Chapter 192: Star, Baek Gyeo-Ul (2)

“That annoying old man,” Elspe grumbled as he returned to his store.

He didn’t like Jarapgu because he always tried to interfere with Elspe’s every work. Although Jarapgu claimed to be neutral, every store owner knew that Jarapgu was trying to put Elspe in check. Even during that last meeting, Jarapgu objected to Elspe’s idea because the store owners are just shadows created by this Dungeon, so it was impossible for them to ascend the throne.

“Bullshit. He just wants his puppet to take the throne and reign over the Dungeon.” Elspe clicked his tongue, thinking Jarapgu was acting out of greed.

It was better for the last population of to take the throne than a mere human with an uncertain background. Elspe was a direct descendant of Bestla and Surtr as well, so he firmly believed that the throne was his.

“You don’t look too good.” Someone appeared from behind Elspe.

Elspe narrowed his eyes. “Didn’t I tell you not to appear suddenly in a place like this?”

Standing behind Elspe was a Player with red hair and an unusually pale face. If it hadn’t been for his white cassock, people would have thought he was a vampire, Elspe’s kind.

Behind the Player’s white cassock, , a symbol famous even on Earth, was drawn to indicate he was one of the Illuminati. However, there was one difference. The owl was black, not golden, signifying that he was a member of the Illuminati Judiciary Dicastery, the organization that kept law and order within the Illuminati. The four cross necklaces around the black owl’s neck showed he was one of the highest-ranked inquisitors within the Judiciary Dicastery as well.

He was Louis Braille the ‘Executioner.’ Believing it was his greatest task to spread the doctrine of the ‘Twilight Piercing Owl,’ his Guardian, Louis never hesitated to brand and execute anyone who got in his way as the devil’s descendant. He gained notoriety as a result and nearly ended up being branded as a demonic being, but the Red Eagle Duke Constantine Brunit stood up for him.

Now, Louis rarely made an appearance in public. Nevertheless, he showed up in this place to follow the order given by his master, Constantine: execute Chang-Sun, who dared disrupt the order within the Illuminati.

Louis and Elspe had been making deals for a long time. The former usually worked in France and other countries of Western Europe, and during his missions, he would visit the ‘Wuthering Stone Desert’ and get the supplies he needed from Elspe.

The ordinary Players weren’t aware of it, but the higher-ups’ needs were one of the reasons why the ‘Wuthering Stone Desert’ hadn’t been cleared. The store owners often sold items that were difficult to obtain in the outside world. It was still tricky for Players to acquire these items due to Hound, the currency within the Dungeon, but it wasn’t a big problem.

Despite Elspe’s hostile response, Louis still looked unreadably nonchalant. He was so expressionless that he looked like a doll or a corpse. In fact, the big coffin he always carried on his back seemed especially ominous today.

‘I really don’t want to be friends with this guy,’

Elspe grumbled deep inside, but he didn’t let his unpleasantness show. He needed Louis right now.

“By the way… how is the preparation for the hunt going?” Elspe asked.

They shared different goals. Elspe wanted to claim the throne, and Louis didn’t want a heretic to become the leader of the Illuminati. Hence, they joined forces to take down their common enemy.

“Thanks to your help, I’m almost done acquiring bait,” Louis said.

“That means you haven’t got them all. You better hurry. I don’t know who this guy is, but he’s a force to be reckoned with. After all, the ‘Destruction-Calling Fire Giant’ chose him.”

“It’s alright. The trap is perfect.” Louis nonchalantly answered.

Elspe frowned, not liking how Louis was disrespectfully disregarding everyone else aside from his own Guardian. Surtr was a who had died long ago, so he was probably nothing in Louis’ eyes. Although it made Elspe furious to see Louis having no respect for Surtr, whom Elspe looked up to, he didn’t bother mentioning it because Louis was just his hound.

‘I’ll just boil him in the end,’?

Elspe thought, his eyes blazing up with fire-like ambition that resembled the Retribution Fire.

It was more than possible if he became a king.

* * *

[You have returned to the ‘Boiling Station.’]

[The desert train ANG will depart in 1 hour and 41 minutes.]

After returning to the station from Surtr’s Heart, the first thing Chang-Sun noticed was the strange air.

‘… The burning smell is too strong.’

Having acquired incomparably heightened senses through the [Giant King’s Talents], he was certain that something had happened during his day in the ‘Rhaegaren.’

[The Celestial ‘Calamity Tiger’ senses a calamity, so he is looking forward to seeing what happens next.]

Paah!

[The Skill ‘Windstalking Tiger’ has been activated, manifesting the Skill ‘Lightness’!]

Chang-Sun quickly leaped up to the station’s roof and, taking a look around, unwittingly frowned. Everything was… in ruins. The Dungeon had already been a wasteland, but its earth had now been turned upside down, revealing flowing lava underneath. There were clear traces of intense combat, and the French volunteer Players, France’s elite, had been annihilated, their corpses all over the place. Nothing was left intact.

‘A disaster-class monster must have shown up,’?

Chang-Sun assumed.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Regardless of how many monsters resided inside this Dungeon due to Surtr, it still wouldn’t be easy to find one that was as strong as this one.

[The Authority ‘Monster Excursion’ has been activated, heightening your senses!]

Expanding the area of perception to look for survivors, Chang-Sun detected and darted toward the faint yet familiar presence. Shortly after, he found Joachim panting while leaning against the broken tree.

“I have to… survive…!” Joachim was blankly murmuring. He was covered in blood and looked as if he could die any minute.

Beside Joachim, Nicolas Pouquet was lying on the ground, his neck broken. Judging from the big hole in his abdomen, Nicolas likely died instantly.

“Joachim!” Chang-Sun shouted.

“Mr. Lee…?” Joachim forced himself to raise his head upon hearing the voice of the person he had been waiting for. He smiled faintly, yet he still looked sad.

“What happened?” Chang-Sun slightly frowned.

“I’m… sor…”

With Joachim seemingly about to succumb to death any second, Chang-Sun looked at Cadmus, who was sitting on his shoulder.

Kiyooo!

[Your Subordinate ‘Cadmus’ has activated the Skill ‘Blood Fog’!]

Red fog swirled around Joachim, healing his wounds and turning his cheeks rosy again. Only after Chang-Sun fed Joachim a big bottle of healing potion could they start talking.

“Gosh… I can finally breathe again. Haha, I would have died from excessive bleeding if it hadn’t been for you, Mr. Lee.” Joachim chuckled self-mockingly.

“What in the world happened?” Chang-Sun asked.

“A Hellserpent showed up.’

“You mean a Fire Dragon?” Chang-Sun tensed up.

A Hellserpent or Fire Dragon was a sea-snake-like great demonic creature that lived in the of . Its habitat was around the Third Circle, and it was a rank 2 disaster. It was impossible to kill unless a King-Class Player went up against it, but that wasn’t what surprised Chang-Sun.

‘The boss monster already showed up?’?

Chang-Sun was baffled. The Hellserpent was the final boss monster of the ‘Wuthering Stone Desert.’ It hibernated in the last station of the desert train, ‘Flame Hell,’ and would only wake up once some conditions had been met. Why did the Hellserpent appear in this station?

‘If things went according to my plan, I should have woken up the serpent…’?

The reason why Chang-Sun had ordered the Team L members to earn as many Hounds as possible was to wake the Hellserpent from its hibernation, but the Hellserpent had not only woken up from its hibernation but had even showed up in the ‘Boiling Hell’ station when it shouldn’t have.

‘Someone orchestrated this.’

Chang-Sun’s gaze turned cold.

‘I needed to get two things from the?Hellserpent.’

First was its heart. Although it wouldn’t hold as much mana as high-ranking Dragons, the heart held a significant amount of fire energy, which could be used to make Dusk Lightning stronger. The other thing was…

“Fire Giants… It would be odd if you don’t go to the next plane after you conquer .” Thanatos stroked his chin.?

“Are you talking about?” Chang-Sun asked.?

“Now that you have decided to get the power of the Giants that had gone extinct, wouldn’t it be better for you to take the power of each of their kind?” Thanatos grinned.?

‘The path to ,’?

Chang-Sun recalled.

The Hellserpent had the most amount of Surtr’s fire energy in this Dungeon. Moreover, if Chang-Sun killed it, a new path would open up. Naturally, it wouldn’t necessarily lead Chang-Sun to something good, considering the rivalry between the and Giants.

‘Anyhow, I got [Bestla’s Poem] here, so maybe there are other parts of the poem in ,’?

Chang-Sun thought.

Fortunately, judging from the current situation, it seemed the person who had woken up the Hellserpent wasn’t aware of the path and just used it to annihilate the volunteer Players.

With a plaintive look, Joachim nodded. “Yes, I’m not sure why that Hellserpent showed up here when it should have been in the last station… Most of the volunteer Players got killed or ran away, and the Team L members also went missing during the confusion. I tried to contain the situation somehow, but… I’m sorry.”

The part about Chang-Sun’s team members going missing made his heart heavy.

“It sounds like you know who’s behind this.”

“That’s… right,” Joachim answered, his voice trembling. He felt humiliated for surviving like this.

Chang-Sun finally realized the person behind this mayhem let Joachim survive on purpose. There should be one incapacitated survivor to deliver their ‘message.’ Whoever did this, their only target was Chang-Sun.

“Who is it?”

“It was Louis, an inquisitor,” Joachim bitterly replied.

“Louis?”

“He’s like the shadow of the Illuminati. He takes care of our problems without mercy.”

“Why would such a man come after me?” Chang-Sun slightly frowned.

“He feels like you will become our Princeps—no, our Clan leader.”

Chang-Sun’s eyes turned cold again. “That’s his only reason? I clearly stated that I didn’t want to become the Illuminati’s leader.”

“It doesn’t matter to Louis. All that matters to him is that there exists a possibility of an outsider he hasn’t accepted becoming our leader. He’s trying to eliminate that possibility completely.” Joachim sighed.

“He did all this to get rid of one small possibility?”

“Yes, in his eyes, the other Guardians’ believers are just trash that he has to get rid of. Everything he does, he does it to win that crusade of his.”

Chang-Sun dumbfoundedly chuckled. There were people like Louis in Arcadia too. They believed only the Guardians they served were right, so they destroyed and killed without hesitation to spread their Guardian’s doctrines. There was a word for such people.

“He’s a fanatic,” Chang-Sun concluded. His frown deepened.

“… Sadly, you’re right. He’s the cancer of the Illuminati. He has to be eliminated for the Clan to continue to prosper.” Joachim bit his lip.

“Did he leave any message?”

Joachim hesitated, unable to answer him.

“Did he?” Chang-Sun repeated.

Sighing, Joachim replied, “He said… come to the second station. He’ll be waiting for you there.”

Louis had likely set up a trap in the second station, ‘Burning Hell.’ Was he holding the Team L members hostage there?

‘Then I have to see this through,’?

Chang-Sun decided.

If Louis was holding Baek Gyeo-Ul and the other Team L members hostage, it would be really tricky to deal with him since Chang-Sun had no intention of letting Xerxes’ son get hurt. Fortunately, he had a way to find out the exact situation of Gyeo-Ul and the other Team L members.

‘To be precise, I can only determine?Gyeo-Ul’s,’?

Chang-Sun thought discontentedly.

[Following the ‘Shadow Thread’!]

Chang-Sun’s shadow undulated and pulled a thread-like shadow from somewhere. Gyeo-Ul’s main weapon was Chang-Sun’s shadow, which meant Chang-Sun could retrieve the shadow that Gyeo-Ul borrowed and use it to connect with him through a Soul Link. Beyond the shadow, Chang-Sun could see Gyeo-Ul and the other Team L members hurriedly escaping from something.

―

Huff! Huff!

―Hye-Bin! Hold on!

―Be careful! Behind you!

―Ah, shit! It’s here again…!

The Hellserpent was turning the ground upside down, threatening the Team L members as if it was going to devour them any minute. Gyeo-Ul stayed behind and tried to stall the Hellserpent, but he was in such a bad condition that it was as if he was about to collapse any time soon. He seemed to be severely wounded already.

Learning that the Team L members were close by, Chang-Sun was about to track down Gyeo-Ul using the [Shadow Thread] but realized that part of it was tangled up under a pile of stones.

‘Wait.’?

Chang-Sun dug the ground and found a sack full of money.

It seemed Gyeo-Ul and the other Team L members hid all the Hounds they had gathered up as soon as the Hellserpent showed up.

‘Fools,’?

Chang-Sun unwittingly cursed, feeling choked up.

They should have focused on running away as soon as the Hellserpent showed up. Why did they bother doing this first? Was it because he had specifically asked them to gather Hounds? Either way, they had hidden the money despite already being in a hurry. Chang-Sun knew Xerxes, and since this was Xerxes’ son in question, Chang-Sun figured he was right. However, that only made him more frustrated. Gyeo-Ul was too selfless for his own good…

On the other hand, it gave Chang-Sun more reason to save the Team L members as soon as possible. After putting the Hound sack in his inventory, Chang-Sun stood up but suddenly thought he couldn’t let Louis walk away now that he had dared mess with Chang-Sun’s people.

“Jarpagu,” Chang-Sun called.

“Hehe, why are you calling me?” Jarapgu, the Hobgoblin merchant, showed up from the ruins of the station.

He was smiling with his only eye, seemingly telling Chang-Sun to ask him for anything. Unlike before, Jarapgu was clearly being friendly to Chang-Sun, so he figured Jarpagu already knew Chang-Sun had already ascended the throne.

“From what I know, all the items you store owners sell are legacies of . Am I right?” Chang-Sun asked.

“If so?” Jarapgu tilted his head.

“Then that means all the stores are mine,” Chang-Sun assumed.

Smiling enigmatically instead of answering Chang-Sun, Jarapgu bowed slightly yet politely. Chang-Sun took the gesture as a yes.

“I want to use the store,” Chang-Sun said.

1. The raw was ????(九泉地下). According to mythology and Buddhism, it refers to the deep underground region where your soul returns to after you die. Literally translated, it’s the nether underground. However, the name has been modified to match the descriptions in the novel, which is similar to the Nine Circles of Hell in the epic poem Inferno written by Dante.