Chapter 287

#101. Return to the Past

“How did you find it so soon?” Kim Jin-Woo asked.

Even if Mimir was well-connected and had his own methods, this was way too fast. It was incredibly unusual that it had taken Mimir only so much time to discover the whereabouts of the treasure that couldn’t be found even after a war against the surface had been waged. That was why Kim Jin-Woo couldn’t comprehend what Mimir was saying, and had no choice but to cast doubt on his words.

“I’m stunned as well. I never imagined that the Underworld treasure I’d been searching for so long would be discovered so easily.” Mimir had a bewildered expression as he responded to the sharp question; he, too, was rather surprised by the turn of events. He continued, “It wasn’t me finding the treasure, but rather, the treasure revealing itself instead.”

The timing was suspicious, but it was a plausible answer. Unfortunately, this was how things had always been because of the Mysteries of the Underworld; thus, Kim Jin-Woo had begun taking it in stride. But nevertheless, he continued to question Mimir.

“I don’t know. I really don’t. I don’t know why these things have been happening so often these days,” Mimir answered. He appeared to have come to deliver good news, but it was evident that the severe questioning had caught him off-guard.

“Hmm.” Kim Jin-Woo belatedly realized that he had become overly sensitive, but in the end, he still couldn’t drop his suspicions.

Why now? Why had the Underworld treasure that the Underworld Nobles had been searching for for the longest time decided to reveal itself now? Not only that, but the timing of Mimir’s visit had coincided with his decision to head to the Deepest Floor, and everything seemed too coincidental to be natural.

But as Kim Jin-Woo continued to question everything, Mimir began to divulge more information. “The Wish Stone will return to the Underworld on its own, as long as you keep waiting.”

Things were getting even more interesting.

“I heard Denarion, the Count of Nightmares, has obtained the Wish Stone and is now preparing to transport it to the Underworld,” Mimir explained.

“If it’s Denarion…” Kim Jin-Woo muttered.

“That’s right. He’s undoubtedly one of the main people responsible for instigating the war between the Underworld and the surface. Perhaps he faked his surrender in order to search for the Wish Stone,” Mimir speculated.

It was improbable. If Denarion’s goal had really been only to recover the Wish Stone, he had no reason to create more trouble by instigating a war between the two realms.

“But how did you know this?” Kim Jin-Woo asked. Denarion’s intention aside, he couldn’t figure out how Mimir had found out about that.

Mimir answered, “Denarion has completely lost his authority thanks to Milord. Now, Denarion, who could easily return to the Deep Floors in the past, has been forced to start all over from the Lesser Floors.”

That part made sense. If his labyrinth were still intact, Denarion could have easily returned to the Deep Floors via a portal.

“And the way he was able to traverse through the Underworld was with the help of someone,” Mimir continued.

“And who is that someone?” Kim Jin-Woo asked.

Something seemed to hold Mimir back, as he hesitated for a moment before closing his eyes tightly and responding upon seeing Kim Jin-Woo’s fiery gaze. “Bryntess, the Queen of Corruption, has been contacted by Denarion.”

Bryntess was a resourceful being with a solid presence she had secretly built on the surface, to the point of controlling the Korean Explorers’ Association from behind the scenes.

In addition, she was a cunning woman of the Deep Floors, and while the other Deep Floor Counts had lost their territory thanks to the fake Grand Labyrinths, she was the only survivor who had managed to escape with her Labyrinth Core.

“You insolent… Don’t tell me…” Kim Jin-Woo muttered. He belatedly realized what the reason for Mimir’s hesitation was and turned furious.

“I- I apologize! I thought the Queen of Corruption might prove to be useful in the future… I’ve committed a sin worthy of death!” Mimir exclaimed.

Kim Jin-Woo had wondered where Bryntess had escaped to, and as expected, she had managed to do so with Mimir’s help. No, it was also possible that the cunning imp had informed her ahead of time when Kim Jin-Woo had set out to clean up the 11th Floor.

“Sigh, how tiresome. The atrocity of hiding your plans from me… And all from my having let you live thus far.”

Mimir had always been planning something behind the scenes, and the fact that Mimir had only informed him of this now was getting on Kim Jin-Woo’s nerves.

“And I assume the only reason you’re telling me this is because both you and I have something to gain out of this?”

But nevertheless, instead of punishing the imp to death, he withheld punishing him this time as well.

“That’s correct. It appears that the Queen of Corruption intends to trick Denarion and take the Wish Stone from him. With that, she’ll probably try to negotiate with Milord,” Mimir explained.

It seemed Bryntess wanted to give the Wish Stone to Kim Jin-Woo, and in return, guarantee her safety and help her lay the groundwork for a foundation in the Underworld once more.

“Sigh.”

It would be a massive advantage for Kim Jin-Woo to obtain the Wish Stone if all he had to do was to give up a minor portion of the Underworld and save one single insignificant Count. However, no matter how much he stood to benefit, he simply couldn’t overlook the imp’s actions, which had repeatedly struck him in the back of the head.

“I’ll be moving the Eternal Treasury right away tomorrow,” he said.

“Urgh…” Mimir groaned.

Kim Jin-Woo enacted his small revenge by taking away the Eternal Treasury from the Treasurer, who acted as if his life depended on the Treasury. He decided to deal the remainder of the punishment after obtaining the Wish Stone.

Unaware of his master’s inner thoughts, Mimir sighed in relief that he had overcome the immediate crisis. It was clear to Kim Jin-Woo that the imp’s future wouldn’t be nice to him.

***

“It seems to be imminent.”

Everything that had happened lately was pointing toward a single event.

The return to the past.

There was nothing that wasn’ related to the complete regression of the Underworld, from the Restorations that had taken place, to the appearance of the Wish Stone, and the return of the Highlords.

Kim Jin-Woo understood that fact deeply, and he also knew he was the key to either perfectly completing the whole process or overturning it.

“Everything will start accelerating. Because the Immoral Lord and the monster we call the ‘Mysteries of the Underworld’ will miss any given opportunity to further progress their plan.”

Thus, when yet another massive earthquake struck the Underworld, Kim Jin-Woo wasn’t surprised at all.

Ruuuuuumble.

The third earthquake to strike the Underworld was just as intense as ever. But it was also fairly short. Within a few hours, the tremors had completely stopped.

“Report on the damage!” Kim Jin-Woo shouted loudly.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The leaders of the labyrinth, including Dominique, reported on the situation one by one.

“We’ve managed to hold on, but just barely!”

“The Eternal Treasury only suffered some minor superficial damage, nothing more.”

“The Nagas and the other races have suffered no casualties! Everyone is safe!”

Perhaps because the tremors were short-lived, there was no damage to the labyrinth. Valh?ll, too, had withstood the earthquake, and its towering spire and walls weren’t damaged in the slightest.

“That’s great. If we had suffered the same amount of damage as in the previous earthquake, things could have gotten ugly,” Kim Jin-Woo remarked.

“We don’t know what might have changed, so I’ll dispatch the Rangers to scout the area.” Dominique nodded in response and quickly sent out the Under-Elf Rangers to inspect the situation outside the labyrinth.

“It looks like it’ll take some time for them to return with a report, so let’s deal with the backlog of things to do first,” Kim Jin-Woo said. He summoned Daedalus to deal with the relocation of the Eternal Treasury, which had been put off.

“We’ve completed the necessary preparations. In the first place, the Eternal Treasury exists in an independent space and realm except for its entrance, so there wasn’t much I needed to do.” Daedalus guided him, saying he had prepared several locations within the depths of the Grand Labyrinth to relocate the Treasury to. “Truth is, if any enemy could even get this deep into the labyrinth, it would mean they were unlikely to be affected by any traps. Thus, I decided to exclude most traps and focus on this space closing on itself should an emergency arise.”

His explanation made sense. If any enemy could safely invade so deep into the Grand Labyrinth, it would mean no difference from a heavy defeat; thus, there would be no point in setting up any defenses at that point.

“That’s not a bad idea. Given such a situation, it would make sense to protect the labyrinth rather than just a mere treasury,” Kim Jin-Woo remarked.

However, that would only make sense if it were an ordinary treasury. But the Eternal Treasury wasn’t one of them.

“But the Eternal Treasury isn’t just a safe vault. It’s a greedy monster that’s able to think for itself, and will seduce and eventually devour any intruders. We don’t necessarily have to worry about defending it,” he finally added.

Thus, among the spaces Daedalus had prepared, Kim Jin-Woo decided to relocate the Eternal Treasury to the place closest to the master room, despite it being the most exposed of all.

“There’s no need to drag this out any longer. Start the relocation immediately.”

[The location to which the Eternal Treasury will be moved has been decided.]

[It will be somewhat inefficient to relocate the Eternal Treasury to the Grand Labyrinth of Greed rather than Valh?ll. No matter how strong the defenses of the Grand Labyrinth may be, it is incomparable to the defense Valh?ll can offer.]

[Do you still wish to relocate the Eternal Treasury to this location?]

The labyrinth’s journey of growth from the small and pathetic Naga’s Nest into the Naga’s Fortress, and eventually into the Grand Labyrinth, had been much like his own journey in the Underworld.

Now, he had no intention of relocating his main base based on the small advantage Valh?ll offered. Moreover, the power of Greed possessed by the Grand Labyrinth wasn’t as absurdly lacking when compared to Valh?ll as the message had implied.

“I’ll decide on this location,” Kim Jin-Woo said.

[Please consider carefully. Once you have relocated the Eternal Treasury, it will not be easy to relocate it again.]

[Do you wish to relocate the Eternal Treasury to this location?]

The message repeated itself. Only when Kim Jin-Woo waved his hand in annoyance did the message disappear.

[The Eternal Treasury will be moved.]

[All items stored in the Treasury will also be relocated with it.]

[It will take some time for the Eternal Treasury to be fully reactivated.]

[All items in the Treasury cannot be removed until it is fully activated. However, it will be possible to put new items in it.]

[71 hours, 49 minutes, 47 seconds left until the Treasury is activated.]

As he watched little halos dance to and fro, an additional message came to Kim Jin-Woo’s mind.

[The Eternal Treasury has been moved.]

[The space where the Treasury was originally located has been completely erased from the world.]

[Unfortunately, the base of the Black Merchants, which was built based on the power of the Eternal Treasury, has disappeared. It seems the shrewd Mimir has managed to get away with most of its supplies and facilities, but the Black Merchants can no longer reveal the secret events of the past.]

[Rumors of the newly relocated Black Merchants’ headquarters are spreading in the Underworld.]

[As the Black Merchants have numerous relationships with various beings in the Underworld, it is a self-evident fact that things are about to become rather ugly in the near future.]