Chapter 43
[SYSTEM] A message has arrived from ‘Yoo Yi-joo’, the faction leader.
[I’m going ahead. Don’t worry, I’ve met Lim Yuchan.]
In the tunnel, the flickering torchlight illuminated a pale face. Baek Doha crossed his arms and quietly stared at the system window that had flown to him.
‘She met Hyung-nim…’
Yoo Yi-joo had no reason to lie like this, nor was she the type of person to do so.
Baek Doha closed his eyes gently. As he focused solely on his mana senses in the closed field of view, he suddenly felt a heavy and strong mana.
“He’s really here.”
“Pardon?”
It was a familiar mana. Baek Doha muttered, lightly recognizing Lim Yuchan’s mana.
Regardless of whether the man on guard duty asked in confusion, Baek Doha detached his back from the wall he had been leaning against.
“I’ll go ahead first. See you next time.”
Baek Doha smiled faintly and patted the man’s shoulder lightly, meaning ‘good job’.
“You’re just leaving?”
“Yes.”
“But you were supposed to go with the faction leader…”
“That Hyung-nim might be a bit slow, but his strength is reliable enough to trust.”
Baek Doha muttered something incomprehensible to the man and moved his steps.
It’s not that he’s not worried at all, but…
‘That brother will manage somehow.’
It was a kind of trust.
💎
When Lim Yuchan fell into a different dungeon, he didn’t particularly think about looking for his companions.
He thought that even if he didn’t search them, Cha Si-hyeon would look for Yoo Yi-joo out of worry, given her personality, and Baek Doha would probably do the same.
First, he looked around the dungeon interior, then checked if there was another way out, and after realizing there wasn’t, he was about to start looking for his companions when a system message arrived.
[SYSTEM] Faction rankings are changing!]
[White Moon Faction (1st rank). Faction leader, ‘Yoo Yi-joo’.]
And at the end of it was a familiar name.
He had thought she would do well on her own, but he paused for a moment at this unexpected achievement. He thought he just needed to go now that he knew where she was, but…
“Call the 1st rank faction leader.”
“Now? What for?”
“I was planning to do it soon anyway, but since it’s changed, that’s good. I’m taking it, the emblem of the 1st place.”
He overheard it. The conversation between what seemed to be the 2nd rank faction leader and two of his faction members talking in the corner of the corridor.
That’s why. He decided to observe the actions of the 2nd rank faction instead of going right away.
In the end, Yoo Yi-joo came here as expected, and as expected, she went to see the 2nd rank faction leader.
Despite being warned of the danger. Lim Yuchan knew that he would eventually have to go look for Yoo Yi-joo.
“Intruder! Quickly, ack!”
Lim Yuchan grabbed the throat of the 2nd rank faction member trying to alert others to the emergency and slammed him against the wall.
Watching the guy choking without making a sound of pain, Lim Yuchan started walking again.
He repeated the pattern of throwing away one person who came rushing at him, then tossing another, as he headed towards one place.
Along with the sound of footsteps in the corridor, the image of Yoo Yi-joo being dragged away by people flashed through Lim Yuchan’s mind.
‘It’s all just as I expected.’
Everything flowed exactly as he had anticipated.
But if there was one thing he hadn’t expected…
“Move.”
It was that his mood would be absolutely foul.
💎
“Why did you come alone?”
When Baek Doha emerged first from the passage exit, this was the first thing he heard.
Baek Doha shrugged his shoulders at Cha Si-hyeon, who seemed to have been waiting since she sensed their presence.
“Where’s Yoo Yi-joo?”
“She told me to go ahead.”
“What?”
Cha Si-hyeon’s brow furrowed.
“How could you actually come when she told you to go ahead? Leaving her alone with the 2nd rank faction is insane—”
“She said she met Hyung-nim.”
Baek Doha interrupted Cha Si-hyeon’s scolding voice. Lim Yuchan? Cha Si-hyeon’s furrowed brow relaxed in bewilderment.
“Why is he there?”
“I don’t know the details, but brother is definitely there. I felt his mana.”
Cha Si-hyeon’s mouth, which was about to argue further, closed. If Baek Doha could sense and be certain of the mana, there was no doubt that the person in question was Lim Yuchan.
Nevertheless, seeing Cha Si-hyeon’s expression, which still seemed somewhat dissatisfied, Baek Doha shrugged his shoulders lightly.
“What are you worried about? You know Hyung-nim’s strength as well as I do.”
Yes, they both know how strong Lim Yuchan is, to the point where worrying seems laughable.
“I know, I know, but just…”
Cha Si-hyeon let out a hollow laugh, recalling the figure that had blocked his path.
“I’m afraid I’ll regret it again if I can’t save her.”
“You…”
As Baek Doha was about to say something while watching this…
“…?”
Whoosh! Their pupils dilated at the unexpected heaviness weighing down their bodies.
“What is this…?”
Cha Si-hyeon slowly raised his head and looked at the floating system message.
[Your faction leader has broken the ‘Oath’!]
[Penalty, ‘Movement Reduction (C)’ will be applied!]
Baek Doha’s gaze also wavered as he belatedly checked his status window.
What on earth was happening?
💎
Long hair like silk, a golden hairpin stuck in it, white skin and red lips, a handsome man in fine hanbok attire.
A man exuding an incongruous atmosphere was in front of me. In other words, he was imprisoned with me.
“…Who are you?”
“Can’t say.”
He answered immediately when I asked.
Not that he won’t speak, but he can’t?
I thought carefully to try to understand what he meant.
‘Ah, could it be some kind of penalty skill?’
If that was the case, it wasn’t a big problem.
[Using skill, ‘Peek (S)’.]
I had a skill that allowed me to examine the other person’s status window. I could just check this and judge.
[Unable to confirm information!]
Or so I thought… what is this?
I blinked blankly.
It was the first time I saw this message. Unable to confirm? This had never happened before. Even information about monsters can be checked with this skill….
Thinking I might have done something wrong, I opened my eyes wide again and activated the skill. And,
[Checking information.]
[Unable to confirm information!]
The same message appeared again.
“This can’t be.”
“What can’t be?”
“……”
I can’t read your information. I muttered inwardly and chose to give up. Right, it’s not like their identity was that important. What’s really important was…
“Then do you know how to get out of here?”
Escape.
“You can’t get out of here with human power. As I said before, these iron bars, this space has its own unique skill.”
“Unique skill?”
“Don’t young people these days even know about that?”
He clicked his tongue. Hey, you look about the same age as me, what do you mean ‘young people’?
‘And I didn’t even know hunters existed in the first place.’
As I was questioning internally, he let out a deep sigh and opened his mouth again.
“A skill, characteristic, or grade that something is born with. Whatever it is, that which is fatefully possessed is ‘unique’.”
Come to think of it, I also had a ‘characteristic’.
‘Did I… have this characteristic from the beginning? This? I wasn’t even a hunter or anything to begin with?’
If so, what does my ‘Relentless Growth (-)’ that appeared as a ‘unique’ characteristic mean? Before I could ponder deeper, I heard a voice from in front.
“Not many people have unique traits, but it’s even rarer for objects. If an object has a characteristic, they call it an ancient relic.”
“Then…”
“These iron bars have ‘No Approach’ as their unique skill.”
I turned my head to look at the iron bars. Even when I reached out, my hand stopped near the bars.
As if blocked by a wall.
In other words…
“It means you can’t touch those iron bars.”
The man continued speaking with the same bored expression.
“You need a key with its own unique skill that can unlock the skill of these bars.”
That key is the only way to get out of these bars. And Im Yuchan is probably looking for it.
‘Will he be able to find it?’
Just Lim Yuchan alone?
I know his abilities from seeing them with my own eyes, but…
“By the way, you.”
Just as I was worrying alone, a voice came from right in front of me. Startled, I jerked my head up to find the man suddenly close, looking at me.
“W-what?”
This is too close.
His black pupils stared at me blankly for a moment, and then he blurted out.
“You’re just like a being from another world.”
At that moment, my whole body stiffened. What?
‘What did he say?’
Before I could ask again, he straightened his bent waist. As I quietly listened to the sound of his long cloth fluttering, the man who had brushed past me stood in front of the iron bars.
“…What are you trying to do?”
“I’m bored now.”
And as he lightly grasped the iron bars.
“I’m going to leave.”
Crash!
He just broke the iron bars… huh?
“I’ll be going now. It was fun.”
Wait a minute. Ignoring me as I blinked blankly, my thought process stopped, and the man turned his back.
And just as I thought he was leaving… he approached me again and lowered his head.
As his long hair tickled my cheek, I heard a small whisper in my ear.
“Beware of the dragon.”
“What?”
Before I could ask anything more, the man disappeared. Literally vanished before my eyes. No, really, what’s going on?
As I stood there dumbfounded with nothing but questions from start to finish…
“Yoo Yi-joo?”
From the opposite side appeared the man I had really been waiting for.
Lim Yuchan looked at me standing there alone once, then at the terribly broken iron bars once, and furrowed his brow.
“What’s this? Why are you out here?”
In his hand was a key that looked like the prison key, which I had no idea how he had found.
I rolled my eyes around and mumbled.
“Well, I just somehow got out…”
He let out a hollow laugh as if in disbelief.
“I didn’t expect this.”
💎
Thank you for reading! ♡
