Chapter 52 – Combat, Not Hunting (1)

It had already been eight days since I boarded the off-roader, leaving behind a letter for Namiya asking her to handle the five gold coins and the distribution of magic engineering books.

With only thirty-eight kilometers left until our embers—a distance that would take two days—I pinched my nose at the chemical-biological-radiological event that had occurred.

Sitting inside as we moved slowly through the pouring snow, I looked out the window at the vast expanse of snow.

‘To think it takes twenty days just to go back and forth…’

The time spent traveling was too long. It was also a waste. Because I could do nothing while moving.

Moreover, while I was traveling comfortably and even resting now since I was riding in an off-roader, walking would have truly required me to worry about life and death.

Had I not already experienced it while heading to the Immortal Embers?

‘I must be cautious about leaving the embers.’

Therefore, once I decided to leave the embers, I had to go with a clear plan and goal.

Considering how fierce the weather could get, nearly a month would be consumed just by the round-trip travel time.

If I returned without achieving any results, the loss would be immense.

A month was enough time for the internal situation or power structure of the embers to change.

Unless there were many reliable, loyal, and capable subordinates to fill the void during my absence, merely stepping out of the embers meant taking on a huge risk.

‘Of course, it’s not like that has only disadvantages…’

Just as I said earlier, these disadvantages applied not only to me but to the enemy as well, so if used well, they could be employed as something more threatening than anything else.

Just like how the leadership held a grand assembly and passed the magic engineering golem development agenda while Demian and the Magic Engineering Department were away visiting the Immortal Embers laboratory.

‘I need to build my own faction quickly…’

I looked at the Wayne brothers and the Ford siblings, who were searching for the culprit who farted.

These people were definitely my people.

The Ford siblings would especially be so, and while the Wayne brothers were still ambiguous, if the emotions they showed me were not lies, they could also be considered on my side.

However, they alone were not enough.

Especially since what they could do was strictly limited to magic engineering.

In that sense, a figure like Natasha McGrain was an even more useful talent when it came to governing the embers.

As a top-tier intelligence agent directly under Herman Melville, she could play an active role in various fields for any matter.

To me, who would become a leader, someone like Natasha was desperately needed.

‘I need to find a way to bind her to my side… First, I should try using Jeremy Scott.’

It was a good thing that I had pried into the relationship between the two.

In the end, didn’t a small action or a single story like this become a steering wheel to handle people?

Though it might look like I view them as tools, traditionally, this was the right way to handle people.

I simply needed to grant them corresponding rewards.

“Do you have something to say?”

As I watched Natasha absentmindedly, she stared at me with her large eyes.

“No, I was just looking out the window.”

Replying thus, I leaned my head back against the headrest.

‘There’s too much to do. As expected, it is hard alone.’

I intended to allocate certain tasks to Natasha, but I could not order her around more than necessary.

Since we were in an alliance, not a master-servant relationship, it was uncertain whether she would do it, and our relationship was still too shallow to share everything and be together.

Telling too much of my story to someone who would return would only become a weakness later…

Anyway, once I actually became a magic engineer, the work increased tenfold.

Before getting the license, I only had to rush to survive, so there was no need to think of other things, but now that I had survived, I had to look ahead to the struggle to become a leader and even beyond.

‘No need to look far ahead right now. Let’s solve the matter at hand first.’

Before that, I must make the golem development succeed.

To do that, I had to leave the embers and step out once again.

And that destination was already decided.

Forge Embers.

A place not far from our embers that I saw on the library map, a production-specialized city where the entire embers was filled with industrial complexes.

To secure the order for golem production, I must go there and somehow sign an impossible contract.

The gold coins received as the top prize money would all be spent there.

‘Why on earth do I have to clean up the mess someone else left behind…’

No matter how necessary it was, it was a waste of gold coins to spend them on mere golem production.

With that money, even if I hired talent, it was enough to employ ten top-tier talents for a year.

And a year was enough time to turn them all into my confidants.

Indeed, my plan to become a leader was a one-year plan, as by the time they left, I would be someone who could grant them even more things.

However, now that I lacked money, it was not easy to create connections with talents immediately.

Although there was a way to utilize the reputation of the top magic engineer, since I was merely a rising prospect who was a beginner magic engineer, that was also an unsatisfactory method.

It meant it was still a long way off before my name value naturally made people seek me out.

But there was no need to worry.

Because I had already thought of all the ways to recruit the talents.

‘Then… are all the people I need to contact upon my return decided?’

It was while I was pondering endlessly, preparing for the upcoming future.

‘What is it?’

A presence was felt beyond the window on the side where Natasha sat.

Even though it was invisible due to the blizzard, it was clearly heard, seen, and felt by my senses.

Although this was felt through transcendental five senses…

‘A mana wave is felt again…?’

The mana wave emitted by the dagger that I had felt in Will Ford’s inner pocket.

Just like then, my mana sense, which could be called a sixth sense, was similarly sending me a warning.

“……”

Ignoring Natasha, who was looking blankly at me as I turned my head toward her side once again, I focused all my nerves.

I had a bad feeling.

Something unexpected was rushing toward this side.

Its speed was unbelievably fast.

It possessed a wave clearly different from the engine of an off-roader where a mana wave could be felt.

And it soon appeared at a speed far exceeding my expectations.

“Get your heads down!”

Crash-!

Coinciding with my spasmodic shout, a roaring sound and an immense impact were delivered to the off-roader.

It was a force strong enough to momentarily lift this heavy vehicle carrying eight people.

“What was that? Did someone hit us from behind?”

“The side was lifted, so there’s no way that’s it. Look at the window!”

Just as Thomas said, fine cracks like a spiderweb were densely formed on the window of the side where Natasha sat.

Fortunately, it did not seem to have broken, but it was clear that it would shatter into pieces if it received the same impact once more.

“Then what on earth is it? If it wasn’t a collision between off-roaders, what is it!”

“How should I know what happened in an instant? Besides, nothing is visible outside.”

Everyone in the vehicle looked around the window in utter panic.

The six-person off-roader carrying magic engineering equipment was still behind us.

Yet nothing was visible around us, representing an amount of impact that could not be explained unless it was a collision between off-roaders.

“It isn’t gunfire, is it?”

“That is absolutely not it.”

The driver looking at the cracked window assumed raiders, but there was no such possibility at all.

In the first place, an impact of this magnitude would require firing a cannon, not a gun, and if it were gunfire, a bullet should have been embedded in the window glass, but there was no trace.

Moreover, the way the window cracked was entirely different from that caused by gunfire.

“This is…?”

At that moment, I discovered something on the cracked window.

It was not a bullet or a bullet hole, but something thin that looked white or gray.

“Fur?”

It was fur.

Beast fur.

Focusing on my sixth sense to scan the surroundings, I confirmed that the creature was not around, then quickly opened the door, plucked it, and asked Jenkins, the driver who was said to be a former hunter.

“Do you know what this is?”

“This is… with both white and gray hues, it is the fur of a snowy wolf.”

“A snowy wolf? Are you sure?”

It was hard to believe.

According to the driver’s words, it meant a snowy wolf, which was only half the height of an adult, had generated this much destructive power.

However, looking at the window and the fur in turn, the driver replied in a confident tone, though he himself found the situation hard to believe.

“Yes, I am sure. Wolves have a thick double coat, and while their guard hairs are white for camouflage, their undercoat is gray. And the characteristic of this subtle color blend is only found in snowy wolves.”

Actually, I also knew it.

Since I also had abundant experience as a hunter in .

Even so, finding it hard to believe, I had merely confirmed it once more through the words of the driver, who was a local of this world and a former hunter.

At that time, the driver spoke with questioning eyes.

“But I don’t understand at all. To think it’s this thick. I swear I have never seen fur this thick before.”

Come to think of it, he was right.

Unlike the usual thickness of snowy wolf fur, the fur I had plucked was twice as thick.

“It means the size is at least twice the normal size, but I wonder if that makes any sense…”

If one assumed that the size of the body and the length of the fur were directly proportional, it was indeed so.

“No, it will be larger than that.”

However, I was certain that the two were by no means directly proportional.

Because a body size of a mere two meters, which was only twice the norm, would not be able to deliver this much impact to an off-roader with an overall height of a whopping four meters.

In other words…

“It will be at least three times… no, four times larger.”

We had not faced a snowy wolf.

We had faced a mutant or a monster.

“F-Four times? What nonsense…!”

“Aren’t you mistaken about something? A snowy wolf of that size would be a major matter already reported to the academic society, but there was no such content in the latest papers or journals I’ve read.”

The people, shocked by that, muttered among themselves.

The former was spoken by Willers, and the latter by the boy Will Ford, and since he was a monster of magic engineering, if he said so, it must be the case.

However, the reason he did not know would be either that this mutant snowy wolf of bizarre size had truly only just revealed itself, or that other embers knew about it but controlled the information for some reason.

But since we had encountered it, the reason did not matter.

“Natasha, do you have any magic guns you brought along?”

“It’s not a rifle, but I have one pistol.”

“Get ready. We must kill it.”

“……!”

We had to kill that monster.

That was because.

“The glass reinforced with magic engineering cracked from just one side collision. We don’t know where the next will be. If it hits us from the front, the engine and magic substrate will be completely shattered.”

We could not continue while ignoring it like this, nor was it possible to do so.

Since we had run into it, we were left with no choice but to hunt and kill that monster.