Hermit Wizard

Hunting Time (3)

Their hunt had begun, and lights flashed all over the base in the distance. I could also hear the binges and screams vaguely. I knew it was time to start.

-Bang bang! Bang bang bang!

I transformed the shape of my body, and after some time, the man in his twenties disappeared. In his stead, a tall alien with multiple strange eyes stood in front of the twelfth altar.

“… Oh my God.”

Mrs. Pearl and other the White Deer residents who saw the Fake God’s appearance for the first time had their jaws dropping when they saw me.

“It’s really an odd-looking race.”

I nodded and said, “Please come to my home sometime. There’s a ‘real Fake God’ in my basement tank.”

Even after speaking, I thought my words were a little weird. Mrs. Pearl nodded, keeping her gaze focused on me, though it was unknown if she listened to me properly.

“… Yes.”

“Then let’s go.”

Two people approached according to my gesture. One was Mrs. Pearl, and the other one was a resident of White Deer who turned himself into a middle-aged man.

Since the time had come, most of the residents at that altar had returned to their original form. Only those two were waiting for me there at the twelfth altar, remaining in their human form.

They were selected residents who would head to the center with me, moving with me while the rest of them worked hard there – on the Mana Shuttle. Since they would naturally be exposed to enemies, it had been pre-arranged to make them look like human beings. That was because the real identity shouldn’t be revealed ‘until the conditions were met.’

Seol, a villager wearing the form of a middle-aged man, asked me a question.

“Are you going to fly?”

I nodded.

“Yeah.”

Mrs. Pearl and Seol would protect me for a short time while I completed the spell.

At first, I thought of calling a summon to entrust that task to. I just had to open the Channel and call it up before entering.

However, if I tried to call a demon-type summon like a Waterbird, it would be difficult to respond quickly unless I controlled them individually. Therefore, I had to call an entity with high intelligence and high combat power. The most suitable summon was the one that met the Dark Kirin conditions, which had previously slaughtered the Ashpim Giants in the dimension beyond the Mapo Bridge Channel.

Sadly, however, she refused to be summoned at that time. There was a good price for the Enchanted Wood tree seed, but she didn’t like the contents of the mission I requested.

She… well, damn! She rejected my request since we wouldn’t kill the other person and would capture them alive. It was easy to tear everything up and kill them. Did it not suit her temper, taste, and profitability to fight by discriminating whether or not the opponent was breathing each time she hit it?

… Who said the bullshit that Kirins were peaceful herbivores?

“Mrs. Pearl, Seol, a little more this way.”

As the two got closer, I stretched out my arms several times the length of my actual arms and wrapped them around their waists at the same time.

“Oh my!”

Mrs. Pearl checked the texture by touching my skin with her finger as if noticing something strange in the world. Seol murmured and shook his head slightly as if he experienced all sorts of things in his life.

I took out Maek’s Copper with my other hand and lifted it. My dream of flying in the sky became a reality.

Half-flying, I greeted every resident who remained at the altar.

“I look forward to your kind cooperation.”

Yusu responded, “Please come back safely.”

I took those two people in one hand and soared into the air. I quietly flew as the feast of blasts and slaughter continued under the shrouded darkness.

***

Her name was originally impossible for humans to express. Humans conveyed meaning by vibrating the air, after all. Meanwhile, her race communicated with the glands under their chin, releasing a combination of various organic compounds.

Anyone of the same race could recognize the type and amount of secretion. The meaning of language was created according to the able to follow that high-quality communication method.

‘Humans’ sensory organs are too primitive to interpret this elaborate and artistic dialogue in the first place…’

So, her race and humans studied it head-to-head, creating a chart that matched Kaifu’s secretions to that world’s characters.

Humans pronounced her name “Atellamd,” based on the letter map that humans call “the Rosetta Stone that connects dimensions.”

In fact, in the process of converting gas components into letters, it looked like a long name that exceeded 60 syllables for humans, but only the front part was cut appropriately.

Atellamd, the Kaifu tribe’s dispatched instructor to Earth, swelled up under her chin and ‘said.’

-Hey!

She felt a response to her call. The ‘reply’ of gas from her fellow relatives from the corner of the room touched Atellamd’s skin. Upon contact, her brain interpreted and recognized the meaning.

-Yes, Master!

Another Kaifu in the room was Atellamd’s attendant. A faithful slave who had served her since before she came to Earth.

Initially, he was a servant of a nobleman– a wizard– who ruled an adjacent territory, but he was sold to her when his master died. Atellamd didn’t like the fact that he was old enough and fell asleep all the time. Still, he was quick-witted and quite agile because he had the rhythm down.

Atellamd turned her head and said to her attendant.

-Get me ready for bed.

-Yes, I see, Master.

The attendant turned around the corner to the bed and turned on the faucet, and then it started getting water inside.

While he was preparing, Atellamd sat in a chair and waited. It was a product especially made by humans to match her body. Atellamd was one of the best among the Kaifu tribes, and her hips were over two meters in human metrology.

She let herself ponder for a moment, dipping her hand in a special water glass for Kaifu.

It had been quite a while since she came over to Earth. As the king signed a contract with those men, she had to stay at that dimension for a few more years.

At least, that country was good for Kaifu to live in, compared to the area where the Channel connected to her parent dimension was located. The air in that country was too hot, and it didn’t match well with the Kaifu tribe.

Was the country’s name Congo? It had been a while. Still, she had a few memories.

Atellamd and her other colleagues came to that country by plane as soon as they reached that dimension. Arrangements were made in advance, after all.

Airplane.

Atellamd once again found herself in admiration. Such an object could hardly be found in her dimension.

‘It’s a tool that takes so many Kaifu, humans, and other cargo into the sky at once without using any Mana!’

Such technology would bring great progress to her dimension. Atellamd was honestly uncomfortable.

Magic was the point of reference between nobles and commoners. Nobles were worshiped since they had different abilities than commoners. But if that world’s technology of creating ‘magical’ things without Mana spread in her world…

Atellamd wondered what the hell was the king up to. The king was the most outstanding wizard and had passed on his abilities from generation to generation. Even from his standpoint, the advent of technology that threatened magic shouldn’t be welcomed.

She muttered inside.

‘Even at this moment, humans will be spreading basic knowledge in our dimension, which is the root of technology. It’s like we’re sent here to teach magic.‘

As she pondered continuously, she fell into thoughts about tomorrow’s class. Currently, she naturally wondered about the only student she was in charge of.

It was an unusual case for an instructor to be in charge of only one student, but the human named Kim Kyung-hwan had such a surprising talent that he was allowed to receive such exceptional treatment.

‘If he was born as Kaifu in our dimension and continued to grow up as he does now… I hate to admit it, but he may have become king. He could’ve brought down the current king and established a new dynasty.’

He was learning the spells separately, but he had already achieved much.

In particular, the combination of magic that he showed when fighting the strange creatures who were supposed to have come from the third dimension was surprisingly enough to make her lose her mind.

Atellamd had already delivered the scenes she witnessed and the new formula he invented to her home country. The answer that came back was to continue careful observation. That was because that genius wasn’t a common racial trait among humans in that dimension.

‘What is the king going to do?’

It was a cautious word from her attendant that broke her thoughts.

-Well… Master. Bed preparation is completed.

-Oh, yeah.

Atellamd spread her hand wide in her water glass. The inlet between the suckers sucked in the water, and the glass bottomed out.

At that moment, she heard a strange sound from outside.

-Hmm? What is it?

She focused her mind outside for a while. But, the place where the sound was heard seemed to be far away.

-What’s all the fuss about at this hour?

-Shall I go out and find out?

-No, it’s good.

One of the trainees who was practicing magic until late at night had an accident. It wasn’t very unusual. Atellamd regained her short interest.

After emptying the glass, she got up and headed for bed. It was a puddle made of soft rubber and was full of water. She stood in front of the attendant. He was knelt, clenching his head.

-Raise your head.

-Yes, Master.

The attendant carefully did as instructed. The two eyes protruding above her head looked at him with a spacious expression and green skin, which the human beings unpleasantly described in comparison to the less-evolving amphibians(did they call it a frog?).

She reached out her hand, which was still wet. She put the sucker on the tip of her finger against the convex chin of her attendant.

-Serve me tonight.

The attendant trembled for a while and tightened up again.

-Alright, master.

The attendant wiped his hands and feet and carefully went into the bed and immersed himself in the water. After that, Atellamd also followed him. It was one of the natural duties of an attendant to serve the nobles at night. The long career and his abilities in the field of attendance were both satisfying.

Atellamd soaked almost entirely in the water and stood in front of the crouched attendant, and the moment she slowly lowered her body…

“Oh my God… are these frogs mating right now?”

A voice came from the air where no one should be.

=Who is it?!=

Atellamd was astonished and sharply used telepathy. The attendant that was squatting in the water freaked out. She blew a quick, sharp secretion at the splashing, struggling, and plopping servant.

-Don’t be stupid and run out the door quickly!

The attendant panicked after showing his belly and flipped over, but he soon came to his senses and pulled himself out of bed. Dripping water on the room’s floor, he began to pack his clothes. However, at that moment…

-Thug!

Atellamd couldn’t believe her eyes.

Only the attendant and she were in that room. But the head of her attendant who just got out of bed… why was it like that?

-What… what… what…

In a panic, unfinished secretions flew into the air. Atellamd’s words filled the room incomprehensively.

While she was confused, the attendant fell to the floor. There were dents on his head as if someone had taken him down. His blood flowed out like a fountain.

At the end of his life, the attendant also randomly spewed secretions and left a screaming will. The gas produced by the introduction of death was mixed in a jumble and spread out in the room.

-M-master, please save me. It hurts so much. I don’t want to die, no, I want to live, please… I want to go back and live… I want to live with my master… Why am I in this place, mom… I’m scared…

-This… oh my…!

The devastated Atellamd looked at the body of the attendant, who was cooling off into oblivion. The attendant flinched and convulsed one last time, then his breathing stopped.

A voice that seemed to be fed up came suddenly from the air.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but… it smells like my nose is going to rot.”

Atellamd quickly rolled her head, cooling off her irrational anger. That language wasn’t the language used by humans in that country. It was a language called English that was on her list. Did a wizard from another country come after them? For what?

However, the words that followed were beyond her imagination.

“The one that died has no Mana. Then he must be a servant. If so, you’re the instructor who taught that guy, Kim Kyung-hwan, right?”