Alvin (3)

Alongside his efforts to prevent the epidemic, Alvin began working on introducing magic into everyday life.

He had a drying room built at the fortress based on the one he had seen at Elm Tree Manor. He also replaced some of the firewood used for heating with fire magic stones and switched from candles and oil lamps to light magic stones for illumination.

In this kingdom, offensive magic was regarded as supreme, and using magic for other purposes was generally frowned upon. Mages in particular tended to consider using magic for tasks normally performed by servants to be beneath them.

Furthermore, to prevent valuable mages from exhausting themselves, it was an unspoken rule not only in the Goran Knight Order but in other knight orders as well that they should conserve their magical power outside of combat.

Since he was attempting to change a long-standing custom, Alvin had expected considerable opposition.

However, when the changes were actually implemented, the magic knights and mages stationed at the fortress accepted the use of magic for everyday tasks far more readily than Alvin had anticipated.

Dennis had done an excellent job of coordinating matters, but the deciding factor was comfort. Rather than rationing firewood in the freezing fortress, everyone preferred to enjoy as much warmth as they wanted from magic stones.

High-purity magic stones used in combat were as expensive as precious gems, but low-purity stones were perfectly adequate for providing warmth.

In places like the fortress, where transportation costs were high, they were actually cheaper than firewood.

The knights were delighted with their warmer-than-usual living conditions, and Alvin intended to introduce the same system at other facilities.

Alvin visited Elm Tree Manor roughly once every two weeks, but since he had to squeeze these visits into his busy schedule, he couldn’t arrange to see Lydia on any particular day.

In fact, exactly two weeks after his previous visit, Alvin found himself not at Elm Tree Manor but inside a dungeon.

According to legend, dungeons were connected to other worlds, and evil monsters that attacked humans crawled out of them.

The proper way to deal with a dungeon was to destroy its Dungeon Core, the source of its existence, as soon as it was discovered, thereby causing the dungeon itself to disappear. However, Goran’s territory deliberately maintained several dungeons.

Monster hides, meat, bones, magic stones, and the ores and plants found inside dungeons were highly prized as valuable materials that could only be obtained there. Adventurers ventured into dungeons to hunt monsters and gather these resources. Merchants and craftsmen subsequently gathered around them, eventually forming towns.

Dungeons were also one of Goran’s major industries.

However, dungeons were a double-edged sword that could easily turn disastrous if mishandled, so they had to be managed carefully and appropriately.

Permission to maintain dungeons was an exceptional privilege granted only to territories with powerful knight orders capable of dealing with emergencies.

One of the Goran Knight Order’s duties was to enter the dungeons regularly, cull the monster populations, and check for any abnormalities inside.

The dungeon Alvin had entered this time was a medium-sized one that took five days to traverse.

Alvin and his companions had formed a unit of approximately eight people and were making their way toward the Dungeon Core on the lowest floor.

Some of Alvin’s closest aides strongly disliked him fighting on the front lines, but Alvin was a powerful magic knight with the darkness attribute.

The concentration of mana inside dungeons was extremely high, making people whose bodies naturally accumulated magical power—in other words, mages—particularly susceptible to a status ailment known as mana sickness.

Although experience and medication could alleviate it to some extent, the resulting weakening effect, or debuff, was unavoidable.

Inside dungeons, properly equipped knights without magical power could sometimes prove more useful. While the knights of the central regions regarded powerful offensive magic as the most important qualification, knights without magical power were also highly valued in the frontier.

For some reason, those with the darkness attribute were the sole exception. They didn’t suffer from mana sickness and actually grew stronger by absorbing the surrounding mana.

Alvin was an outstanding magic knight even on the surface, but inside a dungeon, he was powerful enough to fight the monsters inhabiting its deepest levels single-handedly on equal terms.

There wasn’t a single magic knight in the Goran Knight Order better suited to dungeon expeditions than Alvin.

Since sending Alvin was both faster and more reliable, his aides reluctantly permitted him to participate.

The objectives of this expedition were to cull the monster population and check the Dungeon Core for abnormalities.

However, Alvin had another objective of his own: mining magic crystals.

Magic crystals supported light magic and were particularly effective at amplifying healing spells.

They were rare minerals because they could only be mined near the lowest levels of dungeons.

Naturally, he intended to bring some back as a present for Lydia.

Although dungeon assignments were dangerous, those who undertook them were permitted to bring back any materials they wanted from inside the dungeon.

As someone with the darkness attribute, Alvin wasn’t particularly skilled at healing magic. Instead of conventional healing spells, those with the darkness attribute learned a spell called Energy Drain, which, as its name suggested, stole the life force of others.

If he wanted to, Alvin could drain someone’s life force until they died. Naturally, he couldn’t allow himself to do such a thing, so the first thing mages with the darkness attribute learned was how to control their draining magic.

Drain-type spells couldn’t be used on others for healing in their original form. Instead, darkness-attribute mages employed a magical technique called Reverse, which allowed them to restore others by transferring their own life force.

This was one of the more complicated types of magical formulas, and it was also difficult to control. As a result, darkness-attribute mages generally struggled to heal other people.

Lydia, on the other hand, possessed the light attribute.

Alvin had thought that with magic crystals, even Lydia, whose magical power was now severely diminished, would be able to cast healing spells without hesitation.

But Lydia had used the magic crystals in a way Alvin would never have imagined.

The more time he spent with Lydia, the more deeply he found himself drawn to her.

“Call me Alvin, Lydia.”

When they were finally alone beneath the walnut tree, Alvin pulled Lydia into his arms.