The Forbidden Ground (2)
The Forbidden Ground.
A forbidden zone held by Yeongwol Academy — one that had appeared even in Reader's Chronicle.
And a hidden field you could enter only after meeting a very particular set of conditions.
Should it be classed as a hidden piece, or as an anomaly? The veterans of Reader's Chronicle opened an arena over the question every single day. And the conclusion?
There never was one.
In some ways a Forbidden Ground was better than a hidden piece. It was also dangerous.
Yeongwol holds three Forbidden Grounds in all.
Two had come to light through the players. The third had surfaced only in a developer's comment.
The Treasure Vault, the Shrine, and Inoemagyeong.
He knew what the Treasure Vault and the Shrine contained. Inoemagyeong, if he was honest, even Bihyung didn't really understand.
The rough version was that it was something like the prison where villains who had committed crimes in the past were locked away, wasn't it?
And then that place had been devoured by anomalies. The wicked who had sinned became anomalies themselves, and once they had strayed from the human path they no longer had any business meddling in the world — that was as far as the developer had written.
It did say you could raise your proficiency at an exponential rate.
He still had no particular wish to go. This was the early story, for one thing, and the field wasn't even hinted at until Act Three, which counted as the midgame.
The further you pushed the main story, the higher the players climbed.
And like any other RPG, the places Reader's Chronicle saved for the late game were simply stronger.
The Treasure Vault, put simply, was a storehouse of every kind of relic — like a hoard of old things. The one difference was that, unlike the old-object anomalies, the Vault also held things classed as elixirs and skills.
The Great Rebirth Pill, most of all.
He had once seen a post some user put up on the gallery. Swallow it, they claimed, and it would wash your marrow and forge your bones anew, and add a Heavenly Martial Physique to your bloodline entry. Even the photograph reeked of something absurdly broken.
And the Shrine was a place where you could earn derived stories by passing all sorts of trials.
Go, for example, to a memorial portrait of someone holding a sword, sit in lotus position before it, and you could meet the person in that portrait inside a dream. Endure the ordeal in that state, and you could obtain a derived story that granted a useful buff — the same sort of thing as the Path of the Apex he had received at the entrance ceremony.
...He really didn't feel like it.
The trouble was that Bihyung had no particular desire to visit any of the three. Stop by the Shrine and the story would haunt his dreams and work him half to death until he cleared it. Fine in a game. Now that it was reality, he had no wish to lose his nights. A yokai's temperament was already more than enough to ruin his sleep.
And even if he went to the Treasure Vault right now, he had no confidence he could pass the trial.
The recommended rank for the easiest ordeal there had been 3rd Rank. Only after entering Act Two, raising the proficiency of various techniques, and pushing his stats could you scrape through by the skin of your teeth.
"Mmm..."
Bihyung let out a troubled hum with his phone in hand, and the Chairwoman, watching him, laughed shortly.
"You look stuck. 'Forbidden Ground' doesn't ring any bells, does it?"
No. The problem is that it rings far too many.
"Hehe. That can happen. The Forbidden Grounds are the Academy's most secret places — even the faculty are barred from entering. I was shocked myself, the first time I went."
No, that's the point. I already know that—
...Wait. What?
"You've been there?"
Bihyung closed the distance with wide eyes, and the Chairwoman, her sense of space abruptly gone, took two steps back. He had meant it as a playful approach, but even so — wasn't this a little too close?
"Mm. I went in. Why?"
She tilted her head as if she couldn't see the issue, but Bihyung's shock did not fade so easily.
The condition for entering a Forbidden Ground was completing a mission of the highest grade the Academy issued.
And missions of the highest grade were not handed down lightly. Even among the fourth-years, those competing for the very top stopped at high-grade work. Yet the woman before him was only a single year above him. She could fairly be counted among those who contended for the title of the Academy's strongest.
"What did you obtain in the Forbidden Ground, Senior?"
The Chairwoman started to answer readily, then faltered, a sudden sense of wrongness showing on her face.
"What did I obtain? The way you say that... it almost sounds as if you've been inside a Forbidden Ground yourself, junior."
"No, that's not—"
Sharp. Desperately, Bihyung turned his thoughts over, searching for anything that might convince her.
That was when it happened.
"That's just what the Academy gave out as a reward, isn't it? You don't think they'd call it a prize if there was nothing to gain?"
Mina had suddenly come up beside Bihyung and lifted her chin with haughty pride. Nice assist, Mina! But why did her tone have thorns in it?
"Hmm. Fair enough."
The Chairwoman nodded as if persuaded, and told him.
"The place I entered was called the Treasure Vault."
"Yes."
"And there... I was given a trial."
"A trial?"
"Mm. You know — those old tales. Greed that goes too far earns punishment, and purity earns a reward. That sort of tale."
She looked back as if it were a fond memory.
"The trial I faced was exactly that kind. I only learned as much afterward, though."
"Then at the time?"
"I was humming a song without much thought, and they said that was enough to pass. Afterward I acquired a technique that lets me control the power of an art by the pitch of a syllable."
As she spoke, the rise and fall of her voice shifted little by little. Each time it did, the spiritual power around her washed over his skin like a wave.
"I hope that helps."
With that, the Chairwoman turned away.
"Junior. Don't forget our promise. Understood?"
Then, with light and unhurried steps, she was gone.
"......"
Bihyung watched her go for a long moment, then lifted his head.
That story...
Why did it feel familiar?
After the disciplinary committee concluded without incident, Bihyung parted from Mina and returned to the dormitory. He threw himself onto a sofa the size of a bed and brought Eodugi out.
"Haa. My lord, I truly thought I was going to suffocate to death...!"
The moment Eodugi emerged from the shadow, he grumbled just so.
"That disciplinary committee? The aura those old monsters were giving off — augh. My skin was stinging so badly I nearly died, I did, my lord!"
"They were strong, I'll give them that."
"And yet beside the power you possess, my lord, they felt utterly insignificant!"
Eodugi compared the demon-breaking power of Bihyung's lower dantian with the old monsters of the Council of Elders, and judged that Bihyung — if only by a narrow margin — stood above them.
"Your energy was smaller, and still it struck yokai far harder, it did, my lord! You will only grow stronger from here!"
"Thanks. Even if it's just talk."
"It is not empty talk, my lord!"
Eodugi rolled this way and that, bouncing all over the place, fervently protesting that he would never let a lie pass his lips. Bihyung snorted a laugh and lifted him up.
"Eodugi."
"Yes, my lord."
"Did you feel it too?"
He set Eodugi on the table before the sofa and asked in earnest, and Eodugi's expression grew earnest in turn.
"You mean what that woman said just now, don't you, my lord?"
"Yeah. It sounded familiar."
The Treasure Vault trial the Chairwoman had described: excessive greed was punished, and goodness was rewarded.
"And she passed just by humming a song."
This was exactly—
"Isn't that the story of the old man with the lump?"
"...What is that, my lord?"
"There's a folktale. A dokkaebi shows up in it."
Right. The Old Man with the Lump was a tale meant to teach good from evil — and the ones who dealt out the punishment were dokkaebi.
The stories line up well enough. The interest in song. The punishment when greed goes too far.
Bihyung asked, just in case, whether Eodugi might know of it as one of the same kind. The answer was no.
"I do not sense it, my lord."
"...Not at all?"
"No, my lord. What I heard is a perfect copy of a dokkaebi's nature, and yet... within this place called the Academy, I can no longer feel any of our kind."
Eodugi thought for a moment, then offered a guess.
"Might they not have concealed their presence through some special treatment, the way your Yodan does, my lord?"
"Could be."
Whether the yokai had done it themselves, or the Academy had sealed them.
That changes things.
Originally, Bihyung had meant to stay away from the Forbidden Grounds for now. But if — just if — there was a dokkaebi in there?
"Maybe I ought to go take a look."
He had no grand cause along the lines of rescuing poor kin trapped in human hands. It was the same as when he had brought Eodugi to heel. If there was something he could gain through that dokkaebi...
When I met Eodugi, the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons opened.
Of course, that had been just before his unique story sprouted, and it had opened in that moment by chance. Everything he had piled up afterward, though, was wholly his own. Draping Eodugi about himself as a living shroud, and the nature that had taken root in the little one — both were entirely his own power.
What if that one could be folded into the Night Parade as well, and worn as a shroud?
Wouldn't that be a straight rise in fighting strength?
...It's not as if he could drape Mina.
Eodugi was fine, since he didn't look like a person. Draping Mina, who was a woman... yeah. In more ways than one, the picture was a little off. Which was why Bihyung had been wavering from the moment he heard the Chairwoman's story. Seeing him like that, Eodugi bounced with delight.
"Ooh! My lord! I am in favor, I am!"
"You are?"
"Yes indeed! For the number of dokkaebi friends who recognize your greatness to grow — a magnificent thing, my lord!"
Faced with such passionate support, Bihyung scratched his cheek and let out a wry little laugh.
"...All right. Shall we go rescue a friend for you, then, Eodugi?"
"You mean right this instant, my lord?"
"Not quite. After a little preparation."
It was a hidden field in name and in fact, a place you couldn't enter any earlier than the middle of Act Two. Going as he was now... yeah. Thinking it over again, it was too much.
"So we go after I've pulled my specs up a bit."
And there was one spec Bihyung could raise immediately.
Nine Yang Severed Meridians.
A derived story: Nine Yang Severed Meridians.
It was time to complete it, and obtain the Nine Yang Body.