The erosion phenomenon.
It was content linked to the main scenario of the game <Blackout>. A surprise gift prepared by the developers for players who had just shed their newbie status and were climbing into the upper levels.
Of course, most players were busy cursing those developers instead of praising them.
Crack!!
It looked as if a pupa was shedding its shell and transforming, especially because the target was the corpse of the Iron Larva; this made it feel even more so.
But what lay inside was certainly not the adult form of the Iron Larva.
Soon, the red aura that was filling the creature’s body began to swell its corpse.
But even that seemed to have reached its limit.
Pooooof—
The corpse of Iron Lava, which had swelled beyond its limit, burst and red smoke poured out in all directions.
“Retreat!”
Jun’s command prompted the group to fall back in perfect unison.
But in an instant, the entire area was swallowed by the red smoke.
When the smoke finally cleared, the surroundings were completely dyed in crimson.
True to the name of the erosion phenomenon, the environment transformed in the blink of an eye.
And then—
Boom! Boom!
From beyond the lingering smoke, the sound of something pounding the ground echoed.
“The Eroded…?”
Shadows of people loomed inside the fog.
There were dozens of them.
This time, Colton shouted.
“Damn it, it’s an army!!”
An army.
One of the forms of erosion, they took on the appearance of soldiers.
Their movements were those of highly skilled warriors.
“Form up immediately! They’re coming!”
As the smoke dissipated, the army revealed itself. They were staring straight at Jun and his group.
Their entire bodies were red.
Even their skin and the equipment they were wearing were all red.
Also, their eyes shone with a dark red light like rotten blood.
In both hands, they held spears three times the height of a person.
Seeing this, Colton shouted again.
“Spear unit?!”
“Damn it, of all times, it had to be an erosion phenomenon…!”
“We’ve got the worst luck!”
“Hey, Mr. Mage! You better know we’re going to charge you for this battle too!”
A moment of confusion passed, but Colton’s shout quickly got the mercenaries back into formation.
In large-scale battles like this, mages played a crucial role. Naturally, the mercenaries holstered their weapons and picked up shields to protect Jun.
[Enchantment: Elemental Armory]
[Attribute Enchantment: Gold]
Jun’s magic layered over the shields.
Not stopping there, Jun also cast protective barriers in front of the mercenaries.
They wouldn’t last long, but it would at least ease some of the burden on the mercenaries.
Sure enough, the army began to move.
Step— Step—
Disciplined footsteps that were marked by military precision slowly approached.
If there’s any silver lining…
Jun had once unlocked all of Maya’s character scenarios.
Maya despised the Eroded.
The killing intent she usually exuded without purpose was always directed at them.
Then we can buy enough time.
While Maya held them off, Jun would prepare a spell to wipe them out in one strike.
This was the strategy Jun had devised.
It’s just an army from a level 2 field. As a level 4 mercenary, Maya can definitely hold them off long enough.
The moment Jun fixed his gaze on the army with such expectations, he realized it.
He realized that his predictions were completely off.
Why are they looking at me?
The Eroded that had appeared were glaring at Jun.
***
Their movements were like a giant force of steel.
Defeat was not an option for an army.
Their footsteps exuded a sense of certainty, leaving no room for doubt.
Even in their final moments, they would not lose that fierce spirit.
That made them a terrifying enemy.
Soon, they were close enough to reach out with their red spears.
Boom!
Dozens of spears struck the barrier at once.
Jun felt his magic circuits heat up for the first time in a while.
The powerful strike drained enough magical power to burden his magic circuits.
“Mr. Mage! Focus!”
Jun nodded his head at Colton’s shout.
At this rate, preparing another spell was impossible.
The moment he cut off the magical power that maintained the barrier, it disappeared shortly after.
“Clench your butt and hold on!!”
“Aaaaahhhh!!”
Now, they had to fend off the army’s onslaught with only their own strength.
Even worrying about them was a luxury Jun couldn’t afford right now.
Did he grow attached to them after facing them so many times?
Jun steadied his wavering mind for a moment and thought.
Is it because of my magical power? They must have recognized me as the biggest threat.
That relentless army would never stop, no matter what happened.
Even if a storm capable of blowing away boulders came, nothing could stand in their way.
Like the storm in Aesop’s fable that tried to strip the traveler of his clothes.
But Jun thought differently.
The storm couldn’t take the traveler’s clothes off?
No, the wind was simply too weak.
If rain and wind had lashed out, soaking the traveler’s body until his clothes grew heavy, if every step forward drained his strength—
Then surely, the traveler would have shed his rain-soaked and heavy clothes to move forward.
The same applied now.
Can’t a storm stop that army?
Then simply—
Its power was just too weak.
[The influence of the spell, ‘Odyssey of the Lazy Pilgrim’, is reduced by 15 percent.]
Fifteen percent.
It was the result he could barely achieve after reaching the level of a fourth-circle mage.
***
Magical power surged wildly.
Maya, who never took her eyes off her enemies, turned her gaze toward Jun.
It was as if magic had replaced the wind to create a storm. A scene like none other.
The magic that responded to the call of a mage soon took on some form.
But it was slow.
Every time the rampaging magic tried to deviate from its set path, a strong willpower blocked it.
Because of this, the incantation dragged on sluggishly.
Watching the entire process, Maya glanced at Jun who was in the middle of the magical storm.
“…I don’t know what kind of human you are.”
From the first moment she saw him, he was an unusual human.
Maya’s tribe, the Ancestor-Worshipping Tribe, was a people who worshipped their ancestors’ souls.
And so she could sense the souls of others, and to her, Jun was a peculiar human.
She could feel three souls inside the body of a single human.
But if that had been all, Maya would have just thought of him as another unique human.
After all, she lived in Blackout.
It was a place overflowing with strange occurrences.
But then her ancestral spirit spoke.
If she followed him, she could achieve her purpose.
So, she once again turned her gaze toward her own goal.
The Eroders.
The enemies who had destroyed her tribe.
***
A dark shadow moved toward the army of red shadows.
The first to notice this was Aiden.
“Maya?”
Maya, who had been exuding a killing intent so intense it made his skin tingle, suddenly dashed forward.
Was she planning to take on those highly trained elite soldiers all by herself?
It seemed like madness, but surprisingly, Maya didn’t charge directly at the army.
Instead, she scaled the wall and circled around to the back of the enemy lines.
It was only then that Aiden noticed something at the far rear of the army.
Someone stood there, with a flag bearing an unrecognizable pattern strapped to their back.
The armor they wore was different from that of the regular soldiers.
Aiden instinctively realized who it was.
The army commander.
The one directing the movements of this army.
Aiden considered matching Maya’s movements but quickly changed his mind.
Maya was strong.
She was said to be a mercenary who had reached the end of level 4.
So, she would surely not lose against him.
Therefore, instead of helping Maya, Aiden turned his attention to the mercenaries who were taking a step back with each passing moment.
“Grrr!”
“You crazy bastards!”
“Shut up and hold up your shields!”
“Aaaaargh!!”
The spears thrust by the army were strong, but that wasn’t all.
When the first row thrusts and then lowers their stance, the second row strikes the same spot.
It was a movement as precise as clockwork.
That was the true strength of the army.
A flawless mechanism, unwavering and without error.
But Aiden didn’t find them impressive.
He thought Colton and his mercenaries, who were struggling against the army, were much stronger.
And with good reason.
“A machine breaks when even a single gear is misaligned.”
They were nothing more than puppets that were moving mechanically according to orders.
[Charge], [Bash].
***
Even while focusing on his incantation, Jun kept his eyes on his surroundings.
It was something most mages couldn’t dream of doing, but Jun had learned it out of necessity. He had to cast spells without any frontline support before meeting Aiden.
At the edge of Jun’s gaze was Aiden’s back.
The protagonist of this game’s story. Despite being abandoned, he was born with more talent than anyone else.
His talent would surely reach the heavens.
The being who would later be called a true hero of the empire became one with the wind and shot out toward the shadow army.
Sorry, Aiden.
But.
For now, you’re going to face a wall.
Like the protagonists of many stories, Aiden would always face towering obstacles.
Boom!
Just as Aiden’s sword was about to strike the flank of the army, something appeared and blocked his path.
“……!”
The third line, which had been standing idly.
They raised their shields and blocked Aiden’s sword.
The Meteorite Sword, which could sever anything as long as its wielder had the intent to cut, was blocked for the first time.
“Ugh…!”
Machines knew their own weaknesses well.
Therefore, they always took measures to counteract them.
The shield bearers of the third line created an iron defense to protect their vital components from damage.
Aiden’s sword couldn’t break through that defense.
Why was that?
The reason was quite simple.
It was simply because Aiden was still weaker than they were.
That was the simple reason.
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