Ep 61. Get A Life, Will You? (1)

 

‘My name is Otoka Lairaff. I am but a retired old man, living out his remaining life in peace .’

Boom!

‘Recently, however…a new worry has been troubling my mind.’

“Get back here! I’ll kill you!!”

“’Get back’?! What do you think I am, crazy?!”

‘Correction. A new worry has been troubling my mind a LOT.’

Crunch!

“You talked behind my back?! How dare you?!”

“I didn’t lie, did I?! You ARE a metalhead!!”

Fwoosh!

Slash!

‘…Good heavens.’

Otoka shook his head, feeling his entire house rumbling from yet another earth-shaking impact.  The dried herbs he’d been sorting to prepare for his craft fell into disarray yet again.

‘A living hell has descended unto my peaceful paradise. Yes, it all began with the arrival of these lizar…I mean, these dragons. I should’ve built their lodge far, FAR away from home.’

Too bad he didn’t.

The archmage chuckled satirically, rubbing his beard in an attempt to calm himself down.

“Great Magician…grant me strength to finish this task so I can drive the damned lizards away from my beautiful home…”

A few days ago – the night when their guests had arrived – Aldrid had called him in private to ask him a favor, and it wasn’t exactly small. The deity had, apologetically, asked for the archmage’s help in constructing a rather peculiar item. A ridiculously difficult one, to be precise.

But what could a mere mortal do? Turn down a deity’s request? As if.

Admittedly, the creation process itself wasn’t too difficult; he wasn’t an archmage for nothing. However, what really troubled him were acquiring all its ingredients, for some were notorious for being difficult to obtain. Aldrid could provide most ingredients that could be found in nature, but some of these were impossible to procure from the wilderness. It required an actual person to go about procuring it themselves.

But by then, the lodge behind his cabin would probably be in smithereens. Along with his cabin. And probably the rest of the surrounding forest.

The elderly mage rose from his seat, temporarily abandoning the assortment of herbs. He habitually tapped his aching back, making his way over to the ruckus behind his home.

 Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Like telling.

 

✧   ✧   ✧

 

“…”

“…”

“Much better.”

Everyone had gathered at the lodge’s lobby once more. The destruction caused by Ilias and Raizel were busily being mended by archmage who had arrived, and Serenis was glaring at the two subdued younglings.

As soon as Otoka gave the merest hint at needing peace and quiet for his craft, Serenis had silenced the two girls with a single phrase of some sort – on their knees, hands raised high into the air. They were still glaring at each other, though.

The dragonlord sighed in dismay as she watched over the two dragons before her. For some reason, these two fought like children when they were together. They’d been here for almost a week, and not a single day had gone by quietly.

Light, who had been hiding behind the professor during the entire fight, guiltily poked out her head. The whole reason the two dragons had fought this time was because Light mentioned what Ilias had told her of Raizel – which weren’t exactly compliments.

As always, her odd peer had shown up soon after the two dragons began fighting to silence them all too easily – albeit a little earlier than usual this time. Usually, the dragonlord had let them fight it out until it seemed like they would hit someone else.

“You know Zion, I’ve been wondering…what sort of magic are you even using to do that?”

“This is not magic, but an authority. A dragonlord’s authority.”

“Authority? How does that work?”

“It’s no different than your ability to breathe air. It comes naturally.”

“…I don’t get it. But I don’t think I’m supposed to.”

Meanwhile, as Otoka finished the last of the repairs, he spared Serenis a brief gaze.

‘Damned lizards. Wouldn’t have hurt to do that before the fighting began.’

Being especially careful not to let his internal grumbling show, the archmage approached the group, reining in his overflowing hypocrisy as he began to speak.

“Ahem…thank you for gathering. I appreciate your time.”

‘Though none of you really do anything.’

It would’ve been so much easier if Aldrid had asked them to do something productive. Alas, the deity had only asked the group to wait freely while the archmage did all the work – which was NOT how this was gonna go.

“The reason why I have called on you all is because of an item I’ve been constructing at Lady Aldrid’s behest. While we’ve both been working tirelessly to gather the necessary ingredients, I’ve since figured that it would be much easier with the help of esteemed individuals such as yourselves. I would personally procure the ingredients myself, but as I must remain here and tend to the initial makings of the item…I would like to ask for your assistances.”

Serenis was the first to acknowledge the archmage’s words. Although she had been the one who asked Aldrid for help, it didn’t sit right to idle by while the deity prepared everything for them.

“Do ask freely. I do appreciate all the work you’ve been doing.”

Otoka briefly cleared his throat, acknowledging the dragonlord’s offer.

“Why, thank you. Then, before we begin…is anyone here versed in alchemy? Even a little is enough.”

Karas and Light looked at each other, then towards Otoka.

“I’ve some experience in the field. Albeit short, I have studied alchemy before.”

“Um…I took some alchemy classes, does that count?”

Otoka looked to the two volunteers, firmly nodding his head.

“I was merely looking for helping hands; expertise isn’t a big concern.”

The old man then looked to Patrick and the dragons, opening a tome he had brought with him.

“Now that we’re no longer short-handed…the ingredients. I don’t believe it’ll be too difficult.”

‘Considering half of you are literal monstrosities that crash and burn the house on a daily basis.’

Otoka flipped through the pages. Eventually, his old fingers stopped at a section depicting a snowflake-like crystal.

“The first ingredient we need is a nixium crystal. It’s a type of mana crystal only found in the Inosis range; often shaped like a snowflake, it is pure white in color and tends to radiate cold. While it is extremely rare to find in natural environments…there is a peculiar source that almost guarantees its appearance.”

Karas’ eyes gleamed as he took note of the information written on the tome.

“Ice golems, is it?”

“Hm! That’s correct.”

Otoka flipped the page over, the tome now depicting a hulking black golem armed with plates of ice and a frozen spear.

“Despite nixium’s rarity, the ice golems of Inosis often carry the crystals. However, because of the harshness of their habitat and their severe aggression against intruders, they’re not often hunted, and nixium’s supply always remain close to none.”

As the archmage finished his explanation, he fixed his gaze onto Ilias – who was still maintaining her posture in silence.

“I would like to ask our red dragon to procure this nixium.”

When the youngling was prompted, Serenis took a moment to release the red dragon from her bindings, letting her speak once more.

“Pfah…sure, I can get that for you! Inosis isn’t too far from here.”

‘Isn’t too far, she says. Blasted lizards.’

The archmage swallowed his comment to instead return a delightful nod. Despite his level head optimally assigning these tasks, he truthfully wished that Ilias would take as loooooong as possible.

“Very well. Next, we need…this, a patch of alem dust. It’s a peculiar type of mineral found on extremely deep ends of fresh waters; in fact, there’s some at the very bottom of Eterra Lake. They only tend to form in locations of immense pressure and little light, and it makes it very difficult for regular gatherers to procure.”

Otoka’s gaze once again drifted away from his tome, this time towards Raizel.

“For this, I would like to ask for assistance from our steel dragon.”

The first thing Raizel said after being released from her binding wasn’t exactly the ideal response Otoka had in mind.

“Now you want me doing HUMAN chores? Forget it, geezer.”

A brief sigh escaped the dragonlord; she’d expected something like this from Raizel. Serenis instead turned to Otoka herself.

“I will go. Diving into the depths of a lake shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“Ah, my apologies, but I’m afraid I cannot allow that. Lady Aldrid has specifically asked of your presence for another task.”

“…”

Serenis’ eyes fell back on the metal dragon at her side.

They’d all seen the size of Eterra Lake during their flight to the forest. Its massive size easily rivalled that of an entire city, if not several; even in a rough estimate, the water pressure at its bottom would be enormous. Serenis was likely the only person in the group that could withstand such environments through magic.

And the only other person that could withstand such environments bare, was…

“…Raizel. I’m afraid I must ask of you as well.”

“…”

The steel dragon twisted her face in reluctance. Defying a human and defying an elder were two different things; defying an elder, and defying an elder she liked, were also two different things.

“…Tch. Fine.”

Serenis beamed at the youngling as she reluctantly accepted the request. Otoka was internally rolling his eyes, but he nonetheless flipped the tome to its next page.

“And finally, we have…”

Patrick widened his eyes at the picture on the tome. Even he could recognize that one.

“Huh? Ethensia sap?”

“Oh? So you know what this is, young man.”

“Aren’t these pretty common? I have a friend who uses them all the time when making her mana pills.”

“Mm, precisely. The sap act as an adhesive between mana and other materials, making them a staple ingredient in alchemy for us mages.”

“These aren’t that hard to get though? Even if you just go to the markets-“

Finally, the problem dawned on Patrick.

‘Oh. Right, there aren’t any markets here.’

The archmage nodded his head, noting the dawning realization on the enforcer’s face.

“Unlike most saps, ethensia’s sap is only useful after the tree has died; Lady Aldrid cannot provide us with such. And while they are collected in bulk in various cities across the continent…unfortunately, they are next to impossible to find in nature, and there aren’t any markets where we are. In addition, the sap is forbidden from being sold to individuals without a mage license, as they can also be used to create mana-based explosives.”

Patrick looked around the lobby. The only individuals that possessed proper mage licenses were himself, Karas, and…maybe Otoka, if the archmage’s hadn’t expired yet.

However, Karas had already been elected to tend to alchemical practices here, and Otoka was responsible for the crafting itself – which left Patrick the only remaining candidate.

“…Guess I’m up for that, huh?”

“Yes you are, young man.”

“Hm. I guess the nearest place from here is…Inosis or Rosa? Both are kinda hard to get from here…”

Ilias called out to the contemplating enforcer, tapping him on the shoulders.

“If you’d like, you can come with me to Inosis! I can carry you there.”

“Oh hey, that works. Any town with a market works for me. I can try help you with the golems too.”

Otoka nodded in approval as the last of the ingredients was assigned to someone else. Finally, he turned to Serenis, who was staring back at the archmage with a rather solemn look.

The old man chuckled at the sight, trying to soften the dragon’s mood.

“No need to be so alert, dragonlord. I don’t believe Lady Aldrid is planning anything difficult for yourself. If you’ll accompany me, I believe she’s waiting for your presence at the cabin.”