An Unexpected Name
Leaving the Poison King behind, I looked around.
First of all, the ground was flat. It didn't seem like an ordinary stone floor; it felt like it had been processed several times.
'And the ceiling isn't that high.'
At most, it was only high enough to stack two or three people.
Which meant it wasn't particularly grand in height.
'It's spacious, but... it's so empty that it'll be quick to scan.'
Aside from the night-luminescent pearls embedded in the ceiling, nothing else caught my eye.
What on earth did this place exist for? Only questions welled up inside me.
'It doesn't look like it was built to store anything in particular.'
If so, what was its purpose?
Just as this question crossed my mind—
Yoo Chun-gil asked Dok-jon, as if he had been waiting for the chance. It felt like a breath of fresh air.
Doors? At Dok-jon's words, I scanned our surroundings.
I looked here and there, but nothing resembling a door was in sight.
'Three...'
It was a smaller number than expected. Should I consider this a relief or not?
From my perspective, it was definitely a relief.
Hearing that, I looked over at the Poison King.
Coincidentally, he was looking at me too.
"Do you see anything?"
Hearing the Poison King's question, I slightly shifted my gaze. I focused on where Cheon Ui-jin and Do-hyeong were standing, specifically looking closely at Do-hyeong.
I could see a large firefly-like light hovering around Do-hyeong.
It was his Guardian Spirit. And a remarkably high-ranking one at that.
I carefully observed the movement of the light.
'It doesn't seem agitated.'
The Guardian Spirit wasn't sending any warnings. If there were any danger, it would have reacted, but fortunately, it remained calm.
In that case...
'What should I do now?'
Pondering my next move, I turned my gaze back to the Poison King.
"I haven't figured anything out yet."
I feigned ignorance for now. I wanted to see his reaction, especially since I had my suspicions about him.
Hearing my reply, the Poison King furrowed his brow slightly.
"Search the area first."
He ordered the members of the Dang Clan who had entered with us to search.
The moment the order was given, they moved. I recalled hearing earlier that they were formation experts and engineers.
They began inspecting the surroundings with extremely tense expressions.
They were so cautious that every single step looked like a journey of a thousand miles.
It looked tedious, but in a way, it was only natural.
'They said people blew up and died just trying to open the doors.'
If people had died just by touching Dok-jon's Secret Vault...
What kind of traps were hidden inside? Considering that, their caution was entirely justified.
Even Do-hyeong and Cheon Ui-jin looked visibly tense, bracing themselves for any unexpected situation.
They seemed ready to react the instant anything went wrong.
It wasn't a bad thing. Being prepared for danger was always good, but...
"..."
At Dok-jon's follow-up remark, I couldn't help but facepalm.
'He didn't set up anything here either?'
He said he rigged everything else, but he left this place completely untouched?
I pondered this.
'Should I tell them?'
Meanwhile, the people around me were breaking out in cold sweats as they searched every nook and cranny.
They moved as if determined not to miss a single speck of dust on the floor.
If I left them be, they would probably keep this up for hours.
'Hmm...'
After debating it until the very end, I nodded.
'Let's just leave them be for now.'
If I stepped forward now, I wouldn't have a good explanation, and it would only look suspicious.
So, let's just watch.
'If they don't stop after a while, I'll step in then.'
Surely they would stop soon.
Or so I thought.
...But the search took much longer to end than I expected.
How much time had passed?
I couldn't tell exactly, but at least four hours must have gone by.
"We... we can't find anything."
A man drenched in sweat reported to the Poison King.
He looked wet enough to have been caught in a downpour, but in reality, it was all cold sweat.
"Nothing?"
"We searched as thoroughly as we could, but we couldn't find anything unusual for now..."
"..."
Despite the man's report, the Poison King only scowled.
He clearly found it hard to believe.
To think they had searched this entire vast space and found absolutely nothing.
It was highly suspicious that not even a minor trap or anomaly had turned up.
"How strange..."
The Poison King stroked his chin, lost in thought.
He still couldn't seem to wrap his head around it.
Watching this, I pushed myself up from where I had been sitting quietly on the floor.
"Ugh..."
My body felt stiff from sitting for so long.
I stretched and patted my lower back as I stood up.
'Are they finally done...?'
I stretched my limbs and looked toward the Poison King. Seeing the men drenched in sweat, I had to suppress an awkward grimace.
I thought they would just do a quick scan.
'I didn't think they'd search for this long...'
I hadn't expected them to spend hours searching non-stop.
I had assumed it would end quickly. I must have underestimated their dedication.
Which made me feel even guiltier.
'I should have just told them.'
The thought of having told them from the start crossed my mind, but...
'...No, I didn't really have a good excuse to know.'
The situation didn't warrant it. There was a limit to how much I could pretend to know.
It was too risky to solve everything under the pretext of "seeing things."
That was the nature of lies.
'For a lie to work, it needs to contain at least forty percent truth.'
To make a lie believable, truth must be mixed in.
So, my calculation was that staying still was the better option this time.
Of course...
Listening to Dok-jon whine for hours was quite exhausting.
Yoo Chun-gil snapped at him occasionally, but even that couldn't shut Dok-jon up.
Man, what a headache.
Hearing it once or twice was fine, but whining for hours on end was too much.
'...And from a dusty old man, no less.'
It would be annoying enough if a beautiful woman did it.
But with that old man constantly nagging, my irritation flared up.
I honestly felt like exorcising him to the afterlife.
'What on earth is he looking for?'
What was he trying to find that made him so obsessed?
'He's already been dead for ages.'
Though the dead always have lingering regrets...
'He said it was just a single sword.'
He only asked me to retrieve a single sword.
Why was he so anxious?
'And that's not all.'
The Poison King's state was not much different.
Upon hearing that nothing had been found, the Poison King's expression changed visibly.
Half troubled.
Half annoyed.
I had only known him for a few days, but this was the first time he had shown his emotions so clearly.
'Both of these old men...'
Every single one of them was acting strange.
With that thought, I straightened my back.
Then, I strode toward the wall.
"Ah...! It's dangerous to move like that!"
One of the sweat-drenched men warned me in surprise, but—
"You said you checked everything anyway."
I waved my hand dismissively in response.
"Young Master Bang!"
Cheon Ui-jin quickly followed me.
Do-hyeong, though silent, did the same.
I walked up and stood before the wall.
"Hmm..."
Pretending to inspect it closely, my gaze was already fixed on one spot.
A simple crack in the wall.
I casually slipped my hand inside.
"Ah!"
The man gasped in horror at the sight.
It was a highly suspicious hole, so he was naturally shocked to see me stick my hand right in.
They had checked this spot too, of course.
I had seen them pushing and pulling it earlier.
However...
'...Unfortunately, that wasn't the answer.'
This wasn't how you opened it.
According to Dok-jon...
Click!
This door wasn't meant to be pushed or pulled; it had to be turned first.
I had seen the man try to turn it earlier, but the crucial detail was...
'How many times you turn it.'
Exactly four and a half times.
He said it had to be turned precisely that much.
As I inserted my hand and applied pressure, the circular gap widened and turned with a creak.
After turning it four and a half times, I pulled it toward me.
Rumbleeeee---!!!!
The door opened. Dust billowed out. I quickly held my breath.
"Ugh..."
The door was incredibly heavy. Perhaps because it was made of stone, opening it was no easy feat.
After straining for a moment, I managed to pull it open.
I couldn't open it all the way, but it was enough to see clearly inside.
"Heh...!"
"How...?"
The men who had been searching the area in vain stared at me in sheer disbelief.
I could see the Poison King's eyes widen as well.
"Whew..."
After pulling the door open with all my might, I looked back at them and spoke.
"Well, I saw it turning earlier. I figured if I just spun it a few times, it might work... and it did."
Haha.
I laughed awkwardly. No one responded.
All I saw were the utterly dejected faces of the men, Cheon Ui-jin looking at me with sparkling eyes...
...Do-hyeong, who was still frozen in shock...
'...And a terrifying glare.'
The Poison King was staring at me with an intense, piercing gaze.
Everyone moved into the newly opened room.
Even then, no one let their guard down.
It had opened so suddenly, and nobody knew what might be waiting inside.
'It's dark.'
Unlike the outer chamber, it was pitch black, making it hard to see anything.
'Is it because of the night-luminescent pearls?'
I wondered if it was because the outer room was lit by the pearls.
But even considering that, it was far too dark.
It was as if the light from the doorway refused to penetrate the room at all.
Sensing a strange anomaly, I focused energy into my eyes.
Swoooosh-
Energy surged from my dantian, and my Moon Eye began to glow.
'Oh.'
Only then did the dark space clearly come into view.
It was definitely useful to put what I had learned to practice.
Once the visual obstruction cleared, I examined the room in detail.
'Hmm...'
It was significantly smaller than the outer chamber.
Especially since it was packed with objects.
Yes, objects.
'There's something here.'
We had finally entered the Secret Vault and found actual items.
And it wasn't just one or two; the room was practically overflowing.
What could be filling this space? I didn't even need to double-check.
"Swords...?"
Cheon Ui-jin spoke. He was squinting hard, struggling to see in the dark.
"I think... these are all swords?"
"Yes. It looks that way to me too."
From the walls to the floor.
Surprisingly, the entire room was filled with swords.
Though a few other types of weapons were scattered here and there, the vast majority were swords.
Moreover...
'...Their quality is on another level.'
They were incomparable to ordinary swords.
At a glance, they were all worthy of being called masterworks.
I could feel they possessed a far superior quality even compared to the swords I had seen in the Iron River.
If even I, someone who knew little about swords, could tell this much, those who actually knew their stuff would probably be losing their minds.
"This is..."
"Senior Brother... all of these swords..."
Just as I thought that, Do-hyeong and Cheon Ui-jin began gasping in admiration.
Cheon Ui-jin aside, if the taciturn Do-hyeong was reacting out loud, they had to be exceptional weapons.
'So, is this where Dok-jon kept his treasures?'
With so many masterwork swords, it had to be.
As I reached that conclusion, I glanced over at the Poison King.
'...Hm?'
I narrowed my eyes as I observed him.
He was looking around the room, seemingly searching for something, but...
...His expression was just as grim as before.
Which meant...
'...What he's looking for isn't here?'
Did it mean the Poison King's target wasn't in this room?
'He didn't come here for treasure?'
Then why did he come to the Secret Vault?
I couldn't fathom his intentions at all.
Just as I was trying to wrap my head around it—
The voice of Dok-jon, the owner of this Secret Vault, echoed in my mind.
He was frantically scanning the stored swords, looking back and forth.
Right.
This old man had come to find a sword.
'What kind of sword is it?'
What kind of sword was he looking for to be rushing around like this?
As I watched him with curiosity—
Dok-jon muttered quietly.
"Excuse me?"
Hearing those words, I froze completely.
...What sword...?