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“The Last Wisp must be kept confidential, but the organization must be maintained as well. And so, if one becomes a member, whether as an official unit or trainee, they are allowed to bring one person in as a student. Of course, one would have to become a member first... But the problem goes away if you just falsely report their death later on.” Illyna went on to say that she was going to use the one and only chance she had on Davey.
Even an idiot would know how important this particular opportunity was. Of course, that wasn’t any of Davey’s business. Also, there was nothing stopping Davey now as his questions had all been answered. He took his magic pouch, which was filled with only the necessary tools, and grabbed a fist-sized cube from his office desk.
“That is?” Illyna asked.
“Megatron MK2.”
“What?”
“It’s the guardian golem you fought.”
Illyna stared at the cube in Davey’s hand in bewilderment, but soon nodded in understanding. Artifacts that had expansion or shrinking spells were commonly seen, after all.
“We have a lot to do. Let’s go right away since we have nothing else to prepare,” Davey said.
Illyna put her magic artifact on the ground and hesitantly put out her hand. “We’re going to use a transportation artifact, but we have to have at least some physical contact so that we don’t go to some random place.”
“Hm…”
Illyna coughed awkwardly as she grabbed Davey’s fingers. She was a little embarrassed. Then, she murmured the activation phrase, “Then… Crystal Warp, activate.”
Whoosh!!! The artifact Illyna used was a little different from a small mala gate; it was an artifact that transported the activator to a certain place regardless of the distance, but there was no way to know the exact details.
-It’s a system that can’t be tracked. It’s quite good.
They wouldn’t have to worry about someone following them if they used something like this.
As a wave of mana quickly spread and enveloped both Davey and Illyna, the surroundings changed completely with a bright light.
* * *
The first thing Davey saw after the bright light disappeared was an enormous forest. He commented, “Is the grass not able to grow because the trees are so tall?”
It wasn’t a disastrous forest that was as dense as a jungle, so he could still see what was ahead. However, the bushes and trees weren’t growing properly because of the giant trees over hundreds of meters tall that covered the sky.
“This is?” Davey asked Illyna.
“The Pandora Region, which is located in the northern part of the central continent. And this is the large northern forest in the central continent right underneath it.”
‘We flew quite a long distance at once, didn’t we?’
The Rowane Kingdom was a small kingdom between the Valchas and Lyndis Empire, two large countries that were near the Lahtma Mountains, which was the largest mountain range in the east. Davey could tell how effective Illyna’s magic artifact was from how they were able to teleport a distance that was much larger than the size of the Rowane Kingdom at once.
“It would take a month to get here on foot. It would take weeks by carriage, and it wouldn’t have been easy to get here by land since the area has a boundary around it,” Illyna explained.
Davey silently looked around the forest. The forest was quite dark because of the trees covering the sky, but there was still a faint blue light surrounding the place. It was perhaps because of the fluorescent grass.
“The Last Wisp that I am part of… So, the name of the secret knight order is Alpha Reinforcements. We usually detect and take care of dangers that come from the Pandora Region,” Illyna explained.
“Is the thing that you are looking for in the Pandora Region?” Davey asked.
Illyna bitterly smiled. “No. It’s that I will be able to go to different regions if I become an official knight of Alpha Reinforcements… I need that authority. There are places that even royalty cannot enter.”
Davey had no need to think about why Illyna was so desperately going after the authority and power to freely enter secret regions however she wanted.
-That child lost her mother to a vampire, Davey. She is probably desperate to find traces of them.
‘So is that why she would lose her cool as soon as she sees a vampire?’
The position of the queen was vacant in the Pallan Empire.
“I have to pass this test,” Illyna quietly mumbled as if she was motivating herself.
“I think we have to get rid of those first,” Davey said. However, it seemed like the enemies had no intention of waiting for Illyna to stop worrying. When Davey had felt their presence, the enemies began appearing one by one from the other side of the forest. Davey let out a light gasp after realizing what the enemies were. “Mutant wolves.”
Evil beasts could commonly be seen in other regions, but it was still difficult to see ones like that. Mutant wolves, which had strange tentacles on their bare, hairless bodies, were quite small, but had lethal poison on their teeth and claws. On top of that, they were also fast and agile. They weren’t an easy opponent for ordinary people, since they always inflicted fatal injuries.
“I’ll get rid…” Illyna spoke but was interrupted by Davey.
“Wait.”
‘How dare you try to take this experience away from me?’ Davey stopped Illyna, who put her hand on her brooch to activate Caldeiras, and put on a mask that covered half of his face. Then, he threw the cube on the ground. The reason why he was here and why he had accepted Illyna’s ridiculous request was right here: to collect combat data about rare opponents. So…
“The golem must be the focus in every battle!”
Illyna kept her silence while glancing at Davey with mixed emotions.
“Now, it’s your first battle.”
As soon as the cube fell onto the ground, it began growing larger with a bright light. Its shape was different from before, looking more like a weird-looking carriage. However, there was no sign of a device that would secure it to horses, and the shape itself was different from an ordinary carriage.
“What is that?” Illyna asked.
“What do you mean? It’s the dream of any craftsman. I’m thinking of adding the ability to fly in the future.”
“Seriously, I feel like all the knowledge I know is being overturned…”
As Davey lightly snapped his fingers, the large carriage slowly began transforming. Starting with the surface’s deformation, numerous parts started to activate. Clunk!! Clunk!! Then, with elaborate movements, an enormous metal giant began boasting its presence.
-The efficiency of the magic stone became much higher. The newly created magic circle definitely helped.
Thanks to finding its flaws after the battle with Illyna and fixing them, the current version of Megatron was much stronger than before. Davey couldn’t deny the fact that he had put a lot of effort into Megatron, since it was the first piece of work he and Perserque had collaborated on.
After its silver plates surrounded it, Megatron fully turned into a human-like form as soon as it twisted its waist. With shining blue eyes, it stood upright as if trying to overpower the mutant wolves. It was natural for beasts, normal or evil, to be wary about beings bigger than them.
-Grr…
Surprised by the metal giant’s sudden appearance, the mutant wolves backed away a little with a low growl.
“Let’s clean up, Megatron.”
[Waiting for a command].
“Activate annihilation mode. We move as we erase all the evil beasts in the attack range.”
[Command accepted. Target confirmed. Starting activation...]
A recorded deep voice came out from Megatron’s head once Davey gave it a command. Clunk!!! At the same time, the armor on both its arms began moving simultaneously and fixed its position. It held a large shield that was enchanted with a 3rd circle [Hard Shield] in one hand and a horrifying object popped out of its other hand.
Buzz! Whirrr!!!! The life drained out of Illyna’s face as the terrifying gears began spinning fast. She stammered, “W—What’s that…”
Clunk!! Boom!!!! With its heavy weight, Megatron began stomping around the surroundings. Like a large tin can, it roamed around.
* * *
Vrrrr!!!
[Activation of main weapon complete. Quickly annihilating the enemy.]
Megatron was cutting up the mutant wolves in a frenzy. No, to be more accurate, it was ripping them apart. The armor, which was enchanted with a shield spell, was blocking the wolves’ attacks, and the chainsaw on its other hand was shredding every one of them into pieces.
Flustered by Megatron’s destructive attacks, the mutant wolves were backing away. Unfortunately for them, their retreat was meaningless, because a staff embedded with a mini magic stone would pop out from Megatron’s wrist armor and shoot a light purple ray of energy to burn them to a crisp as soon as they tried to get away.
Megatron wasn’t very strong, but it was very efficient in guarding and ranged attacks because the lethality was quite high.
“What…did you do in the two weeks that…” Illyna muttered
“Hm, the electric chainsaw lives up to its name. It’s a great method of communication.” Davey called it an electric chainsaw even though it was actually mana.
“Do you intend to communicate in the first place?!”
“Look at them whining and begging for mercy!” Davey shouted sternly.
Illyna looked horrified. She mumbled as she was at a loss for words. “You’re crazy…”
Most mana stones could not handle Megatron’s output since it required a large amount of mana; however, considering the limit of its fuel tank—the biggest advantage of Megatron—was immensely high, this couldn’t really be thought of as a waste.
Illyna could really feel that the golem’s combat power had become about twenty to thirty percent more threatening than when it had battled with her.
If the wolves rushed toward Megatron and blocked its shield, it would unhesitantly throw away its shield and pull out another electric chainsaw. It would drop and roll onto the floor, then shake away any mutant wolves that were on its body and rip those that were within its reach… Megatron was just a reckless berserker as it attacked the mutant wolves. Furthermore, the mutant wolves were at a huge disadvantage against the golem, which was immune to poison.
The mutant wolf’s strongest advantage was its deadly poison, which was responsible for the damage of its attacks. However, the outcome was so predictable since their opponent was a lifeless tin can.
Preoccupied with Megatron, Illyna couldn’t take her eyes off it. She watched it violently swing its electric saw; because of that, she didn’t notice a mutant wolf cautiously approaching her. As such, it charged toward her daringly…
But it was smashed to the ground by Davey’s hand. Crack!! The mutant wolf fell to the ground in silence. Its skull was crushed by a strong force.
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“Oh…” Illyna said.
“Don’t space out and follow me. Someone’s going to have to lead the way.”
A look of shock began surfacing on Illyna’s face. Davey didn’t read her thoughts, but he could guess her thoughts just from her expression alone.
“Is it going to be okay to just leave it… No, to just leave that destruction weapon to evolve…”
“I told you, it’s fine.”
“Maybe.”