Chapter 194

Chapter 194 Strongest Sage, Mixes Fakes

"All right, let"s get right to it . "

"Yes!"

"Hear hear!"

The three of us begin to work together to put ore into the tank .

『 . . . Should we do this seriously?』

『I don"t think we should . They"d get suspicious of us . . . 』

Ruli replied to Alma while looking around .

The factory manager said that it was a heavy labor, but we"re used to this kind of work compared to our usual training .

The ore isn"t that heavy, and there"s no time constraint imposed on us .

Even Ruli, who"s got the lowest stamina amongst us, could fill the tank full in 30 seconds .

However, it takes a group of four adventurers a few minutes to do that at other tanks .

. . . . What an extremely dull job .

I speak to the three after finishing the batch .

"Let me be in charge of pushing the b.u.t.ton, you three stay back . "

"Got it!"

After confirming the three had gotten out of the barrier, I pushed the b.u.t.ton and got out myself .

Afterward, the machine began to start with a dull sound--and a mana overdrive occurred inside it .

The mana overdrive is being forcefully stopped by the safety device installed in the machine .

Normally, the machine should have stopped functioning the moment this situation happened, however, the machine"s remodel must have been done to prevent that .

The mana overdrive ceased while we were looking .

. . . I see . Every once in 40 instances, the machine isn"t able to stop the overdrive, causing an explosion huh .

『That was an amazing amount of mana . . . 』

『Yeah . No wonder it explodes . . . Well, you can tell when it"s gonna do so, as such there"s no worry of getting caught in one so long we"re careful . 』

The machine stopped in about five minutes, then it cough up a very tiny crystal below it .

It weighs about one gram .

"One piece done . "

I put the crystal into the casket .

But really, I can"t believe they went around telling people this small crystal was used as a 『building material』 .

At least try harder to make up something more believable .

We continued the routine while I was thinking that .

Put the ore, wait for the machine to do its magic for five minutes, and then put the crystal into the casket .

Such a routine .

By the way, even though our employers are demons, I still do the job properly . . . or pretending to as I secretly mix in some fakes .

I"ve changed the crystal structure of these Rankine Magic Crystals, adding a function to prevent mana bomb from getting ignited .

With this, even if the demons managed to get their hands on refined Rankine Magic Crystal, they won"t be able to complete the mana bomb .

It"s possible to see through it if they used an extremely advanced a.n.a.lysis equipment, but there"s no way a technological level that let machines explode to do refining is capable of that .

And at the 29th time . . .

"Okay, on to the next one!"

"Yes!"

I had the girls get out of the barrier before starting the magic tool as usual .

However . . . the machine reacted strangely this time .

First of all, the power-on sound was slightly higher pitched than usual .

Next, the mana overdrive happening inside was more intense .

. . . I see . So this is the rumored explosion huh .

I got out of the barrier while thinking that, then 2 seconds later .

The machine exploded with a shrill sound from the mana overdrive .

Hearing that sound, the factory manager came in to check the situation .

"That sounded like an explosion! Is anyone injured?"

"Nope! We"re all fine!"

I immediately replied to the manager .

. . . The manager looks to be seriously concerned about our well beings .

"Very well! Keep at it, but don"t let your guard down!"

The factory manager went back to his post with a relieved look after confirming our safety .

Even though he"s being mind controlled by demons, the base must be a kind person .

Since this type of mind control does not erase emotions .

Magic that"s able to erase emotions will make the target"s facial expressions look unnatural, thus the demons must have purposely left it .

Minimizing the unnaturalness while binding his actions .

Quite a calculated way of mind control .

However, this too will end in a few days .

I wouldn"t mind letting demons be were they kept it to themselves . . . but they went and tried to create mana bomb by manipulating humans .

. . . I guess it"s only perfectly natural since demons do not carry any other emotions besides malice .

As such, I"ll keep going with the total annihilation plan .