Chapter 326
Chapter 326
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 326
Chapter Title: Eve (1)
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“I think I can interfere with the magic and make it usable for myself.”
Oliver, who had been in contact with the fog, suddenly spoke up.
Kevin was starting to get used to this sort of thing by now, but he still couldn’t quite shake it off and asked,
“No way—you can use spatial magic too?”
“No. I don’t know how to use it properly.”
“Properly?”
“I can’t create it out of thin air without any medium. I can only do it with paper as a conduit. Do you remember when we first fought?”
“Ah... Yeah. I remember. You summoned two portals using paper. Three zombies burst out of one, grabbed me, and blew themselves up.”
“Ah... There was no malice behind it.”
“I’ll let the little things slide.”
Kevin said it in all sincerity. After all, he’d tried to kill Oliver too.
“Anyway, that paper isn’t a magic item—it’s your magic?”
“Yes. I think of it more as a loophole than an actual item.”
“A loophole?”
“Yes. It’s something I came up with because I can’t use spatial school magic properly... It’s pretty pathetic compared to your skills, sir.”
Oliver gave his honest self-assessment, but Kevin didn’t see it that way.
Magic was a discipline where even loopholes counted as legitimate skill.
But there was no time to debate the point.
“Save the small talk for later. The gist is, you can get us out of here?”
“Yes. It’s not guaranteed, but I think I can hijack the fog’s spatial magic ritual and teleport us wherever we want.”
Kevin was delighted at Oliver’s answer. It solved a major problem from an unexpected source. But his relief was short-lived—his head soon started aching again.
The current crisis seemed to be the work of Randa’s Life School and Galos’s Life Alchemy Department teaming up, and he had no clue where to go or how to fight back.
Not to mention how many collaborators they might have.
The enemy was overwhelmingly powerful, while they had next to no information.
“Can you teleport us outside the fog, by any chance?”
“It should be possible. Want me to?”
“...That’s unexpected.”
“Pardon?”
“I figured you’d tell me not to, even if just out of curiosity. And that we should help Derrick, Felix, and the students first.”
“Ah... Well, given the circumstances, and since I’m your personal aide right now?”
Oliver tilted his head as he replied.
Well, he wasn’t wrong.
A personal aide’s job was to follow the professor’s orders. And in this situation, talking about helping anyone else was just nonsense.
It was hard enough to save your own skin.
No one would blame him for slipping out alone.
On the contrary, escaping solo to warn the outside world made more sense.
‘That’s definitely the rational choice, but...’
Kevin wavered between reason and emotion before finally speaking.
“Xenon.”
“Yes, Professor?”
“Do you know where the World Tree is?”
“Yes, I do. I spotted it while checking the leylines.”
“Then let’s head there first. We have to do what we can... Think you can manage it?”
“Of course.”
Oliver’s eyes lit up with interest at Kevin’s words. He channeled the mana stored in his body, attempting to interfere with the mana and ritual embedded in the fog.
Amazingly, just as Oliver said, part of the vast, intricate ritual responded. Kevin couldn’t help but marvel at the sight.
Did talent even begin to cover this...?
“Here we go.”
With Oliver’s words, the fog—hanging like a curtain—rippled. Dozens of tentacle-like strands reached out like mouths, swallowing Oliver and Kevin whole.
A moment later, the hazy fog cleared, revealing a new scene.
They had arrived near the forest bordering Lake Village. There stood Terence Lore and Yareli Iceeye, panting heavily after what looked like a brutal fight.
Around them lay a frozen ground, jagged icebergs thrusting upward, dozens of craters like those from cannon fire, and numerous mangled, frozen corpses strewn about.
An utterly unforeseen encounter.
As everyone froze in silence, Oliver pulled his hand from the fog and spoke.
“Greetings to you both.”
Silence.
Terence and Yareli were both speechless at the unexpected encounter and Oliver’s greeting.
Their brains couldn’t keep up.
Out of consideration, Kevin approached without a word. Finally, Yareli shook her head and spoke.
“How... did this happen?”
“It’s the Life School and the Life Alchemy Department’s doing.”
Yareli’s question was probably about how they’d gotten here, but Kevin deliberately answered something else.
Explaining their arrival would mean revealing too much about Oliver—something pointless, both personally and in the current crisis.
The priority was grasping the situation accurately, finding a way out, or escaping this place.
Exhausted, Yareli didn’t push back right away. Seizing the momentum, Kevin pressed on.
“Terence. Where’s Lt. Gen. Philip?”
“Teadora called him away to meet, without even a single escort... Tinda Swordmaster too. What do you mean the Life School did this?”
“Exactly what I said. A massive barrier pops up at a conference hosted by the Life School and Life Alchemy Department—who else could be behind it? And these bodies are proof.”
Kevin pointed at a chimera shaped like a dog’s skull stuffed into human skin.
“A chimera?”
“More precisely, modified humans. That’s what the Life School was experimenting on. They turned most of the villagers and hotel staff into these.”
Yareli was stunned by Kevin’s words.
It was too horrific and absurd. Or perhaps she just didn’t know much about such research to begin with.
Terence was surprised too, but differently—he seemed to accept the research itself but was shocked at how it was being used.
Terence asked to gather more info.
“How do you know all this?”
“I could explain if you want, but is now the time? We’re short on it.”
Kevin was right.
Time was critically short. The unseen enemy, now aware of them, could manipulate the fog again and scatter them. Philip and Tinda’s safety, off meeting Teadora, was unknown.
No room for irrelevant details.
Terence, a field mage, knew it too.
“Fair enough... Details later.”
“Now we’re talking. Yareli?”
Kevin eyed her to head off any objections.
Her grandmother had gone to meet Teadora too, so she nodded.
Doubts and questions abounded, but resolving the crisis came first.
“Good. Let’s move.”
Kevin, now firmly in charge, headed into the forest.
En route, he called Oliver over to ask about the World Tree’s location. Oliver, who’d been quietly observing, swiftly guided them.
“Trying to access the World Tree?”
Terence asked upon arrival at the World Tree.
“Yeah. It’s the best way to figure out what’s going on.”
“Won’t work.”
“Won’t work? What do you mean?”
“I tried. Failed.”
“Failed how?”
“Exactly that. The moment I tried connecting to the Root Net, a massive wall blocked me, and I got bounced right out.”
Kevin, knowing Terence’s skill, was alarmed and troubled.
Both he and Terence were expert Net Navigators.
If Terence failed, something was interfering.
The Life School wasn’t messing around.
Blocking World Tree access required more numbers and skill than the connectors.
Even for the Life School, that was implausible.
A thought flashed through Kevin’s mind.
“Net Navigator interference?”
“Doesn’t feel like it. If it were, their consciousnesses would clash like waves. This was just a solid wall. Whatever it is, it’s not a Net Navigator.”
Kevin quietly looked at Oliver. Unaware why, Oliver tilted his head.
Kevin spoke.
“Still, I need to try once. We’ll figure it out after.”
Neither Terence nor Yareli objected. Success would be a win; failure, no loss.
Kevin gathered mana at his fingertips, touched the World Tree, and closed his eyes.
Terence ordered Yareli and Oliver to guard the now-vulnerable Kevin.
Moments later, Kevin came to and spoke.
“It’s real... A massive wall surrounding everything.”
His reaction suggested failure. As Terence and Yareli moved to ask what next, Kevin said something unbelievable.
“Xenon... You give it a try.”
Everyone but Kevin doubted their ears.
World Tree access required innate talent, skill, and mental fortitude.
Even among mages, few could do it.
And now he was asking his personal aide—not even a student or mage—to try? Shocking.
Oliver himself was equally stunned.
He might risk it alone with Kevin, but not with Terence and Yareli watching. Highly awkward.
As Oliver looked to Kevin questioningly, Kevin met his gaze, signaling silently.
He couldn’t read the exact intent, but it seemed like: situation’s urgent, handle the priority first.
Oliver pondered briefly, then nodded. Denying it now was pointless. And things were dire.
“...Pardon the intrusion.”
Oliver swapped places with Kevin. Terence and Yareli’s surprise deepened.
They started to question, but Kevin, in control, silenced them lightly.
Ignore the trivialities for now.
Terence and Yareli shut up. Leaving the aftermath to Kevin, Oliver gathered his stored mana at his fingertips, touched the World Tree, and attempted connection.
Pak—!
Like a candle snuffed by a gust, Oliver accessed the World Tree’s Root Net.
As Terence and Kevin described, an enormous black wall loomed before him, endless.
A first for him.
Yet oddly, Oliver felt a strange sense of déjà vu, like he’d faced something similar before.
‘When was it...?’
Ah, right. Before infiltrating Martel, when accessing the World Tree for intel, something similar happened.
While checking Martel’s life research lab info, a giant eye appeared in the void and questioned him: [Who are you?]
That eye and this wall gave off a similar vibe.
‘And like Eve too.’
Pressed for time then, Oliver had swept his hand with inexplicable determination, shattering the annoying eye like glass. Recalling that, he swung at the black wall again.
Urgent times.
Fortunately, the seemingly impenetrable wall cracked like thin ice at his gesture.
Beyond it, the void of the Root Net came into view.
“Eve. Can you help me out?”
Oliver called out upon entering the Root Net. His voice echoed, and a green-tinged energy mass appeared swiftly yet softly, like light.
It was Eve.
[You called? ...Oliver.]
“Yes. Long time no see.”