A short while later, I led the survivors I had encountered inside the dungeon toward the hill the fairies had pointed out.
Along the way, the raiding party at least exchanged the most basic introductions. Before leaving the festival grounds, we had also asked the fairies for a little more information that might help with our search.
– Do you know where the other hunters who came here a few days ago went?
When we asked about the whereabouts of the Treasure Hunter team, the fairies in the square answered like this.
– Just like you said, other guests did come here.
– That's right.
– They went to the house on the hill we told you about too! We don't know what happened after that.
So both clearing the dungeon and rescuing the missing advance party seemed to depend on meeting this 'Apa' entity...
While I sorted through my thoughts, I could hear the people behind me talking.
"B, by the way, I'm really glad Hunter Kim Giryeo is here. Even if you ended up here by accident, you're still an S-rank."
"Right?"
"Wouldn't that mean we'll somehow be okay?"
They seemed greatly reassured simply by my presence.
Seonwoo Yeon, however, knew the truth about EX-rank gates, and her expression remained grim throughout the walk.
Gates like this didn't usually have clearly defined ranks. On top of that, she had personally witnessed the moment when a fairy revealed its true form and its magical power abruptly surged beyond measurable limits.
'If I imagine the worst-case scenario from their perspective, there could even be a section that requires sacrifices, like the one in [White Maze].'
I said nothing and continued leading the way.
Meanwhile, the voices behind me kept drifting through the air.
"But now that I think about it, how are the fairies here even able to communicate with us?"
'Let's be careful.'
Today, keeping my mouth shut was important.
I needed to conceal my identity and avoid exposing the fact that I was an alien.
With that thought in mind, I carefully surveyed my surroundings.
Then I spotted the large tree the fairies in the square had mentioned.
More precisely, it was a small plant that barely reached the height of a human shin.
'Well, I suppose that's big enough for a fairy.'
I bent my knees and examined the little hut nestled beneath the tree's shade.
Through its window, I could see a tiny silhouette moving busily inside.
So, what now?
Should I call out to the owner first?
Knock knock knock.
"Heuk!"
I lightly knocked on the door of the hut.
The survivors, still deeply shaken by their brutal encounter with the fairies, flinched at my actions.
Fortunately, nothing happened that justified their alarm.
Kieeek.
A moment later, the door creaked open a fraction, and the owner of the hut cautiously greeted us.
"Who, who are you...?"
A timid voice.
A subdued demeanor.
The newly emerged fairy had an oddly uneasy appearance, but I immediately noticed the culprit.
'Ah. It doesn't have wings.'
So Apa, the being the creatures in the square had mentioned, was a wingless fairy.
"Are you the guests who came to the kingdom?"
But apparently, its ability to fly was perfectly intact.
Prrrr.
The fairy drifted out through the doorway and hovered around the height of my shoulder.
I followed it with my eyes as I spoke.
"That's right. But if it's all right, could you tell us where the guests who came before us are now?"
The association employees standing uneasily behind me had entered this place with the duty of locating the dungeon's missing survivors.
So, on Seonwoo Yeon's behalf, I asked about the Treasure Hunter team that had arrived here before us.
"Guests? What guests? I don't know."
Oh my.
That wasn't the answer I had expected.
"The ones in the plaza definitely said those people came here."
"Yes? No. You're my first guests. I don't understand who you're talking about."
The wingless fairy shook its round head from side to side, insisting that it had never seen humans before.
'Are you lying?'
At first, I considered the possibility that it was deceiving us.
Surprisingly, however, that seemed unlikely.
These cognitive entities appeared to have a rather poor grasp of the concept of 'deception.'
If anything, they were more straightforward than we were.
Even inside dungeons, the rules presented to challengers were generally truthful, despite the occasional discrepancy.
'Is this some kind of design flaw?'
I considered several other possibilities.
But regardless of the explanation, I had no way of locating the advance party right now.
Even after Seonwoo Yeon's attempts to track them, they were nowhere to be found.
Perhaps the fairies had already taken them somewhere else.
In that case, there was no point wasting more time on the matter for now.
"Then do you know how we can get out of here?"
I finally brought up the real issue.
"How to get out of here?"
Fortunately, communication posed no problem.
The fairy understood my question and answered smoothly.
"If you're looking for a way out of the kingdom... I do know something. But I can't simply tell you."
"Then?"
"If you grant me one wish, I'll show you the way."
At the fairy's proposal, I shifted my facial muscles slightly.
In other words, I frowned.
"A wish? What kind?"
"I can't tell you until you promise to grant it."
"No, but I need to know what you're asking first..."
"I can't tell you until you promise to grant it."
I hadn't expected an artificial creature like this to come equipped with such an irritating condition.
I had no idea what it might ask of us, and yet we were expected to agree before hearing the details.
Unsettling.
"Hmm."
But we didn't have much of a choice.
We needed to clear the dungeon and escape as quickly as possible.
And aside from following the wingless fairy's instructions, there didn't seem to be anything else worth trying.
"What should we do?"
After a brief discussion, we decided to grant the fairy's wish.
The decision was unanimous.
"Really? You'll really grant it? You promise?"
But what the fairy wanted was...
"Then... would you please play with me for just ten minutes?"
That was it?
For a moment, all of us were speechless.
Meanwhile, the round little creature fluttered happily around us, chattering with obvious excitement.
"I don't have any friends! I've always been alone. So I want you to play tag with me!"
"Tag?"
"That's my wish!"
At first glance, it sounded like an extremely simple request.
But...
There was one serious problem.
This species of fairy had already killed a hunter over a balloon game.
"The rules of tag are simple. One person becomes 'it' and tries to catch everyone else. If 'it' catches you, then you become the next 'it'!"
"That's it?"
"And we'll keep passing the role of 'it' from one person to another. When the ten minutes are over, whoever is 'it' at that moment will receive a 'penalty,' and then the game ends."
I take back what I just said.
As expected, the wingless fairy had just announced the one thing everyone had been dreading.
Hiiik, a penalty!
Most of the people here already knew exactly what a 'fairy-style penalty' meant.
'The loser gets their head torn off and dies, right?'
In other words, this was ten straight minutes of torment in which we would be forced to pass around a bomb that killed whoever was holding it when time ran out.
But something about that bothered me.
This feeding ground was clearly a trap created by spirit constructs with unusually selective appetites.
They weren't supposed to be particularly interested in human death or suffering.
'So they deliberately inserted a guaranteed casualty into the mandatory route for clearing the dungeon?'
That contradicted my expectations.
My body instinctively tensed, a complete reversal from the confidence I'd felt when I first agreed to grant the wish.
But now that we'd made the promise, there was no backing out.
"You have ten minutes left!"
The dungeon resident immediately announced the start of the game.
Blink!
A brilliant light suddenly burst at the edge of my vision.
I turned toward it and saw that one of the survivors had changed.
A man in his thirties now had an exquisitely formed ring of light circling his shoulders.
"By the way, that's the marker showing who's 'it.' If it touches another person's body, it'll automatically transfer to them."
Apparently, that was how it worked.
The fairy's eyes, glowing in a maple-like shade reminiscent of expensive topaz, narrowed with delight as it opened its mouth in a broad laugh.
The response that came from the chosen hunter was far less cheerful.
"W, what is this?! Why am I the one who's 'it'?"
"The first person is chosen at random."
"F*ck! No, I mean, why the hell are you deciding something like that on your own...!"
"Anyway, it doesn't matter who starts. The important part is who's 'it' at the end, right?"
Faced with an immediate threat to their lives, the adventurers quickly forgot their fear of the fairies and began swearing instead.
Of course they did.
That shining ring was practically a death sentence made visible.
Who could possibly be happy to receive it?
Slowly.
Now that everyone understood the situation, the rest of the group began cautiously backing away from the man who had been chosen as 'it.'
Only moments ago, they had all been huddled together, depending on one another as comrades trapped inside the same gate...
"Keurukk!"
The wingless fairy made a strange sound somewhere between a snicker and a laugh as it watched us scatter.
Its piercing, almost ripping laughter sounded eerily similar to that of the fairies in the plaza.
"This, this f*cking monster..."
But then the hunter selected as 'it' began circulating mana through his body.
The fairy had clearly asked us to play tag 'with me.'
Which meant that the same rules should apply to it as well.
'Right. Now that I think about it, there's no reason for us to turn on each other!'
Bam!
The first person chosen as 'it' happened to be a C-rank association employee.
C-rank.
Someone like that might die instantly from the deadly venom of [Hydra], but compared with an ordinary human being, they were still close to superhuman.
The C-rank hunter waited for the fairy to drift lower.
The instant an opening appeared, he pushed off the ground and exploded forward, using the momentum to close the distance before reaching for the fairy's torso.
It happened in an instant.
The analysts here probably didn't even register the movement.
Even I missed most of it because I happened to blink.
"Ugh!"
Blink.
A faint flash of light.
By the time my vision cleared, the fairy was already hovering high in the air far away.
"W, what..."
"Gyah! This is fun! This is fun!"
The hunter who had failed to catch it stared in confusion, unable to understand what had happened.
But that single exchange crushed the last remaining sliver of hope in my heart.
'D, damn it. Why the hell did they give the fairy the [Blink] spell...?!'
What the fairy had just used was short-range teleportation.
And as long as our opponent possessed that ability, half-baked magicians like us had virtually no chance of catching it.
'We can't catch that thing. Forget us—even Jung Haseong would struggle without equipment!'
This is driving me insane.
The C-rank hunter, who had no way of understanding the true nature of the spell, continued desperately trying to catch the fairy.
But no matter how many times he lunged, the result was always the same.
Prrrr.
The fairy smiled brightly, refusing even once to accept the role of 'it.'
The loser of this game could only be one of the humans.
Eventually, the mark would have to pass among us.
'This gate really is horribly designed.'
Anyway...
Once I regain my power, I'm definitely wiping these damn creatures out for good...
Ignoring the chaos unfolding around me, I lifted my gaze toward the ceiling of the otherworldly space for a moment.
It was my habitual method of escaping reality.
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