LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 365
Chapter 366. If It’s Twisted, Just Cut It (4)
“Ugh…”
Rignel, clutching his stomach in pain, covered his mouth, fearing he might vomit what he had eaten.
Keter showed him his second fist.
“Do you really have the time to mess with me right now? Or are you planning to shamelessly demand more?”
“Ugh… Just let me live here. I’ll tell you everything I know.”
“Buddy, that’s not hard. But I’m seriously worried if you even have information worth my time. If I save and feed a guy who has nothing, even if I forgive you, my fist won’t.”
Gulp.
Ragnel knew it too. The punch earlier was Keter holding back—a lot. Keter is a monster. You should never provoke him.
“I’ve survived in this city and seen many strange places. Places where monsters gather, or where there are many corpses. Creepy spots. I’m not sure if what you’re looking for is there, but it’s better than wandering aimlessly around the city.”
Keter agreed with that. No matter how strong Keter is, the underground monsters aren’t creatures you can kill like goblins or orcs. Even Keter has to be ‘careful’ when killing them.
And what if he’s unlucky enough to run into a ‘ruler’? Even Keter can’t guarantee victory against the rulers of the underground.
Ragnel explained everything he knew about the city in detail, down to the smallest things.
After listening and memorizing everything, Keter stood up immediately.
“You better pray I find something.”
“Y-yeah.”
Keter headed straight into the city.
He wasn’t particularly worried about Ragnel. The old man of Black and White was still underground, and Ragnel had a strong will to live. He had no reason to cause trouble.
‘First, the Mercenary Guild.’
According to Ragnel, the Mercenary Guild had been devastated. But there were strange symbols and drawings there. He couldn’t decipher them, but Keter had a feeling.
‘It must be Joyray’s doing.’
Not hope or optimism, but certainty.
So, Keter was on his way to the Mercenary Guild. No monster dared to pick a fight with Keter, but one blocked his path.
Naturally, Keter shot an arrow instead of talking.
Celestial Infinity Technique, 6th Form: Tusk – White Lotus.
Tusk, which could pierce even the carapace of the Rock Ant Queen, harder than orichalcon. Back then, Keter was at the level of a 6-star Grandmaster.
Now, Keter, who has surpassed 7 stars and is approaching 8 stars, can pierce orichalcon like paper if hit directly.
And that Tusk? A hundred of them.
The monster blocking Keter’s path was a giant furball with legs. It looked too weak to even block a single arrow, let alone Tusk.
Whoosh.
But in the blink of an eye, all 100 Tusks were caught by the fur strands.
The underground monsters are smart. They know they can’t beat Keter, so they don’t pick fights.
Which means the furball in front of him now was confident. Confident it could kill Keter.
Keter hated wasting time, but he never avoided a fight. As he was about to shoot a second arrow—
Tap.
The furball placed something on the ground.
It was a piece of fabric.
The fact that it had buttonholes or was made of high-quality ‘spider silk’ didn’t matter. The pattern drawn on the fabric stopped Keter in his tracks.
It was a perfect ‘circle.’ A flawless circle with no error, no speck of dust.
Keter knew what it meant.
“Mandala.”
If the technique to break the limits of the body is ‘Heavenly Power’—
Then the technique to break the limits of the mind is ‘Mandala.’
And Mandala is a technique that can only be manifested through a ‘contract’ with an outer god.
In this life, Keter rarely used Mandala. Because in this life, he wasn’t in a contracted state.
But the owner of Mandala had reached out to Keter first. And in the most unexpected place—Ruquer.
Keter bent down and picked up the piece of fabric. The furball seemed satisfied and left. Not a single word was exchanged, but Keter understood.
‘They’re calling me.’
He wasn’t flustered. It wasn’t an unexpected situation.
To prevent an unwanted regression, he had used Mandala at full power. In the process, the owner of Mandala had observed him.
Though the regression was short—only an hour—and it was as if it never happened, he had definitely been observed.
‘Is this a connection, or just a damn coincidence?’
He couldn’t be sure, but Keter had a gut feeling.
“There’s definitely a connection.”
If he manifested Mandala now, he might be able to see them.
But he didn’t.
“If I’m going to use it, I should use it in a situation where it’s worth it.”
The owner of Mandala would probably allow that much.
“If it’s urgent, they’ll come find me first.”
Rather than the arrival of Mandala’s owner, Keter was more curious about Joyray’s fate.
*
Mercenary Guild. Ruquer Branch Headquarters.
The traces of a desperate defense were vividly evident here.
No corpses, but dried bloodstains and battle scars showed that the mercenaries didn’t go down easily.
If it weren’t for Ragnel’s information, Keter would have left without hesitation. Only ruins remained.
Following the marks Ragnel left, Keter arrived at a place with bizarre symbols and drawings.
“Hmm.”
Keter crouched down and examined the symbols and drawings on the wall.
They looked like a child’s scribbles. Keter squinted and nodded.
“This is a map. A map of the entire Ruquer.”
But it was compressed hundreds of times. That’s why it looked like scribbles.
And in the chaos of lines, there was only one place where a circle was drawn.
“The Slanted Mill.”
For Keter, who considered Ruquer his home, pinpointing the location was easy.
Knowing the location, all he had to do was go there. But Keter wasn’t that naive. He also deciphered the text next to it.
“The text is reversed, with consonants and vowels in reverse order.”
This, too, Keter analyzed easily. In the past, he enjoyed creating such ciphers, so it came naturally.
The deciphered text read:
– The place marked on the map is a trap. Our location is the fabric store two blocks to the right. Damn it, Keter, hurry up.
Keter chuckled.
“Well, I’m probably the only one in this world who could decipher this.”
He was glad he saved Ragnel. Without him, it would have taken half a day to find this place.
Having pinpointed the location, Keter headed to the fabric store where Joyray was presumed to be. The streets were filled with monsters, but they didn’t attack Keter, making it feel strangely dull.
But as he approached the fabric store, the density of monsters noticeably increased. Whether by instinct or search, they were prowling around, looking for survivors.
Grrr.
Unlike the monsters he had encountered so far, these didn’t back down. Instead, they warned Keter that this area was off-limits.
Thud.
Of course, all that reached those monsters were Keter’s arrows.
Unlike the furball monster that easily blocked them, these monsters were taken down with a single Tusk. Half of the wary monsters fled.
“At best, they’re at the 2nd Layer level.”
Keter’s muttering clearly showed his annoyance.
Keter shot an arrow into the sky. He had long surpassed the realm of his past life. He didn’t need unnecessary actions like drawing a bow.
He created arrows and shot them. The monsters tried to block or dodge, but the arrows didn’t move in straight lines. They automatically tracked their targets.
If one arrow wasn’t enough, he’d keep firing until they died. Keter just had to put his hands in his pockets and wait.
Squeak!
One monster tried to reach out through the relentless rain of arrows, but it only shortened its life. Seven Mana Arrows orbited Keter like guards. Even if they somehow got close, they’d be blocked by the high-speed rotating Mana Arrows.
After clearing the monsters, Keter looked around.
“This is the place.”
Naturally, the fabric store was in ruins. It wasn’t a place where survivors could live.
“In that case, it must be underground.”
But it couldn’t be an obvious location. If it were, the monsters would have found it already.
Finding it the conventional way would take days, but Keter had Toban. Toban, the Earth Spirit Artifact that controls the power of the earth. He focused its power in his palm and pressed it to the ground.
In fact, Keter had tried this as soon as he arrived in Ruquer. The current Keter could search an area as large as a metropolis.
But in Ruquer, Toban’s power had weakened. That’s why his search range had shrunk, forcing him to search like this.
But once the location was pinpointed, it was a different story.
“Bingo.”
An underground space.
And he successfully detected the life forms there.
‘16…’
That’s surprisingly few.
The number of mercenaries living in Ruquer had exceeded 1,000, but only 16 survived?
‘And there’s no one who seems to be Joyray.’
Keter hated wasting time on idle thoughts, so he jumped down to see for himself.
Thud!
Keter’s body sank into the ground as if diving into water.
Crash!
In the blink of an eye, Keter broke through the ceiling of the secret base and barged in.
Naturally, the mercenaries there were shocked, not knowing what was happening, but their survival instincts kicked in, and they attacked Keter.
Each one was a Master-level fighter. Rough but with considerable Aura.
Clang!
But they couldn’t even scratch Keter’s skin. And he wasn’t even trying. His body alone was already like a monster’s.
It wouldn’t be strange if they lost their will to fight, but mercenaries never give up. As long as they’re living beings, they believe there must be a weakness.
When their attacks were blocked, they aimed for Keter’s eyes and joints.
“Wait, hold on!”
At that moment, a mercenary recognized Keter through the dust and shouted urgently, but it was too late. They slashed at his eyes, knees, and chin—areas that were structurally vulnerable.
…Or so they thought.
What they slashed was an afterimage.
Keter was already behind them.
“Not bad.”
Keter’s voice.
That alone was enough to stop the fight. His voice was so unique that once you heard it, you couldn’t forget it.
“Keter!”
“Why did you break the ceiling?!”
“You’re back!”
The fact that the unbeatable strong one was actually Keter made the mercenaries both annoyed and relieved. After all, Keter was the head of the Ruquer Mercenary Guild.
Keter gestured, filling the hole he made in the ceiling with earth, and said,
“It’s good to see you all. But where’s our councilor?”
He had felt it from the start, but Joyray wasn’t here.
And as soon as Joyray was mentioned, the mercenaries’ expressions darkened. Not sad, but dark. Keter knew what that meant.
“Passed out drunk?”
“No. The councilor… went to the arena.”
“There’s no way a human-run arena exists at a time like this. Don’t tell me the monsters are running an arena?”
“Yes. The ruler of the 4th Layer, Amon, is running it himself. He makes humans fight while the monsters watch and gamble.”
Monsters watching humans fight and gambling? Keter let out a hollow laugh.
“There’s no way the people of Ruquer would just roll over and fight as they please. There must be another reason, right?”
The people of Ruquer don’t fear pain or death. Those who did had already left the city.
Those who remained were filled with venom and malice.
“Yes. If you win 10 matches in a row… they grant you Authority.”
“What kind of Authority?”
“I know it sounds ridiculous, but Amon himself said it. ‘I have 72 Authorities, and I will grant one of your choosing.’”
Authority is the privilege of 7-star beings.
And one individual has 72 of them?
If it were a lie, Joyray wouldn’t have gone to the arena. Amon must have shown proof that it was true.
Amon really does grant ‘Authority’ to those who win 10 matches in a row. Like Keter, one person could have 2 Authorities, or even more.
But that didn’t clear up the confusion.
“The councilor I know wouldn’t abandon you all just to gain Authority.”
“We think so too.”
“Any guesses?”
“He just left a note saying he was going to the arena.”
“What a irresponsible guy.”
Keter scratched the back of his head.
This had become a troublesome situation.
Part of him wondered why he cared so much about Joyray’s fate.
In the past, he would have thought, ‘What happens to others is none of my business,’ and moved on. Of course, he originally had things to ask Joyray.
The Transcendent Beings believed that the underground of Ruquer held ‘the answer to everything.’ What was the basis for that?
Keter wanted to know and had to find out. There’s nothing more foolish than not knowing what you’re looking for.
The only ones who knew were Joyray and those who went underground. But the whereabouts of those who went underground were unknown, and the only one whose whereabouts were known was Joyray.
‘The ruler of the 4th Layer, Amon.’
Keter had heard rumors about him. He loved ‘games.’ And ‘bets’ were always part of his games.
Opening an arena on the surface was very much like him.
‘In the end, to meet Joyray, I have to go to the arena. And if I go to the arena, I’ll have to fight.’
Amon wouldn’t let him just chat with Joyray and leave. Even without meeting him, Keter knew.
‘I’d do the same.’
Clap.
Keter clapped his hands and said to the mercenaries,
“Wait. I’ll bring Joyray back.”
“Are you going to the arena?”
“I’m just a guy who can’t resist a challenge.”
Crash!
Before the mercenaries could say anything, Keter broke through the ceiling and returned to the surface.
The mercenaries watched the debris fall from the ceiling and muttered,
“The entrance was right next to us…”