Hermit Wizard

Chapter 52

Condition of Trust (7)

At that moment, when all attacks on me stopped, I ran toward the demon. Would I give up the information I could get from the Fake God and keep my secret from Yusu? Or would I reveal my secrets to Yusu and take the Fake God’s information. I chose the latter.

I disabled the artifacts on my chest. Simultaneously, a Channel of blue light torn like a long scar on my chest was revealed. The Fake God who witnessed it stretched out his fingers and let out violent telepathy. Yusu’s face was distorted in surprise. I opened the Mana circuit on my chest and poured my energy into it.

The only condition for unlocking seeds was Mana. The Channel integrated with my spirit body opened the door with just a single tap, without needing a long period of magical cohesion. When the Mana circuit opened, my Mana started to be sucked out by the demon as if a water line burst, but it didn’t matter. It would be over in just a few seconds. I didn’t stop running, and the Channel on my chest became disk-shaped. I kept running towards the demon with the Channel open in front of me.

The Channel rushed as I moved. It looked as if I was charging with a huge shield in front of me. Instead of enormous Mana to specify the summoned target, I injected only a small amount of Mana to open the Channel. Seed Channels opened randomly without calculation of dimensional coordinates. This was the original and normal seed opening method. Instead of opening without large Mana consumption and long calculation time, I didn’t know where this Channel was connected right now! But it didn’t matter. Anyway, I couldn’t go into the Channel open on within my body.

‘…But you’re different, you bastard!’

I jumped into the air, pushed forward by my momentum. It was a long jump using pure muscle strength without leap magic. As my body soared in the air, I tilted forward a little, with a disk-shaped Channel tilted in front of a 45-degree slope that hit the demon’s body from above! The demon opened its eyes to look at me, but its body was still trapped in the shattered dreams.

As I floated in the air, I fell forward, and my circular Channel swallowed the demon’s body as I fell, starting from the tip of its head.

-Thump!

From a distance, it looked like my body had swallowed up the demon as its body disappeared from the place where it was standing. Then, I collided with the ground with my stomach down.

“Aaaaaaahh!”

Part of the ground was pushed into the Channel, but when my body touched the ground, the Channel no longer sank as it ate the ground! It went exactly the same as the experiment I conducted before!

“Cough! Cough”

Now, I was face down on the ground. I immediately shut the Mana in my chest, erased the Channel, and then rolled on the ground a few times. Goodbye, demon. I don’t know which dimension it went to, but it wouldn’t be easy to come back here—considering the number of near-infinite cases! And when you come back… your contractor will be in a state where you no longer need to care.

“Cough! Gosh, it hurts so fucking much!”

The power that had absorbed Yusu’s and my Mana so far has, of course, stopped. After checking the remaining Mana in my body, I applied to heal magic so that the pain subsided. A lot of Mana was taken away, but the amount remaining was enough. And what else could I do with the remaining Mana? Yes. There was enough left to do such a thing.

I looked at that guy with a hardened face: the guy that probably consumed most of his Mana by using that summoning magic. The one who caused me this hardship so far. Staring at the Fake God, I spoke.

“Then should we talk?”

***

=How… an inexperienced wizard like you…how can a young human being…?=

The confused Fake God shot wild telepathy everywhere. Oh, my head hurt. I responded by lowering the sensitivity of the receiver system of the Mana circuit.

“Oh, right. You can’t understand me, anyway?”

Anyone could understand the nonverbal telepathy he was rooted in. Still, it was hard to understand the Korean language not recorded in Akashic Records, even if he tried some interpretation magic. Even so, he didn’t seem to be strong enough to read my surface consciousness. I hadn’t yet been able to transmit telepathy to non-family members or summoned creatures, so I decided to transfer what I said to Parvache by converting it to telepathy.

“I have a lot of questions.”

After speaking with my voice, I waited for Parvache’s telepathy. It was quiet. Anyway, the only thing that didn’t understand me was the Fake God, so instead of sprinkling telepathy so that we can all hear it, it seemed like Parvache was only shooting it directly into the Fake God’s head. I didn’t care about it and kept talking.

“Let’s start by tying you up.”

I was getting ready to jump and bounce to see if my words were being communicated well, but it was faster for my magic to hit him.

“The Chain of Thermios!”

A chain of fog stretched out of my hand, binding his body. I pulled my hand and tossed the Fake God to the floor.

-Thump!

He was looking at me with intense eyes while lying on the floor.

‘How many eyes does he have…?’

At first glance, there were around twenty. As Parvache told me, he was pretty young.

“For your race, you’ve just become an adult. How dare you say the other was young?”

I didn’t go straight to the point, but instead, I deliberately made fun of him and spat out useless words. Now, are you ready? Go ahead. The fierce hostility in his eyes grew as if to show Parvache was delivering my words. Deep murderous intentions emanated from the myriad of eyes that were stuck staring at me.

Yes, I didn’t touch his face as I sprayed the chain. The mouth was open for interrogation, but those eyes were also left to see me well. Parvache said it wasn’t sure if I had a “seed of domination” or not. If I had such a thing, the subject would probably be Parvache. But I couldn’t bet myself. I believed in Parvache… yes, let me admit it. Absolute trust and dependence; I depended on it a lot but without any doubt? Was it enough for me to say it?

He didn’t respond as I expected. Was it because he hadn’t tried to brainwash me, or was it because he tried, but I had no seeds of domination? That’s what I was thinking. At that moment, I felt like I was losing all my senses. Huh, what was I thinking?

The expression that my brain was tingling was correct. Everything flowed by my side, forgetting the sense of reality. When I tried to send my thoughts about the time and place surrounding me, the reason, and the process of being here, far beyond my consciousness. There was a sharp telepathy ringing in my head.

[Stop!]

Rapid intervention as if it had been waiting. The voice of Parvache, who shared my senses through the backdoor! As soon as I heard it, I felt that whatever was eating my mind lost its power and faded. At the same time, my mind, which was hazy as if there was a fog, returned to me. Returning to my senses, I realized the meaning of the phenomena that had just happened, and I was left speechless. Although it was a situation that had been reviewed in advance…was it really in my consciousness? I believed and trusted Parvache 100%? No, well, there were good reasons for that. But why couldn’t I believe this?

Well, there was still no reason not to believe in Parvache. Then, Parvache shouted excitedly.

[It’s a trap!]

Through the backdoor of my mind that only Parvache could use, I could feel his mind flowing into me. At the same time, I could see that Parvache’s mental body was holding and fiddling with the energy that was trying to infringe on me. It was a fight in my mental world. As Parvache’s attack progressed, the body of the Fake God lying on the floor trembled and convulsed, its movements becoming increasingly intense.

[These stupid things. The level is obvious when those with flesh use magic to manipulate other’s minds. If you get caught by your mental body, you will be robbed to the bottom!]

Parvache used the magic of my body and manipulated the magic planted by the Fake God as if it were enjoying it. The magic he was trying to instill in my brain was still connected with his eyes. Parvache, who had completed a complete analysis of the magical composition in the Han River Park, had finished preparing for a counterattack method. It was an attempt for a situation where we weren’t sure if I had the seeds of domination or not. If I didn’t have it, I could just drag him home and interrogate him.

What was a more reliable way to extract information than mental control? It was worth trying, and after success, I thought it was the right choice. The wriggling Fake God fell on the floor and weakened as time passed. After some time had passed, Parvache spoke to me.

[It’s almost over. I couldn’t perfectly reproduce the magical effect. It wasn’t possible to control or manipulate each of his actions. It ended up as planting a suggestion to avoid the content of the question or answer without lying. Still, I’ve made a deep hint, so he’ll honestly answer whatever you ask.]

***

At the moment when Parvache’s mental body dwelled in Yoon Min-joon’s body, Yusu ??and Eraser saw a scene that was contradictory to each other.

Yusu, who was shocked after witnessing the crack in the open space on Yoon Min-joon’s chest, was looking at them, waiting for Yoon Min-joon’s interrogation to end instead of asking his questions. Meanwhile, he saw a new soul dwelling in Yoon Min-joon’s body. It was a faint soul like a thread different from Yoon Min-joon’s intense and huge soul. Yusu was able to realize that it was the soul of Parvache.

Meanwhile, Eraser, who couldn’t see the soul at that moment, was looking at a completely different scene. Only after the mental body containing Parvache’s soul was put into Yoon Min-joon’s body, that was, a living vessel, could the Eraser recognize his existence.

And he saw a great consciousness that went beyond the concept he can perceive, which was close to infinity, huge and heavy, instead of Yoon Min-joon’s insignificant young mental world he had seen so far. The size of consciousness implied the volume of emotions, memories, and thoughts accumulated over the years. It was incomprehensible. That young wizard, with a Channel on his chest, apparently had the weight of a mind for over 20 years.

What was unique was that the seeds of domination were very faint. Eraser quickly recognized why the golden glow looked so faint. It was buried so deeply under the unconscious. Probably, a deep consciousness system that was difficult to recognize by the wizard himself. It was a strange phenomenon as if someone had intentionally hidden it there. Eraser was suddenly convinced that the great spirit in that body wasn’t the wizard’s own.

Even in that newly emerged spirit, he could see a golden glow. But Eraser knew he wouldn’t be able to try brainwashing, even if that spirit was in a normal condition. The greater the other’s consciousness, the less successful the brainwashing process. Eraser, who was still young, had a lower success rate even against beings of the same age as he had lived for about a thousand years. Moreover, it was unpredictable against such a huge spirit that couldn’t be compared to him.

Eraser was aware that he was being caught up in a powerful suggestion. That spirit used his thrown magic to counterattack. Just before Eraser was completely engulfed, he had no choice but to ask this question towards the spirit body that dwelled in the body of a young wizard.

=This…this is nonsense. I have never seen an accumulation of such great consciousness so far. How long have you existed?=

The enormous consciousness in the wizard’s body replied as if it laughed at the telepathy that the only Eraser could hear.

[How old am I? …You cannot even imagine it, you bastard. Do you think you will live that long?]

At that moment, the magic of suggestion was completed.