Chapter 51
The Arrow That Left the Siege (10)
Well, it’s not like I was planning to step forward in front of the raid party like some great savior and say, “You can’t enter the Sanctuary, so why don’t you look for another route?” or anything that arrogant.
You should never underestimate veterans who’ve been rolling around Babel for years.
It might look like I’m steadily gathering information and getting ahead of them, but in reality, there’s a high chance the raid party has already found another way to break through.
Ever since the Age of Babel began, there’s no reason not to trust Hunters.
Anyway, my destination was already decided.
“Man, this is perfect driving weather.”
Even though I’d just been assigned a scenario, and this really wasn’t the time for a leisurely drive, I was earnestly riding for nearly three hours.
If I hadn’t bought Nokgacheon, just how grueling would this journey have been?
Once again offering my deep gratitude to Nocturne Gart, I kept heading toward my destination.
Before long, a towering spire began to come into view in the distance.
“…Ah, right.”
Except now, that tower was wrapped in black mist.
Its luxurious and majestic appearance was still there, but the dense black fog blanketing the entire area made it look like a tower of death.
Am I an idiot, Lee Hae-won?
I started my train of thought by scolding myself.
I’d already heard from Turtle Mouth that the Mage Tower had fallen into ruin due to Agemor’s Encroachment, and yet I only realized it after coming all the way here and seeing it with my own eyes. Legendary stupidity.
“Ah… what do I do now.”
Sitting astride the saddle, I just stared blankly at the cake right in front of me.
If only I could turn on the Merchant’s Mark, I wouldn’t have to agonize over something this pointless.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with a way to get through that mist and reach the Mage Tower.
Just as I was mentally flipping off my past self for turning off the mark just to view a scenario—
“…Does that thing even count as something you can appraise?”
The thought came from pure curiosity.
Well, partly because my thoughts had gotten tangled with no clear answer in sight.
Without much expectation, I lightly activated the Appraisal skill.
And then—
[Agemor’s Encroachment (???)]
A materialized form of the abandoned one’s rage and resentment.
It cannot be removed through physical attacks.
Unless ■■■■ ■■ ■■, it will eternally gnaw at the world and continue to spread.
Status: Active
I stared at the window, mouth hanging open.
Wasn’t it absurd that something like that could even be appraised?
The question mark grade bothered me a bit, but no gold was deducted.
[⁕ When the ‘Item Appraisal’ skill is used on scenario-related items, gold is not deducted.]
I gave Sam a rough thumbs-up for kindly clearing up my question and sank into deep thought.
Whenever things feel blocked, they suddenly start flowing—what, is someone watching over my life or something?
Could it be that my life is actually a novel?
After glaring resentfully at the sky, I looked back at the window.
…No way. Can it even be repaired?
[Would you like to repair this item?]
“Are you kidding me….”
A curse slipped out before I could stop myself.
The real jackpot wasn’t detachable turtle shells—this was.
Babel judged Agemor’s Encroachment not as an anomaly, but as damage.
If Babel considered Agemor’s Encroachment an error that occurred in this dimension, then this logic actually made sense.
No—forget making sense. For me, this is a golden opportunity!
I sprang up from the saddle and nodded decisively.
If this worked, it would instantly fulfill the scenario requirement of ‘Stop Agemor’s Encroachment’!
That was when it happened.
[Using ‘Repair’ on ‘Agemor’s Encroachment’.]
[1G has been deducted.]
“Huh? What?”
Staring at the encroachment spreading in the distance with my heart pounding, I let out a deflated sigh.
I mean… I did repair it, but—
“Did I seriously just repair that tiny dot…?”
Only a pinpoint-sized area in the middle of the path to the Mage Tower briefly cleared into pure white.
And just seconds later, the surrounding fog slithered back in to fill the gap.
Wow… this is so absurd I don’t even know what to say.
Yeah. Thinking I could clear a scenario this easily was way too naïve.
I slumped back onto the saddle and focused on finding another breakthrough.
The fact that I could use the Repair skill at all had to be the only solution I’d been given.
Then… can I repair only the area I move through?
[Would you like to repair a ‘customized range’?]
See? Learn one skill properly and it feeds you for generations.
I set it to automatically repair only the fog surrounding me and took a deep breath.
I had exactly 1,736 gold.
“Let’s go.”
I mean—there’s no way I’d die, right?!
Forcing down my anxiety, I put on the smile of a relentlessly positive person.
And the moment I stepped into the curtain of black mist—
“…This actually works.”
It felt like only my body was wrapped in a protective barrier.
Everything around me was dyed pitch-black, yet I alone could move freely through it.
Wherever Nokgacheon ran, the encroachment was repaired, and once I passed, the path turned black again.
It was clearly a world steeped in despair, yet strangely, I felt a sense of wonder.
[1G has been deducted.]
[1G has been deducted.]
[1G has been deducted.]
Damn it, my precious, blood-earned gold….
The steadily draining gold snapped me back to reality.
I pushed Nokgacheon to full speed and charged straight toward the Mage Tower.
The tower’s door—so tall the end wasn’t even visible—had been smashed to pieces.
Maybe someone had fled in a hurry.
Its current state, having lost all traces of past glory and wisdom, was utterly desolate.
Crumpled papers and scattered items littering the floor made it clear this place was nothing more than ruins.
I stepped slowly inside.
[1G has been deducted.]
Ah—no, I shouldn’t rush.
There was no way I’d find what I was looking for right away inside a Mage Tower of this height.
[Explorer’s Eye (B)]
An eye that helps you find desired items.
You can search by name or appearance.
X-ray vision is not possible, and items that are hidden or protected are difficult to detect.
When a desired item is found, its location is announced with a loud alarm.
I had the Market. With this alone, I was basically a thug.
There were pricier and better items, but the reason I bought this one was simple.
Because of Agemor’s Encroachment, all magic and portals had crumbled—this place was essentially an open-world dungeon with every door unlocked.
“Alright then… let’s find ‘Paroxia.’”
When I activated the item, a small, floating circle shaped like an eyeball appeared before me.
The circle darted through the empty Mage Tower at high speed.
While it searched for Paroxia, I picked up a few papers scattered on the floor.
[A Study on the Optimal Height of a Mage’s Hat]
[Emotional State Analysis Through Variations in Slime Elasticity]
[Classification of Unicorn Hair Quality Grades and Seasonal Variations]
These people researched this stuff… and they were the top scholars of this dimension?
I shook my head while reading a line that said, “A depressed slime shows a 7% increase in elasticity.”
I’d known it ever since meeting those dark mages, but honestly—are all mages insane?
That was when—
Beep— Beep— Beep—
“Ugh, what now?”
A thunderous sound that went way beyond a simple alarm echoed from somewhere above.
Figures. Important items are always kept on the highest floor, no matter the dimension.
I hurried up the spiral staircase.
[1G has been deducted.]
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.”
My gold was vanishing rapidly, and I ran as fast as I could toward the source of the sound.
The alarm grew louder and closer.
“Oh.”
At last, the top floor of the tower.
What must have once been the tower master’s room.
It was clearly more ornate than the rooms below, with elegant decorations carved along the doorframe.
Unlike the exterior, the room’s soaring ceiling, the wall-length bookshelf, and the mysterious ornaments hanging in midair were breathtaking.
If only it weren’t all gray, it would’ve been awe-inspiring.
Beep— Beep— Beep—
The ear-splitting alarm was coming from beneath the desk.
“This must be it.”
The item was a compass.
It looked like an ordinary black compass, but the Explorer’s Eye was sitting on top of it, screaming its head off.
A symbol of reconciliation blessed by the god Oerisa, just lying on the floor like that.
I carefully picked it up.
The moment it entered my protective field, the compass shed its gray hue and instantly returned to its original form.
“Wow…”
An unintentional gasp escaped me.
The antique brass case covered with clear glass was already impressive enough.
And the finely carved patterns—clearly the work of a master craftsman.
One side featured sharp, geometric designs; the other, flowing curved patterns wrapping around the case.
The meeting point of the two mismatched motifs somehow blended into a single, perfect piece of art.
On the back, tiny letters were densely engraved.
Probably the contents of the Cantana Peace Accord.
I wanted to read it, but poor eyesight said no.
What stood out most were the two needles—unlike any normal compass.
One was a deep brown, steady and heavy, as if maintaining balance.
The other glowed a vivid green, vibrant and alive.
“What, is it broken?”
The two needles pointed in opposite directions, locked in tense opposition.
No matter how I turned the compass, they refused to move toward each other.
“Do the two needles represent two races?”
I muttered softly and used the Appraisal skill.
[Par■■ia (???)]
A ■■■■ relic symbolizing ■■■ between ■ and ■■.
Status: Damaged
“Damaged…”
Half the text was corrupted, but something that started with “Paro” and ended with “a” could only be Paroxia.
At this point, wasn’t it incredibly lucky that an uninvited guest like me had barged into the scenario?
Praising myself internally, I carefully activated the Repair skill.
[Would you like to repair ‘Par■■ia’?]
[Repairing this item will take some time.]
Figures. Since it was a main item, it wouldn’t be instant.
A golden aura bloomed around the compass, showing the skill was working.
It was already an antique masterpiece—add that aura, and it felt untouchably sacred.
But this wasn’t the time to relax.
Gold was still being drained one coin at a time, and I was just standing here repairing it.
Should I have gone outside to do this?
Still, I also needed to find materials related to the Tower of Babel.
That thought sparked another idea.
When Agemor’s Encroachment first appeared, wouldn’t the tower’s mages have researched it?
I spoke to the now-silent Explorer’s Eye.
“Let me know if you find any documents containing the word ‘Agemor.’”
The circle cheerfully flew out of the room.
Watching its tiny back, I thought to myself—
What is Agemor, really?
I’d only ever thought of it as the name of the fog. It was only now that I realized I’d never questioned the word itself.
If I was going to be scared, I should at least know what I was afraid of.
But my wait didn’t last long.
No alarm. The eyeball quietly returned to me.
“…There was nothing?”
I asked, even though I couldn’t actually communicate with it.
Is it a person’s name?
Maybe something would come up if I searched the Market.
The moment I opened it—
[■ Babel System > Shared Message from Scenario Participants]
Han Romi, the raid party is currently at a stalemate, unable to find a way into the Sanctuary. There is a massive wall of holy power infused with Provel, completely blocking entry. The raid party plans to move to the nearby village, Raycam. Please join us from Raycam instead of Provel.
Ι Ahn Yeonseo (Dimension–Earth | Region–Republic of Korea)Why are you fighting the fog?
Ι Han Romi (Dimension–Earth | Region–Republic of Korea)Monsters corrupted by the fog are appearing nearby. They can be killed using holy power, but the fog itself cannot be stopped.
Ι Ahn Yeonseo (Dimension–Earth | Region–Republic of Korea)Okay, I’ll head to Rebek—
Ι Han Romi (Dimension–Earth | Region–Republic of Korea)It’s Raycam.
Ι Ahn Yeonseo (Dimension–Earth | Region–Republic of Korea)
The raid party had spoon-fed me only the juiciest bits of information.
