Chapter 342

Who on earth was it talking about.

If I had to pick the being with the deepest connection to this place, it would be Juno — but at the moment, that one was only sealed, not dead.

That left Milited, the one with at least some connection to this place.

Timing-wise, it had gone down first, so that seemed the more likely bet.

Only, just like the powers of Margo, Sbeungali, and Minerva, it was bound to take a little more time — so I was in the middle of deciding to just keep it in the back of my mind for now, when —

"Choi Hyun-woo."

Reto quietly murmured that name.

The moment they heard it, Su-yeong's face and the others' froze all at once.

"He's a friend of yours, my lord?"

"…He is. But how do you know that?"

Reto blinked his huge eyes for a moment.

"My master told me. That around you, there would surely be many friends, and that in one way or another we would come to hear or learn those names. And to keep watch."

As he said it he rustled around and drew a wanted poster out from his clothes, and at the sight, Su-yeong let out a deep sigh.

"Word's really and truly out everywhere by now…."

"Ah, no — it isn't that, miss. Among our companions, there's someone called Sharisna who's very good at gathering information. She's the one who brought this."

Flustered, Reto tossed off the explanation and cleared his throat with a soft ahem.

"I thought that if my lord had a first order to give us, it might well be about this person… so just in case, I'd looked into it."

Frankly, his words caught me a little off guard.

Because what he was saying meant that from far earlier than I'd realized, they'd known about me and the people around me, and had been keeping watch.

"Um, my lord?"

At Reto's call, I — who had furrowed my brow for a second — shook my head right away.

"No, sorry, Reto. Just thinking for a moment…. So, how much do you know about Hyun-woo?"

"What he stole, and roughly where he's been up to now. Where exactly he is at this moment, I don't know."

When I told him anything was fine, just to hurry and explain, Reto opened his mouth.

"The item he made off with is commonly called the Metronome."

"The Metronome?"

A metronome was that thing that ticked back and forth to keep time.

There was no way it was literally that metronome, and going by the name alone I couldn't tell what on earth it was used for.

"To put it simply, it's an item that allows the user to repeat their own memories and experiences over and over."

His explanation went like this.

The owner could keep repeating memories and experiences endlessly, sure, but in practice it wasn't a particularly useful item — what could be repeated was limited strictly to people the owner had personally met or fought, and it could only be used as training for combat.

Meaning, asking a person from the past a question and hearing a fresh answer, or digging up information the owner didn't already have — none of that was possible.

To put it in one line, it was basically a portable training ground you could carry around and use. That was all.

"In theory, if the Metronome were used well, you could keep churning out powerful hunters and heroes without any time limit. …But the risks were too great, so its use was halted."

Going by his explanation, Hyun-woo beating Osei Evans made a certain amount of sense.

He must have used the item to keep repeating his training until he was strong enough to beat one of the Ten Powerhouses.

Literally repeating it, over and over, until he could beat the opponent held in his memory and experience.

"Risks?"

Reto glanced at Han Su-yeong and laid it out carefully.

"…Well, if the user's mental fortitude is weak, they get buried in past memories and experiences and either die or end up with the mind of a child. In fact, everyone who participated in the trials with the Metronome ended up that way, so its use was halted."

"……"

Her mouth clamped shut.

Seeing it, Reto flinched, then waved his hands and rushed on.

"B- but that gentleman has used it several times over and he's perfectly fine, so there's no need to worry for now! On this humble one's word, sworn on my master's name — I've never seen anyone with mental fortitude that strong!"

"…You said you also had a rough idea of what Hyun-woo has been doing this whole time, right? Could you fill us in on that too?"

The huge half-ogre, plainly wondering if he'd slipped up and said something he shouldn't have, was clearly on edge, but nodded with an almost artless earnestness all the same.

"To be honest, there isn't much to tell on that front. After stealing the Metronome, and after fighting off Osei Evans of the Ten Powerhouses — who tracked him down while he was training with it — he kept lying low. And that place was, if I recall right…."

When Reto rattled off the address, Su-yeong let out a small sigh, almost a lament.

"What's wrong?"

"It's the orphanage Hyun-woo and I used to be at. Where we were before we ever met Master."

Some bad memory must have surfaced — she knit her brows.

"It's been shut down for at least five years… it got designated a hazard zone, so all the residents around there packed up and left."

"Then it'd actually be perfect for hiding out."

I nodded and pressed him again.

"When you say he was lying low for a while, that means he's not there now — right?"

"Yes, that's right. After fighting some woman and winning, he ran again."

"A woman?"

"Yes. A young woman with hair as white as snow, and she used a sword."

"……"

"……"

Su-yeong and I both went quiet.

White hair, a woman, a swordsman.

We'd both realized right away who those three things pointed to.

"…Where has Hyun-woo gone now?"

Reto shook his head.

"I'm sorry. Beyond that, I don't know either."

"Then I've got a favor to ask. If it's all right, could you ask your other companions for help too, not just yourself?"

At my words, he gave a solemn nod.

"A favor from my lord is our joy."

He followed it by lowering his head in something close to a full bow.

"No matter how long it takes, we'll find him within half a day, so don't worry."

"We've got to move as fast as we can. Even at this moment, there are people out there chasing Hyun-woo, and above all, if the item has side effects that severe, we need to stop him from ever using it again before something blows up."

Ivan said it while opening and closing his fist, over and over.

"Reto, was it. Is there any way to know when Ye-seul's business will be finished? If it's going to take a while, I'd say it'd be better if the three of us — me, Yu-na, and Su-yeong — went ahead and started looking."

"That, I don't really know either. If she has what it takes, it'll be over quickly; if she doesn't, she could work at it for days on end and never finish."

As he got that far, Reto — surprisingly — hitched one corner of his mouth up, almost into a sneer.

"But, as this Reto sees it… saying this about my lord's friend is a great rudeness, but the fact is that woman falls quite a bit short compared to our master. Even if a month goes by, she won't pass the test."

The instant those confident words left his mouth, a small snort of laughter came from somewhere.

The sound of thud, thud — someone climbing up the stone stairs.

A voice I recognized.

"Oh yeah? Then I'm awfully sorry about this."

The one who came climbing up was none other than Jin Ye-seul.

Unlike before she'd gone in for the so-called test, she'd gotten a bit dirtied up.

After giving Reto a mocking look, she slowly turned her eyes to me.

"…I'm back."

Seeing her flash me a bright grin, I smiled back as if to say nicely done.

Right after that, a notification window appeared in front of me.

System

You have encountered the true successor of the Shadow Walker.

The true successor of the Shadow Walker.

A strange sense of déjà vu was hitting me over that phrase when several notification windows appeared one after another.

System

Meeting the Shadow Walker has triggered a response from the presence within you!

A power of a Seven Calamity is beginning to reveal a fragment of itself…!

You have acquired the power — Moth to the Flame (飛蛾赴火)!

Moth to the Flame (飛蛾赴火) (???, ???) (weakened)

The power of the Seven Calamity of countless names, its form now reshaped into a single power.

This Seven Calamity, which for the longest span was called Milited, possessed the power to understand and accept the wounds and shocks it had suffered from an opponent, and in the end, adapt to them.

The more the opponent attacked, the more they were, in effect, gnawing away at their own life.

That ability of the Seven Calamity has been reshaped in a different direction, so that instead of understanding, accepting, and adapting to attacks directed at the bearer of this power, they are returned to the opponent, intact.

'Moth to the Flame' means a flying summer moth throwing itself into the fire — describing one who leaps of their own will into danger and calls destruction down upon themselves.

Isn't it the phrase best suited to those who make an enemy of the bearer of this power?

▸Per opponent, you can take at most one attack without shock. In this case, if the opponent's overall stats are far higher than the bearer's, the shock cannot be fully dispersed.

▸While the opponent's power is absorbed, you gain resistance to every action the opponent performs.

▸Mana is continuously consumed while Moth to the Flame is in use.

▸Up to three opponents at once, and at most one attack per opponent.

▸When the opponent's attack is returned, the force is proportional to the bearer's abilities and the amount of mana used.

▸It can be used repeatedly on an opponent it has already been used on once, but doing so cancels the resistance previously gained.

[ Note ]

Due to the extremely small fragment of the Seven Calamity absorbed, the power has manifested in a weakened state.

[ Note ]

Absorbing additional fragments of the 'Seven Calamity of countless names' will strengthen this power.

The fourth Seven Calamity power I'd obtained — and, exactly as I'd expected, one gained from having absorbed Milited.

Skimming quickly through it, my brow tightened on its own at the notes tucked in at the very bottom.

Little wonder — Milited didn't exist in this world anymore.

But honestly….

At this point I couldn't help wondering what use this was.

By now there were almost no opponents left who could beat me.

And on top of that, I didn't have the bandwidth right now to worry about this kind of thing.

Because things far more important than this had already come right up on me.

"She has passed the test."

Right then, a voice I'd never heard before spoke up.

When I looked toward the source, a woman was climbing up the stairs behind Jin Ye-seul.

To my surprise, a pair of enormous wings sprouted from her shoulders.

"Lady Sharisna."

Reto looked at her with a really? in his eyes.

She gave a nod and spoke in a cold voice.

"By our sworn friend's dying wish, she is now the Shadow Walker who will succeed our sworn friend."

With that, she looked at me and dipped her head slightly.

"I'm a garuda. Sharisna. Pleased to meet you — family of our sworn friend."

She spoke and moved with a strictly professional manner, and Reto's earlier line about her being skilled at gathering information clicked into place on its own.

A half-ogre, and a garuda, huh.

Ji-na had made a pretty unusual set of friends, I was thinking, when she opened her mouth.

"Since you've come this far, I'll speak on the assumption that you have some understanding of the situation. We aren't in the most leisurely of positions, so I ask for your understanding."

Giving those enormous folded wings on her shoulders a small flap, she looked around and then fixed her gaze squarely on me.

"As our sworn friend asked, each of us has been carrying out our own tasks. Reto keeps the tomb, I gather information as she asked, and our other companions have each been doing their share as well. And among our sworn friend's requests was one to keep watch on the seals of the Seven Calamities Juno and Venus."

She blinked, small and quick.

"…And in the middle of all that, Kwakal reported to us that Venus's seal had collapsed. Kwakal is a gargoyle who was tasked with watching the pyramid where Venus was sealed."

"A gargoyle…?"

At Yu-na's murmur, Sharisna glanced over at her once.

Her look wasn't a scolding one at all, but her eyes were so sharp and her manner so imperious that Yu-na flinched and ducked her head, looking apologetic.

"I'll continue. The seals of the Seven Calamities are structured such that the moment more than half of them collapse, the rest collapse in sequence.

But our sworn friend firmly believed that someone would break the seals before they could collapse on their own, and by her dying words and her will, we kept watch on Venus's and Juno's seals without letting so much as a hairline gap. Which is why…."

We were able to find out who destroyed Venus's seal.

At those words, I stepped closer to her before I knew it and asked:

"Who is it."

"He on whose skin the boiling sunlight runs and streams, who calls up milk and honey from the great earth, the master of all heated iron and molten metal…."

Sharisna went on for a long while in what sounded almost like the verse of a poem.

"The fire spirit known to humans as the Smith of Yado. He is the one who destroyed Venus's seal."

Then she quietly added:

"And he is also a subordinate of Ahriman."