Hermit Wizard

Silver Forest under the Purple Sky (7)

The closer the silver forest grew, the stronger I could feel my power circuit flinching. Ghur and I stopped at a distance enough to walk into the forest in another ten minutes.

“The Elder was right,” Ghur nodded his head.

“Yes, this barrier was magic. By the way, you are a monster in terms of the amount of Mana…but compared to that, isn’t it kind of a shame?”

Was it a shame? Or ridiculous? While walking, the Mana that flowed from Silver Forest pierced my circuit as we neared. Approaching this distance, the Mana that formed the forest’s barrier was so rich and huge that I felt like I would vomit. Ghur’s face was blue, describing how much he was affected.

[Min-joon, because the purpose of the barrier you made is to hide, you made a composition to hide the Mana as much as possible…but the truth-seeker in there spews out Mana, which he doesn’t need to.]

The size of the barrier was large, but the Mana that formed the barrier was too powerful. Moreover, it seemed that there was no intention to hide this Mana. It was spreading out in all directions with outright momentum! At the same time, I realized how powerful the Truth-Seeker who created such a barrier was, and at the same time, I felt the joy flowing through my spine because my guess was correct. Elder Kapal was right. The barrier created by the Truth-Seeker of this world in Silver Forest was magical.

“Now, then, shall we take this path and search around the forest?”

“Ghur. Again, it’s dangerous, so it’s better to return to the village…”

“Have you seen the Ashpim from before? I can’t believe this map anymore. What should I do if I go back alone and meet so many guys I can’t handle them? It would be safer to move with you and then come back together.”

“…You’ve completely changed your words since before you encountered a group of Ashpim. You said that you had a lot of trust on the map.”

Ghur shrugged his shoulders as if he was wondering what to do. A hundred years may not be a long time for Dell Giants, but for Ashpim Giants, it seemed long enough to change their ways. As he said, I thought it would be more dangerous to send him back alone, so I decided to continue with him.

“By the way, shall we approach the forest a little more? No matter how stormy it blows, wouldn’t it be difficult for the branches to roll all the way out here.”

I didn’t know how great the storms in this area were, but this distance was certainly a bit far away. Ghur hesitated for a moment, then expressed consent.

“But are you okay with how unhostile the Mana becomes? It makes me nervous.”

It seems that he was reluctant to go closer because of the magic of the barrier.

“I honestly feel burdened to bear it, but if it’s okay, let’s go a little closer.”

We started moving closer to the perimeter of the forest.

“Hey…the Truth-Seeker in the world named Earth must also be such a monster, right?”

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“I honestly can’t remember because I was sleeping…”

[He was more than that. He could never be weak.]

Parvache told me through telepathy, affirming my thoughts.

“As far as I know…the Truth-Seeker in our world must be incredibly old. It is said that it was difficult to even among Truth-Seekers to open a Channel in the body without waking a child who has no power.”

This was what Parvache taught me.

“When a Truth-Seeker reaches that level, it is common to make a final push to gain divinity in A-Verdag instead of managing one dimension…Oh, is this word translated now?”

I was surprised to see Ghur nodding in agreement. This world was still a bit unbalanced. Compared to the level of magic, the knowledge of the Truth-Seekers was known in small detail.

“The dimension of the hometown and grave of the Truth-Seekers, right?”

That was a neat definition of A-Verdag; a higher dimension led to special Channels that only Truth-Seeker or divine beings could use.

“Isn’t there a barrier in your dimension right now to deceive such a terrifying Truth-Seeker? And you are the only wizard who made it?”

He laughed as if he was speechless.

“It’s magic that my common sense cannot even imagine. Was Elder Kapal right? Aren’t you a Demi-God, not human?”

“I told you I’m not! If I were at that level, I wouldn’t even have to suffer like this.”

I repeated the same words I said to Elder Kapal and denied him. Then I recalled the conversation I had with the elder before our departure.

***

The elder was just getting a bunch of artifacts from me and was confused. In her room, Elder Kapal asked me, “You make such treasures or a barrier to avoid the Truth-Seeker…are you a Demi God-class creature?” Elder Kapal, who was trying to figure out who I was, threw an irrational guess, so I flatly denied it.

“If I’m a Demi God…I don’t need to hide from the Truth-Seeker like this. I wouldn’t even go to look for Enchanted Wood.”

Elder Kapal looked at me, expressing her sympathy for what I said, but was still unable to shake all the suspicions in her eyes. But that was true. Parvache earlier affirmed it. With my skills now, it was impossible to expand the barrier around my house anymore. Since there was no time to completely resume the training of barrier magic, in the end, we had no choice but to rely on the Enchanted Wood.

However, there was no confidence in collecting the Ashpim wizard staff handed over to the Korean government. Then, the only way left was to go beyond the Channel where the Enchanted Wood was expected to grow and bring it directly back to Earth. Ghur, who was sitting next to her, asked.

“By the way, how are you saying that the missing Truth-Seeker comes back to you? Looking at how you make the barrier, it sounds like you’re convinced that the Truth-seeker will surely find you.”

Elder Kapal answered the question instead.

“You must be afraid of the Echo Power of the Truth-Seeker.”

These giants knew everything. I nodded my head in wonder.

“Yes.”

“Echo Power?”

“It is one of the powers that Truth-Seekers have in common. It spreads a unique wave that only Truth-Seekers can make, and it is said that if this collides with a Channel that they have created, it becomes a sense of location information.”

“Then the barrier you make is to prevent that echo from reaching you?”

“Yes, to be precise, it transforms the wave that occurs when the echo and my Channel meet into a form that the Truth-Seeker cannot recognize.”

“No, but didn’t you ever go back and forth in and out of the barrier? Then, wouldn’t the Truth-Seeker think it’s weird that your reaction is in and out?”

“…In fact, it has been two years since I came out of the barrier, and our world’s Truth-Seeker has never made an echo after I made the barrier. I am sure about that.”

When he used an echo, my barrier was supposed to react.

“I think he’s probably waiting for the time to pass for my Channel to mature.”

He threw his eyes as if asking whether any elders heard this far.

“Is that barrier able to block the other powers of the Truth-Seeker? For example, like the Anti-magic Power…”

[Does this woman really want to believe in you as a Demi-God?]

Parvache said so outrageously. Oh my, Elder. I hope so, too.

“There is a limit because it is a barrier that is human-made. If the Truth-Seeker decides to sweep my dimension…the Earth, with anti-magic power, there’s no solution.”

Parvache assured me that this barrier could deceive the Truth-Seeker’s eyes. But Parvache predicted darkly that it would be broken by one blind kick from the Truth-Seeker. I could avoid the Truth-Seeker’s eyes. However, if it turned out that he had a very persistent and filthy nature so that he was prepared for the reaction of providence and swept the entire Earth with his Anti-magic Power, my barriers would be destroyed. I’m just hoping he wouldn’t, but I was also preparing for an emergency.

“By the way, Yoong, if the Truth-Seeker could break the barrier in your dimension…then why don’t you just give up and hide in this dimension?”

Ghur asked.

“You’re sharp. Actually, that was the first thing I thought about as soon as the Channel opened in our world.”

When a hundred Channels connected to other dimensions appeared on Earth, of course, it was a thought that came to my mind. In any case, shouldn’t we jump to another dimension through those Channels? The situation was different from when I first met Parvache, so now, there were so many completely open Channels in my world. Then Parvache replied.

[Even if you move through the Channel, the two dimensions are still connected, so even if your body is in another dimension, the echo of the Truth-Seeker will follow you.]

Simply put, even if I am in the living room (The Earth) then hide in the master room (different dimension) with the door (Channel) open, the Truth-Seeker will come into the master room, grab my hair, and drag me back to the living room. So, until now, I was stuck in the corner of the living room, and I had been hiding under a barrier.

And in case the barrier was broken, I was learning the dimensional leap magic. If I warp without using a Channel and run away to a dimension that didn’t connect with this world, no matter how powerful a Truth-Seeker was, he couldn’t find my traces. Would it be like suddenly jumping into someone else’s bathroom? Possibly.

Even if the Truth-Seeker tried to find me and cross over, he couldn’t tell if I would be on the 15th floor of the front building or the 7th floor of the next building. But what if the number of households in this apartment complex was nearly infinite? After all, tracking was impossible. He couldn’t even see me in the living room.

“But I suddenly thought about it. What if I cover up the Channel that has been created in our dimension with this barrier?”

What if there were Channels within the barrier that I had created? What if I ran away through that Channel? This idea came to mind while imagining what would happen if my barriers covered the Mapo Bridge. Ghur tilted his head.

“Isn’t it meaningless? You said that if the Truth-Seeker wants it, he can sweep the entire dimension and destroy the barrier. The Channel connecting the two dimensions will be exposed outside the barrier, and the echoes will find you, right?”

“Yes. I concluded that it didn’t make sense either. So, I thought about it another way. Anyway…what the Truth-Seeker can destroy is the barriers in my world, after all.”

“Huh?”

“After I get the Enchanted Wood, the second thing to do is to find a suitable place in this dimension and build the barrier here. It will take a while. If there is no suitable place in this dimension, I might find a third dimension connected by Channels.”

This was insurance in case the dimensional leap magic couldn’t be completed. What if there were hundreds of doors in the living room rather than one? And what would happen if I chose one of those rooms and made a barrier and hid in it? Or, what if I went to another third room connected to that room and hid there? Furthermore, there would be a Truth-Seeker in each dimension. Could the Truth-Seekers of my world ignore ones of other worlds to stroll into that dimension to find me?

If so, finding me right away and then dragging me back would be tolerated by the other dimensions’ Truth-Seeker. But would the Truth-Seeker of each dimension really tolerate sweeping the whole dimension with Anti-magic Power to find me hidden in the barriers within another dimension? A huge mess that nullified all the magic in the world to destroy my barrier?

Besides, I had heard a nice story from these giants.

“You said that the Truth-seeker in this world is sleeping behind a powerful barrier inside the forest, right? Is it…a power or magic?”

Ghur spoke.

“In the first place, the use of the Enchanted Wood is to stabilize the magic power, so if the barrier were deliberately built there, it would be magic…”

Elder Kapal interrupted Ghur.

“When I was younger, I had been fighting a war with the Ashpims and went near the Silver Forest. It must have been magic.”

She completed my conviction. If the Earth’s Truth-Seeker was going to make a mess in this world, he would have to blow up the world’s barrier as well.

Would he take such a risk?