Ch.198198. Fourth Floor

“I see you’ve noticed.”

The moment I heard it, I realized why I couldn’t take my eyes off Zortou and the two maids.

-21. Meals are replenished daily. Please feel free to eat as much as you’d like.

I was wondering why servants were needed in a mansion where even meals were automatically replenished.

Of course, having seen ghosts or monsters that trick people like this many times before, I answered without much emotion.

“Who are you?”

“W-what are you saying?!”

Han-so beside me was flustered and tried to stop my rude question, but the maids’ reactions were swift.

One split in half, revealing bizarre teeth densely packed inside. Her entire body looked like one giant mouth.

Conversely, the maid who had been moving Zortou’s corpse hoisted it up and ran up the stairs.

She bounded up five steps at a time, disappearing in an instant.

“Ugh.”

This reaction was also somewhat unexpected. Han-so, called the Divine Warrior, apparently had a weak stomach as he covered his mouth at the sight of the grotesquely transformed maid.

“Let’s focus.”

With a sigh, blue flames appeared on both my shoulders and shot toward the maid.

A simple check.

As expected, the maid showed no reaction to the flames as she charged at me.

“…?”

It was just a test.

Rather than trying to accomplish something with it, I was planning to buy time for a joint attack with Han-so or to chain into another spell.

The woman lunged as if she hadn’t been hit by anything at all.

The maid’s enormous mouth tried to devour me, and I used a protection spell to block her path just in case.

But the maid passed right through the protection spell and flew at me.

“Dodge!”

Han-so threw himself to protect me, so the maid’s giant teeth missed me, but she quickly regained her posture and prepared to charge again with a growling breath.

“Do you need this?”

I subtly offered the Maengcheon Mubong I had received as a reward to Han-so, and he nodded excitedly.

“This is one of the lost treasures of the Han Empire. In the past, warriors used it to swear to the heavens that they would continue on the path of martial arts…!”

“Take it.”

I casually handed it over, and Han-so looked surprised.

I gestured with my chin toward the maid.

“In exchange, please deal with that woman.”

“Well, she’s clearly not an ordinary human.”

Han-so stepped forward, gripping the Maengcheon Mubong. He took a deep breath and glared at the maid, and their confrontation didn’t last long.

Whoosh!

The maid lunged again.

But this time, she wasn’t nearly as threatening.

Han-so’s Maengcheon Mubong came down hard from above, and the charging maid crumpled to the floor, spraying green blood everywhere.

Han-so stomped on the writhing maid to finish her off.

But another peculiarity occurred here.

Boom!

His heavy heel passed through the maid and struck the floor.

“Hmm?”

Han-so pulled back his foot in confusion, but now I understood.

‘Is this a being that can only be killed with items provided by Mongma-jeon?’

Judging by how my magic had no effect and Han-so’s heel just passed through, it seemed these special beings could only be dealt with using rewards obtained from Mongma-jeon.

I immediately thought of the Lemegeton in my room. If I used it to handle magic, I could inflict damage, but…

‘There’s no soul.’

Unlike other spiritmasters, I don’t cultivate or use souls, so naturally, I don’t carry souls within me.

Since I hadn’t seen any souls while wandering through Mongma-jeon, the Lemegeton was essentially useless to me right now.

This meant I was defenseless except for a few basic elemental spells I could use.

So what I needed to do now was…

“It seems my magic doesn’t work here.”

When I said this tentatively, Han-so seemed to have caught on and nodded, responding quickly.

“If Lord Deus hadn’t given me the Mubong, I too would have been brutally killed. I owe you my life, so I’ll protect you while we’re here.”

He wasn’t called the Divine Warrior of the Han Empire for nothing.

He had a warm-hearted yet straightforward personality that repaid what he received, making him easy to work with.

“Then let’s go upstairs together. We need to check where that maid took Zortou’s body.”

“Mm!”

With that, Han-so and I headed up to the second floor.

In the second floor hallway stood the Dark Spiritmaster, holding a book and tilting her head in confusion.

Judging by the “Library” nameplate on the door behind her, she seemed to have come out due to the commotion while reading.

“What’s going on?”

Her expression suggested she wanted someone to take responsibility for interrupting her reading.

I gestured without bothering to explain.

“Come with us.”

“What?”

“You’ve got nothing better to do anyway.”

The Dark Spiritmaster looked displeased at being dragged along, but Han-so and I ignored her and went up another floor.

Zortou’s blood trail led to the third floor, but…

“Ahem, this is troublesome.”

The blood trail continued from the third floor to the fourth floor, which was problematic.

“We’re only allowed up to the third floor.”

-4. Guests are permitted only up to the third floor.

One of Mongma-jeon’s rules.

Indeed, the stairs leading to the fourth floor weren’t covered with the elegant coverings like the stairs we had just used, and they were rough and uneven.

“What are you afraid of?”

The increasingly irritated Dark Spiritmaster, swept up in her emotions, strode up to the fourth floor.

Watching her, I asked Han-so:

“Do you know what penalties are imposed for breaking the rules?”

“…Hmm? No, I’ve never seen anyone break them.”

After hearing his answer, I followed the Dark Spiritmaster up the stairs.

I needed to properly confirm what happens when rules are broken.

Though it was a dangerous endeavor…

‘Without knowing all of Mongma-jeon’s rules, I’m in danger either way.’

-20. Even if you don’t know Mongma-jeon’s rules, they still apply.

Rather than unknowingly breaking some rule and suffering consequences, it was better to move forward while being aware that I was breaking a rule.

And to be completely honest…

‘I don’t want to send the Dark Spiritmaster alone.’

If the 18-year-old Dark Spiritmaster died here, the Dark Spiritmaster I know would disappear.

‘This is difficult.’

Yet a persistent worry kept circling in my mind.

The 18-year-old Dark Spiritmaster must have survived Mongma-jeon to eventually attend Robern Academy.

‘I never thought I’d be worrying about time paradoxes.’

Sighing at a situation straight out of a sci-fi movie, I decided to act according to my own wishes.

Ultimately, overthinking in this situation would only lead to endless loops.

‘Acting on instinct is much wiser.’

Rather than moving while overthinking everything, I thought following my immediate desires would naturally lead to some result.

“Ugh, what a foul smell.”

Han-so, who had quickened his pace and was now walking ahead of me, muttered while covering his nose.

Indeed, the Dark Spiritmaster also coughed and quieted her breathing due to the stench.

“…”

It wasn’t just the stench. With each step up the stairs, we stepped on increasingly sticky slime, and the walls were damp.

It felt like being an explorer surveying a cave, but it wasn’t particularly pleasant.

Upon reaching the fourth floor, we were greeted by a structure more like a vast hall than a corridor.

Despite our eyes having adjusted to the darkness while climbing the stairs, nothing was visible on the fourth floor, so the Dark Spiritmaster at the front extended her hand and lit a purple light.

There, at the far end, was a maid.

She was inserting Zortou’s corpse into a massive hole in the wall, and the hole was undulating as it devoured the corpse.

“Ha.”

It was quite a bizarre sight, but the Dark Spiritmaster snorted as if it were trivial.

“Is this all?”

Just as she uttered those words, questioning the underwhelming reveal after all the atmospheric build-up…

Something began to rise from the floor around us.

They appeared to have human forms, but their lower bodies were tentacles connected to the floor, suggesting they were all linked as one entity.

“Regular magic doesn’t work on them.”

I warned the Dark Spiritmaster, but she snorted dismissively.

“I know that much.”

She then pulled out a small wand from her bosom. It seemed to be another reward item, and I realized she knew more about Mongma-jeon than I had thought.

‘I shouldn’t compare her to the Dark Spiritmaster I know.’

Despite being younger, she seemed more sharp and decisive than the Dark Spiritmaster I was familiar with, which felt somewhat regrettable.

“Rise, trash.”

An evil spirit emerged, carried by the Dark Spiritmaster’s mana. Enveloped in purple energy and resembling a shadow more than a human, it soared high and then…

Charged straight at the Dark Spiritmaster.

“Haah.”

Crack!

[Gaaaaargh!]

With a sigh from the Dark Spiritmaster, the spirit’s entire form distorted and was wrung like a twisted cloth.

“It always does this every time it comes out.”

After inflicting pain, the spirit finally bowed its head to the Dark Spiritmaster and flew toward the bizarre entities around us.

The spirit cut through them like a blade, slicing through everything in its path.

“…”

Watching this, I couldn’t help but close my mouth.

Spiritmaster.

They fundamentally deal with vengeful evil spirits.

I had heard and learned many times that coaxing or persuading doesn’t work with them. Spiritmasters control souls by inflicting pain on them.

But I had never seen a proper spiritmaster besides myself.

The case of the demon entrenched in the Griffin Kingdom was a bit of a special case.

The orthodox method of spirit magic.

The Dark Spiritmaster was demonstrating it right now.

“Stupid fool, you’re supposed to protect me.”

[Gaaaah!]

As the Dark Spiritmaster warned and clenched her fist, the spirit screamed again and hurriedly returned to her.

Suddenly, I recalled the conversation between Magan and the Dark Spiritmaster during their first encounter.

‘I have never, not for a single moment, treated souls as human.’

‘They are merely my magic and tools.’

I now fully grasped the weight and meaning of those words.

Clearly, the Dark Spiritmaster’s current method contradicted my beliefs.

“What should we do? Fight?”

To Han-so, who was waiting for my decision, I hesitated briefly before creating light in my palm.

A modest spell that would be humble to claim I learned from Erika, the authority on light magic.

With no destructive power, simply a sphere that dispels darkness and illuminates, I rotated my shoulder widely and threw it inside.

The spell flew in an arc and burst like a flash grenade, brightly illuminating everything.

The tentacle-like human forms weren’t just emerging from the floor but also from the walls and ceiling.

Additionally, something resembling a giant wasp nest hung from the ceiling.

However, there was a spot where no tentacles emerged, and I frowned as I looked at it.

A new rule of Mongma-jeon written in red letters caught my eye.

-27. There are guest rooms up to Room 110. Room 111 does not exist. If you discover Room 111 and someone is staying there, kill them immediately. They are uninvited intruders.

-29. There is no fourth floor in Mongma-jeon.

The light faded.

Once again, damp darkness descended. Feeling a chill down my spine, I asked Han-so:

“Did you see that just now?”

“See what? I did see something like a uvula hanging from the ceiling.”

“…Uvula?”

Indeed.

At first, I had thought of a wasp nest, but depending on how you looked at it, it could also resemble a uvula.

The puzzle pieces clicked together in my mind.

The uneven stairs.

The damp floor and walls.

The unbearable stench.

While Rule 27 was also concerning, Rule 29 was more immediate.

There is no fourth floor in Mongma-jeon.

Grab!

I rushed forward, seized the Dark Spiritmaster’s wrist, and dashed back toward the stairs.

“Kyaah!”

The startled Dark Spiritmaster was dragged by my hand, and her evil spirit urgently followed. Similarly, Han-so ran beside me and asked:

“W-why are you doing this?”

“There is no fourth floor in Mongma-jeon.”

“T-then where are we standing?”

When Han-so asked in confusion, my mouth opened slightly to answer, but the words wouldn’t come easily.

Even to me, it seemed absurd.

The conjecture that this entire fourth floor was inside some monster’s mouth was too outlandish to voice casually.

“You saw the rule?!”

The Dark Spiritmaster, though shaking off my hand, continued running. When I nodded, she gritted her teeth.

“I just can’t stand this mansion for so many reasons.”

“It’s not just the mansion’s problem.”

“Huh?”

“What do you mean?”

Both the Dark Spiritmaster and Han-so asked, but I deliberately held back. They’d find out once we escaped anyway.

‘No reward appeared.’

Despite discovering Rules 27 and 29, no reward was immediately given.

This meant someone had already seen the fourth floor and deliberately concealed the information.

The path on the fourth floor began to narrow. The two were confused, but it seemed the monster named “fourth floor” was closing its mouth to prevent our escape.

The human-shaped tentacles were also pursuing us with monstrous intensity.

“Looks like we’re dead.”

The Dark Spiritmaster said calmly.

Although the third floor was in sight, it seemed impossible at our current speed.

But at that moment.

White bandage-like constructs made of mana extended from the third floor, grabbed us, and pulled us in.

“Huh? Whoa?!”

“Uooo!”

Hearing the screams of the Dark Spiritmaster and Han-so, I surrendered to whatever was helping us.

Our bodies floated up, and we instantly reached the third floor.

Boom!

Simultaneously, the fourth floor closed.

It was truly disgusting to see it chomping and searching for us as if we were still in its mouth.

Nevertheless, we managed to escape thanks to external help.

‘That was dangerous.’

But there was definitely something gained.

As I collected myself, I checked who had saved us.

It was a small boy with blonde hair.

The child who had scurried into his room when we confronted Zortou earlier.

‘It was definitely Room 101.’

I remember he was using the very first room.

“I really thought we were going to die.”

“Thank you, child.”

The Dark Spiritmaster grumbled while Han-so expressed gratitude.

The boy scratched his head shyly, but his hair and appearance seemed strangely familiar, so…

I abruptly asked the boy:

“What’s your name?”

The boy, wearing a robe, blushed as if embarrassed and answered:

“I’m Luanes.”