Chapter 269: Kahar (3)

Just like how it was when I went to Luka continent, I expected to find myself inside a palace when I used Dimensional Travel. I was right. After using Dimensional Travel, Lotte, Licorice, and I found ourselves in the middle of a vast hall filled with knights and magicians. When I looked around, I didn't see any other Dimensional Mercenaries. Just when I was thinking that they had already left, one of the knights murmuring amongst themselves approached me.

"You're a Dimensional Mercenary, right? Do you know how many more are coming?"

"I'm the last one."

"Are you Kang Shin-nim?"

"... Yes."

What's this? They know who I am? As if to prove my suspicion, the knight then bowed respectfully.

"Crown Prince is waiting for you. Follow me."

"Crown Prince...?"

I widened my eyes. The Crown Prince is waiting for me, a Dimensional Mercenary? Could it be...? I shut my mouth and followed the knight. I didn't need to think too much about it. After all, I would soon see it with my own eyes.

"Dear Husband, the people here are pretty strong."

"They're doing well against their invaders, so it makes sense."

"Their gazes are annoying. Hero, can I pull their eyes out?"

"It's because you two are pretty. Just ignore them."

In this place full of men, Lotte and Licorice stood out too much. As we followed the knight, I could feel everyone's gazes locking onto us. In most cases, stares fixed on women shifted to the man they were traveling with. It was truly annoying. Even on a Dimensional Mercenary mission, I was receiving gazes full of envy. Just focus on your war, damn it!

"Please don't mind them. They're just mentally exhausted from repeated battles. When they see Kang Shin-nim traveling with two beautiful women, it's natural that they..."

"Lotte and Licorice are fighters too... Well, whatever."

We arrived in front of the audience chamber. The knight stopped and announced our arrival. A voice of a young man then told us to enter. When the door opened, we walked in in a straight line. In the fairly large audience chamber, there was one man sitting at the head of a long table.

"Oh, you're really here. It's been a long time!"

"Yeah... Paul!?"

I almost fell over from the surprise. The man wearing a fancy armor and sitting at the head of the table was undoubtedly Ellos' party member, Paul. Seeing me speechless, Paul seemed a bit down.

"Don't be so openly shocked. Did you expect Ellos to be here?"

"Well, yeah."

Paul smiled bitterly at my honest reply.

"To be honest, I also think that he's more fitting for this position. But even if he's the party leader in the dungeon, in the Edias continent's Cravis Empire, he is my royal guard as Count Kasina's eldest son."

"And you're a crown prince? Ah, I remember now, your last name was Cravis."

"That's right. First, come on in. Ellos will be here soon."

Like he said, Ellos did arrive soon. He was fully armored and wore a stiff expression. When he saw me, his expression lightened slightly.

"Friend, you really came!"

"Sorry that I came so late, Ellos. It looks like the other mercenaries already left."

"Right. They already separated into their own teams. But to be honest, a part of them are dummies. Because the invaders are also looking for the Hero, we have to move secretly and cautiously."

Looking at Ellos' serious expression and Paul's lax expression, I couldn't help but compare the two. I wanted to ask if they were pulling a prank on me by pretending to play the other's role, but I also remembered Ren being a crown prince. If Ren was a crown prince, I had to acknowledge Paul as one too.

"By the way, who are they?"

"Ah, this is Licorice and this is Lotte. Licorice is a Succubus Queen and Lotte is a Blaze Queen, a stronger variety of wyverns. They're... my allies."

"Hi, I heard you're Dear Husband's friend. Nice to meet you."

"Hmph."

As expected of a succubus, Licorice greeted them with a charming smile. Lotte, on the other hand, looked uncomfortable. While I was looking at them and making a wry smile, Paul and Ellos whispered to each other with stiff expressions.

"Succubus Queen? Wyvern? They're both look like beautiful women... Amazing."

"The far-reaching rumors of Revival's guild master doesn't even come close to the truth..."

I wondered what rumors about me were spreading, but now wasn't the time to ask. After whispering with Ellos, Paul looked at me with a more spirited face.

"Let me explain to you the details."

"Good."

"Then... Ellos."

"Un."

Ellos is explaining!?

"I explained how we had a huge battle, right? Our continent's Hero is a great warrior who's broken through to the First Dungeon's 92nd floor. In that great battle, he cut down countless invaders and brought victory to our continent's allied force. The leader of the invaders is a man called 'Kain'. At the time of the battle, his strength was similar to the Hero's. On top of the countless corpses of invaders and of our continent's inhabitants, they fought fiercely. In the end, neither side came out victorious, and the invader's retreated. Paul, do you have a map?"

"On the wall, here."

Ellos congealed mana on his finger and touched a point on the map. A small mark was left by a burn.

"From here to here is the invaders' territory. Here's our empire. Here and here are independent nations that are allied with us. They ally with us whenever a huge battle is imminent. Although several countries have already fallen, most of the survivors came together and formed an army. Now, they're a part of us. We've been even in size of forces. For the final battle, we planned on using a Dimensional Mercenary request to bring many Dimensional Mercenaries. Until that happened."

"The Hero going missing?"

"Right."

Ellos nodded and bit his lips. His eyes seemed to be burning.

"Ellos became the Hero's disciple a little while ago."

"Ah."

I remembered Ellos telling me about catching the Hero's attention. Still, I didn't think that he'd become his disciple. I checked out Ellos once more. Indeed, I couldn't tell what league he was in, but he had a formidable spirit. Plus, it was hard to feel his presence. If that's what I felt, Ellos must have grown immensely.

The dungeon wasn't the only place to grow stronger. It was like that for me, too.

"If we can't rescue the Hero, there's no future for Edias. I want to believe he hasn't been captured by the invaders, but..."

"If he was captured, he would have been killed on the spot. Don't worry, Ellos, he should be fine."

Ellos made a strange smile at my encouraging words. It was the type of smile that tried to mask sadness. Ellos then nodded and drew mana on his hand once more.

"We have a few places in mind."

He drew points on the map one by one. They were all in the invaders' territory.

"After the great battle, when we were retreating, we learned that the Hero had gone missing."

"In the middle, huh."

"One thing we know for sure is that the Hero fought them. Our enemies operate with groups of skilled assassins. I don't know how they lured the Hero from the barracks, but it's likely that..."

"A hostage?"

"It's possible."

Paul's expression was completely stiff. It didn't fit his character at all.

"The Hero used to be a wandering knight. He came to our empire when he became a Hero, so we don't really know his history. He always said he was an orphan, but that might have been false. Maybe, the invaders took his relative hostage and lured him out."

"Regardless of how, after luring him out, they must have ambushed him, and although they failed, they most likely injured the Hero greatly."

"To the point, he couldn't return to the barracks?"

Ellos nodded silently. Paul then continued.

"Many people speculated where the Hero could be hiding. The easiest place to hide is..."

"The Dungeon."

"But in their territory, you can't enter the dungeon nor use its messaging system."

"What!?"

My eyes shot open. Their territory? In this area covering half the map, you couldn't enter the dungeon or message anyone? For a moment, I thought of Lespina. However, there was a clear difference in their range.

Why were these things happening so often nowadays? I doubt all worlds' enemies use this method.

As a confirmation, I asked.

"Are the explorers' power suppressed in their territory?"

"How did you know? It's not by a lot, but everyone has their power suppressed by about 10%."

10%. Thankfully, it wasn't a large amount. Still, the range of their suppression was shocking. When I closed my mouth, Ellos continued his explanation.

"They're proficient in the science of magic. They must have analyzed something about explorers through countless battles. Or maybe, they captured explorers to experiment on them. In the last battle, we found out about their ability. It'll be dangerous if we let them be. If they reduce explorers' power by another 10%, their chance of victory will skyrocket."

"That aside, the reason the Hero can't go to the dungeon is that he's stuck in their territory?"

"Yeah. So he must have found a place to hide. After careful consideration..."

He pointed a few spots on the map. Although the circles he drew were small compared to the map, since the map was of the entire continent, the region encompassed by the circles must be fairly big.

"A mountain range and a forest, both with complex topographies. They're the easiest places to hide. There are also wastelands and rocky mountains, but they're unlikely. When we realized the Hero went missing, we immediately sent our troops out to search for him. As you can guess, we couldn't find him. We couldn't stay in the enemy's territory for long, so the search didn't last long. If we stayed too long, we might have been annihilated before we could find the Hero. In the end, we split off a part of the army to search for the Hero, and the rest retreated."

"And you still couldn't find him."

"Yeah."

Paul added.

"And the ones that remained were all killed. The invaders also sent out troops to find the Hero before us."

"It's just one thing after another, huh."

"If they capture the Hero, it's all over."

Ellos spoke with a stiff voice.

"That's why we had to rely on Dimensional Mercenaries. With each of them being so powerful, they're highly mobile, and they have the strength to resist the invaders if they encountered them."

"Makes sense."

As Dimensional Mercenaries, they were most likely used to missions like this. It was the same for me. As long as I didn't meet the world's enemy, I had the confidence to come out unscathed no matter how many enemies I faced.

"We managed to contact an administrative guild, and we even received a magical tool to help locate the Hero. That's the paper you have, Shin."

"I heard. This paper apparently tells me where the Hero is?"

"The problem is that the Hero's signal is coming from multiple places."

... I thought of a certain ninja's Shadow Clone Technique, but I stayed quiet. If I said anything, it would end with me being hit.

"We think it has to do with the explorers' power being suppressed in their territory. After all, the administrative guild is part of the dungeon. Still, we couldn't just disregard it. The only choice we had was searching all the areas pointed out by the magical tool."

I asked.

"And what area am I in charge of?"

"Sorry, Shin. It'll be slightly dangerous."

"I didn't think it wouldn't be. Just tell me, where is it?"

Fighting the world's enemy was also in my consideration. The words 'slightly dangerous' didn't bother me at all. Did Ellos know about this? He nodded and pointed at the map. It was a large mountain big enough to appear on the continental map.

"Peruta Mountain Range. It's the most dangerous mountain range in the continent and a place with the highest density of mana in the continent. That's where we're going."