Chapter 55: Corcas Mountains Punitive Expedition 2

By following the tracks left behind by the surviving Orcs, they were able to discover a cave entrance was hidden behind some shrubs.

Aiden decided to immediately investigate inside, leaving only the bare minimum of troops behind to secure their camp.

‘It’s quite deep.’

Woohyuk felt something was off as he followed behind the Guards with his men.

With this cave forking into so many paths that lead to different exits in the mountain range, it was impossible to predict which path the monsters would come from.

‘I’m glad I learned of this.’

In the past he had only focused on occupying Heidelberg, the capital city of the Rhine kingdom. Since that had been his priority, he hadn’t thoroughly explored the Corcas Mountains.

Even by the time Isaac had died to Logan, he still hadn’t finished exterminating the monsters here.

Harrrk

The flickering torches created long shadows across the wall.

Everyone’s nerves were on edge

The cave consisted of a complex system of tunnels, so no one knew when a monster might pop out.

[It’s quieter than I expected.]

As they continued marching, Lee Jaesung who had kept his silence until now, messaged him.

He was a leader of a platoon, just like Jung Sanghoon and led 20 mercenaries.

[Did they know we were coming and retreated elsewhere?]

Jung Sanghoon replied, as he grasped the hilt of his sword in case.

They thought that their appearance might have changed the monsters’ plans, but Woohyuk didn’t want to jump to any hasty conclusions.

[Be careful in case the remainder of their tribe was still here.]

Their numbers had to be very vast if they could invade the plains every year. It wouldn’t be easy for them to survive if they made a commotion and were suddenly surrounded from all sides after having gone too deep inside.

As Woohyuk pushed his senses to the limit, he heard the sound of a drum being beat, echoing down the tunnel.

Doong! Doodoong! Doong!

He suddenly had an ominous feeling.

Aiden quickly prepared the troops into a defensive formation

“Kyyaaak!”

Orcs poured out from the many forked paths. Their numbers too many to count, as they completely filled up the cavern.

‘Looks like many will die.’

Fighting in such an enclosed area wasn’t ideal. It was a situation where something had to be done or they’d face a tragic end. Rather than revealing his abilities however, Woohyuk sent Aris and Irene instead.

[Kill them]

[Yes!]

[...]

The orcs were sliced in half by the black scythes that these two women wielded. Their success in turn caused the troop’s morale to rocket.

“Kill these monsters!”

“Oooaaah!”

The Guards and Mercenaries shouted their battle cries as they fought back against the horde of Orcs.

historical

Chaos

Corpses continued to pile up on the ground, as the groans of the wounded resonated through the cave.

After quite some time..

“Ugh.. ugh...”

The attacking Orcs had almost all been killed, leaving only just a few that were still fighting. The survivors struggled to catch their breath, as they took in their surroundings.

It was truly a hellish sight. Such that it made one feel quite lucky to still be alive.

[Hide again in my shadow.]

[Hey..]

[Okay.]

As Aris and Irene disappeared, the soldiers that had been near them looked around in surprise.

“Where did they go?”

“I could have sworn they were just here..”

The women had appeared out of nowhere and greatly contributed to the battle. Although it was dark and they weren’t able to get a good look at them, they had been very skilled.

After getting his men in order, Aiden turned to look at Woohyuk.

‘Are they with him?’

He felt that he had been hiding something, but didn’t expect something on this level.

‘He might not be interested in pursuing a career in the military after all.”

He now better understood why he was searching for a Historical Site.

A man seeking more power. Even if he were to achieve some merit, he wouldn’t settle for a fixed position in the army.

As Aiden was receiving casualty reports from his Lieutenants, a soldier shouted out.

“There’s a strange magic circle here!”

At once everyone turned to look at him. Behind him on the stone wall, was a strange symbol painted in burgundy blood, with a dark pentagram on top.

‘It’s David’s Star.’

King Solomon’s symbol.

It meant that there was a Demon sealed nearby. In Historical Sites, such kinds of symbols would appear invisible unless certain conditions were met.

In this case, it seemed that the Orc’s blood had been used as a medium to reveal its presence..

Woohyuk approached the array on the wall and placed his right hand on David’s Star.

Shaaaah

The dark magic circle disappeared as it was absorbed inside Woohyuk.

At the same time, the wall gave in and a tunnel appeared.

A secret passage, no doubt leading to a Historical Site.

“Are you going inside?”

“Of course.”

“...Good luck.”

Since it was something that had been agreed upon beforehand, Aiden left his group to explore the site.

The reason he didn't join them to clear the Historical Site together, was due to their current situation. It was unknown whether the Orcs would return, perhaps even in greater numbers, so making their way out of the cave was the safer option.

“Anyone that is willing to join in on this exploration, is welcome.”

Woohyuk turned and spoke to the soldiers under his command. It was a unit consisting solely of mercenaries.

Unlike the Kingdom’s army or Guards, they didn’t nearly have as much of a sense of duty, and mostly only thought about riches and treasures.

The offer was likely very tempting since any Historical Site was like a gold mine.

“I’ll go!”

“Me too...”

As he had expected, they all wanted to join.

Woohyuk nodded back, as he pulled out Grandia.

An unknown Historical Site that hadn’t been discovered even in the past. He would have to proceed with caution.

Jubuk Jubuk

The squad marched along the tunnel.

* * *

The inside of the ruins was filled with spider webs. Naturally, it was easy to guess that this was the Arachne’s Temple.

Woohyuk made his way forward, defeating venomous spiders which were as big as brown bears.

‘It’s so complicated, like a maze.’

It was divided into several levels, and the layout would shift periodically.

Therefore, it was impossible to return where they came from, much less map out the area by leaving marks where they’ve passed by.

One wrong turn, and they could find themselves surrounded and trapped by venomous spiders.

“My sense of direction is completely out of whack.”

“I think we’ve descended quite a bit.”

Lee Jaesung and Jung Sanghoon were also having a hard time. The men in his squad were likewise exhausted, but given the nature of the Site, they couldn’t afford to stop and rest.

“Don’t worry, we are almost there.”

Woohyuk said as he cut two spiders in half with a single swing.

By absorbing the David’s Star, he had obtained some basic information regarding the Arachne’s Temple.

This would help shorten the amount of time their raid would take. A benefit granted exclusively to the pioneers.

On the Eeth continent, the first people to discover a Historical Site would usually be rewarded in some way.

‘The Spider Queen...’

A woman who had once been cursed by the Great Earth God, turning her into a Spider Queen.

Upon seeing her reflection in the mirror, she had gone crazy and secluded herself in this deep abyss for a long time.

Although he pitied her fate, they were bound to clash since she represented one of the ingredients in his Seven Colored Rainbow Ring.

He didn’t think he could settle things this time by simply talking it out, seeing as the other party had already lost their sanity.

As they moved on to another chamber, they came across a strangely shaped spider.

[Explosive Spider]

Its bright red color made it easily distinguishable from its venomous brethren, and it also moved much more quickly.

‘This doesn’t look good.’

Woohyuk left his men behind and approached the spiders by himself.

Then...

Pung!

The closest Explosive Spider scuttled its way over to Woohyuk and blew itself up in a violent explosion.

Poisonous liquid was scattered across the area just like if a grenade had gone off, even corroding the stone walls.

‘It would have been dangerous if we just forced our way through.’

He didn’t know if they could survive a direct blow from that, but at the very least they’d take heavy losses.

Woohyuk stared at the Explosive Spiders before him, as he erected a shield with the Ghost Queen Star Serpent.

“Yoo Kayoung, cast a Fire Wall behind me.”

“Sure..”

She raised her staff and a wall of flame split the chamber in half.

It was a magic spell which he had put to great use in their battle against the Orcs.

‘I should be able to take care of them by myself.’

The spell’s true purpose was to restrict his own squad’s field of vision.

Woohyuk then summoned some of the weakest of his undead creatures. He sent them front one by one as he cast Corpse Explosion on them.

Bang Bang!

The undead monsters blew up, taking any nearby Explosive Spiders along with them.

The battle was soon over, and Woohyuk advanced once more with his men.

“Is this the final door?”

“Finally...”

Beyond the bodies of spiders scattered across the ground, were three bronze doors.

A white text floated above each of them.

Easy, Difficult, Medium

“What difficulty are you thinking of choosing?”

“Should we go all out?”

Lee Jaesung and Jung Sanghoon couldn’t even hide their despair.

Of course Woohyuk wanted to choose the middle option, but the level of difficulty didn’t necessarily mean the other two weren’t the right path.

“Let’s split up from here on out.”

In order to avoid any confusion, Woohyuk proceeded to split the troops into groups himself.

The Easy door would be tackled by a group of 120 mercenaries that were the weakest among them.

The rest of the men would be sent to the Medium difficulty.

‘It would be best if we can challenge all three.’

Separating their forces was the best way to maximize their chances of success.

He was still confident that he could deal with the Difficult path by himself. After all he had an army of undead.

Kieeeeek.

He opened the bronze door in the middle.

Sarrr

Ominous sounds rang out from the darkness.

‘Is it Arachne?”

He no longer had to rely on items with night vision properties, since his Demonic Energy more than made up for it.

There was a monster crouched in the middle of a circular space.

It looked like a spider with its several legs, but its upper body closely resembled that of a human.

It was far from ugly though.

“Why did you break into here?”

Arachne asked in a cold tone, as its red eyes narrowed.

At the same time, the bronze door slammed shut behind him, and what little light had filtered in before was now gone.

“There is something I need here.”

“I won’t allow anyone to take things from me anymore. Not a single thing.”

Arachne quickly turned hostile. As she raised her hand, baby spiders began to hatch from the eggs that had piled up along the edges of the room.

“Give him a most painful death!”

The number of baby spiders was such that they carpeted the ground, as they swarmed towards him.

As they approached, Woohyuk pulled out Verserios.

‘It’s a good chance to use my Demon powers.’

They were now in a confined space with no witnesses, so even if he cooked up a storm, no one would learn of it.

As Woohyuk stabbed Verserios into the ground, black flames spread out, melting all the baby spiders.

“Are you a Demon? That’s a surprise.”

Arachne said with a perplexed expression.

She had easily evaded the flames by climbing up to the ceiling, not taking any damage.

“While you’ve confined yourself here, the world has greatly changed. Many of the Gods have been sealed by the Creator, and the 72 Demon Kings have awakened from their slumber.”

“I don’t care what has happened, I hate this world. I wish only that everything disappears so that there are none left to lay eyes on me!”

She certainly appeared crazy.

Arachne then spun her web to create a spiderweb on the ceiling.

‘Negotiating with her didn’t seem like an option.’

Woohyuk raised Verserios without saying a word.

I wasn’t like continuing down this path would ever work.

A decisive surprise attack should be the best way to end this quickly.

Whuiiic!

Verserios ripped through the air, as it flew towards Arachne. However, now that she was on her spiderweb, Arachne’s agility had doubled and she was able to just barely dodge with some nimble movement of her slender legs.

Quazzik!

Verserviors tore through the spiderweb, embedding itself on the ceiling.

As the pieces of rock began to fall from the ceiling, Arachne spun herself a new web.

“Due to my beauty I had men courting me every single day. I had a promising future!”

Among them there had even been a handsome prince. He was quite popular, with good looks and excellent swordsmanship.

Unfortunately the prince eventually ended up marrying a princess from a neighboring country. When Arachne found out, she cursed the Earth God out of anger.

She blamed it for not listening to her prayers, and as a result she was turned into the Spider Queen.

“I won’t believe anyone. Eventually they will be sure to betray me and stab a dagger in my back!”

Having just completed her new web, Arachne cried, her words dripping with malice.

She had accomplished the task very quickly, no doubt because of her innate spider abilities.

She kept speaking, all the while looking down towards Woohyuk that was approaching her.

“Did you underestimate me because I’m a spider? Ha! But I also have a secret weapon. Take a good look at this beauty!”

The spiderweb which Arachne had spun was actually a high level magic array.

[Status Effect Magic: Petrification]

The kind of magic that can instantly turn the opponent into a statue.

Woohyuk however continued to advance unhurriedly. He was immune to most poisons as well as petrification magic, due to the Basilisk’s Set he was equipped with.

“As your Master, I command you.”

A dark energy burst out of Woohyuk's body like a raging flame. He had released the Demonic Energy, increasing its output by a whole level compared to before.

“Kill the enemy which lies front of me”

As Woohyuk finished speaking, a black vortex appeared around Verserios devouring anything nearby.