The Place Where the Sword Was Buried
Jinhyeok, still stunned, walked to the edge of the cliff.
"Don't tell me that tiny dot is the bottom?"
It wasn't because fog or clouds were obscuring the view.
The altitude of this cliff was simply so high that judging the distance with the naked eye was difficult.
"Kancho, what do you think?"
"I can't see it either!"
Among the party, Kancho the Yordle Ranger had the sharpest eyesight.
If even Kancho couldn't see it, that meant the bottom was unimaginably deep.
"Hey, Yordle raccoon. Come over here for a moment."
Elia beckoned Kancho over with a hand gesture.
Kancho put on a thoroughly disgruntled expression.
"If I'm a Yordle, I'm a Yordle, and if I'm a raccoon, I'm a raccoon! What in the world is a Yordle raccoon!? And that weird udon too!"
Kancho was confusing jjambbong and udon again today.
Still, his vocabulary seemed to be improving little by little, which was oddly satisfying.
After rummaging through her bag, Elia handed over a small cloth bundle.
"What is this? Looks like a foot rag."
"Hey now! How dare you call a masterpiece of the century a foot rag. This thing lets you survive no matter how high you fall—an incredible survival item, you know?"
"Isn't that a load of nonsense? And why are you suddenly giving me this?"
"As a Yordle Ranger, you have the responsibility of carrying out the party's reconnaissance missions, don't you?"
"That's right!"
Elia pointed toward the cliff with her finger.
"Jump down."
Jinhyeok and Momo gasped and covered their mouths.
"She's a demon."
They said it at the same time, of course.
But Kancho's reaction was unexpected.
He didn't shout, What kind of crazy old hag are you!? like one might expect.
Perhaps because of the word responsibility, he wore an extremely resolute expression.
Clutching the bundle, Kancho walked over to Jinhyeok.
"Salute! Yordle Ranger Squad Leader Kancho! I will carry out the reconnaissance mission!"
"No—wait. You don't know what's down there, and on top of that—"
Lowering his voice as he stepped closer to Kancho, Jinhyeok continued,
"This bundle looks dangerous."
No matter how he looked at it, it was just an ordinary cloth bundle.
Since it came from the Star Alchemist, it might have some hidden function, but trusting this alone and jumping off was far too risky.
"It's fine! A Yordle Ranger completes reconnaissance missions under any environment and conditions! Deploying!"
"Kanchoooo!"
He reached out too late.
Before anyone could stop him, Kancho leapt off the cliff.
"No! Kancho's gone! Who am I supposed to play games with now!? I always want to win!"
Momo plopped down on the ground.
The reason she was grieving was a bit odd, but anyway.
Elia strolled over, rubbing her chin.
"He really jumped."
"The bundle's ability is legit, right?"
"Master, do you know what the placebo effect is?"
"You mean when a patient's symptoms improve because they believe a fake medicine is real?"
"That's right."
Jinhyeok's eyes shook violently.
He was already afraid of what was coming next.
Elia didn't bother saying it out loud.
She simply gave a bright smile and a thumbs-up.
"A demon."
He reaffirmed it and peered down the cliff.
Kancho, who had plunged downward, was already so far away that not even a tiny dot was visible.
They waited briefly, hoping for the scout's safe return.
With a splat, Kancho appeared.
He was completely soaked, as if he'd been caught in the rain.
"Saluuute! Yordle Ranger Squad Leader Kancho! Reconnaissance mission complete and returned!"
"Kanchoooo!"
They pulled the safely returned Kancho into a hug.
"Thankfully, the bundle worked properly! I landed safely!"
"As expected of me."
Elia nodded with a proud expression.
No doubt about it.
She was a 3,271-year-old witch.
"The bottom is unbelievably deep. It took a long time before I reached it. And I picked this up."
Kancho pulled a small pebble out of his Yordle bag.
Smooth to the touch, the stone carried an enigmatic blue hue.
"Oh… is this lapis?"
"Granny, aren't you just making things up again?"
"Hey now. A 3,271-year-old elf knows everything, you know? This is a raw stone found very rarely in lakes inhabited by spirits."
"Momo, give it to me! This is super expensive!"
"It's not just expensive. Spirits don't inhabit just any lake. The water has to be unimaginably pure, and life energy has to be overflowing. This is a stone tempered by such energy over hundreds of years."
Ding!
[You have discovered the final clue of the Legendary Quest 'Traces of the Black Knight Order'!]
[You have cleared Mythic Tower Floor 9!]
[Requirement to enter Mythic Tower Floor 10: Complete the quest 'Traces of the Black Knight Order']
[Exiting Mythic Tower Floor 9!]
Immediately after returning from Mythic Tower Floor 9.
[You have cleared Despair Tower Floor 56!]
[Time taken: 17 seconds. You have obtained an SSS+ rank!]
[Player Yoo Jinhyeok's experience has increased! Current EXP: 43%]
[Card Heroes' experience has increased!]
He quickly made a run through the Tower of Despair as well.
[You have obtained 320 Ocharc's Venom Fangs and 117 Baby Basilisk Claws!]
[Collector Momo's Nimble Hands has been applied, increasing the grade of each component!]
Momo sat plopped on the ryokan floor, sorting through the components they had obtained today.
She was sitting with her back to Elia, as if afraid the parts might be stolen again.
Whether she minded or not, Elia was still sneakily plucking them away one by one whenever Momo looked elsewhere.
"As expected of her experience."
Nodding to himself, Jinhyeok stretched.
Then he examined the lapis brought back from the Mythic Tower.
A raw stone that had been sleeping in a deep lake.It has absorbed the lake's pure energy for hundreds of years.If it meets a skilled craftsman, it can be reborn as an accessory with special abilities.
He let out a low hum.
The condition for entering the next Mythic Tower was clearing the Legendary Quest.
In other words, unlike in Raven's case, the next sword couldn't be found in the Mythic Tower.
"Either it exists in the real world like Muramasa, or it's in the Tower of Despair. If it's the former…"
He took out the Yordle Compass.
"Grave of Swords."
The Yordle Compass pointed the way whenever you spoke the destination you wished to go to.
But it didn't react to the name he had just spoken.
Rather than not existing, it might simply be defined under a different name.
Next, he brought out the lapis.
If there was another lapis somewhere, it should guide him there.
"Please react!"
Swallowing dryly, he prayed earnestly.
If it was neither the Mythic Tower nor here, then the only place left was the Tower of Despair.
Since there was no telling when the relevant floor would appear, clearing the quest could become indefinitely delayed.
If it only appeared on a special floor that required a compression ticket, the situation would be disastrous.
"React. React. React. React."
After muttering at nearly a shamanistic level for a while—
Rrrrrk.
The compass needle and numbers began to change rapidly.
The direction was quickly fixed, but the number kept climbing without stopping.
When it finally stopped, Kancho gaped.
"The number is big."
"Yeah. How many zeros is that?"
Jinhyeok counted the zeros one by one.
11,000 kilometers.
Absurdly far.
Even the Okryong Snow Mountains they'd visited to find the Imugi were only 3,000 kilometers away.
This was nearly four times that distance.
"And the fact that the compass reacted means…"
He rubbed his chin rapidly.
It meant that the place Seira had called the Grave of Swords—the destination of Kan, vice-captain of the Black Knight Order, and his knights—was located in this very world.
He quickly opened a map app and estimated the region based on direction and distance.
The country was Wales in the United Kingdom.
The location pointed to Snowdonia National Park, a place famous even as a tourist destination.
"A tourist spot?"
A question mark was inevitable.
He had assumed it would be somewhere untouched by human feet, so the idea of a tourist attraction was completely unexpected.
It would be easy to get there, but whether the Grave of Swords and the third sword were really there was another matter.
"I can't say it's 100% certain."
There was no rule saying lapis could only exist at the Grave of Swords.
It was entirely possible that after traveling 11,000 kilometers, they'd find nothing but a single fragment of lapis.
Still, there was no choice but to go.
Lapis was the only lead he had.
"Are we going far again?"
"Yeah. Much farther than last time."
"Momo wants to go too!"
"Of course you're coming. Let's check the flight prices."
Now that the location was known, there was no time to hesitate.
For the sake of the next Mythic Tower climb, they had to leave immediately.
Jinhyeok cautiously checked the business class fares.
After flying first class to Japan last time, his standards had risen a bit.
"Oh."
Seeing the changed price, he quickly unchecked it.
With that money, he could eat hundreds more fried chickens.
By the logic of fried chicken economics, business class was rejected.
Just then, Momo—who had been organizing the components—ran over and clung to him.
"Momo wants to ride a plane!"
"I want to eat in-flight meals while looking out the window too!"
Kancho, Momo's best friend, also dangled from Jinhyeok's waist.
They'd been saying they wanted to ride a plane themselves for a while now.
Back then, there hadn't been enough seats, and he needed to save money, so he'd said no—but seeing their eyes sparkle so intensely made his resolve waver.
"It's their first flight. I kind of want to give them good seats."
They needed six tickets in total.
Seeing the first-class prices made his hands tremble.
"It's… fine. My account balance is healthy."
After receiving this month's settlement from Yeon Trading Company, he had over 400 million won.
They'd helped him get this far, so he decided to splurge.
Ding.
Just then, a message arrived.
It was from Team Leader Jin Yoonho of the Player Hunter Agency.
Hello, Mr. Jinhyeok. This is Jin Yoonho. We'd like to inform you that a new support plan for you has been approved by the Hunter Agency.
"A support plan?"
It was completely unexpected.
He wasn't even affiliated with the Hunter Agency—why?
Assuming it was just some kind of discount or benefit, he scrolled down casually.
"…What?"
He stopped scrolling.
And had no choice but to rub his eyes.
Something utterly unrealistic was written there.
The top floor of the Ronia Building, where the chairman's office was located.
As the VIP elevator doors opened, a group clad in white uniforms emerged.
"Who are you?"
Ronia's security team blocked their path.
Hosaka Rito's face twisted.
"I'm already overwhelmed—who let them up here!?"
For a moment, a thin voice leaked out.
From among the group, Diet member Sato Tsubasa of the Reform Party stepped forward.
"It's been a while, Rito. You remember me, right? I'd be hurt if you didn't. I even gave you a nice money-making opportunity back then."
Flustered, Rito glanced around nervously.
Fortunately, no one else seemed to have heard.
"Assemblyman Sato Tsubasa. Of course I remember. What brings you here today? As you can see, things are rather busy right now."
"One minute."
"…Pardon?"
"Just give me one minute."
"This is the site where the chairman—no, the head of Ronia—was murdered. We can't let just anyone in."
"I'm not just anyone, am I? I've kept secrets well so far. Don't you think what I've done for you is worth at least one minute?"
After hesitating, Rito slowly stepped aside.
"Exactly one minute."
"Thank you."
Stepping inside, Tsubasa surveyed the scene.
After a moment, he inhaled deeply with all his strength.
And then, it began to flow in.
The lingering traces of countless things that still clung to the site.
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T/N:
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