With just one brightly shining light source, the underground city looked different than before.
Warm light settled over it, and from the distant ice wall blew a cool breeze.
Though it was deep underground, it felt as if I were standing beneath a high peak on a spring day.
The city still had no living people in it, but there was movement that had not been there before.
Ice golems of various sizes, from full-grown adults to elementary-school children, were bustling about.
They carried stones that looked like furniture, and hurried around with stone farming tools slung over their shoulders.
Strangely, every one of the golems was sweating.
“Is that not sweat?”
As I tilted my head while looking at the golems, the spirit called out to them and said,
-The temperature has risen, so it’s become difficult to maintain the golems for long, but it can’t be helped.
As expected, what was running down the golems’ bodies was not sweat.
The golems, made of ice, were slowly melting.
That was also why the golems were all different sizes.
-Here, seeds and saplings. Take them.
The spirit handed out seeds and saplings to the approaching golems.
Holding the saplings and seeds, the golems headed outside the city.
Together with the spirit, I followed behind the golems.
We left the city, now lively unlike before, and arrived at the empty outskirts.
The outskirts had changed as well.
Of course, even before, this place had been covered in fine soil.
It was soil the spirit had made over long years by breaking down rock walls together with the golems.
But even then, the land had been dead.
That could not be helped.
No matter how long rock was crushed to make soil, that soil was nothing more than ordinary minerals with no organic matter in it.
Even after long years of effort, the spirit could not create living soil on a planet without bacteria or microorganisms.
But the soil I saw now was different from a few days ago.
The soil was alive.
The soil, darker than before, was imbued with vitality.
I soon understood the reason for the change.
On one side of the field, the corpses of scout monsters had been piled up.
They were corpses with only hollowed-out skins remaining.
-In any case, monsters are living creatures too. They had hibernated for ages on energy, but they were more than enough to use as fertilizer.
The spirit bragged beside me.
Honestly, it was impressive. She was solving one problem after another on her own.
Perhaps because she was a spirit created for terraforming, she was doing her job properly.
“That’s amazing. Is waiting all that’s left now?”
I spoke to the spirit as I walked after the golems.
Since this was an ice planet, there was plenty of water.
There was enough light, and fertilizer had been prepared.
The soil was ready, and there were workers.
Now all we had to do was wait for the trees and grass to grow.
It was a satisfying situation, but I still felt a little regretful.
“Would it be too greedy of me to say it’s a shame it will take so long?”
Some vegetables would be ready in a few weeks, and grain would grow in a year, but trees needed years to decades before they were fully grown.
To see the forest the spirit wanted, we would have to wait a long time.
Just then, the spirit pointed ahead and said,
-That’s no problem either. I brought a greenhouse from the warehouse and assembled it.
Where she pointed, behind the pile of monster corpses, stood a greenhouse I had never seen before.
It looked exactly like the greenhouse beneath the terraforming ruins.
There definitely had not been a greenhouse like that here last time.
-Before, there was no light, so it was useless, but it’s different now.
It was not some all-purpose magic pouch.
All sorts of things came out of that place called the warehouse.
The sun floating on the ceiling had been in the warehouse, and so had the greenhouse.
It was enough to make me want to visit that warehouse.
-If we grow them in the greenhouse, it will be quick. You’ll be able to see a forest soon too.
She was right.
This greenhouse was both a relic and a ruin imbued with time magic.
I had heard it consumed a great deal of energy and could not be installed just anywhere, but that did not matter for these ruins.
These ruins were also meant to terraform this planet, and this planet had no ruins other than these.
The golems entered the greenhouse carrying saplings and seeds.
The golems diligently scattered the seeds and planted the saplings.
Inside the greenhouse, it was warmer than outside.
Water poured from the bodies of the working golems as if it were raining.
The greenhouse floor became soaked with water, and the golems grew smaller and smaller.
Watching that, the spirit said proudly,
-Thanks to the golems, there’s no need to water them separately. As long as we occasionally put in the golems managing it together with fertilizer, the grass and trees will grow in no time.
Golems were not alive, so it was not wrong.
Still, I could not help feeling sorry for them.
I prayed for the souls of the golems who gave everything they had.
After watching sprouts emerge from the seeds planted in the greenhouse, we returned to the surface.
Just as she said, they sprouted quickly.
The next time I came, I felt I would be able to see the empty outside of the city filled with grass.
When I stepped onto the spatial movement magic circle, the spirit waved at me and said,
-The preparations are finished, so when you come next time, please bring people to live in the city!
Was it because I had brought plants? It was a quicker decision than I had expected.
I asked the spirit,
“May I decide that?”
-You’re the deputy administrator. I, the spirit, will make and manage the city, and the people who will live there should be decided by the deputy administrator, who is also a person.
I nodded at the spirit’s words.
Now that I had a clear answer, there was nothing to hold me back.
‘First, I’ll bring the members and turn the underground city into the exploration team’s base, and after that…’
As I continued thinking, another planet suddenly came to mind.
The planet the Americans had prepared to evacuate Earth’s people to.
I needed to check the planet called Paradise.
Only after learning what that planet was like could I decide how to use this city.
I had to decide whether to leave it as a base for me and the team members, as planned, or to make it a place to evacuate the team members’ families and other people at the final moment.
“When I go to Earth next, I’ll have to find out whether visiting is possible.”
With my porter ability, it should not be difficult to visit Paradise.
To be honest, I was also curious about the planet called Paradise.
Unlike Earth, it had energy, but it was a planet with less energy than this one.
Even so, they had said it was a better place to live than the desolate Trappist.
Before the final moment came, I wanted to see for myself what kind of planet it was.
As I had that thought, the world filled with light.
Spatial movement had begun.
Within the light, I could see paths made of energy.
Now I felt I knew where each path led.
‘That one goes to the ruins beneath the city factory, and the path I’m on now goes to the underground ruins.’
Aside from those, there was also an energy path I had never seen before.
A path that was still faint.
Once Soph recovered his memories, I was sure I would be able to go down that path too.
Fwaaaah.
The light disappeared, and the dark cave walls came into view again.
I had returned to the underground ruins.
“Welcome back.”
A voice greeted me from below the altar.
It was Hanna.
Just as Magreta had said, Hanna had come over.
She greeted me with a delighted expression.
As I descended from the altar, I asked Hanna,
“Nothing happened, right?”
“Until recently, nothing had happened.”
At my words, Hanna’s expression grew complicated.
Startled by her expression, I asked immediately,
“Why?”
“The light of the people who came this time is a little dark…”
At Hanna’s words, I clicked my tongue.
I still did not know for sure what the light she spoke of meant.
Even so, there were things I had roughly figured out.
Hanna could tell from the light whether something would help her survival.
A bright, radiant light helped her survive, and a dark light was dangerous.
[No matter how I look at it, this sounds like a saintess’s future sight. Of course, a saintess’s prophecy foretells not her own future, but the future of the nation and humanity.]
Soph made a mage-like deduction in my head, but I first pondered Hanna’s words.
‘It means something bad is going to happen because of that main unit. If that’s the case, would it be better for us to stay as far away from them as possible?’
That was the first thought that came to mind after hearing Hanna.
But I immediately shook my head.
‘It’s not enough for only us to be safe.’
If we were separated and the main unit suffered near-total annihilation, that would be a serious problem too.
I and my team members could not do everything by ourselves.
To expand the base and obtain black stone, we needed those Americans.
‘This is troublesome.’
It seemed this was something I would have to discuss with the team members.
“There’s still a long time before the Koreans arrive, so pack your things and let’s go back together.”
I needed to understand the situation before the main unit caused some incident.
That was when Hanna and I were walking toward the supplies I had piled up.
Soph suddenly spoke.
[Now, while no one else is here, would be good.]
[What?]
[I was planning to do it slowly, one person at a time, but this is a good opportunity.]
“What are you trying to do?”
It really came out of nowhere.
At his sudden words, I ended up answering aloud.
Thinking I had made a mistake, I was about to make an excuse to Hanna.
But Hanna spoke first.
“Are you perhaps talking to the spear on your back?”
I was startled by Hanna’s words.
When I looked at her with wide eyes, Hanna looked at the spear and said carefully,
“At first, I thought the light coming from you, Hyeon oppa, was one. But as time passed, the light gradually split apart. Now the light coming from the spear and the light coming from you look completely separate.
And the light coming from the spear doesn’t look like it comes from a relic, but like it comes from a person…”
Hanna’s ability had clearly grown stronger.
This was unexpected.
Hanna had noticed Soph before I told her.
When I found myself at a loss, Hanna looked at me apologetically.
There was nothing I could do.
It seemed I would have to tell Hanna the truth again, and only her.
But before I could speak, Soph stepped in first.
[Her growth is certainly fast. As expected, now is the right time.]
“What on earth are you trying to do?”
Now I also asked aloud without hesitation.
[Tell Miss Hanna to set down her bow.]
At his increasingly out-of-nowhere words, I let out a sigh.
In any case, if I wanted to know what was going on, I would have to do as he said.
I said to Hanna,
“First, can you put your bow down on the ground for a moment?”
After saying it, I realized it was a statement that could easily be misunderstood.
This was no different from telling her to drop her weapon after a secret had been discovered.
Fortunately, Hanna did not misunderstand in the slightest.
“Yes.”
She immediately set down her bow.
[I will use magic, so point the spear at the bow.]
“Yes, yes. I’ll do as you say, so please tell me the reason.”
As I aimed the spear at the bow lying on the ground, Soph answered.
[That bow is called a relic, but it is not a proper relic.]
“What? What do you mean?”
[What did you hear a relic was?]
“Well, something made by a mage so that magic can be used with energy…”
[This bow was merely handled by someone with blacksmithing abilities. Its material is excellent, so it can use magic-like abilities, but it is difficult to call it a relic or magic equipment.]
“But there are no mages who can make relics now, are there?”
[Why wouldn’t there be? I’m right here. Before, it would have been impossible, but now I am a mage who has mastered all general magic. Naturally, among that magic, there is also magic for creating magical items.]
Soph cast magic.
Energy was drawn in.
Boooooong.
The bow stave lying on the ground began to rise.
Several magic circles appeared in the air and wrapped around the bow stave.
Bzzzzzt.
Patterns I had never seen before, magic circles, began to be engraved into the bow stave.
[Hold on well. Since there are no proper facilities, I may have to use all of your energy and even the energy of the black stone.]
At Soph’s words, I bit my lip.
Even if he had not said so, I intended to endure it this time.
This was the moment Hanna would gain new magic.
And not only Hanna. If Soph’s words were true, the other team members would also be able to obtain relics engraved with new magic.
Fwaaaah.
When all the patterns had been engraved, a bright light enveloped the bow stave.
Artifact Creation (2)