Chapter 86: The Book of Fate (2)

The Parsley Market alarm blared incessantly.

Without even glancing at the chat, I sat up in bed.

As soon as I opened the door…

Clack.

Two Skeletons approached.

These were the Skeletons Go Geonho had assigned to attend to me. Normally, they should have remained silent and stationary, guarding their posts. But now they stood quietly in the hallway, staring at me as if blocking my path.

“Move aside,” I muttered quietly.

The Skeletons merely continued to stare at me with their green, glowing eyes.

Swish.

I drew the longsword from its sheath at my waist, ready to attack if I tried to pass them.

”…”

I stared back at them wordlessly.

Initially, on the Parsley Navigation, the two skeletons ahead were still marked in neutral green.

But the moment I took another step…

Another notification popped up.

Two bright red dots appeared directly in front of me.

Yes, this is it.

Crack!

The skeletons charged, their bones clattering.

Whoosh!

The leading skeleton swung its sword first.

The rusty longsword sliced through the air diagonally.

Dodging like a branch swaying in the wind, I swung my right hand and struck the skeleton’s neck with my thumb.

Crunch!

The cervical vertebrae shattered, scattering fragments of bone and shards of light.

I caught the skull that flew into the air and hurled it at the second charging skeleton like a baseball.

Thud!

The moment the skeleton minion, which had struck my colleague’s skull, staggered, I sprang forward with a lightning-fast kick.

Crack!

The skeleton’s spine shattered, its body splitting in two and tumbling across the floor. I casually dusted my hands. I hadn’t even used the Soaring Dragon Divine Fist. My stats alone were more than enough to handle these low-level monsters.

“I won’t get scolded for damaging the talisman, right?” I muttered, glancing at the shattered remains.

Then, I checked the chat message sent by Ahn Nam. After reading about the problems with downgraded command medallions…

”…So that’s it.”

A smirk spread across my face.

If this was true, it was worth taking a gamble.

Without hesitation, I strode across the corridor shrouded in ominous darkness.

Go Geonho.

No, towards the place where the entity from the Otherworld that had consumed him would be.

Am I dreaming?

Yoo Se-rin stared at the ceiling with unfocused eyes, pondering the question.

She was conscious.

She had eaten dinner and returned to her room.

She had been wondering why the Nine Heavens Bone King, the hero of the Great Change, would be staying in such a place, and had fallen asleep while pondering this.

The ceiling above the veiled bed she saw just before falling asleep.

The scent of the incense stick placed at the head of the bed.

Everything was exactly the same.

Yet the surroundings felt unfamiliar.

The room, illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window, revealed…

Several skeletons, emitting a green glow, entered and stood there.

A cool breeze drifted in from somewhere, extinguishing the incense.

The fresh floral scent was replaced by the foul stench of rotting corpses, which seeped in.

Suddenly, from the darkness:

“It’s no use making such a fuss.”

Someone muttered those words.

“It’s all your fault for failing to secure food in time. So I had no choice but to satisfy my hunger myself.”

The deep voice, that had once inspired her to dream of a bright future, belonged to one of the ancient heroes.

Could it be… the Nine Heavens Bone King?

Her consciousness blurred, making it hard to distinguish dream from reality, as countless questions arose.

But the most pressing question remained: Why was he here?

It wasn’t even the fact that he was staring at her, accompanied by a skeleton, as if observing a specimen.

“But I can’t help feeling a little resentful. When I could have obtained such exquisite sustenance, why did I have to settle for devouring the souls of worthless trash, not even fit to be called bones? Hm?”

The tone of his voice carried an atmosphere that made it hard to believe he was the hero who had saved the world.

Dirty and greedy, like stagnant rainwater pooled in muddy puddles on a rainy day.

Thud.

A footstep echoed.

Thud. Thud.

With each heavy footfall, Yoo Se-rin strained to raise her body.

But her body, as limp as waterlogged cotton, refused to obey.

Finally, the heavy footsteps came to an end.

Suddenly, something invaded her vision.

Go Geonho’s face.

”…Why…”

Yoo Se-rin struggled to speak through her stiff, unresponsive lips.

Go Geonho’s eyes widened in surprise at her question.

But that lasted only a moment.

“Oh, you’ve already neutralized some of Nemia’s toxin, haven’t you? Well, this certainly is a special meal. I suppose this will suffice.”

He muttered to himself with a faint smile playing on his lips.

The moment she noticed the fleeting glint in his crescent-moon eyes, Yoo Se-rin realized the truth:

The entity before her was not the hero of the Great Change she had admired, Go Geonho.

Yet Yoo Se-rin was utterly powerless to resist.

“Normally, I’d savor the struggle of my prey while indulging in this feast, but I’m not truly hungry right now.”

Suddenly, as Go Geonho muttered these words and snapped his fingers, a purple mist flowed in, enveloping her.

Screeeech.

Behind Go Geonho, a form like a faceless ghost materialized with an ominous sound.

A Soul Eater.

A monster that devoured every last drop of a human’s vitality and mana.

As it slowly approached, Yoo Se-rin instinctively knew what was coming.

Fear of this incomprehensible situation.

Helplessness at being unable to resist and facing death.

A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Where had it gone wrong?

Should she have listened to Yeonha when she tried to stop her?

Originally, Seo Yeon-hwa hadn’t even chosen her to be dispatched to Daehwa Island.

She’d judged that it might be too much for a newbie who had just been promoted to B-rank.

But Yoo Se-rin herself had insisted.

The reason was…

“Don’t be too indignant, Nine Heavens Bone King. I clearly stated that I wouldn’t touch Lee Taejun. And this girl isn’t him.”

Lee Taejun.

Yes, that was the reason.

The moment she learned Taejun was accompanying them, she had stubbornly insisted on speaking to him separately.

She wanted to express her gratitude for saving her during the B-rank evaluation.

She wanted to tell him that it was thanks to him that she had completely changed since then.

But now, she would never get the chance to say those words.

Boom!

That’s what she thought.

Until a sudden explosion echoed from nearby.

”…Hmm?”

Go Geonho turned at the deafening explosion that shook the mansion.

Boom! Boom! Crunch!

As the explosions grew louder, she could distinguish other sounds mixed in with them.

The sound of bones cracking and skulls shattering drew closer.

”…”

Kwaang!

A moment of silence passed before the tightly shut door burst open, revealing a shattered skeleton. Then, a figure strode into the room with imposing dignity.

Ah.

As the silhouette was fully illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window, Yoo Se-rin, on the brink of unconsciousness, pursed her lips.

Why is it always at this moment? she murmured, her voice tinged with relief and a hint of resentment.

Just as Yoo Se-rin lost consciousness…

“Nine Heavens Bone King, let me clarify first.”

Under the combined gazes of Go Geonho and the skeletons, Taejun brushed off the bone dust from his clothes and casually continued.

“The talisman was damaged, not by me, but by my skeleton friends waiting in the corridor.”

“Hunter Taejun.”

Go Geonho was the first to break the silence.

No, it was the entity possessing his body.

“You’re awake already? That’s unexpected.”

His expression was calm, his tone serious, his voice polite and low. The man asking the question looked exactly like the Go Geonho I remembered.

But I already knew.

The person standing before me wasn’t Go Geonho, but the demon sorcerer possessing his body.

And I also knew…

that the sorcerer was putting on an act to hide his true identity.

“The entire mansion should be filled with Nemia’s pollen by now.”

Come to think of it, while I was chatting with the item notification guy, a status window alert had popped up. I hadn’t checked it at the time, but it must have been a related warning.

I would have ignored it anyway.

Nemia’s pollen is a toxin with powerful sleep-inducing and paralyzing properties.

The crucial point was that Nemia was a plant-based monster.

Since it possessed the “Immunity to All Poisons” ability, none of my attacks would work.

“Are you feeling alright?”

The creature disguised as Go Geonho asked again, its voice and expression unnervingly warm.

I smiled brightly and replied, “I’m fine. I happened to have a sleep toxin antidote with me. I administered it immediately and came out of the room. I was worried the mansion was under attack.”

“Ah, I see. I didn’t mean to cause you any worry.”

The creature nodded with a dark expression.

“I was experimenting with a new formula in the lab when a calculation error caused the glass bottle containing the toxin to explode. I quickly contained the highly lethal poison, but some of the ingredients’ components spread throughout the mansion.”

“Is that component also why the skeleton minions have become more aggressive?”

“Yes, that’s right. So you don’t need to worry about the talisman being damaged either. Everything stems from my mistake.”

How shameless.

Still, hearing Go Geonho declare himself blameless lightened my burden slightly.

By this point, I’d cleared a path through the mansion, leaving it in utter disarray.

I turned my gaze to the unconscious Yoo Se-rin.

“You don’t need to worry about Serine either. I acted before she was completely overwhelmed by Nemia’s pollen. Though she’s probably still having nightmares from the toxin’s lingering effects.”

The creature followed my gaze and spat out:

”…”

This time, I nearly let a string of curses fly.

The moment I broke through the door, I noticed a faint figure hastily disappearing near Yoo Se-rin.

It was a Soul Eater.

A ghost-type monster that absorbs a human’s vitality and mana to the extreme, turning them into a “soulless doll.”

“Good,” I said, nodding with feigned relief.

For the plan I had devised, I needed to put on as convincing an act as Go Geonho had been.

Then, the monster murmured, “Yes. Now we should return and rest. I will finish checking Miss Serine’s condition and tidy up here.”

“Yes. But before that, there’s something I wanted to say.”

“To me?”

I spoke quietly, “I’m sorry, but I’d like to choose a different gift from the Nine Heavens Bone King.”

“A gift?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s discuss this again tomorrow morning.”

“But you urged me to leave first thing tomorrow morning. I’m telling you now because I don’t think we’ll have time then.”

The alchemist’s expression turned peculiar.

Right. It’s time to start gambling.

“Actually, I recently discovered an artifact hidden in the Nine Heavens Bone King’s Secret Vault.”

“An artifact hidden…”

“The Book of a Thousand Evils.”

The moment those words left my lips, an unmistakable emotion flickered across his face.

Meeting his eyes, filled with covetousness, I continued in a low voice:

“Could you hand over that secret manual?”