Ch.21Chapter 21 – Helpless

“What should I do?”

Shin Jaehyuk realized he was in a very difficult situation.

It was a truly troublesome predicament.

He was currently trapped in the middle of statues that shot instant-death lasers from their eyes.

Fortunately, thanks to hiding behind a stone pillar, he hadn’t yet been detected by the guardians of this ruin, but the moment he was caught in their line of sight, a deadly beam would come flying.

All that practice with healing spells and shield spells for half a year seemed useless now. The statues’ attacks would shatter his shield like glass, and his body would evaporate before he could even utter a healing spell. With his divine power from his previous life, he might have been able to recover while taking the beams, but at his current level, that level of regeneration was impossible.

‘More importantly, those statues—are they golems equipped with mana concentration cannons?’

Shin Jaehyuk recalled Eden’s scientific knowledge with amazement.

The mana concentration cannon was an imaginary weapon that could melt anything by extremely compressing vast amounts of mana. He knew it was a weapon conceived by Hermes Leonhardt, the Emperor of the Leonhardt Empire who was hailed as an archmage, sage, or sun king, inspired by the phenomenon of burning paper by focusing sunlight with a magnifying glass.

‘A mana concentration cannon… I thought it only existed in imagination.’

Well, according to the inscriptions, this ruin was built almost 300 years after his death. In that time, the continent’s magicians who survived the “Magician Massacre” could have pooled their wisdom to develop cutting-edge weapons.

Realizing that humanity possessed such decisive weapons made him understand how humanity could avoid extinction even after the death of all 12 heroes who possessed humanity’s strongest military power.

In Eden, the biggest headache among the hell forces was the imps. High-level demons could somehow be defeated by the combined attacks of swordmasters and paladins, but even they would eventually exhaust their strength and surrender their lives to the endlessly swarming imps.

Installing powerful weapons that could instantly dissolve organic matter on the walls would certainly have made it easier to deal with imps. Of course, high-level demons could somehow survive in those beams with their powerful regeneration and various special abilities.

“Shit…”

Of course, recalling this fact didn’t give him any clever solution to escape his predicament. Rather, witnessing the power of a weapon that had only existed in imagination dampened Shin Jaehyuk’s confidence. He couldn’t think of any divine spell that could overcome this obstacle.

No matter how powerful his armor was, made of hellish iron ore, he didn’t know if even that could withstand the mana concentration cannon he was seeing for the first time. And Shin Jaehyuk had no intention of attempting such a foolish gamble.

‘Should I just wait it out here?’

Since the escaped survivors couldn’t escape through the gate without defeating the boss anyway, they would eventually regroup and return here. If he quietly hid here until then, he might survive.

But Shin Jaehyuk quickly abandoned that option. Unlike them, he had no food or supplies. He might starve to death waiting indefinitely. It would be wiser to find a way out now while he was in his best condition.

Shin Jaehyuk’s mind raced to find a way out.

‘That’s it! That stone tablet. If I decode more of it, there might be a way to turn off the defense system of this ruin…’

As a thin thread of hope appeared before him, Shin Jaehyuk immediately put it into action.

‘These statues probably detect living beings through sight…’

Considering that no statue had reacted despite stones breaking and armor clanking, it seemed almost certain.

From behind the pillar, Shin Jaehyuk slightly raised his shield forward. Then he used the back of the shield like a mirror to check the positions and viewing angles of the statues. Just like Perseus in Greek mythology when facing Medusa.

‘Good. If I go this route, I should be safe…’

After calculating the route, fortunately, it seemed he could safely reach the stele. This was thanks to most of the statues’ gazes being directed toward the entrance as they chased the fleeing hunters.

Shin Jaehyuk moved, avoiding the areas within the statues’ line of sight. His experience playing stealth games where he had to avoid CCTV cameras came in handy.

‘Games really do help in life… So, Lord, I will continue to play many games in the future.’

Fortunately, Shin Jaehyuk safely reached the back of the altar. His eyes slowly decoded the inscriptions he hadn’t read before.

‘Protecting… no, blocking. Powerful. Ancient demon. Altar.’

Were the guardian golems protecting this altar from a powerful ancient demon? Shin Jaehyuk paused decoding the stele and examined the altar.

The altar was a large box made of stone.

On the lid of the stone chest was a magical circle of strange design. It was clearly a very complex and sophisticated magical circle. It seemed to have been installed by a highly skilled magician.

But judging by the lack of magical light, whatever its purpose was, it seemed to have lost its effect. Shin Jaehyuk removed his armored gloves and inserted his hand into the gap of the stone chest, pushing the lid slightly to the side.

“As expected, nothing’s here.”

From the slightly open lid and the inactive magical circle, he had suspected that whatever the golems were guarding was no longer here. Someone, whether a grave robber or explorer, had already taken the valuable item from the chest.

Wondering if anything remained, Shin Jaehyuk’s hand brushed against the walls and bottom of the chest.

“Ugh. What is this?”

The inside of the chest was full of moisture, as if something wet had been there and hadn’t dried yet. Feeling uncomfortable, Shin Jaehyuk withdrew his hand and wiped it on some nearby moss. Then he closed the lid and placed it back on the chest.

Suddenly, with a click, the joints of the lid and body of the chest locked together, and the magical circle began to emit a soft light.

‘Oh no!’

Startled, Shin Jaehyuk quickly lowered his posture and observed the statues’ movements. He was worried that he might have triggered something that would alert the statues to his presence.

Shin Jaehyuk used his shield-mirror again to observe the statues’ reactions. Surprisingly, there was no reaction from them.

After checking the statues and determining it was safe, he stood up again and observed the magical circle on the lid.

“What’s its purpose?”

Four strands of mana roads from the magical circle connected to the four corners of the chest. The mana roads emitted a very faint magical light.

He traced one of the more distinct strands. It ran down the edge of the chest, connected to the floor of the ruin, and then spread across the floor in circular ripples.

The circular mana roads connected to the feet of the statues. Faint mana flowed along the roads and entered the statues’ feet. Although Shin Jaehyuk was almost completely ignorant about magic, even he could guess the purpose of this magical circle from this phenomenon.

‘I see. It’s a charging magical circle.’

Whatever was in the chest was probably a massive energy source, and that energy source was charging the temple’s golems.

Whether it was an energy source obtained from a powerful demon, or whether a powerful demon was trying to steal this energy source and thus it needed protection, would require further decoding of the stele. But what was certain was that this “something” was currently missing from the chest.

“To use a mana concentration cannon would require enormous mana. If I could deplete all the remaining mana in the golems, I might be able to escape safely without directly fighting them…”

The question was how much mana remained in the golems.

Shin Jaehyuk looked at the magical circle again. Perhaps because the mana source was gone, the magical circle was already dark and quiet.

‘They probably don’t have much mana left after using the mana concentration cannons so liberally against the hunters…’

Shin Jaehyuk continued decoding the stele to find an answer.

“Hell, evil, seed, sage, soul, seal. What connection is there between these words?”

Shin Jaehyuk continued searching for information on how many times the golems could use the mana concentration cannons, but no such information was written.

“Damn it…”

He couldn’t wait for a rescue team forever. Shin Jaehyuk looked up at the escape route. The large central road connecting the altar to the temple entrance.

However, the presence of golems waiting on both sides to kill intruders made escaping along that road too threatening. The bodies of hunters were scattered everywhere.

“!”

Shin Jaehyuk’s eyes widened in surprise as he examined the hunters’ bodies lying on the stone floor.

One body was twitching. A survivor.

Focusing his vision, he recognized her as Hunter Lee Jaeyeon, who had complained about stepping in a puddle when they first entered the gate. Her friend and the culprit of this disaster, Hunter Kim Jimin, was already split in half, spilling her entrails beside Jaeyeon.

‘That position is precarious..!’

Lying face down, she had luckily avoided the statues’ line of sight, but the moment she raised her body even slightly, she would be caught in their view.

What should he do? Should he shout to warn her? But it was uncertain whether the injured woman could properly comprehend his words. Shin Jaehyuk hesitated.

Should he go to her directly? But it’s too dangerous—

He heard an auditory hallucination.

It was the curse of a spirit buried before Shin Jaehyuk. A voice that came to him whenever he hesitated at such difficult choices.

The voice spoke in his master’s tone.

You’re hesitating.

Are you going to run away again?

Like that time?

“Damn it..!”

Shin Jaehyuk gritted his teeth. The force of his bite made his facial muscles tremble and blood vessels slightly protrude in his eyes. Reflected in his bloodshot eyes was the image of the collapsing, smoke-rising former Papal Palace.

Never, like that time…

Shin Jaehyuk’s bloodshot eyes quickly scanned the plaza. It would be risky, but he thought he could somehow approach her without being caught in the statues’ line of sight.

Shin Jaehyuk hurriedly got up and stealthily approached Jaeyeon.

***

“You bastards! If you’re holding swords, attack with swords, why are you shooting lasers and going crazy..!”

“Count the survivors and report! Hurry!”

“Why on Christmas… I told my mom nothing would happen…”

“Mr. Kang Yongsik! Mr. Kang Yongsik, are you there? …. Mr. Lee Daesu! Please answer if you’re there!”

The area in front of the temple was filled with the sounds of people who had lost their minds, voices identifying survivors, and voices filled with despair. Most people were sitting down, unable to overcome their despair, while a few soldiers ran around following their commander’s orders, checking who had survived.

“Ugh…”

“Please bear with it a little longer. Here, I’m applying it…”

“Keuuup-!”

Other soldiers treated urgent injuries with military-issued potions. Nevertheless, potions were scarce, as the financial means of hunters who frequented E-rank gates made potions quite expensive for them.

“Damn, the situation is not good. Not good at all.”

Even Commander Ha Jeongjae, who usually maintained his composure, couldn’t hide his anxious emotions this time, wrinkling his face and nervously tapping the stone floor with his military boot. The stone floor was damn hard, making only his toes ache. He sighed, wondering what to do next.

‘First, I need to gather the survivors and…’

“Squad leader! Identity check completed.”

The voice of a tired soldier broke into his ear, cutting off his thread of thought. The commander responded reflexively.

“Report.”

“Out of 29 entrants, the current number of survivors is 12!”

“Damn…”

A curse escaped the commander’s lips. What should he do now? Almost half of the personnel had died in the first engagement, making it unclear how they would break through those statues and deal with the boss.

A hunter who had been eavesdropping on the two soldiers’ conversation suddenly interrupted.

“What? 12 people?”

His tone suggested he had heard something strange.

“The system says there are 13 survivors?”

Hearing this, Ha Jeongjae’s eyes widened.

The system doesn’t lie.

That means,

“Someone is still alive among the statues..?”