Chapter 43: A Cup of Leisure (3) (43/225)
While the three of them aside from Jinseo suffered under the caffeine from mix coffee, Jinseo fell asleep first.
Thinking they would manage to sleep at some point along the way, Jinseo dozed off—and the next morning, he woke up, pushing himself upright with a heavy, groggy body.
What greeted him was Hayward's face, drained of all life like a zombie.
Slumped shoulders, and dark circles clearly visible beneath his eyes.
When Jinseo's gaze met his dead-eyed stare into empty space, a scene from a zombie movie flashed through Jinseo's mind.
The aftermath brought by mix coffee was far too severe.
At least Craid and Julien had been able to sleep eventually, but for Hayward, not a single moment of sleep had been permitted.
His eyes were laced with vivid blood vessels, and throughout breakfast he stared blankly straight ahead.
Sure enough, the anger of a Hayward who still couldn't fall asleep even after eating turned toward the monsters waiting on the floor below.
As if his job preference for coffee wasn't 300 for nothing, the abilities Hayward gained from three cups of mix coffee were on a completely different level compared to before.
No monster could withstand the daggers that moved far sharper and faster than yesterday.
The monsters instinctively flinched at the sight of Hayward charging in with a look like he was about to kill them, and he didn't miss that split-second opening.
Dust rose belatedly from the spot where Hayward had moved so fast he left an afterimage behind.
Only after blood began pouring from their precisely sliced vital points did the monsters scream and collapse.
You bastards! Stop swarming me! Let me sleep!
On the verge of going insane because sleep simply would not come, he butchered the monsters while bellowing at the top of his lungs.
With Craid's skill added on top of that, their dungeon progress caught fire.
Monster corpses meant to become ingredients piled up one after another on the dungeon floor, and Jinseo and Julien, who only watched the two of them rampage with madness in their eyes, quietly stored the corpses into the subspace storage.
After racing down to the 5th basement floor in a single day, the moment the effect of mix coffee ended, the party went into forced rest.
Leaning his back against the dungeon wall, Hayward slowly closed his eyes. Then he slid down and collapsed.
Sprawled on the floor in a huge X-shape.
With the sound of his snoring vibrating through the air, the other three stood watch, staring at him with helpless eyes.
The time Hayward woke up after sleeping soundly was exactly one full day later.
"Whew, I finally feel like I can live again. But… ugh, my whole body's sticky from monster blood."
Jinseo, who had already laid out a mat and was taking out KingX Cup Ramen, stood up.
"Do you want to shower?"
"A shower? How, in here?"
"Just wait a moment."
When Jinseo pulled the handle behind the scooter's seat, it extended out like a long rod.
When he pulled the end again, a shower head popped out, and metal ribs unfolded around it like an umbrella.
Finally, a translucent vinyl sheet draped over it, completing a portable shower booth.
"…Am I still not fully awake?"
Watching the shower booth get installed in real time, Hayward rubbed his eyes.
"You can go in there and wash up."
Jinseo went into the shower booth with Hayward, taught him how to operate it, and came back out.
"Let's see. You said I just press this part sticking out—ugh!"
A powerful jet of water blasted out from the shower head, and Hayward startled and jumped out.
"Th-this is hot water!"
"You can use cold water too. Just adjust the temperature."
"T-that so?"
At Jinseo's explanation, Hayward hurriedly stripped and rushed back into the shower booth.
While Hayward enjoyed his shower, Jinseo took out a towel, then opened the status window.
It was the daily Branch sales check he did every day after installing the Branch.
Hmm, it's up compared to yesterday. Good. Those two are doing well.
As the sales status shown in graph form curved upward, even if only gently, a smile rose at the corner of Jinseo's mouth.
{ In proportion to the net profit earned by the Branch, you have acquired 2,000 Mileage and 2,000 Mana. }
More than anything, he liked the fact that Mileage and Mana kept coming in steadily even without operating the food truck.
While Jinseo rummaged around under the seat to take out more KingX Cup Ramen, Craid and Julien were standing in line side by side behind the shower booth.
While Hayward had been asleep, the two of them had already showered once.
There was no reason to refuse this kind of luxury inside a dungeon.
Nero, however, looked around near the shower booth, heard the sound of water, and quietly backed away.
The way Nero hid behind the scooter, as if worried about getting wet, was exactly like a cat.
Maybe that isn't a spirit after all.
"Ah, refreshing! I've been an adventurer for over twenty years, but this is the first time I've ever properly washed up inside a dungeon!"
After finishing his shower, Hayward chugged cola.
Fortunately, the caffeine in cola didn't work like mix coffee.
"Hmm, it's nice being able to shave cleanly even inside a dungeon."
Finishing his shower second, Craid stroked his chin with a satisfied expression.
"It's far more convenient than cutting with a dagger. And there are barely any cuts."
He raised a cartridge razor in his right hand and shaving foam in his left at the same time.
For clean meals, removing obstructive facial hair was part of his daily routine.
Up until now, Craid had been doing dangerous shaving with a dagger, but after encountering these two new items, he looked up at them with a reverent gaze, as if staring at a holy relic.
"If you need them, I'll give them to you. Also, you can remove the cartridge like this and replace it with a new blade, so I'll give you spare cartridges too."
"Thank you."
"Do the others need them too?"
"No. As you can see, I'm like this."
Julien, who still didn't grow facial hair, lightly rubbed his own smooth chin with his left hand.
In his right hand, he held a paper cup filled with mix coffee.
"Julien… you're drinking that again? You actually feel like drinking it?"
Frowning, Hayward waved his hand urgently for him to stay away.
"I tried just one cup while Hayward was asleep, and it was fine. I think it'll be okay as long as I don't drink it before sleeping."
"I reduced it to three cups and had no issues."
Craid also held a paper cup of mix coffee, enjoying the aroma.
"Really? Then I can drink one cup too, right?"
Swallowing hard, Hayward crept toward Jinseo, who was mixing another cup of coffee.
Even after suffering that brutal aftermath, the taste was far too attractive to give up.
But Jinseo stopped him with an outstretched arm.
"Ah, Hayward, you can't. The coffee's effect seems to work especially well on you."
"Effect? This isn't a drug, is it?"
"Of course not. In my country, people often drink it after meals to cleanse the palate."
"Even though we suffer like this because we can't sleep?"
"It does have an effect that drives away sleepiness to some extent. But it's never like this."
Jinseo already knew that certain foods with job preferences could produce astonishing effects.
Even so, the effect coffee showed—when limited to an individual—was on par with special tteokbokki.
If mix coffee is already this strong… wouldn't real coffee be even stronger?
Jinseo remembered the "that coffee milk" he had stopped Fedora from drinking before, which he had moved into the food truck's subspace storage.
And then his imagination went even further—if someone added an espresso shot and drank it, maybe they could even beat down a dragon alone.
"Come on, it'll be fine with two cups, right? It's because I drank three!"
It was not fine at all.
"If I ever put that muddy-water stuff in my mouth again, I'm a dog! A dog!"
After waking up, Hayward recoiled in horror and moved as far away as possible from the party enjoying mix coffee.
So far that he practically glued himself to the dungeon wall.
For ordinary people of this other world, mix coffee—if consumed in an appropriate amount—was a tonic that added comfort to post-meal fullness.
But for Hayward alone, it was like a substance that gave both poison and medicine at once.
That much, the activated effects were certain.
They had reached the dungeon's lowest floor in one week—a place that should have taken at least half a month to reach.
In fact, the time spent purely on clearing the dungeon was only about four days.
But after mix coffee's activated effect ended, Hayward slept all day, and they ran repeated tests while gradually reducing the amount he drank.
From three cups to two cups.
And then to one cup.
They reduced the number of times he drank it, but the result didn't change.
"This is strange. Everyone else is fine, so why…"
"What a pity."
Julien and Craid enjoyed mix coffee with elegance.
Watching the two of them, Hayward clutched his head and despaired.
Split into two groups, the party looked at each other with eyes that said they couldn't understand the other side.
"You say that because you've never suffered from not being able to sleep! Ugh…"
"It definitely has an effect that raises concentration, but for me, ice cream is better."
"Either way, this ordeal is over now. If we open this and go in, it's the last room."
A room located at the very center of the lowest floor.
Just from the size of the iron door, they could guess how enormous the space beyond it was.
After making the others step back, Hayward carefully investigated whether there were any traps.
Then he saw the emblem in the center of the iron door and beckoned Julien with a hand gesture.
"This is probably your specialty."
Julien stepped in front of the iron door in Hayward's place.
"It resembles an emblem I saw in a dungeon I explored before with other adventurers."
"Yeah? Can you open it?"
"Probably. You inject mana into the emblem carved into the door, then guide the mana in the correct direction. That's how it opens."
Julien placed his right hand on the emblem and began feeding mana into it while chanting.
"Wow…"
Jinseo blurted it out without meaning to.
Deep inside the dark dungeon, the sight of glowing mana filling the grooves that traced the emblem was unbelievably mysterious.
It'd be a waste to just watch this.
Jinseo took out his smartphone and started by taking photos, then switched to video mode and began recording.
"Meow."
Nero circled around Jinseo, signaling for Jinseo to film too.
"Ah, sorry. I'll film you later. This isn't something you can see easily, so understand."
But not everyone looked at the emblem carved into the iron door with wonder like Jinseo did.
"Uh, this is… so I block this part like this, and then over there I guide the mana flow downward…"
Julien rattled off things no one else could understand, sweating.
After a while, as the light slowly faded, Julien ruffled the back of his hair hard and lamented.
"Huh? Did you fail?"
"I-I'm sorry! My skill is lacking, so I failed at guiding the mana."
"You can try again, right?"
"I can, but every attempt uses my mana too, so I don't know how long it'll take."
"That's a problem. I'm clueless when it comes to magic-related traps or seals."
"Up to the middle, it went well. I need to check where it failed."
Julien tried to replay the mana-guiding process from just now in his head.
But human memory had its limits.
He repeatedly traced shapes in the air with his finger, stopping and starting, and fell into confusion.
"Ah… how did it go again? Was this right?"
"Wait a second. Take a look at this."
Jinseo held his smartphone out toward Julien.
Then he played the video he had just recorded from the beginning.
"Huh?"
"Just in case, I recorded it with my phone's camera. Will it help?"
"Magic that reproduces the movement of mana this clearly… is my first time seeing it. Could you tell me what principle makes this possible?"
"I'll explain later. For now, let's open the door."
"Understood! This time, it will definitely work!"
Holding the smartphone in his left hand, Julien began injecting mana into the emblem again.
After continuing for about a minute, light burst from the emblem, and the iron door began to split into two halves.
"It worked!"
Creeeeak.
With an unpleasant grinding sound, the massive iron door opened, revealing the path to their final destination.
In the center of the spacious room stood an altar rising high, and around the altar stood stone statues in grotesque shapes.
The moment they saw the statues, Craid and Hayward swiftly drew their weapons, and Julien opened the spellbook at his waist and began chanting.
Whiiing.
The entire dungeon began to tremble, and from the wall opposite them came the sound of something activating.
"As expected. Gargoyles."
Red light flared from the statues' eyes, and they spread their wings and began to stand.
So that's what real gargoyles look like.
Up until now, all the gargoyles Jinseo had seen while living in modern Korea were either monsters in games or statues on European mansions.
Seeing real gargoyles wasn't so much terrifying as it was pure mystery.
Like the first time he saw the Kraken.
"They're coming."
Craid extended his left arm to the side, making Jinseo step back.
The gargoyles turned their heads toward him, then beat their wings and rose into the air all at once.
The instant they charged toward Craid together, his greatsword blazed as it was wrapped in aura.
"Hah!"
With that shout, three gargoyles shattered at the same time.
Even if they were gargoyles, before Craid's greatsword, they fell just as equally as any other monster.
Before Hayward and Julien even had to lift a hand.
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