Volume 18 Chapter 10 Things That Can Be Done
Al returned home with Ozbert and started explaining to his dad and his dad's retainer, Neville about what they had seen.
Jasper, his second brother, who doesn't go to middle school, and Al's dad Nelson were both clueless about the movements in the capital and the knights. In the end, they decided to report the situation to Lord Duran (A knight serving the Margrave) as Ozbert suggested, so he could think of a plan.
Now, the Channing family would have to keep an eye out since there was a chance the goblins could come back and attack.
They had fixed the road leading to what looked like a mine, so they could check it out every few days.
As for the other settlement they found, it was far from Channing Village, so they would leave the decision to Lord Duran.
Anyway, Al would take Ozbert with them again to fly to the capital. He looked a bit strained, but it seemed like he accepted that they didn't have the luxury to take it easy.
They were set to leave in an hour, and Al went back to his room for a bit. It was a bare room with just a bed and an empty chest.
Al sat on the bed, starting to think about what he could do.
'Hey, I wonder how many barrels of grain that guy has in his magic bag.'
"Well, that's for the settlements we plan to distribute to, so probably dozens of barrels..."
Right, Glee's words reminded him. He could check the contents of the warehouse assigned to the magic bag. There might be something that could serve as evidence.
Worst case, if he could just retrieve the grain from the magic bag, it might reduce the amount they had to give to the Barbarians.
Using the 'Transport' spell, he quickly pulled out Glee's doll golem and the broken wall button-shaped magic bag from his assigned room.
He put Glee's pendant on the doll golem.
"Glee, sorry, but could you store me in this button-shaped magic bag ('Transport')?"
The doll golem, with Glee's pendant around its neck, started moving right away but shook its head as if to say no.
"Come on, Ally, just calm down a bit. First, use the teleportation magic tool to register this room as a teleportation destination. If you don't do that, you won't be able to come back here. And don't forget to store the 'Floating Eye' in the button-shaped magic bag and check for safety."
Al scratched his head. He could now use the 'Transport' spell, and by combining it with the teleportation magic tool, his range of action had expanded, but the steps were still complicated.
If he forgot to register this place as a teleportation destination, after finishing his work in the warehouse assigned to the button magic tool, he would try to return, but the only registered destination on the teleportation magic tool would be the research tower.
If that happened, to get back to Channing Village, he would have to return to the research tower, get help from Patricia and the others, re-register the teleportation destination at the base beyond the River of Death, teleport there, and then use the 'Fly' spell to get to Channing Village.
He wanted to avoid that.
Following Glee's advice, Al re-registered the room in Channing Village as a teleportation destination for the magic tool, then stored the 'Floating Eye' as a safety check in the warehouse assigned to the button-shaped magic tool.
The warehouse seemed to be unchanged. Holding his breath, worried about lingering bad smells, he had Glee the golem do the storing.
There didn't seem to be any unusual occurrences in this ruin. It looked like the White Long-Haired Bongo had settled back in the ruins above ground, as 3 of them were leisurely grooming themselves.
The corpse sold for a high price, but at that time, Cody the dismantler said she wasn't sure if she could buy it the same way. For now, it might be best not to take it down.
First, he moved to the warehouse room where the cart with the star symbol 2 was placed, near the ceiling of the underground storage area. No magic response. He used the 'Soften Stone' staff to make a hole in the stone wall.
Then, he carefully peeked inside. There was no particular change inside, just a wooden chest with a bit of decoration and the cart in the same spot.
Even if that guy headed to Marlow's town, he shouldn't have arrived yet. So, that cart is likely not the star symbol 2.
So, he decided it wasn't here and continued to check the room where the cart with the star symbol 3 was stored.
Following the same procedure, he made a hole in the wall near the ceiling of the warehouse room. There was no cart there, just 20 barrels of food lined up. Fewer than he expected.
So, there are only 2 places planned to distribute to the Barbarians' settlement. Or are they planning to buy again in Marlow's town?
Al went down for a moment and made a hole at the same level as the floor.
When he talked to Patricia and Malachi the Golem about Salamander's Saari, Malachi the Golem warned him that bad air can sometimes gather below, so he should be careful.
When he went underground with Saari, there was a mask left by Aines, Saari's contract master, but now, it's gone.
He had been in here before, so he should be fine, but having that kind of knowledge can make him feel uneasy. That's why he decided to take precautions.
The air inside was heavy. From below, the number of barrels didn't change. The only other thing was a wooden chest with a bit of decoration. He approached the chest and carefully opened it.
Before, there was a fine outfit and a heavy bag filled with coins, but this time it was different. The fine outfit was still there, but in addition, there were a large number of linen bags inside.
Opening one of the bags, he found it filled with gold coins. He opened another one. It was also full of gold coins. There was one bag that was a different size, and that one had about half silver coins mixed in.
There were a total of 22 bags. Out of those, 21 were completely filled with gold coins. Each bag probably had around 100 gold coins. So, that means there are over 2,000 gold coins altogether.
This must be the gold prepared for buying grains and such.
Wow, that's a lot of gold. What should he do? If this runs out, the food supply to the Barbarians will probably stop for a while. But they might figure out the trick behind this magic bag storage room.
Should he just use 'Dispel Magic' to destroy all the storage rooms except the one he has?
Or, there's also the option of somehow filling the storage room with bad air (or maybe even water) to use it as a deadly trap.
'Hey, Patricia. Is now a good time? Can you ask Malachi for me?'
Al heard that transporting animals in the 'Transport' storage causes them to die. If he seals a room that's 20 meters square and put animals... like chickens in there, will the same thing happen?
Al asked Patricia through the Ring of Pact. After a while, a reply came back.
'It takes quite a bit of time, but it will happen. However, it's faster to just start a fire, and it will have a similar effect.'
Is that so? He doesn't often use torches, so he hadn't thought about it, but it seems that can be dangerous.
After asking Malachi for more details through Patricia, he used the 'Transport' spell to move all the bags of coins to the shelf in his research tower, and the barrels of grain into the other button-shaped magic bag that he hadn't used when he came here.
Then, after lighting a significant amount of firewood inside, he closed off all the previously peeked areas and sealed the storage room. He repeated the same process in the room with the wagon, starting a fire within to make the air foul.
Though no evidence was found, the Marquis Prentis family, who had lost a substantial amount of gold, would likely hesitate to use the magic bag given its dubious circumstances.
Even thorough investigation wouldn't be easy when dealing with the magic bag. For a while, it may not be feasible for him to distribute food to the Barbarians.
He couldn't take direct action against the magician, but he was confident that his efforts had achieved a similar effect. However, he pondered what to do with the over 2,000 gold coins. Feeling uneasy about handling them, he used the teleportation magic tool and returned to Channing Village.
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