—
This was the thought that kept Will tossing and turning.
He was trying to figure out how to reverse Treya’s current “darkened” state.
He was confident—after all, Treya was soone he had personally trained. No matter how far she fell into darkness, she should still be within his control.
What exactly had Treya encountered? And to what extent could he help her? As soone who had read the original story, Will knew the full scope of the political conflict happening at this point in ti, as well as its winners and losers.
But beyond all that…
There was one thing he believed more than anything else—
Will was convinced that only through his efforts could he pull her out of the mindset of “darkening to the point of wanting to control Will.”
Put simply…
If he could help Treya succeed in the royal family’s power struggle, she would undoubtedly return to calling him “Professor Will” with that sa respect and admiration as before.
“I see, I see. Should I praise you for this?” Shuna said, crossing her arms and listening with a sowhat indifferent expression as Will delivered what he thought was a “cool” line.
She had known this about him from the start—ever since he began writing letters to her. He cared for every single one of his teammates, had detailed plans for their growth, and understood their psyches inside and out.
Truly, a natural-born Hysterm family mber, skilled at navigating between multiple won.
But…
Shuna looked at Will. After saying those words, he lowered his head, staring at his fingertips as if calculating sothing.
This state of his—perhaps it brought him closer to truly “falling in love” with soone.
Although it stung a little that it wasn’t her who had brought him to this realization, Shuna decided she would help him anyway.
“So, what’s next? Are you still planning to get Lucifa’s heart?” she asked.
“Yeah. But the more I think about it, the more worried I am about Treya’s condition. I think I need to get the heart as soon as possible and head to the capital.”
“Hmm.”
Will noticed that Shuna’s tone seed to drop slightly, almost as if she were disappointed.
“Uh… of course… since you’re here, we’ll explore together this ti,” he added quickly.
“Oh? Now you rember you have a teammate by your side? Not just pining for your little princess far away?” Shuna teased before lightly knocking on his head and stepping closer to him.
“If you want, we can leave as early as tomorrow. But when it cos to fighting Lucifa, you’re going solo. I’ll just be your backup insurance,” she said.
“Huh? Why this ti?” Will asked, though he was also curious to test himself after feeling like his state had improved since leaving Leah’s influence.
“Lucifa is a highly skilled ntal-type enemy. If she specifically targets and pulls into her traps, my strength control might slip—I could end up killing her outright. And I don’t want to conquer this dungeon,” Shuna explained in her usual analytical tone when discussing dungeons.
“For ntal-type enemies, the best strategy is to have one person act as an anchor for reality while the other deals with the illusions. That way, one person knows what they’re seeing is real, while the other can dismiss everything as false.”
“So you’re saying I’ll be the one taking her skills head-on while you act as the anchor? Because if you go in, you might accidentally conquer the dungeon?”
“Bingo.” Shuna snapped her fingers. “That’s exactly it.”
“You’ve got to be kidding . How are we supposed to ‘not conquer the dungeon’ and still get the Empress’s heart?” Will asked incredulously.
“Well… what if she can survive without her heart? She’s a dungeon creature—a demon. We can’t apply normal logic to her existence, can we?”
“You’re oddly insistent on this…” Will said, sensing sothing off about Shuna.
In the past, they had occasionally refrained from attacking dungeon rulers when they needed information from them. But most of the ti, as a pure adventurer, Shuna always prioritized conquering dungeons above all else.
Unless…
There was sothing else—sothing more aligned with her “true self”—that intrigued her even more.
“Why don’t you want to conquer this dungeon?” Will asked directly.
“Because… there’s more I want to learn from Lucifa,” Shuna replied.
“What kind of things?”
“This…” Shuna trailed off before turning around. She leaned against the window fra, tilting her head back to gaze at the sky.
“What does it take to reach the end of a dungeon? What lies at its ultimate depths?”
“…?!”
Shuna slowly turned back toward Will, her dark eyes locking onto his.
“You see,” she continued, “it turns out that adventurers wanting to explore deeper and stronger dungeons isn’t enough. They also need to think about what lies at the very heart of a dungeon.”
Under the moonlight, her gaze carried an intensity that reminded Will of Lucifa’s “ambition.” Perhaps it was because she had found so shocking answer during their dungeon explorations.
Her black eyes seed like bottomless pits—threatening to swallow him whole if he stared too long.
Will had once thought that Shuna’s obsession with conquering dungeons and challenging powerful enemies was rely about proving herself against dungeon rulers.
But now it seed that wasn’t the case at all.
What she truly cared about was sothing far purer—
What exists at the deepest depths of a dungeon?
What does the end of a dungeon signify?
What is the purpose of exploring dungeons?
—
Divine Condensers.
Humans who are “gazed upon by gods.” In the context of the original story, this wasn’t a “blessing” but rather a “burden,” carrying a sense of divine responsibility akin to “heaven bestows great tasks upon those it chooses.”
Beyond receiving blessings from Revers, the goddess of dungeons, Divine Condensers shared another striking similarity…
They were all obsessed with reaching “the end of dungeons.”
For most Divine Condensers, this manifested as a relentless drive to conquer dungeons down to their deepest levels.
But Shuna’s obsession seed even deeper—
“The act of conquering itself has lost its aning,” she said softly. “That’s why I want to ask Lucifa more questions—about what it takes to see that end.”
She tilted her head back further, sticking it out of the window as she gazed at the starry sky above.
In a town devoid of artificial light, the stars shone brighter and clearer than ever—like countless jewels scattered across a velvet curtain of night.
Reaching out toward the Milky Way above her, Shuna squinted slightly as if trying to grasp sothing just out of reach.
—Even if not from a “human” or “adventurer” perspective, she wanted to reach the end of dungeons.
That was the obsession she now displayed.
—
It was unfortunate that soone like her—soone so driven—was soone Will had only encountered in this “world.” Or perhaps it would be better to call it this version of the world.
Shuu.
—
“Phew… alright,” Shuna said suddenly. “I’ve finally gotten that off my chest. Ti for bed.”
She stretched lazily before heading back to her couch.
As she removed her hoodie, however, sothing unexpected happened—the black hoodie caught on her inner shirt and tugged it upward slightly.
For just a mont…
Will caught sight of a faint mark on her lower back—a symbol etched onto her skin like an intricate Möbius strip. The center was hollowed out and filled with complex patterns and ancient text he couldn’t decipher.
It was unmistakably the mark of Revers—the goddess’s symbol that identified soone as a Divine Condenser.
And its location…
Was identical to where Shuu had borne his mark.
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