Lukas was looking at the map he’d received from Destin.
Seeing that he didn’t pay any mind to her at all, Joanna sighed and looked around.
The place they stopped at appeared to be an abandoned city. And from the looks of it, this place had been abandoned for at least 10 years.
Nevertheless, she felt it was better than just the open wilderness.
Creak-
When she stopped the car and turned off the engine, a heavy silence seemed to fill their surroundings.
The air was cold, and the atmosphere was so eerie that it wouldn’t surprise her if a ghost were to suddenly pop out.
“Did you choose this place for any particular reason?”
“This city is like a stopping point for the hunters. There are very few Demons or Demon Beasts in the area. And there are bunkers at each stopping point equipped with food and daily necessities. There are even some weapons.”
“So it’s a resting point.”
Hmm. But it didn’t look that way.
She couldn’t see any signs that this city was used for such a purpose.
By that time, the sun had set completely and the city was engulfed in complete darkness.
Joanna, who had thought that she had already adapted to some extent, felt stifled once again. The atmosphere in the city was much scarier than Demons or Demon Beasts.
“Then let’s eat first.”
“…all right.”
She simply nodded and spoke briefly because she didn’t want to give in to Lukas’ casual words.
Most of the food that they had received was combat rations that were easy to store and cook. In addition to those, there were high-calorie chocolate bars and beef jerky.
Crack-
She opened a can and ate the chicken that was inside. It was surprisingly good.
Even Joanna, who was a picky eater, managed to finish her share.
A while after, only the sound of utensils being washed could be heard.
After their meal, Lukas got up. Then he began walking and looking around, and he used his hands to measure the distance between broken street lights, broken benches, and collapsed buildings.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m looking for places to plant the alarm spell.”
“Alarm spell?”
Joanna couldn’t help but ask in a curious voice.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a spell that warns you when someone is nearby.”
Was it something like a sensor that was implemented using magical science?
“Was there such a spell? This is my first time hearing about it.”
Lukas didn’t answer. Instead, his hair fluttered slightly as though it had been hit by wind,
It seemed that he really was a Wizard, considering that she could faintly feel his mana resonate.
“That… can you teach it to me?”
It was an unexpected request.
When Lukas turned to look at her, Joanna looked away and muttered.
“…if the two of us set it up together, it would be much easier.”
“Sure.”
“Really?”
Lukas nodded when he saw the brief sparkle in her eyes. This sight made him smile subconsciously.
Indeed, contrary to his expectations, Joanna might actually have been the kind of person he liked.
After having this thought, he was about to tell her the formula. However, Lukas fell silent again.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s an old map, so I shouldn’t have trusted it blindly.”
“Huh?”
“It wasn’t written on the map.”
Krrk, krrk…
From the darkness, numerous figures began appearing. It was impossible to tell where they had all been hiding.
Dozens of Demon Beasts, who seemed to have been birthed from the darkness, were looking at them with shining red eyes.
Only then did Joanna’s expression change.
“It hasn’t even been that long since we left the city.”
She sighed.
“There are a lot of them, but they all seem to be fairly weak. You take the left side. I’ll take care of the right.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t kill Demons or Demon Beasts.”
“This isn’t the time for jokes.”
“I’m serious.”
“What the hell are you…”
Lukas turned around and looked into the darkness.
He could feel the traces there. His expression became strange.
“Please stay here and protect the truck.”
“H-, huh? Hey! Where are you going?!”
Lukas rushed forward without answering, avoiding the Demon Beasts as he went.
His subtle movements were something that a Wizard shouldn’t have been capable of, but Joanna was so agitated that she didn’t notice.
“Don’t tell me you want to leave me alone and run away! Hey! Answer… Ah, seriously.”
Dozens of Demon Beasts charged towards her at the same time. They weren’t strong, but there were a lot of them.
Demon Beasts were known for being tenacious, persistent, and extremely troublesome when in large groups.
And now, he wanted her to protect the truck against so many of them? All on her own?!
Channeling her mana, Joanna shouted with a red face.
“You, you, you bastard!”
* * *
He chased after his target while avoiding the Demon Beasts.
Lukas’ body flickered like a ghost, drifting past the Demon Beast as if they weren’t moving. It was easy for him to trick them as they didn’t have any intelligence. They never even noticed him passing.
Boom!
He heard an explosion behind him. It seemed Joanna had begun to use her magic in earnest.
There were only about 100 Demon Beasts charging towards her. A 7 star Wizard could have easily defeated them.
‘She doesn’t have much real-life experience.’
Lukas had never seen her fight. Nevertheless, it wasn’t hard for him to realise that with just a glance.
She lacked the necessary experience. Perhaps she wasn’t aware of it, or maybe she didn’t think she needed it, but that didn’t matter.
It wasn’t good. In general, one of the things Wizards lacked the most was adaptability.
The majority of Wizards preferred to plan everything in advance. However, if something unexpected happened, their thoughts would be shaken and their reactions would be delayed.
This was especially the case for Wizards like Joanna, who were basically raised in a greenhouse. She was a Wizard who was created by the elite education and full support of North America.
That was why Lukas couldn’t help but wonder.
‘If she was in my homeworld, Joanna would never have reached 7 stars.’
A 7 star Wizard. An Archmage. In other words, a state at which one could be called Great Mage.
When one reached this level, 9one’s mana capacity increased explosively and the power, casting speed, and execution of one’s spells would be completely incomparable from a 6 star Wizard’s.
It was also natural that their mental power would also increase significantly.
No. If their mental power didn’t increase in the first place, then it was impossible for them to reach the rank of Great Mage. (TL: Author is really throwing around Lukas’ old title now)
Magical science was closely related to the human mind.
But Joanna was different. Her mind had been given the chance to grow. It would have been impossible for her to reach 6 stars, let alone 7 stars.
And yet, she could still use spells that did not shame the title of Archmage.
‘…this world.’
It felt like the conditions or qualifications to gain ‘power’ were very lax.
That wasn’t all. The rate of growth was also ridiculous.
No. Could it even be called growth rate?
Perhaps every human in this world gained too much strength for their efforts. And if that was true, then what was the reason?
This question remained in his head.
Nina always said that the reason humanity hadn’t gone extinct was because of Lukas’ teaching and support. But these days, Lukas couldn’t help but think that they would have been able to survive even without his help.
As he was lost in thought, his surroundings became quiet. The sounds of explosions and the roaring of Demon Beasts had faded until they were almost inaudible.
“…”
The man Lukas was following was ‘dressed’ like a hunter.
In other words, he was supposed to look like one, but he wasn’t.
He was an incredibly cautious individual. He made a number of unnecessary detours and checked his surroundings a number of times. And finally, after using every evasive method he knew, he moved through several alleys.
An inexperienced pursuer might have already lost him countless times over.
‘He didn’t notice my pursuit.’
Naturally, Lukas didn’t have to worry about it. He simply needed to maintain a certain distance while ensuring he didn’t make any noise.
And sure enough, after about ten minutes of constant movement, the man finally headed to an abandoned building.
Lukas continued to follow him calmly.
The man headed to the basement of the building, and just as Lukas was about to follow suit, he paused.
A camera sat in a shadowy corner of the hallway. It appeared to be broken, but he knew that it was working perfectly.
This meant that there was power circulating in this building.
Click-
In the meantime, the man opened a metal door in the basement and headed in.
It was trickier to fool machines than living beings. At least for Lukas, the small camera was much more annoying than a Master with great perception who was wary of his surroundings.
It was possible to completely remove any traces from his body. Those who didn’t have strong mental power wouldn’t notice Lukas even if he was standing in front of them.
But that was only tricking their senses; he didn’t actually conceal himself.
Of course, he still had solutions for problems like this.
“Ghost.”
At Lukas’ soft chant, his body became a spirit body. It was a soul-like state that allowed the user to ignore the laws of physics and most physical attacks.
In the past, using Ghost would have made his body defenseless, but now, it was different.
Lukas’ body had transformed into a spirit body. This was something that should have been physically impossible, but such restrictions didn’t apply to Absolutes.
The problem was something else.
[…]
Lukas clenched his fists a few times.
He couldn’t remain in this state for too long. For Absolutes like him, their bodies were vessels as well as seals. It could be called the dam that stopped their power from overflowing.
And this ghostly state temporarily lifted that seal.
In the first place, an Absolute’s essence was contained in their soul instead of their flesh. To put it bluntly, this whitish state was closer to Lukas’ true essence. If he remained in this state for a long time, his external force would begin to leak and Nodiesop, Letip, and Sedi would all be able to sense it.
Shuk—
Lukas’ body floated through a wall before going down into the basement. The man had disappeared, and the only exit seemed to be the same door the man had entered through.
At least, that was how it appeared on the surface. Lukas turned to look at a shabby locker in the corner of the room.
Then he walked into it.
“No one tailed you, did they?”
“Are you looking down on me?”
He heard a whispered conversation.
Contrary to what one might expect, the locker led to a large room. This hidden room was probably the core of this building.
It was dark, but it was well organised and larger than he expected. And inside this room were two men.
One was the man Lukas had followed. He took off his shirt, grabbed a can of beer, and sat down on the couch with a groan.
“Did you deal with the intruders?”
“I released the Demon Beasts. But I’m not sure if that will be enough.”
“Hmm. They must be stronger than you expected.”
“I’m not sure about the man, but the woman is pretty powerful.”
Lukas looked at them.
They looked like humans. They had human physiques and normal faces. But they couldn’t hide their demonic energy. These two were Demons.
Lukas’ expression crumpled a bit. It would have been better if they were humans.
“Let’s just watch the situation for now cause we can see that the Demon Beasts are dying pretty quickly.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
Lukas decided to leave the room and search the entire building. Only after confirming that there was no one else there did he return.
And it wouldn’t be difficult to subdue these two.
He released the Ghost spell.
“…huk?!”
The Demons only realised Lukas was there after they felt the ripples of mana. They turned around with the same gasping sound, but that was the last thing he allowed them to do.
Kiing-
“U-, urk…!”