NOVEL NEXT Chapter 297
Chapter 297: Grudia (3)
“Coordinate check is complete.”
“Spell stability procedures are finished!”
“Please double-check one last time.”
Yoo Ji-han’s party, fully equipped, gathered at the Hero Department.
Only six people, including Chilla and Nam Ho-yeol, were set to move to Grudia.
The Hero Department staff members, checking the final safety measures around them, wore faces that looked far more tense than theirs.
“Ho-yeol, how are you feeling?”
“Honestly, I’m not as nervous as I thought I would be.”
“But why are you standing like that?”
“J-just being cautious, you know?”
Nam Ho-yeol raised his hammer with both hands, ready to swing it at any moment.
After everything was ready, Min Yu-ri took out a drone from her bag.
It was a filming drone given to her by Ha Seong-tae from HST Studio, who had worked on a film project with them.
——This drone has lenses made from the Drimium you provided.
——Please! Let us film this time!
Ha Seong-tae, who had previously lamented over the inability to film in this world, had mobilized all possible means to ensure the lens wouldn’t break during the dimensional transition this time.
“Dad, I have to go now.”
—Mi-a! Have a safe trip!
Lee Mi-a was on the phone with her father.
Yoo Ji-han chimed in slightly, “I’ll make sure to visit you next time I return.”
—Ji-han, please take care of our daughter! She’s more delicate than she seems.
“……?”
Delicate?
How can Lee Mi-a, who could rip rebar apart with her bare hands, be considered delicate!
It was a moment when Yoo Ji-han’s standard for delicacy was completely shaken.
“Did you just think something weird?”
“Nothing at all.”
After easily brushing off Lee Mi-a’s sharp remark, Yoo Ji-han faced Yang Ji-cheol.
“Take care.”
“Yes.”
“Even if you can’t save anyone else, I believe you will return.”
“Don’t say such disappointing things! I’ll bring back at least one person.”
With Yoo Ji-han’s smile as the last sight, all surrounding noise faded away.
Whoosh!
A white light radiated from the magic circle drawn on the floor.
Everything visible to Yoo Ji-han, be it people or buildings, turned white.
When Yoo Ji-han blinked as the light enveloped him,
he found himself at the boundary of the dimensions once again.
“I wonder what will come out if I break that.”
For some reason, there was a narrow one-room space without any exits anywhere.
Once the wall is broken, what kind of space will emerge was a matter of curiosity.
Nam Ho-yeol, experiencing dimensional travel for the first time, was too busy with his mouth agape, looking around.
“Sis Yu-ri! Where’s the camera?”
“Amazingly, it’s working fine.”
“Click! So this time it will be a movie?”
“Most likely?”
At the mention of making a movie, Chilla’s eyes sparkled.
His expression was filled with high expectations.
After all, since he started speaking, he had never appeared in a movie.
“Hey, master! You need to film me to let the world know about the greatness of Chinchillas! Click click!”
—Like how pigs eat a lot?
“Click? Do you want to get hit with a shield?”
—But that would probably be all that gets filmed! Hehe!
“Click!!”
Whoosh!
Chilla really took out a shield and started swinging it.
The Sylph flew around, dodging the shield.
While the party members watched their antics, Yoo Ji-han took out the dimensional travel scroll made specially for him.
As before, he had to use this custom-made scroll since standard dimensional magic wouldn’t work on him.
‘……Could this also be related to that paper?’
Yoo Ji-han suddenly recalled the Traveler’s Paper he found on the Island of Death.
The mysterious paper that scored the military strength, societal stability, and development potential of the dimension known as Kallem.
The unreadable characters on it, which Yoo Ji-han had managed to read like his mother tongue, were still fresh in his memory.
‘There might be a possibility.’
Words that only he could read and a special dimensional magic that required separate modifications just for him.
If there’s a commonality in that, it wouldn’t be mere speculation.
It would be nice if sampling could provide answers to such trivial worries.
But it only applied to actions executed by his body, which was a pity.
——It hasn’t changed? No, it has.
——Ji-han’s ability is developing in real time.
Nirochi, whom he’d met before departing for the dimension’s boundary, had said.
Yoo Ji-han’s unique skill, Sampling, was stated to have increased significantly in completeness since its last check.
His experience in Kallem had influenced his unique skill.
‘So far, four abilities of Sampling have been revealed.’
1. The ability to calculate the possibility or probability of specific conditions.
2. The ability to read others’ memories utilizing their magic.
3. Resistance to illusion magic or mental manipulation.
4. The ability to see afterimages leading to desired results.
The first ability, which Yoo Ji-han previously regarded as the entirety of Sampling, was currently sealed due to Nirochi’s strong recommendations.
He was now mainly utilizing the second and fourth abilities.
‘This is clearly not normal.’
To have so many abilities piled up in a single unique skill.
Recently, it was said that a research institute focused on unique skills had been established in the U.S.
If they discovered Sampling, they might rush toward it in droves.
“Ji-han, what are you doing?”
“Oh, sorry.”
Yoo Ji-han, who had been lost in thought again, shook his head upon hearing Lee Mi-a’s call.
Vroom!
The dimensional travel scrolls began to fall one by one onto the floor of the dimension’s boundary.
The magic circles drawn on the scrolls soon relocated to the ground.
What followed was a small earthquake.
Kugugugu……
This time, not a white light, but a pitch-black darkness.
Yoo Ji-han’s vision faded into darkness.
‘Everything has vanished.’
Left alone in the dark, even the party members and the Sylph had disappeared.
He experienced a sensation as if all gravity had vanished.
He blinked his eyes repeatedly.
Whether his eyes were open or closed, the fact that he couldn’t see anything remained unchanged.
‘Am I starting to get used to this?’
Having visited Kallem, this would make it his third dimensional travel.
He felt less like it was new and more of a familiar sensation.
—Sa…….
And just like in every dimensional travel he experienced.
A gentle voice of a woman reached his ears.
As soon as Yoo Ji-han sensed her presence, he quickly opened his mouth.
“Shut up.”
Creeeeak!
As soon as he answered, he tensed every muscle in his body, anticipating the phenomenon of gravity becoming heavier as he had last encountered.
Boom!!
Just as he expected, a powerful force pressed down on him.
Although he did not hear the strange noise he had before, the weight pulling him down remained unchanged.
However, standing on an invisible floor, Yoo Ji-han did not fall down.
‘I won’t be fooled twice!’
Yoo Ji-han narrowed his eyes and glared straight ahead.
Even though he couldn’t see anything, he thought the woman causing this strange phenomenon was right in front of him.
—My son……. My son…….
—My beloved son…….
—Our, our son…….
The woman endlessly called out to her son.
For Yoo Ji-han, who had lost all memories of his early childhood, memories shared with his mother existed only in photographs.
Yet, he could not deny that this was a warm voice reminiscent of a parent.
——For me, please, die.
——Could you, could you die for me?
But a typical mother wouldn’t say something like that.
Somehow, it felt like her voice was becoming clearer every time he traversed dimensions.
Feeling an instant wave of nausea, Yoo Ji-han mumbled.
“I’ve never had a mother like you.”
His mother’s name was Park Gi-joo.
A freelancer in her thirties who died in an accident at MA.
She was someone who had never even had a proper funeral as her corpse could not be recovered.
‘Surely no one would ramble incoherently in this nonsensical space.’
If someone was mistaking him for their son,
he hoped they would stop the misconception and just go on their way.
But…….
—Ha, but…….
“……?”
—My, my, my, my…….
Repeating like a mechanical voice.
In the end, he heard a complete sentence.
—I am Park Gi-joo.
Yoo Ji-han let go of all the tension in his body.
*
Crack!
Yoo Ji-han dropped to his knees, hands pressed to the ground.
What came into view was a blue grassy field, not the pitch-black darkness.
He felt the dampness of the soil and the thin blades of grass being pressed under his palms.
“Hah!”
But Yoo Ji-han did not focus on those things and took a deep breath.
He breathed so harshly, it could be considered hyperventilating.
Transparent saliva dripped from his slightly ajar mouth, and his eyes were unfocused and swaying.
—Ji-han! Ji-han!
“Click! Captain?!”
The sudden situation startled the party members, who rushed over to Yoo Ji-han’s side.
To them, it felt like only one second had passed before Yoo Ji-han’s condition changed.
Whoosh!
The Sylph created a cool breeze around Yoo Ji-han’s sweating body.
Only after about thirty seconds did Yoo Ji-han raise his hand, indicating that he was okay.
“Hold on, let me check on you.”
The moment Lee Mi-a grabbed Yoo Ji-han’s face with both hands, examining his state.
However, there was nothing unusual in his eyes that had regained stability.
“Why did you suddenly act like that?”
“……I saw something when I was coming through.”
“What do you mean?”
Yoo Ji-han briefly explained the phenomenon he experienced.
The unfamiliar woman’s voice and the force pressing down on his body.
The party members, who hadn’t experienced anything like it at all, only tilted their heads in confusion.
‘……Let’s forget about it for now.’
Yoo Ji-han shook his head as if to shake off the complicated thoughts.
It was time to move his body.
“Is it alright to move now?”
“It’s more dangerous to stay still.”
Yoo Ji-han answered that way while looking around.
The grassy field had only small flowers growing here and there.
There wasn’t a hint of artificiality, making it feel purely natural.
Fortunately, he sensed no signs of nearby life, but there was something peculiar.
‘Why is everything so big?’
Yoo Ji-han slowly raised his head.
Following his gaze, he saw a thick blue pillar extending upward.
Eventually, he found branches of blue color spreading out horizontally at the top.
—It’s just an ordinary tree.
“Is this ordinary?”
—Not particularly special.
The Sylph, unbothered by the blue tree that seemed taken from a movie or manga, felt indifferent.
There was no particular interest for the Spirit that had spent a long time with Erna Hass in Grudia.
“Are you alright? Ho-yeol?”
“W-wouldn’t this be poisonous?”
“Click click! Taste it!”
“Eek!”
Nam Ho-yeol avoided stepping on the blue grass, still terrified.
“It really is Grudia, right?”
—Absolutely! Can’t you feel it?
“What do you mean?”
—This clean air, the fresh breeze, and the abundant magic in the atmosphere! These are rare delicacies only found in Grudia!
Boom!
The Sylph, inflating her body like a large balloon, rolled around on the ground.
—Hehe! It’s been so long since I felt this nostalgic texture!
“Click click! Spirit! Do you know what a dung beetle is?”
—I know what it is. There are also those called dung beetles, right?
“Right now, you look just like a round dung beetle. Click!”
—You little field mouse?!
Meanwhile, Yoo Ji-han checked the area’s safety and felt a weight lift from his shoulders.
As if the coordinates of the dimensional magic had greatly shifted.
The place they had arrived at seemed entirely unrelated to Dark Elves.
‘At least this time, there’s a great guide here.’
Thanks to the Sylph, who had spent a long time in Grudia, he had no worries about getting lost.
But then, the Sylph stopped rolling on the ground and said.
—Hold on……. Now that I think about it, something feels off.
“What’s that?”
—This grass grows in very few places.
The information that the blue grass only grows in very specific regions of Grudia.
When the Sylph expressed that it was rare, it meant she had visited at least one of those regions.
With a slight foreboding in the Sylph’s tone, Kim Si-hu mumbled in a low voice.
“Could it be, no way?”
Boom!
The Sylph shot up high into the sky, turning to look somewhere.
A place filled with white trees among the gigantic trees.
It was a location far too familiar to the Sylph.
—That’s the Siron Kingdom.
The home of Kim Si-hu’s mother, Elf Erna Hass.
It was right nearby.