Chapter 235 - Episode Thirty-Two - The Collector (3)

Look at this! This was quite a challenge to obtain! This is the Great Gods Treasure Book, the grimoire said to be in the possession of the priest who summoned the god Kudor! Fuhahahaha! For some reason, it wasnt hidden in the Dinrat Kingdom, but in the Kingdom of Garshard, a kingdom that believes in earth gods. Theyre a suspicious bunch, thats for sure. After I took it, they kept coming back with more assassins, and it was just too much of a hassle. None of them could hurt me, though!

I was sitting across from the collector, showing me some of the treasures he seemed to have collected.

The collector held up a thick grimoire with great enthusiasm.

Th-, the Great Gods Treasure Book!? Is that the real thing? Its the one that the Kudor Church has been searching for for a long time. ! Whats written in it?

Even with my extensive knowledge, I had no idea. I could barely make out that it was a book on the rituals of the Kudor religion, but beyond that, I knew nothing. The contents were complicated, euphemistic, and above all, too old. I dont like it when people of that era want to pretend everything is what it seems. But its not a fake. I dont think there are any forgeries that are this elaborate!

As expected of him to be called a legendary adventurer.

Each of the treasures he possesses is something that could cause a war between nations over it.

Please! Le-, let me read it! Im pretty confident in my ability to decipher such things!

You fool! My treasure is not something that can easily be entrusted to someone like you.

So its not possible

When I was deeply disappointed, Hah! The collector snickered.

It cant help it. Ill show you an appropriate page. Dont you dare touch it! Youll get dirt on your hands! If you even try to spit on it, youll see it. In that moment, youd think your body was going to split in two!

The collector held up the Great Gods Treasure Book as if to show it to me, and flipped through it.

Are you sure!? Oh! S-Stop it! Stop at, um, at the place where the picture of the masses of church members was drawn!

Hmm? You, do you know anything about that?

No, its a sequence of letters that resembles the array of letters I use when I scribble The illustrations are concrete, so its easy to grasp the content. The content seems to be mostly about artificial spirits. Its just that the scale is too big, and there are some strange rituals in between that may or may not make sense, so I dont know what theyre trying to do.

I have no idea why the ancient Kudorists were so grateful for a book on how to make artificial spirits, but they used some pretty advanced techniques.

Just looking at it, I feel like my nose is going to bleed from excitement.

I want to take it home with me. I want to take it home with me, examine it thoroughly and display it in a prominent place.

Ho~! Ho~! Artificial spirit! It is true that there are some things that make sense if you think about it that way. You seem to have quite a bit of knowledge and a sense of magic for someone with such a mundane aura. Its no wonder youve been able to make it this far!

No no. Im not even close Aside from that, what exactly is an aura?

Its just what I call it, but Ive lived long enough to see the influence of things and people on the world. Great things, without exception, have some influence on the way of life of others. The fact that they have done so determines how they behave. I have seen many fierce people, and no matter how they try to hide it, I can sense it as if I were seeing a color. That is the aura.

I-I see?

I think I got it, and also not.

In short, you can empirically know what kind of achievements the other person has made in the past by the experience they have cultivated from past experiences.

I was confident that I had done a lot, but I guess It wasnt enough.

The world is a big place. I thought I was pretty strong, but from the point of view of a legend-class like the collector, I guess Im still a bit of a flop.

He can see the auras of not only people but also objects, which is just as his name suggests, the collector.

It would be very convenient to be able to sense the value of people and things.

The-, the Great Gods Treasure Book ?

Altamir also heard the name Great Gods Treasure Book and approached us.

She was wary of the collector, but she couldnt resist her interest.

As expected of the person who was asked to seal the demon and also got caught by the church who was trying to personalize it with interest is different.

No way Artificial spirits are supposed to be a taboo subject in church circles

Altamir looks at the treasure in the collectors hand from behind my back.

This is why it is written in such a roundabout way. Even I did not understand it. Even back then, ordinary people would not have been able to understand it at all. If you look at the history of the world, there are many examples of people falsely claiming that the art of creating artificial spirits was the art of summoning spirits. Its a fishy story, but its not so strange if the Kudorists were researching the creation of spirits.

In the first place, Its important to have a solid image when creating an artificial spirit. I heard that there were incidents where people used other people as intermediaries to create artificial spirits under the guise of demon summoning. Most of the related magic is treated as forbidden magic, and most of the literature on artificial spirits are either banned or burned down, so I dont know much about it myself, but in the sense that there is a fixed image that comes from multiple groups, perhaps the form of religion was originally suited to the creation of artificial spirits.

Thats quite an interesting point. Well, I dont know if this is really the creation of an artificial spirit, or if it is just a ritual, or if it is an act with other meanings.

The three of us, Me, the collector, and Altamir, were having a great time talking about the Great Gods Treasure Book.

Even though Im not sure if Altamir is still wary of the collector, but she was talking with me in the middle.

Both the collector and Altamir had a much deeper knowledge of magic than any other sorcerer Ive ever met.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were not reticent and were honestly impressed by what I had to say.

This is probably the first time in my life that I was able to talk about sorcery with such enthusiasm.

Im glad I came to the Witchs Tower.

As I said Look, this magic circle. If we expand the formula here to Bareslei, it will have something in common with Allbellus sorcerers 13 magic circles, right? Thats why its fundamentally the same as this. If you think about it with that as the axis, youll see that the excess magic formulas here cancel out the excess magic formulas in this magic circle, right? If you think about differentiation in the remaining parts, you can assume this role. If you proceed based on that assumption, youll get

Thats a little premature. Are you sure youre not just going with the answer?

If its the same type as this magic circle, Ive seen it on a stone tablet I have from the mythical age Wait a minute.

Re-, really! Thats the collector-san for you!

Fuhahahahaha! I never thought that anyone would call me with -san in my life!

Then when I suddenly felt someones gaze at me, I turned around, I saw Mea who is carrying the luggage is looking at my back with a sad-looking expression.

Im sure shes been looking for an opportunity to get in on the conversation.

So-Somehow, Im sorry

As soon as Meas eyes met mine, she let out a relieved gasp and came over to me.

Y-Youre talking about something difficult Ehhh Mea doesnt understand at all

The collector waved his long arms in the air and blocked Mea from calling out to me.

If you dont understand, stay out of this! Im talking to him right now, you see! Dont interrupt me, you stoneless!

The collectors eyes widened and he shouted at Mea.