Chapter 51. Forest of Denial (1) (1/2)

The place Samuel led the group to was none other than the inn Alex introduced to Seol Jihu.

When they climbed past the floor he stayed the night before and went up to the third floor, Seol Jihu got a huge shock after he saw the three individuals waiting for them.

“Hugo?”

“Huh? Seol?!”

Hugo also showed a similar reaction. Chohong's eyes went round as she spat out a surprised groan herself, and meanwhile, Dylan let off a wry chuckle as he crossed his arms.

“Oh my god, I had no idea we'd meet each other again less than an hour later.”

“They were searching for a porter when I was in the pub, so I applied right away.”

A bitter smile floated up on Seol Jihu's face. He recalled Dylan's advice from earlier on.

“What's this? You know the folks from Carpe Diem already?”

“Well, something like that. Let's say that we know who each other are.”

“Huh, this fella.”

After hearing Dylan's reply, Samuel took a sweeping look at Seol Jihu with a renewed interest.

“Nothing we can do but take it as a trick of fate, I guess.”

Dylan raised his hands up in defeat.

“In any case, time is gold. We'd like to hear that delicious deal of yours right away, if possible.”

“Hehe. Gimme some time to start cooking, will you? However, I'm sure you can pick up on the delicious scent already, yeah?”

Samuel joked for a bit and dragged a big table to the middle of the room. He then spread out a map on it.

While the crowd gathered around it, Seol Jihu stayed in the corner, unmoving. He wondered whether a porter like himself was even allowed to butt in here.

“Hey, you. What are you doing?”

Chohong looked at Seol and pointed at the table with her chin.

“Hurry up. The meeting's about to get started.”

She even took a step to her side and opened up a spot, too. When Seol stood next to her, Hugo began giggling hoarsely.

“Whenever she owes someone an apology, she suddenly becomes considerate to that person. It would be simpler to say sorry once, to be honest.”

Keuk. The tip of Chohong's nose reddened slightly, but she kept her mouth shut as Samuel began his explanation while pointing at a spot on the map.

“Since I know how you guys are like, I'll make my explanation as brief as possible. Our starting point will be the south gate. From there, we will use carriages to travel along the Rahman River for a day or two.”

Samuel's finger traveled along the river as marked on the map.

“This road is comparably safe, so we'll travel as quickly as we can on this part of the journey. We need to conserve our stamina for what's to come anyway. If we don't run into any unexpected incident, we should safely disembark around here. We’ll then go over the Napal Hill….”

His finger stopped by the image of a huge, sprawling forest.

“The Forest of Denial. This is our destination. Most likely, we will have to go past the entrance and carry on until some sort of an interruption halts our progress.”

The moment he heard the words 'Forest of Denial', Dylan's complexion hardened, but he didn't say anything. Samuel licked his lips and formed a confident smile.

“I've heard this information from a very reliable source. Apparently, there is a pretty sizeable tomb within the Forest of Denial.”

“A tomb, you say?”

“That's right. And no, it's not your regular tomb, either. There is a very good chance that it's a tomb related to the ruined Empire.”

“Are you suggesting that we raid the tomb and loot the grave goods?”

“Exactly! If it's true, then we might be able to acquire amazing artifacts for ourselves!”

Dylan rubbed his chin in contemplation.

“I was wondering why we were going so far down south, but I see now. It's plausible. This place is indeed within the old Empire’s territory.”

“It's not only that. You know that Sicilia has put up a mission of scouting the Forest of Denial, right?”

“I'm aware of it, yes.”

“There is also that mission from the royal family to consider too! If everything goes smoothly as planned, we will be able to receive rewards from three sources!”

“Okay. I see what you're trying to say here, Samuel.”

Dylan calmed down Samuel as the latter began jumping up and down in excitement.

'So, this is how an expedition is arranged.'

Seol Jihu had been listening in very attentively as he didn't want to miss out on a single thing, but now, he was feeling somewhat confused.

This sounded like a tempting offer. Unless nobody else access to this information, he found it rather suspicious that no one had conquered this Forest of Denial, seeing that it was no more than four, five days of travel from Haramark.

In other words, there must have been some kind of a problem to worry about.

Dylan took his time to deliberate before raising his voice.

“There are three things I want to ask you about, Samuel.”

“Go ahead.”

“This information…. Who else knows about this, besides us?”

“Let me be honest here. I went to speak to Kahn's team first before calling you. They refused though. Still, they will definitely keep it as a secret.”

Dylan nodded his head.

“Fine. Then, can you tell me the identity of this reliable source?”

“When are you going to ask me for what my countermeasure for the Forest of Denial is?”

The corner of Samuel's lips arched up. Dylan was taken aback before a wry smile formed on his face.

“Well, aren't you a surprising one. Ever since Chief Priest Rebecca barely managed to return alive from that place, I was thinking that Forest of Denial is pretty much impossible to tread.”

“From the get-go, their method of approach was all wrong. The Forest of Denial isn't about curses. No, it's magic.”

“Magic?”

“That's right. You have to counter magic with magic, but Rebecca failed because she relied on divinity. Well, we should still give her credit for walking out of that place alive.”

Samuel spoke up with a certain amount of confidence before taking a cautious look around him. It was as if he was being very careful of making sure that there was no one listening in on them.

“Dylan? I'll answer the last two questions in one go. The person who told me about the tomb is none other than Master Ian.”

At this declaration, the trio of Dylan, Chohong, and Hugo displayed a bit of shock.

“Master Ian?”

“That's right! Not only that, he's planning to join us on the expedition himself!”

“Hmm. Hmm….”

Inwardly, Dylan hadn't been too sure of it until then. But now, he was slowly tapping on the table with his fingertip. Seol Jihu lightly poked the side of Hugo as the big guy's mouth bobbed up and down like a goldfish.

“Hugo.”

“Uh, uhm?”

“Who is this Ian?”

“What, how do you not know…. Oh, wait. It's your first time here.”

Hugo began whispering to Seol as if he understood the youth's plight.

“Master Ian is a Level 4 Alchemist. He's a skilled Magician who is close to becoming a High Ranker.”

Only then did the youth more or less understand. No matter which class it was, reaching Level 4 afforded some amount of acclaim. And if that person also had the rarest class of a Magician, then it was clear how valued he would be.

Dylan finally opened his mouth to speak.

“So we’re not scouting the Forest of Denial but going on an expedition. But since we're nominally scouting the area, we don't even have to apply for the expedition licence, is that it?”

“Fufufu. It's a really delicious deal, don't you think so?”

“I agree. I'm already salivating at the prospect.”

Samuel began stamping on the floor with his feet as if he couldn't wait anymore, causing Dylan to form a toothy grin as well.

“Good. What about the finer details?”

“Don't be like that. You know how I operate. I'll take the lead and guide you forward, but you take over during the battles. As for the loot, they will first go to the person whose class is most compatible with it. If the suitable classes overlap, then the higher level person gets it. Other than that, the reward will be distributed equally.”

Samuel recited everything as if he had memorized already.

“Excellent.”

As soon as Dylan agreed, Samuel turned his head to look at the others.

“What about you two?”

“Do you even need to ask? The decision's been made already.”

“I agree!”

Chohong agreed disinterestedly, while Hugo was very energetic.

Samuel formed a satisfied grin and shifted his gaze over to Seol Jihu.

“Friend! I take it that you’re also okay with this?”

“Oh, I'm…..”

Seol Jihu stopped himself from speaking further.

Inwardly, he definitely wanted to be a part of this expedition. However, didn't he promise Kim Hannah that he would not go any further south than Haramark?

Sensing his hesitation, Samuel's eyes opened up wider.

“Hey, is there a problem? This isn't an exploration, you know. It's an expedition parading around as an official mission. I'm sure that you'll earn a crap ton of experience points by accompanying us.”

“The Forest of Denial is pretty close to the frontier, so won't it be dangerous?”

Seol Jihu pointed this out, causing Samuel to let off a soft chuckle.

“Aha. That is true. However, you don't have to worry about that one! Technically, you could say that the Forest of Denial is on the border of the human territory, but actually, that place is much closer to a neutral zone more than anything else. The magic cast over the forest is so strong that not only us humans but pretty much all the other species don't even think about getting close to it.”

Samuel explained it at length, before clenching his fist tightly.

“However, we're different. We have Dylan, who is a High Ranker, and the Magician Master Ian. That ancient magic cast over the forest or whatever? We're going to break it apart, for sure.”

Rather than placing his trust in those words, Seol Jihu activated his Nine Eyes instead. Samuel was still devoid of any colors.

“So, how about it? You're coming, right?”

A short deliberation later, Seol nodded his head.

“Yes, I will.”

“Okay!!”

Samuel slapped the table's surface and stood up.

“We depart tomorrow! Let us meet up by the south gate early in the morning!”

*

The morning dawned.

Seol Jihu woke and lightly washed up, before hurriedly putting on his gear. Now that he thought about it, his sense of time had become a bit blurry ever since he started his life in Paradise. Since there was no clock here, it couldn't be helped, but still, it was pretty tough to figure out when this 'early in the morning' for their meeting would actually be.

He picked up his bag and left the inn. He then headed straight to the South gate via the route he memorized yesterday.

He was unsure until then, but his fears turned out to be true. Nine people were already waiting for him by the gate. Thinking that he was late, Seol ran with almost everything he had before Samuel noticed him and waved his hand at the youth.

“Woah, woah! Calm down, calm down! You are not late, so you don't have to rush like that.”

“Oh. That’s how it was.”