The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 429

Right after the mana exploded, I felt like I was being sucked into something.

It was as if my body was being pulled towards the door I was holding, an irresistible, powerful suction force.

I resisted as much as I could and shouted, “We’re all going to be separated!”

Everyone was being pulled into the door they were holding.

“I don’t know if it’s a trap or part of the original structure, but one thing is certain: we’re going to be split up.”

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t let go of the doorknob.

Adela, Soonchan, and Stella seemed to be in the same situation.

There was nothing we could do to stop it.

“From now on, we have to survive on our own.”

From now on, the only one we could trust was ourselves.

“Don’t worry too much about being separated. If the area is divided into four, it means the amount of mana in each area will decrease accordingly. There won’t be a situation that we can’t handle alone.”

Dividing the area into four meant that the mana within the labyrinth would also be divided into four.

With the decrease in mana, the monsters and traps that appeared in the labyrinth would also weaken.

“The separation might be a good thing for us. So…”

Don’t worry too much, and proceed with confidence.

As I was saying that…

*Kugugugugugung-!*

With a tremendous roar, the already strong suction force became even stronger.

I was sucked into the door without being able to say anything more.

* * *

“Successor.”

I opened my eyes at Mimir’s voice.

“Where is this…”

As soon as I opened my eyes, I immediately looked around.

The place looked quite similar in shape and structure to the place I was just in.

Roughly speaking, if you removed all the doors from the previous room and made it into a corridor, it would look like this.

“Just like you said, Successor, we’ve all been scattered.”

Mimir pointed to the back, which I hadn’t checked yet.

“There’s a door, but it looks like it won’t open.”

There was a door behind me.

A door that had the same shape as the door that had just sucked me in.

No, it wasn’t just the same shape; it was the exact same door.

“It seems like we have no choice but to split up and proceed with the exploration.”

Mimir moved her fingers in the air, tapping away.

It was invisible to my eyes, but it seemed like she was operating a holographic keyboard.

“Contact… it’s not working. If we could contact each other, we could exchange information and proceed more safely.”

It seemed like she had tried to connect with Elena and Aslan.

I got up and approached the door.

I grabbed the doorknob again and tried to turn it.

“It doesn’t open, right?”

I had a hunch, and it was as I expected.

It didn’t show any signs of opening.

The mana didn’t even change.

“We’ve been properly separated.”

“Yeah.”

Mimir gave a wry smile.

“I didn’t expect it to turn out like that.”

“…Who would have known.”

We just thought it was a maze. Who would have expected that we would be separated like this?

“Still, like you said earlier, Successor, it’s not all bad.”

“Right. If the amount of mana has decreased this much…”

I looked around again.

The vast mana from just before had disappeared without a trace, and only a moderate amount of mana remained.

To be honest, this was still a considerable amount of mana, but compared to the previous room, it felt incredibly small.

“Adela and Soonchan have Elena and Aslan with them, so I don’t think they’ll have any problems unless something really serious happens…”

I wasn’t particularly worried about those two.

The only thing I was worried about was the appearance of monsters with complete immunity to magic, which appeared at the beginning.

If that didn’t happen, there wouldn’t be any problems for them.

“I’m a little worried about Stella.”

The one I was most worried about right now was Stella.

She didn’t have a partner, and she didn’t have much knowledge about the labyrinth.

If there was going to be a problem, it was most likely to happen on her side.

“Her? I don’t think you need to worry about her.”

Mimir made a ‘really?’ face and then casually said,

“Whether she has knowledge or not, her intuition is so good…”

I could see the level of Mimir’s evaluation of Stella in her mind.

She was at least in the top tier of trust.

“Don’t worry too much.”

Mimir smiled brightly, as if trying to reassure me.

“There’s nothing that will change even if you worry.”

“…That’s true.”

There was nothing more I could do here, so worrying was pointless.

The only thing I could do in this situation was to finish the exploration as quickly as possible.

Someone arriving first might be the trigger for completing the exploration.

If the destination was the same, I could go back from there to find my companions.

“Let’s go.”

I immediately turned around and looked at the corridor.

And then I started walking out, taking large strides.

After walking for about 10 minutes.

“…Huh?”

I encountered an unexpected person at the corner of the corridor.

“…Hayul?”

“…Stella?”

Stella Vinoche.

She was looking at me with a look of utter surprise.

* * *

Meanwhile, in another corridor.

Ji Soonchan was also walking down the path.

He was walking slowly, with a tense expression and posture, ready to be on guard for anything that might happen.

“He looks like a monkey.”

The way he was walking slowly, step by step, looked exactly like a monkey.

“Stop with the performance art and just walk faster.”

Aslan said from behind, with his arms crossed.

“…What if a trap pops out if I walk too fast?”

“It won’t. There are no traps nearby.”

Aslan looked at the corridor.

As a mage who controlled space, Aslan’s spatial perception was at an unimaginable level.

To Aslan, a corridor with such a simple structure looked like a blueprint.

And a blueprint made by the designer.

He could tell at a glance whether there were any traps or not.

“…Are you sure there aren’t any?”

“There aren’t.”

“Really?”

Aslan’s forehead vein popped out at Ji Soonchan’s continuous doubts.

“Stop chattering and do as I say.”

Just walk if you don’t want to die.

Aslan glared at Ji Soonchan with that intention.

Ji Soonchan flinched and shut his mouth.

“…Yes, I understand. I just need to walk faster.”

He swallowed hard and started walking with a stiff posture.

“There are no traps. Isn’t that right?”

Even though he was walking three times faster than before, there were no signs of any traps being activated.

It was as Aslan had said.

“You just need to follow my instructions. That’s the best way to survive.”

“…Yes.”

Ji Soonchan answered in a subdued voice.

He seemed to have realized once again that it was right to just do as Aslan said, without thinking for himself.

“It would have been better if you had done that from the beginning.”

Aslan clicked his tongue.

Ji Soonchan answered with a frustrated expression.

“I was being careful after thinking about it…”

“Thinking is also a matter of how you think. Don’t make excuses and just walk.”

Ji Soonchan pouted his lips slightly.

“That mouth. Close it before I cut it off.”

“…Yes.”

He pursed his lips and closed his mouth. It was a scene that clearly showed the usual relationship between the two.

“Stop.”

About 10 minutes had passed since they started walking.

The corner of the corridor came into view in the distance.

It was sharply bent to the right, so they couldn’t see what was beyond it.

“Proceed slowly here.”

They had to be as careful as possible before Aslan checked the structure of the corridor.

“…Yes.”

Ji Soonchan moved his feet slowly with a very tense face.

Slowly, slowly. As carefully as a thief.

He walked slowly without making a sound.

And just as he was checking the scenery beyond the corner.

“Boo!”

Someone made a ‘boo’ sound and put their face right in front of Ji Soonchan’s face.

“Aaaah! Crap! What the heck!”

Ji Soonchan was terrified and stepped back.

And then he immediately rotated his mana to use magic.

“…Huh?”

In the midst of that, the other person’s face came into view.

“You scaredy-cat.”

A familiar face.

A face of a close friend that he had seen so many times, as familiar as his parents.

“Why are you here, Hayul…?”

Shin Hayul.

He was smiling as if enjoying Ji Soonchan’s reaction and approached him.

“I don’t know either. I just kept walking, and then you were here?”

Shin Hayul was lost in thought with a serious expression.

“I wonder if it’s originally structured to meet in pairs like this. Or if there was some kind of trigger that made it possible to meet…”

Every single action, from beginning to end, was Shin Hayul himself.

“It’s a bit of a shame. If we were going to meet like this, I wish I had met Stella or Adela.”

“…What? Why?”

“If one of us were to die, you dying would be the least loss of power, right?”

“…Oh, really.”

Even that kind of joke was Shin Hayul himself.

“Okay. I’ll show you the terror of the least power.”

Ji Soonchan’s tension immediately eased.

With the appearance of Shin Hayul, a reliable leader, his tension and vigilance melted away like sugar in hot water.

“Whoa, whoa, calm down. We’re in the middle of an exploration. You’re not really going to use magic, are you?”

“…Is it okay to say such nonsense during an exploration?”

“Hey. I was just joking to relieve your tension because you seemed too tense. You don’t understand that.”

Shin Hayul smiled like Shin Hayul.

Ji Soonchan also smiled as he looked at Shin Hayul’s smile.

“Yeah, you jerk. I did relax.”

“See? I’m the only one, right?”

The two slowly approached each other.

With bright smiles, as if welcoming a friend they hadn’t seen in a while.

“Yeah. You’re the only one, you idiot.”

Ji Soonchan took another step towards Shin Hayul with a sigh.

“But. The fact that you appeared from there means that the path is blocked there too. Where should we go?”

Just as they got about 5 meters closer.

“…Step back.”

Aslan said with a cold expression.

Ji Soonchan stepped back in surprise.

It was an unconditional reflex from learned fear.

“…Why?”

Shin Hayul asked with a puzzled expression.

“…”

Ji Soonchan froze in the position he had stepped back in.

His mind was complicated.

Why did Aslan suddenly tell him to step back?

“Shin Hayul.”

Aslan spoke again.

Shin Hayul didn’t answer.

“Shin Hayul.”

Again, he didn’t answer.

“Where is Mimir?”

“… !”

Only then did Ji Soonchan realize.

The person who should be sticking close to Shin Hayul.

Mimir was not there.

“Soonchan? Why? Do you feel anything around you?”

Cold sweat ran down Ji Soonchan’s back.

He didn’t listen to Aslan.

He didn’t have Mimir with him.

That meant…

“…You. Who are you?”

The man in front of him was not Shin Hayul.

“Who am I? What are you talking about? Did you get hit by some kind of illusion magic?”

Goosebumps rose.

Expression, behavior, gestures, breathing, gaze. Everything was Shin Hayul himself.

Even at this moment, the thought ‘Is it not? Is it really Hayul?’ crossed his mind. Shin Hayul was Shin Hayul himself.

“…You. What did you do to Hayul?”

Anyone could see that it was Shin Hayul himself, but this man was not the real Shin Hayul.

That’s why he got goosebumps.

“Hmm…”

Shin Hayul’s expression hardened.

A puzzled expression.

In that state, he scratched the back of his head and stared straight into Ji Soonchan’s eyes.

And then he sighed deeply and smiled brightly.

“How did you know?”

Something that was not Shin Hayul gave up pretending to be Shin Hayul and smiled brightly.