Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 79

Weapon-Devouring Bastard – Chapter 79

‘A stone tablet? Old relics are a bit difficult, but… well, it should be fine.’

Since even an heir of the Soongmoo Yi family wanted to borrow the power of her Analysis Eye, it couldn’t be just an ordinary object.

Taking such a thing out in the workshop was a bit risky, but it wouldn’t affect her meticulously designed workshop too much.

There might be some errors in the spell formulas, but it didn’t matter since she could fix them again.

Valerie carefully activated her Mystic Eyes and examined the stone tablet.

“Ugh!”

Valerie involuntarily gasped and broke out in a cold sweat.

“This is…”

Valerie said in a slightly trembling voice.

“An ancient artifact… from around the 3rd or 4th century at the latest?”

“You recognized it right away.”

I chuckled wryly.

Could that eye even measure age?

Conversely, Valerie felt a chill down her spine.

‘Crap! Such an old item… I almost messed up!’

She thought it would be a pretty significant item, but it was beyond that level.

To think it was a relic from over a thousand years ago.

Old objects contain their own power.

If it had a power that didn’t match the structure of the workshop even slightly, she would have had to rewrite the workshop’s spell formulas from scratch.

The workshop’s spell formulas were similar to computer coding.

Fixing bugs that arose for some reason wasn’t difficult, but completely overhauling painstakingly written code and rewriting it from scratch was definitely not easy.

‘If it had contained a special power….’

How terrible.

Not just hundreds, but thousands of years old.

She had already cast all sorts of space-related magic on the workshop, and if it contained a power that contradicted the workshop’s spell formulas, causing them to break, it would have been a headache.

More than anything, wouldn’t the situation make her look foolish, after confidently boasting about her abilities?

Valerie glanced at Lee Cheol’s face.

-You spoke so confidently, but it seems your workshop’s spell formulas are simpler than I thought. You only have Mystic Eyes, but your magic isn’t that great.

Valerie imagined Lee Cheol saying those words in her head.

Shudder.

Valerie clenched her fist tightly.

That sly brat. If it was an item of this magnitude, shouldn’t he have given her a heads-up at least!

Just then, Lee Cheol suddenly looked up.

Valerie and Lee Cheol’s eyes met.

“What’s wrong?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“You seemed a bit flustered. And you’re sweating….”

“Oh, no! Uh, I just feel a bit hot. Hehe!”

She had cast temperature control magic throughout the workshop, so it was cool and pleasant, not hot, but Valerie had no choice but to make that excuse.

‘Why is he acting like that… Ah, it’s because of this.’

I smirked, seeing Valerie’s eyes trembling.

Did she think I hadn’t considered that?

I knew there weren’t any special magical measures taken on it, so that’s why I took it out in the workshop like this.

“Ahem, a stone tablet. I’ll take a look at it first.”

Valerie skillfully took out and put on a pair of latex gloves for experiments and took out the stone tablet.

‘Who would see this as something over a thousand years old….’

Valerie swallowed hard.

The condition was so good and the carved surface wasn’t weathered, so she thought it was at most 4 or 500 years old.

The ends were corroded or weathered, but even considering that, it was hard to see it as something nearly 2,000 years old.

Valerie shook her head to calm her flustered mind and then calmly focused on ‘interpreting’ the stone tablet again.

In the process, she naturally frowned.

‘I can’t read it?’

She could read simple content like the movements of the moon and sun or the movements of the stars.

But that was it.

Detailed interpretations, the structure of the letters and patterns, the purpose, none of that could be read.

Her Analysis Eye could read even the oldest letters and easily grasp simple codes with just a quick glance.

Yet, she couldn’t read anything other than very simple content from this stone tablet.

‘Archaeology and linguistics aren’t my specialties, though….’

If she had to choose a major besides magic, it would be physics, especially particle physics and chemical physics.

However, even if it was a field outside her major, for her Mystic Eyes to only be able to interpret this much from a clay tablet…

For the first time in a long time, her desire for exploration was ignited.

“It seems to have some astronomical content from the East, with dates and simple letters. What is this anyway?”

“It’s a map. And a key at the same time.”

“A map? A key? You know what this is?”

Valerie tilted her head.

I hesitated for a moment, but the answer was already decided.

Either way, she needed her help to interpret it, and if she interpreted it, she would have to know the content anyway.

“That is…”

I finished thinking and calmly opened my mouth.

Valerie’s eyes widened as if they would tear upon hearing the story.

* * *

I ended up staying in Valerie’s workshop for a while.

Because it would take some time to interpret the stone tablet.

I was going to get a place to stay outside because I thought it would make her nervous, but Valerie said it was okay and gave me a room.

Since I was staying in Valerie’s workshop, I asked her for my second request as well.

Valerie accepted it without hesitation after hearing the content.

“Then let’s go to the training ground right away.”

“You have a training ground in your workshop?”

“Ahem, combat magic isn’t my specialty, but since I’m a magician, I thought I’d need some training. Well, shouldn’t everyone have a training ground in their workshop?”

She says it’s not her specialty, but I knew Valerie would wipe out the demon race in the future and subdue the Great Demon at the Three-Question Festival without a fight.

I chuckled wryly, watching Valerie proudly boast with her chest puffed out.

‘She’s subtly showing off.’

A magician’s workshop costs money.

Not just a little, but an enormous amount of money.

Each piece of equipment that goes in is incredibly expensive, and if you consider the cost of collecting data and purchasing consumables for magical research, it requires astronomical amounts of money.

Therefore, a magician who has set up a workshop has not only the ability but also the financial resources.

Of course, even a mediocre magician could easily set up a workshop if they were born to wealthy parents, but in that case, they wouldn’t be able to fill it with anything even if they set it up.

Conversely, Valerie, who had filled her complex workshop with even a training ground, had proven both her money and her skills.

‘She’s annoying in a different way than my aunt.’

If my aunt felt a bit insecure because of her family members, Valerie felt closer to the embodiment of self-love.

“Okay, come in. This is the training ground.”

The moment I opened one of the doors and entered, I couldn’t help but exclaim at the sight of the training ground.

It was a large space, about the size of an average school auditorium.

Moreover, it was pleasant and quite clean, thanks to the various spells cast on it, even though it was indoors.

“You must have a lot of money?”

She even installed a cafe and a training ground in her workshop.

I know that installing spell formulas is difficult and expensive, so most magicians try to simplify them as much as possible.

“Didn’t you know? I come from a historically wealthy aristocratic family.”

In modern times, the widespread distribution of magic has caused the collapse of the aristocratic class by citizens with capital, but vested interests don’t disappear easily.

I heard that some European countries, including France, still have aristocratic status, even if it’s just a formality.

Besides, the Bell family has been famous as wealthy people since ancient times.

“Of course, I didn’t ask my family for help. If you create a decent formula and sell it to a company, you can earn quite a bit of money. Besides that, I also have businesses in my name.”

“I see.”

“Ahem, I had some extra income from the magic engine business this time. With that….”

Valerie started boasting about her achievements again.

Hearing about the business reminded me of Jung Jin-soo.

He has enough seed money and a few paper companies set up as a means of laundering money and exchanging foreign currency, so it wouldn’t be difficult to start a business.

‘I think he’ll get involved in finance.’

He was the secretary and right-hand man of the chairman of a large private equity fund before going under Baek Cheol-soo, so he might go that way.

Depending on the situation, if he’s doing well, it might not be a bad idea to give him a list of companies or talents that will be highly valued in the future.

“Are you listening?”

“Ah, yes. Of course. Amazing.”

Of course, I wasn’t listening.

Then Valerie glanced at me and asked.

“But really, is your second request okay with just this?”

“Yes, I said I wasn’t going to make unreasonable requests. I thought it would be good if it was a way that could help each other.”

“Then there’s no going back? I think there’s a saying like that in Korea. Niimiileonjungcheongeum.”

“……Pardon?”

I doubted my ears for a moment.

Good heavens.

The combination of awkward Korean and the mumbling pronunciation unique to French is even more shocking.

“So, Nii….”

“That’s not it. It’s NamailEonJoongCheonGeum. Anyway, I’ll help you with what I can, Valerie.”

Valerie smiled at my words.

“Don’t put ‘ssi’ after my name. That pronunciation is too strong and I don’t like it. I heard it’s also used as a curse word.”

“It’s just a title. It’s a bit different, but it’s a similar word to Miss.”

“It’s just. It’s not friendly, is it? Let’s just be friends. Just call me by my name. I’ll call you by your name too. I’m not Korean, so there’s no need to use honorifics or anything.”

Even though I’ve done a lot of strange things, to befriend one of the future archmages.

I smiled comfortably and said.

“I’ll gradually get comfortable with the language. Valerie.”

“Hmm, good. Then let’s start right away. I’ll grant your request first.”

No sooner had those words been spoken.

Purple energy surged from both of Valerie’s eyes.

The opening of the Analysis Eye.

“I never thought there would be a situation where I would teach someone else about Mystic Eyes.”

My second request to Valerie.

It was nothing other than asking her to teach me about Mystic Eyes.

It was a requirement that I had obtained legitimately, but I felt like I was using a bit of a cheat, so I decided to cooperate with her research on her Mystic Eyes instead.

As soon as she heard my words, she said she would give me everything, going beyond just teaching, including control abilities and her know-how, and that’s how we ended up at the training ground.

“Wait a moment.”

Valerie put a cigarette in her mouth as usual.

It wasn’t a ready-made product, but looked like something she had dried herself.

It wasn’t an ordinary cigarette.

I smelled it and nodded.

‘It’s a Veruberan leaf.’

A scent similar to mugwort, but a bit lighter.

Veruberan was a type of magical herb that only grew in Europe and helped to facilitate the flow of magic.

It was usually drunk in water, but it was famous for being more effective when the burned smoke was swallowed.

“Take a puff too. It’s a medicinal herb, so it won’t affect you even if you’re a martial artist.”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m trying to increase efficiency. I heard that in the East, when writing Mystic Eyes (魔眼), they use the same characters as magic power, and as the saying goes, Mystic Eyes consume magic power unlike other abilities. The better your magic power control, the easier it is to get a sense of control.”

“Even without that, I’m confident in my magic power control, so you don’t have to worry.”

Even that monstrous first brother of mine couldn’t help but admire my magic power control.

“Well… if you say so. Actually, I didn’t need it either.”

Valerie threw away the half-burnt cigarette with a sullen expression.

“Then let’s start. First, open your Mystic Eyes.”

I closed my eyes for a moment and then slowly opened them.

Swish-.

I could feel the Mystic Eyes absorbing magic power.

The energy of the sunset swirled around my pupils, and everything in my field of vision began to change.

Lines, I could read the countless lines filling the workshop.

“Ugh.”

And the moment I saw the enormous amount of magic flow and spell formulas filling the workshop, I began to feel pain in my eyes.

At the same time, my eyelids became heavy.

All sorts of lines and dots were intricately intertwined, so I couldn’t see a single proper image.

Valerie’s expression changed strangely as she saw me squinting and groaning softly.

“What’s wrong?”

I didn’t answer right away and calmly controlled my magic power.

I had already trained a lot in controlling the Mystic Eyes in Cheonwisan.

I distinguished what I wanted to see and what I didn’t want to see, and calmly answered.

“No, it’s nothing. I’m fine now. There were just too many spell formulas in the workshop.”

“What? Your eyes hurt just from seeing some spell formulas… wait, are you saying you can see everything? All the magic circles, magic power, and spell formulas here?”

Why is she suddenly so surprised?

I had already given her a little explanation about my eyes.

My eyes felt a bit stiff, but I forced myself to maintain my Mystic Eyes and looked up to meet Valerie’s eyes.

“Yes, as I said, my eyes can read the flow of power or read what is invisible. But it’s hard to control. I’ve gotten used to it a lot, but….”

“Wa, wait. Just a moment. Ah, you can deactivate your Mystic Eyes.”

I squeezed my eyes shut again and reopened them.

It was my own routine for opening the Mystic Eyes. I didn’t have to do this motion, but it was certain that opening and closing my eyes was like turning a switch on and off.

“Tell me a little more in detail. Can you see through things or see magic power?”

“I can’t exactly see through things, but I can guess. I can predict the opponent’s movements or grasp hidden energy… and rather than just seeing magic power, I just read the flow of power itself.”

“…….”

Valerie breathed out a low sigh and slowly approached me.

She looked at my eyes with a complex expression.

“Do you know how strange what you just said is?”

Valerie’s expression was strange.

I frowned.

“In what way?”

“……If that’s true, your eyes aren’t ordinary Mystic Eyes.”

Valerie said with a slightly stiff expression.

“No Mystic Eyes in the world can see so many different things.”

Valerie’s voice echoed slowly in the quiet training ground.

I looked up at Valerie with my eyes slightly widened.