𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟖
We arrived at the ruins and looked around the empty interior, searching for anything special.
However, there was no way we could find something now that we couldn’t find when we first discovered it……
“Maybe it’s that?”
Suddenly, Yua pointed to a thin, long rod in front of us.
The end of the rod had a three-pronged base, which looked like it could hold a crystal.
‘Should I put it on?’
Thinking that it would be better to try something, I placed the crystal on it, and it immediately reacted.
Pabbat!━
A blue light emerged from the placed crystal, then traveled down the rod and spread across the floor of the ruins like a spiderweb.
Looking closely at the brightly lit floor, we could see a shape resembling a magic circle.
‘I can’t believe I missed something so simple.’
Of course, at first, we didn’t know where to use the crystal, and it had no magic power, so we had to go to Radeles. But in reality, once we knew, it turned out to be a surprisingly simple device.
[The Temple of Purification is activated.]
[Stored Magic Power：35,123.]
[All curses that have encroached upon the land will disappear for the next 3 minutes and 30 seconds.]
“……”
Is this it?
Moreover, the message was so incomprehensible that it made me tilt my head.
“What does it mean? Curses disappearing?”
“Maybe it means it’ll temporarily block the desolate land?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
What good would it do to block the already desolate land?
Besides, even if it did block it, 3 minutes was too short.
‘There must be a cursed place somewhere.’
That’s the only conclusion I could reach.
If my guess was correct, I wondered if the secret passage that Lee Juho found was the cursed place.
If it was cursed, it would explain why we couldn’t proceed further.
‘But on the other hand, even if the curse is lifted, there’s no need to worry.’
They wouldn’t be able to do much in just 3 minutes.
Thinking so, I told Sina the conclusion I had reached.
“I think there might be a curse inside the secret passage, and this device might be what removes it.”
“The secret passage? Ah, that’s possible.”
The problem was that we were back to square one.
We were able to figure out how to use this ruin, but there was nowhere to use it right now.
‘The stone tablet tells us how to use it, the ruins and the crystal are items that activate this ruin, so in the end, it was all for nothing.’
There was the remaining item, the clay doll, but I didn’t want to worry about it right now.
Like the ruin, the clay doll was also an item that blocked curses.
‘I feel like all the hard work we put in yesterday to find these items was for nothing.’
With no progress, my motivation seemed to disappear.
‘As expected……’
In this situation, there were three ways to proceed.
Go to the fortress with the followers alone, go to the village and fight the Earth Dragon and the apostle, or find the secret passage that Lee Juho discovered.
“Ah, right. Rudin-nim, would you like to go to Molmol Village?”
“Molmol? That mole village?”
“Yes.”
Sina’s sudden suggestion to go to the mole village was confusing, so I stared at her, and she explained why she wanted to go there.
“To look for the secret passage.”
“The secret passage?”
“Yes, think about it. There’s no way the secret passage would be out here in the open, right? It’s definitely underground.”
“So, since it’s underground, we should ask the moles……”
Now that I think about it, it made sense.
There was no way the secret passage would be on the empty ground, so it must be underground, and to search underground, it would be better to ask the moles for help.
‘And without using the second Intuition.’
Honestly, yesterday, I couldn’t log out every time I found something, so I logged out after finding them all at once.
It seemed like the aftereffects were still lingering, but if we could find the secret passage by asking the moles as Sina suggested, there would be no need to use the second Intuition.
Lastly, the secret passage was one of the three ways I thought of to proceed with the main scenario.
“Let’s go.”
With that thought, I decided to head to Molmol Village without hesitation.
* * *
Fortunately, finding Molmol Village wasn’t too difficult.
It was located not far from where we had found the village entrance before, and after using the Gem-Eating Snake there, things progressed quite easily.
“You have another request?”
Mous, who rushed out as soon as we found the entrance, looked at us with a disgruntled expression.
“Wasn’t the previous request of telling you the location of the barrier enough?”
“We have one more favor to ask. Think about the value of the Sun Stone we gave you before.”
“The Sun Stone……”
It wasn’t the Sun Stone I gave him, but it seemed to be working.
After much deliberation, Mous nodded and asked what the request was.
“Sigh, I have no choice. Alright, what is your request?”
It was strange to see a mole sighing, but I didn’t waste any time and got straight to the point.
“Please find the secret passage that’s underground.”
“Underground? Are you sure it’s underground?”
“If it were above ground, we would have found it already.”
Mous nodded in agreement with my answer, but in turn, set a condition.
“If it’s underground, we’ll find it. That’s our specialty. But if we find it, don’t come to our village again.”
“What?”
“I mean, let’s end things with the Sun Stone your companion gave us, the barrier location, and the secret passage.”
‘What should I do?’
If I had given him the Sun Stone, I would have accepted, but the Sun Stone was an item that Aizen had found.
If I accepted here, there was a high chance that Aizen wouldn’t be able to enter the mole village either, and that would unintentionally harm him as well.
“Hold on a moment. Let me ask him.”
Since Aizen’s Sun Stone was at stake, I couldn’t make the decision alone.
I decided to ask Aizen and immediately contacted him. Aizen, who was still logged in to find Lee Juho, answered right away.
━Yes, Rudin-nim.
“Actually, I’m about to ask the Molmol tribe to find the secret passage.”
━You mean they can find the secret passage?
“It’s not certain yet. But in exchange, we can’t come to this village again.”
━I see.
Aizen seemed to be contemplating my explanation.
In reality, Lee Juho had found the secret passage without the help of the Molmol, and it seemed possible to find it if we searched carefully, so asking for this favor might actually be a loss.
But Aizen quickly made his decision.
━Please ask them to find it.
“Can I ask them?”
━Yes, if we find the secret passage, we’ll be closer to the main scenario. And there might be a chance for revenge.
Aizen seemed to be holding a grudge against what happened two days ago.
“Alright. Then I’ll do that.”
━By the way, I saw the message about the Temple of Purification being activated. Did you do that, Rudin-nim?
“Huh? Did the message reach you too?”
━Yes.
If Aizen received the message, it meant that everyone in this area received it.
If a message was sent to everyone, wouldn’t the Temple of Purification have an important role?
Of course, for now, we didn’t know what it was used for, so we had to leave it alone.
“I did activate it. But I don’t know how to use it yet.”
━Understood. Then please continue.
Fortunately, after finishing the conversation with Aizen on a good note, I spoke to Mous without hesitation.
“Please find it.”
“Alright. We’ll mobilize our entire tribe to find it.”
After that, Mous returned to the village, and we waited for a long time.
It would be unreasonable to expect them to find it immediately after asking, so waiting was inevitable, but we couldn’t leave this place because we didn’t know when Mous would return.
‘How long do we have to wait?’
If I were alone, waiting might have been boring, but talking with them helped alleviate the boredom for a while.
“Have you been waiting long?”
After about an hour of waiting, Mous appeared faster than I expected.
“As you said, there was a secret passage. So, we followed it and found the location of the entrance.”
“Really?”
“Why would I lie about something like this? I’ll tell you the location of the entrance, so don’t come back here.”
[You have found the secret passage to the Abandoned Castle.]
[A specific location is marked on the map. You can identify the location with the command ‘Map Check’.]
When I checked the map after seeing the message, I could see a location marked quite a distance away.
It would take about 1-2 hours to walk there.
If I ran at full speed using Giant’s Sprint, it wouldn’t take even 5 minutes, but Yua and Sina couldn’t keep up with my speed, so we had no choice but to walk at a slightly faster pace.
“Thank you.”
“No need for thanks.”
Mous waved his hand dismissively and went back into the village.
The entrance gradually disappeared after Mous entered, but I thought it might be possible to find it again.
However, if we found it again, it seemed like we would become hostile with the Molmol tribe, so we decided not to look for it anymore and moved to the location Mous had told us.
“We found it quite easily.”
“But we can’t get help from the moles anymore.”
“We can just find another Sun Stone, right?”
“Well, I don’t know.”
We already had a Sun Stone, would we need another one?
Anyway, hoping that we would never have to go to the mole village again, I contacted Aizen and briefly told him the location of the secret passage. Aizen said he would go there right away.
━I’ll head there now.
‘By the way, I really need a mount summon.’
Walking to the location of the secret passage made me realize how inefficient it was.
‘Is there no decent summon?’
Personally, I thought a flying summon would be good.
Thinking about summons while walking diligently, I finally arrived at the location of the secret passage, and I could see Aizen and his guild members who had arrived first.
He seemed to have brought every single member, as the number was overwhelming at a glance.
‘But that many people can’t all enter the secret passage, right?’
Why would it be called a secret passage?
It was a secret passage because most people wouldn’t know about it or be able to use it.
Simply put, a secret passage was something that only a small number of people could use. If hundreds of people were to pass through it at once, it wouldn’t be a secret passage anymore.
It would be like an 8-lane highway.
“You’ve arrived.”
“You’re not planning on taking all these people inside, are you?”
“I brought them to guard this place. We can’t let them use the secret passage anymore.”
I nodded in agreement and found the secret passage.
Since it was clearly marked on the map, it wasn’t difficult to find, but it was a bit unexpected that nothing was visible, as if it were hidden.
‘Lee Juho must have found it, but it’s not here.’
Does it return to its original state after a while?
Thinking that this secret passage might be similar to the mole village and the elf village, I used the Gem-Eating Snake’s Exploration skill, and I could see the stairs I had been looking for appear.
[The secret passage to the Abandoned Castle will be revealed for 5 minutes.]
“5 minutes?”
“Is there a problem?”
“The secret passage will only be open for 5 minutes.”
“That’s not a problem. If you don’t mind, I’ll go in first.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
I wasn’t underestimating Aizen’s skills, but Lee Juho and the woman with the axe were formidable opponents.
Especially the woman, who had acquired an S-rank skill, so there was a possibility that they could be defeated if they weren’t careful.
“Yes.”
However, Aizen showed no intention of backing down and answered, and I nodded and helped him enter first.
I had no intention of interfering with Aizen’s objective, as I knew it from the beginning.
Thus, Aizen entered the secret passage with a total of 100-200 people, including himself, and after waiting for a while, I revealed the secret passage that had disappeared again and entered it with Yua and Sina.
Leave a Reply