A Moment of Rest
My dry lips caught her eye. In response to Yeonhee's question, I alternated between showing one finger and four fingers.
"Fourteen minutes left?"
I nodded. Yeonhee nodded back, then gestured for me to come closer. I pulled out a Big Boar hide from my inventory, rolled it up tightly, and sealed the entrance of the tent. Then I slipped over to her side and carefully lay down.
"Hehe... It's like we're on a school trip. I've only been on one before, though."
Yeonhee flashed an innocent, mischievous smile. If I could make facial expressions, I wouldn't have been able to hold back my laughter at how unbearably adorable she looked.
"Ha... Today was really tough, wasn't it?"
I nodded.
"Still, their numbers dropped a lot. The bats, I mean."
I nodded again, listening to her while quietly admiring her face. Yeonhee was seriously beautiful. Just looking at her face felt healing. For a girl this lovely to be struggling in dangerous places like dungeons instead of becoming an idol... the world was truly broken beyond repair.
'Whoa... I'm recovering...'
It wasn't a joke. The dark clouds that had been clogging my mind were rapidly clearing just from sharing the same space with her. Everything was melting. My mind, my heart, even my body. It felt like cotton candy dissolving in water, instantly scattering and seeping into the floor below.
'.......'
For a moment, a surge of emotion hit me. I was once human, but now I was something no longer human. Today, I had spent the entire day doing the most inhuman things imaginable. I'd swung my blade like a madman, chewed up those disgusting bats that made me want to vomit, and swallowed them over and over. The slimy, nauseating texture still lingered in my mouth, wriggling like worms.
It had started on impulse, but I'd endured it because it was necessary. The only message still floating there was that I was analyzing their essence, but my intuition told me I would soon be able to create a small minion.
'Will making just one bat really help...?'
If I could create and unleash hundreds at once like the ones clinging to the ceiling, that would be one thing. But with just one... Anyway, even though it hadn't even been a few hours, I'd repeated that revolting act over a hundred times. I never wanted to do it again.
'Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up... Ugh...'
Slide—
"Ah."
Without realizing it, I had leaned my head on Yeonhee's shoulder. Since it truly hadn't been intentional, I was startled the moment our skin touched.
'...Is that it...?'
Yes. Right now, I... I wasn't sure if I wanted to be comforted by someone.
"It was hard, wasn't it...? Get some good rest..."
As if she could sense even a fraction of my feelings, the corners of Yeonhee's eyes had grown moist. It wasn't like it was bad enough to cry over, though...?
"I couldn't say anything earlier, so I'm upset... I'm such an idiot."
Yeonhee sniffled with that characteristic wronged expression of hers. The truth was, I didn't think the other hunters' opinions were entirely wrong, so I had no idea how to respond to Yeonhee, who was hundreds of steps ahead of me in her reaction. But knowing that all her actions stemmed from how much she cared about me, it warmed the empty space in my chest.
"Ilwol. When it's hard, you can just say it's hard... I vent to you like that too. It makes me feel a little better."
She was acting more mature than usual. But it didn't feel awkward at all, so I simply nodded, rested my forehead against her, and closed my eyes. Yeonhee gently stroked my chin and neck before whispering a question.
"How's the thing around your neck? Is it working?"
I nodded vigorously.
"Right? I was watching the others fight closely. They were getting the full effect. Really... I'm so glad I prepared it early."
"Clack clack clack."
Exactly. Her preparations had shone brilliantly, as if she could see the future. It was no exaggeration to say that the reason our summons had been able to hold their ground against the bats whose combat power had increased was thanks to the armor she had made for them.
And so, until it was time to use Mimicry, I quietly waited while leaning on her shoulder. With my eyes closed, I scanned outside the tent we were in. The companions who had been staring at me earlier had watched us with bright eyes as if wondering what we were doing, but they had already fallen into a deep sleep. They were sleeping so soundly that they wouldn't notice even if someone carried them away.
It wasn't completely sealed like ours, but the protective environment of the tent seemed to provide enough comfort to override even their curiosity.
'That's a relief...'
Right next to our tent lay No Hayun, and beside her were Bae Jua, Ham Eunyeong, and Baek A-rin. In reality, it wasn't much different from sleeping outdoors together, but under these conditions, quietly spending time with Yeonhee should be fine.
Outside the large tent, one hunter from another party, Yeom Tae-seok, and thirty summons were taking turns on guard duty, staying vigilant.
"Hwaaah..."
Yeonhee blinked sleepily, repeatedly opening and closing her eyes. I'd planned to just sleep with her if she dozed off, but I could feel her intense determination to see my transformed appearance no matter what. So I decided to meet her expectations.
'Mimicry as Yoon Han-gyeol.'
The moment the cooldown for Mimicry ended, I transformed into my original form. The tent was narrow, so I'd considered turning into Yeonhee's form, but... why bother? That thought crossed my mind.
'Hmm...'
As soon as I activated Mimicry, I checked the minimap in my head. I needed to confirm the special effect of Mimicry that identified sinister groups first. In truth, the chances of there being any villains inside this cave were high. There were fewer than thirty people, and even if any were detected, it would probably just point to hunters from other groups hiding outside the hidden dungeon.
I really wanted to believe that. I didn't want to create any more exhausting situations. Combat alone was already pushing us to our limits.
All stats except Sensory Perception have decreased by 50.
Time remaining: 00:29:57
The nearest sinister group has been identified. Their location will be tracked for the remaining duration.
'Damn... Of all people...'
But my hopes were dashed spectacularly.
'A mage...?'
The female mage who had cast Sphere of Light to brightly illuminate the cave when we first entered the hidden dungeon had been identified as a sinister villain. Her name was Ju Ye-seul, I think. Probably.
'Hmm...'
Thirty-one people had entered, but only twenty-nine remained. Among the twenty-three hunters excluding our party, if I had to pick the most capable one, it would undoubtedly be this light mage.
The ability known as the Light attribute involved borrowing power proportional to one's faith in the god they served, but there were occasionally mages who purely manipulated light itself, and she was one of them. She could float orbs of light to brighten the surroundings and absorb incoming damage with barriers of light.
But her most important ability was something else: illusion magic that distorted our presence and caused enemy attacks to miss. It had been incredibly helpful in the battle against the bats. The bats were constantly fooled by the magical illusions and attacked the wrong places. The brief openings that created were a huge advantage for the defenders.
And yet this woman was the sinister villain the system had identified?
'Hmm... At least it's just one person. That's fortunate.'
There was no need to kill her immediately... of course not. I'd suck her dry until the end and then discard her. She probably didn't want to die here either, so she wouldn't do anything foolish... Right? If she had any sanity left.
The only thing I was curious about was which organization she belonged to. If the Blue Eye was a first-tier villain organization, then the group that made Evolution Stones would be second-tier. Guys like Nam Yong-seok or the 'Mad Judge' Cha Jin-hyeok, whose neck I'd have to snap soon, would be third-tier.
'Hmm... She hasn't done anything particularly suspicious.'
Ju Ye-seul was a woman of modest height in the late 150s with a voluptuous figure she didn't hesitate to show off. Even in this urgent situation, she monopolized the male hunters' gazes and didn't shy away from flashing her foxy smile. Other than that, she seemed like an ordinary person.
Come to think of it, just acting like that in a dungeon already made her crazy.
'Still, during battle she moved around and used her illusion magic with great sense. It left quite an impression.'
Today I'd been so frantically fighting that I hadn't had much time to pay attention to others, yet for some reason her image had stuck with me deeply.
'Hmm... Why? Was it because her chest is big? Why is my memory so clear...?'
...... After thinking about it for a moment, one thing came to mind.
'The two who died...'
Whenever someone died, Ju Ye-seul had always been right beside them.
'A coincidence...?'
I recalled the man who had panicked and fled to the side. Was it really because the attack had been that hard to defend against? Thinking back on it now, it was strange. Even Ham Eunyeong, whose mental strength was scraping the bottom, had endured. For a man who was clearly a veteran to...?
'Sigh... Should I have been more suspicious? Tsk...'
Personally, I didn't like relying on things like luck or coincidence, but this kind of sticky coincidence was rare.
'It's not certain yet, so I'll have to watch her closely from now on.'
Currently, Ju Ye-seul was sleeping soundly inside her sleeping bag. There was nothing I could do right now.
"Mmm... How is it? No bad people, right?"
Yeonhee had scooted closer at some point and was rubbing her eyes as she asked.
"There is..."
"...Huk— Really? Who?"
Yeonhee's eyes widened like a rabbit's. She covered her mouth, trying to hold her breath as much as possible, and I leaned close to her ear and told her it was Ju Ye-seul.
"......!"
Yeonhee was so shocked that her sleeping bag rustled violently, but she kept her hand over her mouth and asked with her eyes if it was really true.
"It is..."
"No way... During the third battle, she was right next to me the whole time? Uwaa..."
Yeonhee looked up, trying to recall, and mulled over the past events.
"We can't do anything right away, can we...?"
I nodded. If it had been Yeom Tae-seok or No Hayun who was identified, we wouldn't be able to sit around like this. But Ju Ye-seul posed no threat at all.
'Illusions or whatever. There's nothing to worry about.'
Having decided to just keep an eye on her for now, I wondered what to do with the remaining time. Everyone was exhausted and fast asleep. The bats' biological responses had also dropped sharply, as if their sleep cycle matched ours.
Yeonhee had burrowed shoulder-deep into her black sleeping bag like a caterpillar, zipping it all the way up. She looked at me and kept talking nonstop about Ju Ye-seul.
"No wonder her face looked so...!"
"Huk! Earlier, it looked like several guys were hitting on her. Will that be okay? Shouldn't we tell them?"
"Ugh... What organization could she be from? If it's the one that summons orcs..."
"The oath we made led to this result..."
I quietly watched her chatter away by herself and stroked her hair.
Swish— Rustle—
After chattering alone for a while, Yeonhee's eyes grew half-lidded again, whether from my touch or from exhaustion. At first she couldn't even stand being close to me, but now she was comfortable enough to fall asleep in front of me. It had only been a few days. Thinking that made me feel a little dissatisfied for some reason. I didn't know why... but Already? was what came to mind.
I pulled the sleeping bag she was under closer to me. Yeonhee, who had been dragged over without resistance, looked at me with her sleepiness completely gone, her mouth slightly open.
Her lips... Her slightly dry lips captured my gaze.
"Lips..."
The words slipped out unintentionally.
"...... Eh?!"
Yeonhee quickly covered her mouth with her hand, her face turning bright red. I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, wondering if she might actually explode. I slowly unzipped the sleeping bag that was covering her like a cocoon.
Ziiiip—
"Eut? W-wait...!"
Yeonhee grabbed my hand with a look that asked what I was doing, but when I kissed her flushed cheek, her resisting fingers slowly loosened one by one.