Ch.132Magicant

# 132. Magikand

[You have cleared the level.]

[You have made relatively peaceful contact with a nomadic group known for their exclusive and rough tendencies, and successfully made contact with the first fragment of Edenic.]

[Evaluation in progress.]

‘…Huh. Now that it’s happened, it feels really strange.’

Until now, when we cleared levels, no one else was around. But this time, it was as if time had stopped for everything except us. Seeing Rahan frozen in the exact same position right next to me gave me a feeling that was… something else.

I stepped out of the tent just to check, and found that the other nomads were also frozen just like Rahan.

“Captain!”

“Oppa!”

“Sunghyun!”

From a distance, my party members came running frantically. Since I saw the clear message, they must have seen it too. The message appeared after I made contact with the nomads, so they were probably rushing over worried that something bad might have happened to me…

“Sunghyun! The Edenic fragment!”

…or not?

“It turned out like this the moment I saw it, so I didn’t have time to do anything.”

“Captain! You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

“Grrrr!”

“Kyaaa!”

Seyeon is the best!

I picked Seyeon up and showered her face with kisses. Only then did Subin awkwardly check if I was okay, but it was too late!

“Hmm, I wonder what kind of reward we’ll get.”

“Well, didn’t we resolve this peacefully enough?”

“The word ‘relatively’ is there, so it probably wasn’t the optimal solution the system wanted.”

“Really? Then what should we have done? Did we miss something?”

“Come on, it’s about time we didn’t get an S-rank for once.”

The party members, now relaxed, chatted as usual. While stroking the embarrassed and blushing Seyeon’s head, I thought about the Edenic fragment and began simulating the Iseratia raid.

[Grade – A]

“Ah.”

“Darn it.”

“Tch, we really didn’t get an S…”

And for the first time, we received a grade that wasn’t S. I had expected it, but it was still a bit disappointing. I thought we had resolved things well through a peaceful route.

“Sunghyun. Weapon, skill, or treasure. Which will you choose?”

“Let’s decide by vote. Weapon is 1, skill is 2, treasure is 3. Think about it for a bit, then on the count of three, we all show our choice at the same time. No abstaining. Ah, Danya, you need to vote too.”

“Nya, nyaang?”

[Me too?]

“Yes. How can the protagonist of this floor not participate? Please return to your original form for a moment. You can’t show 1, 2, or 3 with cat paws.”

“…Nyah!”

[…Okay!]

The seven—no, eight of us started to consider our options. Even Danya, who had no gaming knowledge, seemed to have grasped something from experiencing this floor. Knowing that we might fight demons on the next floor, everyone was hesitant to make a hasty decision.

But we couldn’t deliberate forever.

“3, 2, 1, vote!”

1: 4 votes. 2: 2 votes. 3: 2 votes.

Four out of eight chose a weapon, and for the first time, I was going to select something other than “Someone’s Memory” as a floor clear reward.

[You have selected Someone’s Weapon.]

**

“Wasn’t it supposed to be random?”

“Ah.”

When I opened my eyes after closing them, I found myself in a reward room different from “Someone’s Memory.” The difference was that instead of floating alphabets, there were faint orbs of light.

I briefly entertained the happy thought that these might be weapons we used before being dragged into the tower, but there were only five orbs of light.

“I’m pretty good at drawing lots, you know.”

No one heard me.

“Then I’m actually terrible at drawing lots. I have the worst luck. You know.”

This time everyone heard me. Even Danya.

Their firm determination to avoid being the one to choose was evident.

They were probably all thinking something like this:

If I get lucky and draw something good but it’s not my weapon, they’ll congratulate me, but they’ll also be envious and disappointed. I was the one who took the risk!

But if I’m unlucky and draw something bad? Then I took the risk for nothing, and I’ll feel guilty and awkward!

“Alright, alright. Then I’ll have to pick.”

As I stepped forward, my party members let out audible sighs of relief. Then they all cheered for me with one heart and mind.

“Make sure you pick a good one!”

“You can do it, oppa!”

“Captain…!”

Seeing them so perfectly in sync made me feel a little annoyed. So without hesitation, I chose the pale golden orb of light in the center.

[You have acquired Someone’s Weapon ‘Lumenie’.]

At that moment, with the message, the other orbs of light disappeared… and in my hand was a longsword that seemed to hold light within it.

The moment I saw this sword, which could only be described as a work of art, its owner was practically decided.

[Lumenie]

Classification: One-handed/Longsword

Main Attribute: Light

Rarity: A

Grade: 4+

Unique Skills: [Light, Be!], [Unextinguishable Light]

“Seyeon.”

“Y-yes!”

“I found this on the way.”

Seyeon hugged the sword and smiled brightly, while the others clapped with envy.

“Nice pick! From now on, the party leader should do all the picking!”

“But what if Yehyun unni’s item never shows up?”

“That can’t happen~”

As the party members laughed, the reward room began to collapse.

‘Are we going back to where we were? Or will we skip the travel and appear near Magikand? Or maybe… directly inside Magikand?’

I could see my laughing party members each gripping their weapons, preparing for whatever might come.

After what felt like about 10 seconds.

What awaited us after completely leaving the reward room was…

[Bring the fragment of Edenic to the church in Magikand.]

Beyond the message was the sight of Magikand, engulfed in flames.

**

Magikand.

Literally meaning “Land of Magic,” it had long been a city where many wizards gathered and magic flourished.

In a fantasy world where magic and wizards thrived, the “Magic Tower” was an essential presence. Merchants selling all kinds of magic-related consumables and equipment gathered, naturally expanding the city’s size.

As the city grew, more wizards were drawn to it, creating a virtuous cycle. Eventually, Magikand, though nominally ruled by a lord, effectively came under the control of the Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower.

The Lord.

And the Church.

Thus, the three powers were divided into one strong, one medium, and one weak. Naturally, the lord subtly joined hands with the church to maintain some balance of power.

But even a single drop of water can cause a river to overflow.

The lord’s third son had talent for magic and was personally interested in it, so he visited the Magic Tower as a formality. The leaders of the Magic Tower, seeing his exceptional talent, wanted to interfere with the succession plan.

The lord, who didn’t want the Magic Tower’s influence to grow any further and had secretly joined hands with the church to overturn the power structure, and the Magic Tower, which wanted to remove the troublesome lord.

The Magic Tower tried to control the young, magic-enthusiastic third son of the lord through black magic. But the third son’s talent was beyond imagination, and the black magic exceeded the planned level, summoning a demon.

As a result.

The enraged lord and the moderate faction of the Magic Tower trying to clean up the mess, the hardline faction of the Magic Tower seeing an opportunity to overthrow everything, the church that had planned to crush the Magic Tower with the lord but now feigned neutrality while watching for an opportunity as the Magikand branch was too weak to handle such a powerful demon, the panicking residents of Magikand hiding and fleeing in chaos, and the back-alley dwellers and cruel merchants who seized the opportunity to run wild…

That was the summary of Magikand’s story. And the situation we were witnessing now… considering the demon’s appearance was earlier than expected, it seemed to be at the climax.

“I thought we moved as quickly as possible despite the delay for skill verification… but were we too late?”

“No. If it were all over, the city would be nothing but ashes.”

Thanks for the travel skip.

But if they were going to bring us here anyway, it would have been better if they’d done it a bit earlier.

Complaining was pointless. I surveyed the surroundings.

My party members were already prepared for battle, and beside Rahan stood seven members of the nomadic group, also waiting.

“Aren’t you going in?”

“…The estimated risk is too high. If we enter that place now.”

Rahan hesitated with the city right in front of him. That’s how chaotic Magikand looked even from a distance.

‘That means, whatever transport plan they made while moving, they’re either giving up on it now or about to.’

I obviously didn’t know the details of their plan. And unfortunately, we didn’t have time to hear it all. But it would be a shame to ignore eight elite members of the nomadic group, including their leader, and go in by ourselves.

‘If we had been involved in the story from the beginning, it might be different, but to enter Magikand already in flames… we can’t do it with just us. So.’

Recalling Rahan’s character and beliefs, I said:

“Can you transfer command of transporting the Edenic fragment to me?”

“What are you saying!”

“Quiet.”

Rahan silenced his protesting member and stared at me with piercing eyes. Time was of the essence.

“If you’re not going to enter Magikand, hand over the fragment to us. We’ll take it to the church ourselves.”

“Why would you go that far?”

“To defeat the demon. And to save Magikand. Do I need any other reason?”

After looking at me for a while, Rahan glanced at Danya behind me and then turned around.

“From now on, the eight members of the nomadic group, including myself, will follow the commands of adventurer Sunghyun.”

“Captain!”

“Put aside pride in an emergency situation. And don’t worry. Who do you think I am?”

With just a few words, Rahan quelled his member’s discontent and nodded at me.

‘I don’t think he was this cooperative in the game, is it thanks to Danya? He’s really a likable character.’

I nodded back in gratitude and quickly began explaining the plan.

10 minutes before entering Magikand.