"A negotiation? Do you think that's possible?"
"It will. That jellyfish will be overjoyed that it can make a contract with me with only you as the price."
Seokwon Choi seemed suspicious.
"You're that valuable?"
"I'm incomparable to S classes, so stop being so suspicious."
He was hesitant despite saying that he had only one day left.
"You have nothing to lose. I won't force you if you don't want to live, and instead, recommend good books and music so you can die in peace."
"This isn't a trick, right?"
"I won't be able to do this all day, and I'll take you to meet the jellyfish. How about it?"
"Right now? You can bring him here?"
"Of course not here, but anywhere in a dungeon. I just have to send a sign and go in to be connected to where the jellyfish is."
I had been intentionally speaking in a large voice so my brother could hear, but I remembered that Yoohyun currently did not know about the dungeon where depraved were. His memories probably had not returned, but I only could think of this method.
Seokwon Choi was still a person and not a monster, so he would be able to enter a dungeon.
"What are you doing?!"
I heard my brother's voice, and I wanted to say that everything was fine, and take care of yourself until I came back.
"He's loud."
Seokwon Choi gathered fog to form a long blade, and my vision turned red.
"You will die if something happens to my brother."
"What can an F class do?"
"Don't you know contracts have to be accepted with free will? The jellyfish won't have left me alone if he could force it."
"Is that so?"
Seokwon Choi sneered, and he threw the blade. I heard a muffled moan, and I felt like my intestines were burning inside.
"You bastard."
"I didn't kill him even though I wanted to."
I just breathed in and out to calm down.
"…Will you let the time pass by like this?"
"I thought I may take care of at least two beforehand as an example, since you may change your mind."
"I can die of spite, so don't try."
He laughed.
"Is any dungeon okay?"
"Yes."
I heard a small voice calling me, and I tried to ignore it. The damn guy looked to where Yoohyun was lying down, and I became afraid of what he would do. Thankfully, Seokwon Choi dragged me and turned around. I heard my brother scream, and the sound became smaller.
Seokwon Choi blasted away a dungeon building with a light wave, and the gate showed itself. He pushed me in front of the gate.
"Send the signal."
I looked at him briefly and knocked on the gate three times.
"It's done. We can go in now."
"That's too simple."
"It's customized for me. You can go in and see for yourself."
Seokwon Choi moved toward the gate while grabbing my arm, and I felt cold air and snow under my feet. He looked at the white forest with a bit of surprise.
"It really is a different place."
He walked while dragging me with him, and I thought something would happen soon.
"Is that a monster?"
Seokwon Choi responded at the ice spear, and he broke it into pieces to fly towards where it had come from after letting me go. His hand accurately grabbed something and crushed something invisible, and a red toy soldier shaped like a nutcracker appeared. The toy soldier's remains spread on the snow, and Seokwon Choi turned around with a smirk.
"Did you bring me for such tricks?"
"That's an S class, you know. And yes, this is a trap."
He smiled as I said that I was sorry if he had thought it boring. The smile wanted to crush my bones.
"You're an idiot, and you should have said that after the gate is closed."
"How can a guild leader not have even a gate stone?"
"You have a big mouth for an F class, and I should cut off your limbs and have you beg for death in front of Yoohyun Han…"
Seokwon Choi's hand had been reaching out for me, but now was blocked by an invisible wall.
"Well, a barrier like this…"
He knocked on the wall, but it did not move. His face became contorted, and he knocked again. I watched with indifferent eyes him move about frantically, and he let out a livid roar while turning red.
"You damn rat! Come out!"
[Honey!]
I saw a volleyball, and it shouted with a fierce expression.
[You guys, assemble together!]
"What is that?"
Seokwon Choi looked at the volleyball, and during that time small and big toy soldiers of various classes gathered around to form a toy knight. He had a white cape, gold epaulets, and a formal red uniform with a sword sheathed to his side. I used my identifying skill on it.
[Toy Knight Leader? SSS Class – Contractor unknown]
It was a knight leader and not just a knight. The volleyball jumped up.
[Go!]
The knight leader unsheathed his sword at the command and aimed the sharp blade at Seokwon Choi. The guy straightened his back and lifted his sword made of fog.
"What weird…"
Seokwon Choi could not finish his words, as the knight leader's sword pierced his chest without time to respond. The was no blood, but thorn vines came out to wrap around Seokwon Choi.
"Ahhh!"
He screamed, but Seokwon Choi disappeared amidst the vines that wove like a cocoon and shrunk until it became the size of a soccer ball. Despite being the same rank, he had not even reacted once and must have been the lower rung of the rank.
[Honey, what happened?!!]
The volleyball came and asked.
"He made a deal with the jellyfish. But can someone become that strong just by giving up one's life?"
There were several hundred S class hunters in the world, and the number would continue to increase. It would be a problem if they all became SS or SSS classes.
[It's not like that, as he is an S class awakened, who normally do not make a deal like this. Also, that jellyfish used expediency.]
"An expediency?"
[Yes, that jellyfish is a member of the Sea of Fog family, who swallow others' memories through fogs. I think the jellyfish made that man a member of the family and gave him some fog. Since the fog is from their King, the fog would have been able to transform memories into power quite well.]
I grabbed the volleyball at the word memories.
"He took my brother's memories!"
[Calm down, honey!]
"I have to get them back! What happens if the owner dies? Will the memory disappear?"
[How long has it been since he lost his memory?]
"About one to two hours."
[Then it's still all right. Knight Leader!]
The knight leader came holding the thorn cocoon, and the upper part of it was open, so I could see that there were several hundred small marbles in it.
[While some may be missing, most of them seem intact. They will go back to their owner upon physical contact, and the marbles' size is relevant to the number of memories.]
An especially big marble came into my eyes, and since Yoohyun would have drunk in the fog from the nearest spot, this would be his. I took out empty bottles and bags from my inventory to move the marbles, including my brothers, and I saw a magic stone gleaming faintly at the bottom. While it was an SSS class stone, the size was small and color murky compared to its class.
"It does not seem useful."
The state of the stone was unsellable or to give as a gift, and I thought that maybe Myeongwoo may use it to make a weapon.
[Honey, you can combine stones to make monsters. While the stone is weak compared to its class, the result will be at least an S class.]
"It's not possible when the stone is not a cursed poison dragon stone."
[Why? You're not the owner but the nurturer of the cursed poison dragon. It doesn't matter what the race is.]
"…It doesn't?"
[Of course. You're raising humans, dragons, griffons, and others.]
The volleyball answered while spinning around, and I wondered if that was true since the skill was originally for combining to create a cursed poison dragon. I grabbed Seokwon Choi's magic stone and looked into it.
"This seems ominous even it's possible."
It was a human being's magic stone, which made me uneasy about using it.
"Does the awakened in our world form magic stones when they become an SSS class? Or is this because he had become something else?"
[Normally, the stones form from SS class as it means that they had overcome the limits of the current race. Monsters have random stones regardless of class, and I cannot go into specifics.]
I took Seokwon Choi's stone, and the volleyball shouted that there was not much time left. While the dungeon usually lasted for thirty minutes, the time did not reset if I came again in a row. I was told that it took about a week to reset.
[Then honey, be safe!]
The environment around me changed with those words, and I saw a barren field. I should return quickly-
I ran towards the gate the moment I heard a growl, but something heavy ambushed me from the back with one step. What the hell.
"Biting won't work-"
I felt something bite me in the back of my neck and saw other monsters approach me. I used my identifying skill while flailing.
[Class 2 Land Wolf Type – Long Teethed Wolf
Current stat class A
Possible stat class B ~ A]
So, Seokwon Choi had come to an A or S class dungeon. While the ambush would have been due to the magic stone in my test, I deemed everything to be Seokwon Choi's fault. He should have chosen a C class.
I was dragged when the gate was only five steps away, and the monsters scratched at me to get to the stone. Having the damage nullifying skill at A class will last me for some time, and I would need to pretend I was dead until they gave up. I hoped they did it quickly since I did not want to use a gate stone.
I felt a wound here and there from their teeth, and the monsters became more excited at the smell of blood. They began to growl, and I thought I would need to use the gate stone anyway.
It was then the monster on top of me began to shout, and I smelt burning flesh.
"Yoohyun!"
He had come, and Yoohyun kneeled in front of me and embraced me with both arms.
"Hey, did you heal-"
I could not finish the sentence because I heard a sob.