That Super-Sized Grandpa!!
"Super-sized grandpa!! What the heck is going on?!"
Slosh, slosh—
The sound of waves reached her ears. For some reason, her body felt like it was floating in midair, as if she were dreaming.
The equipment display rack right in front of her and Im Ji-won chatting beside her had vanished somewhere.
Beneath her belly, only black mud and clear water swirled together.
“Xada—Hgla!”
Suddenly, a rush of water pushed her waist back slightly, and figures emerged from below the surface.
Their faces looked like a bizarre mix of frog and fish, their skin slick and slimy. The strangest part was that despite their fish-like faces, they all had four limbs.
They resembled Kkam-dung-i behind her back—except way less cute—in the form of colossal octopus-human statues, and they began chanting something at them.
“Panglui maglunaft Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn…!”
Just as the fish-humans started chanting those incomprehensible, eerie words, strange things suddenly appeared in the sky.
Their bodies were human-like, but they had bat wings and horns on their heads—grotesque monsters.
The moment the fish-humans spotted them, they drew tridents and shouted,
“Night-gaunt!”
Soon, the fish-humans and bat monsters clashed.
The fish-humans pierced the bat monsters' wings with their tridents.
The bat monsters tore into the fish-humans with their long claws and brute strength.
Though the sun neither rose nor set, she instinctively knew this battle had raged for centuries.
Huh…? Why am I seeing this?
Finally, something put an end to the endless eons of fighting. The bat monsters began chanting in some alien tongue, and a glyph of light etched itself into the sky.
A star shape with an eye in the center—something she'd never seen before.
As the glyph glowed, something else materialized in the air.
Grandpa…?
A grandpa with graying whiskers and a silver prosthetic arm on one side, riding a massive clam-shell chariot pulled by seahorses, soaring through the sky.
“Please return to the depths.”
The moment that super-sized grandpa appeared, the fish-humans started dropping dead in droves, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from him.
The more she looked at grandpa, the more her heart pounded thump-thump-thump, and a boiling heat surged from her belly, like blood rising.
“Please return to the depths!”
She even felt like if she just reached out her hand, she could crush that super-sized grandpa with a single finger—
“—Eun-ha!”
“H-heuk?!”
With Im Ji-won's shout, the dreamlike vision vanished in an instant.
She frowned at the nauseating churn in her gut, then bent over and vomited water.
“Blerghhh.”
“Ugh, Eun-ha! You okay? W-what do we do?!”
She really, really wanted to crawl into a mouse hole and disappear if one existed.
At least it was just clear water and not actual vomit, but she'd still dirtied the shop floor.
As Im Ji-won yelled in worry, a shop employee approached from the side.
“Ma'am, is there a problem…?”
The employee glanced back and forth between her—hunched over with mouth agape—and Im Ji-won, then spoke as if it were routine.
“It's fine. Sometimes customers browsing gear dropped from the tower react badly to the mana embedded in them.”
“Oh, really? I'll clean the floor. Sorry about this.”
The employee shook their head at Im Ji-won's words.
“I'll handle it.”
No sooner had they spoken than the employee swiped their hand through the air, summoning a crisp breeze that whooshed in.
The wind swept up the water she'd spewed, leaving the floor spotless.
Even shop employees are Awakeners these days.
“Eun-ha, you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?”
Too embarrassed to speak easily, she finally managed to open her mouth.
“I-I'm fine. Sorry…”
“No, don't be. There's nothing for you to apologize for. The employee said it happens sometimes. So don't feel bad.”
Is Im Ji-won actually an angel? Sure, they're friends now, but she'd still been a total nuisance.
She nodded tightly, lips pressed shut.
Last time she thought Landlady was more mature, but now she figured both sisters were equally grown-up.
Anyway, her stomach had settled. She wiped her mouth with the tissue the employee brought and looked back at the mermaid's necklace.
“Eun-ha, is this the necklace you want?”
“Uh-huh, yeah?”
She glanced down at Kkam-dung-i and Jju-jju. They were staring intensely at the mermaid's necklace too.
Maybe this necklace was connected to her—or the summons somehow.
But it's so expensive. I'd have to earn more than double what I've made so far. Better to come back later?
As she fidgeted with her fingers, hesitating, Im Ji-won made a grim face and patted her head.
“Eun-ha. You can tell unnie anything you want. I won't judge.”
“Y-yeah…”
She nodded reluctantly, and Im Ji-won turned to call the employee.
“Excuse me, miss?”
“Yes, ma'am? Need anything?”
“Can we buy this mermaid's necklace?”
“Of course, right away.”
In the end, Im Ji-won bought her the mermaid's necklace.
Seventy million won was an insane amount to her, but Im Ji-won spent it without batting an eye, just smiling lightly.
“I'm lending it to you, so when you climb higher and make bank, treat unnie to something yummy. Got it?”
“Gasp… Yeah! I'll buy you super yummy stuff. A ton!”
She tried to buy various protective gear too, but Eun-ha refused vehemently, figuring that was too much, so Im Ji-won backed off.
“Oh yeah. How about heading to floor 2 tomorrow or the day after? You had that incident earlier, and you look wiped.”
“S-sounds good to me…!”
Im Ji-won was right.
Her head was full of that weird grandpa.
Who the heck was he? What were those fish-humans and bat monsters?
The questions lingered unsolved.
What mattered was that strange glyph from the sky still flickered in her mind's eye.
A star with an eye in the center.
She clenched her fist tightly for no reason.
If you've seen it, what happened??
Did you see fish-humans fighting bat monsters??
Unfortunately, no one seemed to know about the scene she'd seen.
It was Kkam-dung-i who found the necklace first anyway—maybe Kkam-dung-i knew something?
“Kkam-dung-i, do you know what this is?”
“Ppuuuu!”
She held out the necklace in her hand, and Kkam-dung-i pointed one tentacle at her neck.
Was it telling her to wear it?
Im Ji-won had bought it, but it felt iffy, so she hadn't put it on yet.
“Can I wear this?”
“Ppupu!”
She double-checked, and Kkam-dung-i nodded its tentacle again.
Okay. If Kkam-dung-i says so, it should be fine.
She stared at the necklace for a moment, then lengthened the chain and slipped it over her head.
“Uwing? Feels like nothing's happening…”
The Dream - Quest
Phantasmal Quest
『O our eternal unknown and inviolable Mother who reigns above, please liberate your foolish descendants.』
📍 Reach Floor 5 (0/1)
📍 Defeat Slimes (0/100)
📍 Defeat Old Slimes (0/2)
📍 Liberate the descendants of the depths sealed on Floor 5 (0/1)
“This is…”
It was a quest with content similar to the one she'd gotten as a Tutorial Tower reward last time.
“Maybe this one gives super good rewards too?”
Last time, clearing it got her Jju-jju and control of floor 1.
Maybe something on that level this time? She quickly read the quest details.
She tilted her head slightly at the content. Like last time, the final line was hard to grasp.
Oh yeah, last time Mueojjeogu turned out to be Jju-jju.
Maybe these "descendants of the depths" were cute summons like Jju-jju?
If so, clearing this quest would make her stronger again!
Wonder what they look like. Hopefully as cute as Kkam-dung-i and Jju-jju.
Guess I gotta hurry to floor 5.
Then she glanced around her room.
“C-can I fit more summons in here…?”
If she added more, she'd have to tell Landlady and maybe move out?