I Gave Up Being Stronger

Cha Jin-Hyeok understood what Furface wanted to say. “I know. It looks a bit dangerous.”

“What do you mean you know? It doesn’t just look a bit dangerous; it looks extremely dangerous!” Furface exclaimed.

Furface had realized it the moment he saw this space. The reason that Navigators had not pioneered this path wasn’t that they were unaware of it. It was something else.

“It seems Navigators didn’t pioneer this path because it was too dangerous,” Furface said. He wanted to mention the lightning from earlier but couldn’t. After all, the person who had been struck by lightning had described it as only slightly stinging, so Furface didn’t have much to say. “That faint white light seems to be the path, Chul-Soo.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t give me helpful advice?” Jin-Hyeok replied.

“I’m giving you advice because that place looks too dangerous.”

The moment one strayed even slightly from that path of white light, they would turn to dust. That was how ferocious this space was.

“I told you, Furface. This place can be cleared if you have exceptional physical abilities,” Jin-Hyeok said.

Furface’s face slightly reddened. No matter how he thought of it, that sounded insulting.

“What do you mean?”

“If your physical abilities are exceptional, getting hit by lightning isn’t much of a problem.”

“You must have naturally high lightning resistance. You should be thankful for how lucky you are.”

“Nope. It’s my poison resistance that is strong.”

“Are you mocking me for having low intelligence?”

“I am not. I swear on my honor as an Eltuber. When poison resistance reaches a certain level, lightning resistance also increases.”

Furface fell silent. He was confused because Jin-Hyeok was speaking with such a serious expression. It made Furface wonder whether that was true. “Chul-Soo, I advise you to retreat from here. I’ve watched your back until now, but not from here on. This is unknown territory even for me.”

“You’re not excited about pioneering this place?”

“Don’t treat me like a fool!” No one in their right mind would be excited about such a path. “I’m going back. You should turn back too at this point.”

Furface tried to turn around and leave, but the stone wall that Jin-Hyeok had pushed earlier had returned to its original position. He didn’t panic and tried to push the stone wall, but it didn’t budge at all.

“Hey, Chul-Soo. I think we’re trapped here,” he said.

“What are you talking about?”

“We’ve fallen into a perfect trap.”

Jin-Hyeok sighed. It seemed like Furface had stayed in this Dungeon for so long that his perspective had become quite narrow. ‘He must have become too familiar with this Dungeon that he can’t think outside the box. That’s why he’s panicking at even the slightest development.’

Jin-Hyeok extended his right hand and easily pushed the wall aside, revealing the safe space where they were before. “See? No need to panic.”

“What the hell…?”

“You must not have used your strength properly because you were panicking.”

‘No… I pushed with all my might!’ The orangutan Beastkin, who was confident that his brute strength was second to none even if his intelligence was a bit lacking, was baffled.

***

Furface bit his lip. ‘I can’t run away by myself!’

He could not leave a newcomer who had just entered the Dungeon today to die on a strange path. For ten years, what had kept Furface’s sanity intact was his value as the most important personnel and leader of the first checkpoint. Abandoning Chul-Soo here would shake that foundation to its core.

“Chul-Soo, I will have to beat you up if that’s what it takes to drag you back to safety…”

Although Furface said that, he failed to do it. Somehow, Jin-Hyeok had already approached and grabbed him by the nape of his neck. Furface tried to struggle, but could not move an inch.

“Are you… a master of binding magic?” Furface asked.

“No. I just grabbed your nape.”

“Sure. I suppose you don’t need to tell me about your hidden abilities.”

“No, I’m serious. It looks dangerous for you to cross this path with your strength, so I’m going to carry you across.”

Jin-Hyeok lifted Furface with his right hand and walked along the path of white light. Though he was just walking, Furface felt his life was in danger. It was as if invisible wind blades were dancing around him. If he moved even slightly wrong, he would shatter into dust.

Fearing for his life, Furface froze like a statue; in contrast, Jin-Hyeok seemed relaxed.

“This space is dominated by a powerful magic field. It’s designed to transform into all kinds of magic to attack people. Like this,” Jin-Hyeok said as he stretched out his left hand. Suddenly, the head of the White Snake King appeared out of thin air and bit Jin-Hyeok’s hand with a snap. “What’s surprising is that the poison feels quite similar to that of the real White Snake King.”

Furface thought Jin-Hyeok was bluffing, but he quickly changed his mind. ‘I feel nauseous!’

He had not directly been poisoned; it was just that a small part of the poison’s scent that had seeped into Jin-Hyeok had reached Furface’s nose. Even that was enough for the Beastkin to feel severe symptoms of poisoning.

Jin-Hyeok continued walking for several minutes. Furface was terrified as if he were on a hellish roller coaster, but no significant danger befell him.

“I can see light over there. It seems we have found the quickest shortcut,” Jin-Hyeok said.

***

Jin-Hyeok strode toward the light. Up close, it appeared to be a large door made of light.

“It looks like holy magic, but…” Jin-Hyeok said.

The terrified Furface covered his eyes with his hands. He felt an immense wave of mana. Walking toward that place was akin to walking to one’s faith. Furface was already exhausted to his limits, so he was too mentally broken to even resist.

‘I’m going to die!’ Furface thought. ‘Perhaps it’s for the best. Dying like this will be easier. I won’t have to live like the ghost of the first checkpoint anymore! In death, I can eat all the bananas I want!’

Furface squeezed his eyes shut.

“Furface, we have arrived at the Riddle Sphinx,” Jin-Hyeok said.

Surprisingly, nothing happened. As a ten-year veteran, Furface was able to regain his senses relatively quickly. He could see the Sphinx staring at them with piercing eyes in the distance. This was a very familiar space to him. It was Riddle Sphinx Field, the mid-boss room.

“We really arrived there,” Furface said.

“Do you understand what I meant now?”

“What you meant?”

“I told you that if your physical abilities are exceptional, you can pass through this place easily.”

“Ah… that!” Furface finally came to his senses. “That doesn’t apply here, Chul-Soo!”

The Sphinx’s riddles and illusions could not be overcome with physical abilities alone. Although he had panicked because of a strange path that he had not encountered in ten years, things were different now. He knew from his ten years of experience that physical abilities alone could never get someone past this place.

“The boss monster is going to approach us soon. It likes to use teleportation magic too,” Furface said.

As soon as he said that, the Sphinx’s eyes glowed red. It instantly closed the distance between them, appearing before Jin-Hyeok. The Sphinx’s question rang out.

“What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”

Befitting the mid-boss of the worst Dungeon in the universe, its voice was filled with majestic mana.

“Don’t think about it, Chul-Soo!”

The act of answering that question itself would draw one into the illusion. It was an illusion that exploited human weaknesses to destroy the mind. The best method to tackle it was to not engage with the illusion at all. If one could endure for a long time without falling into the illusion, the Sphinx would lose interest and return to its original place. Then they could move on to the next checkpoint without harm.

“It’s an animal that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“...”

The Sphinx stared at Jin-Hyeok with glowing red eyes. At first, that gaze was incredibly intense, but it changed slightly as time passed. Furface felt the Sphinx’s gaze become somewhat gentle. Even as a ten-year veteran, this was the first time he had experienced such a weak gaze.

“E-Excellent! That’s correct!”

“?!” Furface looked at the Sphinx with a bewildered expression. In the past ten years and even throughout the Dungeon’s long history, something like this had never happened.

“Phew, that was lucky. So, will you open the path?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

“What if I don’t?”

For a moment, Jin-Hyeok’s eyes met with the Sphinx’s. Startled, the Sphinx quickly teleported far away and waved its front paws widely to the sides.

“No, I didn’t mean I wouldn’t let you pass. I was just curious!”

“Ah, I see.” Jin-Hyeok quietly put Miri back into his inventory. “I would have destroyed you if you didn’t let us pass.”

Miri licked her figurative lips.

-Tsk! I was so close.

***

Furface remained tense until the very last moment. This Riddle Sphinx was a capricious creature. Sometimes, it would declare an answer correct, and sometimes, it would say that the same answer was wrong. Depending on its mood, it would torment Players for a long or short time.

‘I’ve never seen the Sphinx do this before!’ Furface thought. He needed to keep his wits about him. ‘Ah, perhaps I have already fallen victim to the illusion.’

Furface could finally make sense of the situation. It seemed he had succumbed to the illusion. ‘My desire to pass through this place must have been too strong.’

Because of that, he had unconsciously fallen into the illusion. Still, it was fortunate that he had become aware it was an illusion. Since he was aware of it, the chances of breaking free from the illusion increased greatly.

“I told you,” Jin-Hyeok said to him.

Furface did not respond. After all, this Chul-Soo was probably part of the illusion.

‘Is Chul-Soo the core of this illusion?’ There were many types of illusion cores, but the entity communicating most directly at close range was likely to be the core. ‘I need to destroy it.’

Furface, who had fallen victim to illusions several times before, immediately clenched his fist and lunged at Jin-Hyeok. He swung his fist. “I will not be devoured by some illusion, Sphinx!”

Bang!

A loud sound rang out, though it didn’t come from Chul-Soo’s head, but from Furface’s.

“Are you coming to your senses now?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

“Ugh…!” Having barely regained consciousness, Furface struggled to his feet. “I think I fell victim to the Sphinx’s illusion.”

“Hm?”

“My head feels like it’s about to split open. This must be one of the side effects of illusion magic.”

“Is…is that so?” Jin-Hyeok thought it was very fortunate that Furface was alive. ‘I almost killed him by mistake…’

Believing rumors about orangutan Beastkin having quite sturdy physical attributes, Jin-Hyeok had hit him a bit harder than usual, but the rumors turned out to be all lies. If he had not quickly fed Furface a Chul-Soo Potion, the Beastkin would have certainly died.

“Fortunately, I noticed that I was inside the illusion and was able to escape. That Sphinx is a vicious one. It implemented your appearance as the core of the illusion.” Furface clutched his throbbing head. Today, he had an especially terrible migraine around his temples. It felt as if someone had hit him in the head with a blunt object.

Jin-Hyeok handed him another bottle of Chul-Soo Potion and comforted him. “I didn’t know the Sphinx’s illusion could be that vicious. I’m glad you’re safe. And thanks to you, we were able to pass through the first checkpoint.”

Tears welled up in Furface’s large eyes. He clenched his fist and distanced himself from Jin-Hyeok, yelling, “I’m still in the illusion! Damn it!”