"All right, let's begin the emergency party meeting! The agenda is the new enchanted magic tool. I want everyone to brainstorm what kind of magic we should enchant it with!"
"Yeah!" "Whoo!" "Ohh!"
The usual members had gathered in the Magic House. Halfa, Spira, and Shiroru were the ones shouting with enthusiasm. Lowell looked a bit bewildered, while Garna seemed somewhat exasperated.
The Petit Golems weren't present. They were currently outside acting as receptionists in case someone dropped by. Besides, they weren't the type to speak up spontaneously during a meeting anyway—unless the topic was food.
"So, here’s the situation. Lord Rozeph asked me to enchant Clean onto this."
It was the base he’d promised to provide for the purification magic tools. One of his aides had delivered it just this morning.
What I was holding was—well, a khakkhara, I suppose. It was a short staff similar to those used by monks, with metal rings at the tip that chimed with a pleasant jingle whenever I shook it.
"Wow, it’s incredible..."
"It’s so beautiful."
"It's all sparkly!"
As the impressions from the excited trio suggested, the khakkhara was stunning. I wasn't sure what it was made of, but it was a brilliant, polished gold. It probably carried a high price tag as a work of art alone.
The other bases that had arrived with it were equally magnificent pieces, none of them inferior to this golden khakkhara. I really felt the weight of Lord Rozeph’s resolve when he said that appearances mattered.
"But it’s so impressive that I feel bad just putting a basic Clean spell on it..."
I mean, even if it had a somewhat unique effect, Clean was still just a fundamental piece of lifestyle magic. I didn't feel like the spell suited the quality of the item.
Even when I voiced my concerns, the others didn't seem to share my sentiment. Halfa and Spira looked puzzled, as if they didn't see the problem, while Lowell simply gave a wry smile and shrugged. Shiroru... well, she didn't seem interested at all. That was the face she made when her mind was solely on food!
"Well, if the client says that’s what he wants, then that should be the end of it, shouldn't it?"
Garna, looking as fed up as I expected, chimed in.
She had a point, of course. But I still felt guilty. I mean, despite being this shiny and ornate, it was going to be treated as nothing more than a mass-produced cleaning tool. Everyone was bound to be disappointed.
"Now, now. If it’s weighing on Tort's mind, why don't we try to think of something?"
"I suppose we can. I’m sure someone will end up getting jerked around because of this, but it’s not like I’m the one who has to do the hard work."
It didn't seem like my feelings had truly reached Garna, but thanks to Halfa's mediation, she backed down. Her phrasing bothered me a little, though. Why was she acting like I was definitely going to cause trouble? If I made something good, everyone should be happy.
"Well, I understand the goal. However, none of us have any real knowledge about enchanted magic tools," Lowell noted, voicing his concern. He had a point.
"I’ll be the one to figure out if it's actually possible or not. I just want everyone to throw out ideas without worrying about the technical side. I think we’ll come up with something better together than I could alone."
"In that case, I guess it’s worth a shot."
"Oh, and any idea is fine, but please try to keep it focused on dealing with the Silver Abominations."
"Naturally. There’s no point in making something the client doesn’t want."
With everyone finally on board, the meeting officially resumed.
"How about a super powerful fire that burns those wriggly things to a crisp?"
"Wouldn't freezing them be good too?"
"What about candy? Let's make magic that turns them into candy!"
"Oh, that sounds fun!"
"Candy is a great idea!"
As usual, Halfa, Spira, and Shiroru were the most proactive. They were currently fixated on the idea of turning enemies into sweets. It was certainly a creative thought.
If I could change their very nature, I supposed I could defeat the Silver Abominations... but I couldn't quite visualize how to make that a reality. Besides, what were they going to do after turning them into candy? Were they actually planning to eat them? Knowing they used to be those writhing, silver things didn't exactly do wonders for my appetite...
"This is difficult. We don't even know why they’re being erased in the first place..."
"It’s probably better not to think too deeply on that. If Tort’s perception wavers, there’s a risk the effect won’t manifest. You should just keep thinking of it as 'purifying a foreign substance.'"
"Is that how it works?"
Lowell was being quiet. It seemed he was overthinking things. I wished he’d just say whatever came to mind, but even with Garna’s advice, his brow remained furrowed.
We talked for about thirty minutes. Plenty of ideas came up, but unfortunately, none of them seemed feasible. There were a few things that might have worked if I were casting them myself, but turning them into an enchantment for a magic tool was another story. The mana consumption during the enchanting process was the bottleneck. It was only because Clean was so basic that I could manage it at all; enchanting mid-scale magic or higher was out of the question. I could potentially pull it off if I were making disposable magic tools, though.
Just as the ideas from Halfa and the others were starting to dry up, Lowell proposed a change in direction.
"Maybe creating a completely new spell is asking too much. Why don't we think about how to enhance the current Clean spell instead?"
"Hmm. Like what?"
"Let's see... could you expand its range?"
Range enhancement, huh? If I could pull that off, it would certainly be a crowd-pleaser.
"I wonder if it's possible..."
The problem was that I couldn't quite picture it. Clean was the kind of spell where you selected a specific target to activate it. In gaming terms, it was a single-target spell. It didn't have an area of effect, so imagining how to "expand" it was difficult.
When I explained my reasoning, Halfa tilted her head with a confused look.
"What is it?"
"But... Tort, you can clean an entire room in an instant, can't you?"
"Oh, right. That’s because I’m targeting the 'room' itself."
It was true that if I limited it to the inside of a room, it could affect a decent area. However, that wouldn't be very useful if it was restricted to indoors. The Silver Abominations that had become such a problem lately were parasitizing wild animals and monsters. This magic tool was primarily going to be used outside.
"Then why don't you just make a room?"
"She's right. I can make walls out of ice," Spira added, backing up Shiroru’s suggestion.
I felt like if I partitioned an area off with walls, it could be treated as a room. I could make stone walls myself with Stone Wall. If the environment was prepared correctly, area purification wasn't impossible.
That said, that wouldn't really be a function of the magic tool itself. If the process involved building walls with Stone Wall and then casting Clean inside, the mana consumption would be too high for me to enchant. If I could just reduce the cost a bit more, it might be just within reach.
"Hmm. They aren't exactly walls, but... what about Wild Repel? The effect is weak, but the mana consumption is low to match."
Garna suggested the barrier used to ward off beasts. Even though it was called a barrier, it was weak—only enough to keep away wild animals or very weak monsters. It was barely effective against goblins, and anything stronger than that would just walk right through. For that reason, it was almost useless to adventurers.
However, in this specific case, the strength of the effect didn't matter. What mattered was the conceptual boundary separating the inside from the outside. If I could treat the space inside the barrier as a "room"... hmm, hmm, hmm.
Yes, it looked like it would work!
Thanks to everyone's help, it looked like I’d be able to create an area purification spell!