Clank! The heavy iron door opened slightly.

Shaaa…! A mysterious current flowed through the gap that was the width of only half a finger. It was a very thick and chilly gust of air that unconsciously provoked a sense of revulsion.

Screech! Screeeech! Although only one door was opened, they could hear the sound of other doors opening one by one. Fear-stricken, Yunael blanched and had to firm their resolve once again as they looked at the opened door. They had stepped forward, pretending to be cool, but—

“Ick!” They turned away and immediately ran back to where their comrades were. There was something very ominous on the other side of the door. Yunael would rather fight monsters than spirits and hated things like this.

“I-It opened—?” Yunael bolted in a hurry before coming to a sudden stop. They heard someone stepping on mud from behind them.

“Gi, GiGit…Gigit…Gigiggigissst…!” Creepy and incomprehensible noises followed. However, these noises weren’t what stopped Yunael’s steps—it was the vicious malice that Yunael could feel right on their skin, which made them think they should never look back. It was an evil and terrifying malice that made them question why anyone would hate them so much.

However, they couldn’t stand still like this. Yunael struggled to turn their head and was able to clearly see who the enemy was. ‘That’s…!’

It was the portrait lady they had seen in the first passageway. Yunael almost didn’t recognize her because her face was different from the painting. Her naked body was dark as most of it had rotten off, and her face was even more grotesque. Bloody tears streaked down from her two hollow eye sockets, and her face was covered with wounds and scratches. Yunael didn’t even have to ask the reason for her intense hatred as it probably stemmed from her resentment to Chi-Woo for making her face like this. As if to prove their thoughts, the portrait lady pulled out a rusty dagger with a red glow.

Yunael faltered and turned around. Then their expression turned incredulous. “What…?”

Chi-Woo, who was the subject of that terrible malice, looked up and down at the portrait lady with a leisurely expression. Then he said, “Oh, you look sexy without anything on. At least your body does.”

The portrait lady’s eyes widened at Chi-Woo’s mockery. The hand holding the dagger shook, and she opened her mouth wide as if to let out a terrifying scream. However, she failed to do so because—

Bam! Her chin was broken by Chi-Woo’s scorched club. And it didn’t end with just one hit.

“Well, well.” The center of her skull was crushed by the second blow, and the portrait lady collapsed. “You can open your eyes as wide as you want, but what are you going to do about it?”

The portrait lady tried to frantically get up somehow, but consecutive blows from the club mercilessly struck down. “Gi, gugh, gughhhk!”

Chi-Woo didn’t show even a bit of mercy and beat the portrait lady like beating down a poor animal. Were they projecting, or was she actually shouting, ‘Ah, **, wait, wait a minute!’

“…” Yunael became speechless. Would they have been able to do the same if they were in the same position? Yunael shook their head to themselves. The portrait lady had let out such intense malice that it made them shrink back in fear momentarily. It wouldn’t have been easy to fight an opponent like that. But that hero was…who was he?

Watching him from afar, Yunael suddenly realized that there was more than one open door. Yunael quickly scanned their surroundings and was able to clearly witness what happened next. All the doors that were opening slowly paused and—

Thud! They all quickly closed. Unlike when they opened, they were shut very quickly. Chi-Woo seemed to have come to his senses after hearing this sound, and he stopped swinging his club. His opponent had completely stopped resisting. Or to be more precise, no response could possibly be detected from the portrait lady.

“Hmm…” Chi-Woo looked from side to side and grabbed the hair of the limp portrait lady. He dragged her and threw her in front of the tightly closed door. Then he said, “Open.” Naturally, the door didn’t open. “Open the door.” On the contrary, there was a clank as if the door was being firmly locked. “Ha, you’re locking the door now?” Chi-Woo raised his ghost-busting club and began brutally beating the portrait lady, who was intermittently convulsing. Blood and rotten flesh spattered along with the sound of impact. “…It’s really not opening.”

Chi-Woo stopped swinging the club when it became hard to even make out the portrait lady’s form. “These bastards, they don’t have an ounce of comradeship.” Chi-Woo spat on the mushy mess on the ground and turned around. “Let’s go.” He strode out as if he had no business left here and headed towards the next passage.

* * *

After going through four passages, the rescue team was no longer surprised. In a way, they had adjusted a bit. For example—

Bam! Even when Chi-Woo kicked and broke the statue as soon as he saw it in the fifth passage and walked into the passage that appeared next, all of them followed right behind him without saying a word. The same was true for the last space. As written on the record, the sixth space was a room and not a passage. The record said they should never open the door, but Chi-Woo immediately opened the door and entered the room.

“…There’s no one here,” Chi-Woo said. “Maybe the answer was to open the door before you hear any knocks.”

Seeing Chi-Woo talking calmly, Yunael gave up on thinking. Not even the most vicious ghosts would approach him after seeing the mysterious black club on his shoulder. As a result, after leaving the room and going through the last passage, the rescue team finally reached their destination and stood in front of the final door. The door was no different from any of the other doors they had passed through so far. The only difference was what looked like pieces of gold ropes were scattered beneath the door. A golden rope usually signified a sacred place since ancient times. If it had become like this…

“Ah—I’m a bit bored,” Jin-Cheon said in a languid voice with his hand clasped behind his head. “I thought I would get to fight to my heart’s content again since Teacher brought this work, but I’m just standing in the sideli—”

“Stop,” Chi-Woo immediately turned around and said, “Don’t raise death flags.”

“What? Flags?”

“Jin-Cheon? Shut up.” Abis reminded him to watch his tongue again and glanced at him.

“Ah, yeah. You told me that,” Jin-Cheon replied despite being a bit taken aback and took a step back with an awkward smile.

Chi-Woo sighed and stared at the black door in front of him with slightly melancholy eyes. All of a sudden, an event crossed his mind. From the time he fell into the forest near Shahnaz’s camp to the time they raided the Hala Forest, nothing had been easy so far. Even events that seemed nothing special blew up in scale like wildfire, so he had to risk his life every time. If the path to this place had been a series of hardships like the Narsha Haram Expedition, he would have felt more at ease, since at least the last part had gone easy then. However, this place was…

Of course, it perfectly matched his skillset, but everything had gone too smoothly. It could be luck, but why did it feel like he was continuously building up karma?

‘Honestly, it’s okay for things to go easily at least once, right?’

It would be a lie if he said he didn’t wish for this, but Chi-Woo gave up on his false hope. There were things that lingered on his mind, and he wouldn’t feel disappointed if he didn’t expect anything in the first place.

“We’re going to enter now,” Chi-Woo said. Then he murmured to himself, ‘I’m not going to expect anything. Anything at all.’ And he opened the door. A rush of indescribably foul smell hit them, and everyone scowled. The smell of blood and rotten flesh pricked their nose. Chi-Woo went inside with a bitter smile. Before them was a place that screamed danger even at a first glance.

“Ugh! Gasp!” The rescue team, starting with Yunael, began to gag as soon as they went inside. Even Chi-Woo pinched his nose for a while. Although it was possible to endure a psychological blow, it was hard to endure physiological disgust. It was dark inside. There was a bit of light, but it was dim as before dawn. Their first impression of this place was that it looked like a butcher shop that went through an earthquake. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been all kinds of meat and bone fragments scattered everywhere. Moreover, the pieces of meat were heavily seasoned with blood. It looked like a place where an unclean ritual was being held. The problem was that this really was the place where the Kobalos executed their rituals.

‘The important part is finding out what mechanism…’

“Was it you?” Suddenly, an old voice broke the silence. The rescue team turned to the source with great vigilance. What they saw was a mountain of corpses. Then the pile automatically collapsed, and the speaker was revealed. An elderly man was sitting in the corner of this corrupt place. Relying on a candle to see, he was writing with a quill pen at an old wooden desk. The rescue team became speechless for a moment to see a scholarly looking, skinny old man wearing a robe in a disgusting place like this. He stuck out like a sore thumb. However, at least one thing was clear—he wasn’t human.

“The area that I managed to stabilize after hard work suddenly became unstable.” When there was no answer, the mysterious being wearing the mask of an old man furiously moved his quill pen and continued, “You tried to forcefully end the ritual—no, no. Destroying it would be more accurate.” He stopped his pen for a moment and began writing again. “Anyway, what’s more astounding is that you almost succeeded.” He muttered to himself, and all the rescue members stared blankly at Chi-Woo.

The old man continued, “If it weren’t for me, you would have definitely succeeded. You must have been quite disappointed.”

The rescue members had thought that Chi-Woo was rushing forward without thinking, but there was a purpose behind his action? They looked at Chi-Woo with new eyes.

–Hey, Chi-Woo.

It was at that moment Philip called out to him. He sounded a bit conflicted.

–That guy is—

‘I know.’ Chi-Woo slightly bowed his head. ‘He’s a great demon.’

Philip nodded. Considering that strong demonic energy was coming from him, it would have been stranger if Chi-Woo didn’t catch onto it. That said, Philip was troubled whether to give Chi-Woo a warning considering that Chi-Woo had a perfect advantage against this opponent.

“Seriously, again…” Chi-Woo smacked his lips and snorted. “Well, no wonder. How can a sparrow just pass by a mill?”

The old man asked, “…What do you mean?”

“Aren’t I right?” Chi-Woo continued calmly. “You guys are crazy about expanding territories, and you chanced upon a godly territory in the middle of a ritual. How can you just pass by?”

Contrary to Philip’s concerns, Chi-Woo did not judge the situation lightly. His opponent was a great demon; in fact, great demons were one of the enemies he encountered the most. At this point, he should be used to them now. However, most of Chi-Woo’s battles with great demons were advantageous to him. Even if it was an unfavorable situation, there were factors that helped tip the balance. For example, he received help from the Cassiubia League against Vepar. Of course, he also had experience defeating a great demon without significant support like the Cassiubia League. He had beaten Zepar, but the situation was different now.

This place was not built by the power of a great demon; it was where a god had resided for quite a long time. Chi-Woo had wondered why the spiritual energy had felt so faint outside, but he realized what was going on as soon as he stepped in. The density was at a different level. It felt as if everything that could be mobilized had been compressed and condensed into this space. If he considered only the output, Zepar’s place was no match for this.

“…Are you a priest? Or sorcerer?” The old man stopped his quill. Then he turned to look back at the rescue team. “You look very knowledgeable. I feel that from you. If possible, I would like to discuss my ongoing research with you.”

Chi-Woo snorted at the suggestion.

“Well, if this was a suitable place to enjoy tea time, I might have seriously considered it.” The old man laughed blandly and continued, “Haha. But if I am to tell you one thing, that’s not the only reason.”

Chi-Woo looked at him questioningly. There was another reason? He didn’t really want to hear more because he didn't have a good feeling about this.

“That’s the key to this research.” The old man pointed at the center of the room. Blood flowed like a river everywhere, but there was a place with no visible debris. They saw a fire pit that looked like a large pot. Filled with mucus-like solutions, it occasionally bubbled and let out steam.

“The Kobalos’ magic fire pit?”

“It’s a holy relic wasted in their hands,” the old man said flatly, like there was no room for disagreement. “If they knew the true value of that.” There was a hint of pride in his voice as a researcher. Then he asked, “Don’t you want to know?”

“Where are my teammates?” Yunael interjected with a slightly trembling voice. “Where are my two teammates?”

“Hmm…” The old man seemed displeased by the interruption and said, “Ah, come to think of it. I recently obtained additional sacrifices.” Then he continued as if he suddenly remembered. “They weren’t bad. I thought they were insignificant humans, but their souls must be pretty high level, considering that the fire pit hasn’t spit them back out yet.”

“What?”

The old man waved his hand in lieu of a response. Then the solution in the firepit began to boil intensely and spit something out—a bloodshot eyeball that appeared in pain and a piece of crumpled looking skin.

“As expected. I guess it hasn’t fully digested them yet.” The old man spoke plainly, and at the same time, he heard a sharp intake of breath; someone’s breathing had turned rough. Feeling the rise of hostility against him, the old man turned away as if he had lost interest. Then he said, “It’s been a while since I’ve received any guests, but I’ll stop extending my favor now.”

When he began to write with his quill pen again, Yunael demanded like they were squeezing the word out of their throat, “Fa…vor?”

“There must be tons of questions you want to ask me, but the answer you seek shouldn’t be easy to find. The more desperate you are, the harder it should be to find the answer.”

“Stop with the bull—!”

“If you want to find the truth, you have to pay an equivalent price.” The old man only said what he wanted to say without consideration of others. “Yeah, I was planning to do a midpoint check. Will you help me?”

Clang! Yunael couldn’t suppress their anger in the end and hit the ground with their spear with all their might. They looked anxiously at Chi-Woo with slightly red eyes. Chi-Woo shook his head. Besides everything, he became quite curious if this demon would continue to talk about equivalent exchange even while his head was about to shatter. Although he could start fighting like this, Chi-Woo just wanted to check on one thing.

‘Mr. Philip, just tell me this. What’s his rank?’

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—Things may have changed, but during my time, he was in the single-digit.

After much consideration, Philip decided to give Chi-Woo a warning.

—And while I was alive, he was the opponent I hated fighting the most.

Chi-Woo heeded Philip’s warning because he could sense that this old man was different from the other great demons he faced. He could just tell by the fact that the old man didn’t proudly talk about his rank. Although the road of hardship that he had expected finally began, Chi-Woo’s mood wasn’t bad as he lifted his club. “Everyone—”

‘Eat a great demon at a single-digit rank…was it?’ Chi-Woo recalled one of the evolutionary conditions of the fenrir cub and said, “Get ready for battle.” He wasn’t going to leave this place empty-handed.