Why Is That Thing Here?
After hanging up the phone, Yeon-hee pulled up the map app again and flopped down beside me.
"What about here? It's right in the middle of the most central dungeons among the C-grade and B-grade ones ahead."
I nodded. If we were going to move, it made sense to pick a place close to the company. Since dungeons were our workplace, distance had to be the top priority. Plus, while commercial rents near dungeons were expensive, residential areas were actually cheaper. After all, who would want to live right next to a place where monsters could burst out at any moment?
Awakened people like us didn't worry about that as much, so naturally, the closer you got to dungeons, the higher the concentration of hunters. This neighborhood was one of those places. The reason there were so many villains around was probably because so many hunters lived here too… Wait. If we moved here, wouldn't that make things even worse?
'No… I need to drop the assumption that there are a lot of bad people among hunters…'
Brrrr—
Anyway, while we were looking at the street view around the candidate area Yeon-hee had in mind, a text message arrived. It was from No Hayun. Yeon-hee didn't open the chat right away. She waited a moment before scrolling through the message.
"Umm… The person coming along is… quite a bit older?"
Bae Jua had asked Hayun to bring one more person, and this was the information on that additional member.
'Let's see…'
The photo on the phone screen showed a man who looked at least in his forties by appearance alone.
'Looks like a supporter at first glance. Since it's our first attempt, I guess it's not bad.'
Considering No Hayun had been knocking out entire groups of orcs with wide-area attacks, bringing a supporter to the first basement floor seemed questionable. But she probably had her reasons. It was already strange that someone who had entered the Dungeon of Nargul when we first met was still stuck at D-grade. Especially with her talent. And with a supporter like that, why was she still holding out here?
'Never seen his face before. Makes sense if he's an exclusive hunter for the Bijeon Guild.'
On the surface he looked like a close-combat type, but there were plenty of mages pretending to be physical fighters, so you couldn't know for sure until you actually saw him fight. As expected, Hayun had also sent basic information along with the photo.
"He uses a sword and shield, and overall he's a well-balanced Paladin class. He's versatile and doesn't fall behind much no matter where you put him, so he'll be helpful for dungeon exploration… apparently?"
There was no surprising twist that contradicted his appearance. A close-combat warrior who would hold the front line so Hayun could go all out. It seemed he'd focus on shield-based combat. We didn't particularly need more close-range fighters, but it didn't matter. Besides, a Paladin class had top-tier countermeasures against undead, so it would make things much easier…
In truth, I hadn't expected this much help, so it almost left me a little dissatisfied.
'Growth requires some hardship. Is the Witch pampering her youngest daughter too much?'
While I was grumbling internally, Yeon-hee let out a small sigh and spoke.
"Hoo… It hasn't even been that long, but so much has happened… It feels like it's been ages since I last saw Hayun."
"Clack clack clack!"
"Hehe… Ah! T-then I'll, I'll go to sleep now."
As soon as the clock struck twelve, Yeon-hee jumped up as if she'd suddenly remembered an urgent appointment. The place she headed toward was, of course, her own room. She glanced back once and sent me a silent look, but I had no intention of entering her room tonight. Part of my plan was to keep changing things up every day so she could never predict what I'd do. More importantly, I wanted to organize my thoughts about the Ancient Crystal Stained with Malice currently sleeping in my inventory.
It was clearly an item worth as much as a regular crystal.
'Hmm… Is this the only one?'
The thought suddenly occurred to me. This neighborhood wasn't too far from the district where dungeons were concentrated, which meant it was packed with cheap studio apartments—the kind of place where people without much money lived. What could anyone gain by installing such an artifact in a neighborhood like this?
Since it had been placed where people didn't come, it probably wasn't meant to absorb life force. That meant the plan was to store the mana floating in the air and then do something with it.
'You can't do anything too impressive with just one of these…'
Even if my imagination-fueled hypothesis was correct and the crystal was connected to another storage space, there would be limits to what one could accomplish. At best, it might cause an explosion strong enough to blow up a single church. Of course, that would still be a big deal, but it wouldn't flip the world upside down like a gas explosion.
'Hmm… It's not only used for exploding things, right?'
Crystals that served as power plants in real life had endless other applications. For starters, they could be used in equipment crafting, like when we made Yeon-hee's orb last time. Maybe the villains were gathering energy to strengthen their weapons? That was a pretty plausible idea. If they collected ten of them, they could probably craft some seriously high-quality gear.
'Maybe… I should take a look around the area?'
It wouldn't hurt anything. Staying cooped up in the house all the time wasn't great either. Taking a thirty-minute patrol shouldn't be a problem, right? The only issue was that this neighborhood was already within my range, so there wasn't much left to inspect here. I'd need to go farther out, and for that, I needed something.
Knock knock—
"Hiiik…!"
When I picked up Ran, who had been sprawled on the floor, and knocked on the door, Yeon-hee had completely hidden herself in the corner of the room and was staring at me intently as I entered. Wasn't it about time she stopped reacting like that? Maybe she still felt some resistance toward unpredictable situations…
"Clack clack clack!"
"Hmm?"
The spirit Ran, sitting on my hand, approached her and conveyed my intention. Yeon-hee scratched her head looking a bit sheepish, but soon nodded. It was still cold out. It was already deep into the night, past midnight. Yeon-hee came out to the living room wearing a thick long padded coat.
'Even all covered up, she's cute…'
"Hehe… Where are we going?"
Yeon-hee asked with sparkling eyes and a bright smile. I gently stroked her hair, then focused all my attention on the thorns densely embedded across my body.
'Hup—!'
Creak… crunch…
The thorns that had been sticking out messily all over my body began gathering toward my heels. It was still difficult to hide them completely, but concentrating them in one place had become possible.
"Whoa— So cool! But are you going to fight with those?"
"Clack clack!"
No matter how you looked at it, fighting with these would be pretty tough. I was only focusing on gathering them, so they were just long and I couldn't really tell where they were supposed to connect. After dealing with the thorns, I spread both arms toward Yeon-hee.
She hesitated for a moment but then took hesitant steps closer and lightly leaned her body against my chest. I wrapped my spread arms around her firmly and had her drape her arms over my shoulders. Even though she was now face-to-face with my hideous visage up close, her eyes sparkled even brighter as she touched my face.
Holding her like that, I immediately leaped out through the window.
"Kyaa!"
This was the first time I was flying while carrying Yeon-hee. It was a shame the view wasn't great today since the sky had been overcast with clouds all day. Next time, I'd pick a clearer day and take her out to enjoy floating together beneath a clear blue sky. It would be an experience no one else could give her.
Heh…
Whoosh— Shweeeek—
"Huuu…! J-just a little slower…"
Ah, I had adjusted it quite a bit already. It must still feel too fast from her perspective. I slowed our flight speed as much as possible while extending our distance eastward. There wasn't any particular reason for heading east. Just a gut feeling.
"Waaaa— This is so fun! Hahaha—!"
At first she had been so scared she couldn't even open her eyes properly, but after a few minutes she was nestled tightly in my arms, fully enjoying the changed scenery. I was holding her quite firmly in case she might fall, but I started worrying that her ample chest might be getting too crushed against me. She didn't seem bothered by it at all, though. She kept turning her head left and right, completely absorbed in sightseeing.
And while looking at her, I also focused on expanding my sensory waves, continuing my search mainly around old buildings. About ten minutes passed like that. When we had flown roughly one kilometer from the house, I suddenly felt a familiar energy—something close to déjà vu. A sense of unease I had experienced once before.
'Huh… Why is that here?'
Whether construction had been abandoned midway or not, on the first basement floor of a building whose framework only went up to the fifth floor, there was something with a very familiar shape.
'Ugh… Damn it, these guys…'
In the basement were two of the 'Fang' monsters that had killed me during the Guchang-ro Dungeon Break. They were positioned with an Ancient Crystal Stained with Malice in the center, standing completely still as if time had stopped.
The distance between us was now only about a hundred meters. I landed on the rooftop of a nearby building that overlooked the one where they were, quickly wrapping my cloak around both Yeon-hee and myself. A faint wave of mana and sensory energy spread through the cloak.
"Hehe… It's warm…"
At the gentle warmth carried by that energy, Yeon-hee pressed herself even closer to me. Since we'd landed on the ground, there was no need to stick so close anymore, but she didn't seem to have any intention of moving away. If that was the case, couldn't she have greeted me a little more warmly when I entered her room earlier?
(Ran. There are powerful monsters in the basement. Two of them. They're the ones that swallowed my head during the Guchang-ro Dungeon Break last time.)
(Oh dear, you're not thinking of going in there with Master, are you?)
Before conveying my words to Yeon-hee, Ran first expressed concern about safety. Of course I wanted to go in alone, but there was no way Yeon-hee would allow that.
"What?! Those ridiculous monsters from back then—two of them?!"
Yes. Two of them. The ones I had only managed to defeat by letting myself get eaten and then self-destructing. Of course, the difference in combat power between then and now was incomparable, but the two monsters in the basement still possessed strength at the very top of C-grade. Simply put, it was like facing two of the werewolves that Tania had transformed into. There was no easy answer.
Even if I approached with stealth, applied Decay, and hit them first with bombs and fireballs, they were fundamentally chimeras made from powerful monsters mixed together, so they were incredibly durable. That meant the fight would most likely end up as two-against-one.
'…If I combine strength with my summons…'
The problem was that my other summons tended to wander around aimlessly when they left Yeon-hee's field of vision. So for them to display their full power, it would be better if Yeon-hee came along. But that was—
'Too dangerous. There's not even the slightest chance she can get hurt…'
Yet Yeon-hee was already rolling up her sleeves, hurriedly preparing for battle. Seeing the determined look in her eyes, it seemed I had no choice but to fight alongside her.