Chapter 41

I was in my private room, reading a book.

Sitting in my chair with my legs crossed, I chewed through the vast rows of text.

I struggled to hold onto my fraying concentration.

As I groaned and wrestled with the material, the door opened and Alice appeared.

Her face was smudged with soot as she tilted her head and asked a question.

“How is your progress? Is it going well?”

“Moderately. It’s easier than memorizing some bastard’s name.”

I held up the book as I replied.

It was quite thick, making it a struggle to hold with just one hand.

At a quick estimate, it had at least five hundred pages.

Rather than a book, it was more appropriate to call it a dictionary or an encyclopedia.

Sensing something from my state, Alice stared at me intently.

“…Should I help you?”

“No, I’m fine. More importantly, aren’t you in the middle of building that new golem? Prioritize that.”

“I understand. Call me whenever you’re in trouble.”

Alice said only that before leaving the room.

I wondered if she had some business with me, but it seemed she just came by to check on how I was doing.

While feeling grateful for her concern, I resumed my reading.

A week had passed since we started living at this base.

We were spending our days in comfort.

Because Alice had introduced magic and magic tools to the base, overall convenience had improved.

The fence surrounding the grounds was now reinforced with a security barrier, and multiple traps had been set to capture intruders.

She was as capable as ever.

Thanks to her, a peaceful life was guaranteed even in this city with its poor public order.

“Hmm…”

I flipped the page.

This was a grimoire.

As the name suggested, it contained descriptions of magic.

I had purchased it at a specialty shop in town, and according to the shopkeeper, the content covered the absolute basics of basics.

Alice had agreed, so there was no mistake.

Apparently, it was a suitable grimoire for someone starting from zero knowledge.

As for why I was reading such a thing, I had finally begun studying magic, something I had been considering for a while.

The goal was to broaden the scope of my bomb-making.

By increasing my knowledge, it would be easier to deal with traps or attacks that utilized magic.

The disadvantages of dismissing it as someone else’s specialty and leaving it alone were simply too great.

It was about time I learned.

Thanks to the [Translation B] skill I obtained during the summoning, I could read the script without issue.

However, the content was esoteric.

The fact that I lacked the common sense of this world was one of the factors.

That said, thanks to several days of effort, I had become somewhat well-versed in magic.

I had even picked up a few things related to the craft.

Compared to a professional mage, it was a drop in the bucket, but for me, it was significant progress.

And starting today, I was finally moving on to practical application.

Specifically, I was going to incorporate magic into my bomb-making.

First, regarding the manifestation of magic, a typical mage uses the mana within their body as fuel.

From there, using incantations as a medium, they determine what kind of phenomenon to trigger.

Since I possessed no mana, I couldn’t employ the same method.

Therefore, I bypassed the types that required handling one’s own mana and decided to utilize magic that didn’t depend on it.

The answer I arrived at was: Magic Tools.

A Magic Tool is an item that possesses magical functions.

They were items that required no mana from the user—perfect for someone like me.

The systems involved were diverse, so I’ll skip the finer details, but apparently, if you construct a formula and create a circuit, it becomes a Magic Tool.

The magic circuit acts as a substitute for an incantation.

It’s built by carving this circuit into the main body and allowing Mana Fluid to flow through it.

From a box placed in the corner of the room, I pulled out various scraps of junk, chemical solutions, and plants bundled with string, lining them up on my desk.

These were broken Magic Tools and raw materials for explosives, all of which I had purchased at the market.

True to its reputation, everything was for sale at the market.

On top of that, the prices were universally cheap.

With a bit of negotiation, I could bring them down to an even more affordable rate.

As I thought, this is a good city.

I intended to recycle these materials now into a new type of bomb.

The blueprint was already finished inside my head.

All that remained was to execute it successfully.

Taking my disassembly tools in hand, I began production.

“Alright, it’s done.”

About an hour later, I lifted the completed bomb.

It consisted of a device resembling a TV remote and an object about the size of a tissue box.

The former was the trigger switch, and the latter was the bomb itself.

In short, it was a remote-controlled bomb.

The performance wasn’t half bad.

The power had reached a level suitable for actual combat.

Based on my experience so far, it could likely blow away a vehicle.

Needless to say, it would do the same to a human body.

It probably wouldn’t be enough to harm a dragon, but that’s an inappropriate point of comparison.

The mechanism of this bomb was simple.

First, when the switch is pressed, a specific magical signal is transmitted.

The circuit in the main body receives it, activates, and ignites the explosive to detonate.

The switch and the bomb are linked as a set, making it easy for anyone to use.

As a drawback, it was a hassle having to carry around a corresponding switch for every single bomb.

With my current knowledge of magic, this was the limit.

I could probably make it more convenient with some ingenuity, but I’d leave it at this for now.

If I wanted to know how to improve it, I could just consult Alice.

She would surely give me the right advice.

Well, as a prototype, it was a job well done.

I even equipped it with a safety device to prepare for unforeseen accidents.

By flipping a lever, the circuit is cut off so the magic won’t trigger.

Unless this is disengaged, it can’t be induced to explode by a third party.

I was preventing situations where it might explode unexpectedly upon receiving a stray magical signal.

Thanks to the correction from [Bomb Manufacturing EX++], I can guarantee success in bomb-making.

Without this, I would have ended up in a cycle of trial and error.

In fact, there was a fear that it might not have been completed at all.

It truly is a convenient and wonderful skill.

What I had mastered over a few days of study were the formulas for signal transmission/reception and ignition.

This time, I assembled them into a circuit.

The reason I made these two types my top priority was because I thought they would be useful for bomb-making.

Just being able to perform remote detonations expands the range of my strategies many times over.

Power is important, but this was so vital that power became a secondary concern.

‘In the first place, this is practically mandatory for sabotage and assassinations…’

Thanks to the Remote Bomb, I can take even bolder actions from now on.

It will also be useful in life-or-death struggles with other summoned people.

Those guys have powerful skills.

I can’t have too many cards up my sleeve to counter them.

Now then, since I managed to reach completion, I’ve grasped the knack for it.

From now on, I’ll likely be able to produce them more smoothly.

I can also arrange them according to the intended use.

‘Now, where should I try using it…?’

I pondered while fiddling with the switch.

It’s a brand-new type of bomb.

I had to test its performance.

I also needed to check the effective range of the magical signal.

‘Come to think of it, I had just the right targets.’

A flash of inspiration hit me as I clicked the switch back and forth.

I had been keeping a few targets that were a pain to deal with.

Rather than leaving them be, it would be much more meaningful to put them to good use.

Clutching the Remote Bomb, I headed toward the underground space with a look of delight.