EFME 13

Muyoung, frowning, eventually sighed as if he couldn’t help it. And just as Heena had said, he naturally let one monster slip by.

—Guoooohk!

The monster shrieked and charged at Sunyul, who looked the weakest. Already tense, Sunyul froze stiff on the spot.

The monster rushed toward Sunyul with a menacing aura.

Just before the monster could bite into the pale-faced Sunyul, who couldn’t even think to dodge.

Black tendrils shot out from all directions, grabbing and pulling the monster.

“Huk……”

His legs gave out, and Sunyul collapsed onto the ground. The monster thrashed about, screaming loudly. But soon, its form vanished in an instant without a sound.

“Are you okay?”

“I-I’m okay……”

His face deathly pale, Sunyul stared at the spot where the monster had disappeared.

“He got really scared.”

Jaehoon said, clicking his tongue.

Of course, he was startled by the monster charging at him, but there was another reason why Sunyul had turned so pale.

It was because the monster’s roar had sounded like clear words to him.

The monster, which had shouted ‘die’ as it rushed at Sunyul, had shrieked desperately after being caught.

Help me, it had said.

Those distinct words stuck in his ears, giving him an eerie feeling.

He had definitely heard the word ‘die’ when he first encountered a monster, but he had thought it was just his imagination. But he couldn’t dismiss it as imagination this time either. It was because he could vividly hear the words that so many monsters were chattering.

[‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ warns you not to go around blabbing about understanding the monsters’ words.]

The constellation gave a sharp warning. He didn’t want to lie but… Sunyul agreed with the constellation’s words.

He was already being treated as an item; if he said he could understand monsters, everyone would look at him with suspicion. He could even be dragged back to the Korea Ability Research Institute.

But why could he understand the monsters’ words?

‘Don’t tell me I’m a monster.’

It would make sense if he could understand the words of his own kind. Sunyul’s heart went cold at the hypothesis he didn’t want to affirm.

“Lim Sunyul.”

Muyoung approached. His face was as expressionless as usual, but Sunyul could feel that he was worried in his own way. That made him feel even more guilty.

Muyoung reached out a hand to Sunyul. As he took that hand, Muyoung pulled Sunyul up very lightly. Sunyul stood up straight, staggering slightly.

“It’s okay, we’ve caught them all now.”

“……Yes.”

“Nothing dangerous like that will happen again.”

Sunyul looked at Muyoung, then nodded.

“I’m getting goosebumps. Who is that guy?”

Jaehoon went over to Heena and Haemin, wrapped his arms around himself, and shivered. Heena clicked her tongue and retorted.

“Take him to a healer. His mind might have been eaten by a parasitic monster.”

“If you become a host to a parasitic monster, don’t you lose the ability to use skills?”

At Jaehoon’s serious words, Heena made a dumbfounded face.

“It was just a joke.”

“I took it seriously. It’s clear that something like a horsehair worm is controlling Kwon Muyoung’s mind… Ack!”

Stabbed by a sharp shadow needle, Jaehoon screamed. Suddenly attacked, Jaehoon jumped up and down, yelling that it hurt.

“Hey, you crazy bastard! That hurts!”

“Stop talking nonsense and let’s go.”

Muyoung’s gaze turned from Jaehoon to Heena. His extremely cold gaze was sending a silent warning. Thinking it was an attempt she couldn’t make twice, Heena shrugged.

Walking along, following Muyoung who was in the lead, Heena spoke to Haemin.

[I was the one who told them to send a monster to Lim Sunyul.]

Haemin looked back at Heena. His expression said, ‘I knew it.’

[What was Lim Sunyul’s reaction? Do you think he’s tricking us?]

Haemin frowned and then used his skill to send a message. Just as Heena had the [Whisper] skill to convey her voice to a target, Haemin had the [Image Attachment] skill to convey an image to a target.

[If that’s a deceiving reaction, he could go win an acting award.]

Heena struggled to decipher the free-spirited handwriting floating before her eyes and agreed.

Besides, the monster had rushed to tear at Sunyul’s face. If Muyoung hadn’t clamped the monster’s mouth shut, Sunyul would have been attacked straight in the face. It wasn’t easy to deceive someone in that kind of situation.

[He either genuinely knows nothing, or his senses are sharp enough to fool four S-rankers. It’s one of the two.]

[I guess so.]

[I think the former is more likely.]

[Why? Have you already fallen for him?]

[If he was after something, Kwon Muyoung would have caught on long ago. Kwon Muyoung isn’t an idiot. And he has that famous trait, doesn’t he?]

That was true. Although no one was certain, Kwon Muyoung’s crisis-sensing ability was exceptionally keen.

[Survival Strategy], the trait Kwon Muyoung had revealed. That trait detected all kinds of danger.

From dungeon monsters and traps to a poisoned drink sent by an assassin or even a bullet flying from far away. When it came to crisis detection, it was a trait that performed almost at the level of foresight.

It was unlikely that such a trait would miss only Sunyul. As long as Muyoung vouched for him, Sunyul’s threat level was infinitesimally low.

“Something’s sparkling over there!”

Besides, seeing Sunyul’s bright and cheerful face as he shouted excitedly, it was certainly hard to classify him as dangerous.

Still, just in case, Heena and Haemin followed behind, keeping an eye on Sunyul. But they couldn’t find anything unusual throughout their time in the dungeon.

The Sunyul they saw was just a pretty-looking boy. If there was anything peculiar, it would be his naive personality, to a degree that seemed impossible in this day and age. Other than that, he was perfectly ordinary.

Since it wasn’t a very large dungeon, they quickly found the four orb fragments. Muyoung combined the orbs into one and then handed it to Sunyul. Sunyul’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Can I be the one to place it?”

“Of course.”

The goddess statue was much taller than Sunyul. Muyoung held Sunyul by the waist and lifted him up. Sunyul placed the orb on the goddess statue’s hands.

Soon, light poured down on the statue. Confirming that the gimmick had activated, Muyoung lowered Sunyul to the ground.

“Stay around here. The area around the goddess statue is a safe zone.”

Just as Muyoung said, Sunyul stuck close to the goddess statue. It was a very uncomfortable-looking posture. Seeing this from the side, Heena let out a small laugh.

“You just have to stay within a two-meter radius.”

“Ah… okay.”

Only then did Sunyul stand a little more comfortably. Then he smiled and bowed.

“Thank you.”

“Huh?”

“For telling me.”

He could feel that Sunyul was genuinely grateful, enough to make her feel sorry for having watched him all this time. Heena smiled awkwardly and turned her head. She felt a little uncomfortable.

The dungeon boss monster was a large bison.

[Using the ‘Erase’ skill.]

There was no need to use many skills. With a single skill from Muyoung, the boss monster’s head completely disappeared, and it fell backward.

Seeing that, Jaehoon clicked his tongue.

“Hey, I know it’s only a D-rank, but you just blew it away like that? You could have at least grabbed the magic stone.”

“I only blew away the head, so the magic stone should still be there.”

“Seriously. I’ll go take a look.”

While Muyoung and Jaehoon approached the boss monster, Sunyul muttered vacantly from behind.

“……Don’t tell me it’s over?”

“Yep, it’s over.”

“Oh. Really. For real.”

“……That was too easy.”

“For an S-rank, it’s just a picnic.”

“Ah, should I have killed something? I didn’t get any dungeon rewards.”

Next to Sunyul and Heena who were talking, Haemin grumbled. Heena looked at Haemin, dumbfounded.

“What kind of reward do you expect from a D-rank dungeon?”

“You have to save to live well.”

“So stingy.”

Heena clicked her tongue.

“What rewards did you get?”

Jaehoon asked Muyoung as he approached them. Muyoung took an item out of his inventory. What he got was a C-rank bracelet.

“Oh… got something good.”

It didn’t meet their S-rank standards, but since this was a D-rank dungeon, it was a pretty good item to have obtained. Muyoung offered the bracelet to Sunyul.

“Want it?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Alright. I’ll get you something better next time.”

“I-it’s really okay……”

Muyoung didn’t pay much attention to Sunyul’s refusal. Instead, he gestured toward the exit that had appeared where the boss monster died.

“Let’s go now.”

Sunyul nodded and followed Jaehoon out the exit. Remembering what happened when he entered the dungeon, he was extremely tense, but thankfully, nothing happened on the way out.

Once outside, Sunyul looked around his surroundings with a fresh perspective. Even though it was a small-scale dungeon, the sun had set quite a bit.

“Should we go for an after-party?”

Haemin asked, checking his watch.

“What did we even do to deserve an after-party?”

“The roads are going to be completely clogged if we leave now anyway, so I’m just saying let’s grab a simple bite before we go.”

“Let’s do it. Hey, we didn’t even eat lunch before we went in.”

As Jaehoon quickly agreed, Muyoung sighed and nodded.

“Do as you please.”

“Let’s eat meat, meat!”

All he did was walk around, but Haemin spoke with the passion of someone who had hunted harder than anyone else.

They put a pair of glasses on Sunyul for disguise and went into a nearby meat restaurant. With four famous Hunters present, they deliberately chose a place that had private rooms.

Heena was more interested in Sunyul than in the food.

“So you don’t eat anything at all?”

“No. I don’t get hungry.”

“What about alcohol? Do you get drunk?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then let’s try drinking.”

“Don’t force the kid to drink.”

Muyoung stopped Heena, who was about to pour a glass. At that, Heena pouted.

“Don’t you think he doesn’t seem like a kid?”

“Um, it’s okay. I’ll drink.”

Curious about alcohol himself, Sunyul readily offered to drink. Muyoung didn’t stop him any further. Sunyul received the glass and downed the soju.

“……”

It tasted disgusting. As Sunyul frowned, Heena burst out laughing.

“Aigoo, does it taste bad?”

“……It’s strange.”

“That’s the taste of adulthood.”

While Sunyul couldn’t drink it, the others drank the alcohol just fine. Feeling somewhat resentful, Sunyul kept sipping at the drink. Heena diligently refilled his glass whenever it was empty.

As a result of all that drinking…….

“He’s drunk.”

Sunyul’s face turned bright red, so anyone could tell he was drunk. Muyoung straightened up Sunyul, whose body was swaying.

“You have to sit up straight.”

“Dizzy……”

Sunyul leaned his body against Muyoung. Muyoung sighed and let Sunyul lean on him. Sunyul held onto Muyoung.

“I-I was scared……”

“I know.”

“I hate dungeons……”

“We won’t go in one again.”

Muyoung soothed the drunkenly whining Sunyul. Sunyul whimpered a little more before quickly falling asleep as if he’d fainted. Muyoung personally made a place for Sunyul to lie down.

It was only natural that the remaining three were creeped out by his gentle demeanor.

“I’m telling you, he’s really being controlled by something like a horsehair worm.”

“For real……”

“……Maybe.”

Showing off nothing but Muyoung’s surprisingly different side, the first dungeon conquest thus came to a simple end.