Chapter 611: Contaminated Zone

Rumble, rumble, rumble.

In the underground of the Contaminated Zone, the ground trembled. The vibration was so subtle that an ordinary person would never notice it, but Salas Regas, a traditional scholar from the Gaia Faction, could feel the earth shaking.

It was no surprise. Salas had spent his entire life studying Mother Earth and achieving great things upon it.

His once black hair had turned white, and his once firm, bronzed skin had sagged from this long time. Naturally, he could sense things that ordinary people could not.

It was only right, given how hard he had worked through the long years since the dawn of this industrial age, which had now reached its peak.

Not just for the simple desire to achieve power as a mage, but to see the truth of the world and understand Mother Earth. He had endured those long, cold, and boring years with this noble purpose.

Despite the declining interest in traditional schools around him, he’d held his pride.

‘And when that pride was crushed… how utterly empty it felt.’

Salas looked at his slightly rejuvenated hand, feeling a mix of joy and emptiness.

“Captain!”

After a few seconds passed, a mage in a pink suit approached and reported.

“Intruder! It’s Lumberjack Dave!”

Lumberjack Dave. A name and nickname he’d heard before coming to Randa.

The Pinkman’s intelligence division mentioned that Randa’s troubleshooter, Dave, earned the nickname after killing 82 Druids from the Enjoyment group.

It was truly astonishing.

Druids, while not many in number due to their secretive nature, possessed powerful bodies and rituals, making them superhuman beings on par with mages.

And to kill 82 of these Druids… due to his age, background, and rank, Salas couldn’t outwardly show it, but he was in awe.

Dave Wright. He was said to be in his mid-twenties. How had he achieved such feats at such a young age?

He’d heard rumors that he was an experiment or disciple of the Archive… but that didn’t seem likely.

For a moment, he thought it might be Merlin’s work, but in the end, it wasn’t.

Merlin was a scoundrel but changed into a completely different person after joining the Archive.

This made him curious again. What changed a person so drastically when they joined the Archive?

Well, there was no way of knowing now.

“Captain! He’s still coming down. Orders…?”

“What’s the mining progress?”

“40% complete.”

“40%… Did the Lumberjack come alone?”

“Yes, he left his men at a refugee camp. For some reason, he’s protecting the refugees there.”

“Strange, for a Dark Mage. Or maybe it’s those rumors going around lately? About the Pater Church backing him? Is he being stopped?”

“Yes, they’re trying desperately to stop him, but he’s ignoring them and heading underground quickly.”

Salas nodded. Considering the underground nature of this place, it wasn’t surprising.

The underground of the Contaminated Zone was laced with secret passages like a spider web, so if a skilled mage decided to explore, they could move around freely.

“Take your men and withdraw.”

“What?”

“We can’t let our identities be exposed. Especially not in these ridiculous pink suits. We could claim we’re imitating the Pinkman, but either way…”

Salas gathered the dirt and dust from the ground and covered himself. It compressed around him, forming a gray stone suit.

He looked imposing, as if he were wearing a fortress on his body.

This was something only a mage of his caliber could do, mastering control at even the elemental level. After all, he was once considered a Grandmaster candidate of the traditional school, despite only holding a Master rank.

The pink-suited mage asked.

“What about you, Captain?”

“Someone has to act like they’re working. Besides, I’m personally curious to meet this young Dave. It would’ve been better if we didn’t encounter him, but since it’s come to this, why not make the most of it?”

As he finished speaking, Salas unleashed his magic, creating small ripples on the dusty ground.

At first glance, it looked like nothing special.

But the pink-suited mage soon felt a strange energy. The ground in front of Salas rippled, and something started to rise.

It had a gray body with green, glowing hair and brown limbs.

It was semi-transparent, but it didn’t lack presence. In fact, its presence was stronger than that of most mages.

The pink-suited mage then realized what it was.

It was none other than a spirit. A spirit bound by chains of magic around its neck and limbs.

Just as the rumors said, the spirit had been bound by magic.

Salas gave the spirit an order, and the spirit let out a shriek that rattled the earth.

Salas, a devoted researcher of the Gaia Faction, had now taken control of Mother Earth herself.

***

“Th-this is E-14! The Lumberjack is here-”

Immediately upon descending to a lower level of the Contaminated Zone, one of the Shield Brotherhood members reported into his communications device.

It seemed they had set up coordinates underground in the Contaminated Zone at will.

Even though they’d turned into militias, they were still a gang at their core, yet their movements were so precise it felt like the work of a professional.

‘In other words, while most of the soldiers might be from the Unaffiliated Gangs making up the Shield Brotherhood, those in command must be someone else,’

Oliver, who had lived as Randa’s troubleshooter for years, deduced sharply.

Click.

“Fire!”

As soon as he ignored the Shield Brotherhood and continued downwards, a shout rang out.

The gangs, who had been lying in wait below, aimed their guns at Oliver all at once.

It seemed the reason gangs above kept tracking and reporting Oliver’s position was precisely this.

They were trying to predict the next floor where Oliver would descend to.

From this, Oliver could deduce two more things.

One, there was a fairly potent mage on their side, one who could understand and navigate the secret passage rituals in the Contaminated Zone’s underground with both strong theory and practical prowess.

The second was that the command was solid. Whether it was enforced by power or by paying due rewards, that wasn’t clear.

But he didn’t bother pondering which because there were more urgent matters.

Like the dozens of gun muzzles pointed his way.

At the shout, the gangs pulled their triggers at Oliver.

The guns surrounding him roared, spitting fire and deafening sounds.

Dududududududu!!!

Bullets reinforced with blue magic flew at Oliver, who drew power stored inside him and manipulated the ground, creating a stone wall that enclosed him from all sides.

Bullets hit the wall, drilling through or shattering it, and soon-

Boom!!!

-the wall exploded, sending fist-sized stone fragments flying, striking the gangs encircling Oliver.

Most of the gang members could not react in time to the sudden explosion. Heads were cracked, abdomens burst, and chests were torn open.

This was because Oliver had constructed not one but two layers of walls, with an empty space between them.

A solid inner wall, a relatively weaker outer wall, and sensitive magic filling the gap.

You could say it was like a barrel filled with oil, and the Shield Brotherhood had just fired into that oil barrel.

The results were as expected when shooting at a barrel full of oil.

Explosion, shock, shrapnel, flames.

Only Oliver, who had been inside the solid inner wall, was unscathed by the blast, but he ignored the incapacitated Shield Brotherhood members around him and focused on heading further down.

They were already combat-ineffective, and taking out the core members was now more important.

So Oliver poured a massive amount of power into the ground and activated a spell, opening the layered floors below simultaneously.

To dive straight down.

Whirrr. Whirrr.

The brick floors making up the Contaminated Zone underground opened in sequence, and upon confirming this, Oliver jumped straight down.

Though he should’ve limited his extreme movements due to the pain in his side, the hunger, and the burning agony in his right arm, work had to come first.

He was also personally curious to learn who was digging into the demon’s research data and transaction traces in the Contaminated Zone underground.

‘This is the best option to avoid interference. If they run away… huh?’

While falling through the sequentially opening floors, Oliver noticed something.

It was none other than a spirit. A spirit bound by magic.

Thinking he might’ve seen wrong, he focused on his Warlock’s Eye, but it was indeed a spirit.

He wondered if there was a mage who could handle spirits here. It wasn’t impossible.

Though fewer than Druids, some mages could also communicate with spirits. The prime example being Kevin Dunbar, a disciple of Merlin.

But this one was different. The spirit was present, but it was full of discontent and anger. More importantly, it was forcibly bound by powerful magic.

It reminded him of the time when Eve was captured by Seamus.

At that moment, the ground began to shake.

The underground secret passages that Oliver had been controlling started twisting with the earth and breaking apart, followed by a thunderous noise as the underground landscape began to change.

A massive stone pillar shot up toward Oliver, slamming into him like a fist and sending him flying back upwards.

That wasn’t all.

Whirrr!!! Whirrr!!!

The underground restructured itself, as if undergoing tectonic shifts, and soon changed into a completely different landscape.

It was like an earthquake had struck, splitting the walls and floor, widening the gaps, and erasing the maze-like walls. The entire floor moved, gathering the scattered Shield Brotherhood members into one place.

As a result, Oliver was left in the position of an ant inside a jar.

An ant floating alone in the air.

The spirit had appeared, and this happened because it was now controlling the earth itself.

The gangs surrounding Oliver aimed their guns and were about to pull the triggers, but in that instant, Oliver gathered a massive amount of power into his Quarterstaff and struck the ground.

Click!

A clear, ringing sound echoed softly through the underground as the condensed mass of power inside the Quarterstaff shot down into the pillar supporting Oliver.

Rumble…

With an ominous rumble, the entire underground began to shake as cracks spread across the floor and dirt fell from the ceiling.

This was because Oliver had forced a large amount of power into the ground, burdening the spirit.

It was a decision prompted by the difficulty of battling the spirit for control of the earth, and it was the right choice as the spirit experienced something akin to choking on food.

But even that slight difficulty caused the underground being controlled by the spirit to start collapsing, and the Shield Brotherhood members inside were thrown into chaos.

So much so that they missed the critical moment to focus all their firepower on Oliver. It was understandable, though.

After all, they were risking being buried alive. But missing that opportunity still meant missing it, and Oliver didn’t waste any time in responding. He pulled out Durance, the Zombie Puppet he had hidden with Minimization Magic, and flung it high into the air, releasing the spell.

Durance returned to full size in midair. At the same time, Child-Second burst out of Oliver’s chest and entered Durance.

With newfound life, Durance created eight gun muzzles across its body, including its arms, leg, sides, and shoulders, and fired bullets in all directions.

It fired both standard magic bullets and custom flesh bullets.

In an instant, Oliver, who had been surrounded, turned the tables. Now he was bombarding his defenseless enemies from the center.

This was the hidden power of Dark Mages and Warlocks.

The ability to change the tide of battle with a single move.

But that also meant the enemy could turn the tide again, and surprisingly, they did.

A massive floor, which to Oliver was a ceiling, formed directly under Durance, who was high in the air, unleashing firepower like a bomber.

The spirit, which had been struggling to breathe due to the excess power Oliver had forced into the ground, had recovered, and Durance tried to break the wall blocking both Oliver and itself, but the earth under the spirit’s control withstood it.

It was truly astounding control.

With the newly created ceiling, Oliver and Durance were separated, and soon squeaking sounds came from above.

It seemed to be a Gymnure, one of the Contaminated Creatures.

A Gymnure among contaminated creatures, and a Zombie Puppet.

A rodent and a corpse.

They were natural enemies, and as Oliver tried to smash the ceiling to provide support, the stone pillar supporting him crumbled to dust, pulling Oliver down into the underground.

Crash!!

Oliver landed safely with the Black Suit wrapped around his legs, but the slight shock to his side and right arm made him wince slightly.

An old man who saw this spoke.

“Are you in pain?”

The mage, wearing a stone suit and mask, said this with a tone of admiration.

“Still, you’re younger than I expected.”