Unfortunately, contrary to Parmash’s expectations, the portal was not something that could be commercialized.
It was only natural. After all, portals were a type of magic that couldn’t be activated within dungeons or cradles to begin with.
Dungeons and cradles were sealed spaces, completely isolated from this world.
So, teleportation magic that connected the inside and outside of a cradle had yet to be developed.
The only reason Shane had been able to use it was because he had fused the dragon’s reverse scale and the divine power of the Mountain King with the elves’ spatial teleportation magic.
In other words, it was something only Shane could pull off.
“I see… that’s unfortunate.”
Parmash, though slightly disappointed by Shane’s explanation, still showed a glimmer of hope. It was too early to give up just yet.
Because the various items the orcs brought through the portal were things Parmash had never seen before.
“Oh… and what is this, floating around on its own?”
“That is a magic engineered device called a video recorder. It floats autonomously and records events. Like this.”
“Hmm…?!”
Parmash’s eyes widened at the video displayed above the floating orb.
“In human society, it’s used to prevent theft or record dungeon explorations. For the orcs, I had it adapted for reviewing combat footage.”
“Mmm…!”
In this way, Shane had integrated human civilization into the orcs’ way of life.
Teaching them how to handle metal efficiently and how to run an organized society.
As a result, the orcs had undergone many changes over the course of two years.
Civilization had broadened the orcs’ intellectual horizons and brought a sense of ease to their lives.
“Amazing. What kind of place is the world outside?”
“One day, when the time is right, you’ll find out. The opening of the Cradle is a long-held wish of all mankind.”
“The opening of the Cradle, huh…”
In truth, Parmash had held no small amount of hostility toward humans. But strangely, whenever he spoke with the man before him, Shane, that hostility seemed to fade.
“With all this, I imagine the other tribes will be quite surprised as well. But what is that, piled up on that cart like a mountain?”
Parmash was pointing to a mass of blue stones that had just arrived through the portal.
“Elixir. And it’s our most important weapon in the fight against Nameless.”
“Elixir…?”
Seeing Parmash’s puzzled expression, Shane recalled something from a few days earlier.
***
When Shane first established a cooperative relationship with Parmash, he had begun thinking about how best to continue trade with the desert tribes of the Nakar.
The civilization of mankind would certainly come as a refreshing shock to these tribes, but to be honest, much of it amounted to luxuries.
Nice to have, but not truly essential.
It was inevitable. After all, human civilization had developed primarily for the sake of convenience.
So at first, Shane considered introducing potions, or the recently developed elven-essence-based remedies.
Potions aside, elven essence was in extremely limited supply.
Even in human society, demand far exceeded supply.
And that was a problem even Shane, no matter how wealthy he might be, could not solve.
However, offering potions wasn’t a viable solution either. Even if their effects were slightly inferior, the desert tribes already had their own remedies with similar effectiveness.
That’s why Shane had ultimately decided to focus on high-quality weapons as the main trade item.
“Hey, what do you think the beastkin here need the most?”
One day, Dilaila asked him that very question.
Shane responded immediately.
“Water.”
In the Nakar Desert, more than anything else, the most critical resource was a water source.
No matter how vast the land, it was useless if not a single blade of grass could grow on it.
Life needed water to survive. Without it, the land was no different from a barren wasteland.
Upon hearing this, Dilaila’s expression brightened a little.
“Hmm, then… what if there were a way to produce water continuously?”
“If there were, the tribes here would go to war to obtain it. That’s how important water is to them.”
“W-War?”
“Yes.”
“Oh… then maybe this is a bit dangerous.”
“What do you mean?”
What Dilaila said next shocked even Shane.
“Remember what that cat beastkin mentioned before? About a stone that produces water? That’s what the water source stone is…”
She then explained that she had received various elemental stones from her acquaintance, Artia.
“This is the water source stone I made.”
What she pulled out was a stone radiating a faint blue light.
“When you infuse it with magic like this….ah, there it goes. Like this.”
As Dilaila infused it with her mana, the blue stone began to emit a soft glow, and soon, water started trickling from its surface.
Even Shane couldn’t hide his surprise at the sight.
“What kind of principle allows this to happen?”
“Um… well, it’s a bit hard for me to put this into words, but if I had to explain it…”
Mana is the most fundamental particle that makes up the world.
This mana carries various attributes, and among them, the one most closely tied to life is, naturally, the water attribute.
However, mana does not come with a set attribute from the start.
Mana that has broken down in nature is, at first, attribute-less. Its attribute changes depending on need, at the moment it’s used.
That said, humanity has yet to discover a way to fully control this mana.
Magic too is merely the act of gathering mana with pre-existing attributes and casting it accordingly.
It was concluded by humans that mana’s attributes are determined according to the will of the world.
And humanity had no means of defying that will.
But Dilaila was different.
“You’re saying you can give an attribute to mana that has none?”
“Yeah, if you put it that way. But I guess the concept is a little different? It’s not that I’m directly assigning attributes….I just know how to create a medium that allows attributes to be assigned.”
“Hmmm…”
Dilaila explained it as if it were nothing, but to Shane, it was a fresh reminder of just how incredible the power of her race was.
Giving an attribute to attribute-less mana is no different from creating something out of nothing. If she can produce a stone with the same properties just by absorbing a water source stone…
Then the potential must be close to limitless.
Of course, Dilaila added a clarification.
“But this one isn’t as impressive as a real water source stone.”
An original water source stone is a stone formed over a very long period of time, with condensed water-attribute mana.
Because of that, a single one of those stones could supply water to a small city for several years.
But the water source stone Dilaila created wouldn’t last nearly as long.
Even so, the value of the stone she made was immeasurable.
Especially here in the desert, where water was scarce.
***
When Parmash saw the pile of water source stones created by Dilaila, stacked like a mountain, he was so stunned he could barely breathe.
It was almost to the point of fainting.
“So… all of this?”
While portals, as a means of long-distance travel, were already impressive enough, the water source stones were on an entirely different level.
With stones like those, there would be no uninhabitable place in the vast Nakar Desert.
“Of course, I don’t intend to release this much water supply all at once. At first, I plan to let it spread slowly just like a rumor.”
“……”
“In that process, a portion of the profit generated will be given to you as a fee. What do you think?”
“Y-You seriously intend to entrust that to us?”
“It can’t be helped, can it? If we were to handle this ourselves, war would be inevitable.”
While the desert tribes did maintain a certain level of communication among themselves, a closer look would reveal that, in truth, everything operated under the law of power.
And if it became known that Shane and the orcs, outsiders with no ties to any tribe, possessed treasures of this magnitude…
Would the tribes choose to trade? Or would they go to war?
The only ones capable of mediating such a situation were Parmash and his tribe.
“O-Of course, if that’s the case, there’s nothing we’d want more. Hmm…”
At that, Parmash’s mind began spinning rapidly.
He was now considering what kind of role these water source stones could play amid the current political chaos.
Shane added his own thoughts.
“What’s your assessment of Nameless’s movements lately?”
“…To be honest, they’ve been providing a lot of help to several tribes. That’s the reality.”
Indeed.
Nameless were currently working to unite the tribes under the leadership of the Saintess.
Originally, such unification would have been unthinkable, due to the long-standing wars and deep-rooted conflicts between the tribes.
But now, it was happening…under the name of the Saintess.
Such was the power of religion.
However, from Parmash’s point of view, this was clearly an intrusion by an outside force.
Even before the Saintess had revealed herself in person, Parmash had not believed she was the real Saintess.
So, to Parmash, Nameless was merely an external force, and the unification of the Nakar Desert tribes under their influence was simply the result of failing to prevent foreign intrusion.
“But the bigger problem is… we have no way of stopping it.”
That’s how effective Nameless’s method of invasion was.
You might call it cultural invasion.
A peaceful approach. One where no one had to die.
But all of it had begun with a single deception.
And Parmash knew it all the more clearly because he had seen it firsthand.
“The enemy hasn’t done anything obviously harmful to us, and if we expose their deceit too hastily, it might only lead to war.”
Since the dragon’s fall and disappearance in the past, the remaining tribes had been locked in endless war.
As the keeper of records from that time, Parmash knew better than anyone how meaningless and how brutal war rooted in religion could become.
Shane had no disagreement there.
But there was still a need to shift Parmash’s perspective.
“In resolving this situation, bloodshed is inevitable.”
“Are you saying we must go to war?”
“The war has already begun.”
“But still, to go so far as to shed blood…”
Shane fully understood Parmash’s concern.
From Parmash’s position, having long served as a mediator among the tribes, war would be the very last option he’d want to consider.
However, that was only because Parmash didn’t understand Nameless’s true purpose.
“Let me ask you instead….why do you think Nameless is going through all this trouble just to take control of the Nakar Desert tribes?”
“…….?”
Now that he thought about it, Parmash didn’t actually know why the enemy was doing all of this.
The Saintess’s overwhelming presence had left no room to question anything deeper.
“War. A war between humans and non-humans.”
“….…!”
“Of course, a war between humans and non-humans is something that could happen. But even then, shouldn’t it be a war fought by choice? What meaning is there in a war forced upon others?”
Shane remembered clearly what role the Nakar Desert tribes had played in his previous life.
They had been, quite literally, fanatics.
Fanatics born from absolute faith in the Saintess.
They believed that their deaths were acts of loyalty shown to the Dragon, and, captivated by illusions, they rushed toward the flames like moths to a fire.
“To Nameless, the Nakar Desert tribes are a convenient tool. Blind faith makes them an army capable of carrying out any command, and the dead will become wraiths. On top of that, Nameless is now exploring ways to harness those evil spirits.”
“E-Evil spirits?”
Parmash looked completely incredulous, but Shane shook his head.
“The source of those wraiths lies in what you call the Sanctuary. So, who’s the only one currently allowed to enter and leave the Sanctuary?”
“……!!”
It was already widely known that the Saintess could freely come and go from the Sanctuary.
And now he was saying the Saintess was after the wraiths?
“How can… how can you expect me to believe that? And how do you even know all this?”
“I can’t tell you how I know. But… I think I can make you believe.”
With that, Shane pointed to the relic Parmash was holding. The Dragon’s Scale.
“May I borrow the relic for a moment?”
“….…”
Caught off guard, Parmash handed over the relic to Shane.
“…As I thought.”
“……?”
Taking the Dragon’s Scale from Parmash, Shane narrowed his eyes and stirred the energy contained within the dragon’s reverse scale.
Then, from the scale previously glowing red, a purple aura began to flow out.
“Th-That’s…?”
“It’s the Saintess’s energy. A power that can enchant all living beings.”
“….…?!”
“Have you never thought it was strange? No matter how well the Mega Sandworm senses dragon energy, for it to track it down so precisely… If that were the case, there should have always been a Mega Sandworm at the spot where the Dragon’s Scale was originally found.”
“Now that you mention it…”
Mirash had discovered the Dragon’s Scale at an ancient ruin.
However, no trace of a Mega Sandworm had been found at that ancient site, and the moment Mirash began being pursued by the creature was when she neared the Sandworm’s known territory.
“That Dragon’s Scale originally passed through the Saintess’s hands. And her power of enchantment was imbued into it. There was no way the creatures wouldn’t be drawn to it.”
“Then the second Mega Sandworm that appeared back then too…?”
“Exactly. The Saintess brought it with her. So I’ll ask again: a Saintess who can even imbue her energy into a sacred relic….do you really think she couldn’t control wraiths?”
“…….”
As the gravity of the situation grew, Parmash’s thoughts grew more tangled.
At this rate, war was unavoidable.
“How much blood has to be spilled…?”
“If it must be spilled, then so be it. But there’s no rule that says it must be spilled.”
“……?”
“An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. If they wish to wage war in the name of religion, then there’s no reason we can’t do the same.”
“What are you saying?”
Parmash looked at him, confused….until Shane’s next words sent shock through him.
“All we have to do… is produce our own Saintess.”
Leave a Reply