The Bone Dancer's Secret
With damp hands and a trembling body, the conditions for a quick quest completion were met. Whenever I saw her like this, my head would tilt at the stark contrast to her past life. Had the Yeonhee of her previous life simply hidden it well, always carrying this inside? The thought left a dull ache in my chest. Those unwavering eyes when she saved me, the light of her life slowly fading as she desperately resisted the Orc Legion Commander. The Yeonhee who once saved me was gone forever. It hurt. That corner of my chest.
"Aah, home at last!"
Whether she sensed my mood or not, Yeonhee summoned Wangwang and Ran the moment we arrived and busied herself playing with them. Since we'd returned a little earlier than usual, she seemed intent on spending time with the summons before washing up.
Around 12:30 a.m., I think.
That was when the cooldown on Mimicry would end. Roughly five hours left. Yeonhee would probably want to see my transformed state before going to sleep again tonight. Or maybe she'd do the opposite. She wouldn't actually lock her door, would she? That would be rather unfair.
Having stayed up late the night before, Yeonhee was surprisingly energetic today, so staying up a bit longer shouldn't be a problem.
Today I'll transform into my own form and search for information on a villain like Nam Yong-seok.
Of course, simply recalling memories wouldn't magically reveal a way to track him, but if I kept it in mind while moving around, I'd eventually catch one of them.
Shhh—
Yeonhee took a shower. Nom nom—
She finished a light dinner, then leaned against my leg and received a thorough head massage.
"Aah... mmh... a little harder... ah!"
Once home, she became even more talkative than usual. She kept glancing at me like someone being chased, desperately trying to steer the conversation elsewhere. It was painfully obvious.
I'll indulge her until midnight.
We talked about career paths before naturally shifting to the Dungeon of Nargul.
"What's the most dangerous thing on the first underground floor of the Dungeon of Nargul?"
"Clack clack!"
"That's right! The Bone Dancers! What do you do if you run into them?"
"Clack clack!!"
"Exactly! Running away is the best option! If they surround you, you're in real trouble. Boom, boom, boom!"
There was no need to limit it to the first underground floor. While Spectres claimed the most hunters who dropped out in Nargul, the monsters that led the most to their deaths were the skeleton-type creatures called Bone Dancers. What Yeonhee said about running the moment you saw them was true. They possessed abilities as grotesque as their bizarre dancing.
But what I wanted wasn't their pathetic dance moves. It was the skill I'd had in mind ever since meeting Jo Giman in this world. Self-destruction. I didn't know the exact skill name, but the Bone Dancers attacked hunters by detonating themselves. Perhaps because they were already dead, they felt no fear of vanishing. They unleashed such brutal attacks without hesitation.
They would mesmerize people with their strange dance, absorb the death energy filling the Dungeon of Nargul, then cling tightly to a hunter before—BOOM! The explosion itself was devastating, and the bone fragments that burst out would inflict fatal wounds even if the hunter survived. It felt a bit like a claymore mine.
It's the perfect skill for me.
I already had memories of eliminating enemies in a similar fashion. Of course, what I'd done to the Teeth hadn't been self-destruction, but the image matched exactly what I had in mind. Temporarily incapacitating the enemy so Yeonhee and her allies could finish them off, or at least buying her time to escape. Back then, luck had been on my side when the monster swallowed me, but soon I'd be able to create such situations with my own abilities.
How powerful would it be...? Even with ninety-five lives, it should at least pack the destructive force of one life, right? It has to.
Skills that involve self-sacrifice were abnormally powerful regardless of rank. Sacrificing one arm and one leg to save someone on the brink of death, or releasing all the blood in your body into the air to grant allies absolute defense—such miracles were possible. Of course, the caster would be left near death, but I had no intention of dying properly. Still, would sacrificing one of ninety-five skeleton soldiers' lives count as self-sacrifice? I wasn't sure.
"Um... and next would be... Chehwa, I suppose?"
Nod—
The Spectre Yeonhee had given the pretty name Chehwa would definitely trouble our party. Of course, I'd already prepared countermeasures this time.
To think it would even work with attribute infusion like holy water...
When I'd coated my dagger with Irmana's water and lightly stabbed Chehwa, it had worked. The downside was that the duration was only half as long as when using holy water, but since water was free, it didn't matter.
Irmana really is a god...!
She was an actual deity, and my faith in her was steadily growing. Not even because of her quest.
"There are plenty of other annoying ones too. Actually, the main force in this dungeon is the Skeleton Decurions. You might run into a Bone Dancer once every ten times or so."
Nod—
"I heard they always move in groups of exactly ten. But their composition isn't always the same. Usually it's Skeleton Soldiers (swords, spears, shields, sword-and-shield) and Skeleton Archers with one Skeleton Heavy Infantry mixed in. Sometimes a Skeleton Mage joins, and... the unluckiest case is running into a Skeleton Knight, but that probably won't happen, right? The probability is lower than encountering a variant, so you don't have to worry."
Yeonhee suddenly shuddered mid-sentence and trembled, insisting we absolutely mustn't encounter a Skeleton Knight. Even she seemed to have heard plenty about their infamous reputation.
...No, Yeonhee. I'm sorry, but we'll definitely meet a Skeleton Knight. Because I'm going to find one.
One might think that monsters from a D-rank dungeon at best couldn't be that strong, but the Skeleton Knight's strength was different. A commander on the battlefield... It grants absurd buffs to its allies. The moment it appeared, all nearby skeleton-type undead would become at least twice as strong. It was such a cheat-like ability that it made me laugh in disbelief, but that was the reality of what the Skeleton Knight possessed.
Did that mean its own abilities were lacking? Not at all. Skeleton Knights wielded clean, elegant swordsmanship. It was said that the swordsmanship of Hyeon Jung-gil, leader of the Ilseom Guild and one of Korea's strongest, was based on that of the Skeleton Knight. So one could imagine just how refined their technique was.
The Skeleton Knight's tomb...
I knew the cave where that tomb was located. And that cave was a space within the dungeon, like a dungeon inside a dungeon. The moment we entered, monsters would swarm us like a pack of dogs.
Those are the ones that need to be counted for the quest...
Among those monsters were very small, annoying creatures. If they were counted, my quest progress would advance rapidly. Of course, I had no intention of entering that cave on the first day, but the final stage of the space I'd been considering for skill work always featured the appearance of a Skeleton Knight. Still, since we could decide when to fight, I nodded immediately at Yeonhee's words telling me not to worry.
We could enter once we reached a level where we could handle it. Yeonhee continued explaining while drawing cute, adorable skeleton illustrations in her notebook, her expression serious enough that I couldn't bring myself to laugh.
The drawings are cute, and Yeonhee is cute too...
The thought of tormenting her later made my shoulders shake already. But this wasn't something to take lightly. It was a matter of my survival, not some cute revenge plot, and I needed to think about it seriously.
Yesterday, when I'd been in Yeonhee's form, I'd realized something. I could lose the initiative I'd gained by transforming into my own appearance. She had clearly felt something close to omnipotence and excitement while toying with me as she pleased. Especially since she'd been greatly flustered by the kiss the day before, that excitement must have reached its peak. Seeing herself in such a flustered state reflected in me. From her reaction yesterday, it seemed like an intense stimulus she couldn't easily experience.
But I couldn't let her become absorbed in it. If Yeonhee wanted, she had the power to issue commands and turn me into a woman every single day.
That can't happen. If someone like me, who is inherently subordinate, gets pushed back even further here...
It was unacceptable. I had to make her rely on me mentally. I couldn't let myself be swayed.
"Hm? What are you thinking so hard about?"
"Clack clack!"
"...? Well, anyway, there are other small fry that appear too. Zombies aren't negligible either, and Ghosts and Wraiths show up occasionally. And there are swarms of small bug-like things that fly around, but they're fine as long as you don't go into caves or similar places..."
Nod nod—
"Still, it's a relief, right? That we can substitute holy water... I wonder how much that pitcher is worth?"
Yeonhee looked at the otherworldly pitcher with fresh eyes. She picked it up and tilted it again, then said, "As expected, it doesn't work," before handing it back to me.
"You know what? Ilwol, you're really... special, aren't you? You have so many things other people don't."
There's no one as special as me. The only one comparable would be Jo Giman, I suppose.
"Hmm... So, what are you going to transform into today? Ah, no. I mean, maybe you won't even need to use Mimicry?"
......
For a buildup just to ask that question, it had no connection to what came before.
"Clack..."
"Th-that... well, how about transforming into my appearance again? You're still not quite used to the male form..."
Yeonhee still didn't seem accustomed to my appearance. She didn't seem to dislike it, but it felt like she hadn't yet figured out how to treat me.
Hah, I can't let that happen.