"Huh?"
<Wow. The dragon's finally here.>
The blood drained swiftly from my face.
A dragon, you say? Me? Here? I only just learned how to use the Ogham skill? And I've only used it once? And it's a skill that takes about 20 hours to trigger?
"Titania! My skill, skill level! Quick!"
<All of a sudden?>
「Class: Archmage (Druid)
Exclusive Skill: Ogham (1 Lv.)
Onn (51%), Beithe (0%), Luis (0%), Fern (0%), Saille (0%), Nion (0%)...... 」
A list of Ogham skills streamed out, but all at 0 percent. The only one that had hit 51 percent was the 'Onn' I'd used to buff Erman. And that was a junk skill that slightly raises a designated target's luck.
At this stage there was only one way to activate a skill. As I'd done for Erman, carving an Ogham script into an item so the effect applied to whoever held that object. A buff skill close to a kind of talisman.
The problem was that I had to carve the Ogham script into objects one by one to activate them. It was such a hassle to make them that so far I didn't even know what letters other than 'Onn' did.
Is there even an attack skill in here? More importantly, the skill level's only 1. I thought I was an Archmage?
"Are you telling me to go out and die? How am I supposed to do a quest like this?! You call me an Archmage, but all I actually do is whittle wood and grant buffs! If that's all it is, I'd have picked woodworker. Why on earth would I play an Archmage?!"
<Druid magic is just like that.>
"Even so! What if a dragon eats me like this? I've lowered my pain sense, so now it's 'cut open my belly and be done with it'?!"
<If you die like that, you'd go back to where you last saved......? Isn't that pretty okay, if you think of it as resurrection?>
"Having no pain and dying are different, I'm telling you!"
As I tore at my hair in agony, Titania pulled at my hand with both of hers.
<Calm down, Albion! Calm down! You don't have to do the quest all by yourself, you know that, right?>
"What do you mean?"
<Exactly what I said. If a quest has no special conditions, you can go with any number of people. How about taking a brave knight or a veteran spearman to defeat the dragon? Then the difficulty will get way easier!>
"You...... do you really think I have the connections to bring people like that in?"
Let's look at this objectively.
Erman is being ostracized in the castle. I'm his commoner attendant, and no one, servant or attendant, will treat me properly.
What Titania just suggested is on par with telling a new hire, 'If you can't make the bidding PPT, how about asking the CEO to do it for you?'
Titania fell silent.
<Hmm.>
"Don't shove impossible paths at me, just shut up. Let me think."
Barely swallowing a sigh, I swept up my bangs.
No matter how much I struggled, I had to do the quest. There was only one option I could choose right now.
That was casting Ogham buffs on myself over and over and training on my own. But what level would I need to be to defeat a dragon? Level 3? Level 4? On top of that I had to check how the Ogham level was even calculated.
If the Ogham level was calculated by totaling the experience of each letter skill, I'd literally have to grind, and if not, I'd have to find out what the most efficient way was. On top of that I'd also have to sort the skills into attack, buff and defense types.
My shoulders grew heavy at the hard labor that would go on for days, but there was no other way. This really is a trash game like no other.
***
Erman knew that Albion had recently been sneaking out every night.
It began on a night when, tossing and turning unable to sleep, he'd heard a faint creaking from the corridor. In a corridor neither guards nor attendants came to, only Albion could make such light footsteps.
So one day, after hearing the sound of Albion's nightly outings for over a week, he got quietly out of bed, curious. There was no particular reason.
He and Albion were friends who went beyond status...... and he also wondered if Albion had gotten caught up in something bad. If so, he would have to stop it.
The boy put on the wooden necklace Albion had clumsily carved for him and slipped out of the bedchamber.
The court at night was cold and quiet. It was his first time sneaking out at night, so Erman, somehow tense, clutched the necklace and walked carefully. He went down the stairs, passed the backyard where he received sword training, and went out to the garden no one visited. Among the withered grass and trees, ivory hair shining faintly in the moonlight was swaying.
Ah. This time I shouldn't creep up without a sound and startle him. Thinking that, Erman was about to clear his throat softly when.
"-This should do it. Hey, check my skill level. Open the window."
He looked around.
There was no one nearby. And yet Albion was scowling at empty air. Just as if there were something there.
"Still 75 percent. The higher the level, the harder it gets to build up experience, huh. ......What? I didn't ask you for a shortcut route, okay? ......Forget it, starting again from Idad. Record it properly this time."
Erman covered his mouth before he knew it and hid behind the wall. Even then, the far-off Albion kept scribbling something on hard mud and muttering.
Is he talking to himself right now? Or is Albion one of those mediums I've only heard about? Or is he someone like the astrologer at His Majesty's side? Erman was rolling his eyes in confusion when.
"I'm going in to rest for today. ......What do you mean, already? Can't you see my stats? I need some Vitality to get out there or train more, don't I? This fucking shitty thing, I've got to do something about it at the Chipping Market."
At that moment Erman held his breath. He barely even heard the part about Vitality. Only one fact was lodged in Erman's head right now.
That his only friend, Albion, was trying to leave the castle where he was.
***
Saturday morning, getting up after quitting the game.
The good thing about being demoted to a newly created department was that days off weren't set separately. And the bad thing was that if anything blew up, I, the only department member and only reporter, had to handle everything.
After I processed and posted the press releases that had come into my work inbox— surely tossed over by the Online News Team— over 30 minutes had easily passed.
On the phone was also a message from Hwang Hyeon-seok I hadn't checked yesterday because of the game.
[Jae-won, you asleep?]
[I got the tipster's contact, but I think you should be a bit careful. From what I hear, they seem like a hard person to reach in a lot of ways.]
[010-XXXX-XXXX]
[Let me know if you need anything else.]
Good. With the contact in hand, the rice was practically cooked.
All that's left is to contact them, put the information together, and if it comes to that, work out the missing-report dates and go poke around at the local police station. Of course, I'm not a society desk reporter now, so it pricks my conscience a little......
So what? I still have my business cards from my Online News Team reporter days, so I can use those.
With that thought, I sent the tipster a message. There was nothing much in it. Something like, 'This is Seo Jae-won, the reporter at Proin News now handling your tip. I'm contacting you because I have some questions about what you sent in. Please let me know a time when you're available to talk. Thank you.'
But less than 10 seconds after I sent the text, a call came, and I answered right away in a daze.
"Yes, Proin News, Seo Jae-won......"
-Hello. Is this the reporter? Proin News, Reporter Seo Jae-won. Is that right?
It was a voice that sounded like it was whispering right next to my ear. Cautious, to put it kindly, and to put it unkindly, a voice like an insect's thin wings rubbing together.
"That's right. I'm—"
-No. Don't speak. The phone is tapped, and so is my home. Maybe your home too, Reporter. Speak quietly. No, no. Rather, don't speak. Phones are dangerous. Cell phones too. So I'll tell you in person somewhere safe.
"Excuse me?"
-Tomorrow at twelve. Let's meet at Seoul Station Plaza. At twelve. Goodbye.
Click.
The call cut off without any warning. I stared at the black phone screen, then turned it this way and that.
Tapped? My home? My phone? It's dangerous, so let's meet tomorrow and talk?
......Who on earth is this person?
***
<Albion, you've got that look again. What are you thinking about?>
Yeah. About logging out of this game.
As usual, I logged into the game out of habit today after work. Looking at the Ogham script skills filling the view before me, a sigh rose from the pit of my belly.
"Just put up the Ogham skill."
「Class: Archmage (Druid)
Exclusive Skill: Ogham (3 Lv.)
Onn (51%), Beithe (89%), Luis (35%), Fern (49%), Saille (98%), Nion (36%)......」
Buff effects granted by carving mud tablets all week, by the game world's reckoning. I'd scattered them around the castle here and there without anyone noticing to grant buffs, but even so, each skill was used at a different frequency, so the accumulated experience differed.
For example, the mud tablet carved with the Saille letter, symbolizing healing, I'd slipped onto a corner of the infirmary near the knights' training ground, and perhaps because many people used the infirmary, they all got the healing buff and the experience came in well.
On the other hand, Ceirt, symbolizing love, had no use, so its accumulated experience converged to 0.
"Overall, the frequently used ones are healing or protection types, and the rarely used ones are letters for special situations or attack types."
<Maybe that's because the castle's peaceful? If you go out, you might meet bad people and fight them, hi-ya, hi-ya?>
"If we meet robbers, maybe. But it's magic that takes twenty hours to trigger. I'd die before the robber fell."
<Aw, you won't feel any pain when you die anyway. You can just load again, so don't worry too much!>
"Are you crazy? I just don't like dying, dying itself."
Forget it. What am I going to do, persuading an AI?
When I stood up after squatting, my back was stiff. On the ground only traces of the Ogham script I'd written and erased remained. I stomped out the letters glimmering faintly under the moonlight.
"Still, my Ogham level's 3, so the dragon won't just eat me. I'll have to leave tomorrow."
<Really? Wow, an adventure! How exciting! You're going alone? Will you be okay? Even I can't tell you the difficulty, you know?>
"Forget it. If it comes to that."
I hate saying this. I squeezed my eyes shut and spat it out.
"......Like you said, I can reload the save file. Even so, charging in blindly is a no, even over my dead body. I'm going to raise my level whenever I can on the way too. At the very least I'll get to level 5 before I go see any dragon."
<Good idea, catch robbers too— catch wild boars too— and raise your experience while you're at it! So good, can't wait, how exciting! Adventure's the best!>
Titania turned somersaults in the air, giggling.
Right. Have all the fun you want. Just look at her at ease because, being an AI, she won't die. I brushed off my knees and, with the damned little fairy, left the spot thick with nothing but withered plants.
With neither skill training nor the quest going easily, could the one relief be that leaving the castle seemed less hard than I'd thought?
Carts and wagons of unknown purpose came and went from the castle a couple of times a day, and when the guards saw a coachman with a familiar face, they tended to just let him through without even asking where he was going.
So, if I could only sneak into one, I'd be delivered outside the castle all on my own, is what I'm saying.
I waited about two more days, trying to grasp the castle's regular routine, and after that I gauged a suitable moment, guessing which cart would leave when.
Even wandering around like that all the time, nobody took any interest in me. I'll say it again, being the role everyone ignores is the best.
And at last, the night of the decisive battle.
I stayed up all night without sleeping in the small storeroom given to the prince's attendant, then slipped out just before dawn.
The guards who patrolled the whole castle from the courtyard on must have been changing shifts right about then. I kept quiet, holding my breath, and as soon as they ambled out of sight, I climbed into the empty cart I'd marked.
It creaked a little, but more or less a success. Once I'd somehow settled under the cover, Titania clapped beside my ear and had the time of her life.
<I've never done anything like this! It's fun! Let's do it again!>
"That's because you've got no worries about getting caught. Now shut your mouth."
I listened closely. Waiting a moment, I heard the footsteps of yawning servants grumbling on their way to fetch water and the sound of the returning new guards' spears tapping the ground. The signs of a castle that had slept all night slowly waking. And.
"Albion, do I just wait like this?"
"Yeah. Empty carts all go outside, so this one will definitely go out too when the castle gate opens. So please keep quiet......"
Hold on.
Who is this?
Like a scene from a horror movie, my head turned with a creak. Of course, what was there wasn't some ghost with disheveled hair, but a child with innocently blinking blue eyes.
"-Erman!"
Why are you here?!