Chapter 9: Next One

After that, thinking he should be careful of that, he hid behind the door and opened it slightly, and after confirming that the blade had passed by, he crawled on the floor into the room.

But to think the boss monster had a wide-area skill among its techniques…!

It was natural for a boss-level monster, but anyway, because black hands that shot out from the floor grabbed Paul’s ankles and the hem of his robe and dragged him into the abyss, he died without even knowing what was what.

Another time, he used an evasion skill to do a forward roll and was skillfully dodging the area-of-effect attacks, but he tripped on the end of the shabby carpet and fell.

Because of that, his skill was dispelled, and he was hit by the sword thrown by the boss monster and died again.

The next time, he was hit by another wide-area skill thrown by the boss monster and died.

Dark blue lightning struck indiscriminately within the room.

He was blinded by the flash of light that burst out for a moment, and failed to dodge the next attack and died again.

At some point, the boss monster just attacked indiscriminately.

Its attack range was the entire vast boss room.

Paul died dodging it, died because he couldn’t dodge it, and repeated dying by being hit by the attack that came after he dodged it.

Sometimes, he even died after somehow getting close.

The boss monster really attacked without mercy.

It used magic, and swords, and took out spears or other weapons, and sometimes, it killed with its bare hands.

…And it also teleported through the shadows cast at its feet.

At this point, he began to wonder what the identity of this boss monster was.

But perhaps because all those attack motions were so cool, he had no regrets even if he died.

And so, when he had used up the last [Breath of Rasis] and there was only a little time left before the dungeon reset.

Since this was the last time, Paul did his best to kill his presence.

For some reason, the boss monster was quiet, just like when he first entered the boss room.

Thanks to that, his steps gained a little courage.

After carefully moving and silently sitting down next to the boss monster, Paul smiled brightly.

‘Good.’

He was proud.

He had taken a lot of pictures, videos, and drawings as he had planned at the beginning.

‘Now, when I die this time, I should just go back to the village.’

Since Paul wasn’t making any futile attempts, the boss room was as quiet as a mouse.

So quiet that you could hear the sound of the wind blowing through the open door.

Soon, the moment came when his MP was empty.

When Paul appeared right next to it, the boss monster slowly turned its head and looked down at him.

Paul, thinking he was about to die, closed his eyes out of habit.

But 1 minute passed.

3 minutes passed.

And before he knew it, a full 5 minutes had passed, but he hadn’t died.

There was no attack, no sound.

The boss monster hadn’t attacked him.

“…?”

Paul opened his eyes cautiously, puzzled.

And what did he see but the boss monster’s face right in front of him?

“Huh?!”

He was so startled that he fell backwards.

When he did it himself, he was so bold, but when it was done to him, his heart couldn’t take it.

Clutching his wildly pounding heart with one hand, he barely propped himself up with the other.

‘Wow, how can it do this?’

Paul, forgetting the situation, stared blankly at the admirable sight.

It was a conditioned reflex.

Paul, who was witnessing in real time the dense eyelashes lowering over the amethyst-like purple eyes, opened his eyes wide at the low voice he suddenly heard.

[…■■■ ■■■. ■■, ■■■■ ■■■■.]

‘…What is it saying?’

Of course, understanding it was another matter.

1. The King of the Forgotten.

‘It’ slowly opened its eyes.

Its unfocused purple eyes indifferently scanned its surroundings once before moving its gaze to the firmly closed door.

[…It’s been a long time.]

It was a voice that was strange beyond compare.

Low and low, it tickled the ears and made the listener feel a shiver down their spine…

[It’s been a really long time.]

How many people had come and gone from this place?

The owner of this place, ‘it’, did not know the reason why the heterogeneous beings who appeared, breaking the suffocating silence, had come here.

However, since they were a good way to pass the time, it rather welcomed their visits.

…But that was all a story of the past now.

At some point, those who sought this place disappeared.

There were occasional beings who came nearby, but not many came to this deep place.

Therefore, ‘it’ was left alone in this silence again.

In the aimlessly flowing time, ‘it’ was so bored.

Thus, the existence of an intruder who appeared after a long time was quite intriguing.

[You are weak.]

But the aura felt from outside was so weak that ‘it’ thought that the intruder who had come after a long time would not be able to reach this place.

‘It’ closed its eyes again.

[You can’t come this far.]

A strange sense of disappointment was contained in the boredly muttering voice.

Ah, when will this boredom end?

***

Tap, tap.

A light footstep like a small feather moving and the sound of cloth dragging stopped ‘thud’ beyond the firmly closed door.

Creak…

The moment the door slowly opened with a chilling sound, ‘it’ was actually a little excited, unlike itself.

Someone had come to this place after a very long time.

The intruder who appeared this time was quite weak compared to the previous ones, so it thought that it would be difficult for them to reach this place.

There had been one or two such people before.

It wouldn’t be strange if they gave up and went back, it thought so…

But against expectations, they had arrived here.

So how could it not be excited?

[…?]

But after the door opened, ‘it’ was flustered.

This was because the intruder who should have been visible was not.

But it soon noticed that the intruder was hiding and had entered.

‘Are they trying to hide and attack me?’

‘Well, there were many such people in the past.’

‘It’ thought so indifferently and waited for the attack that would follow.

But it realized that was its misunderstanding the very next moment.

The intruder who suddenly appeared in front of it was too busy scanning ‘it’ with his eyes, not even knowing that he was visible.

With platinum blonde hair close to a wheat color, long, pointed ears, and sparkling glass-like eyes… ‘it’ scanned him just as the intruder had.

Then their eyes met.

“Ah.”

It was a really strange being.

Looking down at the intruder’s body, which collapsed so easily, ‘it’ remembered one emotion it had forgotten over the long years.

‘Strange.’

It was the feeling of strangeness.

The intruders who had reached this place so far had all come to kill ‘it’.

Of course, they couldn’t kill it and left this place.

For ‘it’, who had only seen such people, the intruder’s behavior was very peculiar and strange.

Moreover, the intruder’s eccentricities did not end there.

The intruder died twenty-nine more times to ‘it’ in various ways after that.

‘It should be enough by now…’

As if not getting tired, the intruder kept coming to it, to the point where ‘it’ was not just puzzled but flustered.

It wasn’t just that he came.

He would repeatedly hide his presence, approach where ‘it’ was, and engage in strange behavior.

But in all those situations, the intruder never once attacked ‘it’.

‘Why?’

At first, it didn’t care.

It thought it was because it had dealt with the intruder too quickly.

But at some point, it realized that wasn’t the only reason.

The intruder always hid his presence and entered this room at first.

He would quietly enter, erasing even the slightest footstep, breath, and presence, and just loiter around.

It didn’t understand why he repeated such a troublesome act.

…Because even though he knew that it would kill him, for some reason, the intruder just looked at it with a strange face.

[Ah…]

When it realized that the intruder was staring at it with wide-open eyes, when its own reflection was in his glass-like eyes, ‘it’ was engulfed in an unacceptable feeling.

How should it explain this feeling?

***

Thud.

[…]

This was the thirtieth time.

The intruder’s body collapsed again, and the glass-like pupils disappeared behind the eyelids.

‘It’ looked down with emotionless eyes at the intruder who died so simply and absurdly every time.

This was the thirtieth time it had seen that sight, as if he were deeply asleep.

‘Isn’t he getting tired of it? For what reason is he doing this?’

A strange interest and curiosity arose.

Woong—.

At that moment, a pure white light flowed out from the intruder’s body.

The light that spread into small particles gathered in one place and formed a human figure.

Sway.

It was a woman wearing a fluttering white veil.

The figure made of light shone alone in the gloomy space.

The woman held the fallen intruder in her arms with a benevolent touch.

It was a sight it had seen thirty times, to the point of being tiresome.

What would happen next was obvious.

That person would take the intruder away, and soon after, the intruder who had recovered perfectly would come here again.

‘It’, which had learned from the repeated situations, was therefore going to go back to its place and wait for the intruder.

…If only there hadn’t been a voice that held it back.

“The next one is the last.”