It felt like it—no, it was definitely a crime—but right now, I had no choice.
I used the laptop’s “Internet Connection” feature to access Chae Nayun’s smartwatch. Only a negligible amount of SP was consumed.
[Chae Nayun -> Kim Suho]
[Hey, what are you doing?]
[Shin Jonghak -> Chae Nayun]
[What are you up to? Want to grab a late-night snack together?]
Several messages were coming and going, but I desperately tried not to look as I scrolled down. What I wanted was only the conversation history with Sven.
True to form as Chae Nayun, there were so many women and men contacting her that I had to scroll for quite a while before I found it.
===
Sven [Good work yesterday.]
[Yeah. You too. But why do you keep speaking formally? It’s uncomfortable.]
Sven [Really? Then I’ll speak casually.]
···
···
Sven [I heard the hunting club is going to Gangwon-do this week. Wanna team up for the hunt?]
[Yeah. Sounds good.]
===
Just an ordinary chat between classmates. However, Sven’s last message stood out particularly.
‘The hunting club this week.’
‘Wanna team up for the hunt?’
Just as I thought. If things had gone according to the original story, the moment Sven goes berserk is precisely that day.
It was then.
[Hajin.]
Suddenly, a message came to my watch. Doubt flashed through my mind at the sender’s name.
It was Kim Suho.
[Are you free this Thursday?]
“What’s with him?”
Why was Kim Suho contacting me all of a sudden…
Aha. That’s it.
To avoid bringing in outside personnel for this missing persons case, Cube had selected the most reliable students from each grade and assigned them the mission of tracking down the culprit. The three representatives for the first years were Shin Jonghak, Kim Suho, and Chae Nayun.
“…But isn’t this too early?”
I didn’t know the exact date, but I remembered it being around April. Right now, it was the end of March. Not only was the formation of the investigation team too soon, but I also had no idea why he’d contacted me.
[Why?]
[I can’t tell you yet. I’ll explain when we meet. For now, just know that Nayun recommended you.]
“Chae Nayun?”
Why did Chae Nayun recommend me? Is it because of my eyes?
I was torn. However, the timing really didn’t work. An announcement had already been made that Wednesday and Thursday classes were canceled. I was planning to visit the Garisan Dungeon on Wednesday, and Thursday was the hunting club.
I sent a reply.
[…I can’t do Thursday, but I think Friday would work.]
[Yeah. Let’s meet then.]
Kim Suho sent a reply as swift as a blade, as if cutting through a veil.
“…Well. If I get involved in the story, there’s profit to be had.”
After replying that I understood, I focused on the laptop again.
This time, what I would spy on was Sven’s SNS.
* * *
Gangwon-do is a representative mountainous region of South Korea. The Baekdu-daegan mountain range, brimming with the Jingqi (精氣) of the earth, stretches eastward, and mountains large and small, including Geumgangsan—the spiritual mountain of the nation—are scattered all around. Therefore, to martial artists who seek out Mingdan, Gangwon-do is also called the “Mecca of Training.”
To that extent, the mountains of Gangwon-do are a Mingdan among Mingdan where Jingqi and Lingqi (靈氣) swirl and mix together, drawing in many people of various occupations—Hunters, poachers, Heroes, and mercenaries.
Among them is quite a special occupation called “simmani.”
Simmani—people who roam mountains to dig wild ginseng. Though they haven’t cultivated the ability to fight monsters, they have developed their sight and smell to the extreme, wandering the corners of the world in search of wild ginseng buried somewhere.
Wild ginseng grows in many countries, but the most expensive by far is the Korean Peninsula’s wild ginseng, so simmani are very common in Gangwon-do.
Kim Yoonjun was one of those many simmani.
No matter how young the specimen, Gangwon-do wild ginseng’s value surpasses imagination. It acts as a miraculous elixir that increases one’s mana capacity—at least, that’s what they say. Even if he didn’t fully understand it, Kim Yoonjun had spent ten years repeating this dangerous act of climbing mountains swarming with monsters in search of money.
The most recent ginseng he had found was a “four-year ginseng” from a year ago. In other words, he had been unemployed for the past year, but since the money obtained from selling that ginseng was 300 million won, his wife and child said nothing.
And today was Kim Yoonjun’s twentieth ascent of Garisan.
“…Hm?”
Just like always, Kim Yoonjun had his eyes wide open, peering through the ground. However, when he raised his head to wipe sweat, he discovered a man. Neither ugly nor handsome, he had an ordinary face. Yet his body was quite sturdy—his forearm muscles attested to that. They were muscles particularly developed in simmani.
The man walked somewhere, stopped to look at a map, then walked again and stopped to look at his map.
A simmani, just as I thought. But wild ginseng isn’t marked on maps. A complete beginner.
Kim Yoonjun smirked and approached him. The man seemed to sense a presence and turned around.
Kim Yoonjun asked with a sly, smooth manner,
“Are you a simmani too?”
The man looked at him and shook his head.
“No. I’m just looking for a certain place.”
Saying so, he hid the map he was holding behind his back. Kim Yoonjun found that action itself endearing.
“Hehe. I understand, but wild ginseng isn’t something you find with a map.”
“…What?”
“I don’t know where you got that map, but don’t trust it too much. Only Heaven knows where the ginseng is.”
“What? What does only Heaven know?”
The man tilted his head. Kim Yoonjun had much he wanted to say to this novice simmani who knew nothing. Perhaps it was the benevolent disposition of an elite simmani.
Afterward, Kim Yoonjun shared the history of what ginseng he had harvested, showed off his cutting-edge equipment, explained how to dig without injuring the ginseng, showed photos of his wife and 13-year-old child, and finally, let out a hearty laugh as he patted the man’s shoulder.
“Sometimes when I see young people entering this field, I worry they’ve been blinded by the promise of a quick fortune. Throwing yourself into the mountains for only that is truly a waste of your life, so I ended up rambling on impatiently.”
“Ah… I see.”
The man nodded blankly. Kim Yoonjun felt deep emotion and admiration flickering in the man’s eyes as he faced him. That alone was rewarding enough.
“Alright. Good luck. I hope things go well. I hope you’ll become my rival one day and give me a run for my money. Don’t forget the advice I gave you today.”
Kim Yoonjun passed by the man. Just in case the man was watching him from behind, he waved his hand a couple of times.
*
“……”
I watched the man’s retreating figure. Then I looked at the watch on my wrist. Thirty minutes had already passed.
“What was with that guy?”
I had wasted time running into some random chatterbox. It wasn’t just once or twice that I wanted to cut him off, but I had hesitated for a long time thinking he might be a named character. I’d wondered if he might be a named herb gatherer.
But seeing as there was nothing special about his face, his wife and kid, or anything else, he seemed to be just an ordinary simmani.
“It’s this way……”
I looked at the map again. It marked the location of the Garisan Dungeon. Where did I get this map? The “Book of Truth” produced it. In other words, just like a magic lamp, when I asked, “Where is the Garisan Dungeon?” it produced this map.
Moreover, this map displayed my current location and the coordinates of Garisan in real-time. Just like a smartphone GPS.
I looked at the map and continued walking eastward toward where the Garisan Dungeon was marked.
After walking like that for about ten minutes.
“Ugh!”
Thud.
Suddenly my foot caught on something and I fell forward.
“Argh, what the—”
Having fallen flat on my face, I looked back. Some vine was tangled messily around my foot. At first, I was startled thinking it was some plant-type monster, but looking closely, it was just an ordinary vine.
“Ah, you scared me.”
I grabbed and pulled it. It didn’t seem very tough, so it didn’t require much strength.
But from within the vine, something like a deodeok root came sliding out along with it.
“What is this now?”
I tossed them onto the ground. I was dusting the dirt off my clothes and about to climb the mountain when I suddenly thought of the man I had just met.
Simmani.
I looked again at the deodeok or whatever it was. From this angle, it looked somehow like a mandrake, so I took out my laptop and checked the information on the roots before me.
===
[Seven-Year Wild Ginseng]
—Jingqi and Lingqi have condensed internally, allowing the plant to form “mana” on its own. No matter the purpose or method of use, it is bound to demonstrate remarkable efficacy.
—In particular, it is a Guipin (貴品) that has gathered an abundance of nutrients.
===
“……”
In an instant, I lost my words. I had something I should say, but I was so dumbfounded that nothing came out.
So I just muttered internally.
I struck ginseng.
────────────────────────────────────
────────────────────────────────────
Mine and Garisan (3)
The uses of wild ginseng are varied.
If consumed, it will raise stats. If ground up for medicinal ingredients, it can create about ten or so high-grade potions. It can even be utilized in the magic augmentation process called “Enchant.” Meaning, by using the mana condensed within the wild ginseng as a medium, one can imbue specific items with magical effects.
However, even if I grind it into powder, I don’t have the equipment to make potions, and I don’t have any mage connections to help with enchanting. So my choices are limited to either chewing it raw or selling it.
“Eating it…… feels a bit wrong.”
This wild ginseng is probably worth nearly 700 million won. I have the Violet Lotus Banquet as a sales route, so while the transaction fee will be steep, there’s no risk of getting ripped off. If I sell this now and buy stocks, by around July it could multiply tenfold—to 4 or 5 billion won. Enough money to buy seven more ginsengs of the same kind.
“……Ah, this is troubling.”
An unexpected fortune had come, yet all it did was give me more worries.
For now, I gently placed the wild ginseng into the crossbody bag I brought.
I could afford to have that happy concern about how to use it after discovering the Garisan Dungeon.
* * *
I stood before the cave and clapped my palms together. Dirt poured down in clumps.
“No wonder it hasn’t been discovered until now.”
Hoo. After taking a deep breath, I turned around. Right behind my feet was a sheer cliff, as if carved by a chisel.
The Garisan Dungeon was in the middle of a cliff. And it was buried beneath all manner of vines and moss.
My heart was still pounding. No matter how much parkour skill I had, the journey had been too arduous. If I hadn’t had the insurance of my Stigma’s mana, I wouldn’t have even dared to attempt it for fear of falling.
“Hm.”
I didn’t enter the dungeon yet. First, I peered into the darkness within. My Clairvoyance pushed back the darkness inside the dungeon, expanding my field of vision. Before long, the switch monsters that appeared within my detection range were “ghosts.”
As expected, without any change to the setting, it’s an undead dungeon.
The monsters that appear here—dullahans, banshees, and so on—correspond to at least lower-middle grade, 9th rank, to middle grade, 3rd rank. The boss is probably a Death Knight, so no matter how much I’ve grown, clearing it alone is impossible for me now. No, even Tomer couldn’t clear this dungeon to the end in the first place. A Death Knight is at upper-middle grade, 1st rank: a monster that only a high-tier Hero could hope to handle.
I supposed I should be satisfied today with confirming the location. There was no way I could clear the “Hidden Stage” either……
“No.”
I looked inside my crossbody bag. The wild ginseng I had just dug up boasted a translucent yet alluring figure.
“……”
After all, it is a Hidden Stage. It is a space completely separated from the main dungeon, so the difficulty is relatively easier, and the reward from this Hidden Stage is something best obtained sooner rather than later. Above all, I was tired of worrying about things like, “What if Tomer takes it before me according to my setting?”
As I said before, the reward of the Hidden Stage is a non-standard weapon, “Ether.” At a glance, Ether has no special form, so it is often mistaken for a mere clump of mana. However, the reason Ether is called a weapon is solely due to its properties. Because it has no form, it possesses the unique elasticity of a weapon to transform into anything. Moreover, Ether grows stronger with time.
Even if it meant sacrificing the wild ginseng, it was well worth shortening the time it would take to obtain it.
Besides, I wasn’t planning to use the whole thing.
Of the seven legs attached to the wild ginseng’s body, I tore off only three.
===
[7-Year-Old Wild Ginseng Leg]
─A leg of a seven-year-old wild ginseng. Condensed magic power dwells within.
===
For now, I tried changing the settings of this leg.
─Increases all variable stats by 4 for 1 hour.
Since I was only modifying its original effect, I thought it wouldn’t require much SP.
[You do not have enough SP.]
But I was wrong. As expected, a simple stat increase seemed to demand far more restrictions.
Left with no choice, I lowered the settings.
─Increases all variable stats by 2 for 30 minutes.
[5 SP will be consumed. Would you like to save?]
This much was satisfying enough.
I saved two of the wild ginseng legs with the settings above. Now, if I ate these two ginseng legs, all my stats would rise by about 4 for 30 minutes. At the very least—excluding magic power—I would have physical specs on par with Yu Yeonha.
However, I changed the settings of the last leg a little differently.
─Seeps into released magic power and strengthens its force.
[5 SP will be consumed. Would you like to save?]
I pressed save.
With this, I should be able to clear the Hidden Stage.
Carrying that confidence, I stepped beyond the cave. As soon as I entered, an extreme chill seeped all the way into my bones.
“Brr.”
Watching the white mist puff from my mouth, I moved my legs.
Then, at a strange floating sound—suuuu—I hid myself behind the cave wall. At a distance visible to the naked eye, a ghost flickered, glowing eerily like a hologram.
That was a switch monster.
I could kill one of those even without the wild ginseng.
I raised the Desert Eagle. The proficiency rank of my Gift, “Sharpshooter,” had already reached 8. Piercing the vital point of something moving that slowly was easier than doing a push-up……
I pulled the trigger.
The bullet cut through the air and rushed toward the ghost. It pierced straight through without inflicting any damage. But the magic power condensed inside the armor-piercing round was different. The magic power lodged itself precisely between the creature’s brows.
Soon after, the ghost scattered into light without even a scream.
Whoooosh.
Just then, wind blew from somewhere and sucked in the ghost’s cluster of light.
That was the direction I needed to go. It was the mark indicating the location of the Hidden Stage. The Witch Who Weaves Ghosts—an inferior version of her—was there.
My eyes did not lose the fragile stream of light that looked as if it might break apart at any moment. I held on to it and followed it to the end.
After walking for about 10 minutes, I finally arrived at a space separated from the dungeon.
At its center stood the witch holding Aether.
I took my laptop out of my cross bag.
===
[Witch]
─Witch Evandel. Exists in a bodiless spiritual state and produces low-grade ghosts.
===
A witch.
After Outcall, countless monsters, beasts, and demons appeared, but there were not that many beings called witches. That was because the conditions that defined a witch as a witch were quite strict.
First, a witch had to be capable of producing ghosts. Because of that, a witch’s base contained many undead monsters and was called a stronghold.
Second, she had to possess a human-shaped body. If the body was not human, the word “woman” could not be used, and a witch who had not acquired a body could not properly manipulate her magic power.
Lastly, she had to possess intelligence on par with a human. A witch without intelligence could not efficiently deploy the ghosts she produced.
The reason the witch here was nothing more than an inferior version was probably because she failed to meet the second and third conditions.
However, this Evandel would later become infamous for her notoriety.
Most witches were extremely troublesome for humans to deal with, so the only way to攻略 them was to strike them down at the early stage of their birth, before their intelligence had fully formed and before they had taken on flesh.
But Evandel grew up safely in a den of Djinns, without any stress or threat until she became a full adult. Because of that, she was later able to become independent without issue and establish her own base in an abandoned school in Suwon.
Known as [Evandel’s Castle], it became the worst stronghold in history.
So much so that the Association officially recognized its “攻略 difficulty as being equivalent to that of a Tower.”
There were two things I could obtain by killing this inferior version of Evandel. One was Aether, and the other was Evandel’s Seed. Tomer took only the Aether, while handing the Seed over to Isabel’s followers.
But since I intended to take both, I absolutely had to shoot Evandel dead……
“……She’s just a child.”