Ch. 203

Chapter 203: The Value of a Single Junk Item (1)

At the entrance of the Treasury of the Abyss, Marlen was waiting for Hyun’s business to conclude. Beside Marlen stood Duke Bahimir.

Because Hyun had unexpectedly found something major to ponder, it took him quite a long time to emerge from the Treasury.

Creeeeeak! The moment the doors opened, the Duke muttered in a solemn tone.

“Are you coming out only now?”

“It seems so.”

“It took considerably long. Why do you think that is?”

“I suppose I’ll have to check to find out…”

‘Eh?’

Hyun was startled the moment he stepped out. He hadn’t expected Bahimir to be there personally to greet him.

“What brings you here, Your Grace…?”

“Naturally, to see you off myself.”

Flash! With a gesture from the Duke, a red portal manifested in the air. Hyun recognized from the scenery on the other side that it led to the Shade Guild’s ‘Private Room.’

“A trace of mana connected to that place still remained.”

“I… see. Thank you for your consideration.”

“Do you require further escort?”

“No, haha. You’ve even opened a portal for me; this is more than enough.”

After Hyun completely disappeared beyond the red light, Bahimir and Marlen walked slowly toward the Treasury.

Rumble! The firmly closed doors swung wide again.

Tap. Tap.

The two pairs of footsteps began to follow the trail Hyun had just taken.

“Marlen.”

When they finally reached the Globe of Demons, Bahimir muttered lowly.

“I believe this is the first time I’ve hoped your assumption was wrong.”

“I feel the same.”

Vroom— The massive globe glowed red. It was magic that reversed the recent logs. While digging through the records, Marlen’s eyes narrowed strangely as he identified traces of activation. Noticing the change in his demeanor, Bahimir asked.

“How many times was it activated?”

“…Exactly twice.”

Bahimir tapped the bridge of his nose with his finger and asked again.

“The locations?”

It took more time to unearth the records regarding the locations. For several minutes, only the sound of shallow breathing filled the Treasury. Depending on the traces found, Bahimir would have to make an extremely different choice.

Hah. A moment later, Marlen let out a hollow laugh. It was a laugh that mixed relief with the discarding of suspicion.

“Both locations are the same.”

“And where is that?”

“Labyrinth, in the Magic Kingdom…”

“Do you mean he simply activated the same medium twice?”

“Yes. I am disgraced. It seems my assumption was incorrect.”

Kuhuhut!

Bahimir laughed boisterously despite Marlen’s judgment being wrong. Or perhaps, he laughed because the suspicion was wrong.

“With this, one person is firmly removed from the list of suspects.”

The anxiety Marlen had harbored while watching the skill «Assimilation» was this: Had Hyun approached the Duke with impure intentions from the start?

About five years ago, an unfortunate incident occurred at the Pitch Black Palace. Tartarus was in the banquet hall, and Hyun possessed the ability to hide his form. Putting all the circumstances together, there was a high possibility that the intruder in the Treasury that day had been him.

Marlen thought that by leaving him alone this time to make him let his guard down, he would surely repeat the same trick! He had shared these thoughts with Bahimir, but it seemed the concern was unnecessary.

“I suppose there was no need to doubt a User whom Darkness took note of from the beginning.”

Bahimir remembered the feats Hyun had shown. His performances at Kaidan Castle, in the Lands of Darkness, and decisively at the Ranking Ceremony remained vividly impressed upon him.

“Marlen, did you not feel the power of Darkness at the final moment of the Usurpation Battle?”

“The power of Darkness…?”

“Yes. It was faint, but it was unmistakably a technique of Darkness. It is something that cannot be imitated by one who has not sincerely offered their body and soul to Her.”

Bahimir spoke with conviction.

“Fufu, I came here personally just in case, but it was a wasted trip.”

After casting aside all suspicion, Bahimir and Marlen returned to the main castle. It was then that they received unexpected news.

“Lord Bahimir, I have an important report!”

“Hmm? what is it?”

“A Golem has suddenly disappeared from the warehouse!”

Normally, this would be a trivial matter not even worth reporting. However, if that Golem was the primary contributor who led the Ranking Ceremony to victory, the story changed. Even at an event that might cause panic, the Duke remained calm.

Since learning the truth about the Golems, Bahimir had stopped considering himself their master.

‘Perhaps they have gone to find their original master.’

Do servants truly gravitate toward the energy of Darkness? Bahimir thought that perhaps the User might find Darkness even before a Duke like himself. If it was something that could be even slightly helpful to Her, there was no need to interfere.

Users were beings of infinite variables and possibilities. If Darkness truly favored such a User, what would happen?

“Kukuku… I look forward to it.”

Bahimir laughed as an absurd imagination suddenly occurred to him. He briefly wondered if his future self might be overwhelmed in strength by a single User.

A User who couldn’t even live for 100 years.

Because it was so preposterous, the delusion was soon forgotten from Bahimir’s memory.

Thanks to the Duke’s consideration, Hyun was able to return to the Private Room in a single step. Unaware that he had just been in a dangerous situation, Hyun’s head felt like it was splitting because of the information he had obtained from the Globe of Demons.

‘Now, let’s think about this step by step.’

Hyun pulled Asra’s memories from his mind one by one. This time, he felt it was better to recall them directly rather than searching the Interloop.

Spin.

The Celestial’s ring spun like a top on the table. The owner of the ring was named Poppy. While Radiet was a Celestial whose name was known to all users, Poppy was a Celestial whom users couldn’t easily approach.

‘It couldn’t be anyone else. I can’t think of any other Celestial with demonic energy besides this guy.’

For unknown reasons, Poppy had been deceived by a demon in his youth and felt extremely ashamed of that past. Actually, it was right to be ashamed. He was likely the first and last Celestial to possess demonic energy. Although he returned to being a normal Celestial after years of effort, his past memories remained a “dark history” he likely wanted to erase forever.

‘How is this guy with Louise?’

Furthermore, Poppy was the NPC who had showered him with the most items. Hyun remembered receiving quests by holding his weakness over him back in the Asra days. Out of dozens of quests, he had cleared only about five.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t clear them because they were hard. It was because he didn’t need to clear them since he could get all the quest rewards anyway. How was that possible? Because it was possible to demand the rewards from Poppy in advance!

Of course, if he took the rewards first and let the quest period expire, Poppy would get very angry. But his anger gauge seemed to reset over time. If he took the time to soothe him, he could get a new reward a few months later. He had obtained dozens of items that way without clearing the quests!

In other words, this Celestial named Poppy was an all-time “sucker.” It meant that being tricked by a demon wasn’t just a coincidence.

‘Did Louise catch a sucker…? Or was she caught by a sucker?’

Hyun judged the former to be much more likely. While Louise looked innocent, he was often surprised by her flashing inner thoughts whenever he Assimilated with her. She looked naive on the outside, but she was different on the inside. Louise wasn’t a 2nd-generation AI for nothing.

On the other hand, Poppy, who had little influence on the world-building, was bound to have a lower grade of AI. Above all, the probability of the naturally gullible Poppy deceiving Louise seemed extremely slim.

‘Well, I’ll find out when I meet them.’

Hyun projected the recorded video into the air. The place where the red dot was pinned on the Globe of Demons was the city of Labyrinth in the Magic Kingdom. It was a city he had once visited with guild members for an EXP dungeon.

‘By the way, I don’t know why she’s there.’

Hyun clicked his tongue at a troublesome premonition. The Labyrinth of today was not the peaceful desert city of the past. The perfectly managed underground maze had turned into an unmanageable place over the last five years.

The culprits were the mutant monsters that had begun to appear in the city’s basement. The monsters’ mana had altered the nature of the existing magic circles, and perhaps due to that influence, the laws of physics within the maze had completely flipped. The size of the maze had also grown incredibly deep.

Nowadays, it was said that no one knew where the bottom was. Rumors circulated among NPCs that if you fell into the abyss of the maze, you would never return to the surface. With the influx of opportunists seeking monster byproducts, the city had become a lawless zone for making a quick fortune.

‘Labyrinth… a maze…’

Regardless, it was confirmed that he had to enter the maze to find Louise.

‘Maze?’

And speaking of mazes, a thought suddenly crossed his mind. Hyun recalled what the Labyrinth was like at this point in time—at the start of the Darkness episode. A treasure warehouse you entered at the risk of your life. It was said that most of the world’s magical materials were inside the maze; the byproducts from the monsters reached thousands of varieties, including mana stones. Could there be a more attractive place for a User?

‘Wait, the magic materials I have right now…’

While thinking of materials he could gather on the side while looking for Louise, a specific item recipe popped into Hyun’s head.

‘Can I make that combination?’

He quickly checked his inventory. High-grade monster horns, a disassembled Chain Sword, Grade 15 mana stones, and overflowing divine stones… various materials were visible.

‘I have all the essential materials. If I just get the remaining ingredients from the maze…?’

Hyun searched for a few item recipes in the Interloop. And then—

Flash! After finishing the check of a complex tree of countless materials, Hyun’s eyes sparkled.

‘I can make a Legendary weapon!’

Thump, thump.

Hyun’s heart began to race. Legendary. In the previous game, he had only barely touched a single piece of armor when he reached the mid-300s. But now, thanks to disassembling Shakron’s Chain Sword, he had gathered all the core materials. If he added just a few more items, he could craft a Legendary weapon! He hadn’t noticed earlier because he was too preoccupied with Louise.

‘It’s not armor, it’s a weapon… I can get two Legendary items before I even hit Level 300?’

At that moment, another reason to head to the Labyrinth was born in Hyun’s heart. Yes, he had to prepare right now! Reaching the deep underground required more than just a few preparations.

Ding! A whisper came through at that exact moment.

「Hyun?」

A voice suddenly heard.

‘Eh? Jini?’

Hyun realized he hadn’t contacted Jini at all since the Ranking Ceremony.

‘Aha, is she asking about the results?’

Yes, she had been a big help. Just as he was about to convey his thanks, Jini’s voice came first.

「Are you alone in the Private Room right now?」

「Yes, I am.」

「I’m outside; can I come in?」

「Outside? Outside where?」

While he was about to answer and then think, the portal of the Private Room suddenly wavered. It was then that he understood Jini’s question about whether she could come in.

Flash! Within a moment, Jini had crossed through the Shade Guild’s portal.

“Sorry. It’s a bit sudden, isn’t it?”

‘She could have just said it over a whisper; why did she come all the way here?’

Hyun was about to greet her hurriedly, but he paused when he met Jini’s eyes as she entered the room.

‘Huh…?’

It was because her eyes looked more determined than ever. Jini looked around the Shade Guild’s Private Room once, then spoke with a faint smile.

“It’s just the two of us. Good. It’ll be easier to bring this up.”

Hyun still didn’t understand Jini’s intention. Was she going to demand payment for the lessons over the last two days? Of course, he had no intention of ignoring Jini’s great help. But just how much was she going to ask for that she was stalling like this?

“Bring… what up?”

Seeing Jini hesitate to speak, a creeping sense of unease rose in Hyun. Jini finally spoke after biting her lip for a long time. It was a thought she had held since the moment she met Hyun, and one she had become more certain of over the last few days.

“Hyun, don’t you want to become the King of this world?”

Having come to the Private Room with full resolve, Jini began a conversation that would be a turning point for both of them.

End of 203