Chapter 268
Chapter 268
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 268
>Chapter Title: The Golden Monkey
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Swish...
As if entranced, Kang Seol reached out toward the door.
However.
His hand merely flailed in the empty air, unable to reach where the door was.
"Damn it... I can see it, but I can't touch it!"
No matter how much he swung or stretched, the door remained far away.
"Now that I can finally see the door... why?!"
If he opened that door, he could meet everyone again.
Everyone was waiting on this side for someone to open the door.
"Kang Seol! Dodge!"
Chiwoo's sharp scream.
Snapping back to his senses, Kang Seol bent his waist into an arch at the felt presence.
Whoosh-!
The statue's club, aimed at his upper body, awkwardly groped the air.
Swish...
In that instant, the door of emptiness began to recede.
Had he been too greedy, wanting to solve the immediate problem right away? Kang Seol reluctantly returned to reality.
"First things first, the trial."
Getting hit by one of these statues because he was distracted would be utterly ridiculous.
"There are more statues! Focus on your senses!"
"More statues? That explains it!"
Gaining confidence from Kang Seol's words, Chiwoo and Hye-myeong hurried to gather at his position.
Whoosh...
Boom-!
Whoooosh...
[Chiwoo uses Whirlwind Sweep.]
[Elemental damage converts to physical damage for a short time.]
Vortices wrapped around Chiwoo's arms.
Bang-!
Like firing a gun, Chiwoo struck the statue's chest with both palms, imprinting palm-shaped marks on its torso.
Crack!
Starting from the chest crack, the statue shattered into pieces under Chiwoo's attack.
"I still can't see them! So I'll take on the statues!"
"Got it!"
[Hye-myeong uses Repulse.]
[All attacks gain knockback effects for a short time.]
Whirl-!
Hye-myeong's staff spun, striking the statues.
Thud!
Thoom!
Hye-myeong repelled the encroaching statues as they swarmed, and Chiwoo shattered them.
Crack-!
Meanwhile, Kang Seol steadily reduced the number of invisible monkey statues they couldn't see.
Kagagagak!
Taaang-!
"I can hear the sounds but can't see them—it's driving me crazy...."
"I think I can see them soon."
"Uh... actually, me too!"
- Confident) Chiwoo is lying.
- Chiwoo 100% can't see lololol
But then, an unexpected situation arose.
Rumble...
The shattered statues' bodies were reassembling, returning to their original state.
"This isn't it...."
Breaking all the monkey statues didn't seem to be the way to clear the trial.
Because.
Rumble...
The monkey statues they had painstakingly destroyed were also recovering damage, just like the visible ones.
"Damn! They're not decreasing!"
"This can't be... monkeys? So many...."
Hye-myeong finally seemed able to see the monkey statues.
He looked flustered by the overwhelming pressure of their numbers.
"The numbers have increased since the start. Why? And why monkeys...."
Swish...
Kang Seol suddenly recalled something odd he had thought upon entering this space.
His gaze went to the chains installed on the ceiling.
Monkey statues were hanging thickly from the chains. Their clustered appearance was grotesque, but that wasn't the important thing now.
Among the statues hanging from the chains, there was one unusual one.
The moment he confirmed its identity, Kang Seol judged it to be the key to clearing this trial.
"Golden monkey!"
The golden monkey statue was surrounded and protected by the other monkeys hanging from the chain.
Whoosh-!
Crunch!
"Urk... Is there no way?"
Kang Seol called out to Chiwoo, who was growing overwhelmed blocking the assaults.
"The ceiling! It's the ceiling!"
At Kang Seol's mention of the ceiling, Hye-myeong furrowed his brow.
"I can see it too."
"Me too, for real this time."
Splat-!
Crackle!
Chiwoo smashed a monkey statue's head as if to say he wasn't joking.
Everyone had become aware of the monkey statues' existence, but that alone didn't seem like it would improve the situation right away.
While they hesitated, the monkey statues swarmed in droves.
"We go to the ceiling all at once."
Grit...
Chiwoo clenched his teeth and gathered wind.
Whoooosh...
His body glowed golden.
[Chiwoo uses Cyclone Kick.]
[Enemies hit by the kick have a high chance of being knocked down.]
[Upward wind is generated.]
Whoooosh-!
Chiwoo's spinning body.
But nothing collided with it.
It wasn't a skill used to attack anyone in the first place.
Kwaaaa...
Immense wind concentrated on him.
Chiwoo stopped spinning.
"Now!"
At his shout, Kang Seol and Hye-myeong placed themselves on his outstretched hands.
"Uwaaaah!"
[Chiwoo uses Link: Dragon Ascent.]
[Storm based on elemental attack power strikes enemies in a certain range.]
Kwaaaaa-!
Kang Seol and Hye-myeong soared high on that force.
They seemed about to reach the ceiling in no time, but a problem arose.
Clack!
Clack!
Monkey statues blocking their path.
They couldn't give up the hard-created opportunity.
"Damn!"
Like stacking dirt mounds, monkey statues climbed on each other's shoulders, targeting Kang Seol and Hye-myeong.
In that instant, Kang Seol and Hye-myeong's eyes met. That moment brought a truly mystical sensation.
'...I know what you're thinking.'
Just from the conveyed intent in their eyes, they precisely felt each other's thoughts.
Having obtained the weapon of Watala's mental power, they reached a perfect communion different from before.
As if one body.
Swish-!
Swish-!
Kang Seol spun to face the floor while Hye-myeong faced the ceiling in the opposite.
"Go!"
Thoom-!
Hye-myeong's fiercely extended hand.
Kang Seol met it with his own, pushing it away.
His body soared once more.
Clatter-!
Leaving the falling Hye-myeong behind, Kang Seol swiftly grabbed the chain.
[Epiphany! Ability is enhanced.]
[Duration: Resonance is enhanced to Duration: Perfect Synchronization.]
Clatter-!
Clatter!
Kang Seol traversed the chain in an instant.
The golden monkey statue panicked and tried to hide among the other monkey statues.
Shing-!
Kang Seol thrust his sword forward.
"Damn, it's short!"
Hindered by the chains and surrounding monkey statues, the attack fell a bit short.
But the sword he swung was Lament.
"Got it!"
Whirl-!
Lament extended like a snake, piercing through the monkeys.
This way, even if the power weakened, it could reach the target.
Taaang-!
The sword tip precisely struck the golden monkey's forehead.
"I got it!"
Crackle...
Crack!
With that blow, fissures ran across the golden monkey's body before it split open.
Halt-!
All the statues froze in an instant.
"Huff... huff...."
"Haaa... huuu...."
Whoosh...
Thud-!
Kang Seol landed on the ground, straightening his posture.
On the ground, the statues gathered and began changing form.
Click...
Click...
They bent their bodies and stacked neatly.
Rumble...
One side of the ceiling opened, transforming the statues into stairs leading there.
* * *
Meanwhile, they weren't the only ones suffering hardships.
"Aaack! Aaaaah!"
A woman shrieking horrifically, slamming her head against the chair in agony.
It was Mia, the Engan tribe woman who had sent Kang Seol's party into the painting.
"Haa... haaa...."
The present Mia, not the past, was undergoing changes with her pale complexion.
New memories flooding in like waves.
Episodes with the Relic Society's trio overlaying her existing memories.
Shudder...
Trembling, Mia stared into empty space with glassy eyes, shedding tears.
"Aah... aaaah... I know everything... everything now."
The true identities of the three from the Relic Society who had visited her in the past.
Or was that the right way to put it?
Were those memories of them new ones created by changing the past through the painting?
Or was their entry into the painting simply following a predetermined path of time, a fated encounter?
If so, then wasn't their fate predetermined as well?
For now, the answer was unknown.
Clunk...
Clunk...
Fsssh...
Her clustered paintings scattered like flower petals.
This happened because Geosundae had burned all the paintings that the past Mia had left behind uncollected.
"No... don't go!"
To her, who lived clinging to the past, the paintings were incomparably precious.
Her paintings, fragments of memory.
After this final attempt, she had lost her power, so if the remaining paintings vanished, nothing would be left for her.
"Ugh... hng... don't take them from me. Their traces...."
Mia sobbed for a long time, clutching the dispersing paintings. She had acted composed around Kang Seol, but in truth, she was ill.
The deep illness in her heart had devastated her, making her curse her cursed life once more.
Would shedding tears empty her sorrows?
But even greater sorrow than the vanished paintings lingered in her.
"Oh god... no.... This way... this way...."
Those who set off to the past to obtain the Wilderness Spirit. What became of them?
Mia was the one who had turned the last page of the book.
Having memories continuing from the past, she knew what happened to them.
Was it a future yet to change?
Or a past already set, unchangeable?
What awaited them ahead...
"They... all die...."
If they didn't change the past, all would die. In her jumbled memories, the images of the Relic Society's three, turned to rags by Geosundae, surfaced.
"Stop it... please!"
Had meddling with the past been a mistake?
For now, she was still wandering in search of that answer.
* * *
Crackle...
Tap...
"No need to sleep?"
"I'm quick to recover."
"Hahaha! Same here."
Sitting by the campfire, Hye-myeong and Kang Seol talked.
After passing the second trial, they followed the path connected by stairs.
There was nothing, nothing at all.
The path stretched so endlessly that it was strange, forcing Kang Seol's party into a forced march.
It felt like two days had passed since entering the ruins.
Only with the next trial's space right before them could they finally take a proper rest.
On the second day without real sleep, it was tolerable for Seolhong but extremely grueling for Mia.
Kang Seol, Hye-myeong, and Chiwoo.
Broadly speaking, even Seolhong could be considered a martial artist... so they could sustain the arduous march, but Mia suffered from high fever and body aches.
Thus, the party took a brief rest to let Mia recover her stamina even a little.
Even in that short rest, Kang Seol and Hye-myeong didn't sleep. Thinking something might happen anytime.
"Haaa...."
Hye-myeong sighed, gazing at the burning embers.
"...You look troubled."
"Don't read my mind so well. Watala's power wasn't made for tha—"
"No, I just said it because you sighed."
"...Never mind."
Hye-myeong glanced once at the sleeping Mia.
'That worry, huh.'
The choices that had come up countless times when moving Hye-myeong.
Ever since getting involved with Mia, it was a problem he inevitably had to keep choosing.
"Listen to my story."
"...As much as you want."
"It's about Mia. Or more precisely, my issue?"
"I think I've heard something before."
Kang Seol pretended not to know what Hye-myeong's worry was, despite knowing.
"It's a different issue. Have I ever told you about Mia's ability?"
"...No. Only that she was exiled from the tribe."
Hye-myeong explained with a stiff expression.
"Mia's paintings are dangerous."
"......"
"They can change the past. Chokes you up just hearing it, right?"
"I get why she was exiled from the tribe. Not a power a single Engan tribesman can handle."
"Yeah, that dangerous."
Hye-myeong somehow looked drained.
As if lacking confidence in himself.
"To Mia, paintings are everything. She says the moment she paints is the happiest. That she was glad to be born, haha...."
Hye-myeong's face twisted.
"I... don't want Mia to paint for the rest of her life."
"......"
"Those who knew Mia's whereabouts all broke the code to kill them, but... I...."
"You're planning to leave?"
"...Yeah. Someday, I have to leave her side."
That would happen.
Hye-myeong couldn't protect Mia forever. Kang Seol, having lived as Hye-myeong in his youth, had thought that was the only right way.
Because Hye-myeong was fated to leave Mia someday.
'That judgment might be wrong.'
Reflecting now on the distant future Mia left alone, she seemed off somehow after Hye-myeong left, having abandoned painting.
Hye-myeong—no, he himself—had sentenced Mia to that future.
'Similar.'
Perhaps Kang Seol and Hye-myeong's situations were alike now.
Hye-myeong would leave Mia, and Kang Seol would leave Seolhong. The time to make important decisions would come someday.
"If Mia doesn't paint, the world might stay fine."
"...Yeah."
"But if Mia doesn't paint, her world will definitely go wrong."
Kang Seol spoke with certainty.
Hye-myeong met his eyes.
"...Why do you say it so certainly?"
"That's...."
By changing Hye-myeong's actions, could he change his own current judgment moving him?
It was unknowable.
If Hye-myeong were merely a pawn moved by Kang Seol's will, this series of actions would be worthless trash tossed in a bin, but he wasn't a doll acting simply.
'Stubborn as hell.'
Hye-myeong nodded slowly.
"Well, thinking about it, it's a fair point. Thanks...."
He couldn't finish.
Kang Seol cut him off and changed the subject.
"No way... Hurry, wake everyone...."
"...What? What are you suddenly...."
Zzzzzt...
Kang Seol shuddered to his feet.
Immense demonic energy felt from afar awakened his senses.
'Geosundae... how?!'
The ruins' door shouldn't open for another day.
'No way...? Forced his way through the ruins' door?'
The suspicion grew.
No other demonic energies were felt, suggesting Geosundae had impatiently broken in alone.
'Damn it....'
Kang Seol looked toward Geosundae's approaching direction and said.
"That guy's... broken through the ruins' door."
Hye-myeong was shocked.
"That guy... the one chasing us...."
"...Yeah."
"Why! There's still a day left... Did he force it? Is that even possible?"
Kang Seol turned toward where the Wilderness Spirit slept.
Now, more than obtaining the Wilderness Spirit, he worried about the party escaping the ruins safely.
Too much had changed.
Every moment tightened around them.
Grumble...
The ruins shook as if Geosundae was smashing checkpoints from the entrance.
In that instant, Kang Seol's vision shifted.
Pitch darkness filled his surroundings, a massive curtain draped over.
Kang Seol looked down at his feet.
His feet treaded on darkness.
Thud...
Thud...
Thud...
A gigantic door shook as if rammed by a mythical monster.
From beyond the door, a voice leaked.
- Still hesitating, as ever.
"You...."
- Do I have to break it with my own body again?
Laughter echoed from beyond the door.
Rumble...
The door shook violently with the laugh.