Chapter 51
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Preparation
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In the impenetrable darkness where not even an inch ahead was visible, a certain being crouched motionless, waiting for someone.
Even with its waist hunched low, its extremely short legs made it barely noticeable.
From the outside, it just looked like a single white furball huddled in the shadows.
At that moment, a voice seeped into the ears of Ad, the being covered in thick white fur.
[In the end, you failed.]
"...I have no face to show for botching the task you entrusted to me."
[I never entrusted you with such a task.]
"But..."
[I merely offered some advice. Creating the essence, expanding your influence in the north—it was all your choice.]
As the cold voice faded, a different voice echoed from another direction.
"It was all just your greed."
"Asma..."
"Fate can't be defied, as expected. Right? You charged out so desperately, only to return in disgrace."
Anger surged within Ad, but he kept it hidden.
He couldn't dare show such emotion before the Lord—and more than that, Asma wasn't wrong.
"I told you gathering those ragtag losers wouldn't change a thing."
"...And what have you done?"
[Enough.]
At the voice's command, both beings clamped their mouths shut and bowed their heads in unison.
[I have no intention of blocking your desires, Ad.]
The calm voice abruptly shifted tone.
[But what of the task I assigned you?]
Unable to read the intent, Ad hesitated before finally speaking.
"If it's about bringing the human mage... our organization is unstable right now, so perhaps later—"
[The task I gave has nothing to do with your desires.]
"...I-I'm sorry."
"Shall I take the lead and track them down?"
[Focus on your assigned task.]
A faintly displeased tone reached Ad's mind.
[Things are constrained for now, so don't act rashly. Exercise restraint.]
"I'm sorry for letting you down."
Asma, bowing at his side, spoke up as if to console him.
"Still, creating the essence seems pretty ingenious. You can tell if someone's on our side just by them carrying it. And it even grants access to the Lord's power."
"It's thanks to the Lord's aid."
"That's obvious, but who else could've come up with it? Why not just stay here inventing more clever things?"
Ad ground his teeth but said nothing in the end.
"I'll handle tracking the traces."
Currently, I stood alone at the front, wearing a mask, in front of over thirty people—including Lina and the other attendants.
In other words, I was disguised as Cedric.
However, there was a slight change to the mask.
Originally, only the eye area had holes. Now, a thin transparent film covered them.
It was a kind of analytical lens that detected mana flow and displayed patterns in real time. I had modified the device I previously designed to fit onto the mask.
I worked on it intermittently over the past ten days.
Since I had already created an analyzer before, the process wasn’t unfamiliar.
It didn’t even require primal mana.
The problem was overheating during miniaturization.
Mana accumulating within a small frame became unstable.
I solved that by applying the mana stabilization technology that Vinsen had been researching.
More precisely, it was Circle stabilization—but if a Circle could be stabilized, so could a circuit.
In fact, it was even simpler.
So I installed both the analyzer and stabilization circuit into the mask, and the transparent film over the eyes became a small display projecting the results.
If I infused mana and tapped the mask, it would immediately analyze the surroundings.
Of course, it was turned off right now.
There was no need to use it in front of people who were sitting quietly.
…They had been quiet until I spoke.
When I said I would track the traces, several people stood up in confusion. They were likely the ones who had been handling tracking until now.
Their gazes were filled with blatant distrust.
“Why should we trust you with that?”
“Do I have to explain everything? You can wait until more people gather.”
I understood their feelings.
Everyone gathered here had their own wounds and grudges tied to a Transcendent.
For someone like me to suddenly step in and tell them to back off—it was only natural for resistance to arise.
“Who are you to order us around?”
“And who are you to openly chase after a Transcendent?”
“Openly?”
“Do you think the Transcendent doesn’t know you’re tracking them?”
“….”
They fell silent.
There was a high chance they had already been discovered.
After reviewing the vast amount of information Lina provided, I was certain.
That information showed just how aggressively and relentlessly they had been digging.
‘If the Transcendent knows and hasn’t acted… either they have ulterior motives, or they don’t even have time to deal with it.’
At that moment, one of the men who had stood up spoke. With his wild brown hair and muscular build, he looked like a lion.
“So you’re confident you won’t get caught?”
The man approached with heavy steps.
I looked at him and lightly touched my mask.
Lina probably estimated me to be around a 7th Circle mage. Especially since I had spoken with a Sword Master.
Then the others here were likely 5th or 6th Circle, with some 4th Circle specialists in tracking.
I hadn’t come here expecting no conflict.
It meant I hadn’t only modified the mask over the past ten days.
What I modified was the Memorize Artifact.
Originally, it could only store two 3rd Circle wind spells.
Now, it had been completely remodeled.
I even inserted a core into it.
So it changed from a brooch into a badge.
A Memorize Badge.
Compared to weaving circuits into the mask, inserting a core wasn’t that complicated.
It was almost like a click.
The problem was that reaching that “click” required squeezing my mana several times—and despite that, the duration wasn’t very long.
Still, the results were clear.
The modified performance allowed ten 4th Circle spells and one 5th Circle spell.
And they were instant-cast—an incredible performance.
The badge contained wind-element magic.
Thanks to help from the Eldis Family, wind was the only element where I knew several 5th Circle spells. And since Cedric’s concept was a wind mage, it was a natural choice.
The man approaching me began radiating increasing pressure.
He was clearly a martial type. I could see mana surrounding his body.
It was different from how mages used mana.
His mana wrapped around his body like flames.
That alone was already at a level equivalent to the 5th Circle.
If he could condense it into a single point, he would reach the 7th Circle—but he wasn’t at that level yet.
I moved my hand naturally from the mask to the badge and extended it forward.
I used the single 5th Circle spell.
It wasn’t a real life-and-death fight—just a test of ability.
The man accelerated as soon as I moved, but the instant-cast spell struck him first.
The spell I used was Gravity.
A wind-element spell that crushed a designated space with pressure.
In an instant, the pressure slammed down on his body.
Thud.
He dropped to his knees under the sudden force.
But he too possessed power at the 5th Circle level.
Though he knelt at first, he gradually adapted and tried to stand.
But in a real battle, it would’ve ended here.
If I cast a 5th Circle spell without incantation and struck him—I wouldn’t wait like this.
Instead, I crossed my arms and waited for him to stand.
Even after getting up, he didn’t approach me.
He understood the meaning.
His body was covered in fine cuts—the sharpness property embedded in my spell.
Ignoring the blood, he spoke.
“…Alright. I can see you’re confident in your abilities.”
“And I confirmed you’re not as resistant to magic as you think.”
“….”
Of course, I understood his position.
Who would expect an instant 5th Circle spell like that?
At that moment, Lina stepped forward.
“Your skills are as impressive as expected. But it’s a waste to use you for tracking. You’re supposed to fight the Transcendent alongside the Sword Master.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Should I take that as confidence in both roles?”
“Yes. It doesn’t seem like you’re planning detailed strategies until more people gather anyway.”
“…Was it that obvious?”
I swept my gaze across those who had stood.
“Anyone else dissatisfied?”
While asking, I focused elsewhere internally.
The Hero Candidate.
If she objected, it would be troublesome.
From 7th Circle onward—especially for martial types—even tracking movements at this distance would be difficult.
But she didn’t object.
Neither did the others.
That was a relief.
“I’ll take the role.”
I left the meeting place immediately.
I left the inn I had been staying at right away.
Then I headed toward the place where Partan’s last trace was found.
The western part of the Empire—more precisely, the southwest.
A coastal city, Baratrein.
The west coast connected to the Varkes Ocean, so Lina suspecting sea travel wasn’t strange.
I planned to search for traces around that area first.
Of course, chasing a Transcendent required thorough preparation.
I had no intention of fighting one directly, but I needed to be ready for anything.
I didn’t go straight to Baratrein—I spent quite some time midway.
All the combat preparations I had only kept in mind until now…
I got an idea from a yellow orb computational artifact.
As Cedric, I couldn’t use the artifact Ivan used.
But my strength was producing mass versions.
If I had the core, changing the outer shell was easy.
If I disguised its appearance cleverly, no one would suspect it was a relic-level artifact.
Who would think there were two of them?
That led to another idea.
Floating spheres.
I planned to float small spheres around me and embed trap magic inside them.
I opened the research materials of Philip Deran.
Most were large-scale fortress trap magic, but there were also many smaller applications.
From small-scale adaptations to inherently compact trap spells.
As expected from a Transcendent’s records, none were trivial.
The only question was whether I could implement them.
I spent two weeks focused on artifact creation.
The result: twelve trap spheres.
Of course, keeping all of them floating at once would be conspicuous and hard to manage.
So I decided to keep only two active with the computational artifact and store the rest for later use.
Someday, if I could refine my trait control, I could even make them intangible and completely invisible.
Preparation took time—but whenever I dealt with Transcendents, it was always like this.
Even if results didn’t go as planned, I always grew during the process.
After all, even discovering primal mana happened while chasing one.
‘As Merin warned, I might end up tearing myself apart and dying.’
All the more reason to prepare thoroughly.
But preparation wasn’t all I did.
I held a Manaphone.
Not the administrator phone where I was “(0),” but a new one.
Another Manaphone I would use as Cedric—Anonymous (4).
I didn’t create it—I retrieved one I had hidden nearby.
It would be easy to just make a new one, but that wasn’t possible.
The beta Manaphones I had hidden across the continent were tightly interconnected.
Because of that strong linkage, inserting a new one was difficult.
To join the chat, I had to find an existing hidden one.
Of course, that strong connection allowed long-distance communication and administrator control.
I already knew all their locations, so it wasn’t a problem.
‘The Hero Candidate is the issue.’
I intended to bring her into this chat.
To monitor things while I forged the Holy Sword.
‘Either guide her naturally to a hidden location… or drop one where she can find it by chance.’
[Anonymous (4) has entered the chat.]
[Anonymous (1): You’re here again?]
[Anonymous (1): Fourth time already?]
I acted like someone who had just discovered the Manaphone.
It wasn’t hard—I had already seen realistic reactions from Anonymous (1) to (3).
[Anonymous (4): What is this?]
[Anonymous (4): Anonymous 4?]
[Anonymous (4): Are there others besides me?]
[Anonymous (1): At least this one can read.]
[Anonymous (1): But human?]
[Anonymous (1): Are you human?]
That was intentional.
[Anonymous (2): Don’t interrogate them every time someone joins.]
[Anonymous (2): You’ll scare them off.]
[Anonymous (1): I’m just curious.]
[Anonymous (1): And I didn’t ask—that one said it first.]
[Anonymous (1): Same with Anonymous 3 and 4—they’re careless.]
[Anonymous (3): I see.]
[Anonymous (3): This reminds me of when I first joined.]
[Anonymous (3): Don’t worry.]
[Anonymous (3): No one…]
[Anonymous (3): Will harm you.]
[Anonymous (1): You haven’t been here that long either.]