Something was seriously wrong.
I mean, logically speaking, could this really happen just from placing my hands on their shoulders?
Feeling a bit off, I lit a cigarette as things became darker in my mind.
Kim Seungjun wasn’t the real issue here. Hansooji was manageable. But Reina… She was different. Her strength, driven by her feelings for Choi Siwoo—yes, that all-too-common name of the hero—was the real problem.

"This doesn’t make any sense."

No matter how much I thought about it, it lacked coherence. And what was with Bbeommi?
Well, Bbeommi was always a bit out there. Fine, I'll let that slide. But Reina?
Was it because I spanked her earlier? Is this some kind of weird spanking-induced awakening?

Did slapping her butt awaken some sort of depraved nature in this twisted Spirit Arrow girl?

"What are you muttering about over there?"
"Shut it, you mutt."
"Mutt?"

Slap!

After playfully insulting Hansooji, I gave Reina’s behind another firm slap.

"Heuhng!"
"That’s quite a reaction."

No matter how many times I slapped her, Reina’s response remained the same.
Yep, no doubt about it, Reina was a pervert.
If she continued down this path, her usefulness in battles against the great evils in the future would decrease.
Should I encourage Choi Siwoo to try spanking her instead?
If that guy doesn’t do something to help her, this perverted archer might turn into a lesbian, which would pose a real threat to the world.
What kind of messed-up logic is this?
Should I lock them in a room together with alcohol and hope something happens? No, that might lead to even bigger problems.

And what about Bbeommi?

"Bbeommi-jang, do you like me?"
"Hawawa, so embarrassing! White-haired sister, you’re my ideal woman!"

A woman like me as her ideal? This girl had definitely lost her mind.
At least she wasn’t into girls.
Still, the thought of someone like Bbeommi liking me made my head spin.

-Hawawa! White-haired sister! I love you! Marry me!

Ugh, even imagining that made me feel queasy.
But at least she wasn’t a heroine, so I didn’t have to worry about the original story getting wrecked.
In any case, while we were talking nonsense, we had taken down a dozen or so goblins whose specialty seemed to be staring at us with lustful eyes.
Yet, Kim Seungjun, that bastard, still hadn’t shown himself.

"So, what do we do? This bastard Kim Seungjun isn’t showing up. If he ambushes us in the forest, we’re screwed."
"Leave it to me!"
"Bbeommi-jang, what are you planning?"
"Trees are weak to fire! Naturally, a forest made of trees is also weak to fire!"

I couldn't believe the ridiculous logic coming out of her mouth. My spine started tingling with dread.

"...And what exactly do you mean by that?"

Even though anxiety was creeping in, I had to hear her out. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have time to prepare for whatever chaos she had in store.

"Burn it down! Bbeommi! Meteor Crash!"
"What the hell?"

Despite being inside a dungeon, massive meteors began forming above us and rained down upon the forest.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

She skillfully avoided hitting us, but the rest of the forest was completely incinerated, like a scene from the Mongolian army's scorched-earth tactics.
This was even worse than a post-apocalyptic Seoul after the Great Cataclysm.
I had severely underestimated Bbeommi-jang. Just because she spoke like an airhead didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of unleashing this level of destruction.
Her magic was even more destructive than Reina’s Spirit Arrow.

There was no way I could redirect something that massive, even with acceleration powers. Not with a woman's physical strength. It was impossible to counter that.

"Where on earth did you find a friend like this?"
"I… I have no idea."

I think Bbeommi's way of speaking was starting to infect me.
The once dense forest had been reduced to an open field of ash.
The remaining piles of ash must have been the goblins who had ogled us.
If we had killed them normally, we could’ve at least salvaged some small cores, but now we were in a bind.

"Hawawa, no need to shower me with praise! But Bbeommi can’t use offensive magic for the next six hours after casting that spell!"

Wait, what? So, in other words, she’s dead weight now?

"Well, I guess I’ll pray that Kim Seungjun is already dead."

Trying to take down Kim Seungjun with dead weight on our side was going to be a real problem.
He was a monster now, and we had veered off the original story. Choi Siwoo would have been a huge help with his holy sword, but here I was, stuck in this mess.
I’d really messed up. Now that Bbeommi-jang was out of commission, I started to feel a real sense of dread.
Could this just end up making things easier for Kim Seungjun?

"I have a question."
"What is it?"
"What would happen if you stabbed a man in the groin with a knife 9,999 times?"

I’d already attacked him once. Who’s to say I couldn’t do it again and again?

"Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just give him a gender reassignment surgery?"
"Depends on the situation."

In the original, Kim Seungjun doesn’t survive.
Of course, Choi Siwoo, being the righteous character he is, spares him, hoping he will turn his life around.
But according to the Black God Cult’s doctrine, Kim Seungjun dies, and his core is reclaimed.
Since he’s doomed anyway, why not let us be the ones to take him down?
If we can't subdue him, it’s better to kill him outright.

"Ugh!"
"Why are you throwing up all of a sudden?"

We were walking along when Reina suddenly started retching.
Could she be having morning sickness or something?

"How could there be this much demonic energy in a training dungeon? Ugh!"

Demonic energy, also known as "magi," flowed within dungeons and gates.
During the Great Cataclysm, magi leaked from the gates, putting the entire world in danger.
It could even disrupt a person’s ability to control mana, and prolonged exposure could turn a person into a monster.
Most humans would feel a slight tremor in their skin, followed by headaches and difficulty breathing.
But in recent times, dungeons with enough magi to affect people were rare.
The only places that still had such concentrations of magi were closed dungeons and gates left over from the Cataclysm.
In other words, it shouldn’t be possible for magi to be flowing here.
This never happened in the original story either, so it was definitely strange.

"Ugh, it’s so disgusting."
"Good thing I wore a magi-absorption suit just in case. But, Yoonha, why are you completely fine?"
"Me? It’s my unique ability."

It was probably thanks to my affinity.
It’s really handy, you know? Whether it’s freezing cold or scorching heat, my affinity lets me adapt to any environment.
That includes places overflowing with magi.

"How many unique abilities do you even have?"
"By the way, that ‘reflection’ thing I used on you, Reina, wasn’t real. I just have an ability to adapt to my surroundings."
"So, you lied to me?"

Reina furrowed her brow in disappointment.
I awkwardly laughed and shook my head.

"You’re only a fool if you get tricked."

"It’s not the time to be chatting. We don’t know what monsters are lurking in this much magi."

Right. If magi was overflowing, it meant that powerful monsters were nearby.
If we encountered something too strong, our best option would be to run.

"I wish we had known. It would’ve been better if Bbeommi-jang hadn’t used her meteor crash and we’d taken out the goblins ourselves."
"You didn’t tell me to, so what could I do?"

The area around us was scorched, but had I known about the magi, I wouldn’t have let her use that spell here.
Even though I could see the magi swirling around with my enhanced sight, both Reina and Hansooji were clearly uneasy.

"Oh, there’s something in the center of the magi."
"It looks like it might be Kim Seungjun."

At this point, I should describe Kim Seungjun.
He was a typical scrawny guy—glasses, short hair, an extra in every sense of the word, with the face of an early-stage villain.
The reason I’m saying this now is because the creature standing within the swirling magi didn’t look like Kim Seungjun at all.
His body had bulked up significantly, as if he had focused all his energy on physical enhancement.
Could it be that the magi was flowing out of Kim Seungjun?

"Wait, something’s off."
"Gr…ggrrrr."
"Oh gross."

The thing emerging from the magi looked like a goblin-like version of Kim Seungjun.
Had he always had such a goblin-like face? Now that I thought about it, maybe people compared him to one because of his looks.
To be honest, his face resembled a goblin, and he had a scrawny frame to match. His personality wasn’t any better, either, with his weird obsession over the holy sword. If I were anyone else, I’d avoid him too.
The thing staggered out of the magi and showed its ugly face to us.

"Choi Siwoo... Yoo...Eunha... I will never forgive you."

It seemed that the long exposure to the magi within the Goblin’s Labyrinth had deformed him.
His nose and chin were sticking out, and his eyes had bulged out like a toad’s.
In short, he looked disgusting.
What kind of horrible parent would have given birth to such a creature? What sins did they commit in a past life to deserve such a child?
Oh right, this is a novel, and I’m dreaming. I need to get a grip.
Still, his obsessive ranting was as pathetic as ever.

"Why are you so obsessed with the holy sword anyway?"
"My father, who passed away, was a candidate for the holy sword. Naturally, the title of hero should be mine! How could you and Choi Siwoo ever understand?"

What a ridiculous excuse.
There was no saving him. If that’s how it was going to be, I’d just have to finish him off.

"As Yoo Eunha, I hereby declare that I’ll send you straight to your father."

At my words, his face contorted with rage, and he lunged at me.

"Bbeommi-jang, hang back. Reina, support with Spirit Arrows. Hansooji, you and I will take him head-on."

Bbeommi-jang scurried to the rear, Reina nocked an arrow, and Hansooji readied her spear.
I drew my sword, pointing it at him.
I wasn’t going to use acceleration or my parallel circuits just yet. I didn’t know if I could win, but I’d fight him with only my raw strength for now.
Kim Seungjun leaped like a frog, claws extended, aiming right at us.

Clang!

He wasn’t an ordinary foe. His large frame, easily over 100 kilograms, bore down on me like a weight.
Maybe I was a little caught off guard, but his grotesque face twisted as he pressed down with all his might.

"Did you forget about me?"

Hansooji timed her strike perfectly, thrusting her flaming spear.
But it only grazed him. Kim Seungjun hopped back like a frog, landing a few paces away.

"Kikikiki. I’ll deal with Hansooji first. Gwaaagh!"

He spat some sort of bile at her.
Of course, Hansooji dodged, but wherever his vomit landed, it seemed to ignite on contact with her spear.

"Damn it. I can’t use fire."
"Can’t you control it?"
"Sorry, I haven’t reached that level yet. I could end up killing you all by accident."

We had no choice. We’d have to handle this the old-fashioned way.
With Reina’s Spirit Arrows, we still had the numbers advantage.
Should I use acceleration and parallel circuits?

"Bbeommi-jang, does this sword have any special traits?"
"Hawawa! It’s magic-resistant!"
"Magic resistance?"

Kim Seungjun had a second phase.
His first phase made him look like some kind of frog-goblin hybrid, but the second phase would fully transform him into a goblin.
And if his first phase was this tough, what would the second be like?
Out of all of us, I was the one who knew Kim Seungjun best.
I couldn’t let Reina and Hansooji recklessly attack him. We couldn’t afford to make things worse for ourselves.
In the original story, this dungeon didn’t even have magi.
This was all because of Kim Seungjun.
Reina, Bbeommi-jang, and Hansooji could die here if I wasn’t careful.
In this altered reality, everything felt too real. I guess living in a novel-like dream would be similar to reality.

"I can’t keep this up."

None of our attacks were landing any critical hits.
Reina was only effective with her bow, and Hansooji was barely managing with her spear. But she hadn’t fully unlocked the true power of her weapon yet, which made things difficult.

"What?"
"Reina, Hansooji, fall back. I’ll handle him alone."

It would be better if I faced him alone.

"What are you going to do?"
"I can’t let either of you get hurt. I’ll deal with him myself."

Though Kim Seungjun’s body had grown stronger, his mind was still as slow as ever.
If I exploited that, I might be able to beat him.

"Bring it on, you bastard."

-Acceleration Parallel Circuit.

Suddenly, my mind filled with countless lines of text.

[Hate frogs. Hate frogs. Hate frogs. Hate frogs. Hate frogs. Hate frogs. Hate frogs. Hate frogs...]

A wave of loathing surged through me.
It felt like I had already experienced this before, and my body instinctively recoiled in disgust.
This thing was no longer human. It was a monster, not just a transformed person.
It couldn’t be allowed to live.
I tightened my grip on my sword and rushed at the creature.
I slashed, but it didn’t leave a mark. The monster’s body was tough, but I had to keep striking.

[Hate frogs.]

The pure, instinctive hatred I felt drove me to attack over and over again.
The frog-like creature couldn’t keep up with my speed.
It couldn’t even properly defend itself.

"You wretched... thing!"

The frog swung its claws at me, but I dodged with just a slight tilt of my body and struck its side.
My entire body tingled with discomfort. I needed to end this quickly.
If I didn’t, I felt like I would suffocate under the weight of my disgust.

Crack!

Finally, cracks started forming along the creature’s body.
Even with its enhanced physical strength, there were limits.
Gripping my sword with both hands, I aimed for its head.

"Wa-wait! Stop! You can’t!"

[The frog speaks. I hate frogs. So I crushed it.]

Crunch!