Episode 41

After that, I nearly fainted from shock.

This was definitely a no-fly zone, yet my character crouched down, braced one arm against the ground, spread out a pair of huge wings, and took the flight animation as he rose into the air.

[Party] Kkulppang : holy

When I sent an exclamation into chat in my bewilderment, Jaesugang, who had turned around to examine the corridor, looked my way and ran over in a single stride.

[Party] Jaesugang : ????????????????

[Party] Kkulppang : i can fly';;;

[Party] Jaesugang : Where did you fly from? Is there a specific point where flying is possible?

I didn’t think there was anything like that. I had just pressed the button and flown. I answered him no.

At my reply, Jaesugang soon spread his wings and floated up, just like me. Today was the first time I had actually seen Jaesugang fly. Even though Ateliena was a PvP zone, there were no flight areas, so unless you were gliding or activating Incarnation, there was no chance to see wings.

[Party] Jaesugang : This feels really anticlimactic. Even though Adam said we just had to fly, I thought there was no way that could be true...

[Party] Jaesugang : Kkulppang-nim is a fool, so you took his words literally and happened to stumble onto the answer...

[Party] Kkulppang : ?

[Party] Jaesugang : ?

[Party] Kkulppang : ?

[Party] Jaesugang : ?

Dumbfounded, I gripped my weapon threateningly, and Jaesugang immediately backed down like a dog tucking its tail, saying it was a joke and laughing good-naturedly with a “haha.” Since we were in a party anyway, I couldn’t actually hit him, and the way he conceded first was kind of cute, so I let it slide.

Now that we had figured out how to get through the corridor, there was no need to drag things out any longer. As if by prior agreement, we both flew into the corridor and moved forward at high speed. During high-speed flight, if you used the walls as springboards, stepped on them a few times, and pressed the space bar at the right moment, you could gain propulsion and fly faster and longer, so both Jaesugang and I ran between the mirrors.

Before Ateliena was updated, I used to run around like this in flight areas. Since that was already a year ago, it felt incredibly nostalgic. After meeting Jaesugang, I had practically lived in Ateliena, and even the farming dungeons where flying had been possible had become unnecessary a few months ago, so I stopped going there too.

Thinking that the person doing this half-forced trip down memory lane with me was Jaesugang made it feel even newer. It was like watching someone dance modern dance to traditional Korean music. Was that a little off? Anyway, it felt both welcome and fresh.

Jaesugang was leaping by crossing left and right along the walls in turn, so when I followed him and moved left and right as well, it made for quite the spectacle. In one section, the light even faded and it grew somewhat dim, and with both pairs of wings glowing faintly there, it almost looked like a scene from a movie.

If I recorded this and uploaded it, Jaesugang could probably pull in some views. It would promote Dusk too. It was extremely tempting.

After filming our short movie together, the corridor ended before we knew it and we reached a properly formed path. At the end, the NPCs and the spirit who had arrived ahead of us were waiting.

I landed on the ground, but Abrea didn’t even glance at me. He looked uncomfortable somehow. I tried talking to him in case there was another event, but only an ellipsis appeared in the script. Unlike on my side, Jaesugang’s side was chatting away in a rather warm atmosphere.

While Jaesugang was talking to Adam, I stood awkwardly a short distance away from Abrea.

[Party] Jaesugang : They say we should go to that room over there

After finishing the conversation, Jaesugang walked to the right as he spoke. From what I heard, before we arrived, the spirit had pointed at that room.

The room we entered after him was pitch-black.

As if a line had been drawn between it and the corridor, cutting the space off, this place was simply dark, and inside were round, furry bird-things glowing white like will-o’-the-wisps. The birds were so small and cute that they reminded me of long-tailed tits. But the damage they dealt probably wouldn’t be cute.

Once we entered the room, neither my character nor Jaesugang’s character was easy to see. The one fortunate thing was that since we were paired, our wings glowed, so I could at least quickly identify Jaesugang’s position.

This was the second mob section. However, unlike the garden, the map was narrow and our field of vision was limited, so it seemed difficult to search for the mechanic in advance. Jaesugang seemed to know that too, because he didn’t say much about the mechanic and simply told me, “I’ll rebuff (*refresh buffs or debuffs),” layering skills over me.

[Party] Jaesugang : I’ll go around the room and check if there’s a mechanic

[Party] Jaesugang : Please prioritize survival

[Party] Kkulppang : ok ok

After receiving Jaesugang’s orders and taking all the buffs, I immediately jumped into the middle of the monsters.

The birds that recognized me swarmed over and began attacking. As expected, the damage was absolutely nothing to laugh at. If anything, the incoming damage was even stronger than the first mob section. It was definitely structured so that unless the mechanic was dealt with first, it couldn’t be cleared if either the tank or healer role was missing.

To avoid a repeat of the first mob section, we had to figure out what mechanic was hidden here. But as I said earlier, unlike the garden, this place was a completely dark space aside from the mobs, so it was hard to look around.

As Jaesugang had ordered, I focused as much as possible on surviving while occasionally observing whether there was anything visible nearby. But something was strange.

It felt subtly unnatural. I noticed it because of the hit sounds.

Normally, when you hit multiple targets, you should hear multiple impact sounds. But even though my skill had landed on the mob “group,” I only heard the sound once. The numbers on the screen—the damage—clearly indicated that the skill had hit multiple enemies.

This sense of dissonance was too suspicious to dismiss as just my imagination.

[Party] Kkulppang : dude

[Party] Kkulppang : are these really

[Party] Kkulppang : multiple mobs?

[Party] Jaesugang : ?

He asked back as if wondering what I was talking about. How was I supposed to explain this?

I groaned inwardly and racked my brain, pressing the keyboard sporadically to pick up the words drifting around in my head and move them into the chat window.

[Party] Kkulppang : thsi

[Party] Kkulppang : like the damage

[Party] Kkulppang : is going in

[Party] Kkulppang : but the hit sound only

[Party] Kkulppang : sounds like

[Party] Kkulppang : one thing is getting hit;

[Party] Kkulppang : i’d say i heard wrong

[Party] Kkulppang : but my years in Dusk

[Party] Kkulppang : and experience

[Party] Kkulppang : cant just

[Party] Kkulppang : be ignored

As if silently reading my chat, Jaesugang said nothing. Judging by the fact that he didn’t scold me and ask what kind of nonsense that was, he seemed to be seriously thinking over what I had said. In the meantime, I went back to hitting the mobs and desperately endured. Since I had no talent for using my head, all I could do was hold out so that Jaesugang could focus on solving the problem.

It wasn’t long after I typed in chat that the silent Jaesugang began to move. He moved his character toward the wall. Then he used a skill against it.

From the wall struck by the skill came a loud shattering sound. It was the sound of glass or a mirror breaking. At the same time, three monsters near me disappeared.

I wasn’t the only one who witnessed it. Jaesugang stood still as if surprised to see the monsters disappear, then began breaking the wall beside it. The mobs whose health had barely budged no matter how much I hit them vanished three or four at a time with a single gesture from Jaesugang.

[Party] Jaesugang : Break the walls

[Party] Jaesugang : I think the mobs were copied because they were reflected in the mirrors.

As soon as I understood the chat, I swung my sword and broke the wall behind me first. Then, along with the sound of a mirror shattering, monsters disappeared one after another. Not only that, but the rate at which my HP had been rapidly dropping from the mobs pecking me with their beaks and clawing at me with their talons also decreased dramatically.

I couldn’t help but marvel. Both the developers who had made such a mechanic and Jaesugang who had seen through it were worthy of respect.

[Party] Kkulppang : wow wtf

[Party] Kkulppang : how did you think

[Party] Kkulppang : we had to break

[Party] Kkulppang : the mirrors?

[Party] Jaesugang : You said it felt like only one was being hit, so it came to mind

[Party] Jaesugang : Whether it’s mobs or anything else, if reflected in mirrors, it’d look like there were several of them

[Party] Kkulppang : wa

[Party] Kkulppang : respect

[Party] Jaesugang : Did I do well?

This time, I decided to praise him obediently.

[Party] Kkulppang : obviously;

[Party] Kkulppang : if it weren’t for you

[Party] Kkulppang : I’d have spent all day

[Party] Kkulppang : spamming AoE damage

[Party] Kkulppang : just to kill this one thing

[Party] Jaesugang : hahaha

Jaesugang was so innocent that he openly showed how happy he was to be praised, and while further boosting his spirits, we smashed every mirror attached to the walls.

The number of monsters that had easily looked to be over forty instantly dropped to only four. I thought these four were the end, but... the hit sound still insisted there was only one mob.

There shouldn’t be any mirrors left, so where were these three being reflected? I was thinking that as I blocked an attack with my shield and was about to use a counterattack skill. Across from me, Jaesugang, who had been both dealing damage and healing, suddenly spread his wings. Then his glowing wings rose upward.

He drifted slowly along the ceiling. Then, along with the sound of a skill being cast, I heard the sound of something being struck and shattering twice in a row. There had been two mirrors left on the ceiling.

As the mirror shards fell, they dealt damage that was by no means weak. But at the same time, only a single long-tailed tit remained.

[Party] Kkulppang : by any chance

[Party] Kkulppang : are you in Mensa?

[Party] Jaesugang : lol

I asked in sincere admiration, but Jaesugang only laughed.

Once we broke all the mirrors, the long-tailed tit left alone stopped attacking me and looked around. Its movements seemed rather flustered.

Now that only one was left, it should be a little easier to kill. Thinking that, I began driving skills into it. Jaesugang also immediately cast DoT skills, precisely applying viruses to the long-tailed tit one by one.

However, even after being hit by our attacks, the long-tailed tit’s health barely went down, and the attacks hitting me still hurt. To exaggerate a little, it felt like I’d die after about eight hits without healing. Apparently, breaking the mirrors wasn’t the end.

No matter how much we hit it, its HP barely decreased, and its damage hurt. That was the same as the first mob section, where we had to beat on it for nine minutes. Vaguely, I thought we might have to deal with it in a similar or identical way.

Jaesugang, who had been quietly attacking the long-tailed tit, suddenly spoke.

[Party] Jaesugang : Hold on for a bitㅛ

Jaesugang stopped using skills midway and ran off somewhere. It seemed he also expected there to be another mechanic besides breaking the mirrors and intended to look around the room again.

While he began investigating the room, I survived by receiving the heals he sent me from time to time. The longer I got beaten, the better I grasped the long-tailed tit’s attack patterns, so I could block or dodge its bigger skills, but for attack patterns that couldn’t be evaded, I had to use survival skills and take them head-on. Still, it was far more bearable than when there had been forty of them.

Eventually, the long-tailed tit once again sharpened its wings and showed a motion of slamming them down at me.