Chapter 22

Cipher always tries to stay a little ahead of me. Is he trying to act as the vanguard? I should probably ask him.

“Are you positioning yourself a bit in front of me to protect me from monsters?”

“Affirmative.”

“Affirmative… But, Cipher, you don’t exactly look like you’ve got a lot of defensive power either.”

“Would you like to see?”

As I marvel at how fluent he is, Cipher pulls out a card from the shoulder bag he’s carrying. It seems to be something equivalent to a student ID card for an automaton doll.

Name: Not Set
ID Number: 000938
Model: Cipher Model 03
Level: 5
Vitality: 50/50
Magic Power: 30/30

Equipped Weapons: Element Cannon x1
Sidearm: Stun Rod
Special Traits: Levitation, Optical Camouflage I, Record

Not all the specifications are displayed, but one thing I immediately noticed is that Cipher is higher level than I am and quite strong.

“So, what do you think?”

“You’re just plain stronger than me… despite having a small body.”

“…Not small.”

“Uh… well, I guess for Cipher’s size, this is considered large?”

“…It’s small for standard specifications.”

It feels like our conversation is slightly off… Anyway, Cipher seems not to like being called small.

And it turns out that “Cipher” is the generic name for this type of automaton doll, without any individual name set. For convenience, I’ll just keep calling him Cipher for now.

Beep beep! Warning! Monster detected.

Cipher issues a warning. Looking ahead tensely, I see a translucent, jelly-like entity faintly appearing in the dim light.

Encounter: Monster – Green Ballun: 1

“So it’s called a Ballun… but it looks like a slime…”

As I begin to say that, the ‘Green Ballun’ quivers violently and then—

“So… fast…!!”

The Ballun starts bouncing around rapidly—its erratic movements catch me off guard, and it lightly brushes against my arm.

For the brief moment of contact, there’s a sticky, unpleasant sensation. This isn’t physical damage; it’s targeting my magic power.

Magic Power: 9/13

(Since I used “Compression” last night, my maximum magic power increased—but losing a third of it all at once is bad…!)

Even if it doesn’t drain my vitality, it could be fatal—without magic power, my options for action would be severely limited, and if I run out of magic, the escape scroll will likely activate.

“Failed to lock onto the monster, target lost.”

“Cipher, can’t you see it!?”

Ms. Iga said Cipher could defeat weak monsters, but that’s probably when in a party; the Ballun slows down when someone is in contact with it. But I can’t afford to take any more hits.

(…But if I stay calm… there’s a simple way to deal with this…!)

The Ballun’s timing is too unpredictable to track with my eyes. Like yesterday when the catling pounced from behind, I focus my awareness on the killing intent.

(…Come at me!)

Skill ‘Fixate’ activated. The spatial coordinates of the target are fixed.

The sound of the Ballun bouncing off the walls and ground stops. It was trying to ambush me from the right rear blind spot by changing shape.

“Alright, it’s frozen… Slime-type monsters have various weaknesses, but…”

“Master, please use the student card to check the monster’s data.”

“Oh… I see, it can do that too.”

Green Ballun – Level 3
Vitality: 20/20
Magic Power: 10/10
Note: Attacking the core will disable it.

You can view the data of encountered monsters—it’s only natural, as without it, you’d be in a potentially deadly situation right from the start. There might even be cases where a weapon attack could successfully hit the core by luck.

“Cipher, can you fire a magic bullet?”

“It requires charging through the loading port.”

Looks like it’s not so generous as to be charged right from the start. I’ll have to rely on my instincts to gauge how much magic power to use.

“Alright… this should be enough for one shot, right…!”

Normal Bullet – Fire!

A beam of light shoots out from the small cannon mounted on Cipher, hitting the core of the Green Ballun. The jelly-like structure loses its form and liquefies.

“Whew… As I thought, it uses quite a bit of magic.”

Magic Power: 3/13

It takes 5 points of magic power to fire a single normal shot. While I’ve met the quota set by Mr. Renjou of defeating one monster, I can no longer use magic-based attacks.

“Master, here’s the drop item.”

“Hmm… this is the Ballun’s core… Whoa, it’s heavy!”

The core, about the size of a baseball, feels surprisingly heavy the moment I take it.

I thought the core would break when attacked, but it seems to have undergone some other transformation. In fact, it resembles the magic stone Mr. Renjou showed me.

Name: Ballun’s Magic Stone

Note: Transforms when the core of a Green Ballun is neutralized. Restores magic power when used.

Value: 5 Silver

Taking a picture of it with my smartphone, the data is cross-referenced and displayed.

“Restores magic power when used… I see, it’s because their main source of sustenance is magic.”

The value of one is quite high. The special price Mr. Akizuki set for medicinal herbs was 1 silver each, and this is five times that amount—an exceptional value.

Unlike the Mahoroba Herb, the “Ballun’s Magic Stone” doesn’t seem to have any time-of-day usage restrictions, which likely accounts for its higher value. Although, if I use the “Mahoroba Herb +9” to create an orb of “Minor Magic Recovery,” time won’t matter.

Since bringing recovery items is allowed, I’ve also brought along the orbs I made yesterday, but if I play my cards right, I might not need to use them.

For now, I decide to use the “Ballun’s Magic Stone”—as I hold it in my right hand and concentrate, the magic power contained in the stone slowly flows into my body, fully restoring my magic power. The stone crumbles into dust the moment it’s used, as it can only be used once.

Magic Power: 14/14

(Recovering magic power after using it to the limit does gradually increase my magic capacity.)

My current maximum magic power is 14, and a single magic stone fully restores it. It takes 5 points of magic power to load a normal bullet, and 1 point to use “Fixate” to ensure the core is hit.

“…Does this mean I could loop this infinitely?”

“‘Infinite loop’ sounds scary, doesn’t it?”

“No, that’s not what I meant… How are you even able to respond like that?”

“Normal bullet, magic stone, normal bullet, magic stone. A perpetual motion machine is born.”

Cipher beat me to the punch with that one. But he’s right—if I can reliably obtain “Ballun’s Magic Stones,” I could potentially increase my stock by defeating two Balluns for each stone.

The only issue is whether there are conveniently enough Green Balluns around. Although there’s plenty of time left, if there aren’t many of them, it wouldn’t be worth trying to hunt them specifically.

Beep beep! Warning! Multiple monster signals detected.

As I suspected, I crawl through a side hole in the rock wall, and beyond it, there’s an area teeming with Green Balluns. It seems the one I fought earlier came from here as well.

“Element Cannon, fully charged and ready.”

If Cipher weren’t here, I wouldn’t be able to use this method. I’ll have to thank Mr. Iga for assigning him to me.

Careful not to get surrounded by the Green Balluns, I start luring them in one or two at a time, collecting magic stones as I go. The slight growth in my maximum magic power also boosts my motivation.