Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 124
Chapter 124
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Discord
At the end of the Sky Mountains.
Having reached the highest place in this world, Turan’s eyes widened at the scene unfolding before him.
‘What is this…?’
Turan had prepared himself not to be surprised by whatever he might see.
After all, it was natural that a place no one had crossed for thousands of years might contain anything imaginable.
But he had never imagined that not only the land beyond, but even the sky itself would be different.
A white something visible beyond his cautiously extended neck.
Despite being at a height where even snow couldn’t fall, this unknown white substance filled not only the land beyond the mountain range but the sky as well.
To such an extent that it was incomprehensible why it couldn’t be seen from far away.
As he stared blankly at this, Turan realized that perceiving the substance as white had been his own misconception.
There was red and blue, green, and from these, yellow and cyan and purple, and all kinds of colors derived from their mixtures.
Even more diverse colors of light visible only through the Illusion bloodline’s vision.
It merely appeared white because all these lights combined and mixed together resulted in white.
The stimulation wasn’t limited to the visual.
His keen sense of smell, capable of detecting blood from kilometers away, now caught countless scents emanating from within that substance.
From burning wood to animal excrement, simmered strawberry jam, sour sweat.
Hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of different scents existed within.
If he listened carefully, sounds could be heard too.
People murmuring, beasts howling, stones rolling, something buzzing, and even songs played on unidentifiable instruments.
Looking closer, it was difficult to even define this as “matter.”
It scattered like gas, rippled or flowed like liquid, solidified and shattered like a solid…
Suddenly a realization came to his mind.
This was nothing in itself, yet also everything in this world.
“Ah.”
As he painfully opened his mouth and groaned, he realized that even this sound was one of those substances.
No, looking down at his body, even that was mostly composed of the same substance.
His real body was merely a small part mixed in.
Had it always been this way? Or was it because he had reached this place and observed this substance?
With this thought, his entire body began to liquefy and flow, being absorbed beyond the cliff.
‘Wait…’
Within that flowing substance was contained all the information defining his very self.
Turan, child of Karim and Bizelra, hunter who chases the wind and hides within lightning.
Savior of Kalamaf, Triple Divine Lord of the Southern Frontier, Night…
“Stop-!”
The moment he shouted with all his might, his breath suddenly choked.
Only then did Turan realize he was at the peak of the Sky Mountains, in a place with barely a breath of air.
No, soon even that suffocating feeling disappeared.
This was because the muscles and blood vessels that needed to receive oxygen, even the lungs, had all flowed away.
What remained here was just a tiny part of what should have been his essence, little more than dregs.
No, perhaps that small remaining something was—
“Turan, Turan! Wake up, hurry!”
Opening his eyes to the shrill voice, Turan felt something hard pressing against his back.
Through blurry vision, he saw Meisa with tears in her blue eyes and Solif with a deeply furrowed brow.
‘I’m alive…’
From his hands touching the floor to his throat and lungs that could inhale and exhale, everything felt vividly real.
As if all that dissolution had never happened.
Strangely though, he wasn’t wearing any clothes.
“Where am I?”
“Just below the Sky Mountains. You climbed up alone and fell. Don’t you remember?”
“Not at all…”
Turan clutched his throbbing head, recalling what he had seen moments ago.
The mysterious substance covering not just the land beyond the mountains, but even the sky.
Perhaps from staring at it too long, a headache surged as if each fold of his brain was being finely crushed.
“Besides, what do you mean I climbed alone? Didn’t we arrive together?”
“The rope suddenly broke midway. I called out loudly, but you ignored me and kept climbing.”
Turan had taken the lead only because his Earth Guardian bloodline made it advantageous for carving footholds in the cliff.
In terms of climbing speed through the created footholds, Solif with his Guardian bloodline should have been much faster.
Yet somehow, no matter how swiftly he climbed, the distance between him and Turan only increased rather than narrowed.
As he was struggling to breathe, suddenly Turan fell from above, completely naked.
Seeing this, Meisa quickly followed, using flight magic to catch him and bring him down here.
“I saw, up there—”
As he began to speak, Turan realized he didn’t know how to explain what he had seen.
That substance which was nothing in itself yet everything in this world.
Without directly seeing and feeling it, it was impossible to convey its nature.
Or was all of it even true?
Perhaps it had been a hallucination brought on by oxygen deprivation.
But judging by his missing clothes, his body must have indeed dissolved—
“Wait, where’s Bije?”
“She was with you.”
“I didn’t see her fly away.”
Turan suddenly realized that Bije had been clinging to his side as they climbed, but was now nowhere to be seen.
Thinking back, he recalled that when his body dissolved, Bije too had melted and flowed away with him.
‘Could it be that she couldn’t return and went beyond?’
—I’m right here!
Just as he was feeling an almost dizzying despair, a voice like that of a young girl sounded in Turan’s mind.
Startled, he turned his head, but Solif and Meisa seemed not to understand his reaction.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just heard a voice.”
A voice strangely familiar despite hearing it for the first time.
Shortly after, he could identify its source.
An eagle hawk with a familiar appearance suddenly emerged from the center of Turan’s chest.
“What, what is this!?”
“Bije!”
Bije, who had suddenly sprouted from inside Turan’s body, perched on his head as usual, chirping… but looking closely, she seemed slightly smaller than before.
Unlike her previous average eagle hawk size, she now appeared almost as small as a kestrel.
Anyone unfamiliar with her would probably mistake her for a baby eagle hawk.
“What happened here?”
—We merged when we dissolved! Now I can enter the perfect place!
A riddle similar to when they first met.
But this time, he could roughly understand its meaning.
Turan’s and Bije’s souls, their essences, had melted and fused together, allowing not just their souls but even their physical bodies to combine.
Moreover, as their soul bond strengthened during this process, they could now transmit thoughts to each other as voices.
‘Come to think of it, soul magic already existed.’
The Beast Handler’s soul bond magic binds the souls of humans and magical beasts, enabling weak emotional exchanges.
Though very primitive, it clearly interferes with souls.
It seemed strange that he hadn’t realized this until now.
At that moment, Solif waved his hand and said:
“Well, I’m glad you’re safe, but let’s first gather the things you dropped. It would be troublesome if someone picked them up. And put some clothes on too.”
* * *
After checking with tracking magic, they found that important items like the Mimic Holy Relic, Guardian magical device, and large-capacity backpack had all fallen nearby.
Being heavy objects, they seemed to have dropped straight down.
However, the clothes he had been wearing had all blown far away in the wind.
Though they could be found with tracking magic since he had worn them for a long time, they had flown tens or hundreds of kilometers away, requiring a long search even riding Bije.
“I’ll make new clothes for you instead.”
“Some were gifts, so I should find them.”
“I don’t think even Asiz would expect you to wander around looking for his clothes in this situation.”
While there was nothing specifically wrong with his body, Turan was suffering from extreme fatigue.
For an ordinary person, it would be comparable to a severe case of the flu.
For a noble who typically didn’t contract common illnesses, such a state was definitely not a good sign, and what he needed now was rest.
After further persuasion from Meisa, Turan took out his disguise clothes from his large-capacity pouch, changed, and returned to the hideout.
The Baraha couple, who were planting some edible plants in the garden, were startled by their sudden return and asked:
“What? You’re back already?”
“Don’t tell me you succeeded…”
“No, that’s not it. We’ve just come back to rest for now. I’ll explain the details.”
“Will you be having dinner here? I’ll prepare it in advance.”
“We’ll see!”
Listening to the exchange between Solif and his parents, Turan lay down in a spare room with Meisa’s support.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“I’m fine. Let me tell you about what I saw first.”
Though they said it wasn’t necessary, both sat down by the bedside.
After all, who in this world wouldn’t be curious about what lies beyond the Sky Mountains?
Turan tried to explain the scenery he had seen at the peak as vividly as possible, just as he had experienced it.
The unknown substance filling the world beyond the mountains, both land and sky, and how merely perceiving it caused one to be drawn in.
“Ah…”
“At least the type of hideout we imagined is impossible.”
“Exactly. Not even remotely possible.”
From what he had directly witnessed, that place was definitely not somewhere humans could live.
Presumably, even the heads of great families couldn’t.
The fallen gods likely had some idea of this secret, which is why they never attempted to cross over.
“And though I can’t be certain, that substance seemed to envelop the world in a large sphere. I think we’d be blocked even if we tried to cross from another region, or went above the sky, or below the ground.”
“Is it really that extensive? And what kind of substance could it be? I can’t even imagine from your description.”
After discussing the nature of this substance blocking the outer world for a few minutes,
Solif suddenly pointed at Bije and asked:
“But what was that just now? Bije entering and leaving your body. Is it a new magic you learned?”
“This? I’m not sure how to explain it properly.”
When Turan extended his hand to Bije, she reached out with her beak to peck his finger, then smoothly seeped into him and disappeared.
Though smaller than before, a bird larger than a fist vanishing instantly was surreal even by mages’ standards.
A few seconds later, she emerged from the opposite hand and chirped.
“When our bodies separated and rejoined… like how the Light of Judgment mixes fire and light, our souls and magical power seem to have taken on the same properties and can now merge. That’s my guess, anyway.”
Additionally, since Bije’s body had become half magical power, she could now adjust her size to some extent.
To demonstrate this, Turan grew Bije from her kestrel size to her original size, then to the size of a dog or wolf, then a large predator, and even larger.
“Yikes.”
“Wow…”
The room, which had been quite spacious until moments ago, suddenly became cramped, and only then did Bije return to her small size and dance on Turan’s hand.
Meanwhile, in Turan’s mind, he heard the voice saying, ‘Aren’t I impressive?’
“Is that the limit of how large she can grow?”
“Probably. Of course, bigger isn’t necessarily better. The magical power density thins out.”
With the body growing larger but the magical power remaining the same, there would naturally be a trade-off in terms of density.
While having more muscle would allow for greater physical strength.
Still, just being able to adjust these characteristics according to the situation was an incredible advantage.
“And this is truly the last one.”
Before they could ask what he meant, Bije flew from Turan’s hand and completely disappeared.
After staring blankly at this for a moment, Solif groaned and clutched his forehead.
“What do you think?”
“Is it what I’m thinking?”
“Yes. Now Bije can also borrow invisibility and tracking abilities from me.”
Solif, who had been listening to Turan and Meisa’s conversation, muttered:
“This is truly insane. It’s the end of the world itself. Even humans only have three bloodline abilities, yet a mere bird…”
At that moment, Bije reappeared and pecked at Solif’s forehead, telling him not to say mean things.
Of course, with just enough force to avoid breaking the Guardian bloodline-enhanced head… “I think Bije’s soul form originally matched the Arabion shape, but after this mixing, the Zahar shape was also imprinted, so to speak.”
Beyond the obvious invisibility, Bije’s ability to use tracking magic was also an enormous advantage.
The essence of tracking was amplifying one’s senses toward a specific object to locate it.
While Turan and other Zahar nobles used their superior sense of smell for this purpose, Bije could recognize targets using the eagle hawk’s exceptional vision.
Flying high in the sky and surveying hundreds of kilometers in all directions.
Hearing this, Solif complained:
“Why can’t I find a magical beast that matches my wavelength?”
“You’ll probably meet one when the opportunity arises.”
“Maybe if I just took any magical beast up there…”
“Even if it were possible to climb up there, which I’m not sure about, it would be better not to try.”
Turan still vividly remembered that dizzying sensation at the peak of the Sky Mountains.
The feeling of his entire body melting and flowing away, leaving behind something barely recognizable as himself.
Without knowing how he had returned from that state, expecting a second stroke of luck by climbing up again would be insane.
* * *
Several days after the mountain climbing attempt.
While Turan quietly recovered his health, the others spent their time in various ways.
Meisa began enchanting several spare outfits she had selected for Turan.
She used all of her vast magical power, even borrowing the Guardian bloodline’s power from Solif.
Considering that the enchanter’s power is the primary factor in a magical device’s strength, followed by the power of those lending their bloodline abilities, one could easily imagine how formidable these items would be.
Of course, since creating such items would deplete her energy for some time, she had to moderate the power she infused into them.
“How are you feeling?”
“Getting by.”
“Try drinking this. It’s tea made from herbs I just picked.”
She also devoted herself to caring for Turan, brewing tea from crops grown in the garden right in front of their house.
For this, she received help from Solif’s mother, Romi, who was familiar with Baraha’s medicinal tea culture.
To accomplish this, she not only used plant growth magic to quickly grow the crops, but also applied the decay magic Turan had taught her to rapidly ferment them.
Turan reluctantly drank the daily teas with their bitter, sour, bland, and pungent flavors, slightly regretting having taught her that magic.
Solif, apart from occasionally helping Meisa with magical device creation, spent most of his time with his parents.
Without servants or maids to handle chores, there was plenty to do, from teaching basic home maintenance to acquiring items they hadn’t brought with them.
For this purpose, they avoided visiting nearby villages to prevent leaving traces, instead flying on Bije for half a day to reach distant cities for shopping. Each time they returned from these trips, they invariably bore minor injuries from their squabbles.
Finally, Bije herself was busy roaming around whenever she wasn’t carrying Solif.
She was completely absorbed in playing with her newly transformed body.
Usually maintaining her smallest kestrel-sized form, she would occasionally transform into a giant eagle hawk with a wingspan of ten meters to hunt terrified animals.
Having gained invisibility, she could silently snatch prey despite her enormous size, truly becoming a predator of death.
She even displayed the cunning to shrink back down when eating to fill her stomach more easily.
After spending about two weeks in their own ways,
Turan was finally able to leave his bedroom.
‘I’m still a bit dizzy… but much better than before.’
Stepping into the garden without support for the first time in a long while, Turan basked in the sunlight shining from the sky.
Though his body and magical power had long since recovered, his health, which had stubbornly refused to improve, was now reasonably restored.
Now he understood why this had happened.
‘I never imagined I would succeed like this.’
The soul magic introductory book he had looted from Baraha’s headquarters.
While diligently meditating according to its instructions, Turan had always felt there was some shell he couldn’t break through.
However, recently, while engrossed in meditation with nothing else to do, he suddenly realized.
Those remnants that hadn’t been absorbed back then.
What had seemed like mere dregs was actually the unchanging self, the medium that had pulled back his essence that had nearly been absorbed into that outside world.
Using its newly awakened but weak power to forcibly drag back such a vast entity had paralyzed it like muscle strain, and this had also negatively affected his physical condition.
Click.
With a feeling like pressing a button inside his head, Turan awakened his spiritual awareness.