Thirty minutes had passed since Wirn left the training ground and began racing north.
‘I should be reaching it soon.’
The reason Wirn had left the Hunting Ceremony behind and headed into the uncharted territory was simple.
The prey he had set his sights on was here.
More precisely, he was looking for an ingredient that would produce a powerful effect when combined with the energy of the High-Grade Elixir.
‘A place where countless rocks have gathered into a mountain.’
Wirn had recently obtained a map of the uncharted territory, and from it, he realized that the ingredient he wanted could be found there.
His destination was a place where rocks were packed together as densely as needles of sand in a desert.
‘They said it was to the north, so I should reach it as long as I keep heading in the right direction.’
However, the map contained no information beyond that.
In the first place, the map Wirn had obtained had only been created as a reference for the uncharted territory.
All it mentioned was that a powerful Ogre lived in the rocky mountain.
There was no information about where the creature usually roamed or what kind of power it possessed.
―Humm....
The lack of reliable information could cause trouble.
Even so, Wirn was confident he could find it.
“Spread out.”
HUMM!
He had a way to locate both the hidden rocky region and the creature living there.
FLASH!
The Mana Wirn created spread widely toward the north.
Seeing it, Wirn stopped moving.
The Mana blended into the northbound wind, resembling birds flying through the sky.
Rustle.
Wirn watched the sight for a moment before closing his eyes.
Then he focused every one of his senses on the Mana he had spread.
“Be dyed in Darkness.”
The glowing Mana blossomed into Darkness.
The blue light it had carried turned black.
RUMBLE....
At the same time, it swallowed the mountain like storm clouds spreading across the sky.
‘I can’t believe this worked on the first try.’
The environment of the forest was transformed into Darkness in an instant.
Realizing that, Wirn clicked his tongue.
He had been the one to cast the magic, but he hadn’t expected it to work so easily.
Normally, he wouldn’t have been able to cover even half that mountain.
An ordinary First Circle mage simply didn’t possess that much Mana.
‘Is it the difference in the vessel?’
Was that the reason?
Wirn was once again struck by just how different his current body was from the one he had possessed in his previous life.
‘Or maybe... it’s the difference in my circumstances.’
He also thought that the success of this insane method probably wasn’t due to that difference alone.
There had to be several other factors involved.
‘Whatever the reason, I’ll use everything I can get my hands on.’
The wealth of the Daylin Family.
The Darkness-attribute magic he possessed.
And the countless events he had experienced in his previous life.
Wirn was convinced that every one of them was an ‘opportunity’ that would allow him to take his revenge.
―HUMM.
“Found it.”
At that moment, an image of a rocky mountain formed from countless boulders appeared in Wirn’s mind.
Rustle.
Wirn turned toward its location.
‘It’s the Hunting Ceremony. I should at least hunt one decent monster.’
He stared toward the rocky mountain his Mana had discovered and grinned broadly.
Tap!
Then he kicked off the ground once more.
***
“Ugh.”
A groan escaped Heinhern’s mouth.
“Where am I...?”
Her eyes opened as a splitting headache assaulted her.
The first thing that entered her vision was a statue.
It had been made in the likeness of the first Family Head of the Daylin Family.
Heinhern blinked at it.
She had definitely been inside the training ground only moments ago.
So it was only natural that she would be confused to suddenly find a statue in front of her.
“Could it be...?”
At that moment, her final memory surfaced in her mind.
Wirn, who had struck her head with a completely unexpected kick.
Then the words he had spoken afterward followed one after another.
Rustle.
Remembering that, Heinhern slowly looked around.
Circular pillars made of marble.
A high ceiling.
And numerous decorations.
‘The Daylin Family Sanctuary.’
She finally realized that she was inside a place dedicated to commemorating the first Family Head of the Daylin Family.
“...I lost.”
At the same time, she accepted the fact that she had been defeated by Wirn.
“He completely overwhelmed me.”
It was an unbelievable result.
But she didn’t believe there had been any foul play in the duel.
The abyss-like Darkness Wirn had shown her had been real.
Its energy had been more primal than any Darkness she had ever encountered.
Heinhern accepted her defeat without reservation.
‘But....’
Even so, she didn’t feel good about it.
She was the bastard child of a collateral family.
If she failed to prove her usefulness here, it was obvious that she would be discarded for the rest of her life.
“I....”
Just as she began thinking that her fate now held nothing but endless Darkness—
Ooze... ooze.
A small wisp of Darkness appeared over her right hand.
‘A trace of him?’
It was a fragment of Mana Wirn had left behind on Heinhern.
As she stared blankly at it—
WHOOSH....
The Sanctuary suddenly became as dark as midnight.
“?”
Heinhern frowned at the abrupt change from day to night.
‘Could it be?’
At the same time, a possibility occurred to her, and her eyes widened.
Tap, tap!
She hurried outside the Sanctuary.
Then, the moment she looked up at the sky—
Gulp.
“...Darkness.”
She swallowed unconsciously.
“That is the abyss.”
The Darkness Wirn had created was turning the sky black.
***
At that moment—
‘She should be awake by now, right?’
Wirn made his way toward a place where dozens of massive rocks had gathered.
‘I left a trace behind, so if she has any sense, she’ll come find me once the Hunting Ceremony is over.’
As he moved, he thought about Heinhern, whom he had defeated earlier.
The sight of her burning with fighting spirit until the moment she lost consciousness had been rather impressive.
‘She’s just as vicious now as she was back then....’
And she had been exactly the same during Wirn’s days as the Imperial Hound.
Even at the moment she died by Wirn’s hand, she hadn’t stopped casting magic.
Her viciously spreading ice and the fortress she had created from it had given Wirn quite a bit of trouble to break through.
“She really is a vicious bastard.”
That was why Wirn liked Heinhern.
He had clearly felt her determination to make him suffer right until the very end.
And she possessed a nasty personality much like his own.
“And... I’m nastier.”
Of course, he still believed she couldn’t compare to him.
At the same time, Wirn used the rocks ahead as footholds and climbed toward the top of the rocky region.
―GRRROOO....
The tremendous snoring of a monster reached his ears.
Two enormous tusks like those of an Orc.
A belly that protruded outward.
But unlike its fat stomach, the creature possessed massively muscular arms.
‘An Ogre.’
It was the Ogre Wirn intended to use as his second ingredient.
‘And a powerful one at that.’
Wirn inhaled as he watched drool drip from the creature’s mouth.
Those heavy muscles covering its arms explained exactly why the Daylin Family had described it as a powerful Ogre.
At Wirn’s current level, it was undoubtedly a formidable opponent against which he would have to risk his life.
‘I’m lucky I found it while it’s asleep.’
However, in the current situation, Wirn practically held the advantage.
The creature was sleeping deeply.
If he made proper use of this opportunity, he could kill it easily.
―HUUUMM....
Wirn came to that conclusion and rotated his Circle vigorously.
Rustle.
At the same time, he raised his right hand and chanted a spell.
HUUUMM.......
Mana gathered in the air.
Then it transformed into Darkness.
Ssssh.
After confirming it, Wirn extended his right hand forward.
The Darkness crawled across the ground toward the Ogre.
WHOOSH!
Then, like a net being cast, it instantly swallowed the Ogre’s face.
The Darkness plunged its vision into complete blackness.
SHING!
Wirn drew the dagger he had prepared beforehand.
“Be dyed.”
At the same time, he imbued the dagger with Darkness.
Tap, tap, tap!
Then he charged toward the creature, which was still sound asleep.
STAB!
He drove the dagger straight into its neck.
‘Got it.’
Perhaps because the dagger had gone in so deeply, green blood erupted from the Ogre’s neck like a fountain.
But—
―HUMM!
“?”
At that moment, intense light burst from the Mark on the back of Wirn’s right hand.
‘Don’t tell me you’re trying to devour it again?’
Wirn frowned.
It would be troublesome if the Mark devoured the creature here.
He had come here not to strengthen the Mark, but to strengthen his own body.
‘Not now.’
Wirn covered the back of his right hand with his left to stop the Mark from acting.
―HUUUMM!
At that moment, blue light erupted from the Ogre’s body.
‘Mana?’
And the instant Wirn recognized the nature of that light—
CRACK!
The dagger embedded in the creature’s neck snapped completely.
WHOOSH!
At the same time, its arm swung rapidly toward Wirn.
“!”
Wirn realized what was happening and quickly ducked.
The Ogre’s arm swept over his head.
Tap!
Taking advantage of the opening, Wirn jumped backward and created distance.
‘I definitely stabbed its neck....’
Wirn furrowed his brow.
The sensation he had felt through his hand hadn’t been an illusion.
His clothes were also covered in the creature’s blood.
‘But it’s completely fine?’
―GRAAAH!
Just as he began questioning it, a beastly roar erupted from the Ogre’s mouth.
Squelch.
Then another eye emerged from the center of its chest.
“...What the hell is that?”
Wirn flinched at the sudden appearance of a third eye.
‘Is it a higher-tier Ogre?’
The third eye stared directly at him.
Wirn frowned as he looked at it.
“...Can’t be helped.”
CLANG!
Wirn tossed the broken dagger handle onto the ground.
“I didn’t want to use this.”
―HUUUUUMM....
He rotated his Circle vigorously once again.
But this time, that wasn’t all.
‘Open.’
Another power had remained near his heart all this time.
To use the power of the Elixir, Wirn greatly expanded the pathways of his Circle.
THUMP!
Pain erupted from his heart.
It was a sign that the remaining power of the Elixir was merging with his Circle.
Drip.
As the energy of the High-Grade Elixir connected with his Circle, blood flowed from Wirn’s mouth.
“Ghhhk....”
An enormous wave of pain struck Wirn, enough to make him lose consciousness on the spot.
But Wirn wasn’t weak enough to collapse from something like this.
That was only natural.
After all, Wirn was the one who had stubbornly survived even the deathly training he had endured in the Empire.
―GRAAAAAH!
At that moment, the Ogre staring at Wirn with its third eye let out a tremendous roar.
CRUNCH!
It lifted a massive boulder beside it.
WHOOSH!
Then it hurled the boulder at Wirn with all its strength.
It was a fatal attack that could crush his entire body if it landed.
WHOOOOSH!
The huge rock flew rapidly toward Wirn.
And just before it collided with him—
Ssssh!
Darkness spread across the ground beneath Wirn’s feet.
CRACK!
Dozens of black spikes erupted from within it.
Spikes of Darkness possessing an almost unpleasantly dense blackness.
They turned the boulder thrown by the Ogre into a pincushion.
―!
The Ogre flinched unconsciously when it saw that.
It felt instinctively uneasy that those spikes might be capable of piercing its skin.
Even if its body was as hard as rock, if those spikes could punch holes through an actual boulder, then it was only natural that they might possess enough power to pierce something even tougher.
―GRAAAH!
Despite its fear that it might end up the same way, the Ogre didn’t flee.
RUMBLE!
Instead, it charged fiercely toward Wirn.
If it couldn’t crush him with a boulder, then it intended to flatten him beneath its own weight before he could cast another spell.
“So you know magic has a delay between casts.”
Wirn found it interesting that the creature understood a mage’s weakness and acted accordingly.
That was information an ordinary Ogre’s intelligence could never have grasped.
Unfortunately for the creature, however, that variable was useless against Wirn.
“Be pierced.”
Wirn wasn’t an ordinary First Circle mage.
Naturally, the time he needed between consecutive spells was far shorter than that of other mages.
Ssssh!
As Wirn spoke the incantation, the shadow on the ground moved toward the Ogre.
SQUELCH!
―Grrh?
The Ogre’s legs, which had been charging powerfully toward Wirn, suddenly stopped.
Its feet felt soft and strange, as though something were eating its way inside them.
Feeling that, the creature lowered its head.
Ssssh....
The shadow Wirn had created was climbing up its legs.
―GRAAH!
Seeing the shadow crawl up its body like ants, the Ogre roared.
It used both hands to tear the skin from its legs in an attempt to remove it.
Its legs were instantly drenched in blood.
But the shadow didn’t stop.
Instead, it used the torn flesh and exposed blood vessels to consume the creature even faster.
CRACK! CRUNCH!
And the moment the shadow completely entered the Ogre’s body, the sound of bones twisting echoed from inside it.
...THUD!
And just like that, its life came to an end.
Rustle.
After confirming that the Ogre was dead, Wirn looked around.
He wanted to make sure no one else had seen his power.
‘No one saw that.’
But Wirn couldn’t see any surveillance orb nearby.
‘I won’t reveal the Mark’s power yet.’
There was a simple reason Wirn was checking for witnesses.
He still wanted to keep the Mark hidden.
He also had no desire to show anyone his hidden cards.
For a mage, a trump card was practically another life.
‘It’s completely wrecked.’
After finishing his thoughts, Wirn approached the Ogre.
Its bones and muscles had been horribly twisted.
Its neck looked like that of a chicken that had been wrung, and the stench released while it struggled only made matters worse.
It wasn’t a pleasant sight.
‘It reeks.’
An ordinary person would have covered their nose and immediately backed away.
But Wirn didn’t.
He hadn’t hunted the creature merely to test his strength.
‘Now I just need to remove its heart, and the job’s done.’
Wirn carefully gripped the blade of the broken dagger.
Then his eyes moved toward the location of the creature’s heart.
Just as he was about to remove it—
“...?”
Wirn instinctively froze.
“Why is this... here?”
Something completely unexpected was embedded in what he could only ‘assume’ was the creature’s right shoulder.