Chapter 166

Chapter 166

SCREEECH—!

A large transport vehicle came to a stop with a terrible noise.

The people riding in the transport vehicle got out and grumbled.

“Fuck! Again?”

“Damn it! What’s the point of riding in a car? It breaks down before we even get far.”

When the large transport vehicle stopped because of a breakdown, the other vehicles also came to a halt one after another.

At that moment, a squat middle-aged man got out of the vehicle that had been following right behind it.

“What is it? It stopped again?”

“Yes! It seems the gear has corroded.”

“Fuck! This damn sand. It breaks things even after magical treatment. How many times has this been now?”

The squat middle-aged man spat on the ground and cursed. In a way, he looked almost comical.

His height barely reached an adult man’s chest, yet his shoulders were much wider than an adult man’s, making him resemble a gorilla.

Even so, people did not laugh because he was not an ordinary person, but a dwarf.

The squat middle-aged man’s true identity was a dwarf, a race said to be hard to find even in North District, where nonhuman races gathered.

At that moment, Lee Ji-ryeong appeared through the crowd.

He spoke to the dwarf.

“Did another vehicle break down?”

“Yeah. The gear’s completely gone, so I think we’ll have to replace it.”

“How long?”

“It’ll be hard to finish today.”

“It cannot be helped. We will rest here today, so repair the broken vehicle in the meantime.”

“Damn it! I have to work alone while everyone else rests?”

“If someone heard you, they would think you were working alone, Jeloei. If you mobilize the whole base team, two hours should be enough, should it not? We will leave enough food and liquor for the base team, so work hard.”

“Tch! Fine.”

Jeloei answered while taking a tool out of his work apron.

It was clearly a tool too large to come out of the apron pocket. At the sight of a large tool appearing while ignoring the laws of physics, the Awakened participating as mercenaries widened their eyes.

“What? How did that come out of the apron......?”

“Could subspace be enchanted into that apron?”

Just as they guessed, Jeloei’s work apron was enchanted with subspace that could store tools.

Thanks to that, he could put every tool needed for work into the apron and carry them around.

Lee Ji-ryeong gave orders to the Pegasus Raid Team.

“We will rest here today. Set up guards and prepare the meal.”

“Yes!”

The Pegasus Raid Team answered and moved in perfect order.

The Awakened in charge of guarding took their positions, and food prepared in advance was brought out from the transport vehicles.

The food prepared by the Pegasus Raid Team was preserved food that did not need to be cooked. It had been perfectly prepared so that it could be eaten just by opening the lid, like a packed lunch.

Thanks to that, people were able to sit comfortably and eat.

Zeon’s group also gathered in front of the buggy and ate.

Levin and Mandy talked while eating their packed lunches.

“This is pretty tasty. Dungeon raid teams get to eat something this good every time.”

“It’s only because it’s a raid team on the level of Pegasus that they can prepare this much. Small raid teams can’t even dream of it. Most of them eat tasteless canned food.”

“Cans?”

“That is the simplest way to store food.”

“Then do the Pathfinder teams operated by Neo Seoul also eat canned food?”

“Of course. That is why, once they return from the desert, they do not even want to see the shadow of a can for a while.”

“That makes sense.”

Levin nodded.

For Levin, who was participating in a raid team for the first time, even such minor information was precious.

At that moment, Briel suddenly asked Zeon,

“But is it all right for this many people to gather together?”

“What do you mean?”

“If a monster like a Sandworm attacks, wouldn’t the damage be huge?”

“The sand grains here are coarse and firm, so it is not terrain Sandworms like.”

“Sandworms care about sand too? No, more importantly, sand has different types? Isn’t it all the same?”

“It differs depending on the terrain. Some places have fine grains, and others are rough. Sandworms like fine-grained sand. It is probably easier for them to burrow through than coarse, rough sand.”

“I see.”

Briel’s eyes shone.

Gaining new knowledge always delighted her.

But suddenly, her expression twisted. Her already unfocused eyes shook wildly.

“Again?”

Briel hurriedly searched inside her clothes and took out a medicine bottle. But her hands were trembling, so she could not open the lid properly.

“Honestly, kid......”

Mandy smiled bitterly and opened the bottle for her instead.

When Mandy handed her the medicine, Briel hurriedly put it into her mouth.

“Haa! Haa!”

Briel collapsed onto the ground and gasped for breath.

“Are you all right?”

Levin took care of Briel with a bitter smile.

“Why on earth do humans make things like drugs? I truly cannot understand the human race itself.”

At that moment, a rough voice cut in.

“Then how about dwarves?”

The owner of the voice was Jeloei.

He had approached with a beer bottle in his hand.

“A dwarf?”

“Call me Jeloei, Supervisor miss.”

“Have you already repaired the vehicle?”

“Hehe! It is not as if this has happened only once or twice. That much is no trouble.”

Jeloei drank his beer and sat down in front of Zeon.

“You’re that famous Sandmancer Zeon, right?”

“Do you have business with me?”

“Rather than business, I just came to see your face. It is my first time seeing a class called Sandmancer. Want a sip?”

Jeloei abruptly held the beer bottle out to Zeon.

Zeon shook his head slightly and answered,

“I do not drink.”

“You do not drink something this good? The flavor is a little lacking compared to something made from real barley, but it is still quite close.”

“You must like liquor a great deal.”

“Hehe! For a race like ours that makes labor our trade, an after-work drink is essential.”

“That may be true.”

“By the way, seeing that you are not surprised after seeing me, I suppose you have seen our race before.”

“I have seen them a few times.”

“Where?”

“It was not around here.”

At Zeon’s vague answer, Jeloei frowned.

“No, is it that difficult to tell me where you saw them?”

“They are not exactly good memories.”

“You do not seem to like our race.”

Jeloei’s face hardened.

He knew there were many people in Neo Seoul who disliked nonhuman races such as dwarves and elves, but this was the first time he had met someone who showed it so openly to his face.

“I have been stabbed in the back by dwarves too many times......”

Zeon shrugged.

His words were true.

The dwarves he had met in the desert had all been selfish, and they had tried in every possible way to strip Zeon of what he had.

Because of those memories, Zeon did not like dwarves very much.

“Ahem! I will apologize in their place. But please understand that this world is extremely harsh. They must have had no choice because they were trying to survive.”

“This is a world where everyone struggles to survive. Not only dwarves......”

Jeloei’s face flushed red after failing to gain even the slightest ground.

“It seems today is not an atmosphere suited for conversation. We will speak again later.”

Jeloei stood without waiting for Zeon’s answer.

For him, it was the same as retreating without gaining anything.

Zeon did not even give Jeloei a glance.

From the beginning, Jeloei was not an object of Zeon’s interest. And as he had said earlier, he did not trust the race called dwarves itself.

That was because, contrary to their hearty-looking appearances, they were narrow-minded and sinister inside.

Briel gave a faint laugh.

“You really must hate them.”

---

“Ugh! Ptooey!”

“Fucking sand.”

The Awakened who opened their eyes in the morning all got up while cursing the sand.

That was because a sand-laden wind had blown during the night and covered their bodies.

If only sand had covered them, they would not have complained, but it had entered their respiratory tracts and tormented them.

Zeon’s group, on the other hand, had none of that.

That was because Zeon had exerted his control and prevented sand from piling up on his companions’ bodies.

Thanks to that, the three were able to greet the morning in perfect comfort.

“I slept well.”

“This is the first time I’ve slept this comfortably in the desert.”

They hurried to prepare to leave.

There was no time to eat breakfast separately.

They had to settle it themselves inside the vehicle with simple meals.

As soon as the four of them hurriedly got into the buggy, the vehicles began to move. The great migration had begun again.

At the head of the vehicle procession rode Lee Ji-ryeong and Jeloei.

Jeloei, who had boarded in Kelda’s place, had his face twisted as if everything displeased him.

Lee Ji-ryeong gave a faint laugh and said,

“It seems the matter you went for did not go well.”

“He is an arrogant bastard.”

“He has the right to be arrogant. He is that strong.”

“That son of a bitch! I was going to ask him to keep sand from getting into the vehicles, but I could not even bring it up. He simply hates our race. Says we have no trustworthiness. Do you think so too?”

“If I thought that, I would not have placed you in our raid team.”

“Fuck! If he weren’t a Sandmancer, I would snap his waist in half.”

“Endure it. We absolutely need him for this clearing.”

“I am holding back because the captain says so.”

“Heh!”

Lee Ji-ryeong smiled.

Jeloei had a childlike side.

That was how honest he was with his emotions, and his inner thoughts were all revealed in his speech. That made him easy to handle.

He also had ability to match.

Lee Ji-ryeong had not entrusted the base team to Jeloei for no reason.

“By the way, did they say the dungeon is about three hundred kilometers from here?”

“That’s right.”

“Is this not the first time we are clearing a dungeon located so far away?”

“That’s right.”

“Ahh! I am nervous. I wonder what kind of creature will be waiting this time. It really feels like we are walking into the jaws of a monster.”

“After clearing so many dungeons, you still get nervous? How unlike a dwarf.”

“What, do you think dwarves know no fear? Well, they say the dwarves back in Kurayan were like that, but I was born and raised here.”

“Then you must know almost nothing about Kurayan.”

“That’s right. My father talks about how our homeland was this and that, but to me, it is another country’s story. My homeland is here.”

“It is the homeland of all of us.”

“Yes! The homeland of all of us. Yet he rejects me just because I am a dwarf.”

Even thinking of it again seemed to anger him, and Jeloei ground his teeth.

“It is certain that he is a Sandmancer, correct?”

“It is certain! I confirmed it with my own eyes.”

“Damn it! What was God thinking, giving such a precious ability to a bastard like that?”

“Were Sandmancers rare even in Kurayan?”

“If such a being had existed, my father would have told me. As far as I know, a Sandmancer never appeared even in Kurayan.”

Lee Ji-ryeong frowned.

‘Every awakened ability that appeared on Earth existed in Kurayan. There are no exceptions to that.’

It was not merely his guess.

It was the conclusion City Hall had reached after long research.

The accepted theory was that awakened abilities that had not existed in Kurayan did not exist on Earth either. But for the first time, someone had appeared who contradicted that accepted theory.

That person was Zeon.

‘Is he a product of coincidence? Or an impurity outside this world’s laws?’

At that moment, a voice broke Lee Ji-ryeong’s thoughts.

“Monster! A monster has appeared up ahead.”

A huge dust cloud was rising from the direction the vehicle procession was heading.