Chapter 18 - Kaoris Confession (1/2)

After passing through several fields for the training of Knights and Court Magicians, and test area for Kingdom's veteran Synergists' volatile products, the five of them—Rio, Shizuku, Kaori, Ryutarou, and Kouki—finally arrived in the Synergists' area where Hajime's exclusive workshop was located.

Along the way, they passed some knights, magicians, and synergists who respectfully greeted them due to their venerated status as Apostles of God. As they grew closer towards their destination, Kaori's body was trembling as if she was restraining herself for rushing into their destination like an impatient child before a toy/sweet store.

Finally, they arrived in front of a single-story building made from stone with tiled rooftop. They stopped in front of the wooden door and waited for Rio to open the door. There was a nasty security system installed in the building if anyone whose mana wasn't registered tried to enter the building.

When Kouki asked Rio what this nasty security was, Rio explained the so-called nasty security to them with a manic glint in his eyes. After Rio finished his explanation, every one of them—even the muscle-head Ryutarou—was trembling with paper-like pale face and horrified wide-eyed expression.

The security was basically a small plate glued to the door. There was a very complex magic circle that the four students couldn't make head or tail of it despite their progress in the magical study under the best Court Magicians the Kingdom could offer.

It was only natural they wouldn't be able to understand the magic circle because Rio was the one who created it. He had visited the Root of this universe using Evolution Magic to absorb all knowledge in regard to Tortusian Magic system. However, he only visited the Root of Arifureta Universe to get all knowledge related to magic and skills and didn't get to know everything else for he wanted to feel the joy from knowing something new in this universe.

As an aside, Arifureta Universe also had the metaphysical plane in which all information was stored. It was similar to the Root from the Type-Moon universe—for anyone who knows about this famous franchise. And Evolution Magic was a path to reach this place after the user mastered it.

Strictly speaking, not even the well-known user of this magic, Lyutilis Haltina, had mastered Evolution Magic. So, Rio who could master it in a mere moment was the real freak. Then again, he had the cheat he received from God—the actual God, not the fake one such as Ehit.

After pouring a drop of his mana on the Mana Scanner, the door glowed and there was the sound of grinding steel before the door was opened automatically. He then led the four students inside, and they timidly followed after him, being wary of some nasty traps they thought Rio had installed in the place. Of course, it was only their imagination. All traps in the place were connected to the scanner and they only triggered off when someone tried to enter the building forcefully.

When they arrived on the first floor, they saw an open space filled with crates and piles of raw ores. There were so many different types in the place and the four students were amazed by the vast types of the ores. The walls, the floor, and the ceiling were covered by a type of mineral that blocked magic and was very durable. Afterward, they followed Rio going up towards the second floor.

The second floor was the real workshop and two bedrooms and a single shared bathroom. The bedrooms belonged to Rio and Hajime respectively, but they were rarely used because Rio would use his own personal room in the castle when he needs his rest and Hajime would stay in his workshop all the time, even when he slept or had his meals.

Finally, they were led to the workshop by Rio and were dumbstruck when they saw the state of the workshop that looked like a hurricane had passed by. There were shards or small ores scattered and piles of tomes and scrolls on the floor and the surface of a heavy work table. Stuck on the wall was a board with many parchments filled with the complex schematic of firearms from Earth or complex magic circles with their details jumbled together closely. Also, scattered on the stone floor were countless parchments with doodles on it.

Finally, the four students followed Rio who walked up to the only sofa in the room. There was someone sleeping in it, their face covered by a book. It was easy to guess the identity of the sleeping person.

”Hey, Hajime, wake up!” Rio called out the sleeping person while shaking his knee that was folded and raised up on the sofa.

”Hmmmph... Five more minutes, dad...”