Chapter 80
Seymour's face stiffened the moment he saw me.
He looked as if he'd seen a ghost.
His gaze stayed locked on my face, refusing to budge.
“… It really is the Sage. But how…?”
Seymour went on haltingly.
“Fifteen years have passed. And yet you haven’t aged a day. You look exactly as you did back then….”
I scratched my cheek, embarrassed.
Fifteen years. Enough time for an ordinary human to go from middle age to old age.
But my appearance hadn't changed at all since the first time I met Seymour.
From his perspective, it must be shocking.
“Could it be that you exist outside the flow of time?”
“Nothing like that….”
At Seymour's question, the surrounding knights' eyes also widened.
I gave a light shrug and cut off their speculation.
“Come on, there's plenty of time to talk about that after we've completely escaped from here, right? Let's move.”
My practical words snapped Seymour and the knights back to their senses.
This was no time to be standing around like this.
They helped one another up.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be anyone seriously injured.
“Sandworm?”
[The Sandworm protests that it is not public transportation.]
[It insists that it cannot carry those who are unqualified.]
“So picky.”
With no other choice, I decided to go back out the same way we came in.
“Everyone, get ready.”
I walked up to the knights and started handing each of them a handful of sand.
“Spread this thoroughly all over your bodies. From your hair to your toes, and don't miss the gaps in your armor or the folds in your clothes.”
The knights looked utterly baffled.
But no one asked me a question.
After all, they'd already seen magic that defied common sense with their own eyes.
The knights obeyed my instructions without a word.
Once everyone was ready, I closed my eyes and focused my mana.
Mirage.
A sharp headache hit me at once.
Making more than ten targets invisible at the same time was more taxing than I had expected.
The space around us trembled faintly.
It wasn't perfect invisibility like the kind I used on Sharon and myself.
If you looked closely, you could see the surrounding space distort slightly whenever they moved.
Like summer haze.
‘Damn it, having this many people really is a burden.’
I grumbled inwardly.
‘Still, this should be good enough. It's dark outside, after all….’
I comforted myself as best I could.
Meanwhile, the knights were unable to hide their shock at seeing their own bodies vanish.
“Ooh…! I'm gone!”
“So this is the Sage's legendary magic….”
Quiet exclamations rose from all around.
The captives looked down at their invisible hands with fascination.
“All right, let's go. Sharon, lead the way.”
“Y-yes!”
Sharon began guiding us again.
We started moving along the escape route Sharon had planned in advance.
Fortunately, Sharon's plan was excellent.
The escape was going far too smoothly.
We barely encountered any orcs.
On top of that, our bodies were invisible.
Though it wasn't perfect, the darkness was enough to conceal the slight distortions.
We were finally almost at the exit point.
Bwooooooo-!
A piercing horn blast ripped through the night's silence.
The entire fortress erupted into chaos.
Torches flared up all around, and the orcs' shouting rang out.
They must have realized that we had escaped.
“Damn it!”
Seymour spat out a low curse.
Anxiety crept onto the knights' faces.
“Everyone, run!”
Sharon shouted.
The knights squeezed out their last remaining strength and started running for the exit.
But their speed was far too slow compared to the pursuing orcs.
Even with invisibility magic on them, it was only a matter of time before they were caught.
“Sage, quickly…!”
Sharon called to me in a panic.
But I instead stopped where I was.
I dispelled the invisibility and revealed myself.
“I'll stay behind by myself, so go on ahead.”
At my words, Sharon and Seymour turned back in surprise. Seymour shouted.
“But…!”
“But what? This is an order. Wasn't I the one in command of this operation? Or was it Sharon? Either way, hurry up. I'll buy you some time.”
I waved them on, urging them forward.
Seymour and the knights hesitated for a moment.
Leaving their benefactor alone in mortal danger and fleeing was against a knight's honor.
But they also knew.
That this was the only way everyone could survive.
In the end, Seymour lowered his head.
“I will repay this debt… no matter what.”
He spoke briefly, then shouted to the other knights.
“Everyone, to the cliff! Run at full speed!”
The knights turned away, paying me their respects.
Sharon looked back at me, her eyes brimming with tears.
“Sage, please stay safe!”
“Don't worry about me. Just take care of your father.”
I grinned.
Sharon bit her lip and started running toward the cliff.
Soon, their figures vanished into the darkness.
“Right. I need to retrieve Choho-gi and the flag….”
After confirming that the group had completely disappeared from sight.
I briefly looked around.
The Choho-gi and the flag, which didn't seem suited to stealth at all, had been waiting at the exit point beforehand.
Sure enough, I found them nearby almost immediately.
Choho-gi, who had been crouching there playing in the dirt, quickly climbed up onto my shoulder as well.
“When exactly does this quest end?”
If they manage a perfect escape?
Or when I wipe out all the orcs in this gorge?
In any case, the 30th floor is a story-driven floor.
If I'm thinking about the next floor, it'd be better to take out as many as I can, even if it's just one more.
“If I'm going to do it, I might as well do it thoroughly….”
I slowly took my place in the middle of the path.
On both sides lay a massive gorge.
“Mirage.”
I activated the Mirage skill again.
This time, it wasn't to hide myself.
I created an illusion of the flag.
And I made it bigger, and bigger still.
Big enough to fill the entrance to the gorge.
A golden hourglass emblem shone brightly.
The flag illuminated the darkness like a giant lighthouse.
“The rightful ruler of battle, the sand-eater….”
I also cranked the flag's loudspeaker function up to full power.
Though even that only reached a radius of ten meters.
Still, atmosphere matters.
At last, the vanguard of the orc pursuit reached the gorge entrance.
The orcs flinched for a moment at the sight of the enormous flag.
But soon they realized that the only thing standing beneath it was me.
“Kwoooor!”
The orc leader at the front roared and tried to shove me aside.
I smiled coldly and drove my staff into the ground.
The entire gorge began to rumble.
KUGUGUGUGUGUNG-!
A deafening roar, as if the world itself were turning over.
The entire gorge screamed as it began to collapse.
The sheer cliffs on both sides, which had towered like razor-sharp spires, poured inward like massive waves.
Mounds of earth crashed down over the orcs' heads.
“Kh… kwaaaargh?!”
The screams were brief.
The fury of nature. Before it, resistance meant nothing.
The orcs disappeared without a trace into the massive landslide.
Hundreds of orcs were buried alive in an instant.
I looked down at the scene with satisfaction.
“Hm?”
Then something caught my eye.
One orc was desperately crawling out from between the piles of dirt.
It looked to have survived by luck, having been at the edge and swept up by the wave.
The orc was trembling like a leaf, dumbstruck as it stared at the catastrophe before it.
I slowly walked up to it.
Then I thrust the flag in my hand right in front of its eyes.
“Look carefully. And tell everyone.”
The orc looked back and forth between me and the flag with terrified eyes.
“Tell them that from now on, every orc that sees this flag will die.”
The orc let out an incomprehensible scream and fled like a mad thing.
The sole survivor disappeared into the darkness without looking back.
Then a system message window appeared.
[Quest ‘Rescue the Prisoners’ completed.]
[Congratulations on clearing Tower's 33rd Floor (EXTREME).]
[First-clear bonus applied!]
[Rank 1 bonus applied!]
[Title: [Scourge of the Orcs] acquired.]
[NPC ‘Seymour’ and relationship status changed to [Life Saver].]
[NPC ‘Sharon’ and relationship status changed to [Absolute Trust].]
And finally, dazzling light burst from the flag in my hand.
[Item ‘Starting Flag’ has evolved into ‘Ruler’s Flag’.]
***
The first thing to do after coming out of the tower is already decided.
Turning on the computer.
Because nothing is more important than sending my achievements out into the world.
I opened the Mage Gallery as if on instinct.
My fingers moved on their own and clicked the new post button.
With the prosthetic hand attached, giving me ten fingers again, I was back to my prime typing speed.
“Next time, I should take some pictures of the NPCs too.”
[Title: The NPC Named Sharon Was Pretty Cute]
[Author: ㅇㅇ(7F7.7Y7)]
[There's that ranger named Sharon who planned the operation to save Seymour.
She's got a pretty face and a big chest, so I liked her….
I think I definitely built up her favorability this time. Does she keep appearing?]
ㄴPkkatju: What do you mean, big boobs are good??
ㄴFridge: (Not easy, huh, con)
Just the reaction I'd expected.
But then a strange comment appeared.
ㄴMagic Is Firepower: Sharon? Who's that?
ㄴMagic Is Firepower: Was there an NPC with that name in the 30th-floor quests? I remember Seymour, though.
“Huh?”
I tilted my head.
Was I remembering it wrong?
No, that couldn't be.
ㄴㅇㅇ(7F7.7Y7): I heard she's Seymour's daughter?
ㄴMagic Is Firepower: Oh, right. I remember now. But wasn't she an NPC who appeared already dead partway through?
ㄴBeetle: Now that you mention it, I know who you're talking about. If you build up favorability with Seymour, he eventually tells you the story.
What?
A character who is already dead by the middle of the route?
Completely different information was pouring in from the version I had experienced.
“No wonder I didn't remember seeing her in the NPC list….”
Only then did I feel all the pieces falling into place.
Before entering the 30th-floor area, I had definitely looked up NPC info.
There wasn't a single mention of an assistant NPC named Sharon there.
ㄴBeetle: Then did you go to a worldline where Sharon is still alive?
ㄴFridge: Rather than that, I'd say you entered a point in time before Sharon had died.
ㄴFridge: In our version, she's an NPC who ends up dead before you know it… But maybe you intervened in what happened in between?
I nodded.
What Fridge said made sense.
But that immediately raised another question.
“Then what happens if I end up saving Sharon?”
I didn't know when Sharon would die.
Maybe she'd even appear already dead on the very next floor.
But what if I met her again?
What if my choices made it possible to save Sharon?
How would the story change?
Just as my head was starting to hurt from all the complicated thoughts.
Fridge posted a new comment.
ㄴFridge: And I picked up two interesting pieces of information at this conference.
ㄴFridge: One is the identity of the magic inside the magic battery.
ㄴFridge: The second is that the tower has changed. Specifically, elves and dwarves have appeared in the 10th- and 20th-floor ranges.