#120
“Gasp.”
I came to my senses while clutching my chest. The sensation of a sword piercing my heart captured me horribly. It was probably phantom pain, but I could feel for myself that my face had turned deathly pale. Carlisle caught me as I staggered.
Jingle jingle jingle.
The bell sound, so noisy. I feel like I’m going to throw up.
Without realizing it, I shuddered and pushed Carlisle away, backing off.
“Raon?”
Carlisle frowned and called my name. I raised my hand to stop him from approaching.
“No, I’m fine.”
Actually, I wasn’t fine. My heart was beating like crazy and it felt like cold sweat was breaking out all over my body. But I had to pull myself together. I was still in the middle of a quest. I tried to regain my composure and looked at the warrior before me.
All the pearls had disappeared and I had seen all the visions. Now it was time to choose.
“Now. Which of the three is true?”
The shark warrior asked with an expressionless face.
Nothing is as it appears. There’s always room for interpretation. Just like tarot card reading. Depending on what angle and how you cut a scene, the truth could change.
I swallowed dryly and opened my mouth.
“Among the three visions I saw, the true one is…”
I don’t know the correct answer anyway. There’s only what I hope is true.
I don’t believe Eira is a villain. She’s just an innocent genius Potionist. That’s how the game was set up, and that’s how Eira was when I actually met her. What I’m honestly uncertain about is Carlisle. Separate from my feelings about him.
I threw out one more question.
“Wait, what happens if I can’t get the answer right?”
Shing. The mermaid warrior drew their sword and pointed the tip at me.
“Simple. You won’t be able to enter peacefully.”
Along with those words, a massive form rose behind them. That thing…
‘…A dragon?’
That form was a beautiful blue dragon. Aside from the different color, it wasn’t much different from the white dragon I’d seen in the desert’s hidden dungeon. They could have been twins.
“Stop chattering and answer now. I won’t wait any longer.”
The shark warrior bared their teeth.
“Alright. The true one is…”
Honestly, I really don’t know. I have no intuition about it. If the scenes I just saw were real memories, I should have some kind of feeling about them… My heart was beating like crazy, but that was just because the last scene I saw was too shocking, rather than the vision touching real memories.
“Get ready.”
I whispered without looking at Carlisle. I could feel Carlisle’s body next to me tense up. I gripped my sword tighter and raised my voice.
“The true one is the second, the image shown by the pink pearl.”
“…That’s all?”
That’s all? What does that mean? So…
“Wrong answer!”
With that shout, the two warriors each rushed at me and Carlisle.
“Shibal.”
Clang clang bang!
Swoosh.
The moment our swords clashed, my body slid backward. The curse that burst out wasn’t just because of my opponent’s tremendous strength.
‘What do you mean “that’s all,” so there are more truths?’
What did they say at the beginning? That there could be one truth or three? Of course all three could be lies, but the mermaid warrior just asked me “that’s all?” That means the second one I chose is true, and there’s one or more additional truths.
Clang!
While barely blocking the mermaid’s terrifying downward strike, I was falling into confusion.
‘So that could be real?’
I thought while recalling the last vision I saw. Of course, that third vision could be false and Eira could really be a villain who scattered poison. But my heart kept leaning toward the possibility that the third one might be true.
The vision shown by the black pearl was clearly a scene of Carlisle killing me after I’d been corrupted. I, yes, shibal, I like Carlisle Lightinger. But that doesn’t mean I completely trust him. I just… want to trust him.
Clang clang bang!
My stamina hadn’t fully recovered as it was. The mermaid warrior’s skill was at a similar level to the skeleton captain who had been a boss mob, so even giving it my all would make it hard to win, and it was difficult to even concentrate properly. What was even worse was…
‘Why isn’t it working?’
Despite enduring the pain and cutting my thigh to sprinkle blood, the same effect as when I fought the ghost captain didn’t appear.
Slash!
“Ugh!”
Instead, I showed an opening while doing something useless and got my shoulder cut deeply. I grabbed my shoulder and hastily retreated. The blood that spread into the water flowed toward the mermaid, but as expected, the mermaid showed no reaction to my blood. They even seemed more spirited.
“Huff huff.”
I was breathing roughly. My stamina was rapidly draining again. The bewilderment ate away at my mental fatigue as well.
Why is there no reaction? Is it because all the tree sap components have disappeared from my body? But…
‘Didn’t Carlisle say he used a tree sap potion on me?’
Then there should still be an effect. Or maybe the mermaid warriors don’t react to the purification effect because they’re not corrupted monsters?
‘That might be it…’
It was a plausible guess. But if that’s really the case, it’s big trouble. I still can’t match this mermaid warrior’s force with strength or combat skills alone. If I had something to rely on, it would be Carlisle, but…
I glanced at Carlisle and was surprised. Just like me, he was also gradually being pushed into a defensive position. The sight of him gritting his teeth with wrinkles on his brow was unfamiliar. Maybe the warrior over there is stronger, but… even so, this is Carlisle Lightinger, does that make sense?
The title of world’s strongest wasn’t given for nothing. Moreover… didn’t he say with his own mouth that he was the guardian of the Sacred Tree and its priest?
‘What, is that bastard deliberately fighting half-heartedly?’
If the last vision I saw was true, that possibility wasn’t impossible… No. Even so, Carlisle would also need a Fragment of the Sacred Tree to remove his body’s corruption. Then maybe…
‘No.’
I gritted my teeth. Carlisle might have his own circumstances. What’s important now is the immediate situation. Let’s somehow get through this hidden dungeon and get our hands on the Fragment of the Sacred Tree. Let’s talk with Carlisle after that. It won’t be too late to make a judgment then.
The problem is that we’re currently being pushed into a defensive position. My blood no longer has any effect and Carlisle can’t display his skills for some unknown reason. Then what can I do to break through this situation?
But thinking or whatever, the situation worsened by the second. The blue dragon joined the fight. Moreover, the dragon’s attack target was me! The two warriors rushed at Carlisle. No, isn’t this backwards somehow? Shouldn’t the dragon at least take on Carlisle?
Thwack!
I got hit by the massive tail and went flying. I tried to dodge but even though it only grazed me, the impact was tremendous. Blood poured from my mouth as if my internal organs had been damaged.
‘Damn it! If you’re a dragon, fight like a dragon should, dragon to dragon! Why are you interfering in a fight between weak humans! Don’t you have any pride?’
In the midst of the chaos, I recalled one of the visions I’d seen earlier, no, one of the memory fragments. At that time I was too busy solving the immediate quest to properly reflect on it… There was one memory about the white dragon. As if the dragon was my summon that I could command at will…
The dragon that appeared then became a small keychain figure and hung from my waist. And coincidentally, there’s a keychain figure that looks like that dragon hanging from my waist right now, the one I won at the festival.
I reached my hand toward my waist.
‘It might be foolish, but…’
It’s not the first time I’ve done something foolish anyway. Haven’t I already struck out twice trying to call Carlisle and Bisang? Still, I remember the voice saying that asking for help is also an ability, to try everything you can do.
Snap!
As soon as I focused on something else, my concentration scattered again. Blade-like teeth came snapping at me and I rolled my body with all my might. The torn piece of clothing fluttered and fell away.
“Cough.”
I coughed up blood again. My health bar was rapidly decreasing.
Now there was nothing else to cling to. Carlisle looked overwhelmed just dealing with two boss-level mermaid warriors simultaneously. Right now I literally had to grab onto any straw. If that wasn’t a hallucination but a real ‘memory’ fragment, then maybe I have the ability to summon a dragon too.
Dragons should face dragons, how can a human fight and win against a dragon?
While rolling on the ground to avoid attacks, I barely managed to grip the keychain in my hand. The problem was that the figure on the keychain had cracked from the recent attack’s aftermath. Would this still work? Moreover, I had no idea how to summon it.
“Dragon summon, white dragon, white dragon, come, guardian dragon of the Sacred Tree, what else is there? Divine beast!”
While jumping here and there and rolling around to avoid the dragon’s attacks, I tried every word I could think of. But not even a dragon appeared, let alone a lesser dragon or even something like a salamander.
Could it be that it’s sulking and won’t come because I was standoffish in the desert dungeon? Having already been burned by Bisang with the summoning button, I felt anxious. Actually, Carlisle came on his own feet too, it’s not like I called him. None of the help I’ve asked for has been properly answered.
“Yongyong! Please, come on! Help me!”
It was when I shouted while tightly gripping the figure. Honestly, I hadn’t even gripped it that hard, but the small figure crumbled to pieces.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
