Water Element Crystals

Benjamin had actually been against it the moment he saw the name "Tree of Time and Space."

What the hell?

It was obviously just a ginkgo tree. What did it have to do with time and space? Giving it some impressive, edgy name didn't make it any less of a ginkgo.

The Kingdom Plant Encyclopedia didn't have much to say about the "Tree of Time and Space," either. It said that this kind of tree had gone extinct in the kingdom and was rare across the entire continent. Only a few of its leaves had been preserved. Legend had it that someone could use one to create a Time-Space Beacon, which would let them travel through time and space to different worlds.

When he saw the words "different worlds," Benjamin's eyelid twitched involuntarily.

Could it be...

He carefully recalled the last night before he'd crossed over: he'd been sitting at his desk, with his computer on it, his phone to his right, and a stack of books to his left. The ginkgo leaf he'd picked up and used as a bookmark should have been tucked into one of those books.

If he'd accidentally fallen asleep, he might have knocked the books over and dislodged the leaf...

"..."

So the ginkgo leaf was to blame for all this?

Benjamin found it utterly unscientific. A ginkgo leaf could carry someone across worlds? That was ridiculous. But then again, he'd already crossed over. How could he still expect things to make sense?

What was done was done. Whether the ginkgo leaf could carry people across worlds no longer mattered to him. His top priority was breaking the curse on himself. He should be focusing on where he could find a leaf from this so-called "Tree of Time and Space."

The book didn't say.

Apparently, in the Hori Kingdom, ginkgo leaves had become the stuff of legend—and not even a popular legend, just an obscure one. They occasionally appeared in obscure books or stories, but no one had ever actually seen one.

That was why the Kingdom Plant Encyclopedia's description of them was so brief.

Damn it... This was enough to drive someone crazy.

How was he supposed to get his hands on something that existed only in legend?

Benjamin's efforts to break the curse had hit a dead end.

Michelle was impressive, all right. She'd found such an incredibly rare object to use as the medium for her curse. Was that really necessary? She could've just picked up any old leaf. Now he was the one stuck with the problem.

...Wait.

If ginkgo leaves were so rare, how had Michelle gotten hers?

Suddenly, Benjamin seemed to realize something. He said to the system, "Quick, bring up that picture of the ginkgo leaf you showed me earlier. The one Michelle was holding. I want another look."

The system seemed reluctant. "Why? That uses up a lot of memory."

Benjamin immediately urged it on. "Quit stalling and hurry up! Memory can't sprout leaves just sitting there."

"Fine, fine. Give me a moment." At Benjamin's urging, the system finally got moving. After a mechanical whir from the system, the picture appeared in front of Benjamin half a minute later.

Benjamin examined it intently.

"Zoom in. A little more..."

Just as he'd thought...

As the picture grew larger and the details of the leaf became clearer, Benjamin finally realized where Michelle's ginkgo leaf had come from.

It was the bookmark he'd picked up before crossing over.

So the whole story had probably gone like this: first, he'd found the leaf and used it as a bookmark. Then the bookmark had carried him here, where he'd become Benjamin. The leaf that had brought him across had probably fallen somewhere nearby, where Michelle had found it. Then she'd used it to curse him.

So Michelle really had just picked up some random leaf to use as the medium.

Who could he blame?

He'd have to blame the leaf. It had caused all this trouble. If he ever wrote a memoir, he'd title it The Ginkgo Leaf That Started a Bloody Disaster.

After all that time spent studying the curse, then all that time studying ginkgo trees, this was all Benjamin had to show for it. He felt like crying.

It seemed unlikely that he could break the curse on his own. The ginkgo trees in this world were extinct, so he couldn't find a leaf to use as the medium. And the only ginkgo leaf he knew of was in Michelle's hands. What was the difference between that and not knowing where it was?

After turning it over in his mind, Benjamin finally gave up on breaking the curse for now. He didn't have the means to do it, so there was no point wasting energy on it. People said that willows planted without thought might grow into shade. Maybe if he put it out of his mind, he'd stumble across another ginkgo leaf one day.

He'd better get on with something else.

He set the Kingdom Plant Encyclopedia aside and took out the hidden copy of Introduction to Magic.

Apart from the section on curses, Benjamin was also very interested in enchantment and making magic items.

After a moment's thought, he turned to the section on making magic items.

As for enchantment, his bullets had already been blessed, so there was no need to enchant them. It wouldn't be useful to him in the near future. He knew the least about magic items, and was curious about those too.

The cross the bishop had given him should count as a magic item, right? Of course, the Church wouldn't call it a "magic item." They'd probably call it something like a "divine art item."

If he could learn how to make magic items, his strength would improve by leaps and bounds.

He eagerly began to read.

But when he finished the section, he was disappointed once again.

The book said that making magic items was quite difficult and required some very rare materials, but those weren't the main issue. The real problem was that most of the techniques for making magic items had been lost in the Church's slaughter. The book only described how to make one kind of magic item: the robes worn by Michelle and the other mages from Silent Academy. They supposedly enhanced the power of magic a little.

Benjamin had only one thing to say about that: what the hell would he do with those robes? Wearing one would be like announcing to the whole world, "I'm a mage, come arrest me!" The Church would be thrilled.

Benjamin shook his head helplessly.

He'd gotten nothing out of the section on magic items. After being disappointed twice in a row, it was hard to stay optimistic.

He could barely muster the energy to read the section on enchantment.

Forget it. He'd take a break and do something else to lift his spirits.

Benjamin closed Introduction to Magic and hid it away. After a moment's thought, he took out the stone known as a Water Element Crystal. At least he'd asked for this when he'd collected compensation for medical expenses from those two.

Hopefully, this thing wouldn't disappoint him.

As the name suggested, it was a crystal of pure water element. According to them, it had a wide range of uses. He could use it to improve his elemental affinity, help cast water magic, or as a material for making magic items... They'd said that if Benjamin hadn't saved their teacher, they never would've parted with it.

Since they'd said all that, Benjamin was even less willing to let it go.

A Water Element Crystal...

If possible, Benjamin wanted to use something this precious to improve his own strength. That was how ordinary mages used it, too. But there was a problem: Benjamin wasn't an ordinary mage. Just because something worked for everyone else didn't mean it would work for him.

The way Benjamin improved his strength was simple: strengthen the Triangle Glyph.

But could he bring this thing into the Consciousness Space?

The fact that he couldn't put anything in his Consciousness Space had always been a major regret of Benjamin's. Other transmigration protagonists had portable storage spaces where they could put whatever they wanted, and even farm inside them until they'd created a whole world. But his Consciousness Space couldn't hold a thing.

He'd tried before. The only things that could enter the Consciousness Space were himself, water element, and the system's voice, which he couldn't turn off no matter what.

The Water Element Crystal was made of water element, but it had taken physical form. He didn't know if he could bring it inside.

There was no point wondering. Benjamin decided to try.

Holding the Water Element Crystal, he closed his eyes and entered the Consciousness Space. But when he opened them and looked, his hands were empty. There wasn't the slightest trace of the crystal.

Damn it, he couldn't bring it in.

Benjamin returned to reality and stared at the bright blue stone in his hand, fretting.

Wasn't this stone supposed to be water element? If it was water element, shouldn't it be able to enter the Consciousness Space? Why couldn't it get in?

Water element...

Suddenly, Benjamin smacked his forehead, realizing what the problem was.

Since it was water element, he should use the method for bringing water element into the Consciousness Space! Of course, the method he used to enter himself wouldn't work.

That had to be it!

Benjamin immediately adjusted his state until he was once again in that strange condition, with one foot in the Consciousness Space and the other in the real world.

Then he focused his mind on the Water Element Crystal.

In a flash, the Water Element Crystal disappeared!

Suppressing his excitement, Benjamin entered the Consciousness Space again. The bright blue stone was now floating in midair, giving off a faint, moist aura. Water elements swam around it happily like a school of fish.

Seeing this, Benjamin breathed a sigh of relief.

He'd finally managed to bring the Water Element Crystal inside.

If even this thing turned out to be useless, he'd have to storm the gates of Silent Academy and complain that they'd paid his medical expenses with counterfeit money.