Chapter 6

Leveling Up Alone: Ragnarok - Chapter 5 (6/176)

Leveling Up Alone: Ragnarok Chapter 5

Suho looked at Ber with a bewildered expression.

"You greeted me so wistfully, and now you say you couldn't return?"

Ber tried to explain with an embarrassed look.

"......"

Suho stared at Ber in silence for a moment.

He said he had run out of energy, but compared to his grand entrance at the museum, he had shrunk drastically.

'It feels like I'm looking at a stuffed toy.'

Suho picked up Ber with one hand.

The mini-Ber dangled from Suho's hand, feeling as light as a prize from a claw machine.

Ber kept chattering away while hanging from Suho's hand.

"Shadow Lord? Who's that?"

"Our father?"

Suho momentarily doubted his ears.

"Our father? You mean the father who left home?"

"......?"

Suddenly, the scale of things became cosmic?

Not knowing how to react, Suho watched as Ber suddenly adopted a solemn expression and spread his arms wide.

Swish!

A shadow wavered from Ber's hand, made of black energy, and created a vision.

The shadow vision transformed into countless soldiers the size of fingernails, and even more monsters attacked them.

At the center,

a man with an especially strong aura was standing.

Of course, he was only the size of a fingernail.

Ber pointed to the enemies 'Seong Jin-woo' was blocking.

"Ita-rim?"

Ber continued to speak solemnly.

He described how vicious and tenacious the Ita-rim were.

Most of it was just curses, but in essence, they were invaders from another planet.

"So, the demons that poured out of the gate for the past two years were because of the Ita-rim?"

As Suho listened to the explanation, he felt a strange sensation.

Both of Suho's parents were missing.

He had reported them missing a long time ago, but the police had found no leads.

It was as if they had vanished from the face of the earth, and he had almost given up hope.

But now, they were suddenly in space?

It was a hard fact to believe, but the existence of a talking stuffed toy, or rather, a talking ant, was already an unrealistic situation.

After all, in a world where dungeons and demons existed, the addition of space wasn't that surprising.

Suho suddenly asked,

"Then what about my mother? Did she go to space too?"

Ber looked puzzled.

"What? No?"

Suho's expression hardened at Ber's reaction.

"I thought she would be with him since she disappeared on the same day my father vanished..."

Ber jumped up in shock.

"I don't know..."

Suho sighed softly.

* * *

Ber, who had flown from the outer space where the war with the Ita-rim was taking place, to Earth.

The journey was as perilous as Ber had exaggerated.

The enemies were not to be underestimated, and they didn't just let a general defect from the battlefield.

After barely breaking through the massive army and arriving on Earth, he found that the whereabouts of Seong Jin-woo's wife, Cha Hae-in, were unknown.

Ber was deeply shocked.

"Do you know where she is?"

Suho's mother, Cha Hae-in, was protected by the Shadow Lord and was generally safe from danger.

But if something had happened to her,

it must have involved a force equal to the Shadow Lord's power.

Despite Ber's alarm, Suho wasn't overly worried about his mother.

Of course, he was worried when she first went missing, but now that he knew his father's true identity, his mother no longer seemed like an ordinary human.

"Come to think of it, I've never seen my mother panic."

Given that she had known about his father's true identity all along, what could surprise her?

Ber mumbled something from the side, but Suho didn't hear it.

The mother Suho remembered was always calm and composed, never shaken.

Perhaps because of this, he couldn't imagine his mother being in danger.

But still, it was a stroke of luck to finally have a clue about his parents' disappearance.

"Ber, what do I need to do to find my mother?"

In response to Suho's question, Ber, still hanging from Suho's hand, shouted strongly.

"Get stronger?"

"Ant larva...?"

Suho was a bit hurt.

Regardless, Ber dispelled all the shadow visions he had created, flew up from Suho's hand, and pointed at Suho's feet.

Ding!

A message window appeared in front of Suho.

"Seong Suho, you are the son of the great Shadow Lord.

However, your innate talents are currently sealed.

To wield that great power, you must prove your worth.

Enter the Shadow Dungeon and prove your worth."

"Shadow Dungeon?"

The quest window that appeared in front of him.

As soon as Suho saw it, he remembered the 'Key to the Shadow Dungeon' that Ber had given him in his dream.

Focusing his mind, a translucent window appeared in front of him.

Key to the Shadow Dungeon (Unconfirmed)

'Even an inventory? This really feels like a game.'

He found it amazing.

When he was told that his teenage dream was a tutorial, now it seemed that all the game-like features were added.

Suho reached out and took the key.

An information window appeared above the key.

Acquisition Difficulty: ??

Type: Key

A key that allows you to enter the Shadow Dungeon.

Can be used on Seong Suho's shadow.

'Can be used on my shadow?'

Following the description, Suho's gaze dropped to his feet.

He knelt down and gently placed the tip of the key on his shadow.

Swoosh!

Surprisingly, the key entered the shadow.

Ber's eyes widened.

"Hold on."

Suho pulled the key out and quickly changed his clothes.

He took off the loose hospital gown and slippers, found his original clothes, and tied his shoelaces tightly.

With a determined look, Suho looked down at his shadow again.

"Alright, let's go."

He didn't really expect much.

Suho inserted the key into the shadow again.

Click.

"I will enter."

Whoosh!

As soon as he spoke, Suho's shadow spread out in all directions.

It began to engulf everything in sight.

The walls, the ceiling, and eventually the entire hospital building.

Suho found himself in a black-and-white world overlaid with shadows.

'Where am I?'

A serene silence, devoid of any signs of life.

A dense forest, dyed in black and white, awaited him.

Or rather, a ruined city that had turned into a forest.

The tall buildings were covered in moss and vines.

Suho suddenly remembered a book he had read as a child.

'The title was probably... Earth Without Humans?'

The book was a documentary about the Earth's self-recovery process.

In summary, it said that a city left unattended for a long time would be overgrown with plants, eventually turning into a forest.

Just like this place.

'This feels like a magic-contaminated field.'

In the quiet, Ber, who had followed Suho, flew up and saluted.

"Is this the Shadow Dungeon?"

Looking around, Suho felt an eerie sensation.

It felt like he had entered an old horror movie.

'...But why does it feel so familiar?'

Like everyone, it was impossible to vividly remember the memories of his infancy.

But the emotions and atmospheres from that time often remained deep in one's heart, even as an adult.

This black-and-white world, which might seem ominous to others, felt as warm and comforting as his mother's embrace to Suho.

At that moment,

Thud!

'Sense of danger?'

Suho's sensory stat sent a warning.

Whoosh!

A flying axe came from behind.

Hearing Ber's urgent cry, Suho immediately turned his body.

And delivered a powerful roundhouse kick!

Thud!

"Oof!"

The monster hit by Suho's kick tumbled awkwardly on the ground.

A name tag, like Ber's, floated above its head.

"Kik!"

Green skin.

A grotesque monster about a meter tall.

'Scout?'

As soon as Suho confirmed the name, he tensed up.

'If it's a scout, there might be others around!'

Suho had already fought countless battles in his teenage dreams.

The survival instincts ingrained in his body took over.

'I need to kill it before it calls for help!'

Swish!

Before the monster could get up, Suho lunged at it.

"I know!"

Crack!

Suho struck the goblin scout's hand, making it drop the axe.

Ber, flying above, clapped enthusiastically.

'Oh, so noisy.'

Snap!

Gripping the axe handle, Suho immediately swung it.

Crunch!

He beheaded the goblin in one swift motion.

But there was no time to catch his breath.

Swoosh!

A chilling wind came from behind.

'Sure enough, there's another one!'

An arrow flying through the air!

Suho instinctively reached out his hand.

'Power of the Overlord!'

Crack!

A transparent hand extended from Suho's hand and caught the flying arrow.

Seeing the arrow stop mid-air, Ber was overjoyed.

Ber remembered.

Suho's childhood, when he could walk in the air as a baby.