The People Of Baengnyeong Forest (19)

The battle that followed unfolded much like the one before it. Once again, the Constellations sponsored skills toward the undead horde, and as if to push back against that, Kwon Seojin spread a wide-area buff.

Ppueo-eong!

KkyaaaAAaak!

Uuuhhh…….

Kwajik

The undead, empowered by sponsored buffs, rampaged savagely, but putting them down was not difficult.

In some ways, it even felt easier than when they had first stepped onto Basement Level 5.

‘Because we’re fighting with a high-grade holy buff on us.’

H-hic…… hic…….

Hyeonseong finished off the last Grudge Wraith with her pickaxe. Perhaps furious that its attempt at possession had failed, it vanished while spilling a sobbing wail.

“Alright, next.”

As soon as another round of combat ended, they cleaned up quickly and moved on.

‘No matter how I look at it, the only conclusion is that this is strange.’

Hyeonseong stared hard at Kwon Seojin, who was moving with Ivan up front.

If she forced things once, she could claim it was coincidence. But the same situation had already repeated several times.

‘And he acted like he’d expected it to happen.’

If it happened not once or twice but several times, there was only one conclusion.

From the start, Kwon Seojin had known what would happen on this dungeon’s Basement Level 5.

‘There are plenty of ways to know the information itself. If a Constellation friendly to him is attached, it could tell him.

But items are a different story. To secure not just one but several buff items that would be at least A-rank, you’d normally need some amount of time, wouldn’t you?’

If you needed items urgently, there were ways—like inducing Constellation sponsorship, or posting an urgent-buy notice on the Interstellar Network market.

But Hyeonseong doubted it was either.

‘I don’t know for sure, but he doesn’t feel particularly friendly toward Constellations. And the network market… there’s no way he’d be crazy enough to use that.’

The only currency usable in the Interstellar Network market was Ghost Coins.

And those Ghost Coins had to be spent in large fixed amounts every month. If you had an enhancement-type skill like Hyeonseong, you also had to invest in strengthening it.

Most major uses demanded huge sums. That was why Ghost Coins were not a currency you could casually pour into item purchases.

‘Even if you buy in a rush, one or two would be the reasonable limit. They wouldn’t be cheap items to begin with, and if you post urgent-buy, you’d have to pay above market. And he threw down several of those in a row….’

Hyeonseong’s gaze, fixed on Kwon Seojin, sharpened.

She had already weighed enough reasons to conclude Seojin had known in advance. Now all that remained was figuring out how that could be possible.

“Over there—something’s there.”

But before Hyeonseong could dig further, Ivan’s voice cut in. With no choice, Hyeonseong stopped her speculation there.

“A pillar?”

“It looks like one.”

Those in front tossed out a word each.

“We’ll have to get closer and take a look.”

At that, their footsteps quickened. Before long, the party reached the place where the unfamiliar pillar stood.

‘Is this the final point?’

Hyeonseong scanned the area.

It was a wide, circular chamber, and in the center stood the tall pillar they had seen from afar. There were no passages besides the one they had entered through.

‘A hidden door or something… doesn’t look like it’s visible for now.’

After surveying the space once, Hyeonseong turned her gaze to the pillar in the center. It was the only thing worth investigating.

“There’s a hole carved into it.”

One of the people examining the pillar pointed somewhere. At a height Hyeonseong could reach if she raised her hand, there was a fist-sized circular recess.

“Wasn’t the crystal orb we picked up outside about that size?”

After checking the recess, someone spoke.

“No. That one was a bit smaller than this.”

Hyeonseong answered and pulled out the Green Crystal of Mercy. When she held it up to the recess, it was immediately clear the size didn’t match.

“Then if something goes in there, it has to be something else.”

“What could possibly fit?”

“The holy relic didn’t match from the shape alone….”

They began to ponder.

“Are we sure we’re even supposed to insert something?”

“Given the pillar’s structure, it seems like we are.”

“Right. It’s a mechanism that moves by sending energy outward from that point.”

“Then we need to find something that fits that spot….”

While the others examined the pillar using even investigation skills, Hyeonseong opened the item list for Infinite Corridor.

‘The Green Crystal and the holy relic were out. And even among gemstones, there’s nothing that looks like it would match the size. So that leaves….’

As she flipped through the lists by compartment, Hyeonseong stopped on one section: the compartment where only Blood Jade Fragments were stored.

‘No matter how I look at it, it feels like the right answer is combining all of these.’

The number of fragments the party had collected on the way here was enormous. If they merged them all into one, it might reach the needed size.

‘It feels unsettling, though.’

She would have to turn an item with an unpleasant origin into something not fingernail-sized, but fist-sized.

It left a nasty taste in her mouth, but she couldn’t exactly refuse. There was nothing else to try.

“Should we try combining all of this now?”

Hyeonseong asked as she pulled a Blood Jade Fragment out of Infinite Corridor.

“That?”

“It does look like that’s the only thing we can try right now….”

“Even if we combine them, will the size match? It didn’t seem like combining made it bigger.”

The Baengnyeong Forest people reacted much like Hyeonseong. They acknowledged it was the only thing to try, but they didn’t like it.

But they also couldn’t stop now. In the end, work began to combine the Blood Jade Fragments, as Hyeonseong suggested.

“Are we doing this right?”

“The size and the quality aren’t changing….”

Using the mass formed from the fragments she had poured out as the core, Hyeonseong absorbed them one by one. But even after absorbing close to twenty fragments, no visible change occurred.

“Maybe we should think of another method instead—”

“Ah, wait.”

It was just as a few people voiced their complaints.

At that moment, a dark crimson aura burst once from the blood-jade mass.

Right after, the mass rapidly swelled in size. Now it was slightly larger than the one they had used to open the Underground Prison door.

‘What about the completion?’

Hyeonseong checked the blood jade’s information.

It had increased by a mere 1%.

‘Still, that means feeding it more is the right approach.’

At least she confirmed that merging fragments wasn’t pointless. Without further debate, the party continued the work.

They kept absorbing fragments to raise the completion. Each time it went up by 1%, the blood jade’s size also grew noticeably. When it reached 99%, it had grown to nearly the same size as the Green Crystal of Mercy.

“It really looks disgustingly creepy.”

“Isn’t there not much left now?”

When there were about ten fragments left, someone said,

“The count looks tight.”

“Looking at the growth pattern, it should be completing any moment now.”

“Honestly, it’s absurd that we’re even hoping this horrific thing gets completed….”

With the end in sight, whether success or failure, chatter rose again.

“Y-yes, anyway, this is all of it—the last of what we brought.”

Hyeonseong picked up the final, dark-colored fragment. If this didn’t finish it, they’d have to go back and hunt more ghost monsters.

Soon, the last fragment was absorbed into the blood jade. Immediately after, a dark crimson aura burst forth.

It was the densest aura they’d seen yet.

“At least we won’t need to go back and gather more.”

Hyeonseong straightened up. Her eyes fixed on the blood jade in someone else’s hand.

After releasing that dense aura, the blood jade had grown to a fist-sized sphere—just the right size to fit the recess carved into the pillar.

“Then do we just plug this in over there now?”

The person holding the blood jade asked.

“Looks like it. Ah—before you plug it in, everyone get ready for combat.”

Hyeonseong warned them as she pulled out her pickaxe again.

While completing the blood jade, she had realized what method would be used to close this dungeon.

‘It’s a dungeon with a separate boss-class monster. And it’s the kind where we have to summon that thing ourselves, then deal with it.’

Every time she tackled a dungeon like this, she felt the same irritation: having to summon the enemy yourself was annoying.

“You’re saying that’ll call a monster?”

“With a very high probability, yes. Right?”

Hyeonseong lightly prodded Kwon Seojin.

“Mm, yes. If it’s this kind of dungeon pattern, the odds are high.”

Kwon Seojin answered right away.

“Is there no way to proceed without inserting it?”

“No. The clear condition is to eliminate every monster that exists. So in a way, it might actually be better if it pops out when we call it. We won’t have to go searching for it ourselves.”

Hyeonseong replied firmly to someone glaring at the pillar.

‘And summoning the boss will also give us a way to clean up the remaining monsters all at once.’

If a dungeon had an excessive number of monsters compared to the entry limit, there would always be at least one mechanism to clear them in bulk. Otherwise, the difficulty couldn’t be balanced.

“Tch. No choice, then.”

“Alright, I’ll put it in.”

The person holding the blood jade brought it to the pillar’s recess.

Click

They heard the sound of the blood jade locking into place. At the same time, a faint tremor rose from the ground.

Kuuung

A heavy thud sounded, like something massive dropping. Hyeonseong’s gaze snapped toward the passage they’d entered from.

The corridor was now blocked by a thick stone wall.

‘Cutting off the retreat. The most textbook of textbooks.’

Clicking her tongue inwardly, Hyeonseong turned her gaze back to the pillar.

The pillar, too, was changing. Centered on the blood jade embedded in the recess, dark crimson energy spread across the pillar like circuitry.

Cracking sounds came from the pillar now covered in those dark crimson circuits—and then it shattered into pieces.

Hwoooo—

Around the blood jade floating where the pillar had collapsed, wind gathered in a swirling vortex.

Within the eye of that wind, a black shape began to form. The black shape soon shifted into something humanoid.

A skeleton in an old, black robe, holding a large staff.

Even without overthinking, its identity was obvious.

‘So the boss really is a lich?’

Once the monster’s form was mostly complete, Hyeonseong checked its information.

‘Naim Smollak? That was definitely….’

Hyeonseong recalled the information she had seen on the blood jade used to open the basement door. The name had been listed as the maker.

‘The lord’s name, for sure.’

Which meant the lord, too, had become undead after death.

‘But did the lord have what it takes to become a lich?’

Confirming the boss monster’s identity raised a new question.

As far as Hyeonseong remembered, the lord had shown no particular talent for black magic. At least, according to the materials she had checked, that was the case.

‘That’s why he adopted people who had the capability to make the blood jade and had them do it. And I couldn’t find any traces that looked like he personally used black magic.

He might’ve had the knowledge, but it doesn’t feel like he could truly wield it….’

The situation didn’t match what she understood. Hyeonseong furrowed her brow.

“Is that the owner of this dungeon?”

“Judging by the name, it must be that lord.”

“Hmph. He squeezed the residents dry like that, and in the end, it looks like he got his comeuppance.”

The Baengnyeong Forest people glared at the lich and muttered one line each. Someone even snorted and mocked it.

“Don’t let your guard down. A lich, no matter what, is bound to be troublesome to deal with.”

“Should we start the raid right away? The summoning looks like it’s just about finished.”

At Ivan’s warning, the others immediately leveled their weapon tips at the lich.

And then, in the next instant, the lich’s form was completed perfectly. The additional line in its info window disappeared.

“Then, let’s begin.”

As soon as the lich became a valid target, Milena raised her staff high, then struck it to the floor.

Tak

At the moment Milena’s staff hit the ground, a pillar of light dropped onto the lich’s head.

Kwaaang—!