Free Web NovelBiiiiik—! fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
A shrill screech ripped through the darkness as the swarm of shadow bats screamed overhead.
‘Wasn’t echolocation supposed to be outside the range of human hearing?’
Then why did it sound exactly like nails scraping across a chalkboard?
Ian felt an overwhelming urge to file a formal complaint regarding this inaccuracy. Unfortunately, there was no customer support desk inside the tower.
“Blow them back!”
“Waaah?!”
The elf let out a sound somewhere between a scream and impressed admiration as he summoned his spirit.
A violent gust erupted from the spirit, slamming into the swarm. The bats fought desperately against the current, their wings snapping and flapping wildly as the wind forced them backward.
‘Now.’
Ian activated Rapid Shot, a sub-skill derived from Archery.
The individual arrows carried slightly less power than a fully charged single shot, but the skill allowed him to fire multiple arrows in immediate succession.
By now, combining it with Purification had become instinctive.
He didn’t even have to think about it anymore.
In the suffocating darkness, radiant light burst into existence. The purified energy condensed around each arrowhead with such density that it looked almost tangible.
The arrows streaked forward like meteors, cutting cleanly through the gale created by the spirit magic.
Thwack!
One shadow bat’s head exploded instantly under the force of Purification.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Ian picked them off one after another like balloons in a shooting game. The wet sound of flesh rupturing was grotesque—yet strangely satisfying.
Biting another arrow between his teeth, Ian spoke calmly.
“The area I’m firing at is the defense line. Don’t let them cross it.”
“Cool. Uh... how?”
“Keep using wind like before. They’re weakest while they’re being pushed around.”
“They don’t seem very strong even when they aren’t.”
“You wanna handle them all yourself?”
“What I meant,” the elf replied with a sly grin, “is that my first regular is ridiculously strong. They’re no match for you.”
Shadow bats themselves weren’t particularly dangerous once you secured distance from them.
The real problem was maintaining that distance.
Their species specialized in darkness, making it nearly impossible to track them properly. And because Ian’s player vision only extended to a limited range, he couldn’t respond preemptively unless the monsters attacked first.
For most first-time players, encounters with shadow bats usually ended in a miserable death.
Even now, Ian couldn’t actually see the bats themselves.
All he could properly make out was the darkness of the cavern and the elf standing nearby with his spirit.
The reason he could still fight effectively came down entirely to the absurd compensation attached to Purification. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
His high-level Archery and Purification synchronized perfectly. As long as he wasn’t aiming in a completely nonsensical direction, the arrows corrected themselves and found their targets.
And because Purification produced bursts of radiant light and disturbances in the surrounding air whenever it struck something, Ian could identify the bats’ positions before the arrows even landed.
‘This is why Purification is the only skill worth investing in.’
On Ian’s route, every other skill was practically bait.
The character had been designed around abusing Purification into the late game. Players who tried to diversify his build usually ended up failing halfway through progression.
Ian felt deeply vindicated by this.
“How many left?”
“Three!” the elf relayed after listening to his spirit.
Ian immediately shot down another bat with a purification-infused arrow and pinpointed the locations of the final two.
‘Found you.’
At his current level of mastery, Ian no longer needed the auto-aim assistance from Archery to finish them off.
A final bat released a long, dying shriek as it dropped from the darkness.
Eeeeeeeek...
“Anything else ahead?”
“Nothing. Seriously, how long do you think I’ve worked with my spirit? My spirit doesn’t lie to me.”
Ian wasn’t doubting the spirit.
He was doubting the elf.
Still, he kept that thought to himself.
‘So it really works.’
He couldn’t help being impressed.
Whatever level of Spirit Affinity the elf possessed, it allowed communication smooth enough to feel genuinely natural. The realism of it all was overwhelming—less like a game mechanic and more like a living fantasy world.
Honestly, it made Ian’s heart race a little.
He started walking forward, only to halt mid-step as another thought struck him.
Other races could be fought, negotiated with, manipulated like NPCs.
But spirits were different.
They couldn’t be hunted. They were closer to system entities than living creatures.
Which meant—
Could they know something?
“Ask your spirit something.”
“What?”
“How do I get home?”
“Is this a riddle? Or philosophy? I’m not really good with difficult topics.” The elf scratched his chin thoughtfully.
‘...?’
“I wasn’t asking you.”
“Well, the spirit won’t answer unless I ask for you. You know that, right? You’re bullying me on purpose now, aren’t you?”
Ian briefly wondered whether the elf’s chaotic-evil personality alignment was the reason he was so exhausting to deal with.
“When have I ever bullied you?”
“Humans are so complicated. If this counts as kindness, maybe I really have been away from human society too long.”
The elf sighed heavily like an old man lamenting modern youth.
“My spirit says it doesn’t know. It told you to figure it out yourself.”
“Fantastic.”
‘Completely useless.’
Apparently, finding a way out of the game would have to wait until after clearing it.
Or rather—
After surviving it.
Ian forcibly cut off that line of thought.
This wasn’t a game anymore. Dying here wouldn’t trigger a reload screen. Thinking like a player before thinking like a survivor was dangerous.
Still, at least he understood what kind of trap this was now.
‘Trap on the staircase. Shadow bats. Then... yeah. Almost definitely.’
There were only three trap patterns that fit.
And Ian was nearly certain he knew which one this was.
Still, he needed confirmation.
“From here on, we head toward the trap’s center,” Ian said. “Every time we reach a fork, have your spirit send wind down each route one by one. If the airflow hits something, stop immediately and prepare for combat. Understood?”
“Got it. So my spirit and I are basically the scouting unit?” the elf asked.
‘Quick learner.’
Ian silently revised his evaluation of the elf.
High potential. Highly capable.
And every bit as annoying as Sema.
Maybe even smarter than Sema, honestly.
Not sure that «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» was a compliment.
“Yeah. There’s only two of us down here. If we get swarmed by multiple monster groups at once, we’re dead. We deal with them one at a time.”
“Sure, sure. I’d hate to lose my precious regular. I’ll do my best.”
The elf nodded brightly, looking utterly unconcerned about the possibility of dying.
Just in case, Ian asked,
“You do have a way out of here, right?”
“Hm? Of course.”
“......”
“Oh, right!” The elf clapped his hands together suddenly. “You followed me because you were worried about me, didn’t you? You may have forgotten my desperate wish already, but you’re still such a good person. No wonder you’re my first regular.”
‘Why exactly did I follow this idiot again?’
Ian felt a headache coming on.
Though honestly, it wouldn’t have changed anything. He’d followed because losing the elf entirely would have been even more troublesome.
“So,” Ian said flatly, “what’s your escape method?”
‘And why the hell didn’t you mention it sooner?’
“That’s a secret.”
“......”
“Hey. Not accusing you or anything, but are you glaring at me right now?”
“No.”
The elf, who couldn’t even see Ian’s expression, asked innocently.
Ian lied without hesitation.
“Ah, so you’re not. My first regular really is broad-minded. It’s not that I don’t want to escape together—it’s just that the method only works for me.”
“Sure. Fine.”
“You sound upset. Are you angry?”
“No.”
With the elf leading the way, they began exploring the trap.
Despite repeatedly wanting to tell him to shut up, Ian restrained himself. The elf wasn’t loud enough to attract monsters, and his spirit was genuinely useful. A trap clearly designed to waste time and torment players became dramatically easier once they could scout ahead safely.
Proof of that came quickly.
They reached the first crossroads without taking a single wrong turn.
‘Fast.’
Every trap maze in the tower was intentionally designed to confuse players. Even Ian, who knew the layouts well, had expected to backtrack at least a few times.
But with a spirit checking every route in advance, their progress accelerated absurdly fast.
This elf really was useful.
Three paths stretched before them.
The elf sent the wind spirit down two of them first, then casually gestured that both were clear.
At the final corridor, however, he paused.
“...Small creatures,” he murmured. “Crawling all over the floor.”
Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.
In the darkness ahead, countless crimson eyes blinked open.
Ghost rats.
Too many to count.
Squeeeeeak—!
A deafening chorus erupted through the maze as the entire swarm surged toward them at once.
