Check out this novel and many more on [email protected]/Translatetoki
Memorize - Episode 58
00058 Dungeon Of Alchemist(2)
"Ugh... it hurts. That's too mean."
Sol complained of pain while rubbing her bottom. Hyun awkwardly smiled and offered his hand, but Sol expressed her displeasure by sharply turning her head away. Hyun looked shocked. I approached with a stern face and helped her up. Sol pouted her lips but still obediently let me support her body.
"Why... why only to me."
"Hmph."
Ahn Hyun wedged himself between me and Ahn Sol, voicing his grievance, but was met with only a cold response. Watching Hyun's frustration again, I spoke in a stiff voice.
"Sol."
"What is it~?"
Seemingly not entirely satisfied with me either, Ahn Sol responded in a slightly challenging tone rather than her usual innocent "Yes?". However, seeing my face harden, she immediately lowered her eyes and hung her head. And then. Soon after, a short scream was heard from Sol.
"Aaaah?!"
...All that effort to help her up was for nothing. They say if you're unlucky, you can break your nose even falling backwards, and Ahn Sol was exactly that case.
"Calm down. Calm down. That's right. Good girl."
One thing to note was why she deliberately avoided Hyun who was right in front of her and fell into my arms. Still, she seemed genuinely startled, so after comforting Sol who was trembling with tears hanging from her eyes, I calmly bent down.
Hyun and Yoo-jung also bent down following me, then stepped back with startled faces. What Sol had been lying on was none other than the corpse of a user. And it was quite a grotesquely twisted corpse at that.
"Urgh...!"
Yoo-jung finally couldn't hold it in and started retching. Even I frowned slightly looking at the corpse. This was the kind of thing only the worst of those murder brigade guys used to do....
Seeing the bow broken in half nearby, it seemed to be an archer (Affiliation: Ranger) user. A face and neck horribly contorted in pain, twisted a full circle with bones ripped out, came into view. I had thought they were a fairly skilled caravan to have made it to a dungeon spanning the middle and rear of the Pitch-black Forest, but now I could see why they were annihilated in the dungeon.
"How stupid... entering a dungeon without even a guide? They must be completely crazy. Or blinded by greed."
It wasn't really a situation to criticize others, but I quietly muttered to myself and bit my lip. I knew the atmosphere would be reversed between above ground and underground, but this was like throwing a fastball right from the start. While constantly comforting Sol who was shivering and chattering her teeth, I calmly looked around.
It was literally just a dark, straight corridor. The only directions to go were forward or back. For now, we no longer needed to follow the caravan's traces. It was unfortunate that they would be discovered dead after 2 years and several months, but that had nothing to do with me. I planned to thoroughly search every detail after activating my Third Eye. I also thought about catching the alchemist while I was at it. As the dungeon master, there was a high possibility they would drop some decent equipment.
After making these calculations in my mind, I turned to look at the kids with excitement. And immediately frowned. The impact of seeing the corpse at the beginning seemed to be great, as they all looked anxious and fidgety. Yoo-jung was even subtly giving off an atmosphere of wanting to return to the city. Looking at them, I opened my mouth in a sharp voice.
"Is this your first time seeing a user's corpse? Don't you know this is common in the Hollow Plane? You've even killed vagrants before, why make such a fuss over one corpse?"
The kids' Adam's apples bobbed at my scolding. However, they still seemed to have a hint of hesitation in their hearts as they kept looking at each other. I continued in an even stronger voice.
"What's wrong with all of you? You were happy about discovering a dungeon on your first exploration, but now you're already tucking your tails? Do you know how big the rewards will be if we succeed in this exploration?"
"..."
Even if it made me look materialistic, this was reality and the truth. The fact that the kids were showing this kind of behavior now was evidence that they still hadn't reached the standard I demanded mentally. In the Hollow Plane, people shouldn't be seen as
"It seems you still don't grasp how meaningful it is to discover a dungeon on your first exploration, as you said. If we just endure this once, how much easier will things be from now on.... Do you want to kick away the treasure right in front of your eyes? Are you satisfied with just discovering it and want to return to the city?"
"N-no. Absolutely not. No. Hyung. That's not it."
Ahn Hyun was the first to regain his composure. Repeatedly saying it wasn't so while slapping his cheeks with both hands and shaking his head vigorously, he seemed to be mentally re-arming himself. I felt the frustration ease a little, but I still couldn't help feeling exasperated. When I used to act under Yoo Hyun hyung's group or Han So-young, it was really hard to keep up. Of course, I knew they couldn't be compared, but I couldn't help feeling impatient.
"It's all the same. Forget about expedition teams, even in explorations like this, it's not uncommon for entire caravans to be wiped out, let alone have casualties. Of course, I want to keep you all alive. I have no intention of being wiped out. But I can't do it alone. I need your help."
"...Okay. Sorry. I understand. I'm sorry, oppa."
As I kept urging them on, even Yoo-jung seemed to finally come to her senses, rising with a determined face. She was still gritting her teeth and her legs were shaking, suggesting she hadn't fully recovered from the shock of the horrific corpse, but it was much better than retching.
"...Sigh. Anyway... Sol, come to the center now. Yes, yes. Good girl. Let's get going. Everyone, form up."
Watching the kids nod at my words and take their positions, I sighed and turned around. I heard Yoo-jung muttering in a small voice behind me, "Always favoring Sol," but I didn't say anything in particular.
Objectively speaking. Subjectively speaking. There was nothing wrong with Yoo-jung's words.
We were slowly advancing forward in a triangular formation. There was a slight difference from the triangular formation we had in the forest - the positions of Hyun and Yoo-jung, who were guarding the left and right, were each pulled 45 degrees towards me. It was quite dark inside, but we had secured some visibility with the Light magic Sol was maintaining.
We walked through the dark underground, guarding in all directions. Of course, there were no traps or monsters caught in our detection yet. The only things we occasionally found were monsters turned to ash or traps that had already been triggered. It seemed the caravan that went in ahead had dealt with most of them. Thanks to that, I felt somewhat grateful that we could go easily.
I wondered if this might change the future and they would get all the exploration rewards, but it didn't matter. I could just secretly kill them all and take it back. I continued advancing while thinking thoughts that would make the users who went ahead faint if they heard them.
Sol's Light spell was still unstable, as the sphere showed quite an unsteady appearance. Instead of staying in one place, it was floating around here and there. It seemed to be quite irritating, as Yoo-jung kept swatting at the sphere with an irritated gesture when it lingered around her. The sphere then floated over to the side.
I didn't understand why the two were having this battle of nerves, but I decided to ask about it later and expanded my detection even further.
"Hmm."
How long had we walked? When I suddenly stopped and furrowed my brow, the kids also tensed up, raising their weapons and spreading their detection. I felt a little satisfied inside, thinking they were finally getting into shape. Even Sol was mumbling spells despite no enemies appearing. I raised one hand to ease their excessive vigilance and spoke in a calm voice.
"I sense something ahead. It's a bit strange. We should get closer to check it out."
Seeing the kids' hands quickly rise again after lowering their guard at my signal, I couldn't help but smile bitterly. It would be nice if they could show a more consistent attitude. Their behavior varied too much depending on the situation, making them difficult for even me to predict. After organizing these trivial thoughts for a moment, I immediately heightened my vision and hearing.
Although there was still some distance, what I was detecting now was not a monster, but a user. It seemed too small to be a user, but I could hear occasional groans. I gestured for the kids to follow me and immediately ran forward.
"Ugh..."
As the distance decreased, the groans of the user became more clearly audible. Could the caravan have been wiped out this quickly? No, more than that, there's no way they could be wiped out so easily? Various thoughts came to mind, but confirming their survival status was most important for now. If they were alive, we might be able to extract some information.
"Haa... ugh..."
I can see it. A user collapsed on the floor comes into view ahead. I ran over like flying and immediately knelt on the ground. The kids who had followed without knowing what was going on also immediately stuck close behind me, then gasped at the sight of the fallen user's form. First it was an archer. And now. The user collapsed in front of us was wearing priest's robes. The problem was that the upper and lower body were torn apart and sprawled on the floor.
"...It's impressive you're still alive."
A faint white light flowing from the separated upper body suggested they had desperately cast healing spells. After checking the user's condition, I reflexively activated my Third Eye.
< User Information (Player Status) >
Name : Park Nam-heon (4th year)
Class : Normal Priest Expert
Affiliated Nation : Barbara
Affiliated Group : -
True Name · Nationality : - · Republic of Korea
Gender : Male (27)
Height · Weight : 177.8cm · 79.1kg
Disposition : Lawful · Neutral
[Strength 36] [Endurance 57] [Agility 31] [Vitality 47] [Mana 81] [Luck 41]
Has suffered critical injuries.
Requires a high-level healing spell. Life can be saved.
Requires a recovery potion of Elixir level or higher. Life can be saved.
Not worth saving. Considering he's in his 4th year. The moment I confirmed his ability scores and other details, I completely gave up on saving him. The male user, sensing our presence, painfully opened his eyes and looked at us.
It could be considered impressive that he was still alive with such injuries given his priest ability scores. He must have cast self-healing spells or it was thanks to his special or potential abilities. Even so, with such fatal wounds, he couldn't escape death....
"U-users... how..."
"What happened? When did you enter this dungeon? And what about your other companions?"
"Th-thank... cough!"
"Oppa. L-let's save him first..."
We can't save him. It's better to extract whatever information we can. I barely managed to stop the words that were about to burst out by closing my mouth. I still needed to be careful with my words. Sol had started chanting healing spells, and Yoo-jung was already handing me a vitality potion. Although the mana going into the spell and the potion felt like such a waste, I reluctantly opened the potion cap.
"How foolish. That's why I said, what guts did you have to enter a dungeon without even a guide? Anyway. Open your mouth.
After whispering carefully in his ear, I supported the man's face and poured the potion into his mouth. At first he seemed to drink a little, but then he immediately coughed up a handful of blood. Seeing that, Sol was so startled that the spell she had been chanting was nullified. When I tried to force him to drink again, the priest painfully shook his head and refused. It seemed he already knew he couldn't be revived and was calmly accepting death.
At that moment, I felt something off. Despite calmly accepting death, he was still trying to survive somehow. He wanted to hold on even a little longer. However, upon seeing us, the user gave up on life. That meant he had something to tell us.
Eventually, the male user spat out the blood filling his mouth and painfully opened his mouth.
A total of 350 chapters are available on the patreon
Check out this novel and many more on [email protected]/Translatetoki