Gamer System in Campione - Chapter 30

Similarly, the Campiones who usurped the Authorities and magic power of the gods availed themselves of the power of the gods within them that they stole instead of burying the form of the gods' magic.

The gods symbolize the essence, power and qualities of nature itself.

Campione stole the essence, power and qualities of nature with the help of the system made by Pandora, who transformed the body of the human who defeated the god into the one that could store the power stolen from the gods.

This is why mages and, by extension, normal humans could never hope to overcome Campiones or gods, because the act was like defying nature itself. Even if they had magic, it would be like a human splashing a glass of water in a flood who was a god.

This is why the Campiones were an anomaly.

Campiones are ex-humans capable of overcoming nature.

Although their actions that killed the gods may have been by sheer luck of fortune or set of events that accidentally caused the death of a god, the result was that a human was able to overthrow nature itself.

Therefore, no normal human should be able to overcome a god or a Campione.

That was the consensus, at least.

Alice's voice in Ozymandias' mind helped him out of his thoughts.

"Yes. So expect stronger magic, well, this warning may be useless to you as a Campione, but their body enhancement magic should become stronger in that region as well, Ozymandias."

"I understand. I will contact you if I find anything abnormal, Alice."

With that, Ozymandias ended the communication.

Whatever the Sun King found there, his instincts told him he wouldn't like it.

And his instincts were those of a Campione, so a big problem would surely occur.

"Shit," muttered Ozymandias.

...

...

As he climbed to the top of the mountain, Ozymandias began to suspect that something was going on.

Although the people around him didn't notice because they were talking to themselves, he began to hear less and less of the noise normally generated by the surrounding wildlife.

The birds were gone.

The wind did not blow on this mountain.

As he got closer to the top, Ozymandias should have seen more people gathering at the cross, especially on a day like a holiday.

Instead, he remained silent.

"What's going on...?" the Sun King muttered to himself with a scowl as he approached the cross on top of the mountain.

Then the tourists and citizens who were walking with him towards the top suddenly stopped.

However, this was not necessary because nothing assaulted those around.

In fact, the tourists and citizens of Macedonia began to climb the hill again.

Except that their movements were now slow.

"Something is definitely wrong ..." Ozymandias grimaced as he looked at the crowd passing me like zombies.

"Ozymandias ... I think this is a spell summoned to inject the magic into the spirit vein itself! They must have injected the [Hypnotism] spell into the concentration of veins on top of the mountain and it's creating a three-dimensional bubble of hypnotism spread out."

"... Can they really do something like that?"

"Yes, because the spirit veins around the area exude magical energy into the general environment, some of the mages have figured out how to "spread" their magic through the spirit veins with certain rituals. However, the effect is limited to the strength and number of mages performing the ritual. Because the spiritual veins, like the veins in our blood, wash the magic that the mages inject into their system quickly, causing the caster to maintain a constant flow of his magic reserves if he wants to maintain his field of magical effect. It's strange ... Normally, the ritual depletes heavily on the caster's reserves ... Maybe that's why the field of effect is limited only to the mountain top and the area near them, and the spell itself is just [Hypnotism]"

Alice began muttering to herself about the theory of magic and other embellishments quickly to herself.

"But what are they doing just making the crowd move toward the top of the mountain?"

"Hmm ... Are you sure they are just walking to the top? The mages have to be close to the spirit vein, so they have to be close somewhere ... Oh! I just realized!"

"What?"

"Spirit vein manipulation has actually been forbidden since the 14th century, when mages accessed a death spell on spirit veins while experimenting and accidentally summoned Hades. Hades ... Caused the Black Death and killed about 100 million people until a Campione from the East stepped up to challenge him, striking a mortal blow at the cost of his life. So..."

"Do we no longer need to look for a reason to unleash my powers as a Campione?"

"Well, you could have gone crazy regardless of whether we had a reason or not, since you are a Campione, however, now we definitely know they are up to no good, you won't have to worry about hurting innocents or anything if you have to attack them, and also, your reputation won't become that of a tyrant."

"... I particularly don't care about my reputation, Alice."

"I know you don't, but having a good reputation is key to having good business if you need something. It's the same for everyone. Even Campiones. Announcing the concept that you won't allow injustice to be done before makes people feel more comfortable following you, too ..."

"Wait, people following me? What for? I'm a Campione. I'm supposed to go in, kill gods, and come out. Why would I have people following me onto the battlefield when only Campiones can deal with Campiones and gods?"

"Hmm ... I thought you'd already figured that out, but it seems that's not the case ..."

"Figure out what?"

"Ozymandias, if you, as a Campione, begin to become more active in worldly affairs and become more vocal in your policies, people will begin to gather around you, whether you like it or not. That is your position as king. And while you may reject them from following you as Voban and Madame Aisha did, there will be circumstances when you will need companions for our line of work."

"I see ..."

Ozymandias entered the dense forest around him and stealthily began running up the mountain horizontally. Since he was near the top, it didn't take him long to run to the other side of the mountain, where there was no road and therefore probably less surveillance compared to what he would have expected at the top of the mountain. In addition, the vegetation was larger and denser in this location, masking his approach to the top of the mountain.

Noting that there were no guards on this side of the mountain, and began to climb the mountain quickly and close to the ground.

Ozymandias crawled to the top of the mountain on the other side of the road that the tourists and citizens of Macedonia used.

There was no one here.

No tourists, no officials, nothing.

"What the hell?" The Sun King said muttering, getting up and walking toward the tower.

The stores near the great cross were empty, lifeless and still full of merchandise.

Ozymandias saw the tourists climbing the hill and reaching the top. They should have reached the peak, but the tourists were not coming to the top at all.+

It was as if they had disappeared ...

"Alice, what's going on?"

"It looks like that was ... a trap."

"A trap?"

"Ah! It seems that visitors have also arrived at the hotel"

"Also?"