1.
It would be nice if I could keep living with the spirits in the workshop like this, but…
Unfortunately, spirits apparently found it difficult to remain outside the Tower for long periods, anywhere other than the Spirit Realm’s floor.
"Still… if you have a contracted spirit, you can borrow that friend’s power whenever you wish."
That was Milien’s explanation.
For a while now, she had been going over the contract’s precautions and various other details one by one.
She was like an employee explaining the terms of an insurance policy.
"But why is it called an incomplete spirit contract?"
"…Um… It is something even we have only seen a few times, but…"
Milien stared intently at the goggles, then reached out a hand.
"I believe it is because Lionel and Hwiri did not form a direct contract… but a contract through this mysterious piece of equipment instead. It is not an entirely unprecedented kind of arrangement."
"I see. Are there any restrictions…?"
"You will likely be able to borrow Hwiri’s power anytime, but… unlike a complete contract, it will be difficult to summon her true body into this world or grow together with her."
"I see."
A friend who would make the wind blow whenever I called them…
Honestly, I was plenty grateful for that much.
"So once Lionel grows stronger someday, you will probably need to replace the contract with one for a higher-ranking spirit."
"That… um…?"
Even if I wanted to, I didn’t think that would be possible.
Milien neatly folded both hands before her chest.
"No! Lionel has a contract with me!"
Hwiri startled and hugged my ear.
"I was merely explaining a possibility."
"Your eyes are sparkling!"
"My eyes always sparkle."
"Hehe."
Chuckling, I nodded for now.
"I’ll take off the goggles for the moment."
"All right…"
Slip.
When I took off the goggles, the spirits before my eyes disappeared.
Even Hwiri, who had been hugging my ear, vanished, but…
Whoosh.
The wind tickling my ear told me that, even though I couldn’t see her, I could roughly tell she was there because we had formed a contract.
"You there?"
Whoosh!
My hair swayed as though answering me.
Good. She was doing well.
With the goggles hooked over my head, I left the workshop.
I intended to show off my newly made equipment to Dolores and hear about the next Tower climb.
It was equipment feedback, basically. I also wanted to survey demand and see whether there was any equipment she needed.
But the moment I entered the mansion, what I saw was…
"You can take it slow."
Dolores was carefully supporting someone, with that person’s arm draped over her shoulder.
Mama was supporting someone?
And it wasn’t me or Ruby…
I had barely ever seen her make physical contact with anyone in the first place, so I stared in puzzlement.
There was a woman with long, vivid crimson hair hanging limply from her.
"…Yeomhwa?"
Dolores’s former teammate?
She was so famous that I had seen her in community photos before.
She was also the whale—no, customer—who had paid a fortune for the [Ether Circle] I enhanced.
But her condition…
"Lionel?"
My eyes met Dolores’s as she supported Yeomhwa. Hearing her voice, Yeomhwa laboriously raised her head and looked at me through unfocused eyes.
Then…
"Oh, Ruby…"
"?"
"It’s been so long… You’ve grown so much~"
"…"
Was she talking to me? More importantly, her voice was completely hoarse.
Yeomhwa kept her eyes half-open and stared down at me for a while before breaking into a dazed grin.
"You’ve become so pretty… Those goggles suit you too…"
"That isn’t Ruby. Get a hold of yourself."
"Huh."
At Dolores’s correction, Yeomhwa blinked blankly.
Her eyes were so bloodshot that they looked ready to burst, and she was in terrible shape overall.
Her focus was so poor that she kept staring off into empty space.
Other than her hair and eyes, she was pale everywhere.
"Mm…"
When Yeomhwa put a hand to her forehead as if trying to search through her memories—
Clink…
Her sleeve rolled up, revealing a familiar bracelet.
The [Ether Circle].
"Let’s go for now."
Drag…
"Bye, Ruby~"
Dolores dragged Yeomhwa into a room, but…
What I was actually looking at was another screen.
It was a kind of occupational habit. I was just checking.
Whether the equipment suited her or not…
Had the [Ether Circle] suited Yeomhwa?
And the screen unfolding before my eyes was—
"…Fuck."
─────────────────
[Ether Circle] [★★★★☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility] [0 / 80]
[Enchant Level] [+16]
─────────────────
[The wearer’s method of mana control and the equipment’s method of circulation are fundamentally incompatible.]
[The mana circuits expanded by this equipment’s +5 potential ability, [Deep Current], are failing to contract normally.]
[Due to this equipment’s +15 potential ability, [Backflow], portions of the wearer’s mana circuits are sustaining continuous damage.]
─────────────────
[The wearer’s unique constitution, [Reverence for the Strong], suppresses the body’s warning responses caused by the equipment.]
[Reverence for the Strong]
[Forcibly ignores pain, fatigue, and rejection responses that impede growth.]
[Until the body reaches its limit, abnormalities cannot be properly recognized.]
─────────────────
[The wearer is currently incapable of enduring the Backflow.]
[Continued use of the Ether Circle will cause permanent collapse of the mana circuits.]
[Immediate removal required. Immediately.]
[Warning]
[Warning!]
[!!Warning!!]
[Mana circuit collapse has begun.]
─────────────────
The cause and effect were all laid out in sequence.
As though there were log records of Yeomhwa’s physical condition… I could see her body gradually collapsing in chronological order.
Compatibility zero. It felt almost like when I first saw Dolores’s [White Gloves of Gorgonew], but…
This was even worse.
When Dolores used the [Ether Circle] first, she had told me about the side effect where sudden weakness would hit her.
She said that unless you set a strict time to use it, it would probably be difficult to use in battle.
An ordinary person might have gotten suspicious after using it a few times, or stopped wearing it, but…
[Reverence for the Strong].
According to the description, her unique constitution’s desire to become stronger had ignored all of that.
After all, the [Ether Circle]’s performance itself must have been impossible to deny.
Apparently, Yeomhwa had actually been breaking her personal records and advancing toward the ranks of the very best rankers.
In the end, she kept wearing it without knowing what it was doing to her body. She got results, but the side effects eventually caused a problem…
"It really did need after-sales service…"
And it was quite serious.
Urgent. Very urgent.
The problem was that I couldn’t think of a clean solution right now.
"Still."
If there was one most urgent matter—
"We need to take it off."
It was clear that the [Ether Circle] needed to come off immediately.
I followed the stairs Dolores had gone up.
She had headed to an empty room prepared for guests.
Oh, Ruby… Auntie’s dying…
…Just wait a little.
I could hear Yeomhwa and Dolores’s voices from inside.
Scrape.
Along with the sound of Dolores’s chair being pulled, it seemed she was about to come out.
Creak.
"…Lionel?"
The door opened, and I met Dolores’s eyes.
Shh.
I grabbed Dolores’s wrist and led her to the end of the hallway.
I got straight to the point.
"You remember your White Gloves of Gorgonew from before, right?"
"Yes, I remember…"
"That person is the one who bought the Ether Circle I made, right?"
"Yes, that’s right."
All Dolores had told me was that some high ranker had bought it.
I explained while omitting as much as possible.
I had learned the name Yeomhwa by digging through the community, and I shouldn’t have been able to know it by my usual standards, so I referred to her as that person for now…
"For now, the Ether Circle is melting that person’s circuits. Badly."
"…Really?"
"Yes. So we need to take off that bracelet first."
Her compatibility was even worse than it had been with Gorgonew, so it needed to come off now.
"…I thought it was Nine Yin Severed Meridians, but it wasn’t."
"It isn’t Nine Yin Severed Meridians, at least."
Thanks to the woman in front of me, I knew Nine Yin Severed Meridians quite well. This definitely wasn’t that.
"I understand, dear."
"And one more thing."
I caught Dolores’s wrist as she turned away.
"Is that person… someone it’s all right to reveal my identity to?"
No matter what, she was someone who had run into trouble by overusing my equipment.
And she was Dolores’s former colleague, wasn’t she? Of course, I wasn’t responsible for how someone hurt themselves using equipment I had sold them, but…
I hadn’t given any notice about it this time, and it did seem like after-sales service was needed.
Whether I tried enhancing the equipment all the way to +20, or made entirely new equipment to support her.
I would have to take it off and see first, but anyway.
Understanding what I meant, Dolores closed her eyes and considered it for a moment…
"For now, Yeomhwa is all right."
"Understood."
If Dolores said so, then that was that.
"However, she is in no state to have a conversation right now, so first…"
"Yes."
I followed Dolores into the room.
"Oww…"
When we opened the door, Yeomhwa had something like seaweed stuck to her forehead.
It gave off a faint green glow, so it seemed to be some kind of emergency treatment.
Usually, things like that were magic.
"Yeomhwa."
"What is it… Elysia…"
Slide.
Dolores sat at the head of the bed and took Yeomhwa’s arm.
"Why…?"
"I’m taking this off for a moment."
When Dolores’s hand touched the [Ether Circle], Yeomhwa pulled her arm away.
"Hey, Dolores… I’m not dead yet… Touching someone else’s stuff is a crime."
"…"
"That’s enhanced to +16…"
Click, click.
Without even responding, Dolores simply unclasped it.
At that moment—
─────────────────
[Ether Circle has been removed.]
[Further damage to the mana circuits has ceased.]
─────────────────
"Whew…"
For now, we had put out the immediate fire.
That didn’t mean her wrecked circuits had instantly recovered, though.
"Elysia… I’m tired…"
After saying that, Yeomhwa…
"…Mmm… I suddenly feel sleepy…"
Trickle…
Water ran out of the seaweed stuck to Yeomhwa’s forehead.
Its color had grown a little darker too, so it seemed the treatment was starting now.
With the [Ether Circle] gone, it seemed there was finally room to treat her.
"Get some sleep first."
Dolores lightly brushed Yeomhwa’s eyes.
Sliiide…
Yeomhwa’s eyes closed, and she fell asleep in an instant.
That seaweed worked damn well.
After checking Yeomhwa’s breathing for a moment, Dolores handed me the [Ether Circle].
"Will Lionel hold on to it for now?"
"Yes."
I accepted the bracelet, still slightly warm in my hand.
"…I’ll try taking this to +20 now."
"That would be best."
I had to try something.
And a few hours later.
At the same time I received word that Yeomhwa had regained consciousness, I…
[Enhancement successful!]
[+19 -> +20]
"That was brutal."
Had just reached +20.
I ought to charge an after-sales service fee or something.
I felt like I was going to die from exhaustion.
Normally, I would have had a fucking great time, but perhaps because I was worried, it felt less like a rhythm game and more like labor.
You couldn’t enjoy playing around while there was someone sick right beside you.
Hoping it would at least be a potential ability capable of restoring Yeomhwa’s wrecked circuits, I looked up.
─────────────────
【Potential Abilities】
[+5 — Deep Current]
[The circulation path deepens. Mana left over after use does not disperse and remains within the ring.]
[+10 — Sedimentation]
[The retained mana settles and accumulates. The longer it is worn, the greater the accumulation.]
[+15 — Backflow]
[The instant the wearer’s mana runs low, the accumulated mana flows back in all at once.]
─────────────────
That was up to +15.
And then—
[The lower potential abilities are linked into a single circulation.]
[The integrated potential ability no longer directly interferes with the wearer’s circuits.]
Along with a message I had never seen before—
─────────────────
[+20 — Recursive Chant] [Cooldown] [30 seconds]
[Records one spell cast by the wearer in the Ether Circle.]
[Mana that would otherwise flow back no longer returns to the wearer’s circuits and is instead converted into the recorded spell’s formula.]
[The recorded spell manifests once more at 50% power.]
[The re-manifested spell does not consume the wearer’s mana.]
─────────────────
"…Huh?"
So… the spell you used gets cast one more time? Like an echo?
And mana didn’t flow back anymore?
Its power was only fifty percent, but no, that basically meant you got another skill for free.
[Whoa, that’s totally broken.]
"…"
All right, I got it.
I understood perfectly well that it was good equipment.
It seemed this thing was only complete once it reached +20 in the first place.
Because the backflowing mana needed to be kept from reaching the user.
But since it had stopped halfway at +15, it had brought no benefit and caused nothing but harm.
Then Yeomhwa would have no problem wearing the [Ether Circle] now.
But…
"What about its healing effect…?"
What about the circuits that had already been damaged?
There wasn’t anything for that?
[Yeah, but its performance is fucking amazing lol.]
I asked it to save someone… and instead I got a bracelet that was even better at killing people.
Kill more people.
"Mm… Ah…"
I put a hand to my forehead.
The side effects were gone, and… well, its performance had improved…
…Good was good, wasn’t it?
"Mm… Uh, nice!"
I gave a thumbs-up to Hwiri, who was squirming around beside me.
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