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Rubia was awake. Lee Sungmin took a deep breath and got up. He asked as he turned around to look at Rubia sitting on the bed.
“Did you sleep well?”
“… I thought I was sleeping on the floor, though.”
“I moved you because it was annoying.”
“You can talk quite well now, huh? I was worried, so I kept watch until you fell asleep completely.”
“What was there to worry about?”
“Says the person who was just roaring and screaming in pain and on the brink of death.”
“I didn’t scream.”
“You were screaming on the inside. Anyways, I kept watch because I was worried. You seemed to have gone to sleep without washing up, so I cleaned you up with magic.”
Rubia snapped at him. No wonder. He was so exhausted that he fell asleep without washing up, but his body was still clean.
“You have a good service.”
“I did it because it smelled bad.”
Rubia pinched her nose and said teasingly. Lee Sungmin ignored her retort and looked at the spear on the wall.
“Where are you going?”
“I feel pretty good now. I want to go warm up outside.”
“Why don’t you just take a good rest?”
“Are you worried?”
“Can’t I be? I can’t let you die. If that happens, then I won’t be able to fulfill my master’s orders.”
“You don’t even know where he is.”
Lee Sungmin grumbled as he recalled Envirus. Rubia’s cat ears drooped down, perhaps feeling a little discouraged.
“… He will definitely come. If he hadn’t wanted me to meet you, he wouldn’t have left me alone in the forest.”
“Isn’t it possible that Envirus abandoned you?”
“There’s no… way that’s possible.”
There was no conviction in Rubia’s voice. Before entering the dungeon, Rubia was confident that Envirus would definitely come. However, several near-death experiences in the dungeon were enough to dissipate some of Rubia’s blind trust. She was made by Envirus and lived for Envirus. Her life so far wasn’t without danger, but the dangers that she had encountered while with Envirus were too weak to threaten her powerful master.
But Envirus wasn’t there now. She had almost died. If not for Heoju’s help, they would both have died already.
“I was joking.”
Lee Sungmin muttered as he looked at Rubia’s face that was getting more and more depressed.
“If Envirus had abandoned you, he wouldn’t have led me this way.”
“… But I almost died.”
“We almost died. But in the end, we did not die. Neither will we die in the future either.”
Rubia’s bottom lip quivered, and she looked at Lee Sungmin. Lee Sungmin looked at her eyes, shrugged, and went out.
The inn, which Lee Sungmin arbitrarily chose, was the oldest and only inn in the village. Although the size of the village was quite large, unlike a city surrounded by walls, villages were always at risk. The security was also bad since the management was left in the hands of the city’s lord.
The first floor had a shabby bar and restaurant. A lot of vagrants gathered to eat cheap food and alcohol in broad daylight, and many looked like mercenaries. Lee Sungmin ordered breakfast and lunch without sparing them a glance. Rubia followed behind and sat next to Lee Sungmin.
“What a smell.”
Rubia muttered in a small voice. The hygiene of the inn wasn’t great, and the food that came out wasn’t much better. When they had nearly finished their food, a stranger cautiously approached Lee Sungmin.
“I’ve never seen a face like yours in this village before.”
Whenever he opened his mouth, it stank. Rubia’s nose crinkled up, and Lee Sungmin turned around to look at him. An old beggar with a dark spot on his face was watching him.
“Do you have any pennies to spare?”
“Are you from the Wandering Sect?”
Lee Sungmin asked out of the blue. It seemed like he didn’t plan on hiding it in the first place. The beggar chuckled, emanating a terrible odor.
“Then, are you Ghost Gun?”
His voice was low. It was low enough to get buried within the buzz of the inn. Lee Sungmin looked up at the beggar.
“I have never had any dealings with the Wandering Sect.”
“Tch-tch! This young master misunderstands something. I’m only asking out of curiosity, seeing such an extraordinary master appearing in this little town.”
“That’s right.”
He answered after a short pause.
“I’m Ghost Gun. Is there a problem?”
“I heard that the dungeon that opened not far from this village was conquered by Minor Heavenly Demon Wijihoyeon.”
“The rumors travelled fast.”
“Haha! Isn’t magic convenient?”
“What do you want to ask?”
“Our Wandering Sect’s young master barely escaped from the dungeon and left his left arm behind. The Peak level experts Iron Foot Jang Deuksu and Silent Flare Baek Sogo also escaped from the dungeon. The problem is that they ran away to save their lives, so they don’t know exactly what happened in the dungeon at the end.”
Lee Sungmin’s eyes opened wider at those words. He was relieved. The fact that Baek Sogo came out of the dungeon safely made him relieved.
“What are you curious about?”
“Ghost Gun. How did you survive?”
The beggar asked. Lee Sungmin did not answer and looked into the beggar’s eyes. After a while, he opened his mouth.
“Of course, I must have survived because I did something to survive.”
“Huhu! Did this old beggar offend you?”
“No. That’s not it. I just don’t want to tell you.”
“For what reason?”
“Don’t beat around the bush and ask properly. You want to know what Wijihoyeon got from the dungeon, don’t you?”
The beggar shut up at those words. Lee Sungmin felt a little irritable. In the first place, he was not convinced by the Murim factions’ justification in trying to keep a check on Wijihoyeon. If you thought about it, Wijihoyeon had not committed any evil deeds. But they still marked Wijihoyeon as evil arbitrarily and were trying to monitor and control her. That’s what he gathered from Jang Deuksu chattering away in the dungeon.
“… What did Wijihoyeon get from the dungeon?”
“I haven’t seen it.”
So he lied.
“The dungeon was terrible, and I barely managed to get out alive. I didn’t even meet Wijihoyeon. While barely surviving, the dungeon closed and forced me out. That is all.”
As if trying to judge the authenticity of Lee Sungmin’s words, the beggar narrowed his eyes and looked at him silently. After a while, the beggar nodded.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Oh, and-”
Lee Sungmin reached into his sleeves. He took out a few coins and handed them to the beggar.
“Spare pennies.”
“… Hehe! Bless you.”
The beggar turned around, bursting with laughter. Lee Sungmin sighed as he looked at the back of the beggar.
‘Looks like we are going to get caught up in trouble again.’
This thing called fate would cause people to be entangled whether they like it or not. He scanned through the whole restaurant. The vagrants in the corner were looking in his direction. They all probably belonged to the Wandering Sect. They weren’t incredible experts, but the Wandering Sect’s specialty was in quantity, not quality. Beggars were common in crowded places. Other factions tended to be picky with qualifications, but that wasn’t the case with the Wandering Sect. They accepted everyone.
Lee Sungmin got up silently. He had been thinking of staying in this town for a few days to recover, but this incident changed his mind. The presence of so many eyes on him was annoying. Lee Sungmin left the inn immediately after paying the accommodation fee. He wasn’t carrying anything in the first place, so there was nothing to pack.
“Where are we going?”
“First, we’ll be heading north.”
He planned on organizing the information he got on the way there and getting the right direction. Rubia changed her appearance to a small ball of light and hid in Lee Sungmin’s dark cape.
He was in no hurry while leaving the town. There was no sign of a pursuer, but there was a feeling that was nagging him. Heoju hummed inside the spear that was on his back.
[It’s magic.]
‘Does the Wandering Sect also use magic?’
[I don’t know. But I’m sure they are watching us. What do you plan to do?]
‘Leave them alone. It’s going to be more of a hassle if I get involved with them.’
He didn’t know the reason why Wandering Sect was keeping an eye on him. Was there any reason for them to care whether he survived the dungeon? Or were they doubting his relationship with Wijihoyeon? He didn’t like either of the options. But he couldn’t stop Wandering Sect’s pursuit. Given the rumors, Lee Sungmin was well aware of how persistent they were.
‘It’s probably not Chwigeol, right? I don’t think he would still be petty about me leaving Crimson Elder to him to deal with.’
If you thought about it, it was Lee Sungmin who had been abandoned by him. Lee Sungmin walked forward and grumbled.
There was a ‘Bird’ following Lee Sungmin. There was no great difficulty in pursuing him since he wasn’t using One Thunder. The bird’s eyes tracked his movements as he went forward at a rapid pace, and what the bird saw through its eyes was passed on to the mage using it.
The scene it recorded was being transmitted to the far-off Cron in real-time. Although there was a little time delay, it was a feat possible only through magic and impossible to replicate through martial arts.
“I guess you lived.”
Chwigeol put his hand on the crystal ball and muttered. The Wandering Sect, in cooperation with the Wizard’s Guild, had eyes and ears throughout Eria. That being said, there weren’t many targets that they constantly monitored in real time. Chwigeol had used his authority as a master of the Wandering sect to locate and monitor Lee Sungmin.
‘I thought you had died.’
Of course, he thought so. His opponent was Wijihoyeon’s Doppelganger. Although the Doppelganger was weaker than the original person, considering Minor Heavenly Demon’s strength, the Doppelganger would also have overwhelming power.
Chwigeol did not think that his judgment was wrong. He had suffered a major injury with his left arm being severed, and Jang Deuksu was also tired from fighting Crimson Elder. It would have been the same with Baek Sogo. He wasn’t sure of Ghost Gun’s abilities, but there was a high possibility that he would be wiped out after a long-drawn-out battle. So he chose to escape. It was the only right judgment in that situation.
If Ghost Gun died there, he would have been convinced that his judgment was right and would be able to stand tall in front of Baek Sogo with the justification that he saved her life. Although she slapped him on the cheek because she didn’t understand him, in the end he had saved her.
‘I wish you had died in there.’
Chwigeol thought while smiling bitterly. Baek Sogo had left the city of Cron with the declaration that she would cut off all ties with the Murim, without waiting for anyone to accept her words. He still hadn’t confirmed where Baek Sogo was headed after leaving Cron. That was because he had not placed a tracker on her.
‘I don’t like it.’
Chwigeol looked down at the crystal ball. He could see Lee Sungmin walking ahead with a broken spear across his back. The image of Baek Sogo crying out and blaming him for abandoning Lee Sungmin resounded in his head. He hated it even more. The appearance of Baek Sogo crying out like that.
“Jealousy is ugly.”
Chwigeol mumbled with a sad smile.
* * *
At a distance away from the village, Lee Sungmin began using One Thunder, although it wasn’t just One Thunder that he used. When he reached maximum speed using One Thunder, he added Haste to it. People usually needed to use magical power to practice magic, but the magic he had learnt consumed his inner force instead in proportion to the level of Haste that was activated.
‘Heh.’
He couldn’t adapt to the added speed instantly. But he got used to it soon after. Lee Sungmin avoided or jumped over the obstacles that came up, and his body sped forward, using the combination of Haste and Shadowless.
‘It’s not efficient to use in longer periods of time.’
Although Lee Sungmin possessed a lot of inner force, the consumption was also very large. There was still a lot of inner force left, but Lee Sungmin stopped after running for a bit.
‘I wish I could use it in practice.’
The speed added by Haste was quite surprising. It looked like there would be a lot of trial and error required for him to get used to it fully, and it would take even longer if he added Strength to Haste.
‘After all, I don’t have talent.’
Lee Sungmin thought with a smile. There was no sign of the trackers. They were probably lagging far behind him.
“You can come out.”
Neville stepped out of the shadows and bowed.
“Here is the information you requested.”
He said, pulling out the crystal ball. Lee Sungmin nodded and received the crystal ball from him.
***
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