Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert-Chapter 532

Chapter 532

“So this is the place?”

Levin’s eyes shone sharply.

“Yes, hyung! I saw them go in with my own eyes.”

The boy who answered with a confident expression at his side was a boy named Ramon.

Ramon was an orphan living in Sinchon.

Quick-witted and fast in action, he was good at bringing back the information Levin wanted.

Because of that, Levin trusted him greatly.

“Good work.”

“It was nothing. Hehe!”

“Here. Take this and share it with your friends.”

Levin placed money into Ramon’s hand.

It was an amount far too much for a slum orphan boy to have. Still, Ramon did not refuse.

Ramon, too, had many younger siblings to look after.

All of them had been mobilized for this job, so he had to distribute the money appropriately.

As Ramon put the money into his pocket, he said,

“If you have more work for me, call me anytime.”

“Of course.”

“Then I’ll get going now.”

“Yeah. Take care.”

“Hehe!”

Ramon bowed his head to Levin and left.

Left alone, Levin looked at the large warehouse.

“So they were hiding in a place like this?”

Levin made an incredulous expression.

This job had been commissioned by a workshop owner in Neo Seoul.

Important magical beast byproducts to be used in the workshop had been stolen by someone during transport.

The owner had even requested help from fixers within Neo Seoul to find the byproducts, but they all failed.

In the end, the request had been passed along and eventually reached Levin.

Levin mobilized all the children of the slums to track down the traces of those who had seized the magical beast byproducts, and finally, today, he was able to find their base.

“So they were hiding themselves tightly in Guro. No wonder the fixers within Neo Seoul couldn’t find them….”

Neo Seoul and the slums were different territories.

No matter how capable a fixer might be in Neo Seoul, they couldn’t properly exert their power in the slums.

The reverse was also true.

Because each had clearly separated areas of activity and bases.

Even among the slums, Guro was particularly closed off and had a strong violent tendency.

Because of that, it wasn’t easy for Neo Seoul fixers to obtain information here.

Naturally, they couldn’t help but fail to find out that those who had seized the magical beast byproducts were hiding here.

On the other hand, the slums were practically Levin’s own backyard.

Whether Sinchon, Dongdaemun, or Guro, children who followed him were everywhere.

Using them, he scraped up information from the bottom like a dragnet fishing boat, and in the end, was able to find the raiders’ base like this.

“Now I need to complete the client’s request.”

Levin immediately turned into a ghost and flew to the warehouse.

Awakeners were standing guard at the warehouse entrance, but they failed to notice Levin flying in from above.

Swoosh!

Levin slipped into the warehouse without a sound.

Inside the warehouse, five rough-looking men were sitting on boxes or chairs.

They were chatting, not even knowing that Levin had snuck in.

“When is the broker coming? We need to hand over the goods quickly so we can go make the next score.”

“Raiding a dungeon party?”

“Yeah! They’re new guys, so with little experience, it won’t be hard. The first team hasn’t been gone long, so if we finish the deal and follow them, we can join up quickly.”

“Heh heh! Easy money.”

“There should be some easy jobs like this to make things fun. Once this job is done, I’m going to hole up in the red-light district for a few months.”

Levin frowned as he listened to their conversation.

There was something in their talk that caught his attention.

Walking up to them, Levin said,

“Hey! Uncles.”

“What? How did you get in?”

“Shit! Where did this brat come from?”

Startled by Levin’s sudden appearance, the men who had been engrossed in dirty talk jumped to their feet.

They had even set up guards outside, yet no one had noticed that Levin had entered the warehouse.

Levin looked at the box one of the men had been sitting on and said,

“That box is from Brandel Workshop, right?”

“How the hell did you find this place, you bastard?”

“Hey. Scavenger uncles. This whole neighborhood is my territory.”

“You crazy bastard! Are you Zeon or something?”

“I’m not Zeon hyung, but I am his younger brother.”

One of the scavengers pointed and bulged the veins in his neck.

“What? Then you’re the Lightning Demon? Shit! Talk some sense.”

“Lightning Demon? What’s that?”

“You don’t even know the Lightning Demon who goes around with the Sand Mage, and you call yourself his brother? You son of a bitch! Did you think we’d fall for that crap?”

At the scavenger’s words, Levin scratched his head with an incredulous expression.

“Lightning Demon? When did he get a nickname like that? Geez! If Brielle hears about this, she’ll tease him.”

Because Zeon was so famous, Levin, who went around with him, had also become widely known.

The scavengers formed an encirclement and closed in on Levin.

“Brat! Don’t even think about dying easily. We’ll throw you to magical beasts alive.”

“Heh heh! Drinking while listening to your screams will feel amazing.”

As befitted lives spent plundering others, their momentum was extremely ferocious.

They gave off a brutal atmosphere so rough that most people would wet themselves just from their faces and voices.

But such threats couldn’t pose even a hair’s breadth of danger to Levin.

“Geez. We don’t have time, so let’s end this quickly.”

Flash!

In an instant, five streaks of lightning burst forth from Levin’s entire body.

The intense lightning seared their entire bodies before the scavengers even had a chance to respond.

“Kyaaah!”

“Ghk!”

The scavengers who were struck by lightning collapsed, screaming.

“What is it?”

“Shit! What’s going on in there?”

The scavengers who had been standing guard outside rushed in after hearing the screams.

“You should lie down too.”

What greeted them was Levin’s pure white lightning.

“Ghk!”

“Ugh!”

With their dying screams, even the scavengers who had been on guard collapsed. White smoke was rising from their entire bodies.

Levin had controlled the power so that it only knocked them out, but if he had increased the output just a little, they would have become blackened chunks of meat.

Levin glanced at the unconscious scavengers and opened the lid of the box.

Inside the box were the stolen magical beast byproducts, neatly packed.

“For now, the request is resolved….”

Levin closed the lid with a cold smile.

Next, it was time to resolve his curiosity.

Levin approached the scavenger who looked like the leader.

The scavenger was unconscious, foaming at the mouth.

Levin sent a light current of electricity into his hand.

“Ughyaaah!”

The effect was certain.

The scavenger who had been unconscious woke up screaming.

Levin lightly tapped the scavenger’s cheek and said,

“Hey, uncle.”

“You son of a bitch! You sneak-attacked me like a coward?”

“If you don’t want to get zapped again, you’d better choose your answers carefully.”

Crackle!

At the sight of sparks flying from Levin’s fingers, the scavenger’s face twisted.

“Ghk!”

His eyes wavered.

No matter how rough a scavenger had lived, he couldn’t act cocky in front of overwhelming power.

“So he really was the Lightning Demon?”

His entire body was still tingling.

If he hadn’t been an Awakener, he wouldn’t even still be alive; if Levin had raised the output just a little, he would have been turned into well-done meat.

Gulp! 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The scavenger swallowed dryly.

Only then did Levin smile.

“Looks like you’re ready to talk now.”

“W-What do you want to know?”

“I told you earlier.”

“What did you say?”

“You said the other guys were raiding a dungeon party.”

“W-Why does that matter?”

“Somehow, that dungeon party you’re raiding seems like one I know.”

“That….”

The scavenger’s face turned pale.

Levin brought his sparking fingers closer to the scavenger’s face and said,

“If you don’t want to get fried by electricity, tell me everything. The dungeon party you’re targeting, and from the composition of the first team that already left to their Awakener skills.”

Faced with Levin’s threat, the scavenger didn’t dare lie.

He spilled all the information he knew honestly.

After hearing everything, Levin let out a sigh.

“Geez. It’s the Jetoya party.”

He had known something like this would happen someday.

To scavengers, there was no more tempting prey than an inexperienced dungeon party.

If you looked easy, they would swarm from all sides and tear you apart—such was the nature of scavengers.

Now that they had become their prey, it was clear that Jetoya and his party would face great hardship.

“Geez. It can’t be helped.”

“What do you mean, it can’t be helped?”

“You don’t need to know. Just go to sleep.”

Crackle!

Levin zapped the scavenger once more.

The scavenger collapsed unconscious without even being able to scream.

Levin first stored the box containing the magical beast byproducts into his subspace.

“I’ll return the goods later. First, I need to find Jetoya.”

He briefly considered asking Zeon for help, but soon shook his head.

“I can’t bother my hyung with something like this. He’s already someone who can’t catch a break from incidents….”

Levin was confident he could save Jetoya even without Zeon’s help. He also roughly knew where they had gone.

Because Jetoya and he had no secrets between them.

Levin immediately turned into a ghost and flew up into the sky.

＊＊＊

Zeon looked at the blue glass tube placed on the table.

Inside was the liquid Hicks had named Destroyer.

“Destroyer….”

Zeon thought the item name was quite grandiose. But he didn’t think it was exaggerated.

Because it had effects worthy of the name Destroyer.

“I hope I won’t have to use this.”

Knock, knock!

At that moment, someone knocked on the door of Zeon’s house.

Zeon put Destroyer into his subspace and walked to the door.

When he opened it slightly, a familiar face appeared.

“Mandy?”

“I hope I’m not interrupting your rest?”

“No. Please come in.”

Zeon opened the door and let Mandy into the house.

After looking around the inside for a moment, Mandy said,

“Brielle and Levin aren’t here?”

“Brielle went home.”

“Home? You don’t mean she went back to the elf village?”

“Yes.”

“Did the other elves accept her? They would ostracize her for being tainted by humans.”

“I can’t say there were no problems, but in the end, they accepted her again as a member.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Mandy meant it sincerely.

Although she and Brielle always fought whenever they met, she still didn’t want Brielle to be unhappy.

Mandy asked cautiously,

“Then she’s not coming back?”

“That’s not it. She’ll come here occasionally and stay.”

“I see.”

“By the way, what brings you here at this hour?”

“Oh! Look at me. I came to deliver this.”

Mandy took out an envelope from her bosom and handed it to Zeon.

Zeon read the words written on the front of the envelope.

“An invitation?”

“It’s an official invitation issued by City Hall. The time is three days from now at ten in the morning, West Seven Block of the Central District. Don’t be late.”

“Three days from now at ten in the morning? Understood.”

On that day, for the first time in decades, all the powers of Neo Seoul would gather in one place.

In a way, it was a historic day. But it didn’t feel like the event would end peacefully.

It already seemed as if a thick stench of blood was in the air.

Zeon frowned at the uneasy premonition.