I slowly made my way inside.
I had Fire, the reliable King of Fire Spirits, with me, but—
'It never hurts to be careful. According to the Awakened Community, even powerful Awakened consider the Haunted House a dangerous place.'
The reason was mental attacks.
Not mental attacks from spirit-form monsters.
Simply being inside the Haunted House exposed you to mental attacks.
And the deeper you went, the stronger they became.
Even with protective equipment, staying too long was dangerous.
There was a reason people on the Awakened Community recommended simply buying the materials instead.
Of course, that did not apply to me.
[Fire(EX)'s Blessing permeates your entire body!]
[Fire(EX) perfectly protects you from mental attacks!]
On top of that, I had Heart of Steel and Spirit-Blessed Body.
My mind remained every bit as clear as it had been outside.
-Waaah! Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says it's all thanks to him!]
[Fire(EX) says the Contractor wouldn't even have been able to set foot in here without him!]
"Yeah, thaaanks!"
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says that means you should give him the pork belly right now!]
Of course.
I had wondered why he suddenly started boasting about himself.
"Tsk, no. Pork belly eaten right now would taste bad."
-Waaah?
[Fire(EX) tilts his head and asks what you mean.]
"You have to eat it after working hard for it to really taste good. Remember how you felt when we ate on the summit of Gwanaksan? It was incredible, right?"
Only then did Fire seem to understand, nodding his head.
Food always tasted better after you had worked for it.
There was a reason food eaten at swimming pools or on mountaintops tasted so good.
The mental attacks were no problem, and I had convinced Fire.
Now I could finally head deeper inside.
"This fog is brutal. You can't see anything with the naked eye."
The fog itself was certainly thick, but more than that, it felt as though some kind of barrier had been erected here.
Even with Spirit Eyes, I could not see the entire area.
I could only view portions of it, so I could not rely on the skill too heavily.
"Let's take it slow."
-Waaah! Waaah!
[Fire(EX) tells you not to worry!]
[Fire(EX) says he can see everything with his own eyes!]
"Everything? How?"
-Waaah? Waaah!
[Fire(EX) asks whether you've forgotten who he is!]
[Fire(EX) says a low-level barrier like this is nothing to him!]
"Ah, right. That's true."
He gave off such strong pig-like energy that I occasionally forgot he was the King of Fire Spirits.
Then could he find Microscopic Subspace too?
When I asked, Fire confidently folded his arms and nodded.
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says there is no problem and tells you to follow him!]
"Oh, I'm counting on you."
I said that, but for some reason, I did not completely trust him.
Maybe it was because of everything he had shown me so far.
I had already explained roughly where Microscopic Subspace tended to form.
And what it looked like.
For now, I would trust him.
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says there's one over there!]
"You found one already?"
When it came to things like this, being the King of Fire Spirits really was impressive.
We did not even have to go far.
It was only a few steps away.
On the way, we encountered a spirit-form monster, a Specter.
[Fire(EX)'s possessed skill, 'Hellfire(EX),' activates.]
ROAR!
Fire's Hellfire burned the Specter away completely.
I had heard ordinary fire skills barely affected them.
But before the King of Fire Spirits, it amounted to nothing.
When we arrived at the location, I merely blinked.
[Intermediate-Rank Mana Stone(C)]
"That's not the Microscopic Subspace I told you about."
Even a passing dog could tell it was a Mana Stone.
-Waaah! Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says of course it isn't!]
[Fire(EX) says it was nearby, so he just stopped by for a moment!]
"……I knew this would happen."
The next one was the same.
[Lower-Intermediate-Rank Mana Stone(D)]
And the one after that.
This was ridiculous.
I had heard there were practically no Mana Stones in the Haunted House.
How was he even finding them?
At this rate, we were going to leave with nothing but Mana Stones.
"If you keep collecting only Mana Stones, there'll be no pork belly."
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) shouts that you're being too cruel!]
"You're the one being unreasonable. We already have plenty of Mana Stones. Keep this up and you won't get any of those either."
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) hurriedly shakes his head and says he understands!]
Sometimes he really did need to be told outright before he listened.
But if you used the stick, you also had to offer the carrot.
I tossed him an S-Rank Mana Stone, and Fire immediately began running around on all fours, searching diligently.
It was nice how simple he was about things like this.
Once properly motivated, he found one quickly.
It was embedded halfway down the wall of a sheer cliff.
Something about the size of a small baseball was attached to the rock face.
That was Microscopic Subspace.
It could even be used immediately.
All you had to do was touch it, and a subspace would automatically form.
It could hold roughly one ton.
However, it was unstable, so people rarely used it even in emergencies.
It was located exactly halfway down the cliff.
I could simply climb the wall.
"Burn every Specter that comes near while I'm climbing."
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) pounds his chest and tells you not to worry.]
Climbing a cliff was nothing.
Like a human spider, I scaled it effortlessly and reached the Microscopic Subspace in no time.
I placed it into my Inventory, then jumped back down.
"That's one. Since we're already here, there's no point stopping at just one."
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) tells you to just follow him!]
Finding every Microscopic Subspace inside the Haunted House would take quite a while.
We needed to eat pork belly and return home before it got too dark.
I increased our pace.
Thanks to Fire and Spirit Eyes, the searching itself was easy.
All I had to do was go there and collect them.
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says there's one here!]
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says there's another one here too!]
The deeper we went, the thicker the fog became.
The Specters also grew higher in rank, but before Fire, they were nothing.
[Fire(EX)'s possessed skill, 'Hellfire(EX),' activates.]
ROAR!
One Hellfire reduced them to ashes.
After wandering around for roughly four hours—
Microscopic Subspace ×59
"Ahhh, fifty-nine! People say finding even one makes it your lucky day."
I would not have to worry about running short on Microscopic Subspace for a while.
No.
'Considering how the required materials keep increasing as things level up, I'll definitely need more.'
We should stay until evening.
If the opportunity presented itself, spending the night here was an option too.
I did not have a tent, but I could simply sleep inside the Spirit Shelter.
That was enough for the morning.
We had worked hard, so it was time for our reward.
I was hungry too.
-Waaah! Waaah!
[Fire(EX)'s eyes sparkle as he says he wants to eat pork belly quickly!]
[Fire(EX) tells you to keep your promise!]
"All right. I have to prepare it before we can eat."
First, we needed a place to settle down.
There was a relatively open summit nearby where the fog was much thinner.
This would do.
I took everything I had prepared out of my Inventory.
With Fire helping, the meal was ready in no time.
I lit the portable burner and placed the grill plate on top.
Once it heated up, I laid the pork belly on it.
SIZZLE!
"Wow! Even the sound is incredible."
The sound alone practically melted my ears.
Fire seemed to agree, because he could not take his eyes off the grill.
And pork belly was not all we had.
There was kimchi and garlic too!
As the meat began cooking, I quickly set the table.
Vegetables for wraps and instant rice.
Meanwhile, the pork belly finished cooking.
I cut it into bite-sized pieces and made a wrap.
Lettuce, garlic, kimchi, rice, ssamjang, and finally pork belly, all neatly stacked together.
Then straight into my mouth!
"This is it!"
-Waaah! Waaah!
[Fire(EX) asks you to give him a bite too!]
[Fire(EX) adds that he worked the hardest out of everyone!]
He glared sharply at me with his cheeks puffed out.
If I did not give him some immediately, he was obviously going to sulk.
I quickly prepared a Fire-sized wrap and stuffed it into his mouth.
-Waaah! Waaah!
[Fire(EX) loses himself in the overwhelming flavor!]
I was glad he liked it.
The scenery was slightly disappointing, but after all our hard work, the pork belly tasted so good that it did not matter much.
It took only ten minutes to finish half of the ten kilograms of pork belly I had prepared.
-Waaah?!
[Fire(EX) asks why you're stopping when there's still more!]
"We might sleep here tonight. We need to save enough for tomorrow."
Fire smacked his lips before nodding.
Even he understood.
If he gave in to greed and ate everything today, there would be nothing left tomorrow.
"I'll make you something even more delicious once we get home."
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says you promised!]
"Yeah. I did."
With my stomach comfortably full, I entered the Spirit Shelter and rested for a while.
Walking around nonstop for four hours had exhausted me.
Fire, on the other hand—
-Waaah! Waaah!
[Fire(EX) plays with the fog.]
[Fire(EX) runs around wildly in delight.]
He was pure, inexhaustible energy.
Even a Border Collie probably did not have that much stamina.
After resting for an hour, my stamina was full again.
I left the Spirit Shelter and called for Fire.
Normally, he would come back on his own after I called him a few times.
"How far did he go?"
I was not worried.
He was the King of Fire Spirits, after all.
[Fire(EX) looks curiously at the target right in front of him!]
[Fire(EX) smacks his lips and prepares a carefully controlled Hellfire!]
Judging by the System messages, he seemed to be having fun.
But what had he found?
If it was interesting enough to catch his attention, it was probably not an ordinary monster like a Specter.
I had heard that unusual monsters occasionally appeared inside the Haunted House.
I did not have to wonder for long.
[Fire(EX)'s possessed skill, 'Hellfire(EX),' activates.]
KABOOM!
ROAR!
[Hidden Monster, Naturally Evolved Specter, has been defeated!]
[Naturally Evolved Specter: 1/1]
[Item, Yin Energy Orb(B), acquired!]
<Yin Energy Orb(B)>
Description: Upon consumption, the body is filled with pure Mana composed of Yin Energy. All stats increase, and skills are also affected.
[You have successfully defeated the Hidden Monster, Naturally Evolved Specter!]
[One ability from the defeated Hidden Monster, Naturally Evolved Specter, will be transplanted into the Spirit Shelter!]
[False Fullness(C+) Lv. 1]
<False Fullness(C+) Lv. 1>
Description: Once per week, 500,000 Hunger can be restored.
"Hm? A Hidden Monster?!"
A laugh escaped me.
How had he even found something like that?
He was basically an automatic hunting system.
Whenever we came to places like this, it might be better to simply let him run loose.
It did not seem urgent, so I immediately tried using the new buff.
[Buff, 'False Fullness(C+) Lv. 1,' activates!]
[Fire(EX)'s Hunger increases by 500,000.]
[Buff, 'False Fullness(C+) Lv. 1,' can be used again in 168 hours.]
"Ahhh, 500,000!"
Would it restore even more once I leveled it up?
I could check the Item after finding Fire.
Thanks to Hellfire, locating him was easy.
A vast underground cavern with its ceiling completely open.
Traces of Hellfire covered the entire place.
And among the countless dark crimson flames, Fire stood out more than anything else.
I approached, intending to praise him.
But Fire was staring at something.
With an expression of sheer disbelief.
Only then did I notice the person standing there.
The protective equipment made it difficult to see who they were, but their voice came through loud and clear.
"Ohhh! My God! The God of Fire has descended!"
"……."
-Waaah.
[Fire(EX) repeatedly lets out incredulous laughs.]