FAR - 54

I stayed put even after Endymion finished his meal. There was something I needed to hear.

This punk. Just as I suspected, he had tried to run away.

Of course, no matter how much he pounded against the subspace, there was no way he could have escaped. Still, the mere fact that he had tried to slip away the moment he was left alone was downright audacious.

"...How did you find me?" Endymion asked quietly, his eyelashes lowered.

What on earth is he talking about? The guy was sprawled out right in front of the main gate.

"How could I not find you? You were flat on your face right in front of the main gate when I walked in."

Endymion's head snapped up to look at me. His reaction was visceral, his face practically screaming, ‘What are you talking about?’

"But I distinctly remember crossing the barrier and stepping outside..."

"What? Outside where? To the city?"

"What city? I mean the wild, rural land where your subspace is located..."

The entrance to my farm is currently in the middle of a city. What kind of utter nonsense is he spouting?

We were completely failing to communicate. Looking as if he had just been struck by lightning, Endymion frantically patt ed down his pockets. He pulled out a luminous white leaf.

"Phew..." Endymion let out a sigh of relief.

I leaned over the table, bringing my face closer to get a better look at it. "What is that? A rotten leaf?"

"Rotten?! Well, I suppose a layperson wouldn't recognize it. This is a leaf from a plant known to be a fragment of a god."

"And where exactly on my farm did you find something like that?"

I've never grown a crop like that... Seeing this completely unfamiliar leaf, a sudden, creeping chill washed over me.

Just where the hell had Endymion been?

As I studied Endymion, he was studying me right back. In that moment, we both realized that neither of us was lying. The look in Endymion's eyes gradually shifted.

"You said this place was a subspace, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Could it be that we haven't entered a subspace, but rather... traveled to the primordial continent?"

I stared at the priest for a long time. He wasn't the type to spout pure nonsense. More than anything, his gaze and demeanor were dead serious. 

Sitting up perfectly straight with an empty bowl of porridge in front of him, his voice rang out as clearly and resonantly as it must have back in the days when he recited prayers as a true priest.

"Are you suggesting I'm time traveling or something?"

"No. To be precise... a piece of land from that era has somehow survived into the present through some inexplicable phenomenon."

I could feel the man sitting at the far table turning his attention toward us. Belsus was listening intently to our conversation.

"They say that dungeons are small fragments of land from other dimensions, splintered and forced out due to collisions and rifts between worlds."

It was surprising to hear a priest discuss such a theory. Perhaps the temple had taught it as a branch of demonology.

"I say this cautiously, but I believe this subspace operates on the same principle as a dungeon. This place is the result of carving out and isolating a piece of land."

And the proof of that was the unfamiliar leaf he had pulled from his pocket.

'It's not an entirely absurd claim.'

Since transmigrating into this game, there was a rule I had heard time and again: a subspace cannot be created out of nothing, nor does an existing space simply expand. Which begged the question: what exactly was my subspace?

"Furthermore, your subspace wasn't brought in from another dimension. It belongs to the very world we live in. It seems a tract of land from three thousand years ago was somehow preserved in isolation, only to be reopened now."

Endymion handed the leaf to me.

"So you're saying this is a three-thousand-year-old plant?"

"If it grew in the wild, yes."

I ran my fingers over it. I couldn't feel any im mediate, distinct power, but it certainly seemed to harbor a bizarre secret.

"You're saying you can step outside the barrier? Then try it right now."

I decided to put his claim to the test. With Belsus joining us, the three of us stood shoulder-to-shoulder before the farm's main gate. On my mark, we all pushed through the entrance simultaneously.

Pop. Belsus and I instantly popped out into the middle of the city where we had originally entered, like a clean teleportation.

'Wait, what about Endymion?'

I immediately summoned the entrance and stepped back inside. Endymion was still there, futilely shoving his body against the gate, sweat pouring down his face. I knew it...

"Looks like it's not working, is it?"

"I would have to agree," Belsus chimed in.

We spoke one after the other. Endymion, who had been straining with all his might, flushed bright red in embarrassment.

"I swear I really did it earlier!"

"Yet you ended up unconscious at the farm's gate, and you said yourself that you have no memory of coming back."

"That's..."

Endymion continued to struggle against the invisible barrier for another ten minutes before finally giving up. 

In a meek, defeated voice, he muttered that he would try again tonight, perfectly recreating the conditions of his initial success.

"Sure, whatever. Knock yourself out."

If that was the case, then I had an idea of my own. I tossed Endymion a woven basket.

"What is this?" Endymion caught it clumsily, looking thoroughly bewildered.

"When you get out there, gather any strange plants or fruits you can find and bring them back."

This is a golden opportunity to cultivate ancient, millennia-old vegetation right here on my farm!

Endymion visibly scrunched up his face in displeasure.

I headed back to my room, deep in thought.

'Perhaps... Endymion is the only one capable of doing this.'

According to the original storyline, Endymion would eventually reclaim divine power. Even if the gods had perished, a fragment of their power still lay dormant within him. 

He would rekindle that faint, severed lineage and use its strength to become the Last Priest and the Emperor of the Tower.

In short, only Endymion, who was destined to reawaken his divine power, could pull off this kind of anomaly within my subspace. Belsus and I couldn't, because we weren't believers.

'I wonder what would happen if Endymion entered someone else's subspace?'

Besides me... out of all the playable characters, the Doctor was the only one who possessed a subspace.

I vigorously shook my head. Nope, bad idea. Under no circumstances could Endymion be allowed to cross paths with the Doctor. Hell, nobody should cross paths with that guy.

I shuddered as I recalled the Doctor's character from the game's cutscenes. Every roster of playable characters always has that one complete psychopath... and the Doctor played that role to perfection.

In the original plotline, Endymion was briefly treated by the Doctor. By some stroke of sheer luck, the Doctor actually did his job, healed him perfectly, and let him go without incident. 

But that had to be the end of it. Endymion could never be allowed to meet the Doctor a second time.

'Though I suppose things are a bit different now... Since the Alchemist chose him as a partner, the timeline might have already shifted.'

A few days passed, but Endymion never managed to successfully recreate his stunt and step outside the bounds of the subspace again. 

Because the third regular dungeon was fast approaching, I decided to shelve the issue for now.

"You're going to a dungeon?" Endymion asked.

Since Endymion had completely sealed away his Hunter abilities, he cou ldn't see the system windows or hear its notifications. 

I didn't bother pointing out that he could technically enter with us, nor did I demand he tag along. Honestly, he'd be useless in his current state anyway.

'He may have resolved to climb the Tower, but he still lacks the willpower to break his seal himself.'

Time would take care of that.

---

Unlike the previous instances, the third scheduled regular dungeon came with an unusual advance notice on our status windows.

[This is a two-person cooperative dungeon. It is strongly recommended to enter with a partner.] 

The exact same message appeared before both the native characters and the transmigrators. 

However, only we transmigrators understood its true implication. 

It didn't simply mean to grab any random person off the street to form a duo. 

It was a pointed suggestion to enter alongside your specifically chosen partner character.

Naturall y, I entered the dungeon with Belsus. We teleported straight from the farm into the instance.

"This is the first time it's just the two of us entering a dungeon," I remarked.

I didn't actually feel particularly sentimental about it; I only threw the joke out because Belsus looked so ridiculously tense. 

He was standing like a bodyguard in front of me, having handed over his scythe to me and opted to wear his brass knuckles instead as he vigilantly scanned our surroundings.

As soon as I took in the dungeon's interior, I let out a heavy groan.

"A labyrinth again?"

Gray walls, gray ceiling, gray floor.

It looked far too familiar. In fact, wasn't it identical to the last regular dungeon? At this point, it just felt like the System was lazily reusing assets.

'Well, I suppose being in the exact same setting does give me a bit of déja vu. It really highlights the fact that I've managed to catch this runaway delinquent and drag him back here.'

However, upon closer inspection, it wasn't exactly the same as before. Instead of an endless maze of corridors, we were in an enclosed room blocked by walls on all four sides. 

Directly in front of us stood a massive iron door, and engraved upon it were the following words:

[The Nine Sacrifices]

[Those who wish to advance must offer a sacrifice.]

---

 Sight

 Smell

 Taste

 Hearing

 Touch

 Voice

 Paralysis of one arm

 Injection of poison into the body

 Bloodletting equivalent to a bottle of liquor

---

A massive padlock hung from the iron door in front of us. Etched largely across it was the word: ‘Sight’.

"It looks like a sacrifice must be made to open each door. And there are a total of nine doors we'll have to pass through."

Then came another dungeon message from the system, one that absolutely could not be ignored.

[If multiple sacrifices are concentrated onto a single individual, the likelihood of that person becoming the official Dungeon Clearer increases significantly.]

I didn't ponder for long. After rapidly weighing the potential risks and variables, I made my decision.

"Clearing an A-rank dungeon like this will yield a massive amount of experience points. I want one of us to be the one to claim that clear reward, leaving all the other competitors in the dust."

I looked Belsus straight in the eyes.

"I want you to take all nine sacrifices. Can you do that for me?"

Belsus didn't hesitate. He simply nodded. "Understood."

I knew better than anyone that he wasn't agreeing out of ignorance. He fully understood just how critical and agonizing his condition would become with all nine penalties stacked against him.​