Chapter 306

Chapter 306

Briel’s face was expressionless, just like when Zeon had first met her.

Her face held no emotion whatsoever, enough that Zeon let out a faint sigh.

The one Briel was looking at was the man from Hassim’s mercenaries.

The man who had been horribly broken by Zeon and eventually died.

With his neck bone broken and his tongue hanging long from his mouth, the man’s face still held the terror he had felt before death.

Briel had watched everything, from the scene of Zeon extracting every bit of information he could from the man to killing him.

If she had been an ordinary child, she would have felt fear at the sight of Zeon like that. But Briel was not ordinary, and after enduring countless hardships, she was very used to scenes like this.

Also, as a High Elf, her mind was several times stronger than that of children her age. Because of that, she could remain unshaken even before the tragedy Zeon had caused.

No, she was not unshaken right now.

She was angrier than ever.

The men Zeon had killed were indeed the human hunters who had kidnapped her.

Not only Briel, but countless children had lost their parents to them, been kidnapped, and sold off in every direction.

If anything, Briel’s circumstances had been better.

Aside from being forced to make drugs, she had not suffered physical abuse.

Because she was an alchemist who could manufacture highly pure drugs, they had treated her as relatively valuable.

The other children had not been as lucky as she was.

There had been children sold to mad Mages and turned into test subjects, children sold as gladiator slaves, and many children thrown as food by Tamers trying to tame monsters.

The other children sold that way all continued miserable lives before dying.

She did not know how many children had been captured by Hassim’s mercenaries.

Among them, there had been many elves.

What was laughable was that the man had not recognized Briel even before he died.

That was because there were too many cases like Briel.

To them, Briel was not a special elf, but merely one of countless slaves.

The fact that they had destroyed other people’s lives so horribly and yet could not even remember it made her furious.

As if her anger had not yet faded, Briel’s shoulders were trembling.

At that moment, Gaia carefully poked its face out of the subspace.

It had been watching everything from inside the subspace and came out carefully when Briel’s expression looked unusual.

Squeeee!

If Gaia had not comforted her at that moment, it would have taken Briel a long time to escape her anger.

Briel hugged Gaia tightly and whispered,

“Yeah, I’m okay. Thank you, Gaia! Go back into the subspace quickly before other people see you.”

Squee?

“Yeah! Really. So watch from inside. I don’t want to let you stay in a filthy place like this, not even for a moment.”

Squeeee!

With a regretful expression, Gaia entered Zeon’s subspace again.

For Gaia, a spirit lifeform, the sewer environment was the worst possible place, difficult to endure.

If it had grown to even half of half its mother Moby Dick’s size, that would have been one thing. But right now, it was still at a stage where it needed to come into contact with and absorb only pure energy.

“Hoo!”

Briel took in a deep breath. Then, as if nothing had happened, her face returned to normal.

She asked Zeon,

“What are you going to do now?”

“We keep tracking them.”

“I thought you’d say that.”

Briel clenched her small fist tightly.

Before the man died, he had revealed that the Helbrin Mercenary Corps had made a contract with Eli. However, he did not know why Eli was trying to acquire as many as one hundred slaves.

Everything was still hidden behind a veil.

To uncover Eli’s true purpose, they had no choice but to catch Hassim, the Captain of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.

“Before that......”

Zeon turned his head and looked at the boy standing to one side.

It was Jetoya, who had been chased by the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.

Jetoya was looking at Zeon with a face full of fear.

The men who had annihilated the Red Horn Crocodile Crew in an instant had been killed by Zeon as if he were swatting flies.

It was an overwhelming combat ability Jetoya had never seen in his life.

He had been so shocked that he had not even noticed Gaia briefly emerging from Zeon’s subspace.

“Ah, ah!”

Unable to find anything proper to say, Jetoya kept opening and closing his mouth.

Zeon and Briel were the first outsiders Jetoya had ever come into contact with.

Jetoya had been born and raised here.

To Jetoya, the outside world was an object of longing and fear.

He had always wanted to leave this filthy place and go outside, but his body had been optimized for the dark underground.

Like a real crocodile, he could not survive unless a certain level of humidity was maintained.

He had already tried going outside several times, only to taste terrible pain and return.

That was when he realized it.

He was fated to never escape this place.

It was not only Jetoya.

Most children born here were in a similar situation.

The other children did not even dare think of going outside.

Unless they Awakened and gained a special ability, they were fated to end their lives here.

To such a Jetoya, Zeon, who had come from outside, was an extremely frightening existence.

Even more so than the Helbrin Mercenary Corps that had killed every member of the Red Horn Crocodile Crew.

Zeon asked Jetoya,

“What’s your name?”

“Je......toya.”

“Jetoya?”

“Yes!”

“That’s a good name. I’m Zeon. This one is Briel.”

“Zeon, Briel!”

Jetoya repeated their names blankly.

“As you can see, we came from the surface. We are chasing these people. So I want your help.”

“How?”

“Guide us to where they are.”

“I’ll guide you. But I have a co-condition.”

“A condition? I don’t think you’re in a position to set conditions.”

Zeon looked at Jetoya with an interested expression.

Jetoya was trembling in fear, yet still putting forward a condition. That spirited sight drew Zeon’s interest.

“I-I know. I know I’m not in a position to set conditions.”

“Then why?”

“Because I’m desperate.”

“What are you so desperate about?”

“We need electricity.”

“Electricity?”

“To purify this contaminated underground even a little, we need electricity. So please get us a magic power generator.”

At Jetoya’s unexpected words, Zeon looked blank for a moment.

He had thought Jetoya would ask to be taken outside.

For those who had lived in darkness all their lives like Jetoya, he thought a home on the surface would be more desperately needed than anything else.

Zeon asked again,

“You need a magic power generator?”

“Yes! Even a small one is fine. Please get us a magic power generator. Then I’ll do anything.”

Jetoya went so far as to kneel on the ground.

Zeon frowned.

That was because an old memory had come to mind.

Not long after he had returned to Neo Seoul, the magic power generator he had purchased at the Dokkaebi Market had been stolen.

‘They were Crocodiles too. Was their leader’s name Croker?’

They had all lost their lives at Zeon’s hands.

Back then, they too had said they desperately needed a magic power generator.

At the time, he had not listened closely. But hearing it once more from the mouth of such a young boy made him feel strange.

After organizing his thoughts, Zeon said,

“I’m sorry, but I can’t obtain a magic power generator either. They are no longer supplied to the Dokkaebi Market.”

“No......”

At Zeon’s cold words, Jetoya looked as if he were about to cry.

The sight made Zeon pity him, but he could not give false hope by saying he could do something he could not.

At that moment—

“I can make one.”

Briel cut into the conversation between the two.

Zeon looked at Briel in surprise.

“What?”

“I said I can make one.”

“How? You don’t even know its structure.”

“I do!”

“You don’t mean...... you took apart the one at home, do you?”

“Sorry!”

Briel’s face turned red, and she lowered her head.

When Zeon had not been home, she had secretly taken apart the magic power generator equipped with the Watching Eye.

Because of that, Zeon’s house had temporarily been defenseless.

If an enemy had attacked at that time, Briel would have been dead.

Fortunately, nothing had happened, but even now, whenever she thought of that time, cold sweat ran down her back.

She had perfectly grasped the structure of the magic power generator and then reassembled it.

Fortunately, the magic power generator worked normally.

It was Briel’s secret that Zeon did not know. Well, now Zeon knew too.

“In any case, you can make one?”

“Yeah! I can make one as long as I get the materials.”

“What materials do you need?”

“It’ll cost a bit of money, but I should be able to get them from the Dokkaebi Market.”

“Then that settles it.”

Zeon nodded and looked at Jetoya.

“That’s how it is.”

“You can really make a magic power generator?”

Jetoya looked at Briel with an expression of disbelief.

Briel said firmly,

“I can make one. Though I can’t get the Mana Stones too.”

“I can handle that myself.”

“Looks like you have a way to get Mana Stones. Anyway, my answer is ‘I can.’ In exchange, you’ll have to help us, right?”

“I’ll help. I’ll help with anything.”

“Then guide us to where they are.”

“But......”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to say you can’t do it now.”

“That’s not it. There are just too many of them....... Will you be okay?”

“That’s not something you need to worry about. Even if all of them attack, they’re no match for Zeon. You saw it too, didn’t you? How strong Zeon is.”

“Hmm!”

“If you’re scared, don’t do it. We can find those bastards without you. But then you won’t receive a magic power generator.”

At Briel’s cold words, Jetoya answered in surprise.

“No! I’ll do it. I’ll guide you.”

“We don’t have time. Guide us quickly.”

“Okay!”

Jetoya took the lead.

Zeon and Briel followed behind him and talked.

“What made you think of taking apart the magic power generator?”

“I was curious.”

“You’re really something.”

“I can’t help it. It’s my nature.”

“Did you completely understand the structure?”

“Yeah! There was a protective magic circle to keep anyone from understanding the internal structure, but it was useless in front of me. Hehe!”

Briel grinned.

The magic power generator was the crystallization of Neo Seoul’s magitech engineering.

Because of that, it was also thoroughly protected to prevent the technology from leaking outside.

Each module had a protective magic circle engraved into it, so if anyone opened it carelessly, it would automatically explode.

However, even such protective magic circles were useless before Briel’s outstanding magitech alchemy.

Briel had undone every protective magic circle as if a cicada were shedding its shell, and she had acquired the technology Neo Seoul had accumulated over a hundred years.

Zeon said,

“Never let anyone outside know that you can make a magic power generator. If Neo Seoul learns about this, they will definitely try to eliminate you.”

“Yeah! I’ll never run my mouth about it anywhere else.”

“Good!”

Zeon let out a quiet sigh.

Having a companion who was too outstanding was also a problem.

If others learned that Briel’s abilities were this exceptional, they would surely covet her.

‘Even when I want to stay still, trouble never ends.’

This too seemed to be his karma.

Because he possessed power that was too great, it felt as though the world would not leave him alone.

‘It can’t be helped.’

As Briel had said, he had no choice but to follow where fate led him.

Just like now.

Jetoya was leading him into a passage that grew deeper and darker.