# Chapter 162. Frozen Things (6)
—
High above, soaring even beyond the tall walls.
As Ray took in the landscape spread out below him, he suddenly realized something very important.
‘…How am I supposed to land?’
He had jumped too high.
The power of his leap, assisted by the wind, had been too explosive.
‘Should I use Metallization to absorb the impact?’
Rejected.
Invisibility magic only hinders perception—it doesn’t conceal sound or smell.
[KUOOOONG──!]
If he landed with a thud like that, it would be like advertising to the whole neighborhood that Ray was here.
‘Should I use a gravity field to support my body?’
Rejected.
He didn’t have enough mana of the appropriate color in his circle to form it.
‘Then maybe I could stir up more wind by drawing on a feeling I’m confident in—narcissism…’
Just as Ray nodded at his own excellent judgment—
Tududududu─!
Something came charging through the grass with thick legs, thundering in from afar.
It had a bear-like bulk, but the shape was that of a dog—specifically, the mechanical hound, Kelley.
Clank! Clank!
‘Is it trying to attack me?’
It was an unexpected situation, but Ray remained calm and prepared to react.
However, just before collision, Kelley did something even more unexpected.
Whoooosh──!
A strong gust of wind erupted from Kelley’s entire body.
Ray, whose falling speed drastically slowed, was able to land safely on the ground.
Tap.
“…….”
Ray calmly checked his body, then looked up and asked Kelley,
“You helped me? By drawing on the sky-blue mana in the atmosphere?”
“Heh, heh, heh.”
A truly dog-like response.
“I don’t understand you if you just breathe like a dog. I never learned canine language.”
“Heh, heh, heh.”
Kelley approached, licking at Ray’s face and sniffing him. Ray stepped back and extended his palm.
“No. Stay.”
Kelley obediently sat down.
When Ray held out the back of his hand, Kelley sniffed it.
‘Is invisibility magic ineffective on machines? Or did it recognize me by smell?’
Is that even possible?
Ray figured Kelley was just pretending to sniff.
Because Kelley was a machine.
Born without a sense of smell—dogs’ primary method of communication and way of understanding the world.
Just like—
‘—how I was born without emotions.’
Feeling a slight sense of kinship, Ray reached out to pet Kelley’s head.
“Of course, since I’m human and not a machine, I can’t fully relate to you. But I’ve heard that dogs like it when you pet their heads.”
He tried to offer comfort in his own way, but Kelley kept lifting her head to follow his hand, causing him to fail repeatedly.
Eventually, standing on his tiptoes, Ray managed to succeed once, then returned to his normal stance and asked,
“But really, how did you recognize me? I kind of want to take you apart to find out, but I get the feeling you wouldn’t let me.”
At that moment, Kelley lowered her gaze.
At first, Ray thought it was just a natural motion, but then the machine completely froze.
“What’s wrong?”
Kelley didn’t respond.
She just stared.
“Is there something on my chest?”
Again, no answer.
Tilting his head in puzzlement, Ray recalled his original objective and turned toward the tower.
As Kelley began to rise and follow, Ray gave a command.
“Stay right there. You give off black smoke when you run.”
Leaving the stiffened Kelley like a statue, Ray arrived at the tower.
Clunk. Clunk.
As expected, the entrance was secured with a thick lock and reinforced with sealing magic.
Taking a few steps back, Ray looked up.
The alternate entry he had scouted earlier was—
‘Quite high.’
A window on the upper floors of the tower.
He had originally planned to climb the wall using its protrusions, but suddenly thought of a better, quicker method.
‘I need Kelley.’
He turned his head—and sure enough, Kelley was already approaching.
Kelley bumped her head against him and crouched low, as if telling him to hop on.
What the…?
It felt like she was reading his intentions.
There was no time to ponder. Ray immediately climbed onto Kelley’s head, settling into a kneeling position.
And the moment he felt ready—
───!
Kelley jerked her head upward with tremendous force and speed.
FWOOOOSH───!
Ray’s body shot up like a cannonball.
The wind battered his skin, and the floors of the tower rushed past his eyes.
Third floor… Fifth… Seventh…
Ninth… Eleventh… Thirteenth…
In an instant.
No time to even register it.
But the speed soon began to drop, and he realized he might fall short of the target window.
Looking down—
‘It’s really high.’
Kelley appeared tiny.
A slight miscalculation wouldn’t just shorten his infiltration time—it could shorten his life.
Ray immediately sent two different colors of mana beneath his feet.
At the moment his body reached its highest point—
CRACKLE!
Gray crystals bloomed beneath him, fusing to form a small stone platform. The sky-blue mana froze it in mid-air.
Tap!
Kicking off the stone, Ray grabbed the bottom edge of the window’s ledge.
With physical reinforcement at maximum output, he easily pulled himself up.
‘That was fun.’
He’d have to try practicing that when he got back.
Turning the stone platform to dust, Ray scattered it into the air and entered the tower’s spiral staircase.
Tap tap tap tap─
Descending quickly, he checked the time.
‘1:44 p.m.’
Binjin would return to the tower at 3 p.m. after classes ended.
Considering what he had to do here, he didn’t have much time.
Tap.
Reaching the first floor, Ray headed straight for the center of the tower, where traces of a magic circle remained.
Among those traces, partially hidden, was a still-forming extraction magic circle.
‘He must’ve started working on it as soon as I left yesterday.’
Judging by how much was drawn so far… it would likely be completed right on time the morning of the operation.
Binjin probably wanted to give as little reason as possible for suspicion.
Rustle.
Ray pulled out the notebook where Veronica had written down the revised extraction formula.
If he made precise alterations now, he could prevent the spell from activating altogether.
‘Though I’m not sure this subtle battle of wits will last until the procedure date…’
He wanted to eliminate any potential danger completely.
Just as Ray began modifying the circle—
────.
‘Ah, right. You’re still here.’
Sensing its presence, Ray focused his vision and looked beneath his feet.
Far below, deep underground—
A winding river of mana shimmered like a galaxy.
Its glimmer remained faint, but its flow felt more turbulent than yesterday.
Was it because it wanted to come out?
Ray looked down at the sealed floor, then back at the galaxy.
‘Sorry, but I can’t release you right now. You have to come out on your own.’
The galaxy’s wild current showed no signs of calming.
Was it hungry?
Ray created a large orb using mana from his circle and floated it in the air.
He moved it around, but the galaxy didn’t respond much.
‘Hmm…….’
Thinking for a moment, Ray then made another orb—this time using mana from the gem.
────.
Instant reaction.
The galaxy surged, following the yellow-tinged mana orb from below.
When Ray dispelled the orb and instead walked around with his body emitting the gem’s mana, the response grew even stronger.
It seemed to only respond to high-purity mana—more than what his circle could offer.
‘You’re a picky eater, huh.’
You need a balanced diet to grow, like me.
Unfortunately, since the gem was likely a fragment of the Rainbow, he couldn’t give it away.
…High-purity mana.
As Ray pondered this, his eyes landed again on the extraction magic circle.
“…….”
Staring at it for a moment, Ray quietly put away the notebook without making any modifications.
He began searching the tower.
‘First priority: Binjin’s vault.’
─Binjin might be connected to the monocle-wearing mage.
It had once been a hunch, but after hearing what Tommy said, Ray was nearly certain.
「You fool, do you even know? I’ve finally been accepted into the Azure Dawn Society!」
‘Azure Dawn Society.’
The mana in the monocle mage’s circle was of a navy hue.
Binjin knew the procedure to infuse a circle with navy mana.
And he claimed to have developed the method on his own—a lie.
To Ray, this was no coincidence.
‘Someone passed the procedure down to him.’
Most likely, the Azure Dawn Society.
That monocle mage might be a member—or even someone who received the same procedure.
Or perhaps—
Considering the number of circles he saw in Sector 50 in the past—
‘…He could be the head of the Azure Dawn Society or even the inventor of the procedure.’
In any case, Ray needed to find the vault to get information.
It likely contained letters from the Society to Binjin, along with powerful relics.
The search grew intense.
‘Is it here?’
Desk, bookshelf, wardrobe, storage cabinet—
‘Here?’
Sink, floor, walls, etc.
He checked everything, even inspecting for hidden mechanisms.
He climbed the spiral staircase, checking all around the windows as well.
But—
‘Not a single trace.’
He found no vault, no clues, no information.
Holding Binjin’s underwear, which he had absentmindedly pulled from the wardrobe, Ray incinerated it midair and thought,
‘The tower is already highly secured. It’s hard to imagine an intruder getting in. The basement with the mana galaxy? No, it wouldn’t make sense to triple-hide a locked vault down there too.’
Time was running out.
Ray pondered—then suddenly realized there was one place he hadn’t checked.
He dashed up the spiral stairs.
In no time, he reached the very top—
A small space beneath the tower’s roof.
There it was—a vault with an unusual tetrahedral shape, asserting its presence.
No visible lock.
But a dazzling, multi-colored mana flowed across its surface like a film.
Ray enhanced his vision and studied the flow carefully.
‘No alarm spell… but the elemental bond of the locking magic seems reinforced by that flowing mana.’
He understood what that meant.
There was something even more valuable and mysterious inside than any ordinary vault could contain—a signal urging him to open it quickly.
‘This vault itself might be a relic.’
Ray checked the time.
‘2:32 p.m.’
Binjin would return at 3.
There was no telling how long it would take to break the lock.
“…….”
Ray calculated his options and sat in front of the vault.
Vrrrmm!
He began injecting mana.
The elemental bonds forming the lock were so dense that at first, they repelled his mana.
But when Ray increased the output—
Crackle!
A fracture formed.
It was a bold breakthrough, but Ray remained calm.
This was only the first layer.
Thousands more remained.
Ray simply—
“…….”
—focused.
As the work progressed, time flew by, and sweat poured from Ray like rain.
And just as the job neared completion—
With his hearing pushed to the maximum, Ray caught a sound.
─Step, step.
‘Binjin’s footsteps.’
It was 3:02 p.m.
Binjin was back—but with only a few bonds left to break, Ray couldn’t stop now.
He focused.
Crack!
‘Three layers left.’
─Step, step.
Crack!
‘Two layers.’
─Step, step. Step.
Crack!
‘One.’
─Step, click.
Binjin’s footsteps reached the front door of the tower, and the door began to open.
Crack!
───!
The final barrier shattered.
Creeeaaak──.
