The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 195

After that, the monster attacks noticeably decreased. The monsters that did attack were all A-rank monsters. There were no B-rank to D-rank monsters approaching. They were all scared by the mana emanating from Captain Charles.

“…Did they notice?”

The monster attacks decreased after I sensed the corrupted mana within the dying monster’s body. Considering the timing, it’s safe to assume that the enemy realized we noticed and started to lie low.

“No. They haven’t noticed.”

But no. The enemy hasn’t realized that we’ve finished analyzing the current situation.

“That’s not a guess, it’s a certainty? What’s the basis?”

Why do you think the enemy hasn’t grasped the current situation?

Charles asked me that.

“First of all, among the taming magic that black mages use, there’s a magic called ‘Sense Sharing’ that shares senses with monsters.”

I slowly began to explain.

“Sense Sharing? I’ve never heard of it.”

“You wouldn’t have. Black mages who use taming magic are rare. I only learned about it by chance.”

Since their numbers are small, the information is bound to be unknown. I wouldn’t have known either if it weren’t for Mimir.

“No, it’s not about being rare…”

How do you know information that even I, an expert in the Black Magic Tower, don’t know?

That was the look on his face.

“No. Explain more for now.”

“Yes. Earlier, the reason they used those low-level monsters to attack us was to gather information about us using that Sense Sharing.”

“So that’s why they kept repeating those meaningless attacks?”

“Yes.”

“…That makes sense.”

Charles nodded a couple of times, as if he understood.

“Wait. Then aren’t we caught? If the enemy was sharing senses with the monster, that means they heard what you said earlier.”

Earlier, I muttered, ‘As expected. It’s a black mage’s mana…’

If the enemy heard that, it means they know we’ve figured out the current situation.

“No. They didn’t hear what I said.”

Yes. ‘If they heard’ is the key.

“Earlier, the monster that attacked us was a Riflon, a mole-like monster that lives underground. As a mole-like creature, its senses, including sight and hearing, are degenerated.”

“Right. They catch prey through vibrations and mana spreading through the ground. But why is that… Ah.”

Charles was saying something, then his eyes widened. He seemed to have realized it as he was speaking.

“That’s right. Sense Sharing… If you share senses with a creature that has no hearing or sight, you wouldn’t be able to hear sounds.”

“Yes.”

The enemy doesn’t know the current situation.

“The reason they stopped attacking is simply because there’s no point in attacking any further.”

“Does that mean they’ve gathered all the necessary information?”

“No. That’s impossible. Captain Charles kept using magic while suppressing his power, so proper information gathering would have been impossible. And I didn’t use any magic at all. There’s no way they could have gotten proper information.”

There’s no way they could have gathered proper information.

“The reason they stopped attacking is likely because they judged that there was no more information to be gained from further attacks.”

“Well, those attacks wouldn’t have been very meaningful anyway.”

“Exactly.”

Dealing with B to D-rank monsters is as easy as pie for Charles.

“But why did they repeat such meaningless attacks five times? If they sent them to get that much information, wouldn’t once have been enough?”

“It’s simple. The attacks after the second one weren’t aimed at gauging Captain Charles’s power.”

Looking back now, the 2nd to 5th attacks were all multi-pronged attacks aimed at both me and Captain Charles simultaneously. At the time, I just thought the monsters were cleverly surrounding us before jumping in. But after analyzing the whole situation, I realized that wasn’t the reason.

“Their goal was to gauge my power.”

“Gauge your power?”

“Yes. They must have been quite bothered by me just standing still. To fight an opponent, you need to at least roughly grasp their level, but I kept my hands behind my back, so how annoying would that have been?”

“Ah, I see.”

I took out the Aeth [a magical artifact] that I had put away earlier and put it back on.

“And it just so happened that I was wearing this robe earlier.”

“Why that robe?”

“This robe has the property of absorbing external mana into the interior. From the monsters’ perspective, it would have looked like there was no mana around me.”

“Seeing the empty mana around you, they thought there was a high chance you were a high-level mage. That’s it.”

“Yes. Mana converging to nothing is a characteristic that occurs during the mana control of a high-level mage.”

“…Okay. I understand what you mean.”

Charles’s eyes lit up as if he had completed his analysis of the situation.

“In short, the reason they stopped attacking is because they thought that no matter how much they attacked, I would block it all by myself, right?”

“Yes. Besides that, they probably thought that if the attacks continued, we would notice something strange.”

Despite Captain Charles’s mana release, the attacks continued. If this had continued endlessly, we would have had no choice but to prepare ourselves. The enemy stopped attacking to avoid that. It would be easier to attack later if we were off guard.

“Then that means they haven’t even properly figured out who we are yet?”

“Yes. If they had seen our faces, there would have been no reason to attack five times.”

The fact that the attacks were repeated five times is proof of that.

“That means the enemy isn’t nearby.”

“In my estimation, they’re probably at least 10km away.”

At least they’re not within a distance where they can see us with the naked eye. That’s what I meant.

“Then there’s a chance they’ve withdrawn completely?”

“There’s a chance, yes. No, it’s likely.”

If the opponent is ‘Parade,’ an executive of the Black Magic Tower, there’s a high chance they’ve fled.

“I heard that Parade used almost all of his power at the 3rd Magic Stone Warehouse before. The fact that he’s in Mount Baekdu now means he’s here to replenish the monsters he lost.”

In other words, the fact that Parade is in Mount Baekdu is proof that his condition is not good.

“Since he’s lacking power, he wouldn’t bother fighting an unknown opponent… That’s it.”

I don’t think Parade, in that state, would force himself to attack us. Since we’re an unknown opponent, there’s a high chance he’s retreated for now.

“…That’s a bit of a problem.”

Charles clicked his tongue, looking genuinely annoyed. Since his life’s purpose is to kill black mages, he seems quite dissatisfied that Parade has run away.

“It might not be the case. They might be quietly watching from somewhere. And then they might try to attack us later.”

I activated my Divine Eye again and scanned the surroundings. There were no suspicious signs.

“I don’t see any signs of that yet.”

Unless the enemy is using excellent stealth magic, but according to the information obtained from the 3rd Magic Stone Warehouse, Parade’s stealth ability is almost non-existent. If his stealth is that poor, if he comes within visual range of us, we’ll be able to detect him 100%.

“Whatever the case, we have to do our jobs and prepare as much as possible for any possible attacks.”

“…That’s the only way. It’s impossible for us to find him first in this vast area.”

At that moment, the altitude began to gradually increase. We were officially entering Mount Baekdu.

“Tch. We should have brought Gumiho [a mythical nine-tailed fox], that fox. Her detection ability is amazing. We could have found Parade or anyone else with her.”

“Miho’s senses are indeed sensitive, but even so, she can’t cover such a wide area.”

“…Yeah. That would be too overpowered.”

If Miho had seen Parade before, she could have pinpointed his location through ‘Soul Detection,’ but unfortunately, Miho has never met Parade. Therefore, it’s impossible to find Parade even with Miho’s help.

“Ah, and aside from that, about Miho. I brought her.”

“…What? You brought her?”

Charles stopped walking and craned his neck back to look at the backpack I was carrying.

“Did you put her in your bag? That’s animal… no, monster abuse.”

“No. Of course not.”

There’s no way I’d put Miho in an exploration bag that doesn’t even have proper ventilation.

“If you didn’t put her in there, how did you bring her?”

The only luggage I brought was the backpack on my back. Actually, I didn’t even need this. For me, who has Aeth, luggage is just luggage. I could just put this in my subspace. Since I haven’t told Charles about subspace, I was just carrying it as a show.

‘Ah, now that I’ve told him everything, I can just put it in Aeth.’

There was no need to carry the bag anymore. I took out Aeth as usual and put it on. And then I put the backpack into Aeth.

“Captain, give me any unnecessary luggage you have. I’ll put it away.”

“…Ah, right. That would work.”

Captain Charles seemed to have not thought of the obvious idea of entrusting his luggage to me, and he smiled awkwardly.

“Here.”

He handed me all his luggage except for the things needed for battle and some simple things he needed right away. I put everything I received into Aeth.

“Wow. That’s really convenient. You wouldn’t sell that to me, would you?”

“No. I wouldn’t sell it even if you gave me enough money to buy America.”

“That’s a shame. I was really willing to get it even if I had to sign a slave contract.”

Captain Charles smacked his lips as if he was genuinely disappointed.

“Anyway, thanks. It’s so convenient.”

He lightly jumped in place, enjoying his lighter body, and thanked me.

“Ah, right. More importantly, let’s continue what we were talking about. How did you bring the Gumiho?”

“Hmm. We’ve just entered Mount Baekdu… I’ll show you directly.”

I grabbed the ‘Pact Stone’ hanging around my neck. And I lightly infused mana into it, casting ‘Factio’ [a magic spell] as a temporary measure. I then forged it with magic.

Fwoosh-!

A short red light flashed. And the next moment.

Mee-!

Miho was in my arms.

Captain Charles’s eyes widened like a rabbit’s.

“Can you also summon monsters like that… Parade guy?”

“Yes. Well, it’s similar.”

To be precise, I created a passage to Mimir’s Book through the Pact Stone and called only Miho from Mimir’s Book. But there’s no need to explain it in detail.

“…I can’t believe it, really. Is it space magic again? Are you going to use teleportation magic later?”

One of the seven great difficult magics. A space movement magic that uses the mage’s own body. Teleportation.

“I don’t know. Maybe I will?”

It’s one of the seven great difficult magics in this era, but it’s not difficult for me. There’s no such thing as impossible in the Vaitener style. No, even if it’s not the Vaitener style, looking at Aslan, space movement magic itself is not a magic that can be called a difficult one.

“…When you say it, it doesn’t sound like a bluff.”

“Because it’s not a bluff.”

“Hey. Don’t you get told you’re annoying by your friends?”

“One person. There is someone who says that.”

“Right? I knew it.”

Captain Charles nodded repeatedly with a ‘I knew it’ expression. I smiled slightly at Captain Charles and turned my gaze to Miho.

“Miho, can you guide us to Laplace?”

At my words, Miho cried cutely once and then jumped to the ground. Then, she turned her head and looked at me as if to say ‘follow me,’ and slowly began to move.

“Let’s go.”

“…The herb you’re looking for was Laplace? No, more than that, is she the one finding the herb?”

“Yes. Didn’t I tell you?”

“Tell me what? You only said herb, you idiot.”

Come to think of it, I really didn’t say anything. I was too distracted by the Shadow. I didn’t even tell this basic thing to the person who’s helping me.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Well, it’s none of my business what kind of herb you’re digging up. Just keep your promise.”

A promise. The promise that if he protects me until I dig up the herb in Mount Baekdu, I would give him information about the Black Magic Tower. His sharp expression showed that he would not forgive me if that promise was a lie or if I didn’t keep it.

“Yes. Once this is over, I will tell you everything I know.”

I was planning to give the information about the ‘spy’ that I would receive from Shadow to Charles anyway. I thought that Sophia would be able to use that information better than anyone else.

“Okay. That’s good.”

Charles chuckled and increased his pace. And right then.

Woo-woo-woong-!

The terminal in my inner pocket vibrated.

“What is it? You brought your phone? What if your location information gets updated later?”

“No. This is…”

I stopped walking and took out the terminal from my inner pocket.

“…A secret line terminal C-V97? Why do you have something like that?”

The secret communication line imprinted terminal that I received after finishing negotiations with Shadow, saying that they would contact me through this when the organization of the data to be handed over to me was finished, was vibrating regularly.