Free Web NovelI aggressively gave up on cleaning up the situation. Deaths in a dungeon weren’t exactly rare anyway, and the people who’d died were the kind who deserved it, so I didn’t feel much of anything about it.
On top of that, there was an explanation I needed to hear from Do Yehyun, so I couldn’t afford to waste my stamina on pointless crap like this. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
‘Though I do need a bit of rest first.’
I left the spot so I could get some sleep and went straight into some random tent.
As soon as I stepped in, I yanked off my upper clothes, which were basically trash at this point, and lay down on whatever part looked most like a bed. It really didn’t take long at all for me to lose consciousness.
No idea how long I slept. When I opened my eyes, I felt a familiar gaze on me.
“Yehyun.”
Even though my condition wasn’t bad, my voice still came out rough and hoarse.
“See if you can find some water.”
“Just a moment.”
The moment I finished speaking, Do Yehyun hurriedly got up and started rummaging around the tent. Before long, he pulled out some water and handed it to me.
“Thanks.”
I immediately downed half the canteen and tossed it back onto the bed.
I might’ve been awake, but my head still wasn’t working properly yet. I frowned and pressed hard at my temples.
“Does it hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
‘Hmm.’
So where was I supposed to start, and how was I supposed to organize this?
Still, it was lucky that Ahn Jinha had babbled so much before he died. At the time, I’d only thought it was fucking annoying that he was saying that kind of crap, but now that I’d survived, there was no end to how precious all that info was.
After calmly sorting my thoughts, I opened my mouth.
“I think Ahn Jinha deliberately put us to sleep. When I saw him earlier, he had some kind of item that knocks people out. It looked like a plant. It was definitely an item, not some drug they actually use outside, but I don’t know which dungeon it came from. Anyway, he burned it and used it and I didn’t catch on.”
“.......”
“Him saying he’d go with us all the way to the entrance was bullshit from the start. I did expect that much, but I didn’t expect I’d fall asleep that deeply. Either way, he was probably planning to meet that god or monster or whatever and trade for a wish with your life. No... since he took Ryu Taejun too, maybe he was going to use the two of you for one wish? Since there were two on that side too?”
“No.”
While I was arranging my guesses, Do Yehyun suddenly cut in. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he lifted his head and met my eyes, then continued, enunciating clearly,
“From the start, he was trying to trade one wish for my life and Ryu Taejun’s. Or... more precisely, not our lives, but our desires.”
“Keep going.”
“When I woke up, those two...”
“Gi Cheongmin and Ahn Jinha.”
“Yes, Gi Cheongmin and Ahn Jinha were facing off against the god.”
“The god?”
So that meant Do Yehyun had seen this god directly?
“You actually saw the god with your own eyes?”
Wondering if I’d misunderstood, I asked again, and the answer came easily.
“Yes.”
“How was it? Really a ‘god’?”
“Probably... something like that. Just in terms of ability. It did say it was ambiguous, itself.”
So they’d talked, on top of everything else? I was really starting to lose the thread of what the hell Do Yehyun had gone and done.
Watching my reaction calmly, Do Yehyun continued his explanation.
“The god was in Jin Haedo’s form.”
“Jin Haedo?”
“They said they used him as a reference point when they fixed their shape into a humanoid form. It looked like they interacted with Jin Haedo fairly regularly... that’s how it looked. Of course, they can change into other forms too.”
“Other forms? How do you know that?”
“.......”
Do Yehyun, who’d been speaking so quietly and obediently, visibly flinched.
‘So something did happen.’
Still, it wasn’t like he looked terrified or anything....
“Spit it out.”
“...Hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“I saw them change into your form....”
What?
For a moment, I couldn’t understand what he was saying and frowned.
“What kind of bullshit is that? The god copied me? Why? In front of those bastards?”
“N–No. To explain it properly, I kind of need to... sort out the timeline. Gi Cheongmin asked for his wish to be granted and brought me and Ryu Taejun to trade our lives for it. Ahn Jinha was just standing next to him.”
“But it failed?”
“Yes. The god took an interest in something else, so the deal fell through. Or... more precisely, you’d have to say the god just lost interest.”
It took an interest in something else. At this point, I could more or less guess what that meant. I flicked my hand lazily in Do Yehyun’s direction and muttered,
“They were interested in you?”
“...Yes.”
When I stared at him, the gaze that had been meeting mine so naturally until now suddenly slipped away.
After a moment, he opened his mouth like he was making an excuse.
“I don’t know the exact reason either. If I had to guess... my desire...”
“.......”
“...is strong. Since they said they were a god made out of desire.”
“Desire?”
“Yes.”
At that point, Do Yehyun shut his mouth tight.
I quickly ran through my head and narrowed down the kinds of desires he might have.
‘Survival instinct? Or...’
I sorted through a few possibilities, then paused and looked back at him.
‘Skill growth?’
I’d already known his skill level was ridiculously high compared to his rank as it was, but the healing skill Do Yehyun had just used was several times stronger than usual.
I immediately pulled up Do Yehyun’s status window.
Name: Do Yehyun
Age: 21
Rank: B
Title: -
Main Skills: Blessing of the Moonlight (S), Surging Wave (B)
Growth Limit: A
‘Fuck, how is this even possible?’
The moment I checked his status window, a laugh slipped out on its own. Looking bewildered, Do Yehyun called to me softly.
“...Hyung?”
“This doesn’t make sense.”
“Sorry?”
His status window had changed far more than I’d expected. The most obvious part was that absurd rank increase, but there was something else that caught my eye too.
‘One of his main skills is gone.’
The Poison-Cures-Poison (A) skill buried among all the healing skills. I’d never actually seen him use it properly, but I’d assumed once his rank went up, he’d naturally be able to use it more freely.
‘It’d be better for him to have something besides pure healing skills, though.’
Granted, these were only the “main” skills, so there was always the possibility more skills had been added separately, but losing an entire skill that good felt like a bigger waste right now.
On top of that, I’d seen skills get added, sure—but deleted completely? That was a first.
‘Just what the hell happened?’
When I kept my mouth shut, Do Yehyun called me again in a cautious tone.
“Hyung?”
“Keep talking.”
“...Yes. So the god... sent me somewhere. It wasn’t inside the maze. I think it was a personal space the god uses; it was a bit unusual. It felt like an unconscious space... a slightly mental realm, so it’s hard to describe exactly.”
“You went there?”
“Yes. Or to be precise, we went together.”
So he’d had a one-on-one with this thing they called a god? For a moment, I remembered how he’d said he’d felt uneasy for a while, even after we’d arrived here.
‘Did he sense something like this coming?’
Thinking too deeply about it wasn’t going to get me any answers anyway, so I cleanly dropped the thought and kept listening.
“And then?”
“They told me they were made of desire. So to maintain themselves... they have to keep swallowing desire.”
“What do you mean, ‘swallow’?”
“I think it means they have to eat other people’s desires. I don’t know exactly what they meant, but... I understood it intuitively. Like, if a person has something they desperately wishes for, the god swallows that... and only the shell is left. Once their desire is gone, that person can’t function as a human anymore.”
“Yeah? Does that include basic survival instinct too?”
“Probably.”
That was all fine, but I still had no idea what he meant about the god changing into my form.
“What do you mean the god changed into me?”
“That part is...”
Do Yehyun, who’d been steadily laying things out for once, clamped his mouth shut again.
“Hard ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) to explain?”
Thinking it might be another one of those vague conceptual speeches, I asked, and he hesitated, then denied it.
“...No.”
“But.”
“Just... it’s because I like you, hyung.”
“.......”
That was a fresh kind of bullshit.
‘So this thing that’s literally made of desire figured out that Do Yehyun likes me and changed into my appearance to talk? Has it lost its damn mind?’
The more I thought about it, the more ridiculous it felt, and I let out a laugh as I rubbed my forehead.
“What does your desire have to do with the god changing into me? That sounds pretty impure.”
“It’s not like that!”
“You sure your desire isn’t that kind of thing?”
“...It’s related to you, hyung. B–But it’s not what you’re thinking.”
“How do you know what I’m thinking?”
Well, even if it wasn’t about skill growth, there were still a few desires you could plausibly point to.
Do Yehyun’s eyes went wide for a second like he was flustered, but he quickly calmed down again and continued.
“...It really isn’t. It was something else.”
“What was it?”
“That you’d... need me, hyung. That’s what I wanted.”
“I already need you more than enough. I’d have died today without you.”
Listening quietly, Do Yehyun stood up and came right up in front of me.
When I lifted my head to meet his gaze, his hand came down on my shoulder.
Since I’d taken my clothes off, his hand landed directly on my bare shoulder.
“There are a lot of different meanings for ‘need,’ aren’t there.”
His low voice started, and I felt a bit of strength enter his hand.
‘Yeah, his rank really has gone up.’
I could see he was only gripping lightly, but the pressure was clearly different from before. I grabbed his wrist and slowly stroked the inside of it as I asked back,
“For example?”
“I...”
“.......”
“I want you to want me... a little more desperately.”
