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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Prøks]
[Proofreader - Prøks]
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Chapter 134: He's a Fake Woodcutter
After leaving Shan Kris, I deliberately took a deserted forest path on my way back to Khaoto.
The weather was pleasant.
I walked along the forest path, enjoying the earthy scent, and occasionally sat in meditation by the stream. My troubled thoughts gradually subsided.
Listening to the sounds of birds, water, and wind, I recalled my previous conversation.
I didn't directly mention the demons to Kant.
Somehow, I didn't feel like it. He's a suspicious person. I still have many reservations about revealing my hand to him. It's a matter of needing a strategic approach.
Moreover, Kant seemed quite curious about me.
—Does your incantation magic originate from Samael?
He asked the question as if it were nothing special, but in reality, it wasn't.
The atmosphere, tone, and behavior were all deliberate acts.
Kant had asked a similar question before.
He asked where the origin of my magic was.
At that time, I also answered Samael.
To think he would ask the same question again at this point in time...
Did he find out something in the meantime?
Perhaps Kant was investigating the Samael of the past.
And he might have become suspicious.
I was also curious how much Kant knew, but it wasn't the right time yet. Because I didn't know Kant's purpose.
In any case, the more Kant digs, the more the initiative will shift to me.
No matter how clever he is, he can't possibly find out that there's a mage who reincarnated from Samael 300 years ago, as fresh as a live fish.
—I have a favor to ask. If the Information Guild contacts you in Keplan, please don't give them any information.
—Why?
—They might be approaching you with ill intentions.
—A whistleblower?
—That's right.
—I'll keep that in mind.
—Be careful of the branch manager.
He's a strange one.
I couldn't tell if his words were genuine advice or if he had another motive.
I'll decide after meeting the Keplan branch manager.
The person I really needed to be wary of was Kant himself.
Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that he was in Khaoto.
After walking through the forest all day, reviewing my conversation with Kant and letting my thoughts wander, I suddenly had an amusing thought.
If Fichte and Kant fought verbally, who would win?
***
When I was thirsty, I drank water from the stream, and when I was hungry, I went down to a nearby village for a meal before returning.
On my way back, I visited a lawless zone called Uta, where a blood-red flag hung in the middle of the village.
In the center, it read:
[Fulkhao Brotherhood]
To think they'd use a flag like a band of thieves...
Their naming sense...
Did they change the name of the patrol unit without my permission?
Quite impressive.
In any case, seeing merchants roaming the village and residents leisurely napping, it seemed the patrol unit was doing its job properly.
Around the time the Mt Khaoto range came into view, I deliberately detoured.
Instead of entering Mt Khaoto through the city, I circled around the outskirts towards the cliffs.
In other words, 'secretly infiltrating my own home.'
Since Mt Khaoto was so vast and rugged, it was impossible to guard every spot.
As I stealthily climbed the cliffs and gradually went deeper into the mountain...
Beeeeeeep—
"Whoa, what's that?"
Startled by the sudden noise, I quickly retreated and scanned my surroundings.
There was nothing visibly out of the ordinary.
Only when I opened my circle and expanded my senses did I notice a faint magical barrier shimmering among the thick layer of leaves on the ground.
If I had been even a little late, the noise would have spread throughout the entire mountain.
"Wow."
It seemed they had deployed magical barriers here and there to prepare for outside intrusion.
It acted as a kind of alarm.
'So they weren't just playing around?'
I suddenly remembered Urgon's minions, who used to freely enter and exit Samael as if it were their own backyard.
It was a new feeling.
Samael was changing too.
Focusing wind pressure on the tips of my toes, I dashed across the leaves, smoothly passing through the barrier.
It was similar to the footwork of knights.
I deliberately didn't use levitation magic. The mana fluctuations could have triggered the barrier.
Once I fully entered Mt Khaoto, there were no more magical barriers in sight.
As I was heading towards the summit, I changed direction and moved towards the opposite side.
Besides Red Summit, Mt Khaoto had many other peaks, some of which were virtually untouched by humans.
Even in the past, only a few high-ranking mages in Samael could freely roam Mt Khaoto.
I wandered around like a hermit, and as the evening sun began to set, I stopped on top of a large rock.
It was a spacious rock, large enough to comfortably seat four or five people.
Below, a gorge stretched out, offering quite a scenic view.
"Haa..."
The mountain breeze blowing.
The setting sun pouring down.
It felt like I could even smell the ocean from the vast sea beyond the mountain.
I immediately sat down on the rock and began to meditate.
After taking a deep breath, I rotated my heart's circle in reverse.
Wheeeee—
One, two, three, four.
The pressure on my heart intensified as the rings rotated against their natural flow.
A twisting, squeezing pain.
I opened my eyes wide.
Suppressing a groan, I continued to accelerate the circles.
More, more, more, more.
Gradually, my heart felt like it was burning, and when it reached its saturation point, I stretched out my hand towards the sky.
Darkness erupted from my fingertips like fireworks, momentarily dyeing my vision black.
Dark Explosion.
"..."
The limit I could control.
The results weren't bad, but I wasn't satisfied.
Fighting Parin made me realize something.
This wasn't enough.
Now that I've even encountered a fragment of a demon, there's no guarantee that a greater threat won't appear.
It's not that I've been slacking off in my training, but I need to step it up.
That's why I'm here right now, putting everything else aside.
Yin dimension mana.
I need to reach at least the 5th circle of the Yin.
Of course, it's not easy.
This inevitably involves madness.
In a way, madness might be the driving force behind Yin dimension mana.
The reason I was able to accumulate Yin dimension magic so quickly in my previous life was because of the expedition, a perfect situation to go crazy.
I wasn't called the Crazy Mage for nothing.
Of course, I won't become like my past self.
One fortunate thing is that I now have Samael's blood flowing through me.
I began my training, selecting 5th circle spells and combining them with Dark Lightning and Dark Explosion.
They generally worked well with impact spells, but the combination with fire attribute spells wasn't bad either.
If I reach the 6th circle, I'll be able to achieve even more powerful magic combinations.
The 6th circle is the realm of a true high-ranking mage.
Spells created with six circles are different in their power.
Not only area-of-effect magic capable of taking on a hundred enemies at once, but also anti-personnel magic surpassing knights, and even the famous incantation songs.
One high-ranking mage can change the tide of battle.
In the past, the prestige of a clan was often determined by the number of high-ranking mages above the 6th circle.
What I need to reach the 6th circle right now is simpler than I thought.
I suddenly remembered those guys from the past who boasted while peddling their mystical insights.
They said you need to attain enlightenment to reach the high-ranking level.
I cursed them under my breath when I heard that.
'What a load of nonsense.'
What enlightenment are they even talking about?
The answer is training.
There's no need for abstract nonsense like enlightenment.
The only thing you can achieve by just sitting around and waiting for enlightenment is mental illness.
One thing I respected about Samael was that all the mages trained like their lives depended on it.
You have to train your body to the point where you can engrave six rings.
Ultimately, all that talk about enlightenment comes from desperately training, mentally arming yourself, and transforming your body.
Once you've built up your body, you start meditating.
You just need to keep rotating the circles until your mana reaches its saturation point.
If you're lucky enough to get a few elixirs, you'll ascend more easily than you think.
***
Pitch-black night.
How much time had passed?
I was repeating my training and meditation when I suddenly opened my eyes and looked straight ahead.
It was suddenly difficult to concentrate. I kept hearing rustling noises from somewhere.
Rustle— rustle—
At first, I thought it was the sound of wild animals, but it wasn't.
I manifested a fireball and scattered it widely forward.
Something that looked like a person was swiftly moving through the gorge, scattering lights in the air.
"Someone's out here at this hour?"
No matter how I looked at it, it was shaped like a human.
It was too far away to see what they were doing.
They would stay in one place for a long time, then slowly weave through the trees as if searching for something.
'A woodcutter?'
Seeing them move around so openly, it seemed likely they had permission.
But to come to such a rugged place at this late hour, were they looking for wild ginseng or something?
I sent a stronger light into the air to get a better look at the woodcutter's face.
Suddenly, the woodcutter turned their head and looked in my direction.
"Huh?"
It felt like our eyes met.
With a whooshing sound— something flew towards me at high speed.
At the same time, my body reacted first to a sense of foreboding.
A hidden weapon?
As soon as I deflected the weapon by gathering mana in my hand, fireworks exploded in the air.
Booom—
I immediately accelerated and leaped diagonally upwards, escaping the explosion's range.
My eyes remained fixed on the figure below in the gorge.
"A fake woodcutter. A spy!"
While still in the air, I released wind pressure with my body facing the sky.
A movement to gain momentum.
'Overload, Point Gravity.'
With the accelerating gravity, I twisted my body and plunged straight down towards the gorge.
The distance between me and the fake woodcutter rapidly closed.
As soon as I saw another hidden weapon flying towards me from the front, I leaped once more, using the wind gathered in mid-air as a stepping stone.
I narrowly dodged the weapon, and a huge explosion sounded from behind me as it grazed past.
Booom—
Landing on the ground, I dashed towards the fake woodcutter to see their face, moving several times faster than those knightly footwork techniques.
Only then could I see the fake woodcutter's movements clearly.
Their arm was bent like a bow. It seemed they had been throwing those hidden weapons like javelins.
When the distance between us closed to within ten paces...
The fake woodcutter released a third hidden weapon from their hand.
"...!"
An intense heat washed over me. This one felt different.
Wheeeee—
I opened all the circles in my heart and stretched out my hand forward.
A chilling coldness concentrated at my fingertips.
I couldn't let that thing explode.
It could devastate the gorge.
Fwoosh—
An icy stream shot out from my hand, completely encasing the hidden weapon.
The moment the weapon was enveloped in ice, I simultaneously grabbed the fake woodcutter's face in my hand.
Pressing down hard on their face, I demanded,
"Reveal your identity, fake woodcutter! Are you a spy?"
"...How dare you enter Samael! Ugh!"
The woodcutter, their face crushed in my grip, struggled and grabbed my hand.
I tightened my grip to prevent them from resisting.
It would be troublesome if they released another hidden weapon.
"Ugh! Ugh!"
"Quiet! How dare you infiltrate Samael with hidden weapons?"
At some point, the struggling woodcutter fell silent.
Did they faint?
Suddenly, something felt strange.
Looking closely, I saw wrinkles around their eyes and a gaunt body.
How could they throw those weapons with such force with those skinny arms?
I shifted my gaze to the weapon frozen in ice.
It looked familiar.
"Magic Stone? The weapon was a Magic Stone?"
Only then did I sense the incongruity.
I released my grip on the fake woodcutter's face and looked at them.
"..."
The old woodcutter's eyes were closed, and they were unconscious.
"..."
Before the old geezer could open their eyes, I quickly grabbed their face again.
What should I do with this?
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Prøks]
[Proofreader - Prøks]
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