Episode 785

“A senior like that really exists?”

“Huh? Uh, yeah.”

Carnella thought her junior’s voice sounded a bit more excited than usual.

‘Must be my imagination?’

“How could I have not heard of a senior like that before?”

“Like I just said, they’re intensely introverted and eccentric?”

“Are there only one or two introverted, eccentric people in Einrogard? That’s not even a flaw. I bet it just means this senior doesn’t waste time and focuses on their own work.”

“Professor Verdus is like that, but nobody likes—”

“How dare you say that!”

“S-sorry, geez. You took Enchantment too, right?”

Carnella remembered late that her junior was in the enchantment school as well.

To be precise, enchanter magicians didn’t get mad at insults about Professor Verdus.

They just got annoyed and said it was ominous and unlucky to even bring up Professor Verdus’ name in any situation.

“…No, it’s fine, senior. I lost my composure. I apologize.”

“When it comes to anything related to Professor Vol, anyone would react like that. Don’t worry. I, Hormasi, don’t care about that stuff.”

“Then wouldn’t it be polite to prepare a gift before seeing this senior?”

“……”

Carnella felt a twinge of sadness.

She was a senior in transformation magic too—why was her crazy, eccentric fellow senior the one getting all the respect?

• * *

If Einrogard’s territory had a great mountain range, the seventh floor had a minor one.

Of course, to the students, “great” or “minor” made little difference. No peak made the climb any easier.

But fortunately, the seventh floor region had a few student-installed climbing routes.

Clatter-clatter!

After going into the basement of an abandoned house, Carnella boarded a minecart.

She rapped the side three times; it sped off rapidly down the rails.

“To live in an underground cave. What a frugal and unpretentious person.”

“Is it… that big a deal…?”

Carnella eyed the bundle Lee Han was clinging to with disbelief.

Did they really need to prepare a present for this senior?

Clunk!

After just a few minutes, the minecart stopped. Who knew how deep they’d gone? It was pitch black, save for the faint glint of plants and minerals across the underground valley.

Stopped before a huge cavern, Carnella put out a hand.

“Junior, don’t move too carelessly from here. You could get caught in a trap.”

“So they zealously safeguard their workshop. A truly security-minded person.”

“…Jarun-senpai! Jarun-senpai! It’s Hormasi! Please open up!”

No reply.

Carnella spat a curse and shouted again.

“Jarun-senpai! It’s class time! If you don’t come out, I’m setting this place on fire!”

Still no sound.

Shaking her head, Carnella grumbled, then cast another spell.

“Jarun-senpai! If you don’t open up, I’ll burn the place down!”

Strong fire poured from a flask, transformed into a mouse, and scurried inside.

After a moment, flashes of light, curses, and yelling echoed out.

“Hormasi, you damned brat! I’ll sue for damages!”

“Tell it to the professor! The professor ordered this!”

“The professor won’t pay, though!”

After these outbursts, out popped a short, cantankerous dwarf—beard and hair tips singed from snuffing fires, otherwise looking every bit the cranky recluse.

This was Jarun, scion of the Western Ironboot Dwarf family.

With a hammer-shaped staff and bulging eyes, Jarun scanned around like a hunted beast.

“Anyone else with you?”

“No, Jarun-senpai, it’s class! I’m serious!”

“Hmph. That’s what they all say just before attacking and stealing my gold. Think I haven’t been burned before?”

With that, Jarun stepped back.

At Einrogard, “class has started, come out, ha ha” was often a trick, with students ambushing Jarun for his gold.

Carnella grumbled,

“He’s totally nuts. At this rate, he’ll never graduate—doomed to stay Einrogard’s madman forever.”

“No, senior, he’s just… been through a lot.”

“…Did you meet Jarun before or something?”

Carnella couldn’t understand Lee Han’s unusually positive attitude.

No student had ever responded to Jarun positively.

“I haven’t met him?”

“Then why do you like him so much?”

“Simple respect, like for you, senior.”

“Hm, maybe you respect him more than Hormasi.”

Carnella eyed Lee Han skeptically.

‘Sharp, that one.’

Naturally, Lee Han preferred a gold-hoarding senior to one obsessed with basilisk bowel cycles.

“Let’s get started on the lesson.”

“…Today’s self-study. I have things to do.”

“Off to punishment room again, eh?”

“If I go, then so what? Don’t get in my way!”

Carnella thwacked the wall with her riding crop, irritated at a senior who’d so easily backed out.

“I’m here on business too, so just let us in so I can report what you’re up to to the professor.”

“What? No! You want my gold, that’s it!”

“Oh, Jarun-senpai! No one cares about your stinky rocks! You don’t even have a single pet mouse! Not everyone is obsessed with yellow, shiny rocks!”

Lee Han flinched a little.

Jarun seemed to ponder Carnella’s words, then pointed at Lee Han.

“What about him? Who’s he? How can I trust a strange face?”

“Whew. Jarun-senpai, this is Lee Han of the Wardanaz family. Takes every magic department. He cares least about gold. He’s just mad for magic!”

“……”

Lee Han had a lot to say but used his most harmless and gentle look.

He wanted in to see the workshop.

Apparently Carnella’s words had some effect, for Jarun hesitated.

“Every… Every department?”

“Yes!”

“He’s insane, isn’t he?”

‘That’s harsh.’

Carnella defended her junior undeterred.

“Not more than you, is he? Anyway, hurry up. I need to report what you’re up to.”

Grumbling, Jarun began deactivating the many spells protecting the passage.

‘What’s he muttering?’

-Hormasi that jerk… he might’ve teamed up with my gold-hunting enemies… Never let your guard down… That other one is… also crazy… all departments…

“……”

Lee Han pretended not to hear.

Finally, at the cave’s end, a steel door appeared. Jarun opened it, and they went inside.

‘This is…?’

It looked half like a wizard’s lab, half a miner’s workshop—a strange mix of both.

Miniature golems with mining tools dug out ore, which got loaded into carts and wheeled into the workshop.

From there, the ore was transformed with magic and soaked in alchemical solutions to extract the essence.

“Come, my children.”

Chanting, Jarun summoned pure ingots to rise from the solution.

Even Lee Han, no specialist, could see they were extremely pure and well-formed.

“Ugh, treating rocks like children.”

Carnella muttered in disgust. Jarun retorted,

“Beats treating an ugly wyvern like your own child!”

“Have you lost it? How dare you compare the cutest creature in the sky with dumb rocks??”

“Hormasi-senpai, does Jarun-senpai do this every day?”

Lee Han looked around in awe. Carnella nodded.

“Day in, day out.”

‘Incredible!’

No wonder this senior was said to be the best at making money.

Einrogard was the Empire’s top magic school and also one of the most resource-rich territories.

Skip class and mine all day, and you’d build up an unrivaled fortune by graduation—

‘I want to get close to this senior!’

Oblivious to Lee Han’s excitement, Carnella grumbled.

With such a promising junior in the department, having a senior always running off was infuriating.

“Other dwarves treat juniors to homebrew and feasts—what’s your problem?”

“That’s East Dwarves, you fool! I’m a West Dwarf!”

Jarun shot back, annoyed.

East Dwarves were social, boisterous, and generous; West Dwarves were solitary, stoic miners.

Though Jarun was unusually extreme.

“Senior, I’d like to help with your work.”

“What?”

Jarun was caught off-guard by the junior’s abrupt offer.

“Help with my work?”

“Yes. I’ve worked in both transformation and alchemy workshops.”

“Hmph. Still a fledgling. Turn this stone into sand.”

He handed over a rock.

Stone-to-sand was basic, but showed your proficiency—the finer the sand, the better your skill.

If you couldn’t do it, the job was too risky to entrust.

Pop!

“…Not bad. What about -Material Amplification- or -Material Transformation-?”

“I can use those.”

“What’s the hardest potion you’ve handled in an alchemy shop?”

“I assisted with Dobruk’s Soul-Return Elixir.”

“…!!!”

Jarun stared in shock.

A second-year at this level? Unbelievable.

‘No wonder he takes every department…!’

“Jarun-senpai, what’s the reason you’re skipping lecture? Tell us.”

“…Come. I’ll show you.”

Jarun tromped forward.

At the back of the shop sat a golden sphere the size of a fist. Instinctively, Lee Han’s gaze latched onto it.

“What the… wait, it’s getting bigger?!”

Carnella shrieked in surprise.

Imperial magic couldn’t create gold from nothing. The most you could do was temporary, or fake gold. Gold was too perfect.

And yet, here the gold kept growing.

Did this madman make the discovery to overcome an imperial magic law?

“You CREATED gold?!”

“Don’t be stupid. You can’t make gold. It’s dimensional linkage.”

Jarun scolded.

You couldn’t create gold from nothing, but you could fetch it from another dimension.

Jarun had devised a matrix that shifted through countless dimensions in instants and, when it spotted gold, brought it in.

Carnella even marveled aloud.

“Incredible, senpai. With this, you should graduate easy.”

“Not close to done. Still needs lots of resources. This is just the first time I tried it. So, want to help?”

“Yes!”

Filled with desire to learn from this admirable senior, Lee Han answered fervently.

Jarun eyed him.

“I can’t pay you.”

“You can’t be serious.”

Lee Han suddenly snapped back to his senses and shot Jarun a cold glare.