Chapter 152: 151

We continued to move forward.

I don't know if it was because it was a dungeon that originally had to be attacked at the beginning, or it was because we were strong, but we did not feel any difficulty in attacking the dungeon itself.

In the first place, this dungeon was a dungeon that could be attacked by Jin Ye-Seul alone.

Nevertheless, the reason I said that three people were needed was because at least three people had to step on the steps placed elsewhere at the same time in order to enter the last room.

… In fact, in the original story, the biggest problem when attacking this dungeon with Jin Ye-Seul was filling the number of heads, and the case where the barely brought party became a burden.

This was because, Jin Ye-Seul, unlike other people, was almost impossible to interact with, so there was almost no one with whom she could build a friendship.

The first room was as expected.

It was filled with our clones, inverted as if reflected in a mirror, waiting for us.

"Then let's do what I said earlier."

"Yes."

"Okay."

We each dealt with our clones, as we had agreed beforehand.

It wasn't difficult to deal with them.

Perhaps because of my experience in Margo's dungeon, I was more nervous than necessary, but they were so weak that it was almost comical.

Lee Yu-Na and I defeated and annihilated our clones, which would have numbered 10, almost at the same time.

And when we turned our heads and looked at Jin Ye-Seul....

We could see Jin Ye-Seul sitting on her clone, silently punching it.

"……."

With an expressionless face, she was just mechanically beating her clone.

With her strength, her clone would surely have been weak enough to be annihilated with a single blow, but she was purposely beating it while controlling her strength.

It was when we approached to stop her after watching that figure silently for a moment.

Kwaang!

With an eerie sound, Jin Ye-Seul's fist dug into the floor.

Soon after, the limbs of the clone that had lost its head trembled as if it had been electrocuted, and soon disappeared as smoke.

"Sorry."

Jin Ye-Seul stood up with a nonchalant expression on her face.

Then, wiping the dust on her face with the back of her hand, she stared at me and Lee Yu-Na and said.

"I struggled a bit because it was stronger than I thought. I'm sorry to keep you waiting."

At the end of those words, Jin Ye-Seul took the lead again and began to walk.

"……."

Lee Yu-Na stared at Jin Ye-Seul's back with an indescribable, but clearly regretful gaze.

I tapped on her shoulder and said.

"Let's go first. Let's talk about the details... outside."

"… we should."

We were able to reach the second room shortly after.

Between the entrance and exit of the second room was a cliff so deep that the end could not be known.

In between, there were pillars protruding like a remote island, trees growing on the walls, chains hanging from the ceiling, and blocks of slow-moving stones floating in the air.

It was telling us right on the face to use them and move over as if performing a stunt.

Lee Yu-Na sneaked closer and looked down, and pulled something from her pocket.

It was a small iron ball.

"One, two… ."

She dropped the iron ball and began to count the time with her ear tilted.

Then, when the number she was counting exceeded 30, she barely heard a tuk sound and put on a frightened expression on her face.

And swallowing her saliva, she sneaked back and shook her head slightly.

"… if we fall, we can't even find the bodies, can we?"

"If we don't fall, we can."

With those words, I quickly pulled her behind me and walked forward.

"Just in case, both of you step back a little."

At those words, Lee Yu-Na took a few more steps backward and Jin Ye-Seul took only one step backward.

I placed my right arm on the ground and began to pull out a branch of the World Tree.

As I felt my mana draining away, a root appeared from my right arm.

It soon became a branch and eventually became a giant tree.

Krugrugrung!

With a thundering sound, the branch of the World Tree became a giant tree, and its body increased at a rapid speed until it reached the other side of the cliff.

Not long after, with a banging sound, it hit the wall on the other side of the cliff, and when I saw that the branch was eventually firmly extended and fixed, I began to squeeze out a little more mana.

From various places on the giant tree, vine-like branches came out and grabbed anything they could grab, such as pillars, floating stone blocks, and hanging chains, to further fix the body in place.

After a while, I tore off the branch of the World Tree from my arm, got up from kneeling, and looked back.

"Okay, let's go."

"……."

Lee Yu-Na looked at me as if she were looking at a monster.

When I looked at her with a look that seemed to ask what was wrong, she shook her head.

"No… good job."

With those words, she tapped the branches a few times with her toes and then began to walk carefully on them.

I immediately followed, but felt something strange and looked back.

"……."

Jin Ye-Seul still hadn't moved.

She was silently staring at the branches of the World Tree that I had pulled out, not me.

"Aren't you going?"

"Yes? Oh, yes. I have to go. Sorry."

Jin Ye-Seul, who quickly came to her senses, walked up with those words, with such light steps that they didn't make a sound.

After staring at her for a moment, I also turned my head and crossed the bridge made of a giant tree.

In this way, after passing the second room in an instant as well, we were finally able to arrive in front of the last gate.

And this time, too, the sphinx was sitting right in front of the gate.

[I shall present a question.]

The guy that opened its eyes looked at us and said with a gleam in its eye.

[It is an iridescent ghost flying in the darkness. The ghost flaps its wings and flies around beside people submerged in worry. When dawn comes, the ghost disappears, but at night, it comes back to life in the hearts of all. What is it?]

"……."

I really didn't have a clue what the hell it was talking about.

And it seemed like it was the same for two others besides me.

Lee Yu-Na and Jin Ye-Seul openly stared at me with faces as if they were looking forward.

I covered my mouth with my right hand, pretending to be troubled.

Hope.

I heard someone whisper in a small voice.

"Hope."

[Correct answer. Move forward....]

The Sphinx immediately closed its eyes.

With those words, the firmly closed gate opened, and I immediately received Lee Yu-Na's gaze, which was twinkling to the point of being burdensome.

"Wow, no. Wow…! How can you get it right as soon as you hear it? I really had no idea what it was talking about!"

"… I was lucky."

When I said so, Lee Yu-Na let out a sound of admiration.

"Wow, no. But Ji-Hyuk, you're really smart. Really. I've never seen anyone as smart as you."

"Yes, yes. Let's go in first, then talk."

Lee Yu-Na nodded and began to follow me.

And behind my back, I felt someone's intense gaze, as if it were piercing me.

"What's wrong?"

"No. Nothing."

When I turned my head, Jin Ye-Seul looked at me as if to ask what was wrong.

The piercing gaze I had felt earlier had long since disappeared.

"… okay, this is really the last time."

The last room was a vast open space.

There were three footholds in the middle, and on the far side of the wall, there was a stone gate with a hideous engraving of an ogre's face sealed with chains.

"Wait, I'll make some preparations."

After each of us walked to the footholds, she first climbed up on the foothold in the center, closed her eyes, and lightly raised her hands up.

Then, the smoke, which was constantly swaying in her hands, gathered and began to form some kind of shape.

And it wasn't until it took the form of a Warhammer so huge that it was terrifying just to look at it, that Lee Yu-Na opened her eyes.

"Done!"

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At those words, Jin Ye-Seul and I climbed onto the foothold almost simultaneously.

The foothold, which activates only when a person climbs up, soon sank with a strange sound, and soon a thumping sound came from beyond the stone gate.

"Geuoooooo!!!"

Soon, the stone gate broke into pieces.

Beyond that, an ogre, several times the size of an ordinary ogre, appeared.

"Geuaaaaa!!!"

The guy who spotted us shouted once more, its eyes glistening.

As if to be compensated for its long years of confinement, it immediately rushed toward us at a speed that was hard to believe given its massive size.

And Lee Yu-Na, who had taken action to stop such a guy, opened her mouth slightly.

"Yap."

It was a spirited voice so lacking in sincerity that it made the listener lose strength.

"Gaaaaubwaebek!!!"

Soon after, with a thud, the Warhammer, much larger than her, slammed him down as it was.

The Warhammer, which did not lose its momentum even with that, smashed the ground and dug in for a long time before stopping.

As I was blocking the flying dust with my hand, Lee Yu-Na stretched her hand in the air, dawdling.

Then, following her gesture, the Warhammer began to move like pounding a mortar with a pestle.

Watching the ogre's arm, which had come out of the Warhammer as if being grinded in a grinder, being sucked inside without a sound, made me nauseous.

Lee Yu-Na, who had moved that way several times, stopped her gestures as if it was over.

"Okay, I think he's dead now."

She had a proud expression on her face.

"It's surprisingly easy to kill those guys. Guys with clumsy high regenerative powers, if you grind them so that their shapes can't even be recognized like that, or put them in water, or set them in a fire, or stop them from breathing...."

"Yes, yes. Wait a minute…."

I entered the pit where Ogre was crushed, moderately chiming in with her words as she explained as if boasting.

"Oop…."

Desperately holding back nausea, I put Henir's into the pool of blood and flesh, and after a while, I was able to pull out a ring from it.

Shadow Walker's fourth legacy, the Mirror Twins.

"……."

I carefully wiped it off.

Then I held it out to Jin Ye-Seul, who came up to the puddle and was staring at me.

"Here. The fourth legacy I promised."

"……."

However, for some reason, Jin Ye-Seul was staring at it with a reluctant expression.

I wondered if it was because I had got it out from the ogre's corpse, but it wasn't that kind of hesitation.

"… Yes, it is."

After a while, Jin Ye-Seul, who nodded, carefully took the ring with a hesitating hand.

"There are only two left now."

She murmured like that.

"… only two now."

* * *

"Ji-Hyuk, by the way, why do you smell so bad?"

"What?"

Looking at me who was wiping sweat with a towel, Ivan suddenly spat out like that.

Feeling embarrassed for a moment, I carefully sniffed my clothes and looked at him.

"What, does it smell that bad right now… ?"

"Huh? Ah, no. I'm sorry. I said something weird. It wasn't that smell."

Ivan waved his hand with a surprised expression for a moment.

Then he took a look around, moved a little closer to me, and said.

"You're wearing the ring my mother gave you properly, so why… ."

"Ah."

At his words, I nodded slightly.

I could roughly guess why he reacted like this, so I smiled and glossed over it.

"Well… I don't have to hide the energy of the World Tree anymore now, so I've released the restraints on it. So maybe that's why? That, you know, they say the mana of the World Tree itself is the same as that of nature and spirits."

"Is that really why?"

He nodded as if it was plausible.

"If you ever need it again, just let me know. I can talk to Mother. I don't know why, but Mother remembers your face and name accurately, so I think it'll be easy to ask."

"I don't think that's going to happen much from now on… Anyway, thanks for your concern."

"What do you mean thanks?"

Meanwhile, Ivan suddenly let out a laugh as if it was ridiculous.

"More than that, it feels like you've almost become a zoo animal."

As he said, I could feel the gaze of people around me who pretended not to be but glanced at me.

They were none other than the people of the archery club.

Perhaps because I was officially a member of the World Tree clan and almost openly acted as if Lee Ye-Eun were my close aide, I got a few glances wherever I went, but nowhere as bad as here in the archery club.

This place and the flower arrangement club were almost occupied by Lee Ye-Eun's followers, so I honestly thought it'd be like this.

At least, Lee Ye-Eun gave a secret warning, and Kang Yeon-Kyung stepped up and threatened not to talk or bother me with unnecessary curiosity, so it was only this much.

"What can I do?"

I said that and packed my things.

"Still, thanks to Senior Yeon-Kyung, they just stare from a distance and don't come closer. That's enough."

"If it were me, I think that'd make me more uncomfortable… ."

It was when he murmured as if complaining.

The cell phone in my bag began to vibrate.

"… what?"

Cass Lyle's name was written on the screen.

When I answered the phone, wondering if he had called the wrong number by any chance, I heard his urgent voice.

― Hello? This is Ji-Hyuk's cell phone, right?

"Yes, Senior. What's wrong?"

― I'm sorry, the detailed explanation is a little...Can you perhaps come to the alchemy club right away?

I said yes to his words and hung up the phone right away.

Then I looked at Ivan, and he waved his hand as if to tell me to go.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but all the sound was coming out. Go quickly. I'll do your share of the cleanup, too."

"Thank you, I'll do it for you next time."

"Okay. Go quickly."

At the end of the words, I left the archery club and headed to the alchemy club.

Cass Lyle, I could only think of one thing that would cause him to make such a fuss.

It must be about Alice Blesbuck.

It was when I thought so.

You are a sensitive boy.

A voice came out as if echoing.

"……."

I looked at my right arm without saying a word and gave strength.

Then the branches of the World Tree came out, and as they were woven, they formed a shape, and soon a human eye and a mouth appeared.

"Ha. I think I am going to live now."

The mouth took a deep breath and murmured.

The eyes rolled around and our gazes met.

"I wish you could let me get some fresh air like this sometimes. I mean, the so-called… Yes, I am asking for better treatment."

"Shut your mouth." [Note: Animal mouth, so cuss.]

I dismissed his request.

He still didn't seem to know that he should be grateful for just letting him live without killing him.

"It is so brutal that it is scary…."

The mouth opened quietly as if grumbling.

"You have taken all my power and everything I had as a Seven Evil, so can you not at least do that for me? Besides, I told you the answer to the riddle in that dungeon befor... ."

At the mouth, eyes, and the words of Svengali's fragment, I put the branches of the World Tree in without saying a word.

I heard his piteous voice asking for forgiveness, saying he would apologize immediately, but I ignored it.

Why the hell did I keep this guy alive and swallow him up?

Leaving behind the already pouring regrets, I hurried my steps first.

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