Chapter 149: The Cave of Screams (1)
Chapter 149: The Cave of Screams (1)
“Orabeoni. Wake up. Orabeoni. Hehe.”
I snapped my eyes open at the feeling of someone’s hands all over my chest. Lifting my gaze, I saw Ahn Sol, her face flushed, poking me here and there. The moment our eyes met, she jumped in surprise, quickly pulling her hands away and hiding them behind her back.
“……”
Right. There’s no way Sol would do that. I chalked it up to my imagination and immediately sat up. Looking around, I saw that the rest of the party was already awake and finishing packing up the campsite. Feeling a bit bewildered, I asked Ahn Sol in a dry voice.
“Sol. Am I the last one to wake up?”
“Well…”
“I told them to let you sleep.”
Just as Ahn Sol, who was fidgeting nervously, was about to open her mouth, a clear voice came from behind. I turned to see Jung Hayeon smiling gently at me.
“Please don’t be too upset. I just thought it would be good for you to get even a little more sleep when you can.”
“Well, I’m not upset, but…”
I tilted my head and got out of my sleeping bag. Sleeping in wasn’t a problem, but normally, habit alone should have woken me up long ago. No, before that, there’s no way I wouldn’t have sensed the stir of them packing up camp.
Have my senses dulled this much just because I’ve gotten used to the peace lately? As I mulled this over and got to my feet, Jung Hayeon must have read my expression, because she sighed and spoke.
“I asked User Ko Yeonju and Ms. Vivian to cast a Silence spell around the area. That’s probably why you didn’t sense anything. They cast the spell very discreetly, too.”
I stared at Jung Hayeon, at a loss for words. She looked away with a slightly sheepish smile. After a moment, a gentle voice drifted into my ear from the side.
“Such a difficult man to handle, isn’t he?”
I felt a sudden need to conduct a thorough study on the inner radar that female Users seemed to possess once this expedition was over. Their words stung, but I figured it was best to play dumb for now. It looked like they were ready to nag me to death if I pushed it.
“I didn’t say anything… Mmph.”
But before I could finish my sentence, a soft hand covered my mouth. At the same time, stems were pushed into my mouth, and as I chewed, a juice with a refreshing scent filled my senses. The moment I swallowed, I felt a new vitality course through my body.
“Chew it well and suck out every last drop of juice. It’s quite precious, you know.”
“Munch, munch. For something so precious, aren’t you being a little too generous?”
“It’s because I feel sorry for the others, so sorry. The things we do just to get you to sleep. At this rate, if I want to steal a kiss later, am I going to have to calculate the angle of your head turn before I make a move?”
I almost spat out the stems at Ko Yeonju’s words, but I barely managed to hold it in.
In the Hall Plain, sleep was critically important. No matter how much our physical abilities had improved compared to our time in the modern world, the human body still had its limits. There was only a difference in the threshold one could endure depending on their abilities, and I was no exception to that rule.
It was possible to push through with mental strength. I didn’t have to look far; I myself was the best example. But as fatigue accumulated, the body would eventually start to feel the strain. If I couldn’t perform at my best when it mattered most because of exhaustion, then having high stats was pointless.
Honestly, it wasn’t that I hadn’t considered just taking all the watch shifts myself, but since I’d decided not to treat them like new Users anymore, I stuck to the scheduled rotation. And besides, even without that reason, I also needed to manage my own stamina. For now, I decided to be content with the fact that my sleeping hours had increased lately.
In any case, it seemed they had done it all for my sake, so I decided not to say anything more about it.
“Oppa. I’ll fold your sleeping bag. Oppa should just sit over there and rest.”
“Alright. Thanks.”
Yoojung, who had approached me at some point, tapped my shoulder as she spoke. I nodded, but as she moved to do so, she froze. The sleeping bag I had been lying in had vanished without a trace. Yoojung and I turned our heads at the same time and spotted Ahn Sol sitting with a backpack in front of her, tightly hugging the sleeping bag I had presumably been using. As I watched Yoojung’s back as she dashed over, I instinctively turned my head away. I had a gut feeling that if I got too involved, I would no longer be myself.
Where I turned, Ahn Hyun was in the middle of pestering Ko Yeonju.
“User Ko Yeonju. Could you share a little of what you gave Hyung with me?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Isn’t it obvious? It’d be a waste.”
“So it isn’t a waste to give it to Hyung, but it is a waste to give it to me.”
“Of course. The herb is too precious to give to a greenhorn User like you, Ahn Hyun.”
Watching Ko Yeonju reply with a languid smile and Ahn Hyun despairing in silence, I pulled a cigarette from my pocket and lit it.
I looked up at the sky and saw the sun still hanging precariously overhead.
*
From a distance and on the surface, the Blue Mountain Range was a place of stunning beauty. Of course, no User in their right mind would enter for a sightseeing tour just because the view was nice, but it was hard to deny that the scenery helped ease one’s tension. And since there were almost no monsters roaming the entrance of the range, it only fanned the flames of such thoughts.
But the deeper one went, the situation changed drastically. The monsters that appeared in the mountain range were a complete collection of all kinds of undead, a stark contrast to the vibrant blue scenery. At first, I didn’t know why, but I finally understood the reason after exploring the Cave of Screams. It was because That Thing was inside the cave. The monsters were undoubtedly drawn to the powerful, sinister energy That Thing exuded, causing them to roam the surrounding area.
I led the party to an entrance I had scouted beforehand and we immediately entered the mountain range. From here on, the map was useless. So, I began to search for the path, calmly retracing my memories. Even if the landscape wasn’t exactly the same as it was back then, it was recognizable enough, and if I got truly lost, I had an ace up my sleeve: Third Eye.
“It’s like you already know where the cave is.”
At the sudden comment, I glanced to the side to see Ko Yeonju looking at me with a suspicious expression. It seemed my unhesitating advance was unfamiliar to her. Then again, for someone who was now in her fifth year, this method of discovering ruins or dungeons was practically a first.
Indeed, even if I said I’d researched the records, finding it so easily was something even I would find hard to believe. I shrugged once, then let my gaze fall on Ahn Sol for a moment. Ahn Sol tilted her head, her eyes bright and clear. Following my lead, everyone’s eyes gathered on her, and it didn’t take long for a strange sense of expectation to fill their gazes.
Perhaps because she was getting used to it, instead of tearing up, Ahn Sol puffed up her cheeks and narrowed her eyes. Oh. So Ahn Sol can make a face like that.
“They keep calling me a lucky charm. A lucky charm. But what’s a lucky charm?”
“Haha. Of course. Our Sol is a lucky charm. That’s right, isn’t it, Sol?”
Vivian teased Ahn Sol, who didn’t even know what it meant, while Ahn Hyun nodded, his face full of pride. Ahn Sol pouted at their words and raised her voice sharply.
“No! Sol is not a lucky charm! Don’t call me that!”
“Our lucky charm, come over here to Oppa.”
“Okay~!”
Ahn Sol, who had been angry just a moment ago, immediately beamed when I beckoned to her. Watching her scurry to the front, I caught a glimpse of Ahn Hyun despairing for the second time.
But I was being serious, in my own way. When we were looking for the Ruined Laboratory, Ahn Sol’s help had been immense. Without her, we would never have found it so easily. So, I decided to try an experiment this time. Since I knew the path to the Cave of Screams for certain, if she pointed us in a similar direction this time, it wouldn’t be a matter to take lightly.
If Ahn Sol really did point the way to the Cave of Screams, I planned to have the party use one of the four stat points they had (the reward for completing the User Academy) on Luck. Luck was the least researched field, so I didn’t know much, but the difference between 100 points and 101 points was enormous.
Normally, I was the type to agonize over a single stat point, but since I’d acquired a ring that raised my magic power last time, I figured it was worth a try.
Ahn Sol looked unsure at first, but after I convinced her we were just trying to guess the path, she closed her eyes with a tense expression. (Ko Yeonju sighed as if giving up as she watched our antics.)
“Don’t be nervous. Just go with your usual feeling… Just try pointing in a direction.”
“Umm…”
Ahn Sol kept her eyes squeezed shut and her brow furrowed for a while before she cautiously raised her hand and pointed. Seeing her finger, I smiled inwardly in satisfaction. The direction she was pointing was almost identical to the one I was planning to take.
*
From the branching paths at the entrance, we took the one on the left and began our march. Ahn Sol wore a tense expression the entire time, but she seemed to relax a little after seeing me nod each time we came to a fork in the road.
However, the Cave of Screams was not a place that could be found as easily as the Ruined Laboratory. By my estimation, we still had a long way to go, and the deeper we went and the more time passed, the initial excited atmosphere began to fade.
After about an hour of pushing through the mountains, the mood of the party had grown heavy. The refreshing atmosphere from the entrance had changed drastically the further we went. It felt as if an unpleasant, sinister energy was slowly creeping over our bodies. Ahn Sol, who was sensitive to such things, would occasionally look around in fear, and at some point, she had started clutching my sleeve tightly.
Our silent march came to a brief halt with Ahn Sol’s silent scream. Her eyes went wide with shock, and where she was looking, the horribly mangled corpse of a monster lay sprawled on the ground. It was so torn apart that its original form was unrecognizable. I was about to step closer to examine it.
Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii.
Though the sound was carried on the wind, everyone seemed to have heard it clearly. At the voice that sent a chill through the air, I could see everyone shiver as if goosebumps were breaking out all over their bodies. The party members’ faces all hardened, and even Ko Yeonju, who always wore a languid expression, sharpened her gaze for the first time.
“That’s the cry of a Banshee. We must not follow that sound. If we do, at least one person in our group will die. No, they will be killed.”
These weren’t the words of just any User, but of Ko Yeonju, one of the Ten Strong. I nodded in agreement with her. I was confident I could kill a Banshee, but simply killing it wasn’t the answer. If, by some chance, even one member of our party were to fall under the Banshee’s curse, it would become a real headache. Users with low Luck stat points were almost 100% guaranteed to be afflicted.
“I’ve only heard stories, but are you talking about the Banshee’s curse?”
“When a Banshee dies, it meets its end with a sorrowful wail. Any User who hears that wail has a high probability of being cursed, unless their Luck stat is exceptionally high.”
“Don’t tell me they really…”
“Die? Yes. Without a high-level divine spell or a separate decurse ritual, they will die within a month, guaranteed. Whatever the reason may be. Whether they die from sickness, an unforeseen accident, or a gruesome death like that monster before us. They aren’t difficult to fight, but they’re a monster best avoided. There’s a famous story about a well-known User from the Western Continent who acted cocky, only to die less than a week later with his head smashed in.”
At Ko Yeonju’s detailed explanation, Jung Hayeon swallowed hard and fell silent. Undead were generally a type of monster that Users were reluctant to face. This was one of the reasons I had brought Ko Yeonju along—not just for our own safety, but to protect the others.
In any case, if one appeared, we’d have to crush it so thoroughly it couldn’t even let out a peep, but the Banshee was something we had no reason to seek out. After examining the corpse for a moment, I determined there was nothing more to gain.
We were about to leave the entrance area. We just had to cross the first mountain and head to the Cave of Screams, located between the second and third mountains. I glanced down at Ahn Sol, who was biting her lip and gripping my sleeve tightly. Still, I was relieved that she didn’t show any desire to turn back.
Presently, Ahn Sol pointed in a direction. After confirming the path, I nodded once more and resumed the march.