Chapter 159
Chapter 159
Chapter 159
A corner of the cave.
Clang- Clang-!
Swords clashed with tremendous noise. Bluish sword energy gleamed, illuminating the darkness.
Ju Won-jae easily pressed Nam-gung Cheon back while frowning.
"Were you always this weak? How disappointing."
He'd known from the start that being a natural playboy meant no great ambition for sword advancement, but he hadn't expected this complete lack of progress.
He'd had expectations when he heard Nam-gung Cheon had quickly climbed to the 38th floor, but his disappointment was immense.
"Ugh."
Nam-gung Cheon gritted his teeth, putting strength into his grip that felt ready to tear.
'This crazy monster bastard...'
The guy wasn't even being particularly serious right now.
He was just swinging his sword casually, enjoying himself.
But each strike he casually swung was bone-achingly heavy and sharp.
Rather than being able to fight back, Nam-gung Cheon couldn't even think of running away. At this rate, his life was truly in danger.
'Damn, is there no choice?'
Nam-gung Cheon fingered the eagle totem in his pocket.
If he threw this, the guy would show an opening for a moment. First, he needed to survive.
Just as Nam-gung Cheon decided and was about to pull out the totem.
Whoosh-.
Something flew toward the back of Ju Won-jae's head.
Ju Won-jae noticed and swung his sword to cut it down.
Poof-!
Dense smoke spread thickly at the same time.
It was powder mixed with deadly poison.
However, such tricks didn't work on Ju Won-jae, who had already reached the realm of immunity to all poisons.
"What an annoying trick."
It was probably the work of Nam-gung Cheon's companion thief.
Whoosh-.
Ju Won-jae swung his sword, using sword wind to blow away the smoke obscuring his vision.
But when the smoke cleared, Nam-gung Cheon was nowhere to be seen.
He must have hastily fled during the brief opening.
Just as Ju Won-jae was about to pursue him.
Chirp-.
Suddenly, an abnormal signal was felt from nearby ley lines.
At the same time.
[There's a problem with the barrier. Someone seems to have infiltrated and destroyed our totems. A total of two totems have been destroyed.]
Rei's communication charm glowed, reporting the current situation.
Hearing the report, Ju Won-jae furrowed his brow.
'...The totems were destroyed?'
But his sixth sense said otherwise.
Rather, his sixth sense was signaling that those two thief bastards were suspicious.
That he should chase those two.
That he should catch them and interrogate them.
However, Rei, who was casting wide-range protective magic to guard the totems, and the abnormal ley line signals were saying the totems had been destroyed.
He wasn't the type to make irrational judgments by relying only on his sixth sense while denying phenomena.
Shing-.
Ju Won-jae ultimately decided to sheathe his sword and withdraw.
***
"So they finally made their move."
Ju Won-jae, who had returned to the Eagle Tribe's communal area.
He gathered the members to assess the situation.
The destroyed totems were from the Eagle and Rabbit tribes, totaling two.
"Oh no, oh no."
The tribe members were wailing while clutching the broken fragments of totems in their hands.
Rei, who had been guarding against intruders with wide-range protective barrier magic, opened her mouth while hanging her head as if ashamed.
"...According to analysis, this incident was likely caused by a dog-type summon raised by Nova. The two thieves' infiltration seems to have been a diversion."
Since there was information that the dog could use earth magic, it probably dug tunnels to infiltrate the locations where the totems were stored.
In reality, the two thieves had been active, but since Kwon Ha-yeon had manipulated the situation using Baduki, everyone was completely fooled.
Ju Won-jae glared fiercely at Lee Seo-mun and Choi Gang-hyeon.
"Loose handling led to this mess."
From the beginning, Ju Won-jae had argued that each member should carry a totem with them.
However, Lee Seo-mun, Choi Gang-hyeon, and some other members didn't like this idea.
Their reasoning was that stealing and storing totems that the natives treasured like their lives was inhumane.
Especially those two had refused to accept totems that the natives had offered with their own hands.
Also, if each member carried a totem, they would have to go to the ley lines every time they needed to perform a revival ritual, which was inefficient in various ways.
So they had decided to leave the totems in the locations where each tribe originally stored them, but this kind of trouble ended up happening.
Since the items to be protected were scattered in various places, the personnel and resources for protection were also inevitably scattered.
It was no different from personally providing a stage for the thief bastards to run wild.
Ju Won-jae asked.
"Have you confirmed the infiltration route?"
"Ah, yes."
Ha-yeon felt her insides lurch while pointing out the tunnel that Francesca had dug through.
"It seems like they know the geography of this place completely. Otherwise, they couldn't easily pass through the protective barriers or know the locations of the caves where the totems were stored."
Robert said.
"Skeletons have been wandering around here and there recently. They probably finished mapping and surveying the structure of this place long ago."
"......"
After thinking carefully, Ju Won-jae made a decision.
"Six totems remain. From now on, we'll each carry them with us."
If the enemy knew all the tunnel terrain, hiding them somewhere or storing them all together would be dangerous.
Rather, if everyone carried totems as he had originally suggested, there would be no worry of the totems breaking unless they were defeated in combat with the enemy.
Ha-yeon tilted her head at this argument.
"But won't that make it difficult to perform revival rituals?"
After all, allowing each tribe to manage their totems was a measure to make revival rituals convenient, separate from humanitarian considerations.
Ju Won-jae shook his head at those words.
"We have a significant advantage in strength even without those suspicious revival rituals. It's better to eliminate variables."
A method of removing the variables of defeat themselves, even at some cost.
Ha-yeon tried to hide her reluctance at this quite hardline approach.
'This will make it difficult for Seo-jin and his team to secure the totems...'
Though she felt somewhat guilty about betraying her teammates, Ha-yeon made a suggestion.
"How about you carry just one as insurance, and we gather the rest in one place for revival rituals? After all, having just one intact won't interfere with winning the test, and we can gather the rest near the ley lines where rituals are easy to perform and guard them there."
This also aligned with Ju Won-jae's previous argument that they could protect just one and use the rest as bait.
"Hmm."
Ju Won-jae stroked his chin, thinking about Ha-yeon's plan.
'That method is certainly more efficient.'
After all, only one totem was needed to win the test.
If Ju Won-jae guarded one well, they at least wouldn't lose.
Also, if the remaining totems were stored near the ley lines, it would be convenient for revival rituals and easier to guard than having each tribe store them separately.
They could concentrate protective personnel and resources in one place, so at least they wouldn't get robbed by a single dog bastard that dug tunnels.
"Good. But since it's come to this, we need to assign separate personnel for totem protection."
Storing valuables all together also meant the risk of losing everything at once.
So they couldn't guard them loosely like now.
They needed to assign personnel dedicated to protecting the totems.
"Who will take charge of the protection team?"
At Ju Won-jae's question, Ha-yeon remained silent.
To help Seo-jin more, it would be good for Ha-yeon herself to take charge of the totem protection team.
'Let's stay quiet here.'
If she acted more proactively now, she might attract unnecessary suspicion.
Then Choi Gang-hyeon raised his hand and stepped forward.
"I'll take charge."
***
The other side of the cave. The Wolf Tribe's communal area.
Huff- huff-.
The two thieves, breathing heavily, safely arrived at the communal area.
"We, we brought them."
Nam-gung Cheon and Francesca handed over the Eagle and Rabbit tribe totems they had brought to Seo-jin.
"Good work, both of you."
Seo-jin commended the two thieves for their achievement.
It must not have been easy, yet they succeeded so well. As expected, professionals are professionals.
Seo-jin examined the totems from various angles and asked them.
"Were there any unusual incidents?"
"...Almost died after being caught by the Sword Star bastard."
"You're lucky you didn't get a limb cut off somewhere."
"That's what I'm saying."
If Francesca hadn't come to help midway, it would have been really dangerous.
Meanwhile, Francesca spoke with an unusually cautious expression.
"I have information to report to the leader separately. Can you arrange a private moment?"
"What kind of secret meeting do you want to have with this scheming guy?"
"You stay out of this."
Francesca wanted to talk separately.
'Francesca headed toward the Rabbit Tribe.'
Then she probably encountered Ha-yeon. She must have something to say about that.
"Understood. Step back for a moment."
Seo-jin dismissed the other team members for now and met privately with Francesca.
"Did you make a deal with Kwon Ha-yeon?"
"How did you know? Did you two coordinate your stories or something?"
On the 37th floor, the Saintess and Divine Spear had visited the native village and stayed overnight. Had they laid groundwork then?
Seo-jin shook his head at this.
"That can't be. Do you know what form the 38th floor test would take? I predicted it because you wanted to talk separately."
"That makes sense. Anyway, the Saintess agreed to help us."
When Francesca explained the whole story, Seo-jin smiled after hearing it.
"That will be a great help. Less trouble too."
According to Francesca, Ha-yeon planned to guide them to gather the remaining totems in one place to make them easier to steal.
If that happened, they wouldn't need to infiltrate each tribe separately - they could just identify where the totems were gathered and rob that location.
"Yeah. Just robbing that one place will easily finish things. But..."
"Unless they're idiots, they'll keep at least one as insurance."
Since there was a possibility of all the totems being stolen at once, they would keep one stored separately.
And probably Ju Won-jae would have that one.
"However, we don't need to worry much about that."
If they could steal the five totems gathered together, they wouldn't need to worry about the last one being destroyed.
From the enemy's perspective, they couldn't destroy the last remaining totem.
They just needed to fight the guy appropriately and steal the totem.
'Having an inside collaborator makes work this easy.'
Originally, Nam-gung Cheon and Francesca would have had to risk their lives stealing them one by one, but with Ha-yeon's help, things worked out this easily.
The quest situation was proceeding more smoothly than expected.
At this rate, they could probably wrap up the situation within a few days.
'Since it's come to this, I need to quickly create the magic circle needed for totem fusion.'
He had thought it would take at least another week to steal all the totems, but thanks to Ha-yeon's cooperation, the time was greatly shortened.
He needed to move quickly to match this.
Fortunately, he had just finished the key to give to the Romulus and Remus brothers.
As Seo-jin was thinking various thoughts and racking his brain, Francesca said.
"But Leader, is it okay to keep making the Saintess do bad things? We're taking advantage of her goodwill, aren't we?"
While they were grateful that the Saintess was helping them, it was also doing terrible things to the Saintess personally.
They were urging her to betray the strategy team members she had been with, and making her act as a spy for the Reverse Heaven Society.
Seo-jin said to this.
"...She's just doing what she believes is right. In the most efficient way possible from her position."
There was no coercion or threats involved, so there was nothing to worry about.
After hearing the answer, Francesca scratched her cheek.
"Well, that's not what I was asking about. The Leader will handle it. I'm leaving now."
Francesca left those words and departed.
"......"
Seo-jin stood alone in the cave, mulling over the words Francesca had left behind.
***
A few days later.
Baduki, who had left home, returned.
Grr-.
Baduki came to Seo-jin and rubbed his head against him.
"You came back quite quickly."
Seo-jin knocked Baduki's head once and asked.
"I trust you didn't just come back from loafing around. Did you find out where the enemy's totems are located?"
Woof- woof-.
Baduki nodded and used earth magic to carve coordinates on the floor.
It seemed to be the coordinates Ha-yeon had told him.
"Well done."
The perfect hand to finish this test had fallen into his possession.