The Ancient Ruins
The Ancient Ruins.
Anyone who drew near was met with a message declaring that entry was impossible, and then their body was driven steadily backward, shoved by some compulsion no one could name.
A great many players had come at the place with high hopes, straining to force their way inside. So far, not one of them had anything to show for it.
What in the world is this place?
Jin Changho was searching for a way into the ruins, already thick with rumor. Trigger some hidden mechanism, and a path might open. Failing that, perhaps entry was tied to a particular special item. Thoughts of that sort kept him from ever slacking in his search of the surrounding woods.
"Let's just give it up and climb to the next floor. You and me."
The man beside him spoke between rough, ragged breaths that carried the sour reek of exertion. Park Seoksan — the companion who had agreed to enter the ruins with him.
At words he had already heard more than a few times, Jin Changho let out a short laugh.
"Those ruins. You can tell at a glance they're nothing ordinary. The items we could pull out of there — just how good do you think they'd be? You're not even a little excited?"
"Excited? Of course I am. But listen. That only matters if we can actually get in, doesn't it? We've already wasted over a month on the ninth floor. You really think we can pull off what the other rankers couldn't?"
"People with that mindset are exactly why every last one of them failed. I'm different."
Park Seoksan's face twisted as he looked at him.
"Come on. What's so special about you? You're a player, same as the rest of them — a dime a dozen, nothing more and nothing less. If you were actually special, you wouldn't be stuck out here in the first place."
"You finished?"
"Just give it up. I'm begging you."
Jin Changho shook his head.
"One more week."
"Crazy bastard."
"Hey. Wait."
Jin Changho's eyes narrowed, and he slipped behind a tree.
"What's wrong?"
"Shh! Quiet."
He yanked his companion aside and eased only his head out from beside the trunk.
"Huh? That's a player."
Jin Changho nodded at his companion's words.
"He won't get in either. So you're not the only one who can't let the Ancient Ruins go."
"You never know. He might know a way in."
"His gear looks pretty good, though. Think he's in some decent guild?"
"Hmm..."
"He looks like a real up-and-comer, doesn't he? Poke him wrong and we're the ones who'll end up in trouble."
At Park Seoksan's words, Jin Changho's smile deepened.
"Look at his face."
"What?"
"Look at that face, walking up to the Ancient Ruins without a clue in his head. He's so worked up he looks ready to throw himself inside any second."
"So what?"
"One of two things. Either he really doesn't know a thing and he's just wandering up to them, or he's got solid information and he knows how to get in."
"You think?"
Park Seoksan looked only half convinced.
"Well, the odds say no. Nobody's gotten in for the last few years."
Both of their gazes fixed on the man walking straight toward the Ancient Ruins.
But men like that were hardly rare. Anyone who knew little of the ruins — or nothing at all — would wander up out of curiosity now and then.
Park Seoksan was staring ahead, doubt written across his face, when it happened.
"Huh?"
"Wh-what?"
Jin Changho and Park Seoksan had no choice but to be stunned.
The man who had been walking straight for the Ancient Ruins passed through the entrance without a single hindrance, without so much as a hand raised to stop him.
"H-how did that happen?"
"Run!"
Jin Changho sprinted for the ruins in a panic. The moment he reached them, he didn't hesitate — he set a foot inside.
Prerequisite conditions have not been met. You cannot enter the Ancient Ruins.
"......"
"Why aren't you going in?"
"I'm blocked."
"And the guy who just went in?"
"He must have used some trick."
"He wasn't carrying anything that looked suspicious, though."
For the first time, Jin Changho's brow furrowed.
"We wait until he comes out."
The intent behind those words was plain enough. Park Seoksan caught it at once and nodded.
"Oh..."
Yujun, who had found himself inside the ruins before he had quite processed it, was thrown off. He had expected at least one hologram window to appear. None did.
So clearing the Hell Difficulty Tutorial really was the prerequisite.
With that, the pieces connected on their own, and an old memory surfaced.
About a month before the servers shut down, wasn't it?
He and HongdaePartyPlayJoSeop had talked it over once, just the two of them in chat — the link between the Ancient Ruins and the Hell Difficulty Tutorial.
It had been pretty convincing.
On that particular subject, it had actually been JoSeop who spoke first. No one had ever cleared the Hell Difficulty Tutorial, and the Ancient Ruins had stayed a mystery to the very end — wasn't that the reason?
At the time, Yujun had thought HongdaePartyPlayJoSeop's reasoning held water. So he made a few characters and threw himself at Hell Difficulty. The result, of course, was failure. HongdaePartyPlayJoSeop fared no better.
He had even recommended it once to the user with the finest control of them all, OnlyMeWithoutACat. Even that one had failed to get past Zone 2 of Hell Difficulty.
Thanks to HongdaePartyPlayJoSeop, I get to walk into the Ancient Ruins too.
He ought to repay the man later, if the chance ever came.
The problem was that he had no way of knowing whether the ruins had already been picked clean.
They said I was the first to clear Hell Difficulty. Then the odds are high that no one else has ever set foot in the Ancient Ruins either.
He swept his gaze around the chamber.
The interior was dressed in ancient sculptures, works of art, and ornaments wrought of some material he couldn't identify.
Step. Step.
His footsteps rang out, loud in the hush.
Yujun summoned Paranet.
Ziiing—!
A brief summoning rite, and Paranet took shape before him.
"You called, Master!"
Little by little, Paranet's manner of speech was growing more respectful. He must have been coming to feel, in his very bones, just how great a grace he had received.
Well. I did give him that precious Blessing of the Dead.
The eyes Paranet turned on Yujun were exceedingly bright.
He declared, full of swagger,
"Where is the foe I am to do battle with?"
"There isn't one yet."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Just wait a moment."
This was the Ancient Ruins in name, if nothing else. There was no chance treasure would simply be left sitting out in the open. A guardian or a monster watching over it was far more likely.
He followed the red carpet straight on. Paranet came after him, bones clicking — clack, clack.
Time passed. The interior seemed wider than he had expected. He couldn't see the end of it.
"No monsters... and no treasure in sight, either."
"Might a labyrinth formation not be laid upon this place?"
"If it were, the same path would be repeating on us. It isn't."
"Ah...?"
"If you notice anything strange or out of place, say so at once."
"As you command."
After that, they walked on with a careful eye on their surroundings.
Then, at a certain moment, they reached the place where the red carpet came to an end.
Yujun's feet stopped dead.
A stone statue gripping a spear. One gripping a greatsword. One with a staff, another with sword and shield, and one hefting an enormous iron mace. Five statues in all, arrayed in a single line.
The moment he saw them, a bad feeling struck.
They're about to come at me.
He readied himself for a fight. Paranet stepped out in front of him.
"You have only to trust in me!"
Paranet, who had distinguished himself not only in the fifth-floor trial but in the trials of the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors as well, cried out in a voice brimming with confidence.
Yujun smiled, satisfied.
Krrrnn. Rrrnn.
The ruins shuddered under a violent tremor. Then, all at once, the shaking stopped.
And the statues woke.
Intruder detected.
Intruder detected.
Intruder detected.
Intruder detected.
Intruder detected.
A sound like a machine's voice spilled from the statues. Hearing it pour out of five places at once sent a chill down his spine.
Measuring the intruder's combat power......
Mid-High.
Eliminating the intruder.
The statues might as well have been machines.
All five of them charged Yujun at once, and Paranet planted himself in their path.
Ice magic came flying first, from the statue with the staff.
Crack! Crrack!
Paranet knocked the massive icicle upward with his sword. At once the statue with the iron mace swung it in a ferocious arc.
Whoosh—!
Paranet slipped aside with ease.
The enemy was not one. Two swords came flying at him at the same time, and this time he couldn't dodge so cleanly. He took the hit.
BOOM!
Paranet was blasted far back.
Yujun surged forward. The sword-bearing statue was wide open, and in one clean motion he took its head.
Shhk!
Whether because the sword performed so well, he sheared clean through the statue's neck.
Yujun fell back.
THUD!
A massive iron mace slammed into the spot where he had been standing.
It had the look of a desperate fight. In truth, it was nothing of the sort. The statues were not especially fast. What made them threatening was their numbers, and the sheer force loaded into their weapons.
"How dare you! Me?!"
Paranet reappeared from behind, perfectly intact.
Eliminating the intruder.
"C-come at me!"
Perhaps because he had already taken a hit, Paranet's shoulders drew in just a little. Even so, the fellow's skill at evasion was not going anywhere.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Facing the four remaining statues, Paranet did not allow a single attack to land. His confidence came flooding back.
"Hardly worth the effort!"
From behind him, Yujun watched for the moment a gap opened and struck. This time it was the statue with the staff.
He closed in fast and swung. The statue thrust its staff forward, and Yujun's sword sheared the weapon in two. The blade swung once more.
The staff-bearing statue went still.
The hologram window flared up and covered his eyes.
Three left.
He had dealt with the statue playing the mage as well.
Shhhk! Shhk!
Yujun aimed for the backs of the statues whose attention was fixed on Paranet, and brought the fight to a swift end.
THUD!
"Haaah... Master."
"What?"
"How did I fare?"
"You did well."
"Ahem-hem."
Without Paranet, he would have had a hard fight of it against those statues. The fellow's presence had unquestionably made the battle run smooth. Paranet's one shortcoming was that he still handled a sword a little awkwardly.
Keep fighting and he'll improve. Not that I'm in any position to talk. It's only the items that make me look like I can fight.
In any case, every statue was down. His level had climbed a fair ways, too.
Already 90? That's seriously fast.
It was the sort of experience that would have taken hunting a good five boss monsters to match.
"Master! A path has opened over there!"
At Paranet's words he turned to look, and what had seemed to be a wall was gone.
"As if it would end here."
From the start, this was a place with a high chance of being tied to the Intermediate Tutorial. No message had even appeared to say a tutorial had begun.
Yujun and Paranet advanced down the newly opened path.
Before long, a single altar came into view — a mysterious altar, inscribed with a strange sigil. The walls, too, were covered every inch with figures carved in meticulous detail, people posed as if in worship.
Paranet, who had been looking the place over, opened his mouth.
"A most suspicious place, this."
"And places like that usually pay out big."
Five years of playing War of the Gods had taught him as much. Clear content that had been crafted with real care, and the reward was ordinarily on an entirely different level from what came of hunting a boss monster.
He had drawn fairly close to the altar when it happened.
Do you wish to begin the Intermediate Tutorial?
The message he had been waiting for rose before his eyes.
One corner of Yujun's mouth curved upward.