Once More to the Abyssal Temple

Rewinding time a little, to after Ji-oh had returned to his cabin from the Abyssal Temple.

"I knew that Earth these days was a rather dangerous place, unlike the one I remember from thirty years ago…"

"Kkureureu…"

"But I never imagined something that wasn't quite a terrorist attack would erupt in the middle of that massive religious ceremony. This is the first terror incident I've ever experienced in my life."

Ji-oh was composing himself.

"What a terrifying world. At the tender age of twenty-nine, I almost went to join my family already."

Having enjoyed a miracle beyond miracles by fusing with the Source while still in a mere human body, he probably couldn't die easily—but he himself knew nothing of that, so it was best left aside.

Learning that the student Eun-ha he had met at the initiation ceremony and the Iser from Giovanni's memories were the same person had already been shocking enough. And now he was told that the boy had even orchestrated this entire terror incident.

"……"

Giovanni was deeply unsettled.

"He wasn't originally that kind of child. Why did he turn out like this?"

"……"

"…If I have to find a reason, it's probably my fault, isn't it?"

"Kkuru."

"O Sun."

Yes. Honestly, dying that way had been a bit much. Giovanni knew his own sins.

"Iser especially looked up to me like a father. He was such a kind and sincere friend that the incident back then must have hit him all the harder. When good children decide to go bad, they can become truly terrifying…"

He let out a groan of distress.

"I should at least make sure he eats something."

And these Ji-ohs never fretted over anything for long. Two beings whose basic creed was "So what?" had fused into one.

He was a kind man, if one had to label him, but more than that he was capable of cold, objective judgment. He never wallowed in self-reproach or regret over things that were not his responsibility. This terror incident was no different.

It looked like a disciple who had been shattered by his master's death and gone astray—but that could hardly be blamed on the dead master Giovanni. The one who had caused the trouble was someone else; there was no reason for him to cower.

"This teacher knows everything, you know. It's all because you're hungry and getting irritable."

"Kkung…?"

"People only gain the composure to care about others once their own stomachs are full."

Ji-oh assessed the state of his old disciple, the mermaid Iser, from a place remarkably free of guilt.

"Most crimes and accidents committed by humans happen because the perpetrators' minds aren't healthy. Ordinary people living stable lives simply don't do those things."

If Iser—who originally couldn't even gut a fish, let alone harm a person—had remained happy and mentally sound, would any of this have happened?

Ji-oh, his hair black once more, gave Honey a firm instruction.

"Honey, you need to remember this well too. Almost no one who's healthy in body and full in the stomach throws tantrums. Fill their bellies and most people become gentle."

"Kkung-kkung?"

"Anyone who still acts up after that is genuinely weird, so just filter them out. If you feed someone and they repay kindness with enmity, either the one who gave the food killed their parents or the one who ate it is the problem."

"Kkung."

"So now the most important question is how I should respond. What should this unworthy teacher say to the disciple who ate him? The fact that he grew into a terrorist is a real headache—I could just never see him again for the rest of my life…"

Of course Ji-oh couldn't do that.

"After all the meals I packed for those kids, I can't just look the other way after one meeting."

He paid no mind to things that were not his responsibility. The terror attack at the Sun Temple initiation was clearly not his fault—yet Giovanni did bear responsibility for the way his old disciple Iser had grown up.

"At the time it seemed like the best choice, but if I hadn't been eaten alive, Iser probably wouldn't have twisted that far."

"Kkuruuk."

Honey nodded. The expression on its face said "That part of what you said sounds right," so Ji-oh had nothing more to add.

"…Anyway, so…"

Wanting to clean up after himself as a human, an adult, and a teacher, he began devising a way to meet the mermaid siblings again.

"From what I remember, the Breathing Sea and Iser's dungeon had pretty similar atmospheres."

Even so, finding the Abyssal Temple through the Breathing Sea seemed like a difficult task. Who would attempt something so reckless without knowing what lay where in that vast world? They might not even be connected at all.

Ji-oh nodded.

"Fortunately, I have the ability to visit other people's dungeons whenever I want."

"Kkuruuk?"

"Yes. Let's try painting it."

Hadn't he already done it once with the Vein of Gems? He had failed at the intended goal of healthy socializing back then, but thanks to that he had been able to save the young student Cha Ah-ra.

"It's a pretty useful ability at this point."

If Yu Seong-un had heard that, he would have lightly called him out with "It's more than just 'pretty useful,'" but Ji-oh was a shut-in loner.

"I could even roast sweet potatoes… Roasted sweet potatoes with a little butter and salt and honey drizzled on top are really delicious."

"Kkureureureuk!!"

"It's similar to honey-glazed stir-fried sweet potatoes but a bit moister and softer. Ah, and if you add a little whipped cream on top of that, it's pure fantasy…"

A lonely young man stuck in a cabin with no internet would never know such common knowledge. To him, his painting ability was no different from a meal truck that kept his stomach full.

Ji-oh went to find his father.

"Father."

"Kkuu."

At some point the teddy-bear version of the Sun God had settled into the cabin for good.

"You've been playing with Dana, I see."

"Kkukku…"

"I'm glad you two seem to be getting along."

The gem cat Anti-cat Dana he had brought back from the Vein of Gems last time had a cold body. He had wondered whether she would match well with the teddy bear that held the Sun's warmth, but their chemistry looked excellent.

"The reason I came is that I want to try meeting Iser again."

"Kkuuu."

"Thank you for the encouragement. I was thinking of painting a passage, but it will probably take quite a bit of time…"

"Kkukku."

"Thank you for your consideration. I left snacks in the storage room, so please help yourself whenever you like."

Even on this Seoul trip he had said "Hehe, I'll just watch the ceremony and head straight home," only to end up spending so much time in the temple.

Preparing for a similar situation this time as well, Ji-oh carefully made every arrangement so that the cabin would remain peaceful and harmonious even without him.

"……"

Seated in his workshop, Ji-oh blinked twice. He muttered to himself.

"…Come to think of it, that temple… probably…"

The Abyssal Temple he had seen felt strangely familiar for some reason.

"Was that the place where I died?"

"Kkureuk."

"I can't remember that part clearly."

"……"

Still, he remembered clearly enough what the dungeon looked like.

"Let's draw it."

Ji-oh began painting the Abyssal Temple.

Pure white pillars imbued with divinity, soaring ceilings, and laboratories that somehow did not feel entirely out of place.

Countless monsters roaming everywhere, and air that shimmered with watery scales…

"……"

Ji-oh sank into the painting.

In the storage room where the finished works were covered with black cloth.

"……"

The Sun God, sitting in the middle of the room with the Anti-cat Dana cradled in his arms, lifted his head and looked toward one corner that was giving off a piercing light.

"…Kkuu."

"Meung?"

"Kkukku…"

The Breathing Sea, which could be called the Sun God's homeland, was resonating.

"Kku."

That this story would reach its end.

The sun submerged in the sea prayed earnestly.

"……"

Ji-oh, his black cloak pulled low over his head, was standing inside the Abyssal Temple.

"Oh."

It worked.

"I felt the same when I went to the Vein of Gems—this is a truly convenient means of travel."

"Kkuruuk."

"Shall we look around a bit?"

The place itself was so vast that he felt no particular urge to find Iser right away. Strictly speaking he was trespassing, so Ji-oh intended to move carefully and examine the surroundings first.

He was still barefoot, having come straight from painting in the workshop, yet the floor was not particularly cold. The shallow seawater covering the ground made a pleasantly lapping sound.

"……"

Having become an uninvited scoundrel who had entered his finely dressed disciple's home without permission, Giovanni felt a momentary pang of self-loathing.

"Maybe I should buy a phone again."

"Kkung…"

"Yeah, the signal wouldn't work anyway."

It was an unavoidable trait of a portrait, but what with the incident in the Collector Guild's gallery as well, it seemed Ji-oh was simply fated to get used to trespassing.

No one expects a living person to pop out of a portrait and invites them into their home, after all.

Ji-oh humbly accepted his destiny of startling countless people in the future. It was funny enough that he didn't mind.

"It hasn't changed much from what I saw last time."

"Kkuruuk."

For better or worse, finding the way was not difficult.

"It feels… familiar, somehow."

Giovanni's memories helped a great deal.

"Because this was where I worked."

"Kkung?"

"Ah, right. This was where I worked. I remember now."

Giovanni nodded.

"I wasn't permanently stuck here, but I did receive my training in this place. Only after being properly recognized as a priest could you go out to other regions and act independently. Until then you had to train in temples like this."

"Kkuru."

"You don't have to worry. My memories aren't complete, but I haven't forgotten the paths themselves. Spending time here with the others last time also brought various things back…"

As he walked, Ji-oh looked around.

"But it still feels unfamiliar."

The temple he remembered had never had research facilities like these.

"……"

Sensing that difference in the passage of years, Giovanni's presence grew fainter.

"Let's head for the exit."

"Kkuruuk."

Ji-oh found the temple stairs and began to climb.

And then he ran into someone.

"……"

"……"

"……?"

What are you doing here?

"……"

Back again, Association hunter Jeong Da-woon continued speaking.

"…Does it still sound a little strange?"

"To be honest, yes. I don't fully understand."

The researcher nodded.

"But I do understand what Hunter Jeong Da-woon is trying to say. Rationally you were fully aware the other party was not human, yet on an instinctive level they felt human to you—is that correct?"

"Yes, exactly."

"Then is there no possibility it was some form of brainwashing of that sort?"

Among monsters—especially humanoid ones—many individuals possessed mental-type skills.

"Even if they aren't humanoid monsters, there are plenty that attempt to mimic humans. If they wrapped themselves in a cloak to hide their true form and used a mental skill to make others perceive them as human, it would fit together more cleanly."

"…It wasn't like that."

Recalling the memory, the hunter shook her head.

"It was a dungeon that had appeared in the sea right after the Abyssal Temple, which had been judged a dungeon of considerable danger. At the time we didn't know the two were connected, but we entered assuming there would be at least some minimal relation."

"Meaning you prepared thoroughly before entry."

"Yes. Among the things we prepared were items against brainwashing. As you've already been briefed, those items are A-rank and can nullify mental-type skills for up to ten people. Of course it's possible that the 'Black Cloak' used a skill above A-rank, but…"

After a brief hesitation, the hunter continued.

"I'm certain. The items didn't react to the Black Cloak at all."

"Not even a little?"

"It wasn't that they failed to defend—there was simply nothing to defend against. The Black Cloak never used a mental-type skill on us even once."

"And yet Hunter Jeong Da-woon still felt that the other party was human. Toward someone so alien that you yourself felt a sense of dissonance."

"It was almost a conviction. To the point that denying it myself felt impossible."

That was truly absurd.

"For some reason it felt as reassuring as lying in a cozy bed, and then that very feeling made me break out in goosebumps. It was a little encouraging, and… I'm sorry. I can't describe it any more precisely."

"I understand."

After offering a brief word of comfort, the researcher continued the questions.

"Then let's return to the earlier topic. Rather than focusing on the Black Cloak's identity, please describe that entity's actions. How did you first encounter him?"

"…It was after we had entered the third stage, the Abyssal Temple. Since it was a place that had already swallowed people once in the form of a virtual dungeon, there were definitely traces of other people. Of course, in the end there was no one who could truly be called human…"

The hunter spoke as if the memory still made her dizzy.

"While wandering the temple like that, we ran into a humanoid monster."

"The report lists it as 'Iser the Mermaid.' Do you believe it is the same entity as the 'Eun-ha' reported by Priest Kang Seo-dam of the Sun Temple?"

"How could it not be? Ah, of course the one we met was in an adult form, not a child's. It was our first time facing a humanoid monster, so we were all tense."

"Well, it really has been a long time since a humanoid monster was officially sighted."

The hunter bobbed her head in thanks for the understanding and went on.

"He introduced himself as a mermaid, and said his name was Iser. Just as Priest Kang Seo-dam described, he had pearl-colored eyes and bright blue-green hair. Comparing him to the photos of 'Eun-ha' from that report, he was definitely the same individual."

Looking exhausted, the hunter crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.

"As for the dungeon's story… you already know…"

"The report describes it as 'a monster born from the tragedy of having cruelly lost a beloved human.'"

"Like all monsters, his hatred for humans was enormous. But his human mimicry was so skilled that at first we even wondered if he was a priest who had simply failed to escape."

Approaching them with a priest's characteristic benevolent smile, he had seemed far closer to human.

"He didn't keep up the act for long, though. We only hesitated for a moment before realizing he was a monster, and Iser the Mermaid apparently had no intention of maintaining the performance either… because combat began."

"And you said you managed to escape safely. Correct?"

"For some reason the entity showed a strange reaction. Our team at the time judged that something must have gone wrong with the dungeon. He left the other monsters to deal with us and went somewhere else."

"But the cause of that was…"

"Yes."

As if to say her guess was right, the hunter nodded.

"We realized the moment we saw that being that the reason Iser fled was probably because of the Black Cloak."

"I'll ask again—how exactly did you meet him?"

"…He asked for our identities."

The memory was still vivid.

"He asked… what our names were."

The hunter added that the chill of that moment had been beyond description.

It was, of course, a remark that would make Ji-oh feel deeply wronged, thinking Can't I even introduce myself properly?

(To be continued)