#38
Had he always looked at me with such eyes? It was an intense gaze that made it hard to breathe. Choi Do-jun’s hand rubbed Seo Yi-young’s eyes. It wasn’t a gentle touch, but it felt careful.
And then a notification window appeared.
[Room You Can Only Leave When You Feel Good: Requirement Fulfilled]
“…Huh?”
Requirement fulfilled? Was it enough for just one person to feel good? Seo Yi-young reflexively turned to look at Choi Do-jun, but his face had completely lost the heat from moments before.
The space where the two had been trapped began to slowly crumble, starting from what appeared to be the ceiling, like sand falling apart. Seo Yi-young quickly gathered his wits, escaped from Choi Do-jun’s arms, and fixed his clothes first. They couldn’t know what situation they would face when they left this place. They needed to be prepared.
As the place where the two had been trapped crumbled away, it revealed a giant helminth beetle wrapped in white armor. Just one of its legs was as thick as a human forearm. It didn’t take long to realize that this giant helminth beetle was the boss mob.
“…This is strange…?”
It was good to be out of the trapped area, but the problem was that strength was draining from his body to an alarming degree. It felt as if someone had inserted a straw into his body and was sucking everything out.
His knees wobbled. This wasn’t because of his recent ejaculation. It was abnormal to lose this much strength just from coming once.
“This is indeed strange.”
Choi Do-jun looked down at his own hand, clenching and unclenching his fist. It seemed he was experiencing the same thing as Seo Yi-young. As time passed, it became increasingly difficult to even stand. He had thought the ground was shaking, but it was actually Seo Yi-young’s body that was trembling. Seo Yi-young slumped weakly to the floor. He barely had enough strength to keep his upper body upright. Looking toward Choi Do-jun, he saw that he too was barely standing.
“Is that the cause?”
At the low muttered voice, Seo Yi-young bit his lip. The giant helminth beetle was bobbing its head up and down.
“Can you see that?”
“…That? …Ah.”
They could see something like thin threads connecting to them. Choi Do-jun tried to cut it, but it was futile.
“Sucking from just one side unilaterally. That’s unfair.”
Seo Yi-young heard Choi Do-jun complaining. By this point, Seo Yi-young could barely even sit properly.
Sucking? What did that mean? As his strength continued to drain, his brain couldn’t process quickly. Only after some time passed did he realize that Choi Do-jun was referring to their vitality or strength.
But isn’t this too much? Even cowardice has its limits. Seo Yi-young looked up at the thin thread-like thing connected to him. Being intangible, even Choi Do-jun’s attacks couldn’t affect it.
His strength drained so completely that he was gasping for breath. Choi Do-jun must have been in a similar situation, as he was glaring at the boss mob with one knee on the ground. At this rate, they wouldn’t even be able to attack the boss mob, let alone defend themselves.
Seo Yi-young felt a tingling sensation in his fingers and looked down.
“…”
His hands looked withered, as if the skin was barely clinging to the bone. A chill ran down his spine. It seemed the creature wasn’t just taking their energy but all their life force. Drying up like a mummy was just a matter of time.
To be defeated like this? Without being able to do anything?
That was absolutely unacceptable. If they couldn’t break the connection, there was only one conclusion. First, they needed to attack the main body, that thing, directly to stop the absorption. For that, they needed Choi Do-jun’s power.
The shell of the helminth beetle, which was absorbing the power of the two, was visibly hardening. Breaking that would undoubtedly require considerable strength. Only Choi Do-jun could produce that much firepower. But Choi Do-jun’s condition wasn’t good either. His complexion had turned pale, and he looked like he might collapse to the floor like Seo Yi-young at any moment.
With trembling hands, he managed to open and drink a potion, but it was useless. It had been a mistake not to bring potions that restored physical health rather than mana, thinking they wouldn’t be necessary. He hadn’t anticipated this situation.
Biting his lip, a single thought barely formed in Seo Yi-young’s mind. There was exactly one way to defeat this boss mob and escape this dungeon. Having made his decision, Seo Yi-young reached out to Choi Do-jun.
What he couldn’t do, Choi Do-jun could.
When Seo Yi-young’s hand touched him, Choi Do-jun looked at him.
“I’m counting on you.”
Speaking softly with a voice that could barely produce sound, Seo Yi-young squeezed out his remaining strength to heal Choi Do-jun. Choi Do-jun’s pale complexion instantly returned to normal. And then Seo Yi-young collapsed in place, without even the strength to move a finger.
Having used almost all his strength, he was barely even breathing. His eyes were too heavy to open properly, making his vision blur. He thought he glimpsed Choi Do-jun looking at him.
“…Repay the debt.”
Even speaking one word at a time was exhausting, making him wheeze. Instead of telling him not to worry and to go ahead, he turned his head toward where Choi Do-jun was and struggled to raise the corner of his mouth.
“Escort me out of the dungeon.”
Through Seo Yi-young’s blurry vision, he saw Choi Do-jun smile wryly. It was a smile that seemed to say he had no choice.
Watching Choi Do-jun’s back as he ran toward the boss mob without hesitation, when Seo Yi-young closed his eyes and opened them again, he was already gone. He must have moved using the light he emitted.
Where Choi Do-jun reappeared was in mid-air. After firing a beam at the boss mob, he appeared in another place and fired another beam from there. After repeating this dozens of times, dozens of beams were suddenly directed at the boss mob.
Those beams were much larger than what Choi Do-jun usually used in dungeons. It showed how seriously he was launching his attack. But the creature’s shell was so hard that it remained intact even after receiving those attacks.
Keeee, eeek!
The helminth beetle struggled, trying to block the attacks, but it was useless. Seo Yi-young was sure of one thing: though it might seem like their powers were evenly matched now, the situation would turn in Choi Do-jun’s favor. He was certain of it.
Watching him attack, Seo Yi-young realized anew: Choi Do-jun’s abilities were truly unfair. Direct hits, close-range, long-range—usually, one would specialize in just one of these, but he was capable of all of them, and could attack both from the ground and in the air. Moreover, using his light ability, he could move at light speed, essentially giving him a speed buff.
Above all, his firepower was incomparable. Using light-based attacks, Choi Do-jun could cause heat explosions like firing lasers. Seo Yi-young thought about how nice it would be if he were such an all-around combat hunter too, but then shook his head.
One thing was certain: fighting on the front lines was not an easy task. Even if they were called mobs, they were living things that moved, and one had to attack them and defend against their attacks. He’d heard that physical combat hunters feel the sensation of breaking the mob’s shell, the stench of their bodily fluids, and the unpleasant texture much more vividly as they strike them directly. He couldn’t guarantee how much of that he could endure.
Despite having entered dungeons several times so far, the number of times he’d faced mobs one-on-one could be counted on his fingers. As rear support, Seo Yi-young rarely encountered mobs in the first place. They were dealt with by the combat hunters at the front before he could encounter them. Nevertheless, Seo Yi-young often had nightmares and couldn’t sleep well, so if he had to face them directly… He didn’t even want to imagine the aftermath.
“…”
Having thought this far, Seo Yi-young blinked his heavy eyelids once. Even though there shouldn’t be a lack of oxygen, breathing was extremely difficult. Without realizing it, he kept pushing against the floor with his feet. Even with his mouth wide open, breathing was still painful. It felt like his lungs were being squeezed. Perhaps due to the lack of oxygen, his thinking slowed and became hazy.
At that moment, he caught sight of Choi Do-jun attacking the boss mob without hesitation.
“…”
After taking several deep breaths that expanded his chest greatly, a question arose in Seo Yi-young’s mind.
What about Choi Do-jun?
Would Choi Do-jun be unaffected?
That couldn’t be. How many times had Choi Do-jun entered dungeon raids? How many mobs had he eliminated? Had he ever lost a comrade?
Although Choi Do-jun was younger than him, tragedy isn’t kind enough to discriminate based on age. Choi Do-jun had awakened at the age of 10. If so, then Choi Do-jun must have experienced all sorts of things beyond imagination. A few times. No, dozens of times. Or even hundreds of times.
‘If one could die from something like this, it would be a blessing.’
Perhaps that statement wasn’t meant to be sarcastic, but rather…
Crash!
Kieeeek!
The loud noise brought Seo Yi-young back to his senses. That’s when he realized he had been closing his eyes without knowing.
“…Cough! Keh, kuk, cough.”
And that during that brief moment, he had stopped breathing. As soon as he regained consciousness, his lungs, his body, violently demanded air and protested. Barely suppressing the coughs that kept erupting, he painfully turned his gaze toward the source of the sound.
His condition wasn’t improving. It felt like it was getting worse. Was the boss mob still draining his energy? He tried to swallow his dry saliva, but even that wasn’t easy. His mouth was completely dry and rough, as if someone had poured sand into it.
As Seo Yi-young had been certain, the situation gradually turned in Choi Do-jun’s favor. One part of the boss mob’s hard shell began to crack, unable to withstand the powerful attacks. Not missing this opportunity, Choi Do-jun concentrated his attacks on that one spot. Following the crack that started from the broken area, the boss mob’s shell was visibly turning red.
Boom!
The sound of the hard shell bursting open reverberated loudly.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
