The One Who Isn't Deceived (2)
[800 coins acquired!]
The beastmen handled everything on their own, so my share had shrunk a lot. But the overall profit hadn't changed much. It was thanks to the increased number of hunts. The reduced stamina consumption had turned out to be an overall gain.
“Quik! Quik! It's so damn hard!”
“Aoong!”
“I want carrots today.”
The whining of the male beastmen was growing louder and louder. As the wounds worsened, their tantrums grew fiercer.
“Maybe we should rest here?”
“Looking at their conditions…”
I nodded to Yoo Dahui's question. It was a weak, non-committal nod.
The male beastmen's states were that critical. They were on the verge of death, yet their will to survive kept them rolling around in the dirt. Compared to them, Horin was in perfect shape. It felt like she was claiming she was on a different level than the males.
“…Familiar scent… Smells a lot like Hugo.”
“You don't know who Hugo is. Stop asking me.”
Horin sniffed the air right beside me.
Yoo Dahui's eyes narrowed.
“No. You can't not know. That scent is clearly from Hugo!”
“Shut your mouth, you stupid bitch!”
“Huhuhu. Since you're the male that smells like Hugo, I'll let that much rudeness slide.”
Every time the subject of Hugo came up, my stomach would drop because of that one drunken remark.
As expected, Yoo Dahui was glaring at me with narrowed eyes.
She stared at me for a moment, then stepped closer.
“You really don't know who Hugo is?”
It felt like she was interrogating me.
It wasn't that different from inside the cave.
“What? Human female. Why are you acting like you know Hugo?”
“Hugo is a spirit shaman. He dealt with ancient spirits, didn't he?”
“Eh? How do you know that?”
Yoo Dahui already knew. She had leaked a little before we had sex in the previous round.
‘…What is this uneasy feeling…?’
Her eyes were sharp as she asked if I really didn't know. It was the same feeling I had after the masked man raped me and spent the whole day being suspected.
Maybe I had let something slip. I racked my brain as hard as I could.
Brain at full power.
“…Eh…?”
I compared it with every previous round.
In the previous round, I had told Yoo Dahui I had a similar dream.
‘Dreaming means sleeping, right…’
The timing was off.
I hadn't entered the 1st floor yet, so the dream information I gave her back then was still valid knowledge right now.
If I kept denying knowledge of Hugo here, it would look like I was dodging the truth even though I knew.
‘…Sigh.’
My throat tightened as the thought of a terrible ending flashed through my mind.
I forced myself to look surprised and continued gently.
“Ah! Hugo, the ancient spirit shaman!”
As if I had just remembered.
“I know. Of course I know. How could I not?”
While avoiding Yoo Dahui's gaze, I told her about Hugo in one breath.
She knew most of it already, but she was missing a few details.
“Is that all?”
“Of course! Is there anything I could be hiding from you?”
“…It seems like there are quite a few things…”
Cringe!
A moment of carelessness had raised suspicions.
But suspicions about what? Honestly, the masked man felt like a distant memory by now.
Or maybe she was sharpening the knife in her heart.
Either way, I was going to fuck Yoo Dahui today.
Was I going to win?
I didn't care about that.
I just had to use Elena.
‘Just imagining it makes me… ah, ah…!’
I barely held back my arousal.
“You'll believe me, right?”
“Why is the question at the end…?”
Yoo Dahui looked at me drowsily, then let out a soft laugh.
“Because I believe there's a reason to hide it. It means you'll tell me one day.”
“Ah…”
I felt guilty for some reason in front of her bright smile.
“Come on. Pig, lead the way.”
Yoo Dahui lined up the beastmen and started moving toward the blue pillar.
It was quite far from First City now, so the toads' levels were getting stronger and stronger.
Sssh.
“Monsters! Fight! Quickly!”
“Quik!”
Toads in shabby armor appeared.
Imagine suddenly conscripted farmers.
They spread out around us with their pitiful spears, like a hedgehog formation.
“Quik! For freedom!”
The boar beastman charged with his belly jiggling.
He fought recklessly, trusting his own skin.
“Ooong!”
The cat beastman was swift and vicious, tormenting the toads.
The problem was he tormented his own allies too.
“Carrots! Carrot punch!”
The rabbit beastman bounced around, fighting energetically.
It was so hard to hold back the urge to smack him on the back of the head.
Compared to them, Horin, the tiger beastman, gave off a real beastman vibe.
Explosive leaps, cruel expression that couldn't control the boiling blood, and a wild roar all showcased the pride of the tiger clan.
“Hot damn.”
I sucked the blood like mosquitoes while using the beastmen as shields.
How could it taste this sweet?
“Do you like it?”
Yoo Dahui asked in a suggestive tone.
Her eyes when she looked at me held a strange satisfaction, like a kid at the playground who was enjoying his favorite thing.
“…Hah… My body is a bit stiff.”
“Huhuhu. You were enjoying it just now, why are you acting like this?”
“When did I enjoy…?”
“Even so, seeing you like it feels good. We should start like this next time too.”
Yoo Dahui smiled brightly and smashed the toad's heads.
‘Around level 10 strength.’
With Ho's correction, I guessed about 12.
That was easily within my range.
I would pull out all the beastmen's vitality and dump it into physical reinforcement.
With the stealth bonus from the masked man's surprise attack, it would be more than enough.
‘But this time the goal is to shake things up.’
I had no intention of doing a one-on-one duel.
We were fighting from a much more advantageous position.
Why would I want to fight from an inferior one?
[2,000 coins acquired!]
Settlement complete.
The battle had ended.
“Quik! I can't do any more!”
“Aooong!”
“Carrots. I love carrots.”
The male beastmen collapsed like they had passed out.
No potions left, and they were bleeding heavily.
“Tsk tsk… Boar, how much farther to the blue pillar?”
“Quik! Not much! Quik!”
“Then if I just hold on a little longer, I'll be free, right? I can't make it?”
The boar's eyes rolled around in circles.
“Quik! I can do it! Quik!”
The boar stood up on his wounded feet.
‘I guess I should call her now.’
I gave Elena the command.
Come to me and wait at a suitable place.
‘Bring a white mask. Change into different clothes too.’
When Elena arrived, I would attach a shadow spirit to her.
To fake the voice.
‘Ah, she needs to cover her ears too.’
Body change wasn't necessary.
What I wanted was for the perverted guys in the masks to think we were a group, not individuals.
‘Sigh. If the voice had been a shadow spirit from the beginning…’
If that were the case, Yoo Dahui would still be wandering, unable to confirm the masked man.
‘It's meaningless now.’
Yoo Dahui, who couldn't see through me, had confirmed me as the masked man and not thrown me away.
It meant that the feelings had accumulated during the previous round.
If I stopped acting like the masked man here, I could enjoy sweet time with Yoo Dahui inside the Tower of Struggle.
‘But…’
No.
I wanted to torment Yoo Dahui.
I didn't have the guts to keep her as just a normal lover.
“Quik! It's this pillar!”
While lost in thought and walking, a blue pillar about five meters tall greeted us with a chill.
“Quik! Since you led us here, give me back my freedom! Quik!”
“Wait. We need to confirm if it's real.”
Yoo Dahui walked closer to check the blue pillar.
“Ugh… I'm freezing to death…”
You could only touch it if you met certain conditions.
‘Mana’ level 10.
The chill meant we hadn't reached level 10.
Zing.
A sharp gaze pierced my back.
It felt like a killing intent.
‘Sigh, shit. Startled me…’
Elena was glaring at me from behind.
She wore a white mask and had turned her robe inside out.
The mask had an opening at the mouth, making it hard to picture Elena's face.
If I wasn't her master, I wouldn't have known her identity.
‘It was an identity-revealing mask.’
I gave a command to the shadow spirit.
Stay attached to Elena and imitate me with a suitable voice.
‘If you signal, we'll all go into critical condition. We need to hide our identities… Just use fists.’
When Elena received the command, she pointed at me with her finger.
‘Including me.’
If the corner of Elena's mouth rose all the way to her ear, it was just my imagination, right?
“It seems real.”
“Quik! I don't lie! So you, you have to! Keep your promise! Give me back my freedom! Quik!”
“Okay. I'll let you go. Since you were the only one who knew about this pillar, I'm only letting you go.”
“Eh… Thank you, quik! I'm going back to the city! I want to rest so much!”
The boar beastman glanced at the other males and immediately quit.
He turned back the way we had come.
‘Now, kill the boar.’
I gave the command and drained his vitality.
Boom!
“Quik!”
The boar that had been hit flew back and slammed into the blue pillar.
Crack.
“Quiiiiik!”
The boar's body quickly froze.
White frost covered him, and he stopped moving mid-struggle.
“G, masked man…?”
Yoo Dahui looked back and forth between me and the masked man.
There were clear differences if you looked closely, but Yoo Dahui was losing her rationality.
“You, you bastard…!”
Flames shot from Yoo Dahui's eyes.
She glared at the masked man with eyes filled with anger.
“Masked Man, long time no see. Nice to meet you.”
“Masked Man, you fucking bastard!”
The voice that came from the masked man's mouth sounded like mine but wasn't exactly the same. However, since Yoo Dahui had lost her rationality, she couldn't notice that.