Chapter 124 – Purification (1)

Nanseol, who had been glowing with a cold atmosphere while looking at Yeonhwa, let out a small sigh.

“I’m sorry. My nerves were on edge.”

Nanseol bowed her head while greeting the people with clasped hands, and the surprised people accepted her apology.

“You surprised me. Nothing’s wrong, right?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Phew, then do you know what kind of mission it is?”

“I heard it’s a mission to go to the Empire. I was told someone else would tell me the details.”

At Nanseol’s answer, Caroline began briefly explaining the situation.

Sun-woo, who was watching Nanseol listen to the explanation, frowned.

Because unlike before, Nanseol’s clothes looked very worn out.

The clothes she was wearing now were also clean martial robes of Mount Hua like her personality, but they were torn and stained in many places.

The dark red stains remaining throughout her clothes were definitely bloodstains no matter how you looked at them.

It seemed many things had happened to Nanseol during this time.

Sun-woo resolved to ask what had happened later.

“I understand the situation. It’s escorting you all and helping with what Sun-woo does. For parts I don’t understand well, I’ll move according to Sun-woo.”

Unlike Yeonhwa, Nanseol understood all the content, but her response wasn’t different from Yeonhwa’s.

“Then, let’s depart.”

Caroline, wearing men’s clothing and a coat instead of the business attire always seen before, led the group and approached Sofia.

Caroline’s group of 4, Sun-woo and Yeonhwa, and finally Nanseol.

A total of seven people stood before Sofia.

“I apologize for designating the wrong arrival point last time. This time I’ll properly send you to Stuttgart where the underground city is located.”

Sofia apologized to Sun-woo then raised her hand toward the group.

Soon a black hole appeared on the floor and the group all disappeared into the hole.

Stuttgart.

The Empire’s second city had an atmosphere like a refugee camp after war.

Buildings that burned and were damaged when the great disaster occurred remained as they were, and the streets were left with filth and trash.

Fortunately no corpses were visible, but the occasionally seen people were in some kind of violent emotional state, frequently picking fights with each other.

“Kek! It’s good living freely without being tied down. But it’s not much fun because the other guys became idiots.”

“Th-that’s more fun, isn’t it? There’s also the fun of smashing guys who charge without knowing anything.”

Two men with bloodshot eyes were swaggering down a quiet street.

When they appeared, people instantly disappeared from the street.

“Da-damn, patrol at a time like this. Really annoying.”

“Tsk, exactly. Even in a world like this, listening to orders, should we just throw it all away?”

“Heh, yo-you’re all talk. You always get flustered when you’re in front of that guy.”

“Don’t you do the same! How can I help it when I can’t think of anything else just standing in front of that person!”

The men carrying crossbows and swords went through the streets and entered a large building that was half-collapsed.

“He-here, don’t we not need to come here anymore? All the soldiers who were here are dead.”

“Well, since we were told to, let’s just look and go.”

The two walked through the building’s first floor hall with annoyed faces.

The building was destroyed much more than other buildings. The building’s roof had also disappeared so the sky was visible from the hall.

Light was coming in through the hole in the ceiling, but the building’s atmosphere felt even gloomier.

“He-here, I feel bad every time I come here. Let’s get out quickly.”

“Tsk. Did you become more fearful after changing? You really changed in a strange direction.”

The man who was looking at his colleague pathetically suddenly looked down at his chest with a surprised expression. Red blood was spreading from his chest.

“What’s this?”

“Hik!”

Leaving his surprised colleague behind, the man collapsed on the spot.

After he fell, only blood-stained white cloth was fluttering in mid-air.

“Gh-ghost?”

The man who saw his fallen colleague and the fluttering blood-stained cloth tried to run outside leaving his colleague behind, but his body wouldn’t listen.

His body had stiffened.

“Pl-please move! Mo-move please.”

He kept muttering while exerting force to move his body.

Terrified, he gradually began sobbing and his eyes kept moving looking for someone to help.

But no one to help was visible, and instead he saw his shadow writhing and moving.

Slither, slither.

Unlike his body that couldn’t move, the shadow that had been writhing on the floor slowly raised its body from the ground as if it were a living person.

“Th-this can’t be.”

The man looked at his risen shadow with terrified eyes.

And the shadow that completely raised its body stretched out one hand and grabbed his neck.

Soon tremendous pain began rushing through his neck.

Pain that made breathing difficult.

He half lost his mind to fear and pain.

Soon a voice reached his ears.

“Do you want to escape the pain? Do you want to escape your shadow? Then answer the question.”

“Ye-yes, yes! Please.”

He began frantically answering the voice heard from mid-air.

Shortly after, having answered everything he knew, he could see the shadow standing in front of him collapse along with the pain felt in his neck disappearing.

At the same time he saw the blood-stained cloth that had been fluttering in front change into a woman wearing martial robes.

That was the last scene he saw.

When the man collapsed on the floor, Nanseol sheathed her sword.

Both killing the first man and the cloth floating in air were all Nanseol disguised with <Illusion Technique> .

Sun-woo had hidden Nanseol’s appearance to test his newly acquired ability.

At the same time, the broken statues that had been in the dark corner of the hall changed into Sun-woo’s group.

Sun-woo, whose test was finished, had dispelled the illusion technique.

Now Sun-woo’s illusion technique could help surrounding people escape pursuit from contaminated people.

When the illusion technique was dispelled, Sun-woo who appeared looked quite tired. He was exhausted from using various illusion techniques and newly acquired abilities simultaneously.

But the expression on his face wiping sweat was very bright. Because the newly acquired ability matched with <Illusion Technique> better than expected.

This dimensional travel arrived at the targeted Stuttgart unlike last time.

The place where the group appeared was a half-destroyed massive building. It was where the command post that handled the city’s defense until recently was located.

For Sofia who was a soldier, sending the group to the command building was natural.

But the destroyed command post made Caroline and the refugees very depressed.

Before the group had time to fall into sentiment, Sun-woo felt human presence approaching the building.

Realizing they weren’t ordinary people, Sun-woo decided to test his new ability while gathering information.

Sun-woo first guided the group to a corner of the building and made them look like broken statues with illusion technique.

Then he asked Nanseol to take the life of one of the two entering men, leaving only the man who seemed mentally weaker.

Sun-woo also hid Nanseol’s appearance using the sword with illusion technique and conducted the experiment.

First he used illusion technique to make it look like shadows were moving, planting fear, and used newly acquired <Phantom Pain> to give reality to the shadow’s appearance.

When substantial pain was felt, the shadow created by <Illusion Technique> became real instead of illusion for him.

And <Phantom Pain> which could only be used in limited situations due to reality restrictions could continue giving pain to opponents without losing power due to Sun-woo’s illusion technique.

“Thanks to that I learned good information.”

Sun-woo’s eyes lit up at the unexpected gain. He could obtain unexpectedly good information.

“I wonder if the Scavengers know too. Seems we need to meet as quickly as possible.”

“Seems we should. Whether it can actually be effective or if it’s a trap is unknown, but we can’t just leave it alone.”

According to the dead man’s words, an ability user who recently came to the city and became the new boss seemed to be making a large amplification stone formation in the middle of the city.

It was a formation made using several amplification stones and gems never seen before, preparing to contaminate the underground city whose passages were blocked.

The formation he mentioned seemed to be the contamination formation Sun-woo had destroyed.

The gems never seen before were definitely contaminated cores of monsters from other worlds like the imugi’s inner dan.

“The person who became the new boss is probably a contaminated summoner dispatched here, right?”

“Probably. Could it be the underground city is being attacked because of the contamination formation destroyed last time?”

Well, the contaminated summoners in this world had no way of knowing summoners from other worlds could come here.

The only enemies they could think of were definitely the Scavengers.

The situation was urgent.

Without time for refugees to look around their homeland, the group had no choice but to immediately depart for the underground city.

Sun-woo guided the group to the entrance newly made outside the city recently.

Certainly without Sun-woo, Caroline’s group would have found it difficult to even reach the underground city.

The group carefully exited the building and moved toward the outskirts of the city. They continued moving while avoiding people as much as possible and killing or knocking out those they inevitably encountered.

If it had been recently, no matter how carefully they moved, they couldn’t avoid contaminated humans inside the city.

Because contaminated humans’ ability to find ordinary people couldn’t be avoided.

But this time they could exit the city without contaminated humans knowing.

Because Sun-woo’s illusion technique had developed to the point of deceiving contaminated humans thanks to the dragon experience and abilities gained this time.

Because of that Sun-woo experienced exhaustion from ability use for the first time in a while, but everyone escaped the city without being caught.

After exiting the city Sun-woo could dispel the illusion technique and the group quickly ran to the nearby mountain range where the underground city entrance was located.

While running to match the group’s pace, Sun-woo could finally talk with Nanseol.

“Are Hwangbo Jageom and Wang Munpung doing well?”

Sun-woo opened conversation by casually asking about others’ well-being.

Nanseol who had been moving with a stiffly hardened face relaxed her expression slightly at Sun-woo’s question.

“Elder Wang Munpung went into hiding. Martial Artist Hwangbo Jageom returned to his family.”

“What? The three of you were performing missions together.”

At Sun-woo’s surprised question, Nanseol answered in a somewhat tired voice.

“The mission was canceled. I’m now affiliated with the Orthodox Alliance’s advance guard fighting against the Demon Cult.”

According to Nanseol’s story, the locally occurring fights between the Demon Cult and Orthodox Alliance had expanded into full-scale war, and now all of the martial world had become a battlefield.

Eventually, the Blood Cult had achieved its goal.

Nanseol had also been affiliated with a combat unit and seemed to have fought with Demon Cult warriors multiple times.

Sun-woo could finally understand Nanseol’s worn clothes and her appearance sharpened with killing intent.

“But is it okay to be summoned like this?”

“The unit I’m in moves like a kind of reconnaissance unit so individual action is possible. The commander assigned me here. There are many summoners in the unit.”

Though they couldn’t move summoners separately due to public opinion within the alliance, they seemed to show consideration for summoners as much as possible.

“Still, it’s mostly fighting against the Demon Cult. Finding the Blood Cult is impossible.”

With Nanseol’s somewhat dejected final words, the two who fell into thought quietly hurried along the path.

The group ran for quite a while after that, entering the mountain range interior and arriving at the valley Sun-woo had seen before.

The entrance hidden inside the valley looked safe and two men and women were standing in front waiting for the group.

“Welcome! We’ve been waiting!”

Hayden waved his hand toward the group.