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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“You knew about the spirit medicine from the beginning, right Master? That’s why you explained things in such detail normally. I thought it was a bit strange that you were telling me about something that usually only masters could have, but…”
“And yet you kept asking so persistently?”
“Because I was curious and it was interesting. I used it to charge myself up, thinking I’d definitely want to have one in the future. I didn’t know it would be this helpful though. Hehe.”
It seemed Kayla had already laid a lot of groundwork.
“Ahem. Inha, I’m really grateful to you too. I always feel like I’m just taking… It feels like the debt I can’t repay just keeps growing.”
Athena said she would try her best outside to repay as much as she could.
“That’s enough, let’s wash up first.”
“You really stink right now.”
At my words, Athena looked at her arm with a puzzled expression, and was surprised by its black appearance.
She sniffed it curiously.
Sniff sniff.
“Ugh!”
She immediately dry heaved and then examined her body.
“Ah, this was my favorite outfit… Will it go back to normal if I wash it?”
“It won’t.”
Kayla, the experienced one, shook her head and said,
“I even had to throw away some of the shower tools I used to wash.”
Athena looked down at her clothes with sad eyes.
I thought I heard a small whimpering sound, but I ignored it.
She went into the bathroom attached to the research lab, and while I ventilated the area, I asked Kayla.
“She succeeded properly, right?”
“Yes. We’ll need to check, but as long as the mana heart was formed, it’s fine. Even if it’s small, we can slowly grow it. With that child’s talent, she’ll be able to handle the mana heart properly in no time.”
Though we wouldn’t have much time to wait for that.
Athena took a long bath, and as soon as she came out, she immediately requested a sparring match with Kayla.
When told to rest for a day, she expressed her desire to move because her body felt itchy.
Kayla pinched her nose and coldly told her to wash again if her body was itchy.
Shocked by Kayla’s attitude, Athena asked me if she smelled.
“Kayla’s just strongly insisting you rest. You took the spirit medicine and a full day has passed.”
“…Has it been that long?”
At my words, Athena finally acquiesced and returned to her room.
After a day of rest, she immediately pounced on Kayla, and was promptly pinned to the training ground floor.
“Even so, it seems you couldn’t get used to your body in just one day. You’ve become full of openings. You’ve become faster and stronger, that’s true. Don’t tell me you’re already handling the mana heart?”
“Ah, um. That’s right. Ugh, it’s certainly not easy. Did it take you a long time too, Master?”
“It did. But you should be able to handle it roughly within a month.”
“Ugh. I’ll need to roll around a lot to adapt again. Inha, when are we leaving?”
“In a week.”
“…That soon?”
“I’ve finished most of the preparations.”
I glanced at Kayla and asked,
“What do you think? Would it be better to bring Baldur?”
“To be honest, yes.”
“Is he necessary?”
“If it weren’t for that dragon, he wouldn’t be necessary.”
“Dragon?”
Athena made a puzzled expression, and since there was no reason to hide it from Kayla who already knew, I explained the situation to Athena.
Her face instantly turned pale.
Of course, she wasn’t as worldly-wise as Kayla or me, so she was surprised in a different sense.
“…You said this was made from a dragon’s tooth. If it’s a dragon’s corpse… how many of these…”
She was referring to the Wind Dragon’s Fang.
“That’s a special item. The hornorcs said a soul dwells in it. Such items don’t just pour out just because there’s a corpse. But… well, depending on the situation, there’s a possibility of items of equal or even greater value coming out.”
It was an indirect expression of how valuable a dragon’s corpse was.
“This is insane…”
Athena shook her head and looked at me, saying,
“Thanks for being honest.”
After saying that, she immediately focused on training again.
For a week, I created more black bones, and during that time, the underground dungeon gradually regained stability.
It was a given that we would be leaving for a while, but the alliance with the hornorcs remained strong, and seeing the strengthened Land of Death and the Living Armor I had attached to Thea, they seemed to accept that there wouldn’t be any direct crisis for a while even without us.
‘Food supply is going well, and there were no monsters threatening us in this area.’
They might avoid us, but there were no cases of preemptive attacks.
Rather, there were cases where some foolish creatures caught Athena’s or Kayla’s eye and were killed.
When the day of our departure came, Rithild, the chief of the Dolgaebaram Tribe, and all the people of the underground dungeon came to see us off.
“You have to come back as soon as possible, sis.”
“Don’t worry. You know I’ve gotten stronger, right?”
“…I saw. You even reduced our conversations for a while because you were concentrating.”
“I’m sorry. But I’ll come back that much faster because of it.”
“Please take care of my sister, Kayla sis, Inha oppa.”
“Don’t worry. She’s my disciple, after all.”
“Of course. We’ll return safely.”
“At the latest, 2 years… I’ll be counting every day.”
“…730 days?”
Thea looked at me with a determined face and said,
“…I’ll definitely return by then.”
“It’s a promise.”
Thea held out her finger to me, and I linked my finger with hers.
It was similar to what we did in Korea, with the slight difference being that we used the index finger instead of the pinky.
We didn’t stamp anything either.
It felt like shaking hands with fingers.
“…We’re not children…”
Athena seemed a bit embarrassed by her sister’s behavior.
Indeed, this was something usually done by kids.
“Because it’s Inha oppa’s word, I’ll believe it.”
“Yes, trust and wait.”
“I’ll be waiting for you too. Although I won’t be counting 730 days.”
Thea’s face reddened slightly at Rithild’s playful teasing.
“I’ll be waiting.”
“If I see your family, I’ll do my best to rescue them. …Although I only know their names.”
“Even just saying that is appreciated.”
We also exchanged greetings with Mutre.
“Please come back quickly!”
“Please return safely!”
The residents of the underground dungeon also called out my name, asking me to return quickly, and I waved my hand moderately as if to say I understood.
“Shall we go?”
Baldur said, taking the lead.
A week ago, despite the sudden notification that he would be accompanying us, Baldur had nodded as if it was nothing.
No, he even asked me.
“Will you be bringing the ‘whip’ as well?”
“That… it would be better to bring it.”
Athena wasn’t a slave, and Kayla’s magic inscription had disappeared, but not Baldur’s.
To legally bring him along, I, as his nominal owner, had to carry the ‘whip’, a means of controlling the magic inscription.
Although I felt a bit uneasy about receiving it back, Baldur returned the whip to me without any change in expression.
Therefore, the means to activate his magic inscription was in my hands.
“Where will we be going? Is registering as mercenaries the first thing to do, as expected?”
I firmly shook my head at Kayla’s question.
“The direction might be the same, but there’s somewhere we need to stop by first.”
“Where is that?”
“A warlock’s dungeon.”
At my words, Athena flinched.
“You don’t mean this place…”
“Of course not. Besides, it’s extremely far.”
I said with a slight smile.
“It’s near the neutral zone.”
“…Isn’t that too dangerous?”
“I said near the neutral zone, not inside it. Don’t worry. I know my life is precious too.”
There was an artifact there that I needed.
“But if it’s near the neutral zone, don’t we have to cross into the Kingdom of Ashulin?”
Crossing borders was a burdensome affair.
Although it should be easy as they’re part of the same Six Kingdoms Alliance…
“If that’s the case, it will be difficult for us to cross easily. Our identities aren’t clear in the first place. Wouldn’t it be better to register as mercenaries, build up achievements, and get the guild’s endorsement before going?”
Registering as a mercenary at the Mercenary Guild wasn’t a difficult task.
We had plenty of identity tokens.
Since Kuman was an illegal slave trader, it wasn’t hard to secure a few usable identity tokens from those that had been discarded.
They weren’t from the collapsed pioneer territory, so there wouldn’t be any issues.
The problem was that crossing the border with these identity tokens would be difficult.
Even though they were part of the same Six Kingdoms Alliance, crossing national borders was a completely different matter from moving between territories within a country.
‘It’s easier compared to other countries.’
What Kayla meant by our identities not being clear was this.
While we might not be able to cross the border, we could register at the Mercenary Guild, and with our skills, it wouldn’t take long to build up achievements.
Using that as a basis to get the guild’s endorsement would be the safest way to cross the border.
“No, we can go directly. We won’t cross the border.”
“Didn’t you say it was near the neutral zone?”
“We’ll go through the Monster Forest.”
The Monster Forest connected to the Great Forest.
Compared to the Great Forest, it was full of lower-level monsters and smaller in size, but that was only in comparison to the Great Forest.
Its absolute size was greater than most kingdoms.
The forest right in front of the pioneer territory of the Kingdom of Shufet was also a monster forest, and it extended all the way up to the Kingdom of Ashulin.
And from here, it stretched all the way up to the neutral zone.
“We don’t need to go to the Kingdom of Ashulin. Although it’s closer to Ashulin than Shufet, we don’t plan to enter the kingdom’s interior anyway, so we don’t need identities.”
“If we cross the Monster Forest, isn’t it too dangerous?”
“Well, it’s certainly dangerous. But it’s not impossible, right? We’ll focus on evasion.”
“…If we encounter a large orc tribe and our path is blocked, we’ll have to take a really long detour. In the worst case, we might waste several months there. Is it worth taking that much time?”
“Hmm, I wonder? It shouldn’t be that long? At most, a month?”
“…It would take a month just to get to the Kingdom of Ashulin from our current position using proper roads.”
It was natural that it would take longer going through the Monster Forest.
However, the month I was talking about included raiding the warlock’s dungeon and returning to the Kingdom of Shufet, so it was understandable that Kayla found it strange.
“There are ways.”
Kayla tilted her head curiously at my confident attitude.
“What are you planning to do…?”
“Just watch for now.”
I led the group to a place that was once human territory.
“This is… the trolls’ territory, isn’t it?”
The trolls barked urgently and warily as we appeared.
“Kill them all except for about ten. Ah, save only sturdy males.”
There were many of them, but they were no match for us.
My power wasn’t needed at all.
Even with just Kayla, Athena, and Baldur stepping forward, it didn’t take long to deal with them.
I used magic on the trolls that were captured intact and trembling in fear.
Using 4th class magic, and with the help of a powerful staff, I directly controlled ten trolls.
“The luggage is over here. Each of you choose one to ride.”
“Ride the trolls?”
“Yes. They’re tougher than you might think.”
“…How long does the charm last?”
“Not very long, but it’s fine if I just keep casting it. It doesn’t consume much magic either.”
I’d have to cast it roughly every 2-3 hours, but it wasn’t impossible.
When sleeping, we could either tie them up completely or rest near other troll tribes.
“…Riding these would dramatically increase our travel speed, but…”
“I’ll make them run half-mad until they die of exhaustion.”
It was animal, or rather monster abuse, but that wasn’t my concern.
‘Come to think of it.’
We killed them when food was scarce, we sought them out and killed them when they were a threat, and recently, I had set things up to induce cruel deaths to obtain magic.
I didn’t feel guilty about making them run until they died of exhaustion.
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