NOVPUB
Chapter 245
Suho decided to handle Jiwoo first.
“Jiwoo? Thank you for everything so far,” he said. “We’ll stay here and take a look around the Sea of the Afterlife. You should head back and get some rest.”
In truth, her role was now over. Simply being near the Sea of the Afterlife had left her struggling to breathe, so Suho’s priority was to get her out of the dungeon as quickly as possible.
“Show her the way out, Harmakan.”
He glanced at the demonic spirit, who opted to use a spell rather than escort her out himself. A large magic circle formed in his hand, which was then compressed into an item the size of a fist.
“Master, I have an easier solution,” he said, handing the item to Suho.
A notification appeared.
[Item: “Teleportation Stone” has been acquired.]
“Teleportation Stone?” Suho mumbled, and an information window appeared in front of him.
[Item: Teleportation Stone]
[Type: Consumable
An item created with Harmakan’s magic. Destroy it to teleport out of a dungeon.]
“Wow. You can make stuff like this?” Suho asked.
“It is merely a trivial skill I learned while studying Kandiaru’s magic,” Harmakan responded humbly. Despite his modest words, he couldn’t hide the pride in his posture or the grin creeping across his face at the hunter’s amazement.
“So anybody can use this? Not just me?”
“Such a thing would ordinarily be impossible, but I have modified it so that it can be used by anyone standing near one of your shadow soldiers.”
“Near my shadow soldiers... Does that mean it uses Shadow Exchange?”
“You are as perceptive as always, Master. Since I’ve started serving you, I’ve realized that many of Kandiaru’s spells rely on manipulating shadow abilities.”
“I see.”
Suho nodded. The more he learned about these demonic spirits, the more useful they seemed.
He put the stone in Jiwoo’s hands. “Please be careful on your way out,” he said.
“This is...”
Jiwoo looked somehow unfazed, as though she was no longer capable of feeling shock. She had seen a dungeon being created, after all. She had no energy left to be surprised by an escape hatch being handed to her so easily.
Following Suho’s instructions, she crushed the stone in her hand. It activated a portal that transported her out of the dimensional rift to safety near Hapjeong Station.
“You don’t need to use that item. You can use Shadow Exchange any time,” Harmakan told Suho.
“True. Speaking of which, I’m going to leave some soldiers nearby so I can come back whenever I need to,” Suho replied.
This was one of the benefits of having more shadow soldiers. By spreading them out strategically, he could teleport wherever they were stationed as soon as the ability’s cooldown was up.
He summoned a selection of the recently extracted shadow demons as well as a few shadow dragonkin and ordered them to guard the gate.
[The Shadow Demon’s name has been changed to “Shadow Gatekeeper.”]
[The Shadow Dragonkin’s name has been changed to “Shadow Gatekeeper.”]
“Now let’s head on inside,” Suho said, leading the rest of his soldiers into the gate.
[Entering gate: “Sea of the Afterlife.”]
An inky sky filled Suho’s vision. Below it, a vast sea stretched endlessly, a blackened expanse that looked as though the sky itself had melted and pooled there.
Suddenly, warnings popped up in quick succession in front of Suho.
[You have encountered the energy of the Sea of the Afterlife while in a living body.]
[Debuff: “Death” has been activated.]
[Your health diminishes in real time.]
[HP -100]
[HP -100]
[HP -100]
[...]
“Wow...” This is nuts.
At that moment, death seemed right around the corner. Suho’s health was plummeting at a whopping hundred points per second.
“So I’ll eventually die if I stay here too long. I guess even Kandiaru’s Blessing is no good in the face of death,” Suho remarked.
“Naturally. Not even the Absolute Being could avoid death. A blessing engineered by a mere created being is of no use in this place,” scoffed Antares, perched on Suho’s shoulder.
Antares’ sharp gaze was fixed on their surroundings. The area was vast, and there was no sign of the World Tree. The only thing they could see was the sticky darkness.
“Watch out, Young Monarch. Just because nothing is visible does not mean nothing is there,” warned Beru, his voice tense. “If you fall into the ocean, the speed at which you lose health will drastically increase.”
Thankfully, Suho would never fall into the ocean. After all, he had a skill from Sirka, the ice elf and successor of the Monarch of Frost.
[Skill: “Elven Footstep” has activated.]
Carefully, he stepped onto the water’s surface. To his relief, the skill worked, allowing him to walk across the black sea without sinking.
“Incredible!”
“Master is walking on the water!”
“Kieeek! That’s the Young Monarch for you!”
The shadow soldiers, including Harmakan and Beru, cheered with their arms raised high in the air.
Suho was relieved. “That’s good. I was going to have to use Ruler’s Authority if this didn’t work.”
The result of that would have been something closer to floating than walking. As such, Elven Footstep was much less taxing overall.
With the problem of mobility now solved, Suho turned to Beru and the other soldiers.
“How are all of you? Everyone all right?” he asked.
“We’re already dead souls. We will be fine,” Beru responded.
“Well, that’s something.”
Conveniently, shadow soldiers did not have any health to lose in the first place.
“What about Antares?” Suho asked.
Ragna chirped in response.
“He already ran away? Huh.”
[Antares urges you to let Ragna retreat to the safety of the shadow world.]
The Monarch had departed the tiny dragon’s body, and Ragna was slowly weakening on Suho’s shoulder, a dazed look on his face.
“All right. Off you go,” Suho said, sending Ragna into his shadow.
In the meantime, his own health was still rapidly dropping. He purchased an ample supply of healing potions from the shop window.
[Item: “Middle Grade Healing Potion” has been purchased.]
[Item: “Middle Grade Healing Potion” has been purchased.]
[Item: “Middle Grade Healing Potion” has been purchased.]
[...]
“This is going to get expensive,” Suho muttered. What a place. I have to keep drinking potions to stay alive?
Drinking multiple potions at once didn’t speed up their effects. In other words, all the potions could do was maintain his current health, and just barely at that.
“If I get into a fight, I won’t survive on potions alone.”
“Young Monarch, you might leave the scouting to your soldiers while you wait outside in safety,” Beru advised.
“No, I’ve come this far. Let’s investigate.”
Suho sent out flying dragonkin to scout the surroundings while he continued to cautiously walk across the sea’s surface using Elven Footstep.
“If you sense danger in any way, you must use Shadow Exchange to trade places with one of the soldiers outside the gate,” Harmakan chimed in, also eager to offer loyal advice. “Even better, just exchange with a soldier left on Earth. That is probably more efficient, considering the cooldown period on the Shadow Exchange ability.”
Suddenly, Suho felt a chill. “They’re here,” he said, his eyes gleaming sharply.
From the viscous black waters, massive tentacle-like tendrils emerged, reaching for him from every direction.
[Nightmare Bulb]
[Nightmare Bulb]
[Nightmare Bulb]
“So this is their garden after all,” he muttered, swinging his daggers forward as if he’d been waiting for this moment.
The weeds shrieked as the fight erupted.
Aside from the nightmare bulbs, other nameless weeds also joined the fray, attacking him relentlessly.
A living, breathing human had entered their domain, and their goal was clear. The countless plants opened their gaping maws, eager to devour him. Some even burst from below without warning.
“Protect the Young Monarch!”
“Protect our master!”
By themselves, the weeds were not much of a problem. Simple weeds could not accomplish much against powerful shadow soldiers. But there was a bigger problem for Suho, and it had nothing to do with any potential threat.
“These weeds... don’t seem to grant any experience points,” Suho noted.
“This place is not meant for leveling,” Harmakan explained. “It’s a region that cannot be copied even by Kandiaru’s instance dungeons.”
Suho’s expression hardened. “I didn’t know that.”
This revelation posed a significant problem.
He looked around again. The Sea of the Afterlife was vast—seemingly endless, in fact. Despite deploying his entire army to search the area, there wasn’t even a hint of the World Tree. At this rate, he would spend all his resources on healing potions without having accomplished a thing.
“Hmm. So that’s the kind of place this is? We’ll have to use a different method.”
Suho’s gaze dropped to the water at his feet.
“All of you, come with me!”
“Y-Young Monarch?!” Beru stammered, visibly alarmed.
Abandoning safety, Suho leaped into the water.
“All of you! Follow the Young Monarch!” Beru shouted urgently, rallying the shadow soldiers to dive in after him.
The soldiers wasted no time, cutting down every weed in their path as they followed their master.
Suho was now facing a different problem altogether.
[Your health diminishes in real time.]
[The deeper you go, the stronger debuff: “Death” becomes.]
[HP -100]
[HP -109]
[HP -123]
[HP -149]
[HP -162]
[...]
The threat of death loomed ever closer. The further he descended, the faster his health drained. This act was plainly a step toward speeding up his eventual end.
No wonder my father told me to level up before looking for the World Tree.
Fortunately, Suho had followed that advice, and he still had some wiggle room.
In addition, this suspicious, dark seawater thankfully didn’t stop him from breathing. He had picked up a trick from Esil during his time in the desert, enabling him to shield his face with magic.
He left his soldiers to deal with the minor threats around them and swam deeper into the abyss.
There it is.
His eyes glittered at what he saw.
Yes. The dead are supposed to wander in this ocean.
He had wondered why nobody seemed to be around. They had been down here, beneath the surface.
Deep below the Sea of the Afterlife was a veritable hellscape. Countless souls, human and non-human alike, drifted like silent corpses in the depths.
Despite their lifelike outward appearances, they were unmistakably dead, their eyes vacant. Even the souls devoured by the weeds were here. They felt no pain, having seamlessly become one with the murky depths.
Beru hovered protectively nearby and watched anxiously.
“Young Monarch...”
But Suho, seeing the horrifying truth of the Sea of the Afterlife, had only one reaction.
“Jackpot. Time to reel them in.”
He was smiling more broadly than ever before.
“Arise, all of you!”
[The Shadow Extraction was a success.]
[The Shadow Extraction was a success.]
[The Shadow Extraction was a success.]
[...]
[Antares, the King of Dragons and Monarch of Destruction, grumbles again about you ignoring the rules.]
