Chapter 30
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: The Invisible 1/N
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My vision flipped, and cold air rushed into my lungs.
I instinctively sat up the moment I opened my eyes.
A cramped room lined with rickety wooden beds.
The air reeked of musty dust and rotting wood.
A half-broken cross hung on the wall, and a chill wind seeped through the cracks in the window.
Matching Complete: 8/8
Entered Stage 1-3: 'Abandoned Monastery'
Special Condition Activated: Community of Fate
Achieve the required conditions (quest) within the time limit. However, if even one participating player dies, it will be considered a total failure.
"Ha."
It was still a condition that made me want to curse.
I let out a short sigh and looked around.
Three women were stirring groggily on their beds.
Familiar faces.
"Mm... Big Brother!?"
Park Yumin was the first to come to her senses. Her eyes snapped open, and she sprang up like a coiled spring.
Her loose mage robe fluttered as she charged toward me.
"I missed you! Have you been well? Did you eat?"
It had only been a week, but she acted like we were long-lost family reuniting.
I stopped her charge by pressing my index finger firmly against her forehead.
"No approaching within one meter of me."
"Eek, why? This is our fourth time meeting already. Can't we get a little closer? Huh? Big Brother?"
She rubbed against my finger like a puppy, not dodging it at all.
In contrast, Lee Seo-ah rose from her bed and quietly adjusted her clothes.
"You're here."
A short greeting. But her eyes were different from before.
The anxiety and ferocity from Stage 1-2 were gone, replaced by calm, settled pupils.
There was a newfound confidence, an inexplicable serenity—a sense of weight.
"M-Master..."
Finally, Yuriel scurried behind my back and hid.
She had traded her free-spirited white dress for the typical elf archer look: bow, quiver, circlet, and all.
She definitely looked more polished now. She'd put on some healthy weight, too.
But whether due to instinctive fear of the unfamiliar surroundings, she clung tightly to my clothes and wouldn't let go.
'At least our party's all here.'
Instead of exchanging pleasantries, I immediately checked under the beds.
Beneath the worn mattresses, between the wooden frames.
"There it is."
Something hard caught my fingertips.
Dusty old rosaries.
[Rosary of Purification]
- When equipped, purifies malevolent energies, granting resistance to the 'Corruption' status effect.
The essential item for this stage.
The plague ghouls and wraiths here inflict the Corruption debuff just by brushing against you, rotting your flesh.
This was the only lifeline against it.
I rummaged under all four beds and secured every rosary.
"Here. Wear it around your neck or wrist—don't take it off your body no matter what."
"What's this?"
"Like a talisman. Just wear it if you want to live."
The three equipped them without complaint.
First preparations complete.
"Let's go. Gotta check what kind of deadweights we're stuck with."
Creeeak.
I opened the creaky door and stepped into the hallway.
Across the long corridor was an identical dormitory room.
Its door was already open.
And burly men were emerging from it.
"Whoa? People!"
They spotted us and froze.
All men.
The leader up front wielded a massive tower shield—a tank.
Behind him, two bulky guys shouldered longswords like giant greatswords.
And at the rear, a lanky archer.
The composition didn't look bad on paper.
But not bad didn't mean good.
No healer, no mage.
A brute-force setup relying on raw power. Unless I'm wrong, a classic macho pepper party.
"Ah, nice to meet you. You guys four as well?"
The shield guy spoke first.
Mid-30s, calm eyes. Probably their leader.
'Four-man parties it is.'
"Yes."
My curt reply prompted their archer—a bucktoothed anchovy-faced punk—to butt in.
"What? Three women in the party?"
He scanned us and smirked sleazily.
Probably mistaking us for some harem party more suited to peacetime than combat.
"Bro, looks like we're carrying. Total bus-riders at first glance."
He snarked to his leader, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Hey, watch your mouth. It's all-survive conditions anyway."
The leader reined him in, but the punk snorted.
"Yeah, yeah, that's why I'm saying it. Hey, you there."
He jerked his chin at me.
"We already know the whole. So if you wanna live, just follow our bro's orders quietly. Got it?"
Classic 'cocky follower' type.
Leeches off the leader's authority, thinking he's hot shit.
Lee Seo-ah's brow furrowed, and Park Yumin pouted with a "What’s with that jerk..."
But I ignored him.
No time to waste bickering with small fry.
My eyes were counting heads and gauging their overall setup.
'Our party: four. Theirs: four. Total eight.'
The system said clearly [8/8].
But Yuriel doesn't count toward the matching players.
'One missing.'
I narrowed my eyes, scanning the hallway and open door cracks meticulously.
My senses sharpened to the extreme.
Dust settling, their heartbeats, wind beyond the walls.
All info flooded my brain.
But.
'Nothing.'
No presence besides the eight here.
"......"
A chill ran down my spine.
Either already slipped out of the dorm.
Or has monster-level stealth that fools even my senses.
"Big Brother? What's wrong?"
Park Yumin noticed my hardened expression and asked worriedly.
Yuriel perked her ears and scanned around but shook her head.
Not even elf senses picked it up.
'Damn it. Another rat in the mix.'
Small mercy: it hadn't attacked anyone.
With that stealth, it could've easily slit their throats—not ours, but theirs.
High chance it's aware of the 'all survive' clear condition and playing cautious.
'No need to worry about backstabs for now.'
Of course, no complacency.
Nothing more dangerous than an unseen variable.
"Hey! Ignoring me? Answer!"
Bucktooth took my silence as a slight and started forward in a huff.
Tatata!
Urgent footsteps echoed from the stairwell at the hall's end.
All eyes turned there.
"Haa... haa...!"
A panting old man in tattered priest robes appeared.
White-haired, terrified face. NPC.
The monastery's abbot, Thomas.
"A-Are you the ones? The mercenaries hired to escort Sister Eletsa... the Saintess to the lord's castle?"
The old man glanced desperately between us and them.
Their leader flinched.
Caught off-guard by the sudden NPC.
Without info, hard to tell foe from friend.
'Know the, but not every detail, huh?'
But I knew.
In the game, I'd mistaken this geezer for an enemy, killed him, and gotten quest-failed into game over.
This stage was different.
We had to clear the quest.
An escort quest, no less.
I stepped forward without hesitation.
"That's us. We're the escorts."
"Oh...! Thank the Lord!"
The old man crossed himself in gratitude.
"No time! They're... they're coming! We must hurry to the underground chapel. The Saintess is hiding there!"
"Lead the way."
I nodded him on.
He scurried ahead down the stairs.
"What? Hey, who made you decide?"
Bucktooth griped late, but I ignored him and beckoned my group.
"Follow. Don't just stand there."
Park Yumin, Lee Seo-ah, and Yuriel trailed me.
Theirs followed in a daze—the quest was progressing, after all.
"Hold up."
I paused midway down the hall.
Their room door gaped open.
'No way they grabbed it.'
They were empty-handed.
Didn't even think to check under the beds.
Bragging about while missing the most basic hidden piece.
"Go ahead. I'll catch up."
"Huh? Big Brother?"
I sent my group first and slipped into their room.
As expected.
Under the beds, in the dust piles: four [Rosaries of Purification] untouched.
"Finders keepers."
I swept them all into my bag.
No plans to hand them out yet.
When they beg for salvation from Corruption later, that's when to cash in big.
'More bargaining chips, the better.'
I grinned and exited.
Chasing my group into the dark hall's end, I thought.
The ninth shadow.
Didn't matter where it hid.
I was the one designing and steering this game.
"Hang on, Saintess. Big bro's coming to save you."
The underground chapel was dank.
Flickering wall candles cast long shadows of a kneeling woman before the altar.
Tattered nun's habit.
But the holy aura radiating beyond it couldn't be hidden.
"Lady Eletsa! The mercenaries are here! We must leave this place now!"
Abbot Thomas cried urgently.
Only then did she slowly rise and turn.
Her disheveled golden hair framed a pale face, but her eyes were unshakably serene.
Encounter with the Saintess
Next Objective: Secure the escort carriage at the monastery rear gate within 30 minutes.
"I was... waiting."
Eletsa's voice trembled faintly.
"The Lord has not abandoned me."
"Yeah, uh, save the prayers for later."
No time for sentiment—I grabbed Eletsa's arm and pulled.
Bucktooth yelped, "Hey! What're you doing to the Saintess?!" but I brushed it off.
My nerves were all tuned outward.
Woooong—
The ground trembled.
No, the air vibrated.
Every sense screamed alerts to my brain.
Outside the monastery.
Hundreds—no, thousands of horrific malice surged toward us.
"What're you waiting for? Move!"
My sharp edge shut up even the would-be hecklers.
We followed Thomas through a narrow secret passage to the rear gate.
"Haa, haa...!"
Breath at my throat, a rusted iron door loomed.
Bam!
I kicked it open, revealing the eerie rear courtyard under ashen skies.
In the center: a battered carriage with iron-barred cargo hold.
"That's it!"
Bucktooth pointed and yelled.
But the cheer died fast.
Kieeeek—!
Earth upheaved as monsters with rotting flesh clumps crawled up.
Green miasma billowed from them, fogging the air.
Plague ghouls.
This area is contaminated with high concentrations of plague.
"Shit! Gotta bust through—run!"
Their leader wasn't dumb—he raised his shield and bellowed.
"Formation! We take point!"
Oh, not bad?
They thought they owned the momentum.
So they charged ahead to seize initiative, smashing into the ghoul horde.
Idiots.
Knowing and being prepared were worlds apart—they'd learn soon.
"Grrraaah!"
The lead ghoul slammed the man's shield.
Bam!
A heavy impact shoved him back.
But the problem wasn't the shock.
"Wha... what?!"
A tiny scratch on his shield arm from the ghoul's claw.
From there, flesh blackened and rotted instantly.
Sssizzle—
"Gaaah! My... my arm! What is this?!"
"Bro?!"
The sword guys hacked ghouls in panic.
But rotten blood splashed their faces and armor.
More horrific fumes rose.
"Aaaagh! Hot! My flesh!"
Chaos in seconds.
Their formation crumbled in under a minute.
Corruption debuff.
Untreated, flesh peels from bone in agonizing death.
"......"
I watched pitifully.
Anyone charging without a rosary ends up like that.
"Big Brother... those guys look bad."
Park Yumin clutched my hem in fear.
But our party was fine.
Any approaching miasma bounced off the faint glow from our [Rosaries of Purification].
"Help! Please!"
The man clutched his rotting arm, screaming.
Bucktooth fled to our rear.
'Time to step in.'
Too much damage risks all-survive failure.
Lesson learned—now to bail them out.
Shing.
I drew the Wraithblade and advanced.
"Out of the way."
"Uh, uhh..."
I pushed through the flustered group.
A ghoul lunged for my neck.
-Slash!
Clean strike.
Its head flew.
Rotten blood splattered my armor, but the rosary purified it.
No pain, no debuff.
"......!"
Their eyes bulged.
They melted on a graze; I bathed in blood unscathed.
"Seo-ah! Cover!"
"Got it!"
Lee Seo-ah shielded my flank.
Ghoul claws scraped her shield, but she was fine thanks to her rosary.
"Yuriel! Fire!"
"As you command!"
Ping, pwing!
Arrows pierced ghoul brows from the rear.
Park Yumin's fireballs turned them to ash.
Overwhelming power gap.
"S-Save us! Let us...!"
Bucktooth grabbed my pant leg.
I glared coldly.
"Wanna live?"
"Yes! Yes! Please!"
"Then shut up and push the carriage. No whining like beasts."
I kicked him off and swung at the remaining ghouls.
"Get on! Lady Eletsa!"
Thomas helped the Saintess to the carriage rear.
I mopped up the rest.
Just load up and go.
But.
'......?'
The moment I opened the cargo door.
The empty hold.
In its dark corner, someone huddled.
Small figure in a tattered cloak, knees hugged.
'When the hell... was it here?'
The vanished rat had been waiting right there for me.