Chapter 19

Chapter 19

─I want to know your sorrow.

A sorrowful cry was heard. Then sobs swallowed by the crying fell down.

Amid the crying and sobbing falling like droplets, the child whispered softly.

─Don’t go.

The child’s small hand grabbed at my clothes.

─Don’t go, don’t leave me alone…

Before I knew it, the small child in my arms was spitting out loneliness and solitude like a wail, clutching my clothes tightly as if grasping a last lifeline, and whispering as if pouring out everything.

─Please don’t go, ‘████’.

But a dream is a dream because it promises to eventually wake, and a plea not to leave is made because the listener is already bound to depart.

And so I opened my eyes. It was a farewell to the past and a contact with reality.

* * *

There are times when dream and reality become indistinguishable. For example, lying in bed and falling asleep, then in the dream also lying in bed and falling asleep before waking up—situations like that.

We often confuse dream and reality when the dream situation isn’t all that different from the real one.

And right now, I was exactly in that state. For some reason, just like the dim darkness of the night I’d seen in my dream, a darkness so thick I couldn’t see an inch ahead was spreading before me in reality.

I blinked several times and flailed my limbs. Hmm, my leg hurt a little, thankfully, but it seemed none of my limbs were lost—they moved just fine.

‘But where is this…’

From the sensation touching my leg, it felt a bit ticklish, like grass, but I couldn’t be sure. Because truly, literally, nothing was visible.

‘I remember being bitten by the wolf earlier… but I have no idea what happened after that.’

The last thing I clearly remembered was the black wolf biting my leg and Mr. Yoon Juyeong grabbing my hand—when had he come to my side?—but when I came to, all I saw was a pitch-black space.

As I rubbed my oddly throbbing leg and pondered how to get out of this situation, a possible course of action came to mind.

‘My mana… it was holy attribute, right?’

It wasn’t as good as light attribute, but holy attribute mana still tended to emit a faint glow when used.

Of course, my mana was so low in quantity and poor in quality that it had been openly given a C-Rank Judgment… but still, it was something I could use in a situation like this. I didn’t hesitate and immediately gathered mana over my right hand.

“Got it.”

A small, faint sphere of light rose in the space that had been completely dark. Compared to the light of a flashlight or a bulb, it was so weak it was almost meaningless, but in a situation like this where nothing was visible, even this was a relief.

I quickly stumbled to my feet and used the light to look around. As I’d expected, the area was a grassy field.

‘It doesn’t seem completely natural, though…?’

The light source was too small to see clearly, but there were faint traces of a place where people might have lived. For example, where I was standing now, flat stones that might have been used as stepping stones were laid out in a row.

‘Is this a hidden dungeon? Or maybe an erosion situation?’

If that black wolf that bit my leg was the final boss monster, it wouldn’t be strange if my current situation was caused by the boss monster’s ‘erosion.’

…Actually, it was strange enough that a final boss monster appeared in a zone other than its own, but I was someone who had already experienced something like that.

‘Could the dungeon state lately… be off somehow?’

The Red Chimera appearing in a stronger form than usual was bad enough, but considering it had also left its own zone… the dungeon’s state these days was definitely suspicious.

I straightened my bent body and looked around again. If this was still inside the dungeon, I couldn’t afford to let my guard down. I had to find a safe place and hide until the other party members found me. If I didn’t—

─Grrrrrrrr…

“Of course the shitty things always come in a row…”

…Because then I’d end up in a situation like this.

Damn it. I swallowed dryly at the sound of an animal’s growl coming from nearby. It seemed… that black wolf that bit my leg was around here.

‘Ah.’

Come to think of it… the leg that wolf bastard bit—the injury wasn’t as bad as I’d thought, was it.

I glanced down at my leg. There was a bit of blood visible, but I could walk on it without any major issue. The light source was too dim to see clearly, but there was no trace of a large amount of blood flowing down the vaguely visible leg.

‘Did the ring activate its effect…?’

─Grrrrrrr…

“……”

Whatever the case, the important thing now was surviving that bastard. Well, to be honest, it looked pretty hopeless, but I still had to hold out until the end, didn’t I?

I swallowed dryly again and fiddled with the ring on my right hand. The ring I was wearing had an effect that could reduce sudden fatal impacts, though only three times at most.

It must have activated when that wolf bit my leg… so I figured I had two uses left now.

‘Can I really last until the party members get here with just those two uses?’

Actually, setting that aside, I wasn’t even sure if the party members could get here at all.

But rather than assuming a hopeless situation, I figured it was better to focus on what I could do right now. So I placed my left hand over the ring on my right and strained my ears to catch any sound around me.

I was desperate to hear the wolf’s howl, or at least the faint sound of its footsteps.

‘…Footsteps.’

A small sound of footsteps treading on grass came. It was definitely not a person’s. It had to be the wolf.

No sooner had I thought that than I heard the sound of wind rushing toward me, as if something was charging my way.

“Ugh!”

I rolled my body blindly, not even knowing where I was going or which direction the wolf was charging from. Luckily, it seemed my choice wasn’t wrong — I heard something whiz past where I’d been standing.

‘Thank god…’

“─Huk?!!”

Before I could even feel relieved that I’d somehow dodged, something slammed into me head-on. A sensation of not being able to breathe washed over me, and at the same time, my body tumbled across some unknown floor several times.

I barely came to my senses when my body, which had been rolling from the sudden impact, finally stopped.

‘U-ugh… It should have been canceled out…’

I felt like I was about to throw up any second. No, I think I was already half-throwing up. I could feel something like stomach acid rising in my throat, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. And that was because…

‘How the hell does the situation get this messed up…’

Right above my head, I could feel breathing that was clearly not human. In this situation, the only beast that would be panting like that right above me was obvious. It was a hundred percent that black wolf that had bitten my leg.

With trembling hands, I fiddled with the ring on my right hand. One chance left. What could I do with this one chance…

‘Nothing.’

What was a C-Rank hunter supposed to do against an A-Rank final boss monster? Even if I stabbed it with all my strength using my best weapon, that bastard wouldn’t even blink.

But it wasn’t like there was any other way either. Even if I managed to dodge and run away while it attacked me once, the outcome between me, who couldn’t even see properly, and an A-Rank boss monster was painfully obvious.

‘The fact that I’ve lasted this long…’

It was like the instinct of a prey animal being hunted, but that bastard wasn’t going all out against me.

…I didn’t know if it was ‘not’ going all out, or ‘couldn’t’ go all out, but either way, that was the case. Right now, the black wolf didn’t seem to be fully exerting its power as an A-Rank dungeon boss monster.

‘If this were a comic, I’d use the enemy’s carelessness as an opportunity…’

But that only works when there’s a certain level of difference. It wasn’t something that applied in a situation like this.

I felt the beast’s breath, which had been on my head, travel down my face and reach my neck and shoulders, and my lower lip trembled. …It really felt like I had become prey standing before a predator.

‘Is there really nothing? Anything I can do… a last option?’

The beast’s snout, which had been tracing down my shoulder, pulled away for a moment. And not long after, a searing pain shot through my arm. A groan slipped through my clenched teeth.

It was a similar sensation to when it bit my leg. Though it was somewhat reduced, the sharp pain of something piercing my flesh was impossible to ignore… and the heat mixed with the living creature’s inhales and exhales.

‘And there goes my last chance.’

The beast that had been lightly biting my arm pulled back slightly. Maybe it found it strange that its prey still seemed relatively intact even after being bitten, or perhaps it was being cautious in its own way.

This isn’t just some hope torture. I forced the groan that nearly slipped through my teeth back down my throat and glared at the invisible black wolf.

‘Really, if only Yoon Juyeong were here, a thing like you… Thinking about it is ridiculous. What am I, a kid looking for their mom?’

At best, it’s just a monster from an A-Rank dungeon. No matter how much of a boss monster it is, to someone an entire rank above, it’s nothing more than a disposable grunt A to be cooked and eaten at will.

…But that doesn’t change the reality right now: Yoon Juyeong isn’t here, and I’m alone. I let out a hollow laugh I couldn’t hold back.

Yeah, that’s right. In the end, people are alone. You’re born alone and you die alone. Even if you’re born on the same day and die on the same day, that birth and death are entirely your own.

‘If I die, I hope the skill placed on you gets dispelled, Yoon Juyeong.’

Because if the skill doesn’t break even after I die, that would be a real headache. …Not that there’s any chance of that happening, of course.

In the end, half resigned, I closed my eyes that I’d been keeping wide open and lowered my head. It was the exact same mindset I’d had when I suddenly faced that Red Chimera creature. Please, let there be no pain. Or at least, let the pain be minimal.

That’s what I tried to think.

‘Ah.’

Something suddenly came to me.

‘Does my skill only work on humans?’

…Is there no chance it works on monsters?