Killing a monster that had shown me its back was not difficult.
It was a magical monster, but it had no chance to use magic.
The spear pierced the monster’s back, and the magic cast through the spear burst its body apart.
Puh-eok!
Inside the ruptured flesh, a black stone was visible.
I moved the spear and pried the black stone out.
Once the black stone was removed, the monster collapsed.
It was a satisfying result.
Just then, Sope suddenly shouted.
[This is possible? That’s absurd! If this works, doesn’t that mean you can move through space without any device at all!]
He was making an even bigger fuss than I had expected.
I asked Sope,
“Was it that impressive?”
[Of course it was! To cross space means you can calculate coordinates and move anywhere, does it not! Even I could not do that when I was human.]
It seemed even Sope, who had been an archmage, had things he couldn’t do.
I felt proud, but I had to clear up the misunderstanding.
I threw cold water on his excitement.
“I can’t do that kind of calculation. I just moved according to what I directly saw and felt. I couldn’t set a place I couldn’t perceive as my destination.”
I had simply looked with my eyes and stepped toward that place.
It had been the same with spatial movement.
All I had done was switch the starting point and destination and move onto the path.
I had never memorized coordinates, nor had I calculated them.
In truth, I didn’t even know how to calculate them.
[Urgh.]
After hearing me, Sope let out a groan.
[In the end, it is only short-distance movement…….]
Sope seemed disappointed, but I was delighted.
There were several restrictions, but at this level, I now had a long-range attack technique that even Sope wouldn’t make me envious.
And on top of that, an evasion technique as well.
There was no way I wouldn’t be happy.
That did not mean I had given up on moving to faraway places.
Everything I had said I couldn’t do, I had eventually been able to do.
This would be the same.
Just as close-range attacks had become possible, just as I had become able to use magic, someday this would be possible too.
Sope seemed to think the same.
[No matter how I think about it, you are a magician I cannot measure. To call you a genius would be wrong because you are far too stupid, so should I call this a monster…….]
Sope had a strange way of giving compliments.
No matter how I looked at it, this was jealousy.
Just as I was about to ignore his words as usual, Sope asked again.
[More importantly, does it not consume a considerable amount of energy?]
I couldn’t ignore that.
He was right.
With just one short movement, a third of my energy had vanished.
It was an enormous consumption, on an entirely different level from other magic.
“You noticed? That’s strange. It wasn’t like this when using spatial movement before……”
[Of course it was not. When you use a spatial movement device, you are using the energy the device has gathered. Right now, you are leaping through space with your own energy.]
Come to think of it, even when using the ruins, if there wasn’t enough gathered dark energy, spatial movement itself couldn’t be performed.
[If it had been any other magician, he would have fainted from energy depletion.]
At Sope’s words, I looked at the faded black stone on the tip of my spear.
If energy was the problem, there was another method.
“I’ll have to process the black stone quickly.”
I had a new black stone.
With that black stone, I should be able to use it as a new battery sufficiently.
Hearing my words, Sope gave a warning.
[It will be troublesome if you overuse it too much. Problems may arise in the terraforming facility. Because you have been activating the black stones every time, maintaining the facility did not look easy.]
“Then I’ll have to hurry up and clean up the remaining monsters, and stop the sandstorm.”
If there were no monsters, there would be no need to maintain the sandstorm.
Just stopping the sandstorm should greatly reduce the energy consumption of the ruins.
At my words, Sope objected.
This time, he wasn’t simply nitpicking.
[……It would be better to maintain the defensive magic.]
“What? We dealt with the control entity, and if we just deal with the remaining ones like now, there shouldn’t be any problem, should there?”
I was confident against the Akzar monsters now.
As long as they didn’t move in swarms, dealing with them wouldn’t be difficult.
“Seeing the Americans, the other native monsters don’t seem like a problem either. And there’s no way the Demon King that was sealed will wake up again.”
There might be native creatures I didn’t know about, but there was no way they were stronger than the Akzar.
And with the very person who had placed the seal right beside me, there was no way the seal would suddenly come undone.
But Sope gave an answer different from what I expected.
[We dealt with the control entity east of the mountain range, but there is no reason there would be only one control entity on this planet, is there?]
“That……”
I was at a loss for words.
It was obvious, yet I had not thought of it one more time until now.
[The ones beyond the mountains must have awakened as well. Until now, there was a control entity here, so they did not cross over. But from now on, it will be different.]
Listening to him, I understood.
Sope had known this from before.
My expression hardened.
I asked in a low voice,
“Why didn’t you say anything until now?”
[I remembered it not long ago. After that, there was no situation in which to say it. And even if I had, it would not have helped.]
At Sope’s words, a bitter smile slipped out.
Even now, Sope did not regard me as an equal.
Strictly speaking, I was closer to his disciple, but at times like this, it was disappointing.
It was something he had done for my sake, and he wasn’t wrong either, so it wasn’t easy to get angry.
But I couldn’t hide my feelings.
My words came out curtly.
“Is there anything else you’ve hidden?”
[Well. I do not think there is anything in my memory.]
At Sope’s words, I let out a sigh.
Now, it was difficult to fully trust even the word “memory.”
He seemed to use “memory” half as an excuse.
So I spoke honestly.
“Knowing that you hid it doesn’t make me feel good. From now on, if you remember something, I’d like you to tell me right away.”
[That was my intention in the first place. Until now, you seemed to need more training as a magician, but things are different now.
It makes no sense for someone else to teach a magician who can handle space. From next time, I will tell you as soon as I remember.]
Fortunately, Sope accepted my words well.
It was because I had used spatial movement magic.
For Sope, it seemed magic was the standard for everything in the world.
Getting angry at a magician like that didn’t seem meaningful.
Instead of grumbling at Sope, I decided to face the monster.
Carlo was bringing over a new monster.
This time, it was a scout.
I decided not to use short-distance spatial movement, commonly called “Blink” magic.
That magic consumed far too much energy.
Besides, against a scout, there was no need to aim for an opening.
I ran toward the scout.
Passing by Carlo as he came running, I threw my spear at the scout.
Puhak!
The body of the monster struck by the spear burst apart.
The people inside the building did not know that I had moved through space.
Carlo, too, had been busy running away from the monster, so he had not seen my magic.
My new magic became a secret between me and Sope.
After that, we hunted monsters for quite some time.
We caught magical monsters and scout monsters, and moved around while avoiding defensive monsters.
The hunt was not as easy as it had been in the sewer.
There were even moments when people nearly got hurt because a scout monster and a magical monster charged at the same time.
Even so, before the sun set, we were able to obtain more than ten Akzar black stones from the city alone.
It was an incredible achievement.
Until now, the only Akzar black stone that America—Earth—had obtained was the one I had handed over.
And now, more than ten black stones just from the city.
Including the ones obtained in the sewer, it was nearly twenty.
Since an Akzar black stone contained close to a hundred times the energy of an ordinary black stone, this time we had gathered the equivalent of two thousand ordinary black stones.
The expressions of the people descending underground to the spatial movement device, the terminal, were bright.
Of course, we had not caught every monster in the city.
We had not been able to touch the defensive monsters, and humanoid monsters still remained.
There were likely more magical monsters and scout monsters we had missed, and many monsters had yet to return to the city as well.
But now, it was time to go back.
As we descended underground, people chattered excitedly.
Not only the team members, but the Americans, too, conversed in excited voices.
“Everyone’s going to be shocked, right?”
“With this much, maybe we’ll get a position after we go back.”
“Then, additional tickets for…… Damn, that hits security.”
It seemed one person had been caught by the security set by the artifact.
Perhaps because they were the main force, all the Americans knew about Earth’s destruction.
Among themselves, they talked about the secret without hesitation.
However, there were people here who did not know about the destruction.
It was inevitable that they would get caught by security.
Hanna, Sergeant Woo, and probably Tom.
They were the members of my team who did not know about Earth’s destruction.
‘It’s about time I told them.’
In order to bring up the underground city as well, I needed to inform them about the destruction.
I could tell them without restriction, but before that, I felt I should consult Magreta.
Thinking that, I turned my head, and Magreta was looking at me with a smile.
It was a calm smile filled with gratitude and joy.
“With this, we’ll be able to save many people.”
She was sincerely happy that we had obtained so many black stones.
They could earn a great deal of money and were also necessary for exchanging artifacts, but fundamentally, black stones were the only batteries that could operate artifacts on Earth.
They were the energy source for the spatial movement ruins, the fuel needed to send Earthlings to the planet called Paradise.
“It’s all thanks to you, Hyeon.”
Though she was a direct descendant of a powerful family, she was different from Sterling and Catherine.
Just as she had run away from her family and joined the intelligence agency, she genuinely wanted to save people.
At Magreta’s words, I shook my head.
I had no interest in such grand purposes.
“I just hope you keep your promise properly.”
It was already more than enough for me to strengthen myself and protect the people around me.
The reason I had handed over all the black stones this time was to comfortably look at magical artifacts.
“They’ll keep it. Everyone here is a witness. They’ll all say it. That without Hyeon, we couldn’t have obtained the black stones.”
That much was enough.
When I nodded, Magreta tilted her head.
“But you don’t look well. Did something happen?”
It seemed the worries I had been harboring had shown on my face.
Sope’s words that there were more control entities.
Of course they would weigh on me.
However, I shook my head.
We had only just dealt with the control entity. I couldn’t bring that up now.
‘Damn…….’
As I shook my head, Sope’s words came to mind.
His words that he had kept it secret for my sake.
I was no different now.
I stood there and laughed loudly.
Magreta looked at me with a puzzled expression.
A moment later, we arrived at the terminal.
An underground plaza with a massive magic circle drawn on it.
I placed the tip of my spear against the shelf in the corner.
A hologram appeared in front of the shelf.
Within the hologram, I saw ancient language indicating the terraforming ruins.
“Let’s go back.”
At my words, people nodded.
Sope activated the device.
Hwaaak!
The world turned white, and paths of energy appeared.
The path to the terraforming ruins, the path to the underground ruins, and even the path to the ice planet.
One more path was visible.
A faint path stretching west.
It was a path leading beyond the mountain range.
Beyond the Mountain Range (2)