TEOCH 49

“Rohan?! Wait a moment, where are you heading?!”

“Your Majesty’s words have given me an idea! We might be able to find a way to stop this collapse!”

The companions exchanged confused glances but diligently followed me. We were moving by climbing the branches in the forest instead of traversing the riverbank.

This was because Damian was semi-unconscious due to the aftereffects of excessive magic use, and Rikiel could not use his wings for the time being because of the parasite writhing in his back.

Visibility was poor because the leaves were so thick, and the branches, which were not as sturdy as the vines, screamed whenever even a little weight was put on them. Our speed was at a crawling level compared to when we were moving along the riverbank, but it couldn’t be helped now.

I kept the map window open in a corner of my vision and confirmed our location repeatedly. In a forest with no clear landmarks, there was a risk of getting off track if I lowered my guard even a little, and I had to stare at the numbers constantly to check those damn coordinates.

[24, 192, -114.]

[25, 192, -113.]

[26, 193. -112.]

I fiercely ground my teeth as I looked at the numbers that flickered wildly, pretending to change randomly, but ultimately displaying only similar coordinates.

‘So, if I didn’t notice those coordinates, I would have just been left to die, right?!’

The location indicated by the coordinates was a place that could only be reached by traveling a considerable distance east from the midstream of the river. Furthermore, I had just noticed that the coordinates displayed on the map were slightly changing their values as time passed. It was evidence that the ‘culprit’ causing the island to collapse was moving just like us. If I hadn’t discovered the coordinates on the map, it would have been quite difficult to catch the moving target.

‘But honestly, isn’t this too much? To embed a hint essential for survival in such an abnormal way!’

If I had run frantically upstream without even taking a break, I wouldn’t have noticed the meaning of this static. I would have just thought of it as a device to heighten the atmosphere. I might have realized the hint and cursed my luck only after the location collapsed over time.

Moreover, if Tristan hadn’t brought up the subject, I wouldn’t have even considered that these numbers were coordinates! What kind of game is this, seriously…!

‘Well, this is typical of this game!’

When has this game ever given anything away for free? I shook my head and sighed. Anyway, since I had found the hint now, I had no choice but to be thankful for it. Normally, it wouldn’t have been strange to figure out the hint only after dying at least two or three times.

I carefully checked our current location. Fortunately, it seemed we could reach the coordinates displayed on the map by traveling only about one kilometer east from where we were now.

There were no signs of the surrounding ground collapsing yet, so there was no need to rush that much, but it would be better to go quickly regardless. As we were diligently moving, Damian, who was being carried on Rehas’s back like a corpse, opened his mouth in a voice that sounded half-dead.

“M-Mr. Rohan?”

“How is your body, Damian? Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay at all. By the way, where are we going right now? It feels strange.”

“Strange? What do you mean?”

“I can feel a strange magic power ahead. It doesn’t seem very dangerous or ominous, but it’s such a powerful force that…”

“Which direction exactly?”

“The way we’re heading now. It must be a tremendously powerful force to be felt even without using detection magic… Ugh!”

As his body did not seem to have fully recovered, Damian vaguely finished his sentence while dry heaving with difficulty. Anyway, it seemed we were heading in the right direction.

But, a powerful force? And it’s not dangerous or ominous? Let’s assume I can somehow understand that it has powerful magic power since it’s doing something as massive as collapsing an island. But the fact that the power is not ominous, perhaps…

‘Is it not a demonic beast?’

I was secretly puzzled, as I had naturally expected a huge demonic beast to be waiting. Since it was moving, it was naturally a living being, and I had assumed that any living being encountered in the Demon Realm would naturally be a demonic beast.

I had speculated that some giant, powerful demonic beast was collapsing the entire island, and that killing it would somehow stop the collapse.

“Still, let’s not lower our guard just in case. Let’s go!”

I looked at the map and paid attention to the front. I hoped Damian’s hunch was right. Of course, Damian is an overly optimistic person, so he has a strong tendency to try to see the good in everything, but still, I hoped that ‘those coordinates’ were not too dangerous, just as Damian said.

Honestly, we’ve suffered enough, haven’t we? If we’ve fled for two and a half hours without a moment to breathe, and found a hint so difficult that we could only barely notice it by staring intently at the map, then the method to stop the collapse should at least be easy!

‘Let’s hurry for now. If we can just stop the island from collapsing, that’s enough.’

With only about two hours left, a simple calculation suggests that more than half of the island must have already collapsed. If we neglected the island’s collapse any longer, not only would we fail to secure items, but there would also be problems with our future movements. We had no choice but to stop the collapse by removing the culprit as quickly as possible!

After traveling for a long time, we were finally able to arrive near the coordinates written on the map. I looked around with maximum vigilance, thinking there might be a trap set up, but the surroundings were oddly quiet.

I turned my head and signaled to Rehas and Damian. Rehas, confirming my signal, immediately used the ‘Spider’s Eye’ skill and confirmed that there were no traps or obstacles. Damian also nodded with a confident expression, confirming that ‘there are no notable demonic beasts except for the tree roots on the ground.’

“Then let’s approach it. I’m a little uneasy, but…”

We moved without pause and reached the location marked by the coordinates. A strange light was flowing out from between the densely growing bushes. It certainly did not look dangerous, as Damian had said. The blinking blue light that illuminated the surroundings looked calm rather than ominous or gloomy. Moreover, there were no notable tree roots around the blue light, as if they had all run away because they disliked the bright light.

I cautiously climbed down from the tree and approached the thicket, but I didn’t need to search through it. An unidentified blue gem tumbled out of the thicket.

It was enormous, comparable in size to a child’s head, and its shape was rough, close to a raw stone, as it hadn’t been polished, but seeing the magic power flowing from its center, I could guess that it was no ordinary object. But.

“What is that, Rohan? Can we use that to stop the island from collapsing?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. …But you see.”

“Hmm?”

“Damian, please come down for a moment. If you can’t come down by yourself, I’d like someone to help you.”

I thought Rehas would bring Damian, but for some reason, the person who came down with him was Tristan. It seemed he wanted to do something to help instead of the tired Rehas.

As he awkwardly climbed down from the tree while carrying Damian, I brought the two of them towards the gem. Tristan, who was unfamiliar with magic, merely looked at the gem with eyes full of wonder, but Damian, as soon as he saw the gem, tilted his head as if he had found the problem. I asked him for confirmation.

“How about this gem?”

“From what I can tell, it looks like a gem imbued with magic. It seems to have the role of floating something in the air, but its magic power is almost depleted now. But it’s strange…”

“What is it?”

“Gems of this kind don’t usually deplete their magic power easily. They have the ability to absorb surrounding magic power on their own, so they can usually sustain themselves with that. But it seems this gem’s function of absorbing surrounding magic power is broken. If it had enough magic power, it could use magic indefinitely.”

“…I see. Just as I thought.”

“Wait, but what is the role of this gem? It seems to be an immensely large-scale magic, but what is it trying to float, exactly…”

“It’s floating the island, of course. This gem was probably maintaining the buoyancy of the entire island. If we can just fix the gem, we might be able to stop the island from collapsing.”

As I voiced the thought that had only been a guess, Damian’s eyes widened, and at the same time, a translucent message window blocked my vision. I first read the message. Although the content of the message was a bit vague, I didn’t pay much mind to it.

[Quest Item: Weird Gem]

[A gem with depleted magic power. Although it is not functioning properly now, it is presumed to be a gem originally created to sustain a large-scale magic that supports the entire island. It seems to have been moving somewhere to replenish its lacking magic power.

If someone can restore the gem’s function to its original state, the magic can be activated at any time. Of course, sufficient magic power would be required.]

“Damian, can you fix this gem back to its original state?”

“Yes? Well, it’s not that difficult or complicated of a task, but…”

I finally felt relieved at the sight of Damian fiddling with the gem as he replied. Thank goodness, there really must be a way out! Now, if Damian could just restore the gem’s function to its original state, the island’s collapse would completely stop.

However, Damian’s subsequent answer was quite different from what I had expected.

“But that alone won’t be enough to activate the magic. Activating a large-scale magic like this requires a massive amount of magic power, and the magic power absorbed from the surroundings won’t be enough. I think we’d have to wait for about two to three days.”

“Wait, what did you say?! The island will have collapsed by then!”

“But there’s nothing we can do! Even if I pour all my magic power into it, it’s impossible to activate the magic imbued in this gem right now!”

Damian shook his head with a bewildered expression. Dammit, we found the gem, but it’s useless! The answer I thought I had found was instantly shattered, and I felt dizzy.

I hastily opened the map window, trying to find if there were any more hints, but all that was written on the map were the coordinates of the gem, which were now meaningless.

What did I miss? Finding this gem itself must be correct, but what next? What am I supposed to do now?!

“Rohan, what’s wrong?”

“Yes?”

“Aren’t you going to move toward the upstream area quickly?”

“What are you talking about, Your Majesty? There’s no point in moving upstream when we can’t activate the magic imbued in the gem!”

As if he hadn’t noticed my frustration, Tristan only looked bewildered. …That’s strange, why is he suddenly like this? He’s not usually this clueless, is he?

I glared at him, utterly dumbfounded, but Tristan tilted his head as if he didn’t understand why I was acting that way. And the next moment, a single phrase flowed from his lips.

“You said the Amplifier is upstream, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. We’ll have to get it for the battle with the guardian, eventually. But even if we get the Amplifier, if we don’t have the magic power to restore this gem.”

“Can’t we supply the gem’s magic power with the Amplifier? We’ll have to move quickly to use it.”

I looked at Tristan, feeling as if I had been struck on the back of the head.

I suddenly felt like an idiot.