I Became a Magical Genius After Regression

Chapter 29

Randell’s day was very monotonous.

Wake up, eat a simple meal, go down to the canyon, explore, and the day ends.

People often think that time goes by faster when they are doing complex and varied tasks.

But in fact, time passes faster when doing simple and repetitive tasks.

So now, it was already a dark night.

“Ah! This won’t do.”

Randell sighed as he chewed on dried meat.

At first, I thought I would find it if I searched moderately, but this was endless.

If the canyon was all connected as one, it would be different, but it wasn’t. I had to go up and down, and the time it took was no joke.

‘If I keep doing this, I’ll grow old and die here.’

At this rate, it would take years.

In fact, Randel didn’t even know what was inside the ruins.

So, it was more beneficial to do something else during this time instead of searching for the ruins.

For others, it might not matter, but for Randel, who was a regressor, time was opportunity.

But Randel could never give up.

‘Because the territory will fall…’

If the ruins were discovered intact, other territories would surely start scheming.

Then, the territory of Manwellin would be destroyed like in the previous life.

‘And I can’t even tell the lord about this.’

Of course, no fool would believe this.

No, even if they somehow believed it, it would be a problem.

In the end, the territory would become a battlefield.

The danger to his family would be the same.

In the end, the best thing Randel could do was to find the ruins, take what he could, or seal them.

If that didn’t work, he would have to run away with just his family.

Sorry, Manwellin.

“Ha, the scenery is incredibly beautiful.”

Randel lay under the tent and looked up at the sky.

There, countless stars were spread out.

There was a huge scar in the sky, as if it had been struck by an axe, and it was filled with stars like shards of glass.

It was a grand Milky Way.

‘Sigh.’

Suddenly.

Randel, who had been staring at the scene for a while, got up in a single motion as if to clear his mind.

No matter how much he thought about it, there was only one answer.

It was impossible to search the entire canyon like this.

Then.

‘There is no choice but to hone the Detect magic to the extreme!’

The magic to be used is Detect.

Randel began casting, drawing up mana.

* * *

From that day on, Randel focused madly on just one magic, Detect.

It takes about 15 minutes to cast Detect.

Four times an hour.

Eighty times in twenty hours.

Fortunately, thanks to Randel’s affinity, his mana quickly replenished even when depleted.

Moreover, the more he used it, the exponentially the casting time decreased.

Randel gritted his teeth and continued practicing.

“Detect…”

Paat.

“Detect…”

Paat.

Every time Randel muttered the incantation, a 50-meter blue concentric circle spread out in the desolate wilderness.

So Randel did not know.

That the vast, open wilderness

was the perfect environment for surveillance.

* * *

The sun in the wasteland is scorching.

There is no place to escape the sunlight, and the entire land, made of loess and stone, reflects all the direct sunlight.

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Moreover, the radiant heat of midday cools down sharply at night, making the creatures in the wilderness shiver with cold.

The situation was no different for those who had been monitoring the wasteland for weeks.

So they set up camp just outside the wasteland, at the edge of the forest, and were on watch.

“Sir Chotel, it’s the Decurion.”

Among the four tents lined up, there was one particularly ornate tent.

The Decurion spoke in front of that tent.

“Decurion? Come in.”

At the words of permission, the Decurion entered.

The first thing that hits you is the scent of perfume, out of place in such a remote area.

Sure enough, in the middle of the lavish tent was a woman with heavy makeup.

She was feeding fruit to a man who was lying with his head on her lap.

“What is it?”

The man asked without even getting up.

His expression was full of annoyance and irritation.

Well, it was understandable.

This place was a symbol of demotion.

Being ordered to watch over an empty wasteland all day was a punishment in itself.

Recalling this fact, the centurion carefully spoke to the irritated knight.

“Someone is approaching from the canyon.”

“What? Why are you telling me this now!”

The knight, Shotel, jumped up.

“I’m sorry. As soon as I discovered it, I gathered the minimum information and ran straight here.”

“Who is it? How many are there?”

“It’s someone I’ve never seen before, and it’s just one person.”

“Just one? Could it be someone who lost their way?”

“No, it’s not. They even saw a tent. And it seems to be a magician.”

“What? A magician?”

“The soldier who discovered him said a blue light was spreading around the man.”

“Hmm…”

The knight pondered for a moment before asking again.

“Are you sure there’s no one else around?”

“I checked thoroughly. The tent is also for one person.”

“Then it’s simple. Take the soldiers and eliminate him.”

“Just kill him?”

“Why are you asking the obvious?”

“Understood.”

The knight added to the centurion, who had a slightly reluctant expression.

“If he’s a magician without any guards, it shouldn’t be hard to eliminate him. But just in case, take all the soldiers. They don’t have anything else to do anyway, do they?”

“…….”

At the knight’s words, the ten-man captain cursed inwardly.

There were too many chores assigned by the knight to say there was nothing to do.

Just yesterday, hadn’t he sent the soldiers to the forest to gather fruit because they had run out?

And yet, he sent those soldiers out into the scorching wilderness.

If it were a wizard, a few would suffice.

But the opponent was a knight, and he was just a mere soldier.

A mid-level knight aspiring to be a high-level one at that.

He could snap his neck with his bare hands, so there was nothing he could do even if he resented him.

“If you have nothing to say… Oh, right.”

“Do you have anything more to say……?”

“When did the investigation team say they would arrive?”

“The messenger who came yesterday reported that the excavation team had departed from the guild not long ago. They should arrive within two weeks.”

“Got it. You may leave.”

The knight waved his hand dismissively, chasing the soldier away.

Then he resumed eating the fruit given to him by the woman.

* * *

Swoosh.

Randel descended to the bottom of the canyon using a rope and began to look around after casting a light spell.

There was nothing particularly noticeable, just like the hundred or so canyons he had passed through so far.

Randel closed his eyes and muttered.

“…Detect.”

Then Randel’s body was enveloped in a blue light.

Anyone who didn’t know magic would have thought Randel was burning like a torch.

The mana flickered for a moment and then spread out in all directions.

Whoosh―

The refined blue mana particles extended to the surroundings, disregarding the terrain.

After scanning a radius of 50 meters, the mana rushed back towards Randel.

It was like watching the ebb and flow of the tide.

Soon, the rough geographical information and mana density of the surroundings were recorded in Randel’s mind in detail.

“Hmm… nothing.”

Randel murmured as he analyzed the mana as if savoring it.

This time too, it was a miss, but he didn’t have a bad expression.

It was because there weren’t many gorges left now.

Choosing to train in detection magic instead of relying on physical labor was a wise decision.

Although he had to use detection magic like crazy for two weeks to reduce casting time.

If he had checked with his eyes directly, he would have done less than half of what he did now.

‘Will it take about a week?’

It seemed that it would take that long to look around all the remaining gorges.

And unless he was extremely unlucky, he would find it before he finished checking everything.

So, in a few days, he would say goodbye to this place.

‘Good, I’ll get over this hurdle first.’

The first thing in Randel’s plan was this ruin excavation.

He had also prepared for the possibility of not finding it in the end.

He planned to sell the location of the ruins to the information guild for a high price, but he wanted to avoid that if possible.

There was nothing good about revealing himself.

‘First, let’s have lunch.’

After having a rough breakfast and climbing up and down the gorge all morning, he was on the verge of developing acrophobia.

In that sense, he planned to have a hearty lunch.

He cut the hard jerky into small pieces, soaked it in water, added oats and dried vegetables, and then sprinkled rock salt…

‘…Huh?’

As he was thinking that and walking towards the base camp, he saw the shapes of people in the distance.

Randel squinted at the sudden appearance.

People in a place where not a single blade of grass grew?

And it wasn’t just one or two people.

‘What, soldiers?’

Randel quickly scanned the people.

There were about 20 of them, and their attire was unmistakably that of soldiers.

Moreover, their armor was in good condition, and above all, their weapons were uniform.

They were clearly the regular army of some territory.

‘Should I back off?’

After a moment of hesitation, he shook his head.

It was clear that they already knew about Randel’s presence, seeing as they were coming from the base camp.

‘There’s no other choice.’

Randel managed his expression as he approached the soldiers.

With a hesitant, bewildered look on his face.

Soon after, Randel and the soldiers stood facing each other in the wilderness.

One of the soldiers stepped forward and called out to Randel.

“Hey, wait a moment. I have a question.”

“Oh… sure.”

“Yes, nice to meet you.”

“Likewise. I never imagined I’d see people in this wasteland. Are you soldiers?”

“That’s right. We regularly patrol this area, and today is one of those days.”

“Ah, I see.”

Randel nodded, but inwardly he was cursing.

‘Damn it…’

This was the border area of three territories.

Sending troops to such a place was a sensitive matter for any territory.

If the other lords perceived this as an invasion, it could lead to war.

Moreover, this was a wasteland.

Why would they patrol a place where not even a drop of groundwater could be found, let alone farm?

‘These b*stards, if they plan to deceive me, they should at least drop the formalities.’

Randel was a thirteen-year-old boy.

Moreover, he wasn’t wearing the robe that symbolized a wizard, so there was no reason for the soldiers to be so polite.

What kind of people are soldiers?

They are fundamentally people who wield spears and swords, trained to kill in battle.

And such people were speaking kindly and formally to a boy they had never seen before?

It was clear that they knew Randel was a wizard.

He had been under surveillance without realizing it.

So, the conclusion was clear.

‘You already knew about the existence of the ruins!’

But even after searching the entire canyon, there were no signs of excavation.

Moreover, during the three weeks spent here, no one else was seen.

That means they know there are ruins in this canyon, but they don’t know the details.

Perhaps they roughly pinpointed the location through books or legends and are waiting for an investigation team from the explorer’s guild.

After all, cooperation from explorers was essential to excavate the ruins.

In other words, they are not sure if the ruins exist or not and are hoping for a big discovery.

‘No, wasn’t there still a lot of time left?’

The attack on the Endis territory was a whopping eight years later, so I thought they didn’t even know about the existence of the ruins yet.

But looking at the current situation, that wasn’t the case.

That changes the reason for the territorial war.

‘It wasn’t to monopolize the ruins… but to swallow up the Endis territory with what they obtained from the ruins.’

The excavation was already completed before that.

It means they intended to conquer the northern region based on the money and weapons found in the ruins.

The first target was the Endis territory.

‘…I’m screwed.’

In a fleeting moment, Randell finished all his thoughts.

Cold sweat trickled down Randell’s forehead.