Chapter 46

We were vagrants.

A group of ten or so households is called a nomad, while a group of four or fewer households is called a vagrant group. As just three of us, we were among the lowest of vagrant groups.

Even so, Yuria and Monggu wanted to form a nomad.

The two of them spoke the words of the covenant.

“We entrust our lives to Baek Jun-woo, the leader of the nomad. We will go where he goes and do what he commands. We will use all our skills for the survival and benefit of the nomad. Until ten years have passed, or until the leader releases us from the nomad, and as long as he does not harm our lives and dignity, this covenant shall endure.”

Forming a nomad was a solemn contract where you entrusted your life to the leader and committed a significant portion of your life to the nomad. In Earth terms, it was like combining a housing contract with an employment contract.

So… it felt awkward for us—just three survivors—to make a nomad covenant. It was like handing an employment contract to an Earth college student who had nothing but student debt and asking them to start a company…

When I hesitated, Yuria said.

“Let’s live properly! Not just struggling to survive. Properly. Let’s live with purpose. We need to uncover the world’s secrets and find a way to annihilate all calamities! We haven’t been defeated. We’re just getting started.”

Live with purpose right now.

We’re not defeated; we’re just beginning.

Those words resonated in my heart.

Is it all about perspective? Could it be that instead of having lost everything and desperately struggling to escape, we’re simply at the beginning of something new?

Suddenly, I felt the gaze of magical powers watching me.

…No escape from this!

I dusted off my shoulders and knees twice, then brought my fist to my chest.

“From this moment forward, I declare that Yuria and Monggu are under my protection. We will become one nomad, sharing joy and sorrow, and we will climb the Tower of Covenant. For the next ten years, we shall embark on a journey to uncover the world’s secrets and annihilate all calamities. This is the covenant of Baek Jun-woo, leader of this nomad.”

I recited the leader’s covenant that I’d heard a few times before.

I did change some parts. Where it originally promised survival and prosperity, I inserted the world’s secrets and calamities.

Because that’s our nomad’s purpose.

<Where will this lead?>

<An ambitious covenant.>

The magical powers showed interest in our covenant.

A nomad’s covenant is an extremely serious matter. Every time you keep the covenant, you gain significant magical power, and when you break it, you lose greatly.

After the covenant was complete, Yuria relaxed her rigid posture and returned to her playful expression.

“So, Captain Baek Jun-woo? What’s the schedule for today?”

Assigning daily tasks to nomad members is both the duty and privilege of the leader. I gathered my thoughts for a moment and answered.

“You and I will move the remaining capsules. Monggu, stay here and test the barracks’ functions.”

Deep underground in Arsenal #7, the Baek Jun-woo Nomad was established.

+ – + – +

Ten capsules were sucked into the lake inside the main control room. That was all the capsules we’d found.

-Power restored. Power severely insufficient. Arsenal Ego remains dormant. Auxiliary Ego active. Some functions recovered. Beginning self-charging of power. Barracks #1 functions unlocked.

-Current defense system of the Arsenal is down. More power needed.

-Self-charging power in progress. Until Arsenal Ego activation and defense system activation… 87 years estimated. Until full power charge… Error. Cannot calculate.

-Unlocked function of Barracks #1: time acceleration adjustment.

Despite inserting all the capsules we’d discovered, power remained severely insufficient. We couldn’t even wake the Ego.

“87 years… That’s disappointing. I had many questions for Arsenal Ego.”

The auxiliary Ego only provided basic guidance about the facility’s functions but offered no deeper information.

What is this place?

What is power?

Who built this base?

For such questions, it only gave rigid responses like, ‘No authority to answer. Please activate Arsenal Ego.’

“Nothing we can do about it. By the way… auxiliary Ego? What’s time acceleration adjustment?”

Yuria picked out the most eye-catching item from the messages.

But the auxiliary Ego didn’t respond.

“Ah… talk about discrimination.”

I chuckled at her grumbling and asked the question myself.

“What is the time acceleration adjustment function?”

The auxiliary Ego, which had ignored Yuria’s question as a 10th-class supply, promptly answered my question as a 3rd-level administrator.

-When activated, time spent in the barracks accelerates compared to reality. With current power, acceleration up to five times reality is possible. This applies to virtual reality as well.

Woah…

One day becomes five days.

After asking the auxiliary Ego everything we were curious about, we returned to the barracks to meet Monggu. Traveling by mobility disc was incredibly fast. A Mana User can cover one hundred meters in about four seconds, but this was up to three times faster. That’s about 270 km/h. Zero to a hundred in 1 second. Somehow, despite moving so quickly, there was no wind resistance. We still had to endure the inertia though.

When we returned, Monggu explained the barracks’ functions.

“There are three types, or rather, three methods of training.”

First, basic training.

Second, promotion evaluation.

Third, physical enhancement training.

Basic training and promotion evaluation were conducted in virtual reality, while physical enhancement training was performed in the real world.

All three types of training were divided into five levels, but due to power shortage, the promotion evaluation was only unlocked up to level 3.

Basic training was mandatory, physical enhancement training was required up to level 2, and promotion evaluation was optional… these were the guidelines.

As I’d felt while watching Sergeant Bear’s video, the system was impressively organized. It suggested that the war against calamities had been fierce since ancient times.

“Alright… let’s summarize what we know.”

With that, our exploration of Arsenal #7 was essentially complete.

Though there were still many places we hadn’t visited, the auxiliary Ego reported that they were all sealed due to power depletion. Additionally, I couldn’t access the supplies stored in the Arsenal with my current authorization level. There were no more items to obtain or places to utilize.

That was somewhat disappointing, but fortunately, we’d already secured what we immediately needed.

We had food and shelter, and using the elevator, we could leave the relic whenever we wanted.

The only problem was that we hadn’t found a replacement for the Mobile Barrier… but I decided to give up on that. Rather than searching this vast relic for something that might not even exist, it made more sense to take a more aggressive approach.

I shared our current situation and established our future plans.

“Given our circumstances… let’s complete the training first. Since we don’t have a Mobile Barrier, we need to be strong enough to directly smash any harpy or ogre we encounter when we leave this place.”

“H-harpies and o-ogres?”

Monggu looked shocked. As someone who was still only a Mana Beginner, even an orc would be beyond his ability to face, so his reaction was understandable. But I couldn’t make allowances.

“If we agreed to uncover the world’s secrets and annihilate calamities, we need to be at least that strong, right? This is an ancient training facility. After completing the training, we’ll become stronger. Let’s make a covenant.”

I demanded that Monggu graduate from basic training.

“If I break the covenant, I’ll lose magical power…”

To the worried Monggu,

“If you can’t even keep that much, you can’t stay in our nomad anyway.”

I made it clear.

Our eyes met.

He gulped and then,

“I, Monggu, covenant that I will graduate from Barracks #1 basic training before we leave this relic.”

He made his covenant.

The magical powers watched Monggu intently. His evaluation had begun.

For Yuria, I demanded not only graduation from basic training but also the creation of a Mana Sword, another symbol of Mana Users.

“Mana Sword? What do you take me for… set the bar higher.”

“…Then 1st Circle? Think you can manage? Breaking a covenant would be disastrous.”

“You just said it yourself—if we’re going to annihilate calamities, I should at least achieve that much.”

If she insisted, then well…

When I nodded, she immediately made her covenant.

“I, Yuria! Before leaving this relic, I will graduate from basic training and become a 1st Circle mage! That’s my covenant!”

Now it was my turn.

Since Yuria, a Mana User, had set 1st Circle achievement as her goal, I should aim for something even higher as a mage, right?

However, 3rd Circle seemed unrealistic… but I had something else in mind.

“Before leaving this place, I’ll graduate from all three training programs and achieve 2-Star Ki-blood magic. And the day we leave this place… will be twenty days from now. That’s my covenant.”

“What? 2-Star? You just reached a new Circle recently—can you gather that much magical power?”

Yuria was shocked by my declaration, which defied common sense. But I had my reasons.

“I have something to research with <Saíl> and <Transportation>. Primordial incantations give a lot of magical power, so if I succeed, reaching 2-Star won’t be difficult.”

“Primordial incantations… That’s impressive… but wouldn’t it be better to focus on either Circle or Ki-blood magic?”

“Combat power is the priority right now.”

Only then did she nod in understanding.

The magical power needed to achieve 2-Star Ki-blood magic would be far from enough to reach 3rd Circle. In that case, it made more sense to develop Ki-blood magic until I reached 3rd Circle.

With excess magical power, Circle magic’s power and frequency would increase, but 2-Star Ki-blood magic would be more immediately useful.

And so we concluded our covenants.

Twenty days in real time. Accounting for time acceleration, that meant one hundred days. We had set our growth targets. The first step toward the rise of the Baek Jun-woo Nomad.

Since these weren’t easy covenants to keep, the magical powers’ attention increased dramatically.

Though the gaze of these magical entities felt burdensome,

“Let’s do this.”

I steeled my resolve.

Once spoken, a covenant must be kept.

That’s the fundamental principle of magic.

+ – + – +

-Adjusting time acceleration ratio. Time acceleration: five times.

-Basic training level 1 beginning.

With that mechanical voice, everything around me went dark. A new world began to take shape in virtual reality.

“Are you a new recruit? No time to waste! Hurry up and put on your gear! In front of you is D-class combat armor. Place your palm in the center of the armor!”

A room made of metal.

A sturdy man wearing a full-body suit and helmet barked orders at us without preamble.

The equipment that floated up before us was similar to what the man wore, but with fewer patterns and a plainer design.

A full-body suit, a helmet, and three palm-length rods.

“This… is identical to the equipment worn by the ancient person we first discovered. What that man is wearing matches the dead ancient people we found near the elevator.”

Yuria’s sharp observation confirmed it.

“Shut your mouth and put your palm on it!”

But the impatient man’s urging cut our conversation short. We hurriedly placed our hands on the chest area of the suits.

Swoosh!

As soon as our palms touched, the suits unfolded themselves and wrapped around our bodies. The three rods automatically attached to our waists, and the helmets covered our heads.

“W-whoa! I-I feel stronger!”

Monggu exclaimed in surprise after donning the suit.

That was certainly true.

But Yuria and I frowned instead.

“What’s this? Why do I suddenly feel a sense of loss…”

Yuria intuitively noticed something wrong, and

“The magical power… is being pushed out?”

I saw exactly what was happening.

The moment we put on the suits, the magical power that had filled our bodies was compressed and pushed outward. Since my magical power was so vast, only about 1/5 was pushed out, but it was still uncomfortable and stifling. For Monggu and Yuria, all their magical power was expelled, leaving not a trace.

The suit itself was repelling and pushing out magical power.

‘So the ancient corpses repelled magical power because… it was the power of the equipment itself?’

One mystery was solved, but I couldn’t understand the reason.

Why? Even the ancient people must have needed magical power?

“That’s right! That’s your lifeline! Always take good care of your equipment! Anyway, here’s your mission! Three orcs have appeared in area T10. Form a 5-person squad and subdue the orcs! Due to time constraints, you’ll be deployed immediately.”

Before I could organize my thoughts, the man abruptly ended his briefing. As soon as he finished, a voice penetrated my mind.

<Transportation>

‘Huh? This spell?’

With the familiar incantation, our bodies were transported to area T10.