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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: The Tower Genius Descends into the Labyrinth
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Deep into the night.
It had been three nights since they left the city of Helsen.
There were no villages to stop at along the way, making camping not just an option, but a necessity.
"Haaah..."
Sylbian let out a small yawn, realizing once again just how important and meaningful it had been to find a companion for the journey.
He had come to understand it in an instant through their nightly camps.
Thud.
His gaze shifted to the surrounding thickets, where darkness had settled heavily as he snapped a twig.
"Nights in the forest are this dark, huh."
On watch duty, he felt an overwhelming loneliness.
The crisp clarity unique to deep forests.
Yet the darkness where light couldn't reach felt not just profound, but carried a strangely eerie atmosphere.
Thud.
As he swung the twig he held toward the nearby bushes.
His eyes now turned elsewhere.
There sat a small campfire pushing back the darkness.
Beside it lay two sleeping bags, and in one, Cherentia slept soundly, breathing softly.
"..."
Even though he'd seen it several times before, the sight of Cherentia asleep drew his gaze like something wondrous.
Her usually perky ears hung limply.
She clutched her glossy tail tightly to her chest as she slept—a sight unmistakably different from a human's.
'Still amazing no matter how many times I see it.'
He wondered if the way he slept looked just as strange to Cherentia.
He didn't have her pointed ears, let alone a tail overflowing with that glossy sheen.
So perhaps to beastkin, the simple sight of a human lying down to sleep seemed special instead.
In any case, standing watch wasn't exactly enjoyable.
'We'll have to camp until we reach the next city, Soren.'
That meant at least five more nights.
"Haa..."
A sigh escaped him naturally.
They had even mutually agreed to skip any small villages in between.
As he stood watch lost in trivial thoughts.
"Hm?"
Sylbian suddenly directed his gaze far off into the distance.
Only profound darkness filled that direction, with nothing visible.
Yet he faintly sensed signs of life.
Swish.
Sylbian set down the twig in his hand and focused his mind.
"Hesente."
As he chanted the magic incantation, mana surged through his body, and his senses expanded in an instant.
He could feel the clear flow of the atmosphere.
Along with it, presences from very far away began to register.
'Not just one. Two, five, twelve...'
Counting them all, their numbers were more than expected.
Above all, what demanded caution was how stealthily they were approaching.
Even with Hesente active, he couldn't be certain they were closing in—their presence was that subtle.
"..."
He swallowed a sigh and glanced gently at Cherentia, lost in sleep.
She was still breathing evenly; it hadn't been long since she'd taken over watch from him.
She'd probably only been asleep for about thirty minutes.
'I got enough sleep before waking up.'
But such half-hearted thoughts didn't linger.
"Cherentia."
He made up his mind and called her firmly.
"...What is it?"
Cherentia's vacant eyes opened slightly, fixing on him.
Her sharp amber gaze clearly showed she was still half-asleep, but there was no displeasure in it.
"Seems like monsters are coming. Feels like either shadow goblins or shadow orcs."
Even now, he sensed them creeping closer, their presences utterly inhuman.
Most humans he'd encountered couldn't hide their presence this stealthily.
Let alone mere bandits.
"Understood. I can sense multiple presences too."
With that, Cherentia rose from her sleeping bag in one fluid motion and prepared herself.
It wasn't long before they faced the 'things' that had come for them.
"Kreek!"
"Expensive-looking human!"
"Beastkin! Rare beastkin!"
They garbled speech in a mockery of human pronunciation.
Goblins with skin as black as if cloaked in darkness surrounded Sylbian and Cherentia cleverly.
"Sylbian. I'll handle them."
"No. I'll help too."
His unexpected response made Cherentia glance at him.
Her eyes seemed to say there was no need for him to step in.
So he smiled faintly and loosened his wrists gently.
"We're companions, after all. We should share the load properly."
"Very well, then."
Her short reply carried a subtle lift in tone.
Through various chores so far, Cherentia had always taken the lead without hesitation.
Always acting first, extending kindness.
That made him all the more aware.
That he couldn't just keep receiving her goodwill.
"Let's go."
With those words, he kicked off the ground and launched himself forward.
Cherentia naturally went in the opposite direction.
Confirming that, he saw the encircling shadow goblins raise their weapons.
'Night vision must be good, as expected.'
They felt distinctly different from regular goblins. Their movements were agile, responses quick.
Thwack...!
He smashed a shadow goblin's jaw with full force, feeling no sense of crisis. A perfect hit.
"Queek! Mage!"
"Mage came first! That's weird!"
Laughter escaped him even as goblins swarmed toward him.
"Yeah, it is weird."
His physical abilities were undeniably poor.
He wasn't training his body separately, nor did he feel inclined to.
Compared to wolf beastkin like Cherentia, even his Hesente-enhanced body wasn't anything special.
'But.'
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Mana Interference (S-Grade)
- Interferes with mana flow, distorting or reconstructing it.
This trait set him clearly apart from other mages.
Because he could completely disrupt an opponent's mana on contact, inflicting even greater damage.
Whoosh!
He bent his waist sharply as a blade tip grazed the air near his cheek.
Pivoting on one foot against the ground, he loaded even more power into the other.
Crack!
The sensation of flesh and bone crushing under his precise kick to the head was vividly unpleasant.
Yet not unfamiliar.
"Quek!"
As the shadow goblin with its shattered jaw let out a grotesque groan and died.
Sylbian casually surveyed his surroundings.
The initial surprise attack followed by two more strikes had ended the goblins' lives.
To the shadow goblins, this sparked major alarm.
"Weird! Mage is weird!"
"Run! Queek!"
The hesitating shadow goblins turned to flee into the darkness all at once.
Sylbian didn't bother chasing them.
Rustle! Swish!
Four shadow goblins scattered in different directions right away.
Chasing any would inevitably let others escape.
So he didn't chase.
Sylbian hadn't felt the need to pursue from the start.
"Chante."
Moments after focusing his mind, blue spears adorned the air one after another.
Five in total.
Smaller than standard Chante spells, for sure.
But their deployment speed was unrivaled, defying imitation.
Shuuush...!
The mana spears sliced through the air, piercing the shadow goblins' heads and backs precisely.
"Quruk!"
With the goblins collapsing amid bizarre screams, Sylbian slowly turned his head.
"Cherentia, you're as fast as ever."
"Sylbian, sorry, but can you handle cleanup? If not, I'll help."
Cherentia, having finished hers already, asked cautiously.
Her earnest gaze made him chuckle unwittingly.
"Yeah, go ahead and sleep first. You must be tired."
"Thank you so much!"
Cherentia replied brightly and slipped into her sleeping bag promptly.
Sylbian approached the dead shadow goblins without a care, stepping over casually.
First, he sliced off the tips of their ears with a dagger and pocketed them.
Soon, he'd collected ears from all the shadow goblins, stowing them neatly away.
These would fetch a good price later as alchemy materials.
After gathering the ear tips, he tossed the remaining goblin corpses far off to dispose of them.
Shake!
As he shook the blood from his hands, Sylbian suddenly blinked.
"...Come to think of it, this is kinda weird."
Bandits had ambushed them only once in the past few days.
He figured that made sense.
But monsters were different.
Almost every night, they haunted their campsite like ghosts.
And it felt distinctly different from typical monster behavior.
Glance.
Even these shadow goblins he'd just dealt with.
Not particularly strong, but not ones you ran into easily either.
"It's like the monsters are drawn right to us."
His gaze drifted to Cherentia, asleep amid his musings.
'Maybe it's a wolf beastkin trait that attracts monsters often.'
He shook his head at the thought.
Given Cherentia's personality, she'd never hide something like that from him.
Besides, if monsters came frequently, she wouldn't sleep so soundly.
Then he absently brushed his neck.
"Wait, no way..."
Feeling the Stigma under his fingers, his mind wavered.
The cause might not be Cherentia, but him.
'If even monsters are affected by the Stigma.'
It wasn't entirely far-fetched.
Since ancient times, mages—especially those with immense mana—had deep ties to monsters, demons, and other mysteries.
The higher the mana, the more they'd encounter rare phenomena.
In that sense, his days lately were unlike any other.
"..."
Sylbian blankly stared at his hand.
Faint traces of blood he couldn't fully wash off caught his eye.
Along with it, one speculation arose.
'We might be in a more dangerous situation than I thought.'
Clearly, most of his mana was sealed by the Stigma.
He could only use about a tenth of his original power now.
No matter what he did, he couldn't access more.
Yet his body held mana all the same.
Vast amounts that even most mages could only dream of, sealed within his flesh.
"Then, without me even realizing..."
Could the traces of his mana be stimulating monsters from afar?