Second Life Ranker Chapter 161

Kahn and Victoria whipped their heads towards her as if asking what she was asking. But Rebecca was firm. 

[Right now, Cain is better than me. So you take over.]

[Understood.]

Yeon-woo read Rebecca's consciousness and nodded his head. It was better for him since she said it first. 

'She's cynical, but an okay person.'

His judgement of Rebecca changed. It was rare for high rankers to admit their limits. People who did were able to become stronger. It was necessary to save these kinds of people. 

From then. 

Yeon-woo and Rebecca switched places and he started to officially lead them 

Yeon-woo wasn't hesitant. Every time there was a fork in the road, he headed straight without any pause.

[Hey, you!]

Victoria was about to say something to Yeon-woo.

[Don't. Trust him. The Header's decision is absolute when clearing a dungeon.]

Rebecca defended Yeon-woo. Kahn didn't say anything. 

Rebecca looked at Yeon-woo with intense consciousness. All of her senses were focused on him. Her judgement was to trust that guy. 

And Rebecca's absolute trust in Yeon-woo didn't fail her. 

Boom! Booboom!

Everytime the Monkey King's vestige popped up, he saw it with his consciousness and used Aura to break it.

Like Yeon-woo had known about this dungeon before, he smoothly led them through the cave.

And the path seemed about right. It was an incomparable speed to Rebecca's. 

'Since they'll be surprised if we move this fast too. They'll do something unplanned.'

Because he wanted to see how the Devil Army would react, so he tried to make them do something. Hoping they would take the bait. 

Then Yeon-woo and his party arrived at the end of the maze.

[I think this is it.]

[Yeah. The signal's coming from past here.]

[It's big. Very.]

When they arrived at the end of the maze, they were standing in front of an iron door about 30 meters tall.

There were different drawings on the door. They were mysterious letters and images. It was hard to tell what they meant since a lot of time had passed. 

But Yeon-woo was different. Since he knew exactly what they were. The last inheritance of the Monkey King. He used his Dragon's Knowledge to memorize it instantly. 

[You have succeeded in learning the complete form of the 'Monkey King's inheritance.' Additional Karma is being rewarded.]

[You have earned 3,000 Karma.]

[You have earned an additional 2,000 Karma.]

Yeon-woo called it the 'Heaven King' and saved it carefully in his brain. 

Meanwhile, the other members of the party were focusing their consciousness on the letters on the door. 

They were letters that no one understood.

[Victoria is this…..?]

Rebecca asked Victoria to interpret it, and Victoria slowly translated the rune letters. 

HeavenOrderGodlyPreciousIron

MagicStickSealDoor

[Yeah. This is the Magic Stick.]

[I didn't think it actually…..]

Rebecca exclaimed in wonder. 

The Magic Stick was the weapon that symbolized the Monkey King. It was endlessly long, and the holy power inside it was outstanding. They were surprised to see the god's tool that they had only heard about. 

They were surprised that this iron door itself was the Magic Stick. 

When Kahn touched the door, his eyelashes fluttered. Very lightly. His mouth dried up.

[But I think this is only a part of it. Where are the other sections?]

Victoria was trapped in a scholar's passion for a moment. Rebecca coldly cut off her thoughts.

[Do that stupid research later. Right now, let's retrieve Kindred's body. How do you think we open this door?]

[I've been looking for a way since earlier.]

Victoria tried various methods but the rune scattered apart every time. Her smooth forehead crinkled. 

[Godly Precious Iron…..]

Precious iron of the gods. This was a legendary iron that was able to seal gods and demons. That was how resistant it was, and even Victoria's rune magic failed. 

And they couldn't try to force it open. Kahn used all his strength, but it didn't even budge. He wondered how Kindred had managed to get past this door. 

Yeon-woo moved past them and stood in front of the door. 

His consciousness had already looked over the iron door several times. He tried looking for flaws with his Draconic eyes, but he couldn't find any. 

Complete flawless. Was there really a thing like that in the world?

And there was something on his mind.

['Godly Precious Iron…..']

He subconsciously rubbed his Black Bracelet with his left hand. 

When he had shown Edora this bracelet, she said that it might be Godly Precious Iron after looking at it with her insight.

Back then, he had only considered the idea. But looking at it now, he felt strange. 

Then, like it had read Yeon-woo's thought, it lightly trembled. Yeon-woo put his hand on the door, doubting himself. 

And that moment. 

The door that seemed like it wouldn't budge creaked open. 

The other members looked at Yeon-woo dumbfoundedly, but Yeon-woo just simply shrugged his shoulders. 

And he threw his consciousness inside. 

Like it's name 'Palace' it really was fancy. 

And as if they were servants greeting their king, on 99 stairs, there were extravagant statues ordered below the top stair. 

Each of them were intricately decorated with the face of a monkey. 

And along the side, there were large stone column-like figures standing as if they were on guard.

The Monkey King was known to be the king of the yokai monkeys. This seemed to have imitated how he ruled over his domain. 

They were only statues, but the party uncertainty paused, as if they could feel the aura of the real things. They couldn't gather the courage to actually enter it. 

And the powers of each of the statues were enough to surpass Kahn and Yeon-woo. They didn't fall short when compared to Rebecca either. 

More than anything. 

'The vestige of the Monkey King suddenly disappeared.'

They couldn't see the depressing vestige that tried to swallow them. They felt danger. 

[There! Kindred!]

But when Victoria had tried to follow the traces of magic to Kindred. 

Rebecca and Kahn's movements became different. 

Kindred's body was on the center right. And in front of him, there was a large stone monument of about 30 meters. 

The small letters engraved on the front of it stopped the two in their tracks. 

72 Arts. The power of the Monkey King was here.

[Found it.]

Then, Kahn took a big step forward with a trembling voice. Unlike Rebecca, who was being wary of the Monkey King's vestige, Kahn's attention was only on the stone monument. 

[If only I have that Doyle can…..!]

The moment Kahn moved forward like he was possessed. 

[Hahaha! I'll take the 72 Arts!]

Sol Luna suddenly popped out from the air. 

Before Rebecca and Victoria could do anything, she laughed loudly and flew towards the stone monument past the iron door. 

Then. 

[Who dares to wake the King's eternal sleep?]

With the sound of a resonant Open Speaking, a black wind suddenly blew and ripped Sol Luna to pieces. She couldn't even fight back. 

Kahn stopped in his tracks after seeing that, but the air inside the hall was already drastically different. 

Creak-

The hundreds of statues turned their heads as one. 

All gazes were focused that way. 

Vestiges emanated from the statues. 

A powerful power blew around the hall like a storm. 

The dungeon shook up and down.

[A sudden quest has begun.]

[Sudden Quest / King's Terracotta Soldiers]

Summary: The Monkey King has succeeded in leaving the 5th mountain after 500 years, and after his penance, he was able to take off his shredding and become a god. 

But the yokai monsters that met the god on Mount Huaguo became resentful at having to wait for their king again. 

So until the day their king returned, they built an underground palace where his shedding was left behind. 

And to prevent the thievery of his shedding, they set up terracotta soldiers to protect it using their vestige. 

From now, escape with the shedding of the king safely. Also, prove that you have the qualification to become the successor of the Monkey King. 

Participation Qualification: Attainment of hidden quest 'Monkey King's Palace.'

Reward: Qualification of 72 Arts

[The first test is commencing.]

A message popped up in front of them.

[Shit!]

Kahn realized his mistake. He had been blind for the 72 Arts in this dungeon that could have traps anywhere. 

Sol Luna was the one to awake the stone monuments, but he wouldn't have caused this if not for her. 

Kahn quickly pulled back. Fortunately, the fist of the stone monument missed him. As the fist crushed into the ground, pieces of stone flew out. 

But that was only the beginning. 

The stone monuments, not including the guard statues, all ran towards the entrance.

[Those who dare to bother the King's eternal sleep must pay with their death!]

A hundred voices all shouted as one. It beat into their eardrums. 

Booboom!

The monkeys, despite being made of stone, moved quickly. Their weight left imprints on the ground where they stepped. That was how heavy and fast they were. Being hit with a fist could easily crush one's head.

Rebecca and Victoria instinctively moved.

[You can't let them go outside of that door! Victoria!]

[Got it!]

Rebecca gripped the artifacts that were made by Cernunnos's horn, 'Horned Sword.' She jumped forward with one each in her hand.

On the outside, it looked similar to any other sword, but it had the power to split spaces. A storm arose as she swung them about at the monkey statue.

Boom!

The monkey statue's abdomen broke off to the side. But behind him, 3 more came and fell over Rebecca.

Then, Victoria brought her hand down with runes. Fire exploded and blew the monkey statues away.

The statue at the very front crumbled apart, but the other 2 were just damaged and landed lightly back. Rebecca and Victoria moved towards them again. 

Boobooboom!

Rebecca twirled her swords at the front. As she created winds with every twirl, holding off the statues, Victoria used rune magic behind her to protect her.

The two were planning on preventing the statues from going through the door. 

Because then, they would be completely surrounded. Victoria wouldn't even have time to use her magic. She needed to stop them from getting behind them. 

Kahn, reading their thoughts, took a deep breath and turned his direction. He gripped his sword on his right hand and suddenly cut his left palm on the blade.

Blood smeared onto the blade. The sword became a deep red.

[Cry.]

And with Kahn's command, the sword started to cry.

lt;Seduction of Blood>. It was a skill that ate the blood of their user to strengthen them. It was the skill that gave Kahn the name Blood Sword.

Kahn was able to grow that skill on the 5th mountain, and now it even had an exploding quality. 

As he powerfully swung his sword, a bloody light waved around him and blocked the approach of the monkey statues. Kahn used that opportunity to cut the necks of the statues. 

There was only one thing he had in mind. To get to where the stone plaque was. His sword reflected his rushed mind.

And.

Yeon-woo swept his hair back with his hand, spinning around his Extrasensory Perception and his Draconic Eyes. 

He split his consciousness into different parts using his Time Difference and quickly tried to understand the situation. 

On top of that, he easily shot down the monkeys one by one with his Aura.

Fortunately, the guarding statues didn't seem to have moved. He needed to get rid of as many as he could before the most powerful ones started moving. 

But even these were too dangerous. He even thought about activating his Dragon's power. 

'These monkey statues, they're all moving with vestige. The Monkey King's vestige…I was mistaken. What we were dealing with all this time wasn't the Monkey King's vestige but his servants'.

Since the Monkey King had been sealed here for so long, he thought it was obviously the Monkey King's vestige. 

But there were only traces of the Monkey King's vestige. 

What was putting them in danger now was the vestige of the servants. 

They should've focused on the name of the dungeon at the beginning. 

The Monkey King's Palace.

A palace, not a sealing point. Then it would've clearly been the vestige of the servants. He shouldn't have thought that the weak vestige was from the Monkey King in the first place. 

To think that he hadn't been able to think about this simple fact.

However 

The moment he knew the identity of the vestige, the difficulty decreased. All he had to do was group his attacks to fight them off. 

Yeon-woo grew his consciousness. As his Extrasensory Perception and Draconic eyes became more clear, he could read the flaws of the monkey statues around him. 

And there was a place where the flaws were especially more gathered. 

The nucleus.

It was where the yokai monkeys had planted their seeds of consciousness. 

Yeon-woo identified it with his Time Difference and exploded his magic power in that direction. 

Aura poured down like rain. Because his proficiency wasn't that high yet, he wasn't able to damage it that much.

But that was enough. 

[Attack where I just marked, please. That's where the vestige is gathered.]

The eyes of the other 3 sparkled at what Yeon-woo said. They were starting to become tired. But the story changed if someone pointed out the weakness.

Rebecca tightly held her Horned Sword and turned around.

Everytime she swung her swords, the effects endlessly attacked the nucleus, breaking it into pieces.

Victoria used double casting to deliver two types of magic at the same time. It was 'Targeting' and 'God's Hammer' to hit the target right on the spot with precision. 

It was only two types of magic, but it used up to ⅔ of the runes of her bracelet. 

Boom!

The mark turned purple, and lightning rained from the ceiling. 

The monkey statues weren't weak enough to be defeated by this attack. Rebecca and Victoria didn't spare anything and put everything into continuously attacking them. 

Yeon-woo and Kahn flashed around the momentarily stunned monkey statues and cleaned up the remaining nucleus. 

And after they spent a considerable amount of time, the last monkey finally fell. 

[You have successfully passed through the first test. Please get ready for the second test in the remaining time.

[0:05:00]

[0:04:59_99]

[0:04:59_98]

[Pant. Pant.]

[This is…..crazy.]

Victoria plopped on the ground with a pale face. Because she had used all her rune magic, her magic power was completely gone now. 

If she had pushed herself a bit more, her magic organ would have been damaged. Thankfully, she was able to avoid that. But her desire for a solution to her problem just increased. 

And her heart became heavier at the message about the second test. Because if this kept up, they would be in big trouble. Health was important too, but she needed to figure out how to replenish her magic power  first.

Rebecca and Kahn looked tired as well. Especially Rebecca, who grit her teeth at not being able to use the power of an apostle. 

The dungeon that reflected the 5th mountain exactly was disadvantageous for her. Because all her senses except for her consciousness were flicked off, she couldn't fight properly. 

Without even being able to use half of her skills, she used all her health. She felt like she was going to cry, Kahn felt the same. 

Yeon-woo was comparatively better than them because he had saved his health a little bit. But he was still tired. 

His head was filled with complicated thoughts. Kindred and the Monkey King. Palace. 72 Arts. Kahn's attack. The second test. There were too many things he had to think about even though there were only 5 minutes left. 

There was nothing else he could do except catch his breath. 

[Hehehe. Amazing fellows.]

Yeon-woo and the others whipped their heads at the sudden voice. 

In the middle of all the crumbled stone pieces, black fog slowly floated up and turned into Sol Luna's head. She laughed like she was amused. 

All of their faces hardened. Rebecca's face became distorted. 

[What? You were alive?]

[Do you know why an undead is an undead? Because they don't die easily. Then, work hard.]

Sol Luna quickly dissipated into the fog in case she got caught. 

Rebecca cried out in fury. If only she had some strength left, she would've been able to easily rip her apart. 

[But she probably also received a lot of damage so it'll take some time to regain her body. She won't be able to do anything, so let's just forget about it for right now.]

Thankfully, she was able to calm down a bit with Victoria comforting her. Rebecca swore to herself that she would chase after Sol Luna the moment she left the dungeon. 

But unlike the others, Yeon-woo was already doing something about Sol Luna. 

'Shanon.'

[Hehe. Ok. Leave it to me. I don't really like weasley guys like that either. I want to make her suffer a bit.]

Shanon separated from the Black Bracelet and melted into the shadows. The monkey statues were all broken, but the danger wasn't gone. Yeon-woo was planning on controlling even the last variable.

And he thought. 

Why wasn't the Devil Army appearing when things had gotten to this? Was it because they didn't get what they wanted yet?

Or.

'Are they waiting outside for us to take care of everything?'

Yeon-woo thought it might be the latter. Even though he had spread his Extrasensory Perception all around the cave, he couldn't find a trace of the Devil Army. 

Other than them, no one else was in the dungeon. That meant one thing. 

The Devil Army didn't plan on interfering with the dungeon. 

Instead of suffering some losses, they would just wait until everything was taken care of and take the hint of the Magic Stick and the 72 Arts afterwards.

'Then that means it's dangerous outside and inside the cave.'

Yeon-woo thought the trap of the cave didn't end there. Because then, he wouldn't have been this suspicious of the Devil Army. 

'There's something else. Something.'

While Yeon-woo was lost in thought. 

Victoria and Kahn stood up after somewhat regaining their health. Victoria to where Kindred's body was. Kahn to the plaque. 

Yeon-woo's gaze subconsciously followed them. But Yeon-woo knew the body was fake. 

'I should fold my thoughts about the Devil Army right now. Focusing on the second test is enough. Second test. What could it be/.'

Victoria was examining Kindred's body. His head was half crushed, but it wasn't hard to identify it. 

The moment she examined the body, her face hardened. She realized that it was a doll that looked similar to him. Danger signals flashed in her head. 

Meanwhile, Kahn was in front of the stone plaque. He looked over the plaque with a tired face. On a black background, there were shiny blue letters. 72 Arts. He tried to memorize everything. 

Reading Kahn's consciousness, Yeon-woo continued to think.

'The quest said to take the shedding of the king. Shedding? What is the shedding? How are we able to prove we're qualified with that?'

Shedding. 

The same word repeated in Yeon-woo's head. Even while his eyes were focused on Victoria and Kahn, his Time Difference was whirling around, trying to solve the hint that the quest had given them. 

'If shedding is a metaphor…..then things that the Monkey King had before he became a god.'

His eyes widened. 

'72 Arts! Yeah. The 72 Arts would've just been shedding to the Monkey King after he made a new masterpiece.'

The puzzles started to match in his head. And what the Devil King wanted. 

The blue letters of the plaque that Kahn was touching seemed to be shining even more. 

'To prove our qualification, we have to learn the 72 Arts! And the Devil Army is trying to brainwash whoever mastered it onto their side!'

When he came to that revelation, he turned back to Victoria and Kahn. 

How should they prove their qualification?

If the first test was about examining their basic skills, the second test was probably about quickly understanding the stone plaque and using it. 

And the test overseers were right in front of him. The guarding statues. If they were the overseers. 

Then he thought of something else. What was the reason the fake body was in that position? There would definitely be a reason if the sinister Devil Army had put it there. 

He quickly came to an answer.

'Pinpoint!'

[0:00:00_02]

[0:00:00_01]

[0:00:00_00]

[The preparation time is finished. The second test is beginning.]

Then, the large statues that hadn't moved an inch while on the walls rolled down. 

His gaze landed on someone. The person who had been confused over the weird body. Victoria. 

A large statue pointed its spear at Victoria. 

[Victoria!]

When they realized the strange phenomenon, Kahn, Yeon-woo, and Rebecca all tossed their bodies to Victoria.

Chapter end