“Are you telling me to… go back to that place? No way!”
She gently closed her eyes, reaching out to me with both hands as she began to chant a spell.
“Ugh… I really don’t want this.”
A thin Thread of Magic from her palms gently wrapped around my body, and I felt my strength slowly draining away. After a while…
“Um?”
She opened her eyes slightly to check on me and tilted her head. Then she started chanting again.
“Ugh, I’m really losing my strength. Seriously… am I really going in this time?”
“……?”
“……?”
“Um? What’s going on?”
With a clearly flustered expression, she moved closer and recited the spell again, but once more, it was a total failure.
“Is it not working, Il-wol? What do we do?”
I shrugged, feeling something was off right from the start.
“This is strange; this should definitely work.”
She tried again over ten times but failed every single time.
“Should I be glad? At least I won’t have to worry about stepping back into that terrible place.”
Did she go through this kind of trial and error in her past life? Probably not.
There had to be a reason for that assumption. The Summoned Creatures she conjured, except for a few, were mostly monsters that appeared in dungeons.
If this had happened before, there would surely have been records of her struggling with monsters on the way to the dungeon.
“Is it because of me… because I don’t want to go in?”
She looked incredibly disheartened, almost on the verge of tears. The corners of her eyes were slightly wet, clearly losing confidence in her abilities.
“It’s the last time,” she said as she readied herself again.
“Let’s just go in… I’ll go in, so please don’t look at me like that.”
I kept chanting that I wanted to go back inside.
Then…
Clang-!
A massive door behind me suddenly swung open, swallowing me whole in an instant.
“Ahh! Il-wol!”
…
Clatter, thud-
Wham-!
“Damn, can’t it drop me a bit more gently?”
“Clap, Clap!!”
I bounced out of the door, expressing my tiny grievances with my anger-fueled claps. I stared blankly at the faintly glowing giant door.
Instinctively, I felt I had to return to the original space.
“I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to curl up.”
So, I just lay flat in front of the door. Even that didn’t seem to activate any other powers against me.
“When will Yeon-hee call for me…”
Probably after entering the dungeon.
“I wish she would call me soon…”
* * *
“Uhhheung~ Mm-hm~”
Summoner Lee Yeon-hee was feeling exceptionally good right now. Her first summoning had been a success, and the satisfaction was beyond just being successful.
“Il-wol… Hehe, so cute.”
Remembering how I dumbly stared at the club, a giggle escaped her lips once more. But at the same time, she began to ponder her role in the dungeon.
In battles, which used to only concern her, now she had a Summoned Creature, meaning she needed to develop her multitasking abilities.
“That guy has such low agility; I don’t know if he can land a hit. Hmm…”
She hadn’t reported the fact that she had achieved a secondary awakening as a summoner to the Hunter Management Bureau yet.
When one first awakens, a faint blue thread would rise from their body, making it impossible to hide even if one wanted to. But since there were no external changes from a secondary awakening, if she didn’t report it, there would be no way for others to know; she intended to do so once she had become adept at utilizing her abilities.
After taking a shower, she lay on her bed, looking at a picture of her mom smiling brightly.
“Mom, I’m not alone anymore… I have a large, smart friend now, so you don’t have to worry.”
The old one-room space that had just been a place to sleep felt empty, devoid of Il-wol’s presence.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have dismissed the summoning… I even have the first summoner special ability.”
[You have successfully completed summoning magic for the first time in this world!]
[You have acquired the achievement [First Summoner]!]
– Magic Power +20, Summoned Creatures limit +10
– The first summoned creature does not consume magic power upon summoning.
– The first summoned creature does not consume magic power for maintenance.
Confirming the messages that appeared after the first summoning, she began to imagine Il-wol being right next to her.
If a skeleton, the height of an adult man, were to look down at her while holding a club, with deep eyes that seemed to devour everything…
“Well… when sleeping, it’s best to dismiss him.”
She tried to calm her still-thumping heart and unknowingly fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
“This waiting might be the most torturous part. I’m sure of it.”
Now, the light filtering through the door had vanished, and all that accompanied me was the darkness where the finger bones were no longer visible.
Even a normal person would go insane if they spent just a day in a place like this.
=====
Composure
– Never loses composure, regardless of the situation.
– Mental state abnormality resistance +50%
=====
No matter how great a hunter is, unlike in the novels, having the ability to check the status windows of monsters doesn’t exist, so this was my first time learning that a Skeleton Soldier had such abilities.
And on one hand, I realized why this made sense now.
“Those skeleton kinds are not inherently resistant to mental-type magic just because they lack intelligence; it’s because of their traits.”
Unlike other monsters living their lives within the dungeon, undead types—especially skeletons—mostly just wander around mechanically reacting to their surroundings and do not seem to be affected by mental-type magic.
But it wasn’t some complex reason. They simply had that trait.
“That’s an incredibly good trait. It feels absurd.”
The remaining trait, [Protection], was also a very rare trait, and based on the skills and traits, it almost seemed like it was the weakest of the weak.
Creeeak-
“Clap, Clap, Clap!”
While I was getting lost in thought, the door suddenly began to open, and I dashed out, celebrating my exit with joyous claps.
“Finally going out!”
I was filled with elation, my shoulders dancing with joy. Having gotten somewhat used to the sensation, I was sucked into the door and quickly bounced out into a lush forest.
Thud-
I landed lightly, supporting myself with my feet and hands.
This time, I was relieved not to have fallen awkwardly, and I cheerfully greeted her as she looked at me with fascination.
“Clap, Clap, Clap!”
While I could make sounds with my palms, hitting my canine teeth gave a much clearer sound.
“Phew- Il-wol, let’s move the spot first.”
Yeon-hee trotted over to me and began pulling me into the densely overgrown area. After briefly surveying the surroundings, she whispered.
“Do you remember the conversation we had yesterday?”
Nodding-
“Oh- Our Il-wol is clever. Good job.”
Is this the feeling of a dog looking at its owner? It’s a strange situation I’ve never encountered before in a master-servant relationship.
Yet, it didn’t feel that bad, probably because I was her Summoned Creature.
Anyway, I started looking around and thought to myself.
“I was worried this might be a different world from the one I experienced, but thank goodness it isn’t.”
While lying flat in front of the giant door, I had thought of various things. I even wondered if this place was a parallel universe of another Earth, not the past of the world I lived in.
But no matter how I looked, it was undoubtedly the same Goblin Dungeon I remembered. In this space that surprisingly opened to a vast sky, the beings we needed to be most wary of were indeed the goblins.
We hadn’t taken more than a few steps when we encountered them.
Rustle-
“Shhh-”
Yeon-hee put a finger to her lips, slightly anxious to see if I would move. Perhaps she lacked confidence in her abilities, believing I wouldn’t budge without her command.
The goblins were picking fruits from the small trees beyond the thicket. They were a small species, standing around 140 cm tall, but that only applies to regular goblins.
There was no need to think about the variants we would face later. The real question was how to deal with the three in front of us.
The distance to the goblins was about 15 meters. Though her talent as an archer wasn’t anything special, I doubted she would miss at this range.
She signaled to me with a look.
(You can start, Il-wol.)
That seemed to be what she meant. Was this the sensation of the [Whisper] skill that allowed silent transmission?
Moreover, my legs were freely moving. I casually spread my magic throughout my body and activated my favorite skill.
“Stealth…”
Magic Power: 4/6(-2)
Stealth is a low-level skill that consumes 2 magic power.
Yet its usefulness rivals even high-level skills. It’s even unique.
Swoosh-
My body blended into the surroundings, completely concealing my presence from the enemy’s sight. A thrill rushed through me from the familiar sensation I had almost forgotten.
Reaching the rear of the goblins, she didn’t hesitate to pull back her bowstring.
Thwip—
Thunk-!
A goblin fell to the ground, quaking violently with an arrow lodged perfectly in its neck. The remaining two looked around, hastily grabbing clubs that had been loosely tucked at their waists.
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