Encounter with the Regressor
Thanks to you, I managed to complete one of the conditions for the Goblin Slayer achievement!
Her eyes were still a little moist, but her voice had already risen a full tone as she spread her arms wide with a bright smile. 'What were the conditions for the Goblin Slayer achievement again…'
Since I had been a non-combatant in the beginning, it was a difficult condition for me to achieve, so I had simply glossed over it. I couldn't remember the exact details. When I tilted my head in confusion, she sat me down on the floor with a sunny laugh and continued.
"The conditions are simple! How many goblins you defeat alone, your total kill count, and collecting every rune that goblins drop. Those three things."
Goblins only dropped one type of rune — the Rune of Vitality — but there were two grades: normal and low-grade. Naturally, the low-grade rune gave a much higher increase to stamina than the normal one.
"I just defeated five of them by myself, so I cleared the first condition. Hehe."
'Defeating five alone, reaching a total of one hundred kills, and obtaining a normal rune. That's the first condition.' Now that Yeonhee explained it, the memory came back to me. Having cleared the first condition, her attack power and defense against goblins would have increased slightly.
'She'll rise faster than in the past.'
Before I died, she had suffered a serious facial injury during this dungeon run and couldn't enter any dungeons for a while. By changing that future, we had at least bought ourselves a few weeks.
'The final condition works the same way.' Defeating ten goblins at once, reaching a total of one thousand kills, and finally obtaining a low-grade rune would complete the achievement and grant even higher rewards.
"I'm thinking of going for the achievement by clearing the second condition while I'm at it. I was originally planning to warm up with you twice before heading to the next dungeon."
She sat politely in front of me, her face flushed red with clear confidence.
'Phew… so nothing major happened after I was gone, huh?'
Her skin was as white and flawless as white jade. Seeing not a single blemish on it melted away the anxiety that had been weighing on my heart. She was an adorable child, puffing her cheeks and clenching her little fists.
'Let's take it one step at a time. At the very least, make sure she doesn't get manipulated by that bastard…'
Just thinking about the guy who killed me made rage shoot straight up to my skull, but in truth, beating him wouldn't be easy. No… it was practically impossible. The most realistic goal was to grow strong enough that even touching me would be too much of a hassle for him.
Because the one who killed me — Jo Giman — was a monster who had already lived through six regressions and was now on his seventh life…
When that bastard toyed with me before killing me, he had rambled on about all sorts of things. He had proudly declared his identity as the Avatar of the Seven-Headed Dragon.
'I need to build up my strength without drawing his attention as much as possible.'
If I stood out too much, he might grow suspicious about the differences from his previous loops and decide to kill me. I was lost in those thoughts when—
Ding-dong!
"Hiek! W-who is it?"
She jumped like someone hearing a doorbell for the very first time, staring anxiously toward the door in a fluster.
'Two people… both strong. Especially one of them — I can't even measure their power.'
I quickly withdrew my sensory waves and tightly grasped Yeonhee's hand.
"Huh…? S-should we run right now?"
'Ah… right. That was the signal we agreed on.'
I shook my head slightly and thumped my chest with my fist.
'I don't know how much help someone like me can be, but trust me. You're not alone.'
"Knock knock knock—!"
"…Y-yes!"
I wasn't sure how much she actually understood, but her expression was much brighter than before as she walked toward the door. When she opened it, a man and a woman greeted her and asked if they could come in for a moment.
'This voice… no way?'
No matter how long I had been trapped in darkness, there was no way I could ever forget it.
'Jo Giman!! Why the hell is this son of a bitch here?!'
I had just resolved to avoid him as much as possible until I grew stronger — what kind of twisted fate was this? But the heat that had flared up inside me quickly cooled thanks to the Cold Calm trait, and I began assessing the situation.
Judging from Yeonhee's calm tone and the extremely polite way the woman spoke to her…
'She must have already received a guild offer. I remember the contract was supposed to happen around spring…'
In the end, Jo Giman and an unfamiliar woman stepped inside. Jo Giman, with his snake-like, wicked eyes that screamed villain at first glance, and a tall woman who looked over 170 centimeters with small eyes. The moment the two entered and saw me, they drew their weapons from their inventories as if they had rehearsed it.
"Ahh—! H-he's my summon!"
"Eh? That thing… is a summon? That looks like a monster…"
"……"
The woman looked genuinely shocked, as if she truly hadn't known that summons could be monsters. Jo Giman appeared calmer than her, but his surprise carried a different meaning.
'Is this the first time he's experiencing this in this loop? Even if we assume he didn't approach Yeonhee at this time in the first six loops, that reaction…'
The way he had moved when he saw me earlier had been pure shock, so I fell deep into thought.
"Um… well… I'll just put this child away for now."
'What? I can't go back in right now!'
Yeonhee tried desperately to unsummon me, but since I refused, it naturally failed.
"It's fine. There's no need to force it."
"I-I'm sorry."
"Hoho, he really said it's okay. It's common right after a second awakening. I went through the same thing."
The woman with narrow eyes that stretched suspiciously to the sides and light brown hair gently comforted Yeonhee.
'Was there a woman like her in the guild? There weren't many female hunters in the guild who had undergone a second awakening—'
Then a certain woman suddenly came to mind. I covered her eyes with my finger bones and looked only at her lower face.
'Holy shit… it's Kang Yeonsu? She really got herself completely remade.'
I had joined the guild a year and three months from now, so she must have completely overhauled her face sometime in between.
'I thought she had only gotten minor work done…'
Still, the fact that this crazy dog Kang Yeonsu was here was somewhat reassuring. I knew that while she had a fiery personality, unlike Jo Giman, she was a hunter who lived with a strong sense of justice in her heart.
"It's big."
Suddenly, Jo Giman spoke.
"Pardon?"
"That skeleton soldier is incredibly large. I've never seen a skeleton soldier this big before…"
'Damn it… it's already going sideways from the start. So that's why he was so surprised?'
It seemed the skeleton soldiers he had seen in previous loops were very different from me.
'Even in D-rank dungeons and above, there are plenty of larger ones than me right now, but from Jo Giman's perspective, this shouldn't be possible at this point in time. This is bad.'
"What are you talking about? Just go to the Dungeon of Nargul and you'll see giant skeleton types all over the place."
"Well, that's true… I guess it looked a bit different from the outside. Don't mind it, Miss Yeonhee."
'This crazy bastard is calling her "Miss Yeonhee" like it's nothing.'
Knowing what this guy truly was, hearing that sickeningly polite tone made my blood boil. How fortunate it was that I was currently a skeleton. If I had been human, my face would have turned bright red with rage.
"Yes…"
Yeonhee had been sitting with her hands clasped tightly like a criminal, staring only at the floor since earlier.
"More importantly, about today's interview, Miss Yeonhee."
"Ah, yes, yes."
"You don't need to answer everything in detail. Actually, I'm thinking it might be good to go with a mysterious image as the world's first class summoner. It seems to fit your personality too. What do you think?"
"I-I'm fine with anything… I'd just prefer if you could leave out as much as possible about the interview…"
Even as I listened to the conversation between Kang Yeonsu and Lee Yeonhee, my gaze remained fixed on Jo Giman. He was staring at Lee Yeonhee with piercing intensity, his eyes filled with a clear determination to find anything that had changed.
'That son of a bitch is so damn suspicious… Just think of it as an anomaly that occurs during regression. That's what you always used to say.'
In my past life, I had been recognized for my abilities as a guide and spent quite a bit of time in the same guild as Jo Giman. He had a habit of muttering to himself. One word I heard often was "anomaly."
Thinking about it now, it must have meant that even he frequently encountered situations he couldn't understand while regressing. If he didn't find anything unusual with Yeonhee, he might just let it slide.
'Please… just leave already.'
"By the way, nothing unusual happened during yesterday's dungeon run, right, Miss Yeonhee?"
'Yesterday? So she only summoned me after a whole day had passed.'
There might be a cooldown for resummoning a destroyed summon. More importantly, why was that snake-like bastard so interested in Yeonhee's dungeon exploration?
"Yes? Yes, nothing major happened…"
"Even small things are fine. I just… wanted to make sure there weren't any inconveniences for you, Miss Yeonhee. Like being unexpectedly attacked by monsters or something…"
'Ah, so it's because of Yeonhee's face… In the original timeline, she should have been in the hospital at this time, but she's perfectly fine.'
Seeing how subtly he was probing, another memory about Jo Giman surfaced. Normally he had a terrible memory and was full of holes, but he showed an almost obsessive attention to detail when it came to Yeonhee.
"Ah, now that you mention it…?"
"Yes, please go on."