Unfortunately, there was almost nothing left in the ruins besides the armory.
[It’s impressive they lasted this long in an environment like this. And the Americans who came first probably took everything that was still left.]
True enough. The reason the Americans had been able to find the spatial transfer ruins, modify them, and visit Paradise and Trappist was all thanks to these ruins.
They had done all of that with the relics and information they took from this place.
“I suppose I should be grateful the armory remains.”
[If you want to obtain more information or relics from your home planet, you could visit ruins on other planets. The Americans probably didn’t get to all of them.]
I shook my head at Sopeu’s words.
“A lot of time has passed. We’re not going straight there anyway, and we can’t afford to delay any longer.”
[Understood. Then let’s prepare to leave.]
I went back down to the lowest floor, where the spatial transfer device was located.
A small hologram floated above the shelf beside the magic circle.
The shelf and the interface window weren’t connected, but since Sopeu had seized control of the ruins, it wasn’t a problem.
Dark energy, however, was another matter.
The hologram flickered, and the light flowing from the walls was weakening as well.
The dark energy Sopeu had supplied to the base had run out.
Soon the emergency energy device that used external thermal energy would activate.
Since it had endured for hundreds of thousands of years that way, it wouldn’t be a problem for maintaining the ruins.
But I couldn’t leave it like that anymore.
I had to use the spatial transfer device.
On top of that, I wanted to keep using these ruins.
Snap.
I removed the black stone I had been using as the spearhead.
There was still energy left inside the spear and my body, so I wouldn’t immediately go back to being an ordinary person.
But once I removed the black stone, I felt a little uneasy.
[Place it on the shelf. If we integrate the black stone into this facility, it should be able to maintain dark energy inside.]
Hearing Sopeu’s words put me at ease.
I placed the black stone on the shelf.
Wooooong.
A magic circle spread out above the shelf.
Holograms kept appearing and disappearing.
Clack.
A hole formed in the center of the shelf.
It was a little larger than the black stone.
Shwoop.
The black stone was sucked into the hole, and the hole in the shelf vanished.
The magic circle disappeared, and the chaotic holograms all vanished as well.
Flash.
The walls brightened again.
The rattling ventilation system began to run smoothly, and the air became cool again.
[It’s done. For now, I made it draw energy from the black stone. From now on, even without me, the facility will be maintained by the black stone’s energy.]
“Thank you for your work.”
[However, since it isn’t drawing energy from outside, there is a limit. It won’t last very long.]
I frowned at Sopeu’s words.
Even after using the black stone of the control object, it wouldn’t last long?
Had I done something pointless?
I asked Sopeu again.
“How long can it hold out with this black stone?”
[Maintaining the facility will be fine, but the problem is spatial transfer. If you send people from here to Trappist, the black stone will be depleted before you can send 1,000 people.]
“…1,000 people.”
That meant if it were just me, I could make 500 round trips to Trappist.
A sigh escaped me on its own.
I had known it already, but Sopeu’s sense of scale was completely different from mine.
[It isn’t a large amount. Paradise is much closer than Trappist, but if you intend to send people there, how much black stone do you think you’ll need? With the black stones gathered so far, you’ll only be able to send tens of thousands at most.]
Only then did I understand why Sopeu said it was insufficient.
The fact that a single black stone could send 1,000 people dozens of light-years away was truly incredible.
But compared to the number of people living on Earth, it was nothing but a drop in the bucket.
At this rate, it was obvious that only a tiny minority would survive, like Noah’s Ark.
“I’ll have to find a way to get a lot of black stone.”
Even if destruction was certain, I didn’t want to see only a handful of rich and powerful people survive.
Even if I couldn’t save everyone, I wanted to see a place where people lived in crowds.
[That’s right. It will be far too late to regret it after the destruction.]
Perhaps because those were the words of someone who had experienced it, Sopeu’s words struck me deeply.
After steeling myself once more, I stood in the center of the magic circle.
In one hand, I held the spear that had lost its spearhead. On my back was a backpack, and both hands were full of luggage.
[It isn’t connected to the Ice Star. We can go to the underground ruins on Trappist, correct?]
“Yes. The underground ruins will do.”
To get to the Ice Star, I only needed to change routes at the underground ruins.
Changing routes was no longer difficult.
Flaaaash!
The world brightened again.
As expected, changing routes wasn’t difficult.
I arrived at the Ice Star without any real trouble.
As soon as I arrived, the spirit rose up from underground and greeted me.
-Welcome back!
She looked at the luggage in my hands and smiled brightly.
-Did you bring new seeds?
I shook my head.
“No. I’ll be taking these back with me.”
At my words, the spirit looked crestfallen.
Worried, I asked her.
“Don’t tell me something happened to the ‘Wizard’s Flower’ I gave you before?”
The spirit shook her head.
-No. There haven’t been any problems. It’s a self-pollinating species, so it made a lot of seeds, and I planted them. A lot of them have grown too.
That was a relief.
If they had already grown that much, it wouldn’t be hard to take samples the next time I went to Earth.
“Then what’s the problem?”
-You told me to focus on growing that flower, so there’s too much empty land left. The trees are slow to grow, and I can’t fill all the land with crops alone.
“Does that mean you’ve already harvested?”
-Yes. I did it the way you taught me before. There was nowhere separate to store it, so I remodeled several buildings into warehouses and put it there. The rest I ground up and scattered over the empty land.
-I thought that wasn’t enough, so I’ve been continuously running electricity through the soil with lightning magic. Maybe because of that, the plants are growing well. If there were more kinds of plants, I would have planted more. It’s a shame.
Thinking fertilizer might be lacking, I had taught the spirit about nitrogen fixation using lightning.
She was an ice-type spirit, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t use other magic at all.
Though inefficiently, she could also use lightning magic.
Poor efficiency wasn’t a problem for her.
She was the sole manager of the ruins.
The spirit could draw on all the dark energy of this planet.
“I didn’t bring new seeds, but I did bring other things.”
-Other things?
“Let’s go. I’ll show you once we’re down in the underground city.”
Carrying the luggage, I went down to the underground city with the spirit.
The city visible beneath the bright artificial sun had changed yet again.
The forest, grasslands, and farmland outside the city had expanded, but the color of the city itself had also changed.
It wasn’t that the roads and buildings themselves had changed.
It was just that flowers had been planted in abundance beside the buildings, on the rooftops, and along the roadsides.
They were all “Wizard’s Flowers.”
[Hmm… I never imagined this flower would be used for ornamental purposes.]
Sopeu was so surprised at the sight of the city that he let out a groan.
-Isn’t it wonderful? The colors aren’t very varied yet, but after a few generations, I should be able to create all sorts of colors.
Seeing the spirit proudly gesture toward the city, I asked Sopeu,
“Will there be any problem if the colors change?”
-The effects may change slightly, but there shouldn’t be any major problem.
The effects might change?
Contrary to Sopeu’s words, that was a major problem.
However, the sight before me was an even bigger problem.
“I suppose I can’t bring just anyone to this city from now on.”
-Huh? Why not?
The spirit tilted her head at my words.
She didn’t seem to understand, but planting “Wizard’s Flowers” like flower paths or flower beds was no different from scattering gold across the city floor.
The same was true of the central plaza of the city, where the vertical elevator was located—the flowers were in full bloom there as well.
The once desolate park had now become a park full of flowers.
“Giving up will make things easier, I suppose.”
Shaking my head, I headed to the building right in front of the park.
It was the building the exploration team had intended to use from the time we first came to the city.
It wasn’t very different from the other buildings, but it was close to the elevator and the park, and the building itself was large and splendid, making it perfect for me and the exploration team to use.
“We can use the first floor as a conference room and lobby, the basement as an armory, and the second and third floors as private rooms.”
Deciding to leave the fourth floor empty for the future, I opened the boxes inside the building.
There were only three or four generators left in the boxes, and only two or three each of the electronics, furniture, and daily necessities.
“The distance was so great that a lot of the items were reduced.”
[Everyone would curse at you if you put it that way.]
Sopeu was right, but it was still a shame.
I had wanted to furnish all the team members’ rooms too, but that was impossible.
Still, I installed everything according to my original plan.
I installed solar generators on the rooftop and oil generators in the basement.
I connected the TV and computer I had set out in the conference room to the generator and played some music.
A song from Earth spread through the underground city.
A sweet voice lingered in my ears.
-What song is this?
“It’s a song I used to listen to on Earth.”
-Wow. It’s fascinating.
Unlike the fascinated spirit, Sopeu, who had tasted Earth’s culture, took issue with the song I chose.
[If you’re going to play old idol songs, how about a ballad instead?]
“No. These are the songs that gave me hope in the military.”
-Tch.
“There are movies and animations you chose too, Sopeu, so stop complaining.”
Joking with Sopeu like that, I went down to the basement.
An empty basement room.
Sopeu cast magic on the door, and I took the weapons out of the boxes.
Guns, swords, armor, and coats.
Dozens of weapons and pieces of armor piled up inside the room.
More than half had disappeared on the way here, but even so, it was enough to arm a company-sized unit.
I took out a leather armor and put it on, then draped a coat over it.
I slung a gun over my shoulder and fastened a sword at my waist.
As Sopeu had said before, I had no intention of using these weapons in place of my spear.
These were samples to show Katherine and the others at the base.
Samples of the weapons that would be handed to the people who would attack the city.
I intended to distribute these weapons not only to my team members, but to others as well.
[It seems you shouldn’t give them to just anyone.]
“I don’t intend to give them to just anyone.”
I planned to choose people properly.
People who would follow me, in addition to my team members.
I also had a way to choose them.
I now knew magic that could detect lies and magic that could make people keep secrets.
There was also magic that could isolate problematic people.
Those spells weren’t very effective on people who possessed dark energy, but I wasn’t an ordinary mage either.
[In a situation like this, it can’t be helped, but don’t forget that those spells are forbidden magic.]
I nodded at Sopeu’s words.
City Hunt (1)