"With that settled, it was time to check the spoils."
That night, after finishing dinner, I hurried back to my room and emptied my bag.
I tumbled the Light Stones, Stone Slime fragments, shards of the treasure chest, and the enchanted dagger I had brought back from the dungeon onto the bed.
"Master Lloyd, what on earth is all this?"
"Items I brought back from the dungeon."
"I suspected you were up to something when you were running late, but to think you actually went and conquered a whole dungeon..." Grimo let out an exasperated sigh.
Yeah, my bad.
First, I picked up a Light Stone. Just as Tao had said, it seemed to have lost its glow the moment it was taken out of the dungeon.
I decided to try shaving it down a bit.
Using the Water System Magic technique 'Water Blade', I began to grind away at the stone. When dealing with hard objects, Water Blade—which possesses mass—is much easier to use than the weightless 'Wind Blade'.
I shaved a layer off, but I didn't see anything noteworthy inside. It was just a perfectly ordinary stone that you could find anywhere.
"Thinking about it alongside my hypothesis, a dungeon’s nucleus grows by incorporating various materials. It likely created the dungeon by absorbing rocks and soil like this."
If that was the case, it meant things harvested from a dungeon would revert to their original state once removed from that environment. I checked the shard of the treasure chest next... but it was no good. I couldn't feel even a trace of mana from it.
The nucleus was likely a type of magical lifeform; it probably died the moment it was severed from the core. For that matter, the Stone Slime fragments had also turned back into mere clumps of dirt. Once they were separated from the dungeon, they returned to the soil they once were.
However, the Lich had seemed perfectly fine even after leaving its dungeon. Perhaps things were different for high-level monsters.
...No, what if I considered the dungeon itself as a single, giant monster? I had heard that powerful monsters possessed a nucleus that allowed them to act independently. Well, it was still just a hypothesis.
"In any case, I feel like I've gained a vague understanding of what a dungeon actually is. It’s still just a theory, though, so I’d like a few more samples. I’ll have to dive into another one eventually."
"Master Lloyd, you’re a mage, right? Are you really going to start researching dungeons too?"
"You never know what might be useful for magic."
"Hah, I suppose that's just how you are."
Magic is a discipline built upon a myriad of elements. Because of that, it has connections to all of creation. After all, if fire and water didn't exist in nature, we wouldn't have been able to replicate them through magic. Knowledge is power; the more I have, the better. This information might prove useful one day.
"That's enough about the dungeon for now. Next is Enchantment Magic."
I had found a fair number of magic books regarding Enchantment System Magic, but testing the theories required a special catalyst. That was the magic marrow fluid applied to this dagger. It possessed incredible mana retention and high permeability, making it a common catalyst for enchantments.
It was quite valuable and apparently only circulated among promising blacksmiths, so I hadn't had many chances to get my hands on it before. Since I’d had plenty of other things to work on, I’d put it off and never actually tried it myself.
"First, I’ll strip off the magic marrow fluid..."
If I remembered correctly, the process involved soaking the coated area in boiling water and scrubbing it off. I used magic to boil some water, soaked the dagger’s blade, and scrubbed it with a brush. An oil-like substance immediately began to emerge.
This was the magic marrow fluid. It peeled away with heat, but since it wasn't water-soluble, it floated to the surface. I carefully scooped it up and transferred it into a small vial.
"Hmm, there are impurities floating in it. They probably reused this over and over again."
When magic marrow fluid is no longer needed, it can be stripped off and used for a new enchantment. However, each time this is done, grime accumulates and the purity drops. Naturally, this weakens the effect of any Enchantment Magic applied with it.
"In that case, I just need to clean it."
I held my hand over the vial and enveloped it in mana. Tiny bits of debris began to rise out of the liquid.
"...Master Lloyd, what are you doing now?"
"Removing the impurities."
I used the Water System Magic 'Purity Increase'. It was a spell that acted on liquids to, quite literally, exclude impurities. It had a wide range of uses, from turning river water into drinking water to removing debris from fuel. However, if the purity was raised too far, the mixture would be completely decomposed. I once raised the purity of some tea so much that I turned it back into plain water.
"Performing such a delicate task with magic...? Hah, I thought so before, but Master Lloyd's magic really is something else."
"I didn't develop the spell. Magic is constantly progressing; many more things are possible now than when you were around, Grimo. ...Alright, let's scoop out the debris. There, it's clean."
The magic marrow fluid was now significantly more transparent than it had been moments ago. Come to think of it, I wondered what kind of spell formula was embedded in this fluid. I concentrated my consciousness on the liquid to take a look.
"...Hmm, it looks like a Strength Increase formula."
It was the most popular formula used for enchanting objects. If you reinforced an expensive sword with this, it wouldn't break easily. However, this specific formula looked like it had been reused for a very long time. It was incredibly archaic and inefficient.
I decided to just scrap it. Doing so cleared up quite a bit of capacity. At this rate, I could weave in a triple-layered Strength Increase. I might as well add an Elasticity Increase while I was at it. That would give the metal more tenacity and make it much more durable.
...Alright, that should do it. Now, I just had to apply it to the dagger again.
"Done!"
The blade of the dagger in my hand was now sparkling. When I tried pressing it against the shard of the treasure chest, it sliced through the wood like it was paper.
"Oh, that's magnificent!"
"Yeah, this is good."
So this was Enchantment Magic. It was quite interesting. I wanted to experiment more, but I had run out of magic marrow fluid.
"...If I don't have any, I guess I'll just have to make some."
"You can actually do that!?"
"If I decompose it down to the raw material stage, I can determine the ingredients and their ratios. If I combine those, I should be able to replicate it."
I put the leftover magic marrow fluid into a small vial and activated Purity Increase again. However, this time I wove a reinforcement formula into the spell. By doing this, it was possible to break the substance down into its base components.
After a short while, the color of the magic marrow fluid began to turn yellow. Furthermore, various crystals gathered within the liquid and settled at the bottom. Decomposition complete.
"Heh, so these are the raw materials for magic marrow fluid."
"That's right. The liquid part is... just oil."
Oil had a good affinity with both magic and metal, so I had expected that to some extent.
"The crystals inside are... mainly silver. I can substitute coins for that. These red grains over here are red magic powder."
Red magic powder was a substance made by grinding the nucleus found in the heart of a powerful monster. It conducted mana exceptionally well and mixed easily with liquids, so it was used in various magical materials.
Comparing this red magic powder to the dungeon’s nucleus, the two looked very similar. As I suspected, a dungeon really was a type of monster. In other words, I could probably use the dungeon nucleus I obtained if I ground it up. That solved the problem of the materials.
"Which means... it looks like I can make magic marrow fluid with the things I have right here."
"Whoa, you're amazing, Master Lloyd!"
Once I understood the composition, there was no reason I couldn't do it. Tomorrow, I would gather the materials and try my hand at compounding them.