chapter 19

“Kyaaaaaaak!!”

It was only natural that she was surprised. The monster’s mouth opened wide as it lunged forward to devour her.

If she hadn’t suddenly run out, spear in hand, she wouldn’t have drawn its attention.

Those things weren’t intelligent and anyone observing the situation clearly would be able to see that Park Deokgu was able to hold back the attacking monster.

However, instead of staying level-headed, Park Hyaeyoung, this fucking bitch, chose to air out her fears like this.

“Damn it!”

Park Hyaeyoung had completely flipped the situation on its head.

Those things were sensitive to sound.

An ordinary conversation wouldn’t carry far, but such a loud scream would naturally make them aware of our presence here.

All the monsters in the vicinity would probably come running.

Perhaps Kim Hyunsung thought the same as he promptly smashed in the head of the monster he was dealing with, then stabbed the one Park Deokgu had captured in the chest.

His speed seemed a bit outside the boundaries of human capabilities, but Kim Hyunsung likely didn’t have the luxury of paying attention to that when the situation was rapidly deteriorating.

I could see that monstrous thing still quivering but that wasn’t the issue right now.

“We need to get out of here right now.”

“Damn it….”

“S-sorry….”

“Kiyoung-ss, Hyaeyoung-ssi, Hayan-ssi… If anything happens, we’ll have Deokgu-ssi cut a path”.

“Well, what about Hyung-ssi?”

“I’ll try to draw the monsters away. If you leave a mark, I’ll find you. Kiyoung-ssi, it would be better for you to take a detour rather than heading straight to the shelter.”

I nodded sharply.

If we led all the monsters after us to the shelter, it would be like offering them an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Kim Hyunsung seemed to be trying to solve this situation on his own but his expression didn’t seem to be good.

Even though Kim Hyunsung was a regressor, he was still a rookie at this point.

He might be capable of dealing with them to a certain extent, but if they overwhelmed him with numbers, it would be extremely difficult to take care of them in such close quarters.

“Hyung-nim, which way….”

“We’re going to turn around a bit before returning.”

“A-alright.”

Seemingly realising the severity of her mistake, Park Hyaeyoung looked at me, her face pale.

She likely realised that if she messed up further, there would really be an opportunity to scream her lungs out soon.

“Get up.”

“Y-yes….”

“Stick together and run as fast as you can.”

“I-I understand.”

Jung Hayan was silent.

She was looking around blankly, with an expression as though she were thinking hard about something.

“Hayan-ah.”

“Ah… Yes! Oppa.”

Her body language suggested that she wasn’t particularly scared.

Seeing her like this, I was reminded that Jung Hayan would become a strong Wizard in the future.

Jung Hayan was also a Wizard so, should the situation become too much for us to handle, she might be able to help us.

‘Our chances of survival are high.’

We could make it through this.

“Then, I pray for your success[1].”

“Well, be careful, Hyung-ssi.”

“I’ll be alright.”

Park Deokgu immediately took up his shield and began to run.

Park Hyaeyoung also followed us with a look of terror on her face.

Though I still felt irritated, now was not the time to argue.

Instead, I began to construct spells.

Concentrate mana into a tower. I had very little to speak of, but it might save us if the situation took a turn for the worse.

“Can you run and cast? Hyung-nim?”

“Don’t talk to me. My head hurts.”

That was how hard it was to concentrate on spells.

Trying to move your feet and hands to do one thing while completely thinking of something else would be difficult for anyone.

‘It’s difficult….”

“My, wish….”

The tower of mana I kept trying to build collapsed. I couldn’t concentrate properly. It felt like my head was going to explode; my brain was being overloaded.

‘Just make one slowly.’

It was feasible enough if I pretended there was nothing around me while I wove the spell.

I slowly built the tower up once more.

We hadn’t even met those fucking monsters yet anyway.

There was plenty of time to construct it.

“Lord, my, wish, answer, my call, please give me, the strength, to burn my enemies.”

I couldn’t help but lengthen the invocation. It was annoying as hell but the spell, which was clearly imprinted in my mind, was manifested in my hand.

A sphere of fire. The fire sphere, which was the size of a human skull, appeared in my hand.

“Oh, that’s amazing! When did you learn something like that?”

“Don’t talk to me, Deokgu-yah. It’s hard to concentrate.”

It was hard work to construct spells and keep them going.

The wobbling tower of mana needed to constantly be repaired and balanced to prevent its collapse.

‘It’s extremely complicated.’

In media such as manhwa, anime, or novels, this kind of magic always looked like something you could do easily.

But in reality, my head felt like it was about to split apart when I used it.

It made me wonder if intelligence was a more important prerequisite than mana when it came to becoming a Wizard.

“Where next?”

“Left.”

I was irritated that even in this situation, I had to give directions to Park Deokgu.

“Gaeeeeeeeek!”

I could hear the voices of monsters in the distance. They were still a fair bit away so I couldn’t really distinguish their exact numbers.

“How many?”

“About two.”

“Take care of it on your own.”

“I’ll try, Hyung-nim.”

“Even if you can’t kill them, it doesn’t matter; just clear a path.”

“Leave it to me.”

Kwajik! Puuk! These sounds rang out.

Naturally, Park Deokgu’s back felt quite reliable as he continued to run forward.

He seemed a little like a tank.

“Next!”

“Right.”

“Gaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeek!”

“How many?”

“It seems like there’s no end to them….”

I stretched my arm out right away.

“Fireball.”

The sphere of flames that I had been holding in my hand halted then began to fly in a straight line.

I hadn’t expected it to recoil then move in a line.

Perhaps because of wind pressure, my hand was buffeted towards the sky for a moment. However, even as the enchantment flew forward, my mind didn’t stop casting the spell.

I didn’t want the spell I’d worked so hard to build to fly off somewhere weird.

Boong!

The sphere impacted the body of one shitty monster then spread out in all directions.

Kwajik!

As they were struck by the sphere, the monsters were blown into the air by the flames.

Wind rushed towards us in the aftermath of the explosion.

Naturally, Park Deokgu blocked it with the shield.

Seeing the majority of the monsters flung to the walls, screaming as they caught fire, or incapacitated, he looked at me with an expression of surprise.

It was a tight space, and luckily they had all been crowded together, but I was surprised by the scale of damage from the magical attack.

“Woah… Hyung-nim.”

“Hooo… Hooo….”

Left drained of mana for a moment, my legs began to shake.

However, we somehow managed to clear the way.

“Again.”

That’s when I felt that something was weird.

“Ah!”

Park Deokgu also subconsciously looked back, and stared at me with a look of shock.

‘Jung Hayan, Park Hyaeyoung.’

The two of them were no longer with us.

“When was…. The last time you saw them?”

“O-only a moment ago I-I thought they were following us….”

“You.”

I contained my surging irritation and bit back the curses that were about to spill from my mouth.

This was my fault.

I had no idea when the two of them had been separated from us because I was busy trying to construct the spell in my head.

The fact that even Park Deokgu didn’t notice was a bit unexpected, but I was sure that they weren’t far behind.

The important thing was whether they knew the way.

Jung Hayan might remember, but I wasn’t sure about Park Hyaeyoung; I felt that that bottom feeder wouldn’t have memorised the path.

Just following us must have been hard enough for her.

“H-how could I…. I-I’m sorry….”

“It’s not your fault, Deokgu-yah. I should have paid more attention. Shoot[2].”

“What do we d-do now?”

That was a question I wanted to ask myself.

If Park Hyaeyoung was the only one who had been separated from us, of course, I would have abandoned her.

The issue was that Jung Hayan was with her.

She was a lottery ticket that was guaranteed to win big. Losing her in a place like this was so absurd, I wouldn’t even be able to laugh.

I didn’t like gambling.

But when necessary, you had to act.

“I’m sure they’re still alive.”

“T-then.”

“If they were thinking clearly, they’d have made a mark for us to spot. Let’s turn back for now.”

“Good thinking, Hyung-nim.”

There was a high probability that Kim Hyunsung was taking care of the monsters trailing behind us.

What we had to focus on was the hungry swarms closing in on us from all sides.

It was hard to recite spells.

My mana levels were already at rock bottom, but I thought it might be possible for me to do something once more if I squeezed out every last drop.

“Can you think about the last time you saw them?”

“T-the last thing I remember was them running away with us. I-I saw… I didn’t hear any screaming….”

I also couldn’t recall it that well.

I remembered that the two of them had been following me when I was reciting the spell.

It seemed safe to assume that they had disappeared while I was maintaining the magic.

“For now, let’s get going.”

“Okay.”

I was anxious at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt that something was strange.

Although Park Deokgu was dimwitted, he wasn’t so stupid as to miss the two people following us suddenly disappearing.

Neither was I.

In the first place, Park Deokgu’s agility stats weren’t high. I wasn’t sure about Jang Hayan, but it certainly wasn’t to the point where Park Hyaeyoung wouldn’t have been able to keep up.

It wasn’t a situation where a monster would grab them by the ankles.

They may have been caught by a trap in the dungeon itself, but the probability of that was low.

This was the road we’d passed through in the beginning.

If there was a trap here, Kim Hyunsung would have given a word of warning.

Suddenly, I remembered the way Jung Hayan had looked at Park Hyaeyoung.

‘I don’t think that’s it.’

It was too early to reach a conclusion, but if Jung Hayan had wanted to keep her away from me, it would explain things somewhat.

She couldn’t have been able to tell which spell I was casting, but there was a chance that I wouldn’t have noticed her weaving a different spell while I was concentrating on mine.

At that time, I couldn’t have spared any attention to anything else while I was trying to maintain the spell.

Park Deokgu, who had no mana to begin with, wouldn’t have noticed what Jung Hayan was doing either.

Kim Hyunsung, who was far from us, was out of the question.

I hated to think about it, but I thought I could make a guess on the prime candidate who would want to create a situation where Jung Hayan was alone with Park Hyaeyoung.

‘The question is why.’

I didn’t want to assume the worst, but I couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

As I was running forward with Park Deokgu, I began to feel a faint trace of mana just like when I had found the entrance to the dungeon below.

‘Bitch….’

“Deokgu-ya, hurry up.”

“What happened?”

It had just been a rough guess.

However, the faint sense of mana was strengthening my hypothesis.