The next morning.
Han Jae-young quietly approached and whispered.
“Are the two of you okay?”
The "two people" Han Jae-young referred to were and Lee Pyeong-hwa, who were silently following behind.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Does that really matter in a situation like this?”
“Teamwork is important.”
“That’s not it. Isn’t it wrong to ask a 20-year-old kid for teamwork in a situation like this? We should solve this ourselves.”
“By the way, Jeong Da-on, you’re also 20, right?”
Han Jae-young replied, as if he couldn’t believe what I was saying, but he probably didn’t an to equate and Lee Pyeong-hwa in terms of experience.
It would be hard to compare a magician who can use incantation magic to a rookie Hunter.
“Anyway, don’t do things that would stress out the kid in this situation.”
“It was a situation that needed stress.”
Neither Han Jae-young nor I were pointing fingers at Lee Pyeong-hwa as the one who caused this ss—aning, the one who gave Lee Seung-hee the illegal drugs. However, it was clear we had to address Lee Pyeong-hwa, who had beco part of the team.
The appearance of the monster that fed on emotions was fortunate.
“You stayed silent too.”
Since Lee Pyeong-hwa woke up last night, we’d been talking fairly loudly, so even if Han Jae-young had been asleep, there was no way he hadn’t heard.
Which ant he had overheard our conversation but hadn’t intervened.
Now, he was pretending to be all nice.
Han Jae-young smiled.
“Ah, you’re hitting a sore spot. Well, we have no choice but to work together. But still, a little kindness wouldn’t hurt…”
“Bullshit.”
If I hadn’t done it, Han Jae-young would have.
If we were going to keep traveling together, it was necessary to figure out what kind of person Lee Pyeong-hwa really was. And thanks to the "anxiety moth" last night, I’d already gotten a good sense of her internal state.
I had discovered the eggs of these monsters during basic training when I had gone out of the barracks alone to sleep in the forest. I had gathered them as items.
‘If she were properly trained, those bugs wouldn’t even be a threat...’
But Lee Pyeong-hwa was clearly still a beginner.
In both the bad and good sense.
So, before continuing with her, it was essential to check whether she harbored any ill intentions toward or not.
Of course, it wouldn’t be pleasant for her to admit her true feelings after being forced to confess due to the monsters.
I glanced at Lee Pyeong-hwa.
Even now, she was quietly trailing far behind us.
While her physical stamina was an issue, it was obvious she just wanted to distance herself from .
Being disliked was only natural.
For Lee Pyeong-hwa, this situation was as if I had let the monsters attack her to force her to spill the truth.
It was sothing I had to endure.
Though the word "endure" felt a bit too grand for the situation.
Han Jae-young clicked his tongue.
“If it’s an interrogation, I can do it. Why stir things up and hurt feelings between people of the sa age?”
“Then why didn’t you move first?”
“You say that, but didn’t you handle it yourself instead of letting ? If I did the interrogation, it wouldn’t just end with soone feeling uncomfortable…”
“That’s a weird assumption. Do I look like that kind of saint to you?”
“Maybe a little?”
Is he out of his mind?
I glared at Han Jae-young in disbelief, but he wasn’t the type to care about my glares.
Han Jae-young chuckled and shrugged.
“You’re kind of cute, Jeong Da-on.”
“Do you want to die here?”
“So, are we seriously going to keep exploring this dinsion blindly?”
It seed like he was changing the topic, but since I didn’t really want to continue this conversation either, I decided to join in.
It was an important topic anyway.
“...Didn’t we agree to move as close as possible so the system could detect us? The system is surely desperately trying to find us.”
It was obvious that the system was searching for us, stranded as we were.
‘I’m sure, whether it’s or Han Jae-young, we’re too valuable for the system to just let go of.’
Normally, soone like , a powerful being, wouldn’t be able to be controlled with just a contract.
But even though I might be considered expendable, Han Jae-young, with his fairy heritage, S-rank Hunter status, and ties to the hero, was a vital asset in the eyes of humanity’s enemies.
And now, with humanity’s enemies wreaking havoc, finding new talents was difficult, so the system was probably desperately trying to locate Han Jae-young.
‘The tiline… I’ll probably have to endure it for about a month.’
But that wasn’t such a big deal.
‘Without the system’s constraints, it would be easier.’
The system’s restrictions that tied my soul to ridiculous quests like ‘Good deeds bring blessings’ had disappeared. Now, if I wanted, I could draw power as long as my body could handle it.
In most situations, I could handle things just fine.
Of course, I’d need to stay within the bounds of not raising Han Jae-young’s suspicions.
‘I should probably consider improving my physical body to handle magic now that the system is gone...’
But if I did that, the system might grow more cautious of when I return to Earth. It would be difficult to tamper with my body too much.
“That’s true, but if we keep wandering around and encounter people from this world, that would be a problem, right? We don’t know what kind of creatures we might et.”
“Humans.”
Han Jae-young didn’t clarify if he ant Earth humans, though.
There were countless dinsions in the universe, and intelligent lifeforms ca in many forms.
In fact, monsters could communicate among themselves.
The issue was whether the lifeforms of this dinsion would be friendly toward us. That was the real problem.
Even humans, as a species, are afraid of highly intelligent alien beings.
There was no reason to assu that other-dinsional “humans” would be any different.
“It doesn’t seem like this is a fairy dinsion, right?”
“If this were a fairy dinsion, those two would have been nutrients for the World Tree by now. Stop with the creepy talk.”
Given that Han Jae-young revealed he was part fairy, it was strange how much disdain he seed to have for fairies.
When discussing dinsion-stranded people, he had once ntioned soone who ca back after six years holding a child’s hand, which was quite telling.
‘...Not that I’m curious about it.’
And it wasn’t all that important now either.
“Then, if you have a better idea, speak up. You want us to just set up a base camp and stay put?”
“That’s not it.”
“Be clear. Why are you being so vague, when you’re supposed to be the guild leader?”
“I’m not a detective, but ever since we arrived in this dinsion, I’ve had a strange feeling.”
Han Jae-young looked around.
Since there were fish in the lake, it was clear this dinsion supported life, but it wasn’t exactly a lively scene.
All that could be seen were the quiet winds of the plains and thick grasses.
We’d been traveling for nearly half a day, but no matter how much we walked, the sa landscape kept repeating itself.
‘It’s been a long ti since I missed the system.’
If the system were here, we would at least have so information about this dinsion, so I felt the loss.
“I do feel uneasy too, but... I still think moving is the right thing to do.”
Staying in one place with no information would only breed more anxiety as ti passed.
Though Han Jae-young and I could handle it, Lee Pyeong-hwa might start ntally deteriorating.
“Hm... If that’s what you think, let’s go. Just... no more like last ti...”
Han Jae-young trailed off, probably aware of Lee Pyeong-hwa following behind.
But even if he didn’t finish his sentence, I knew what he ant.
‘It’s about the Monster Man.’
The S-rank monster we encountered in the last dungeon on Yeongjong Island, the “Monster Man.”
I rembered how it absorbed all the surrounding magic.
‘Now that I think about it... this dinsion feels eerily similar.’
This dinsion had a very faint concentration of magic in the air.
It was possible this was just the natural state of the dinsion, but...
‘The distribution of magic feels odd.’
Had I not encountered the Monster Man earlier, I might not have realized this.
But after seeing how the Monster Man drained magic, I now noticed an uncanny similarity in the magical distribution of this dinsion.
Of course, that didn’t an the Monster Man was here.
In fact, logically speaking, it was unlikely.
This wasn’t the sa dinsion as the Yeongjong Island dungeon, after all.
And the Monster Man was an artificial monster created by humanity’s enemies.
Still, there was an uneasy feeling growing within .
‘Getting stranded in a dinsion... it’s too coincidental.’
It was still too early to jump to conclusions, but...
I glanced at Lee Pyeong-hwa.
When Han Jae-young had co to find our group, he had said:
“I’ve shared the information about the Monster Man we found in the last dungeon with both the Central Administrative Office and the Hunter Association. Now, we should expect so kind of response from either side.”
Han Jae-young suspected that the Monster Man had been created by humans.
And the organizations with the capital and power to pull off such a sche were the Central Administrative Office or the Hunter Association.
‘It makes sense.’
Money could be made by any businessman, but creating artificial monsters required technology and skilled Hunters.
The Hunter Association or the Central Administrative Office—those were the only organizations capable of pulling this off.
This theory had beco more solid with the current incident.
Lee Seung-hee had died from an overdose of illegal drugs during basic military training.
On the surface, it seed like the actions of a clumsy rookie, but the real issue was that the military—a closed organization—had been infiltrated.
At the very least, soone had smuggled the illegal drugs into the military and handed them to Lee Seung-hee at just the right mont.
‘The governnt or Hunter Association must be involved, and it seems like they’re at a high level.’
I had hoped to trace the clues back to the organization behind the Yeongjong Island trash dump dungeon, but in the end, a high-ranking governnt official had been dismissed for personal misconduct.
We hadn’t gotten any concrete leads.
How many tis had this happened?
Honestly, I was frustrated.
I kept getting caught up in whatever these people were scheming.
No matter how much potential I had, I was still a newly awakened rookie Hunter, tied to the governnt. I couldn’t do much about it, but it was still irritating.
‘Once basic training is over, I’ll think of a way.’
I just wanted ti to pass quickly.
Once I beca a social service agent, I’d have more freedom to act.
Anyway, I had to catch the tail of whoever was behind this and stop them from dragging into more dungeons.
Wherever I went, trouble followed.
“If I’m with Da-on, I really get caught up in all kinds of accidents.”
Han Jae-young, who had been cutting through the grass to clear the path, said this.
It seed like he felt the sa way I did.
“Let’s see. Starting with the Gwanghwamun Dungeon Break, then the True Light Church human experintation incident, and now a dinsional stranding... It feels like I’ve known you for a hundred years after all the stuff we’ve been through in such a short ti.”
“Don’t worry, we’re not that close.”
“Co on, just spending a long ti together doesn’t make you close. The intensity of the ti spent matters. At this point, we’re close, don’t you think?”
“Do you want to get closer to ?”
“Better friends than enemies, right? After all, bad mories get lighter when shared.”
His words were as smooth as ever. I wondered if the fairy who gave Cinderella a dress, shoes, and a carriage spoke so fluently.
As we engaged in an occasionally unpleasant chat, we moved forward.
“We’re getting close to where we detected the life signs, so let’s be cautious.”
The detection magic had shown life signs nearby.
Of course, it was likely to be just animals, like the fish in the lake, but...
Flap!
“There’s a bird.”
As expected.
Small birds, about the size of a fist, flew off with a flutter. Han Jae-young frowned upon seeing them.
“Are those the lifeforms detected by the magic? They weren’t moving that fast before.”
“Still, it looks like there’s so sort of ecosystem here.”
The fish in the lake, and now the birds.
It seed that even if we were stranded here for over a month, we wouldn’t have to worry about food.
“Do we eat the birds?”
Of course, Lee Pyeong-hwa looked appalled at the suggestion.
“The fish didn’t mind.”
“Well... that’s true. I used to have a parrot at ho...”
“Wait a minute.”
Han Jae-young stopped and probably enhanced his sight with magic to observe the surroundings.
“There’s sothing... it looks like a village.”
As he said that, Han Jae-young looked back at .
I enhanced my vision as well and looked in the direction he indicated.
“...It’s true.”
Han Jae-young was right.
In a corner of the vast plain, there was a slightly dilapidated fence.
The presence of a fence ant that sothing valuable was being guarded inside.
It was highly likely that the “people” inside were intelligent enough to have accumulated property.
“Should we be on alert?”
Lee Pyeong-hwa, noticing the tension between Han Jae-young and , asked cautiously.
Han Jae-young shook his head.
“No... even from a distance, the fence is rusted and doesn’t look like anyone is maintaining it.”
“Then...”
“Let’s approach and check it out.”
We cautiously moved toward the possible village.
And as we got closer, it beca clear that Han Jae-young was right.
It wasn’t a large village.
It looked like a small settlent of about 20 households.
There were wooden animal sheds, large rusted cauldrons hanging on big stoves, and broken walls made of stone and mud with wooden roofs that were half-collapsed.
It was a scene of clear decay, obviously worn down by ti.
“Jeong Da-on Hunter.”
After observing the village for a while, Han Jae-young turned to .
And I knew what that look ant.
I nodded.
“Yeah, I know.”
It was too similar.
It was just like the scene we had seen in the Yeongjong Island trash dump dungeon.
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