14. A harsh path

Dreadful vibrations echoed one after another in a darkened cave where the lava had hardened to a red hue.

Dressed in dark combat suits, the students moved forward murmuring with unease.

“Ao, stop messing around. What nonsense is this? Who would come this way after sunset?”

“Isn’t this because you fell into that suicide magic circle earlier?”

“Who’d be stupid enough to get ensnared in something like that?”

“You’re the one who almost fell, and you taunted it.”

Suddenly confronted with fact, Tae-suk was left speechless.

“You should be thanking me for saving you, ugh.”

The source of the fact was a female student belonging to Jane’s lily harem.

She looked straight at the back of Lukso, who was marching in front with Jane and Rika on either side, and shook her head.

Lukso, who wasn’t acting as mean as before, didn’t even disclose the female he saved.

‘Did he really come to his senses as rumors suggested?’

As Lukso kept changing, the students’ perception of him gradually began to shift.

Ever since a while ago, some students began to look at Tae-suk with contempt. He had been unduly provoking Lukso.

“Tsk, it’s a coincidence. No way that guy knows anything… Such a strange creature…”

Tae-suk, who was slightly overwhelmed, spat on the ground in annoyance.

Meanwhile, Lukso, who was marching at the front, was too occupied to care about such things.

‘Maybe it’s because of the spider-web of crimson and purple that’s clinging heavily to my body?’

As I moved, the resistance became stronger, like walking through an increasingly sticky fluid.

‘The blue veins are darkening, almost like I’m wearing a metallic straitjacket.’

As time went on, each movement felt heavier, as if I was encased in a growing, heavy metal shell.

I felt like I was wearing a cumbersome blue armor and hurled into a harsh world.

‘What if a strong enemy appears in this state… Ah, they already exist, don’t they?’

The Yandere heroine and the protagonist, who are antagonistic towards Lukso in the main story, exert their presence on either side, unpredictable in their actions.

“…Is this a laval sunflower now?”

Rika, with nothing but creepy dead eyes, sniped monster weak points with a battle bow made of shadows.

“How is this a surprise attack…!”

Jane, abundant with a smug valor, swung a longsword with a dark-blue hilt, slashing through monsters that sprung out unexpectedly.

Even though they were dealing with [Heart Break] level difficulties, the two were slaying monsters as easily as taking a cake out of a refrigerator.

Thanks to them, Lukso didn’t even hear the whispering voices of the slipping students. Instead, he found himself in cold sweat.

Before Lukso’s awakening, Rika and Jane protected him because he was vulnerable.

‘Those attacks could happen to me at any moment…’

From Lukso’s perspective, who had no idea about this, it was nothing short of terrifying.

While Lukso was maintaining his composure and being wary of their attacks that may come at any moment.

“Hey, is there really nothing you want to tell me?”

From noble mtl dot com

Rika unleashed a fierce grapple bombardment.

Because Jane showed so much interest in Lukso, she was showing off her relationship with him out of jealousy.

‘This sly cat-like woman.’

She moved right next to him, raising her dead eyes to interrogate him.

It felt like crossing paths with a tiger changing its clothes, making Lukso rapidly alert.

Like a chess king that can only move one square, his body was not normal.

Rika, superior in mobility and combat strength like a chess queen, clenched her fist as if to say she would burst him open like a split side of a gimbap if he didn’t answer properly.

‘I’ve been checkmated.’

The accumulating situation and the snowball effect of the possession had finally ripened and confronted him.

Moreover, because of the blue veins and purple spiderweb blocking his vision, he couldn’t even foresee the future.

‘Huuh, let’s think calmly.’

Lukso, whose cold sweat appeared naturally, managed to contain his skyrocketing pulse and sanity.

‘If I summarize what they mentioned about that promise…’

Lukso started to piece together the scarce clues about the promise.

Considering the fact that they have been taking care of him since before he changed.

There was no doubt that the childhood promise he made with Rika was manifesting itself in her continued care of him.

In the end, keeping a promise is, after all, paying the price for that promise.

Using lame excuses on the basis of promise, Loxer opened his mouth.

“… I repay my debts.”

“And you’ve been repaying your debts with your stalking habits.”

Rika huffed, like a grumpy girlfriend.

Because she didn’t get the answer she wanted, she glared at Loxer with her dead red eyes and was about to hit his side.

Yet, the presence of Jane next to them made her hold back, seemingly shocked, and Loxer appeared to have gained insight.

“You better keep that promise.”

Sounding resigned, Rika spoke like a girlfriend giving her boyfriend one last chance.

With a noise that sounded like ‘hmph!’, she stuck out her tongue, seemingly deciding to observe Loxer.

As Loxer turned the corner while sighing in relief, they emerged into a vast hallway resembling a kingdom’s corridor.

The hallway seemed open on both sides, looking more like a bridge heading somewhere.

A scenery filled with vivid signs of tumult was spread out on both sides.

‘Maybe this is what Pompeii looked like?’

A town engulfed not by pyroclastic dust of a volcanic eruption, but by lava, leaving it desolate.

The hardened lava emitted a faint red glow.

The scene felt familiar yet full of new emotions, matching what he had seen in the original work.

Loxer advanced, observing his surroundings as if he were on alert.

Next to him, Rika kept her eyes locked on Loxer, like an offended cat.

“Rika, do you by any chance like Loxer?”

Out of nowhere, Jane’s sharp question pricked Rika’s back.

Both Rika and Loxer, taken aback by Jane’s innocent question, occasionally delving into sensitive areas, were caught off guard.

‘Do those two have some deep connection?’

Jane looked at the back of their heads, seemingly interested, as they flinched.

Women tend to disregard promises from men they truly dislike.

Yet Rika she had observed seemed to always take care of Loxer.

She followed him around, even though she acted as if she disliked him.

Aside from her dead eyes, all Rika’s actions were just like a love-struck girl nursing a hurt pride.

“What are you talking about. Do you like children? Why are you suddenly showing interest?”

Rika, looking irritated, deflected the question with another one.

People tend not to speak in times of great shock, Rika looked like she was just walking away while ignoring them.

“True. He doesn’t seem like the bad person he’s rumored to be. Plus, isn’t it natural to like the person that let you become stronger?”

Jane’s words unleashed a stream of misunderstandings that left Rika flustered and momentarily stunned.

In particular, Loxer’s mind stopped completely.

While Jane thought no more of Loxer than a valuable swordsmanship book or a good refrigerator.

‘Seriously? Is this an advanced psychological warfare? Or did she really have an epiphany after my words? This is not a joke, it’s serious.’

The thought that an adversary character would say that seemed to overload his brain.

Although he did provide some revealing words about the gemstone golem, he realized something.

Still, he couldn’t figure out if it was a realization of manipulation, a method to beat Loxer, or an epiphany on how to become stronger.

‘All of this is bad for me!’

Regardless of the realization, Loxer realized that the so-called adversary character was himself.

‘Do I have to keep throwing strange questions whenever I ask? No, that genius might figure something out. Let’s keep my guard up and watch for now.’

Loxer wasn’t sure whether the adversarial state with Jane next to him had been resolved because she had a real realization.

Or was she planning something big? Nevertheless, Loxer swallowed his saliva, deciding it would be best to be cautious in either case.

As Jane cheerfully followed Loxer down the corridor, echoing footsteps came from the far corner.

“Hey, guys!!!”

A student carrying another of a big build, who was in a terrible state, ran towards them, calling out in desperation.

“Help us!!!”

From behind another incoming student, Volcano Hounds rushed in like a swarm of ants.

They barely repelled the monsters before charging them.

Rika and Jane immediately sensed this was no ordinary situation and prepared for battle.

As soon as she saw the perilous situation, Rika fired a black arrow and covered for them.

“Both of you, get down!!!”

Jane overlapped two sword strikes in an instant and sent a pale blue sword energy forming a cross.

Although they managed to scout off the rushing monsters with an explosion,

“Krrrkhhhhh-!!!”

“Kyaaahhh!!!”

“Krrr-!!!”

An enormous number of Volcano Hounds poured in from the corner like a flood.

Monsters rushing in as if a volcano had erupted and lava was pouring down.

Jane clenched her sword, having confirmed that the quick students had shielded and retreated.

Just as she was about to unleash an enormous sword energy onto the Long Sword that would sweep the whole corridor.

“No, don’t!!! Erin and the others are still fighting inside!!”

“What the hell is inside…!?”

At the words of the student who was carrying an injured student, she had no choice but to split the sword energy into many strands.

“Roksur! And you guys! You look after the injured students here!”

With those words, Jane swung the Long Sword with sword energies split into numerous forms, pushing the monsters like a whirlwind.

Rika, moving swiftly like a shadow and stabbing the monsters’ heads with shadow feathers, joined Jane, who was advancing while slaughtering monsters in an instant.

“Erin…!!”

Rika swept the corridor, moving forward even before Jane without hesitation to protect her precious friend.

“Just a few of us left and we’ll follow them!”

“So, how many including Roksur?”

“Damn, don’t count that useless bastard! Just sit here and suck your thumb!”

The students, who had seen this, immediately decided who would stay and followed Rika and Jane.

Thus the students specialized in healing and defense were left to treat the incoming students from the corner.

“…….”

Roksur silently took out a ‘Low Rank Healing Elixir’ from his inventory.

‘Once the difficulty rises, the protagonist survives but… the other kids die.’

Although his stats were too low to use it, it would be usable for a student in serious condition with his whole body burned.

As Roksur, who had applied something like an armor of bandages all over his body, approached the student with a large build.

“Ro, Roksur!? What are you doing…!”

Camille, who looked like a red rose that pre-incarnated Roksur had stalked, was startled and became wary of him.

Moreover, the malicious stalker, who always asked her, who was specialized in healing, to heal his constant emotional wounds, prevented the student who needed healing from receiving it.

No matter how the person changed, she was neither below nor above him, but it was strange for a guy holding a strange potion to approach.

Camille made a brown face and shooed him away.

She continued healing magic while heading toward the student with two injured hands.

Roksur, whose body was now barely moving, approached the head of the wounded student.

He knelt on one foot and barely lifted the head of the fallen tanker.

“What are you doi…Wait, that potion is!?”

Camille, who was making a fuss seeing the violet potion Roksur poured into the mouth of the wounded student, widened her yellow eyes.

By feeling and color alone, it was a type of elixir hard to obtain.

Elixirs were potions with good performance but hard to get.

The despicable guy who usually behaves like a dog only chasing women’s butts was giving that precious thing to the injured male student.

Roksur, seeing the student’s large wounds slowly heal and his breathing become stable with a blue! light,

left the remaining elixir as if nothing had happened and got up from his seat.

The students, including Camille, stared at Roksur with incredulous faces at the unbelievable sight.

“Ah, where are you going! Jane’s right here!”

As Camille yelled at Roku, who was walking straight ahead following the other students.

Without paying attention, Roku was looking at the status screen that appeared before his eyes.

——

◆Guiding you on the path to complete the enlightenment for the second awakening of Muwoljiche (Without Transgressing Body).

——

As Muwoljiche led, Roku thought,

‘…Whew, let’s see where this takes me.’

He took his abnormal body, not his mind, to become stronger.

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