80
080 ― The Soul-Stealing Swordsman
In front of the red portal of the 2nd floor. Ma Du-sik was making a serious expression in front of it.
"It really won't let us pass to the 3rd floor."
"This is already the 5th time, Mayor."
One of the several Hunters that Ma Du-sik had brought along spoke. He was an experienced A-rank Hunter belonging to the Management Bureau.
"Is there really no way to do it?"
"This is my first time encountering such a case as well..."
They had already found and tested 5 red portals. And all of them had failed.
They tried pouring Magi into them and used all sorts of abilities and magic from the Hunters they brought, but it was useless. The door leading to the 3rd floor would never open.
In the first place, Hunters didn't have the ability to interfere with portals. Such abilities had never been discovered in the past or present. Therefore, it was also impossible to open closed portals.
'Why.'
Why did the portals suddenly close?
Was it a natural phenomenon? Was it a conspiracy with someone's intentions behind it?
Either way, it was an urgent situation. Recently, many Hunters had entered the 3rd floor. Among them were many Hunters from Seoul.
"Let's look for the 6th one. There might be a working portal somewhere."
"Understood."
Just in case, Ma Du-sik and the Management Bureau's Hunters searched for the next portal. On the way, low-level undead like skeletons attacked them, but they weren't even worth a single punch.
The different races seemed to avoid them, so they didn't encounter any. However, they met many Hunters from other countries, who were also investigating this anomaly, just like Ma Du-sik.
They coordinated opinions and shared information with those they met. But the more they shared, the more hopeless the situation became. They, too, like themselves, had found out nothing.
"What should we do about this..."
He felt a similar helplessness to the time of Ireland. The circumstances were different, but it was the same in that no solution came to mind.
"Mayor. We found the 6th portal."
"Oh, really. We were lucky to find it early."
Lucky? He let out a bitter smile at himself for using such an expression.
Ma Du-sik squinted his eyes and approached the portal. As expected, that one also wouldn't work no matter what they did to it.
***
He could feel the situation gradually becoming more serious. Stories about Hunters who hadn't returned had already spread widely throughout society.
The closed door to the 3rd floor. Whether the exit was also closed, not a single person was returning. People returning from the 4th and 5th floors could be seen, but not a single person was returning from the 3rd floor.
—Daddy, daddy went in there!
—Don't you know what happened? Why won't anyone explain it to us!
The TV news showed citizens crying and protesting. The Hunters who entered the 3rd floor were someone's family and relatives.
The sadness and anxiety of those left behind gradually spread throughout society.
Now there were hardly any Hunters entering the 1st floor either. Due to anxiety that the 1st floor might also close.
At that time, Jin-woo was preparing to enter a Gate alone.
"The gloves... Are a bit torn. Are there any spares left?"
He was thinking of entering a Gate. Not to fight, but to regain the voice of the God of Moonlit Forest.
First, he planned to look for a red portal leading to the 3rd floor. After that, he planned to find the altar of the Moonlit Forest on the 2nd floor and offer tribute.
From what he saw on the news and the internet, he heard that the altars on the 2nd floor weren't working now either. Still, he needed to check for himself just in case.
If the connection with the God of Moonlit Forest remained severed even after doing that, then there would be no other choice.
'Let's go to Belen Village.'
Let's go back to that world where the Elves live and find the World Tree. The World Tree was an existence that spanned not only the divine realm but also that world.
Even if he couldn't hear its voice on Earth or in the Gates, he would surely be able to hear it there.
"I packed my outer clothes too."
He checked his outfit and also checked the items in his inventory. Since inventory was such a convenient ability that all sorts of items went in, it needed periodic organizing.
Still, Jin-woo was the type to organize consistently, so it was reasonably fine. He would sell monster corpses and such each time, and didn't keep the weapons that monsters carried either.
Since inventory was also a good way to store trash, he had to clean that out frequently, too.
'Actually, even if there's some trash, it's not like space is lacking or anything.'
Still, since it was also a place where he stored weapons, food, and drinking water, having trash there felt somewhat unpleasant.
"Good."
The preparations were perfect. He had more than enough food and had filled up on drinking water, too. His armed state was also perfect.
Jin-woo closed his eyes and stepped into the Gate.
[1st floor: Primeval Forest]
[Find the blue portal. If you want to return.]
'First, let's start with the portal leading to the 2nd floor.'
If he was going to head to Belen Village immediately, he just needed to find the blue portal.
But there was an order to things. Before going there, finding out the state of the 2nd floor directly came first.
Jin-woo, who ran quickly, was soon able to find the red portal. He ascended to the 2nd floor through it.
The 2nd floor, the Underground Labyrinth. It was a dark and quiet labyrinth, but Jin-woo somehow felt it was noisy.
It wasn't that real sounds were coming through, but the atmosphere was noisy. There were also quite a lot of blue portals caught by his senses.
'Most of the 2nd floor monsters were undead without flames.'
Even among the undead, higher-level entities sometimes had souls, but low-level skeletons and zombies and such didn't. So when he first ascended to the 2nd floor, he had been quite surprised.
But now he could sense quite a lot of flames. It meant that non-monster entities had entered in numbers, bustling about.
'They must be Hunters who came out for investigation. Mayor Ma Du-sik must be somewhere too.'
Thanks to this, he could easily find out where the red portals were. Places where flames gathered and stopped in particular. Those were probably places where they were investigating red portals.
Indeed, when he headed toward where the flames gathered, he could easily find the red portal. The gathered Hunters were a mix of white and black people, who seemed to be European Hunters.
They glanced at Jin-woo, then turned their heads and devoted themselves again to their conversation among themselves.
They looked busy, and Jin-woo himself was also busy, so without bothering to speak to them, Jin-woo touched the red portal.
'Originally, this should let me enter the 3rd floor.'
It didn't. As he had heard, it seemed certain that the 3rd floor was blocked.
After examining two more red portals, Jin-woo searched for the altar of the Moonlit Forest. Both places were exactly the same as the first. There was no response at all.
'The altar isn't easy.'
The altar was harder to find than the portals. This was because Hunters didn't pay as much attention to it compared to portals.
Still, they didn't completely exclude the altars. Occasionally, one or two people would investigate the altars, and through the flames of such people, Jin-woo could also search around for the gods' altars.
However, since there were 13 Gods, or rather twelve, even if he discovered an altar, he had to break through a 1/12 probability.
'Found it.'
Fortunately, when he found the 7th altar, he discovered the altar of the Moonlit Forest. In a serene room covered with vines and leaves, the altar was placed alone.
It looked like they had cut out and brought a part of the Moonlit Forest temple as it was.
'This side too... Has no response.'
He tried placing a doll bought from a toy store, but there was no response at all. When tribute was offered, light should occur and the tribute should disappear, but there was nothing like that at all.
Radio silence. Jin-woo, who watched the doll for a moment, picked it up again and put it in his inventory.
'Let's go to Belen Village.'
To talk with the God of Moonlit Forest and the World Tree, he had no choice but to go there after all.
While searching for three red portals and seven altars, he had already found a blue portal.
Jin-woo headed to the blue portal he had discovered closest by, and while grasping the Ego Sword at his waist, he leaped into the portal.
"Please."
—Kiing!
With a confident sound as if telling him to leave it to them, the souls of Jin-woo and the Ego Sword drifted through dimensions.
Each of them was pulled by forces acting from different locations, but Jin-woo deliberately cut off the force on his side. Naturally, they were led to the side, pulling the Ego Sword.
Soon, the scenery of a forest village unfolded.
Though it was a short time, the familiar village that had become familiar to his eyes in the meantime.
"It's still the same."
Belen Village hadn't changed anywhere. Since it was an Elf village born with naturally long lifespans, there couldn't be any changes in such a short time.
Still, if there was a changed point, it was the extent that the village destroyed by the Black Knight had all been restored.
'To call it ‘extent’ that's quite a big change.'
Chuckling, Jin-woo headed toward the village. Having returned to this village again, he naturally thought of Mari.
Would she be happy to see him after a long time? Had she forgotten him? Originally, kids forget quickly, they say.
—Clang!
At that moment, Jin-woo's expression hardened.
He heard a sound that couldn't be heard in a peaceful village. The sound of metal striking metal.
It wasn't the sound of a craftsman hammering iron, but the sharp sound of weapons clashing against weapons.
***
Belen Village had been peaceful.
Except for the one attack by the Black Knight previously, it was a village that had been peaceful in the past and present.
This place was a rural village located in the outskirts even within the kingdom, the place farthest from the royal palace, which was the kingdom's core.
Therefore, it was inevitably a place distant from disturbances, disputes, and the complex political fights of the noble High Elves.
But.
"What is the meaning of this! Dark Elves and Light Elves are surely in an alliance!"
The village chief, grandmother, was confronting the bandit leader while protecting the villagers. A bandit group composed of Dark Elves. Behind the chief, the powerless villagers were trembling.
At least the young people were standing with weapons, but their weapons were things like scissors for picking fruit or kitchen knives for preparing fish.
The bandit leader snorted and thrust his sword toward the chief's neck.
"Hmph, what do you know. I just need to collect souls for the king, and that's it."
"If Her Majesty knew, she wouldn't stand for it!"
"So what if she doesn't stand for it. Isn't your queen a weak coward who hasn't come out of the palace for hundreds of years and doesn't even show her face?"
The chief's face turned red and blue.
"Are you insulting Her Majesty!"
"Oh my, is it okay to get so angry? Aren't you afraid of the sword?"
"A mere blade like that!"
"An old person like you who could die any day might not care, but the young ones behind you would be scared."
At the blatant threat, the chief couldn't move carelessly either.
As he said, it didn't matter if she died. But what about the young people who still had many days to live? What about the little children who were even younger?
Elves were always ready to die. Because they believed that even if they died, their souls would return to Mother World Tree.
But even so, it wasn't supposed to be in this form. As much as they believed in reincarnation after death, they regarded death as something even more precious.
The process of organizing one's own life and preparing for the next life. They couldn't end that noble process called death by ruining it so violently.
'Their purpose isn't treasure, but the souls of the villagers.'
If they had come to plunder money and food, they could just give it to them. But these were people who had come to steal souls. It was clear that negotiations and such wouldn't work.
The chief made a resolved expression. She sent eye signals to the young villagers on both sides. So that at least the children could evacuate.
"Where are you rolling your eyes?"
The bandit leader, who noticed that signal, stepped forward. Then he suddenly raised his sword and swung it down. The falling sharp iron seemed about to blow off the chief's head at any moment.
—Clang!
At that moment, a sword that flew from the side knocked away the bandit leader's sword.
Everyone's gaze gathered on the sudden intruder. The chief and villagers saw hope in the familiar face, and the bandit leader...
After frowning, his eyes gradually grew larger, and his mouth also opened.
"It's that soul-stealing swordsman from that time!"
A voice close to shock echoed.