Girls' Dreams Are Best Understood by Nymphs # 1
"Ha Ildo…!"
A T-Rank Rift had opened in Haeundae, Busan. And there, on that sandy beach, Tsubaki—the S-Rank awakener from Japan—waved her hand at me.
"Over here! Over here!"
Vrrrm—
Tsubaki's looks were hard to miss. Sure, plenty of people had sprouted colorful hair since the age of awakeners began, but her silver-tinged locks caught the Busan sunlight and threw it back with a brilliance all their own. She was nearly as tall as I was, and with her crisp black suit she might as well have been a model on a photoshoot.
"Who's that?"
"Some awakener from Japan, I think?"
It was no surprise that a crowd began to gather. And the moment I walked up to her, every eye snapped toward me in an instant.
"Look! It's Keongkeongi!"
"So cute!"
No, wait—.
Every eye snapped toward Keongkeongi. Because my dog-squirrel was more famous and more popular than I'd ever be.
━Woof-woof…!
Anyway.
That's how we found ourselves entering T-Rank Rift T-781. According to the survey results, T-781 was on the smaller side as T-Rank rifts went—small enough, they said, that Tsubaki, a top-ranked S-Ranker, could clear it on her own.
"This is my first T-Rank. Hoo, it's a little nerve-wracking."
Lee Jina, who had only recently made B-Rank, was noticeably tense about entering a T-Rank dungeon. She'd strapped on a gauntlet and dressed in black leather like a rider's suit, and the look suited her surprisingly well. Equipment-wise, she cut every bit the figure of a seasoned veteran.
"They say A-Rank monsters pop out of T-Rank dungeons as standard, right? Are we even going to be any help?"
Jina seemed to genuinely wonder whether she and I would contribute anything inside a T-Rank rift.
Honestly, I'd felt exactly the same the first time I entered one. Back then I'd had Seo Yerim and Cha Yura with me. To be frank, the me of that time was… not much help at all.
Vwuuum—
And so we entered T-Rank Rift T-778. My stomach lurched as though it were being flipped end over end, and then a wave of hot air rushed up and washed across my face. When I looked around, volcanoes filled the horizon and rivers of magma steamed under a seething red sky, all of it laid out at a glance.
Every T-Rank rift that opens in Korea connects to the Land of Flames—Muspelheim, which meant they were almost universally this: an endless, blistering crimson hellscape.
"So this is Korea's T-Rank rift? It's hot—different from the Japanese ones."
Fwap—
Tsubaki pulled the jacket off her shoulders and knotted it around her waist. As far as I knew, that jacket was itself a piece of armor made from special materials, so I worried for a moment whether she should really be taking it off—.
"Whoa, Ha Ildo. Look at her. That's insane."
Tsubaki's physique was, as Jina's awe suggested, everything an S-Rank awakener should be. The white sleeveless shirt beneath her jacket left her arms and shoulders bare, but nothing about her looked fragile or under-defended. Her arms were solid, and her skin—true to her physical-enhancement abilities—boasted a hardness that rivaled steel.
Vrrrm—
Tsubaki stretched lightly, loosening up her body. And then, on the ground before us, volcanic debris and stones began clumping together, coalescing into a human-shaped figure a little over two meters tall.
It was the appearance of the A-Rank monster, a Lava Soldier. On the lower end of the A-Rank spectrum, to be sure, but there was no mistaking it: it was an A-Rank monster, and A-Rank meant powerful.
"Is that the kind of monster this T-Rank dungeon has? Everyone, hands off! I want to deal with this one myself as a warm-up. Let's start with something light!"
Tsubaki strode unhurriedly toward the Lava Soldier and drove a clenched fist clean into its jaw.
BAM—!
A flawless uppercut.
━Awooooong….
Crack—!
The A-Rank monster, forged from hardened lava, burst apart in an instant like a snowman collapsing. It was, in many ways, a deeply surreal sight. If I'd been the one facing that thing, I'd have had to send out Keongkeongi, Ang-ang-i, and Kwang-kwangi to have a chance.
"Hey. Ha Ildo. Looks like there's nothing for us to do here. That woman's tearing through a rift barehanded—no weapons, no gear. What are we supposed to do in a situation like this?"
Tsubaki's overwhelming performance—one-punching an A-Rank monster—seemed to have knocked Jina back on her heels a little.
To be honest, I felt it too.
"That's just how physical enhancers are—simple and strong. What we need to do now is gather the materials. See the fragments scattered on the ground? We should collect those."
The monsters that appeared in T-Rank rifts were powerful, but their byproducts made for excellent materials in equal measure. The fragments of a Lava Soldier were known as Volcanic Bombs, and they served as a superb substitute for charcoal—so much so that the priciest barbecue joints supposedly fired their grills with them to sear their meat.
Swoosh, swoosh—
I was stuffing volcanic bombs into a specially commissioned pouch when Jina's hand shot straight up in the air. Then she raised one eyebrow and spoke low, just loud enough for me alone.
"Aren't we totally getting carried here? This is a bus. We're riding the bus, Ildo."
Jina was a girl who knew her games—she'd run away from home to hole up in PC bangs every time she fought with her sister, after all. Apparently she understood both "carried" and "bus" perfectly. And what she said was the truth!
"This rift is small for a T-Rank to begin with, and Tsubaki—well, she may not be officially listed, but she's a single-number Ranker."
"A single-number Ranker?"
I had a keen interest in S-Rankers. Their rankings and abilities were always hot-button topics online, and in Korea alone, the legendary mud-slinging war of "Cha Yura vs. Seo Yerim" was famous. When I had nothing better to do, I'd wade into those fights myself and wage deep, furious debates for days on end.
I was a complete neutral—neither Yerim-over-Yura nor Yura-over-Yerim—on the grounds that, should the two ever actually settle it, the winner would depend entirely on the day's condition and the terrain.
Anyway.
As someone who had studied S-Rank awakeners professionally and committed nearly all of their uploaded posts, SNS activity, and famous quotes to memory, I judged Tsubaki to be a single-number Ranker—somewhere in the S-Rank 1 through 9 range.
"Meaning that since Tsubaki is absurdly strong, it's only natural we have nothing to contribute in combat. We just gather materials well and carry the luggage."
"Still feels like we're freeloading hard, though. So this is why people are so desperate to get chummy with high-ranked awakeners."
The rift crumbled easily before Tsubaki's fists.
All that remained was the A-Rank mid-tier monster: the Lava Knight. With the flame-bladed knight standing before her, Tsubaki turned to us.
"It doesn't seem to have a separate boss… and this looks like the last monster. I've hogged all the fun so far—want to take this one?"
Tsubaki offered us the final A-Rank monster.
At once—crack, crack—Jina loosened her shoulders and neck.
"Alright. We came all the way into a T-Rank; might as well have a go. Its body's made of rock, but it's humanoid, so its weak points should be shared with the human form!"
Fwap—!
Jina lunged at the three-meter-tall knight. She bent her spine backward in a sliding dodge as the sword swept through the space she'd just occupied, then drove her fist full-force into the Lava Knight's abdomen.
"True Rising Dragon Fist!"
A gorgeous attack—leaping high into the air with an uppercut to match. Had she taken it from a fighting game character's move list? It certainly fit a woman who'd spent half her life in arcades and PC bangs.
Crumble, crumble—
Shedding fragments, the Lava Knight staggered backward.
"Tch—. It's way too hard. Are my B-Rank attacks not even going to wound it? Hey! Ha Ildo! Give me a hand!"
"I was already planning to."
Haa—
I exhaled slowly, steadying my breath, and spread the distinctive mana of a manipulation-type in every direction. Then I called to the one lying in ambush.
"Kwang-kwangi…! Use Singing…!"
━Hio-ong…!
Hio-ong, hio-ong—Kwang-kwangi began to sing. Charged with my mana, its adorable song carried an effect that regulated the tension of animals, or so Ari had told me—which meant it was guaranteed to work.
Proving the point, Keongkeongi let out a valiant ━Grrrung…! and brimmed with fighting spirit, charging at the Lava Knight at full sprint.
"Keongkeongi! Gale Kkeong-Kkeong Slash!"
━Grrrung…!
Keongkeongi clamped down hard on its own tail, spun round and round on the recoil, and finally—like a swordsman's perfect draw-cut—slammed its tail into the Lava Knight with everything it had. The centrifugal force of the spin and the friction of that tail-draw carried its iaido to the very threshold of A-Rank.
KRA-BOOOM—!
━Uooorang…!
Struck square in the chest, the Lava Knight's body swayed violently. Its guard was broken. Not content to rest there, I seized the moment—the monster had lost its grip on its sword, its weak points laid utterly bare—and shouted.
"Ang-ang-i! Now—Zjeuji Slice!"
Vuuung—
Mana-hardened, Ang-ang-i beat its wings and rocketed up toward the Lava Knight.
━Zjeuji…!
Shah-shak—!
Ang-ang-i's razor horn carved an X across the Lava Knight, and at last the knight's torso split in two. It hit the ground with a thunderous ku-BOOM—.
"Phew. What an intense battle."
I wiped the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. Nobody got hurt—that was the important thing.
Watching this, Jina furrowed her brow and jabbed me in the ribs.
"'Intense'? Ha Ildo, all you did was stand back and shout orders."
Fair point. But this was an efficient and, above all, realistic way of fighting. When Kwang-kwangi, Ang-ang-i, and Keongkeongi worked as a team, they were far stronger than I was.
"You all did great!"
Swoosh, swoosh—
I ran my hands over the battle-worn animals, petting them to my heart's content. And with that, we cleared the T-Rank rift without a scratch.
Tsubaki looked down at her drenched body and laughed—haha—.
"I'm soaked in sweat. I want to wash up first. It's been ages since I've been to Busan, so it has to be a bathhouse with an ocean view! Everyone, let's go! There's a place I visit every time I come to Korea!"
Tsubaki led us to a bathhouse overlooking the sea. I was tense in any number of ways—but Tsubaki, entirely matter-of-fact, walked straight into the women's bath. Consider it confirmed, once and for all: Tsubaki really was a woman.
"This place is peaceful every time I come. I like it."
Tsubaki lowered herself into the bath. It was a quiet bathhouse, and the view of the ocean through the window was lovely too. But her gaze drifted toward Lee Jina, seated across from her, far more often than it drifted toward the sea.
"What are you staring at?"
Jina asked point-blank, and Tsubaki answered point-blank.
"Nothing, I just think you have a beautiful body."
Tsubaki genuinely found Jina's body smooth and lovely. Firmly toned in the right places yet slender all over—it was pretty even by another woman's standards.
Jina, however, felt a faint chill crawl up her spine.
"Tsubaki, weren't you getting engaged to Seo Yerim? People say you like women—don't you go getting any ideas about me. That's not my taste!"
Splash—
Jina covered herself with her hands. Tsubaki bristled a little in turn.
"I don't like women! I like beautiful things, that's all! And I like men too!"
Even so, Tsubaki's fair face had flushed a shade of red.
Thank goodness the bath was empty, I thought, in many more ways than one.
"But men do prefer women who are a little more soft and quiet, don't they? Good at cooking, demure—high 'feminine appeal.' That's the type they go for."
Plunk—
Tsubaki dunked her head entirely under the water. Watching her, Jina folded her arms.
"If you're talking about Ha Ildo's type, not really. Ha Ildo's taste is…."
Jina could often read Ha Ildo's feelings. But she decided not to elaborate on that particular taste. Empaths who gossip about other people's inner lives tend to make enemies fast.
Besides, Tsubaki was busy thrashing around and churning up the water—there was no room to get a word in.
"How did you know? That I like Ha Ildo…! This feeling is a first for me…! My heart's pounding and my whole body feels like it's floating… is this what ordinary girls feel all the time…?"