Chapter 19

Miguel watched Renock's figure grow distant with a suspicious expression.

“What are you staring at?”

At Clarice’s words, Miguel turned his head.

The formal honorifics they had been using were gone the moment Renock left.

She fiddled with the magazine of the rifle she was holding, smirking as she spoke.

“It’s just that one less annoying obstacle is gone. It’s irritating to have a leech attached to you.”

“Yeah. I’m already annoyed just thinking about joining the extermination team. There’s no point in worrying about a weakling like him.”

Eriksen chimed in, agreeing with Clarice.

“He’ll probably crawl back into the city after getting a taste of the bitter reality a few times.”

It wasn’t that Miguel and his group had no trust in Renock when they let him go.

They had separated from Renock, who had some confidence, just as Renock had separated from them with some assurance. Could Renock have chosen to part ways so easily because he had a similar confidence?

And if that confidence was based on his own magical abilities...

Miguel might have just let go of a very valuable ally.

“Miguel?”

Of course, the two brutish mercenaries he was with seemed to have no such thoughts.

“It’s nothing. Let’s get going.”

“Yeah. We need to hurry if we don’t want to be late.”

Miguel brushed off the question and started walking at the front.

He had only indulged in a moment of pointless thinking. There was no need to share his speculations and leave them with unnecessary regrets.

If his guess was right and Renock wasn’t a capable mage, he might struggle to survive the battles against the contaminants... but so what?

Everyone had to take care of themselves.

That wasn’t something Miguel needed to worry about.

He forced the stray thoughts out of his mind and adjusted his shaking equipment as he moved on.

* * *

Crack!

[Screeeech!!]

“Interesting. They look even more disgusting in person...”

Renock watched the contaminant writhing on the ground, struck by the blue lightning that poured from his fingers.

He had gathered some information from Dylan, so he knew what contaminants looked like and how they behaved, but this was his first time seeing one with his own eyes.

The large-scale bio-toxic weapon experiment project 'Black Consumer' conducted in the undeveloped zone about three years ago.

Officially, it was concluded that some plague mages were conducting human experiments, but rumors suggested that high-ranking officials in the city government were behind it.

The experiment aimed to control the explosive cell regeneration caused by a virus with powerful replication ability through magical incantations, to confirm the possibility of immortality. However, it ended in a horrific disaster and gave birth to the contaminants.

Although the experiment was halted in its early stages, preventing the spread to higher life forms like humans, and the infection rate among mammals like rodents was relatively low—

Once infected, the cells in the body would multiply explosively, causing the body to swell grotesquely and then explode. The ragged corpses would release a black fog, the remnants of the incantation, and continue to wander, seeking living beings.

The contaminant lying in front of Renock had lost its original form, its body disintegrated and swaying with the black fog.

Could this even be called a living being?

And could humans really achieve immortality through such experiments?

Renock was skeptical, but he doubted the high-ranking officials in the city government shared his doubts.

He collected the contaminant’s eye, a piece of evidence for the extermination, and placed it in the plastic bag he received from the checkpoint.

While contaminants vary in form and method of infection, the blackened eyes, proof of contamination, were sufficient evidence for the extermination.

The only inconvenience was that a pair of eyes was required to count as one extermination, so he had to collect two eyes each time he killed one.

After finishing the collection, Renock straightened up and spread his mana again.

With a mana sensing range of 2 kilometers, it was almost inevitable to catch a few contaminants, even if their numbers were not large.

He avoided overlapping paths with other mercenaries and either discovered and exterminated contaminants before them or collected the eyes.

Renock’s speed might not be fast, but no one covered as wide an area as he did.

If he pinpointed their location and moved, catching them even with a slow pace was not difficult.

* * *

Crack!

Renock nodded as he sent a current of electricity directly into the contaminant’s mouth.

After dealing with four, he was starting to get a feel for how to handle them.

The contaminants were fast and strong, but their movements were very linear.

They relied solely on their instinct to seek out living beings and did not look around.

Sometimes they would change direction and run, but that was only because they sensed other nearby life forms.

If he paid attention to this and timed his shield reinforcement correctly, dealing with them was not difficult.

And Renock was confident that he could sense and control mana with no room for error.

Crack!

Another contaminant charging from behind.

Its sharp teeth tore a long gash in the shield and peeled off the inner flesh, but that inner flesh was just another shield.

Thud!

With a couple of auxiliary spells and a revolver shot, the contaminant’s jaw was crushed, and it fell flat.

He didn’t forget to use a silencer to reduce noise.

Renock easily extracted the contaminant’s eyes with a shock spell as it lay on its back.

That makes five.

At a million cells per one, he had already secured 5 million cells in pure profit.

To earn the amount he could from chasing a wanted criminal, he had only spent half a day, which wasn’t a bad deal.

However, Renock also realized that this extermination request might not be a long-term gig.

Dylan mentioned this casually as a pastime, and there was a reason he didn’t join.

‘Finding contaminants would be a very tedious task normally.’

Renock was able to detect and eliminate them accurately with his incredible mana control over a vast area.

Other mercenaries had to rely on their weak mana abilities to search for contaminants themselves.

Even if there was a mage in the group, it would be difficult to match Renock’s efficiency unless they were a fire mage.

‘And the contaminants are stronger than expected.’

There was a reason the checkpoint sent mercenaries in groups of four to the undeveloped zone.

Renock thought that the combat abilities of contaminants were a bit too much for mercenaries like Miguel and Eriksen to handle alone.

Did Miguel and his group know this when they let Renock go alone?

If so, it meant they thought Renock was a weak mage and left him to die.

“......”

It was a chilling thought, but it wasn’t impossible.

Even if they didn’t have the loyalty to do so much for a stranger, not even giving a warning was beyond negligence.

It wasn’t something to hold onto for long, but it wasn’t something to forget either.

Renock used a fire spell to reduce the contaminant’s corpse to ashes.

Since the cause of these contaminants was a virus-based plague incantation, it was better to handle the aftermath thoroughly.

As he wandered through the ruins of construction sites, Renock fell into thought.

‘My goal for this job is at least 20 million cells.’

The amount needed to bid for Stemonia, a medicinal herb from the Stania Pharmaceutical Group.

Considering he currently had slightly less than 100 million cells, securing 20 million would be more than enough to meet the market price.

To earn a satisfactory amount, he needed to kill at least twenty and collect forty eyes.

It was a considerable number, but at this pace, he could achieve his goal within two days.

However, from Renock’s perspective, it might have been better to take a request with an advance payment.

‘When I took the request from Amnac, it also took two days... There’s no point in regretting it now.’

If it weren’t for Jenny’s assurance that it would be good for him in the long run, he wouldn’t have been working so hard in this dusty place.

Now, there was no choice.

Three new contaminants entered Renock’s sensing range as he passed through the collapsed excavators.

Occasionally, they traveled in groups, and until now, he had always been beaten to them by other mercenaries who arrived first.

He couldn’t afford to miss them this time.

Renock’s eyes lit up as he gathered mana and released a large current from both hands.

Crack!

The current from Renock’s hands coalesced and immediately transformed into three fox-shaped forms.

Following his mental command, the foxes ran through the ruins, and the lightning emitted from their forms resonated, forming a lightning net.

It was the result of roughly following the principles of summoning magic he had read in a library.

He couldn’t grant free will to each fox, but it was a significant achievement from delving into the sustainability of summoning spells.

While it was inferior in range and power compared to [Chain Lightning], it had a much longer duration.

Boom!

As Renock watched the blue lightning net sweep through the ruins, his expression suddenly turned grim.

Something had just appeared 300 meters diagonally ahead, where he had felt nothing a moment ago.

It seemed the contaminant had revealed itself to avoid Renock’s fox spell.

The sudden familiarity in his mind led him to the answer.

He had a similar experience before.

The first day he received a request from Jenny.

The moment he caught Taylor Evans, he was shot at.

The strange sense of unease he felt then was exactly the same.

At the time, he could only attribute it to his lack of ability, but now it was different.

He immediately gathered mana