Triangle Temple (2)
“W-wait. Isn’t that right? Un-unless? Underground waypoint… Director Jang is……”
The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Jang Sara answered coolly.
“Hug breakthrough. You don’t know about it?”
“Ah… I do, technically.”
After saying that, I found myself glancing at Han Yejin again. She was staring off to the side with a slightly cold expression.
“Is saving the honeybee empress more urgent right now? Or is your little romance with Gilma-nim and Researcher-nim the priority?”
Han Yejin, who had been quiet until now, suddenly flared up.
“Romance? There’s nothing between me and Gilma-nim……”
Jang Sara cut in.
“Then why did your face go stiff the moment the hug breakthrough came up?”
Han Yejin fanned herself and shot back quickly.
“What do you mean my face went stiff? Huh? Huh?”
“I must have misunderstood, then. Sorry……”
Jang Sara turned to me.
“…Gilma-nim, do you perhaps like Researcher Han?”
Caught off guard by the sudden jab, I blurted out an answer.
“Ah… no? Of course not?”
Han Yejin’s face seemed to flush even deeper.
“Then we’re good? What’s the problem? Don’t tell me you think I’m not sexy enough for the breakthrough? Should I unbutton one more?”
I answered reflexively.
“No. No. You’re plenty sexy as you are right now.”
The moment the words left my mouth, Han Yejin’s expression darkened further.
“Then let’s go quickly.”
“Huh? Okay.”
Jang Sara dove straight into the lake.
I thought I should follow right away since she probably couldn’t hold her breath long. But my feet wouldn’t move.
Then someone shoved me hard from behind and sent me tumbling into the water.
Splash~
It was obviously Han Yejin.
I swam downward.
Below, Jang Sara stood upright on the waypoint, holding her breath. The weight of the belt loaded with random items she had picked up seemed to be keeping her in that posture.
I approached her awkwardly. She gave me a pitiful look, then suddenly pulled me into a tight hug.
What if it doesn’t work?
The thought flashed through my mind.
I’d thought she was beautiful from the first time I saw her.
She wasn’t a flashy beauty like her niece, Jang Pomi.
She was the classic elegant, model-student type.
Rich family, fair skin, slim, good at studying.
The kind of girl anyone might have secretly liked at least once when they were young.
I pulled my hips back. I wasn’t sure why.
But she pressed her lower body even closer against mine.
W-what the hell is this woman doing?
Just then, Han Yejin, who had dived in after us, appeared in front of me.
Her expression was truly complicated.
Embarrassment. Anger. Curiosity. Jealousy. Excitement……
Suddenly, Han Yejin glared and started tapping her watch furiously with her finger.
Oh crap. Get it together.
You have selected the 3rd Basement Level.
In an instant, we were on the 3rd Basement Level.
Jang Sara suddenly pushed me away and ran off.
When I looked, she was sprinting toward Ganeungi.
“Over there……”
Her reply came back in her usual businesslike tone.
“There are no personal feelings involved. This won’t happen again, so don’t worry.”
So that was it.
Well.
Of course.
There’s no way someone like me would be attractive to a woman like Jang Sara……
What?
Why did my charm go up?
Just then, Han Yejin shot me a glare with narrowed eyes and walked past.
What the hell is this now?
Am I more attractive because I’m someone else’s rice cake?
Wait. This isn’t the time for that.
I shook my head and ran straight toward Ganeungi.
Jang Sara had already pulled out expensive-looking mana equipment and was administering emergency treatment.
“Can you save her?”
Jang Sara stayed focused for a while without answering, then wiped her sweat after passing a critical point.
“…For now, I’ve hooked up an insect healing IV to extend her life a little. But… saving her will be difficult.”
“Then what about healing skills?”
“This injury can’t be fixed with healing. Even the best insect healer in the country is only E-class. With the heart membrane completely destroyed and infection setting in, it’s impossible.”
“She was stabbed in the abdomen, so why the heart?”
“Bees have a long heart structure that runs through their abdomen.”
My chest ached.
Just then, Ganeungi opened her eyes slightly and moved her antennae.
“Emperor. I. Fine. Now. To Gaia.”
……
I had nothing to say to Ganeungi.
At that moment, the one million honeybees who had come up to the 3rd Basement Level after hearing their empress was in critical condition all beat their wings in sorrow at once.
Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz~
Buzz buzz buzz buzz~
The sound echoed and filled the entire space of the 3rd Basement Level until my ears went numb.
“Even if. Born again. Devote body. Honeybee Empire. Help.”
Born again?
Then a sudden idea struck me and I smacked my own head.
The Triangle Temple!
They said you could hybridize three monster species there to make them stronger.
And I already had the key and two usage tickets secured.
What if I hybridized Ganeungi?
Maybe becoming a new hybrid species would heal her injuries completely.
Let’s try it.
I shouted toward the one million honeybees covering the walls of the 3rd Basement Level.
“You guys! Do you know where the Triangle Temple is?”
Not a single one of the million bees answered.
If even the well-traveled bees of the 4th Basement Level didn’t know, the temple must be hidden in an extremely hard-to-find place……
Just then, Jang Sara spoke with wide eyes.
“Gilma-nim, you can talk to bees?”
“Well, it just kind of happened.”
“I’m jealous. Anyway, I think I can find the temple’s location.”
“How?”
“Are there any wasps living down here?”
“Of course……”
I stopped mid-sentence as the answer hit me.
Right.
Behind the giant hornet nest. The unexplored area.
That was a place the honeybees could never go.
So that’s where the temple was.
I summoned the bee hawk. After safely tying Ganeungi to the makeshift rope saddle, I climbed onto its back.
Jang Sara, quick on the uptake, immediately caught on.
She ran over and climbed onto my back without warning.
“There’s a 4th Basement Level too? Down there?”
“We’re going down. I’m busy right now.”
“What if the honeybee empress gets worse while we’re moving? Who’s going to take care of her?”
Damn it.
Dealing with a smart woman is such a headache.
I really need to raise my intelligence soon.
In the end, I had no choice but to ride the bee hawk down to the 4th Basement Level with Jang Sara on my back.
Even as Han Yejin’s glare from above turned my chest to minus four degrees.
* * *
I arrived at the hornet nest site with Ganeungi and Jang Sara on the bee hawk.
As the mana light slowly brought dawn, the horrific bombing site still burning with mana oil came into view.
“Surrender! Surrender!”
“Please. Just our lives.”
The giant hornets who had lost their wings and fallen to the ground were begging for their lives after barely surviving.
But the queen bees and Devil-Bees were merciless.
They were shoving the now-worthless, wingless giant hornets straight into the flames and slaughtering them without hesitation.
“A-are you insane? Did you cause all of this, Gilma-nim?”
“It just happened while I was helping the honeybees.”
I expected Jang Sara to scold me.
Humans shouldn’t interfere with nature, now that the natural enemy is gone the honeybee population will explode and cause a crisis, and so on.
But Jang Sara was a much cooler woman than she looked.
“You used the honeybees to do a mana oil bombing. Amazing! The experience points must have been huge. Good job. But don’t wipe out the giant hornets completely. The propolis they produce is a panacea, so it could be worth a fortune long-term.”
“Is that so?”
“In the human world, honeybee propolis is popular. The only people drinking alcohol steeped in hornet nests are in China, Korea, and Southeast Asia. But in the monster world, honeybee propolis has no special effect. Wasp propolis is the best. Especially Vespa mandarinia propolis, the giant hornet’s, is considered the highest grade.”
The moment I heard that, I couldn’t help but feel regret looking at the burned hornet nests.
That’s all money, damn it.
But it didn’t matter.
Right now, I was flying with the world’s foremost expert who could rebuild the giant hornet colony faster than anyone else.
“Aren’t you scared? The remaining giant hornets might attack us.”
“Why would I be scared? I’m riding a ‘bee hawk’……. Besides, with that stinger Gilma-nim just extracted from the giant empress’s burning corpse, none of them will dare approach easily, right?”
Jang Sara was sharp enough to figure everything out without needing an explanation. That was definitely convenient.
Just then, Jang Sara shouted.
“There! The pyramid!”
She had good eyes too.
She spotted the pyramid-shaped structure in the dense jungle in an instant, something that had taken me ten seconds to barely make out.
We descended immediately.
“Kyaaah! I got a Rune Stone slot! This is insane! Insane!”
I had been achieving so many accomplishments lately that I felt indifferent, but Jang Sara, experiencing her first lottery win, was extremely excited.
“Don’t tell me… I didn’t steal Gilma-nim’s achievement, did I?”
“No. I got the achievement too. Since we discovered it at the same time, it seems both of us get it.”
“…I’m jealous.”
“Why?”
“How many achievements have you accomplished to be this nonchalant about it?”
I decided to test her a little.
“Now that you know about the underground, you can come down and adventure too, Director Jang. Our contract only says ‘I won’t reveal the underground,’ not ‘I won’t go down there.’”
Jang Sara looked at me and smiled calmly.
“Gilma-nim, are you testing me right now?”
……
“I’m a woman who knows exactly when I’m most productive. I have genius in many fields, but exploring underground isn’t one of them.”
It was true.
She was smart, but whether she could survive underground for even a few hours was questionable.
Even I didn’t know what would happen without my Ogre, Rotter, and Devil-Bee bodyguards.
“And… I’m satisfied with just this forest.”
“Is that so?”
“You won’t stop me from setting up a research lab here, will you? This is a treasure trove that can mass-produce incredible products. How about 3:7?”
“Who gets the 3?”
“Me, of course. How could I possibly claim the 7 in front of the dictator who controls all the power of the 4th Basement Level bees?”
The split seemed very reasonable, so there was no reason to refuse.
Even if she took 30%, considering the increase in production she would bring, it was still a huge profit for me.
Besides, I could hand over the work here to her and focus entirely on digging deeper underground.
“Good. But only for giant hornet propolis and Devil-Bee royal jelly. We’ll negotiate incentives for other new products and production increases later.”
Jang Sara and I shook hands pleasantly and got off the bee hawk.
Then, without warning, Jang Sara pressed her lips against mine and pulled away.
The rich young lady was overestimating my charm as a man because she was too excited right now.
There’s a saying about riding a scary amusement park ride with someone you like. When humans get excited and start secreting neurotransmitters, they tend to mistake it for attraction to the opposite sex nearby.
This princess.
She’ll wake up eventually.
It didn’t feel like something I needed to think seriously about.