Chapter 370
Episode 112: Why They’re Searching for Temar’s Tomb (Part 2)
The blood spilled by Rick and his men stretched out long across the floor, slithering like snakes. This was something that hadn’t happened before Rick’s death.
Jin shook his head in disbelief.
“Body modification? Like a living golem?”
“Similar, but a bit different. Old dark mages used to call it ‘mine-ification,’” Valeria explained.
“You always seem to know everything,” Jin said with a shrug.
Though she never taught him directly, Jin knew his master had been skilled in dark magic. Whether he could still use it now was uncertain.
In his past life, Valeria had learned dark magic from the Hister family’s archives. But because it was dangerous and required horrific catalysts, she never used it herself, nor did she pass it on to her only disciple. She believed dark magic should have vanished entirely.
“First living golems, then masters, and now mines. It’s annoying. I thought Rick Helter was a straightforward guy, but he really stabbed me in the back.”
The mercy Rick showed by allowing them to greet the emperor now seemed like a cruel joke.
Jin had naturally assumed these men were proud warriors, as anyone would. Even when facing overwhelming foes, they held onto their will and loyalty.
“To serve even after death… I should have known, Rick Helter.”
Looking back, the first time Jin encountered an enemy who suddenly transformed was during his cadet days. On a mission to steal relics in Colon, he faced guards who turned into living golems. Since then, he’d often fought victims of magical experiments.
“This isn’t a perfect magic circle,” Valeria said, and Jin nodded.
“Yeah, it’s slow to activate, overly complicated, and looks crude at a glance.”
“That kind of complexity usually shows up when you’re forcing a spell to work that shouldn’t.”
As they observed, the magic circle drawn in the blood of the guards was incomplete—still experimental.
‘Using the royal guards as test subjects means the Biment royal family must have some confidence in this magic circle,’ Jin thought.
Putting ethics aside, the royal guards were the best of Biment’s elite. They wouldn’t be used as mere guinea pigs without reason. Jin concluded that Biment had reached the final stages of perfecting this ‘mine-ification’ magic.
Unlike the living golems or masters he’d fought before, Rick and his men weren’t victims—they were disgusting humans who willingly participated in experiments out of loyalty to the royal family.
Anger surged through Jin, but part of him felt relieved.
‘An unexpected breakthrough. Kinzello is working on master golems, Zipple on living golems, and now Biment is preparing something too. Seeing this proof firsthand is invaluable.’
Suddenly, a thought struck him.
‘Biment is searching for Temar’s corpse…’
Temar’s body—the reason the royal guards came to the Vantaramo Forest.
‘I wondered what they planned to do with it. Mine-ification, huh? Are they trying to turn Temar’s corpse into a mine?’
His teeth clenched. If that were true, as a Run Kandel, Jin could never let it slide.
It would be a crime worthy of destroying the royal family.
Of course, nothing was certain. At least in Jin’s knowledge, no magic used dead bodies as material.
But ancient dark magic was a literal unknown to him, so it was possible.
‘Does the family know about Biment’s mines?’
It didn’t matter.
Even if they did, they wouldn’t share the information with him. Rosa, Joshua, and their loyalists would keep him excluded until the moment they could use it for their own gain.
So whether the family knew or not was irrelevant.
‘I’ll use this information before they do.’
Jin had already planned how to leverage the knowledge of Biment’s mines.
‘Whether they want to use Temar’s corpse to complete the mine-ification or for some other reason, the moment they started secretly searching for the body, they committed a grave sin against Run Kandel. I’ll make them pay.’
Boom!
Jin slammed his fist into the ground. The earth shattered violently under the aura-filled blow.
He wasn’t expecting to destroy the magic circle with a punch. Both he and Valeria were unfamiliar with this kind of magic circle and were just testing their luck.
“Well, it’s unstable magic, so I thought it was worth a try. No luck.”
Despite the floor being torn apart, the blood continued to trace the ominous magic circle. The writhing shapes looked like swarms of crimson worms.
“We need to leave evidence, Aria Owlheart.”
“Isn’t it ironic that the person who says we need evidence just tried to destroy the magic circle?”
“I thought if we broke the magic and took their bodies, then had you or another skilled mage investigate, we could prove the royal guards were subjected to dark body modification magic… hmm.”
Jin’s words trailed off as he turned his head.
Crunch, crackle!
He heard the grotesque sounds of the dead guards’ flesh and bones twisting.
“Looks like we won’t be able to collect intact bodies,” Jin said, stepping forward.
The corpses of the dead guards were rapidly swelling and shrinking in a disturbing cycle.
Anyone with a weak stomach would feel nauseous just watching.
Worse, the decapitated bodies were picking up their heads and reattaching them. Even the severed heads were grotesquely swollen, making Jin and Valeria feel sick.
There was no need to watch any longer.
With a swift motion, Jin dashed forward and severed the neck of a reanimated corpse. It collapsed, missing its head and hands again, but since it was no longer human, Jin made sure to finish it off.
With a flash of his sword, Bradamante traced a furious arc before the body even hit the ground. Black sword energy swept over the corpse like scattered prey.
Flesh and bone, stained red, crumbled and fell away. Even a high-level monster with rapid regeneration couldn’t hope to breathe again after being torn apart like this.
Still, Jin wasn’t done. He summoned flames with his magic and set the shattered corpse ablaze.
The burning fragments quickly turned to ash. Valeria joined in, casting spells to erase the remains.
In no time, they had dealt with three corpses trying to come back to life.
But the other three were finishing their transformations. The first to complete it was already lunging at Jin with a sword.
Clang!
Jin spun and parried the attack.
The shock traveling down his wrist was heavy—clearly stronger than the guards he’d fought before.
It was natural for them to grow stronger after transforming. But even with the increased force, Jin wasn’t worried—unless they were consciously controlling their strength.
Before Jin could focus on the transformed corpse’s appearance, his eyes caught the distinctive curved sword of Biment.
He immediately recognized it as Rick Helter’s blade, and when he glanced at the face, he couldn’t help but flinch.
‘No face? And this form…’
When Jin saw the magic circle complete and the corpses swelling and shrinking, he expected the guards to become grotesque monsters, like living golems or incomplete masters.
But that wasn’t the case.
The transformed corpses resembled marble statues of humans—smooth, strange faces with no hair or features.
They looked like dolls with just a skeleton and stuffing.
“They probably don’t have any consciousness, right?”
The mine-ified Rick gave no response. Without a mouth, he couldn’t speak.
Though he had no eyes, he seemed to perceive his surroundings somehow, moving as if guided by some unique sense.
Rick calmly put distance between them. The other two finished transforming and took positions near him.
‘Even if they lack consciousness, they don’t seem like wild beasts.’
The royal guards were actually calmer in battle than before their transformation.
This was completely different from other victims of biological experiments Jin had seen.
In other words, these were ready-made combat weapons. Despite being incomplete, Biment’s mines far outclassed Zipple’s living golems or Kinzello’s masters.
Whoosh!
The spirit within Bradamante thickened noticeably.
“Jin.”
“What is it?”
“The three mines we just killed burned to ash too quickly. I think they’re designed to oxidize completely after a certain amount of damage, leaving no trace.”
“So we should capture at least one alive?”
“If possible. Like you said, it’s best to keep evidence. If capturing alive isn’t an option, give me a signal before killing them. I’ll use magic to preserve any body parts that don’t burn.”
Jin nodded. With Valeria’s magic, it was doable.
The mines charged forward, swords drawn, rushing straight at Jin.
The absolute rule of “Do not damage the forest” still seemed deeply ingrained in their minds. That’s why they were only using condensed dark energy, careful not to harm the trees.
Shuak!
With a single stroke, the first demon who charged was cut clean in half at the waist.
He had clearly blocked Jin’s Bradamante sword precisely. The demons weren’t physically weak enough to be unable to parry even a direct strike from Jin.
Yet, the demon couldn’t understand why he was sliced in two and fell mercilessly to the ground.
It was because Jin hadn’t used his spirit sword at all when fighting the human guards.
What had cut through the demon’s waist was the second form of the spirit sword—the Scissors. The moment the demon blocked Bradamante, a blade of spiritual energy extended like a mirror from behind him, slicing through his waist.
And just as Jin was about to strike the next demon—
Chiiing—!
Suddenly, several streaks of light shot toward Jin, Valeria, and the demons from the far side of the forest.
Jin managed to deflect the beams and counterattack, even covering for Valeria, but the demons barely managed to roll on the ground to dodge the lasers.
“JPL, looks like we’ve got a second uninvited guest.”
Once again, it was a moment where Jin couldn’t help but think this was actually a good thing.
After all, before entering the tomb, they planned to take care of all the trackers anyway.
“You might have to fight while protecting the demons. If JPL kills them without warning and they vanish, we might lose the evidence.”
“That’s why I’ve been saving my strength for this. Now it’s your turn to show what you can do, Aria.”