Chapter 997 – 997. Yggdrasil (7)
〈Quest: Offer the soul stone to the altar.〉
〈Remaining altars: 3〉
I was appalled by the expression soul stone.
‘You sure don’t mean to sacrifice people, do you?’
I wondered if this meant giving skills to three people and telling the remaining three to die.
Or, I wondered if they were going to tell me to fight 3-on-3…
And the players who were clinging to me had the same cold expression on their faces.
“It’s not what I think, is it?”
“Oh, no way…”
The message did not end there.
Important information began to appear as a separate message from what appeared to be the main quest.
〈Soul stones can be made with 60 soul fragments.〉
〈Soul fragments can be made with 900 soul powder.〉
I don’t know exactly what the soul stone is, but I was able to understand what the situation was.
“I guess the soul stone refers to the human soul.”
If you think about it, even though we may have fought indirectly up until now, we have not started a fight directly.
In other words, the current situation will not be much different.
I muttered as I looked at the space cut out in the darkness.
“Let’s move for now.”
Probably all the spaces that were blocked earlier have been opened by now.
I guessed that and started moving slowly.
And the moment we arrived at the space where the wall was earlier…
“… “There is none.”
I was able to turn speculation into certainty.
The black wall that had been closed in a circle until now had disappeared.
I walked beyond the place where the wall was and spoke in a whisper.
“Let’s go.”
Instead of answering, the members nodded and began to quietly follow behind me.
The members were quiet at first.
But soon they started exchanging their thoughts verbally.
“Sister, what is a soul stone… “You said it could be made with 60 soul fragments, right?”
“Huh. And that soul fragment can be made with 900 soul powder.”
“Then, to make a soul stone, you need powder…”
“We need 54,000.”
“If you try to collect three of them…”
Everyone was shocked and sighed.
Even a rough calculation concludes that 160,000 soul powders are needed.
Above all, we don’t know what form the powder is and how to collect it.
I couldn’t help but feel at a loss.
While I was walking and sighing…
“Huh? “What is that?”
A peculiar lump of dust was discovered.
A lump of dust that glows purple.
I carefully put my hand into the dust lump.
That moment…
Faaah!
The dust mass disappeared with a purple light and a small sound effect.
“What? Has it disappeared?”
When I looked so puzzled, the members who were following behind me suddenly raised their heads.
Then Min Ha-yeon opened her mouth.
“Suho, above your head…”
“Over your head?”
I followed Min Ha-yeon’s gaze and lifted her head to check the top of my head.
Above my head…
〈Soul Powder: 25 pieces〉
The soul powder I ate earlier was marked.
First, I was able to roughly understand how to proceed with the quest.
“Let’s go further.”
I said that and started to speed up a little more.
But funny enough, I didn’t go a few steps…
“There it is again.”
I was able to encounter a purple dust sphere.
The amount of powder I ate this time…
〈Soul Powder: 50 pieces〉
As before, there were 25.
After that, we continued to find dust spheres.
The spheres were located one by one at a distance of approximately 20 meters.
And at the crossroads I accidentally found, it wasn’t a dust sphere…
“Uh? “Is that a different shape?”
I was able to find a piece that gave off a bright purple color.
And the identity of the sculpture is…
〈Soul Powder (250), Soul Fragment(1)〉
It was a whole piece of soul.
As I ate the whole soul piece, voices of relief began to flow from behind.
“Phew… It’s simpler than you think.”
First of all, everyone seemed relieved that there was no conflict between the members.
“I know… “If you collect it this way, there is no problem.”
“More than anything, there are cases where it comes out in lumps like that… I think collecting it will be faster than you think.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to spread out and search?”
We each had a conversation and exchanged opinions.
However, one person in particular could not blend in with that atmosphere.
“Yuha, why are you doing this?”
“…”
Namgung Yuha.
She did not respond to Min Ha-yeon’s voice filled with concern and continued to look around her.
I was even breaking into a cold sweat.
“Mr. Yuha?”
Min Ha-yeon gently placed her hand on Namgung Yu-ha’s shoulder with an expression of concern.
OK…
Faaah!
“Huh!?”
Namgung Yuha let out a startled voice and shook Min Ha-yeon’s hand away.
“Huh?”
Min Ha-yeon was taken aback by the sight of Namgung Yu-ha walking backwards, shaking off her own hand.
Namgung Yu-ha takes a deep breath and understands her situation…
“S-sorry. “Gwae, are you okay?”
She quickly held Min Ha-yeon’s hand and apologized.
Min Ha-yeon erased her embarrassment and responded to Namgung Yu-ha’s appearance.
“I’m sorry for suddenly touching you.”
“Yes, I should apologize. Really sorry…”
“Yuha, are you okay?”
I stopped collecting soul powder and checked Namgung Yuha’s condition.
As Min Ha-yeon worried, Namgung Yuha’s condition seemed especially bad.
I thought maybe I was just not feeling well…
“Crime… Sorry. Because I couldn’t calm down…”
Namgung Yuha was trembling and breaking into a cold sweat.
It was as if he felt mental fear rather than physical fear.
And Namgung Yuha opened her mouth trembling as if to express such fear.
“Female… Don’t you guys feel it?”
“?”
Everyone tilted her head as if a question mark was hovering over her head.
Namgung Yuha opened her mouth as if she had realized something when she saw not only me, but also her other members.
“That… Okay. “I guess I was the only one who found it strange.”
“Can you tell me what the problem is?”
After hearing my question, Namgung Yuha started shaking her shoulders and turning her head.
Namgung Yuha closed her eyes and opened her mouth, scanning her surroundings with her feet.
“Uh… It feels like a huge set of eyes are constantly staring at me.”
“… “Look?”
As soon as everyone heard Namgung Yuha’s words, they started looking around her as if they were on guard.
But no matter how much she looked around…
“… “I can’t see anything.”
There was only darkness.
‘If I had known it would be like this, I would have learned to walk.’
The reason Namgung Yuha is in a particularly strange condition right now is probably because of Balcheonbo.
Namgung Yuha is seeing something that we cannot feel.
If I had been able to write Balcheonbo, I would have sympathized with you…
“Let’s rest for a moment.”
All I could do was put my hand on Namgung Yuha’s shoulder and calm her down.
At that moment, Han Bom started asking Han Ga Eul next to her.
“Is there anything that comes to mind?”
“I’ll check.”
Han Ga-eul calmly placed her hand on Namgung Yuha’s shoulder and then closed her eyes.
Midautumn has two precognitive abilities.
Her one thing is to foresee her own great danger and the other’s future.
But Han Ga-eul’s answer, placing her hand on Namgung Yuha’s shoulder…
“… Doesn’t exist. “The future is just to continue collecting soul powder like this.”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the answer we wanted.
The same was true for the other members’ futures.
“The only future is where we all go around together and collect powder.”
A future with nothing really special.
But rather, such a prediction of mid-autumn…
“… Let’s all be nervous.”
Our vigilance was raised to its maximum level.
Before the quest, I was given skills to avoid danger.
But is the future only about collecting powder like this?
“Everyone is nervous because we don’t know when it will come.”
“Yes.”
“Yuha, if you are having a hard time, please move between the members.”
“Yes.”
Namgung Yuha responded like that and apologized again to Min Ha-yeon.
“Mr. Hayeon… “I’m really sorry.”
“Hey, don’t apologize for something like that. Please come inside quickly.”
“Yes… Thank you so much.”
So we started moving forward again to collect the powder.
We were just walking in a straight line, but we gradually increased our walking speed and started looking around.
The conclusion we came to after looking inside was…
“Here… “It’s like a maze, isn’t it?”
Maze.
It was a maze with meaningless turns and blocked paths.
And at the same time, a hologram appeared in front of me.
[I made a map based on the route I took.]
‘Oh, thank you!’
Is there anything more meaningless than taking a path you once passed?
The maze was an annoying structure that made you repeat such meaningless actions.
And thanks to the map provided by Armonia…
“That’s the road we passed earlier. Come this way.”
There was no need to go around needlessly repeatedly.
As I led the way with confidence, the members following me began to admire.
“And… To me, it all looks like the same place.”
“I know… “The patterns on the walls are all the same, so I can’t tell them apart.”
“Oppa, you have great hair…”
Armonia did a good job, but I actually received the praise.
I gathered all those praises together and gave them to Armonia.
‘Thank you always.’
[… Of course, it is something that should be done.]
After hearing such a blunt answer, I smiled and continued exploring the maze.
It wasn’t difficult to collect soul powder and make soul fragments.
When 900 soul powders are collected, they are automatically replaced with 1 soul fragment.
The total number of soul fragments we collected was 5.
And let’s collect 5 soul fragments like that…
Whoa!
“!?”
Suddenly, a purple tornado began to swirl in front.
A similar shape to the portal we passed through when we entered here.
However, only the shape was similar, but the size was much larger than the portal we had passed through.
The size is approximately 10 meters.
“Everyone is nervous!”
Along with my shout, something came out from within the portal.
Boom!
What came out of the portal was…
“… Minotaur?”
It was the Minotaur I met while climbing the dark mountain.
The Minotaur came out of the portal holding a huge double-edged axe…
Mmmm!
It suddenly rushed towards us.
I quickly took out the side and checked the Minotaur’s death line.
Red solid lines…
Like the Minotaur seen when climbing the Mountain of Darkness, it had the weakness of death.
“Everyone stands by! “I’ll deal with you first!”
I grabbed Deathside while observing the charging form of the Minotaur.
There was something a little different from the Minotaur I had seen so far.
‘The eyes are different.’
Purple light was flickering in the Minotaur’s eyes.
The Minotaur charging at me with even more intimidation.
But in the end, such intimidation was meaningless in the face of Death Side.
Suddenly!
Hmm…
With just one swing, the Minotaur’s head was cut off and fell to the floor.
Kuuuuung!
The heavy body fell to the ground and caused an earthquake.
Although it was only a one-second cut, I was able to immediately realize the Minotaur’s skills.
“It’s no different from the guys outside.”
It was no different from the guys I faced when I entered the Mountain of Darkness.
Yes, the level was no different.
The problem is…
Sssss!
“Huh?”
The body of the Minotaur whose head fell off did not disappear, but became translucent.
Then, a message appeared on the Minotaur’s upper body.
〈Time remaining until regeneration: 30 seconds〉
