The Weight of a Solo Return
Everyone already knows I'm not in my right mind.
“...”
They just don't want to see a necromancer throwing a drunken tantrum. That's why they're keeping their mouths shut.
“Hajun?”
Fuck.
Since returning from the expedition, I've downed more alcohol than I can count, but this is the most miserable drinking I've ever done.
“Hey. Hajun.”
How many times have I returned alone now? This isn't the first. I've come back by myself like this and drunk alone before. Back then, too, we'd run into unexpected enemies and the party got wiped. Just like now, there was nothing I could do as the party fell apart.
Fuck.
This feels even more pathetic than back then.
“This tastes like shit.”
That time, I'd come to my senses only to find the party already destroyed. It had been a collection mission—gathering lost items. An easy quest that everyone was sure we'd ace. If only I hadn't accepted that reasonable-yet-stupid suggestion to split up in the forest and each bring back one sack...
When I'd returned from the woods alone, sack in hand after picking it up from between the vines, there wasn't a single party member waiting for me. The party had already been wiped out. Just in case, I'd waited a full half-day, but no one showed up. In the end, I'd returned alone.
And now, just like then, I'd returned alone.
Jian. Daro. Somi. It had been a proper party for once.
My mouth tastes bitter.
Oh. Have I already finished this glass?
“Mister.”
The owner of the bar that runs the explorer's rest area stares at me quietly.
“One more, please.”
Without a word, the man takes my glass, fills it with fresh liquor, and sets it down. Yeah. A celebratory drink for making it back alive—at least this much should be fine.
Hmm... I'd already poured one for Daro earlier. Then this one's for Jian.
I glanced at the empty seat beside me. No matter how many times I looked, there was no comrade to drink with. Even if we'd all returned together, we probably wouldn't have drunk as a group anyway. Daro might've joined, but Somi... she'd always hated me. Who the hell would want to drink with a necromancer? Daro probably only drank with me because he looked like he didn't have any other friends.
Ha. Fuck.
I downed the drink in one go. Just like I'd been doing until now.
But right after taking a sip of the fresh pour, someone tapped my shoulder.
“Hajun!”
Who the hell? I don't have any close acquaintances in the city.
When I turned my head, a familiar face was staring at me with a strange expression. That guy... the one who handles odd jobs at the office. His name was... Labi, I think.
“...What?”
When I answered gruffly, Labi scratched his head and crossed his arms.
“If you've come back, you should at least say something. Don't you know that explorers are supposed to report to the supervisor first upon returning?”
“The supervisor wasn't there?”
“He stepped out for a bit. He was waiting for you, but he just left for the day. I wondered where you'd run off to...”
What? It was nothing serious after all. I'd thought something big had happened. The report can wait until tomorrow. It's not like the supervisor is going anywhere.
I turned my attention back to my glass.
“And you have a visitor.”
A visitor?
I looked at Labi again. The guy with the crossed arms and somewhat dopey face. That bastard isn't important. I'll be seeing that face until I'm sick of it. But the blonde hair visible behind him...
Blonde?
“Huh?”
While I was blurting out that stupid sound, the person who'd been hidden behind Labi suddenly stepped forward.
Wait. Hold on.
“What are you doing here all by yourself?”
“...Noona.”
The visitor from outside who'd personally come all the way to the explorer's rest area under Labi's guidance. The tall woman with the flowing bright blonde hair was none other than Seoha, the guide who worked at our Necromancer Guild. She was older than me. That's why I called her noona.
“Why are you here, noona...”
There was no reason for a Necromancer Guild guide to come to an explorer's rest area. Seoha noona wasn't an explorer either. So why?
Noona crossed her arms and let out a deep sigh.
“Why do you think I came?”
Right. Why did she come?
I set down my glass and made room on the seat beside me. Since there was no one next to me, there was plenty of space. For now, I'd play dumb.
“I'm not leaving until I finish all this.”
“Really?”
“And I still have one more glass to go. I'll finish that too.”
Noona naturally sat down in the seat beside me. Labi returned to the office.
A necromancer sitting in the explorer's rest area. And right next to him, the Necromancer Guild's guide.
“I'll have one too, please.”
Seoha noona ordered a drink in a calm voice. Then, as if it were nothing, she asked me,
“Is it okay if I drink one of those glasses?”
She must have... figured out why I was drinking. This wasn't just any drinking. It was a commemorative drink. A commemorative drink to celebrate my solo safe return.
Sounds exactly like a web novel title. The Lone Dungeon Returner. Fuck.
If that's the case, then it should be fine for noona to drink one.
“As many as you want.”
The owner set down a glass. Noona picked it up. Unlike before, someone was now sitting in the seat beside me.
“Alright then...”
I held out my glass. This time for sure. The clear clink of glasses echoed.
“Cheers.”
“Cheers.”
For some reason, I suddenly felt like crying like a dog.
When I opened my eyes, it wasn't an unfamiliar ceiling... but a familiar one. The lodging attached to the Necromancer Guild. In other words, my home.
I couldn't even remember how much I'd drunk last night. I clearly remembered Seoha noona showing up and drinking with me. She must have dragged me back to my room.
Knock knock knock.
“Who is it?”
“Hajun? Are you awake?”
Seoha noona's voice came from outside the door. What time is it now?
“Yeah...”
“Do you want to rest more? Or should we go outside?”
I couldn't answer right away. My head felt fuzzy and my mind was a mess. So I sat alone on the bed, spacing out for a while before finally replying.
“I'll rest a bit more.”
From beyond the door came a cheerful “Okay~” before her footsteps faded away. After confirming she'd left, I flopped back down onto the bed. My head still felt like it was spinning.
Ha. I forced down liquor I don't even drink often and thought I was going to die. Looking out the window, it didn't seem to be noon yet. I thought about going down to read a book, but nothing really appealed to me, so I gave up.
“Status Window.”
The last quest had given me quite a lot of experience. One more quest and I'd probably hit level 3, but...
In Dungeon Overseer, leveling up doesn't suddenly make your character dramatically stronger. You get minor bonuses like base stamina, hit rate, and evasion, but they're just that—bonuses. What really determines a character's specs is equipment.
I'd once called Dungeon Overseer a pay-to-win gear game. You had to get good equipment and layer it on just to take down passing goblins. Without decent gear, you couldn't do anything.
Come to think of it, my saw blade got destroyed.
Even though I'm a mage-type, that doesn't mean I don't need equipment. Magic can be learned at the Necromancer Guild just by paying money. High-level magic requires spellbooks, but I haven't reached that stage yet.
In the end, I'd have to buy new equipment with the money I earned from quests. I'd need to visit the market too. And see the supervisor. There was a lot to do.
Still... I didn't want to get up from bed.
Ah. I should've drunk more moderately.
When people think of the Necromancer Guild, they imagine a gloomy atmosphere. Skull decorations everywhere, a giant scythe hanging on the front gate, sinister old men in robes cackling like corpses. Some of that's right, some of it's wrong.
There are skull decorations. No scythe, but there is a saw blade. There are old men, but they stay shut up in their rooms all day and never come out. If visitors come from outside, they actually get angry. The most surprising thing since I'd started living at the Necromancer Guild was this:
The lawn in front of the Necromancer Guild's main gate. After passing the skull-shaped ornament that marked it as the Necromancer Guild and entering the grounds, there was a rather spacious lawn. It was actually maintained by a gardener officially employed by the guild. It was neatly kept, and there was even a table that could seat about six people. If I asked Seoha noona, she'd even provide a tablecloth. We could spread it out and eat lunch outdoors.
Of course, if you weren't part of the guild, no matter how prettily decorated the lawn was, you'd never eat there. Who in their right mind would enjoy a lunch picnic in a necromancer den crawling with necromancers?
But Seoha noona and I were guild members. And since there was no one else around anyway, we decided to claim today's lunch for ourselves.
We spread out the tablecloth and set down the lunch Seoha noona had bought at the market. Today's lunch was noodles—noodles made with fish bone broth.
“The line was ridiculously long, you know?”
Seoha noona smiled brightly as she unwrapped the noodle package.
“Were there that many people?”
“Yeah. It's not even a new shop, but the line was this long. If I'd been even a little later, I would've missed lunch entirely.”
I doubt she'd actually starve just because she couldn't buy noodles. Anyway.
Noona lifted a big mouthful of noodles, blew on them with a few puffs, and ate them. She was holding back her hair with her left hand because it was getting in the way. After cooling them just enough, she took a big bite with obvious delight.
“Mmm!”
Then she smiled like the happiest woman in the world.
“It's delicious!”
Was there any other woman in the world who could be this happy over a single bite of noodles? If she's simple, then she's simple. Still, watching noona eat made the market-bought noodles seem like incredibly delicious food.
“You should eat quickly too!”
Before noona could urge me again, I took a big bite. Hmm. It tasted like fish. Like anchovies or mackerel. It was almost identical to Korean banquet noodles. Not bad. But not good enough to react like that.
“How is it? Delicious, right?”
“Uh... it is tasty, but.”
How should I put this?
“It tastes familiar.”
“Really? This is my first time eating here.”
“It's my first time too.”
When I answered like that, noona narrowed her eyes, pointed at me with her chopsticks, and said,
“Hmm. Hajun, aren't you the son of a rather well-off family?”
“What are you talking about? If my family was rich, I wouldn't be living like this.”
“But you have such a refined palate?”
Refined my ass. I'd just gotten used to MSG, so most food tasted roughly the same. It was hard to explain where I'd originally come from.
“It's definitely not freshwater fish. They must have used ocean fish! See, everyone knows good food when they taste it!”
“I guess so.”
“If I'd been even a little later, I wouldn't have gotten any!”
“Wow.”
Clap clap clap.
Since noona was so proud, I gave her a few polite claps. She laughed with a little “hmm” and continued eating her noodles.
“Hajun.”
“Yes, noona.”
“You're really not from a rich family?”
“I told you I'm not. I'm a necromancer. What rich family's son would become a necromancer out of desperation?”
“Is that so?”
Noona quietly ate a few more bites of noodles. Then she set down her chopsticks and looked at me with a serious expression. Her eyes were quite different from before.
“Hajun. Then let me ask you something.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you a necromancer?”
It was a difficult question to answer immediately. Why am I a necromancer? Well... because I fell into the world of Dungeon Overseer. Because when I opened my eyes, I was in a strange world. I don't know whose prank it was, but a status window appeared before me and I could choose a class. In that brief moment, dozens of answers flashed through my mind. But none of them were answers I could give to Seoha noona.
In the end, there was only one answer I could give her.
“Have you ever heard of the Crown of the Forgotten?”
The ultimate goal of Dungeon Overseer. The purpose of Dungeon Overseer is to retrieve the Crown of the Forgotten, stored in the deepest part of the final dungeon, and return with it. If this world is based on Dungeon Overseer, and if I'm one of the characters in the game, then the moment I obtain the Crown of the Forgotten, the game ends.
There's no certainty anywhere. But the only hope I can cling to is that. To somehow become stronger, find the Crown of the Forgotten, and end the game.
“The Crown of the Forgotten?”
“Yes.”
“Hajun.”
Seoha noona's face darkened as if she'd heard something she shouldn't have.
“That's just a baseless rumor.”
“No, it's not, noona.”
“The last priest who served the goddess? A crown containing the power of the gods? All of that's just lies made up by nobles who went mad over dungeon development. The idea that one treasure can completely turn your life around is such an obvious fantasy that anyone would see through it. It's bait.”
“Noona, that's not it. I don't think it's a completely groundless rumor.”
“Really? You actually think the Crown of the Forgotten exists? That a priest of the goddess who lived four hundred years ago is still alive and guarding the treasure?”
Noona didn't believe it at all. But I had to answer.
“Yes.”
“So you're going to keep working as an explorer? As a necromancer?”
At this point, silence was as good as confirmation. I stayed quiet. She probably wouldn't believe me. Working as a guide at the Necromancer Guild, she'd probably heard all sorts of rumors. She'd never once heard a story about someone actually seeing the Crown of the Forgotten. Of course she'd think that way. That the crown was a lie.
But I know. If this place shares the same world as Dungeon Overseer, then the crown exists.