Free Web NovelMind Control (S) has been activated.
I know ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ how dangerous mind control is, but right now that wasn’t the priority.
‘Well, he’ll regulate it on his own.’
It didn’t seem like Im Haekyung would dig into my mind to mess with my restraint in a situation like this, either.
I quickly relayed the plan to Im Haekyung.
‘If we want to get out of here, I think we have to collapse this space.’
-All of it?
‘Yes. I’ve already gotten out once by doing that, so I think it should work if we try it. Of course, before that, there are a few things we need to be careful about.’
-The people still left inside?
Im Haekyung asked back, easily guessing it.
‘Yes.’
-Hm, if they’re standing nearby when it collapses, they’ll all just die.
‘They won’t die from the collapse itself. But they’ll get seriously hurt.’
-If you get seriously hurt, you can die.
Because he was right, instead of answering, I just stated the conclusion.
‘Yeah, sure, that could happen. Anyway, to physically bring this space down, we need you, Guild Master.’
-You’re the one who’s going to do it, Mr. Jehyun. This snow is probably your doing too....
‘I didn’t mean to, but yeah. I did it.’
-Then why do I need to control you? I don’t get the reason.
‘Literally because I can’t control my skills. If I control it myself, I feel like I’ll end up killing even the ones that might be worth keeping alive.’
When I answered confidently, Im Haekyung went quiet for a moment, then accepted without fuss. He tacked on a couple lines that I couldn’t tell were worry or not, but that was it.
And so, a little later, as I stared at the huge Status Window floating over my head, I felt a strange sensation—like it should be unpleasant, but in reality it wasn’t unpleasant at all.
-When you say you’re collapsing the space, what does that feel like? Like, literally turning it into a wasteland?
“Like I’m going to smash the ground. Ah. And the sky too.”
-Okay....
Im Haekyung let the end of his sentence trail off gently, then spoke in a calm voice.
-Then let’s start with something simple. Use your skill like you normally do.”
“Yes.”
At Im Haekyung’s words, I obediently reached out and made a simple ice crystal. The moment I used the skill, the snow that had been falling from the sky grew even more violent.
-So this is what you mean by not being able to regulate it.
Having realized it, Im Haekyung muttered to himself quietly.
-Well, but this much should be fine, so I won’t worry too much. How do you bring the ground down? It’s not like the ground itself is weak. Is it easier to destroy because it’s just an illusory structure?
“Yes. That’s how I understand it....”
-Good. Let’s do it.
Mind Control (S) has been activated.
In that instant, the mana flowing through my body concentrated into my hand all at once. I didn’t really feel like my mind was being shaken by Im Haekyung. If anything, it just felt like I was doing this of my own free will—like a delusion.
The ice formed in midair kept growing bigger, then, in a single moment, it explosively expanded in volume.
KWAANG!
With a massive sound, a chunk of ice fell viciously into the gigantic hall that already had a hole punched through it.
Some of it pierced straight through the floor, and some of it shattered into fragments from the impact, exploding into pieces.
-Ah....
Then Im Haekyung, who let out a small sound of admiration, calmly added,
-This is why you said you’re hard to control, Mr. Jehyun.
“.......”
-I’ll try both.
It was a line he tossed out without any grand intention, but I understood immediately what he meant. Both.
‘He means including the beast, too.’
Of course, I wasn’t planning to hide that I had a beast inside me while making him use Mind Control on me, but it was true he figured it out faster than I expected.
Instead of saying something that wouldn’t work, I focused on firing my mana in accordance with Im Haekyung’s will.
In the meantime, Im Haekyung seemed to be getting the hang of it now. He controlled my mana fairly skillfully, repeating the cycle of forming chunks of ice and launching them outward.
Ice pillars formed all at once and rooted themselves firmly into the floor. As the ice drilled downward, the ground began to tremble more and more.
BANG! freewebnøvel.com
Starting with a huge roar, the place began collapsing again in spots. I stayed right where I was, motionless, and watched all the way to the end as this enormous space slowly vanished.
The sight of solid ground and walls crumbling like they’d turned to sand, then sliding down into the floor...
Something felt like it was about to surface, then quickly disappeared from my mind.
The more strongly the ability was used, the more I could feel the mind I’d been holding tight slowly thinning out. It could’ve been the aftereffects of Mind Control, or the influence of the beast inside my body starting to assert itself, but it didn’t feel unpleasant.
Instead, with my mind slightly detached, I thought about something else.
It wasn’t anything big.
I just... wanted to go home, that was all.
In that moment, with a thunder-like boom, the entire ground under my feet dropped straight down.
After repeating free-fall so many times, it felt like I was dreaming.
Of course, even if I fell like this, I wouldn’t wake up, and the only difference was that this wasn’t a dream that would vanish from my memory in an instant—this would remain as reality.
With my mind intact, the third darkness came.
***
What I could see after the dungeon completely collapsed was the “rift.” Just like Moros said, it was no different from some shoddy space built on top of a rift.
What was different from what I expected was that there was no need to struggle at all to get out of it. The rift, having swallowed multiple people, seemed like it couldn’t hold that much any longer, and began urgently spitting people out.
The door we’d passed through when we first entered this place was forcibly opened, and we came out of the dungeon like we were being chased out en masse, beyond the Gate.
Before I even counted how many others were here, I pushed myself up and checked the door first. The door, completely broken into two pieces, had lost any remaining function and was lying on the ground.
I looked around, searching for a familiar face.
“Hyung.”
At the sudden voice, I turned my head. As expected, Do Yehyun was staring at me and striding over this way.
After confirming Do Yehyun was fine, I nodded once.
“...Are you okay?”
Okay in what way? He was always the type to check my condition, but there was no reason I wouldn’t be okay in this situation. I lowered my gaze and looked briefly at the marking exposed on my arm.
Thankfully, it wasn’t glowing like it had in the ice cave.
It looked like scars covering my body, though.
Even those were clearly fading, but still.
“Probably. Don’t get too close.”
Well, how badly could a kid who can self-heal really get hurt?
Instead of explaining, I tossed a piece of wood that had fallen beside me and caught it. Since I still couldn’t fully regulate my skill, the wood piece, frozen solid, crunched and shattered under my grip.
“Just in case.”
When I added that, Do Yehyun seemed to understand and waited in place for three seconds.
But instead of freezing up and standing stiff like before, he scanned the situation for a moment, then started coming closer again.
‘Stubborn.’
Thinking that simply, I didn’t stop him as he approached. I turned my gaze toward Im Haekyung standing over in the distance.
Im Haekyung lightly bobbed his head, then finally asked the question.
“So what are you going to do now? The Cheonmyeonggyo believers will be here soon. Are you going to slip out quietly?”
“.......”
“I can help you get out quietly. I can’t get everyone out, but.”
I’d have to check again later, but for now, just the fact that I’d wrecked the dungeon and it had affected my stats at all meant the original objective was basically achieved.
Of course, something still bothered me.
‘Jin Haedo.’
There were still questions left over like byproducts. I’d think, The goal’s done, so the rest doesn’t matter, and yet it felt weirdly unsettling.
Maybe Im Haekyung read the hesitation on my face, because he added casually,
“First of all, it’s hard for me to stay here any longer. My position is what it is.”
“To leave here, we’ll have to take a boat. It’s an island, after all.”
“Mm. Then we do it. There should be a spare boat.”
“Can you drive it?”
“It’ll be faster to find someone who can.”
Well. True. I nodded.
‘We should get out first, then come back in.’
Since I had no idea exactly how much time had passed, the outside situation I hadn’t paid attention to was starting to nag at me.
After finishing my decision, I stepped over the bodies sprawled on the ground, checking whether they were alive or dead.
‘Ryu Taejun.’
Around when I’d checked three people, Ryu Taejun naturally came into view.
‘I thought he’d be dead, but he’s alive.’
In a different sense, he was ridiculously hard to kill. I looked at Ryu Taejun for a moment, then cleanly gave up.
‘Let’s leave him.’
We weren’t inside the dungeon anymore—we were outside. Unless Jin Haedo went insane and decided to execute him, he’d crawl his way out on his own.
‘Hm... should I report him?’
Honestly, if I found Ryu Taejun, I’d been planning to contact Ryu Taeyoung, too.
I hesitated for a moment, then pulled out my phone.
After staring at the black screen of a phone whose battery was completely dead, I put it away again and walked after Im Haekyung.
