Storm Warrior - Chapter 339



Only Noblemtl

#339, What I Wish For

“Swoop.”

As I remove my magic suit and take a breath of air inside the dungeon, the smell of seawater hits me.

“… Oh my. Why am I so salty inside?”

Slap.

Although the interior of the cave is not an underwater environment, seawater flowing from the bodies of people coming and going has accumulated to create a shallow puddle.

The light sources that illuminated the interior of the dungeon were glowing stones embedded in various places on the walls of the cave made of volcanic rock.

… No, upon closer inspection, it appears to be closer to some kind of petrified shell.

This is a detail that I didn’t notice when looking at the graphic texture.

Even the stone pillars that I thought were stalactites were actually made of salt.

‘This must have been a cave under the sea at one time.’

Although it is a fragment from a completely different dimension, it seems that the influence of the formed spot is not completely absent.

Of course, the monsters that exist within this place now have nothing to do with that ancient ecological environment.

From inside the cave, a metal-like clanking sound was heard, along with three or four voices.

“I said this is the right way.”

“Wait a minute. I think I just smelled something really salty. Hey, it’s the entrance!”

“Am I right?”

“Fuck. You got it wrong four times. If you get it wrong this time, you’re dead in my hands.”

I waited to one side of the road until the group ahead could identify me and pass me by.

Those who discovered me all kept their mouths shut without even saying a single word of greeting.

“… … .”

“… … .”

Only two people in the group glanced at me.

It’s a natural reaction.

Should I say that it was a look of caution, as if some strange guy might start a fight for no reason?

They’ll be exhausted and low on supplies.

In their eyes, I must have looked like a capable person who could stand alone here.

Besides, I still hadn’t taken off my sunglasses in this dark cave.

‘… Anyway, it’s clear that he’s not a player.’

I opened my mouth after they passed by quietly.

“…hey.”

As the startled men turned around, he added, taking off his mask and sunglasses.

“There is a welcome mat outside the entrance. When you leave, go up without looking back.”

“…Huh? What is that, huh! Ho, are you by any chance the hero Han Seong-jun?”

“Yes, that’s right… but right now is not the time to greet each other, so please just remember what I said.”

“Oh, uh, what did you say?”

“Don’t look back when you go out. It’s originally meant to block people from coming in, but once your eyes are caught by it, you’ll lose your sense of direction. So don’t look back, even if it’s just out of curiosity.”

“All right.”

“If you happen to come across someone wandering outside, please help them as much as possible.”

“Of course.”

“Yes. Go ahead.”

“Ah… , then… .”

Clap clap clap.

They arrived right in front of the entrance and looked back at me with slightly nervous faces.

And then, one by one, they nodded, took a deep breath, and jumped into the abyss.

I scanned the cave path quite deep to see if there were any more groups coming out, then cast the portal.

Parts and pieces!

Soon enough, power was felt from the other side of the space, adding to the portal.

Coordinate fixation becomes stable quickly and is much easier to maintain.

Naturally, the only one in this land who could provide such help was Gayoung.

The door, which had quickly taken shape, illuminated the surrounding area like a magic mirror.

Gayoung, who was looking around me from the other side of the portal, immediately recognized where I was.

-…Underwater dungeon?

“I recognized it right away.”

-Is that it? The place that connects to the invitation coordinates?

When I nodded, Gayoung made a bewildered expression.

-Ha! It’s amazing, but… can that many people be accommodated in that cramped space? No, absolutely not. There’s no space to capture that many coordinates at once.

“Okay. There’s a place that’s wide enough.”

Gayoung’s face hardened at my words, and she soon gave a deep sigh as if she had given up and muttered.

“Katrinan… .”

At the same time, he leapt through the portal and stood in front of me.

There’s no way he wouldn’t know about the being that ‘appears’ in the original work he created. On the contrary, he might not know Maru very well.

Anyway, the guy’s reaction is a bit funny.

“Why? Is it awkward?”

“… … .”

It’s rough.

The day when everyone gathers together.

Gayoung will also be at that place, at that location… .

Because he knows that although he has the soul of a so-called great being, he can no longer be called a dragon.

From the guy’s point of view, he would not be willing to meet his former compatriots in his current state.

I don’t know how Katrinan will react at that time, but whether it’s a dismissive look or a pitying look, wouldn’t it be the same in the end that hurts her pride?

But Gayoung did not confess that.

“What… is it something like Lee Jae-yi?”

Are you planning on having Katrinan bump into the player?

I shook my head.

“No way. Katrinan is my family now too… .”

“…family?”

“Seongyoon gave birth to Katrinan’s hatchling and half-blood.”

“Ugh…! Ugh, ugh!”

Gayoung was so caught up in the wind that she almost fainted.

He seems like a guy who knows everything, but it’s surprising enough.

At this point, having a nephew is something that has never been in any of the future knowledge Gayoung has received so far.

After a while, the guy cleared his throat and asked.

“… Is that what you intended?”

“Was it intentional? Well… Of course it happened because of me.”

“What’s clear is… my brother is doing things that are beyond my expectations.”

“Look forward to the future.”

Sigh.

“Anyway, Katrinan won’t admit it. Don’t ever expect her to be kind or take your side by saying ‘family.’”

“I know. It’s just a promise that I think of Katrinan that way. Just go. I opened it because I thought it would be easier if you knew the coordinates of this side to prepare… I’ve lost too much time.”

But instead of leaving right away, the guy scratched his chin and suddenly withdrew the magic power he had stored in the portal.

As if the two of us were carrying a load together and one of us suddenly let go of his hand, a huge amount of magical power was sucked out of me.

“Sigh… I have to say something and then get out.”

“Let’s go together.”

“what?”

“I will also meet Katrinan.”

Of course there was no reason why it shouldn’t be done.

No, I actually thought it would help.

“… … Are you okay?”

“We’re going to meet anyway.”

“Okay. As long as you’re okay with it. But why?”

“… If Katrinan’s descendants were still ‘hatchlings’, it makes no sense for them to be dying here.”

As the guy said, the most important factor in judging Katrinan’s condition was the presence or absence of hatchlings.

A dragon’s lifespan is infinite.

But at the same time, it is finite – it is because of the dragon’s instinct to constantly become greater.

In history, the dragon that almost achieved their wish was none other than “Beliona”, and in that sense, the incident of falling in love with a human and blowing that opportunity was – by their standards – something that surpassed the instincts imprinted in their DNA.

Anyway.

Play, internment, research, invasion… .

Although their lifestyles were diverse, their purpose was one.

‘Going beyond the limits permitted by the species.’

… We cannot help but be a truly dissatisfied race.

Although it does not openly challenge the authority of any particular god,

The dragon spends its entire life risking everything in pursuit of the power of a god, and then dies.

Simply put, it means that almost all dragons will inevitably die from their own unreasonable experiments at some point, with the only difference being whether it is thousands or tens of thousands of years.

So, such a reckless challenge begins only after setting the future generations straight first.

What if the next generation is not yet grown up?

Of course, parenting was the top priority.

In other words, if Maru is fully grown, any antics Katrinan performs can be understood as her own ‘performance’, but this is not the case when she has hatchlings.

The question is whether there is some ‘force’ behind Katrinan’s being trapped in the underwater dungeon.

I had already guessed that part, but thanks to that, I was able to respond as if I had caught it.

“Hmm… Certainly. If it’s not confinement, it’s a strange situation… Marduk’s hand may have already reached Katrinan.”

“Besides, my brother is also planning to make a killing here, so I wonder if anything will happen.”

“That too… .”

The sea of ​​hope.

I see what I’m doing now as my desperate measure,

Marduk also hopes to prepare a decisive blow.

The stronger the interference, the better.

The biggest threat to me on this earth right now is the thousands of players that even I can’t handle.

But I am preparing for that dangerous encounter myself.

Perhaps Marduk noticed it too.

That there was a way for me to get out of this crisis.

And now you must have felt that indirect intervention alone would not be enough to strand me.

He too has escaped the restrictions I placed on the Tower of Desire,

Absorbed his father’s knowledge,

Because you will be seeing your understanding of the Gods’ writings deepening.

There is something that I almost missed because it still felt distant.

I did not know Marduk.

Even if you ever reach the realm of the gods, you will never find him without knowing him.

So, we have to somehow provoke his impatience and induce ‘direct intervention’.

So that I can remember his signature, his scent.

“…Anyway, you’re saying you’re worried about me?”

“Once I decided to bet.”

“Good. I’ll just keep going straight and break through. Follow me.”

“yes.”

***

At the same time, in a corner of the underwater dungeon.

Two haggard-looking women stood at the end of a dead road.

“Oh, it’s blocked again. Aaak! It’s annoying! I’m hungry!”

“…sorry.”

She was Han Seong-yoon, clutching her head and collapsing, and she was Ivy, apologizing awkwardly.

“No… I didn’t yell at you. It’s my husband who’s stuck here. Does the smell come from here?”

“huh.”

“Then if I wait again, it will open… . But thanks to my older sister, I’m moving forward. This one is still unavailable.”

What Han Seong-yoon was pointing out as a dead end was a huge beast tooth pendant covered in leather.

Swish.

Just in case, I took off the leather case, and the teeth started spinning around the short chain again.

Whoosh whoosh! Buzz whoosh─!

“Tsk! What on earth is the structure like that that I can’t even figure out my direction once I get in here…?”

If it weren’t for the short chain holding it tightly, it would have already flown off somewhere. In reality, it was a tooth taken from the main body of Maru, and the leather house was wing leather.

It may look a little creepy, but it is actually a ‘husband tracking artifact’ that Maru created himself and dedicated to his wife.

Designed to be returned to its original owner in a stripped down state.

If you let it go in a foreign land, it will disappear in a flash and you won’t be able to chase it, so you grab the chain and hold on to it, but it’s no different from a compass that tells you the direction.

However, the reason they were able to find this place was thanks to the player community that had been relayed to Ivy through Cha Yu-ra before.

Because the two people who had no more secrets had become friends and shared everything.

Han Seong-yoon had already revealed Maru’s identity to Ivy.

Ivy happened to get information about the dragon in the underwater dungeon through the player community.

The problem was that when the tooth pendant actually arrived at the water, it couldn’t find a direction and kept pointing in all directions.

Fortunately, Ivy occasionally catches the scent and moves forward, but the biggest problem with the path the two were unaware of was that the path changed irregularly.

When you look back, the fork in the road you just passed may become one path, and a new path may open up where there was a dead end just a moment ago.

In the meantime, sometimes there would be a gate leading to the upper and lower levels, but even after passing through it, I couldn’t tell whether I was going up or down.

Of course, it wasn’t all down to luck, and there were definitely ways to find the path, but it was impossible for two people who just jumped in without thinking to learn it.

Fortunately, at least the two of them had not gone astray, as they had their own way of just following the scent and waiting for a path to open up if there was none.

Ivy, who had been sniffing around in case she missed the smell, suddenly hardened her expression and spoke.

“…the other smell was masked.”

“…!”

Swish.

When Han Seong-yoon grabbed the pendant and put it back on, the house became quiet as if it had never been wild.

I concentrated on the sound in the silence that had just arrived.