Chapter 50
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: The Strange, Tall House in the Fog (2)
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I followed Carter deeper into the foggy forest.
After about ten minutes of walking, a small cabin appeared in the middle of the dense woods.
“Is that the small house?”
The building, which looked more like a hut, was less impressive than I'd expected.
If that's really what I'm supposed to investigate, this is going to be anticlimactic.
“No, this is my home.”
Of course. There was no way that was the actual house. Randolph Carter gestured for me to follow him inside.
The house was quite ordinary, perfectly suited for someone living alone.
Carter brought out some tea. We sat facing each other at the dining table in the center of the house.
“You just need to deliver this to the being beyond the fog.”
Carter held out a sealed letter.
A century-old quest that was just a simple letter delivery? Something felt off.
Sure enough, Carter added more.
There was a reason this quest had remained open for a hundred years.
“Most people can neither find nor reach that being.”
“A letter to be delivered to someone unreachable. Is that it?”
“Yes. I met that being once in the past. To be precise, I received help from it.”
“So that being lives in this foggy forest. Why don't you just go yourself?”
Carter knew the fog well.
Instead of sending innocent people to their doom, wouldn't it be easier for him to go, especially since it was right there?
Carter shook his head.
“I am not permitted to enter that place. I have already met it once.”
So is it a one-time-only deal?
Whatever the case, it was a simple story.
“Alright.”
“You could die. I won't stop you if you wish to turn back now.”
“I don't care.”
“The death I speak of is true annihilation. It's different from the death of the body.”
“You're the client, aren't you? Why are you being so needlessly considerate? There's only one thing you need to wait for: whether I return or not.”
I stood up, took Randolph Carter's letter, and went outside.
I'd walked out confidently, which was great, but I had no idea which way the house was.
As expected, Carter came out. He pointed in the same direction we had come from.
“Isn't that the way back?”
“It is not about direction, but flow. For your information, you seem to have a high sensitivity to magic. It would be best not to use it recklessly. This is not something you can handle.”
I couldn't grasp what Randolph Carter meant by "flow," but there was no way he, a long-time resident, would point me in the wrong direction.
“Be back soon.”
I waved confidently and plunged into the fog.
After walking for about five minutes, I looked around.
“What is this...”
Fog was everywhere.
It was less a foggy forest and more just fog itself.
The fog was so thick that if I lowered my hand below my eyes, I couldn't see it.
I could feel myself stepping on something, but that was it.
I had no way of knowing if the path I was on was even in a forest.
It wouldn't have been strange if a cliff suddenly appeared beneath my feet.
The inside of the fog was that unnatural.
How long had I been walking?
Just as I was starting to feel tired, the fog stirred.
Unpleasant screams and shrieks echoed in my head.
The sounds of beasts, humans, and unidentifiable things mixed grotesquely.
It was getting closer.
I drew my sword and stood on guard.
Something burst up from the ground.
Since I had heightened all my senses to their peak, I quickly leaped upward.
An unidentified black object grazed my foot as it passed.
I thought I had jumped quite high, but the fog was too thick to gauge the altitude.
There was another problem. I couldn't see a landing spot at all.
This was a pretty big problem.
“My leg...”
It definitely wasn't an injury, but my leg wouldn't obey me.
The area around my leg was turning black, as if petrified.
‘This is dangerous.’
This happened from just a slight touch.
If I go down like this, there's no telling what might happen.
I have no choice but to change my approach.
I heard the sound of something cutting through the wind in the fog.
I used Punga toward the ground to create a gust of wind.
Clear the fog? Hell no. It didn't even budge.
I grabbed the object flying through the fog.
Although I had sensed its presence, it appeared right in front of my nose. Any later and it would have been dangerous.
‘But this is...’
What I was holding onto was none other than a monster's leg.
It had two horns, a long tail extending from its torso, and its entire body, including the horns, was covered in skin cracked like a snake's.
It was a little over two meters tall and didn't seem to have any eyes.
If I had to compare it to something, it would be a gargoyle, but it had a different feel.
I was ready to stick a sword in its back if necessary, but luckily, this thing didn't seem very interested in me.
The creature was flapping its wings, racing through the fog.
I could tell it was flying with a purpose in this space filled with nothing but fog.
Just as I decided to hang on a little longer and follow it, something snapped.
Did I drop something? The moment I looked down, my face went pale.
“My leg!!”
What had fallen was none other than my own leg. It was so numb I hadn't even realized it had been severed.
It just grazed me!
I wasn't even injured, it just brushed against me!
But for my leg to get cut off is just too much.
“Ha, this is ridiculous.”
Thankfully, I couldn't feel anything from the cleanly severed leg.
‘I can restore my leg, right?’
Even with my leg gone, I calmly assessed the situation.
There was a chance I could fix it by clearing the 4th floor and accessing the system.
The creature suddenly stopped, as if it had arrived somewhere.
Then, it shook its body violently.
I was already barely hanging on, so I lost my grip without meaning to.
“Hey! If you're going to drop me, at least give me a heads-up!”
Too petty to just let it go, I fired a skill upward.
A beam of light shot straight toward the creature's leg, but unfortunately, the distance was too great to inflict much damage.
I was the one in a hurry.
“This is insane.”
I was about to hit the ground, but I had no idea how high up I was.
Should've known not to try any cheap tricks.
[The aura of the god Soter blesses you.]
[Blessing Level 1 activates.]
[All stats increase dramatically.]
I relentlessly repeated the same skill toward the ground.
A massive gust of wind erupted around me.
The fog slowly pushed back, and the ground became faintly visible.
The moment my one foot touched the ground, I slammed face-first into the floor.
“Damn it.”
It would have been one thing if my leg was injured and unusable.
Phantom limb syndrome, I guess. The problem was that my brain kept registering my leg as being there, even though it was gone.
I stabbed my sword into the ground and barely managed to get up.
“This is...”
A giant ladder stood before me.
Thanks to the skill scattering the fog, I could see above me for a brief moment.
‘That bastard.’
I'd wondered why it suddenly shook me off; it was entering the house.
If I'd known, I would have held on with both arms for dear life.
And what was that about a small house?
How in the world could you call that a small house?
The fog had already obscured it again, but that was no small house.
It was tall, though.
I swung my sword toward the sound.
Black tentacles slithered out from the ground gouged by my skill.
It wasn't just tentacles. The ground itself seemed to shimmer before forming a single entity.
A tentacle shot toward me at high speed. The tip of my sword passed right through it.
‘Just like with Randolph.’
I abandoned the attack and ducked to dodge.
“How am I supposed to win this?!”
I randomly fired skills at the clumped mass of tentacles.
The mass split in two, dodging my attack in an instant.
‘So skills can damage it?’
If only my other leg were intact.
It seemed better to escape to that mysterious house.
After using Moonlight Slash a few times to keep it at bay, I grabbed the ladder.
Unable to use my legs, I had to climb almost entirely with my arm strength.
Just as I thought I could make it, an attack came from the side.
A cone-shaped tentacle pierced through my body. My hand gripping the ladder quickly stiffened, and my body fell.
A part of the mass that had first attacked me had disappeared.
It had teleported to attack.
‘Damn it...’
My body wouldn't move.
This was truly a fatal wound.
‘Think.’
Why didn't I feel anything when my leg was severed?
And with an injury this severe, I should have been in pain.
I couldn't feel anything.
My mind was even working clearly.
‘I'm not dead yet.’
The fact that I was still thinking was proof.
Randolph Carter can touch me, but I can't touch him.
These things were the same.
They could touch me, but I couldn't touch them.
Still, I knew one way to touch them.
A skill that used magic.
My body hardened like stone, then crumbled.
It had been a long time since I could even lift a finger.
The pieces that broke off my body turned to ash and vanished.
To be precise, they became one with the fog.
This fog was composed of the bodies of those who had perished here.
The moment my body completely disappeared, a great storm erupted from within the fog.
The retreating tentacles and the grotesquely shaped ghouls froze.
I landed lightly on the ground.
I looked completely different from the youthful, early-twenties Kang Han-gyeol.
I picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground.
At first, I suspected these things were thought-forms that had broken a taboo.
But those weren't thought-forms; they were ghouls.
Ghouls, in other words, are 'monsters that devour substance.'
And by substance, I mean everything that is not magic.
The Muels are beings who possess the factor of a god, but strictly speaking, they are not gods.
Having lost their bodies, they cannot manifest themselves. What does it mean to die? It wasn't the death of the body.
It is to lose the ability to think.
That is true death.
The Muels' bodies vanished. Physically, they were dead, but they did not recognize the fact of their own death.
The Muels only have the factor of a god; they are not 'gods' themselves.
And Kang Han-gyeol's body has also perished. But there was a fundamental difference between the countless vanished Muels and me.
The being called 'I' inside Kang Han-gyeol was not one who had inherited the factor of a god.
[You are currently in a 'Descent' state.]
[You can temporarily use the power of a god.]
“A shame there's no mirror.”
After so long, it’s only right that I get a look at my own face.