Chapter 06
Cho-hee unni clicked her tongue, and Hee-ho asked,
“Are you taking them down again this time, noona? If you’re working on achievements, I can leave them to you.”
“Since we’re already here, of course I am. I only need 177 more kills to hit ten thousand.”
Ten thousand kills?
As in… she had killed ten thousand monsters?
The face of Cho-hee happily smiling overlapped in my mind with the face of the same person sighing that monsters were scary.
As she started walking ahead, Ye-seung and Hee-ho followed behind.
“The 10,000 kill achievement is the first among healer types, right? Cho-hee noona isn’t even a healer anymore; she’s like some kind of physical therapist. Before party members even get hurt, she wipes out the monsters dealing damage.”
“That’s why I don’t do random parties. What if the damage dealers do less damage than me?”
“But noona, in front of Ha-yan, you always acted all fragile, like, ‘I’m sooo scared of hitting monsters.’ I nearly laughed myself sick hearing that. Whenever I’m depressed and think about it, I start laughing.”
“Same.”
As thorn monsters burst from the walls, Cho-hee destroyed them one by one and snorted.
“That’s why you two keep getting roasted on the forums. Zero empathy.”
“What does empathy have to do with pretending to be shy and delicate in front of Ha-yan noona? And how can you talk about conscience when you get mentioned on the forums even more than we do?”
“My conscience went to America, brat. What kind of people keep tempting a girl who’s too scared to enter dungeons by offering to carry her every day, then talk about morality?”
“You were trying to recruit Ha-yan too!”
“No. I merely made a gentle suggestion. You two just nagged.”
This time it wasn’t a thorn, but a flower with teeth that lunged out.
It exploded too, leaving no trace.
I barely even had time to feel how creepy it looked, because they kept talking about me, so that took more of my attention than the monsters.
And the three of them looked so relaxed—
Like they were out for a walk.
Cho-hee’s words made Ye-seung snort.
“Ha-yan noona really needs to know what kind of person Cho-hee noona actually is.”
“You’re one to talk, Lee Ye-seung. You acted all sweet, shy, and modest and even lied about your ranking because the boss told you Ha-yan was intimidated by rankers.”
At that, Hee-ho suddenly stopped walking.
His whole body stiffened so abruptly I thought a monster had appeared.
But—
“Ha-yan hates rankers? That’s bad. I already told her I’m Rank 4.”
His anxious muttering made the tension leave me.
I didn’t hate rankers.
Like Cho-hee said, they just felt intimidating at first.
But I’d gotten used to them.
Still—
What does Ye-seung lying about his ranking mean?
I didn’t know his exact rank, but I thought I’d heard it was three digits.
Tilting my head curiously, I met Ye-seung’s eyes.
He looked awkward.
“…Maybe we shouldn’t be saying unnecessary things. What if the person inside that bird knows Ha-yan noona?”
“What’s it going to do, go tell her? Anyway, we don’t have time to gossip. Didn’t it take three hours to get out earlier?”
“About that. Pure luck. There’s no method to it.”
“There is, though. What if we let this one choose this time?”
“Ppi?”
The topic shifted so suddenly I couldn’t keep up.
And then Hee-ho said something even more confusing.
He lifted me off his head and held me in his palm again.
Cho-hee, who had been striding forward, stopped and turned.
Before her—
The path split into five directions.
Hee-ho rubbed my head and said,
“Pick one, little chirpy.”
So that was why it was called a Grand Labyrinth.
It was a maze.
I looked at the five paths and hesitated.
I’m really allowed to choose? You’re trusting a bird with this…?!
Well, not a real bird—
But what if I sent us the wrong way?
“Pip…”
In the end I just made a small sound and shook my head.
Cho-hee narrowed her eyes.
“…Something has felt weird for a while. Could it be this one hasn’t been awakened long?”
“Noona, is your brain aging too? Didn’t the alert literally say it became a hidden class yesterday?”
“Agh, not that! I mean what if it only awakened recently in general? It hated entering the dungeon, and we even got a notification it was worrying about us. Isn’t it just a total newbie?”
“Ppi!”
Ye-seung’s sharp tone and Cho-hee’s rough one still felt strange—
But I lit up and nodded frantically.
Yes!
That was right!
But when I confirmed it, both of them made odd expressions.
D-did I do something wrong…?
My confusion was answered when Hee-ho murmured,
“How is a hidden class a newbie? The conditions are insanely hard.”
“Exactly. Didn’t you meet some ridiculous condition when you awakened as a Tamer, hyung?”
“Yeah. It said, “Congratulations!” Having subdued 33,333 monsters, you have earned the chance to advance into a hidden class.”
“Right, that. ‘Subdued’ turned out to mean making monsters lose the will to fight without killing them, right? You used to ride monsters around because walking through dungeons was annoying.”
“Oh, right. Watching him beat monsters to the brink of death, heal them, then use them as mounts, I thought he was genuinely insane. Then later I found out it was the hidden class condition and thought the world had gone mad.”
“Oh, stop, you’re embarrassing me…”
“That wasn’t a compliment, psycho.”
My mind went blank listening to their rapid exchange.
Hee-ho had only ever said he became a hidden class through luck.
He’d never told me that.
And I’d never asked.
But if all hidden classes required dealing with monsters like that—
Then beginners could never even dream of it.
Thinking about it again—
This pet class was seriously strange.
What did stealing the hearts of countless people even mean?
Taken literally, it sounds like being popular…
But I’d never even dated.
And I had no idea why that would apply to me.
Even I didn’t understand it.
So it wasn’t strange that they found it suspicious too.
If only I could talk properly.
When I turn back, should I ask them about it?
They weren’t the type to casually tell others.
But honestly—
I hesitated.
Not for any special reason.
It was just…
Too embarrassing.
While the three kept discussing hidden classes, I kept looking at the crossroads and suddenly realized something.
This was technically outdoors.
The paths were blocked by enormous walls of vines and brush—
But above us was open.
There was a Flight skill in the party buff…
If we fly, couldn’t we just skip the maze entirely?
After a moment of thought, I spread my wings and chirped.
“Ppi, ppii, ppit.”
“Hm? What’s this? The pet seems to have something to say?”
Ah.
So that was how it worked.
I’d been noticing for a while—
Communication was awkward but possible.
When everyone looked at me again, I flapped both wings together.
If I actually knew how to fly, it would be easier to explain—
But I still didn’t know how.
“Flight?”
Thankfully, Ye-seung—who had always been quick-witted—understood immediately.
Cho-hee turned to him.
“What flight?”
“The party buff. It said, “Flight skill available.”
“Did it? I only looked at the item drop increase… Oh. It’s there.”
After checking the skill, Cho-hee looked back at me.
“Wait… are you saying we should use this and fly?”
“Ppi…ii.”
“Oh…”
Maybe it won’t work?
If I thought of it, surely others would have tried already.
But fortunately—
Cho-hee said brightly,
“You’re right. If we fly, we can break through without even finding the route.”
