The Swordmaster Wants To Live Peacefully [EN]: Chapter 180

Swordmaster Wants to Live Peacefully – Episode 180

Swordmaster Wants to Live Peacefully 180

Elixir Crafting

“That’s how it is.”

-How long has it been since you got here, and you’re leaving again?

-Why China of all places? lol You can’t even go sightseeing. lol

-Can’t you sightsee in China?

-Don’t you watch the news? It’s been ages since tourism was blocked lol. You can’t even call it China anymore; it’s all split up.

-The Murim Alliance [a martial arts alliance] bastards are making a mess again… Oops! I didn’t say anything, Admin!

-lol The way of the Jianghu [the martial arts world] is a no-no jam.

“I don’t want to go either~!!”

Shua-Nael slumped in her chair and screamed.

It was a painful sound that only someone who really didn’t want to go could make.

“Sis, who are you talking to?”

Nox, who was intrigued, approached and asked.

The appearance of a new face reignited the chat, and Shua-Nael frowned and ended the broadcast.

The viewers were angry at the sudden end of the broadcast, but those who were going to watch would watch anyway, and those who weren’t wouldn’t.

Besides, she also knew that it wasn’t a good idea to show Nox.

She hugged Nox tightly, having done something responsible for the first time in a while.

***

Yoosungwoo told Shua-Nael that, but he wasn’t leaving for China right away.

He was planning to gather what he could in Korea for the elixir crafting and then head to the Demonic Cult’s warehouse to raid it.

“It would be okay to raid the Murim Alliance, too.”

He had already raided it once, but he could raid it again.

It had been quite a while, so they would have refilled the elixir warehouse.

Yoosungwoo’s heart fluttered at the thought of becoming a not-so-righteous robber.

“Hmm, everyone is motivated because they have a purpose. Yes, this kind of motivation is necessary.”

Yoosungwoo had brought the Sword Soul’s divers to the 2nd-grade Abyss [a dangerous, monster-filled area].

Since the herbs needed for elixir crafting grew naturally in this Abyss, he was proceeding with the raid with Hetris, who could identify the herbs.

“Oh! It’s blooming here too!”

The 2nd-grade Abyss, ‘Azure Haze (晴嵐)’, was a forest centered around a lake, filled with mist.

A special space where it was easy to get lost without a guide.

Here, ‘Mist-Kissed Bloom,’ an herb needed for elixir crafting, grew naturally.

It had the property of absorbing magic power, so it was often used as a base for making various potions.

It was an item with a limited supply because it was an herb that bloomed in an Abyss managed by the country.

The amount in the Meteor Industries’ warehouse was not enough, so he had come to collect it.

“Don’t go too far. It’s annoying to look for you if you get lost.”

“Yes! I understand!”

Hetris was excited to collect the Mist-Kissed Bloom.

Meanwhile, the other divers guarded the surroundings.

The monsters that appeared in Azure Haze were giant snails that roamed around the lake.

The snails, which moved at a terrifying speed for snails, appeared in the mist.

They ambushed from the mist or attacked and devoured those who got lost in the mist.

“Two on the left. Three in the rear.”

As Yoosungwoo spoke quietly, the divers quickly took their positions and finished preparing to respond.

Then, the snails stretched out their bodies from the mist and ambushed.

The snails, larger than ordinary wild boars, rushed in, spewing stomach acid in all directions.

The divers, who had faced them several times, skillfully dealt with the snails.

Having been specially trained by Yoosungwoo, the monsters of the 2nd-grade Abyss were not a difficult opponent for them.

The divers, who had quickly defeated five snails, shook off the bodily fluids from their weapons.

“It’s a bit of a shame that we can’t catch the Abyss’s boss.”

If they killed the boss, the Abyss would close, and they would no longer be able to collect the Mist-Kissed Bloom.

Since it was an Abyss rented from the country, it was also forbidden to collect more than a certain amount of Mist-Kissed Bloom.

“Can’t we buy this Abyss?”

When Yoosungwoo asked Yoo Jiwoo, who was wiping the bodily fluids from her armor with a dry towel, she replied.

“They probably won’t sell it even if you want to buy it? It’s one of the government’s main sources of income.”

“Hmm, I should try to negotiate once.”

“…Don’t. They’ll have no choice but to hand it over if you step in, Oppa [term of endearment for older brother or male friend].”

“Why? Isn’t it good to monopolize it?”

“It’s fine because it’s being operated in a fairly reasonable way now. It’ll be more annoying to manage if you buy it.”

“I see.”

Yoosungwoo didn’t say anything more.

Yoo Jiwoo was an expert in this kind of thing, so he didn’t feel the need to say anything more.

Yoosungwoo, who was waiting for Hetris to finish collecting, sighed deeply.

“I told you not to go too far.”

The presence of Hetris, who was clearly digging for Mist-Kissed Bloom nearby, had disappeared.

The mist of Azure Haze was a special mist full of magic power, so there was a limit to detecting presence.

He couldn’t feel Hetris’s presence, so he said, wondering how far she had gone.

“Did anyone see where she went?”

“…….”

There was no answer.

At that moment, Yoosungwoo sensed something was wrong. How could so many people not have seen where she went?

It might just be carelessness, but seeing that she had quickly moved out of Yoosungwoo’s detection range, it didn’t seem like simple carelessness.

Wasn’t it closer to kidnapping?

“Hmm.”

After thinking for a moment, he said.

“Hold your positions. It seems like something has happened.”

In this kind of terrain, it was more dangerous to split up and search.

If there was someone in the mist who kidnapped Hetris, they would try to defeat those who were scattered one by one.

Yoosungwoo, who told them to hold their positions, moved into the mist.

***

“Huh?!”

Had she lost consciousness for a moment?

Hetris, who opened her eyes wide, traced back her last memory.

She was clearly collecting Mist-Kissed Bloom.

But suddenly, why was she tied up in this unknown cave?

Even with her good head, she couldn’t keep up with the situation.

“Hmm, this is a bit difficult.”

Judging by the tingling in the back of her head, she probably got hit and passed out.

Hetris was a B-grade diver. Her body was that strong, so she wouldn’t pass out from ordinary shocks.

But no matter how absorbed she was in the herbs, she must have been knocked out instantly, so the kidnapper must have been quite a strong opponent.

She struggled to break free from the restraints on her hands and feet, but they didn’t come loose at all.

“You’re awake.”

She raised her head at the sudden voice.

There was a being with only a pair of green eyes in the darkness.

The echoing voice made it difficult to tell whether the other person was a woman or a man.

“I thought you’d be asleep a little longer… You woke up earlier than expected.”

“Who are you? Hmm, I don’t have any reason to be resented.”

“I have nothing to tell you. My goal isn’t you. You’re just bait.”

“Hmm, me being bait… Are you trying to lure Representative Yoosungwoo? I think you’re a little mistaken…….”

“The saying that he doesn’t care about hostages doesn’t work. I’ve already figured out his tendencies.”

“No, that’s not it, I’m saying why did you even bother? You’re just going to get robbed…….”

Hetris really didn’t understand.

Yoosungwoo had proven his strength several times.

There were things that weren’t known, but even the known things were beyond what ordinary divers could do.

So why attack him?

He had the power to face a country alone.

“Why don’t you know that if you mess with the people around him, you’ll only get hurt more? Originally, the deaths of the people around the main characters are the trigger for power-ups.”

“…Say what you want. Either way, that guy is going to die here today.”

Hetris realized from his words that the other party had been preparing for a long time.

The voice full of confidence was not something that could be easily uttered.

But how did he know that he would come to this Azure Haze and prepare?

‘If they pushed with quantity, it would be possible. They steadily grasped the trends until they entered an Abyss with an environment like Azure Haze…….’

A group suddenly stuck in her head as she thought so.

And at the same time, countless green eyes floated up from the darkness.

Hetris, faced with the terrifying sight, was shocked again in the back of her head and passed out.

***

‘There are almost no traces.’

Yoosungwoo searched around the area where Hetris’s presence was last felt.

There were traces of Hetris digging for Mist-Kissed Bloom, but there were no traces of her moving anywhere.

The traces were completely cut off here. Snails leave traces, but there weren’t even those traces.

‘There’s another culprit.’

The guy who took Hetris wasn’t one person, but several.

He couldn’t have kidnapped and erased the traces so quickly at the same time alone.

‘I don’t have any idea who it could be…….’

There were so many guys who resented him.

But seeing that they were confidently doing things like this in front of him, it was clear that they were confident in their strength.

If so, the guys he could guess were the Ascendant Church.

And the Chaos forces.

“…I thought they were quiet these days, but have they started moving again?”

Since Andro in the Korean branch was annihilated, they must have realized that they couldn’t win with a frontal fight.

So, was this kidnapping of a person nearby in this environment what they did to give it a little variation?

He felt extremely dirty.

There were guys who committed this kind of thing even in another world.

Since they couldn’t kill him, they kidnapped the people around him and took them hostage.

‘They’re looking at me too softly.’

Probably the guys who kidnapped Hetris had been investigating his tendencies for a long time.

At first glance, it seemed like he was treating the people around him harshly, but he knew that he took good care of them…….

‘They must have been waiting for me to enter an Abyss in this kind of environment. Seeing that they kidnapped me as soon as I came in, as if they had been waiting.’

Yoosungwoo frowned.

At least until he entered the Abyss, there was no guy caught in his senses.

That meant that they were either stealing information from inside the guild and waiting inside, or they were the owners of tremendous stealth skills that wouldn’t be caught by his senses.

“Stealth skills that can escape the senses of a Swordmaster.”

That level of stealth was not very common.

Even in another world, only assassins who had reached the level of Swordmaster showed such stealth.

‘Is there that level of assassin on Earth?’

He thought for a moment and then shook his head.

“It seems like I’ve gotten softer.”

Yoosungwoo stretched out his back, closed his eyes, and spread his senses to the maximum.

Through delicate aura manipulation skills, he spread aura in all directions, grasped the shape of the aura returning like ultrasound, and drew a conceptual diagram of the surrounding environment in his head.

And finally, he caught a very small trace.

No matter how much you erase the traces, you can’t erase them completely.

Yoosungwoo opened his eyes and turned his head.

Red eyes sharply watched the mist.

“There you are.”