Chapter 2433 – 2433. Dark Moon
“Kuh….”
Rahul groaned as he rose from the jade bed.
His clone had just died. Rahul, who had been controlling the clone through their linked consciousness, was physically unharmed, but his consciousness was wounded.
It wasn’t damage from combat, but a magical backlash caused by the forced severing of the connection with the clone.
“…My head feels like it’s going to break.”
“Rahul-nim, what’s wrong?”
A man in a suit, with a gentle demeanor in his thirties, quietly approached him and offered a glass of water.
Ott. His secretary and the head of the Fresh Medicin project underway here.
Rahul took the glass of water from Ott and gulped it down. The cold water made him feel a little better.
“There’s a variable. A vampire and a druid have entered the project area.”
“…It’s been a while since outsiders have come in.”
“The failure last time must have brought about this variable. The druid is Aisa Gomez. She’s a fellow priest from my school.”
“…Gomez? Is she related to Ilario Gomez by any chance?”
“She’s his daughter.”
“The daughter of the editor of the Liberals. Just hearing that is annoying. This place is relatively close to Neo-London, so the project must not be exposed. We must deal with them. Are you… are you alright?”
“You don’t need to read my mind. I’ve already cut all ties. If Aisa is found, kill her. She’s a druid who reached level 5 in her twenties, but she has no interest in combat, so she’s only at level 4. The problem is that it will be difficult to find her. And there’s a trueblood vampire by Aisa’s side.”
“…A trueblood, you say? Interesting. In this day and age, trueblood vampires are rare among the rare. Even if it’s due to factors other than birth, I’d like to capture him.”
“He’s not ordinary. He’s experienced in combat and ruthless. He’s a level 6 high-ranking blood mage. Capture? You’ll be taken down instead.”
“…A trueblood vampire and a level 6 blood mage. If we send a combat unit without thinking, they’ll be annihilated. Ah, what does the vampire look like?”
Rahul frowned and described the vampire. A vampire with long hair.
“Long hair. No, could it be.”
“Do you know him?”
“He’s a rising star who recently appeared in the Neo-London mercenary world. A 100% mission completion rate. Eugene, the body collector. He mainly uses blood magic and black magic as a secondary.”
“…Black magic. Yes. It was the curse he cast on me that was the cause of my defeat. Pain Tula. A curse that inflicts extreme pain. My clone doesn’t feel pain, so it didn’t notice the curse and was defeated. In this regard, not feeling pain isn’t always a good thing. What’s his name?”
“Eugene. We don’t know his last name, and it might not be his real name.”
“It doesn’t matter. As long as he calls himself that, that name has become one of his names.”
“Are you perhaps going to curse him?”
“I was cursed, so I have to repay him with a curse. I’ll show him that curses aren’t exclusive to black mages. Can you prepare?”
“It’ll take 10 minutes. I pity the guy who’s going to receive Rahul-nim’s curse. May I ask what kind of curse it is?”
“A curse of madness. It’s impossible to completely drive a high-ranking mage with a strong mental barrier insane, but… just planting a bit of madness will give me a big advantage in the next battle.”
Ott, who was in charge of the project at the age of 30, finished preparing for the curse ritual in 10 minutes as he had said.
Rahul walked towards the altar in the prepared ritual site. Five creatures wriggled on the altar. They were humans. Just humans that had been mixed with something and turned disgusting.
He killed all the sacrifices with an obsidian dagger and began the ritual.
The price was paid, and he knew the face and name of the cursed target. It would be more perfect if he had the target’s hair, blood, and flesh, but it was clear that he couldn’t get them right now. He wasn’t stupid, so he wouldn’t leave any traces of himself.
“Oh, great god of life. I offer my devotion and sacrifices. Please grant me a portion of your power.”
Rahul chanted the incantation without stopping. Soon, the curse was complete.
“Cough!”
Rahul coughed up blood and collapsed in front of the altar.
Ott, who had been watching from behind, was startled and rushed to him.
“Rahul-nim! What happened?!”
“Damn it…. The curse failed. I suffered internal injuries as a result. I’ll have to focus on recuperating for a while…. I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Rahul-nim failed at a curse? Rahul-nim is a messenger of God! The power of Akar should have been in the curse…! Is it possible to fail?!”
“That trueblood vampire is blessed by a god. And a god that is higher in rank than Akar.”
Ott’s expression twisted. He knew, as the one in charge of the project, how absurd the power of a god was. Rahul, who had guessed his thoughts, wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve and said.
“Don’t worry. The blessings of gods are all different, and the blessing the vampire received is probably a blessing of talent. Also, gods can’t use their power unless they meet their own conditions. Even if they do use it, it’s very limited.”
“Ah, that’s right. That’s why we’re going through all this trouble here. Please rest. I’ll see what I can do with the rest.”
“Let me give you a piece of advice. If something seems strange, don’t hesitate to act. If not, call me.”
Rahul got up. He staggered out of the ritual site.
* * *
I asked Aisa.
“Rahul is a clone user. He’ll probably send out clones to find us. Can this bracelet hide Rahul’s gaze?”
“Of course not. Rahul-sunbae is a better druid than I am. He’ll probably see right through it? But it’s okay. Rahul-sunbae’s clones won’t move.”
“Why are you so sure?”
“Well, to maintain such a large-scale barrier, Rahul-sunbae’s clones have to keep performing the ritual in specific places. And when the clone dies, the backlash will have damaged the main body… It’ll take at least three days to create a new clone.”
“You know a lot about Rahul.”
“I was very interested in clone techniques, so I bothered him quite a bit. In the end, I didn’t have the aptitude for it, so I didn’t even learn the basics.”
Aptitude, huh.
It seems that aptitude is just as important for mages and druids.
In the case of mages, magic is divided into many categories, so it requires aptitude. Even within elemental magic, it’s divided into water, fire, wind, and so on.
“How do you find out a druid’s aptitude? Can I do it too?”
“A vampire druid? I’ve never heard of that… It’s interesting. Shall we try it?”
Aisa took out a leaf from her cleavage. It looked ordinary on the outside. If you focused, you could feel a slight sense of incongruity.
“It’s a leaf imbued with the power of the great spirit. It’s useful for young druids to find out their aptitude.”
“You carry that around?”
“It’s also an excellent emergency medicine. Now, grab the leaf and send mana into it. It’ll react according to your aptitude. The leaf turned into a stone for me.”
“Interesting.”
I sent mana into the leaf.
The leaf turned blood-red and then became limp.
“Huh? I’ve never seen that before… Is it because you’re a vampire?”
“Do you have a few more of these?”
“Yes. Well, they’re not hard to get.”
I took another leaf she offered.
‘Is the leaf turning blood-red because I’m a vampire?’
To test it out, I focused my mind on the mana.
Zap!
Lightning began to crackle from the leaf.
“Huh…? You have a talent for lightning too.”
The changes didn’t stop there. It became wet, froze, and then burst into flames. It reacted as I had thought. This leaf doesn’t draw out the attributes of mana. It reacted to the mind, not mana.
“Uh, wh-what’s going on…?!”
“I think I understand. This leaf is a medium with what you call the great spirit. It draws out the aptitude of the target by resonating with their mind.”
“Ah, yes. That’s right. The source of a druid’s power is the great spirit.”
“Mental resonance with the great spirit is the essence of druid magic.”
“Yes. You understood it right away.”
I completely lost interest in druid magic.
Just now, there was no mental resonance with the great spirit. That’s why the leaf reacted to the attributes of mana. Without mental resonance, it was just a leaf that reacted to mana.
The reason why mental resonance didn’t happen… I don’t know. I’m not interested.
“Let’s start with the undercover investigation you were talking about.”
“Huh? Don’t you want to become a druid?”
“Not interested.”
“…You’re being very blunt. I was curious about a vampire druid since it’s so rare… But if you don’t want to, there’s nothing I can do. Before we start the undercover investigation, the important thing is to have at least some information. We need to get some basic information first.”
She and I went around gathering information. We did it by grabbing passing tribesmen and getting information out of them. Surprisingly, we encountered passing tribesmen quite often, most of whom were merchants.
The humans here all lived in tribes. Each tribe had a different atmosphere and appearance.
There were a total of 19 tribes.
Among them, five were tribes of ordinary humans. They were all holed up in secluded places and didn’t move. They were weaker than the tribes with bizarre appearances.
The 19 tribes were complicatedly divided into tribes that were hostile to each other and tribes that were allied with each other. There were no tribes that maintained complete neutrality.
“First of all, it’s a relief that there are tribes of ordinary humans. If we’re going to infiltrate, it’ll be one of these tribes. No matter how much we have the bracelet of nature, if our appearances are too different, they’ll feel a sense of incongruity. Three of the five tribes have cannibalistic customs… So that leaves two. Let’s go to the tribe that’s the furthest away. I heard that tribe is the most gentle.”
“……Are you really going to do this.”
“Then should we do it for show? Okay, let’s get ready.”
Aisa was full of enthusiasm.
