Chapter 124

“How... are you here?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

When she turned the question back on him, Woojin found himself at a loss for how to explain.

“... Huh?”

As though only now noticing the scenery, she blinked her large eyes and tilted her head.

“Where... are we?”

Apparently, she had no idea what had happened to her either. Woojin looked troubled, wondering how to explain it.

“Another world.”

“...”

Her eyes still seemed to ask what on earth he was talking about.

“... Have you been drinking, by any chance?”

That was probably the kindest question she could come up with after considering a thousand possibilities.

“Wait, where’s Lady Ruen?! Where is she?! She was engulfed in flames...! Lady Ruen!!”

She hurriedly scanned their surroundings for Ruen. But Ruen was nowhere to be seen among the desolate ruins.

‘You’re not supposed to be here either...’

Woojin could not readily understand why she had come to the other world with him.

‘I can bring items from the game into this world, but...’

Was Setsuna being treated as an item too?

At that moment, Woojin remembered [Kelduan’s Egg]. With his [Adventurer’s Bag] unusable, the egg was larger than the basic pouch currently hanging from his waist.

‘... Huh?’

But then he noticed something astonishing. Hanging at his waist was none other than the [Adventurer’s Bag] he could no longer use because of its level restriction.

CLICK.

When he opened the buckle, light streamed out above the bag’s opening, displaying images of its contents like a hologram.

‘Does that mean there are no level restrictions in this world...?’

That was a new discovery.

‘Then maybe I can use this again too.’

Woojin took the [Belt of the Trinity] from his bag and fastened it around his waist again.

“Hmm.”

He could not really feel a difference, but one thing was certain: he could wear it.

‘I can’t tell how my stats have changed, but in the game, I wouldn’t even have been able to equip it.’

He patted the belt.

“Do you remember anything... about what happened just now?”

“Hmm... There were sudden explosions all around us. I definitely smelled gunpowder. Someone must have been shelling us.”

‘Shelling... Was it an attack by the Kingdom of Dalus?’

Dalus was the remaining kingdom of the Antarian Federation. Its magitech was more advanced than that of the other two kingdoms.

It was the only possibility he could think of... but the problem was that it seemed far too soon.

‘Even accounting for the time it took me to travel from Tekan to the lake, Sir Aswell is most likely still in Esten.’

Had Dalus launched a preemptive strike before Tekan and Esten had even gone to war? But even so, why shell a lake within the Great Forest rather than the kingdoms surrounding its outskirts?

‘This is strange...’

Woojin could not shake his unease, but there was nothing he could learn in his present situation. All he could do was find a way back as quickly as possible.

“When all those flames shot up, I was suddenly transported into a black space. And then... I opened my eyes and found myself here.”

‘A black space...’

Woojin mulled over her answer. The black space Setsuna described was a place called [Summoned Creature Space].

‘They said Summoned Creature Space was a waiting area where summoned creatures stay when the summoner they’re contracted to dismisses them.’

There were two circumstances in which a summoned creature would stay in [Summoned Creature Space]. The first involved classes that contracted with multiple creatures, such as Druids and spirit masters. However many creatures they had contracts with, there was a limit to how many they could summon at once, so the others remained in [Summoned Creature Space].

‘The second is when the summoner logs out.’

Unlike mercenaries, summoned creatures were forcibly dismissed when their summoner was not in the game. He suspected this was the latter case: after being forcibly dismissed, she had crossed into the other world with Woojin.

“Logging out, huh.”

But there was still something he did not understand. Until now, his trips to the other world had clearly been connected to logging out. But this time? He had been forcibly transported amid a sudden bombardment.

‘... Did I die?’

Some of the kingdoms’ magic cannons were certainly powerful enough to kill Woojin in a single hit. If he had come to this world because his in-game self had died in that bombardment...

‘If death is connected to traveling between dimensions, why wasn’t I transported when I died in the Goblin Den?’

There were still nothing but questions.

“Tsk. What is this? It’s not as if someone forcibly sent me to another world...”

No amount of thought brought him an answer. His mind tangled, Woojin sighed and muttered to himself.

“But... I feel strangely comfortable.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Lost in thought, Woojin looked up at Setsuna’s words.

“I’m not sure... but even the way I move feels much freer. And the feeling of this place... It’s almost like coming home, I guess? Heh.”

She gave an awkward laugh, as though she found her own words strange.

‘Home... I suppose it could be.’

She had originally been an in-game item, the [Philosopher’s Stone], but after it was destroyed, this world’s Ruen had revived it with magic, turning it into the [Phantasmal Spirit Stone].

‘From Setsuna’s perspective, this is where she was really created, not the game.’

Unlike him, who had come to the other world from the game, she was a being who had gone from this world into the game. In that case, perhaps it was only natural for her body to feel comfortable. She now had a real physical form rather than a virtual one.

“Setsuna.”

“Yes?”

“Listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you. I don’t really know how you managed to come here...”

Woojin looked at her and spoke in a low voice.

“But if you’re going to keep going through this with me, I think you ought to know.”

“Know what?”

Woojin told her about everything he had experienced.

“Master...”

How he had become trapped in the game. How his family’s very existence had vanished. His farewell to Raoul, whom he had met in this world. And finally, what had become of Ruen.

“Waaah... My poor Master!! I had no idea you’d been through so much!!”

Her expressions were quite a sight, constantly shifting between tears and laughter as she listened to his story.

“I’ll stay with you from now on! I’m not going anywhere! Waaah!!”

Woojin chuckled as Setsuna clung fiercely to his neck.

“Well... whatever the reason, at least I’m not lonely this time.”

He gently stroked her tiny head with a finger. Having someone who understood his unbelievable circumstances was quite reassuring.

“First, we need to find a way back.”

“Yes!!”

Perhaps it was thanks to their conversation, but Woojin’s frantic heart settled down.

“Setsuna. Can you use your abilities?”

“My abilities?”

He asked because he remembered struggling to get a feel for using his skills when he first arrived in this world.

WHOOOOSH!!

A pure-white sphere immediately appeared above Setsuna’s hand.

“... No problems there.”

‘Is it because she’s an NPC? Or maybe I was just inexperienced.’

Woojin looked sheepish as he watched Setsuna use her skill with perfect ease.

‘I’ve used up all my potions, too...’

There was no telling what might happen. Her learning healing arts during her recent level-ups was truly a stroke of extraordinary luck.

“Where should we go?”

A way back. Her question made Woojin reconsider how he had returned from his two previous visits to this world.

The dark mage’s magic circle. And Camilla’s kick. Merely remembering that kick seemed to make his chest ache.

‘Hmm...’

He could see no particular connection between the two methods. That was why he had intended to compare the circumstances with his previous visits if he ever came to this world again...

‘I don’t have time to think this through step by step.’

He had no way of knowing whether Ruen was in the [Black Space]. He could not help feeling anxious.

‘The dark magic circle activated, and Sarbandin entered my body.’

“... Huh?”

At that moment, something flashed through Woojin’s mind.

‘What if it wasn’t the magic circle that sent me back into the game, but Sarbandin?’

A divine beast possessing the power of a god. Camilla, too, was a divine beast known as a Primordial Sacred Spirit.

Of those two seemingly unrelated incidents, that was the only connection he could pin his hopes on.

‘The power of a Primordial Sacred Spirit... might be what can send me back into the game.’

Camilla came to mind first. But reaching her beneath the lake that had once been the Ice Cave near Hundred Flowers Valley would take far too long.

There was no chance the portal was still intact... and if he traveled on foot, he did not even know whether an overland route connected the central continent to the Dark Forest.

‘A Primordial Sacred Spirit on the central continent.’

BUBBLE... BUBBLE...

The lake where Kelduan had lived lay right before his eyes, but he doubted Kelduan was still alive in its bubbling, foul-smelling waters.

‘Even if I hatch the egg...’

It still had decades left before hatching.

That left Fenrir’s Den. But if he recalled Irurin’s words, the Fenrir of this world had been slain by Aswell long ago. Slaying Fenrir was how Aswell had attained the ultimate mastery of his art.

“Is there really no way...?”

Then it struck him. There was one more Primordial Sacred Spirit.

‘... Fensir?’

Before the bombardment, he had definitely received a notification that Fensir had recovered. But that had been in the game, and this was fifty years in the future.

He did not know whether Fensir was still alive, but it was his last remaining hope. Hadn’t the two of them formed a contract in the game?

‘If Fensir is alive, could our bond still exist here?’

If so, he should be able to tell whether Fensir had survived.

“Nngh.”

He tried concentrating, but it was not easy. Setsuna’s ability to use her skill immediately impressed him all over again.

“... I’ll have to go there myself.”

He bit his lip lightly and let out a quiet sigh.

“Let’s go to Fenrir’s Den.”

Hoping desperately that he would find some trace there, Woojin set off.

* * *

“Shh.”

Woojin raised his index finger to his lips, and Setsuna nodded in understanding.

“This is no way to make a living.”

“Should we try going to that island of the Northern Wall too?”

“How can we go somewhere when we don’t even know where it is...?”

“Why not? There was that map going around a while back.”

“Good grief, you’re naive. You trust that map? I heard the place is a demon den now. Stop talking nonsense and finish your work.”

Human voices. Hiding behind collapsed rubble, Woojin quietly peered ahead.

‘I was hoping to slip through quietly...’

They were currently in [Baldoa], Tekan’s capital and an intermediate city that was home to House Balan. Fenrir’s Den lay in the mountain range known as the Gray Curtain, behind Baldoa on the opposite side from the Great Forest.

‘This won’t be easy.’

Woojin frowned as he watched the men. Behind them stood a wagon, its bed filled with corpses.

“Come on, bury them! Hurry up!”

The faces still retained some of their vitality. They were clearly the bodies of the recently dead.

There were three men. Outnumbered, he had no idea what they might do if they spotted him.

CLICK.

Woojin pushed the hilt slightly forward with his thumb, readying his sword for an easy draw.

He had not forgotten that this was a world of kill or be killed.