Chapter 73 (2/2)
”What?” (Maria)
”It realised that I was looking, and it went below. And that's why it shrunk like that.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”W-what are you even talking about?! Did you eat something you shouldn't have??” (Maria)
Maria creased up her brows.
Again, Seol Ji-Hu wasn't completely sure. But, if his theory was right, then a few questions would be answered straight away. Such as, why only this place was so barren, why there were all those holes in the ground. And then….
Seol Ji-Hu pulled out his spear almost out of reflex, and smacked the hill with it. Pak!! The hardened chunk of sand crumbled and scattered dust in the air.
This was quite literally a lightning bolt out of the blue. All the team members stared at the youth busy pounding the hill with dazed faces. Only Cho Hong hesitantly pulled her mace out after spending a few more seconds observing the youth.
”I really wanna ask you what's up with your exercise routine in the middle of the night, but uhm, I should just hit this hill like you, right?” (Cho Hong)
”I could be wrong. But, it has to be somewhere here.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
SLAM!
With Cho Hong added to the mix, the hill began to crumble at a far quicker pace now. And because the soil itself lacked any life whatsoever, it broke away easily, too. She continued to pound the ground but still didn't forget to throw him a sideways glance as well as a question.
”And why are we suddenly doing this now?” (Cho Hong)
”Back in the village, I heard about the ‘three taboos'.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Three taboos?” (Cho Hong)
”The sound, the waving hands, and people wearing grey clothes. Ignore these three taboos, and you will end up in another world.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”The sound? You mean, that Wuuuu~ from just now?” (Cho Hong)
”That's right.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu agreed with her while still digging out the hill.
”The wavering hands was just a figurative description.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Eh?”
”I just happened to see it. Something below here, beneath the night fog zone, would sometimes reveal itself when it thinks there's n.o.body nearby. And when it detects danger, it quickly hides itself again. When you think about the special characteristics of the variants, the one about them not leaving any traces behind, then it's not all that strange for the others to miss the signs.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu explained himself at a rapid knock.
”T-then, what about grey clothed people or whatever?” (Cho Hong)
”No need to think too hard about that. Remember what the colour of the variants were?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Hey, I really can't tell head from tail what you're on about, you know?!” (Cho Hong)
Cho Hong frowned grandly and swung down her mace with a lot of power. And this happened.
CRACK!
Without any warning whatsoever, the sensation of something hard splitting up got transmitted to her hands. She yanked her deeply-buried mace out and blinked her eyes in sheer dumbfounded amazement.
”This…..?!” (Cho Hong)
”The thing was….” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu's eyes were gleaming brightly now.
”It was not ‘another world' or something like that. Someone cooked up that rumour in order to hide something.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Cho Hong looked at him with the face of a person still failing to understand. And that was the difference between someone who simply decided to partic.i.p.ate in the request, and someone who investigated everything before coming here.
”Don't try to dig deeper there. Instead, let's try to carve down the sides now.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Four Warriors roused up their Magic Power and began digging into the hill, and before long, the whole mound began resembling an apple with its side bitten out.
A short while later.
The team was staring a certain large boulder firmly blocking ‘something' with amazed eyes.
”Holy cow…. So, well, uh, why the heck is this thing here?” (Veronika)
”Remember that the night fog zone is a hilly region. No one would find it odd to see another ‘hill' here.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
When Veronika asked in stupefaction, Seol Ji-Hu replied in a soft voice.
”Someone built a small hill to disguise the entrance in order to hide something.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”I, well, I didn't know. For real. There was no trace of someone artificially hiding stuff around here, you know?” (Veronika)
Veronika stuttered defensively.
”That's to be expected, though. This place was closed up many years ago, after all. Since it's only this big, you wouldn't have needed a lot of time for something man-made to be swallowed up by nature.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Many years ago? Closed up?!” (Veronika)
Seol Ji-Hu was about to say, The person hiding all this was very meticulous, but decided to save his breath. They wouldn't understand it even if he explained it now.
”In any case, let's get this rock outta there first.” (Cho Hong)
Cho Hong and her short temper stepped up forward before anybody else, her sleeves all rolled up. Gierszal, Mikhail and Seol Ji-Hu also joined in.
Gruntle, groan!!
The boulder eventually issued a heavy creak and was pushed to the side, revealing a rocky cavern it had been blocking up all this time.
”And so….” (Mikhail)
Mikhail nervously swallowed his saliva.
”….The secret to the mystery is sleeping within this hole, is that it?” (Mikhail)
Seol Ji-Hu wordlessly nodded his head. He was sure of it now. The moment this entrance was revealed, the ‘hill' changed its colour back to yellow. He also got to learn that the ‘colourless' was the most variable one out of the four directions and their corresponding colours he had unlocked so far.
”Hah!! This is so freaking great! My level shooting up after solving the mystery once and for all! Can there be any better outcome than that??” (Mikhail)
Mikhail shouted out in excitement, his head already full with images of a rosy future.
”Good! Veeeery good! Hey, mister Leader! Let's go inside!” (Mikhail)
The team quickly a.s.sumed their previous formation. Veronika hit the entrance a couple of times and even tossed a rock inside, before nodding her head in satisfaction and took the spot in front of the group again.
For a while, the six of them walked in the humid, damp corridor that took them lower and lower underground. By the end of this stony pa.s.sageway, they spotted hints of light. The team cautiously walked further forward and found themselves inside a ma.s.sive underground chamber.
The interior wasn't that dark, which was somewhat unexpected. Illuminating stones were buried in the walls here and there to provide the necessary illumination. That was one of the clearest proofs that this place felt the hands of humans before.
Unfortunately, there was a slight issue with this place, and that would be - quite unfitting for an area this huge, there was absolutely nothing in here. All they could see was the ceiling, about four metres high up, as well as another pa.s.sageway at the far end of the chamber. This underground tunnel felt so lonesome and deserted, even.
”Mm…. There might something here, so let me take a look around first.” (Veronika)
Veronika tilted her head slightly and carefully moved forward.
”This is not what I was expecting….” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu muttered to himself.
”Hey, dude. Just how did you even locate this place? I wasn't expecting something like this to exist here, you know?” (Gierszal)
Gierszal asked with a face full of curiosity.
”Oh, that. I figured that there was a research centre somewhere near Ramman, you see.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”A research centre?” (Gierszal)
”I read about it in the Empire's history book. After the Parasites invaded….” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu proceeded to briefly explain what he found out to the rest of the team and sighed out.
”The village of Ramman wasn't mentioned at all, but Master Ian suspected that the variants were the results of that research.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Hold on, dude. Didn't you just say that the research centre was in the Delphinion Duchy?” (Gierszal)
”That's where the main research centre was located, yes. But the satellite research centres were dotted around the countryside, so I thought that it was possible for one of them to be somewhere around here…..” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu didn't finish his sentence, but Gierszal still nodded his head.
”So, that's what happened. It's a bit shoddy in here to be a research centre, though. Doesn't look like there's anything of value at all.” (Gierszal)
He was right. It was nominally a place to conduct research, yet not one commonly-seen research apparatus could be seen here. Logically speaking, shouldn't there be at least a single flask or something similar to that? Even a deserted mine wouldn't be this empty. Considering the technological prowess of the Empire, reputedly at the peak of magic engineering, something like this place made no sense at all.
‘Could it be that the village head wasn't lying?' (Seol Ji-Hu)
It was then, Veronika finished scouting up ahead and returned to the team.
”D*mn it, I found nothing.” (Veronika)
”Did you see anything like footsteps of a person or something similar to that?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Well, I'd say this place is definitely man-made, but….” (Veronika)
Veronika shook her head.
”I can't see any sort of trace in this place. All I can say is that, no one has stepped foot in this s.p.a.ce in the last three months, at the least. That's as far as I can read, though. Sorry.” (Veronika)
Which meant that the only thing remaining would be the cavern on the other side.
”It'd be nice if there's something in there.” (Veronika)
Veronika licked her lips and took the lead of the team again. But, just as she was about to lead them forward, Seol Ji-Hu opened his eyes extra wide and gasped out belatedly.
”Wait!!” (Seol Ji-Hu)
< 73.=”” the=”” white=”” s.h.i.+p,=”” the=”” anchor=””> Fin.