Chapter 366: If It’s Tangled, Just Cut It (4)

“Urk...!”

Even groaning in pain, Rognel clutched his mouth, afraid the food he had just eaten might come back up.

Keter raised a fist for a second time.

“You really think this is the time to play games with me? Or are you so ungrateful that you’re planning to demand even more?”

“Ugh... Let me live here. Then I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“My friend, that part isn’t difficult, but I’m very worried whether the information you have is actually worth that much. If I let someone useless live here and feed him, my fists won’t, even if I forgive you.”

Gulp.

Rognel also knew that Keter’s punch earlier had been him showing tremendous restraint. Keter was a monster; one must never provoke him.

“I survived in this city and saw several strange places—areas where monsters gather, places full of corpses, unsettling locations. I’m not certain if what you’re looking for is there, but it’s better than wandering this city blindly.”

Keter agreed with that. No matter how strong he was, the monsters from Liqueur’s underground were not creatures he could kill like goblins or orcs. Even Keter had to concentrate to kill them. And if he had the misfortune of encountering a Ruler? Even Keter could not guarantee victory against the underground Rulers.

Rognel then explained everything he knew about the city, down to every trivial detail. After hearing and memorizing it all, Keter stood up immediately.

“You better pray I actually find something.”

“Y-yeah... I will.”

Keter headed straight back into the city. He wasn’t worried about Rognel. The two old men, Black and White, were still here, and Rognel was someone with a strong will to live. There was no reason for him to do anything foolish.

First, the mercenary guild.

According to Rognel, the guild had been completely destroyed. However, he said that strange symbols and drawings remained there. Rognel couldn’t interpret them, but Keter had a feeling.

Joyray definitely left those.

It wasn’t hope or optimism—it was certainty. As Keter headed toward the mercenary guild, no monsters bothered him. Then suddenly, one monster blocked his path. Naturally, Keter responded with an arrow instead of words.

Limitless Archery, Sixth Form: Tusk, Hundred Arrows.

Tusk was the technique that had pierced even the shell of the Rock Queen Ant, said to be harder than orichalcum. Back then, Keter had only been at the level of a six-star Grandmaster. Now, having surpassed seven-star and nearing eight-star, Keter’s Tusk could pierce even orichalcum like paper if it struck head-on. And now there were one hundred of them.

The monster blocking Keter’s path looked like nothing more than a massive ball of fur with legs. It looked so fragile that it seemed incapable of blocking even a single arrow, let alone Tusk.

Whoosh.

But in the blink of an eye, all one hundred Tusks were caught by strands of fur. The monsters of the underground were intelligent—intelligent enough not to pick fights with Keter if they knew they couldn’t win. This meant one thing: the furball in front of him believed it could kill Keter.

Keter hated wasting time, but he never avoided a fight that came to him. Just as he prepared to fire a second arrow, the furball dropped something onto the ground.

It was a piece of cloth. The buttonhole and the fact that it was made from luxurious spider silk didn’t matter. What made Keter stop was the symbol drawn on it—a perfect circle with not even the slightest deviation or a flaw. Keter knew exactly what it meant.

“Mandala.”

If the technique that broke the limits of the body was Heavenly Strength, then the technique that broke the limits of the mind was Mandala. Mandala could only be manifested through a contract with an Outer God. In this life, Keter rarely used Mandala, as he had not made that contract again in this life. Yet now, the owner of Mandala had reached out to him first in a place he never expected—Liqueur.

Keter bent down and picked up the cloth. The furball seemed satisfied with that and left. Neither of them had said anything, yet Keter understood.

So you want me to come find you.

He wasn’t surprised as this wasn’t an entirely unexpected development. In order to prevent an unwanted regression, he had once used Mandala at maximum output. In that process, the owner of Mandala had observed him. Although the event had been erased through a brief one-hour regression, the fact that he had been observed remained certain.

Is this the connection from that moment, or just a damn coincidence?

He couldn’t be sure, but his instincts told him.

“This is definitely connected.”

If he activated Mandala right now, he would probably see that being, but he didn’t.

“If I’m going to use it, I should use it in a situation where it’s worth it.”

Surely the owner of Mandala would allow that much.

“If they’re in a hurry, they’ll come find me first.”

Right now, Keter was far more concerned about whether Joyray was alive than about the arrival of the owner of Mandala.

* * *

Keter arrived at the Liqueur Mercenary Guild. There were clear traces of a desperate defense here. There were no bodies, but the dried bloodstains and battle scars showed that the mercenaries had not gone down easily. There was so little remaining here besides rubble that if not for Rognel’s information, Keter would have turned back without hesitation.

Following the marks left behind, he arrived at the place with the same bizarre letters and drawings.

“Hmm.”

Squatting down, Keter examined the symbols and pictures carved into the wall. The drawings were so crude that they might as well have been a child’s scribbles. Keter squinted, then nodded.

“This is a map. A map of all of Liqueur.”

It had simply been compressed several hundred times over. That was why it looked like graffiti. Among the tangled lines, there was only one place marked with a circle.

“The Tilted Mill, huh.”

For Keter, who considered Liqueur his home, identifying the location was easy. Now that he knew where it was, he could have just gone, but Keter was not that naive. He also deciphered the writing beside it.

“The writing’s been flipped backward, and the consonants and vowels are arranged in reverse order.”

Keter also decoded the message without much difficulty. In the past, he had enjoyed making ciphers like this, so he had a knack for it.

—The place marked on the map is a trap. Our actual location is the fabric shop two blocks to the right. Damn it, Keter, hurry up and get here.

Keter smirked.

“Well, I guess I’m the only person in the world who could decode this.”

Saving Rognel had been the right call. Without him, it would have taken half a day just to find this place.

Having pinpointed the location, Keter headed for the fabric shop where Joyray was supposedly hiding. The streets were still full of monsters, but none of them attacked him. To Keter, it almost felt strange and boring.

However, as he neared the fabric shop, the density of monsters noticeably increased. Whether by instinct or by deliberate searching, they too were prowling around this area looking for survivors.

Grrrrrr.

And unlike the monsters he had passed so far, these did not back away. Instead, they seemed to warn him that this place, at least, was forbidden.

Thud.

Naturally, Keter answered them with arrows. Unlike the furball monster that had casually blocked them before, these monsters were killed in a single shot from Tusk. Half of the monsters that had been guarding the area immediately fled.

“So they’re from the second floor at best,” Keter muttered with obvious annoyance.

He sent his arrows up into the air. He had long since surpassed the level of his previous life. There was no need for pointless motions like nocking an arrow to a bowstring. He simply created arrows and fired them.

The stronger monsters tried to block or dodge them, but the arrows did not travel in straight lines. Each one automatically tracked its target, and if one arrow wasn’t enough to kill, it would keep raining down until the target died. All Keter had to do was put his hands in his pockets and wait.

Kyaaaak!

One monster reached out through the merciless rain of arrows, but that only shortened its life further since seven Demon Arrows orbited around Keter like guards. As such, even if a monster somehow got close, it would still be blocked by those arrows spinning at ultra-high speed around him.

After clearing out the monsters, Keter looked around.

“This should be the place, at least.”

Naturally, the fabric shop had collapsed and was nothing but rubble. It was no place a survivor could live.

“In times like this, the answer is obviously underground.”

However, it couldn’t be somewhere too obvious. If it were, the monsters would have found it long ago.

It would have taken him days to search through the ground with conventional methods, but Keter had the Terra Ring, which controlled the earth. He concentrated the power in his palm and placed it against the ground. In fact, the moment he arrived in Liqueur, Keter had already tried placing his hand on the earth. In his current state, he could search an area as large as a major city.

In Liqueur, though, the Terra Ring’s power was weakened. That meant his search radius had shrunk significantly, forcing him to go through all this trouble. However, it was a different story if he narrowed down the location.

“Bingo.”

There was an underground space, and he successfully detected life inside it.

Sixteen...

It was far fewer than expected. There had once been over a thousand mercenaries living in Liqueur. He couldn’t believe that only sixteen had survived.

And I don’t think any of them are Joyray, either.

Keter hated wasting time on stray thoughts, so he simply jumped down to verify it with his own eyes.

Rumble!!

He sank through the ground as though plunging into water.

Craaaash!

In the blink of an eye, Keter smashed through the ceiling of the hidden base and burst inside. Naturally, the mercenaries there were stunned by this sudden intrusion, but with the seasoned reflexes of survivors, they attacked Keter immediately. Each and every one of them was a Master-level fighter. Their aura was rough, but formidable.

Clang!

Yet they could not even leave a scratch on Keter, even though he wasn’t trying. His body was practically a monster already.

Under normal circumstances, such a hopeless gap would have destroyed their will to fight, but mercenaries weren’t ones to give up. As living beings, they believed that every creature must have a weak point.

The moment their attacks failed, they aimed for Keter’s eyes and joints.

Just then, one mercenary who recognized Keter as the dust cleared.

“Oh, wait!” he shouted urgently, but it was already too late.

The attacks struck Keter’s eyes, the backs of his knees, and his jaw— the naturally vulnerable areas of the body... or so they thought. What they had cut was only an afterimage. Keter was already behind them.

“Not bad.”

Keter’s voice alone was enough to stop the fight. His voice was so distinctive that anyone who had heard it could never forget it.

“Keter!”

“Why the hell are you smashing through the ceiling?!”

“So you’ve returned!”

Realizing that the overwhelmingly powerful figure they had no hope of defeating was actually Keter, the mercenaries grumbled but also felt relieved and happy to see him. After all, Keter was the manager of the Liqueur Mercenary Guild.

With a wave of his hand, Keter refilled the hole he had made in the ceiling with dirt.

“It’s great to see everyone, but where’s our councilman?”

He had already felt that Joyray wasn’t here, and as expected, he was nowhere in this hideout. The moment Keter mentioned Joyray, the mercenaries’ expressions darkened, but it wasn’t sadness. Keter knew exactly what that meant.

“He’s dead drunk somewhere, passed out asleep?”

“No. The councilman... went to the arena.”

“There’s no way humans are running an arena at a time like this. Don’t tell me the monsters are running one?”

“Yes. It’s an arena personally run by Amon, the Ruler of the fourth floor. He makes humans fight there while monsters watch.”

Monsters watching humans fight and gambling on it?

Keter scoffed.

“The people of Liqueur aren’t the type to bow to death and fight just because monsters tell them to. There must be another reason.”

The people of Liqueur did not fear ordinary pain or death. The ones who did had already left this city long ago. Those who remained were all people filled with vicious tenacity and malice.

“Yes. They say that if you win ten matches in a row in the arena... you are granted an Authority.”

“What kind of Authority?”

“Well... I know it sounds absurd too, but Amon said this himself: ‘I possess seventy-two Authorities, and I will grant you whichever one you desire.’”

Authority was the privilege of a seven-star, yet this creature claimed to possess seventy-two of them. Keter thought that if it had been a lie, Joyray would never have gone to the arena. Amon must have shown proof that it was true.

Granting an Authority to anyone who achieved ten consecutive wins...

Just like Keter had two Authorities, it might really be possible to have more than that.

Still, that didn’t resolve the bigger question.

“The grandpa I know isn’t the sort to throw you all aside just to gain Authority.”

“That’s what we think too.”

“And nothing else comes to mind?”

“He only left behind a note saying he was going to the arena.”

“Wow. That’s pretty irresponsible.”

Keter scratched the back of his head. This had become troublesome in many ways. Part of him didn’t understand why he was even this concerned about whether Joyray was alive or dead. He could just do what he used to do—say it wasn’t his problem and move on.

Of course, there were things he wanted to ask Joyray. The Transcendentals believed that Liqueur’s underground world had answers to everything, and Keter wanted to know the basis for that belief. In fact, he needed to know because there was nothing more foolish than searching blindly for what one did not understand.

The only people who would know about why Liqueur’s underground had all the answers were Joyray and the ones who had actually gone underground. However, the others who went underground were untraceable. The only one whose whereabouts Keter knew was Joyray.

Amon, the Ruler of the fourth floor...

Keter had heard rumors about him for a long time—that he loved games, and that wagers were inseparable from his games. Coming up to the surface and opening an arena really did sound exactly like something Amon would do.

So if I want to meet Joyray, I have to go to the arena. And once I’m there, I’ll probably have to fight too.

There was no way Amon would allow him to simply have a nice chat with Joyray and leave. Keter knew that, even without having met him.

Because if it were me, I’d do the same.

Keter clapped his hands and said to the mercenaries, “Wait here. I’ll bring Joyray back.”

“You’re going to the arena?”

“The one who wants something is the one who has to go looking for it.”

Boom!

Before the mercenaries could say anything else, Keter smashed through the ceiling and shot back up to the surface.

Watching the rubble rain down from above, one mercenary muttered, “The entrance is right next door...”