Chapter 136

What could he say to describe this feeling? It was like going to an art exhibition for a children’s drawing contest and seeing a graceful watercolor painting, too beautiful to be a child’s work, placed clumsily among crayon drawings. What’s more, everything was expressed in shades of gray, which made the already bizarre scenery feel even more peculiar.

He turned around and saw a single tree emitting a faint green light. It was the tree they had used as the Spirit Gate.

“It’s a strange place…”

Henes felt uneasy at the completely alien sight of the Fairy Realm and moved closer to Jun-sang.

“If you’re worried, you can go back. It’ll be over soon, anyway.”

But Henes shook her head. “It’s not that bad.”

“…”

Jun-sang squeezed Henes’s hand a little tighter and first checked his minimap. Fortunately, the minimap was working fine, and the quest marker, which he guessed was the queen’s location, was also displayed correctly.

“Give me the child.”

“Okay.”

Jun-sang took the child from Henes and held her in one arm. With his other hand, he held Henes’s hand and slowly walked toward the exclamation mark on the minimap.

As they walked slowly, they came across a small bush. After they passed it, they saw a familiar sight.

“This is…”

The place was filled with Lily of the Valley flowers, which looked like fairies’ homes. But there was one big difference from the fairy homes they knew. It was the size. The Lily of the Valley flowers the fairies used as homes in the Forest of Agelah were only about the size of a fist. Of course, that was still much bigger than a normal Lily of the Valley, but the ones in front of them were big enough for a person to fit inside with room to spare. Jun-sang even had the silly thought that it would be better to call them the Emille Bell flower rather than a Lily of the Valley.

Henes slowly approached the giant Lily of the Valley and, out of curiosity, leaned her head in to look inside. She saw a fairy, curled up and sleeping inside the flower, who was almost the same size as a human. Jun-sang followed Henes and looked inside, quietly opening his mouth.

“At this point, I can’t even tell if we’ve gotten smaller or if the fairies have gotten bigger.”

Henes tilted her head and asked back, “Is that… really possible?”

“Well. I don’t know for sure, but this scenery itself isn’t something that can exist in reality, anyway.”

“Right… I guess so.”

The two of them slowly walked through the silent fairy village and soon came across a large wall covered in ivy. It looked to be about three or four meters high, and there was no entrance, so Jun-sang decided to jump over the wall.

“Henes, come here.”

“Okay…”

As Henes’s soft body was held in his arms, Jun-sang grabbed her waist and used Leap to jump over the wall. But at that moment, the height of the wall suddenly grew, blocking Jun-sang’s way. He quickly had to kick the wall and bounce back.

“This is…”

Jun-sang tried again, but the result was the same.

“What do we do?” Henes asked. Jun-sang first entrusted the child to her, then examined the wall. He pushed aside the ivy and saw a wall made of white stone that looked like marble.

“Hmm…”

He checked the minimap again, and it was certain that the Fairy Queen was inside this wall. It seemed to be some kind of defensive wall created to protect the sleeping queen.

“What to do.”

But his 고민 was short-lived. If the wall was in the way, he would just break it, wouldn’t he?

“Henes, step back.”

“Okay.”

As Henes moved away, Jun-sang took out the Wrath of Langda from his inventory. These two giant iron balls, when equipped as a set, were ridiculous siege weapons that increased facility destruction attack power by 200% and activated a crushing effect.

Hwoong… hwoong…

The two iron balls, tearing through the air, fell like lightning toward the wall as Jun-sang stretched out his arm.

CLANG!

The iron balls bounced off with a loud noise.

“…”

Jun-sang swung the iron balls and hit the wall several more times, but the result was the same. If a normal attack didn’t work, what about using a Power Strike? There were no other enemies to speak of, so there was no reason to hesitate.

“Henes.”

The child, who was in her arms, had long since woken up, startled by the sound of the iron balls hitting the wall. Henes, too, looked a little tired from the continuous loud noise and was covering her ears. She quickly replied when Jun-sang called her.

“Yes.”

“I have to use a big skill.”

“Ah…”

Henes didn’t need a detailed explanation. She immediately realized what big skill Jun-sang was talking about and unfastened the two whips from her waist, grabbing them in her hands.

“I’m ready.”

“Good.”

Jun-sang changed his combo card to the Brawler and held the two iron balls in his hands, approaching the wall. Then he activated Power Strike.

“Whooooo…”

Jun-sang slowly took a deep breath and gathered his strength. And after five seconds, he unleashed the condensed power toward the wall in a single blow.

CRASH!

A bolt of lightning shot through the dark, gray-colored world. The destructive power created by the combination of the Brawler Combo and the Heroic-grade Card relentlessly pounded the sturdy white wall created to protect the queen.

As soon as Jun-sang activated Power Strike and the aftershock raged, Henes ran up and struck his back with a whip. A thin, white smoke was coming from his whole body.

“Whoo-ooh…”

Jun-sang felt the symptoms of the overload were much more severe than before. It was probably because the target was an inanimate object, so he didn’t get the life absorption effect, and because it was a Heroic-grade Card, his body was more overloaded. The good thing was that his stamina was recovering quickly thanks to Henes using the whip in time.

Once his stamina had recovered to some extent, Jun-sang slowly got up. Only then did Henes stop whipping and quickly approached him.

“Are you okay?”

“Thanks to you.”

Jun-sang stroked Henes’s head and examined the wall. The ivy that had been covering the wall had been shattered and scattered long ago, unable to withstand the power of the Heroic-grade Power Strike. The beautiful white wall was now fully exposed to Jun-sang and Henes’s eyes.

“Huh…”

Although he hadn’t used the Bloodsucker, the destructive power of the Wrath of Langda was definitely not something to be ignored when the target was an inanimate object. And yet, this wall had withstood the direct hit of a Heroic-grade Power Strike amplified by a Brawler Combo! There were some broken traces where the iron balls had hit directly, but it was an absurd level of defense.

As Jun-sang clicked his tongue and looked at the wall, Henes suddenly pointed at a part of it and said, “Jun-sang, look over there.”

“Hmm?”

Jun-sang looked where Henes was pointing and saw a handprint-like shape engraved on the white wall.

“Could that… be the device to open the wall?”

“…”

‘How are we supposed to know if it’s hidden here?’ ‘They should have at least put up a sign or something.’

Jun-sang grumbled to himself and slowly approached the handprint shape.

“Stay back.”

“Okay.”

As Henes moved away with the child, Jun-sang quietly reached out his hand toward the shape engraved on the wall. And sure enough, with a small vibration, the white wall split open, revealing a single passageway.

Jun-sang confirmed the dark passage leading inside, summoned Fireflies to light up the surroundings, and reached out his hand to Henes.

“Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

Henes quickly came running with the child and took his outstretched hand. Jun-sang, with the Fireflies in front, began to walk slowly down the passage. Although it was unlikely after coming this far, there was a possibility of a trap to stop intruders, so Jun-sang used his Super Sense to carefully check for the slightest movement as he walked.

After passing through the dark passage, which he couldn’t even guess what it was made of, and turning a few corners, a brightly lit exit finally appeared.

“Ah…”

Henes, who was holding Jun-sang’s hand and the child’s, carefully exited the passage and let out an involuntary gasp at the sight before her eyes. It was a huge room with transparent, smooth white walls and a spherical ceiling. In the center of the room, a canopy shaped like a Lily of the Valley was hung, and beneath it, a fluffy, cloud-like object was spread out.

The important thing was the woman lying neatly on that cloud. With her hands on her stomach and her long hair, which emitted a faint rainbow light, cascading like a waterfall, the woman was so noble and beautiful that even Henes, another woman, was captivated.

Henes unconsciously looked down at her own chest and made a sad face. “…” To her, who had been worried that Jun-sang didn’t see her as a woman because her chest was too small, the woman’s breasts, which were beautifully full even while lying down, were an object of envy.

Henes quietly raised her head and stole a glance at Jun-sang’s expression. But thankfully, Jun-sang seemed to feel no particular emotion and was completely calm. No, he was even frowning a little, as if he didn’t like something. Seeing that, Henes felt a little relieved.

“…”

As Henes had sensed, Jun-sang was not pleased. Although he had expected this after seeing the human-sized fairies, seeing the queen, who was no different from a human woman, gave him a bad feeling. But he couldn’t just go back after coming all this way.

Jun-sang let out a small sigh and said to Henes, “Wait here. I need to wake the queen.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s necessary.”

“…”

Was she mature, or was she just pretending to be? Either way, after they had just confirmed their feelings for each other, it was not a pleasant thing to see and be seen kissing another woman, even if it was unintentional.

Jun-sang was about to approach the queen but first pulled Henes’s forehead toward him and kissed her.

“Jun-sang?” Henes looked bewildered by Jun-sang’s unexpected kiss.

Seeing her expression, Jun-sang quietly replied, “I thought it would be better to give the first fairy’s kiss to you.”

“…”

Henes felt her slightly gloomy mood brighten up. But at that very moment, a desperate scream reached their ears.

“NOOOOOOOOO!”

Not only Jun-sang and Henes but even the child, who was idly holding Henes’s hand, were startled and turned their heads toward the source of the scream. The owner of the scream was, surprisingly, the queen, whom they had believed to be asleep. The queen’s beautiful face was crumpled as she shouted at Jun-sang and Henes.

“You, you… you two… how dare you show off your affection in front of a thousand-year-old single lady! Are you trying to piss me off? Are you doing it on purpose so I die of anger? Huh?”

“…”

“…”

Sometimes, when people are too shocked, they can’t say anything. That was exactly the situation Jun-sang and Henes were in. Jun-sang, who was the first to regain his composure, asked the queen, “You weren’t… sleeping?”

The queen immediately shouted, “I was sleeping! I was sleeping, but some guy started making a ruckus trying to break down the wall and then started showing off right in front of me, so I couldn’t take it and woke up! What are you going to do about it?”

“…”

“And… my first fairy’s kiss… ugh… I’ve waited for this moment for so long, and I lost my chance so pointlessly. This is a curse. How else could this happen… sobs…”

The queen mumbled to herself, then started to cry bitterly. The quest information was updated in front of Jun-sang, who was staring blankly at her.

Epic Quest – Oblivion

6. The Anomaly of the Fairy Realm.

• You have succeeded in opening the Spirit Gate, but the spirits’ power has not been restored. It seems an anomaly has occurred in the Fairy Realm. First, talk to the fairies. (Completed) – Enter the Fairy Realm and wake the Fairy Queen. (Completed!)Reward: A little experience.-> Would you like to receive the reward now? (Y/n)_(Note) Unclaimed rewards will be automatically deleted after 7 days.

As Jun-sang checked the quest information, he realized something was odd. If an Epic Quest was finished, there should be a corresponding reward, but there was none. ‘Could this not be the end?’

He frowned and accepted the reward. Sure enough, information for a new quest appeared before his eyes.

Epic Quest – Oblivion

7. The Queen’s Wish.

• The queen has waited for this day to fulfill a wish. Talk to her.

The moment he read the content, a bad feeling ran through Jun-sang’s mind. But as he recalled what the queen had just said and pondered the meaning of the test that Unia-ran had talked about, that bad feeling began to turn into a certainty.

Jun-sang held his head in his hands. But the more he did, the more everything that had happened in this Epic Quest began to fall into place like puzzle pieces, leading to a single conclusion. Jun-sang tried to force the picture that was taking shape out of his mind.

But he didn’t need to. The queen, who was wailing, pointed at Jun-sang and gave an order.

“I can’t live like this, it’s too unfair! You! Get over here and kiss me right now!”

“…”

“And… be my partner!”

‘Ah… so that was it.’ The fairies’ test was to see if he could accept the personality of this mischievous queen and how faithfully he would carry out her absurd requests. Perhaps the Fairy Realm‘s frozen state was a kind of strike for the queen to achieve her wish.

Becoming the queen’s partner meant that the Fairy Realm would also become a part of the ongoing war. While the fairies’ individual combat power might not be something to expect much from, considering the power of the Spirit Realm, which was a lower dimension, this would be an event that could not be ignored. It was an outcome worthy of an Epic Quest, as it went beyond simply strengthening the Spirit User‘s power to inducing a new faction to join the war.

“That damn plump fairy…” Jun-sang held his forehead without realizing it.

Of course, Unia-ran hadn’t deceived him. She must have thought that Jun-sang was the perfect partner for their capricious, immature queen, and that’s why she let him into the Fairy Realm. The position of the queen’s partner was not a light one for the fairies, so perhaps this was the greatest favor she could show him. The problem was that the favor didn’t consider the recipient’s wishes at all.

Jun-sang let out a deep sigh, tightly held Henes’s hand, who was looking at him with an anxious expression, and replied to the queen in a dignified voice, “I refuse!”

The queen looked dazed for a moment at Jun-sang’s reply, then shouted again, “Why?!”

Jun-sang replied, “I dislike those without a sense of responsibility. That’s why.”

Hearing his words, the queen was unable to reply and just started to cry uncontrollably.