'You can close it?'
I instinctively blurted out in disbelief.
But Seir, ever calm and collected, whispered again in the sa gentle tone.
[Yes. It’s not difficult.]
I already knew that Seir had control over space-related powers. The Blink ability was a clear example of that.
However, teleportation and closing a hidden path seed like two completely different realms of magic, didn’t they?
But to Seir, it didn’t seem that way.
[You just need to apply a bit of La Traviata.]
Ah… so he still hasn’t given up on that, huh?
Co to think of it, he had also co up with so odd naming convention for Smite. What was it again? La vida breve? It ant “short life” and was supposed to be a work of paradoxical genius. I rember him passionately arguing for it, but it never caught on, thanks to being outvoted two-to-one. His grand proclamation ended in futility.
Seir, still adamant about his naming sches, explained the simple chanics behind closing the hidden path.
Blink, which Seir had nad La Traviata (The Wandering Woman), is a short-range spatial teleportation spell based on my sensory system, which determines the target location.
A true master of spatial magic would use a mana formula to pinpoint the coordinates, but I relied on the spell frawork Seir had engraved into my brainstem. In simple terms, while most mages create their own spells by experinting and fine-tuning the “recipe,” I’m more like soone using a pre-made al—just heating it up. A standardized spell could be likened to a recipe created by other mages.
Thus, Blink was completely reliant on my senses. Before, I could only teleport to places I could physically see, as my sense of spatial awareness was limited. It wasn’t until I expanded my mana detection through the Axis ability that I could broaden my spatial perception and overco that limitation.
Even so, being able to close a hidden path? It seed a little far-fetched.
And more than anything, if it was possible, why hadn’t Seir ntioned this back when we first encountered a hidden path?
[That’s because my awareness is tied to the level of the contractor.]
So, he hadn’t fully understood the nature of the hidden path back then due to the limits of what I could perceive?
Had it taken Viola’s aura sealing off the path or Hernando’s barrier preparation for him to finally comprehend its nature?
[Exactly. You catch on quickly, contractor.]
Was that… praise?
It kind of felt like I was being told, “You’re not physically strong, but at least you’re smart.”
[That hidden path is essentially a coordinate link.]
"A coordinate link?"
Hernando paused his barrier work and looked over at when he heard my mumbling.
"Doing a bit of studying? This isn’t sothing easy to grasp. You seem interested in barrier magic?"
"Ah, no."
As I waved him off to dispel his interest, Seir continued his explanation.
[It’s different from a gate. A gate is a passageway that has randomness at the transfer points. But this hidden path has fixed coordinates. It’s locked to a specific point.]
"So, it’s similar to Blink?" I asked.
[Please call it La Traviata.]
Seir might just be a demon of opera.
"Yes, La Traviata."
[Good. Now, to close the hidden path, we just need to disrupt the coordinates. Once the frawork of the path collapses, it will close on its own.]
"…Can we really do that?"
Sure, we could alter coordinates. But how could I apply that to the hidden path?
[You just need to do it like this.]
Although Seir only spoke in words, I could almost picture him pointing toward Hernando’s half-finished barrier.
I suddenly understood why he hadn’t ntioned closing the hidden path before—Viola and Hernando had just demonstrated how they could influence it with their own power.
"Roman? Are you okay?"
"Huh?"
"You seed out of it for a second."
"Ah, it’s nothing."
"Really, what’s on your mind?"
"It’s just…."
I leaned in and whispered to Ray and Leif, subtly gesturing toward the hidden path.
"I think I can close that."
"What?"
"R-Ray! Keep your voice down!"
Leif, you’re just as loud as she is.
Leif’s outburst startled even , drawing the attention of everyone around us. I quickly brushed it off as idle chatter between us and led the two of them to a more secluded corner.
Viola’s gaze was sharp—too sharp. Hopefully, she hadn’t overheard.
I had already mastered the art of dispersing sound with mana fields, but a Pioneer’s abilities could easily ignore such asures.
'Looks like I’ll have to actually learn barrier magic soday.'
Barrier magic was considered general-purpose magic, but it was complex enough to be its own class. Out of all my peers, only Holson was particularly adept at it.
"So, what are you going to do?" Ray asked.
"I’m still figuring that out."
"Maybe you should just close it quietly after everything’s done? It doesn’t feel right leaving it open when you can shut it."
She had a point.
"But they’ll probably notice. Even if Hernando doesn’t catch on, Viola definitely will."
I shared the sa concern.
I’d gone through so much trouble to keep my spatial magic a secret. Even Arthur, out of loyalty, hadn’t ntioned it to his master. It didn’t seem right to suddenly reveal it now, like, "Hey, I can use spatial magic!"
"Just leave it. Hernando’s going to seal it up with a barrier and collapse the ceiling anyway. It’ll be as good as closed."
Rationally speaking, that was true. But emotions don’t always follow logic.
I wasn’t looking for praise or admiration.
But I was still a mage, after all.
I didn’t want to miss out on a chance to grow. While closing the path wouldn’t lead to any imdiate breakthroughs, it would certainly be another step toward advancing my skills.
"Hey, hooded ones."
As I wrestled with my internal conflict, Viola’s voice pierced the air.
We all froze.
'She heard us.'
§
The temporary team na, the "Hoodies Trio," approached slowly, their eyes darting around, while Viola was lost in thought.
'Did I hear that wrong?'
With over 20 years in the exploration life, Viola had obtained her official explorer license at the re age of 15. At 16, she beca a star after rescuing stranded comrades from the top-tier predator in the man-eating symbiotic forest and reached the Master rank by 20.
By the ti she was nearing 30, she had reached the pinnacle of being a Pioneer, and she had never once doubted her senses. Even in the man-eating symbiotic forest, known for deceiving and leading explorers to their doom, Viola’s senses remained razor-sharp.
Even in the depths where perception was said to be completely impaired, she walked without the need for any ntal defense artifacts or spells—just her bare self. And she was perfectly fine with that.
Viola referred to her innate ability as Dark Listening. It was a natural talent she had possessed since birth. That extraordinary sense could easily be considered a form of mystique.
Roman’s sound-dispersion technique had been impressively clean. For a novice explorer who had just begun to learn magic, it was exceptional enough that one could even applaud him for it. In terms of mana handling alone, he would comfortably exceed the Regular rank and likely place among the top tier of Seniors.
However, Viola’s Dark Listening was so refined that even a Master-level explorer would fail to hide anything from her.
The sheer absurdity of what she had overheard led Viola to question whether she had truly heard correctly for the first ti in her life.
'I’ll have to confirm it.'
Standing at an imposing height of 190 cm, Viola looked down at the three people before her, as if they were cattle being led to the slaughterhouse, and parted her lips.
"Show ."
"What do you an?"
"Hey, Crawler."
Cutting off Roman’s words, Viola called out to Hernando.
"Why are you calling ? I need to focus, so don’t interfere…."
"That’s enough. Stop what you’re doing and co out. We’re going to collapse the ceiling, so take the kids with you."
"Hah! You’ve really gone rusty. At this rate, you’ll get buried along with the barrier."
"I understand."
Viola shooed out Arthur and Dana all at once, then turned her gaze back to Roman, as if to say, Is that enough?
"I heard everything. There’s nothing I can do about it, but it’s best to be cautious around a Master-level explorer."
"…Yes."
"Don’t worry. I won’t go spreading this around. I won’t repay the one who saved my student with animosity."
"You knew?"
"Of course. It’s obvious. The ones with massive egos are clustering around you like flies. I had a hunch that you were at the center of sothing, even if I didn’t know what."
Not just Viola, but anyone with half a brain in this field probably had a rough idea.
'I always wondered why the Archduke’s family, the governnt, and the Union all kept quiet. Did they know nothing?'
If they had discovered the true identity he was hiding, they would never have let it go.
"I didn’t expect it to be spatial magic, though."
Who could have imagined it?
That a novice explorer, just starting out, was already grasping one of the three impossible elents of magic.
"Are you going to do it?"
"Yeah."
Roman approached the hidden path with a sowhat awkward feeling, relieved that the situation had resolved smoothly.
'Seir, please support .'
[Think of applying La Traviata externally, not just to yourself. Let’s utilize the barrier you laid down as well.]
[Pour my mana into the barrier, using it as a thod of erosion.]
Since I couldn’t directly use barrier magic now, I would erode and repurpose the barrier that Hernando had partially constructed.
By using Seir’s mana to misalign the coordinates and Leraege’s mana to erode the contaminated coordinate values, I proceeded.
Then—
Wheeeeee—bang!
The hidden path twisted and distorted, causing the space around it to shimr like a mirage before suddenly vanishing.
It was closed.
For the first ti since the Abyss appeared.
Soone had intentionally closed a hidden path.
"…This is insane."
Watching Roman, who seed bewildered and unsure of what he had just done, Viola murmured to herself.
'If they find out, he’ll definitely beco a target to eliminate.'
The Doomsday Cult.
They had been running rampant, using their ability to create hidden paths at will.
But if they discovered that their most powerful weapon could be neutralized, their next steps would be quite clear.
However, stopping there didn’t suit Viola’s temperant.
"Roman, let’s see if we can trace that hidden path next."
§
"Huh?"
The man squinted at a strange sensation.
It was an important mont, and yet there was an interruption.
"What’s the matter?" he asked.
At his student’s inquiry, the man waved his hand dismissively. The blade-like wind that followed his gesture brushed past the student’s lips.
It was an unnecessary question. A punishnt for asking sothing forbidden.
Even though it was an action that outrageously violated common sense, both the man and the student accepted it as entirely normal.
"…Enough. Viola, so you weren’t just idly waiting. We need to be more cautious."
Whatever had occurred, I could always verify it later.
For now, the task at hand was a priority.
"Use it well. It’s not an easy material to obtain."
"Yes, Professor."
The student resud the task he had been working on before, with a corpse lying before them.
It was the corpse of the explorer known as Grant Dexter.
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