The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 160
The creature’s head falling off.
A sigh of relief escaped involuntarily.
‘We got lucky.’
This creature’s strength was clearly superior to mine. However, perhaps due to being newly born, it lacked experience. It moved purely on instinct. If it had battle experience, it would have been dangerous.
‘Experience, huh…’
In other words, it means this monster had intelligence. I found that aspect even more chilling.
Whoosh! The creature’s corpse slowly disappearing, turning into magical energy.
At that moment, I started to sense presences around us.
‘What’s this?’
I thought the villagers might have come up, but that wasn’t the case.
What appeared were three men and one woman. The composition was similar to mercenaries, but the difference was that their equipment was more thorough than mercenaries’.
They widened their eyes upon seeing the creature’s corpse.
“Lunia, quick, scan it!”
“Yes!”
The woman raised her staff and chanted some kind of spell.
‘As expected, magic exists in this world. To the extent that it’s commonized…’
Our continent where magic barely exists except for holy magic, and the outside world where magic is commonplace. I guessed there must be some circumstances behind this.
The woman chanting the spell finally exclaimed.
“Scan complete! Danger designation 4th grade Prince of the Wild! It’s slightly weaker, but there’s no doubt!”
I didn’t know what she meant, but judging by their surprised looks, the creature Gunther and I faced seemed to have been quite dangerous.
The one who appeared to be the leader of the group cautiously approached me.
“I am Kelly from the Salvation Alliance. If you don’t mind, could you tell me your name?”
“…I’m Ars Elaine. I don’t belong to any organization.”
“No, no organization? Someone skilled enough to defeat a Prince of the Wild alone…?”
“I didn’t defeat it alone. More importantly, could you please treat our injuries?”
I didn’t have many wounds, but Gunther, who had to take the creature’s attacks, was severely injured.
“I see. Let’s return to the village for now.”
At that moment, as the defeated creature’s corpse completely vanished, a shining stone was left in its place.
“What’s this…?”
I picked up the stone, as if drawn to it.
Kelly said, “The light is quite intense. It might have grown into quite a formidable one unexpectedly.”
“Grown into a formidable one?”
“You… Don’t know?”
“If possible, could you explain?”
“Well… That’s fine.”
Although Kelly seemed suspicious of my identity, he kindly provided an explanation.
I listened to his explanation as we descended the mountain.
It seemed Lunia, the woman, was also talking to Gunther, but Gunther couldn’t understand her properly and looked confused.
“That stone is called a magic stone.”
As he spoke, Kelly explained about something called ‘fluctuations’.
According to his explanation, this world periodically experiences fluctuations caused by magical power.
And when these fluctuations occur, dungeons appear in various places. If these dungeons are not cleared, they become lost lands occupied by monsters.
“The magic stone is like the core of these dungeons.”
“I see.”
It sounded like a game setting.
‘No, this was actually a game.’
In the original world, things like magic and monsters didn’t appear, so it didn’t feel real.
Anyway, this dungeon’s magic stone was said to be both the cause of all problems and the breakthrough.
“If left alone, this magic stone will turn into magic and disappear, reappearing as a dungeon during the next fluctuation. But if sealed and stored, it can permanently prevent its appearance. That’s why our Salvation Alliance is working on clearing dungeons and sealing these magic stones.”
“So you calculate that if you seal the last magic stone, no more dungeons will appear.”
“That’s exactly right.”
By the time his explanation ended, we had returned to the village.
Upon hearing the news of the successful subjugation, the villagers cheered and repeatedly thanked the people of the Salvation Alliance.
Kelly waved his hands, saying the credit wasn’t his, but the villagers didn’t care, saying that wasn’t important as long as the problem was solved.
Kelly shook his head and said to me, “That magic stone needs to be sealed within 10 days at the latest. If it’s alright with you, would you entrust it to me? I’ll take responsibility for sealing it.”
At that moment, I smelled money.
At first glance, this magic stone doesn’t have any particular value. After all, it’s a dangerous object. But I thought there must be some other value.
Perhaps there’s a use for it after it’s sealed. Or maybe taking it away would earn recognition from some faction.
I thought the latter was Kelly’s reason for wanting it.
I answered naturally, “How much will you pay for it?”
“…”
Kelly narrowed his eyes. “You, didn’t you know nothing about dungeons?”
“I’m not ignorant of how the world works.”
“Uh, umm…” Kelly groaned and then said, as if testing the waters, “I’ll give you 10,000 rilangs.”
“That’s ridiculous. I’ll need to investigate this item more before selling it.”
“Wa-wait a moment. Then, 20,000 rilangs…”
“50,000.”
I thought that would probably be around the fair price. If Kelly was a born merchant, even this might be getting duped, but I judged that wasn’t the case.
As expected, Kelly didn’t get particularly angry even at the price of 50,000. He just looked a bit troubled.
I decided to offer a carrot here.
“Hah, alright. I’ll sell it for 40,000 rilangs. In exchange, let me hitch a ride on your ship. That’s all I need.”
“If that’s all… Then we have a deal.” Kelly smiled and offered a handshake.
This guy. He doesn’t seem to feel any remorse for shamelessly offering 10,000 at first.
* * *
I decided to search the island for about a day. Since Kelly’s group also decided to stay for a day, I had some time to spare.
I left Gunther in the village to get used to speaking, and searched the island with hunters who went up the mountain to find food, but there were no results.
‘It’s better to assume that the others are not here.’
If so, I could leave without any lingering attachments.
Returning to the village at dawn, I washed up lightly and began preparing to leave.
It was during this time.
“Do you have a moment?”
“…?”
It was the female magician named Lunia.
She spoke with a strange look in her eyes.
I knew what kind of look it was from experience, so I couldn’t help but chuckle. Thinking that I had smiled at her, Lunia froze with her eyes wide open.
“What is it?”
“Ah, ah, yes. Well…”
Lunia shook her head quickly as if to shake something off, then continued speaking incoherently.
“Um, I wanted to ask what kind of magic you used to defeat the Prince of the Wild!”
“Magic? I didn’t use any.”
“You didn’t use any!?”
“Is there something strange about that?”
“Of course it’s strange! How did you defeat the Prince of the Wild without using magic?”
“I used aura, of course.”
“Aura…?”
I felt that something was off between us.
I slightly pulled up my aura to show her.
The energy rising from both hands climbed up to my shoulders. Lunia’s eyes widened like a rabbit’s.
“So you were using a weapon spell! Even so, a weapon spell of this level! I can understand how you defeated the Prince of the Wild!”
“Weapon… What?”
“Weapon spell. Is, is it different?”
“Ah… It might not be different.”
Maybe that’s what they call aura in this world.
“You don’t look that old, but to have such a high-level weapon spell. You only use magic when necessary, right?”
“Yeah… I guess you could say that.”
Lunia seemed to think that I was learning magic along with aura. As if it were a natural thing.
‘Magic, huh…’
If it could increase my personal power, I’d like to learn it.
I had always been concerned about my personal power. Ranking around 100th across the continent wasn’t weak by any means, but because the stage I was active on was so big, it never really stood out.
One-on-one duels were out of the question.
I did have confrontations with Fischer Partin and the Three Sword Masters like Lexit, but they were all with the help of supporters.
When fighting Fischer, there was Aggert. When fighting Lexit, there were Eo and Yumir.
I was also feeling limitations in martial arts. No matter how much I trained, I didn’t think I could beat powerhouses like Juras, Anton, or Guderian.
For someone like me, magic was an attractive supplementary option.
“Ms. Lunia? If it’s alright, could you explain about magic to me?” I showed an artificial smile.
Lunia, with a reddened face, told me everything, including things that didn’t exist.
As I was diligently collecting information like this, Kelly appeared with Gunther, as if it was time.
They seemed to understand the situation by looking at Lunia’s expression. Kelly looked at me reproachfully with eyes full of subtle jealousy, and Gunther cried out.
“Don’t be fooled! This guy has a pregnant wife! Moreover, he has three more beautiful women who are destined for him! This deceiver–!”
Fortunately, Lunia and Kelly, who couldn’t understand Gunther’s words, were puzzled, wondering why he was suddenly acting like that.
I slightly stood up and whispered to Gunther.
“Gunther! This was me gathering information!”
“Huh!? Oh, so that’s what it was. I was wondering… Well, you’re different from Ash after all.”
Even while saying this, Gunther couldn’t take his eyes off Lunia. It seems he had already fallen for Lunia.
We headed to the dock with Kelly’s group and encountered three ships. One was a fishing boat, but the other two were passenger ships.
One of the two was the ship of the Salvation Alliance that Kelly’s group had come on, but the other was unknown.
I asked Rudolph, who was maintaining the fishing boat. “Mr. Rudolph.”
“Hm? Ah, Ars. Yes. You’re leaving today, right? You said you were going to Dispen?”
“That’s right.”
“It’s a shame you’re leaving so soon. I wanted to repay you somehow. Well, I’ll give you some snacks, so eat them when you’re hungry.”
“Haha, thank you. But… What’s that ship?”
“That? It’s the kingdom’s regular ship that comes once a month. It’s going to the Southern Continent. To the territory of the Ellan Kingdom.”
“Southern Continent…”
The people of this world clearly know that the world is round.
If you go north from this island, you reach the Southern Continent. If you go south, you reach the Northern Continent.
“Rudolph, could you tell me about that ship’s route?”
If other vassals had fallen on nearby islands, they would surely use this ship.
Some people might want to go to the Northern Continent like me, but there would certainly be vassals going to the Southern Continent.
I didn’t want to miss out on information about those people.
As they say, the initial response is the most important in searching for people.
Just like how I found Gunther, if we handle the initial response well, we might be able to find a few more people.
I decided to consult with Gunther about this.
Gunther seemed to have similar thoughts, nodding his head with a serious face.
Soon, as if he had made a decision, he says to me, “Ars, I think we should split up here.”
“…”
“The ones who understand the current situation best are probably you and me. And we’re in a position where we can make promises to each other.”
“Promises… You say.”
“Yes. If one of us promises to wait at a certain point, even if we get separated, there won’t be a problem. And you should take on that role, Ars. You are the center of everyone. Everyone will probably move to find you. So it might be better for you to stay in one place rather than moving around.”
It was a sound argument. Even for the sake of learning magic professionally, it would be better to establish a base in one location.
As for searching for missing persons, as Gunther said, rather than wandering around aimlessly, it would be better to set up a base in a large city where many people come and go.
What bothered me was that I had to separate again from Gunther, whom I had just met.
You never know. Gunther might die or get hurt in some accident or fraud after we part. If that happens, I will regret this decision for a long time.
As if reading my concerns, Gunther smiled innocently and said, “Don’t worry. Despite how I look, I’m known to be quite sharp.”
“Then what if this Lunia person asks you to stay here and live together for the rest of your life?”
“Ack!? Th-that’s. Well. Since she has feelings for me, I should think deeply about it…”
“Sigh, if it weren’t for that part, I wouldn’t worry.”
Whatever the case, it was clear that this was the best option for now.
So I decided to give Gunther 20,000 of the 40,000 rilangs I received from Kelly and send him to the Ellan Kingdom in the Southern Continent.
“Don’t forget. We’ll meet in the big city of Baien in the Western Continent.”
“Yes. I’ll make sure to tell that to everyone I meet.”
“Stay alive, Gunther.”
“You too, don’t die. If you die, everyone will scatter.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Gunther boarded the ship and left first. His eyes were full of longing as he looked at Lunia, but soon he seemed to fall for a lady on the same ship and lost interest in Lunia.
“He’s really hopeless.”
I boarded the ship heading to the Northern Continent with Kelly’s group.
Hoping to meet other vassals.
Hi guys, please check out the new novel I picked “I killed the Demon King. It was a mistake.”
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