The Moving Fortress (1)

Not long after he returned to the Suwon base, a welcome face appeared.

"Mage!"

Jihye came toward him, bright with a smile. It had been a long time since he had seen her, and Hanseong answered with a smile of his own, just as glad.

After giving Jihye his blood, he heard what had happened in the tower—everything from the moment she stepped inside until she faced the trials. Partway through, as she came to the tower's administrator, her brow creased.

"...He was a truly unfriendly man."

The one who managed the Alchemist's Tower. Eiron Umbra. Even as she murmured the name, her face stayed sour, and she pressed on.

"He dropped all formality the moment we met, and his attitude was awful. Even when I asked about something I was curious about, he barely bothered to answer."

"Huh? He was that rude?"

"Yes! And once he found out I was a vampire, he wouldn't say a single word to me!"

Had that much been piling up? For a good while afterward Jihye kept fuming, as if her anger refused to settle. Hanseong, by contrast, only tilted his head, puzzled.

Come to think of it...

A few days ago he had heard something similar from Seo Haeun, after she came out of the tower. Its administrator, she said, had been blunt and utterly without warmth. Hanseong's own case had been nothing like that. A, administrator of the Mage's Tower, had treated him with remarkable kindness—so thoroughly that devoted was the only word for it.

People's personalities aren't all the same, so the administrators might each be different too... but...

As he had felt last time, something about it still nagged at him: the sense that A's goodwill must have some reason, some purpose, behind it. The suspicion rose unbidden and did not last. Right now, listening to Jihye came first. Once she had poured out her complaints about the administrator, she changed the subject and went on.

"The Alchemist's Tower was made up of five floors ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in all. The first was called the research wing, the second was the plaza, and the third was..."

The tower's structure matched the Mage's Tower, right down to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the library and the archives. She went on to the alchemist's trials.

"There were three trials I could attempt, but I only managed to take the second. I didn't meet the conditions for the third."

"What were the conditions?"

"Crafting five hundred intermediate potions."

Before she entered the tower, Jihye had only just succeeded in making an intermediate potion. Remembering that, Hanseong nodded as if he understood. Afterward, she said, she had bought all sorts of skill books in the plaza's market district and learned them. And in the middle of telling him, her eyes suddenly went wide, as if she had remembered something left behind.

"Oh, right. Please take this."

"Hm? What's this?"

"It's a spirit medicine called an elixir. I made it as the challenge for the second trial. I thought it might help you, Mage."

A glass bottle shaped like a perfume vial, and a purple liquid inside. The color somehow made it look like something one ought not to drink, but Hanseong took the elixir without a word of complaint. Then the elixir's information appeared, and his eyes went round.

A spirit medicine!

The lowest-grade elixir he had received from Jihye. Its grade was low, and yet it was unmistakably classified as a spirit medicine. Hanseong's mouth fell open, his face blank with disbelief.

I never thought Jihye could actually make a spirit medicine.

An unexpected gain. He turned the elixir over in his hands, staring, then looked back at her.

"Can I drink it?"

"Yes. That's why I gave it to you."

At her ready nod he opened the cap without hesitation and tipped the elixir straight into his mouth.

Gulp!

There was so little of it that the potion vanished ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in a single swallow. He focused next, meaning to control the spirit medicine as it melted into his body—and realized there was no need.

Huh?

The moment the elixir entered him, it was absorbed. Every step of it was as natural as parched earth drinking in the rain. A short while later—

A familiar notification appeared. It meant he had absorbed the spirit medicine completely. Reading it, Hanseong went blank.

It absorbs this easily?

The Wolf King's heart he had taken in the past, and the mana core, had demanded relentless effort and no small amount of suffering before he could finally draw their power in. So why was this different?

Because the grade is low?

Or was it simply the nature of an elixir, a spirit medicine made by hand? He had only drunk the one, so he could not yet say. If he drank a higher-grade elixir later, he would know then. He set the question aside and looked down at his legs.

More importantly, the feeling in my legs...

Regrettably, it was the same as before. Most likely because there were no added effects—no vitality, no recovery, no healing power. He was disappointed, but he did not let it show. If she could make a lowest-grade elixir, then someday she could make a highest-grade one as well. He turned to Jihye with expectant eyes.

"Can you make more later?"

"Of course. As long as I have the materials. Only..."

"Only?"

"I need the key materials. I can get everything else in the tower, but they said the key materials can only be obtained in a special place..."

The lowest-grade elixir had been made from materials the proctor supplied while she challenged the trial. From now on, if she wanted to make another, she would have to obtain the ingredients herself. The problem was those things she had just called the key materials. Hanseong tilted his head, curious.

"What kind of materials?"

"Dimensional essence and ether crystals."

He had no idea what dimensional essence was. This was the first he had heard of it. An ether crystal, on the other hand, was something he recognized—loot from the new achievement rewarded to the first person to destroy a rift stone. He opened his Inventory and took it out.

It looked like a rift stone in miniature. Green crystal in hand, he faced Jihye and smiled.

"Looks like one of them is already solved."

"What? What do you mean...?"

"Here. Take this."

He held out the ether crystal. Jihye took it in a daze, and the moment she checked its information her eyes went round.

"W-where did you get this?!"

"From a rift."

"A rift? What's that?"

Her face said she had heard an unfamiliar name. The time had come to explain. Hanseong told her in detail about Phase 3, which had begun after she entered the tower, and about the rifts.

"I see. So all of that happened while I was gone..."

No short while had passed before she nodded, the whole of it settled in her mind.

"Then if we just get rid of the rifts still left in Russia and Japan, does Phase 3 end?"

"Probably not."

Hanseong shook his head. Nothing had been revealed yet, but he did not think it would end like this. And for good reason: every rift had a scale and a grade.

Which means there are surely rifts of a higher grade than green.

When he went on to tell her about the Fallen God as well, her face soon darkened.

"Haa. It's one mountain after another."

He steadied his resolve, calm. He knew the road ahead was a field of thorns, but he still had the strength to resist. Jihye nodded as if she accepted that too.

"You're right. It's just as you say, Mage. We'll do everything we can."

Both her eyes shone with resolve, and with them an apology for having sounded so faint of heart. Their talk was drawing to a close when—

Vrrrr!

The smartphone in his pocket rang.

Hm? Who is it? Seo Haeun?

With that guess he tapped the call button, and a moment later a voice came through.

Lee Minjae, the magic engineer known as the Enchanter. The instant he confirmed the call had connected, he stated his business.

An oddly excited voice. At those words Hanseong's eyes opened a little wider. There was only one reason Minjae would contact him directly, and the guess he had just made proved exactly right.

A means of travel driven by ether. At the news that the thing which would become the foundation of the Moving Fortress was complete, Hanseong did not hesitate. He drew Phantom, stored in his Inventory, out into the open.

A short while later, the Phantom under Hanseong's control made for the hangar near Special Mission Battalion headquarters, Jihye at its side. Familiar faces were already out to meet it.

"Welcome, Mage."

"We've been waiting for your visit."

The Ark Mechanic, Seo Subin. The Magic Engineer, Lee Minjae. After two days of working side by side, the two of them looked considerably closer than when he had first seen them; the distance between them had shrunk a great deal.

"Then I'll show you straightaway."

Minjae led them to Hangar 3. Watching the door ease open, Hanseong felt his heart begin to race. A moment later he saw what waited inside, and his eyes flew wide.

"...!"

What stood revealed was beyond anything he had expected. An overall length of some fifteen meters. A black fuselage, an enormous main rotor, and a cruciform tail rotor. Stored in the hangar was an attack helicopter of the kind that so often appeared in war films.

I can't believe it was actually a helicopter.

Honestly, he had thought even an armored vehicle would have been more than enough to be grateful ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for. He was still staring blankly through Phantom's eyes when Minjae stepped lightly aside.

"You're welcome to go and look it over."

Phantom did not move. In this state he could not call up the craft's detailed information, so he had no choice but to ask Jihye to check in his place.

"Yes. Understood."

The voice reached only him. She readily approached the helicopter, opened its information, and whispered it in a low voice. What she described was this.

An attack helicopter commonly called an Apache. Hanseong stared at it, dazed, and then, through Phantom, let out a cry of admiration.

"...Incredible. I like it very much."

It was not empty praise. He meant it. Every function he had wanted was built into the helicopter before him, and he kept breaking into satisfied exclamations until Minjae and Subin added their own explanations.

"As you said before, this helicopter uses ether for fuel, and with Miss Subin's help we fitted it with autonomous flight."

"I-it's just that the autonomous driving skill I have only works on the ground. So as a workaround, I copied my unique skill, the artificial intelligence Noah, and implanted it."

The special AI NOAH—Noah, for short—was charged with the helicopter's overall control, flight and evasion included.

"Next, we enchanted two skills. Of those, the one called Save Energy was possible thanks to Sergeant Seo Jihun of the Special Mission Battalion."

Seo Subin's older brother, Seo Jihun. Jihun, also called the Frenzied Rider, was said to possess a skill that could cut ether consumption in half. To push fuel efficiency as high as it would go, they had granted that skill to the helicopter.

"And to prepare for enemy attacks, we enchanted a Barrier skill as well. For that one, we had help from the healer, Kang Eun-ji."

"The healer?"

"Yes. When we told her we were making a means of travel just for you, Mage, she was happy to help."

She had done something he had never even asked of her. Unexpected—and, at the same time, something to be grateful for. If he ever obtained a healer's skill book, he ought to pass it on to her. While he was thinking as much, Minjae went on.

"We ran a test flight, and confirmed that every part works as intended. Of course, I can't say it's perfect yet."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"The power source's specs fall short of what we'd hoped."

Minjae's face darkened. He sighed as if the shortcoming stifled him, then, together with Subin, filled in the rest.

"For now I made and installed the highest-grade power source I can produce, but even so the specs are lacking, and the fuel efficiency is on the poor side."

"The most ether the power source can store is ten thousand. After that, you'll have to supply ether to it yourself, Mage."

The AH-64's consumption was one hundred per kilometer. Activating Save Energy cut that in half, but the skill lasted only thirty minutes and then carried a one-hour cooldown.

If I don't use Save Energy...

A hundred kilometers would burn ten thousand mana. Even with the skill, a considerable amount of mana would clearly be spent. Put that way, the efficiency really did seem poor. He was sinking into the problem when another thought cut across it.

No. Wait.

A power source? Now that he thought of it, among the loot he had taken before, hadn't there been an item by that very name? He dug through his Inventory, and soon found what he wanted.

The champion that had seized the city of Uijeongbu. This was loot from the Steel Machine Golem's subjugation, and the name itself read power source. Use this, and wouldn't the problem be solved? He took the Steel Machine Golem's Power Source out, and when he passed it to Minjae through Phantom, the young man's eyes went wide.

"Th-this is...?!"

Subin, beside him, looked the power source over as well and startled. A moment later the two of them cried out, their faces noticeably brighter.

"With a grade like this, I think we can make a power source whose specs are more than enough!"

"Yes. I think so too."

Room to improve, then. Hanseong's own expression brightened.

"How long until it's finished?"

"One more day should be enough."

"Good. I'm counting on you."

"Yes! Just leave it to us."

Their spirited answers were the last of it. Phantom and Jihye left the hangar. Jihye vanished, saying she was going to report what she had experienced in the tower to Brigadier General Lee Jongpil, and Hanseong stored Phantom in his Inventory. As it happened, he had something of his own to do.

The VIP auction, open again after a month. With an hour left before it began, Hanseong connected to the auction hall. A moment later, with the feeling of his consciousness growing distant, a familiar scene unfolded.