The group gets taken to the backstage where all the auction items are being held. After retrieving Tatsuo’s artifact, the group are led to three crates full of magic crystals. The disparity between the amount advertised and what they saw left the group stupefied.
Victor: Holy – !!! These are all ours for the taking?? We don’t just get one?
Sharon: Well…This is a lot more than what I think we were expecting.
“That just makes the value of the purchase more worth it…Although that just makes them highly suspicious”. Darren softly utters while eyeing out the nearby auction house staff members.
Sharon approaches the magic crystals, “In that case, I’ll get started with the magic coating!”
“That won’t be necessary.” Queenie says to Sharon. Sharon stops her arm from lifting itself towards the crates. “These crystals come with large amounts of magic imbued in them already, hence the name. Just having the marble touching the crates should be fine.”
“Oh…I see…How convenient.” Sharon rummages through her pouch and brings out three marbles. The crates full of magic crystals instantaneously vanish into the marbles with a tap. The paranormal stunt leaves the nearby spectating staff members to be bewildered. Audible gasping, as if they just saw a ghost, can be heard between them.
Suddenly, a voice calls out to the group, “Hey, you folks!”
The group looks behind to see the black-haired ponytail person rushing towards them. Sharon responds in repulse, her back flinches backwards, “Geh – ! That guy?! Isn’t he the one that we were bidding against!?”
Victor: No ways! Is he still going to fight us over the magic crystals?! Here?!
“Hold it right there!” The black haired man shouts aloud as he approaches the group closer, his legs quickly picking up pace walking faster. Upon arriving at their location, the black haired man takes a moment to catch his breath.
“W-What is it that you want?!” Sharon antagonistically asks.”If this is about the magic crystals –!”
The black haired man jerks his head up, still out of breath, “The magic crystals…?! Why, non! This isn’t about the magic crystals! What is it that you folks just do?!”
An unexpecting response. Sharon furrowed her brow in confusion.
Darren: Is he talking about the marble…?
Sharon shows the black haired person the marble, “you mean this?”
The black haired person springs to life, “Oh my–! Is that the magic crystals I see inside this small spherical device…?!” His arms naughtily come to life, lecherously raising themselves, but he manages to refrain himself from touching the object. “They disappeared off into there?! Tell me, is there a way to retrieve these magic crystals back?”
Victor: Yeah, you just break it.
Black haired person: I see! So it is as I surmised! This is a portable storage device! How fascinating! And you folks called this…a marble…?
Sharon: Uh….Yeah…
The black haired man places the glasses hanging on his head down to carefully inspect the marble, “Intriguing…! Where did you get this? Or was this device made by you folks?” He wonders in an afterthought of what Kaiza would think of an object like this.
“We got those from an inventor in Argonaut.” Tatsuo says while holding onto the white antique that he bought. “The way he talks is just like Dr. Crogsbell…” Victor adds.
Black haired man: Oh? Did you say Dr. Crogsbell? Was he the one who invented this?
Victor: Ah…Yeah…
Black haired man: Oh…I see…That’s a name I haven’t heard in a while…It’s impressive of him to have made something like this.
The mentioning of Dr. Crogsbell’s name garnered Victor’s attention. “…You know Dr. Crogsbell?”
Black haired man: Quite. We only encountered each other briefly. I suppose you could call us acquaintances…
Black haired man: Ah, sorry. I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Bearn, the assistant to one of the leading inventors of this generation, Otis Richards.
Tatsuo: Oh. That name.
Sharon: Why does it sound vaguely familiar…
Victor exclaims loudly in surprise, “Did you just say Otis Richards?!!”
Bearn: Mhm! So you folks know of him then! That’s great! I was worried you lads wouldn’t have a clue, being how young you all look…Sorry, perhaps that was a bit too presumptuous of me…
Victor: Dr. Crogsbell told us about him, he’s a big fan of his works! He talked about the trains, cars, blimps…!
Bearn: Is that so? I guess Otis left a big impression on him then…With that said, I am rather surprised that our attention hadn’t caught on to such a tool. There isn’t a storage unit that is quite as effective as this one. Was this something that Dr. Crogsbell just recently made?
Victor: No…He’s had it for quite a while already…He said the marble isn’t complete. He wants to create a fully functioning marble that doesn’t require magic, that way anyone can use it.
Bearn lets out a small sigh, “I see…So he’s been influenced by that side from Otis…It’s sad to say, but holding onto such convictions is pointless…”
Victor: …Huh? What do you mean…?
Bearn: Well first, to prioritize inventing tools without magic that this world largely consists of itself is rather foolish. It’s unnecessarily restrictive. To replicate the effect of this marble using only the non-magical scientific properties of this world that we coined as E- Physics, would be a scientific challenge that no one in this current generation will likely be able to undertake, as our understanding of magic science is astronomically larger.
Tatsuo: That makes sense.
Sharon: I haven’t really thought much of it that way…Dr. Crogsbell made the idea sound so novel…
Victor’s mouth opens, but is unable to come up with anything to dispute Bearn’s rational reasoning.
Bearn: Second, While you could argue that non-magic items allow easier access for the general masses, magic items are, simply put, superior. For example, compare a soap bar to an Angel’s Teardrop. A soap bar requires you to thoroughly apply around your body and use it in conjunction with water to wash oneself. Whereas you can remove every speck of grunge on your body by simply submerging yourself in water purified by a single angel’s teardrop. After years of intensive comparisons and testing, Otis has come to this same conclusion as well.
Victor shrinks his head away as if feeling defeated.
Bearn: The only leverage non-magic items have over magic items would be their practical widespread usage and resources. These magic crystals are an example of finite magical resources that are difficult to obtain. With that said, Otis came up with the impression that the best way to approach making new inventions would be to combine both ideas. That marble that you folks have is an ultimate case of one such design. Truly an invention worthy of much praise. Which is why I want to ask, is it okay for me to take one of those back with me?
Sharon and Victor in unison: Huh…?
Bearn: Ah, sorry! I’m willing to offer payment for it. How much do you folks want? I can offer nearly my entire expenditure, but not all of it…
Sharon: Oh…Well, I mean…
Tatsuo: Can you give us 5,000,000 coins?
Sharon quickly scolds Tatsuo for his rude response, “Hey Tatsuo, we should at least discuss this first…!”
Bearn: No…Unfortunately not, as that is the entirety of what I brought with me….
“Cool. 4,500,000 coins then.” – Darren says chiming in on top of Tatsuo’s proding. Sharon snaps back at Darren, “You guys are asking for way too much! That’s pretty much robbery!”
Victor speaks up after pondering carefully to himself, “No…” The group turns to face Victor.
Victor: I don’t think we should… Sorry, I want to respect the doc’s decision to not have this released to the public. These things were never supposed to get out in the first place, but were given to us as a special gift from him. I just don’t think it’d sit right with me if we were to hand them over to you, even if your plan is to only study it.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Bearn places his hand on his chin, “Hmmm…So no chance then…I admire your resolution and respect you have for Dr. Crogsbell, and for that, I won’t attempt to pursue any further.”
“Oh.” Victor says pleasantly surprised. “Why thank you–”
“BUT!!!” Bearn exclaims dramatically, cutting off Victor before he could finish.
“Oh there it is…” – Darren says quietly off the side as if he was expecting this sort of response.
Bearn: If you would allow me to take back at least one of these magic crystals with me! Dare I say, I must take one back with me!
Victor: Ok. Cough up all 5,000,000 coins.
Sharon looks at Victor in disbelief, ashamed that he, too, would join on the bandwagon, “You turned around just now rather fast!”
Victor: Oh, come on~! We need the money anyways. The entirety of what we had was barely enough to afford Tatsuo’s weird antique and these magic crystals.
Tatsuo: It’s a good thing we prepaid for our lodging, else we’d be out in the streets again.
Victor: Ha! Ha! Ha! How nostalgic!
Sharon and Queenie: ….
Sharon and Queenie did not like how casual the two boys were when popping those sentences out of their mouths.
Darren: I had some notion before…But now I’m even more convinced. This whole thing with you, the auction house and these magic crystals…They look very shady.
Bearn: Oh my. Whatever idea you have about this whole circumstance is most likely correct, I’ll admit to you.
Bearn: The dealings of these magic crystals were negotiated between our group and the auctioneers. We’re beneficiaries so to speak. They were willing to pull a couple strings, such as deceiving the audience and massively lowering the initial bid to grant the bid to be favorable for us.
Bearn looks over at Queenie, “Though, I never imagined there being anybody to go through such intensive lengths to acquire the crystals…It seems she knows quite well their true values.”
Victor: Yeah, sorry if it’s rude to ask, but why were you two willing to throw a fortune at these things?
Bearn: Hm! So you wonder. You see, magic crystals serve as an invaluable component for magic engineering.
Bearn turns to face Queenie - “Perhaps your fellow companion may know why that is so.”
Queenie: …It’s their magic content.
Queenie: Just as the name suggests, these crystals contain enormous amounts of pure magic. Items like these are essential for producing powerful and complex magic tools. They can even act as composites for constructing high caliber magic functions or arrays.
Bearn: Yes! That is correct. Going back to the discussion of non-magical items, technically there is no such thing, as magic is everywhere. Perhaps Dr. Crogsbell has told you about this already. Everything has magic, just at varying amounts. A small rock that you can find in the middle of a road has magic, however, the amount it contains is miniscule to the point that it barely exists. It’s those sort of objects that we dub to have no magic. In research, there is a unit of measurement that we use to quantify how much magic an object has is called –
Victor: Pneumen...
.
Bearn: Astounding! So you already know!
Victor: It just sounded similar to what the doctor was explaining to us when talking about the marble…Something about how since magic is everywhere, the marble only triggers when it touches anything with a certain amount of it. In order for it to activate, the object must at least be shrouded in magic of at least–
Bearn: 3,000 Pneumen, it seems.
Victor looks at Bearn in surprise, “Huh…?! H-how did you know that…?”
Bearn: Ah, it’s these glasses. I’ve been studying this object, as well as you folks, by using these. My glasses allow me to scan and analyze the properties of objects that I focus on within my field of vision. For instance, I can scan the power levels for each one of you here.
Victor:...Power what now….?
Bearn chuckles to himself: No, nothing. That’s just something an acquaintance I know says often.
Victor: O-oh…Kay…! But that’s still so cool! That’s some high-tech stuff right there…!
Sharon: That gadget must be very useful huh….
Darren: Sweet. GIve us those, or spare us a pair, and we’ll let you off with a crystal.
Sharon: You’re still bargaining?!
Bearn laughs off Darren’s snide offer: Ah! Ha! Ha! Ha! Sorry to say, but I can’t lose these.
Bearn’s eyes roll over to Tatsuo, ‘With that said though…’ – Bearns says to himself in his head.
Tatsuo notices Bearn looking at him, and the two awkwardly stare at each other for a moment, only for Bearn to dismissively turn away. He returns to his analysis of the marble:
“Anyways, 3,000 Pneumens…So quite a bit I see…I say, if we were able to study the marble ourselves, perhaps we’d be able to lower that amount… Of course, it’s possible it was purposely set to that amount to prevent these things from going off haphazardly too easily.”
Bearn: Of course when it comes to creating magic tools, the most important aspect will be magic itself. Depending on what’s being created, the amount of magic and its qualities will vary.
Bearn: With that said, one cannot just simply use any high content magical ingredient as crafting material. Part of the reason is because of what your friend said earlier, and that is the magic content of a material. All magic contained in every material comes with different degrees of magic purity and properties. An object containing higher magic purity will usually have less magic properties and vice versa. You will need magic materials with the appropriate magic properties to make a tool. Using the Angel’s teardrop as an example again, this cleansing tool is created by mixing water with an authentic angel’s tear. This can only be produced using water, as an authentic tear does not react with any other known liquids…And the procedure is only so simple because of the raw magic purity an authentic angel’s tear contains.
Bearn: Though, an authentic angel’s tear is an extraordinarily rare resource. A single tear is enough to buy yourself a country, which harkens to the point of potent magic commodities being scarce.
Tatsuo comments to Queenie, “Guess we should’ve made that little girl cry.”
Tatsuo: It ain’t eye water, but we do have a feather. What can you tell us about that?
Bearn: ? You mean an angel’s feather? Between the two…I think the teardrop is more rare…But a feather is just as valuable, if not more. Supposedly only four have been found in all of history…
Tatsuo: Cool. So it’s some sort of super magic item, and that means we could just buy the entirety of Irene if we want to, right?
Bearn: Ha! Ha! Ha…! What an amusing fella~! Quite the dreamer aren’t you? Well, it’s not like angels have been proven to exist, they’re at most entities made up from folklore. It's why these items are named after them.
Both Victor and Queenie stand awkwardly silent, their minds still processing if whether that day, they had actually met an angel, or if it was all just a delusion.
Queenie nudges at Victor and whispers to him, “Hey…Why don’t you just show him the feather…? You were pretty excited about that thing before…”
Victor whispers back, “ ….Because now I’m not too sure if everything that we went through was real, or if it was just one giant fever dream…And I can’t handle the possible deal-breaker in front of me…”
Queenie:...Understandable.
Tatsuo: But we really did meet with an angel. We could even show it to you if you’d like– Sharon and Darren frantically shove themselves in front of Tatsuo, telling Bearn not to mind him.
Darren glares at Tatsuo, “Please. Since the following weeks, the three of you have made us a laughing stock in all the towns we’ve visited. Don’t push it any further. Before it was bearable. Now it’s painful anytime you guys bring the topic up.”
Bearn: Oh, it’s quite fine. I would love to see such evidence if it’s truly the case.
Sharon: Ha! Ha…! Unfortunately it so happens that we left the feather back at our lodging…! I’m sure someone like you is currently too busy…!
They had already embarrassed themselves in front of the chancellor of the guild association. The last thing Sharon wanted was to embarrass themselves again in front of another reputable figure.
Bearn: Hmmm….It is true that I’ve got things to do…I suppose if that’s the case then.
Bearn: Anyhow, materials that contain high magic purity such as the teardrop and feather are very flexible when it comes to crafting magic tools, especially those that are complex in design. Magic crystals are even more purer than the other two as well, as the average magic crystal consists of 98% in magic purity.
The group stood simply silent, not understanding a thing Bearn just told them.
Victor: ….So is that supposed to be very impressive?
Bearn: Quite. To simplify it, you can think of these magic crystals being made up of 98% magic energy.
Darren: So…what? These crystals are more magic than they are…rocks? Crystals?
Bearn: Precisely. The given name ‘Magic Crystal’ is actually misleading, as it’s really just large clumps of magic energy in a solidified form.
Tatsuo: It’s like water with ice then.
Bearn: Hm! That’s an observant way to look at it! A material that has the raw output and magic makeup like the magic crystals can be used practically for almost anything and helps foster scientific breakthroughs, such as the dimensional portals!
Victor: Woah whaa–?! Those teleporters were made using these rocks?!
Tatsuo glances at Queenie.
Queenie lets out a sigh, “let me explain…”
“Dimensional portals are a magic instrument that allows for instantaneous travel from one location to another anywhere around the globe at any distance.”
Victor turns to Queenie looking floored – “So it actually exists…then…? I mean, I’ve heard about them before from stories but…”
Bearn: Indeed, and they are large enough in scale to teleport groups of people too. So far, only five have been built. One in one of the capital kingdoms of Mon’ Diego, and another in Naringarus. Two are located in Greeneville, split between its two regions; the Snow Region and the Green Region. And lastly, there’s one from where I'm from in Los Belt. By going through one of these portals, you may instantly travel to any one of the other four portals. Besides some general research, we’re also planning to use these crystals to create another dimensional portal …But we’ll need some of those crystals in order to make that happen, so if you’d be so kind as to spare even one–
Darren: Give us the glasses, the 5,000,000 and you’ll cut yourself a deal.
Sharon: Quit bullying him. Now you’re sounding exactly like the door attendant.
Bearn: …While I may not be able to give you all of that, what I can do is offer you something else that may prove of more potential value.
Darren: Oh? And what’s that?
Bearn slyly leans forward to the group, holding one of his hand pointing up and winks one of his eyes,
“Credit.”