Chapter 78
Chapter 78
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: The Tower of Raum
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Players Chapter 78
The capital of the Duchy of Avalon, the Floating Fortress Avalon, was, to be precise, a moving ‘city.’
The island was large enough to house a small to medium-sized city, so from the perspective of an ‘island,’ it wasn’t actually that enormous.
But it was an island large enough for a small city, and it was floating in the sky. Its immense presence was beyond words.
According to legend, the Floating Fortress Avalon was built by six gods, including the Three Great Martial Gods.
Sword God Knute, God of Courage Percival, and God of Honor Gawain.
God of Wisdom Merlin, Goddess of Magic Morgana, and Goddess of Beauty Guinevere.
For human magic to lift an island into the sky—and to maintain its buoyancy for a thousand years—was impossible. Thus, the Floating Fortress Avalon, by its very existence, was a symbol of miracles, proving the presence of the gods.
As they piloted the airship closer to the island, the Sky Knights, one of the prides of the Duchy of Avalon, approached.
The sight of knights soaring through the sky on griffins or pegasi, along with the Floating Fortress Avalon, created a fantastical atmosphere.
The Floating Fortress Avalon was the capital of a nation. Naturally, unauthorized airships were forbidden from landing.
This was where the Witch of the Lake Vivian’s foresight shone.
The box Vivian had gifted them didn’t just contain the magic gloves and their instructions. It also included a letter of introduction from the Witch of the Lake and a formal request for cooperation regarding the Meister’s dispatch abroad.
Due to the document verification process, the party had to wait in the air for about an hour, but they eventually landed safely within Avalon.
According to the Sky Knight who guided their landing, it seemed Kang-seok’s party were the only ‘Players’ to have landed on Avalon.
The Floating Fortress Avalon consisted of a fortified main castle and four small villages surrounding it. The party was granted access to the western village, which was close to where the airship had landed.
“They seemed pretty on edge, didn’t they?”
Choi Yu-ra said, looking up at the backs of the three Sky Knights flying back to the main castle after finishing their duties. Kim Kang-san nodded.
“It seems so. We should probably stay quiet while we’re here.”
The capital was the heart of the nation and the king’s residence. For a World Quest of unknown consequences to occur right next to such a place was tantamount to a national crisis.
Seong Yu-jin said,
“The royal castle of the Kingdom of Briton was impressive, but Avalon is amazing too. I can’t believe this island we’re standing on is actually moving.”
Seong Yu-jin had been strangely excited ever since seeing the Sky Knights on their pegasi. For the first time in a while, she had the eyes of a dreaming girl.
Choi Yu-ra slung an arm around her shoulder and added,
“Yeah, it really is incredible. But wouldn’t it be a huge pain if the capital just moves around like this? Can they even control its direction and speed?”
A capital was more than just the place where the king resided.
If a nation were a person, the capital was its heart. If that heart were to wander aimlessly, it could cause numerous problems for the nation’s administration.
Hunt, who had been quietly observing their surroundings from the airship’s deck, offered his opinion.
“I don’t know the exact circumstances, but I imagine they can control it. The terrain in this area suggests as much.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Yang Jun-gyu asked immediately. Like Seong Yu-jin, his face was flushed with excitement thanks to the Sky Knights.
Hunt replied,
“There are no towns or cities around here. Just wide-open plains.”
That was a sufficient answer for the rest of the party, but not for Yang Jun-gyu. Taking pity on him, Kang-seok placed a hand on his shoulder and added,
“It’s simple. They’re intentionally moving Avalon to an unpopulated area.”
“Intentionally?”
“Yes, intentionally. Think back to the World Quest video we all saw.”
Yang Jun-gyu quickly nodded, closing his eyes to recall the memory. A moment later, he clapped his hands together.
***
“‘The World Quest, the Tower of Raum, will appear near the Floating Fortress Avalon’—that’s what the video said. So it seems the Duchy of Avalon is making a gamble on that.”
Park Chang-ho said with a bored expression, flipping through a book inside a covered wagon.
The cat-eared girl huddled in the opposite corner—Hoshino Asuka—timidly asked back,
“A… gamble?”
“Yes, a gamble.”
Park Chang-ho snapped the book shut with a thud. Asuka flinched at the sound, but in truth, Park Chang-ho had never once raised his voice or been violent with his guild members.
Putting down the book he was reading, he stuck his head out of the wagon and looked up at the Floating Fortress Avalon.
“If the Tower of Raum appears next to the capital, they can guide it to an unpopulated area to minimize damage. Even if that doesn’t happen and it appears at a designated location, it’s not a bad outcome. Because that would mean the Tower of Raum and the capital are far apart. Neither scenario is a losing proposition, but… I doubt an island of that size moves for free. It must consume resources of some kind, and in that sense, the Duchy of Avalon is paying its stake.”
The Duchy of Avalon’s position was understandable.
But for the Seven Sword Knights, who had been chasing the island for days, a hint of irritation crept into his voice.
“Although, it’s more likely to end up like the story of the rich man who fled from death.”
This time, Asuka managed to suppress the urge to ask what that was.
Park Chang-ho wasn’t large in stature, nor did he have a fierce face. He rarely spoke harshly, either.
But he was still somehow frightening. Sitting face-to-face with him felt less like being with a person and more like confronting a lion or a tiger.
Seeing Asuka’s reaction, Park Chang-ho gestured lightly with his hand.
It was a clear invitation to come closer, so Asuka hesitantly shuffled over to his side.
Park Chang-ho stroked Asuka’s head as if handling a cat or a dog and said,
“It’s a rather famous story. Once upon a time, a very rich man lived in a village. He was so rich that his wealth was several times greater than the combined fortunes of everyone else in the village. Then one day, a passing fortune-teller told the rich man, ‘You will die in three days.’”
Being right next to Park Chang-ho scared Asuka enough to make her ears droop, but at the same time, her eyes sparkled with curiosity about the rest of the story. Park Chang-ho smiled at her childlike demeanor.
“The rich man didn’t want to die. So he took his fastest horse and rode for three whole days to a city incredibly far away. He’d gone so far that his own city was no longer in sight, so the rich man felt safe. ‘Death won’t be able to take me now that I’ve come this far,’ he laughed. But it was a foolish delusion.”
Park Chang-ho stopped stroking Asuka’s head. To Asuka, that small change in gesture was more frightening than the story itself.
“Death was already standing behind the rich man. To the utterly shocked man, Death said, ‘I was waiting for you here.’ In the end, the rich man had traveled all that way just to die. It’s possible that Avalon’s current movement is just like that. Though unlike the rich man’s story, it’s unlikely Avalon will die or be destroyed.”
If the location of this World Quest truly mirrored the story of the rich man fleeing death, then the World Quest announcement was, in a sense, a ‘prophecy.’
The Seven Sword Knights’ wagon wasn’t the only one chasing the Floating Fortress Avalon.
Players from all over the world were moving in tow with the floating fortress.
Some traveled in wagons, others on horseback.
And there was no small number of those who journeyed steadily on their own two feet.
After the first World Quest was announced, several Player guilds had sprung up.
It had now been four months since the Great Summoning began.
It was more than enough time for the Players to adapt to this world.
Park Chang-ho looked out of the wagon again. A group of wagons flying a banner with the words ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ written on it was closely following the Seven Sword Knights’ convoy.
The number of Players gathered for the World Quest was about three hundred. With some time still left, he estimated the final number would be around five hundred.
‘Assuming about two hundred are just spectators, is three hundred out of eight thousand about what I expected?’
Those who couldn’t come due to geographical distance.
Those who didn’t dare to challenge the World Quest.
Excluding them, three hundred Players had gathered in this land.
‘The wheat will be separated from the chaff.’
Park Chang-ho stopped thinking. Instead of opening his book again, he lay down on the floor and tried to sleep.
***
On the morning of the seventh day after the Black Dragon landed on the Floating Fortress Avalon.
All of Adamas’s combatants, excluding Hunt and Yang Jun-gyu who chose to stay on the airship and Antonio Choi who remained in the Sauerland Mountains, left the Floating Fortress Avalon.
Below the floating fortress, which had stopped over an uninhabited wasteland, about five hundred Players had gathered.
Some were clustered under guild banners, while others were in small parties of two or three.
“Should we have made a flag or something?”
Choi Yu-ra said, looking at the various guild flags fluttering about. Kang-seok shook his head.
“No good will come from standing out unnecessarily.”
They had already drawn more than enough attention just by arriving on an airship. He wanted to avoid attracting the Players’ notice as much as possible before the World Quest began.
The ‘day’ the World Quest would start had been announced, but not the ‘time.’ However, since the preview video had been set at night, not during the day, they could guess the approximate time.
The Players were spread out widely, centering around the Floating Fortress Avalon.
Depending on which direction one viewed the floating fortress from, the position of the tower in the video changed, making it impossible to pinpoint its exact location.
‘There are more than I thought.’
The number of those who had passed the tutorial was about eight thousand. He hadn't met any Players who had passed the tutorial since then, so he couldn't be sure, but it was possible the number now exceeded nine thousand.
But that number felt too abstract.
Seeing over five hundred Players with his own eyes, however, made him realize the true scale of the Great Summoning.
Players summoned to various parts of the world.
There were nearly twenty times as many Players as those gathered here, and one would have to multiply that by another thirty-seven to account for all the people who had been sacrificed in the Great Summoning.
What was the purpose of the Great Summoning?
“Just a moment.”
Park Han-yeong’s voice cut through Kang-seok’s thoughts. When everyone looked at her, she raised a finger to her lips as if to signal for quiet, then lowered herself and pressed her ear to the ground.
She felt a faint vibration.
Deep within the earth.
Park Han-yeong’s pupils dilated.
“West!”
The vibration intensified. Now, not only Park Han-yeong but everyone could feel it. The ground shook as if in an earthquake, and screams erupted from all around.
Park Han-yeong shouted urgently,
“The epicenter is to the west of here. There’s some distance, so we should be safe… huh?!”
She gasped mid-sentence.
The ground began to crack, starting from the direction Park Han-yeong had pointed. Fissures spread, and the earth convulsed. Something massive and white shot up, piercing through the ground.
For the Players near the epicenter, it was a catastrophe. Some fell into the earth and died, while others were unable to avoid the soaring white structure and were carried up into the sky.
It all happened in an instant. By the time they came to their senses, a pure white tower, easily over two hundred meters tall, stood before them.
“The Tower of Raum.”
Someone said. It was identical to the tower from the World Quest preview video, so no one disputed it.
It wasn’t just tall. It was impossible to guess its diameter. On the side visible to them alone, there were dozens of arched doorways.
Kang-seok swallowed dryly. He forced himself to calm his racing heart, shocked by the fact that dozens of Players had died just from the start of the World Quest.
The earthquake stopped. The Tower of Raum had appeared, and now it was time for the World Quest to begin.
Not just Kang-seok, but the other Players thought the same.
It had happened so suddenly that they couldn’t even properly process the deaths of the Players who had been at the spot where the tower erupted. Driven by instinct, they began to gather around the tower, one by one.
The distance between Kang-seok’s party and the tower was about thirty meters.
Instead of approaching rashly, Kang-seok had the party halt and waited for Iris’s call.
And so, a few minutes passed.
Just as over four hundred Players had gathered around the tower, the ground shook once more. It wasn't a large-scale earthquake like before. The ground right next to the tower split open, and dozens of tree trunks shot up.
This time, no Players were caught in it. Thus, almost everyone watched as the tree trunks wrapped around the tower and climbed upwards.
It was like a scene from a fairy tale brought to life.
The massive trunks that climbed the white tower intertwined to form enormous branches, and from the ends of those branches, new stems sprouted. Countless leaves unfurled, covering the sky, making the white tower itself look like a giant tree.
The World Tree.
A colossal tree that frequently appeared in myths and legends.
The Players gasped in awe at the wonder unfolding before their eyes.
“It’s beautiful…”
Seong Yu-jin said, without realizing it. Park Han-yeong nodded in agreement, and Choi Yu-ra, too, felt the beauty in the white leaves that blanketed the sky.
The leaves began to scatter with the wind.
The sight of the cherry-blossom-like petals fluttering down was beautiful beyond words.
And because of that, the Players didn’t notice. Mesmerized by the beauty of the scattering leaves, they failed to see something else beginning to form among the newly sprouted branches.
Black fruits.
As the leaves reached the ground, the fruits also began to fall. The large ones were several meters in diameter, and even the small ones were much larger than a person’s head.
The branches extending from the tower covered a radius of nearly a hundred meters, so the fall of hundreds of black fruits was like a bombing raid.
Screams erupted once more. Moreover, the black fruits didn’t just fall. The moment they hit the ground, they exploded.
BOOOOOM!
The explosions were not small. Shrapnel rained down on the Players, and the shockwaves alone were strong enough to send people flying.
The area beneath the beautiful tree was instantly transformed into a hell of shrieking chaos. Kang-seok shouted,
“Inside!”
There were two ways to escape the bombardment.
Either run out from under the branches or get inside the covered tower to avoid the bombing itself.
The first option was out of the question. The distance from the party’s current position to outside the branches was much greater than the distance to the tower.
The moment Kang-seok shouted, the entire party started running.
It wasn't just Kang-seok’s party; most Players didn't just stand there dumbfounded by the bombardment. Befitting those who had passed the tutorial, they moved with agility.
CRASH! CRASH!
The ground rumbled. The air screamed, and several Players were caught in the explosions and lost their lives.
Up close, the inside of the arched entrance was so dark that it was impossible to guess what lay within.
But this was no time to be picky.
Go Min-gu threw himself in first, followed closely by Kim Kang-san and Park Han-yeong.
Choi Yu-ra ran too. And Seong Yu-jin urgently threw herself at Choi Yu-ra’s side.
“Yu-ra!”
KABOOM!
A deafening roar swallowed Seong Yu-jin’s voice. A massive explosion struck her shield, and the shockwave from the subsequent blast sent her slender body flying.
“Yu-jin!”
Choi Yu-ra, who had fallen to the ground, cried out desperately. Kang-seok leaped after Seong Yu-jin. From inside the entrance, Park Han-yeong shouted,
“Yu-ra!”
Kang-seok snatched Seong Yu-jin’s waist in mid-air. But he couldn’t land. Explosions erupted from all sides, battering Kang-seok and Seong Yu-jin with shockwaves.
“Go!”
Kang-seok kicked off the air and shouted at Choi Yu-ra. Without even a moment to look her way, he generated a force field and leaped again.
Kim Kang-san and Park Han-yeong rushed out of the entrance and grabbed Choi Yu-ra, who was reaching for Seong Yu-jin and Kang-seok. Another explosion roared, and Seong Yu-jin, held by Kang-seok, raised her shield. It blocked the impact and shrapnel, but as a result, Kang-seok and Seong Yu-jin were once again thrown in the opposite direction of the blast.
Kang-seok gritted his teeth. Instead of tumbling to the ground, he kicked off a force field with one last step. He quickly pulled Seong Yu-jin, whose waist he was holding, into an embrace and threw himself toward the nearest archway, almost as if he were ricocheting.
He crashed to the ground. An immense pain shot through his shoulder and back, but there was no time to look. Tangled together with Seong Yu-jin, he rolled across the floor several times before finally coming to a stop completely inside the arched entrance.
Kang-seok held Seong Yu-jin tightly, panting heavily. The sound of explosions was gone.
Seong Yu-jin, too, gasped for breath in his arms. It felt as though the only sound filling the space was the beating of their two hearts.
Kang-seok turned his head. He looked toward the archway, but he couldn’t see the outside world. Under a dim light, only a wall was visible; the entrance was gone without a trace.
[World Quest: The Tower of Raum]
[Defeat the Demonic Beast Raum, the master of the Tower of Raum.]
[Number of Players currently challenging the quest: 312/511]
[Kang-seok! Seong Yu-jin! Are you okay?! Are you hurt anywhere?!]
Following the glowing text, Iris’s urgent voice rang out. Before answering, Kang-seok glanced around again.
Opposite the entrance.
Inside the room, which was about six meters in diameter, stood two other Players besides Kang-seok and Seong Yu-jin.