The 31st Piece Turns the Tables
chapter-55

There was a knife mark on every weirdly shaped tree that Seol ran into.

And Seol believed that the person who made these marks could be Chao, the person he had been searching for.

‘I’ll follow the marks.’

The knife marks could eventually diverge from the wagon tracks but for now, they seemed to be traveling in the same direction.

Seol pressed on while continuously confirming the knife marks as he went.

Since Seol could detect strange presences easily, he solely focused on keeping track of the knife marks.

And then, he felt something strange.

A strange feeling that only grew the deeper he entered the forest. What was especially noticeable was an awful smell that caused him to scrunch his nose.

‘Is it exhaust fumes? No, it almost smells like a corpse?’

Seol had seen countless corpses after he was transferred into this world, and he obviously remembered their smell as well. Well, it was more appropriate to say that the smell was engraved into his memory because of how awful it was.

The knife marks were slowly starting to become fewer and fewer.

This likely meant that he had either gone in the wrong direction, or… he had almost arrived at his destination.

[Insight activates.]

[A crude spell has been installed here.]

[Insight activates.]

[Eyes of Perception activates.]

[You sense the energy of a curse.]

Seol’s golden eyes had detected something strange.

A thin, almost invisible wire and the waves of energy from the spell and curse installed into it.

‘You can’t just thoughtlessly set up a two-layered trap like this… especially one with a powerful curse like this.’

If an intruder detects even one of the two traps with Insight, whether it’s the spell or curse, they will immediately be on alert.

This meant that whoever set up the trap was someone who was inexperienced in installing traps, or… someone who was weak.

The appropriate thing to do, from the perspective of the person who installed the trap, was to install them separately.

Then the intruder would either be afflicted by the curse or the installer would know about the intruder’s presence through the alarm spell.

‘I won’t ever be caught by a shoddy trap like this as long as I have the Eyes of Perception.’

Insight might have activated first but the Eyes of Perception was also amazing at avoiding dangers.

Seol, satisfied with his golden eyes, checked the options before him.

[[A two-layered trap has been installed here. What do you do?]

1. Trigger the trap.

2. Avoid the trap.

3. [Required: Disarm Trap] Remove the trap.

4. [Required: Black Magician] Remove the curse.

……]

Seol didn’t take the Disarm Trap talent and he also wasn’t a Black Magician. And since triggering the trap would lead to him getting discovered, avoiding it was the only option.

‘Even if I can avoid the trap, the curse is the real problem. It won’t be easy to avoid that.’

The trap wouldn’t activate as long as you didn’t nudge the wire. However, the problem was the curse that surrounded it.

Since the curse was over an area, trying to step over the wire would just result in getting afflicted by the curse.

‘I need to find the curse statue.’

If Seol could just destroy the statue the curse was using as a medium, he could easily cross over the trap.

As such, Seol carefully inspected his surroundings, moving parallel to the trap to find it.

[Eyes of Perception activates.]

[You detect the curse’s medium.]

Rustle…

Thanks to the Eyes of Perception creating a gold outline around the object, Seol was able to quickly find it.

‘Found it.’

It was an owl sculpture that was hidden around some sharp, jagged rocks.

This medium was the source of the waves of curse energy.

Fwip! Fwoooosh!

Break!

Seol swung his whip to destroy the sculpture.

[Insight activates.]

[The curse encroaching the area has been lifted.]

Seol then just avoided the physical trap and entered deeper into the forest.

If it was someone other than Seol, there was a high chance of them being afflicted by the curse while trying to avoid the trap.

And if that happened to them, the entire Adventure would’ve started off rough.

- Snowman really is fun to watch. He does things normally but he’s super meticulous about it.

- If it was me I would’ve asked Jamad to just piggyback me left and right lol

- It’s not frustrating to watch because he’s so meticulous lol

- Eyes of Perception is just straight broken. It literally just catches everything for you.

- Seriously, lol

Seol continued to approach the direction the awful smell was coming from even more carefully than before. The deeper he went into the forest, the stronger the smell and dreariness got.

‘There’s definitely something going on.’

- There are people trying to take advantage of the Great Forest’s vitality. Vitality is the source of life and is often used by those who reject death.

Those were the words that Chao left behind.

Since the Great Forest was a treasure trove of resources and a cradle of vitality, people often flocked to it like flies.

Even so, none of what people have done so far has actually dealt major damage to the Great Forest.

‘Judging by how there’s ‘Necromancer’ in the title of the Adventure, this definitely involves necromancers…’

Necromancy was a study of black magic like shadow summoning. And as such, black magic was considered the pinnacle and origin of these kinds of spells.

This was also the reason why black magicians were so arrogant.

As he kept moving, Seol thought of the other phrases that Chao left behind.

- Someone is hiding in the Great Forest. They’re either the remnants of Eternal Life or maybe, another group entirely. Regardless, I might be able to get my hands on a powerful shadow if I could just take advantage of them. I’m confident that the ones who are hiding are those who reject death… Necromancers.

Because what Chao wrote down was a mixture of phrases and questions, all of the information wasn’t necessarily usable. Even so, Seol definitely had to take the phrase ‘remnants of Eternal Life’ into consideration.

‘Eternal Life, hm… so they were still around?’

* * *

Translator - goguma

Proofreader - Karane

* * *

Seol and Eternal Life had a deep connection.

Seol also wasn’t the type of person to describe a connection as ‘deep’ if he had only met them once or twice either.

Seol was the leader and founder of the Church of Eternal Life.

‘Why is it still around though when the Immortal left?’

The Church of Eternal Life brought turmoil to the continent.

And Seol’s piece, the Immortal, was a master of black magic as well as the master of the Church of Eternal Life.

‘If by chance this is something that the Church of Eternal Life is behind… I can’t just recklessly join it.’

The Church of Eternal Life was dangerous.

Though they were his faithful servants when he was their leader, the Immortal, to Seol, who had no relation to them, they would be nothing more than ruthless villains.

They were a group that was more natural to meet in the middle to late game. Facing them early in your journey like this could lead to some of your future Adventures being wasted on just running away from them.

‘And if that happens, the rate that you grow slows down. I should first confirm if they’re from the Church of Eternal Life or not before I do anything.’

Chao was important but not so important that Seol would risk screwing up all of his future Adventures.

As Seol was thinking to himself, he found a hidden campsite. Many tents were set up there in a disorderly fashion.

‘I’ll slowly approach them.’

The first thing that Seol did was approach the closest tent. And just as he was about to, he heard the sound of horses.

“...Hrah!”

“...down.”

“Do I look like I can calm down? Our schedule has been delayed by months already!”

“What do you want to do then? Are you going to enter that corpse’s mind yourself?”

“That’s…”

“Wake up. That demon has already devoured 20 members with just her mind. How are you going to act like this when you saw that with your own two eyes?”

“Urgh…”

Seol went into deep thought after hearing their shouting.

‘Demon? Inside the corpse’s mind?’

Seol carefully replayed their conversation in his mind over and over again until he remembered an artifact.

‘The Crystal of Death Pronouncement!’

When necromancers were trying to raise an undead around their level, it didn’t require much effort.

However, it was a different story when the corpse was a much higher level than the necromancer or was stubbornly refusing to be reborn.

‘So that means they’re trying to forcibly revive a corpse right now.’

The Crystal of Death Pronouncement lets you enter the corpse’s memories to break them up and remove them. During that process, the necromancer is able to understand their undead more, and the corpse accepts the necromancer’s request to become their summon.

In simpler terms, it was a dangerous artifact that allowed you to invade a corpse’s mind to forcibly make them your undead.

“That demon didn’t even move as she devoured that many people! Don’t you think it’s too dangerous? Why are we so invested in a corpse that we don’t even properly know…”

“I know. I know we’re investing too much and there’s the anxiety that comes with it. Not to mention the fact that we’re not sure if we’ll even be able to control her if we turn her into an undead.”

“That’s why I’m saying that if we continue to delay it like this…”

“So that’s why the archbishop himself is coming.”

“...What?”

“I think the archbishop is very upset about the current situation. The Church of Eternal Life has been looking down on us, and despite how important this job is, the archbishop must have realized that the church has no intention of helping us.”

“But… The Church of Eternal Life has been telling us to wait…”

The man took his time before speaking in a quieter tone.

Seol paid close attention to catch all the words.

“It seems like the archbishop is planning on cutting ties with the Church of Eternal Life.”

“What? If we do that, the Church of Eternal Life will…”

“I know. They’ll cut us into pieces and let the pigs eat us. Still, what do you think will happen if the archbishop is able to make the corpse into his undead?”

Gulp…

The other man only responded with a gulp.

“The Church of Death's Truth will be reborn that day. We will no longer be lackeys to those damned Eternal Life trash!”

“So when is the archbishop coming?”

“He’s almost here. I think he’ll arrive at the camp tonight at the latest.”

“Finally… that damned demon is going to finally bend her knees.”

“So until then, we have to make sure there aren’t any problems and protect here.”

“Hmph. Who would come this deep into the Great Forest? And there’s no way for them to get close with all of the traps we’ve set up.”

“Regardless…”

They continued their conversation but nothing else was worthy of note.

‘So they’re members of the Church of Death's Truth which is basically a subsidiary organization to the Church of Eternal Life… hm…’

The Church of Death's Truth.

Seol had never heard of them or seen them.

Seol believed that they were likely a religious organization that the Church of Eternal Life absorbed while recruiting a lot of necromancers. However, Seol felt strange while watching them.

He thought this is what a former CEO of a big company would feel like if he saw employees in a subsidiary company insult them.

To them, the Church of Eternal Life would look unimaginably massive, but to Seol, they were nothing more and nothing less than an organization he created out of necessity.

The Church of Eternal Life, as expected from a massive organization, had roots spread out everywhere. And obviously, they also have similar black magic organizations under their influence as well.

It was likely that The Church of Death's Truth was a newly recruited organization that joined like that.

‘Regardless, they’re not clean if they have ties with The Church of Eternal Life.’

If they’re taking the scraps of an evil organization, then they’re without a doubt evil as well.

‘I should kill them if they become a problem.’

But for now, finding Chao was the priority.

Seol looked for a tent that might have more accurate information than the information he heard from them.

‘There.’

And it just so happened that at the campsite, there was a massive and flashy tent that stood out amongst the others.

Seol sneaked over there.

“Snore… Snore…”

It seemed like the tent’s owner was sleeping in it.

Still, Seol summoned Karuna just in case and quickly entered it.

A fat man slept inside the tent, and other than the bed, there were no other special things of note.

Well, that was if you excluded the strange pile of documents on the table and the unusual-looking crystal.

“I didn’t think I’d find it so easily.’

It seemed like Seol had investigating down to a fine art now, he found the things that he was looking for instantly.

Seol inched his hand closer to the crystal glowing in a crimson light.

‘It’s normally supposed to be a pitch-black crystal... It must’ve eaten up a lot of people.’

The fact that it was glowing a crimson hue meant that quite a considerable number of people died trapped here.

[You have acquired the Crystal of Death Pronouncement.]

Seol then looked at the pile of documents.

It was filled with strange designs along with their explanations.

There were also many documents about spells, the reason The Church of Death's Truth was gathered here, as well as details about the mysterious corpse in the pile.

‘The spells are just ordinary… As expected, they were forcibly trying to create an undead with the corpse. But what is this corpse?’

It seemed like Chao was interested in this mysterious corpse as well.

She also believed that the corpse was supremely powerful.

Seol slowly read through the details about the corpse.

- The Church of Death's Truth discovered this corpse far away from the Great Forest, in the Mirage Desert.

The Mirage Desert.

It was a massive desert located near the center of the continent, and it was considerably far away from South Pandea.

No one knows how or who created this desert.

And it was still the same case when Seol played Milan, the Great Sage, despite the fact that Milan was able to see through everything.

- As we were traveling through the Mirage Desert, there was a time when we had no choice but to endure the desert sandstorms for quite a long while. And the day the sandstorms subsided, the corpse was standing tall while wearing a suit of armor. The corpse was powerful, but we couldn’t find anything about its history. We did not know where it came from or for what reason it was standing there.

The contents of the document were interesting.

Seol bit his lips and read the next sentence.

- I have recorded what the corpse looked like the day we first discovered it.

On one of the documents, a photorealistic drawing had been treated with magic. Seol, after seeing the drawing, was in complete shock.

‘Karuna…?’

The corpse, when it was first discovered, looked so much like Karuna that it could even be mistaken for him.

Karuna, who also saw the document with Seol, was greatly shocked as well.

“She…”

It seemed like Karuna knew the corpse.