Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 272

The trouble began with the tenth Elvenwood.

Using Sirka’s Ice Golems as their guides, Suho and his forces had located it easily. But something about this tree was completely different from the others.

“What in the world is this?”

“Kiek...?”

Even Beru was taken aback.

“A fortress?” Suho murmured.

It was an odd sight. If the previous Elvenwood settlements resembled fairy-tale-like wooded villages, then what stood before them now was an entire city enclosed by towering walls—a fortress in the truest sense of the word.

“I sense no barriers or perception-distorting magic,” Beru said.

He was right. There was no transparent dome-shaped barrier here, unlike with the others. A faint blue mist did linger around the outskirts of the fortress, hindering visibility, but there was no trace of distortion magic.

What stood in the barrier’s place was a wall—made of solid stone and reinforced with metal bars and cement. This wasn’t the work of elves, but man-made.

“Master, shall we attack?” Que asked.

Even the shadow lancer, who was normally eager for battle, seemed hesitant as he turned to Suho.

“Um... The Elvenwood is visible over there.”

He pointed toward the center of the fortress where a massive tree rose skyward.

Though the walls obscured much of its height, there was no mistaking what the tree was. The spirit birds flitting around its branches were proof enough. The creatures soared lazily above the fortress like ordinary city pigeons, perching on the branches of Elvenwood and preening their feathers.

Sirka turned to Suho. “What should we do?”

“Hmm. Let’s think for a moment. Where are we, exactly? We’ve passed Pyongyang already...”

Suho tried to gauge their current location.

Truthfully, up until now, he hadn’t bothered to check the names of the cities they had passed through. There was no point. North Korea’s geography had been randomly displaced and altered by rampaging spirits and unusual weather changes. Lava flowed where cities had once been, while mountains had split in half and turned into lakes. That was why the direction of their movement had mattered more than the exact region names.

This time, he wanted to know, but no signs or nameplates were visible near the fortress. There had never been any mention of a fortress city like this in the middle of North Korea either.

“Young Monarch, the sun is setting,” Beru reminded Suho, pressing him for a decision.

Still, Suho hesitated. This was the first time that high elves had not come out to greet them even though Sirka was leading the group.

Are there no elves in there?

While calmly inspecting the outside of the fortress, his sharp eyes caught movement.

“Humans...?” he said, his eyes lighting up.

They were ordinary humans. When he looked closely, he could see through the golden hues of dusk that armed sentries, rather than elves, patrolled the fortress walls.

“An Elvenwood populated by humans and not elves?” he said. “All right. I’ve made my decision. Let’s go inside.”

“Yes! We’ll destroy the wall!”

“Moooo!”

As if waiting for the command, Que, Mino, and Tau charged forward with battle cries.

Suho stopped them. “Why would we do that? There’s no barrier. We can just walk in.”

“All right! In that case, we shall break down the main gates—”

“All of you, back inside.”

With visible disappointment, the excited soldiers slumped and melted back into Suho’s shadow, still smacking their lips.

“Sirka? Let’s go in by ourselves and figure out what’s going on. I need to get a feel for this place, at least.”

“All right. I’ll leave my golems behind, then.”

Suho and Sirka approached the gates, walking like ordinary travelers. Beru was the only one of the shadow soldiers to poke his head out of Suho’s shadow, quietly following along.

***

“Who’s there?” one of the gate guards called out as they reached the entrance.

Suho tilted his head when he heard the language they spoke.

They’re speaking Korean, and it’s standard South Korean?

This was strange. The gatekeepers did not have any trace of a North Korean accent.

South Koreans, in the middle of North Korea?

With a casual tone, he greeted them.

“Hello. What is this place?”

“Huh? He’s South Korean!”

The gatekeepers recognized Suho’s origins as soon as they heard his accent and visibly relaxed. If anything, they seemed relieved, almost happy, to see him—perhaps because it was so rare to meet a fellow South Korean in a place like this.

Despite this, they remained true to their mission. Their spears remained pointed at Suho and Sirka as they questioned him.

“How did a South Korean get all the way out here?”

Suho answered honestly. “How? Well, we walked.”

“Walked? From the South? That’s quite the distance.”

“We did a bit of running as well.”

This conversation was going nowhere, but the guards had taken note of Suho and Sirka’s appearances. They bore traces of battle. Though there were no clear signs of any wounds, their clothes were covered with signs of fighting. They reeked of smoke and ash as if they had passed through lava fields.

The captain of the guard asked, “Are you two alone? Is there no one else with you?”

“Yes, we’re alone,” Suho responded.

“Someone go out there and check.”

“Yes, sir!”

A few guards rushed out to scan the surroundings, ensuring there were no hidden companions.

“What? It’s really just the two of you?” the captain asked. “How did you get all the way here? There’s seriously no one else?”

“There were, but they’re no longer with us,” Suho said honestly.

The gatekeepers grew somber.

“You mean... they’re dead?”

“Uh, yes. You could say that.”

“I see...”

The mood grew even more solemn.

Of course, Suho wasn’t lying—not really. The shadow soldiers were technically dead.

But as the conversation went on, an odd tension built in the air.

“Hmm. All right. It looks like you’ve been through a lot, young man.”

“The way here isn’t exactly easy.”

“Where did you get that elf? How did you capture her?”

Capture her?

Suho’s eyes flashed. Something about their phrasing felt off.

The guards openly examined Sirka with fascination, whispering among themselves.

“She’s a quiet one.”

“Look at her hair color.”

“She doesn’t have a leash. How is she obedient?”

“What do you mean, a leash?” Suho asked, interrupting out of curiosity.

The guards looked at him strangely as if his answer was even more surprising.

“Huh? You don’t know about the leashes? Like this.”

One of the guards pulled something from his pocket and held it up.

“Oh.”

Upon seeing it, Suho automatically nodded.

He knew exactly what these “leashes” were. They were mana inhibitors—the very same that were strapped on the ankles of the villains kept in Jisan Prison. Each was equipped with a small but very powerful bomb, and when shock was applied to the inhibitor or if the wearer used mana, the cruel device would explode.

I think Woo Jinchul was the one who invented them in the early days of the Great Cataclysm.

Suho was suddenly reminded of what Baek Miho had once told him.

“Mr. Woo initially wanted it to go on the neck, not the ankles.”

Indeed, Jinchul claimed at the time that the devices should be capable of decapitating villains when they used mana in order to maintain control over them. This was the reason the inhibitors had been nicknamed “bomb necklaces” while in early development.

That suggestion had been dismissed because of human rights issues, and the final decision was to attach the devices to the ankles instead.

Why do these people have them? And why are they calling them leashes? Are they actually using them around the neck in this city?

The more Suho spoke to these guards, the more questions he had.

In any case, if they have these, they’re either villains or people from the association.

Or perhaps they were from a third, unknown organization.

Realizing that it had been a good idea not to attack them immediately, Suho’s eyes flicked toward the guards’ necks and ankles. As expected, none of them were wearing mana restraints themselves.

In any case, I will have to tell them something if I don’t want to raise suspicions.

The guards were clearly wary of Sirka’s lack of a “leash.” The only reason their hostility was minimal was likely due to her appearance. She was a small, childlike elf who barely looked ten years old. With her petite frame and long silvery hair cascading down her back, she looked more like a giant hamster than a human-like creature.

Beyond that, Sirka didn’t speak Korean. Haein could communicate with the elves through the necklace Jinwoo had given her, and Suho himself had the system’s translation effects—but Sirka had not understood a single thing the gatekeepers had said. She had been staring blankly at them all this time, completely clueless about the conversation. Her expression made her look perfectly harmless.

Suho casually ruffled Sirka’s hair before answering, “She doesn’t need a leash. I have a skill with a similar effect.”

“What? A skill?”

“What skill?”

Looking at their puzzled faces, it seemed showing them would be the quickest way to answer their questions.

Maybe I should just show them Gray? Actually, no, he’s gotten too big. He might make them nervous.

Suho made his decision. He chose a creature who was not a shadow soldier and did not look threatening in the least.

“Ragna.”

The gatekeepers’ eyes widened in shock as a tiny lizard suddenly popped into existence on Suho’s palm. The small, winged reptile sat in Suho’s hand, chirping stupidly as he stared slack-jawed at his new surroundings.

“You’re looking a bit plumper,” Suho remarked.

Ragna chirped and tilted his head.

Just as Suho said, the dragon had put on some weight. It looked good on him. It seemed that Antares was going to some effort behind the scenes to increase Ragna’s mana pool.

“What? A summoning skill?”

“Are you a summoner?”

The gatekeepers quietly marveled at the skill.

Among the various abilities that existed in the world, summoning skills were rare. Summoners were considered a weak, support-based class that could not defend themselves, and as a result, it was difficult for them to survive in the apocalyptic lands of North Korea.

“Then... does that mean this elf isn’t something you caught, but rather one of your summons?”

“Well, something like that,” Suho replied. “Will I have to dismiss her to enter the city?”

“That won’t be necessary. We will lend you a leash. Put it around her neck. Be sure to return it on the way out.”

“Thank you,” he said, taking the leash. He was very grateful that Sirka couldn’t understand what they were saying.

He placed the collar loosely around her neck. However, he left it unlocked and deactivated so she could remove it herself at any time.

Finally, the guards lowered their spears.

“So what is this place?” Suho asked.

“No need for us to tell you. Go inside and see for yourself.”

The guards, now relaxed, gestured for the gates to open. As the massive gates swung wide, the first thing Suho saw was the blazing neon lights of a sign.

—Last Paradise

“Huh...?”

Suho was genuinely taken aback. Under the darkened skies of a ruined North Korea, amid the hellscape of an apocalypse, and in the shadow of the massive sacred tree of the elves, a city bathed in neon lights stretched out before him.

“Welcome,” a guard said. “This is Paradise, the last safe haven in North Korea.”