The Whereabouts of the Elixir
The silent question—Was that prediction correct?—carried an intense will even though no sound left my teeth. Yet Kang Yeonsu only registered the dire situation. She stood frozen, unable to decide on the proper response.
I have to get her out of here— When you have no idea what’s unfolding, the correct move is to leave the area immediately. The strange energy coiled around her body only became clear once I drew close, but it wasn’t the kind of binding that could be undone on the spot.
What the hell is this? Incredibly sticky, almost slimy. And the binding force is off the charts. What kind of spellcraft is this?
Its overwhelming power was precisely why even someone like Yeonsu had been rendered helpless. I tried to lift her and flee when an unidentified aura, colored like the cold gray of predawn, surged outward in every direction with us at its center.
Crackle—crack—crackling—!!
Ugh… what…?!
Hundreds of mana blades—the same ones I had barely deflected moments ago—now materialized around us, baring their fangs. What chilled me even more was the faint human silhouette visible beyond each blade.
They’re all the same person?!
Shockingly, every one of the hundreds of blades was controlled by what appeared to be the identical individual. Otherwise, they couldn’t possibly share the exact same flow of mana. The entity also seemed greatly startled upon noticing me, but that was all. It immediately released the prepared blades.
I can die. But not Yeonsu!!
This wasn’t only to protect Yeonhee’s mind. Yeonsu was someone who had died because of me in the past. Losing another person I’d formed a bond with right before my eyes was something I refused to accept, even in death.
Madness Exploding Bullet
Kiiiiiiiiiiiing—
The self-destruct mechanism activated and the world froze once more. The nuclear core that erupted from my skull shot high into the sky, radiating blinding light. Yet the pillar was noticeably smaller than when I had used it on Tarantara, and confusion flooded me.
Did I not have enough time to accumulate the weight of existence? Or is it because I triggered it twice in one day?
My mind was already tangled when a bewildering message appeared.
A single life is insufficient to overcome the current crisis.
Would you like to expend additional lives?
Add more lives?!
Ten additional lives are currently available. How many lives will you—
All ten!! If I don’t deal with this bastard right now, Yeonhee will be in danger!
I had already glimpsed a blade piercing through Yeonsu’s throat, so urgency played a part, but ultimately it was for Yeonhee. The enemy’s eyes flashed as they locked onto me. At minimum, this monster stood on the same transcendent level as Hyun Jung-gil. I wasn’t certain that sacrificing ten insignificant lives of mine could stop him, yet—
Infernal Boneblade Pyromancer Ilwol releases the stored Weight of Existence.
There was nothing else I could do but throw my body into the fray, so I released the weight without hesitation. Then something astonishing happened. Within the completely frozen time, the monster beyond the blades was somehow resisting the temporal stasis to a degree.
What kind of monster is this?!
Our gazes met in midair. Inside the stopped clock, we glared at each other, each revealing our thoughts.
[……Just what are you?]
Who the hell are you, you son of a—eat this!
Accepting ten lives—
The enemy examined me closely as I stood on the verge of explosion, then rapidly traced an impossibly complex mana circuit with a finger. An unknown power activated. And then something unbelievable occurred.
Madness Exploding Bullet is being reversed.
…?! That’s impossible!
My ultimate self-destruct skill, thwarted so easily? But I sensed the enemy’s mana distorting violently, and the next message let me breathe a little easier.
The adversary is attempting an unreasonable reversal of a sacrifice that contains the Weight of Existence.
The adversary has accomplished the remarkable feat of reversing the Weight of Existence, but has suffered a fatal, irreparable wound!
Did trying to cancel my skill backfire on him?
I didn’t understand the mechanics, but the message claimed the enemy had taken a fatal wound.
All stats increase by 10.
You have acquired the item: Elixir’s Whereabouts.
The long message appeared, and the self-destruct sequence that had been activated began rewinding in reverse before canceling entirely. The blades that had been digging into our bodies, along with the mysterious being who had cast them, all vanished in an instant.
───
The space fell deathly silent. Not even the sound of breathing could be heard.
“…………”
What the hell just happened? The guy attacks on his own, injures himself, then even hands over a mysterious reward before disappearing? Pfft— what a ridiculous bastard.
It had been an absolute crisis, yet the sudden reversal made a chuckle slip out. When the enemy vanished, the energy that had been constricting Yeonsu disappeared as well. Even though the restraint had been lifted, she remained motionless for a long while, simply staring at me.
That gaze felt oddly burdensome, so I quickly scanned our surroundings. The director of the Evolution Stone organization—who possessed dwarf traits—along with the rest of the hunters had already disappeared without a trace.
When did they run? No, there’s no way they could have escaped in that condition… Did he take them with him?
Even while suffering a fatal wound, it seemed he had still looked after his subordinates. Truly an incomprehensible guy.
Damn it… If only I could have stolen at least one of that dwarf’s artifacts!
Regret lingered, but that wasn’t important right now. I had experienced many abilities in my lifetime, yet this was the first time I had encountered something so alien.
Ha— canceling a skill someone else activated… does that even make sense?
Even the lowest-tier spell, Fireball, has a mana circuit structure that varies wildly from person to person. To observe my skill for only a brief moment and then rewind it perfectly in reverse—exactly how absurdly high must one’s magical prowess be?
At least the message said he had been gravely injured, so he wouldn’t be able to pull something like that again for a while. That was some consolation.
Still… I somehow managed to keep my life and survive.
In a situation where I could have burned through all ten lives, I had instead greatly increased my stats and even obtained the special item called Elixir’s Whereabouts.
Elixir, huh… The Hunter Market is flooded with nothing but counterfeits. I thought it was purely a legend, but it looks like the real thing actually exists.
In an age even older than antiquity, in the primordial era, the capricious whims of the ‘Prankster God’ gave birth to a mystery called the Elixir.
Dragon Lord’s Scale, Elf Queen’s Tear, True Ancestor’s Fang, Leaf of Origin.
The Elixir was accidentally created while playing with the highest-grade materials inside a Dimensional Pouch stolen from the King of the Underworld.
Its power was so immense it could resurrect beings long dead, and its ability to defy the laws of the universe incurred the wrath of the other gods.
The Prankster God, unable to withstand their collective fury, hid the Elixir in a space known only to himself and was cast into a deep slumber as punishment for disturbing the flow of the cosmos.
This item is the map the Prankster God left behind. Consider carefully whether you will trust his arrangement and follow it.
What is this? A map? If I follow this, can I really obtain the real Elixir? That’s insane…
The explanation I had read without much thought casually revealed secrets that should have been buried in utmost secrecy.
Dragon Lord… I’ve never even heard that elves have a queen. True Ancestor—does that mean vampires? And what the hell are the Leaf of Origin and the Dimensional Pouch?
The fact that the Elixir was something the Prankster God had created while toying with ingredients so incredible they defied imagination felt like a story straight out of a fairy tale.
The map… I can’t see it?
The map I received as a reward floated gently in the air, yet Kang Yeonsu showed no sign of perceiving it at all. Avoiding her intense gaze that remained fixed solely on me, I snatched the map and quickly stored it in my inventory.
“??”
Yeonsu tilted her head when I waved my hand through empty space, but soon she gave a refreshing smile and placed her hand on my skull.
“I guess I should thank you first… Never thought I’d owe my life to a skeleton soldier. The world really is a place you have to live long enough to see everything. Don’t you think?”
“Clack clack clack.”
“Hehe—”
Yeonsu stroked my head, then suddenly smacked her forehead as if something had occurred to her.
“Aha—so that’s what it was.”
She stared at her own fist, nodding as though she had realized something. It seemed she had figured out the nature of the mysterious energy that had bound her.
Maybe it activates when they take damage, or perhaps the spell was pre-cast on the plants themselves. One of the two, right?
Yeonsu’s guess aligned with mine but went far deeper.
“Those bastards drew the spell formation underneath the rooftop floor. Ha! Plant-based spellcraft? Why are there suddenly so many abilities I’ve never even heard of these days? I did feel something strange when I struck down.”
Huh… You can plant a spell like that too?
“It wasn’t just one. The spell formations were drawn on the building’s rooftop and on the bodies of the other four hunters in advance. They were designed to activate one by one when specific predetermined conditions were met in sequence. Who I would attack first, with how much power, how many times I would strike—everything had been calculated. In theory, it was a set of conditions that could never be fulfilled.”
But it did activate…
Even after hearing the explanation, I still couldn’t grasp the exact structure that made it possible. Only Yeonsu, who had experienced it firsthand, could understand it so precisely.
“The fact that they designed it while already knowing the impossible conditions would be met… Haah—no matter how you look at it, that doesn’t make sense.”
Yeonsu shook her head as if she found it hard to believe. Because every aspect had been so unfamiliar, even she hadn’t felt enough discomfort to choose not to fight. Moreover, nature-type abilities blend into the surrounding environment and possess the faintest energy waves of all attributes. It was probably a masterpiece created by condensing every ounce of power that A-rank hunter with the unusual aura had accumulated over his lifetime.
That blade bastard… He really intended to kill Yeonsu.
If the first blades I blocked had flown straight toward her throat, Yeonsu would have suffered a fatal wound. Afterward, he would have leisurely taken her away using that mysterious ability and vanished.
The second attack definitely activated more slowly. That must mean it wasn’t part of the original plan.
Although he had prepared a Plan B to kill Yeonsu, it didn’t feel like he had ever expected to actually use it. Which meant his foresight had been thrown off.
Hoo— I thought he was merely the leader of some villains playing around with Evolution Stones. But his presence is almost on par with Jo Giman’s, isn’t it?
The silver lining was that I had now witnessed his ability, accidentally inflicted a serious wound on him, and confirmed that the Evolution Stone organization had no connection to Jo Giman.
What I still couldn’t understand was why those who called themselves the Defenders of Humanity had tried to eliminate or kidnap Yeonsu—one of humanity’s strongest assets.
They’re impossible to read. What do they really want?
While I was still struggling to organize my chaotic thoughts, Yeonhee came flying toward us, dangling from the legs of the newly summoned Nepy 2.