Having officially been crowned as emperor, Vandalieu decided to return to Talosheim for now. The Trial of Zakkart still hadn’t appeared yet, and there were various things that needed to be done.

One of them was the revelation of Privel, Zadiris and the others whose Ranks had increased while Vandalieu and his companions were away.

Vandalieu himself wasn’t aware of it, but he had apparently appeared in their dreams and guided them. He found it interesting that during those dreams, he had various strange appearances to each person such as being enormous, having split into enough clones to completely cover the earth and being small enough to fit in the palm of a hand.

“It could be that the shape of my soul or mind is different from regular people,” Vandalieu muttered as he poured death-attribute mana into a Mythril bar.

“Because it’s a soul created from the soul fragments of the champions? Since you appeared different for everyone, I don’t think that’s the case,” said Eleanora.

As she said, since his form hadn’t been a fixed one, perhaps it wasn’t anything to be concerned about.

“I haven’t really been concerned about it up until now, but… now that I think about it, I can guess how it is,” Vandalieu said.

When he recalled how he had behaved and moved about in Vida’s Divine Realm, he got the feeling that his movements had clearly not been those of a human.

Having become curious, he remembered when he had been summoned to Mububujenge’s Divine Realm with Budarion, G.o.dwin and the others.

Back then, he had the feeling that Budarion and G.o.dwin’s appearances hadn’t been different from normal even when they were in soul-only states.

But he had been looking down on them from above… in other words, he had been clearly more enormous than his physical form. He hadn’t paid any attention to it at the time, but he wondered about it now that he knew of his own history.

“Your spirit form is normal, but your soul’s form is different, huh. That’s weird,” said Borkus.

“It is true that the boy changes form frequently, but he appears ordinary when he does not do so,” said Zadiris.

Vandalieu used Out-of-body Experience to create a spirit clone and explain. “Maybe it’s easier to understand if I compare myself to a Slime? My soul is the core, and the spirit form is the jelly-like part surrounding it. My soul is constantly covered by my spirit form, so there’s no way that it would show itself on the surface.”

“The only thing about me that’s different from others is my soul; the spirit form isn’t any different from anyone else’s. That’s why n.o.body noticed just by looking at my spirit-form clones,” said Vandalieu’s spirit clone.

The Deep Blood Slime Kühl helped explain as well, and Borkus and Zadiris seemed satisfied by this explanation.

“Thanks for your help, Kühl,” said Vandalieu.

On Earth and in Origin, he would have compared the soul to the nucleus of a cell, but in Lambda, it was easier to compare it to a Slime.

“Even if your form is different, you’re you, Vandalieu. It’s nothing to worry about,” said Darcia, moving her hand as if patting her son’s head.

“Thanks, Mom. But more than me being worried about it myself, I was more concerned that everyone might be scared when they see my soul,” said Vandalieu.

“Ah, I suppose that’s true,” Darcia said, and then she turned to speak to the people gathered around. “Everyone, be careful!”

“I don’t think we’ll normally get to see the form of his soul, though. Fidirg and Zozogante reveal themselves here when we go to see them, anyway,” said Eleanora.

“Yeah, it’s not like we’ll be summoned into Divine Realms along with the kid that often,” said Borkus.

“And even if we were, it would not be a problem if we kept our eyes down,” said Zadiris.

“… I do feel like I kind of want to see it, however,” said Luciliano.

“By the way, have you managed to transform Mythril with death attribute Mana?” asked Isla, looking at Vandalieu’s hands with her dead eyes sparkling with desire.

“I’ve been trying for a while, but it seems impossible. Adamant.i.te and Obsidian didn’t work either, so maybe I can’t transform magical metals,” said Vandalieu.

He was currently in his workshop, testing whether he could transform Manimbued metals such as Mythril and Adamant.i.te.

Vandalieu had previously created Death Iron, Dark Copper, Spirit Silver and Life Gold, but he hadn’t tested metals like Mythril and Adamant.i.te before.

One of the reasons for this was that he had been busy creating the Death Iron and Dark Copper used in the Luna currency circulating in Talosheim, but the largest reason was that metals like Mythril and Adamant.i.te didn’t appear so frequently in Dungeons.

In most cases, these metals appeared inside treasure chests or as equipment equipped by monsters. Thus, it was rare to find them in reasonable quant.i.ties.

It was possible for Vandalieu to create them by spending his Mana using the Golem Creation Skill, but that took a considerable amount of time. And since Death Iron and Dark Copper were exceptional as materials, there hadn’t been much need to transform magical metals.

That was why this experiment had been left until later.

But now that he had finally started the experiment, the results were not favorable.

“It doesn’t look like they’ll disappear or start moving around like Spirit Silver or Life Gold if we leave them alone, and there’s no change to their appearance, strength or properties,” said Vandalieu.

“I see. Magical metals are originally metals that have transformed by being imbued with Mana, so this means that it is impossible for your death-attribute Mana to further transform something that has already been transformed,” said Luciliano.

As Vandalieu’s apprentice but also as his research a.s.sistant, Luciliano wrote a summary for the doc.u.ments detailing the results of the experiment.

“By the way, are you not going to test Orichalc.u.m?” Luciliano asked.

“There’s no need, is there?” said Vandalieu.

Orichalc.u.m, the metal said to be impossible to create or manipulate by anyone other than the G.o.ds. Though Vandalieu was only able to make rough changes to the shape of lumps of Orichalc.u.m, he had used the Golem Creation Skill to turn it into things like maces, shields and clubs.

The Orichalc.u.m was immersed in a large amount of death-attribute Mana in this process; if it could transform, it would have already done so.

“Platinum didn’t transform when I tested it before, so maybe this is the limit,” said Vandalieu.

“That was an experiment conducted before you acquired the divine protection of Earth’s dark G.o.ds, so how about trying again?” Luciliano suggested. “There are many cases where the acquisition of divine protections causes various changes. Perhaps you could create a metal that only exists in the afterworld of Earth’s legends.”

“That’s right. You’ve become able to grow pomegranates easily with your Group Binding Technique thanks to the effect of your divine protection, so there might be other effects as well,” said Darcia.

Vandalieu could cultivate plants inside his body with the effects of Plant Binding Technique that was a part of Group Binding Technique, but the cultivation of pomegranates had become simpler than before after he received the divine protection of Earth’s dark G.o.ds.

“Hmm… You’re right, let’s try that on another day,” said Vandalieu.

“Boy, other metals and materials exist in the worlds of Earth and Origin, do they not? Could you not create them with Golem Creation now?” said Zadiris.

“There are, but I don’t know how to make them,” said Vandalieu.

On Earth and in Origin, there were metals such as tungsten whose existence remained unknown in Lambda… it wasn’t clear if they even existed at all. However, Vandalieu was not very knowledgeable about such metals and materials.

As a high school student on Earth, he hadn’t possessed a particular interest in metals and minerals, so he didn’t remember the properties and the process behind creating metals like tungsten and t.i.tanium alloys… if he was still a student, he would have been able to at least remember their chemical symbols, but as thirty years had pa.s.sed now, he didn’t remember them at all.

He had heard information about metals from the spirits of the researchers in Origin, but they had only spoken of their own research that they had conducted regarding those metals; they hadn’t explained the metals themselves in great detail.

Even the Golem Creation Skill couldn’t create minerals that Vandalieu knew nothing but the names of.

“Even when I asked Legion, it seemed that they weren’t very knowledgeable about them, either,” said Vandalieu. “Well, they aren’t researchers or specialists… It seems that there are various things in the deepest part of the Trial of Zakkart, but I’m really torn as to whether it’s alright to test them.”

The legacy of the champion Zakkart lay inside the Dungeon that was named after him. According to the doc.u.ments left in Vida’s Resting Grounds, one of the items left behind was the military weapon of the foreign world Earth that Zakkart had been partway through making to defeat the Demon King Guduranis.

It was something that even Vandalieu was hesitant to put his hands on.

“Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? Death Iron and Dark Copper are first-rate materials, and you have the Demon King’s fragments as well, right, kid?” said Borkus.

“Mmm, yes. Now that this experiment has concluded… boy, there is something I wish to say to you,” said Zadiris, grasping Vandalieu’s shoulders.

“What is it? Is it to do with your Rank increase?” Vandalieu asked.

Zadiris’s Rank had increased after she received Vandalieu’s guidance in her dreams, just like Privel and the others. Vandalieu hadn’t heard the details yet, but as far as he could see, her appearance didn’t seem to have changed. He was confused as to what the problem could be.

But Zadiris felt that there was a very large problem.

“Zadiris, it’s selfish to be dissatisfied with your Rank increase after receiving his guidance,” said Eleanora.