Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The Entrance to Hell
In a novel that Rudian used to enjoy reading in his previous life, a female protagonist once said:
'I told space aliens, people from the future, and those with supernatural powers to come before me.'
And the original author of must have been deeply impressed by her line, because they actually crammed space aliens, people from the future, people from other worlds, and those with supernatural powers into their work.
'...When I first read it, I wondered why the planet didn't explode before the story even began.'
The novel had a simple plot where Earth high school student Lee Geon-ung is reincarnated with the name Abel, eliminates all kinds of evil forces hidden throughout the world, and finally becomes a god who resurrects the destroyed world.
But as mentioned earlier, this world's overall balance was not just a mess but completely broken to the point where it was a wonder how the main character and his party managed to survive.
The abilities of the secret organizations that appeared as the novel progressed made one wonder why they had been hiding all this time.
The bigger problem was that this insane power inflation wasn't limited just to the characters.
'Thinking about dungeons reminds me of the place inside Apophis's stomach.'
The dungeon where the evil god Apophis was sealed, which appeared in Chapter 2 of .
During a time when the Empire was in turmoil due to civil war, there was an episode where cultists were running rampant to revive Apophis.
To eradicate them, the continental allied forces, excluding the Empire, gathered an army of 100,000 and marched forward with great momentum, only to...
'Get completely annihilated, right?'
The result only ended up filling Apophis's stomach and accelerated the evil god's revival by more than 10 years.
That led to the worst outcome where only the main character's back was left bending, if I remember correctly.
'No, that's not what's important right now!'
Rudian had a firm principle to never touch dungeons, ruins, or unexplored areas that weren't covered in the original story until he gained power.
'Because if you go in without any power, you'll definitely die!'
The dungeons that appear in ,more precisely, the dungeons that the protagonist Abel explores were nine out of ten made during the mythical age or ancient civilizations, with extremely high difficulty.
The rewards were correspondingly overwhelming, but the journey to receive those rewards was literally the path to hell itself.
There were countless mentions in the work of extras who, filled with greed, tried to beat the main character's party to a dungeon only to be annihilated.
'From the main character's perspective, it's a guaranteed power-up flower path, but for guys like us, there's the word "fire" attached in front.'
"Father! I will surely retrieve the holy sword and return!"
But unfortunately, Rudian had no power to stop this course of action.
"Calline! This father believes in you!"
The doting father, who had somehow completely lost his usual sharpness, was patting Calline’s shoulder.
'...Let whatever happens happen.'
Rudian turned away from Calline, who was proudly declaring his departure, with a sorrowful expression.
***
KURULURULUNG!
"Monster! Prepare for battle!"
At the forefront of about thirty knights stood Derrick, the captain of the Lion Hearts Knight Order.
He narrowed his eyes at the large figure approaching with a sound like a cow's cry.
"Not easy. To think a Minotaur would appear from the start."
Even a giant monster like a Minotaur could be handled alone by a knight of Derrick's level.
Yet still, Derrick's expression was filled with concern.
"If it's already like this, I'm worried about how high the difficulty will be in the deepest part. The one who stole the holy sword will surely appear..."
Once a job is accepted, one must take responsibility and complete it.
"Sigh, I can only leave my fate to god."
Far behind the sighing Derrick, a servant was sighing for a different reason.
'Thankfully, it's not a high-ranking devil or ancient weapon appearing from the start.'
By God's grace, and fortunately, the dungeon the exploration team had entered was not the kind that would appear in the main story of .
Rather, it was a dungeon with an average difficulty that conformed to the common sense of this world.
Of course, even so, it was still a life-threatening difficulty for an ordinary person like Rudian.
If something like that had appeared from the start, he would have fled, holy sword be damned.
But if common creatures like Minotaurs, even if they were large, were appearing, then the dungeon's overall difficulty was likely to be at a somewhat reasonable level.
"Rudian! Bring the shield!"
"Yes! Sir Colin!"
Responding to the equipment change request, Rudian skillfully unpacked and picked up a kite shield.
Then he ran straight to the battlefield where the knights were fighting.
"Here it is!"
"Good!"
Having skillfully fulfilled his role, Rudian returned to his place and caught his breath.
Thankfully, Derrick was a knight with common sense and did not order the servants to scout ahead or push them to the front.
Even so, he couldn't let his guard down.
Even though the knights were dealing with the monsters, if he got caught in a stray attack due to bad luck, it would be a one-way trip to the afterlife.
KKUUU-EOOOO....
Not long after, the Minotaur began to fall with a powerless cry.
Normally, the corpse of such a monster would sell for an extremely high price and should be recovered, but the party, with the goal of conquering the dungeon, reluctantly gave up on the corpse, shedding tears of blood.
"Move forward. Watch your surroundings carefully."
***
'...What should I do from now on?'
Once his personal safety was somewhat guaranteed, Rudian's mind began to fill with worries about the future again.
This world of is, without a doubt, the worst mess of a world.
Just three years after the start of the original story, the continent is devastated by war with demons, and after 10 years, humanity is exterminated once.
'Well, even if it doesn't go that far, the Iskar territory will be ruined anyway.'
In fact, Calline is one of the villains who appears in the early parts of .
Abel, who has just begun his journey, meets Calline, who is still continuing his rascal behavior, and gives him a lesson.
Having been thoroughly beaten by Abel, Calline doesn't repent and instead mobilizes his family's power, which ends up ruining the entire territory.
In that way, the Iskar family, which had significantly reduced its power by having one wrong successor, permanently goes out of business due to the invasion of the neighboring Rohans Kingdom.
'Still, still there's time.'
There are about 5 years left until the start of the main story of .
There's still plenty of time to prepare.
'My plan is to save up plenty of retirement funds and hide in some corner of the mountain until the end of all stories in ....'
No matter how much he knew about all the encounters, high-risk dungeons, and enemies' weaknesses in this world, he couldn't conquer any of them with his current abilities.
The country gets destroyed, the continent gets destroyed, and later the planet also gets destroyed, but however it happens, the novel's ending is a happy one where the protagonist Abel becomes the god of creation and resurrects the destroyed planet and all the humans who died unjustly.
'If I can just hold out until then, my life will also have a happy ending!'
has largely four chapters in the work. Among them is the Second Heaven-Demon Great War where the heavenly realm and demon realm intervene and take place on the ground. The Superhuman War where ability users and secret organizations lurking in the shadows of the world come to the surface. Then the Space War where all sorts of alien life forms and Cthulhu-like monsters from outer space invade. Finally, the Mythical War where deities freed from all restrictions run wild. Just hearing about it, what could someone like himself, who has neither talent like the protagonist nor background like Calline, possibly change no matter how hard he tried in a world where beings of such caliber run wild? 'Staying quiet is the best option.' At first, he was full of determination to change the future of this world, but it didn't take long to despair upon hitting the wall of reality.
"Hahaha! It's going well! Very well! At this rate, not only will we recover Daylight, but we'll also be able to take the enormous wealth that exists within the dungeon!"
Rudian was pulled from his thoughts by Calline’s shout inside the dungeon.
"Young master! It's dangerous to make such loud noises!"
Obviously, raising one's voice like this in an underground dungeon is nothing but advertising 'Please hunt me!' But this damned Calline, far from lowering his voice at Derrick's warning, instead laughed heartily.
"Hahaha! What is there to fear when the Lion Hearts, the pride of the Iskar family, are present, Sir Derrick?"
"There's an old saying that one should never let their guard down against the existence of dungeons, even if they're a Sword Master. We don't know what will come out next! Please be cautious!"
I'm not sure who said that, but it must have been a sage or prophet. However, the sage's wise words didn't seem to resonate with Calline.
"Hahaha! There's nothing to worry about! No matter what comes out, I'm not afraid of... Huh?"
Calline unconsciously stopped in his tracks at the unusual phenomenon visible ahead. KUGUGUUNG! A peculiar terrain where a single-legged bridge was placed over a huge cliff despite being underground. Calline stopped laughing when the party was about halfway across the bridge.
"...Damn it."
Derrick broke out in a cold sweat as he looked at dozens of Stone Golems blocking the entrance and exit.
"We've fallen into a trap."
There was definitely nothing there when they first checked with their eyes. Inanimate objects like golems sometimes deceived knights' senses, but it was certainly unexpected that even Derrick didn't notice.
"There are more behind us."
A single-log bridge with enemies both front and back. With the strength of Stone Golems, they could easily break the bridge. Below was an abyss surrounded by darkness. In this situation, Derrick's decision was quick and simple.
"Run!"
Before those words even finished, the knights' movements swiftly headed toward the front.
"Break through with force!"
The Lion Hearts, the knight order of the Iskar family, is one of the strongest knight orders in the Morian Empire. Handling a few dozen Stone Golems is no big deal. But the problem was that they currently had dozens of non-combatants behind them, including Rudian and Calline. If the golems targeted them instead of the knights, there was no way to protect them in the current situation. 'Damn! We just have to run and leave it to luck!' They've already crossed more than half the bridge, and the number of golems in front and behind is similar. In that case, a frontal breakthrough is the only option!
"First squad, push back the golems! The rest, protect the young master!"
The golem in front raised its arm to welcome the group.
"What a fierce welcome."
"Who welcomes with a full swing?"
KWAGWAGWAKWANG!
"AAAHHH!"
"SAVE ME!"
Along with the screams of a few servants, a thunderous sound shook the entire underground. Judging by the sound alone, it seemed like everyone would have been turned into a bloody pulp, but fortunately, Rudian's group managed to cross the bridge safely thanks to the knights' hard fight against the golems' attack.
"Young Master! That way!"
But the battle between the knights and golems was not over yet. Amid the chaotic battle, Rudian grabbed Calline’s arm and ran toward what he judged to be a safe zone. But...
"Huh? Why is that coming toward us?"
For whatever bad luck, three golems that were fighting nearby suddenly started charging fiercely in their direction! Derrick quickly realized the reason.
"It's a Skeleton wizard! Deal with that one first!"
The existence of a skeleton wizard who was secretly hiding behind the golems. Being a rational entity, it had spotted Calline, the most dazzling figure among the group.
"Damn it!"
While the wizards went to intercept the Skeleton wizard, Rudian's group was still barely holding onto their lifeline near the cliff. In such a situation, the sight of those massive stone blocks rushing toward them was nothing short of terror itself!
"YOUNG MASTEEER!"
"Ru, Rudian! Sa, save me...!"
One golem broke through the encirclement and reached them. At this sudden emergency, Derrick started running over with a scream, but the golem bringing down its arm toward them was faster. KUGUGUUNG!
"Damn it!"
Rudian grabbed Calline by the collar and threw himself sideways. KWANG! A boulder landed where they had been. The impact pushed them near the cliff, causing minor abrasions, but there was no time to care about that.
"Ru, Rudian!"
Calline was looking at Rudian with some kind of moved expression, but... Who cares? There was only one reason Rudian saved Calline. 'If this guy dies, I die too!' Rudian's status was merely that of Calline's servant. No matter how much <the. chro.="" seven.=""> is acknowledged by all as a mess of a fantasy, it's still clearly set in a medieval background. One doesn't need to experience it to know what the fate of a servant who fails to protect his master would be. KWAJIK! '...Huh?' Rudian's spirit was certainly admirable, but unfortunately, the goddess of fate was turning her back on Rudian today. 'Huh?' It was good that he pushed Calline away from the golem's follow-up attack, but he slightly got caught at the end of the golem's long arm. And with that impact, Rudian's body was thrown into the air with a terrible shock.
"......!"
A feeling like his brain was stopping. The scene of Calline looking this way with wide eyes. And the scene of wizards and fellow servants grimacing vividly passed by. The reason he experienced such a panorama-like phenomenon was because... Rudian's body, which had risen about 3-4 meters into the air, slipped straight into the cliff behind rather than falling to the ground. 'Ah, shit.' Even without closing his eyes, the surroundings were naturally getting darker. Even the pressure of the wind due to the vertical fall was being pushed away by his increasingly dulling senses. THUD! And with the feeling of a strong and dull impact transmitted to the back of his head. Rudian lost consciousness. *** And when he regained consciousness. -I see you're awake.
"...Who, who are you?"
In front of Rudian's open eyes, a strange eyeball monster waving black tentacles was hovering in the air.