Chapter 167

Extra: A Souvenir and Technological Innovation

“… Ooooooh! This is wonderful~!”

When I handed Nerune the Permanent Fountain Pen-kun that I got from touring the capital, she was already incredibly excited.

“Gugugu, I want to take it apart… but there’s a protection on it that would erase the magic formation when it’s disassembled…!”

“There is?”

“Said so in the manual~! As expected of Hero Studio huh~”

Wonder if it’s the cheat skill of a god’s vanguard

/hero?

“Hmmm, making something the same as it would be impossible then huh.”

“It looks like it replenishes ink when you fill it with magical power~. Liquid, and black… is it earth magic~?”

By the way, there’s a transparent plate on the side of the fountain pen, so we’re able to see the remaining amount of ink.

While on the subject, the color of the ink it comes with isn’t just black, but a colorful red, blue, and green too. I just bought the basic black one this time.

“Is the ink made with water?”

“Isn’t it something else~?”

“Eh, I don’t know. Maybe they’re using oil or something?”

Just to say, normally, ink is made from magic tools like Hero Studio’s Ink Maker-kun. How is that normal…

“… In other words, Hero Studio does nothing but focus on getting monopolies, huh.”

“Looks like it~. Or maybe it’s just that no one could even imitate them~”

For them to continue the workshop for a few hundred years, it’s like they made Magic Tools That Make Magic Tools or something. Or maybe the person is still alive?

… Let’s not think too hard about it.

By the way, I didn’t buy the Fueless Pot or Hotpot-kun, but I told her that there was stuff like that too.

“The Stove that master talked about a while ago is more convenient~. You could even use it with normal pots and pans, switching in and out is simple too~. It’d be a single iron plate as a magic tool, so it wouldn’t take up space either~”

“… It does sound convenient with you talking about it like that.”

“Ah, right. Gar-kun, bring me the 16th fire prototype… Ahh, thanks~”

Nerune’s assistant gargoyle silently brought her a box, handing it to her.

When Nerune took the box from it and patted its head, the gargoyle seemed satisfied as it returned to its spot in the corner of the room.

The thing that was in the box was an unfired clay plate with a magic formation engraved into it.

“This is the prototype stove~. I made it out of clay since it’s a prototype, but since I used the dial’s magic formation from when we made the kotatsu, the strength can be regulated too~”

“As expected of Nerune, making something like that.”

“… It’s thanks to master~. It would crack if it got put into a bag since it’s made from clay, but master could easily mass produce them with steel plates right~?”

It’s not like I couldn’t, but it sounds like a pain. Seriously.

Moreover, like this, the whole stove gets hot when it’s used.

In that case, let’s make a single raw clay plate and not care about being able to carry it around. That should be fine for a prototype.

“Right, could I make a wooden base that the clay plate can be put in? I want the handle to be strong, so let’s use an iron rod for it. Let’s see… even if I put a hole into it here, it won’t affect the magic formation right?”

I took care of the clay plate. Cutting out a blank area with Create Golem, I made a hole for the handle. After that, I made a wooden board that’ll fit on top of it. It’ll be completed by putting the iron rod in.

Yep, a slim stove. Gives off some good vibes. 1

“… If it’s like that, you don’t have to worry about it cracking if I cover it with a lid huh~. That way it’ll still be made with clay, so I can make it without having to trouble Goshujin-sama~”

“Oh, that’s good. As expected of Nerune. Well then, please take it from here.”

Oh, so she’s going to make a lid for it as well huh. Really, our researcher is excellent.

I handed the raw clay plate with a magic formation on it back to Nerune. I’ll show it off to Gozoh when it’s done.

“I’m not that good, it’s all thanks to Goshujin-sama~”

“Don’t be so humble, Nerune. I’ll be expecting a lot from you!”

“… I’m not humble though~? I have no ideas~. Hafuu.”

Nerune sighed.

“Making magic formations with clay with endless magic stones… it’s at the level that Kantra-shishou would get stunned and faint you know~?”

“Oh. Come to think of it, I’d like to add a timer to the oven. Could you link a timer golem to it? I’d like it to be something like a dial that you turn to the time you want, twisting back to the off position over time.”

“See!? A technological innovation just like that! Uwaaaaaahn.”

Nerune lightly wailed her hands against me.

Hahaha, this girl. It’ll start hurting after a bit, so please don’t do it too long.

*

Later on, it looks like my Take it from here was understood as Mass produce them with this, so ten slim stoves were completed.

So mass producing them became feasible huh… just one would’ve been enough though.

I decided to put a tabletop toaster oven (made with phoenix eggshells) in Nerune’s laboratory as a bonus. I made it after figuring out I could mix together the phoenix eggshells with the stove with Create Golem.

With this, she’ll be able to have as much toast or whatever as she wants. Wonder if she’ll like it?

“… Kantra-shishou would die in agony~. Well, it’ll be easy to fire the clay in the laboratory now, so things will be easier now~”

“Ah, that so?”

“Yeah~, thank you so much~… And something like a desk oven huh~, that’s something else new~”

… Well, above all, looks like she’s happy.

Let’s give Kinue-san one of the leftover stoves and put the rest in the dungeon’s treasure chests.

They’ll be the jackpot.

Footnotes:

As you can see from this line, what Keima made is supposedly a slim stove (Keima Version). However, if you know about Japanese slim stoves, you’ll also realize that the prior lines don’t truly match up. Unfortunately, this is because I simply wasn’t able to understand Keima’s explanation. I tried to retool the lines in such a way that might still make sense in hopes that the average reader will be able to understand. Please, if any reader out there knows Japanese well enough to help me out here, it would be greatly appreciated. I tried contacting a few other translators, but had no luck in figuring out the lines. The raw for this chapter can be found here. Super apologies for having to resort to knowingly misrepresenting the author… =(