By Zephyria 
The three-hundred eyes, not blinking a single lash, were piercing through him.
“……!”
Recalling a past where he had almost gotten his arm ripped off for acting like a condescending elder to an 18-year-old Tae-un, the Guild Master of Jeongmyeong hurriedly cast his gaze downward.
Kim Si-baek, unaware of what was happening behind his back, took out the reagent he had received from Lee Han-gyeol. Lacking magical power, he could neither use magic nor possessed knowledge of the related sciences, but he had something to rely on.
“Lord Biyendwe.”
[Death and Beauty spreads its wings triumphantly, signaling to trust only itself.]
Biyendwe, who usually gave people the impression of being nothing more than an ‘ugly pet bird,’ fluttered down to the table. Kim Si-baek also borrowed some spare paper and a ballpoint pen from the materials Gwak Yun-sang had brought for the briefing.
Biyendwe gripped the pen with its crow’s foot and began to draw a shape on the paper. Though they didn’t say it because they were walking on eggshells around Tae-un, those who had been thinking, ‘We’re already short on time, why waste it on something useless…’ gradually widened their eyes.
Because a crow was holding the pen, the lines were inevitably jagged, but the shape gradually taking form was clearly a magic circle.
[Death and Beauty, lacking any actual pride to speak of, holds its head high and demands they prostrate themselves in worship before divine majesty.]
Biyendwe’s divinity did not encompass the domain of magic. However, being curious like a child, he enjoyed roaming the human world in his avatar form. Furthermore, the hobby of the pontiff who served him was magicology. Despite not being a mage, the pontiff was a scholar of magic with considerable fame in the field.
〈Does our young god take an interest in an old man’s hobby?〉
With a smile on his wrinkled face, the pontiff lectured his god on magicology as if telling a fairy tale to a grandson. While Biyendwe didn’t fully understand everything since it wasn’t his domain, he had reached a level where he could read intermediate magicology books.
The magic circle Biyendwe was currently drawing on the paper was the magic originally devised by Nasluik to maximize the growth of the Gete fruit in the oasis. Since it had been refined and perfected over several decades, it could naturally be operated as magic to suppress growth.
“Uh, uh……”
The Vice Guild Master of Sky High, the only mage present, pushed up his glasses in excitement.
“Wow, crazy. The foundation is indeed a formula to delay the growth of plant-type magical beasts, but how the arrangement and summation of the formulas… no… this is something I never imagined…”
Muttering to himself in a state of high agitation, he shouted urgently as soon as Biyendwe completed the magic circle.
“C-C-Can I try implementing the magic circle!”
“Please do.”
Since Kim Si-baek couldn’t implement it anyway, he had been considering calling Lee Han-gyeol to ask. The Sky High Vice Guild Master, visibly thrilled, injected magical power into the reagent Lee Han-gyeol had made and scattered it into the air. The reagent, floating in the void, wandered for a while as if searching for the direction of the magic circuit, before finally implementing the magic circle Biyendwe had drawn and falling back down as an empty bottle.
Those who knew nothing of magic couldn’t tell what had changed, but the Sky High Vice Guild Master’s eyes gleamed dangerously.
“Who on earth is the mage who devised this magic! You said you came from abroad—which country, where exactly? Could it be you? More importantly, what is that bird! Why is a bird drawing a magic circle? Is it a magically created animal?!”
“Section Chief Gwak.”
Gwak Yun-sang, who had been standing there bewildered, immediately stepped in to block the Sky High Vice Guild Master at Tae-un’s cold word, which sounded like a ruthless CEO dealing with a subcontractor. He acted as if he were Kim Si-baek’s manager.
“It is a state secret.”
“Ah, Section Chief Gwak! How can you be like this between us?!”
“Who are you? Do I know you? Anyway, Hunter Kim Si-baek, by how many hours can you delay the ripening of the fruit?”
[Death and Beauty puffs out its chest and flies up onto your head.]
Biyendwe, whose only activities on Earth had been eating, sleeping, killing one Portal Keeper, and then eating and sleeping again, seemed proud to finally be doing something productive. Savoring the admiring gazes of the humans, he perched arrogantly on the crown of Kim Si-baek’s head.
[Sudden Quest]
[Conquer the Giant Vine (0/1)]
[Completion Reward: Time extension for the second quest]
[Remaining Time: 10 hours 39 minutes]
Kim Si-baek glanced at the system window and answered.
“I only heard about this magic secondhand, so I’m not entirely sure, but I think it will be roughly 10 hours.”
“Then we’ll set the goal to clear it within 9 hours from now to be safe.”
“In exchange, the aftermath will be much greater once the fruit bursts.”
“We’ll just conquer it before that happens!”
It was toward the end of the meeting, where they discussed informing the mages on site about the magic circle and preparing enough reagents to work on the massively grown Giant Vine.
Gwak Yun-sang’s face stiffened slightly upon hearing a new report through his in-ear.
“The occurrence of a fourth Id Portal has been confirmed near the site. As discussed, the standby team from the Jeongmyeong Guild has just entered to conquer it.”
Kim Si-baek, who had stepped back from the meeting, clicked his tongue softly. Tae-un, pressing his lips close to Kim Si-baek’s ear, whispered and asked.
“Why?”
The secret whisper, which he would normally have dismissed as insignificant, strangely stimulated his senses, causing Kim Si-baek to curl his fingers inward.
“I just think the Id Portals are going to be a problem.”
“True. In a situation like this, people’s mental states are easily shaken, and fear is prone to surge.”
Since this phenomenon hadn’t existed in mak slecht, he wondered if the destruction of Earth was related to the Id Portals. The thought crossed his mind, but Kim Si-baek shook his head to clear it. Now was the time to focus on the task at hand.
[Remaining Time: 10 hours 11 minutes]
Time was ticking away.
“The raid team will be centered around the Seven Guild and the Tohu Guild, divided into two groups.”
“Hey now, stop shortening other guilds’ names.”
“So, you two Guild Masters, which one will you enter: the Management Center or the magic stone exchange?”
Justina shrugged, indicating she didn’t care where, and Tae-un tapped the back of Kim Si-baek’s hand.
“Hyung, where should we go?”
“Huh? I decide?”
“I’m too scared of both…”
At the frail voice, people picked their ears, doubting they had heard a hallucination, and Kim Si-baek chose the magic stone exchange, where survivors had been confirmed. If an unexpected danger struck, he was the person most likely to be able to save them.
Since the amount of reagent Lee Han-gyeol had brought for testing wasn’t much, they hurriedly gathered drugs with similar performance. The mages summoned during the raid meeting squeezed out every last drop of their magical power to create the reagents for the Giant Vine before collapsing.
The reagents were processed so they could be attached to and thrown with a lance, a cavalry spear.
“Oh, is it my turn.”
Justina, who had thrown off her guild uniform jacket, stretched lightly to warm up and then gripped the shaft of a long lance over 5 meters long. It was a weapon where not only the length but also the shaft was thicker than a typical spear.
“Hup!”
She took a deep breath and leaned her arm back as far as possible. Rope-like tendons writhed in her bulging muscles. As she activated her ability, the surrounding air vibrated and hummed.
“Pierce through!”
Tku-kwak-kaka-kak!
The lance roared fiercely, piercing through the air and charging toward the magical beast. Charging across a distance of several dozen meters, the momentum of the lance, flying as if it had wings, did not falter in the slightest. The Giant Vine, sensing an instinctive danger, swung its tentacles, but the lance penetrated through all of them and impaled the crown of the main body. Even though the lance had merely been thrown by hand and hit the beast’s body, a thunderous roar erupted as if a ten-car pileup had occurred.
Taking advantage of the moment the Giant Vine’s attention was distracted by the impact, a voice amplified by sound-range magic rang out.
[The rescue team, led by Guild Master Tae-un of the 7777 Guild, will enter shortly. Survivors, please do not panic and evacuate quietly. The Giant Vine is sensitive to sound. Tae-un of the 7777 Guild…]
It was a message to prevent panicked survivors from becoming hosts for the Id Portals. Tae-un was put forward because of the trust his name commanded.
And the hunter measuring the Giant Vine’s magical energy shouted.
“The reagent has definitely been absorbed! The concentration of magical energy in the parts presumed to be fruits is slowing down!”
“Goodness, I’m getting too old to do this twice.”
Amidst the cheers, Justina flopped down. Her right arm, used to throw the lance, was broken and bent backward. The shoulder bone was twisted, a severe injury that would leave her unable to use her arm for at least a month, but she spoke with a hearty manner even while breaking into a cold sweat from the pain.
“Anyway, this auntie is going to get her wound treated, so you young ones handle the rest…”
It was just as a member of the Tobazhush Hussarsky guild was about to help her up.
“May I take a look at the wound for a moment?”
Asking for permission, Kim Si-baek approached and placed his hand on Justina’s shoulder. A cluster of light seemed to gather in a circle beneath his palm, and then a single, stunned exclamation fell to the ground.
“……Eh?”
Justina looked down at her shoulder blankly.
The wound was completely healed.