Ch.145The Massive Gate Is Dangerous (1)

After Gildeon disappeared, the situation calmed down quite quickly.

The dungeon, already broken by the influence of my power, gradually disappeared, and the black fog surrounding Mallorca Island also vanished.

What remained were Heimbell and his subordinates, who could be considered the main culprits of this incident.

Normally, I would have turned them all into skeletons, but given the scale of the situation, someone was needed to take the blame for everything.

And they were extremely suitable for that role.

“Are you really saying you had nothing to do with this?”

“Of course. The environmental pollution and destruction of the surrounding terrain were all their fault.”

In truth, the artificial destruction of the dungeon was largely due to my influence, but that wasn’t really my concern.

Shouldn’t they pay for the trouble they caused me, even in this way?

‘…It’s been a hectic day.’

Since our side also had many injured, we all returned to our home countries after treating everyone.

Although there were issues with unauthorized entry and forced dungeon invasion, they let it slide after we properly explained the situation.

Despite the complications, they actually benefited from our actions, so it was only natural.

‘The seal seems to have been completely destroyed after all.’

After returning home from that fierce battle, I checked my condition and recalled my conversation with Gildeon.

Although he didn’t reach the same level as me, he was a pioneer who dominated an era.

Moreover, being an ancient human, he possessed plenty of knowledge and information unknown to me.

‘I would have liked to receive all his memories, but…’

In a way, wasn’t he a distant senior who made great contributions to the development of necromancy?

As someone who benefited from him, engaging in such behavior would be improper.

No matter how much I think like a lord who doesn’t care about others’ opinions, I intended to maintain that level of propriety.

‘What I’m most curious about is how he reached the underworld with a human body.’

The secret likely lay with the girl who was Gildeon’s teacher.

His final words were that the king of the underworld from the old tales didn’t exist there.

Wouldn’t Gildeon’s teacher, who lived in the same era, also know clues about those old tales?

“Why don’t you say something?”

I poked the girl’s forehead with my finger, but she remained completely silent.

This was a kind of hibernation state; her soul and consciousness remained intact, but only her body was active.

She would likely reveal her true self only when certain conditions were met or after sufficient time had passed.

“Come to think of it, I never heard your name.”

I sighed and sent the silver-haired girl back into the Book of Death.

Well, I would find out eventually, one way or another.

Besides, what was important now was something else entirely.

“It’s just as you said, Master. The atmosphere seems quite ominous, doesn’t it?”

After I fought with Gildeon and cleared the S2-rank dungeon on Mallorca Island, the world faced an unprecedented situation.

Dungeon activity had suddenly stopped completely.

No new dungeons appeared, and the remaining ones were quickly cleared and eliminated by hunters.

However, people felt anxiety rather than celebration.

It was difficult to believe that the dungeon crisis that had plagued the world would end this way.

And the reason was quite simple.

“So it’s because of you and Gildeon, right?”

“That’s right. I think I mentioned this to Song Hayeon before…”

As dungeons appear, a kind of energy accumulates throughout the Earth.

Because of this, hunters can achieve faster growth, and the level of dungeons has been gradually increasing.

From that perspective, this incident could be considered a turning point.

“Gildeon’s resurrection, combined with me completely breaking the seal on my power, disrupted the balance.”

If the energy accumulated on Earth had been steadily increasing, this time it was like a step-function increase.

“Then what will happen?”

“Will the dungeons become stronger…?”

“Seems like you understand roughly.”

As people predicted, dungeons were building up power to bring even greater hardship to Earth.

The sudden cessation of appearances was essentially just a rebound effect.

“So Hades was the problem after all.”

“If we’re looking for the cause, that’s one way to see it.”

I was already annoyed by his meddling, and in the end, he even pulled off a massive trolling.

“Then shouldn’t we be preparing something instead of just sitting here?”

“What can we do? Now that we’ve come this far, nothing will change.”

Saying that energy has accumulated on Earth means, from another perspective, that hunters’ growth has accelerated accordingly.

“So just keep doing what you’ve been doing. That’s the most appropriate response.”

Of course, dungeons that they can’t handle immediately will appear in the process.

But what does that matter?

After all, I’m here now with my full power restored.

“Whatever comes, I’ll just deal with it all. No big deal.”

“W-well, that’s true.”

Song Hayeon nodded repeatedly, seemingly recalling my prowess on Mallorca Island.

Although the full details of the incident weren’t revealed to the public, there were quite a few who witnessed me opening the gate to the underworld on Mallorca Island that day.

As a result, various governments are actually keeping a close eye on me.

“…Of course they’d be concerned. That kind of power was incredible. Even I couldn’t believe my eyes watching from the side.”

As Seoha said, high-rank hunters probably felt that what happened was beyond the realm of human capability.

Even Xavier, who could be considered top-class among hunters, was so shocked that he later asked me what my true identity was.

‘It seems the same applies to this side as well.’

【Baek Eunha】

▶Level: –

▶Title: –

I chuckled at the status window that had lost its displayable values, then closed it and lay down on the sofa, fiddling with my smartphone.

I had roughly anticipated this for several months, but now I could be certain.

The reason my power needed to be sealed, and why various restrictions were placed to prevent me from smoothly recovering it.

‘Whatever the case, it wouldn’t have been welcome right away.’

If I had crossed over to Earth with my powers intact, a situation like the current one would have occurred immediately.

Accepting that without knowing much about me would be like embracing a nuclear bomb that could detonate at any moment.

So they assessed me.

Whether I would be harmful to this Earth or beneficial.

By throwing out the hunter bait and gradually guiding me to level up.

“At least it’s clear that we have roughly the same purpose.”

“Pardon?”

“Just talking to myself.”

More precisely, they’re showing behavior aimed at protecting humans, this Earth, or something in that vicinity.

Using Shin Dohun to interfere with Hades makes sense from that perspective.

‘In a way, they were acting one step ahead of us.’

They knew that Gildeon’s resurrection, which was Hades’ goal, would bring about negative consequences.

However, the fact that they selected someone like Shin Dohun as their helper indicates that they weren’t in a completely comfortable situation either.

‘Either they have limitations on direct action, or they can’t accurately judge the situation here…’

Thinking they could stop Hades with Shin Dohun, who was at best upper A-rank level—looking back, there’s no greater third-rate comedy than that.

Just as I was thinking this, Song Hayeon suddenly jumped up from her seat and called out to me.

“Master! Please train me!”

“W-why so suddenly?”

“But if more powerful dungeons appear, I’ll really have nothing to contribute!”

To be honest, that wasn’t quite true. From my perspective, Song Hayeon had already reached the early-to-mid level of S-rank after this battle.

However, if she wanted to stand on the front lines in future battles, her words were absolutely correct.

“It’s troublesome… Anyway, if I clear everything myself, it doesn’t make much difference, does it?”

In my opinion, I didn’t really need anyone’s help anymore.

Just having me alone would solve everything.

This isn’t a joke—with the power of the seal, I have the ability to handle more than half of Earth by myself.

But Song Hayeon shook her head desperately and pleaded with me.

“That would be too unfair. It feels like we’re pushing everything onto you. Besides, who knows what might happen?”

Since she wasn’t wrong, I nodded and answered Song Hayeon with a faint smile.

“Then let’s start next week.”

“That definitely means you’re not going to do it, right…?”

It was the so-called magic phrase that always brought peace of mind.