◈ Episode 296 World Tree Expert (2)
“The fight has begun.”
Those were the words Rudger said to the waves of shock felt through the air from afar.
In addition to them, the combat teams that rushed to other places started fighting the Chimera.
The aftermath was also felt by Chris and Bellaluna.
I don’t know the exact distance and direction, but the chimera’s scream that resonated like an echo told me the situation.
“Will we be okay?”
Bellaluna’s voice trembled.
If a stranger had seen it, it would have seemed frightened and frightened, but Rudger knew that she was very excited with anticipation.
Even pretending not to, she was hoping that Chimera would come this far.
The reason is, of course, that the analysis of Chimera could not be completed to a satisfactory level.
‘Well, Bella Luna, you know that’s the kind of personality you originally had, so you’re saying that.’
Rudger looked at Chris, who was standing next to Bellaluna, with a subtle gaze.
“You don’t have to worry. Even if those monsters come out, I will protect you.”
“Thank you.”
‘Why is this human like this?’
Chris, who was usually very picky, was very kind to Bella Luna.
Even Rudger, who doesn’t show much emotion, is surprised that Chris is such a gentleman.
What was even more surprising was that Bellaluna, who was shy and had a gloomy distorted personality, showed a fairly normal reaction to Chris.
I understand that a little while ago we had a conversation about pharmaceuticals and formed a consensus.
I don’t think I could have gotten to know you that close in such a short amount of time.
‘Whether to see this as bad or good.’
Rudger shook his head and brushed off his thoughts.
What we should be concerned about now is not those two people.
It was because the Chimera noticed this from afar and was approaching.
Rudger sounded the warning.
“coming.”
Feeling the presence of those words, Chris immediately changed his posture and took out a reagent bottle from his inner pocket.
Hearing the sound of fighting going on everywhere, some chimeras paid attention to that place, but there were too many of them.
I couldn’t avoid this either.
Recognizing the existence of this side, the chimeras rushed in, raising spray from the underground aqueduct.
Bellaluna flinched involuntarily.
It was not because he was frightened, but because he was unknowingly holding back from running towards the chimera.
Chris, who didn’t know that, thought Bellaluna was frightened and stood even more in front of her.
Naturally, it became a composition where Rudger and Chris stood in front of each other shoulder to shoulder.
“The number is ten. I’ll go ahead and sort it out.”
“done. I can fight.”
Chris frowned at Ludger’s caring attitude, as if his pride was hurt.
He hated giving everything to Rudger, but even more so because he was in front of Bellaluna’s eyes.
Of course, it wasn’t a childish word.
In fact, Chris was strong enough to fight against the Chimeras.
Rudger also had no intention of persuading him, so he lightly nodded.
“Then let’s go to sort things out on our own.”
Chris threw the three reagent bottles he was holding between his fingers without any warning.
Chaeng-Geurang!
The glass bottle broke and colorful reagents spilled out.
A reagent whose individual power is insignificant.
However, when the three reagents were combined into one, an amazing thing happened, causing an intense chemical reaction.
Chow ah!
The reagents bubbled to a boil, and gray smoke rose.
The chimeras who were running in the lead were enveloped in smoke and let out a rough breath.
The most advanced guy vomited a bowl of blood from his mouth.
Seeing this, Ludger was quietly impressed.
‘Hoo. Does it create synergy by mixing the three reagents?’
Not much poison would work on a chimera of that level, but the reagent Chris used boasted power that even chimeras could not withstand.
Did you really have the skills to be proud of?
Thinking that if he did this, his ankle would not be caught, Ludger prepared his magic.
The target is the chimeras who have not been touched by poison. They quickly widened their distance and waited for the poisonous smoke to subside.
It wasn’t Rudger who was watching it quietly.
The magic that was completed quickly through the source code soon created a strong wind.
The chimeras were startled and tried to back away, but it was too late.
Gray smoke, carried by the wind, swallowed the chimeras like waves.
The Chimeras, who had been coughing up blood, collapsed powerlessly before long.
“You’re using a pretty strong poison.”
“It is the special combination reagent of the Bennimore family. It’s something you don’t see on the market.”
said Chris proudly.
“A powerful poison that seeps into the respiratory tract and necrotizes cells from the inside out. Even a chimera that is immune to poison will never survive.”
“Are you okay? It seems that this way is also blocked because of poisonous smoke.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
As soon as Chris finished speaking, the gray smoke slowly subsided.
“Over time, it comes into contact with the air in the atmosphere, and the toxicity disappears, leaving only harmless powder. Then rinse with water and you’re done. You don’t have to worry about this side going backwards.”
“Wow, that’s great!”
Bellaluna shouted with her eyes shining.
“How did you come up with the idea to combine three reagents to make something like that?! In particular, one of them is haxtosis leaf extract, right? You must have been difficult to deal with!”
Chris asked, widening his eyes.
“Did you recognize that at once?”
“yes. Hehe, since I have knowledge in that way too.”
“okay. No big deal. Haxtosis leaves explode because even a single drop of water causes an excessive reaction, but if you grind Mendala root and mix it, it becomes very stable. Then you can handle it however you want.”
“Oh, I see! If only the poison can be kept safe, it can be used as a weapon just by combining it with other reagents and spreading it!”
“You have a great eye. Usually other wizards don’t understand even if I tell them. Indeed, he is an expert guaranteed by the princess.”
Chris seemed quite amused, probably because there was no one to talk about in this field.
And it was the same with Bellaluna.
‘You must be very excited.’
It was fortunate for Ludgar that Chris wasn’t too suspicious of Bella Luna.
It wasn’t that I wanted them to be so close.
“It’s been a while since I met a person with whom I can communicate well, or an elf. It’s really fortunate. Ms. Bellaluna, if I get a chance later, may I contact you personally?”
“Yes yes? do you mean that? It doesn’t matter to me, but I wonder if Chris will be uncomfortable… ….”
“I don’t care.”
Bellaluna’s long ears pricked up and moved.
No matter how you look at it, it was clear that the reaction was good.
“You two seem to be on good terms. It’s fortunate that we’re on good terms, but please know that it’s time to focus on the mission.”
In the end, when Rudger pointed it out, Chris cleared his throat and turned his head.
Bellaluna also shyly nodded.
It seemed that both of them understood something, so they would go over it for now, but Ludger couldn’t completely erase the awkwardness that clung to his body.
‘A strange synergy occurred in an unexpected place.’
Rudger decided to think that it was because he had the same interests as a person in the same industry.
The three walked through the underground aqueduct again.
Thanks to checking the map in advance, I didn’t get lost.
“This is the entrance.”
A rusty door perched on one side of an underground aqueduct.
It was a passage to enter an underground facility that had existed for a long time.
“The moment you go inside, you should be more nervous. It will be different from here.”
The three encountered several more chimeras on their way here.
However, in front of Ludger and Chris, the Chimera collapsed powerlessly without being able to do anything.
I couldn’t be careless though.
From the underground facility, it was no different from their real courtyard.
Right now, it’s just a chimera, but no one knows what lurks deeper inside.
However, they couldn’t back down, so the three of them headed straight for the iron gate.
When I opened the door, what I saw was a black tunnel that opened underground.
A rusty ladder leading down was attached to one wall of the beast’s jaw-like tunnel.
“Looking at the condition of the ladder, it appears to be a passage not used by the Liberation Army.”
“It doesn’t mean they know everything about this place. Let’s go.”
The three of them went straight down through the floating magic.
Bellaluna didn’t know how to use magic, so Chris hugged her.
That’s also the posture that people often say hugging a princess.
“Wasn’t it heavy?”
“Not at all. Rather, you are as light as a leaf.”
“….”
As if they were filming a romance, Ludger gazed at the two with a colder gaze.
‘Those two weren’t originally like that.’
Wherever they went, people who had been called insane met each other and became a knight on a white horse and a heroine of misfortune.
Rudger, who usually doesn’t show emotional agitation, was furious at the moment.
If I had known it would turn out like this, I’d rather not bring it.
Rudger regretted it in his heart, but he did not neglect to look around.
‘There’s no such thing as a surprise attack.’
Fortunately, there were no signs of being felt around.
With my mind at ease, I was able to take a closer look at my surroundings with a slightly wider field of view.
‘At this point, it should be closer to an underground ruin than an underground facility.’
Even though it must have been hundreds of years since it was built, the fact that it has not collapsed and exists intact proves it.
It was just astonishing that something like this existed under the capital.
Besides, it was brighter than the underground aqueduct even though it shouldn’t have been exposed to light.
It wasn’t so much that I couldn’t distinguish objects because of the soft fluorescent light that circulated inside.
‘It was said that only a few people knew about it in the imperial family, and that it was left untouched.’
How did the Liberation Army come to know about this place?
The preparations were too thorough to have found it by accident while wandering around looking for a place to hide.
It was clear that he knew everything from the beginning and intended to use this place.
And it was the Black Dawn that Rudger presumed had informed him.
‘Is it Nikolai’s work? But I don’t think his intelligence will be this great.’
Above all, the dead world capital that exists in this underground facility, but what Hans said before leaving was also caught.
-older brother. I have one more thing to say.
-what?
– My brother’s teacher.
-okay. Master, how are you?
-At first, he just lay quietly saying he was bored, but he gave me some meaningful advice.
– Meaningful advice?
– He told me to look underground. Hearing that, I thought of looking down.
look downstairs
Grander, the absolute leader of the 8th hierarchy, would not have said such a thing without much thought.
She must have caught something lurking underground with her senses.
However, it did not attract much attention, so he did not move himself.
‘I’ll have to check to see if it’s because it didn’t attract attention or if it hasn’t entered that stage yet.’
If Master had said that much, I had to be on top of my guard no matter what.
‘The warning that Master gave and something the Liberation Army are plotting must be the same or at least related.’
This part would be known only after hearing the news from Hans.
Rudger, who was about to think so, clicked his tongue at the noise coming from the communicator.
“I have some bad news for you.”
“what?”
“Communication is down. It seems that the use of the communicator is impossible here.”
Originally, Ludger and Chris were supposed to send communications after checking the World Tree.
Just because I was in the minority didn’t mean I didn’t communicate with other groups.
However, even that is not possible if communication is not possible.
Chris frowned at the situation that was virtually isolated in enemy lines.
“Then are you going back?”
“I can’t go back since I came here anyway.”
“This is a place without a map, do you know the way?”
When Chris asked that question, Rudger raised his magic instead of answering.
Touuuu—!!!
The waves of sound spread widely as if drawing concentric circles around Ludger.
It stretched like a web, bouncing and crashing across the passageways of the underground facility.
Through the information from the returned wavelength, Rudger drew several coordinates in his head.
Naturally, a map with a radius of about 200m centered on him was drawn.
Rudgar didn’t stop there and fired off several more sound waves.
Ping-! Ping-!
It was on a low frequency, so Chris could hear it too.
He immediately realized what Rudger was up to.
“Is it sound magic derived from wind? I guess it analyzes the surrounding structure by returning sound waves.”
“Did you know?”
“In my family, I met a lot of people from the military. I’ve heard a lot about it each time. Like a tool to locate enemies via sonar. However, I heard that it is still in the research stage because it is not practical, but I thought it would be used as magic.”
“If you know, there is no need to explain.”
Rudger said so and moved on.
Chris tutted and clicked his tongue at the act of not even trying to explain in detail.
I was curious, but I didn’t ask how he was using such magic.
It was because I knew very well why Rudger had risen to the position of Director of Planning.
It should come as no surprise that the person who deciphered the ancient Larsile language and created magic suppressants is now using sound magic as a detector.
At least, this seemed possible in common sense.
The three of them, who followed Rudger, eventually stopped.
Because I finally found what I was aiming for.
“The root of the world tree. There really was.”
Chris muttered in surprise.
The roots of the giant world tree protruding through one wall of the facility, which should now be called a ruin, stood out.
Even though the light didn’t come in well, it was blurry, but the figure came in at a glance.
It changed to ivory color, but its hugeness was obvious to anyone who saw it.
Bellaluna also made her eyes shine.
It was the moment Chris and Bellaluna were about to reach the root of the World Tree.
Rudger reached out and restrained the two of them.
“Why?”
Chris asked in a low voice that only Rudger could hear.
He wanted to check that right away, but his voice couldn’t help but contain dissatisfaction.
But the reason I didn’t argue too much was because I knew that Rudger couldn’t restrain himself for no reason.
Instead of answering, Rudger pointed to one side of the root of the world tree with a chin gesture.
Indeed, as Chris expected, there was something near the root.
vaguely in human form.
“What is that?”
