“How do you feel, Miss Ga-Hyeon?” I asked.
“I think I feel better. I can still hear the voice, but I don’t have a headache and I’m not mentally tired anymore. How could this…” she answered.
‘It’s all thanks to Miss Jung-Yeon.’
I wasn’t going to say this kind of bullshit because I thought that it wasn’t a bad idea to increase my worth. Since it was difficult for me to leave a good impression when it came to fights, I had to act like I was competent in other things.
“What kind of spell did you use?” she asked.
“Hahaha. It’s a bit different from a complete spell. Did you know? The brain is made up of associative neurons and is responsible for handling the stimulation and processing and that’s why medically, the brain is classified as the central nervous system,” I explained.
“Excuse me? That’s…”
Park Ga-Hyeon looked at me as if she was asking what I was talking about and honestly, I didn’t know what I was saying either. I didn’t know shit about the brain and I wasn’t an expert in psychology, but I noticed everyone’s expression changing as they were looking at me. From the beginning, it seemed that they had overestimated me, but when I mentioned something that only an expert would know, their eyes widened.
“The central nervous system has a different metabolism from the other organs. In order to create adenosine triphosphate… we need to give it oxygen…” I explained.
There probably weren’t that many people in all of Korea that had this kind of knowledge and even if there were some brain experts, there wouldn’t be anyone that would understand what I was saying because I was currently talking nonsense.
‘It’s not like anyone worked at a brain science laboratory either…’
Even if someone understood, magic and alchemy knowledge was a field where I developed. It was basically a blind squirrel finding a nut, but this was the best environment to lie in.
“Oh, I guess my explanation was too difficult,” I added.
“Oh… it’s fine,” she said.
“Basically, even when this type of curse or magic enters us in a way that we’re unsure of, in the end, it’s all related to the brain. Regardless of whether it’s magic, alchemy, black magic, or holy magic, it’s basically messing with the brain,” I said.
“Ahh.”
“You can think of it as your brain being delusional and that’s why you’re experiencing hallucinations. Of course, it’s impossible for me to fix that hallucination, but I can use an antibiotic for it,” I told her.
“What kind…”
“It’s the ability to recognize the fact that what we’re seeing and hearing isn’t reality. The human body is truly interesting. Of course, this isn’t something that can be cured with just a potion and the study of magic is a lot more complicated than people think. If I were to explain it in alchemy terms…”
“Ohh… I-I see,” she said.
I saw people nodding, but no one understood what I was saying.
From the start…
‘I even have no idea what I am talking about, so how could they?’
Even if a brain expert came, they wouldn’t understand what I was saying. I was certain that people like Hwang Jung-Yeon and Jung Ha-Yan would ask annoying questions, but as long as I gave them a vague answer, I believe that they would take that and come up with their own answer.
‘This is great.’
It was to the point that I could hear my reputation improving. When I first visited the guild, I never imagined that I would be in this situation.
“At first, I thought the executives were crazy for bringing in an alchemist at that price… but seeing you now, y-you really are a genius. Sigh… what did you do back on Earth…”
‘Genius my ass.’
A fraudster would be a better description.
“I didn’t do anything particularly amazing,” I answered.
“Did you work at a lab or…”
“Well, I guess you could say that I did something similar. It’s a bit difficult to explain the details,” I said.
Of course, it was a lie.
“Thank you very much. I'm relieved that you’re here with us, Mr. Ki-Young. I thought a genius only appeared in media, but having an actual genius like you next to me is very interesting,” Park Ga-Hyeon said.
“Hahaha, you’re embarrassing me. I’m just knowledgeable,” I told her.
“I think you’re the smartest person I’ve met so far,” she complimented me.
It felt like this woman named Park Ga-Hyeon was unknowingly trying to show interest in me. We both had young siblings we left on Earth and it seemed like she was interested in smart men, but of course, I couldn't accept her feelings. It was all because I remembered Jung Ha-Yan’s face and the way she bit her lips and gritted her teeth.
‘She hasn’t been completely cured yet.’
No matter what kind of treatment I gave for that obsessive side of hers, I wasn’t sure if she would ever get fixed.
“Stop it. You’re embarrassing me in front of Miss Jung-Yeon,” I said.
“Ah no, no. I simply have a good memory.”
Basically, these people started labeling me as a genius alchemist that was born every 10,000 years.
“The alchemists I met before weren’t like you…” she mentioned.
“I’m sure there are alchemists all over Lindel that are smarter than me. The only difference is that they’re not getting the support they need and I just had a better start. Actually, it’s all thanks to the Blue Guild,” I explained.
“You’re even modest…”
It wasn't modesty, it was the truth. Even though there could be a few idiots among them, there were most likely one or two that were noticeably talented. But no matter how many times I said this, the image they had of me was already ingrained into their minds.
‘Lee Ki-Young, the genius alchemist given to us by god.’
This was certainly the image they had of me now. Humans usually get jealous of the people who were good at the things they could understand, but on the other hand, when a person accomplished something incomprehensible to them, then they would look at that person with respect. To them, they couldn’t understand the things that I was doing.
Once we were done with the dungeon, I was sure that there would be many opportunities for me to become an influential figure in the Blue Guild since Lee Sang-Hee was starting to lose her power in the guild. Lee Sang-Hee wasn’t the type to be obsessed with power. She had a sense of responsibility and since she was feeling pressured, she seemed happy about the current situation. Of course, I was certain that she felt really ashamed for showing an unreasonable side of her because of the curse.
‘I almost killed all the guild members.’
Or…
‘I can’t do this.’
These were probably what she was thinking right now.
While resting, I noticed her talking a lot to Kim Hyun-Sung and the times when she suffered alone became longer.
I would say this again, but people usually respected those that were able to achieve something incomprehensible. They showed that reaction to me, but it was obvious who they were going to show that same respect to during the dungeon expedition. I became curious as to what our regressor was going to do next.
It happened when we were taking a break.
“I’m really sorry for all I’ve done.”
“Ah…”
“Even if I was influenced by the curse, I should’ve kept my head cool, but I put all of you in danger. I have no excuse for it,” Lee Sang-Hee said.
‘Nice.’
It was Lee Sang-Hee that spoke up. I knew I liked her personality. Even though there wasn’t a reason for her to apologize, she bowed.
“Starting now, we’ll change the route of the party. I believe taking control of the dungeon is more important than rescuing the survivors, so after we’re done taking control, we’ll recover any corpses and rescue survivors that we find,” she said.
‘Finally.’
It was a very reasonable decision. It wasn’t worth it to kill the living just to save the dead. The order was wrong, but there was an important meaning behind Lee Sang-Hee’s words.
“However…”
“We won’t stop our search for the survivors. We’ll change the formation so that we can move faster than we did before,” she added.
“Okay.”
“Mr. Hyun-Sung will take the lead.”
“I’ll do my best,” he said.
I guess Kim Hyun-Sung gave Lee Sang-Hee a hard time or he must have thought that this was the right time to make a move.
No one was affected by the curse anymore. I did kind of feel bad for Kim Hyun-Sung when I thought about how hard he must have worked in trying to break the curse by himself, but I thought that he was actually happy about how it was resolved because it was one less thing he had to worry about.
The way he got up slowly and put away his sword was impressive. He gave off an overwhelming feeling.
‘Overpowering?’
It wasn’t a threatening mood. When he started walking, the others started to stand up as well and it was to the point that it felt like the expedition members were possessed by something.
‘That’s how it’s done.’
He was someone that you could call an ideal leader and I was sure that I wasn’t the only one that thought that way. Lee Sang-Hee was even staring at him absent-mindedly. Kim Hyun-Sung was an assertive person. From the beginning, he made the decision to come to this dungeon on his own and disregarded the party’s opinion. He would accomplish whatever he thought was right and only focused on his goals.
‘This is the right path. Let’s go together.’
It felt like that was what he was saying and he had this charm that made you want to follow him. Even though I didn’t know shit about monarchy, anyone could tell that Kim Hyun-Sung was an ideal monarch. He may be lacking when it came to ruling people, but as a leader, he was the most impressive out of everyone that I had seen so far.
“Let’s go.”
After saying that, we started walking. Everyone got up and immediately followed behind him. Kim Hyun-Sung slowly started to walk faster and the other members did the same. He ignored forked roads and didn’t bother searching the rooms. The way he continued moving on the wide path made him seem very reliable. He walked as if he didn’t think about the monsters or the fact that could be hidden traps or the Undead. It wasn’t that he was confident about dealing with unexpected situations. It felt like his only goal was simply finding a path.
‘Maybe there aren’t any monsters.’
It only took an instant for me to think of the possibility that there weren’t any other monsters here. Just like its name Cursed Shrine, it could be a type of dungeon that simply used curses against invaders and if my assumption was correct, then it was obvious where Kim Hyun-Sung was currently heading to. It was the mage who was the owner of this place and the one that had cursed us.
The more we walked, the more the environment started to change little by little. We did experience a few curses on the way, but no one was really affected by them. It was proof that the potion was working well.
“There aren’t any… Undead.”
“I’m sure that was written in the report…”
“There’s a good chance that they saw the Undead because of the curse. I’m not completely sure just yet, but I think it’s safe to assume that it’s the case,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.
“Still, please don’t put your guard down,” Lee Sang-Hee added.
“Okay.”
We found corpses while walking. They were former members of the Blue Guild. I didn’t know exactly how they died, but I had an idea. They either took their own lives or they could have killed each other. During this, Lee Sang-Hee seemed a bit confused, but she didn’t have any problem continuing the expedition.
After walking farther in, we saw a small door that was decorated in a very unsophisticated way. When the door slowly opened, we saw a woman sitting on a chair. She had a pale face and her eyes were closed. The moment we saw her, new information appeared on the status window.
[You have encountered Saint Juliena, the owner of the epic-ranked dungeon, Cursed Shrine, and the one casting the curses. The quest will be activated.]
[Epic-Ranked Dungeon Forced Quest will be activated.]
[Epic-Ranked Quest - Defeat Juliena (0/1)]
We reached the end.
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