The Jin Tribe Revealed
The black hood's neck. I horizontally sliced the space between its head and collarbone. Spatial Rift. With a sharp crack, a horizontal line appeared across the creature's neck. Space split apart, cleanly separating its head from its body as if cut by a blade.
Spatial Rift was exactly what it sounded like—a magic that fractured a designated area. It was a difficult offensive spell that demanded considerable mental strength, concentration, and precision. Without mastery, the user risked backlash or being flung out by the very space they tried to manipulate.
'But if it lands, it's an instant-kill technique.'
This was actually my first time casting rift magic from this distance. Still, I'd been confident I could pull it off—and I had. I looked up at where the black robe had been standing. Its body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. At the same time, a groan echoed through the air.
"Kuhk!"
It wasn't from the black robe. The sound came from elsewhere.
"H-how...?"
It was the adventurer standing beside me. His gaze slowly dropped to the dagger embedded in his own chest. His eyes followed the blade up to the hand gripping its hilt—mine.
I drove the blade deeper into his heart and smiled.
"You thought I wouldn't figure out you were Jin tribe?"
His eyes trembled violently. Blood bubbled up from his mouth.
"H-how... Ah, I see..."
"That black robe was obviously a puppet. What else could that mean? Someone else was controlling it."
The black hood had felt completely lifeless. If it had been a wraith or a necromancer's undead, I would've sensed death energy. Instead, all I felt was a hollow emptiness. Those two facts pointed to only one conclusion.
'Puppetry.'
I quietly extended my senses, scanning the surrounding area for any other presence. There was no one. Only the adventurer beside me.
"I should've realized it the moment you mentioned being attacked by the Jin tribe. From the start, you were pretending to be grateful, waiting for my attention to shift to the puppet so you could stab me in the back."
"Kuh..."
"Too bad for you. I caught on."
The man, who had been glaring at me with murderous intent, suddenly burst into laughter. His face blurred like a static-filled screen before reshaping into an entirely different appearance. The gentle, ordinary features vanished. What remained was pale skin, pointed ears, and crimson eyes—an aura of mystery radiating from him.
'So this is what the Jin tribe really looks like.'
Since he was dying anyway, he must have decided there was no point in hiding anymore. He had released his transformation and revealed his true form.
Even as blood gurgled in his throat, the man twisted his lips into a smirk.
"Not bad... But in the end... you'll die... at the hands of my... kin..."
He sure talked a lot for someone on death's door. Tired of listening, I shoved his upper body away and twisted the dagger free.
"Kuhk!"
The man convulsed in pain before collapsing to the floor. As if the system had registered his death, his entire body soon scattered like mist. He had probably regressed to an earlier point in time, per the dungeon's rules. Since our timelines were now different, I would never encounter him again.
'In this world, the past is basically the afterlife.'
I wiped the blood from the dagger and sheathed it. Who would've thought the dagger I'd taken from the skeleton soldier would be used like this? If I hadn't seen through his trick, I would've been the one stabbed.
Now that the bag had lost its owner, its contents belonged to me.
'Let's see what we've got.'
I rummaged through the man's bag. Inside were a bundle of weeds, a healing potion, and a bracelet. The weeds looked like random grass he'd torn up to sell the story that he'd been gathering herbs. The other two items seemed useful.
The potion was obvious, but...
'What's this bracelet?'
It was a silver bracelet set with two gemstones—one blue, one red. When I touched them, the blue gem felt ice-cold while the red one burned like hot coals. Especially when my fingers brushed the ruby, a warm sensation wrapped around my skin like a gentle breeze.
'An item that adjusts body temperature based on the surrounding weather.'
I slipped it onto my wrist. A pleasant warmth spread through my entire body. The canyon wind had been quite chilly, like early winter, but the moment I put on the bracelet, the cold was pushed away from my skin.
My guess had been correct.
'Perfect.'
With the extreme temperatures of future rooms unknown, this bracelet would help me endure even the harshest conditions.
'Alright.'
After tucking the potion away, I headed toward the green portal that had appeared on the path. The number 6 was inscribed on it. Since I'd eliminated one traveler, the rules granted me the right to skip three rooms and proceed directly to Room 6.
'Let's go.'
I stepped through without hesitation—only to be met with a slap of freezing winter wind.
Whoooosh.
A vast snowy plain. Blizzards howled. The entire world was winter.
"Tch."
I brushed the snowflakes from my face and checked the silver bracelet on my wrist. The ruby emitted even stronger heat than before, enveloping my body. It had detected the midwinter environment and activated its temperature regulation immediately.
'Nice and warm.'
I pressed forward through the raging blizzard, taking in my surroundings. A desolate village hung in the air with an eerie atmosphere. No one passed by. It felt completely abandoned, as if no one lived there anymore.
'Might as well fill my stomach.'
Feeling hungry, I entered what looked like an inn. The building that should have been bustling with guests and drunkards was instead deathly silent.
"I'll be using a room for a bit."
After greeting the long-gone innkeeper, I climbed to the second floor and entered the first room at the end of the hallway. Inside was a fireplace with dry firewood, showing signs of age. I folded the layer spread across the pile of logs in half like paper, then rubbed the overlapping surfaces together. Friction heat turned into sparks.
Ignition.
Whoosh!
Heat from the flames spread through the room. I sat in the chair in front of the fireplace and opened the pouch Cynthia had given me, munching on the food inside one piece at a time. The bread was cold from the weather, but hunger made it taste sweet as honey.
...Or so I told myself as I nibbled away. Now wasn't the time to be picky about cold or warm food. I needed to fill my stomach somehow. I didn't even know how many more rooms I'd have to clear. It was lucky Cynthia had packed food for me. Without it, I'd have been starving in the middle of winter with nothing to eat.
'The Jin tribe, huh.'
As I stared into the fire, I thought back to the Jin tribe member I'd encountered in Room 2. Puppetry, disguise magic, and even shadow techniques. Being able to use multiple rare abilities was no small feat. These weren't ordinary opponents.
'It wasn't magic.'
The black sphere the puppet had created definitely wasn't spatial magic. In other words, it wasn't magic at all. It was a completely different kind of power, alien to the principles of magic.
'Especially that refreshing energy...'
The clear, fresh scent that had emanated from the Jin tribe member. At first, I'd dismissed it as the smell of grass clinging to his body, but now that I thought about it, there had been an indescribable force behind it—something far beyond a simple herbal scent. Though it had only lasted a moment, that unique, pristine energy had left a vivid impression on my senses.
It seemed the abilities the Jin tribe used originated from that energy.
'Is it unique to their race?'
While lost in thought, I realized the pouch was now empty. I clicked my tongue in disappointment when I noticed a long shadow cast by the sunset stretching across the floor. But it wasn't sunset. The entire gray sky had been dyed blood-red, and instead of the sun, a crimson moon hung in the sky.
Usually, a red moon was considered an ominous sign. Apparently, that common sense applied here too.
Crash!
At that moment, a monster leaped through the window into the room. It was a rotting corpse—an inky-black undead with chunks of flesh still clinging to it.
"A human! Specters, let us offer this as a sacrifice to our lord!"
The undead let out a monstrous roar and charged at me, baring its teeth. I wasn't about to sit still. Already on my feet with a barrier deployed, I immediately cast a spell.
Spatial Rift.
Swish!
A horizontal line appeared across the undead's neck, and its head tumbled to the floor. But then something unbelievable happened. The body picked up its severed head and reattached it to its neck as if nothing had happened.
"Kuhuhu. Foolish human. Did you really think such a pathetic trick could defy fate?"
The undead, now whole again like it had been glued back together, was still alive. Even as a rotting corpse, it sneered at me.
'What the hell?'
So regular cuts and physical attacks wouldn't work. In that case—
Ignition.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted from the undead's skull. I gave the fire a flowing current.
Fire Stream.
The flames that started at its skull spread down its rotting flesh all the way to its feet. In less than a second, the undead was engulfed in purifying fire and reduced to ash.
'Weak to fire.'
Since this room was winter, I'd tested fire—the opposite element of ice—and luckily hit the mark. But there was no time to relax. More undead were already climbing through the window and pouring into the room.