Second Task (5)
Second Task (5)
I stood still for a long time.
No matter how much I looked around, I couldn't figure out where the mages had disappeared to. The rear was blocked by the massive wooden sphere that had swallowed the group, and the front was swarming with the animated armor I had just taken down.
In this vast, windowless corridor, the space they could have moved through was limited.
So where the hell did they go?
Maybe they were dragged through the floor or walls, just like the ghouls that had burst through earlier. I couldn't be sure, but that was the most plausible theory.
"Guess I'll have to look for them..."
I couldn't just stand here forever.
I channeled my will into a talisman and threw it into the darkness ahead.
Whoosh.
The talisman ignited, conjuring a small goblin fire that illuminated the path before me. Gripping more talismans in both hands, ready to throw at any moment, I took a step forward. There was only one way to go.
Step. Step.
I moved cautiously down the corridor, bathed in the eerie blue glow of the flames. Thankfully, no ambushes came for me as I walked. Still, I couldn't let my guard down—there was no telling when or where something might attack.
After what felt like a while, the first door finally appeared before me.
Creak—
I cracked it open slightly and peered inside. The room was filled with large stoves and various kitchen knives hanging on the walls. It looked like the castle's kitchen.
"Nothing here."
Confirming the kitchen was empty, I carefully stepped inside.
"No way they'd be in a place like this."
I scratched my head and scanned the room thoroughly. There was nowhere for anyone to hide—just cooking utensils like frying pans, pots, and knives.
"Guess I'll have to check another room."
Just as I turned to leave—
Bzzzzzt—
A kitchen knife came flying at the back of my head at terrifying speed.
Thunk!
I hadn't let my guard down. In an instant, I threw myself behind a thick pillar.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The knife wasn't alone. One after another, blades embedded themselves into the pillar I was hiding behind. If I hadn't dodged, I'd be dead.
"A ghost?"
I peeked out cautiously, looking toward where the knives had come from. Just as before, there was no one there. But something was different.
"The knives are possessed."
The blades hanging on the wall trembled violently before lifting into the air. The same went for the other utensils—frying pans, pots, and even strange cooking tools I couldn't name.
The floating kitchenware turned toward me.
I immediately hurled the talisman in my hand.
The moment it made contact with the knives—
BOOOOM!
A massive explosion erupted.
Peeking out from behind the pillar, I surveyed the aftermath.
Crackle—
The once-pristine kitchen was gone. The stoves had been obliterated, and the utensils reduced to ash. Nothing remained that could threaten me.
"Clean."
Stepping out from behind the pillar, I eyed the few knives still embedded in the stone wall, trembling violently as if desperate to break free and attack me.
I slapped a talisman onto them.
"Burn."
Clasping my hands together in a hand seal, I muttered softly. Blue flames erupted from the talisman, engulfing the remaining knives and reducing them to cinders.
Hand seals.
A technique I'd picked up from watching other mages. The necromancer, the guide—they all used hand seals when casting spells. I'd tried it out of curiosity, and it worked surprisingly well.
"Feels like the power's stronger too."
Not that I'd ever lacked firepower to begin with, so it was hard to tell. But one thing was certain—the amount of energy required for the talisman had noticeably decreased. Not that I'd ever needed much in the first place, so it wasn't a big deal either way.
"Time to move on."
There was nothing left for me here. Everything in the room had been reduced to ash. Every potential threat had been eliminated. Since the people I was looking for weren't here, it was time to check elsewhere.
But is there even any point in wandering around like this?
Staring into the dark corridor beyond the door, doubts began creeping in.
Honestly, I didn't even know what this castle was. Ha-rin had seemed to know something, but I couldn't ask her now. The fate of her and the other mages was uncertain.
For all I knew, they could already be dead.
"Hmm..."
I pondered for a moment. Maybe I should be looking for the necromancer instead.
The one who lured us here would know how to leave.
Not that he'd tell me willingly, of course.
And even if I found him, there was another problem—I had no idea what abilities or weapons he had. Going in blind was a death sentence.
"Shouldn't this kind of info be in the damn request form?"
Tch.
Either way, I had to keep moving.
Frowning at the sloppy work of the client who'd sent me here, I took a step forward.
Please let the next thing I find be my group, not another enemy.
But just as I was about to leave the kitchen—
Squelch.
A disgusting, wet sound made me turn around.
THUD!
Something drenched in crimson blood fell from the ceiling and hit the floor.
"Hah...! Hah...!"
It was the last person I wanted to see right now—the necromancer.
But at least he was dying.
"Ha... What a mess."
He let out a hollow laugh as he took in the ruined kitchen. I approached him slowly, talismans stiff between my fingers.
"Your doing?"
"Who knows?"
He leaned precariously against the wall, his breath ragged and weak. When we'd first met, he'd been whole. Now, he was barely clinging to life, his mouth stained with dark blood as he looked up at me with fading eyes.
"You look like you've got a lot to say."
The necromancer let out a self-deprecating chuckle. At the same time, a thick clot of congealed blood spilled from his lips.
"Anyone would be curious seeing me like this."
His left arm had been brutally severed. No blood gushed from the wound—likely treated—but the real problem wasn't his arm.
A massive chunk of his left side was missing, as if a beast had taken a bite out of him. The pool of dark blood soaking the floor had all poured from that gaping hole. With a trembling right hand, he was desperately trying to keep his spilling intestines from falling out.
"I ran from Ha-rin... only to run into you. Talk about bad luck."
"That little witch?" I frowned. "Again, I'm not weak enough to get taken down by some brat. These wounds are from one of this world's residents."
"This isn't your domain?"
"Sadly, I'm not strong enough to use one."
"Then was it you controlling the armor and the knives?"
Cough. Cough.
He laughed hoarsely.
"No. This place isn't something I can manipulate."
"Then how did you pull us in here?"
"I dragged you in. A last resort. No one who enters this place leaves alive. Kekeke."
I considered his words carefully.
Trusting the enemy was stupid. When we first arrived, Ha-rin had reacted like she knew something. If she was still alive, escaping this place might not be an issue.
But as if reading my mind, the necromancer sneered.
"Hah... You think that little witch knows anything about this place? This space was created from a magic book I found wandering the world long ago. To a brat like her, it'd just look like a barrier mimicking a domain."
"Can you read my thoughts?"
"Hah! You just look like you haven't given up hope yet! It's written all over your face—you still think you can get out!"
Disgusting bastard.
"Guess I need to work on my poker face."
"Kekeke. You're still new to this, aren't you?"
I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and yanked him up.
Thud.
"What, gonna finish me off?"
"Dunno. I don't have a hobby of putting down dying men."
I slapped a talisman onto his chest.
"Try anything funny, and you're dead."
"Kikiki. I don't have the strength for that."
Dragging him by the neck, I stepped out of the room.
The mission was to eliminate the necromancer—not just kill him, but erase all traces of his existence. If I took his corpse with me, I could use magic to extract whatever info I needed.
"Hey, could you drag me a little gentler?"
"Shut up."
"Cough! It hurts!!"
I tightened my grip on his neck as we walked down the corridor.
"Hey. I'm bored. Tell me something interesting."
"I said shut up."
"What, embarrassed? Fine, I'll tell you a story."
Maybe because he was dying, his mind was slipping. He giggled to himself and began rambling.
"At first, I didn't want to be a mage. I knew it was a crazy job—living so close to death. But money was the problem."
His eyes glazed over as if lost in memory.
"I had a mom. Don't ask about my dad—he was trash who abandoned us. Why? Because Mom got sick. The kind of sickness that costs a fortune to treat."
Kekeke.
He laughed and continued.
"So I got into this world. The treatment money came fast. Mages make a lot. I sent Mom to America for treatment."
Then, suddenly, his laughter died.
"I quit my job, thinking I'd live a normal life with Mom using the money I'd saved. I was so happy... until I got the news that she'd died."
I paused briefly, glancing at him before muttering,
"That's rough."
"Kikikiki! I hated the world back then. I couldn't accept it, so I flew to America to see her body. But the hospital wouldn't show me."
I kept walking in silence as he spoke.
"That's when I realized—they were hiding something. So I killed everyone in that hospital and tortured the director. And then that idiot told me... my mom was still alive."
His eyes darkened.
"I was so happy then. The thought of seeing her again after believing she was dead... I was so happy I even let the director die quickly."
His voice grew hollow.
"But... when I saw her again, she wasn't alive in any real sense. Just her head, attached to a pig's body. When she saw me, she begged. To kill her. That she didn't want to live."
His face twisted as if he might cry.
"So I let her go. Then I gathered information for revenge. Turned out, Mom's illness was tied to a magical phenomenon. The Magic Tower had been gathering patients with the same symptoms from around the world... for human experimentation."
Haaa...
He let out a long sigh, then muttered bitterly.
"I was too hasty. Later, I learned there was a cure."
"...What was the illness called?"
"Can't remember well... Something about suddenly collapsing, unable to walk... Acute..."
"Acute Flaccid Dobok-jeung."
"Yeah, that was it."
His pupils sharpened as he stared at me.
"But how do you know that? It's a rare disease—almost no one's heard of it."
Ignoring his question, I asked as calmly as I could,
"What's the cure?"
"Well..."
CRACK!
"GAAAH—!"
"What. Is. The. Cure?"
My voice came out colder than I expected, even to myself.
I'd stopped walking without realizing it, staring down at him with an expressionless face. My grip on his neck tightened unconsciously.
For a moment, our eyes locked—mine and the dying man's.
"Kuhahahaha!"
A bizarre vitality flickered back into his fading eyes.
"You're just like me! Someone clinging to life for the sake of something precious!"
"..."
"No matter how blank you keep your face, it's useless! The desperation in your eyes tells me everything!"
His lips twisted into a grin.
"Family? Lover? A friend? Who's the one dying from that damn disease?"
"...Shut up and tell me the cure."
"KYAHAHAHA!"
Laughing madly, he stared at me with gleeful eyes.
"Fine, I'll tell you. Listen well. The only cure is the sap of a Thousand-Year Tree. Years of research led me to that answer—you can trust it."
The answer came more easily than I'd expected. Just as I was about to ask where to find the sap, he spoke first.
What he said next was devastating.
"Ah, but you won't find any. Some insane necromancer burned every last Thousand-Year Tree in the world. They don't exist anymore. Meaning... the cure is gone forever."
The heat in my mind froze over instantly.
Tears of blood streamed grotesquely from the necromancer's crazed eyes.
"That necromancer must've been bitter too. His precious one was already dead. He couldn't stand the thought of others surviving the same disease, laughing in his face."
Kekeke—
The madman's shrill laughter scraped against my eardrums.
"Really... what a shame."
He smiled brightly at me.
"Your precious person has no choice but to die."
Was everything he said true? If so... what was I supposed to do now?
"What a relief."
The necromancer sighed deeply, brushing a hand over his chest—genuinely at peace.