Chapter 10
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 10: Dual Gate (2)
A massive size that causes damage practically equivalent to a natural disaster just by moving.
And a torrent of power spewing from its entire body.
I didn't particularly do anything, nor did I have any intention of being hostile to them, but the moment they faced me, the expedition team lost even the slightest will to resist.
"That's... a dragon..." "We can't win... We can't win..." "AlmightyGodPleaseProtectMeWithYourEternalLight"
Whoops. They broke.
Whether their mental fortitude was strong or weak, the expedition team yielded from their very instincts just by facing it.
At least Baek Yeon alone had a gaze that didn't break even in the midst of this.
-Welcome. To my world.
As a profound voice echoed through their heads, I could only sigh at the sight of the expedition team struggling even more.
-You are unqualified, so further approach is forbidden.
"...T-thank you for showing mercy..."
The Association agent acting as the expedition team's captain barely managed to answer and pulled the people back.
Having returned inside the twisted forest and escaped the pressure, the expedition team finally loosened their stiff bodies that had been heavily tensed.
"Phew... That just now was the Lord Dragon's true body."
"I really thought I was going to die..."
"To think it's at that level with just its presence."
The expedition team took a rest while guarding their surroundings.
They explored the inside of the Gate by marking a roundabout path leading out of the forest and into the plains.
The expedition team had two goals in entering the immeasurable Gate named Dragon's Nest.
One was to confirm my true form.
It wasn't their original goal, but a goal formed after I told them my main body was inside the Gate.
And they had just definitively completed their first goal.
The other goal is to check the resources inside the Gate.
Gates pushed humanity to the brink, but simultaneously created a second golden age.
The method lies in the magic stones that drop when dispatching monsters inside the Gate, and the rare resources that can only be obtained inside the Gate.
Resources from inside the Gate, obtainable in various forms, are used in diverse places in the current era.
The South Korean government, the Association, and each Guild are currently expecting the Dragon's Nest Gate to have an abundance of rare resources, as it is an immeasurable rank Gate.
And their expectations hit the mark beautifully.
"There's a place ahead where Cold Ice Herb is blooming in bunches!"
"This isn't ordinary ice... Permafrost! It's permafrost!"
"Basically, all the intact mushrooms, grass, and bugs around here contain poison. And it's all poison we've never seen before."
"Discovered Dragon Tooth Soldiers! Just hunting those will yield materials...!"
The more rare materials were discovered, the more the atmosphere of the expedition team, which had hit rock bottom after meeting me, revived.
However, from my perspective, the only impression I have is 'just that?'
The Cold Ice Herb is a flower I occasionally used as an herb substitute when gnawing on Yggdrasil roots.
As for permafrost, the ice scattered around Niflheim was stronger and harder than that.
Poisonous bugs and poisonous plants? Compared to my poison, not so much.
The Dragon Tooth Soldiers too are incomparably weak compared to the lifeforms that randomly spawn from the teeth that fall out when I occasionally grind them.
"It might look like nothing to you, Lord Nidhogg, but they are precious treasures to humans."
"Was it that obvious?"
"Yes. You had an expression like, 'Eh, that kind of trash?'"
Whoops.
I rubbed my face with both arms to control my expression.
At that moment, feeling a strange gaze, I turned my head to see Baek Yeon staring this way with a face as if she was looking at something bizarre.
But that was only for a moment; as soon as our eyes met, she quickly turned her head away.
While everyone else was excited and collecting materials to submit as samples, Baek Yeon seemed to have no interest in such materials.
Does she really have no interest in anything other than dispatching monsters?
I'd like to test her once.
However, since there's no suitable method to test her will right now, I decided to leave this as a pleasure for later.
After a short time passed like that and the sample collection ended, the expedition team explored the inside of the Gate again.
If we place my main body at the center of the Gate, the place we are currently at can be called the south of the Gate.
Quite far south, at that.
Perhaps intending to check where the end of the Gate is, the expedition team, moving without rest, was finally able to arrive at the southern end of the Gate after half a day had passed.
It took longer than expected due to attacks from undead monsters sensing the aura of the living and various rare resources.
And what finally stood at the southern end they arrived at was a massive temple.
The appearance of a temple carved from an unknown black stone, engraved with sculptures strangely resembling me.
The inside of the temple was filled with darkness, making it impossible to see even an inch ahead, but the death energy spewing out from the entrance without any intention of hiding made everyone in the expedition team instinctively know that this was no ordinary place.
Furthermore, even that death energy was leaking through the cracks of the barrier installed at the temple entrance.
Perhaps placing his hopes on me, the expedition team captain turned his head and looked this way, but there was nothing I could say.
Because even my vision hadn't reached this place.
'To be precise, I left it alone because I felt like the whole temple would be crushed if I needlessly poked around.'
Just as the expedition team instinctively realized this was an extraordinary place, I also instinctively realized that if I pierced through the barrier here with my dragon eyes to check the inside, the temple would collapse, so this temple is one of the two places inside the Gate that I currently haven't checked.
"Do we enter?"
At an Awakened's question, the expedition team captain swallowed his saliva and answered after contemplation.
"...Slowly. We enter slowly while guarding our surroundings."
With Awakened specializing in reconnaissance at the front, the expedition team began entering the temple.
Unlike how it blocked my vision, the barrier surprisingly did not block entities entering the inside.
The moment everyone in the expedition team took a step inside the temple like that.
Woooosh!!
The barrier installed in the temple dissolved, and dense death energy spread out in all directions.
"Gasp!" "Cough, cough!" "Uuurgh..."
While the people hit head-on by the death energy were suffering, I alone nonchalantly pierced through that death energy and stared at the innermost part of the temple.
Inside the temple, massive pillars stood in a row on both sides, and at the very end were stairs and a black throne.
Above the throne, taking the place of a proper master, was a Gate exuding an aura similar to the dense death energy.
While I was checking the inside of the temple, the expedition team, having suffered a harsh ordeal as soon as they entered, reorganized their formation.
"No lifeforms detected within the detection range."
"Phew, thank goodness. It would have been a disaster if we were attacked while our formation was broken."
In the meantime, I quietly spoke to Shin Su-ah.
It was to check the Gate inside the temple.
"There's something that looks like a Gate inside. Do you know anything about it?"
"Pardon? There's a Gate inside the Gate?"
"Yeah. There's a black Gate exuding dense death energy."
"...Even before regressing, I had never heard of a Gate being inside a Gate..."
It seems even Shin Su-ah knows absolutely nothing about that Gate.
Did the future change somehow?
Or did something get twisted when Shin Su-ah crossed back to the past?
Since there was no way to confirm right now, we followed the reorganized expedition team deep into the temple.
Except for the Gate, there was nothing else here, so the expedition team wasn't attacked at all while reaching the end of the temple.
And the expedition team also faced the Gate I had seen at the end of the temple.
Facing another Gate inside a Gate, the expedition team showed panicked reactions.
It seems it's also their first time seeing a Gate inside a Gate.
"A Gate inside a Gate. What is going on?"
"The death energy we've been feeling since entering this place is rising densely from there. It doesn't seem like an ordinary Gate..."
"What will you do?"
As the expedition team exchanged opinions over the unusual situation, their gazes gathered on the expedition team captain, and after a moment of contemplation, he made a decision.
"We enter."
"...It might be dangerous."
"If it's too dangerous even for the current expedition team, there's no way to check it with the Awakened currently inside South Korea anyway. It's better to check it now while only the elites are gathered."
"In that case, let's leave some personnel behind to go outside and inform them in case of an emergency."
Nodding at a member's opinion, the expedition team captain selected three personnel separately.
"If we enter the Gate and don't come out within 30 minutes, leave the Dragon's Nest Gate as is and inform the Association."
"Understood."
Having prepared even for an unforeseen situation, the expedition team captain approached Shin Su-ah.
"Ms. Shin Su-ah. You have already fulfilled the role you were assigned. So it's fine if you wait here, what will you do?"
"I'll go in too."
"...Even we don't know what will happen beyond this point. Are you okay even though we're saying we might not be able to protect you in an emergency?"
"Yes. And I have Lord Nidhogg, after all."
Nodding at her will to answer without hesitation, the expedition team captain placed us at the very back and entered the Gate inside the Gate.
The moment we stepped inside the unidentified Gate, the scenery completely changed.
Instead of the twisted forest and the snow falling from the sky, a forest where all the bushes were dyed black and black fog spread widely in all directions.
And.
-Hiss-
The creepy cry of a snake was heard through the dark fog.