Okami Wa Nemuranai

"Oh my, what's the matter this early in the morning."

"Let me in for a bit."

Shira looked slightly troubled, but Lecan made his way to the work room anyway without minding that. Then he sat on a chair and took a giant magic gem from <Storage>.

"Ah, that's"

"It's the magic gem of an otherworld dragon, Vurs. Since I plan to go to Golbul Dungeon for the time being, I was thinking of safekeeping it here."

"Is that so. Sorry that you had to go out of your way for me. Well, have some tea now."

Shira moved her finger up, and then a jar on top of a wall shelf came floating down. That spot is where jars with tea leaves are lined up, but it's the first time Lecan gets a taste of tea from that particular jar.

Water got boiled in an unbelievably short amount of time. But now they've got to wait for the temperature to come down just right before putting the tea leaves to soak in slowly. They have to wait for this part the natural way without using magic. In other words, there's time to spare now.

"Shira, can I use magic without chanting."

"Humm. Chant shortening eh. Let me see."

Shira pondered for a bit before speaking.

"You know how knocking flints together will produce fire, right?"

"Yeah."

"Why do you think knocking them together would create fire?"

Lecan slowly states his answer while constructing it in his brain.

"Sparks could be produced if you hit hard objects with each other. Flints are a stone that can easily produce sparks when they're knocked together. As such, it's possible to ignite fire by doing that."

"My, that surprised me. Wonderful answer. Your line of thinking is like that of a researcher. Now then, a question, what is hardness? What is knocking things together? What is fire?"

"Hardness is when an object is not soft, can't be easily cut. Knocking things together are when two objects or more are made to hit with each other. Fire is when something is burning. No wait, those were more paraphrases than answers."

"Let me rephrases my questions then. The flints are inside your body. Your hands can't be used to knock those flints together. Well then, how are you going to create fire?"

"I'll use <Move> spell."

"Oh good, good. That's a good answer. But you're not allowed to chant. Now then, how are you going to use <Move> spell?"

"...No idea."

"If you want to cast magic without chanting, you have to reproduce all actions that occur when you chant a spell inside your mind. To do that, you have to comprehend the foundations of those actions. How do flints produce fire, once you've traced back and understood the principle behind it, you'll be able to cast magic without chanting."

Jericho came into the room bringing something on a tray with him.

It's baked sweets. Shira put it on a plate and offered it to Lecan.

"Once you have gained mastery on magic, you will eventually get to learn all magic. And it's not about a problem with aptitudes or such anymore. Those who have truly mastered magic understand the foundations of all magic there is. This is different from power of magic and such, you see."

Shira poured tea on two bowls and offered one to Lecan.

"Once you got to that point, you could cast magic that returns the same results as <Appraisal> without chanting <Appraisal> spell itself. However, initially it'd take ten times as long to cast a spell without chants, and there's a chance it will fail at the casting process as well."

Shira stared at the giant magic gem on the table with gentle eyes.

"Those who could cast magic without chanting, and doing that as natural as breathing are not ordinary humans. The very existence of such a being is magic itself. A being who lives in the true nature of the world. If you ever meet someone like that, Lecan."

Shira nodded and drank her tea.

"Run, right away. Even if the other party only possess an extremely tiny amount of mana. That person is on a whole different level than you. They'll immediately see through you and your weakness, and kill you, or even make you go through fate worse than death."

Lecan relished on Shira's words while sipping his tea. This must be Shira's special tea leaves. It's really delicious with a soothing taste to it.

"I'll keep it in mind."

<TLN: If you're reading this novel at any other site than Sousetsuka.com you might be reading an unedited, uncorrected version of the novel.>

Lecan left Shira's house, went straight to the west gate and headed toward Golbul. Even though the two towns are close enough to be traveled on foot in two days, few people are on the way between Vouka and Golbul. There's only a handful of wagons as well.

Lecan arrived at noon time.

First of all, he went to grocery store and secured food for his supply in the dungeon. Of course, he mainly bought stuff with long expiration dates, but there's no need to stock stuff that last very long either. As it should only take him 10 days at most to explore the dungeon. The shopkeeper and other guests seemed to be bothered by Lecan, they had been stealing glances at him for a while.

He saw a store with <Potion Store> signboard next to the grocery thus he dropped by it.

"W-welcome."

There's only a few customers inside and an idle clerk at the counter, so he steps forward.

"How much is one Small Red Potion?"

"Eh? Since we have enough stock right now, it's the market price."

"What's the market price."

"It's one big silver coin of course. Yer' a veteran ain't ya? Why wouldn't you know that."

"I came from a faraway land. I don't know the market price in this region. Does it get more expensive when you're running low on stock?"

"That's right. We were running super short in the middle of last month. It even got to one big silver and five silver coins."

"What about Medium Red Potion?"

"Two big silver coins."

"And Large Red Potion?"

"Three big silver coins. However, top level adventurers usually buy up all Large Red Potions, so we often don't have any stock available."

"I see. How much for Blue Potions, all three types."

"It's the same as Red ones."

Which means, what Chaney paid for the potions Lecan gave, six gold coins, weren't exceptionally that high.

"I see that you accept trade-in inside. Are the selling prices fixed."

"It's half the market price, that's the rule."

"Got it. Sorry for taking your time."

Lecan overheard people rumormongering behind him as he walked out of the store.

"O-Oy, isn't that"

"Yeah, that's the <Black Clothed Overlord>."

"That scared the crap out of me. Real crazy pressure he got there."

"Ya gotta make sure to keep that left eye shut. Heard those who were glared at got turned into stones y'know."

--Left eye shut? Are they talking about me?

Right as Lecan got out of the store while feeling doubtful, someone called him out loud from outside <3D Perception> range.

"Ooyyyyyyyy! Lecaaaaaaaan!"

It was the captain of Dungeon Security Guards, Doug.