Chapter 69: Eggshell……?

‘What is this?’

It felt like I could sense demonic energy for a moment, then it suddenly disappeared again.

It could have been a hallucination, but it grated on my nerves.

It was as if a being possessing demonic energy had used some means to evade my senses.

‘……Like that woman.’

The moment that thought came to mind, Muno’s eyes narrowed.

Soon, he began to approach the forest, as if melting into the darkness.

And in the forest he cautiously approached, preparing for a potential confrontation, he saw something unexpected.

No, he felt it.

‘There’s nothing…….’

The moment I frowned while looking at the goblin corpse I had thrown.

Thump.

From a not-so-distant empty clearing, I felt a strange pulsation of demonic energy spread out again.

A strange demonic energy where a unique sense of displeasure coexisted with a somehow familiar feeling.

‘What……?’

Thump.

There was clearly nothing visible to the eye, but that strange demonic energy appeared and then suddenly disappeared again.

It felt as if a very faint demonic energy, one I might not have even noticed if not for the Demon Devourer, was causing a small explosion for a moment before disappearing again.

‘What is this?’

Faced with this unfamiliar situation, Muno cautiously approached the clearing again.

And while hiding on the dark forest path, he stared at the center of the clearing where the demonic energy was felt.

‘No matter how I look, there’s nothing there?’

I wondered if it was hiding its presence like that woman.

Paaaaaaaang!

Towards the center where the pulsation was felt, I threw a black dagger condensed from a Two-handed sword.

However.

Kung.

Jjeojeojeok.

The dagger, becoming a black ray of light in the middle of the night, passed through the clearing and simply shattered an intact tree on the other side before disappearing.

And then.

Thump.

From the same location, that peculiar pulsation was felt once again.

‘What the……. The ground?’

Chwareureuk.

Pababak.

The iron chain that I instantly extended again coiled around the ground of that space like a snake.

Still, nothing was caught.

“What is this?”

Feeling as if I were possessed by a ghost, I muttered to myself without realizing it.

At that moment.

Thump.

From amidst the dust clouds rising above the iron chain, that same pulsation was suddenly detected.

And only then did something very small and pure white come into Muno’s sight.

Pabak.

Without thinking, he moved his body and snatched it as it fell with the dust.

And he was surprised.

“A shell……?”

An eggshell?

It couldn’t be, but it looked exactly like one.

A tiny, tiny white shell, barely one-thirtieth the size of his pinky fingernail.

That unidentified substance.

Thump.

Was faintly scattering that unpleasant yet familiar-feeling demonic energy.

“What on earth is this?”

I couldn’t help but be bewildered.

I strained my senses and looked around in all directions, wondering if it was a trap.

The senses of the Demon Devourer, which stretched out endlessly in a space with no obstacles, still could not detect any demonic energy…….

Thump.

“Ha?”

No, there was something.

At a far distance, barely within reach of my fully extended Demon Devourer’s senses, I felt a similar pulsation, as if it were reacting to this shell.

‘Don't tell me, a lure? No, that can’t be?’

The strange pulsation this shell was currently emitting was very faint.

I was sure that unless one had a special trait or sense like my Demon Devourer, no magician, priest, or Spirit Master could feel this pulsation of demonic energy.

To be more precise, it was at a level where I felt I wouldn't be caught even if I stood in front of Rasmia while hiding this shell.

But to lure me with such a faint pulsation.

‘Even if it’s to lure me……. It doesn’t make sense.’

It was impossible unless they knew me better than I knew myself.

Naturally, I couldn't help but be curious.

And.

‘Whatever it is, if there’s a being with demonic energy.’

I have to eliminate it.

With that resolve, Muno decided to chase the strange pulsation he felt from afar.

Of course.

‘Carefully.’

Pabak.

His movements, shifting from shadow to shadow in the forest under the cover of darkness, were so secretive that they would be invisible to the eyes of an ordinary person.

It seemed that the hunt in the middle of the night would be longer than expected.

* * *

Kwajik.

“Kki……?”

Thud.

A black energy mass that flew in from the darkness shattered the head of a goblin that was searching for prey in the forest and then disappeared.

And the fallen corpse was soon lifted up by an invisible force and then thrown into the darkness of the forest.

Kung.

‘Annoying things are getting on my nerves.’

The ‘shadow’ that had lightly dealt with the goblin frowned while in hiding.

There was no awareness that it was an overreaction.

As if it wasn't enough that his nerves were on edge because of the ‘egg’ in his arms, miscellaneous monsters had strangely started to lurk nearby, so how could he bear it?

‘Damn it, how did things turn out like this…….’

To find just this one egg, countless of his comrades had lost their lives.

And contrary to his belief that he would safely return to the organization’s embrace, he had ended up back in this northern backwater, and near Drasen of all places, not even Trian.

It was Her command, so he couldn’t disobey, but he was anxious.

‘If that mother comes while I’m doing this…….’

Thump, thump, thump.

Just thinking of ‘it,’ which resembled the pitch-black darkness, made his heart beat crazily fast and his chest ache as if it were being squeezed.

He even thought it was a miracle that he was still alive after witnessing ‘such a thing.’

“Hooo…….”

The shadow forced himself to take a deep breath and tried to clear his mind.

‘Elder Karin said she would bring a named magical tool.

I just have to keep this safe until then.’

Only after comforting himself like that could he forget the fear that felt as if it were engraved all over his body.

In truth, Elder Karin was coming not because of the egg, but for another mission related to it, but he felt that thinking this way would slightly ease his anxiety.

And so, he forced himself to continue his positive thoughts.

‘There’s no way I’ll be found. By anyone.’

The only ones who could use the ‘Dark Curtain’ magic, which exerted a double effect of the ‘Veil’ that She had developed, were Elder Karin, Her disciple, and them, her direct subordinates.

A miracle only possible for those who specialized in darkness and stealth-type magic.

That’s why he and his comrades, who were merely 5-Circle, were able to accomplish what was only possible for the mad Seven-Star Heriment of three hundred years ago.

‘Karin, no, Elder Karin, who can cast the Dark Curtain while simultaneously using other magic, is the amazing one.

That’s why she became Her true disciple.’

Of course, he deliberately ignored the fact that all his comrades had died in the process.

‘Right. It’s not dangerous anymore. I just have to wait.’

In the meantime, he just had to clean up the annoying things.

He didn't think that dealing with the surrounding monsters might draw someone else's attention.

His current location was in the southern part of a backwater where the monster wave was in full swing, and it was also the middle of the night.

And above all, he felt like he would go crazy if he didn't relieve the extremely intensifying stress somehow.

‘There are only a few hours left until dawn, the time I promised to meet Elder Karin.

Until then…….’

From the hand of the anxious shadow, detection magic began to spread out in all directions like a net to find the surrounding monsters.

‘Hm?’

Muno frowned for a moment.

He had been cautiously advancing for several kilometers for hours, following the tiny eggshell fragments that were as small as grains of sand and barely visible unless you looked closely, under the cover of darkness.

In the third small forest he entered, a pulsation of demonic energy, completely different from before, spread out.

Unlike the random pulsations that the eggshells had been scattering until now, it was demonic energy with a clear purpose and pattern.

‘A magician!’

It wasn’t a hallucination.

Muno smiled as he silently absorbed the demonic energy that was getting closer and closer to him.

He had broken through detection magic before, when he met Amos.

Of course, it wasn't intentional back then, but now, he felt like he could read the pattern clearly.

‘If the spread-out demonic energy doesn’t send a signal according to a pre-entered pattern, it can’t be detected.’

In other words, if he just absorbed the spreading demonic energy, the magician wouldn’t feel any reaction.

In that case, he could in turn track the enemy's position.

However, many things bothered him.

What on earth was the identity of this eggshell(?), and why couldn't he feel the magician's main body?

‘Could it be that woman?

No, that’s not it? It’s different.’

Was there another magician besides that witch who could evade the Demon Devourer’s senses?

If so, what was such a magician doing alone in a deserted forest in the south, far from Drasen?

Everything was unsettling.

Of course, he quickly shook off even that feeling.

‘I’ll forget about the eggshell for now.’

The enemy, a magician, is nearby.

‘Focus.’

The thought that it might not be that woman was just a guess.

In the worst-case scenario, he had to approach with the resolve to face that woman alone.

‘It’s a good thing it’s night.’

Muno’s footsteps, assuming a confrontation, began to become even more cautious from that point on.

After learning Spirit Arts, moving in nature became more comfortable and natural.

But facing an enemy that scattered demonic energy made his hostility soar on its own.

To the point where he thought it wouldn't matter even if that magician was not an evil cultist.

‘It wasn’t this bad before…….’

As he hunted monsters and eliminated demonic energy, he was increasingly realizing what Rasmia had said.

- Once you learn Spirit Arts, you’ll understand.

Why we hate magicians.

Because he was gradually and clearly feeling how much the demonic energy spread in the world pollutes nature, and how much it adversely affects the ‘order’ of this world.

Thanks to that, his inspiration for the third spell, the next step after ‘Blade’ and ‘Transformation,’ seemed to be becoming clearer lately.

‘It’s a bit concerning that the third spell is also shaping up to be for combat,’

But since the first spell itself was ‘Blade,’ it couldn’t be helped.

And the order that Spirit Arts speaks of never means a denial of destruction.

Because the law of the jungle is also a part of nature’s order.

- Once you realize the third spell, you can consider yourself to have reached 2-Class immediately.

- What changes?

A lot changes.

But that’s……. Pfft, what’s with that expression?

Anyway, experience it for yourself.

Looking at your mana capacity, it’s strange that you’re still 1-Class.

‘I’m looking forward to it. But this is…….’

The deeper he delved into the darkness of the forest, the more the color of his armor seemed to blend with the surrounding environment, which also seemed to be an additional effect of Spirit Arts.

‘……Somehow I feel like I’m becoming an assassin. Tsk.’

Contrary to his internal complaints.

The black-haired, black-armored Black Knight blended into the darkness of the forest all too naturally.

And not long after that.

‘Found you.’

Muno’s eyes gleamed as he once again confirmed the point from which the search magic was extending.

What’s more, the pulsation of the eggshell was also flowing from that point.

He watched a little longer to be cautious.

And then.

Chwreuk.

A condensed black energy mass from there flew somewhere in the forest, creating the scream of a monster, ‘Keeek!’.

That was probably.

‘A goblin.’

What on earth was it doing?

Judging by the demonic energy briefly revealed when the magic was deployed, that magician seemed to be at least 4-Circle or 5-Circle.

That made it even stranger.

A high-ranking magician who could deceive his senses was hiding in this southern forest and hunting goblins?

That sight made him come to another unsettling conclusion.

‘If a 4th or 5th-Circle magician is doing such a trivial thing……. Could there be another magician that I can’t find? A higher-ranking magician than that one?’

Could it be that woman?

The worst-case scenario briefly flashed through his head, causing a sudden stir in his heart.

But his decision was swift.

Even if the one hiding here is not from that evil cult.

All magicians are enemies anyway.

Rather than getting caught from behind while retreating in this situation.

‘All the more reason to make sure I catch one of them for sure.’

The moment his hesitation disappeared.

Pabak.

‘Hap!’

His blade, which shot out through the darkness of the forest, pierced through the empty space where he presumed the magician to be.

And.

Kwang!

“Keok!?”

Kwang?

Along with a dull sense of impact he had not expected at all, something transparent distorted, and a masked person was thrown out from mid-air.