I Was Kidnapped By The Strongest Guild
Chapter 260: Run Through the Swamp

Levinas and Gaeul sat across from each other at the table.

Gaeul absentmindedly chewed on an anchovy while Levinas nibbled on a carrot, eyebrows raised.

"Hey Gaeul-puppy! Do you know who the strongest beast-kin in the world is?!"

Levinas's question made Gaeul freeze. She opened her mouth, repeating part of what Levinas had said.

"Strongest... strongest beast-kin?"

"Yeah! Who's the strongest beast-kin?"

"...Woof woof?"

"Bzzt!"

Boop-

Levinas tapped Gaeul's nose with the carrot.

Sniff sniff, Gaeul smelled it before taking a bite.

Crunch crunch-

"Yummy."

Levinas giggled as she watched Gaeul eat the carrot. She seemed pleased that Gaeul enjoyed it.

"Listen up! The strongest beast-kin in the world are cats!"

Cats.

At that word, Levinas and Gaeul turned to look at me.

Gaeul nodded as if she understood something.

"Meow good."

"Yeah! And the second strongest are sharks!"

Flinch.

Sophia, lounging in the massage chair, twitched slightly.

Her eyes were closed, but the tip of her tail flapped happily. She didn't say anything though.

"Ahem, and this next part is the most important!"

"Most important?"

"Yeah! Do you know who the third strongest beast-kin in the world are?!"

Third.

By this point, even I could guess.

The third would be Levinas's horned rabbits.

"Woof woof?"

"Nope! The third are horned rabbits!"

Just as I thought.

I chuckled as I watched the children's conversation.

However, Gaeul didn't seem to be doing so well.

She looked quite shocked.

"Woof woof...!"

"Dogs are fourth!"

Levinas held up four fingers.

Gaeul clumsily tried to copy the gesture.

She fiddled with her fingers before finally managing to hold up four.

"Three."

"No! That's four!"

"Four?"

"Yeah!"

I thought Levinas was doing some kind of ranking battle.

But surprisingly, she was teaching well.

Since she said horned rabbits were stronger than dogs.

Maybe she wanted to be a dependable, cool big sister.

I decided to back Levinas up here.

"Levinas."

"Huh?!"

"I think horned rabbits might be stronger than cats."

"R-really...?"

Levinas glanced towards Saebyeok.

She seemed to want to ask the opinion of a fellow feline.

"Yeah. Horned rabbits are a bit stronger."

"Did you hear that? Even Saebyeok says horned rabbits are stronger."

Two felines, myself and Saebyeok, had agreed.

Hearing our conversation, Sophia chimed in to support it.

"It wouldn't be strange for horned rabbits to be above sharks."

"Whoa...!"

Levinas's mouth fell open in surprise.

Her whole body wiggled with joy.

Seeing this, Gaeul held up four fingers.

"Horned wabbit good."

Does she think four, her own ranking, is the best expression?

Gaeul was an amazingly pure child.

"But actually, the rankings don't matter! Everyone's pretty much equally strong!"

"Woof woof too?"

"Yeah! Dogs too!"

"Wow."

Gaeul's tail wagged.

Unlike us who only wag our tails, Gaeul's waist moved slightly too.

It seemed to be a trait unique to dog beast-kin.

'This is fun.'

Just listening to the children's conversation made me happy.

I wanted to enjoy this time more, but it was time to go to the dungeon.

To keep these happy times going, I had to earn money.

"I'm going to go hunting for a bit."

"Hunting...!"

Gaeul's eyes lit up.

Between catching mice and this, does she like hunting?

I was considering taking her to a level one dungeon when Yeoreum tapped Gaeul's shoulder.

"Gaeul, want to chat with your sister for a moment?"

"Heh."

Gaeul wagged her tail with her tongue sticking out.

Somehow, I could tell that was a sign of agreement.

It's a shame, but I'll go hunting later.

I said goodbye to the children and left the house.

I should bring a lot of arrows from the container house.

We have one more precious family member now.

As the family grew, I decided to hunt more monsters.

---

---

After confirming that Gyeoul had left the house, Yeoreum immediately called Gaeul to her room.

She had many questions for Gaeul, but didn't plan to ask too much at first.

"Gaeul."

"Master."

"Master? Are you talking about me?"

"Big master."

Gaeul pointed at Yeoreum with her fingertip.

It felt strange being called "master" by a person, especially such a young child.

"How about calling me 'sister' instead of 'master'?"

"Master...!"

Gaeul made a look of despair.

She clearly had an attachment to the word "master".

"O-okay. Just call me whatever you're comfortable with."

"Heh."

Gaeul stuck out her tongue and wagged her tail.

Only then did Yeoreum realize that was a sign of agreement.

"Gaeul, your sister has a question."

"Question."

"Yeah. Were you the puppy Gyeoul raised by any chance?"

"Heh."

A sign of agreement.

Yeoreum decided to ask a few more questions.

"You've been to the other world, right Gaeul? Is that possible for me too?"

"......"

After thinking for a moment, Gaeul shook her head.

For some reason she instinctively knew that only she could enter and exit.

The words "time" and "reversal" swirled in Gaeul's mind.

"So only you can do it? Is it very dangerous inside?"

"Very very."

Gaeul spread her arms wide.

It was an unmistakable expression of "this much danger".

"Does it get dangerous as soon as you enter the portal?"

"Very safe."

"I see..."

The area near the portal was safe.

Was the rule the same as other dungeons?

Yeoreum tapped her arm.

"Where does the portal lead to?"

"Home!"

"Home? The house you and Gyeoul lived in? And that's safe, right?"

The area near the portal seemed to be a safe zone for adventurers.

Yeoreum's guess seemed to be correct, as Gaeul gave a bright smile.

"Very invincible!"

"Ah..."

The ability to freely cross the portal and a safe zone.

Using these two things, she could get a glimpse into Gyeoul's world.

'She said it was the house they used to live in...'

Was it their original home?

Or a safe zone built after the incident occurred?

Questions flooded her mind.

Yeoreum gripped the smartphone in her pocket.

"Ugh."

She wanted to check inside the dungeon right away, but giving Gaeul time to adjust was the priority for now.

Letting go of the smartphone, Yeoreum placed her hand on top of Gaeul's head.

Gyeoul might not remember Gaeul now, but someday surely...

As Yeoreum was lost in thought, Gaeul's tail suddenly perked up.

"Master! Master!"

Gaeul ran out, throwing open the door.

Yeoreum didn't bother chasing after her.

She must want to see her old friend Gyeoul.

---

---

After getting permission from the dungeon management official, I entered the dungeon.

Today's dungeon was level two.

It featured towering trees and swampland.

The important thing in this dungeon was not falling into the swamp.

The swamps were deep enough to swallow a person and could be more dangerous than the dungeon monsters.

Of course, distinguishing the swamps was easy.

All my senses were analyzing the dungeon in real-time.

Tap-! Tap-!

I moved by stepping on branches and patches of solid ground between the swamps.

That's when I was searching for the "swamp rats", the masters of this swampland.

"Whine..."

A familiar dog sound came from the path I'd just taken.

Could it be...?

I hurriedly retraced my steps.

A broken tree was sinking into the swamp.

Gaeul was clinging to it.

"Gaeul!"

I climbed onto the tree by stepping on floating debris in the swamp.

Spotting me, Gaeul wagged her tail.

"Gaeul, you see the swamp below, right?"

"Sticky sticky."

"Yeah. It'd be bad if you fell into the sticky stuff."

"...Not sticky?"

"Right. You need to step on things that aren't sticky."

Is this too difficult for Gaeul?

Should I help her?

As I was thinking this...

Hop-!

Gaeul leapt down from the tree.

She ran to solid ground by stepping on rocks and debris between the swamps.

"Wow."

Gaeul's pretty nimble.

She learned quickly after being told just once.

I followed Gaeul, running to the ground.

"Gaeul, there are monsters called swamp rats here, you know?"

"Squeak squeak?"

"Yeah. We need to catch a lot of them."

"Very...!"

Gaeul pressed down on both my feet.

Though I'd never seen this expression before, I instinctively understood it meant "wait here".

"Gaeul?"

"Very!"

Gaeul ran towards the swamp.

I was worried, but she nimbly leapt across the swampland.

"Woof woof."

Gaeul let out a loud sound.

Rather than barking like a dog, it sounded more like she was reading the word "woof woof".

"Squeak?"

The swamp rats reacted to the fairly loud noise.

They started chasing after Gaeul, who was jumping here and there.

"G-Gaeul...!"

Swamp rats converged on Gaeul from all directions.

Unlike us, they were threatening creatures that could walk on the swamp.

I pulled out an arrow to save Gaeul.

As I hurriedly nocked the arrow, I witnessed an amazing sight.

"Woof woof."

Gaeul dodged nimbly between the swamp rats.

She herded dozens of swamp rats, not letting a single one near me.

It was an astonishing level of mob control.

'This is...'

I put away the arrow I'd nocked and took out a magic arrow Jung Yu-na had made.

It was an arrow that released powerful electricity.

"Gaeul, come this way!"

"Heh!"

Gaeul changed direction and ran towards me.

The moment Gaeul left the swamp, I shot the electric arrow at the swampland.

Bzzt-!

The electricity that struck the swamp spread in all directions.

The range of Jung Yu-na's arrow was about 30 meters.

It was an arrow with overwhelming power in a limited space.

"W-wow..."

Sizzle-!

The swarm of swamp rats were cooked by a single shot.

I'd discovered an amazing hunting method.

I stood in place, just firing arrows.

It was a hunting style where Gaeul herded the monsters, and I fired electric arrows at their center.

"We're rich!"

"Rich!"

I roughly counted several hundred swamp rats.

This should be enough, shall we mine some mana stones?

I looked around.

Bubble bubble-

The swamp rats were sinking into the swamp.

"Huh...?"

Do they lose their floating ability when they die?

Despite catching hundreds, we were left with just one swamp rat.

It was the one Gaeul held in her mouth.

"Bleh bleh."

Gaeul spat out the swamp rat in front of me.

That little guy was all we had.

Whoops forgot to post last night.

6/6 Enjoy the chappy!

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