Chapter 241: Training (1)

But that was something Lennok would have to think about after visiting the magic tower with Evelyn.

As he descended below the bar, Jenny greeted him with a bored expression.

“Evelyn Marcia already gave me the gist. She said she wanted to borrow you, Van.”

“Yeah.”

Few people had noticed the extreme consciousness acceleration that occurred during the executive general meeting.

There was no need to tell her about Myeong’s intervention or the Pandemonium’s plot.

As Lennok replied with a faint smile, Jenny sighed.

“Well, I won’t say anything since it’s your decision… but you know, right? The rumors about that place are incredibly nasty these days.”

“……”

“The old folks at Blaiver Tower are notoriously stubborn, and there must be a reason why they didn’t even mention that whole incident, despite having a major run-in with the Pandemonium.”

Even if Jenny had only seen and heard about it through newspapers and news, she seemed to have a rough idea of the inside story.

“I hope things go smoothly…”

“I’m not going to confront the magic tower; it’s about investigating whether they colluded with the Pandemonium.”

Lennok said.

“If they don’t want to blow things up, they’ll cooperate appropriately. Even if the Agents don’t find anything, it won’t be bad for me…”

He had already received sufficient compensation, but it was even more so because Lennok himself knew why this happened.

Knowing that Blaiver Tower had colluded with a drug lord and messed around in the Autonomous Region, he felt no responsibility for diverting the Pandemonium’s attention there.

Even so, shouldn’t Lennok confirm how the causality he created concluded?

Once he confirmed that this method of disguise worked well, he would be able to deal with the Pandemonium more easily next time he got entangled with them.

‘Ultimately, I’m bound to get entangled with the Pandemonium one way or another…’

In this era where monsters from the outer sea were approaching, he could guess that he couldn’t conveniently escape alone.

No, it would be a lie to say he hadn’t had the ominous thought that the chains binding Lennok himself might be related to this series of events.

That’s why Lennok felt the need to approach the Pandemonium from his side.

Not against monsters like Myeong or Croken, who were currently untouchable, but against enemies he could handle, he needed to select the necessary information.

Information he heard from the Eyes of Blue or Lapis alone wasn’t enough.

The meaning of the ‘sky opening’ as the Pandemonium saw it, and why they needed to break down the current order, even by summoning monsters from the outer sea.

Perhaps this incident could even be an opportunity for Lennok.

Undeveloped Zone. Desert region.

It was dawn, and the sun hadn’t yet risen.

Winter was passing, and the average temperature was steadily rising, but at this hour, breath still fogged in the air.

Lennok, who had been standing, relying on the light of the cigarette he held in his mouth, lifted his head, sensing a familiar presence approaching nearby.

“You’re late.”

Roar!!

Three men and women, led by Evelyn, were driving two jeeps towards him.

The jeeps were a rugged sand color with large off-road tires. The loosely fastened iron cage was distinctive.

They seemed to have prepared to some extent, considering they had to cross the desert and reach the volcanic region where the magic tower was located.

Evelyn, poking her head out of the passenger seat, smiled at Lennok.

“Did you wait long? We had a lot of things to prepare. It’ll take a week to get to the volcanic region, so there’s no end to the items we need.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t wait that long.”

He too had just arrived on his motorcycle, cast a shrinking spell on it, and stored it away.

Lennok had also visited the Cartel’s executive vault and the black wizard Raoul’s artifact shop in advance for today.

Since he didn’t know what might happen at Blaiver Tower, he couldn’t be careless with his preparations.

As Lennok climbed into the back seat of the jeep, the agent at the wheel immediately drove the jeep, beginning to leave the city.

Thump-thump-thump!

Leaving the mega-city, where dawn was breaking, behind them, they sped through the desert, inhaling dust.

The agent driving coughed, but Lennok and Evelyn’s expressions were utterly serene.

As the sun began to rise, the temperature soared rapidly.

Catching the strong wind, Lennok took off his coat and stored it with a shrinking spell.

Wearing only a thin shirt, his body felt much lighter.

One jeep carried three people, while the other carried two people and a load of luggage.

As if sensing Lennok’s gaze, Evelyn spoke.

“These are gifts for the old folks at Blaiver Tower. Even if it’s us, we can’t overtly investigate a magic tower, so we need to save face a bit.”

“Gifts that high-ranking wizards of a magic tower would like…”

“They’re similar to what I gave you as an advance payment. Rare medicinal herbs or elixirs. Do you know how many old spellcasters obsess over their health?”

“……”

Lennok, who had once fought a renegade monk obsessed with life, couldn’t possibly not know that.

He had seen enough of how much those who had power and aged obsessed over time.

He had only seen one aspect of it in his dealings with the Cartel, but he knew well that other spellcasters weren’t much different.

After all, hadn’t Lennok himself been relentlessly pushing himself to break free from his own chains?

Lost in thought, the jeep swiftly began to move, leaving Vulcan behind.

The Undeveloped Zone. An area still breathing with the mutated creatures, well-known as a side effect of the Black Consumer Project.

[Kieeeeeek!!]

As expected, Lennok and Evelyn swiftly swept away the monsters that rushed towards any living beings, moving forward.

They felt the stares of vagrants living in the Undeveloped Zone without proper resident registration, but as they were determined to only drive out of the desert, the clinging gazes soon disappeared.

Beyond the desert, past the magnetic storms, a verdant grassland began to appear again.

Only then did various other landscapes begin to emerge beyond the empty horizon.

“Hmm.”

Lennok leaned back in the jeep and comfortably began to observe the surrounding scenery.

He had been outside Vulcan before when he went to the Autonomous Region, but this was his first time moving in this direction.

Moreover, the direction their party was heading was a route that slightly deviated from the center of the continent.

In other words, it was a distance that brushed past the front lines where Vulcan’s defense forces were located.

To the right, where the jeep was speeding. Catching the wind of the grassland, Lennok’s eyes gleamed at a massive object faintly appearing between the mountain ranges.

Its enormous size was clearly discernible even from a great distance.

Supported by eight long legs, its slow movement between the mountains was so striking that it was hard to forget once seen.

“Is that a Mobile Fortress of the defense forces…?”

At Lennok’s murmur, Evelyn also turned her head.

“They’re usually on standby in camouflage, so it’s been a long time since I’ve seen one directly.”

“……”

Lennok had also only known about it through rumors; this was his first time seeing it with his own eyes.

The core of the military power that supported the defense line of the mega-city.

Siege warfare and bombardment, centered around multiple Mobile Fortresses that closely linked the front lines, were almost a symbol of the mega-city, and in the late stages of the war, the fortresses themselves sometimes acted as the front lines.

The contribution of those steel fortresses to Vulcan becoming a city-state, shedding its national affiliation, was incomparable.

But now, in a precarious peace, they were slowly rusting away.

“Recently, there’s talk that their standby orders have been extended, and they’re focusing solely on maintenance. Even though it’s clearly better for the lifespan of these machines to keep moving rather than staying on standby… it can’t be helped.”

At Evelyn’s words, the agent who had been silent while driving spoke up.

“Many of my peers want to return to the city. A drastic reduction in the ground forces is inevitable.”

“Were you in the military?”

At Lennok’s question, the agent nodded slightly.

“I was injured during the war and discharged.”

“There are quite a few retired soldiers among the Agents. They can be immediately deployed to operations without much training, and they themselves feel much more comfortable here than on the battlefield…”

Saying so, Evelyn smiled at Lennok.

“It’s similar to Dray, who joined your company.”

“…You knew?”

“Of course. It’s just that Dray Krimgal took them in, so no particular issues arose, but if that many special forces veterans were released into the city all at once, problems would surely arise somehow.”

From Evelyn’s words, it seemed the Agents also held Dray Krimgal in high regard.

Considering his discernment and character, he was more than capable of leading an organization, so it wasn’t surprising.

“Originally, we planned to take in more of the unassigned personnel here… but lately, our circumstances have been so bad that we couldn’t.”

“……”

“Except for the air force, which possesses naval capabilities, all other military branches are currently undergoing significant budget cuts. Eventually, the military power protecting Vulcan will be reorganized around the fleet.”

At Evelyn’s words, murmured with a complex expression as she gazed at the fortress, Lennok also fell into thought.

Come to think of it, hadn’t Lennok met quite a few retired soldiers himself?

Considering the Scavenger branch manager he met during an operation with the Krimgal Office, and that Beck Clinton of the Cigar Bang Gang traded weapons with retired soldiers living in satellite cities, this wasn’t a recent development.

Adding to that, Dray and his current employees at his company had also been discharged from service.

Considering the considerable number of people returning to the city after being discharged, it wasn’t an issue to simply overlook.

The Mobile Fortress, which had been standing silently between the mountain ranges, seemed to have completed its maintenance, as it slowly began to lose its original color and blend into the surrounding landscape.

The jeep, speeding across the grassland, quickly passed the blurring fortress and disappeared from sight.

Crackling!!

The lightning, rising from the darkness, brushed Evelyn’s shoulder and vanished in an instant.

On the grassland at night, as the moon waned, even starlight barely illuminated the ground.

Only the faint light of their burning mana illuminated the surroundings.

Evelyn glanced at the lightning that had disappeared behind her and moved forward without hesitation.

In pace with her steps, sand surged from beneath the ground, pulling at her legs, and shockwaves falling from above restricted her escape routes.

Clatter!!

But the sand rising from the ground futilely swirled in the air, and her body, having leaped just in the nick of time, swiftly closed the distance to her opponent.

As she drew up her mana, a green light emanated from her eyes, and her gaze, flickering like will-o’-the-wisps in the air, relentlessly surged forward.

Thump-thump-thump-thump!!

No one present could tell exactly how many times her arm, extended in the darkness, had swirled through space.

Only the noise left behind after her shoulder violently rotated hinted at her speed.

But her opponent, far from retreating, met her fierce barrage head-on.

Crack…!!

A greedy maw opened from the shadow beneath her feet, and simultaneously, the surging lightning this time encircled her, tightening its grip all around.

The spellcasters, each attached to the end of dozens of flashes of lightning gleaming in the darkness, subtly adjusted their positions, meticulously pressing in on the space.

Whoosh!!

Thump-thump-thump-thump!!!

Lightning bolts the size of forearms ruthlessly bored into and spun at the spot where Evelyn had been standing.

Each time they struck the ground, they flashed and exploded.

They raised dust one after another on the ground, but an intangible flash swiftly cut through it, moving straight forward.

Her footwork was incredibly elegant, as if she were walking on clouds.

However, even more impressive was the agility that seemed to defy the laws of physics.

While her speed itself was slow, as if she didn’t need to exert full power, the movements she displayed to evade the onslaught from all directions contained at least seven changes of direction in a single breath.

This was proof that she was perceiving the location and speed of every attack from all sides and calculating every movement in her head.

Separate from her graceful movements, the number of attacks and defenses also rapidly increased over time.

Not only did she fully recover the mana once expended without any waste, but she also seized and detonated missed attacks on the spot, using them as a setup for the next exchange.

Moving beyond points and lines to fill surfaces and occupy entire spaces, she blocked Evelyn’s approach, while steadily increasing the power of her magic.

The number of spellcasters controlling the mana they fired also continued to increase, eventually illuminating the center of the grassland with such intense flashes that nothing else could be seen.

Fwoooooosh!!!

“Let’s stop here.”

No sooner had the words finished than the deep green flash in Evelyn’s hand surged through the air, tearing apart the mana scattered all around.

Crackle!!

With a strange sound as if mana itself was being crushed, a gap instantly appeared in the encirclement that had been closing in on her, and the residual mana, as if on cue, exploded all around her.

Boom!!

Only then did Lennok lower his hand.

His expression was calm, but the cigarette he held in his mouth had long since burned down to the filter.

It was easy to guess how intensely Lennok had been concentrating until just now.

Evelyn walked towards Lennok, laughing lightly.

“I had a feeling when you asked for this favor, but you’re better than I expected.”

“……”

“If you can manipulate mana so precisely, can you really exchange blows head-on with a Commander Wizard? Seeing it directly, it’s even harder to comprehend.”

“That’s rich, coming from someone who only used one arrow to block it all.”

Lennok replied with a sullen expression.

Certainly, the exchange seemed quite fierce, but Lennok knew well that he hadn’t drawn out her full power.

All Evelyn had held in her hand was a single arrow.

She hadn’t even taken out her equipment; she had been blocking Lennok’s attacks with just one arrow embedded within her equipment.

Considering that not only ordinary wizards but also most Commander Wizards couldn’t even gauge Lennok’s attacks, it was possible to guess the extent of Evelyn’s skill.

Moreover, close combat wasn’t even her specialty, was it?

But Evelyn shook her head and smiled.

“You didn’t use any high-level magic either, so… well, fine. Let’s leave it at that for today. While we travel to the volcanic region, we can figure out how much to hold back and how much to push.”

Saying so, she leaned against a nearby rock and ran her hand through her hair.

Even though she had moved around like a ghost, not a single drop of sweat trickled down her face.

“If you have any questions, I’ll answer them. Ask away.”

“…Just a moment.”

Lennok watched her and slowly began to recall the recent sparring session.

Evelyn’s strangely proactive attitude was quite different from before, but no one in the group pointed it out.

This was the final condition Lennok had put forth in exchange for taking on Evelyn’s request.

It was the condition that Evelyn would be Lennok’s combat training partner during their journey to and from the volcanic region.