Chapter 286: The Approaching Throne of Ruin
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 286: The Approaching Throne of Ruin
Whoosh!
A bizarre heat shimmered where the goblin fire had been.
That deeply unsettling mana.
Now that it had fully taken color, its true identity was finally revealed.
[‘Gluttony’s Eye’ perceives the target.]
[‘Indescribable Embers’ flare up.]
So that's how it was.
Jinhyuk clenched his teeth.
The 'Indescribable Embers' were the signature flames of the Goat Guy on the 50th floor of the Tower.
And for them to be here meant...
That bastard had descended to the Murim at some point.
There's only one reason why the Murim is still intact despite such an out-of-spec existence descending here.
Now he understood why the Heavenly Demon had gone into closed-door cultivation.
And why he still hadn't shown his face even though his cultivation was over.
He couldn't come out even if he wanted to.
Because he had suffered too deep a wound from his battle with the Goat Guy.
He had figured Yacha wouldn't be the end since it was a chain quest, but...
The scale of this is way bigger than I expected.
Lord-class vampires, the High Administrator Hastings, and even an entity from the 50th floor.
He now understood exactly how the snowball that started with the goblin fire had rolled.
Jinhyuk looked up into the empty air.
Back when he played the Tower of Trials, there had been events of this nature.
Embers were, quite literally, what remained of a fire.
Before the fire completely died out, those bastards from the 50th floor would come again.
Down the Tower.
And it wouldn't be long.
He didn't know exactly where they would land, but whoever descended...
That region would turn into a living hell.
* * *
Four days had passed since the incident in the Lightning Prison was resolved.
The entire headquarters of the Heavenly Demon Cult was in an uproar over the event.
Not only had Yacha, who was imprisoned in the Lightning Prison, run amok, but the Thunder Spirit Unit, including its captain, had been completely wiped out trying to stop him.
On top of that, they had lost Dokgoryong, one of the Ten Great Masters, suffering an unspeakable blow.
The sole survivor was Chae Hong-ah.
Even she was in a coma due to a severe blow to the back of her head, making it impossible to ask her what had happened.
In the end, all that remained was the testimony of Jinhyuk and the others.
To be precise, it was a story fabricated to their advantage.
"The masters of our cult are either dead or in critical condition. Yet, the Right Guardian and his disciple are perfectly fine, without a single scratch."
"And?"
"Isn't that suspicious to anyone? The situation has conveniently played out entirely to your advantage."
"You were the one who insisted on keeping Yacha locked up. You were also the one who suggested releasing the goblins into the Lightning Prison."
The Dark Emperor crossed his arms, showing his displeasure.
Perhaps due to his bulging, explosive muscles, his mere presence exuded an immense pressure.
However, Samaja did not back down in the slightest against that aura.
"The goblins were meant for our disciples' training."
"Is that so? From where I stand, it looked like someone was using them to brainwash Yacha."
"Haha. Your imagination runs too wild, Right Guardian. How on earth could anyone brainwash Yacha with mere goblins?"
Samaja replied without changing his expression.
"Even if that were possible, Yacha is dead now, so we can't exactly ask him, can we?"
"Well said. Indeed, our cult has no need for trivial evidence or witnesses. We judge with our own eyes and punish. Isn't that how we do things in the Heavenly Demon Cult?"
"..."
"So, do not dare suspect my innocent disciple. Unless you saw it clearly with your own two eyes, that is."
"...It seems the Right Guardian's love for his disciple is truly profound. Enough to risk everything."
"Of course."
The Dark Emperor walked past Samaja, crossing the Heavenly Demon Hall.
Their gazes locked.
Both knew who the culprit was.
They knew what had happened inside, and how it had been wrapped up.
Yet, neither voiced their true thoughts.
Because even without words, they understood each other all too well.
"I lost the first move. But you had better keep in mind—the game has only just begun."
"Your next moves had better be much more meticulous. Especially since if you pull any tricks in front of me, I'll crush your skull to pieces."
"I... look forward to that."
With that, their conversation ended.
As soon as the Dark Emperor stepped out of the Heavenly Demon Hall, Baeksa, who had been waiting, immediately fell into step beside him.
"Supreme One. I have taken care of everything you ordered. However, I tried to assign guards to your disciple, but he is nowhere to be found..."
He couldn't find him even after searching the entire Hundred Thousand Mountains.
"He went outside the Tower, so there is no need to assign guards."
"Outside the Tower?"
"Yes. He said he wanted to... clear his head."
* * *
——————————————————
Name: Kang Jinhyuk
Gender: Male
Age: 27
Level: 108
Strength: 101 | Agility: 39 | Stamina: 49 | Mana: 273 | Gap: 100 | Luck: 10 | Adaptive: 78 | Essence: 71.38
Available Stat Points: 24
Coins: 6,151,339
Class: Interpreter of Runes
Unique Abilities: 'Fusion', 'Grave of Swords', 'Blessing of the Stars', 'Judgment of Anubis', 'Blood Demon Qi', 'Mandala', '1-Second Invincibility', 'Thousand Poisons', 'White Beast', 'Shared Perception', 'Sanctuary of the Sun', 'Black Heaven Demonic Emperor Art', 'Triple Magic', 'Colossus Strike', 'Fire Dragon's Breath', 'High-Speed Sword', 'Tombgrave's Right Arm', 'Berserker', 'Domain of Wind', 'Shadow Extreme Kill', 'Blood Explosion', 'Black Tears', 'Tombgrave's Leg', 'Supernatural Strength'
Skills: Switched to 'Collapsed' due to the large quantity of skills.
Barriers: Switched to 'Collapsed' due to the large quantity of barriers.
——————————————————
He had leveled up eight times after defeating Yacha.
Since it had been such a fierce battle, his Essence stat had also increased by 20.
I should balance things out this time.
There were other ways to increase his Mana stat.
So for now, it was time to raise the stats he had neglected.
[Strength increases from 101 → 109.]
[Agility increases from 39 → 47.]
[Stamina increases from 49 → 57.]
A soft, bright light enveloped him.
Good. Next up...
It was time to check the long-awaited reward.
Now that he knew the entities from the 50th floor had intervened, the conditions were met.
[You have completed the first chain quest.]
[The list of selectable materials is displayed in order of highest grade.]
With this, he could choose any material item from the Coin Exchange. Whatever he wanted, without any restrictions.
Jinhyuk's eyes narrowed.
Choosing just one is absolute torture.
To be honest, there were enough tempting items to fill a truck.
'Dragon Heart', 'Colossus Gear', 'Essence of the Spirit King'—dozens of items came to mind immediately.
If he included the treasures of the Demon Kings of the Demon World, the Administrators' relics, and materials dropped by high-ranking monsters, the number of choices would multiply into the hundreds.
But he could only choose one.
Materials like the Dragon Heart or those from the Spirit Realm take a long time to yield proper efficiency. On the other hand, demon materials only take a day to prepare.
Something he could use right away...
Or something for the distant future?
His hesitation didn't last long.
"I choose the 'Rotting Heart'."
Without the present, there is no future.
Jinhyuk held the purple-glowing gem in his hand.
A relic crafted by Veliel.
It was the core material required to craft a 'Purple' grade item.
I can finally make a Purple-grade item.
As soon as his choice was made, another status window popped up.
Ding!
[The second chain quest has arrived.]
'Throne of Ruin'
Description: An entity that brings about the ruin of the Tower will manifest below. Minimize the damage and survive.
Reward: Unknown (Will be applied differentially based on the damage sustained.)
The worst kind of event quest—one that could completely obliterate an entire region.
Ultimately, the first scenario of ruin had begun.
"..."
The sun was warm.
The people walking the streets were thoroughly enjoying their weekend after finishing a busy week.
Everyone looks so peaceful.
Sitting on a bench, Jinhyuk watched the crowd.
Thanks to the various guilds and players active inside the Tower, ordinary citizens could go about their daily lives today.
It seemed the Awakened Association had truly put in their best efforts to let people maintain their normalcy.
Seeing how society was preserved without any sense of incongruity, that is.
I heard that Awakened with wide-area mental-type abilities played a big part in this.
A mental-type ability. If he could copy that...
Lost in thought for a moment, Jinhyuk shook his head.
This was a sweet, hard-earned rest after a fierce battle.
With plenty of headaches already waiting for him, he didn't want to stress over Awakened or players.
Since he had distributed his stats and received his chain quest, he planned to laze around and rest for at least today.
Yes. That was the plan, but...
"What are you staring so blankly for? Hurry up and look at the 176th outfit We have chosen. Ahem. Well, how is it?"
Alice spun around on the spot.
The problem was that he had been caught by this leech of a vampire.
Alice placed yet another outfit on top of a mountain of shopping bags.
It was the famous 'Hanbok Rental' service of Bukchon Hanok Village.
Dressed in white and pink with a jade hairpin in her hair, she presented a quite exotic appearance.
Oh.
An exclamation of admiration escaped Jinhyuk's lips.
To think this girl could look so elegant.
He wondered if this was what people meant by the harmony of East and West.
"It looks great and all, but you do know that's a rental, right? If you ruin the clothes, you have to pay for them."
"It is fine."
"It's not fine."
"We have already bought them all."
"I said it's not... Wait, what? All of them? Every single one?"
"Yes, We bought everything without leaving a single piece behind. In the first place, there is nothing We cannot buy with Our wealth. We even liked this village and tried to purchase it, but We were kicked out of the residence of the village lord. How dare they, when they do not even know who We are."
That probably means she went to the community center and got kicked out.
He desperately hoped she hadn't gone all the way to the mayor.
"..."
For some reason, a headache was coming on.
No wonder there was no one else around renting hanboks.
Since she had bought them all out, everyone else had no choice but to go home empty-handed.
"And look at this. It is called cotton candy. We never knew a cloud with such a fascinating taste existed. How about it? Do you want some? If you beg earnestly, We might graciously share one with you."
"Knock yourself out. Eat so much of it that cotton candy starts coming out of your ears."
Jinhyuk shook his head.
But then.
"Seeing how much Lady Alice is enjoying it, I would love to try one as well. I would be deeply grateful if you could spare one for your subordinate."
Surprisingly, Wolyeong accepted Alice's offer.
"You've been acting incredibly polite to Alice lately. Did you get beaten up by her or something?"
"It is nothing like that."
"Then what?"
"Is Lady Alice not someone precious to my Lord? I am simply treating her with the respect she deserves."
Precious, huh...
Well, she was indeed a precious and important high-grade resource.
A worker this excellent was hard to find even if one searched the entire Tower.
Just then.
"Still, thanks to Alice, we get to try on the clothes from the place where Jinhyuk lives. Hehe."
"It's warm and fluffy, and I really like it too. I've seen it a lot in dramas, but this is my first time wearing one myself."
Andrea and Teresa also walked out, each wearing a hanbok with a different concept.
It was a combination of a fluffy fox and a pure-looking saintess.
I should record this and sell it for a high price later.
"You even called Teresa. Are you just sitting there comfortably, ordering people to come and go as you please?"
A scholar wearing a gat appeared.
"Well, if it isn't the damn Con... I mean, Yu-seong. Wow, it suits you. I thought a Sungkyunkwan scholar had walked right out of history."
Except for the fact that he would kill even the king if he didn't like him, he looked exactly like a Joseon dynasty official.
Yi Bang-won should have met this guy at Seonjuk Bridge instead of Jeong Mong-ju.
"Cut the crap. Just tell us why you called all of us busy people here. We even abandoned our business in the Murim to come. Surely you didn't bring us here just to do this?"
For someone saying that, he seemed to be enjoying himself quite a bit...
He had even bought a folding fan, so his complaints carried very little weight.
Well...
"I didn't call you here to play."
The lighthearted atmosphere suddenly turned heavy and serious.
"I figured there was something. Spit it out."
At Cheon Yu-seong's question, Jinhyuk slowly opened his mouth.
"I need everyone's help."
To stop the approaching ruin.
No, to survive the ruin.
Everyone would have to risk their lives.