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Shortly after killing Black Crow, Vaan sensed some movement from the other Peak C-rank hunter called Blood Knife.

Despite taking a bullet through the head, the wolf-man was surprisingly still alive, albeit paralyzed. But even though the wolf-man couldn’t move, it was just a matter of time before he could.

“This is the regeneration ability of the Rank 5 Demon Wolf, Furhengir, huh?” Vaan softly muttered before he cut off the wolf-man’s head.

Shortly after putting his weapons away, he quickly gathered the bodies of the four wolf-men and stopped their bleeding by sealing their open wounds with Heat Manipulation, which heated their flesh to a level that melted.

However, Vaan staggered shortly after, feeling a sudden rush of weakness.

Having skipped out on days of sleep and further depleting his mental energy to use his Specialize Magic and abilities, he had accumulated quite a fair bit of mental fatigue and required some rest.

But despite feeling a bit of mental fatigue, Vaan also felt very relaxed. In fact, he felt great, as if the battle had helped him release a lot of accumulated stress.

“It sure feels good to let loose once in a while,” Vaan softly muttered with a wry smile before he did some self-reflection. “However, showing off too much of my abilities is not a good thing… Did all the killing affect my judgment?”

That said, there were no witnesses if everyone was dead.

‘Whatever. There’s no use thinking about it now. A good witness is a dead one,’ Vaan shook his head with a wry smile.

After he tossed the four bodies into his Heaven-Swallowing Space, he collected his scattered bullets with Earth Manipulation, which, fortunately, uses his earth spirit’s mana instead his mental energy.

In a short instance, numerous bullets sprung out from the goblin corpses and gathered in his hand before he stored them away in his innate storage space.

‘Contract magic from my earth spirit isn’t affected by the antimagic spores either,’ Vaan briefly analyzed while he was on the move, leaving the area filled with blood and goblin corpses.

However, he didn’t advance up the mountain. Instead, he traveled further left to the east before he found himself a good spot to hide.

Earth Manipulation!

The ground split apart as Vaan burrowed himself underneath to hide away from the prying eyes on the surface. Furthermore, he also removed the traces of the burrowed earth as he descended.

During his battles in the cursed region, he had noticed many pocket spaces underneath the mountain.

Considering they appeared to be separate from the underground world that lies deeper underneath, the pocket spaces were great spots to hide and recover his energy and strength.

However, he wasn’t sure if there was enough air in these pocket spaces. As such, he stored a large amount of air in his Heaven-Swallowing Space beforehand.

“Hm?”

As Vaan got close to one of the pocket spaces, which was only the size of a normal bedroom, he noticed it was filled with mana when he casually used his Magic Vision.

After glancing at the other pocket spaces separated by heavy earthen soil and rocks, he also noticed they were concentrated with mana.

For a moment, he thought about the possibility of discovering a new earthen treasure, but the concentration of mana was insignificant compared to the stalactite cave.

Right after Vaan broke into the pocket space, he was greeted with a soft purplish glowing light coming from patches of purple, black, and red grass and flowers, which weren’t native plants of the world.

They came from the Gehenna Realm.

Nevertheless, thanks to these plants, there was breathable air in the pocket space.

Even so, the air was thicker and heavier, just like the air in the Gehenna Realm—or at very least, that was how it was described according to the knowledge he acquired from one of the books on the Gehenna Realm.

“Why are there Gehenna plants in this place?” Vaan wondered with astonishment.

As far as he knew, such plants were primarily found in the great Ashenwood Forest in the north, where the two worlds intersected, or anywhere else in Gehenna.

Of course, Gehenna plants also exist outside of these two main places, but such Gehenna plants were mostly imported or self-cultivated.

‘Did Lady Aeliana give birth to these plants after becoming a Plant-type Abomination?’ Vaan wondered.

However, there weren’t any antimagic spores found in pocket space.

Vaan had overlooked another possibility because it seemed unlikely. But thinking back at it again, it also seemed like the most likely reason for the change.

His eyes quickly brightened as he scanned every corner of the pocket space with his Magic Vision before settling on the rocky ground just under him, where the mana was most concentrated.

Earth Manipulation!

The rocky surface quickly split open, revealing a peanut-size object that looked like a purple glass fragment, which immediately shone with intense purple light.

Bzzt!

The moment Vaan touched it, his finger was easily cut. A drop of blood dripped on the purple glass fragment as he quickly retracted his hand.

In the same instance, the purple glass fragment turned blue along with the light it emitted.

“I can’t believe it… It’s actually a realm fragment…” Vaan uttered, feeling more pleasantly surprised by the moment.

Realm fragments first appeared in the world when the Gehenna Realm descended on the human world, causing the two worlds to clash and shatter the dimensional wall that separated the two planes of existence.

“The realm fragments were shards of the dimensional wall. Every piece, no matter how big or small was extremely precious. They weren’t just filled with mana; they also have the ability to awaken special abilities,” Vaan softly recalled.

Although mana gave birth to the witches, the very first witch was awakened by a realm fragment.

“There were some theories about the seven Transcendent Witches snatching up all the realm fragments when they first appeared to acquire their current level of power… but no one could actually prove it.”

Realm fragments were extremely sharp, possibly one of the sharpest existence in the world.

Assimilating its power involved a high risk of death, and not a single witch was officially recorded to have absorbed more than three palm-sized realm fragments.

Ding!