HG Ch 24

<24>

Eunho turned pale for a different reason as he read the letter.

“…Seoraksan Rock Cave? The dungeon I was trapped in until level 65?”

“Yeah.”

At that calm reply, Eunho’s face turned completely white.

“You’re saying I have to go there again?”

He couldn’t believe it. After everything he went through to escape, he was being dragged back. It was like a PTSD trigger. As Eunho began to express his distress, Yoon Iseo lazily flicked open his folding fan and gently fanned him. With each breeze, Eunho’s brown hair fluttered, revealing his smooth forehead. Yoon Iseo’s gaze slid down from his round forehead to his sharply defined jawline as he murmured softly.

“Good thing you didn’t do the main quest in advance, huh? If you had, I would’ve power-leveled you from 60 to max level, and you probably would’ve lost your mind. That’s why I added a walk in the schedule halfway through. You like it?”

He’s insane. A lunatic even Sparta would run from.

“…C-Can we take a bit more time off and do something else? Oh, right. The private messaging. Should we activate it?”

For a moment, a look of reluctance flashed over Yoon Iseo’s face. But Eunho, too busy groveling pitifully, didn’t notice.

“I don’t want to do private messaging.”

“Why not? I want to private message with you, hyung-nim.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I do, though. I really do want to.”

“Still, I don’t want to.”

At first, he had only brought it up as a way to stall, but Yoon Iseo’s repeated rejections started to spark his stubbornness.

“Why not!”

Yoon Iseo stared at him for a long moment before casually averting his gaze as if nothing had happened.

“Because I don’t want to talk with someone who’s not in their right mind.”

Who’s he calling out of their mind? Eunho was about to snap when—

“I feel like it’d just ruin my mood.”

Wasn’t that an unnecessarily harsh thing to say just because he wanted to activate private messaging? It’s not like he was some disease.

“Fine, then let’s never private message for the rest of our lives. No matter what happens, let’s never even say the word ‘private’.”

“Okay, now let’s go.”

“…Huh?”

And just like that, Eunho was dragged back to the Seoraksan Rock Cave.

It was time to be “carried” again.

* * *

Yeah. Let’s just hurry up and hit max level.

The moment he gave up everything and re-entered the Seoraksan Rock Cave—

[SYSTEM] You have entered the “Seoraksan Rock Cave.” [SYSTEM] Upon entering an instance dungeon, the entrance will be sealed off.   [SYSTEM] Upon clearing the dungeon, you will be able to use a teleportation spell. If you forcefully escape before clearing, dungeon access will be restricted for a week. [SYSTEM] Upon entering the instance dungeon, Sworn Companion combat effect has been activated. ※ When entering a dungeon with your Sworn Companion, HP, Attack, and Defense increase by 15%.

Huh?

Eunho, who was just about to close the system window, blinked in confusion.

“But wait… Isn’t that weird? Last time, the dungeon was already open even though I hadn’t done the main quest. That doesn’t really make sense. Something’s off with the game system.”

Then, without thinking much of it, he glanced over at Yoon Iseo and flinched.

He was smiling quietly.

Eunho hadn’t done anything wrong, but chills ran down his spine.

“Mm-hmm. That’s because it’s not a game yet. It’s a complete mess.”

It seemed Yoon Iseo had a habit of saying “This game’s completely f*cked” in a long, menacing way.

Eunho scratched the back of his head and stepped further inside. Maybe it was because he was entering this time fully aware of the main quest’s storyline, but even though this technically counted as a re-entry, the experience felt strangely fresh.

He looked around.

Though Seoraksan Rock Cave was also a dungeon with a “cave” concept, it felt entirely different from the Chang-gwi Lair. If the latter was more like a maze, then Seoraksan Rock Cave was a wide-open expanse, almost like a grassland, without a single obstacle in sight.

Eunho glanced around the area, and his face turned stupefied.

He already knew what Yoon Iseo’s methods were like. And in this grassland-like cave, he had a vivid idea of just what Yoon Iseo might do.

“Please, can we go safely this time…? Can’t we just take it slow?”

They hadn’t even started yet, but it already felt torturous.

“Hyung-nim…”

However, it didn’t take long for Joo Eunho’s respectful “hyung-nim” to devolve into “Yoon Iseo, you bastard.”

“Argh! Why would you drag them all over here?!”

He just couldn’t understand Yoon Iseo’s logic. In a wide-open space with no cover at all, how could he just drop a horde of monsters onto a fragile ranged DPS? At the very least, he could have held the aggro. That way, the ranged DPS could just focus on AoE damage.

But Yoon Iseo was adamant.

— “I’m a melee DPS, so I don’t have any aggro skills. And if I take aggro with damage, your contribution drops and you get less EXP. Just kill them yourself.”

Fine, sure. That part he could at least sort of accept.

But what the hell is this, then?

He felt a gaze on him. While desperately shooting in every direction to survive, Eunho turned briefly toward the source of the gaze.

Then bit down hard on his lip. Why was he looking at him like that?

[Sworn Companion: d20524] [SYSTEM] Current Location: Seoraksan Rock Cave [SYSTEM] Current Status: Will there be ■■■ ■ today? [SYSTEM] Status Message: Unable to display due to insufficient affinity. [SYSTEM] Private Message (Disabled): Complete the relevant quest to enable private messaging.

Just to be sure, Eunho checked the “Sworn Companion” list, and sure enough, Yoon Iseo currently wanted something.

…But what exactly?

Does he want me to be in danger? That filtering… What if this is some kind of assassination attempt? Like, isn’t this just… a setup to kill me? What if Yoon Iseo’s main quest is actually to kill me? 

It wasn’t the first time that thought had crossed his mind.

But every time his suspicion deepened—

Screeech!

“You’re spacing out again.”

A wraith that had been about to ambush Eunho from behind was pierced by one of Yoon Iseo’s throwing knives and silently vanished.

What was this supposed to be? He’d push him off a cliff one moment, only to save him right before he died the next. What do you even call that kind of behavior? Twisted?

If killing me was the goal, with Yoon Iseo’s personality, he would’ve done it already. He’s the kind of guy who skips cutscenes just because they’re annoying.

Eunho quickly reached a conclusion and muttered his complaints.

“It’s not about focus. Your method is just too dangerous for a ranged DPS like me, hyung-nim.”

“Don’t you know high risk, high return?”

“High risk leads to a high chance of death.”

Yoon Iseo furrowed his smooth brow. Who’s calling who an old man here? At the same time, a familiar-looking throwing knife grazed Eunho’s cheek and hit a wraith positioned diagonally behind him.

Even as knives zipped dangerously close, Eunho didn’t flinch and kept doing what he needed to. The reason was simple: friendly fire didn’t affect him, and he wanted to believe that Yoon Iseo wouldn’t attack him on purpose…

Yeah, no.

Eunho, trying to clear his thoughts, called out to Yoon Iseo.

“Let me try it alone. I just came up with a brilliant idea.”

A method that would allow a ranged DPS like a Gunner to safely fight multiple enemies at once. He had finally figured out the ultimate strategy—or so he claimed.

“A brilliant idea?”

“Watch from there.”

As Yoon Iseo tilted his head, Eunho proudly showcased his plan like a peacock trying to impress a mate.

It was called—

The “Makeshift Trench” strategy.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Instead of shooting at the wraiths, Eunho fired at the ground to carve out shallow trenches. As the wraiths moved toward him, they slipped right into the trenches before they could reach him.

One of the wraiths, rushing at Eunho, slid straight into the trench. While it flailed about trying to get out, Eunho aimed and fired.

[SYSTEM] You have gained 28,900 experience points.

See? Clean and smooth. How about that?

Eunho turned to Yoon Iseo with a proud smile.

And then—

[Sworn Companion: d20524] [SYSTEM] Current Location: Seoraksan Rock Cave [SYSTEM] Current Status: What the hell did you use to ■■ the ■■■ ■■? I’m anxious and irritated. [SYSTEM] Status Message: Unable to display due to insufficient affinity. [SYSTEM] Private Message (Disabled): Complete the relevant quest to enable private messaging.

…Anxious and irritated?

Why?

Wasn’t this method actually pretty good?

You could understand a person’s heart, but not Yoon Iseo’s. And to make things worse, after posting that kind of “current status,” Yoon Iseo vanished without a word.

He reappeared in less than five minutes.

“Your method looked good, so I gathered up every single monster in here.”

He returned, leading a swarm of pitch-black wraiths.

“I’ll seriously die if you do that!”

Eunho was horrified. Just as he said, Yoon Iseo had lured every single wraith in the dungeon straight to him, and the sheer number was overwhelming. At least last time, he had brought them in manageable waves. But what was he even doing this time?

The wraiths that had followed Yoon Iseo soon recognized Joo Eunho and began converging on him. Most of them fell into the trenches, but the sheer number was so overwhelming that some stepped over their fallen comrades and kept coming straight at him.

Watching the wraiths draw closer, Eunho hesitated for a moment, then detonated the explosives he had planted beneath the trench.

[SYSTEM] You have gained 27,100 experience points. [SYSTEM] You have gained 28,890 experience points. [SYSTEM] You have gained 28,910 experience points. [SYSTEM] You have gained 21,990 experience points. [SYSTEM] You have gained 23,610 experience points.

Dozens of wraiths were annihilated in an instant, and a stream of experience notifications filled his view.

But still, countless others kept charging at Joo Eunho.

“Yoon Iseo, you bulging foot flesh! Are you even human?!”

“Mmm, I’m a beast.”