Golden Experience

The experiment ended up taking place in the Tore Forest after all.

Rare can directly fly to the location of her minions, but the other two need to consider their means of transportation.

“Tore Forest should be registered in the transfer list as a ☆5 location, so you can fly from the Mercenary Guild in this town. I haven’t checked where the safety area is, and I don’t know if anyone will come, but I’ll go to pick you up if possible.”

“If possible is just another way of saying you won’t come, right?”

“Teacher! How do you perform a transfer?”

“There’s a transfer-specific monument at the Mercenary Guild. You’ll understand when you go. Lyra just needs to hide her face normally. Blanc, too… if she just hides her face. Although her complexion is pale and her eyes are red, if that’s all, it shouldn’t be uncommon for a regular player. As long as she doesn’t open her mouth, it should be fine.”

“Did you say that talking ruins the beauty!?”

“I didn’t say ‘beauty’, and it’s because her fangs show when she opens her mouth. We’re not discussing the content for now.”

“Oh, good.”

By the time they gathered, the sun had tilted, making it a comfortable time to spend outside.

“…I’m not sure where to start, but I told you I wouldn’t explain.”

The chosen location for the experiment was beside the World Tree.

Even in this forest, there were only treants around the World Tree. While ordinary trees used to grow sporadically in the past, they disappeared over time, possibly due to the World Tree and treants absorbing nutrients.

As they moved towards the outer perimeter of the forest, the density of treants gradually decreased, and regular trees increased.

Although the old Lourdes town was mostly filled with treants, even around it, ordinary trees gradually multiplied, and now the forest is more extensive than the original town.

Therefore, around the World Tree, they could freely create a plaza under Rare’s guidance. It only required temporarily moving the treants aside.

The outer perimeter of the plaza was densely filled with moved treants, making it impossible for even a single ant to pass.

Lyra seemed to want to comment on whether they created the plaza or the World Tree, but it was unclear which one.

〈This plaza seems like it could be used for something else. Adjust the placement of the treants later, so it can be maintained comfortably without any problems.〉

〈Understood.〉

After giving these instructions to the World Tree, they surveyed the experiment location once again.

There was enough space in the plaza to plant another World Tree. If they summoned a large character here, it should be no problem.

“Now, where should we start? Let’s begin with the most likely candidates.”

The skeletons from the Hiers Kingdom capital would be suitable.

Currently, they were almost useless, so it wouldn’t matter even if they were all gathered. Even if it failed, the damage would be minimal.

The problem was that, to summon them, they had to temporarily call Sieg here, which would leave the capital without its boss.

However, Sieg wasn’t doing any regular work either. Although he might be supporting the undead in the capital with a skill that enhances them, the undead in the capital rarely played an active role within that range.

For safety, it would be best to temporarily leave it to Sugaru. She had the highest responsiveness in emergencies.

“From the Four Heavenly Kings, Sieg of Grief, has arrived, Your Majesty.”

“Good work. Why do you guys always act cool in front of others?”

“Huh? What are the Four Heavenly Kings? Is there such a thing?”

“What do you know! I’m one of the Four Heavenly Kings too!”

“Really!? Huh? What about me?”

“You’re the advisor!”

“Wait, it’s already decided!? And an advisor!? I feel like an external consultant!”

“Hehe~.”

Now that they mentioned it, they had talked about this before. The reaction was exactly as expected. It felt surprisingly pleasant, like unexpectedly outsmarting someone.

“Well then, Sieg. How about summoning some skeletons from the capital… Ah, it’s troublesome, so just call all of them. You’re not using them anyway, right?”

“If it’s skeletons, there are only skeleton knights and skeleton leaders in the capital.”

“Is that so. Well, that’s fine.”

It probably wouldn’t make much of a difference.

The summoned skeleton knights lined up in the plaza.

Looking at it this way, there seems to be quite a number of them. Perhaps several hundred.

However…

“…if you think about it calmly, it’s not a lot. There are more Carknights, but when it comes to defending the vast royal capital they’re like a drop in the ocean.”

Especially when dealing with players of high caliber, they might be easily slaughtered.

“Is that so? I think they could afford destroying a small town.”

“If it’s not a small town, there are people who can wipe out all of these alone.”

Both Blanc’s and Lyra’s words make sense. In a game world with significant differences in individual combat capabilities, it’s unavoidable.

“So, how exactly did you resurrect them all at once?”

“I made all the bats lick my blood, like, from my fingertips. I did it with all nine, and then simultaneously, they transformed into three Mormos.”

In a way, it could be considered a unique effect of vampire blood. Since the Philosopher’s Stone has a fixed reaction each time it’s used, it’s not possible to do it slowly for everyone. It might be possible if prepared for each person, but in that case, everyone would likely reincarnate separately.

“I’ve only put items in the [Philosopher’s Egg] before, like the Philosopher’s Stone… I wonder if living characters can be put in.”

Anyway, they should try.

The total MP amount is incomparable to before. Wasting a Philosopher’s Egg won’t make a difference.

“[Philosopher’s Egg]. Okay, everyone, the skeletons, enter this.”

“Enter? But it’s a glass egg. How does one ent… Oh, they entered! What is this thing, it’s amazing!”

“Be quiet for a moment, Blanc.”

Like the crystal egg before, the opened mouth swallowed the approaching skeleton knights and contained them inside. The opened mouth immediately closed smoothly, and there was no change before and after swallowing.

The skeletons floating inside seemed to have lost consciousness, limp and lifeless. It seemed to be in a state of functional shutdown. It would be interesting to see what would happen if it were a more normal, lively race with life force.

“I don’t really understand, but it seems to be working. Okay, next.”

The Philosopher’s Egg continued to swallow the skeletons one after another.

With each instance, the egg grew slightly larger, and additional MP was consumed. By the time it swallowed ten, it seemed to have exceeded five meters in diameter.

However, it didn’t open its mouth even when the skeletons approached it. It seems that ten is the limit.

“For now, let’s start with [Athanor].’”

A golden lamp appeared directly below the egg and began to heat the crystal egg.

However, even after waiting for a while, there was no change in the contents of the egg. The ten skeletons still floated inside as before. It just looked like they were burning a group of skeletons.

“…I feel like I’ve seen something like this before. Oh, it’s like doll memorial services.”

“…Blanc, shh.”

Is something missing for the reaction not to progress?

However, when they previously inputted the branch of the World Tree and heated it, it turned to ashes at this point. That means, that was apparently a legitimate method. If it’s not a special alchemy, it seems that the [Philosopher’s Egg] and [Athanor] alone can cause the item to change.

“Then this too.”

Taking out the Philosopher’s Stone from the inventory, Rare brought it close to the egg.

The egg, which didn’t swallow the skeletons no matter how close they got, had a hole opened when the Philosopher’s Stone was brought close, and it took it in.

It seems like the correct answer.

The contents of the egg, which had taken in the Philosopher’s Stone, all melted into rainbow colors and began to swirl.

“Oh, looks good. Alright then, [Magnum Opus]!”

In terms of Rare’s current total MP amount, it’s not a big deal, but still, a considerable amount of MP is lost compared to higher-level magic spells.

The egg emitted a strong golden light, and the inside was completely unobservable. Rare closed her eyes and checked with her [Demonic Eyes], but mana was swirling, and she couldn’t see anything. As a side note, she also tried using the [True Eyes] obtained for appraisal earlier, but apart from seeing that it had many LPs, it wasn’t clear what else it conveyed. However, because it appeared as a single mass, it seemed that the fusion was successful at least.

<<Your minion is requesting 300 experience points.>>

It seems that it wasn’t just a simple fusion.

Rare remembered this announcement. It occasionally comes when Sugaru is creating a queen. It’s a message that comes when the experience points possessed by the minion are not enough for the activation of the skill.

Although Sieg is not using any skills right now, and Sieg himself is not aware that he needs experience points, NPC minions’ reincarnation automatically progresses even without permission. As a result, only the invoice seems to have come to Rare’s place.

I transferred the experience points to the egg through Sieg.

Then, the field of vision through [True Eyes] suddenly connected, forming a huge figure that began to move.

“…Ah, it might be better to step back.”

The figure extended its arm, cracked the egg from the inside, and crawled out, landing on the ground.

As soon as the egg cracked, the light subsided, and its form became visible to the naked eye and the [Demonic Eyes].

The cracked egg scattered light like particles around, even reaching the place where Rare and the others were observing a moment ago.

The crystal shell that fell to the ground disappeared as if melting immediately, but the giant figure did not disappear.

It was indeed a figure that could be described as the skeleton of a giant.

Although its total length was probably less than 10 meters, it easily exceeded 5 meters. It seems that it was carrying its knees within the egg.

Wearing armor reminiscent of Japan’s Sengoku period, it stood dignifiedly.

“Um, a samurai skeleton, huh? Maybe because I used a skeleton knight instead of a regular skeleton, a higher-level magical creature was born?”

“What did Rare-chan think of creating? A gashadokuro? I’ve heard that they were born around the middle of the Showa era, so it’s possible that it didn’t exist as data from the beginning.”

“Is that so? But even so, it clearly has a form and name based on the assumption of a gashadokuro. Well, for now, let’s consider it a success.”

“…A-“

“Ah, Blanc. Thanks to your information, it seems that we can strengthen our forces. Thank yo—”

“Amazing! Huge! Dangerous! Can my children do this too!? Crimson and everyone!”

Blanc is excited. Since she was also very interested in Yoroizaka-san, she might like giant things.

Well, Rare couldn’t blame her for those feelings. What Rare was thinking about was whether gathering another ten of these skeleton knights could create something else.

“Blanc’s children, huh. I wonder. What I did just now was a skill of the [Alchemy] secret tree, but I just tried stuffing magical creatures instead of items into it. Whether it’s the same with magical creatures under my control or not, I won’t know until I try it. But if it’s just a regular item, it probably doesn’t have ownership settings, so it might not be impossible.”

“Alright, let’s do it! I’ll call them right away!”

“…You explained almost everything after all. I like that about you, sis~.”