The Guardian's Sight
One of the taboos was "Do not approach carelessly," but to reach the Primordial Forest, they had no choice but to pass through the jade throne.
Taylor, who knew its peculiarities well, gave a slight nod but didn't loosen his tension.
As they approached the jade throne and pressed something, a black door materialized in midair. The explorers vanished into the rippling portal in an instant.
"How about it? Pretty amazing, right?"
Taylor asked Allen, but Allen's attention was entirely fixed on the powersuit.
"Yes?"
"Nah, just finish up what you're doing."
While Taylor and Shiba took a break, Allen shooed away the box. Like a crow drawn to shiny objects, it kept hovering near the powersuit, and he was worried it might cause an accident.
"Go over there."
Beep—
Reprimanded by its owner, the box began disassembling the broken wolf. With its claws, it yanked out the sections fitted with mana stones and soul stones, stashing them inside its own body.
In the meantime, Allen had broken down the powersuit and neatly loaded it onto the cart. Thanks to his reinforced exoskeleton, he managed it alone.
The carts, now increased to three, were pulled by the automatons Allen had conscripted. The spider and wolf had lost their combat capabilities, but they could still haul loads.
Shiba, drying his beard soaked with sweat and water, drew closer with interest.
"Brother, it looked like you just injected mana. With the leopards and the box, that's five automatons you're handling. Pushing yourself too hard will damage your body."
"It's fine anyway—I've got mana excess syndrome."
"Ah, right. Mana excess..."
Repeating Allen's words verbatim, Shiba's eyes widened slightly.
"So that's why the number of mana stones stays the same even with multiple automatons. Brother, you have a unique constitution."
"Keep it a secret, please."
"Of course. I swear it on my beard."
"I heard normal priests swear on the Mother."
"That's true, but swearing on the Mother just feels... off. The other brothers take it for granted, but I'm a bit different. It's my duty—dragging the Mother into it feels wrong, don't you think?"
With the conversation wrapped up and the carts organized, Allen turned his head to find Taylor with his lips pressed tight.
"What's wrong?"
"You beat me to it by two weeks."
"Brother, why get sulky over something like that?"
"Sulky to an adult!"
"Save the bickering for later. For now, let's just take a quick peek at the Primordial Forest."
At Allen's words, Taylor smoothed his eyebrows.
"I'll let it slide for Allen's sake."
"No, you're mad because of Brother Allen—what the..."
Taylor shook his head like he didn't want to hear it. The party ascended the stairs to the jade throne, while the carts took the slopes on either side.
Taylor placed his hand behind the jade throne and fiddled with something. A dark door appeared, one that seemed to swallow even light itself.
What was there to deliberate? Taylor and Shiba leaped inside, and Allen stepped through last.
It felt just like crossing between layers. Black mist enveloped his body, and his senses blanked out for a moment. Familiar territory, so Allen simply pressed forward.
In just a few seconds, the lush greenery of the Primordial Forest would greet him. His vision finally cleared—but the landscape that emerged was nothing like he'd expected.
This...?
Only then did Allen realize his body was moving of its own accord. His viewpoint was even higher, as if his height had suddenly increased.
This is the underground city.
To be precise, it resembled the pitch-black lake. The water was crystal clear, with an artificial island at the center—but instinct told him it was the same place.
The "underground" part of underground city could probably be dropped. A bright sun shone in the sky, dotted with clear clouds, while unidentified birds chirped and soared overhead.
Allen's gaze shifted to the artificial island, the sky, then the palace housing the great hall. Not by his own will.
Possession?
As he pondered, a metal-clad arm came into view at the edge of his vision. It looked just like the powersuit he'd fought earlier that day.
I'm seeing the world through a guard's eyes right now.
Guards weren't solitary soldiers. Others clad in identical powersuits milled about nearby. Then his vision grew hazy.
"Air's nice, huh?"
"Comparing it to a concrete jungle is an insult. I'd love to build a villa here someday."
"A monk with a villa? Worldly as hell."
"That's going too far. I was just saying."
Back in reality, Taylor and Shiba were chatting right in front of him.
Allen tried to recall the experience, but it slipped away like a dream. Fragments lingered, though.
A faint buzzing vibration came from his waist. Allen pulled out the compass clipped to his tool belt.
Is this the culprit?
The needle had turned almost entirely silver. A hint of gold remained, but you'd have to scrutinize it closely to notice.
As Allen sorted his thoughts, Taylor and Shiba's conversation drifted to his ears.
"Going deeper?"
"Nah."
"Thanks to Brother Allen, we've got plenty of capacity left. I could purify a few animals. The Mother would love seeing them frolic around."
"Didn't expect Allen to pull this off. But we've got no food."
"The animals prowling the Primordial Forest will donate with joy."
"Donate, my ass... Wild game is tougher and gamier than you think. Didn't prep any spices."
Allen sided with Taylor. His mana overflowed thanks to his constitution, but sorting those guards had burned through most of their supplies.
"Let's head up. Curiosity's great, but safety first—safety second."
"Knowledge first, knowledge second. You just wanna research that powersuit, admit it."
Allen didn't respond to Taylor's jab. It hit too close to home.
Truth be told, the powersuit was too massive to lug around. Figuring out how to handle a 3.2-meter metal giant would take time.
"If you're okay ditching it, we could head down now. But I know you hate that."
"How do you even dispose of a powersuit here?"
"Shoulda skimmed the info when I handed over that memory mod. Got a brain expansion device and everything—what were you doing?"
"Had an interview with the Mother."
"Excuses... There's an explorer guild and company bases on the 23rd layer. Diggers start showing up from the 24th, so they built 'em there."
A sort of forward operating base. Hunting parties sold their spoils there, restocked supplies, and hunkered down for extended stays.
Pure travel time from the surface took over ten days—no way they could keep shuttling back and forth with full carts or depleted stocks.
Shiba nodded in understanding.
"Still, the lines'll shift next time, so entry should be quicker."
"Nope. Gotta steadily cash in loot from Primordial Forest monsters to renew your explorer ID."
"Damn... Anyone buy that stuff off you?"
Allen shook his head. The lines were the explorers' order, and even Roman Company enforced them strictly. True to the merit-based explorer world, qualifications went only to those with real power.
"Heard Roman Company has a lot of... unique explorers."
"Unique? You mean dog-shit personalities?"
"Shiba's got a point. They take anyone, so quality's low—but there are decent folks mixed in. Like pulling a winner from a factory full of duds."
"Weird analogy. Shouldn't it be a lotus in the mud, pearl in the sand?"
Allen shrugged and turned away. The door had drifted about five meters by now. True to its name, the Primordial Forest was choked with trees and underbrush—you had to squint to spot it. Hence the compass.
The black door swallowed Allen once more, but the earlier phenomenon didn't repeat.
*
There were three main ways to carry the powersuit: wear it, use a cart, or a space pouch.
Wearing it wasted too much mana. Hauling the full 3.2-meter suit meant a massive cart. Disassembling let you use a smaller one, but if combat broke out, you might still be suiting up when it ended.
That leaves...
Allen's left eye scrolled through the Saramang shopping list. There were Oparts space pouches from the labyrinth—dimension pouches or dimension backpacks, for short.
The advantages in the labyrinth were too numerous to list.
Allen first checked a palm-sized dimension backpack with 75L capacity. Even that paltry volume seemed doubtful for a single powersuit arm, yet prices started in the billions.
He shook his head and eyed the powersuit standing tall in the center of the warehouse. Now he understood why almost no one wore them around.
With his interest slightly dampened, Allen examined the round compass on his desk. He'd consulted Taylor about that incident; the advice was to stay quiet since it involved collectors.
He was right. No need to draw eyes, and items like this were near impossible to buy even with money.
Through the transparent crystal, he saw the door burst open. Shiba entered first, clutching a pouch of holy water, with Taylor following.
"Gift."
Taylor tossed something over. Naturally, Allen couldn't react, and it thudded to the floor.
"Memory mod."
"Sion promised that experiment data last time. Grabbed it while I was out."
"Thanks."
Lacking a brain expansion device, Allen slotted the memory mod into the terminal.
End
Just before light erupted from the terminal, Allen covered the hologram projector with his hand.
Sion's "experiment data" was a record of human experimentation. Having been through something similar, he couldn't help the psychological aversion.
As Allen hesitated, Taylor leaned forward from behind the sofa.
"What's up?"
"Feels creepy thinking it's info ground out of people."
Taylor smirked at the answer and ruffled Allen's hair.
"Thought you were a mad scientist, but sometimes you're weirdly human."
"Brother, 'sometimes' implies you usually don't think..."
Taylor raised his voice, cutting Shiba off.
"Experiment data's just a bundle of knowledge—nothing more. You get what I'm saying?"
"People give it meaning. Whether nitrogen becomes fertilizer or a bomb—that's up to us."
"Yeah, you get it. If it's still bugging you, think of it as payback for those dead magitech engineers. We stopped more victims and eased some grudges by going there."
Like how sharing joy doubles it, sharing burdens can lighten the load. Feeling much better, Allen released the terminal.
The hologram projector beamed light into the air. A fusion of illusion and light magic, it rendered the memory mod's data in immersive 3D.
A transparent human model materialized first, linked to pipes and cables. The pipes split left and right, labeled "Input" and "Output."
"Still tolerable as a diagram."
Taylor's lips parted near Allen's ear, but Allen—riveted to the hologram—heard nothing.
White lines connected the diagram's components, and annotations began scrolling in. The sheer volume filled the 4-meter-high warehouse ceiling with text and equations.
"Hmm..."
Taylor endured the dizzying assault on his eyes and brain. He'd said something adult-like; bailing now wasn't an option. He planned to unfocus, then ask for a three-line summary.
Allen's eyes darted rapidly. He never reread a line. The massive info flood distilled to essentials, slotting straight into his neurons.
The reason they went to kidnapping magitechers...
In essence, mages were hard to acquire