Re:Crafting in Another World
Chapter 125: Sealing ritual

Chapter 125: Sealing ritual

Shennong dropped to his knees the moment they arrived, clutching his stomach and gagging violently.

"Urgh... blargh—! Why does it feel like I’ve been punched by space itself?" he groaned, spewing onto the floor beside Mandira’s office carpet.

Mandira raised an eyebrow, arms crossed. "Weren’t you supposed to be immune to teleportation? You’re Shennong, the great dungeon master, aren’t you?"

"Maybe warn me before you teleport next time," Shennong managed between heaves. "You just—blegh—ripped me out of solid ground!"

Mandira sighed, kneeling just far enough to not get her boots dirty. "Wait... weren’t you teleporting just now? You appeared out of nowhere in front of the Maria’s mansion."

Shennong spat to the side and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Teleporting? No. I don’t teleport. I dig."

"...Dig?"

He finally straightened himself up and leaned against her bookshelf, breathing heavily. "I tunnel through earth. I carve paths to the places I want to reach and move through them. It’s much more stable and—urk—less likely to splinter my body into fifty pieces."

Mandira stared at him for a long second. "That’s... such an odd technique."

"I know. Works for me."

She folded her arms again. "This is already a huge problem, you know. If the king finds out I brought you here and hid it from him, it could cost me my life."

"Then why did you bring me here?" Shennong tilted his head. "You could’ve just teleported me to your king."

"Because," Mandira said, walking over to her desk and leaning on it, "this is the only place I can teleport to directly. Teleportation doesn’t work like your creepy mole technique. It needs an anchor, a known location marked with a rune seal. I only have a few—this office is one of them."

She then looked at Shennong with a serious look. "I still want to trsut you’re not a harmful subject. I will give you one last chance,"

"Well, that’s kind of you," Shennong muttered.

She shot him a sharp look. "Not all of us are underground rodents who claw through soil, Shennong."

"Excuse you," he said, feigning a bow. "I am the powerful mole. I dig elegantly."

"Ugh. Whatever," Mandira groaned. She spun toward the wall, where a tall bookshelf stood crammed with dusty tomes. "We don’t have time for this. I need to find the proper sealing method. If that sword of Juno’s really has something dark sealed inside... then we can’t just break it open."

She pulled books down rapidly, flipping through them with quick fingers.

"What are you doing?" Shennong asked.

"Looking for the old ritual protocols. If there’s something dangerous inside that sword, I have to be ready to re-seal it the moment it escapes. Otherwise, the backlash could be catastrophic. Magical corruption. Mass death. Probably another dungeon. And guess who’ll get blamed for that?"

"You?" Shennong guessed, amused.

"Yes. Me. And I do not want to spend the rest of my life in one of the king’s oubliettes."

"I hear those are nice and quiet," Shennong smirked.

Mandira didn’t dignify that with a response. She continued flipping, muttering to herself, tossing aside useless books.

"You know," Shennong said lazily, watching her, "I thought archmages like you just snap your fingers and magic solves everything."

"I could turn you into a toad right now if that helps," she said sweetly.

Shennong mimed a zip over his mouth and took a seat on a chair.

Minutes passed as she sifted through spellbooks and ancient scrolls, scanning indexes, muttering incantation names. Finally, her eyes lit up.

"Found it!" Mandira said triumphantly.

She spun around and held out a worn leather-bound book to Shennong, flipping to a page covered in strange geometric patterns and old magical language.

"This is a sealing crystal ritual," she explained. "It’s obscure and hardly ever used—most people just destroy dark artifacts outright these days—but this one allows for careful extraction of the sealed entity. We’ll need a specially carved crystal as a vessel, and—this is the hard part—you’ll need to hold the sword in one hand and the crystal in the other."

"For how long?" Shennong asked warily.

"Thirty minutes."

"...You want me to hold that cursed sword—and the seal crystal—for thirty minutes? While you chant a spell?"

"Correct."

"Are you insane?" Shennong asked, incredulous. "No offense, but that’s not possible. Juno and his sword will kill me within two minutes if i’m in their range. I know my limits and Juno is one of those limits I don’t like to face."

"I know," Mandira said, frowning. "That’s why we need to prepare. I’ll reinforce the seal before we start, and cast multiple containment barriers. But once we begin, you must not let go."

Shennong rubbed his chin. "Still... thirty minutes..."

Mandira narrowed her eyes. "Are you saying you’re not up for it?"

He was about to retort—but then paused.

A strange sensation tickled at the back of his mind.

His eyes flickered with a sudden clarity, a smile slowly curling at his lips.

"...Maybe it’s not impossible after all."

Mandira looked suspicious. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Shennong said, leaning forward with a glint in his eye, "Sir Juno is currently inside my dungeon. Specifically, on the first floor. Fighting the final boss."

Mandira blinked. "You let him into your dungeon?"

"I didn’t let him in," Shennong said. "I baited him."

She groaned. "Of course you did."

"I needed to confirm something. And now I can feel it—he’s engaging the boss right now. Which means the seal on the sword will be slightly weaker. Distracted, if you will."

"And what’s this boss?" she asked cautiously.

Shennong grinned wider. "The Ultimate Core."

"...That doesn’t sound comforting."

"It’s a core I created by merging multiple Lunamarite cores over these few weeks. Dozens. Maybe hundreds. And then I added one more thing—lot of magical crystals. After all that it became One that thinks."

"You made a thinking dungeon boss?" Mandira asked, genuinely appalled.

"Of course. It’s my masterpiece."

"Do you ever stop doing insane things for one second?"

"Nope. You knew what you were signing up for when you asked for my help."

Mandira sighed and walked to a cabinet, unlocking it with a glowing rune. She pulled out a dark purple crystal, faceted and polished. The edges shimmered with latent magic.

"This is the sealing crystal," she said. "Old stock, but it’ll do. I’ll need twelve hours to set up the ritual site. You have until then to get that sword."

"Understood," Shennong said, standing up. "I’ll dig my way in."

"And when you bring it back, remember—you hold both items. I handle the spell. You don’t interrupt me. You don’t drop the sword. And definitely don’t piss off the entity inside."

Shennong rolled his neck, cracking it. "Easy. I’ll charm it."

Mandira stared at him flatly. "You’re an idiot."

"An idiot with style."

"Fine. But if anything goes wrong—"

"I’ll take responsibility," Shennong said, surprising her.

Mandira blinked. "...You sure about that? How exactly are you going to do that."

He smiled faintly. "I don’t want anyone else paying the price for what’s mine to fix. I will take this whatever dark entity into my own body. I know it is possible."

For a moment, her expression softened. Then she shook her head. "Get going. I’ll prep the room."

With a grin, Shennong turned toward the wall.

And just like that, the stone cracked open—rippling like water—as he vanished into a tunnel of shimmering earth and light.

Mandira stared at the disappearing path for a long second.

"...Most powerful mole, huh," she muttered. "More like suicidal mole."

She glanced at the book in her hand again.

And began preparing the ritual that might either save them—or unleash a nightmare across the principality.

Mandira stood there, holding the sealing crystal in one hand, the spellbook in the other.

"...Idiot."

Her voice was barely a whisper, but it echoed in the stillness like a confession.

She turned toward her desk and placed the crystal down with care, watching how it pulsed faintly, reacting to the residual magic in the air.

"Who just... digs through soil? Who makes a sentient dungeon core and calls it their masterpiece like it’s some kind of art exhibit? Is he powerful or stupid...I can’t really tell."

She ran her fingers through her hair, sighing.

"Of all the people I could’ve turned to..."

Her gaze wandered to the door, half-expecting someone to knock, to barge in and ask why an outlaw like Shennong had been seen near the Maria’s mansion. But no one came.

Maybe Maria was silent for now. For now.

"I should report this. I should tell the king. But then what?" she muttered, walking slowly back to the shelves. "He’d send his knights. They’d arrest me. Then what? Juno and Shennong’s conflict will continue. Many humans will die."

She stopped in front of a mirror on the wall.

Her reflection looked tired. Worn. She was too young to feel old, and yet...

"Shennong... what are you really planning?"

She looked down at the book again. The spell was complex. Risky. Ancient. And if it failed...

"This isn’t just sealing a curse," she murmured. "It’s sealing a part of history. Something someone wanted buried."

She closed the book slowly, a thoughtful frown tugging at her lips.

"But maybe... maybe he’s not the only one willing to dig up the truth."

She turned toward the ritual chamber door.

And began to prepare for war.