The First Layer in Uproar
The whole of the First Layer had fallen into an uproar. Yujun had left the corpses of the High Envoys lying where they fell and simply walked away, and the news spread in no time.
"He's out of his mind."
"Laying a hand on a High Envoy... who would do a thing like that?"
"Has to be the one they're hunting."
"The one with the strange name?"
"Yeah. Sim Sanghoon, wasn't it?"
"God. How does he keep pulling off stunts that make your blood run cold?"
"The village massacre was him too, right?"
"You think that's the end of it? This is only a rumor making the rounds, but they say he tried to link the Surface Realm and the Abyss."
"...What? The Surface Realm?"
"Nothing confirmed. But supposedly a passage opened, once."
"So you could come through without an entry ticket?"
"More or less."
"Must've been trying to run."
"But you know how it works. Get yourself wanted, and you can't leave the Abyss. Looks like it ended in failure."
"If he'd actually reached the Surface Realm, the King would have known ages ago."
The residents of the Abyss went on like that until a High Envoy passed by, and every mouth snapped shut at once.
"The mood out here is vicious."
"Let's get inside. Wander around at a time like this and you'll get dragged into something for nothing."
"Yeah."
Ju Donghyeon looked at Yujun with uneasy eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Future Sight doesn't work here. The thought that I might die is starting to frighten me."
"It'll be fine."
"No matter how I turn it over, this is dangerous. It's like shoving your neck into a crocodile's mouth."
Hong Yeji said it while gnawing at her nails. Yujun understood their fear well enough. Anyone could see how dangerous this was, and even he was tense. He also knew there was nothing to be gained by letting his party see it.
"If there's a crocodile's mouth, you cut it open with a sword. Why would you stick your neck in?"
Neither of them had an answer.
"Why are you scared before we've even fought? We're going to win. No—I'll handle all of it, so don't worry."
He said it with a perfectly straight face, and Hong Yeji eased, just a little.
"You really are brave."
She wasn't mocking him. The admiration was genuine. It was hard to believe this was a modern man who had been living on Earth not long ago. How did anyone adapt that quickly?
And so the group took to walking about as if nothing were wrong, right beneath the High Envoys' noses.
"Ju Donghyeon."
"Yes?"
"If you had the chance, could you turn Clairvoyance on wherever the King is, too?"
"If I knew the location, I could spy on it. I don't."
"I do."
"What?"
"Over there."
Yujun pointed in a single direction. Nothing the naked eye could see lay that way. Ju Donghyeon had only just tilted his head when Yujun spoke again.
"About a thousand kilometers out, I'd say. Take a look."
"All right."
Ju Donghyeon activated the ability. Yujun stayed over him, watching their surroundings.
High Envoys passed right beside them. Hong Yeji held her breath and didn't speak until they had gone.
"They don't know?"
"Doesn't look as if they've pinned it down exactly. Even if the Abyss King saw what happened, it'll take time for word of it to reach him."
"Then how long does this last?"
"New faces are rare on the First Layer of the Abyss, so they'll catch on soon enough. We need to reach the King before that."
"Why are you trying to go to the Abyss King?"
"There's something I need to collect."
"From the King?"
"Yes."
"Since when have you met the King?"
"That's..."
Ju Donghyeon opened his eyes and spoke.
"Looking inside the palace wasn't easy."
"...And?"
"Even so, I could make out a faint shape. I confirmed the Abyss King."
"So he's in there."
"In his quarters. The top floor of the palace."
"Understood."
The King was inside the palace. There was no reason to linger. Yujun's group moved quickly and quietly, and they had been traveling for about ten minutes when Ju Donghyeon spoke again.
"Yujun."
"Yes. What is it?"
"Far off—High Envoys? I can't be sure that's what they are, but dozens of figures that look like them are swarming this way."
"How far?"
"At their current speed, we'll meet them in about a minute. Head-on."
"Do they seem to know it's us?"
"Yes."
"Let's circle around."
But—
"They've already turned. Head-on again."
The High Envoys seemed to know the group's position in real time.
"Then we can't slip past them."
"What do we do?"
Hong Yeji asked.
"What else? We hit them."
"Dozens of High Envoys... can we manage that?"
"Hard to say. If it isn't only High Envoys over there, this may be too much as we are."
"Then...?"
"I think we need to prepare."
A full change of equipment was due in any case. Yujun drew the gear meant for level 350 to the front of his inventory. Just a few more levels. If it came to it, he meant to equip the set in the middle of the fight.
It wasn't long before Yujun's group ran straight into the pack of High Envoys. They came on pouring out a savage presence, and Hong Yeji and Ju Donghyeon shrank back before they could stop themselves.
"Was it you who killed three High Envoys?"
The one at their head spoke in a low, heavy voice.
"Yeah."
"Found you."
"You came to catch me, didn't you?"
"The grave crime of killing three High Envoys. And you crossed into the First Layer through a broker. Add that sin, and you shall atone for six thousand and fifty years in all, in the Thorn Hell."
"Six thousand years? Isn't that a bit much? I won't even live that long."
"That is none of my concern. Until the day you die, you will live reflecting on what you have done, and repenting of it."
The High Envoy gestured. From behind him, dozens more burst forward.
Yujun drew his sword and invoked Ancient Magic. Mana poured from his body on a scale that bore no comparison to anything he had cast before.
Mana Wave. A spell that amplified the mana one held and spread it outward. Ignorance of the Ancient Magic formulas made it a grossly wasteful art that did nothing but burn mana. Know those formulas, though, and it was different. It became a weapon more efficient, and stronger, than any other magic.
Mana crashed into mana. Sparks seemed to leap, and dozens of explosions detonated all at once.
"Gah!"
"Ugh!"
The High Envoys charging Yujun were blasted away. Several of them died.
A smile touched Yujun's mouth. Good. Two more levels, and it would be enough.
The sheer force of the blast seemed to throw the High Envoys for a moment.
"Wh-what was that?"
"He used magic like that with a Shadowless Spear?"
"What do we do?"
They couldn't bring themselves to close in.
"A spell like that ends after one cast. Two, at most. Keep attacking."
The words belonged to the highest-ranking among them, the Captain, and at his command the rest found their courage and rushed Yujun again.
The envoy had not been wrong. Even with mana to spare, Yujun could not loose an attack like that twice in a row. That, however, assumed he did nothing about it.
He drew out a supreme-grade mana potion. The mana that had bottomed out began to swell back at once, and he swung his sword at the High Envoy who had already closed to point-blank range. One of them thrust a spear out to meet it. Sword and spear collided, and the envoy's body was flung far away. Yujun cast Mana Wave in the same breath.
The blast was much the same as the last. This time, though, the High Envoys had shield magic ready, and it did not amount to much. Quick on the uptake.
His companions had long since put a good distance between themselves and the fight. A sound decision. Against High Envoys, they would only be in the way.
He reached for another supreme-grade mana potion, but the envoys rushed in and stopped him cold. They gave him no opening to drink. Even if he managed it, they were prepared for that as well. The High Envoys waiting in the rear watched the battle with the eyes of hawks. All right. So magic doesn't work anymore.
Yujun was not discouraged in the slightest. His true weapon had never been magic. It was the sword. Every swing sheared clean through whatever it met, neck or weapon alike.
Even so, the situation was far from wholly in his favor. The High Envoys' strength could not be dismissed, and there were many of them. A deep wound opened along Yujun's body. It's been a while. An injury like this.
Outstanding armor had made wounds a rare thing until now. The High Envoys were different. Their attacks were nothing ordinary, and they punched straight through his defenses. He swung without pause, and two of them died emptily beneath his profound swordsmanship. Not even Yujun, though, could keep from leaving an opening. Blood soaked him. His stamina fell with it, and his breathing grew rough. He had killed a fair number, and still the High Envoys left standing were a mountain. About time I called Paranet.
High Envoy corpses lay strewn in front of him. Yujun summoned Paranet, playing a card he had been saving. The shape of the battle changed the moment Paranet appeared.
"Come at me, you worthless wretches!"
On ability scores alone, he stood above the High Envoys. Paranet held his own even against two of them at once, and in raw strength he overwhelmed them. That bought me some time.
Yujun spent what mana remained on every buff he could cast, then drew out a supreme-grade mana potion and a health potion and drank them both. Two potions in succession left his insides boiling, but his condition snapped back to what it had been almost at once.
"Paranet!"
"Yes!"
"Use Corpse Explosion. Don't spend all your mana in one go."
Paranet answered with action. The bodies of the High Envoys who had been charging without end were torn apart. How is that hitting harder than my magic?
It was no illusion. Paranet's Corpse Explosion truly unleashed a world-shaking force, and the reason was simple. The High Envoy bodies it took as its targets were exceptional physical specimens, and Corpse Explosion was an outrageously powerful skill to begin with. Whenever the fight looked ready to tip against them, Paranet used it and turned the momentum on its head.
"He's insane."
"What is that undead? A swordsman? A mage? A lich?"
"Look at the build. Have you ever seen a lich that huge?"
"That thing is getting on my nerves. Why hasn't someone dealt with it already?"
Defeat settled deep into the High Envoys' faces. The fight had already been grinding, and now their original target had drunk a potion, recovered his strength, and begun to rampage even harder. Left as it was, the battle would spiral beyond saving.
"I believe you may need to step in."
One of the High Envoys said it to the Captain.
"More than expected. On par with Sim Sanghoon... or above him. This has become a nuisance."
The Captain stepped forward, and his mere presence overturned the air of the field. An overwhelming pressure. The skin at Yujun's throat prickled. When the Captain came out, the other High Envoys fell back.
"What? Just you?"
"Your skill is exceptional. Your stats and your items, of course—but I was impressed by the way you handle a sword."
The Captain offered the praise without ornament.
"You're not buttering me up, are you?"
"What does that mean?"
"Doesn't matter. You fighting alone?"
The Captain, noticeably smaller than the other envoys, nodded.
"Yes. Alone is sufficient."
"That's some confidence."
"Hmph."
He had no interest in drawing the talk out. He kicked off the ground and charged. The gauntlets and greaves suggested a fighter who used hands and feet as his weapons. His foot came in, and Yujun swung to meet it—and then the Captain vanished from directly in front of his eyes. The sword cut only empty air. A heavy impact landed on the back of his head.
"Guh—!"
Yujun struck the ground and rolled several times. The world spun. The Captain's speed was no joke. Even Yujun's perception could not follow the movement. His eyes changed. Stand still, and he would be hit. If I'm going to turn this around, then as I thought...
He gulped down the potion he had ready and hauled his mana up. Mana Wave. He loosed it toward the High Envoys. The Captain, midway through his charge, scowled and took several steps back. He understood that closing in carelessly would put him in danger. Then the explosion went off.
Yujun checked the hologram message, and the corner of his mouth lifted. The moment had come at last. This is what I've been waiting for.
He had reached level 350.