Mystery(2)

Everyone looked confused. However, before making any decisions, I decided to hear Baek-ho’s story first.

“Me?”

“Yes, tell me. There might be some information that could help us understand the situation.”

“Well, there’s not much to tell… After I woke up in the Venomous Magma Fields, I wandered around to see if anyone else had fallen there. I took a quick look around and, since it seemed like no one was there, I crossed over to the Primordial Land.”

None of what he said gave me any clues.

He had only found the cloth a few days ago when he entered the Primordial Land, and after that, he basically just ran straight to the monument as fast as he could.

“But guess what? When I arrived, all I saw were traces of you—no one was actually there.”

And on top of that, there was a strange entrance that hadn’t been there before, and seeing our tracks went straight into it, he had just entered himself—that was Baek-ho’s explanation.”

“Ta-da! That’s the end of my story!”

He stretched in an exaggerated way before quickly letting his expression shift. Then he glanced around at us and spoke in a low voice.

“So. Where’s our archer?”

“……”

“Is he dead?”

At his blunt question, my jaw dropped for just a moment.

It’s not like I did anything wrong.

“Bright is dead.”

“How?”

“He was alone and we found his body on the way to the Primordial Forest. It seemed he was killed by a monster.”

“…Really?”

Baek-ho fell silent for a moment after that.

Though not for long.

“Well, only one person died. That’s honestly not too bad.”’

Lee Baek-ho regained his usual composure as if nothing had happened.

“Everyone must have had a rough time? Honestly, I thought maybe everyone except the Baron and gramps might have kicked the bucket.”

“……”

“But what do we do about our archer? Even if he was a bit timid, his skills were decent.”

I couldn’t tell what was going on in his head.

Did this bastard really feel nothing?

They had been teammates for over three years.

I couldn’t know, but the discussion about Bright ended there.

“Anyway, that doesn’t matter right now. What’s actually going on? None of you put up that cloth, right?”

“That’s right. Unless you’re playing a prank, Baek-ho.”

“Why the hell would I joke about this? Seriously…it’s so creepy.”

Hmm. I don’t know if it’s that creepy.

“…Unless we’ve got a traitor among us?”

Baek-ho looked around at the group. The moment his eyes settled on Aures, Aures immediately started defending himself.

“Not me! I’m innocent! There’s no way I could come up with such a complicated plan!”

This isn’t a mafia game.

There was no reason to waste energy on such matters, so I quickly intervened.

“How about you don’t start suspecting your allies first?”

“Why? Isn’t it a reasonable suspicion—”

Reasonable my ass.

“If none of us hung the cloth, then it makes more sense to suspect the other side.”

“…Other side?”

“Did you already forget? We’re not the only ones in this area.”

Something seemed to click in Baek-ho’s head

“Ah! That bastard who lured us here! Wh-what was his name… Han… something? Right! Dalan! That Han—!”

“Enough.”

I cut him off before he could utter the name that practically invited misfortune.

Then Jayna spoke from the side:

“But isn’t that guy already dead?”

“That’s right! He turned into a Bayon, we killed him, and Mr. Ruingenes already chopped him up too.”

Aures eagerly agreed.

Fallen Gramps spoke up then, saving me from having to defend myself.

I couldn’t know, but the discussion about Bright ended there.

“Anyway, that doesn’t matter right now. What’s actually going on? None of you put up that cloth, right?”

“That’s right. Unless you’re playing a prank, Baek-ho.”

“Why the hell would I joke about this? Seriously…it’s so creepy.”

Hmm. I don’t know if it’s that creepy.

“…Unless we’ve got a traitor among us?”

Baek-ho looked around at the group. The moment his eyes settled on Aures, Aures immediately started defending himself.

“Not me! I’m innocent! There’s no way I could come up with such a complicated plan!”

This isn’t a mafia game.

There was no reason to waste energy on such matters, so I quickly intervened.

“How about you don’t start suspecting your allies first?”

“Why? Isn’t it a reasonable suspicion—”

Reasonable my ass.

“If none of us hung the cloth, then it makes more sense to suspect the other side.”

“…Other side?”

“Did you already forget? We’re not the only ones in this area.”

Something seemed to click in Baek-ho’s head

“Ah! That bastard who lured us here! Wh-what was his name… Han… something? Right! Dalan! That Han—!”

“Enough.”

I cut him off before he could utter the name that practically invited misfortune.

Then Jayna spoke from the side:

“But isn’t that guy already dead?”

“That’s right! He turned into a Bayon, we killed him, and Mr. Ruingenes already chopped him up too.”

Aures eagerly agreed.

This time, Ruin-Gramps spoke before I even had the chance to answer.

“I agree with Baron’s opinion. He’s someone who could very well have lured us here intentionally. Han—”

“Please refer to him by his family name if possible.”

“……?”

Ruin Gramps shot me a questioning look.

“You two weren’t that close. Show some respect.”

He stared at me as if I’d lost it, but he didn’t bother to question me.

“…Anyway, my opinion is that it’s highly likely we met some mysterious entity, disguised as Dalan.”

“Then what does that unknown bastard want?”

“No idea. But once we explore this place, we should be able to understand why he led us here.”

As Ruin-Gramps said, we’ll find out eventually.

We’re already trapped here. Our only option is to continue exploring this mysterious place.

“Alright, then it’s settled. We proceed with caution regarding that mysterious bastard and search this space. Correct, Baron?”

“To summarize, yes.”

“Good. Then let’s move. Maybe we’ll run into that rat while we’re at it.”

Baek-ho stepped towards me as if urging me to hurry up. But I didn’t move aside and I simply shook my head.

“Why aren’t we going down…? Oh, right. You were coming up the stairs when I ran into you, right?”

It was only then that Baekho took notice and asked why.

This is one of the reasons why having too many leaders is a bad idea.

The others followed because I insisted, but this guy probably wouldn’t.

“I thought there might be something if we went up. I thought we should check.”

After I added a brief explanation, Lee Baek-ho seemed to think for a moment, then slapped his knee.

“Something might be up there… Ah! Now that I think about it, this place resembles the ‘Golden Ruins’!”

Seriously, was it because he’d played the original mode for so long? Even though he came here after clearing the cheat version, he still knew quite a lot.

“Heh, so that’s what you’re aiming for? Then I approve. It’s worth checking out!”

“Um… What are you two talking about…?”

“Quiet. You all just follow along.”

In any case, since our goals aligned, Baekho rejoined the group, and we continued up the stairs.

10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes…

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it was around when I began to wonder whether this place even had that event, since we technically weren’t inside the labyrinth.

Thud.

Finally, the stairs ended, revealing a narrow passage.

“…Huh?”

“It really ended…? I honestly thought it would just be some kind of illusion.”

“What’s going to be in there…?”

The atmosphere suggested they wanted an explanation, but as I started walking through the passage without saying anything, everyone quietly followed me.

Thud, thud.

After about 10 meters, the darkness ended, and a stone door stood at the end of the passage.

I considered giving a brief briefing before entering, but decided against it.

They can handle rank 3 monsters easily, so why bother?

The Golden Ruins was a rift located on the fourth floor.

And the enemy here wasn’t even the Rift Guardian, just something like a hidden mid-boss. The fight shouldn’t be difficult.

“Then let’s begin.”

I lifted my hammer and struck the stone door.

And—

Boooom!!

The stone door shattered into pieces with a single blow.

‘…What?’

Even I was dumbfounded after smashing it.

Because in the game, this thing had pretty high durability.

Even though I’m built as a damage-tank barbarian, I thought it would take at least five hits to break.

Whoosh.

The GM cleared the dust with a wind-attribute spell, and once our vision returned, I stepped inside and cautiously examined the interior.

It was a rectangular room. Better than the narrow hallway, but not significantly larger. The artwork on the walls made me uneasy for some reason.

Step.

In the center of the room was a single golden coffin, three meters long.

It really was the hidden piece you could find if you kept climbing the stairs in the opposite direction.

Step.

If you opened that coffin, a Rank 4 monster called Makairo would appear as the mid-boss.

Defeating it would grant you a combat buff that would last until you exited the rift. If you were lucky, you could also obtain a very special ‘Numbers’ item.

Tap.

 

I kicked the lid of the coffin off and quickly stepped back to create some distance.

Boom

I raised my shield and readied myself, and the others formed up right after.

But…

“……”

“……”

“…Isn’t something supposed to come out?”

Even after the dust had settled completely, the boss still didn’t appear.

What’s going on?

As I approached cautiously, shielding my upper body with my shield, I froze when I looked inside the coffin. Lee Baek-ho came up beside me and muttered.

“What, it’s already dead?”

Inside the coffin was nothing but a snow-white skeleton arranged in a proper funerary posture.

***

As I stared down at it blankly, Baek-ho called Ruin Gramps.

“Gramps, loot it first. Even if the most valuable eyeball has rotted away, Makairo bones should still be high-level, right?”

“Unnecessary. These bones already hold no value whatsoever.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The value in monster bones lies in the magical power preserved within them. However…”

Ruin Gramps picked up one of the bones and continued.

“There is no trace of mana here. These are worse than Goblin bones. They’ve decayed so much that they can’t even be used to make a staff.”

“…I’ve never seen a creature’s bones feel this empty. There usually isn’t enough time for the mana density to drop all the way to zero.

“In that sense, it might be worth collecting a few pieces. As our friend here said, it’s a very peculiar case.”

Ruin Gramps quickly gathered several of the larger bones and put them into his pack, and GM followed his lead.

“Wow, so all we got for coming all the way here are a few bone fragments worse than Goblin bones?”

“Regrettable, but yes.”

“So why did it end up like this?”

“Alright, we have two possible explanations here.”

Ruin Gramps held up two fingers.

“One: the cause of death. Occasionally, corpses whose life force and magical power have been absorbed by dark magic or Karui’s power exhibit this phenomenon.”

“So, the bastard who lured us here could be a dark mage or a follower of Karui? Okay, noted. Then what’s the second one?”

 

“The second possibility is that an extremely long period of time has passed since it became a corpse. All biological remains eventually rot or corrode, causing magical power to dissipate.”

“Then what about bone equipment? I remember a piece that was supposedly used by a famous explorer thousands of years ago being sold for a huge price at an auction.”

“That’s because it was processed with magic to prevent the magical power from dissipating.”

“So, how long does it take for bones to become trash like this?”

“Coincidentally, there’s a specimen in the Magic Tower being experimented on regarding that very subject.”

“Ah, you mean Jaymetal’s Goblin bones. I heard that as of last year, it had been about four thousand years since that experiment began.”

“Is that so? But I heard there’s still magical power in them.”

The conversation about the bones went on for a bit, but it could be summed up rather simply.

“So, simply put, this guy might have died over 4,000 years ago?”

“That is, assuming it wasn’t due to dark magic or something similar.”

It wasn’t worth discussing. What difference did it make how it died, or how long ago it happened?

…Kind of a waste to miss that buff. And I was actually hoping to fight it, since there was a chance of getting a decent drop—

“Huh? Baron, what’s this? It looks like some kind of ‘box’……”

“What? A box?”

At that, I snapped my head toward the voice.
Aures was holding a pitch-black, cube-shaped box in his hand.

“…Where did you find that?”

“Find it? It was just lying over there in the corner.”

“Give it here.”

After practically snatching it from under him, I quickly examined its exterior fron every angle.

It was the real thing.

“What is that supposed to be…?”

“No. 777 — Makairo’s Storage Box.”

It was the item commonly referred to as the mystery box.

 

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