Chapter 243

Chapter 44. Scheme (5)

‘I’m not like those amateurs who recklessly cast magics without thinking.’

She understood the mutual interactions and hierarchy of mana, and she knew how to strategize accordingly.

Thus, she needed to strike before giving her opponent a chance to respond adequately.

‘The dispelling speed is not too fast, so it’s enough.’

Eril waited patiently for a few more seconds and moved just as the outsider’s spear was about to touch the dome she had created.

Swish! A brilliant white light filled her vision before dissipating.

She had used spatial movement magic to escape from the dome just before the outsider’s attack.

Having successfully extricated herself, Eril sought refuge among the jagged rocks that jutted out irregularly.

Simultaneously, she completed the formation she had prepared at her escape spot, sealing her surrounding mana into her core.

‘Judging by the opponent’s implementation speed, he won’t be able to read the distorted mana waves caused by the movement magic.’

In that case, it should be difficult for the outsider to find her, given that her mana was completely contained.

‘Now, let’s see what he’s got.’

Slowly, mud figures started to rise around the half-destroyed dome.

This was no ordinary mud.

It contained acidic mana.

If one were to attack them, the weapons or the limbs would inevitably corrode.

The mud figures began to rush in, surrounding the outsider.

“Heh heh.”

Now, let’s see how you deal with this.

Eril watched with half-anticipation as the outsider reacted.

And then her expectations were met.

Crackle!

The outsider, standing next to the half-destroyed dome, momentarily released his mana all around him.

Hiss.

The mud figures began evaporating with steam rising from them.

The evaporation caused the figures to crumble.

Eril’s eyes narrowed.

‘To counter it like this.’

Instead of directly eliminating the obstacles, he simply removed the element of moisture.

‘Then this time…’

Eril was about to make her next move when she heard an unexpected sound.

“Hmmph…”

Instinctively, she turned her head to see a white beast, akin to a snowball, crouched between the rocks.

‘That mana… what is that?’

It was a life form with a mana structure she had never seen before.

Curiosity toward the unfamiliar surged, but she had no opportunity to delve into it.

The moment she locked eyes with the creature, she realized something was amiss.

But by then, the space between her and the beast had already begun to distort.

‘Spatial distortion.’

The outsider had used this magic before in front of her.

The formation was indeed spatial distortion.

‘But why over there?’

Typically, spatial manipulation mages targeted spaces close to their bodies for attacks.

Distorting a space so far away wouldn’t harm Eril.

Or so she thought.

She truly hadn’t expected that right after overcoming the spatial distortion magic, a spear would spring forth.

“Ah!”

He had anticipated the breaking of the spatial distortion magic and threw the spear with all his might!

Swish-!

A sound cutting through the air was followed by a searing heat in her abdomen.

Crack.

The sound of something breaking echoed.

Lowering her hardened head, a hole pierced her robe.

And not just the robe—a hole had pierced her abdomen as well.

The spear that penetrated her abdomen embedded itself into the rock behind her.

“Cough!”

Eril, spewing blood, felt her hand start to tremble.

“Ah, ah, aahhh!”

In all the battles she’d fought, she’d never suffered an injury like this.

Before turning against the Demi-humans, knights sacrificed themselves to protect her.

And after turning against the Demi-humans, monsters shielded her with their bodies.

She believed all she needed to do was quietly extract the outsider.

She thought traveling alone would avoid Horfe’s attention.

But that decision led to this injury she never expected.

The excruciating pain that gripped her abdomen and made her insides flare up was enough to paralyze her reasoning.

Healing, defense, counteractions—all faded away, leaving only one desperate thought.

‘Quick, I need to recover…’

Eril pulled a potion from her subspace pouch.

As she began pouring it over her stomach, a shadow loomed over her head.

Thud.

A blunt pain on the back of her head marked the onset of unconsciousness.

*

I had become aware of Eril Jesiar’s presence since the previous afternoon.

Thanks to Horfe mentioning he had seen a water mirror during a battle.

‘Rank 4 magic utilizing the refraction of water and light, along with spatial mana.’

A pair of water mirrors would show each other’s view in the opposite mirror.

And that magic was Eril Jesiar’s specialty.

‘It’s said to be a magic she developed.’

Realizing Eril was here in person, my fighting spirit naturally surged.

Especially given I owed her from last time.

‘She must know more than the monsters.’

I had plenty of reasons to capture Eril.

Therefore, I feigned ignorance of her presence on this stage and continued hunting with Horfe.

In effect, I kept Eril’s attention fixed on Horfe and me.

Meanwhile, I dispatched Rice Cake.

‘Using water mirrors implies she’s nearby.’

Thus, I instructed Rice Cake to find the target by any means.

And today, after a day passed, Rice Cake spotted Eril standing alone atop a river rock and connected my vision.

That was all I expected from Rice Cake’s role.

But lo and behold.

During my engagement, Rice Cake, stationed at the back, linked her vision again.

‘Who would have imagined Eril would appear there?’

I was troubled over the disappearance of the blue dot on the map, yet fortune was overwhelmingly on my side.

Without a second thought, I confirmed Rice Cake’s location and moved to intercept her.

Approaching her as she lost her senses to pain and rendered her unconscious wasn’t difficult at all.

“Oh, my… this is… what a saint.”

Thanks to Rice Cake continuously sharing her vision, I clearly saw it.

Eril, scattering in panic the moment the hole pierced her belly.

‘How sheltered must she have been, forgetting defense and counterattack just because of a single wound?’

At the very least, she should have used spatial movement magic again or deployed defensive magic before any further attacks.

‘I expected more from an elite, but it ended sooner than anticipated.’

If all mages were this vulnerable to injuries, developing strategies against them might not be difficult.

While various thoughts diverged, I knelt down.

Rice Cake immediately approached.

“Woof! Woof woof!”

As I petted the creature, seemingly begging for praise by clinging to my leg, a chuckle escaped my lips, a mixture of disbelief and amusement.

“How did you end up moving exactly to where you were hiding?”

Last time in Santorna, everything seemed to go awry.

I felt like nothing was going right.

But this time, everything flowed smoothly.

As if the Goddess of fortune was smiling upon me.

Could this merely be coincidence?

‘Although I’m not one to believe in gods.’

If the flow was in my favor, I needed to seize this opportunity to achieve as much as possible.

‘I’ve already concluded that killing her is not an option.’

Just as they had to keep me alive to recover my core.

In my current ignorance of what Eril knew, I couldn’t kill her without a thought.

‘The power of the Finelpenia isn’t infinite.’

There might be things I needed to learn from her alive.

Hence, once I had knelt, I fastened restraints on Eril.

I sealed my mana into those restraints.

Now, only I could release them.

‘No matter how skilled a mage appears, without my mana, they can’t disassemble this.’

It was designed specifically to exclude interference from other mages.

A magic tool developed by dwarves and mages collaborating to control mages.

That’s the origin of these restraints.

Even though this was enough of a setback for Eril’s hands, I purchased a Magic Stone from the store for added measure.

‘A high-rank binding magic that can contain mana.’

The blue chains enveloped Eril, absorbing into her.

I also didn’t forget to strip Eril of her robe afterward.

‘She’s adorned with an impressive array.’

Seeing what Eril wore beneath her robe elicited a sincere exclamation.

A thin armor protecting her vital core, adorned with brilliant jewels embedded all over.

They were all Mana Accumulation Tools.

‘Eril’s mana is like a swamp.’

Grade 5 mana containing overlapping elements and depth factors.

Yet, during battle, I observed considerable mana unrelated to hers.

Not only ice but Telekinesis as well—it was not directly Eril’s mana.

So, I suspected she carried Mana Accumulation Tools.

‘I didn’t expect this many, though.’

Eril possessed a staggering total of eleven Mana Accumulation Tools.

I carried merely two, inducing a sense of relative deprivation.

They even had magic cast upon them to minimize their size.

Among them was a red 7-star Mana Accumulation Tool.

“I honestly feel like shouting ‘Eureka’, but…”

I meant it. The red Mana Accumulation Tool was something I had never even seen before.

Amid my incredulity, I swiftly collected the spoils.

With this, even if Eril awoke, she wouldn’t be able to do anything reckless.

Effectively tying her hands and feet, severing even her tendons.

After incapacitating Eril, I was about to return to Kim Yul’s location, but then—

Pong, pong, pong.

Suddenly, ripples appeared around me.

It was neither a waterbed nor any surface; it was as if vibrations were emanating from the empty air.

Although it was unexpected, I wasn’t flustered.

I had experienced it once before.

‘I told them to establish minimal countermeasures against non-standard approaches, so this must be it.’

In Bihar, without any prior symptoms, the space would abruptly split open.

On Earth, when it tried to access me, this symptom had appeared as a prelude.

And it seemed to have been filtered out here in Bihar as well.

「The trait Capitalism activates.」

「The system converts to support mode. Support target: Player Kang Hyunwoo.」

「Abnormal connection detected. Attempting to block.」

The system intervened with no apparent delay, but assurance wasn’t in place.

The ripples surfacing from the void repeatedly disappeared and reappeared.

‘Though it seems the system is blocking, that non-standard fellow doesn’t seem inclined to give up easily.’

Evidenced by the incessant arrival of similar messages.

It wasn’t hard to fathom why they were so persistently aggressive.

‘Perhaps it’s because of this woman…’

Until now, despite interrogating and recording generals and marshal ranks, they hadn’t intervened this way.

‘She must be exceptionally knowledgeable.’

In that case, I had to act before that non-standard fellow breached the system.

‘I had initially planned to bring her to Kim Yul while conserving authority, but…’

Rather than squandering this opportunity while showing off ease, it was wiser to expend some authority.

The ticket for using Finelpenia’s authority appeared at my fingertips as various icons on the edge of my vision flickered with static.

Then, it brought to mind something Gilenios had said.

‘He mentioned blocking another non-standard, didn’t he.’

Evidently, handling both simultaneously was quite taxing.

Tap, tap, tap.

Pondering the issue with fingers tapping on my knee, I finally spoke.

“Just go.”

Without entering the white space, I couldn’t receive direct answers from the system.

However, I could still communicate my intent from my side.

“I’ll handle it myself.”

I promptly used Temoria’s authority upon finishing my words.

Yet, the system lingered, hovering and surveying my surroundings.

Thus, I chuckled, dismissing the system’s concerns.

“Knowing myself as superior, I wouldn’t have embedded such a thing in my body, would I?”

Without that embedment, Temoria’s Barrier wouldn’t collapse as long as the authority-wielding entity endured.

Not all-powerful, but still formidable as it is authority.

“Let’s chase after one rabbit each and not end up catching neither; let’s each do one thing properly.”

Only then did the system retreat, looking over at me with a bittersweet gaze.

‘If you’re leaving, do so with grace.’

Scratching where the system’s gaze had lingered, I clenched the remaining authority license in my hand.

‘Indeed, my current momentum isn’t bad.’

The authority of Temoria that Yang Taeho had given.

The authority of Finelpenia that Kim Yul handed over.

It seemed as if those two authorities had been waiting just for this moment to fall into my hands.

This synchronicity in perfect timing couldn’t just be coincidence.

‘It almost feels orchestrated by someone.’

Though I couldn’t logically elucidate it, I was filled with certainty that I would acquire what I desired from now on.

Grasping Eril’s neck with one hand, I activated Finelpenia’s authority.

Despite having experienced it once, the unfamiliar sensation overwhelmed me as past records, which mortal insight couldn’t discern, poured in.