Of course, the otherworld I moved to through Lake Katharim and the dimensional channel might be quite different from the dungeons of our world.
‘Still, it’s worth a shot.’
I made up my mind.
To explore the dungeon alone, away from Yeon-hee.
‘First, I need to challenge right here today.’
It’s time to fall back down under the waterfall after defeating the boss.
“Ahhh! Il-wol, ugh…”
At the moment Yeon-hee fell from the waterfall, she deeply embraced me, letting out a high-pitched scream before her consciousness abruptly cut off like a doll with a severed string.
The expressionless face of Yeon-hee felt oddly attractive.
As my gaze was captured by her sleeping face, a message popped up.
– The aura of emptiness has been detected.
– Do you wish to challenge the hidden quest?
‘…I accept.’
– Accepting the challenge for ‘The First Fragment of the Seeker Colored by Chaos.’
‘As expected… this was a job change quest.’
It didn’t deviate from my expectations at all; yet on another note, I felt relieved.
And soon, my vision turned black.
* * *
There is a massive river as wide and deep as the sea.
I became a small fish living there.
No, it felt as if I shared my vision with the fish.
Thanks to the amazing ability called sense, I realized that not long after.
And the more astonishing thing is that I could also understand the thoughts of this fish.
[…I will rise to the sky.]
The small fish declared with determination.
I had no idea where such a lofty ambition came from in a fish living like a mayfly in an incredibly vast river.
[…I will rise.]
Rising to the sky had become the life goal of the little fish.
[To rise to the sky, I need to grow big enough to touch the clouds above the river.]
From that moment, the fish began to recklessly devour smaller creatures living in the river.
Sometimes, it felt like challenging creatures bigger than itself, but having seen its kin torn apart while attempting such reckless behavior, the fish desperately fought against its instincts and persevered.
It grew by eating those smaller than itself, then ate even bigger ones, and kept eating and eating.
Who knows how long it did that.
The fish had reached a point where it no longer understood why it was doing this.
Now, it was mere reflection to see itself squeezing its body into the drastically narrowed riverbed, while something faintly stirred in its mind.
[Right, I need to go up to the sky. How could I forget that?]
On a day when it rained heavily, the fish first raised its head above the river to spread it toward the sky.
[Oh… so that’s what clouds are.]
The size of the fish was astonishing; in a land where very few had seen it, it was said to be uncommon.
Surprisingly, the fish successfully ascended to the sky beyond the clouds, and only upon entering another world did it realize.
[There is another sky above the sky.]
It had gone through immense hardship to finally get up there, yet another world faintly floated above the clouds.
In the face of that vast worldview, the fish shuddered.
Once in that new world, the fish would have to endure yet another endless age of being a bug, feeding on insignificant fish smaller than itself.
[This is not what I wanted.]
The fish missed the world beneath the sky.
But the world it left behind had no strength to welcome it back.
The fish’s standing had risen significantly, and in the end, it had to forcibly drop itself back down.
Not only that, but it even had to shatter itself into three pieces.
Thus, the first fragment of the fish was born.
The first fragment reincarnated into a being with two legs, two arms, and one tail.
It lost its memories of being above the sky, but retained that extraordinary talent.
It became the chief of its tribe, ruled over its kin, and not long after, transcended itself.
Some time later, he felt curiosity about what lay beyond his own space.
Those who walk the path were called ‘Seekers.’
The first fragment of the fish, now a Seeker, set foot on the path of a king, and faint memories of its fish days began to resurface.
Intrigued.
Who am I, and where did this world begin?
He walked the road, walking and walking, endlessly.
And thus, an eternity flew by.
Eventually, the first fragment of the fish lost its sanity.
‘……’
Had he become an evil god, he would have retained his consciousness, but the fish lacked power. It lacked malice. It lacked rage.
In the end, it lost itself without belonging to anywhere.
Having strayed from the long path it had diligently traveled.
It slipped through dimensions at random.
In that world, the first fragment could only destroy.
[This is not what I wanted…]
Realizing how drastically things had gone wrong, he would repeat the madness whenever he regained his senses.
[At this rate, I will fall into hell…]
There was a memory of something he heard somewhere.
That there exists a place that confines seekers colored by chaos who engage only in destruction.
Humans called that place [Cursed Ancient Relic].
A realm where horrific monsters from all dimensions gather and battle until death.
Shudder—
The first fragment of the fish trembled in fear.
He didn’t want to die.
Not before that—
[Kill me, someone kill me…]
Did someone hear those words?
A savior appeared.
They were called heroes.
They were surprisingly strong, and ultimately, the first fragment of the fish was defeated.
With the hero’s final blow, the first fragment shattered into hundreds of pieces scattered across all dimensions.
“I can leave this to the juniors.”
“Those annoying lizard brats just keep crawling out without getting tired.”
“Even if it’s just a fragment, it still holds the power of ‘Imugi.’ It could become a seed of destruction.”
“Are you going to finish it off?”
“……”
The hero and his party wanted to chase the fragments, but the hero thought differently.
“I have a path to follow. I don’t want to waste any more time on trivial matters.”
“Trivial? It’s a noble undertaking!”
“You are strong enough that you will be fine without me.”
That was the last memory before the hero party fell apart.
‘……’
I reluctantly browsed the long-ago memories that I didn’t want to relive.
“Damn it… I cleared my head to change jobs, and then all this useless memory comes flooding back and stains it? Ah, my head.”
Fish or whatever, I didn’t care. What about the quest?
‘The dense mist that makes my senses hazy…’
I had stumbled into such a space.
If there were no senses, I could just keep going in circles without anything to say, engulfed in a space filled with peculiar magic.
After a long while of walking, I was finally able to meet a being.
‘No way… am I supposed to fight that?’
I felt like cold sweat was running down my entire body.
‘Strong… much stronger than the residue of chaos.’
The word ‘defeat’ flickered in my mind.
I shook my head vigorously to dispel the weak feelings, then moved straight toward it.
As I approached the mysterious being, the thick smoke began to dissipate.
‘… Lizardman 1?’
The silhouette I sensed gradually became clearer, revealing the true form of the enemy.
A lizardman over two meters tall was sitting on the ground in meditation.
It looked just like Lizardman 1.
“Have you come, foolish one?”
“Tap…”
The sound of flicking the tongue was not that.
It was a language I had never heard before.
I was amazed that I could understand it, but I wasn’t surprised since I had already had a similar experience during the second job change quest.
“Wow— what a peculiar being. I sense 58… more than that. How did you gather so much?”
“Tap…?”
‘What do you mean by 58? More importantly, what should I do?’
I couldn’t easily come to a decision.
‘Can I attack right away?’
The system had promised to guide the quest, yet it was sending no messages.
“Is the task that the guide has given you to kill me?”
The Lizardman asked me with an incredibly intrigued look.
‘It’s as if he can read my thoughts…’
After a moment of thought, I shrugged.
Before I could receive any messages, I decided to be honest.
“Not yet…? Well, I often don’t stay sane. They might just be letting me enjoy for a bit. But I’m not the type to enjoy chit-chat.”
Swish—
The Lizardman shook off his seat and stood up.
‘Whoa… way bigger than Lizardman 1.’
His presence was tremendous.
Lizardman 1 had a decent build, but this guy was on a different level.
His muscular body seemed as though he had dedicated his life to growing stronger, yet he emanated an atmosphere like a blissful monk, which was intriguingly unusual.
“Foolish one, soon you will fight me.”
“Tap Tap Tap.”
“If you go west from here, you’ll find a cave of suitable size.”
“Tap?”
“Leading me there is your only way to win. Although the order is a bit mixed up this time.”
“……?”
Dudududududu──
The ground began to shake as if it was an earthquake.
The mysterious Lizardman clenched his fists and shouted at me.
“It’s time. Let’s have some fun!!”
Chills ran down my spine—
As soon as that sensation hit, a message appeared.
– Defeat the ‘Fragment of the Seeker Colored by Chaos!’
‘Finally, it’s here.’
The ascended fish, who had lowered its standing to return to its home world, even shattering itself into three pieces unaware.
The first fragment was now standing before me, having been defeated by the hero party and scattered into hundreds of pieces.
‘Despite being shattered to such an extent, it still has this level of strength. Just how incredible was this fish…?’
The powerful aura emanating from the Lizardman was enough to scatter the flames erupting from my Flame Armor.
Creepy—
‘Alright, I’ll make a run for it.’
[Lightning Step]
I didn’t like the thought of blindly following the enemy’s advice, but my instincts screamed that if I fought now, I would die without doing a thing.
But just then.
‘Already?!’
The massive hand of the Lizardman was casting a shadow right in front of me.
The palm had turned as black as it had diligently practiced something.
The moment I felt the tremors in the ground while I was trying to create distance, it had already caught up to me?
Crack crack—
My body reacted faster than I thought.
It had been a while since I switched to [Combat type] of Lightning Armor, and just before that rough, coarse hand touched me,
[Blink]
───────
I leaped across the space, barely escaping the Lizardman’s grasp.
I felt like I had created at least a distance of over 500 meters, but that seems to be my maximum range.
‘Huh—’
I created quite some distance but didn’t hesitate, dashing toward the direction the Lizardman pointed.
Swoosh──!
Thanks to the effect of Lightning Armor, my speed became absurdly fast.
‘Ugh!!!’
An immense pressure pushed against me, but strangely, my speed didn’t die down.
However, even after running for a while, I couldn’t see the cave the Lizardman mentioned.
‘Oh no… have I ever seen such a mad beast? It’s too fast!!’
The Lizardman was gradually closing the distance between us.
Having evolved after a job change, I was probably at this level, but if it were my pre-job change state, I would have been caught by now.
But soon enough, I spotted a cave.
‘Oh! Is that it?’
It wasn’t as grand as the place where the wolf den’s boss battle took place, but it was still quite a decent-sized cave.
Surely there would be something within to aid in tackling that guy!!
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
