A New World (2)
The butchering skills of the Shadow Workers were better than expected.
Originally, Shadow Workers could only perform simple tasks, so Seon Yul had been worried whether they would be able to properly dismantle a monster corpse. But they separated the wyvern carcass into loot and material items faster and more precisely than he had anticipated.
The loot obtained from the body of a single large wyvern consisted of 0.9 kg of mid-grade magic crystals and 0.04 kg of Soul Stone.
The amount of mid-grade magic crystals seemed noticeably higher than what they used to obtain on Earth-104, while it was still difficult to judge how significant the amount of Soul Stone was.
In addition, there were plenty of component material items such as the wyvern’s hide, claws, teeth, and meat.
Seon Yul once again altered the space, creating a separate, large storage area inside Absolute Space.
Since he had already expanded Absolute Space to its maximum size of 350 pyeong, he didn’t feel any shortage of space.
After ordering the Shadow Workers to organize the material items in the newly created storage room, Seon Yul began analyzing the hunt with Cheon Li Yu.
“Let’s ignore the Soul Stone for now since we don’t know exactly what it is, but the bigger size definitely means more magic crystals drop.”
“Looks like it gives more experience, too.”
Cheon Li Yu nodded and added her observation.
“The difficulty seems slightly higher, but it’s still manageable.”
Seon Yul was currently level 69, while Cheon Li Yu was level 37.
For Cheon Li Yu, that was normal, but Seon Yul had already entered the stage where gaining experience became extremely slow. Yet here on Earth-001, killing just one wyvern yielded efficiency comparable to hunting dozens of high-level monsters back in their world.
“At this rate, magic users will be desperate to come to this world.”
“But wouldn’t it be hard to challenge it if they don’t know how to obtain Return Stones?”
“You don’t realize how reckless humans become when blinded by greed. I bet a lot of people will just come here first, thinking they’ll somehow obtain Return Stones later.”
Seon Yul answered with a smirk.
“But since governments manage access to the Main Gates, they probably won’t allow a reckless rush.”
“For powerful nations where systems are still functioning, you’re probably right. But the problem is countries where the system has already collapsed. Magic users from those places might just charge into the Main Gate without thinking since they already believe everything is ruined.”
The situation on Earth-104 was far from stable.
The so-called powerful nations had prepared enough to prevent chaos, but weaker countries had not been able to stop the disorder despite their preparations.
In fact, several countries in Southeast Asia had experienced coups by powerful groups of magic users exploiting the chaos, while others had their governments collapse entirely due to angry citizens, leaving them in anarchy.
All of this happened because the powerful force that every nation relied on, the military, had suddenly lost most of its strength.
Because of these circumstances, only about 40 countries on Earth-104 were still able to maintain proper national systems and governance.
However, more than 100 Main Gates had appeared.
Which meant that if someone truly wanted to cross over to this world, they could simply use the Main Gate of another country.
Of course, to do that, they would need to meet the nationality requirement for using the Main Gate, meaning they would have to obtain citizenship somehow.
But in this age of chaos, obtaining another country’s nationality had become surprisingly easy.
“Still, it seems like when you pass through a Main Gate, you’re dropped somewhere randomly… If someone’s ability level is too low, they probably shouldn’t come here at all.”
Cheon Li Yu muttered while looking outside Absolute Space.
She was right.
This world definitely did not look easy.
Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu had overwhelming abilities, so they killed a wyvern without difficulty. But for most magic users, hunting even a single wyvern would likely require serious effort.
Some might not even be able to attempt it.
“The system said this change is the final chapter, didn’t it? There’s no way it would be easy.”
Seon Yul did not trust the system.
He believed the system had never done anything beneficial for humanity, so he assumed the Main Gates were simply another trial humanity would have to overcome.
“Let’s eat first and continue hunting. We need to see whether Return Stones can be obtained through hunting.”
Naturally, the first objective of Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu was to obtain Return Stones.
The two of them quickly ate a simple meal, squid rice bowl seasoned with magic crystal powder cooked by Seon Yul, and returned to the cliff to look for their next prey.
For the time being, they planned to continue hunting wyverns while adapting to this world.
After all, wyvern hunting was not difficult for them.
***
Over the next four days, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu hunted around twenty wyverns.
Their loot amounted to 21.1 kg of mid-grade magic crystals and 0.9 kg of Soul Stone.
On top of that, they obtained a large quantity of wyvern hides, claws, teeth, and other materials.
They also gained a considerable amount of experience, allowing Cheon Li Yu to level up to level 38.
It was extremely difficult to find a hunting ground like this on Earth-104.
Even the Sandworm hunting ground in Australia, which Seon Yul frequently used near the end, required at least 30 days of hunting to obtain 20–30 kg of mid-grade magic crystals.
Yet here they had achieved that in just four days.
And the difficulty was much lower while the number of monsters hunted was far smaller.
The more they hunted, the more it felt like magic users might become addicted to this world.
“But no matter how much we hunt, Return Stones still aren’t dropping.”
“From what I can see, they probably don’t drop from normal monsters. So I think we should start exploring this massive forest now.”
Since arriving here and discovering the cliff, they had stayed in the same place hunting wyverns.
But after four days, they confirmed that although the rewards were good, the Return Stones they wanted were not dropping.
They were also curious about where other magic users from Earth-104 might have appeared.
From the top of the cliff, the forest stretched so far that the word ‘vast’ wasn’t enough to describe it.
The cliff itself stood like a giant wall rising from the center of the forest, allowing them to observe a huge area.
However, there was another surprising issue.
“Even my Divine Eye is restricted in this world… so it looks like we’ll have to search manually.”
Originally, their plan had been simple: remain on the cliff and slowly analyze Earth-001 by exploring the world using Cheon Li Yu’s Divine Eye.
But that plan failed.
Because Divine Eye had been weakened.
At first, Cheon Li Yu hadn’t noticed.
Even magic users didn’t check their ability description windows every day, so she hadn’t realized that Divine Eye’s description had changed.
She only discovered it when she tried to observe extremely far distances from the cliff.
Shockingly…
The ability that previously had no distance limit, as long as she had mana, now had a limit.
[Divine Eye <SSS> (Level 8)]
You who can see through everything in the world. You can see distant things as if they are near, perceive things others cannot see, and even show those visions to others. With eyes that approach truth itself, what is it that you wish to see?
[See Through]
You can view any location as if it were within your own sight. You can observe up to 40 km without restriction, though the farther the distance, the more mana is required to maintain the vision.
…(remaining omitted)
Just like Seon Yul’s Emergency Exit, the ability description had changed.
It clearly looked like the maximum distance would increase as the skill leveled up, but even so, this was a significant weakening.
Seon Yul checked his own abilities after noticing Cheon Li Yu’s change.
And he discovered that not only had the Emergency Exit description changed, but the cost of opening Absolute Space entrances had increased twentyfold.
[Absolute Space <EX> (Level 15)]
You can create an absolute space that no other being can interfere with. This space belongs to no dimension and will never disappear under any circumstance. Once you close the entrance, it becomes completely cut off from the outside world, and no entity can enter it.
[Space Size]
Area: 350 pyeong, Height: 7 m
(Maximum area 350 pyeong: can be expanded to the limit by paying 1 kg of mid-grade magic crystals per pyeong)
[Number of Entrances]
4 (One additional entrance unlocked at ability level 20)
Each time a new entrance is opened, 200 g of mid-grade magic crystals are consumed.
(The amount consumed varies depending on the size of the entrance.)
…(remaining omitted)
Previously, it had only consumed 10 g per opening.
Now it requires 200 g.
For Seon Yul, whose abilities relied heavily on magic crystals, this was a massive nerf.
Based on this, the two of them assumed that other magic users’ abilities had likely been weakened as well.
They didn’t know why everything had been weakened.
But it meant that Earth-001 would be even more difficult for magic users.
“Still, we’re in a much better situation than others.”
“Well, at least we have a place to rest comfortably, and unlike other magic users, we don’t have a time limit.”
This was where they had an overwhelming advantage.
The time limit was especially critical.
Other magic users absolutely had to find Return Stones and return within four months.
If ten people entered, they needed ten Return Stones.
It was essentially like walking around with a bomb collar with a timer attached.
But for Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu, time inside Absolute Space was effectively paused.
Even though they had been in Earth-001 for about five days, the actual time they had spent outside Absolute Space was only seven hours.
Which meant they barely had to worry about mana poisoning.
“Let’s head to that large wyvern nest you saw earlier.”
Even weakened, Cheon Li Yu’s Divine Eye was still incredibly powerful.
Using it, she had already discovered a huge nest at the northern edge of the cliff, completely different from the other wyvern nests.
Inside that nest was a single massive wyvern.
It had three horns on its head and a long blue stripe running along its back, and it was about four times larger than the normal wyverns on the cliff.
Anyone could tell it wasn’t an ordinary monster.
Seon Yul planned to hunt it.
“We’ve confirmed that Return Stones are hard to get from normal monsters. Now we should try hunting an elite monster.”
Just like in games, elite monsters usually drop better items.
If Return Stones were a special item, then hunting a special monster made sense.
Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu immediately began moving from the southern end of the cliff, where they had first set up camp, toward the northern end, where the elite wyvern’s nest was located.
The cliff rising from the center of the forest was enormous.
It took them about five hours to finally reach the northern end.
On the way, they were naturally attacked by wyverns and occasionally had to bypass difficult terrain using Absolute Space.
The easiest method would have been to simply teleport using Absolute Space combined with Divine Eye.
But their goal wasn’t just movement; they wanted to examine the surroundings and search for traces of other magic users.
Also, the twentyfold increase in cost made them hesitant to use it excessively.
Although Seon Yul still had around 2,500 kg of mid-grade magic crystals, he wanted to conserve them since he didn’t know what might happen in this world.
Eventually, they finally arrived at the northern edge of the cliff.
Halfway along the cliff face was the elite(?) wyvern nest they had been targeting.
And now…
All that remained was to hunt that elite wyvern.
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