Secret Cave 4
As if one wasn’t enough, three more bats were added because of the scent that was said to sting the life out of three.
But the guy keeps nagging for more, as if he’s having fun.
-Tsururut!
“Oh, that’s enough. Three was enough. The scent was good.”
“Okay. Okay, good job.”
-Tsuru···.
I barely managed to calm my nerves and entered the passageway.
But the guys’ grumbling continued for a while.
The guys who had settled on both shoulders were squirming at the bugs that occasionally appeared in the passageway, as if they were practicing their shooting skills.
Eventually, after giving them a stern warning that they shouldn’t kill indiscriminately, the guys stopped making noise and were able to hurry their steps.
“Oh, you shouldn’t kill living creatures without permission.”
Da-kyung, who had been encouraging the second daughter, Hyang-i, and the third daughter, Bin-i, to move inward,
-Pong. Pong.
In the midst of the cave where only the sound of water drops falling from the ceiling and our footsteps echoed quietly, the voice of Seol’s sister, who was walking along the wall while examining it, could be heard along the cave wall.
“But there’s nothing special? I thought there would be something there since it’s where the Odokmun is sealed.”
As my sister said, the long cave continues on and no special traces have been found.
There was absolutely no sign of people in the long passage.
All that can be seen is water flowing out of a crevice in a rock and then flowing into another crevice in the rock, and stalactites growing from above becoming one with stalagmites to form stone columns.
-Tsurut!
Hyang-i, who had been looking around on my shoulder, was startled when a cold drop of water hit her head and she shook her antennae.
“That’s surprising. The scent. Just a moment, Dad will clean it for you.”
He answered his older sister’s words while wiping the drops of water that fell on Hyang-i’s head with his sleeve.
“There might have been something in the cave where we first came down, but the entrance there was collapsed and covered in bat droppings… This looks like a passageway. Let’s go a little further.”
“That’s true, but how long does this passageway last?”
“well?”
I started walking again and followed the long cave for about an hour.
“Huh!? It looks like something’s going to come out!?”
As my older sister said, the passage seemed to have widened a bit, and then a fairly large space appeared.
A large rectangular space, about 100 pyeong in size, appeared before my eyes, clearly artificial.
“What is this place?”
“Is it like a training ground?”
When I entered the entrance, I thought it was like a martial arts studio, but as I walked about halfway, the lights from the lanterns we were holding brought the surroundings into view at a glance.
“There are quite a lot of oysters?”
“Hey! It’s a typo.”
As Seol Nui had said, there were several smaller holes on the left and right than the caves they had walked through so far, and on the wall facing the direction that Hwa Eun had pointed to, there was a beautiful carving of five poisonous creatures.
The five poisonous creatures, including a snail, a snake, a snail, a snail, and a tortoise, were beautifully engraved and maintained in almost their original, pristine form even after a hundred years.
And the sight of skeletons scattered all over the floor was visible.
Perhaps this is the final battleground?
“Is this perhaps the last stronghold of the Odokmun?”
“I guess so. What should I do? Should I wait here? Or should I take a quick look around?”
We decided to go in first and look around, but we haven’t set a clear boundary for the mission yet.
First, I looked around and thought about it.
‘It doesn’t seem like there would be any Odokmun bastards who survived…’
There was a white layer of dust around, and judging by the fact that the body had not been collected, it did not appear that the surviving Odokmun had visited.
So far, nothing dangerous had happened, and it didn’t seem like anything dangerous would happen, so I smiled and answered my sister Seol.
“Hmm. Should we look around a bit more? It might be fun.”
It had been a bit boring until a little while ago, but when we came across a place with a wall engraved with five poisons that looked like ancient ruins, we thought it might be fun, as if we were archaeologists exploring ancient ruins.
‘Do I feel like a grave robber?’
“I wonder? I’m finally starting to have some fun now.”
“Sister, Little Dragon, we didn’t come here to play right now···.”
“We’re not here to play. Let’s search a little more. Right, Ryong?”
“Yes, Sister Seol. Then, let’s check the cave over there first.”
“Okay, let’s go!”
Sister Seol and I were siblings in our past life, or maybe we were siblings in our previous life?
I caught a glimpse of Hwa-eun nodding her head in agreement with my conversation with Seol-nu, who was a good match for me, but I pretended not to notice and decided to search the cave on the right first.
As you enter the passageway, which is about a meter high, you see connected rooms.
It looked like a place carved out of a rock, but the place we entered was a space with rooms connected by a long corridor, like a dormitory.
“This looks like the rooms are connected?”
‘Is this a residential area?’
I searched every room to see if they had wiped out everything, but there was nothing there.
Bedding and pillows had been torn off, and boxes that were likely used to store personal belongings were lying open, smashed and disheveled.
The air was better than expected, perhaps because there was a separate vent or something, and the other cave next door looked like a restaurant, but the food they had stored there was dried out or rotted and scattered around.
Next to it was a food warehouse and an area to store things like clothes and bedding.
After thoroughly checking all the caves on the right, Seol’s sister, who had taken oil out of her luggage and filled the lantern, said with a bored expression.
“Is this just a place to eat and sleep? It’s boring.”
“That’s right.”
As Sister Seol said, there was nothing special on the right side.
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A collection of spaces necessary for living.
Still, I had to find traces of the people of Odokmun who escaped alive, so I moved my steps to the left of the common area.
“By the way, I came here to look for traces of the Odokmun’s survival, but this makes me think that maybe those who were outside survived.”
“I guess so. If he had survived, we would have recovered his body.”
Looking at the skeletons wearing torn clothes here and there, everyone concluded that the guys who had been here had not escaped.
We searched the left side of the common area, but there were burnt-out warehouses, storage rooms, and several large rooms, but they were full of smashed furniture and mostly burned-out spaces.
“It looks like it was completely burned down.”
“It seems that the Odukmun sect was destroyed and burned down a hundred years ago.”
A place like the central square where I eventually returned without finding anything.
I couldn’t just stand there, so I looked around and saw something like a foundation in front of the central wall with five poisons engraved on it.
“I can just stand there and wait, but should I go over there and sit down?”
“I wonder?”
“Yes, Little Dragon.”
As you get closer, you can see the five poisons carved into the wall in more detail.
It looked like a snake, a fox, a scorpion, a lizard, and a toad were competing over a round stone ball the size of the palm of one’s hand.
First, they took out a cloth from the bundle they were carrying on their backs, laid it on something like an altar, and sat down side by side on it, looking at the wall.
“···.”
A quiet space where no sound can be heard.
For some reason, it felt awkward and playful to just stay silent, so I spoke to my sister Seol.
“Sister Seol, do you know that?”
“What is that?”
When I asked her if she knew that right away, Seol tilted her head in confusion.
He approached the wall carved with five poisons and spoke.
“There’s a wall that originally had these kinds of beads embedded in it. If you press on the beads, a hidden door might appear.”
“what?”
“Really?”
This is a consistent cliche from the escape room games I played in my past life, all of which had an ancient feel to them.
The typical structure of such games is that when you press the bead-like part in the center of the poison, a secret passage is revealed.
Well, that wouldn’t be the case here either, but to liven up the awkward atmosphere, I went up to the bottom of the marble and tapped it.
With a cheeky expression.
“Like this.”
-Knock knock!
Then, Sister Seol, who had jumped down from the foundation, came close to me and kept pressing the bead shape herself.
“What? The hidden door isn’t coming out?”
“Haha, well that could be the case, but it’s not necessarily true.”
It’s just a cliche in the game, but how could it really be like that?
When I replied with a smile, Seol-nu pouts.
“What is that···.”
“Or maybe I could breathe life into this bead-like thing…”
It was the moment when he played such a prank on his sister Seol and really breathed life into the stone ball.
-Kurrrrrr.
Suddenly, a loud noise was heard from behind the stone wall, and light entered the eyes of the five poisonous creatures.
-Flash.
Wukong (蜈蚣, civet), Sa (蛇, snake), Heol (蠍, hawk moth), Seokcheok (蜥蜴, lizard), Shaanxi (蟾蜍, toad).
Five things, red, blue, green, white, and black, embedded in the eyes of the five poisons began to emit light.
‘No, is this really possible!?’
The light from the five poisons illuminated the altar where we were sitting, and I jumped back in surprise and shouted in disbelief. Then, Seol Noo-i and Hwa-eun came up to me and praised me.
“So, So-ryong is amazing!”
“I thought the dragon was playing around, but he figured out how to move the organs in an instant!”
-Kwarrrr.
And amidst the two women’s praise, the bead I had breathed energy into went inward, revealing a large passage in the middle of the five poisons.
“Oh! Dragon, the door is really open!”
“Little Dragon, just like Little Dragon said, the door opened and a passageway appeared!”
-Tsurut!
-Kissit!
-Kkuku!
It felt like everyone, including the Wukongs, the Seokchuks, and even the Yohwa, were praising me, saying that I was amazing.
It was like catching a rat after backing away from a cow, but I answered with an expression that it was obvious.
“Haha, what, is that what you expected?”
There aren’t many opportunities to appear intelligent like this.
***
-Whew.
The first thing that came in was the wind, as the exposed passage was well ventilated.
Sister Seol held up the lantern and illuminated the other side.
Then, a long passage leading to darkness far away where the light entering the eyes cannot reach.
Seol asked, looking into the passage with a curious expression.
“What should I do? Should I go further? Or should I wait?”
The story is about deciding whether to go further or wait for people.
First, I looked at Hwa-eun.
Because we had an experience a while ago where we poured cold water on the topic of fun.
Then, Hwa-eun, who had caught my gaze, spoke with sparkling eyes, contrary to my expectations.
“Let’s go!”
“really?”
Seol Nuui must have expected opposition, because she didn’t know that Hwa Eun would suggest going like that. Hwa Eun scratched the chins of the Seok Cheoks for no reason and made excuses.
“Well, isn’t the organ ceremonial system si, amazing? Even in the Dang family, organ ceremonial systems are considered important···. Look, it’s not bad to look at it···. You can also use it for memorization···.”
‘Oh my, Hwa-eun doesn’t really like this kind of thing?’
Hwa-eun, who seems to have a penchant for machines.
Of course, Sister Seol will say let’s go, and I also want to go even more.
I quickly shouted at the two of them.
“wait a minute!”
“Little dragon? Where are you going? Little dragon?”
“Dragon!?”
Even Hwa-eun, who had been conservative, changed her mind after seeing the organs being burned, so she quickly ran to the burned-out space on the left and brought a piece of burned wood.
“Gasp, gasp… Usually, these doors might close when you go out, right? So we have to leave a note saying that we went inside.”
“Aha! Okay, let’s leave it behind and go in.”
I removed the cloth that had been placed on something like a foundation, and quickly wrote on two walls with the foundation and the five poisons.
He told me to breathe life into the bead in the middle of the five poisons.
And as we all entered the open hole, we heard the sound of an engine moving.
-Kururur.
“It’s really closing!?”
“Little Dragon, how do you know so much about this?”
“Well, that, just···.”
I answered awkwardly and looked at the closing wall.
Thinking about Hwa-eun’s question, I wonder if perhaps the game of the previous life was a simulator of these types of organs?
That’s what I was thinking.
Soon the organ moved and the wall we had passed through closed completely, and on the shiny, bare wall, a single line of ominous text was written in something dark red.
“Odokmun will never forget this grudge.”
Odokmun I had a feeling that some of these guys must have escaped through this passage.
