Chapter 309

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]

Chapter 309

“Haha! Damn it.”

Hassim leaned against the wall, chuckling to himself.

The turban that had once covered his head was long gone, and his deshada was shredded to the point of resembling rags.

Blood trickled down his skin, scraped raw by the sandstorm.

Still, it was a miracle he had escaped with just these injuries.

Had he been even a second slower in escaping, his entire body would have been disintegrated by the sand.

The only reason he had survived was the belt around his waist.

In the center of the ornate belt, engraved with an intricate, antique design, was a smooth, circular plate that gleamed like a mirror.

The belt, a relic from a dungeon, was an item called ‘Mushura’s Mirror’.

Though it was technically a belt, the item bore the name “mirror” because it allowed for short-distance spatial movement.

Hassim still remembered how shocked he’d been when he first discovered its capabilities.

He’d never even heard of an item with a spatial movement option before, let alone expected to acquire one himself.

When he realized what it could do, he’d dreamed of using it to access places no one else could—like Neo Seoul’s secret vaults.

He was certain he could sneak into those hidden storages, take whatever he wanted, and escape without anyone noticing.

It hadn’t taken long for him to realize how foolish those dreams were.

Mushura’s Mirror didn’t allow for precise coordinate-based movement.

Instead, its spatial relocation was entirely random.

In other words, even the wearer had no way of knowing where they’d end up.

On top of that, its range was limited to a one-kilometer radius.

If luck was on his side, he might appear on open ground with no obstacles. But if his luck ran out, he could just as easily materialize inside a wall or midair—situations that would mean certain death.

Because of these limitations, Hassim had only ever used the belt as a belt.

If he had sold it in Neo Seoul, he could’ve made an incredible fortune. Spatial movement items were exceptionally rare, and most were found in broken states, leaving their mechanics incomprehensible.

An intact spatial movement item like this was worth a fortune.

But Hassim hadn’t sold it.

He’d kept it as an emergency escape tool for life-or-death situations like this.

And that caution had just saved his life.

“Ugh…!”

Beside him, Akashi was retching uncontrollably.

It was the side effect of the spatial movement.

Mushura’s Mirror allowed the wearer to bring one additional person along during its activation.

When Zeon’s sandstorm began, Hassim hadn’t hesitated to grab Akashi’s hand.

After all, Akashi was the backbone of the Helbrin Mercenaries.

Even if everyone else was killed, as long as Hassim and Akashi survived, they could rebuild the mercenary group from scratch.

‘If only I could’ve saved Alton, too.’

Losing Alton had been a painful blow, but there was no use crying over spilled milk.

Hassim knew he had to focus on moving forward instead of dwelling on the past.

Despite the loss of all his other subordinates, Hassim remained unfazed.

‘I still have Ettley and Bucksher.’

Ettley, a dwarf, and Bucksher, a lycanthrope, were still waiting in the slums.

If he could regroup with them, there would still be a chance to carve out a new path.

Hassim turned to Akashi and said.

“Let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“First, we’ll meet up with Ettley and Bucksher. After that, we’ll start hunting for slaves again.”

“In the slums?”

Akashi’s eyes widened in shock.

Hassim tilted his head as if confused by Akashi’s reaction.

“What? Is there a problem?”

“If we hunt for humans in the slums, we’ll definitely leave a trail. We’ll get caught.”

“Akashi.”

“Yes?”

“Do we have any other options?”

“…No.”

“We’ve lost everything. We have to start over from scratch.”

The madness in Hassim’s eyes was unmistakable as he stared at Akashi.

He had no intention of giving up.

The slaves they’d already captured from the survivor villages were stored in a separate location, a precaution he’d taken in case of emergencies. That decision had been a stroke of genius.

As for the shortage of slaves, his plan was simple—hunt more in the slums to fill the gap.

“With just a hundred slaves, we can negotiate with the Spider Queen as equals. I’m not about to give up on that opportunity.”

“Mm…”

“What’s wrong? Are you scared?”

“No, Captain.”

“Good. That’s the attitude I expect.”

Hassim patted Akashi on the cheek, making Akashi clench his jaw tightly.

In truth, Akashi wanted to run away to the desert immediately.

The thought of staying in Neo Seoul filled him with dread.

‘Go up against a Sand Mage?’

The image of the man who had reduced the Helbrin Mercenaries to dust with sand flashed through his mind, sending chills down his spine.

For a while now, there had been rumors circulating in the desert—rumors of a Sand Mage.

The story was that a mage who wielded the sands of the desert as a weapon existed.

When Akashi first heard the rumor, he dismissed it as nonsense, thinking it was too far-fetched.

But as the story grew more detailed and spread, it became harder to ignore.

The appearance of the Iron Fortress solidified the rumors.

Urtian, a fellow scavenger, had risen to power as the leader of the Iron Fortress, a new colony, with the alleged help of the Sand Mage.

If the rumor had been false, Urtian would have denied it immediately. But his silence only fueled the belief that it was true.

Even so, Akashi hadn’t thought much of it at the time.

The desert was vast beyond imagination. The odds of encountering the Sand Mage were slim to none.

No matter how powerful the Sand Mage might be, Akashi saw no reason to fear someone he would likely never meet.

But now, fate had brought him face-to-face with that very mage—in the worst possible way: as an enemy.

No, calling the Sand Mage an enemy wasn’t accurate.

If the Sand Mage was the hunter, then they were nothing more than prey.

The roles had been completely reversed from when they had hunted the survivors of the desert.

Shiver.

Akashi’s shoulders trembled involuntarily.

Just the thought of Zeon was enough to make his body react.

“Damn it…”

Overwhelmed by a sense of crushing defeat, Akashi bit down hard on his lip. But there was no turning back to the desert now.

Live or die, he had no choice but to follow Hassim.

Forcing confidence into his voice, he said.

“Let’s go, Captain!”

“Heh. That’s more like it.”

* * *

Zeon and Brielle returned home.

The moment they arrived, Brielle bolted for the bathroom.

“I’m taking a shower first!”

“Go ahead!”

Bang!

The bathroom door slammed shut.

—Bii!

At that moment, Gaia emerged from the subspace.

Zeon patted Gaia on the head and said.

“You must’ve had a hard time staying in there. It must’ve felt cramped.”

—Bii!

“I get it. Honestly, staying inside might’ve been better than dealing with that smell out there.”

Zeon opened the windows wide to air out the stench clinging to his body.

As soon as he did, a gentle breeze blew through the room, swirling around him.

“It’s you, isn’t it?”

Zeon smiled, looking at Gaia.

The fresh breeze had been Gaia’s doing, and it carried the foul odor out of the house.

“Thanks.”

—Biiiii!

Gaia wagged its tail as if to say it was no big deal, spinning playfully around Zeon.

Though Gaia enjoyed playing with Brielle, its favorite person would always be Zeon, with whom its soul was bonded.

It even nudged Zeon gently, almost like a playful nuzzle.

Thanks to Gaia, Zeon’s mood lightened slightly.

Still, the reality of the sewer weighed heavily on his mind.

What he had seen while following Zetoya was worse than he could have imagined.

Life in the sewers was so harsh that it seemed preferable to live exposed to the dangers of the desert.

Without sunlight and trapped in filth, the residents were mutating—some developing crocodilian skin, others even growing gills.

The limits of such mutations were beyond Zeon’s comprehension.

There were far more people living in the sewers than he had anticipated.

If he hadn’t seen them with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have given it much thought. But now that he had, they weighed on his conscience.

“A mana generator, huh…”

Zeon’s gaze turned to the mana generator equipped with the “Watching Eye” spell in his home.

It was the same generator Croker had once been so desperate to obtain.

Thanks to it, Zeon and Brielle had access to unlimited electricity, something no one else in the slums could claim.

Even those lucky enough to have a small mana generator couldn’t use it without a mana crystal.

“I can’t provide them with mana crystals.”

Obtaining mana crystals was their responsibility.

Survival was a reward for effort.

If the sewer residents wanted to live like humans, they would have to work for it.

Zeon sat on the sofa, contemplating his next steps.

By the time his thoughts had somewhat settled, Brielle emerged from the bathroom.

“Ahhh, I feel alive again.”

Her hair was still damp, droplets clinging to the strands.

Gaia, noticing this, sent a breeze her way.

The gentle wind caressed her hair, drying it completely.

“Thanks, Gaia!”

—Bii!

Brielle kissed Gaia on the cheek with a laugh.

Gaia swirled around her playfully, its smooth body gliding across her arms.

“Hehe!”

After enjoying Gaia’s affection for a moment, Brielle sat on the sofa with a satisfied smile.

Zeon asked.

“What do you need to make the mana generator?”

“Most of the materials can be found at the Goblin Market.”

“Most?”

“So there are some things you can’t get there?”

“There’s a specific metal that only comes from dungeons. When converting mana from mana crystals into electricity, the process generates extreme heat. Regular metals can’t withstand it. The metal also needs to be suitable for inscribing mana circuits to distribute the heat…”

“So, a heat-resistant dungeon metal with good mana conductivity?”

“Exactly!”

“Those aren’t easy to find, are they?”

“They’re almost impossible to get. Any that show up are snatched up by the city government immediately.”

Brielle looked frustrated.

If Mandy were still at City Hall, she might have been able to pull some strings. But Mandy was currently away, working to establish a new mana stone mine.

Zeon rubbed his chin in thought and muttered.

“A dungeon metal with good mana conductivity, huh…”

“It’s going to be hard to find one right now.”

“No, I have one.”

“Where?”

“In my subspace… Hold on a second.”

Zeon rummaged through his subspace, and moments later, he pulled out a chunk of black metal.

“What’s that?”

“Take a look. It used to be the core of a dungeon. It’s lost all its mana now, but it’s still intact.”

“Seriously? This was a dungeon core?”

Brielle’s eyes widened as she took the metal from him.

It was only the second time she’d seen a dungeon core in such pristine condition—the first being the “Watching Eye” installed in Zeon’s mana generator.

Though it had lost its mana and no longer functioned, the fact that it had once been a dungeon core meant it was an incredible material.

Brielle tapped the metal, infused it with mana, and tested it extensively.

Zeon waited until she finished her examination before asking.

“Will it work?”

“Yeah! I think it’ll do the trick. I’m going to be really busy now, so don’t bother me.”

Seeing the determination on her face, Zeon stood up.

“Got it. I’ll be busy too, so I probably won’t be back for a while.”

“Huh? Why are you going to be busy?”

“I started the hunt, so I have to see it through.”

Even though Hassim had escaped the sewers, it didn’t mean he had completely slipped through Zeon’s fingers.

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]