The Second Coming of Gluttony - Chapter 52

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 52. Forest of Negation (2)

The carriage came to a halt around noon on the second day after leaving Haramag.
According to Samuel, this point marked the boundary of relatively safe territory. They could press on if they wished, but the return journey was the problem—a driver without Expedition Party protection attempting to traverse dangerous lands alone would be impossible.
The two drivers, who understood the value of their lives, took their balance payment and wheeled around immediately,
“Our destination today is Horn Hill! Once we crest that ridge, the Forest of Negation is within reach!”
With Samuel’s encouragement, the Expedition Party set out on the march.
In Paradise, a Level 1 Earthian—whether Contractee or Invitee—starts at the Porter stage. It wasn’t merely a matter of carrying luggage; it meant embarking on various expeditions and explorations, observing, learning, and accumulating experience.
So Seol Jihoo took care to miss nothing, no matter how trivial it seemed.
‘The marching formation looks just like a diamond.’
The Expedition Party numbered eleven in total. Excluding Seol Jihoo himself and two native Porters, the available combat personnel came to eight.
Samuel and Grace held the vanguard. The archer was leading the way, with the warrior flanking as escort.
In the center were three Porters—including himself—along with Alex and Ian. On the left flank stood Cho Hong, and on the right, Clara. Apparently they’d positioned a mage and a priest with one Porter each on the flanks for protection.
And in the rear, like the vanguard, came an archer and a warrior—Dylan and Hugo following behind.
In truth, he thought the Dylan and Hugo pairing would have suited the vanguard better than the Samuel and Grace combination. Of course, he wouldn’t voice such idle curiosity aloud.
‘There’s a reason for it, I’m sure.’
“You know, I don’t think I’ve seen your face before.”
While lost in thought, a gentle voice suddenly broke through. He turned to find Ian stroking his salt-and-pepper beard with a warm smile.
“I haven’t been in Haramag long.”
“I see. So you’re an Earthian too. Came to gain experience?”
“Yes.”
“How many Porter expeditions have you been on?”
Why would such a renowned mage probe so persistently? Though inwardly wary, Seol Jihoo answered conscientiously.
“None at all. I only just left the Neutral Zone.”
“Hmm? So this is your first time?”
“Yes.”
“Well now, freshly emerged from the Neutral Zone and you’ve gone and thrown yourself into an expedition of this scale…”
Ian seemed taken aback, staring at him intently before shuffling closer. He claimed the space beside Seol Jihoo and leaned in.
“Now listen here.”
He lowered his voice suddenly.
‘What’s he doing?’
Seol Jihoo tilted his head, meeting his gaze.
“Perhaps—”
As Ian’s expression grew grave, Seol Jihoo’s own turned serious too. Was there some vast conspiracy behind this expedition he knew nothing of? Had he blundered in so carelessly? All manner of wild speculations swept through his mind.
Ian, still watching the young man intently, spoke quietly.
“Do you like bread?”
Seol Jihoo’s ears momentarily betrayed him. Grace, walking ahead, glanced back and stifled a soft laugh. He wondered if this was some kind of jest, but Ian’s face remained serious—
—no, he was already breaking into a grin.
“I quite like it myself.”
“The soft, doughy feel when you knead it with your hands, or the lovely squishiness when you press it to your face—truly sublime, wouldn’t you say?”
“Seol? Switch places with me for a bit.”
Cho Hong spat into her palms with a *ptui*, gripping her Mace as she spoke. Ian burst out laughing.
“My apologies. Have mercy on me.”
“You should really align your tone and expression better. At minimum, you ought to look startled or contrite when you say things like that.”
“Aw, Paradise has gotten terribly harsh these days. Here I’m just trying to ease a newcomer’s nerves with a joke or two.”
Ian grumbled. Just as Cho Hong was about to flare up, Dylan’s stern voice came from behind: “Cho Hong, stand down.” Seeing Samuel’s demeanor and even Dylan’s intervention, it became clear that Ian held considerable respect in Haramag.
“For crying out loud. Anyway, don’t bother the kid—let him be. Looks like he’s studying formations.”
“Aha! Studying, is it?”
Ian clapped his hands together, his smile turning pleased.
“A young scholar burning with intellectual fervor! I couldn’t help even if I wanted to, so I certainly can’t hinder you. Tell me—what puzzles you?”
Though he worried Ian might say something equally strange, he did have questions. Seol Jihoo prepared to be ready to switch places with Cho Hong at a moment’s notice and asked,
“What determines who stands in the vanguard and who stands in the rear?”
Ah, Ian’s face broke into a knowing smile. Recognizing it as a question some might take offense to, Seol Jihoo had phrased it diplomatically—but Ian saw straight through to the real inquiry.
“First, do you know that whether it’s a Raid Party or an Expedition Party, the archer always serves as the Header?”
“Yes.”
“The two most critical roles of the vanguard are guiding your comrades in the right direction and alerting them to threats approaching. In that respect, Samuel is the most suitable.”
That didn’t make sense. Dylan was also an archer, and wasn’t he ranked higher at Level 5?
“Samuel rose through Level 3 Tracker and became a Level 4 Pathfinder. His combat ability may lag slightly compared to peers of the same level, but his gift for finding paths is something else entirely. His true strength shines when you’re lost in a labyrinth or can’t orient yourself in uncharted lands. If Samuel has his sights set on reaching Level 5 as a Grand Pathfinder, that ability will only grow sharper still.”
“You read my thoughts like an open book, Ian.”
Samuel turned his head and spoke with admiration.
[Most importantly, from Level 5 onwards — where ranks truly diverge — you must choose a god to serve. From that point on, the direction of your growth up until now becomes crucially important.]
[Think of it as your Class evolving or specializing according to the power each god commands.]
The words Agnes had spoken to him came back to mind.
“Dylan, on the other hand, is a Level 5 Arch Shooter — he chose to maximize combat prowess. Because of that, he’ll demonstrate fearsome power in skirmishes, but compared to Samuel, who’s walked the narrow path of Tracking alone, his investigative abilities are somewhat lacking, I’d say.”
Ian paused mid-sentence, his throat apparently dry, and gulped down water greedily.
“Right. And with Dylan positioned in the rear, he steadies the entire Expedition Party. If anything goes wrong, he can quickly assess the situation from behind and coordinate our response. If my guess is right, Dylan’s taken on the role of combat Leader, hasn’t he?”
“But wouldn’t the rear position come under attack sometimes?”
“That’s why Hugo’s attached to him. So, has your curiosity been satisfied?”
Ian winked. His curiosity now fully quenched, Seol Jihoo bowed respectfully.
“Thank you.”
“Ho ho. A well-mannered fellow, aren’t you?”
Ian chuckled good-naturedly.
“If my rambling doesn’t bore you, I’d like to chat a bit more. By the way, how much do you know about the Forest of Negation?”
“Nothing much, I’m afraid.”
“It’s simple enough. Any thinking being who enters that forest develops an intense urge to deny something.”
What kind of talk was this? As Seol Jihoo’s eyes sparkled with interest, Ian warmed to the subject and continued.
“What you’ll be driven to deny, no one can predict. You might call it random.”
“If you’re only denying things, wouldn’t that be a minor problem?”
“That’s far too simple a view.”
Ian shook his head.
“Didn’t I say no one knows what you’ll deny? For instance, what do you think would happen if you became driven to deny my very existence?”
Seol Jihoo found himself speechless.
“You’d likely try to kill me at any cost. But that’s not all. What if, while fighting, you suddenly felt compelled to deny the weapon in your hand?”
……
“Or worse — what if you were driven to deny your own self?”
A chill ran down his spine at the barrage of questions.
“Does something like that actually happen?”
“More than one or two Expedition Parties have been wiped out that way. That’s why there’s even talk at court of designating it a forbidden zone for expeditions. If it weren’t for Haramag, the decision would’ve been made long ago.”
“It sounds like a frightening place.”
“It’s no walk in the park. But I’ve been studying the Forest of Negation for quite some time now. I’ve prepared countermeasures of my own. If my predictions are correct, we should be able to unravel the Forest of Negation’s mystery ourselves.”
He worried about what would happen if those countermeasures failed, but he didn’t ask. There was no turning back now.
Ian, noticing his concern, gently patted his shoulder.
“Don’t worry so much! If the countermeasures don’t work, we can just head back to Haramag. I’m not eager to die yet.”
That was true as well. Thanks to Ian’s somewhat playful manner of speaking, Seol Jihoo felt some of his anxiety lift.

Though Ian had a tendency to lighten the mood, he was a mage who knew many things. For Seol Jihoo, who knew nothing of Paradise, each word Ian spoke was precious knowledge, life-giving and substantive.
Moreover, Ian had a gift for making stories entertaining, so Seol Jihoo found himself entirely absorbed in his tales, forgetting the tedium of the march. It felt like being a grandchild listening to an old man’s stories of the past.
As they walked on, chatting quietly, the sun began to set, and the landscape around them gradually transformed. The Rahman River, which had been their guide, split into several branches, and the ground grew increasingly rough, becoming sodden and muddy beneath their feet.
It was around that time when Samuel came to a halt.
“Levels don’t rise automatically — a god makes that judgment. You’ve been to an Awakening Chamber in the Neutral Zone before, haven’t you? After this expedition ends, you should visit the Temple and… hmm?”
As the group suddenly stopped marching, Ian trailed off and turned his gaze.
Seol Jihoo, surveying the vicinity, noticed large trees standing sparsely scattered about and his mouth fell open. He wondered if they’d already entered the Forest of Negation, but it seemed they hadn’t arrived yet.
Samuel was on one knee, studying the ground intently.
“Samuel? What’s the matter?”
Dylan asked in his characteristically deep, measured voice. With a raised hand signaling them to wait, Samuel smirked and rose to his feet.
“Interesting. Cave Ettins.”
“Cave Ettins? What brings cave dwellers out here?”
“Looking for prey, I’d wager.”
Samuel shrugged and glanced to his left.
“They split into two groups five minutes before we arrived. Thirty of them are waiting head-on, and ten more are lying in wait to our left.”
“They’ve marked us as prey. If we try to slip past, we’ll be surrounded for sure.”
“Those beasts have incredible noses, don’t they? So what’s the play?”
At Samuel’s question, Dylan fell silent, thinking.
“With two heads apiece, a surprise attack won’t work easily, will it?”
“No doubt. They always keep one head on watch.”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t strike first. I’ll send Hugo with you — tear through them.”
“Roger that.”
Samuel, speaking with confidence, resumed the march.
“That. She’s a real archer. Now I get why I was freaking out back there.”
Seol Jihoo found himself nodding at Hugo’s murmur without quite meaning to. The fact that he’d read the entire situation just from glancing at the ground for a moment felt almost impossible.
But he couldn’t deny it—less than two minutes later, a pack of Cave Ettin burst screaming from the brush where they’d been hiding. Thirty of them, exactly.
They were slightly shorter than adult human males, but their forearms were so densely packed with muscle they looked genuinely dangerous. What struck him as particularly grotesque, though, was that each one had two wrinkled faces sprouting from above its neck.
“Nothing to it.”
The moment Seol Jihoo grasped his spear shaft, Cho Hong planted a hand on his shoulder.
“Just watch. I’ll have them cleaned up in no time.”
She gestured ahead. Samuel was already charging straight into the heart of the Cave Ettin horde.
Or rather.
“Hey, hey, hey!”
In one motion he kicked off the ground like a shot bird, landed on a tree branch, and crossed both arms to draw something from his chest.
“Get a taste of this!”
The moment his arms snapped outward, the disoriented Cave Ettin scattered in agony like dogs chasing chickens in circles.
Thwick, thwick! Clean, bright sounds sliced through the air. Only when Seol Jihoo spotted a Throwing Star embedded in one creature’s shoulder did he realize what Samuel was hurling.
“Woo-hoo!”
As a few more lunged toward him, Samuel swung across like Tarzan, landing gracefully on a tree ahead of them. Ian couldn’t help but gasp as he watched Samuel rain Throwing Stars down again.
“Brilliant. He’s turned the whole thirty toward him.”
He said it as Hugo and Grace bolted forward right on cue.
Hugo charged like a leopard, and with the horde’s attention fixed on Samuel, he hurled his Battle Axe in a devastating overhead swing. Three creatures. Six necks. All severed at once. By the time the rest turned to look, what they saw was the axe blade descending again, ready to split skulls.
The horde, already confused and overwhelmed, fell into complete chaos as a Level 4 Barbarian Warrior charged in and trampled everything in his path.
A few did try flanking moves from the side. But Grace stayed glued to Hugo’s back, either deflecting with her Shield or running them through with her Longsword with perfect timing—they never made it close.
Then Samuel dropped back to ground level, and Clara joined in from both flanks with arrows. The Cave Ettin horde dissolved in an instant. That was when it happened.
“Here they come.”
Dylan spoke without inflection, training his Crossbow backward. Ten more Cave Ettin—now that the main force had fallen apart, they came sprinting up in a panic.
“How many are we leaving alive?”
“Ask them.”
Tat-tat-tat-tang!
Dylan’s shoulder jerked with each shot. The sound of bolts firing like gunshots cracked the air. Seol Jihoo’s eardrums rang; he reflexively covered his ears, and then—
Boom, boom, boom!
He gasped at the sight of dirt geysers erupting like waves.
The charging Cave Ettin flailed uselessly through the air before slamming down hard. Pssshhh—dust billowed in their wake as they writhed.
“Ugh, cleanup work really isn’t my style.”
“Mind taking care of it, Cho Hong?”
“Sure, sure.”
Cho Hong dragged her Mace behind her as she moved, wearing a look of resignation.
‘So this is what a higher-tier Arch Shooter looks like….’
The fight had wound down almost anticlimactically—hardly even a struggle. Not like twisting a child’s wrist.
It wasn’t a bad thing, of course. Overwhelming an enemy quickly and cleanly meant far fewer casualties than a grueling, hard-fought victory.
He knew that much, but.
“What do you think?”
“Huh? I—”
Seol Jihoo, who’d been staring blankly at Cho Hong as she finished off the remaining creatures one by one, blinked and turned away. Ian was grinning widely at him.
“What’s your take on the Expedition Party’s combat?”
Seol Jihoo said nothing. He didn’t really need to—he could feel it clearly enough.
Of course, each member’s individual skill was impressive in its own right. But what stuck with him was how they moved in perfect synchrony, as though they’d planned every step, and how they controlled the entire flow of battle exactly as intended.
“It’s not just a few rehearsals. When you’ve worked together for a long time, you can trust and move as one unit.”
Seol Jihoo kept nodding, then closed his eyes. Familiar faces drifted through his mind.
‘Someday, maybe I could….’
He wanted to form an Expedition Party of his own.
It was the first time since arriving in Paradise that he’d thought such a thing.

After the battle ended, the Expedition Party immediately set about collecting their gains. There wasn’t much to speak of besides the weapons the Cave Ettin had been carrying—but each piece was worth money. Since the creatures had stolen them from humans in the first place, occasionally someone found a real prize.
“Hey! Hey! There’s more over here!”
Seol Jihoo, who’d just finished stuffing what Cho Hong brought him into his Enchanted Bag, opened it wide to receive the armful of items Hugo was hauling over. Samuel, watching quietly, clicked his tongue.
The Enchanted Bag had space-expansion and Weight Reduction Magic woven into it, so it could swallow most things without complaint, but it had its limits. With rations, tents, and sleeping bags already crammed inside, plus weapons on top of that, it would get seriously heavy.
Seol Jihoo took everything without complaint—but the real problem was that the two Porters who should’ve been splitting the load just hung back watching, keeping their bags closed.
‘This is why you can’t trust the locals.’
As someone serving as the Header of the Expedition Party, it was something he couldn’t overlook. So he strode forward decisively, but the moment he did, he faltered—watching as Seol Jihoo secured his pack and stood up lightly.
“You… you there?”
“?”
“Are you sure? It must be quite heavy.”
“It’s still manageable, sir.”
When Seol Jihoo even bounced lightly while wearing the Enchanted Bag, Samuel’s expression suddenly turned skeptical.
“…I know this is my second time asking, but are you really Level 1?”
“See? I’m not the only one it happens to.”
Alex laughed as if he’d expected exactly this.
“In any case, we’ll be climbing Horn Hill soon. Why don’t we redistribute some of the load now?”
“It’s fine, sir. It won’t hinder our march.”
“If you say so, then I won’t push it.”
What could Samuel do if the man insisted he was fine? He turned and exchanged glances with each of the Invitees standing uncertainly. The message was clear: do your part.
The march resumed. Though the Enchanted Bag grew heavier and his shoulders grew taut, Seol Jihoo actually preferred the weight.
‘Might as well train while I’m at it.’
Compared to the repeated blows Agnes had dealt him while he was raising his Endurance stat, this was hardly demanding at all.
Shortly after, the Expedition Party began climbing the slope exactly as Samuel had predicted.
The Forest of Negation was now within sight.

(To be continued)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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