The Sand Sorcerer of the Scorched Desert
“My name is Jeon. My weapon is the entire desert.”
Earth had been terraformed.
As a side effect of terraforming, the seas evaporated, and the land turned to sand.
Jeon, the only Sand Sorcerer on the desertified Earth.
The world called him the Sand Ghost.
Chapter 1
Tick!
It was the dead of night, when everyone was asleep. A faint sound of a string snapping traveled through the air.
In an instant, the boy opened his eyes.
The boy rose without a sound, like a cat, and looked toward the iron door.
A tiny room so small it would be packed tight if two adults lay down.
In the tiny room without even a window, the only exit was the small iron door.
The boy held his breath and stared at the door handle.
Click! Click!
The sound of someone turning the handle echoed.
They tried to muffle the sound as much as possible, but to the boy, already awake, it boomed like thunder.
Clack!
Finally, the lock disengaged and the door opened. Then someone poked their head through the iron door.
In the hand of the man who stuck his head in was a dagger as long as an adult’s forearm.
The man, perhaps not yet accustomed to the darkness, fumbled about as he cautiously entered the room.
The boy held his breath and watched the entire scene.
The intruder, unaware of this fact, crept a little further into the room.
That was when.
Tick!
A snapping sound came from beneath the man’s feet.
It was a trap the boy had set in advance.
Thwack!
“Kuh!”
In an instant, a dull impact and the intruder’s scream rang out simultaneously.
A small dagger was lodged in the man’s side.
The boy had designed it so the dagger would launch when the string snapped.
Unaware of this, the man who had intruded into the room had to pay a severe price.
“Graaah! What the hell?”
The man rolled around the room, shrieking.
Then the boy, who had been crouching without so much as a breath, moved.
Tap!
The boy pushed off the floor and mounted the man’s chest. Then he snatched the man’s dagger and pressed it to his throat.
The man stared at the boy with incredulous eyes.
“Urg! You little brat….”
“I wondered who was sneaking in like a thief, and it turned out to be the uncle from next door.”
Literally the uncle from next door.
The man lived in the room right next to the boy’s.
They had even passed by each other last night.
His face was so unpleasant, and the way he looked at the boy was so sinister that it was impossible to forget.
The boy tapped the man’s cheek.
“Hey, mister! No matter what, we’re neighbors. Isn’t robbery a bit much?”
“In the Ant Nest, what do you think this place is? Brat! You’d better let me go. Do you know who my brother is?”
“How would I know that, mister?”
The boy made a dumbfounded expression. At that, the man pinned beneath him gritted his teeth violently.
“An Awakened. One who uses magic.”
“You have to lie in moderation for anyone to believe you. This is absurd. You expect me to believe an Awakened’s little brother lives in a place like this?”
“It’s true. There are circumstances; I’m just staying here for a while.”
“Then you should’ve kept quiet and left. Why sneak in to steal a kid’s pennies?”
“Ha! Fuck, so I’m supposed to just ignore a mana stone right in front of my eyes?”
“So you did see it.”
The boy clicked his tongue.
He had obtained a small mana stone by chance.
It was his first time having one, so he had touched it a few times out of fascination. It seemed the man from next door had seen him.
The boy blamed himself for his mistake.
The slums, called the Ant Nest or the Den.
Here, where the poor who couldn’t enter the Neo Seoul Colony gathered, rules or manners did not exist.
It was a place where the strong trampled the weak, and taking everything someone had was permitted.
Being weak was a sin, and strength was an indulgence.
The boy, Jeon, knew the laws of these slums better than anyone.
Because he was born and raised in the Den.
The beginning of his memory was a beggars’ hovel in the slums. The moment he took his first steps, he was used for begging.
There wasn’t a single good memory in the beggars’ den.
He was beaten for bringing in too little, beaten for eating too much.
So once he was old enough, he kicked his way out of the beggars’ den.
He hadn’t simply left.
He had secretly stabbed the beggar den’s boss while he slept before getting out.
Because of that, the boss of the beggars’ den was still looking for Jeon.
The name Jeon was also one he had given himself.
He had needed a name to prove his identity, after all.
The name didn’t have any particular meaning.
He had chosen it simply because it sounded cool.
He was very satisfied with his own name.
There was nothing he hadn’t done to survive.
From pickpocketing to theft, he had done it all except killing a person.
Knowing that letting one’s guard down in the slums meant death, he had set traps in his dwelling. That meticulousness had saved Jeon.
Jeon pondered for a moment what to do with the man pinned beneath him.
If the man’s brother really was an Awakened, it was dangerous.
Just then, the man’s eyes gleamed craftily.
Slip!
A throwing knife slid out from the man’s sleeve like a trickle.
It was a hidden emergency knife.
“Die, you little brat!”
The man roared and swung the knife.
Jeon hastily backed away.
The man chased after him. His eyes were brimming with murderous intent.
He swung the knife with the single-minded determination to kill Jeon and take the mana stone no matter what.
“Kruk!”
Jeon grappled with the man, embracing him in a hold for some time.
Thuck!
Shortly after, the sound of a blade piercing flesh burst out.
“Kuhk!”
And the man screamed and slumped to the floor. A dagger was embedded in his chest.
The man, staring at Jeon with an expression of disbelief, trembled violently before soon ceasing to breathe.
“Damn it!”
Jeon plopped down on the floor.
He had done everything before, but this was the first time he had killed a man.
The eerie sensation of the dagger digging into the man’s chest was still vivid.
“Fuck! Why did you have to sneak in like that….”
Jeon looked at the dead man’s corpse.
He had known he would have to kill someone someday. To survive without being trampled in the Ant Nest, it was inevitable.
But he had never imagined that day would be today.
Jeon came to his senses.
If the dead man’s brother really was an Awakened, it was dangerous.
Hiding the corpse perfectly was impossible anyway. The streets were filled with poor folk scattered about. Moving the corpse while avoiding their eyes was impossible in itself.
It was better to leave the corpse here and hide his own body quickly.
The moment he made his decision, Jeon moved immediately.
He locked the door to the room with the man’s corpse tightly and came outside.
A street reminiscent of the Kowloon Walled City that had existed in Hong Kong long ago appeared before him.
Dilapidated buildings crammed with rooms just big enough for a person to lie down were lined up like chicken coops.
Because the buildings had been erected haphazardly without any rules, the streets were as complex as a labyrinth.
Jeon concealed himself within the labyrinth.
* * *
“Fuck! He really was an Awakened. How can my luck be this bad?”
Jeon muttered inside an armored bus plastered with metal plates.
The brother of the man Jeon killed really was an Awakened.
And not just any—he was a B-Rank Awakened.
If even an F-Rank chased you, your life was worth less than a fly’s, let alone a B-Rank.
B-Ranks numbered only about a hundred among the countless Awakened in Neo Seoul.
If Jeon was a commoner, a B-Rank Awakened was nobility.
If caught, it wouldn’t end with a simple death.
He had tracked Jeon, enraged by his younger brother’s death.
The fact that his brother had tried to rob Jeon first was not a problem to him.
No matter how wrong he was, he was still his brother.
The fact that his brother had died to a brat like Jeon infuriated him.
“Today, I flee like this, pathetically, but I will definitely have my revenge. Ijiryeong.”
The name of the Awakened tracking him was Ijiryeong.
He was a Lightning Magic Awakened.
Even among the magic world, Lightning Magic was notorious for its destructive power.
He was a powerhouse ranked among the top of B-Rank Awakened.
Ijiryeong knew the slums just as well as Jeon. Though he was in Neo Seoul now, he too was from the slums.
He knew perfectly where Jeon would hide and where he would flee.
In the end, Jeon was cornered, and that was why he had boarded the bus.
It was a bus heading to the mana stone mines outside the Neo Seoul Colony.
Once outside the Neo Seoul Colony, it wouldn’t be easy even for Ijiryeong to track him.
‘To think I’d board this bus of my own accord.’
Jeon bit his lip hard.
Outside the Neo Seoul Colony was desert.
Red sand that wouldn’t even grow a single blade of grass stretched endlessly.
All manner of dangers lurked in the scorching red desert.
Beneath the sand, subterranean magic beasts like sandworms and ironclad sand centipedes lurked, while above, all kinds of magic beasts like flame wolves and great-horned hyenas ran rampant.
On top of that, scavenger bands lay in wait for the caravans traveling to and from the colony for trade.
Nowhere was safe.
That was why the poor remained outside Neo Seoul Colony, living subhuman lives.
For some reason, magic beasts avoided approaching near Neo Seoul Colony.
At least if you stayed near Neo Seoul Colony, you wouldn’t be killed by magic beasts. That was why Jeon had desperately remained in the slums. But now that Ijiryeong had marked him, there was no place for him there.
“Damn it! If only I had awakened too….”
A hundred years ago, Earth had turned into a desert.
Over ninety percent of humanity had died, and the survivors had barely clung to life by establishing colonies atop the ruins turned to sand.
The ones who had accomplished the most at that time were the Awakened.
As if they had been waiting, some among the survivors had awakened to unknown abilities.
Some had their bodies strengthened, and others became able to use magic.
They were called Awakened.
The Awakened became the rulers of the new world.
Even low-ranking Awakened received precious treatment in Neo Seoul.
Compared to them, someone like Jeon was no different from a commoner.
Even if Jeon died, not a single person would care.
In the end, what Jeon chose was the bus heading to the mana stone mines.
The mana stone mine was located on a rocky mountain seventy kilometers from Neo Seoul.
All the mana stones excavated here went entirely to Neo Seoul.
It was with the energy extracted from mana stones that the megacity of Neo Seoul was maintained.
However, mining mana stones required a great deal of manpower.
The tunnels were deep and narrow, so miners had no choice but to dig with pickaxes directly.
The environment was so harsh that miners died endlessly.
Because of this, labor was always in short supply.
Given the circumstances, Neo Seoul put anyone who wanted to go to the mines on the bus without asking questions about their identity.
Thanks to that, Jeon too was able to board the armored bus heading to the mines.
‘No matter what, I’ll survive the mana stone mines. And I’ll get my revenge on Ijiryeong.’
As Jeon looked out the window burning with determination, the bus filled with people.
They were all miners.
“Hey, kid! You going to the mines too?”
The man sitting next to Jeon spoke to him.
As expected of someone who had volunteered for the mines, he was big and looked strong.
Jeon replied apathetically.
“So what?”
“You’ve got quite the spine for a little brat. Still, you’d best be careful at the mines.”
“Of what?”
“There are plenty of guys there who’ll be after the ass of a frail-looking kid like you. Heh heh!”
The man scanned Jeon’s entire body with lecherous eyes.
‘This fucking bastard.’
Jeon knew all too well what that look meant.
The slums were crawling with men who preyed on other men, and a significant number of them had targeted Jeon.
Jeon had a slender build and a rather handsome face.
If not for the ruthlessness etched on his face, he could pass for a pretty boy.
Without his unique sharpness and ferocity, he would have fallen victim to them dozens of times over.
Jeon fingered the dagger hidden in his sleeve, contemplating when he should plunge it into the man sitting next to him.
Even if he didn’t take his life, he had to sever at least one tendon and cripple him so the others wouldn’t look down on him.
That was one of the ways to survive at the bottom.
But his deliberation didn’t last long.
The armored bus had started moving.
The bus quickly left Neo Seoul Colony and entered the desert.
The endless waves of red sand visible outside the window overwhelmed the people aboard the armored bus.
Even the man who had been looking at Jeon with lecherous eyes couldn’t close his mouth at the sight of the vast desert landscape.
Over the endless sea of red sand, the armored bus was no more than a speck of dust.
Jeon muttered.
“Will we be able to reach the mines safely?”
He would soon regret his words.
He had jinxed it with his damn mouth.
Kugwa-kwa-kwa!
Red sand was rising violently behind the bus as it raced forward.
A giant sandworm was chasing the bus.
“Crazy! There shouldn’t be any sandworms around here.”
At that moment, as if to deny his words outright, the sandworm’s massive body burst out from the sand. And like a meteor, it crashed down toward the armored bus.
Kwoooo!
The entire scene entered Jeon’s eyes vividly, as if in slow motion.
‘Fuck! A sandworm popping up here? Are you kidding me?’
Boom!
An enormous impact struck the armored bus.