Non-commentated version of this chapter here for those that don’t want to interrupt their reading of the story with my rambling.
Chapter 36 – Magic Core
“That’s…..a golem!?”
Serena said while looking down from the entrance of the passageway.
Right after that, a rock flew over our heads.
It impacted the wall with great force, causing it to break into little pieces that showered down on our heads.
“──《Teleport》”
I moved everyone to the entrance with 《Teleport》.
That included Elysia, Serena, Yuuri, and even the armor group of course.
(TN: If the armor group is so of course, then why do you feel the need to reiterate the fact that they are included?)
“It’s a mine, so it’s not that strange for golems to appear, but…..this many…..”
Like Yuuri said, golem started showing up from various side passages. Just from what I could already see, there were more than a dozen of them.
Elysia asked me for orders.
“What should we do here? We should be able to close the door right away.”
“We could run away, but we won’t be able to use the mine if we don’t get rid of these first, so……Serena, let’s fight.”
“Understood! Farewell──《Flame Lance》!”
Serena gathered a lance of flame in her hand, then threw it in the direction of the golems ascending the walkway stairs.
The golem threw a rock in order to intercept the projectile.
However, the lance of flame crushed the rock and continued on to bore a hole into the golem and reduce it to pieces.
“Oooh! Uwah!?”
While Yuuri was celebrating, countless rock projectiles thrown by the golems closed in on us.
“Please leave those to us!”
The armor people took up a formation to protect us.
The armor people took on the rock impacts with their bodies, but none of them moved an inch.
“Thank you, everyone…..but, at this rate…..”
Looking downwards, the golem that Serena blew apart just now has already reconstituted itself.
If you don’t break the Magic Core, a golem can gather rocks to itself without end.
(TN: Shouldn’t the Magic Core run out of fuel or something?)
Serena kept shooting 《Flame Lances》 one after the other, breaking apart the target golems, but they just kept putting themselves back together.
“Kuh!? Their Magic Cores are pretty hard.”
“Their Magic Cores could be made out of magical metal…..”
Like Guardians, taking them out with straight force would be too difficult.
That being said, it’s not like their Magic Cores were controlled either. Golems are already hostile to everyone aside from themselves.
….no, wait a minute. If I could control them instead…..
However, since the area is saturated in mana filled magical metals, it’s not that easy to pinpoint their location. To send my mana to a Magic Core, I need to at least have a visual on it.
“Serena! Tell me which golem are you planning to defeat next!”
“Understood! Then I will take down that one down there! Haaah!!”
After saying that, Serena threw another lance of flame, blowing apart the golem.
I immediately searched for the red stone that was among the broken remains of the golem.
“So it’s there…..Then I need to envelop the Magic Core with Dark mana…..”
(TN: So it’s again the vomit mana all over it and pray that it works as he wants? How come only the Dark Magic seems to be this omnipotent? I can understand the other elemental ones more or less, but Light being its counterpart should be similar if the magic system is any kind of fair. Though I guess that would be too much to ask for.)
I willed it to start obeying me.
When I did, the Magic Core stopped gathering rocks to itself.
“Nice, it worked! Serena, keep it up!”
“Understood! By your will, Alec-sama!!”
After saying that, Serena kept shooting 《Flame Lances》 one after the other.
I determinedly sent out mana to the Magic Core among the pieces, taking control of it.
After the last golem fell down and I finished seizing all the Magic Cores, the area once again fell silent.
“Fuuh…..that seemed to have worked out somehow? Hmm? What is it, Serena?”
I asked the seemingly shocked still Serena.
“Eh, ah, I’m terribly sorry! I just didn’t think I would be able to shoot those this fast.”
“Yeah, that was indeed very impressive…..It may be because your mana have increased after becoming my Servant.”
“I see! The 《Flame Lance》 is a basic tier spell, so I’m looking forward to seeing what changed with 《Flame Prison》!”
“I’m two minds about seeing that one…..anyhow, that was well done, Serena.”
When I said that, a proud expression appeared on Serena’s face.
Yuuri on the other hand seemed to be a bit vexed.
“I should learn Lightning Magic after all…..”
(TN: Or you could use it without any preparation beforehand and have it work exactly as intended like the MC does. Seriously, I thought it was a good sign that it was at least told to us that making spells is hard and it took some time for the MC to adapt his different attribute spell to work with Dark Magic, but then it was forgotten entirely for the MC to pull them out of his ass one after the other with no problem whatsoever.)
“Well, let’s leave fighting to Serena-san. Rather than that…..”
I nodded to Elysia’s words.
“Let’s make sure the Magic Cores are indeed safe.”
“Yes!”
We walked down the stairs from the walkways towards the remains of a golem.
The ground was littered with rock fragments.
However, among them I could see a gleaming red gem as well.
“So that’s a Magic Core.”
I picked up the red stone.
The mana I sent to it just now is pooling around it.
“Good…..can it take a humanoid shape, I wonder?”
After I said that, the Magic Core floated away from me, started to gather rocks from the area around it, and coalesced into a golem.
It didn’t look like it was about to attack us.
“It seems to be obeying my orders……Though I’ve never heard of someone taming a golem.”
(TN: Oh jeez, why could that be I wonder. Maybe the fact that it was done by Dark Magic, which seems to be omnipotent for all intents and purposes and you are the only special snowflake that seems to be able to use it for some reason? My current theory is that he’s a half-monster, or quarter-monster via his mother by the way. Though it wasn’t even really established that monsters or demons would be able to use Dark Magic without getting taken over by a Devil, aside from a single possible off-hand remark. And if they can, then why didn’t they take over the world by now with the seemingly endless power of Dark Magic?)
Golems have no feeling of fear, so they won’t ever obey humans. That means Subordination Magic doesn’t work on them either.
However, my mana was able to make the golems obey me.
I must’ve successfully recreated the same spell that was used to control the Guardians.
If I had to give it a name I guess it would be 《Dark Influence》. Though it’s not something I would be happy to use…..
(TN: That was kind of difficult to translate and I think I went farther afield with it than usual, but I think this is still a fitting name. The original: 魔操, is more like magical manipulation if translated straight, but that sounds pretty lame in this context, so I leaned on the dark and evil possible meaning of the 魔 kanji and translated it as Dark, which fits well with the MC’s theme as well.)
The Guardians moved to gather up the Magic Cores without me having to say anything.
(TN: Once again, let’s ignore the possible trauma flashback they may be experiencing right now due to seeing the same magic being used by their ‘owner’ as the one they were controlled for a thousand years and which made them slaughter their charges. I guess the Servant bond mind control is taking care of that part.)
Serena nodded curtly.
“The Guardian’s Magic Cores come from having a defeated golem’s Magic Core modified, that’s what allows them to obey commands…..Alec-sama is indeed very knowledgeable about magic and monsters. Even though he’s only seven years old…..”
(TN: Nothing suspicious here at all! Servant bond mind control go!)
“W-well, it’s because I’ve studied a lot…..”
Before I returned to the past, I studied a lot about monsters and magic. Though it ended up as thoroughly useless knowledge for a shut-in like me.
Well, it’s coming in handy right about now, so it’s all fine in the end.
“…..it seems they can be controlled as if they are familiars, but……”
I wonder what would happen if I made them my Servants.
(TN: Wow, so people can even be mind controlled into accepting the Servant bond.)
“Might as well have them become my Servants.”
I willed the Magic Cores gathered by the Guardians to become my Servants.
“…..so, what will it be?”
The Magic Cores were enveloped in light…..then the light burst.
(TN: Could this be…..something he isn’t able to do right after thinking of the possibility?)
“Their appearance doesn’t seem to have changed. Same as the slimes I guess.”
Can monsters not turn into a human shape for some reason?
When I was pondering that, a voice came from a Magic Core.
“……Master. Your orders.”
(TN: Nah, it seems he was perfectly successful once again.)
“Ooh, so they’ve become able to speak.”
Ordinary golems can’t speak, so this is really helpful.
(TN: Oh so conveniently helpful once again, god forbid he would have any kind of difficulty, no matter how short lived.)
The mana I’ve put on them has also disappeared by now, which means they obey me even without having to use magic on them.
Yuuri spoke up with a somewhat trembling voice.
“T-to think golems could be turned into friendlies like that…..ah, but, golems are very good at breaking stones.”
“And that means they would be excellent miners as well, right?”
Yuuri nodded to Elysia’s question.
“We can gather a lot of magical metal ores like this! Ah, but……that means we won’t need to call our brethren…..”
“No, Yuuri. Proceed to send the call out anyway. The more craftsmen we get the better.”
“Yes! Then I will do as we planned before!”
I nodded.
“Indeed. Then we’ll have the golems mine the magic metal ores. The slimes will transport them here. The armor group will need to watch out for the possible emergence of new golems.”
Everyone started taking action according to my orders.
(TN: The slimes weren’t even mentioned to have been there even once until now. Did they all gain the ability of Elyc, the Schrödinger’s slime?)
So that’s how we started the excavation of magical metal ores.
