◈ Episode 205. A Lucky Day (1)

A majestic Arc de Triomphe was created with aesthetics.

At the end of the path was the core of the dungeon.

The dungeon’s boss mob, the Siren.

Up until that point, I was purely in awe.

It wasn’t a [High] tier perk for nothing.

‘It’s a wayfinding service.’

A hundred thousand caves.

And this was just the first one.

Drifting in a sea of lava from the start.

Confused and self-deprecating.

It was like a short rain in a drought, almost the time of wisdom.

‘If I do well, I’ll be able to solve it in the future, right?’

Should I seek help from Fabian or the explorers?

I was seriously thinking about it.

I didn’t have any reason to avoid Fabian.

From Lord Hoyeol to Commander-in-Chief Hoyeol.

I don’t like what Fabian calls me.

“Hiel, Diend, Gwicheol, and now Fabian?

Listening to their chatter…….

I’m afraid I’ll collapse from vertigo before I can clear it, so I’m grateful for the aesthetics and move on with a lighter step.

[Quest: Lava’s Siren]

The quest popped into my mind, and it was now.

♪♩♬─

The siren’s innocent voice echoed.

Diend finally shut up.

Hiel closed her eyes and poured out her appreciation.

“It’s a song that makes the listener happy.”

Indeed, Hiel.

As the alter ego of Grandfell, you’re no slouch when it comes to the liberal arts. Of course, it’s also sweet to the ears of me, Lee Hoyeol, who has built a wall against classical music.

‘By the way.’

I sneakily check the amount of magic power.

I used up half of it in one fell swoop.

No wonder.

‘It’s always difficult to control it delicately.’

I wasn’t good at freezing things.

The goal was to make the lava as cold as the ocean.

That’s why he had to use ordinary freezing magic instead of absolute zero.

Anyway, Grandfell, you’re so stubborn.

─Defeat the Lava Siren. (Failed)

Fulfill the wishes of the Lava Siren. (Success)

Still, I think I did the right thing by choosing the one below.

Even without knowing the circumstances.

Defeating the Siren even if you did know would have been unpleasant.

A level 800 dungeon boss monster.

It’s a waste of experience.

Sirens aren’t the only monsters out there.

But maybe it’s because I’m getting experience and experienced in this.

It wasn’t too hard to figure out what was going on.

Back when Arcana was just a game.

It is only natural that monsters exist in dungeons.

Backgrounds and settings would follow.

But now that Arcana is a reality.

Arcana was outside the realm of Cosmo and the AAU.

As you can see from the information provided by AAU.

Things that were only concepts in the development stage had always existed.

They were living and breathing on the continent of Arcana, they just happened to appear in reality through a rift.

‘Each with their own background and setting.’

Yes, that’s what AAU is.

Arcana is no longer a game, they said.

That was why it was official.

‘The Sirens had a story.’

And instead of slaying them.

I solved the quest for that story.

‘It’s tough. It’s tough.’

I felt the same way in Teffern.

For some reason, the story is never told easily.

In the midst of my rambling, I heard a sobbing voice.

“……It’s a deeply moving song, my lord.”

It’s a sympathy song for those with stories.

Diend, drenched in water like a dark cloud.

As expected of Grandfell’s alter ego.

You’re just as troublesome, you know.

‘If not me, who else will comfort you?’

But first.

Let’s check out the quest reward.

[Dungeon: Siren of the Lava] You have cleared the dungeon.

You didn’t defeat the dungeon’s boss, the Siren.

The clear message was clear.

That means.

You and Siren are no longer enemies. I don’t know about other players, but for me, the Siren is no longer considered a monster by the system.

I don’t need to explain.

♪♩♬♩♪─

Unafraid of my gaze.

The way she swims through the cold lava is enough to tell me that.

And then there were the messages.

[Hidden Place: You have entered the sea of lava].

Hidden Place.

The dungeon had been renamed.

Like the regions of Yusra, Frost, and Muon.

[Your ties to the Sirens of Lava are greatly increased].

[Increases your influence in the Sea of Lava].

[Your friendship with the Sirens of Lava has reached its maximum].

One message after another.

My suspicions are confirmed.

Another way to say it is that your friendship with the region has reached its maximum.

It means you can activate a privileged feature in that region.

‘Wait.’

…… This was not a waste of experience.

Didn’t I just succeed at the Zero Mountains?

Not to mention the hundred thousand caves.

To reach the top of the mountain range.

I’ve set up an outpost.

“It all starts with the first step.”

For once, we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, Grandfell.

Let’s look to the future.

The rewards of this option seem so much better than the experience points.

‘I’m in my bubble now……. It’s such a rich bubble, even the demons can’t see what’s going on.’

As far as the Holy War goes.

Humanity and the continent of Arcana were consistently outnumbered.

I can be said to be the third force in that situation.

I had enlisted monsters as allies.

‘Of course, the Sirens could be an anomaly.’

I’m sure there are plenty of monsters who are outright enemies of humans.

But make no mistake about it.

Yeah, I had [aesthetics].

Just when a path opened up.

When a quest popped up.

You just have to follow it, right?

But like I said, it’s not an easy road.

‘No, I mean, even if it’s just a siren.’

Even if you knew the story, it was practically impossible to realize it. I couldn’t have done it without the morale buff [Blessing of the First World Tree].

I would have been doomed to failure.

In that sense, maybe I did something great……?

“Sometimes the road less traveled isn’t so bad.”

But the proud Grandfell would never share his hardships with others, and it is only the system that recognizes my injustice.

[A siren’s song blesses you].

[Your luck is greatly enhanced].

[Time remaining: 23:59].

‘!’

I thought the music was so sweet, even to my tuneless ears, but it was a buff.

It was the first [Luck] stat buff I had ever seen in my life.

‘A big increase?!’

Back when Arcana was just a game.

The role of the [Luck] stat was unclear.

Literally, luck.

On the small scale, it helps you land critical hits and dodge.

On a larger scale, it could help you successfully upgrade your gear.

At best, that’s about it.

But then again, I knew from experience.

Why, one point each.

Every time I invested in [luck], something happened!

And when I dismissed that [luck] as superstition?

‘All of a sudden, the demons come pouring out.’

Anyway, it was crazy.

So in that sense, it’s a message.

It was a message that could not be ignored.

The buff only lasts for one day, today.

There is now a reason to spend the rest of the day to the fullest.

I opened my mouth.

“Hiel, I leave this place to you.”

Telepathy works better between us than a hundred words.

Now that we’re in the dungeon, we’ll need a base to call our own.

Right now, the priority was to create a space to step into.

“I, Hiel, serve your will.”

What would do the trick was something similar to the Aquarius oak tree, which thrived on vast amounts of water, but also the opposite. It is the Bloodia Ornamental Tree, which thrives on immense heat.

Go-oh-oh.

Hiel immediately manifested {Nature} power.

And a sea of lava.

The Bloodia Ornamental Tree rose from the bottom.

So colorful for a plant.

How can a cat pass up a fishmonger?

Grandfell spills out of his mouth.

“It’s a pure intention worthy of a pure land.”

The interpretation is that the tree’s trunk is transparent.

That’s why the tree theme has a blood-related name. The way the lava spread through the roots, trunk, and leaves was like blood coursing through veins.

─?

Suddenly, the song stopped.

Siren poked her head out of the lava, inspecting the growing tree. It’s surprising. The growth rate was such that you could see it growing thicker in real time.

Well, it’s familiar to me.

‘The blessing of growing an herb into an elixir.’

It’s a Bloodia Ornamental Tree.

It’s natural to let it grow.

The thicker branches looked like they could serve as footholds.

‘Well, rest assured.’

Now it was time to put my increased luck to good use.

The first thing that came to mind was hunting.

As I said, I shouldn’t be concerned with levels.

I was caught in a contradiction: I needed to level up.

I turn around and see my jacket flapping around me.

‘Even with the level cap still a long way off.’

To see how effective [Tenacity] is.

I needed to level up and earn stat points.

Therefore, I immediately manifested a portal.

The target coordinates are the Zero Mountains.

From now on.

Let monsters without a story tremble in fear.

“Follow me, Diend.”

*

Another spaceship.

Another space station orbiting above Earth.

Post-Cataclysm.

It was the AAU’s ship to respond to the rift. It was thanks to Another Space that we were able to locate the rift as it formed in real time.

No anomalies detected─

The middle-aged man looked at the instrument panel.

He let out a small sigh.

It finally hit him.

“There really isn’t one, is there, Regular.”

“You have a lot of doubts.”

“Doubts? Floating around in the darkness of space, looking at the Earth, you can’t help but have doubts. I still have them sometimes.”

The Zero Mountains are clearly visible from space.

Where do you see it clearly?

The peak is so high that it can be seen from space.

So it’s only natural to wonder what’s up there.

It must be clearly photographed through Another Space’s observation lens.

“I wonder if this is a hidden camera, and what we’re seeing through the lens is actually a manipulated image. Look, can you believe it? Clouds in space?”

Clouds in space.

A phenomenon that can’t be explained scientifically.

It’s impossible, except by magic.

The man was playfully angry.

“Damn it! I’d never have admitted to magic if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes. Damn it, I did, and I’m a scientist who believes in magic.”

The woman shrugged in lament.

“Still, it’s nice to see you looking more energetic for the first time in a while. Raymond Sean may be a fucking bastard, but he hasn’t lied until now.”

If there’s no update history, there isn’t one.

There is no problem with rift that do not appear in the history.

Level 200 and below, at best.

Most of the time, they’d be cleared quickly by players who were just fired up to level up.

“So let’s not pay too much attention to the good days.”

“Ugh. What’s that?”

“It’s a heat pack.”

“Why are you putting this hot thing on your face?”

“Because I’m going to be looking at it for you, so you can close your eyes for a while.”

The man grumbled and groaned.

He must be getting tired.

So…….

The man unknowingly fell into a short nap.

“Seo, senior?”

“Huh?”

“Look, that’s……!”

“!”

Boom.

Eyes reflexively widened.

A hot pack fell on the floor.

I could sense the urgent voice.

A blowout.

At that moment, one possibility came to mind.

An urgent update.

The emergence of a rift.

The role of the Another Space ship, if only in a small way.

It was to quickly capture and alert Earth to the location of the rift.

“Damn magic.”

However, it was impossible for Another Spaceship, which floated in space based on science, to completely understand the concept of Arcana. Therefore, a fully automated system could not exist.

Reality and the Arcana Continent.

To overcome the gap between the two worlds.

He had to reconcile himself to being a scientist and an eyewitness to magic.

“Where are they?”

Like when she closed her eyes.

The man opened his eyes.

His gaze fell to the instrument panel.

And then.

“……what?”

Still no anomaly detected─

He thought.

……Is this really a hidden camera?

But the next words enlightened him.

“Not there, but there, over there……!”

The finger pointed to none other than the Earth.

There it was.

The top of the Zero Mountain Range was distorted.

“A black hole……?!”

I can’t help but think.

It’s distinctly different from a rift.

This is a sight as if space is being forcibly torn apart by force.

“……!!”

That’s right.

The two had witnessed something similar before.

In the appearance of the [Broken Dimension] rift.

“This is ridiculous.”

But it was different then.

Space warped like a black hole.

A gigantic figure gliding towards space.

The man radioed to Earth in a trembling voice.

“This is AAU Another Spaceship. We’re reporting an anomaly at the top of the Zero Mountains. A dragon is tearing through space and……. No, it’s tearing through dimensions and starting to glide!!!”

.

.

.

[Telescope of the Evil Eye].

A view of the continent of Arcana, illuminated by the telescope.

I was overcome with an overwhelming sense of betrayal.

I thought it said my luck had increased dramatically.

Dragons, Elves, Transcendents, and even Demon.

It’s not just luck.

Was it a chain letter?

What a mess this is all of a sudden!

–

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note: 어나더 스페이스 호 (eonadeo seupeiseu ho) -> Another Spaceship