“Hoo, hoo…”
I stood on the sandy floor, gasping for breath.
Fortunately, the jeweled angler did not come out beyond its own habitat.
Every single thing I explored in this terrifying deep sea made my blood run cold, but still.
“Wow…”
I brought the raw diamond clenched tightly in my right hand up before my eyes.
It was about the size of a tennis ball, its surface catching the curtain’s faint green light and gleaming with reflections.
This was a place where the reward was certainly equal to the risk.
Thinking back on my memories of the past… I recalled that a diamond of this size had easily been worth over ten billion.
Of course, the flaw was that I couldn’t sell this on the market and had to use it only as a synthesis material…
In any case, good was good.
As the tension that had filled my body gradually loosened, the agony I had been holding back began to creep up.
My face twisted on its own from the pain.
I brushed the sand off my back and legs, got up, and moved in the direction where my footprints had been left.
Now that I had gathered all the materials, it was time to enhance my tool.
I returned to the submersible and immediately began the crafting process.
Though I called it crafting, it wasn’t anything grand. I just had to shove all the materials the crafting machine demanded into it.
“Let’s see… gold, 50 grams. Diamond, 20 grams. Titanium, 3 kilograms…”
As I followed the instructions written on the crafting machine one by one, before I knew it, I was putting in the last material, the bio-fighter.
The materials the crafting machine required were the bio-fighter’s heart and two main engines.
But I just shoved the entire bio-fighter into the crafting machine.
ㄴScholar of Truth: Is it okay to just shove the whole thing in?
“Ah, before, I really didn’t want to separate the Cyclops’s cornea, so I just put the whole thing in, and it dismantled it and used what it needed.”
That’s right. The crafting machine was a machine with technology far beyond imagination.
It picked out only the materials it wanted and returned the unused parts.
Since I had put in all the materials, it was time to activate it.
The crafting machine recognized the materials and operated for a moment with a faint noise.
Thunk.
The completed tool dropped out.
I picked it up and looked it over from various angles.
Its overall appearance was…
ㄴIai Sword Saint: It looks like protective gear.
ㄴScholar of Truth: Each one has an engine attached!
As the named user said, it looked like protective gear. Arm guards and shin guards, to be exact.
The difference was that they were made of titanium, making them quite heavy, and each had a small engine attached.
The engines were… hmm. How should I put it? They looked like round CCTVs.
Just looking at their form, they didn’t seem like they would work properly…
I felt a faint sense of unease, but decided to put them on for now.
Clack, clack.
They were fairly wide in shape, but once I slipped my feet and arms into them, they automatically tightened to fit my body.
They even felt as though they had become one with my arms, with no sensation of wobbling when I moved.
But the problem was…
“They feel pretty heavy…”
Maybe because they used about 4 kilograms’ worth of titanium and other materials combined, without any mana, my body felt quite heavy.
It was easiest to think of it as having 1-kilogram weights attached to my arms and legs. It didn’t hinder my movement, but it was annoying when swinging a sword and such.
I went out through the hatch and moved to the place where I always trained.
Even Jui and Eosollujeun, who always just slept, came over near me to watch.
“Phew… All right. Let’s just get a feel for how to use it.”
With a nervous heart, I infused mana into the “Combat Auxiliary Acceleration and Deceleration Device.”
The flow of my mana connected with the flow of the tool, which seemed rough yet intricate.
And my senses expanded.
“Ah…”
My senses had expanded. That was the plain truth.
As the flow of mana linked together, knowledge flowed into me—how to accelerate, how to decelerate—as if the tool had become my own limbs.
“I’ll try jumping once.”
Since I understood how to use it according to my senses, now it was time to test it.
I gathered the flow of mana into my legs and pushed off the ground!
Thunk!
“Whoa!!”
The engines accelerated in an instant, and my body was strengthened with mana.
Those two things meshed together, and I leaped so high that for a moment, I thought I was flying.
Tap.
I could feel that I had been in the air for quite a long time before landing.
It seemed to be roughly 7 meters.
ㄴIai Sword Saint: Oh, that’s quite a useful tool.
ㄴHealing Is Violence: With ordinary body reinforcement… the limit is around 8 meters.
Ordinary body reinforcement has clear limits.
That was why people usually raised the ceiling further with footwork techniques or protective magic…
But with a single device, I had nearly reached that upper limit.
Me, who currently couldn’t even finely distribute mana.
It was definitely… good. At this level, I felt like I could even thrust my sword at the Death God.
And for that, practice was necessary. I immediately gripped the sword hilt tightly.
I took my stance and drew.
Light flashed.
The sound of air being cut rang out.
And everyone was shocked.
“Aaaagh!!”
…Because I had moved too fast, my shoulder was tingling.
It seemed I would need some time to adapt…
Time remaining until the Death God moved zones: 1 day.
***
“Haa…”
A deep sigh echoed gloomily through the office filled with documents.
The man who had let out that sigh had his gaze fixed on a certain document.
Rustle.
As the document was lifted in his grasp, the letters on it became clearer.
[Analysis of the Vanished Era and Its Civilization]
Looking at the document, he instinctively bared his sharp fangs.
Those particularly threatening-looking fangs were one of the symbols of a dragon.
How had a dragon, a being that appeared superior to other races, ended up holed away in such a cramped room?
That was partly because he… that is, the named user “Be Careful with Grad School,” had caused an incident.
But the biggest reason was that the king of dragons, the Dragon Lord, had forcibly put him in the research institute.
And so, he had no choice but to continue doing the research thrown at him by his professor.
“Haa, why did it have to be here…”
He seemed unable to even guess why the Lord had placed him here.
But that worry did not last long. He had realized early on that worrying about it would not help with his work.
Rustle. Rustle.
The pages turned, and the contents within came into view.
The contents were long lines of text, but his vertical eyes swiftly skimmed the words and organized the information.
It was a document exploring the history of the vanished era.
When he returned to the very first page, he saw a familiar name alongside the author… no, calling it a nickname would be more accurate.
—Aurora.
That name was there. The culprit who had made the academic society search for the vanished era to the point that mountains of documents flooded in.
Of course, thanks to that, they came to know more and more, and the time until he could leave was drawing nearer.
But he did not seem particularly pleased about it.
“Phew…”
With another sigh, he took out the whiskey from his drawer.
Golden liquid slowly rose in the transparent crystal glass.
He took a sip of it, then began writing down additional information relevant to the document.
It was possible because he had watched all of Aurora’s broadcasts.
And then the next document. The next document. The next document.
As he passed through the endless cycle of paperwork, one document that stood out in particular came up before him.
[Issues Concerning Imperial Succession]
That document was… quite interesting.
It seemed to be directly throwing questions toward the masters of the empire, the imperial family.
To briefly summarize the contents of the document, it was like this:
Imperial succession was only passed down to one’s biological child, but what would happen if a radical faction unlike the previous imperial family emerged?
Could the child adequately handle the duties the emperor had dealt with?
Just as stagnant water rots, what if the imperial family also became corrupt?
The contents were covered in all sorts of flowery language, making it difficult to grasp easily, but he understood them at a glance.
If this entered the society’s archives as it was, then with bad luck, it could be charged as lèse-majesté against the imperial family.
And since the First Imperial Princess had just inherited the throne this time, the timing was even worse.
However, this was something he was curious about as well.
Because… the imperial family had never once fallen into that problem.
From the founding of the empire until now, all emperors had been at a similar level.
It wasn’t exactly a golden age of peace, but it was passable. Enough that there were no problems with living and enjoying life.
They had maintained that level continuously.
“Hooh…”
It was quite interesting. What reason made that possible?
A smile slowly formed on his lips.
“I suppose I should go meet her once.”
Though he was only processing documents because of his crime,
he was still a dragon of high enough status to see the imperial family. It would not be for a long time, but… it was possible for him to meet the emperor face-to-face.
And so, he sorted the documents once more while also pondering when he should meet the emperor.
That day… for some reason, felt like it would be a day when he learned another piece of knowledge.
***
The next day, I was getting used to the new equipment I had obtained.
Jui was sleeping inside the submersible, and Eosollujeun was beside me, watching me.
Thunk!
“Hup!”
After using it a few times, I became accustomed to the sensation, and now I had reached a level that could be called a swift sword.
Of course, if I wanted to use it properly, I would have to learn things like footwork techniques as well.
Slice.
After swinging my sword a few more times, I stopped when sweat began to pour down.
Then Eosollujeun came toddling over and handed me the Bluetooth shower.
As I infused mana into it and drank water,
Eosollujeun caught my eye.
Perhaps I felt like I had only been receiving things.
I asked Eosollujeun,
“Eosollujeun, is there something you want?”
At that ordinary question, Eosollujeun froze for a moment, then soon moved and drew something.
It was a circle.
With its arm, it pointed to the center of the circle it had drawn.
Tap.
A small dot appeared in the center.
Then something passed through my mind.
Now is the time to enter the center.
…The words the Mediator had spoken flashed past me.
Could this be what Eosollujeun wanted?
“You… want to go to the center?”
At that, Eosollujeun’s mechanical arm
nodded.