Chapter 11 Part1 (1/2)
<chapter 11.=”” lightning=”” tooth=”” -=”” 1=””>
[Lee s.h.i.+n Woo: Then I'll get going now. I'll come back later.]
[Lloyd H.K.: Alright. Don't die, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo. Hmm... yeah. Anyway, let's talk later.]
[Erian Ruparte: Are you leaving already? Jin Jin will be disappointed.]
[Prince Altania: Hey, I'm just putting this out there, but don't go overboard with the romance. If your relations.h.i.+p gets too deep and one of you dies first, the other will go crazy.]
[Lee s.h.i.+n Woo: Romance? Hahaha...]
It seems that his senior heroes who, after hearing that he'd saved a hero of the opposite s.e.x, thought it was plausible given the situation and had misunderstood, but... so long as Ye Jin Jin didn't have an extremely peculiar disposition, he didn't think they had anything to worry about.
Indeed, if his seniors were to ascertain his true ident.i.ty, what would they think? Lee s.h.i.+n Woo couldn't stop laughing at the thought. However, around the time when he'd quickly left the chatting channel, Jin called to him with some nice timing.
”s.h.i.+n Woo, we're here.”
”Wow.”
It had only been a few minutes since he started talking to his seniors, yet he realized that the landscape had completely changed in that short time and exclaimed. It had definitely been flatland just a little while ago, but right now, it was the edge of a plateau.
”The view's nice.”
”You think the view's nice? It's terrible compared to my homeland's natural environment... To the point that I feel nauseous.”
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo laughed bitterly at Jin's statement. There wasn't anything remaining in the underground empire to call 'natural' anymore, so he wasn't wrong.
As an aftereffect of the curse, all the gra.s.s, flowers, and trees decayed, so all this empire really had left was rock, dilapidated buildings, filth, and undead. But when he looked down from up high in a remote location, he admired the view; it looked quite nice.
It felt like the moment Charlie Chaplin won 1st place again. When one looks at their life, their battles, or even this dirty and crude underground empire from afar, it actually looks quite nice.
”You'll have to survive in this Empire as well from now on, so try your best.”
”I'm really jealous of that mentality of yours.”
They tried to find the traces of where they had just been. They had left it just a little while ago, and as such, they saw the city they had departed from not very far away; strangely, the surrounding area was completely covered with a black mist, yet only the city was covered in a faint mist. It seems like it was an effect of them clearing out all of the undead.
”Hmm...?”
At that moment, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo discovered something peculiar. He wanted to see what lay beyond the city, but there was a truly huge wall that blocked his vision, so he couldn't check. Seeing the wall that was G.o.d knows how high, he gasped.
However, when he looked thoroughly, he saw a huge hole at the bottom of the wall. It was a pa.s.sageway that allowed access to the city.
”That means... that's the external pa.s.sageway that leads to the surface. Does this mean this is the end of the Empire?”
”How do you think they made a wall like that...?”
”It's the opposite. They dug through the ground here and created the Empire, so they probably weren't the one who made the wall. Though they were probably the ones who strengthened the wall.”
In a sense, that was even more amazing. They had dug a tremendous depth and width underground to fit the Empire, and fixed it so that the ceiling or the walls wouldn't collapse... After listening to Lee s.h.i.+n Woo, Jin seemed to have realized something and sported a vacant expression.
”It's something I couldn't even imagine happening in my home world.”
”So your world didn't have magic either, huh.”
”I'm more surprised that you came from a world without magic.”
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo chuckled at Jin's reply and turned around. They couldn't be overwhelmed by the scale of the Empire forever. Rather than figuring out the magic that they used to create the Empire, it was more important to improve his stats right now.
”Then... Huh?”
He looked around, and pondered where he should start his conquest. However, it was troubling that this vast area was a plateau, as there were no undead in sight.
Indeed, there was nothing to think deeply about; ultimately, undead were beings which had once been alive and had been reborn, so they would appear in environments which could foster life, not a place like this where there were only rocks and boulders.
”I don't sense any undead here.”
”You said you wanted to find monsters. I never said anything about them being undead.”
”You're right, but... From the start, most of the monsters that can move around in the fields are undead, aren't they?”
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo recollected the unwavering thesis regarding the curse that covered the Empire, and spoke. The curse would kill all living organisms and transform them into the undead. It had already been several dozens of years since the curse had emerged, so there shouldn't be any other living organisms within the Empire, aside from the heroes.
The only exception would be the living organisms living in an environment cut off from the Empire, the dungeons. Even so, the individuals who bore the curse, entered the dungeons, and died would ultimately become undead. Like the Pauls who were in the secret facilities.
”Nope. There are some, you know?”
However, Jin stubbornly persisted, and disagreed. Lee s.h.i.+n Woo sighed, as he didn't know where to begin with this newbie hero, but soon, he was faced with the proof that Jin wasn't wrong.
[Sensing mana response from living bodies. Beginning movement.]
[Stopping outside entry. Unless directed otherwise, automatically removing trespa.s.sers.]
[Lv3 Stone Golem]
[Lv3 Stone Golem]
”Oh...”
”See, what did I tell you?”
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo, who saw the neglected rocks and boulders within the plateau gradually gather together and form into a huge shape, stared dumbfounded while listening to Jin's proud boast, and just nodded his head.
'They weren't alive from the beginning, so there's no way they'd be affected by the curse. However, even so...'
To think he'd sees slimes and then golems so soon after being dropped into the Empire; after all, they were regulars in fantasy. He just needed to meet goblins, elves, and dragons now, and it felt like he wouldn't have any regrets. Though it was probably impossible.
He raised his weapon whilst thinking of something so idiotic. He wasn't wielding Bone of Thunder Lasting, which had established itself as his main weapon; instead, he wielded the Melting Bone Double Axe, as he felt a weighty axe would be more effective against huge and crude enemies like golems.
[Removing trespa.s.sers.]
[Beginning attack in order to figure out the enemies' magic patterns.]
The huge golems, which seemed to be about 3 meters tall, spoke politely and then dashed towards them, stamping on the ground while doing so. They gave off a truly bizarre pressure, but Lee s.h.i.+n Woo didn't fall back. He tightly gripped the axe that was almost as tall as he was, exerted his strength, and his (nonexistent) eyes gleamed.