Go Byeonggap climbed the high wall and surveyed the wide plains.

Just a few days ago, the plain had been a barren waste without a single weed. Even now, little had changed—except for the northward expanse. The view there was utterly transformed.

‘The forest’s already spread.’

A forest had taken root over roughly 2,500 square meters. The trees were short but thick and sturdy, packed close together, and knee-high green grass grew lush beneath them.

Hard to make out from here, but small wild game moved within it. The forest was still slowly expanding its territory.

A forest rising from desolate ground was startling enough, but the truly baffling thing was something else.

‘I never imagined plants and animals would be born from Grugle corpses.’

It wasn’t creation from nothing—and certainly not beans sprouting where beans were sown—but it was a phenomenon hard to accept by any common sense.

Life springing from dead bodies. Sounded like something from a creation myth. Strange things were everywhere these days, and most didn’t even count as freaks anymore, but this was a scoop.

Of course, he had no intention of revealing it to the public. They wouldn’t believe him anyway.

‘Still, it’s weird.’

Something was off. Hadn’t he slaughtered hundreds of Grugle back in Somnium too? But he’d never seen anything like this there.

‘Even if I missed the trees growing because the forest hid them, how do I explain the animals?’

A few small wild creatures lived in that forest—things that looked like distant cousins of rabbits. He’d never seen anything like them in Somnium.

Go Byeonggap chewed on a cigarette and mulled it over, then stubbed it out. The problem felt answerless—like banging his head against a wall for no reason.

‘What’s the difference, this way or that? Good is good.’

If those Grugles, which seemed utterly useless as dog shit, were actually like universal fertilizer, then it was a cause for celebration.

He wasn’t a scholar. No need to dissect every phenomenon for its logic.

Truth was, he’d been stressing about where to get timber, and this mess had solved it cleanly.

Go Byeonggap jammed the butt into his portable ashtray and shouted.

«Work’s over! Pack up and head into the fortress!»

«Understood!»

The goblins, who’d been hard at work on the outer wall, set down their tools and wrapped up the job at the Lord’s one command.

“Should be done by tomorrow or the day after.”

A deep trench had been dug around Baltadren’s walls. A moat, of sorts. He hadn’t decided yet whether to fill it with river water or line it with sharpened stakes.

Defense work, naturally.

Luckily, since the big battle five days ago, there hadn’t been another like it. It was a mercy the Grugles weren’t swarming in like some defense game.

Go Byeonggap climbed down from the wall and headed for Baltadren’s heart. There, a building stood—impressive even by modern standards.

A temple, or something. He didn’t know its true nature, but it was clearly a mysterious place. He’d strictly ordered the goblins never to enter it.

Go Byeonggap pulled a lantern from his belt and stepped inside. Dark, dry, and cool. He walked a little way until a stone statue on a dais came into view.

That statue bore fragments of ancient Asvillam’s history. But now it was covered with a large cloth, hiding the inscription.

‘Can’t risk another rampage.’

No goblin would dare disobey Go Byeonggap’s order and enter the temple—but who could say for sure?

He shifted his steps and moved to a side passage. The wall and ceiling had collapsed, rubble blocking the way. He’d cleared it bit by bit, but it was still choked.

“Might as well clear some more.”

Go Byeonggap set the lantern down and started shifting the debris.

Faint images lingered here and there on the fragments. All portraits of female goblins. Looking at them gave him an odd chill—like staring at funeral photographs.

“Ah, hell, it’s a damn disk.”

After thirty minutes of clearing rubble, he straightened up. Seemed like no matter how much he moved, there was always more.

“Should I just call the kids to clear it all? It’s not like anyone besides Dorma can read anyway. What the hell am I doing this solo bullshit for?”

He spat the complaint out, then changed his mind.

It wasn’t just the risk of a rampage that kept the goblins out of the temple.

The temple itself was enormous, and that scale meant the danger of collapse was equally great. Cracks were easy to spot in the walls and ceiling.

If one wrong move brought the whole thing down, there’d be a funeral parade. And a rampaging goblin would only make it worse.

“Aigoo, that’s enough for today… Hm?”

A clatter of debris, then a low rumble.

“Damn it!”

He’d barely dusted off his hands when a pile of rubble came tumbling down. The walls and ceiling shook, shedding dust.

Was it collapsing!? For a moment, his life flashed before his eyes, a jumble of thoughts scrambled his mind.

‘I can’t die like this!’

He was just recalling the saying about finding a way out even when the sky falls—

……

The tremor stopped as if to spite him. Byeonggap stood frozen, only his eyes moving in the stillness.

“What the hell—scared me half to death. Building’s got no business giving a man a fright like that.”

The overreaction stung with embarrassment. Good thing the goblins weren’t watching.

Just his luck, he muttered, picking up the fallen lantern. Time to get out of this temple. But—

“Hm?”

The lantern’s beam fell on something different. A space that had been blocked by rubble was now wide open. The slow, steady clearing of the past few weeks had finally paid off.

Byeonggap headed that way on instinct, then stopped short.

“…It’s almost evening. Let’s do it tomorrow.”

The sun was already setting. The temple was dark enough as it was; he didn’t fancy wandering around here at night. And honestly, it gave him the creeps.

He turned his back on the promise of temple exploration tomorrow.

* * *

The goods sold at the Ancient Shop were generally strange. No, let me correct that: there was nothing that wasn’t strange.

Among them, the ‘Manuals’ series was especially beyond common sense.

“Uwaaaagh!”

The B-rank Four-Faced Demon screamed from all four of its faces at once. Blood gushed like a waterfall from its severed left shoulder.

The humanoid monster, the Four-Faced Demon, was infamous for its cunning. It had a high intelligence—maybe because it had four heads.

Anyway, that kind of cleverness was useless in the face of an overwhelming gap in power. Byeonggap swung his sword again. This time, it was the right shoulder.

“Uwaaaaaagh! Uwaagh!”

“Aigo, shut up already.”

Suddenly. The Four-Faced Demon’s leg lashed out. Its calf was thicker than most adult women’s waists. A front kick powerful enough to leave a dent in a steel plate, but only if it landed.

Byeonggap moved like the wind, dodging with ease. In a flash, he closed in and slashed upward with his sword.

The Many-Faced Demon split from groin to crown, its body peeling apart in two halves. In three words: it was dead.

A B-rank monster sent to the afterlife in just four exchanges.

‘I really have become absurdly strong.’

This thing called a technique manual truly defied common sense.

When I mastered the low-grade manual, I broke out of the lower tier.

When I mastered the mid-grade manual, I reached the upper tier.

And now the high-grade manual had let me transcend even that. B-rank monsters were no longer my match.

‘What level am I at now? I must be past A-rank, surely.’

The gap between B-rank and A-rank wasn’t that vast. If I could take down a B-rank this easily, I should be able to dominate an A-rank too.

The real question was whether I could touch S-rank or not.

‘There’s no way to gauge it without facing one directly…’

It’s not like S-rank monsters are easy to come by. And honestly? I wasn’t keen on meeting one.

«Truly, you are magnificent, My Lord!»

«You grow stronger by the day, My Lord. Every time I see your might, my heart swells.»

The raid team members laid it on thick, tongues dripping with flattery.

‘These guys… they seem to be getting better at sweet talk as the days go by.’

Well, not that he minded. Having subordinates who hyped you up at the snap of a finger felt good.

He opened the gate to Asvillam and called out the workers. They moved the meat with practiced ease.

And then it happened.

«Oh! This is really fascinating! I’ve seen it a few times before.»

«Geez, you scared me!»

Someone poked their head through the passageway. From Go Byeonggap’s angle, it looked like a human head had sprouted out of thin air.

It was Ea. She glanced around until her eyes found him.

«Ah! So you were right there. And here I was, craning my neck like an idiot without noticing.»

«…What’s up?»

«Oh, I needed to talk to you. The goblins keep bringing meat in, but the freezer’s full—there’s no more room. If I can’t store it, the meat’ll rot, and if it rots, it’ll stink… anyway, I figured that wouldn’t be good.»

Ea rambled on. Go Byeonggap patted his chest from the surprise and nodded.

«Full, huh? Got it. I’ll build another one by today.»

«Oh, that’s great. If you could, maybe make three or four? Well then, take care.»

Ea yanked her head back and vanished. What an amusing woman.

‘She’s got over a thousand mouths to feed, and they’re piling up faster than they can eat? Well, I have been hitting two rifts a day lately.’

Going through rifts daily meant over 300 monsters slaughtered. It was no surprise the freezer was bursting at the seams.

«My Lord.»

«Oh, Dorma. What’s up?»

«My Lord, I have a question. Will you enter another rift? Should I have the men stand by as usual?»

Go Byeonggap stroked his chin, considering it briefly.

«Hmm… no. Let’s call it here for today. I’ve got some things to take care of.»

«Is that so? Yes, I’ll pass the word.»

«Good.»

After moving all the monster carcasses and sending the goblins back, Go Byeonggap got in his car and headed straight for Seoul.

‘Throw up a storage unit quick, then head into the temple.’

Once home, he geared up and crossed over into Asvillam. The first thing he saw was a group of hob goblins butchering monsters.

They dismantled the creatures with skill that rivaled any professional meat cutter—meat to one pile, organs to another, magic stones to a third.

Come to think of it, there wasn’t a single part of a monster that went to waste. The by-products especially were essential, transformed through alchemy into weapons and household goods.

He tossed a few kind words to the working goblins and moved on.

«Ah! My Lord, you’ve arrived.»

«Oh, Obung. Good timing. You busy?»

«Uh… I was hauling water from the river. Is there something you need done?»

«Yeah, hand that off to the others and round up about thirty guys. We’re building another cold storage.»

«Ah, yes sir! Got it.»

Go Byeonggap pitched in with the goblins and they knocked out a cold storage unit in no time. By the time they finished, it was around four in the afternoon.

«Go tell Ea the storage is done.»

«Yes!»

«And I’ve got business at the temple, so don’t look for me unless it’s urgent.»

«Ah, understood.»

With that, Go Byeonggap headed straight for the temple, carrying only a high-powered lantern and a sword. He considered grabbing more gear but decided against it.

‘What could happen? I’m inside Baltadren.’

The temple interior was cool. Without straying, he stepped into the corridor he’d opened up yesterday.

A surprisingly wide hallway stretched out before him.

Go Byeonggap lit the way with his lantern and walked in silence.

He had no special reason for exploring the temple interior—just a faint hope of uncovering some information about the old Asvillam.

As he walked, doors appeared now and then, but every time he opened one, it was just another cold, empty room.

Creaaak.

“Damn it, all empty rooms.”

Occasionally he’d find an object—a half-broken table or a set of decayed dishes.

Nothing of any value, whether for gathering information or for practical use.

After about an hour of exploration, he’d covered every accessible area. Some corridors had collapsed entirely, making them impassable.

He’d come in all tense and alert… and come up empty. A hollow feeling settled in.

“All flash, no substance. Ugh, and I’m covered in dust.”

He grumbled as he turned around.

That was when he noticed it—an odd seam in the stone wall.

“Huh? What’s this?”

A rectangular section, about sixty centimeters wide and two meters long, stood out from the rest. It was recessed inward, like a door set back into the wall.

The difference was so slight he’d have missed it if he hadn’t been looking closely.

“Why’s this part sunken in—whoa!?”

He barely pushed, and the wall slid inward. A secret passage yawned open, a stairwell leading down into the earth.

Go Byeonggap stared between the wall and the passage, baffled.

“Well, shit. A secret passage? About time something like this showed up.”

He didn’t hesitate long. Without a second thought, he stepped into the passage. A hunch told him there was something worth grabbing down here.

“These stairs are deep as hell.”

The stairway descending underground stretched forever—felt like two stories down at least.

He picked his way down carefully, watching his footing so he wouldn’t trip, until he reached the bottom. An iron door waited there, like it had been expecting him.

‘Wonder if a Grugle’s gonna pop out at me or something?’

Being underground made him jittery for no good reason. Go Byeonggap drew his sword, clamped the lantern between his teeth, and slowly pushed the iron door open.

A screech of rusted hinges.

Rust had caked the thing so thick the metal groaned like it was being torn apart.

‘What the hell? Why’s it suddenly freezing?’

Something bothered him more than the grating iron: a blast of frigid air pouring through the crack.

It reminded him of the freezer warehouse he’d set up before coming here—that same bone-deep chill. He shone the lantern through the half-open door.

Ice blocks. Lots of them.

“What the hell? Is this a fridge? Some madman built a fridge underground?”

He shoved the door all the way open, half-hoping for ancient Asvillam-brand ice cream.

But…

Well, obviously, something else greeted him.

“Hey, don’t tell me that’s…”

At the center of the ice-filled room, a single coffin sat alone.