Arrival at Viridgrave
The third quest was simple.
All they had to do was kill ten variant zombies and the boss monster known as the Endless Flesh.
For ordinary players, it would have been every bit as grueling as the second quest. For Yujin as he was now, though, it barely registered as a challenge.
Neither the variant zombies nor the colossal mass of rotting flesh they had fused into posed any real threat.
If anything, the endless tide of ordinary zombies had been more dangerous.
“You awake?”
The quest still hadn’t started. They’d been given a short rest, and in that window Lee Sia—who had blacked out—finally opened her eyes.
“…What happened?”
“It’s over. Rest a bit, then we do the last quest.”
“Then…?”
Her eyes went wide.
“What I saw before I passed out—that wasn’t a dream?”
“No idea what you saw, but probably not.”
Yujin answered with a faintly uneasy look.
“Ha… haha.”
A laugh thick with pure delight spilled from Lee Sia’s lips.
Rewards that enormous. She’d never seen anything like them. She’d even gained three whole levels.
“Are the rewards always this generous?”
“They tend to be. The difficulty’s high. But not usually this good.”
The smile on Lee Sia’s face only deepened. There was only one thing Yujin’s words could mean.
“So I was right.”
Completing the quest without offering a sacrifice. That had to be why the rewards had improved.
“Right?”
When Yujin stayed silent, she pressed him.
“If I’m right, just say so. Would they still have given us this much if we’d sacrificed people? No matter how I think about it, I don’t think so.”
For a split second Yujin felt the urge to crack her in the throat. He forced it down.
She wasn’t wrong.
“Yeah.”
He gave a half-hearted nod.
“Heehee!”
Her laughter turned almost unhinged. She was that happy—happy enough that he wanted to punch her.
“That’s enough. Your call did make the rewards better, but without my help it would’ve all been for nothing.”
“Aww, is that so? You helped me, did you?”
Crrrack.
The sound of knuckles grinding together exploded from his fist. Lee Sia flinched and immediately put distance between them.
Her instincts had screamed that one more step would cross a line she couldn’t uncross.
“Ahem.”
She cleared her throat pointlessly and drifted over to Park Ji-hoo.
“You okay? Any injuries… yeah, a lot of them.”
The expression she’d been trying to lighten darkened at once. Park Ji-hoo’s condition was serious at a glance.
“I’m fine.”
He only shrugged, as if it were nothing.
“How is any of this fine?”
Outside the Tower he’d already be on a gurney headed for the ER.
“Nothing fatal. Just stings a little.”
“…I’m sorry.”
Lee Sia bowed her head. In the end her choice had been the right one, but it was still the reason Park Ji-hoo had gotten hurt this badly. Guilt and apology crashed over her.
“Why are you apologizing, Nuna?”
Park Ji-hoo rejected the apology. The reason was simple.
“If you hadn’t suggested it first, I would have. Because that’s what a person should do.”
Even as he spoke he glanced at Yujin. He couldn’t help it—he was essentially saying Yujin wasn’t a person.
“Aigoo, these little shits…”
Power flooded back into Yujin’s fist.
“Just ignore that human butcher psychopath. Ugh, wanting to use a hundred people as sacrifices. Nothing good comes from associating with someone like that.”
Open condemnation. Yujin swallowed it again and changed the subject instead.
“If you’ve roughly patched yourselves up, get ready. Time to start the quest.”
The third quest. From Yujin’s perspective it wasn’t hard—but he had no intention of solving it all himself.
“Same as always. You two fight first. Go as far as you can.”
The growth of his two subordinates took priority over his own convenience. Combat experience was something you could never have too much of. It would be dangerous and far from easy, but they still had to build it with their own hands whenever possible.
Watching their faces sink under the weight of it, Yujin smiled inwardly.
This isn’t revenge.
It absolutely was not payback for daring to mock him.
Really.
It collapsed.
The massive lump of flesh—easily ten meters tall—came apart in ragged chunks and poured down like a waterfall.
“Grrraaaah—”
The fading scream was almost pitiful. Naturally, no one felt sorry for it.
All that remained were two thoroughly spent people sprawled on the ground, gasping for air.
“Still too much for you, huh?”
Yujin said as he reeled in the Heavenly Silk Thread [C].
Lee Sia and Park Ji-hoo had put on a surprisingly impressive fight against the variant zombies and the Endless Flesh. Even with their mana and stamina completely drained, they had managed to kill five of the variant zombies. After that they had collapsed and been unable to move, but even that alone was remarkable.
It was a feat the players who had been with Yujin in the first timeline had never managed. He had finished off the rest himself, yet the hunt had still been a clear success.
“Looks like your levels went up again.”
Judging by the shared party experience, they had each gained at least one or two levels.
Lee Sia could only answer with a weak nod; she had no strength left for words.
“Good. Way faster than I planned.”
He’d expected them to reach this level only around the thirtieth floor. They had already hit it on the ninth. The effects of the Akasha System 2.0 and the second quest had been enormous.
“Then we head up right away.”
The horror-themed floors were finished. What remained was the tenth floor—a place where they could finally rest.
“Stop lying around and get up. The longer you stall, the more you lose.”
At his words the two of them forced their battered bodies upright.
Something that sounded suspiciously like “You son of a—” drifted from Lee Sia’s direction. He ignored it. He’d already learned several times how foul the Sword Empress’s mouth could be, and she wasn’t exactly wrong, so there was no need to react.
“This time you go up first.”
Yujin pointed at the staircase that had just appeared and spoke to Lee Sia.
Until now he had always climbed first. He hadn’t wanted to hand them the First Clear rewards. Even the most worthless-looking ones sometimes paid out jackpots; there had been no reason to yield them.
This time was different. In his own way he was showing Lee Sia a measure of respect—because her choice, different from his, had earned them better rewards.
“Me?”
She looked at him as if to ask what had gotten into him. Yujin snorted.
“Because you were good. Because you were good. If you don’t want it, forget it.”
“No!”
Even exhausted, she yelped in genuine alarm. She had clearly wanted those First Clear rewards for a long time.
“Go on. I’ll let you go first on the next floor too, so don’t feel left out.”
He even looked after Park Ji-hoo. Consideration the old Yujin would never have dreamed of offering. The earlier experience had left a deep impression.
“…Thank you.”
Park Ji-hoo bowed his head in gratitude.
Hmm.
Yujin watched the Fighting Demon quietly.
He’s solid in a fight.
No—more than solid. He was more than worthy of the moniker Fighting Demon.
The problem was his nature.
Too soft.
Even now, though he tried hard to look unbothered, his eyes kept drifting to the blood on his hands—pupils trembling. Separate from his combat skill, he still recoiled from violence itself.
So far nothing had gone wrong, but if things continued this way it might explode someday.
I need to head that off before it happens.
Not that Yujin had any clever solutions. He had never given a damn about other people. He only paid this much attention because it was Lee Sia and Park Ji-hoo.
Still…
He would have to think about it. Higher floors were crawling with things that attacked the mind. Waiting until then to find a fix would be too late.
“Hey.”
Yujin called to Park Ji-hoo as the boy climbed the stairs.
“Y-yes?”
The boy jumped and answered.
Yujin looked at him steadily.
“Lift your head. Anyone watching would think you’d done something wrong.”
“Ah… yes.”
Park Ji-hoo smiled awkwardly and nodded. He raised his eyes from the floor, but the heavy air around him remained.
Yujin observed that retreating back as he climbed after him.
A short while later the three of them reached the tenth floor.
From the way Lee Sia twitched, she had clearly received the First Clear reward. Yujin didn’t bother asking. It was only the tenth floor; nothing impressive would have been handed out. And if, against all odds, she had received something truly extraordinary, it would only sour his mood. So he deliberately ignored it and walked forward.
A forest at night. A gloomy mountain path bathed in pale moonlight.
“…Why is this place so scary?”
Lee Sia asked, shrinking into herself. Not the sort of thing you’d expect from someone who had just butchered hordes of zombies. Yujin found it funny enough to let out a dry laugh.
“Didn’t I tell you before we climbed the sixth floor? Floors up through the tenth are horror-themed.”
“You never said that.”
“Oh, really?”
Apparently he’d only thought it to himself.
“Then I’ll tell you now. Same as below. Think of it as a ghost city. Nothing you need to hunt, but the atmosphere’s pretty grim.”
Yujin grinned. Watching the previously triumphant Lee Sia wilt was deeply satisfying.
“A g-ghost city?”
“Yeah. So be careful. The residents live up to the name—they’re all ghosts. They live for the fun of scaring players.”
“Ha… hahaha.”
Lee Sia glared at him as if she wanted him dead. If she could have, she would have smashed the scabbard of Black Wing [C] across his mouth. But what could she do? Telling her earlier wouldn’t have changed anything. And this was more entertaining, wasn’t it? Watching the girl who had been strutting around instantly turn into a quivering mess was pretty satisfying too.
He hadn’t planned it, but not warning her in advance had been a stroke of genius.
Yujin looked her straight in the eye.
“Stop complaining and follow me. Wander the mountain paths and you might get snatched.”
He didn’t say by what. That made it scarier.
Smiling in quiet victory, Yujin took the lead. For a good ten minutes he walked while enjoying sidelong glances at Lee Sia, who was trembling hard enough to rattle.
In the distance a city stained with green light came into view.
Viridgrave.
A graveyard of the dead rotting away in emerald light.