The Way of Life for a Terminal S-Class Hunter - C19
The nest was too large and intricate to be an animal’s. Without a running start, Seo-heon stepped up and safely landed on the considerably high nest.
“It’s a bit different from the dungeon boss rooms I’ve seen in documents. This isn’t the usual nest shape.”
I spoke my thoughts aloud to organize the situation.
“Come up here.”
Seo-heon called to me as I examined the area below first.
Did he find something?
Seo-heon stopped me as I was about to take a running start to climb up, and instead created ice stairs for me.
“I can climb up this much on my own.”
“It’s better if you come up comfortably. It would be terrible if you got hurt from being careless.”
Seo-heon particularly emphasized the word ‘careless’. He was clearly recalling the excuse I had made earlier. The seal engraved on my neck must have made me appear quite untrustworthy.
“Is there something special?”
Instead of answering, Seo-heon slightly turned his body to show me the inside of the nest. At the deepest part of the nest, many shining beads were scattered about.
“Are these core fragments?”
Boss monsters had something called a ‘core’, which needed to be destroyed to complete the dungeon conquest. On the other hand, if the conquest failed and the dungeon collapsed, this core would shatter into unrecognizable pieces and disperse throughout the dungeon.
“What was it trying to do by collecting these?”
The one who collected these must have been the succubus I met. It was the only being in this dungeon with enough intelligence to do so.
“Maybe it wanted to become the master of this dungeon.”
Seo-heon paused briefly, then looked straight into my eyes.
“Or it might have wanted to make someone else the master of this dungeon.”
If it was the former, it would be a simple matter, but if it was the latter, it would be a headache.
“It’s possible for a monster with high intelligence like a succubus. The question is, what being did the succubus want to offer this dungeon to?”
This contaminated area inspection, which I had thought was trivial, was gradually falling into a complex labyrinth.
“For now, it’s just a hypothesis, so there’s no need to think too deeply about it. Nothing is certain.”
Seo-heon advised me as I was lost in thought, while neatly gathering the core fragments and putting them in his bag. Although they couldn’t function as a core since they weren’t complete, it was an extremely rare opportunity to get such large fragments.
“We’ve seen almost everything inside the nest, so I’ll go down and look around once more.”
As I was about to go down to continue the rest of the investigation, Seo-heon grabbed my wrist.
“Let’s sleep for a while and do the exploration tomorrow.”
“Huh? It’s nothing to stay up for a day or two, so why don’t we just finish quickly?”
He pulled on my wrist that he was holding. He didn’t stop there, but went as far as to lay me down. With Seo-heon closing his eyes right away, our bodies were excessively close, and I could hear his breathing. My gaze moved from his high nose bridge and round nostrils to his lips. Seo-heon, perhaps sensing my gaze, suddenly opened his eyes and moved his lips softly.
“You look tired, so go to sleep quickly. Don’t be stubborn.”
“Tired…”
Even as I said that, I slowly closed my eyes. Despite the darkness falling, only Seo-heon’s presence remained clear. To me, Seo-heon was like a tattoo engraved on my eyelids.
***
“Woo-hyun, wake up.”
Seo-heon shook me awake, as I had fallen asleep at some point.
“Sorry. Did I sleep too long?”
“No. I left you alone on purpose so you could sleep well.”
Seo-heon seemed to have woken up long ago, as he was already prepared to go outside.
“I guess you’ve already examined the interior.”
“Yes. There’s no more information to gain here. It would be better to explore outside.”
I couldn’t believe I had been asleep the whole time Seo-heon was exploring. The forced activation of skills must have accumulated fatigue.
“Come here.”
Seo-heon grabbed my shoulders, still half-asleep, and pulled me to his side.
“Let’s go quickly.”
I twisted my body just enough not to offend him and escaped from his hand. Then I quickly moved my feet, pretending to take the lead.
“Is it morning?”
“Yes. It’s 9 o’clock.”
Outside the dungeon, the situation was no different from yesterday.
“As expected, the grass is overwhelming.”
The deeper we went, the grass nearly reached our chests. If we were to take a picture of this place right now and ask people where they think it is, no one would answer that it’s Korea. They would probably say it’s somewhere in the Amazon rainforest.
“There are monster footprints, but it seems quite some time has passed. There are almost no new ones.”
“Since the dungeon wasn’t completely restored but showed signs of recovery, maybe they went that way?”
I replied while examining the opposite side from Seo-heon.
“That’s highly likely.”
Although we explored for quite a long time, the surroundings of the dungeon were not much different from what we had expected.
It was when we started exploring again after eating the food we had stored in our inventory as a late lunch/early dinner.
“Huh?”
Just as I bent down to check some animal footprints I had discovered, my neck area stung.
Sensing something odd, I touched the stinging area and felt heat rising from the seal.
The coiled ominousness awoke and crept up above my ankles. I consciously moved away from Seo-heon.
The time for the skills to turn off is approaching. Is this symptom related to that?
Seo-heon, on the opposite side, seemed to notice my presence moving away. I heard the sound of him parting the grass to find me. I hurriedly looked for a place to hide and returned to the dungeon. Since we had dealt with all the monsters yesterday, it was now no different from just a cave.
And at the same time,
“Hah!”
The heat that had been lingering around my neck spread throughout my body.
“What is this…?”
Now my body wasn’t just hot, but itchy too. It was different from the pain I usually felt.
Thud.
My vision flipped, and my body collapsed, hitting the ground. Attempts to get up failed, and only hot breaths came out of my mouth.
Is this the succubus’s poison? Why is this happening now?
It felt like lava was bubbling near my stomach. My vision distorted, and my toes curled inward involuntarily. Belatedly, I realized this was sexual arousal.
[There is insufficient life force to maintain the body. Body durability has decreased, and all skills will be deactivated for one minute.]
[Poison resistance skill has been deactivated. ‘Succubus’s Seal’ is activating.]
The status window gave a long explanation, but the only words I recognized were that the skills were being deactivated.
The seal must be acting as an aphrodisiac.
Even trying to think rationally, the sexual sensation didn’t subside. Since I had abused my body to the point of not feeling any desires other than sleep and hunger after awakening at 20, I hadn’t really felt sexual desire. So this violent sensation was alien to me. This kind of arousal was close to pain for me.
But ridiculously, from the moment I recognized that I was sexually aroused, my body heated up even faster.
I feel sick. It’s hot.
It was a completely different symptom from the awakening fever. It was torturous to resist the urge to touch myself as my front embarrassingly swelled.
“Somehow…”
I hastily covered my mouth, not believing the words I had just uttered. I felt pathetic for wanting to rely on someone in this state.
I shouldn’t show such an unsightly appearance.
I crawled on my knees deeper inside.
“Woo-hyun?”
I heard Seo-heon calling me from afar, like tinnitus. No matter how deep I hid, it was only a matter of time before Seo-heon found me. However, I couldn’t guess when my body would return to normal.
Maybe if I masturbate once, my condition will improve.
I couldn’t even remember the last time I had touched myself, let alone doing it outdoors – the prospect was daunting. If I had been in my right mind, such an idea would have been impossible.
But my vision was blurring, and I couldn’t bear the increasingly hazy consciousness. I could lose my mind at any moment. If that happened, I might go to Seo-heon on my own and cling to him disgracefully. I wanted to avoid that at all costs.
“Woo-hyun, answer me!”
While hearing Seo-heon calling for me, I fumblingly put my hand into my pants. The reality that I had to go this far was utterly miserable.
Even amidst the unpleasant feeling of becoming like an animal, my diligently swelling genitals had a disgusting shape. At this moment, my genitals felt no different from a monster parasitizing my body.
“Hnngh…”
Clumsily gripping and moving my genitals up and down wasn’t satisfying. I wanted something more stimulating, more rough.
I slowly slid my hand lower. My hand touched a part I never thought I’d touch.
It’s wet.
However, my body reacted joyfully as if it had been waiting for this. The hole twitched, protesting for something to be inserted, and gushed fluid.
The succubus’s curse seemed to apply not to the front, but to the back.
This is because of the curse.
As I rationalized my own condition, I inserted a finger into the swollen crevice. The hole wriggled as if it had been waiting.
“Are you here?”