Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert
Chapter 355

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]

Chapter 355

Thump, thump!

“Zeon! Get up, it’s already seven!”

Brielle banged on Zeon’s door noisily from early in the morning.

“Yawn… What’s going on this early?”

Zeon rubbed his eyes and opened the door. Brielle and Gaia entered.

“Did you forget? You were supposed to meet with Yoo Sehee today.”

“Oh! Right.”

Zeon scratched his head as if he’d just remembered.

A few days ago, Yoo Sehee had sent word asking him to come to the Goblin Market. She said that by then, something she’d been preparing would be ready.

He had been too exhausted at the time to ask what she was working on.

Since he had brought down Dongdaemun, it was also his responsibility to deal with the aftermath.

If Zeon had wanted to, he could’ve taken Dongdaemun for himself then. But that wasn’t what he wanted.

He had sent Joshua and the remaining Dongdaemun members back as they were.

Zeon had assumed that Joshua, being an Inquisitor, would take control of Dongdaemun’s remnants.

After all, among the surviving believers, he was the strongest. But things didn’t go as Zeon expected.

Infighting broke out among the remaining leadership.

While Johan had been alive, his overwhelming authority had prevented anyone from making a move on the leadership. But with him gone, every surviving senior member now coveted the throne.

None of them were willing to serve under anyone else.

In terms of Awakening ability, Joshua was indeed the strongest. But unfortunately, he lacked any political skill.

While he was exceptional at torturing or killing people, he was entirely unsuited to unifying and leading others.

That lack of political acumen became a critical flaw, and those with ambition began fighting over control of Dongdaemun.

Dongdaemun was a cult of fanatics.

If it had been ordinary people, they might have realized after Johan’s death that he wasn’t the savior and simply left the religion.

But these were people incapable of rational thought. They couldn’t accept Johan’s death and instead believed he would return someday.

Until then, they believed it was their duty to protect and preserve the church.

The remaining leaders took advantage of that belief and began proclaiming themselves as guardians of the faith.

They each claimed they would protect and develop the church until Johan was resurrected.

With so many claiming to be guardians, internal conflict was inevitable.

Countless people were killed in the ensuing power struggle, and Dongdaemun became a lawless zone.

Taking advantage of the chaos, scavengers and criminals flooded in, worsening the disorder.

Zeon ordered Eaton to monitor Dongdaemun constantly.

The unrest there was bound to affect the entire slum sooner or later.

At the moment, the chaos was still contained within Dongdaemun, but Zeon knew it was only a matter of time before it spilled into areas like Sinchon or Guro.

‘This is why I never wanted to get involved with fanatics in the first place…’

Zeon forced a bitter smile as he threw on his robe.

In the end, it was his killing of Johan that triggered all this.

He bore some responsibility for the chain of events.

Because of that, he was keeping a close watch on Dongdaemun and staying ready to intervene at any time.

Of course, the best outcome would be never having to step in at all. But the world was unpredictable, and he couldn’t afford to let his guard down.

As a result, Zeon was mentally exhausted.

If Brielle hadn’t woken him up, he would’ve forgotten all about his meeting with Yoo Sehee and slept straight through the day.

After a quick wash, Zeon turned to Brielle.

“Let’s go.”

“Mm-hmm!”

“I don’t see Levin?”

“He went down to the Den last night.”

“He sure goes a lot.”

“I think he’s worried about Zetoya and Remura. He’s always hauling stuff down in his subspace.”

Zeon chuckled at Brielle’s answer.

Levin may have been the one going down there, but it was clear Brielle was the one filling the subspace with supplies.

Both Levin and Brielle were fiercely guarded toward outsiders, but they gave generously to those they considered part of their group.

They would keep strangers at a distance, but once they recognized someone as one of their own, they looked after them warmly.

Zeon stepped outside with Brielle.

Even though it was early morning, the sun was already blazing hot.

Avoiding the direct sunlight, the two made their way to the Goblin Market.

Yoo Sehee greeted them upon arrival.

“You’re early. I thought you’d be a bit late.”

“Brielle rushed me.”

“Guess the little one’s good for something.”

Brielle frowned and snapped back.

“Hmph! I didn’t hurry just to get your praise, you know. You said the sand hardener was finished?”

“That’s right! I even built a house as a test.”

“Seriously? How is it?”

“See for yourself.”

Yoo Sehee smiled and led them toward the outskirts of the slum.

The outer edge of the slum directly bordered the desert.

With no walls or barriers, it was completely exposed to the sand.

There wasn’t a single usable building material in sight—so no one lived there.

But now, in the middle of the desert, stood a house.

Walls, roof—everything was made entirely of sand.

It wasn’t big or flashy, but it looked quite sturdy.

At that moment, the door opened and someone stepped out.

Zeon immediately recognized him.

“Bryce.”

“Ah, Lord Zeon!”

The man smiled brightly and ran over.

It was Bryce—the man who had developed the sand hardener.

Zeon had rescued him from the Helbrin Mercenaries after they destroyed his village, and left him in Yoo Sehee’s care.

“This house was made using the sand hardener?”

“Yes! The walls, the ceiling, the roof—everything’s made of sand. Aside from the doors and windows, it’s no exaggeration to say the entire house is sand.”

“Can we take a look inside?”

“Of course! Please, come in.”

Bryce opened the door and welcomed the three of them inside.

The moment they stepped in, a cool breeze greeted them.

Outside, the sun blazed relentlessly, yet inside, there was no trace of heat.

“Does the hardener also act as an insulator?”

“You noticed right away. That’s correct—it blocks external heat and keeps the interior cool.”

“That’s amazing.”

“That’s not all. It also coats the sand so that rain just slides right off.”

“But you still built homes underground before—because of the scavengers, right?”

“Exactly. In the desert, we needed to protect ourselves from raids. But here in Neo Seoul, that’s no longer necessary.”

Bryce beamed.

His goal had remained the same from the beginning until now:

To live like a human being.

Digging holes to hide like animals—no, humans needed homes on the surface.

In the slum, there were countless people with no homes of their own, forced to crash in others’ homes.

Some couldn’t even find a place above ground, so they lived in the Crocodile’s Den instead.

But with the sand hardener, people could build houses on the outskirts of the slum.

All they needed was sand—and the hardener.

Of course, doors and windows would still need to be sourced separately, but the basic framework could be built with ease.

Then Yoo Sehee chimed in.

“There’s one problem, though.”

“What is it?”

“We’re short on materials for the hardener.”

“You can’t get them in the Goblin Market?”

“If that were the case, I wouldn’t be asking you. The key ingredient is the body fluid of Armored Ant. And you know how hard they are to hunt—they dig hundreds of meters underground.”

Armored Ants were E-rank beasts.

Individually, they weren’t very strong. The problem was that they lived in massive colonies.

At the very least, several hundred lived together—sometimes tens of thousands.

Worse, their tunnels stretched from dozens to hundreds of meters deep. If they decided to hide, there was no way to find them.

The small supply currently circulating in the Goblin Market came from isolated stragglers. It was negligible.

Bryce bowed his head apologetically.

“One ant provides enough fluid to make ten barrels of hardener. That’s enough to build around a hundred houses if used efficiently.”

“That’s simple enough. One ant per hundred houses. Catch a hundred ants, and you get ten thousand houses. That’s homes for ten thousand people—no, thirty thousand if three people live in each house.”

“Correct.”

“Then there’s no reason not to hunt them.”

“But the ants are too difficult to hunt—even getting one or two is a challenge.”

Their tunnels were more complex than a maze—and much narrower.

A full-grown adult would struggle to squeeze through.

So large-scale hunting operations were impossible.

That’s why the fluid was so rare.

“Not only can we not herd them, it’s difficult to even locate their nests.”

“I see.”

Zeon nodded.

Without a special ability, it was impossible to locate tunnels buried hundreds of meters underground.

Akashi was the only one in the market with a beast-detection ability—but even he couldn’t pinpoint ants buried that deep.

Zeon turned to Yoo Sehee.

“Could you prepare ten C-rank or higher magic-type Awakened, twenty porters, and ten transport vehicles?”

“That much I can do anytime. Why—are you going in person?”

Yoo Sehee’s face lit up with excitement.

If Zeon got involved, hunting the ants wouldn’t be that difficult.

Zeon nodded.

“Exactly.”

“I don’t doubt your ability, but how do we even find their nest? Do you know where they’re clustered?”

“Yes.”

“Seriously?”

Yoo Sehee looked skeptical.

“If you understand the ants’ habits, finding their tunnels isn’t difficult.”

“What kind of habit?”

“They love blue wolf moss.”

“What the heck is that?”

“Blue wolf moss grows parasitically on white snow cacti—”

“What now? White what? Never mind! I’m not going to get it anyway. Basically, if we find white snow cacti, we find the moss, and that leads to the ants’ nest, right?”

“Usually, yes.”

“‘Usually’?”

“Yes. If I go with you, we can skip all that trouble.”

“You already know where the nest is, don’t you?”

“Exactly. Smart as always.”

“Not even a little bit flattered.”

Yoo Sehee glared at Zeon.

But her mind was already racing.

‘The best escort squad’s on break now. I can mobilize them to cover the Awakened and porters. If vehicles are short, I’ll pull from elsewhere.’

If anyone else had made this proposal, she would’ve taken days to think it over. But this was Zeon.

There was no one who knew the desert better than him.

If he was involved, the expedition would succeed—no doubt about it. There was no reason to hesitate.

“All right! When do we leave? Tell me, and I’ll have everything ready by then.”

“No need to wait. Let’s leave tomorrow.”

“That soon?”

“Is that a problem?”

“Nope, not at all!”

Yoo Sehee shook her head.

Even if there was a problem, she had to make sure there wasn’t.

If Zeon changed his mind, they’d lose the chance to secure the ants.

“I’ll have all the Awakened, porters, and vehicles ready by tomorrow morning. Just bring yourself.”

“Understood.”

“If we clear even one large ant nest, we’ll have homes for tens of thousands. This is huge.”

Yoo Sehee clenched her small fist.

Even Jin Geumho, the Mayor, had failed to expand Neo Seoul further. The problem was always housing.

But with enough sand hardener, that problem could be solved.

If she could do what Jin Geumho couldn’t, her influence would grow.

And as her power grew, both the Goblin Market and Sinchon would become safer.

There was no reason not to go through with it.

‘The future of Neo Seoul hinges on this expedition.’

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]