Ch.121Chapter 121: A Feared Outcome

Balt’s recovery wasn’t as quick as expected.

‘Hmm… I should never use mana so recklessly again. Without reaching a higher level of mastery, it’s actually harmful.’

Three days had passed and the spirit Noise had returned, but Balt’s body still hadn’t recovered.

‘Ah, Noise, you’re back. Are you alright?’

‘I’m… fine… master… It was… fun… visiting… homeland… after so long…’

Since it had been a while since they’d spoken, Balt asked various questions in his mind.

‘Really? What did you do that was so fun?’

‘Just… stayed… still… like a rock… with other spirits…’

Not quite understanding an earth spirit’s concept of fun, Balt just laughed helplessly.

‘I don’t quite understand a spirit’s standard of entertainment. But if you enjoyed it, that’s good.’

Usually, their conversation would have ended there, but today Noise seemed to want to talk more.

‘Master… if you… use mana… so often… Noise… will return… to mana…’

This was something Balt hadn’t known. It seemed he had really overdone it.

Meteor was a powerful spell, but for various reasons, it seemed right to seal it away for the time being.

‘I understand. I’ll be careful and won’t use that much mana until my abilities improve.’

‘Good… my worry… lessened… And… I have… bad news…’

The mention of bad news concerned Balt. When the taciturn and quiet Noise mentioned bad news, it usually meant something truly serious.

‘What is it? If you consider it bad news, it must be quite serious.’

‘…It is… quite bad news.’

Noise rarely built suspense like this, so something must really be wrong.

‘Tell me. No matter how bad it is, I should know. We’re friends, after all.’

Balt and Noise were connected by contract. This spirit contract was formed with the soul, different from Lilith’s soul contract.

Lilith was a being of the middle realm, possessing both body and soul.

Therefore, even with a soul contract, they could only gauge each other’s souls and thoughts, not completely know each other’s inner feelings.

But spirits were different.

Spirits were beings made entirely of mana—they were souls themselves, and they were power itself.

Thus, contracting with a spirit meant complete magical alignment between the spirit and its owner. This meant even small changes could be noticed immediately.

Balt immediately sensed Noise’s happiness at being called a friend.

At times like this, spirits were undeniably adorable.

If you simply treated them sincerely and with dedication, spirits would bestow even more upon their users.

‘Spirit King… The Spirit King wants… to see Balt…’

‘What…? Spirit King?’

‘Yes… The Earth Spirit King… Diodron wishes… to see Balt…’

This was the first time Balt had even heard the Earth Spirit King’s name. But was this really bad news? Balt was somewhat puzzled.

Quickly sensing this, Noise clarified his confusion.

‘Spirit realm… humans cannot go… To go… must die or… need special… spell…’

‘Can’t the Spirit King come here instead? You come and go freely, can’t the Spirit King do the same?’

‘Diodron… too powerful… cannot descend to… middle realm… To descend… needs sacrifice…’

‘Sacrifice? What kind of offering?’

‘Items that can be sacrifices for Diodron… artifacts… dragon hearts… divine swords… holy swords… magic swords… and such…’

Hearing that an artifact-level item was needed just for a brief manifestation, Balt let out a hollow laugh.

‘Haha, that’s absurd. All that just for a brief appearance? Then is it impossible to contract with the Spirit King?’

‘That’s different. Those are conditions… for someone who isn’t… the Spirit King’s contractor… to summon him…’

From Noise’s explanation, it seemed that a contractor could summon the Spirit King, but otherwise, a magical item of artifact level was required.

That made sense.

The Spirit King was essentially like a god of the spirit realm. One artifact to summon a god could be considered cheap.

Real gods wouldn’t even respond unless called upon with sacred objects bearing their names.

‘I understand. Let’s discuss this later.’

‘Under…stood.’

After saying this, Noise floated up and settled on Balt’s head.

Lately, Noise had been flying alongside rather than perching on his shoulder or head, but perhaps because they hadn’t seen each other for a while, Noise seemed to prefer Balt’s head now.

While they were resting, Arias came to visit Balt’s room.

Knock knock knock-

“Balt, it’s me, Arias.”

“Hmm, come in.”

Arias entered with arms full of snacks and naturally pulled up a chair beside the bed where Balt was half-reclining.

“How are you feeling? Are you alright? Oh! Noise is back?”

Noise on Balt’s head was impossible to miss for anyone who could see spirits, looking sturdy and prominent.

Though larger than when in gnome form and less cute, if you looked closely at the face, the round black eyes still appeared innocent and adorable.

As soon as Arias spotted Noise, Undine, who had been hovering around Arias, leaped toward Noise.

She seemed happy to see her friend after so long.

Since time flowed differently in the spirit realm, Noise, seeing Undine after a truly long time, was unusually playful and indulged all of Undine’s antics.

“Haha, they look like they’re having fun. My recovery is progressing, but it’s not complete yet. I think I’ll need to rest for 2-3 more days.”

Arias began to nag while peeling some fruit.

“Geez… who told you to use such an enormous spell? Defeating orcs is good and all, but you need to think about your body too, otherwise I worry…”

Realizing she sounded like a nagging wife, Arias suddenly blushed.

“A-Anyway! The Orc Great Plains battle is approaching soon, and you need to be fully recovered by then!”

The decisive battle at Grasein Plains was imminent, expected to occur within 3-4 days.

“By the way, what happened with Zebron and Tuien?”

Out of consideration for Balt’s rest, the commander and other leaders had not shared war information until his recovery. However, Lisa always attended the meetings to provide her opinion, and she would explain everything to Arias and Lilith afterward.

“It’s not good… What we feared has happened.”

“Hmm… Does that mean both kingdoms’ territories have been conquered?”

“No, fortunately not. Princess Greyace annihilated a group of orcs and helped the Kingdom of Tuien.”

Balt was surprised by the news that she had defeated the Orc Lord faster than expected.

‘Impressive. I see. The Meteor Spear? If she struck it from a much higher altitude, it would certainly be sufficient as a decisive weapon against an Orc Lord.’

The Meteor Spear, a technique she created from her insight during her battle with Balt.

As Balt had predicted, Greyace, with the help of many people, had confronted the Orc Lord and pierced its heart with her more refined and perfected Meteor Spear.

“That’s good news. So only Zebron is in trouble?”

But the story from Arias’s lips was somewhat unexpected.

“Even Princess Greyace was exhausted and couldn’t eliminate all the orc forces in the Kingdom of Tuien. Facing Orc Lords consecutively would be difficult even for her.”

That was understandable. It was actually miraculous that Balt, not even at the 8th rank, had defeated two Orc Lords consecutively without taking any damage.

“So… they haven’t been completely eliminated yet?”

Arias nodded.

“Right. The orc army that occupied Zebron’s territory didn’t stay there but joined with the orc forces from Tuien that had been defeated by Greyace at the border.”

The worst-case scenario.

Greyace had planned to defeat the orc armies one by one while they were divided into five groups, knowing that even 30,000 orcs would be too much for any local territory to handle if they united.

But at that time, they didn’t know about the Orc Lords or the presence of mages.

Even Balt was somewhat worried about how powerful a force of 50,000 orcs with two Orc Lords would be.

“The situation doesn’t look good. We’ll be held back.”

“Right, that’s why Princess Greyace is taking measures.”

Princess Greyace had moved to Beltric without finishing off the Orc Lord on Tuien’s side.

The Kingdom of Tuien had complained about being abandoned, but they eventually had to back down, considering that Greyace had helped them despite risking international issues.

“Those crazy bastards. First they threaten war if we enter, and now they’re making a fuss about being abandoned? Central continent humans are amusing.”

“Yeah, I think she plans to combine forces from here, Leberic, and her own troops before breaking through.”

After pondering for a moment, Balt asked Arias:

“When is the supply unit scheduled to pass through here?”

“The day after tomorrow.”

The supply unit had already departed and was scheduled to pass through here on its way to Grasein Plains.

Their complacency had been in thinking that a mere 30,000 orcs in five groups invading Oskar, Zebron, and Tuien kingdoms was like ants biting their legs.

Honestly, without Greyace, this war might have been half-lost before it even began.

Of course, this wasn’t the only supply route, but the psychological burden of having supplies raided by orcs would obviously negatively impact the war effort.

“That means I need to be in perfect condition by the day after tomorrow.”