Wirn had torn the Mutant Ogre to pieces with his shadow.
However, he didn’t proceed any further.
He still needed to extract its heart and use it as another ingredient.
“....”
But right now, Wirn’s attention was drawn more to its shoulder than its heart.
“It has a Mark?”
The unidentified Mark that had been bestowed upon him the moment he absorbed all the Mana in the Mana Forest.
The same kind of symbol was engraved on the creature’s shoulder.
‘The shape is different, though....’
The only thing they had in common was that they were both Marks.
Everything else about them was different.
‘What the hell is going on?’
His thoughts fell into confusion.
Including his previous life, Wirn had never seen a monster with a Mark before.
Yet now, one had appeared right in front of him.
―Humm....
At that moment, black light flowed from the Mark.
GAPE!
Then the light transformed into the shape of a mouth.
It was exactly the same as when it had devoured the Elixir before.
Except this time, the mouth was far larger.
“...?”
Through that, Wirn realized what it intended to do.
There weren’t many occasions when the Mark formed a mouth, and its purpose whenever it did was obvious.
CHOMP! CRUNCH! CRACK!
Wirn’s prediction proved correct.
In an instant, it swallowed the area that appeared to be the Ogre’s shoulder.
“Ghhk!”
Then it happened.
Wirn’s face contorted under a wave of tremendous pain.
The back of his right hand, where the Mark was located, felt as though it were burning.
The sensation spread from his arm to his shoulder—
Then rapidly throughout his entire body.
“G-Ghh!”
Instinct told him that he couldn’t leave things like this.
‘I can’t... control the energy.’
The power created when the Mark devoured the other Mark was threatening him.
Just as it had when it devoured the Elixir before.
The problem was that this power was constricting him far more violently than it had back then.
‘I need to eat the heart.’
There was only one way to overcome the situation.
He had to hurry and carry out what he had originally planned.
Otherwise, controlling this power would become extremely difficult.
SQUELCH!
Wirn plunged both hands into the area where the Ogre’s heart was located.
This wasn’t the time to worry about where he was.
Now that the Mark had strengthened itself through devouring, Wirn also needed to eat the heart and strengthen his own body.
CRUNCH!
The Ogre’s enormous heart was ripped free by Wirn’s hands.
Then Wirn tore into the blood-dripping heart and ate it.
FLASH!
‘I’ll combine the energies...!’
Afterward, he sat cross-legged where he was and concentrated every ounce of his attention on controlling the power.
―HUUUMM....
The power contained in the Ogre’s heart began to mix with the energy of the Elixir Wirn had consumed earlier.
―HUMM!
At that moment, another intruder forced its way in.
It was the power of the other Mark that his own Mark had devoured.
It moved to devour both the Ogre’s power and the Elixir’s power that Wirn had absorbed.
It was a fairly calculated strategy, aimed at catching two rabbits at once.
Grin.
But this was the Mark’s mistake.
No.
More precisely, Wirn had predicted that it would act this way.
He had expected it to interfere somehow when he began merging the energies.
“Asterraum!”
Wirn chanted a spell.
But this time, it wasn’t Darkness.
His Circle rotated violently, and the Mana within it began rampaging in every direction.
The wildly surging Mana continued gathering in Wirn’s hand.
Even the power of the Mark that had intruded to devour everything was caught in the raging torrent.
“Ghhhk!”
Wirn gritted his teeth as he struggled to control the energies that seemed ready to burst straight through his skin.
He knew he needed to gather even more Mana.
HUUUMM!
And finally, the moment his Circle reached its limit—
“Burst forth!”
Wirn finally released the Mana from his body.
RUMBLE... RUMBLE!
As though they had been waiting for that exact moment, the energies poured through his right hand and into the ground.
CRASH—!
Then they exploded.
As though intent on destroying everything around them.
Fortunately, Wirn wasn’t caught in their power.
The blast shot straight ahead in a single line.
“Ugh!”
Instead, the backlash violently twisted the joints in Wirn’s right arm.
The force was so great that his wrist and elbow rotated in the opposite direction.
“I won’t be able to use my right arm for a while.”
It was a fairly painful loss.
Especially for Wirn, who fought by combining magic with close combat.
‘But... I gained something even greater.’
Even so, Wirn wasn’t disappointed.
A broken arm would eventually recover with time.
―HUUUMM....
‘The Mana has become much denser.’
Besides, this wasn’t the time to worry about an injury.
“Ha.”
The moment Wirn exploded and discharged the Mana, his Circle gained even greater power.
“With this much, I should be able to deal with mediocre bastards easily enough.”
Wirn still possessed only a single Circle.
However, the power contained within that Circle was fundamentally different from that of an ordinary First Circle mage.
HUMM!
Just as the corners of his lips began to rise at the strength of his enhanced Circle, black light erupted from the Mark on the back of his hand.
Ssssh....
Then the shape of the Mark, which had remained unchanged until now, began to evolve.
‘It got bigger.’
The Mark on the back of his hand had grown enough to encroach upon his wrist.
“So when you devour another Mark, you use it to make yourself bigger?”
Nothing like this had happened when it devoured magic.
Its size had increased only now, after swallowing the Mark that had been on the Ogre’s shoulder.
‘As much as this bastard grows stronger... I’ll have to grow too.’
When Wirn had tried to merge the energies, the Mark had attempted to devour all of them.
That confirmed once again that it wasn’t his ally.
But Wirn wasn’t worried.
‘As long as I keep a firm grip on the leash, I’m the one who benefits.’
All he had to do was remain stronger than it at all times.
For Wirn, that was practically child’s play.
Even in his previous life as a hound, he had lived possessing greater strength than almost anyone else.
WHOOSH!
At that moment, a small crystal orb appeared in the distance.
‘I should probably head back now.’
It served as the eyes of the Hunting Ceremony.
The fact that one had appeared here practically meant that the family was searching for him.
“There’s no reason to show them this scene.”
Tap!
After confirming the orb’s presence, Wirn quickly left the area.
He had already finished everything he needed to do.
All that remained was to return to the family.
...FWOOSH. FWOOSH!
After Wirn left, only the dead Ogre remained.
Crackle... crackle.
Then an inexplicable little flame consumed its body and reduced it to ashes.
***
Wirn left the forest and returned to the place where the Hunting Ceremony had begun.
“Young Master! Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? You cannot simply disappear deeper into the forest like that! That area is crawling with wild monsters. To enter a place like that without even having anyone to guard you...!”
As though he had been waiting for him, Kemen immediately rushed over to Wirn.
His face had turned pale, showing just how anxious he had been all this time.
“Fine. I’ll be more careful next time.”
Of course, that didn’t mean Wirn had any intention of actually listening.
“Anyway, if you have any Healing Potions left, give me one.”
“Pardon? What do you....”
“My arm’s broken.”
Instead, Wirn casually held out his right arm toward Kemen, who had been lecturing him.
“N-No!”
Kemen stared at it in horror.
Wirn wandering through the forest without permission had already nearly stopped his heart.
But now his arm was grotesquely twisted on top of that.
“P-Physician!”
It was only natural that Kemen hurriedly called for the family physician waiting nearby.
Snicker.
Meanwhile, Wirn himself merely chuckled at the sight.
***
Thanks to the physician Kemen summoned, Wirn’s arm was restored to some degree.
“When everything is over, I will come and escort you personally. So please do not go anywhere and remain here quietly.”
“Yeah... sure. I’ll try.”
“Young Master!”
Once the treatment was finished, Kemen sent Wirn alone through a magic circle to another location.
“Everyone’s gathered here?”
It was the Sanctuary where the successors who had been eliminated earlier from the Hunting Ceremony were staying.
“Wirn.”
The first successor to react to Wirn’s words was Began.
“You... where the hell did you go?”
By now, everyone had heard that Wirn had left the designated Hunting Ceremony area.
But Began knew perfectly well that Wirn wasn’t the sort of person who would do something without a reason.
“I just went for a little walk.”
“A walk?”
“Yeah. I was getting a little bored following nothing but the designated paths.”
However, Wirn didn’t answer honestly.
‘Looks like nobody knows what I did after all.’
There hadn’t been anyone there to witness it.
“A walk....”
Began frowned.
“I didn’t know you had a hobby like that.”
It was obviously a lie to anyone who heard it.
“Got a problem with it? If you do, want to spar again like last time?”
Wirn shrugged at Began.
Then he crooked a finger at him provocatively.
“You bastard!”
Began bit his lip.
“...Forget it.”
But he didn’t fall for Wirn’s provocation.
Having a spar here wasn’t exactly appropriate.
‘They said he beat Heinhern.’
Began also already knew that Wirn had won an overwhelming victory against Heinhern, the child of a collateral branch.
“Enough with the childish arguing. I want to ask you something.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you really only have one Circle?”
This time, Began asked seriously.
He simply couldn’t believe that Wirn had defeated Heinhern, who possessed two Circles.
Began knew just how enormous the difference between the First Circle and the Second Circle was.
He also knew that overturning that difference was anything but easy.
“Yeah. For now, I only have one.”
Yet the answer he received was that Wirn possessed only a single Circle.
“...For now?”
Began tilted his head.
He couldn’t understand why Wirn had added the words ‘for now.’
On top of that, Began’s instincts were telling him something.
This impossible-to-read younger brother of his was preparing to cause another incident.
“What does that—”
Just as he tried to question him further—
Humm....
A Teleportation Magic Circle appeared inside the Sanctuary.
“Hmm.”
A man emerged from it.
“So everyone is gathered.”
He wore a robe embroidered with the Daylin Family’s Mark in silver.
Wirn’s gaze naturally turned toward it.
‘Silver....’
It was rare to add color to a robe.
That was especially true when the family’s Mark was embroidered upon it.
Wirn immediately realized that the man was no ordinary figure.
‘The Family Head wears a golden robe... Then is this man someone directly beneath the Family Head?’
But he couldn’t determine anything beyond that.
No such man existed in Wirn’s memories.
Just as he began to find that strange—
“C-Chief Elder!”
Began cried out in shock.
THUD!
At the same time, he dropped to his right knee and paid his respects.