A Bargain with the Outcast
Only moments earlier Robin had been striking every grand pose he could muster. Now he had abandoned pride entirely and driven his forehead into the dirt.
Do-yun could not help the dubious look that crossed his face at the sudden change in a man who had seemed ready to die without so much as a flicker of expression.
“As you have already guessed, I am a body that has once received Heavenly Punishment.”
The words spilled from the bowed Robin.
Do-yun had wondered why the elf feared Heavenly Punishment so fiercely. It seemed the terror ran deeper precisely because he had tasted it himself.
“And because of that, I lost my lifelong companion.”
Robin’s eyes turned distant, fixed on empty air, as though he were gazing into a far-off past—the days before the punishment, when he had still walked beside a spirit friend.
“Please tell me the method. How did you keep a spirit’s trust even after receiving Heavenly Punishment?”
Robin clearly believed some grand secret lay behind Do-yun’s survival of the curse. The truth was far simpler.
Thanks to the S-rank enchant.
The World Tree’s Heavenly Punishment was genuinely powerful—powerful enough to stack A-rank debuffs. The enchant carved into the sword in Do-yun’s hand simply outclassed it.
The answer he could have given Robin was therefore surprisingly straightforward.
Climb into the Hall of Fame and seize the Rune of Evolution.
Rising to the Hall of Fame among cutthroat rivals would be no easy feat. Yet if Robin managed it, every debuff clinging to his body would lift of its own accord.
“Why should I tell you that?”
The reply that left Do-yun’s mouth was ice-cold. Robin was an enemy. Do-yun was not generous enough to show mercy to someone who had struck first twice already.
“And do you really think you’re in any position to make requests?”
Robin was still bound by the vines. Before begging for favors, he ought to have been begging for his life.
The elf seemed to wrestle with the words for a long moment before he finally spoke.
“I will become your bow. I will kill every person you order me to kill. If that is not enough, I will accept any conditions you name.”
It was a tempting offer. In a tower that was little better than a slaughterhouse, a reliable companion would be invaluable. But that value rested entirely on trust.
“Bullshit. How am I supposed to know when you’ll turn on me?”
For the moment Robin might obey. But what about later? One day the elf might decide betrayal suited him better, and their positions would reverse completely. The one left trussed up on the ground might be Do-yun instead.
Should I just kill him?
There was no reason to gamble. Do-yun’s hand was already drifting toward the sword at his hip when Robin’s next words stopped him cold.
“There will never be betrayal. You hold the reason I walked back into this damned tower.”
Something raw and unnameable rode those words—betrayal, rage, and bottomless loss. Do-yun flinched before he could stop himself.
“I know what you’re afraid of. You think I’m aiming for the summit.”
“Yeah. In the end your goal is to take back your homeland too, isn’t it?”
Do-yun’s eyes stayed hard with suspicion. The wish ticket that could restore a dying world was an absolute prize no one would surrender lightly.
Robin’s answer, however, lay outside every expectation.
“I don’t care what becomes of a world that abandoned me.”
A cynical twist pulled at the corner of Robin’s mouth. Do-yun narrowed his eyes, watching every flicker of the elf’s face, trying to separate truth from performance.
Robin understood the silence and spoke again.
“Do you know how an elf who cannot command spirits is treated by his own kind?”
Do-yun said nothing. He did not need to. Robin’s expression was answer enough.
“Abandoned. Not even acknowledged as kin. I have no intention of protecting the world of such hypocrites.”
With that, Robin fell silent. He had said everything he meant to say; the rest belonged to Do-yun’s choice.
After a long breath, Do-yun sighed and brought his sword down.
Swish.
The blade sheared cleanly through the vines that bound the elf. Free once more, Robin brushed himself off and rose to his feet.
“…Thanks.”
“Don’t get the wrong idea. Whether I tell you how to get your spirit back depends on how you perform.”
Do-yun’s voice was flat as he picked up the bow lying on the ground and tossed it to Robin.
“First, gather every mana stone in the area and bring them to me.”
“You’re just going to let me walk away?”
Robin’s tone held genuine puzzlement. Do-yun had essentially handed him complete freedom. If the elf chose to vanish, nothing would stop him.
“Why? Got a problem with that?”
Do-yun’s reply was mild. Once he decided to use a tool, he intended to work it hard. If he had been afraid of what an unbound tool might do, he never would have cut the vines in the first place.
“Understood. I’ll return in twenty-four hours.”
Robin nodded once and melted into the underbrush. While Do-yun watched him go, Ciel edged closer and spoke carefully.
“Doyun-nim, will this really be okay?”
“Who knows.”
Someday soon he might regret the choice. That was a problem for later. Turning over what was already done would change nothing.
“For now I do what I have to do.”
Leaving the automatic hunting to Robin had eased the pressure on points, but the other hidden pieces on the eighth floor still required him to move in person. Do-yun turned and walked slowly in the opposite direction from the one Robin had taken.
A black-stained pond exhaled dark energy. Inside it, a grotesquely twisted crocodile lay with its jaws open.
“Ugly as hell.”
Do-yun sat high on a thick branch of an ancient tree whose roots and trunk stretched solid and deep. From that height the beast crouching below looked no larger than a toy.
Where two eyes should have been there were now six pairs. Every tooth jutting from its maw was a saw blade. One solid bite would leave nothing of him but powder.
“The one getting crushed will be that side, not me.”
He muttered the words and launched himself from the branch. Wind clawed at his cheeks as the toy-sized crocodile swelled to full size beneath him. His sword drove straight down into the crown of the yawning beast’s head.
KWAANG!
The impact drove the crocodile’s body under the surface. Black, filthy water exploded outward in every direction, scattering through the air in dark droplets.
You have defeated the Contaminated Crocodile.
You have acquired 24p.
The dead crocodile’s head dropped with a dull thud. Even with the system’s confirmation, Do-yun kept his guard up.
This one doesn’t travel alone.
Sure enough, fresh ripples spread across the pond. Two more crocodiles—one large, one smaller—rose from the black water. The entire pack that had shared the pond had been warped by mana stones into these nightmarish shapes.
“Grrrrrk!”
The larger beast gaped its jaws and threatened him. Black drool dripped from the open maw; the creature looked more monster than animal.
No reason to fight them on their own ground.
The moment he saw them, Do-yun spun and ran. He needed to drag the crocodiles out of the black pond that was their nest.
Splash.
As expected, both beasts surged after him, filthy water streaming down their hides with every heavy step.
Thud. Thud.
Despite their massive frames they moved with surprising speed.
Now!
When the distance felt right, Do-yun suddenly reversed course and charged straight at the nearer crocodile. The mindless beast, intent only on the chase, could not react in time. It simply drove its own skull onto Do-yun’s waiting blade.
Crack.
The sword punched through bone and buried itself deep.
You have defeated the Contaminated Crocodile.
You have acquired 21p.
The instant the notification appeared, Do-yun flung himself sideways. He left the sword behind in the rush, but the sacrifice was worth it.
Crunch.
Massive jaws slammed shut on the empty space he had occupied a heartbeat earlier. A fraction slower and he would have been inside them.
“Don’t they have any sense of kinship?”
Do-yun’s face twisted in disgust. Having missed its prey, the remaining crocodile simply began chewing methodically on the dead one’s head instead.
Thud.
It spat out the skull and fixed its eyes on Do-yun. The savagery of the sight did not impress him in the least.
Bash (F)
Light he had not used once in this fight settled into his fist. Timed to the crocodile’s charge, the punch met the beast’s skull and scrambled its brain into pulp.
You have defeated the Contaminated Crocodile.
You have acquired 23p.
Watching the last crocodile collapse, Do-yun dusted off his hands.
“I can handle them pretty well even without skills now.”
He had used the skill on the final one only because time was precious. Bare-handed, he was certain he could have finished it just the same. The thought—something unimaginable back on Earth—drew a satisfied smile from him.
“Still… where’s the mana stone?”
The crocodiles had been nothing more than contaminated byproducts. The actual mana stone was nowhere in sight. As he searched, Do-yun’s expression slowly hardened. The possibility he least wanted was growing larger by the second.
“Don’t tell me it sank into the pond.”
The black, filthy water looked as if a single touch would lay a curse. The idea of diving to the bottom to hunt for a stone made his head swim.
“At least it’s not that wide.”
Unlike the lake where he had found the spirits, this pond could be taken in at a glance. That did not make it small—two full-grown crocodiles had hidden inside it, after all.
Gurgle.
While he was still weighing his options, the pond water abruptly began to gather toward its center.
“Wow! How did you do that?”
Ciel’s startled voice rang out, but Do-yun had no answer to give. He had done nothing yet.
Splash.
When the water finally coalesced into one enormous shape, Do-yun could only sigh.
“Why is there never an easy way?”
The words left his mouth at the same instant the giant slime formed from the pond water launched itself straight at him.