I started by looking around the lab.
It was bathed in bright light, which thankfully didn’t show through my silver shield.
My opening was in front of the cylinder containing the test subject. Beside me was a huge cabinet. There were two lined up, one for filing and one for specimens. They were just the right size to hide behind.
I stuck close to the cabinets and looked around the lab. I saw two lab tables, a desk with beakers beyond it, and a man in a white robe standing at the far end of the desk with his back to me.
The figure, who could have been a demon worshipper or a demon, lifted a beaker and shook it, revealing a blue pill lying next to it.
At this point, I think I can be sure.
This was a ‘medicine room’.
A place where medicine was made, perhaps to ‘demonise’ humans.
I had assumed that the medicine handed out by a church created by demons wouldn’t be good medicine, but I didn’t expect it to be associated with demons.
I assumed it was narcotics at best. As the Demon King entered the Wastelands, Arandal became the front line. It was believed that the Demon King wanted to drain the minds of the Arandal people in order to make their fall easier.
In reality, it was not a drug, but a drug that demonized people, and the demons were trying to turn Arandal into a den of demons.
I don’t think my poor imagination is to blame…. The demons were eviler than I had imagined.
When I decided to become a thief, it was like a huge gem appeared in front of me. Circumstances seemed to favor my theft.
The thought that the half-man half-horse in that cylinder might actually be a human gave me the will to do it well. This is a theft that God would approve of. This.
I carefully distributed my remaining magic. The control I was slowly regaining was tenuous, but I was getting better at it.
To make my spells more precise, I decided to add gestures. I overlaid the spell with my body. It didn’t do much to control the power, but it was a good way to solidify the formula itself.
Since I couldn’t move my entire body, I decided to use hand gestures to draw the composition of the formula. It’s a bit like drawing a stroke, so I had to be careful because if I got it wrong, it was all for naught.
I needed to have a little bit of magic left in the entire cylinder so I wouldn’t faint. By my calculations, if I used all the magic I had planned, I would have just enough left to trickle down to the bottom of the cylinder. If I rested, I’d be able to recharge, but at that point, I wouldn’t be able to cast any spells at all.
And I’m in a hurry.
I waved my hand in the air. On the rare occasions when I’ve used hand gestures to manifest magic, I’ve felt like a conductor at the helm. The world blossomed at my fingertips.
I had no idea that this illusion was why the spirits hated mages.
The more I added to the spell, the more clearly I could feel the flow of magic at my fingertips.
First, one.
While the researcher briefly touches the other beaker, he rapidly raises the temperature of the beaker containing the unknown sample. At some point, the bubbling liquid begins to congeal into a jelly-like consistency.
“Oh, my God!”
The researcher’s reaction was immediate: the rapidly heated beaker made a creaking sound.
“What’s going on? Ah!”
As I watched the researcher fumble, I swung my hand to perform my next trick.
Beep-! Beep-!
The locked lab door was forced open. As if the lock contained a formula, there was a slight backlash, and the doorknob broke.
It was a lot to get the researcher out of the lab, but I liked the fact that the broken doorknob meant the beeping wouldn’t stop anytime soon.
I bit my lip, wary of over-excitement.
As soon as the beep sounded, the researcher who had been picking at his hair came to a screeching halt. The researcher’s hands shook. The trembling spread to his hands, then his shoulders, then his entire body. The trembling ended when his skin turned purple.
It was a demon.
If only I could find out what it specialized in……. The mere fact that it was a ‘researcher demon’ gave me a heartbreaking sense of identification.
The next spell was a refraction spell, an upgraded version of the reflection spell that had failed in the baths. It was a spell I hadn’t attempted in the baths because I hadn’t had enough control. If I’d had more control then, I could have stayed hidden until the warrior arrived.
I held my breath as the spell unfolded and I realized that the hand that had been waving in the air was nowhere to be seen.
Angrily spewing magic in all directions, the demon smashed several beakers before it moved, heading for the door, intent on turning off the loud beeping in the lab.
“…Why is this suddenly broken?”
I could feel his anger in his sullen mutterings. His gaze darted around the lab and outside the door again and again.
Finally, unable to find the source in the lab, the demon raised his voice towards the corridor.
“Serpine, where the hell did it go, Serpine!”
I grabbed hold of the broken door and stretched my neck out into the corridor, where I could see the outside of the door.
Apparently, the church’s basement was more spacious than it seemed. I could see a long corridor and a couple more doors on the other side. Judging by the size of the corridor and the echoing voices, there seemed to be more rooms that I couldn’t see from this side.
The whole church would soon know that I had descended into the basement, as I had beeped my way here. Perhaps the fire that had wreaked havoc upstairs had long since been extinguished, and a demon named Serpine may already be walking around to catch me.
I moved my hands even faster than before, this time with different spells on each hand.
With each flick of my left hand, the light flickered, and then, with a snap, the lab was plunged into darkness. There would be no glow from the magic until I opened my fisted left hand again.
I brought my right hand, which had been waving in the air, to the corner of my mouth. I pretended to eat something. All the small noises in the lab were silenced. Even the sound of air bubbles rising inside the cylinder was inaudible. It would only return the moment I opened my mouth.
The demon was standing in the corridor, calling ‘Serpine’ and hadn’t noticed the lab.
I quickly crawled to the front of the cabinet. Using only the senses in my right hand, I opened it and realized that it was tightly packed with papers and small vials.
I didn’t bother to calmly sort through the contents.
I used my powers to open the subspace and tossed everything I could find into it.
One of these would be the lotto!
It was not too late to go back to the manor and examine them one by one.
Next to the cabinets were the lab tables where the demons were experimenting. Pills, samples, and reagents were randomly swept into the subspace.
Then, something pushed me and sent me flying sideways. I felt my shield break, and I immediately opened my fist.
It took me a moment to frown at the brightened space, but then I saw the lab.
The demon that had been out in the corridor was now standing inside the lab.
Its purple skin was reddened to the point where it looked almost black. It had a fierce, gaping mouth. Even though I couldn’t hear it, I knew it was swearing.
I smirked at the awkwardness of the situation, and it sent a wave of excitement through the lab.
My hand was still tucking the papers next to me into the subspace.
Too bad. If only there was more room in the subspace, I could put that cylinder in there. …. Is there any way?
If I go to the tower, I’ll have to ask them to increase the size of the subspace. I could sneakily increase it, but then I’d be encroaching on another mage’s subspace coordinates. It’s a pain in the arse to do the paperwork, but it’s better to let the tower know you want to increase your subspace.
I dodged the demons’ attacks and pushed them into whatever troglodyte subspace I could get my hands on. I couldn’t use any other magic. I had only a tiny amount of magic left, and I had no choice but to use the one remaining spell I had planned.
The demon didn’t lunge at me, so it wasn’t a physical wave, which was a relief. The sound in here wouldn’t leak out unless I opened my mouth, so no one would come until the Serpine, as this bastard kept calling it, arrived.
The unidentifiable black masses flying at me were blocked by the junk in my subspace. Judging by the disintegration of the objects against the black mass, the demon had only mastered the art of experimentation.
The lab was littered with mismatched futons, wardrobes, statues, and the remains of a chiming clock, and I filled the empty subspace with materials I couldn’t fit in.
Isn’t it nice to create space in your subspace?
Most of the things that occupied my subspace were things I grabbed as I fled from the tower, so it was only a matter of time before I realized that some of them were not mine.
The demon took a sharp intake of breath and smashed the cylinder behind him. The liquid that filled the cylinder soaked the floor. When some of the liquid had drained out of the cylinder, the half-man half-demon with its eyes closed stirred.
In a flash, his eyes were red. The half-man half-horse screamed in tears of blood. There was no reason in its face. Through the shattered glass, I could see the half-elf and the demon’s magi connected. It seemed to be in a pact with the test subject. It must be mind control.
Every time the half-man half-demon breathed, the human part pulsed with blood, and the demon part’s muscles bulged strangely.
It looked like a physical wave.
“Hey, that’s not right….”
I blurted out, and the sound came out uncontrollably.
What the hell are you doing dragging a research associate into a fight over furniture and alcohol?
“Uwooooo!”
The half-demon howled at the top of its lungs.
Hearing the commotion, rushing footsteps echoed down the corridor.
I’m doomed. This dreary church is no help.
I started by looking around the lab.
It was bathed in bright light, which thankfully didn’t show through my silver shield.
My opening was in front of the cylinder containing the test subject. Beside me was a huge cabinet. There were two lined up, one for filing and one for specimens. They were just the right size to hide behind.
I stuck close to the cabinets and looked around the lab. I saw two lab tables, a desk with beakers beyond it, and a man in a white robe standing at the far end of the desk with his back to me.
The figure, who could have been a demon worshipper or a demon, lifted a beaker and shook it, revealing a blue pill lying next to it.
At this point, I think I can be sure.
This was a ‘medicine room’.
A place where medicine was made, perhaps to ‘demonise’ humans.
I had assumed that the medicine handed out by a church created by demons wouldn’t be good medicine, but I didn’t expect it to be associated with demons.
I assumed it was narcotics at best. As the Demon King entered the Wastelands, Arandal became the front line. It was believed that the Demon King wanted to drain the minds of the Arandal people in order to make their fall easier.
In reality, it was not a drug, but a drug that demonized people, and the demons were trying to turn Arandal into a den of demons.
I don’t think my poor imagination is to blame…. The demons were eviler than I had imagined.
When I decided to become a thief, it was like a huge gem appeared in front of me. Circumstances seemed to favor my theft.
The thought that the half-man half-horse in that cylinder might actually be a human gave me the will to do it well. This is a theft that God would approve of. This.
I carefully distributed my remaining magic. The control I was slowly regaining was tenuous, but I was getting better at it.
To make my spells more precise, I decided to add gestures. I overlaid the spell with my body. It didn’t do much to control the power, but it was a good way to solidify the formula itself.
Since I couldn’t move my entire body, I decided to use hand gestures to draw the composition of the formula. It’s a bit like drawing a stroke, so I had to be careful because if I got it wrong, it was all for naught.
I needed to have a little bit of magic left in the entire cylinder so I wouldn’t faint. By my calculations, if I used all the magic I had planned, I would have just enough left to trickle down to the bottom of the cylinder. If I rested, I’d be able to recharge, but at that point, I wouldn’t be able to cast any spells at all.
And I’m in a hurry.
I waved my hand in the air. On the rare occasions when I’ve used hand gestures to manifest magic, I’ve felt like a conductor at the helm. The world blossomed at my fingertips.
I had no idea that this illusion was why the spirits hated mages.
The more I added to the spell, the more clearly I could feel the flow of magic at my fingertips.
First, one.
While the researcher briefly touches the other beaker, he rapidly raises the temperature of the beaker containing the unknown sample. At some point, the bubbling liquid begins to congeal into a jelly-like consistency.
“Oh, my God!”
The researcher’s reaction was immediate: the rapidly heated beaker made a creaking sound.
“What’s going on? Ah!”
As I watched the researcher fumble, I swung my hand to perform my next trick.
Beep-! Beep-!
The locked lab door was forced open. As if the lock contained a formula, there was a slight backlash, and the doorknob broke.
It was a lot to get the researcher out of the lab, but I liked the fact that the broken doorknob meant the beeping wouldn’t stop anytime soon.
I bit my lip, wary of over-excitement.
As soon as the beep sounded, the researcher who had been picking at his hair came to a screeching halt. The researcher’s hands shook. The trembling spread to his hands, then his shoulders, then his entire body. The trembling ended when his skin turned purple.
It was a demon.
If only I could find out what it specialized in……. The mere fact that it was a ‘researcher demon’ gave me a heartbreaking sense of identification.
The next spell was a refraction spell, an upgraded version of the reflection spell that had failed in the baths. It was a spell I hadn’t attempted in the baths because I hadn’t had enough control. If I’d had more control then, I could have stayed hidden until the warrior arrived.
I held my breath as the spell unfolded and I realized that the hand that had been waving in the air was nowhere to be seen.
Angrily spewing magic in all directions, the demon smashed several beakers before it moved, heading for the door, intent on turning off the loud beeping in the lab.
“…Why is this suddenly broken?”
I could feel his anger in his sullen mutterings. His gaze darted around the lab and outside the door again and again.
Finally, unable to find the source in the lab, the demon raised his voice towards the corridor.
“Serpine, where the hell did it go, Serpine!”
I grabbed hold of the broken door and stretched my neck out into the corridor, where I could see the outside of the door.
Apparently, the church’s basement was more spacious than it seemed. I could see a long corridor and a couple more doors on the other side. Judging by the size of the corridor and the echoing voices, there seemed to be more rooms that I couldn’t see from this side.
The whole church would soon know that I had descended into the basement, as I had beeped my way here. Perhaps the fire that had wreaked havoc upstairs had long since been extinguished, and a demon named Serpine may already be walking around to catch me.
I moved my hands even faster than before, this time with different spells on each hand.
With each flick of my left hand, the light flickered, and then, with a snap, the lab was plunged into darkness. There would be no glow from the magic until I opened my fisted left hand again.
I brought my right hand, which had been waving in the air, to the corner of my mouth. I pretended to eat something. All the small noises in the lab were silenced. Even the sound of air bubbles rising inside the cylinder was inaudible. It would only return the moment I opened my mouth.
The demon was standing in the corridor, calling ‘Serpine’ and hadn’t noticed the lab.
I quickly crawled to the front of the cabinet. Using only the senses in my right hand, I opened it and realized that it was tightly packed with papers and small vials.
I didn’t bother to calmly sort through the contents.
I used my powers to open the subspace and tossed everything I could find into it.
One of these would be the lotto!
It was not too late to go back to the manor and examine them one by one.
Next to the cabinets were the lab tables where the demons were experimenting. Pills, samples, and reagents were randomly swept into the subspace.
Then, something pushed me and sent me flying sideways. I felt my shield break, and I immediately opened my fist.
It took me a moment to frown at the brightened space, but then I saw the lab.
The demon that had been out in the corridor was now standing inside the lab.
Its purple skin was reddened to the point where it looked almost black. It had a fierce, gaping mouth. Even though I couldn’t hear it, I knew it was swearing.
I smirked at the awkwardness of the situation, and it sent a wave of excitement through the lab.
My hand was still tucking the papers next to me into the subspace.
Too bad. If only there was more room in the subspace, I could put that cylinder in there. …. Is there any way?
If I go to the tower, I’ll have to ask them to increase the size of the subspace. I could sneakily increase it, but then I’d be encroaching on another mage’s subspace coordinates. It’s a pain in the arse to do the paperwork, but it’s better to let the tower know you want to increase your subspace.
I dodged the demons’ attacks and pushed them into whatever troglodyte subspace I could get my hands on. I couldn’t use any other magic. I had only a tiny amount of magic left, and I had no choice but to use the one remaining spell I had planned.
The demon didn’t lunge at me, so it wasn’t a physical wave, which was a relief. The sound in here wouldn’t leak out unless I opened my mouth, so no one would come until the Serpine, as this bastard kept calling it, arrived.
The unidentifiable black masses flying at me were blocked by the junk in my subspace. Judging by the disintegration of the objects against the black mass, the demon had only mastered the art of experimentation.
The lab was littered with mismatched futons, wardrobes, statues, and the remains of a chiming clock, and I filled the empty subspace with materials I couldn’t fit in.
Isn’t it nice to create space in your subspace?
Most of the things that occupied my subspace were things I grabbed as I fled from the tower, so it was only a matter of time before I realized that some of them were not mine.
The demon took a sharp intake of breath and smashed the cylinder behind him. The liquid that filled the cylinder soaked the floor. When some of the liquid had drained out of the cylinder, the half-man half-demon with its eyes closed stirred.
In a flash, his eyes were red. The half-man half-horse screamed in tears of blood. There was no reason in its face. Through the shattered glass, I could see the half-elf and the demon’s magi connected. It seemed to be in a pact with the test subject. It must be mind control.
Every time the half-man half-demon breathed, the human part pulsed with blood, and the demon part’s muscles bulged strangely.
It looked like a physical wave.
“Hey, that’s not right….”
I blurted out, and the sound came out uncontrollably.
What the hell are you doing dragging a research associate into a fight over furniture and alcohol?
“Uwooooo!”
The half-demon howled at the top of its lungs.
Hearing the commotion, rushing footsteps echoed down the corridor.
I’m doomed. This dreary church is no help.
