Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Otherworld Cheat Harem.

Episode 68: Trial (4)

Dojin’s ability was the Master of Women’s Heart, initially a seemingly insignificant power, but it evolved into a growth-type ability that lived up to its name as he encountered more women.

Though he was a virgin when he fell into this other world, the number of women he engaged with wasn’t negligible, nor was it excessively large.

Having taken women from various backgrounds—prostitutes, classmates, and residents of another world—he acquired an equally diverse range of abilities.

‘This too… is one of them.’

Dojin recalled among his abilities [Sensory Sharing] and [Pain-Pleasure Conversion]. Sensory Sharing allowed him to unilaterally receive the pain of others, and the conversion ability could transform that received pain into pleasure.

In short, it meant that Dojin could absorb all his party’s fatigue and make it disappear as if it never existed.

‘Normally, I wouldn’t have even considered this…’

Even though fatigue could be dispelled, it only disappeared momentarily, and physical strength didn’t return.

In a situation without recovery medicine, it would only turn a negative into zero, not a positive.

But now it was different. He now knew the scent of the elves acted like a miraculous medicine on humans, much like the World Tree, the mother of their species.

“…First, Orion, should we start with you?”

“What? What do you mean…?”

Dojin immediately grabbed Orion’s hand. Slightly flustered, she tried to pull her hand away, but Dojin’s ability activated faster.

Just as he had felt, Orion’s fatigue dissipated instantly, and she widened her eyes as she looked at him.

“Leader? How did this…?”

“Huu… What’s this? Looks like you were pretty pent up too.”

Orion looked into Dojin’s eyes. He had clearly just recovered, yet fatigue was already building in his eyes. It was as if he had taken on her fatigue himself.

Realizing this, she grabbed his shoulders in shock.

“What have you done?! Are you okay, Leader?!”

“Wh-what’s wrong? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”

“What do you mean, why?! The leader just!”

Because he used forbidden art—Orion stopped mid-sentence and scanned Dojin up and down.

‘…Is he fine?’

She was surprised by the seemingly magical act Dojin had performed. Sacrifice. It was the same effect as the forbidden art known by that name.

A horrifying forbidden art that takes on all negative influences of the opponent. However, for someone who supposedly used the forbidden art, Dojin looked healthier than expected.

Sacrifice uses one’s own life force to take on all of the opponent’s diseases and injuries, making it a dangerous technique that could lead to immediate death upon use.

Since necromancers forced unaware slaves to use scrolls, creating an undead battalion ignorant of death, it became a forbidden art—a magic Dojin, not being a mage, could not know even if he wanted to.

“Um, Leader? What did you just do…?”

“My ability. I took all of your fatigue.”

“No, then aren’t you fatigued, Leader?”

“I converted that fatigue into pleasure. It’s a bit stiff, but… I’m fine.”

“Converting fatigue into pleasure? How is that even possible?”

“That’s also part of my ability.”

Orion listened to this and stared at Dojin with a blank expression. A skill holder. Come to think of it, he might have mentioned something like that.

She didn’t know what kind of ability it was, but the fact that he could absorb someone else’s fatigue and completely erase it was utterly absurd. It was enough to make one wonder why he hadn’t used it until now.

“…Then why haven’t you used it until now?”

“Feeling pleasure is also tiring, you know? Without a way to recover, I would have eventually succumbed to the fatigue and self-destructed. But now, you’re here.”

“So, you’re saying you’re still a bit tired even now?”

“Uh, yes, but…”

As soon as she heard those words, she hugged Dojin tightly. His face was buried in her upper chest, which was exposed in the characteristic attire of the elves.

Gently stroking the back of his head, she lamented to him.

“I was worried… thinking maybe you might die…”

“…There’s no way that would happen.”

“It was an extreme situation, so I thought… the Leader might make such a choice.”

It was a needless worry. But emotions born from misunderstandings tend to be more intense. As the feelings that had surged to their limit gradually subsided, the relief from that contrast washed over her like a wave of pleasure.

“If the Leader dies now, we would all die too, wouldn’t we? The Leader’s life isn’t just the Leader’s; it’s all of ours. Please understand that well.”

“…Even if you don’t say it, I know.”

Dojin slowly pulled away from Orion’s embrace. It was so warm and comforting that he could have stayed there forever, but he had no time to be swayed by such feelings.

He approached Eunha and Raize, who were staring blankly at him, and absorbed their fatigue, redistributing their energy.

The accumulated fatigue was converted into pleasure and eliminated, and any remaining slight fatigue was completely wiped away with Orion’s help once more.

The group’s eyes began to sparkle just like when they first entered this dungeon. Realizing that everyone had regained their energy, Dojin started to explain how they would escape this labyrinth.

“We’re going to escape the labyrinth from now on.”

“How?”

“Daedalus told his son Icarus. The only way to escape the labyrinth is to fly away.”

Upon hearing the all-too-famous name of Icarus, Eunha looked at Dojin with a ‘could it be?’ expression.

“Dojin, that’s…”

“Yes, we’ll fly to escape.”

Dojin said this while pointing to the sky, into the darkness obscured by a blackout curtain, where nothing could be seen.

“Does the dungeon have a ceiling?”

“Why do you think there isn’t?”

“Well…”

Raize looked up. The blackout curtain, which blocked light from escaping more than five meters, also concealed the appearance of the ceiling. Therefore, it was impossible to prove that a ceiling existed.

“…Monsters climbed the ceiling on the 30th floor, didn’t they?”

“Is this the 30th floor?”

“No… right?”

“Then why do you think there would be a ceiling here?”

Naturally, it was common sense.

Only then did Raize press her lips together in silence. The so-called common knowledge she had about dungeons was nothing more than a collection of assumptions made by adventurers based solely on their personal experiences, without any real experiments or verification.

Believing that blindly without any doubt was foolish.

“…Then why do you think there isn’t a ceiling?”

“There’s probably a ceiling.”

“What? But earlier…!”

“However, this wall won’t be connected to the ceiling.”

“…Why?”

“Because it’s reasonable.”

If the walls forming the labyrinth were tightly attached to the ceiling, it would consume an enormous amount of energy each time the walls moved.

You would also have to consider the friction created by the ceiling, and the ceiling would have to move a little as well.

It was extremely inefficient. And the word inefficient is synonymous with irrational.

“The dungeon operates in a highly rational manner.”

Everything in this universe does so. They try to move in the most convenient and efficient way. When Dojin created a direct passage from the 10th floor to the 1st, it was as if the 4-dimensional dungeon was downgraded to 3-dimensional.

If one were to change the dungeon into a labyrinth in this manner, there would inevitably be gaps.

“Our task is to crawl through the gaps created on top of the walls and find the exit.”

“…Hey, Dojin. What if something like that happens?”

“What thing?”

“What if these walls move and crush us?”

It was a thought typical of Eunha, always wary of the worst-case scenario.

However, this time, that wouldn’t happen. Dojin had an intuition close to certainty.

“No, that won’t happen. If the intention was to kill us from the start, why bother creating a maze? They could just send hundreds of monsters or collapse the dungeon, and we’d be dead immediately.”

“Oh… is that so…?”

“Think of it like being tested. A teacher may set difficult exam questions, but they don’t prevent you from taking the exam itself, right?”

They may give questions so difficult they seem impossible to solve, but they can’t give questions without answers.

In Dojin’s view, the dungeon operated in a similar structure. There were often inexplicable occurrences otherwise.

“Then we just need to find a way to go up now…”

“I know how.”

At that moment, Raize lightly lifted her staff. She sat on her staff and began to fly.

“Oh, Harry Potter…”

“Harry Potter?”

“Oh, it’s something like that.”

Dojin tapped the staff she was sitting on. It didn’t easily lose balance. It probably wouldn’t collapse even if it held all four of them at once.

“Alright then… shall we go?”

Dojin said as he grabbed the staff. Eunha and Orion did too. Once Raize confirmed that everyone was holding onto the staff, she slowly began to levitate.

And then, they shot towards the high wall.

Filled with the determination to escape this labyrinth.

Crack!

Seoyoon lightly waved her hand and froze the approaching monster. The monsters that didn’t die in one hit when they came to this level before were now perfectly handled by Seoyoon without being overwhelmed by her abilities.

“…That’s amazing. As expected of the main heroine.”

“What?”

“Well, if our lives were made into a game or anime, I’d be like the protagonist’s companion character, and you, Seoyoon, would be the hard-to-capture main heroine number one.”

“…What are you talking about? Otaku. That’s gross.”

“No, I’m an otaku, but it’s not like I’m creepy or anything?!”

Deokgu said as he moved forward. Although he was lightly joking, he was taking the situation seriously.

It was just that with Dojin, who was almost like her lover—gone, the other two were already feeling down; he couldn’t afford to be gloomy himself.

Slaughtering both visible and invisible monsters mercilessly, they finally arrived in front of the 29th floor.

Deokgu looked at the blocked wall and spoke.

“According to the map, it’s here–”

“Dojin! Are you there?! Dojin, can you hear me?!”

Hearing Deokgu’s words, Aram banged on the wall and shouted. Her voice echoed hollowly within the dungeon, unable to pass beyond the wall.

“Step aside.”

Seoyoon pulled her back. Then, enormous wings unfolded from behind her.

Queen of Frost.

The Frost Queen had descended.

With a crackle, the air froze, and dozens of ice pillars flew and lodged themselves. The dungeon’s wall, stronger than steel, was shattered in an instant.

However…

Creak.

“The wall is moving?”

The shattered wall immediately began to move, buying time to close the gap. In this manner, even Seoyoon couldn’t break through the wall.

But, the moment they realized the wall wasn’t there originally, another method emerged.

“Dojin is waiting…”

Aram placed her hand on the wall. Her ability could reverse the time of living beings for a limited period and reverse the time of inorganic materials indefinitely.

She could return a mere rock to the elements that existed billions of years ago, before this planet was formed.

“So, don’t block my way.”

Rumble…

The dungeon moved.

The wall opened, and they entered inside.