Forest of Darkness and the Empire (1)
Hunting the elite wyvern wasn’t very difficult.
As always, the current combination of Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu was practically close to invincible when it came to hunting.
Perhaps later, when more troublesome monsters appeared, things might change… but for now, the ordinary monsters in the Forest of Darkness couldn’t withstand the collaboration between Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu.
Just like before, the two killed the elite wyvern by blowing off its head with a single railgun shot. After collecting the loot, including the one Return Stone they wanted, and various materials, they immediately moved toward the fortress they had discovered.
Once again, Real Painting [The Door] was used for travel, allowing them to cross a great distance in a single move without difficulty.
If one thought about it, the other mana users were probably still wandering around not too far from the point where they had first arrived.
Meanwhile, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu were effortlessly jumping across huge distances.
If others were currently playing the game on Hard mode, Seon Yul was practically playing on Easy mode.
“Looks like there aren’t any big changes?”
After arriving near the fortress, the two observed the inside together using Divine Eye [Vision Sharing], and confirmed that there were indeed no major changes.
“So? Should we go in right away?”
The two were already wearing clothes they had prepared beforehand.
To anyone looking, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu now appeared the same as the people inside the fortress.
At this point, it seemed like they only needed to walk in and move around.
“Wait a moment. Just in case, let’s eat first before going in.”
There were two reasons Seon Yul wanted to eat before entering.
The first was that, because of communication problems inside the fortress, there was a high possibility they wouldn’t be able to eat food there.
The second reason was that the food they were about to eat was “squid rice bowl flavored with magic-stone powder.”
They needed to eat that in order to communicate through telepathy.
Since there was a high chance they wouldn’t be able to speak inside the fortress, the real reason for eating was essentially the second one.
The two quickly prepared and ate the squid rice bowl, then examined the inside of the fortress again.
Now that their preparations were completely finished, it was time to actually enter.
“Alright, now let’s find a place where we can create an entrance to Absolute Space.”
Seon Yul calmly examined the fortress interior and found an alley between buildings that people barely paid attention to.
‘That’ll work.’
Seon Yul immediately opened an Absolute Space entrance there.
At first, he had thought about finding a rarely used door and using Real Painting [The Door], but since he needed to go together with Cheon Li Yu anyway, an Absolute Space entrance had to be opened regardless.
So from the start, he simply opened an Absolute Space entrance and entered the fortress that way.
Tsssss.
An entrance to Absolute Space opened at the desired location.
Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu immediately entered the fortress through it.
Then they walked out of the alley as naturally as possible and slowly began walking through the fortress.
No one paid any attention to them.
But the truly surprising thing was…
“Did you hear that one of the frontier villages disappeared yesterday?”
“Again? Don’t tell me the wave started again?”
“I don’t think so. It’s probably because of a swarm phenomenon.”
They could hear the voices of people talking inside the fortress.
‘Li Yu. It seems the automatic translation function that mana users possess is working here too.’
‘It’s good that we can hear them, but we probably can’t talk back, right?’
Since the automatic translation function only applied to hearing speech, it was better to assume they shouldn’t try speaking.
‘Let’s just listen quietly for now. We only came today to do basic exploration anyway.’
‘Got it.’
‘Ah, and keep checking the surroundings with Divine Eye while we walk.’
Seon Yul planned to wander around the fortress for a few hours to get a sense of the atmosphere, then return to Absolute Space.
The two walked slowly without rushing, observing the fortress as a whole.
At the same time, they gathered information with both eyes and ears open.
Fortunately, since they could understand the speech, they were able to collect far more information than expected.
In the center of the fortress stood a strangely shaped tower.
It didn’t seem like a tower with any particular function, but its unusual shape… growing wider toward the top, naturally drew attention.
The place where that tower stood was the central plaza of the fortress.
Because many people were gathered there, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu decided to sit there and listen to people’s conversations.
Fortunately, since it was the only plaza in the fortress, benches were arranged in a circle along the outer edge of the square.
Quite a few people were sitting on those benches and talking.
To them, they were probably just having ordinary, everyday conversations.
But to Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu, even those trivial conversations were information.
“Did you hear the rumor that the tower in the north of the Empire is in danger?”
“Really? Wasn’t that the place the Northern Grand Duke was holding off pretty well?”
“Apparently, their climbing speed slowed down significantly recently. Honestly, they should have adjusted their pace early and cleared it more steadily, but they trusted their strength too much and pushed too hard.”
“But aren’t there quite a few skilled Irregulars over there? If they used them, it shouldn’t be that dangerous.”
“It seems many of the Irregulars active in that region moved somewhere else. You know how the Empire treats Irregulars these days… Even the Northern Grand Duke’s house is reportedly digging into their personal funds to gather Irregulars, but there aren’t many new Irregulars lately, so they’re struggling.”
“This is all because of the Empire’s new Irregular legislation. They should have just left Irregulars free to act like before, but they had to go and change it… tsk. That’s why we ended up like this, too.”
“Shh. Watch what you say. If the guards hear you, you could get dragged to the Empire’s Arcane Police Bureau.”
“It’s just frustrating. The Forest of Darkness was famous as a starting point for Irregulars, and this fortress was built to help the Irregulars who arrived here… but now this place exists not to help them, but to find them and suppress them.”
“Lower your voice. The atmosphere’s already bad these days.”
“Tsk… I think I’m going to leave this place soon. I used to feel a sense of pride teaching new Irregulars various things… but now it feels like it’s time to leave.”
“Phew… but seriously, if Irregulars keep escaping the Empire like this, the Empire might collapse. What exactly are they thinking?”
“Seems like they want the entire Empire to become like the Forest of Darkness. When the tower here collapsed, about 20% of the Empire’s territory turned into the Forest of Darkness… if another five or six towers collapse like this, it might not be impossible for the whole Empire to become like the Forest of Darkness.”
“Then that really would be the Empire’s downfall.”
“Exactly. That’s why I’m thinking about leaving the Empire early and migrating to the United Nations Federation over there. I heard they actually treat Irregulars favorably. Wouldn’t things be better there?”
“Hey, seriously, be careful. If you talk like that carelessly, the Arcane Police Bureau might take you away without anyone noticing.”
“I’m only saying it because it’s you. I’m planning to leave anyway… so I won’t talk about it anymore.”
“Sigh……”
The serious conversation between the two men.
Seon Yul was listening to it.
The two had carefully checked their surroundings and confirmed that no one was nearby before having such a conversation.
Yet surprisingly, Seon Yul had overheard everything.
The way he managed to overhear their conversation was… once again, thanks to the entrance to Absolute Space.
Seon Yul had opened a small Absolute Space entrance beneath the bench where the two men were sitting.
He did it as secretly as possible so that they wouldn’t notice.
After opening a tiny entrance with a diameter of only about 5 cm, he immediately entered Absolute Space and listened to their conversation through that small opening.
At first, it seemed like the two were discussing something serious, so he casually started eavesdropping, thinking he might obtain some minor information.
But the contents of their conversation turned out to be far more significant than expected.
Through their conversation, Seon Yul obtained an enormous amount of information.
And it was extremely important information.
Especially the fact that the place they were in was called the Forest of Darkness, that it was managed by an entity called the Empire, and that the Empire seemed to somewhat oppress Irregulars.
He also inferred that towers existed in this world, and that if those towers were not properly climbed, something disastrous could happen… and that the result of that disaster might be something like the Forest of Darkness.
After finishing their serious conversation, the two men eventually sighed deeply and left.
Once they were gone, Seon Yul closed the Absolute Space entrance and spoke with Cheon Li Yu.
“This is more important information than I expected…”
“Irregulars mean people like us who came from other dimensions, right?”
“Yeah, it seems that way.”
Seon Yul nodded at Cheon Li Yu’s words.
“And the Empire seems to suppress Irregulars and force them to do something…”
“Most likely, the group we saw when we first discovered this fortress was some kind of search party looking for newly arrived Irregulars who fell into this forest, this Forest of Darkness.”
“Ah……”
Cheon Li Yu nodded with an expression showing she now fully understood.
“Then what should we do now?”
“Hmm… let’s go back outside first. I think we should try to find the person who said earlier that he was planning to leave this place.”
“You want to find him and try talking with him?”
“If it’s that person, I think he’ll tell us what we want to know without reporting us to the Empire.”
“Yeah, judging from what he said, he seemed pretty dissatisfied with the Empire. Then let’s go right away.”
The two nodded and immediately exited the fortress again through the same Absolute Space entrance they had used to enter.
“Li Yu. Find him right away.”
Then they began searching for the man using Cheon Li Yu’s Divine Eye ability.
Swooooosh.
Cheon Li Yu slowly scanned through the entire fortress.
Seon Yul stood beside her quietly, waiting for her to find the man.
With Cheon Li Yu’s Divine Eye ability, as long as she had enough time, finding that man would not be difficult at all.
About 15 minutes passed like that.
Cheon Li Yu was still searching for the man with Divine Eye activated.
Worried that people might find them suspicious, Seon Yul held Cheon Li Yu’s hand and slowly walked forward with her while she searched.
To anyone watching, it looked like a couple taking a leisurely walk together.
And indeed, no one looked at them suspiciously.
‘Ah… I found him!’
Finally, Cheon Li Yu located the man and informed Seon Yul through telepathy.
But at that exact moment… something completely unexpected happened.
Papapapat!
Suddenly, people wearing uniforms surrounded Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu from all sides, encircling them.
Cheon Li Yu had been fully focused on finding the man, and Seon Yul had been concentrating only on walking naturally beside her.
So neither of them had anticipated that someone would suddenly surround them like this.
‘This is dangerous!’
But one thing was certain.
Inside Seon Yul’s mind, danger alarms were blaring wildly.
At this moment, there was only one choice he could make.
Open an Absolute Space entrance and escape immediately.
Naturally, Seon Yul’s decision was fast.
Even the execution was fast.
But the problem was…
something else was just a little bit faster.
Pajijijijijijik!
From the batons held by the uniformed figures surrounding them, a powerful Lightning Shock spell was simultaneously discharged, instantly wrapping around Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu’s bodies.
Within a mere 0.1 seconds, Seon Yul failed to open the Absolute Space entrance… and lost consciousness on the spot.
If he had been wearing his usual armor instead of the disguise clothes, this would never have happened.
Even if he had inscribed the Absolute Space[tattoo] as a precaution, this wouldn’t have happened either.
But the worst possible variables overlapped one after another.
And in the end, Seon Yul collapsed unconscious.
Thus, the greatest crisis had arrived for Seon Yul… the man who always prioritized safety above all else.
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