Chapter 42
Several days after seeing the Croton family off from the lakeside village of Santanka—
I was testing the magic tool I'd bought from the old woman at the tool shop. I'd paid a fortune for it, so it would be a problem if I couldn't use it.
My current goal was refining biodiesel fuel for heavy machinery.
Until now, I'd been using fuel made by mixing something into kerosene, but it was terribly expensive.
I wanted to reduce my fuel costs somehow. That was where biodiesel fuel came in.
It was made by chemically modifying cheap salad oil and the like so it could be used as diesel fuel.
But there was a problem. The chemicals used were highly toxic alkalis, making the process extremely dangerous.
That's why I'd found this magic tool.
It was an excellent device that extracted a specified component from whatever liquid was placed in the vessel on top.
Magic was such a cheat that even the science of my original world couldn't explain it. Just what you'd expect from another world.
The glycerin contained in oil was what got in the way when using salad oil as diesel fuel.
All I had to do was remove it with the magic tool.
I poured salad oil into the vessel on top of the magic tool—and put glycerin I'd bought from Shangri-La into the small vessel in the middle.
The glycerin produced when I'd made biodiesel fuel with chemicals had been reddish-brown sludge, but the stuff I'd bought was a colorless, transparent, smooth liquid.
However, the moment I put glycerin into the middle vessel, liquid began flowing from the channels on both sides.
"Whoa! It starts immediately?!"
Come to think of it, the old woman had placed vessels on both sides before starting her demonstration too.
I hurriedly placed plastic containers beneath the places where the liquid was falling.
The liquid falling on the left was brown and viscous, while the liquid flowing down on the right was thin and golden.
I pinched a little between my fingers—it felt like low-viscosity salad oil rather than kerosene or diesel.
"This is usable."
It took time for the liquid to fall, but all I had to do was put oil in the vessel and leave it alone. I could have it make diesel fuel while I slept.
It produced about 500 milliliters every five minutes. One liter in ten minutes—six liters in an hour—so running it for twelve hours would process 72 liters of oil.
The glycerin it produced was flammable too. I could use it as fuel, and since it came from plants, I might even be able to mix it into compost as fertilizer.
The only problem was that glycerin was sweet. I had to make sure Anemone and Myaree didn't lick it up.
There was a story that expensive moisturizing tissues were sweet and delicious because they used glycerin as a moisturizing agent.
The standard uses were making soap and cosmetics, but I could buy those from Shangri-La.
The magic tool had uses beyond this too. For example, it could be used to increase the concentration of a liquid.
As a test, I poured Scotch whisky into the top vessel.
Water flowed out on the left—and nearly 100% ABV Scotch whisky came out on the right.
Even a normal distiller couldn't produce this result.
This was incredible.
I tried drinking the nearly 100% ABV Scotch whisky.
"Fwoooooooh! Cough, cough! It feels like even my coughing's going to catch fire!"
I might be able to sell this to liquor enthusiasts. Plenty of heavy drinkers believed the stronger the alcohol, the better it tasted.
If I could remove water from alcohol and concentrate it, then the same should be possible with other chemicals.
When I searched Shangri-La, I found 10% nitric acid sold as toilet cleaner. If I removed the water and concentrated it, I could obtain nitric acid.
There was also 10% sulfuric acid available for less than 1,000 yen.
With nitric and sulfuric acid, nitration was possible. I had glycerin right in front of me, and Shangri-La sold toluene too—
Which meant I could make as much nitroglycerin, trinitrotoluene, or trinitrobenzene as I wanted.
"But I'm not going to. It's far too dangerous."
I'd gone from fuel costing about 3,000 yen per liter to fuel I could make for 300 yen. That was a difference of 2,700 yen per liter.
To recover the one million yen I'd spent, I needed to make—let's see—more than 370 liters.
Even if I rounded that up to 400 liters, I'd recoup the cost quickly. Large heavy machinery could hold 400 liters of fuel, after all.
And it had plenty of other uses. Maybe this really had been a good purchase.
For example, I could remove water from saltwater and leave the salt behind, though I learned that crystals stuck to the channels and made cleaning them a pain.
I could also separate the water from milk to make fresh cream, butter, and so on—the tool's uses depended on my ideas.
However, when I tried using the finished fuel in a diesel generator, it didn't run properly.
It seemed I'd failed to produce the fuel. I read through the biodiesel fuel book from cover to cover again.
You had to keep learning throughout life. They said failure was the mother of success, but there were motherboards, mother tapes, and mother tongues—where had Father gone?
Well, that didn't matter.
What I learned from the book was that I couldn't simply remove the glycerin from salad oil. Esterification using alcohol and alkali was necessary to produce fuel.
I needed to change the production method.
First, I added alkali and alcohol to salad oil and carried out esterification.
I put that mixture in the top vessel of the magic tool and filled the middle vessel with the biodiesel fuel that had already been produced.
As expected, liquid began dripping from both sides. The liquid falling from the left was what seemed to be finished biodiesel fuel.
The liquid dripping from the right was the unnecessary material containing thick glycerin. This should work.
I put the fuel produced in the experiment into the diesel generator, and it started running without any problems.
"Phew... Good thing I didn't try it in the heavy machinery right away."
I could have destroyed some expensive heavy machinery. That's what you call experience.
------◇◇◇------
Since the magic tool experiment had gone well, I decided to tend to the field.
The tomato plants had grown large, so I removed the suckers and used them as cuttings. That way, I could keep multiplying them.
I bought a rooting solution called Me○dale from Shangri-La. It was a standard product for cuttings.
Since I'd placed insect-repelling magic stones in the field, I couldn't rely on insects for pollination. I should buy To○to Tone too...
I was looking through Shangri-La and thinking about various things when—it seemed like the forest was restless. What was going on?
Then I heard some kind of scream.
"Fiiiiiaaaaaah!"
Was that Myaree?! What was going on?
As branches snapped and the grass shook violently, Myaree burst out and hid behind me.
And right behind her came a gigantic, pitch-black creature.
"Gaaaah!"
The huge black, furry monster braced itself on all fours, bared its enormous fangs, and threatened us.
It was a gigantic bear. It was larger than a brown bear from my original world, and long, sharp fangs protruded from its mouth.
"Waaaaah!"
My legs gave out and I put my hands on the ground in the field, but a black shadow swiftly slipped between the bear and me.
"Fshaaaaa!"
A black, lithe body bared its fangs and threatened the enemy in return. Bell had appeared in front of me.
While she kept the bear in check, I regained my footing and took a crossbow from my Item Box.
Several of my crossbows were kept loaded with arrows for emergencies.
Damn! This is a train*1!
The bear stood up, raising an arm tipped with sharp claws high into the air. It was enormous! It had to be over four meters tall, and if it raised both arms, it might reach five meters.
I fired the crossbow at the gigantic black wall standing in front of us—and hit it! The carbon arrow sank deep into the bear's body.
But the bear didn't stop moving.
I took another loaded crossbow from my Item Box and fired again!
From behind me, Myaree, having regained her courage, fired an arrow from her compound bow.
She'd lost the will to fight, but perhaps having me as an emotional support had given her the courage to face the enemy again.
"Damn it! It won't stop?! It's way too tough!"
At this rate, I'd simply be killed. There had to be something I could do... Anything to intimidate it, at least.
"That's it! How about we scare it off with firecrackers?!"
I took firecrackers from my Item Box, lit them with my turbo lighter, and threw them at the bear.
But, for whatever reason, the black, furry monster bit down on the firecrackers.
Just like a dog catching a ball in its mouth—
A rapid series of explosions rang out inside the bear's mouth. No matter how ferocious a creature was, what would happen if firecrackers exploded inside its mouth?
"Gwoooooooh!"
The huge black beast completely lost its will to fight and began rolling around in agony on the field, blood flowing from its mouth.
"Y○bo, summon!"
I climbed into the power shovel that appeared on the field and revved the engine all the way. I worked the levers and raised the arm high overhead.
"Y○bo attack!"
The steel bucket swung down toward the writhing bear's head.
Vibrations traveled through the ground, accompanied by the creaking of the steel arm and bucket.
"Take that! One more!"
The bucket sank into the huge black body again, and the beast with the jet-black fur spasmed for a while before going still.
"Just to be sure—"
I prodded it again with the bucket, but there was no reaction. It was completely still.
Silence returned to the area—but the field where the crops had been growing so well was a complete mess.
"Sigh... Myaree, don't bring things like this here..."
I slumped over in the power shovel's seat.
I didn't want to think about it, but if this were a game, this would be MPK*2 using an NPC.
No, no. I had to stop thinking strange thoughts.
When I first came to this world, all I could do was run away. Had I been able to face and kill a monster like this because of that leaf?
If so, it really was a double-edged sword...
"I'm sorry, nya... I couldn't get away, nya."
Well, bears could reach speeds of around 60 kilometers per hour even in the forest.
"I thought Kenichi would take care of it somehow, nya."
"I appreciate you relying on me, but still."
Apparently, even beastfolk couldn't take on a bear alone.
If only I had a rifle. Or maybe I could put explosive charges in arrows. Should I make a small amount of explosives for emergencies?
"Kenichi! Are you all right?!"
Anemone came running from the house after hearing the commotion.
"I'm fine, but the field we'd worked so hard on is ruined."
"I'm sorry, nya..."
"Don't worry about it, Myaree. These things happen. Besides, we managed to bring down a big one. This is a bear, right?"
"It's a Fang Bear, nya."
So it was called a Fang Bear because it had such impressive fangs? Even the fangs alone looked like they could be useful materials.
And the fur must be valuable too. It would make a warm rug.
But it stank like a wild animal! The odor coming off it was like the smell of an unwashed, filthy dog, only much worse. It made my nose curl.
Its massive arms and claws were impressive too. If it tore me apart with those, I'd be finished in one blow.
The frightening thing about a bear's attacks was a punch that sent you flying outward. A human would die instantly if hit by one.
On the other hand, bears couldn't strike their own chests or stomachs—it was physically impossible because of their body structure.
That meant you wouldn't be attacked if you leaped into a bear's chest the instant it stood up. It was easy to say that, but actually doing it was practically impossible.
Still, there was a story about someone who leaped into the reach of a standing bear, danced with it until it fell over, and defeated it.
There was also someone who won by thrusting a fist into a bear's mouth and choking it to death—seriously.
Where there's a will, there's a way; victory depends on luck. Even so, in normal circumstances, running away was the winning move...
"Myaree, a catch this big should sell for quite a lot, right?"
"Just the fur should be worth about three gold coins, nya."
Six hundred thousand yen. Once processed into rugs and the like, it could apparently sell for several million yen. Rich people probably loved bear rugs.
Normally, it took about ten people to bring down prey like this, but the two of us had done it. That meant our shares would be larger too.
"But we can't even butcher this thing ourselves."
"I can't do it either, nya."
"Can't be helped. I'll put it in my Item Box and have the Adventurer's Guild in the city process it."
"Nya."
"I'll go to the city alone tomorrow."
It was about time the old woman at the tool shop had finished registering my grimoire too.
I stored the corpse of the shaggy bear in my Item Box.
A bear this huge would keep us supplied with meat for a while. Besides, this wasn't my first time eating bear meat.
I'd eaten it several times in the countryside. It had a distinctive gaminess, but if you could eat mutton as jingisukan, you could probably eat most kinds of meat.
Of course, there was no guarantee that this bear tasted the same as a brown bear.
According to Myaree, the meat was perfectly edible, so there shouldn't be a problem.
------◇◇◇------
――The next day.
After breakfast, I took the off-road motorcycle out of my Item Box and prepared to leave.
It was about time to refuel, so I bought my usual mixed fuel from Shangri-La.
I sprayed chain lube on the chain too—it cost 1,500 yen. Detailed maintenance was essential if I wanted to use it for a long time.
"Well, I'd better get going."
I left Anemone and Myaree to watch the house and rode through the forest, where sunlight streamed between the trees.
After reaching the main road, I entered the city on foot beneath the blue sky.
The city was as lively as ever. It had been the same in Dalia, too; the people didn't seem to be suffering from excessive taxes or oppression.
The politics of this country seemed to be working reasonably well.
It seemed the incident in which the thugs' hideout had been destroyed was being treated as a turf war among criminals.
That was convenient for us.
After looking around the market for a while, I headed to the tool shop.
"Hey there. Is Granny around?"
Dalia's grandfather's shop was like that too, but was being packed with goods and kept dark the standard for tool shops in this world?
I wondered if there were any tool shops run by a busty young woman in a bright, cheerful store.
"Oh, it's you. Your grimoire registration is complete."
I was a big-spending regular, after all. It seemed she'd remembered my face.
The old woman brought out a book with a thick cover. It didn't have that many pages, but the cover itself was elaborate and thick.
If the contents were what mattered, I thought a thin cover would be enough...
Was that simply a Japanese way of thinking?
For example, what would happen if I laid out the contents on a computer and printed them?
"Granny, what would happen if I copied the contents of this?"
"A magic novice would naturally think that. Look at the last page."
As she instructed, I turned to the very last page of the book and found a black stone that had been cut thinly, embedded there.
"That's a magic stone. It's linked to the spell written in the book, so the formula won't activate without the stone."
"I don't really understand, but you're saying copying only the book would be pointless?"
"That's right."
At least I had the grimoire now.
Next was the Adventurer's Guild.
When I entered the guild, it was bustling with people. This place was also this world's equivalent of a job center, after all.
There were even small children. Apparently, they gathered medicinal herbs and the like to earn pocket money.
You didn't need an introduction or any qualifications here, so anyone who wanted a job could come here for the time being.
While cashing in the Red Dewgrass and Blue Dewgrass that had accumulated, I enjoyed the receptionist's ample chest as eye candy.
After taking my fill, I went to cash in the large catch in my Item Box.
"Hey."
"Oh, what did you bring in?"
The same flashy blond young man served me, but—
"It's rather large, so I can't take it out here."
"Huh? Oh, you're the middle-aged guy with an Item Box. Come around back."
Apparently, he did remember me.
I opened the door beside the counter, passed through the reception room, and went outside through the back entrance.
There was a butchering workshop behind the guild, so I headed there.
"This should do. This is where we butcher the large catches."
He led me to a room with a huge, thick table in it.
I took the Fang Bear from my Item Box and placed it on the table.
"A Fang Bear?! Now that's a big one!"
Nearby guild employees gathered to look at the bear too.
"I put it in my Item Box immediately after taking it down, so it's fresh. It was too huge for me to butcher myself."
"Even just butchering and chilling a catch this big would be a real ordeal. Are you selling all of it?"
"No, I only want the meat."
"Then we'll have to hire a mage to keep the meat cold, so there'll be an additional charge for that."
"That's fine. Deduct it from the price of the materials."
"Got it. But these wounds..."
The man seemed interested in the wounds left on the Fang Bear.
"These are arrow wounds, but what's this on its head?"
"I hit it with a huge mace."
"It would have to be a pretty huge mace to do that. Did you have an ogre hit it?"
"I'm not obligated to report how I killed it, am I?"
"No, but I'm curious."
He was awfully familiar, and I didn't much care for people like that.
"Explaining it is a pain. I don't care how it happened, as long as I get the meat."
"Tch. But judging by this, you didn't take the magic stone, did you?"
"No."
A magic stone? Did monsters have magic stones inside them?
"What would you do if it had a magic stone? Would you buy that too?"
"Then give me the magic stone and the meat."
I didn't really understand what was going on, but I wanted the thing called a magic stone, so I decided to take it.
Was there something like the stone in the grimoire inside monsters too?
"Here you go. Let's get started, then. A catch this big should sell for a lot, and if we delay processing it and it spoils, I'll get chewed out."
"Please do."
"I'll rush it, so it should be ready by evening."
"Understood."
I understood that it would be ready by evening, but since I'd come first thing in the morning, there was still plenty of time before noon.
Maybe I should go home once and return in the evening. I couldn't wait around for six or seven hours.
------◇◇◇------
I returned home once, then visited the city again around four in the afternoon.
I'd told Anemone and Myaree that I might stay in the city if picking up the meat from the guild took too long.
I'd already prepared dinner and left bread and instant soup for breakfast.
I'd taught them how to prepare it, so there was no need to worry.
However, when I stopped by the guild, they told me it was already finished.
"That'll be three gold coins (600,000 yen) and one silver coin (50,000 yen). And here's the magic stone."
The man handed me a black stone. It was smooth and polished.
"What about the cost of hiring the mage?"
"I already deducted it."
"I see. Thanks."
"Bring us another big catch sometime."
Apparently, his pay consisted of a base salary plus a commission. In other words, the more big catches he handled, the more money he received.
I left the guild and hurried home along the street. It quickly grew dark around me.
But suddenly, someone grabbed my arm from behind.
"I found you~"
When I turned toward the voice, which sounded as though it had come from the bottom of the earth, I saw a woman standing there in a white blouse and long navy skirt.
She looked somewhat haggard, and her blond hair was disheveled, but—
It was Primula-san, the daughter of the Marlowe Trading Company.
*1 An action in MMORPGs and the like where you lure monsters and dump them on a specific player to get them killed.
*2 MPK is short for Monster Player Killer, an action where you use monsters or the like to kill a player.