A Much-Needed Rest
Even after eating meat inside the tent and recovering a bit of stamina, the hunters' condition remained far from hopeful. The amount of stamina a person could recover in a single day was strictly limited. Unlike magic power, that ceiling was extremely high, and under normal circumstances it was rare to ever reach it. Yet the stat penalties inflicted by Nargul Dungeon combined with the swarm of tens of thousands of bats had driven the hunters to their absolute limits, forcing them to endure an ordeal they should never have faced.
After the meal, three hunters collapsed to the ground again. They had fallen into exhaustion, and the only cures were sufficient sleep or a level-up. We had to take special care to avoid ending up in the same state.
Once the meat feast ended, the representatives of the five parties united under the tentative name White Alliance gathered in one place. The name appeared to have been casually borrowed from Arin's surname.
"One-third of our combat personnel have fallen into abnormal status conditions."
Eleven people had failed to recover even with Ham Eun-yeong and Yeom Tae-seok's abilities. It was a serious problem. They could still fight monsters, of course, but their combat effectiveness would be drastically reduced. The bats yielded almost no experience—barely enough to scrape from under a fingernail—so leveling up seemed unlikely. In the end, the fallen hunters simply needed to sleep like the dead for several hours.
"Is it... impossible?"
Hong Yong-seok, the hunter who had used tracking techniques to follow us, asked Yeon-hee with a noticeably darkened expression. His subdued demeanor wasn't from battle fatigue. The hunter who had died in the recent fight had belonged to his party, and the guilt of failing to protect his own teammate weighed heavily on him as leader. Yet he quickly collected himself and began participating actively in the discussion.
"...The most difficult aspect of managing summons is re-summoning them after death. No matter how capable Ilwol is, it's still too much for me to handle alone."
Yeon-hee answered Hong Yong-seok's question calmly and promised to do her best. After that the five representatives exchanged various opinions, but the conversation inevitably revolved around her.
"Perhaps we should increase the escort detail for Miss Ye-seul. She looked rather vulnerable from where I stood."
"Understood."
Ju Ye-seul, the light mage tasked with illuminating the area using orbs of light and absorbing damage with luminous barriers, received additional summoned escorts.
"Holding the front line with a shield is an extremely grueling and dangerous role. One person has already suffered a severed wrist..."
"Let's proceed with that. In exchange, the shield-bearers will need some support..."
The summons would now handle the tanking duties previously shared with the close-combat fighters.
"Um... that summon called Ilwol is incredibly powerful... Is there really a need to recall him during rest periods? Perhaps..."
Someone questioned why I, strong enough to fight a bat swarm single-handedly, and a skeleton who lacked any concept of stamina, needed to rest at all.
I remember fighting quite a bit even during the so-called rest periods... but it seems that still isn't enough for the others.
It was a harsh remark from my perspective, yet after witnessing that re-summoned creatures had all their status ailments and stamina fully reset, it was an understandable doubt. One person even offered the rather extreme suggestion that if the issue was insufficient magic power, we should simply destroy and re-summon me.
"......"
Yeon-hee, who had readily agreed to most proposals, suddenly froze at this point. She simply stared at the ground. The violent trembling in her eyes laid bare her inner turmoil.
"Th-that's..."
She struggled to respond calmly, lips parting with great effort, but could not continue. To anyone watching her face she appeared to be maintaining composure, but standing directly behind her I could feel her anger surging like a flame. It wasn't truly directed at those making the suggestion; it was closer to self-loathing at her inability to produce a logical rebuttal.
"On that matter, though it may be presumptuous, I feel I must speak."
When Yeon-hee began biting her lower lip, Yeom Tae-seok stepped forward.
"Although I have only accompanied my friend Ilwol for a short time, that skeleton is no ordinary summon. To be honest, I would believe he was a veteran hunter wearing full plate armor."
"Uh... looking at that face, that might be a stretch..."
The woman who had been tossing out tactless suggestions throughout the meeting tilted her head while staring at my jawline. She was also the one who had questioned my need for rest. It was a rational enough opinion, but I wished she would look in a mirror before offering any more advice.
"One should not judge by appearance alone. In any case, from what I have observed, Ilwol is already doing everything he possibly can. I would ask that we refrain from pushing him any further."
At Yeom Tae-seok's firm declaration, the other four representatives had no choice but to close their mouths. No one dared contradict the man who was effectively the leader of the White Alliance.
......
After a brief silence, Hong Yong-seok spoke.
"...To be honest, I also felt I lacked a conscience. But since we agreed to voice every opinion, I had no choice but to raise the issue. As representative, I apologize."
Hong Yong-seok looked almost relieved. He seemed the type who hated owing anyone a debt.
"Not at all. I'm sure the summoner understands."
"......"
She doesn't look like she understands at all...
I placed a hand on Yeon-hee's shoulder—she was still seething inwardly—and gently stroked it. Only then did she look up at me, biting her lower lip hard enough to turn it white.
Why are you making that face? It breaks my heart.
I had thought it was no big deal, but Yeon-hee seemed to perceive it differently. She needed to become colder toward the other hunters' attitudes regarding me. It would do no good if people learned how much she cherished her summons.
Hong Yong-seok offered me his characteristic refreshing smile, bowed, and apologized. A hunter bowing his head to a monster—what an unusual fellow.
"Clack clack."
"Huh...? Oh, right. Haha. Thank you."
He seemed to have roughly grasped the meaning behind my clacking, because his lips curved into a steadier smile. In any case, I respected the fact that he had presented the opinions his party members requested even though they differed from his own thoughts.
Hong Yong-seok must have felt the meeting had gone reasonably well, because he walked toward his colleagues with a far brighter expression than when he had first arrived.
Whew... The tension was thick even though it was nothing major.
Everyone was on edge. The slightest provocation could have caused all the pent-up emotions to explode. Maintaining that delicate balance of tension until the very end and concluding cleanly was rare, so I felt satisfied as well.
After the meeting, I walked around the area near the tent to organize my thoughts. My head had felt ready to burst long before the discussion even began.
The question of whether I needed rest during rest periods stemmed from judging only my outwardly normal appearance. Even during breaks I constantly sent sensory waves in every direction, ceaselessly checking for new variables. I also had to monitor which hunters were in dangerous condition and whether any conflicts were brewing.
But the most critical task was still neutralizing the ultrasonic waves the bats continued to emit. Prolonged exposure induced lethargy, so constant management was necessary. Every single one of those actions consumed mental energy. Continuously draining my mental strength without any true rest was taxing even for me—a skeleton possessing Cold Reason. The filthy faces of those bat bastards still drifted through my mind like afterimages. Once I left this dungeon I might actually need psychological counseling.
...Am I the one in the most danger?
Even Cold Reason, which suppressed intense emotional agitation, had little effect against this gradually eroding mental damage. In the end I had to find my own solution.
I, too... needed rest.
Yeon-hee...
I entered the fairly spacious tent together with her. A hunter possessed a tent compatible with Arin's, and by connecting them we had upgraded it into a large structure that felt almost like a barracks. Inside that tent, another smaller tent had been erected. A tent within a tent, one might say. This too was one of the items the other hunters had offered after receiving meat, telling us to take whatever we needed from their inventories. Among those items were several decent poles suitable as supports. Using them as a foundation, we had created a private tent just for Yeon-hee and me.
Baek A-rin had asked the hunter who provided the poles why he carried them. He replied that he always kept them because he wanted to become like the protagonist of a martial-arts novel who wielded pole techniques. I nodded in understanding. In my previous life I had always carried a knife for the same foolish hope that an attack skill might somehow manifest.
I turned my gaze to the tent. It had looked decent enough while I was building it, but seeing it again...
It looks shabby...
I had tried to be careful, yet it remained nothing more than a crude shelter of Big Boar leather draped over poles driven into the ground. It could not compare to Arin's tent, but for the Mimicry I would soon use, hasty construction had been unavoidable.
"I'll rest for one hour and come back out. P-please take care of things."
"Understood. Rest deeply and do not worry."
After asking Yeom Tae-seok for assistance, Yeon-hee entered the tent first. He immediately stepped outside and joined the summons in establishing a guard perimeter. As Yeon-hee knelt to crawl inside, her ears had turned a conspicuous scarlet.
I moved to follow her when I suddenly felt eyes boring into my back. I turned my head slightly.
"Hmm... hm..."
"Sigh... this is..."
"......"
No Hayun, Baek A-rin, Bae Jua, and even Ham Eun-yeong stood behind me, staring openly.
......
I had no idea why they were behaving this way, so I simply stood there looking at them. Then Baek A-rin narrowed her eyes, tossed out a single remark, and they all scattered in different directions.
"I have good ears, Ilwol."
"Clack...?"
Even her parting words made no sense. There was no way they could know about the strange relationship between me and Yeon-hee... or perhaps they sensed some peculiar atmosphere? Did being a rabbit beastman give her unusually sharp instincts?
...I really don't understand. Whatever. It doesn't matter.
A peerless beauty and a monster that had definitely been male entering the same tent might feel slightly strange to the women... In any case, nothing that happened here could be spoken of once we left the dungeon, so I decided not to dwell on it.
Shaking my head, I pushed my body into the tent. As expected, it was far too narrow for someone of my size. Yeon-hee pressed herself against the far side, and when I sat cross-legged the space felt completely filled.
Once seated, I spread a piece of leather over the tent flap, carefully sealing every gap.
"Um... how many minutes are left...?"
Yeon-hee asked in a voice so tiny only I could hear, inquiring how much time remained until Mimicry.