A square-shaped building.
A broad hot spring placed in the location corresponding to the hole in the middle of the square.
The building’s structure and the nature of the bath were similar to the Southern Volter Mountain Hot Spring.
Except for one thing.
There was only one bath.
“Is it because it is mixed bathing? It really is not popular.”
Unlike the Southern Volter Mountain Hot Spring, where the men’s bath and women’s bath were divided, the Eastern Volter Mountain Hot Spring had no wooden fence set up as a partition.
Across a site spanning dozens of square meters, a single hot spring lay spread out all by itself.
I was the only guest.
Honestly, being alone was more comfortable.
Since Luna was with me, I had no reason to expect any separate feast for the eyes, and on the other hand, I had no desire to be in the position of being a feast for someone else’s eyes.
It would be better to soak quietly for ten minutes and slip out.
I washed briefly, entered the bath, and monopolized the wide hot spring.
“Yes, this is better. Rather than worrying about seeing or being seen, it is easier on the mind not to have to worry at all.”
Thinking it over by myself, I wondered why I had even been worrying.
There were bathing garments, so in practice, this was no different from soaking in a warm swimming pool.
When I placed my body in the bath, I heard the sound of my Travel Reward Fund increasing.
-Arrived at Eastern Volter Mountain Hot Spring.
-Omoreo Region Exploration Rate increased to 40 percent.
-2,000,000 won has been added to the Travel Reward Fund.
-Current accumulated fund: 20,000,000 won.
Before I knew it, I had already surpassed 20,000,000 won.
How much would be gathered by the time this journey ended?
If I followed my heart, at least... no, let’s not imagine it.
The moment I decided to gather more than a certain amount, this journey would stop being a trip and become work.
If I simply lived as my heart led, without losing motivation, the result would be decided before I knew it.
The moment to return would come on its own as I spent my time, and until then, I only needed to enjoy every moment the fund drew an upward curve.
By the way, a warm swimming pool.
It was wide, and the depth was just right too......
Just as I was about to bring my hands together and thrust them forward, a callused foot appeared right beside me and invaded the bath.
At the same time, a playful warning came flying in.
“Did the notice not say swimming is prohibited?”
The person who entered was Grenda.
My eyes instinctively swept from Grenda’s ankles all the way up to her head.
The loose-fitting activity clothes she had been wearing since our first meeting were nowhere to be seen, and she had a thick white robe draped over her.
It was the same outfit as mine, but the line of her body was as different as heaven and earth.
Was it because her muscles were plainly revealed?
I had known she was taller than me, but now that she was dressed in something that revealed her outline, I realized anew just how large her build was.
Her overwhelming physicality was not limited to height.
Her thickly swollen upper body, thighs where the separation of muscle was clear, her distinct core, and shoulder blades that protruded like wings.
Rather than feeling as if I were looking at a body, it felt as if I were looking at a sculpture with artistic value.
Because I was late in withdrawing my gaze, my eyes met Grenda’s.
Leaving the rest of the empty space alone, Grenda deliberately sat beside me and exuded the composure of someone older.
“Are you finished admiring?”
“I saw well. It makes me reflect on how negligent I have been with my own maintenance.”
“Oh dear, that was not the kind of analysis I wanted to hear.”
“I still do not know how much I can be open with you, Ms. Grenda.”
Grenda pursed her lips into a round shape and let out a short exclamation.
“Oh~.”
Grenda stretched her legs even farther and sank her upper body deeper into the water.
Then she placed both hands one over the other on the wooden backrest installed along the bath’s edge and leaned the back of her head against them.
“It is important to test the waters until you figure out where the line is. A wise judgment.”
“Were you testing me?”
“I thought I might tease you while I was at it.”
So she would not deny testing me even if she died.
Grenda turned her body 180 degrees, changing from a position where she was lying back to one where she lay face down.
The bathing robe, soaked with water, swayed freely, revealing parts that had not been visible until now here and there.
There was something I had wanted to check from earlier, and after looking over Grenda once more, I became certain.
I threw Grenda a question.
“Those scars. Are they wounds from the war against demons?”
There were scars all over Grenda’s body where she had been cut and healed.
Some scars were long, while others were short.
One might have thought she would hide them because they were unsightly, yet she instead revealed them proudly.
Ordinary high self-esteem would not be enough for that.
Grenda stirred her legs up and down in turn, creating gentle ripples.
“I look exactly like someone who barely survived after participating in a war, do I not?”
I deliberately refrained from speaking.
“.......”
For someone who had not personally experienced it, carelessly laying out this or that impression would be presumptuous.
You know how people say if you stay still, you at least come out average.
This was that moment.
Grenda rested her chin on her horizontally folded arms and turned her gaze into the air.
As if sinking into reminiscence.
“At first, no one knew which side would win. Back then, the ones who decided victory and defeat were the dimension travelers.”
Grenda stopped speaking and changed her posture.
From lying face down, she twisted her body and leaned her back against the wooden backrest, then tilted her upper body and stared at me from close range.
“The dimension travelers at that time were truly incredible. Their presence itself was different.”
Unbothered by Grenda’s approach, I considered an appropriate answer and put it into words.
“How about me?”
“I feel nothing. There is surprisingly nothing at all. So much nothing that I wonder whether it is all right for there to be this much nothing.”
“I hope that is praise.”
“Hehe, I wonder which it is. You may be a new type of dimension traveler, or perhaps you are hiding your strength.”
“It is probably the former. It would not be strange for there to be at least one dimension traveler with nothing. That person simply happens to be me.”
“I wonder.”
Grenda approached me with an unusual feeling, then whispered thickly into my ear.
“I really am curious which one it is.”
Whether what interested her was the human being named Jo Seong-jin or the category of dimension traveler itself... If it was the former, I would gladly accept it, but if it was the latter, it was a little uncomfortable.
It felt as if she were pressuring me to prove that I was a special existence.
The burdensome situation was resolved quickly.
A callused foot invaded between me and Grenda, and a slender body split the space between us.
The person who intruded was unexpected.
“Luna? Didn’t you say you weren’t coming in?”
Luna played dumb and spoke bluntly.
“Was there ever such a time?”
Luna, can you not see the wounds left on my arms?
When Luna firmly positioned herself as if she were a barricade, Grenda moved her body away from me and put distance between us.
“I have wanted to ask for some time. What kind of relationship do you two have?”
There would be no problem saying it was a master-servant relationship, but since Luna had gone out of her way to intrude, I thought I should consider an appropriate answer in respect for her effort.
Without changing my expression at all, I spoke calmly.
“We share the same bed every night.”
Since I slept with Luna in cat form every night, it was not wrong.
Luna struck my forehead with her palm.
SMACK!
Then, in a flat tone with no rise or fall, she said.
“And he always likes it very much when I hit him like this.”
“Luna, that hurts.”
“That is what you like, isn’t it?”
Since I did like it when she hit me with her cat paws, it was not wrong.
A back-and-forth exchange of moves.
Watching the two of us getting along perfectly, Grenda smiled warmly with her eyes and slowly stood.
“If I stay here any longer, I will become an intruder. Before that happens, I will excuse myself first.”
“Ms. Grenda, are we going north tomorrow?”
“If the weather is good. Tomorrow’s schedule will be tight, so please rest well. We have to climb to an elevation of 1,000 meters tomorrow. From 700 meters and above, high-level monsters appear, so it would be best to be prepared.”
“I will be prepared, but I will not worry. Whether the monsters are strong or not, you will be with us, Ms. Grenda.”
“Oh my, have you already forgotten?”
Grenda raised her index finger and swayed it left and right like swinging a sword as she added.
“You said you wanted to use Venom Sword properly. My lessons are harsh.”
Harsh lessons, huh......
Strangely, I did not feel like complaining.
I was the one who had asked her to teach me swordsmanship while also consuming Venom Sword’s poison.
Aside from the intuitive reason that I needed to learn in order to handle Venom Sword, I had also included my own calculation that if I volunteered to learn, perhaps an experience event would occur.
My prediction hit exactly.
-Traveler Package activated.
-For the next three days, ‘Venom Sword Experience Event’ is unlocked.
-During the event period, experience points gained from successful hunts using Venom Sword increase fortyfold.
If I had to learn anyway, it was better to learn while benefiting from an event.
I was growing more and more accustomed to turning travel not into consumption, but into experience.
Immediately after Grenda disappeared, a message flew in, informing me that ten minutes had passed since I had placed my body in the bath.
[Level increased. Level has risen from 17 to 19.]
-Current remaining skill points: 6
At the same time, Luna staggered and called to me.
“Master, I think I have reached my limit.”
With the word limit as her last, Luna collapsed, plunged her face into the surface of the water, and sent bubbles bubbling up.
This happened one minute after Luna entered the bath.
To collapse from dizziness in one minute.
There was being weak to hot water, and then there was this.
Luna’s body was much lighter than it looked, so I was able to lift her easily without much effort.
I looked down at the disheveled Luna and shook my head from side to side.
“In the end, what did you even come in here to do?”
***
The next day, we left the village east of Volter Mountain and climbed the mountain.
Today’s destination was a water supply source located in the highlands northeast of Volter Mountain.
In terms of height, it was at an elevation of 1,000 meters.
The eastern village itself was located at an elevation of 500 meters, so the travel distance itself was similar to yesterday, when we had climbed from 300 meters above sea level to 700 meters above sea level.
However, the level of monsters that appeared was different.
Yesterday had been an area where level 30 to 50 monsters appeared, and today was an area where level 40 to 60 monsters appeared.
I had expected it would not be easy, but.......
“Excuse me, Ms. Grenda? I was definitely told you would teach me swordsmanship.”
Grenda spoke so slyly that it made her warm smile look meaningless.
“I told you my lessons would be harsh, did I not? This is my teaching method. Hurry and fight.”
Grenda’s lesson could not be called a lesson at all.
She taught me nothing about posture or anything else, moved silently, and the moment we encountered a monster, she suddenly told me to fight.
Using a bow was prohibited.
The only instruction Grenda gave me was to fight using nothing but Venom Sword.
I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the monster before me.
“It would only trouble me if you sought something special from me.”
The monster before me was a snake with a body as long as ten meters and a thick torso that looked to be one meter in diameter.
Its official name was Rocky Mamba.
Its level was 60.
The strongest monster in this area wriggled its body, which was covered in scales made of rock, and flicked its tongue.
As if facing prey.
In Volter Mountain terms, one could say I was being treated like a boiled egg.
How dangerous could danger really be?
Compared to the hidden exploration point, the danger level was nothing but a drop in the bucket.
Hell, let’s try it once.
When else would I ever get to do something reckless?