Otherworld Adventure 319 A Freak

"Y-yeah!"

Cecil then noticed that everyone from Angelia's group had followed so he happily brought them along. While they were walking, Ren and Cecil were having a serious conversation about how they would create the teleportation gate.

Ren only knew about the principles of a teleportation gate but he didn't know how to build one. Cecil took out his Magic Tome and handed it over to Ren. Once Ren looked through the teleportation gate's plans he was a little stumped.

"This...is a little too complicated for me, Teacher..."

"Don't worry about it. This time, you'll only be acting as my a.s.sistant. You'll only be engraving the easier parts of the teleportation gate's runic array. Just pay attention later when I begin creating the more complex parts."

"Yes, Teacher!"

They continued talking about other complicated things. Angelia was following after them and was listening intently but she couldn't understand a word of what they were saying. She was honestly impressed that Ren could keep up with what her brother was talking about.

"Hey, Angel... isn't your brother a little bit weird?" Xin whispered to her.

"How's he weird?"

"Well... what Ren and your big brother are saying are pretty weird!"

"What about it is weird?"

"Although I didn't hear most of it, I think they're talking about some kind of device that'll instantly transport people from some faraway place to Silvaria! Isn't that just crazy?"

"...is it?"

Marilyn joined in on their conversation and said, "We can't be sure it's crazy or not. Remember that this world we're in is crazy after all. I mean, magic and mana? This is all just crazy stuff if we were still back on Earth!"

"Y-Yeah...but still... transporting people from somewhere far away... that's pretty hard to believe," Xin replied.

"Hey, we're going in the direction of the mines. That means we're going to find your brother, Luca, right Angel?" Robin asked.

"Probably."

"Why don't we ride on Mao or something, it'll be much faster than going on foot!"

"I'll tell my brother then!"

Angelia walked up next to Cecil and interrupted his conversation with Ren. "Big brother, sorry to cut in like this, but we're going to the mines, right?"

"Yeah, is something wrong?"

"Let's ride on my pet then! We can arrive much faster!"

"Sure, call him out then."

"Alright!"

Mao was already on her shoulder, so after Angelia gave him a light nudge with her chin, Mao quickly jumped down and transformed.

"Woah, this is one fine monster! A Dark Behemoth, you sure found yourself a good partner, Angel," Cecil said as he observed the large monster in front of him.

"Dark Behemoth?"

"Mao is his name, right?"

"Yes."

"Dark Behemoth is Mao's species. There aren't many of his kind left on Midgard or Urrugdrasil. It's pretty rare to encounter one. They're most prevalent on the Helaife Continent. Hmmm... this one seems a little special. Its aura is much stronger than a normal Dark Behemoth's."

Angelia proudly puffed her chest out, "Hmhm~ that's because he's my Mao! By the way brother, did you ever fight against a Dark Behemoth before? You seem to know a whole lot about them!"

"I faced one on the Urrugdrasil Continent. It was a pretty tough opponent back then. They're an S+ ranked monster so they were pretty strong, but Mao here... he's still young I bet. His normal size is probably as big as a small hill, right?"

Angelia widened her eyes in surprise when Cecil accurately guessed Mao's size, "You're right, brother!"

"I thought so. He's still a child then. The one I faced was almost mountain-sized. It was a huge surprise when I saw the rhino-sized panther suddenly grow as large as a mountain, hahahahaha!"

"W-wait a minute... you said you faced one when you were back on Urrugdrasil, doesn't that mean you were about our age when you fought against it?!"

Cecil shrugged at Angelia's shocked exclamation.

"Well, I guess so. I think I was a year or two older than you though."

"S-Still..."

"Alright, let's get on and quickly head over to Luca! He's probably sick and tired of waiting for us!"

"O-Okay..."

After everyone got on Mao, the large Behemoth started dashing towards the location of the Silvaria Kingdom's mines. While they were on Mao, Angelia's friends huddled close to their friend and began a small discussion of how ridiculous Angelia's brother was.

"Angel... your big brother is a freak!" Xin whispered while secretly eyeing Angelia's big brother. Marilyn also added in a low voice.

"Y-yeah, can you believe that he's fought a mountain-sized version of Mao?! Even the current Mao is a little intimidating in my opinion. Yet your brother fought one that was 2-3 times Mao's size and he was close to our age when he did it!���

"H-he couldn't be lying...right?"

"No way, my brother never lies! Besides, he doesn't have anything to gain by lying to us! We're only children in his eyes so there's no need for him to impress us or anything!" Angelia defended. She didn't think for a second that Cecil was lying. She already knew that her brother was strong and there was nothing for her brother to gain by lying and boasting to her and her friends.

Robin, who was silent the entire time and was only observing Cecil from the start, nodded at her words and said, "That's right... okay, so if what your brother said is true, then just how strong is he?"

"I-I'm not sure..." Angelia replied hesitantly.

"You're not sure?"

"How can I be sure? I've never seen him fight! Mom did tell me that big brother Cecil had single-handedly repelled the army of soldiers that were attacking us the other day, but I never actually saw him do it..."

"He's the one who ended the war? Doesn't that make him a hero?!" Robin quipped up in excitement.

"H-Hero?"

"That's so cool!"

The girls in the group only looked back at Robin like he was some idiot. Well, who could blame him? Most boys his age were hung up on childish things like superheroes and whatnot.

Amidst their quiet discussion, the group soon arrived at the Silvaria Kingdom's mines and quickly met up with Luca.

Luca guided Cecil and the group through the mines. Along the way, he was explaining to Cecil what kinds of ores, materials, and minerals could be mined from the place. Cecil himself was honestly shocked at the rich and abundant resources his kingdom had lying around.

"Wow! This mine is huge!" Cecil said after he checked the area around him with his Mana Sense.

He placed his palm on the ground and focused his sense into the earth. "Hmmm... the veins are in abundance of rare materials. Brother, do we sell any of this outside of the kingdom?"

"We do, but only the ones we commonly find.���

"You do? Tsk, what a waste. You have to tell father to stop all trades. The most common ore you find is the Black Mythril, but that's a precious resource in magi-tech. Just a piece is worth its weight in gold. If you wanna sell something, then sell the red ore instead. Those Flare Stones are common outside of the kingdom and we can just buy them!"

"Black Mythril is worth that much, huh? I guess we've been cheated..."

"d.a.m.n right!"

"But we can't just stop trading ores out of the kingdom. We also need some money and goods from Regulus. Also, those Flare Stones are precious for us. The kingdom uses them as a fire source and it's used to fire our cannons!"

"I can create a magi-tech device that'll produce all the flames you need. It relies on the same principle as you've been using to activate the Flare Stones."

"You can?"

"Yeah, it's a common device used by the blacksmiths of this world. You can even adjust the temperature and output by simply visualizing and pouring in the right amount of mana into the device!"

"...I'll tell father about this and talk about it with the Kingdom's Council."

"Just immediately put a stop to the Black Mythril trade! We're wasting precious resources and losing out a lot by selling them! Just give me some time to train a few Artificers and we'll be able to manufacture some gadgets from Earth!"

Luca took note of his brother's words and continued guiding everyone through the mine.

"Here's one of the ores I need, Manat.i.te. It's really hard to find and the most reliable source of Manat.i.te was lost in the ancient era. Now, it could only be harvested from monsters like the Magic Golems or Rune Worms, but there's a whole vein sitting around here!"

Ren immediately stepped forward and pulled out a pickaxe from his spatial ring and said, "Let me do it, Teacher!"

"Sure, sure."

Ren immediately began to mine the Manat.i.te after Cecil allowed him to. Luca was just about to tell the miners who were following after them to get to work, but stopped because his brother's apprentice was already busying himself with it. Ren's movements were practiced and experienced. You could easily tell that this wasn't his first time mining.

After mining a few chunks of ore, Cecil had him stop and the two immediately started to refine the Manat.i.te on the spot using spells. While Ren was chanting his spells, Cecil was writing out runes in the air to invoke his spells.

Seeing that a human from earth was able to use magic, Luca was rather surprised. It goes without saying that the 4 children who had tagged along were shocked to see it as well.

"I-I thought us earthlings weren't able to use this world's magic...?" Marilyn asked feeling a little envious.

When Ren was first introduced to them, she was already envious at the fact that the new boy was able to use magic. In her eyes, being able to use the elemental spells was much cooler than being able to use the 'Light Bolt' since it was a little too plain to be called a magic spell.

"I didn't know big brother could use magic..." Angelia mumbled.

Cecil naturally heard her and nonchalantly said, "I'll teach you how to do it later, Angel."

"Really?! Yay!"

Her 3 friends could only look on enviously at Angelia. She secretly whispered to her friends that she'll ask if her brother would also be willing to teach them later.

Cecil and Ren quickly finished their refinement and stored away the refined Manat.i.te. They continued their mining expedition until it was deep into the night.