“Do I really have to throw it? After going through all that trouble to summon it?”
Looking at the description, I wasn’t quite sure how to utilize it. It was definitely a high-level skill with various attributes combined…
“But if it moves purely by my will, wouldn’t that be telekinesis?”
A message popped up, turning my doubts into certainty.
– “Prove that the weapon summoned through [Window of Darkness] can defeat a monster and is a telekinesis-type skill!”
– Defeat 0/100
– Reward: Conditions for [Meteor] established
“Phew… Well, I guess it gets judged as a similar ability after all.”
The system seemed to find it a bit ambiguous to categorize as telekinesis, so a small quest was assigned.
If I could just prove that this ability has the same power as telekinesis, I would get my hands on a top-tier magic spell.
The requirements were to defeat just a hundred monsters, which was like eating cold rice compared to the ten thousand I had to take out during my job change.
I nodded my head and looked down at the chunk of ‘Diva’ that was split in two.
“Hmm… Cutting off the head definitely looks like a woman. Should I eat this or not?”
I momentarily hesitated while staring at the human body and the monster’s head but finally picked up the monster’s head.
“Maybe it’d be better to eat this.”
I took a piece of hair that was still burning and had turned into a thickness the size of my pinky finger and shoved it into my mouth.
– “Would you like to add ‘Diva’ to the crafting of ‘Boiling Beast’?”
“No… Does it ask every time?”
– “‘Diva’s’ information analysis is postponed.”
– “Analysis will begin once ‘Boiling Beast’ is created.”
Anyway, it was the second piece of information I was gaining about minions after the doppelganger in this dungeon.
The first living statue I hunted wasn’t a living creature, so putting a stone fragment in my mouth didn’t activate any ability.
I carelessly tossed the corpse of an unknown woman who had the backstory of becoming a monster after being cursed by demons into my storage space.
“I don’t even feel any aversion anymore… Should I test the skill now?”
Just then, a monster was caught in the wave of my senses.
I quickly moved towards the monster and discovered a ‘Pierce Big Boar’ eagerly munching on something growing on the ground.
“Chowing down on grass, huh? What a strange guy. But why is it eating in such a tense state? It looks like it ran quite a distance, given how much it’s sweating.”
I had my suspicions, but I climbed onto a branch above the creature and activated [Window of Darkness].
A black soccer ball-sized vacuum opened above my right hand, and a half-broken shortsword popped out, floating in the air.
“……..Wow— So it really summons a weapon randomly, but this is kinda not it.”
Even a Pierce Big Boar would struggle to deal the finishing blow with a shortsword that had a half-no blade.
The condition to defeat a hundred monsters was limited to the weapons summoned through the ‘Window of Darkness’, so summoning a bone dagger from the storage space wouldn’t count.
“This isn’t going to be as easy as I thought.”
First, I wanted to check whether I could control the summoned sword according to my will.
Whoosh—
“Whoa… It works!”
Watching the sword rapidly whirl in the air, I felt more confident that controlling it wasn’t as difficult as I imagined.
I felt thrilled, thinking I had reached the level of ‘Swordsmanship’ I had seen in martial arts novels.
“Oh! What if I…?”
I returned the sword to its place and summoned a dagger from storage.
Then I started sharpening the end of the broken sword with precision cuts.
Snip— Snap—
“Kiikk?”
The Big Boar flinched slighty from the debris that fell from the sky but soon resumed its frenzied grass munching.
Before long, the shortsword I was honing was now quite sharp.
“I’ll put you to sleep without pain!”
I leapt toward the Big Boar and lightly struck its head with the club I received from ‘Ddung-i’.
“Kuik!”
It trembled and collapsed to the ground, and without wasting a moment, I unleashed my telekinesis toward its vital spot.
“Fly!”
The shortsword flew straight toward the Big Boar upon the manifestation of my will.
Thwack──!
“Kuikit!”
“Whoa… The accuracy isn’t bad, huh?”
With its final cries, the Pierce Big Boar breathed its last, and a message appeared that made me smile.
– Defeated 1/100
“Hahaha, this’ll work.”
Seeing the counter move, I felt more confident and set out to look for monsters in earnest.
[Window of Darkness]
Summoning weapons randomly from somewhere I didn’t know was surprisingly entertaining.
A second weapon emerged from the vacuum summoned over my right hand.
“Whoa… These are extremes, aren’t they?”
It was another sword, but this one was incredibly massive. Really huge…
“Who on earth would use something like this? Even an ogre wouldn’t use something this big.”
A 7-meter long great sword appeared from the storage space, and despite no bloodstains on it, the numerous spots of rust made it look inferior to the shortsword I summoned earlier.
Typically, weapons made by dwarves wouldn’t rust easily once they reached a certain level, so by that standard, this looked like a pretty bad sword.
“This does seem fun to summon.”
Since I had to throw it before drawing the next weapon, I had to find a target.
“Chirio-long—”
I spotted a ‘Hanjaring’ happily munching on fruits perched on a tree.
I focused my will on its body and the great sword.
Whoosh—
With a heavy sound that sliced through the air, the great sword was thrown, and the Hanjaring was impaled, exploding against the tree.
– Defeated 2/100
“Hmm… Nice. Should I try summoning multiple weapons?”
Afterwards, I performed tests and could verify several conditions of this ability.
First, a thrown weapon would disappear after about a minute, and it would also vanish the same if placed back into storage.
The cooldown for summoning weapons was also about a minute.
To summon multiple weapons, I would need to level up the skill.
And I found it interesting that most of the weapons had an obvious history of usage.
“There’s a faint trace of magic left on them. It feels as if there was an intense battle just moments ago.”
Even a battered battle axe looked weathered and torn apart, holding the magic of its previous owner. It was an unusual situation.
“Considering the weapons come through space, I shouldn’t judge them by common sense.”
Whether the weapons I summoned were stolen or discarded, what did it matter?
Several hours passed as I continued to defeat monsters by delivering the final blow with the [Window of Darkness] skill.
Looking back at the condition of the weapons that had emerged, the enormous sword I summoned second had ironically remained in the best condition.
“Damn it, this is a fun ability, but it’s too shabby.”
I had hoped I would summon an extraordinary weapon at least once, but everything turned out to be garbage.
Most of them wouldn’t even qualify as weapons, and I had even seen sword handles that were completely missing blades several times.
In the end, I had to be satisfied with being able to control the stabbed dagger without touching it. Regardless, that alone should be quite effective in battles against lizardmen, the targets for my job change quest.
– Defeated 34/100
“Ah, damn it, this is frustrating. Progress is slower than I thought!”
The lousy weapons that emerged and the lengthy time it took to find monsters in this enormous forest added to my irritation.
“When I level up, will amazing weapons start appearing?”
I didn’t particularly expect great things as the rate of growth varies significantly among skills.
I reminisced about the moments I had failed to defeat monsters by throwing weapons and naturally headed towards the boss battle area.
It felt like about five hours had passed since entering the dungeon, and considering that the time to clear the Pastiche dungeon is shorter than others, there wasn’t much time left for me today.
Still, the moments spent exploring alone were precious, and even though my level hadn’t risen, I was steadily accumulating experience.
When I had entered the Pastiche dungeon yesterday and defeated the monsters, I hadn’t felt even a hint of experience coming in; this was on a whole different level.
“Since my experience is shared, Yeon-hee will reach level 80 in no time.”
Thinking about how we were connected by an invisible thread, I didn’t feel lonely.
– Defeated 50/100
Right around the time I had accomplished exactly half of the quest, I sensed the paladin party I saw before descending underground hastily moving towards the exit.
I was initially keeping an eye on the blue-eyed deity adorned with the Flame Mark, maintaining a safe distance, but they suddenly began to speed up.
“Hmm… If they’re moving that quickly, something must’ve happened. Is it the doppelganger after all?”
I felt intrigued and approached them.
Not long after, when the paladin party came into view, I quickly figured out the situation.
There were two men who looked identical.
“The doppelganger copied one of the paladins. But I don’t understand why they’re leaving it alone. Couldn’t it even speak properly?”
Furthermore, these paladins were the quickest to detect a dark aura. Why were they leaving a doppelganger unattended?
“Roy, I keep saying, we absolutely shouldn’t act outside the rules we’ve set!”
“Yes-!”
“Looks like that one can talk after all.”
It sounded like the leader of the paladin party spoke, and two glasses-wearing men with yellow curly hair responded in unison.
They looked just like each other, and their voices seemed identical too.
A third man sitting nearby was tearing his hair out and exclaimed.
“I… I cannot figure this out!”
“This is maddening. No matter how much of a mutant it might be, how can its aura feel exactly the same?”
“A mutant…? Already?”
No matter how much of a mutant it turned out to be, a doppelganger wouldn’t be able to copy memories from this dungeon level—
“It seems it’s copied their speech and intonation, even memories.”
“It has indeed copied.”
“Isn’t this something only the doppelgangers from higher level dungeons can do?”
“That’s what I thought. There were no issues with the reports registered at the management agency until yesterday.”
“I cut off about half a finger, but there were no tentacles at all. Should I slice its neck open a bit?”
“No, doing that won’t reveal its identity… Haah— This is driving me crazy. It’ll go berserk before we get to the boss battle, that much is certain. Those bastards are unexpectedly strong.”
“Could it be that monsters are also fleeing to lower-grade dungeons like the hunters?”
“Now, that’s an interesting hypothesis.”
“Hmm… That actually sounds plausible. If it weren’t for the hypothesis itself, it wouldn’t be surprising.”
I reached out my sensing waves to closely examine the two men who looked just alike.
If I had met them for the first time, distinguishing them would have been tough, but perhaps thanks to the focused memory I had about the blue-eyed deity, figuring out who the doppelganger was was not so hard.
