Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Snails in the Room
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Rain had fallen that morning, leaving the flower beds crawling with snails.
She spotted a few crushed ones on the sidewalk, so she carefully picked up the survivors one by one and brought them inside.
They were some seriously unlucky critters. They’d been diligently heading for the grass, but that just led them straight into busier areas.
Snail corpses were plastered flat across the pavement under countless indifferent footsteps.
But no one paid any mind to their silent deaths.
Probably because they were just snails.
Lee Sae-byeok, who’d secretly pocketed the lettuce from lunch, set the snails on top of it and watched them.
Once they got full from munching on the lettuce, they’d climb onto her hand and wiggle their antennae. It almost looked like they were acting cute. It felt oddly comforting.
“Ugly little things.”
Lee Sae-byeok cautiously reached out a finger to touch a snail’s antenna. The moment it brushed her skin, it quickly retracted into its shell.
“You brought earthworms last time. What, starting an insect farm?”
Seol Do-yoon, just finishing his training, walked into the room and snarked.
Kids scouted by the Hunter Association had to share dorms with their fellow orphanage graduates up through elementary school—for adaptation purposes.
Lee Sae-byeok and Seol Do-yoon were both twelve now. At first, they’d rebelled with every fiber of their beings against being roommates. But after sharing the room for so long, they’d gotten used to each other.
They still fought way too much to call it full adaptation, though.
Seol Do-yoon peeled a snail off Lee Sae-byeok’s desk—it had already crawled all the way to his bed—and chucked it onto her bed.
“You bastard. Throw it gently; you’ll crack its shell.”
“Fussing over them for no reason.”
At some point, Lee Sae-byeok had started bringing in earthworms, then ants, and now snails. Was she filming Fabre’s Book of Insects or something?
Seol Do-yoon flashed a faint smirk and tossed his damp towel from drying his hair right onto Lee Sae-byeok’s ant kingdom in the corner.
“Get that filthy towel out of here while I’m being nice.”
“I turned off the lights for you. Your ant buddies need to sleep too. Night, bugs.”
Seol Do-yoon crawled into his blankets with a deadpan tone. He’d washed them recently, so they smelled nice.
He took a deep breath. His head was spinning from all the drugs pumped into his body.
He turned his head and saw Lee Sae-byeok gazing at the snails with bright, eager eyes.
“Lee Sae-byeok, it’s better not to get too attached to anything.”
“……”
At the warning not to get attached, Lee Sae-byeok looked at the snails with a bitter expression.
“If you don’t want nightmares about orphanage kids turning into snail nightmares. Just try waking me up sniffling again.”
Lee Sae-byeok had once woken Seol Do-yoon from sleep after a nightmare about dead orphanage kids. They’d both ended up with dark circles down to their chins that day from all the sniffling.
“……I told you not to talk about that.”
Truly mortified, Lee Sae-byeok straightened up and snapped.
Seeing her irritation peak, Seol Do-yoon propped himself up halfway on an elbow and grinned. It was hard to tell if it was a smile or a smirk.
Lights-out hit, and the ceiling light switched off automatically.
Lee Sae-byeok swiped at the empty air as she made her way forward, then climbed into bed and pulled up the covers.
In the silence, only the rustle of blankets could be heard.
Darkness crept over her body. Closing her eyes felt like it would summon the dead kids. She almost called out to Seol Do-yoon in the next bed but clamped her mouth shut.
She kept tossing and turning with her eyes squeezed shut when suddenly a small light flickered on beside her.
“What’re you doing?”
“Couldn’t sleep, so reading a book.”
Seol Do-yoon held a flashlight and opened a book. It was that 500-won mystery&horror one he’d snuck out to buy at the stationery store last time.
He seemed pretty into it—his eyes stayed glued to the pages for ages.
“……”
She wasn’t thrilled about it, but the page-turning sounds and the glow of the light eased her a bit.
Soon, Lee Sae-byeok’s soft snores filled the quiet room. Seol Do-yoon, reading away, started feeling drowsy too. He pulled up his blanket and drifted off.
He left the flashlight on, tucked by the bedframe. It glowed faintly through the night.
* * *
Dun used the one-time teleport item Tiairin had given him to move all the Lycus to the land Prim had prepared.
It was an open area dotted with rocks. There were occasional high hills, and a few small mountains nearby.
[Did she prepare this for us…?]
Lycullin murmured in quiet admiration as he looked around.
[New home! New home!]
[Boss is the best! Boss is the best!]
The Lycus, with their burrowing skills, were already scouting spots for new tunnels. Everywhere they test-dug turned into smoking dirt, just like the floor of Yoharaum.
Prim, who’d watched the whole process, let out an impressed sigh at Dun’s success in recruiting the Lycus and Lycullin.
“Got a question, though. What’re you planning to use them for after taming them?”
“Oh, riding around on them.”
“……Wouldn’t horses be better for that?”
He’d ridden horses back in the day. But taking them to hunting grounds made them freeze in fear, so no joyrides.
Lycus were perfect for Dun, who roamed high-risk zones a lot.
But explaining all that was a hassle, so Dun kept it simple.
“Looks cool.”
Ignoring Prim’s dumbfounded look, Dun used the prepped communication orb to summon Tiairin.
“Tiairin, set up a teleport array here and make sure the Lycus can’t leave their designated area. Oh, and cast some concealment magic over the whole zone so adventurers can’t find it.”
There was a reason for relocating the Lycus.
He could’ve raised them in their old habitat, but that was a high-level player hunting ground. Tamed and docile as they were, they’d be sitting ducks.
The inner continent of fire, with its unstable mana flow, also made teleport arrays impossible—so too much hassle for Dun’s frequent visits.
But this space Prim had set up was in the Licht Empire, easy for arrays. Plus, it wasn’t a hunting zone, so few players came by.
Dun really liked the spot.
“Wow! I’ve never seen Lycus before.”
Tiairin, rushing over at Dun’s call, lit up at the herd of Lycus.
Intrigued by their flame fur, she reached out to pet one—only for a Lycus to bare its teeth and snap at her hand.
“Better not touch them. They’ll crank up their flame fur heat and burn anyone but Dun.”
“Hm?”
Tiairin turned at the voice beside her.
A familiar face. Someone she’d never met, but felt like she had.
She furrowed her brow, locking eyes with Prim as she tried to place it.
Blond hair, pink eyes. A little dress stained red from wounds.
She vaguely remembered seeing her on the way to pick up an exhausted Dun after overusing his powers. Younger-looking back then.
“Oh, you’ve got history? You’ve grown a lot!”
“You know me?”
Prim eyed the dark elf warily for acting familiar. She’d caught a whiff of that monster stench and tested with words—got an unexpected reply.
“Of course! You and Dun are famous among Montgehel’s monsters.”
Prim scowled at “famous.”
A distant memory. Dragged to what she assumed was Montgehel, attacked until she was on the brink of death.
‘Cut their throats first, no mercy.’
A raspy, chilling voice commanded, and every monster around lunged to kill.
She hadn’t died, but afterward, she’d lost all her power. Her parchment of info vanished, mana halved.
“I must be someone you need to kill right away, then. What about Dun?”
Hoping for more intel, Prim swallowed and tensed.
“Same with Dun, obviously! Though he’s more popular. Wrecked that whole region.”
Tiairin beamed innocently, then fished a paper from her sleeve.
“See? He’s even got a wanted poster. Isn’t it adorable? This is the only pic of kid Dun. Super rare!”
Prim’s eyes widened at the poster Tiairin held up.
Center stage: a profile of a light-brown-haired kid with red eyes.
Reward for capture: rank promotion and massive mana.
Montgehel’s intelligent monsters had hierarchies. This poster was probably for them.
“What era is this pic from? If you’re making wanted posters, update the damn photo.”
Dun, playing with the Lycus using dogweed, appeared out of nowhere and chimed in.
“Dun, this doesn’t bother you?”
“Huh? Nah.”
Monsters in Montgehel couldn’t leave due to the barrier anyway.
There was a one-way exit to Yoharaum side, but post-adventurers, security tightened—only weaker ones could pass.
Among the strong ones, only those under Dun’s Domination could cross worlds.
Before the barrier upgrade, strong monsters had swarmed him.
Good times.
Dun reminisced about the monster swarms drawn by the poster—like flies to honey.
He’d scored tons of rare items easily back then.
Now strong ones stayed hidden, forcing him to hunt them down. Kinda annoying.
“But Dun, how’d you end up in Montgehel?”
“Dunno. Woke up there.”
Dun’s first memory: above a small lava puddle. No birth parents this life either. Alone from the start.
He figured this body was system-spawned, no bio parents needed.
He had no clue how he’d crossed worlds into this new body and powers.
But he was content now, so whatever.
“At least it was Montgehel, right? That’s how we met.”
Lost in thought, Tiairin poked in.
“Would’ve been better without meeting you.”
“Your ears are red—are you embarrassed?”
“Nah, you yanked on them.”