Chapter 106

“I had thought that Honey would ask about the method to save your world first . ”

She said, as if it was unexpected . Hearing it, I also thought that I got the order wrong, but I didn’t change my question . Since I could ask both . Just because the curse and poison dragon king’s owner died, didn’t mean that this skill was immediately lifted . It would disappear when I wanted to go out . So there was still enough time .

“Future foresight type, a silent white bird . She is not affiliated to any side and is neutral . I do not know how much you heard from Diarma, but the existence that she solely loves and follows is the source that we cannot say the name of . ”

A white tree and white bird inside white snow . I thought of the image inside of the piece of Diarma’s memories .

“I learned about a tree and a bird from Diarma . The tree’s name- . ”

“Shh . ”

The mermaid queen touched the tip of her finger to her lips .

“It is better to not say the name even if it is unconsciously . The more it is called and the more it is known, the bigger the influence becomes . So Honey, please do not tell other people if possible . ”

She continued speaking, singsong .

“The tree where the white bird folds her wings is the fifth source . She circles around the branches as she tells a story and a song that we cannot hear . But it is unknown if she is really speaking with the source . ”

“To meet her, to go to where the tree is, what do you have to do?”

“The fifth source is none other the, hm, universe should I say, that Honey’s world is affiliated to . It is the universe’s center as well as starting point, so it is possible . There are numerous worlds scattered around, centered around the source . It is similar to planets circling the sun . ”

Did that mean I had to travel the universe or something?

“The closer a world is to the source, the more they are affected by the power seeping out of the source . Like the sun’s heat and light . The closer you are, the stronger the magical super abilities[1], and the farther away you are, the weaker, so as if to substitute for that, science is developed . There are exceptional cases, too, but generally, it is like that . ”

“Then the distance from my world to the source was far originally, but… did it get closer? Now?”

In a world that argued over whether bending spoons was a super power or not, skills abruptly appeared . Was the reason for that sudden change, because of that? At my question, the mermaid queen nodded her head .

“The worlds in front were swallowed by the source or escaped, and now it is Honey’s world’s turn . ”

“At any rate, if it is closer, it should be easier to find it . ”

“Unrelated to the distance, it is impossible with Honey’s body right now . And, I explained in terms of ‘near or far’, but it is a little different from the normal definition . Besides that, why are you looking for the Bird who Counts Stars?”

“She has my younger brother . ”

The mermaid queen was silent . The volleyball that was rolling in the surroundings stopped moving .

“The white bird has Honey’s younger brother?”

“Yes . Apparently she could interfere because he had contracted with Diarma . So I have to meet her and recover my brother . ”

“……She would not have done something like that without a reason . But I cannot guess what it is even a little . ”

The mermaid queen said, baffled .

“We will try to contact the white bird, but right now, she has left her place . Starting from some point, we could not find her anywhere near the source . ”

“Do you not know where she went?”

“People who know the future are harder to find than anybody else . We will try our utmost . But, Honey . ”

The eyes that were like blue pearls slanted slightly .

“Honey’s younger brother cannot be brought back . Because he is already not that world’s existence anymore, he will be rejected . One of the reasons why the filial duty addicts, who are free unlike us, cannot directly set foot in Honey’s world, is exactly that . Since, if they try to forcefully enter, they will be cut down again and again through the resistance, and become infinitely weaker . ”

The voice continued, pacifyingly .

“Honey’s younger brother is weaker than them, so he would not be able to withstand the resistance, and would probably disappear completely . ”

The rain that had completely wet my body belatedly felt cold .

It was too much, really . I didn’t wish for something that big, either . It was just a normal and natural thing . I just wanted to recover my dead younger brother, but I couldn’t do just that one thing?

I lowered my gaze and stared at the cracked magic stone in my hand .

All of the poison and curse dragon king’s owner’s memories, even the ones I regarded as useless, remained inside my head . Even so, it wasn’t like there was a brilliant method in those . But, they could probably become a foothold for finding a method .

“I would like to ask you to find the Bird who Counts Stars . ”

“Please do not worry . Since we also want to know the reason why she moved . ”

I let out a weak sigh . I wiped my rain-drenched face with my sleeve, but it didn’t make much of a difference . I was still soaked, totally like a mouse that had fallen into water .

“Then I’ll ask the question I should have asked first . What needs to be done for the world I live in to be safe? Diarma said that I am the key . And what is a source?”

“We do not know exactly what sources are either . If I have to explain, should I say they are gods? It is certain that they made these current worlds, but at the same time, they are swallowing up their children . Conversation does not get through, but it is not that they completely do not have wills . They chased us, who were trying to stop the sources, out and locked us up . ”

The imprisoned immoral people . Oppositely, the side trying to help the sources swallow worlds were the filial duty addicts . If you calculated it out, they were trying to help the parent trying to eat up their siblings, so they really were seriously crazy filial sons[2] .

“Putting aside that you are locked up, it seems like your influence is big . ”

“Influencing the outside while being locked up in a room is not an unusual thing in Honey’s world, right? Though it is not easy to have a structure for that . ”

Was it something like the internet? And delivery through a parcel delivery service? Well, if many existences like the mermaid queen gathered, I thought that it wouldn’t be impossible .

“Even if we saying ‘swallowing’, it is not that the source directly opens its mouth and eats . The moment that existences that have the crystals of the source’s power, magic stones, occupy the relevant world, it is absorbed along with the magic stones . ”

“…We are using magic stones in various ways, but is that okay?”

“Of course it is okay . Also, monsters that have been made to be affiliated to the relevant world’s skills, are also safe . Things like taming . And- . ”

The mermaid queen pointed to the middle of her chest with the tip of her finger . There, a weak blue light appeared .

“Magic stones also emerge from non-monster lifeforms that have piled up more than a certain amount of strength . These are also safe . ”

Was that why Diarma also had a magic stone? I hadn’t heard that magic stones came out from high rank Hunters, but it might be that they formed when you were about SSS-Rank .

“Blocking monsters until the source gets tired of it and falls asleep, is what we call escaping . It is not being completely safe . Even so, you can earn quite a long time of a hundred years, give or take . If the awakened source aims for other worlds first, it can take longer as well . ”

“Is there a method to be completely safe?”

“For now, there is not . In the rare chance that we find a way to cause the sources to cease to exist, there is no guarantee that the world will be fine after that . If you destroy the sun itself because it is a crisis where the planet will burn because the sun is approaching, the planet will lose light . ”

Comparing it like that, I thought that there wouldn’t be a way other than to escape . Just then, the volleyball that was rolling around, bounced up .

-There is the method of just attacking the source without causing it to cease existing! If you give damage over a certain amount, it even spits back out the portion of the world it swallowed and becomes quiet for longer!

“Newcomer!”

The mermaid queen who called out to the volleyball in a blaming tone, raised her eyebrows slightly and spoke to me .

“Please do not pay it any mind, Honey . Very rarely, transcenders appear, but it is better to not expect it as a possible method . ”

“Like yourselves?”

Instead of a reply, the mermaid queen smiled . If I thought about it, they wouldn’t have been imprisoned and even labelled ‘immoral people’ for just simply disrupting . Shouldn’t you have to be at the level of beating up your parent, to be chased out of the house and go to jail?

‘I think you have to be around L-Rank at minimum, but apparently Yoohyun was close to SS-Rank, so if you say it takes about 10 years… There’s no reason for it to be 10 years per rank, for 30 years . That’s too easy . ’

Since it took 5 years give or take for an A-Rank to become an S-Rank, S-Rank was doubled that, and it would probably be right to see it as over double again to get to SSS-Rank . No, I had to keep in mind that Yoohyun was a born S-Rank . His growth speed would be different, so if someone at a born S-Rank level was born as A-Rank, wouldn’t they have become an S-Rank in an instant? Then the increasing time per rank could be many more times longer……

Um, let’s just say it’s impossible . And even looking just at the curse and poison dragon king’s owner, he wasn’t a simple L-Rank . Seeing how the fear resistance skill was slightly pushed back by the main body’s threatening feeling, he would’ve been high grade among L-Ranks .

“For simply just blocking monsters, would the 50 S-Ranks that you asked me to gather work? But even before the regression, there were already much more than 50 . ”

“The difference between 50 spread out, and 50 gathered, is incredibly big . And it isn’t like Honey is not going to use your skills, right? We will also continue to help Honey in the future . That was probably why Diarma said that Honey was the key . ”

Listening to the kind voice, I fiddled with the magic stone in my hand again .

It was certain at least that the immoral people wanted to save our world . And there was no need to refuse since they said they would help .

Though the 50 S-Ranks was a lie without a doubt .

I had seen worlds being swallowed up several times in Diarma’s memories . If it would’ve been resolved with just 50 S-Ranks, all of those worlds would’ve been safe, too .

Why were they lying? Should I ask? Or, would it be better to leave it for a bit longer and see? If they happened to say they wouldn’t help anymore and turned away, then the one taking a loss would be me .

“You are reliable . Please take care of me from now on as well . ”

I smiled back at the mermaid queen .

“Right, will it be that curse and poison dragon types will not come out in dungeons from now on?”

“No . Rather, the curse and poison dragons that Diarma made are the minority . But one thing is that, since he was killed, the other addicts will come . They are not curse and poison dragon types, so you will not be able to expect good luck like this time . ”

I was definitely lucky this time in various ways . No, should I say it was a foundation that Diarma had laid? If that bastard hadn’t sent a Lauchtas, I wouldn’t have been able to get the Dragon Slayer title either .

It was reaping what he sowed .

“So please pay attention to the born S-Ranks if possible . It is even better if you register them with the keyword . ”

Yoohyun was already registered, and it seemed like Sung Hyunjae and Riette wouldn’t do business with the addicts even if I didn’t register them .

“Who are the two that I have not met yet?”

“We do not know that exactly either . The filial duty addicts contacted them first, so the information was hidden . We only know that there are five, and about the ones that are in contact with Honey . ”

Seeing how they had harassed Yoohyun after Sung Hyunjae ran off, it seemed like the other two also didn’t contract or had refused . The dragon bastard really was incompetent . I hoped that the successor would be similar, but would they be as incapable as that guy?

We exchanged a few more questions besides that, and after asking her to put the broken magic stone into my inventory, I left the space inside my consciousness .

When I opened my eyes, what I saw was a dim ceiling . It didn’t seem like it was outside of the dungeon, and the 1st floor castle was cut up . Was it the 2nd floor?

“Han Yoojin-ssi!”

Noah called to me, close to tears . Why were his eyes wet every time I saw him? When I raised my head, I saw Riette perched on a giant windowsill that only had the frame left . When our eyes met, she raised her hand a bit and smiled . I also saw Sung Hyunjae slightly to her side .

“Was there no trouble? I was not asleep for long, right?”

“Yes, not even one day has passed . The 2nd floor boss only appears when the moon rises to the middle, so we were waiting . ”

It seemed like they had already handled the normal monsters . It was fast .

I raised my upper body and sat . When I checked my inventory, there was a [Cracked Magic Stone] in the list . The curse and poison dragon king’s owner .

‘……Would Yoohyun’s contract have been released on its own?’

Among high rank contracts, there were ones that were maintained even after the skill user died, so I should check when I got out . Checking .

…My brother’s face was indistinct . Instead of the current Yoohyun, I kept on thinking of the face that was inside of the lizard bastard’s memory . Though they were the same person . …They weren’t completely the same, but still .

“Yoojin-ssi, are you possibly hurt somewhere?”

At Noah’s question, I shook my head no . If I was hurt, than that would rather be better . I was too fine, so my mood was actually bad . I didn’t use anything like a potion, but there wasn’t an injury or trace anywhere on my body . It wasn’t real, so obviously there wouldn’t be, but still .

“Want to drink?”

Sung Hyunjae, who had come over at some point, held out a tumbler . When I took it and drank a sip, a thick orange taste filled my mouth .

“You shouldn’t not know that I am sick of orange flavored potions, but you are trying to give me orange juice?”

“So, it doesn’t taste good?”

“No, it tastes good . ”

It seemed like it was disgustingly expensive juice . When I sipped a little more, Sung Hyunjae’s gaze stuck to me piercingly . That person’s observing gaze was irritating every time I received it . Should I say it felt like I was being stripped? Truthfully, I was being exposed to the core as well .

“Why are you staring like that?”

“It wouldn’t do for you to get sick, so I’m searching you . ”

“Though I just said that I am not hurt anywhere . ”

“Since you might not realize it yourself . I don’t want any problems to occur for Han Yoojin-gun . It’s better for you to be healthy inside and out . ”

“Since you think of me that much, I really do not know what to say . If anybody saw, they would think that Sung Hyunjae-ssi is becoming my guardian or something . Or is it that I have to be fine in order to repay my debt? A debtor with a lot of things to extort away?”

“Rather than that, I’m thinking of you as a custom item that was sent down from the sky because I lived good-heartedly . ”

…Wow, he said himself that he lived good-heartedly . Eurgh .

“Yoojin-ssi is not an item . ”

Noah complained, but it was lightly ignored . It is okay, Noah-ssi . Since it was the same for me, anyways .

“The item with the incredibly great performance is tired . Let us quickly finish the attack and go out . Isn’t it about time for the boss monster to come out?”

“As you desire . ”

Sung Hyunjae bowed exaggeratedly, and then turned around . He was a really annoying person, but maybe because of that, I felt a little better . I shouldn’t pointlessly dwell on things, and do the best I could for things I could do . I looked one more time at the inventory list, and then stood from my seat .

[1] ok so I’m not entirely sure, but I think the word used here (이능력, tl’d as ‘super abilities’) is lit . ‘different ability’ and is used to indicate abnormal abilities/super powers in fantasy genres . It was hard to look up because I think 초능력 is the more common word (and it also comes up a few sentences down, tl’d as ‘super power’), but they’re probably similar? I did find a q&a on naver where sb was like ‘what’s the difference between 이능력 and 초능력?’ and sb else responded ‘they’re the same thing’, so I’m trusting you, random person .

[2] the krn dict says that the word means ‘filial sons’ instead of being gender neutral, so I used ‘sons’ instead of ‘children’, too . Idk if this is implying that they’re all men or if there’s just not a gender neutral word for filial children . Why is there a gender binary here anyways lmao