“This is the heart of the cave you’ve been searching for.”
“It’s pretty big.” After he followed the Vampiric Lord to a new location, Yeon-woo found himself in another world. ‘Aren’t we inside an otherworld god’s corpse? How was this environment created?’ It had been a grueling journey that he’d never experienced before, and he’d had to use Blink and Teleport multiple times. If they had been on Earth, he would have already gone halfway round the globe. He kept seeing the same environment over and over, which made it appear that they were walking around in circles but at least, the coordinates kept changing, which meant that they were moving forward. Also, his mind was put at ease because of how familiar the Vampiric Lord seemed to be with the journey.
The place in front of him was a wide space so vast that he couldn’t even see the horizon. There was light coming from somewhere in the red sky even though he couldn’t see a sun or a moon. Strange-looking grass grew on the plains, and he could see hills and mountains in the distance, interspersed with rivers. It was evidently a stage. Yeon-woo was a bit confused.
“You have no idea where this is and what kind of place it is, hm?”
Yeon-woo nodded. He couldn’t help feeling surprised that an environment that looked like something one could find in the Tower would appear in a corpse. Perhaps he’d made the wrong guess, but…
“Looks like you already caught on that this is a god’s corpse.”
“Yes.”
“Then that makes it easier to explain. We are in the stomach.”
Stomach? Yeon-woo’s eyes widened at the unexpected answer. They were in a digestive organ? What was even more bizarre was that he’d been seeing strange-looking monsters dashing through the grass and floating in the sky. Each one had such a bizarre appearance that he wondered how they were evolutionarily possible: beasts that ran without feet, translucent life forms, and tentacled monsters five meters high which roamed in groups of ten. The auras they exuded would make anyone sit up and pay attention. He wasn’t even sure he could defeat them.
A few could even go toe to toe with most divine beings. Those who seemed to be leaders could be compared to superior divine beings. For a moment, Yeon-woo wondered if he was in Tartarus or a worse hell than that.
The Vampiric Lord smirked as she watched Yeon-woo’s stare at the monsters. “They’re old ghosts who have lost their identities. They were once great beings, but they’ve been reduced to remnants in this stomach since this colossal existence failed to digest them completely.”
Yeon-woo was speechless.
“Of course, their existences haven’t been completely erased since a part of their divinity still remains, but their egos are gone, and they’re little more than brainless creatures powered by instinct.” The Vampiric Lord scoffed at the creatures that once ruled over universes and dimensions.
[Vimalacitra narrows his eyes at the scene.]
[Cernunnos is silent.]
[Agares frowns.]
…
[Many gods are shocked.]
[Many demons cluck their tongues.]
[A few gods ask what the Central Bureau is hiding.]
[A few demons attempt to contact the High Guardians.]
The reactions of those in the heavenly world as they watched through Yeon-woo varied: disbelief, shock, and even suspicions about the Bureau for hiding something like this.
‘This is what a fallen society looks like to them.’ A thousand years had passed since the heavenly world stopped their war, but the conflict between the gods and demons wasn’t something that would end until one side was completely crushed. There were even numerous prophecies about the war at the end of time: Armageddon and Ragnarok. The gods and demons would be feeling fearful because this would be the outcome.
“And those there…” The Vampiric Lord pointed at other monsters who were smaller than the others and had humanoid appearances. “They attempted exuviation and failed. They’re half-wits that couldn’t become Guardians or transcendents.”
Yeon-woo swallowed. He felt like he understood the Vampiric Lord’s implication. Many of the inmates imprisoned in the cave most likely hoped to become a Guardian. But not all of them would pass the test. To become a Guardian, you needed to meet a certain standard since each Guardian should be able to stand against most divine beings. Exuviation was one of the basic requirements. ‘But it’s limited by the system because of Allforone. And transcendence…is even more so.’
If a player failed to become a Guardian through the administrative system, they would be trashed and sent to the garbage heap—in effect, the heart of the cave.
‘Still, one can’t look down on them either. They’ve probably grown after being exposed to this stomach with all its Divine Factors.” Since there was a significant amount of Divine Factors in Blood-Tear Stones and Blood Essence, this environment was filled with Divine Factors. It was only at this point that Yeon-woo fully appreciated just how unbelievable this place was. ‘Just what are otherworld gods?’
[Gods of knowledge and discovery begin to confer about the otherworld gods.]
[Demons who desire strength take a deep interest in the otherworld gods.]
“Anyway, be careful not to make contact with them. It will be a huge bother if you get involved with them.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
If the Vampiric Lord said it was a bother, it meant that it would be truly hard to deal with. Curiosity would only kill the cat. Yeon-woo planned on hiding his presence as much as possible since nothing good would come from attracting their attention. He tucked his magic power into his body and used Wind Path to hide his presence.
“Then I’ll start the search.” The Vampiric Lord spread her hands open and mumbled something. It was a language that Yeon-woo had never heard, but it sounded like she was saying “Activate”.
Whoosh! An upside-down crucifix appeared on her palms, glowing with a black light. A spherical protection barrier appeared around it and disappeared.
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Yeon-woo’s eyes flashed. ‘That’s the Shield of the Dead, part of the Vampiric Lord’s signature spear and shield.’
Her familiars, Morgrim and Roost, cornered allies and enemies alike with fear, but she was also famous for her martial technique that utilized two weapons. The spear was the Vampiric Sword that allowed her to swallow souls and bodies, and the shield was the Shield of the Dead that led the souls and bodies to death. The shield had transformed into a new unique skill as the Vampiric Lord awakened.
〈Bathory’s Witch Defense〉
Clatter. The crucifix began to spin like the hand of a clock and stopped when it pointed to the northeast. Then, it scattered into small pieces and left a long trail, as if guiding them. “I’ve met Laplace many times. A long time ago, I also had to go back to the Tutorial.”Bathory’s Witch Defense showed her the location of the being she was looking for. The greater the being, the easier it was to find them. It also had the ability to erase her presence, so at the same time, the Vampiric Lord could evade her enemies.
‘But she couldn’t find Count Ferenc even with this. All she learned was that he came to the cave.’ It meant the shield wasn’t all-powerful. If they used a different method to hide their presence, there was nothing the shield could do. Just as its name said, the Witch Defense was specialized to defend, not track.
“Let’s move again.”
The two followed the trail of the Witch Defense more quietly and discreetly than ever before.
* * *
How much time had passed? Yeon-woo guessed that it was about four to five days. In a world without day or night, the two continued to move without rest. Along the way, they had to avoid creatures that sensed their presence. At every instance, the Vampiric Lord repeated that he shouldn’t make contact with them.
She said even the beings he thought he could defeat might be hiding some strength. This place was like a savannah. If one monster noticed them, so would the others in a domino effect.
Whenever they occasionally snuck past the territories of large creatures, Yeon-woo would feel his back turn cold. The creatures that looked like leaders were so menacing that he wouldn't even dream of fighting them. The gods and demons watching the situation through him were shocked beyond belief into silence.
‘They must be scared.’ If this was how powerful dead otherworld gods were, how powerful would the otherworld gods be? The lower-level divine beings wouldn’t even be able to touch them. Maybe it would be possible for the progenitor gods or conceptual gods to mount a defense, but they couldn’t even guarantee that. The world that existed in this stomach overwhelmed the scale of most stages, and considering that those stages were like small planets, it was unbelievable.
「Wow. Shit. All I can do is curse.」
「This world is…vast. I thought the Tower was the peak of all universes and dimensions, but that was just the assumption of a big fish in a little pond.」
Shanon and Hanryeong were surprised over and over again.
“It stops here.”
The two reached the tip of a precipice. The trail of the Witch Defense continued but at the bottom, where the waves of a sea made pleasurable splashing sounds. However, the sea wasn’t inviting at all.
It was an acid sea with a dark grey shine that boiled as though it were being cooked by all the fires of hell. The heavy fog above it had such a potent poison that just looking at it made them dizzy.
「That’s all gastric acid, right? This is crazy. Is this guy really dead?」
Yeon-woo collected his thoughts as he listened to Shanon’s voice. Eeeeng. The Philosopher’s Stone and Dragon Heart moved furiously as they noticed their owner’s abnormal state.
[An extreme toxicity has entered your body. You are being poisoned.]
[You have been afflicted with the status ‘Stun’.]
…
[Warning! Move away from the geographical feature. Subjugation is nearly impossible with your current abilities.]
[Your trait, Cold-blooded, has helped you maintain composure.]
[The status 'Stun' has been removed. You have gained a resistance to poison.]
[‘Formless Poison’ skill proficiency has dramatically increased. 12.6%]
[You have acquired the trait ‘Thousand Poison Immunity’.]
‘Gaining a trait and increasing proficiency just by being exposed to the environment?’ Yeon-woo laughed in disbelief. How was he supposed to cross an acidic sea stronger than Soul Poison and Formless Poison? However, Laplace was somewhere beyond it. Through the fog, he could see a few islands created from stacks of corpses disintegrating slowly in the gastric acid. It seemed that Lapace was on one of them.
What was the Bureau thinking by trapping Laplace in this crazy place? Did they think this was the only way to prevent his escape? But then, they would be right. He made an even more horrifying discover when he spread his Extrasensory Perception. He sensed countless lifeforms in the sea of acid. Some were so large that he couldn’t even guess their size. They might be even larger than the ones he’d just seen.
All Yeon-woo could think were the Vampiric Lord’s description that they were impossible to subjugate. Even she would have difficulty with this.
“Let’s move away from here for now. I think we’ll have to think of a way to cross this sea.” Just when Yeon-woo was about to turn back, the Vampiric Lord shook her head with a mysterious smile.
“No. It’s too late for retreat. It already knows we’re here.”
“What…?” Yeon-woo was about to ask what she meant when his eyes widened. A creature burst out of the sea with a cry that seemed to shake the world. Its shadowy figure was obscured by the thick fog, and it was so large that Yeon-woo couldn’t see where it ended. “What… is that?” Yeon-woo’s voice trembled. The creature was overwhelming even in this place filled with all kinds of monsters.
“Nessie.” The Vampiric Lord smiled in amusement. “The king of this Demonic Sea.”