“Edwin, it’s too deep….”
“Just hold on a bit longer.”
Claris Academy, deep within the Lint Forest, surrounded by towering trees.
During the treasure hunt event, Edwin’s adventurous spirit was ablaze.
“This isn’t… outside the event, is it?”
“It should be. The Lint Forest is huge…”
‘Seriously, what a guy…’
Melissa sighed with a smile and followed behind him.
The chirping of birds had stopped, and the sounds of life around them faded away.
‘Should I just grab him?’
Melissa, aware that they were alone, was contemplating whether to hold his hand or not.
Then it happened.
–BOOM!!!!!!
“What… what’s that!”
“!!”
With a roar that could pierce eardrums, the area around Melissa and Edwin began to shimmer and tremble.
–KABOOM!!!
And just like that, the shaking subsided.
“???”
The unidentified red light became clearer and began to draw something.
“A, a magic circle?”
Melissa, well-versed in theories, recognized it immediately.
This was a colossal ritual.
And judging by its shape,
it wasn’t a glamour magic circle commonly used by human magicians, nor was it an ancient spell.
It was a dark magic circle.
In other words, it was a demonic ritual.
“Ugh, it’s dark magic…”
–FWHOOSH!
At that moment, lines of the spell shot up into the air.
–ZOOM! ZOOM!
Then in diagonal, then vertical, moving in all kinds of irregular ways,
it began to sketch something out, as if trying to summon something.
Its scale exceeded five times the height of the two.
“Melissa, behind me!”
“Uh… okay.”
Sensing danger instinctively, Edwin positioned himself in front of Melissa.
–ZOOM!
Light revealed its identity, taking shape in an instant.
–GROOOO!!
Suddenly, what stood before them was a gigantic monster.
Its face was unrecognizable, marred by needle-like scars, and its body seemed to consist of three ogres fused together.
In one hand, it held a chain, and in the other, a flesh ripper…
a rag made from corpses.
*
Chapter 3’s main episode, “Monster Descend: Gate of the Underworld,” unfolds in two parts simultaneously.
First, Edwin and Melissa encounter a gigantic monster in the Lint Forest, encapsulated in the demon’s barrier.
A battle against the [Tyrant Chain – Corpse Rag].
And then,
inside the Academy, hordes of [Corpse Legion] invade from the Gate of the Underworld.
Blending in with the demon creatures appearing in the treasure hunt, confusion reigns.
And helping Edwin and Melissa is, of course, Yeriel.
As Edwin manages to block the Corpse Rag with her help,
the Great Demon Bunea emerges, kickstarting phase two.
My prediction is that the Corpse Rag ranks at least A or above,
and Bunea’s rank is likely higher, making it safe to say that Edwin wouldn’t be able to defeat Bunea.
Ultimately, as per the original story, Bunea, recognizing the Tarchangel power within Yeriel, attempts to kidnap her but fails.
Instead, he places a curse that seals all her elemental abilities.
In short,
the moment she showcases her power, she loses it and becomes a character whose presence fades away.
Angry, Edwin tries to muster his awakened power to fight, but it wouldn’t be enough to defeat the Great Demon Bunea, resulting in nothing but humiliation.
Eventually, after the professors and academy guardians arrive, Bunea gracefully retreats to Pandemonium, having slaughtered countless students.
In the end, this narrative exists as a device by the author to suppress Edwin and the fundamental heroines’ growth while Caeran is absent.
Thus, I have two choices.
To either help Yeriel avoid losing her powers to Bunea,
or quickly seal the Gate of the Underworld so that the academy’s forces can focus on Bunea.
“I…”
Ultimately, I chose the latter.
To guard the Gate of the Underworld.
The reason is that I have a good method to manage the Gate,
and there’s a big picture I want to experiment with through this gate.
‘I can’t let go of such a large episode without doing anything…’
If I play my cards right, I might catch two rabbits—rescuing Yeriel as well.
I can only hope Edwin can hold on until I return.
‘Let me have the essence value of the Black Dragon…’
.
.
.
Old Commercial District.
I’m searching for the Gate of the Underworld…
–AHHH, RUN AWAY!
–Hey! They said it could go up to two!
–Are we disqualified?
–We just found two already!
Many students were already in combat with the ‘phantom’ monsters here.
The festive atmosphere felt much more chaotic than usual.
So when the monsters from the Gate of the Underworld suddenly appeared,
one might think, ‘Oh, is this a new treasure hunt event?’
.
.
.
How long had I been running around?
Suddenly, a status window popped up before my eyes.
–DING.
[Living Achievement]
[Discovery: Gate of the Underworld]
Huh?
There’s nothing around me?
Just in the peaceful middle of the commercial district.
But the status window reacts only when I return to that spot,
–DING.
[Living Achievement]
[Discovery: Gate of the Underworld]
It reacts when I come back to this place.
‘Wait… the status window appears because of the gamer trait.’
Thinking in game terms…
‘It’s on the z-axis.’
It’s simple if you think of a game’s mini-map.
If there’s a ping on the map and you approach that spot but can’t see an NPC,
it means it’s above or below ground.
Since the sky is all there is above, the answer is below ground.
Is it the influence of the hellishly difficult level?
‘There’s probably something hidden in the sewer…’
I immediately made my way down into the sewers.
.
.
.
–KUUEE? KUUEEE!!
–KANG! KANG!
“I can’t hold on… anymore…!”
Raymond’s groaning voice mixed with the wails of corpses echoed throughout the underground.
“Dailen…? Dailen!!”
–Cough.
Instead of answering, Dailen spat out blood.
Raymond was up front, and though armoured, he couldn’t tell, but
Dailen had long since had chunks bitten off his right thigh and left ribs by ghouls.
“Damn…”
The corpse monsters, ghouls, were expected to be easy to deal with due to their instinct to rush in.
But reality was different.
Some ghouls didn’t go down easily with a proper strike, and they were relentlessly tormenting Dailen.
As I got caught up in that, I ended up sustaining two lethal injuries without properly managing my stamina.
Ghouls piled up at Dailen’s feet.
The overwhelming stench was becoming too familiar.
I managed to defeat dozens of them, but…
It was never-ending.
The fear that ghouls were continuously pouring in from that door consumed both Dailen and Raymond.
And those monsters had genuine hunger.
“What am I supposed to do? I can’t take anymore!”
Raymond’s cry was desperate.
He barely held off the monsters with his sword and shield, but
as the ghouls piled up one by one, they were gradually cornered.
All strength drained from his body.
The moment he lowered his shield, those ghouls would devour him.
Thinking about that brought tears streaming down my face.
“Am I… going to die?”
“Shut up, Raymond.”
‘What a nightmare. Was my fate to end up in a ghoul’s belly?’
Yesterday’s salon seems like a dream now.
What the hell happened to that peaceful life?
This was supposedly the empire’s top academy… How could they not manage even this?
Why should I die here…
And the thought that bothered him the most?
‘Guess I was never meant to be Caeran.’
Dailen’s consciousness was cut off due to excessive hemorrhaging, and
“I don’t want to die…!!!!”
–THUD!
Raymond also collapsed, exhausted.
.
.
.
–KEEEEEK
–KIEEEE!
Did I lose my sense of pain?
I didn’t even feel the ghouls tearing me apart.
As heavy eyelids drooped and narrowed my field of vision,
–SHIING!
Something whizzed past.
Ghouls sprang up.
That was all.
.
.
.
[Critical Hit!]
[Additional Damage Proportional to Agility]
[Target Weak Point! Additional Damage Proportional to Critical Hit]
[Damage Multiplier: 1250%]
[Agro + 0]
[Agro: 5]
[Luck Activated! Crossbow – Skill Proficiency Experience is skyrocketing!]
[Crossbow – Skill Proficiency at 8 nearing!]
A swarm of ghouls came rushing in,
and monsters that had just been regenerated in the Reincarnated Hero would not attract agro for two seconds, making hiding super sweet.
The small proficiency was even sweeter.
While 8 is usually achieved at war hero level,
the crossbow, being such an underutilized weapon, seemed to have reached this level quickly…
But…
‘Why are they here…’
As I finished dispatching a few ghouls, I noticed two male students amidst the corpses.
Of course, I didn’t remember their names…
Anyway, it’s a bit surprising that the plot is different from fan fiction,
but inadvertently, they bought me some time.
“Up to here is good.”
For now, I have no intention of reporting the Gate of the Underworld to the academia.
Soon, this will be a massive strategy.
The Gate is a high-level dimensional black magic connecting Pandemonium and the empire in one go,
so it’s a challenging ultra-large spell to execute.
It seems they successfully established it by draining all the magical powers in Pandemonium.
However, unlike creating this Gate, closing it is easy.
A high-ranking demon, a Great Demon, can resolve it with just one command.
In other words, using demonization,
it will be assessed as a Great Demon level.
–KUUEE!
–THUD!
I blew the head off one of the ghouls crawling out of the door and started chanting.
‘Demonization.’
–PHEW!
As I touched the form of the demon while in demonized state, a status window popped up.
–DING.
[Gate of the Underworld]
[Currently Operational]
[Closure Possible]
‘I’ll be back, let’s do this again later.’
“Closure.”
With just a simple word from me…
–KREEEEEK…
–KABOOM!!!
The massive mouth of the demon closed with a bang.
“Phew…”
Then I carried the two soon-to-be corpses out through the sewer.
*
Before long, the sky that Edwin and Melissa saw turned purple.
Thanks to the demon’s unique barrier.
And,
–BAM! BAM!
The rag’s series of attacks,
–BAM!
broke the ground beneath them.
“Melissa, get away from me!”
“…Edwin!”
Edwin pushed Melissa back.
As the Corpse Rag lifted its flesh ripper embedded in the ground, he seized the moment to attack.
–DASH!
Edwin’s nimble figure darted around to the right of the rag and severed its arm joint.
‘Severed!’
–SLAASH!
–OOWWW!
With that clean strike, the rag flinched momentarily,
but in an instant, the wound healed.
–UUUUU…
“!”
–TRRRR…
“?”
Recognizing Edwin, it began spewing waste all over with its entire body.
–SSSHHHH…
–ROOOO!!!
Then, at a speed incomparably greater than before,
–WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
it started swinging its arms around wildly.
–BAM! CRASH! BANG!!
Each strike was so heavy that even a paladin would be turned to dust,
but ‘Crazy!’
It had unpredictable speed.
Edwin judged it was stronger than the Hwayeomakgui.
–BAM! CRASH!
The thunderous sounds continued,
causing the trees of the Lint Forest to snap… and fragments of earth and stone to fly.
A complete pandemonium.
‘The rag is on a different level from the ones in the practical test…’
The rag combined with corpses had many weaknesses but also a rapidly healing factor.
In a nutshell, unless the strike contained divine power, it would be tough to inflict effective damage.
‘Focus.‘
Not yet used to wielding sacred power, Edwin closed his eyes to concentrate.
–Phew, stay alive!
Fortunately, the roar was so loud that,
students nearby in the Lint Forest started to gather one by one to assist Edwin.
–Cast support magic on that guy!
–Isn’t he C-rank?
–Does that even matter?!
Edwin was at the forefront.
Melissa, the mid-rank mage, and a female student capable of support magic.
A rapidly assembled party formed with a male student armed with knives at the back.
–CLING!
–DASH!
Thanks to the acceleration support magic, Edwin barely escaped the Corpse Rag’s attack range.
But that was all.
The male student with the poisoned dagger sneaked behind the rag, and then
–CLINK!
–!!
“Sa… save!”
Caught in the chains, he became a sacrifice for the flesh ripper.
–BAM! FLOP!
–AAAAHHHHHHH!!!
In an instant, he lost his form, blood splattering everywhere in a horrific scene.
No screams escaped the mouths of everyone present.
Just the rising sense of nausea.
–ROOOO!!!
After dispatching one, the Corpse Rag dug into the unfortunate’s face and
–THUD! THUD! THUD!
suddenly began lumbering deeper into the Lint Forest.
“Melissa, are you okay?”
“Edwin… I’m fine, but the problem is…”
“Problem?”
“What it’s targeting is probably another corpse…”
“What do you mean by that?”
Melissa’s explanation was simple.
Deep within the Lint Forest are the graves and stele of war heroes who wish to be buried at the academy.
Of course, it could be defined as just the bones left behind.
But for the devouring rag…
the situation could potentially escalate to the worst.
“…Edwin?”
Without hesitation, Edwin stood up.
“Melissa, it’s a festival, so there should be guardians deployed everywhere.”
“I… no. Don’t go without me…”
“It’s okay; there’s only that monster here. Make your way to Professor McClone, where there are plenty of people.”
–DASH!
Finishing his brief words, Edwin bolted.
–SWISH!
Once again, Edwin’s slash dispersed against the rag.
But it didn’t flinch.
And matching its weapons together,
–BZZZZZ!!!
“!”
It rotated 180 degrees and launched an attack at Edwin.
–CRASH———ANG!!
“Cough!”
The trees in Edwin’s dodging path were reduced to splinters,
–I’m sorry! This is too much for me!
–I’ll call for more people!
–It’s a demonic barrier! The entire Lint Forest… it’s trapping us!
–What?!?! We can’t escape…?
Even students hiding around became disheartened upon hearing that they couldn’t escape.
And then,
as Edwin tried to rise with his sword again,
the rag’s spinning attack continued without pause.
–KABOOM———BAM!
‘Cough!!!!!’
Ducking just one rag was troublesome,
“Edwin!”
–SQUEAK…
–!!
–THUD!
Even the trees in the forest were starting to fall, threatening Edwin.
–SQUAW…
–THUD! KABOOM!
As trees piled up, Edwin’s range of motion narrowed.
And just as the Corpse Rag raised its arms to finish him off,
–FLARE~!!!
–UUURRAAAAH!
The area around the rag suddenly lit up brilliantly.
Then the mysterious flames started to scorch it without mercy,
–FLARE~!!!
–ROOAAAHHH!!!
As they came together again, forming a bird shape.
Phoenix.
The immortal bird.
Awe that could burn even fear away.
The density of the flames known as ‘flame’ was something even Melissa couldn’t touch.
“Get your hands off my junior!”
The elemental sorceress, Yeriel, had appeared.
