Chapter 5: Ominous Land

It’s been a few days since I had dinner with my friend.

Hmm, maybe by now he’s finished preparing and left for the Northern Reconstruction Zone to work?

The Northern Reconstruction Zone is a place like a devil’s paradise that no one has ever touched…

but it shouldn’t be that hard.

He’s strong and experienced.

He’s a veteran Awakened who’s lived well so far, and his skills have been recognized,

so he’s been hired by the government at a high price and treated very well.

If I chose to make a quick and big bet, he chose to live a long and thin life, and live a little more comfortably.

In fact, it is rare for someone like me to choose to retire early despite the danger.

People’s minds are all similar.

It is human nature to choose something that is not close to the threat of death rather than something that is close to it.

No matter how much money there is to make, if it is something that feels so strong that it is threatening to the skin, you will be reluctant to do it.

Everyone wants to make money comfortably in the end.

Which one would you choose between making money easily and making money hard?

I would choose the former.

I am also much more attracted to making money safely…

Well, I just closed my eyes and threw myself into the dangerous swamp of high risk and high return because I was tired of working more.

Fortunately, all of that turned out to be a success.

Of course, my body was damaged a lot, but I was already damaged before I started doing high-paying work, so that’s all.

And aren’t you living like this, resting?

I also use a pretty good massage chair every day.

Unless I live a more difficult life, my body will naturally heal.

The body of an awakened person is strong.

I’m an awakened person who’s made a name for myself, right?

There’s no reason for my body to get worse.

Unless it’s an urgent situation where I have to overwork my body.

Well… I’ve already retired after getting everything done, so why would I have to overwork my body?

Anyway, thinking about the skills of my friend who left for the northern reconstruction zone, I thought it was a waste to worry, so I dragged my tired body and headed somewhere.

I made a lot of money.

My house here is also a place that I barely made by investing a lot of money, right?

That’s why this house was overflowing with things I wanted.

And the place I was going to right now was exactly that kind of place.

Sauna.

A popular sauna with a sauna and a bath!

I made that in the house!

Actually, it’s not really inside the house, but it’s outside and there’s only a passageway, but anyway, inside is inside, right?

Of course, maintenance would be a hassle if it was a basic sauna,

but what kind of era is this?

Most of the annoying things can be solved by spending money and hiring a capable magic engineer.

If you have enough magic stones, it’s a state-of-the-art sauna with an automatic management system that takes care of everything.

Massage chairs are good, but there’s nothing better than this to relieve fatigue.

The feeling of having a large, quiet bath all to myself is also really great.

Of course, since it was made for the exclusive use of awakened people like me, the bath had various effects applied to it.

Mainly, it was effects related to recovery.

For example, it was a facility where you could definitely relieve mental and physical fatigue through this sauna.

“Wheww…”

I just let myself be in the extremely hot bath with steam rising from it, clearing my mind of distracting thoughts and slowly melting into the silence.

Meanwhile, a search was already in full swing in the northern reconstruction zone.

After completing their preparations, the Korean investigation team that was dispatched started from the northern border elf city, which could be called the starting point of the work.

The elves were the most dangerous there.

Now that the elves were gone, there would be at most a few low-level demons wandering around.

Since it was also the starting point of the work, their team leader judged that there was no better place to start the investigation and search.

And those who entered the city based on that judgment could not hide their shock at the sight they saw as soon as they entered.

“Wow…”

“This is…”

It was a shocking sight.

It was a town where thousands of elves lived, although it was not a large number compared to other cities.

However, all of the thousands of elves in that city…were pierced by cross-shaped skewers and were miserably stuffed in the air.

The level of strength was meaningless.

Those inside the building were mercilessly killed by the thorns that grew out through the building.

A truly equal death without any distinction of gender or age.

Even the alien races that had been captured by the elves and forced to live as their slaves had all died,

which was too much to be considered a simple act of hatred for the elves.

“…It’s horrible…”

Kim Cheol-soo, the leader of this investigation team and a veteran awakened, was looking around the city with a frown on his face.

If we were to simply consider the grotesqueness, I had seen more horrifying and appalling sights.

However, this was different.

I could feel the strong malice of the person who had done this, not even letting the corpse rest.

It didn’t seem like it was done out of hatred for a single species.

I could only feel blind malice and madness.

They were left on display in the world, occasionally to be eaten by birds or flying demons.

I could feel the malice of the dead, who would never let the dead rest in peace even after death.

‘They all died like that when they were alive…

He, who was experienced, could have roughly figured it out.

They had impaled the living elves in an instant with an unknown, powerful force.

If it had been a simple skewer, the powerful elf species could have escaped, but there was no trace of that.

They were massacred without even being able to protest in the first place.

That would be proof that this skewer itself contained great power.

Cheolsu thought that it could be an item with special power.

Or… it could just be an individual’s strength that was difficult to understand.

“Oh, these guys are just bastards that don’t care if they lose, but if I think about ending up like this… that’s really scary.”

With the upcoming vacation, I absolutely cannot stand such a foolish death… Cheolsu thought.

As he continued to look, Cheolsu was soon able to find a corpse.

“This guy…”

Cheolsu knew him.

He was the elf chieftain, the leader of this elf city.

He was the strongest of the elves here.

And the only elf who didn’t die when skewered…

However, what he saw from the corpse was even more horrifying.

Even as he faced death and his own kind and family all died, his face somehow had a joyful expression on it.

And his bizarre appearance as if he had pulled out his own throat and died.

“… Does he have the power of brainwashing? He’s a really picky guy.”

Cheol-su thought as he lit a cigarette.

The unidentified monster who did this could be a monster from the clergy.

The cross-shaped figure, the visible malice and madness, and the signs of brainwashing.

These were usually the signs of monsters with religious beliefs.

And these indiscriminate killings were also somewhat consistent with the actions of a religious madman.

It’s common for other-dimensional clergy to foam at the mouth and rush in, calling it a heresy.

They’re so extreme that they’ve even created a country among themselves.

“Mr. Ha, that type is really picky…”

Those who are obsessed with the madness of religious beliefs are all nonsensical and don’t stop easily.

But they’re also strong?

Then that’s a disaster.

What’s a disaster?

‘Ah, when I had a drink with that guy, I made a big promise…

Cheol-su scratched his cheek, thinking that this might be quite a tough task, unlike what he said when he had a drink with his friend Ryu Si-on.

“Team Leader, I checked this and confirmed that a dimensional crack has occurred in this area.

It seems like it came out from there and did this?”

“You’re saying that it started this as soon as it came out? Man… This is a lot of work.”

Cheol-su spat and said.

“Hey! That’s enough! Let’s move!!”

Their job was to roughly observe.

There was no reason to invest a lot of time in this.

That’s why they quickly followed the monster’s trail after roughly grasping the situation.

It wasn’t difficult.

The monster’s path left a very strong trace of its passage.

Meanwhile, at that moment, the monster they were chasing had encountered another monster.

[Unidentified monster…! This is the territory of me, Padraic Padres…!!]

[Get back down now…!!!]

“Repent… You must repent for your sins…”

The mad saintess staggering forward and the powerful demon known as the master of the Northern Reconstruction Zone.

The Elder Drake Padraque Padris have just encountered them…!!