#052
I tried to gently let go of the hand I was holding. Carlisle momentarily tightened his grip, not wanting to let go, but when I stared at him directly and gently pushed him away, he eventually released my hand with a sullen expression. Instead of immediately turning around and crossing the boundary, I used my now-freed hands to cup Carlisle’s cheeks. His still soft and smooth cheeks.
Looking into Carlisle’s eyes that gazed at me with such pitiful longing, I brought my lips to his. The warm, tender flesh pressed together softly, becoming one. Carlisle closed his eyes and his long eyelashes trembled.
The scent of the sea enveloped us, and fireworks were still exploding overhead.
“Goodbye, Carlisle.”
Whispering softly, I stepped backwards across the boundary line.
[The Midsummer Night Festival event has ended.]
***
But when I opened my eyes, I was still lip-to-lip with Carlisle. It was a Carlisle with sharper, harder facial features. Unlike the boy who had his eyes prettily closed, this man was staring at me intensely with fierce gray eyes like a predator.
“…?”
What the hell is this now?
“Raon, are you coming to?”
Someone shouted noisily from beside me.
“Puah!”
I burst out with a blocked breath. Unlike the tender atmosphere from just before, Carlisle had been holding my nose while pressing his lips to mine. In other words, it was artificial respiration.
“You’re quite tenacious with your breathing.”
Carlisle said sarcastically as he withdrew his hands and lips from my face. A sneer settled on his blade-sharp features. He was definitely different from the Carlisle I had just seen. There was no way they could be the same. Wait, had he not given me artificial respiration to save me, but actually blocked both my mouth and nose to suffocate me to death?
I sat up coughing. My whole body was soaking wet and water droplets were dripping from my hair. It wasn’t Carlisle who helped me up, but Taro. He looked ridiculous with just overalls over his bare torso, but I didn’t have the energy to properly dress and staggered as I leaned against Taro.
“What happened?”
When I asked, Taro made a bewildered face.
“That’s what we want to ask. Did you suddenly get dizzy or something? How could you fall into such shallow water?”
“Uh… I did get dizzy. Was I unconscious for long?”
“No, not really. We pulled you out right away, but we got worried when you wouldn’t come to.”
“……”
As expected, time had stopped while I was doing the event. What the hell is going on.
“Sorry to bother you as soon as you came to, but.”
Without giving me time to think, Carlisle pulled me away from Taro, grabbed my shoulders and turned me around. The hand gripping my cold, bare shoulder felt surprisingly hot. Completely different from young Carlisle’s body temperature.
“Now that the water play is over, shall we get to what we need to do? This thing looks like it’s getting tired of waiting and wants to dive back down.”
What I saw in front of me was the decorative stone that opened the hidden dungeon door. Come to think of it, I was standing on top of the rock where this decorative stone was placed. That rock was gradually swaying and trying to sink back down, just as Carlisle said.
Panicking, I had no time to think about this and that, and reached out my hand. Fortunately, without any more unexpected variables occurring, my hand fit perfectly into the palm pattern, and just like before, blinding light and vibrations followed as the entrance to the hidden dungeon appeared.
After dragging me into the water, the entrance actually appeared outside the spring. We entered the hidden dungeon while still in the car. The entrance that had looked narrow grew to the size of our vehicle as the car approached, then shrank back and completely disappeared after we entered.
“Whoa… The exit’s been blocked off? Are we really okay?”
Taro said after confirming that where the entrance had been was now completely turned into a wall. Despite the worried content of his words, his tone was completely excited.
After passing through the narrow passage and arriving at an open area, we got out of the car. The dungeon wasn’t much different from the first one we’d found in Wanderer’s Plains. The interior blocked the external heat and felt cool, with clear, fresh air flowing through. The difference, if there was one, was the vegetation.
Cacti sprouted here and there, and there were some with the sand strawberries I’d been looking for. Peeking their heads out between trees and grass were desert foxes with large ears. It wasn’t all things you’d only see in the desert either.
“There’s a bread tree too. And a coffee tree.”
Taro ran around exclaiming in amazement.
Bread trees and coffee trees! My heart was pounding too. Does this mean I won’t have to try to adjust my palate to the monster-made grotesque food anymore? That I won’t have to go hungry and can finally fill my stomach?
The bread tree here was different from reality – one tree bore countless small fruits, and when you roasted those small fruits, they would puff up greatly and become bread. The coffee tree’s fruit was similar to reality. The differences from reality would be that they’re easy to grow, thrive anywhere, and can be harvested frequently.
“Over there.”
Unlike Taro who was distracted by secondary things, Carlisle focused straight on the hidden dungeon’s final reward. After walking in for quite a while, there was a large spring formed by clear water pooled like the oasis we’d seen earlier. In the center of it, a giant palm tree towered like a spire, with a single coconut hanging from it, and what appeared to be a Fragment of the Sacred Tree piercing through the center of that coconut. (Actually, it was too high to make out with the naked eye, and we could only confirm it accurately after using the telescope Taro carried.)
“That’s an incredible height.”
Taro whistled.
“And the tree trunk is as smooth as if it’s been sanded. Is it telling us not to climb up? Looking at how huge that fruit is, there must be something inside it, right? What could be in there? Do we have to pick it and crack it open to see what comes out?”
Listening to Taro babbling excitedly by himself, I felt a bit puzzled and glanced at him. It should seem strange that a withered tree branch is piercing through the coconut high up there, but he made no mention of that at all. Could it be that he can’t see it?
I looked at Carlisle. He was looking up at the coconut with a frowning face and his arms crossed. He must be thinking about how to solve the problem. Just like in the previous hidden dungeon, he would be able to see the hidden dungeon’s reward, the Fragment of the Sacred Tree. Didn’t he already know something about the Fragment of the Sacred Tree?
Then what could it be? Do NPCs have different levels of what they can and can’t see? The difference between main NPCs and extras? (Though for that matter, isn’t Taro no longer an extra since he joined this quest?) Or does each NPC see different things?
I don’t know the reason, but if they can’t see it, then they can’t see it. There’s no point in making a fuss asking why they can’t see it. The system doesn’t answer when you complain about what it does. Anyway, I just need to return to reality when it’s over.
The problem is how to pick that fruit. The Fragment of the Sacred Tree needs to be touched by my hand, but anyone should be able to pick the fruit.
“Should I try throwing this?”
It was a question, but something had already left Taro’s hand and was flying. What flew through the air with a whoosh didn’t even reach two-thirds of the way up the tree before returning. But even that was impressive. I was newly amazed. I had secretly thought that Taro and I had similar physical strength and muscle power, but maybe not.
“Hmm. It’s too far. Raon, want to try throwing it?”
Taro handed me the item. It was a boomerang.
“Me?”
I felt reluctant. Honestly, my terrible skill at throwing things to hit targets had already been proven at the waterfall in the first dungeon. How am I supposed to hit a target that I can barely see with the naked eye? Especially when my stamina is completely depleted right now.
I glanced at Carlisle, but he was just staring, as if telling me to give it a try.
He probably expected me to display some unexpected skill since I’m the only one who can get the Fragment of the Sacred Tree in my hands… I hesitantly took the boomerang, concentrated my mind, then carefully aimed at the Fragment of the Sacred Tree and threw it.
‘I knew this would happen.’
It didn’t even reach half the height of the tree, let alone the coconut.
The boomerang that should have returned seemed to crash into the water… but fortunately, perhaps because it wasn’t an ordinary boomerang, it bounced up and returned to its owner Taro’s hand.
‘Why did they tell me to throw it.’
My face heated up from embarrassment. What’s annoying is that since the Tranquility Potion’s effects have almost worn off, I can’t even manage my expressions properly now. An awkward silence seemed to settle, at least for me, but then Carlisle immediately threw something.
“Oh!”
Taro burst out in admiration. My mouth also fell open a little. Something like a long string with a weight at the end, like a yo-yo, flew precisely to the coconut and instantly wrapped around the stem area before cleanly snapping it off.
I couldn’t help but be amazed too. Wait, could it really be this easy?
Actually, in the first hidden dungeon, the Fragment of the Sacred Tree was floating in mid-air and only I could touch it, so I had to desperately climb up the cliff while practically clinging to Carlisle. I’d been feeling gloomy thinking I’d have to climb that smooth-looking tree, but now that the Fragment of the Sacred Tree is stuck in the coconut, Carlisle can touch it, making things easier instead.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
