Chapter 162 – Frozen Things (Six)

Higher than the high wall, higher still in the sky.

As Ray took in the scenery spread out below, he suddenly realized a very important fact.

‘…How do I land?’

He had jumped too high.

It was because the power of the wind-assisted leap was too explosive.

‘Use Metallization to absorb the impact?’

Rejected.

Stealth Magic only hinders the opponent’s perception; it doesn’t conceal other factors like hearing or smell.

[Kwoooooong──!]

Making that kind of landing sound would be like announcing to the whole neighborhood that Ray is here.

‘Use a gravity field to cushion my body?’

Rejected.

The colored Mana needed as material wasn’t sufficient in the Ring.

‘The best way is probably to raise my self-love, the emotion I’m most confident in, to create more wind….’

Just as Ray was nodding at his own excellent judgment.

Thudududududu─!

In the distance, something with thick legs was running, massacring the grass as it charged.

That bulky, scattered mass was a bear… no, it was a mechanical hound, Kelly, that at least had the form of a dog.

Creak! Creak!

‘Is it going to attack me?’

It was an unexpected situation, but Ray calmly prepared to respond.

However, just before the collision, the action Kelly took upon arriving in his field of vision was even more unexpected.

Whooosh──!

In an instant, a strong wind burst forth from Kelly’s entire body.

Ray’s falling speed drastically decreased, allowing him to land safely on the ground.

Thud.

“…….”

After quietly checking his body, Ray looked up and asked Kelly.

“Did you help me? By pulling in the Sky Blue Mana from the atmosphere?”

“Huff, huff, huff.”

A truly dog-like reply.

“I haven’t learned the language of mechanical hounds, so I can’t understand you if you do that.”

“Huff, huff, huff.”

As Kelly approached to lick his face and sniff, Ray took a step back and extended his palm.

“No. Wait.”

Kelly obediently sat down.

When Ray presented the back of his hand in front of his face, Kelly sniffed it, snuffling.

‘Does Stealth Magic not work on machines? Or did it recognize me by smell?’

Is that possible?

Ray thought Kelly was just mimicking the act of sniffing.

Because it’s a machine.

It couldn’t have been born with a sense of smell, an important means of communication and a window to the world in a dog’s life.

Just like.

‘Me, born without emotions.’

Feeling a slight sense of kinship, Ray reached his hand toward the top of Kelly’s head.

“Of course, I’m human, not a machine, so I can’t perfectly empathize with you. But I’ve heard that dogs feel good when you pat their heads.”

He attempted his own form of comfort, but Kelly kept lifting its head to follow his hand, so he failed.

Finally, after succeeding once on tiptoe, Ray returned to his original posture and asked.

“But how did you really recognize me? Part of me wants to take you apart a bit to find out, but I doubt you’d stay still for that.”

Suddenly, Kelly lowered its gaze.

At first, he thought it was a natural movement, but then it completely stopped moving.

“What’s wrong?”

Kelly didn’t respond.

It just stared.

“Is there something on my chest?”

Again, no answer came.

After tilting his head for a moment, Ray remembered his original objective and headed toward the tower.

As Kelly tried to get up and follow, he gave an order.

“Stay right there. If you run around, Black Smoke comes out.”

Leaving Kelly frozen like a statue behind him, Ray arrived in front of the tower.

Clunk. Clunk.

Just in case, but as expected, the entrance door was locked with a thick padlock and even had Locking Magic applied.

Taking a few steps back from the door, Ray looked up.

The other entrance he had scouted earlier was…

‘It’s pretty high.’

An open window on the upper floors of the tower.

Originally, he planned to climb by holding onto the wall’s irregularities… but suddenly, a better way to shorten the time occurred to him.

‘I need Kelly.’

Turning his head, he could see Kelly already approaching.

Arriving beside him, Kelly bumped its head against him and then lay flat on the ground, as if telling him to get on.

What the…?

It felt as if it was reading his intentions and acting accordingly.

Anyway, there was no time to ponder deeply, so Ray immediately climbed onto Kelly’s head, taking a stance with one knee bent.

And the moment he thought he was ready.

───!

Kelly lifted its deeply lowered head with tremendous force and speed.

Swaeeeeeeeeek───!

The boy’s body was launched like a cannonball.

The wind stung his skin as the tower’s floor numbers visible before his eyes changed rapidly.

3rd floor… 5th… 7th…

9th… 11th… 13th…

It was instantaneous.

No time to even process it.

However, as his speed gradually slowed, he judged he might fall a bit short of the target floor.

Looking down.

‘It’s really high.’

Kelly looked very small.

A situation where, if he wasn’t careful, his life might be shortened instead of his infiltration time.

Ray immediately sent two colors of Mana beneath his feet.

And at the moment his body reached its peak height.

Crunch-crunch!

Gray crystals blooming beneath his feet stuck together to form a small Stone Tablet, and Sky Blue Mana transformed into wind fixed the tablet in mid-air.

Tap!

Stepping on the tablet and leaping up, Ray grabbed the lower part of the window’s railing above.

Using muscle enhancement at maximum output, he easily pulled his body up.

‘This is fun.’

I should practice this when I get back.

Turning the Stone Tablet into dust and scattering it into the air, Ray entered the spiral staircase connected inside.

Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap─

Descending the stairs with quick steps, he checked the time.

‘1:44 PM.’

Binjin would return to the tower at 3:00 PM when classes ended.

Considering the tasks he had to finish here, the remaining time wasn’t exactly plentiful.

Thud.

Arriving on the 1st floor, Ray headed straight to the center of the tower, filled with traces of Magic Circles.

Among the traces, he saw an Exploitation Magic Circle, secretly hidden and still being drawn.

‘He must have started production right after I left yesterday.’

Judging by the currently drawn proportion… it would probably be completed just in time on the morning of the procedure day.

Binjin, too, likely didn’t want to give any chance for suspicion to arise.

Rustle.

Ray took out the notebook where Veronica had written down the Exploitation Magic modification formula.

If he modified it precisely like this, he could prevent the Magic Circle from activating on the day of the procedure.

‘I wonder if this game of wits will continue until the procedure day….’

It was to eliminate any potential risk factors altogether.

Just as Ray was about to modify the Magic Circle according to the formula.

────.

‘Ah, you were there.’

Sensing its presence, Ray focused his inner sight and looked beneath his feet.

Deep underground.

He could see a flowing galaxy of Mana following a winding, curved path.

The Mana’s shimmer was still faint, but the flow felt strangely more intense than yesterday.

Is it because it wants to come out?

Ray stared at the floor section sealed with Locking Magic for a moment, then looked back at the galaxy.

‘Sorry, but I can’t let you out right now. You have to come out on your own.’

The intense flow of the galaxy showed no sign of calming down easily.

Or is it because it’s hungry?

Ray created a large sphere from the Ring’s Mana and floated it in the air.

He moved it around, but the galaxy showed no particular reaction to it.

‘Hmm…….’

After thinking for a moment, Ray this time created a sphere from the Gem’s Mana.

────.

An immediate reaction.

The galaxy moved around underground, following the yellowish Mana sphere.

Ray dissipated the sphere and this time walked around with the gem inside his body activated.

…The reaction was much better.

It seemed to react only to Mana with a purity higher than the Ring’s Mana.

‘You’re quite picky.’

Like me, you should eat without discrimination to grow.

For now, he couldn’t give the gem, as it was presumed to be a Rainbow Shard.

…High-purity Mana.

Pondering deeply, Ray’s eyes suddenly fell on the Exploitation Magic Circle.

“…….”

Staring intently at the Magic Circle, Ray put the notebook back into his pocket without proceeding with the modification he was about to perform.

Then, he began searching the interior of the tower.

‘The top priority item to find is Binjin’s safe.’

─Binjin might be connected to the Wizard with the Monocle.

Originally, that thought was mere speculation, but after hearing Tommy’s words, it had changed to near certainty.

「You fool, do you know? I’ve finally been accepted into the Indigo Dawn Society.」

‘Indigo Dawn Society.’

The Wizard with the Monocle also possessed a Ring with indigo-system Mana.

Binjin, who knows the procedure method of mixing the Ring’s Mana with the indigo system.

And Binjin’s lie that he developed that procedure method independently.

To Ray, all of this didn’t feel like mere coincidence.

‘There’s a master behind the procedure method.’

It was highly likely to be an organization called the Indigo Dawn Society.

The possibility that the Wizard with the Monocle was connected there and had undergone the same procedure was also high.

No.

Rather, considering the number of Rings seen in Sector 50 in the past….

‘…There’s also a high possibility he’s the leader of the Indigo Dawn Society or the inventor of the procedure.’

In conclusion, to obtain information, he had to find the safe.

It was almost certain that letters sent to Binjin by the Indigo Dawn Society were stored there.

Also, the safe likely contained powerful artifacts that Binjin had separately set aside.

Thus, the search heated up.

‘Is it here?’

Desk, bookshelf, wardrobe, storage cabinet.

‘Here?’

Sink, floor, walls, etc.

He thoroughly searched every noticeable place and even checked for any possible hidden mechanisms.

Going up and down the spiral staircase, he also checked all areas around the windows.

But.

‘I really can’t find anything.’

Not only the safe, but he couldn’t find any helpful information or clues.

Ray, holding Binjin’s underwear he had absentmindedly taken from the wardrobe, incinerated it in the air and thought.

‘Entering the tower itself is already very difficult. There’s almost no chance of intrusion from outside. The basement where the galaxy flows? No, I doubt he’d hide a safe sealed with Locking Magic there with triple layers.’

There wasn’t much time left.

Pondering deeply, Ray suddenly realized there was one place he hadn’t searched.

Immediately, he ran up the spiral staircase, circling round and round.

Arriving at the top of the stairs in an instant.

The small space under the roof at the very top of the tower.

There, a safe with a peculiar tetrahedral shape was making its Presence known.

There was no padlock attached.

However, a brilliant, multicolored Mana flowing like a film over the safe was noticeable.

Focusing his inner sight, Ray concentrated his mind and carefully observed the flow.

‘There’s no special alarm magic… but it seems the Elemental Fusion of the Locking Magic is being reinforced by that flowing Mana, making it more solid.’

Ray knew what that meant.

It was a signal that something far more valuable and mysterious than a normal safe was inside, urging him to open it as soon as possible.

‘That safe itself seems like an artifact too.’

Ray checked the time.

‘2:32 PM.’

Binjin’s return was at 3:00 PM.

Since it wasn’t a normal safe, he couldn’t predict how long unlocking it would take.

“…….”

In a brief moment, calculating many situations and weighing possibilities, Ray sat down in front of the safe.

Vroom!

He immediately infused Mana and began the work.

The fusion of elements constituting the Locking Magic was extremely solid, initially repelling the boy’s Mana.

But as the boy increased his output.

Crackle!

It split, creating fissures.

It was a very spirited momentum, but the boy showed not a hint of excitement.

That was just one layer.

Thousands of layers of elemental fusion remained to be dismantled.

The boy simply.

“…….”

Concentrated.

As the work progressed, time passed in chunks, and sweat poured from the boy’s body like rain.

Just as the work was nearing completion.

A sound reached Ray’s ears, with his hearing maximally enhanced.

─Thud, thud.

‘Binjin’s footsteps.’

Checking the time, it was 3:02 PM.

Binjin was returning, but only a few layers of elemental fusion remained, so he couldn’t retreat now.

Ray focused on the work.

Crack!

‘3 layers.’

─Thud, thud.

Crack!

‘2 layers.’

─Thud, thud. Thud.

Crack!

‘1 layer.’

─Thud, thud. Thud.

As Binjin’s footsteps reached the door on the 1st floor of the tower, and the moment that door opened.

Crack!

───!

The final defensive Wall shattered.

Creeeak──.

The safe’s door opened.