Chapter 309

Chapter 309

“Haha! Fuck.”

Hassim snickered with one hand braced against the wall.

The turban that had been wrapped around his head was long gone, and his deshada had been torn to shreds like rags.

His skin had been scraped by sand and was bleeding.

He was fortunate that it had ended at only this much.

If his escape had been even a little later, his entire body would have been disassembled by sand.

The reason he had managed to escape safely was thanks to the belt he wore.

At the center of the belt, which was engraved with antique patterns, was a round, smooth circular plate like a mirror.

The belt, which had a style completely different from anything on Earth, was an item he had taken from a dungeon.

Mushura’s Mirror.

Although it was clearly a belt, this item, which had the name “Mirror,” made short-distance spatial movement possible.

When he had first learned the performance of this belt, he had been so shocked he could hardly believe it. He had never even heard of an item with a spatial movement option.

Even Hassim had not expected to obtain an item like this.

He had thought that if he could use spatial movement, he would be able to enter and leave any place he wanted with ease.

For example, someplace like Neo Seoul’s secret warehouse.

Even if he secretly carried items out of the secret warehouse, no one would notice.

But it did not take long for him to realize just how absurd that dream was.

Mushura’s Mirror was not an item that performed spatial movement by designating precise coordinates.

The coordinates of its spatial movement were random.

In other words, even if he activated it, not even the wearer knew where he would move.

Furthermore, the movement distance was not very long.

A radius of one kilometer was the maximum movement distance.

With good luck, one could move to open flat ground with no obstacles, but if one misjudged and moved into a wall or midair, one could lose one’s life.

Because of that, Hassim had only used Mushura’s Mirror as a belt.

If he sold such an item to Neo Seoul, he could receive a tremendous price. Items related to spatial movement were extremely rare, and most were discovered broken, making it impossible to uncover their principles properly.

For an intact spatial movement item like this, the seller could name the price.

But Hassim had not sold it.

It was to use it as a life-saving tool when his life hung by a thread like this.

His caution had saved his life.

“Khaaagh!”

Beside Hassim, Akashi was retching.

It was a side effect of spatial movement.

Mushura’s Mirror could spatially move one more person besides the wearer.

When Zeon unfolded Sand Blender, Hassim did not hesitate and grabbed Akashi’s hand.

That was because Akashi was the true core of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.

Even if every other bastard died, as long as he and Akashi remained, they could create another mercenary corps as much as they liked.

‘It would’ve been nice if I could’ve brought Alton too.’

He had lost a valuable asset, but he could not undo it.

Rather than regretting the past, he had to move forward.

Even though he had lost all of his subordinates except Akashi, Hassim remained calm.

‘I still have Etli and Bucksher.’

Etli the dwarf and Bucksher the Lycanthrope were still staying in the slums.

If he could make contact with them, they would surely be able to open up a new way forward.

Hassim said to Akashi,

“Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“We need to meet up with Etli and Bucksher first. After that, we hunt slaves again.”

“Surely not in the slums?”

Akashi’s eyes widened in surprise.

Hassim tilted his head.

“What, is there a problem?”

“If we hunt humans in the slums, our movements will definitely be exposed.”

“Akashi.”

“Yes?”

“Do we have any choice?”

“That’s......”

“We lost everything. We have to start again from the beginning.”

Hassim’s eyes as he looked at Akashi were filled with madness.

He had no intention of giving up like this.

He had locked the slaves they had captured while moving through survivor villages in a separate place.

It had been a precaution against an unforeseen emergency, but it had become a godsend.

His thought was that they could make up the shortage of slaves by hunting in the slums.

“If we have exactly one hundred, we can negotiate with the Spider Queen from an equal position. I can’t give up an opportunity like that.”

“Hmm!”

“Are you afraid?”

“No, Captain.”

“Hehe! Of course you shouldn’t be.”

Hassim lightly patted Akashi’s cheek.

Akashi looked at Hassim with his lips pressed tight.

In his heart, he wanted to run back to the desert right away.

That was how frightening and unpleasant it was to be in Neo Seoul.

‘Oppose the Sandmancer?’

The moment he recalled the man who had ground the Helbrin Mercenary Corps into sand in an instant, goosebumps ran down his spine.

A rumor had been spreading through the desert for some time.

It was a rumor about the Sandmancer.

It said there existed a Sandmancer who used the desert’s sand as a weapon.

When he had first heard that rumor, he had dismissed it as nonsense.

That was how absurd it had sounded.

But the rumor gradually became more concrete, spreading quickly from person to person.

The decisive reason he came to believe the rumor was the appearance of Steel Fortress.

Urtian, who had been a Scavenger like them, had become the owner of a rising colony called Steel Fortress, and it was said that the Sandmancer’s help had played a major role.

If the rumor had been false, Urtian would have been the first to deny it. But Urtian had remained silent about it, and because of that, the rumor had become accepted as established fact.

Even then, Akashi had not paid much attention to the Sandmancer.

The desert was unbelievably vast, so the chance of encountering him even after a lifetime was almost nonexistent.

Even if the Sandmancer displayed godlike power in the desert, there was no reason to fear him if they never met.

But he had encountered the Sandmancer in the worst possible form.

As an enemy.

No, calling him an enemy was contradictory.

If the Sandmancer was a hunter, they were nothing more than prey.

It was the complete opposite of when they had hunted the desert survivors.

Tremble, tremble.

His shoulders trembled without his realizing it.

His body reacted just from recalling Zeon.

“Damn it!”

At the overwhelming sense of defeat, Akashi chewed hard on his lip. But there was no going back to the desert now.

Whether he lived or died, he had to follow Hassim.

He forced himself to speak boldly.

“Let’s go, Captain!”

“Hehe! Good.”

---

Zeon and Briel returned home.

Briel ran straight into the bathroom.

That was because she wanted to wash away the stench soaked into her entire body as soon as possible.

“I’ll wash first.”

“Go ahead!”

THUD!

The bathroom door closed.

Squee!

At that moment, Gaia opened the subspace and came out.

Zeon stroked Gaia’s head and said,

“You went through a lot staying inside. It was suffocating, wasn’t it?”

Squeeee!

“Yeah! It was probably better to be in there instead. The smell was no joke.”

Zeon opened the windows wide to remove the odor from his body.

In that instant, a strand of wind blew from inside the room and wrapped around Zeon’s body.

“That was you.”

Zeon smiled and looked at Gaia.

The wind that wrapped around Zeon’s body had been stirred by Gaia.

The fresh wind blew the foul smell soaked into Zeon’s body out of the house.

“Thank you!”

Squeeee!

As if saying it was nothing, Gaia circled Zeon and wagged its tail.

It liked playing with Briel, but the person Gaia liked the most was still Zeon, to whom its soul was connected.

Gaia played by lightly bumping its body against Zeon.

Thanks to Gaia, his unpleasant mood improved a little.

The reality of the sewers he had confirmed by following Jetoya was worse than he had imagined.

It was so awful that life in the desert, exposed directly to the threat of monsters, seemed better.

Because they had lived so long in filthy places without seeing sunlight, the people there were losing their senses or undergoing repeated mutations.

Jetoya was one of the better ones.

Some people’s skin had changed like real crocodiles, and others had even developed gills.

Even Zeon did not know where mutation would end.

Far more people lived in the underground sewers than Zeon had expected.

If he had not seen them, he would not have cared. But now that he had put them in his eyes, they stayed on his mind.

“A magic power generator.”

Zeon’s gaze turned to the magic power generator equipped with the Watching Eye.

It was the object Croker, who had led the Scavengers in the underground sewers, had wanted so desperately.

Thanks to this generator, Zeon and Briel could use electricity freely without worrying about power.

No one living in the slums could use electricity as freely as Zeon.

Even if they had a small magic power generator, they could not use it without Mana Stones.

“I can’t provide Mana Stones too.”

Obtaining Mana Stones was their responsibility.

Zeon could not help them that far.

Survival was a gift for those who made an effort.

If the sewer residents wanted to live like humans, they too had to make that much effort.

Zeon sat on the sofa and thought about what he had to do from now on.

By the time his thoughts had settled somewhat, Briel came out to the living room.

“Haa! Now I feel alive.”

There was still a lot of moisture left in her hair.

Gaia moved the wind for Briel.

The gently blowing wind softly caressed Briel’s hair and completely carried away the moisture.

“Thank you, Gaia.”

Squee!

Briel kissed Gaia on the cheek and smiled.

This time, Gaia swam through the air, wrapping around Briel’s body.

Briel spread both arms wide and enjoyed Gaia’s smooth skin with her whole body.

“Hehe!”

A moment later, Briel sat on the sofa with a satisfied smile.

Zeon asked Briel,

“What do you need to make a magic power generator?”

“For now, I think I can get most of the materials from the Dokkaebi Market.”

“Most?”

“That means there’s something you can’t get?”

“I need a special metal that only comes from dungeons. In the process of converting the magic power of Mana Stones into electricity, high heat occurs, and ordinary metal can’t endure that high heat. I have to engrave a mana circuit diagram into the metal and disperse the heat......”

“So you need dungeon-made metal, right? One resistant to high heat......”

“Yeah!”

“And it needs good conductivity if you’re going to engrave a mana circuit diagram into it?”

“Right! Metals like that almost never circulate on the market. City Hall takes them as soon as they’re found.”

Briel looked troubled.

If Mandy were at City Hall, they might have asked her somehow, but right now she was outside developing the new Mana Stone Mine.

Zeon stroked his chin briefly with his hand and muttered,

“Dungeon-made metal with good mana conductivity......”

“It’ll be hard to get right away.”

“No, I have some.”

“Where would something like that be?”

“In my subspace....... Wait a moment......”

Zeon examined the items inside his subspace.

A short while later, a black iron lump was in his hand.

“What is that?”

“Take it. It was once an item that became a dungeon’s core. Right now, it’s lost all its mana and become ordinary, though.”

“Really? This was a core?”

Briel was startled and took the iron lump-like object.

This was the second time she had seen a dungeon’s core in an intact state.

The first had been the Watching Eye installed in the magic power generator at Zeon’s house.

Although all its mana had been lost and it could no longer perform its function, if it had been enough to become a dungeon’s core, it was surely an extraordinary object.

Briel knocked on the metal, injected mana into it, and tested it for quite some time.

Zeon waited until all her actions ended, then asked,

“Will that work?”

“Yeah! I think it will. I’m going to be incredibly busy from now on, so don’t interrupt me.”

Seeing Briel’s face full of motivation, Zeon stood.

“Good! I think I’ll be busy too, so I probably won’t be able to come back for a while.”

“Huh? Why will you be busy?”

“I started a hunt, so I have to see it through.”

Just because Hassim had escaped from the underground sewers did not mean he had completely slipped out of Zeon’s grasp.