Chapter 23. The Truth of the Magical Beastification Experiment (2)
The underground research facility was vast.
The pungent smell of chemicals, stinging the nose from all directions, vibrated.
The dimly lit corridors, illuminated by faint lighting lined up in the corridor, were clearly the place he had seen in the game.
But there was a difference in the most decisive part.
‘My guess was right.’
Enoch’s sunken black eyes thoroughly grasped the surroundings.
The iron bars lined up in the basement corridor were all empty.
‘As expected, the research is still not far advanced at this point in time.’
The original story, five years from now.
At that time, as Vendetta’s experiments progressed, hundreds of children lost their reason and became magically beastified.
Therefore, in the original story, the iron bars he was passing by now were filled with magically beastified children.
‘But there are still no experimental subjects here. It means that the children haven't mutated into monsters yet.’
The fact that there were no experimental subjects meant that the missing children had not yet been put into the experiment.
In fact, there was already sufficient evidence that the children were alive in the reports in the vault that he had acquired and in the conversation between the Decurion and the Administrator captured on the lens.
‘The missing children are definitely still alive.’
Then it was not too late yet.
I can still save the children.
Clack.
Finally, when he reached the end of the underground passage.
A sudden presence was heard from the iron bars on the side.
“Wh-Who are you?”
Enoch turned to that side.
A man with a very haggard appearance emerged from the darkness of the iron bars.
Through the Sense of Mana, Enoch confirmed the mana that faintly emanated from his body and immediately identified his identity.
It was the same mana as the artifact Chloe had given him.
“Are you the mage who was dispatched from Elsyde?”
“Th-That’s right… Are you perhaps, the rescue…?”
Enoch nodded briefly.
A faint flush of color returned to his gaunt face.
“The situation is, urg…ent… Just now, another child was captured… Along with the other children, they are, locked up in the innermost prison of the laboratory…”
He squeezed out those words, then collapsed forward.
Judging from the fact that he was breathing weakly, it seemed that he had been holding on with his mental strength and had collapsed from exhaustion.
He probably didn’t receive good treatment when he was imprisoned.
But thanks to what he told me, I found out the information.
‘Rather, it would be easier to work if he fainted like that.’
Enoch instinctively looked down at his sword, which he had hidden beyond his view.
There was nothing good about directly revealing that he used a sword to a member of the family.
Not yet.
***
A very familiar scene of a laboratory unfolded before my eyes.
‘I’ve come to the right place.’
A room with a laboratory-like scene unfolded, with numerous test tubes, reagents, pipes, etc. scattered in a disorderly manner.
Inside, restraints and devices such as surgical tables were also prepared.
Enoch slowly looked around the place.
A laboratory filled with equipment that was so complicated that I couldn’t even guess where it was used.
A place that I didn’t get to see properly in the original story because I was busy beating down the mobs that were pouring in. Seeing it like this, it felt kind of new in its own way.
‘Were the experimental beast-kin of the original story created in this place?’
I pride myself on being a veteran who has cleared the game in countless ways, but I still don’t know exactly what they were trying to create here.
In the first place, the «Leopold Magical Beast» that they created here was also said to be a ‘failure’.
‘The problem is that the magical beast ends up killing the original Enoch.’
I hadn’t suspected it until now because the group called Vendetta was a clear villainous role in the original story, but was the purpose of human experimentation really just to create a strong force?
‘If not, is there some other purpose?’
But that wasn’t important right now.
The mission I was assigned was to rescue the children.
‘Let’s focus.’
Enoch took a short breath.
I can’t be relieved just because there are no enemies right now.
I still don’t know where the attack will come from in this complicated laboratory.
I couldn't let my guard down.
This is not a game that I can replay over and over again if I fail.
Swish.
Enoch grasped the surrounding space and took a defensive stance, aiming his sword forward.
But what he used was not the usual, normal stance.
‘When holding a sword in such a confined space, you must be careful of your actions.’
Even though it was a one-handed sword, it was a 1m-long double-edged longsword.
It can be restricted in combat in a narrow space. Therefore, depending on the surrounding situation, the posture in which you hold the sword here must also be different.
‘Raise your empty left arm. Aim the sword horizontally forward, as if crossing it over it.’
A posture that has the tactical advantage of protecting its owner with a sword lurking close to the body, and at the same time being able to cope with attacks coming from all directions, even in a narrow space.
The moment I naturally grabbed the sword like that—
‘…Wait, what was that just now?’
Suddenly, a strong sense of incongruity struck Enoch.
‘I've never inherited this posture in the inner world before?’
The moment the sense of alienation about his own posture permeated,
Swish.
A presence was felt right next to him.
With a sharp sense of tension, Distracting thoughts was cut off in an instant.
Responding immediately, Enoch aimed his sword at the presence.
And almost at the same time.
A heavy sound of air being torn apart, as if something was being swung at this side, echoed in the room.
Whoong!
Enoch immediately grasped the sense with the sound and flew his body backwards.
Beyond the blow that narrowly passed over his head, eyes that glowed eerily were visible.
[Krrr….]
Before his eyes stood dozens of monsters growling lowly.
They vaguely resembled the shape of humans, but.
Beasts that could never be called humans.
Their dark green mana was gleaming and emitting light from between their cracked black skin.
The arms, dotted with hard carapaces, were almost the size of large boulders.
‘They’re the same as the «Experimental Magical Beasts» in the game.’
In the basement of the Leopold Administrator’s mansion, there was the same mob as that one in the original story.
Except that the number was enormously larger compared to this.
「Magical Beastification Experimental Subject: Scouting Type」
They were the mobs that appeared quite often in the original story.
One of the terrifying magical beasts that caused enormous damage around Leopold five years from now.
‘Fortunately, they are not experimental subjects made from children.’
Surely, before starting full-scale experiments here, there were test subjects made in other areas, right?
In that short moment when I recalled the identity of the guys.
The guys opened their mouths all at once towards this side.
Chomp.
‘And the biggest feature of these guys is….’
Cheeeeeek!
A gas that shone brightly in green was spewed out from the guys' wide-open mouths.
「Paralysis Nerve Gas」
It is said that it is definitely highly volatile and does not remain in the room for long, but if you directly inhale the gas that is spewed out like that, your limbs will be paralyzed even in small amounts.
Of course, since it's for paralysis, it doesn't mean you die immediately if you're exposed to it.
Only the body is paralyzed.
But what's the difference between just dying to an experimental subject and being torn to death after being paralyzed?
‘When I first saw it in the game, I was suddenly hit with a status abnormality and died several times and struggled….’
But that's the story of when I was a newbie in <Magic Empire Atlas>.
He slowly raised a metallic gas mask in the form of a black mask.
The Administrator's mansion storage.
An artifact that I brought from there for this very moment.
「Tactical Gas Mask: Prototype」
Thud.
The metallic gas mask, with its sleek design covering only the user's lower face, covered Enoch's faintly smiling mouth.
An artifact that filters out harmful substances entering the respiratory system through the filter with the power of mana stones, even if the user does not use magic separately.
The gas mask's filter reacted to his breathing and activated.
The filter neatly blocked the inflow of gas from outside.
[Karararak!]
The experimental magical beasts, who seemed to be filled with anger at Enoch's lack of abnormality despite being directly exposed to the gas, screamed and rushed in.
Explosive power coming from bodies transformed by experiments. A sense of pressure as if small trucks were rushing towards this side wrapped around the body.
But Enoch instead took half a step back and lowered his stance.
‘If an attack that cannot be blocked comes in, cut down the opponent faster and more intensely than that.’
The memories inherited from the Empire’s Last Sword Saint, which I experienced in the inner world.
It was a suitable stage to utilize what I learned there.
Whooshing.
Dark blue mana bloomed once again on the sword.
Mana was deployed from the sword to each part of Enoch's body.
He kicked off the ground as it was and detonated the mana, charging forward.
Thang!
In an instant, the distance between the two sides was deleted.
Both sides moved their bodies to attack at the same time.
Whooong!
The first guy swung his huge arm first.
An attack that grazed Enoch's waist.
Blood burst out from his side for a moment.
But it's shallower than I thought. It's not a fatal wound.
Enoch rotated his body as it was and detonated the mana projected onto the sword.
- Form 2, Fire Wheel.
The mana rippling on the sword exploded in an instant.
His body rotated greatly due to the recoil.
Whirl.
Dark blue light carved three large consecutive strikes in the air.
A power that could never be produced with just a one-handed sword, the blade pierced through the experimental subject's hard carapace and cut off the guys' arms and waists in one strike.
Crack!
In one sword strike, the bodies of several were cut off at the same time.
A circular series of attacks that swirled like the sun in the air three times.
Around it, countless remnants of enemies scattered blood and flew away.
The guys whose waists and heads were accurately severed died instantly. Only one guy whose legs were cut off barely survived.
Fire Wheel is a powerful sword form for large-scale group battles.
If that is unfolded head-on at close range. No matter how many enemies there are, they will all be burned down like trivial beings facing the sun.
[Karararak!]
The one guy who barely survived seemed to be trying to somehow regain his balance while staggering after landing, but he couldn't do anything about his severed legs and sat down as it was.
The surviving experimental subject's mouth opened wide.
Gas burst out once again towards Enoch, as if struggling desperately.
Cheeeeeek!
But Enoch broke through the gas head-on and slowly approached it.
The air inhaled by the filter of the gas mask was already purified.
There was no way paralysis poison would work on him in this situation.
"You have no learning ability."
Enoch spoke lowly beyond the mask and shoved his sword into the guy's open mouth.
Poook
When he used force to draw the sword sideways, piercing through the neck, the guy's hideously mutated head fell to the floor.
The monster's green blood scattered like a waterfall on the floor.
“…Hoo.”
Only after severing the monster's neck did Enoch catch his breath and retract his sword.
Blood was seeping out from the waist where he had been hit by the guy.
But thanks to the adrenaline surging with the excitement of the battle, he didn't feel the pain of the wound yet.
Now I had to find the children.
But before he could even take a breath.
A sudden voice rang in his ear.
“What are you doing in someone else’s precious laboratory?”
The end of the room where dark white lights lined up.
A languid voice echoed from there.
“Seriously, you’re all so eager to interfere with my experiments. You’re all such idiots who can’t understand anything.”
Enoch slowly turned his head.
A young man in a white coat slowly walked out from beyond the darkness of the laboratory and revealed himself.
He stroked his chin and pointed to Enoch’s sword, asking.
“That looks kind of funny for a magic staff. Is it your taste?”
But Enoch didn’t answer.
No, to be exact, I couldn’t answer.
‘Why is that guy, here…?’
Enoch unconsciously took half a step back for a moment.
A man in a bizarre outfit, wearing a white gown that didn’t suit his aristocratic clothes and shining with dark green eyes.
It was clear that it was the first time Enoch had met him, but he definitely knew his identity.
「Vendetta - Rank 13 Annihilation Officer: Tantalus」
‘Vendetta’, one of the powerful villain groups in the original story.
He was one of the ‘Annihilation Officers’ there.
In the in-game setting, they were specified as follows.
「Within Vendetta, there are thirteen people called [Annihilation Officers]. A title that refers to powerful executive-level mages who command the general members of the Organization and are loyal to the Organization in their own ways and according to their own will.」
In other words, the people who made Vendetta the most threatening presence in the original story were the Annihilation Officers.
Even the lowest of them, the man in front of me. Even the 13th-ranked 「Tantalus」 was above rank 10.
Needless to say, he was a powerful figure with the status of at least a mid-boss in the original story.
That’s precisely why it was a problem.
‘That guy shouldn’t have appeared in this stage in the first place!’
A cold chill ran down Enoch’s spine.
The identity of ‘that person’ mentioned in the conversation between the Decurion and the Administrator in the lens last time was this mage.
And at the same time….
A powerful enemy that I can’t beat at all right now.
“You don’t even answer. You make people feel awkward.”
Meanwhile, Tantalus said that with a slightly annoyed expression and strode towards this side.
“From what I can see, it seems that the Main House dispatched a new person, and I thought it was strange that the regular report was suddenly cut off, so… I’m glad I came to see if that was the case.”
The man took out a short cigar from inside his white coat.
Enoch took a step back, sweating coldly.
That wasn't just a cigarette.
A unique Magic Gear with a green mana stone embedded in it, with the same light as Tantalus' eyes.
The moment I saw that, Enoch sensed the crisis and gripped his sword again.
“Anyway, I have to get the ransom.”
Clack.
In an instant, the guy’s finger flicked, and the cigar that he had put in his mouth caught fire.
At the same time. A cluster of mana exploded from the guy’s body.
Enoch doubted his eyes for a moment as he looked at him.
‘No way.’
Unbelievably, the guy’s mana, which was felt by the 「Sense of Mana」, was sinking sticky like a swamp and covering all directions.
Enoch gripped his sword tightly with the amount of mana that was so overwhelming that he was overwhelmed just by looking at it.
Chijik….
Tantalus took a light breath once. The fire on the guy’s cigarette flared red once.
The front of the cigar turned to ash and decreased, and the green smoke he exhaled spread thickly in all directions.
And the next moment.
A line of mana made of green mana was drawn in front of Enoch’s body.
‘It’s coming!’
At the same time as noticing, one magic circle rapidly rotated and unfolded right in front of his nose.
An invisible blow that burst out from there briefly rushed towards him.
Kaaang!
Whether it was because he was concentrating all his nerves with tension, or thanks to the 「Sense of Mana」, he barely reacted.
He hurriedly inserted the sword that had been projected with mana in advance, and somehow managed to block the attack.
“Keuk!”
But that was it.
Along with the enormous shock applied to the sword, Enoch's body was strongly bounced away with the sword.
Enoch, who had been pushed away for a long time and rammed his back against the wall of the laboratory, lost his balance as it was and collapsed.
A stream of cold sweat flowed down his back, which had exhaled his breath momentarily.
‘I was too complacent.’
I might have been unknowingly excited.
A world that looked like the game I usually enjoyed.
So, unknowingly, I might have been unconsciously mistaken that everything was no different from a game that moved with one choice.
But of course, this world was not a game.
Therefore, things outside the route he had experienced could happen as much as possible.
Clearly, because I knew that fact, I had thought about predictions and countermeasures for unexpected situations to some extent in advance.
But this was a variable that was too unexpected.
‘To think that a person of the mid-boss level would suddenly come out here out of the blue.’
But it's not just Enoch who regards the opponent as an unexpected presence.
“To block that.”
Tantalus said that with an interesting expression, took out his cigar and spun it once on his finger.
“A magic circle activated at close range. And the projectile wasn’t even visible, so how? Even the Elsyde’s combat mages, who were said to be flying, couldn’t react at all. It doesn’t make sense.”
He tilted his head, looked at Enoch, and slowly opened his mouth.
“You, could it be….”
He asked with a chilling smile.
“Can you, read mana?”
Enoch’s spine turned cold for a moment.
The guy had already figured that out.
Of course, it was by no means normal for ordinary mages to be able to visually confirm the opponent's mana.
Of course, if someone gathers mana around them to the extent that mana condenses around the space, ordinary people can observe it with the naked eye.
For example. The dark blue mana that Enoch projects onto the sword and the magic circles that mages usually unfold are examples of that.
Mana that is concentrated in one point in that way is easily visible to ordinary people's eyes with its unique bright light.
The former is because mana is limited and concentrated on the sword to make it 서리게, and the latter is because mana is gathered together in the air and arranged.
But unlike the phenomenon of emitting light through such natural condensation, being able to see all the ‘flow of mana’ that makes up the magic itself is a completely different story.
“My interest is piqued. What the hell are you?”
Ordinary mages would not have even been able to react to the attack just now and would have died.
Because the magic was designed from the beginning so that the enemy would not even be able to respond and would be attacked.
But Enoch responded to it.
That was the point that Tantalus was surprised at.
The fact that he responded while recognizing exactly what method the attack was rushing in with was almost impossible given the design characteristics of that magic.
But even if it was a surprising thing for him that Enoch had dodged, Enoch was even more surprised by Tantalus' absurd judgment.
To figure out this side’s ability almost accurately with just one attack.
Thwack.
Feeling a sense of dread, Enoch gripped the hand holding the sword.
As expected, it wasn't for nothing that he had risen to the position of Annihilation Officer, who was said to be an executive in Vendetta.
“Well, you’re not going to answer? Well, that’s understandable.”
Tantalus looked down at Enoch, who was still collapsed and silent, and suggested.
“Okay, let’s do this. I’ll spare your life. Become my experimental subject.”
He said, shining his green eyes.
“It’s an ongoing experiment, but you’re special. You seem to have potential. If you receive my experiment, you’ll become thousands of times stronger than you are now.”
Chijik…
He exhaled a mouthful of cigar.
“Don’t you want to become a powerful mage? If you’re a mage from the Elsyde Main House, no. If you’re a mage from this damn Magic Empire, that’s what everyone wants.”
Krrr.
And the next moment, dozens of green magic circles rotated and floated, aiming at Enoch. It was an absurd deployment speed and amount of mana.
An action that implied that if you refuse, you will only die.
“There’s no choice, but it won’t be a bad story for you either.”
Tantalus said, putting a cigar in his mouth.
“In any society, incompetence is a sin. Especially if you’re in the Main House… You know better than anyone, don’t you?”
Enoch tried to move his body somehow.
But his legs and arms, which had already reached their limit from using swordsmanship, no longer listened to him. At this rate, even escape is impossible.
But in that situation that was so desperate…
Enoch only smiled briefly.
“I refuse.”
"What?"
And the next moment.
Before Tantalus' eyes, who Retorted with a puzzled expression at the unexpected answer.
The tip of the lit cigar was cut off and flew away in an instant.
Slash.
“…?”
The magic circles, whose magic gear had been destroyed and lost their power source, momentarily turned into particles of light and were cancelled before they could be activated.
Tantalus raised his eyes beyond the clusters of light of his mana that were breaking and scattering in all directions.
Ping.
Before his eyes. From beyond the darkness of the laboratory, threads containing silver-white mana were being ejected in all directions.
“Contracts with life as a premise….”
A black dress with a white apron.
Above the familiar maid’s uniform, silver hair rippled as if dancing in the darkness.
Enoch spoke lowly, watching Lien’s figure passing by in front of him.
“I have a prior engagement.”