Descent into the Abyss
“I know that quite a few people have already gone into the ruins, so why can’t we? We demand fair opportunity for all!”
From their words, it seemed the military faction had been trying to control entry into this ruins site.
“Hah! We’re a legitimate army sent under the royal command. Since His Majesty has forbidden entry here, no one can be allowed inside. Are you trying to defy His Highness the Crown Prince’s order?”
“Damn it! I don’t give a damn about the Crown Prince’s orders. I’m from the South Kingdom!”
Amid the military’s unyielding stance, fierce discontent erupted from all sides of the square. A strange current began to flow through the air.
“You bastard! How dare you insult the Crown Prince! Do you truly wish to die?!”
“Enough! I can’t take it anymore! If you won’t step aside, we’ll clear you out of the way!”
In the midst of this brutal exchange.
One adventurer from the front line suddenly pulled out his weapon and beheaded a soldier who had been arguing with him.
“What the—?! Th-that guy!!”
Since someone had lit the fuse, the entire square was about to erupt into chaos in no time.
The two forces gathered in the square attacked each other with weapons drawn, without mercy.
*Clang! Clang clang!*
The sound of weapons clashing spread like wildfire from the center to every corner of the square in an instant.
“Kill them!”
“Stop that one first!”
Before long, the square had become a hellish battlefield. Screams and blood sprayed everywhere, and the once-lush green plains were soon soaked red.
Wherever one stepped, there was no place without blood. The gruesome sight made it impossible to keep from frowning.
With corpses lining the field and the stench of blood thickening with every breath, Maru’s face grew increasingly pale.
She had seen corpses in Dongye before, but they belonged to yokai, not humans.
These were naked, exposed human bodies. This was her first time facing one directly.
While the rest of us looked uneasy, Blanser showed no signs of distress.
“Hyung, if it’s uncomfortable for you and Maru, how about I go look for him alone?”
Teraden sensed our unease and opened his mouth with a calm expression.
“No. Even if I find him, how am I supposed to look for Junior in a lifetime? Aren’t you worried at all?”
“Worried? That guy? Hyung Teraden, you should have seen me sparring with him last time. That guy isn’t the type who’ll be easy prey.”
Meanwhile, as time passed, the battle in the square began to shift.
“They’re about to break through on this side! Reinforcements—!!”
“No way! We don’t have any left! It’s the same for us!”
Although they were a well-trained military, their numbers were fewer than the adventurers, and most of them were so overwhelmed by the Ouparts that they couldn’t stop all of us.
Eventually, the defense line began to crumble. The furious adventurers charged forward like a tidal wave, pushing toward the eight peaks.
“Why are we going that way? Do you think all those peaks are ruins too? To find Junior, we’d have to search every single one? This is gonna be rough.”
“No. The compass is pointing downward, so I’m guessing Junior isn’t anywhere on those peaks.”
There was a compass I received from the Machine Duke’s people to help find Junior before leaving the National Academy.
When I checked his location with the compass, the needle was vibrating slightly and pointing downward.
“So we have to go down after entering the peak, huh?”
Teraden glanced at the needle and nodded, pointing at the peak with the most people gathered.
“Should we go that way?”
“I think the one with fewer people is better.”
But I pointed to the peak with the fewest people, opposite of Teraden.
“Eh? That one? Why?”
“If we enter the peak, it’ll split into two groups. The first will be those who are entering now, and the second will be those who entered before them, like they said.”
“That’s right. By teaming up with those who entered together, we can compete with the front group without as much risk.”
“If they have enough information to handle Ouparts, the ones who entered first are probably strong. But most of the people there aren’t.”
Teraden narrowed his eyes at my words and looked carefully back and forth between the peak I pointed to and the one I had indicated.
“Hmm. It does look like there are only riffraff there. But at your spot, there are at least some capable people gathered.”
“Hyung, why don’t we just go in and knock out anyone blocking the way?”
“…No. I don’t know what’s inside, so we need to conserve energy until we find Junior. After that, we can focus on escaping.”
“I see. So we’re supposed to compete with the riffraff and the weak and save our strength for the strong ones ahead, huh? That sounds like a good plan.”
“Exactly. If the people going in now get wiped out, we might have to fight the front group. So I think going with them is better.”
“Hey, but once we go in, we’ll be enemies again, right? We might clash with the guys who are already there.”
“If they have any sense, they’ll probably prioritize catching up with the front group over fighting us first. That’s more likely.”
“Makes sense. Then let’s go in and join the back.”
“No. Let’s wait until everyone who’s entering now has gone through, then we’ll go in a bit later.”
“Don’t we need to hurry to find Junior? And more people will keep coming.”
“Junior’s fine. And the military will be sending in more reinforcements, so the adventurers won’t be able to enter anymore. We’ll be a completely independent third group—the last one.”
After consulting Teraden, I glanced back and asked Maru and Blanser for their opinions.
“Of course we’ll follow Hyung’s orders! Hahahaha!”
“Maru will do whatever Oppa says!”
“Then let’s head to the one Hyung said!”
“Teraden and I will focus on finding Junior, but you two, don’t. Remember this. The most important thing is yourself. Got it?”
Once we decided, we moved in when the crowd had thinned.
After some time, the adventurers had disappeared from view.
“Let’s go.”
Hiding ourselves in the bushes as much as possible, we rushed toward the peak as fast as we could.
“Stop them! Block them!”
It was impossible to avoid the eyes of so many people. Eventually, some soldiers blocked our path.
“Use your Ineung as little as possible and subdue them without injuring them as much as you can.”
They were already exhausted from previous battles, so it was absurd to think they could stop us.
“Sorry.”
*Thud, thud.*
*Thump.*
After quickly knocking out the soldiers, we headed toward the peak as planned.
Near the middle of each peak, there were dozens or hundreds of entrances, like ant holes.
I had watched from a distance earlier, and the iron doors at the entrances seemed to open once and then never close again.
So we quickly gathered in front of the iron door we had decided on, the one no one else had used.
*Clank clank.*
“Huh?”
But the door didn’t budge.
“I checked that no one has used this door… Tsk, let’s look again.”
“Grab them—!!”
A few soldiers’ voices echoed from the back.
Fortunately, finding an open door didn’t take long.
“Hyung, let me open it.”
*Creak—!!*
Blanser pried open the slightly rusted iron door, and beyond it lay an inky darkness unlike the outside.
“Shall we go in?”
“Hyung, I can’t see anything. We need to be careful!”
“You bastards! Don’t move—!!”
Teraden tried to stop Blanser with a strange feeling, but he charged in without listening.
“They’re chasing us from behind, so we have to hurry. It’s fine, I won’t die. I’ll lead, just follow me—!!”
*Whoosh!*
“Kyaaaaaaaak!”
Teraden’s body plunged into the ground as if stepping into the void.
“Uwaaaaaaaa!!”
“…….”
The scream of the falling Teraden faded into the distance below.
“Hyung Teraden’s in big trouble…?”
“Oppa… what should I do…?”
“…Let’s be careful and go down first.”
*Slap! Tap tap!*
“Hello! Come on, snap out of it! Communication security!”
Warning of the fall, we quickly descended. Teraden was grabbing someone by the collar and mercilessly slapping their cheeks.
As we checked while going down, hundreds of doors connecting to the outside were all set up to lead to this same place, no matter which door you entered.
The iron doors were thick and incredibly sturdy. Escaping back through them seemed impossible.
At the bottom of the peak, a worse hell than the outside stretched out.
The corpses were even more mutilated, and the decay suggested they had been dead here for a while.
“Teraden, are you okay?”
“Y-yeah, thanks to this guy.”
The person being shaken by the collar showed no reaction.
“Did you really do that?”
“No, it was already like this.”
I tried to wake him up several more times, but when there was no response, Teraden laid the unconscious man in a corner.
“Rest in peace. May you be reborn as some toad on the dry ground in your next life and live peacefully.”
“You’re talking to someone who’s not even dead yet.”
“Heh heh, where’s Junior?”
I took out the compass and checked it. The needle, which pointed straight down outside, now tilted slightly downward here.
“It doesn’t seem that far anymore.”
In this underground hall, there was only one passage.
On a stone slab near the entrance, there was an inscription, but due to damage, only the word “proof” remained readable.
Does this mean if you want the Ouparts, you have to prove your qualifications? Interesting.
Lighting the surroundings with his Hwigwang, Teraden led the way as we entered the passage to find Junior.