“Yes?”

Besni tilted his head. There was no way he could have found it already.

“I found the Upper Realm. But something feels strange about it. I think you should come and see…”

Kim Songcheol said. Of course, Besni didn’t quite understand.

He naturally thought of the mistakes beginners often made.

Even with many processes automated, it wasn’t something you could do by just clicking buttons.

That’s why a manual was also provided.

“There’s a high probability that the settings are wrong…”

Besni entered the room. Around the chair, a magic circle and various gauges showing the situation at a glance floated in the air.

Besni first took off his hood and sat in the chair.

As he skillfully controlled the magic circle, the direction Kim Songcheol was aiming for appeared.

“Why did you set the direction to ‘Dark Realm’? The manual should say you don’t need to detect it.”

The Dark Realm is a space where magical signals cannot reach. It couldn’t be explored, so no one knew what was there.

Moreover, to facilitate detection, a three-dimensional map is manifested in the most familiar visual way for humans. The 3D map marks areas that have already been detected, but the Dark Realm has no markings at all, making it look like black islands floating around.

It was a place that didn’t need to be aimed at.

“Oh, that…”

Kim Songcheol’s aiming at the Dark Realm was not intentional.

All he had done was to officially position himself in the magic circle with his will to amplify the signal to speed up detection.

However, the signal amplification was unexpectedly large, and just as he was quite satisfied, all steering suddenly changed to the Dark Realm as if something was pulling it.

But he thought that if he said he had tampered with the magic circle, he might be kicked out, so he just made an excuse, saying he was ‘just curious.’

As if this happened often, Besni didn’t say anything and began to examine the other readings.

Then his gaze stopped at one of the gauges.

“Hmm?”

It was a value that categorized worlds. 1 to 30 was the Lower Realm. 30 to 60 was the Middle Realm. 60 to 100 was the Upper Realm.

It wasn’t a value of the world itself, but rather a numerical representation of the influence of the beings living in that world.

According to the value displayed on the gauge, it was clearly the Upper Realm.

Because the gauge was currently pointing to the maximum value of 100.

Theoretically, it was the Upper Realm.

‘100…?’

But Besni tilted her head. Thread 100 was only a theoretical limit, and the Threadometer had never pointed to 100.

“It seems there’s an error… Did you send it?”

“Yes, I received a response too.”

“You received a response?”

“Yes. More than that… I know this sounds strange, but it’s a bit disgusting.”

“Disgusting?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know what you mean by Nothingness.”

“I don’t know either.”

“That’s strange. Disgusting, you say… Hmm, shall I take a look?”

Besni muttered in disbelief and manipulated the Magic Array. A round Magic Array, like a helmet, formed around her head.

She carelessly looked into the lens of the magical telescope, which was fixated on the Dark Realm.

“Gah…!”

And with a scream, she fainted. Her hand, which was resting on the armrest, dropped, and foam frothed at her mouth.

“Huh? Mage!”

“Wake up!”

Kim Songcheol and Kim Dong-chan were startled and rushed to Besni.

They first took her out of the chair and laid her on the floor, while quickly tilting her head back to secure her airway.

They checked, and she was breathing. That was fortunate.

“Mage!”

Kim Songcheol immediately poured healing magic on her, and Kim Dong-chan called another Contract Mage.

“She suddenly collapsed! Does she have a chronic illness or something!?”

“Besni? Chronic illness? She shouldn’t have one…?”

The called Contract Mage also checked Besni’s breathing and pulse and scanned her body with a type of scan magic.

Fortunately, there seemed to be nothing wrong. He opened his mouth with a slightly relieved expression.

“It’s just a simple faint… But was there anything that happened?”

“Well…”

Kim Songcheol briefly explained the whole story of the incident. Since it happened in just a minute, the explanation wasn’t long. But it was enough to raise questions.

Dark Realm, value 100, sent and transmission completed. And even fainted after checking.

It was truly a strange incident. So much so that even a veteran Contract Mage had never experienced it before.

“She fainted after seeing it…?”

He tilted his head, got up from his seat, and sat in the chair.

The helmet was put on again.

“Gah…!”

One more victim was added.

“Huh? Mage!”

“Mage!”

Kim Songcheol and Kim Dong-chan took him out of the chair and laid him next to Besni.

In an instant, two victims had occurred.

“What on earth did you find?”

“I don’t know. It was just a bit disgusting…”

“Is it that disgusting?”

Kim Dong-chan got up from his seat. He walked towards the chair like someone possessed, and Kim Song-cheol quickly grabbed his collar.

“Hey, just a moment.”

“Yes?”

“Aren’t you going to see it?”

“That’s right.”

“Even though it’s come to this…?”

“Hmm… I guess so, huh?”

Kim Dong-chan hesitated for a moment, then stopped walking.

“What should we do about this?”

“…Indeed.”

The two of them just scratched their heads, looking down at the fainted Contract Mages.

Waiting for them to wake up felt awkward, and it was just a simple faint, so making a fuss felt a bit like a hawk.

“Still, shouldn’t we at least report it? There might be a capital city looking for them.”

Kim Song-cheol offered his opinion. It was a sound argument, so there was no room for refutation.

“I’ll go.”

Kim Song-cheol left Kim Dong-chan as the caregiver and went down the tower.

On the first floor, there were many Mage clients, and quite a few Contract Mages in brown robes were walking around.

Kim Song-cheol walked up to a Contract Mage who looked somewhat free.

He was a young male staff member Mage in his twenties.

“Excuse me, two Contract Mages have fainted in front of the Detection Room.”

“Huh? Why?”

He widened his eyes.

Two Mages suddenly fainting was surprising for someone without any information.

“Well…”

Kim Song-cheol gave a brief explanation. Since it was his second time explaining, he was more skilled and could convey only the essentials.

“So they fainted? Which one fainted?”

“I heard one is Besni. I don’t know the name of the other one.”

“They just fainted, right?”

“Yes, for now.”

“Hmm, I should probably check who they are. There might be a client waiting for them.”

He went up to the Detection Room with Kim Song-cheol.

As expected, the two were still unconscious.

Kim Dong-chan, who was sitting next to them, pointed at the fainted people as if to show them off.

The Contract Mage first checked the faces of the fainted Mages.

“Oh, it’s former Mage Reusmal. That’s strange. Why did he faint?”

He floated a hologram in the air and sent a message somewhere, speaking as he did so.

It was a message informing other Mages about Reusmal and Besni’s condition.

“But what exactly did you find in the Dark Realm?”

“I don’t know either. It’s disgusting…”

“Disgusting?”

He casually dismissed the hologram and turned his head towards the open Detection Room.

“I’ll have to check it out.”

“I don’t think you should. As you can see…”

Kim Songcheol pointed at the victims, but he paid no mind.

“As a Contract Mage, I can’t miss a new discovery.”

“No, I’m telling you, you’ll faint.”

Kim Songcheol tried to stop him again, but unlike Kim Dong-chan, he was unyielding.

“I’ll just check once. I’m curious. And I need to save the coordinates.”

“I’m telling you, you’ll just faint. There’s no need to look.”

“Why are you speaking like that? I’m the Mage affiliated with the Tower. Not you.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that if you keep fainting, this won’t get resolved.”

“Don’t I have the Capital City where I won’t faint? Are you dismissing me as Nothingness right now?”

“…?”

At his sharp tone, Kim Songcheol took a step back and exchanged glances with Kim Dong-chan.

He had seen madness in the Contract Mage’s eyes.

Something was wrong with this.

And Kim Dong-chan felt it too. His pupils trembled.

In the end, the Contract Mage entered the Detection Room.

“Gah…!”

As expected, after fainting, he was pulled out into the Corridor by Telekinesis.

He ended up lying next to the two previous fainters.

The sight of three people lying in a row was not a pleasant one.

“…Isn’t that strange?”

Kim Songcheol asked.

“Yes…”

Kim Dong-chan shivered as if he had goosebumps, then took a step back from the problematic Detection Room.

Something was definitely happening in the Detection Room.

The strange thing was that Kim Songcheol and Kim Dong-chan were unaffected.

Even if Kim Songcheol was the discoverer, Kim Dong-chan was strangely unharmed.

It was then.

A group of Contract Mages came up to the Detection Room. They had come up after receiving a message.

There were three Mages.

Kim Dong-chan almost turned pale.

“Wait, just a moment. Stop! Stop!”

The damage must not increase further.

Even if it’s just unconsciousness, who knows when they’ll wake up?

As Kim Dong-chan urgently shouted, the Mages stopped for now.

“What, what is going on?”

They looked back and forth between the unconscious Mages, Kim Songcheol, and Kim Dong-chan, asking.

They wondered if they might have attacked the Mages.

“A strange power is coming from the Detection Room. You must not approach!”

Kim Dong-chan first raised both hands and tried to persuade them.

‘Strange power’ was not a phrase a Mage would typically use, but there was no better way to explain it.

“The Detection Room is structured so that nothing can come out. What are you talking about?”

As expected, a theoretical refutation came.

It was then.

“I should check it out myself, shouldn’t I?”

One of the Mages tilted his head and stepped forward.

“What are you talking about?”

Another Mage grabbed his sleeve.

“No, he said there’s something disgusting, didn’t he?”

“What…? Nobody said it was disgusting…?”

“What does that matter? I’m just going to check it once.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Let go!”

When he wasn’t let go, madness began to flicker in his eyes.

“Th-th-th-that’s it! The strange power!”

Kim Dong-chan stammered but managed to shout.

Only then did the other Mages also look serious.

Since he was acting completely out of character, they had no choice but to believe in that ‘strange power’.

“If you don’t stop, I’ll have to forcibly restrain you!”

When the Mage threatened him,

he smiled eerily, shook off the hand, and began to walk towards the Detection Room.

“St-stop him!”

The Contract Mages activated their Magic to block him.

It was a narrow corridor, and since he was a colleague he worked with, he couldn’t use powerful magic.

He responded with basic Hold or Bind spells, and surprisingly, they were effective.

His body froze, unable to move a single step.

But then.

As a dark, humid energy spread from the Detection Room, everyone there rolled their eyes back and floated into the air. Kim Dong-chan couldn’t avoid it this time either.

“…!?”

However, the dark, humid energy suddenly cut off, and the people fell from the air with a thud.

Because the nothingness happened for such a short moment, it felt as if something had quickly blocked the energy.

Following that, four mages among the fallen people sprang to their feet.

In their eyes, instead of whites and pupils, something like tubifex worms swirled together.

They moved like puppets on strings, surrounding Kim Songcheol.

Kim Songcheol tried to do something, but neither his body nor his mana would move.

The Mages began to activate the Contract Magic.

The magic circles drawn from four directions soon formed a circle, and in its center was Kim Songcheol.

As the magic circle, emitting an illusory light, activated, Kim Songcheol felt connected to something. That something was indeed a ‘Grotesque Entity’.