Not a Sound to Be Heard
Not a single sound could be heard.
The world was nothing but white, and in that blank expanse Yujun, Kim Heeyeon, and Paranet stood staring blankly.
"What is it this time?"
"We'll know soon enough."
Yujun set his keen senses to work. Even so, he felt nothing out of the ordinary.
"Paranet."
"Yes."
"You don't sense anything dangerous, do you?"
He asked with the creature's survival instinct in mind, that particular trait of his.
Paranet shook his head hard.
"It does not seem dangerous."
"You're certain?"
"...N-not to the point of certainty, no."
A faint smile touched Yujun's lips. If Paranet said it wasn't dangerous, then nothing serious was going to happen. He had seen the fellow flap and fuss when there was danger, but he had never once seen him fail to notice a crisis.
That was the moment.
A gray powder appeared all at once before the party and began to whirl, gathering itself into a shape. With a low rush of air, the opaque gray vortex took on a human form.
Yujun narrowed his eyes. A familiar face.
"The witch?"
"You recognize me? Well, good. Saves me the trouble of introducing myself."
"What are you doing here?"
"Ha. That's my line."
Witch Manuela let out a hollow laugh.
"What do you mean?"
"This is my dungeon. You're the one who barged in as you pleased."
"Oh. Is that so?"
"Yes!"
Manuela spoke as if she were truly furious.
"And why should that matter?"
"Huh?"
"Hidden dungeons exist to be cleared, don't they? Whether I come here or not is up to me."
"......"
She wasn't wrong. Manuela herself had gone around clearing plenty of dungeons in the Demon Realm. But it was the old rule: when I do it, it's romance, and when someone else does it, it's adultery.
"No. Get out. Right now."
"What are you on about? Feels like we're nearly done clearing it."
"No, you're not. There's still ages left. You'll need another twenty years, at least."
"...And you expect me to believe that?"
"I don't lie."
"Then that's even better for us."
"Whaaat?"
At Yujun's words, Manuela's eyes went wide.
"Even better? What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means we can keep leveling until we clear the dungeon."
"...I told you, you can't leave. Twenty years is a terribly long time for a human, isn't it? Why are you so relaxed?"
"If it comes to that, we leave then. Where's the exit? Seems like the sort of thing worth knowing in advance."
"I've decided I don't feel like telling you."
Yujun let out a long sigh.
"I see. Then I'll just have to see the end of the dungeon."
"Why do you always get in my way? Are you my stalker? Do you like me?"
"What are you saying? I don't even know your name."
"Manuela. That's my name."
Yujun stared at her face, expressionless. Manuela's gaze wavered, just a little.
"Wh-what are you looking at?"
"You..."
She swallowed hard.
"You're another illusion, aren't you?"
"......"
How did he know? She couldn't very well say it aloud. That would be as good as admitting it outright. But her face had already given everything away.
Yujun smiled without a trace of warmth.
"Whatever I do, all you can do is watch again, isn't it? Same as last time?"
"...I really want to kill you."
Manuela ground her teeth.
"But you can't. Right?"
"Haa. What do you want? What will it take to make you go back?"
"What I want? Nothing in particular."
If he wanted anything, it was to clear this dungeon.
"You've got no greed? If there's an item you want, say so. I've got a piece of Legendary-grade armor. Want me to give it to you?"
Handing over Legendary-grade armor would have been an extravagant concession even for a witch. Not for Yujun. The only gift that would truly move him was something on the order of a jewel, and there was no chance the witch had one of those.
"Legendary? That's all? If it were a Mythic-grade item, I might think about it."
Yujun's answer left Manuela so dumbfounded she lost her words.
"Hey."
"What?"
"Why don't you just ask for a Transcendent-grade item while you're at it?"
At that, Yujun tilted his head.
"Transcendent grade? What's that?"
"The grade above Mythic."
He was hearing it for the first time.
"...Something like that exists? News to me."
He had played War of the Gods for years. He had even finished every piece of prepared content and reached max level. And there had been no such thing as a Transcendent grade.
"Well, I suppose you wouldn't know. It's only something I imagined."
"......"
This time it was Yujun who couldn't help being bewildered. What on earth was she saying? Behind him, Kim Heeyeon and Paranet were laughing as if they couldn't believe their ears either.
"Von Manuela..."
Yujun started, then stopped. Manuela's expression was serious.
"No. The Transcendent grade exists."
"You said it was imagination."
"Don't you know I'm a witch?"
"I do. So what?"
"Prophecy."
"......"
Witches did possess the power of prophecy, and that power manifested in more than one way. But prophecy by imagination? She wasn't a god.
As if she had read the doubt on his face, Manuela answered it.
"Ordinarily, I can't imagine things at all. Then, suddenly, there are days when something flashes through me. What happens is that, before I know it, I've imagined something. Recently I imagined something about item grades. Is Mythic really the end of them? Might there be more, hidden beyond it?"
Mid-explanation, her mood seemed to lift all at once, and she broke into a bright grin.
"And in the end, I came to think that, by some means or other, items would come to have a Transcendent grade."
"Impressive, I'll give you that... but that isn't a prophecy."
"Why isn't it a prophecy?"
"You said the Transcendent grade is hidden. Then all you've done is realize something that was already hidden."
"...It might depend on how you interpret it, but I'm a witch, all right? This is absolutely foresight. A prophecy."
"If you want to believe that, I can't stop you."
"Someone on the Continent will soon come to possess a Transcendent-grade item. It might even be someone in the Demon Realm. And if a person who owns a Transcendent-grade item appears... whether it's the Continent, Heaven, or the Demon Realm, the whole balance of power will change."
Well. He more or less understood what she was getting at. Yujun scratched his head.
"So when are you going to disappear?"
"Huh?"
"You're the one forcibly holding the dungeon in place, aren't you?"
"O-on what grounds are you saying that?"
"Because the flow of mana has stopped completely. It's frozen. Right now."
"......"
"The dungeon won't start running again until you disappear."
"That's right."
"How much is left?"
"You mean how long I can keep this up? Unfortunately for you, I can hold out another five days. Hehe..."
Manuela wore a triumphant smile. Yujun smiled along with her.
"Why are you smil—"
In the blink of an eye, a swung sword sheared through Manuela's body. He had scattered the illusion. An illusion that took massive damage was bound to vanish, and Witch Manuela disappeared without so much as an afterimage.
"Whew, that feels better!"
Kim Heeyeon, who had been watching from behind, spoke up.
"For a witch, she's incredibly naive. Thank goodness."
Manuela was probably a small fry who hadn't been a witch for long. Showing that much carelessness, even in front of a human, was hardly the mark of a clever witch.
"Phew. Good thing the witch is an idiot."
The link with her clone was severed. A heavy sense of loss washed over her whole body, and Manuela collapsed where she stood. Her expression turned vicious.
"How dare you. How dare... attack me twice?"
Manuela was a seasoned witch who had lived for hundreds of years in the Demon Realm, and yet a human had undone her this emptily. Her pride had been scratched, and deeply.
She immediately checked the feed connected to the other side. At that moment, the human man who had erased her illusion opened his mouth.
"For a witch, she's incredibly naive. Thank goodness."
Manuela's eyes flew wide.
"What do you know! What do you know, calling me naive..."
The man in the feed didn't stop at a single remark. He tacked on something he didn't even need to say.
"Phew. Good thing the witch is an idiot."
"......"
She trembled. She was so angry she couldn't control her own body, and yet there was nothing she could do. She was in no position to cross over to the Continent right now. She had to watch, eyes open, while those humans cleared the dungeon she treasured most of all. Was this what it felt like to have one's child taken away? She couldn't hold down the sorrow rising in her, and tears spilled over. The sheer injustice and frustration had broken her into sobs.
Even as she wept, the humans in the feed adapted readily to an environment that had changed completely. The stages shifted in quick succession, and before long they reached the dungeon's final stage. Manuela's claim that it would take twenty years had been nothing but bluster and a lie.
"Ah, this can't be. This is really bad. What do I do? If that bastard so much as finds the Source of Mana..."
Manuela gnawed helplessly at her nails.
They had cleared quite a number of stages.
"Haa..."
The pace of his leveling was growing slower and slower. It couldn't be helped. From level 300 on, it would climb far more slowly than it did now, and from there one could fairly say the real beginning had arrived.
Even now, I'm raising it quickly.
Measured in time, he had reached level 297 in a span of not even a few months. Faster than anyone on the Continent, and his true worth didn't lie in growth speed alone.
Titles. Primordial Player. Legendary and Mythic-grade items... and a reliable summon, too.
In truth, he felt that even if Ji Gyutae brought Coordination with him, he could win.
Even if I think of this as a game, my specs are on a level that doesn't make sense.
This backdrop was ordinary. A dense forest. The sky wasn't red, and the trees weren't some strange color. There was nothing of the sort. Now and then, the cries of small animals drifted through the woods.
"But, Yujun."
"Yeah?"
"Are we really going to stay here for twenty years?"
Kim Heeyeon asked cautiously.
"......"
"I mean, I'm happy my level's going up, but that just seems way too long..."
"You think I'd actually do that?"
"Right? I think it'd be better to do a reasonable amount and then leave, too."
"No. It's a hidden dungeon. We ought to see the end of it."
"That woman said it would take twenty years. No matter how fast we are, wouldn't it still take a few more years?"
A smile touched Yujun's lips.
"You actually believed the witch? Of course it was a lie."
"...A lie?"
"Yeah. I told you not to believe what a witch says."
"Then what about that prophecy or whatever? Is that a lie too? That there's something beyond Mythic grade."
"That one isn't a lie."
"Huh? Why not?"
"She said it like she was proud of her own ability. When witches brag about themselves, they don't lie. They exaggerate, sure."
"Oh. So if there's bragging mixed in, it isn't a lie, and if there isn't, it is?"
"That theory is mostly right. Where witches are concerned, it's practically a law."
"Amazing. How do you know all this?"
"This is my ability."
"Knowing a lot?"
"Yeah."
"For an ability like that, you're good at everything else too. You're practically all-around."
"I got lucky."
"......"
Kim Heeyeon let out a hollow laugh.
That was when Paranet began to grin.
"Hehehe..."
"And why are you smiling?"
"Because I can already see it. Myself, clad in a Transcendent-grade item, distinguishing myself upon the field."
"That will never happen."
"Pardon?"
"If a Transcendent grade exists, why would I give it to you? I'll use all of it myself."
"But you did bestow a Mythic-grade item upon me..."
"Paranet. Shut your mouth."
"Yes."
Glancing aside, he found Kim Heeyeon standing there with a look of shock.
"Yujun. You... had a Mythic-grade item?"