Chapter 85: Swift Progress
Chapter 85: Swift Progress
The sword I swung with enough force to split the earth passed beside Jung Hayeon and plunged deep into the ground. With the blade buried, I poured Magic Power into it. With a heavy thud, the earth around the sword heaved upward and fine cracks spread across it.
Jung Hayeon, who had been staring at me with the eyes of a startled rabbit, let out a sigh of relief as she saw blood seeping up from the ground.
“Phew. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
I twisted the sword once, pulled it free, and flicked it lightly. With a swish, the blood coating the blade scattered across the ground. Shin Sangyong had looked horrified when I charged with my sword, but seeing Jung Hayeon and me exchange calm words, he gave an awkward smile.
Ahn Hyun and Yoojung were running about energetically, competing to see who could kill more. In truth, the creatures could barely remain standing, so this could hardly be called a battle. It was little more than finishing them off.
“I got twelve.”
“I got fourteen. Ha! I win.”
“Tch.”
The sight of Ahn Hyun raising both hands in triumph and Yoojung sulking made the rest of us laugh.
This was what a battle fought by proper Users looked like. Of course, it was far from ordinary. From what I could see, Jung Hayeon and Shin Sangyong had a great deal of experience fighting together, and their combat was of a high caliber.
The kids, who had always fought haphazardly, seemed unfamiliar with this style of combat and watched them with eyes full of admiration. At the same time, I could see an emotion burning in Ahn Hyun’s eyes: frustration. I had a good idea why, so I patted him on the shoulder a couple of times.
The Barren Land was a paradise for Landmoles. It was a desolate place that most Users, and even most monsters, refused to live in. Only the Landmoles, who lived deep underground, thrived here. In that sense, the Barren Land was truly their heaven.
The highlight of our battles was undoubtedly the one against a hundred Landmoles. After two days of slaughtering them, it seemed the creatures had finally gotten fed up and decided to attack us in a group while we were camped for the night.
No User would fail to notice a force that large moving nearby, and I kept Sensing active at all times. With darkness limiting visibility and the monsters approaching from every side, even Jung Hayeon and Shin Sangyong looked troubled. They could deal with them if necessary, but the poor visibility naturally made them cautious.
That was when my kids (…….) showed their strength. I had trained them several times to wake and fight, so they reacted with agility no one would expect from Year 0 Users. They formed a defensive formation in an instant and coordinated to protect the Mages and Priestess, displaying their finest performance yet. They had apparently felt a quiet inferiority after the two veterans’ display during the day.
Vivian’s chimera beasts covered the rear while I held the front, narrowing the area Ahn Hyun and Yoojung had to defend, but their achievement was still impressive. Because our frontline held so well, the Mages and Priestess could cast in relative comfort.
“Incredible. Are they really Year 0 Users?”
That was the first thing Jung Hayeon asked after the battle. She did not know it yet, but it was already difficult to regard the kids as ordinary Year 0 Users. Their Stats, experience, and the achievement of successfully completing an expedition would not have looked out of place on respectable mid-career Users.
“Amazing. It’s not easy to create and maintain a formation like that…”
They also seemed to have earned high marks for forming up so quickly and maintaining their positions with efficient coordination. Jung Hayeon’s praise seemed to make the kids puff up their chests a little. Ahn Hyun, in particular, made a show of clearing his throat, which was quite a sight.
It would have remained a pleasant moment if it had ended there. But Yoojung, who always had to add her own seasoning, inserted herself again.
“Unni. My dad taught us.”
“Hm? Dad?”
Yoojung looked at me for a moment, then turned away. Jung Hayeon stared at me with a placid expression, then let out an unreadable sigh and shook her head. The pitying look she gave me afterward, however, was strangely unsettling.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“…You’ve been speeding, I see.”
“……”
“Haha. Just kidding.”
Deciding it wasn't wise to sleep surrounded by corpses, we moved to a new spot to get some rest. The kids whined that they weren't sleepy, but I insisted they sleep, even if forced, so they wouldn't be tired for the next day's activities.
When Yoojung said she would sleep if I sang her a lullaby, I finally knocked her on the head. Leaving her to wail pitifully, I lay down. As expected, the crying stopped at once, followed by an irritated click of the tongue. “Tch.”
The next day—the third day of our journey—we had reached the location I had marked, yet the Ruined Laboratory was nowhere in sight. I activated Third Eye to check for another Path Barrier, but no barrier appeared this time. That meant the laboratory was hidden somewhere beyond my current range.
I decided we had to press on a little further. We came to a fork in the road with several paths, and I was contemplating which one to take.
“Ahn Sol. Where are you going?”
Yoojung’s sudden voice made me look up. Sol was shouldering her backpack and starting to walk down a side path. Sol, who had been walking with a blank expression, snapped out of it and turned her head.
“Huh?”
“What do you mean, ‘huh’? Huh?”
“Ow, ow. That hurts.”
“What are you doing, acting on your own? What if you get lost?”
“Hmph… It’s not that…”
Rubbing her cheeks, which Yoojung had been stretching, Sol spoke with a pout. Her explanation was simple. She just had a feeling it was better to take this path, and without realizing it, she had shouldered her backpack and started walking.
Most of the party chuckled at her simple explanation, but Ahn Hyun and I did not. Ahn Hyun turned to me, his eyes blazing.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah.”
Outwardly, I agreed that Sol’s path seemed best and ordered the march to continue. Luck, however, was a genuine Stat. My information had brought us only this close; trusting her 100 points of Luck might be better than choosing at random. I hoped it would at least take us within range of my ability.
We fought frequently along the way, but no one seemed particularly tired of it. Our supplies were plentiful, and we took sufficient breaks. More importantly, after the battle with the hundred Landmoles, it felt like the kids’ skills had risen by a level. Their movements were becoming sharper and more refined.
We were gradually leaving the Barren Land behind and entering a landscape tinged with green. This wasn't necessarily a good thing. In the Barren Land, we only had to deal with Landmoles, but from here on, other types of monsters could appear.
From this point forward, it was safe to consider the area unexplored. Although the map marked the unexplored regions as being much farther north, and there were traces of other Users having been where we were now, that didn't mean much.
It wasn't uncommon to find tracks of those who had entered, but none of those who had come out. Since Mule had only been established for less than two months, this area was effectively part of the unexplored territories.
Before I knew it, Ahn Sol was at the very front of the column with me. I felt a little uneasy about it, but uncharacteristically, Sol was grinning from ear to ear, clearly enjoying the expedition. Every time we reached a fork, I had her stand at the front, and she would simply point in one direction.
Shin Sangyong looked indifferent, while Jung Hayeon remained somewhat doubtful. But after Ahn Hyun explained his observations about Ahn Sol’s intuition and I vouched that it had once saved our lives, Jung Hayeon looked at Sol anew. Since this was unexplored territory anyway, every route was much the same as long as we did not lose the path back.
Honestly, I had never expected to use Sol this way, but if we found the Ruined Laboratory, it would provide a convenient explanation. Sol—not I—had led the way. I could not reveal her high Luck Stat, but I could plausibly claim that her beginner’s luck had continued.
As the sun began to set, we saw the entrance to a forest. To be honest, it was a stretch to call it a forest, since the area had been lush with green ever since we left the Barren Land. It was a pristine natural landscape, untouched by human hands, the likes of which couldn't be seen in the modern world.
Still, something about the entrance felt wrong. Other trails led elsewhere, but Sol repeatedly wanted to enter the forest. Deciding it was time to activate Third Eye, I quickly raised my Magic Power.
In that instant, I understood the source of my unease. The entrance to this forest was not natural; it was man-made. With a surge of excitement, I stepped inside.
The trail became clearer after a short while. Unlike the rough ground we had crossed until then, it bore faint signs of human work. We encountered a pack of Mangkis for the first time in some time, but after hunting so many during the Rite of Passage, we had no difficulty with them. The kids greeted the familiar monsters almost fondly and dispatched them in an instant.
We had been marching at a normal pace, but now I maintained a brisk walk. And, by the time Sol, who was running beside me, holding my hand tightly, was out of breath, I stopped.
I stared ahead with quiet eyes. There, standing tall before us, was the Ruined Laboratory that so many Users had searched for. Parts of it were old and rusted, covered in undergrowth, but despite the passage of time, the building still retained its shape.
Just as they say it's darkest under the lamp, the Ruined Laboratory was only a three-day journey from the small city of Mule. It was baffling why it hadn't been discovered for so long. But then I remembered the feeling I had at the entrance and nodded slowly.
Anyone would have simply seen it as a forest entrance and assumed no building could be here. If not for that sense of unease and Sol's insistence on going in, I might have passed it by as well. To think the ancient Residents had built something like this inside a forest… they were certainly an impressive bunch.
“We’ve found the Ruined Laboratory,” I told the party quietly.
Everyone stared at the magnificent structure before them, at a loss for words. Shin Sangyong and Jung Hayeon, in particular, could only stand there, mouths agape. It seemed that even for them, accepting the current situation was a bit much.
“N-No way. Even for beginner’s luck… this is…”
“Ha. This is… a little surprising.”
Jung Hayeon, seeming to have regained her senses, turned her gaze to Ahn Sol, who was standing there with a blank look on her face. I smiled slightly, walked over to Sol, and placed my hands on her waist.
“Our Sol is a real lucky charm.”
Sol showed no resistance to my touch. She simply tilted her head and turned to me with innocent eyes.
“I’m a lucky charm?”
“Yes. You are. Our Sol is the best.”
Finally understanding that I was praising her, a bright smile blossomed on Sol’s face. I lifted her up in my arms, bounced her up and down a few times, and gave her an airplane ride.
“Woah. Woah.”
Sol, clearly excited, raised both hands and let out a demure cheer. I gently set her back down and turned around. Three days after leaving Mule, we had found the Ruined Laboratory.