Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert

Old Man Klexi looked around the street with a satisfied smile.

The streets, now free of Dongdaemun’s fanatics, were quite peaceful. And yet, Old Man Klexi found this view very much to his liking.

“Heh heh!”

He hummed to himself as he prepared for the day’s business.

While Dongdaemun had control, he hadn’t run his shop at all.

He feared getting into trouble with the fanatics.

It wasn’t that he avoided them because he was scared, but simply because they were too filthy to deal with.

Thankfully, Zeon had returned in time, and everything that had gone wrong had been set right.

As a result, Old Man Klexi once again came to appreciate the value of everyday life.

At that moment, someone spoke to him from behind.

“You seem to be in a good mood. Did something good happen?”

“Of course. Something very good…”

Old Man Klexi responded without even turning around.

He didn’t need to look; he already recognized the voice.

With a smile, he turned to look at the person behind the voice.

“You rascal! If you’re back, this is where you should have come first. What were you doing, dragging yourself out here only now?”

“I was tired.”

Despite Old Man Klexi’s scolding, the person who plopped down in the seat without a care was none other than Zeon.

Old Man Klexi looked at Zeon with a fond expression.

“Well, you must have been tired. So, have you managed to rest up?”

“I’m starting to feel human again. Got anything ready to eat?”

“How about some soup?”

“Sounds great!”

“Just wait a bit. I’ll have it out in no time.”

Old Man Klexi hurriedly started preparing the soup, reheating the broth he’d made the day before.

Zeon sat at the table, watching Old Man Klexi work.

For the past few days, Zeon hadn’t left the house.

He had been exhausted.

Not physically, but mentally.

Without thinking, he had spent his time idly lying on his bed and sofa.

Levin and Brielle had done the same.

Sometimes, they stayed in their rooms, and at other times, they gathered in the living room, spending time doing nothing at all.

The first to regain his energy was Levin.

Once he had recovered, he spent his time outside.

Next was Brielle.

As soon as her exhaustion had lifted, she locked herself in her room to continue her alchemy research.

She didn’t have enough time to analyze all the materials she had gathered while crossing the desert.

The last person to get back on his feet was Zeon.

The first thing that came to his mind after recovering his energy was delicious food. And so, he had come to Old Man Klexi’s shop.

While waiting for his soup, someone sat down next to him without asking.

“One bowl of soup for me too.”

It was Yu Se-hee, who had plopped down right beside him without asking for permission.

Old Man Klexi chuckled and said.

“Just wait a little.”

“You know how I like it, right? Lots of meat, not much rice.”

“Hmph! Just eat what I give you. At your age, you’re still picky?”

“I got it from you, Grandpa. What’s age got to do with it?”

“That sharp tongue of yours. You never back down, do you?”

Old Man Klexi shook his head in exasperation and let out a sigh.

Yu Se-hee looked at Zeon, sitting right next to her.

“Good to have you back. Thanks to you, the fanatics have cleared out. You have no idea how good that feels.”

“Seems like you had a rough time.”

“If you hadn’t come back when you did, I might have exploded. But we can rest easy for now. They’ll lie low for a while.”

“It won’t last long.”

“Well, those guys do know how to make life hard for people.”

Yu Se-hee let out a long sigh.

The past few months had been nothing short of hell for her.

She had been harassed relentlessly by Dongdaemun.

Although they hadn’t attacked the Goblin Market directly, they had targeted the surrounding areas and the connecting routes.

It was a strategy to strangle the market.

The problem was, even though their intentions were clear, there was no definitive way to counter them.

If Zeon hadn’t returned in time to drive out Dongdaemun, she shuddered to think how things might have ended.

“Thanks! You really saved us.”

“No need to mention it…”

“And now that Lee Ji-ryeong is dead, there’ll be some major shifts in power in Neo Seoul.”

“I suppose so.”

Zeon nodded.

Lee Ji-ryeong’s presence had been no small thing.

Not only was he an S-rank Awakened, but he had also led the massive Pegasus Raid Force.

With his death, the Raid Force had been left adrift.

Even key figures like Kelda and Bronson had lost their lives, leaving no one to take the reins.

The Pegasus Raid Force was now in disarray.

Some argued that the Raid Force should remain and be rebuilt, while others wanted to join other factions.

Many had lost their lives to Zeon, but those who survived were still numerous. Since they were all elite Awakeneds, the leaders of various districts moved to recruit them.

Whoever managed to recruit the most of the Pegasus Raid Force would undoubtedly grow stronger.

This had stirred up quite a bit of chaos in Neo Seoul.

Yu Se-hee cautiously asked.

“So, what will you do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve made your presence known in Neo Seoul. Now that everyone knows about you, are you just going to sit back and do nothing?”

“And what if I don’t?”

“Don’t you have any ambition? At this rate, you could easily take control of the slums.”

“I’m not interested.”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

“That’s a shame. If you had just a bit more ambition, you could control the whole power balance in Neo Seoul.”

Yu Se-hee clicked her tongue in disappointment.

“Stop trying to tempt someone who isn’t interested and just eat your soup.”

Thud!

With a gruff voice, Old Man Klexi placed two bowls of soup on the table.

“What’s with shutting me up like that? Tsk!”

Grumbling, Yu Se-hee picked up her spoon.

Zeon smiled and began eating as well.

The hot broth sliding down his throat felt good.

“This is great.”

“Of course it is. I simmered the broth all day yesterday, just for today’s business.”

“You won’t tell me what’s in it, will you?”

“Heh heh! It’s better if you don’t know.”

“Thanks for the meal.”

Rolling up his sleeves, Zeon dug into the soup in earnest.

This was food he could only taste in this part of the world.

No other colony was rich enough to make a soup like this, and their food culture was different too.

Old Man Klexi was the only one who made this kind of Korean soup, at least among the people Zeon had met.

As the hot broth went down, his insides felt like they were relaxing.

Even though he hadn’t had any alcohol.

Next to him, Yu Se-hee was also eating her soup with great enthusiasm.

She polished off her bowl in no time. As if he’d been expecting it, Old Man Klexi brought out a second bowl right away.

“Eat up.”

“Did you prepare this in advance?”

“You worked hard, didn’t you? One bowl isn’t enough to make up for that. Eat as much as you want; there’s plenty.”

“This will be enough.”

Zeon smiled and began eating the second bowl.

“It’s like you haven’t eaten in days.”

“I’ve been living on preserved food while at home.”

“No wonder you’re tired of it.”

“Where did you get the rice from?”

“It’s from the plant factory. Not easy to come by.”

“I figured.”

Neo Seoul was definitely a megacity.

With a population of over 20 million, including the slums, it was a massive city, but there was hardly any space for growing crops.

That’s why they ran specialized plant factories to grow rice and fruit. However, the amount produced was so small that it rarely made its way to the slums.

If not for Old Man Klexi, Zeon wouldn’t be eating this soup.

Thud!

Zeon set his spoon down.

He had finished his second bowl.

Zeon smiled in satisfaction.

Having filled his belly with delicious food put him in a good mood.

At just the right moment, Yu Se-hee also set her spoon down and muttered,

“This is nice.”

“Of course it is, with my cooking.”

“You should make it more often.”

“Make it more often? It’s all for sale.”

“Tch! Not even a free meal for your granddaughter.”

“Quit complaining after eating so well. Now that you’re done, head back to the Goblin Market. Don’t hang around and make a racket.”

“I was going to anyway.”

Yu Se-hee stood up.

Before leaving, she looked down at Zeon one last time.

“Thanks! I’ll repay this debt for sure.”

“Alright.”

“If you ever need anything, come to the Goblin Market.”

“I will.”

After giving Zeon’s shoulder a pat, Yu Se-hee left.

Watching her back as she walked away, Old Man Klexi grinned his usual smile.

“She must really appreciate it. That’s not like her at all.”

“That can happen.”

“Well, you’ve rested up and filled your stomach. What now?”

“More rest.”

“More?”

“I want to rest without thinking for a while. There’s a lot to sort out too.”

“To sort out?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. If you get hungry, come by anytime. It’s free for you.”

“Thanks.”

After bidding farewell to Old Man Klexi, Zeon left.

The streets were almost empty, probably because the sun was blazing down hard.

Thanks to that, Zeon could walk undisturbed.

He headed out toward the desert, beyond the slums.

Whoosh!

As soon as he stepped into the desert, a gust of sandy wind greeted him.

Zeon stopped for a moment to savor the feel of sand on his skin.

The grains of sand carried by the wind circled around him, almost as if they were alive.

Zeon activated Sand Strides and moved far away from Neo Seoul.

Once he confirmed that there was no one else around, he opened his subspace.

The subspace that should have been full of sand felt oddly empty.

He had used it all during his fight with Lee Ji-ryeong.

Srrk!

The sand surrounding Zeon began to wriggle as if it were alive, flowing into the subspace.

The sand poured in endlessly, filling the massive subspace in no time.

Zeon looked at the now-full subspace and sighed with regret.

To the untrained eye, it would seem like an enormous amount, but to Zeon, it still wasn’t enough.

Even in the battle against Lee Ji-ryeong, he hadn’t been able to use his full power due to a lack of sand.

He had managed to win by unlocking the new fusion skill, Sand Gehenna, but he couldn’t always rely on such luck.

He didn’t know when he might have to fight again in an environment like Neo Seoul, where there was almost no sand.

“If only there were a way to expand the subspace…”

Zeon furrowed his brow.

The subspace he currently had was already beyond the limits of human capability. Expanding it further was nearly impossible.

“There’s no choice. I’ll just have to make do for now…”

There was no other way, even if it was disappointing.

At that moment—

Whoosh!

A strong resonance came from inside Zeon’s subspace.

“What the…?”

The resonance came from the section of his subspace where he stored items he had collected from dungeons.

It didn’t take long for Zeon to find the source of the resonance.

It was a mineral the size of a child’s torso, which he had taken from Park Man-ho’s secret vault in the Mana Stone Mine.

Whoooom!

The mineral emitted a powerful wave, as if it were weeping.

“What in the world is this…?”

———-