Chapter 13
I couldn’t help but stare at it blankly in disbelief.
‘Why is it appearing here?’
In the distance, I caught sight of an adorably small wolf pup. It started barking incessantly at the spider.
“Wait, be careful—!”
At that moment, the spider’s large body slowly began to turn around. Its fierce gaze shifted from me to the wolf pup.
‘Could it be……’
Did it draw its attention? Despite my flustered state, this was a chance I had barely found.
While the spider’s attention was focused on the wolf pup, I quickly racked my brain.
‘Think. What skill do I need most right now?’
First, I picked up the gun with trembling hands.
Bang! The aim was slightly off, and the bullet grazed my arm. Fortunately, it seemed to hit the thread, creating a hole.
Bang! I fired the gun again near the area that had already been pierced, and finally, one of my arms broke free. Once I could move, it was only a matter of time before I was completely released from the threads.
The threads wrapping my body fell to the ground with a thud, and I stood up on shaky legs.
As soon as I saw the spider trying to spit out threads towards the wolf pup like before, I raised my arm high.
Bang!
“Hey.”
The sound of gunfire echoed in the sky.
“Now fight me.”
💎
Whoosh!
Cha Si-hyeon suddenly turned around.
“What? Is something there?”
“No, it’s not that……”
Didn’t you hear something? He tilted his head briefly before speaking again.
“Anyway, are you saying we should abandon Yoo Yi-joo and escape?”
“It’s not exactly that, but if that end is the escape route and we end up in a situation where we have no choice but to escape, we’ll have to go first.”
“Hah……”
Cha Si-hyeon slowly closed and opened his eyes.
“You, no matter what, don’t you have any-“
“Wake up, Cha Si-hyeon.”
Baek Doha cut him off before he could finish.
“I know you’ve always lived protecting the weak and prioritizing them.”
Just as Cha Si-hyeon knows Baek Doha well, the same goes for Baek Doha.
“But I’m not going to agree with you when we’re facing death.”
Cha Si-hyeon, hit right where it hurt, opened and closed his mouth a few times. Baek Doha’s words weren’t entirely wrong. Even if they said ‘together,’ if it came down to choosing between Yoo Yi-joo and himself, of course, he would choose himself.
One had to be cold-hearted in the face of survival. But still……
“You know you’re being too harsh, right?”
Even if the end of this path is the exit, it feels unsettling, and going back to Yoo Yi-joo because there’s nothing there also feels unsettling.
“If we take too long, we should have at least told her to follow us.”
“She should have noticed that much and followed us already.”
Baek Doha sighed as he descended along the uneven cave floor. Cha Si-hyeon quietly watched his back, barely visible in the darkness, before speaking.
“You…. don’t you think she might have noticed that?”
At that moment, Baek Doha hesitated.
He becomes excessively cold-hearted when it comes to ‘survival.’ Cha Si-hyeon knows this too.
“I—”
“Baek Doha?”
It was then. A familiar voice was heard from the other side.
“Oh, Hyung-nim?”
Cha Si-hyeon reacted before Baek Doha.
Looking up, there was Lim Yuchan. Lim Yuchan immediately recognized the two and opened his hand. Whoosh! Hot flames rose from his fingertips.
“Hyung-nim, what took you so long?! I thought you were dead!”
Only then, seeing Lim Yuchan’s unharmed face in the now-bright cave, did Cha Si-hyeon make a fuss. Lim Yuchan slightly furrowed his brow.
“The cave was surprisingly vast. It took a while to explore it all.”
“All of it? No wonder it took so long.”
“How long was it?”
“A day and a half.”
Lim Yuchan fell silent, seemingly surprised. It seemed he had lost his sense of time after being trapped in such a dark place for so long.
“Well, it wasn’t that long after all. Why did you come?”
“Sometimes there are exits that suck people in, so we thought that might have happened.”
“There was no exit.”
All he saw were monsters, and even after killing them all, nothing appeared.
To begin with, Lim Yuchan wasn’t particularly quick on his feet.
Nor was he the impatient type.
It’s just that the cave, being a monster’s lair, was endlessly vast, and he had been slowly exploring it all and was about to leave when they arrived.
“See, I told you we could have waited a little longer.”
“I never said that.”
“I thought it inside.”
“But……”
Lim Yuchan, who had been listening to Cha Si-hyeon and Baek Doha’s familiar bickering, slowly began to speak. He asked about something he had been curious about for a while.
“Where’s Yoo Yi-joo?”
💎
Bang!
With a deafening sound, the bullet flew into the sky.
The noise was several times louder than the wolf pup’s barking.
“Kiiiik!”
In other words, it was enough to grab the spider monster’s attention.
Its eyes turned back to me. It seemed annoyed as it looked at the howling creature and stretched its arm straight.
Bang!
One quick shot pierced right through.
“Kieeeeek!”
Not the leg, but the eye on the upper right.
‘As expected.’
I knew that would be penetrable. Finally feeling some relief from the frustration, I fired another shot at the howling creature’s left eye.
‘Got it.’
This one hit the mark as well.
The spider monster’s trait is its fast-spewing thread, but its actual movement is sluggish.
‘The weakness is too easy.’
Is this what it means to be at the intermediate level?
‘Still, that size is too much for me.’
I almost died from being constricted by the threads.
I fired the remaining shot, eliminating the spider’s third eye.
The creature howled loudly in pain. Regardless, I stared at the remaining eye for a moment before moving my feet.
From my observation, it barely used its eyes.
It moved towards the source of sound, and its eyes seemed underdeveloped, barely able to identify objects right in front of it.
Moreover, with only one eye left, it would see even less.
Even now, it was blindly moving towards the sound and then…
Splash!
It fell straight into the lake.
Seemingly very confused, it flailed its front legs above the water. I wonder if it’ll get out. I watched it blankly for a moment, then smiled slightly.
‘I can just leave it like this.’
Whoosh! Something rose above the water. I know this very well.
‘The thing that almost killed me…’
As that thought crossed my mind, making me uneasy and sending a chill down my neck.
Whoooosh!
Water surged up from the lake.
The deafening sound and water droplets hitting my face made me come to my senses. I looked up to see the Kraken’s tentacles, which had burst through the water, wrapping around the spider.
I don’t know the level difference between the two monsters, but in an aquatic environment, the Kraken would surely have the advantage.
As expected, the Kraken dragged the spider underwater.
Gurgle, only after hearing the bubbling sound from underwater did I turn away.
[SYSTEM] You have completed ‘Main Quest-5’!
The system window notification signaling the end, and…
“You’re here?”
I caught sight of the S-ranks emerging from the cave.
💎
As they exited the cave, the first things visible were the messy undergrowth, white threads scattered under the trees, and an incredibly calm lake.
In this situation that clearly showed signs of commotion, Cha Si-hyeon was the first to move.
“Are you hurt?”
Yoo Yi-joo looked at him bewilderedly as he examined her body, then scratched her head.
“I’m not hurt.”
“What happened?”
“Just, there was a spider, so I threw it to the Kraken as food.”
Yoo Yi-joo imagined the Kraken happily enjoying its large meal right now, then looked up.
“More importantly, you’re all fine.”
Her gaze landed on Lim Yuchan.
“The cave was wide, so he said he was exploring it all before coming back. We worried for nothing.”
Cha Si-hyeon explained briefly, then added,
“Let’s go now. It’s better to move before it gets darker.”
As it gets darker, monsters become more active, so they need to move to the cave as quickly as possible. Yoo Yi-joo nodded, then suddenly paused as a thought occurred to her. Come to think of it…
‘Did the wolf leave?’
No matter how much she looked around, she couldn’t see the creature that had suddenly appeared and helped her. Only after confirming the wolf’s absence did Yoo Yi-joo start walking.
Baek Doha, who had been watching her from behind, finally moved as well.
Walking between Baek Doha and Lim Yuchan, Yoo Yi-joo spoke up.
“So there was no exit after all?”
“The light I saw was probably one of the monster’s skills.”
“Hyung-nim, stop standing there and light the way for us.”
Cha Si-hyeon, who was walking ahead, said. Lim Yuchan sighed, raised his hand to create a bright red flame, and moved closer to Cha Si-hyeon.
Baek Doha and Yoo Yi-joo walked silently, a step behind the other two.
Yoo Yi-joo looked at the dark sky for a moment, then lowered her gaze to Lim Yuchan’s back.
Lim Yuchan was safe.
However, no one knows where the exit is.
“It’s okay.”
Thud, Yoo Yi-joo broke the silence abruptly.
Baek Doha’s fingertips twitched.
“I thought you seemed to be watching me closely.”
As if to say there’s no need for that, Yoo Yi-joo slowly closed and opened her eyes. Baek Doha silently took in her voice, recalling what Cha Si-hyeon had said.
“You… don’t you think she might have noticed that?”
He knew that someone as perceptive as her could easily figure it out.
But he had deliberately ignored it.
He thought it was an unavoidable choice for survival.
Nevertheless, he felt uncomfortable with her realizing that he had abandoned her.
He had forcibly disregarded Cha Si-hyeon’s opinion and kept walking forward. Baek Doha’s lips quivered repeatedly before he finally spoke.
“About that…”
“It’s really okay.”
And Yoo Yi-joo cut off his voice, as if to say no explanation was necessary.
“I would have done the same.”
Yoo Yi-joo shrugged as if it really was fine.
Baek Doha quietly observed her white skin flickering in the red firelight.
Why? She looked genuinely okay, yet somehow, she also seemed somewhat bitter.
💎
Thank you for reading! ♡
