Chapter 56 – LV.Two Priest Park Taeyang – [Five]

“Uh…”

A woman’s face slipped through the crack in the door.

Her hair was so wildly disheveled that the skin of her face wasn’t even visible. Startled by her ghostly appearance, Park Taeyang caught his breath.

As the woman pushed back her hair, two pitch-black eyes were revealed. Those pupils rolled around, scrutinizing the people gathered here.

Perhaps surprised that everyone was armed with things like medieval armor? The woman also hesitated to come out, only sticking her face out as she asked.

“Who… who are you all…?”

While everyone shrank back, Oh Haengun responded.

“You ask who we are? Who are you?”

At that moment, Seo Yun stepped closer and stood beside Oh Haengun.

With Soul Sight, she saw the woman’s form hidden behind the wall.

Below the female upper body, instead of legs, a thick, substantial shape was connected. It was that of a snake.

When Seo Yun whispered it to him, Oh Haengun wasn’t newly surprised. Well, he had probably already anticipated it.

Snake-human—a form all too familiar in fantasy. Like the Golem, actually encountering one was a different feeling, so everyone seemed tense.

Looking at the woman’s anxious face, Seo Yun thought. Even among snake-humans, there are many types. What kind of monster is she? Naga? Lamia? Medusa? Could be Melusine or Delphyne, or perhaps a Chimera synthesized from a human woman and a snake.

But just looking at her face for now, she didn’t seem like such a Western monster but rather like an East Asian. Moreover, the language coming from her mouth was Korean. So, before her lower body became like that, was she also an ordinary person living in Korea?

Meanwhile, the woman seemed to sense that everyone was wary of her. She said.

“I, I’m not a suspicious person! And… I’m not a monster either!”

Of course, no one was reassured by those words. Oh Haengun, still with a stern face, asked.

“Then, can I cast a Magic Spell? It’s not some strange magic. Just a Detection Spell.”

If she were an ordinary Korean trapped underground for three years, she would react with confusion, wondering what this talk of magic was. But Seo Yun noted that the woman wasn’t particularly surprised.

It seems she already knows magic exists in this world now. Even while trapped underground.

“Huh? Yes, go ahead…”

As she said, Oh Haengun recited some spell, likely a Detection Spell.

Oh Haengun examined the woman with glowing eyes and muttered.

“Race: Naga. Level 6 Priest of Beauty…”

Seo Yun looked at the woman. Priest of Beauty…

The Rulebook said it was a profession only beauties could have, but at first glance, she didn’t look like a beauty at all.

That face, which might have been beautiful once, was smeared with all sorts of brown substances, and her cheeks, so haggard they seemed sunken inward, were caked with something.

Moreover, seeing something crammed between her teeth, Seo Yun wondered. What on earth did she eat?

Oh Haengun began asking.

“Have you been living here alone all this time?”

“Yes…”

“What did you eat? Was there any food here?”

“There were canned goods and stuff, right…?”

“There weren’t many restaurants in the underground mall. And no grocery stores at all.”

“But still… I ate something. And that’s not important right now, is it? No matter where you’re from, please, take me with you…”

“If you want to follow us, first open the door. Don’t come out yet. Yes, like that…”

At Oh Haengun’s request, the woman seemed to hesitate but eventually opened the door.

Thus, everyone’s eyes were drawn to the fully revealed snake lower body. The woman, covering the massive snake torso with her small hands, stammered.

“I repeat, I’m not a monster! When this place collapsed, I was crushed by rocks, and when I opened my eyes, I was like this. I was just… an ordinary person. I can even tell you my resident registration number! 9, 60522…”

While the woman pleaded, Seo Yun looked inside the break room where she had been.

Perhaps due to the extremely low-light environment, it didn’t seem she had cared much about cleaning. Amidst all sorts of scattered trash, what appeared to be the woman’s excrement had piled up.

Among it, she saw elongated bones mixed in. Looking at bones too long to be from a can, Seo Yun whispered to Oh Haengun.

“A Level 5 Priest can use a Petrification Removal Spell.”

Oh Haengun seemed to immediately understand the implication. His expression turned serious as he looked at the woman and said.

“Hey, Miss. Can I use just one more Magic Spell?”

The woman probably didn’t hear what they had just discussed, but she seemed to sense they had made some decision about her.

She answered in a half-resigned voice.

“Yes…”

Oh Haengun muttered another spell again. Then, secretly opening his palm, he pointed it toward the woman.

The moment the spell was completed, a grayish energy mass flew from that palm.

The woman’s eyes widened in surprise. She seemed to guess it was something harmful to her body, even if she didn’t know what. But she didn’t even try to avoid it.

Seo Yun watched the change in the woman’s expression.

The woman tightly closed her eyes, filled with fear. The next moment, the gray energy mass enveloped her body.

With the same resigned expression, even bowing her head deeply, the snake woman turned into a stone statue.

It was the Petrification spell of a Rock Specialization Mage. Jeon Sangguk’s eyes widened.

“What is this? Why turn to stone…”

Oh Haengun seemed reluctant to answer, only opening and closing his mouth. And when even Park Taeyang looked at him with a surprised expression, he finally, with an unwilling air, told them what Seo Yun had whispered earlier.

Most of the quick-witted ones seemed to have already understood the situation, but Jeon Sangguk, still not understanding, kept pressing the issue.

“The problem is they could have undone the petrification of the people here but didn’t? But with provisions scarce and monsters roaming around, wasn’t it unavoidable…”

Oh Haengun glared at Jeon Sangguk and said.

“The problem isn’t that they didn’t undo the petrification. It’s that they did undo it.”

Jeon Sangguk still seemed not to understand, but Oh Haengun didn’t explain further. Turning his head toward the others, he said.

“Well, let’s move this statue onto the truck too. I’ll have the Golem move and come here now.”

This time, Park Taeyang spoke. His voice trembled.

“We’re moving that woman too? Taking her to the village?”

“Yes.”

“Without breaking her?””Why destroy it? For experience points? Naga appear as monsters but are also a playable race, so they would give experience points.”

“That’s not it… That woman, she ate people…”

Oh Haengun sighed.

“Are we some kind of champions of justice that we have to kill? Is there any real need to dirty our hands? It would just leave a bad taste.”

“But…”

“If we had to punish everyone who killed to survive, there wouldn’t be many people left in this world to talk to. Honestly, the main reason I just petrified her is that we can’t tell if she’s a person who turned into a monster or a monster pretending to be a person. That’s more of an issue than her having eaten people.”

Only then did Jeon Sangguk’s eyes widen. Oh Haengun continued.

“Because we can’t know if she ate people out of unavoidable circumstances or because of a monster’s instinct. If it’s because she’s a monster, then even if we fed her potatoes in the village, she might still prey on people… So if we need to make a judgment, it should be later. When we have more breathing room, later.”

Shortly after, the golem arrived. The three strong ones loaded the petrified Naga woman onto its back. Now she would be transported on the two-and-a-half-ton truck along with the other innocent stone statues.

Seo Yun looked at Oh Haengun. He was making a complicated expression, as if he himself wasn’t entirely satisfied with his own decision. Well, it wasn’t exactly a clean-cut decision, was it?

The mage’s choice—unable to coldly punish a dangerous criminal, yet also unable to recklessly take care of pitiful people—was merely a postponement of all those things.

Seo Yun didn’t comment on the decision. She was quietly climbing the stairs leading out of the underground mall with the others.

From above, unnecessarily forceful English reached their ears.

“Who…”

Seo Yun looked up to see an orangutan standing there.

Oh Haengun also saw the man. He flinched for a moment, then muttered as if recalling something from memory.

“Ah, you? The barbarian warrior Seo Yun mentioned…”

When they emerged above ground, it was already dark. Seo Yun took a box down from the truck and handed it to the barbarian warrior Arnold.

“Here, take this. Payment for your hard work clearing the entrance!”

Arnold checked the contents of the box and blinked.

“What is this?”

“Potatoes. You know how to eat them, right? Ah, unless you don’t know they need to be cooked with fire…”

Who knows about the year after next, but currently, Happy Village had a surplus of provisions. Sharing potatoes that couldn’t be stored long-term anyway wasn’t a wasteful act.

Oh Haengun didn’t stop her from being generous either. Instead, he grinned at Arnold.

“You should thank her. She personally bought and brought these.”

Then Oh Haengun subtly stepped back and began muttering, quietly reciting a spell. It seemed he was trying to cast a detection spell on that NPC again.

But Seo Yun noticed that after finishing the incantation, Oh Haengun wasn’t getting any description. He just wore a bewildered expression, so Seo Yun approached and asked.

“What level is that barbarian warrior gentleman?”

“Don’t know. The spell doesn’t show it. This is a first for me.”

“Well, soul detection didn’t work on him either.”

Ultimately, that barbarian warrior’s level and ability scores remained unknown.

Oh Haengun seemed uneasy about it. Well, he had just encountered a man-eating monster claiming to be a harmless Korean.

Still, according to Seo Yun’s description, this barbarian warrior was quite docile, and the fact that he had enough sense of propriety to repay a favor by clearing away heavy rocks couldn’t be ignored.

Oh Haengun said to the barbarian warrior.

“If you want to eat the potatoes, you need to boil them. Do you have enough water and cooking tools?”

“No.”

“Then let’s have a meal together. I’ll give you a pot to take with you.”

Suddenly, an NPC had joined the players for dinner. It was a very TRPG-like situation, leaving the others dumbfounded.

“Who’s that Mister? Why is he so muscular and half-naked?”

In response to Gaeulbi’s question, Seo Yun answered.

“An NPC I met before. He seems harmless enough. Seems pretty strong too.”

“Eh, so is Uncle Haengun trying to recruit that NPC for the village right now?”

“Probably not? We don’t know how strong he is, so if things go wrong, he might cause havoc. Still, well, it would be beneficial to have him stay near our village.”

“Why?”

“He seems high-level, right? Since he’s an NPC, he probably knows a lot of combat skills. Ah, you know how warriors in games paid skill trainer NPCs to learn techniques? In reality, they can’t do that, so warriors are relatively weaker than in games.”

“Warrior classes are definitely weaker than expected!”

Nodding, Seo Yun thought. For a martial artist…

“So I think he’s hoping the village warriors might learn something from that NPC. Or maybe he thinks having a friendly NPC in the village is beneficial… Anyway, he’s very proactive about scouting, that Mister.”

Oh Haengun certainly seemed intent on providing a proper meal.

He filled a pot with water conjured from underground using a magic spell. After Seo Yun lit a fire, they added the potatoes and boiled them.

Adding smoked chicken to that made it a feast by this era’s standards.

“Oh… how can I possibly eat all this.”

Even to Arnold, the meal seemed lavish. He looked down at the food placed before him with surprised eyes. Carefully putting one potato in his mouth, an unmistakably satisfied smile appeared on his lips.

Arnold carefully chewed and swallowed the contents of his mouth, then spoke, his face still wearing a smile.

“Thank you. I should repay you somehow.”

“Ah, it’s fine.”

Arnold shook his head.

“No, it’s truly proper food I’m tasting after a long time. I must give you something.”

Arnold reached into a small bundle, pulled something out, and offered it. They thought he might be giving gold or jewels, but no. Arnold said.

“If you focus your spirit on this and wish for something…”

Only then did Seo Yun realize what Arnold was trying to give. She immediately looked at the stone fragment in Arnold’s hand.

A darkly shining stone fragment. She knew what it was.

‘A meteor fragment?’

Like Seo Yun, Oh Haengun also seemed surprised.

“No, this is really valuable. Are you sure you can give it to us?””You’ve saved my life and even treated me to a lavish meal. It’s only right that I show some sincerity in return. Share that with the girl.”

“Well, if you put it that way… This is really, truly appreciated… Could you tell me where you got this?”

“From another continent.”

Oh Haengun shook his head.

“You came from another continent? How?”

“By crossing a blue gate.”

“A blue gate? Ah, you must mean a Dimensional Gate. Does such a thing exist?”

“It did. If it’s the one I escaped through, it’s probably gone by now.”

“Then we can’t go there… So, how is that other continent these days? Is it livable?”

“It’s Hell.”

“Well, that’s the world for you these days.”

“It’s much more hellish than here. Compared to other places, this land is Heaven.”

Arnold dipped a potato deep into the salt and swallowed it, then continued speaking in a voice that trembled for some reason.

“The fact that we can offer such things to strangers seeing them for the first time is also…”

Oh Haengun muttered.

“Well, even so, it’s only a relative Heaven. In the end, isn’t it just a difference of which is more beautiful, a pill bug or a cockroach? Take our village alone—we live much better than other villages, but if you think about the world from three years ago—”

Bang! A sound rang out.

Seo Yun, who had been focused on their conversation, abruptly turned her head.

That was unmistakably a gunshot. It rang out close by. It was probably aimed at us—is everyone safe?

Gaeulbi, Han Siwoo, Kim Jihyeok, and the other teenagers were unharmed. Next, Kim Ak and Oh Haengun and…

Seeing the Orangutan, Seo Yun’s eyes widened.

Seo Yun saw the glinting copper bullet between the Barbarian Warrior’s two fingers, saw the thumb and index finger that had caught the bullet spark and flick it away.

She also saw the bullet, shot away as if flung by those two fingers, hit someone who hadn’t been visible until just now.

“Argh!”

She saw a man in military uniform, who had suddenly appeared ahead, clutching his thigh and collapsing. A revolver fell from his hand. The bullet the Barbarian Warrior had flicked away also fell to the ground and rolled.

All of it happened too suddenly. So it must have been hard to judge, but Oh Haengun immediately rose from his seat and shouted.

“It’s an ambush!”