It seemed like Mo Gyeon had momentarily forgotten why he was here. When I properly reminded him, his expression turned bitter.

Maybe I said it too cynically, even if it was true.

“I actually want to go with you too.”

“Really?”

At those words, his eyes sparkled brightly.

“Yeah. But what if we can’t find the Silver Tree then? We’d have to run around all night. And I’m scared of encountering elemental monster spirits.”

“If it’s elemental monsters, I can easily evade―”

“Isn’t it better for Hunter Ju Cheongyeon to get hurt than for you to get hurt?”

I whispered the last words into Mo Gyeon’s ear.

Of course, Hunter Ju Cheongyeon wouldn’t get hurt even if he encountered elemental monsters. He could just teleport away before being targeted.

Although Mo Gyeon was fast too, teleportation was more reliable, so I just said that to comfort him.

“I don’t want to see you getting hurt anymore.”

“Bom…”

However, Mo Gyeon’s eyes reddened as if moved by my clumsy acting.

‘Ah, I feel a bit guilty.’

Mo Gyeon often didn’t want to be separated from me, like a puppy with separation anxiety. It was probably largely due to his skill.

The skill description clearly stated ‘protect’. It seemed he worried about me being in dangerous situations where he couldn’t see me.

“Can you wait and take good care of the campsite?”

“Alright. Leave it to me.”

I soothed him like I would Choco, gently patting his head. I didn’t want to give him anxiety that might negatively affect our relationship.

Hunter Ju Cheongyeon was watching this scene with interest.

Finally, the day of our outing arrived, and I packed my backpack full of items, just like when I first left the campsite with Hunter Chae Dong Hwa.

Since the Silver Tree only appears at night, we had adjusted our condition to match the time when the sun set.

“Bom. You know what to do if that guy tries anything weird, right? What I told you?”

Mo Gyeon and the monsters came out to see us off. What Mo Gyeon had instructed was too embarrassing to explain in words.

It was all rather aggressive methods, like hitting a man’s weak spot would incapacitate even Ju Cheongyeon, or picking sharp berries to carry for self-defense.

It seemed he considered Hunter Ju Cheongyeon himself more of a threat than the monsters.

“I got it. Now go inside. Teddy and Gold, don’t worry and go back in too.”

I nodded roughly and greeted the monsters as well.

“Master! Please be careful!”

“Bring back magic stones! Boss, bring back magic stones!”

Unlike Gold, who only had magic stones on his mind, Teddy’s expression was full of all sorts of worries.

“Okay. I understand. Please take good care of the campsite while I’m gone.”

Anyone watching would think I was leaving for another country. Of course, I’m still a bit scared, but not as nervous as when I first left the campsite.

I waved goodbye to those seeing us off as we moved away. When they looked about the size of a fist in the distance, Hunter Ju Cheongyeon asked, looking at my backpack that was bigger than my body:

“So you can take out camping supplies if you put them in here, right?”

“Yes. Even vegetables harvested from the garden go in.”

“That’s interesting.”

Hunter Ju Cheongyeon seemed really interested in me. More precisely, in my class.

I understood why he found it fascinating, since it was a class and skills I had never heard of either.

Since we’d be traveling together for a long time, I thought it would be good for him to know about my skills, so I had already roughly explained the Backpacker skill.

“Can I use the invincibility skill first?”

“Yes.”

I immediately used the ‘Invincible Backpacker (S)’ skill.

[Invincible Backpacking Quest

− Read the LNT guidelines thoroughly.

− Reward: 3 hours of invincibility]

When using the skill, the first quest that appears is to read the guidelines thoroughly.

[‘Yu Bom (D)’ has completed the ‘Invincible Backpacking Quest’.] [You have received ‘3 hours of invincibility’ as a reward.]

I completed it easily and checked the buff.

“It’s done. But how do we use teleportation together? Do we form a group?”

“No.”

Hunter Ju Cheongyeon gently grasped my hand.

“We just need to be in physical contact like this.”

“Ah…”

He was a person with surprisingly little sense of personal space. Like when he first came under the Raphnas leaf, and now suddenly grabbing my hand.

Although his straightforward approach didn’t evoke any strange emotions, it still felt awkward to hold hands with someone I didn’t know well.

But if I let go, we wouldn’t be able to use the skill. As I reluctantly gripped back awkwardly, he muttered something rather ominous.

“It’s better to hold on tight, as your hand might get cut off if you let go midway.”

“Really?!”

I immediately grasped Hunter Ju Cheongyeon’s hand with both of mine. He laughed out loud, as if finding that sight funny.

“Hey, Ju Cheongyeon, what are you…!”

Mo Gyeon, watching from afar, shouted as if about to rush over. But we teleported instantly, so I couldn’t hear everything he was saying.

The feeling of teleportation was, how should I put it… Like a camera flash going off every second, with the background changing each time.

The sounds from the surroundings also changed subtly, as if someone was playing a prank by alternately pressing the play and stop buttons.

“Are you feeling dizzy?”

“No. I can hear Hunter Ju Cheongyeon’s voice without interruption. It’s amazing.”

Only his appearance and voice remained unbroken in the frame. Suddenly, I thought that if I had experienced this sight alone, it might have been a bit scary.

It was that unfamiliar and a sensation I had never experienced before.

“But Hunter, you’re seeing everything around us as we go, right?”

“Yes.”

“For me, it’s happening so quickly that I don’t even know where we are.”

Maybe because it was night, it was even harder to distinguish the environment. Everything was glowing blue, the trees we passed all looked the same, and the sky’s scenery was so chaotic it made my head spin.

Then suddenly, an incredible light and heat were felt.

“Whoa!”

What was that? It was a very brief moment.

As if the sun was right beside us, an enormous energy was felt and then disappeared.

Though it was just an instant, it was so intense that I was completely dumbfounded.

“What was that just now?”

“It’s an elemental monster. A fire elemental spirit called an Ifrit. It was about 10m away, but it’s still quite hot.”

That was 10m away?

If it were right next to us, wouldn’t we be roasted alive?

Elemental monsters are treated as mid-bosses. I heard they were incredibly strong, and their presence was clearly on a different level from ordinary monsters.

“I understand why hunters don’t fight at night. It feels like you’d get burned if you were right next to it.”

“That’s why when facing such elemental monsters, we equip gear with resistance to that attribute. Since we’ll have to defeat them someday for expeditions, we need to be prepared.”

“Are there more like that Ifrit?”

“Yes. There are mainly four elemental monsters. Undine, Ifrit, Gnome, and Sylph. They’re all spirit-type monsters that govern nature.”

I asked various things while we were moving. There wasn’t much else to do besides talking with him.

“It’s said that after defeating three mid-bosses and all four elemental mid-bosses, the Elemental King, the king of spirits, appears.”

“Is that perhaps the final boss of the Blue Starlight Valley?”

“Probably. It’s not certain since it’s based on the giants’ murals, but…”

Hunter Ju Cheongyeon also informed me that most giant-type monsters are born with good handiwork and artistic qualities.

So their strongholds have murals depicting the dungeon’s history and way of life, which is very helpful for research.

“The Elemental King’s image is often depicted in those murals, and it seems the monsters revere the Elemental King as a god, almost like a religion. The Lamiae tribe is the same in this regard.”

“The Lamiae tribe too?”

“Yes. The Lamiae believe that the Elemental King exists everywhere in the dungeon. They say it watches their actions and words in the sky, earth, and air on a large scale. And that the Elemental King’s breath can be felt even in small leaves and dewdrops. That’s why they have a philosophy of not disregarding even the smallest life.”

Hearing this naturally reminded me of the Amazon indigenous people. It’s said that the Amazon natives also live preserving their traditions while feeling nature’s inherent scent.

Perhaps these similarities are because both indigenous groups are not close to modern civilization? I heard that the appearance of natives differs in each dungeon, so I became curious about what the Blue Starlight Valley natives might look like.

“Then does the Elemental King not have a real physical form?”

“That’s not the case. In the murals, it’s depicted as large as a planet. Perhaps it’s thought to be unrealistic because of that appearance?”

“What if it really is that big? How do you defeat it then?”

“Even so, there must be other ways to tackle it. Although the size difference is significant, even in temple-type dungeons there are statue monsters bigger than buildings, but there are strategies for each of them.”

“I see… I think I’d be too scared to do anything if I stood in front of such a monster.”

When I made a slightly scared expression, Hunter Ju Cheongyeon laughed, saying that wouldn’t happen. Seeing his relaxed demeanor, I felt anew that he was from a different world than mine.

“If a monster like that came out of the portal, it would be nothing short of a real disaster, right?”

Like Hunter Ju Cheongyeon, my brother and mom must have encountered countless such monsters.

“Fortunately, the Elemental King is known to be an extremely docile monster. As long as humans don’t recklessly ravage the Blue Starlight Valley that the Elemental King loves, the chances of it crossing over to our world are extremely low.”

That fact was reassuring.

He also told me many interesting stories about dungeons that ordinary people wouldn’t know.

I was so absorbed that I lost track of time, just like when I listened to mom’s dungeon stories as a child.

Also, while mom’s stories had a strong fairy tale-like image, Hunter Ju Cheongyeon only spoke based on facts, which made it even more immersive.

“I think we’ve found the Silver Tree. We should arrive in just a bit more.”

“Really?”

We had gotten close to our destination while chatting.