Kang Hyeon-woo climbed a slightly higher hill.
As though the largest fragment of the shattered moon were blocking the sun, the world was enveloped in dim light.
The ground was cracked apart and utterly desolate, and in the distance, blazing red lava could be seen erupting.
Eorin climbed up to where Kang Hyeon-woo stood, wiped away her sweat, then froze and muttered blankly.
“Sweat......? I...... am sweating?”
“Is that surprising?”
“Yes. The Mana here is far too thin. This environment is lethal to our clan.”
For Dragons, beings of Mana itself, the environment here was unbearably harsh.
Fortunately, the Mana Eorin already possessed meant she had no difficulty moving around.
“Ah. It’s hard to use Fly Magic here too.”
Lena complained.
“Where do you sense Beast?”
“Over there.”
Lena pointed beyond a distant peak.
Kang Hyeon-woo opened his bag, took out a small device, and installed it at the cave entrance.
[Tracking Device]
[Manufacturer : Shinhwa Electronics]
[Tracks designated target.]
[Combat Support System detected.]
[Can link with Combat Support System.]
It was the device he had once used to pursue Beast.
After meeting Lena, it had become unnecessary and had been left sitting in his bag.
“We’re moving.”
“What’s that?”
“A Tracking Device. We’ll have to find this place again later if we want to return to our world.”
It was a kind of marker to keep them from getting lost.
Kang Hyeon-woo’s group headed in the direction Lena had indicated.
***
“Mister, it looks like people live here too.”
“More precisely, ‘lived here’ would be the correct expression.”
From atop the ridge, Kang Hyeon-woo’s group could see a vast basin-shaped expanse of land.
The ruins of a collapsed city lay scattered chaotically across its center.
The city covered a fairly large area enclosed by high walls, and some of its buildings had yet to collapse.
Even at a glance from a distance, it was a dead city where nothing moved.
“It looks just like Castle Gaudium.”
Eorin closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated on the Mana, then opened them again and tilted her head.
“I sense no trace of humans. No, no trace of any living creature at all. What did Lena sense in there?”
“We’ll know when we get there.”
.
.
.
Kang Hyeon-woo’s group entered the ruined city.
‘Detect.’
Kang Hyeon-woo swept the surroundings with detection magic, but sensed nothing.
‘Maybe I can’t sense anything in the first place because the Mana is so thin.’
Ordinary Dungeons that began inside caves generally had no problems with skill usage unless special restrictions were imposed, such as disabling the Combat Support System.
This was the first time he had ever experienced such an obvious lack of Mana.
‘Similar, yet different.’
Aside from the tall buildings, there were no roads wide enough for vehicles.
Even the ruins along the streets looked somewhat different from those ordinarily found in destroyed cities.
Rather than having been destroyed, they looked as though they had simply decayed and collapsed with age.
“Mister, these buildings are strange. My database doesn’t contain buildings shaped like these......”
Lena pointed toward a building that still retained roughly half its original form.
“Your job right now is to find traces of Beast.”
“Yes! This way!”
Lena scratched her head and quickly ran ahead.
‘No glass......’
There was not even a trace of glass in the abandoned buildings.
No, the windows themselves were extremely small compared to the size of the buildings, and even those were almost nonexistent.
“Here! Over here!”
Lena waved in front of a half-collapsed building at the center of the city.
***
The inside of the building was bare.
There was not even any furniture of the sort one would normally expect to find in a lobby.
“Something similar to humans must have existed in this world as well.”
Eorin tilted her head at Kang Hyeon-woo’s muttering.
“Why do you think so?”
“The size of the door we came through. The stairs ahead.”
The structure was similar in size and shape to buildings on Earth.
Even if the insect-type monsters possessed intelligence, there would be no reason for them to construct buildings like this.
In other words, it was reasonable to assume that something resembling humans had once lived here.
“That makes sense. I suppose even my lair has doors and rooms.”
Eorin nodded in agreement.
Lena headed down the stairs to the lower floor.
“Whoa!”
Lena’s startled cry came from below.
‘Absolute Shield.’
‘Blink.’
FLASH!
Kang Hyeon-woo vanished and appeared below the stairs in an instant.
.
.
.
“Whoa! You scared me! Mister, how did you do that?”
Lena’s eyes widened at Kang Hyeon-woo’s sudden appearance.
“Later.”
Several spheres of Light floated around Lena, brightly illuminating the underground floor.
Identical entrances lined both sides of the long, narrow corridor.
Hundreds of android bodies that looked exactly like humans lay scattered across the floor.
With a cautious expression, Kang Hyeon-woo examined the android behind Lena.
Most of them had damaged bodies or destroyed heads.
Traces remained on the floor where some unknown liquid had once flowed.
“Lena. Can you tell what these are?”
“No. I’ve never seen this model before. In the first place...... I don’t think it has much to do with Shinhwa Company’s technology.”
“Nothing to do with it.”
“Yes. There aren’t any standard components or standardized joints either.”
Lena rummaged through one of the androids sprawled on the floor.
“But...... the way the joints were manufactured is several generations ahead of Shinhwa Company. And the material...... I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Examine as much as you can. You may as well collect a few samples.”
“Yes!”
“So you are saying this world invaded your world?”
Eorin slightly furrowed her brow as she ran a hand over the traces of liquid on the floor.
“Your world invaded ours too.”
“We......! That is not true!”
“Is denying what happened the only thing the embodiment of wisdom can say?”
“Urgh......!”
Eorin bit her lip as though she wanted to say something, then sighed and shook her head.
“That...... is something I will investigate myself later.”
Kang Hyeon-woo gave no particular response to Eorin’s dispirited words and slowly headed toward the end of the corridor.
.
.
.
At the end of the dead-end corridor.
An android dressed in something resembling a suit hung against the wall with an axe buried through its forehead.
‘Park Seong-jun.’
Kang Hyeon-woo picked up the axe.
‘Identify.’
[S-Grade Magic Skill (Identify) Used]
[Type : Hand Axe]
[Manufacturer : ???]
[S-Grade Magic Skill (Weight Reduction) Applied]
[S-Grade Magic Skill (Cutting) Applied]
“Is it an artifact?”
Eorin showed interest in the crumbling axe.
“We call them items.”
“We call them something similar. Magic armaments, items...... But the magic on this one is quite impressive.”
“It should be. I made it.”
“......What?”
When Kang Hyeon-woo twisted the handle, a small Energy Core dropped onto the floor.
Immediately afterward, the axe crumbled apart and spilled down onto the floor.
“What......? Was permanent magic not cast on it? Did you enchant a Mana Stone and use that to strengthen the armament? Oh...... Clever.”
“I only did it because I needed to.”
They had needed to survive.
As the world watched its population decline in real time, everyone had joined forces.
Every remaining human had fought together.
To survive.
Kang Hyeon-woo had also used every scrap of his knowledge and every idea he had to create items for his companions.
Things like this hand axe, which Park Seong-jun had often used, were a prime example.
‘Park Seong-jun came here......?’
Kang Hyeon-woo shook his head.
The portal through which Kang Hyeon-woo’s group had entered had not existed for long.
Judging from the dried liquid on the floor, Park Seong-jun could not have visited recently.
‘Then was there another entrance?’
There was no way to know yet.
‘Another world....... Wait.’
Kang Hyeon-woo searched through his bag and took out the book he had obtained from Caroline’s castle.
“This. Is it written in the language of your world?”
Eorin accepted the book and nodded.
“Yes. It belongs to the Continental Standard Language Family. What is this?”
“I don’t know either. Read it and tell me what it says.”
“......Do humans in your world not teach you to speak more politely when asking someone for a favor? Especially when asking someone as great as me......!”
“If you don’t want to, give it back.”
Kang Hyeon-woo held out a hand with an indifferent expression.
Eorin ground her teeth hard enough to make an audible sound.
“Who said I do not want to?! Ask! Ask me properly!”
“What a high-maintenance monster.”
“Wh-What?”
Just as silver light began to glow in Eorin’s eyes—
“Please.”
Eorin flinched at Kang Hyeon-woo’s words.
“Ahem. Ahem. I suppose I shall take a look when I have time.”
After looking around the area, Lena approached Kang Hyeon-woo and shook her head.
“There’s nothing anywhere else.”
“Then we’re going back.”
Kang Hyeon-woo looked at the scattered android corpses for a moment, then raised his hand.
SNAP!
“Bye!”
Lena also grinned broadly and waved.
Eorin watched the two of them, glanced down at her own hand for a moment, then shook her head.
“......Hmph.”
***
SKREEEEEEEE!
BAM-BAM-BAM!
“Air Blast!”
BOOM! BOOM!
Lena moved rapidly as she dealt with the monsters.
When they reached a somewhat wider area, Lena frowned as she stared into the air.
“Hiyah! Move!”
Nothing happened.
“Mister. How did you do that thing earlier? The one where you went zip-zip and appeared? You said you don’t like Teleportation.”
“Blink and Teleportation are different. And both are different from the Shinhwa Company transport service you know.”
Shinhwa Company’s transportation technology worked by breaking a target down to the atomic level and reconstructing it at the destination.
Teleportation used Mana to open holes through space between the current location and the destination.
The farther away the destination, the more complex the calculations required for the Mana array became.
Even a small mistake could cause fatal injury, which was why Kang Hyeon-woo did not use Teleportation.
“Blink moves you somewhere within sight, so the calculations are simple.”
Aside from the considerable Mana consumption, it was an excellent way to supplement the mobility of a Mage vulnerable in close combat.
“Then why haven’t you used it until now?”
“There was never any need.”
He had not even needed to bother moving his body.
A few appropriate spells were enough to bring down every enemy before him.
“Ah......”
Eorin looked at Kang Hyeon-woo with a strange expression.
“Splendid. Of all the Mages I have met in my life, you are the most aggressive and efficient human.”
Normally, Mages waited in the rear and provided support once or twice when necessary.
The Mages of Eorin’s world were no different.
“It was a matter of survival.”
“Are you truly saying your world originally had no magic?”
“You’re free to believe whatever you want.”
“Hmm....... Your fundamental understanding of magic is far too impressive. Human Mages in our world waste their time on foolish research.”
“You’re making me say it twice. It was a matter of survival.”
“The Meteor Swarm and various area-of-effect spells you showed me. Mages in our world sometimes devote their entire lives to researching those array formulas.”
“We had neither the need nor the time for that.”
They had the help of the Awakening Support System.
After awakening as a Mercenary, Kang Hyeon-woo had learned how to arrange Mana from the magic skills he obtained.
It had been possible because the array formulas already came with an answer key.
“So how do you do it?!”
Lena complained.
The corners of Eorin’s lips rose slightly at the sight.
“Lena, I shall specially teach you the original version.”
“Wow! Really, Big Sis? Thank you.”
SKREEEEEE—!
The ground shook as a monstrous shriek rang out from deep within the cavern.
“Let us go.”
“Yes! Big Sis!”
Eorin and Lena disappeared deeper into the cavern.
‘Magic array formulas......’
A hologram appeared before Kang Hyeon-woo’s eyes.
[Magic Skill (Photonic Cannon)]
[Grade : ??]
[Minimum Required Mana : 10,000]
[Fires light possessing tremendous mass forward.]
[Power varies according to the user’s Mana.]
It was Kang Hyeon-woo’s signature skill and his most powerful magic.
It was also the greatest reason he needed Mana:Life Force Exchange with Park Seong-jun.
This magic skill, obtained from a Special Dungeon, became more powerful the greater the user’s maximum Mana.
Thanks to this magic, he had safely cleared countless Dungeons.
And it was the only magic whose underlying principle Kang Hyeon-woo had never managed to understand.
With other magic, he could extract only the Mana from the Awakening Support System’s skill activation and rearrange it himself, allowing him to cast the spells without the system’s assistance.
But with this magic alone, he had to invoke the skill through the system like an ordinary Mercenary.
“Aaaaaaaaaah—!”
Eorin’s scream echoed from deep within the cavern.
‘?’
Kang Hyeon-woo headed deeper into the cave.
***
“What?! Why did you walk here?!”
Eorin grumbled with a deep scowl.
“Why did you scream?”
“Sorry, Mister. Big Sis suddenly......”
Lena gave an awkward smile, looking troubled.
“Are we not companions?! Companions!”
“There’s no chance a Dragon was in danger inside an ordinary Dungeon like this. And we’re not companions. We’re merely traveling together. Don’t forget that.”
Eorin shrugged at Kang Hyeon-woo’s cold words.
“Tch. This amusement truly is strange. The people are boring, but the situation is interesting. Anyway, look ahead.”
Eorin gestured with her chin.
Standing where she pointed was one of the androids they had seen earlier.
The android, dressed in a black suit, had its eyes closed as though asleep.
“It isn’t damaged.”
Unlike the androids Kang Hyeon-woo had seen earlier, its exterior was completely intact.
Kang Hyeon-woo slowly approached the android.
FLASH.
The android opened its eyes.
“□□□□□...... Earth. Human. System connection confirmed. Threat elimination.”
[Awakening Support System external input detected......]
The hologram floating before Kang Hyeon-woo’s eyes shut off.
The android drew a gun from inside its clothes.
“A Core Gun......”
It was an object Kang Hyeon-woo knew well.
“Suppression attempt. You have all been neutralized. Assume surrender posture.”
CLICK.
The Core Gun was loaded.
Kang Hyeon-woo let out a small sigh.
“Lena. Don’t kill it. Just use it for practice.”
“Yes!!”
Light gathered in Lena’s hand.