Retire 344
by Cristae344 A Blessing Upon You (3)
A rough surface, bumpy as if bubbles had risen beneath it. Thin limbs, as if dried twigs had been cut and stuck together, twitching hands, and the blue thread of magic connecting those hands to the torso.
I could only stare in stunned silence, unable even to think of cutting the magic as I had with the monsters we’d captured underground.
And as always, it was Kim Chaemin who gathered his thoughts and put them into action faster.
With vines, Kim Chaemin tore off the limbs of the thing—if it could even be called a living creature, so grotesque was its form. The threads hung limply downward.
“……”
Kim Chaemin meticulously examined the severed limbs. Anything that twitched was easily subdued with vines. Even the rose petals swirling around seemed somehow terrifying in this scene.
No, I mean, I know this is the easiest way, but still…
“What are you looking for?” I asked Kim Chaemin cautiously. After what I’d just seen, I found myself acting more reserved without realizing it.
“Runes.”
I’d asked because it seemed like he had a purpose in checking each part, but the answer surprised me.
“Runes?”
It was only after repeating the word that I realized Kim Chaemin’s reasoning was sound. He nodded. Even with a quick glance, there were no visible runes.
“He kept bringing up Noah Michel. Runes… No, wait.”
Kim Chaemin frowned.
“Didn’t you say you could distinguish Noah Michel’s magic?”
“Technically, the magic pattern… Why?”
“Did you see if there was any of Michel’s magic here earlier?”
Kim Chaemin pointed at the thing that was still twitching—what even was that? A monster with its limbs severed? Whatever it was, it was growing more grotesque by the moment. At least it wasn’t bleeding.
Whatever had been Henry Lehmann, like the other monsters, didn’t even bleed transparent blood.
I shook my head.
“No. You have to have a clear view to see it properly… I couldn’t see clearly before.”
“Why not? You have two eyes!”
I pointed to Kim Chaemin’s vines.
“They were in the way.”
“…Ah.”
“I couldn’t see.”
“…Ahem, well. That makes sense.”
Kim Chaemin turned his head away with a prim little gesture.
Fine, I should be grateful. I could still picture Gamble acting like she’d pluck out Han Taekyung’s eyes, so the fact that Kim Chaemin wasn’t demanding mine was a relief.
Well, it was a different situation from Han Taekyung’s, anyway. Kim Chaemin wasn’t that heartless. Besides, if Imi-seon’s tracking went well, the research institute’s data would come to Kim Chaemin eventually. All he had to do was wait.
Anyway, since Kim Chaemin had brought up Noah Michel, I could easily guess what possibility he’d been considering.
“Do you think this is it?”
“Think about Noah Michel’s magic. He developed runes in secret, didn’t he?”
“Hmm… Well, there’s that library dungeon or whatever, too.”
“It’s not like Michel isn’t interested in that magic even now, you know? But it’s only ever been a hobby. A cultured mage’s research hobby! That’s all it was.”
“Have you ever seen it?”
“He sometimes posts videos on the community. He likes attention.”
“…Didn’t show up when I searched.”
“He deletes his posts regularly. As if it’s something so amazing.”
Kim Chaemin clicked his tongue openly.
“When I looked at your data, even three years from now, he was already at a pretty high level, right? It’s probably even more advanced in reality. I bet he’s been hiding it, just like the runes. So it’s obvious, even if we haven’t seen it yet.”
“I see what you mean.”
“Everyone hides their trump cards.”
“Like your magic, Mr. Kim?”
“Oh, this, well… I used it at school too. When I was laying down grass.”
“…If you told your grandfather you used his unique magic for landscaping, he’d be sad, wouldn’t he?”
“He’d be proud.”
Kim Chaemin made a face at me and stuck out his tongue.
“I am curious how your magic works, though…”
“A trump card!”
“…A master should check their student’s achievements, don’t you think?”
“You only call me your student at times like this?!”
Kim Chaemin grumbled in disbelief.
His complexion was still pale, but he was using magic well and speaking as usual, so I was less worried about his injuries. He should get proper treatment later, but he wasn’t in critical condition. That was a relief.
And Kim Chaemin’s magic…
“You’re always asking to be treated as my student.”
Thinking of the compatibility between the magic his grandfather had explained in that cabin and his own, I could guess how he’d increased his power.
…With magic like this, how did Kim Chaemin die? Well, in the end, roses need to root in the earth to bloom, and monsters that swim in the sea are a bad match. Not to mention the salt water.
“Still, what kind of teacher exploits their student?”
“And it’s fine for a student to bankrupt their teacher?”
“That’s a teacher’s duty.”
“Anyway…”
I brought the conversation back to the main point.
“So this is Noah Michel’s trump card?”
“It’s possible. Like the runes.”
Regardless, the more I thought about it, the more likely Kim Chaemin’s theory seemed.
I pieced together what we’d learned so far and nodded.
“Well, Hope traveled between dungeons too… Do you remember what Hope said?”
“What?”
“That Noah Michel wanted to create something that could control dungeons from the outside.”
At that, Kim Chaemin hesitated. It seemed he hadn’t considered that possibility.
He stammered,
“Do you… think this is it?”
“I don’t know.”
I shrugged.
“You probably haven’t seen it yet, but there are a lot of things like this in the dungeon.”
“Things like this?”
“This one at least looks vaguely human. Like a wooden puppet, maybe?”
I used my spear tip to cut the thread of magic connecting one of the limbs Kim Chaemin’s vines were holding. As expected, when the thread was severed, it gave a big twitch and then fell still.
“The ones Mr. Hong and I have been cleaning up looked more like monsters than this… But they felt too off to really call monsters. We were waiting for you to come so we could check while looking for the dungeon core.”
“Why didn’t you just step out and call me?”
“I didn’t want to make a fuss. We didn’t know what was happening outside, and we made a bit of a commotion coming in… Not that we got caught or anything.”
“When I came in, it was quiet… so I don’t think it mattered.”
“It was quiet?”
“Yeah, the warehouse. No guards or anything. I avoided the people on the first floor, but that was it.”
“Still, you never know. When you’re in a dungeon, you can’t tell what’s happening outside.”
“True. Better safe than… But is Mr. Hong asleep? Why is he so quiet?”
Kim Chaemin tilted his head, puzzled.
Now that I thought of it, only Kim Chaemin and I had been talking. Hong Seokyeong wasn’t the type to be this quiet.
Naturally, both our gazes turned to Hong Seokyeong.
“…I mean, now you pay attention to me?”
Hong Seokyeong started grumbling, a beat late as our attention fell on him.
He leaned on his spear stuck in the ground, then slowly straightened up and crossed his arms. His head tilted to the side, weight shifting to one leg.
Anyone could see he was in a foul mood.
“Don’t keep talking about things only you two know. Why not fill this old man in?”
I looked at him in disbelief.
“What… You don’t know about Noah Michel?”
“Well…”
“Ah!”
Kim Chaemin suddenly let out a small exclamation, as if he’d just realized something.
“Principal, you don’t really know magic, do you?”
“Mr. Kim made it sound weird. It’s not that I don’t know magic.”
“No one can know everything about everything.”
“Mr. Kim is an archmage. Of course he knows magic.”
“Magic is a conservative discipline! If you’re not a mage, it’s natural not to know much about it!”
“You just know an oddly large amount about magic.”
“It’s just basic knowledge.”
“…And you say you fought with future mages? That’s really unsettling. Don’t do that to me.”
“I only pick fights when I know my opponent.”
“See! You said ‘fight’!”
“A healthy debate is an intellectual battle permitted to civilized people.”
Kim Chaemin laughed heartily and emptied a potion bottle. Color was returning to his once-pale face. He really wasn’t badly hurt.
I shook my head and pointed ahead.
“Here.”
It was a deep pit, so deep you couldn’t see the bottom. Kim Chaemin leaned forward to look inside.
“It’s deep. You said it was down there?”
“Very deep. We haven’t mapped the whole dungeon yet, but it’s at least twenty meters straight down. See the holes in the wall?”
“Hm. Those are all tunnels?”
“Like an anthill.”
“What a pain. So you cleared the outside, but not the inside?”
“Yes.”
“You cleaned up too thoroughly.”
Kim Chaemin gave a short whistle. Maybe it was the aftermath of the battle, but his reactions were more intense than usual.
I shook my head.
“It probably wasn’t necessary, but this is such a special dungeon. Who knows what could happen later—we couldn’t just leave it.”
“For a dungeon with so many monsters, it’s pretty clean… Oh, you said if you cut all the connections, the body disappears.”
“That’s why it doesn’t feel like a monster. It’s more like a golem.”
Kim Chaemin nodded, lost in thought at my words.
Whatever had been Henry Lehmann, Kim Chaemin had taken charge of it. It was still twitching like a freshly caught fish, but he didn’t care. In fact, he seemed pleased, saying there was a lot to examine while it was still in good condition.
His attention now turned to the monsters in this dungeon.
“Mr. Woo and I suspect these might be Noah Michel’s automatons.”
He explained this to Hong Seokyeong, who was still trailing behind with a sullen face, unable to keep up with our conversation.
But it wasn’t really because Hong Seokyeong didn’t know magic. Given his profession, he knew more than most hunters.
It was simply that so few mages used automatons that you could count them on one hand. Where would you even use such a spell? You had to keep supplying magic and inputting commands, and for all that trouble, you couldn’t even replicate delicate movements.
As Kim Chaemin said, it was really just a refined hobby for mages. Those interested would have their automatons play music or act as jukeboxes, and that was it.
But Noah Michel?
Noah Michel opened a new horizon for automatons. To put it simply… a mage’s personal drone. Since electronics didn’t work in dungeons, a mage could use these sturdy, useful magical constructs to scout without entering themselves. The advent of such magic, functioning like a drone in a dungeon, was widely celebrated.
This was why, even after developing the magic-concealing rune that diminished the role of mages, Noah Michel was still revered.
A single mage had determined the very necessity of all mages.
What had Noah Michel intended to do? What was he trying to accomplish?
If only, as Alex Hope said, he were just a madman blinded by ideals, it would be easier. But like the bottomless pit before us, every time I heard the name Noah Michel, I felt a strange and ominous foreboding.