Chapter 309

“Ha ha! Fuck…”

Hashim chuckled while bracing himself against the wall.

The turban wrapped around his head had long since disappeared, and his deshada had been shredded into rag-like strips.

His skin had been scraped raw by the sand, blood flowing from countless wounds.

Even so, he was lucky it had only ended at that.

Had his escape been delayed by even a moment, his entire body would have been disassembled by the sand.

The reason he had managed to escape safely was because of the belt around his waist.

At the center of the belt, which was engraved with ancient-looking patterns, was a smooth circular plate resembling a giant coin.

The belt possessed a style completely unlike anything from Earth.

It was an item brought back from a dungeon.

Mushura’s Coin.

Despite being a belt, this item carried the name “Coin,” and it allowed short-range spatial movement.

When Hashim first learned of the belt’s abilities, he had been utterly stunned.

He had never even heard rumors of an item with spatial movement properties.

Even Hashim himself had never expected to obtain such an item.

At first, he thought spatial movement would let him freely enter and leave anywhere he wanted.

For example, Neo Seoul’s secret vaults.

Surely he could steal items from hidden warehouses without anyone noticing.

But it hadn’t taken him long to realize how unrealistic that dream was.

Mushura’s Coin was not an item that allowed movement to precise coordinates.

The destination was random.

Even after activation, the wearer himself could not know where he would be transported.

Moreover, the travel distance was not especially long.

A radius of one kilometer was the maximum range.

If lucky, one might arrive on an open plain without obstacles—

but if unlucky and teleported into a wall or into open air, death was entirely possible.

That was why Hashim had mostly used Mushura’s Coin as nothing more than a belt.

If he sold an item like this in Neo Seoul, it would fetch an astronomical price.

Spatial movement items were extraordinarily rare, and most discovered examples were damaged beyond understanding.

An intact spatial movement item like this was priceless.

But Hashim never sold it.

He kept it precisely for moments like this, when his life stood on the brink of death.

His caution had saved his life.

“Urrgh!”

Beside him, Akashi vomited violently.

It was the side effect of spatial movement.

Mushura’s Coin could transport one additional person besides the wearer.

The moment Zeon unleashed the Sand Mixer, Hashim had immediately grabbed Akashi’s hand without hesitation.

Because Akashi was the true core of the Helbrin Mercenary Company.

Even if every other member died, as long as he and Akashi survived, they could rebuild the mercenary company anytime.

‘It would’ve been nice if I could’ve brought Alton too.’

Losing such valuable manpower was regrettable, but there was no changing it now.

Rather than regretting the past, they had to move forward.

Despite losing every subordinate except Akashi, Hashim remained calm.

‘At least I still have Etli and Buckshire.’

Etli the dwarf and Buckshire the lycanthrope were still staying in the slums.

If they could reconnect with them, they could surely carve out a new path forward.

Hashim spoke to Akashi.

“Let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“First, we regroup with Etli and Buckshire. After that, we start hunting slaves again.”

“Surely you don’t mean in the slums?”

Akashi’s eyes widened in shock.

Hashim tilted his head.

“What, is there a problem?”

“If we hunt humans in the slums, our tracks will definitely be exposed.”

“Akashi.”

“Yes?”

“Do we have any other choice?”

“That’s…”

“We’ve lost everything. We have to start over from scratch.”

Hashim’s eyes were filled with madness as he stared at Akashi.

He had no intention of giving up like this.

The slaves they had captured from the survivor villages had been imprisoned in a separate location.

He had prepared it in case of emergencies—

and now it had become the move that saved them.

His plan was simple: replenish the missing slaves by hunting in the slums.

“As long as we have one hundred slaves, we can negotiate with the Spider Queen on equal footing. I can’t throw away an opportunity like that.”

“Mmm…”

“Are you afraid?”

“No, Captain.”

“Heh-heh! That’s more like it.”

Hashim lightly slapped Akashi’s cheek.

Akashi stared at him with tightly clenched lips.

If he had his way, he would flee into the desert immediately.

That was how terrified he was of remaining in Neo Seoul.

‘Oppose the sand mage?’

The moment he recalled the man who had ground the Helbrin Mercenary Company into sand in an instant, chills ran down his spine.

For some time now, rumors had spread throughout the desert.

Rumors about the sand mage.

A sand mage who wielded the desert sands as a weapon supposedly existed.

At first, Akashi had dismissed the rumors as nonsense.

They sounded far too absurd.

But the rumors gradually became more detailed and spread rapidly from mouth to mouth.

The decisive factor that made him believe them was the appearance of the Steel Fortress.

Urtian, who had once been a scavenger like them, had become the ruler of a rising colony called Steel Fortress—

and people said the sand mage had played a major role in it.

If the rumors had been false, Urtian would have denied them immediately.

But Urtian remained silent.

And because of that, the rumors became accepted as fact.

Even then, Akashi hadn’t paid much attention to the sand mage.

The desert was unimaginably vast.

The chances of crossing paths in a lifetime were practically nonexistent.

No matter how godlike the sand mage’s powers were in the desert, there was no reason to fear him if they never met.

But now they had encountered the sand mage in the worst possible way.

As an enemy.

No—

even calling him an enemy felt wrong.

If the sand mage was the hunter, then they were merely prey.

The situation had become the exact reverse of when they hunted the desert survivors.

Tremble…

Without realizing it, Akashi’s shoulders shook.

Merely recalling Zeon caused his body to react instinctively.

“Goddamn it!”

Overwhelmed by a crushing sense of defeat, Akashi bit down hard on his lip.

But it was already too late to return to the desert.

Whether he lived or died, he had no choice but to follow Hashim.

Forcing confidence into his voice, he said,

“Let’s go, Captain!”

“Heh-heh! Right.”

Zeon and Brielle returned home.

Brielle immediately rushed into the bathroom.

She wanted to wash away the foul stench clinging to her body as quickly as possible.

“I’m showering first!”

“Sure.”

Bang!

The bathroom door shut.

—Bey!

At that moment, Gaia emerged from the subspace.

Zeon stroked Gaia’s head as he spoke.

“You had a hard time staying in there. Felt cramped, didn’t it?”

—Ppii!

“Yeah! Honestly, staying in there was probably better. The smell was unbelievable.”

Zeon threw the windows wide open to get rid of the stench clinging to his body.

At that moment, a stream of wind blew into the room and wrapped around him.

“So it was you.”

Smiling faintly, Zeon looked at Gaia.

The wind surrounding his body had been created by Gaia.

The fresh breeze swept away the foul odor clinging to Zeon and carried it outside.

“Thanks.”

—Ppiii!

As if it were nothing, Gaia circled around Zeon while wagging its tail.

Though Gaia loved playing with Brielle, the person it loved most was Zeon, the one bound to it by soul.

Gaia playfully bumped its body lightly against Zeon.

Thanks to Gaia, the unpleasant feeling lingering inside him eased somewhat.

The reality of the sewers they had witnessed while following Jetoya  had been worse than imagination.

Honestly, it almost seemed preferable to live in the desert, directly exposed to magical beasts, than in conditions like that.

After spending so long without sunlight and living in filth, people’s senses had deteriorated and their bodies had undergone repeated mutations.

Jetoya  was actually one of the better cases.

Some people’s skin had transformed to resemble actual crocodiles, while others had even developed gills.

Even Zeon could not predict where such mutations would eventually end.

Far more people lived in the underground sewers than Zeon had expected.

If he had never seen them, he could have ignored their existence.

But now that he had seen them with his own eyes, they lingered heavily in his mind.

“A mana generator…”

Zeon’s gaze shifted toward the mana generator equipped with the Watching Eye.

It was the very object Croker, who had ruled over the scavengers in the underground sewers, had desperately wanted.

Thanks to that generator, Zeon and Brielle could use electricity freely without worry.

No one living in the slums could enjoy electricity the way Zeon did.

Even if someone possessed a small mana generator, it was useless without mana stones.

“I can’t provide mana stones for them too.”

Obtaining mana stones was their responsibility.

Zeon could not help them that far.

Survival was a reward for those willing to struggle for it.

If the sewer residents wanted to live like human beings, they too would have to make an effort.

Zeon sat down on the sofa and thought about what to do next.

By the time he had organized his thoughts to some extent, Brielle emerged from the living room.

“Haa… I finally feel alive again.”

Her hair was still damp.

Gaia moved the wind for Brielle’s sake.

The gentle breeze softly caressed her hair, completely drying the remaining moisture.

“Thanks, Gaia.”

—Bei!

Brielle smiled as she kissed Gaia on the cheek.

This time, Gaia floated around Brielle’s body.

Spreading both arms wide, Brielle fully enjoyed the sensation of Gaia’s smooth skin brushing against her.

“Hehe!”

A little later, Brielle sat down on the sofa with a satisfied smile.

Zeon asked her,

“What do you need to make the mana generator?”

“I think we can get most of the materials from the Goblin Market.”

“Most?”

“So there are things you can’t get?”

“We need a special metal that only comes from dungeons. The process of converting mana from mana stones into electricity generates intense heat, and ordinary metals can’t withstand it. You need to engrave mana circuits into the metal to disperse the heat…”

“So what you’re saying is we need dungeon-forged metal. And something resistant to high temperatures…”

“Exactly!”

“And it probably needs high mana conductivity too?”

“That’s right! Metals like that almost never appear on the market. The moment they’re found, City Hall takes them.”

Brielle wore a troubled expression.

If Mandy were still at City Hall, maybe she could have asked for help.

But Mandy had already left to develop a new mana stone mine.

Zeon rubbed his chin thoughtfully and muttered,

“A dungeon metal with high mana conductivity…”

“It’ll be hard to get right away.”

“No, I have one.”

“You do? Where?”

“In my subspace… Wait a moment…”

Zeon searched through the contents of his subspace.

A moment later, he pulled out a black lump of metal.

“What’s that?”

“Take it. It used to be a dungeon core. It’s become ordinary now after losing all its mana, though.”

“Seriously? This was a core?”

Brielle looked shocked as she accepted the metal object.

This was only the second time she had ever seen a dungeon core intact.

The first was the “Watching Eye” installed in the mana generator inside Zeon’s house.

Even though all its mana had been drained and it no longer functioned properly, the fact that it had once been a dungeon core meant it was undoubtedly extraordinary.

Brielle spent a long time testing the metal, tapping it and injecting mana into it repeatedly.

Zeon waited until she finished before asking,

“Will it work?”

“Yeah! I think it will. I’m going to be incredibly busy from now on, so don’t disturb me.”

Seeing the motivation shining on Brielle’s face, Zeon stood up.

“Alright. I probably won’t be back for a while either. I’m going to be busy too.”

“Huh? Why are you busy, Zeon?”

“I started the hunt, so I have to see it through to the end.”

Just because Hashim had escaped from the underground sewers didn’t mean he had completely escaped Zeon’s grasp.