After three days of ‘death’ penalty, Ian finally entered the underworld in a living state.

‘Now I will be able to properly explore the underworld!’

But that was a perfect miscalculation on the part of Ian.

The land of Darkness, ‘Erebus’, wasn’t a place that the ones in ‘living state’ could enter.

First problem that Ian had realized, if he dies from the attack of a monster from Underworld, he would get penalized again.

Underworld King Mukan, was also an NPC of the underworld, because of that he died and received a ‘dead state’ penalty.

And this was all comprehensible.

And surely the death penalty was going to be a level higher than the normal death penalty, but it was still risky.

However, for Ian, there was something that was much more terrifying than that…

An NPC, an ‘overseeing inspector’ which was called as the ‘Keeper of Underworld’.

‘It was good at getting the most information out of Thanatos. It would have been a real deal for me if that woofer uncle didn’t cross my path. If I just wandered around and met that inspector… even thinking about it is terrible.’

In the Kailan, it was against the God’s order to wander around the Land of Darkness, Erebus in the state of ‘living’.

Therefore, if he was caught by the ‘overseeing inspector’, he would make the intruder receive a ‘Dark Judgment’.

What is dark judgment?

[Dark Judgement: prisoner of the Underworld, being trapped in the Tartarus for 10 days, and being trapped in the Tartarus reduced 1% of experience every hour.]

A terrible punishment that caused him nothing to do for ten whole days and a chance to lose the experience of more than two levels.

And because of these penalties, Ian could hardly hunt in the underworld.

Most of the hunting grounds near the Thanatos was under the constant inspection of him.

Because of that, Ian carefully visited the place, precisely Erebus, while avoiding the inspectors.

So far, Ian briefly summarized the information that he had obtained out there.

1. The ‘Living state’ one can live in Erebus too, but if caught by the overseeing inspector, that one would get held in the Tartarus for 10 long days.

2. Before crossing the river Acheron, the outside of Erebus called—Dark Abyss exists.

3. When the transcendence level is low, good hunting grounds are present in the Dark Abyss when compared to Erebus.

4. Normally, the soul of the dead doesn’t enter the Dark Abyss and flows directly from the Erebus. And will stay for a duration of one year.

5. The Death Coins, the currency of Underworld, which can be obtained from the village of Alba of Thanatos, can be used everywhere, and the Death Coins got from the Dark Abyss were very hard to get.

6. If one possesses the Death Coins, one can enter the hidden dungeon in the Dark Abyss. The better the dungeon, the more the Death Coins required.

7. If killed by a monster of the underworld, instead of being subject to the existing death penalty, one would get the penalty that was a ‘dead’ state.

And the time it took Ian to gather all the information was about ten days.

And if he included the time he worked as dead, then it was thirteen days.

He spent a lot of time.

However, Ian was very satisfied with his achievements.

‘Because I got some really great information.’

Which was the core information of the seven things of Ian?

Other information was surely attractive enough, but the most important thing for Ian was the fourth option.

It was an important clue for Ian to find the Behemoth.

‘When I killed Behemoth… was 4 to 5 months ago. So his soul will surely be still in Erebus.’

That was what Ian had come up with.

The behemoth that Ian had himself hunted in the Devildom would surely still be in Erebus.

So where was the dead behemoth that died in the hands of Ian, now?

He learned from the information of the town chief of Thanatos, Uras Kane.

-There are four rivers in Erebus. And the area is dived around them. Did you know that?

-I know that it is divided into three sections, chief.

-Right. Seems like Karon has told you.

-Yes.

-Okay then, I’ll explain it in an easy way.

-I’ll listen then.

-Right now, where the village of Thanatos is. In other words, the first section of Erebus, the soul of the dead stays for 5 months.

-Ah, I guess it differs based on the zones.

-Right. After staying here for a minimum of 5 months, the soul is entitled to the Cocytos.

-Ah, then you said a ‘minimum’.

-Right. Even when qualified, it doesn’t have to move.

-I understand.

-Nice, then I’ll keep going on. The souls which have reached the Cocytos and arrived at the second zone of Erebus are given only 4 months to turn eligible for crossing the next river.

-You mean the river of flames, Phlegethon.

-Oh oh, you know about Phlegethon, that’s good. Anyway, if the river of flames is crossed; the third zone will be reached, and within three months, one will be eligible for the river of oblivion.

-5… 4, 3. That is a total of 12 months.

-Yes, that was why I said that one would stay for at least 12 months in Erebus.

‘If it wasn’t my really bad luck. Then the Behemoth wouldn’t have crossed the Cocytos river yet.’

Ian had hunted the behemoth 4 to 5 months ago.

And even if the five months have passed because of the miscalculation, there was a high probability that the behemoth hadn’t moved to the second zone yet.

‘I need to find that Behemoth. Only if I get that behemoth, I’ll be able to set aside the Underworld and attack the Spirit dimension.’

Based on the obtained information Ian had obtained so far, most of the main content of the Underworld was in Erebus.

And to be an active user in Erebus, one had to become an Intermediate being by obtaining the ‘Valor’s qualification’.

‘The only thing that can be done in the Dark Abyss is to raise the transcendence level. And the transcendence level can be raised even by hunting on the grounds of the Spirit Dimension or this Underworld.’

And unlike the Dark Abyss hunting ground which Ian had to share with the Titan’s, Ian could probably monopolize the spirit dimension.

“Nice. Then should I move slowly?”

Ian’s transcendence level was just 2.

It was because he couldn’t hunt while trying to avoid the confrontation with the ‘overseeing inspector’.

But catching the Behemoth wasn’t such a worrisome matter for Ian.

Ian had the ‘Spirit Magic Seal Stone’ he had obtained from Gripper.

Spirit Magic Seal Stone –

Classification – Miscellaneous

Rank – Hero

This is an artifact that can be used to seal the spirit of a specific magical beast, it was created by the Dimension’s Keeper Gripper, by using his magical engineering.

If you process the seal on the magical beast, then you will be able to acquire the spirit segment of that specific magical beast.

Only one soul can be sealed at a time, and once used, it can’t be used once again. It is a one-time use monster.

At the time of sealing the spirit, you can acquire a minimum of 30 to a maximum of 100 spirits at a random.

Can’t be used on humans and humanoid species.

Can’t be used on living targets.

Can’t be used on a named boss monster.

Gripper has said that it had to be used in less than 1 minute of death.

-How is this meant to be used? That is simple. Hunt the behemoth, and activate the spirit magic seal stone against the carcass to extract the spirit power. It needs to be done in less than a minute.

And now Ian, who died, understood the meaning for that one-minute time gap.

‘One minute from death, before the grim reaper comes to pick it up.’

When Ian had turned dead, it took the grim reaper one minute to meet Ian.

It was probably the basic setting of the Kailan world.

Then what about the behemoth that was already in the underworld, dead?

‘If I activate the seal in front of him, it will get sucked in.’

And for Ian with the transcendence level of 2, there was no way to face the behemoth.

But if he could activate it earlier, he wouldn’t even have to fight it.

‘I need to seal the behemoth’s soul as soon as possible and leave this creepy-ass sh*t place.’

Ian’s steps went faster.

If it was five months, then it most probably was staying near the Cocytos river.

He had to get it before it crossed over the river.

Otherwise, getting the Behemoth was going to be impossible.

* * *

Ian worked very hard in the village of Thanatos and collected quite a lot of Death Coins.

Alba was what the village was called, and was relentless with the call of the NPCs, but Ian had managed to collect more than 300 coins.

But the coins that were in the hands of Ian…

Reserved Death Coins: 57 coins.

Only 57 coins.

And the reason was simple.

‘If it weren’t for this, I wouldn’t be able to even find the behemoth.’

He had purchased an artifact called the ‘Death Cloak’ which was only available in the village of Thanatos.

-Death Cloak-

Classification: Cloak

Rank: Only

The woofer, a blacksmith in the town of Thanatos has created this with great care.

If this cloak is worn upside down, the energy of death can erase/hide the vitality.

*This item can be used to evade the overseeing inspector.

*Cloak no longer activates when the combat begins.

It was impossible to hunt in Erebus even if he had this cloak, but for Ian, it was a currently needed item.

Ian turned the cloak upside down and had been looking through the Cocytos river for a week.

‘I feel like it is time for it to come out… there are very few places which I left behind.’

Ian’s guts were unmatched, however, the week’s journey had been tough for him.

He would rather have fought or taken a quest, but all he was doing, was to walk around the underworld looking for a behemoth while hiding inside a cloak…

It sure would have been hard and boring to do.

‘He is not the kind who can hide that well, he has low intellect… where the hell is he?’

Anxiety started to take shelter in the mind of Ian as he thought that the behemoth would have crossed over.

Moving those thoughts away by shaking his head, Ian started to move by trying to get some strength.

The damp and swampy riverside of the Cocytos.

Right there.

Kukung-!

The calm marshlands suddenly started to vibrate with a loud sound.

“…!”