Chapter 34

“Was the magic contained in the necklace not a large-scale transfer magic?”

“Huh?”

Ruppel reacted with a puzzled expression to my question.

He furrowed his brow slightly, staring intently into my eyes as if trying to analyze why such words came out of my mouth.

After a moment.

He then laughed cheerfully, as if he had deduced the answer.

“It's certainly understandable to make such a mistake. Unfortunately, this necklace's true ability is to draw out the hidden potential of a target. And my mother's specialty was transfer magic.”

“Huh…”

“Oh, and by the way, I don’t know how to use transfer magic.”

“Ha…”

What was this?

My prediction was completely wrong.

Well, I had no one to blame since I was guessing wildly and getting disappointed on my own, but I couldn't help but feel my energy drain away.

Regardless, Ruppel was still grinning annoyingly.

“First, I’d like to ask for my commander’s permission, apologizing in advance… Given the situation, it’s probably better to just do it and apologize later.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm? Well, naturally, a mage from another country arbitrarily… Oh, is there nothing like that in the kingdom? Then that’s a relief. It’s actually quite bothersome to formally apologize to a foreign mage.”

Lupel Diev stood before me, holding the memento in his left hand and extending his right hand.

Seeing no ill intent, I remained still without evading.

As I watched his hand approach, a familiar feeling struck me, as if I had seen this action somewhere before.

His index finger touched my forehead.

Whoosh!

A massive amount of magic power erupted from the memento.

Only now did I realize what he was trying to do, and I was startled.

“Are you trying to bestow the magic power in the memento upon me?”

“Wouldn’t that be the right thing to do? The true power of this necklace is to bring out the hidden potential of a target. It would be great to use it on myself, but I’m far from a genius; I’m not even mediocre. There’s no way I have any potential.”

“And I am any different?”

“You are.”

Ruppel said with conviction.

I couldn’t help but close my mouth at his unwavering certainty, devoid of even a hint of hesitation.

What did he know about my talent that I didn’t, to be able to state it so definitively?

A massive amount of magic power flowed in.

Come to think of it, unlike before, I couldn't confirm the amount of magic power in the necklace with my Dragon's Eye.

I didn't know exactly how much magic power it contained, but to exaggerate, it was enough to make me lose my senses.

No, my consciousness was actually fading little by little.

Does this kind of phenomenon normally occur when a large amount of magic power flows in all at once?

There were no cases of Odin’s soldiers losing consciousness while being injected with magic power…

Something was strange…

……

* * *

“…You’ve finally arrived. Still, you were quite fast. I thought it would take at least a year.”

A voice was heard amidst the I wondered if it was arkening world.

Ruppel, but listening closely, the tone was different.

Unlike him, who seemed somewhat naive and unlike an Archmage, this low, heavy voice carried a majesty worthy of a king of a nation.

That voice forcibly dragged my consciousness, which had been floundering in shallow water, to the surface.

I opened my eyes.

A strange sky was visible.

The left side was white.

The right side was black.

It was a bizarre sky, as if two forces were constantly pushing and pulling, engaged in a territorial dispute.

My body, which had felt as heavy as if a large stone was placed on it, became light.

I barely managed to get up and surveyed my surroundings.

The barren place, with nothing in it, was strangely intertwined with white and black, just like the sky, without mixing.

I looked straight ahead.

There were two men.

A man with white hair and blue eyes.

A man with black hair and red eyes.

Their eyes were directed at me.

I couldn't say anything.

Because, except for the color of their eyes and hair, their appearance was completely identical to ‘Ryan Kaltz’ without a single flaw.

My breath caught, wondering what on earth I was seeing.

“How should I put it?”

The white Ryan Kaltz spoke first.

Fortunately, his voice was different from Ryan Kaltz's.

It was a slightly higher tone that made the listener feel comfortable.

He sat on a black, box-shaped stone, resting his chin in his hand, lost in thought.

His posture was exactly the same as the one I habitually assumed when deep in contemplation, without a single discrepancy.

“This is probably the correct way to express it. This is your mindscape… Yes. Let’s define it as that. Although the nature is different, no other word comes to mind.”

“It was so obvious that it never occurred to me to give it a name.”

The black Ryan Kaltz interjected.

With a lower, harsher voice than Ryan Kaltz, he sat on a white box, staring at me with a somewhat condescending gaze.

I pondered.

What should I do in this bewildering situation, what questions should I ask?

The question I finally managed to utter after much deliberation was:

“What are you?”

It was a question so devoid of creativity that the time spent agonizing over it felt wasted.

To be honest, my curiosity about their identities vastly outweighed my curiosity about this place, which is why I asked it.

At my question, the black Ryan Kaltz burst into laughter.

My brow furrowed instinctively at the sound of his laughter, which was so contemptuous it felt unpleasant.

He did not answer the question.

Instead, he merely said what he wanted to say.

“Are you making good use of the eyes I gave you?”

“…Eyes?”

My hand involuntarily moved towards my eyes.

A subtle pain.

The Dragon's Eye, used to confirm Lupel Diev's restored memento, was still active.

Dragon's Eye.

The Eye of the Dragon.

The black Ryan Kaltz stated that he had given me those eyes.

If that were true, his identity would be…

“You don’t have to think too deeply.”

The white Ryan Kaltz broke my reverie.

His blue eyes stared at me as if they would pierce through me.

“Whatever we say now will only cause you confusion. In that case, it would be better to say less. After all, whether you wish it or not, you will reach the truth.”

“…Hmph.”

The black Ryan Kaltz snorted and turned his back.

Conversely, the white Ryan Kaltz approached me.

When we faced each other up close, not only our appearances but also our eye levels perfectly matched.

He extended his hand towards me.

Something glowing pure white blossomed like a flower in his hand.

“This, too, should originally have been yours. I will return it to you.”

“Return it?”

“Yes. It will surely be necessary to overcome your current situation.”

The white Ryan Kaltz smiled.

As if trust had formed from that smile, which was a crystallization of purity, I involuntarily reached out my hand.

The moment I touched the flower that blossomed in his hand.

The world was dyed white.

* * *

“Ryan Kaltz! Come to your senses!”

My body was violently shaken, accompanied by an urgent voice.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the familiar ceiling of the ruins.

Turning my gaze slightly to the side, I saw Lupel Diev’s face, sweating profusely with an extremely anxious expression.

In his hand was the necklace, which had just been restored but now had an even larger crack in its center than before.

Nowhere were the white and black doppelgängers of Ryan Kaltz to be seen.

‘Was it a dream?’

Perhaps I saw hallucinations due to the side effects of magic.

Or perhaps something beyond my understanding had occurred.

Whatever it was, the information was too insufficient to draw any hasty conclusions.

More importantly, it wasn't an urgent matter that needed to be resolved immediately.

If an opportunity arose later, I could investigate it slowly.

“I’m fine.”

As I got up, Ruppel let out a deep sigh of relief, and as if his legs had given out, he slumped to the ground.

“I was surprised when you suddenly lost consciousness. Does this kind of phenomenon usually occur when magic power is granted? Or am I an inadequate mage? Or was the method I learned wrong? A thousand thoughts swirled in my mind, making me dizzy.”

“…I don’t know either, but it wasn’t a normal phenomenon.”

At least, such a phenomenon did not occur when Viscount Lemming, who was already dead, and Selina, my second commander, bestowed magic power.

The same was true for the other members of Unit 917.

“Perhaps that potential ability, or whatever it is. That might be the cause.”

If so, those two people I saw earlier might be related to my… or Ryan Kaltz’s potential ability.

Anyway, what was important now was that.

How much had I grown?

And whether that growth was enough to withstand Baltar of Odin.

I had to check that.

I called up the system through my Dragon's Eye.

Name: Ryan Kaltz.

Level: 2

Attribute: Martial.

Strength: 16 Agility: 15

Mentality: 22 Endurance: 17

Dexterity: 15 Resistance: 7

Magic Power: 0+33

Potential: Unknown.

Cultivation possible

Details

Possessed Powers: Dragon's Eye, High-Speed Regeneration, Poison Resistance Lv1.

“…Crazy.”

It seems that when a person is too surprised, a curse word comes out first.

The memento of Maria Diev that Ruppel and I restored contained an enormous amount of magic power.

Particularly noteworthy were the level and powers.

A massive amount of magic power, which one could not even dream of seeing in Stage 1, flowed in and strengthened my body, ultimately raising my level to 2.

Balta's level was 3.

Between Level 1 and Level 3, there exists an insurmountable gap, no matter how much effort is made.

But at Level 2, the word "impossible" can be replaced with "possibility."

Not only that.

It wasn't just a simple amplification of abilities; a new power was added.

High-Speed Regeneration.

It was quite a good ability.

It allowed wounds to heal noticeably quickly, and even restored blood lost during combat, making one feel much more secure when possessed.

Of course, High-Speed Regeneration doesn't increase defense or amplify attack power.

However, the increased combat sustainability is an advantage that cannot be ignored.

It shines particularly brightly when fighting opponents who are evenly matched or stronger than oneself.

The biggest reason I liked High-Speed Regeneration was that it was an extremely rare power, hard to find anywhere.

Even I, who had cultivated countless heroes through Odin, had only awakened High-Speed Regeneration once, and when I collected information from other players, no one had awakened High-Speed Regeneration.

Of course, I hadn't collected information on all players.

But at least within the scope of my knowledge, there was only one hero with the power of High-Speed Regeneration.

My player character.

He was the unique hero with the power of High-Speed Regeneration.

“…No way. It must be a coincidence.”

And one more thing.

High-Speed Regeneration hides a secret.

A huge secret that might instantly resolve the current predicament I was in.