Chapter 72
The black goggles displayed no emoticons.
They simply reflected my face on a smooth surface.
The reflection showed a frozen expression.
Silence fell. Neither I nor Je Hyun-oh spoke.
As the stillness pressed down on us, a cheerful notification sounded.
[The sun is setting! Night has fallen upon the dungeon as the solar heat fades.]
[What kind of adventures await you in the night dungeon?]
It was the notification that the day dungeon had ended. I could feel the scorching heat that had permeated the dungeon beginning to cool.
I slowly parted my lips.
"Lieutenant Colonel Je."
There was no answer. Since Gorgos was dead, he should have awakened from the illusion magic...
Just as I was about to call him once more
I reflexively threw my body backward.
Sshhk.
The ground where I had been standing a moment ago was sliced deep.
The path where the metal hand had passed left a mark like a beast’s claw.
I swallowed hard.
I remembered what Kwak Han-mook had said in Deadzone.
He said that if emoticons appeared on the goggles, the person was sane.
Looking at the goggles, which showed no light of any kind, I called him again.
"Lieutenant Colonel Je, are you oka-ugh!"
He swung his hand again.
I dodged the trajectory of the metal hand, but it was useless.
Several black crescents poured toward me, and I finally bled.
I had only just been entangled in the brambles, and now I had sustained additional injuries.
"Roasted Chestnut."
Dominic called out to me. I hurriedly whispered back to him.
"No, I’m fine. I’ll handle this."
I absolutely could not accept his help.
Dominic had already shown me a flamboyant magic show.
Even if I asked him to subdue Je Hyun-oh at an appropriate level, he might use magic like before and call it a ’mistake.’
If Je Hyun-oh were hit by that beam, he would suffer significant injuries regardless of who he was.
I had to be the one to deal with Je Hyun-oh.
The problem was that my profession was a Chef.
Naturally, I had no attack skills, nor did I have a proper weapon.
Because I had focused on gathering cooking ingredients, I hadn’t packed a single recovery item, meaning I had no way to restore my stamina.
However, there was one possibility.
Je Hyun-oh wasn’t actively attacking me.
His current actions felt closer to simply trying to push me away.
If he had truly intended to attack, my vitals would have already been pierced by the black crescents he had just fired.
’A graze on the forearm is nothing.’
Against someone like Je Hyun-oh, this wasn’t even a weak warning.
Rather, his attacks lacked so much power compared to usual that I was almost worried.
It seemed his condition really was poor. I observed Je Hyun-oh with tense eyes.
Surprisingly, he didn’t attack again after firing the crescents.
As he just stood there, I felt a flicker of hope that I might be able to persuade him with words.
Clang.
Je Hyun-oh suddenly spread his wings.
Six wings unfolded with a metallic sound, casting an ominous shadow.
If he fired all those metal feathers at me in that state, I would die instantly and end up on the table of Infernum.
But a strange thought occurred to me.
I felt certain that he would not attack me.
Yet, that certainty brought no relief.
Instead, my anxiety surged even higher.
Screech. Along with the sound of grinding metal, Je Hyun-oh vanished.
The speed at which he shot forward was so fast that I could barely track him with my eyes.
The destination Je Hyun-oh reached was the dungeon wall.
BOOM!
The wall crumbled.
However, since it was a space maintained by magic, the wall didn’t break permanently but restored itself automatically.
Before the wall could even become smooth again, Je Hyun-oh slammed his head into it repeatedly.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of him bashing his head continued incessantly.
I heard Dominic ask in a puzzled voice.
"Is that also an ability used by Berserkers?"
I, who hadn’t realized what was happening, shouted belatedly.
"Lieutenant Colonel Je!!"
He was surrounded by wings made entirely of sharp metal, making it impossible to even touch him.
A curse escaped my lips.
I had only thought about dodging Je Hyun-oh’s attacks; I never imagined I’d be trying to stop him from bashing his head against a wall like this.
I thought of the items I had. There was one that might be useful.
[Hellfire Oven Gloves: Thick kitchen gloves made with lava crocodile leather. Suitable for extreme high-temperature cooking.]
[Defense +70, Cooking Success Rate +5%, Fire Immunity]
It was a chef-exclusive item with a low drop rate from the 29th-floor boss, the Fire- Play Goblin.
I had kept them to use as cooking tools, but the defense was decent.
Above all, the gloves were thick enough to block the metal feathers to some extent.
I hurriedly put on the gloves and ran toward Je Hyun-oh.
I pushed the metal wings aside with the gloves.
I tried my best not to touch the blade edges, but I couldn’t defend perfectly.
The gloves quickly became tattered, and the blades touched my skin.
My body stiffened at the chilly sensation against my palms, but I forced myself to move.
I succeeded in grabbing Je Hyun-oh’s forearm.
Almost collapsing, I pulled him away.
’Lieutenant Colonel Je, wake up...!"
Je Hyun-oh, who I thought would resist, fell away from the wall as I pulled.
Taking a couple of steps back, he looked down at me.
My face was reflected on the smooth surface of the goggles.
Then, turning his head, he slowly raised his metal hand.
A horrific sound echoed.
Crack.
I stared with wide eyes.
The scent of fresh blood spread rapidly, and metal feathers crashed to the floor with a loud noise.
Je Hyun-oh was ripping out his own wings with his own hand.
An entire wing fell onto the stone floor.
I watched the scene, frozen.
Then, when he began to rip out the second wing, I screamed in shock.
"Je Hyun-oh!!"
I urgently used my ability.
’Restriction?’
The metal hand gripping the wing froze.
Having bought a moment of time, I tried to pick up the fallen wing somehow.
But there was no need.
The wing that had fallen before my eyes moved on its own.
Clink, clatter...
The wing disassembled into dozens of metal feathers and returned to its owner, stained in blood.
The feathers adhered to the flesh, which was a mess from bleeding, and reformed the wing.
As if the act of being ripped out had been a lie, it returned to its original form without a single scratch.
The only evidence that he had pulled out the wings was the red blood staining the metal feathers and dripping between my fingers.
The Restriction wore off.
Je Hyun-oh, who had been limp, immediately began ripping his wings again the moment the Restriction vanished.
When I applied the Restriction again, his metal hand stopped, but only for a brief moment.
As soon as the Restriction lifted, Je Hyun-oh went straight back to tearing at his wings.
But no matter how many he ripped out and threw away, it was useless.
As if his resistance were meaningless, the ripped-out wings brazenly regained their original shape.
Je Hyun-oh continued to rip his wings repeatedly, even knowing it was futile.
Because he self-harmed the moment the Restriction lifted, no matter how many times I applied it, a pool of blood gathered at his feet.
At this rate, there would be no end.
I grit my teeth until they creaked.
’So you want to do this.’
Glaring at Je Hyun-oh, I used a new ability along with Restriction.
’Restriction, Protection.
Protection probably wasn’t the right ability for this situation.
It was an ability to defend against external attacks, not to prevent self-harm.
But I decided I had to try something.
I didn’t care what it was; I just wanted to stop Je Hyun-oh’s actions.
Perhaps because I had used my abilities rapidly in succession.
My eyes felt hot.
A golden light shimmered in my eyes as reflected in the goggles.
The pupils, different from usual, felt strange yet familiar.
I felt like I shouldn’t use any more abilities, but I had no intention of stopping.
I didn’t want to see my own subordinate harming himself.
That was an unacceptable act.
A golden veil descended over the head of the Restricted Je Hyun-oh.
The moment the edge of the veil settled, the Restriction lifted.
I was preparing to apply the Restriction again, but Je Hyun-oh didn’t make a move.
He stood quietly as if still under my constraint, merely tilting his head upward.
The ceiling of the dungeon was closed.
Not a single piece of the sky was visible, yet he gazed into the void as if searching for a star.
I realized belatedly that he wasn’t looking at the stone ceiling, but at the veil of Protection.
Covered in golden light, Je Hyun-oh was silent.
He just stood still until the veil disappeared.
As the time for Protection expired, the golden light faded, and the veil vanished like crumbling dust.
Fragments of light drifted down.
Je Hyun-oh slowly raised his metal hand.
He tried to grasp the crumbling light, but the hand that could cut through anything could grasp nothing.
He let his hand drop.
I watched Je Hyun-oh with tense eyes.
"Your use of abilities was splendid, Roasted Chestnut. Thanks to you, it seems that Berserker has regained his stability. However, to keep him by your side as a subordinate... hmm... he will need a bit of education."
I heard Dominic’s praise, but it didn’t really register.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Je Hyun-oh, tearing he might bash his head against the wall or rip out his wings again.
Je Hyun-oh turned to look at me.
Click.
Je Hyun-oh pushed his goggles up onto his forehead, taking me in with clear vision.
His eyes, with a distinct difference in color between the iris and the pupil, were calm.
It was hard to believe he was the same person who had been acting insane just moments ago.
He reached out toward me.
The tip of the metal hand’s blade pointed toward my pupil.
The sharp fingertip stopped right in front of my eye.
I was a little scared he might poke it out, but I didn’t flinch and waited.
The hand that looked as if it would pierce my eye was soon withdrawn.
"Are you sane now?"
Je Hyun-oh looked down at me blankly.
"Goyo."
My lips trembled.
"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel Je."
My voice, broken by , scratched harshly against the eardrums.
"You really must want to die."
"I... actually really want to live...."
"Then why didn’t you run away?"
After I used my abilities until my eyeballs almost burst to save him, this is what he says.
While I felt a surge of irritation, on the other hand, I wanted to laugh.
It was because I could feel that he had truly returned to his senses.
"Because if I don’t have you, Lieutenant Colonel Je, I’ll run out of inventory space."
I told him.
"So let’s get out of here together."