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Chapter 118
I instinctively drew on my necromantic mana and created a barrier around , but the mysterious force emanating from the ring swept my power away.
Huh?
Divine power?
Even a 6th-circle mage wouldn’t be able to repel so easily.
This must be the authority possessed by higher transcendents.
No way.
It was supposed to be just an ordinary ring.
How can it possess divine power?
“I knew sothing felt off.”
Crash!
It all happened in an instant.
The box was completely destroyed, and the ring floated in midair before being enveloped in so unknown force and vanishing beyond space.
Of course, I cast a resonance spell as a last resort, but I couldn’t expect it to be effective.
The compass she had dropped spun as if it couldn’t find its direction.
Then, it stopped entirely, pointing in a single direction, as if to say the ring was no longer in this depth.
“......”
Luna stared blankly at the empty space where the ring had disappeared.
At the sa ti, transparent tears began to fall from her vacant eyes.
“Luna.”
“Le, Leon. Sothing’s wrong. My vision’s blurry.”
“......”
“It’s weird. I can’t see properly.”
Still sitting on the ground, she wiped her eyes roughly with her arms, as if she wasn’t used to her current state.
“Ugh… ugh…”
Then, as if spiraling into panic, she began sobbing.
I couldn’t leave her like this.
I slowly approached and patted her shoulder.
“It’s not completely gone yet. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to have divine power, but we can find it next ti.”
“Ugh… It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have driven them away. I shouldn’t have just followed orders.”
“Driven away? Who?”
“Leon, I can’t see.”
She kept repeating the sa words, as if this situation was unfamiliar to her.
There wasn’t much I could do for her right now.
The only experience I had with comforting soone was with lissa a long ti ago.
So all I could do was gently hold her and try to soothe her.
“It’s okay. There’s still plenty of chances. We confird the item is intact, so we’ll get it next ti.”
“Huu… huuhuhu…”
As I comforted Luna, she snuggled into my arms like a small animal and began sobbing uncontrollably.
The image of her, crying as if for the first ti, seared itself into my mory.
There was no trace of Sullivan’s influence on the Fate Lord.
That ant soone else had tampered with the ring, and it had been pulled into Sullivan’s subspace while crossing dinsions.
I didn’t know who was responsible, but I didn’t feel any goodwill toward them.
* * *
anwhile, unlike the expedition team, the porters and defense forces left behind in the mist zone waited for the expedition in a battle-less calm.
It was odd for the remaining mbers because they’d expected at least one or two monsters to attack.
But the camp was unnervingly quiet.
Not a single monster had appeared since the main group left to face the boss.
They were consud with thoughts of how strange this was.
But the reality was slightly different.
Shhh!
Boom!
Misha, the head maid, nonchalantly wiped the blood off a small dagger and stared beyond the forest.
The twelfth one already.
There was no strategy or pattern to the attacks—just simple, mindless assaults.
There were more intrusions than she had anticipated.
Though she wasn’t an expert on this depth, the attacks felt strangely irregular.
And ever since the expedition had passed through the violet mist to confront the boss, the monsters’ behavior patterns had beco noticeably erratic.
It was as if they were agitated.
Following Leon’s orders, she had been quietly disposing of the attacking monsters.
However, even she couldn’t handle all the ongoing assaults silently by herself.
The people in the camp still thought of her as just a maid.
Then—
A massive energy surge erupted from the direction the expedition had gone.
Misha sheathed her sword and slid back into the camp, blending in with the porters and expedition mbers.
“They’re back!”
“The captain’s back!”
The first thing they saw was a group of rcenaries trudging back with sullen faces, led by Albion, the captain of the Heracles rcenary Corps.
“Ooooooh!!”
The newcors were also carrying parts of the boss’s corpse.
But why were the rcenaries carrying the supplies instead of the porters?
Before anyone could answer that question—
Leon appeared, carrying only Luna on his back.
Was she injured?
No, she seed fine.
Why weren’t the porters carrying anything, and why were the rcenaries doing it instead?
The answer was simple.
They had volunteered.
So were captivated by Leon’s strength, while others felt indebted to him and wanted to show their gratitude.
“Captain!”
“Anything happen while we were gone?”
“Well… not a single monster appeared, strangely enough.”
“Really?”
Albion gave Leon a puzzled look.
It was certainly strange for no monsters to show up at all.
“Welco back.”
“Did you kill them all?”
Leon asked Misha in a low voice so that others couldn’t hear, but she averted her gaze.
“I’m just a humble maid…”
“Thank you for your hard work…”
Of course, Leon didn’t seem to care about respecting her cover as he teased her with a grin.
“But… what happened to Lady Luna?”
Misha, the head maid, looked strangely tense, as if Luna's figure, sobbing while carried on Leon’s back, felt unfamiliar.
"Sothing like that. Don’t worry about it,"
Leon said before turning around.
"Will you proceed further, Captain Albion?"
"No, our original goal has been achieved, and although everyone looks fine, they’re all exhausted. I plan to secure a quick retreat route and return. Is there anything you’re concerned about?"
"No, nothing like that."
The porters, who didn’t understand the situation, looked puzzled at Leon, a re porter, being addressed so respectfully by the leader of the Hercules rcenary Corps.
"However, since many are too tired to break through the path, I plan to let them rest for a day before moving."
"I’ll help clear the way."
"Huh? What do you an…?"
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Leon lightly kicked the ground.
Shadows rippled, and undead spirits began pouring out.
They were remnants he hadn’t fed to Muyeong, collected bit by bit.
"Clear the path in a straight line to the retreat. You can devour anything that blocks your way."
At his command, the undead spirits, led by Muyeong, moved all at once.
Like a black fog tide surging forward, they stord in the direction of the retreat route. Everyone gasped in unison.
"Groooarrr!!"
"Kyahhhh!!"
Monster screams echoed soon after.
Muyeong, leading the undead wave, was far too powerful for the monsters on the dungeon’s outer edge to handle.
He hadn’t been that strong initially, but after being regularly strengthened, Muyeong had beco a nad-level undead.
After all the effort spent raising him, he couldn’t possibly be weak.
"Were you exposed?"
"A strong one ca out. If I’d left it alone, everyone would’ve died."
"I see."
Misha, the head maid, looked unsurprised.
Now that she thought about it, she often had a look that suggested she had given up trying to understand Leon.
Even just being a Sword Master was incomprehensible, but now, he displayed the powers of an archmage as well.
Accepting it as “just one of those things” seed to be her way of coping.
"The path is clear. Move when you’re ready."
Everyone blankly stared at the space where the undead wave had swept through.
* * *
Although the Hercules rcenary Corps was technically a rcenary group, it had a status comparable to a large guild.
There were many rcenary groups in other cities, but Ravela’s rcenary corps stood out due to their elite rosters.
Even their captain was a forr knight commander of a nation, and so of their mages were elite graduates of the Magic Tower.
"How do they look to you?"
"What do you an? They don’t look much different from us."
Watching Leon and Albion talking outside the dungeon were none other than Albion’s promising new recruits.
Among them were the elf Repel, the spirit mage Rebecca, and a few others.
Though small in number compared to the entire rcenary group, these recruits were elite, preselected for leadership training.
Rebecca, the spirit mage.
Repel, the elf.
A mage girl.
A boy on the front lines.
There were four in total, all considered prodigies.
So naturally, their pride had grown.
They had insisted on fighting the boss due to that confidence.
But their confidence had been shattered after encountering Sullivan, and seeing Leon, who appeared to be their age, had completely crushed them.
"I honestly feel demoralized,"
The swordsman boy muttered in defeat.
"Why think like that? If he can do it, why can’t you?"
Repel said, though his tone lacked confidence.
"Do you really think that’s possible for us?"
"Honestly…"
Repel looked down, unable to continue.
"To be honest, that guy can simultaneously create dozens of magic circles at the level my master at the Magic Tower struggles to make. I have no confidence I’ll ever reach that level."
"That much mana?"
"It’s not just the mana. It’s his mana control."
The mage girl’s voice was faint, making the atmosphere grow even heavier.
No matter how they tried to spin it, there was an overwhelming difference in ability between Leon and themselves.
Rebecca mumbled quietly.
"Is that what a true genius looks like?"
"He’s soone you recruited. How did you even find him?"
"How would I know? We were just recruiting porters, and three people showed up."
"That man is Leon Cascadia,"
Said a young rcenary who had approached and pressed down on the heads of the recruits.
"Senior?"
"Haven’t you heard the rumors? He’s the one who, alongside the Mielephon Subjugation Force, took down a Kraken. I thought it was just a wild rumor, but seeing him now, it’s true."
"Oh. I’ve heard of that."
At last, they fixed their gaze on Leon’s back as he spoke with Captain Albion.
"They call him sothing in the rumors."
"What do they call him?"
"They say he’s beyond the concepts of genius or diocrity. So even suggest he’s a transcendent being pretending to be human."
It sounded ridiculous.
But as the senior walked away, giggling, the recruits silently watched Leon, burned into their vision.
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