Mythical Beings (1)
-Our museum handles many different kinds of objects. The things you call items are here as well, and as I showed you earlier, we also keep objects of historical value. Of course, what we preserve is not limited to weapons and equipment.
“……”
-There are also those who have been sealed away, and those who have entered into contracts. They exist so that you may directly experience a museum tour. Naturally, there are also beings who came from other dimensions. Those who have drifted here through rifts can be a danger to this world, which is why they require careful management.
“……”
-There have been many sacrifices and many battles. The Crack Guardians gave everything they had and succeeded in sealing the rifts, but even after that, they were always concerned about the unseen threats. That is why they always said we must remain vigilant toward the rifts. The reason most of the rewards from the museum expedition are the weapons you call treasures is precisely because of that.
“I see.”
-Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. That is probably why the Guardians only grant rewards to those who complete the expedition.
I think I’ve got a rough idea of what’s going on….
At some unknown point in the past, something called a rift must have opened on this continent, and dangerous beings had apparently spilled through it.
The Crack Guardians gave their lives to stop the threat, and in the end, they succeeded in sealing the rift.
They must have decided that people needed to be reminded of that danger.
And what they created was…
the Crack Museum.
I could at least be certain it hadn’t been built with malicious intent.
Though it seems to have gotten a little warped…
I didn’t really care why every named monster and every reward had been assigned at random, because I wasn’t interested in the creator’s intent.
It was probably because threats came in all kinds and could appear at any time, or some other such reason.
As if to confirm that I’d guessed right, the curator, Max, spoke again, and I could see him in my line of sight.
-All rewards and trials are decided randomly. Threats do not discriminate by type, after all. I cannot fully understand the will of the Crack Guardians myself, but I imagine that is the reason.
Honestly, I’d intended to pay attention to what he was saying, but what interested me more were the items piled up around us.
[Doom Beast Gauntlets - Legendary Grade]
[Gauntlets of the Doom Beast, which drifted here through a rift. As weapons once used by a legendary beast master of the past, they greatly increase affinity with all beasts and allow communication with animal souls. Three legendary beasts sealed within the gauntlet can be summoned, and these beasts were lifelong companions of the legendary beast master. Abbreviated…]
Huh…
That wasn’t all.
[Frost Greatsword - Legendary Grade]
[A cursed ice greatsword used by the King of Paricide. No detailed information is available beyond its ability to command the dead. The information is sealed too deeply to pierce even with Mind's Eye.]
Command the dead?
Simply by obtaining one sword, you could become a necromancer.
The Doom Beast Gauntlets were just as absurd; the idea that they could command three legendary beasts was so outrageous I was at a loss for words.
Yuliena was also Legendary Grade, of course, but since her consciousness was still sealed away, I couldn’t help feeling she was a little behind.
Woom.
I could have sworn I heard a distant humming, so I stroked the hilt of the sword and looked around once more.
-You really are all interested in weapons and armor. There are many dangerous pieces among them. Some are the sort that can’t be used at all unless you’re qualified. Ah, do you see this one here?
[Hammer of God - Mythic Grade]
[A hammer in which the power of five giant gods lies dormant. The power of the God of the Sunlit Volcano, the Goddess of the Forest, the Lord of the Tides, the King of Winds, and the Queen of the Mind sleeps within it. It can use five different attributes, and… abbreviated.]
Huh… this kind of thing exists…
It looked like a hammer that would be difficult to lift even with both hands.
And yet, even from a glance, I could feel the immense power radiating from it.
It had the sort of presence that made you think an ordinary person who picked it up might instantly rise to the rank of a top-tier player.
-This is one of the artifacts that drifted in through a rift. If I were to describe its grade, I would call it Mythic. Would you believe me if I said the power of five giant gods sleeps within this hammer? I remember the effort the Crack Guardians made back then, trying to seal the power of the rampaging giants inside it. The other artifacts each have their own value as well, but among the weapons you call items, I can say with confidence that this one stands above all the rest.
Max’s face was full of pride for the collection he had gathered.
I wasn’t the only one staring blankly at the hammer on display.
Everyone was looking at that weapon with dazed expressions.
It wasn’t because they could read its stats with Mind's Eye like I could.
Some things you can feel without even seeing them.
Anyone could tell that this was the sort of weapon you would be lucky to find anywhere on the continent, even after searching every corner of it.
Damn…
What was amusing, even in the middle of all that, was the short description written beneath the exhibit.
Looks like the Crack Guardians couldn’t even figure out the item’s true nature.
They probably conducted all sorts of tests and investigations and confirmed it in practice, but not even a quarter of the information I could get from my trait was written there.
I was once again forced to appreciate the grandeur of Mind's Eye.
At any rate, since everyone here was looking at Max with awe, it felt as if his ego had swelled a little, too.
-Of course, there are only about two other Mythic Grade artifacts like this one. Still, this remains one of our proudest collections.
“Is this also one of the items that can be obtained as a reward?”
-No. This object is not given out as a reward. Unfortunately, the Crack Guardians said that it is a spoil not included among the rewards. However, the remaining two Mythic Grade items will be distributed with the same random probability.
“Ah…”
The odds were two in five hundred.
If I assumed Kim Hyunsung were to obtain a weapon of this sort, I would leap to my feet and break into a dance on the spot.
The painful reality was that Kim Hyunsung still didn’t even have a single Legendary Grade item.
Even getting one Legendary item would probably be enough to satisfy him.
If I included Legendary Grade in my calculations, the odds were thirty-two in five hundred.
Statistically, that wasn’t even that bad.
If I landed a Mythic item, that would be a jackpot.
If I got even a Legendary item, it would be a solid middle win.
I didn’t even want to think about anything below Heroic Grade.
That’s not happening.
-As I said earlier, though, you must complete the museum expedition if you want to receive a proper reward. Shall we move on to another section?
“Yes.”
This was the important part.
Items would be awarded later anyway.
For now, survival came first. More important than what we obtained was who we had to fight.
As we walked for quite a while, the atmosphere definitely began to change.
Unlike the items displayed as if in some elegant gallery, these things clearly seemed sealed away.
From enormous monsters to tiny ones.
These were the beings the Crack Guardians had sealed or collected.
It was only natural that I had been using Mind's Eye from the moment we entered, checking everything and filing it away in my head.
I need information.
There were three named monsters needed for the expedition. Whoever they were, we had to face all three.
Since we had no information at all, it wouldn’t hurt to prepare in advance.
Heroic Grade monsters were to be excluded for now.
Given our situation, I focused on the thirty Legendary monsters and the three Mythic monsters…
[Because of the difference in rank, the trait Mind's Eye cannot be applied to this target.]
That one… what is it?
A green-skinned monster sat on a chair made of weapons.
It had huge horns, a massive tail, and seven different weapons floating around it.
Just looking into its eyes made my skin crawl, and my whole body began to tremble.
How are you supposed to beat… that?
There was a difference in rank. A real, undeniable difference in rank.
There wasn’t even a word for it.
The very idea of fighting something like that was nonsense.
The current Kim Hyunsung could charge it head-on with a whole squad and still lose.
Without realizing it, I looked toward Kim Hyunsung, and he was quietly staring at the green monster.
Has he met it before?
Beyond simple fear, there was something else in that gaze—something hard to name.
If Kim Hyunsung had encountered that thing in his first life, then suddenly his warning that this dungeon was dangerous made perfect sense.
It was then that I heard Park Deokgu’s voice.
“What’s this monster? Keuh… now that’s one fine-looking bastard, ain’t it?”
“Don’t touch it! You damn pig!”
It was only natural that I shouted before I could stop myself.
I was worried the green monster might suddenly leap out of its chair if something happened.
-Ah, so you recognize it. But rest assured, merely touching the exhibition hall won’t cause anything else to happen. Besides, what’s in front of you is a dummy.
“A dummy?”
-Yes. A very well-made replica. In truth, beings like this are difficult even for the Crack Guardians to seal perfectly…. I’ve only heard that it was a Mythical being that had been sitting there since before I was born. Ah, if you wish to see other Mythic beings, I can show you those as well. One has remained here through a long-standing contract with the Guardians, and the other being is, well… difficult to explain. It would be better to see it directly.
In other words, there were two more monsters like this one.
Damn it…
I had taken this far too lightly.
Shit…
Kim Hyunsung’s warning suddenly felt painfully real.
Three out of five hundred. We absolutely had to avoid the three Mythic-grade entities.
At our current strength, no matter how hard we struggled, we couldn’t win.
We might be able to scrape by against a Legendary named raid monster, but going up against something like that was impossible.
Forget fighting; the smart choice was to run away with our tails tucked between our legs.
Curator Max seemed to have no interest at all in what we were thinking.
He was still busy boasting about the Crack Guardians’ collection.
-This one may be more familiar to you. It is a fragment of the continent’s ancient god. You may not know it, but perhaps the dragon here….
“I heard about it from Lord when I was very young. I was told it had been sealed away somewhere, but… so it was here. Is it controllable?”
-Yes. The fragment has no self. Its power has also weakened due to the Guardians’ seal. If you were to fight it, the seal would likely be lifted only for a certain amount of time.
A monster with tendrils sprouting from a giant eye. It was the same case here. Mythical beings couldn’t be identified with Mind's Eye.
Compared to the monster I’d seen earlier, it was at least a little better, but if something like that were unleashed, we would still be annihilated.
I didn’t even need to simulate it in my head; the whole thing was already playing out before my eyes.
The front line would crumble the moment it failed to endure a single sweeping strike from those tendrils, and the rear would panic and start looking for their mothers and fathers.
Absolutely not.
Could we somehow manage it?
That wasn’t the issue.
We had to prevent those Mythic beings from appearing, no matter what it took.
It’ll be fine.
It had to be fine.
It’ll be fine.
They definitely wouldn’t show up.
The probability was less than one percent, and the expedition team’s average luck stat was over sixty.
Those Mythic beings were only hit when your luck was truly terrible. Most of the time, it was natural for a Heroic Grade named monster to come up.
The more I listened to his explanation, the more everyone’s expressions darkened.
It was then that he spoke again.
-Ah, the time has come.
“You mean time?”
-Yes. I was so engrossed in conversation with such highly ranked guests after so long that I lost track of time. After a few hours have passed since the explorers arrive, the seal naturally begins to loosen. Ah, it has already started.
Once again, I heard a grinding sound from beneath the floor, and the structure of the area we were standing in began to shift.
The exhibited beings sank into the ground or disappeared beneath the floor, and an open clearing suitable for battle began to form.
An anxious feeling rose in my chest for no reason.
-First, look here. The selection is random, but to make it easier for you to adjust, the Guardians created a system called a spin board.
……
-If you turn this signboard while pouring in mana, the monster you must fight will be selected at random. After choosing a representative, simply spin the board.
“Understood.”
What kind of spin-the-wheel nonsense is this? Damn it…
I was a little taken aback, but I had already read about this in the report.
And who would be turning it had already been decided.
The first was Park Yeonju, who had the highest luck stat.
With a slightly tense expression, she placed her hand on the board, and everyone watched her in anxious silence.
Please…
All we had to do was avoid Mythic.
Please…
Legendary would still be a pain, but it would be better to fight three Legendary monsters than anything else.
The board begins to spin.
After the voice message sounded, the great wheel began to turn with a rattling clatter.
“Please!!”
For this one moment, everyone was surely of one mind.