The Hidden Eater's Brother
I sprinkled the potion Nam-gung Yun had handed over moments ago onto his wounds as he lay collapsed on the ground, saying,
“Hah, hah...”
As soon as the potion touched his body, it emitted a faint light, and the sword wounds from before began to heal.
“Isn't it amazing every time you see it? Games are games, after all. For a wound to vanish clean like this with just something like this.”
Puuk!—!!
Without the slightest hesitation, I stabbed his shoulder once more.
“Argh!!”
“It's not even real pain, and you're whining.”
“Hah, hah...”
I bent down to meet his gaze face-to-face and poured a second potion onto his shoulder.
Vrrr...
Watching his body slowly heal, I lifted one corner of my mouth and said to him,
“But since it's a game, there are all sorts of ways to torment someone that are possible. You've probably heard of it as an explorer, right? The torture method the Yukhap guys often use.”
“Ha, haha...”
“As long as your total HP doesn't hit zero, the character doesn't die—using that game system, they chop off your limbs, immobilize you, and keep your HP at the bare minimum with potions while dragging you around.”
I roughly chopped some common tree branches around the swamp and tossed them in front of him, saying,
“You've got three potions left now. I wonder if that'll hold your HP until we clear the dungeon. In Dimension World 1, with beginner potions keeping minimal life after limbs were severed, it was about 3 minutes 15 seconds per person, right? Wonder if it's the same here.”
'Why the hell do you know that?!'
“You pick it up rolling around the arena.”
I could guess what he was thinking just from his expression, and at my response, Nam-gung Yun grimaced, realizing he'd hooked the wrong fish—big time.
Sring—
The moment I raised not the dagger stuck in his shoulder but my longsword, his mouth started moving busily.
“Aigoo! Big bro! When did I ever lie to you! You knew from the start that the Yukhap guys were chasing me!”
His address for me had already shifted to “big bro,” and with a tear-streaked face, he shouted his reply.
“So? My fault?”
“No! No!! Of course not!”
“Too loud.”
Kkuuk—
As the tip of Tesaro's sword touched his thigh, he shook his head frantically and said,
“Aigoo, why go there, big bro? Let's talk it out step by step. Didn't I say I'd tell you everything from one to ten? No, I will tell you!!”
Fun fellow, isn't he?
Black Eye, who had been watching Nam-gung Yun, spoke up.
I can hear his eyeballs spinning. That guy's not given up yet. Even as he talks like that, he's plotting his escape.
'I know. And if he's really connected to the Mountain King, he shouldn't give up this easily. Of course not.'
I wasn't the type who enjoyed tormenting others or took pleasure in torture.
Still, the way I was treating Nam-gung Yun had a bit of playful mischief mixed in, which might sound ridiculous.
Sticking a knife into someone's body as a joke? It'd sound insane. But if the target was the Mountain King, it was possible.
Because I'd pulled similar pranks on him before.
You couldn't judge him by human standards.
'He's not human.'
Just as fierce beasts battling might look like play to their own kind, though it seems brutal to human eyes.
'Mountain King Marcus.'
Dimension World was home to countless races beyond humans—dwarves, elves, gnomes, and more.
So saying he wasn't human wasn't all that shocking.
Yet he was etched deeply in my mind because he'd rejected the seat among Glory's 9 that I'd offered him.
Remembering that day, I gave a wry smile.
'No matter how many loops of dreams I repeated, I always tried to bring the Mountain King under my command. But I never once succeeded in binding him to my rule.'
If the Mountain King's forces had allied with me, it might have introduced some variables in the fight against that thing.
His existence was that special.
'Nam-gung Yun. Time to see if you're the link that lets me tame the Mountain King this time.'
I looked at him.
“Get up. We'll talk on the move. If the Yukhap assassins find out their guys are dead, things could get annoying.”
Field dungeons were instanced, but unlike hidden ones, other players could intervene midway—just like how I'd entered while Nam-gung Yun was inside.
“The exact reason Yukhap's chasing you, your connection to the Mountain King, and what you're after in the White Swamp. Depending on your answers, you either conquer this place with me or get tossed to Yukhap with your limbs bound in those vines. Your call.”
At my words, Nam-gung Yun forced a smile and nodded.
“Stick close. From here on, no traces.”
I scanned the surroundings and cleared the underbrush along the original White Swamp path.
A tiny side path most would overlook.
“Hmm.”
I closed my eyes, dredging up memories for a moment.
“Right.”
When I opened them again, the route and plan were crystal clear in my mind.
“Let's go.”
I headed into the forest path without hesitation, and
'...What the hell is that? Was there a path like that?'
Nam-gung Yun followed behind me, his expression growing more baffled by the second.
“Yeah, I used Yukhap. Like you know, big bro, after my first class change to Explorer, I have to learn map-making, geography, unknown exploration—and eventually head out to dangerous lands beyond the continent. But Explorers aren't combat classes, right?”
Nam-gung Yun stuck right behind me, whispering softly.
“Then I saw a community post about Yukhap supporting explorers, so I took the commission.”
He shrugged.
“Ahem.”
I gestured for him to continue without looking back at his chatter.
“I never planned to come to the White Swamp at first. My assigned area was the Land of Savages, further south. But while exploring there, I picked up a quest.”
“Ahem.”
“That's how I learned about the White Swamp. Balder. The World Tree. World Tree, you know... it reeks of something big, right?”
Nam-gung Yun said excitedly.
“You know what's there? If it's a drop from hunting the boss monster, no way one person could handle it?”
At my question, he lifted the corner of his mouth.
“If it was that, I'd have dropped the quest. But it was an acquisition quest only for explorers.”
He pulled a small map from his inventory.
“...?!”
Incredibly, it was a detailed map of the White Swamp paths.
Guilds in major cities sold maps, but they were rough sketches at best. They sure as hell didn't sell dungeon or special area maps.
'You wouldn't see this quality until players' map-making skills progressed and dungeons or continents got mapped out.'
I shot him a look demanding an explanation.
“Got it from one of the tribes in the Land of Savages, the Angra. The quest was simple: bring back leaves from the World Tree Balder in the White Swamp. And with the map...”
“You figured you could solo it.”
“Exactly.”
“But the White Swamp's dungeon level isn't that high compared to what's coming. Worth making enemies of Yukhap over?”
“Well...”
To my question, Nam-gung Yun shrugged sheepishly.
“Truth is, the quest I got is Heroic grade. Reward unknown, but at this stage, getting a Heroic quest easy? Right? Haha... So I got a bit greedy.”
“Fearless bastard. Even Heroic quests aside, anyone who knows how tenacious Yukhap is wouldn't dream of using them.”
Still, I didn't think badly of Nam-gung Yun's choice to take on the quest himself instead of ditching it for Yukhap.
To rise above not just the Eight Great Clans but giants like Yukhap, you had to gamble.
Even in a game—a VR one like Dimension World—it was all competition, survival.
To survive, you had to grow stronger than others.
“That said... my little sis kept telling me to do the quest myself.”
“...Little sis?”
I looked at Nam-gung Yun.
“Mm, I don't know this Mountain King you mentioned, big bro, but maybe she does. She said if I got Balder's leaves, I might encounter some fateful opportunity.”
He shook his head slightly, as if even he didn't get it.
“She's my little sis, but that kid's got some weird quirks, even by my standards...”
“Who's your sister?”
“Silver. Isabel Silver. Most folks just call her Silver, though.”
She was his sister, but the name had zero connection to his.
“As you're thinking. She uses a character name.”
As I looked surprised, Nam-gung Yun quickly explained, but that wasn't why I was shocked.
Famous folks in various fields often hid their identities, and players using character names instead of real ones was common.
“Silver...? No way, Hidden Eater Isabel Silver?”
The issue was her name.
Any Dimension World 1 player would know the moniker Hidden Eater.
If Rerto Karen was the top in massive dungeon raids and I ruled the arenas, she was the player who'd cleared more hidden quests than anyone.
Most aimed to strengthen their characters, snag rare skills and items—so they dove into community-posted high-reward dungeons and quests, skipping the small ones.
'Hidden quests didn't always give powerful items.'
In that sense, Hidden Eater wasn't just #1 in completed quests among 1.5 billion players—she'd done it solo, unaffiliated with any clan. Incredible.
Communities even whispered if she was a prophet, given her insane feats.
'This... might be a bigger catch than I expected.'
I looked at Nam-gung Yun and asked,
“Where is she now?”
“No idea. Even to me, she keeps her movements top secret.”
“Hmm...”
To others, it might sound odd, but for Hidden Eater, it made sense.
Quests were an info war. More mouths meant more leaks, family or not.
“If you bring back Balder's leaves, who knows? Might meet Silver.”
Nam-gung Yun lifted one corner of his mouth.
“If she predicted even you'd meet me and sent you to the White Swamp, I'd have to admit she's a real prophet.”
“Huh?”
“You couldn't have gotten Balder's leaves solo. You'd have died before reaching it.”
No matter how lucky Nam-gung Yun was with the path, breaching the grave-light butterflies was no joke.
Absurd as it sounded, if Isabel Silver could truly prophesy fateful encounters—even orchestrating our meeting—her true nature piqued my curiosity.
“We're here.”
Pushing through the underbrush, we emerged into a vast clearing where a massive monster crouched, sleeping.
“Guhk...!”
Facing the dozens-of-meters-long alligator turtle, Nam-gung Yun instinctively held his breath in shock.
“B-Boss monster?”
“Yeah. So get ready.”
“R-Ready? For what?”
I gripped Tesaro's sword in one hand and Amur's dagger in the other, loosening up lightly as I said,
“Hunting prep.”