88 Episode 87 Fire and Magic Stone (1/2)

Fortunately, the sugared desk was cheap, and I had to replace it with a better one.

Perhaps I had underestimated the artifact, thinking it was just a tool for making sugar.

An artifact made from a magical stone that could be used for military purposes could not possibly be used only to make a small amount of sugar.

Even more frightening, the Sugar Wood Artifact was a magic artifact that could be used multiple times and filled with magic power.

It could be used to mass produce sugar and even demolish a wooden house with one tool.

It was worth spending three magic stones, but it was still a very cost-effective tool.

Judging from the fact that it can be filled with magic power, magic stones may have been valuable even in ancient civilizations.

At any rate, by preparing lumber and metal equipment suitable for the output of the magic tools, it became possible to produce sugar in a stable manner.

I never thought that the plan to mass produce sugar, which had been blocked by the Zunana grass, would be realized in this way, but as a result, Kaede Merchant Company would have a new main product.

The company had already grown so large that they could handle this and that related to sales without my involvement, so my job was as simple as filling the ”wood sugarizer” with magic power from time to time.

Except for the research and development, I've been watching from the sidelines, providing only money and goods, but it's been fun to see the store grow like a management simulation.

While the sugar sales system was being set up, I received a request from the guild and came to the city of Soltin for a meeting about it.

A demon outbreak was finally going to happen.

It's about five days away from Fotoren (by carriage or other common means of transportation).

It was not a great distance for me, and it would not be a great distance for the adventurers returning from Decibatore who would be my reinforcements.

The meeting went smoothly, partly because of the small number of people present.

The following is a summary of what was told to me.

The fact that most of the area within the predicted outbreak zone (a radius of about 100 km) is just wilderness or mountainous terrain, with only a few small villages, makes matters easier.

There are several small and medium-sized cities in the vicinity, including Soltin, where the task force is located, but their guards and the residents of the villages have already been evacuated, so my job is to kill the demons before they get out of range and reduce their numbers to a point where the wizards guarding the towns can kill them.

Successfully completing this mission means that I'll be able to wipe out nearly 10,000 demons and monopolize their materials.

We will be able to get a lot of materials for artifacts.

After deciding on the scope of the mission, the meeting quickly ended. The details would be determined by each of us, and each of us would do our part.

The merchants and guild members would remain in the city, while the adventurers would move to their respective posts.

Do your best so that we don't have to do our jobs.

The adventurers who were leaving the city with their long anti-aircraft staves called out to me as I began to fly.

The adventurers running to their posts were faster than the average warrior, even for wizards, but they were ...... wizards who had originally been in Decibatore. This should come as no surprise.

There are still four to six hours before the predicted time of the demon's appearance, but the predictions have only been narrowed down to a 100 kilometer radius, so we need to find a place where the signs are appearing.

I accelerate, careful not to exceed the speed of sound, and look around in the sky.

I've been told that it's easy to tell when there's too much magic in the air because of the swirling black clouds.

I was right, and in less than thirty minutes, I found the black swirling clouds.

It was just outside the 100km radius, but thankfully there was nothing but a small village nearby.

In the meantime, I put up a warding spell to prevent damage to the village, and watched the cloud, waiting for the demon to appear.

While I was watching, the unnatural black clouds, which were different from normal cumulonimbus clouds, grew in size and blackness.

After about thirty minutes, when you have grown tired of watching the clouds, the horizontal expansion of the clouds ends and a strong downdraft begins to blow.

The clouds did not disappear in the downdraft, but rather began to expand downward, indicating that the clouds were not made of water vapor.

But there are still more than five hours to go before the monster appears.

Too much time.

I thought that it would be quicker if I just collected the magical elements like I did right after defeating the dragon, but I didn't want anything strange to happen.

I had no choice but to wait and process the large number of magic stones in my possession so that I could connect them.

One magic stone, two magic stones: ......

When I finished processing the 173rd magic stone, things finally started to move.

The black clouds that had covered the sky disappeared, and in their place, black flying demons covered the sky.

The demons seemed to appear in multiple waves, but there still seemed to be a thousand or two thousand of them.

Although there are many of them, the area where they appear is almost the same size as the clouds, so for the time being, I cover the area with warding magic.

You'll have to enclose dozens of cubic kilometers at once, but that's covered by the violence of MP.

Let's try to kill one of them.

I approach it at subsonic speed, swing my magic sword, and drop the head of a bird-like creature with large black wings.