Friend (2)

For quite a long time.

Takashi spoke at length about his past.

A past in which he had trusted only what appeared on the surface, only to be greatly betrayed.

A friend who left after Takashi had taken it too much for granted that he would always be by his side and treated him carelessly.

Each and every story was filled with enough circumstances that it could have been written as a tale about the sorrow of a protagonist in a novel.

Kang-hoo listened to every word Takashi seriously continued without missing a single letter. Because he considered it important.

Apparently, the reason Takashi trusted his comrades in the Takashi Family more than himself was because they worried about Takashi himself more than anyone else.

Furthermore, when he first formed a connection with Kang-hoo, he had felt favorably toward him because he sensed Kang-hoo’s unconditional curiosity.

In other words, Kang-hoo had not approached him out of interest in Takashi’s background or the crumbs he could gain from him.

Takashi had felt that Kang-hoo was purely curious about the person named Takashi and wanted to explore him.

“Was I talking too much?”

“No. It was an important story. I was able to hear another story hidden behind you.”

Kang-hoo shook his head at Takashi, who was scratching the back of his head.

Most people liked talking more than listening.

That was why academies taught people how to speak well, but did not teach them how to listen well.

But ever since the days when Kang-hoo had lived as the original author, he had always found it interesting to listen to someone’s story.

Because if he listened all the way through, he could absorb that person’s life and experiences without experiencing them directly himself.

That was why he had always enjoyed listening to two words more than saying one, and his conversation with Takashi was no different.

“Anyway, that’s what I think. Does being tall mean someone is good at basketball? Does being short mean someone can’t play soccer? No. The issue is ability and technique.”

“Mm.”

“Kang-hoo, you have everything. Level? That’s just a number. It’s only because there are no shortcuts to levels. Because you have to pass through each number at least once.”

“I have everything, huh…….”

“I think the only things you lack are time and opportunity. If those conditions are met, I think your potential is overflowing. I can see that with my own eyes. It sounds like I’m praising myself, but my eye for people has never been wrong.”

It felt good that Takashi saw him that way. Of course, Kang-hoo did not show it with a broad grin.

As Takashi said, his eye for people was good. Since the Takashi Family dealt with so much information in the first place, they also had good foresight when it came to predicting the future.

Takashi continued.

“There’s only one reason why I pay especially close attention to your movements and care about them. I don’t want you to be swept around by a demonic hand against your will. As you know, this is a damned world, isn’t it?”

A damned world.

Kang-hoo could sense that quite a lot of meaning was contained in that crude expression.

Even Kang-hoo himself was currently in a situation where Jang Si-hwan’s influence continued to reach him.

The same had been true of his previous battle with Vincent Meyer. Since he had won, it was a happy ending, but if he had lost, his entire life could have ended there.

On top of that, there was Shinwol, an organization he had become half-entangled with regardless of his plans. In the process, a point of contact with Eye had also formed.

Furthermore, Benny, whom he had thought was merely a bartender wandering around various regions, had also been one of the “masterminds,” had she not?

Whether he wanted it or not, Kang-hoo had already been drawn quite deeply into the vortex of this world.

Kang-hoo asked in return.

“Takashi. What would you do if you ended up in a situation where you couldn’t focus purely on adventure and challenge like you do now?”

Someday, a time would come when he would be forced to make a choice.

The clever Jang Si-hwan did not seem likely to simply let Takashi leave Justice.

He would somehow try to seize on a weakness, or coax him with pleasant words.

In that process, Takashi would inevitably be forced to make a choice, and his life would be invaded in some form.

At that moment.

“Hooooo.”

A sound like something hot being exhaled came through the speaker.

It was probably cigarette smoke from Takashi, who was likely fiddling with a pad somewhere.

The high-sensitivity, high-quality speaker did not lie, so his breathing was conveyed without any filtering.

Takashi said nothing for a long while and only breathed. It seemed he needed time to finish smoking his cigarette.

After some time had…… passed like that, Takashi continued with an apology.

“It’s actually a reality I want to turn away from. But I can see it. I can’t help but know. Conflicts keep being caused by someone, and talented promising individuals are being eliminated. I can see far too clearly that the world is flowing in the wrong direction.”

Takashi also seemed to know something. It did not seem like a discussion that stopped at general principles.

“I’m sorry if this sounds a little too direct. Takashi. Then is your current self something like intentional reality avoidance?”

“I can’t deny that.”

“It’s your own kind of choice.”

“Yeah. If I keep facing reality, I feel like I’ll dig deeper and darker into it. So I’m deliberately keeping my distance. Blood and tears. They’re the price of sacrifice I hate the most. Sweat is enough.”

Kang-hoo was also quite surprised by the completely different inner feelings of Takashi, who had always been bright and cheerful.

The Takashi of the original story had never once said anything like this. He had truly been an icon of positivity and optimism.

But now, the Takashi before him was intentionally “acting” in order to forget denial and pessimism.

His outside and inside were different.

He had even chosen passive “avoidance” as his own way of dealing with the dark reality.

Did they sense that the conversation had become not merely serious, but had even sunk into a heavy atmosphere?

Without anyone needing to go first, Kang-hoo and Takashi each loosened their bodies, moved about busily, and shifted their attention.

‘This damn serious personality…… can’t be helped, huh.’

Sometimes he wanted to have a simple, endlessly bright conversation, but it was not easy at all. It was because of his personality.

That was why Shin Kang-hoo of the original story had also been serious and grave about everything. It was not for nothing that he had not smiled.

In any case, he now knew Takashi’s true feelings. Takashi also recognized the twisted reality accurately.

He simply was not moving actively. The Takashi Family was probably handling the information gathering.

When the time came.

Someday, when the time came for him to choose, at the very least, it did not seem like he would flounder around knowing nothing.

He had merely chosen avoidance as his way of facing it despite knowing everything. It was his own method of resolution.

“Let’s go! We still have a long way ahead. The preliminary exploration section ends now too, so let’s put our heads to work!”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

“Let’s do it! Let’s do it! Let’s go!”

Takashi took the lead with much higher tension than usual and gestured toward Kang-hoo.

That was enough of a comma.

It was time to focus on conquering the labyrinth again.

If the important point of the first floor of the labyrinth was the terrain, then the second floor was the phase of full-fledged combat.

Kang-hoo used the Wings of Corruption to scout the front from a high point and forecast the monsters’ movements in advance.

In particular, on the second floor of the labyrinth, monsters frequently moved in legion-sized units, and because he could detect them in advance, they could always secure a strategic advantage.

Thanks to Kang-hoo.

Takashi, Lemon, and Mokomichi could seize the high ground in advance and wait, or launch surprise attacks.

Since they took the attack point first from an advantageous position, every moment was a continuous series of profitable gains.

Kang-hoo also benefited during the battles by continuously using the skill A Saint’s Wish.

Since A Saint’s Wish could be applied immediately as long as the monster was not the same target, his first attack was always an attack equivalent to a sure-kill move.

Perhaps because of that, unless they were commander-class or higher monsters, most monsters continued to be one-shot kills for Kang-hoo.

The team did not act separately.

There were times when Takashi followed up with a barrage of attacks on monsters that Kang-hoo had only lightly wounded.

Conversely, there were also times when Kang-hoo activated Blood Flower on monsters that Takashi, Lemon, and Mokomichi had already “seasoned” in advance.

A perfect harmony of daggers and longswords, lightning magic and necromancy!

With unstoppable momentum, Kang-hoo raised his level to 457, and before long, they reached the section where preliminary exploration had been completed.

From now on, the true adventure would begin, where every moment meant facing an unknown environment that had not been grasped.

A little later.

After finishing his exploration of the surrounding terrain, Kang-hoo was discussing the situation with his three comrades.

They had tried to set the best and second-best routes to take, but their choice had been forced into one path.

“The monsters look familiar, but I think the environment is the problem. No matter how I look at it, there doesn’t seem to be a detour. Hmm.”

Takashi let out a low groan.

The monsters were distributed across a fairly long and wide area, to the point that Kang-hoo could not even use Blue-Position Exchange Formation.

Their identity was the Claw Lizards.

They were monsters Kang-hoo had seen before. They were monsters he had encountered when he went to the Storm Hill Dungeon.

They specialized in clawing targets with sharp claws, and once they inflicted a wound, it did not heal easily.

Moreover, if one continued to suffer wounds from them, there was also a concern that an additional paralysis effect could be triggered.

The biggest problem was.

The Claw Lizards were present on a large scale, enough to call to mind a legion, and there was also a special area there.

A reinforcement area.

It was a kind of buff area that did not apply to hunters and only applied one-sidedly to monsters.

The Claw Lizards on top of the reinforcement area had red-stained eyes, and their bodies were swollen as well.

On top of that, the reinforcement area was gradually expanding. They had kept watching it, but there was no sign of it shrinking in reverse.

For preliminary exploration, Mokomichi had sent in many undead servants, but all of them were smashed to pieces.

Not only that, but proper damage did not go through against the Claw Lizards inside the reinforcement area.

Just in case, Lemon tried using a lightning magic skill, but the result was the same as before.

According to Takashi’s calculations.

The reinforcement area was a special area that guaranteed resistance of over 99% against physical and magical attacks.

In other words, fighting on top of it was the perfect way to die painfully while fighting in the most meaningless way in the world.

“What about breaking through? There’s no reason we absolutely have to fight them. If they’re only Claw Lizards, it’s not like defense is impossible.”

Lemon gave her opinion.

There were enough monsters to make one drool, but she was asking whether they really needed to fight them.

She was not wrong.

The team’s goal right now was not to sweep the labyrinth clean, but to descend as far down into the labyrinth as possible.

They were only on the second floor now, and there was still a long way to go until the fifth floor. In other words, there was no need to waste strength here.

But in Kang-hoo’s eyes, it was far too much of a shame.

If he arranged the board well.

He calculated that they could annihilate the entire legion of Claw Lizards here.

A strategy that Takashi, Lemon, and Mokomichi could not even imagine already existed in Kang-hoo’s head.

An exquisite method to wipe out the entire legion perfectly without taking even the slightest damage.