Spider Juice
The day of spider juice dawned, and Elphy’s expression looked noticeably better than the night before. Whether my efforts had worked or she’d simply cheered up on her own, I couldn’t tell, but either way, it was better than her moping around. Whatever. Good was good.
“Have a good one~”
“Yeah. And remember—don’t open the door for anyone, got it?”
“Yeah~ I got it, so go already. Minhyuk’s waiting outside. Hurry up.”
“…”
With Elphy’s cheerful send-off, the door clicked shut. I stared at the firmly closed entrance with a face full of worry and reluctance, but the familiar voice behind me pulled me back to reality.
“Ahem… Shall we go, hyung-nim?”
Inside the car, I glanced back at the receding lodge. It sat a little apart from the village, surrounded only by grass and trees, almost as if a barrier had been cast around it. Maybe that was why it felt even more distant… If I’d known I’d worry this much, maybe I should’ve just taken her along.
“…Are you worried?”
“Yeah.”
“Then how about we bring your sister-in-law—no, your girlfriend—along starting tomorrow?”
“…Would that be okay?”
“She’s not a civilian, and she’s a Hunter too, so it should be fine, right?”
“Do whatever’s comfortable for you, hyung-nim.”
“…”
Maybe? She was a healer-type Hunter, so having her around might be better than not. But even so, staying locked inside the lodge seemed safer than a dungeon. I wrestled with the thought for a moment before shaking my head.
“No… never mind. It’s still a dungeon. With so few people, I don’t think she’d get proper protection.”
“Is that so? Still, E to D rank should be manageable, no?”
“Hmm… maybe. But we’re not closing low-level rifts anyway.”
“We are closing those rifts, though?”
“…?”
After all that talk about rifts within rifts and other dangerous-sounding stuff, this part didn’t make sense. Apparently, while I was gone, he’d managed to negotiate with the demon-hater.
“You decided to only close E to D rank dungeons?”
“Yes. That’s how it turned out.”
“Really? So we’re not touching the rifts inside rifts anymore?”
“That’s correct, but… the rifts inside rifts are causing more small rifts to appear, so…”
“It won’t be as easy as it sounds.”
“…”
Just when I thought things were looking up… I’d been happily imagining an easy ride, but listening to the details, it sounded way more grueling than expected. They said the goal was three dungeons a day, but could the two of us actually pull that off?
“Of course. I can close low-grade dungeons on my own.”
“And with you here, hyung-nim…”
With enough effort, it was doable. The flood of qualifiers in his tone suggested comfortable work was off the table. The handler had said the exact schedule would be given day by day.
“Got it. So today we’re closing three dungeons and calling it a day?”
“Yes. That’s probably how it’ll be for a while.”
“For a while? Are there really that many rifts around here?”
“No, not yet. But if we factor in the increasing numbers, we’ll need to close roughly that many…”
“The critical speed is faster than expected. If it looks like we can’t keep up…”
Then the company might have to send extra personnel, which would get pretty exhausting. So if we wanted to keep things easy, we had to handle it ourselves—that was the handler’s message.
“Yeah. I get what you’re trying to say.”
“High-ranking folks showing up on-site is a pain in the ass…”
“Exactly… Do you know why I volunteered to come to your side, hyung-nim?”
“…”
How the hell would I know? I wasn’t curious, and I had no intention of finding out. I clamped my hand over his mouth.
“Mmph…!!”
“Not interested. Do I look like your personal complaint box?”
“Ah… no! I haven’t even said anything yet…”
“Whatever. That thing up ahead is the one we’re closing, right? I’m getting out first.”
“W-wait a second, hyung-nim…! I’m not ready yet…”
“…”
(So damn chatty…)
Annoyed enough to want to gag him, yet oddly nostalgic at the same time. I thought of my long-dead little brother and stared at the rift that seemed to suck everything in.
(Back then we were this noisy in front of dungeons too…)
I never thought I’d do this kind of work again. I lit a cigarette and handed one to the handler who came running over.
“Hey. Catch. Let’s smoke one first.”
Stepping into the rift, the beach we’d just seen vanished, replaced by an endless, gloomy forest.
“…Creepy.”
“You can say that again…”
“…”
A silent—almost deathly quiet—forest of dull green moss. I couldn’t even guess what it was modeled after. The place gave off an overwhelming sense of not knowing where to go, but before long, a strange sound told us the direction we needed to head.
“Hey… you hear that?”
“Yes… I heard it too.”
“Damn it… it’s so dark I can’t see a thing.”
“Can you light up the area with fire or something?”
“Of course… Here I go…!!!”
With a strained shout, a single flaming arrow shot into the dense green darkness. The heat of the flames began revealing the monsters hidden in the shadows one by one.
(What the hell is that…?)
(Spiders?)
Disgusting creatures with dozens of compound eyes clustered together. Their black pupils, illuminated by the firelight, gave no hint of what they were thinking. The eight-legged monsters swallowed the dying flames and charged all at once.
“Oi! These are way too weak. Don’t you have any other spells?”
“I do…! When I count to three-two-one, close your eyes…!!!”
“Three, two…!!!”
Before the final count even finished, he unleashed a spell called Flash, flooding the area with blinding light. Caught off guard, I groaned as an intense flash seared my vision, turning everything as bright as daylight for a split second.
“Ugh…!”
“Hyung-nim…! Are you okay?”
“You bastard…!! You said you’d do it after one!!!”
“S-sorry. But you can see ahead now, right?”
“…”
Damn it… Did he really need to ask? If I’d closed my eyes any later, I would’ve gone blind. Since I could still see, I let it slide. Blinking rapidly, I tried to clear the afterimage.
“Ha… shit… At least it’s bright as day now, so that’s something.”
“I’ll take the right, you take the left… got it?”
“No… Please cover me. I’ll sweep them all at once.”
“Huh? Cover you?”
Suddenly? Wouldn’t it be better to just fight normally? While I stood there confused, the spiders that had been shrinking from the light lunged straight at me. Faced with the horrifying sight unfolding right in front of my eyes, I let out a girlish scream and swung my arm at the incoming spider.
“Hwaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
A monster the size of a human torso, covered in thick fur and eight disgusting legs. The moment I struck it, it burst with a sickening crack. Overwhelmed by revulsion, I shouted at the handler.
“Hey!!! I told you I have trypophobia…!!!”
“Almost done! Just thirty more seconds…! Please cover me for thirty more seconds…!!!”
“What?! Thirty seconds?!!!!!!”
What the hell was he doing that he needed thirty seconds of protection? I had no idea, but since he asked me to hold them off, I did my best. As the light illuminating the darkness began to fade, the spiders that had been charging so fiercely suddenly froze and retreated into the dim shadows.
(What…?)
(What are these bastards thinking?)
Their compound eyes, devoid of any emotion or thought, gleamed eerily in the faint light. The handler’s chanting behind me sounded like it was drifting farther away, almost like an auditory hallucination.
What was this? Why were they acting like this? Don’t tell me they were just giving up on us?
“…”
No… this didn’t feel like a good thing. Monsters didn’t exactly pick their targets carefully. So then why—
Plop…!
Plop…!
“…”
Something heavy hit the ground. Moments later, an unknown, damp, sticky liquid began dripping onto my feet. White, clumped-together, and thoroughly unpleasant. I had no idea what it was, but—
Plop…!
Plop…!
Plop…!
Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! Plop…!
“?!!!!”
Dozens—maybe even hundreds—of unidentified sticky globs suddenly flew straight at me. Without time to think, I threw my arms up.
(Damn it… What the hell is this?)
Poison? Spit? I thought these things only jumped, but now they were spitting too…? While I stood there flustered, something flashed beside me. Before I could react, the attack pierced straight through my guard.
“Gah!! Shit… My eyes…!!!!”
Cold, damp, disgusting liquid. Wiping the foreign substance from my face, I desperately swung my left arm, but my attack only cut through empty air. Unable to resist, I lost my balance under the spiders’ relentless assault and collapsed.
“Aaaaaah!!!!!”
“Hey!!! Do something!!!!!! Thirty seconds are up already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“…O God of Fire, lend me a fragment of your power!
The color that crushes the enemy is red—it is the force that burns everything around it, and it is…”
“…”
Ignoring my screams, he kept chanting steadily. With barely open eyes, I smashed the heads of the spiders lunging at my face, but these bastards were too disgusting, and there were too many of them. Struggling in a sea of spider juice filled with revulsion, I thought:
(Ha… shit. I just want to go home…)
I tried my best to resist, but at this point I didn’t even know where I was or what I was doing. I just regretted coming into this dungeon with that guy behind me. Then, suddenly, an unknown light swept beneath me. The muttering madman’s words began to resolve the hellish situation in an instant.
“In the name of this loyal follower, Kim Minhyuk, what you shall burn are these horrific monsters…”
“Manifest, incarnation of flame…!!!!”
“!!!!”
The moment his booming chant ended, the spiders that had been crawling over me turned to ash and vanished, as if burned like paper. I stared blankly, dumbfounded, at the bizarre sight unfolding before my eyes.
(What?)
(How did the spell actually land properly…?)
“Hyung-nim…! Are you alright?”
“Yeah… That spell was yours, right?”
“Yes, it was.”
“…”
Ha… The guy was fine and all, but from now on, instead of reading it like a novel, could he please rap it out faster? I crushed the last remaining spider with my right hand and looked at the handler with an exhausted expression.
“Still… this should be fine, right?”
“Yeah. It’s fine… If you could use something like that, you should’ve used it when we fought the wolves too.”
“B-back then my mind went blank, haha;;”
“With this level of power, we should be able to close about three rifts a day, no problem.”
Even though today’s mess had been caused by an unexpected situation, he assured me it wouldn’t happen again from now on… Really? Could I trust that?
“Of course. Just trust me with the rear support, hyung-nim…!”