Ch.36Deranged Soul

# 36. Deranged Soul

If my daily personal routine consisted of sword practice and recently learned martial arts training, then my duty as a raid leader was checking the checklist.

‘Gold, okay. Equipment, okay. Skills, okay. Potions, okay. Food, okay. Condition? Okay.’

It was time to leave Albrant. Thinking about the new adventure ahead gave me mixed feelings—about 5% excitement, 45% fear, and 50% tension… but since I had no intention of staying here, leaving was inevitable regardless of when.

“I’m so glad I don’t have to see that disgusting Hyomsung’s face anymore!”

“Isn’t Hyomsung disgusting because of his personality, not his face?”

His toxic behavior was so deeply ingrained that when I first saw his character illustration, I seriously considered creating a new character and customizing it as an elf.

How did I resist creating a gorgeous elf?

I didn’t because I’d grown attached to my existing character and didn’t want to waste it.

I tried to console myself this way, but after seeing the Albrant storyline, I thought, ‘Phew, thank goodness. If I hadn’t resisted, I would’ve become Hyomsung.’

“What good is being handsome when everything he does is repulsive? Even the most delicious-looking bread becomes revolting if it feels and tastes like crap.”

“They say even unattractive people start looking handsome when you fall in love with them. Conversely, even handsome people become unbearable to look at when you hate them. Ah, that’s according to my mom and also my personal opinion.”

How merciless and resolute.

Come to think of it, objectively speaking, my supervisor and colleague weren’t that bad-looking, but I still hated dealing with them every day…

“So be good to us!”

“Huh?”

“Be good to us, I said!”

“Oh, okay.”

Why are you getting embarrassed after saying that yourself, Yuri?

I answered confidently because I genuinely want to treat you all well and I’m trying my best. Hehe.

“The captain actually enjoys teasing us, you know.”

“Not ‘actually’—he does it openly and completely.”

The atmosphere, which could have been stiff before departure, became warm and soft. I think it was like this before too—Saeax is quite the mood maker.

Thanks to our inventories, we didn’t need to carry heavy backpacks. We left through Albrant’s north gate with light steps.

Farewell, Albrant.

You weren’t particularly enjoyable, but you were a city that brought me many benefits.

**

Just like when we searched for the portal from Edengard to Floor 1-1, we decided to walk straight until we could see the boundary, then follow it around.

But something annoying happened—the distance to the boundary was significantly different between Floors 1-1 and 2-1.

Considering that Edengard and Albrant were similar in size, this seemed intentional, but either way, we had to make an unexpected camp.

“At this rate, by Floor 5, it might take over a week just to find a portal.”

“Yuri. Your mouth.”

“Tch. My feet are going to get completely calloused at this rate.”

Fortunately, we didn’t have to camp for two days. By midday the next day, we discovered a portal that was spinning a bit more chaotically than usual.

“Let’s check our inventories one last time. We’ve divided everything into thirds, but just to be safe.”

“All good!”

“Me too!”

Having made all possible preparations, all that remained was to enter.

I touched Cutjukyeora and Saeax’s shoulders once each.

“Hm? What’s up, Captain? Nervous?”

“I was about to get nervous looking at you, but now I’m not.”

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s a compliment.”

Seeing Cutjukyeora and Saeax’s reliable backs, I felt confident that we could overcome any quest, dungeon, or trial that came our way.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Let’s go!”

Cutjukyeora, Saeax, and I entered the portal in that order.

**

[This is Floor 2-1.]

“Check!”

“Check!”

“Check!”

As soon as we entered, we checked for status abnormalities and looked for each other. Thankfully, we weren’t subjected to the nonsense of being separated.

We stuck close together, looking around vigilantly.

“A forest?”

“Another forest?”

It was a forest. An extremely dense one at that.

“It’s not completely unexpected. If you think about the area around Albrant… Oh, but no matter which direction you leave Albrant, you end up in a forest anyway.”

“Captain, shall we go deeper inside?”

“Yeah, let’s do that. We need to get our bearings.”

On Floor 0, the message was quite verbose. Anyway, entering the dense forest where sunlight barely penetrated made my body shiver regardless of the temperature.

So we walked even closer together.

“Well, how is it? Does it seem familiar?”

“Not yet.”

Since I hadn’t memorized every detail of the map, I couldn’t tell until we found something distinctive.

However, fortunately or unfortunately, this time we didn’t need to.

– Humans! Humans! It’s been so long since I’ve seen humans! It’s a shame they’re not Albs, but even humans are better than nothing! Humans! Humaaaaaans!

“Ah, shit.”

– Huh? Did you respond? You did, right? I’m so glad! Really glad! How many years has it been? I’m so glad! Oh, did I already say that? Anyway, it’s fine because I’m glad!

The fortunate thing was that I recognized this chatty, pale entity.

The unfortunate thing was that I also knew what was associated with it.

“Captain, that’s the one, right? The Corrupted Spirit Purification quest.”

“Yeah, we’ve got a nasty one.”

“What is it?”

Since Saeax had skipped all the Albrant storylines in the main quest, it made sense she wouldn’t know about the side quests.

As I was about to explain briefly, that chatty spirit wouldn’t stop talking for even a moment.

– Hey, hey, why aren’t you coming closer? Am I the only one excited? That’s strange? I heard humans go crazy with excitement just seeing spirits. Is that not true? Is that too old a story? Is it?

‘Ah.’

– No! The standards for “old” are different between spirits and humans! By my standards, it’s not old! So you should be excited to see a spirit! That’s right, so why aren’t you excited?

‘I feel like I’m going crazy already.’

According to the lore, spirits are finicky beings. While Albs can naturally control and communicate with them due to their innate racial traits, other races needed talent to do so. Otherwise, like us now, they couldn’t see spirits properly, and communication, while not impossible, was difficult.

‘Whether I respond or not, it’s noisy and gives me a headache, so it’s better to respond, right?’

In short, we needed to humor this spirit’s mood before we could do anything else.

“Wow… I’ve never seen a spirit before. How fascinating.”

Cutjukyeora was already pretending to be amazed.

“You should also pretend to be impressed quickly. Otherwise, it’ll get more tiresome.”

“It can get more tiresome than this?”

“Hurry.”

“Wow, wooow. So this is what a spirit looks like?!”

When I nudged Saeax with my elbow urging her to act impressed, she also awkwardly played along.

– Ahem! Ahem! I knew I wasn’t wrong! I knew you’d be amazed! I am a spirit. Got it?

…At least we’ve put out the immediate fire.

– Oh right! Human, human! Um, why did I call out to humans again?

Let’s not respond.

– Oh right! You brave humans who found your way to where I am! Help me!

“Why?”

– I’ll give something shiny to kind humans who help spirits! I heard humans and dragons like shiny things! Did I hear that? Who told me that? Anyway, if humans help me, I’ll give them something shiny!

Not all spirits were like this. There were several spirit NPCs in the game, but this one was half-deranged.

Its name was probably “Slightly Ill Spirit” or something.

In the game, it was just an optional side quest that could be skipped, but here on Floor 2-1 of the Tower, not helping wasn’t an option from the start.

“I’ll help you.”

– Wooow! Wooow! Thank you! Really thank you! What I need humans to help with is… is?

Yes, I know what you’re going to ask, so could you please get to the point quickly?

While pretending to listen attentively to the spirit, I inwardly hoped there wouldn’t be any unexpected variables.

– What I need humans to help with is! Is? To help my sick friend!

“How can I help your sick friend?”

– My sick friend is hurting a lot because of something dark and pointy! Hurting? So humans need to remove the dark and pointy thing!

That was a relief. This time, everything matched what I remembered.

You might wonder why the spirit doesn’t help its friend directly instead of waiting for someone to help, but if you know the story, there’s a reason.

For now, I played along with its dialogue.

“So I need to remove something dark and pointy, right?”

– That’s right! You’re a smart human? If humans remove it, my sick friend won’t be in pain anymore!

“Okay. So where do I need to go to remove it?”

– I’ll show you! Smart human! Human? Humans follow me!

The pale entity began floating away somewhere. The two who had been holding their breath while watching my conversation with the spirit exhaled simultaneously.

I did too. My head was dizzy, and my stomach churned like I was about to vomit.

“Ugh, it feels like it’s directly stirring my brain… Captain, you’re amazing for enduring this and even having a conversation.”

“Urgh… Let’s follow quickly, Captain.”

The “Slightly Ill Spirit” had given us both physical and mental shock that made us feel like we were going insane.

We managed to settle our stomachs and followed the spirit.