After stepping through the gate, Han-Yeol saw a familiar cave.

“Ahhh, it’s been a while since I’ve been here.”

The humid air inside the cave filled Han-Yeol’s lungs.

[As expected. That dirty, stinky race has taken over, and I can sense that their mana has slightly polluted the air.]

Unlike Han-Yeol, Noras frowned as hard he could and spat out yellowish spit.

The other roe deer sorcerers did the same and spat, trying to relieve some of the unpleasantness.

‘This mana is certainly different from before…’

However, it wasn’t as unpleasant as the roe deer sorcerers found it.

‘As expected of Bastrolings. Their sensitivity to mana is not something they simply access through force. It’s an instinct, a trait of their race.’

Their relationship and sensitivity to mana allowed them to possess the physical abilities of an awakened Hunter without having to undergo an awakening, except they couldn't gain skills. As a result, their race had so many combatants per capita, even though humans vastly outnumbered them.

‘Possessing strength without awakening is truly a blessing.’

Han-Yeol speculated that it was probably because they had grown up in nature and evolved that way. However, he couldn’t stay sentimental for long.

“Ugh, it stinks!”

Han-Yeol instinctively plugged his nose with his fingers at the stench coming from the entrance of the cave.

[Great One, I apologize. This smell seems to be coming from the contaminants.]

[Our incompetence has caused you trouble. We apologize.]

The roe deer sorcerers were more polite to Han-Yeol than anyone else, and they apologized to him.

They weren’t completely to blame, but the timing of the hyenas’ attack was simply too good. Even if they had expected the hyenas to counterattack, the Dragon of Destruction had killed most of their elite warriors. In addition, the Dragon of Destruction supported the hyenas, helping create an overwhelming strength gap between the deer sorcerers and the Bastrolings.

The hyenas had also grown their power solely to dominate the Bastro Dimension, so they were stronger than the Bastrolings in that sense.

However, Han-Yeol didn’t bother to defend the sorcerers.

“Well, since you realized your mistake, don’t let it happen again. From now on, focus on liberating the dimension.”

[Yes, Great One!]

“...Hmm.”

White Dragon watched Han-Yeol and the roe deer sorcerers with a complicated expression from a distance.

‘Lee Han-Yeol is a human, but he doesn’t walk the path of normal humans. Not even I, a dragon, the guardian of dimensions, can recklessly judge him. He sure is an interesting being. I know this is an impossible thought, but he might be able to grow infinitely, and he’ll be able to take on even dragons by himself one day.’

White Dragon's thoughts were unbelievable, as dragons had incredible pride for their own race. If another dragon had read White Dragon’s thoughts, they might have tried to kill her as a disgrace to their race. However, the White Dragon had made a perfectly reasonable inference.

‘This is very interesting.’

White Dragon wasn’t worried about any of that, and other dragons would deem the reason quite absurd.

‘It’s because I already belong to him.’

It was a somewhat romantic yet puzzling reason for a dragon to have.

The dragon race was weaker now, but a long time ago, when the world had just been born, they were powerful enough to declare war on the gods besides the creator. However, after their defeat in the gods versus dragon war, they were demoted from dimensional coordinators to guardians, and their powers weakened accordingly.

However, that didn’t mean that the position of a dimensional guardian was much lesser. Dragons could wipe out large clans and villages in the Bastro Dimension and human metropolises with a single breath.

The fact that a dragon such as White Dragon claimed to belong to Han-Yeol would have caused the other dragons, the gods who were still on bad terms with the dragons, and the guardians serving them under contracts to flip out if they knew about White Dragon’s thoughts.

However, White Dragon wasn’t concerned at all.

‘Han-Yeol is no ordinary human. He’s worthy of having me. I’m not sure, but I feel like if I stay by his side, I’ll be able to become a coordinator again and not a guardian.’

White Dragon wasn’t exactly sure, but her instincts told her so.

Also, since Han-Yeol was the first being White Dragon saw after her birth, she saw him as a parental figure and had those un-dragon-like thoughts. However, the main reason was that White Dragon saw great potential in Han-Yeol.

Unaware of White Dragon’s thoughts, Han-Yeol left the cave.

“Hmm, the last time I came here, it felt like a neutral zone, but this feeling is…?”

The place where Han-Yeol had hidden the gate and used it as a hiding place was a deep cliff divided into several winding paths. It was barren but perfect for hiding, making it an ideal choice for him since he didn't need many supplies anyway. In fact, the hyena sorcerers hadn't discovered the spot yet.

Han-Yeol and his group made it out of the cliff.

Noras looked around and frowned.

[Ugh, it looks like there is field pollution here after all.

Sniff

. There’s quite a bit of polluted mana in the air as well…]

While Noras was talking, he bent his knees and leaned down, gently rubbing the ground with his fingers before bringing it straight to his mouth. He then quickly spat it out.

[Ugh, even the ground tastes polluted. It seems like this place has been completely contaminated. Damn it, I thought this place would have at least held out for a bit.]

Han-Yeol noticed something strange in Noras’ remark.

“Huh? Noras, you’re not from here but you know about this place?”

After Earth evolved into the second dimension and was connected to the gate, Riru rescued many Bastro Warriors, sorcerers, and commodores. Therefore, they all came from different places. Han-Yeol remembered that the roe deer race had been rescued from a place far away.

[Ah right, I came to Earth from a place that was quite far from here.]

“Exactly. So did you already know about this place?”

[Yes. This area was actually the original home of my race.]

“Huh, but this is a neutral area, isn’t it?”

Han-Yeol was also familiar with the area. He had spent twenty years as Harkan as a Dimensional Lord, overseeing many different regions. This was one of the few special places he remembered.

[Although it is a neutral zone, we set up a base camp here as a sort of mission. In human terms, we were here to investigate the natural ecosystem, the monsters’ habitat, and so on.]

Han-Yeol understood Noras’ explanation and nodded.

“Ah, I see.”

The sorcerers of the Bastro Dimension not only played the role of mages who had mastered spells but also researchers who studied various topics.

If sages were philosophers, sorcerers were engineers. As a result, sorcerers weren’t that helpful during the war. They were no match for the hyena sorcerers, who had spent their entire lives studying spells to kill their enemies.

‘If only the sorcerers had gotten as good as I wanted them to be during my time as Harkan, we wouldn’t have lost control so easily.’

There were no ifs and buts in history, but if there had been superior support from the sorcerers, it would have ensured that the physically strong warriors weren’t overwhelmed by mere contaminants even if the hyenas had thoroughly prepared for war.

‘Even if we lost, we wouldn’t have collapsed so quickly.’

The current Bastro Dimension was very different from back when Han-Yeol was Harkan. The pollution had stripped the trees of all their leaves, and the dead trees were cracked open, revealing their skeletal remains.

For a moment, Han-Yeol gazed at the Bastro Dimension that he hadn’t visited in a long time.

Step, step.

“Kuhhh.”

“Khaaa.”

“Huh?”

Just then, with a thud and an unpleasant throat-scratching roar, hundreds of the contaminants came toward Han-Yeol’s group.

“Did they catch us?”

‘That’s impossible. I didn’t feel any mana from the hyena sorcerers.’

There was no way that Han-Yeol wouldn't have felt the contaminants when they had gotten this close to him. Even though this was impossible, Han-Yeol was baffled when the contaminants were right in front of him.

Unlike Han-Yeol, Noras was calm.

[Ugh, as expected.]

“Do you know something, Noras?”

[Yes, fortunately or unfortunately, they are not the usual smelly contaminants.]

“What?”

[Maybe you didn’t notice when you first arrived because it wasn’t fully contaminated, but if you’re exposed to a place like this for a long time without recognizing and driving away the contaminants with mana, or if you lack the ability to do so, you’ll turn into a contaminant yourself, whether you want to or not.]

“Really?”

Noras didn’t look fine as he answered Han-Yeol’s question.

[Yes.]

“It seems like Noras has lost someone important to him in a contaminated land.’

Han-Yeol had no intention of adding to his pain by asking for the details.

“But Noras.”

[Yes?]

“No matter how much I think about it, the massive pollution that’s unfolding in the Bastro Dimension right now is not natural at all.”

[T-That’s right.]

“This pollution spell must be controlled somewhere, by a giant magic circle or through an altar or something. No matter how strong those bastard hyenas have become, it’s impossible to spread magic across an entire continent with pure spells without a magic circle.”

[T-That’s certainly possible. Ah…!]

Noras was about to nod in admiration at Han-Yeol’s insight when a thought suddenly dawned upon him.

“You know something, right?”

[Yes. When I was on the run from those bastards, I saw the Cleaners taking a huge batch of magic ingredients to the Mountain Range of Beginnings.]

The Cleaners referred to the jackal race. They belonged to the Dark Faction, but despite their strong power, they provided basic labor to the hyena race, who were short in number, acting as their hands and feet.