Chapter 38: A Sword From Far, Far Away
At Ignacia Academy, it was another day as usual. A magic class was being held, focusing on the topic of the ancient histories of magic.
“The Azure Tower, in their pursuit of truths from the ancient past, discovered that early forms of spell stones—products of early runic technology—may have existed as early as the Age of Expansion, when the Great Goddess Esphera herself commanded mankind to spread her light across the world.”
As the aged professor in front of the class was invested in his lecture, a certain elf crinkled her brow at the sight of two empty seats in front of her. They belonged to a pink-haired priestess and a detestable dwarf.
Two students she knew had excused themselves for the month for unknown reasons.
Under normal circumstances, such prolonged absences would’ve earned them a penalty by the books. But then a high priest of that pink-haired priestess’s order came to the academy long after they had left to persuade the school staff against penalizing the two.
“Where did that foul dwarf go…?” (Muttering)
“Miss Aurelia, are you listening?”
“A-Ah, yes, of course I am!”
“Good. I have a question for you.”
The aged magic professor, using a unique combination of fire magic and wind magic, drew a familiar object in the air. It was a spell stone.
“What is it that makes casting modern spells and using ancient spell stones so different?”
“Ha? Is it not obvious? Modern spellcasting utilizes both internal mana and, when necessary, draws mana from external sources such as mana stones, where excess mana is stored. Modern spells use artifacts like grimoires and staves to instantaneously realize desired magic formulae.
Ancient spell stones, by contrast, required runic sigils to be inscribed on mana stones in order to cast magic from the mana contained within them. Over time, this method became increasingly inefficient as the arcane arts evolved.”
“Excellent answer. You may sit down.”
Grumpy that such a feeble-looking commoner of a professor dared ask her—a Great Elf far older than he—such a simple question, she sat back down on her seat with a thump. The students around her eyed her with contempt.
“How arrogant. I can see that traitorous Saintess’s lineage in her character.” (Whispering)
“Ssshhh. If you speak too loudly, she will hear.” (Whispering)
“Does it matter? Let her hear. I would love to see the look on her face when she does.” (Whispering)
Aurelia crinkled her brow once more, growing visibly agitated. She clutched a hand under the table, trying to hold back her anger.
“Flapping their gums like they know a damn thing… All of them…!” (Muttering)
Despite that, however, the feelings she tried pushing down reflected on her face. Feelings of pure, unadulterated anger. Students who were riding on their ego just moments ago retracted their cheeky grins and instead directed their gaze elsewhere, afraid to lock eyes with Aurelia.
Unaware of the growing tension at the back of the class, the magic professor continued on with his lecture.
“... In fact, spell stones are not the only articles we know that originate from the Age of Expansion. It is said that the treasured sword passed down in the imperial family also dates back to that era of human history.
As far as we know about this imperial treasure, it is a weapon that still easily eclipses anything that could be made today. The Azure Tower has confirmed it to be a product of early runic technology as well.”
"You are granted an audience with the Great Chieftain."
Hatred towards the gnomish people was practically inevitable, given the absence of adequate technologies to work around their weaknesses. Historically, the gnomes contributed little to labor due to their small stature and weaker physical abilities.
Yet, they consumed far more than the average person. This caused the humans of Starfell to look on them with contempt, especially during more dire times.
Snide’s sermons only fanned the flames further, amplifying the discontent that was already there into full-blown hatred.
A people’s hatred is not so easily satisfied. People are animals that actively seek out catharsis when granted the justification to. Should things proceed further from there, escalations to violence would be most likely to occur.
Unfortunately, once things get moving in this direction and fast, it’s not so easy to slow things down. You can’t block the way of an oncoming train, expecting to stop the damn thing, unless you’re Tarantuboy.
A workaround to this, however, is to appease the faction's leader. Convince the head against hostile action, and you could buy yourself time to put out the fires.
“This is…”
“Great Chieftain, this is the gnomes’ gifts to you, for being a good neighbor to them for the longest time.”
Leaders, even the foolish ones, can typically be swayed to act against the tide given the right incentives. Such effective persuasions often come in two forms: sweet words and even sweeter gifts.
To make a good impression on the Great Chief Nova’k, we decided to create quite a hefty number of spell stones. Of course, we didn’t develop ones for combat purposes.
Handing the enemy weapons that could be used against you is a dumb move to make, unless you’re goading them into challenging you, or unless there exist benefits that could make taking that chance worth it.
Instead, we made spell stones for use in daily life.
Spell stones that created small sparks of flame, produced water, or blew air.
We even made one such spell stone that helped clear dirt off the skin. Just use it like soap and rub it up against your body while activating the mana inside, and voila! Clean skin!
Of course, these stones weren’t exactly omnipotent.
For one thing, the mana stored inside these stones was limited. Unless you had the biological make-up necessary to command magic energy, there was no way to charge that battery back up.
Humans in this world still lack the capacity to control mana directly. Though it seemed that activating the mana within the mana stones didn’t require that kind of hardware in your body, as was evident from their previous use as summoning stones.
I was a natural exception to this case, however, having received divine power from Esphera before, though perhaps done so unintentionally. I’m still unsure as to whether her granting a blessing to one of my worlds (game saves) was meant to provide me with that divine power directly.
We made enough of these spell stones to fill up a few pouches. But this was already more than plenty.
After a few demonstrations of using the spell stones, Nova’k was more than pleased with the amount he had been given.
“To think that these stones could be used for so much more… These engravings seem quite complex. You say that the gnomes created these?”
“That is correct.”
That was no lie.
We had made a temporary sweatshop in Gnomewood, where the gnomes worked tirelessly to create these excellent products with the direction of our resident divine power programmer, Ramube. Surprisingly, they were quite skilled with their hands, despite being physically weaker than the average human.
Perhaps their specialty lies in craftsmanship rather than brute labor? Whatever the case, these stones would become their specialty products from now on.
“The gnomes would be happy to continue trading with you, Great Chieftain, as trusted neighbors.”
“... Hm.”
The first part of the deal: sweet words.
Treat the gnomes right, and they’ll provide more. A significant political benefit that should improve the livelihood of his people, and in the process, strengthen people’s positive perception of their leader.
Now it was time for the second part. A more personal gift to the Great Chieftain.
“That is not all we would like to give you, Great Chieftain.”
“Oh? What more could you have for me?”
“I am confident you will like this gift.”
Remember what I mentioned earlier about handing weapons to the enemy? We’ll have to make an exception here, since the benefits far outweigh the consequences. Not that there should be any consequences with this, that is.
Graille approached us with an object covered in cloth. She flashed the chieftain a respectful smile. That alone seemed to draw a lot of points from Nova’k as I saw him swallow his saliva.
Good gifts demand good presentation, and what better presentation than having your gift delivered by a big-booba EROFU goddess?
Pinch.
“Ow!”
“... Pervert.”
What the fuck, woman? Are you a mind reader? Or are you maybe a constellation in disguise?
Ahem.
Anyway, let’s keep the show going.
Taking to Graille’s side, I pull the cloth off the object in her hands. Underneath the cloth was a…
“... Is this… a weapon? This shape.. This craftsmanship… This is nothing like I have ever seen before! Is this… blessed by Esphera herself?”
“Huh? How did you know?” ← Esphera
“I am glad you are pleased with the gift.”
It was a plasma sword.
Of course, it wasn’t an ACTUAL plasma sword. Where would you even get something like that?
This is actually just a toy sword that we ordered online.
Apparently, a constellation in the Constellation Community Server with the username “2-BalledAngelos” was running a courier service called “Angel Deliveries” dedicated to constellation-specific clients. And we just so happened to need an appropriate gift to give to the chieftain of Starfell, who, as per tradition, was the town’s strongest hunter.
So, after finding a cool-looking gift to get him online, we had that constellation deliver it to us through dimensions by drone. And that gift was this plasma sword, which was a toy from a certain movie series about a war in a galaxy far, far away.
This particular version we bought emitted a white glowing blade. So, when I had Nova’k pick it up and press the button on the handle, it did exactly that: radiate a white, ethereal glow. It even made sound effects, too.
Vuuuooom! Vuuuooom! Vuuuooom!
“Oooh… Ooooh! OOOOH!”
He seems very excited.
I think he likes the gift.
“AMAZING! SPLENDID! TRULY WONDERFUL!”
Vuuuooom! Vuuuooom! Vuuuooom!
“Wielding this weapon… I FEEL THE POWER COURSING THROUGH MY BODY!”
Vuuuooom! Vuuuooom! Vuuuooom!
… Seeing a grown man swing that thing around is starting to give me second-hand embarrassment.
Anyway, this “weapon” was meant to be a gift for display. I didn’t actually intend for him to use it in combat. Kind of like those uselessly decorated ceremonial swords carried around for appearances.
I was hoping he’d use it as a showpiece to his warriors instead. An item for bragging whenever he felt like it. That’s why I was going to warn him about how fragile the toy was.
“Great Chieftain, I advise you not to—”
KSSSSHH!
“... Huh?”
Did… Did it just cut through stone?
What the fuck?
“What a terrifying weapon! To be capable of slicing through stone with ease! I am truly impressed!”
No, what the fuck is going on?
[How was that, Lord Yvell? Did we do a good job?]
[... Esphera, what did you do?]
[Uh… Why do you not sound pleased?]
[You are imagining things. Now, tell me. What. did. you. do?]
[Well, you see…]
Apparently, while I wasn’t looking, under the impression that we were supposed to give Nova’k a most impressive gift to sway him from feeding into the schism, Esphera thought it would be a great idea to embed her divine power into the weapon to make it more impressive.
To achieve this, she sought the help of the two other constellations with us: Ramube and Graille.
While Ramube was as ready and willing to help as ever, Graille opposed her at every turn. To convince Graille to assist with her little project, she argued that contributing to the creation of this divine weapon would reflect positively on her—especially since I desperately wanted the two of them to get along.
[I helped reinforce these parts of the handle, Sir Yvell! If you look at the core of the weapon, its weight has balanced out for easier handling while still permitting divine power to flow through to the blade!] ← Graille
[I-It is still MY divine power flowing through the blade, so this was mostly MY work! Do you feel the heat emanating from the blade? This is my divine energy, granting the weapon increased cutting power!] ← Esphera
[Without my enhancements, all of that power would not reach the blade, however!]
[Are you trying to get ahead of your senior?!]
[Oh, please. You are clearly trying to take most of the credit!]
…
Fuck.
There’s nothing we can do about this now. I guess we just roll with it.
Ahem.
“T-This is a weapon enchanted with a fragment of the Holy Star herself, as I am sure you can tell (complete bullshit).”
“Yes! Indeed! I can feel her very presence within this…”
“... Sword. It’s called a sword.”
“Yes! This sword! Ohh, what a wonderful name for a weapon.”
“No, that’s what this type of weapon is called. You’d best call it something else.”
“Then I shall name it Agnova'k, after our great founder and myself!”
“Cool. Gnomes made this, too, by the way.”
“To think that gnomes could be capable of creating such amazing things!”
“... Right.”
I feel exhausted. I should probably reprimand those two goddesses later for going overboard with the sword.
As you could probably expect by now, the audience with the Great Chieftain went swimmingly. It seemed that the sword was the key factor to the success of the plan.
“... Just promise me you two don’t pull this sort of thing again.”
““We are sorry...”” (Esphera & Graille in sync)
“You are forgiven.”
Just as we were making our exit from the mudbrick building, we encountered a familiar face standing by the doorway.
“... Hello, friends. Quite curious to see your group here at the chieftain’s residence.”
It was Snide, looking a lot less friendly than usual today.
“Might I inquire about your relationship with the gnomes?”
… Of course, things weren’t going to go so easily. Goddamn it.
