A disturbing voice filled the room.
- Ahh…
I wasn’t sure why, but my legs started shaking. The dungeon boss that we saw at the rare-ranked dungeon, Garden of Horror, couldn’t really be considered a dungeon boss. The owner of that garden had a large frame and even though it had a recovery ability, it wasn’t enough to handle the party’s attacks.
But the woman that was in front of us was different. I was ignorant, but even I could tell that she wasn’t an easy opponent. On the outside, she looked like a saint based on the saint uniform she was wearing, but the mood she gave off was different. My instincts were overwhelmed. I realized that she was a predator and I was prey. That was the moment where I missed having Kim Hyun-Sung behind me
‘Hyun-Sung… you’re okay, right?’
- Ahh… Gedric… my Gedric! You finally came to see me…
‘What the hell is she talking about?’
- You finally found me. My lovely Gedric!
After her neck twisted in a strange way, she extended her hand out toward us. I did think for a moment whether I should pretend to be Gedric, but taking the lead in a place like this was dangerous. Quietly waiting with the other rearguards was the best.
‘Is she blind?’
It was the moment when Kim Hyun-Sung took a step forward.
- Ahhhhh…
‘...’
- You aren’t Gedric. You’re not him.
After frowning, she opened her eyes. I didn’t think her eyes were going to be normal, but the eyes inside her eyelids were just pitch-black darkness. I wasn’t sure if her eyes had been gouged or if I just couldn’t see them, but it felt like I was going to get sucked into the abyss-like darkness. Maybe it was because I was rejecting her mentally, but I had goosebumps on my back.
‘Da…’
- You’re not him. Not him!
The floor started shaking and as things started to crumble, the inside of the dungeon trembled. A strange feeling that wasn’t magic spread all over the place and because of the ringing in her voice, I couldn’t help but cover my ears with my hands. When blood was about to spill out from her mouth, I saw a curtain that covered the entire expedition group. Sun Hee-Young was using her holy magic to block the energy.
- You’re not him!
“Let’s prepare to fight. Mages will cast spells and the priests should continue to maintain their holy magic. It’s a monster I can’t aggro, so we’ll go about it as defensively as possible. It’ll be a long fight,” Kim Hyun-Sung declared.
“Okay.”
Lee Sang-Hee was calmer than I thought. She grabbed a large shield, covering the rear. She was reliable. When they started reciting their spells, magic started to appear everywhere. It was the job of the vanguards to buy time until the mages were done casting and of course, we couldn’t just sit by and watch either. With Kim Hyun-Sung in the lead, a few of the members started charging toward Juliena.
‘Hang in there, Kim Hyun-Sung.’
An energy that couldn’t be labeled as magic or holy magic started to appear everywhere and it was obvious who it belonged to.
‘Juliena.’
“Please prepare a defensive spell.”
- You dirty bastards… how dare you, dirty bastards! You dare trespass this place… this place!
Craaaack!
The way a black sphere started scratching the floor and charged toward us was a sight to see. Seeing an unknown energy come toward me as if it was going to swallow everything wasn’t a nice sight. At some point, I saw Lee Sang-Hee lifting her shield and blocking the heavy attack. Even though she managed to block it, it didn’t seem like it had been easy. I noticed holy magic flowing into the frowning Lee Sang-Hee.
‘This isn’t easy…’
It was a bit different from the monsters we had hunted so far. The boss monster in the garden was focused on the vanguards, but Juliena wasn’t focused on a certain target. She was basically moving around like a crazy woman. In order to protect the rearguards whose defenses were weak, the vanguards had no choice but to stick with us, which made this woman a difficult opponent to deal with.
The time to cast spells became longer. Since it was going to be a long fight, the tanks had to be a bit more alert so that no harm would come to the priests. It was difficult to expect the archers, whose agility stats were high, to help with other things. When Jung Ha-Yan and Hwang Jung-Yeon opened their mouths, a spell containing a lot of mana appeared. It looked like it instantly enveloped the crazy woman, but the black sphere started to wrap around her body again.
That was when I activated the spell that I had been reciting.
“...!”
A large arm appeared in thin air and fell on top of Juliena, who was inside the black sphere. The large arm seemed as if it was going to crush her.
Craaaack!
The surprised expression on the party members’ faces only lasted for a moment. The dust disappeared and Juliena looked at us.
- How… dare you!
My magic was categorized into physical magic and I wasn’t sure if that was the reason, but it felt like it did some damage to her; however, that wasn’t really good news.
‘Well, shit.’
I wasn’t sure if it was a coincidence, but it felt like the black sphere fell in the area that I was in and an unknown energy kept falling. Kim Hyun-Sung also couldn’t attack her easily in case the rearguards got hurt, so all he could do was block with his sword. I thought that maybe he would have an easier time hunting if we weren’t here.
‘Are all epic-ranked dungeons like this?’
I didn’t think that it was going to be easy, but it was harder than I thought. I heard rumbling from all over the place. The entire dungeon was shaking and the floor started to open up.
‘It won’t be enough with Deok-Gu alone.’
That was probably the reason why Kim Hyun-Sung wasn’t able to move as easily as he could if he was alone. Lee Sang-Hee was definitely doing her part, but since Park Deok-Gu’s magic was low and he lacked resistance, he wasn’t any different from us. He was doing his best, but all he could do was block small attacks. He was only able to endure so far because Juliena hadn’t activated a curse just yet. At first, I thought that there were restrictions or cooldowns because it wasn’t a normal skill that could be countered with holy magic or magic, but I guess that it was a skill that she couldn’t use more often. If we started hallucinating during this time, we could be in even more danger.
I had to make a choice. I wanted to make a decision that would put us in less danger and in the end, I couldn’t help but realize the fact that opening my mouth was the most reasonable method.
“Ohhh, my Juliena!”
Funny enough, I saw her flinching.
- Ge-Gedric?
When she heard my voice in the middle of the fight, the fight stopped. The members looked at me as if they were asking what I was doing, but I didn’t need to answer them because they would soon find out.
“Juliena! My Juliena!”
- Gedric! Ohh, you’re here, Gedric! You’ve come back to me.
“Juliena! I’ve been looking for you for eons! For this shrine!”
- Gedric, you’ve finally…
“Juliena!”
- N-No. You’re not Gedric.
“...!”
‘Damn it.’
“So much time has passed, Juliena. Unlike you whose tied to this shrine, I’ve experienced many changes that I can’t even begin to count. My speech, my presence, everything about me changed since back then,” I said.
- No, you’re not my Gedric.
“Juliena! Juliena, my love!”
- You’re not Gedric!
“Juliena, I may have changed, but I still remembered that day. Juliena, I’ve always kept the memories with you in this body.”
- Ah…
“Those precious memories…”
- Ged… ric?
I wasn’t sure what that day was, but she must have thought of something since black tears started to flow out of her empty eyes, which was a grotesque sight. I frowned for a moment, but I couldn’t let her notice my voice. I thought that flirting with her was the best thing to do and if she demanded an explanation, then of course I would get caught.
- That day, you mean…
I got worried because it felt like she was going to ask again.
“We… aaaaack! Juliena!”
- Gedrick!
“They’re oppressing me, Juliena! Aaaaack!”
Lee Sang-Hee, Park Deok-Gu, and Sun Hee-Young widened their eyes and looked at me incredulously, while Jung Ha-Yan looked jealous.
‘Everyone is so…’
…Slow-witted. It was to the point that I missed Lee Ji-Hye, who was probably working hard on the thing I asked her to do. When I kept signaling Hwang Jung-Yeon, who was one of the smarter ones, I saw her nodding, but…
“Foolish Juliena! You’re foolish, Juliena! W-W-We captured your love, Gedric!” Hwang Jung-Yeon yelled.
‘Her acting’s so awkward...’
I felt ridiculous for having a slight expectation for her because she was obsessed with dramas. I started to worry that Juliena would change her mind because of Hwang Jung-Yeon’s acting. I guess even Hwang Jung-Yeon was embarrassed because her cheeks turned red. Thankfully, Juliena didn’t become suspicious of her acting.
“Juliena! Please don’t save me. Juliena! Run right now… ack, they…” I said.
- Gedric!
“Gah… run away! Juliena!” I yelled.
- How dare you! How dare you! My Gedric!
I didn’t really care about Gedric or whatever his name was, but using him was more effective than I thought. Of course, she may still be suspicious of me, but that suspicion wouldn’t last long anyway since the Gedric she had been waiting for so long was about to die. It was natural for her to react in this manner.
‘The problem is that she’s going crazy…’
She wasn’t going to do anything crazy like sending off the energy toward the rearguards because her love, Gedric, was currently held captive there.
Unlike the others who were dumbfounded and were still trying to figure out the situation, Kim Hyun-Sung immediately tried to rush toward Juliena and I saw him swinging his sword toward her. He wasn’t at the level where he could actively move around in an epic-ranked dungeon and honestly, saying that he was still growing was the right description. But the way Kim Hyun-Sung fought her as Juliena kept trying to charge toward us was impressive. Using the sword he was wielding, he blocked all the dark energy that was flying from all over the place and despite the fact that her range of attack was limited, Juliena kept attacking Kim Hyun-Sung who was in her way.
Craaaack, crack!
Not only did the same sound fill the room, but they were exchanging attacks that were beyond my understanding.
‘Huh…’
Kim Hyun-Sung stretched his sword out, but it got stuck in the black energy. Juliena’s tentacle-like black energy struck Kim Hyun-Sung, but our regressor had no problem blocking it.
Not only were our party members amazed by the impressive battle, but the other party members of the Blue Guild also stared at this scene with their mouths agape. They found it difficult to determine how they should enter the battle.
- You little pest… move aside this instant!
“...”
- Gedric! Gedric!
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