NOVEL FROG Chapter 61
If we think rationally, Utis clearly ran away, leaving his enhanced suit behind, realizing he was being tracked.
The pursuers chasing Utis fell into two categories. The first were trackers dispatched under the orders of the Torres Tower.
The Torres Tower was not an organization that would simply let suspicious individuals like Utis disappear at will. The mages of the tower were only subcontracting out of concern that they might miss a suspicious sign if they took on the chase themselves.
They made a reasonable judgment. An unidentified giant named Utis had fled.
The other group consisted of troubleshooters close to the field manager. The field manager tried hard to forget the rumors, but he thought there might be some significance to it.
He quietly informed only his close hunter friends about Utis, who, to put it differently, left no trace of his magic power whatsoever.
The troubleshooters, hearing the rumors, cheered at the miraculous speed shown by Utis, but soon grew anxious when he turned to declare, “There’s nothing but misfortune beyond the door.”
And now, the troubleshooters found themselves face to face with Utis, who had vanished, leaving only his clothes behind.
One of them spoke up.
“Has anyone seen the figure inside the visor…?”
No one answered.
Fear began to creep in.
As certain situations overlapped, terror seeped into the hearts of the second group of troubleshooters. They shouted,
“The rumors! The rumors were true!”
The troubleshooters, who were trying to contact the Torres Tower, were puzzled by their strange reactions. There was relief in finding someone to share their rising fear. Whispers filled the air. The field manager’s story spread.
Among those using the alias Utis, there is a particularly ominous one.
Wherever the Utis without footprints appears, accidents always follow.
The subcontractors of the Torres Tower desperately shook their heads. They shouldn’t be swayed by such uncertain rumors. Instead, let’s think about the special compensation we might receive from this extra task. Suddenly, one of them turned around.
“…How did we get here?”
“Well, we followed Utis.”
“How do we get out again?”
“….”
They surveyed the passage through which they had entered, chasing Utis.
Indeed, this passage was still an unexplored area. It was one of many places discovered by Utis as he descended to the depths underground, neglected due to lack of interest.
A trace of unease lingered about the unexplored region. However, everywhere Utis had stepped until now had been safe zones.
They could decide to follow him, trusting in Utis’s intuition.
But now, where was that very Utis, who had been here?
The troubleshooters realized they had to escape from this bizarrely intertwined unexplored zone.
In the silence and darkness that had lingered since ancient times, they were isolated.
*
I felt a bit bad for the troubleshooters who followed me. The structure there is a bit complicated, so it would take trial and error to get out.
To the naked eye, there were no deadly traps. It was just that the structure of the passage itself was complicated and confusing. As long as they didn’t overly exercise caution, could they be out in about 30 minutes?
“I’m really sorry if I’m late for the meal distribution time.”
Nothing was as sorrowful as coming back exhausted and not getting to eat properly. I thought of the hardships from my time as a troubleshooter and moved quickly.
My intuition that most of the mages from the Torres Tower on Crete Island had gone to the depths was not wrong.
There weren’t many personnel still remaining on the surface. Normally, this would be around the time teams would be exploring, so it made sense that the external troubleshooters were nowhere to be found, but it was also standard to have some supervisors to prevent escapes.
It seemed that even the mages who were supposed to oversee were now concentrated in the depths. I rummaged through my memories and made my way to the gathering area for the middle-level exploration team.
“During the morning when teams gather, the middle-level gathered here.”
Finding the entrance to the middle level from the gathering area was not a hard task. When a group of personnel moves, they inevitably leave footsteps. The clear traces imprinted by dozens or hundreds of steps were evident.
Although the entrances to the surface and depths were in different places, the middle level was located in an even more isolated area.
“They said it was like the control tower of the ruins. Is it for security?”
What good does it do to install entrances in remote locations and strictly select personnel for security? If humans don’t do their jobs properly, it ends up like this.
I opened my eyes slightly. Not that it’s different from Kine, but so thinly they could ask, “What do you mean by opening your eyes?”
Even that changes the dimensional perception. It wasn’t as if everything changed into words when my eyes opened fully, but previously unseen intangible information began to be injected.
For example, the Extraordinary Ability Field. The area under the influence occupied by a being with extraordinary power. I could see several of these fields circulating within the middle level.
The interior of the visible fields was filled with magic power. It was the magic power field unique to the mages.
Still, since the middle level was an important location, it seemed that some mages remained behind instead of going down to the depths. I stealthily explored the middle level, evading the presence of the extraordinary fields.
The shiny silver passage, appearing as if the Torres Tower had made thorough efforts to maintain it, exuded a futuristic atmosphere not befitting ancient ruins. They might have modernized it to reside here for an extended period.
“Well, at least it’s a relief it’s not to the extent of setting up significant surveillance networks. Otherwise, it would have been quite troublesome.”
I arrived at a door in the middle level. When trying to look through this door, an intense headache struck. It reacted differently than when viewing ordinary objects.
Usually, such headaches arise when trying to interpret beings with extraordinary fields or highly concentrated structures like artifacts.
“I can’t sense the magic power field unique to mages. It must be the artifact vault.”
The door, sealed by complex security magic, was an easier task to break through than one completed with such a stable structure.
There was no need to use tricks like overloading spells with wide-open eyes as I would when responding to offensive magic. I took out a Magic Imprint Drive and activated it. It was a basic offensive magic spell—a little fireball.
As trashy as it was, the speed at which the flame gathered was quite slow. But that was exactly what I intended.
Since the output was so low, it would take quite a while before the security magic would evaluate it as an attack.
The density of the magic power gradually increased. The sensors detecting the attack began to activate one by one.
I figured out the structure of the circuit supplying magic power to the sensors. The actively operating circuits for supplying magic power amounted to three, with one backup. Even cutting all three wouldn’t be effective if a backup circuit remained connected to allow the spell to operate normally.
Three seconds remained until the activation of the Magic Imprint Drive was completed. The security magic would emit a warning in three seconds too.
It was enough time to disconnect the circuits connected to the spell.
I swiftly cut all four circuits for power supply, including the backup.
Sometimes, when I break the magic power supply circuit like this, the magic circle regularly self-restores, so I couldn’t afford to dawdle. I quickly cut the remaining physical locks with the High-Frequency Blade.
With certainty, I opened the door.
Behind the silently opened door…
Kigigigigi…
There was a dense mass of silver threads, more tightly clustered than I had ever seen before.
“Huh?”
*
The reason Orthes denied Arabella’s ‘Torres-Argyrion smuggling plan’ was simple. Time.
It had been less than ten days since the Elysion terror strike. There wasn’t enough time for Argyrion to convince Torres Tower that they had attractive items worthy of risking a bounty order from the Ten Towers.
That was a valid point.
Assuming that Argyrion’s recruiting efforts began after the Elysion terror incident…
Orthes had previously told the missing Priest of the Gods met in Elysion that “the Elysion terror was merely for show, and the real Silver Thread Hosts had already been spread across the world.”
“Already.”
There was more than a month’s gap between the day Sikton was killed and Kine was rescued and the Elysion listing review date. Argyrion had enough time to ally with discreet friends.
At that time, Argyrion didn’t even have the image of an ‘Elysion terrorist’ yet. Instead, after the terror, Argyrion was able to press discreet allies.
“If our dealings are exposed, do you think you’ll be safe?”
The dealings between Torres Tower and Argyrion were maintained like that. The production of Silver Thread Hosts took place in the middle level of ruins, accessible only to limited personnel. The produced Silver Thread Hosts were mixed into the slave distribution network of Torres Tower, spreading across the world.
Argyrion had stored a single mother of the Silver Threads in the Crete ruins to optimize the production of Silver Thread Hosts. In its inactive state, it existed as a dormant phase, and even if activated by an unforeseen accident, its chances of rampaging were minimal due to the strict security magic seals.
“Ha ha, damn. I’ve messed up.”
At that moment, Orthes appeared…
*
An alarm rang throughout the middle level. Argyrion’s agents frowned.
“The Torres Tower guys ran out, worried they might lose their treasures in the depths. Are they being hunted by that troubleshooter?”
“If this base disappears, it would be troublesome. We might have to take action ourselves.”
Despite saying that, Argyrion’s agents, who were gathering their equipment, appeared to be very relaxed. Even if they weren’t the top-tier agents who participated in the Golden Desert Operation, they were strong enough to join Argyrion, evading the surveillance network of Blasphemia.
Given their original skills plus the blessing of the Divine, they were no ordinary mages that could be easily matched.
“Hmm? Wait a minute.”
Being such excellent mages, the two agents noticed that something about the situation felt off. The enormous presence was not emanating from the depths but from right beside them.
“Damn it, the Silver Thread Worm?!”
“How did it escape! If the seal is about to break, the security magic should have activated!”
“The Silver Thread Worm must have devoured the magic power and dismantled it!”
“No. The Silver Thread Worm, uncontrolled by a mage, has only its primitive instinct to prey on nearby lifeforms! Even if it devoured the circuit, if the backup circuit is still alive, the security magic would activate! Someone…”
A shadow loomed before them as they hastily approached.
Despite the silver threads pouring in like a tide from behind, it walked slowly as if it were merely on a stroll.
It walked silently, and the Silver Threads dared not approach that being.
It was the Author.
The Author released the Silver Thread Worms and directed them toward us.
There was only one organization that could figure out how to activate and control the Silver Thread Worms so quickly. Once a comrade, now a betrayer.
“Blasphemia! How did you find this place?!”
No answer came. The Silver Threads shot out towards their former master, sharp as if they were carved with chisels. The two mages of Argyrion instinctively prepared for battle.
*
What are those guys doing now?
I watched as the mages fought the mass of threads.
‘It seems sensitive to vibrations and sound, so I was trying to move as quietly as possible…’
The mass of threads darted to stab at me every time I said a word. This was proof that its sensory organs were concentrated on touch or hearing. Once I slipped away using footwork that minimized vibrations, the mass of threads seemed to lose track of me and extended toward another place where it sensed magic power.
As it swelled with magic power, I thought it might lead to an artifact, so I quietly followed.
But why on earth were those guys suddenly shouting and provoking it?
‘No, it’s not entirely bad.’
While those two were battling the threads, let’s raid the middle level!