“Not bad. There’s no way they’ll tell me to stop the ritual, right? I guess I’ll have to start chipping away at it little by little from tomorrow.”
After clacking my teeth a few times in satisfaction, I conducted Irmana’s ritual.
I thought about placing a hand on Irmana’s statue, but somehow that felt rude. I just left it on the floor.
“Oh, Irmana’s deity… I am a very pitiful skeleton who is desperately hoping to meet you… I truly want to see you. If you can hear my voice—”
And shortly after that.
Before I knew it, my consciousness had completely shifted to another world.
I was looking down at an enormous lake, so vast it was impossible to take it all in at once, and suddenly I came to my senses and wondered where I was.
“?! That’s a forest at the far end, right? So, am I above the lake…? Could this be Katharin Lake?”
Did the water that poured out from the ancient empire’s jug originate from here?
When I concentrated my senses, the water’s aura was indeed similar to that which flowed from the jug.
But the magic power contained in the water here was incomparably cleaner and purer.
Tempting.
So I had lost quite a bit of power after being transported from the jug.
It was a mysterious water that exhibited various effects even at that level.
“I thought this would be a really small lake, but this is practically ocean-sized?”
Unless the trees were tiny, the lake, sitting smack in the middle of the forest, was truly immense.
Even from a high vantage point, it felt like I could barely see the end.
As I was gazing down at the lake in a daze, I suddenly felt a massive presence looking down at me from a height I couldn’t even gauge, sending shivers down my spine.
“……”
I couldn’t speak, too terrified to even turn around, trembling in place until I regained my senses and found myself back in my front yard.
“Whoa— I think I’m going to die.”
Clap, clap, clap…
Messages indicating that the trait [Calm] had activated kept appearing, and my canines couldn’t help but tremble.
“Hah— hah— this, this is… just like when I got transferred because of Yeon-hee, right?”
Of course, it was incomparable, but that feeling of powerlessness, that I was less than dust, was still very much the same.
I intended to activate my transformation right after conducting the ritual, but I suddenly experienced an unexpected psychological shock.
“Ugh— I don’t know.”
I had to lie flat on the ground for a while to gather my thoughts.
“I don’t know what it was, but I was really angry…”
No, to be more precise, it felt more like I was angry at myself…
“Self-loathing… that’s what it felt like.”
Since my consciousness had shifted, the being looking down at me was undoubtedly Irmana.
“What could have made such a great being so furious?”
I was incredibly curious about the situation, but no matter how much I stared at and touched the statue, no other reaction occurred.
“I was expecting some other event to happen… well, I guess I’ll just have to keep experiencing things…”
Anyway, today wasn’t the only day.
I carefully placed the statue of the goddess into my pocket dimension and activated [Transformation].
Ziii—
With a familiar sensation, a mini-map unfolded in my mind.
The sneaky beings closest to me appeared as dots, and soon, I spotted a single dot of a different color far away.
When I tapped on the distant dot on the map, a message appeared.
– You can move directly to the Great Evil One.
“……”
I had filled the count of Skeleton Bombs back to one hundred and had a mouthful of [Special Strong Acid].
I even had horns sticking up from my forehead and a tail wrapped behind my back, hiding them.
If I were to encounter him head-on, I was planning to unleash all my skills without holding back.
Whoosh—
After enlarging a Fireball to a size larger than my torso, I shouted at the system.
“I’m moving to the Great Evil One.”
– Moving to Great Evil One Bin Chi-seung.
* * *
A strange space, unfamiliar smells.
And countless dolls wiggling around and screaming.
“Did I end up back in that room I saw yesterday…?”
I entered in a state of [Stealth], but there was no one in the space I arrived in.
“Um— good. It’s coming home.”
When I spread my senses, I could feel Bin Chi-seung drawing closer.
A filthy sensation, like old glue, seemed to cling to my pants.
A texture that I could never forget, unique to villains.
Was he coming back from a convenience store, holding a bag of snacks?
Wearing training pants, horn-rimmed glasses, and a hat pulled down low.
His oddly unbalanced shoulders and limping legs had a look that was rarely seen in a hunter, which puzzled me.
The guy who was quietly walking seemed to become giddier and even started whistling for some reason, giving off an odd vibe.
“Hmm… This space doesn’t particularly feel unusual.”
I felt like he realized I intruded, but I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure.
He walked boldly towards me.
“I was planning to pounce as soon as I arrived anyway.”
I turned the doorknob to leave the doll room, preparing to ambush him.
– This is a space ruled by Sorcerer Bin Chi-seung.
“Whoa… I can’t leave without the master’s permission. What the hell kind of space did I just get dumped into?”
While it was surprising that I was transported directly to the Great Evil One, it certainly wasn’t a considerate ability.
Unless the location I was moved to was random…
“Is it connecting to the last place I saw in the video?”
There seemed to be a possibility that could not be ignored.
That meant I also had to be precise about when to cut off the video… Can I manage that?
I lightly tapped the door and walls of the space with my hand.
I quickly pulled my hand back when I felt a jelly-like sensation.
“I could break this if I really tried, but if I forcibly break this space ability, it might trigger some other conditions.”
Plus, there was the chance of the doll getting hurt.
In the end, I decided to wait until he arrived.
Since I was in a stealth state, perhaps he wouldn’t notice me.
Click—
A moment later, he placed his hand on the doorknob, sharing warmth with the metal.
– ……
He cautiously and slowly turned the knob.
Peering in little by little, his eyes scanning the room made me feel slightly uncomfortable.
Creeeak—
“… He noticed. How long has he known? Was it from the moment he suddenly became cheerful earlier? I hadn’t felt anything. The dolls didn’t sense any magic.”
It seemed to be a space designed so that even I couldn’t feel anything, and only then did a sense of crisis emerge.
Soon, he stared straight at the spot where I was.
Though he was behind a wall, I could clearly feel his gaze.
“What’s going on? How does he—”
Then, I nearly hit my head, noticing all the dolls crowded in my sight.
“So that’s how it works… They share sight.”
Just a second ago, the dolls that were struggling in pain were now calmly gazing at me.
“Stealth is useless… And my senses are failing me as well. Hm…”
As I advanced my transformation, I had been growing my stealth, but it didn’t seem likely it was just the dolls’ ability; it was clear that the space was specifically designed to be extremely advantageous to the caster.
“Hah~ good, good~ It’s been a while since I had a guest~ What did I do wrong? Limping around outside like a fool is useless, right? Hehe—”
Click!
After shutting the door, he began addressing me with a strangely cheerful voice.
“Looks like he’s confident.”
There was no way he could react that way otherwise.
As he wet his lips with his tongue, he started waving his hands in the air.
Suddenly, the space I was in began to distort, and the doll vanished in an instant.
“His physical abilities are definitely nowhere near an ogre, so there’s nothing to be scared of, but that magical energy and aura he gives off is tremendous. How is that possible?”
It was surprising enough that his magic power was more than three times mine, but the concentration was also immensely thick.
He was surely at a considerable level of sorcery.
The ominous gray magical energy crept towards me.
Whoooooosh— KWAAM!
I couldn’t hold back any longer and shifted into ‘Combat Type’, releasing my stealth.
It was the first time I switched to combat mode while in human form.
The fiery aura erupted in an instant, and it felt surprisingly nice, as if a fireball was protecting me.
I shook the space itself with a fair amount of magic, but soon enough the distorted and refracted space was filled with colors different from mine.
“Krkkrk—”
Then Bin Chi-seung entered the room, holding a woman doll in his arms and approached me.
“Nice to meet you. You are the second guest to enter this room. Everyone, applause.”
Clap, clap, clap—
Countless dolls suddenly appeared from thin air, clapping their hands in unison.
But each doll was shedding blood tears, and the eyes looking at me were filled with extreme emotions.
(Save me, kill me, save me, kill me, save me, kill me.)
That thick darkness was enough to make me want to turn away.
“Did you think I came here to save you?”
I focused on Bin Chi-seung, forcing myself to ignore the voices of the dolls.
“Can you hear the audience’s roaring applause? Hah~ But it seems like the clapping is a bit excessive today. Have they all fallen in love with your beautiful face? After seeing a rugged face like mine every day, it wouldn’t be surprising if they reacted that way.”
“This ridiculous honorific speech…”
He kept blabbering nonsense, and his face twisted more wickedly.
If you were to draw a face filled with evil, it would look exactly like that.
“Damn… They say nowadays even hunters have to be good-looking to be recognized. You being here is proof, isn’t it? I bet women would swarm around you without you even doing anything, throwing themselves at you, huh? This is getting me angry! But why aren’t you saying a word? Is it because of the space? You’re quite a cautious fellow. How boring.”
“……”
When dealing with those who can manipulate their own space, every breath and every word must be considered carefully.
They say if you trigger special ability users by saying certain keywords, you might find that your ability is restricted for a certain period or even stolen the moment you utter a specific word.
Of course, there wouldn’t be many hunters using abilities that strong, but who knows? He’s the one with the title of Great Evil One after all.
I immediately sprang into action.
“Thinking won’t give me an answer.”
But even before I could make my move.
He suddenly thrust the doll he was holding forward and said,
“What are you planning to explode? With your Flame-imbued Great Sword, Lightning, and Stealth. Just how did you acquire all those skills?”
“……”
His body emitted a bright glow, and it was as if he was speaking from some vision of the future, sending chills down my spine reminiscent of when thinking about the leader of my faction.
“No way… It can’t be just the leader of the faction; he can only see a few seconds ahead… I’m sure there are limitations on the count as well.”
My experiences told me so.
[Hehehe… Please save me… Ugh…]
Around him, dolls had already flocked, pleading with me not to kill him, begging not to hurt him.
“Hmm…”
If it were just dolls, I could let it slide, but knowing they were miniatures of people connected to the real ones, I could never bring myself to slash through them.
“I really am too soft. If I could sacrifice a few lives to take out this evil, I should be able to accept that…”
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