High above Irithyll of the Boreal Valley, someone's heartfelt cry echoed through the sky.
"NO!"
Snowflakes drifted through the air as the north wind howled mournfully. The whole world seemed vast and desolate~
At that moment, Fingri was only one line away from completing his dramatic scene:
"SEIN!"
"What happened?" Tusk was clearly at a loss, looking toward Matilda and Aleya for help.
"Ah, this guy..." Matilda helplessly covered her forehead.
The gesture looked rather silly coming from her enormous body clad in steel armor.
She knew her team leader's personality very well.
Fingri was the sort of person who easily became immersed in stories.
Take watching a stage play, for example.
He wouldn't become so immersed that he'd jump onto the stage and beat up the actor playing the villain.
But he would genuinely burst into tears during a tragedy, sometimes crying so hard that everyone around him couldn't understand why.
Yet in everyday life, Fingri seemed perfectly rational and normal.
At most, he was somewhat goofy and eccentric.
You would never guess that he was actually such a sentimental person.
Fingri had once explained this himself:
"My parents used to be stage actors. They told me that whether you're watching a play or enjoying some other kind of story, you should immerse yourself in it completely and put genuine emotion into it. That's both a sign of respect for the creator and what makes the money I spent on the ticket worthwhile."
It seemed like that last sentence was actually the important part.
But whatever.
The point was that Fingri could become completely immersed in any story within a second.
And he was also a huge fan of happy endings.
He believed life was already difficult enough, so at the very least, stories should be allowed to be a little sweeter.
So he must be regretting his decision to give the little boy the equipment, which ultimately got him killed, right?
Faced with this situation, Matilda had plenty of experience dealing with him.
She nudged Aleya.
Aleya nodded.
She took out a seed whose effects were unknown and quietly approached Fingri.
Then, with lightning speed, she tried to shove it into his ear!
Whoosh—
Fingri suddenly disappeared.
When Aleya turned around, she found him standing behind her, the seed pinched between his fingers.
His expression was filled with both regret and anger.
He gritted his teeth and crushed the seed.
"Don't plant a Calming Vine in me! I don't need it this time! It must be because I didn't do enough earlier. Tomorrow, I'm going to make absolutely sure the child survives! The place where he died wasn't far from the church at all—he only needed to walk a few more steps to get inside! He was killed entirely because of that Sulyvahn's Beast bastard! And that monster was one I let escape! I'll take full responsibility!"
"Um, Mr. Fingri..."
Tusk felt that Fingri was taking this a little too seriously.
It was only an NPC.
Maybe this whole little incident was just Sein's way of placing some rewards while messing with everyone's mentality.
Maybe there wasn't even a perfect ending in the first place?
Matilda placed a hand on his shoulder and said helplessly:
"It's too late. He's already made up his mind."
As if trying to convince herself, Matilda muttered:
"Maybe successfully keeping that child alive will even give us an additional reward. That fits our adventurer mentality, so I suppose I can indulge the captain's madness."
This was the first time Tusk had seen someone openly voice all their inner thoughts like this.
He looked toward Aleya.
As usual, she didn't particularly care.
She would simply follow whatever her teammates decided to do.
"I can probably guess what we'll be doing for the next few days."
Tusk scratched his beard.
Suddenly, he too found himself curious whether the little boy could actually survive.
If they really managed to keep him alive... what would happen?
Not long afterward, midnight quietly arrived.
The hardworking Sein Master finally reached quitting time.
Fingri walked toward an inn near the teleportation gate with his hands in his pockets, his expression showing that he was deep in thought.
Originally, the teleportation gate to the Eagle Dungeon had suddenly appeared on a plain some distance away from the Light Eagle Corps' headquarters.
There was nothing around but rocks and grass.
Even the main road built by the royal capital didn't pass through the area.
But as Sein Dungeon's fame gradually increased, the location of the teleportation gate naturally attracted everyone's attention.
So, organized by several nobles and merchants, infrastructure construction began.
The primary construction materials were rock giants who hadn't had any experience with the opposite sex in fifty years, and slime tentacle monsters.
The builders were experienced civil-engineering mages over forty who still had their "original virginity intact."
Bald people and men with receding hairlines were given priority.
Then, they would find several children under ten who possessed Earth-and-Wood magic talents and appoint them as safety supervisors to sign the project documents.
That way, even if they were sentenced to several decades in prison, they could study Earth-and-Wood civil engineering magic while inside.
By the time they got out, they'd be experienced civil-engineering mages.
Then new safety supervisors could be recruited.
A perfect cycle!
Through the efforts of countless people, a small town quickly sprang up around the teleportation gate.
Even now, construction and expansion continued nonstop.
The only time work stopped was when the dungeon closed—from midnight until three in the morning—because adventurers needed to rest during those hours as well.
Building inns around this area was practically a guaranteed-profit business.
Adventurers could certainly choose to stay in Liurnia of the Lakes, but only certain bonfires could teleport to one another.
When the dungeon closed, many adventurers couldn't make it back to Liurnia of the Lakes.
So they had no choice but to stay outside.
And it wasn't only adventurers who stayed in the area.
Merchants looking for business opportunities, idle people who came to watch the excitement, and all sorts of others with various motives also provided the inns with a steady stream of customers.
"You can't give the kid armor. If you do, he'll turn into a monster."
"If you give him two different sets of monster armor, he'll turn into a monster combining the characteristics of both."
"But what if we only give him one set? Would he turn into that specific monster? What if we mix it up even more—give him three pieces of Pontiff Knight equipment and one piece of Fire Witch equipment? Wait. What the hell am I thinking?!"
Once Fingri realized his thoughts had become way too horrifying, he frantically scratched his head and corrected his train of thought.
"The little boy died because of a monster. The monster escaped because of me. So if I kill that monster ahead of time, won't the little boy survive? That must be it! Tomorrow, I'll kill that monster before it gets the chance!"
Just as he was thinking this, Fingri ran into Leon and his group.
The atmosphere within their group didn't look particularly good either.
There was no need to ask why.
Leon saw that Fingri's expression was just as grim and immediately guessed what had happened.
"You failed too?"
"Yeah."
"Want to go over what happened?"
"Sure."
The next day, Fingri, sporting dark circles from staying up all night but looking extremely energized, bumped fists with Leon and then high-fived Maru.
After an entire night of reviewing their failures, they had completely wiped away their past "grudges."
Today, they would work together to save the little boy!
They could put their dungeon exploration progress on hold.
But the little boy's ending had to be perfect!
They split into two groups.
Fingri and his companions would investigate how to get the little boy safely to the church.
Leon and his group would experiment with different armor sets.
Maybe giving the boy a complete matching armor set would prevent him from becoming a monster?
Fingri entered the dungeon with his companions first.
Leon went to the market and began purchasing sets belonging to the Pontiff Knights, the Fire Witch, and even the Outrider Knights.
"See you again."
On the bridge of Irithyll, the moment the Sulyvahn's Beast appeared, Fingri remembered what he'd seen yesterday.
Without hesitation, he killed it with absolutely no mercy.
Afterward, they used Flight magic to jump from the bridge into the lake.
This little bit of "skipping class" wasn't enough to anger Sein or provoke any punishment.
They hadn't had time to properly explore the lake yet.
Just standing there, they could already see several glowing items and numerous corners that inspired curiosity.
But that wasn't today's priority.
"What about the other two Sulyvahn's Beast monsters?"
They searched around the lake.
Apart from the humanoid centipedes, they didn't see anything.
Certainly not the two much larger Sulyvahn's Beast.
"Don't tell me..."
A bad thought crossed Fingri's mind.
"After killing the monster on the bridge ahead of time, did the other two stop appearing in the lake?"
But what did "stop appearing" actually mean?
Did the monsters no longer exist?
Or were they hiding somewhere the group hadn't discovered?
If it was the former, that was fine.
But if it was the latter...
"They should be nearby. They couldn't have gone too far."
Fingri began circling the lake again and again, searching every possible hiding spot.
He even dove underwater to check whether the monsters were lurking beneath the surface.
But he found nothing.
Meanwhile, Leon was searching the market for equipment sets belonging to the forces of the Boreal Valley.
Unfortunately, very few adventurers could currently enter Irithyll.
Even fewer had managed to obtain equipment.
He and his companions split up and searched throughout the market.
They searched from night until dawn, then into midday.
In the end, they only managed to buy a set of Pontiff Knight armor from one party.
At that moment, a familiar voice called out.
"Leon? Are you looking for something in the market?"
It was Belto from the Skyrim party.
Leon didn't hide anything from him and explained the situation involving the little boy's afterimage.
"So there's something like that going on? Captain Luluwo is currently exploring the Irithyll Dungeon Prison and has neglected the exploration of the city above ground. We haven't discovered this situation yet."
Belto suddenly said:
"Since you're investigating this matter, how about we cooperate? I happen to have the equipment you're looking for. I'll provide it to you for free. All you have to do is tell us the final result."
"Sure. Pleasure doing business."
After night fell, Leon entered Sein Dungeon wearing the complete Pontiff Knight set and found the little boy.
Meanwhile, Fingri had failed to locate the Sulyvahn's Beast in the lake.
In the end, he could only grit his teeth and go find the little boy himself, telling him the location of the church.
The two little boys from the two different worlds said in unison:
"Thank you, big brother!"
Leon couldn't smile.
He and his companions rested nervously at the nearest kitchen bonfire.
Because they had discovered something:
As long as adventurers remained nearby, the little boy wouldn't take any action.
Only after they had gone far enough away would something happen.
"Let's go."
Leon patted Maru on the head.
Everyone deliberately slowed their pace as they approached the little boy's residence.
It seemed as though they didn't want to see what awaited them too soon.
But even though they had slowed down, they still heard an animalistic growl.
A short Pontiff Knight holding a scythe stood in front of the little boy's door.
"Damn it! We failed again!"
Meanwhile, Fingri and his companions ran along the western avenue toward the church, praying that everything would go smoothly this time.
But when he saw the Sulyvahn's Beast appear once again, its back turned to him as it gnawed on something...
His expression finally cracked.
"You bastard! I'll kill you!"
Late that night, near the teleportation gate, the returning Fingri ran into Leon once again.
They only exchanged a glance.
They knew immediately that both of them had failed again.
Without saying much, everyone sat down together and reviewed their failures.
Tomorrow, they would try again.
Monday
Fingri used the monster on the bridge to lure out the other two.
He killed all three Sulyvahn's Beast.
But the little boy was killed on the way to the church when a Pontiff Knight slit his throat.
Leon gave the little boy a Fire Witch set.
The boy transformed into a Fire Witch.
"WHY?!"
Tuesday
Fingri completely cleared the monsters from the western avenue.
But the little boy was killed on the way to the church by the Outrider Knight in the cemetery who was suspected of being his older brother.
Leon gave the little boy an Outrider Knight set.
The boy lost his sanity and transformed into an Outrider Knight.
He then fought Vordt, who had come chasing after Leon.
In the end, the boy was killed.
"DAMN IT!"
Wednesday
Fingri completely cleared the western avenue and the cemetery of monsters.
The little boy was killed by a monster that came from somewhere else.
Leon had no other armor sets left to try.
He tried breaking down the door by force.
But the little boy behind the door simply disappeared.
"Where the hell did that monster come from?!"
Thursday
Fingri swore he would clear all the monsters in Irithyll.
But he still hadn't succeeded by the time the dungeon closed.
Leon gave the little boy the Irithyll Jailer's Set that Belto had kindly provided.
The boy transformed into a Jailer.
The Jailer drained Leon's life force until he was completely exhausted, and he was eventually stabbed to death by an iron brand that looked suspiciously like a toilet plunger.
"You—damn bastard!"
Friday
Fingri and Leon sat back-to-back in endless silence.
"...Sigh. Why do monsters always crawl out of every little nook and cranny?"
"Why does simply being looked at by a Jailer drain your entire life force?"
The two sighed simultaneously.
Their eyes were filled with exhaustion.
"Is there really no way to get a good ending?" Fingri said dejectedly.
"We haven't found a good ending," Leon replied helplessly.
"But we have gotten quite a few good pieces of equipment."
Over the past few days, Leon had discovered that any equipment worn by the little boy had a chance of becoming enhanced and gaining special effects.
For example, Pontiff Knight equipment could become infused with cold air, while Fire Witch equipment could become infused with flames.
He could already foresee that someone would eventually exploit the little boy's special property to create even better equipment.
Come to think of it, that's even more horrifying.
"We simply don't have enough people. We can't test every idea we've come up with."
Fingri suddenly thought of something.
He slapped his hands together.
"We need to bring more people into Irithyll!"
Saturday
The Hasavi party and Leon Party jointly launched an event.
"Veteran Adventurers Will Take You Into Irithyll to Have a Chat With the Beautiful Goddess Gwyndolin!"
And the payment?
Helping them search for the little boy's possible happy ending.