One of the 3 Taboos of Magic Engineering.
After the New Era, it was the most actively researched study with East Asia leading the research but after a critical issue was revealed, it was quickly deemed a taboo by the International Superhuman Association and soon vanished behind the curtains of history.
Creation of Artificial Organisms.
In other words, making chimeras.
On the way inside, he talked to the related personnel that were standing in front of the 8th Warehouse and told them that they were community service workers. They must have gotten a message from Ichimon, and they quickly made way after realising who he was.
“You know what. I have a question to ask,” said Yeorum. She had been glaring at the documents about the community service the entire time.
“What is it.”
“I know making a chimera is a taboo, but the textbook didn’t say when it became a taboo and why.”
“What did the textbook say.”
“I tried going through it again in my head, but there’s nothing written about chimeras and it’s just full of warnings. This is a freakin’ taboo so don’t even pay attention to it. You’ll get killed if you’re too interested in it. Things like that.”
He nodded in response because it was understandable.
“Why’s that the case?” she asked again.
“What is the origin of magic and artifacts.”
“Huh? What was that?”
“Where do skills and abilities that make superhumans come from.”
“Well that’s… from fissures? And dungeons?”
“Right. Every magic, engineered and supernatural ingredient and tool that people use on Earth were all sent via a fissure.”
“Nn. What about it?”
“Where do dungeons appear?”
“Where do they appear? They…”
Yeorum, who was quite good at reading between the lines, seemed to have realised something in the middle of her speech.
“…appear anywhere.”
“Right.”
“So that means anyone can get access to supernatural tools and equipment?”
That was true. Monsters always came out of fissures but fissures didn’t always have monsters inside them.
A small fissure that appeared in the middle of a room could happen to be connected to a sanctuary that kept the royal sword of another dimension, and the girl that finds it could be a poor, young girl who was simply living with her grandmother in one of the mountains of Kyoto.
This was what happened to Minamoto Ai, ranked 13th worldwide, who was in charge of protecting the royal family of Japan as the captain of the task force. Her alias, ‘Sword of the Royal Family’ had two meanings in that sense.
“And so are chimeras,” he added.
There were quite a few worlds in the outer dimension that included human experiments in their scope of magic engineering, and it wasn’t rare for objects from those places to come over through a fissure.
“But is it that dangerous?” Yeorum asked.
“I assume it didn’t exist in Askalifa?”
“Hmm. I think it might have… but I actually don’t know too much about things like that.”
“Normally, it wouldn’t even be that dangerous.”
Mana was the manifestation of will. All the worlds he had been to had a large amount of mana in the atmosphere and in such places, mana helped Providence function properly. It made existences stay an existence, and made mortals mortal. Mana ensured that everything flowed accordingly with Providence and when this was applied to magic engineering, it was like an extremely potent vaccine.
“It’s normal for the dead to stay dead, right,” he added.
“Yeah.”
“But in magic engineering, there are all sorts of methods to make the dead turn into an undying existence.”
“For example?… A chimera?”
“Yeah. That’s one of the many ways because the organs that have deteriorated from old age can constantly be changed with a new one. But in other worlds, the atmosphere holds a lot of mana that interfere with that process. They help Providence and stop an existence from living an eternal life.”
After listening up to that point, Yeorum thought about the thing he would say next. By remembering the boring lectures that were on New Era, she soon came to an eerie realisation.
Mana was extremely sparse on Earth’s atmosphere…
The small amount of mana on Earth were all in fact residues that seeped out from dungeons and fissures. Earth had an extremely small amount of mana in the atmosphere even when compared to the amount of mana inside dungeons, let alone other dimensions.
“Then are chimeras dangerous because they don’t die from old age?”
If an existence gained access to eternal life, however it may be, it might create a lot of problems. But Yeorum couldn’t easily think of the extent of that hazard no matter how hard she pondered.
“Hmm… is it a big problem for someone to live for a long time?”
“Do you know the Deputy Principal, Ma Namjoon?” he asked.
“Huh? Yeah I do. The guy that looks like a dic*head.”
Yeorum recalled the middle-aged man who had the eyes of a viper. Although she shouldn’t know how he was a catastrophe-ranked demon, she might be instinctively feeling repulsed as a dragon.
Yu Jitae decided to explain it to her without sharing too many details.
“Don’t tell anyone else.”
“Huh? Okay. But what’s this about.”
“Ma Namjoon of the education department is a fake.”
“Ehng?”
“And there are about 30 fakes of Ma Namjoon all across the world.”
“…?”
Yeorum widened her eyes and stopped on the spot.
“What about the real one then?”
“…You don’t need to know about that. In any case, there is one mind but there are several bodies. Although they can’t communicate directly, communication and technology are abnormally developed on Earth and they can share information by moving their fingers a few times.”
Hearing that, she imagined a Ma Namjoon group chat.
Ma Namjoon 1, Ma Namjoon 2, Ma Namjoon 3… do they send messages to each other in a group chat? Thinking about those disgusting-looking bastards sharing messages to each other made her crack a smile.
“Is that funny?” he asked.
“W, who cares if I laugh or not?… No, I won’t act up today. Anyway, and then?”
“Think about it. How dangerous can a chimera get in the unique environment called Earth.”
“Hmm…”
However, she seemed to have trouble connecting more dots.
“I don’t know…”
Seemingly frustrated by the fact that she couldn’t imagine it, her lips were in a pout.
“Ah, but that guy, BM, was good with chimeras right.”
BM?
It was a name he wasn’t concerned about for a long time.
Looking back, BM had disappeared from the underground labyrinth a few months ago and according to Clone 1, he had never returned after that. What was he doing these days. Probably going through S-ranked dungeons scavenging for ingredients.
“Is there no problem for BM to use chimeras? Didn’t he become Rank 2 because he was good at it?”
“There is no problem at all. BM is one of the top experts worldwide regarding chimeras and the Association cut off everything that could become a problem.”
“Ah right. He also belongs to the Association, right. Doesn’t that ultimately mean that it can be controlled though? How is it so dangerous if it can be controlled?”
How is it dangerous?
“What we see now should answer your question.”
The Regressor said that instead of giving her the answer straight away.
The two of them were already in the 42nd section of the 8th Warehouse. Plastic, metal and wooden boxes were categorised depending on the items inside them and were all reaching the ceiling that was more than 10 metres tall.
Within that section of the warehouse was an area taped off by the sentries and the boxes inside were mostly broken. One of the managers of the warehouse was waiting there for them.
“You know, can I look for the rat myself?” asked Yeorum.
“Go ahead.”
Yu Jitae stood still with his arms crossed while Yeorum walked towards the taped off area.
“You can’t get too close to them,” said the manager of the warehouse. Yeorum returned a casual nod before observing the broken boxes. There were teeth marks here and there as well as black bloodstains.
“Hmm… but I only know how to punch things, and it’s my first time looking for something…”
She was talking to herself but she glanced towards Yu Jitae after saying that.
He thought to himself. It seemed that she was indirectly asking for a hint because as a red dragon, she hated receiving help.
“Hurry up. It’s so dirty that I don’t want to stay here any longer.”
Yu Jitae similarly talked to himself.
“It’s not even that dirty. Ah…”
Yeorum soon realised that it was a clue. There was nothing dirty from what her eyes could see, so didn’t that mean that there was something dirty that was invisible to the eyes?
Coming to that judgment, she closed her eyes. The nose of the red race, which was more developed than other races, became even more sensitive after holding mana within.
“…Uhk. Fu*k.”
She quickly blocked her nose in fright.
“There is a fuc*ing disgusting smell.”
“What smell.”
“Literally smells like shi*. Fuc*… those rats must have taken a dump here.”
The smell contained mana inside, and was probably intentionally left behind by the rats to interfere with the noses of spirit beasts.
It seemed to be working against the inexperienced hatchling as well. While Yeorum was again turning left and right looking for a clue, he gave a seemingly normal question.
“What do you think about sashimi for lunch.”
“You’re talking about lunch when there’s a shitty smell? Damn I would love to eat it.”
“Do you know how to eat sashimi?”
“Didn’t we eat it together last time? But I don’t like it. I need a lot of sauce.”
“What if the sauce disappears?”
“It’s not that good then. Because there’s the fishy smell… huh…?”
Yeorum widened her eyes with realisation.
Normally, spirit beasts hated strong odours like this and tended to quickly run away from it because their noses would get numbed from that smell.
But dragons were different. Yeorum fiercely endured the disgusting smell and by the time she started getting used to it, she was able to smell a ‘rat’ that was hidden behind the odour.
She began walking towards one of the walls of the storage in large strides. She climbed up the metal stairs to the second floor and pointed at the thin steel frames that were horizontally supporting the ceiling.
“They must have come using this. Hello!” Yeorum called the manager that was still on the first floor. There was a large rectangular hole in the middle of the second floor, which allowed Yeorum to talk to the manager.
“Yes?” he replied.
“Can I go up this thing?”
“Uhh, that’s… Please give me a second.”
The manager turned around and tried to call someone but Yeorum climbed up onto the steel frames without waiting for him, and started walking along the thin metal frames.
She was long gone by the time the manager turned around after getting the confirmation.
Before long, the two of them were standing on the roof of the warehouse.
“This part’s connected to the inside.”
“There’s no longer a trace though.”
“Hmm… there’s nothing now, but it’s that way. I’m sure of it.”
“Based on what?”
“Based on nothing but my instincts. But I can tell you that I’m certain.”
Yu Jitae looked into her eyes with his hazy gaze.
It was a half-assed method.
Relying on instincts was an inefficient method and it was highly likely that she would go the wrong way. It would become an even bigger problem if it settled in as a habit.
Therefore, he decided to fix the child’s bad habit before it was too late.
“You can’t be certain.”
“Why not? My instincts are correct for sure. Maybe it’s not as good as Yu Bom’s, but mine’s pretty good too.”
“I’m saying that’s the problem. Who in the world backtracks based on instinct.”
“What. Why not. Can’t I do it that way?”
“Is that what they taught you in class?”
“No?”
“Then why are you trying to do something they didn’t even teach.”
“What!? Do I always have to follow what they taught? I didn’t learn it but I’m sure it’s this way okay?”
“If you’re wrong, it would waste time and depending on the situation, other traces could disappear over time.”
“It’s not wrong though. It’s that way. We can go there and check now!”
“It could be an extremely inefficient and foolish judgment.”
“It’s not though?”
“Yu Yeorum.”
“Just stop!”
Perhaps she was upset or hurt, but Yeorum glared at him after a shout.
“I get it, so stop pushing me into a corner…”
Yeorum remained stubborn despite turning gloomy so Yu Jitae obediently followed since he wasn’t trying to harass her.
However, he was still discontent since it probably wouldn’t be there. It didn’t make any sense to find the next trace in a wide area like this based on instinct.
However… for some reason, she was on the right track. They were still on the roof of the warehouse but they could spot some small footsteps that were made on top of the accumulation of dust. It was quite obviously a trace and Yeorum immediately looked at him with a ‘See?’ look on her face.
The previously gloomy expression was no longer there.
“Oh my♥! Mister Yu Jitae!”
“…”
“Look here…! There was something like this! Hnn? But what’s this small, cute thing on top of the dusttt? Little Yeorum has nooo idea…!”
“…”
“Those cute things go allll the way theree…♥ What’s this?”
“…”
“C’mon. What is it.”
“Footsteps…”
“Ohhh…! I seeee! Then whose footsteps are thesee? What animal~?”
“…Probably a mouse.”
“Mouth? Mouth? What’s that?”
“…A mouse.”
“Ohh! A mouse! Squeak~! Ahng~ Squeak squeak~”
Yeorum cuddled up close and humiliated him by mimicking a mouse. Since he didn’t want to see it anymore, the Regressor slowly turned his head away.
“Now. So was Yeorum right or wrong?”
“…You were right.”
“Compliments?”
“…You did well.”
“More?”
“Your instincts were right.”
“More? More?”
“You might get it right once or twice if you’re lucky, but if you get into a bad habit…”
“Peni*! Who asked for a lecture?!”
“…”
“Compliment me! More!”
In the end, Yu Jitae had to praise her for the next 30 seconds or so. After receiving so many praises, she had an elated look on her face.
“Hmph… Try saying this and that to me again.”
Despite scoffing, she seemed to be in a good mood.
The two of them followed the footsteps and went into the small forest north of the warehouse. After rummaging through the forest for a long time, they finally came across a rectangular land where the grass appeared different from the nearby area of grass.
There would most likely be an underground passage from here, which was hidden from vision because of an artifact that hid one’s traces.
“Ah, we’re finally here.”
It was what she achieved after an hour of hard work.
The rats must be going to and from this place to the warehouse. The stolen items should be here and if the rats had an owner, that guy should be here as well.
“What kind of fuc*ing bitch would it be.”
Right when Yeorum was about to reach for the door of the basement,
“Yu Yeorum. Stop there.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Come here.”
A serious expression was on his face…
Which was completely normal.
“Why? It’s right here though?”
So she nonchalantly reached for the basement door and held it. In that moment, Yu Jitae flew forward and grabbed her by the waist before distancing themselves with a jump.
Kwaaaangg—!
There was a large explosion from the basement as fire surged up into the air. Yeorum, who was rolling on the ground after being thrown by him, widened her eyes in shock while Yu Jitae forced his killing intent into the basement.
The explosion was a mechanical one and that was why Yeorum hadn’t noticed it. However, the following fire was fueled with mana in order to burn something that was inside it.
Rapidly, the fire disappeared. Mana was the manifestation of will and Yu Jitae’s killing intent had the power to oppress that will.
“What was that? What’s happening!?”
There was nothing but black smoke for a long time. Yeorum came running in so Yu Jitae gave the rebellious child a flick to the head. “I told you not to open it,” he said and she jokingly shouted, “Ayat!” in pain.
But that didn’t last for long.
After seeing what was in the basement, the smile disappeared from her face. Throughout her entire life, she had never seen anything so disgusting.
With a deeply sunken voice, she asked.
“……What is that?”