At the stern of the sailboat.
On the sailboat moving swiftly over the waters of the Yu River, Il-hyang was now deep in thought.
‘Though its form was clearly slightly different, that was a spirit’s aura.’
Far away.
At the place Il-hyang’s gaze reached, there was the command ship where the Jinsung Escort Agency’s iron carriage had settled.
No sound or aura leaked from the iron carriage anymore.
But he still remembered clearly the aura that had flowed out just before boarding.
‘Strangely, its aura has weakened, but it’s definitely a wind spirit.’
How in the world had humans captured a spirit?
Was there a proper Spirit Master in this world too?
What he could not understand was.
Even if it were somehow possible to pull some trick and capture a spirit.
A spirit should simply cut off its connection to this world immediately and flee to the Spirit Realm.
So why had the one trapped there not fled to the Spirit Realm?
‘Soul-binding magic is fairly high-level magic. Could there be someone who knows how to use that? Or did it simply fail to escape?’
In this dimension.
There were far too many things that Il-hyang simply could not understand with his common sense.
Il-hyang habitually kneaded the soft flesh of his chin.
For nearly half a day.
He could not take his eyes off the command ship following from behind.
Then, in the end, he turned his head with a light sigh.
‘After this escort run is over, I’ll have to find a way to stay near the Namgung Clan for a while.’
Honestly, he wanted to open that cargo right now and converse with the captured spirit.
But too many things got in the way for that.
‘I’m a wanderer for now. I should focus on the request.’
He considered secretly approaching it.
But the fellows aboard that command ship were quite formidable.
‘As many as ten masters at least upper-grade knight level.’
They said this world called masters of that level Peak Experts.
Since as many as ten such masters were packed onto that command ship.
If he were caught doing something unnecessary, he did not think he would see anything good come of it.
‘Come to think of it…….’
Il-hyang had been sitting on the railing of the ship, which rocked up and down, and subtly turned his gaze to the side.
There was a middle-aged man standing on the deck with a relaxed face, as though he had come out to enjoy the breeze.
That man’s name was said to be Jang Geo-i.
‘He is the same. Upper-grade knight level.’
For some reason, he was hiding his skill, but this fellow was also an upper-grade knight.
In other words, a Peak Expert.
‘Strangely, he keeps catching my eye.’
At first, Il-hyang.
Had thought that because the middle-aged man often entered his field of vision, perhaps he was watching him.
But soon after, he thought he had taken it too sensitively.
Jang Geo-i had been standing blankly on the deck while looking at the river.
Then, after a little while, he began chatting with Drifting Blossom Sword So Il-hyeon, who had come up from the cabin.
‘Well, we don’t have any real point of contact.’
As Il-hyang’s interest faded by the faintest degree.
Bright Moon Sword Song Gwang-sik let out a sigh of relief inside.
‘Phew, I thought I’d been caught.’
Song Gwang-sik realized that his surveillance target was gradually becoming wary of him.
So he thought he would have to be more cautious in his actions.
Meanwhile, Il-hyang quietly checked the Blood Jiangshi connected to him mentally.
‘This is close.’
Because his Circle level was still not that high.
It became troublesome if the distance between him and the Blood Jiangshi grew too wide.
The connection could be severed by mistake.
Fortunately, until now, they were following the ship well along the riverbank by making full use of the Blood Jiangshi’s terrifying physical abilities.
But because the Yu River was almost as large as the sea.
There were times when they came dangerously close to the edge of the effective range.
‘If needed, I’ll have to make them swim.’
That was better than completely losing control.
After lightly checking them like that, he once again focused his mind on the iron carriage aboard the command ship.
‘If its aura leaks out just once more, I could know exactly.’
The fact that it was a wind spirit was certain.
But its exact level was unclear.
The aura that had leaked out had been far too faint.
‘It would be good if it were at least an intermediate spirit.’
Even that much would be a great help in reaching the 4th Circle.
After all, a spirit was an existence that held pure natural force.
Elemental force.
Il-hyang swayed up and down with the rocking of the ship and recalled memories of his previous world.
‘In any case, it’s now certain that spirits exist here too. Then demons or demonic beasts might exist as well.’
The demons and demonic beasts that had fought against humans in the past.
All of them created and nurtured cores inside their bodies.
When they were killed and their cores extracted, those cores often became extremely powerful Mana Stones.
They were Mana Stones that boasted a purity so high that they could not be compared to what was mined from Mana Stone mines.
Since they carried such things in their bodies, higher demons and demonic beasts were extremely powerful.
However.
Human desire for Mana Stones.
Allowed them to overcome their fear of the demons’ overwhelming power and magic.
To obtain high-purity Mana Stones.
Humans hunted countless demons and demonic beasts.
‘They really were madmen.’
If one person could not face one, then ten people rushed in.
If ten were not enough, then a hundred gathered and charged.
So no matter how great a demon or demonic beast was, it could not hold out to the end.
Then, after the Demon King, their focal point, was killed by the Hero in the battle between Demon King and Hero.
The weakened demons had to immediately flee in a line back to the Demon Realm.
They simply could not endure the greed of humans, who kept charging no matter how many were killed.
‘Back then, they nearly drove the demons to extinction.’
Of course, humans too died in enormous numbers to the demons.
At the very least, more than a hundred times as many humans died as demons.
But.
No one cared about that obvious fact.
That was how maddening Mana Stones were to humans.
‘In any case, an inner core from a demon or demonic beast could become a material for an Elixir.’
His thoughts continued onward.
At present, he could not know exactly in what form or by what name the materials for Elixirs existed in this world.
But the existence of a spirit of that level meant.
That the main materials for Elixirs existed as well.
This was quite important information.
SPLASH—! SPLASH—!
Il-hyang blankly stared at the yellow-brown waters of the Yu River from atop the railing of the sailboat he was riding.
At that moment, Drifting Blossom Sword So Il-hyeon, who had grown rather close to him after nearly ten days of traveling together by carriage and boat, sidled over and spoke to him.
This fellow.
His friendliness was certainly remarkable.
“Our Little Divine Dragon seems familiar with boats, eh? Your posture is incredibly stable.”
During the escort run.
After he knocked Bloodstorm Spear down again and again.
The wanderers and escort guards with him jokingly called Il-hyang Little Divine Dragon.
He did not know why the fellows of this place liked giving nicknames so much.
It was not even that cool.
“I have ridden boats a few times before.”
In truth, not just a few times. He had ridden them until he was sick of it.
In the past, Il-hyang had not ridden boats on rivers, but on the sea.
He had even ridden large galleys more than ten times the size of this one several times.
After all, he had risked his life several times and leapt directly into the Sea of Death to learn the unique magic of the merfolk who lived in the sea.
While Il-hyang wore a distant expression, briefly lost in old thoughts.
So Il-hyeon, who had been watching him, drew his characteristic friendly smile and asked a question.
“But what does our Little Divine Dragon plan to do after arriving in Cheonjung City?”
“I have no particular plans.”
If possible, he wanted to stay at the Namgung Clan, or if that was not possible, stay near the clan.
But that was something he had to learn about slowly.
As Il-hyang answered loosely while feeling the rough texture of the wooden railing on the deck with his palm.
So Il-hyeon tilted his head.
“Huh? From what I heard, Bloodstorm Spear has to climb Mount Bota and deliver his master’s request.”
“Mm? Is that so? To think he dared hide a schedule from his father! How impudent. I should go down to the cabin for a moment and punish that arrogant son of mine.”
“Hey, hey! Hold on. If you go like that now, it’ll look like I passed on the secret, won’t it? I’m the only one who heard that story directly from Yang Cheon-jo!”
Il-hyang paused for a moment, then raised one thumb toward So Il-hyeon and smiled brightly.
“That was very good information. My son will lose a precious friend today. Since the culprit has been identified.”
“……!”
The flustered So Il-hyeon opened and closed his mouth without being able to answer. Then he suddenly came to his senses and asked back,
“B-but how long are you planning to keep playing his father? It is fun to watch, but Bloodstorm Spear is a fairly famous fellow here in Ming Province.”
More precisely, that fellow’s master was a famous person.
Il-hyang also knew that fact.
But his mindset was, so what?
He leaned against the deck railing for a moment, loosened his shoulders, then answered obediently.
“He requires a great deal of work in many ways, but he has talent. I am teaching him this and that because I think he will become rather useful if raised properly. But his learning is slow, so the situation is troublesome.”
“……You were seriously giving him teachings?”
And “if raised properly,” he said……
For now, Bloodstorm Spear was much older, was he not?
As So Il-hyeon made a somewhat dumbfounded face.
Il-hyang stared steadily at So Il-hyeon before him, then smiled gently.
“The Three Bonds and Five Relationships or benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness that I prattle on about are actually nothing more than shells. To put it more accurately, they are closer to an excuse to give my son teachings.”
An excuse to teach?
So Il-hyeon thought for a moment, then answered with an expression as if he had realized something.
“Aah! No wonder you kept nagging him and flicking his forehead every time. That was a teaching!”
Il-hyang glanced at the sailors diligently moving the sailboat’s sails and nodded.
“Every time I attack while nagging, my son does somehow react. But he is still very far away. Perhaps because he learned through some rapid method, he has far too many openings.”
“You…… You know who that fellow’s master is, don’t you?”
“Yes. Well, I do know who he is. But even if the master is an expert, not every disciple can become an expert.”
“That…… is true.”
While So Il-hyeon inwardly let out a sigh of relief after barely succeeding in changing the subject.
Il-hyang met So Il-hyeon’s gaze exactly and suddenly spoke of something else.
“We will now enter the most dangerous section of this escort run. If someone intends to attack, it seems we have entered the best point to do so.”
“Hm? Mm. That would be true, right? The river is dangerous, after all.”
“Certainly, an attack aboard a ship is more dangerous than on land.”
Even the Blood Jiangshi secretly following nearby could not be moved easily before a river as wide as the sea.
Moreover, they were not simply crossing the river.
It was a long journey in which they had to travel along the river for as many as six days for rapid movement.
‘The river really is enormous.’
This was not even the sea.
It was merely a waterway moving from inland to inland.
Yet even while traveling at such speed on a sailboat, it took six days.
Il-hyang once again clicked his tongue at the vastness of this continent.
‘It’s a pity I can’t use the Blood Jiangshi aboard the ship.’
If an accident occurred aboard the ship, it was clear he could not hope for assistance from the Blood Jiangshi.
He would have to protect his own safety purely with his own strength.
‘Well, excluding variables, there should be no major problem.’
3rd Circle Master.
In the lower dimension, this was the realm where one had just shed the title of apprentice mage.
And could be called a formal mage.
With this much, would he not belong to the fairly strong side in this world?
“You…… That expression of yours is really unpleasant.”
“……Ahem, you saw that? ”
Il-hyang quickly managed his expression and turned his gaze toward the river.
If things went as expected.
It was about time for villains to appear.