The Fox Den (3)
The spell had failed, but Yeon's trembling had eased a little—perhaps because she'd glimpsed that brief flash of light. Her breathing was still coming fast, yet she looked far better than she had at the start. It hadn't fully subsided, though. This was only a temporary reprieve. If they didn't get out of here quickly, her symptoms would grow worse than before. Claustrophobia, after all, only truly lifted once you escaped the enclosed space—or if someone stayed close enough to constantly remind you that you weren't alone.
I burrowed into Yeon's arms, then twisted around to face the direction of the passage.
"Hahh... hahh..."
"Kyung!"
"H-hey, Choco—"
I let her weak arms wrap around me without resistance. A monster could come at us at any moment, but I couldn't just stand by and leave Yeon like this.
"I'm sorry. If I'd known we'd get teleported somewhere like this, I never would have touched it."
"Kyung..."
Yeon gave an awkward little laugh as she said it. I wanted to tell her that getting wrecked firsthand was just how newbies grew, but all I could manage were fox-yips. Still, the fact that she wasn't alone would be a comfort to her. I'd been the same way as a kid. Dozens of hazy memories surfaced, but I set them aside. Right now, what we needed was time—time for Yeon to adapt enough to see faintly in the dark and start moving. As I'd said, the only real way out of claustrophobia was to leave the place causing it.
Part of me wanted to hoist Yeon onto my back and carry her out of the passage, but with a body this small, I'd just get crushed flat. If I'd grown even a little bigger, it might have been possible. Nestled in Yeon's huddled arms, I let out a tiny sigh.
Time passed. Her ragged, wheezing breaths gradually evened out, and the trembling in her body had already stopped before that. Yeon cracked open the eyes she'd squeezed shut and muttered,
"I really do hate tight spaces..."
"Kyung."
Me too. I gave a small bark of agreement, and she smiled faintly as she stroked my head.
"You too, huh? Let's get out of here."
With that, Yeon released me and began stretching her arms forward, inching ahead. I matched her stride and walked alongside her down the passage. Fortunately, no monsters appeared while we made our way out. Thanks to that, we emerged sooner than expected.
Of course, we were still inside the dungeon. I watched Yeon wriggle and grunt her way out of the exit, then turned my head to take in the vast cavern. Not a single ray of light reached this place either, and yet—unlike the passage we'd just left—it was bright, as if the ceiling itself were fitted with lamps. But the ceiling and walls were nothing but smooth packed earth. I was glancing around, searching for anything that might give us more information, when a swaying tail peeked out from around a corner. A tail of bright brown fur.
"Kyung!"
"Ah, Choco, wait—"
That's the one. The thought barely formed before my body launched itself forward. Yeon's voice called something from behind me, but I didn't stop. I bolted toward the corner where the tail had appeared.
Of course, I couldn't be sure the tail belonged to the fox we'd been chasing. But instinct told me it was the same one. That trick of hiding its body and dangling just a tail as bait was identical to the way it had paced itself while fleeing. If I catch you, you're not getting off easy. I'd already planned to kill it if I caught it, but I sure as hell wasn't going to let it go peacefully. All this trouble because of that damn fox.
With that thought, I rounded the corner where the tail had vanished. And there it was. A fox, ears pricked, staring right at us. It was the same fox we'd been chasing.
It wrinkled its snout, then turned and bolted. After putting some distance between us, it glanced back blankly when I didn't immediately give chase. It wasn't even bothering to hide that it was luring us now. I glared at the fox staring back at me, not bothering to suppress a growl. How was I going to wreck this thing so thoroughly that word would get around?
Meanwhile, Yeon, having fully extracted herself from the passage, came up beside me and murmured,
"Oh, it's the fox we saw earlier."
"Kyung!"
"Choco, what do we do now?"
What do we do? We follow it, obviously. Now that we were inside the dungeon, there was only one thing we could do: defeat the dungeon's boss. That would open an exit to the outside. Even if chasing that fox's tail was exactly what it wanted.
I kicked off the ground and ran. That was answer enough—Yeon followed without a word. The moment we started running, the fox that had been waiting patiently took off as well.
The second chase had begun.
Chasing the fox, I realized something: this dungeon called the Fox Den felt like a labyrinth. I'd already lost count of how many forks we'd hit. If that fox hadn't stopped to wait for us every so often, we would have gotten hopelessly lost.
Just how far was it planning to lead us? I caught my breath as it started to grow ragged, watching the tail sway in time with its running stride. It had already been over ten minutes since the chase began. We ran at the absolute maximum speed our stats would allow, trying to close the gap, but we couldn't so much as graze it with a fingertip.
How long was it going to keep running like this? Frustrated beyond measure, I even yipped at it to stop fleeing, but it didn't so much as twitch an ear. It just kept racing ahead. Damn it, how long do we have to keep this up? I was about to pour on even more speed, making no effort to hide my irritation, when—
"Huh?"
Yeon made a puzzled sound and stopped running. I had no choice but to lock all four legs and slam on the brakes. I'd been accelerating, so I left a long skid mark before I finally came to a halt. I let out a small breath and looked at Yeon, who was tilting her head with a bewildered expression, glancing around.
Why'd she stop all of a sudden? I trotted over to her, and she spoke in an uncertain voice.
"Something's... off."
"Kyung?"
"That rock—wasn't it in that exact same spot earlier?"
Her outstretched finger pointed at a sharp stone jutting up just before the fork in the path—a stalagmite, if you wanted to be technical. Not that I would have noticed. I'd been running with my eyes locked on that fleeing tail. When would I have had the bandwidth to look around?
But this wasn't just anyone talking. This was Yeon, whose senses were razor-sharp. It was more than enough reason to be suspicious. Besides, I'd been starting to find it strange myself. We'd taken a different direction at every fork, and yet it felt like we'd been moving in a single direction the whole time. More precisely, it felt like circling a track—going around and around the same place. That was probably the unease Yeon had felt. In a repeating landscape, things you hadn't been paying attention to started to stand out.
"What if... we've just been going in circles this whole time?"
The moment both of us put the thought we'd been sharing into words—
"Hwah?! Wh-who's there?!"
"Kyung?!"
The voice that suddenly poured into our heads made both Yeon and me jump and look around wildly. But the voice paid us no mind and continued.
The moment those words landed, the space around us began to ripple. The landscape melted and warped, and a system window appeared.
Status Ailment 'Hallucination' has been lifted.
Hallucination? I looked around with an incredulous expression. The scenery that appeared once the hallucination lifted was the same vast cavern we'd first seen after crawling out of the narrow passage. There were no forks at all—just a wide-open space like a vast underground plain.
"Ah, that's..."
I turned toward Yeon's voice and found the passage we'd crawled out of sitting just a few steps away. So that was it. I let out a hollow laugh and muttered inwardly. We'd been under the hallucination from the moment we left the passage. The fox dangling its tail around the corner, the countless forks we'd passed—we'd just been circling the cavern's outer edge the entire time.
"Kyung?"
As the voice resonated in my head, a fox materialized right in front of us. A fox with bright brown fur. The same one we'd chased ourselves sick over. I stared at it, dumbfounded, as it turned and walked across the cavern. And at the end of the path it was taking stood another fox. A fox with fur as white as freshly fallen snow, incomparably larger than me.
At the white fox's words, the brown fox nuzzled against it affectionately, then was absorbed and vanished.
A summoner type, then. That would explain why it was alone in a dungeon this vast. No need to stock the place with other monsters when it could handle a crowd all by itself. Fortunately, its level didn't look astronomically high. Still, it was surely far beyond Yeon or me—but at least it didn't seem hostile. If it had truly meant us harm, it wouldn't have revealed itself like this. It could have finished us off while we were trapped in the hallucination. The fact that it had shown itself meant it had some kind of purpose.
"Kyung?"
What the—I didn't even say anything and it answered... Can this thing read minds? I glared at it, thoroughly on guard, and a small laugh drifted over.
"Kyung...!"
What kind of bullshit is this. I stared at the white fox, thoroughly appalled. Fighting when your opponent can completely read your mind? That was a fight with zero chance of winning. But I couldn't just give up here either. Giving up was no different from choosing to die. I'd just have to fight like hell, one way or another...
"Kyung...?"
A bright, ringing laugh burst out as if it couldn't hold it in any longer, and I stared at the white fox with a vacant expression.
The white fox covered its mouth with a foreleg and snickered.
A-a brat?