Chapter 105

"Fall back!!!" Aswell shouted.

ROOOAAAR!!

But Fenrir's roar struck the party before his warning did.

[You use Barrier.]

[Ider casts Mass Shield.]

[Bellan casts Heavenly Shield.]

CRAAASH!!!

BOOM!!

The layers of protective barriers shattered.

"... Cough!"

The backlash sent the party staggering to the ground.

"Fenrir...! We have not come to fight you!!"

Aswell stepped in front of his fallen companions and shouted at Fenrir.

BOOM!!

But instead of answering, Fenrir raised an enormous forepaw and swung it at him.

KABOOOM!!

Its forepaw collided with Aswell's sword.

"Guh?!"

The absurd force sent Aswell sliding backward until he struck the wall.

GRAAAH!!

Baring its sharp teeth, Fenrir lunged at him as he stood cornered against the wall.

[You use Phantasmal Barrage.]

BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG!!!

At that moment, pure white spheres flew into its face.

"Hyaaaa!!!"

The instant Phantasmal Barrage detonated, Setsuna flew straight in front of Fenrir's eyes.

[You use Silver Flame.]

Pure white light blazed from her body once more.

GRAAAH!!

Fenrir turned its head away as though in pain.

[You use Sprint.]

Seizing the opening, Woojin darted across the ground and leaped up, using Fenrir's leg as a foothold.

He clamped down hard. Perched on Fenrir's nape, he tugged its mane, and it began bucking as though trying to throw him off.

"Hey...! Calm down!! We told you we didn't come to fight!! Do you always start kicking without warning?!"

It was ridiculous to ask a dungeon boss not to fight, but Woojin shouted at the top of his lungs as he clung to Fenrir's neck.

GRAH! GRAH!!

"... Waaah!!"

Unable to hold on against Fenrir's thrashing any longer, Woojin went flying deeper into the cave.

"Master!!"

Setsuna hurried to follow him, but—

ROOOAAAR!!

Another roar from Fenrir hurled her backward, away from Woojin.

* * *

"... Cough!!"

Woojin struggled to his feet, gasping for breath.

"Ugh... My head's spinning."

Grimacing at the pain that felt as though his entire body were breaking apart, he looked around.

GULP, GULP.

He took out a potion and drained it, easing the pain a little.

'How far did I fly? I can't hear any fighting at all...'

Looking up, he saw a large hole. Apparently, he had fallen through it after Fenrir threw him.

RUSTLE.

The thick pile of fallen leaves crunched beneath his feet.

"These saved my life."

He had fallen unconscious. Given the dizzying height, a little bad luck might have meant instant death.

"Well, I don't think I can get back up there..."

Not unless he could leap like Fenrir. The smooth cliff offered nothing to grab, and he could see no way to climb it.

"This is a problem..."

Fortunately, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he spotted a passage leading farther inside.

'I can't just stay here...'

Woojin headed into the passage.

TAP, TAP.

Only his footsteps broke the silence. The deeper he ventured into the cave, the more tense he became.

GRRR...

Then it happened. A faint growl came from farther inside.

CLINK.

Woojin instinctively tightened his grip on his sword.

Swallowing hard, he cautiously walked forward.

"...?!"

The sight before him left him momentarily speechless.

GRRR...! SNIFF! SNIFF-SNIFF?

To his astonishment, Fenrir was waiting for him. A very small, young Fenrir, that is. Unlike the house-sized adult, the baby in the nest was about the size of a two-year-old child.

Seemingly without a trace of wariness, it ran up to Woojin, buried its nose in his trousers, and began sniffing.

"The one upstairs must be your mother."

The adult's scent must have rubbed off on him when he grabbed its nape. The young Fenrir nestled into his arms, even wagging its tail in apparent excitement.

'Was it being defensive because it had a baby?' Woojin wondered, stroking the cub's fur. 'But if that's the case, why bother coming out at all?'

Fenrir's Den had remained undiscovered until now. If it wanted to protect its baby, surely it would have been better to stay hidden as it always had.

'Sir Aswell said Fenrir showed itself around the time the Black Dragon appeared.'

He had also speculated that Woojin was the reason.

'But now that I think about it, I don't think that's right.'

If Fenrir had revealed itself to the world because of him, it should have recognized him when they first met.

"Judging by how ruthlessly it threw me, it doesn't seem interested in me..."

GRRR...!

Woojin offered his arm to the baby Fenrir as it nuzzled him. It immediately began gnawing enthusiastically on his arm like a toy.

"... Huh?"

Something felt strange. He held the cub's muzzle and lifted its lip. To his surprise, its gums had no teeth at all.

"Have they not grown in yet...?"

Something seemed off, but he knew nothing about how Fenrir grew, so all he could do was tilt his head in puzzlement.

"Hmm..."

But as he examined the cub, he noticed more than one oddity. Patches of fur were missing from its limbs and body, and now that he looked closely, one eye was cloudy, as though covered by a white film.

'Could it be...?' Woojin thought as he examined the baby Fenrir. 'Is it sick?'

If the adult had been roaming the mountains in search of a cure, that would explain why Fenrir had shown itself.

'Could this be why the Sword Emperor ended up hunting Fenrir?'

He had come seeking Fenrir's power, but Fenrir, on edge over its sick cub, had paid no attention to that and simply begun attacking people, just as it had now.

'If Aswell, with no way of knowing why, eventually gave up on gaining its power and subdued it instead...'

Perhaps he could change things this time.

"Little guy."

GRR?

"Do you happen to know the way up?"

GRR? GRR!!

A mystical beast was still a mystical beast, it seemed. As though it understood him, the cub nodded and started running farther inside.

"Wait for me!!"

Woojin broke into a full sprint after the cub, which disappeared into the distance in an instant.

* * *

"Hah... hah... Wait..."

How long had they been running? Woojin barely managed to keep up with Fenrir, staggering as though he might collapse at any moment.

"I... must have... been wrong. I don't... think you're... sick."

GRR?

The cub tilted its head as if asking what he meant, then rubbed its cheek against his leg.

"... I don't think you understood me after all."

Still, its brief stop gave him a chance to catch his breath.

"Are you sure this is the way up?"

GRR!

The cub nodded in answer.

"Do you really understand me?"

Rather than answer, Fenrir started running again. Woojin sighed.

YAP! YAP!!

This cry was different from the sounds it had made so far.

'The exit?'

Hope rising, Woojin followed its cries.

Unfortunately, what awaited him was no exit. It was a dead end: an enormous stone wall. The long vertical seam suggested a door, but there was no handle to pull, and pushing with all his strength did not budge it.

"This is awkward."

Woojin scratched his head as he looked at the baby Fenrir waiting with its tongue hanging out, panting.

"Why did you bring me here?"

YAP! YAP-YAP!!

It began circling him.

It seemed to be trying to tell him something... but Woojin could not readily work out what it meant.

YAP-YAP!!

Then it began jumping in front of the stone wall.

"Huh?"

Only then did Woojin notice a small hole in the wall blocking their path.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

The hole was just large enough for a finger. But when he inserted one, nothing happened. There was, however, a little extra room around it.

"... Huh?"

The sight reminded him of something. He took a ring out of his inventory: the silver [Wolf Ring] he had received from Irurin.

Name: Wolf Ring

Grade: A

Description: A ring obtainable somewhere in Fenrir's Den.

He had checked it as soon as he returned from the other world, but the description was brief and contained nothing noteworthy, so he had not thought to look into it again.

'So this is what it's for.'

Woojin slipped the ring onto his finger and inserted it into the hole again.

CLICK.

He heard something slot into place.

RUMBLE...

Then the stone wall split down the middle and began sliding open to either side.

'Good.'

Woojin nodded at the open doorway.

'Irurin said the secret technique the Sword Emperor mastered was here.'

Given the timing, however, Aswell most likely mastered that technique while hunting Fenrir.

'Then there must be something other than the Sword Emperor's secret technique in here.'

The true reward to be found in Fenrir's Den.

"Sorry, Aswell. You're probably fighting your heart out right now, but..."

This was a dead end anyway, leaving him no other choice, so he decided to investigate beyond the stone doorway.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

To his surprise, as Woojin stepped through the doorway, lights sprang to life along both walls.

'... Torches?'

The long sticks mounted on the walls were unmistakably torches.

'Why are there human-made torches in Fenrir's Den?'

It made no sense.

Still, the torches allowed him to see clearly beyond the doorway. Images of Primordial Sacred Spirits were carved into the walls, covering them completely. They were so intricate that they seemed ready to come alive and leap out at any moment.

'This... was definitely made by humans.'

It was not just the wall carvings. The objects inside were neatly arranged as well.

"Who on earth...?"

Woojin wondered. Creating a space like this inside the den would have been impossible without a deep bond with Fenrir.

'But Fenrir doesn't seem to trust humans now...'

What had happened? He believed the secret lay beyond the stone doorway.

He had to uncover it...

'Only then can I truly gain Fenrir's power.'

Woojin slowly ventured farther inside.