Chapter 50

50. Please Take Care of My Kid

Lately, I've been thinking that since leveling up doesn't really give me many chances to improve my specs, maybe learning some special techniques would give me a chance to survive even if I had to face a Great Hero later.

Now that I've seen Dorfin's true form, there was also a part of me wondering what good a Great Hero was in the first place.

But right now, I wasn't even good enough to reach the Great Hero's toes, so if Dorfin's training could give me a technique that would let me fight against a Great Hero, I'd gladly take it.

“Why doesn't this work? You have to make it flow like this, hrrrroooong!”

“What the heck is ‘hrrrroooong’?! I've never heard that expression before! I can't even pronounce it properly!”

Of course, all of that depended on whether Dorfin's training was actually effective.

Dorfin had learned all of her skills so naturally that she could use them as easily as breathing, but her explanations were always on the level of "hrrrroooong" or "whirly-whirly!"

Even more surprisingly, she hadn't told me anything at all about what her technique actually was!

She had just declared that she would become my master, and now she was suddenly saying she would teach me right away while making noises like "hrrrroooong"!

“Umm, you don't understand? I accepted you because our Ingwang looked talented~.”

“Huh? Me? Talented? Really?”

“Of course! I can feel your talent just by looking at your face! Or did you really think this old lady accepted you as her disciple just because I fell for your words? Do I really look that young?”

I understood that the whole thing had just been something she did because she was bored.

I also understood that when she said she would give me three seconds, she had secretly been laughing while pretending to be in a hurry.

But when she said she was going to torment me, I couldn't help wondering if that part had really been acting.

Wasn't it?

Wasn't it?!

If I wanted to follow in Pai's footsteps and become someone powerful enough to make the Empire wary of me, would I really have to endure even this kind of absurdity?

“Can't you explain it just a little with words? The theory, at least! Stop making noises like ‘hrrrroooong’!”

“Hrrrroooong! Hrrrroooong is this!”

Dorfin slowly stretched out her hand, moving smoothly and naturally as if she were following the movement of the wind rather than resisting it.

I had absolutely no idea what the difference was, but suddenly, another mountain peak beyond the sea of mist was ripped away and shot up into the sky.

“My technique is about riding every flow in the world, interfering with the flow, and playing with it. I make things flow by supporting them, and I stop them by grabbing them.”

“You explain it perfectly well when you want to.”

“But doing this here feels like it's not me doing it, but the world itself making things appear that way, so it feels unpleasant, and it becomes difficult to explain~.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I'’ll tell you laaater. If my Ingwang hears it now, his head might explode.”

She was taller than me, and whenever she was nearby, she gave off a warm feeling.

Even though I knew she was just saying those things to brush me off, it felt like I was getting annoyed at someone's mother, so I couldn't bring myself to argue with her.

Anyway.

I understood it well enough.

If I learned that technique, I might be able to turn myself into a weapon capable of fighting a Great Hero, so I decided to learn it as seriously as possible.

If I could, I'd tell my companions that I would be away for a long time and stay here to learn properly.

But I'd have to call Secretary Lee separately and ask her about that.

Whether it was when I fought the badger in Jageun Village, the incidents in the sewer, or meeting Modaki together with the Great Hero, every single one of those things had happened because I was too weak.

After everything was over, I thought those incidents had been interesting events.

But if possible, I wanted to avoid troublesome situations.

At this rate, if I wanted to meet Pai, who was already far above me, it felt like I'd have to wait until the service was about to shut down.

So I should actively make use of every power-up event I could find.

“Ah, wait a second. Can my kid learn this too? He's in wolf form right now, but he might change into another form after evolving.”

“Nooo~! He and I have terrible compatibility. He's a wolf, and I'm a sheep, right? The laws of nature make me uncomfortable~.”

The sheep was so huge that it looked like it could probably eat a wolf as big as a mountain, but I decided not to point that out.

There had to be another reason.

“Does the technique have a name?”

“Yeah! I originally didn't want to give it a name, but some little thing teased me about it, so I made one too!”

“If you're going to teach it to someone, having a word to refer to it by is useful. So what is it?”

“It's the power that makes flows move, so I simply called it Flow. Easy to remember, right?”

Didn't she realize that the name was so simple that people probably wouldn't remember it as a proper noun?

Of course she didn't.

The reason she named it wasn't because she needed a name.

It was because some little person whose identity I didn't know had picked a fight with her over it.

I should be grateful that she at least had something to call it now.

That little person was probably one of the two people the Chairman had mentioned.

From what I'd heard about them teasing her because she didn't have a name, they were probably quite an annoying person.

So one was a pervert with strong sadistic tendencies who enjoyed tormenting others, and the other was a mischievous brat who went around teasing people.

I disliked both types.

“…Oops, I'm supposed to start by feeling the Flow first, not do this. Silly me.”

“That's quite an interesting thing to say. You've already spent two hours playing around like this!”

From the perspective of character development, hadn't I made the wrong choice?

Couldn't she just give me a few quests, and after I cleared them, reward me while saying, "Good job, you worked hard"?

Did we really have to do it like this?

Until now, the game had at least tried to show some game-like elements by displaying various notification windows.

So why was it being so quiet now?

Was it because this was part of an NPC's story line in an area that hadn't been officially opened yet?

…That's insanely convincing.

“If I could give you one piece of advice, it would be this: don't be impatient, and just take your time.”

“You're kind.”

“Hehe, it's nothing!”

So I should interpret that as meaning I didn't need to put any effort into feeling the Flow?

If the Flow really existed, then there should be some kind of flow within my body too, and perhaps I'd naturally realize it someday.

If this were a fantasy world, that is!

This is a game! A game! Get a grip! Super-realism!

To cool my head, I thought it wouldn't be bad to sit down and rest for a while as if I were meditating.

I'd been obsessing over boss attempts like crazy for the past few days, and just yesterday I'd met the Chairman, so both my mind and body were exhausted.

I decided it was time to take a little break.

Having made that decision, I walked toward the edge of the land to get away from Dorfin.

The place was so full of mist—or clouds, or whatever they were—that it looked like an island floating on a pure white sea.

If I stared quietly at the horizon, I couldn't help feeling the urge to dive into that white sea.

I still didn't know whether this was actually the top of a mountain or an island floating in the sky, so I didn't actually dive.

Even if this turned out to be an island floating in the sky above a sea of white clouds, I had no idea whether the same floating effect would apply to humans.

So I had to be careful.

“Trying to run away?”

“Why is the first thing you say ‘Are you running away?’ instead of ‘Where are you going?’ I'm not planning to run away.”

I sat on the edge of the land and dipped my feet into the white sea.

It felt moist, soft, and gentle as it wrapped around my feet.

I'd never touched or stepped on a cloud before, so I couldn't really say it felt like walking on clouds.

“You know, I once saw something called a Sky Island in a comic. I was genuinely amazed back then. I thought it was incredibly fresh and interesting. But now, even after actually seeing something like this, I don't feel that way.”

“People say the past becomes beautified in their memories, but in such cases, the disappointment probably comes from the difference between what one imagined and what one actually sees.”

“Is that so? At first, I thought this place was pretty cool too… Who are you?”

While I was splashing my feet in the white sea, I heard a powerless voice mumbling.

I turned my head and met the eyes of a girl floating blankly on top of the white sea.

This was her.

This little one was definitely the second problematic NPC.

Unlike Dorfin's large, spiraling horns that had grown as she developed, this girl had short but thick red horns pointing backward.

She was wearing a hanbok.

Since she didn't seem to have a very good relationship with Dorfin, there was no doubt that this girl, who had almost every characteristic opposite to Dorfin except for gender, was the second person I needed to find.

Unlike Dorfin, who had a soft, round, and squishy overall appearance, this girl looked sharp from her eyes onward.

Her appearance was the kind that could only be described as having strong features.

If she grew up into an adult while keeping that face, I probably wouldn't even be able to look her in the eyes.

“Hello.”

Her eyes were empty of energy, and she had merely happened to meet my gaze as she drifted along.

Even though I casually spoke informally to Dorfin, there was no way I could do that with this girl.

She had to be some enormous creature like Dorfin anyway.

There was nothing good that could come from provoking a human who already looked like she had a bad personality.

If I made a good impression on her, maybe she could teach Modaki something.

Right.

Come to think of it, I also needed to decide what kind of evolution Modaki should have soon.

“What are you doing?”

“I'm feeling empty because of my helplessness and falsehood. With a false body, false memories, and a false life, what meaning can I possibly have in continuing this false time?”

“Then live the opposite way.”

“The opposite… If everything about me is false, then you're telling me to find my own truth that is opposite to that falsehood. You have a talent for making things sound complicated, little one.”

After mumbling in a rough voice that sounded like she had smoked quite a lot, she pulled out the long pipe stuck in her hair like a hairpin and put it between her lips.

With a deep inhale and exhale, dark gray smoke spread across the white sea.

If something like that went into and out of her body, I felt like she'd be found dead tomorrow morning.

Yet she smoked it as if it were nothing.

“But, little one. Think about what meaning finding my own truth would have in a false place like this. In a place where every single action is restricted, even the thing you spoke of has no meaning.”

I wondered what I should do, then lifted her out of the water and placed her beside me.

She didn't resist at all, as if she were a doll.

She just hung limply in my hands, and if I sat her down wrong, it looked like she'd fall straight back into the sea.

For some reason, that made me worry.

“Forget all that. Please teach my kid.”

“You are a beast. You speak so casually to someone who has become so consumed by doubts about the meaning of her existence and the emptiness of life that she has come to believe even death is false, little brat.”

Sigh…

A slightly reddish cloud of smoke burst roughly out of her mouth.

She seemed a little angry at what I'd said.

“Well, that's not really my problem, is it?”

“The moment you noticed I was getting angry, you immediately picked a fight with me. You're just like your master. I think I can understand a little why that woman, who has gone mad over her false life, hasn't turned you into alcohol and drunk you yet.”

“Did you call me?”

Dorfin, who had been standing in the distance watching us, had apparently been slowly approaching ever since I pulled the girl out of the water.

Before I knew it, she was sitting beside me with a bright smile.

On my left was an intimidatingly beautiful woman.

On my right was a brat who looked like she had a nasty personality.

I didn't want to be stuck between these two.

It was uncomfortable.

I wanted to run away.

“Indeed, even the act of drinking alcohol is meaningless. There is no meaning in it.”

“Alcohol is delicious! How can you say it has no meaning?! It's one of the few pleasures I have!”

“The lives of those things that have become alcohol have no value either. They're false things that will simply be recreated anyway, so what could be less valuable than that, other than someone like me?”

“Come on~ They're all about the same value as us. There's no such thing as being higher or lower, right?”

“If life has no meaning and death has no meaning, then what kind of existence should I contemplate in a world where meaning cannot be found? I have no way of knowing.”

“Let's drown ourselves in a life of meat and wine! Kill them all and turn them into meat and alcohol! Let's kill everyone!”

“…Yes. Maybe we'll find something if we kill everyone. If we erase everything and sever everything, perhaps then I can find the truth of myself that the little one spoke of.”

“Let's kill them!”

“Should we kill them?”

“Stop.”

The synergy between these two was beyond anything I'd imagined.

It seemed like it would be best to keep them as far apart as possible.

Dorfin was even more malicious because I could see how she was actively trying to take advantage of the depressed girl's state of mind.

Maybe her real goal was to watch me become troubled while listening to their conversation.

For now, I should change the subject.

There was absolutely nothing good for me in continuing this topic, and these two would probably remain broken no matter what I said.

“You speak quite intelligently, so let me borrow some of your wisdom.”

“Why would you need to borrow wisdom from me? You appear somewhat lacking in knowledge, but you don't look like someone who needs wisdom.”

“Why didn't you ask me? Why are you asking her? Ask me too~!”

“We're talking about my kid.”

Of course, I meant Modaki.

I had originally started out thinking of him as a friend, but somewhere along the way, the little bonfire had become my child.

The topic was obvious.

I needed to evolve Modaki, and I wanted to know what kind of species the two of them thought would be best and why.

Modaki's current species was called a Spirit Beast.

He was a beast, but apparently, it was a type of beast that possessed the power of a spirit.

The first evolution option was a somewhat special type called a Divine Beast.

It was something that should be considered more of a stage than a species.

An easy example would be something like a fox that had lived for a hundred years.

It didn't sound bad.

But when I heard the term Divine Beast, the first thing that came to mind was a tiger.

So I wasn't sure how I felt about Modaki, who was a wolf from the canine family, suddenly turning toward the feline side.

Right now, he's a wolf, so he calls me Dad and follows me.

But if he became a feline, couldn't he suddenly stop calling me Dad and start saying, "Hey, you," or "Yo"?

“If you're talking about a Divine Beast, isn't one already right beside you? It's certainly far from being sacred, but it is undoubtedly a Divine Beast.”

“How about it? Can you indirectly understand the greatness of this old lady now? I told you I have sacred power within me~!”

“This woman could be called a monster. Divine Beasts are the kind of beings that can easily be called monsters if they stray even slightly from the path.”

Hmm.

If that was the case, Modaki would immediately be called a monster.

Considering his concept, that wouldn't actually be so bad.

However, now that I knew the events at the Fairy Lake had really happened in reality rather than being a simulation, there was no point in making Modaki look even more suspicious when he was already viewed negatively.

It would be nice if he could transform into a human form like Dorfin.

But I didn't know what would happen right away, and there was always the possibility that I might suddenly encounter survivors of the elves who had been wiped out by Modaki and me.

It would be better to be careful.

The next option was a Werewolf.

I didn't like that one.

Modaki didn't like being in wolf form either, so it was an option we should avoid if possible.

The third option was Yeomin.

It seemed to be a version where Modaki had been human from the very beginning.

I didn't really like this one either because it didn't feel unique.

How should I put it?

It gave me the image of something that would get its chest pierced by magma.

“What is it? You already decided on one anyway, yet you still asked me. You might be worried about it, but those other two choices aren't even on your mind, are they?”

“I like living as a Divine Beast~ When I go into the mountains, everyone treats me like a king~.”

“It's also easy for those who seek strength to hunt and eat you. The reason that one was able to grow so large was because it was originally strong. Young Divine Beasts that haven't lived long after becoming one are quickly caught and turned into prey. That wouldn't happen if you protected the child, little one.”

“Everyone looked down on me because I'm a sheep~ Even though I could eat them in one bite!”

“If Modaki becomes a Divine Beast, can he change into a form like Dorfin?”

“That one is an exceptional case. It was the result of continuously eating humans. More precisely, it was because humans sacrificed other humans to her.”

“Personally, I liked pork~.”

“I like pork too.”

“Oh my, reaaally~?”

So in the mountains, she was treated like a king.

She occasionally ate those who challenged her.

And when humans began treating her like a god and offering sacrifices, she gained the power to transform into a human.

If none of that had happened, she wouldn't have her current appearance.

“Of course, all of this is not the story of my true self. It is merely my false self speaking the story of my true self, so don't give it too much meaning.”

“Don't be like that~ Just enjoy it! Don't you think it'll be pretty good?”

“You change your attitude the moment you find a human you like. Yes, that thing that must have formed the basis of you was also such an existence.”

I wondered if I should find some inspiring quote that would warm her heart and recite it to her.

But would someone who looked like she was about to die even listen properly if I said something like that?

I'd tried to change the subject by talking about Modaki, but apparently it didn't mean much to someone who had already been hurt inside.

No matter what topic I brought up, she somehow turned it into another depressing thought.

It was making me uncomfortable just talking to her.

My head had already been hurting ever since I received the Chairman's call.

I never expected things to become even more troublesome here.

Since I'd already received the advance payment, I couldn't simply run away now and say I couldn't do it.

I was too afraid of what might happen in the future.

…There was no choice.

Maybe this girl would be able to give Modaki something.

So I'd just have to hang in there a little longer.