Chapter 104 : Chapter 104

Chapter 104 - Growth (2)

[ The ‘Charm Gaze’ is binding you! ]

[ Resist! ]

The status window that popped up in front of me brought me to my senses.

[ Observation ]

[ Beholder ]

It's an eye skill for an eye skill, you brat.

A blue light that erases all mana that enters my field of vision shot out from my eyes.

No, actually, light didn't shoot out or anything. It just felt like that.

“...Keoheok!”

Leila, letting out a scream that was by no means feminine, began to rub her eyes like crazy.

“Hey, hey! That thing goes off automatically just by making eye contact! You dispelled that?! My eyeballs are gonna fall out!”

“...”

Hmm.

Listening to this gruff reaction, she was indeed the Leila I knew.

Vampire. Game addict. Shut-in. And a master of dark magic and alchemy.

I mainly came here because I had business with the last item on that list.

“...I came because I have a request, Leila.”

“A-a request? Hey, wait a minute. M-my tears won't stop. Let me just calm this down...”

“...”

And the conversation was only established after Leila rubbed her eyes and whined for a long time.

“What do you want?”

“The creation of a dimensional portal. Vampires have a high aptitude for magic. I would like you to send me to a place I want in one go.”

Because... that place.

It was a place you could never get to by walking.

If it wasn't for the warp portal this person creates, I couldn't go there right now even if I died.

The Association could do something similar, but they would never open something like a dimensional portal for personal errands.

She'd probably say something similar here.

“Sorry, but dimensional portal formulas are too difficult, so I don't take personal requests. What can you offer me?”

“You don’t take money, do you?”

“I’m not in a position to be swayed by such things. I’m a Wanderer executive, you know?”

Well, true. That's probably why she was cooped up in her room like a shut-in, just playing games.

“...That's rude.”

Oops. Sorry.

But I definitely had a card that would pique this person's interest.

And Leila, who heard that ‘card’, tilted her head with a surprised expression.

“Certainly, I could be satisfied with that, but... how on earth are you going to get it? No, does it even exist in the first place?”

“If you just open the portal, I’ll go there and get it.”

“Where on earth are you going?”

I stated the destination.

Leila, who heard it, looked back at Ahab with a blank expression.

“...Is this kid, like. Does he have some kind of mental illness...? L-like, suicidal tendencies...?”

“I sometimes think so myself. But surprisingly, he is normal.”

“...”

What are you guys doing in front of a person?

***

But, you know.

Why did the status window give me such a warning when I was hit by Leila's Charm Gaze?

That had never happened once in the original work. If you got hit, you got hit.

In the first place, it wasn't a skill that directly inflicted damage. It just lowered your mental defense mechanism a lot, making you very dazed.

There were several hypotheses that could be made... but the most likely one was this.

If my mental defense mechanism was lowered, things related to the fact that I was a ‘transmigrator’ could spread, so it blocked it at the source.

Considering the role of the ‘System’ in the original work, that would be the most logical approach.

Then, as expected, the ‘foundation’ of this world was just as I knew it.

That there was an existence that ‘forcibly’ balanced things from the outside.

“...”

Hmm.

In that case, I guess I have no choice but to place some expectations on Shaman Eliya for now.

Her help was essential to pick and choose the inevitable events to come according to my taste.

As I was mulling over those thoughts, an urgent voice came from below.

“In a situation, like this, what are you, thinking about, so hard?!”

“I’ll tell you in a bit, so for now, can’t you run just a little faster? I think I might die if we’re not careful.”

“...”

Seo Ah-in took a deep breath.

It was a bit confusing whether she was catching her breath or suppressing the murderous impulse to kill me.

“...You said, because I worked hard, at the Grand Unification Event, this was a vacation as a reward...”

A voice filled with pent-up resentment was heard.

“You said it was a vacatiooon-!!”

“It is a vacation. A healing trip spent in the great outdoors.”

“Are you seriously saying that right now?!”

Of course, the vacation spot was a little more rugged than usual places.

To the point where Leila, who heard the destination, made a horrified face while trying to dissuade me, saying only crazy people go there.

Right now, a swarm of bees larger than a person was closely following us from behind. It was a terrifying number, enough to completely cover the sky.

And the problem was.

Each and every one of those things was at least a B-rank Demonic Beast in terms of classification.

A group of Demonic Beasts that could probably destroy a city was chasing us.

I could hear Seo Ah-in, who was running right in front, muttering in a ghastly voice.

“I’ll kill him, I’ll kill Kim Gyu-sik with my own hands one day, I definitely will one day...”

“If you have time to talk, why don’t you run.”

“If you’re the one being carried on someone’s back, how about you shut your mouth-!”

Seo Ah-in said in a much more ferocious voice than usual.

After that pandemonium continued for a long time.

I smirked as I watched the nearly exhausted girl, who had barely managed to shake off the swarm of bees, sprawled out on the ground.

Wow, but seeing her escape from that, it seemed the training wasn't in vain.

“This is... hell... There are hordes of creatures that would be a disaster if you met just one...”

Ignoring Seo Ah-in’s lament as she gasped for breath, I opened the mana map I had received from Leila.

Hmm.

So the schedule from now on is...

“...Mr. Gyu-sik. Don’t tell me you plan to keep wandering around here?”

“For now, yes.”

“I wouldn’t normally say this. But can I really just leave you here alone? All the Demonic Beasts here are insane.”

Actually, there was a slight contradiction in her words.

The things here weren't Demonic Beasts, but just the native creatures here.

“...Pardon?”

“Why do you think there are so many strong Climbers in the West? It’s because they have no choice but to become that strong, since they deal with guys like that almost as if they’re breathing.”

“Are the Western guilds fighting guys like this every day...?”

No. Actually, their situation was much better than here.

“...”

But if I told her where this place ‘really’ was, Seo Ah-in might actually try to kill me, so it was probably better to just put it that way.

That we hadn't even met the truly terrifying ones that would be called ‘Demonic Beasts’ by this place's standards.

Of course, if I said that, this girl’s will would be completely broken, so I kept my mouth shut about that part.

“...No. But why did you leave everyone else and only bring me?”

Because everyone else was busy.

Darien had locked herself away, saying something about another all-night prayer because I didn't invite her to the Guild Grand Unification Event, and Ms. Meirin had disappeared with Evangeline tucked under her arm, saying she had something to look into.

Lee Si-yeong and Mr. Lee Seong-jin were probably screaming under a mountain of paperwork, dealing with my soaring popularity after the Guild Grand Unification Event.

Yoo Ho-jun was... well...

“...”

Probably just wasting food.

That freeloading bastard.

“Aren’t you being too harsh on Mr. Ho-jun...?”

“He’s useless for now, so it can’t be helped.”

“It sounds like you’re saying he’ll be useful later? Is that true?”

“...”

No, aren't you being harsher than me?

I let out a dry laugh at the thought. But there was no lie in the words themselves.

Yoo Ho-jun would definitely be of great help to me. And in the not-too-distant future, at that.

“Uh, but my sister might not have been busy?”

“...I don't think so.”

That one, too, by now... it was about time she was having a hard time with ‘family matters’.

We'll probably see her face along with this girl soon.

As I was thinking that while staring at Seo Ah-in’s face, she must have interpreted it in some way, as she puffed out her chest with a smug look.

“Ahem. Does this mean I’ve grown enough to do my part as much as my sister? Right?”

“...”

Let's just leave it at that.

“That’s enough useless talk, save your stamina. It’s going to get very tough soon.”

In fact, normally, it would be right to take a little break after all that hardship just a moment ago, but still, there was no other place to clear the upgrade quest easily.

The event that was opening soon was a honey-pot event that should never be missed.

“...No. I want to conserve my stamina too. But wouldn't anyone die quickly if they wandered around a place like this...?”

“That's fine. We're almost there.”

Saying so, I folded the mana map.

“Almost there? Where?”

“The village of the elves you wanted to see.”

“Huh? Huh-huh? Really? You’re not lying, are you?!”

“Have you ever seen me lie?”

Elves!

Beautiful men and women! Blondes! Friends of nature!

Seo Ah-in’s expression, which recalled those keywords in succession, brightened.

“...”

I looked at her with a slightly pitying gaze.

Yes.

I never ‘just’ lie.

Ever.

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