<Chapter 44. Bayran Infiltration - 4>

Prince groaned as she attempted to set up the tent, but was unable to, so Kratia came over to help. While they were at it, Lee Shin Woo started cooking dinner. He took out fresh vegetables and meat from his inventory, and even had rice, which was all hard to acquire, even from the secret shop. Seeing that, Prince's eyes popped out.

"Where did you get that!? Did you go to the surface or something?"

"I obviously bought it from the secret shop."

Of course he'd brought it from the surface. He had stored the Lawrence shop's best products in his inventory, but he'd never have guessed that she'd figure it out on her first try! Lee Shin Woo was shocked by her insight and somehow gave her the slip, but it unfortunately had the opposite effect.

"Liar. I've never seen such juicy meat before... What kind of meat is this? No, the meat's one thing, but I've never seen this grain in the secret shop before! I've never seen these spices before either!"

"Shin Woo, you know how to cook too?"

"Yeah, I know camp cooking. Wait and see. You'll love it."

While Lee Shin Woo prepared a fire and the food, Prince and Kratia hung around him, fiddling with the meat's bone or chewing on the uncooked rice rather than setting up the tent. It seemed like they couldn't believe how good the ingredients were. Then, Retadane, who had been diligently studying the maps, silently said.

"Saving the best products and giving them to her favorites is just like her."

"What!? Junior, are you and that terrifying shopkeeper..."

"Senior, this is all money. You can buy the shopkeeper's affection with money."

"Affection!? As I thought, you...!"

"Ah, this senior's a real pain in the ass."

The dinner menu consisted of a stew that consisted of meat, veggies, and wine. He'd also used the meat's fat to fry off some Arancini as well.

The stew and the rice were finished at the same time. He added in the leftover veggies, meat, and cheese from his inventory, and then crushed the bread into a fine powder. Lee Shin Woo coated the mixture and fried it off. If he were to add a hot ragu sauce, it'd be perfect.

"This really is a man's cooking..."

"That's what I said. Please make do with this ready-made sauce."

"I've never seen this 'ready-made' sauce before. Mm, it's delicious!"

Prince grabbed the Arancini with both hands and downed them, throwing all etiquette away with the wind. Kratia didn't really like eating, but it seemed like she was satisfied with the taste, and Retadane was surprisingly a glutton.

Her face was as icy as ever, but he could tell that she was satisfied with the meal based on how much she ate.

"Thank you for the fine meal. It's not nearly enough in return, but I'll brew us some tea."

"Thank you. How's it going...?"

"I keep looking at the maps, but it's hard. It may be impossible to find a route without any danger."

"When I'm finished cleaning, I'll come and help you."

Once they were finished doing the dishes and preparing camp, the four gathered around and put all their attention into finding the safest route. They were shocked by how large Bayran was, and they were just as surprised to find that the Empire had laid magic traps all over the city.

"Why did they have to go this far...? Wasn't this a city designed for spirits?"

"...This... It seems to operate by drawing magic from the city's inhabitants. There must've been another reason."

"Probably. Last I saw her, the princess was really tired, and she seemed to be hesitating about something. Perhaps another project was underway at the same time as the Spirits' Spring project."

"The Spirits' Spring Project..."

The party studied the maps and conversed; in the middle of that, Lee Shin Woo dwelled on the word 'Spirits' Spring'. At first, he'd thought they were modeling it after the Spirits' Spring on the surface, but there was a chance that it was something else entirely.

Especially because Bayran was covered by a type of mana he was quite familiar with... spatial mana. It was even more likely if the Archmage, Feotane Von Seldin, was involved with the city.

'Well, I guess I'll find out when I get inside. And so long as the Archmage himself doesn't appear, I have nothing to worry about.'

He was able to get Retadane's help, so the current situation was a lot better than he'd anticipated.

They were beginning to decipher the contents of the maps and Lee Shin Woo relayed these details to the faraway Chi Paul through his Assimilation skill and his darkness element induced telepathy, and nodded his head. The sight of the Empire's darkness covering Bayran made him feel like a demon would pop out.

"In other words, they're on my stage..."

"What did you just say, Junior?"

"Nothing. I'm just excited as to how strong our enemies will be."

With Retadane's memories and the four maps, as well as Lee Shin Woo's insight, they were able to complete the map by tomorrow morning.

"If we go through this route, then... we should be able to avoid critical danger."

"Even if we can deal with the magical traps, we can't deal with all the physical ones. If we're unlucky, then... we may end up with normal critical injuries."

"I don't think critical injuries are normal in any way...!"

"There are also critical, critical injuries."

"!?"

The four heroes (+Jin) had finished off yesterday's stew, steeled themselves, and set off on their designated route. Fortunately, there was no threat of danger along the way, but the closer they got to the city's walls, the more shocked they were by the scale of the city.

"What a huge moat."

"It must be hard for humans to manage. To my knowledge, it was cared for with the help of water spirits, but... I'm not sure how it is anymore."

[Kyahaaaaaah!]

Once Retadane was finished talking, they heard a shriek from the center of the moat, which was wide enough to be a lake. Lee Shin Woo could see the spirits coming up from underneath the water.

[Lv5 Corrupted Undine]

Its translucent body, reminiscent of slimes', was mixed with foul water. If they were all at the 'corrupted' stage, then it meant that there was no helping them anymore. They were far too contaminated. Upon seeing the spirit in such a state, Lee Shin Woo bitterly smacked his lips, but then, more and more Corrupted Undines popped up everywhere.

"There were other dangers aside from the traps I see."

"They're probably here to distract you enough to set off the traps. The entire city is set up with traps designed to kill intruders."

"But we're lucky. This is easy."

Kratia quietly took a step forward and extended her hand. The tiny orb, the Eternal Ice shined, and radiated light within the air. Then, the plentiful water filling the moat froze over.

[G-Giiik...!]

[Gigigigigigi]

The Corrupted Undines were also caught by her spell, and merely screamed, as they couldn't get out of the ice. Kratia ignored their cries and took another step forward. The moat was frozen solid, so they could walk wherever they pleased. The party watched, dumbfounded, then hesitated for a moment before following after her.

"To think you were able to freeze such a large area..."

"You didn't reach level 8 already, did you...?"

Lee Shin Woo killed one of the Corrupted Undine to see what loot they dropped, but he already possessed both high rank water and ice elements, so he didn't feel as though their drops would increase them any further. If they had any effect, then he might've sent his party off first, stayed back, and killed the undines.

'Chi Paul. Take this opportunity to go into the city too. Mm... If you're this far away, there's no chance of you running into us.'

[Understood. Once we've safely infiltrated the city, I will report to you again.]

They crossed over the frozen moat and were met by the front gate. This was also Kratia's job. It was set up so that a person without sufficient magical knowledge would be unable to open it without being bombarded by magic shells.

However, Lee Shin Woo had figured out that around half of the mechanisms that fired those magic shells were already broken. They were destroyed so technically and delicately that a normal person would not likely realize it.

"It seems like someone's already inside."

"The imperial troops wouldn't have been caught by the traps. So then who would... Ah."

She must've come to a realization as she spoke. While speaking, Retadane's complexion changed. Her eyebrows wriggled ever so slightly. Lee Shin Woo just shrugged his shoulders.

"I wonder. Perhaps it's another faction unrelated to the imperial army."

"Lee Shin Woo... you knew?"

"I'm not privy to the details, but I had a hunch. I don't know what they're doing inside, so... let's hurry."

"Keuk."

But no matter how rushed they were, they actually didn't progress that quickly. It was because the very core of the magic traps that covered Bayran was spatial magic.

Feotane Von Seldin had put his heart and soul into this giant magic circle that covered the city. It would blur one's senses, partially distort the surrounding space, reduce it, and ultimately not allow one to move as they wished. Even if one knew the right path, one would have to go round and round in order to escape the effects of the spatial magic!

Moreover, there were magic circles across the city that sucked in magic. These would steal magic from anyone lost in the city and torment them. What's worse, these magic circles would use the stolen magic to activate the magic traps! It was like a demonic world.

"Would the capital also be like this?"

"What could they possibly be hiding that they're going to all the effort to..."

"Magic. Terrifying magic."

Kratia, who had been constantly emitting her mana and leading the party on the right path, quietly reported. Lee Shin Woo sympathized with her and nodded his head.

"There's a high concentration of magic focused in one place, which cannot be explained by human logic. Spirits' Spring? No. The magic's far too aggressive. Countless elements are gathered in one place, but it's not natural. I'm curious what Shin Woo thinks, since he's a spirit expert."

"I'm no spirit expert. ...I won't know until I get close. But I do wonder whether this place was really set up for spirits."

Lee Shin Woo could understand that the undines were corrupted by the undead curse. That was fine.

But he felt as though the traps and the magic circles across the city weren't there just to repel invaders; they were also set up for a specific reason or purpose. That feeling was even stronger after actually infiltrating the city and looking into it further.

"This isn't a city designed for someone to live in. Rather, it's a fortress city created for a specific purpose... No, that's not it either."

Lee Shin Woo was keeping it a secret from his party, but he could overcome the spatial magic at any time. Therefore, he could ignore the spatial magic current, which would otherwise obscure his vision of anything further than 100 meters, and looked at the building in the center of the city.

He saw a metal cylinder aimed towards the sky. Every kind of magic circle imaginable was placed on it; that alone was enough to evoke a sense of danger, but even now, Lee Shin Woo could feel various currents of mana being gathered into it.

If he ignored the enormous quantity of mana, then it looked like a cannon.

"It feels like this entire city was sacrificed to complete a weapon... No, it's already complete, but it was left alone for so long that it was heavily modified."

"A weapon?"

"Yeah."

Lee Shin Woo had widened his senses, which had enabled him to see the cannon, as well as something else. He'd felt this mana signature before... Arema Steelworker was over there. He was getting closer and closer to the center of the city, where the cannon was located. ...well, he was getting closer and closer, but because of Feotane Von Seldin's magic, he was going at a very slow pace.

"I feel another person's magic too. We should really hold a party."

"So what are you saying?"

"We should quicken our pace. Now isn't the time to be worrying about spirits."

So many heroes had gathered in one place, so he thought they'd be able to take care of this easily. However, the Heaven Defying General may need to take center stage. Lee Shin Woo shrugged his shoulders and grabbed the map. Retadane just quietly watched him.