An abandoned residential area on Underground Level 15.
He had heard it was once a workers' dormitory long ago, but now it was an area with no nameplates, no management records, and where no one would ever come looking if someone died. In other words, a den of criminals.
In that place lived Laden, a 1st-Rank Magician in hiding.
Even after being expelled from the upper levels, he could never bring himself to abandon the title of Magician. Even though his registration had been revoked because he failed to pay his procedure fees, his ACU output had dropped to less than half, and he had been reduced to throwing his weight around only among the criminals of the Underground Level.
Still, a Magician was a Magician. At least, that was what Laden believed. Or rather, what he wanted to believe.
"Be quiet."
He reached out toward the man before him.
The worn-out ACU implanted inside his neck burned hot, and blue light spread across the tips of his fingers.
"I told you this is all the money I have! I swear!"
The man held out the metal credits he had, sobbing.
But Laden merely scoffed at the sight.
"Then cough up an organ to sell."
"Please..."
Laden lightly constricted the man's neck with magic. It was only meant to intimidate, nothing grand.
1st-Rank Telekinesis Auxiliary Formula.
It was a crude formula incapable of lifting heavy objects, forcing open thick iron doors, or being of any real use in actual combat, but it was more than enough to threaten a lower-class commoner who knew nothing of magic. Against a terrified target, it was even more effective.
He could make a living doing just this.
Extort, threaten, and sell off.
That was how Laden had eked out an existence day by day on the Underground Level.
All while waiting for the day he would return to the upper levels.
It was then.
Bzzzt.
The Magic Lamp on the ceiling flickered. Laden looked up at the Magic Lamp and grimaced in annoyance.
"Fuck... of all times, now?"
Bzzzt, bzzzt.
The light blinked off and on twice more.
"Damn it."
It happened several times a day, so it was hardly unusual. In fact, it was a wonder that the lights worked at all on the Underground Level.
Yet something felt strange this time.
An eerie sense of pressure made Laden frown.
"What the..."
The next moment, the light died completely.
Bzzzt.
And when it flickered back on.
A young man with black hair and black eyes stood before him.
"Eeeek!"
Startled by his sudden appearance, Laden shrieked and scrambled backward.
The man who was being strangled collapsed to the floor in the opening, but Laden paid him no heed. He had no idea how long the young man before him had been standing there.
There had been no footsteps, and barely any trace of mana.
"W-Who the hell are you!"
Without answering, the young man simply observed Laden as if analyzing him.
"Where did this bastard crawl out from...?"
Laden gritted his teeth.
It did not take long for fear to turn into rage.
'I don't know who this bastard is, but he's no Magician. In that case...'
The ACU implanted beneath the nape of his neck burned hot.
Blue light surged from the nape of his neck to his shoulders, and from his shoulders into his arms and legs. His heart pounded as if it would burst, vigor coursing through every muscle in his body.
1st-Rank Body Reinforcement.
For a Magician, it was merely an auxiliary formula, but against an unarmed human on the Underground Level, it was more than enough.
Laden kicked off the ground, lunged at the young man, and swung his fist with all his might.
"Die!"
Then, the young man took just a single step.
As Laden's fist sliced through empty air, his wrist was bent back, and a surge of agony tore into the inside of his elbow.
"Urgh...!"
As Laden pitched forward, the young man grabbed his shoulder and twisted it downward.
Thud!
Laden's face slammed into the floor. His reinforced body dented the worn floor panels, but that was all. Laden couldn't even comprehend what had just happened.
"Keugh...!"
As he struggled, the ACU flared hot once again. Laden tried to use Body Reinforcement to push himself up one more time, but—
At that moment, the young man's fingers dug beneath the nape of Laden's neck and ripped something out.
"Aargh...!"
The young man watched him and murmured to himself.
"...So a 1st Rank is only this much."
Laden's face contorted.
"You..."
Pinned to the floor, he ground his teeth.
"Are you looking down on the 1st Rank too?"
He vented the sorrow of having never received respect despite being a Magician, simply because he was only 1st Rank.
But the young man did not answer.
"A bastard who can't even use magic!"
Laden flailed as he shrieked viciously.
"What do bastards like you know! Even if it's the 1st Rank, a Magician is still a Magician! I... I was acknowledged in the upper levels...!"
"Shut up."
Crunch.
A foot coming straight toward him. That was the last thing Laden saw.
***
Kael pulled the ACU from the nape of the unconscious 1st-Rank Magician's neck and carefully lifted it.
'This tiny thing.'
He looked down at the ACU resting on his palm.
It was about the size of two finger joints. Fine patterns were engraved on the black metallic shell, and inside, silver circuit lines thinner than a strand of hair were intricately intertwined.
'Artificial Magic Circuit.'
Kael lightly brushed the edge of the casing with his fingertips.
He had heard it was a device of the lowest rank.
Yet its internal structure was surprisingly intricate: an intake that absorbed external mana, a purification layer that filtered out impure flows, an auxiliary computing circuit linked to the user's nervous system, and even a small buffer that regulated mana pressure right before output.
'Fascinating.'
Kael marveled at the essence of magitech engineering.
He narrowed his eyes, feeling an inner sense of regret.
Now that he held the ACU in his own hands, one fact had become even clearer.
If he destroyed this device, the mana trapped inside would leak out for a fleeting instant in its raw form before being bound to a formula.
In that brief moment.
Kael's Magic Circuit would resonate with that form, allowing him to cast magic.
Of course, it was closer to forcibly catching a spark from someone else onto dried firewood, but...
Kael rolled the ACU slowly over his palm, lost in thought for a moment.
Since it was a low-rank device, the mana he could draw was limited, so he could hardly expect the kind of firepower that once cleaved city walls and shook the very axis of the Demon King's Castle.
But a small formula would be possible, and Kael figured that would be enough.
'Preparations are complete.'
Kael stood up and set off once more toward his next destination.
***
Pale had been scouring the Underground Level for days.
The wastewater junction on Underground Level 18, the waste compression zone on Underground Level 17, the illegal residential block on Underground Level 16.
The search even extended to the perimeter of the scrap market on Underground Level 19, but there were no notable results.
The unique wavelength of the target flickered in and out of detection. At times it was detected in scrap heaps, at times on the walls of transport pipes, and at other times on the rusted doorknobs of deserted rooms.
As if someone had deliberately scattered the traces.
That fact was steadily grating on Pale's nerves.
"Say that again."
When Pale spoke impassively, the subordinate standing before him bowed his head and answered.
"We failed to locate the target in our search of Underground Level 16. However, similar wavelengths were detected at three locations, all confirmed to be residual reactions from discarded magitech products."
"Residual reactions."
"Yes, sir."
"Residual reactions again."
Pale nodded slowly, then spun around and roared at his subordinates.
"Are you telling me that all you've found over the past few days are residual reactions?!"
Not only the subordinate in front of him, but also the agents standing nearby held their breath.
"The target isn't a 'residual reaction.' It's a 'person.'"
If alive, someone to be killed; if dead, a corpse to be verified.
At the fact that the brat had still not been caught, Pale slowly raised his hand.
The subordinate raised his head a moment too late.
"Sir Pale, I..."
His words were cut short.
Blue mana stretched out from Pale's fingertips like a thin thread, wrapping around the subordinate's neck. The subordinate's eyes went wide as he grabbed his throat with both hands.
"Keu... kgh...!"
The oppressive pressure in the room was beyond words.
Without even changing his expression, Pale curled his fingers slowly, lifting the subordinate's body slightly into the air.
The man struggled, but his movements did not last long.
Thud.
As the corpse dropped to the floor, the surrounding agents turned pale. Someone took a step back, only to immediately snap back to attention.
Pale slowly scanned them.
"Incompetent bastards."
No one dared reply to his words. Opening their mouths carelessly would turn them into a corpse in an instant, just like that man.
"You still haven't found that one little bastard, making me go through all this trouble?"
A voice brimming with fury echoed through the room.
"You can't even scour a single Underground Level properly, yet you dare carry the name of the Seraph Security Office?"
Pale looked down once at the corpse sprawled on the floor, then turned his gaze away.
"Search again. Transport pipes, wastewater drains, the scrap market, illegal clinics, organ trade dens—scour every place where a mana reaction remains."
One agent voiced an objection to his order in a trembling voice, but—
"But Sir Pale, there are areas we've already searched more than three times."
"If you want to be next, feel free to keep talking."
"...No, sir."
The objection was immediately withdrawn.
Pale looked down at his wrist terminal, but the reports were only piling up records of failure.
Anxiety gnawed at a corner of his mind.
For Pale was no loyal hound of Seraph Industry.
He had already received an extraordinary transfer offer from another Megacorp.
There was only one condition.
Quietly eliminate the young succession candidate within Seraph.
Specifically, leave it in the official records as an accident, and either retrieve or completely erase the body.
He thought crushing a single greenhouse flower wouldn't be difficult at all. Lure the target to the Underground Level and dispose of them—that would be that. No matter how powerful a Megacorp was, discovering what happened in the Underground Level was no easy task.
Yet that child had survived. Or rather, might have survived.
Because of that single possibility, Pale had been digging through piles of garbage on the Underground Level for days.
His expression began to contort with growing dread.
If this dragged on, the offer could be revoked, and another candidate might be chosen.
And he would be branded a traitor, meeting his end right then and there.
'There is no time.'
It was then.
Ding.
As a short alert popped up on his wrist terminal, Pale frowned and checked the sender.
'Unknown sender and untraceable route?'
He stared at the screen for a moment before opening the message.
[I will tell you the location of the child you are looking for.]