How many hours have we been waiting for the mayor?

It was clearly morning when we arrived, but the time has already passed noon.

This... Are they intentionally ignoring us? right?

Ugh... Should I just topple the tower?

"Please be patient."

"What?"

"You had an expression like you were about to smash the tower and bring it all down."

What's with that detailed expression.

But you know, the Temple of Life is a really renowned place, right? They make pilgrims travel all over the world, caring for the lives of the world... It's a kind of global service organization, isn't it?

It's a place full of people who just work to care for life, without the walls of race or country.

And they're neglecting such an important figure from that place, the hero and his party? And they're not even giving us proper meals!

No proper meals!!!

This is too much. No matter what, I can't just let this go. I don't know what kind of scheme is going on, but I won't just let this slide. I'll bring down the heavenly punishment!

"Calm down. They must be very busy."

"Do you mean that the interests of this city are more important than the hero and the Temple of Life? That can't be true."

This hero sometimes doesn't seem to know the true value of himself.

I grumbled a lot as I opened the lid of the small wooden basket I had created with creation magic.

I should eat something first. As they say, a dead person looks good after eating.

"Let's eat something."

Today's menu is sandwiches. Simple food with various vegetables, meat, and sauce between bread.

Of course, this is a food that doesn't yet exist in this world.

Add some rich milk to it, and it's a perfect lunch! Simple but excellent!

But I don't know what kind of person this mayor is! When I meet him, I'll have to give him a good thrashing!

I acknowledge the skill that turned this small mage town into such a large city and built the tall tower. But I can't just let the breach of the contract slide!

After finishing a few sandwiches with the hero,

"Ah, it seems I'm quite late."

The culprit who made us wait for so long finally showed up.

"I heard someone from the Temple of Life had come, so I wondered who it was... It's been a while."

"Oh, so this is the mayor the one we've been waiting for. I recognize that face."

The young man who was next to me when I was checking the mana stones of this town was now standing there, a middle-aged man due to the passage of time.

"It's been quite some time, but you haven't changed at all."

"Well, even elves who live for a thousand years don't change much in a few decades, so it's not that remarkable."

Just a few decades.

"Anyway, I'm truly sorry. I should have come right away, but there was an unavoidable external inspection task. If I had known, I would have sent someone to tell you to come in the afternoon."

"I was a bit angry, but it's fine. Since I'm here now, it's done."

Of course, the anger hasn't subsided.

I'm just keeping it bottled up inside.

The middle-aged man, who is now the mayor of Babel, doesn't know my inner thoughts as he sits down in the reception room chair and says,

"If you're from the Temple of Life, then your purpose must be about that mana stone..."

"Yes, that's the only reason I'm here."

The mayor nods understandingly.

"I'm very sorry, but we don't know the reason for that either."

"Hmm...?"

"You see, we don't directly produce those mana stones ourselves."

That's true. Mana stones are not produced by human hands.

They are extracted from the monsters that are hunted.

But still, this is too little, isn't it? It's no different from just giving a token amount for show!

"We're also quite troubled. As the size of the city has grown and the influx of mana stones has increased too much... It's not easy to filter out the problematic stones. It's gotten to the point that there are even traders who bypass us and directly purchase the stones to use."

"Directly?"

"Yes. The trade of mana stones is entirely managed by our tower, but there are those who ignore that and purchase and use them."

The mayor started grumbling a lot.

"Even the growth of this tower was due to the fact that we thoroughly inspect the mana stones coming from the outside and sell only the problem-free ones to the mages... But the mages don't seem to understand the importance of this work, and they're just trying to make money in the middle, saying this and that. They make a lot of money, and then they talk about expanding the staff or whatever. Ugh..."

The mayor grumbled quite a bit. Hmm... It seems to be quite a struggle.

"We are also making efforts, but the process of confirming the problematic mana stones is taking time. There's no helping it. In the first place, there aren't many inspection tools, and some of them have been damaged in the process... Right now, we're only able to inspect with about 3 of them."

3...?

I'm sure I made around 10 for them. So they're all broken??

It hasn't even been a few decades... Ah... Hmm...

Now that I think about it, I didn't put any damage prevention magic on them.

Well, in that case, it's understandable. Even an iron shovel would wear out and break after being used to dig soil for decades.

"So, would you be able to provide us with new inspection tools?"

"Hmm. If that's the case, I can certainly do that. I didn't know there was such a situation."

I had no idea they were trying to sort out the mana stones with just 3 shovels, working day and night.

Anyway, they've managed to save up enough money to build this tower. Impressive.

"I'm glad to hear that. I was even thinking of contacting the Temple of Life, but now that you've come directly, it seems the Goddess of Life is helping us."

Hmm. Since I'm helping, that's not exactly wrong! Of course!

"But about those inspection tools, is there a way to make them more convenient?"

"More convenient tools?"

"Yes. It takes a long time to sort them one by one. It would be great if we could do it faster."

Faster, huh. Hmm...

"How about something like this?"

I then created a large metal box with a wide input opening on top.

I added an output on the side and another one at the bottom, and made a long bridge to place the box below.

I then incorporated the mana stone inspection function into it.

The mana stones fed into it would be quickly inspected, and those with traces of darkness would be expelled through the side output. I also added a power switch and a slot for a mana stone to power it.

"I'll have to test and adjust it as we go. Could you bring a box of uninspected mana stones?"

"Yes, I'll go get them right away."

The mayor quickly went out and gave some instructions to the people outside, then came back in.

"So, how does this box work?"

"Remember the tools I made for you before?"

"Of course, you showed me how to use them directly."

I chuckled a little and said,

"This is completely different. Seeing it in action will be faster than me explaining it."

At that, a person entered the reception room carrying the box.

"Alright, let's give it a demonstration. But first..."

I created a small space under the bottom output, and placed a small basket there.

All set. Okay, then...

"Pour the mana stones into the input opening at the top."

At my instruction, the person poured the mana stones into the opening, not one by one, but all at once.

"Why are you putting them in one by one? Just dump them in all at once!"

I made the input opening big enough for that purpose! As long as they don't overflow, it'll sort them out on its own!

The internal structure is very simple, so there's no risk of it breaking down! It's made of solid iron, so it's sturdy as can be!

I've especially focused on durability and inspection speed, you know!

Hearing my words, the person poured the mana stones into the opening all at once.

I then inserted a clean mana stone into the slot and pressed the power switch.

The mana stones filled in the input opening started pouring out through the bottom output.

"Ooh... So how does this find those mana stones?"

"Just watch."

After about half a box's worth had come out the bottom,

Beep!

With a short sound, one mana stone was ejected through the side output.

"Hmm?"

"Good, it seems to be working well."

I handed the mage the mana stone that had been ejected to the side.

"Hold it up to the diamond on your sword."

"Ah, yes."

The mage, who had been standing there dumbly like a sack of barley, was slightly flustered by the mana stone I handed him, but he held it up to the diamond that absorbs the darkness.

Swoosh.

The shard of darkness embedded in the mana stone was naturally absorbed into the diamond.

"Did you see? Now if you pour them in from the top, it will automatically inspect and eject the problematic mana stones to the side. This should be enough."

The performance had developed to the point where it could already inspect a whole box of mana stones.

At the end of pouring that one box, only about two problematic mana stones came out.

"Excellent! With this, we can quickly process the backlog of work! Ah, if it's not too much trouble, could you make a few more for us?"

"Hmm. I'll make 2 more, so a total of 3. That should be enough."

"5! Please make a total of 5! The influx of mana stones is so high that even 3 won't be enough!"

Ugh... 5, huh.

Well, I can't help it.

I quickly copied the existing box and made 4 more.

"But there must be no shortage of mana stones being passed on to the Temple of Life. Understood?"

"Oh, of course there won't be!"

And so I handed over the new inspection tools to the mayor of Babel.

With this, we should be able to properly collect the mana stones with darkness in them! Un!

But that was just my hopeful wish.