Succubus Kim Rina
Artifacts.
The word can mean a lot of things, but these days it only means one: equipment with special abilities attached.
They drop inside Gates at absurdly low rates, or Keepers with crafting skills can make them. Even then, the materials are so expensive that only a tiny handful of people ever own one. And even if you manage to craft one, there’s no guarantee the ability you want will stick. A decent artifact with a useful trait is literally whatever the seller decides to charge.
One common feature of artifacts is that they freely resize to fit the wearer. Just now the ring had shrunk because Elena’s finger was thinner than the Goblin Shaman’s.
This wasn’t the first time I’d seen an artifact. Elena’s sword and armor were both artifacts. But it was the first time I’d ever obtained one myself. From the look of him, it was Garam’s first time too.
“Whoa… an artifact? You can actually get those from monsters?”
“First time for you too, hyung?”
“Obviously. In all my years as a Keeper I’ve only ever heard of two people finding one inside a Gate… and those were secondhand stories. Not even sure they’re true.”
If Garam, who’d been a Keeper for at least ten years, was reacting like this, something genuinely rare had just happened. The idea that you could get artifacts from Gates must have been pure urban legend.
“So what’s the ability?”
“(Well… take a look.)”
Elena couldn’t quite explain it and just handed me the ring. Her face was a little red.
What’s this about?
I opened the ring’s status window the same way I opened my own.
Trait: Last Round (E)
The window was extremely simple. Higher-grade artifacts sometimes came with extra stats or equip restrictions, but this wasn’t one of those.
I checked the detailed description.
(Men only) Stores a portion of surplus vitality during normal times. When all vitality is exhausted, grants enough energy for one additional round of intercourse.
Now I understood why Elena’s face had gone red.
Who’s even supposed to use this?
It wasn’t bad… but it wasn’t exactly great either.
“What? Not impressed?”
“Uh… just take a look.”
Starting with Garam, everyone checked the ring’s status window. The result was the same expression on every face.
Awkward.
The ability was one thing, but the appearance was plain too—a completely unadorned gold band with zero artistic value.
What were we supposed to do in a situation like this? We all turned to Garam, the oldest and most experienced among us.
“Hmm… this is a first for me too… First of all, who landed the finishing blow?”
“Me! That was me!”
Soyeon raised her hand excitedly. The needle that had finished the Shaman had been hers.
“Then primary ownership goes to Soyeon. Of course, the decent thing is to sell it and split the money.”
“I’m totally… going to sell it and split!”
Soyeon didn’t overstep. Even just the nominal ownership seemed to make her happy enough. It was an artifact with a weird ability, but an artifact was still an artifact.
“I’m fine with that. Everyone else?”
Keira, Elena, and I all nodded. There wasn’t much to think about.
“Good. Then for now, you wear it.”
“Huh?”
Garam held the ring out to me.
“Selling something like this takes forever. You have to put it up for auction, gather interested buyers… Better someone uses it than leave it sitting in storage.”
Then he leaned in and whispered,
“…Do your best. If you try it and like it, I’ll let you have it cheap. When you think about it, isn’t this the item you need most?”
He finished by giving my shoulder a couple of firm pats.
I’d thought the same thing myself. I was in a situation where I had to handle more… work than anyone else. Still, it wasn’t a ring that generated vitality—just stored a little and let you use it later. How much help could that really be?
Of course, it might turn out better than I expected.
“No objections?”
“None!”
“Then let’s head out. Short trip, but good work training and getting trained!”
Clap clap clap.
Garam started the applause and the rest of us joined in.
Once we’re out I’m eating something delicious.
The moment I thought the expedition was over, warm fried chicken was the first thing that popped into my head.
A month passed.
In that time we entered every Gate we could. My stats hadn’t risen, but my magic proficiency kept climbing. The feeling of being able to do more was always good. My Potential had also gone up by two. I hadn’t been grinding specifically to raise it, but I naturally ended up working hard.
After all, I had two partners available. And both of them had ridiculous libidos—every time we did it they demanded it hard.
Still, the three of us had never done it together. I wanted to, but bringing it up first felt way too awkward. Keira would probably go along if I asked, but Elena… I wasn’t sure. My gut said it would be difficult. Even doing it with just me still made her incredibly shy. During the act she was fine, but afterward she always hid. If the three of us did it… she might actually die of embarrassment.
A man’s dream.
Someday… that day will come, right?
I still hadn’t found a place of my own. Being busy was just an excuse—living at the Crew House was simply too comfortable. The facilities were great, and Nayeon noona was there.
Nayeon still hadn’t entered a Gate since that incident. She hadn’t even left the Crew House. She never said anything, but the shock had clearly hit her harder than she let on.
There was no news about Park Changsik. And right now, no news was more terrifying—because it meant he was probably dead. So I made a point of talking with Nayeon noona as much as possible. The four of us even threw little parties. Nothing major, but times like these it was better to keep seeing people. And hanging out with her was fun for me too.
Knock knock knock.
“…What now?”
The door opened and Nayeon noona appeared. Messy hair, a stained oversized T-shirt with a glimpse of underwear between the fabric, dolphin shorts that showed off her thick thighs completely. Extremely natural look—like someone who’d been gaming all night for days straight. Which was probably exactly what she’d been doing. While we were in and out of Gates, that was pretty much all she’d done at home.
And yet her skin looked soft and fresh, like she’d just washed her face. Her eyes were hollow, so how was her skin still glowing like that? Natural-born beauty.
“The captain wants us to come together.”
“Huh? Why does unnie want me?”
“We’ll find out when we get there.”
“Mm… alright, let’s go.”
Nayeon walked out of the room in exactly that outfit.
“…You’re going like that?”
“What’s the big deal? At this hour it’s just unnie, right?”
Current time: 7 a.m. Even in the office, normally only Captain Nari would be there.
“True enough.”
“Then let’s go.”
The office was on the tenth floor. Residential area, I guess? It felt a little separated from the living spaces, but same floor was same floor. We arrived right away.
“Unnie~ You called? What’s up?”
I would have knocked and waited for an answer, but Nayeon just opened the door and walked in. Inside, Nari was waiting in her usual office suit. Same twins, yet the two of them were perfect opposites right now. One short hair, one long. One in a flawless office look that looked like armor, the other in sleepwear she’d rolled out of bed in. Their beauty was still about equal, though. Nari with eye makeup had charisma; bare-faced Nayeon had a soft, innocent vibe—that was the main difference.
Nari took one look at Nayeon and frowned. Her charisma seemed to double on the spot.
“…I told you to dress properly when you come to the office.”
“Come on, it’s just you and Jungmin. What’s the problem?”
“Just Jungmin?”
Nari’s eyes narrowed. The look said, What do you think you’re doing in front of an unrelated man?
Nayeon answered that look with a headlock. The twin sisters both had big chests—smaller than Elena’s, but definitely bigger than Keira’s. Caught in the headlock, those breasts came right up against my face.
Soft.
“Come on, we’re not like that. Just close like real siblings.”
Ohhh, is this heaven?
For a second I almost lost my mind to the soft pressure. But this was neither the place nor the person for that. Nari’s eyes were burning like a fire had started. I hurriedly shoved Nayeon off.
“Cough, cough. What the hell was that.”
“Sorry, sorry, was that too hard?”
Her headlock had actually been strong. She’d probably thought she was being gentle, but the weight class difference was real.
“But you’re a guy and you can’t even take that… tsk. You need to train harder.”
“Ugh, do you have any self-awareness that you’re a monster, noona?”
“Me? What about me? Look at this, you calling these arms monster arms?”
Nayeon’s arms were clearly slender. But a Keeper’s strength doesn’t come from muscle mass. Once you become a Keeper your whole body gradually changes, and the muscles change with it. You can put out huge power with a small amount of muscle.
“That’s not—”
“Enough. Stop the pointless chatter. I’m busy.”
Nari cut me off. Her tone was faintly disdainful.
“Fine. So what’s this about?”
“We need to enter a Gate.”
“Me?”
Nayeon pointed at herself. Nari nodded.
“…Do I really have to go? There are other Keepers, and Elena’s here too.”
Before Elena arrived, Nayeon had been the strongest Keeper in GGC. Nari had taken her on almost every Gate expedition. Lately, though, with Nayeon holed up at home, she’d been taking me and Elena instead, or bringing other A-class Keepers.
“This time you’re coming too. That’s an order from the crew captain. No right of refusal.”
“What kind of Gate needs me that badly?”
“We have to take down an Ogre.”
An Ogre? Why?
I didn’t say it out loud, but the question must have shown on my face. Nari added an explanation.
“We need an Ogre’s brain for dementia medicine.”
“…If it’s that, then yeah, I should go.”
Nayeon agreed. Facing an Ogre meant you wanted as many strong people as possible.
“Jungmin-ssi as well, please. Elena and Keira too.”
Of course we were going.
“Yes, understood.”
Going wasn’t the hard part. Gate expeditions were what we did every day. The problem was that once again there wouldn’t be much for me to do. Ogres were A-class monsters at minimum.
Damn it, I want to get stronger already!
4 a.m.
“Hello. Good work.”
A man greeted the security guard and walked into the GGC Crew House. Hidden inside his mind was a presence he himself didn’t know about.
Finally here.
The man was a subordinate of Kang Changsik. The demon who had crossed into this world through him: Succubus Kim Rina.
She was currently inside the mind of one of the GGC Crew House administrative staff. Through this employee she planned to infiltrate the interior and gather information.
Getting this far had taken longer than Kim Rina expected. Recovering her power had simply taken too much time. More than a month had already passed since she arrived in this world, and she still hadn’t recovered even half her original strength.
Still, it’s enough to kill the lot of you.
Kim Rina intended to kill Lee Jungmin’s party and recover her power all at once. Absorbing the essence of people who shared a connection was far more efficient, after all.