Floor 24, Kokari Swamp (1)
“Kkeheeeugh!”
A grotesque cry, as if torn from a throat split down the middle, echoed across the swamp. At a glance, you might almost mistake it for a tiger's roar.
Fifteen alligator beasts in all. They looked vicious enough, but the way they stood on their legs raised questions before it raised any tension.
How does something with a head that big manage to walk on two legs?
Well, that wasn't the important part. I turned my eyes back to the alligator beasts. They carried no weapons, but their long claws looked sharper than any sword.
Just watch out for the claws, the teeth, and the tails.
Big-headed monsters didn't strike me as particularly agile. This wouldn't be a difficult fight. While I was thinking that, the beasts that had let out their strange cries began slowly closing in around me, and above them a notification window appeared.
◈ The predator of the Kokari Swamp, boasting scales as hard as armor.
◈ Hunts in packs with a keen sense of smell — once it marks its prey, it never lets go.
◈ The scent of blood runs deep; it will chase to the very end whoever has killed one of its own kind.
So — a keen sense of smell, and they hunt down whoever kills one of their own. The word was that once you fought these things, you'd be hounded by them across the swamp for the rest of your stay.
But there was no need to worry about that. I'd already applied a scent-masking agent in anticipation of exactly this situation. Even if their blood splattered on me, I could simply reapply it.
The reason they'd shown up despite the masking agent was probably that the summoning point sat close to their territory.
“Dobby, can you watch our back?”
“Kkiik! Can do!”
“Good. They won't break through you, but just in case — if it gets to be too much, throw up a barrier and hold your ground.”
“Kkiik! Barrier! Understood!”
The alligator beasts came crawling out of the swamp. I could have taken them all down without lifting a finger if I used the Essence of Lightning or the Shadow Lord.
But it seemed worth getting a feel for what this new floor was capable of. Before the beasts could close the distance and reach Dobby, I kicked off the ground and charged.
The waterlogged soil of the swamp clung thick and heavy. Shaking the sucking mud from my soles, I swung my axe in a horizontal arc.
The Argar at the front reached out a hand to knock the axe aside, but it couldn't stand against my strength.
“Graaagh!”
Craack— The axe plowed through the scales on its knuckles and carved across its belly. And the moment I felt that resistance, I knew the Argar's hide was tougher than it looked.
I hadn't swung with everything I had, but even with a decent amount of force behind it, the blade hadn't split it cleanly. About the same hardness as the Great Worm?
The Argar at the front went down.
“Kheh-ung!”
In the same instant, attacks came in from all sides. One gaping its massive maw, one whipping its tail, one raking with its claws.
They were pressing me with sheer numbers, but speed was something they could never match.
Closest one first.
I swung upward into the jaw of the one lunging at me with its maw stretched wide. The axe punched through its lower jaw, tore open the roof of its mouth, and shattered teeth rained to the ground. Between the half-ruined jaws, a broad tongue lolled out and slid loose.
The moment it did, I wrenched the axe free and spun my body. Deflecting a tail sweeping in toward my hip, I used the rebound to twist my arm — and drove the axe into the chest of an Argar stabbing its claw in from the left.
Crunch— The impact knocked the beast off balance, and I kicked its stomach to tear the axe free.
“Graaaaagh!”
Right side next. An Argar, its body buckling under the force of its own deflected tail, its back hide right in front of my face.
Lower left to upper right. The beast's nape shattered with a sickening crunch.
One and a half breaths, and three more Argar hit the ground.
If it's axe work, that's about enough.
Now it was time to test the Shadow Lord and the Essence of Lightning.
[Land of the Strong and the Devoured — expel the heretics from the Kokari Swamp, or survive. Time remaining: 47 hours 14 minutes.]
Thirty minutes had passed since my fight with the Argar. I reapplied the scent-masking agent and walked on, my thoughts sinking deep.
Heretics, monsters, dark mages, criminals. Contrary to what the notification had described, I hadn't seen so much as a single enemy since.
They said the heretics ruled the swamp, so presumably they were all gathered at their stronghold — but still.
The problem is, I have no idea where that stronghold is.
This time even Dobby couldn't get a bearing, and his sixth sense offered no guidance at all. It was rare, but not strange. Dobby wasn't some infallible compass, and his intuition going quiet happened often enough.
Forty-seven hours remaining. They'd said this swamp covered half the eastern continent. I couldn't measure its exact size, but it had to be enormous for such a description to attach to it.
Finding the heretics' stronghold in terrain this vast was what worried me.
Of course, given the time limit...
Realistically, the stronghold had to lie within a day's travel of where I'd been summoned. The problem was that I didn't know which direction.
Should I pick up the pace?
I was currently heading west from my summoning point. If nothing was that way, I'd have to turn around and try another direction. With my luck, it looked like I'd need to move constantly just to sweep the compass around the summoning point.
Suddenly, a chill ran up my spine and cut my thoughts short.
Click—
Mixed into the familiar squelch of the bog was the sound of a mechanical device engaging. And instinct told me this was no simple arrow trap.
I immediately used Flash Step, spun around, scooped Dobby into my arms, and sprinted away from the trap.
“Dobby! Barrier!”
“Kkiik! Barrier!”
KWAAANG— A beat too late, an explosion erupted exactly where I'd been standing. Mud shards shot skyward through black smoke.
Since Dobby had thrown up his barrier, I felt no heat, but a savage wind pressure bore down on the shield. The hurled chunks of muck pattered down across its surface.
That had been close.
An explosion means the heretics nearby will come running, right?
Enemies would be on me any moment — yet a smile crept across my lips. The reason was simple: an explosion meant there was a good chance the heretics' stronghold lay in this direction.
Of the four directions I'd started with, I'd picked west on a hunch. It had been a decent choice after all.
All that remained now was to hide and observe the heretics. I spread the Shadow Veil.
“Shh. Don't say a word until I do.”
“Kkiik! Got it!”
I extended my spatial awareness outward. Among the sounds of insects and small animals stirring, faint, distant signs of human presence drifted in — along with the pulses I'd felt from the swamp when the Argar appeared.
And then another set of footsteps came racing toward me, urgent and unmistakably clear. It was approaching in a straight line, making no effort whatsoever to conceal itself.
A heretic scout guarding this area?
Traveling alone like that meant the person was quite confident in their own strength. Which would make them someone with an actual rank among the heretics...
It seemed smarter to tail this one than to risk stumbling into another pack of Argar. I turned toward the approaching presence.
“We're moving. Follow me quietly.”
Dobby nodded, his face tight with tension. The footsteps were coming from the direction of dense, brush-choked thicket. As I picked my way forward carefully, leaving no trace, the approaching steps only grew faster.
They moved like a galloping horse. Had they sensed us somehow?
I adjusted my grip on the axe in my right hand and tensed every muscle in my body. At that pace, the figure would reach this spot in about twenty seconds.
Before long, a person burst out of the brush. Instinct had my arm already mid-swing when a bewildered question tumbled out of my mouth instead.
The person who'd crashed through the thicket was Comet.
Comet, gaunt and skeletal, looked to have gone unwashed for a long while. Mud caked every inch of his body. I could only recognize him by his eyes, his necklace, and his sword.
The instant I released the Shadow Veil, Comet flinched and staggered back.
“Wahh! ...Lord Kwon Suhyeok?”
“Comet?”
“How are you here? No — never mind, let's move first. The explosion trap went off, so they'll be converging on this spot.”
“...Agreed. We'll talk after.”
Comet scrambled to his feet, swept his eyes across the surroundings, and turned. The path he led me along was rough ground squeezed between stretches of swamp. Untrodden by human feet, the thick undergrowth brushed against my face.
I was unconsciously pushing branches aside when Comet turned his head to stop me.
“Please don't. If we leave a trail, they'll follow it.”
“Ah... I've been clearing brush this whole way here, though.”
“It's all right. We'll be changing direction long before we reach the shelter, and we've still got a long way to go.”
[Land of the Strong and the Devoured — expel the heretics from the Kokari Swamp, or survive. Time remaining: 46 hours 14 minutes.]
It took another forty minutes at a brisk pace to reach Comet's shelter.
A small dugout nestled between colossal trees — it looked far too cramped for three people. I was about to suggest we talk outside...
...but seeing Comet glancing around nervously, I had no choice but to duck inside the dugout with him. In that narrow burrow, I sat hunched over and handed him water and rations, and his eyes reddened at the sight.
And there, in the earth-walled dark, I heard everything Comet had been through.
“The moment I was made Grand Priest, the heretics began showing their true colors.”
“You mean they started coming out into the open?”
“Yes. And their numbers far exceeded what we'd expected. Fifty years is not a span of time one can afford to ignore.”
Comet's voice turned grim as he went on.
“Three of the Seven Kings apostatized. Not that they announced it openly. They declared the Holy Father himself the apostate — claimed that was why the Goddess had vanished... and then they declared war.”
“So then...”
“And thus the Holy War began.”
I already knew this much from Ha Heijeong. Floor 24 — the trial other climbers faced here was a small-scale border war against the heretics. I was simply one of the unlucky ones dropped into the swamp.
Still, a question rose unbidden.
“The kings' betrayal, huh... But the people would still believe in the Goddess. Wouldn't revealing that you're the true Grand Priest resolve most of it?”
“I wished to do exactly that, but the heretics moved faster. The moment I left the desert, three kingdoms had already turned.”
“I see.”
Comet fidgeted with his fingers, as if recalling the past left a bitter taste. But why was he here, in the middle of a Holy War?
Before I could ask, he continued.
“By cruel coincidence, the three kingdoms that surround the Dumi Desert were the ones that betrayed us.”
“The road back to the church can't have been easy.”
“No. As I moved along the border, the Goddess granted me a revelation.”
“A revelation?”
“Grand Priest — go to the Kokari Swamp.”
So that was why he'd abandoned the journey home and come here instead. A flicker of worry crossed Comet's face as he relayed the Goddess's words, but it soon softened into a smile.
“At first, with the Holy War about to break out, I couldn't fathom what She meant. I knew the heretics were in the swamp, but driving them out alone was impossible.”
“But the moment I saw you here, Lord Kwon Suhyeok, I understood why the Goddess gave me that revelation.”
With the introductions out of the way, it was time to get to the heart of the matter.
“The Goddess sent you here because She wants the heretic forces destroyed. Am I right?”
“Yes, I believe that was Her will. But I've spent a week in this swamp without finding any way to accomplish it, and I was on the verge of despair.”
A week. Factoring in the distance from the desert to the swamp, at least two weeks must have passed since the 23rd floor.
For me it had been only twelve hours in the Waiting Room, yet so much time had slipped by out here. It happened because time flowed differently in the Tower and on other planets. It had been the same on Planet Soborne, floors 14 through 16.
“...A whole week. You've been through hell. I can't exactly say you're looking your best — and that's putting it kindly.”
“Haha. I've been smearing myself with mud to evade the Argar and hiding from the heretics, you see.”
Comet burst out laughing. It wasn't really that funny, though...
He'd spent a week shut up in this tiny dugout, so meeting me must have been that much of a relief. A pang of sympathy stirred in my chest. Unable to use the Goddess's power deep in enemy territory, those days must have been torture.
“I was out on my usual scouting run when I heard the explosion. The animals here and the heretics never step on traps — which meant an ally had sprung one.”
“So that's why you came running.”
“Yes. Anyone who made it this deep into the forest couldn't be weak, and I thought — if an ally had somehow survived the blast, perhaps I could finally be of some help.”
Comet paused and swallowed hard.
“And that ally turned out to be you, Lord Kwon Suhyeok! It felt like finding a single thread of light in the darkness.”
He looked up at me with eyes brimming with expectation, shining so brightly it was almost embarrassing. I scratched the back of my head and laughed it off awkwardly.
“Comet, could you walk me through the layout of wherever the heretic forces are based?”
“Oh — forgive me, I got carried away. I don't know their inner sanctum, but I'll tell you everything I do know.”