Chapter 46

Chapter 4 Eyelid (19)

***

Thud, thud!

That night, the professor sneaked into the industrial district in the northeast of Tovrun. The operation was set for 1 AM, just about an hour from now.

The industrial district wasn't a grand place with factories lined up. It was merely a row of shabby houses with small workshops that operated at a household level.

This was the hidden face of Tovrun, famous for its various artifacts.

'These small workshops manufacture peripheral devices for artifacts according to given blueprints, engrave circuits inside, and then the magic tower processes the mana stones to complete the orders.'

At first glance, it seemed like a well-balanced division of labor, but the share that went to the workshop people was ridiculously low.

'They only give enough to barely make ends meet, and even that is mostly taken as the cost of using the furnaces for processing.'

Even without this specific knowledge, the gloomy atmosphere of the streets clearly showed how hard the lives of those who took subcontracts from the magic tower were.

At the end of this row of workshops, the facility the professor aimed for was located.

Rumble, rumble—

The closer he got, the stronger the sensation that made his hair stand on end.

'I seem to have found the right place.'

An old wooden building almost attached to the northeastern wall of Tovrun. Inside this building lay the most important item for this operation.

The professor carefully approached the building, looking around.

'In the densely populated Tovrun, where the alleys are so narrow that people can hardly pass through, there's this empty lot.'

The strange purple light emanating from the wooden building made it stand out, with no other buildings around it. No one had told people not to live there; they naturally avoided it.

'Wherever you go, people tend to avoid facilities that are disliked.'

The building in front of the professor, the 'Void Mana Stone Storage,' was one such notorious facility.

***

Void Mana Stone.

Its official name is Void Mana Stone, a grand title, but ultimately, it's industrial waste.

In Tovrun, where a lot of cheap magical items are produced, void mana stones are also used extensively. Items like the teacup that maintains the temperature of the car Laxasha used, or the small boats that automatically cross the river, are all products of the magic tower and operate using low-grade mana stones.

The problem is with the used mana stones, those that have been drained of all their mana.

Mana has the property of gathering from areas of low concentration to areas of high concentration. But if you artificially empty a medium that can contain mana, like a mana stone, what happens?

A state of 'zero mana' that doesn't occur naturally is created, and the stone emits a purple light, strongly repelling surrounding mana. This strange stone is called a void mana stone.

'And in Tovrun, over 100 kg of void mana stones are produced every day.'

Mana is an energy that is closely related to life force. Naturally, living people also have a certain amount of it, which is why being near void mana stones makes one feel uncomfortable, easily tired, and can even cause illness with prolonged exposure. That's why there are no houses near void mana stone storage facilities. No matter how hard life is, no one wants to live in a place that could kill them.

There are a couple more void mana stone storage facilities besides this one, and that's why Laxasha frowned when she heard the term 'void mana stone.' All the void mana stone storage facilities are located in slums. It was natural for people living or doing business in Tovrun's slums to dislike void mana stones.

'Still, they should have built these facilities outside the city. The people at the magic tower are really going too far.'

Void mana stones are very difficult to dispose of. If buried, they deplete the qi of the surrounding soil, making it useless. If thrown into water, they pollute it.

The only advantage they have is that when gathered in large quantities, the mana repelled by the void mana stones can sometimes converge into a single stone, creating a new mana stone, albeit rarely.

This void mana stone storage facility is designed to recover such rare mana stones. The reason it was built inside the city is likely to prevent citizens from taking the recovered mana stones, so it was placed in a location where it could be monitored.

Creak—

As the professor opened the door, the old, unmanaged facility's door screamed, and the thin wooden walls released a purple light that had been trapped inside.

Rumble—

[Urgh, this feels bad.]

The professor felt the same way. It was like suffering from severe motion sickness, with a queasy feeling in his stomach.

"It can't be helped. With this much void mana stone, any residual mana in the body would have already been pushed far away."

That's why, despite being an important facility for producing mana stones, the void mana stone storage is located on the outskirts of the city.

Not only knights who accumulate mana through training, but also mages who shudder at anything bad for elemental mana, like health-conscious old people, avoid the area around void mana stones. If my magic skills were just a bit higher, I wouldn't have even considered this method. After all, there's no way to accumulate mana by attributes unless you have a special opportunity.

The feeling of newly acquired mana disappeared, leaving a hollow sensation as if he had lost an arm.

And that emptiness excited the professor.

If I feel this way after just a day of learning magic, how must the mages who have dedicated their lives to magic feel?

"Then, let's get ready."

The professor took out the rags he wore when entering the city from his inventory and put the clothes Laxasha had given him as a gift back into the inventory.

'There's no need to wear the top, right?'

What he was about to do was an illegal act on a national scale. It would be best to look as much like a mute as possible.

'Hey, parasite.'

[What? Did you call me?]

'Yeah. You said you could stimulate the infection factors in my body, right? Can you make them gather on the surface of my face?'

[Hide your face... Then there's no need for such a troublesome method. Shell, tear your face a bit.]

'...What?'

[Didn't you hear me? Just make a wide cut on the surface of your skin. I'll take care of the rest.]

The professor, though hesitant, decided to listen to the creature. Recently, he hadn't had nightmares, and the parasite had been quite cooperative.

He scratched his face with a piece of void mana stone, and a deep diagonal cut appeared with a sharp tearing sound.

'Ah, is that enough?'

[Yeah, that should be enough.]

As the creature finished speaking, a sweet fragrance spread. The blood that oozed from the wound covered his face and transformed into new skin tissue.

[There. Now anyone can see you're a mute.]

The professor touched his face with his hands. It was covered with lumpy flesh, a face that anyone could recognize as a mute's.

'Hmm. Not bad, actually? Thanks... But why are you so cooperative lately? It's creepy.'

[Creepy? Just... As a tenant, I'm trying to be cooperative with the landlord. After all, if you die, I die too.]

...I don't know. It's definitely a good sign, but I can't fully trust this creature yet.

"Anyway, the face is done. The clothes are done. The last thing is, of course, this."

The professor put on a leather bag as big as his face, which he had taken out of his pocket. Thanks to the holes he had pre-made for his eyes and mouth, he could breathe and see without any trouble.

"A heist isn't complete without a mask."

[Are you an idiot? If you're going to wear it, why did you change your face?]

'Shut up. This is tradition, tradition.'

A long-standing tradition passed down from the past. Anyone who terrorizes a large organization must wear this! The mask is for when it gets torn off during battle!

"Hehehe... Isaac, get ready to be amazed..."

The professor approached the pile of void mana stones, a sinister smile on his face.

***

Squeak— Bang!

While the professor was struggling with the void mana stones in the storage, a sharp sound cut through the night's silence.

'It's the signal!'

According to the plan, he should immediately fill a bag with void mana stones and head to the magic tower. But...

"Ugh! Why won't this thing come off!"

- Speed Wagon: I told you to read the guide carefully. Void mana stones stick together when gathered. They're also quite heavy, so when they're stuck together, you can't move them until you chip them apart. From what I know, void mana stones are heavier than iron of the same volume.

"That's something you should have told me earlier!"

Plans don't always go perfectly. You need to leave some room for adjustments as you proceed. But this part, 'carrying the void mana stones and running,' can't be changed. Without it, the entire plan falls apart!

The professor's hands were bloody from trying to pry the tightly stuck void mana stones apart.

"Ugh! Damn it! Fine! If I can't carry them all, I'll just take the biggest one!"

[The biggest one?]

"Yeah! This one!"

Crack!

The professor reached into the center of the pile of void mana stones, where a large, crystal-like stone had formed.

- Soy Sauce Guy: How is that the biggest one? You're saying you'll carry all