Chapter 235. Guardian (5)
[It’s dangerous, don’t go.]
Daisy spoke in a straightforward manner.
[Kang Shin will die.]
“I asked you to explain the situation to me, not curse me.”
[Let me come. Else, I’ll go alone.]
“Won’t you arrive in a different place if you go?”
[So let’s go together.]
Daisy stubbornly insisted, but I had no plans of taking anyone with me. I believed that it was best to go with just Lin. Anyone else would just slow us down. Though, that might not necessarily be the case with Daisy…
“A very powerful member of the administrative guild is coming with me, so you don’t have to worry about my safety.”
[Book Walker, strong. And many.]
“Right, that’s what I wanted, to know the situation.”
[… Book Walker, also called Slaughter Scholars.]
“Yeah, what’s so special about them?”
[Take me too.]
“No.”
Daisy was insistent. I sighed and looked back at Lin.
“Can we bring another person?”
“What? Of course not.”
“Why?”
“We won’t gain anything by having more people. I’ll be doing the fighting, so we don’t need anyone else.”
His confidence irked me slightly, but I also knew he wasn’t just boasting. However, I had an idea.
“Her name is Daisy. She’s from the Sylon continent, so wouldn’t it be helpful to have her guide us?”
“Sylon continent? There’s still an explorer other than Hydelcyon from that continent? … What’s her level?”
I seemed to have caught Lin’s attention. I quickly asked Daisy.
“Daisy, what level are you?”
[83.]
“She’s level 83. She’s also a Beyond explorer.”
“Beyond…? There were more people like you in your guild? Fine, at least she won’t hold us back.”
Lin made it sound like there would be more people who would want to come with me. When I notified Daisy that she could join us with a bitter smile, Hwaya frighteningly spoke out.
[Let me come too!]
I then explained that we wouldn’t gain anything by letting her come. Of course, I took time to say this carefully so her feelings wouldn’t be hurt. Although Hwaya refused to accept my explanation and appealed her strength, we really couldn’t take Hwaya with us as well. There was also the fact that Hwaya’s level had gone down after she moved from the Second Dungeon to the First Dungeon.
“Just wait. I’ll come back safely, I promise.”
[I became a Dimensional Mercenary just so I could go with you in cases like this…]
“I’m not going as a Dimensional Mercenary this time. My Dimensional Travel is on cooldown, so I can’t even use it. Next time, we can take a Dimensional Mercenary mission together, okay?”
[Huu, okay… I’ll get mad if you come back hurt, got it?]
“Don’t worry.”
While I pacified Hwaya, Daisy had arrived in Fairy Garden. She seemed to be full of spirit, as she seemed to give off more vigor than usual.
“Leaving Hwaya behind, very difficult.”
“Yeah, good job.”
“She said, if I make a move on Kang Shin, she’ll kill me. But, what does making a move mean?”
“You don’t have to know.”
“… Since she’s here, let’s go. We have to find Sipua as quickly as possible and put her back in her place.”
Lin seemed a bit surprised when he saw Daisy, but he soon calmed down and urged us.
“But Lin, since there are two teams from each of the four guilds, are there eight teams going?”
“That’s right. Why?”
“… I’m just making sure. There’s no way to specify Sipua’s location?”
“That’s right. We’ll be able to sense her if we get close enough, so we can only split up the continent into eight regions and search. That’s the easiest way to do it.”
“In a world that’s being ruled by a world’s enemy, huh…”
“Yep.”
It was a seriously annoying and dangerous mission.
“If not decided, pick a location. Sion Empire, most likely.”
“You mean…”
“Lodert Hydelcyon, probably there… Most likely dead. Sion Empire is the most dangerous.”
“That’s great. I love danger.”
Lin retorted with a grin and started walking. It seemed he was going to choose the region we would search for as Daisy recommended. Daisy stared at Lin walking away, then faced me and asked.
“Kang Shin… As I thought, you like men?”
“No! What do you mean, ‘as I thought’!?”
“You two seem close.”
“Please, don’t say that…”
“Am I, third wheeling?”
“No! Thank you for coming!”
The dungeon had stopped. From the First Dungeon, all the way to the Fourth, all operations other than the Residential Area ceased. Although we had to return everything to the way it was as quickly as possible, we couldn’t rush into another world. As such, it took another thirty minutes for the eight teams to choose the region they were going to.
“Shin-nim, please be safe.”
“Don’t worry.”
“The only thing I can do at times like this is giving Shin-nim a blessing… Hehe, come here. Hurry.”
“You have no plans to hide your real intentions, do you?”
Since it seemed she wouldn’t let me go if I didn’t let her have her way, I obediently received Loretta’s blessing. Even though I had already found out that she didn’t need to kiss me to give me the blessing, she still did so while acting as if I had never found out.
Furthermore, although I was the only one she kissed, the blessing was also applied to Lin and Daisy. I could hear Lin muttering Loretta being a scammer, but Loretta silenced him with a mana bullet.
[You received Queen Elf’s, High-Rank Blessing. For the next 4 days, you receive the following effects: You are protected against all low rank and mid-rank status effects. You can maintain your consciousness for 5 minutes after falling in a half-dead state. Your luck increases by 100. All members of the Faerie race will see you favorably. Your health and magic power recovery rate increase greatly, and you will not get exhausted easily. When attacking, your chance of landing critical hits increases.]
“I’ll see you later then. Lin, for each scratch on Shin-nim’s body, it’ll be one Last Bullet.”
“Are you trying to kill me, Noonim?”
The team consisting of Sikatra and Philoen left ahead of us, and we also used Dimensional Travel afterward. It wasn’t my Dimensional Travel skill, but a Dimensional Travel similar to the portal that linked the dungeon to other worlds.
“I’m off, Loka.”
“Be safe, nyan. The baby will be waiting for Daddy to come back!”
“You’re only two months pregnant…”
Noting the somewhat heartwarming interaction between Loka and Lin, I jumped into the portal along with Lin and Daisy.
The scenery then changed into a complete wasteland.
“Huu…”
No matter where I looked, there wasn’t a single building or creature. Lin waved his hand through the air as though the sandstorm was annoying him and put a cigarette in his mouth. His casual movements shocked me greatly, but it seemed he didn’t think it was unusual.
“Let’s start after I finish this smoke.”
Daisy heard Lin’s mumbling and tilted her head.
“Book Walker, coming soon. They’re sensitive to change.”
“Are any of them around here strong enough to threaten me?”
“Not at all. Iana is enough.”
Daisy opened her inventory and took out a boar clad in steel. Although it was dozens of meters long when I first fought it, it had shrunk to only three meters. Now, it could only barely fit a person on its back.
“Iana, strong.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
While I was nodding to Daisy’s praising of her undead again, the so-called Book Walkers began to appear. I imagined literal walking books, but that wasn’t how they looked. In fact, they looked no different than regular humans.
“We haven’t seen them before.”
“There are still humans left.”
“We must add them to our database.”
Lin chomped on the cigarette he was smoking and muttered.
“Hey, blow them away. Just their way of talking annoys me.”
“Book Walkers are researchers. They study their opponents, record them in their books, find their weaknesses, and attack. To win against them… You have to kill them swiftly with various methods without giving them information. The moment they record on their books, all Book Walkers gain resistance.”
“That means you…”
“Undead I used once won’t work well next time. Abilities I used before won’t work well either. But.”
Iana abruptly charged towards the Book Walkers, and steel thorns enveloped in a black aura shot out from his body to attack them. The Book Walkers seemed surprised and took something out, but Iana reached them in an instant and skewered them before they could do anything. Daisy nodded her head in satisfaction and spoke.
“Don’t give them, time to research. Then, undead is reusable. Or, with overwhelming power, research is futile.”
“So it doesn’t matter as long as we’re powerful? They aren’t that different than normal monsters then.”
“Information sharing, annoying. High caste, stronger.”
“That’s why we were told to avoid them…? Fine, whatever. What about those books?”
At the spot which Lin pointed to were three fancy leather books which were what the Book Walkers had taken out.
“Burn them, as quickly as possible.”
The moment Daisy’s words left her mouth, Lin threw the cigarette his was smoking. When the cigarette landed on the Book Walkers’ corpses, they started to burn along with their books. I couldn’t help but feel awed at Lin’s terrifying flames. At that moment, Daisy approached me.
“What’s up, Daisy?”
“I have to say something, to Kang Shin.”
Her large red eyes were staring at me intently.
“If possible, Kang Shin shouldn’t use your power.”
“What?”
“That’s why I came.”
Daisy’s tone was extremely serious. Her eyes were fixed on me and refused to leave.
“If you use abilities, they’ll get recorded. They will gain resistance, to them. This is the same, for the world’s enemy.”
“Ah…”
“Kang Shin said one day, you’ll come back and save this place. So for now, save your strength.”
“So that’s why you wanted to come with us so much so that you can prevent them from learning about my abilities. You’re planning on using your abilities instead…?”
“Un.”
Daisy nodded. Her trust for my potential had even surprised me. While I was thinking as such, Daisy made a small smile and added. This was the first time I saw her smile, at least towards me.
“Of course, I trust you.”
“I thought I was protecting myself from being read…”
“I didn’t read, with my Evil Eyes.”
“What?”
“Kang Shin is, easy to read. Even without Evil Eyes.”
Shame!! However, what she added afterward made me flinch.
“That’s why I like you.”
“… Hm?”
“Oi, don’t flirt with another woman in front of me. I’ll shoot you.”
Lin who had finished incinerating the corpses and books scowled as he walked back to us. Daisy tilted her head and asked.
“Flirt? With another woman? Who, with who…?”
Yes, Daisy, please remain innocent!
Author’s note:
The Sylon continent! Daisy was going to stay out of it at first, but while I was writing, I realized that she could just use the dungeon’s power to go through its portal instead of using her Dimensional Travel! There are, of course, the other reasons mentioned in the chapters too.