Chapter 100. The beginning and end, and the beginning.

The Ishtar Region.

This region was where Kang Chul-In’s Valhalla territory, Hecate’s Temeraire, and Aleister’s Undeadia territory were located. The name of the Ishtar Coalition that Kang Chul-In ruled came from this region.

As it was the first real step and memory he had when he first began as a Lord, it was a home of sorts to Kang Chul-In. This was also the place that Kang Chul-In had decided to visit later.

There’s an Epic Dungeon in Ishtar?

Kang Chul-In felt very suspicious about Dorian’s words.

As far as he knew, there was no Epic Dungeon within Ishtar.

Of course, he couldn’t say that his knowledge was 100% accurate. If you were not a god, you couldn’t know everything after all.

But if it was about dungeons, the story was different.

In his past life, Kang Chul-In and Dorian had gone around the Ishtar region searching and beating each and every dungeon that was for Level 40 and above. Long story short, it didn’t make sense that there was an Epic Dungeon within Ishtar. There must have been a mistake.

“Stop lying to me,” Kang Chul-In said to Dorian across the phone.

“Your words have to make sense for me to believe you.”

This came from the fact that Kang Chul-In determined that there was no Epic Dungeon within the Ishtar Region.

-Wow… Kang Chul-In…

Dorian seemed upset at this.

-How could you not believe my words…? I thought you were my friend… sigh… to think you saw me as a liar and a fraud…”

-Fine, listen to this then. Okay?

-So basically, I went traveling to the Ishtar Region, and well… I got there by going from the Western Mountain Range and going straight down from there. And there, there was some gigantic sailboat-looking thing in the sky. As I continued down, there was this sort of really long yet narrow gorge I saw. Well, I guess it was still fun because there was a lake I saw in the middle of the trip that was as big as a sea, and I had fun catching fish there.

Dorian spoke facts about the Ishtar Region’s geography.

For the “giant sailboat”, there was a high chance that he was referring to Hecate’s Temeraire, and the “really long yet narrow gorge” was the Carmel Gorge, which was also near the Valhalla territory.

Well, I do know for a fact that he’s definitely been there before.

Kang Chul-In could tell that Dorian had personally been there by just hearing the description.

-Anyway, as I got across that gorge, I saw this gigantic green castle-like structure, and though I did think for a while about going in that direction, I didn’t like the ominous feeling, so I changed directions and went south.

For the “gigantic green-castle”, it was obvious that it was the Overlord Aleister’s Emerald Castle of the Undeadia territory. Kang Chul-In was now convinced that Dorian knew the Ishtar region well.

“Wait.”

But Kang Chul-In still interrupted Dorian.

“Did you say south?”

If it was south from there… that meant the Valhalla territory.

-Yeah, South.

Dorian replied.

“Well, did you find anything?”

-No, there was just a bunch of hills there. Of course, there wasn’t absolutely nothing.

Listening to Dorian’s following words, Kang Chul-In’s facial expression turned even more ominous.

-There was a really large hill there, actually more of a mountain than a hill because it was like 400-500 meters above sea level… But anyway, I was going to sleep one night at the peak of the tallest hill when I turned around and saw this huge door in front of me.

When Dorian said that there was a huge door there, Kang Chul-In nearly dropped his phone.

How does this make any sense?

Though Kang Chul-In could not believe what Dorian was saying…

“Continue?”

He decided to listen in a bit more.

-It wasn’t really special, just a door that was made of black-colored steel. It was like… Uhh… 10m wide and 20m tall, I think.

“So?”

-I knocked, but there was no answer. I knocked there for almost an hour, and since there was no response, I thought it was an abandoned ruin. So…

“You went and tried for another entrance.”

Because Kang Chul-In was well aware of Dorian’s behavior pattern, it was easy to guess what would happen next.

-H-How did you know that?

“Looking inside your head is even easier than looking inside an aquarium, so just continue on with the story.”

“O-Okay, fine.”

After that, Dorian continued to speak as if he was a little bit upset.

To say the conclusion first, Kang Chul-In was extremely shocked.

For the first time, he was extremely startled.

“I’m going, right now.”

… was what Kang Chul-In answered before crushing his mobile phone by accidentally pressing on it too hard.

BANG!

The Lithium-Ion battery exploded.

“S-Son?”

Park Sun-Ja, who was playing with Arshelly, looked at Kang Chul-In, startled.

“Dad!”

Arshelly was also surprised.

“Sigh… Mother. I’ll be back soon,” Kang Chul-In said, looking at Park Sun-Ja.

Then, he looked at Arshelly.

“You listen to your grandmother well.”

“Yes, dad!”

The smart Arshelly figured out that Kang Chul-In would be heading back to Pangaea and nodded.

------

Teheran-ro. Kang Chul-In was able to find an adventurer that Billy Halford had negotiated beforehand. It was an adventurer with a warp gate that led to the Ishtar region.

“Oh, I remember you!”

The adventurer that was going along with Kang Chul-In spoke informally to him as if they were superior.

“You’re Director Kang from the Galaxy Corporation company, right? The subordinate of Old Man Kwon that came from god knows where.”

If someone who knew Kang Chul-In well saw this sight, they would have closed their eyes tightly. Why? Because the mouth of that adventurer would be absolutely crushed by the hands of Kang Chul-In until not even the teeth remained.

“What are you doing, not driving?”

The adventurer got onto the passenger seat of the Bugatti Veyron as if it was natural and demanded that Kang Chul-In drive.

“You ride a good car, huh. This one, it’s the one that we drive too. There aren’t a lot of these in Korea. You earn a lot of money, huh?”

The adventurer, heir of the colossus that was the Gusung Electronic Company, spoke to Kang Chul-In as if he were her driver.

Kim Sung-Hee.

As the youngest daughter of Gusung’s president Kim Hyun-seung, she was notorious within the “nobles” of Korea as a villain of a woman. This woman was the one that Billy had contacted to go to Ishtar with.

“Hey, why aren’t you going?”

Kim Sung-Hee once again reminded Kang Chul-In.

“I’m not going here just because I have some leftover… ACK!”

Kim Sung-Hee screamed painfully.

“H...Huk…”

It was because Kang Chul-In’s hand had latched onto her shoulders with a strong grip. She couldn’t move either as Kang Chul-In’s mana prevented her from doing so.

“Hey, idiotic woman,” Kang Chul-In said.

“If you keep on talking to me like that…”

Kang Chul-In’s voice seemed like the voice of the grim reaper to Kim Sung-Hee at this point, frightening her.

“I will break one body part of yours.”

“Got it?”

As Kang Chul-In was speaking, dense mana filled the air, making it difficult to even breathe.

“Y-Yes.”

Kim Sung-Hee agreed, frightened.

Very good.

But meanwhile, Kim Sung-Hee…

W-What the hell? How did I get suppressed by him?

She was surprised.

Because it hurt?

Of course, her body hurt, but the real reason why she was surprised was something else entirely.

She was strong.

For someone like her who was powerful and took pride in being powerful to be restrained by a mere director of the Galaxy Corporation, it hurt her pride.

W-What should I do…? Should I fight back? Should I… launch a sneak attack?

Kim Sung-Hee looked at Kang Chul-In, who was driving soundlessly.

He was completely exposed.

If she used her hands and smacked Kang Chul-In’s throat, she was confident that she would succeed. Even though there could be an accident because Kang Chul-In was the one driving right now, there was no real possibility that it would lead to a major accident as the road was very much blocked and unmoving due to traffic.

As she got ready to attack…

“Do you want your arm broken?”

Somehow, Kang Chul-In had noticed and warned her. Startlingly, his eyes were still on the road.

-----

“What the hell is that car?”

“Is that a Bugatti?”

Not caring about the gazes of others, Kang Chul-In looked at Kim Sung-Hee when they arrived.

“Is this place alright?”

“...It’s fine.”

“Then open the gate.”

Saying this, Kang Chul-In grabbed onto Kim Sung-Hee’s wrist lightly. This was because this process was required in order to share the gate.

Just you wait. I’ll show you my skill!

Was what Kim Sung-Hee thought as she entered the gate.

-----

“Yo! Chul-In!”

Woof! Woof!

On the other side of the gate was Dorian Explorer and his pet dog Jackpot.

“Oh? Who’s that girl?”

Dorian looked at Kim Sung-Hee and tilted his head in confusion.

“Is it your new girlfriend?”

At this, Kang Chul-In’s face stiffened.

“...What?”

“I mean, you have a lot of beautiful women by your side. You have Lucia, Lee Chae-Rin, and now you have another woman? Wow… as expected of my friend. Man! Oh wait, they said not to talk about these things…”

Dorian covered his mouth with an expression that said “oops”. He thought that his mistake was talking about Kang Chul-In’s “ex-girlfriends” in front of his current girlfriend.

Of course, it was a mistake.

“Kuk!”

Dorian grabbed his abdomen and moaned in pain.

“If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll give you some mental training.”

“...Huk…”

Since Dorian was close to Kang Chul-In’s subordinates, he had been pestered often with the talk of “mental training” and realized how terrifying it was.

“Is it maybe 3, 4 days’ travel from here?”

While shaking off the hand that Kang Chul-In had punched Dorian’s midsection with, he looked far to the south.

Sadly for them, Kim Sung-Hee’s “waypoint” was different for each and every adventurer. They were around 200km away from the Valhalla territory, so they had to travel there by foot.

“We’ll get there in two days,” Kang Chul-In said.

He was saying that they would travel 100km a day, something that sounded crazy.

“T-Two days? That far? Hey, Chul-In, you do know how far it is to the dungeon, right…?”

Dorian was startled.

“What, you can’t do it? Then don’t come.”

“No, I can.”

At Kang Chul-In’s taunting, Dorian’s expression changed into an excited one.

“Of course I can do it.”

“Well then, let’s go.”

Traveling over 100km by foot was something that Kang Chul-In didn’t like either as it required both great mental and physical endurance. Rather than being tiring though, it was monotonous and boring. They had to get going as soon as possible.

Because…

Valhalla… to think that it’s become a dungeon…

It was because of the information from Dorian that Valhalla had become an Epic Dungeon.

It was at that moment.

“You.”

Kang Chul-In felt cold metal touching his neck.

“Let’s fight.”

Dorian’s mouth gaped open in surprise and shock.

T-That woman… why would she want to commit suicide…?

It was Kim Sung-Hee who had put her sword to Kang Chul-In’s throat.