Chapter 18
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss. I’m Park Chae-rin, the leader of the filming team and an A-rank Hunter. The people behind me are my team members, and they’re all B-rank Hunters.”
“I’m counting on you, Team Leader Park. And the rest of you, too.”
The filming team Yoo Hyeok-jin had prepared wasn’t an actual filming crew. They were a Hunter team from the Council of Elders, hastily assembled to serve as one.
They were all Hunters of considerable skill, apparently assigned to protect me in case of an emergency.
Besides them, Yura, formerly of the Black Dragon Corps, would be coming along, so she’d be a reliable ally in an emergency.
Of course, the key to this exploration was making sure no such emergency arose.
“Miss, it’s time to go in. It seems the head of the family has caught our scent and is on the way here.”
Yura came over to my side and said this.
‘What a hound. Still, he’s too late.’
Though the Council of Elders had only sent a small number of people, even the head of the family, content to rest on his laurels, must have sensed something was amiss when they made a move.
If the head of the family had noticed a little sooner, we might have had a confrontation, but we’d acted a little faster, so the Gate exploration would proceed without delay.
“Then let’s go. Everyone, come in slowly. There might be a monster right on the other side.”
Shing!
I drew the Heaven-Sundering Sword and entered the Gate.
【You have entered the Gate ‘Death Mansion.’】
As soon as I entered, a notification appeared at the top of my field of vision.
The notification was meaningless to me now, but it was extremely important when entering a new Gate.
When exploring a new Gate, there was little information available, so this notification gave you some idea of what to expect.
‘This reminds me of the Gates that will appear later. Seeing this in person really brings them to mind. …More importantly, I prepared for a monster to show up right away, but there’s nothing here yet.’
I’d thought there might be a Wraith right away, but all that greeted me was a quiet road at night.
The mansion was the main setting, but this spot wasn’t far from it, so Wraiths sometimes roamed around here.
Still, thanks to that random chance, I was spared a fight as soon as I entered.
Depending on whether or not I fought, the Wraiths would either be on their guard or not.
ㅡIn my case, the latter was a good sign.
“Miss, we’re here.”
“Good. Let’s get going. Keep your distance and follow me.”
A moment later, Yura and the filming team joined me.
I told them to keep their distance and follow, since they wouldn’t be taking part in the fighting directly, then quickly moved ahead.
Caw, cawㅡ.
As I walked along the eerie, straight road, a large, imposing mansion soon came into view.
That was Death Mansion, the main setting of this Gate.
Even before going inside, I could almost hear the ghosts laughing, and a chill ran down my spine.
‘Good thing I like horror stories. Most people would refuse to even go in, just from the feeling of this place. …But damn, this atmosphere is terrifying.’
I took a deep breath as I looked at the mansion.
Then I went through the front gate, crossed the mansion grounds, and headed for the entrance.
At that momentㅡ.
“Kyahahaha!!”
“Kihihih~!!”
Wraiths dressed as maids appeared.
As if they’d been waiting for us.
Their translucent human forms shed bloody tears as they laughed maniacally.
Their laughter alone could drive someone insane. It was a curse attack.
The curse attacks here were
powerful enough to make exploration difficult through curses alone,
if you didn’t have an ability that granted immunity to curses,
or if you didn’t have a high amount of magical power,
or if you didn’t have an item that granted immunity to curses.
Of course, everyone who’d come in with me was decked out in items that granted immunity to curses, so I didn’t need to worry about them.
I only needed to worry about myself and make sure the monsters didn’t take an interest in them.
‘Sorcery, Dokkaebi Fire.’
Whoosh!
I summoned dokkaebi fire around the Wraiths.
Wraiths were ghosts among the Undead, so physical attacks barely worked on them. You had to coat your weapon in sword energy or sword aura, or use an ability like magic.
Or an ability imbued with holy power.
In my case, sorcery was all I needed.
“Kiii…!”
“Kyahhh…!!”
The Wraiths engulfed in dokkaebi fire began to burn.
They vanished right there, leaving not even a handful of ashes behind.
“That’s amazing….”
“Since you use a sword, I thought you’d deal with them using sword energy or sword aura. …I guess not.”
“That’s right. You’re dealing with them using some strange ability, kind of like magic. What in the world is it?”
“Could she be a magic swordswoman?”
The murmurs of the Sword Emperor family Hunters filming behind me reached my ears.
I could tell their speculation was tinged with curious anticipation.
The title of the Sword Emperor’s granddaughter was impressive enough to have that kind of effect.
Above all, since the Sword Emperor family was made up of Hunters who wielded swords, everyone used various kinds of swords.
Depending on their abilities, some might focus more on their abilities than their swords, but every Hunter in the Sword Emperor family devoted themselves to training their abilities for use with a sword.
Just as befit a member of the Sword Emperor family.
The one person in the Sword Emperor family who had reached the pinnacle without any particularly special ability was the Sword Emperor, Yoo Jin-seong.
His ability was nothing out of the ordinary among Hunters, something like physical enhancement. He’d reached the pinnacle of Korea’s Hunter world through sheer magical power and swordsmanship alone.
There was a reason the members of the Sword Emperor family revered the Sword Emperor.
That was why Yoo Seol-a, who admired the Sword Emperor, had devoted herself to swordsmanship as well.
She’d incorporated her awakened ability, ‘Dokkaebi Princess,’ into her swordsmanship as much as possible.
For instance, like thisㅡ.
‘…Dokkaebi Fire Slash (斬).’
Fwoosh! Shhk!!
A single slash, with dokkaebi fire wrapped around the blade like sword energy or sword aura.
‘Was that the last of the Wraiths that had appeared here?’
I looked around the grounds to make sure there weren’t any Wraiths left.
ㅡAll I could see was the scenery of the mansion grounds.
‘Now I can go inside the mansion.’
Now that I’d finished checking, there was no chance of being attacked from behind.
So I could go into the mansion as planned and just worry about the Wraiths that appeared inside.
‘I still have plenty of magical power, so that’s fine.’
After checking my condition, I looked behind me and spotted Yura among the people following and filming from the rear.
‘…Looks like Yura is collecting the magic stones the monsters dropped.’
She was holding a leather pouch. When she opened it, the magic stones dropped by the monsters were sucked inside.
The leather pouch was an item called a ‘Subspace Pouch,’ made by people who had manifested both magic and crafting abilities.
They could occasionally drop as loot while exploring Gates, but they were extremely rare.
They were incredibly rare items to begin with, and there were very few Awakened who manifested both magic and crafting abilities, so there weren’t many ways to get one.
Only money.
Unless you paid an enormous amount, you couldn’t get a Subspace Pouch.
The Sword Emperor family had only a few, so an ordinary Hunter could only dream of owning one.
The reason Yura had one of those items was probably that Yoo Hyeok-jin had provided it.
It was probably Yoo Hyeok-jin’s personal Subspace Pouch.
‘Shall I go in?’
There was no reason to delay, so I started into the mansion.
Creak.
Since it was modeled after a medieval noble’s mansion, the interior was very clean and elegant.
It felt entirely different from the Sword Emperor family’s mansion, which emphasized both style and solidity. This place valued beauty above all else.
Of course, this was a Gate.
If you let yourself be captivated by its beauty, you’d be attacked in no time.
“Kyahaha!!”
“Hahaha!!”
Wraiths dressed as butlers and maids appeared, letting out horrific laughter.
It was a curse attack.
At the same timeㅡ.
“Kregh!!”
Whoosh!
Several Wraiths dressed as knights appeared from the side and swung their swords at me.
“Too slow.”
I easily dodged their attacks with a quick backstep.
The combination of curse and physical attacks was what showed this mansion was an A-rank Gate.
The difficulty increased exponentially, as if everything I’d faced outside had been nothing but a prologue.
I was up against enemies immune to physical attacks, while they could use physical attacks as well as curses.
“Come out, Hong.”
Of course, I could handle them easily.
If I fought them using swordsmanship mixed with sorcery, I could defeat them in no time.
But there were too many Wraiths for me to fight alone.
The mansion was the Wraiths’ home ground, after all, so there were a tremendous number of them.
In that case, the solution was to increase my own numbers, too.
As a princess, Dokkaebi Princess could naturally summon subordinates.
Just like ‘Hong,’ whom I’d called out now.
“You called, Princess?”
A girl with long red hair tied neatly into a ponytail, a single horn centered on her forehead, and a modified hanbok greeted me.
“Ah….”
Crunch!
I crushed the head of the knight Wraith that had attacked me earlier.
“Hong, can you take care of some of these?”
“You can leave them all to me, Princess. This is what I’m here for as your subordinate.”
Grin.
She gave the Wraiths a menacing smile, baring her sharp teeth.
“Strictly speaking, this is my test, so I can’t leave it all to you. You take half, and I’ll take the other half.”
“I was looking forward to fighting again after such a long time, but if that’s the situation, I understand. Still, can I kill a few more?”
“Do as you please. If you can.”
“Understood, Princess.”
Snap. Boom!!
When Hong snapped her fingers, a massive hammer appeared in midair.
It was her Dokkaebi Club.
“Then I’ll begin.”
With that, Hong charged toward the Wraiths.
Despite her appearance, she was quite the aggressive one.
‘Should I go too?’