What the... ? (1)
"I'm not here to fight this ti."
Kim Dojun, who had instinctively clenched his fist at the sudden appearance of Revi of Reverie in the dormitory, eyed her suspiciously as she raised both hands as if imdiately surrendering and then spoke.
"Why have you shown up this ti?"
Kim Dojun's question.
Revi of Reverie slid down from the desk she had been sitting on and, this ti, took a seat in the chair as she replied.
"... Judging by your reaction, it's not ti yet—"
"What?"
"No, just talking to myself over here."
"If you're going to talk to yourself, why not keep it in your head instead of blurting it out?"
At Kim Dojun's sarcastic remark, Revi briefly wore a slightly pouty expression, but soon sighed as if conceding and shook her head, then spoke.
"The reason I ca is because I have sothing to say. Three things, to be exact."
"..."
Kim Dojun, not replying, just gave her a slight nudge with his chin as if to say, 'Go on, let's hear it.' Revi continued.
"But my business is so short that I could save it for last anyway. Why not ask your questions first? Isn't there anything you're curious about?"
"-Curious?"
"Yeah. This ti I'll answer."
At Revi of Reverie's nod, Kim Dojun spoke without hesitation.
"What are you?"
"I'm Revi of Reverie."
"?"
"??"
"No, not that—I'm asking what your true nature is."
"... I told you I'm Revi of Reverie?"
"Damn—"
"That's all I have to say."
Kim Dojun stared at Revi, who answered so nonchalantly, baffled, then quickly spoke up again.
"Sorry, but do you mind if I beat you up right now?"
"That would be a bit troubleso. Besides, it would be pointless if you did."
At Revi's words, Kim Dojun seriously considered killing her on the spot, but held that urge back with a sigh.
Just then, a thought flashed in his mind and he asked.
"Then, do you know anything about the prophet?"
He figured the prophet seed related to maglignant spirits, so he tossed out the question without any real expectations.
"The prophet, huh...."
At Kim Dojun's question, Revi unintentionally muttered, following his words.
"... So you do know sothing?"
Seeing Revi speak as if she knew sothing, Kim Dojun pressed her further, and after a mont of thought, she replied.
"I don't think I can give you any useful information right now."
"Ah, fuck—then what the hell am I supposed to ask—!"
"But there's one thing I can say for certain."
She cut him off before he could get really angry, looking him straight in the eyes as she spoke.
"Your purpose is fundantally different from theirs."
Having said that, she tapped her foot a few tis and then continued.
"Actually, thinking about it, there's not much I can tell you right now anyway. I'll just say what I have to and go. Hiding my spiritual power to get here is starting to hit its limit, you see."
With those words, her form slowly began to fade away, changing into a violet glow of spiritual power.
"First off, you're doing well. Even better than I expected."
"Doing well at what?"
Kim Dojun asked, but Revi of Reverie, as if she wasn't obliged to answer, imdiately continued.
"And second, watch out for the blue eyes. It seems like they're here to take care of you."
"Didn't you ntion that last ti too?"
"Yeah, wasn't there already a ti or two you've t them?"
"No? I've never t them."
"...?"
"??"
"... Really?"
"Do you think I'd lie?"
For a mont, Kim Dojun and Revi of Reverie exchanged confused looks.
She seed to think deeply about sothing for a mont, but soon finished and looked back at him.
"... Then be even more careful. When I sent my spiritual power here to see you, I sensed the followers of the blue eyes nearby."
"... Followers?"
Revi of Reverie nodded at Kim Dojun's follow-up and checked her own body.
Noting that her form had already vanished up to her waist and was dissipating rapidly, Revi looked at him again and continued.
"And lastly— this is the most important thing."
"What?"
"Sorcery is... imagination."
"??"
Kim Dojun wore a puzzled expression.
"If you ever truly realize this—"
But Revi of Reverie only said, with a calm face,
"I'll tell you everything about what you asked today."
Mumbling as she faded—
"See you next ti."
With those words, she vanished completely from Kim Dojun's dorm.
"..."
All Kim Dojun could do was space out as he stared at the empty spot where Revi of Reverie had disappeared.
####
Right after Revi of Reverie vanished.
"'The prophet's purpose and mine are fundantally different,' huh."
Kim Dojun thought over the words Revi had left behind, one by one.
'Sure, at first glance, it does seem similar.'
Granted, he didn't quite know what the prophet was up to, but as Kim Dojun had learned from the recent Murye incident, their goal had clearly been to summon a maglignant spirit.
'Still, I guess knowing this much is better than nothing.'
There, he decided to put an end to his thoughts.
'Thinking about it further won't help— it's just the realm of speculation and guesswork now.'
With so little information, it was impossible to determine the truth. Fittingly, the prophet, who didn't even appear in the setting, kept their identity strictly concealed.
Having settled on that, there wasn't much he could do at the mont, so Kim Dojun switched topics in his mind.
"Imagination... imagination, huh."
Of course, the last ti he t Revi of Reverie, she also told him that the essence of sorcery was imagination, but back then, he'd just let those words wash over him.
After all, Kim Dojun couldn't use sorcery.
'Even if I have spiritual power.'
The only reason Kim Dojun gathered spiritual power was to use Chohwasu's assimilation or later abilities that he might need, not for casting sorcery.
"Do I really have to learn sorcery now?"
Kim Dojun looked over at the Sorcerer King's book, lying carelessly on his desk.
"Hmm..."
Moving his hand, he picked up the book of the Sorcerer King and absentmindedly opened it—
Thud!
—only to snap it shut right away.
"Yeah, this is bullshit."
The mont he opened the book, Kim Dojun realized.
He just wasn't cut out to learn sorcery.
His heart wanted to try, but his head couldn't keep up.
... Actually, besides not being able to keep up, it was just so incredibly botherso.
Yet, the reason Kim Dojun kept thinking about sorcery was because of one word Revi of Reverie had ntioned.
'I'll tell you everything about what you asked today...'
As he murmured that sentence again,
'I should ask around about this as well.'
He decided to ask about that matter too.
"... So blue eyes are in Korea."
He muttered again, recalling Revi's warning.
Truthfully, for Kim Dojun, this wasn't particularly shocking news.
After all, in the Sorcery Killing Technique, the followers of the blue eyes appeared during the player's first sumr break and stord the Sorcery Institute, attempting to conduct a 'Sacrificial Ritual' targeting the students.
'Besides that, there's a sub-story right at the end of sumr break that leads straight into a bad ending— I'll have to deal with that too.'
Even if the sub-story was later, considering timing, the blue eyes' followers were about due to raid the dorm soon.
The reason Kim Dojun wasn't keeping track of this clearly—
'After all the trouble clearing this damn thing, it didn't even give any spiritual tools or anything, just so XP and that was it.'
It was simply that this story arc wasn't all that helpful for him now.
'... Still, since the player's supposed to stop this event, who knows what'll happen if I ignore it. Besides—'
If things could resolve themselves without his intervention, he would have just gone off to tornt Goryuwon so more or focused on training Shin Se-yeon, who was now an ally.
'-But since things have been shifting since the Salvation's Gauntlet, and these side-stories are now independent and targeting , I'll have to handle it myself anyway.'
It was far from pleasant, so he clicked his tongue, but then shrugged as if there was nothing to be done.
"?"
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him, and he tilted his head.
'By the way... now that I think about it, did Revi of Reverie have detection abilities like that?'
Kim Dojun knew that Revi of Reverie was unquestionably strong, but had never heard of such an ability in the ga's lore, so he was montarily puzzled.
'Well, when even the prophet existed outside the original setting, it's not too far-fetched for a maglignant spirit to have a few extra abilities.'
He soon put the thought away.
####
Varki of Pride has been manipulating things as blue eyes for over 200 years.
In other words, blue eyes is essentially a group that spans over 200 years. Of the branches established all around the world during that long ti, the Korean branch alone had nearly 70 years of history.
While countless families and guilds repeatedly rose and fell in the public eye, these people maintained their positions, working covertly from the darkness, their numbers befitting such a long history.
Among them, there are four mbers who had the distinction of eting Varki of Pride in person and being granted sorcery.
And right now, in the current blue eyes' hideout—
"U- uaaaaaah!"
Crunch!
A girl—
No.
Han Soyeon stood.
Of course, Han Soyeon wasn't the only one present.
Around her, several organization mbers lay dead, having been killed rather brutally, their blood seeping out.
In front of her were blue eyes' followers, staring at her with endlessly trembling eyes.
And then.
"Ah— my mistake."
Han Soyeon spoke up.
Her face perfectly calm, with a gentle smile, she said,
"I was just going to push you aside lightly... but I ended up killing you by mistake."
At those words, the blue eyes' followers stared at Han Soyeon, unable to process what they had just heard.
But even with all their terrified gazes upon her—
"Still, it should be fine, right?"
Han Soyeon kept her gentle smile, and—
"It'll be fine."
With just a flick of her finger—
"After all, all of this is—"
Boom—crash-crash-crash-crash!
"Uaaaaaaaah—!!!
"Sp-spare !"
"Let live! Please let live!!"
Crack—snap-crackle!
Bringing the underground ceiling above the blue eyes' sorcerers down on them, crushing them under the concrete.
"—My mistake."
She smiled serenely at the sight of blood seeping through the shattered concrete.
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