The Human-Faced Spider (1)

“So what do you think the mission will be?”

“Who knows? Still, he’ll give us something manageable. The Alliance Leader will want me to qualify no matter what.”

“... You said you’re aiming for first place. What are you going to do once you get that ascension thing or whatever? I heard you have to hand it over to the people above you.”

“Keep it for myself, of course.”

Seo Yerim’s expression stiffened slightly.

“... Isn’t the Alliance Leader strong? And you said people like the Martial Alliance leader and the Heavenly Demon want it too. I heard it could start a war.”

“Do even maids know about things like that these days?”

“... That guy Jang Sam blabbed about it. I picked up a few things while I was waiting.”

Ah, Jang Sam. That chatterbox would spill everything.

Minwoo nodded.

“The Alliance Leader can certainly fight. I can’t beat him head-on, that’s for sure. You probably couldn’t either, Yerim. And yes, a war would probably break out.”

“... And you’re still going to pocket it? Sounds like the gate’s name will change. To something like ‘Heaven-and-Earth Dragnet.’ Wouldn’t be surprised if it turned into an A-rank gate.”

“Oh? You even know what a Heaven-and-Earth Dragnet is?”

“... Hah. Do you seriously think I’m some ignoramus who does nothing but eat and swing a sword? I’ve read a few martial arts novels.”

“Well... I can’t rule it out. Actually, now that you mention it, that sounds pretty plausible.”

A Heaven-and-Earth Dragnet. A net spanning heaven and earth.

It basically meant an enormous encirclement. If he made off with the clue to ascension, all three organizations would come after him in a frenzy. There was a good chance they really would form a dragnet that extensive.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Yerim.”

“Why not?”

“Because the clear notification will most likely pop up as soon as the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering ends and the rankings are decided.”

“Then you could just take the ascension thing and leave too. But there’s no way they’d let you take something that valuable out so easily, is there?”

“Exactly. So it won’t pop up for me. Hmm. More precisely, I think I’ll have to hand the clue to ascension over to the Alliance Leader to get the clear notification.”

Since handing it over was apparently standard practice, the offering itself was likely a condition for clearing the gate.

And if he didn’t?

The gate would probably get very angry and upgrade itself.

But what about Seo Yerim?

There was no particular ceremony requiring second- or third-place winners to offer their prizes to their superiors. They could simply keep them and be done with it.

That meant she would most likely be able to leave the gate afterward.

“... So you’re telling me to leave first? Just grab my prize and run?”

“Unless you want to break through that Heaven-and-Earth Dragnet with me?”

“... Haah. This is seriously driving me crazy. Kim Minwoo, let me ask you something. If that dragnet or whatever really does appear, are you confident you can break through?”

“I can’t be certain either. I might die.”

“And you’re doing it anyway?”

“If I’d only ever taken the easy, comfortable path, I’d have been the one getting beaten black-and-blue by the Fourth Young Master today.”

“...”

“I’ll keep challenging myself. Now and in the future.”

After a silence, Seo Yerim spoke.

“I don’t know you very well. I don’t, but... from the outside, you seemed to have a pretty satisfying life, you know?”

“Did I?”

Seo Yerim nodded, then continued.

“So why go this far? You’re wealthy, you’ve awakened, and you don’t seem to have anything to envy. Wouldn’t most people want to take it easy?”

“Why do you do it, Yerim?”

“... Do what?”

“You’re reasonably pretty, your grandfather is the Sword Immortal, and you’re already a star making money hand over fist. Why spend all day swinging a sword?”

“... I just...”

After fumbling for words for a long while, she answered.

“It’s just my goal in life. As I practiced with my sword, I started wanting Grandfather’s recognition, and so I keep working at it, like running in a hamster wheel. I don’t even know what I’m saying...”

Kim Minwoo smiled at her answer.

“I have a goal too, just like you. Clearing challenges. That’s my goal in life. I kept doing it until it became my calling, and now I get restless if I don’t.”

“... You’ve got a serious case, huh?”

“Do I?”

Seo Yerim stared at Kim Minwoo. She couldn’t speak for anything else, but there was one thing she could tell.

‘He means it.’

His eyes said it all. At least when it came to that goal of clearing challenges, he was utterly sincere.

“... Do you have a plan?”

“I have something in mind. Whether it’ll work is another question.”

“Assuming it goes well, what do you think your chances of survival are?”

“Thirty percent?”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Maybe one percent? I’d almost certainly die.”

“What if I join you?”

“Forty percent if it goes well, around two percent if it goes badly.”

“Never mind when it goes well. If it fails, I’d only raise your chances by one percent?”

“Because if it goes badly, there’s really no bottom to how far things could fall. We have to assume the worst. And sorry, but you wouldn’t last ten minutes against the Alliance Leader.”

“And you would?”

“Twelve minutes?”

“... You’re saying you’re stronger than me?”

“It’s not so much strength. I have quite a few things at my disposal.”

Anything could happen inside a gate. Naturally, he had packed all sorts of things in his spatial storage.

There would be plenty of uses for them later.

“... Fine. I’ll think about it.”

“You’re going to join me for this?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“Don’t. There’s a very real chance you’ll die. I’m not joking.”

Clearing challenges might be his goal in life, but Seo Yerim had charged into danger to save him.

He had no intention of letting her risk her life alongside him again.

“... You’re getting way ahead of yourself. I said I haven’t decided yet.”

“I’m saying, don’t join—”

Just then, the front gate burst open.

BANG!

“You two need to come quickly! A notice has been posted! And it’s a big one!”

It seemed their mission had arrived.

* * *

[Mission (Special Grade)]

[Hunt the Human-Faced Spider of Sky-Piercing Mountain]

[Points: 30,000]

[Challengers: Baek Socheon, Choi Aengaeng, Jang Sam]

[Details: Upon delivery of the human-faced spider’s carapace, Baek Socheon and Choi Aengaeng will each receive 15,000 points.]

[This mission has been approved by the Council of Elders with the Alliance Leader’s consent.]

[Notice: Anyone who interferes with this mission, regardless of status, will be torn apart by chariots, and three generations of their family will be exterminated.]

Warriors murmured over the notices posted throughout the Unorthodox Alliance.

“The human-faced spider of Sky-Piercing Mountain? Surely they don’t mean that monster?”

“Even peak masters go in there and end up corpses...”

“Who the hell are Choi Aengaeng and Jang Sam?”

“Jang Sam? He’s a servant. And Choi Aengaeng is a maid.”

“A maid and a servant as challengers? Are they being sent to die? And the Fifth Young Master, too...”

“You’re well behind on the news, aren’t you? Haven’t you heard? The Fifth Young Master took out the Fourth Young Master with a single...”

Just then, three figures appeared in the distance: the Fifth Young Master, his maid, and his servant.

The murmuring warriors stepped aside. The three examined the mission notice. Of them, only Jang Sam turned deathly pale.

His hands and feet trembling, Jang Sam looked toward Minwoo.

“Um... This has been bothering me for a while, but why is my name up there?”

“Jang Sam. You said it yourself earlier. You’re the young master’s one and only loyal servant.”

“But, Big Sister...! That’s a completely different matter!”

“So you’re going to slip out of it all by yourself?”

“Th-that’s not...”

Jang Sam felt as if he were losing his mind.

A servant’s standing rose and fell with his master’s. The Fifth Young Master had been hiding his strength! Jang Sam had endured that whole hidden-power weakling phase through tears and misery.

After a year, he’d thought it was finally his turn to shine.

‘But a human-faced spider?!’

The human-faced spider of Sky-Piercing Mountain was a vicious monster known to gobble up even peak masters with ease.

And that wasn’t all. He had heard the mountain was filled with poisonous fumes so thick one could barely breathe, and webs so sticky that stepping on one would strip all the skin off your feet.

‘And we’re going to hunt that thing?’

With just the three of them?

No, he was useless in combat, so there were really only two.

This was practically suicide!

The Fifth Young Master might have beaten the Fourth Young Master, but even a whole bunch of Fourth Young Masters might not be able to touch a hair on that spider. It wasn’t worth thirty thousand points for nothing!

‘Ah, the Alliance Leader is finally showing his wicked true colors!’

He had never even treated the Fifth Young Master as his own child. Now, at last, he had bared his cruel fangs.

Not even the Alliance Leader could overturn a resolution passed by the Council of Elders.

Why? Because the system required his consent for anything to pass in the first place.

He wasn’t going to do something as deranged as approving it himself and then turning around and opposing it.

“At least no one will interfere.”

Watching the Fifth Young Master hum and nod so calmly, Jang Sam felt ready to burst with frustration.

“Young Master, aren’t you worried at all? They’re telling us to go die!”

“We’ll find out whether we live or die once we get there. Come on. We have a lot to prepare.”

Kim Minwoo turned away without a care. Seo Yerim did the same.

“... Ah, wait for me!”

Jang Sam hurried after them. It wasn’t as if he could run away now.

Whatever happened, he had no choice but to follow the pair.

* * *

A familiar face greeted them when they returned to their quarters.

It was the Second Elder. He handed Minwoo a sword.

[Ghost Sword]

[Grade: Unique]

[Level Requirement: 110]

[Effect 1. Greatly increases the chance that targets struck by the sword will experience hallucinations.]

[Effect 2. Each swing has a set chance to summon a wraith to assist in combat.]

[Effect 3. Magic Power +40]

Kim Minwoo whistled at the sword.

Swords with a Magic Power bonus were fairly rare. People generally didn’t make them. After all, what would a class that used magic power do with a melee weapon?

It was the sort of item with neither supply nor demand.

‘Perfect for me, though.’

The other two effects were quite useful, too.

The Sword of Judgment. He had turned the destruction of a Rare sword into the creation of a Unique one. It was nothing short of a miracle.

“Is it to your liking?”

“It’ll do.”

“The Alliance Leader sent it.”

“Aren’t we missing something?”

“Hoho. You certainly don’t miss a thing. Here.”

He handed over a martial arts manual.

[Ghost-Slaying Sword Art]

Minwoo skimmed through the book.

‘Not bad. Usable enough.’

A B-rank martial art. Something the Alliance Leader could release without much burden, but not something just anyone could get their hands on.

That was precisely the level of this manual.

He had asked the Alliance Leader for a sword and a martial arts manual. Now that he had both, their transaction was complete.

“Please convey my thanks.”

“I shall.”

The Second Elder nodded, and his figure blurred.

Seo Yerim, who had approached at some point, looked on curiously.

“Are you going to learn martial arts?”

“No. I can’t.”

“... With your talent, I’d think you could learn it in a day if you put your mind to it.”

Yeah, no.

Martial arts manuals weren’t like skill books. They were more like training guides. Study one and diligently follow its instructions, and eventually a skill would be created.

Naturally, how long that took depended on talent.

And with Kim Minwoo’s talent?

He could follow the manual until he died of old age and still never learn the martial art.

He wasn’t disappointed.

‘Learning more than one kind of martial art is generally taboo anyway.’

It was a system where getting greedy just because you had some talent was an excellent way to get yourself killed. The moment incompatible disciplines tangled together, cultivation deviation would strike.

For example, if you learned a lower-level martial art from the Kongtong Sect, any higher-level martial arts you learned afterward would also have to be from the Kongtong Sect.

To avoid that roadblock, you had to find and learn a top-level S-rank martial art right from the start.

‘That’s a tall order.’

Even finding a starting stage set in Murim was a problem. Obtaining an S-rank martial art there would be another.

‘I figured it’d be B-rank at best.’

Even the Alliance Leader couldn’t simply give away an A- or S-rank art. The elders would foam at the mouth in protest.

Only after he proved himself by hunting something like the human-faced spider would they consider it. Hmm... perhaps we could give him one?

‘But obviously, they won’t.’

Once he returned from that hunt, he would have to leave for the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering right away. How was he supposed to master such an advanced martial art in those few days? He would end up worse off than if he hadn’t learned it at all.

It would look much better to give it to him as a reward when he won first place and handed over the bribe.

So they wouldn’t give it to him now.

In any case, Kim Minwoo hadn’t obtained this manual to learn it himself.

“Jang Sam. Come here.”

“You called, Young Master!”

“Take this.”

“...?”

Jang Sam began looking back and forth between the manual and Minwoo’s face.

“You’re giving this to me?”

“You don’t want it?”

“N-no! I’ll take it! Of course I will!”

The Ghost-Slaying Sword Art. The name alone sounded impressive.

And hadn’t an elder delivered it in person? It certainly couldn’t be some run-of-the-mill, lousy martial art.

All Jang Sam had learned so far were a breathing method and the Three Powers Sword Art, purchased from a Taoist on the street.

Those familiar internal cultivation and sword techniques were shared even by thugs in remote mountain villages!

Naturally, he went wild with excitement. He hastily grabbed the manual.

“The Ghost-Slaying Internal Art and Ghost-Slaying Steps are in there too, so memorize the whole thing. We’re leaving to hunt the spider now, and I’ll start testing you tomorrow. Fail to memorize it, and you die.”

“Yes! I’ll memorize it!”

Jang Sam declared boldly.

If he had made one mistake, it was taking the words “Fail to memorize it, and you die” far too lightly.