I’ve been wandering around different places, but I still haven’t settled on a location. However, I’ve managed to gather quite a lot of materials. I’ve been storing everything in an interdimensional space. The biggest haul so far includes a few old traditional houses and Western-style mansions.
I was planning to decide on a location for building my house, then return to town to secure building materials, but it seems that won’t be necessary. Given that securing a way back is difficult, this is actually quite convenient. Although, it looks like my meals will consist of those black fruits for a while.
The buildings, before they transformed, were completely submerged in mana. Just like people, objects can also be preserved when immersed in mana. However, any items in places accessible to humans have already been recovered by someone.
What I’ve been discovering now is because this area is so dense with mana that humans can’t easily enter.
Things like urethane and plywood, materials that don’t easily hold mana, tend to decay faster. Mana doesn’t easily settle into mixed or artificially processed materials. For example, solid wood beams retain mana well, while laminated wood does not. As a result, older houses remain, but you rarely see modern prefabricated homes.
Even in old houses, sometimes the walls are missing—likely due to the addition of insulation or other alterations later on. There’s some flooring that looks like pinewood, perhaps remnants of those prefabricated houses.
For now, I’m tossing everything into the interdimensional space. Since there’s no one around to see, I’m doing whatever I please. My internal mana is being drained, but since the surrounding mana is so dense, it quickly replenishes.
Being able to stay in such a mana-dense area is a bit of a cheat, I suppose. Even though I possess all the Stigmata and have a particularly strong one, this would normally be impossible. I’m not even using a barrier to block the mana.
Despite restricting my abilities, my body still remains that of a Demon Lord.
The condition for my home’s location is a place where the mana is dense—whether it’s because there’s a demon claiming to be a Demon Lord, or the mana is dense because of said demon, I’m not sure. Regardless, this whole area is dense with mana, so that’s settled.
It’s a land where no humans have been for over five years—it’s filled with mana and monsters, so people rarely come here. The presence of Heroes is a concern, but since it’s far from the line connecting the town and the Demon Lord’s Castle, it should be fine.
There are no demons or sentient monsters living here—there are no buildings, and I’ve avoided places that look like nests. I did come across a fallen raccoon, though.
As long as I can make fields—this place should work. For some reason, there’s a terraced field here.
I’m deep in a snow-covered mountain. There are a lot of rocky areas around, but here there’s soil. I wonder if there’s a place in this mountain with good sunlight and easy access to water. It would be nice if I could get a view of the terraced fields.
Ah, I found a spring.
It’s flowing towards the terraced fields. And it seems like the source of the mana is also this spring. The mana is spreading through the water. Since mana tends to gather underground, it likely came up through the water. If I search, there might even be a dungeon underground.
The trees are blocking out the sky, so there’s not much sunlight. But I plan to build a house, so I’ll cut down these trees and use them. That should solve the sunlight issue.
I move along the flow from the spring, scouting for a good spot to build my house. Hmm, most places look pretty similar. In that case, I should choose a location that includes the spring.
If animals—or rather, monsters—come to drink water here, I’ll need to use the water upstream. With that decided, I return.
I begin seriously checking the location. Alright, this should work.
Now that I’ve settled on a place, I need to gather materials. It’d be nice if I could find ingredients for a Familiar’s Collar, but for some things, I’ll need to defeat monsters.
The problem is that the power of Heroes and Wizards isn’t enough to deal with the monsters in this area. I’ll have to create some trap magic tools to deal with that.
For now, I gather materials and do some mining—essentially just tossing things into the interdimensional space. I think to myself, “Didn’t I just do this earlier?” as I return to the construction site.
I get off the wolf and, when I turn to release it, I find it grooming itself at the spot I touched. Was it really that uncomfortable? Sorry about that.
I remove the wolf’s collar, and just as I thought, it turned to ashes the moment my mana stopped flowing into it.
The wolf quickly disappeared from sight. Magic tools for familiars are designed so that after you remove them, the familiar won’t harbor any hostility towards the user for a while, and it won’t follow them. Unless we meet by chance again, it won’t attack me. Take care, wolf!
I release the wolf and casually place some barrier magic tools. Each one covers an area of about 20 meters, but they don’t work against particularly strong monsters.
Normally, barriers either repel or avoid monsters along with dense mana. But since I want the mana, I opted for a less common type of barrier.
Alisa didn’t know what materials to use to make top-tier magic tools, so I ended up with a weaker one.
Well, the invisibility magic tool I made turned out fairly strong, so I should be fine.
I know I’ll be safe, so the only ones in trouble are the ones who try to attack me.
I cast a thin stream of fire to cut down some trees. I wish I’d made my Wizard abilities stronger. I chop down a few giant trees and toss them into the interdimensional space.
I place my hand on a stump and burn out the remaining roots, tossing any loose stones into the interdimensional space. I’m tempted to cheat a bit and use wind magic. I want to get this done quickly. Or maybe I should just toss the whole root into the interdimensional space.
As for the trees around the house, I’ll decide what to do with them later. First, I need to level the land for the house. I also need to create a campsite.
I scoop up the raised earth and put it into the interdimensional space, then fill the lower areas. I drop flat boulders onto the soil and toss them back into the interdimensional space, repeating this process to pack down the ground.
I take out a well-preserved traditional house to check its size. Maybe the Western-style mansion would be better? I can’t see the terraced fields from inside, but both seem decent enough.
I’ll spend a day here, checking the sunlight and deciding the angle for placing the house. For now, I’ll camp in the dirt floor of this old traditional house with crumbling walls.
What’s that? Why don’t I go upstairs? Because old houses without electricity are creepy!! The same goes for Western mansions!! I’ll check them during the day!!
—The bitter black fruit is saving the day.
Since I didn’t store any food in the interdimensional space before leaving town, I’m running low on proper meals. Maybe I should have taken the wolf on a hunt for monsters before releasing it? Though I can’t butcher the animals anyway.
Regarding the wolf, the magic tool was only designed for a day’s trip there and back, so its time limit was up either way.
The magic tool I used on the raccoon is actually stronger and more durable than the one I used on the wolf. I was planning to be picky about the monster I ride back.
The raccoon is still asleep. Since I’m low on Healing Potions, I use the Saint’s power to heal it just a little. It’s weak, but I have plenty of mana to keep pouring in. It’s what people generally call magical power.
I could heal it instantly, but if I, as the Demon Lord, do that, the monster would automatically become my subordinate. It’s safer to channel the Saint’s power instead.
Though I did manage to command the wolf, there’s a difference between temporary employment and long-term service. I also want to check our compatibility and get its consent.
But wow, this raccoon is so round. I enjoy its roundness while channeling healing energy. Is this some kind of winter-furred raccoon monster?
