“Is this the place?” Lily asked as she and her sister scanned our surroundings, appreciating the spectacular view below us.
“Yes,” I confirmed.
Right now, the three of us were at the very top of the academy’s clocktower, known as Olympus.
The cold breeze of the empty air swept past us, making me pull my cloak tighter as I watched the night sky above.
We were waiting for the two moons to perfectly align with the planet’s axis, anticipating the once-in-a-lifetime event in this world the [Night of Two Moons].
In the game, this was just a random optional sub-event to help players level up in preparation for Act 5.
But in reality, it was much more.
It was a real, proper event celebrated by the masses, considered one of the few holiday-like festivals around the world.
Even Gramps back at the farm always told me to come and see it with him once the cosmic event was up.
‘I’m glad I got accepted into the academy before any of that could happen, though…’ I thought, shuddering at the memory.
I really don’t want to smell that old man’s musky chest anymore; the amount of bear hugs he gives whenever he sees me is borderline torture.
As I stood there, reminiscing about the farm, Lily and Lillian continued to take in the view.
The clocktower provided a breathtaking vantage point, and the city below was bustling with life.
Although the academy wasn’t technically celebrating the event due to their alignment with the teachings of the Luminous Church, which considered the Night of Two Moons heretical as it hails from the culture of another god, people all around the world still celebrated it in a secular manner.
This was why even the academy itself couldn’t exactly stop the people and the students below us from celebrating the affair.
Looking around, I strained mana into my eyes to increase my vision and confirm that Lucas or any of the other heroines weren’t around in the bustling crowd below.
Considering this was a sub-event that any of them could complete as long as Lucas was around, I had to be careful not to get them involved and overcomplicate the situation in any way possible.
“Hey?” Lily suddenly called out to me, breaking my concentration.
“Hm?” I replied, turning to face her.
“You said there’s a dungeon that will pop up, right?” she asked. “Where and when is it going to come?”
Looking at the sky and seeing the two moons starting to align, I nodded my head. “Anytime now…”
The celestial bodies converged, casting an otherworldly glow over the city.
The air was charged with magical energy, and a subtle vibration pulsed through the ground beneath us.
The anticipation was almost tangible as we waited for the dungeon to reveal itself.
Despite the academy’s official stance, the students below were engrossed in their festivities, completely unaware of the impending emergence of the dungeon.
The joyous laughter and excited chatter filled the air, blending with the distant music of street performers and the occasional burst of fireworks.
I glanced at Lily and Lillian, who were also scanning the surroundings with heightened senses. Their expressions were a mix of curiosity and readiness, their assassin instincts on high alert.
Finally, as if time seemed to have stopped for a moment, blue sparks resonated in the area in front of us.
Before us, a blue metallic gate emerged from the ether, pulsating with an otherworldly glow. “Woah~!” Lillian couldn’t help but mumble as she watched the spectacle unfold.
In the game, the gate’s entrance was rendered with its own very cool CGI effect, but watching it in real life now made it ten times better.
It really felt like there was an otherworldly gate in front of us, and the energy it exuded was powerful enough to almost bring us to our knees.
A-rank dungeon, [Night of the Two Moons.]
‘It’s about time I farm you up.’
Preventing the tugging smile on my lips from breaking out, I turned to the two bewildered twins.
“Let’s go…”
“Ah, w-wait,” Lillian stammered, still in awe of the gate.
Lily, more composed, nodded in agreement. “Right….”
With weapons at the ready and hearts pounding in our chests, we stepped into the portal.
The world around us blurred and shifted, and as we were pulled into the unknown, I couldn’t
help but feel a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
The portal deposited us into a vast, dimly lit chamber.
The air was cool and carried the faint scent of earth and ancient magic.
Stone walls lined with intricate carvings surrounded us, and the faint sound of dripping water echoed in the distance.
The chamber seemed to stretch on forever, with shadowy corridors branching off into the unknown.
“This place is massive,” Lillian murmured, her eyes wide as she took in the surroundings. Even Lily, who was trying to maintain a cool façade, couldn’t hide the astonishment in her gaze. This place was just that grand-different from the goblin sewer dungeons, and probably way more different from all the dungeons I’d experienced so far. It was absolutely massive. This place had the typical look of what normal cave-like dungeons have, except it had castle- like structures placed upon it, reminiscent of a great ancient civilization that had been wiped out from history.
The place had an overall vibe of something mythical, not to mention the overwhelming amount of magical energy exuding from it.
Truly, A-rank dungeons are different.
Even if all the dungeons I’ve experienced so far combined, there would be nothing that could compare to this level of power.
“You said to help you clean a dungeon and all… but isn’t this basically a death trap?” Lily said, looking at me menacingly.
Slightly smiling at her words, I raised a piece of paper in my hand. “You’ve already signed the
-contract.”
“That… this… something like this wasn’t part-“
“You’ve already taken my money.”
||
“You can leave if you want to… but can I have my money back?”
“No….”
Lily sighed heavily, clearly frustrated but resigned to her fate. She exchanged a look with Lillian, who simply shrugged. The twins knew they had no choice but to continue. “Alright, fine. But if we die here, I’m haunting you,” Lily muttered, her voice tinged with
irritation and resolve.
“Sure…”
She shot me an even more irritated look, making an obnoxious scoffing sound before turning
to approach her sister, trying to ignore me.
‘I really got on her bad side, huh…’
I was hoping for a more positive relationship with these two, particularly with Lily since she was essentially the decision-maker for the sisters.
But I guess I couldn’t really expect something so positive considering my overly suspicious approach, not to mention our silent threats toward each other.
Well, all the hatred can be fixed once they finally have their master’s dagger, so I’ll just let it
be for now.
As angry and suspicious as these two might be of me right now, they were still the professional assassins I’d known in the game, so I doubted it would affect their performance
tonight.
Ignoring the two sisters for now, I made preparations for myself as well.
I had always wanted to use this skill ever since I got it, and now it was finally time to unleash
it.
[Skill: Tempest Wolf Summon]
Raising my hands up in the air, I invoked the magical formula ingrained in my brain like imprinted information I received the moment I bonded with Raijin. The mana in my hands flowed directly through our invisible bond as I called for his name.
‘Come, Raijin.’
CRACKLE!!!!
VROOOMM!!!!
Like lightning descending from the heavens, a medium-sized hole, reminiscent of a
basketball, emerged in the air.
The golden sparks it exuded illuminated the area around me.
Not long after, the howling sound of threatening growls resonated through the chamber as a
wolf as white as snow kneeled in front of me.
It was my new contracted familiar, Raijin, making his presence known as his red eyes looked
at me respectfully.
“H-Hey, what are you doing?” Lily’s voice was sharp with concern.
“What is that?” Lillian added, her tone matching her sister’s.
Both of them had their daggers out in the open, assuming their assassination stances, while
eyeing Raijin warily.
“Ah, don’t worry. He’s my familiar,” I explained, trying to sound as calm as possible. “Familiar? You had one?” Lily’s eyes were wide with surprise.
“Yes,” I nodded, a slight smile playing on my lips. “He’s here to help us.”
As angry and suspicious as these two might be of me, they were still the professional
assassins I’d known in the game, so I doubted it would affect their performance tonight.
Glancing back at Raijin, I noticed a subtle change in his appearance.
“Raijin, did you get smaller?”
The moment I said those words, he shivered a bit before looking at me with slightly worried
eyes. Did they not feed him well, perhaps?
The last time I saw him, he was almost the size of a house.
Now, he was no more than a really big wolf, which was still large but significantly smaller
compared to his humongous form when we fought each other and his more contained form when I left him back at Luminous Hall.
His change was too drastic to be a coincidence.
I had heard that powerful boss monsters had the ability to control their size, so that was
probably what happened.
But the way he looked at me just now-it felt like he wanted to convey something but
couldn’t.
“Wow-he’s kinda cute!” Suddenly, before I even realized it, Lillian was now beside Raijin, looking at him with sparkling eyes. “Hey, hey, can I pet him?”
“You can, but we don’t have time for that,” I replied, trying to keep the urgency in my voice. Lillian pouted but reluctantly pulled her hand back. “Fine. But later, okay?”
“Later,” I promised, giving her a brief smile before turning my attention back to the task at
hand.
Now with Raijin here, our chances of clearing through this dungeon were basically guaranteed, especially considering the boss monster we were about to face. Although I wanted to inform Lily and Lillian about the monsters we were going to encounter,
I decided to stay quiet for now.
Spouting random facts about this dungeon out of nowhere would ultimately shoot the
suspicion meter they had on me through the roof.
Besides, I had purposely invited them to this dungeon not just for a quick level-up but to
actually increase their specs and evaluate their current level.
From what I could tell from our initial encounter back at the district square, I reckoned these
two were around the same level as me, just with higher agility stats.
But that wasn’t enough for the future events up ahead. Depending on their performance, I might actually have to tell them not just the location of
[Karaka’s blade] but the location of the unique item [Death Mist] as well.
A unique item only for Lillian, which has the potential of making her the strongest assassin in
the whole world right now. “Alright, let’s move out,” I said, taking the lead.
“Okay~” Lillian responded cheerfully, her steps light but cautious.
Lily followed in sync, their movements eerily coordinated, like two peas in a pod completely
in tune with their surroundings.
In the game, these two had automatic combos whenever you used your ultimate’s, so was this
how that connection reflected in real life?
I wondered for a moment before noticing Raijin lagging behind us.
“Raijin?”
I called out, trying to catch his attention.
Instead of immediately listening, he looked at the twins for a couple of seconds before his red
eyes met mine again.
The way he looked seemed like he wanted to tell me something-only this time, it felt like he
was pitying me and the girls for some reason?
[Note: ……Good Luck!]
‘Huh?’
—–
“Hmm- how cute~”
Deep beneath a dark cave whose expanse knew no bounds, reminiscent of an abyss, men were
running for their lives, screaming in pain.
Fires burned, lightning danced, winds swirled, and the earth turned the bloody grounds into
graveyards.
Like a tapestry of a baby’s art and anger, surrounding the cave-like facility, was the flimsy
artistic touch of death looming in the air.
“Aghh!!!” “Let’s get out of here!!!”
“My god! My god! Please save your chil—”
As corpses began to pile up one by one, a beautiful girl dressed in a pristine black dress
reminiscent of the night sky watched the torture she committed, crossing her legs beneath the mountain of corpses she made.
“P-please spare m—”
One of the hooded men beneath the pile begged but couldn’t continue his words as his head
splattered into tiny pieces.
Crunch…! Crunch…!
Munching onto a fleshy substance where blood almost spilled from her red lips, the beautiful
lady slicked back her silvery white hair behind her ears as she smiled softly.
“Ha~ I wonder which one of the two tastes more delicious?”
She wondered aloud, her long tongue flicking out as her reptilic eyes reflected a scene far from
the happenings of her current present.