We had already experienced fighting large numbers when we raided the Goblin hideout.
Without me needing to give her individual instructions, Arisa poured cold toward the entrance. A blizzard swept through the village as the ground began freezing over.
The Garms hesitated to charge because the ground was so slippery.
And Yulian was wearing northern boots designed to let him walk properly even on ice.
SLASH―!
Yulian’s sword severed the necks of the two nearest Garms.
The smooth start seemed to ease Arisa’s tension a little.
“They look too scared to come any closer.”
She was half right and half wrong.
Beast-like monsters such as Garms would charge without regard for anything if they had the advantage in numbers.
They weren’t intelligent enough to become frightened just because a few of their own kind died.
But......
‘These bastards are leaving the village and circling around.’
“They aren’t staying back because they’re scared. They’re waiting to attack us from every direction.”
“The footsteps are getting closer. Should we break through the front?”
If we entered through the gate, the monsters waiting on every side would attack us.
“No. It’s fine.”
I calmly gathered magical power in my hand.
“You two only need to focus on the front.”
Yulian turned his head slightly toward me.
Arisa did the same.
Both of them swallowed hard.
They must have seen the golden magic circle unfolding from my palm.
There was one kind of magic I had devoted more effort to than anything else while studying countless spell formulas in the southern Magic Tower.
‘Barrier magic.’
From the lowest-grade barriers that merely erased one’s presence to advanced barriers that created transparent walls and even applied buffs and debuffs.
The higher the level, the more exponentially difficult the spell formulas became.
That was why high-level barrier magic was normally cast by several people, each handling part of the spell formula.
‘I can do it alone, though.’
Research I had begun because of my regret over failing to protect the North had shown me the limitless possibilities of barrier magic.
And so barrier magic became the field I was most confident in.
‘3rd Circle barrier magic, Aether Wall.’
With my current magical power, ten meters was the maximum radius.
But that was enough.
“Complete.”
“GRAAAAH!”
Right on cue, Garms kicked off the ground from every direction, drool spilling from their mouths.
Dozens of sharp teeth in their open maws smashed into the transparent wall and broke apart.
CRACK!
“YELP―!”
While dozens of Garms outside slammed their heads into the barrier and fractured their skulls without understanding what had happened, the Garms beyond the entrance charged as well.
Yulian’s sword aura cut through three or four Garms at once.
The ones he couldn’t reach had their skulls pierced by Arisa’s icicles.
SLASH!
“Tha—”
“I just saved your life once, you know?”
Yulian, who had been about to thank her, immediately changed his attitude and snapped,“If I hadn’t been here, you would already have become Garm food.”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“Focus. It isn’t over yet.”
I finished off a Garm that had survived crashing into the barrier with Wind Cutter.
Yulian seemed to have realized that the magic I had cast was a barrier.
He asked in confusion,“But doesn’t barrier magic impose the same restrictions from the inside?”
Arisa joined in.
“Right. The magic book I read said that if you create a defensive barrier, you can’t attack through it from inside either.”
“I temporarily remove the barrier only where I’m attacking.”
“What does that even...... You’re modifying that dizzying spell formula while attacking?”
The more someone knew about magic, the more clearly they would understand how difficult that was.
“Is that impressive?”
“Of course it is. I read that even defensive barrier magic usually requires several mages from the royal capital working together.”
“Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand?”
“I read it yesterday―!”
“Whatever. Let’s clear out the ones in front of us first!”
Yulian shouted as he cut off another Garm’s head.
At last, the enormous number of Garms began to dwindle.
The Garms outside had all been killed as well.
Just then, Yulian declared confidently,“This is the last one.”
CRACK.
The final Garm split cleanly in half.
‘That ended well. No one got hurt.’
I released the barrier and looked around.
At that moment, I sensed faint mana within one of the Garms lying on the ground.
“There’s one more!”
The Garm lunged at Yulian.
I was still in the middle of dismissing the barrier, so my hands weren’t free.
Arisa quickly pointed her Magic Wand at the Garm.
“......!”
But no magic came out.
The Magic Wand had exceeded its usage limit and snapped.
In the end, Yulian reflexively raised his arm to block.
The Garm’s teeth clamped down hard on his arm.
“Urgh.”
Yulian swung his sword from that position and cut the Garm in half.
When he pulled away the dead Garm’s head still biting his arm, deep fang marks were visible in his flesh.
“Stay still. I’ll heal you.”
“My apologies. I should have made sure I killed it properly from the beginning......”
“Experiences like this become part of your flesh and bones.”
At least it ended with only this much.
Muttering that, I placed my hand over Yulian’s arm.
‘......Huh?’
Black magical power was rising over his arm like flames.
“What is it? Is the wound deep?”
“No. There’s a curse in the wound.”
“......What kind of curse?”
“One that absorbs your mana and takes your life.”
“Ah......”
Arisa covered her mouth.
Yulian’s expression stiffened for a moment before he gave a hollow laugh.
“So I’m going to die now.”
“Lumio, isn’t there any way to save him?”
“It’s fine. If one of us had to be cursed, I’m glad it was me.”
I shrugged as I watched the two of them speak so gravely.
‘What the hell are they talking about?’
A curse didn’t activate the instant it was inflicted.
It took quite some time.
And as long as it hadn’t activated yet, removing one was easy for me.
I waved my hand through the black magical power flickering like a heat haze.
The curse soon vanished, and the healing magic took effect, stopping the bleeding.
“Done.”
“What?”
“What’s done?”
“I removed the curse.”
Silence followed.
Yulian and Arisa looked at each other as though wondering whether they had heard me correctly.
Then their mouths fell open.
“The curse is gone?”
“W-Wait...... According to the book I read......”
Arisa pulled a book from inside her clothes and rapidly flipped through the pages.
She began reciting passages explaining that curse removal required such complicated spell formulas that only high-ranking priests could perform it.
“Isn’t that book completely wrong?”
“It is not! A 7th Circle mage from the royal capital wrote it personally! I begged Uncle Aleph to buy it for me, and it was really expensive!”
“Then I suppose Lord Lumio is simply that extraordinary.”
“......Right?”
“It’s getting difficult to even be surprised anymore.”
The two stared at me with sparkling eyes before chuckling.
“Maybe you’ll become an Archmage someday.”
“I think it’s possible.”
There was still a long way to go.
I muttered that inwardly and looked toward where the Garms had died.
There were roughly twenty intact cores we could recover.
As Arisa gathered the cores into a cloth bundle, she whined,“......My Magic Wand broke. I wanted to keep it because it was precious.”
“I’ll make you another one.”
That wasn’t a problem.
We were planning to return after this anyway.
The real problem was who had placed the curse.
A Garm wasn’t a monster capable of casting curses on its own.
“Lord Lumio! There’s someone alive in here!”
Yulian’s urgent voice came from inside the village, where he had been gathering cores.
When we reached him, a woman who looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties was lying unconscious but still breathing.
“What about everyone else?”
Yulian shook his head.
“Let’s treat her first.”
I placed a hand over her body.
She was drenched in blood, but only some of it belonged to her.
‘Well, look at this bastard.’
The wounds on her body weren’t Garm bite marks either.
When I looked closely at her face, I recognized someone I had seen in my previous life.
‘No wonder it was strange for a village to be destroyed by mere Garms.’
She was one of the people I suspected of being responsible for the destruction of the North.
‘I didn’t expect her to already be this far along.’
I didn’t let the anger rising inside me show.
“I gave her emergency treatment. Let’s take her back to our territory.”
Instead of using healing magic, I secretly placed a spell formula on her body while pretending to treat her.
“......Yes!”
***
After returning to the territory, I sent Arisa away and headed toward the Magic Tower with Yulian and the woman.
“Wait outside.”
“Yes.”
When I entered the Magic Tower carrying the cores and the woman, a vivid blue window flashed before me.
【Upgrade Magic Tower to Lv3?】
‘I expected something like this...... but I didn’t think it would actually work.’
Including the cores we had just collected, I had seventy in total.
I was still thirty short of the one hundred required for the upgrade.
So why had the message appeared?
‘It must be because of this woman.’
Black magic couldn’t be used with ordinary magical power.
It required dark magical power, such as the power contained within monster cores.
In other words, this woman’s body contained dark magical power equivalent to at least thirty low-grade cores.
I tossed her roughly onto the floor and spoke.
“Get up. Stop pretending to be hurt.”
The woman didn’t move.
Without the slightest hesitation, I fired Wind Cutter at her.
Just before the blade-like wind cut through her neck, she waved a hand and blocked it.
CRASH!
She scratched her head and slowly rose.
“How did you know? I even injured myself deliberately.”
“You smelled too filthy.”
“That’s no way to speak to a lady.”
“Lady, my ass. You’re a fucking lunatic murderer.”
“If you knew, why did you bring me all the way here instead of attacking me on the spot?”
She licked the wound on her hand caused by blocking Wind Cutter and added,“Well, thanks to you, I got inside the territory without spilling any blood, so it worked out nicely for me.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear. Truthfully, I wasn’t completely certain.”
“What?”
“There are others targeting the North besides you, aren’t there? What are you after?”
The destruction of the North hadn’t been caused by a simple monster attack.
During my years as a wanderer, I had investigated whenever I had the opportunity and discovered that there were people operating behind the scenes.
They had simply been far beyond what I could handle at the time.
“......You have good instincts. But do you really think I’ll tell you?”
She stretched her hand forward.
Dark magical power gathered in her palm.
But nothing happened.
【Magic Tower upgraded to Lv3.】
“What? Why is my magical power......?”
“I’ll ask again. What’s your objective?”
Instead of answering, she gathered mana again.
“So it’s because of this place. Sealing black magic...... Is this some kind of church?”
She chuckled.
Disgustingly.
“If you think black magic is all I can use, you’re mistaken—”
SLICE.
The arm she had raised fell to the floor.
Blood sprayed wildly from the severed artery.
You’re the one who’s mistaken.
“AAAAARGH!”
At the same time, ice spread from her feet to her thighs.
I approached and used healing magic on her arm.
I reattached it.
“―Answer me.”
“I-I can’t tell you.”
SLICE.
The arm I had just reattached was severed again.
She was one of the people responsible for destroying the North.
There would be no mercy.
“Where are your companions?”
“I told you, I don’t know.”
At that answer, I severed her other arm as well.
Of course, I stopped the bleeding with magic.
“Who ordered you to do this?”
She shook her head while enduring the pain.
Wind sliced off her ear.
“Why did you target us?”
I stared directly into her eyes.
Her pupils trembled violently.
When mages looked into each other’s eyes, they could roughly sense the magical power the other possessed.
She must have seen the immense magical power of the Magic Tower through mine.
“Y-You people were nothing more than sacrifices......”
At last, she spoke.
Then she looked startled by her own words.
“N-No!”
CRACK.
With that final cry, her neck twisted one hundred eighty degrees.
I hadn’t killed her.
‘Contract magic.’
A conditional form of magic that activated the instant someone broke their promise.
Because no mana manifested outwardly, a third party could never detect it until it actually activated.
‘At minimum, that was a 6th Circle spell.’
I had asked anyway to make certain, but there were already people I suspected.
‘Whatever the truth is, I need to be careful.’
***
【3rd Floor 'Magic Forge' unlocked.】
【Territory Effect: Tracking magic is embedded in the atmospheric mana. Intruders can now be detected.】
【Magic Tower Lv4 Upgrade - 1 Spirit Fragment】
【Magic Tower Lv4: Library unlocked】