RMGCFW — Chapter 109 - Magic Is All-Powerful

"Slash."

[Ding, monster killed: Black Flame Hawk. Total lifespan: eighty years. Remaining lifespan: fifty years. Now absorbed.]

With a thunderous crash, the enormous creature plummeted from the sky and hit the ground hard, going still almost immediately.

"Lord Adventurer, thank you so very much." A villager rushed forward. "This monster ate half our livestock over the past few days. Even the Silver-rank adventurer we hired couldn't do anything about it. If it weren't for you..."

"Mm." Banxia cut him off and held out his hand.

"Oh — right, right." The villager quickly produced the agreed reward. "Lord Adventurer, our village doesn't have any other grimoires. Only this one..."

Banxia took it and gave it a glance.

[Magic to Make Food Taste Delicious.]

Clearly just an ordinary piece of folk magic. He flipped through it casually and logged it into his status panel. A neat little trick that might come in handy on the road.

"Apologies, Lord Adventurer, this grimoire is truly all our village has..." The young man's face gave nothing away, and the villager quickly gritted his teeth. "If you're not satisfied, we can scrape together some more coin."

"No need. I'm plenty satisfied." Banxia shook his head and glanced at the darkening sky. "If it's not too much trouble, just let me stay the night."

"...Of course! Not a problem at all!"

He followed the villager into the modest settlement, yawning from sheer boredom.

A week had passed since he left the city and parted ways with Mabel.

He'd spent the time wandering the surrounding area. Nothing powerful had crossed his path.

The Central Continent lived up to its reputation, large monsters were a rare sight.

Which meant that for long stretches of the journey, the Human Forbidden Areas marked on his map amounted to little more than wasted time. The one exception was the Glaser Forest, home to Qual the Sage of Corruption, one of the Demon King's army's foremost mages.

The monotony made him miss the paradise-like days he'd spent in the commercial metropolis even more.

"By the way, do you know anything about the whereabouts of the Clan of Parting?" Banxia asked, looking at the villager ahead.

"...Honestly, we don't know much about that."

"No worries, don't mind me, just asking." He paused. "Any local rumors about monsters would do just as well."

"The one you just killed was already the strongest thing in the area..."

"I see..."

Noticing the adventurer's expression drop, the villager quickly added, "There are other rumors, though. Nothing terrifying like monsters, but..."

"Oh?" A flicker of interest.

"Our hunters spotted an elf in the forest up ahead."

"An elf?"

"That's right, an elf that hasn't been seen in hundreds of years!" The villager couldn't keep the excitement off their face.

It said something about just how vanishingly rare elves had become in this world.

After a bit more back-and-forth, Banxia had a rough picture of what the elf looked like: long ears, waist-length white hair, petite build, dressed in plain cloth.

"...No way." The description conjured a very specific image, a certain mage who had once been soloed by a mimic chest.

He hadn't expected a casual stroll through the area to turn up news like this. He'd only been hoping to find some faint trace of the Clan of Parting.

Not that he was hurting for time. He already had over five hundred years of lifespan to his name, far beyond the ceiling of any pureblood human in this world.

But who ever complained about having too much of it?

His room was sorted quickly, and hospitable villagers brought dinner in shortly after.

The Central Continent was simply too peaceful for its own good. A settlement this small didn't even have an Adventurers Guild branch.

Most of the village's young adults had left for the commercial metropolis to find work. The modest tavern had shuttered from lack of business, leaving only a small inn for passing adventurers to rest their feet.

Banxia settled into the most luxurious room on the second floor and looked at the spread on the table.

White bread. A stew that looked something like braised potatoes. Several chunks of roasted meat from some unidentified animal. A mug of ale.

For a village that had lost most of its able-bodied workers, this was the best they could offer.

He didn't complain. He picked up a piece and ate.

"..."

Not bad, really. Just a small step below the dry rations he'd bought back in the commercial metropolis.

"System — level the newly recorded magic up to entry level."

[Year 1: You begin studying this piece of folk magic.]

[Year 10: Drawing on your extensive foundation in the magical arts, you quickly master this piece of folk magic.]

[Magic to Make Food Taste Delicious lv.1.]

"Only ten years to reach entry level. Figures — I really am a magical genius."

"Magic to Make Food Taste Delicious."

He waved a hand. A faint draw on his mana, and the plain food in front of him looked noticeably more appealing.

He took another bite.

"Compared to before... roughly like someone added a pinch of salt and a bit of MSG."

The flavor had climbed just enough to match his expensive road rations.

"What happens if I push it further?" he wondered.

Food, clothing, shelter, transportation, the four pillars of daily life. He didn't mind spending a little extra time here.

Decision made. The monster time on his panel began to tick steadily down.

[Year 80: Over the years, you sample the work of many renowned chefs, committing each flavor to memory. In this year, you successfully replicate them through magic.]

[Year 200: You notice a persistent gap between the flavors magic can conjure and those of genuine cuisine. You begin devoting yourself to studying the fundamental structure of food.]

[Year 250: You successfully decode the essence of food itself. You can now use magic to transform crude, ordinary ingredients into the exquisite dishes you remember.]

[Magic to Make Food Taste Delicious lv.1 → Magic to Make Food Taste Delicious lv.3.]

"Magic is the world of imagination. Which means..."

The flood of magical knowledge settling into his mind brought other memories with it, the taste of food from his past life, from a world he'd left behind twice over.

His mana dipped. The food on the table transformed.

The ale became a bubbling glass of dark soda. The white bread became a cream cake. The chunks of roasted meat became a great braised pork knuckle, glistening and fragrant.

"Tastes exactly like I imagined." Banxia took a bite and let out a quiet, satisfied sound.

lv.3 was a different beast entirely from lv.1.

lv.1 had merely sent misleading signals to the body's senses. lv.3 performed actual physical transmutation, matter changed out of thin air.

The mana cost was staggering, admittedly.

But with a reservoir forged across more than two thousand years, a few minutes was all it took to recover.

Every spell, pushed far enough, seemed to arrive somewhere unexpected.

"Magic in this world really is all-powerful."

"Which means... as long as enough mana is spent and the right magic is found, true immortality might not be impossible either?"

➤ Next: The Hero — Face to Face