– So handsome. Seriously…
– I used to like guys with glasses, you know.
– I’ve never seen someone like that in my life.
Despite wearing glasses, my charm didn’t seem to fade easily.
“Let’s stop this… Isn’t it more fun for you to play among yourselves?”
At that moment, a couple of boys sitting nearby decided to downplay my value.
– “Can’t you see he has a girlfriend? Get a grip.”
– “No way, he definitely looks like he’s had some work done. What’s so handsome about him anyway?”
– “You know guys get surgery a lot these days, right?”
“Is this another surgery joke?”
– “Ah, if you’ve got squid brains, maybe you should just stay out of this.”
– “Ugh, can’t handle guys who are jealous.”
– “What is that, you pumpkin?”
They seemed like classmates, and their talking was pretty unfiltered.
But since their interest in me was gradually lessening, I thought this was a pretty good outcome.
Once people started showing interest in us, Yeon-hee immediately picked up her pace in eating and then pulled my hand.
“… Let’s just go.”
“Already? Why not eat more?”
“You don’t have much time left, so let’s just go.”
With Yeon-hee’s appetite, ten servings wouldn’t be enough.
But after just five servings, she insists we leave.
I found it strange since I had ample time after using my first and second disguise.
But hey, who am I to argue if Yeon-hee wants to leave?
“Wow, are you leaving already?”
The owner seemed a bit disappointed watching us leave after barely 40 minutes.
I guess the place got crowded after we came in.
“I’ll come again next time.”
As we casually walked out of the shop, hand in hand through a quiet alley, I felt like this little trip was worth a mental investment every day.
Once we got outside, Yeon-hee checked there were no people around before saying something.
“I’m already nervous just thinking about someone coming home tomorrow.”
“If they come and train, it’s going to be a bloody fight. No need to be that tense, right?”
“But it’s my first time having a friend from school come over.”
“…”
Every time she says things like that, I can’t help but want to hug her tight.
“Ugh—”
Yeon-hee, feeling stifled in my embrace, whispers for me to take it easy.
“Uh… I won’t be using disguise tomorrow, right?”
“Ah, tomorrow… I might use it for a bit in the afternoon.”
“You’re not thinking of going after the Great Evil again, are you? No way.”
“I’m not planning on capturing it. I just want to figure out what type it is first, and then maybe have a preparation period based on that.”
“Uhm… I don’t think you need to rush it.”
When I suggested pacing myself, Yeon-hee nodded, looking relieved.
“No, actually, it’s better to not do it for a while. Just need to see it. You can’t vanish or anything.”
“… Alright, got it.”
Without mentioning the mental corruption, Yeon-hee reacted sensitively about anything related to the Great Evil.
‘Is it because my condition shows up as a message…?’
Unable to hold back this time, I asked her directly.
“A summoned creature can know if it’s suffering from a status anomaly. But beyond that, I can’t figure anything out.”
“Oh, really?”
“I might see more if I raise my dominance, but it doesn’t seem like that’s possible yet.”
“Hmm…”
‘Thank goodness. I didn’t want to share unnecessary info and worry her.’
But at that moment, Lee Yeon-hee’s mind was filled with thoughts about Il-wol, contrary to what she had said.
=====
[Flame Blood Blade Il-wol – Infernal Boneblade Pyromancer (Lv.79)]
Strength: 565 Agility: 384
Health: 627 Wisdom: 388
Magic Power: 1066 Resistance: 100
Sense: 192 Recovery: 110
Traits: Calm, Protection, Thievery, 94 Lives, Adhesion, Pain Resistance, Blessing of Ovez, Blessing of Irmana, Blessing of Pitp, Penetration, Grey Fungal Poison, Obsession, Ground-Destroyer, Fierce Claws, High-Rank Commander, Forgotten Ancient Swordsmanship, Acid Resistance, Swamp Affinity, Low-Level Cognitive Impairment, Trace of Existence, [Good Listening Ear], Pierce Big Boar’s Fury, Mutated Crawl, Solid Skin, Ogre’s Fury
Skills: Stealth, Dagger Throwing, Reckless Charge, Contaminated Breath, Skeleton Bomb, Warrior’s Roar, Flame Cut, Fireball, Disguise, Stagnation Sneaky Drain, High-Speed Flight, Blast of Madness, Flame Explosion, Essence Devouring, Phantom Dash, Arcane Deflection, Special Strong Acid, Wall of Fire, Chain of Flame, Lightning Step, Swampification, Meteor, Manhwa Portal, Thunderhorn, Toxic Scale, Red Horned Bugle, Ferocious Roar, Demon Servant
– Mental corruption has reached a dangerous level. Dominance decreases slightly.
– The dominance of the summoned creature has fallen below 90. The likelihood of dangerous judgments has risen slightly.
=====
‘…’
With stats that could make even upper-rank hunters shiver, and countless skills and traits, Il-wol no longer surprised Yeon-hee.
But the emphasized change at the end made her uneasy.
‘Investing in dominance got it barely up to the 90s, and now it’s dropped again. It did rise a bit today, but it’s only at 88…’
With this situation, leveling up means she’d have to dump all her stats into raising dominance, with no other options.
‘… This isn’t enough. I need other means to raise my dominance. Maybe artifacts? Do they exist? But since this stat is unique to me, I can’t ask anyone. Ddung-i and Ran’s answers are no…’
She was anxious.
Sometimes, Il-wol felt like a golden sand grain.
No matter how much she tried to hold on, it kept slipping away.
Squeeze—
“Huh?”
“…”
She suppressed her uneasy feelings by grabbing the man’s hand who was smiling warmly at her.
Even though they couldn’t spend the day together as lovers, being out here like any other couple was still pretty happy.
To keep this joy lasting, in the end, she needed strength to navigate through a chaotic world.
‘I need a mysterious summoning book or an artifact… Or I need to get stronger like Yeon-su unnie.’
Thinking about the second option was daunting, so her best bet felt like acquiring a special summoning book.
The summoning book that had gotten them the castle.
It popped up in her mind suddenly, the quest reward that she felt dissatisfied with since no such missions had been given since then.
‘Why aren’t there any quests? If I encounter another huge variable like when I faced Nargul, would I get one back?’
She prayed that her match against Ilseom would provide that trigger as she eagerly matched her steps with the guy beside her.
*
The next day.
We quickly cleared the Dire Wolf dungeon and gathered in front of my house.
After defeating the boss monster, the rune of thorns dropped at a pretty high rate, which made my companions feel great about preparing for training.
“Ugh— Do you realize we’re speed-running the dungeon right now? Jumping through dungeons in just three days each.”
“To keep up with Yeon-hee, we have no choice but to hustle.”
“That’s true, but don’t we need at least a minimum time to get familiar with everything? There are benefits to taking it steady. That’s a bit of a shame.”
Before our training started, Joo-ah had a complaint about our party’s fast pace.
At that time, I firmly shook my head, shutting down her opinions.
To be fair, this wasn’t her first complaint today.
From the moment we met, she had always played the role of moderating our party’s growth.
Originally, it was a bit frustrating being pushed by the circumstances, but lately, I’ve started appreciating it.
Because I was realizing that racing ahead wasn’t the only solution.
If I looked at it that way, our party had a balanced team.
With diverse personalities and their share of ambition.
They rarely fought with each other and never argued over material rewards.
Parties like this are rare, and I felt incredibly grateful for it.
‘By the way, I didn’t end up meeting the Master yesterday.’
Even after entering the Dark Space last night, my Master didn’t show up.
Should I have made a ruckus like I did a couple of nights ago?
It felt wrong to trouble the Master too much, so I waited quietly, wondering if I should have stirred things up a bit.
Well, the Master was improving the secret art, so it wasn’t possible to always create a ruckus.
While I was lost in thought, Yeon-hee stood up, clapping her hands.
“Alright, the training time is 10 minutes per person. I’ve warned ‘Alpha Rakan’ thoroughly, but avoiding serious injury still poses a risk. Please approach this like a real battle.”
Yeon-hee affectionately petted Rakan beside her while outlining the safety rules.
“Roaaar—”
“Ugh… It’s scary going up against that weirdo.”
The first contender was Baek Ah-rin.
She decided to go up against Alpha Rakan since they shared a similar nature, making it relatively easy for her.
To focus on Rakan, Yeon-hee had dismissed all other summoned creatures besides Ran and Lizardman 1.
Rakan seemed overly excited, bouncing around as the intense gaze fell on him.
Lizardman 1 was just staring at him jealously.
“Hey, you guys! Stay focused and keep your eyes on the match. Don’t just get hit by him.”
“Nom…”
“Grrow!”
Lizardman 1 had already lost to Alpha Rakan several times.
Because of that, they looked at the two soon to face each other with determined eyes.
“Come at me!”
“Roar!”
Soon, the two figures blurred from sight, leaving only the sound of the wind filling the front yard.
“This is… Can’t see them…”
Joo-ah and Eun-young were having trouble even spotting them.
Yeon-hee and Ha-yoon could only vaguely follow the movements, while I felt like I could see a few minutes into the future.
‘A-rin is faster, but she lacks weight behind her attacks.’
Both Alpha Rakan and A-rin excel in speed, but Rakan has solid defense too.
Not as tough as the Ogre’s Solid Skin, but he definitely had defensive traits, and especially those flaring furs made it hard to focus.
‘That fluffy fur is messing with the distance perception.’
The real body was much further inside, and without getting used to it, it’ll hardly be possible to land a solid attack.
“Okay!! Seriously!”
A-rin was struggling with that very challenge right now.
Especially since she wielded a short weapon, she needed to quickly slip in with her speed to land a hit, but that was not happening.
“Grrraargh!!”
‘Rakan’s having the time of his life.’
For Rakan, there’s probably no one more entertaining to go against than A-rin.
And for A-rin, it’s likely just as fun too.
Suddenly—
“Ugh!”
“Graah!”
After exchanging hits for a while, both of their attacks landed simultaneously, resulting in A-rin’s arm being gored, splattering blood into the air.
“Chomp—”
“Ugh…”
Rakan licked A-rin’s blood and his eyes turned a deeper red.
After that, Rakan proceeded with an unrelenting barrage.
Though Yeon-hee was controlling things, the tension in the air suggested Rakan might bite down on A-rin’s neck at any moment.
I raised my hand to signal Yeon-hee, and she commanded Rakan to step back.
“Kiing…”
Rakan appeared displeased at being interrupted mid-fun.
But the immediate reply to Yeon-hee’s command was quite impressive.
‘Guess she’s invested a lot into her dominance. He’s turned into a well-behaved puppy.’
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