Chapter 108: The Old Temple (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 108: The Old Temple (4)
“O-Orabeoni...?”
The moment my eyes met Yoo Sowol’s, I immediately activated ‘Thought Acceleration’.
Instantly, everything around me, except for myself, slowed down. Not even time was an exception.
I didn’t see this coming...
Truthfully, meeting Yoo Sowol here wasn’t a huge problem in itself. The important thing was whether she had come down with another investigation team.
I could somehow deceive or persuade Yoo Sowol, but it would be a different story with other people.
I took the risk and spread my magic detection.
However, to avoid alerting the elders on the surface, I needed to change the shape of the detection. Instead of a sphere expanding out from me, it had to be configured to scan only the underground area.
Of course, it didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped. Magic detection is less like a spell and more like a skill.
Magic power is like flowing water, and magic detection is about controlling that flow. While it’s possible to change the direction of the water’s flow, changing the very shape of the water itself is next to impossible.
But the true substance of this ‘water’ was my own magic power.
Besides, magic power is neither solid, liquid, nor gas. Giving it a form depended entirely on my capabilities as the caster.
Of course, this wasn't something I could easily tamper with at my current level. Defining the form of magic power was something only a 5th Circle mage could do.
...But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
It wasn’t a spell, but a skill, which meant it was worth a try. Plus, thanks to ‘Thought Acceleration’, I had plenty of time.
If it doesn’t work, I’ll just keep trying until it does.
My magic power warped and expanded again. The process wasted a considerable amount of it. The movements of the illusion I’d created with ‘Hallucination’ would become simplistic, but Cheon Yeo-hwa would have to improvise and cover for it.
After dozens of attempts, I barely succeeded.
I brought the entire maze into the range of my magic detection.
But it was just me and Yoo Sowol here. There was no sign of any other living creatures.
What’s going on?
I released Thought Acceleration.
“Sowol.”
“...Yes.”
Yoo Sowol blushed and avoided my gaze.
“Are you lost?”
“...”
This time, she just nodded silently without a word. It seemed my guess was correct. I gently stroked the hair of the exhausted-looking Yoo Sowol and handed her a bottle of water. She didn’t seem to know how to open a plastic bottle, so I twisted the cap off for her. Only then did she begin gulping it down. After drinking, Yoo Sowol slowly started to explain how she ended up here.
“...So, you got separated from the investigation team while exploring the pavilion, you lightly touched a strange-looking Buddha statue, the floor suddenly gave way, and when you came to your senses, you were here?”
“Yes... I think it’s been about one sikyeong [approx. 30-60 minutes].”
That meant it had been somewhere between thirty and sixty minutes, which was about the same amount of time I’d been active underground.
“Um, but Orabeoni, why are you here? Weren’t you supposed to be waiting at the entrance?”
“...Same thing happened to me. I was on my way to take care of some business when the floor suddenly collapsed.”
“Ah...! You must have had a hard time.”
“Well, something like that.”
Fortunately, Yoo Sowol wasn’t the type to doubt others. Or rather, even if she was capable of suspicion, she seemed to think that doubting someone she already had a favorable impression of was rude in itself.
“For now, let’s make escaping our goal. It seems foolish to just wait around for the investigation team.”
“Okay!”
A fresh smile bloomed on Yoo Sowol’s clearly exhausted face. It seemed wandering the maze had worn her out.
If I go that way, I should be able to head down.
It goes without saying, but I had no intention of looking for the exit.
I already knew where the exit was without having to search for it, and besides, I had to stick to my original plan of grabbing the martial arts manual and the elixir before leaving.
Having Yoo Sowol next to me might make stealing the manual a bit difficult, but I figured I could talk my way through it. If that didn't work, I'd have no choice but to take it secretly.
I smiled and pulled Yoo Sowol into my arms. She must have been through a lot, yet she smelled wonderful. My gaze quickly fixed on her ample breasts.
“Ah...”
Even though my hand was gripping her breast, Yoo Sowol simply remained quietly in my embrace, offering no resistance. In fact, she pressed herself against me as if asking me to touch her more, which was cute. The shy blush that bloomed on her cheeks was particularly striking.
...Should I just fuck her right here?
Driving out the lustful thoughts filling my head was no easy task. But I didn't want to take Yoo Sowol's first time in a damp, smelly maze like this, so I pinched my thigh and endured.
*
I found a staircase leading down.
I didn’t know the exact structure of this maze, but I was certain that to get anything, I had to go deeper underground.
However, as I tried to descend, Yoo Sowol voiced her confusion.
“To find the exit, shouldn’t we keep looking around this area...?”
It was a reasonable point. You’d normally look for a passage to the first floor on the first basement level, not the second.
“Well, I doubt the person who created such a massive labyrinth would be kind enough to place a staircase leading up so obviously. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the exit to be at the very end of the labyrinth?”
“Ah... As expected, Orabeoni, you have much more experience in the Murim than I do.”
She was reasonably convinced by my plausible excuse.
Experience in the Murim? I was a complete novice in this world. I had no idea how much of the Wuxia novel settings from my world would hold true here. Though, the place names seemed to be more or less accurate.
“Let’s head down for now.”
“Okay.”
We took the stairs down to the next level.
Just as I expected, the maze continued on the floor below. Yoo Sowol let out a small sigh. It was understandable, since she must have been struggling through the maze all by herself before she met me.
The structure of the second basement level wasn’t much different from the first. There were no monsters, not even any traps.
I had anticipated this to some extent, so I wasn’t too concerned.
The labyrinth itself might have been built by a third party, not Vajra Divine Monk, but it’s a fact that his touch is on it.
A quick look around the labyrinth revealed traces of traps without much difficulty.
That looks like it was a trap that shot arrows, and that tile up ahead is a collapsing floor trap.
If you fell, you’d probably be impaled on the spikes lining the bottom. I never thought my experience dealing with traps in underground dungeons would come in handy like this.
If my guess was correct, the labyrinth itself was built by someone else, and Vajra Divine Monk, who discovered it later, modified it to suit his own purposes.
I didn’t know what those purposes were, but it wasn’t hard to guess why he would remove all the traps.
A man who was once the abbot of the Shaolin Temple would never tolerate traps that could endanger human lives.
But one question still remained.
The fact that the man known as the strongest under heaven had personally removed the traps strongly suggested that, as I suspected, the Formless Vajra Art and the Prajna Divine Pill were likely here...
For something so important, isn’t the security a little too lax?
According to the herb gatherer who discovered the old temple, it had appeared overnight.
If a Daoist or a monk had found it, that would be one thing. But for a commoner who hasn’t even learned martial arts to find it means the effect of the formation must have weakened over time.
That also meant it wouldn’t have been strange at all if some of those so-called Evil Faction bastards had discovered this place. If it hadn’t been the herb gatherer, the probability of bandits finding it would have been relatively higher.
The old temple and the labyrinth were vast, but it was all just a complicated maze with no traps. If they were determined and invested the time, there was no reason why even bandits couldn’t reach the lowest floor.
A man who went to the trouble of removing every single trap out of concern for those entering the labyrinth wouldn’t just leave his arrangements at risk of falling into the hands of the Evil Faction.
It felt like the final piece of the puzzle was missing. But right now, all I could do was make vague speculations.
“Let’s rest for a bit.”
“Ah, then I’ll start a fire! My master gave me a tinderbox, just in case.”
Yoo Sowol’s eyes, looking strangely excited, sparkled.
Honestly, it would be more efficient to use magic for a campfire or pull a lighter out of my inventory, but I wasn’t so clueless as to say that in this situation.
While Yoo Sowol struggled to light a fire with the tinderbox, I took a lunch box out of my inventory. It wasn’t some cheap convenience store meal. It was a premium lunch box that cost hundreds of thousands of won.
“Hngh?!!”
After one bite of the beef bulgogi, Yoo Sowol literally shot up from where she sat. She jumped almost high enough to touch the ceiling before landing back down, her hand trembling as she held her chopsticks.
“O-Orabeoni... what is the name of this dish...?”
“Beef bulgogi. Is it good?”
“Yes! I’ve never eaten anything this delicious in my life! The Mount Hua Sect basically forbids cooked food, so we rarely get to eat grilled meat. At most, maybe once or twice a year? And even then, it’s barely seasoned, let alone marinated...”
Her expression momentarily resembled that of a soldier recalling his military rations as she silently devoured the lunch box.
The smile that bloomed on her lips with every bite was so cute I could watch it forever without getting tired. And the way her lips immediately drooped in sadness as the food disappeared was another sight to behold.
After we finished our meal, we started walking through the maze again.
“...Um, Orabeoni. I have a question, is it okay if I ask?”
“What is it?”
“The lunch box... you gave me earlier, and the clean water... where did you get them from?”
“Are you curious?”
“Yes.”
Looking at her innocent expression, lewd thoughts started creeping into my mind against my will. I reached out and wrapped my arm around her waist.
“Do you know that in the Murim, it’s rude to pry into other people’s secrets?”
“I-I didn’t know... I’m sorry...”
“Are you sorry?”
“Yes...”
She was definitely the same age as Cheon Yeo-hwa, yet everything from her minor mannerisms to her personality was a complete 180.
Maybe that’s why I found myself strangely more drawn to her.
It wasn’t that I was tired of Cheon Yeo-hwa or anything like that. It simply meant that I was attracted not only to Yoo Sowol’s outer appearance but to her inner self as well.
“Here.”
“Huh...?”
I took a piece of candy from my inventory. To Yoo Sowol, it must have looked like I created an object out of thin air.
She stared at me blankly, then spoke in a trembling voice.
“...Orabeoni, are you perhaps an immortal?”
“What do you think?”
In a world without magic, it was a reasonable assumption. I handed the candy to Yoo Sowol, who was contemplating it quite seriously, and continued walking through the maze, using detection magic all the while. I had rested and recovered my magic power in between, so it wasn’t a strain.
“It’s sweet...!”
“Is it good?”
“Yes! It’s much sweeter and more delicious than Danggwa! But, um, isn’t this expensive...?”
It is. It’s a high-end candy made with honey that can only be gathered from beyond the Gate. Each piece costs about 400,000 won.
It’s supposed to cleanse your skin and slightly increase your magic power, right?
Of course, the effect only works on the first consumption, and the increase is so minimal that it’s basically just a snack for the rich.
“I have plenty of money, so don’t worry about it and eat up.”
I took out some other snacks from my inventory.
Yoo Sowol seemed troubled at first, but it wasn’t long before she was captivated by the taste of the expensive treats and began to eat them quietly.
For the record, every snack I gave her had the effect of slightly increasing either stamina, strength, or magic power upon first consumption.
They were expensive, but for the woman who would become mine, it wasn’t a waste at all.
“Hm?”
Something appeared within my detection range.
...A door?
At first, I thought it was a dead end, but it wasn’t.
It was an old, worn-out door.
Other than the traps and stairs, it was the first man-made structure I’d seen since entering the labyrinth.
I can’t detect what’s beyond the door.
I could tell there was a space behind it, but I couldn’t see inside, as if a thick fog was blocking my view.
As if it was guarding something important.
I immediately turned and headed toward the door.
“Oh? It’s a door? Why is there a door in a place like this...?”
With a sense of excitement, I grabbed the doorknob and turned it. I never imagined I would find it so quickly.
Creeeak...
With a sound like it was about to fall apart, the door opened.
...It’s dark.
I entered the room with Yoo Sowol.
The inside of the room was pitch black, so dark you couldn’t see an inch in front of you. Even the light from the mysterious lamps that illuminated the maze couldn’t penetrate the room.
Just as I was wondering if I should use magic...
Thud!
“Kyaa?!”
The door suddenly slammed shut, and the room lit up.
My surprise at the sudden turn of events was brief, as I realized the room’s interior was strange.
It was a complete 180 from the maze, which was covered in cobwebs and dripping with moisture.
The room was so lavish it was reminiscent of a room in an expensive inn. The luxurious furniture and bed were free of a single speck of dust, and there was even a strangely pleasant scent in the air.
It was as if we had stepped into a completely different space on the other side of the door.
“Orabeoni, over there...”
Yoo Sowol was pointing at the wall.
There was a phrase written on it. It definitely wasn’t written in Korean, yet I could read it without any trouble.
Is this the power of the app?
I read the text carefully.
[A Room You Cannot Leave Without Having Sex]
“...??”
Something was getting very weird.