Chapter: 81
Episode 81 – Party Time (3) – Sanctum of Blessings (2), What the Others Went Through.
– Elena
I was a bit flustered. “A kid trying to mislead me in the wrong direction?” What on earth does that mean?
“Excuse me?”
“I’m talking about the child who entered the hotel for the second time. That child, like a blind man touching an elephant, has only encountered a minuscule part of the hotel and was lucky enough to leave alive, yet they’re under the delusion that they’ve gained immense insight about the hotel and its blessings.”
… Is this about Ahri? It seems my sponsor holds a negative view of Ahri.
“Do not be easily swayed. The scales of justice only reveal true power when the standards are upright. You might think you can grow strong by whimsically swinging the scales, but such power will hit a ceiling swiftly.”
I couldn’t make sense of what she meant. Becoming stronger by whimsically swinging the scales? What on earth does that imply?
“You don’t seem to understand my words. Well, that’s fine. There’s no need to try and comprehend the erroneous path.”
She didn’t seem inclined to provide further explanation.
After finishing her drink, the woman left me with one last remark.
“I shall grant you the power to distinguish between truth and falsehood.”
As my consciousness started to fade, I mused.
Questions emerged from this conversation. Would pondering alone lead me to any answers?
Let’s just ask Ahri directly.
I made up my mind to have an honest chat with Ahri.
*
[Elena – Justice -> Has acquired ‘Lie Detection’.]
*
– Kim Ahri
Clink! The sound of a door opening.
An office-like view before me, filled with massive vaults.
My sponsor, whom I was meeting for the first time, looked like a man dressed in a suit.
.
.
.
We had quite a lengthy chat. Right before leaving, my sponsor offered me a warning.
“Your ‘Wisdom’ is growing rapidly. You haven’t forgotten, have you? If your ‘Blessing’ gets outpaced by ‘Wisdom,’ then the holder of that wisdom will uncover the truths you’ve hidden.”
“… I’m aware.”
“If you know, then don’t you think your passive behavior in the ‘Common Sense Renovating Media’ has been a blunder? Though ‘Wisdom’ has yet to acquire an inheritance, it has made contributions and grown its blessings.”
Meanwhile, you haven’t made any contributions at all.”
“I’ll have to be careful then.”
With that final warning, my consciousness returned to the surface.
*
[Kim Ahri – Allusion -> Has acquired ‘Compass’.]
*
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 25
Current Location: Floor 1, Sanctum of Blessings
Sage’s Advice: 3]
– Han Kain
Zap! I jolted awake.
When I regained my senses, the others appeared to be bewildered.
“Huh? Kain, how did you wake up so quickly?”
I looked around. Jinchul-hyung, Elena, and Ahri were sprawled out, as if in a deep slumber.
It seemed they would remain unconscious for a day, just as I had when I empowered my blessing.
Since I didn’t enhance mine this time, I woke up immediately.
I explained my situation and shared how my sponsor suggested I gather more contribution points for a ‘very powerful empowerment.’
Eunsol-noona reacted with surprise.
“A very powerful empowerment? Understand the scenario? I can’t grasp it based on just that, but it sounds grand!”
“That’s why I’ve decided to save it.”
Mooksung-grandpa nodded.
“That’s interesting! Sounds like it’ll be a significant asset. On another note, it’s fortunate you woke up quickly.”
“What do you mean?”
“We have to carry all three of them back. You carry the pig.”
I shot him a look, silently questioning him.
“What? Are you telling me to carry him? Surely not! I’m at an age where my knees ache just from walking!”
Didn’t he used to fly around the mountains just a while back?
In the end, grandpa carried Ahri, while Eunsol-noona and Songee alternated carrying Elena, and I half-dragged Jinchul-hyung back to room 105.
He’s sturdy, so he should be fine.
That’s how we wrapped up the first morning of Party Time.
*
At lunchtime in room 105, it felt oddly empty without Jinchul, Elena, and Ahri. Naturally, our conversation turned to our plans.
“Well, we’ll probably have to go to the safari tomorrow afternoon, right?”
Eunsol-noona answered immediately, “Right. It’s a place to practice the inheritance, but the one actually practicing will only wake up tomorrow afternoon.”
“So the afternoon of today until tomorrow morning will be a bit stagnant.”
Grandpa Mooksung jumped in quickly.
“What do you mean, Kain? Your schedule is packed. You, Songee, and Seungyub will be joining me to work on our stamina!”
Was there any valid excuse to get out of this?
“Four days of workouts won’t yield much results, will it? How about exploring the hotel instead? There’s bound to be more hidden secrets.”
“Why separate training from exploration? Were you expecting we’d be doing calisthenics in the corridor?
You’ll soon discover that the hotel’s basement contains a plethora of ridiculous places. The two areas I’m focusing on are ‘Hiking’ and ‘Park.’”
“Aren’t you supposed to have gone to the Hiking place already with Eunsol-noona?”
“I did. When you open the door, a mountain appears. It’s not like the little hills you find around, it’s a real mountain, like Baekdu Mountain!”
“A mountain when you open the door? That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Shh! Keep quiet! My opinion is simple. Why distinguish between exploration and exercise?
There’s certainly something hidden in that vast mountain. We can search for anything that might be there while working out too.”
Do we really have no excuses? Climbing a mountain like Baekdu Mountain?
Songee finally found a way to counter the argument.
“If the mountain is that dangerous, wouldn’t we need special hiking gear like outfits or walking sticks? We’re in casual outfits right now!”
“Don’t worry! Just like how there are swimsuits at the hotel pool, we’ll find perfectly sized hiking gear when we go in.”
Eunsol-noona’s cheerful response was met with three sharp glares from the others.
After glaring at her for about five seconds, I replied.
“Once again, it’s a comfort knowing there’s an experienced one among us. Noona, lead us; we’ll need all the help we can get on that giant mountain.”
In the end, it was agreed that all five of us, excluding the three working on enhancing their blessings, would climb the mountain after lunch.
*
“Aah! The sky is blue and the air is fresh! Is there truly such a wonderful place as this?”
Silence
All four of us kept our mouths shut.
As we stepped inside the Hiking room in the basement, just as Eunsol-noona had declared, a mountain popped right out.
It didn’t feel like a new world like in the cursed rooms. Instead, it felt like the entire area was dedicated to hiking, where nothing existed but a mountain and the hiking gear.
I decided to just accept it.
After all, at some point or another, we’d need to thoroughly explore the hotel anyway, right?
Giving it a positive spin, I thought of it as a way to exercise and explore.
Of course, if grandpa Mooksung hadn’t insisted on this, nobody would even consider exploring the entire mountain.
When we entered the area filled with hiking gear, I was surprisingly unfazed.
There were all sorts of hiking outfits, perfectly suited for me, along with hiking shoes, sticks, bags, water bottles, and energy bars, all thoroughly prepared.
Some fancier gear appeared to be available too, but I simply grabbed a bag and moved ahead.
Just as we were about to start our hike, Grandpa dragged out Seungyub, who was fidgeting far too slowly.
As expected, Seungyub and Eunsol-noona were the first ones to struggle behind.
Grandpa Mooksung noted the issue several times, but Seungyub was a skinny boy who’d spent all his time gaming without proper meals. Eunsol-noona would claim she did hit the gym, but an office working woman’s stamina only goes so far.
To my surprise, Songee climbed without much complaint, showing much better endurance among them.
As for Grandpa Mooksung, we didn’t need to discuss it. He appeared capable of running to the peak by himself.
Eventually, due to pace, we split into three groups: Grandpa in the front, Songee and I in the middle, and Eunsol-noona with Seungyub at the back.
“You walk quite well, have you done hiking before?”
“I have a few dogs at home; maybe walking them regularly helps?”
I remembered Songee barely keeping up during the triathlon at Hotel High School, so it seemed she hadn’t really tried back then.
“Why did grandpa decide to drag us here?” I wondered.
“He said it was to explore and build stamina.”
“We’ve been challenging ourselves every day, so why add more burden to build stamina? And exploring these treacherous surroundings when there are other easier spots?”
“I think the opposite! But don’t you get the sense that there might be something special hidden on this mountain?”
As Songee said that, we started taking in our surroundings.
The landscape looked peculiar. There were no monsters or animals, but the mountain itself felt unusual.
Although I wouldn’t claim to be a plant expert, there are certainly various types of trees, right? Coniferous trees, deciduous trees—each has its own climate to grow in, but the oddity was that this strange mountain was a rainbow of trees.
Was there indeed something hidden here?
If there was, shouldn’t we be looking around more rather than just sticking to the paths?
We weren’t going to trample through the entire mountain, but perhaps we should keep an eye around the trails too?
Time passed as we made our way through the serene mountain.
Had I been walking alone, it would have probably been boring out of my mind, but chatting with Songee made it quite enjoyable.
For about an hour, it was amusing.
…
An hour passed, and the mountain was suddenly wrapped in silence.
Each step felt burdensome, and conversations were the least of my concerns; I was entirely absorbed in simply moving forward.
In the end, Songee lagged behind toning out of view as well.
Grandpa, who had been marching ahead, eased his pace, letting me close in on him.
“Feeling sweaty now?”
“I feel like I could just die.”
“Sometimes, moments like this are needed.”
“Sometimes? I’ve felt like dying every single day since arriving at this hotel…”
“In the cursed rooms, it’s not about physical exhaustion; it’s a matter of life and death, like a battlefield.”
What I’m saying is, sometimes you need these opportunities to cool off and let your mind relax while sweating out your worries.”
“I wouldn’t exactly label this as refreshing.”
“Still, walking like this has likely alleviated your worries about the cursed rooms, the trials, and the gate room, hasn’t it?”
Well, he was correct. It was so exhausting that I hadn’t even thought about anything else.
“How are your parents doing?”
That question led us into several more casual conversations. It felt like he wasn’t really asking out of interest in my family.
It felt more like he was simply fostering the dialogue itself.
It was oddly amusing to be having such mundane discussions inside a hotel bursting with supernatural oddities.
“It feels strange, doesn’t it? Those topics seem entirely ordinary outside, yet here, they feel rather unusual and special.”
“Yet, they are rather important subjects.”
A sense of relaxation washed over me. My body remained tired, but it was strangely peaceful for my heart.
Spacey, I turned my gaze skyward and glanced at the peculiarity of the trees surrounding me.
I spotted a girl among the trees, beaming at me, prompting me to wave gently at her.
…
?
Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a soothing moment? What’s this about?
What in the world is a girl doing here?
Caught off guard, I quickly turned toward the trees!
The girl remained there, smiling sweetly, and grandpa, startled by my reaction, turned to look as well.
She appeared to be a teenager, donning an outfit inexplicably unsuitable for such rugged terrain—somewhat resembling traditional eastern clothing?
“Who are you?” bellowed Grandpa Mooksung.
The smiling girl tilted her head before suddenly bolting away!
And thus began an unexpected chase in the depths of the mountain.
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