"We should catch him for you? I’ve got a fool I brought along who’s good at sniffing things out."
Curtain Call’s voice.
"No. You all don’t need to get involved. This is strictly an internal—"
That was Mun Seunghee’s voice.
As usual her tone was upright and firm, but her expression and condition didn’t look great.
Unease, fatigue, excitement, worry, embarrassment, sorrow clung to her sculpted face.
"Unnie!"
Lee Seonbin, who’d been hiding behind me, sprang out and threw herself into Mun Seunghee’s arms.
"Seonbin!?"
Mun Seunghee looked back and forth between Lee Seonbin and me with a bewildered face. New commotion rose up on all sides.
Even in a different situation, Lee Seonbin would have stood out quite a bit in that outfit.
The on-site manager next to Mun Seunghee stepped in smoothly and scattered the crowd that had gathered.
"Okay, okay—everyone, let’s break it up. Break it up! It’s over! Chief? Not here, so—"
People dispersed with regretful looks, murmuring as they went. Well, just the sight alone was enough to spark all kinds of imaginations.
"Hey, Kim Sinhwa. Fill me in later."
Even Curtain Call slipped that in as he left. By the time the sun’s up tomorrow, this’ll be grotesquely distorted.
Still holding Lee Seonbin, Mun Seunghee stared at me with round eyes.
"Mage, when you said you’d act independently... was this what you meant...?"
Huh? That’s how she connected it?
I mean, you could think that, but in this situation it should look like Lee Seonbin vanished after I moved, right?
But I suppose this is a harmless misunderstanding for now.
"Let’s go with that for the moment."
A new emotion rose on Mun Seunghee’s face. Moved, overwhelmed, grateful—so she could make expressions this dramatic.
"Unnie, that mister says he doesn’t have any friends."
"..."
Mun Seunghee gently cautioned Lee Seonbin (who feigned innocence), then spoke to me.
"You’ve helped my sister twice now."
"Your sister?"
"Yes. Seonbin is my younger sister."
Come to think of it, the two do look a bit alike.
Just like the Conqueror being in a soul-deep relationship with the [Guardian of Bongam Hall], this too is a setting the game didn’t reveal.
Mun Seunghee, who keeps a future-strategy consultant rendered useless by madness.
The word "illegitimate" that Mun Gyeongnam used earlier.
Lee Seonbin and Mun Seunghee, two people with different family names.
Even without further explanation, I can roughly see what background the two of them have.
"Even so, bringing her all the way here is a bit much, isn’t it?"
"We haven’t had problems like this until now. And there aren’t facilities that can properly care for an ability user."
"There are, though. Paju Central Hospital, for one—"
Right, according to the info Tudor dug up, Lee Seonbin was originally hospitalized there.
"Paju Central Hospital is a dangerous place with frequent unexplained explosions. Not long ago a group of cultists attacked it, and a certain mage rampaged there with massive destruction, so I decided I could no longer leave family there."
Mm...
All of that was caused by me.
Granted, even if I hadn’t done anything, Paju Central Hospital isn’t exactly a place ordinary people would consider safe.
"I understand. In that case, at least reinforce your barrier."
"The barrier..."
Mun Seunghee glanced at Lee Seonbin, then lowered her voice.
"The existing barrier should have been more than enough. I don’t know how they broke through."
"More than enough?"
But the container was smashed to pieces.
I placed a hand on my mask and looked at Lee Seonbin. I focused mana in my eyes—drilling toward Lee Seonbin’s mana core.
"?!"
Lee Seonbin looked at me, startled.
"No, I’m not doing anything. Just a second."
Ah. I see.
Though saying it out loud is going to make me sound like a snake-oil peddler.
"I know what the problem is."
"The problem?"
"Yes. The location is the problem."
Or I am.
[Great Source] is preparing catastrophic events to induce his descent and resurrection—and the end of this world.
So he’s exerting influence over these two places—Buyeo and Sokcho—also... doesn’t it really stink of corpses? Ugh, seriously. Anyway, he’s exerting influence over these two places.
In Buyeo an enormous number of cultists are converging—
And in Sokcho?
[Great Source] moved Mun Gyeongnam to dig up this Seoraksan ruin, and prepared cultists of the [Old Voice].
"But before the grand event could even start, I smashed all of it."
I personally proved that the cultists [Great Source] prepared are useless dimwits.
Would the ones watching me from a few tiers up—or deep in the Abyss—just sit idle and watch that?
"That’s why you said that earlier."
"Said what?"
"Yes, I chatted a little with Seonbin earlier."
At this timing, Lee Seonbin would have been a promising new long-term piece to probe.
Explaining all of this to Mun Seunghee would be awkward.
So I chose a simpler way.
"It looks like the ruin you discovered this time is having a bad effect on Ms. Seonbin."
"The ruin... is the problem?"
"Yes. You already knew it wasn’t a normal ruin, didn’t you?"
"That... is true."
"To be frank, I want to recommend halting the work and pulling out."
Mun Seunghee made a troubled face.
She paused for a moment, then straightened up and said:
"I don’t have the authority to do that."
"Mm, of course."
I stalled a beat, looking at Lee Seonbin, then spoke again.
"Then how about this? I’ll go into the ruin and remove a factor that could cause trouble."
"You’ll go into the ruin?"
"Yes. Ah—you’re about to say you don’t have the authority to permit that, right? It’s fine. I’ll sneak in."
I held out my hand to her.
"Just don’t come looking for me if I suddenly disappear. That’s all. With just that—Chief, you’ll be able to achieve what you wanted."
"It’d be a little easier if I called Doldoli."
"I can do it without Doldoli."
drrrrrrrrrk—
Back then I needed Doldoli because I couldn’t use magic; now it doesn’t matter.
drrrrrrrrrk—
For the first time in a while I’m riding a skateboard through the interior of the ruin.
"Then why aren’t you calling Doldoli?"
"Mm, who knows? But it probably doesn’t matter if I don’t, right?"
I’d rather not call him if I can help it—though I’m not sure why I don’t want to.
[Fireball]
KABOOOOOOM!
Monstrously huge square megaliths stretch on without end. It turns at a right angle there, then again over there—
[Great Upheaval]
KRRRRRRUMBLE!
Cracks split those obsessively straight, angular stone blocks. Good. One more hit!
[Fireball]
KABOOOOOOM!
Fireball really is the easiest.
"Kiieeeeeek!"
A shriek from far away.
The nonhuman tribe that has lived in this stale underground for ages is sending a warning to an intruder and closing in.
[Sonic Shock]
"Shut up, you lot!"
KRRRRRRUMBLE!
[L-grade accessory ‘Mask of Carcosa’ unique function ‘Yellow Domination’ activates.
// Yellow Domination: Adds the effect of ‘Spell Boost: Fear Injection’ to certain spells.]
As the shout from my mouth gained a fear-inducing effect, the nonhumans screamed and fell back.
They’re called nonhuman, but they’re the descendants of unlucky humans sealed in this underground long ago.
A dwindled tribe that has spent a long time in this dark, desolate prison, living off the moss on the floor or eating each other.
They haven’t even fully approached yet, but I can already smell the unpleasant stink of corpses.
"Ugh, the stench is awful."
"What’s that?"
"Huh? Fog? Smoke? Has that always been here?"
Patches of jet-black fog laced with a strange alien feel were blooming all over the maze.
"Whatever it is, it can’t be good for the body."
[Gale]
FWOOOOOOO!
I summoned wind and swept the black fog away.
"[Great Source] seems to want to block our approach."
"Looks that way."
Though if that were the approach, the Feast’s Offering trait should be showing up, shouldn’t it?
No idea.
In any case I kept going down—down—breaking through this angular, dark maze and descending.
This is already my second time getting through here. Counting game experience, it’s too many repetitions to count.
There aren’t the hazards from the last run, and I’m moving down without issue.
Honestly, it doesn’t feel like an adventure or an expedition so much as re-solving a puzzle I’ve grown too familiar with and now find boring.
Explosions, leaps, explosions, monsters approaching, driving them off, laying traps just in case. Hahaha, if anyone else squeezes through here they’ll get shredded by these traps. Then more explosions, leap, explosion, leap. Leap. Leap. Explosion. The locked door Kim Seonghwan opened last time? Disarmed with magic. Another leap...
And at last—
"We’re here."
The subterranean great cavern revealed at the very bottom of the deep, deep ruin.
"Grab it and head back fast. I can’t wait to see Mun Gyeongnam’s face later."
Last time I had a hell of a fight with Mun Gyeongnam here. But now there’s no one.
The vast cavern gives off nothing but silent stillness and darkness.
The altar that once held dozens of sacrifices is empty now.
And sitting alone on the altar, an old seven-branched sword.
The demon blade infused with the power of the Abyssal entity [Great Source], the [Blade of Flesh].
Its disappearance won’t make [Great Source]’s descent impossible.
It’s merely an artifact that can substitute for the sacrifices, ritual, and medium of mediums needed for his descent.
If they can procure a medium worthy of receiving [Great Source], they can attempt the descent ritual.
"But if this is gone, they won’t be able to radiate influence as powerfully as before."
I reached out toward the [Blade of Flesh], then stopped midway and cast a spell.
[Chains of Dominion]
charrarararak—
Golden chains of mana coiled around the [Blade of Flesh].
[System: ‘Feast’s Offering’ trait activates.]
BZZZZT! CRACK! BZZZZZT!
Sparks flared violently.
"I knew it."
If I’d just grabbed it, I would’ve been fried.
"All right, shall we play tug-of-war?"
Viiiiiiiiiin!
I cast in succession—conjuring dozens of magic circles to suppress the backlash.
Vuuuuuuuuum—
But what will you do?
"You’re a cut above the other Abyssal entities, aren’t you? Your body’s so heavy you can’t even attempt a brute-force descent like the rest."
[System: ‘Feast’s Offering’ trait activates.]
rrrrrrrrrrrumble—
A sickening vibration rose from beneath the cavern.
"Tekeli-li!!"
That spine-crawling cry I heard several times last run.
"It’s not time for you to emerge—did someone force you awake?"
shlararararak—
An amorphous body heaved and slithered up.
There’s still time.
"I’ll get it fast and take care of it!"
Viiiiiiiiiin!
An enormous number of magic circles flared up all around.
shlararararak!
"Tekeli-li!!"
At last the shoggoth revealed itself.
It didn’t appear from one direction.
Rearing up like a colossal wave, the shoggoth surged at me from every side.
shshshshsh— SPLIT!
shlaaaaash!
Darkness.
The nauseating flesh-stench of the shoggoth, enough to make my mind reel.
I was swept up by the shoggoth’s—by that horrific wave of gelatinous flesh—
[L-grade weapon ‘Blade of Flesh’ unique function ‘Time Stop’ activates.
// Time Stop: Time halts. Its duration is proportional to Mental Strength.]
[Time Stop]
