00257 Canyon of Hallucination, a city where time has stopped —————————————- ——————————–=
After calming Ansol down. I took out five pills of Jeongsimdan and distributed them to each of my companions. I also thought about taking one, but honestly, it was pointless. No matter how strong the field effect was, I didn’t think it would be able to pierce the mind’s eye and the protection of the battlefield. So, as a precaution, I put Jeongsimdan in my arms. Out of a total of twenty pills, only fourteen were left.
Ansol was much better than when he collapsed, but his complexion was not very good even after taking it. We comforted her and made her get back on her feet, and only then were we able to get her over the last remaining slope.
“and! “Is this the plateau of delusion?”
“wow… . “It’s really spacious, isn’t it?”
Eventually, Ahn Hyeon and Lee Yu-jeong, who climbed up, simultaneously let out a sigh of admiration as they saw the vast plain spread out before their eyes. Since I have rarely been to the Plateau of Delusion in person, I was able to look around with a fairly fresh mind.
“There is no end in sight.”
“Because the mountain itself is so wide.”
Go Yeonju placed one hand at a right angle, covered her eyes, and looked around. After calmly looking around, I turned to look at the clan members behind me. Perhaps because the Jeongsimdan they took was of the highest quality, most of them did not show any abnormalities yet.
‘But you have to take into account that this is the starting point.’
While looking at Ansol, whose dry lips were continuously wet with saliva, I opened my mouth in a quiet voice.
“Are you all okay?”
“No problem. “Is it the same as usual?”
“Me too!”
“I think the effect of Jeongsimdan is good. It automatically makes me feel calm inside. “I can concentrate well.”
Hyeon Ahn, Lee Yu-jeong, and Kim Han-byeol answer my questions in turn. Of course, there was nothing to ask Go Yeon-ju, but the problem was Baek Han-gyeol and An Sol.
Baek Han-gyeol had a face worth living for. When he made eye contact with me, he slightly lowered his head to show that he was okay. On the other hand, Ansol’s face seemed to have darkened significantly compared to when she first started, as if her previous shock had not subsided. As I was staring at her, Ansol must have sensed my gaze, and opened her mouth with a clumsy smile.
“Gwae, it’s okay. Brother. It’s a little difficult, but… . I can still bear it. If anything is difficult, I will let you know right away. “I’m sorry.”
“huh. okay. Anhyun, please take a look at Ansol’s condition. “If you get any strange reactions, let me know right away like before.”
He said it was okay, but it was clearly a forced laugh. Ahn Hyeon said, “Yes.” After answering, she quickly came to her side. While watching Anhyun caressing Ansol’s head, I expanded my gaze to everyone and said,
“As you can see, the plateau of delusion is very wide. But there is no need to visit all of these places. “We plan to explore with a thorough focus on traces, and in terms of distance, you can reach the Canyon of Hallucinations in just one day.”
The sun was already high in the sky. The reason so many users avoid the Plateau of Delusion is that camping is not possible. Since they couldn’t do something crazy like camping in a place where field effects continued, they said that tonight’s march was almost certain.
Once entering the canyon of hallucination, taking Jeongsimdan was planned to stop and use the abilities of Kim Han-byeol and Baek Han-gyeol. Although the burden on both of them, especially Baek Han-gyeol, will be greater, he will have stored up some of his stamina by not participating in battles so far. And once you enter the canyon, you will quickly find the ruins, so you will have time to rest at least once before that.
After quickly calculating in my head, I turned to the front. The vast plain, with no end in sight, was welcoming us with the grass sprouting softly.
“Then let’s leave.”
So we took the first step on our journey to cross the plateau of delusion to reach our final destination. And the moment I took a step into the plateau, one thought passed through my head.
‘Now that I think about it, the chasers haven’t shown up yet. then… .’
*
“brother. “I have one question.”
“huh.”
It was in the middle of a march. When Ansol said that he was okay now, Anhyun came forward again and spoke to me in a quiet tone while following me. He answered without taking his eyes off the trail, and soon his words flowed into my ears.
“For the first few days after going on an expedition, it struck me that there would be a lot of strange fighting. But strangely, there seems to be almost no fighting since entering the Mountain of Delirium.”
“I don’t think there’s anything particularly strange about it.”
“Oh yeah?”
“huh. I asked him to read the records before leaving… . “You didn’t read it carefully?”
When I said it in a slightly teasing way, Ahn Hyeon looked embarrassed and said, “Hehe.” She laughed.
Strictly speaking, there are monsters that appear in the Plateau of Delusion. There is only one type of monster that appears, and that is the monster called ‘Black-headed Eagle’ that I told the kids about earlier.
Since they mainly inhabit Delirium Mountain to begin with, they may have some resistance, but from a general perspective, field effects do not discriminate between humans and monsters. However, this effect did not appear immediately. Although it is slight, it appears gradually over time, and there are rare cases where clever people take advantage of this slight time lag.
When I explained this part step by step, Ahn Hyun tilted his head with a puzzled look on his face.
“But there’s no way we can be taken lightly. If they take advantage of that opportunity, wouldn’t they really be able to take us down in an instant?”
“There is no need to take it down. “Think about what I said to Hanbyul earlier.”
“?”
“You said you were going to take a dive, right? It sets a target in the air, comes down at high speed, and catches prey using its beak or claws. And it flies back into the sky at that speed, escaping the field effect.”
Only after giving a really detailed explanation did Ahn Hyun say, “Ah.” He nodded with an expression on his face. Looking at that, I sighed inwardly. At times, he was sharp enough to please me, but at other times, he was foolish.
‘But if this type is raised well, it could become quite useful… . Well, there are still a lot of shortcomings.’
I don’t know if you know what’s inside of me. Now the kids are no longer users. I now have a status that is more appropriate to be called a ‘merchantary clan member’ rather than a user. What this means is that you must quickly become aware of yourself as a clan member. Although improving skills is an urgent task, this is a problem that cannot be solved in a short period of time. I was about to speed up my march even further, reiterating my resolve to quickly establish my clan once the expedition was over.
Kiyooooooooo.
When I raised my head at the sudden sound, I could see a large bird leisurely wandering in the air. The total length is about 2 meters. What caught my eye was the jet-black head, the dark brown color from the beak to the tip of the tail, and the claws that were curved like hooks underneath the feet.
“They say even tigers will come if you tell them.”
As soon as I blurted out a word, I could hear Kim Hanbyeol immediately reciting a spell, as if he understood what I was saying. Although her quick response was admirable, I waved her left hand to stop her spell.
“brother?”
“It’s good to respond with magic, but just stay still for a moment.”
“but… .”
“iced coffee. That’s good because there’s only one. Hyeon Ahn, Lee Yu-jeong. I’ll teach you how melee classes deal with that guy in the Plateau of Delusions. Look Carefully. “Seeing something is worth hearing, so seeing it once is better than having it told to you a hundred times.”
When I told them that I was going to give a demonstration for the first time in a while, the kids all looked at me with bright eyes, as if they were excited. I drew out my sun and moon sword and distanced myself slightly from my companions. They’re clever guys, so there’s a high chance they’ll come towards me just by standing alone like this, but there’s still one way to definitely attract aggro. I raised my sleek, shining sword and reflected the sunlight.
Kiyooooooo!
Perhaps, if you look at it from the black-headed eagle’s point of view, you will see some kind of flashing light shining on you. As expected, it seemed to have had an effect as it flashed its wild cat-like eyes at me and began swimming in circles in the sky. Eventually, the speed began to accelerate and it soon flew across the plateau to the other side. No, he was just about to think that he had flown away.
The black-headed eagle, which was flying as if it was going to disappear, suddenly turned in a U-shape and soon began darting in our direction again.
‘come.’
I quickly lowered the sword I had raised. When I slowly turned my head and looked to the side, I saw Go Yeon-ju throwing and catching a dagger just in case. Although they did provoke them, their original characteristic was to hide from a distance, then find their prey and attack them by surprise. Moreover, since he was a clever guy, you never knew when he might turn in a different direction.
KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
The black-headed eagle was descending in a gentle curve, and as expected, the method it chose was to snatch it with its claws. I quietly waited for him to come in and calculated the path his body would take.
‘Two steps to the left and a half.’
At least I will be better than the route calculated by Sae-head. After walking to the predicted point, I fidgeted with the hand holding the Sun and Moon God Sword. The wings spread out like a semicircle, the bulging belly visible in the center, and the claws sticking out downward were getting bigger and bigger.
Eventually, when the remaining distance was less than 1 meter, I raised the sun and moon sword that was aiming at the floor to the top and raised it in the shape of 1. Then, he put out his right foot and stepped firmly on the ground, using it as an axis. This completes all preparations. Now all you have to do is wait for it to come in.
Awesome! Gosh!
The black-headed eagle, which had put out its foot with great force, had its claws cut off first, and was unable to overcome the acceleration and ended up rushing towards my sword. Although the acceleration of the original object was terrifying, unfortunately, it was nothing compared to my abilities and power.
It wasn’t like there was no shock at all. I leaned forward, putting a little more weight on the foot in front of me. The blade of the sun and moon sword raised horizontally gives the feeling of cutting a hard piece of meat. The hot blood wasn’t just splashing across her face, it also ran down and drenched her coat of plates. Finally, when I thought the feeling coming from the blade was over, there was a “thump, thump” behind me. In the street, the sound of heavy bodies rolling on the ground was heard.
‘You’re really having a hard time buying it.’
After looking at the neatly cut in half body of a black-crowned eagle lying on the ground, I immediately walked over to the kids. Then, she wiped her face with the cloth Baek Han-gyeol handed her and opened her mouth in a calm voice.
“You can do it like this.”
“yes yes?”
“How is it so easy?”
“… … .”
There was no response from the kids.
*
The sunlight shining brightly from high in the sky was becoming more gentle than stinging as time passed. The sun was setting. As the sun sets, the fields colored with the light of the sunset gently sway under the low sky.
I looked around the Plateau of Delusion at sunset. We were in the center of the field. I look everywhere, but all I see is grass. I don’t know how far I walked, but it felt like I had been thrown into the open sea. All that was left was to walk, using the traces left behind by previous expeditions as a guide.
The atmosphere among the clan members was quiet. Perhaps because they had been forced to march so far, they all seemed to be feeling very tired as they had not been able to get any proper rest since entering the Plateau of Delusion. To be honest, I thought about just taking a break for once, but I immediately shook my head. It was better to maintain tension even if it meant overdoing it a bit. Resting naturally relieves tension, but if you are a user with weak mental strength, the field effect can sneak in through the gap.
If the mountain of delirium causes a disorder of consciousness due to fear, the plateau of delusion is the realization of pathological erroneous judgment or confidence. In some ways, it was a fairly comprehensive term, but it means connecting one’s own delusions, that is, abnormalities in thinking, with the delirium effect and manifesting them in reality.
To put it simply, if I didn’t have all three of True Heart, Mind’s Eye, and Battlefield Protection, and if the worst situation had happened. By now we might have met the Prince of Hell here.
I checked the status of my companions in real time. It looks mostly good at first, but the further you go inside, the more powerful the effect becomes. I wanted to use Baekhangyeol’s ability right away, but since gems that matched its magic wavelength were rare, I couldn’t bring a large quantity. As such, I was planning on holding on as long as I could with all my heart. With that, I gathered my strength again and took a powerful step forward.
It was then.
“Oh, brother. wait for a sec.”
“huh?”
When I turned around at the sound of Yujeong’s voice coming from behind, I saw Ansol next to me, croaking and having trouble breathing.
“So, Sol? “What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?”
“Get out of the way.”
When I looked at Ansol’s face, I could sense that something unusual was happening inside her. I quickly approached Ansol and took out another piece of her heart that I had put in her arms earlier. Then he calmly opened her mouth and put the pill into her mouth.
Soon, the Jeongsimdan melted away on the light pink tongue, and Ansol’s breathing was seen gradually returning to normal.
“are you okay?”
“Go, suddenly… . Suddenly… . In front… .”
I don’t know what the hell he saw, but Ansol was gasping and just gaping. She couldn’t finish her sentence. She calmly waited for her to calm down, but Ansol soon refused to answer her by shaking her head vigorously.
But the moment I saw her reaction, I felt somehow unfamiliar. This feeling is like… .
‘if… . Did I see something related to trauma?’
—————————= Review of the work ——————– ——-=
hello. This is Ro Yujin.
Mmmmmnya. I feel dizzy. I feel like my physical strength is recovering more slowly than I thought. I woke up in the morning, went out for a lunch date, came back, slept, woke up, and before I knew it, it was afternoon. @[email protected] Phew. My body is really not as good as it used to be. Since returning from the military, she has been feeling her body getting older day by day. Getting older is a really sad thing. Mmmmm.
Maybe we’ll all go into the canyon in the next episode and find some ruins. It doesn’t feel like it’s going a little fast, but we ask for your understanding. Because of the setting, there is no significant battle up to the Plateau of Delusion. I also want to quickly go inside the ruins. 😀 And when you go in… . Hehehehe… .
『Reripple』
1. Miwolya: Riripple is back! Congratulations on first place! Riripple’s revival is also accompanied by Miwolya’s first place. ha ha ha! The exam is over! I will run as soon as I regain my stamina!
2. Madangsoi:
3. River of Tears: You got half of it right. But there is still one thing hidden. Cuckoo cuckoo.
4. Siege Player + Dream Jang: =ㅁ= Bang! Bang bang! Bang bang bang!
5. Pen: Yes. As for what comes out. (Whispering) This is what comes out!
6. Immediately + Simsimhaeng: Oh my. The majority vote could be interpreted that way. All right. Rather than correcting this part right away, I will think about it slowly. Thank you for your valuable advice! (For some reason, the phrase “tyranny of the majority” resonates with me. ㅜ.ㅠ)
7. Gaekgi + Simsim Haeng: Ah, I see. This part is a context error, so I’ll go and correct it right after the review! thank you! (PS. It’s Go Yeon-ju, not Go Hyeon-ju. LOL.)
8. Hebkinya: No. Actually, there is nothing wrong with Soohyun. It’s all because I want to enter the ruins quickly. Ahem(?).
9. cGratin: I am happy just to have comments about the content of the work. Yes.
10. Dalidakum: Hmm. If you pat my head, I will think about it. lol.
Thank you for always reading. Your recommendations and comments are of great help.
I hope you can always read my writing with a comfortable mind.
Selection, recommendations, comments, criticism, and questions are always welcome.
fantasy,