Hermit Wizard

The Second (6)

-Chraaaang!

The sound of something breaking rang in the living room.

“Ah! Come on!”

I shouted nervously. Where my gaze was turned, fragments of pottery that had been shattered lay on the living room floor. It looked like it was taken out of the warehouse. When was it brought all the way there?

Above the broken pieces, two still intact melon-colored ceramics floated in the air, and a creature with a bunch of bronze tentacles fluttered with excitement, moving in and out of the wide snout of the ceramic.

It jumped up, jumped into one ceramic, then jumped out and stepped into the other one. While floating in the air, it was moving back and forth between the two ceramics. It was a new trick recently.

“Play quietly!”

I screamed at the tentacles and then turned my head. At that moment, I was talking about something serious.

“So, I would like to have a companion from White Deer this time. A villager who is good at combat. It’s going to be similar to the last one.”

The Maek sitting in front of me was distracted. It pointed to the tentacles playing in the middle of the living room with its long nose.

“Is it possible to fly like that in the first place?”

I shook my head.

“It seems to be the effect of eating away the mental body of the ancient ascetic.”

Both floating and lifting heavy objects such as ceramics into the air were all thanks to telekinetic power. After absorbing the ascetic, the ability seemed to had been transferred.

I remembered what the mental body of the nest said. He said it was like a baby?

Indeed, the guy with the new power in his hand was excited. He was like a child who had a new toy and didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t allow access to artifacts in the warehouse, but it was also annoying that it played with that kind of thing. That guy especially liked that kind of pottery. It was a structure where it could play with its body coming in and out. How many had it broken so far?

So many similar types of ceramics were given from White Deer that they didn’t appear to reduce. It was more annoying to clean it up than waste it.

Yusu looked at the figure for a while and then turned its head toward me again.

“When it comes to fighting ability, it seems like the last time. There is a high possibility that Brother Seol and Mrs.Pearl will be chosen. Still, it is a matter that the elders decide so that I will come back with an answer after discussion.”

“This shouldn’t take as long as last time.”

The Maek nodded.

“I will try my best.”

It mumbled, picking up the metal on the plate with its nose and putting it in its mouth. I looked at it and said, “I can leave right away by next Wednesday because my Chinese visa will come out then.”

The Channel that became the target for that time was in China.

“This is another unexpected result. I never thought that the Dragon’s soul…”

“He’s hiding in a world other than the Earth.”

When I thought about it again, my head hurt.

The tracking magic, with the help of Ii-Mere, scanned the traces of the Dragon’s soul.

At the moment of his death, the Dragon’s soul, located in Dubai, seemed to have begun to move eastward at high speed. While moving through the continent, the trace was cut off like a lie at some point. That was what the magic of spores covering that planet told me.

The moment I realized that the trace was cut off, I almost fell into panic at first. Why would the soul that was neither reborn nor bounded by God suddenly disappear? I thought it was a failure like that.

However, when I thought about it after I regained my composure, there was one answer. What if traces disappeared from that world? He must’ve passed on to another world. It became clearer when I applied the point where the traces of the soul were cut to the map. The Dragon’s spirit disappeared right in front of the Channel in Shanghai, China.

“Both Hessler and Alice had the same memories. The soul flowed toward high places. When the Channel is opened, the soul is absorbed into the higher dimension. However, they said that the soul of Truth-Seeker is not affected by such force.”

Yusu nodded.

“Rather than being dragged, the Dragon’s soul moved on its own.”

“I don’t know why, but he chose to hide in a different dimension, not this world.”

It was a situation where various speculations were possible. Why did the Dragon try to hide? Why did he choose the place as the world that led to China’s Channel?

There was a Channel closer to the Dragon’s nest than Shanghai. There had to be a reason for choosing that Channel and moving on to it.

“Suddenly, while Master Yoon passes over and searches for the Dragon’s soul, the remaining residents of White Deer will be preparing to seal the soul.”

That was how we divided the duties of both sides.

“The ascetics will not stay still. In addition to the chaos that occurred in Hun-neung, there will be follow-up measures over here to investigate the situation as their members have gone missing at once.”

“We’ll keep an eye on that, too.”

There were no traces left when the ascetics search for Eraser in that neighborhood. Moreover, I would be in a different dimension for a while.

Even if the Dragon’s soul was hiding in another world, it was possible to assume that he would always come to that dimension when the body was completed. If he couldn’t come back, he wouldn’t have gone over.

We couldn’t wait without doing anything just because he had crossed into another world. I didn’t know what kind of environment it would be over there, but I would track it for the time being.

“By the way, I don’t know how the human world works. Do you have any information about what kind of world beyond China’s Channel is?”

“Yes. Since the Channel was opened, there’s no record of cross-alien races. On the contrary, there are many rumors that the Chinese government has already deployed military units several times to explore it.”

It was a rumor to the extent, but it was said that the search party had already repeatedly entered and returned several times. That meant that it wasn’t an extreme environment that wiped people out immediately if humans entered.

Even so, it was certainly not a comfortable situation for me. I had to search for the Dragon’s soul in an unfamiliar world, but I didn’t know what kind of race the natives of that world were, and I had to pay attention to the People’s Liberation Army of China, who was wandering around at that place freely.

“What’s even more anxious is the possibility that the ‘Gramperi’ race is mixed in the Chinese military search. We can’t ignore their magic level, after all. We need to see to what extent the Chinese government and the alien race are cooperating.”

I clicked my tongue and drank water on the table.

-Dhgrrrrrrrrr!

From the living room side, I heard a heavy thing rolling on the floor. It was that guy again. That time, it didn’t break the ceramics as if it controlled the fall speed with telekinesis. It seemed to had lost interest in ceramics after playing hard on its own.

“Hey, Tentacles! Put that in the warehouse!”

A reply like scratching the air came back.

“I… am not… tentacles!”

It was similar to the way the ancient ascetic spoke out. It made sound by vibrating the air with telekinetic power.

On the other hand, Yusu, who called it tentacles, and saw a strange way of protesting that it was not a tentacle, gave an interesting look.

“You have a lot of tricks like that, don’t you?”

“If you look at it, the source is all telekinetic powers.”

In fact, it wasn’t just the telekinesis power that it gained after eating away the ancient ascetic. It seemed that some of the knowledge possessed by that mental body has also permeated. Although it couldn’t digest all the words due to the body’s limitations, I discovered that it mixed some words used by the mental body. For example…

“I… am not tentacles… I’m… ‘maru’!”

“Maru?”

The Maek tilted its head. The fragments of the Truth-Seeker called itself ‘Maru.’ So I corrected the misunderstanding.

“That’s not a Korean word.”

The ancient ascetic spoke to me in a strange language. Although I could understand the meaning with the Dissolving Speech Bead’s power, it was impossible to grasp the background of the language.

So, I searched the internet by converting some of the words he frequently used into alphabetical letters. Besides, I could see when the word ‘Ensi’ was used to mean ‘monarch, priest, and wizard.’ Also, the word ‘Ki-en-gir,’ mentioned by the ancient ascetic, was used to mean ‘human city.’

“It mimics the words used by ancient ascetics. Thousands of years ago, it was used in a civilization called Sumerian.”

“Well, it’s history, I don’t know.”

“Yes, it’s a pretty far away area from here.”

Maek said, tilting its head.

“So, what does ‘maru’ mean in that language?”

I watched the guy floating in the air, transforming his body into one or two shapes. Why did it choose such a word while referring to itself?

‘Maru,’ in Sumerian civilization, what the word meant was ‘child’ or ‘son.’

***

It was a sunny day. In a rural house in the suburbs of Gyeonggi-do surrounded by high fences, a young man was sitting on a bench in a small but well-groomed garden.

The shadows covered his face under the autumn sun. He was staring ahead without focus. White smoke rose from a cigarette held at the tip of his hand. At his feet, several butts each rolled around freely.

“Hmm.”

The young man turned his head to someone’s presence he felt from behind.

“It’s time to start, trainee Kim Kyung-hwan.”

“… Ah yes.”

Kim Kyung-hwan thought as he threw a cigarette on the lawn and slammed it with his feet. Was it still appropriate to say that he was a trainee? No one was teaching him anymore.

The same was true of Kaifu, and even the alien he thought as his ‘real magic teacher’ was no longer coaching him.

He got up. An unfamiliar agent stood right in front of him. So he asked himself. Was that the first time he met him?

“I’m Instructor Bae Sung-ho, who will move together with you today.”

The instructor’s gaze remained at the end of Kim Kyung-hwan’s hand.

“I thought you didn’t smoke in the first place?”

“Is such little information written in my personal information?”

“No. I also worked at Hun-neung. Can’t you remember my face?”

He didn’t remember him well. The instructor who was looking at Kim Kyung-hwan’s expression smiled bitterly.

Not all human instructors were gathered at the base during the Hun-neung tragedy. They had little restrictions on staying out and going out, and some instructors survived since they were lucky enough to be outside that day. Bae Seong-ho was also in such a case.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Kim Kyung-hwan followed the instructor’s lead. The two cars ran on the highway, surrounded by escort vehicles. Public transportation such as airplanes and trains hadn’t yet been allowed to Kim Kyung-hwan.

Inside the vehicle, the instructor continued with a brief explanation.

“The other troops have already been moved by military vehicles. Trainee Kim Kyung-hwan, you’re officially unrelated to this operation, so you’ll move through a private vehicle like this.”

Kim Kyung-hwan nodded.

“Did you read all of the documents I handed you earlier?”

“Yes.”

The documents were delivered to him an hour ago. Inside was a description of the recent changes in the second Channel created in Korea.

It was about 15 days before the Busan Channel showed its appearance. Taking the Seoul Channel experience as a lesson, the Korean government tightly controlled its surroundings, installed barricades and temporary barriers to prevent coverage, and banned helicopters from flying nearby.

It was a measure not to show the scenes of battles or people being killed on the broadcast as they were when the Mapo Bridge Channel was created. Thus, the Busan Channel was thoroughly isolated from the surroundings.

Unlike in Seoul, there was no alien that came over for a while after the Channel opened.

Until last night…

Kim Kyung-hwan took the document out of the envelope and turned it over. The documents described the appearance of the aliens that appeared yesterday. There was a creature that looked like a giant purple jellyfish over 3 meters tall. The instructor said, looking sideways at the figure.

“Even if a battle situation occurs, Trainee Kim Kyung-hwan will not intervene directly. The top’s request is to keep an eye on the alien race from a distance and notify them immediately if there is any sign of trying to use some dangerous magic. Now, the only wizard that can be of strength to us is you, Trainee Kim Kyung-hwan.”

In fact, they secretly requested help from neighboring countries and negotiated the placement of other Kaifu instructors, but the response wasn’t very good. Thinking it was a very troublesome situation, the instructor frowned.

Meanwhile, Kim Kyung-hwan, who listened to him, asked him a question.

“Hwang Soo-rim… How about that trainee?”

“Ah… the trainee is now undergoing discharge procedures. The contract is also likely to end. Like most other trainees who have lost their sight.”

“… I see.”

A few hours later, the vehicle arrived near the Seomyeon intersection in Busan. There was a huge temporary barrier to block the outside view. Through the small door at the bottom of the wall, Kim Kyung-hwan, his instructor, and security personnel entered inside. There were soldiers all over the place, but no one stopped them and only had short conversations with their eyes.

“There are really only soldiers.”

Civilians had already completed evacuation from the temporary barrier, a small ghost town created by the national intervention.

“It seems impossible to approach any more… do you feel any Mana?”

Kim Kyung-hwan nodded.

He could see the Channel from afar. He frowned as he looked at it. It wasn’t that Channel that touched his senses. There was an alien that looked like a tiny dot from there, and the Mana that covered it was quite high.

“… Can you handle this?”

The instructor’s expression darkened.

“Is it powerful?”

“… It’s strong. Any Kaifu I saw in Hun-neung looks like a child play in front of it.”

“Is it that much…”

The instructor, whose complexion darkened, quickly puts in a radio. The surroundings became noisy.

Moreover, the change took place then.

=… I came here to look for…=

At that moment, a voice rang in everyone’s head around there.

It was easy to identify where the source was. Kim Kyung-hwan stared at the distant alien. It said that it had only been standing in a place like that without movement after crossing the Channel.

The telepathy of the alien continued.

=I’m… looking for… a peaceful… conversation…=

“Ugh!”

Most of them suffered except for Kim Kyung-hwan. That one wasn’t in consideration of the recipient.

The young man recalled what Eraser taught. He said that that could happen if he sent telepathy with insufficient information about the other race.

The alien sent mental waves several times in that state. The feeling of how much it sensed was getting smoother through repetition, and people’s facial expressions were getting better.

So, after a little more time, everyone around there finally recognized the neat idea of the alien.

The huge entity with its body shining in fluorescent purple conveyed its will with a polite and overbearing feeling.

=… I want peaceful negotiations. I was introduced to this dimension. Humans, where is the ‘Reclusive Soul’?=