Noh Ha-yoon shivered at the thought of her mom.
Her mom, who always showered her with immense love, guided her only daughter—who had uniquely inherited her abilities—in the right direction. Sure, there was a minor problem with the merciless violence that accompanied it.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s correct. I just hate that it’s a path I can never deviate from…”
Noh Ha-yoon always wondered. Did her mom truly see her as a daughter? Or did she just view her as a puppet to fulfill the unachieved aspirations of her own? Whatever it was, it was undoubtedly a twisted form of love.
“I need to stand on my own. The only one I can trust is myself.”
Again, her gaze caught a girl who was getting riled up as she looked at herself.
How many times had Noh Ha-yoon thought a girl was pretty in her life?
The girl in front of her was one of those rare cases. A one-of-a-kind class in the world, a child who was undoubtedly as special as herself.
But.
“I’m stronger. That won’t change in the future.”
That undeniable truth allowed her to act calmly.
“Could it be that I’m only with her because of her real face? But am I not much prettier? Ugh… I seriously don’t know. For now, it seems like today is a no-go. I’ll retreat for now.”
Noh Ha-yoon suppressed her eagerness again and nodded at Yeon-hee, telling her she would be careful.
“Wow… Really…”
Helen trembled, wrapping her arms around herself, as she watched the sudden shift in Ha-yoon.
Seeing the unpredictable creature that was Noh Ha-yoon made Yeon-hee feel a strange fear she had never felt before.
And that feeling fueled her ambition to aim for even greater heights.
“…If I fight right now…”
Yeon-hee imagined a duel with Ha-yoon and weighed her chances. The conclusion that popped into her mind was a crushing victory. But that was only on the premise that Il-wol was there.
“I can’t…”
For some reason, she felt that she shouldn’t rely on Il-wol in the fight against Noh Ha-yoon.
She tried running the simulation again without Il-wol. The result was a stalemate.
But that was the result after successfully summoning the creatures. From her current perspective, Ha-yoon, with her faster casting speed, would undoubtedly have the upper hand.
It seemed she needed to either enhance her magic power to always lead summoned creatures or find other means.
After a brief moment, the spirits of both began to settle.
“Hmm… I could push a little harder, Yeon-hee. But maybe it’s still too early.”
Despite hoping Yeon-hee wouldn’t be corrupted by bad influences, she wished for her to cultivate a strong will.
Because she knew well that the ability to wield magic stemmed from an unyielding belief and will.
“Still, at least this much is a significant improvement.”
“Whoosh—”
For a brief moment, the atmosphere became peculiar in the suffocating duel of intimidation, but there was something that needed immediate attention.
Swoosh—
Because they had to decide what to do with the equipment that vanished from the blue-eyed deities and the remains of their corpses.
Surprisingly, the first to speak up was Ji-woo.
“I think it would be cleaner to just hand over all the equipment and bodies to the office. It might be a hassle if the dropped equipment sells our identities, after all. We haven’t gone too far from our entrance anyway; if we signal, the management staff will come within 30 minutes.”
That was a reasonable response. But the unbearable feeling of unease forced me to remain cautious.
“I felt like they were deliberately targeting us… That implies they’ve already identified our identities. And if they were buying time as I suspected… then staying here wouldn’t be the right answer.”
They could be hiding a large space underground, kidnapping people indiscriminately, or finding other ways to plot.
“I don’t care if other people become offerings, but what the blue-eyed guys are doing might eventually backfire on Yeon-hee.”
I had a rough idea of where those guys were scheming. Places filled with crowds or along the paths leading there.
If they were going to incur this level of casualties, they must have been aiming for such locations. After all, more materials are always better for any plan.
“Hmm—let’s do that. We’ll fire up the flares.”
While I was deep in thought, Noh Ha-yoon immediately shot off flares made from the corpse of a monster, with Ji-woo’s opinion approved by Helen.
Shoooo—
As Noh Ha-yoon infused magic into a flare the size of a baseball, it shot up, spreading red powder across the sky.
“It’s been a bit messy since morning, but if things get handled correctly, there’ll be a nice reward.”
Trying to uplift the mood, Ji-woo spoke encouragingly, but worry already filled the faces of the other people.
“What do you think, Yeon-hee?”
“Uh… honestly, I really don’t know. Leaving the corpses behind feels wrong, but staying here and wasting time doesn’t seem right either…”
“The current method seems reasonable. It’s what the manual recommends. But they said the blue-eyed guys are sacrificing hunters. So, it’s possible they might be doing the same elsewhere… Ugh, what a headache.”
“What about you, sis?”
At Jin-kyeong’s question, Helen pondered for a moment before suggesting they wait and see.
Watching Helen, I felt it was likely their desired scenario.
“I guess we should check. It’s been roughly 30 minutes since I fell back, right?”
At that moment, Noh Ha-yoon, who had quietly been listening to our conversation, cautiously added her opinion.
“I think we should head to the Lizard Swamp quickly.”
“Oh…?”
If it weren’t for Ha-yoon, I would have connected with Ran to suggest going there with Yeon-hee.
“Why’s that?”
Ji-woo quickly asked for the reason, and Noh Ha-yoon explained nonchalantly.
“Today, while I was coming back, the information department in our guild warned me about a group that’s been staying around the swamp.”
—!!
Staying. Spending the night in a dungeon. As a group?
Normally, I’d scoff at such reckless behavior, but in a situation like this, I could deduce the significance behind the actions based on the outcome.
“A force that can easily suppress the enhanced monsters that appear at night, and a group that has something to do after dark when hunters are absent…”
“But why did the information department people let that slide? They should report on any suspicious individuals.”
Jin-kyeong grumbled, but the three companions of Noh Ha-yoon shot incredulous glances at Jin-kyeong. From their reaction, I could roughly gauge how high the status of that guild member was.
“30 minutes…”
The time that had been delayed.
“Let’s go… The moment I heard about that person, I got a bad feeling.”
Yeon-hee frowned and readied herself to bolt, and our party members quickly formed ranks and began to move forward, with Noh Ha-yoon’s party naturally following suit.
While heading toward the swamp, we occasionally encountered monsters, forcing us to slow down.
But other than that, we pushed ahead almost at full speed, and Yeon-hee’s heart raced as fast as we ran.
Thanks to our haste, we arrived at the Lizard Swamp in just 1 hour and 10 minutes. But the scene that awaited us was already…
“Ahhh…”
“We’re done for…”
“This is bad…”
* * *
Two hours earlier.
An open space just before entering the Lizard Swamp.
Puff—
The ground, spacious enough for hundreds of people to comfortably relax, was embedded with hundreds of black thorns.
And in those thorns, countless other things were stuck, impaled by someone.
The humans, who should have vibrantly lived and breathed, were quickly losing their lives, impaled on the thorns.
Quietly smiling at the hunters stuck in the thorns was a man.
“Owwww…”
Muttering an unknown sound was a middle-aged man—Kwon Baek, who had given orders to Jeong Hyeong-sik.
Before the thorns that drained life, his eyes gradually turned foggy and white.
“Oooo—The gate opens… They’re coming…”
And the red-haired man behind him, watching the scene with glee, shouted at the deities.
“Can’t you hurry up and get ready? At this rate, they’ll arrive first, you sluggish bugs!!”
The deities felt wronged.
They had been camping out in the dungeon, preparing the ritual, and even handling the placement of the recognition-inhibiting items meticulously into the ground.
Today, they targeted mainly underperforming hunters, gathering materials for the ceremony.
Now, the blue-eyed deities were hoisting items into the ground and were tirelessly preparing for the grand event. They glared at the red-haired man who was shouting indiscriminately but had no complaints to air.
Because he was of a high rank, someone the division head would even have to be polite to.
Creak—
“Tch, hey Kwon Baek, it’s about time. Wrap it up. Deceiving the dungeon’s eye is reaching its limits now.”
While small lightning flashed around the division head’s body, the red-haired man was constantly surrounded by lightning that repeatedly appeared and vanished, close to a thunder strike.
The dungeon of the Lizard Swamp was rejecting them, as they were too strong for this place.
“Oooo…”
“Geez, what I meant was to enjoy this a bit, but I told you I won’t work with rookies. If blocking this is something anyone can do…”
Grumbling out loud, he didn’t interfere with the division head’s process but instead briefly stepped away to scold his deities again until the time was right.
Exactly five minutes later, a barrier formed centered around the division head known as Kwon Baek.
Having been through the barrier, Kwon Baek looked like he aged a decade, with wrinkles appearing on his face, but satisfaction was evident in his expression.
“This is it. Division head.”
“Mm—”
A well-clothed man, indicating he was of considerable quality compared to the other deities, guided Kwon Baek to a prepared spot.
Nodding, Kwon Baek settled into the space obscured by recognition obstruction, preparing to open the portal.
It was possible for him, who held mid-rank magic power at barely level D, to attempt such a miraculous feat because the massive life force from the nearly 200 hunters sacrificed as a price.
Historically, new beginnings are always hard and difficult. But they would cross over through this first gate, and once opened, subsequent gates would require less and less power to connect.
And those brutal beings that would arrive would butcher all the hunters that entered the dungeon today, marking their presence in the world once more.
Then, the great glory of Ashran would descend upon him, and he doubted it not even a little.
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