Chapter 56
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#56. Wow...
[Moving to planet EB-17]
[Three matching targets confirmed]
[Matching time will be greatly increased for smoother dating]
[We hope you have a happy time]
A familiar sensation brushed over me, as though the air around me had changed.
Before I knew it, my surroundings had changed from my musty studio apartment into an underground passage filled with a terrible fishy stench.
And not far away, a familiar face was greeting me.
A vicious lizard head, snow-white hide that looked capable of easily deflecting bullets, and an enormous, heavily muscled body that appeared to be nearly three meters tall.
-Grrr...
It was the Lizard Warrior, the gatekeeper of the first floor of the underground dungeon.
When I first saw it, I had vaguely wondered whether I could even defeat it, but that was no longer the case.
The mana stone set into Gilenium began to glow.
[Strength Enhancement (Strength)]
[Speed Increase (Haste)]
[Balance Adjustment (Balance)]
[Fire Step (the steps of fire)]
Support magic was, fundamentally, common magic.
Elementalists, conceptualists, and alchemists could all use it.
However, it consumed a considerable amount of mana, and it couldn't be cast on other people.
Furthermore, casting it on oneself placed a burden on the mana circuits, so it wasn't a spell that attracted much attention from mages. If anything, it was practically obsolete.
But that didn't matter to me.
Mana? It refilled quickly after just a little meditation, and my total mana had long since surpassed the level of a second-circle mage.
Besides, the holy water I'd drunk last time had strengthened my mana circuits, so there was no reason for me not to use support magic.
-GRAAAAH!!
Unable to hold back any longer, the Lizard Warrior charged at me with the one spear it had left.
It was an oppressive presence impossible to believe belonged to a C+-rank creature.
[Accelerated Thought]
Even so, it was nowhere near as powerful as the Ice Golem.
With time moving nearly twice as slowly, I invested most of my remaining mana into Barrier magic.
I abandoned the idea of blocking a wide area.
All I needed to do was cover the Lizard Warrior's spearhead.
Just as I had once created a Barrier only over my forehead in an extreme situation, this time I visualized, constructed, and deployed a Barrier wrapped around the spearhead.
Boom!
-Grrk?!
When the Lizard Warrior, charging at tremendous speed, found its spear fixed in midair by the Barrier around its tip, it gripped the shaft and desperately tried to break the Barrier.
[Identify Weakness]
That struggle was no different from kneeling down and begging me to attack it.
I charged toward the spot glowing the brightest red, excluding its brain, glabella, throat, and heart.
Perhaps my speed as I charged at it had been unexpected, because the Lizard Warrior let go of the spear shaft.
It threw away its weapon and tried to retreat to avoid my attack, but I was no longer so inexperienced that I couldn't hit it while its stance was broken.
It had only been a short week, but I had received one-on-one coaching from the wolf woman who could draw sword aura.
I had also gained practical experience in a B-rank isolated Gate.
I had trained my mana whenever I had the chance and strengthened my mana circuits with holy water.
Even without advancing to a higher realm, I had become strong enough that I no longer needed to flee from the Lizard Warrior standing before me.
Thwack!!
Gilenium, emitting a blue radiance, shot toward its flank like a flash and pierced straight through it.
A hole the size of a tire had been punched through the Lizard Warrior's side, and it collapsed while endlessly spewing dark red blood instead of making another unpleasant cry.
Ding-
[You have defeated the Lizard Warrior]
[First-kill reward: 200 coins]
The reward coins didn't matter much.
The sense of accomplishment from defeating the Lizard Warrior was better. Besides, I already had more than 2,000 coins.
With nothing worth buying in the shop at the moment, coins weren't particularly important.
Even so, I bought health and mana potions whenever they appeared, along with Vitality Potions that seemed like inferior substitutes for holy water.
Using Mana Detection, I found no magical beasts nearby.
I considered replenishing my mana through meditation, but just in case, I drank a mana potion first.
I wasn't about to hoard it until it became useless.
The mana potion tasted like the familiar flavor of an ion drink.
After catching my breath for a moment, I lowered my head to harvest the Lizard Warrior's mana stone and noticed something glittering near the corpse.
It was a small key and a dagger.
The key's purpose was obvious without even looking. It was probably the key to the stone door visible ahead.
For now, the dagger attracted more of my attention than the key.
“Could this be an artifact...?”
It was equipment dropped by a magical beast.
I couldn't help getting my hopes up.
After forcibly calming my heart, which was pounding of its own accord, I gripped the dagger and concentrated.
Not long ago, I had discovered a new function of the app.
It was an absurd function that allowed me to learn the information of a magic tool or artifact simply by holding it and concentrating.
Ding-
[Information on the newly acquired item is being collected]
[Viper's Fang
[Grade: Rare]
[The power of attacks made from behind increases.]
[The user's presence is reduced.]
[On hit, the target has a chance of being poisoned.]
[‘Wind's Step’ can now be used]
“It's an assassin's item.”
After briefly skimming the description, I placed the dagger in my inventory.
I already disliked the situation of a mage like me carrying a sword around and chopping off magical beasts' heads. What would happen if I started down the assassin tree too?
What kind of terrible build would that be?
Of course, it was true that I would theoretically be invincible if I could use magic, swordsmanship, and even assassination, but since I was living in the real world, I always had to view reality objectively.
There was a reason high school students were divided into science, liberal arts, and arts tracks before going to university.
Still, the good news was that the dagger did appear to be an artifact.
Other than Gilenium, I had never seen equipment with so many effects attached to it.
At the very least, it wasn't an ordinary magic tool.
I had been planning to dispose of the wand and mana sword that I probably wouldn't have any use for soon anyway, so once I returned to Earth, I'd have to travel through an appropriate Gate to establish a plausible source for the items.
“Should I head up for now?”
I wanted to see Iris so badly that I couldn't afford to get lost in other idle thoughts right now.
***
Finding the way upward wasn't difficult.
I only needed to follow the map I'd made last time; it would have been stranger if even that had been difficult.
However, the path back was filled with the corpses of the magical beasts I had dealt with.
Whenever the stench of decay stabbed at my nose, my gaze naturally turned elsewhere.
[Remaining matching time: 166:42:36]
Was this what it felt like to be full just from looking?
With three matching targets, the matching time had increased tremendously as well.
I was a little surprised, but considering how absurdly short the matching time had been until now, even a week wasn't particularly generous.
‘If only I could increase it with coins. I could extend it to a month.’
It was a shame I couldn't do that.
As I walked while falling into various other idle thoughts, I soon arrived at the stairs leading upward.
It took a little over two hours to get this far.
Since I hadn't needed to worry about magical beasts or traps in the first place, it was only natural that I had arrived quickly.
I considered resting for a while before going up, but thinking of Iris, I chose to climb the stairs immediately.
As I climbed upward one step at a time, I suddenly thought of a friend from high school who kept skipping evening self-study because he wanted to see his girlfriend.
He had no knack for it, so even though he ran away every time, he was caught by our homeroom teacher every time and beaten with a bat.
The truly funny thing was that even after being beaten every time, he never stopped skipping evening self-study.
Once, I had asked him whether he couldn't simply meet her after evening self-study ended, and my friend had said this:
-I'm forcing myself to endure even the urge to go see her during class.
At the time, I had thought, What the hell is he talking about? But now I could understand my friend.
That was exactly how I felt right now.
Even while running until I was gasping for breath, I was searching for a way to climb even faster.
That was how desperately I wanted to see Iris.
After running for a long while, my heart began to pound when I saw a faint light shining in from above.
It wasn't because I was tired.
I slowed down and climbed the stairs one at a time.
At that moment, the light grew stronger and the air changed.
“Mr. Hyeon-woo...?”
My eyes met those of the person I had wanted so desperately to see.
“Iris!”
Iris's eyes widened, and she immediately ran into my arms.
I hugged her tightly as well, careful not to let her fall.
From my perspective, more than two weeks and several days had already passed since I parted from Iris, but for Iris, only a few hours had passed since we separated.
Even so, I was newly grateful that she welcomed me so warmly.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
After remaining in my arms for a while, Iris examined every part of my body with eyes full of concern.
She was so cute that I had no choice but to punish Iris.
It was a life sentence in which she couldn't leave my arms until I was satisfied.
“Mr. H-Hyeon-woo, I can't breathe...!”
Iris was the one pressing deeper into my arms despite saying she couldn't breathe.
As though compensating for the time we'd spent apart, we remained tightly pressed together for a long while.
Then I suddenly realized that the World Tree had fallen silent.
“Iris, where is the World Tree?”
I could have simply called her the World Tree, but I couldn't do that in front of Iris, who was such a devout believer.
It was like how a man who had lived without religion might start attending church if he loved his girlfriend too much.
“Ah, she said she was going to visit the divine realm for a while. She’ll probably be back around tomorrow... I’m not sure exactly, either.”
“Really?”
I didn't show it in front of Iris, but when I heard that the World Tree was away, my first thought was that the timing was perfect.
It would have been awkward to cling to Iris with the World Tree beside us.
It was like being affectionate with one's wife in front of one's mother-in-law.
Then again, according to the mythology Iris had told me, the World Tree had created the elves.
Thinking of it that way, it wasn't an entirely inaccurate example.
Come to think of it, with my mother-in-law being a tree, I probably wouldn't be burning wood whenever I needed to start a fire from now on.
“Mr. Hyeon-woo, did you visit the world you originally lived in?”
“Uh... Is it that obvious?”
“Yes. Your mana is much more stable than before. Your total mana has increased considerably as well, and your mana circuits have grown stronger too. Besides...
Iris's face suddenly flushed.
“Y-your body has gotten more toned.”
“...”
At that moment, my goal became an 800-kilogram total across the three powerlifting lifts.
Lifting 800 kilos without using mana wasn't easy.
“You must have had a rough time.”
While I was lost in another thought for a moment, Iris gently stroked my cheek with her soft hand.
“What do you mean, been through so much?”
It wasn't something worth hearing until I got Iris out of this sewer-like place.
“Shall we eat first?”
For Iris, who was vegetarian, I had packed several vegan course meals from Gangnam's most famous vegan restaurant.
My inventory had become a little cramped, but after removing some unnecessary survival supplies, I had made enough room, so it was fine.
Nothing mattered more than getting food into Iris.
“Okay!”
Look at her. She was delighted, smiling brightly while her adorable ears flapped. Was sacrificing a few survival supplies really such a big deal?
While I was gazing at Iris with a satisfied smile, I noticed that her dress was torn in several places.
I felt a little sorry.
I was the one who had caused her clothes to end up like that.
It didn't seem bad enough to make the dress completely unwearable, but it would be awkward for her to keep walking around in it.
Fortunately, I had brought several outfits Iris could wear just in case. Otherwise, she might have had to keep wearing that dress.
I didn't know much about women's clothing, so I had simply swept up whatever the department store employee recommended. I hoped Iris would like a lot of the clothes I'd brought.
Fortunately, clothing was grouped into a single category regardless of whether it was a top or bottom, so I could fit dozens of outfits into one inventory slot.
‘This dress would suit her too... There’s even a knit that clings perfectly to jeans? Wow, fuck, should I go with this?’
Even so, since these would be the first modern clothes she wore, I wanted to see her in something that matched my tastes.
Of course, I had no intention of forcing her if Iris disliked it.
As I rummaged through my inventory with the gaze of a man who had been browsing porn sites for dozens of minutes in search of something to masturbate to, I felt an irresistible instinct.
To be honest, it wasn't clothing that pure-hearted Iris would particularly like, but I wanted to see her wearing it, even if only once.
“Iris.”
“Why?”
Iris, who had been nestled against my chest, lifted her head at my call.
The moment I saw her endlessly clear eyes, an indescribable guilt began bubbling up inside me.
But I couldn't give up here.
“Um, shouldn't you change your clothes?”
“Pardon? Ah...”
Iris glanced at the parts around her chest and back where the dress was in poor condition, then blushed as though embarrassed.
“I brought some clothes from the world I lived in. Would you like to try them on?”
“Really?”
Seeing Iris rejoice like a child at the mention of new clothes transformed my simple guilt into mental anguish that felt as though my heart were being squeezed.
Even so, now that I had come this far, I couldn't retreat.
I carefully took out the clothes and handed them to Iris.
Iris was horrified by the daring design for a moment, but after my earnest request that she wear it just once, she shyly nodded and quietly went outside the temple.
Three minutes that felt like three hours passed.
“M-Mr. Hyeon-woo...”
“The clothes seem a l-little small...”
The moment I saw Iris after she had changed, I couldn't say a word.
The tight camisole and dolphin shorts accentuated her outrageously curvaceous figure.
Her breasts looked ready to burst out, while her broad hips and large, firm-looking buttocks and thighs completed the picture.
In the end, my patience snapped.
“M-Mr. Hyeon-woo...?”
It was only natural that I grabbed Iris by the wrist and led her outside the temple.
With the World Tree away, there was only one thing left for me to do.