Chapter 152: The Cave of Screams (2)
Chapter 152: The Cave of Screams (2)
I raised my sword, leveled it, and thrust forward. My target: the very center of its brow. The tip of my sword pierced through the blue flames and struck its target with perfect accuracy. Infused with magic, the sword shattered the creature's skull with a dry crack. Maintaining my momentum, I located the next Wraith and immediately changed course.
If the Wraiths had been lined up at the same height while pressuring Ahn Hyun, I could have turned them all to ash with a single piercing thrust. But they were moving targets, so that was wishful thinking. I had no choice but to adjust my sword path for each one.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
With each kill, I flicked the hilt of my sword and aimed for the next. Something zipped past Ahn Hyun, and he stumbled back in surprise, but he let out a sigh of relief when he realized it was me. The moment I struck down the fourth Wraith, an eerie blue flame erupted from the remains of the first. I saw Ahn Hyun's lips part to speak, but I had no time to listen.
“Hah!”
Yoojung was dealing with three of them. As I moved, I cut down one that lunged at me, only to sense more Wraiths closing in from my left and right. Annoying. I stopped running, took my stance, and gauged the distance to Yoojung. It seemed possible. Timing their joint attack, I pivoted clockwise on my left foot, spinning a half-circle.
Shink. Shink.
The sensation of slicing through rotten logs traveled up the blade. Riding the momentum, I reversed my spin, kicking off my right foot and leaping high into the air.
“Get back.”
I didn't shout, but Yoojung immediately took a few steps back. The closest one must have sensed something was wrong, because just as it looked up, I brought my sword down hard. I didn't slice all the way through. I stopped at the top of its skull, then thrust forward as I had before.
Ko Yeonju's condition was to defeat them all within ten seconds. About eight seconds must have passed. Yoojung cheered as the Wraiths fell to the ground one after another, but her face fell when she saw the flames rise again.
I glanced over to see what Ko Yeonju was doing. Her eyes were closed, both hands held out in front of her with her fingers spread wide. At the same time, I could feel bursts of blue flame erupting ahead. The flames that signaled the Wraiths' resurrection.
Just then, she cracked her eyes open and whispered quietly.
“Abyssal Host.”
Sssst. Sssssst.
Come to think of it, the cave was practically made of shadows. The great value of her Abyssal Host skill lay in its incredible versatility. Especially in a place so full of shade, its effectiveness went without saying.
From the darkness near where the Wraiths were reviving, thin, ink-black threads began to creep out, soon filling the entire area. The Wraiths that were about to approach us were caught in the threads, unable to move an inch. The ones reviving after them met the same fate.
The moment all ten Wraiths had appeared, Ko Yeonju let out a breathy “Hngh,” and clenched her fingers into fists. And then…
BOOM!
It wasn't the sound of breaking bones, but a tremendous explosion that shook the inside of the cave. Fierce sparks flew through the air, accompanied by the sound of the atmosphere being torn apart. When our party, who had grimaced at the deafening noise, looked forward again, they saw the Wraiths, now reduced to tiny fragments in an instant. And this time, no flames rose from their remains.
“Phew. It's been a while, so I'm a little rusty. It's over.”
The moment they heard Ko Yeonju's voice, everyone turned to look at her as if on cue. But she just waved a hand with an annoyed expression and let out a deep sigh. I tilted my head in confusion for a moment, but then a thought flashed through my mind, and I understood everything.
“So the solution was to kill all ten of them at the same time.”
“That's right. I don't know what kind of trick it was, but it seems all ten were organically linked. In other words, as long as even one remained, they would revive endlessly. It's a spell only possible for the undead.”
“I see. You did well.”
“No, it was nothing. I had a similar experience a long time ago, so I thought I’d try it. I was a little worried it wouldn’t work… Anyway, what a grand welcome. What kind of creature owns this cave to throw something like that at us right from the start?”
Watching Ko Yeonju feign exhaustion, I fell into thought. In my memory, there were definitely no Wraiths in the early part of the cave. And I'd certainly never encountered resurrecting ones. I could understand the future changing, but this was a case of the past being altered, which was quite perplexing. The time I originally discovered this cave was two years from now. That could only mean something had happened in those two years. For example, perhaps other Users I didn't know about had entered, passed the entrance, and then been wiped out somewhere inside.
After pondering for a while, I decided to continue the expedition. Turning back after coming this far was out of the question, and as things stood, I couldn't figure anything out. For now, it seemed best to venture a little deeper and see if anything else had changed. So, I roused the party, who looked a bit tired. It wasn't time to rest yet.
“We can rest when we get back to Mule. We still have strength left, so we'll resume the expedition immediately. Everyone, line up and get into formation.”
The party moved swiftly at my command, and I stepped over the remains of the Wraiths to resume our exploration.
The length of the entrance passage seemed unchanged. After marching slowly for about twenty minutes, we could see several branching tunnels ahead. The moment we entered one of the tunnels, we would essentially be heading underground. The slope wasn't very steep, but the path itself followed a gentle downward curve.
The first tunnel we would enter was the one on the left. After briefly counting the tunnels, I proceeded as planned. It wasn't as if they could pick and choose anyway, so the party obediently followed behind me, ducking their heads. Originally, I wanted to send Ahn Sol ahead here as well, but I'd already confirmed plenty, and more importantly, I was eager to get inside and conquer the cave.
The party followed me in silence. It was partly the cave's atmosphere, but they seemed to feel more threatened than on any previous expedition. As such, everyone's face was etched with caution. But that silence was broken the moment we emerged from the tunnel.
“Whoa. This is so complicated.”
“Ugh. Just looking at it gives me a headache.”
I found it pathetic that they were getting headaches over a few branching paths, but I silently started walking toward the next passage.
“We don't even have an archer. It would've been nice to have a priest's Lead spell at a time like this.”
At Ko Yeonju's casual remark, Ahn Sol hung her head. It seemed she hadn't learned that spell yet. From an outsider's perspective, our caravan probably looked like it was just blundering its way through. But this was the only method we had, and since I'd found the Cave of Screams in a similar fashion, I didn't see it as a major problem. In reality, I was moving along a meticulously calculated route, but there was no way she could know that.
“We'll find out as we go. A perfect clear might be difficult, but all we need to do is find the path to the end.”
“True, we won't get anything good from killing undead anyway, so that's probably for the best. But we still have to see it through to the end, right?”
“Of course.”
As I nodded in reply, I heard Ko Yeonju hum lightly. This time, I planned to move in the opposite way I had in my first run. Instead of cleaning out every nook and cranny, I would only pass through the necessary areas and head straight for the place where that guy was. A complete clear of the Cave of Screams would be finished later by an investigation team or other Users after the cave's existence became known. Of course, I planned to snatch all the good stuff before then.
*
It was about time for them to appear, but no undead were showing up. But there was no reason for the monsters' patrol routes to be the same as before, so I suppressed the anxiety rising within me and kept walking. Branching paths continued to appear, and I navigated them one by one, following my memory.
“Oh. Are those stairs?”
When we reached the end of a forked path, the gentle slope we'd been following gave way to a much steeper incline. As Vivian said, it was hard to tell if it was just a slope or actual stairs, but judging by the faint traces of workmanship, they were probably stairs.
After carefully examining the slope, Ko Yeonju nodded and spoke.
“There are faint traces of human hands here. It's not surprising. From the statues at the beginning, I suspected this cave was built for a purpose. And I can see a large clearing down below. User Kim Soohyun, are we going down there?”
As I slowly approached, I heard Ko Yeonju's voice. “The slope is steep. Be careful not to slip.”
Just as she said, the slope dropped off sharply ahead of us, and at the bottom, a large clearing was partially visible. However, it wasn't a path that led directly to the floor; we could only see a part of the clearing. That meant we would have to jump down from the edge.
“It seems we haven't gone completely wrong.”
When I agreed with her, she pouted and made a prim face. And this was also a place I knew. The clearing before me had been completely safe; we had rested there before continuing down the single path leading out of it. I felt a sudden sense of unease, but the party was already approaching cautiously behind me.
“Looks like there's a drop of over a meter to the clearing. Everyone, be careful as you come down.”
After speaking, I too began to slowly descend the slope, activating Sensing. I was only a few steps away from the edge leading down. I had to check in case any monsters were hiding. I spread my senses, and thankfully, I didn't detect any monsters. Instead, I felt a faint, unidentifiable magical energy, so I raised a hand to halt the party.
The party was already partway down. After walking on a gentle slope for so long, the sudden steepness had everyone bracing themselves against the cave wall with their hands. We'd been caught off guard by the Wraiths earlier, so we needed to be cautious from now on. I steadied myself and was about to activate Third Eye.
“Aah!”
Suddenly, I heard a short scream from behind me, and a heavy impact struck my body. At the same time, I felt myself lurch forward. I tried to regain my balance, but I was already leaning forward. The person who had crashed into me shot past, grabbing my collar tightly and pulling me down with them.
“Soohyun!”
“Oppa!”
“Sol-ah!”
As the party shouted my name, I tumbled forward. I quickly tried to gather my wits and channel magic to slam my hand into the ground, but the sensation of falling through the air washed over me. The momentum of the fall was too great. My outstretched hand brushed the ledge by a hair's breadth, and I fell straight into the clearing.
Thud!
“Aah!”
Even as I fell, I pulled the person clinging to my collar into my arms, making sure to land on my back to cushion them. A dull shock ran through my back, but there didn't seem to be any traps. Still, Ahn Sol must have felt some of the impact through my body, as she was shaking her head with a pained expression.
“You…”
I was about to say something but shut my mouth and quickly scanned our surroundings. Thankfully, there were no undead monsters in sight. The moment I let out a sigh of relief, the sense of unease I'd felt earlier returned with a vengeance.
“Uuuu... I'm so sorry. I missed my footing...”
Having recovered a little, Sol spoke in a tearful voice. From above, I could hear the party calling our names. Soon, Ko Yeonju's head peeked over the wide-open ledge.
“Are you okay? We're coming down now, just wait a second.”
“Yes, we're not really hurt. But it's a fair drop, so be careful coming down.”
“It's not that high.”
Soon, Ahn Hyun, Jung Hayeon, and the others appeared behind Ko Yeonju and began to carefully lower themselves down. I got to my feet and helped Ahn Sol up as well. Knowing she was at fault, she just stared at the innocent ground. I was about to open my mouth again to scold her for being so careless during an expedition.
Flash! Flash!
Suddenly, a white light flickered before my eyes like a camera flash. At the same time, several messages began to appear before me, including one from Third Eye, which I hadn’t even activated. For a split second, I thought, Shit, but my eyes were already tracing the messages.
『Activation of the ancient magic, Unconscious Reveal, has been confirmed. This magic is a spell based on a magic circle inscribed with a high-level incantation...』
『Latent Ability: Blessing of the Battlefield (Rank: EX) activates.』
『Luck: 88. Defense check failed. Blessing of the Battlefield (Rank: EX) confirmed. Upgrading to a reduced defense check. User Magic Power: 96 confirmed. Due to the absence of Magic Resistance and the spell’s overwhelming magical power, resistance is impossible. Mental-type magic confirmed. Latent Ability: Mind’s Eye (Stillness) (Rank: A Plus) responds. Upgrading to a partial defense check.』
“W-What?”
I stammered without realizing it, shocked by the message that a spell had pierced my magic defenses. At the same time, a wave of nausea surged within me, and my head began to spin. I struggled to keep my balance, fighting to hold onto my scattering thoughts. Just then, the sound of someone landing heavily on the ground beside me reached my ears.
“Why are you suddenly staggering? That wasn't much of a fall. Are you sure you're okay?”
I wanted to shout, “Don't come down,” but the words died in my throat as I turned my head. It was already far too late. The sight of Ko Yeonju leading the rest of the party as they dropped down one after another made my breath catch in my chest.
Flash! Flash!
At that moment, the same white light flashed again from the ceiling. And this time, the light completely engulfed our entire party.