“So, this is the dunge— EUGH— FUCK!”

Fuck this body! Why did it have to throw up after one mere teleportation?!

Wiping my mouth with my sleeve, I held in the urge to stomp down on the puke in frustration.

‘Can’t ruin these shoes just yet.’

Luckily for me, I wasn’t that humiliated since kid Ihwa was also throwing up. I approached her and patted her back, hoping that she’d just stop already.

Soon, she wiped her mouth and gave me a thumbs-up.

“Okay, now we— oh, for fuck’s sake!”

Fenris was also throwing up hard and seemed to have been doing so for several minutes already.

‘How much did he eat? Wait, is that a squirrel in his puke?’

Seemed like the snack had been having a few snacks of his own.

What was even weirder was that the squirrel started puking soon after. Then, it ran away, much to Fenris’ dismay.

“Fenris, stop. Don’t put the squirrel back into your stomach again. It’s disgusting.”

I was definitely projecting human values onto a literal wolf, but I didn’t care. After that, I knocked on Fenris’ head one time, just out of habit, and observed my surrounding.

‘A dark cave…’

I then looked behind me.

‘Not a dark cave. How surprising.’

After all, a pit full of molten lava was the furthest thing from a dark cave right now. However, it wasn’t all lava down there. There was some kind of lizard-like Monsters treading on the hot lava and using their long tongues to eat some weird bags that were half-melted into the pool of lava.

‘Well, I’m sure I don’t need to fight them.’

After all, I managed to see Status’ message before the world went black for me. Apparently, this Dungeon was called “Goblin nest,” and I just needed to find the Exit or kill enough Monsters to clear it.

“Lizards. Eating garbage.”

Unlike me, kid Ihwa’s eyes were glued to the molten pool. 

‘Now that she mentions it… are the bags supposed to be trash bags?’

Huh, weird.

With nothing to do here now, I pulled kid Ihwa by the hand away from the pit and went the other way. 

Narrow stone ceilings with rough walls made of rock,

The musky smell typical of a wet cave,

And the dark surroundings that were only illuminated by the lantern that kid Ihwa had prepared beforehand.

Almost everything was like what I’d expected ever since I stepped foot into this Dungeon.

Almost.

‘What’s up with these trashes lying on the floor?’

There was stuff strewn all over the floor. From broken pieces of ceramic to wooden spears snapped in half; this place looked more like a garbage dump than a cave that was inhabited by goblins.

While Fenris and I were walking briskly, trying our best to not touch anything, kid Ihwa was fascinated by the garbages.

“Wow, spoon. Oh, thick stick?” Kid Ihwa tilted her head in confusion as she saw an item she wasn’t familiar with. 

Just as she was about to crouch down to pick up said item, I stopped her.

“D-Don’t!” 

“...Why?”

“Just… don’t. You’ll regret it. We’re wasting enough time, let’s go.”

Kid Ihwa nodded and continued to follow me. Though, she threw occasional glances over her shoulder to watch the item more.

‘For fuck’s sake, stop glancing at the dildo! Why is a dildo here in the first place?!’

Wasn’t this supposed to be a Goblin’s nest?

It wasn’t just the appearance of the dildo that was strange. There were also several good-quality spears that I couldn’t picture some flimsy Goblins wielding. The best explanation I could give for all of this was that we weren’t the firsts to discover this Dungeon.

Most likely, someone stumbled upon this place and died, leaving behind her weapons and… questionable personal items.

As I was shivering due to the fact that a 9-year-old kid almost touched a (very likely) used dildo, Fenris suddenly sped up and turned the corner.

‘What now?’

I picked up my pace and followed him. As soon as I took the turn, I could feel cold breezes brushing against my face. The breezes seemed to have come from some kind of wooden door that was ahead of me.

‘I can see light seeping from behind the door. Is that the outside?’

Before Fenris could pounce on the door and knock it down, I grabbed him by the nape and shushed him.

“Shhh… don’t make a noise, you stupid wolf. Can’t you see that it’s suspicious?”

The wolf shook its head, proving that it was every bit as inexperienced as I thought it was. 

I looked over to kid Ihwa, hoping that I wasn’t the only one with common sense. Luckily for me, she seemed to have understood what I was saying.

“Door suspicious. Fenris, don’t go. It can be a trap.”

“That’s right.” I nodded. Summoning Kirion, I placed Fenris down and leaned against the door to try to hear the sounds from beyond it.

At first, all I could hear was the wooshing wind. But soon, I could hear the sound of laughter(?) and some unknown languages. 

‘There’s definitely someone on the other side.’

And it would be suicidal to assume that they were friendly. As such, I gestured for kid Ihwa to ready her sword while still trying to catch more sound.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the wooden door I was leaning against was too brittle and old, as—

“Wh— fuck!”

—It broke, and I fell on the other side.

Since I was inside a dark environment just moments prior, it took a bit more time for my eyes to adjust to the brightness. During that time, I could feel that I’d fallen on something soft… and extremely cold.

‘Snow…?’ I thought as some of the soft things got into my nose when I inhaled.

Then, I could feel a burst of killing intent directed toward me. Hurriedly rolling to the side, I then quickly stood up and stabbed Kirion in the direction of the killing intent.

“Kyaaaaak!”

A horrible, yet annoying screech of pain rang out as I felt Kirion making contact with something fleshy. Not caring about what it was, I continued my assault until I could feel that the thing couldn’t move anymore.

Then, my eyes finally adjusted, and I could see what it was that I killed.

Green skin, pointed ears, a big nose, and a really fucking ugly face, it was undoubtedly a Goblin.

Not just any Goblin, though, as it was wearing some kind of leather-plus-fur armor and clutching a well-made spear in its hand. Its stomach area, however, was eviscerated by my earlier attacks.

I then looked to my left. Atop the thick snow layer that piled on the ground, kid Ihwa was delivering a finishing blow to another Goblin without a shred of emotion on her face. As the red blood of the Goblin splashed onto the snow, kid Ihwa turned toward me and asked worriedly,

“A-Are you okay?”

I stabbed Kirion into the Goblin that I’d killed to feed it and shrugged.

“I’m fine. It’d be a disgrace to struggle with a mere Goblin. Are you okay, though?”

Kid Ihwa inspected her own body quickly before shaking her head. “Yes. No injuries.”

“I didn’t mean that. Does your… mind hurt?”

She tilted her head as if she didn’t understand what I was saying.

“It doesn’t…?”

‘Huh… kids nowadays are better than I thought.’

I could still vividly remember the first time I killed a vague humanoid monster. It was, funnily enough, a Goblin. Although I’d injured people and hunted rabbits to live by, killing was another matter.

Digust, self-loathe, and an irrational fear of blood.

It took me two whole years to get over my first kill.

‘Looking back… I regret it. If only I was brave enough to start feeding Kirion sooner…’

Whir.

As if to tell me, “it’s okay,” Kirion vibrated in my hand.

‘Awww… this is why I like you more over Avaron. You’re the best simply by virtue of not hurling insults at me whenever you can!’

Kirion vibrated happily.

Nodding, I was about to let Kirion feed on the other corpse when I noticed several presences approaching us. It seemed that the screeches of the Goblin I’d killed had drawn them to this place.

“Get ready, something’s coming.”

Soon after, from the mild fog that came with the snowfall, a dozen armor-wearing, green-skinned figures appeared.

The first one to notice us shrieked loudly and said something in a weird tongue. Then, as if they were trained soldiers, they got into a formation.

‘3 Shieldgoblins at the front, 3 Speargoblins in the middle, and 4 Bowgoblins at the back. What the fuck? Are they really Goblins?’

Weren’t they supposed to only be barely intelligent enough to occasionally build villages out of rocks and straws? How did they know this formation? It was basic, sure, but it was outside of Goblins’ mental capacity to begin with.

I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. ‘Killing comes first, questions later.’

As I was readying for the fight, kid Ihwa stepped in front of me protectively and said in a small voice,

“Save your strength.”

‘It’s just 10 Goblins though.’

“I don’t n—”

“Noona wants to fight, too.”

‘Heh, you should’ve said that from the beginning.’

As a Swordsmaster, there was no way I was going to let a kid protect me, but what she’d just said made the situation different. She wanted to test her strength, and I also wanted to see how good she was.

Thus, I stood still, arms crossed, and watched as kid Ihwa initiated the fight.

She dashed forward with zeal, her sword seemingly glimmering in her hands. As a Speargoblin thrust its weapon at her with the intent to kill, she gracefully took a step to the right and sliced the tip of the spear right off.

‘Ignoring it and continuing to poke the broken spear at her should do it’

She slashed diagonally up, slicing a Shieldgoblin’s ankle, making it tumble to the ground. The goblin also dragged its fellow Shieldgoblins onto the ground as it tried to grab onto something.

‘Ah, that’s easy. I’d power through the pain and punish her risky move.’

Then, kid Ihwa threw a roundhouse kick at the goblin whose spear she had sliced off, sending it flying into the Bowgoblins behind it.

‘I’d b— shit, what a bad habit.’ I unintentionally chuckled. ‘I shouldn’t just devise counters for kid Ihwa’s swordsmanship like that. She’s not even fighting me.’

What could I say? Old habits, especially those that were formed on the brutal battlefields, died hard.

‘Well, she’ll do well on her own.’

Whatever tactics the Goblins could employ now wouldn’t work no matter what. Their formation was already in disarray, and from what I could see, kid Ihwa’s skill and strength far surpassed theirs.

Since I’d already seen the current extent of kid Ihwa’s strength, I decided to tackle the annoying problem right now. 

‘30 presences are watching us from the surrounding forest. But… they’re 1-star at best.’

That was when I realized that Fenris was also staring directly into the forest with a low glower.

“Fenris, you noticed it too?”

He nodded.

Nodding back, I readied Kirion and whispered to Fenris,

“Let’s wrap it up quickly and quietly before kid Ihwa notices what’s going on. We don’t want to hurt her feelings now, do we?”

*

*

*

“Kieeeeeeeeeek!”

The last Goblin, one that wielded a bow, screeched in fear as it desperately tried to run away from Ihwa.

However, it tripped on some rocks and fell down to the snowy ground. Panicking, it hurriedly nocked an arrow on its bow and shot it toward Ihwa.

It knew that its shot, despite the circumstances, was perfect. The arrow flew in a straight line; just moments away from piercing Ihwa’s throat and killing her. However, it then watched in horror as Ihwa stopped for but a moment to easily slice the arrow in half.

“You ran… coward.”

Those were the last words the Goblin heard before Ihwa’s sword ended its life swiftly.

Seeing that every Goblin was now dead, Ihwa heaved a sigh of relief and touched her hair to make sure that the Marigold hadn’t fallen off. Thankfully, it didn’t, not even after such a tough battle.

Despite Ihwa’s strength, fighting 10 fully-armed Goblins at a time was a little too much for her. However, she still pressed on since she knew that Nova was watching.

Although she was very aware that Nova was stronger than her, her pride as a child 4 years older than him didn’t let her back down from a threat that she could take down on her own.

After checking the Goblin for any Magic stone—and not finding any—Ihwa returned to where Nova was.

“Oh, you’re back?”

Ihwa nodded.

However, she soon noticed something strange. On Nova’s clothes were bloodstains that weren’t there before.

Seemingly able to read Ihwa’s mind, Nova explained,

“Some blood spilled on me when you killed the Goblins.”

That made sense... somewhat. But…

“Your sword? What?”

Ihwa simply couldn’t believe her eyes. She could still tell that in Nova’s hand was the usual… stick that he always carried, but now, the stick was actually a decently-made wooden training sword?

Just what—

“Don’t worry about it,” Nova said as he tapped the flat of the blade on his shoulder. It was as if he knew what Ihwa was thinking.

No, but—

“We should go. More Goblins might come if we stay here.”

Okay… 

Ihwa was simply too shy and socially awkward to verbally respond to Nova. Plus, his reasonings made sense.

*

*

*

‘I haven’t been able to compliment you before but… Kirion, you finally look like a sword now.’

Whir.

Grinning mentally, I brought Kirion down to end the life of the prey I was hunting—a normal rabbit.

‘Don’t drink blood now, Kirion. You’re going to ruin my dinner.’

Whir.

Ignoring Kirion’s unhappy vibrations, I put it down and pulled out a knife that I borrowed from Ihwa. Then, I started skinning the rabbit.

Why was I doing this, you may ask? Well, it’d only been about an hour after Ihwa killed the last Goblin, but both of us were already starving. So, I tasked her with making a fire and went hunting myself.

As soon as I finished skinning the rabbit, I put the meat in my backpack and started to return to our camp.

On my way, I found some herbs. More specifically, Kayleds.

‘Hmmm… if I’m not wrong, Kayleds are spicy. Looks like I’m having stew today.’

I got back to the camp after picking up the herbs and saw that kid Ihwa had already finished making a fire out of the few pieces of dry wood that I miraculously found.

‘For a kid, she has good survival skills.’

Though, I wasn’t too surprised. It was expected that insane bastards that made their kids clear Dungeons as “tests” such as her parents would have her learn a bit about survival.

Putting such thoughts aside, I placed the pot that kid Ihwa thankfully prepared over the fire and started cooking. 

Kid Ihwa dragged a log near a fire and sat down on it, patting Fenris, who was curling up in her lap.

After a few minutes, I could smell the delicious scent of the rabbit stew that I made. Kid Ihwa seemed to agree with me too, as I could see some drool coming from her mouth as she eyed the pot like a hungry beast.

‘...I should probably do something before she pounces on it and ruins everything.’

As such, I scooped up some stew with a spoon and shoved it in her mouth.

“Good enough?”

She nodded as her eyes lit up.

‘Heh, it was too long since I last cooked a meal for someone…’

But that didn’t mean I’d forgotten how to cook, as I realized that it was time to add the herbs.

As I sat down on the log, waiting for the stew to finish and smelling the scent of Kayleds boiling, I stared into the fire. The longer I stared into the warm fire, the more nostalgic I became.

Soon, in my eyes, the snowy landscape disappeared and was replaced by a grass plain. I looked to the side and saw that kid Ihwa was still sitting there. However, her figure was soon replaced by another Ihwa; my Ihwa. Long brown hair, blood-red eyes, and a scar near her left eye that, to me, did not blemish her beauty whatsoever.

‘A-Ah, this… this is a memory.’

One that I deeply treasured. As such, I momentarily let myself go and immersed myself in this warm and happy memory.

-”Hehe, you can’t handle spices?” Ihwa made her way toward the boiling pot of stew I was cooking with a basket full of spices in her hand. “I guess I finally found something us Koreans are better at than you Astorians~”

-”S-Shut up! I’m a Swordsmaster! I can handle anything!” I replied in a fluster.

-”Then, I hope you don’t mind me putting all of these in,” Ihwa said cheekily as she dropped every single piece of spicy herbs in the basket into the boiling pot. “My~ dear~ No~va~”

Growl—!

Suddenly, the sound of kid Ihwa’s stomach rumbling took me out of my reminiscence. 

I blinked and shook my head to compose myself again as I felt some small tears in the corner of my eyes.

‘That’s right, I have to focus on the present. I’ll let Ihwa throw as many spices as she likes into my food once she’s back.’

The stew was now finished. Since kid Ihwa didn’t bring a bowl or any other spoons, we had to eat from the pot directly and share a spoon.

‘...I’d eaten in worse conditions.’

I let kid Ihwa have the first taste.

She stared into the pot with twinkling eyes and scooped up as much of the stew as she physically could with the spoon. Then, she shoved it all into her mouth without any hesitation. 

Initially, her face was that of bliss. However, as the seconds passed, it became increasingly scrunched up.

“Spwicy!”

Seeing kid Ihwa tear up slightly and her face heat up like that, I was even more sure that she wasn’t the Ihwa I knew.

‘Hah, as if my Ihwa could handle weapons as well as kid Ihwa.’

She was a Mage in every sense of the word after all.

Then, I took the spoon from her hand and scooped up some for myself.

After that, it was Ihwa turn again.

This loop continued until the stew was no more.

However, I found something strange about kid Ihwa during our meal. She kept eating even though she clearly couldn’t handle the spice.

“I can make another stew if you find it too spicy, you know?”

But kid Ihwa shook her head and began stuffing some snow in her mouth to alleviate the heat.

“Nwo! My mowuth hwurts but its deliwous!”

‘...Yeah, she’ll definitely grow up to be a masochist.’