Episode 43
EPISODE.22
15 days after that.
“Whoa.”
Exhaling a hot breath, Russell opened the canteen.
Click-.
After opening the lid and bringing it to my mouth, I slowly moistened my mouth and thought.
‘I’m going to die from the heat.’
It was not an easy task to traverse the Great Desert alone for the past 15 days.
If he wasn’t a 4th circle wizard.
If only he hadn’t possessed subspace magic called inventory.
If only it hadn’t been stocked up with water and food there.
A crazy thing you can never do.
Nevertheless, Russell did it.
gulp-.
You can feel the water running down your neck and spreading all over your body.
After half-emptying the canteen, Russell lifted it upside down. Immediately after, cold water was poured over his head.
Chew-.
You can feel the half remaining water dampening your hair.
It’s cool right now, but this feeling won’t last long.
It was the heat of the Great Desert where this amount of moisture could be dried up at once.
Besides, the heat of the desert wasn’t the only thing that bothered Russell on the way here.
‘At a certain moment, the guard dogs of the empire also increased dramatically.’
It probably means that the territory of the empire has become that close.
Of course, no battle took place.
Upon discovering them, Russell hid first.
He also had no desire to cause a commotion right now.
‘after-.’
Even as I recalled the events of the past few days, the water that soaked my hair quickly dried.
‘I heard that the robe you get when you become a mage also has a temperature control function.’
Even if it was coveted, I wanted to go up to the 5th circle as soon as possible.
Unlike Russell.
There is one guy who is happy to be surrounded by the heat of the desert like a fish in water.
no, there was one
-Kyareuk kyareuk.
It was Pepper, a spirit that spoke through the psyche.
In order to find imperial guard dogs and ruins more quickly, he brought out a pepper that could look around from the sky.
‘I never thought he’d be so happy about it.’
Russell smiled at the sight of the guy circling over the desert and sending out mental waves.
After that, I asked through mental connection in the same way.
Is there anything you can’t see?
Because now is the time to see the ruins. Besides, if you could see the ruins from a distance, you had to reverse summon Pepper again.
The magical power he must have summoned was full and overflowing, but-.
‘Because he’s already seen Pepper once.’
If he saw Pepper, even from afar, that was a problem.
It was then.
– Kyareuk.
The one who was orbiting the sky sent a signal.
Looking up, Pepper’s gaze was fixed in one direction.
Where Russell was off to the left by about 15 degrees from the distance he was walking in a straight line.
A place where the direction is in line with expectations.
A psychotic wave followed.
-Keruk karuk keruk.
Pepper twice described what he had seen with all his heart and soul.
‘Most of the destroyed ruins were buried in sand. All that was revealed on the outside was…’
A few entrances and spires protruding grotesquely twisted.
The distance is approximately 5 km.
‘found.’
At the same time as the explanation ended, Russell’s eyes vomited a crimson glow.
.
.
‘This must be bigger than I thought?’
The size of the ruins confirmed after using stealth magic and killing the presence was much larger than Russell had thought.
It was like that even at the entrance.
Roughly speaking, it is only a few meters wide. A broken and curved corridor stretched inward.
Besides that, there were traces of things that seemed to be the entrance.
But somehow, the most central entrance – that is, the main gate – seemed right here.
‘The number of entrances is not one or two. Besides, if the size of the front door is this big…’
The inside buried in the sand must be much bigger than I initially expected.
If the cultist was hiding somewhere in here, it was obvious what to do.
‘Either draw it out or find it.’
The former case is simple.
Use magic to destroy the entire ruin.
‘Because if you don’t want to die, you’ll come out.’
The problem was when the guy couldn’t come out and died.
First of all, the mission was to capture as much as possible.
‘I guess I have to go in after all.’
The contemplation was short and the decision was quick.
After making his decision, Russell entered the ruins without hesitation.
It fell into a broken and curved corridor.
The first thing I saw was a pile of sand.
It maintained the shape of the passage, but it could not stop the sand that came in through the collapsed and smashed places here and there.
‘It’s deep.’
Well, I confirmed that the size of the ruins is not normal from the outside.
It should come as no surprise that the corridor is deep. I wanted to use light magic, but unfortunately it was impossible.
Because, like Pepper, there is a fear of provoking him.
There were passages branching off in all directions, but for now, Russell continued straight ahead.
It was because he wanted to go into the deepest part and grasp the overall scale of the corridor.
Even while walking, old skeletons often appeared.
As it is a ruin that has been neglected for a long time, it must have been covered in sand and exposed several times.
Perhaps some of those who were shipwrecked in the process lost their lives while trying to rest here.
This number of white bones only in a straight passage.
If you add things scattered all over the place, the number seemed quite large.
‘It’s a perfect place for cultists to hide.’
How long did he get used to the darkness and walked along the inside of the corridor?
The darkness faded a little, and I faintly felt the presence of light.
The wind flow has also changed a bit.
‘The wind flows in this way-.’
There’s a lot of space in front of it.
There is also a hole for the wind to escape.
that buck
Unsurprisingly, as soon as he came out of the corridor, a wide cavity surrounded Russell.
There was a small hole in the ceiling, but apparently it was connected to the spire.
‘I think it’s the spire I saw from the outside?’
The light was coming in right there. It wasn’t that bright, but dark adaptation was already over.
There was little light, but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out what was inside.
‘Temple…?’
or something similar to it.
As if to prove that fact, I saw a large stone slab right in the center of the falling light.
It was a stone tablet with a picture on it.
It is unknown what they are fighting because they are cut in half, but they are fighting something unknown.
It’s a huge dragon and -.
‘-Warrior?’
It was someone who was presumed to be a hero.
A record of a dragon and a hero uniting to defeat evil.
Or, the story is the kind you hear all over the continent.
Of course, if you dig into the source, most of them aren’t real dragons, but dragon knights who have tamed higher dragons.
The problem is the appearance of the dragon and the hero.
The dragon’s appearance was something Russell had never seen before.
The overall appearance matched a normal dragon, but…
‘The number of horns is much more.’
The commonly known number of dragon horns is 1-2. On the other hand, the dragon in front of his eyes…
There was something more disturbing to Russell than the existence of such a dragon. It was the warrior’s hair.
Black hair, uncommon on the continent.
I had never heard of a black-haired warrior slaying a dragon with many horns and evil.
furthermore.
‘My late mother has black hair and I have black hair too.’
A warrior fighting alongside a dragon.
And the dragon-related powers passed on to him.
Should we call this a coincidence?
Just as a few questions raised their heads, an uninvited guest unknowingly intervened.
Dalgrak Dalgrak.
The sound of something like the bones of an old beast interlocking irregularly or something made of such things walking could be heard from inside the corridor.
It was the corridor he had just walked through.
“I can’t believe that the guy who’s been tracking me is the guy I’m targeting. I didn’t know this.”
A chattering voice resounded throughout the hall.
‘It must be that he uses mana to amplify and transmit only the sound while hiding his appearance.’
just as expected.
Turning his head, he saw undead coming from outside the corridor.
They were undead made of materials more familiar to the eye than one might think.
‘Those things were abandoned inside the corridor.’
He probably used necromancer to raise them up.
Of course it didn’t matter.
It wasn’t because they were strengthened using proper necromantic techniques, they were made in haste.
His fighting ability is probably less than that of a simple armed soldier.
“how is it?”
That’s why Russell opened his mouth with an expression that didn’t matter at all.
“The target you were aiming for came directly to you, but what about coming out and talking face-to-face?”
Contrary to the cheerful voice, the eyes shining coldly.
Russell was in the process of grasping the flow of magical power.
To find out where he is hiding.
‘It’s quite complicated, but…’
As long as you have enough time, there’s nothing you can’t do.
Whether or not he knew what Russell was aiming for, he snorted.
“To make a provocation like that.”
It wasn’t even a provocation that I thought would work from the start.
“Rather than that, this time I want to ask one from my side.”
“…?”
“What do you believe in and be so proud of?”
Among the many factions of black magic, there is a cultist with necromantic abilities and a 4th circle war mage with multifaceted combat abilities.
In fact, it was obvious who would win if the two wizards fought.
The general logic is 7 to 3. War Mage wins with a probability of 8 to 2.
However, there was one variable in necromancy that could change this balance weight.
Chop, cut.
It was a war of quantity using overwhelming numbers.
and.
“Do you know how many monsters and human corpses are buried in this desert and act so confidently?”
Until it became neutral.
No, even after becoming a neutral region, this Tacle Desert where frequent local wars took place-.
“come. My faithful servants.”
-It was an environment sufficient to become that variable.
Less, less -.
inside the corridor.
No, the sound of a considerable number of undead swarming from outside the ruins resonated nonstop.
**
Crackle -!
Old, worn teeth clashed up and down, crackling menacingly.
Regardless, Russell moved his fingertips.
Knock!
As soon as he kicked off the floor and flew up, the fire rain that formed along his fingertips fell down from the ceiling of the ruins.
Hwaaak!
A fire bolt cast in a bunch.
Dozens of flaming arrows covered the area.
Wedge juice perberbubuck!
The body of the skeleton hit by it was smashed and scattered.
‘I don’t know how many undead have been prepared outside of the ruins…’
As long as this is the inside of the ruins, you won’t be able to bring all the prepared undead inside.
It is a story that there is a limit to say that it is a quantity war.
Besides, no hostages were taken.
In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that it was Russell’s solo stage.
That’s why the cultist who created this situation bit his lip.
He sighed inward as he felt the blood flow into his mouth.
‘Something like a monster.’
His movements are too nimble and agile to be seen as a wizard.
No, does it make sense for a wizard to jump several meters with a single leap in the first place?
I didn’t even use the jump magic!
So it must have been Daria’s disciple.
‘Unfair bastard.’
However, I didn’t mean to let him suffer like that.
Janggi is necromantic, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use other types of black magic.
‘If you are proud of your outstanding physical ability!!’
You just have to block it.
After that, if you use offensive magic to assist the necromancer -.
‘I’ll be able to kill them without wasting time.’
You don’t have to share the credit for killing Daria’s apprentice with ‘them’!
Thinking so, Xavier, the cultist’s man, stretched out his finger.
It’s a curse spell, not a necromantic spell.
It binds the feet,
dulls the senses,
blinds the eyes, and
prevents the body from being free.
Of course, most of the curses bounced off and disappeared, but it didn’t matter.
‘Because his mental power won’t be infinite.’ It was a situation where he had to
avoid the attacks of the undead
in a limited space,
smash the undead, and
even block his own curse.
A little boring tug of war will follow, but in the end he will be the winner.
Olsen was so sure.
At least.
“You were there.”
Until she met eyes with Russell, who was looking straight ahead in the direction he was hiding and spitting out crimson eyes viciously.
dragon-swallowed wizard
