Chapter 61
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Palace in the Gap (1)
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In the middle of a vast desert under a scorching sun.
Something burst out from the massive gateway with a splurt!
“Pfft…. Ptui! Ptui!”
Something tumbled onto a sand dune.
Lee Min-jun spat out the sand filling his mouth.
His vision churned like a golden wave stretching endlessly.
The moment he thought he’d safely entered the gateway, Min-jun immediately equipped [Cyclops’s Eye].
“Where’s this?”
Once he put on the item, his surroundings came into sharper focus.
A golden desert of nothing but sand.
No trace of spiders or apostles anywhere he looked.
“Which way should I go? This feels totally different from the last gap I entered….”
The gap at Songpa Police Station had been a massive canyon, forcing him to push forward no matter what.
But here, smack in the middle of a ‘desert’ so empty it fit the phrase ‘middle of nowhere.’
Min-jun felt lost, but with no knowledge to guide him, he started walking straight ahead anyway.
His feet sank deep into the sand with each step, but with no better option, he figured he’d push through with sheer grit.
* * *
‘Something’s off.’
It felt like he’d been walking since entering the gateway—hours, at least—but all he got was burning thirst and sweat pouring like rain.
He glanced at the sky. The sun hadn’t budged.
Stranded in the heart of the desert, Min-jun gathered his thoughts.
‘Am I caught in one of its illusions? Nah…. The item should protect me…?!’
No.
It was just the golden sand everywhere and the haze from the blazing sun obscuring things.
Very faintly, almost imperceptibly, the air in front of him seemed to shimmer.
Once he noticed it, his senses sharpened, growing more precise.
Soon, that nagging itch he’d felt since the spider fight before crossing over hooked into his awareness.
The sensation of recognizing what was called the ‘flow of time.’
Amid the vast desert waves, ripple patterns emerged.
[User senses and recognizes the flow of time.]
[‘Time Perception’ proficiency slightly increases. (95/100)]
Every time he’d sensed something wrong with ‘Time Perception’ so far, something had always disrupted that flow.
And now, in what was clearly a trap, he needed to find it.
Like a reef jutting from a massive wave flowing in one direction. He had to pinpoint the unnatural anomaly.
Min-jun closed his eyes and focused his mind.
He didn’t fully know why he was doing this or what effect it would have, but a powerful intuition told him to shut his eyes and concentrate like this.
Truth be told, Min-jun was used to situations like this.
Just months ago, he’d faced every problem alone, racking his brain to solve them.
When tackling issues solo, emotions were no help at all.
He had to stay ice-cold, assess the situation rationally, relying solely on his own reason without anyone else’s aid.
That’s why Min-jun was accustomed to meditating to calm his resentment and sorrow.
This was no different.
He felt he had to do it, and it was something he could pull off.
‘….’
By blocking out sight, he made touch, smell, and hearing more vivid, then deliberately tuned them out one by one.
The stinging skin from the sun, the smell of parched hot air, the sound of whipping sand—all forgotten as he sank slowly into his inner mind.
In his mind’s eye lay a vast lake mirroring a blue sky.
‘….’
It was serene, peaceful.
Min-jun gazed at the clear lake for a long while.
‘…?!’
But suddenly.
He rubbed his eyes and looked again.
In that tranquil place, something fairy-like, glowing with light, fluttered about.
It flew to the center of the lake and tapped the surface with its index finger.
Concentric ripples spread from the point, their edges slowly expanding toward the lake’s shore.
* * *
“Found you.”
On one side of the lake.
Something distorting the neat circular ripples.
Min-jun turned toward it and slowly, very slowly, opened his eyes.
He didn’t doubt for a second that what he saw in his mind would be right in front of him when he did.
And it was.
Before Min-jun stood a white palace resembling the Taj Mahal he’d only seen in pictures.
Ding!
[You have entered Instance Dungeon: Fraus’s Palace.]
[Time in the outside world flows 3 times faster than in the present realm.]
[‘Time Guardian’ item purchase recommended.]
Only after hearing the system alert did Min-jun realize he’d broken Fraus’s illusion and reached the real heart of its domain.
‘But…. Does that mean these glasses are useless?’
The glasses hadn’t led him to the palace; he’d shattered the illusion with his own power.
He took off [Cyclops’s Eye] with that thought.
Instantly, the world flickered like a broken monitor, and he hurriedly put the glasses back on.
That’s when he understood.
‘Even I and the glasses aren’t perfect.’
To be precise, the glasses had reached their limit blocking part of Fraus’s illusion.
Influenced by them, Min-jun had awakened a new ability.
With his thoughts sorted, Min-jun pulled out the [White Rabbit’s Pocket Watch] he’d kept from the system’s past recommendation.
The item he’d used entering the Songpa gap, with plenty of usage time left.
Tick. Tock.
As expected, upon entering this realm, the second hand, still in the real world, began moving again.
Min-jun tucked it into his pocket and approached the palace’s massive gate.
And as if on cue, the same quest window from Sicarius appeared.
「[Sub Quest – Raid]
Difficulty: C- (B-)
Clear Condition: You have encountered ‘Fraus,’ second daughter of Atlnak, who inherited illusion abilities from her mother.
Team up with others to raid her.
(Recommended) Gold Grade 1/6 people
Rewards: Karma +1.0, 3,000 hours, ‘Fraus’s Jewel’
Penalty for refusal or failure: None」
“This damn raid quest.”
Shouldn’t it at least tell him the conditions for bringing others before assigning the quest?
‘In a place where you can barely stand without these glasses, how are others supposed to fight….’
Grumbling, Min-jun threw open the massive gate of white marble with all his might.
He’d known this was coming and come prepared.
For the people waiting outside, he had to push through the raid.
Creeeak—
Inside the gate, a vast chamber with a high ceiling stretched out, flanked on both sides of a long red carpet by dazed minions standing like attendants.
At the vanishing point of that red carpet, on a throne adorned with jewels of every color.
[You have encountered ‘Fraus,’ second daughter of Atlnak.]
A half-human, half-beast white spider lounged there, sprawled out.
* * *
Min-jun pressed down on his shotgun, which vibrated at the sight of the minions, and trudged across the plush carpet toward the throne.
Fraus was pure white, as if albino, but its eyes gleamed like red rubies.
Unlike its massive truck-sized first and third siblings, it had a relatively small, gaunt frame.
Not spider-small, but for a gateway lord, it looked somehow lacking.
‘That’s Fraus…. Doesn’t look like a physical fighter at all.’
Min-jun walked until he was about 10 meters from Fraus.
““….””
For some reason, Fraus kept silent.
Min-jun’s silence stretched long as he ran combat simulations in his head.
“You…. Not affected by my illusions? Annoying.”
Finally, Fraus broke the quiet with a slow drawl.
“I’ll send you back, so why not just turn around?”
“Can you let all of humanity go outside Garak Market without any price?”
“…No, just you.”
Of course.
A shake-off not worth considering.
Instead of answering, I drew my greatsword.
“….”
“…Tch. Knew it.”
At Fraus’s gesture, the lined-up minions surrounded me with blood-red eyes.
At least twenty of them, not wielding bladed legs like Atlnak’s minions, but with solid muscles and sharp claws.
Like ghouls from fiction?
Just like their master—pale skin, red eyes, perfect copies.
‘A bit many?’
More minions waiting than expected, honestly a little startling….
But still fine.
‘Unlike with Sicarius, I didn’t come empty-handed this time.’
I checked the spare survival time on my wrist.
3162.
Enough to use skills freely.
Even after spending 13,000 hours on [Purification], killing two of Atlnak’s minions netted 14,971 hours, and one of Fraus’s gave 6,118.
Factoring in [Contract] skill and various potion purchases.
After breaking through the gateway and adding star ground effects, I should have around 27,000 hours.
But with only 3162 left…. That meant I’d dumped nearly all of it into stats.
‘Everything but star power is level 35 now.’
Strength, stamina, speed—all leagues beyond before.
Just stomping cracked the marble floor.
Bouncing in place a few times, Min-jun suddenly slipped between the minions and appeared before Fraus’s throne.
Boom!
The brutal greatsword shattered the jewel-encrusted empty throne.
‘Pretty fast, huh?’
Only the throne lay broken before Min-jun. Fraus had slipped away long before.
He’d thought its skinny, muscleless frame meant no physical prowess, but it was surprisingly agile.
‘No, is it agile because it’s small…? Or illusion?’
Whatever trick it used, he couldn’t pinpoint it yet…. But it wasn’t fast enough to escape him.
With One Man Army title active for a solo raid, his stats hit early 50s.
Compared to the Sicarius fight, base stats had more than doubled.
‘All conditions perfect. Just don’t get careless.’
““Die!!””
Four minions closed in at point-blank, but no real tension.
Only Fraus herself mattered.
As the flanking ones lunged from high and low, visible to his eyes, the hand gripping the greatsword traced a vertical red line.
The minions’ bodies flew apart in chunks.
Min-jun no longer felt his chest ache at such sights.
He’d regret later, after killing every monster….
“How, my illusions—”
Its specialty blocked.
Basic power gap now overwhelmingly his.
He could see Fraus panicking.
“You don’t need to know.”
Min-jun never forgot how cunning spiders were.
To maintain One Man Army, he left Fraus and butchered the surrounding minions first.
The hunt went smoothly, as if they were offering themselves up—no real crises.
Except.
The minions didn’t die easy.
In their death throes, flesh and blood often sprayed.
“Gotcha~”
Just now, as a minion died, blood splattered onto Cyclops’s Eye.