Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert

[Translator – Peptobismol]

Chapter 158

Jin Geum-ho stood with his arms crossed, looking out the window.

The smile he had when greeting Zeon had long vanished.

Seo Tae-ran stood with her hands clasped, watching his back.

It was a long time before Jin Geum-ho spoke again.

“Life is quite amusing.”

“Pardon?”

“The world, I mean. A Sand Mage suddenly appearing out of nowhere.”

“Yes.”

Jin Geum-ho turned to look at Seo Tae-ran.

“What did you think of him?”

“He seemed formidable.”

“You saw it too?”

“Yes, if handled recklessly, it could lead to significant trouble.”

“You and I think alike.”

Jin Geum-ho nodded.

From what he saw, Zeon had a typical strong-strong, weak-weak personality.

Strong against the strong, kind to the weak.

It wasn’t due to recklessness or a strange personality.

He could afford to act that way because he had confidence in his abilities.

“My Celestial Eye didn’t work on him.”

“Is that… really true?”

Seo Tae-ran looked up, surprised.

The Celestial Eye.

One of Jin Geum-ho’s main skills.

Unlike Xiao Lun’s Petrifying Eyes, it wasn’t a skill that harmed others. But in some ways, it was even more dangerous.

The most frightening aspect of the Celestial Eye was that it could roughly read the causality.

In other words, when he activated this skill and looked at someone, he could roughly understand how things would flow in their future.

He could somewhat predict the future of someone he used his Celestial Eye on.

The problem was himself.

He couldn’t predict how variables would change if he intervened directly with someone.

Therefore, Jin Geum-ho refrained from directly intervening with others. He simply guided them to make choices on their own.

His policy was to achieve the desired results with minimal interference.

“The only person my Celestial Eye didn’t work on was Dyoden. Now, Zeon has joined that list.”

“So you’re saying Zeon might be as strong as Dyoden?”

“It’s a high possibility.”

“Hmm!”

“Being a Sand Mage alone makes him a formidable existence, and it seems his rank is quite high.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to eliminate him now? If we move the entire Execution Squad, we can easily get rid of him.”

“That would disrupt the carefully balanced causality. Although a bit inconvenient, the current flow will benefit my plan more.”

“Please let me know if you ever change your mind.”

“Will do.”

Jin Geum-ho smiled at Seo Tae-ran’s words.

At that moment, there was a faint vibration.

Jin Geum-ho and Seo Tae-ran’s expressions changed instantly.

It was a vibration only felt in the Mayor’s office.

All the magic circles and barriers protecting Neo Seoul were managed from City Hall. Any slight change in the numbers was immediately communicated to the Mayor’s office.

Seo Tae-ran spoke cautiously.

“There’s a report that Neo Seoul’s anti-magic level has dropped again.”

“Let’s go underground.”

“You want to see it yourself?”

“I need to see it with my own eyes.”

“I’ll accompany you.”

The two boarded the elevator.

Whirr!

The elevator descended at a frightening speed.

In no time, it reached the first floor but showed no signs of stopping.

Sublevel twenty.

People of Neo Seoul believed City Hall had a total of seventy floors: fifty above ground and twenty below.

Even those who worked at City Hall believed this.

However, there was an unknown space below City Hall.

A secret area far below sublevel twenty.

Among those in the know, it was called the Excavation Zone.

The elevator passed sublevel twenty and continued to descend.

It felt longer than ascending fifty floors, and it indeed took more time.

Ding!

Finally, the elevator reached the Excavation Zone and the doors opened.

An expansive underground space appeared before them.

The underground space was large enough to fit the entire City Hall.

It was hard to believe such a space existed beneath Neo Seoul. But what was even more astonishing was the enormous object lying in the underground space.

A massive creature, at least 150 meters from head to tail, lay prone.

Its enormous wings were limp, its eyes were closed, and it had a pair of large horns on its head. Its scales were as white as the sands of the salt desert.

The creature was a dragon.

A pure white dragon.

The overwhelming presence of the enormous creature was enough to take one’s breath away.

No signs of life could be felt from the white dragon. It was indeed dead.

Jin Geum-ho looked up at the white dragon and murmured.

“Tamulas, one of the eight dragons that came through the rift when Earth turned into a desert.”

Long ago, Jin Geum-ho had seen it with his own eyes.

He saw the enormous rift connecting to Kurayan open, and eight dragons came through.

The dragons scattered in different directions for unknown reasons.

One of them flew to the Bukhansan Mountains and made a nest.

That dragon was the White Dragon Tamulas, now lying before Jin Geum-ho.

Tamulas was a young dragon.

Naturally, it was weaker than the other dragons.

Having expended almost all its energy passing through the rift, it couldn’t fly far and settled at the foot of Bukhansan Mountains.

“At that time, Dyoden and I combined our strength to capture it.”

Dyoden had lost his family to a dragon and was blinded by rage, while Jin Geum-ho knew through his Celestial Eye that capturing Tamulas was crucial for humanity’s future.

There was no choice.

They had to capture Tamulas.

Under the leadership of Jin Geum-ho and Dyoden, numerous Awakeneds embarked on the hunt for Tamulas.

During the early stages of terraforming, when Awakeneds had just begun to emerge, they were naturally inexperienced in combat.

Fortunately, Tamulas was a young dragon.

Tamulas also lacked experience and did not fully control its powers.

That’s why it made the mistake of nesting near the remnants of old Seoul, where humans still survived.

Perhaps it underestimated humans.

Regardless, under the leadership of Dyoden and Jin Geum-ho, human Awakeneds engaged in a fierce battle with Tamulas.

[Translator – Peptobismol]

The brutal battle lasted for three days, with nearly all human Awakeneds losing their lives.

Only a few survived, including Dyoden and Jin Geum-ho.

But in the end, they managed to bring Tamulas down.

It was the first victory granted to humanity.

Jin Geum-ho knew they had to seize this opportunity.

He built a massive building over Tamulas’ corpse.

By hiding Tamulas’ corpse under the City Hall, he began constructing buildings one by one.

This was the beginning of Neo Seoul.

Tamulas was a dragon, the noble apex predator that came from Kurayan.

Even in death, its presence remained formidable.

Monsters feared to approach where Tamulas lay. Even if it was just a corpse.

Thanks to this, Neo Seoul was safe from monster attacks.

When news spread that monsters would not approach the area, survivors flocked there from all over.

As people gathered, the city grew, and civilization, which had regressed to the medieval era, was restored.

This was a secret known only to a select few.

However, workbenches were set up around Tamulas’ corpse.

Many people were working on the workbenches.

“Just a little more effort.”

“Almost there.”

The workers were removing Tamulas’ scales.

Tamulas’ scales were lighter than aluminum of the same size yet much stronger than diamonds.

Removing scales from a dragon’s body was no easy task.

To remove one scale, mages, alchemists, technicians, and miners had to work together for at least a month.

This left everyone exhausted after removing just one scale.

It wasn’t just the scales.

Everywhere, workers were extracting Tamulas’ flesh, blood, bones, and marrow.

Tamulas’ corpse was a treasure trove.

Nothing was wasted.

The scales were used for making armor and weapons, the blood was processed into pharmaceuticals, and the marrow was researched for longevity and immortality.

The reason Neo Seoul developed so rapidly was precisely because of the materials extracted from Tamulas’ corpse.

Alchemists and mages working at City Hall researched Tamulas’ corpse, using the data obtained to advance Neo Seoul.

This was the true secret behind Neo Seoul’s rapid development compared to other colonies.

“The problem is that the anti-magic force depletes as we harvest materials from the dragon’s corpse…”

As materials were extracted from Tamulas’ corpse, the anti-magic force diminished.

Recently, the anti-magic force of Neo Seoul had weakened significantly for this reason.

Over a hundred years, humans had continuously harvested Tamulas’ corpse, and now only about a third remained intact.

When they finished harvesting the remaining third, Neo Seoul’s anti-magic force would be completely depleted.

When that happened, Neo Seoul would also suffer from monster attacks.

“How long will it take?”

“Estimates suggest it will be exhausted in about thirty years.”

“Faster than expected.”

“Technology is advancing rapidly as well.”

The more they harvested from the dragon’s corpse, the more technology advanced, but this also exposed Neo Seoul to monster threats—a dilemma.

Seo Tae-ran spoke cautiously.

“What if we slow down the excavation?”

“It’s too late.”

“……”

“We must continue with the momentum. If we stop now, it will only cause bigger problems.”

“Do you think Zeon can retrieve Moby Dick’s heart? Without it, Heaven’s Wrath cannot be completed.”

“Heaven’s Wrath will be completed. Whether Zeon wants it or not, he will have to follow the flow I’ve created.”

Jin Geum-ho’s confident voice resonated throughout the vast underground space.

* * *

“Jin Geum-ho…”

Zeon suddenly stopped walking and looked back.

In the distance, the enormous City Hall was visible.

Jin Geum-ho’s gaze was no longer felt. Nevertheless, escaping his lingering presence was not easy.

The impression Jin Geum-ho left on him was that strong.

One doesn’t need to be clad in heavy armor and armed with spears and swords to be intimidating.

Some can oppress others with their sheer innate strength.

Jin Geum-ho was such a person.

The entire Neo Seoul was under his control.

There was no need for him to be armed in his own domain.

The moment he snapped his fingers, all the Awakeneds in Neo Seoul would mobilize.

“Retrieve Moby Dick’s heart… What exactly is he planning?”

Moby Dick was 120 meters long.

It was an ultra-massive monster, as large as a dragon or a leviathan.

Monsters with enormous bodies naturally harbored immense mana.

To maintain such a large body, an enormous amount of mana was required.

A monster’s heart was essentially a reservoir of mana.

The larger the monster, the more immense the mana contained within its heart.

Requesting Moby Dick’s heart meant he needed an enormous amount of mana.

Zeon hadn’t refused Jin Geum-ho’s request.

It wasn’t because of the benefits Jin Geum-ho promised.

It was because of something Dyoden had once said.

―If you ever meet Jin Geum-ho, helping him at least once wouldn’t be a bad idea. His methods are extreme, but everything he does is for the survival of humans.

It was something Dyoden, not anyone else, had said.

Dyoden had the most significant influence on Zeon’s life.

Zeon couldn’t ignore his words.

That was the biggest reason Zeon accepted Jin Geum-ho’s proposal.

“I don’t know when I’ll come across Moby Dick in this vast desert, though.”

[Translator – Peptobismol]