I Became a Magical Genius After Regression

Chapter 37

“This is the bathhouse.”

“Bathhouse? Dwarves, who look like they wouldn’t wash, even made a bathhouse.”

“That’s a prejudice. We use geothermal heat to warm it.”

Randell nodded at the manager’s words.

It had already been 30 minutes.

The manager told him to follow, but instead of going straight to the exit, he started showing the city without explaining why there was no need to worry about the two territories.

At first, Randell was dissatisfied with this, but soon he began to enjoy it.

After all, there was nothing urgent, and as he looked around, he found it quite interesting in many ways.

“There’s really everything here.”

“I made about half of it.”

“Oh… You? You’re smarter than you look.”

“Insult? Compliment? Thanks.”

As Randel said, the underground city surprisingly had most of what was needed for living.

Houses, religious facilities, baths, shops, and so on.

Even just looking at the outskirts that weren’t buried in lava, it was hard to imagine what grandeur the city would have had if it were intact.

According to the administrator, the mechanisms inside were more advanced than those in the kingdom where Randel currently lived.

There were proper water pipes, and the heat circulation structure of the bath mentioned earlier was also present.

That’s not all.

There were automatic doors without any magic, and boxes that moved themselves from the lowland city to the highland mines.

‘If the dwarf city hadn’t perished and its technology had spread across the continent…’

It was unimaginable how advanced the world would have become.

Randel felt a deep regret as he looked around and discovered something unusual.

He approached to see what it was and found the corpse of a dwarf.

The bodies had either mummified due to the heat of the lava or were covered in ash and solidified.

Randel couldn’t hide his bitterness at the sight.

“Bitter.”

“Agreed. But it’s distant.”

“Yes, a long time has already passed…”

It was bitter when seen as the death of a living being.

But on second thought, it wasn’t necessarily so.

Randel’s ancestors, who lived in the same era as these dwarves, would have already turned to dust.

In the long run, it was just a matter of going a little earlier or later.

“The flow of time, it’s fair.”

“I don’t know. Maybe time can be reversed?”

“…Hexagonal water, do you know it?”

“Hexagonal water? What’s that?”

“No, this way.”

The administrator, who had been staring at Randel for a moment, started walking ahead again.

Although his face was expressionless, why did it feel like he was looking at Randel with pity?

The administrator led Randel to the largest remaining building.

As soon as they passed through the unusually wide entrance, Randel could tell at a glance where they were.

Hammers, anvils, and forges prepared at regular intervals.

It was a blacksmith’s shop, something that couldn’t be left out when thinking of dwarves.

Clang.

Randel picked up one of the weapons rolling around in the dust pit.

“Oh, this is good.”

Even though he held the long sword with one hand, it didn’t feel heavy.

It meant that the sword’s balance was perfectly maintained.

Even a layman like Randel could tell it was a masterpiece.

Though it was now rusted and could only give tetanus if swung.

“Over here. The dust.”

“Ah! Got it. Wind.”

Covering his mouth with his sleeve, he summoned the wind, and the thick dust flew towards the entrance.

Then, the floor of the spot the manager pointed to was revealed.

A floor with long hair scattered messily.

At first, he thought, ‘Is this the sorrow of someone with hair loss?’ but soon realized it wasn’t.

“This is… a trace of a rotted carpet.”

Still, just in case it was hair, Randel brushed the trace away with his foot.

Then, a flat doorknob appeared.

“You want me to pull it?”

“Yes.”

The doorknob looked heavy at a glance.

Randel spread his legs wide and exerted his strength.

After wrestling with it for a long time, he finally managed to lift the door.

Thud―

Randel turned his head away from the dust that surged again.

In the meantime, the manager had already gone down the stairs that continued below the door.

“Hurry up.”

“What’s down there?”

Maintaining the light magic, Randel followed the manager down the stairs.

And at that moment, he closed his eyes tightly.

“Ugh!”

It was because dozens of mirror-like objects scattered the light all at once.

Randel squinted his dazzled eyes and carefully looked at the source of the light.

What was piled up there.

“What, what is this? So much mithril…?”

In the basement where the manager and Randel had entered, various metals were refined and stacked in the form of ingots.

From iron to copper, tin, brass, or all sorts of unknown metals were neatly waiting for their owner.

But nothing else caught his eye.

Only the pure silver ores, dazzling with a brilliant light, came into view.

They were mithrils.

Those mithrils were processed into ingots and stacked five per compartment, up to Randel’s height.

Randel, looking at them, muttered in disbelief.

“Ha, even the finger-sized mithril I saw before was incredibly expensive…”

Randel approached and picked up an ingot.

It was so heavy that it was hard to hold for long without enhancing his body with mana.

There were hundreds of such ingots.

How many swords could be made from this?

Even if the handles were made entirely of mithril, it seemed like thousands of swords could be forged.

At the same time, a long-held question was resolved.

‘Was this it? The reason they waged war…’

In fact, one of Randel’s future goals was to establish a trading company.

He planned to use his memories of the future to amass a fortune.

But with this mithril, there was no need to bother with a trading company or anything.

Even if he established and ran such a company, he might not be able to earn as much money as this mithril.

It was an enormous amount.

‘But having eaten something like this…’

With money and status, the next goal is power. And the next goal after that is even greater power.

From noble mtl dot com

So, what’s the easiest way to gain that power?

Simple. War.

‘Selling just ten of these would cover the cost of war.’

Selling a few on the black market, making some into equipment for the knights, and that was the end of the war preparations.

In other words, what they wanted wasn’t the relics, but purely the territory itself.

‘The great lord who annexed the northern territories…’

If more time passed, it would be the declaration of a kingdom.

They were dreaming of a new dynasty.

Suddenly, the scale grew significantly.

Considering that Randel in his previous life hadn’t heard of a new kingdom, it seemed something had gone wrong.

Randel, who was pondering, asked the administrator.

“You said earlier that we don’t have to worry about crossing the mine, right? Is that what you meant?”

“Yes. The vein is completely dry.”

“You’ve mined everything there?”

“All 790 kilos. The purity is five-nine.”

“What’s five-nine?”

“Purity. It means it’s high.”

“I see. But they don’t know the vein is dry, do they? They’ll try to take this place somehow…”

“It’s okay. That can be solved too.”

“Solved? How?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

The administrator, who said so, looked at Randel and pointed to the pile of mithril ingots.

It meant he could take them if needed.

“Uh…”

Of course, he should take them all, but the value of the ingots was so high that he was at a loss for words.

It was like handing out a treasure that could buy several territories, as if it were a piece of bread.

“Can I take them all?”

“There’s no owner anyway. You’re the only intelligent being in the city for 287,000 days.”

“Then I’ll take them without hesitation.”

Randel opened his subspace and swept all the mithril ingots into it.

He also wanted other metals, but there was no more space in the subspace.

Even though the subspace didn’t feel heavy, the thought of it being filled with mithril made his heart feel heavy.

The administrator, who was quietly watching, spoke.

“Tourism. Did you have fun?”

“Tourism? Ah! I don’t know about fun, but it was interesting.”

“Then now, please do me a favor.”

“Of course. What’s the favor?”

“This way.”

Randell followed the manager again.

* * *

They arrived at the edge of the abandoned city.

There was a building there.

It wasn’t very tall, but it had an old-fashioned charm, and its style was unique.

Unlike the gray stone buildings, it was made of baked bricks, and there were sharp spires rising from various parts of the building.

Unlike other buildings without glass windows, this one had many windows.

Looking at the half-broken stained glass, you could tell a lot of effort had been put into it.

“……”

But in fact, Randell didn’t even notice those things right now.

Randell pointed to the building across and asked the manager.

“…What’s with the golem guarding that place?”

They were about 200 meters away from the building, or more precisely, from the golem.

Fortunately, the golem didn’t recognize them and just stood in place.

It seemed they were just barely outside the golem’s recognition range.

In response to Randell’s uneasy question, the manager answered.

“That’s where my main body is sleeping.”

“Oh, is that the favor you mentioned…?”

“Yes. Please find my main body.”

“Can’t you just go and get it yourself?”

“CP37 clause, Elop is prohibited from physical contact with the main body. So I can’t touch it.”

“I don’t exactly understand what that means… Anyway, you can’t touch it, so you brought me instead.”

“That’s right.”

“Alright, then I’ll retrieve it as soon as the golem moves away.”

“……”

At those words, the administrator silently stared at Randel.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“The Guardian isn’t moving.”

“Why? It was chasing me earlier, wasn’t it?”

“No. That’s its original position.”

“…?”

“Protecting my main body. The Guardian’s top priority mission.”

Randel blinked, not understanding what kind of nonsense this was.

But soon, he realized what was going on.

“Huh.”

That’s right.

The golem wasn’t patrolling to chase Randel or find intruders.

It was just returning to its original position, as it was programmed to guard this place.

Then, by coincidence, their paths crossed… or not?

‘Didn’t I approach the golem first to check it out?’

Randel scratched his head in frustration at his own stupidity.

“No, then if I had just run over here and found the main body as soon as I discovered the golem, it would have been over, right?”

“Meet you, persuade you, and get here before the golem?”

“Ugh…”

Randel groaned at the administrator’s words.

He understood the administrator’s point.

The golem was over 5 meters tall.

Even if the golem took just one step, Randel would have to run like crazy to keep up.

Moreover, if a random guy suddenly appeared and said, ‘I might get crushed to death by the golem, but please help me!’ who would agree to that?

‘But…’

Randel also wanted to retrieve the main body more than anyone else.

He hadn’t just received a few pieces of mithril, but an entire ingot, so he had to do it unless it was a matter of life and death.

That’s right. This was the problem.

‘This… is a matter of life and death.’

If he faced the golem head-on, he would definitely die.

Is there no other way?

“Isn’t there a way to bypass the golem? Seeing all those windows, maybe we can sneak in. Or you could lure the golem far away.”

“No. The detection range is a radius of 150 meters.”

“So it doesn’t just guard the front, it guards the entire radius?”

“Yes. I’m excluded from detection.”

“So the golem doesn’t even pretend to see you…”

The more he thought about it, the more absurd the situation seemed.

He recalled what the administrator had explained about the golem earlier.

The detection range is usually 150 meters, but it precisely guards 100 meters when a hostile target appears.

No matter how much he racked his brain, there was no way to deal with it from a distance.

“This is a headache. So, is there any weakness?”

“The magic core. You need to target that area with magic.”

“Target? You mean shoot it?”

“Yes. With 7.44M per square meter. For more than 5 seconds.”

“…?”

He didn’t know what the unit meant, but Randel knew well what a magic core was.

All golems had a magic stone, a magic core, inscribed with activation spells somewhere on their bodies.

It was responsible for the golem’s anti-magic and regeneration abilities, so destroying it would end the golem.

But there was one problem.

How could Randel destroy the magic core of a golem made of metal?

“…Golems are famous, so I know the magic core is a weakness. Is there any other weakness?”

“No.”

Randel pondered as he watched the administrator nod.

In the grand scheme of things, there were two problems.

One. Can the golem be destroyed?

‘No.’

Two. Is there a way to sneak past the golem?

‘No to that too.’

Randel, who reached a conclusion in 5 seconds, opened his mouth.

“Well, I’d like to help you with your request?”

“Yes.”

“But I think this is beyond my ability.”

“……”

The administrator just stared at Randel at those words.

There was no expression, but it felt like he was very disappointed.

Randel asked cautiously.

“Uh… Should I return the mithril?”

“No. Do you want to go to the exit?”

“Oh! Thank you.”

Randel sighed in relief, feeling sorry at the same time.

He was secretly worried that he might not be told the way out because he didn’t fulfill the request.

The two slowly backed away so as not to reach the golem’s recognition range.

And they arrived at the exit after passing through the ruins.

There it was.

“We’re here. The exit.”

“…Here?”

“Yes.”

Randel couldn’t help but make a puzzled face again.

Because the place they arrived at was right in front of the big stone door that Randel had entered through.

‘No way… It can’t be, right?’

Randel asked, trying to shake off his anxiety.

“…There’s a way to push this stone door, right?”

“There is. The control tower manages it.”

“Where is that tower?”

“Follow me.”

Randel sighed in relief again and followed the administrator.

And then.

“…Damn it.”

The place they arrived at was the same place as before.

The place where the golem was guarding.