Side Chapter — Neruneh’s Magic Tool Breakthrough

“Oooooh! This is amaziiiing!”

I gave Neruneh a “Mr. Eternal Pen” as a souvenir from the Empire and boy did she love it.

“Grrr, I want to take it apart... But it has protection. Things are set up so the magic circle will disappear if I try take it apart...!”

“That’s a thing you can do?”

“It’s written in the manuaaal! I guess I should have expected that much from the Hero Workshop.” Maybe that protection is from a Hero’s Cheat Skill.

“Eeeh, yeah, I don’t think I could copy that.”

“It looks like this one refills with ink if you pour mana into it. It’s made of water, and um, dark... earth, I thiiink?” By the way, one side of the pen was transparent so you could see the ink inside. And on top of that, there wasn’t just black ink. There were a few colors you could buy: red, blue, and green. Though I had bought the most basic color, black.

“You can make ink with water?”

“Is that wroooong?”

“Honestly, no clue. I just thought it took oil or something.” Incidentally, you could apparently make normal (?) ink with yet another Hero Workshop magic tool known as a “Mr. Ink Maker.” What’s normal about that...?

“...Basically, the Hero Workshop has a monopoly on all technology.”

“Yuuup. Or maybe it’s just nobody else can manage to make theeeem.” Yeah, the workshop’s apparently been around for centuries. Maybe they’ve developed magic tools for making magic tools. Or maybe the original Hero is still alive. Leeet’s not think too hard about that. As an aside, I hadn’t purchased a “No Firewood Pot” or a “Mr. Heating Pot,” but I told her that they existed.

“I think the stove thing you were talking about earlier sounds more usefuuul. You could use normal pots with it, and switching pots would be easyyy. If it were a magic tool, it’d just be a flat metal plate, so it’d be easy to carry arooound.”

“...Now that you mention it, stoves are pretty convenient.”

“Oh, riiight. Mr. Gar, would you please bring Fire Experiment Number Sixteeeen... Okaaay, thank yooou.” Her helper Gargoyle silently brought Neruneh a box, who took it and gave the Gargoyle a head rub. Satisfied, the Gargoyle returned to acting like a statue in the corner of the room. Inside the box was a flat slate with a magic circle engraved on it.

“This is my experimental stooove. It’s made of clay since it’s just an experiment, but it uses the same dial magic circle we made the kotatsu wiiiith. You can adjust the heaaat.” The experimental stove had a dial and five raised protuberances for pots. Woah, when did you make something this convenient? Maybe I’ll have her make me one, just in case I feel like going on an adventure or something. I am B-Rank now, so they couldn’t hurt to have on hand. Not that I’ll ever use them. Probably.

“Good work, Neruneh. This is exactly the kinda thing I was hoping you’d make.”

“...It’s all thanks to you, Masteeer. It’s made of clay, so it’ll break if you put it in your bag, but I could make a steel one for you no probleeem.” We could mass-produce a steel version, but it’d be pretty annoying. Extremely annoying, even. And it seemed like the whole stove would get hot while in use. At that point, it’d be better to make a stand for it and not even try to carry it around. That could be a good experiment.

“Hey could you make a wooden stand that can fit into the clay board? I want to strengthen the protuberances, so opening a hole in those and putting metal scraps in there should be fine. Uuuh, opening holes there won’t impact the magic circles, right?” I borrowed the clay plate and used {Create Golem} to shave down the blank parts and open up holes where the protuberances were. I then made a wooden board with metal bits to slot into the holes. Yep, this feels like a perfect lightweight stove.

“...Like that, you’ll just need a wooden cover and it won’t break even in a baaag. I can make these clay ones on my own without needing you to waste your time helpiiiing.”

“On, nice. I knew I could count on you, Neruneh. Go ahead.” Oh, she’ll make a cover too? Man, I’m lucky to have a researcher like her.

I handed the clay slate back to Neruneh. I’d show it to Gozou once she finished.

“I’m not that great, this is all thanks to you, Masteeer.”

“Don’t be selling yourself short, Neruneh. I’ve got high hopes for you.”

“...I’m not being humbleeee? Listen, ideas are liiike...” Neruneh let out a sigh.

“If you told Kantara that you could use as many magic stones as you like, and make magic circles out of clay, he’d pass out from shock, okaaaay?”

“Oh! Speaking of which, I’d like to put a timer on the stove. Do you think you could combine one with a Golem Timer? It’d be like a switch that you twist, and the stove will stay on until the switch ticks back to its original position.”

“See, you always just casually revolutionize scieeence! Uwaaaaah!” Neruneh weakly hit my chest over and over. Ahaha, she’s so sweet. This kinda hurts though. Stop please.

As an aside, she interpreted “go ahead” as “make a lot,” so the next day she had finished ten entire stoves for me. I’m glad she managed to mass-produce them, but I only really wanted one.

As a bonus for Neruneh, I made a toaster oven for use in her laboratory (using Phoenix eggshells). It just kinda came together when I used {Create Golem} on one of the stoves and the eggshells. Now she can eat as much toast as she wants. I wonder if she’ll like it.

“...Kantara would actually die if he saw thiiis. Well, now that I can cook stuff easily in the lab, my research will only get fasteeer.”

“Oh, I didn’t think about that. Nice.”

“Uh-huuuuh. Thank yoooou. Also... I’ve never heard of a toaster oven befooore.” Well... I’m just glad she likes it.

In any case, I gave one of the leftover stoves to Kinue and put the rest into treasure chests within the dungeon. They would be a super-rare item.