My first thought was that the government couldn’t have dispatched an Esper this quickly, but then I realized that if the Center Director who knew about this situation had taken measures in advance, the response could be this fast.
But regardless of what happened, as I looked toward the place expecting some help, a completely unexpected person emerged.
“You, why are you here!”
I exclaimed, seeing Yang Garam who had just come through the gate.
“Hyung, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Without even listening to my question, Yang Garam rushed over and examined my body while pouring out his own words.
“Do you even know where this is? No, wait, didn’t the Center Director stop you?”
“I’ll give you Guiding now.”
“Listen when someone is talking to you.”
I grabbed his arm as he reached for my hand. Only then did Yang Garam’s eyes focus on me. His dazed eyes regained focus like someone waking up from a trance. Why Yang Garam had come through the gate was a mystery, but this was no place for him.
“Go back.”
The guy with a mountain-like build teared up at my single command.
“The Guide I’ve been dreaming of has arrived, why is the atmosphere like this?”
Peter, who had been watching us, smoothly cut in.
“We needed a Guide just now, so you came at the right time. Your name is Garam?”
Peter, who had been standing next to me, had somehow moved beside Yang Garam and started speaking to him in a friendly manner. His intentions were so transparent that I frowned.
“Peter. Let’s send Garam back. It’s too dangerous.”
“Jeongjae, you’re a Guide, right?”
“Yes, I am.”
“What’s your grade?”
“S-grade.”
“Oh, perfect! Welcome!”
Watching the two of them hitting it off without me made the back of my neck tense.
“Even so, this doesn’t seem right. For Garam, still…”
“Jeongjae, is this your first time accompanying a Guide? No matter how pretty a Guide is, you should separate public and private matters.”
Peter delivered a sharp rebuke. It was probably advice meant for a rookie Esper, but it dredged up past memories and reopened my wounds. Unable to maintain my expression, I bit my lip and lowered my head. I was furious that this obvious fact had never been obvious for me, and at the same time, I felt ashamed that I had seen Yang Garam not as a Guide but just as a younger brother.
“Hyung, I’m sorry for being stubborn. But I really can’t go back.”
Yang Garam knelt before me. Looking up with gentle eyes, he asked for permission, and I couldn’t possibly refuse.
“Fine, just get up.”
“Yes.”
As soon as he got my permission, Yang Garam stood up with a broad smile across his face.
“Now that we’ve settled this, could Garam locate the core for us?”
Peter spoke as if he’d been waiting this whole time to ask this, looking relieved after finishing his sentence.
“I’ll give it a try.”
As Yang Garam placed his hand on the ground and released his energy, the previously calm sea churned violently, and monsters revealed themselves. Not just one or two. An enormous number emerged from the sea, so many that the blue water appeared black. Peter and I raised our abilities simultaneously, standing back-to-back with Yang Garam between us.
The monsters’ bodies in the sea were largely sliced by Peter’s ice blades and burned by my fire. The clear seawater gradually became murky with monster blood and charred flesh, and the small patch of ground became covered with monster carcasses.
Eventually, Yang Garam looked up.
“I found it.”
“Where?”
“Right below us.”
Yang Garam pointed to the ground we were standing on. They say the darkest place is right under the lamp—it was right in front of us all along. In our current situation, surrounded by monsters on all sides, it was fortunate we didn’t have to fight through them to get to another location.
“How far down?”
“About 8-9 meters?”
Not too deep, but considering it was equivalent to about 3-4 floors of an apartment building.
“I can melt the ground, but if we go down to where the core is, won’t seawater start filling in at some point?”
“I’ll freeze it when that happens. Jeongjae, you just need to keep melting until we reach the core.”
Peter’s straightforward thinking was admirable in its own way.
“No need to wait until then.”
After slaughtering a group of monsters that were persistently climbing up with a few flicks of his fingers, Peter placed both arms on the ground. Just like when the reservoir froze over, in an instant, the floor, surrounding sea, and even the monsters all turned white with ice.
“Now you can use your ability without worry.”
I stood at the position Yang Garam had indicated, first creating a crescent-shaped fireball of extreme heat, placing it on the ground with the convex part facing down and the flat part facing up. The ground began to melt quickly in a circular shape, and I stood on the flat surface, gesturing for Yang Garam and Peter to join me.
When they stood with me, the added weight made the sphere melt the ground even faster. After that, it was easy. Thanks to Peter’s thorough freezing, we comfortably descended while melting the ground like riding an elevator, and we easily found the core encased in ice.
‘Without Garam, we would have been searching for a cave in the sea, and would have gone through all sorts of trouble to get to where the core is.’
We had easily handled the monsters above, but it would have been different underwater. Moreover, even as S-grade Espers, we couldn’t breathe underwater just like regular people, so we would have struggled considerably.
‘Plus, I’ve been receiving continuous Guiding.’
For an S-grade dungeon, the monsters weren’t particularly skilled. It might be because they were out of water, but ultimately, I was able to conserve a lot of energy. Additionally, Yang Garam had been holding my hand and providing Guiding since finishing the search, so my condition was at its peak.
“I’ll go destroy the core and come back.”
Unlike how we came down by melting the ground, this time I expanded my ability to melt all the frozen spaces in the cave at once. The dungeon core was situated inside a large shell. Its color was so iridescent that it looked like a real pearl. If the shell had been closed, I could have blown it up whole, but it was wide open, so I crawled inside without any suspicion.
“Huh?”
As I tried to grab the core deep within the shell, suddenly something like water spurted from inside and splashed on my face. I wiped my face with the hand that was about to grab the core, because of the unpleasant water that touched my eyes, nose, and mouth. I opened my eyes feeling disgusted, but for some reason, even though my eyes were open, my vision remained completely black.
‘What’s this? Was that water a deadly poison that took away my sight?’
In my confusion, I tried to summon fire, but the ground beneath me wriggled and moved.
At the same time, something squishy wrapped around my entire body. Screaming at the creepy sensation, I frantically lit fires to attack, but I could hardly feel any impact. Instead, when it momentarily brightened due to the fire, I realized something. I hadn’t lost my sight; I was trapped inside the shell and temporarily couldn’t see anything. This shell had used the core as bait to try to eat me.
‘I should have blown up the whole shell from the beginning. This is so embarrassing.’
Though it looked like a shell, it was just another monster. I released ultra-high temperature flames from my entire body. If ordinary fire didn’t work, I could counter with extraordinary fire.
However, the more I drew upon my ability, the more abnormally my heart began to beat. I realized that the water from the shell had penetrated my skin and was having unknown effects, but I couldn’t stop using my ability. When the inside of the shell began to melt from the heat I was emitting and even the hard shell developed holes and opened up, I clutched my heart and collapsed.
My consciousness, which had been flickering as if on the verge of going berserk, finally faded.
When I opened my eyes, I was in the sea. In the deep sea where the bottom couldn’t be seen.
I should have been struggling because I couldn’t breathe, but strangely, I was breathing comfortably in the water. I relaxed my entire body and surrendered to the sea. Though I couldn’t swim and got severe seasickness, making the sea always frightening to me, this sea was nice. I closed my eyes again, feeling so cozy and warm that I could stay like this forever.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in Yang Garam’s arms, and we were still in the dungeon.
“Are you okay?”
Tears welling in Yang Garam’s eyes rolled down his cheeks and touched mine.
Seeing him made me recall the dream I’d just had.
“The sea.”
Hearing my murmur, Yang Garam slightly furrowed his brow.
“That sea was you.”
I raised my body, which felt as limp as a waterlogged sponge. I didn’t know how much Guiding he had done while I was unconscious, but my entire body felt like jelly.
“Hyung?”
Yang Garam, who hadn’t yet understood the meaning of my words, looked at me puzzled, and I just smiled reassuringly, hoping he would realize it himself. Come to think of it, I couldn’t see Peter.
“Peter said there’s no more danger since the core was destroyed, so he went back first.”
Hearing about Peter’s consideration in leaving to allow Yang Garam to Guide comfortably made me feel awkward.
“Let’s go back now too.”
Yang Garam nodded at my words and took something out from his pocket.
“You were holding this when I found you.”
It was a ring with a small pearl about half the size of a pinky nail.
“It’s an artifact.”
Before a proper appraisal, I couldn’t tell its exact purpose, but from a quick scan, it seemed to be related to healing.
Yang Garam personally put the ring on my finger and clasped my hand.
“Let’s go back now, Hyung.”
To return to the gate, we used the passageway we came through, and thanks to Peter’s consideration in carving the ice into stairs, we could easily climb up.
When Yang Garam and I emerged from outside the gate, the hour promised by the Center Director had long passed, and the sun was setting.
This incident was referred to as a miraculous event with no casualties and became the talk of many people, but Peter’s name was absent from those conversations.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
