The Scorched Desert's Sand Mage (Novel) - Chapter 121

Chapter 121

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Late at night, there were people approaching the fortress built by the White Bear Caravan. There were fifty of them in total. Every single one was an Awakened. Each of them wore a mask or face covering over their face. It was the bare minimum measure to keep one another’s faces and identities unknown. They were all Awakened from the slum, a pillaging force hastily assembled today to raid the White Bear Caravan. The one leading the attack force was Lee Beom-ho. He was a D-rank magic-type Awakened. The moment he got the information that a caravan had entered for the first time in decades, he made a plan to plunder it. ‘I don’t know where Akutsk is, but it must be full of rare goods.’ The subspace backpacks he had barely managed to obtain from the Goblin Market totaled ten. Each backpack had a subspace enchanted into it the size of a small room. They were items difficult to obtain even with money. And he did not have the money to buy them anyway. Unable to do anything else, he borrowed them from a merchant of the Goblin Market on the condition that he would divide up the plundered goods.

He did not think they would be able to plunder every last thing in the White Bear Caravan.

But if they could fill even some of the subspace backpacks with goods, it would be more than profitable.

It was a gamble with his life on the line.

But it was more than worth attempting.

‘If we succeed in this one score, I can enter Neo Seoul. I’ll live the high life in Neo Seoul too.’

Every Awakened who had joined the plundering force, including Lee Beom-ho, was thinking the same thing.

The small fortress entered their view.

The fortress, made by stacking cargo wagons one atop another, looked extremely sturdy.

But they were not especially worried.

That was because they trusted the things they had prepared.

Lee Beom-ho shouted, “Use the Explosion Scrolls.”

“Okay!”

The Awakened attached the Explosion Scrolls to the outer wall of the fortress.

A moment later, the glowing red Explosion Scrolls triggered a blast.

Kwa-kwa-kwang!

A massive explosion occurred.

Lee Beom-ho and the Awakened expected a great hole to be torn through the fortress wall, in other words the cargo wagons.

The core of their plan this time was to rush in through that opening, plunder the goods in an instant, and pull out.

But things in this world did not always go according to plan.

“Fuck. Why is that still intact?”

“Aren’t the Explosion Scrolls defective?”

The Awakened staring at the blast site widened their eyes.

The outer wall of the fortress remained completely intact despite such a powerful explosion.

There was not even a single scorch mark left by the flames.

“What kind of material is it made of?”

“Is that what matters? Fuck, I think we’re screwed.”

No sooner had one of the Awakened finished speaking than the White Bear Caravan’s Awakened rushed out from within the fortress.

“Raiders.”

“Kill them.”

Without the slightest hesitation, they attacked the raiders.

The situation had gone very differently from his plan, and Lee Beom-ho could not hide a flicker of panic.

But he soon regained his composure.

“Fuck. Since it’s come to this, kill them all and take everything.”

“Waaaah!”

At this point, it was all or nothing anyway.

If they failed to get any spoils and returned empty-handed, they would die all the same.

“Hyaaat!”

Lee Beom-ho unleashed his skill, Magic Missile.

Shwaaaak!

Five Magic Missiles flew toward the White Bear Caravan’s Awakened.

The other raiders also used their main skills with all their power.

Kwa-kwa-kwang!

“Aaaagh!”

“Urk!”

Explosions and screams burst out everywhere.

But the ones dying were mostly the raiders.

The White Bear Caravan’s Awakened were all elites.

On the way here, they had fought against countless threats and attacks from demonic beasts.

To people like them, low-ranking Awakened from the slum posed no real threat at all.

Aleksandro, the master of the caravan, looked at the raiders fighting his Awakened with an incredulous expression.

He had expected that something like this might happen.

That was because he had experienced similar incidents in other colonies as well.

But he had never imagined they would attack on the very first day.

“Kill every one of them and make sure Neo Seoul learns that the White Bear Caravan is not a place to be taken lightly.”

“Don’t leave a single one alive.”

“They’re all dead, you sons of bitches. You think this is the first or second time we’ve gone through something like this?”

“No one gets to take the White Bear Caravan’s goods for free. This is our lifeline.”

The White Bear Caravan’s Awakened ran wild like demonic beasts drunk on blood.

The goods loaded on the cargo wagons were things all the people of Akutsk had gathered with their very lives on the line.

The lives of Akutsk Colony and the people living in it depended on the success of the caravan’s trade journey.

Naturally, their resolve could not be the same as the raiders’.

“Kyaagh!”

“Keh!”

The raiders screamed and collapsed.

Once more than half had lost their lives in an instant, the raiders hesitated.

“Fuck. They’re this strong?”

“At this rate, we’ll all be wiped out.”

One by one, deserters began appearing among the raiders.

They broke from the group and attempted to flee toward Neo Seoul.

But the White Bear Caravan’s Awakened had no intention of letting a single one escape alive.

“You dogshit scavenger bastards!”

“Die!”

They doggedly pursued the raiders and killed them.

“How can this be? They’re this strong?”

At that point, even Lee Beom-ho, who had organized the raiding force, had no choice but to falter.

He had thought the caravan’s Awakened would be strong, since they were a caravan that crossed the desert.

But he had not expected the gap to be this overwhelming.

That was the factor that led to failure.

“Goddamn it!”

In the end, Lee Beom-ho chose to flee.

But someone blocked his path.

It was a handsome youth with an unusually slender build compared to the other Awakened.

“You caused all this and now you’re just going to leave?”

“Move, you little brat.”

Lee Beom-ho roared and fired Magic Missiles.

The five Magic Missiles flew toward Damian at terrifying speed.

But right before they struck, someone cut in.

It was Aleksandro, the master of the White Bear Caravan.

Puh-buh-buh-buhk!

The Magic Missiles struck his whole body instead of Damian’s.

But not even a tiny scratch appeared on him.

“Impossible!”

Lee Beom-ho widened his eyes in shock.

At that moment, Aleksandro stretched out a huge hand and grabbed his head.

“Impossible, my ass….”

Crack!

Lee Beom-ho’s head burst like a watermelon.

After killing Lee Beom-ho in an instant, Aleksandro shook off his hand and looked at Damian.

“Are you all right?”

“I could have handled him myself.”

“Haven’t I told you again and again? You are the core of our caravan, so be careful with yourself.”

“Haha. Even so, you don’t have to treat me like you’re protecting a child.”

“Without you, we wouldn’t even have made it here. Damian, I hope you understand just how extraordinary and precious you are.”

“I will.”

Damian smiled brightly.

* * *

News of last night’s attack on the White Bear Caravan spread through the slum in no time.

“The raiding force led by Lee Beom-ho, a D-rank Awakened, was wiped out?”

“They didn’t steal a single thing? Crazy.”

“The White Bear Caravan’s strength must be even more formidable than we thought.”

Whenever two or more people gathered, they talked about what had happened yesterday.

Lee Beom-ho had not been some extraordinary Awakened, but neither had he been weak enough to be crushed helplessly.

If he had been, he would never have been able to lead a raiding force in the first place.

The rumor that Lee Beom-ho and his raiding force had been utterly destroyed without being able to do anything was enough to give people a tremendous shock.

There had been quite a few others besides Lee Beom-ho who were organizing raiding forces.

But immediately after the news spread that the raiding force Lee Beom-ho led had been wiped out in an instant, they all disbanded.

After showing its military power once, the White Bear Caravan did not come out of the fortress it had built outside Neo Seoul.

It looked as though they were saying that anyone with business should come visit in person.

In fact, word was already spreading that people here and there were making moves to formally visit the White Bear Caravan.

Zeon thought that was only natural.

The one holding the goods was the White Bear Caravan.

They also held the right of supply.

In that case, naturally, those who needed the goods had to go to them and request trade.

That was the logic of the world, and the White Bear Caravan understood very well the power and influence they possessed.

With demand spread everywhere, there was no need for them to move around laboriously to arrange meetings.

People would come to them even if they did nothing, so all they had to do was wait.

The problem was that one of the people trying to go to them on her own feet was Brielle.

“Let’s go to the caravan.”

She had suddenly come to Zeon and said so out of nowhere.

Zeon blinked.

“Why?”

“Aren’t you curious what kind of things they brought? Aren’t you curious, Zeon?”

“Not particularly.”

“Come on, let’s go together. There are no more things I can get at the Goblin Market anymore.”

It was by no means easy to obtain the ingredients needed for alchemy.

When an opportunity came, one had to secure goods.

There was no knowing whether the White Bear Caravan would have the things Brielle needed, but there was nothing to lose from visiting once.

The problem was that Brielle alone could not enter the White Bear Caravan.

The White Bear Caravan did not permit visits from private individuals.

If it did, it was obvious that every riffraff would come barging in.

So they had placed strict limits on who was qualified to visit.

At minimum, one had to be the leader of a group of some kind to be allowed into the White Bear Caravan.

That was why Brielle was pestering Zeon.

Eaton, the ruler of Sinchon, was under Zeon’s influence.

That gave him more than enough qualification to enter the White Bear Caravan.

Looking up at Zeon, Brielle begged, “Mm? Let’s go.”

“Haa. Fine, let’s go.”

“Really? Yay.”

When Zeon finally gave in, Brielle hopped up and down in delight.

Zeon put on his robe.

He was going because Brielle had asked, but he too was curious about the White Bear Caravan.

Even just seeing the goods they had brought would allow him to infer something about the environment of Akutsk Colony and the distribution of the demonic beasts there.

Before going to the White Bear Caravan, they first stopped by Eaton.

Eaton naturally found Zeon’s visit uncomfortable.

With a dubious expression, he asked, “You want to visit the White Bear Caravan?”

“Yes.”

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

Zeon answered with a smile.

Eaton thought he wanted to punch that face.

But if he did, it was obvious his neck would fly off immediately.

He too coveted the goods the White Bear Caravan had brought.

So he had been waiting for the right timing to visit.

But Zeon had made the move first.

Naturally, he had made no preparations for a visit at all.

To the hesitating Eaton, Zeon said with a smile, “Would that be difficult?”

In that instant, Eaton felt his life being threatened.

He must not be fooled by that gentle tone.

The other party was a wolf wearing a sheep’s skin, no, a demonic beast.

If one was deceived by the appearance and let down one’s guard, one would be devoured in an instant.

Rising from his seat, Eaton said, “Of course it would be possible. As it happens, we were planning to go to the White Bear Caravan as well.”

“Right now?”

“Yes. Right now.”

“That’s good. I was worried I might be causing trouble.”

“How could that even be? Sinchon is peaceful like this because of Zeon-nim. Naturally, we should make things convenient for you.”

Eaton said with a smile.

But his true thoughts were different.

‘Your existence itself is a nuisance, you son of a bitch.’