[Please, Crown Prince. I can’t protect them alone!]

“W-Why can’t I be happy…!?” I wailed.

[C-Crown Prince?]

“N-No, nothing.”

By now, I was used to something happening whenever I was climbing the dungeon smoothly. Event Dungeons, Event Raids, the Luka continent, and now this! Just when I thought I could focus solely on the dungeon, Ren reached out to me. I couldn’t let my guard down at all. In fact, I felt like someone was doing this on purpose.

I gritted my teeth and asked him, “What’s up, Ren? Tell me.”

[…No, Crown Prince, you must be having a hard time too. It was my mistake, forget what I said.]

I snapped, “Cut the crap and tell me.”

[Y-Yes!]

Ren’s world, the Panan continent, was a peaceful land where humans and beastmen once coexisted. Of course, both races had to face numerous difficulties until the peace was achieved, but they had reportedly done it. At least, that was how it was until two hundred years ago.

One day, things began to change. Small conflicts between the humans and beastmen increased in scale as time went on until one day, a war broke out between a human country and a beastman country.

I interrupted, “I’m not really interested in the history of the Panan continent.”

[What if it was the history of an outsider’s invasion?]

The war raged and blood flowed until it could fill an ocean. Another country then jumped into the war. Before long, the entire continent was enveloped in war. Everyone thought it was a self-created disaster by humans and beastmen until a dungeon explorer revealed the truth of the matter.

In fact, all of this was caused by the Panan continent’s invaders, the ‘El Patiz.’

“El Patiz?” I asked.

Ren explained, [That’s what they call themselves. We call them ‘brain worms’ as that’s what they are. Bugs that crawl into our brains.]

According to Ren, these brain worms crawled into the brains of sleeping victims and ate the contents. The victims would die and the brain worms would then pretend to be the victims that they killed. The only way to detect whether someone was eaten by a brain worm was to use a special magic for detecting life signals.

Brain worms could perfectly imitate the actions of their victims to the point that not even the victims’ own family members could tell something was off. However, the fact that they were still brain worms didn’t change. When enough brain worms gathered, they would finally reveal themselves and drag others into their hell.

[Luckily, people with high amounts of mana can detect brain worms in their initial form and avoid them. The explorers who found out about the brain worms’ existence did their best to find their weaknesses, and they notified everyone that they were the ones who caused the war. Unfortunately, the revelation had a minimal effect. The upper echelons of the governments of most countries had already turned into brain worms. Furthermore, stronger brain worms that the Panan continent’s warriors had trouble with began to cross over.]

“And?”

He continued in a slightly helpless tone, [Unable to stop the war in time, the population of the Panan continent plummeted. The brain worms’ forces only grew stronger as they consumed more people and strengthened themselves…In the end, 170 years after the onset of their invasion, an incident happened that made everyone lose their hope.]

I had a feeling I knew what was coming. Though I futilely tried to block my ears, I could still hear Ren’s emotionless voice.

[The Hero of that generation…the Lion Empire’s Golden Lion Emperor was eaten by a brain worm.]

I shouted involuntarily, “Ren…!”

[The worm that controlled the Hero was the one that ruled over all other worms. It was the so-called world’s enemy. Regardless, after it gained the power of the Hero, the worms began to conquer the continent at an unprecedented rate. They were now able to reproduce in our world.]

Ren said that the only way the Panan continent’s people could survive until now was because they had found the brain worms’ weakness.

[They can’t enter the ocean. Not even the worm that obtained the Hero’s body could enter the ocean. We realized that the worms avoided invading ocean-based countries. Since they couldn’t cross the ocean, they used another passageway to deploy their troops to the countries in the ocean.]

“You should have noticed that sooner!” I exclaimed.

He sighed. [I already told you. They were extremely meticulous and skilled in hiding their weakness. An explorer who ran to the ocean to escape the brain worms ended up noticing this coincidentally, and it was thanks to this coincidence that the remaining explorers could breathe a sigh of relief. Of course, that didn’t last long either.]

“Why?”

Ren became silent for a while. Then, he confessed in a somber tone, [Crown Prince…Beastmen are unable to swim.]

Beastmen couldn’t enter the ocean, and most of the Panan continent’s survivors were beastmen. Thus, they could only resort to creating a base near the ocean and using ocean water to fight against the brain worms. Thankfully, they had someone who could wield the power of water, but after he was eaten by the brain worms, the last hope had disappeared.

[This was around the time that Sir Lebuik died. Most of the remaining explorers also died then.]

“Ren, right now, you’re…”

He said grimly, [I’m protecting eight children. Five beastmen, three humans. When the base collapsed, I barely managed to save these children and found a safe place to hide. By climbing the dungeon, I found food to bring back for them. This was when I met you.]

This might sound harsh, but there really seemed to be no hope. Regardless, I urged Ren on since I had to hear what was happening now.

“Ren, tell me the current situation.”

He said in a voice full of despair, [They discovered our hiding place. We’re running.]

It was rather simple.

He continued, [We’re currently resting after defeating the pursuers. But soon, a stronger squadron of brain worms will attack us. Crown Prince, I ended up contacting you out of sheer desperation.]

I understood how Ren was feeling. He most likely wanted to get whatever help he could. I sighed and asked, “So, what are you planning to do?”

[We have to go back to the coast before it’s too late. We have to create a base that will protect us from them. We have to drive the ocean water and create a man-made island of some sort.]

I remarked, “Sounds like tough work even when you get to the coast.”

[Ri…Right.] He sounded deflated.

After thinking for a bit, I continued, “Did you submit a request for Dimensional Mercenaries?”

[Yes, but no one came.]

I suggested, “How about using Dimensional Travel skill to move them elsewhere?”

[That’s impossible, Crown Prince. Dimensional Travel can only be used alone.]

“Why don’t you put some skill points into it and…ah.”

Right, that was my skill! The original Dimensional Travel skill didn’t have skill levels, so it didn’t matter how many skill points you had…Wait, but there’s Return! If I could use Return with the eight children…! My Return skill was currently level 4. I could take up to three people with me. I had never distributed skill points into it, so I used 15 skill points to raise it up to level 8.

[Return has reached level 8! It can be used 6 times per day and you can choose 6 returning points. You can bring up to 5 people with you.]

Damn, it’s not enough…! Once I came back to Earth using Return, I couldn’t go back to Panan with Return. I had to use Dimensional Travel to travel between worlds. Because of Dimensional Travel’s cooldown, it wouldn’t work out. I bit my lip.

Meanwhile, Ren was still talking.

[Crown Prince, forget about what I said. I’m Panan’s Ren. I can get through this by myself.]

I immediately said, “No bullshit allowed.”

[I’m not a bull, I’m a lion!]

In this situation, there really was only one thing I could do: ignore Ren’s request. Ren knew he was making an unreasonable request, so he told me not to come. A brain-eating worm was…disgusting. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel any sympathy for Ren, but there was just no hope.

Thus, I told him, “Don’t die before I get there.”

He exclaimed. [Crown Prince, I told you, don’t come! I was just ranting!]

“If you die, I’ll kill you, got it?” I threatened.

[Crown Prince!]

I shouted, “Shut it! If I think it’s too dangerous, I’ll escape by myself!”

[Crown Prince…]

I cut Ren off and contacted a person on my friends list whom I had never contacted before.

“Lebuik, are you doing okay?” I asked.

[P-Panan continent has requested Dimensional Mercenaries…What do I do, Rookie?] she asked in a panicked tone.

I replied, “You should know who made the request.”

[N-No one wants to go…! Rookie, tell Ren-nim to get out of there! Please!] she begged.

I grimaced. “Ren doesn’t plan on leaving. He’s protecting eight children.”

[Eight…That’s two less…]

“Lebuik, what are you going to do?” I asked again.

[Me? Are you telling me to go to Panan continent?]

I impatiently said, “Tell me quickly. What are you going to do? Tell me what you’re thinking.”

[…Rookie, you…]

I explained further, “My Dimensional Travel skill is a bit special. I can bring someone else with me. So, Lebuik, what are you going to do?”

As I spoke to her, I put skill points into Dimensional Travel. Lv 2, Lv 3, Lv 4…at level four, the number of people I could bring with me increased by one. The cooldown also decreased to two months, which was quite significant. I now had 1 skill point left. There was no going back.

She sputtered, [W-What do you mean…I, I can’t go. I’ll die if I do. Definitely!]

I shrugged and replied coldly, “You might die, that’s true. I didn’t make my decision easily either.”

[Then how can you say it like it’s nothing? Are you looking down on death!? If a brain worm kills you, you can’t even enjoy eternal rest! Your brain will get eaten and your body will become their toy!]

I pointed out mercilessly, “But if I don’t go, the same will happen to my friend. Lebuik, I’ll give you five seconds, so make up your mind. If you can’t, I’m going to go alone.”

[W-Wait! No, I won’t…I won’t go! I escaped by myself, so how can I, at this point…!]

“3, 2, 1…”

[Gahhhhh! Fine! I’ll go!]

I smiled. As expected of a woman in love!

“Good. I’m sure Ren will be touched. Maybe, he’ll be so touched that he’ll hug you.”

[H-He will hug me? Ren-nim will? Gulp…N-No, I’m not going to fulfill my desires…! Even I wouldn’t throw away my life to satisfy my lust! I just want to make up for the time I failed to be loyal!]

I said breezily, “I got it, so meet me at the First Dungeon Residential Area’s pub, ‘Cocked.’ Make sure you’re fully prepared.”

[Rookie…Okay.]

I hung up on her as well. Then, I let out a long sigh and opened the guild communication channel.

[I’m going to go do a Dimensional Mercenary request. It might take a while, but don’t worry.]

The guild communication channel became noisy from my sudden announcement. Hwaya then asked me in a worried tone, [Is it safe?]

Though I was thankful that she was worried about me…for some reason, I broke out into laughter.

[What requests are safe? But well, it’ll be fine.]

I spoke honestly.

[I can see the ending.]