“By now, he should have gotten there safely, right?”
It was about time for Gochyuga Gamnida and Claire to meet, so Hio, who had briefly thought of them, scratched his head awkwardly.
“Should I have written the letter in Korean?”
Without thinking much of it, he had dashed it off in the continental language, but looking back, he wondered if the contents might have been embarrassing from that guy’s perspective.
Well, he was certain Claire wouldn’t open it and read it, but still…
“……He’ll handle it. I should worry about myself.”
He trudged up the mountain path.
It went without saying, but playing something as a game and having it become reality, forcing you to move your body yourself, were entirely different things.
In other words, even if he had a rough idea of where the Tomb of the Last Mage was, finding its exact location was proving quite difficult.
He had already been combing through the area for two days, yet he hadn’t found anything that could be called a dungeon.
‘…Don’t tell me someone already looted it?’
It was a thought worth having.
After all, if he had happened to find it by chance in the game, that meant someone else could have happened to find it as well.
But that didn’t mean he could give up searching.
There were almost no dungeons where one could obtain two skill books, after all.
‘And I was able to get them with barely any effort, too.’
A lousy dungeon where, at most, a few kobolds appeared, yet it contained two skill books.
That was why he absolutely had to go there.
Especially since, thanks to the “No Violence!” penalty, all his skills except Thunder Emperor had vanished.
Thunder Emperor was a top-tier skill, so its mana consumption was extreme.
He needed to get other skills that consumed less mana.
‘Only then can I make them my own skills when I fill up my Patience again.’
If he had no skills, what would be the point of filling up Patience?
But buying skills with fame points was far too expensive.
For now, he had to buy stats as soon as he earned points, so he couldn’t save up enough to buy skill books.
“……This really is a dungeon I absolutely have to find.”
Therefore, the Tomb of the Last Mage was a dungeon he had to find no matter what.
Just as Hio was wandering the mountain while muttering to himself—
“Aaaaargh!”
A rough voice rang out.
“You utterly wicked fiends! Today, I shall finally put an end to this tenacious bond between us!”
Hio’s gaze turned toward it.
Through the sparse trees, he could see the shape of a person in the distance.
Driven by curiosity, Hio’s feet naturally began to move.
‘A person… here?’
The place Hio was in was a mountain where people practically never came and went.
The only nearby village was Delphir Village, where Hio had been staying, and there was no particular reason for anyone to cross the mountain.
That was why he had thought the Tomb of the Last Mage would not have been discovered.
Could the owner of that voice over there have discovered something?
“Enemy of my master!”
Hio’s steps quickened, and soon the owner of the voice came into view.
An old man with hair as white as snow.
A worn robe draped over his body.
The arm he raised high was nothing but skin and bones.
However, what made Hio’s eyes widen in shock was—
“Today, here and now, I shall sever the chain of all evil!”
It was because the old man possessed the trait “Genius of Mana Sensitivity.”
To others, he would have looked like nothing more than a mad old man, but Hio could see it clearly.
“Hwooooo!”
The flow of mana gathering around the old man as he waved both arms about as though drunk.
It was the first orderly movement of mana Hio had seen since entering this world. Patterned mana.
“Bloom, flames. Bring endless agony to those vile beings!”
The sight of the mana moving with precision and the old man commanding it was more than enough to shock Hio.
Soon, three geometric patterns were drawn.
With nothing but his sensitivity, Hio could clearly feel those patterns.
It was something that could never exist in this world.
‘Magic circles…?’
At the same time, the old man’s movements came to an abrupt stop, and mana began to writhe within the three completed magic circles.
“Kwooooo!”
Just what kind of incredible thing was about to come out?
The sight of the magic circles he was seeing for the first time, along with the old man manipulating mana, filled Hio with anticipation, and as he swallowed dryly from tension, magic finally burst forth from the completed circles.
“I shall burn everything to ash! Fire!”
Three very tiny fireballs wriggled adorably into existence.
‘Hm?’
If he had to compare them, they were about the size of Claire’s fist…?
No, they seemed even smaller than that.
Maybe Claire’s fist from about five years ago would have been that size.
“Kuohoho! Go!”
However, the old man’s spirited shout and expression were utterly serious, and only then was Hio able to confirm who his opponent was.
—Grrr…
A monster the size of a child, with the head of a dog—a kobold.
Not an Abyss Monster, but a low-ranking monster that was fairly weak even among basic monsters.
‘Just… a kobold?’
The opponent he had been treating like an irreconcilable foe was only a kobold.
Of course, for an ordinary person, a kobold was certainly a monster one had to flee from if encountered, but no matter how Hio looked at it, the old man did not seem like an ordinary person, which was why the scene felt so deflating.
While Hio was thinking that, the three adorable little lumps of flame the old man had created flew toward the kobold, and the kobold let out a growl as it dodged the fire.
“As expected! So you are no easy foe!”
The old man shouted and waved his arms once more.
In accordance with those movements, mana formed patterns, and the patterns formed a circle.
Even upon seeing it again, it was a mysterious phenomenon that filled him with awe.
But this time, the kobold did not simply wait for him.
—Grrrrr!
With a dog-like growl, the kobold charged at the old man.
The weapon in its hand was an old wooden club, but taking the life of that scrawny old man would likely be an easy task.
“You cowardly wretch!”
The old man thrust both hands toward the charging kobold.
But that magic circle was not complete.
Because he had rushed it, the circle was far less perfect than before.
Magic was hastily unleashed from it.
“Fire!”
Even though the magic circle was incomplete, the spell still activated, and flames slightly smaller than before appeared and shot toward the kobold.
Was it luck?
The kobold, having charged in recklessly and failed to prepare for the flames, took the old man’s magic directly, and fire flared up across its body.
“Wahahaha! How do you like that! This is the magic of House Pavlenko!”
The old man roared with hearty laughter as he looked at the whimpering kobold.
And then…
“Gueck!”
He was immediately struck by the kobold’s fist and sent flying.
That tiny little flame had not been hot enough to kill the kobold.
“Such… cough! Cowardice……”
A line of blood trickled from the corner of the old man’s mouth after he was sent sprawling by a single punch.
“Ho, how bitter… My master’s enemy is right before my eyes……”
Even though he had only been hit once by the kobold’s fist, the old man lay there unable to even think of getting up.
‘Is he… not quite right in the head?’
No matter how low-ranking a monster was, it was still a monster.
There was no way it would die from flames that wouldn’t even burn a person to death.
Yet perhaps the old man had assumed it would obviously die, because even with the kobold right in front of him, he had openly burst into laughter and then gotten hit and collapsed.
‘What the hell is this…?’
He had no idea what was going on, but he still couldn’t just watch a person get killed by a monster right before his eyes.
The kobold rolled across the ground, put out the flames, and looked as though it was about to head for the old man again, so Hio got to his feet with a sigh.
The old man lay on the ground, repeating how bitter it was, while Hio approached him.
—Grrrr…
The kobold noticed Hio and began to be wary.
‘I stepped in for now, but… what do I do?’
Taking care of a single kobold would be easy.
Using “Thunder Emperor” in front of someone else felt a bit uncomfortable, but if the only witness was a half-dead old man, then it probably wouldn’t matter much.
Thunder Emperor was already free from the penalty, so there were no skills that would disappear even if he used violence.
However…
‘Kobolds are territorial monsters.’
There was only one in front of him, but if a commotion broke out, they would swarm in a pack.
And Hio’s mana was only 11 now.
If the fight dragged on even a little, if it even got close to one minute, the battle would end with mana exhaustion.
…As expected, running was the answer.
—Grrrr…
Fortunately, the kobold was wary of him.
It only kept its distance and let out a low growl.
The fact that kobolds operated within a territory meant that as long as he left that territory, he would be fine.
And the old man was wounded.
Hio looked at the kobold as he slowly hoisted the old man onto his back.
The man was so thin that Hio could barely feel his weight.
“Urgh… how bitter……”
With the old man on his back, who seemed to be half out of his mind and only repeated the same words, Hio muttered.
“Old man, where’s your home?”
“My, my master’s enemy is right before my eyes……”
“I asked where your home is.”
“Go straight that way……”
After roughly hearing the direction, Hio counted inwardly.
“……Now!”
Without looking back, he ran in the direction the old man had indicated.
He had stared in disbelief at an old man who had been locked in a life-or-death struggle with a mere kobold, but as it turned out, Hio himself was in no position to fight either.
“This is f*cked!”
[Hidden Trait - No Violence! (Patience: 8 / 1000)]
All that remained at the scene were the curse Hio had left behind and a single bewildered kobold.
* * *
“……I thought no way, no way, but seriously.”
Unless someone was hopelessly slow on the uptake, it wasn’t hard to find the connection.
The Tomb of the Last Mage that Hio was searching for was definitely somewhere around here.
And the old man who had suddenly appeared was someone who manifested skills in a way Hio had never seen before in his life.
No matter what other words he tried to think of, the only one that came to mind for the old man was mage.
And the place he arrived at after following that old man’s explanation was—
“The Tomb of the Last Mage.”
It was the dungeon Hio had been searching for so desperately.
A cave whose entrance was exquisitely concealed so that it could not be easily found.
In the game, it had been a place occupied by a group of kobolds, but now it was fairly clean, like a place where someone lived.
A space where the interior became cozy as if by magic the moment one entered.
After laying the old man down on a bed, Hio looked around the room.
‘This brings back memories.’
The Tomb of the Last Mage was a fairly large dungeon.
What he was seeing now certainly looked like the inside of a house, but that was due to a magical effect; in reality, it was a wide, deep cave.
‘It went down to the third underground floor.’
The skill books Hio wanted to obtain had been lying out in the open on this very first floor, with no need to go underground.
But no matter how he looked, he couldn’t see anything that resembled a skill book.
And the stairs leading downward, which should have been wide open, were blocked.
It seemed this was because he had saved the mage who, according to the setting, should have been dead.
‘If I want to get the skill books… I’ll have to wait a bit.’
First, after this old mage regained his senses, Hio needed to find out in detail what had happened.
“For now, I should do something about this old man.”
Was he even eating properly? There didn’t seem to be much food in the house either.
No wonder one punch from a kobold left him half out of his mind.
“There shouldn’t be any monsters nearby… I should look for something to eat.”
If an old man this frail was living here, there probably weren’t any monsters around.
Hio figured that once the old man woke up, he would feed him a thing or two, gain a suitable amount of goodwill, and then find out where the skill books were. With that in mind, he left the mage’s tomb.
The only thing he needed was the skill books.
Nothing more, nothing less.