Boss Raid (4)
Boss Raid (4)
In the pure white world, Dojin opened his eyes. But he couldn't move his body. He thought he'd opened his eyes, but even that wasn't the case.
His physical body didn't exist. In a world where only his soul existed,
Dojin felt a massive gaze looking down at him from above. Kkwak, and at the same time, something began to surround him from all sides.
—This is the last time.
Pajijik, a gigantic face made of thunderbolts looked down at Dojin. With that, Dojin lost consciousness.
"......Huh?"
"Dojin! You're conscious!?"
When Dojin came to, the first things in his vision were the women's faces. Aram, Seoyun, Eunha, Raize, Orion. The women, barely countable on one hand, stood by his side nursing him.
He carefully sat up. His body's condition was better than ever. But no emotions stirred at the fact.
"That guy?"
"We took him down."
Seoyun immediately understood the subjectless question and pointed to the Wolf King collapsed far away. He had died with a massive Lightning Spear impaled in his chest.
Dojin, who had already experienced once that the layer's ruler left a corpse behind, knew he needed another way to confirm if he was truly dead.
Flick, he lightly extended his hand, and the corpse far away was dragged right up to him. Fully standing up, Dojin approached the corpse and checked its status.
'......Totally fucked up.'
The Lightning Spear embedded near the heart was still unleashing electricity into the corpse without losing its power. The sight was so much like looking at a monster the hero defeats in a kaiju flick that he almost burst out laughing.
"Anyone hurt?"
"No one...... except you, Dojin."
"Really? Then Aram healed my wounds?"
"No, they regenerated on their own......"
"Good thing."
Dojin looked blankly at the kids. Even Han-young's group crouched far away.
They hadn't been much help, but they were people who had come to aid him risking their own lives. Giving them one last gift wouldn't hurt.
"Let's head back."
With that, he opened a gate to the 1st floor. Like before, it wasn't a passage fully connected to the 30th floor.
He decided not to make such passages anymore. Until he figured out how to restore a space pulled into three dimensions back to four dimensions......
This was a one-way trip. One that moved everyone standing above it straight to the 1st floor. Of course, it was possible because Dojin was also the ruler below the 10th floor.
The gate swallowed the group in an instant. And then, the group arrived at the 1st floor of the dungeon.
"How did you survive?"
First thing after returning to the mansion, Dojin met alone with Raize who had come looking for him. He knew very well she'd show up.
Since he could defeat the Wolf King all thanks to her, she must be racking her brains in confusion that he hadn't died.
"You don't like that I survived?"
"......That's not what I mean."
Raize started getting excited, saying if he'd survived with some special technique, maybe he could do it again, and if he could wield a god's power freely, maybe she could analyze it with magic too.
"Ah, that won't work."
"......Why?"
"Your god said this is the last time they'd let it slide."
"......Dojin, you met a god?"
"Hmm, who knows. If that's a god, it was kinda...... way different from what I imagined."
The god he knew was an omnipotent singular being, but the one he met in the pure white space fit words like absolute or transcendent.
Well, if it were the god Dojin knew, they wouldn't have intervened like that. That one hated imbalances in the universe the most.
"Anyway, say I did meet one. What's the problem?"
"You really met one...? This is bad! Quick, quick!"
"Wha, what? Why! What's wrong!?"
As Raize freaked out, Dojin freaked out along with her and asked. Raize grabbed Dojin's head and started shaking it gently.
"Qu-quick, we gotta extract what's in this thick skull!"
"Why!? Does meeting a god kill you or something?"
"It's a record of meeting a god! The world's one and only super rare data! We gotta copy the memory quick......"
"......Jeez."
He flicked Raize's forehead for spouting nonsense and let out a deep breath like he'd been scared.
What? Copy memories? Precious data?
"True mage, huh, total."
"Ugh...... what're you doing—! If we have proof of direct contact with a god, magic could advance so much─."
"If such data existed, the Holy Kingdom would ever let it go. Right?"
"......Phew, yeah, you're right. I got too excited there."
Raize, excited enough her personality changed, thought logically for a moment, realized Dojin had a point, and regained her senses.
"......Can't copy the memory, but peeking should be fine, right?"
"Peeking? How?"
"Who do you think I am? A genius mage. I know several ways to read memories."
"Then do it now."
"Not now. Needs prep. I'll come back later."
With that, Raize said she had to finish the prep before the memory faded and left the room right away. Then, as if warning him, she added,
"Don't do anything too stimulating so the memory doesn't fade."
"Stimulating stuff?"
"Like sex."
Casually dropping the blunt word, Raize vanished completely. Right after she left, as if they'd pre-arranged the order, Seoyun entered alone.
As soon as she entered the room, Seoyun sniffed around first, then checked Dojin's scent from his nape down to his crotch.
"......What're you doing?"
"Checking if you fucked her earlier."
"...No, I'm a patient first off."
"You don't have erectile dysfunction."
Well, she had a point—sick people often overflow with lust even more. Dojin noticed her hands trembling as she said it.
Seeing that, Dojin yanked her in and hugged her tight.
"Why're you shaking?"
"Never happened."
"Really? My mistake then?"
"Yeah."
"Ah, for real?"
As he said that and lightly pushed her away, Seoyun shook her head, having thrown herself into his arms first.
"Might not be a mistake."
"......Goddamn. If you'd acted like that from the start, what'd be the harm?"
"......."
Seoyun quietly looked at Dojin. Dojin looked at her sitting on his lap. With the other girls' turns backed up, sex here was impossible.
Even if possible, he'd have passed because of what Raize said.
So the only thing the two could do was one thing from the start.
Smack.
Their lips lightly touched. Then, like a love-starved patient craving Dojin nonstop, Seoyun kept kissing until suddenly she stopped with a snap, and started trembling bit by bit.
"......Can't you just give up?"
"─What?"
"Give it all up and just live here."
Her eyes were slightly wet. Dojin couldn't even imagine the courage and sorrow it took to say that.
"Why, because of this incident?"
"You think it's just this one?"
"......Yeah, something else happen?"
"A lot. Tons."
Well, Dojin realized even he had faced near-death crises more than once or twice.
But he was overly numb to such deaths. Why? Simple reason. He was a boy forged by the sword. Now too hardened to soften from feeling everyday warmth.
A sword knows no fear.
It just swings.
And a sword that stops swinging becomes mere decoration. Worthless.
"You know it too. That I can't do that."
"Can't you just live normally? I'll try hard. ...With my ability or knowledge or whatever, make it as much like Earth as possible."
Seoyun might actually pull it off. As a top student, 21st century might be impossible, but 20th century tech level? Doable.
But her life wouldn't be in it. She'd have to devote her whole body to building that world, discard herself, and there'd be no happiness in a world made that way.
Dojin didn't want that for her.
"I'll be careful."
"You said that before."
"......Sorry."
"Don't just gloss over it with an apology."
"Wanna say it anyway."
"That arrogance of yours will kill me."
No words left. Instinctively, Dojin used the old-school patriarchal method he'd learned his whole life.
"Women don't interfere in men's business."
"...For real?"
The air froze cold. Dojin realized too late after saying it that he'd fucked up, but also realized getting forgiven would be easier than persuading her after agonizing.
"Kinda."
"......Asshole."
Seoyun kicked off the bed and stormed out. Her retreating back left frost in his chest.
After that, Aram, Eunha, and Orion came in to comfort him. Nothing special to say to them. Exchanged the usual words, and finally lightly caught up with Ga-hee who peeked in.
Dojin was finally alone.
'This is bad......'
Only alone did he realize how he'd changed. Dojin had become a single sword. A single sword that didn't even move with emotions.
<Immovable Wisdom King>
『Immovable
It does not move.
Your body.
Your heart.
Wisdom King
Yet you will advance.
That is your will.
It will never break.』
The price of abandoning humanity was huge.
Dojin realized today that he hadn't smiled even once.
Late at night, someone knocked on Dojin's door. Having heard the footsteps from afar and known it was Raize, Dojin knew the promised time had come and slowly opened the door.
"You're here?"
"Yeah...... Didn't do anything weird while I was gone, right?"
"Of course."
"Then drink this first."
She handed him a potion. Dojin downed the potion she offered without suspicion.
Confirming he'd drunk it, Raize set down her basket, locked the door, and began drawing a magic circle in the room.
Tak tak, dust powder seeped into the floor, and she sprinkled powdered magic stone on top to maintain the effect.
The magic circle began to glow faintly. With prep done, she got on the bed with Dojin.
Suddenly, Dojin realized she hadn't said how she'd read the memory.
"So, how're you gonna read my memory?"
"Simple. By reading the dream."
"......Dream?"
"Yeah, since ancient times people believed memories are in dreams, and there are even demons that invade dreams to steal memories and live off them."
Even modern science held that dreams are byproducts of memory consolidation. Her words weren't entirely wrong.
But even modern science couldn't read dreams, while magic showed this bizarre superiority over science in certain areas.
Dojin lay on the bed and quietly rested his head against Raize's arm as she pillowed it and brought her head close.
After pressing their heads together, a question popped up.
"But what's that demon called?"
"Succubus."
"......What?"
Raize answered nonchalantly. But that name etched firmly into Dojin's mind.
The magic circle activated. The two fell asleep simultaneously.
Raize opened her eyes and confirmed she was in Dojin's dream. Then she looked down at her outfit.
"......Wh-what the hell is this?"
She was dressed in a super immodest high-leg swimsuit that she could never imagine wearing.