It went without saying, but we couldn’t examine the artifact on the spot.
Magreta’s cousin and we rode in a Humvee toward the airport terminal.
Guided by a U.S. military officer, we entered the building.
The building had not been converted into barracks; it remained a terminal.
But the interior was far more splendid than I had expected.
“Whew! This is nicer than I thought. Guess I shouldn’t have looked down on it just because it’s North Korea.”
Looking around the interior, Magreta’s cousin, Maxwell, whistled.
The U.S. officer who had guided us here spoke to Maxwell.
“You may hold your discussion here. I heard this was a lounge used by North Korean power holders.”
Whether he had been told something separately or not, the officer was as deferential to Maxwell as possible.
“Good work. I’ll thank Major Daniel separately.”
Maxwell spoke to the officer with a satisfied look.
“Thank you, sir.”
After saluting, the officer immediately left the lounge.
Once the officer was gone, Maxwell walked to the far end of the lounge and set a briefcase on the table.
He pulled over a glass on the table, then took a bottle of wine from the shelf.
“Romanee-Conti, 2005 vintage. I’ve never had this before. Maggie! You’ve had it, haven’t you?”
“……”
Magreta did not answer.
She simply sat down on the sofa and patted the seat beside her.
I sat beside her as well.
Maxwell gave a faint laugh.
Holding the wineglass he had poured, he said to us,
“To think they kept a facility like this intact in the middle of a war. The North Korean bastards are ridiculous, but the soldiers managing this place aren’t exactly normal either.
Though thanks to that, we get to use it like this, so should I be grateful?”
After drinking about half the wine, he picked up the remaining glass and the briefcase and walked over to the sofa where we were sitting.
He placed the briefcase and the glass on the table, then sat on the sofa opposite us.
“It wouldn’t be bad to have a conversation with a cousin I haven’t seen in a long time, but we should handle business first, shouldn’t we?”
He tapped the briefcase and looked at us.
Magreta took the black stone from her coat and threw it to Maxwell.
Thud.
He snatched the flying black stone out of the air, then wagged a finger at Magreta.
“That’s dangerous. You and I are both ordinary people on Earth.”
“Are we?”
Magreta asked back with a grin.
At her smile, the corner of Maxwell’s eye twitched.
“Yes. Even if I learned ‘magic,’ on Earth I’m only an ordinary person.”
This time, Magreta clicked her tongue quietly.
“You hid that magic awfully well all this time.”
“It’s not like I hid it because I wanted to. It happened because you stormed out of the house.”
“That’s… No. Let’s stop here.”
Magreta glanced at me, then shook her head.
Seeing that, Maxwell grinned.
“I told you, you really have changed.”
He ended his verbal sparring with Magreta and examined the black stone in his hand.
“Let’s see. So this is that special Dark Stone? It’s definitely a color I’ve never seen before. A gemstone with a violet hue. You could call it a Purple Stone, couldn’t you?”
After giving the black stone a cursory inspection, he placed it on the table.
Then he put his hand on the briefcase.
“Since I’ve received the black stone, I suppose it’s time to show you the artifact.”
At those words, Magreta shouted,
“Wait! Show us? Weren’t you giving us the artifact?”
At Magreta’s words, Maxwell raised the corner of his mouth and wagged his index finger again.
“What are you talking about? Even if this black stone contains nearly a hundred times the energy of an ordinary black stone, that still can’t compare to this ‘magic’ artifact.”
“Then why did you bring it!”
“I brought it to show you. One may be difficult, but two or three could change things, couldn’t they? I’m showing you the reward in advance for that time. This black stone is an advance payment.”
“That’s not what we agreed to. I’m taking the black stone back.”
Magreta reached out to retrieve the black stone.
Maxwell’s hand moved as well to stop her.
Before the two hands could meet.
Snap.
My hand caught Magreta’s arm.
“Wait. May I decide after seeing it?”
When I took hold of Magreta’s hand, Maxwell looked at me in surprise.
“They said you were former special forces, and your hands really are fast.”
It seemed he had not seen my hand move.
Naturally.
Unlike him, I could use energy even on Earth.
My body now was no different from when I had been on Planet Trappist.
“I brought it to show you anyway.”
He unlocked the briefcase and opened it.
Inside the case lay a large metal plate.
It was a metal plate covered in letters that looked as if I had seen them somewhere before.
“This artifact is a magic artifact, an artifact with magic written on it. We studied the characters written on this artifact and others, and restored the ‘magic’ of an ancient civilization.”
[Absurd. You call that restored?]
Soph’s protest immediately rang out, but I listened to Maxwell.
“To be honest, this artifact isn’t especially useful. It’s an educational artifact that produces small spells only on stars with energy. On Earth, where there is no energy, it’s completely useless.
But it’s also true that we can’t carelessly leak the original source of ‘magic.’”
So what was he saying?
I looked at Maxwell again.
Maxwell took a USB drive from the briefcase and placed it on the table.
“Inside this is a portion of our analysis of magic. If you learn this material, you’ll be able to enter the path of magic.”
He pushed the USB drive toward me.
“What I said earlier about an exchange was only half true. What we actually intend to exchange is this magical knowledge. Every time you bring us a black stone, we’ll give you a USB containing the magical knowledge we’ve restored.
Considering the effort we put into restoring magic, this is a perfectly reasonable exchange.”
At Maxwell’s words, Magreta furrowed her brow and fell into thought.
It seemed like a decent enough deal to her.
But to me, it was utterly useless.
I asked Maxwell,
“What’s inside this USB is magic formulas, magic circles, and incantations, correct?”
“Did you hear that from Sterling? You know it well.”
Of course I knew it well.
I hadn’t understood a single thing, but those were the things that appeared in my head every time I used magic.
“And I have to study that magic.”
“That’s right. It gets more difficult the higher the level, but for someone like you with excellent energy utilization ability, entering the path shouldn’t take more than a year.”
What a joke.
It was clear that even if I studied for ten years, not just one, it would be useless.
When my expression hardened, Magreta asked,
“How long did Max and Sterling study?”
“Sterling and I were early members. We studied for three years from the time the restoration of magic began.”
“You hid it quite well for three years.”
“That’s how important it was. If we hadn’t found a new ruin, we would have kept hiding it.”
[To reach that level in three years. As expected, his ability wasn’t bad.]
Soph was still regretful.
[If you had even half of Sterling’s talent, you could have become a greater archmage than me!]
Even so, it meant nothing to me.
Maxwell clasped his hands together and asked me,
“Mr. Hyun’s goal is to learn magic, isn’t it? Well! What will you do?”
Maxwell smiled broadly as he looked at me. It was a smile that said there was no way I would refuse.
Sorry, but I couldn’t accept his offer.
Instead, I made a different request of him.
“Before I decide, may I examine the artifact?”
At my words, Maxwell turned the briefcase around.
“Looking is fine. But on Earth, it’s nothing more than an antique.”
At Maxwell’s words, Magreta grinned.
“An. Antique. Is it?”
Maxwell looked at Magreta with a puzzled face, but I paid no attention and reached toward the artifact.
My hand touched the artifact.
Energy flowed into the metal plate.
Through my senses, I could feel the interior of the metal plate.
[It split off long ago, so the standards are quite different, but it isn’t difficult to understand.]
I heard Soph’s voice.
Just as I expected.
It was hard for me to learn magic, but I had Soph.
Soph’s voice continued.
[This is an artifact that creates air magic. Calling it an educational magic artifact isn’t wrong either. Hm. If you do it this way, you can use air magic—]
Soph’s voice gradually grew distant.
The world was covered in white light.
‘Don’t tell me?’
I immediately knew what was happening.
I had entered Soph’s memories.
It was a phenomenon that sometimes activated when I touched artifacts and ruins related to Soph.
But what I had touched just now was an artifact unrelated to Soph.
On top of that, it was an artifact brought from another star.
It was absurd, but since I had already entered the memory, there was nothing I could do.
I waited for the light to disappear.
***
Whoooooosh!
A high mountain piled with gray snow, a fierce blizzard raging.
Four people were descending a steep gorge.
Three men and one woman.
The woman and two of the men were dressed as mages, while one man wore armor.
With cloaks wrapped around them, they trudged forward diligently.
It was Soph’s party, advancing toward the Demon King.
They were now crossing the mountain range and entering the eastern part of the continent.
Unlike the others, the young mage, who was panting for breath, stuck out his lower lip.
“Huff. Huff. It’s cold, it’s hard. A mage mountain climbing? This makes no sense.”
Hearing that, the fighter opened his mouth.
“Esh lacks exercise.”
“I’m sturdy for a mage, you know.”
At the young mage’s words, the fighter pointed ahead.
In front of them, two mages were walking hand in hand.
“Lady Shamara is walking without a single complaint.”
At Givor’s words, Esh sighed.
“That’s because Lord Shamek cast magic on her.”
That was why the two of them were walking hand in hand.
“You could ask him to cast it on you too.”
Esh glanced at the two of them, then shook his head.
“…I’m fine.”
Givor patted Esh on the head.
“Right. Hang in there.”
Esh pushed Givor’s hand away and sighed again.
“If only the energy in this mountain range were normal, we could have just flown…”
At Esh’s words, the mage following behind interjected.
“If you’re going to say that, we would have used spatial transfer.”
“Ugh… That’s true too.”
Esh smacked his lips.
Esh looked back.
A high ridge was visible. It was the ridge of the mountain range they had crossed.
Beyond that ridge was the city they had passed through.
A beautiful city with a spatial transfer device.
Now, it was a city occupied by monsters.
Instead of saving the city, they were continuing forward.
As Esh sighed again, he saw the clouds clearing.
“Huh. The blizzard stopped.”
As sunlight shone through the clouds and Esh rejoiced, Soph opened his mouth.
“This is troublesome.”
Thanks to sharing Soph’s senses, I also knew why he found it troublesome.
“Why?”
“Because once the blizzard stops, we can’t help but be discovered.”
We were currently surrounded.
Countless monsters were felt through his senses.
Graaaaaah!
Monsters resembling scouts came into view.
Dozens, hundreds of Akzar monsters burst out of the snow and charged toward us.
“Huh… What do we do now?”
Esh looked around with a troubled expression.
“We wipe them out.”
“We can’t use magic carelessly here. If it gets too far from the body, the magic will all tangle, won’t it?”
Even I, inside Soph’s body, was finding it difficult to maintain my senses.
The energy flowing through the mountain range was so distorted that it was visible to the eye.
But Soph spoke calmly.
“Don’t worry. I’m an archmage.”
With those words, Soph cast a spell.
A magic circle was drawn around his staff.
“Gather. Compress. Burst. O air!”
With the incantation, the magic was cast.
Kwaaaaaang!
It was a tremendous explosion.
One side of the gray ridge burst apart.
It was in a place completely different from the direction Soph had pointed.
“What do you mean, archmage! You just exploded the air! The position is a mess, the power is all over the place… Aaaah! It’s an avalanche!”
Rumble rumble rumble.
Just as Esh said, snow was collapsing from the ridge.
Seeing that scene, Shamara said,
“How wonderful.”
“Right? As expected, I’m amazing.”
Esh, who had instinctively agreed with Shamara’s words, shouted in anger.
“It is wonderful, but… we’re going to get caught in it too!”
The monsters were already fleeing to avoid the avalanche.
Rumble rumble.
The avalanche grew larger and larger.
But Soph was not worried.
“Don’t worry. We have a way to escape. Flying is difficult, but supporting ourselves with air is possible.”
With those words, Soph cast magic again.
Layers of air formed around the party’s bodies.
They looked like wings.
Transparent bat-like wings formed around their bodies.
Soph flicked his hand.
“Uh. Uh. Uh.”
Pushed by the wind, the party fell forward.
Their bodies rose into the air on the fierce wind.
No, they had not risen.
They were still falling.
It was only that the gorge was so steep that they had not hit the ground.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!
The landslide was surging in from behind.
But no one was paying attention to the landslide.
“Now, we glide. We’re going down to the ground like this.”
Soph shouted in an excited voice.
‘Insane.’
Sharing Soph’s senses, I was terrified.
The ground raced past beneath me.
Cliffs approached and receded on both sides.
This was not a parachute.
Nor was it wings made of air.
This was a wingsuit.
We were plummeting toward the ground.
Esh screamed.
“Aaaah! Somebody save me!”
As the wind rushed past at tremendous speed and the ground rapidly approached,
the world brightened again.
Magic Artifact (2)