Chapter 73 – LV.Five Martial Artist Gaeulbi – [Eight]

Seo Yun wondered if the troll was angry now. If so, it was unexpected.

The troll seemed fully capable of finding Gaeulbi, who had run away at any time. Yet, seeing that he hadn’t done so, she had assumed he possessed a certain kind of leisure. The leisure of a great being who could accomplish anything, to whom a single girl running off with some items was a trivial matter not worth his attention.

“Well, anyway…”

But now, a clear emotion seeped into the troll’s voice.

The troll asked, his voice trembling slightly.

“In that case, that’s fortunate. So, where are the stolen items?”

Gaeulbi lowered her eyes, looking extremely tense.

“Well, most of them were taken.”

“Taken, you say?”

“As you might expect, I was traveling with that Siwoo. Siwoo got captured by the military once. Back then, almost all of them…”

“Where, by a military unit?”

“The Dawn Corps. It’s in Songpa District.”

“I see. So if most of the items were taken, what about the remaining ones? Are they here?”

Before Gaeulbi could answer, the troll muttered in a quick tone.

“They must be here, surely. I wondered where she heard the prophecy about becoming a Goddess… from that lamp…”

The troll’s mask was still facing Gaeulbi. Gaeulbi’s shoulders began to tremble.

Seo Yun felt the need to turn that gaze towards herself.

So calmly, but deliberately using a frightened voice so as not to appear too nonchalant and risk angering the other party, she spoke.

“I took one Flaming Sword from among them… I’m sorry for hiding it until now. Should I return it now?”

The troll looked at her. The troll silently stared down for a moment, then suddenly muttered.

“No, you keep it. It was an item I would have given to you even if I had kept it.”

“Thank you very much.”

Seo Yun bowed her head. Then the troll’s voice was heard.

“As for where the remaining items are, I don’t know, but consider them all yours. Use them or sell them as you wish. I hope you use them all for the journey ahead.”

Listening, Seo Yun thought his voice seemed slightly softened. She cautiously asked.

“But I heard you cast a spell on her? A Geas spell.”

At that, the troll’s voice sharpened again.

“Did Gaeulbi say that? Blurted it out just like that?”

Seo Yun could intuitively tell that this was likely the troll’s sore spot.

“No, she didn’t want to answer, but I pressed her until she reluctantly answered… Is there any chance you could release it?”

She asked just in case, but the troll immediately refused.

“No. Let me make this clear in advance: don’t even have someone else release that spell. Do not release it by any means. The moment you do, I will know immediately. Understood?”

Seo Yun cautiously observed the troll’s face hidden behind the mask.

This troll, who had reacted impassively even when Oh Haengbok was shouting loudly in front of her, was now displaying clear anger towards this helpless girl. She couldn’t understand the reason.

“Dare to release that spell, and…”

Only after issuing another warning never to release the spell did the troll vanish.

Left alone with Gaeulbi in the silence, the girl opened her mouth.

“I’m so sorry, really…”

True to being a girl prone to tears, she seemed about to cry again. It appeared she was blaming herself for this entire situation.

Seo Yun cut off Gaeulbi’s continued apologies and said.

“But why were you pointing a gun this way?”

“Huh?”

“You weren’t, by any chance, angry that I gave away the wine I gave you as a housewarming gift and tried to get revenge, were you?”

“Uh, no, that’s not it.”

“You said it was bitter and sour so you wouldn’t drink it? I’ll get you a new one, so don’t do that…”

She seemed to realize it was a joke to lighten the awkward atmosphere. Gaeulbi belatedly grinned and started joking herself.

“Give me juice, not alcohol. But what on earth was that chimpanzee thing earlier?”

“Ah, that? I was so flustered…”

While Seo Yun was genuinely flustered, Gaeulbi spoke with an expression somewhere between crying and laughing.

“Who would fall for such a line? Even while tense, hearing that was so absurd, really…”

Before the sky was covered in gray ash, before history books were burned as firewood to survive in this cold world, in the ancient times even called the prehistoric era, the mage Pygma Mule was a mage who had never experienced love with a lover. Indeed, what woman would visit the tower where an ugly mage was holed up?

In the years unable to give or receive love with anyone, Pygma Mule gave up on romancing mortal women. Since they did not love him, he resolved not to love them either.

Thus, Pygma painted in his mind a woman far more beautiful than any mortal woman. He dreamed of a celestial lover in his imagination.

Pygma Mule adored the Goddess of Beauty.

However, when Pygma brought his face to the brass, what reflected on its surface was a pockmarked visage with features haphazardly arranged. He knew that the Goddess of Beauty, who favored beauties more than anyone, could not possibly love him either.

Facing the risk of being abandoned even by his ideal lover, Pygma planned an extreme expression of love.

One day, Pygma Mule prepared an altar to beauty and set it ablaze. He threw his body into the fire.

Amidst the terrible agony, Pygma Mule hoped his feelings would reach the Celestial Realm. He also believed that after his ugly face and insignificant body burned away, what remained would be better than his living appearance.

The Goddess of Beauty responded to the mage’s self-immolation.

The Goddess of Beauty was delighted to discover that even if one was ugly in life, leaving only the bones could make them more pleasing to look at, and she also found the mage’s adoration for her commendable.

The Goddess of Beauty revived the dead Pygma Mule. She made the mage, now only bones, her Champion. The first Lich, the father of all Skeletons, was born.

And now, Pygma Mule had prepared the altar from the day he became an Undead Lich once more.

Pygma knelt on the cold floor, his knee bones just as hard. Bowing his head towards the altar, he prayed.

「O Goddess, please answer.」

No answer came.

「O Goddess.」

Pygma Mule screamed mentally.

「O Goddess of Beauty!」

For two hours he continued, but the Goddess of Beauty never responded.

Pygma Mule rose from his place. The purple flames within the orbits of his skull flickered. The flames turned towards his flagship.Pygma Mule saw a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Its hull number was CVN-76.

On the day the meteorite struck the North American continent, most ships along the coast were also swept up and capsized, but this particular vessel, which had set sail for training, remained. Pygma seized that ship when it returned to its homeland.

But what exactly is America? Only the Kingdom of Napolia existed on this New Continent. And where is the North American continent…?

The words in his mind—America began to be replaced by Napolia, and the North American continent by the New Continent. Furthermore, an impulse arose to personally destroy the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier before his eyes and sink it to the bottom of the sea.

It was an impulse powerful enough to be impossible to ignore, yet he had no idea why he felt it. Pygma Mule quickly assessed the situation.

An attack on my mind is coming from somewhere. Is it a Feeblemind Spell, or perhaps a high-level Curse Spell?

Whichever it was, he had experienced this often before, so he didn’t panic.

Pygma Mule quickly recited a spell. The Great Mental Barrier spell.

As his mind was enveloped in a sturdy protective barrier, the mental confusion vanished.

‘That’s better now.’

Pygma looked at the aircraft carrier again with a clear mind. That he should destroy that ship with his own hands? It was a ridiculous thought. That ship could likely put up a good fight even against the Crusaders’ Sun Ships.

Pygma Mule gestured toward the ship. It was a signal from him as a Mage and a Lord.

The Skeleton soldiers filling the drill ground rushed toward the ship.

After the Skeletons filled the interior and deck of the aircraft carrier, Skeletons who had been pilots in life took their seats in the eighty aircraft on board.

At the Mage’s gesture, the aircraft carrier rose into the air.

Even after the Skeletons filled its interior and deck, there wasn’t enough space for additional boarders. So, the Skeletons clung to each other, connected in chains hanging from below the ship, like ants biting and linking to one another. They could likely remain that way throughout the voyage. Undead Skeletons didn’t tire.

Amid the silent roar of the millions of Skeletons above, or rather below, the aircraft carrier, the 332.8-meter-long Ghost Ship was ready to sail.

Pygma Mule looked at the altar. He issued a final ultimatum to his Goddess.

「Goddess, please respond! If you do not, I will…」

Night had fallen. In an era where all kinds of fuel were precious, almost no one was awake in the middle of the night.

As silence settled over the village, Seo Yun, who had no need for sleep, lay alone in her tent, lost in thought.

She thought about that Troll. This speculation came naturally.

Could that Troll be the one who wished upon the meteorite to turn this world into a game?

The Troll had said with his own mouth that he was not a human but an NPC, but that could have been a lie. If he were a TRPG Player who had wished upon the meteorite, that would certainly be a fact he must hide.

The very person responsible for making the world like this? It was enough to earn the hatred and resentment of the entire world.

There was also circumstantial evidence that made this speculation possible.

Epic Level NPCs were rare, so most were recorded in the rulebook’s character directory. However, neither the rulebook nor any other material mentioned the existence of that Troll.

Furthermore, the Troll had acted like a perfect NPC when they first met, but not today. Hadn’t he suddenly spouted meta-information, saying things like gods don’t exist or about the meteorite? Originally, he must have hidden that information for fear of being suspected of not being an NPC.

That could be evidence that the Troll had acted to disguise himself as an NPC, meaning he had tried to hide his true identity. And it was impossible to reach Level 24 through leveling by battling Monsters in just three years since the world turned into a game.

‘Then the remaining possibility is…’

That could also explain why the Troll acted with seemingly selfless goals, as if he had no personal desires. If he were the one responsible for ruining the world and was granted astonishingly powerful abilities, wouldn’t it be perfectly plausible for him to struggle desperately to somehow fix the situation?

She was deep in thought when a voice interrupted Seo Yun’s contemplation.

「Priestess? Priestess」

It was a voice that seemed to come from nowhere, as if transmitted directly into her mind.

Seo Yun opened her eyes. Then, she blinked at the blue hawk glowing in the darkness.

What is that? Recalling her memory of the rulebook, it seemed like a Beast Spirit. A Summon that a Barbarian Warrior could call forth. A setting where a Barbarian Warrior, upon becoming a Level 15 Quasi-Deity, materializes it with their own Divinity…

「Priestess, there’s no time for lengthy explanations. I…」

There was only one Barbarian Warrior Seo Yun knew. She asked the blue hawk.

“Are you perhaps Mr. Arnold?”

The Spirit Hawk immediately affirmed. It seemed truly urgent, as there were no pleasantries or formalities.

「That’s right. I need help. If you follow this hawk—」

Seo Yun decided to ask for detailed reasons later. She immediately got up.