Chapter 136
Chapter 136
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Pantera
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I am not a hero.
Fortunately, Earth is overflowing with heroes.
Leaving the task of saving Earth to the heroes is fine by me.
I had no desire to create a situation that would force me into that role.
"Pantera."
I'd removed the save point I'd set up in the zombie world Cheongju and used it to create the access point for Pantera.
A familiar rectangular door-shaped portal formed.
Just in case, I wrapped my body tightly in mana armor. Then I stepped into the open portal.
Pitch-black darkness greeted me as I entered.
Though dark, it posed no obstacle to someone like me, whose body could no longer be called human.
It just felt like a cave visually.
Fortunately, no dragon lurked there.
The space wasn't anywhere near that large.
But not only the entrance—vines covered everything in all directions.
Enter the Abyss Erosion Labyrinth
📍 Entry Reward:"Skill"Hero Summon Guaranteed Ticket x1Skill Points 10
A quest alert popped up.
'What a load of crap... A Hero Summon Guaranteed Ticket...'
Just hearing "Hero Summon" made me want to curse.
It probably meant exactly what it said.
A guaranteed summon of a hero.
'It won't spit out another damn puppy, will it?'
More exciting than that hero summon—which had deeply disappointed me—was the skill reward.
Skills had never let me down.
Save points could only be placed in designated areas, it said.
'This is gonna be a real pain...'
Suni's words offered little comfort.
For now, I pushed through the vines and emerged from the cave. That's when I realized it wasn't a cave at all.
A massive tree on a small island surrounded by a vast lake.
The hole was at the base of that tree.
Two moons—one blue, one red—hung in the night sky.
Beneath them stretched a lake so clear it was almost transparent.
The scenery was breathtaking.
The moons were different sizes: the blue one larger, the red one smaller.
It reeked of pure fantasy. This felt like a true dimensional shift.
The zombie world hadn't given off that vibe at all.
'It'd be nice if I could bring the kids here sometime...'
It was the perfect spot for a villa on a proper island ringed by a lake.
But the biggest problem was not knowing where the labyrinth was hidden.
"No navigation?"
Suni's firm response.
The very first quest was to enter the labyrinth.
The rewards were pretty good, too.
This meant I had to find it the hard way—no free rides.
Well, my first login was for scouting anyway.
I needed to spend at least a day around here roughly exploring before heading back.
I had to grasp the time flow differences between the original world and the zombie world.
And there was something else to check.
"Open dimensional shop."
The most important thing was language.
There were a few, but fewer than on Earth.
Common tongue probably meant the most basic language.
The price difference from Earth's language packs wasn't huge.
500 coins per language.
I bought the Pantera Common Tongue Language Pack, and a card etched with mysterious runes popped out.
I used the language pack card to learn Pantera Common Tongue. I could pick up others as needed. Then I checked out the other items.
First up, the top priority for this entry.
"Holy shit... a million coins."
Ridiculously expensive.
Enough shop coins to exchange for high-grade mana stones.
The dimensional shop bastards knew how to gouge. It might not be worth that here, but back in the original world? Definitely.
Hell, I might even make more reselling it.
But it was just the intro level. The beginning.
Obviously, no intention of buying now.
I wasn't in a rush.
I could probably buy it way cheaper here directly.
And next.
"Fantasy means artifacts, right?"
Scrolling through the list, I couldn't help but be disappointed.
There were artifacts, but nothing really useful.
A variety, but all pretty meh for my power level. And not even permanent artifacts.
They screamed mass-produced items.
'No grand archmage creations, huh...'
Nothing no matter how I searched.
Lots of what looked like magic books, though.
Books on every damn subject.
Some expensive, some cheap.
The dimensional shop's "don't buy unless desperate" pricing strategy.
I closed the obnoxious dimensional shop.
I considered heading to the Hero's Sanctuary to kill time, but since I was in a fantasy world for once, I needed to soak in the vibe.
I pitched a tent by a scenic lakeside spot.
The water was so clear I could see fish swimming.
I briefly considered catching some to eat. But thinking about cleaning them killed the idea instantly.
Cup ramen it was.
I pulled a burner from my inventory, heated water, and poured it into the cup.
Steam rose gently, the spicy ramen scent tickling my nose.
-Slurp! Nom nom.
I devoured the cup ramen in seconds and tossed the empty container into the lake.
I'd polluted the pristine lake with my ramen trash.
Environmental crime.
Screw it, felt kinda bad.
But one guy's trash wouldn't hurt.
Still plenty of time before the save point reactivated.
I decided to scout the area.
I climbed the massive tree where I'd emerged from the cave.
Being such a huge tree, the view from the top was incredible.
An ocean of forest, endless as far as the eye could see.
Smack in the middle of wilderness with no signs of civilization.
No mountains even—nothing but forest to the horizon.
Forest everywhere I looked.
'How big is this place?'
Impossible to gauge visually.
Nothing stood out to give any sense of scale.
No clue which direction to head.
Once the save point activated, I popped into the zombie world and original world.
Confirmed that Pantera didn't affect the time flow of other worlds.
Now it was time to seriously hunt for this labyrinth.
Time to pick a direction.
A twig snapped.
"South? Southeast?"
No real sense of where to go, so I just used a random twig to decide.
Finding a labyrinth in this vast expanse with zero info was insane.
First goal: humans.
Find people, get intel, then locate it.
I reshaped my mana armor into a medieval-style black full plate.
If this was a medieval fantasy world, armor would keep them from underestimating me.
I stomped the ground, launching into the air and landing across the lake on the opposite plain in an instant.
My physical strength let me cross the lake in one bound.
Stepping into a fantasy world for the first time, I wanted to walk on foot like a proper adventurer.
Chasing that romantic notion, I walked by day and slept in the safe, comfy Hero's Sanctuary by night.
And then...
"Screw romance."
A few days later, I was flying through the sky.
Human willpower is weaker than you'd think.
I got sick of the endless forest. Insanely vast woods.
Suni said she'd detect if a save point spot was nearby.
But none so far.
The save point was getting farther away...
The farther it got, the more anxious I felt.
A nagging dread that I might suffer big time in this world.
Then I spotted an unusual forest.
A cluster of enormous trees, way bigger than the rest.
Welcoming the change in the monotonous woods, curiosity drew me down.
Up close, their size was staggering.
They made me feel small.
Similar trees dotted the area—same species, probably.
Oddly, each trunk had a large hole of similar size at the base.
I peered inside one.
Perfectly clean inside.
Anyone would think it was made for resting in.
Hang a door, it'd make a fine house. Weirder if no one lived there.
"Gonna crash here tonight."
Hero's Sanctuary was great, but sometimes you gotta embrace the fantasy vibe.
I entered the tree hollow. A bit dim, so I added lighting—the atmosphere was perfect.
So clean, no need for a tent.
Pulled a table from inventory, set my laptop on it, and played a movie.
Grabbed chicken, ate while watching.
Tossed the bones outside, blocked the entrance with a massive shield.
Set up a bed and lay down.
My body relaxed into the cozy space. Perfect.
The only downside...
A woman, of course.
I'd been living celibate for days now.