A Stroll Home
After the two challengers left, we spent the next hour discussing the Dungeon of Nargul. As expected, the consensus was to flee the moment we spotted a Bone Dancer. "We should clear it at least once. That way we'll know there's no need to be this cautious..." Yeonhee was probably thinking the same thing, but in truth, if a Bone Dancer appeared, all it would take was tossing a few summons in its path before it reached the center of our formation. Except for me, of course. Ttungi and the newer members of the lizardman squad would have to suffer a bit. I was too valuable.
"But we might end up staying overnight, right? We should probably buy supplies together," Jua said, looking reluctant but resigned.
"I have a tent. It's a ten-person one, so it'll be enough."
"Why do you even have a ten-person tent?"
"An uncle gave it to me after our first dungeon run together."
"...Seriously! Stop accepting random gifts like that."
"I don't anymore! But it's brand new, so it feels wasteful to throw it away..."
"...We'll need to prepare other bedding and personal items. The exit isn't much farther than in other dungeons, but the stagnant air makes navigation far more difficult than usual."
"One day's worth of food should be enough, right? My inventory is already full, so I can't carry more anyway."
"Yeah, one day is plenty."
Camping overnight on the first underground floor is unlikely, but preparing in advance is the right call.
As an undead habitat, the Dungeon of Nargul was saturated with death energy. Just like the Lizardman Swamp, entering it imposed a stat reduction, and even health recovery was drastically lowered. The meeting dragged on because of how troublesome the place was in every way.
On the way home after parting with the party members, Yeonhee kept glancing at me from the corner of her eye, the corners of her mouth curling upward.
Hmm?
I had no idea why, but seeing her in a good mood lifted my own spirits.
"Want to just walk?"
"Clack...?"
After running through a dungeon, she wanted to go for a walk too? I clacked my teeth in confusion, but she only smiled. It would take at least an hour. Still... I pulled her hood a little deeper over her head and we set off together. Tap, tap— I gave her head a couple of light pats for good measure. Whatever had her so pleased, Yeonhee kept grinning from ear to ear.
Having someone else see that smile would be troublesome.
...She's grown a lot.
People had been tailing us at a distance ever since we left the gate. They looked like reporters, and their numbers had grown to five. They'd been staking out Yeonhee for days, hoping to catch something, but there was nothing to catch.
Squeeze—
Yeonhee pressed my hand and played a video of a familiar man.
"Wow! Master Hyeon Jung-gil caught another Great Calamity. Venermos Behemoth? What a weird name. Who even comes up with names like that?"
Scholars always make things unnecessarily complicated.
She often read me trending news or showed me videos on the way home. One of them featured the massive, hippo-like Great Calamity whose name she'd just mentioned—split clean in half by a single swing of Hyeon Jung-gil's sword.
Beautiful...
That was the ideal I pursued. The feeling of the world stopping. In that frozen world, only Hyeon Jung-gil and his sword danced freely. The sight was so noble and pure that we unconsciously came to a halt.
"Whoa— Amazing! I've never seen footage of him before. Wasn't that Great Calamity one of the highest-ranked ones? They said it was the closest to a true Great Calamity, and he ended it in one strike. Wow..."
He was probably holding back... He didn't even use his ultimate technique.
I had once been connected to him. On the day of the decisive battle against a Great Calamity in the middle of Seoul, the swordsmanship he displayed had been on an entirely different level.
...I wonder which one of us is the real monster.
But the way he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand at the end of the video left a bitter taste in mine. How much time did he have left... Two years? Three? I couldn't remember exactly, but I hoped the world's accelerated clock wouldn't apply to him.
Yeonhee continued talking as if she wouldn't be satisfied until she'd told me about every event in the world. Thanks to her, fragments of memories stirred by the keywords piled up one after another.
Along the way home, several people who somehow recognized her and called out to her turned out to be her fans. Though flustered, Yeonhee signed autographs for them—writing her name properly as Lee Yeonhee, which felt very much like her.
"Thank you for back then at the Guchang-ro dungeon. You were wearing a hood, so I didn't realize it was you until recently. I wanted to thank you properly. Thank you."
"Huh? Ah— No, it's nothing..."
One of them had received help from us during the Guchang-ro dungeon break where the Speaker and Spore Snail had appeared. The limp in his leg seemed to be a lingering aftereffect, and the way his mana had settled suggested he was no longer working as a hunter.
After parting with him, Yeonhee murmured as we walked again, "Still... it feels worthwhile."
I gave a small clack of agreement. Even with her hood pulled so low she could barely see ahead, she didn't seem worried about tripping—because I was there. Walking with her, one step at a time as she followed my lead, I wondered if wishing for this path to continue forever was too greedy.
* * *
A few days before Ilwol and Lee Yeonhee took their walk together.
"Krrgh...!"
Thud—!
"......"
Another life scattered within the personal dimension where the golden mimic Tania resided.
"Haa—"
It was a task she had performed countless times, one she had lived believing was her sole duty. Though fulfilling it for the great being she served brought her a sense of satisfaction, there was nothing particularly novel about it anymore.
The golden mimic Tania looked down indifferently at the elf whose red blood now stained the brilliantly gleaming floor. This duty, known as "selection," was a truly rational system that accepted challengers at random and granted appropriate rewards upon victory. Knowledge of this duty, accumulated over countless years, had been passed down to each race, so no mimic tricks remained unknown. It was a trial that offered only a choice, never forcing participation. The rewards were sweet, but failure meant death—a cold reality. Still, since it was the challengers' own choice, there should be no complaints.
Yet every challenger who failed looked at her with eyes full of resentment. Just like the dark elf staring up at her now, whose eyes were completely bloodshot.
Was it because he was a half-elf with human blood? His face resembled a human man's more than an elf's. Even the tips of his ears were slightly blunt. And that face somehow reminded her of someone.
"Ilwol..."
Why seeing a dark elf made her think of a skeleton soldier, even the golden mimic Tania herself didn't know. Perhaps appearance wasn't important at all. Maybe whenever she saw a fallen challenger, she simply recalled a certain skeleton that had weathered away and scattered.
"Ilwol— Ilwol—"
For some reason, whenever she spoke that name aloud, an inexplicable ticklish sensation bloomed in her chest. It was a sensation so unfamiliar that even Tania, who had lived for countless years, had never experienced it before. That was why the name of that peculiar monster kept lingering on her lips.
But to the brown mimic Tiny, who had been staring at his master after returning from fishing, this behavior seemed rather unnatural.
Master's been acting strange lately. What is it? What could it be? It feels like there's something I don't know.
Except when fishing, Tania and Tiny were always together like thread and needle. That was why the brown mimic Tiny couldn't help but feel puzzled.
"Tiny, I need to rest for a while."
Because his master had been doing something she had never done in her entire life.
"Hrk... Master?! This won't do. What on earth is going on? This is already the tenth time! In all those long years, you never once rested!"
When speaking with hunters, his speech was comically clumsy, but when using the unique language he shared with his master, it flowed with perfect fluency.
"Huhu, Tiny. Are you dissatisfied because I'm resting without you?"
Tania asked, looking at her one and only subordinate, the brown box.
"Of course not! I was born solely for you, Master! I don't harbor even the slightest bit of such irreverent thoughts!"
"...Then would you like to come with me?"
"Pardon? Where to?"
The brown mimic Tiny was greatly flustered by his master's unexpected question. Seeing his reaction, Tania's lips curled upward slightly, as if amused.
Without saying anything more, Tania took the brown box and stepped together into another space prepared within her personal dimension.
"Ooh... Isn't this the space you said you'd completed but never used?"
"You remembered well."
"Of course I remember! Since I've inherited a bit of your power, Master, there aren't many mimics smarter than me!"
Since there were already very few mimics in their dimension to begin with, the claim wasn't particularly convincing as a display of intelligence.
Hmm—
Tania and the brown box entered a space that felt as though they were floating within the most brilliant universe. It was a special space Tania had created to observe certain moments in greater detail while watching over the world. In modern terms, it was like a high-performance telescope with several additional functions.
"Was there any challenger who entered our space that left an impression on you?"
Tania asked the brown box in her characteristically blunt tone. Tiny began reciting numerous names while scratching the top of his box head with his long tongue that protruded from the box.
"......There were about that many."
After quickly reciting the names of roughly three hundred individuals, the brown box added two particularly memorable ones he had encountered recently.
"I also remember the luckiest one. The skeleton soldier who drew the werewolf with a 0.01% probability. If any other monster had appeared, he wouldn't have survived—even with the balancing conditions applied."
"Hmm... Perhaps."
The brown box was so focused on finishing his answer to his master's rare question that he failed to notice the faint smile on Tania's face.