Becoming an Extra in a Trash Game

Chapter 45

Unlike Labyrinth, where the air is slightly stuffy with a dusty smell due to the high foot traffic.

“Phew……”

As I take a deep breath, there’s a fresh grassy smell in the air, like the scent that spreads after running through a field rather than a road.

“It’s refreshing.”

Caw-wee-eek―

What’s that?

While I’m enjoying the freshness of the air, a strange sound comes from behind.

“Wait, why is a crow vomiting?”

“Hmm. Is this what they call Bird flu?”

Caw-weep? Caw-ack!

As Zero slightly moves away from the vomiting crow, it flaps its wings angrily before vomiting again.

Whether it accidentally got mixed in with the portal, or if it’s a local crow that caught some endemic disease.

After helping Zero, who’s experiencing a portal for the first time and is staggering while vomiting, I exit the gate and immediately notice the different architectural style compared to Labyrinth or Adelian’s hometown, Labes.

Made of stone, plaster, and magic clay similar to cement, the overall city doesn’t have a unified architectural style. Some buildings are made entirely of stone, while others focus on wood and fabric, ranging from structures resembling huge tents to those that look like they were twisted from a single tree.

It definitely gives off the feeling of a place where various races live together.

A frog-race slave holding a sprayer passes by, a cow-race reminiscent of a Minotaur with one broken horn.

A man with an appearance almost identical to humans but with a long crocodile tail attached to his backside.

Looking around, the proportion of Ain race seems higher than in other cities we’ve visited so far.

To the extent that it almost feels reversed.

‘Here, Kane and I are the minority races.’

I shrugged and looked at Luna, who was looking around with a face full of new impressions.

“How long will it take from here to Luna’s home?”

“Considering the current season, they would have moved a bit outwards in search of water and grass… We should be able to find them in about a week, Young Master.”

Even with our horses that run faster and longer than most other horses, it takes about a week. For transportation methods like wagons, it could take up to a month in severe cases.

“Well, we have things to do along the way, so it won’t be boring. Luna, teach Zero some miscellaneous things.”

Ignoring the eyes glancing at us, I mounted my horse.

Considering Zero, who’s still awkward with horseback riding, I moved the horse at a slightly faster pace and opened the Codex.

Seeing this, Kane also opened his backpack and took out a book, while Luna moved her horse next to Zero’s and started teaching him about edible plants found along the road.

‘It’s a sparsely populated area, and we have some time to spare. It’s perfect for checking out the attribute stone enchants.’

With the Codex floating in the air, I just moved my fingertips to turn the pages while taking out a few attribute stones from the subspace with my other hand.

A fire attributes stone with a slight warmth. A wind attribute stone that gives the feeling of air swirling in my palm.

I opened the Codex page with the most basic non-attribute magic, Magic Missile, and rolled the attribute stones in my hand before placing one on the page.

Rub rub.

“Ah, maybe this isn’t it.”

I looked at the attribute stone and Codex that showed no change even after rubbing it on the page, and hmm, tried to recall my memory.

How did they enchant in the Innocent Saga?

‘Well, it was click and drag with the mouse.’

I frowned and rubbed the attribute stone on the page and the Codex cover then threw it back into the subspace.

Sometimes when you drag attribute stones to the wrong thing, they disappear with a bang, so I waited until we reached a wider area in case it might explode.

But there’s no reaction at all?

“So… Those with three-pronged leaf tips… If you blanch them slightly in salt water, the tingling taste disappears……”

“Senior Rabbit. This is amazing. It’s like magic. How many things change depending on boiling, drying, and frying.”

Luna speaks hesitantly to Zero, who still seems shy around her, while Zero listens with sparkling eyes.

The protagonist, sitting like a picture even on the swaying horse, reading a book.

I took out another fire attribute stone from the subspace and fiddled with it.

One way or another, Innocent Saga is a game, so it’s inevitable that there are some differences from this reality.

Click and drag must have been added for convenience.

Cha-rrrr―

With the Codex floating in the air, I held the attribute stone in one hand and habitually turned the ring with the other, suddenly lowering my gaze.

Although its blood magic passed down through bloodlines, using Kruger’s ring itself means that even Adelian’s body, which has no talent for magic, has basic magical resonance.

I smiled slightly at the feeling of something flashing through my mind.

The Codex isn’t magic itself right now, it’s more like a storage if we’re being precise.

I turned the pages of the Codex again, holding the fire attribute stone tightly, and placed my empty hand over the Magic Missile.

“By the power of truth.”

From the moment I start chanting the spell to draw out the power bestowed on the Codex.

From the moment I pronounce ‘truth’, I feel the power of the attribute stone moving through my body as a conduit, and as I finish saying ‘power’, the activated Magic Missile takes on a red hue and I feel a slight heat.

“…Young Master?”

“There are no monsters nearby, why are you doing that?”

“Please save me……”

Seeing the three gazes focused on me, I grinned.

“I’m just experimenting with something.”

I flicked my finger to send the Magic Missile towards a withered tree visible in the distance.

With a bang!

Along with the sound, smoke rises from the round hollow, and soon it bursts into flames, engulfing the tree.

“Looks like it was successful.”

* * *

Since the day of my first success, I’ve been constantly pondering with attribute stones and the Codex while sitting on horseback, except for times when we set up tents to rest or eat.

Someone might say this:

‘Can’t you just put all the magic for each attribute in the Codex?’

No, that’s not it.

It’s a hassle to find each page, and the Codex doesn’t have infinite pages.

There are about 200 pages, and if you bestow too strong a magic, it might tear as soon as it’s activated.

Of course, I haven’t been bestowed with such strong magic yet, but it’s a possibility when Rachel or Gadia and others join the party later.

So, being able to arbitrarily assign attributes to a single magic is not only more convenient in terms of inventory management but also saves time during actual combat.

‘And it’s cheap. Of course, money is abundant, but basically, Koreans like cost-effectiveness.’

Of course, the Korean here refers to Kang Soo-ho, me.

It’s more time and cost-effective than trying to persuade and commission proud magicians to bestow this magic and that magic.

I started experimenting with various things, casting magic in the opposite direction from where my companions were riding their horses.

It seems that the non-attribute Magic Missile is activated with a single attribute when using attribute stones, and for arrow series that already have attributes assigned, it feels like the attributes are combined rather than changed.

When combining Wind Arrow with a fire attribute stone, it creates a bigger explosion, and when mixing it with water, it becomes an arrow that looks like it’s shooting water from a high-pressure sprayer.

Moreover, the power of the attribute stone seems to be used up more quickly than with non-attribute magic, as the stone quickly turns into a gray rock.

This is interesting, it feels somewhat like a tycoon game.

I’d like to try more things, but there’s no official magic tower here, and even if there was, getting magic bestowed with money would be close to gambling, so I should save it.

“It seems your magic experiments have brought uninvited guests, Adelian.”

As I closed the Codex with a thud, I opened it again, laughing with a sigh mixed in at Kane’s words.

“It’s unfair.”

“What is?”

“I’m only guilty of burning and destroying a few trees.”

And those were clearly dead trees that I roasted and fried!

Despite my indignation, Kane ignored it and jerked his chin towards somewhere.

Because it’s all flat land, we could see blurry figures surrounding us and approaching, even though they were quite far away.

Thump thump―

As they got closer, instead of horse hooves, we could hear the sound of something with wide feet stepping on the grass mixed with sand.

“You there, outsiders. Stop.”

A woman who appears to be of the mountain goat race, with white hair braided in multiple layers and tied in one place, aims a small arrow at us from afar while riding what looks like a giant sheep, warning us.

Seeing this, I first raised both hands to indicate that I had no intention to fight, and then opened my mouth.

“What seems to be the problem?”

Despite my polite tone, it seemed to come across as arrogant or cheeky, as the bodyguard-like figures standing behind the woman snorted and their eyes grew fierce.

This is really unfair…

“Our Chavid does not allow outsiders inland for the time being. Turn back.”

Oh! See that, Kane? It’s not because I was using magic.

It’s just discrimination against outsiders. Got it?

As I looked at Kane with triumphant eyes, he shook his head with a sigh.

“But we came here on business. If I may ask, are you the king of Chavid?”

As I spoke with a smile, still with both hands raised, the mountain goat woman’s horizontal pupils grew even thinner and longer.

“Don’t be sarcastic. I may not be the king of Chavid, but as the chief of the top race managing this area, I have enough authority to exercise.”

At that, I glanced at Luna, who was wearing her robe deeply, with a slightly cowed expression, and then spoke in a somewhat softer tone.

“Chief, we are here to briefly visit a friend’s home. If passage is not allowed, could you please clearly state the reason why?”

“Outsiders need not know.”

This is infuriating.

I’m not a racist like Kane, nor am I an aristocratic supremacist stuck in the class system, but.

‘Why are you interfering with people’s comings and goings when you’re not even the future Beast King?’

Of course, there are reasons I can guess.

Increased beast-race slaves, food being pushed into the desert.

From their perspective, I understand that outsiders are unpleasant to see right now, but honestly, to my eyes, which can somewhat guess the circumstances, it just looks like a mix of territorialism and venting frustration.

I slowly lowered my raised hands, crossed my arms while sitting on the horse, and smiled crookedly.

“Ah, then can we just go around the Chief’s area?”

“Are you picking a fight with me now? Outsiders are absolutely not allowed inland.”

“Chief, are you a racist? In this day and age?”

“Wh-what did you say?”

Seeing the mountain goat race woman so agitated that her braided hair visibly trembled, I opened my mouth again.

“If you say outsiders aren’t allowed without a proper reason, I can’t help but think it’s racial discrimination, can I?”

“I don’t engage in such low-level behavior!”

“Then why are you blocking us from passing? You’d let merchant caravans through, wouldn’t you? Oh, are we being discriminated against for the crime of being powerless and poor?”

“That’s, that’s not it.”

“If that’s not it, then what is it? As you can see, the only proper combat-oriented member in our party is that black-haired man over there, the rest of us are non-combat types. Do we look like we’re here to conquer this place?”

“Don’t insult the Chief, human. You’re incredibly brazen. You were shooting magic just a moment ago, and now you’re good at lying too. How dare you, after taking away our children!”

As the Chief seemed to be backing down, a man with rough black hair and leopard-like patterns appearing on his body shouted fiercely.

“If you have a mage or shaman on your side, you’d know. I’m not a mage so that magic was using a scroll, not my own ability. Right now, it’s you who are pressuring powerless civilians.”

“Shut up. Why are you so obsessed with entering the inland?”

The Chief, seemingly emboldened by the leopard man’s words, shot another sharp retort at me before adding one more thing.

“It would be best if you dismount for now. If you don’t leave, we’ll take you to our race to verify your claims.”

At this, they all gripped small hand arrows and spears, making the atmosphere tense, and in response, Kane also placed his hand on his sword.

“Stop… Please stop… The Young Master isn’t that kind of person. Please at least explain what’s going on……”

Finally, Luna, whose timid trait had fully activated due to being surrounded by strangers, removed her robe to show her ears and spoke haltingly.

At this, their eyes swept over Luna’s neck, wrists, and ankles.

They probably think I’ve put some kind of slave collar or shackles on her.

“Even if you came with a fellow races man, that doesn’t prove your trustworthiness.”

“For now, just the rabbit race girl come here. We need to talk.”

At their words, Luna turned her head to look at me.

Seeing that look in her eyes, unsure of what to do, I nodded to Luna as if to say it was okay.