Imperial Hunter - Chapter 27: Trembling Giant (6)
The battle was over. Once the gunfire died down, the forest's trembling soon subsided as well. The results from injecting a truth serum into one of the higher-ranking ones weren't all that impressive. They knew nothing special about true magic, the Round Table, the witch, O7A, or the one with the Golden Age's Eye.
These guys were thoroughly disposable pawns.
It wasn't unexpected, but it was a bit disappointing. From the Wales witch's perspective, it must have been a casual gamble—nice if it worked, no big deal if it didn't. High expected returns for the low investment.
What was surprising was the capabilities of the forces she commanded, directly or indirectly. Based in mainland Britain under the Round Table's watchful eye, yet they pulled strings beyond their oversight and casually burned through fanatics like these...
Unlike the pairs patrolling the outskirts, the ones guarding the forest's core were all nineteen lumped together as one group. That was proof they weren't worried about losing control due to immortal cancer formation. In other words, they were devil's servants of a whole different caliber—faithful enough to accept horrific agony as a trial.
If the Heptagonal Knights (O7A) expanded in the future, these would be prime recruitment material. The underground churches of Satan worshippers eroded by Grace's blessing had apparently secured a far larger following than anticipated. Even if they lacked organization.
I calmed my battle excitement and examined our sole trophy. It looked like a wristwatch, but inside the bezel was just a disk etched with a star and a single bead.
But this was the final piece of the puzzle I'd been missing.
"Looks like it, huh? A clock that doesn't tell time."
I turned at Kyung-tae's words, spoken while hoisting a corpse on his back.
"Something like that exists?"
"Yeah. You know I love watches? A few years back, some Swiss brand put out a 'clock that doesn't tell time.' Pretty sure it was Heutlence. I remember they had a bead on the dial too."
Heutlence...? Never heard of it. If it's not one of the world's top brands, it's not worth knowing. To me, luxury watches were just accessories to avoid looking down-and-out or bribes for politicians. Occasionally useful for money laundering or transport too.
High-end Patek Philippes were millions on your wrist. Perfect collateral or emergency cash in a pinch.
Kyung-tae stared at the devil worshipper's watch and gave his verdict.
"But this doesn't look like one of those luxury ones."
I nodded lightly.
"It's a kind of compass. A detector that tracks mana essence and mana power."
"Ooh, a magic item, then?"
"Item?"
"Yeah, that's what everyone calls 'em these days. In games or novels."
"Not at the Round Table, at least."
Things made in their sacred Golden Age were called relics or antiquities as holy artifacts. Post-Golden Age ancient relics were artifacts. The especially important ones got spelled artefacts. Lesser junk was talismans.
Mostly knick-knacks the Round Table Masters whipped up before this 'change.' This watch-like detector would qualify as a talisman, if we had to classify it.
"Doesn't matter what we call it, anyway."
I'd slapped the arbitrary name mana essence on magic's source for convenience myself. The Round Table might call it aether or whatever in London, but the world ahead wouldn't bend to that.
Someday, the Masters might leverage the British government to push international standards, but we'd see then. They weren't about to spill their secrets easily.
"Anyway, is that thing worth much?"
Pulled from my thoughts, I tossed Kyung-tae's question back.
"You think?"
"Nah."
"Right. It's not."
"Figures..."
The loyal dog scratched his head.
"Still held out a little hope. Reward for all this mess."
"Didn't I say the real reward's something else?"
"Haha, yeah. But magic item got me thinking. Mind if I take a closer look?"
I tossed him the detector instead of answering. Kyung-tae tilted the disk, marveling at the golden bead rolling freely, defying gravity at times.
"Ooh, takes me back to elementary school magnet experiments. Cute little thing—different vibe from the magic you've shown me, hyungnim."
"Masters each have their specialties."
This wristwatch detector would have been useless junk back then. Too low sensitivity—only reacted to intense mana power, which didn't exist in the old world.
Wouldn't even twitch with a Round Table Master right in front of it. What good's that?
Even trash like this wasn't easy to make. Grafting souls ripped from living sacrifices onto objects for semi-permanent incantations was a signature skill of the Master Grace killed. Especially miniaturization.
My mentor-puppy was a fine mage, but no way he could've turned a 2-millimeter bead into a talisman.
Now the world's changed, so with experiments, I could mimic it.
Kyung-tae, fiddling with the detector, suddenly spoke up.
"Hyungnim, just got a killer idea."
"Idea?"
"Yup. Whether it's the denture squad at the Round Table or the Wales witch jerking off with crosses, they could crank out a hundred of these and it'd still suck compared to your eyes, right?"
"And?"
"This forest's essence is getting wilder than what we just fought, yeah?"
"Most likely."
"So instead of this bead toy, why not use your eyes to find spots only you can navigate properly and build secret bases there?"
"...Isn't that obvious?"
"Ah."
Kyung-tae rolled his eyes. As if I hadn't thought of it.
It fully exploited the Golden Age's Eye's asymmetric edge. Uses for bases in this green maze were endless: emergency shelters, smuggling relays, secret warehouses.
Done right, it'd mislead enemies into mistaking decoys for my real hubs. The most appealing part when I first conceived it.
"Problem is good sites are surprisingly rare."
"True..."
"Even in Korea. How many decent spots you think there?"
Kyung-tae's pondering didn't last.
"Not many, for sure."
Korea wasn't ideal. 70% mountains, sure, but tiny land area, and qualitatively nothing matched the President park or this single-organism forest, the Trembling Giant.
Especially unfit as dummy sites to divert eyes from my real base.
Overseas opened tons of candidates, but most remote—hard to build and maintain. Staffing was tricky too.
Worse, all-East Asian faces across the sea screamed clue. A hint to guessing my real base.
Like the UK mainland push, it'd need non-East Asian hires.
Kyung-tae looked sheepish.
"I was picturing something like Eight Gates Escapism."
"Eight Gates... what?"
"Eight Gates Escapism. From Romance—you know, the spell-formation Zhuge Liang uses? You've read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, right, hyungnim?"
Even I, who saw novels as waste, read Three Kingdoms. Not for fun, but to handle certain Chinese pricks. Cultural Revolution torchers' last cultural crutch.
Most hadn't read the real history or novel deeply, so knowing originals let me flatter without bruising egos. Show a bit more knowledge than their "dozens of reads," and they'd hype me up instead of admitting their bluff.
Matching eye-level with prideful Chinese zombies was exhausting...
I recalled what Kyung-tae meant.
Zhuge Liang commanded ghosts from the Book of Six Jia Heavenly Secrets, mastered Eight Gates Escapism.
Called 24 divine generals, shrank ground, changed winds with Wind-Rain Master secrets. Plus formations: Eight Arrays, Eight Gates Golden Lock, etc.
Open (開), Rest (休), Life (生), Block (杜), View (景), Alarm (驚), Wound (傷), Death (死).
Three gates to live through: Open, Rest, Life. Three to die: Alarm, Wound, Death. Control via Block and View in between.
That was it.
"Thinking of Life Gate and Death Gate concepts?"
"Yes! Exactly."
"...Similar, if we nitpick."
"Right?"
Life Gate: exit alive. Death Gate: enter and die. Ignoring I Ching nonsense, ideal bases would mimic the effect.
Kyung-tae perked up at my nod.
"Gotta relay weapons and men to UK mainland—need a midpoint in the Gulf of Mexico, yeah?"
"Go on."
"Central-South America kids build submersibles or load cargo in jungle rivers and swamps. Soon, tons of those sites'll get ditched. Bet we snag one. Scout or buy 'em out."
Why price high what they're dumping? Even without Amazon, Brazil's northeast had cartel shadows aplenty. Muddy waterways from river-sea meets carved mangrove coasts, each capillary feeding hundreds of tons of coke yearly.
I pondered, then replied.
"Not as simple as you make it, but I'll consider if opportunity knocks."
I turned my gaze outward.
"Wrap up anything left. Time to go."
"Got it."
Core circuit mapped. Slow search, short winter days—sky'd change soon. Slipping past the sheriff's lax patrols? Easy.
Today, with the giant's circuit map, I gained a magic fragment not even in the Round Table's total knowledge codex, the Codex Gigas Aureolus.