‘What do you think you’re doing?’ his piercing bloodshot eyes questioned for a moment, before he dragged my body out onto the loading dock where the rest of the smugglers were congregated.

‘I’m dead meat,’ was the only thought that came into my head at that moment. The brief yet terrifying pressure this man had exerted while grabbing my arm would have made me pass out for sure if I hadn’t instinctively emptied my mana channels to coat my body in a protective flame shell. This monster… he had somehow detected the minute surge of mana directed from my body into the mana stone, identified my location and reached me in a fraction of a second, without disturbing any of the contents of the warehouse. And just as easily, he had maneuvered both himself and my dragging body out of the warehouse full of regalia in a flash, without even breaking a sweat.

Yet he was once again calm, as were his colleagues, not displaying a trace of their mana visible to my now active mana sense. As I lay face down on the concrete floor of the dock, my left arm tightly bound behind me by my attacker, using what I surmised was simply his natural strength to subdue me, a single image kept flashing before my eyes. The black ring I had briefly glimpsed on his finger when he had grabbed my left arm, the one with a golden dragon engraved on its circumference. I had seen such a ring countless times before in the history books that lined my father’s study; a symbol of nearly absolute power in this world; S-rank.

Apart from the physical fatigue I was feeling, the mental strain I was feeling in that moment would have definitely made me lose consciousness right away; if not for the now-confirmed emerald mana stone in my hand still healing my body to a dwindling extent.

‘Who’s the little rat?’ I heard the other cloaked figure ask my attacker, while the other three non-English speakers were still engrossed in their work without even looking at my direction.

‘No idea, but judging by his appearance and WristNAV, he’s from Seoul. Maybe he followed us here through the portal,’ my attacker skillfully surmised.

‘That’s impossible, how did you not detect him passing through, it’s your spell!’ the other smuggler shot back, slightly concerned.

My attacker was quiet, but his concern was also evident by his next words to his partner, ‘…let’s pick up the pace.’

Within the few seconds that this conversation took place, a thousand different thoughts went through my head as I lay on the cold concrete, pinned down under the weight of my attacker. Somehow, I had stumbled onto a smuggling operation with at least one S-ranker if not more involved. Not just that, but I had done so after passing through a mysterious portal undetected, which was supposed to be impossible even according to these high-level mages. Did I have some sort of unique attribute which had allowed me to do so? Is that why only I could see different shades of mana when I used mana sense? How much longer would these smugglers keep me alive knowing I had stumbled upon their secret passage? After I die here, would my sister ever wake up, or would my parents end up losing both their children?

My mind strained under the impending sense of doom I was feeling, even as I tried desperately to compose myself and regain my senses. Still, I knew deep inside that it was pointless thinking about any of these questions right now. These high-level mages would not let me live much longer, especially after the lengths they were going to in order to keep themselves hidden by not using mana. 

I had only forced my attacker use mana for a brief second to apprehend me, and even that had them slightly rattled. And if one or more S-rank mages were fearful of someone or something sensing their mana signature and finding them right now, that meant their enemy was even stronger. I couldn’t fathom what stronger than S-rank even meant, but I was painfully aware that compared to these giants, I was a simple ant which had dared to crawl up to their dining room table. And it was only a matter of time before I was squashed.

‘Well at least I found a healing crystal, so Yoonah can’t complain I didn’t try,’ I thought to myself amusingly.

Having used most of my internal mana to shield my mind and body from that simple surge of pressure by my attacker, and with the emerald mana stone quickly withdrawing its effect as the miniscule mana I had imbued into it dissipated, I began to lose consciousness. My eyes felt heavier and I prepared myself for a quick death. Realizing that the weight on my back pinning me down had suddenly disappeared, I quickly surmised that my attacker had gotten up to finish the job; an S-ranker would surely finish me off with finesse and precision, making for a quick death. Somehow, in that moment, I felt grateful for even that small amount of mercy.

However, a few more seconds passed, and nothing happened, before I heard my attacker let out a single loud scream; his body falling next to mine with a loud thud, his lifeless eyes directly meeting mine. My body still felt heavy as the mana exhaustion hit me. But my mind quickly became infinitely more alert as more and more adrenaline suddenly coursed through my veins.

What was happening? How did my attacker suddenly fall to the ground, so devoid of life? I hadn’t moved an inch, and even if I had, there wasn’t anything I could have done to these monsters. So, what was going on? Was there someone else her-…?

Before I could even finish my thought, I heard another loud scream, as another voice cursed in a foreign language. As I somehow found the energy to straighten my head, now staring directly at the four-wheeler where the other three smugglers were, my heart almost stopped as the acid from my stomach rushed to my throat. There, on the ground near the back of the four-wheeler, the cleanly severed heads of the three smugglers stared back at me, their faces still carrying the expression of horror they had plastered on in their last moments. There was no blood, as the wound seemed to have been cauterized upon impact. My next thought about why this was the case was quickly answered as my eyes took one brief, strained look at the man now walking from the four-wheeler towards the last remaining smuggler standing almost directly in my line of sight.

Although it was only for a flashing moment, the image of my savior was ingrained in my mind’s eye. As I directed my vision slowly upwards from his feet, I could see that he was wearing some sort of black uniform, or thin armor. His face was covered by a white mask with blue markings, reminiscent of the masks worn by trickster spirits in ancient Japanese folklore. And while it was brief, I saw something I could not comprehend fully. The blade of the deep black katana he held in his right hand, was coated with strange sparks. Something I could only describe in the moment as… purple lightning.

As he made his way towards his last opponent, it became increasingly difficult to maintain my consciousness as my remaining energy slowly left my body. I watched through my blurred vision as he pointed his katana straight at his opponent’s neck; the man in the black hood not even attempting to escape, as if he already knew it was futile. As my eyes closed, I heard bits and pieces of their conversation, unless I was hallucinating; I couldn’t be sure.

‘Did you and Shang really think you could ge-…’

‘I was forced to… black death…’

‘… the boy… Shang found hi-…’

‘… hope your king gets my message.’

‘No, no please… please…’

And then silence.

A silence that seemed to have lasted a few minutes, although at the rate of my dwindling consciousness probably lasted a few seconds in reality. The last thing I remember was someone, presumably my savior, grabbing the emerald mana stone from my open palm, and my final plea to him through my wavering consciousness.

‘No, please… my sister nee-…’

And then, I blacked out.