaps understandable.

The only artifact she’d likely ever seen was ‘Red Crystal’, which I lugged around on my shoulder, firing beams of light.

Red Crystal, for an artifact, had a rather mild effect, but it also came with no downsides. So, Lir’s reaction wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.

“Calm down, my ass…”

But if she knew that some artifacts could shorten the user’s lifespan by two years, Lir would react the same way I did.

Since you live for over 4000 years, if you were to swallow that artifact, you’d lose around 3978 years.

Lose 3978 years of your life, and *then* can you be courteous? Shall I run a test?

“Well… I understand roughly what you’re worried about. Some artifacts negatively impact lifespan, health, or even intelligence.”

“You *do* understand! Then instead of telling me to grab this thing without a word, shouldn’t you have at least warned me that the staff was an artifact and to be careful?”

“No, because it’s not one of *those* items. Goodness, his temperament…”

Dajin, watching me erupt in anger, gave me a peculiar look, speaking with what sounded like weary exasperation.

Listen to this guy? Making it seem like I’m the strange one?

Who was it that shoved something of unknown origin, something you can’t vomit back up once swallowed, forcibly into my mouth?

“Then explain it to me, what does it do?”

“Humph! Well, as for this staff, it is quite simply…”

“Skip the backstory, I’m not interested.”

“……”

Dajin, crestfallen by my knife-edged reaction, lowered his head slightly, visibly disappointed.

“Tch. Well, to put it simply… think of it as a staff that has the function to summon me.”

Dajin clicked his tongue, and then spoke in a voice that sounded deflated, as if all the air had been let out.

“……?”

He clearly only spoke the important part, but I didn’t understand properly, so I stared at him without a word.

Summon me?

No, wait, are you saying it can summon you?

“……Huh?”

Rir’s voice came from behind. It seemed she hadn’t understood Dajin’s words either.

“……”

I turned my head back and met Rir’s vacant gaze.

…I didn’t just mishear that, did I?

“Why is the atmosphere like this?”

“Um… summon, you say?”

“Yes, it’s a staff that can summon me.”

“…Summoning, so like, fighting for us instead…”

“Of course that’s possible too. Is there perhaps a country you have a grievance with?”

Dajin spoke with the easy tone of a man heading to the corner store, asking if anyone needed anything.

“……”

“……”

Lirr and I exchanged another look.

Thankfully, she seemed just as dazed, her brain struggling to register the reality of the situation.

Dajin, the Lightning Spirit.

A transcendent being, said to be the origin of all lightning magic.

In this world, transcendent beings were essentially gods.

An overwhelming magic power that dwarfed the combined mana of all the mages in the world, an unkillable vitality, and an omnipotence that casually defied the world’s physical laws.

Capable of evaporating entire oceans with a flick of the head, reducing continents to ash. Truly, beings in the realm of gods.

And you’re telling me this staff can summon such a Lightning Spirit at will…?

“…This is insane.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle, staring at the palm of my right hand.

Suddenly, I was holding a nuclear warhead.

What in the world is going on?

“I have to ask again… it’s really not bad for my health, right? No drawbacks in terms of mana or anything else?”

“Didn’t I say it wasn’t something with limitations like that? That staff was created by a mage skilled enough to imprison me within this tiny stone. It’s an insult to compare it to anything made by other nobodies.”

…This is a cheat item.

A truly insane cheat item.

If an artifact like this was implemented in a game, every player would be swarming to play as a mage due to the balance issues it would cause.

It’s only now I understand why I’m seeing this staff for the first time.

“…This, isn’t it beyond just ending the war?”

Lir, still seeming like reality hadn’t sunk in, wore a blank expression as she told me that.

Oh.

Right, we were at war, weren’t we?

With a nuclear bomb suddenly in my hands, I’d even forgotten that.

“End the war, you say? Ah, you mean the war we’re having with that demon who crawled back up? Sadly, that’s a request a bit difficult for me to grant.”

“Huh? Why?”

In the lore book, the individual powers of the five spirits, the origin of magic, were described as powerful enough to compare without shame to a demon crawled up from hell.

With the Sword Saint and his party there too, the Sword Saint’s party could handle the Demon King, and Dajin could take care of the demon. We could probably end this war within a month…

“Look at my current state. My main body is bound to a small stone, is it not?”

“It is.”

“My power will weaken the further I stray from this forest.”

“…Huh? Weaken? To what extent?”

“Well, near the noisy frontline above… roughly the level of that old mage you guys are traveling with. It will weaken further the farther I go. If I were to go all the way to the northern edge of the land where the demon is, I’d probably only be able to unleash the power of a 6th Circle mage.”

“That’s it?”

Aww, come on.

All the wind has been taken out of my sails.

“P-please, a bit more decorum!”

Lir, shocked by my blunt tone, poked my back once more.

“Well… honestly, Lir was a little disappointed too, you know.”

“You don’t just blurt things like that out…!”

Lir glanced at Dajin, then carefully leaned in again, bringing her lips close to my ear and whispering.

I don’t know why she’s been whispering ever since. The deer right in front of us is still a Transcendental Being, so it’s not like it won’t hear us just because we’re speaking quietly, right?

Looking at her, it seems like she treats Dajin the most like an idiot.

“Well, if you want to awaken my true power… it’s not like there’s absolutely no way.”

Dajin watched our exchange, a smile playing on her lips as if amused, and then dropped a loaded statement.

“If you release the seal binding my true form, I can use my full power no matter where you are.”

“…You were trapped?”

I blinked, hearing this story for the first time.

“Didn’t I tell you the guy who made the staff that’s inside your body trapped me in this stone? His name was… what was it again? Those mortal names are all so complicated. Ancient One? Something like that’s what they’re called these days, that race.”

This is yet another new setting.

Up until now, I had thought spirits could only communicate through runestones.

In the game, that was the only way to talk to spirits, and even then, the dialogue was only a few lines.

And even the setting documents didn’t mention anything like this.

But the runestones that allow us to communicate with Transcendental Beings are actually prisons trapping them?

“If it’s the Ancient Ones, they were people with incredible technological skills, enough to create artifacts. But even with all that skill, to imprison a Transcendental Being like Dajin-nim in a runestone…”

Lir listened to Dajin’s story and spoke with a blank expression, as if completely shocked. It seems she, too, had thought Dajin had chosen to reside in the runestone willingly.

“The one who trapped me was a mage worthy of being called a genius. He trapped me and tried to treat me like a slave with that staff. An arrogant idea, befitting a genius.”

Dajin didn’t seem to resent the mage who had confined her to this small stone at all. No, it almost felt like she missed him a little.

“Well, it was rather amusing, having a mortal try to handle me like that for the first time. He was capable, ambitious, possessed of a certain talent, so I indulged him for a few years, thinking it would be interesting. But what do you expect from a mortal? He kicked the bucket before long.”

“That’s quite high praise for the magician who imprisoned you.”

“Isn’t it funny, though? Other magicians were busy trying to deify me, but that fellow saw me only as a tool to realize his own desires. I like those with a stiff neck. Even better if they’re reckless fools, trusting in their talent and running wild. It’s entertaining, even comical, to watch.”

…Only then did I begin to understand why Dajin had gifted me such a powerful staff.

“So, if I’m hearing you right, you see me as nothing more than a plaything for your amusement?”

“More like… a cherished doll, let’s say. Amongst those who have sought me out, none have been so talented, so stubborn as you. And on top of that talent, you bear a truly terrible ‘restriction.’”

I knew instinctively that the restriction Dajin spoke of wasn’t just some physical weakness.

Even imprisoned within a runestone, Dajin was a Transcendent, the origin of all lightning magic. He must have known from the moment he met me that the only magic I could wield was ‘Bloom’.

Dajin simply found it amusing.

I didn’t bow my head or kneel before him, as Lire had.

Furthermore, compared to other magicians, my magic stat was absurdly high.

Yet, with such an absurdly high magic stat, I could only wield a single spell.

It wasn’t strange that he found me interesting and curious.

“…That’s unpleasant.”

Upon hearing my reply, Dajin smiled quietly.

“I’m enjoying myself, which is a pity.”

A snake-like smile flickered across Dajin’s lips. I felt as though I’d glimpsed something of this Transcendent’s true nature.

“Th-Then, how does one break the seal that binds Dajin-nim?”

Lire, sensing the subtle tension between Dajin and myself, quickly interrupted and changed the subject.

She seemed worried that I might lash out at Dajin.

“I wouldn’t know.”

“……Ah. Okay, then.”

Lierre, witnessing Dajin’s confident and frank admission of ignorance, wore an expression that telegraphed her loss for words.

“I suppose I could simply ask the one who imprisoned me here directly.”

“But you said he’s already dead.”

I spoke to Dajin, my tone brimming with annoyance. Ask a man who’d been dead for millennia? What nonsense was this?

“His research logs will remain in the bunker located in the northern lands… what you people refer to as a dungeon. If you find searching tedious, you could always develop a spell to undo this seal yourself.”

The northern lands. The endgame zone of the game, swarming with Overlords at level 90 and monsters of comparable strength.

Investigate a dungeon nestled somewhere in that land, where the Demon King and devils had established their dominion? It was a quest beyond my capabilities, in my present state.

“……I’ll just keep it in mind, for now.”

Simply surviving each day was challenge enough. Wielding the true power of a Transcendent was an undeniably alluring prospect, but I had a mountain of other tasks demanding my attention.

“Well, it doesn’t necessarily have to be you who breaks the seal. Eventually, someone similar to you or an even greater genius will appear, as they always do.”

“Sounds almost like you don’t mind being confined. You don’t seem to crave freedom.”

“Freedom? A matter of little consequence to me. I am content with anything, so long as it provides amusement.”

How exactly the minds of Transcendents were wired was beyond the comprehension of a mere mortal brain.

…Actually, maybe this b*stard is just plain weird.