Briefing
"……"
Seo Ye-in kept tugging at my sleeve, staring up at me the whole while. Then she stole a glance at Go Hyeon-woo, looked back up at me, and said, "No."
"Why not?"
"No."
Go Hyeon-woo, who had been refused twice for a proposal that was never even made, gave a wry smile. "I imagine Brother Kim must have his reasons for saying so. Might I hear them?"
"Of course."
There were still plenty of ears listening in the classroom, though, so I moved the two of them to a spot where people were scarce, and then walked them through the current situation: I'd be joining the subjugation force against the Witch of Decay, and sitting out this week's conquest raid to keep my condition in peak shape.
Go Hyeon-woo nodded slowly. "I see. Understood. Facing an enemy of that caliber, it is only right to conserve our full strength." Then, with another bittersweet smile, he added, "And yet I cannot help but feel regret—that I am of no help to you, Brother Kim. I suppose my own skills are still lacking."
"Don't dwell on it too much. This time, I'm the one being carried."
Compared to the third-years and the faculty, my strength fell short too. In the subjugation force, I was essentially a shuttle for Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity.
"Let's not rush. We'll go at our own pace. A year or two from now, the three of us will be running conquests like this on our own."
"I shall keep that in mind."
Next, I turned my gaze toward Seo Ye-in. She scooted closer and gave my sleeve a slow, insistent tug.
"Hand."
"My hand?"
I had no idea what she was up to, but I held it out without fuss—and she slipped the Cumulus Cloud Bracelet off her own wrist and onto mine.
"Wear this."
"Alright. Thanks."
The Witch of Decay was a magic user, after all, so the Cumulus Cloud Bracelet would be far more effective than the Dark Cloud one. Whether she knew that for a fact or her lucky mascot's intuition simply kicked in, I couldn't say.
"In exchange, you take this."
This time I removed the Dark Cloud Bracelet and fastened it around Seo Ye-in's wrist. Most of the bosses in this conquest would be physical types, so it would serve her better anyway.
"……"
Apparently pleased, she twirled the bracelet around her wrist, examining it from every angle. Go Hyeon-woo watched the two of us with the fond smile of a doting father.
Oblivious to all that, I pressed on. "Want my hoodie too? It's not like I can use it."
For the days we'd be inside the dungeon, there'd be hardly any room to relax and meditate on mana circulation, so I could lend her the Hermit's hoodie as well.
Contrary to my expectation that she'd snatch it up instantly, Seo Ye-in shook her head. "Later."
"Really? That's unlike you."
"I'm going to train."
With those words, her eyes flicked briefly toward Go Hyeon-woo. It didn't show on her face, but the remark about lacking skill and being unable to help had clearly stung her into action.
If the sloth was going to train of her own accord, it was nothing but good news for me. Since things had come this far, I decided to dangle a carrot to stoke the fire a little more.
"Good, work hard. When I'm back—this weekend or the one after—want to head downtown?"
"The bakery?"
"The bakery too."
"The game center?"
"The game center too."
"……!"
Her gray eyes were suddenly brimming with motivation.
Before the subjugation briefing began, Seo Cheong-yong called me aside and handed over two items.
"Here, take these."
"Thank you, sir."
The first was a tiny totem, no bigger than a finger, etched with intricate patterns and studded here and there with gems the size of a pinhead. A hole had been drilled through it, so it could be strung on a cord and worn around the neck like a pendant.
A perception-obscuring item in the same family as the Anonymous Badges made by the Thief Club or the mask Cha Hyun-ju wears—but its power is on an entirely different level.
"Try it on."
"Yes, sir."
At Seo Cheong-yong's instruction, I hung the totem around my neck—and in an instant, my hair color, build, voice, everything changed into someone else's. The Anonymous Badge was laughably flimsy; one careful look gave it away. This, though, was powerful and seamless, leaving no trace of disguise at all. At least within A-rank, no one would see through it.
The next item was one I was, frankly, quite familiar with. So I get to wear this already.
It was a shirt, jacket, and trousers nearly identical to the academy uniform—except entirely black, with only the tie a deep crimson.
Special protective gear issued to faculty defending Dungeon Island and to students challenging dungeons of A-grade difficulty or higher. Performance every bit as excellent as its rank suggests.
Perhaps my reaction was drier than he'd expected, because Seo Cheong-yong asked with a smile, "You knew what it was, didn't you?"
"I've picked up bits and pieces here and there. I just didn't expect you to lend me a Battle Suit as well."
"We'd rather you didn't get hurt, so we're looking out for you. Go change into it."
With the totem and Battle Suit both on, I followed Seo Cheong-yong to the meeting room. A heavy, solemn air hung inside—understandable, since we'd be entering an A-rank dungeon the very next day.
Structurally it was closer to a lecture hall, with the tables cleared away and the chairs all arranged facing one direction. I sat down beside Seo Cheong-yong, and Lee Su-dok, who had apparently joined at some point, dropped into the seat next to mine. He stared at me in silence with those fierce eyes of his, so I let the look slide off me while casually surveying the room.
I wasn't the only one dressed in a Battle Suit—not by a long shot. These were the fighting force that defended Dragon Slayer Academy, and by extension, Dungeon Island itself. Put simply, they're the security guards. Of course, with men and women mixed together and ages all over the map, "guards" was a bit of a stretch—but most were graduates, and their skill was beyond question.
Plenty of third-year club presidents and vice-presidents were seated as well, and I spotted familiar faces scattered around: Jegal So-so, Kim Gap-du, Jeong Chong-myeong, and even Dang Gyu-young. They've probably finished off their disciplinary penalties over the weekend. Even so, the clubs were well worth having in the subjugation force—the more muscle they lent the academy, the more favorably it would reflect on their budgets and privileges down the line.
"?"
Then, out of nowhere, Dang Gyu-young tilted her head and stared dead in my direction. The Totem of Mimicry had completely changed my appearance, so she couldn't have known it was me—but every so often she kept shooting me these suspicious little glances. Sharp instincts, as always.
Honestly, she'd already found out enough that I could have just come clean. But this wasn't the moment to reveal anything, so I kept staring straight ahead without a word.
Before long, everyone had gathered and the meeting room door shut firm. Seo Cheong-yong and Lee Su-dok walked to the front and began.
"Time is short, so we'll skip the introductions and begin at once. Please confirm the conquest guidebooks placed before you."
I flipped quickly through the stack of documents at my seat and delivered my cold, honest verdict: Bit of a shame.
The Transposition Labyrinth was an A-rank dungeon, so successful conquests were few and far between. Saved replays were scarce, too. Which meant the guidebooks compiled from them were inevitably incomplete. Still, having one at all is something. Fumbling blindly and having even a half-finished guide were worlds apart. Bolstering it shouldn't be hard, either. Not that I planned to draw attention to it—I hadn't gone to the trouble of hiding my identity for nothing. Things like this were best handled quietly.
While I was mulling that over, Seo Cheong-yong continued his explanation of the labyrinth. On the screen beside him, hundreds of rectangles large and small sprawled in dizzying disarray—that chaotic mess was the dungeon map.
"—As you can see, the interior is divided into countless rooms."
Moreover, each room was sealed off, without so much as a single corridor connecting it to the next. There was only one way to move between all those rooms: using the teleportation arrays installed in each one. And therein lay the problem.
"The arrays number more than one, you see. Their activation conditions vary as well, so extra caution is required."
Some arrays fired the moment you stepped on them, like traps; others only revealed themselves when a piece of furniture was destroyed, or activated automatically after a set time. And each array sent its target to a different destination. Wander around aimlessly, and you could end up bouncing back and forth between the same rooms. Hence the name "labyrinth."
Still, it wasn't as if we were without countermeasures. Seo Cheong-yong brought up several types of arrays on the screen and pointed to each in turn.
"By studying the formations and patterns engraved on an array, you can predict where it leads. The examples shown here are also noted in your guidebooks—commit them to memory."
The method was to ride the right teleportation array from room to room to room. In a way, it wasn't so different from a password-cracking game.
Soon the screen returned to the dungeon map and zoomed in on one rectangle among the hundreds, conspicuously larger than the rest.
"The Witch of Decay is most likely entrenched here—in the boss room. The moment we enter, a full-scale battle will begin, so see to your preparations thoroughly beforehand."
The subjugation force's objective, in short: navigate the labyrinth by finding the correct teleportation array in each room, reach the boss room at last, and bring down the Witch of Decay waiting there. The process, of course, would not be as simple as it sounded. People would lose their way, get scattered, get hurt—maybe worse.
"Even so, I believe we can do this."
Seo Cheong-yong's voice carried absolute conviction.
After the briefing ended, I was walking out of the meeting room alone when footsteps came hurrying up from behind.
"Excuse me."
I slowed my pace and turned—and there stood Dang Gyu-young. She closed the distance and asked outright, "Let me check something for a second."
"……"
Then she began inspecting me from head to toe, without warning. She'd been giving me that odd look in the meeting room too—apparently she'd caught onto something. Sure enough, her eyes narrowed more and more,
"What are you doing here?"
and her speech dropped to the casual register in a heartbeat. The tone of someone one hundred percent certain it was me. There was no reason to keep denying it, and I'd planned to come clean eventually anyway. So I took off the totem, my real face emerged, and Dang Gyu-young immediately broke into a grin.
"Called it, didn't I?"
"How did you know?"
I honestly couldn't figure it out, no matter how I turned it over. I'd sat stiff as a corpse through the whole briefing and hadn't given anything away. At my question, her smile only deepened.
"Dunno~ It just hit me. Like, 'That guy's graduated from being caught by me over two hundred times!'~"
"Dang Gyu-young, why are your instincts so damn good."