Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 80
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Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 80
23. Why Are You Here, Bro(1)
Rondel, a magical world boasting a high level of civilization.
But even in Rondel, there still exist several forbidden zones that do not permit people's passage.
'The Sea of Storms, called the center of the world and the embodiment of chaos.'
'The Forest of Illusions, which even the elves of the Elysian Coalition cannot enter.'
'The demonic den of the Triton Continent, the land of the yellow race, which could be called the Asia of Rondel.'
'The underground labyrinth beneath the permafrost of the northern Bringham Empire.'
These are the forbidden zones that represent Rondel.
There are also conditionally accessible forbidden zones like the 'Bloodsucking Desert,' the 'Valley of Souls,' and the 'Swamp of Deadly Poison,' but if asked to name the most famous forbidden zone in the world, everyone would choose this place without hesitation.
That is the 'Dragon Land' a fertile and vast land coveted by every nation on the Defteron Continent.
The Dragon Land, preserving Rondel's primordial form as it is, is literally the territory of the dragon race, who call themselves the world's arbiters.
In the past, more than one nation recklessly marched out to conquer the Dragon Land, only to be destroyed.
Among them was a nation called the 'Calvados Empire,' which once shared power alongside the Bringham Empire, and it is said that it took less than half a day for that mighty nation to fall before the dragons' wrath.
And after the Calvados Empire collapsed, the nations founded by its survivors are the current Kingdom of Rhinehearts and the Croysen Empire.
Currently, the Croysen Empire is the only nation bordering the Dragon Land perhaps due to the lessons of the past?
It has been scared stiff and has not clearly demarcated its border on the Dragon Land side.
Thanks to that, many secret organizations had unknowingly established their hideouts along the border between the Dragon Land and the Croysen Empire.
Among them was the man who kidnapped Ibril.
"What the hell are you doing?"
A white-skinned man frowned as he watched a dark-skinned man set Ibril down.
"Damn it! I had no choice!"
"No, you could have just slit her throat right there. Why drag her all the way here and make things complicated?"
"If that had worked, would I have done this?"
"What?"
"See for yourself."
Ibril seemed to be out of her mind as if drugged, looking so frail that a single touch would send her toppling over.
The white-skinned man, who had absentmindedly received a sword from the dark-skinned man, looked back and forth between the sword and Ibril, then seemed to make up his mind and swung the sword in his hand with a wide arc.
The sharply gleaming blade seemed ready to take her head at any moment.
-KWAANG!
"Keuk! What the !?"
But the sword never reached her it was sent flying far away.
"See? This girl is being protected by something. What's more, an Aura Master, Count Arcia Klein, popped out of nowhere, so I had no choice but to bring her along."
At that, the white-skinned man didn't pick up the sword he immediately began casting a spell.
A moment later, a 6th Circle Ice Missile completed at his fingertips surged toward Ibril.
-KWAANG!
"This is insane."
But the result was the same.
Magic loses power the farther it travels from its caster.
Yet even with the spell launched from nearly zero distance, it dealt no damage whatsoever.
That meant a barrier of at least 7th Circle or higher was protecting her.
"No choice then. Come out."
The white-skinned man extended a hand densely packed with rings on all five fingers toward the girl.
Each ring on his hand was an artifact containing a 7th Circle spell.
"Flame Blast. Energy Blast. Assassinate."
And he poured 7th Circle spells at Ibril one after another.
"This is insane...."
But the barrier protecting her held firm, guarding its target.
Small accessory artifacts have the drawback of somewhat reduced attack power, but not enough to diminish the majesty of a 7th Circle spell.
And yet she was perfectly fine even after being hit by 7th Circle spells in succession?
There was only one answer.
"An 8th Circle Rare Shield, huh."
"What?"
It was an 8th Circle artifact, with a market price starting in the trillions.
Even an 8th Circle Mage has a low chance of crafting them, and because of that, they are hard to come by the kind of 8th Circle artifact that only national leaders would possess.
And someone had equipped that on a commoner girl like this.
"How did you manage to drug her?"
"It's only blocking lethal attacks. It seems drugs that put you to sleep or into a state of anesthesia work."
"What about continuously injecting the drug in controlled doses?"
"It didn't work."
"Damn. Looks like it's linked to all sorts of things on that 8th Circle artifact."
It felt like facing a Vanguard's Force Armor.
Of course, considering the defense and the price, it seemed like a system that could never be commercialized.
"Why would someone make an artifact this complicated? Just making it block everything would be easier."
"It must be because of the Saintess contest. You're not allowed to receive help from artifacts during mercenary work."
"Is that so? Tsk."
"Was this girl's Sponsor Marquis Lawrence? That bastard's out of his mind too."
"Maybe he predicted a situation like this."
At that, the dark-skinned man hesitated for a moment, then hoisted Ibril onto his shoulder.
"No choice then."
"What are you doing?"
"I'll throw her into the crater of Mount Kant. No matter how great an 8th Circle spell is, it can't protect its target forever."
"Hmm, not a bad idea."
True to men who made their living off human lives, they showed no mercy even toward a young girl.
And so the two headed for the volcano at the entrance to Dragon Land.
Since they could use a teleportation artifact, they arrived quickly.
-Tssssssss!
A scorching volcanic zone where lava flowed down like tears while spewing black smoke that seemed to cover the sky.
The two looked down at the boiling lava and talked.
"We'll have to abandon this base. Let's each operate on our own for six months, then meet at Base B."
"No choice. Fine."
Then, staring expressionlessly at the drowsy Ibril, he flung her toward the boiling lava.
"Huh?"
But something was strange.
Ibril, who should have been free-falling toward the lava in the crater, was floating in midair.
"...."
The two wore blank expressions.
And a moment later.
"Tch!"
The white-skinned man, his face twisted with irritation, used magic to drop Ibril into the lava.
-Ting!
But the Rare Shield that appeared once again merely deflected the attack.
"Haha, fun. This is fun."
This doesn't work, that doesn't work either.
The killer duo, famous in the underworld for getting jobs done reliably, felt like they'd become fools.
It felt like they were being toyed with, somehow.
"Marquis Lawrence's going to make a fortune. If he sold this system, royalty from every nation would be clamoring to buy it."
"Tell me about it.... Haha, ha.... Ha. Gah! Fuck!"
It felt like facing an indestructible structure in a game.
The two had to rack their brains.
Surely this artifact system wasn't perfect.
After all, wasn't Marquis Lawrence a 7th Circle Grand Mage?
The 8th Circle artifact (Rare Shield) could be bought with money, sure, but it was hard to believe he could build a system that perfectly controlled an 8th Circle artifact.
Even just looking at the functions shown so far, it was a defense system close to perfection but there's no such thing as a flawless spell in this world.
So they were certain there had to be a gap.
The problem, however, was that the way to exploit that gap wasn't coming to mind easily.
"There's one way. Keep hitting it until the artifact's mana runs dry."
"I'm not fond of such brutish methods, but we don't have another option."
The mana could run out in a minute, or ten minutes, or an hour.
It was an attack method unbefitting their profession as killers, but at this point, there was no helping it.
The dark-skinned man drew a Vanguard Force Sword, and the white-skinned man pulled out a magic staff.
"How stupid. Don't do that try a Mental Attack. Defensive magic created by artifacts is vulnerable to Mental Attacks."
"Really? First I'm hearing of it."
"Of course, a low-grade Mental Attack won't do anything. But if it's a 6th Circle spell or higher, it should work to some extent."
A new approach.
Even if it wasn't certain, it was worth trying.
After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
"How did we end up in this kind of circus act."
"Hey...."
"What?"
"Who are you talking to?"
Realizing that the person who had suggested mental magic wasn't his partner, the white-skinned man's eyes flew open and he whipped his head around.
There stood a man in a red suit with makeup that stretched his eye corners and mouth corners into long slits.
A Pierrot floating lazily through the air as if enjoying a summer retreat, waving at him.
"Hello, friend."
"W-What? Who are you?"
"Just a Spirit Summoner passing by."
At the sudden appearance of a man who seemed to radiate madness from every pore, the white-skinned Mage who had kidnapped Ibril sensed that things had gone wrong and shouted to his partner, the dark-skinned swordsman.
"Get him!"
While his partner attacked the Pierrot, the white-skinned Mage tried to cast a spell.
"W-What are you doing?"
"Huh?"
But for some reason, his partner didn't move at all, and as he frantically grabbed his partner's shoulder
The dark-skinned man began to slump and melt away with a foolish expression on his face.
As if ice were melting.
"Aaah!"
The man screamed in terror.
And when he turned his head
Ibril, who had been floating in the air just moments ago, was gone without a trace, and in her place, a white-skinned man was curled up like a fetus.
A strangely familiar sight.
It was none other than himself.
"What on earth "
The white-skinned Mage trembled in sheer horror.
But wait, his voice sounded strange?
He looked down his chest was curved outward, and even the shadow beneath his feet was unusually small.
More than anything, his clothes were not the ones he had been wearing he was dressed in the garments of Ibril, the very woman they had kidnapped.
Being a Mage, he could understand what was happening.
"Mental Pollution?"
"Correct!"
His gaze turned to the Pierrot swimming through the air.
Then the Pierrot's form twisted grotesquely and transformed into a gremlin-like monster.
"So which one is real?"
"What?"
"So where does the real one begin?"
"...."
"Are you a real person? Or perhaps a fake inside an illusion I've created?"
The words alone were enough to make one's mind reel.
Shaking off his fear, the Mage unleashed the 7th Circle spell embedded in his artifact at the monster that had once been the Pierrot.
"Why?"
But the spell did not activate.
No before even considering the spell, no trace of mana, the source of all magic, could be sensed anywhere around him.
"Ahh."
He had no idea what was going on.
And then the monster Pierrot's question came again.
"Who are you?"
"Who am I, you ask "
But the Mage could not answer.
His mind had gone blank, white as a blank sheet of paper.
"Huh?"
The Mage's eyes, which had been filled with confusion, grew murky and lost their focus.
And soon, as if a play had ended, the world faded to black.
"Who am I?"
With those final words, the Mage slumped to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.
* * *
After Ibril's kidnapping, I traced her traces and followed the kidnappers for a full-scale search.
Thanks to the precautions I had taken just in case, I was able to track the culprits steadily if not quickly, and the place I arrived at was a canyon on the border between the Croysen Empire and Dragon Land.
"Well, well."
"We meet again, Lord Marquis."
But there, I encountered an unexpected figure.
[Gregory Hayden / Aura Master]
Relationship: Wary / Neutral
Status: Favorable / Tense
It was none other than the Blue Moon assassins who had broken into my castle some time ago to eliminate Ibril.
"I take it you're not the culprits."
"We've caught the ones who kidnapped Lady Ibril. Over there."
I turned my gaze and spotted a small cabin, with two men sitting in front of it, drooling and completely out of their minds.
Beside the two stood the red-suited Mental-series Spirit Summoner 'August Knox,' who flinched and averted his gaze the moment our eyes met.
Having roughly grasped the situation, I let out a sigh of relief and asked.
"And Lady Ibril?"
"She's resting inside the cabin. She's safe and unharmed. Thanks to the precautions Your Lordship set up so well."
I strode over with Arcia and headed into the cabin.
And a moment later, I found Ibril sleeping with the most carefree expression in the world.
"We couldn't confirm who was behind the kidnappers. It seems they used proxies to hire the two."
That made sense.
No fool would do something this bold and leave a trail behind.
But more than the culprits themselves, I was curious about these two.
How did they know to help me?
Should I take their actions as acceptance of my previous offer?
"Actually, our residence happens to be around here too."
"Ah, is that so? Our Lady Ibril sure is lucky."
Did they really expect me to believe that?
I could tell the two weren't the culprits, but unless they were fools, they had to know this situation wasn't mere coincidence.