episode_0040

One scary thing about the desert, besides the high temperature, is that.

There are few places to shield yourself from the intense sunlight.

As if wanting to burn our entire bodies, the sunlight pours down incessantly.

Sweat flows like rain, and the skin exposed to the sun begins to sting.

“……Hot.”

“How much further do we have to go!!”

All sorts of complaints pour out.

It couldn’t be helped, as we had been walking in the desert for 8 hours now and hadn’t found anything during that time.

Grace, who had been walking confidently guided by smell, was now tilting her head and unable to find the way.

“Feels like we’ve been here before……”

Watching the flustered Grace and the exhausted party members, I waited for the timer.

『Until the next draw: 3… 2… 1』

『It is your turn. You draw 5 cards.』

[Strike (1)] [Rain (0)] [Force Field (2)] [Lightning (3)] [Shield (1)]

It came out.

I immediately throw down a card.

[Rain]

Cumulus clouds gathering.

Rain pours down profusely from the clouds quickly rising into the sky.

Although it wasn’t a large area, receiving the rain that covered about 10m around me caused my body temperature, which had risen, to drop.

“Water!!!”

Kailek tries to somehow catch the falling rain in his canteen.

Perhaps because we were sweating so much, the water we had was gradually decreasing.

However, the short happiness of 1 minute quickly flowed away.

From the clear sky, sunlight poured down again.

“When is the next rain possible?”

“I don’t know.”

The current number of cards in the deck is 35.

That is, I could make it rain within a minimum of 7 minutes and a maximum of 14 minutes.

Of course, this wasn’t all.

[Vortex], [Ice Storm], and [Tidal Wave] also helped quite a bit.

Of course, the tidal wave was saltwater so we couldn’t drink it, but it did drastically lower the rising temperature.

But even so, it was impossible to keep rolling this card.

As the deck sometimes got shuffled again after encountering monsters in between, there were times when we were exposed to sunlight for a long time.

The maximum was 35 minutes.

That was when we defeated 3 groups of scorpions and one Sandworm.

We continued walking in silence.

Although I used magic intermittently to cool down the heat, enduring this long ordeal was not easy.

“Let’s rest for a bit.”

*

Hans set up his enlarged shield to create shade.

We sat there and had a simple meal.

Everyone seemed tired, eating without a word.

Grace was still reading every letter in her book, but it didn’t seem like a clear solution had appeared.

“You haven’t found anything?”

“…Yes. No matter how much I search the book, nothing comes up.”

“How long has it been since we entered the desert?”

“About 12 hours.”

“It’s been roughly 18 hours since we woke up.”

“No wonder I’m tired.”

“But why isn’t the sun setting?”

“Right. Could this be a place where daytime repeats forever?”

Was it true that bad premonitions are never wrong?

After finishing our meal, we walked for 3 hours, yet the sun never set.

“I think we should get some sleep soon.”

“Okay.”

[Terrain Manipulation]

I lifted the ground to easily create a wall.

But a wall of mere sand was bound to collapse easily.

[Freezing]

I froze it with Freezing to maintain its shape.

Using this, we avoided the sunlight and slept for a while.

Of course, I couldn’t properly fall asleep.

Because I had to wake up periodically and use [Freezing].

That’s how the next day dawned.

“We don’t have much food, do we?”

“That’s right.”

The food stored in the subspace bag was being consumed quickly.

This was because we were sweating so much that we had no choice but to eat properly to replenish nutrients.

Stagger.

“Are you okay?!”

Grace raised me up as I collapsed.

I took out some salty jerky from the subspace and put it in my mouth.

“There’s no water in your canteen?”

My canteen was also empty.

I borrowed Grace’s canteen.

Just as I was barely coming to my senses.

Grace declared.

“For now, let’s make this place our base and rest.”

While resting under Hans’s large shield, I lifted the terrain again.

And then Freezing.

Under the small frozen tent, we took a brief, sweet rest.

While I was resting, the other 4 people were having a meeting.

“……How about we make this place the base and look around the surroundings?”

“That’s dangerous. If we get separated from each other, that’s as good as dying.”

“But our food is running out! Water is also getting risky!!”

“……”

This was the biggest problem.

Even if we ate sparingly, we couldn’t endure for 5 more days now.

Although water could be drunk using my [Rain] card, this was a desert, so we couldn’t even find food.

“Is there no method?”

“Maybe, you never know. If, as we suspected before, a black magician is involved on the 4th floor, they might have created this terrain just to kill us.”

A despairing conclusion.

Is it our fate to be buried in this sandstorm and meet our deaths like this?

None of us were explorers who would tolerate such a thing.

“While Evan is resting, I’ll go take a look around the surroundings for a moment.”

“…Me too.”

Grace and Luca dashed out.

“I’ll also go scout the surroundings!!”

Kailek also left to check the surroundings.

Only I and Hans remained.

Just then, Hans’s large shield returned to its original size.

Hans stood up and packed his shield.

However, as if something was on his shield, Hans spent a long time wiping it.

“It’s going to be noisy, so I’ll go wipe it over there and come back!”

“Okay.”

With even Hans gone now.

My expanded senses read something.

“……?!”

My body began to be sucked in.

“……Wait.”

I struggled to somehow escape, but my body was sucked in just like that.

An antlion’s den.

“Magician!!!”

A flustered Hans approaches me, but I was already sucked into the sand.

“……Finally, I could bring you naturally.”

Opening my eyes at the voice I heard.

A completely dark space, light came from only one place.

A small lamp on the desk.

A blue flame rose from a skull-shaped lamp.

Someone sat on the chair in front of it.

Surrounding him, dressed in black, black mana could be felt.

Specifically, a black magician’s mana.

I spread my senses to read it, but.

The result was astonishing.

An enormous amount of black mana, whose quantity could not be dared to be guessed, was surging from his body.

“…Who are you?”

“First, take a seat.”

Tap, tap.

He tapped the desk and pointed to the chair in front.

I walked slowly and sat on the chair.

Just what kind of person is this?

Seeing that the status window hasn’t popped up, perhaps he has no hostility towards me?

Just as these thoughts were going through my head.

He spoke first.

“Nice to meet you. Disciple of the Main God. I’m also a disciple. Disciple of the Evil God.”

“……? What does that mean?”

To appear out of nowhere and say such a thing.

Why is the Disciple of the Evil God, whom the black magicians on the 2nd floor were talking about, here?

I’m confused.

Then, did the Disciple of the Evil God prepare this desert too?

“Let me tell you beforehand, I didn’t create this desert. I just used it because it was the perfect situation to meet you.”

“Then who made it?”

“Who else? Of course, the black magicians, right?”

“You’re a black magician……”

“No. I’m not a black magician. Are you a priest? You’re not.”

“……That’s true too.”

I knew I was a Disciple of the Main God, but I wasn’t affiliated with the Ariel Church.

“Good, good. Looks like we can communicate somewhat. I wondered if you might be some mindlessly righteous parrot.”

“What is your objective?”

“Han Yereum.”

The Disciple of the Evil God suddenly spoke a Korean name out of nowhere.

What in the world could this mean?

Seeing my confused expression, the Disciple of the Evil God laughed loudly.

“Hahaha!! Your face is hilarious!”

He took off the hood he had pulled down tightly.

The appearance that emerged from within was beyond my expectation.

A woman with pure white hair.

She had an exotic appearance, so no matter how I thought about it, it didn’t match the name Han Yereum.

“Right now, your status window isn’t popping up, is it?”

She said, twirling her left finger.

I naturally placed my hand on my deck.

That action I used when checking the deck list.

Press, press.

No matter how much I pressed, the status window didn’t appear.

“Looks like your status window isn’t popping up. That’s fortunate.”

“Why are you concerned about the status window?”

“What, you didn’t know? That the status window is the Main God and the Evil God?”

“…I know.”

“That’s why. When meeting the same person from Earth, those guys make such a fuss.”

Actually, I had thought about it.

When I learned that I was a Disciple of the Main God.

I wondered, isn’t the Disciple of the Evil God also someone who was transmigrated like me?

It seems that wasn’t wrong.

Han Yereum crossed her legs and changed her posture.

“What’s your original name? Are you Korean too?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Han Yereum. I lived in Cheongju. Before being brought here, I was a university student.”

“Kang Hyunsu. My age is……”

“No, you don’t have to say it. Just from your speech, you look older than me. You don’t want me to call you ‘Oppa’, do you?”

“……So. Why did you do this?”

“I’m going to run away this time.”

“……?”

Just then, Han Yereum suddenly changed her posture and placed her hands seriously on the desk.

“Why do you think the two gods called us?”

“I don’t know. There must be some reason.”

“Unlike you, Hyunsu, who was busy surviving from the start, I was raised indulgently. Thanks to that, I had time to spare.”

As expected, unlike me who was tossed around from the beginning, it seems she grew up in a comfortable environment.

“I’ve been wondering from the start. Is there a reason the two gods would deliberately call souls from another world?”

“……”

Actually, I had thought about it recently after I had some free time.

I gave up because I couldn’t think of the reason no matter how hard I tried.

But did she know this?

It might be possible. Unlike me, she was raised by black magicians.

“This time, I found out, you know?”

“…What is it?”

“I won’t tell you. Isn’t it too unfair for only me to get information? So let’s make a deal. As fellow outsiders.”

“Outsiders……”

That one word lingered in my head.

“At least I think outsiders can trust each other. More than our troublesome black magicians. Aren’t you the same? Can you trust that Ariel Church place or whatever it is?”

“Of course not.”

“So, deal or no deal?”

“……What do you want?”

“I’m going to launder my identity and live in the Labyrinth City now, so fund me a bit.”

“……?”

“And I want to eat something sweet too. It’s so hard only eating strange things like yanggaeng here, you know? And they eat delicious food themselves? They make all sorts of excuses to me, saying it’s to cultivate power or something.”

“Okay.”

“Then you agree? Alright, I’ll tell you the information I’ll give you. Wait, I’ll check one last time to see if the status window appears.”

She extended her finger into the air and did various things, but seeing no reaction, she nodded.

She approached me and spoke in a whisper.

“……The Evil God is trying to take my body. He says it’s a perfect soul.”

Han Yereum stepped back and sat in her chair.

“And I don’t think it’ll be any different for you.”

“Why is that?”

“Want me to tell you one amazing fact?”

“Tell me.”

“The Holy Woman naturally goes in and out of our side. The appearance on the surface isn’t everything, you see. This desert now was probably sent down as a trial or something. With help from our side.”

“How do you prove that?”

“If you don’t want to believe it, then don’t. Can you trust the status window? Are you sure it hasn’t lied to you even once? If so, it shouldn’t have brought you to this other world in the first place.”

“……”

I had nothing to say.

“Then I’ll take it as agreed. See you outside the Labyrinth City. Kang Hyunsu, no, Hyunsu Oppa.”

“Wa-wait a minute!!”

“It’s getting hard to maintain this space anyway. Are you listening?!”

As Han Yereum lifted her finger, my body levitated.

At the same time, the space began to shatter.

Through the cracks, I saw black eyes.

“Then, see you outside?”

As soon as her words finished, I hit the ceiling.

It was sand.

Just as I was sucked into the antlion’s den, my body was sucked into the sand.

When I came to my senses, I saw Grace’s face.

“Are you okay?!! After suddenly disappearing into the sand, you came back up. Did something happen to you?”

“I’m okay.”

I pulled my heavy body up slowly.

The desert’s hot air pressed down on me.

“So, did you find the way?”

“No.”

“Then what should we do?”

Flinch!!

I felt something was off.

The feeling that Han Yereum’s mana still remained on my body.

I immediately spread my senses and read everything around me.

“……Ha.”

The path was visible.

The path leading to the exit of the desert, created by Han Yereum.