Not Deer

Not a Deer. "...You're saying Raven did all of this, nyang?"

Sion stared at the carnage I had unleashed the night before, tapping the ground with her gray tail in clear disbelief. Or rather, it wasn't mere disbelief. She seemed genuinely angry about my solo stunt. Maybe it was both. Still, I hoped she would understand. I had given those aberrations a fair chance. The chance to abandon their plan to target my companions and flee for their lives. They didn't take it, so they had crossed the Jordan. In my book, that counted as natural causes.

"Until I saw Raven standing at the heart of the storm with my own eyes, I genuinely thought it was some new anomaly in the Green Zone. Sigh, just thinking about yesterday gives me goosebumps all over again...."

Sion's eyebrows trembled as she gazed at the black panthers scattered in every direction. Then an unfamiliar voice reached me—low yet high-pitched, slightly deeper than my contractor's. I turned to see a boy in shabby leather armor and a short brown robe that barely reached his waist. He looked about the same age as my contractor. His red hair reminded me of a certain mesgaki demon, though it was a much deeper shade, like well-aged ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wine rather than Croma Ira's brighter tone. The kid was rubbing his arms with both hands as if he had actually broken out in goosebumps. He was the unfortunate adventurer who had nearly (or rather, actually) been caught in the aftermath of yesterday's flashbang. Hans.

Hans. Now there's a classic name. When he first stepped out of the jungle forest I had carved apart, I was a little wary. But the moment I heard the name Hans, I lowered my gun without hesitation. It was that familiar. The fantasy world's equivalent of John or Jane, I suppose. Yet unlike those warm, homey names given to the horses of minor soldiers in romance-fantasy stories, his appearance was anything but ordinary. His face practically glowed. At first I mistook him for a girl because of those beautiful features, but unlike my contractor—the androgynous middle-schooler cosplaying as a black mage—his build was clearly that of someone who trained seriously. I instinctively knew he was male. Anyone who could wander alone, without a party, through this perilous Green Zone filled with elephant-sized giant ground sloths and pack-hunting black panthers had to possess considerable strength.

I wonder who'd win if he fought my contractor.

As that thought crossed my mind, Sion's cat-like voice pierced straight through the Plague Doctor Mask's state-of-the-art headset once again.

"No matter how exhausted I was, something this crazy would've definitely woken me up. What the hell did you do, nyang!"

For the record, Sion had slept like a baby even while trees and aberrations were toppling everywhere like falling dominoes.

"The corpses aren't overly mutilated and the cut surfaces are clean, so it doesn't look like you used the power of explosion like before... Just what exactly did you do last night, Raven?"

Under the combined interrogation from Sion and my contractor, I gazed at the hazy sky and answered calmly.

"...Nothing happened."

"The entire area around our base looks like it was shredded by a typhoon. Don't give me that crap, nyang!"

Setting that trivial matter aside, our party had gained a new traveling companion. He wasn't a permanent member—just a temporary addition who would stick with us until the twentieth floor.

"Then allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Hans, a 3-tier magic swordsman. This is Sword, an ego sword with a slightly odd personality."

"As if."

After harvesting maseok from the entities I had ripped apart, we finished our brief introductions and resumed exploring the dungeon.

Hans's addition brought a slight change to our exploration plan. We had originally intended to focus on adapting to the environment while investigating the area around the tenth-floor torso in the Green Zone. That plan was now scrapped. Instead, we would travel together to the twentieth-floor torso—Hans's destination. Sion, a true Sherpa, was worried about him descending to the twentieth floor alone, but the decisive factor was something else.

"The reason I insist on going down to the twentieth floor is that I obtained information about an incredibly famous and safe fishing spot there. I've never actually been fishing before, but I'd like to try it this time. I really want to taste fish."

"Fishing...! I've always wanted to try it!"

"Same here."

"Fishing... When it comes to fishing, it has to be me, nyang! A Felis's fishing skills are the best in the world, nyang!"

Hans's mention of fishing had made both my contractor and me starry-eyed. Sion, who apparently loved fishing too, began recounting her experience landing a big catch with sparkling eyes.

Fishing. The act of casting a baited float into a river, valley, or sea to catch fish. Since childhood I had enjoyed catching and eating all sorts of creatures (cockroaches being an extreme example), so I had always wanted to try it at least once. Before my possession, work had left me too exhausted. After being sucked into Terraforming, every marine creature had mutated into twisted monsters from hell, making it impossible.

But now it was possible. This beautiful world had neither soul-crushing black companies nor an impending apocalypse. Therefore, we were going fishing.

The dungeon only allows descent. It is a one-way street—you cannot climb back up. Once you descend from the tenth floor to the eleventh, there is no returning to the tenth. To go back to a previous floor, you must use a return array to reach the Square of Return, wait out the eight-hour dungeon re-entry cooldown, and then climb back up to the tenth floor. The reason for this one-way design lies in the movement system. The dungeon does not use stairs or vertical passages. Instead, floor transitions occur through randomly generated one-way portals. That meant we needed to locate a total of ten random portals while descending from the tenth floor to the twentieth.

However, one problem emerged.

"The fog is pretty bad."

"Hmm... We might have to wait until it clears."

-Hans, do not yield to mere fog!

"I haven't yielded."

As my contractor said, the fog was severe. So thick you could barely see the tree right in front of you. It was probably caused by yesterday's heavy rain. As a result, even though we had been exploring for over two hours, we still had not found a single portal. And this was with an outstanding guide right beside us.

The situation was growing strange.

"Nyanyang... Something feels different from the usual Green Zone, nyang. The mana mixed into the fog is twice as dense, nyang."

Sion, walking at the front and sniffing the air, left that remark, told us to halt for a moment, then closed her eyes in concentration. The veteran high-ranker’s grave expression made every party member’s face harden at once. Sion twitched her ears in every direction, placed her hand on the ground, and quietly inhaled. She repeated the motion several times, her tail swaying slowly in an S-curve, until suddenly it snapped straight and bristled.

"...."

Sion slowly opened her eyes, lowered her head deeply, and spoke with visible tension.

"We... appear to be surrounded, nyang."

"...Pardon?"

"Huh?"

-This is bad.

Clack.

The moment Sion finished speaking, presences appeared all around us. Sion whispered urgently.

"Everyone, keep your heads down, nyang! Whatever you do, do not make eye contact with the things nearby...!"

At her words, Hans’s expression shifted to one of realization and disbelief.

"...Sion. Don’t tell me those things have appeared?"

"Correct, nyang. It’s the ‘Not Deer,’ nyang!"

"Not... Deer? As in, not a deer?"

Hans quickly covered my contractor’s eyes—she had tilted her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠head at the bizarre name—and forced her to lower her head.

"Ugh. Sir Hans?"

"Yuri! It’s dangerous, so please keep your head down! The Not Deer is among the most dangerous ‘Living Trap’ entities found in the Green Zone!"

"Hans is right, nyang! Adventurer! Those things are practically natural disasters. You must be extremely cautious, nyang!"

The contractor, still held with her head lowered by Hans’s hand, voiced her confusion at the two humans’ panic.

"Are they creatures even Raven would struggle against?"

"...Honestly, the crow could probably handle them somehow, but the problem is us, nyang!"

The Not Deer possessed the ability to brainwash living beings.

"There is only one command in their brainwashing, nyang."

Kill the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nearest living thing. In the most brutal way possible.

"...But wouldn’t that risk the Not Deer dying as well?"

"That is precisely their true objective, nyang!"

"Being killed by someone else?"

"Exactly, nyang!"

The Not Deer brainwashes its chosen prey into killing it. Then...

"The main body emerges from the corpse...."

The entity that appears is at least 6-tier. It is said to rival the large aberrations found in the Red Zone.

But here’s the thing.

"Hey. Thief."

"What is it, nyang?"

"Is this Not Deer referring to that weirdly shaped deer over there?"

"...What?"

"Huh?"

"No way...."

I’ve already made eye contact with it. You could have warned me a little sooner.