Vol 7 Chapter 59

[ Hmm. It seems to have worked better than expected. ]

Though Kapros had directed the question at Superior, the answer came from an unexpected place.

'Superior?'

He looked at the hawk before him with disbelief. Superior's voice was resonating from there.

"What happened?"

[ The magic I just used was to bind this hawk and your body as familiars. Mages and familiars can share consciousness with each other, you know? Since your consciousness and my consciousness are connected, I used that to transfer just my consciousness to this hawk. To be precise, I should say I 'temporarily assimilated.' Though my original consciousness is still on your side, you could say it's asleep. ]

Though he couldn't understand everything, Kapros could tell that Superior had used quite a complex method.

"Then now..."

[ Yes. I'll travel around the continent with this hawk gathering information I need. During that time, contact with you... since you haven't properly learned this magic, we probably won't be able to. ]

Then what should he do if he absolutely needed to contact Superior? How did he expect to find him without knowing where he would be? As if sensing his doubts, the hawk's eyes narrowed slightly.

[ I'll leave for about 20 days before returning. Since it's a familiar, I can sense where you are. But in case something happens to me and I can't come, I'll teach you the forced familiar summoning spell. This will need quite a lot of magical power too, so absolutely don't use it except when I don't appear after 20 days. If you make a mistake, you could die from magical power depletion. ]

"I understand."

[ The forced summoning spell is 'Il Rosenti Mier.' ]

After confirming that Kapros had memorized the spell properly, Superior tried moving the hawk's wings a few times before turning to look at him with slightly hesitant movements.

[ ...See you in 20 days. ]

"Yeah."

[ Keep progressing here like you trained in the mental world. I'm worried you might die while I'm gone since you're too weak. ]

"..."

He was doing well until he had to ruin it at the end like that. Kapros silently grabbed the hawk's head in one hand and squeezed.

[ Ow ow ow ow!! ]

The hawk imbued with Superior's consciousness flailed while crying out in pain very rhythmically, and only after being finally released did it spread its wings and take off staggering.

After watching the hawk, which had become like a dot in the sky again after just a few wing beats, when Kapros turned his gaze to his waist, he saw that the Superior staff that usually glowed faintly had lost its light.

"Whew..."

Though he had already realized several times through experience that while you might not notice something when it first appears, you feel its absence strongly when it disappears after being there, that didn't mean he was used to it. He couldn't help feeling strange every time he experienced it.

'Well, 20 days in game time will pass quickly...'

Kapros shook his head to clear away stray thoughts and went outside the room. As soon as he entered the lobby, he encountered Kion-hyung and Lucrecian deeply engaged in conversation.

"Kar did that? And then?"

"Ah well. Though I purely wanted to express my gratitude... it seemed those people around really disliked me."

What? He thought he heard his name, was it his imagination?

"Hyung."

When Kapros called out while approaching, hyung stiffened his shoulders with a start and turned toward him.

"Ah, you startled me. You're here, Kar?"

"You're here, hyung."

"Hmm..."

While nodding vaguely to Lucrecian who greeted him with a grin, when Kapros asked what they had been talking about, both of them answered it was nothing special, so he let it go.

"Since it seemed you hadn't logged in yet, I was waiting here. Are you going now?"

"Yeah. We should go."

"Right, let's go then."

They came out of Skaga's temple and headed toward the warp point in Bala. In less than a few minutes, the surroundings changed from the hot, dry desert city to Torelit's square, which was as green and warm as spring.

"It's been quite a while since I've been here."

Lucrecian muttered leisurely while looking around.

"Where are you planning to go from here?"

"Toward the Orgen Mountains."

While answering, Kapros thought it was fortunate that unlike before, since there were three of them now, they wouldn't need to find a decoy party to go to Gorka where Kor was.

"The Orgen Mountains... I went there too when doing my quest."

Kion-hyung showed a slightly nostalgic expression. They headed straight toward the tall mountain range visible in the distance. Though monsters they had seen before appeared along the way, since they would be sent to the next world after just a couple of punches from Kion-hyung who led the front, there was almost nothing for Kapros or Lucrecian to do.

"Kraaaa!"

"Ah, again? How annoying."

When Kion-hyung avoided the branch of a charging tree monster just by slightly ducking his head and grabbed it with his hand, the monster that had become completely immobilized just from that could be seen flinching as if surprised.

"If you had any sense, you should have stayed crushed after seeing what happened to the others around you."

Hyung lightly delivered a roundhouse kick to the tree's base using one leg as an axis. Though it was such a half-hearted movement it barely made a sound, the effect was completely different.

The tree that started cracking with splintering sounds from where hyung had kicked finally split as if chopped by an axe and fell backward with a crash, appearing like slow motion.

"Kraaaa!"

"You're still alive?"

Hyung stepped on the tree that was still writhing and screaming noisily even after being shattered and falling, and briefly shouted a skill name.

"Sleep eternally in the light of purification. 'Spear of Eternal Rest'!!"

Boom!

After white light flashed once from beneath hyung's foot, the tree that had been thrashing its branches around in a frenzy instantly went limp.

"You're quite good."

"Are you trying to pass that off as a compliment?"

Kion-hyung responded with an incredulous expression to Lucrecian who had thrown out irritating words with a smiling face.

"Of course not. Because,"