The Ultimate Sage Who Faked Incompetence and Was Disinherited Just Wants to Enjoy His New Life! - Episode 82: In Search of Mithril

Episode 82: In Search of Mithril

We started asking around again once the ships returned in the evening. 

It seems the Ghost appearances aren’t from around here exactly. But a large wrecked ship had washed ashore somewhere along this coast. 

The crew of the ship was already dead, and the whole thing looked like a proper ghost ship. 

According to the fishermen, the people who were on that ship might be the ones coming back as Ghosts. 

When we said, “We’ll take care of them while we’re at it,” they were really happy. 

“Looks like the Water Spirit isn’t involved.” 

“Seems that way. A ghost ship, huh……….. I wonder if it’s really drifting across the sea?” 

“Who knows? The ocean’s huge. And even if it is drifting, the chance of running into it is pretty low.” 

“True.”

After seeing just how vast and empty the sea was during those fifteen days, I think the odds of encountering a ghost ship are extremely low. 

Unless the ghost ship somehow knows the trade routes… but I doubt it. 

Undead monsters are said to be mindless, after all.

“Well then, the sun’s almost down. Let’s wipe them out and be done with it.” 

“They said they’ll treat us to dinner as thanks. Fresh seafood—can’t wait.”

We waited a little. Soon, the sun set. 

Relying on Elise’s Small Light spell, we kept watch near the beach. 

Before long, we ran into some white, hazy figures. Ghosts.

“Three of them. More might appear, so stay alert.” 

“They don’t seem strong enough to kill anyone. So we’ll be fine.”

Ardan and Jill drew their silver swords. 

They’d shown them to us during the day—beautiful swords with intricate decorations.

Jill slashed at one of them. 

With a strange slicing sound, the Ghost let out a shrill, piercing scream. 

But it was still there.

It took some damage, but wasn’t defeated. 

“Man… I can’t even beat a weak ghost,” 

Jill said with disappointment. 

Ardan was attacking too, but it didn’t seem to be doing much either. 

Seeing that, Elise gently cast a spell, as if trying not to make them feel bad.

“Light Ball” 

“Gyaaaah…!”

The Ghost that got hit by the glowing ball vanished instantly. 

As expected, they were weak Ghosts. 

Even the remaining two seemed damaged from the spell’s aftershock.

“Fire Arrow” 

“Kyuu!”

We finished off the last two. 

With that, the area was cleared. 

The two who couldn’t contribute much looked dejected. We went back and forth along the beach a bit. 

In the end, we took down ten Ghosts in total with magic. 

All that was left was to check the area at dawn.

“No good, huh, Jill?” 

“Lilia, is there any magic that lets us cut those things?” 

“Nope.”

Lilia shot him down without hesitation. 

Jill sighed deeply and slumped his shoulders. 

He just couldn’t accept being useless against undead monsters. 

Even if you enchant a sword with ice magic, it still ends up being a physical attack. 

You just can’t cut what you can’t cut.

After that, we took a short nap and checked the coast again at dawn. 

There were no Ghosts.

“All done now.” 

“They said they’ll make breakfast too. So let’s rest somewhere until morning.” 

“So, what do we do starting tomorrow?”

The Water Spirit doesn’t seem to be moving yet. So there’s no need to rush the investigation anymore. 

Which means we have to decide what to do next. 

We could go sightseeing…

“I want to search for mithril.” 

“Jill…”

Jill had a rare serious look on his face. 

He must’ve been really frustrated that he couldn’t even defeat a weak Ghost. 

Ardan didn’t say anything, but he might have felt the same. 

Us three mages exchanged awkward glances, feeling the tension.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go look for mithril.” 

“I’m sure it’s somewhere in this country.” 

“Let’s ask the fishermen. Since they travel around by boat, they might know something.”

We encouraged Ardan and Jill the best we could and waited for dawn. 

Just before sunrise, some fishermen who were curious about the Ghost hunt came to check things out.

Once it was confirmed that all the Ghosts near the coast were completely gone, the fishermen were openly overjoyed. 

“Thank you very much. Now we can catch a lot more fish.” 

“We’ll get breakfast ready right away, so please wait.” 

Saying that, they walked off lightly and cheerfully. 

Soon after, just as the fishermen had said, breakfast was prepared. 

It was full of seafood from the morning. 

Every fish served was delicious. And the brown soup called “miso soup” had a deep flavor and was very tasty.

“Um, I’d like to ask—where in this country can we find mithril?” 

“Mithril? Nowadays, you have to go far to get it. I think it was beyond three or four mountains.” 

“Nowadays? Was it different before?” 

“Yeah. They say you could get it from the mountain up ahead a long time ago. But apparently a powerful monster appeared. And since then, no one goes near it.”

Saying that, he pointed to a distant mountain. 

Even though it was “far”, it seemed much closer than the other place. 

A powerful monster, huh………… I wonder what kind. 

But if we can defeat it, we should be able to get mithril.

“Since we’ve got the chance, wanna go check it out?” 

“Yeah. I think we can beat most monsters. And if it gets too bad, we can just run. Let’s go.” 

“Let’s do it—for mithril. If we get it, we can have a mithril sword made.”

Well, I guess there’s no choice but to go now. 

If mithril can be mined, there’s probably an abandoned mine there. 

We have digging magic. And if the ceiling looks like it’s about to collapse, we can use earth magic to reinforce it. 

We should manage somehow.

“Alright then, let’s get ready. We need to confirm the route to the mountain.” 

“First, we gather information. It’s an old story, but hopefully someone still knows about it.”

We had already planned to take today off. So, this just turned into prep for our next adventure. 

After finishing breakfast, we each went off to gather info and get ready for the trip to the mountain.

It seems the mithril mine was abandoned quite a long time ago. 

All the information we got was from elderly people. 

Since we asked around the whole town to get even a bit of info, we didn’t meet up again until dinnertime.

“We’re ready to head into the mountains. I went to Suiren to buy the food we were missing.” 

“Thanks, Fel. I didn’t expect we’d be climbing a mountain. From what I found out, the mine was shut down over fifty years ago. And apparently, the paths are all gone.”

“Then we’ll have to rely on Auto Mapping.” 

It would’ve been nice if there were still paths. But it looks like there aren’t. 

Still, it’s weird that people completely stopped going just because of monsters. 

Maybe there’s another reason?

“I’ve got some bad news—turns out the mine wasn’t closed *just* because of the monsters. Apparently, poisonous gas started spewing out too. That’s also why no one’s gone near it since.”

“Is the gas still coming out even now?” 

“We won’t know until we go.”

Poison gas, huh… That’s trouble. 

There’s the Wind Barrier spell to protect us from poison gas. So we’ll probably need to keep using it. 

If only we could see the gas… I wonder if Analyze will detect it?

“The monster that appeared in the mine is called a Mithril Golem. According to the stories, it seems they accidentally dug it up—it was sealed underground. Of course, they couldn’t defeat it. Magic barely worked on it and nothing could be done. They say many extermination teams were sent back then. But in the end, it was never defeated.”

“Mithril Golem… how are we supposed to beat something like that?” 

“Seriously…”

This might really be tough. 

Magic doesn’t work well, but it’s not *completely* useless. 

If we can exploit that somehow, maybe there’s a way. 

But there’s no way to know without trying.

Everyone went quiet, deep in thought. 

Even for us, it seemed we were all silently thinking, “This is going to be hard.” 

But giving up here didn’t sit right either.

“There *is* a way to fight a Mithril Golem.” 

“Pii-chan! You know something!?” 

“Yes, of course. Do you all know how mithril is processed?”

How mithril is processed? 

Now that it mentions it… when we went to the royal capital’s library, I remember reading a blacksmithing manual. 

I think it said something about that… what was it?

“Oh! I get it now!” 

Lilia seemed to remember something. 

Everyone turned to her with interest.