Chapter 86 - Toward the Depths of the Abyss (3)
The vice-leader of the guild, Reina, spoke to someone next to her.
In the room of executives, there was one man that hadn’t been there before.
"Keiji, what do you think?"
Keiji was a user who had played the previous game. He had just recently joined Darkness.
He had once ranked 2nd. He was a real veteran.
Of course, he was only placed 2nd for a short while, but that was enough of a reason to make him an offer to join them.
Reina asked for his opinion.
"Is there a chance TarrTarr was an Asra user?"
"No, that's not possible."
Keiji shook his head.
If he'd been an Asra user, he would've at least ranked 3rd.
But he knew the person who'd been ranked 3rd in Asra, and he knew that person had quit playing.
Although 2nd place in the rankings varied frequently, the user whom people thought about when talking about 2nd place had already become famous through numerous combat videos through the different community boards.
And the 1st…
'I'm sure it isn't him.'
If he really was level 70, he wouldn't show himself like that.
That's if he didn't care about receiving all the hate from ex-Asra users.
Considering everything, he was sure TarrTarr was a new Asrian user.
"He's probably the same kind of person as Lattice. Although it seems like he started playing late."
"Hmm, I see."
XL sighed.
If what Keiji said was true, they had to make him join them no matter what, but it didn't seem like Mayday was going to bring good news.
After thinking for a while, Mayday spoke through the guild chat.
「Are you still in the banquet hall, Mayday?」
「Yes.」
「Then try to look for him again. Maybe he's looking for a better deal.」
XL calculated the max amount of money Darkness could pay him on the calculator.
Once they could make a connection with him, he was sure they'd be able to convince him easily, so he planned to put on as much effort as possible into their first meeting.
* * *
Hyun stopped thinking.
He remembered the second reason why he had participated in the banquet.
Although he had received the reward, he still hadn't reached the Abyss Repository, which was the quest's destination.
'Time to move.'
The Dark Palace…
The place, which was the base of the Abyss and was hundreds of meters underground, was so vast that it didn't look like it was underground.
「It's scary…」
TarrTarr trembled a little bit after looking at the monsters guarding the different paths.
Although the palace was incredibly big, the place users were allowed access to was relatively small.
The banquet hall, the waiting room in front of it, and the square.
Those were the places users had access to.
If you tried to access other places, you would've to face the wrath of high-level monsters.
「So where's the Abyss Repository?」
TarrTarr asked since they'd been roaming around the same area for a few minutes.
According to Hyun, they'd participated in the tournament so they could access the Abyss Repository.
But no matter how much he looked around, he could only see a few shops and non-sensically big sculptures.
The only thing worth seeing was a volcanic waterfall curtain.
How it poured out from the ceiling and scattered into the depths of the Abyss was so impressive that it was like an art piece that you wouldn't be able to replicate in real life.
「Wait, it's going to open soon.」
While TarrTarr was distracted, Hyun was looking at one place.
At that moment…
As the lava waterfall stopped, the path hidden behind it showed itself.
But that place wasn't a place that users could enter.
It was a place that was guarded by strong monsters.
The moment he did something suspicious, it would become impossible to go through the security.
But the current Hyun could do it.
'«Invisible», «Biorhythm Acceleration»!'
Hyun used both skills and leaped toward the path that had appeared behind the waterfall.
Tap-!
Because of the step, a weak sound spread through the place.
At that moment, the minotaur there turned its head around.
"…"
But it couldn't see anyone.
Whoosh-!
The monster relaxed after the lava waterfall began falling again.
Three seconds had passed.
During those seconds, Hyun had moved more than a hundred meters away from there and hid.
It was thanks to «Biorhythm Acceleration», which increased his speed by 250% for two seconds.
「Oof, oof…!」
It was for a short while, but TarrTarr felt a speed that was enough to make his vision shake.
「I told you to give me a warning before moving!」
「Ssh, be quiet.」
Hyun made TarrTarr quiet down.
They couldn't relax yet.
The Abyss Repository was a place where all of the important information about the Abyss was gathered, so it wasn't a place a user could easily gain access to.
If they followed the normal procedures, it would probably take months before they were granted access to it, so that's why Hyun thought of infiltrating the place.
「Don't relax yet.」
While calming down TarrTarr, who was making a big fuss out of it, Hyun prepared to move again.
120 seconds…
It was the amount of time he had to wait until the cooldown time of «Invisible» and «Biorhythm Acceleration» was reset.
Paf-!
As TarrTarr's figure melted into the air, an invisible race began.
While trying to make as little noise as possible…
Hyun jumped through the gap between the two minotaurs guarding the path.
Translator - Daniel Shin
Proofreader - ilafy
* * *
"…!"
Clang-!
Both minotaurs crossed their spears and blocked the path.
That happened at the same time Hyun was crossing through the middle of them.
Even if he tried to make footstep noises as low as possible, he couldn't hide the pressure generated by them.
The moment they felt something strange, they'd blocked the pathway.
Just before «Invisible»'s time came to an end, Hyun jumped up.
「Did we get found out..?」
「No, not yet.」
While hiding on the ceiling crossbeam, Hyun quietly looked down.
It seemed like both monsters were talking about something.
After a while, they saw the gate of the passageway opening.
Hyun and TarrTarr couldn't understand what they were saying, but the situation seemed positive.
「I thought we were found out…」
「There aren't many beings who can see through «Invisible». Although if it was a Duke, he'd probably know.」
Hyun walked along the crossbeam of the palace and moved toward their destination.
«Invisible» lasted for two seconds…
But the distance he could move in that time was 200 meters.
That meant he could cross the gates without being discovered as long as it wasn't a winding road.
Hyun used a giant column and immediately moved up to a high-up equivalent of a 4th floor.
Dust that was nearby rose and then settled.
Not a single monster was able to see the intruder.
The pattern of moving for two seconds and then resting for two minutes kept repeating.
As if he were an assassin moving along the ceiling, he sometimes passed through places where humans couldn't.
Even while going through an empty engine room, he didn't relax.
'TarrTarr has signed a contract with the Duke.'
If the Duke wished, he could move to where his knight was.
If that happened while he was moving along the palace’s ceiling, he would be in trouble.
But he had to leave that to luck.
「It's here.」
It had been 30 minutes since they began moving.
Hyun stopped moving at a dead end.
「It's here?」TarrTarr asked.
The reason why he was so confused was that the place where they'd arrived was an empty vault.
Not only was there not any sort of massive facility, but there wasn't even a monster guarding it.
It was a place surrounded by colorless walls.
「But there's nothing…」
「Yes, that's right. That's why there isn't a risk of being found out.」
「…?」
「Just keep waiting.」
While TarrTarr was confused, Hyun began walking slowly toward a wall.
And in that state, he used a skill.
'«Disassimilation».'
Paf-
The distance for using «Assimilation» was 20 meters.
Hyun's body crossed the wall and reached an empty place.
It was also a place where there wasn't anyone, but it wasn't empty.
Equipment with complex magic circles drawn on them were spreading remnants of Magical Power.
A giant marble ball was floating in the air and drawing a three-dimensional magical circle in the air.
This place full of all sorts of other weird things was the place known as Abyss Repository.
* * *
Duke Bahmir remembered TarrTarr's play.
The one he remembered the most was the last battle.
The battle between both forces at the satellite Iluna had ended with the Abyss forces losing.
According to the historical records, the Abyss army could only resist for about 15 minutes.
But thanks to a user taking part in it, the duration of the fight was extended to 60 minutes.
He was amazed at how someone who looked so shabby could use his strength in such a skillful way.
"A user…"
Users weren't afraid of dying, and they had unlimited potential.
You couldn't judge them by their outer appearance.
An extremely small number of users may even surpass him one day.
—So he couldn't treat them in the same way as normal people.
Rather than punishing them, he had to motivate them with rewards.
"Fufu, I'm going to make sure you don't regret becoming my knight."
The Duke could use the soul's string to go and find his knight.
Bahmir was thinking that he should try to go and see TarrTarr immediately.
At that moment, Hyun and TarrTarr were moving to the Abyss Repository.
That would be fatal for both of them since they were trying to infiltrate.
"Hmm?"
At that moment, the Duke frowned.
One of the guards had sent a signal that said something unexpected had happened in his sector.
Bahmir didn't know, but that was one of the traces Hyun had left while trying to infiltrate the Abyss Repository.
Lots of suspicious things accumulated, and the tail was eventually revealed.
"Hmm, interesting."
He had received a detailed report through the soul conversation.
Bahmir vaguely understood what was going on in the Dark Palace.
"It seems like someone has infiltrated, but you're not sure who it is?"
The tips of Bahmir's lips raised.
"Is it an agent of the Heavens…? I'm not sure who it is, but since you stepped foot in the Abyss, you better be prepared for the consequences."
He decided to leave his interest in TarrTarr to the side for a while.
It wouldn't be late if he got to him after solving the case.
The moment a magic circle was drawn under his feet, he disappeared.
* * *
The activation of «Assimilation» didn't depend on sight but on distance.
He had penetrated the Abyss Repository's thick walls thanks to that characteristic of «Assimilation».
'It seems like I found it successfully.'
Hyun ignored TarrTarr's complaints and kept walking.
Although it was the place where many important items of the Abyss were gathered, Hyun didn't know what everything was.
He didn't need to know, either.
He only had to follow what the quest mission was saying.
- Once you reach the Abyss Repository, search for the magic marble ball.
Because the message had very kindly incorporated a picture, it didn't take him long to find it.
The magic marble ball was a ball of three meters shaped like a globe.
Rather than the earth, there were Asra's lands and seas drawn on the globe.
[The magic marble is a weapon that tracks a target with magic!]
[You have something with magic on it in your inventory!]
[If you put the medium on the altar, you'll be able to find the target's location!]
"I've found you."
Hyun smiled with satisfaction.
