Chapter 136
Choi Hyun-seok was waving his hand through empty air.
No, he hadn’t suddenly gone senile.
He was looking for something in the Hero Shop.
“Oh! There it is!”
Choi Hyun-seok smiled brightly, seemingly having found what he wanted.
He turned to look at Nicolo.
“Your Hero Shop has been upgraded to intermediate level, right?”
“Yes. My companions all have intermediate shops, and I’ve opened an advanced shop.”
Choi Hyun-seok looked surprised at the mention of an advanced shop.
‘Already opened an advanced shop?’
Choi Hyun-seok was still at the intermediate level.
It wasn’t that he lacked the 2,000 points needed to open an advanced shop.
He was holding off in case he needed the points for unexpected situations.
And he was saving them to buy inventory space later.
‘The starting price for inventory is 5,000 points.’
They say even the smallest inventory sold in the advanced shop costs 5,000 points.
Including upgrade costs, it would require a total of 7,000 points.
‘Anyway, looks like that guy has accumulated quite a few points.’
According to Nicolo, he had completed about 50 hero quests, so he must have gathered quite a few points.
“You opened the advanced shop early.”
“I pushed myself because the Advanced Hero Swordsmanship is sold in the advanced shop.”
“Ah…”
Choi Hyun-seok nodded glumly.
To think that such garbage technique was sold in the advanced shop.
He naturally began to doubt the usefulness of the Hero Shop.
‘Ah, maybe the garbage isn’t the technique but that guy?’
Come to think of it, maybe the technique wasn’t the problem.
Even the best technique would become trash if the user was garbage.
‘Well, since they’ve passed the intermediate level, it should be fine.’
The item he needed now is sold in the intermediate shop.
So there was no reason it wouldn’t be sold in the advanced shop.
After all, the intermediate shop included all items sold in the basic shop.
“Now then, back to the main point.”
Choi Hyun-seok looked at Nicolo.
“There should be an item called Hero’s Oath Certificate in the shop. Look for it.”
Hero’s Oath Certificate.
As the name suggested, it was an item created for making promises.
‘I know it well since I’ve been through it with Rotark.’
Rotark, the Second Corps Commander who was killed by Hemis.
He had tried to turn Choi Hyun-seok into a test subject using the ‘Demon’s Oath Certificate.’
Fortunately, thanks to Hemis’s help, it was instead used as a tool to bind Rotark.
Anyway, the important thing was that contract items like the ‘Demon’s Oath Certificate’ existed.
Choi Hyun-seok thought the Hero Shop would sell similar items, and he was right.
“I found it.”
After a moment.
Nicolo found the Hero’s Oath Certificate in the shop.
“Buy it.”
“Pardon?”
“I said buy it.”
“But this costs 500 points…”
Suddenly, Choi Hyun-seok’s face twisted menacingly.
“Buy it.”
Nicolo opened his status window with a pitiful expression.
His expression darkened even more as he checked how many hero points he had left.
‘I only have 600 points left…’
His hero points were already depleted from upgrading the shop and buying techniques.
If he bought the item Choi Hyun-seok mentioned, only 100 points would remain.
“Still haven’t bought it?”
Choi Hyun-seok raised his palm.
“I-I bought it!”
Nicolo instinctively shrank back and purchased the Hero’s Oath Certificate.
Only then did Choi Hyun-seok smile contentedly.
He craned his neck to look behind.
“The lady over there needs to buy one too.”
Ellis, the only woman in the hero party, was singled out.
She rolled her eyes around and carefully opened her mouth.
“Why should I…”
“You attacked me too.”
Nicolo wasn’t the only one who attacked Choi Hyun-seok.
Ellis had also attacked him with magic.
Naturally, he intended to hold her responsible as well.
“You don’t have to buy it if you don’t want to.”
“R-really…?”
For a moment, Ellis’s expression brightened.
However, it turned gloomy again at Choi Hyun-seok’s following words.
“If you don’t want to buy it, you’ll have to die.”
“Huh…?”
“You made me feel my life was threatened. I should get compensation for that, right?”
“…”
“So I’ll have to kill you and at least get some experience points.”
Ellis’s vision went dark.
When on earth did that man feel his life was threatened?
If anything, she and her companions were the ones who felt their lives were threatened.
Moreover, talking about killing another hero for experience points so casually.
It was such a devilish idea that even Satan would weep, yet he said it so naturally that it felt surreal.
‘And you call yourself a hero!’
Curses rose to Ellis’s throat.
It felt like they would burst out at the slightest touch, but she desperately swallowed them back down.
He was the one holding the sword.
She had no grounds to complain since she was the one who attacked first with killing intent.
“Come on, let’s not waste time and move quickly. Everyone in the back, purchases one each. Hurry up. Ah! Except for you, Sangmin.”
“Why, why do we have to buy them!?”
Yakubu and Irfan, who suddenly became targets, shouted.
“The crime of ignoring your colleague’s wrongdoing.”
“…”
“If you don’t like it, there’s always the option of becoming experience points.”
They say the law is far but fists are near.
Unfortunately, this world is a bit different.
More precisely, it’s more extreme.
The law has long disappeared, and what’s near isn’t fists, but death.
“Fine. Alright!”
Finally, four Hero’s Oath Certificates were placed in front of Choi Hyun-seok.
“From now on, we’ll begin a legitimate slave contract based on the Hero’s Oath!”
***
The heroes returned to their room with grim expressions after completing the contract.
Only Choi Hyun-seok and Abelson remained at the table.
Abelson elegantly sipped her beer and looked at Choi Hyun-seok.
“What are you thinking?”
Abelson’s question came with her usual expressionless face.
She wasn’t particularly pressing Choi Hyun-seok about his actions, but seemed purely curious about his intentions.
“Just felt spiteful.”
“…”
“Besides, we can use them to search for demon folk. Isn’t that good?”
Choi Hyun-seok didn’t have any grand reason for his actions.
He just wanted to show these worldly-innocent senior heroes how harsh this world really is.
Along the way, he could get help finding demon folk and have them run some errands.
He planned to use them in various useful ways.
“This has become troublesome though.”
Suddenly, Choi Hyun-seok frowned.
“Did something happen?”
“That woman was our only lead. But her head got blown off. Tsk.”
She was referring to Hera, who had been dealt with by Nicolo earlier.
Abelson nodded in agreement.
“Necromancy is extremely dangerous. If my prediction is correct, this Hera woman is just the beginning.”
“Do you have any hunches?”
“I’ve heard that one of the most important elements in necromancy is the demonic energy density in the atmosphere.”
“Then…”
Choi Hyun-seok’s expression turned serious.
Currently, this village has an unusually high demonic energy density.
The appearance of demon folk and undead in such a village couldn’t be coincidental.
“We’re starting to see what that demon folk is after.”
“Yes. They’re clearly preparing for large-scale necromancy. The village murders up until now were probably to check the progress of the necromancy.”
The puzzle pieces were starting to fit together.
Six months of murders.
Rising demonic energy density.
Hidden demon folk and undead.
Everything was connecting.
“This is dangerous. Is it possible for this necromancy to affect living people? Like turning normal people into undead?”
“As far as I know, that’s impossible.”
“Then what is he after? Is he planning to kill all the villagers and turn them into undead?”
“The most likely possibility is raising the dead who are already buried in this land.”
“Ah…”
“Human corpses become skeletons in a few weeks to a few years. But necromancy can create undead even from complete skeletal remains.”
“…”
“Even if hundreds of years have passed and not even bones remain… If their vengeful spirits remain, undead can be created.”
“So there’s plenty of undead material.”
“Yes. Given how thoroughly they’ve prepared, they likely selected this location after sufficient research.”
“Is there no way to stop it with holy power?”
Abelson shook her head.
“I could burn away the demonic energy density in the air with my holy power, but it would just be a temporary fix. Unless we solve the root cause, demonic energy will eventually gather in this village again.”
“So we can only buy time.”
“Yes. We need to figure out how the demon folk is gathering demonic energy in the village.”
“Sigh… This is giving me a headache.”
It might be better to just have an all-out battle with the demon folk.
Dealing with an enemy who hides and works behind the scenes was unfamiliar and extremely tricky.
“For now, we should tell the village chief to request help from the Lord and nearby Deusis faith temples.”
“Will that be okay? Our identities might be exposed.”
“This isn’t the time to worry about that… For an incident of this scale, they’ll surely dispatch a large force. When they arrive, we can naturally slip away.”
“Hmm, understood.”
It wasn’t the time to be picky.
After all, I couldn’t kill two thousand innocent people just to gain some experience points.
“Let’s proceed with that plan for now and call it a day.”
“Yes.”
“Then get some rest.”
It was already past midnight.
Choi Hyun-seok and Abelson decided to return to their respective rooms.
They needed to get proper rest since tomorrow would be even busier.
***
The next day.
Nicolo’s hero party left for the forest at dawn.
It was because of Choi Hyun-seok’s orders.
“Search this direction.”
Choi Hyun-seok divided the search areas appropriately so that their search ranges wouldn’t overlap.
Thanks to that, Nicolo and his companions have been wandering the forest for five hours.
“Damn it! Why do we have to be treated like this!?”
“We signed the oath. We have no choice but to do what we’re told.”
Except for Sang-min, four heroes signed the oath.
They have no choice but to be absolutely loyal to Choi Hyun-seok.
If they don’t follow his orders, the magical power inside them will backflow.
When magical power backflows, you die.
Even if you’re lucky enough to survive, you’ll never be able to use magic again.
While it might be possible to calm the backflow if you’re above a certain level, it was impossible for their level at least.
“Isn’t there a way to break this?”
“No. Either tear up the oath or wait until the term ends.”
“Being a slave for a year… This is too much no matter how you look at it!”
The only fortunate thing was that the hero’s oaths weren’t permanent.
They would be free after a year passes.
Of course, they need to be alive until then to enjoy that freedom.
“Sang-min! You bat! Siding with that guy just because he’s Korean too!?”
Yakubu grabbed Sang-min’s collar.
“You said it! That he would forgive us! That he wouldn’t harm us! Is this the result!?”
“What a generous personality my ass! He’s just a psychopath!”
Another companion joined in pressuring Sang-min.
Sang-min kept his head down and remained silent.
Honestly, he felt wrong too.
‘If you hadn’t picked a fight in the first place, or at least hadn’t tried to kill Choi Hyun-seok, none of this would have happened!’
They were the ones who picked the fight first.
They were the ones who attacked first with the intention to kill.
Still, didn’t Choi Hyun-seok at least spare their lives?
In this world of survival of the fittest, this was a sufficiently merciful treatment.
That’s what he thought, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.
“Everyone, stop it.”
Nicolo, the party leader, stepped in to stop his companions.
“This isn’t the time for us to fight among ourselves.”
“But Nicolo…!”
“Use your head and think! That man has somewhat of a good impression of Sang-min. What are you trying to achieve by harming Sang-min in this situation?”
Nicolo said irritably.
Though his tone was aggressive, he wasn’t wrong.
Harming Sang-min here would only make the situation worse.
Nothing would improve from it.
“Let’s continue the search for now. We need to get in that man’s good graces somehow. That’s our only option.”
Right now, he needed to calm his companions and continue the search.
However, the situation didn’t flow as he wanted.
Ellis stepped forward with a disgruntled expression.
“And then what? What happens next?”
“…”
“In the end, we’ll be discarded once we’re no longer useful. He’ll kill us for experience points!”
Nicolo’s expression twisted.
This isn’t good.
His position as the party leader is beginning to shake.
*Shing…*
Nicolo drew his sword.
He glared at Ellis with cold eyes.
“Just do as you’re told without talking back.”
“Hmph! What are you going to do with that sword? Are you going to cut me down?”
“If necessary.”
Nicolo had no intention of dying in vain.
He would survive somehow and regain his freedom.
He would cut down anything that hindered his survival.
Even if it was a companion.
“You’re crazy… Everyone’s gone crazy! All because of that bastard Choi Hyun-seok!”
Ellis screamed hysterically.
“I’m leaving. Stop me if you can. Go ahead and try to kill me!”
Ellis turned around and started walking away with large strides.
“Ellis! No!”
“Don’t stop me! My life is my own toâ”
Ellis, who was trying to forge her own path, couldn’t finish her sentence.
*Squelch-!*
Something had pierced through Ellis’s chest.
She lowered her head to confirm what it was.
“Huh…?”
Dark gray skin.
A hand that wasn’t human had penetrated her chest.
“Shit…”
In the gray hand was what appeared to be her own heart, still beating.
