The moment I sent the people off and stepped out of the ruins, there were things blocking my path.
Squelch.
They were people caked in mud—no, monsters.
The monsters were steadily crowding toward the entrance.
Bubble, bubble, bubble.
Even now, monsters were walking out of the swamp.
“I knew it. You were here too.”
The reason I had hurried the group along was because of the murderous intent I’d sensed from the swamp.
I couldn’t be certain it was these things, but I knew there was an enemy.
I tightened my grip on the spear with my gloved hand.
When I adjusted my hold on the spear, Soph spoke.
[Shall I fire off one big spell first?]
I shook my head at Soph’s words.
“No. I’ll try it.”
[There are too many of them, so it won’t be easy. The ground is bad too, so close combat won’t be simple either.]
He wasn’t wrong.
Without Soph’s help, the fight didn’t look like it would be easy.
In truth, if I ran away, there wouldn’t be a problem.
These monsters weren’t as fast as the scouts.
But I couldn’t move around with monsters trailing behind me.
They had come all the way here.
I couldn’t let these things know which direction I was going.
I had to clean them up here.
[It’s fine. That wasn’t the only thing I learned at the training facility ruins.]
Thanks to the helmet, I could swing my spear to my heart’s content, but in a swamp like this, something else seemed more effective than spear techniques.
I cast magic on the spear.
Crackle!
Unlike when it was energy, I could see the current flowing.
It seemed the monsters could see the current flowing too.
Kraaaaaah!
The monsters charged.
People with long fingers, covered in mud.
There were children and adults, men and women, even the elderly, but perhaps because they were covered in mud, the revulsion wasn’t all that strong.
Guuuuuuh.
Thanks to that, I could grumble while swinging my spear.
“You’re not even zombies. Pick one thing and stick with it.”
After cutting off an elongated tentacle with my spear, I thrust it into the stomach of the middle-aged man lunging at me from the front.
Boom!
With an explosive sound, a large hole was blasted through the man’s stomach.
Before, the spear would have simply lodged in his belly.
The spear filled with electric current blew the monster’s stomach apart.
That wasn’t the only effect of the lightning magic.
The monster with the large hole in it shuddered and fell backward.
Guuuuuuh.
I blew off the next monster’s head in the same way, and burst the others apart as well.
Before, these monsters would have kept charging even after their arms and legs were cut off.
But now, the monsters struck by my spear only collapsed to the ground and trembled.
One, two, three, four…
In an instant, I cleared the area around me.
But the number of monsters gathering was even greater than before.
“It feels like the scouts and combat troops got switched. What the hell is this human wave tactic doing in the twenty-first century…”
Their numbers had grown, but I wasn’t afraid.
The ground that swallowed their feet seriously hindered the monsters’ movements too.
Watching the monsters stagger with their legs sunk in the swamp, I stabbed my spear into the ground.
The spear sank deep into the shallow swamp.
“Water counts as a liquid, right?”
I poured lightning magic into the spear.
Crackle.
The magic I poured in traveled along the spear and spread in all directions.
The swamp’s toxic water was indeed a liquid.
Magic spread well through liquid.
Crackle!
Kraaaagh!
The monsters trembled as they stood rooted in the ground.
The ones nearby, and even the ones farther away, were all electrocuted.
Satisfied by the sight, I pulled the spear from the ground.
For a moment, I nearly staggered and fell.
“Damn…”
My head was dizzy.
[You stupidly forced dark energy into a low-level spell, so of course you would suffer a partial depletion. No need to worry. It isn’t a proper depletion, so you’ll recover quickly.]
Soph’s explanation let me understand the reason.
This time as well, Soph spoke as if I were pathetic, but his tone was slightly different from before.
It sounded as though he acknowledged me to some extent.
Just as Soph said, the dizziness quickly disappeared.
With a smile on my lips, I dashed forward with vigor.
My targets were the monsters that still hadn’t regained their senses.
I swung my spear at those monsters.
There were many of them, but dealing with all the electrocuted monsters wasn’t difficult.
The gloves’ effect was the best.
I had to choose the place and environment carefully, but at any rate, I could now use magic that was worthy of being called magic.
Of course, compared to Soph, its destructive power was weaker and its range was shorter. Even so, being able to use magic on my own was quite an impressive thing.
It was also a great help in actual combat.
For long distances or a powerful single blow, I would still need Soph’s help, but in close combat or chaotic battles like this, my own magic seemed like it would be more useful.
After finishing everything off, I left the corpses behind and moved on.
[Fighting in a swamp, gathering the monsters in one place before using magic—there’s nothing more ideal for a mage. If only you could do the basics properly, you would truly be excellent…]
The more I showed my ability, the greater Soph’s regret became.
He still wanted to raise me into a proper mage.
Honestly, unlike before, I had begun to have some expectations too.
It was a method different from what I’d expected, but now I could use martial arts I’d once thought impossible.
Magic was the same. It looked like a trick, but since I could use magic itself, someday I might be able to use proper magic like Soph.
For now, it was time to keep taking one step at a time until then.
For that reason, I said to Soph,
“Please cast the spell.”
[Just because the side effects are small, you mustn’t recklessly overuse it.]
“I still have to use it when I need it.”
Soph sighed and cast magic on me.
[Physical Enhancement.]
This magic was surprisingly difficult to copy.
However, it wasn’t a spell that required quick reflexes, and since Soph was here, it wasn’t a problem.
Tatata.
My running speed grew faster and faster.
Once my speed increased, I no longer needed to search only for dry paths.
It wasn’t to the point of running on water, but I could quickly cross ground that was only somewhat mushy.
I left the path and ran southwest.
My destination was the terraforming ruins south of the forward base.
**
The time it took to stop by the terraforming ruins south of the base and return to the base was one day.
That was less than half the time it had taken when I traveled with the exploration team.
Considering the time it took to install the altar at the terraforming ruins, the time had been reduced even further.
That was all thanks to Soph’s “Physical Enhancement” spell.
“I didn’t even use it to the limit, and I only used it once at a time after resting, but it’s still incredibly exhausting.”
I stood in front of the wall, panting.
[Of course it is! This spell was never developed for long-distance travel in the first place. You should be grateful that it ends with you merely feeling exhausted.]
After saying I was tired, I had to receive a scolding from Soph.
Since he was right, all I could do was scratch my head.
Today, even though I was standing before the open gate, I didn’t hear anyone shout from atop the wall that someone had arrived.
When I looked up at the wall, the team member on guard was looking elsewhere.
‘Have they already let their guard down?’
I picked up a stone and threw it at the distracted team member.
Thwack!
“Ah! I’m bleeding! Who was that!”
A shout came from above, but I had already entered the wall.
The atmosphere inside the wall was also much more relaxed than it had been a few days ago.
There weren’t many people holding weapons, and people’s expressions weren’t as stiff as before.
It looked much better than before, but I couldn’t help being worried.
“You’re back!”
The first person to notice my return was Hanna.
At Hanna’s shout as she ran over, the other team members also realized I had arrived.
No, everyone in the base looked in my direction.
As always, I ignored people’s gazes and exchanged greetings with the team members.
“Were there any problems?”
“We were worried because you came back later than expected.”
At Sergeant Woo and Tom’s words, I shook my head.
“There were no problems.”
Because I had run here diligently, the team members thought I had come straight back to the base.
I needed to tell them the reason I was late, but I couldn’t explain everything in a place like this.
“I’ll tell you the details after I finish reporting.”
After answering like that, I looked around.
I could see Secretary Li, the Chinese man, standing in the back, but Magreta was nowhere to be seen.
“I don’t see Magreta.”
“There seems to be some problem with the ruins. She went underground with David.”
I turned my face slightly and spoke to Soph.
[This seems to be because of you, Soph.]
Soph immediately objected.
[Why is that because of me? It is because of you, who moved the spatial transfer device.]
Since that wasn’t wrong, I took a step back.
[Then let’s say it’s because of us.]
“If David is there too, I’ll have to go down to make my report. I’ll be back, then.”
The people who had been welcoming me all stepped aside at my words.
Before entering the cave, I called Hanna.
“Hanna, you come too.”
“Huh? Me? Yes! Let’s go together.”
Without even asking why, Hanna followed me.
Before entering the cave, my eyes met Secretary Li’s.
When our eyes met, Secretary Li bowed his head toward me.
Before he lowered his head, what I saw reflected in his eyes was not anger, but fear.
It seemed there was no need to worry about him for now.
Hanna and I entered the central cave and headed for the underground ruins.
Our pace wasn’t hurried, but it didn’t take long to arrive at the underground ruins.
When we arrived at the ruins, Hanna looked regretful.
“Captain Hyun! You’re back!”
When we reached the front of the ruins, Magreta saw us and waved.
There were more people in the underground ruins than I had expected.
Not only the three technicians who had been guarding the ruins, but also David, Magreta, and two researchers from Earth were there.
Unlike Magreta, who was waving at us, the others were busily talking in front of the altar at the center.
“We must not use the ruins until we finish confirming these phrases.”
“But there is no problem with the ruins themselves.”
“How do you know there’s no problem? They may only look fine on the outside.”
“But if we can’t use the ruins, we’ll be isolated here.”
“I’m asking for time.”
“No, if we give you time, will you even be able to figure it out?”
“Well, if we examine it a bit more…”
Listening to their conversation, it certainly seemed that something had happened to the ruins.
“I’m back. But what’s going on?”
We walked up to Magreta and asked her.
“You’ve worked hard. As you can see, that’s how it is. It seems the ruins started acting strangely yesterday.”
Whether he had heard Magreta or not, one of the technicians cut in.
“They started acting strangely two days ago. From the moment the connection to the ruins your exploration team linked was cut. It reconnected after that, but the phrases that appeared were strange, and after that, the ruins themselves became odd.”
At the technician’s words, a young technician asked,
“Oh, right. Captain Hyun, is there anything that comes to mind?”
“It won’t have anything to do with him. Even if it did, he isn’t an expert, so he wouldn’t know.”
Seeing another technician pour cold water on the idea, I scratched my head.
When Magreta saw me scratch my head, she narrowed her eyes.
“It does have something to do with you.”
It certainly did.
Holding my spear, I walked to the front of the altar.
People looked at me, but perhaps because of what I had done so far, no one stopped me.
I brought the tip of my spear to the altar.
[It’s a good thing I regained my memories. Otherwise, things would have become complicated.]
It was just as Soph said.
I had thought it was simply a matter of moving the spatial transfer device, but it was more complicated than expected.
The coordinates of the other registered ruins had to be re-registered, and the magic circles that drew in energy had to be modified extensively.
If Soph hadn’t recovered his memories, I would still have been at the terraforming ruins even now.
[I’ll begin.]
With Soph’s words, the spell was cast.
According to Soph, it was a simple task of reconnecting this place to the spatial transfer device now located at the terraforming ruins.
Along with that task, I intended to register Hanna as a deputy administrator.
So that she could use the spatial transfer device when I wasn’t here.
If monsters attacked, I planned to use these ruins to evacuate people to the terraforming ruins.
Even if a sandstorm was blowing, if they went on foot, the monsters were bound to discover them.
But if they went to the terraforming ruins through spatial transfer, the monsters shouldn’t find them.
Thanks to Soph regaining his memories, everything went according to my plan, but there was one small problem.
I hadn’t anticipated the energy absorption rate of the terraforming ruins.
Flaaash.
Light burst from the altar, and the numbers inside the hologram in front of it began to shoot up wildly.
“The absorption rate suddenly…?”
The startled people looked at me, and Magreta asked on their behalf.
“What on earth did you do?”
“I moved the spatial transfer device to the terraforming ruins. The energy absorption at the new location is high, so these ruins were affected as well.”
At my words, the people looked back at the altar.
The altar was still shining brightly.
A large hologram began forming in front of the altar.
“The energy absorption rate has now increased by more than threefold. The time and number of trips available to travel to Earth should increase accordingly.”
Coming from Earth to this planet probably hadn’t changed, but going to Earth would become much easier.
Even now, before my eyes, a portal had opened that could send both Magreta and me to Earth at the same time.