Mastore 116 - Dumpster

Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 116

The Gate’s effect on convenience store clerk (4)

There is this trick I learned while preparing for my license. When an object has multiple types of magic cast on it, selecting and removing only the magic I want to eliminate.

And not all magic uses the same amount of mana. For example, slowing, silencing, and shock absorption spells would each require different amounts. Weak magic, strong magic.

I’m planning to applying this idea now. Water that swallows fire, fire that burns water. If one of them contains more mana and we categorize them as strong magic and weak magic?

I could select and erase just one of them. Though I don't know which one would be erased. When I explained this, Noona blinked several times.

“You sound like you've been doing this for five years? Not someone who hasn't even been at it for a month. What is this, your second life?"

"Stop saying embarrassing things. Are we really doing this? If one side is erased, it'll just become either plain water or plain fire."

The vial was roughly 100ml, filled slightly more than halfway. In other words, if I accidentally spill it, a mysterious damage claim will fly in from Noona's office—

“Sure. I didn’t tell anyone I brought this, and I didn’t bring it to use it anyway.”

"Then why on earth are we doing this..."

“Because it's necessary. You can use it all if you need to.”

I looked her in the eyes to see if she was serious, and her expression was dead serious. Even though I still haven't the faintest idea what her intention is...

“I’ll do it outside, so come out, Noona.”

If this is the wind, I’ll just go with it. Grasping the bottle, I went outside and briefly surveyed the surroundings. The eerie state of the street made it seem like the store would be empty for hours, with only flies buzzing around.

When I turned around, Noona was holding the dog in her arms. I asked immediately.

“I'm starting now.”

"Yeah."

I'd already thought of how to do it. It's not complicated. Dropping a few drops of the bottle's contents onto the back of my hand.

The issue is with what mindset I should do this. When erasing unwanted magic before, I knew exactly 'what needed to be erased'. Manager told me.

Now I don't know that. All I knew was that the fire and water had different amounts of mana, without knowing exactly how much each side held.

In this case, it's process of elimination. Starting numerically from 100, and going until a winner emerges.

After taking a deep breath, I dripped a couple of drops onto my hand. The unknown substance—unclear whether liquid or gas—landed before swaying for a moment…

Then it ignited into flames before quickly evaporating into faint steam. It's neither hot nor cold, just numb. Perhaps my constitution erased even the heat and cold sensations I should have felt.

I glanced back and Mongmong had its ears pinned back, while Noona was looking at me with a slightly concerned expression. I satisfied her curiosity.

"It's not hot to me, Noona. Not cold either."

Only now does her expression relax. I focused again. Neither of them had 100 units of mana. Next, I thought about 90…

"...Ooh. The boss has become very serious, Miss Yoonha."

“He’s been like that before too. He seems like he was born that way.”

What are they saying.

After four attempts like this, the outcome was decided. Thinking of 50, I tilted the bottle, and the liquid that fell on the back of my hand disappeared, emitting steam.

Meanwhile, the flame remained. It stayed on the back of my hand like a candle without a wick, burning for quite a while. Getting tired of waiting, I waved my hand to brush it off.

"This seems to be water-burning fire? Not burning water."

"Yes. That’s what it looks like.”

“Now that we’re done, tell me why we did this.”

I asked purely out of curiosity, but Yoonha’s reaction made it clear this wasn’t something to discuss out of mere curiosity. Her face took on an annoyed expression as she set down Mongmong and took out her tobacco-free cigarette.

After taking a deep drag and exhaling, she spoke in a tone that reeked of irritation. It wasn't directed at me.

"That was brought from the gate in the Academy District. The one that was on the news."

“No, when did you go in and out of there, Noona?"

“Right before coming here. Anyway, that thing normally shouldn't be found inside the Academy District gate.”

According to her, the scenery inside the gates varies depending on the district in this city. That must be what she meant earlier about themes or whatever.

The Academy District gate leads to a sea. The gate near the Forest Park, about 10km to the southeast, leads to a volcanic zone, and this water-burning fire is primarily a medium found in that volcanic zone.

So when Noona first saw this, she suspected that a small volcano might have erupted underwater inside the sea-themed gate. You know, like when they say a volcano erupted in some island nation—that kind of concept.

“That’s why I asked you to check if that was the case or not… Turns out it wasn’t.”

“What happens if it wasn’t?”

"It means they're resonating. The Forest Park gate and the Academy District gate."

I took it literally. Agree. Resonance. It's when one aligns one's opinions or actions with something else, and if there's nothing to align with, it can't be established. In other words...

“Does that mean there's an open gate near the Forest Park too?”

"I don't know that much. It might have already opened and closed, or it might actually be open."

"Hmm..."

“Like I said before, a gate opening isn’t dangerous in itself. Even if they warp the surrounding space and make a total mess, things go back to normal once the gates close.”

She had explained this to me before. The mere presence of an open gate isn't particularly dangerous, but problems arise the moment an open gate closes on its own.

Last time, Noona had mentioned natural disasters like earthquakes as examples, but I wasn't sure if natural disasters here matched those from my original world. I asked her bluntly.

"What kind of thing happens, roughly. Besides natural disasters."

When I asked, Noona looked at me with a slightly incredulous expression and questioned back.

“Did you grow up in the middle of nowhere or something?”

"With deer roaming at night and wild potatoes growing on the roadside, why?"

"Wow, if there's a place where gates don't open like that, I'd like to try living there too."

"Don't even think about it; there's nothing good about that town except that. Anyway, what happens?"

"Hmm...."

Noona thought for a moment, then exclaimed ‘aha!’ while pointing at me and spoke.

“Think of it like those deer you mentioned becoming extremely violent, or wild potatoes growing to the size of gym balls.”

I immediately pictured deer and wild potatoes in my mind, then imagined the deer delivering drop kicks or potatoes rolling down a four-lane road. Hmm...

“What a mess.”

“Right? Nobody really knows what kind of chaos will happen. I just used earthquakes or fires as examples because those are the major occurrences."

I'm not sure if I'm crazy or normal for thinking that earthquakes or fires might actually be preferable.

“Is there no way to prevent this beforehand?”

“Not that there aren’t any. The Association or Magic Bureau does issue forecasts, but each time they do, the range is narrow. So places where gates rarely appear don't usually get them—"

Due to the low probability of detection, they tend to operate in a makeshift manner. Thankfully, serious injuries rarely occur unless you're really unlucky, so most people don’t take it too seriously...

"—Well, that's it. Explanation over.”

With that, Noona takes a deep drag of her tobacco-free cigarette and exhales. The smoke dispersed lightly in the air as she stretched her arms.

"For that reason, I'm going to be running around like crazy again starting the day after tomorrow. I just pulled a 5-day all-nighter, and now this shit happens.”

“Is that even physically possible? A 5-day all-nighter?”

"Since it's not physically possible, I did it magically, you dummy. Having a strong body is really nice at times like this."

It seems there’s a spell that lets you work in the field for 120 hours without sleep. I bet the Department of Labor in this world has its lights on 24/7...

“Anyway, just be careful. Weird stuff might happen soon. Or have they already happened?”

“It’s always the same here. Troublemakers come and cause a scene, display racks get a bit damaged."

“What got broken?”

"The display racks got damaged. But I handled it, so don’t worry about it. Did you not hear anything from Manager?”

"Couldn't even talk to him. Been too busy... Oh."

Noona suddenly flinched and glanced downward. Mongmong had started rubbing his head against her leg.

The flinch was brief, and soon she was smiling brightly as she picked up Mongmong.

“Aww, you must've been bored listening to all that. But doesn't this hurt your arms, being lifted up like this?”

"This one is fine. More importantly, about that conversation earlier, Miss Yoonha."

“About what? The gates?”

Mongmong nods and continues speaking with a voice mixed with half doubt, half bewilderment.

"You mentioned that deer could become violent. Would that perhaps apply to stray dogs as well?"

Yoonha tilted her head slightly, puzzled, but I immediately understood what Mongmong was getting at. Could it be related to those wild dogs that had become aggressive in the park?

“It does apply. Why, are you worried?”

"This one is worried, but more than that..."

He slightly lifted his tail and began recounting the incident at the park in detail. At first, Noona's face grew somber as if feeling sorry for him, but...

As the story progressed, she became serious. She put Mongmong down and crouched down herself.

"Where exactly is this park located?"

"If you leave this store and walk right for about 30 minutes, it's there."

Mongmong stretched out its front paw, pointing to the far right of the road. Noona stared in the direction Mongmong pointed, then crouched down and took a drag of her cigarette. Must be a situation that makes her crave tobacco.

"...It's on the opposite side from the Academy District."

She muttered this and then suddenly stood up. She goes straight to the container, grabs the handle, and flings the door open. Looking inside, wow.

“Lee Chan, let's unload these together."

“The hell, why did you bring so much ramen?"

The inside of the container was packed to the brim with snacks, boxes of ramen, drinks, and more. Manager had always handled the logistics, but this was my first time doing it...

"Hey, the invoice."

"...Yeah."

But it wasn’t something I couldn't handle. I had done this kind of work before. Stuffing the invoice into my back pocket, I began unloading the inventory items Noona passed to me, piling them on the sidewalk.

This way I received 20 boxes of ramen, 15 sets of canned drinks, 18 sets of PET bottle drinks, 18 sets of beer. After that, I stopped thinking. There’s just so damn much.

“Here. Last one.”

After handing over the last bag containing daily necessities, she closes the container door and picks up Mongmong, hugging him.

“Mongmong, I’m sorry, but can you come with me to that park?”

"Of course. But before that, to Noss—"

“Go and come back, this guy.”

After answering tactfully, I asked Noona.

"Noona, instead of grumbling about working five days without sleep, why don't you get some proper rest?"

“No one else can confirm this right now. It has to be me.”

I understood what she meant. Given the circumstances, Noona seems to think a gate opened near the park where Mongmong lives. And it seems she’s right…

She can't tell other hunters about this. I mean, really, what would she say? ‘This dog says the strays in the park went wild, so I'm going to check it out’?

They'd immediately ask her to bring in the dog. With these thoughts, I watched Noona stuff Mongmong into her jacket. It didn't go very smoothly.

"Miss, gently! Rather let this one bite the reins!"

"No way. This creature won't let anyone but me ride on its back. Stay hidden here, and once we land, sneak up and talk to him. Got it?”

"Why is it like that?"

“How would I know? We've never actually talked to each other… Alright, this should be fine.”

She let go once Mongmong was fully inside. Mongmong’s head poked out from between the partially zipped-up jacket. Noona climbed onto the horse and patted its head gently.

“Lee Chan, sorry I couldn’t help organizing the inventory.”

"It's fine, just don't crash into a building."

"Sure. Then... bye."

“Yeah. Bye.”

"Farewell, Boss! This one shall return with enlightenment!"

As the horse began to flap its wings, Mongmong’s small voice could be heard.

"But Miss Yoonha. Is there nothing like a seatbelt?"

“Nope?”

And just like that, they flew away, leaving me alone on the street surrounded by roughly eighty boxes of inventory. Given the situation, the first thing I did was…

Immediately call Manager. She picked up after two rings.

[Oh, Chan-ah.]

"Manager-nim. Are you resting well?"

[No? I couldn't rest well because I was waiting for Chan's call.]









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