"I really am a little surprised," Lude said, looking at the mandrake.
"Mandrake is a fairly expensive plant material, but it shouldn't be so rare that a single one deserves its own display case. After all... it's only the lowest-grade material."
"Hahahahaha..." The Collector burst into hearty laughter. "That's right, that's exactly right! How could one little mandrake possibly deserve an entire display case to itself?"
As she spoke, she yanked open the door beneath the case. A whole pile of dried mandrakes came tumbling out with a clatter. "Only this whole pile of mandrakes deserves its own display case on the first floor!"
"That one just happened to be in better condition, so I put it out as a display piece!"
"That's quite a lot..." Lude couldn't help exclaiming.
"Right?" the Collector said with a smile. "That's how materials are. They occur naturally, after all, so most of them aren't rare enough to be truly one of a kind."
"Look at the antiques in that room we just came from. There weren't any identical items in the cabinets beneath them, but the antiques themselves might not be as valuable as some materials!"
"Of course, I mean valuable, not expensive. Ordinary people know about antiques, but they don't know about materials."
Just then, the Collector suddenly lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Young man, don't be surprised when we go into the next room. You're going to see something interesting."
"I haven't added many new things to the exhibition hall over the years, but that thing is absolutely my pride and joy."
Lude smiled politely and nodded, though he didn't pay it much mind. He assumed the Collector simply wanted to show off her most prized possession.
Yet the instant he stepped into the third room, he still couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
A massive head lay in a display case in the middle of the room. Its iron-gray scales gleamed like metal, its teeth were sharp as daggers, and it was a full meter long. Everything about it proclaimed what it was—
"This is..." Lude moved closer to the head. "A Dragon Beast's?"
"To be precise, it's a Bohemian Forest Dragon."
The Collector came over to the dragon, smiling. She held her fist against its head, where a deep dent matched the size of her enormous fist.
"This..." Lude hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Did you hunt it?"
The Collector seemed pleased by Lude's prompt. She nodded and patted her belly. "Well, not exactly. Its wings had already been shredded by an anti-aircraft machine gun, so I just got lucky."
"After all, while I can't compare to Don Juan, the Society's president, as a [fifth-tier] caster, my Secret Art is rather special. It gives me the strength of a [fourth-tier] caster who specializes in combat."
Lude froze slightly. Fifth tier, fourth tier—were casters ranked?
"Hehehe..."
Seeing Lude's expression, the Collector chuckled. "Looks like you didn't know. But that makes sense. Casters themselves aren't ranked, so it's only natural you'd be surprised."
"Casters aren't ranked, but arts are."
"Illumination Art, Spiritism, Silence Art, Ritualism, and Alchemy, which you want to study, are all ranked."
"In 1728, the Arcane Society convened a group of scholars and divided these supernatural arts into seven tiers. Tier six was the pinnacle of what ordinary people could master; tier seven was an art beyond ordinary people."
"Alchemy, for instance, originally had four ranks of its own, but it was forcibly divided into seven tiers as well. The first and second tiers are Nigredo, the third and fourth are Albedo, and the fifth and sixth are Citrinitas. The seventh is Rubedo, which, they say, no ordinary person has achieved in hundreds of years."
"Still, these subjects are all incredibly difficult to learn, and only the major organizations have mastered them. Most importantly, they jealously guard that knowledge and almost never teach anyone outside their core members."
"Our current president, Don Juan, for example, is a fifth-tier user of both Illumination Art and Spiritism."
"Miss Siana is a sixth-tier user of Ritualism. Ritualism is the study of rituals, but she's no weaker than President Don Juan, so she must be proficient in some other art as well."
"Professor Beshe is also an Illumination Art user, and he's even reached the threshold of tier seven, just like with his Alchemy."
"He studied Illumination Art purely to help with his Alchemy, so he barely looked into its combat applications. And Alchemy itself isn't an art that directly improves your fighting ability. I suppose that's why he died in such a ridiculous way. Hahahaha..."
"He didn't study its combat applications?" Lude asked curiously.
The Collector laughed and patted her belly. "That's right. These arts weren't invented for fighting, but to understand the world more deeply and find a path to transcendence. Illumination Art, for instance, is the art of lighting the way and dispelling darkness. Radiance, healing, enchantment, amplification, dispelling, protection, and divination all fall under it."
Lude nodded. He understood the basics now. Illumination Art and Alchemy were both broad disciplines.
And based on how dangerous the Collector felt to him, Lude estimated that his current body alone was probably equivalent to a third-tier caster. That was just a feeling, though.
As if she had noticed Lude's thoughts, the Collector smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
"Don't sell yourself short. We may not have studied those hard-to-understand arts, but when it comes to fighting, Secret Arts are what matter. Take that kid Aleppo, for example. He's assassinated several senior scholars."
Lude smiled and nodded, making it seem as if he and the Collector were on the same side.
But inwardly, he was thinking things over.
Lord Hypnos was so powerful. What tier of caster was he? At least seventh-tier, perhaps even beyond the reach of ordinary people.
As for how Malinkov could match him without a Secret Art, even though Lude had injected the first dose of Wyvern Blood Essence, that was easy to explain—
Malinkov was definitely an Iron Ferrule Art practitioner, and he was probably quite skilled at it!
That made Lude look forward to it even more. Iron Ferrule Art was the purest combat art, after all.
But that would have to wait until after he took Malinkov down.
Back in the present, Lude looked at the dent in the dark-gray dragon's head and felt a faint ache in his own forehead.
The study of dragon combat was a common interest among this world's casters. Rupert Hercules, author of Draconic Genealogy, was one of its foremost experts. His book included several short passages comparing the strength of different Dragon Beasts.
In the book, the Bohemian Forest Dragon was rated as [slightly weaker than a Lion Dragon]. That slight difference probably meant a four-to-six chance of winning.
In other words, perhaps the Collector's fist couldn't crack Lude's skull, but she could probably punch right through his chest in return... Her Secret Art had to be focused on hand-to-hand combat. Otherwise, she couldn't possibly have killed a dragon with one punch.
"What are these, then?"
Lude looked curiously at the display cases around him. He'd spotted something familiar: the Silver Dinner Knife Lord Hypnos had used. Since it wasn't particularly valuable, Lude had given it to Sally.
Why was that thing displayed alongside animal specimens?
Before you continue