The Second Coming of Gluttony - Chapter 73

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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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Chapter 73. White Boat, Anchor

Experience matters in all things—a truth that holds universally.
Once Mikhail’s team learned that the Mutant had acquired Protective Coloration and Regeneration, the atmosphere shifted instantly.
Even a veteran group like Mikhail’s shed their carelessness. Veronica led with a gravity that hadn’t graced her features before, her teeth clenched as she swept her gaze methodically—forward, back, left, right. The march slowed to a crawl, yet no one complained.
When ambush proved ineffective, the Mutant chose the direct approach instead.
But a frontal assault was precisely what the team had prepared for. Cho Hong’s Mace infused with Holy Incantation, Mikhail’s Longsword wreathed in Aura, and Seol Jihoo’s Magic Spear—all stood ready. With Maria’s support woven into the dance, the Mutant ceased to be fearsome, however troublesome it remained.
Four hours later, the team had swept the Night Fog Zone clean of every Mutant. Finding none despite continued search, they deemed the infestation eradicated.
“Done!”
Mikhail sheathed his Longsword with a pleased expression. Gyeol Shal and Veronica shared that same satisfaction. The enemy hadn’t been trivial, yet neither was it overwhelming—exactly right. For three Warriors all on the cusp of Level advancement, encountering opposition so perfectly calibrated was rare.
Seol Jihoo, however, harbored a different sentiment. Extermination was merely the first objective. The confusion etched into his features spoke of a man who’d intended to dig deeper, to unearth the root.
‘Colorless…’
The moment the Mutants fell, the Night Fog Zone had shifted from yellow to colorless. What phenomenon was this meant to signify?
‘…I have no idea.’
Seol Jihoo dragged his palm across his face. No matter how thoroughly he searched, not a trace of irregularity surfaced.
Tracking formed the foundation of investigation. But with even that blocked, the whole thing felt sealed off at the source. A stone sat heavy in his chest, and the frustration was suffocating—as if someone had posed a riddle without offering a single clue.
‘I’m going in circles…’
“Once we head back to Haramag, our team’s making straight for the temple.”
Mikhail’s voice cut through Seol Jihoo’s brooding.
“I think this is plenty. Me, Gyeol Shal, Veronica—we’re all due for a Rank increase.”
“That so.”
“Absolutely! Once I hit Level 4, even this Warrior can walk around with his head held high. Sword Actor! Just hearing it—doesn’t it sound magnificent?”
The man spoke with characteristic good humor, making a show of his excitement. Seol Jihoo managed a weak smile.
“Congratulations.”
“Huh? Didn’t I read the room?”
Mikhail’s expression turned sheepish at the muted response.
“What I’m trying to say is—don’t carry this burden alone. We wouldn’t mind heading back as things stand. You made clear from the start it wasn’t solid intel, and besides, I chose to come. We’ve done this dance before anyway. Expeditions, explorations—it’s all routine for us.”
“Hmm?”
The worry must have shown plainly. Already heavy with the weight of being called leader, Mikhail’s words landed like a reprieve.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. So then—what’s the plan now? We could head back to the village as is. Or if the back-and-forth feels tedious, camping nearby isn’t the worst idea.”
Now that he thought about it, the sun had already dipped low, and dusk was settling in like a held breath. Soon the fog would rise in earnest.
Dwelling on an unsolvable problem through the night would be foolish. Seol Jihoo gathered his thoughts and spoke.
“We camp here tonight. I’ll look around during the dark hours, and if nothing unusual shows up, we head back in the morning.”
“Works for me. Let’s do that.”
Mikhail answered without hesitation.

The team pitched their camp some distance from the Night Fog Zone. They’d have preferred settling deeper within, but in the dark with thick fog closing in, visibility became severely compromised. Though they’d cleared all the Mutants, caution dictated avoiding unnecessary risk.
In the murky pre-dawn hours, Seol Jihoo’s eyes opened as his shift for night watch arrived. He rubbed the sleep from his face and crawled from his sleeping bag.
Night watch stood two to a post. The moment he emerged from the tent, Maria was already there beside the campfire, bobbing forward in drowsy spirals.
“Mmm…”
He’d barely settled beside her when, as if she’d been waiting, she shifted to rest her head against his thigh. A gentle smile bloomed—then faded just as quickly.
A solid sleep had chased away the urgency, yet no sudden revelation had materialized either. Crackle-crackle! He watched the flames dance and gutter, studying the embers with an intensity that bordered on desperation.
‘What did I miss?’
In truth, Seol Jihoo had already half-surrendered the riddle. And why not? Multiple celebrated Earthians had thrown their full weight at this puzzle. For him—unremarkable in intellect, raw in experience—to presume he could crack it seemed fundamentally flawed from the start. The one thing separating him was Nine Eyes itself.
Yet the hesitation lingered. There was something there, unquestionably. That suspicion had hardened to certainty the moment he’d met the Village Chief.
‘Should I grab him by the collar when we get back?’
The absurdity of his own thought drew a silent chuckle. Of course he wouldn’t go that far. Unless a danger-sense skill flagged him, he saw no malice. Too ungracious to coerce secrets from a reclusive man.
He cast another glance toward the Night Fog Zone, confirmed nothing had changed, and clicked his tongue.
‘Why does my heart feel unsettled, even with the job done?’
Watching Maria sleep so peacefully, without a worry in the world, spite stirred in him. He pinched her still-baby-soft cheek gently. She whimpered and turned her face away, pouting. A thin laugh escaped him. As he stroked her head, she smiled—a contented, purring sort of sound.
“Haaa…”
Forget it all. Seol Jihoo sprawled backward and lifted his gaze upward. A half-moon hung luminous in the night sky, casting its pale blue-silver light across the darkness.
‘Waxing crescent…’
As he watched, the crescent took on the shape of a white boat gliding across a sea of absolute black. The serene tableau held his attention, and he remained motionless, eyes fixed on the heavens.
How much time had passed?

“?”
Seol Jihoo’s vision suddenly blurred. He blinked hard, trying to clear it.
‘What’s going on?’
At first he thought he’d misread something. But then, at some point, dozens of dark lines began creeping slowly upward across his field of vision.
No—they weren’t close. If anything, the distance made them hard to see clearly. Yet like anguished hands reaching toward the moon in the night sky, those black lines moved restlessly, threading up through the fog.
Uuuuu….
Then came a low, resonant sound, and part of the Night Fog Zone turned yellow. Seol Jihoo’s eyes flew open. Goosebumps rose across his skin.
“Ow!”
He lurched to his feet so suddenly that his head hit the ground, and Maria, who had been sleeping soundly, cried out.
“What, what is it!”
But that wasn’t what mattered.
[A white ship! A white ship is dropping anchor!]
The thought struck him like lightning.
[Dozens of anchors! The ship is dropping dozens of anchors!]
Seol Jihoo ran like the wind.
“Maria! Wake everyone up and bring them here!”
He called out only those words before disappearing.
Uuuuu…?
The moment he entered the Night Fog Zone, the sound grew strangely muffled. Soon the black lines that had obscured the crescent moon began sliding downward. Yes, exactly like a white ship dropping anchor.
Seol Jihoo reached his destination in mere seconds and spun around frantically, searching. Nothing. He was certain this was the place. But now even the yellow was fading, dissolving back into colorlessness!
‘What’s happening?’
He had the sinking feeling that if he missed this chance, he’d never get another. Frantic and desperate, Seol Jihoo scrambled up a nearby hillock. If nothing else, he’d see something from the top—or so he hoped.
The hill was less than six meters high, so he crested it quickly. The moment he looked down through the Nine Eyes, he finally saw the anomaly.
‘The yellow…’
It was disappearing. Seol Jihoo’s eyes narrowed. It was vanishing, yes, but not the way the fog’s colors normally shifted. Instead of bleeding together like watercolor, the large, round yellow orb was simply shrinking.
From the size of a house to a boulder, then a fist, then a point—and finally it vanished entirely, replaced by colorlessness.
“What in the…”
He muttered vaguely for a moment, then suddenly inhaled sharply. It was as if something had clicked into place. His companions arrived around that same time.
“What’s going on!”
Maria’s shout snapped him back to focus. He made sure he wouldn’t forget, glancing down once more at the spot where the yellow had been.
“What is it?”
“It didn’t disappear.”
“What do you mean?”
“It sensed me and went down. That’s why it looked smaller.”
“What, what are you talking about? Did you hurt yourself?”
Maria knit her brow.
He wasn’t certain. But if his hypothesis was right, several mysteries resolved. Why this area was so parched. Why there were holes everywhere. And….
Seol Jihoo drew his spear and struck the hillock. Thwack! The hard, compacted sand scattered, dust billowing.
It was like suddenly wielding a club on a moonlit night. Everyone stared blankly at the young man hammering at the hill—until Cho Hong, after watching for a moment, quietly pulled out her Mace.
“I want to ask what kind of midnight calisthenics this is. But I’m guessing we hit the hill, right?”
“Maybe not. But this area for sure.”
Boom! The moment Cho Hong joined in, the hill began crumbling rapidly. The lifeless earth gave way easily. As she swung the Mace harder and harder, she glanced sideways. “So why the sudden urge?”
“I heard something from the village. The Three Major Taboos.”
“The Three Major Taboos?”
“Sound, a gesture, and a person dressed in ash-gray clothes. Break any of these three, and you get abducted to another realm.”
“If it’s sound… you mean that uuuuu sound we heard?”
“Exactly.”
Seol Jihoo nodded as he dug at the hillock.
“And the gesture is probably metaphorical.”
“?”
“I stumbled onto it by accident. The thing below probably reveals itself sometimes when no one’s around in the Night Fog Zone. When it senses danger, it hides quickly. Given that it’s a mutant that leaves no traces, no wonder we couldn’t find it.”
Seol Jihoo spoke rapidly, urgency threading through every word.
“And the person in ash-gray clothes?”
“Don’t overthink it. Just remember the mutant’s color.”
“Hey, I have no idea what you’re saying?”
Cho Hong, frowning deeply, was in mid-swing of her Mace with all her strength when it happened.
Crack!
Suddenly something hard gave way beneath the impact. Cho Hong’s eyes widened as she felt the Mace sink deep into whatever lay below.
“This is…”

“So that’s it.”
Seol Jihoo’s eyes lit up.
“It was never another dimension. Someone fabricated the rumors to hide something.”
Cho Hong still looked bewildered—the difference between someone who threw themselves into a job blindly and someone who’d done their homework beforehand.
“Don’t dig any deeper. Let’s try shaving away the side instead.”
When four warriors pooled their magical energy to tear through the hillock, it quickly began to resemble an apple gnawed hollow by rats.
A moment passed.
The team stared in wonder at a boulder that seemed to be deliberately sealing something inside.
“Good heavens… why on earth is this here?”
“The Night Fog Zone has rolling terrain. One extra hill wouldn’t be out of place.”
Seol Jihoo answered Veronica’s question quietly.
“Someone constructed an artificial mound to cover the entrance. For the purpose of hiding something.”
“I… I didn’t know. There wasn’t the slightest trace of human work.”
Veronica’s words faltered.
“That makes sense. It’s one of the places sealed years ago. For something this small, that would’ve been plenty of time for the artificial work to blend back into nature.”
“Years ago? Sealed?”
Seol Jihoo opened his mouth to say that whoever had hidden this was extremely meticulous, then thought better of it. No point explaining—they wouldn’t understand.
“Either way, let’s just move that thing first.”
Cho Hong, impatient by nature, rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward. Gyeol Shal, Mikhail, and Seol Jihoo joined her. Groan, groan-crack! As the boulder scraped away with a thunderous sound, the sealed Stone Cavern was finally revealed.
“So.”
Mikhail swallowed.
“The secret of the mystery is sleeping in there?”
Seol Jihoo nodded wordlessly. Now it was certain. From the moment the entrance appeared, the hillock had shifted to yellow. There was one more thing he’d learned: colorless was the most variable of the four directional orientations.
“Ha! Now that’s what I call perfection! Leveling up by solving a mystery—could things get any better!”
Mikhail’s voice rang with excitement as he already painted rosy visions of the future.
“Good! Very good! Leader! Let’s go in!”
The team quickly formed their advance order. Tap, tap! Veronica, who had knocked on the entrance and tossed a few stones inside to scout, nodded and took the lead.
The six of them walked for some time down a humid passage sloping downward. As the corridor neared its end, a wavering glow appeared ahead. When the team cautiously stepped inside, a vast hollow opened before their eyes.
The interior wasn’t as dark as expected. Luminescent Stones were embedded here and there, casting light—clear evidence of human work.
The only disappointing part was that compared to the expanse, there was almost nothing to see. All visible were a ceiling barely exceeding four meters and a single tunnel opening in the distance across the way—a barren, desolate earthen chamber.
“Hmm… just to be safe, I’ll look around a bit.”
Veronica tilted her head slightly and moved forward with deliberate steps.
“This doesn’t add up…”
Seol Jihoo murmured to himself.
“Hey. How did you even find this place? I never would’ve thought of it.”
Gyeol Shal asked, genuine curiosity in his expression.
“Ah, I figured there might be a laboratory somewhere in Lamman Village.”
“A laboratory?”
“It’s mentioned in the Empire’s historical records. After the Parasites invaded…”
Seol Jihoo let out a long breath after his brief explanation.
“Lamman Village itself isn’t named, but Ian thought the Mutants might be the result of those experiments.”
“Wait. Didn’t they say the research facility was in the Delphinion Kingdom?”
“That’s the main branch. If they set up laboratories across the entire region, I thought this might be one of them…”
As Seol Jihoo’s words trailed off, Gyeol Shal frowned.
“I see. For a laboratory, this is pretty crude. Doesn’t look like there’d be much of anything here.”
That was true. Despite being supposedly a research outpost, there wasn’t a single piece of standard equipment. There should at least be flasks or something. Even a mine would be better equipped than this. Considering the technological prowess of the Empire, which stood at the pinnacle of Magical Engineering, this was simply impossible.
‘Did the Village Chief lie after all?’
Just then, Veronica returned from her reconnaissance.
“Damn it. There’s nothing.”
“You didn’t see any footprints or anything like that?”
“It’s definitely been made by people…”
Veronica shook her head.
“No traces whatsoever. The most I can tell you is that this space we’re standing in has had no visitors for at least three months. Beyond that, I can’t read. Sorry.”
That left only the other tunnel visible across the way.
“I hope there’s at least something over there.”
Veronica licked her lips and took the lead again. Just as she was about to guide the team forward, Seol Jihoo’s eyes went wide and he caught himself.
“Wait!”

(Continued in the next chapter)

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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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