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Bermuda Chapter 118
🕑 Added 2024-05-25 09:07:53 +0000 UTCChapter 118
As Kenis, who had been tagging along, left with a cautious look, Leonardo was given a brief time to smoke and contemplate.
'Now's not the time to worry about Nero. If he had any sense, he would have gotten out long ago. Rather, the problem is on my side.'
He had to make a decision now.
Whether to return and join the 1st Battalion as is or not.
Realistically, it made sense to join them, but he was a bit reluctant to give up now when it seemed like he could catch the tail of the things he had found fishy. No, rather than reluctant, it felt unsettling. A feeling that there were things he shouldn't miss.
And the current situation might be an opportunity to grasp those things.
In fact, recently, Leonardo had been getting permission for individual time from Hugo and wandering quite far alone, but during that time, he hadn't only been hunting monsters.
He had also been wandering around, searching for the ruins within the peninsula mentioned in the reports from the liaison officers who had come to find the commander and the contents directly shared by Hugo, as well as the monsters' food storage. And one of the things he discovered in that process was the underground tunnel.
What he learned while going out to get food with Kenis was that this place where they were staying was also a huge cave created underground. In other words, the crack that looked like the ceiling from the inside was a crevice created by the ground splitting open when seen from the outside.
The reason his mana had nearly hit rock bottom right before the collapse was partly because he had overexerted himself while focusing on monster hunting without taking care of his condition, but also because he had been conducting several experiments while continuously consuming mana in these tunnels.
As a result of the experiments, he learned that mana was suppressed here and it was impossible to track the energy or mana of any target, which in turn meant that if they only moved inside this tunnel, even if the 1st Battalion was searching for him and Kenis, they wouldn't be able to find them so easily.
When he asked the scholar earlier how much time had passed from the moment the mountain collapsed until now, he received an answer that roughly a day and 20 hours had passed. In other words, it meant that even though it had been nearly two days since the collapse, the 1st Battalion had not been able to find them.
This was an opportunity. A chance to wander around legally, avoiding their eyes.
He thought, was there a need to deliberately abandon such an opportunity presented right in front of him and return to the ranks? Even if he went back, the sharp atmosphere would still be the same, and he would have to continue the uncomfortable companionship while trying to ignore the vigilant gazes watching him. In that companionship, the one who absolutely lost out was himself.
That's right. Honestly, he was fed up with it now.
However, the reason he couldn't make a hasty decision despite that was because he knew it wasn't right to take independent action based solely on his own emotions in the current situation where there had even been casualties.
Moreover, he had heard that there were also missing persons on the Southern Branch's side, so if the troops were dispersed to search for him and Kenis, not only would the search be delayed, but it would obviously have a negative impact on the subjugation. If things turned out that way, it wouldn't be good for him either.
Furthermore, because of the outsider's attack, the 8th Platoon Leader had been caught in the explosion and lost consciousness, and Agrizendro had also suffered a major injury to his arm while trying to save himself and the other two.
He thought that since he was a strong commander, he would have escaped well from the collapse site with the platoon leader, but the sight of his blood scattering in all directions as he tried to catch him and the way he still reached out to him despite that was still vivid in his mind.
The voice and gaze that had been solely directed at him in the urgent situation had constantly shaken him, and in the end, a single phrase kept blocking his decision.
'This time, I will wait for you.'
"...So annoying."
Leonardo ran his hand through his hair irritably. Along with that, his fine brow furrowed.
What the hell was that thing? He probably wouldn't even properly understand its meaning, so why did it keep lingering in his head and interfering with his decision? It was extremely bothersome and frustrating. However, even when he tried to shake it off, it wasn't as easy as he thought.
Leonardo, who had let out a self-mocking sigh, habitually flicked the burnt cigarette ash and tried to put the filter back in his mouth, but he hesitated. It was because the length of the cigarette had become too short while he had been lost in thought for a moment.
As he looked at the short thing caught between his fingers with dissatisfaction, he ignited a flame and burned the remaining tobacco. Then, he immediately tried to open the cigarette pack to take out a new one, but coincidentally, it was empty inside.
As Leonardo crumpled the empty cigarette pack with an annoyed look, suddenly a cigarette was casually pushed in from the side. Wondering what it was, he saw that the scholar guy, who had approached him at some point, was grinning and holding out a cigarette to him.
Leonardo stared at the cigarette the scholar offered with a slight frown. As he continued not to accept it, the scholar put the cigarette he had been holding out into his own mouth and took out a lighter to light it. Then, he took out one more cigarette of the same kind and offered it with a smiling face, saying,
"You're too suspicious."
It seemed like he was trying to assure him that he hadn't done anything to the cigarette. Only after the scholar had taken a couple of puffs from the filter did Leonardo accept the cigarette he had handed over and put it in his mouth. The scholar's lighter lit the end of it.
"What's got you so annoyed?"
The sound of the lighter lid closing was clear. The taste of the new cigarette wasn't too bad either. However, this guy who suddenly pretended to be friendly was not so great.
After ignoring him for a while, Leonardo turned his head to him and said bluntly,
"You."
However, the other side wasn't easy either.
"I'm honored."
Not liking the smiling face, he turned his gaze back to the front. The scholar continued to stare at Leonardo's side profile, unfazed.
His gaze passed over the red lips and sharp jawline and landed on the neck crossed by the black choker. The scholar opened his mouth while fixing his gaze on that discordant yet harmonious sight.
"How's your mana? Has it stabilized?"
At his words, Leonardo, who had been about to put the filter in his mouth, paused and turned his head. The scholar smiled brightly, moving his gaze from Leonardo's neck to his eyes. Leonardo's eyes narrowed as he looked at him. He couldn't grasp with what intention he was asking.
"It's not like you didn't know, right? Your mana was leaking out."
What Leonardo had learned through various experiments in the tunnels was not simply the fact that mana was suppressed.
As this scholar guy was saying, his mana had been leaking out all along. The point at which it began was probably after he had felt relieved that the control instability had been resolved.
The fact that mana was leaking meant that if there was a mana tank that needed to be filled to use a specific magic, and there was a hole in the pipe connected to it, twice the amount of mana used to fill the tank would be required.
At this point, this pipe with a hole could also be considered a type of control instability that couldn't create a sturdy pipe.
In conclusion, his control instability problem had not been solved. It had shifted from a stage where the problem was that the output was larger than expected to a stage where the amount of mana used to match the expected output had become absurdly large.
The first time he realized this fact was when he was creating a divine beast that could move freely by shaping mana to track monsters.
From a one-dimensional perspective, the initial hypothesis was that more mana would be consumed underground, where mana was suppressed, than on the ground to create a divine beast of the same size. However, this hypothesis turned out to be wrong.
Although there was a difference in casting speed when creating divine beasts of the same size in the two locations, the total amount of mana used was the same. It was because on the surface, mana had been continuously consumed more than necessary, and underground, the amount of mana leaking out was also reduced as much as the mana flowing out from inside the body was suppressed.
However, until then, he had only been concerned about the magic's scale becoming larger than expected, so he had been relieved that the output had returned to normal, and because of that, it was only after quite some time had passed that he realized that more mana than usual was being consumed.
The problem was, how did this guy know what he himself had not immediately noticed?
"How do you know that?"
As the vigilant gaze reached him, the scholar smiled as if it was nothing and replied,
"I had done research on mana rampage before, and at that time, I often saw cases similar to you. So I'm incredibly good at spotting abnormal mana operation. You probably had symptoms of poor scale control before, right? Am I correct?"
"..."
"I happened to have a stabilizer I used back then, so I tried administering it to you, and it seems to be working quite well."
"...Stabilizer?"
Leonardo asked back, furrowing his brows. The scholar began to explain the stabilizer he had developed before with a grin.
Although it couldn't be distributed because it hadn't received official drug approval, he assured its safety and said many people had seen its effects, and so on. His words were long, but to Leonardo's ears, it only sounded like he had administered an unknown drug to his body without permission.
When the scholar finally made a motion as if injecting a syringe into his arm, Leonardo's face turned pale. The scholar burst into laughter as if it was funny and added,
"Don't worry. The only things I administered into your body are a stabilizer and a painkiller. The effects are definite, aren't they?"
Comments
Jesse Gibson
I have the strong urge to just….Punch his face. Sigh this guy is too much too sus
Mkslushi
This scholar is sus and I don’t like him 😒
