Hermit Wizard

Wizard’s Name (4)

Carraderina regained its coolness. It didn’t know where he was hiding, but its opponent’s Mana wasn’t detected. It was clear that the Reclusive Soul was sending that message himself, or at least someone who had something to do with him.

It upgraded its appraisal of the Reclusive Soul in her mind. It knew that the Truth-Seeker favored him. However, no matter how excellent he was, Carraderina had expected that his power and magic were still below her magic. The life span of a human who hasn’t crossed the wall was obvious.

Unable to locate its opponent, Carraderina spread her consciousness throughout the house.

=Are you the Reclusive Soul? I heard that you are a man who couldn’t cross the wall, but I didn’t know you would be a wizard with this much power.=

That alien couldn’t feel the opponent’s Mana at all. The magic traces that controlled the insects had to reach that place, even if the subject that triggered it was hiding in another continent. It didn’t matter how far the wizard himself was. The place where the insects were moving was right there.

Knowing that its opponent’s way of sending messages wasn’t based on magic, Carraderina was nervous, guessing that the Reclusive Soul’s power as a wizard would far exceed itself.

The bugs danced and scattered in the air. Suddenly, they made another string.

-How did you get to know the information about the Reclusive Soul?

Being wary of the opponent’s power, Carraderina replied honestly.

=I am an ascetic. As you know, there is a way for Truth-Seekers to communicate with each other across dimensional barriers. The Truth-Seeker I serve has heard the story of you through another Truth-Seeker.=

The worm reconstructed the string at high speed.

-What is the name of the Truth-Seeker of that dimension?

Carraderina answered the name that remained in its memory.

=It said its name was the ‘Song of Chaos’.=

***

“Ah, shit, this chatty Truth-Seeker. Please, shut that mouth, please!”

With the heat rising to my head, I almost threw the artifact I was holding.

“Doesn’t the Truth-Seeker want to be a god? Is it so easy to be a god? I don’t know what that guy does with souls, but anyway, doesn’t it do any practice or training? It should have prepared or worked hard to become a god, but why is it always making this shit by gossiping with other dimensions’ Truth-Seekers? When will it be happy about it? Stop doing silly things and get the souls out of the Earth harder. Ah, please. Shit.”

I spoke with a huff of wild breath.

“It’s already the second time!”

The first time, Eraser came to that world and wandered in search of me because of the information shed by Truth-Seeker of Silver Forest, the ‘Song of Chaos.’ Eraser knew my existence by trading information with the Truth-Seeker of the world he belonged to.

That time again, it was a repetition of a similar incident. A Truth-Seeker beyond the Busan Channel who noticed my existence sent an ascetic to find me.

[… It will not be a protest to Silver Forest’s Truth-Seeker, but I think you should ask it a favor. You’d better go to that dimension soon.]

Parvache sent an anxious thought next to me. The will of the alien flowed into my mind.

=Contractor, what should I answer? It is asking again if you are the Reclusive Soul.=

It was a huge Shockmeem sitting in front of me that sent the telepathy. It was the entity I summoned that time. It had a shape that closely resembled the thousands of bugs flying in front of Carraderina, but the size was so huge that it was hard to compare. It was similar to the hippopotamus I saw at the zoo before.

Currently, that place was my living room. There was no way to trace back to that place, as my Mana wasn’t involved in the place where Carraderina was located. Even if that alien became crazy and scanned a range of tens of kilometers around, there was no trace left to identify me.

“… Don’t answer that question. Just ask again. What is its reason for seeking the ‘Reclusive Soul’?”

Parvache, who heard me, transformed it into a character used in the world of Carraderina and conveyed it as a will. After the Shockmeem recognized the telepathy sent by Parvache, it erupted a unique pheromone that we couldn’t feel.

That entity I summoned was a male Shockmeem, and as you could guess from its huge body, it had lived for quite some time and had a reason. It was currently receiving my Mana through artifacts in my hand. In return, it used the peculiar abilities of its race to recognize the existence and movement of females in distant places and controlled them by erupting pheromones.

That pheromone was one of the reasons for choosing Shockmeem as a means of delivering messages. Even if the Shockmeems were released hundreds of kilometers away, they could immediately recognize the pheromones of the male sex.

It was called pheromone, not substances that slowly floated in the form of molecules in the atmosphere. However, when applying that world’s physical laws, it seemed to show a kind of motion close to radio waves. The ability developed because there were too few males than the number of females, and the world inhabited was too vast.

=Okay, I will deliver it exactly like that.=

My question was conveyed. Thousands of females danced in courtship under the male’s guidance, and Carraderina, who recognized the movement in its language, answered with the will. The females, who felt it in the form of brain waves, responded to the male by emitting pheromones.

At a distance of several tens of kilometers from them, the male turned to me. Carraderina’s answer was delivered to me through the female Shockmeems and the telepathy of the male Shockmeem.

=I will deliver the words of the Truth-Seeker. Reclusive Soul, we would like to invite you to our dimension.=

“…”

There was a pause due to the unexpected answer.

“… What?”

I felt a deep irritation and headache coming up together. Oh, what kind of nonsense was that?

[… Ah, really…]

Parvache also exuded a sigh of resentment in his mind.

[I thought the death of the Dragon completely cut off your relationship with the Truth-Seeker, and I don’t know what fate this is, why there are so many Truth-Seeker who are interested in you, Min-joon?]

I spat it out bluntly.

“I don’t know. Oh, really, this dirty bastard.”

In the meantime, the strong will of the male Shockmeem I summoned stimulated my mind without notice.

=Contractor, the Mana that is delivered to me is decreasing. =

It looked like I lost my concentration in confusion. I again injected Mana into the artifact in my hand. The price of the contract to be given to Shockmeem was simple. It just wanted a huge Mana with high purity. It was faithful to the desire to produce more semen by using it as a nutrient.

That male Shockmeem was unusually long-lived and said that one in five of its people in their world had inherited its genes, either directly or indirectly. Nevertheless, the desire to spread the seeds seemed endless.

“We can’t stop talking here, can we?”

I wanted to tell Carraderina to shut it off because I simply wouldn’t do that. Was it inviting me to that dimension? It was nonsense. Did it think I would believe that?

I doubt the intention, but even if my safety was guaranteed, I couldn’t afford it. For now, it was urgent to find the Dragon’s soul and explore the dimension beyond the Shanghai Channel.

[You still have to figure out its intentions.]

Upon hearing Parvache’s answer, I nodded.

“Ask the reason for the invitation.”

Carriderina’s answer to my question via Parvache, male Shockmem, and female Shockmeems was, as expected, out of my expectations.

=The Truth-Seeker is extremely interested in this world. =

It seemed that Carraderina was convinced that the person who delivered that message was me.

=Reclusive Soul, the Truth-Seeker I serve, intends to explore the traces of those who originally had jurisdiction over this world. It wants to know what he had been doing in this dimension.=

It wanted to know what the Dragon who ruled the Earth had been doing?

Carraderina’s words continued through the Shockmeems.

=The fact that Channel is left on your chest is self-evident. It means that you mean a lot to the Truth-Seeker. My master judged you to be the most obvious clue left in this world.=

I spat out a curse quietly. After all, it meant that it wanted to get information about the Dragon through me.

Yeah, the reason why the Dragon planted a Seed on my chest shouldn’t be boring. However, it was certainly not something I would welcome that Truth-Seekers from other worlds would study me.

“Why are you interested in a Truth-Seekers who is already dead?”

Carraderina seemed unaware that the ascetics of the Earth were seeking the resurrection of the Dragon. How would it react if it knew about it? It was difficult to predict since the other being’s intention was unknown.

=My master has a question. It is suspected that the dimensional barrier created by the Truth-Seeker who had jurisdiction over this world, the “Black Hermit,”… was more powerful than necessary in his life.=

What?

=The original purpose of the dimensional barrier is clear. It was preventing another dimension’s Truth-Seeker from breaking through the Channel. Since he was the one who didn’t need to take the soul from another dimension anyway, he gave up attacking and built a barrier focused solely on defense. That’s understandable so far.=

“Didn’t need to take the soul? Why?”

The answer to that question came back a bit late.

=Of course, because this world is a blessing to Truth-seeker. When the world is created, the soul already exists there. However, the absolute number can be large or small, depending on the dimension. I heard that this world is a world with an extremely large number of souls. Among them are the souls, which are the native people of this world.=

I nodded as I recalled the population of the Earth. Well, seven billion was a lot. The reason why the population could increase that much was supported by environmental conditions such as science and technology. Still, it seemed that it was also because many souls could be conceived in the body.

=However, the dimensional barrier created by the Black Hermit did not simply prevent the creation of Channels. It was a powerful barrier that made even the observation of this world difficult. There would have been a price to keep it. What is the reason he tried to hide within the barrier while avoiding the eyes of Gods even though he had to bear that kind of thing?=

Carraderina threw an unexpected word.

=It seems that his actions have left this world largely unaffected by God. Some Gods succeeded in sending apostles, but they rarely increased. While the Black Hermit was alive, he quarantined his dimension so thoroughly. My master is curious about what else the Truth-Seeker might have been planning to become a God even if he uses only the souls that already exist in the world.=

You could become a God by using only the soul that already existed?

Paying attention to the meaning of those words, I asked back.

“Do you mean seven billion souls of the natives are enough to become a God? =

Once again, unexpected answers came back.

=Seven billion? What do you mean?=

“… Don’t you know? About seven billion human beings are living in this world.”

Across a few bridges, Carraderina’s words continued.

=I heard that the number of souls of natives in this world is incomparable to the number of natives who live their lives.=

I had never recognized the ring of reincarnation with my own senses. Among Yusu’s race, those called the elders said that although they could see the concentration of souls far away, they couldn’t count the number of souls.

What Carraderina said currently was that more souls couldn’t acquire human life than the souls who had. So, some of the souls had to wait for the order to be born as humans? Or were they downgraded to be born as animals? Except for sub-soulless creatures, how many tens of billions in total?

However, my prediction was so naive. I had no choice but to lose my words when Carraderina responded.

=Indeed… In this young world, the souls of over 50 trillion natives are overwhelming. No matter how prosperous civilization is, it is the number of souls that can’t be handled. Perhaps there will be no time when the number of human beings who survive in the same era exceeds 50 trillion until the end of the world. That’s why my master has questions. Why are there so many souls in this world? What the Black Hermit was doing with such souls in this fertile land while avoiding the eyes of Gods…=