The People Of Baengnyeong Forest (8)

The first floor they returned to looked exactly the same as when they had first set foot in it. It was still empty, and the basement door was still locked.

“Before we go out, should we check if we can open that first?”

Pablo glanced at the basement door.

“That sounds good. If we don’t have the right key, we might have to look for one somewhere else.”

The others agreed. Ye Hyeonseong took out a bundle of unused keys from the Infinite Corridor and handed it to Pablo.

Pablo approached the basement door with the key bundle. After fiddling with a few keys, he came back to the group.

“There’s a key that fits in here.”

It looked like they wouldn’t need to search for more keys. Since there was nothing else to check on the first floor, the party headed straight outside the castle.

“It’s a relief the exit isn’t blocked.”

“Doesn’t it look cloudier than before?”

As they stepped out, people each muttered a comment.

‘Yeah. There are more clouds than earlier.’

Ye Hyeonseong thought as she looked up in response.

When they first entered the dungeon, the weather had been clear like the real world outside, but clouds had gathered and it had turned slightly overcast.

‘Still fairly clear for now, though….’

“Was the bell tower that one?”

Someone pointed to the side of the castle—toward the tower that had a bell hanging, among the two towers.

After confirming the direction, the group headed for the bell tower. While moving, Ye Hyeonseong checked the item list.

‘There was a set of bell maintenance tools among the items we found on the third floor.’

It was something they had found along with the Bell Tower Caretaker’s Notebook. It would be used in the bell tower.

‘And among the things from that room….’

Ye Hyeonseong’s eyes swept rapidly through the item list.

Among the miscellaneous household goods, she found a pouch of gold coins and two cut black crystals.

‘Those black crystals will be used at the bell tower, too.’

Inside the bell maintenance tools, there were several black crystals of the exact same size and shape.

Without even thinking deeply, she could tell the bell tower caretaker had embezzled the black crystals needed for repairing the bell.

Just like a servant of a lord who skimmed taxes—same behavior, different place.

“Over there. We’re here.”

The group soon arrived in front of the bell tower.

“There’s nothing inside, right?”

“My magic isn’t picking anything up.”

“But those ghosts on the third floor didn’t show up until we opened the door.”

“Just in case, let’s stay ready.”

The Baengnyeong Forest people stared warily at the bell tower entrance. Then Pablo used the key bundle to open the door.

Luckily, no monster sprang out this time. Even when Milena stepped inside and used detection magic again, it was the same.

“Looks like we can inspect it quietly this time.”

Milena said as she put her staff away. At that, everyone climbed the stairs.

They didn’t stop observing even as they went up. First, there was nothing hidden in the walls or stairs.

‘Not like there’s anywhere to hide something, anyway.’

At best, you could hide a jewel or two in a crack.

And the moment Ye Hyeonseong finished that thought, someone up ahead let out an exclamation.

“Ah, that.”

Someone pointed at a gap between bricks. Danilo sent his wind spirit through the gap and pulled out what had been hidden.

“Black crystal.”

“It looks exactly like the one from earlier….”

“Looks like she was trying to stash this one, too.”

What rolled out of the brick gap was a cut black crystal identical to the one they’d found on the third floor. The caretaker had likely tried to embezzle it too, then either failed or forgot.

“Anything else?”

“Not sure.”

They investigated as they climbed the remaining steps, but no further clues appeared.

Soon, they stepped onto the top floor where the bell hung.

“Let’s see….”

Ivan grabbed the lower part of the bell and tugged upward as if lifting it, letting them look inside.

Unlike the plain exterior, the interior was covered in dense, intricate lines. Near the lower edge, there were evenly spaced grooves.

‘Exactly seven. And the size….’

After checking the inside, Ye Hyeonseong took out a black crystal from the Infinite Corridor and held it to a groove. The size and cut fit perfectly.

“Looks like they carved a magic circle.”

The Baengnyeong Forest people immediately guessed the answer.

“There was a tool shaped like a chisel in the repair kit.”

“Ah, that. I wondered why something like that was in ‘bell repair’ tools.”

Hearing that, Ye Hyeonseong took out the bell repair tool box.

‘So that’s why there were chisels and black crystals.’

If it had been a broad blade, she might’ve thought it was for scraping grime off. But what was inside the kit had a small, sharp edge suited for carving—like a whittling knife.

It was clearly what they used to carve lines inside the bell under the pretense of maintenance.

“But… here’s the thing. If all this is prepared, does that mean we’re supposed to complete this bell?”

After inspecting the inside, someone asked.

“Huh…?”

“Wait, is that what this means?”

“But if we complete it, won’t it trigger a dark-magic effect? The black crystals themselves are ominous, and based on what we’ve gathered so far….”

The way everyone looked at the bell turned grim.

‘Fair point… Even if we don’t know what the markings mean, the clues so far and the black crystal info are enough to guess. The crystal description said things like ‘ominous’ and so on.’

Ye Hyeonseong pulled out the lord’s notebook they had found in the study again.

‘There wasn’t anything specifically about those markings, but if this really is tied to dark magic, there should be a separate dark-magic book that mentions it. For that, I need to know what books the lord was interested in….’

She vaguely remembered seeing a few references to books in the lord’s records. She’d have to check whether they were among the books she’d swept up from the study.

‘The only titles that were mentioned were a basic-level book and a historical text about the blood jade….’

She immediately found the titled ones in the Infinite Corridor item list and pulled them out. A few books dropped at her feet.

‘For the ones without titles, do I have to pull out everything with the right cover color?’

Scanning the item list, there were quite a few books without titles. From among them, she grabbed anything with black or blood-red covers at random.

‘That’s the suspicious dark-magic vibe. Odds are higher the right one is among the untitled ones than the titled ones.’

As Ye Hyeonseong kept pulling books from the Infinite Corridor, others picked them up one by one. They seemed to understand what she was doing.

“This is just a basic dark-magic textbook.”

“Diagram of dark sorcery circles… Looks like she studied this to learn the basics of drawing that thing.”

Several books were pushed aside into a corner—irrelevant to what they needed.

“What’s this one? Revelations? There’s nothing special inside, but it’s written in all this grandiose fluff….”

“Ah, here!”

Not long after, someone cried out. They’d found information related to the carving inside the bell.

“Look.”

The person who found it opened a black-covered book and showed the page. It described a dark magic called Bell Chime That Awakens Grudges.

“It says the method is to draw the formation inside the bell….”

“The shape matches, too.”

Someone near the bell lifted it again so they could re-check the line structure. The lines inside matched the diagram in the book.

“Then if we complete it and ring the bell….”

“In this situation, undead monsters will wake up.”

“Right. It said it affects both the living and the dead without distinguishing.”

“Then doesn’t that mean we shouldn’t complete it?”

Someone said so after confirming the information.

“No, we have to complete it.”

Kwon Seojin cut in.

“The condition to leave a dungeon is always the same. Defeat every monster that exists in the dungeon.”

“So… you’re saying we have to use that to call the monsters out if we want to solve this dungeon and go back?”

Someone frowned at Kwon Seojin’s explanation.

“We could just find the monsters that are already hiding and kill them….”

“Ah, I also think Kwon Seojin is right.”

Ye Hyeonseong joined in as well.

Based on her experience entering and clearing dungeons, using the bell to lure monsters out was the correct approach here.

‘There have been more dungeons than you’d think where you had to actively summon monsters like that to clear them.’

To the Otherworlders who still looked reluctant, Ye Hyeonseong explained with a couple of examples from dungeons she’d experienced.

“There were really dungeons like that?”

“Hmm… I guess you people would have more experience than us with dungeons like this.”

“Of course. We haven’t been connected to this Network for that long.”

Fortunately, the Otherworlders accepted it quickly.

‘It doesn’t really have anything to do with when the Network connected—this is just my personal experience… but whatever. As long as it’s settled.’

“Alright, then. Let’s complete the bell using this as reference.”

Everyone turned their eyes back to the bell.

“First we have to take it down, right?”

“We need to check the inside, too.”

“Let’s see. We have all the tools right here….”

They started by dismantling the bell. Those skilled at disarming traps used the repair tools they’d laid out to detach the bell, then carefully lowered it to the floor.

Next, someone with deft hands used the carving chisel to add more lines inside, filling in the missing parts while comparing it to the book’s diagram.

After the carving was done, they inserted the black crystals into the border grooves of the diagram as a finishing step. Once all seven were set, the lines carved inside the bell darkened into a black sheen.

“That was faster than I expected.”

“Now we just hang it back up and strike it, right?”

Lastly, they checked the black book again. It said to ring the bell three times when the formation began to glow.

After confirming, they re-hung the bell in its original place and secured it. Then they rang it.

Deeeeng—

Maybe because it had something ominous carved into it, the toll was fairly eerie.

Deeeeng—

Deeeeng—

The next two strikes followed. The three tolls the book demanded were completed.

“We rang it like it said.”

“So?”

“I don’t see anything in particular….”

People leaned their heads out of the bell tower and scanned the surroundings. It didn’t look like any monsters were waking up or approaching yet.

‘The sky… is getting really dark.’

Ye Hyeonseong checked the sky outside the bell tower. Storm clouds were rolling in fast. Now it was unmistakably overcast.

“Ah!”

Just then, someone let out a scream-like exclamation.

“Why?”

“Over there!”

“Ah…!”

Everyone turned toward where the person pointed.

Something was flying in fast from far away.

‘That… a bone dragon?’

Ye Hyeonseong jolted in surprise as she recognized the shape.

A monster that looked like the skeleton display of a pterosaur was flying toward the castle.

‘…No. That’s not it.’

Because it resembled a bone dragon, she’d mistaken it for an instant. She quickly realized it was a different monster.

‘Given the clues we’ve investigated, that’s a wyvern skeleton.’

As it flew closer, the Interstellar Network began providing information.

While Ye Hyeonseong was checking the info, the monster turned and angled toward the Wyvern Tower.

Before it entered the tower, Ye Hyeonseong caught sight of what it was gripping in its claws—a human skeleton.

“That was a wyvern, right?”

“More precisely, a Bone Wyvern. That’s what the Network said.”

“Then is that the monster the bell called out?”

“No idea. Another monster could’ve appeared somewhere we can’t see.”

“But earlier, didn’t it have something hanging from its feet?”

“It did. A child’s remains.”

At the mention of the child’s remains, silence fell.

“…What do you think its purpose was? Bringing a child’s remains, I mean.”

“Isn’t that what we’re about to find out?”

Everyone stared at the Wyvern Tower. They looked like they wanted to rush over and hunt the Bone Wyvern immediately.

“Then let’s pack up and head down. Looks like we’ve done everything we need to do here.”

Ye Hyeonseong said as she put the scattered repair tools and books back into the Infinite Corridor.

“I was going to do that without you saying it.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Ye Hyeonseong replied listlessly to Ivan’s scoff.

“But we still haven’t checked the basement. Is it okay to go after that first?”

Someone asked as they were about to head down from the bell tower.

“Still, going there first seems better.”

Milena cast her gaze toward the Wyvern Tower.

“If we enter the basement, we don’t know whether we’ll be able to come back out.”

“Ah, true. Better the tower than the basement if things go south—you can run out.”

The person who asked quickly agreed with Milena.

‘No need to say, “If the Constellations mess with us, it’s the same either way,” right.’

‘Those people should see this mess, too.’

After checking the Constellation messages, Ye Hyeonseong looked at the Otherworlders.

Unfortunately, this time the message from ‘Hands Faster Than Eyes’ seemed to have been sent only to Ye Hyeonseong.

‘How am I supposed to kill that thing, seriously?’

“Not coming down? Everyone’s already heading down.”

Kwon Seojin spoke to Ye Hyeonseong, who’d been glaring at the Constellation messages.

“Ah, already? Let’s go.”

Ye Hyeonseong immediately followed after the Otherworlders. Kwon Seojin followed behind her.