Chapter 99: Bone, Flesh, and Blood (2)

The Levart forest, which was destroyed by the evil god’s power.

There, special investigator Van Krite was sighing as he held the reins.

Normally, he would have been chasing after the black mage, but today he had no choice but to join the expedition.

His role was to guide the expedition from the holy land who came to subjugate Cuebaerg.

Next to Van on the right was the expedition leader with a holy sword.

As Cuebaerg’s hideout approached, the expedition leader Oren looked at Van.

“Is this where Cuebaerg is?”

“He should show up soon. This is where his hideout was discovered.”

“I see.”

Oren nodded at Van’s story.

Van, who was driving his horse forward, looked at Oren next to him.

The knight in thick armor was someone Van knew well.

The blue holy sword, Oren.

He was one of the owners of the holy sword, which only the chosen ones in the holy land could receive.

Moreover, Oren’s exploits of subjugating many black mages were well known in the empire.

Facing a young genius, he felt a strong urge to cross swords with him.

“I have a question for you.”

As he watched Oren cautiously move forward, Oren spoke to Van again.

He seemed to have something to say to him.

There wasn’t much time left until they encountered Cuebaerg.

In this situation, Oren wouldn’t throw a trivial joke at him.

Van accepted Oren’s question without hesitation.

“What are you curious about?”

“Will you participate in the battle when it breaks out?”

“I’d rather finish it as a guide if possible… but the higher-ups want me to show my skills.”

“That’s a headache.”

Van was here because of the orders from above.

They told him to wash away the disgrace of last time with his own hands as a member of Cloud.

The only person Cloud sent to the expedition was Van, who was assigned as a guide.

Special investigators were treated as the best in Cloud.

The higher-ups thought that Van alone was enough, and they left everything to his judgment on the spot.

If he didn’t achieve anything meaningful in this subjugation, Captain Levernoff would surely nag him until his ears bled.

“Are you in trouble too?”

“I’m just a nominal leader of the expedition. I never had any skill in hunting monsters.”

“Well, there are heroes and saints behind us…”

“This expedition is a big deal for the holy land. They probably want to announce the arrival of new heroes and show that the holy land is still strong.”

Three heroes and a saint were mobilized for the subjugation of Cuebaerg.

They were heroes who were said to rival an army by themselves, gathered in one place.

They were not fully matured yet, but they were not to be taken lightly as heroes.

The power of their divine artifacts was formidable.

Thinking of the heroes, Van tapped his sword on his waist.

“I hope they grow up fast so that the world can be more peaceful.”

“I agree with you. It would be good for them to gain experience like this.”

“But don’t be too careless. We’ve lost quite a few investigators to him.”

“That’s why we’re prepared, aren’t we? Don’t worry. This time we brought out even the holy relics that the church has.”

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

As Van conversed with Oren, something huge came into his sight.

A creature covered in darkness beyond the mountain was moving grotesquely.

Van looked at it with a tense face as he spotted the huge body that started moving from afar.

There was only one unidentified creature that could be found here.

The abyssal lord Cuebaerg.

The being they had been looking for finally appeared before their eyes.

“…”

“Sir?”

“He’s here. We’d better get ready.”

Oren and Van’s eyes turned to the monster at the same time.

The black lump-like thing made a strange sound as it approached them.

Thump—. Thump—. Thump—. Thump—.

The horses that were moving forward stopped as they felt the tremors that spread periodically.

It was huge. And majestic.

The eyes buried in the darkness made those who saw them feel oppressed.

“That’s…the infamous Cuebaerg.”

“We’ll face him soon enough.”

Van said as he watched Cuebaerg’s huge eyes.

Cuebaerg’s appearance was very alien.

He called himself the lord of the abyss.

He looked like what would happen if you squashed together things from the abyss.

He was not a being that belonged on the surface.

Such a being should never crawl out of the abyss.

“Halt!”

Thud!

At Oren’s command, the procession that was moving forward came to a complete stop.

The knights who were following Oren also stopped and drew their weapons.

They all knew why he had halted the formation, even without him saying it.

Thump—. Thump—. Thump—. Thump—.

The vibration from the footsteps was getting bigger and bigger.

It was the sound of the giant beast that Cuebaerg had created, clearly reaching everyone’s ears.

The enemy was approaching.

And it was not a human one, but a monster from the abyss.

In this situation, there was only one thing that Oren, the commander, could do.

“Everyone, prepare for battle! Cuebaerg is coming!”

As soon as Oren shouted to the sky with his holy sword drawn,

The blue holy sword began to emit a brilliant light.

***

“······Ah.”

I was in a deep sleep and only woke up when the sun was high in the sky.

I raised my upper body and held my forehead in the bright sunlight.

Did I press my forehead somewhere while sleeping?

I felt a dull sensation on my forehead as I woke up.

It seemed that I had slept in a bad position last night.

I looked at the smartphone that I had been lying on.

The game was running on the smartphone that I had intended to sleep on.

“Ah… I fell asleep while playing the game last night.”

The last thing I remembered was ordering Pluto and Perin to bring Eutenia back from the island.

Right after that, I must have fallen asleep without resisting the drowsiness.

As if to prove that, the game screen showed an inventory that had been moved to a strange position.

It looked like I had pushed the inventory to the corner of the screen with my forehead while sleeping.

I dragged the inventory back to its proper place.

And then I checked the contents of the inventory.

I quickly found something strange in the inventory.

“What is this…?”

There were too many items in the open inventory.

Items like robes and iron swords that I had thought were worthless and kept in the corner of the inventory were piled up like a mountain.

And that wasn’t all.

There were unfamiliar items in the inventory that I didn’t know when I had acquired them.

Six shiny sword-shaped items in the middle of the inventory, and one item that looked like a magic book.

And next to them, an item that looked like a ticket.

I couldn’t help but exclaim at the sight of so many items in the inventory.

“Did Eutenia go on a rampage last night? Why are there so many items…?”

Just in case, I clicked on one of the sword-shaped items, and [Magic Sword: Aterinus] appeared with a description.

[Magic Sword: Aterinus] was an item with a trait called <Heat Conversion>.

It was a trait that converted magic into flames when infused with magic.

It was an item that only seemed to come out of a lottery draw, but it was newly added to my inventory.

And it wasn’t the only magic sword in my inventory.

All the items next to it belonged to the category of magic swords.

As I looked at the pile of magic swords in my inventory, a bad thought crossed my mind.

“No… please don’t tell me.”

Six magic swords of different types.

A [Magic Book: Ice Arrow] next to them.

And finally, a [Random Creature Summon Ticket (Low Grade)] that looked different from the other items.

They all looked like items that could only be obtained through a lottery.

My face, which had been surprised by the items, lost its smile.

There was only one reason why these items were stuffed in my inventory.

The 10-times lottery at the <Paid Currency Shop>.

I thought of the possibility that I had tapped the 10-times lottery while I was asleep last night.

“Oh, no… Please, no. Please.”

I quickly went back to the home screen of my smartphone and opened the text messages.

I thought that if I had paid for items in the game, the payment details would be left in the message box.

Swipe. Tap.

As I entered the message box, I could see the numerous messages I had received overnight.

The first thing I found in the message box was a payment confirmation message from the card company.

-[WEB sent] Card 89,900 won one-time payment approved. (08/19)

-[WEB sent] Card 89,900 won one-time payment approved. (08/19)

-[WEB sent] Card 89,900 won one-time payment approved. (08/19)

Swipe.

The payment details kept pouring out as I moved my finger.

My mouth widened in proportion to the payment details that I saw.

I looked up at the screen with my mouth open, but the scroll that was going up did not seem to end easily.

How many lotteries did I spin last night, that the payment details from the card company did not seem to end?

As I kept scrolling up, I was able to stop my finger when I reached the end of the payment history for last night.

I let out a hollow laugh as I checked the payment history for the day.

“Ha… ha…”

I laughed at the absurd situation.

I repeated the messages I had just seen in my head and calculated the amount I had paid.

The 10-times lottery that had risen to 89,900 won without me knowing.

21 messages saying that I had purchased a 10-times lottery for 89,900 won.

That meant that I had spun 210 times in total.

And the cost of spinning that much was 1,887,900 won.

One hundred eighty-eight thousand seven hundred ninety won.

I dropped my smartphone from my hand at the amount that made me dizzy.

Did I ever spend so much money on a game in one day?

At least as far as I could remember, I had never spent close to two million won in one day.

“I must be crazy, really…”

I grabbed my head and curled up at the thought of spending nearly two million won in one day.

Two million won. Two million won!

It was an amount that anyone would feel burdened by spending.