After sending the people to the Terraforming Ruins, we headed for the ice planet Qura Eretz.
When we appeared at the spatial transfer device on the surface, the spirit immediately came up from underground.
Unlike before, she greeted everyone with a smile.
-Welcome. I’ve been waiting for you.
Whether she had used magic or not, her words sounded like Korean even without passing through the translation artifact.
The others looked bewildered when they saw the spirit welcoming them.
“She’s treating us differently than before. Last time, she wouldn’t even acknowledge anyone but Hyeon.”
Margreta was so surprised that she whispered it in my ear.
It was only the team’s second visit, but last time they had even fought ice golems controlled by the spirit.
So with the spirit welcoming us like this, it couldn’t help but feel strange.
Perhaps she had heard Margreta’s whisper, because the corners of the spirit’s eyes twitched, but she still guided us with a smile on her face.
The team members followed her with questions in their minds, but once we took the elevator down underground, they all burst into admiration.
“Wow… This place is huge.”
“That’s a real city. There really is a city in an underground cavern.”
Hanna’s mouth fell open at the sight of the vast underground plaza, and Tom’s eyes went wide as he looked at the city spread out below.
Unlike the two, who were simply marveling at it, Sergeant Woo examined each facility in the underground plaza one by one with a soldier’s eye.
“What’s giving off light on the ceiling? It’s as bright as the sun. Being isolated is a problem, but in a place like this, you could hold out for a long time even if something happened.”
Margreta’s eyes also lit up when she saw the green fields spread beyond the city.
“Look over there. There are trees outside the city, grass, and even grain growing. Those were brought from Earth, right? How did they grow that much already?”
The spirit had turned her body away as if she weren’t listening, but she heard everything.
With a prim expression, she gave a little shiver.
Thud.
The open elevator reached the ground.
As we stepped off the elevator and into the park, the spirit who had been guiding us turned around and spread both arms wide.
-This! This is the underground city of Qura Eretz that I created.
She seemed to be trying to look impressive in her own way, but the team was too busy looking at the city and park.
No one listened to her.
The spirit pouted.
I clicked my tongue, and Margreta came over and glared at me.
“So you were hiding a place like this.”
I shook my head at her words.
“I wasn’t hiding it. It’s been built all this time.”
When I first came here, this place had been nothing but a pitch-black underground cavern.
The city itself had been made by the spirit, but my help had played no small part in turning it into this.
At my words, Margreta let out a small laugh.
“I was joking.”
Those were the words of an intelligence agent and the daughter of someone in power.
She said it was a joke, but I couldn’t simply take it as one.
When I sighed, Margreta smiled and looked around.
She pointed at the flowerbeds and the flowers lined along the path.
“More importantly, you planted an incredible number of flowers in the city. But what kind of flower is that? It’s a species I don’t know.”
To Margreta, who was tilting her head, I told the truth.
“It’s the ‘Wizard’s Flower.’”
Margreta’s eyes widened.
She rushed at me as if to grab me by the collar.
“Huh? Don’t tell me… Those are the flowers that awaken people?”
“They only increase the probability.”
I corrected her.
“That’s the same thing! No, is it really okay for flowers like that to be growing all over the place?”
“I’m not the one raising the flowers.”
I raised my hand and pointed to the spirit, who was looking our way with both hands on her hips.
At my words, the spirit lifted her chin high and shrugged.
It seemed she had completely forgotten that she’d been sulking a moment ago.
As if she had forgotten all the awkwardness from just moments before, Margreta ran over to the spirit and praised her.
“Wow, you really raised them well. How did you fill the city with flowers like this?”
“How many did you plant? It looks like the whole city has turned into a flower garden.”
“This is really amazing. It makes me want to learn how to grow them too. You must have been lonely all by yourself, and yet you worked so hard…”
It had been a while since I’d seen her skills in action.
Seeing Margreta praise the spirit with sparkling eyes, it all seemed sincere.
‘No, maybe it is all sincere.’
In truth, no amount of praise was enough for making so many flowers bloom.
Since she was praising her so diligently on her own, there was no need for me to pointlessly pour cold water on it from the side.
I took the other team members and headed for the building we would use.
When I left the two behind and started walking, both of them hurried after us.
-How could you go ahead without me? I’m supposed to guide you!
“Let’s go together.”
And so, together with the spirit and Margreta, we entered the building I had picked out.
As soon as we entered, the team members were surprised again.
“My God. It’s a TV!”
“There’s audio equipment too! Huh, there’s a computer, and even a game console?”
“There’s a washing machine here, and a refrigerator too! There’s food inside, and it all even works!”
“Hanna! Come here! There’s a bed! The bed made it over safely too!”
“A bed? I’m coming!”
The team members ran from room to room, looking at the things I had brought from Earth.
They were truly delighted.
Their areas of interest differed, but in any case, the things brought from Earth pleased everyone.
“You’ve all worked hard until now, so rest here. You can eat the food in the refrigerator while watching a movie, listen to music, or play games. You can sleep in the beds too. I’ll be going down underground for a little while.”
“Wow!”
At my words, the team members threw both hands in the air and cheered.
Everyone except one person ran off to wherever they wanted.
“Aren’t you going too, Margreta? I even brought a bed on purpose.”
At my words, Margreta glared at me again.
“I was right next to you when you packed that bed.”
“Ah, right.”
It hadn’t even been ten days, and I had half-forgotten.
“Still, it’s what you wanted.”
“More importantly, why are you going underground? Is there an armory down there full of those guns and swords?”
After seeing the energy gun, Margreta had been extremely angry when she heard that I had gone to Venus alone.
Her reason was that I had gone somewhere dangerous alone without even telling anyone.
Perhaps because her dissatisfaction remained, she occasionally brought up the energy guns and swords like this.
“There is that too, but…”
“There is?”
At my words, Margreta raised her eyebrows, then let out a small laugh.
“This isn’t something to get angry about. If anything, I should be praising you. But I’m still not over the fact that you went without telling me.”
Despite what she said, she seemed to have gotten over it.
I immediately changed the subject.
“I’m going underground because of the medicine.”
At my words, Margreta’s eyes sparkled.
“You mean the awakening drug, right?”
“Yes.”
“Can I see it too?”
“Yes. I don’t mind.”
“Then let’s go.”
Margreta took my hand and headed for the stairs.
The place where medicine was made from the Wizard’s Flower was beside the underground armory.
A complicated magic circle was drawn in the center of the large basement, and piles of cut flowers were stacked beside it.
There were no test tubes, beakers, or witch’s cauldrons like in novels or movies.
[You can’t use things like that to process medicine that activates energy. The magic circle I remember is enough.]
The magic circle engraved on the basement floor had been drawn by Soph with magic.
For a week, whenever I had time, I had crossed over here and drawn this magic circle in the basement together with Soph.
During that time, we had also succeeded in making a sample.
-Here it is. It was refined inside the magic circle for two days.
The spirit, who had come to the basement ahead of us, floated the glass bottle placed in the center of the magic circle and handed it to me.
The bottle brought from Earth contained a violet liquid.
When I sent energy into the liquid, it reacted exactly the same as the sample had.
The medicine had been made properly.
Margreta looked at the glass bottle and asked,
“Is that the sample?”
I shook my head.
“We made the sample before. Rather than a sample, this is closer to a product.”
Margreta tilted her head.
Not fully understanding what I meant, she asked again.
“But will one of those be enough for testing? You said the probability was one in a hundred.”
“That’s why I called it a product. This is enough for a hundred doses. We can dilute it to one-hundredth and inject it.”
The reason we had kept working even after making the sample was to increase the quantity.
Since the probability was one in a hundred, if we injected a hundred people, at least one energy user should appear.
As long as even one appeared, there would be no problem confirming it.
When I removed the glass bottle from the magic circle, another glass bottle settled into the center of the circle.
The waiting ice golems placed flowers at various points around the magic circle.
The magic circle activated again, and purple light gathered into the glass bottle.
A new batch of medicine had begun to be processed.
Perhaps reassured by what I said, Margreta asked about something else.
The small ice golems seemed to fascinate her.
“Those golems don’t melt like the big ones.”
The large ice golem she had seen had melted when the weather was warm.
But the small golems here did not melt even at room temperature.
Certainly, the golems here were different from the ones I had seen.
The small golems I’d seen before had melted.
The spirit answered Margreta’s question.
-They do melt. But I’m freezing them as much as they melt, so it doesn’t show.
It wasn’t that she was using some incredible magic.
She was simply pouring in a lot of energy.
-With Mage Soph’s help, I was able to obtain more energy. I have enough to spare now, so I can freeze them in real time.
It seemed the conversations she’d had with Soph while we made the magic circle had been helpful.
Having poor compatibility only meant that quantity or power was lacking.
The awakening medicine was the same.
If the quantity was insufficient, we just had to plant more and make more.
The spirit was preparing for that.
Just as she had filled the city with flowers, pharmaceutical rooms like this were continuing to be made beneath other buildings.
This time we had made enough for a hundred people, but next time we would be able to make enough for two hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand.
After putting the glass bottle containing the medicine into a box, I went back upstairs.
When I came up, the people who had been resting all gathered without me even saying anything.
Since everyone was gathered, I asked,
“It seems the others will rest for a few days too. Will you rest here? Or will you return to the Terraforming Ruins?”
At my question, the team members looked around.
Judging by their expressions, it seemed it had been a pointless question.
“I suppose I don’t even need to hear your answer. I’ll take it that everyone is staying here.”
At my words, Hanna raised her hand high.
“What about you, Oppa?”
At Hanna’s words, everyone looked at me with puzzled expressions.
“You’re not staying with us?”
“There’s somewhere I need to go using spatial transfer.”
I answered Tom’s question honestly.
At my words, Margreta narrowed her eyes.
“You’re going alone again?”
“That’s why I’m telling you in advance this time.”
At my words, Margreta pouted.
She seemed dissatisfied, but she didn’t object.
However, opposition came from an unexpected place.
“No. I—no, we have to go with you, Oppa.”
Hanna was the one who objected.
Just as she did whenever she made an important decision before, she spoke with conviction this time as well.
Everyone looked at her in surprise, and I asked again.
“You absolutely have to come with me?”
“Yes. I have to go.”
It seemed she had seen the light again.
It was the light that appeared when Hanna was in danger.
Don’t tell me this place or the Terraforming Ruins was going to become dangerous?
“If you don’t go, you’ll be in danger, Hanna?”
Hanna shook her head.
“No. For your sake, Oppa, I and the others have to go with you.”
It was unexpected.
But I felt like I understood what she meant.
Just like when she found a monster’s weak point while hunting—
“…Has your ability grown stronger?”
She had gained a new ability.
“Yes!”
At Hanna’s answer, the team members rose from their seats.
“No time to rest. Let’s go right away.”
“We can rest after we get back. Still, let’s grab some food from the refrigerator.”
Sergeant Woo gathered his weapons and equipment, and Tom began rummaging through the refrigerator.
Margreta, on the other hand, seemed to be in a better mood.
With an excited look on her face, she packed her things.
“Let’s go. Before we go to Earth, let’s have one last job as an expedition team.”
Prophet (1)