novelraw Chapter 58 : Chapter 58
Chapter 58 : Chapter 58
Chapter 58. Tracker of the Mountain Sea (2)
Swish—
The hooded man brought his palms together, forming a unique hand seal.
Su-in (Hand Seals).
A procedure that imbues a specific hand shape with meaning, sublimating it into a symbol to activate it as a catalyst for magic.
Tzzzzzz—
At that moment, the shadow beneath the hooded man's feet began to grow larger.
The dealer, terrified, said.
“I, I told you everything!”
“I told you too. Never trust human scum.”
Like ink poured onto white paper, the shadow spread instantly across the ground.
Soon, the entire floor where the dealer lay prone was dyed in shadow.
A shadow as thick as ink.
Feeling an ominous chill from that shadow, the dealer began to tremble uncontrollably.
“Wait, wait a minute!!”
The words popping out of his mouth had already switched to polite speech.
The hooded man grinned at this and said.
“Since this is the end, I'll tell you. My name is…….”
“I told you the truth, everything!!”
“Don't cut me off, you bug. Now, my name is Wong Chen. Remember it. And I'm not some damn Superhuman.”
“Please……!!”
Gulp.
At that moment, a massive beak shot out from the shadow and swallowed the dealer whole.
Since there were no teeth inside the beak, the man was swallowed alive without being chewed.
“Aaaargh……!”
There is no light.
Nothing can be seen.
Just sliding down inside a damp, squirming vertical tunnel.
Splash!
And soon, he crashed onto a floor pooled with liquid.
“Puh-heuk!”
He hurriedly stood up.
Shaking off the sticky liquid clinging to him, he looked around.
Still darkness, as if both eyes had been plucked out and soaked in ink.
However, it was not simple darkness.
That darkness began to slowly dissolve what it had swallowed.
It wasn't dissolving skin or clothes.
What was melting into the darkness was the swallowed person's mind.
“Uh……?”
The dealer felt it.
Why am I here?
“Ugh…….”
The information and knowledge contained in his head began to flow out.
His head was becoming lighter, and soon even his intelligence began to drop.
“Light… light…….”
He looked for light to shake off the darkness, but it was useless.
He could have found light just by taking out the cell phone in his pocket, but his thoughts couldn't even reach that far.
Reason shriveled, nature dwindled, and only instinct became bloated.
“Buuuuuh…….”
Soon, the sounds coming out of his mouth became like babbling, not even taking the form of sentences.
A moment later, he finally forgot even his own name.
And the liquid pooled beneath his feet began to wrap around his body in a circle.
Like that, all the memories and consciousness he possessed were extracted.
The extracted memories flowed into Wong Chen's head.
“Mmmmmm…….”
Wong Chen cleared away all the trivial memories and read only the ones about Red Chips and Doban Brewery.
“…He told only the truth.”
Tzrrrrr—
The shadow returned to its original size.
The street also returned to its previous appearance.
Though one person had disappeared.
“Then now, shall I go to Doban Brewery…….”
No.
Wong Chen shook his head and muttered.
“No, let's find the Red Chips this guy hid first, then think about it.”
Wong Chen smirked and moved his feet into the night streets.
* * *
The next day.
In the front yard of Doban Brewery, Ha Myeong-yeol was aimlessly wandering around.
He was taking a walk while waiting for Riman and Ji Byeong-seo, who were coming today.
Stretching a bit, smoking a cigarette too.
While he was killing time like that.
“Excuse me.”
“……!”
Ha Myeong-yeol was startled and looked to the side.
A man wearing a navy blue hood was standing there.
‘Without even a sound of footsteps, when did he get here……?’
Ha Myeong-yeol cleared his surprised throat and said.
“…Who are you?”
“Ah, I should introduce myself first.”
The man lowered the hood he was wearing.
Sunlight reflected off his greasy greyish-white hair.
“My name is Wong Chen. A Mage of the Sanhae Magic Tower.”
Magic Tower, Mage.
The moment he heard those words, Ha Myeong-yeol’s eyes wavered.
Sanhae Magic Tower.
Although he had little interest in magic, he knew the fact that it was one of only three Magic Towers in the entire world.
And a Mage.
He had heard of them often, but this was his first time seeing one in person.
“…Are you really a Mage?”
“Want me to show you some magic or something?”
“No no, it’s fine.”
Ha Myeong-yeol waved his hands to stop him.
The public perception of Mages was roughly similar to ‘walking strategic weapons.’
Since the species called Mage rarely revealed themselves to the public, there was a sense that the rumors were a bit exaggerated, but those exaggerated rumors weren't entirely untrue either.
And that was the terrifying thing about Mages.
“Anyway, so, Mr. Wong? How did you get in here?”
“I walked.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“A person named Ha Do-yeol was residing here, correct?”
As Ha Do-yeol's name popped out, Ha Myeong-yeol's face, which had been blank the whole time, crumpled instantly.
“…Don't even bring up that son of a bitch's name.”
“I heard he was the producer of Red Chips. I hear he was the only person who could make it.”
“Fuck, that damn Red Chips…….”
“Don't think too badly of it. Betting on my Magic Tower degree, Red Chips is a masterpiece. No one can reproduce that exquisite composition and crystal structure.”
“Please leave. I have nothing to say about what you mentioned.”
“If this was the production site of Red Chips, there must still be some stock left. I want to purchase that.”
“Phew…….”
Ha Myeong-yeol looked up at the sky and let out a long sigh.
Wong Chen said.
“Name your price. I will match it as much as possible from my side.”
“There isn't any.”
“What?”
“I said there isn't a single grain of Red Chips left. I burned it all.”
“What……?!”
“Just in case anything remained after burning, I burned it in small batches over several days. Completely, everything.”
“……!”
Wong Chen's expression crumbled.
Despair spread over that face which had remained unchanged even when a gun was pointed at his head.
“Th… How could you do such……!”
“Because of that damn thing, my family was ruined. It was something that had to be done. Do you understand?”
“Th, that’s……!”
“If you need it, go and scrape up the remaining ash. The incinerator is over there.”
Wong Chen stood blankly for a long time, then eventually turned around.
Trudging across the front yard towards the main gate, he suddenly stopped and said.
“I am not an addict.”
“…….”
All druggies make excuses like that.
Those words rose up to his chin, but Ha Myeong-yeol held them back.
Because provoking a Mage wouldn't do any good.
Wong Chen continued.
“Red Chips… is a treasure-like medicine that dramatically broadened the horizon of my cognition.”
This was also one of the excuse repertoires that many druggies recited often.
“It was a clue to a miracle that could unfold that vast world of magic before me, crossing the wall that stood in front of me.”
However, his tone of voice was somewhat strange.
That tone was gradually escalating, and his eyes were slowly losing their sanity.
“Summoners like me, you see, need to tune the frequency of our minds with our summons. To communicate with them, we must alter our minds to the same level as theirs. Do you know what is used most in that process?”
“That…….”
“Psychotropic drugs. To mold the caster's own mind. Of course, one cannot use just any drug. It must undergo constant adjustment to fit the caster himself. And Red Chips is…….”
Wong Chen, who had been spitting out words rapidly, paused for a moment as if out of breath.
Then—
“Aaaaaaaah!!”
He suddenly screamed.
Ha Myeong-yeol flinched and stepped back.
Wong Chen said.
“Red Chips was the best of all the drugs I have seen.”
“Red Chips was……?”
“So, I mean, huh? You have to understand.”
“What… what on earth are you saying?”
Swish—
Wong Chen brought his palms together as if in prayer.
His hands assumed a seal.
“Because you took away my last hope.”
The Su-in was completed within his hands.
Tzzzzzz!
The shadow beneath his feet began to grow at a terrifying speed.
Like black ink spreading on the canvas called the ground.
Soon, a pitch-black circle over 10 meters in diameter appeared on the ground.
“…Die, all of you.”
Puh-heuk!
Something massive burst out from the shadow.
Long, tall, and enormous.
It was a snake.
A gigantic snake large enough to swallow an adult human in one bite.
The long and massive shadow cast over Ha Myeong-yeol's head.
“Hii, hiiik……!”
In front of this irrational spectacle, Ha Myeong-yeol's face turned white as a sheet.
But it was somewhat strange to just call it a snake.
Its entire body was covered in feathers instead of scales, and it had a chicken's head instead of a snake's.
Wong Chen muttered.
“Oh Gyeryong (Chicken Dragon), come.”
A giant snake with a chicken head, Gyeryong.
Wong Chen had summoned half of it here.
Not because a powerful enemy was in front of him, nor because it was a situation where he had to show off his skills.
Despair, irritation, and withdrawal symptoms.
He had brought out more power than necessary for purely emotional reasons.
Additionally, there was the reason that his brain, soaked in Red Chips, had completely lost the brake called self-control.
Because of that, his aggression was discharged without filter like this.
“Hu, huaaack!”
Ha Myeong-yeol turned around and started to run away.
But his legs, stiffened by fear, made him limp.
Towards his retreating figure, Wong Chen issued a command.
“Devour him.”
Swaaek!
Gyeryong lunged at Ha Myeong-yeol with its beak open.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa!!
The beak slammed straight into the ground, and an earth-shaking impact exploded.
The rising dust was a bonus.
But at that moment, Wong Chen realized.
That Gyeryong had failed to swallow the opponent.
“Mm……?”
Failed to swallow just one ordinary person?
And a limping one at that?
“What on earth…….”
A moment later, after the dust settled, the full story was revealed.
“Ha……?”
Ha Myeong-yeol was alive.
The moment the beak struck.
Some snake had pulled Ha Myeong-yeol away and saved him.
Of course, it wasn't an ordinary snake.
A snake with deer antlers sprouting from its head and its body covered in pitch-black scales.
It was Saya.
Wong Chen shouted in disbelief.
“What is that… Kill it!”
Simultaneously with Wong Chen's command, Gyeryong tried to lunge at Ha Myeong-yeol again.
At that moment.
“Sahyaaaaaak!”
The black snake let out a sharp roar towards Gyeryong.
Gyeryong flinched and backed away without realizing it.
In fact, there was not the slightest reason to retreat from a mere roar like this.
The difference in weight class alone reached hundreds of times.
But Gyeryong felt a distinct fear in that roar.
Fear engraved in instinct, coming from the difference in innate rank.
Gyeryong (Chicken Dragon) and Dragon.
Although both had 'Dragon' (Yong) in their names, the rank of their existence dared not be compared to each other.
“Karak……!”
While Gyeryong was frozen for a moment like that.
Wong Chen, bursting with rage, shouted wildly.
“What are you doing now! Getting caught by just one damn snake……!”
Gyeryong froze in front of the Dragon, and Wong Chen was busy urging Gyeryong on.
In short, at this very moment, Wong Chen was exposing his own vulnerability completely.
And—
Piiing!
Riman did not miss that moment.