As Yeon-hee opened her mouth to speak, Jo Gi-man leaned forward, showing his maximum interest.
“I saw a slime fall from the branch.”
“The slime just fell from the branch…? Is that all that happened?”
“Ah, yes. I was startled when I suddenly heard a noise from behind, but I defeated it right away.”
“Hmm… I see.”
‘Oh, Yeon-hee, nice job! I don’t know why you’re lying, but that’s a clean answer.’
Still suspicious, Jo Gi-man kept glancing over Yeon-hee, but when Kang Yeon-su sharply elbowed him, he cleared his throat and stood up.
After that, only conversations between Kang Yeon-su and Yeon-hee about guild contract conditions and future activities went back and forth.
They began discussing the guild’s high regard for Yeon-hee’s potential and subtly hinted at why she was dungeon-crawling alone, urging her to join the guild.
In the meantime, Jo Gi-man sneakily approached me and began to poke around my body. And when Yeon-hee politely asked Kang Yeon-su for water and headed to the fridge, he started to fiddle with my bones.
“Ah! What the hell are you touching!”
I had never felt such a ridiculous sensation in my life, and this guy acted like he was born just to piss me off.
“Tsk, it’s strange… The stats are the same, but is this a singularity or what…?”
‘Did he use [Scan]? That’s a skill you can only use once a week on a Skeleton Soldier?’
It was really absurd, but on the other hand, it was a good thing.
Jo Gi-man’s skill [Scan] allows him to assess the growth potential of strength, agility, health, and magic power, as well as see the current values of those four stats when making contact with a person or monster.
‘Of course, they’d be similar. A Skeleton Soldier can only be so big.’
Anyway, after the scan, his expression relaxed, and it seemed he decided not to worry too much. They chatted for about ten more minutes before quickly leaving the room.
“Well then, fighting, Yeon-hee. I’ll contact you as soon as I graduate, so let me know if your phone number changes, okay?”
“Yes, yes— um, unni, please go in…”
“What are you shy about? Yeon-hee, you’re seriously too cute—”
Seeing the two start talking, old memories flooded back.
‘Kang Yeon-su took great care of Yeon-hee back then, saying she was like a younger sister…’
“I’ll see you later, Yeon-hee. Take care.”
“Yes, please go in, director…”
With that, the snake-eyed Jo Gi-man disappeared, and as Yeon-hee carefully closed the door…
Click—
As the door shut, she flopped down onto the ground like a ragdoll.
“Phew~ I almost died from holding my breath.”
Ugh, my legs gave out—
“Il-wol, can you come and help me up? Hehe.”
Yeon-hee, with her arms stretched towards the sky, urged me on like, ‘Come on, hurry up!’
‘Yeon-hee acting all spoiled towards a summoned creature… I can’t quite adapt to this…’
Thud— Thud— Thud
I moved according to her command, took her arms, and slowly pulled her up.
‘What’s with all this sweat…’
It seemed being with them was considerably tiring, and her body was drenched in cold sweat, as she continuously took deep breaths to steady herself.
“Starting in March, I’ll also work at the White Knight Guild… Is this really happening, Il-wol?”
‘Considering your abilities, it’s not something to be overly excited about.’
I didn’t know how she proposed the conditions, but it must have been a vision that stirred her interests. And no one can deny that the White Knight Guild is one of the top three guilds in our country.
‘Isn’t this a privilege of a regressor? I don’t know what Yeon-hee thinks about living, but she must know what she wants.’
Joining the White Knight Guild was a set procedure, after all. The fortunate part is, even after racking up my memories from my past life, I can’t recall many instances of Yeon-hee and Jo Gi-man going into dungeons together. And the few times I do recall, they only started when I joined as a guide a few months later.
‘In the end, what I need to ensure is that the reports from the guild members who will start dungeon crawling with Yeon-hee from March do not match up with Jo Gi-man’s memories…’
For example, if a Skeleton Soldier spat acid, I could become a topic of interest again.
‘I need to be careful…’
But no matter how careful I was, if the time comes, I would eventually be found out, so I had to build my strength as quickly as possible.
“If my mom heard this, she would have been so happy, but huh…”
‘Are you crying? Damn… I can’t stand women who cry.’
I couldn’t handle it back then, and it’s the same now; seeing a woman cry was truly hard to watch. Watching Yeon-hee sniffling with her eyes getting teary, I pondered for a moment before raising my arm high.
As I suddenly raised my arm, Yeon-hee stopped her sobbing for a moment, then when I flailed my arm around like I was dancing, her eyes widened, and soon her eyes and mouth formed a perfect circle of surprise.
“Ha-ha-ha— Il-wol, why are you suddenly doing this? Kya-ha-ha!”
‘This is the least I can do for the person who saved my life…’
Her last gaze before losing her life to the Orc Legion Commander was still fresh in my memory.
I desperately hoped that this life would bring Yeon-hee happiness.
If possible, I wanted happiness for myself too.
With that earnest desire, I waved my arm.
“Keu-heh-heh- He-he- I really like Il-wol so much!”
The effect was fantastic.
After laughing until her belly hurt for a while, she suddenly covered her mouth and put a finger to her lips, saying we shouldn’t be too loud.
“We might get complaints from the neighbor’s place… shh, shh.”
Well… What’s the point of signaling something to me when I can’t even talk.
“Ahem- Thanks to you, I had a great laugh. Hehe-”
…
“By any chance, if I summon a creature this time and it’s a Skeleton Soldier too, would we get to see them dance together?”
‘Huh? Summon?’
“Look— this is a gray summoning scroll I got when I leveled up. How’s that? It’s the same one you summoned me with!”
On her palm rested a chunky scroll made of gray parchment; it was truly my first time seeing such an item.
‘So leveling up grants you a summoning scroll? So it’s not just about chanting a spell to summon…’
I had never heard the word summoning scroll in the memories I had about her.
‘So it was something she kept secret from others? Why, though?’
Whatever the reason, having information that wasn’t disclosed to others was a promising thing.
“Look— if you peel off a bit of this brown wax, there are weird characters written inside, right?”
Pat-pat—
As the scroll unfurled from its tightly rolled state, it indeed had dense, unrecognizable language written all over it, just as she said.
‘What on earth are all these letters…?’
Fwoosh—
“You don’t have to be overly flustered, Il-wol. All you need to do is read a few lines that shine with golden light, and you can summon something.”
‘But those shining letters… I can’t see them at all?’
Wanting to check, I gingerly touched the scroll, and short information about the scroll unfolded.
Ancient Gray Summoning Scroll
– A summoning script created by the first summoner to summon summoned creatures from another realm.
– Sometimes, it also brings out low-rank summoned creatures.
‘So the first summoner wasn’t Yeon-hee…’
The simple description was chilling enough to capture my attention like a thorn lodged in my throat.
‘Low-rank summoned creatures…’
The Skeleton Soldier is undoubtedly classified as the lowest rank of summoned creatures. That means a creature of higher rank than me could pop out. It seems like a low probability, but still…
‘Why does it feel like I’m falling behind? This can’t be happening…’
Whether she understood my feelings or not, she giggled and began reading the scroll.
…
An echo I had heard before.
The very spell that had pulled me out of the pitch-black darkness was being chanted again.
‘No way, the next one summoned won’t be a human like me, will it?’
Glancing at her with a bit of hopeful anticipation, I felt a jittery tension several times greater than when battling in the dungeon as the spell approached its climax.
Whoooom—
Finally, a gray portal as tall as me opened, and she curiously remarked.
“Huh? This time it’s not a door?”
From Yeon-hee’s reaction, it seemed the summoning was proceeding differently from mine. Now she too turned to look in the direction I was staring, fixated on the undulating portal.
Moments later, a silhouette shimmered from the gray portal, and that silhouette took on the form of a four-legged beast.
‘Look at those long claws. It feels like it’s stronger than me…’
Soon the massive shadow filled the one-room apartment before vanishing with the portal, leaving behind a small figure.
That figure was…
Wang-wang!!
“……?”
‘……?’
A fluffy earth puppy adorned with pure white fur had appeared.
‘Ah— it’s a disaster…’
The earth puppy, the protagonist known for munching on grass, turned out to be the second summoned creature. While I was safe from losing my utility, a more serious situation had arisen.
‘I’ve summoned someone utterly useless…’
Feeling a bit deflated, while Yeon-hee, with her hands trembling, rushed towards the earth puppy and pulled it into a tight hug.
“Haaah, so cute! Eeehh…”
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