“I come in peace,” I declared, putting my hands in the air. “I had no intention of trespassing here. That was not my portal. However, I did intend to visit the clan formally, for I have important business to discuss with the patriarch.”
“You think you can just meet with the patriarch after trespassing so boldly?” asked the guard.
“I just said it was unintentional,” I said. “I didn’t even make that portal.”
“And you expect us to believe that?”
“I suppose it is hard to believe,” I conceded. “But it’s the truth. Would you like for me to leave and come back through the main entrance?”
“No!” he said. “You’ve trespassed on Baek Clan property. You will be taken into custody and tried. If you are as innocent as you claim, you will be freed, and you may re-enter through official channels.”
“No thanks,” I said, casting [Greater Invisibility] and [Fly].
“Spread out and find her!” shouted the man. “And you!” He pointed to the youngest guard. “Go back to the main household! Give them the details about the intruder!”
“Yes, sir!” said the young man.
The young man who had been ordered to go back to the main household ran at full speed up a long pathway to the top of a hill, where a walled compound had been constructed. The buildings inside were tiered and had gently-sloped, tiled roofs, much like East Asian architecture back on Earth.
Aside from the eight guards that I had encountered, there were dozens more guards moving about in groups of four, and all seemed to be aware of my presence to some degree, and were searching for me. Only a few were any stronger than the leader of the small group who had spoken to me, and none were good enough to detect me.
I flew past the young guard toward the largest building within the walls that I guessed to be the main family’s manor. The interior was no less hectic than the exterior, with my intrusion having evidently set of some kind of alarm, waking the residents. The ones that hadn’t been awake already at least. In one of the rooms on the third floor, I could hear two people breathing heavily from exertion as they hurried to dress themselves.
On the uppermost floor, the fifth, a… less passionate couple had just finished dressing themselves and were racing down the stairs. These two, however, caused me some worry. The man’s [Sphere of Influence] was nearly the size of Casimir’s, and the woman’s was not much smaller. If I used up all the stat points I had from defeating the Kraken, defeating them would not be an issue, but as I was at the moment, they could pose some problems. Still, that was likely the patriarch, who I needed to meet, and it would be better sooner than later, before they had the chance to run themselves ragged trying to find me.
I descended to the ground by the front door of the manor and summoned the Baek clan founder’s sword from my Inventory and levitated out in front of me completely visible. There was a pair of fairly strong guards on either side of the doors, and when the sword appeared in front of them, they both drew their weapons and pointed them in my direction, but did not attack. The sword confused them, but they could not sense me behind it, so it did not raise enough alarm for them to attack.
“Who goes there!” called one of them.
I did not respond, and continued to wait. After a few moments, the doors burst open, and a young woman exited holding a sword, but she came to a sudden stop upon seeing the floating sword.
“My lady, there’s a floating sword,” said one of the guards.
“I can see that,” she said, eyes narrowing. “It looks like grandfather’s.”
She stepped forward to inspect it, but a voice from behind made her pause.
“Stop, sister!” it said.
The owner of the voice became visible a moment later. While not quite close enough to be twins, the striking resemblance he bore to the young woman made it clear that, as his words indicated, they were related by blood. They both had the same long brown hair falling messily down to their shoulders, and the same hazel eyes and thin lips. Unlike his sister, however, his brow was slick with sweat, and his heart was beating quite quickly for as little distance as he had traveled. He must have been one half of the passionate couple, but his lover was nowhere to be seen.
“Do not approach too closely,” he said. “We do not know what it is. Wait for grandfather. If this new intruder is like the last one, we cannot behave recklessly.”
The last intruder? I thought.
Before I had time to contemplate the meaning of that statement, the patriarch and his wife arrived, also coming to an abrupt stop at the sight of the sword. He looked quite similar to Ji-Soo’s grandfather, with his white hair and beard, and a physique beyond what a man of his years should have been capable of maintaining. The look in his eyes, however, was much more dignified, and while not entirely free of haughtiness, it did not hold the same arrogance as the Han clansman.
“Everyone, put away your weapons,” he said in a commanding tone. All but the young woman obeyed.
“But grandfather!” she protested.
“Do it,” he said. “There is no need for bloodshed tonight. In fact, a celebration may be due. So sheathe your blade.”
“A celebration?” asked the girl, still not moving.
“Seo-Hyun!” snapped the patriarch’s wife.
The young woman immediately lowered her sword and put it back in its sheath.
“Sorry, grandmother.”
“Good,” said the patriarch. “Now, visitor, please reveal yourself.”
I undid my invisibility spell, causing the younger siblings to flinch with surprise, but none made any moves to attack.
“Hello,” I said. “My name is Ilsa. I apologize for intruding so late at night. It was not my intention, but I did not make the portal that took me here. It was an elf named Vitaly, and I believe he was playing a prank on me. I did intend to visit you formally in the morning, but after raising your alarms, I thought it would be best to show myself before you spent too much time and effort searching for me.”
“Greetings Ilsa,” said the patriarch, nodding in my direction. “I am the patriarch of the Baek clan, Baek Ji-Min. This is my wife, Joo-Won, my grandson Ji-Ho, and my granddaughter Seo-Hyun. Am I correct in guessing that that sword is our the blade of our founder that was lost nearly seven hundred years ago?”
“You are,” I said. “I happened upon it on my travels, and thought it would be best to return it to its original owners.”
I floated the sword over to the patriarch and he grabbed it out of the air and began examining it closely. After a moment, he slowly unsheathed the sword and held it up in front of him. It was a beautiful blade, and in the soft light of the moon, it seemed to glow white. There were thin characters that looked like Hanzi carved into the metal near the hilt that the patriarch seemed to take his time reading. A minute passed before he was satisfied, and he resheathed the blade and looked up at me again.
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“This is indeed the blade of the Baek clan founder,” he said. “We are incredibly grateful that you were able to find this, and chose to return it to use.” He bowed, and the others followed his example. “We apologize for our lacking hospitality up until now. We would love to invite you in to enjoy a drink and meal with us.”
“It’s alright,” I said. “Your guards’ response to my intrusion was perfectly reasonable, and I do not fault them or you. I ate recently, but I wouldn’t turn down a drink.”
I wouldn’t actually drink it, of course, but refusing everything would be rude. I would just have to send whatever I consumed into my inventory.
“Then please, come inside. I will have the servants prepare our finest wine.”
The patriarch stepped back into the building, while his family stepped to the side to allow me through. The matriarch smiled at me warmly, but the young woman glared at me with murder in her eyes, and the young man seemed utterly baffled by the proceedings.
I followed the older man through the manor, with the other three closely behind, and as we walked, we were slowly joined by a group of young men and women dressed in what appeared to be servants’ uniforms. One of the women was noticeably more disheveled than the rest, and her forehead was shining, and I caught her sneaking looks at Ji-Ho behind me.
We soon arrived at a room at the back of the manor with windows overlooking a koi pond surrounded by a flower garden. There was a large round table surrounded by very comfortable-looking chairs, and when we entered the room, the patriarch, Ji-Min, pulled one of the chairs out and gestured for me to sit down. Once we were all seated, he waved his hand, and immediately, cups were set out before us, and five servants brought out jars full of strong alcohol and poured us each a generous serving. I felt a little bad that so much of what was probably very expensive alcohol would be going to waste, but I raised my cup along with the others anyways.
“A toast,” said Ji-Min, “to Ilsa, and the long lost heirloom she has returned to us.”
The whole family drank their full cups in a single gulp, and I pretended to follow suit, sending what [Greater Inventory] called ‘Aged Flower Wine’ into extradimensional storage. After we had all drank, we set down our cups, and the servants returned immediately to refill them.
“As thanks for what you’ve done, we’d like to reward you,” said Ji-Min. “The sword truly is a precious treasure, so if you have any requests, as long as it is within our power, we will do our best to grant it.”
“What?!” demanded Seo-Hyun.
“Seo-Hyun!” said Joo-Won. “Mind your manners!”
“She breaks into our property in the middle of the night, wakes us all up for no goddam reason, but not only is she forgiven, she’s even being rewarded just because she brought some stupid sword?!” said Seo-Hyun, ignoring her grandmother.
“Seo-Hyun!” shouted the patriarch.
As he spoke, he filled his words with his aura, causing the girl to cower back in her seat.
“I apologize for my granddaughter’s manners,” he said, turning to me. “We recently had another intruder who was not as well-meaning as you. Her parents and uncle are still recovering, so she’s on edge. She means no harm.”
“It’s fine,” I said, smiling. “But I’d like to hear a bit more about this intruder, if you don’t mind. Your grandson mentioned them earlier as well, and I’ve been curious since.”
“Of course,” said Ji-Min. “It was three days ago, in broad daylight. He just walked in through our front gate and marched his way all the way up to the manor. He had a powerful intimidation skill, so few of the guards could even get close, and the ones who did were easily incapacitated. I was not home at the time, so my son, Seo-Hyun and Ji-Ho’s father, and his wife were in charge of defending the manor, but apparently, they did not stand a chance.
“The man fought them both at once, and from what they’ve recounted, it was a very one-sided bout. Thankfully, the man seemed to have no interest in killing anyone, and once they were out of the fight, he continued inwards. When I returned, the seal on the Cave of Ten Thousand Demons was broken, and the intruder was nowhere to be seen.”
This must be why Patience wanted me to come here, I thought.
“Who was he?” I asked.
“While I did not see him personally, I believe that there could be no mistaking a man of his stature. It was Ravel’s Fist God, Casimir Lévesque.”
“Shit,” I said. “What’s in there that he wants so badly?”
“I cannot say,” said Ji-Min. “Perhaps he wanted to prove his own strength.”
“No, that can’t be right. Casimir wouldn’t do that.”
“So you know him, huh?” asked Seo-Hyun, her energy suddenly returned.
“Yes, but not very well,” I said. “But still, well enough to know that he wouldn’t do something like this for such a petty reason.”
“Yes, I had the same thought,” said the patriarch. “Do you have any idea why he might have broken in the way he did?”
“Maybe…” I said. “What is the clear reward for the Dungeon?”
“Experience,” replied the patriarch. “And a basic aura circulation skill, but a man of his caliber certainly already knows a better one. The first clear reward thousands of years ago was a much stronger aura circulation skill that forms the basis of the Baek clan’s martial arts, but, as I mentioned, that was only the first clear reward. I honestly have no idea why the Fist God himself thought to do something so reckless.”
“There has to be something in there that’s worth it,” I said. “I take it from the way you’re talking that you don’t know who he serves, though, which would limit your thinking.”
“Who he serves?” asked Joo-Won. “Does he not serve Duke Lyon?”
“No,” I said. “He serves Duke Lyon’s daughter, Ophelia, the Demon King of Greed.”
The Baeks took a collective sharp breath in.
“That’s…” said Joo-Won.
“That certainly is troubling,” finished Ji-Min.
“I’d like to go in after him,” I said.
“What?” said all of them.
“I’d like you to allow me to enter the Cave of Ten Thousand Demons as my reward for returning the sword.”
“I- that’s- well-” the patriarch cleared his throat. “It’s not impossible… but you are a mage, correct?”
“Primarily, yes.”
“Then I fear that you will not last long in the Dungeon. There is no mana within.”
“No mana?” I asked. “Don’t Dungeons run on mana?”
“Yes, but this one only uses the mana to maintain its extradimensional space. The only mana within the Dungeon is that which you bring in with you, and once that is expended, you are left with your body and your aura.”
“Well, I can use aura too,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”
“Just being able to use aura won’t be enough,” he countered. “You need to at least be-”
He cut off when I started channeling my aura. Originally, this would not have been enough to impress him, but as he spoke, I had decided to dump a thousand stat points into [Vitality] to bring it up to a similar level with [Willpower]. It was probably still weaker than his own, and it was rather unstable, since I had never controlled so much before, but it was more than enough to make him think twice about doubting my skills.
“Are you an elf?” he asked, his eyes wide. “Is that what you’re hiding under that illusion of yours?”
“No, just a very talented person,” I said cheerfully. “So, can I enter? I’d like to do it as soon as possible, if you don’t mind.”
“...Yes, but are you certain you don’t wish to spend a day preparing?”
“No, whatever Casimir’s doing in there needs to be stopped, and as soon as possible,” I said.
“But… You are not strong enough to stop him,” he said. “You are definitely powerful, but your aura is around the level of my son’s, and less refined too. I agree that whatever he is doing cannot be good, but I also cannot send you willingly to your death.”
What he said about my aura was completely valid, but it wasn’t enough to sway me. Even without being able to gather mana, I would still have what I brought with me, which was a considerable amount; enough to fire the railgun more than a dozen times. And I still had more than a thousand stat points from the kraken that I had yet to allocate. Additionally, I always had [Create Thrall], so as long as I could get a single drop of blood, he would wind up helpless.
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I’ve got a few tricks.”
“I strongly advise against it,” he said.
“I thank you for the advice, but I would still like to enter.”
“No,” he said firmly.
“What?” I said.
“I cannot allow it. You may be confident in your skills, but I am not, and I will not be complicit in the death of our clan’s benefactor.”
I looked into his sharp hazel eyes for a few seconds. His words were the truth; he truly was trying to stop me out of concern for my own wellbeing. And for that reason, I chose not to attack him.
“Then pardon me for the intrusion,” I said before teleporting away.
I had already long since located the Dungeon. It was about a hundred feet directly below us, and its seal had not been repaired since Casimir broke it, so it was sucking in mana from all around. I reappeared directly in front of the portal surrounded by a dozen guards, but before they even had time to notice my presence, I stepped inside.
You have entered the Cave of Ten Thousand Demons
To clear this Dungeon, kill 10000 demons