Chapter 86
I’m translating the chapter into the required HTML format now, keeping the narration natural and preserving the glossary terms. I’m also checking where any in-universe content needs a styled block so the output stays valid.CHAPTER_TITLE: The Last Untested Dungeon
From high above, Yoon Sang-hyuk looked down at Tartaros. Watching that enormous moving fortress, it felt less like a fortress than a city in motion.
The citadel on Tartaros’ back was wrapped in thick mist, as if the haze itself were guarding it.
He flew higher and turned west. Far off, he could see the sea. If the rumors were right, Tartaros would reach the ocean in two days. That meant he had only two days left before the chance to enter the Abyss of the Ancients atop Tartaros’ back disappeared with it.
Yoon Sang-hyuk couldn’t bring himself to go in right away.
He had conquered almost every map, dungeon, and hunting ground in Eternal World, but not the Abyss of the Ancients.
Heh. I’ve gotten a lot weaker, haven’t I?
He was the same man who had once fought Baal, the Demon King who could be called the final boss of Eternal World, to a standstill. Before he ever reached the Demon King’s castle, the strongest player in Eternal World had taken on every dangerous hunting ground alone and won without anyone’s help. That was the Masked Lord.
Is this because I came back to reality?
If this were Eternal World, he would have entered the Abyss of the Ancients without thinking twice.
“Still, I should go.”
Tartaros might become some kind of variable later. This might be his last chance to experience the Abyss of the Ancients in Tartaros’ citadel.
Yoon Sang-hyuk descended slowly. Even with him almost within arm’s reach, Tartaros gave no reaction and kept trudging onward on its own stubborn path.
He lowered himself little by little, watching the spires jut up like the teeth of some demon.
Mist curled around his body. In the haze, Yoon Sang-hyuk’s eyes gleamed. In Eternal World, he had been told he could not enter before even approaching.
“So I can get in.”
He landed on the ground. Surprisingly, there was no mist below. It was just a broad, empty space, too barren to call a garden. Not even a paved path ran through it; the ground was nothing but bare dirt.
He looked around. A very high wall enclosed the area on all sides, with structures that looked like watchposts scattered along it. Judging by the walls alone, this place didn’t seem built for anyone to live in. It looked more like a prison designed to keep someone trapped inside. That was probably why the Abyss of the Ancients was also called the Spirit Prison.
For reference, the reason players could learn the names of places in Eternal World even without directly experiencing myths or ancient history was because of records left behind by the natives, along with the stories they told.
The same was true here. Before Tartaros first appeared in Eternal World, the players had known nothing about it. But once it emerged, the natives began talking about Tartaros as if they had been waiting for the chance. If you went to a tavern, bards were singing about Tartaros. In the bulletin boards of the great cities, requests to subjugate Tartaros began appearing one after another.
That was how everyone came to know that the moving fortress was called the Abyss of the Ancients, and that it was also known by another name: the Spirit Prison.
Inside the Abyss of the Ancients, independent citadels stood in every direction around the open space where Yoon Sang-hyuk now stood, an area that looked like a parade ground. Each citadel had a different architectural style. The only thing they shared was the same oppressive, mournful atmosphere.
He remained in place for a long time, surveying the surroundings, yet no monsters appeared. That made it seem as though monsters only spawned once he entered one of the citadels.
The first citadel Yoon Sang-hyuk chose was the one on his left. The closer he got, the more he realized just how huge it was. If he judged only by the citadel itself, it was actually larger in scale than the Masked Castle.
He stopped in front of the entrance. A handle shaped like a screaming demon was attached to the door. Yoon Sang-hyuk reached for the door, about to push it open, then snorted and grabbed the handle instead.
Tong. Tong.
“Knocking is manners.”
Crreeeeak. Creeeak.
Looking at the metal door sliding upward, Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a hollow laugh. If he had tried to push it without knocking, it would never have opened.
A vast hall greeted him. It was exactly that: vast, and nothing else. Above him, a shabby chandelier tangled with cobwebs hung from the ceiling, swaying despite the complete absence of wind.
He gripped Holy Sword Idea in his hand. As expected, the monsters here were probably of the dark element. He chose the left of the two doors leading out from the hall. He lowered the handle and pushed. The door opened. The room beyond wasn’t large. The only furnishings were an old table and two chairs placed at the center.
A lamp sat on the table, and once again, despite the lack of any breeze, its flame trembled. He walked a full circle around the room and shook his head. There was nothing here to inspect. If there had been even a single thing in the room, it might have been worth checking, but with only a table and two chairs, there was nothing to do but move on.
As Yoon Sang-hyuk was walking toward the door on the opposite side, he suddenly stopped and grinned.
“Kk. Right. Can’t just walk past it. Isn’t that so?”
He turned and drove Holy Sword Idea into the floor of the room. More precisely, he stabbed at his own shadow.
Kyaaaah!
A shriek so sharp it made his skin crawl rang out, and Yoon Sang-hyuk’s shadow burst up through the floor, writhing wildly.
“How did I know?”
He swung his sword horizontally. The wraith moved fast. Its movements were no ordinary thing. And the scream it had let out when the blade struck it moments ago seemed to have been some kind of mental attack.
“The lamp’s fixed right there, and I’m moving, but the stupid shadow kept staying in the same direction.”
When you moved while a fixed light source remained in place, the shadow’s direction and shape had to change with it.
Using the steps that folded space itself, he closed the distance and cut at the wraith. To his surprise, the wraith dodged the attack again.
“You dodge well. But how long do you think you can keep dodging in a room this narrow?”
He narrowed the distance and struck again. As expected, the wraith evaded the blow. But this time, Yoon Sang-hyuk had already predicted where it would move. Folding space, he occupied the place it was trying to escape to before it got there, then swung his sword in a long arc.
Kyaaah!
The wraith let out a long scream. Its body shook violently, like a flame trembling in a gust of wind. Another attack followed. Having taken two hits, the wraith could no longer move as quickly as before.
After two more cuts, it vanished like smoke.
“Huh.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk drew in a breath, suddenly filled with an inexplicable sense of fullness. A strange fullness, and a rush of exhilaration. He had felt this before, in the Demon King’s castle during the final quest.
The Demon Lords in the Demon King’s castle had all been monstrous beings. He had felt the same thing every time he brought one of them down.
Just in case, he opened his status window.
“Oh.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk gave a low exclamation. His experience had increased since the last time he checked it after finishing his hunt in the Steel Mountains. The second decimal place had gone up by one. Someone might think 0.01 percent wasn’t much of a gain.
But that was only if they ignored Yoon Sang-hyuk’s level. He had reached the maximum level, the limit level, and then consumed a Potion of Limit Transcendence to gain another chance at experience growth.
After returning to reality, he had spent months hunting in the highest-level hunting grounds that had manifested on Earth, yet his current experience had barely climbed by about 3 percent. At this rate, even hunting diligently wouldn’t make it easy to gain more than 10 percent in a year.
But after killing a single wraith, he had gained 0.01 percent experience. That meant hunting 100 wraiths would earn him 1 percent experience. Considering the 0.02 percent he had gained from hunting Black Knights, it was easy to see just how absurd the wraith’s experience reward really was.
He had unexpectedly found a clue for power-leveling. But soon enough, he shook his head with a bitter smile. Tartaros would be descending into the sea in two days.
At the thought that suddenly came to him, he murmured, “Lilith.”
“Yes, Oppa.”
A pink shimmer flickered in front of him, and Lilith appeared. Fortunately, it seemed he could summon her here too.
“Lilith. Can you move to a place that’s in motion?”
“Huh?”
“I mean... the place we’re in right now...”
Yoon Sang-hyuk explained Tartaros to her. After hearing the whole story, Lilith整理ed the situation for him.
“You’re wondering whether, since this thing keeps moving, you can still remember this place and come back later, right?”
“Exactly.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk licked his lips anxiously and waited for what she would say next. Depending on her answer, his chance at power-leveling would be decided.
“For now, it’s impossible.”
“Hmm? Really?”
Yoon Sang-hyuk asked back, feeling a little hollow.
“Think about it simply. There are only two conditions for me to move long distances in one shot. First is when Oppa calls me.”
That was how Lilith had come here just now.
“The second is when there’s someone in a place I’ve seen face to face at least once. As you know, I travel through dreams.”
“Right.”
“That’s why I said ‘for now.’”
That was true. Lilith had indeed said, “For now, it’s impossible.”
“So that means it’s possible?”
“It’s easier to think about the Castle of Chaos. There are Masked Mercenary Group members stationed there all the time, right? So I move through their dreams and bring the other mercenary members with me. The condition here is that there has to be at least one Masked Mercenary Group member in the Castle of Chaos.”
“Ah!”
He understood what Lilith was getting at.
“So if one person stays here permanently, it’ll work?”
“Bingo.”
“Ha, haha. See? I told you our Lilith was the best.”
“You only figured that out now?”
Lilith gave him a teasing wink.
But soon, the smile vanished from Yoon Sang-hyuk’s face. One problem still remained. In two days, Tartaros would sink into the sea. The question was whether the ocean water in reality would affect Tartaros, or more precisely, the Abyss of the Ancients on its back.
For now, the hunting grounds and terrain that had manifested from Eternal World in reality were not affected by Earth’s weather. For example, even if it rained in the city, it didn’t rain in the Masked Castle.
If that was the case, then perhaps the real sea water wouldn’t affect the Abyss of the Ancients either. He would probably have to test that himself to know for sure. In any case, as long as Lilith was beside him, even if Tartaros sank into the sea, she could send him straight back to the Masked Castle.
And in Yoon Sang-hyuk’s subspace, he had an item called the Mermaid’s Essence, which allowed him to breathe and act freely underwater, so there was no need to worry about drowning in the sea.
But the Mermaid’s Essence wasn’t something he had in the same enormous quantity as the Wings of the Sky, so he couldn’t use it carelessly.
Once the sea issue was solved, he could ask the Masked Mercenary Group to understand and have one person at a time take turns guarding the place each day.
It might be what people called pushing others around because of power, but Yoon Sang-hyuk didn’t care much. He had a clear reason to become stronger.
And if he kept hunting here steadily, it would be good for the Masked Mercenary Group as well.
An unclaimed hunting ground. A top-tier hunting ground he hadn’t been able to enter even when he had been above level 270.
“Wait. Level?”
Yoon Sang-hyuk’s expression twisted again. He had briefly forgotten that this place had a level restriction.
“But if I move here directly through Lilith, wouldn’t it still be possible?”
He still wasn’t sure.
That would have to be tested as well.