How to Get on the Main Character’s Flower Path

 

Kangyoo looked at us with a resentful expression.

 

It was true that he had planned things without Kangyoo, so he had nothing to say.

 

Looking at Na Yuhan without saying anything, he said awkwardly.

 

“When I said I was going to clear the gate, he followed me all the way…”

 

What did you say again.

 

I swallowed a sigh and gazed at Kangyoo.

 

He was looking at me with bright eyes.

 

“Kangyoo. Do you remember that you entered the Academy on the condition that you wouldn’t do practical training?”

 

“This isn’t practical training, so it’s okay.”

 

“Don’t be stubborn. It’s dangerous, so you can’t.”

 

Kangyoo flinched at the firm words, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of backing down.

 

“If the place you’re going to is dangerous, I should help you even more! That’s why I came to the Academy! I’m not a burden to you anymore!”

 

“That’s not what I meant. Kangyoo, I don’t want you to suffer because of me. This is my job. You don’t have to take risks—”

 

“Me too. Do you think I don’t? It was so hard to always see my older siblings suffer because of me! So I was so happy when I found out I was strong!”

 

“…”

 

Kangyoo’s fists were clenched as if he had made up his mind.

 

“I want to help Sister. No matter how hard the process is, I’ll be really happy. Because now I can finally repay what I received from you!”

 

Just as I was feeling a strange emotion at his true feelings that he had unexpectedly learned, Park Siwoo opened his mouth.

 

“You said this dungeon wasn’t that dangerous, right?”

 

“Huh? Yeah. If you prepare well. I’ve prepared the items, so it won’t be that dangerous.”

 

Park Siwoo nodded at Na Yuhan’s answer and said.

 

“Then how about Kangyoo going with us too?”

 

“Siwoo?!”

 

“Brother…!” 

 

“It’s not a very dangerous dungeon, but if we leave him like this, it seems like he’ll chase after us alone.”

 

Hearing his words, I stared at Kangyoo. He flinched as if he was being stabbed, and avoided my gaze.

 

“…Right. Maybe it’d be better to keep him by our side and protect him… But are the others okay?”

 

“Ah, I’m okay!”

 

“No problem.”

 

“M-Me too! I think it’s better that way!”

 

I see…

 

After hearing my friends’ answers, I looked at the seniors.

 

“I think this way would be more fun~”

 

“Mmhm. It’s fine.”

 

I wanted the seniors to stop them, yet they didn’t seem to have any intention to.

 

I let out a deep sigh.

 

“What about you, Yuhan?”

 

“Me too. Kangyoo is strong.”

 

“Yeah. I’m strong!”

 

I sighed and reluctantly allowed Kangyoo to participate. He was very happy and jumped around. 

 

I was worried that Kangyoo would get hurt, but on the other hand, I also thought that it might be overprotective of me to forcefully stop him.

 

I was also worried that if I left him alone and he came in without any countermeasures, he might get seriously hurt.

 

I looked at the excited Kangyoo, and with mixed feelings, headed to the gate with him.

 

***

 

Soon after, a gate appeared in front of where we were.

 

The pitch-black darkness, like paint spreading, was where we were going.

 

The Dungeon of the Dark Spirit.

 

This is how the novel called this dungeon.

 

“Did you all bring your potions?”

 

“Yes!”

 

We drank the potions that Na Yuhan gave us.

 

Then, a faint light appeared around our bodies, and the shapes of things in the darkness began to appear clearly.

 

The pitch-black darkness before our eyes was none other than a cave.

 

It was as if a ghost was coming out. I could clearly see Shin Baran’s surprised expression. Yet she soon took a deep breath and started walking as if she had prepared herself.

 

“Let’s go!”

 

Thump… Thump…

 

The sound of water drops falling could be heard.

 

The sound of the soles of our shoes hitting the stone floor resonated.

 

We all walked without letting our guard down.

 

As we went deeper into the cave, we came to a fork in the road.

 

And at that moment,

 

“Shin Baran! Two o’clock! Target the eyes!”

 

Shoot—!

 

Dark shadowy hands rushed toward us from inside the cave on the right.

 

They had red eyes embedded in their palms and moved like octopus legs.

 

“HIEEEEK…!”

 

Shin Baran was startled, but carefully targeted their eyes with arrows of light.

 

KIEEEEKH—-!!!

 

As soon as the arrows containing Shin Baran’s holy attribute magic hit their eyes, they turned to dust and disappeared, leaving only the red eyes, or cores.

 

Shin Baran took another deep breath with tears in his eyes. Hihihu. Hihihu.

 

…Wait, that’s Lamaze breathing. Why are you using that?

 

“From now on, shadow hands will often pop out from a dark place. Hit them with your arrows as much as possible.”

 

“I-I know!”

 

Shin Baran screamed while confidently(?) shooting shadow hands.

 

“Heugh, ahhhh! I-I knew everything!”

 

“Nyahaha~ You really!”

 

“Stop.”

 

Lee Hana grabbed Choi Soojung, who was trying to tease her, and dragged her away. 

 

She seemed like she would cry if she teased her any more… Nice, Senior.

 

Anyway, we quietly ignored Shin Baran, who seemed to be either screaming or swallowing.

 

After defeating the shadow hands, we moved forward quite smoothly.

 

There were quite a few forks in the road, yet Na Yuhan led us without hesitation, as if he knew all the paths. The shadow hands often popped out of the darkness, but thanks to Shin Baran being extremely tense(?), they were quickly annihilated. It was a blessing in disguise.

 

The others didn’t even have a chance to use their magic.

 

“That’s amazing, Baran…”

 

“H-Hng. This isn’t a big deal!”

 

Baran, you have tears in your eyes.

 

I pretended not to know.

 

Yeah. This place is a bit creepy.

 

After walking and walking along the fork in the road, we arrived at a large cave.

 

The inside of the cave was shrouded in thick darkness and we couldn’t see it.

 

“I can’t see…”

 

“Didn’t I tell you? Which way are we going to go, I wonder.”

 

“Mmhm. You said there were a lot of traps on the floor.”

 

“Right. There’s a mix of regular stone floors and trap-filled floors inside. First, we’re going to cover the floor with Senior Hana’s magic… Kangyoo, can you help?”

 

“I’ll do it even if you don’t say anything!” 

 

Kangyoo was strangely being particularly harsh to Na Yuhan.

 

After reconfirming our strategy, we rushed inside.

 

As soon as we entered, we heard something squeaking inside.

 

“Kyaaaap!”

 

Drrrrrr—!

 

As Kangyoo pulled out his mana without hesitation, water filled the floor in an instant.

 

Kkiiiii—?!

 

Something that looked like the boss made a panicked gesture.

 

“Freeze it!”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Here we go!”

 

Soon, Lee Hana’s cool magic power struck the floor, and in an instant, the floor turned into a sheet of ice.

 

Kkiii—! Kkiiiiii—!

 

At the same time, Shin Baran’s arrows hanging from the lights struck here and there, illuminating the inside of the cave.

 

The boss’s silhouette was revealed under the light of the lights.

 

The black marimo-like thing had a large core in the middle of its body and had dozens of shadow hands.

 

KKIIIIIII—!!!!

 

It howled, covering its eye, that is, its core.

 

And Park Siwoo, Na Yuri, and Min Jaeyoon rushed forward.

 

“Attack! Skill ‘Flag of Victory’ activated!”

 

“The hands are needlessly persistent!”

 

“That’s why I’m putting on all sorts of buffs!”

 

Na Yuhan responded to Na Yuri’s grumbling, swinging the flag again to add buffs.

 

Black Marimo used half of its hand to defend its core and the other half to swing wildly at us.

 

Shin Baran and I protected Na Yuhan while occasionally sniping at the hands that were interfering with the lead.

 

Kangyoo and Lee Hana used their magic to capture the hands in a lump, and Choi Soo-jung cut them off, gradually reducing the monster’s mobility.

 

Soon, the monster lost all of its shadow hands, leaving only its thick body struggling.

 

“Let’s break it!”

 

“Got it.” 

 

While Na Yuri burned the last remaining hands, Park Siwoo raised his sword and split the core in half.

 

WHOOSH—!

 

The monster’s eye, or rather, its core, were split exactly in two along with its body.

 

Kkiii—

 

The monster turned to dust and disappeared, leaving only a fairly large core in the dark cavity.

 

The thick darkness covering the cavity must have been caused by this monster. It became bright enough to see the inside even without the lights.

 

The core, which was lying there, was glowing with an ominous crimson light.

 

“I’ll take this back.”

 

Na Yuhan naturally took the core and walked inside the cavity.

 

We naturally followed him as he walked confidently.

 

As we did so, we saw a black door cleverly hidden by stalactites.

 

He spoke with a smirk.

 

“Since we’ve come to the item dungeon, we should take the items. We can’t even level up, though.” 

 

As soon as Na Yuhan opened the door, I let out an exclamation of admiration without realizing it.

 

Inside was a gorgeous set of red jewel jewelry.

 

It was designed with a laurel motif and seemed to have red jewels as an accent, and even without its value as an item, it seemed like it would be quite expensive.

 

“What are these items?”

 

I asked him about the items on purpose so that he could explain more easily.

 

Well, because I already knew what they were.

 

“They’re items that absorb dark magic. They protect the user from curses.”

 

It was an item that was almost a sub-compatibility of the bracelet I had.

 

According to the novel, they were needed for the ‘vampire dungeon’ we would go to later, I think?

 

Na Yuhan said after putting the items away.

 

“Everyone, let’s go. We’ll definitely need these items later, so I’ll distribute them as soon as we get out.”

 

“But why are you putting them all away, Brother?”

 

“…Uh, because my inventory is big.”

 

Kangyoo asked innocently in the middle, but it was brushed off. Thanks to defeating the boss, we were able to exit the dungeon much more easily than when we came in.

 

As soon as we got out of the gate, Na Yuhan took out a set of accessories as if he was going to put his declaration into practice.

 

“You definitely have to keep them. You’ll definitely need them later, so don’t lose them. We won’t need the set with holy and dark attributes, so leave them out.”

 

Bracelets, earrings, necklaces… Various accessories were distributed to each person, and soon only one large ring and one small ring remained.

 

Choi Soojung and Lee Hana each wore a pair of earrings. Na Yuri wore one bracelet and the remaining necklace was given to Kangyoo.

 

Na Yuhan put a rather large ring on his hand and then held out his hand to me.

 

Why are you giving me a ring?

 

“I’ll put it on for you.”

 

“Alright!”

 

Geez. How embarrassing.

 

I held out my left hand to him.

 

Na Yuhan put the ring on my pinky finger first, as if he had kept in mind that it was a small ring, yet it was too big to wear on a pinky.

 

“Wait…”

 

He took out the ring and put it on the next finger, the ring finger, then the ring fit perfectly as if it had been waiting.

 

“It fits perfectly!”

 

“Thank goodness. If it didn’t fit, I would have done something complicated separately—”

 

At that moment, a man’s hand came between us and grabbed mine.

 

The hand that carefully grabbed my hand naturally took the ring off my left ring finger.

 

I looked up at the owner of that hand without thinking.

 

His blue sapphire eyes were shining coldly in the moonlight.

 

“Nahyun is a sniper, so wouldn’t another accessory be better than a ring?”

 

It was Park Siwoo.

 

And behind him, Kangyoo was looking at Na Yuhan with a scary expression that made him look like a ghost.