As the world knows, most other races were sealed within dungeons.
So then, which non-human races currently live among humans?
They were those who had only just been conceived at the time of the Great Seal of Akasha.
Because of this, such beings occasionally possessed partial freedom from Akasha’s seal.
However, most of them could not fully wield their power even if they emerged from the dungeon, as “time” itself was still bound to the dungeon.
In contrast, Dilaila was a true non-human being, unbound by the dungeon’s “time” thanks to the blood of her father, Pragara D. Eden, the leader of the Hermes Adventurer Party.
Perhaps it was because her very birth had been far from ordinary.
Having lived 20 years, Dilaila had experienced things far beyond what a normal person might endure, allowing her to grow significantly on the inside.
In other words, she had developed nerves of steel that didn’t rattle easily.
“Eeep?!”
…However, Dilaila still didn’t consider herself someone with nerves of steel.
Well, that’s because her dynamic life had only ever thrown truly astonishing things her way.
“Human. No, different. The teeth.”
“Sniff sniff. Smells like a human. But not.”
“Eep—eep!”
Summoned by Shane, Dilaila had teleported to the mountain range beyond the Great Mezaiya Forest only to find herself face-to-face with none other than blue orcs.
“O-Orcs!”
“That’s right. We’re orcs. Orcs.”
“Why is she so scared?”
“No idea. Sniff.”
The orcs who were still unaccustomed to human language exchanged short murmurs as they glanced at Dilaila for a moment.
Then, they bowed their heads with reverence toward Shane, who wore a mask, and stepped aside.
Dilaila looked at Shane, clearly asking what in the world was going on.
“They’re the ones who will help us.”
“Th-They’re orcs, right? Judging by their blue skin, they must be the orcs from Arunvida… D-Don’t tell me…!”
“Whatever you’re imagining, it’s not that. So stop worrying.”
“What do you think I’m imagining?”
“Probably some pointless nonsense like me commanding them to start a war in Arunvida or planning to do so.”
“Wow, are you psychic? How’d you know that?”
Dilaila stared at Shane with a genuinely creeped-out expression.
“Enough nonsense. Feel their mana first. You call yourself a mage, yet you saw them with your own eyes and didn’t even analyze them.”
“Huh? I mean, analyze or not…wait, what?”
Mid-sentence, Dilaila tilted her head.
Because she could communicate with the earth, she was especially sensitive to mana absorbed into the land.
So, back in Arunvida, when the orcs’ blood had soaked the earth, Dilaila developed a sense that could detect blood magic.
And yet, she couldn’t feel even a trace of blood magic from these orcs.
“What… is going on…?”
“I taught them. Not that half-baked garbage called blood magic, but real mana circuits.”
“Huh…?”
What did I just hear?
Setting aside the harsh criticism on blood magic, was it even possible to teach someone mana circuits?
“It’s not particularly difficult. There are countless excellent models in the world to base them on.”
“Models?”
“Yes. Models. A race that originally couldn’t use mana but eventually learned to wield it.”
Humans, of course.
“Wait, wait—uh… This might be a blasphemous thing to say, but… are you a god?”
“…….”
“O-Or not! Never mind! Just forget I said that!”
Even though Shane’s plain mask covered his eyes, the atmosphere he gave off clearly screamed utter disappointment, causing Dilaila to sweat and avert her gaze.
“Ignorance isn’t a sin, but don’t go sticking ridiculous fantasies on top of it. A mage should know better.”
“Yes…”
With that, Shane continued his explanation.
“Like all races, humans are especially quick to adapt to change.”
“Huh… is that so?”
“It might sound questionable. After all, it doesn’t explain why ancient humans couldn’t awaken mana.”
At that, Dilaila nodded.
Of course, it wasn’t as if she was looking down on humans. But if you looked at history objectively, ancient humans were, quite literally, a race that survived thanks to the “inconvenience” they caused other races.
“But that’s because their evolutionary path was different to begin with. It’s not that they couldn’t do it….it’s just that they didn’t. Take Akasha, for example, the last god of the ancient era. Before becoming a god, she was an Archmage.”
“That’s true.”
“Humans simply didn’t know the method. But once they understood the principle, they started mastering it rapidly.”
“Ah…”
Now that she thought about it, that made sense.
The humans Dilaila had encountered were certainly making rapid progress day by day.
When it came to mana as well, the more they understood its principles, the more creative and wild their methods of application became.
“And orcs are the race most similar to humans.”
“O-Orcs? Really?”
“Yes.”
Although Dilaila scrunched her face in doubt and was struggling to see any real similarity between humans and orcs, she suddenly recalled a lesson from the academy and clapped her hands.
“Their body structures. I remember hearing they’re similar.”
In fact, if you looked into related research, humans and orcs didn’t differ much anatomically.
The only major difference was that orcs were generally larger and more muscular.
Shane gave honest praise to Dilaila for remembering that correctly.
“Good memory.”
“Hehehe. I may not look it, but I’ve never ranked low in the academy.”
While the people around her were often exceptional, Dilaila’s knowledge was far from shallow.
“Even though their physical structures are similar, the reason such a huge gap developed between humans and orcs isn’t just because of Akasha’s existence. There’s a more fundamental reason.”
“A fundamental reason?”
“Yes. Orcs were stronger than humans. Their natural physical strength and their ability to multiply in large numbers made them extremely viable as a race even in ancient times. That’s why orcs chose to rely on their innate advantages rather than seek mana.”
“Ah, I see…”
Isn’t it ironic? That their strength actually slowed their progress.
“So, once orcs realize the value of mana, there’s nothing they can’t achieve.”
“Huh. Now that you say it, that… kind of makes sense…”
But is that really possible?
Of course, the living, breathing orcs right in front of her were proof enough, but just based on what Shane had said, she couldn’t feel fully convinced.
“Normally, that kind of change would’ve taken a very long time. The evolution of a race doesn’t happen overnight. Life evolves over hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of years.”
“Then how did you shorten that process?”
“Time is relative. From a physical perspective, time is proportional to speed. If the speed at which a subject processes things slows down, that means time is effectively extended.”
“……??”
Dilaila, who had been following Shane’s explanation well up to that point, tilted her head at the sudden lecture on time and speed. But soon, as she grasped the meaning, her jaw dropped.
“W-Wait, you extended time? How is that even possible?!”
To modern mages, time remained a knowledge from beyond the heavens….an unreachable truth.
Yet the man before her was calmly claiming he had manipulated it.
“Once you understand the principle, it’s not that difficult.”
“No, no, even so…”
“I can guess what kind of wild assumptions you’re making. But it’s not what you’re thinking.”
“There you go again, reading people’s minds without permission.”
“You’re just easy to read, that’s all.”
“Ugh, what now?!”
With a small sigh, Shane began to explain.
“You’re probably imagining something out of a novel or a play. Like training in a space where time flows more slowly.”
“Ah! How did you know?! Wait… do you read that kind of stuff?”
“……”
“S-Sorry.”
After getting another disapproving look from Shane, Dilaila quietly listened as he continued.
“I already told you. Time is relative. But speed doesn’t only refer to physical movement.”
“Then… are you talking about cognitive speed?”
“Exactly.”
In other words, the power to think and reason.
Even that could be subjected to the concept of speed.
“Time is proportional to the acceleration of thought. To have physical speed significantly affect time, you’d need an immense amount of energy. But the realm of thought doesn’t require that.”
“Mmm… that actually makes sense.”
Having fought in countless battles over the past two years, Dilaila had often experienced moments in combat when everything around her seemed to slow down.
That was a result of time adjusting in proportion to the acceleration of her thoughts.
“And that acceleration of thought is tied to survival. In the face of death, the instinct to survive kicks in. It searches for the best way to adapt. And if you make it through… that’s when evolution begins.”
“…If I understood that right, you deliberately pushed them into near-death situations so intense their survival instincts would accelerate their cognition. Is… is that it?”
“Exactly. That’s correct.”
“……”
In fact, Shane had repeatedly pushed the orcs to the brink of mental collapse, unleashing intangible killing intent to force them into awakening mana.
Of course, since getting used to fear would defeat the purpose, he also used various drugs to keep their minds disoriented and took many measures to help their bodies adapt to mana.
But that was the essence of it.
Now, Dilaila understood why the orcs had bowed their heads, carefully watching their steps and retreating the moment they crossed paths with this masked man.
“Anyway, that’s enough explanation. Let’s move on to the main point.”
“Ah, yes.”
Dilaila straightened up and listened attentively.
“First off, it’s impossible to cross the desert with a force of this size.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
“So, only you and I will be moving for now.”
“Then… what about the orcs? How will they get there later?”
“I plan to borrow the elves’ method of travel from the Great Mezaiya Forest.”
“Oh…”
Of course.
Dilaila figured that if anyone could use the elves’ swift and secretive teleportation magic, it would be this man.
Klein’s brother managed to pull it off too, didn’t he? Though he modified it a bit.
Someone had already done it before. So there was no reason to think the man standing in front of her couldn’t.
“When we descend the mountains, the first terrain we’ll encounter is the Gravel Desert. It’s a place where the environment is more dangerous than the monsters.”
“The environment?”
“Occasionally, sandstorms form. But because the area is filled with gravel, taking one head-on without protection could leave you with nothing but broken bones.”
“Ah… I see. Then what about the monsters?”
“There are mainly beast-type monsters and insect-type monsters that carry deadly poison. The beast-types aren’t too difficult to deal with, but they’re clever. As for the insect-types, like I said, they possess a poison so potent that a single drop touching your body can melt it down entirely.”
“Hmm…”
It didn’t seem as hard as she’d expected.
No, if she were being honest, it actually sounded easy.
Before coming here, she’d been extremely worried. But after receiving a variety of rare minerals from Artia and hearing Shane’s explanation, she’d begun to feel a sense of confidence.
Of course, the place was dangerous enough to be called one of the Seven Cradles, but Dilaila was no ordinary surface race. She was an underground race member.
And the desert was practically home turf for someone like Dilaila.
But what had her past battlefields been like?
Before it was opened to the public, the Great Mezaiya Forest was a place where rain fell in floods….rain that either burned or froze anything it touched.
Compared to that, a sandstorm mixed with a few rocks could be easily avoided by digging a tunnel and taking cover underground.
Dilaila was growing more and more confident.
That kind of thinking is a big mistake.
Shane could tell exactly what she was thinking just from the look on her face.
But a Cradle isn’t called a Cradle for nothing.
Even Nameless had poured years of effort and countless troops into fully conquering the Nakar Desert. There was no way it would be easy just because she happened to be an underground race member.
Still, this was something one had to experience for themselves to understand. So Shane said nothing more.
And as it turned out, Shane’s prediction was spot on.
***
Krrrraarrr!!
Clang!
Graaaargh!
“H-Huh?!”
A beast-type monster, the size of a large dog and resembling a ratel, charged in with teeth tougher than steel.
Dilaila quickly raised a wall to block the creature’s charge.
But the moment they hit the wall, the monsters didn’t hesitate for even a second. They immediately began climbing over it, lunging at her once more.
Of course, Dilaila was no stranger to real combat. She was a seasoned mage. She stomped the ground hard, summoning spears of earth.
With a single stomp, the terrain around her transformed into dozens of sharp, deadly spikes.
Got them!
She pictured the monsters running straight into the path of her spears and getting skewered instantly.
Ka-rrrrrrrrrrr—!!
“H-Huh?!”
Even after being pierced by the earthen spears that were strong enough to easily punch through steel, the ratel-like monsters only flinched slightly. They didn’t stop their charge.
“What are these things?!”
Dilaila’s shocked cry echoed through the sand-swept desert.
Was it part of the so-called underground race?
Back in ancient times, countless races had evolved to suit their environments.
Just being an underground member didn’t automatically give her an advantage in the Nakar Desert.
Dilaila realized that fact far too late.
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