Chapter 100: Fragment of Memory

“First, let’s sort out the situation.”

The city of alchemists, Hedravan, was a 20-day walk away.

“Twenty days… that’s quite a long time.”

“Yeah. Time is not on our side.”

The biggest issue was that there were just under two months left until the end of Blackout’s season.

“Within that time, we have to find the tier altar of this field.”

When the season ends, a portal to the surface appears right next to the tier altar, so they had to find it within the remaining 58 days.

The problem is, we have no idea where the tier altar in this place is.

Starting from the fourth level and above, fields become incomparably larger than the ones before, like the Warfield of Orcutas.

Traveling took much more time, and battles were frequent.

But right now, the biggest issue was something else entirely.

“What is it? The purple mist?”

“Or the lack of mana?”

Eleanor and Aiden took turns asking.

But Jun shook his head.

“Both are definitely serious problems, but the bigger issue is…”

Seeing Jun’s grave expression, the other three turned to him with tense faces.

“We have no food.”

“…Huh?”

“What?”

Exactly as it sounded.

All the food stored in the dimensional bracelet was completely gone.

“To be precise, we have about two days’ worth left. Excluding seasonings and things like that.”

“Ah… Right. It has been quite a while since we set out on this mission.”

“Yeah.”

Jun had originally packed enough food for three months.

A significant amount of their food had been consumed when they got caught up in the unexpected incident on the Warfield of Orcutas.

“We still have a decent stock of potions and the like… but the biggest issue is definitely food and drinking water.”

“There’s a forest nearby. What about hunting animals?”

“That’s not difficult. But there’s another problem.”

Jun pointed at the alchemist’s journal as he spoke.

“According to this, all lifeforms here are contaminated. By that purple mist.”

***

A monster nearly four meters tall slammed into the ground.

“Maya!”

At Aiden’s shout, Maya blended into her surroundings and vanished from sight.

Meanwhile, Aiden drew his sword and stood to face the charging fur-covered beast.

Claang—!!

Sparks flew as Aiden’s sword successfully blocked the monster’s claws.

At that moment, Maya who had been camouflaged nearby sprang out and slashed the monster’s neck.

Geurk—!

The creature collapsed instantly. Its throat was torn open by Acanthus’s fangs.

“Phew…”

“Well done.”

At Jun’s comment from the side, Aiden scratched his head.

“That thing we just took down…”

“Yeah. It was a rabbit.”

The monstrous furball, nearly four meters tall, turned out to be none other than a rabbit.

“The one we ran into during the day was a deer…”

“That thing was tough too.”

According to the journal they’d found in the cabin, that grotesque creature had been called a “Mutant”. Although this rabbit wasn’t quite as strong, even Aiden had trouble handling it alone.

“If there’s a silver lining, it’s that there’s plenty to eat…”

Maya had already begun breaking down the monster rabbit.

Even though it had mutated, it was still treated as a wild animal rather than a monster, so destroying its heart didn’t cause it to disintegrate like the Mutants did.

“Leader. Finished the butchering.”

“Thanks.”

Since magic couldn’t be used due to the absence of mana in nature, Jun couldn’t contribute much in combat.

He did have some mana stones stored in his dimensional bracelet, but those had to be reserved for emergencies.

Instead—

“All done.”

Gulp—!

Jun took full responsibility for cooking and caring for his teammates.

“Alright, let’s eat.”

“Thanks for the meal!”

“You’re seriously good at cooking.”

Sizzle sizzle…

The butchered rabbit meat turned out to be surprisingly delicious.

Its flavor was enhanced with a variety of seasonings, and on top of that, the heat was controlled to perfection.

To think all that suffering back then would pay off here.

The cooking skills that drew endless praise from his teammates were something Jun had learned on the surface, sweating and bleeding, before he came down during the Blackout.

Back then, it had simply been one of his desperate attempts to avoid becoming just another disregarded low-rank mage.

Who would’ve thought it would shine like this?

“Hey, why were you hiding cooking skills like this?”

“I wasn’t really hiding them. Now that I’ve got enough money, I just saved time by eating out.”

“From now on, I’m asking you to cook more often. Seriously, look at this…how can rabbit ribs taste this good?”

While the others were enjoying their meal, Jun who had already eaten just enough approached the rabbit carcass that Maya had taken care of.

“There’s… a decent amount of blood collected.”

As he rubbed his neck, scales were already beginning to emerge.

His body was starting to mutate.

Of course, it was the price of eating the rabbit meat.

“S-Senior… S-Something’s really growing on my head…!”

“Pfft—Puahahaha!”

Eleanor burst into laughter as she looked at Aiden who was clearly panicking.

And no wonder.

Two tufts of purple fur had sprouted on top of his head, forming ears.

“What the. Why do you have ears like a puppy?! No, wait, I have to check something. Can I try?”

“Y-Yes? What do you mean, Priestess Eleanor?”

“Hold on a moment. Excuse me.”

Aaagh—!

Eleanor, who had been petting the fluffy purple ears, suddenly shouted directly into them.

“Urgh—?!”

“Wah! They’re real ears?! Hahahahaha!”

Apparently, they weren’t just decorative; they functioned as actual sensory organs. When Aiden clamped his hands over the new ears, Eleanor burst out laughing again.

“Ahahahaha! Oh no, my stomach—!”

“Ugh… you’re too much…”

“C’mon~ I was seriously curious! How could I not try?”

Jun, who had been watching the pair’s skit, let out a small chuckle.

“Hunting seems more than sufficient for now. Let’s head back to the cabin.”

It was about time to replenish his dwindling mana.

***

According to the alchemist’s journal, consuming an animal that had turned into a monster would also cause mutations in the one who ate it.

However, the group already knew how to resolve that.

It could be easily dealt with by absorbing pure mana.

“Let’s see… Distill the monster’s blood, then add Baydin herb, the root of the Solitary Bellflower, and…”

However, they couldn’t rely on the mana within the lab forever.

Jun had already realized that the mana saturation in the lab had dropped drastically compared to the first day.

Even so, we can’t stay in the lab forever.

Most of the information that could be obtained from the lab had already been gathered.

The only thing left was to head toward the city of alchemists.

“The problem is figuring out how to overcome this situation with limited mana.”

Fortunately, there seemed to be a workable solution to that problem.

“It’s done.”

Jun smiled in satisfaction as he looked at the result of combining various herbs with the blood extracted from the corpse of a rabbit over four meters tall.

“I never imagined [Potion Crafting] would be used like this.”

Inside the cylinder, a shimmering blue mana liquid sloshed gently.

“Let’s call it something like ‘Mana Flow Extract’.”

If taken outside, it would undoubtedly become a sensational invention.

“I can’t believe I found this before that person did.”

Originally, this was an item meant to be discovered by a particular NPC.

Timing-wise, it seemed Jun had arrived here first.

So then, what happens to the story?

The storyline had become completely tangled.

But there was no point in thinking too deeply about it.

For now, survival was more urgent than wondering about that person.

“In any case… this takes care of the mana supply.”

Jun smiled in satisfaction as he gazed at the shimmering mana fluid.

It wasn’t enough to freely cast spells like before, but at least the minimum safety measures were now in place.

After that, Jun and his companions spent a total of four days capturing wild animals in the area to secure more mana fluid while also resolving their food supply issues.

“Good thing the subspace is spacious.”

The laboratory now looked empty compared to before.

They had packed up everything they could and stored it in the dimensional bracelet.

“Well then, shall we get going?”

“This forest wasn’t easy either. I can’t imagine how rough it’ll be in the city.”

“Is this what they call a standard mission?”

“No. This is just being stranded.”

“Haha…”

***

The road to the city wasn’t particularly difficult.

All they had to do was follow the paved highway straight through.

“It seems to be very well maintained.”

Perhaps it was the thrill of exploration, because Aiden kept chatting nonstop as they walked the road.

“It almost feels like the streets where the imperial city is. They paved the roads with stones there too.”

“Sounds like it was quite an advanced era, technologically speaking.”

“Well, just look at their alchemy. A mana fluid like this? I’ve never even heard of such a thing.”

Although Aiden and Maya were unaware, Eleanor fully understood the limitless potential of the mana fluid.

So she also recognized just how remarkable the alchemists who developed it must have been.

Grrrrr—!

Even as they chatted, the mutated wild animals they occasionally encountered along the way were still quite dangerous…

[Wind Cutter]

But their resistance to magic was rather low.

After dealing with orcs who had magic resistance, fighting these things feels like a breath of fresh air.

Though it was just a basic third-circle spell, Jun had now reached full mastery of the fifth circle.

Even the same third-circle spell now carried power that was worlds apart from before.

Still, they couldn’t afford to let their guard down.

When those huge creatures sprang out from the bushes, having completely suppressed their presence, they were definitely threatening.

And with mana in limited supply, Jun couldn’t afford to use [Detection] magic, which meant the risk of ambushes was inevitably higher.

“Leave the meat. Just drain the blood.”

“Understood.”

The busiest ones were, without a doubt, Jun and Maya.

Eleanor, being a priest by nature, didn’t have any particular duties to take on, and Aiden, apart from fighting, lacked the skills to share in other tasks.

On the other hand, survival in the wild was Maya’s specialty, and Jun was also kept busy managing the group’s meals as time passed.

Whenever there was spare time, he salted the meat they obtained from hunting, coating it with oil and honey to prepare jerky.

“…Why are you looking at me like that? Do you want some?”

“Oh, no, it’s not that. I just… is there anything I can help with?”

At the question of Aiden who asked this as he watched from nearby, Jun met his eyes deeply.

Why does he seem so uneasy?

Though Aiden tried not to show it, he had appeared strangely unstable ever since the day he woke up.

As if he were being chased by something, he always seemed eager to stay busy with something or anything.

“Hmm. Then could you slice the meat a bit thinner? About the width of a pinky finger.”

“Ah! Right away!”

Taking the portion Maya had chopped up, Aiden began slicing it thin.

At first, the pieces were uneven, but he soon got the hang of it; his cuts became uniform and his speed was several times faster than Jun’s.

Something definitely seems off.

As he soaked the meat in brine, Jun kept his eyes on Aiden without looking away.

It must be because of the encounter with the Outer God.

Jun had a good idea why Aiden was acting that way.

He had seen similar behavior even within the game.

It was like that when his mental strength skills were lacking.

Though it was still years in the future, if the story followed the original game’s path, then Aiden—or rather, Adrian—would end up facing the Outer God once again just like before.

In that process, if Adrian’s mental strength dropped below a certain threshold, a berserk event would be triggered.

It doesn’t seem to be at that level just yet.

Still, it looked like he would need ongoing attention.

He said… he was angry.

Aiden was someone who couldn’t have been further from anger. He was the type who always liked to wear a gentle smile.

And yet, that same person had apparently faced immense rage throughout the time he was asleep.

It must be that.

The memory of the First Emperor.

What Aiden saw in his dream was definitely a fragment of the memory left behind by the first emperor.