Chapter 459
After all, Yog was a being that was created from a game mod. It wasn’t exactly rare for mods to cause system conflicts or generate bugs. The way they had escaped the rift with its help likely wasn’t part of the original game’s design to begin with.
So that's why no quests popped up for any of that...
But in the end, that wasn’t what mattered. What mattered now, as always, was solving the problem in front of them and finding a way to survive. Whether this mess had started because the altar’s chaos had drawn something to it, or because the skull and this temple had some kind of preexisting connection, or simply because they had run into a string of terrible luck—he couldn’t say.
Either way, what was done was done. And unlike in the game, there was no save point to reload from. Even so, Ian, usually composed, now stood with a faint furrow in his brow.
Just then, the faint, dry scent of herbs tickled his nose. Diana, having pulled her mask down to hang around her neck, had a soggy cigarette clamped between her lips, trying to light it using one of the candlestick flames.
Despite her efforts, she only managed a faint wisp of smoke. The cigarette, like her clothes, must have gotten soaked. Paying no mind to Ian and Lucia’s gazes, she kept sucking on it, her cheeks puffing with effort.
"Ha... Fuck...." Diana finally let her arm holding the candlestick drop with a thump. She transferred the damp cigarette to her right hand and threw her head back, a laugh of utter, weary resignation playing on her lips.
"This is just absurd. After all that crazy shit we went through, we barely made it back alive, and now it looks like we're going to starve to death down here. Can't even enjoy a damn cigarette properly—"
"Put that cigarette back carefully," Ian's voice cut in. As he spoke, a small flame flickered into being in the air between them. Diana turned to him.
Ian, who had taken out a fresh cigarette of his own, now held a small, steady flame at his fingertip, using it to light his smoke.He then casually flicked his finger, extinguishing the magical spark, and added, “It’s not like we’re out of options.”
Diana froze, staring intently at the cigarette now burning in Ian's mouth. Lucia, who was in the middle of settling Seren more comfortably, also paused in her actions.
Diana watched the smoke curl out of Ian’s mouth, then finally snapped, “What options?”
Instead of answering immediately, Ian took another long, deep drag from his cigarette. He'd actually known for a little while now how they might be able to overcome this situation. He just really, really didn't want to resort to it.
That was partly why Ian had been mulling over whether this exact scenario had ever existed in the game. If it had, maybe he could solve it using nothing but standard mechanics.
Fuck...
Ian thought inwardly again, rolling the cigarette between his fingers.
He finally exhaled the herbal-scented smoke and said, "Brown magic."
"I knew it." Lucia sighed, nodding slowly as if understanding immediately.
"Brown?" Diana repeated, bewildered.With the mask hanging around her neck, the confused shift in her expression was starkly visible.
"Sir Seren said it too, didn't she? That the brown mages would be the ones to solve a situation like this," Ian said. He tapped the ash from his cigarette, grimacing faintly.
Diana looked just as uneasy.
“That’s not what I meant. Where are we supposed to find a brown mag…” Diana trailed off, still staring at him as he brought the cigarette back to his lips.
She blinked a couple of times before continuing. "No way."
Ian, instead of answering, took another deep drag from the cigarette and looked her straight in the eyes.
"But Ian Hope, you're..." Diana stammered, her gaze still locked on his. Her lips moved a few times as if she couldn't quite force the words out.
Finally, she said, "You're... a red mage, aren't you?"
Ian walked toward her. Diana instinctively shrank back a little.
Ian moved the cigarette from between his fingers and gently placed it between her lips. “Just because I can use red magic doesn’t mean I have to be a red mage. Does it?”
Diana stared at him, even more bewildered. She didn’t seem able to wrap her head around what he’d just said. However, even so, she didn't let the cigarette between her lips fall.
Ian watched her for a moment with eyes that held neither joy nor amusement, then turned toward Lucia. “How’s Sir Seren?”
"Huh? Ah, yes. Sir Seren." Lucia, who had been looking back and forth between Diana and Ian with a peculiar expression, quickly turned her attention back to Seren. "Her life doesn't seem in danger. But it'll probably take quite a while for her to regain consciousness. It looks like her soul suffered a severe shock."
"Is that so? Better that way, then." Ian nodded nonchalantly and took out the metal storage box from his pocket dimension.
Exhaling a final cloud of smoke, he placed the box down beside Lucia. "Let's try to get out of here before she wakes up."
"Right now, immediately?" Lucia asked, blinking, then quickly added, "How about we wait until Yog wakes up? Yog might be able to suggest a new method, you know."
"This time, that thing won't be much help either. Besides, it overexerted itself when we escaped the rift."
Ian's downcast gaze shifted to his right hand as he opened the box's lid. "It's been quite a while since it fell asleep, and seeing as it still hasn't budged an inch, it might stay asleep for some time."
He flipped the lid back fully and gestured with a slight shrug. "It'll just be more trouble if Sir Seren wakes up before this thing does."
"True enough..." Lucia finally nodded in agreement. "That makes sense. We wouldn't be able to keep her quiet about what she saw. And it'd be difficult to just knock her out again. It would be quicker to just gloss things over with her after it's all said and done."
Even as his eyes remained dark, one corner of Ian's mouth quirked into a dry, humorless arc. "Even if we fail and die, that's probably the better option."
"But... you will succeed, won't you?" Lucia added, looking up at him intently. Her eyes held not a single speck of doubt.
The corner of Ian's mouth lifted just a little higher. "This time, I really can't guarantee anything. But I have to give it my best shot."
With that, he reached into the storage box and pulled out a tangled coil of rope. It was made of braided monster hide, something he'd originally packed in case he needed to tie Moro to something.
"We should tie her to the front of the saddle. That'll be the most stable and safest spot for her." Lucia added as she took the rope.
Ian nodded and bent down to Seren, still lying on the floor. He picked up the unconscious Black Lion as easily as if she were a paper doll.
"No, wait.... Just a minute…," said Diana, who had been listening to their conversation with the cigarette still hanging forgotten in her mouth.
Even though she was in the middle of inhaling cigarette smoke, her face was a mask of questions and utter surprise. "So Ian Hope... you're really... a brown mage? Not a red mage?"
Ian, who had slung the limp, armored form of Seren over one shoulder, looked back at her. Lucia, who had just started to work on untangling the heavily knotted rope, did the same.
Lucia’s gaze then shifted pointedly back to Ian. "Don't you think we can trust Diana by now?"
"Look at her ears and tell me that again."
"But she already knows so much. Would knowing a little more change anything at this point?"
"I guess that’s true." Ian clicked his tongue and turned fully toward Moro.
Moro, seeming to understand his intention, had already lowered its head and neck to the ground. As Ian carefully laid Seren across the space between its neck and the saddle, Lucia looked at Diana again.
"Can you handle it, Diana?"
Diana stared intently into Lucia's unusually serious eyes, then took a long, deep drag from her cigarette and closed her eyes. The internal conflict didn't last long.
"Handle it? I can't even handle what's happening now. So I..." She exhaled a cloud of smoke and stammered out her decision, then opened her eyes again. "If we get out of here safely... I'll forget everything. Just like I always have."
"That answer is so typical of you, Diana, that it actually makes me trust you more," Lucia said, a smile spreading across her lips. Of course, Diana wasn't smiling at all.
"So what you're saying is, Ian is a brown mage. But then, the red magic... what on earth was..." Diana muttered, looking down at the burning cherry of her cigarette. She then suddenly froze.
She snapped her gaze to Ian, who was now standing beside Moro, and said in a voice laced with disbelief, “White?”
Ian didn’t so much as flinch. He just clicked his tongue, then readjusted Seren, who was draped awkwardly over Moro’s neck. His lack of denial did more to confirm her suspicion than any answer could have.
"A white mage? You? The legendary, that?" The realization hit like a blow. Diana fumbled to keep hold of her cigarette as it nearly slipped from her trembling fingers.
“Though he insists he’s not,” Lucia said flatly, already returning her focus to the tangled rope in her hands.
Diana's dumbfounded gaze darted back and forth between Lucia and Ian.
“No way... So the Platinum Dragon’s Agent has chaos inside him, and now you’re telling me he’s a white mage too?”
“And the Great Warrior of the North,” Lucia added.
However, Diana didn’t even seem to hear her. She just kept staring at Ian as if the pieces of a puzzle had finally come together—and formed something too impossible to believe.
Even for someone like her, someone who’d lived a life surrounded by the strange and the unreal in the Black Land, this pushed the boundaries of belief. Honestly, it felt as absurd as watching a beastfolk morph into a human right in front of her.
"So." Just then, Ian, after dusting off his hands, turned to Diana.
Diana froze. The realization hit her like a splash of ice water—she knew too much now. Far too much. Each of the secrets she’d just uncovered could be enough to get her killed. And Ian, if he decided she was a threat, her head could be off her shoulders in seconds.
He held her gaze for a beat, then said flatly, “Are you just going to stand there ruining your cigarette?”
"Huh?" Diana blinked, caught off guard.
With a frown, Ian jerked his chin toward Moro. “If you’re done smoking, make yourself useful.”
“Uh, y-yeah… Right…” She blinked again and hurried over, holding her cigarette to him almost respectfully. Ian took it and placed it between his lips.
Lucia held out the rope. "Let's secure her tightly. So her neck doesn't break or she doesn't fall off."
“Yeah… okay...” Diana nodded vaguely, moving to the other side of Moro and beginning to help, her hands stiff and automatic. Meanwhile, Ian picked up the water pouch and exhaled a sigh tinged with smoke.
Just when I thought I finally saw a path forward...
The image of that transcendent-tier spell that had burned so vividly in his mind was already fading, like a mirage dissipating in the heat. And now, of all things, he had to rely on brown magic—an attribute he’d almost completely ignored back when this was just a game. The only spells he knew were the low-tier Sand Swamp and Cave-in.
“Moro, this might be uncomfortable, but just hold still a bit longer,” Lucia said, having moved to Diana's opposite side.
She started wrapping Seren tightly with the rope. Diana also moved her hands mechanically, helping secure Seren. She didn't even seem to notice that Moro was snorting and shifting more restlessly than usual.
"You said they buried their bases underground with magic," Ian's voice cut in a few seconds later. He had tossed the now-empty water pouch into the storage box and was taking out another full one.
Noticing Diana's blank stare, he added, "Do you know exactly how they did it?"
"I didn't see it myself either," Diana answered cautiously. "I only... heard stories."
As Ian opened the cap of the new water pouch, he gestured with his chin for her to continue.
"They said many high tier spellcast—no, mages, gathered for it. Apparently, even sinking a part of a city underground isn’t something one person can pull off.”
"Just the main points," Ian said nonchalantly, staring blankly into the air.
He was looking at his skill window, mentally sorting through which upgrades were essential—and how many precious points he’d have to blow to make this work.
"From what I heard, first they cut the ground all around the city—"
Diana's voice continued hesitantly, completely unaware of Ian's inner turmoil. "Then they sank the city into the earth... formed a new layer of bedrock above it, and then covered that with soil again."
As Diana continued her explanation, Ian's eyes narrowed further and further.
Gotta spend a hell of a lot of points for this... Shit.
Suddenly, an old memory flashed through his mind: the time he'd been trapped in the Giant Queen's palace deep beneath the Ahigorn Mountains.
If he hadn't stumbled upon that secret passage just in the nick of time, that place would have undoubtedly become his tomb. If he'd just blindly used Diastrophism to lift the strata back then, the collapsing ceiling would have flattened him like a pancake.
"It would require an immense amount of magic and incredibly powerful spells. And extremely delicate control as well," Diana's voice continued, reaching his ears as he stared intently at the skill window.
"However, you can do it, even alone, easily. You're the legendary white mage, after all. You just need to tear apart the strata near that pile of rubble over there, and then lift the section of ground on our side." Her voice was regaining its earlier liveliness as if the reality of this plan was finally sinking in and giving her hope.
Tossing the rope deftly around Seren to secure her, Diana added, "Besides, you don't even have to lift us all the way to the surface. There should be a passage that connects to the original exit. You just need to lift it enough to reconnect with that. See, simple, right, Ian?"
There was a beat of silence.
"...Ian?"