“Wake up, oppa,” Jung Ha-Yan said.

“Ugh…” I moaned.

“They said we’re going to leave soon,” she added.

“Okay…” I mumbled.

When I opened my eyes slowly, I saw Jung Ha-Yan’s face before the ceiling. I was surprised because she was so close that I could feel her breath, but I wasn’t agitated.

‘I’ve gotten used to it.’

The way she examined me slowly with her big eyes was a sight I often saw and when I got up slowly, she took a step back. When I rubbed my eyes lightly, I started waking up.

‘I feel tired for some reason…’

Despite sleeping for a long time, I was still tired. My whole body felt stiff and I was tired. However, I wasn’t too tired because my mana, which had been almost fully exhausted had recovered. I guess if your magic stat was high, your mana recovery rate would increase as well because Jung Ha-Yan looked energetic and her face was glistening.

When I looked up, I saw Jung Ha-Yan observing me from a few steps behind. When I asked a question, she answered right away.

“How long was I asleep?”

“About three hours and 40 minutes.”

“You should’ve woken me up sooner,” I commented.

“Y-You were sound asleep, so I didn’t… I’m sorry,” Jung Ha-Yan apologized.

“You don’t have to apologize,” I told her.

“D-Do you want me to help you wash up?” she offered.

“Ah, sure. Thanks,” I replied.

Obviously, Jung Ha-Yan wasn’t actually washing me. When she cast a spell, my face felt moisturized. Magic was very convenient even in everyday life. I did feel kind of uncomfortable because I wasn’t washing my face myself, but I was grateful that we could do this in a dungeon.

While I was gathering my belongings, the expedition members were already cleaning up the camp, so I didn’t need to give them any orders, but the veterans were moving relatively slower than the others.

‘It’s tough…’

The majority of the Black Swan Guild members here were veterans. Basically, the members participating in this expedition were close to each other. Despite that, some of the members were moving busily, which meant that they had recently joined the guild.

‘I’m sure it’s hell.’

Even on Earth, the hierarchy among nurses was pretty strict although it probably wasn’t like this…

‘It’s probably worse here.’

Because you could die if you make a mistake. If anything, this place was worse than Earth.

While I was having a somewhat ridiculous thought, I heard a voice next to me.

“You’re awake, Mr. Ki-Young.”

It was our lovely Kim Hyun-Sung.

“Sorry, I’m late,” I apologized.

“It’s fine since our break time was four hours. I was going to wake you up right before leaving, but Miss Ha-Yan was already inside your tent… How are you feeling?” he asked.

‘How admirable.’

I was proud that he was thinking about me, and I was sure he knew I suffered injuries. Park Yeon-Joo and Kim Hyun-Sung had sustained more damage than I did, but since my body was weak, I felt fatigued when I almost exhausted my mana.

“Would it be okay if I held your hand?” he asked.

“Ah… sure. Of course,” I answered.

As soon as he said that, I felt like my eyes were strangely focused on something. Even the Black Swan Guild members stopped what they were doing and looked at us.

‘I think I know what they’re thinking…’

There had been a similar situation last time. Some of them gulped while others looked at us with warm smiles. There were some who either gasped or quietly screamed, but Kim Hyun-Sung didn’t seem to care.

‘This bastard…’

He seemed like he was doing his best in examining the condition of my mana as he quietly closed his eyes. When looking at us from far away, I guess we looked pretty affectionate.

“You seem fine,” he said.

“I still haven’t completely recovered, but I was able to rest properly thanks to you,” I told him.

“I’m glad, Mr. Ki-Young.”

‘Stop smiling like that, man.’

He was showing me a smile he didn’t even show to Park Yeon-Joo, and I felt nervous about it, as it seemed like the others were misunderstanding the situation even more. Now that I thought about it, I was starting to get suspicious of the How the Alchemist and the Genius Swordsman Loves book. I thought it was an ordinary novel, but seeing that the ones exclaiming right now were the same people reading the book hours ago, my suspicion that started as a drizzle began to turn into a flood.

‘Shit…’

I had to read the book once I returned to Lindel.

Anyway, apart from this small incident, the expedition preparations were going well. The expedition members of the Black Swan Guild started moving even faster. They reminded me of soldiers who watched shows the girl groups would put on.

Unlike my assumption that we were going to be somewhat late, I was at a loss for words by how fast they cleaned everything up and even Park Yeon-Joo tilted her head in confusion. The guild members seemed energetic. Park Yeon-Joo did mention how having men in the party was a nice change of pace, but I was sure this energy wasn’t coming from the reason she was thinking about.

“Let’s head out. As I’ve mentioned before, our destination is the management room and we’ll move by following the fragment’s tentacles. Please check and make sure that we won’t leave anything behind and please be careful not to touch the tentacles while we’re moving. We could run into some problems, so I want the mages to take turns casting shield spells,” Kim Hyun-Sung ordered.

“Okay.”

“Since we spent a lot of time recovering, we’ll move as fast as possible. Mr. Hyun-Sung will be at the front, so please move as fast as you can while following him,” Park Yeon-Joo added.

“Okay, Guild Master.”

After the short briefing, the party started walking and if there was one thing that changed, it was the fact that Kim Hyun-Sung was moving really fast. In this type of march, rangers specializing in recon and disabling traps were usually the ones who would lead the party. In the Blue Guild, Kim Ye-Ri, the tracker, was part of that job group, and naturally, there were more than three rangers in our party. The fact that Kim Hyun-Sung volunteered to take the lead meant he was confident that he could do better than the ranged members. I thought if you were an influential person, anything was possible, but that wasn’t the case. Even if you had a similar job, everyone had their own tasks to fulfill. For example, Cha Hee-Ra could never do the tasks the ranged members were doing and if anything, she would just destroy the traps she found.

At first, the ranged members looked at Kim Hyun-Sung unfavorably, but once the march started, they looked at him with their mouths open. When I saw their reaction, I received an answer.

‘Did he have a ranged job in his past life?’

Obviously, I thought he was a swordsman in his past life, but it was possible that he actually chose a ranged job.

‘Did he take the same growth route as Kim Ye-Ri?’

Otherwise, his actions could only be the result of having a lot of experience. Personally, I assumed he started off as a swordsman, but of course, it didn’t matter what kind of job he had in his past life. Seeing Kim Hyun-Sung acting as the party’s guide while running made me worried that I might jizz my pants because of how easily he was leading us.

“I don’t think there are any traps. We’ll move even faster,” Kim Hyun-Sung announced.

“Got it.”

“I see multiple golems in the front. I’ve taken care of it,” he said.

“Understood.”

“There’s a monster above epic rank. It appears to have escaped the influence of the system,” he said.

“Prepare for battle.”

“It’s been taken care of.”

The most beautiful part was that the recon and killing of the monsters were all done at the same time. Epic-ranked monsters were taken care of immediately. We could be considered unlucky if we ran into a legendary-ranked monster, but I didn’t know whether Kim Hyun-Sung was avoiding them or if we really weren’t running into them. As we continued following him, the only thing we saw were dead monsters. Considering the fact that he had even severed the heads of such big monsters, I guess the mythic-ranked sword he had acquired was truly a massive help.

Thanks to him, the rangers felt an indescribable sense of shame, but there was no reason for me to be worried about their feelings.

‘We’re fast!’

The expedition party was moving faster than I had imagined and it felt like we were doing an ordinary race rather than a dungeon exploration. The scenery kept changing and the objects we saw were changing as well. We started seeing narrow roads and golems instead of large rooms, destroyed exhibition halls, and items. Not only that, but the tentacles embedded in the ground or wrapped around the pillars were becoming thinner, which meant we were near the end, and naturally, I thought we were getting closer to the management room.

Not long after, we saw the end of the tentacles, and Kim Hyun-Sung didn’t stop as he immediately cut through the wall with his sword. We were at the end of the road, but we walked toward the place where we could feel the flow of mana.

Considering the size of the museum and the dangerous elements the dungeon had, we assumed it would take us a day to arrive, at most. The fact that we arrived here in less than six hours was something that not even Max—who was moving clumsily while watching a large screen—had expected.

- N-No!

[Error]

[The main program isn’t working.]

- W-Why is the main program not working? Is it already getting weaker? N-No… not like this.

[Error]

[The main program isn’t working.]

- I need to reserve the backup program at the least. It’ll be over if it breaks through this. I should reroute the spare mana that was going to be used for the main program. That’s the right thing to do. The museum will probably get destroyed, but… I need, I need to protect the continent. It’s the task the Rift Guardians left me. I can’t give up like this. Ugh…

[Infuse the backup program with mana.]

We entered with great determination, thinking that we would have to fight, but what we saw was a sight to see. A kid with blond hair was moving around clumsily while controlling a device made composed of magic circles. The kid didn’t even notice our entry.

‘Maybe he’s just that occupied…’

It was understandable. The Fragment of the Ancient God we were seeing in the large hologram made up of mana seemed like it had been captured by a blue mana, and the monster was obviously trying to break free from it. As expected, the backup program and the Fragment of the Ancient God were fighting each other.

It looked terrifying even when looking at it through a screen. It was a relief that we were here rather than over there.

- I must seal it no matter what.

We couldn’t even talk to him. When we took a step forward, he must have realized that the expedition party had arrived because I noticed him turning his head toward us.

- How… could you…

I thought the boy was like a machine, but his main body did have emotions. His expression asked ‘Why?’ first, and then it was followed by shock, then fear. However, it was a surprise that the last emotion he displayed was an unknown sense of responsibility. He started yelling as he held on to the device made of magic circles.

- N-No! Y-You pieces of shit! You’re just tools for the dirty Ancient God! Do you really think I’m just going to let you destroy the continent?!

‘We’re not the bad guys, you bastard.’

The tables had turned; there was no mistaking it.

Author's Comment:

Max: I need to save the continent! The continent… I must save it!