novelraw Chapter 79 – Selena’s Workshop And Safe Zone
Chapter 79 – Selena’s Workshop And Safe Zone
After finishing our tour of the main floor, Selena led me to a narrow wooden door nestled discreetly beside her bed in the bedroom. She pushed it open, revealing a spiral staircase winding downward into the depths of her home.
“We're heading to the basement,” she said casually, descending first.
I followed her down, but each step felt like crossing a threshold into something sacred. As we reached the bottom, the dim amber glow of mana-infused lanterns lit the vast underground space.
My breath caught.
It was… massive.
Far larger than I expected—possibly even far bigger than the house above. The air here was cool, dry, and tinged with the faint scent of metal, herbs, and old parchment. This wasn’t just a basement—it was a workshop, a laboratory, a vault of wonders.
If the library from earlier was her war room, then this place was her sanctuary, the place where she chases her dream.
“This is where I create magic tools,” she explained as she walked ahead, her footsteps quiet against the polished stone floor.
The basement was divided into four distinct areas, each meticulously organized.
The first area, directly connected to the stairs, served as her main crafting workshop. Several large workbenches dominated the space, each covered in unfinished magic tools, mana circuits etched onto brass plates, glowing gemstones, and strange-looking instruments. Shelves lined the walls, holding rolls of enchanted parchment, mana-conducting wires, and neatly labeled drawers full of mysterious components.
The second area was a wide, locked chamber tucked behind a thick, rune-engraved door. Selena hummed lightly and pressed her palm against the center seal, and with a soft click, the heavy door swung open.
What lay beyond made me stop in my tracks.
“…Holy crap.”
It was a magic stone vault.
Tens of thousands of stones filled the room, organized with almost obsessive precision. Racks upon racks stretched along the walls, each labeled and sorted by rank, shape, and elemental affinity. Some stones were the size of marbles, others as big as my fist. Many glowed faintly, like stars in a treasure hoard.
C-Rank.
B-Rank.
Even A-Rank and a few terrifying S-Rank stones near the back, sealed in reinforced crystal cases.
I took a cautious step forward, my eyes wide. “T-There are… so many…”
“Oh, this?” She waved her hand like we were just browsing for onions in a pantry. “I gathered most of them around the house.”
Around the house, she said.
Not ‘deep in the forest.’ Not ‘after weeks of hunting.’ Just… around the house.
I nearly tripped on my own feet.
“But…” I looked again. Something felt… off.
Where were the beginner-level ones? The G-Ranks? F? Even E or D-Rank stones?
I blinked. Compared to other ranks, there were only a few shelves worth of them—barely a few hundred total.
“Huh? Why are there so few low-rank stones?”
“Oh, those?” Selena glanced back, scratching her cheek with a sheepish smile. “Well… I had to buy those.”
“Buy them?”
She nodded. “I’ve barely seen any weak monsters around here. Most of the ones near the house are C-Rank or above. You’d have to go way down south to even find D-Rank beasts. It’s easier to just buy the stones in bulk than hunt them.”
She said it so naturally.
Like it was completely normal for her neighborhood to be crawling with mid-to-high-rank monsters, to the point that weak ones had to be imported.
“Y-You bought weak monster stones? Just for testing?”
“Well, yes. They’re useful for calibrating low-output enchantments.” She looked up at the shelves that store tiny triangle-shaped E-Rank stones. “Sometimes you just need a mana trickle, not a flood.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
She lived in one of the most dangerous forests on the continent. Her backyard was a minefield of death—and somehow, her biggest issue was a shortage of trash mobs.
No wonder she was so powerful.
She never had the chance to grow up without constant danger.
It suddenly made perfect sense why her idea of "low-risk living" meant using B-Rank monster hearts to power a bathtub.
Selena strolled over to one of the walls, pulled open a drawer, and tapped a rune plate beside it. A dim pulse of light mana shimmered across the vault—No, across the entire basement.
“There. I’ve registered your mana signature,” she said casually, like she was handing over a house key. “You can come in here anytime.”
I blinked. “Wait—what?”
“You heard me. If you want any magic stones, just help yourself. As long as you don’t take the entire vault at once, I won’t complain.”
I was stunned. “Are you… serious?”
She shrugged, smirking. “Of course. You gave me hope when I had none. That’s worth more than my life. Consider this part of the exchange.”
I haven’t saved her life though…
But I stared around again—at thousands of B-Rank stones, hundreds of A-Ranks, and dozens of S-Ranks encased in thick, translucent vaults, glowing bright like beautiful diamonds.
I gulped hard.
“You do realize just one of these S-Rank stones could probably buy a large mansion… or two…”
I nodded in acknowledgment. Not only that, I think a single S-Rank stone could start a new war between nations.
She leaned on a rack of stones with a casual smile. “Actually, with five of them, you could probably buy a small country. Maybe ten if you’re aiming for something coastal.”
She leaned in until her breath tickled my ear, voice low and sultry with mischief, “And with all these S-Rank stones… You could marry all the princesses of those countries. Line them up on your bed like royal dolls.”
“Wha—!?” I choked. “I—You—That’s not—!”
“See?” She wagged a finger. “Typical man.”
“H-Haa…”
I sighed and tried to hide the rising heat on my cheeks. She was clearly just teasing… right?
…Right?
Still, my eyes drifted back to the stones. It felt surreal that she would just hand over the keys to this treasure trove.
“This is too much.”
“Nonsense.” She waved it off. “You’re my apprentice now. And my apprentice deserves resources. Besides,” her expression softened, just a little, “if I don’t make it… someone should put all of this to use. But I’m not a kind person to let someone else I didn’t know find this place in the future and use these treasures. So, it would be better to be used by you, my apprentice.”
I looked at her. That smile.
So casual. So teasing.
And yet… behind it, I could sense something deeper.
A quiet kind of farewell.
It wasn’t just generosity.
It was trust.
And maybe… the quiet hope that even if she was gone, something she built would keep living on in someone else’s hands.
But I didn’t say anything.
Instead, I placed my hand against the rune plate again, letting the mana pulse confirm my bond to the vault.
“I’ll use them wisely.”
“Just don’t use them to blow yourself up.”
“No promises.” I joked lightly.
She laughed.
She then led me to the next area.
The third area was a smithy—and not just a symbolic one. The air grew noticeably warmer as we entered. A mana furnace glowed in the corner, surrounded by racks of hammers, tongs, and molds. The scent of forged metal hung thick in the air. Several enchanted ingots and raw monster materials sat sorted in bins nearby.
“I use this place when the tools I’m crafting need to be melted, shaped, or infused directly with heat.” She ran a hand along a half-finished blade resting on the anvil. “I make weapons too, though I’m no dwarf. Still, they’re strong enough for new adventurers.”
She smiled faintly, a mix of pride and modesty. But I could tell—her work was precise. Dedicated.
The last room left me speechless once more.
Rows of finished magic tools, lined up like relics in a royal exhibit. Wands, rings, pendants, mechanical contraptions I couldn’t name. Some glowed faintly. Others emitted low hums. There were even a few hovering in the air, suspended by anti-gravity enchantments.
And in the far corner—weapons. But none that I recognized.
No swords. No bows. No axes.
Just sleek, curved metal objects, some with embedded mana chambers.
My heart skipped a beat.
“Are you familiar with firearms?” she asked, watching my gaze.
“Y-Yeah,” I replied, still stunned. “In my past world, firearms were used in wars—rifles, handguns, even cannons.”
She nodded thoughtfully.
“I tried creating a magic handgun several times. But… all failed.”
“Oh?”
She approached a table where the broken prototype lay—its barrel cracked, the mana chamber melted.
“The mana overloaded the frame. It couldn’t handle the burst. I still haven’t found a material that can store and release mana with high speed, precision, and penetration.”
Her voice was calm, but I could hear the frustration under it—the drive of someone chasing a dream just beyond her grasp.
“I see…” I murmured, stepping closer.
In a way, it was comforting.
Even someone as powerful and skilled as her still failed. Still experimented. Still chased improvement.
It made her seem… real.
And it made me want to learn even more.
After we finished touring the house, we stepped outside. The sun was already dipping low in the sky, casting a golden glow over the world. The gentle light spilled across the open field beyond the wooden porch, painting the grass in hues of amber and gold. A soft breeze brushed past us, carrying the faint scent of earth and distant flowers.
The land stretched endlessly—wide, open, quiet. A sea of short grasses bordered by the shadowy embrace of the forest’s edge. It was peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Something had been gnawing at my curiosity for a while now.
“…Do monsters not come here?”
Selena shook her head, folding her arms.
“No. I’ve set up several magic tools around the perimeter. They deploy barrier fields automatically the moment a monster enters detection range—ground or air, it doesn’t matter.”
I blinked. “That’s… really advanced.”
She glanced at me, then smirked. “Well, I am the one who made them.”
That smug pride again.
I chuckled lightly—until a thought struck me.
“You’ve got dozens of S-Rank magic stones stored in your house… So there must be S-Rank monsters roaming this forest too. Can your barriers really withstand their attacks?”
Her smile didn’t fade. “Of course. I wouldn’t be alive otherwise.”
I was silent.
Because that wasn’t just confidence—it was truth.
But then she scratched the side of her head, a little sheepish.
At first, I thought she was about to admit a flaw in her work. Maybe a weakness. But no—this was Selena. She’d already planned for everything.
“Well… The barriers might only last for a few hours against an S-Rank monster if I’m not here,” she admitted. “But I installed an alarm system too. If something strong gets close, it alerts me instantly. All I have to do is teleport home and refill the magic stones.”
She looked toward the distant edge of the grassland, her eyes narrowed like she was seeing through the trees.
“And by the time the monster gets tired, I’ll be waiting. And I’ll kill it.”
She said it so simply. As if it was no different from picking herbs in the forest.
“That’s how I’ve taken down most of the S-Rank threats around here,” she added. “I’m not strong enough to face them head-on… so I fight smart.”
I stared at her in awe.
Her barriers didn’t just stop one or two blows. They could withstand hours of attacks from beings strong enough to level cities. And she designed it all—alone.
She glanced up at the sky again. Her expression softened. “When I first came here… the barrier only covered this clearing. Just up to the edges of this grassland. It was set up by my master.”
Her voice dropped, distant now. As if it belonged to someone far younger, speaking from a place long ago.
“She bought the tool from dwarves. Said it was enough for a peaceful life out here.”
She smiled faintly, not looking at me.
“That old tool eventually wore out. I was still learning magic engineering back then, but I wanted to help. So I made my first barrier.”
She paused, just long enough for the silence to settle between us.
“She praised me,” she whispered. “Said I did better than the dwarves.”
She laughed once—soft, almost bitter.
“After that, I kept improving it. Expanded the barrier north and west. All the way to the coastline, so I could swim there while she watched. She always said I looked like a silver fish splashing in the waves…”
So she really did turn the deepest part of Amazon Forest, and even beyond it—the coastline, the border of this continent—into her safe zone.
Her voice then cracked, just barely.
“And then… she was gone.”
She looked back at her house, arms wrapping around her torso like she was trying to hold something in.
“I didn’t want the house—her house—to fall. So I kept expanding the barriers. Added more layers. Different types. I covered the southern fields. The eastern ridge. Everything.”
She pointed toward the distant trees. Her hand was steady, but her voice wasn’t.
“But no matter how strong the barriers got, they still couldn’t last half a day against a single S-Rank monster. So I made another tool. A portable alarm that sends a signal directly to me the moment it detects one high-tier attack.”
Her fingers curled into a fist.
“I don’t sleep much,” she added quietly. “Just in case it rings.”
I didn’t say anything.
Because what could I say?
She had built a fortress of solitude here. A life stitched together with runes and memories. All of it because she couldn’t bear to lose the last thing her master left behind.
She wasn’t just protecting herself.
She was guarding someone’s legacy.
I looked at her again—this silver-haired woman who lived alone in the heart of the most dangerous forest in the world.
She wasn’t just strong.
She endured. In silence. In solitude.
For someone else’s dream.
And her own dream.
A living monument to someone else’s kindness.
And now… I was part of that world.
She stood silently, her silver hair swaying gently in the breeze as the sun dipped lower, bathing the world in soft gold. For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The wind rustled through the grass, brushing against our legs like whispers from the forest beyond.
Then she turned to me and smiled—subtle, but warm.
“Don’t worry.”
Her voice was soft, but confident.
“I’ve already killed every high-ranking monster in the surrounding region. All the way beyond the barriers.”
She raised her hand and gestured outward—past the sea of grass, toward the forest's shadowy edge.
“Do you know the size of the Herrschaft Empire?”
I blinked. “Yeah… It’s huge.”
Based on the map, the Herrschaft Empire spanned as wide as both the Zieghart Kingdom and the southern Astraea Kingdom combined—one of the largest known human territories.
She nodded. “That’s about how far I cleared.”
I gawked, my brain practically stopped processing her words. “Wait… What? That far?”
Her smirk returned. “Yup. I didn’t just expand the barrier—I made sure the lands outside it were clean too. From here to a radius equal to the Empire’s size, there shouldn’t be a single S-Rank or even A-Rank monster left alive.”
I swallowed hard.
She said it so casually—as if she’d just trimmed the lawn.
“So relax,” she added, voice softer now. “Until your human lifespan ends, this place is safe.”
This place would be safe for at least a century or even longer.
She let the silence breathe for a second longer, then chuckled.
“And don’t worry about B-Rank monsters or lower either. They couldn’t even scratch the outermost layer of my barrier.”
“...You really don’t do things halfway, huh.”
Her smile widened, but this time, it wasn’t just pride.
It was warmth.
A quiet sense of belonging, forged not just in power—but in memory.
“Of course not,” she said softly. “This is her home… my home… And someday, it will be yours too.”
I blinked, my breath catching for a second.
Not because of the words themselves—but because of the way she said them.
As if this place, wrapped in barriers and silence and ghosts of the past, wasn’t just meant to protect—but to be passed down. Shared.
It wasn’t just about safety.
It was about legacy.
About giving someone else a place to belong when the world had taken everything from them.
Just like her master once gave it to her.
And now… she was giving it to me.
“…Thanks,” I finally murmured.
I looked out again over the vast open grasslands, trying to imagine the sheer distance she was describing.
All that land… cleared by just one woman?
But then she added, almost like an afterthought.
“Even so...”
She paused, her gaze turning toward the towering trees in the distance—silent, ancient, endless.
“That whole area I cleared is not even a quarter of the forest’s full depth.”
My eyes widened. “...What?”
She nodded slowly.
“This forest is old. Older than the countries that border it. Most of it has never been mapped. In fact, as far as I know, the forest in the latest map I saw last month is less than a quarter of the forest’s full depth starting from the forest border. The actual depth of it... might be larger than every country combined.”
I felt the back of my neck tingle.
The weight of that knowledge sank in slowly—like realizing you were standing at the edge of the world and couldn’t see the bottom.
“It’s not just the monsters that make this place dangerous,” she murmured. “It’s the silence. The things no one talks about. The places no one dared go during the war. That’s why people stopped trying to chart it.”
She looked back at me and smiled—softer this time, like the wind easing after a storm.
“But you don’t need to worry about any of that. As long as I’m here… no—” her voice wavered gently, “even if I’m not… this house, this place… it’ll always be your safest home.”
I couldn’t respond.
Because in that golden light, with the wind weaving through her silver hair and the vast, untamed forest rising behind her, Selena didn’t look like someone fading away—
—she looked like a guardian.
A wall between the wild madness of the world…
…and the fragile peace she had carved into its heart.
A protector.
And the safe zone she carved into the heart of chaos—with her hands, her pain… and her love.