#071
“Well, um… I’m dating Haejun, so… haha. And shouldn’t we first think about getting out of here?”
“Come to think of it, why has such a big crisis befallen Jaeha, who’s supposed to be the villain?”
“I guess the author wants to kill me off or something.”
I sighed as I answered Hyun Dowoon’s question. His face hardened.
“We need to find a way to protect Jaeha no matter what. Maybe… there are some things Jaeha can’t handle alone, which is why this revelation came to me.”
As Hyun Dowoon muttered, I checked my phone.
I saw that the quest was completed.
: *Crisis Arrived*
Quest Grade: Sub
Quest completed. Reward will be given!
Reward: ‘Random Summon’ skill cooldown reset
I can summon again? What on earth will I summon this time?
I tilted my head and said to Hyun Dowoon,
“How about we try summoning something new again? It’s good that you’ve realized something with the laptop, but we can’t get out with just that.”
“Sounds good.”
Hyun Dowoon, who hadn’t checked his own status, nodded readily, unaware that the skill could only be used once a month. I watched him use the skill, feeling a bit nervous about what would be summoned this time.
“Huh?”
I couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise at what appeared before my eyes.
“It’s a dungeon core.”
This time, what was summoned was a dungeon core! Maybe if we break that, we can get out. Excited, I jumped up from my seat, but due to the squishy floor, I almost fell backwards.
“Be careful.”
Hyun Dowoon caught me with one arm, preventing me from falling. Embarrassed, I nodded slightly and regained my balance.
“It’s strangely cracked.”
Hyun Dowoon whispered as he examined the dungeon core. I’ve seen scenes of breaking dungeon cores in dungeons I’ve cleared with Hyun Dowoon before, and this one definitely looked different – its color was a bit duller and it was cracked. Originally, it should have been a more brilliant color and in a perfect diamond shape.
“I’ll break that.”
“I can do it.”
“No, I should be the one to clear it.”
I stopped Hyun Dowoon and took out a hammer from my inventory. Then I swung it hard and hammered the dungeon core. Maybe because it was an item, it felt weightless and easy to swing.
“You’ll hurt your hand if you swing it like that.”
As I hammered here and there, Hyun Dowoon approached from behind and overlapped his hand with mine.
“I see you remembered the posture from when you held the dagger earlier. Jaeha, you seem to learn physical skills quickly.”
“Is… that so?”
“But this is different from a dagger. If you swing like that, you won’t be able to find the right impact point.”
Saying that, Hyun Dowoon firmly held my hand and swung the hammer in one powerful motion. The dungeon core cracked even more and then shattered instantly.
“An exit portal has appeared. We should enter through there.”
Hyun Dowoon said, holding my body firmly. Just like when we were sucked into this space, the force pulling us towards the exit portal gradually intensified. If it weren’t for Hyun Dowoon, I might have been sucked out while fluttering around like a piece of paper.
As we were ejected outside while in his embrace, I could see the sky of the dungeon I had first seen. Only then did I feel truly relieved, and my legs went weak.
“Thank goodness…”
“Lee Jaeha!”
Just as I was about to express my relief to Hyun Dowoon, my body was suddenly pulled with a loud voice. I flinched for a moment, but soon relaxed when I realized it was Shin Haejun who had pulled me.
Shin Haejun’s hands holding me were trembling slightly. I bit my lip, feeling the warmth from behind.
“I… I thought I lost you…”
Shin Haejun’s voice was trembling too. I finally came to my senses and looked around.
“Where is everyone… Why is this place like this?”
All the people had disappeared, and the surroundings were completely devastated. The ground was cracked, and nothing remained intact.
“I’m so glad you’re safe…”
Shin Haejun whispered in my ear with a tearful voice. It was evident that he had been worrying the entire time since I had gone in.
“Shin Haejun Esper. We’ve returned now, so please explain the situation.”
When Shin Haejun couldn’t say anything more while holding me, Hyun Dowoon stepped in and asked.
I was equally curious about the situation, so I pulled away from Shin Haejun’s embrace. Then, unlike before, I saw Shin Haejun’s completely haggard face. He looked like someone who hadn’t eaten for days.
“How long have we been in there?”
“It feels like it’s been a few months… but in reality, it’s probably been about a week.”
“What?”
Did we spend that much time inside? But objectively, it didn’t seem that long… I wasn’t hungry at all, and I didn’t feel the need to use the bathroom. Above all, I get motion sickness if I don’t take my daily medication for more than two days, so judging by my physical condition, it definitely didn’t feel like I had endured a week.
Hyun Dowoon and I exchanged glances at the same time. He shook his head. He seemed to be thinking the same thing.
‘Did time flow differently inside and outside?’
That seemed like the correct explanation. I glared at Shin Haejun’s rough face.
I thought I would be extremely angry and feel hurt when I came out, but in reality, I felt more upset. I was worried and curious about why his face looked so rough, wondering if he hadn’t eaten anything for days.
“Where did everyone go?”
“Down there, a bit far away…”
Shin Haejun sighed and muttered in a fading voice. I realized that Shin Haejun’s condition was really not good and examined him.
“What have you been doing here, separated from everyone? Did you eat anything?”
“How could I eat when you… when you went in like that? I couldn’t sleep either…”
He couldn’t continue speaking, his face contorted with pain. I gaped as I saw tears dropping from Shin Haejun’s face.
“Then what have you been doing?”
“Thinking that you might come out if I kept touching the closed portal… I’ve been attacking it the whole time.”
Only then did I realize why the surroundings were so devastated. I had thought we had just fallen in a different place from where we were sucked in, but Shin Haejun had been hammering everything to the point of changing the terrain.
There was no way people could have endured being next to him. In this state, he must have been attacking with his eyes rolled back, and even if they were S-class too, there was no reason for them to stay nearby. They probably all moved far away to avoid his attacks.
I sighed, then suddenly had a thought and grabbed Shin Haejun’s hand. If he had been attacking for a week without eating or sleeping, his insides couldn’t be normal.
‘What is this…!’
As I thought, I could see that the remnants of power in his body were almost at the point of going berserk, completely twisted and black.
“What has Kim Sehyun been doing? Not guiding you at all…!”
He should have been working in my place if he was safe!
I was about to say that, but then I remembered Kim Sehyun’s condition of not being able to guide properly without me, so I closed my mouth.
I hurriedly tried to guide Shin Haejun by holding his hand, but realizing it wouldn’t work, I grabbed his collar, pulled his face down, and crashed my lips into his. I had to stabilize him by guiding him first.
“Mmph…”
As I kissed him, making sure our mucous membranes touched, while guiding him, at some point Shin Haejun urgently embraced my body and started to delve deeper into my mouth. With just a 10% increase in efficiency, I could feel the power knotted inside dissipating faster than usual. When I thought it was enough and opened my eyes, I met Hyun Dowoon’s gaze.
‘Ack…!’
Come to think of it, Hyun Dowoon was right beside us….
Seeing his face looking a bit bitter, I suddenly felt conscious and stopped guiding. Then Shin Haejun, whose complexion had improved a bit, slowly opened his eyes.
“Ahem.”
I turned my head away, feeling embarrassed, and cleared my throat.
‘Could it be that the dungeon core was cracked because he kept attacking from the outside?’
I couldn’t help but think that the cracks in the dungeon core, which should have been intact, were probably due to Shin Haejun.
“Did Kim Sehyun willingly leave your side?”
“I couldn’t stand the sight of him…”
It seems Shin Haejun drove him away. I sighed.
The picture the author had in mind was probably for Shin Haejun to lose me, save Kim Sehyun, and then progress somehow….
Unexpectedly, Hyun Dowoon, whose likability had increased too much, jumped in to save me, and Shin Haejun also tried to save me regardless of Kim Sehyun, so the plan had completely fallen apart.
Moreover, I had survived and returned like this. Having escaped from a prison that was supposed to be inescapable, there probably wasn’t much more that could be done.
‘Besides, Hyun Dowoon now knows a secret he shouldn’t know.’
Although the mercenary contract had been giving me a guilty conscience all along, in a way, it seemed like it was thanks to the contract with Hyun Dowoon that I was able to survive and come out like this.
“It looks like people are starting to move a little bit over there.”
I had been avoiding looking in Hyun Dowoon’s direction because I didn’t know how to deal with him, but when I heard his sudden comment, I looked down. Indeed, I could see people starting to move around slowly.
“I guess it’s because the attacks have stopped.”
Shin Haejun muttered in a still deflated voice. I sighed deeply at his voice.
‘He feels too guilty, so I can’t even get angry…’
As I was frowning, not knowing what to say due to the indescribable emotions I was feeling, Hyun Dowoon approached a bit closer and spoke to me.
“Don’t make that expression and speak up. Jaeha, you habitually think of others first, so you should take care of yourself first instead.”
“What? What do you mean-”
“Don’t you have something to say to Shin Haejun Esper?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
