Chapter 117: Lake – A Cool Person

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It wasn’t too difficult to dodge the large monster inside the cave.

If she had to subdue it, that would be a different story, but for now, all she needed to do was buy time.

So, Sugar used her small body to hide behind stalagmites and stalactites, skillfully dodging here and there.

But that didn’t mean it was easy.

‘It’s too big…’

Sugar had thought its size would make it slow, but she was wrong. The whale-sized creature moved through the ground as if it were water, so she had to dodge much farther than initially anticipated.

A sudden, massive vibration under her feet! Sugar leaped toward the ceiling and grabbed onto a stalactite.

The creature’s teeth grazed the tips of her feet as it burst out.

“Ugh…”

‘Oh no. My thighs are trembling.’

Sugar watched as the Land Fish dove back into the ground, drawing a parabolic arc.

‘When will the professor come out?’

It’s taking longer than expected for someone who’s supposed to be tearing through its insides. Internal organs are usually fragile, it should’ve reacted by now.

As she hung there, thinking, a large mouth burst out from the ceiling this time.

Ugh. Sugar swung her body like a pendulum and leaped diagonally downward.

“Why does every beast I see try to bite or eat me…”

It’s downright creepy.

‘That thing. Its belly is so plump, it must’ve been eating well. How much has it been eating to get like that?’ As she grumbled, looking at the monster’s round silhouette, she felt another vibration and hopped around to dodge.

‘By now, I should be out of its attack range. I’ve moved quite far from the vibration but this thing is smarter than I thought.’

‘…Why isn’t it coming out?’

The moment she thought that, the Land Fish burst out from the ceiling above her head.

The vibration from the ground earlier was a fake to trick her.

Sugar clicked her tongue and ran at full speed. As she ran, exploding with magical energy, the ground caved in along her path.

“Huff… Huff…”

She caught her breath and assessed her remaining magical energy. The magical density in this area isn’t high, so the natural recovery rate is insufficient. On top of that, her body is leaking magic due to the snake bite wound.

‘I still have some magic potions left… I’ll be fine.’

‘This much isn’t too hard. I can handle it on my own.’

‘I can do it alone. No problem.’

‘I don’t need any help.’

Sugar opened her eyes wide and stared at the Land Fish’s movement path.

She deliberately limped, dragging her foot along the ground. As if she had injured her leg from the previous attack.

The Land Fish responded. It rapidly approached the bait, bursting out of the ground with a loud noise.

It must’ve thought it had its prey in its mouth.

“Bye.”

But their eyes met in mid-air.

Sugar had already escaped the attack path using flight magic. She immediately swung her staff and shoved a stalactite into the monster’s mouth.

“Professor, can you hear me? Are you alive?”

As she spoke into the gap, the Land Fish crunched the stalactite with its teeth.

“Did it digest you…?”

Oh no. Just as she was about to make a pitiful expression, something changed.

The Land Fish lay on the ground, thrashing wildly. It looked similar to what she had seen earlier. Its size grew ridiculously large, causing the entire cave to shake as if an earthquake had struck.

Was it angry because of me? Just as she thought that, a familiar face poked out of the Land Fish’s mouth. It was a bizarre sight, but at least he was alive.

“I thought you got digested, Professor.”

Sugar landed in front of the convulsing Land Fish.

Meanwhile, Trace, covered in sticky mucus, asked with the same expression as before.

“I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

“Can’t I just hear the good news and live?”

“If that were possible, I wouldn’t be doing this.”

“Tell me the good news first.”

“Here you go. The box you brought from that strange structure. This is probably today’s target and spoils of war.”

“Wow! You worked hard.”

The metal box covered in mucus. She didn’t want to touch it with her bare hands. Sugar took a handkerchief from her bag and wrapped the box.

“Now for the bad news. This Land Fish. It was female.”

“Is that a problem? Do we get fined if we kill a female Land Fish or something?”

“No, it’s not that. The problem is that it was a pregnant female.”

“Uh… why is that a problem?”

“Moreover, it was about to give birth. No wonder its belly was bulging.”

“So?”

“When the mother dies, the babies automatically burst out. It’s like an instinct for survival.”

“And?”

“They’ve just been born. They must be hungry.”

Sugar swallowed her next question. She had already seen the Land Fish’s corpse bubbling.

“Fascinating. The babies born in this enlarged state are also enlarged. What on earth is in that box? What kind of effect did it have—”

“Stop talking and let’s get out of here!”

Sugar ran toward the entrance without looking back. Trace followed closely behind.

Not long after, a loud pop echoed, followed by dozens of gnawing sounds tickling their ears.

“Ah. A mother’s love. Even after death, she gives everything to her children.”

“Isn’t it just those things being incredibly ungrateful by eating their mother’s corpse?”

“Well, whatever. The moment they finish eating, they’ll come after us. You can sugarcoat it if you want.”

“Ahh!! A mother’s love!!”

Sugar shouted with a mix of lament and admiration as she ran.

“The lake! If we just make it to the lake, we’ll be fine, right?”

“In theory, yes, since water isn’t their habitat.”

“In theory? What’s the problem?”

“Normally, the babies are small. But they’re in an enlarged state now. They must be very hungry.”

An unwanted image popped into her head.

As she ran, a bit of curiosity got the better of her. Sugar glanced back.

Like the cave in myths where you shouldn’t look back, she shouldn’t have looked.

Dozens, no, hundreds of mini Land Fishs with bloodshot eyes were swimming toward them, ready to devour the entire cave.

“Ahhhhh!!”

A shrill scream echoed through the cave.

Having once been part of a choir, her scream was quite clean.

***************

Around the same time.

Leon’s house.

Ian and Leon were staring blankly at the sky.

‘Hey, over there. What’s in that direction?’

‘That way… if you keep going, you’ll reach a lake. But what’s going on? What’s happening—’

And just like that, he was gone. As soon as he woke up, Riley, who had finished preparing to go out, spat out one question and then vanished. The two left behind could only blink.

“Let’s… try to make sense of this. Sugar left a note and disappeared… and because of that, Riley’s all fired up…”

“Isn’t it just a couple’s fight?”

“No. That can’t be. The note was filled with hearts, I think Sugar either caused trouble or got caught up in it, and Riley went to stop it.”

“Huh.”

Ian, who had roughly sorted things out, began tying up her long hair.

“I… I should go too.”

“You too? No, what’s the big deal that you’re going so far…”

“I’m worried, so I should go. There’s no one better at cleaning up messes than me. I can make even the biggest problems disappear.”

She started preparing to go out, exuding an eerie aura. But deep down, she was very worried.

Sugar and Riley. The kids who escaped from the heretics and stayed in the Holy City.

‘Sugar doesn’t have complete freedom either…’

Perhaps that conflict never ended. The moment Sugar stepped outside the Holy City, it started again.

Sugar’s unique constitution. The reason Riley went outside the Holy City to train.

Ian had an idea. Something was happening. The two were extremely tight-lipped about the heretics, but they were clearly up to something.

Maybe it was a shared sense of unease. Ian, who treated Sugar like a younger sister, couldn’t help but worry.

The fact that Riley was so on edge made it worse. He doted on Sugar so much that he might’ve overreacted. But either way, it wouldn’t hurt to check.

When she focused, she could feel a chilling energy enveloping her body. Her defenses were working fine. After finishing her preparations, Ian stepped outside again.

Leon followed her.

“I’ll go with you.”

“Huh? You too?”

“Honestly, I don’t care what happens to that person. But what can I do? I don’t want to stay here alone. Plus, later, she’ll definitely say, ‘Everyone else came, why didn’t you? Do you have a grudge against me?’ and poke at me.”

“Wow… that’s so like Sugar.”

“I’m not happy about it…”

Leon made a displeased face. Ian, who chuckled at this, reached out her hand to Leon.

“Thank you. For thinking of my friend.”

“No, it’s not really like that…”

His hesitant demeanor made her laugh.

“Leon. You’re a cooler person than you think.”

“…What? What did you say?”

-But I’m not that kind of person. I’m too busy worrying about what’s in my hands. I don’t have the time to look around or the capacity to protect others.

“If you were really that kind of person, you wouldn’t have stepped up here…”

As Ian muttered, Leon froze like a broken machine, stuttering, “I-I-I-Ian. Cool? Me? Now? What are you saying?”

“Let’s stop talking and get going.”

Ian took Leon’s hand and led him.

In the direction Riley had pointed. Toward the lake Leon mentioned.

With her purple eyes glowing and her platinum hair flowing, she ran toward her friend.

Leon, whose hand was being held as he was dragged along, was trembling for some reason.