They put on their gear and headed toward the explosion, then split up.
Phen went toward the sky, Karon to the left, Elan to the right.
After advancing far enough, they saw a wagon and a group of people fighting a creature.
Karon whistled and made a hand signal toward the creature.
Phen and Elan, who received the signal, took their positions.
Phen rushed toward the creature, and Karon followed right behind him.
Elan tried to take control of the group of people.
The creature, resembling a larva with short arms and claws and a long body, looked at Karon with its four eyes.
Every step of the creature created cracks in the ground, and every attack caused small explosions.
"Let's see which one of us is stronger."
Karon drew his sword and attacked while increasing its weight.
The creature pushed its head forward and responded with the thick part of its skin.
The impact of the clash knocked several people down.
The creature tried to lift its head, but Karon kept increasing the weight.
The fight between the two ended as the ground beneath them collapsed.
Losing its balance, the creature fell to its side.
Although it tried to recover, it was already too late.
Karon swung his sword at the creature's weak point and beheaded it.
The headless creature struggled for a while before succumbing to death.
Phen was eating the creature's corpse while Elan had already taken control of the slavers.
Turning to Elan, who was binding the men, Karon spoke.
"More slave traders again?"
"Yes."
"Lucky us."
"I'll need to increase the traps I've set here."
"What are we going to do with them?"
"Let the slaves go and take them to the edge of the forest."
"And the slavers?"
"The same as the previous ones."
"What are we going to do when someone comes to investigate what happened?"
"One of us fights head-on, and if it gets dangerous, the other helps."
"Then I'll take this one, you take the other, Karon."
"Alright."
The two escorted the slaves to the edge of the forest.
Karon took supplies and clothes out of his pocket dimension and gave them to the slaves, then said goodbye.
They bound the slavers and threw them into the gray mist.
"They all got away this time."
"I wonder if they're still alive."
"I hope so."
"You do realize mana oaths won't work, right?"
"We can't know without trying."
"Besides, if I wanted them dead, I would have done it myself."
After arguing for a while, they headed back home.
"Since we're back home, let's start training."
"Is it time for the second stage?"
"We'll see."
Karon, who was sitting, slowly began to breathe in and out.
After a while, he began to levitate.
He became one with the conflict he was having with nature.
The two merged into each other and continued to exist.
Nature was Karon, and Karon was nature.
He touched the floating mana particles around him.
The mana spheres, moving like droplets in a void, moved toward Karon.
Karon, the vessel of mana, tried to endure the water filling him.
As he began to take in more than he could handle, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
The hand grabbed him and pulled him out.
"That was close."
"I was on the verge of exploding."
"Guess we're even."
Wiping the sweat from his forehead:
"Yeah," he said.
On a night filled with darkness, the stars shone.
They offered their dazzling view to Karon.
Karon lay on his back, facing the sky.
His black hair was pushed back, with a few strands falling onto his open forehead.
The sky and Karon formed a beautiful painting.
Elan, who had been watching him, lay down beside him.
"What are you spacing out about again?"
"Some of the past, some of the present, a bit of the future."
"You're everywhere."
"Who isn't?"
"I'm tired, but I can't put out the fire inside me."
"I don't want to leave this rotten world like this."
"But who am I?"
"Do you know what the butterfly effect is?"
Karon turned to Elan with a questioning look.
"Sometimes a butterfly flapping its wings can cause storms."
"Never underestimate yourself."
"It's impossible not to underestimate yourself in the face of the world."
"We're talking about fixing the whole world."
"I'm willing to give my entire life so that another child like me is never born."
"But I'm not sure what I can achieve with just my life."
"In this world, I'm no more than a grain of sand."
"I don't want to give up, but…"
He paused for a moment and continued:
"The first man I killed had a small daughter and a wife."
"That girl will live a worse life than mine."
"Who knows what her mother will have to do for money."
"She might even be married off before she's old enough."
"And all of it because I killed their father."
"Maybe her father didn't choose that life willingly."
"Maybe, if given a chance, he could've worked a better job."
"I killed him without knowing any of this."
"From what you told me, you acted in self-defense."
"I didn't have to kill him, even if it was self-defense."
"If I hadn't acted like a child and had used a proper mana oath, maybe he wouldn't have tried to kill me."
"You can't save everyone in this world."
"Every life you save will come with lives you ruin."
"Then what's the point?"
"If the path I'm walking isn't the one I truly know…"
"Why am I walking it…"