NOVEL NEXT Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Indeed, the saying that elves are all handsome men and beautiful women wasn’t a lie.
The woman standing before Kang Jin-hyuk’s eyes right now was more beautiful than any other woman he had ever seen.
As if sensing his piercing gaze, she frowned.
“What are you looking at?”
Realizing his actions were rude, Kang Jin-hyuk quickly averted his gaze.
Maintaining his awkward eye contact, Kang Jin-hyuk asked her a question.
“Excuse me, but… are you perhaps an elf?”
Although it was a rather outlandish question,
there were dwarves in this dungeon, so it wouldn’t be too strange if there were elves too.
Her reaction to Kang Jin-hyuk’s question was neither a confirmation nor a denial.
“You’re half right. I’m a half-elf.”
She added that while she resembled an elf in appearance, her eating habits and lifestyle were no different from a human’s.
“You must have heard of the half-elf, Lucia, right?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“R-Really? I thought I was quite famous, but I guess I’m not there yet.”
Lucia awkwardly scratched her cheek.
The embarrassment returned as a backlash to her proud statement.
“Anyway, that’s my name. And I’m a Platinum-ranked adventurer.”
Along with her introduction, she presented a platinum medal with ornate decorations.
Kang Jin-hyuk didn’t know what it meant.
Considering it was made of precious platinum, it was likely an extraordinary item, so Kang Jin-hyuk pretended to be impressed.
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
“…If you’re going to act, at least do it properly, will you?”
Lucia sighed and put the medal back in her pocket.
“I’ll let it slide that you don’t know my name, but seeing that you don’t even know the meaning of this symbol, you’re definitely not from around here.”
“That’s why I said, this is a different place from the world you know.”
Lucia became interested after hearing Kang Jin-hyuk’s words.
“How different is it, specifically?”
“First of all, the language we use is completely different.”
“But we’re talking just fine.”
“That’s probably thanks to this.”
Kang Jin-hyuk took out the necklace he was wearing and showed it.
Upon seeing it, Lucia’s expression immediately crumpled.
“Is that… something that dwarf geezer made on the upper floor?”
“Huh? Do you two know each other?”
“Know each other… we do…”
Lucia said in a hesitant voice, showing an openly uncomfortable expression.
“Don’t get involved with that dwarf. It’ll be a pain.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Why? Because he’s the type to curse at you like you’re his worst enemy.”
Kang Jin-hyuk felt something strange after hearing her words.
“He does curse a bit, but he’s not that bad.”
“That’s because you’re human. Just because I have half-elf blood, he throws insults and curses at me…”
Lucia’s face flushed as if she was getting angry recalling the past incident.
Just before she could launch into a tirade about the dwarf, she realized she was getting off-topic and exercised patience.
Lucia took deep breaths to calm her agitated emotions.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter if we can’t speak the same language. We can use magic.”
“In the world I live in, there’s no such thing as magic. And there are no elves like you, Lucia-ssi.”
To be precise, it was ‘half-elf’, but now was not the time to point out such a minor detail.
Lucia’s eyes widened as she doubted the credibility of the information she had just heard.
“No elves? Then how do you know about elves?”
“Well… I saw it in a book, I guess…”
“A race that appears in books doesn’t actually exist in reality? Are they extinct?”
“W-Well…”
Kang Jin-hyuk was at a loss for how to explain this.
How could they describe a race that exists in another world so accurately?
He felt like asking fantasy novel authors directly.
While Kang Jin-hyuk was stammering, unable to answer, Lucia deduced the situation in her own way.
‘They must have existed in the past, that’s why they were written about in books, right? Then it would be a big deal if they found out elves reappeared.’
Lucia imagined herself being captured by researchers from another world.
If they rediscovered an extinct race, she would surely be subjected to all sorts of experiments and investigations.
Lucia’s face grew darker as she imagined it, and she shuddered, shaking her head.
“I’ll have to put off going outside. It seems too risky.”
Lucia thought she should refrain from impulsively going outside for her own safety.
She needed to go out at least once for investigation, but it seemed like she needed more preparation.
“Anyway, it means there’s a dimension connected to this dungeon, right?”
“That’s right…”
Although he didn’t know for sure, seeing that it was connected to the attic, this dungeon wasn’t an isolated place.
Lucia breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Kang Jin-hyuk’s answer.
“That’s a relief. That crazy wizard’s spell worked after all.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“What do you mean? It means there’s a crazy guy who sent this dungeon to your dimension.”
Kang Jin-hyuk stared at Lucia with a surprised expression.
“Why on earth would he do that?”
“How would I know?”
It was impossible to understand the thoughts of wizards with a sane mind.
Especially those who reached a high level.
“If it’s a successful spell, it should be possible to reverse it… I think I finally see a way out.”
Kang Jin-hyuk’s heart sank after hearing Lucia’s murmur.
It seemed that this woman’s goal was to return the dungeon to its original dimension.
“C-Could we go back right now?”
“I think I need to investigate a bit more to know that. That’s why I came here in the first place.”
“What’s here?”
“There’s a hidden place that’s cut off from the outside.”
“A hidden place?”
“Yes, I discovered it recently.”
After finishing her words, Lucia stared intently at Kang Jin-hyuk.
Kang Jin-hyuk unconsciously took a step back, feeling burdened by her sudden gaze.
“You seem quite useful. Help me out.”
“Help you? With what?”
“Catching the boss monster.”
“Boss monster…?!”
Kang Jin-hyuk’s mouth watered at the mention of the boss monster.
Boss monsters were several times stronger than monsters of the same rank.
They were difficult to hunt, but because of the great rewards they offered, Hunters were eager to find them.
Lucia noticed that he had taken the bait after seeing his reaction.
“I can handle it alone, but it’s annoying to deal with the small fry on the way there.”
“So you want me to take care of the small fry?”
Lucia grinned, saying it was good that he was quick to understand.
“I’ll give you the reward, so help me investigate. What do you say?”
Of course, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
He had seen Lucia’s skills with his own eyes, and he thought he could learn more about her purpose if he traveled with her.
“Okay, I’ll help you.”
“Good, that’s the spirit.”
◈◈◈◈◈◈
After promising to cooperate with each other,
Lucia led the way, guiding Kang Jin-hyuk deeper into the labyrinth, inside the temple.
At the center of the crumbling temple was a statue of a goddess with her arms broken.
When Lucia pushed aside the statue, which resembled the Venus de Milo, a staircase hidden beneath it was revealed.
“You’re really strong.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment to a woman?”
Lucia descended the stairs first with a pouty face.
Kang Jin-hyuk, who followed her, was amazed by the vast space in the temple basement.
Rows of knight-shaped statues and ornate patterns decorated the walls.
It was indeed a fitting place for a boss monster to hide.
“Is the boss ahead?”
“No, we have to walk a little further. This place is bigger than you think.”
“A little further, you mean like 1 or 2 hours?”
“A day.”
“Huh?”
“It’ll take about a day if we rest along the way.”
Kang Jin-hyuk’s jaw dropped at her words.
“It’s not a march, is it? It takes a whole day?”
“I told you, there are a lot of monsters along the way. And there are other steps we need to take care of.”
Being a boss monster, it took considerable effort to encounter it.
Lucia explained that it could take even longer considering the time and distance required for hunting.
Kang Jin-hyuk, who was briefly shocked, decided to take the situation positively.
“It’s not bad since I came here to level up anyway.”
He had prepared thoroughly to stay in the dungeon for a long time, so he wouldn’t starve.
“But how do you know all this? Have you been here before?”
“Two days before I was sent to another dimension.”
“Then why are you back now…?”
“There’s a high chance that the spell the wizard left behind is still here.”
Kang Jin-hyuk prayed that there wouldn’t be that spell or whatever it was here.
He felt sorry for Lucia, but he didn’t want her to return the dungeon to its original dimension.
◈◈◈◈◈◈
The abilities Lucia displayed on the way to the boss monster were truly amazing.
She would suddenly draw her bow, and every time she released an arrow, at least two monsters would lose their lives.
Even if the monster was wearing armor, the result was no different.
Her arrows accurately targeted the gaps in the armor, piercing vital points.
There was no way for the monsters to block the arrows flying from an invisible distance.
If it weren’t for her enhanced stats from enchantments, Kang Jin-hyuk wouldn’t have even noticed what she was shooting.
It would have been great if he could continue to rely on her, but unfortunately, the number of arrows wasn’t infinite.
Although she tried to retrieve and reuse the intact arrows, it was impossible to recover 100% of what she shot due to their nature.
When only 10 arrows remained, Lucia drew the rapier from her waist.
“You’ll have to help me from now on. I want to save some arrows for the boss.”
“Leave it to me.”
Kang Jin-hyuk confidently gripped his bat and stepped forward.
He had been itching to move after only watching Lucia’s performance.
Their opponents were ‘ghouls’, half-rotten corpses that wore armor.
They were no better than skeletons, so dealing with them wasn’t too difficult.
“Heave-ho!”
Kang Jin-hyuk swung his bat and cleanly smashed the head of a ghoul that was walking towards them.
The ghoul’s head, along with its helmet, shattered from the impact.
“Groooo…”
Unlike skeletons, ghouls couldn’t move once their heads were destroyed.
In this respect, they were actually easier to deal with than skeletons, despite their slightly higher stats.
“Not bad.”
The armor the ghoul was wearing was made of good quality iron, despite its appearance.
It was difficult to crush it with one blow using ordinary weapons.
An average person would have thought it was Kang Jin-hyuk’s own strength, but Lucia was different.
“That bat, did the dwarf geezer enhance it for you?”
“You knew?”
“Yeah, he bragged about it when I visited him last time.”
A weapon made of Orihalcon and enchanted by a dwarf.
It was an item that anyone would covet.
Therefore, Kang Jin-hyuk was worried that Lucia might also be after his baseball bat.
Lucia, sensing his feelings, smiled and said,
“Don’t worry. I also heard that it’s bound to you, so I’m not planning on doing anything.”
“Does that mean you would have tried if it wasn’t bound?”
“Of course. Do you know how much that’s worth?”
It was scarier that she said it so honestly without losing her smile.
It seemed this woman hadn’t learned the concept of white lies.
“…….”
After hearing her words, Kang Jin-hyuk couldn’t help but feel uneasy about his back.
He moved forward cautiously, worrying that she might find a way to attack him from behind.
Lucia chuckled inwardly, sensing his glances.
‘He’s cute.’
Being a Platinum-ranked adventurer was proof of strength, but also proof of trust.
It was a symbol given only to virtuous adventurers who had never committed even minor crimes, so in Lucia’s world, it could be used as identification anywhere.
Even though she had been transported to another world along with the dungeon, Lucia had no intention of breaking that trust now.
The platinum symbol was a proud title that proved her life as an adventurer.
However, Kang Jin-hyuk, unaware of this fact, was truly suspicious that Lucia might be after his belongings.
His frightened rabbit-like behavior tickled Lucia’s sadistic side.
“I suddenly have a question.”
“W-What is it?”
“About that bat. Would the binding effect remain even if you die?”
“…I think I’ll go alone from here.”
“Ahahaha, I’m just kidding, don’t be so scared.”
As Kang Jin-hyuk walked ahead quickly, Lucia hurriedly followed him.
While they were walking at a speed that was hard to distinguish between running and walking, Lucia spotted something and grabbed Kang Jin-hyuk by the back of his neck.
“Gah!”
Kang Jin-hyuk, whose neck was suddenly choked, coughed and looked back.
“What was that for?”
“Calm down, I’m not trying to kill you. Just take a look at this.”
Lucia pointed to a large door.
The door, engraved with a lion’s emblem, looked unusual at first glance.
“What is this? Are we there already?”
“No, this is the first step to meeting the boss monster.”
“The first step…? What is it?”
“We have to defeat the one guarding the seal beyond this door.”
In short, it was a mid-boss.
Perhaps it wasn’t an opponent to be taken lightly, as Lucia took out an arrow, which she had been saving for the boss monster, and nocked it on her bow.
“I want to finish this in one shot if possible, so run forward as soon as I open the door.”
“You’re not going to shoot me from behind after saying that, are you?”
“That’s a good idea, but I won’t do that now. There’s a lot left to do that I can’t handle alone.”
“That’s a relief.”
As Lucia pulled the bowstring and signaled with her eyes, Kang Jin-hyuk threw the door open with all his might.
Behind the doors that opened to the left and right, there was a blue glowing magic circle and a knight-shaped golem guarding it.
“Now!”
Kang Jin-hyuk was already running towards the golem before Lucia finished speaking.
The golem swung the sword it was holding at the intruder approaching it.
But Lucia’s arrow was faster than the 2-meter long sword could reach.
Her arrow accurately struck the golem’s joints.
As the golem stumbled and became defenseless with its balance lost, Kang Jin-hyuk instinctively realized what he had to do.
His gaze was fixed on the core embedded in the center of the golem’s chest.