The Scorched Desert's Sand Mage (Novel) - Chapter 161
Chapter 161
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Translated by Pratt
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The Pegasus Raid Force was based in an ultramodern thirty-story building located between the West District and the Central District. The top seven floors were used by the Pegasus Raid Force. Needless to say, property in Neo Seoul was extremely expensive. That was because there was no land left inside Neo Seoul where new buildings could be constructed. Demand was high while supply was nonexistent, so building prices had soared as if piercing the sky. Even the renowned Pegasus Raid Force of Neo Seoul could not dare purchase an entire building. In the end, the Pegasus Raid Force had no choice but to be satisfied with occupying seven floors of a thirty-story building. Even though the world had changed and become a world for the Awakened, this land was still ruled by the logic of capitalism.
Money stood above the Awakened.
Lee Ji-ryeong stood with his arms folded at the window, looking out over Neo Seoul.
Countless lights were spread beneath his feet.
“It took twenty years just to get to this point. But if we complete this dungeon raid safely, the Pegasus Raid Force will have reached an even higher place.”
His gaze turned toward City Hall.
The tallest building visible from anywhere in Neo Seoul. That place was Lee Ji-ryeong’s ultimate destination.
Of course, countless obstacles still remained.
Other raid forces that stood in competition with them, and the rulers of each district.
Only by surpassing all of them would he finally be granted a chance to face Jin Geum-ho, master of City Hall.
He had no idea how many more wounds he would have to suffer and how much more blood he would have to spill in the future.
Even so, Lee Ji-ryeong was confident he would overcome every obstacle and stand on equal footing with Jin Geum-ho.
“Though before that, I need to escape this hell of paperwork…”
Lee Ji-ryeong smiled bitterly and looked at his desk.
Countless documents were spread across it.
The personal backgrounds of the members to be deployed in this raid, operational plans, means of transport to the dungeon, and even budget allocation.
Lee Ji-ryeong had to review all of it himself.
Preparing for the dungeon like this exhausted him even more than raiding it directly.
“Phew!”
It was then that Lee Ji-ryeong let out a faint sigh.
“Captain!”
Suddenly, his secretary’s voice came through the intercom.
“What is it?”
“You have a visitor.”
“At this hour?”
“Yes. They say they’ve come from the West District.”
Lee Ji-ryeong frowned.
That was because a figure from the West District was not someone he could ignore.
“Send him in.”
“Yes, sir.”
A moment later, the door opened and a man as sturdily built as Lee Ji-ryeong entered.
His appearance was clearly that of an ordinary human, yet for some reason he gave off a metallic impression.
Lee Ji-ryeong knew why the man gave him that feeling.
‘When a healthy body is replaced with machinery, of course it’ll feel metallic…’
Most of the Awakened of the West District replaced parts, or even the majority, of their own bodies with machinery.
Some walked around openly revealing their mechanical bodies, but most, like the man before him, disguised themselves to resemble a human body as much as possible.
The higher the rank of the Awakened, the less obvious their machinery became. But even so, they could not completely hide that metallic quality.
The same was true of the man before him.
That metallic texture felt especially strong from him.
The man greeted him first.
“It’s been a while, Captain Lee Ji-ryeong.”
“What business brings you here?”
Lee Ji-ryeong recognized the man’s identity immediately.
The man who had come unannounced in the middle of the night was none other than Cha Jin-cheol of the West District.
The look in Lee Ji-ryeong’s eyes as he regarded him was far from warm.
Looking at the documents spread across the desk, Cha Jin-cheol said, “Looks like you were working.”
“I still haven’t heard why you came.”
“Those are documents related to the dungeon you’re about to raid, aren’t they?”
“I asked why you came.”
“We’d like to participate in this dungeon raid as well.”
“The nerve!”
Lee Ji-ryeong’s expression turned cold.
This was a dungeon they had discovered themselves and drawn up plans to conquer.
They had poured in huge amounts of manpower and enormous funding.
Once the dungeon raid succeeded, it was certain to bring them an immense profit, and now the West District had come to stick its chopsticks into the pot, so naturally he had every reason to be angry.
“Who gave you the right to say you’ll participate?”
“Of course, we aren’t saying we’ll join for free. We’ll cover half the raid cost. Beyond that, we’ll also support transportation and supplies.”
“I refuse.”
“Even when Lord Kim Hyun-su has shown interest?”
At that instant, the corners of Lee Ji-ryeong’s eyes twitched.
Kim Hyun-su was the ruler of the West District.
Though Lee Ji-ryeong was publicly known as A-rank, in truth he possessed power close to S-rank. Even so, he could not dare ignore Kim Hyun-su.
Kim Hyun-su himself was an S-rank Awakened and also commanded numerous Awakened under him.
Among them were some whose power was not far below Lee Ji-ryeong’s.
Cha Jin-cheol was one of them.
He smiled and said, “I hope you won’t take offense too quickly. In exchange, we’ll divide the items excavated from the dungeon seven to three. Of course, your side takes seven, while we take three.”
“What about priority rights to the items?”
“That will have to be discussed.”
Cha Jin-cheol smiled a sly smile that did not suit him.
“Why did you come so late? When you proposed investment before, you refused.”
“Back then, we judged the probability of success to be low.”
“Then why come now?”
“Hasn’t the sand mage joined you?”
“Because of Zeon.”
Lee Ji-ryeong’s expression stiffened hard.
***
Dungeons were graded according to the difficulty of conquering them.
Like the Awakened, they were assigned ranks.
The problem was that the exact rank of a dungeon could not be known until one actually entered it.
No technology existed that could determine a dungeon’s rank from the outside.
The Awakened had to enter directly, proceed with the raid, and make the judgment themselves.
That was why the exact rank of a dungeon was usually only assigned after the raid was over. Even so, there was a means of roughly predicting a dungeon’s rank.
That was the level of mana flowing out from the dungeon’s entrance.
The higher the mana level, the higher the dungeon rank, and the greater the chance that the rewards would be good.
The dungeon discovered this time lay deep beneath the sand. Even so, it boasted an overwhelming mana level.
That made it highly likely to be a high-rank dungeon.
The Pegasus Raid Force was staking everything on conquering this newly discovered dungeon.
Every Awakened belonging to the Pegasus Raid Force had been mobilized.
The Pegasus Raid Force’s total personnel numbered three hundred.
More than one hundred of them were ordinary people.
They were responsible for support tasks such as administration, supply procurement, and planning the raid.
As a result, the number of Awakened actually deployed into the dungeon was around two hundred.
For an ordinary dungeon, that was more than enough. But this time, apparently they judged even that to be insufficient, and so they recruited mercenaries from outside.
That was why not only Neo Seoul but even the slums had grown noisy.
The Pegasus Raid Force was one of the most prominent raid forces in Neo Seoul.
This was the first time such a Pegasus Raid Force had ever recruited personnel from outside.
People were curious just how extraordinary this dungeon had to be for the Pegasus Raid Force to prepare this thoroughly.
Awakened unaffiliated with a particular district or guild volunteered as mercenaries. Among them were also Awakened from the slums.
Levin came into the house, shaking his head.
“Man, it’s so noisy I could die. Anywhere two or more people gather, all they talk about is the Pegasus Raid Force.”
“Humans really are…”
Brielle shook her head.
Previously, the White Bear Caravan had swallowed up every issue, and now the Pegasus Raid Force was devouring every issue like a black hole.
Levin asked Brielle, “Are you all done preparing?”
“Who knows? The Goblin Market’s goods got completely bought out.”
“Tch! Just as I thought. It’s the same elsewhere too.”
Dungeon raids required enormous quantities of supplies and items.
The Pegasus Raid Force had bought in anything that looked even a little useful. Even the Goblin Market had run dry of worthwhile goods.
Because of that, Brielle’s research had also been greatly hindered.
“Is your departure prep going smoothly?”
“Ah! Perfect timing.”
“Hm? What is?”
“Here, take this.”
To the puzzled Levin, Brielle tossed over a backpack that had been sitting beside her.
“A backpack? Why this?”
“Put your hand inside.”
“Hm?”
Though confused, Levin did as Brielle said and stuck a hand inside the backpack.
The sudden cold sensation touching his hand startled him.
“Ugh! What’s this?”
“Hehe! Scaredy-cat.”
“What is this?”
“Put your hand in again. Doesn’t something grab it?”
“Oh, oh! There is something.”
Levin pulled out the object his hand had caught inside the bag.
What he drew out was a large shovel.
“A shovel? No, more importantly, how did a shovel fit in here?”
Levin stared at the backpack in confusion.
At most, the backpack was about a meter long. But the shovel he had pulled out looked to be a full meter and a half long.
It was physically impossible.
“Could this be a subspace backpack?”
“Yeah! I barely succeeded yesterday.”
“That’s insane! You really made a subspace backpack?”
“It’s still only a basic-level one, though…”
“You’re incredible. Even in Neo Seoul, there are only a handful of people who can make items enchanted with subspace.”
Levin wore an expression of genuine admiration.
Items enchanted with subspace were not sold on the open market.
High-ranking Awakened or guilds preemptively claimed them. Because of that, Levin had never even seen an item enchanted with subspace.
“But you’re an alchemist, so how did you make subspace?”
“I just got lucky. If you told me to make it twice, I couldn’t.”
“Lucky?”
“Yeah. I kept trying this and that, and it just got made by accident.”
Brielle spoke honestly.
She was not a professional enchanter.
She could imitate them, but producing items with exactly the performance she wanted like a high-ranking enchanter was impossible for her.
“I’m giving this to Levin.”
“Really?”
Levin’s eyes widened.
An item enchanted with subspace could not be bought no matter how much money one had.
The fact that she was giving him something so precious without any conditions was deeply moving.
“Like I said before, the inside subspace isn’t all that big. It’s only about the size of one small room.”
“That’s more than enough. I can stuff in all the things I need for this expedition.”
“Yeah. You should mainly pack drinking water and food.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve already prepared everything, so all I have to do is put it in. Wow! Thanks to you, this expedition is going to be comfortable.”
Levin hugged the backpack as carefully as if it were treasure.
His face was full of happiness.
“Wait, this isn’t the time for me to be doing this.”
“Hm?”
“Didn’t I just receive a precious treasure? Shouldn’t I test it out? I’ll put everything I’ve prepared into the subspace backpack.”
Levin hurriedly ran into his room.
At that moment, Zeon came out of his room.
“Why’s he like that?”
“He’s happy because I gave him a subspace backpack.”
“The one you made yesterday?”
“Yeah.”
“So you gave it to Levin.”
“I couldn’t give it to Zeon. A backpack needs to go to the porter.”
“Pfft!”
Zeon burst out laughing.
Levin was deeply moved to receive such a precious item, but to Brielle he was nothing more and nothing less than the porter who would carry her annoying baggage.