Ch.167Paelm Gorge

# 167. Paelm Gorge

Paelm Gorge.

Anyone interested in the continent’s history or geography would ask whether you’re referring to the gorge itself or the fortress situated within it.

That’s how long the fortress at Paelm Gorge has existed. Not only is it ancient, but what makes it even more special is that it has been continuously maintained since its construction.

And in this special place, a disaster that most people on the continent would never witness in their lifetime—a “large-scale monster outbreak,” locally called a “locust swarm”—occurs almost like a monthly event….

“Ah. I miss Elang.”

“She’s probably found another man by now.”

“She said she’d wait for me. Are you dismissing Elang’s devotion?”

“Hehe, if you weren’t in Paelm right now… Ah- shit.”

“What is it?”

“Locust swarm.”

“Ah.”

*DING DING DING DING DING DING DING-!!!!!*

*BEEEEEEEEEEP-*

“Headquarters broadcasting. Real situation, locust swarm. Real situation, locust swarm.”

*BEEEEEEEEEEP-*

“Headquarters broadcasting again. Real situation, locust swarm. Real situation, locust swarm. All personnel prepare quickly to face the locust swarm.”

Thanks to the early detection by the sentries who spotted the sudden appearance of monster hordes, Paelm Fortress was able to establish a swift defensive posture as usual.

Unfortunately, establishing a swift defensive posture and successfully defending without casualties are two entirely different matters.

**

“Why is the atmosphere like this?”

“It’s like a funeral home.”

After our battle with the eye monster at the Magicanth Tower, we agreed not to rush and proceeded at about 0.8 times our previous pace. Since we had decided not to fight until we fully recovered, we adjusted our pace until all injuries, including Subin’s eyesight, were completely healed.

However, the Paelm Gorge we arrived at had a complete funeral atmosphere.

Death.

It wasn’t a deserted ruin without a single person, but the aura of death hung heavily in the air.

‘It was never a place with a pleasant atmosphere to begin with, but this…’

I could tell the situation was a mess from the fact that there was no one to either welcome or stop us when we entered Paelm Fortress, along with the pungent smell assaulting our noses and the vultures circling overhead.

“Oppa. I think we’re fucked, or about to be fucked.”

“I want to tell you to speak more nicely… but that’s such an appropriate expression that I have nothing to say.”

“What are we going to do?”

“What else? We only have one option right now. Let’s go in carefully.”

Paelm Fortress is a fortress built within Paelm Gorge.

While a fortress built within a gorge might not sound that large, the gorge itself was enormous, and it was a massive fortress to begin with. We had to walk quite a distance before we could find any people.

“Urrrgh…”

“Mile, hey! Hey, you bastard! Don’t close your eyes! Stay conscious! Priest! Please!”

“I’m already doing my best, so calm down! By Laelasia!”

The inside of the fortress was chaos. There were many people and it was noisy, but the scent of death grew even stronger.

“ARRRGGHHH!”

“Priest! Healing priest!!! Damn it! Hey, hold him tight! If this wound opens up, he’s really fucked!”

“AAAAAAHHH!”

“I know it hurts, but stay still! You’ll die at this rate!”

The place was filled with agonized groans and screams from the wounded on beds and stretchers, clerics frantically reciting prayers or spells beside them, and relatively uninjured personnel rushing around with bandages, herbs, water, and potions, while others repaired damaged facilities and cleaned up the messy garrison. The noise was incredible.

Yet somehow, this situation seemed familiar to them. It felt like watching a field hospital depicted in some war movie or documentary.

“Sunghyun.”

“Yeah.”

“The message hasn’t appeared yet.”

“…”

“What are we going to do?”

In Magicanth, the demon manifested earlier than expected, and the tower turned out to be a far more dangerous group than imagined. The city fell more tragically than it should have.

Similarly, there was no guarantee that Paelm Fortress wouldn’t suffer the same fate. After all, wasn’t it a fortress built to monitor and manage a place where a demon was “sealed”?

“We have to go.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

As Yuri said, even if things have “gone to shit,” we probably can’t escape to another region. Since inter-level movement requires portals, they’re likely deactivated or not even generated until we clear this level.

We could take a step back to assess the situation, but that wouldn’t be very meaningful either.

It seems like things have already unfolded as much as they’re going to.

I get the feeling that only our intervention and clearing this area will barely salvage the situation.

‘It feels like we’re just pawns in a game, which is pretty shitty…’

I put my weapons in my inventory. Those people probably noticed our presence but were too busy to care. As outsiders rather than an official delegation, we should be careful about suddenly appearing, especially given the atmosphere.

After approaching cautiously with our weapons stowed away, a relatively less busy person spotted us, immediately approached, and asked with an extremely tired expression while pointing a weapon at us:

“Y-*ahem* Your affiliation.”

“We don’t belong to any particular group. We’re adventurers.”

“Adventurers? Adventurers?!”

The exhausted person (probably some knight) seemed irritated by my answer and took a step closer while twirling the tip of his sword. He even jabbed the air with his sword tip as if threatening to hit us.

“Listen here, adventurer. You expect me to believe that adventurers would crawl into Paelm Gorge? Paelm Gorge is one of the continent’s seven forbidden zones, and this fortress prohibits entry to ordinary people. You must know that. Tell me the truth.”

I know that well, but what am I supposed to say?

But if I get flustered by this much, all my previous experiences would have been for nothing.

“Given this place’s location, it’s only natural that news travels slowly here.”

“What?”

“In the outside world, our party is known by grand names like ‘Saviors of Ayors’ or ‘Demon Slayers.'”

Glancing at my party members, I noticed their lips or eyes twitching slightly—whether they were suppressing laughter or surprise, I couldn’t tell, but they all maintained poker faces.

The key is to speak with unwavering seriousness. To speak as if conveying an undeniable truth calmly, to sound self-aggrandizing without seeming so.

“I don’t know exactly what happened here, but from the atmosphere, it doesn’t seem like anything good… Perhaps a fortress that an adventurer who has slain demons happens to visit might need their strength.”

Wasting energy in unnecessary places was enough back in Albrant. In the original game, we had to do some “grinding” to properly operate here.

Building trust and whatnot, proving that mere adventurers, not knights or mages or priests, could back up rumors about slaying demons with actual skill.

I might have accepted that at our normal pace. But while our bodies had recovered, we were mentally quite exhausted. To the point where we didn’t want to invest energy in anything not directly related to the quest.

And perhaps our intentions might not be one-sided.

“Hah… the fact that you made it here without any hindrance is already messed up.”

The knight made a self-deprecating remark, then quickly sheathed his sword and turned around.

“Whether you’ve slain demons or not, the fact that you made it here in one piece means you’re not ordinary adventurers. From the way you talk, it seems like you want to add something to your adventuring achievements… Follow me.”

It seemed less like he was convinced and more like he was just tired and busy and wanted to pass us off to someone else quickly, but that was fine with us. My party members’ eyes seemed to say, “As expected, the raid leader is the one who talks to the locals!”

‘I haven’t even spoken that many times.’

Anyway, we followed the trudging knight. Surprisingly, the personnel here paid almost no attention to us. Only a few briefly looked up at the sound of our footsteps.

“…May I ask where we’re going?”

“To the Vice Commander.”

“The Vice Commander?”

“Normally, we’d go to the General or the Chief of Staff, but, hah. Should I even say this?”

“If it’s difficult content, you don’t have to tell us.”

“No, it’s fine. You’ll find out anyway. Both of those superiors of mine—my direct superiors—have fallen in battle. So, unplanned reinforcements are an important matter, so we need to go higher up.”

General? Fallen?

A general-level officer died at this timing?

‘Ah. I expected it, but still…’

We remained silent until we arrived at a makeshift building.

“So. Adventurers who claim to have slain demons—that’s very reassuring. In that spirit, could you do some reconnaissance for us? There seems to be something wrong with the sealing area.”

[Quest has been updated.]

We really seem to be fucked.