You Have Been Invited to the Auction House of the Gods - Chapter 159

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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159

 

They headed toward the warehouse district near Mokpo Port.

 

We parked our delivery truck nearby and followed them in.

 

Since it was already late at night, only a few sparse port management lights were on.

 

They entered a medium-sized warehouse in the corner.

 

Geumja and I infiltrated inside a beat later.

 

Inside the warehouse, containers and wooden boxes were stacked haphazardly.

 

I climbed up the steel pillars and hid myself in the ceiling.

 

Looking down below, there was an old sofa and a glass table sitting alone in the center of the warehouse.

 

They spread out snacks from convenience store plastic bags and opened cans of beer one by one.

 

Through a slightly open gap, I could see inside a box containing what appeared to be several pieces of celadon pottery.

 

They weren’t crude enough to be called fakes.

 

At least to the eye, they looked authentic enough that it wouldn’t be strange to call them genuine.

 

Soon I could guess their nationality from the conversation that followed.

 

“, .”

 

“Don’t use mainland language, speak in Joseon.”

 

The man who appeared to be the leader spoke in an irritated voice.

 

It was Korean with clumsy pronunciation.

 

“When it’s just us, it shouldn’t matter.”

 

The man who had been speaking Chinese grumbled unnecessarily and took a sip of beer.

 

Another man listening nearby quickly opened his mouth to change the subject.

 

“Senior Brother, just selling these would let us eat and play for a lifetime.”

 

He grinned while stroking the Goryeo celadon in the box.

 

At those words, the face of the man called Senior Brother frowned.

 

“Look at this half-wit.”

 

He placed his can on the table and continued speaking.

 

“Didn’t I say our target isn’t these kinds of antiques? How many times do I have to tell you that the Goryeo celadon is for disguise?”

 

‘The celadon is a disguise…’

 

“Don’t forget that the Goryeo sword on Amtae Island is our target.”

 

‘Just smugglers then.’

 

The kind who disguise themselves with Goryeo celadon while targeting more expensive relics…

 

When doing such work in the shadows, Ghostly Energy often came to dwell in living people’s bodies.

 

Especially if it involved grave robbing from the dead, the possibility was even higher.

 

‘I’ll just need to deal with the Ghostly Energy later.’

 

I was planning to leave the criminal acts to the police.

 

It was just as I was about to lose interest and return.

 

“Even if it’s Master’s order, is there really a sword containing Divine Power on this Joseon peninsula?”

 

The grumbling subordinate’s words made me stop.

 

‘Divine Power?’

 

I lowered my body back down.

 

Divine Power.

 

It was a word sufficient to change the situation.

 

“It’s certain. It’s the sword of a Goryeo military officer.”

 

At those words, I came to a conclusion.

 

‘I’ll have to crush them.’

 

But not right now.

 

***

 

‘An abandoned dungeon…’

 

I quickly skimmed through the information Geumja had brought.

 

Musinryeong on Amtae Island.

 

That was the name of the dungeon the smugglers were talking about.

 

The reason I was certain it was that place wasn’t because of the name.

 

Of course, it was a fitting name for a place that might contain a Goryeo military officer’s sword, but Amtae Island only had one dungeon to begin with: Musinryeong.

 

According to the information, it was confirmed to be a conditional dungeon with a structure that required meeting specific conditions presented by the dungeon to clear it.

 

Inside, there was a single Goryeo-era house with a massive burial mound behind it.

 

Other than that, there were numerous training dummies and training equipment in front of the house.

 

That was the entire structure of Musinryeung.

 

What was notable was that this dungeon had never been cleared even once.

 

When it was first discovered, there were attempts to turn it into a tourist destination like the Namhansanseong Dungeon.

 

The traditional house architecture and training equipment that would have been used at the time were sufficient for use as an experiential learning center, as long as safety could be confirmed.

 

But that attempt was scrapped before it could even become a tourist destination.

 

It happened the moment a civil servant, who thought he just needed to meet simple exercise conditions, placed an empty barbell from equipment resembling a Smith machine on his shoulders.

 

Was the dungeon’s owner a gym enthusiast?

 

The number 1,000 was updated.

 

The civil servant did squats trying to escape somehow,

 

but the dungeon owner understood progressive overload, befitting someone with such gym-enthusiast clear requirements.

 

Weight began automatically filling the empty barbell,

 

and eventually his muscles gave out, but the Smith machine wouldn’t let him go.

 

Instead, as if telling him to overcome it with mental strength, it only displayed more message windows.

 

Eventually the city government requested help from the Association,

 

and the Association spent a fortune to recruit foreign gimmick experts before the civil servant could finally escape the dungeon.

 

After that incident, the Association vehemently opposed turning the dungeon into a tourist destination,

 

and Musinryeung was essentially abandoned.

 

Since there were no monsters or external threats to begin with, it became a dungeon that didn’t require personnel investment and only received formal inspections once or twice a year.

 

The reason it was named Musinryeung was because of the tomb behind the house.

 

Extremely difficult dungeon clear conditions and a tomb with an unknown owner.

 

People speculated that if the tomb’s owner was from the Goryeo era, they probably weren’t an ordinary military officer,

 

and the dungeon began to be called ‘Musinryeung,’ the tomb of a military god.

 

More precisely, it was closer to the city government putting forward the name Musinryeung first for marketing purposes…

 

‘Are there hidden structures remaining?’

 

According to the Association report, there were no special features.

 

The burial mound was also judged to be part of the dungeon’s background, like the Goryeo-era house.

 

For now, I had no choice but to check it out directly.

 

Looking down below, those guys began to move.

 

Since it was called Amtae Island, I thought I’d have to take a boat to get there, but there was actually a bridge connecting to it.

 

Well, since they had already attempted to turn it into a tourist destination, transportation would have been arranged to some extent.

 

Since it was an island and dawn hours before sunrise, there were few people around.

 

Moreover, there was no one who would come near a closed dungeon.

 

No, if there were people near a closed dungeon, wouldn’t those people be suspicious characters instead?

 

Like those smugglers and me following behind them.

 

The smugglers were one thing, but I had somehow changed into black robes.

 

It was an assassin outfit with a face mask that covered even my nose, leaving only my eyes uncovered.

 

It was good for hiding my identity, and nothing beat black robes for blending into darkness.

 

The dungeon entrance was quite deep inside, with grass growing thickly as if it hadn’t been maintained.

 

Only an old hanok gate remained alone on the mountain slope – that was the dungeon’s entrance.

 

I followed the smugglers in after giving them a slight head start.

 

The inside of the dungeon was quiet.

 

The single hanok and training equipment I had seen in the report.

 

The training equipment was quite more varied than I had expected.

 

“First, we just need to meet the rep count.”

 

Following the words of the man called Senior Brother, the smugglers took positions at each piece of equipment.

 

Then they began exercising earnestly.

 

‘So the exercise count wasn’t the dungeon clear condition after all.’

 

Based on their behavior, filling the count seemed to be the first condition for going to the tomb, or to where the God of War’s sword was located.

 

If that was the first condition, it also made sense why the God of War’s sword with divine power hadn’t revealed itself.

 

The Association and guilds didn’t invest in dungeons that didn’t need to be cleared.

 

If there were no safety issues, it was more efficient to invest manpower in high-risk dungeons.

 

‘I should investigate all the unsolved dungeons later.’

 

Thinking that, I also casually lay down on the bench press.

 

[Lying Sky Push 0/1,000]

 

‘He’s definitely insane.’

 

I quickly pushed the empty bar.

 

Not only the count, but as the exercise progressed, the empty bar was filled with weight.

 

‘This would be a dungeon that gym enthusiasts would go crazy for.’

 

If the dungeon had been reviewed for normal counts and stability, it would have become a holy site for fitness enthusiasts rather than a cultural experience site.

 

An environment where you could focus solely on exercise without wasting time changing plates for progressive overload would be like heaven for fitness enthusiasts.

 

I quickly filled the count.

 

Feeling my chest pumped, I got up from the bench with a refreshed feeling.

 

Looking at the smugglers, they were almost dying.

 

‘At least the man called Senior Brother is doing better.’

 

But roughly considering the time, it would be a long while before they could finish on their own.

 

I used Stealth and got behind them.

 

Stealth aside, they already had no energy to look around due to the intense exercise.

 

To open the entrance quickly, I secretly helped lift their bars with the heart of an ancestor helping with an empty bar.

 

Normally they would find it strange if it suddenly became lighter, but the insane progressive overload that only the God of War would do didn’t provide them with rational thinking.

 

“Huff. Huff… Senior Brother, after lifting weights, my muscles seem to be growing. The bar feels light.”

 

“Phew… You’re definitely right. They say he’s the God of War of Goryeo, and this is certainly an excellent cultivation method.”

 

I chuckled at their conversation and accelerated filling the conditions.

 

When all the counts were satisfied—

 

The ground vibrated.

 

Something burst through the ground in front of the burial mound.

 

“That must be the entrance.”

 

One of the smugglers spoke up.

 

“It really was true. From now on it’s the real thing, so everyone stay sharp.”

 

The man called Senior Brother took out an old map from his chest and walked toward the entrance.

 

Toward the entrance of the real Musinryeong.

 

***

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