Your Level Has Risen!
Yujun tilted his head.
"Hm?"
For a while now, messages had kept popping up to announce that his level was rising.
"Must be Paranet."
There had been a commotion over by the laboratory entrance. Paranet had been in that direction, so the odds were high that the fellow had already dealt with the intruders. Levels climbing like this... he must have killed the Demon God Worshippers.
A dry laugh escaped Yujun.
Had Paranet been that strong? There hadn't been just one or two Demon God Worshippers, from what he could tell. Honestly, not having seen it with his own eyes made it difficult to believe.
Ah. Has he finally figured out how to use Thousand-Pound Drop properly?
That, at least, made a certain amount of sense. Thousand-Pound Drop was an ability whose worth changed entirely depending on how one used it.
Not bad.
He found himself reassessing Paranet. He had never imagined the summon would fight several Demon God Worshippers and actually win. No matter how high one's stats, and no matter that one went armed in Mythic-grade equipment, overcoming a gap in caliber was no easy thing. Paranet had done it. It was almost admirable.
Then again, are there no more Synchronization Marbles?
He had turned the laboratory inside out and still failed to find what he wanted. He had even called Tapagol in to search alongside him, and that had yielded nothing either.
No hints. This is getting frustrating.
He couldn't very well hunt down Synchronization Marbles that simply weren't there, so he decided to turn his attention elsewhere: a way out of Sourtul Forest, and the materials Manuela needed.
Some ten minutes later, everyone had gathered in one place.
There had been no gains. Or rather, there had been a few. Paranet had stripped the equipment from the Demon God Worshippers.
"Master. I even claimed several pieces of Legendary-grade equipment."
"Well done."
"Think nothing of it, hehe. It is all thanks to the equipment my Master bestowed."
"That's true. It is thanks to me."
"...Ah."
Yujun came to the point.
"Miss Su-a. There's something I'd like to ask of you."
"A favor?"
"Manuela. Explain it."
The material she had said she needed was a blue flower tinged with violet. Manuela described its appearance to Jo Su-a in careful detail, and the look on Jo Su-a's face grew complicated.
"That thing... I..."
"...?"
"I already have it."
"What?"
"I happened to pick one up a while back. I had no idea what it was for, but it was an item, so I just left it in my inventory."
"Could I see it?"
"Sure. One second."
Jo Su-a rummaged through her inventory and drew out a single flower. Manuela's face lit up.
"Th-that's it! That one!"
"Want it?"
"Yes! Yes!"
"Go ahead."
Jo Su-a handed the flower over without a moment's hesitation.
"Thank you!"
Manuela snatched it up and bounced in place. Yujun, who had been watching in silence, spoke.
"Is it all right to give it away that easily?"
"Yeah. You already helped me out, and it's not like the thing is any use to me. More than anything, I can't stand living in someone's debt. That's just how I am."
"...I see. Thank you."
The problem he had expected to be the hardest was solved in a single stroke. Is my high Luck reaching even into this? It felt as though everything were coming undone in his favor.
"Now we only need a way out of the forest."
"That won't be easy. I tried for a long time myself... Forget escaping. I didn't get a single thing out of it."
Yujun nodded. If leaving Sourtul Forest were simple, the place would never have earned so vicious a reputation. No one had ever been seen walking back out alive.
Still, it wasn't as if there were no method at all. Yujun was convinced the answer lay with the Demon God Worshippers.
They wouldn't have built a laboratory in Sourtul Forest on a whim.
The Worshippers had come and gone through the forest without the slightest hesitation. Setting aside how formidable the monsters here were, they clearly knew a way out. For all he knew, even the forest's maze-like nature was their doing.
"Shall we bring this place down as well?"
"I think that would be best."
"Please step outside."
Yujun said it quietly. Jo Su-a understood at once, nodded, and left the laboratory. Paranet, Manuela, and Tapagol caught the drift as well and quietly slipped away.
Left alone, Yujun closed his eyes.
Can I do it?
His aim was to erase the laboratory in a single blow. There was no grand meaning in it. He simply wanted to test his strength. The laboratory was by no means small, and blasting it apart with one attack did not look as if it would be easy.
Still. I have to try.
He drew his mana up. The lukewarm air began to heave and churn.
Vwoooom—! Vwoom!
A great vibration. The laboratory started to shake in its entirety.
"Ah, right. Paranet."
A thought striking him all at once, he called Paranet back. The fellow who had been waiting outside came running in a frantic rush. What? I barely muttered it. How did he know to come?
"You can hear that?"
"Should my Master call, I shall come running no matter where I stand. Birds overhear the words of day, and rats the words of night... and my Master's words, it is I who hear—"
"Quiet. When I tell you to use Space Movement later, use it at once."
"That is... Space Movement cannot be used in the forest, can it?"
"Ah. Right."
"Strangely enough, I was able to use Space Movement in here. Step outside, however, and the chances are high it will fail again."
"Then I don't need you. Go."
"...Master. Speak to me so, and I shall be wounded."
"You'll live. You regenerate fast enough."
Shuffle. Shuffle.
Paranet retreated with his back slumped in dejection.
"There he goes, acting again."
Yujun clicked his tongue. It would have to be the first or second time for that performance to fool him.
He drew his mana up once more. He meant to use magic. The rank of Ancient Magic was EX++, and its power needed no lengthy explanation. He still had to choose which spell to cast, but that answer, too, was already decided. It had to be powerful, and it had to be vast in scale. Only then would the laboratory vanish without a trace.
Already, eight-tenths of his mana was spent. All that remained was to manifest the spell.
"Haa..."
Yujun drew a deep breath. Then the mana spread through the air detonated.
KRA-KOOM! KRA-KOOM!
Thousands upon tens of thousands of mana particles exploded all at once, and a tremendous roar slammed against his ears. Sound was the least of it. Not only the laboratory, but the very ground shook as one. Each blast fed the next in a cascading chain. Searing heat and acrid smoke swallowed Yujun whole.
Pleasantly warm.
His defense was high enough that even his own magic failed to deal him any real damage. Far from being hurt, he was entirely unharmed. The ground beneath his feet split open. Yujun cast Fly and slipped out through the collapsed ceiling.
"Hm?"
Why was his level rising? Yujun stared at the hologram window, puzzled. He had already killed every specimen in the laboratory. He had checked carefully, and there had been no hidden chambers. For his level to have risen by two even so...
"Ah..."
Something clicked, and he nodded. A few monsters living underground must have died. The creatures of Sourtul Forest didn't exist only on the surface. Thought of that way, the increase made perfect sense.
Wait. What if, underground as well...
Struck by a promising idea, Yujun headed for where the others were waiting. They had withdrawn a considerable distance. Jo Su-a spotted him and called out.
"If we'd just been standing there gawking, it would've been a disaster."
"Why?"
"We were waiting closer in, actually. But that Death Knight said it was dangerous and that we needed to put more distance between us. If we hadn't listened, we'd have been caught in it too."
"Ah. Paranet said that?"
Paranet's survival instinct, if nothing else, was outstanding. He sensed oncoming danger so sharply it bordered on precognition. At that moment he stood with his arms folded and a thoroughly self-satisfied look on his face. He clearly thought he cut an impressive figure, but the image of a hopeless fool had long since hardened around him. Honestly, he didn't look cool in the slightest.
"Miss Su-a. Have you happened to check underground as well?"
"Sorry? Underground where?"
"This forest."
"I... haven't been down there."
"Hm."
"You're not saying we should dig a tunnel and escape that way, are you?"
"More or less."
"Would that even work?"
"We'll have to try."
Yujun called Tapagol. The golem's compact frame materialized in the empty air.
"You called."
"Can you get us out of this forest?"
He might not look it, but Tapagol was a guide golem, and pathfinding was his particular art. If the fellow already knew the way, there would be no need to bother digging.
"It is uncertain."
"What do you mean?"
"I know the present location of the forest's exit. It will change shortly."
"The exit moves?"
"Yes. To be precise, it appears to change at intervals of fifteen seconds."
"...Fifteen seconds?"
"Unless one crosses Sourtul Forest in a straight line and reaches the exit within fifteen seconds, escape is impossible."
Yujun laughed, hollow with disbelief. How was anyone supposed to reach an exit in fifteen seconds?
"Does the exit only shift along the outer edge?"
"Yes. There is, however, no consistent pattern. Prediction is impossible."
"Then what about waiting in one spot and leaving when it shows up?"
"That method, too, holds a possibility. I cannot, however, be certain."
"Let's go and see. Can you take us toward the outer edge?"
"Designate a direction."
"The nearest."
"Yes. I will guide you."
Tapagol set off.
To give only the conclusion, they failed to escape Sourtul Forest.
They followed Tapagol's guidance to the outer edge, only to find endless forest still spread before them.
"You didn't read it wrong, did you?"
"This is the place."
They waited on the strength of it being the outer edge, and nothing happened at all. The exit of Sourtul Forest kept appearing only in places far from where they stood. Waiting in that single spot, they burned through an entire day. If there was a harvest to speak of, it was the level he had gained from killing some fifteen Predators in the meantime.
Level 514 already, huh.
Only a day ago he had been stewing over his failure to reach level 500. Between Paranet cutting down the Demon God Worshippers and the monsters they had hunted in Sourtul Forest, his level had climbed in no time.
The Supreme Experience Increase Rune must be playing a part as well.
Simply having crossed level 500 was satisfying in itself. His caliber had risen by a full stage. His body felt as light and clear as if hundreds of stat points had poured in at once, and it was not imagination. His physical performance had truly increased by that much. Yujun, who had raised unallocated points by the hundreds in a single sitting before, could tell with certainty.
So this is why they never shut up about caliber. Feeling it in his own flesh was another matter entirely. The wall of level 500. He had finally smashed through it.
"The exit changes every fifteen seconds, and it hasn't appeared anywhere near here even once?"
"Yes."
"Statistically, that doesn't hold up."
"Yes. Devising another method is, I judge, the optimal decision."
At Tapagol's words, Yujun sank into thought. Getting out by relying on the golem had become impossible. Tapagol was capable, but Sourtul Forest was a mad place. The fault could not be laid on him. Nor could they simply fly their way free.
That left only one method: digging a tunnel. There was, however, one thing to do before that.
Yujun drew up his mana. The earth began to bellow, as if an earthquake had taken hold.
"A-again? What are you planning to do now?"
Paranet asked, badly startled. Yujun answered quietly.
"A driven hunt."
If they tunneled their way out of Sourtul Forest, they might never have cause to return. And the forest was teeming with offerings of experience. Leaving all of that behind would be far too great a waste.
A slow, greedy smile spread across Yujun's face.