The line drawn by magic was heading northwest.
Somewhere between the western swamp region where the warehouse ruins lay and the ruins of the training center.
We skirted around the swamp region and continued west.
The farther west we went, the lower the temperature gradually became.
It was because we were getting closer to the mountain range where the control object was said to be.
However, the mountains were nowhere to be seen.
Instead, in the distance, I could see a horizon blanketed with low clouds.
Gray clouds close to black.
That was where the mountain range, where the perpetual snow had turned into black snow, should be.
And beneath that mountain range would be the control object and the ruins of the old city.
Still, there was a long way to go.
Everyone had grown used to marching by now, but the sun was beginning to set, so it was time to rest.
Since we were in the middle of a mountainless wasteland, we raised low walls with magic and pitched our tents inside them.
They were tents we had brought from Earth this time.
They were heavy tents made in the old style, but we had brought them at Margreta’s insistence.
The squad members were all delighted by the spacious tents.
After that, we finished dinner—meat from this place cooked with spices from Earth, and vegetables brought from Earth—set the night watch, and everyone went to bed.
When the watch order was decided, the squad members put me last. Their reason was that I must be tired, since I had so much to do.
I didn’t need much sleep anymore, but I accepted everyone’s consideration.
I didn’t know how long I had been asleep when Margreta’s voice sounded beside my ear.
“Wake up. It’s your watch.”
My eyes snapped open.
I no longer felt any drowsiness.
“Thank you.”
I thanked her and got up.
Thanks to the earthen ramparts and the tents brought from Earth, it wasn’t cold inside.
On top of that, perhaps because everyone was covered with blankets made from the hides and fur of this planet’s monsters, they were all asleep with contented expressions.
Only the brazier in the center of the tent burned faintly; the inside of the tent was quiet.
It was still dark outside as well.
Holding my spear in one hand, I quietly stepped out of the tent.
The sky was full of stars, and the half-destroyed satellite could be seen just above the earthen rampart.
I lightly jumped up onto the earthen rampart that encircled the tent.
It was only about two meters high, built to block the view, so climbing up wasn’t difficult.
Sitting on top of the rampart with my spear in hand, I looked around.
The dawn wasteland was quiet.
Was it because we were close to the swamp?
I couldn’t sense any living creatures.
Looking around, I could truly feel that this planet was dying.
Just then, Margreta climbed up onto the earthen wall.
She leapt up onto the wall with cups in both hands and handed one to me.
Coffee in an elegant coffee cup.
They were things she had picked out at a department store when we were on Earth.
I had heard it was single-origin coffee made from special beans, but I couldn’t tell how it was different from ordinary coffee.
“Here. Coffee.”
I didn’t know what was different about it, but the aroma was truly good.
Morning coffee in the wasteland of an alien planet.
I wasn’t exactly the sentimental type, but even I felt a strange mood come over me.
As I drank the coffee, Margreta sat beside me.
She, too, drank her coffee while looking out over the wasteland.
She didn’t seem to have any intention of going back in.
“Aren’t you going to sleep?”
“It’s almost morning anyway. I’ve slept enough.”
She also had dark energy, so there was no way she needed much sleep.
I nodded and drank my coffee again.
When I remained silent, drinking my coffee, Margreta spoke this time.
“It really feels strange all over again. Sleeping outside, I mean. We may be standing watch, but honestly, even now I still think it makes no sense.”
It was understandable that she would find it odd.
In truth, this planet was not safe enough to sleep outside.
The reason hunting parties only hunted within a day’s distance was also because they couldn’t sleep outdoors.
She stretched a hand toward the wasteland.
“And yet here we are, sleeping outdoors without a single worry.”
She wasn’t trying to interrogate me about anything. It was just the sort of thing one asked in passing, carried away by the mood of dawn.
It was the sort of thing I could have simply listened to without answering, but I didn’t.
“That is because I set up a warning spell. If a living creature approaches, I receive a signal.”
Of course, it wasn’t me but Sof who had set up the warning spell.
At my words, Margreta looked at me with startled eyes.
“Don’t tell me that was it? Wait, wasn’t that supposed to be a secret?”
“Yes. It was a secret. But now it is no longer a secret.”
At my words, Margreta’s widened eyes curved dramatically.
“Does that mean you’re telling me now?”
“A number of things happened, so it was delayed, but the time has come to tell you.”
I had already shown the exploration team many things.
On top of that, Margreta had been helping me a great deal.
If I wanted her help going forward, I couldn’t keep hiding it forever.
I lifted my half-finished cup of coffee.
“I’m a little different from other energy users. Like my senses, other people gained abilities through energy, but I was able to learn magic from the past on this planet.”
As I spoke, I thought of magic.
Magic circles and formulas were drawn in my mind, and the magic was cast through the glove on my hand.
Sparks leapt up above the coffee cup.
“At first, I obtained lightning magic. After that, earth magic and water magic.”
As I spoke, I changed the magic.
When I thought of the water magic Sof had used instead of lightning, new patterns and formulas appeared.
The coffee swirled and rose into the air.
It was my first time trying it, but it wasn’t difficult.
[To succeed on the first try… This is almost absurd.]
I heard Sof’s hollow laugh.
Margreta stared as if entranced at the coffee circling in midair.
I returned the coffee, which was whirling in the air, to the cup and then pointed at the spear I had set beside me.
“I think it was after I obtained this spear that I began gaining magic.”
I told her about what had happened when I obtained the spear, and about what I had experienced in the other ruins as well.
Margreta listened to my story to the end, then spoke only after a long while.
“So that’s your secret, Hyeon.”
“Yes.”
At her words, I nodded.
“That warning spell is the same thing, then?”
“Yes. I obtained minor magic like that too.”
At my words, Margreta made a sulky face.
“Minor? It would be better not to say that to other people.”
“I have no intention of telling them, nor any reason to.”
Even if I told people my secret, at most it would end with the exploration team.
I had no intention of telling anyone else.
At my words, Margreta let out a sigh.
She spoke again.
“Your box capacity being far larger than other people’s, and the fact that you can bring so much luggage when you travel between spaces—those must be for similar reasons too.”
“That’s something I’ve had from the beginning, but as you said, Margreta, it’s probably not much different.”
She shook her head.
“I thought it was strange. Until now, there’s been no one with more than three abilities. But just the ones I’ve seen myself are already… Even if you were using relics, it didn’t make sense.”
Continuing as if grumbling, she asked me,
“To put it simply, Hyeon, you have an incredible variety of abilities even now, and those abilities will continue to increase and grow stronger in the future, right?”
[Simple, but accurate.]
As Sof said, it was a rough way to put it, but it wasn’t wrong.
“I’d like to deny it, but… yes, that’s correct.”
Margreta set down her coffee cup and stared fixedly at me.
“This is ridiculous. After hearing all that, I’m starting to wonder whether you’re even the same kind of human as we are.”
I had nothing in particular to say. I could only shrug.
Seeing me like that, she narrowed her eyes and asked,
“You’ve told me everything now, right?”
“One thing remains.”
There was still something I hadn’t told her.
I got up, went into the tent where the others were sleeping, and brought back the backpack standing beside me.
When I returned and took the box out of the backpack, Margreta looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“Why the box? Did its capacity increase again in the meantime?”
“The capacity did increase, but I want to show you something else.”
I put my hand into the box and took out the recoilless rifle.
“No way! Is that an M72?”
Margreta flinched in shock when she saw the weapon I had pulled out.
“No, it’s an M60 recoilless rifle.”
“Either way, it’s a firearm from Earth!”
She glared at me and took the gun from me as if snatching it away.
“There are no shells, but nothing is broken either…”
“I used the round that was loaded in it to catch the scout soldier this time.”
At my words, Margreta glared at me again.
“Tell me that story again. How did you catch that monster?”
I had to explain to her again the situation in which I had caught the scout monster.
More than anything else, she was curious about how much Earth-made weaponry I had used and what effect it had on the monster.
She seemed to think the fact that I had brought weapons from Earth was more remarkable than my use of magic.
“Of course. You show me a new ability every time, so I could predict that to some extent. But this weapon is a different story. The reason we’ve struggled all this time is because we lacked firepower… If we can bring weapons from Earth, we can change the situation.”
She wasn’t wrong.
When I saw that there were weapons left in the box, I had thought the same thing.
But it wasn’t something to be purely happy about.
“I can bring them, but there are many problems. I can only bring one-tenth of the weapons, and there are limits to going back and forth to Earth as well.”
At my words, Margreta shook her head.
“Quantity isn’t the problem. We can just scrape every weapon out of the armory. The problem is the time limit…”
I looked at Margreta as she pondered beside me with a serious expression.
In truth, the reason I had told her my secret was because of these Earth-made weapons.
If I wanted to bring weapons in from Earth, I needed her help.
If I did it myself, there would be more than a few things that might trip me up, but she would be different.
Hadn’t she just said she would sweep out the entire armory?
She continued thinking for a long while before finally realizing that I was watching her.
Coming back to herself, she looked at me and grinned.
It was a slightly frightening smile.
“Now I see you’ve shoved the work onto me.”
“I can’t tell anyone else.”
At my words, Margreta sighed.
“I thought I’d caught myself a fine piece of meat, but it turned out to be a fish far heavier than expected. Still, it can’t be helped. I’ll see what I can do about securing the weapons.”
After saying that, she stretched widely.
At some point, the coffee had reached the bottom, and the dawn sun was rising in the distance.
“I only meant to have a brief cup of coffee with you, and ended up hearing something incredible.”
She looked at the rising sun, then turned to face me.
“Hmm. Since you told me your secret, when we go to Earth, I’ll tell you mine too. You must have had things you were curious about regarding me, Hyeon.”
Seeing Margreta speak with sparkling eyes, I realized that I knew almost nothing about her.
Only that she was a capable American intelligence agent with dark energy.
On this planet, that much was enough, but it wasn’t enough to explain her tremendous authority and network.
What she meant was that the next time we went to Earth, she would tell me the reason.
She must have thought of it as payment for my trust in her, and for having heard my secret.
Hearing that, I lightly rubbed my chest.
Because my conscience pricked at me a little.
In truth, it wasn’t that I trusted her completely.
I trusted her more than anyone else, but it was difficult for me to trust another person completely.
So I had left one secret untold.
The most important secret—I hadn’t told her about Sof.
We sat atop the earthen wall for a long time, watching the sun rise.
Another day passed like that, and it was two more days later that we arrived at the city Sof had mentioned.
Beneath the mountain slopes, where the range covered in clouds appeared and disappeared in glimpses, a ruined city came into view.
However, many people were moving through that city now.
Countless figures moving busily—no, monsters.
They were all humanoid monsters.
The monsters were hard at work.
They repeatedly carried something into the buildings and brought other things out.
Inside the buildings where the humanoid monsters were coming and going, something was being made.
Seeing that, Sof said,
[…This city has become a factory producing combat soldiers.]