Chapter 13
Suyeon carried the empty bowls out of the tent and walked as far away as she could to wash them.
There was a little soup left, but Seonghyeon had put it in a leather pouch. He explained that it was a magical item imbued with a spell that kept things from spoiling.
Suyeon had no choice but to trust her friend, so she looked for somewhere with even a trickling stream. Unfortunately, there was no such place near these ruins.
“Uuugh…”
Once she was away from the tent, she started to feel uneasy.
It was probably because she was no longer warmed by the fire from that torch.
The inside of her fluttering skirt felt especially eerie.
She couldn't bring herself to wear women's panties (and couldn't buy any, either), so she wore undershorts instead. But the insides of her thighs still felt exposed, which was strange.
Still, being chilly was one thing; simply accepting help without giving anything back wasn't right by Suyeon's standards.
If you received something, you had to give something in return. She'd come out to wash the dishes, at least, so she could earn her keep!
But now that she was about to use water from the canteen to wash the dishes, it felt like such a waste.
They'd pitched a tent, so they were probably spending the night here. How much longer would they have to stay?
If they couldn't find a good water source, wouldn't they need to save this water?
Suyeon had only ever washed dishes with plenty of water, so cleaning them with as little as possible felt unsanitary to her.
“Hmm…”
Then she thought of magic.
What if she drew out the opposite kind of energy from the one she'd used to make flames a little while ago?
Suyeon closed her eyes and tried to think in reverse of the fiery energy she'd summoned in her palm.
Then she felt something cold inside her hand.
“I did it!”
Suyeon hadn't been the sort of person who talked to herself much before, but…
After being left alone in another world and starting to talk to herself so she wouldn't forget Korean, Suyeon had begun doing it a lot more.
That aside, the important thing was that she'd created water with magic… hadn't she?
“Uh…”
What gathered in Suyeon's palm was ice.
She quickly flicked her hand, and bits of ice slid off.
Did she need to imagine the energy in between to bring out water?
But Suyeon had to stop thinking when she saw wind gathering in her palm.
The opposite of cold was hot.
But in between was a realm of nothingness—wind?
Maybe that was the law and principle of this world.
This was a world where scientific knowledge didn't work.
Normally, fire was produced when carbon reacted rapidly, creating heat; heat was a state in which molecules moved faster.
Ice was water molecules gathered into a solid state, their movement slowed as they bonded together.
But the energy in this world was so vague that it was hard to pin down exactly what it was.
Feeling like an ancient alchemist, Suyeon picked up a piece of ice and tried melting it with fire magic.
The ice melted into water, which ran down her palm and along her arm.
“Hmm… Maybe I can use moisture in the air to make ice… No, that's probably not how it works.”
She'd only made her head more complicated for no reason.
But since she couldn't rely on physical strength, she had to learn magic. That was the only way she could keep up with her friend.
She'd come out to wash dishes, and now she was worrying about this nonsense. Feeling pathetic, Suyeon put the ice in a brass bowl and shot fire at it.
But it was incredibly difficult to get the amount right.
The ice turned to water, and the water quickly evaporated.
As the brass bowl grew sooty, it was as if her friend were telling her to remember that common sense didn't apply in this world.
“Hmm…”
It should be fine if the brass bowl gets a little sooty, right?
She felt as if her friend were watching over her with his eyes blazing.
And as it happened, something really was watching her with its eyes lit up.
“Grrrr…”
At the threatening low growl from behind her, Suyeon felt her muscles tense up.
No way. It couldn't be.
But something was so close she could feel its hot, savage breath.
“S-Seonghyeon? Lee Seonghyeon? I-I’m sorry about the bowl, but…?”
“Grrrr…”
When Suyeon turned around and realized what those glowing eyes belonged to, she couldn't even gasp.
A gigantic wolf with a wild mane stood as tall as her and looked to be about three meters long.
The wolf was drooling so heavily that a drop fell onto Suyeon's shoulder.
Cold sweat broke out all over Suyeon's body.
She'd never seen a creature like that in her life.
“Ah… Aah…”
It took her a moment to understand what was happening, but the thing in front of her was a monster shaped like a wolf.
Her legs were short and she was weak; she could barely walk without stumbling and falling. She was completely at the beast's mercy.
Suyeon squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the monster to eat her.
That moment stretched into eternity.
But then a miracle happened.
She heard someone approaching from far away.
“Don't move, you monster!”
At Seonghyeon's voice, Suyeon, whose face had been scrunched up in fear, broke into a radiant smile.
Seonghyeon held a mace, and blessings surrounded his body with a faint blue glow.
Seonghyeon rushed over in an instant and struck the wolf's head with his mace, sending the huge beast flying. It crashed down some distance away with a bang, raising a cloud of dust.
“Th-thank you… for h-helping…”
“Run, now!”
“Huh? What…?”
“You can't run? Fine, then get in my arms. Hold on tight.”
Seonghyeon grabbed Suyeon and swept her roughly into his arms.
Red eyes glowed from within the cloud of dust raised by the wolf that had been sent flying.
“Wh-what is that…?!”
“In Human, it's called [@#!$!], but roughly translated into Korean, it's a Dire Wolf.”
Suyeon almost blurted out, ‘That's not Korean, that's English,’ but…
This was absolutely not the time for jokes.
“What is that thing? It looks really dangerous.”
“That's a level-ten monster, and a boss on the middle levels. No wonder it was so quiet. Why the hell is something like that on the upper levels?!”
“Is level ten high?”
“It took me a year of power-leveling to reach level eight. Level ten is fucking high! Shit!”
It was strong enough to make Seonghyeon, who was always generous, kind, and patient, swear.
Suyeon could do nothing but cling tightly to him so she wouldn't get in the way as he ran.
Seonghyeon cast every blessing spell he could remember on himself and ran.
They left the open area that had been the hunting ground and entered a corridor, but the Dire Wolf was right behind them.
The beast running on all fours was faster than Seonghyeon, even with all those blessings on him.
The Dire Wolf's red eyes drew closer. Suyeon could see behind them, and bit her lip even though she wasn't the one running.
“Aaaah… Why is something like that here?!”
“Why is it getting closer?!”
“How should I know?! Damn it… I don't want to die on the upper levels. If a Priest doesn't pass by, we're seriously dead.”
“Aaaah… Try running a little faster. My teeth are going to clatter.”
“I don't know! I'm running with everything I've got!”
The headwind whipped Suyeon's hair as Seonghyeon ran for his life.
He was so strong that his kicks cracked and smashed obstacles that weren't firmly anchored.
Suyeon squeezed her eyes shut and stretched both arms out toward the Dire Wolf.
“Get away from me!!”
Blue flames curled around Suyeon's fingertips.
The magic Suyeon manifested in that moment of crisis consumed one of her spell slots.
Suyeon felt as if a huge lump of something inside her chest had been pulled out, and a ring of blue flames shot from her fingertips.
The Dire Wolf was startled by the ring of blue fire, which it had never seen before, and jumped straight up on the spot.
The blue ring struck the ground where the Dire Wolf had been, turning into hellfire that began to consume everything nearby.
The Dire Wolf's red eyes gleamed as it growled at the wall of fire, then backed away.
“Hah… Hah…”
“You get out of breath too, huh?”
“What… did you do? That's a level-one spell?”
“I don't know. It felt like a huge lump of something inside my chest got pulled out…”
“I've never seen magic like that before.”
“You haven't seen the recent research? If you use wind to make a round, donut-shaped flame, you can use the minimum amount of gas to reach the highest possible temperature.”
“Why does that even work?”
“Dun?no.”
Seonghyeon, somewhat relieved, set Suyeon down on the ground.
He was impressed that Suyeon had awakened to some kind of unknown magic, but…
First, he had to let everyone know that the Dire Wolf was on the upper levels for some reason and was still alive.
“Haha, I'm amazing, right?”
“Oh, great. Now you're going to get full of yourself and be even more annoying.”
“I can earn my keep too.”
“Earn your keep? Our tent just flew away, and we don't have any cookware now.”
“Ah…”
When Seonghyeon laid out the cold, hard facts, Suyeon rolled her eyes, then stared at the ground.
They'd come a long way from the tent to wash the dishes, and this was what had happened.
This was bad.
“Let's head back for now, warn everyone, and form a hunting party. There's the quest reward, and I can borrow some money, so… we can buy a new camping set.”
“You don't look okay. Stop crying.”
“Boohoohoo, I saved up and bought that camping set with my own money…”
In the end, Seonghyeon started crying, and Suyeon gently patted his lower back with her small palm.
A cool breeze blew through the second floor of the Labyrinth.