Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 269

“Spirit Mail!” Sirka shouted.

By now their coordination was flawless.

The high elves’ forest, once a scene of beauty and peace, was engulfed in flames. Within them, Suho and his shadow soldiers clashed with the high elves, while Sirka took control of the spirits that poured from their wounds.

The spirits Sirka captured froze instantly, transforming into armor and weapons at her command. Every time she wielded this power, her confidence grew. Suho watched her from behind, feeling a surge of pride.

Even as the spirits watched, they did not flee. Instead, they circled Sirka like vultures, waiting for their opportunity.

This was not surprising in the least. She was a fresh young elf, and she had walked straight into their territory. Compared to the withering husks of the high elves they had consumed, she was a prize beyond measure.

The arrival of invaders did not concern the spirits. As always, they trusted the Elvenwood tree to handle the threat.

So it’s begun, Suho thought.

The tree, finally sensing danger, woke, and the ground trembled beneath them. The roots twisted and coiled beneath the earth, thick vines tangling together as the Elvenwood began to shift.

Slowly, the massive tree took on the shape of an elf. It seemed more accurate to call it a “wooden elf” rather than an “Elvenwood” now. It was a towering, monstrous being of bark and branches, swinging its limbs like whips.

With a single, sweeping blow, it crushed the annoying shadow soldiers in its path. The sheer force of the tree was staggering. A single attack overturned the very earth beneath them, and shadow soldiers were helplessly torn apart.

“Don’t back away!” Suho shouted.

This immortal army did not falter. The incredible mana that flowed from Suho, combined with the flames that poured forth from the Heart of the King of Dragons, knitted their broken forms back together with dark red vapor.

The hot flames were the perfect counter to the Elvenwood. No matter how it retaliated, its fate was already sealed.

“Kyaaaaah!”

The tree screamed, engulfed in flames.

Only then did the high elves and spirits begin to understand their mistake, but regret always came too late. They had been too blinded by their greed to realize the peril in willingly opening the barrier.

[Blessing: “Blessing of Gluttony” has amplified your experience gain.]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Skill: The level of “Dark Flame Storm” has increased.]

“Rescue the survivors!” Suho shouted.

“Yes, my lord!”

The shadow soldiers, now accustomed to this routine, immediately dispersed. They dug through the wreckage of the city to recover those buried underneath.

According to the information Sillad had wrung out of Fores’ soul, these humans were the fertilizer that fattened the Elvenwoods. They were buried alive in the earth, their life force drained by the roots.

Some were hunters and some were civilians, but all were victims. Captured outside the barrier by the high elves and spirits, they had been offered up as sustenance for the tree.

“Master! They are all alive!”

Good, thought Suho.

They were unconscious since their life force had been sucked from them, but as long as they were still breathing, there was a chance to save them.

Of course, healing potions wouldn’t do the trick. Potions only treated external wounds resulting from battle—they could not cure internal damage. A potion couldn’t cure even a common cold, let alone injuries such as this.

There was only one correct way to deal with it—modern medicine in the highest degree.

[Item: “Key to the Shadow Dungeon” has activated.]

Suho plunged the key into his own shadow. Then he used another skill.

[Skill: “Shadow Exchange” has activated.]

This was an application of his power that Beru had told him about recently. By combining Shadow Exchange with the Key to the Shadow Dungeon, he could open a direct gate within his shadow. The other side would connect to a shadow soldier of his choosing, which meant he could bypass the Shadow Dungeon entirely.

“The key was personally crafted for you by my liege. This is nothing special,” Beru explained as the gate opened in front of Suho.

Beyond it, a huge building stood tall. It was Ahjin Hospital, the facility run by his aunt, Sung Jinah.

Waiting at the hospital entrance was Cha Haein, who had crossed over earlier. She was standing alongside Jinah. They had already had their overdue reunion.

After seeing the state of the survivors from the first Elvenwood city, Haein had immediately thought of the hospital. Funded by Ahjinsoft, it was the most advanced medical facility in South Korea. The reason such an incredible hospital was built in the countryside instead of Seoul was simple—Suho’s grandparents lived there. In short, it was the most advanced care facility for old folks in all of South Korea.

“Hurry!”

“We’ve cleared out an entire ward! This way!”

Haein and Jinah rushed forward as soon as they saw the dire state of the captives. The shadow soldiers followed, carrying the weakened survivors over their shoulders.

Jinah had already received a brief explanation, and she led them straight to the intensive care ward. The first survivors had been shown to the emergency room instead, but inspections had revealed that they needed IV fluid.

Haein returned to Suho and relayed what they had found. “We have their test results. The state they’re in is similar to Eternal Slumber.”

“Eternal Slumber?”

“Yes. Your aunt says that we should use mana-powered life support devices, the same ones used for Eternal Slumber patients, to stabilize them. Their bodies need time to recover.”

Suho’s expression darkened. This meant the victims’ souls were already drifting in the Sea of the Afterlife. The most pressing task was to restore their drained bodies, but it seemed too much to hope that their souls would return.

“This isn’t good,” he murmured.

“Still, it’s fortunate. Some of the people we rescued in the beginning were already dead. This time, everyone’s alive,” Haein said, sighing with relief.

She looked at the survivors with pity, then she turned back to Suho.

“There are... probably more places like these, right?”

“Right.”

“Please hurry before any more people die. If their life force is drained too far, even the life-support machines won’t be able to save them,” she muttered, biting her lip in regret.

However, finding other Elvenwood trees was more difficult than expected. According to Harmakan’s analysis, they might never have spotted the first city if they hadn’t been flying on Kaisel.

The barriers surrounding the trees and cities were armed with spatial distortion and perception-thwarting magic. Even knowing how they were hidden, it was an entirely different challenge to find more. They needed another way.

Thankfully, Suho had Sirka.

“Spirit Cavalry!”

Building upon the Spirit Mail she had learned from Suho, the elf activated a new ability.

Spirit Mail allowed her to freeze spirits and turn them into armor, and this new skill went a step further. She could now make that armor move on its own. In other words, she could make her own Ice Golems—the creatures that had made up the army Sillad used to invade Earth in their past life.

Of course, she lacked the power to form an entire army like Sillad once had. But she could still make a few, and those were more than enough.

Sirka turned to one of the Ice Golems in front of her.

“Fores, where is the closest Elvenwood?”

The golem—formed from the spirits that once inhabited Fores’ body—let out a deep, echoing roar. It turned its head in a certain direction, almost as if answering her.

The spirits that had lived around an Elvenwood were not affected by the disguising magic hiding the trees.

“On to the next location, then. Will you come with me, Mother?” Suho asked.

If Haein helped, they could take down the Elvenwood much faster.

Kaisel’s mobility would also be an advantage, but the wyvern had refused to obey Suho’s commands. He never left Haein’s side, perhaps because he had been told by Jinwoo to protect her.

She shook her head. “I would like to, but it seems I will have to stay here for a few more days.”

Suho had already guessed the reason.

There were no secrets in this day and age. Haein had flown into North Korea on the black dragon, and that was witnessed by countless eyeballs. Then she had flown back to South Korea with hundreds of survivors in tow. Everyone at Ahjin Hospital in Yangpyeong had seen them arrive. The news spread like wildfire, reaching journalists, the Hunters Association, and the government within hours.

While Sung Jinah had the authority to admit patients, these were North Korean survivors. Providing expensive medical care to so many North Koreans would require navigating an endless sea of legal obstacles. Even allocating one ward for them would cause major issues for Yangpyeong’s local citizens.

For reasons like these, Haein was forced to stay in South Korea for the time being. In fact, she had a press conference scheduled in just an hour.

“I don’t know how far my reputation will carry me, but I plan to request aid from nearby hospitals during the press conference,” she said. “What I’m really worried about is tomorrow.”

Though she had told Suho to hurry the rescue operation, the more survivors that were brought back, the less room there was in Ahjin Hospital to house them.

“At this rate, we’ll run out of beds by tomorrow. Then we’ll have real trouble on our hands.”

As they could not discharge existing patients, there were mountains of problems to navigate, and that included various political and legal issues.

Suddenly, a sedan skidded to a stop in front of the hospital.

“Haein!”

Jinho burst from the car, shouting his sister-in-law’s name and dashing over in a decidedly undignified fashion.

He had seen her briefly on Facade Island, but leaving her alone in that cold land had weighed on him ever since. The moment she had called, he had dropped everything and raced to Yangpyeong—and en route, he had solved every problem that had been worrying her.

“I heard you don’t have enough wards. So I built more!” he exclaimed.

“Huh? Built more? What do you mean?” Haein asked, cocking her head.

Jinho winked at his wife, Jinah, who was rushing patients into the ward, and confidently answered, “They just need to be hooked to life-support machines, right? That means all you need is a building.”

“Well, yes, but—”

Haein’s eyes widened in realization.

“Take a look,” Jinho said, gesturing at the buildings surrounding the hospital.

Haein and Suho followed his gaze.

Ahjin Hospital was built on a sprawling plot of land. Despite its state-of-the-art facilities, the hospital itself was not all that large. The grounds were massive, but most of that space had been used for parking lots rather than medical wards. Beyond the hospital grounds, there were commercial buildings, studio apartments, and residential complexes.

This region had been a wasteland before Ahjin Hospital was built, and Jinho had bought all of the property—any land he could lay eyes on. It had been dirt cheap compared to real estate in Seoul, making it an easy investment.

All he’d done was buy the land. The actual construction had been the resource intensive part and required a huge amount of capital.

Jinho did not explain any of this to Haein. After all, she’d been missing for five years. She had no idea how much his company had grown or how much his wealth had multiplied. Instead of going into detail, he simply told her the bottom line.

“Yes. All the buildings you see belong to us.”

Haein and Suho’s eyes went wide.

“Well... To be more precise, they belonged to my father.”

Indeed, these developments were not, strictly speaking, Ahjinsoft’s property.

Ahjinsoft was the result of Jinho’s efforts alone. Despite the scale and success of the family business, he had left it and built his own company from the ground up.

But before that, Jinho had been part of the largest construction company in the country, owned by his father, Yoo Myunghan. The name of the company was Yoojin Construction.

The entire district that had sprung up around Ahjin Hospital was part of an urban development plan that Yoojin Construction had invested in. After Jinho said he would build a hospital in Yangpyeong for the sake of his wife’s parents, Myunghan had signed the investment proposal with his usual gruff air.

“Well, I suppose I can go and live there myself once I retire. We can all be together.”

His words had carried an almost wistful tone, as if he were somehow jealous. Jinho had quickly forgotten about it, not believing his own father was capable of such an emotion.

In any case, the result of that project had been this development in Yangpyeong.

“The development is still ongoing,” Jinho explained. “Many of the homes aren’t occupied yet. Some of the units are still unsold. So I contacted my father, checked in on how things were going, and told him my company would buy all of it.”

“What is this, a property board game?” Haein asked, her jaw nearly hitting the floor as she processed the sheer scale of what Jinho had said.

Perhaps she had been away from home for too long. Jinho had already been fabulously wealthy five years before, but now it seemed his company—responsible for developing only the world’s first VR game—had achieved unimaginable growth.