The Mimics continued shifting between Seung-hoo's and Kim's forms, their bodies flickering like broken reflections in dark water. Each step they took mirrored the real ones, every movement carefully copied.
Seung-hoo's eyes darted back and forth.
Two Kims.
Two Seung-hoos.
The cave felt like it was spinning.
"Don't hesitate!" Kim shouted. "If it moves wrong, strike it!"
Seung-hoo nodded—but the next moment, one of the figures wearing Kim's face rushed straight at him.
Seung-hoo reacted on instinct.
He drove his fist forward, lightning barely contained within his knuckles.
The blow connected solidly.
"Gah—!"
The figure flew backward and crashed into a stone pillar.
But when the dust cleared, Seung-hoo's heart dropped.
It wasn't a Mimic.
It was the real Kim.
Kim slid down the wall, coughing, his staff clattering to the ground. "Tch… you trying to kill me now?!"
Seung-hoo's eyes widened. "Kim- I thought, !"
At the same time, the fake Seung-hoo lunged at the real Seung-hoo from behind.
Kim, still on one knee, saw it and raised his staff in panic.
He fired a mana blast.
It struck Seung-hoo square in the shoulder.
The impact sent Seung-hoo stumbling forward, nearly losing his balance.
"…Great," Seung-hoo muttered, shaking his arm. "Now we're hitting each other."
The Mimics laughed—voices overlapping in distorted echoes of Seung-hoo and Kim.
"You can't tell."
"You can't see."
"You'll destroy yourselves."
The two monsters rushed in again, weaving between the real fighters, constantly switching places and forms.
Seung-hoo barely blocked a strike meant for Kim. Kim nearly crushed Seung-hoo's leg with his staff, mistaking him for a copy.
Stone shattered. Dust filled the air.
"Stop!" Seung-hoo shouted. "We're playing right into their trick!"
Kim gritted his teeth and forced himself to steady his breathing. "Then how do we tell them apart?! They look exactly like us!"
Seung-hoo narrowed his eyes.
"…They copy our appearance," he said slowly, "but not our hesitation."
One of the fake Seung-hoos charged again, perfectly mimicking his stance—but its movements were too aggressive, too clean.
No doubt. No restraint.
Seung-hoo suddenly stepped backward instead of forward.
The Mimic followed instantly.
That was the proof.
"There!" Seung-hoo shouted. "The one that never hesitates!"
Kim understood.
He planted his staff into the ground and released a wide burst of mana—not aimed at Seung-hoo, but at the space between the four figures.
The shockwave forced everyone apart.
For a brief second, the cave cleared.
Seung-hoo and Kim stood on one side.
Two identical copies stood on the other.
The Mimics flickered, trying to swap forms again.
"Don't let them mix!" Kim yelled.
Seung-hoo moved first.
He rushed the nearest fake Kim, his fist slamming into its chest. The creature's body cracked like a broken statue, its face distorting into a twisted mask.
At the same time, Kim struck the fake Seung-hoo with a focused mana blast. The impact shattered its arm, black mist pouring from the wound.
The Mimics screeched, their voices glitching between human and monster.
They tried to change forms again—but their bodies lagged, cracking and breaking under the damage.
Seung-hoo pressed in, striking again and again, each blow controlled, precise, never revealing his true strength.
Kim followed with another blast, pinning one Mimic against the cave wall.
Stone and shadow exploded outward.
The first Mimic collapsed, its copied face melting away into its true warped form.
The second staggered, one knee hitting the ground as its disguise failed, revealing its jagged, monstrous body beneath.
Both creatures writhed, their mimicry breaking apart under the combined assault, their laughter dissolving into distorted cries as cracks spread across their stone-like skin.
Seung-hoo and Kim stood side by side now, breathing hard, eyes locked on the two weakened Mimics as they slowly died.
Seung-hoo and Kim stood still for a moment, chests rising and falling as the last echoes of battle faded from the cave. The Mimics' shattered remains slowly dissolved into dark mist, leaving only cracked stone and silence behind.
Only then did Seung-hoo turn his attention to the far wall.
Hyun-wu and Seo-yeon were still bound there, thick shadowy restraints wrapped around their arms and torsos. Seo-yeon struggled violently, while Hyun-wu tried to brute-force his way out, veins bulging on his arms.
"Hold still," Kim said, walking over and raising his staff.
A pulse of mana sliced through the bindings like invisible blades. The restraints crumbled into ash and vanished.
Hyun-wu dropped to one knee, rubbing his wrists. Seo-yeon stumbled forward, straightening herself immediately as if nothing had happened.
"…Took you long enough," Seo-yeon said, brushing dust off her clothes. "I could've escaped on my own."
No one responded at first.
Then Seung-hoo looked at her with a faint smirk.
"I saw you struggle a lot."
Kim crossed his arms. "Yeah. We all saw you struggle."
Hyun-wu burst out laughing, pointing at her. "You were kicking the wall like a trapped cat!"
Seo-yeon's face flushed red. "SHUT UP!"
Hyun-wu tried to stop laughing but failed. "I-I'm sorry—" he said between giggles.
The cave slowly returned to its uneasy calm. Broken stone and cracks from the fight covered the ground. The air still smelled faintly of dust and mana.
Seung-hoo turned away from them and began scanning the chamber with his eyes. Something about this cave felt… incomplete.
He frowned slightly.
Maybe there's something else here…
He muttered quietly to himself, "Maybe there's a yellow crystal."
His gaze sharpened as he activated Eye of Truth.
The cave shifted in his vision.
The solid stone walls became translucent, revealing layers beneath—hidden passages, sealed pockets of mana, and blocked-off tunnels. The entire chamber unfolded like a map inside his eyes.
Then, to his right, behind a thick stone wall, he saw it.
A faint but unmistakable glow.
Yellow.
His heart skipped.
It's another one.
"It's a crystal!" he exclaimed silently in his mind.
He quickly deactivated his skill and walked over to Kim, tapping him on the shoulder.
"Kim," Seung-hoo said casually, pointing to the wall on the right side of the chamber, "can you use that skill you mentioned earlier… on that wall over there?"
Kim followed his finger with his eyes.
"That wall?" he asked suspiciously.
For a brief moment, he remembered their argument earlier—the strange crystal, Seung-hoo's sudden mining, the coincidence that didn't feel like one.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, then shrugged.
"…Okay. Why not."
Kim stepped forward and planted his feet firmly on the stone floor. He raised his staff, mana gathering around its tip in a dull red glow.
The cave grew quiet.
"Shatter," Kim muttered.
A beam of red light shot from his staff and slammed into the wall.
BOOM.
The stone exploded outward in chunks. Rocks crashed to the ground with heavy thuds, and a thick cloud of dust filled the chamber. Everyone raised their arms to shield their eyes.
"Cough—!"
"I can't see anything!"
The dust hung in the air for several seconds, slowly drifting down.
When it finally cleared, a soft golden light pierced through the broken wall.
A glowing yellow crystal was embedded inside the newly revealed hollow.
The cave reflected its light, painting the stone in warm gold.
Seung-hoo walked forward slowly, his boots crunching over rubble. He reached out and carefully lifted the crystal from its resting place.
The moment it left the wall, the glow intensified briefly before settling into a steady shine in his palm.
Hyun-wu's mouth hung open.
Seo-yeon stared in disbelief.
Kim froze where he stood, eyes wide.
"…That's impossible, there's no materials in a cave-like Rift," Hyun-wu muttered.
Seo-yeon crossed her arms, still staring at the crystal. "That's impossible…"
Kim looked between the broken wall and Seung-hoo's hand, his expression almost identical to the one he had worn earlier when the first crystal was found—shock mixed with suspicion.
Seung-hoo felt their gazes on him but said nothing, simply closing his fingers around the glowing crystal as the cave's mana continued to hum quietly around them.
Then a shim rang out
______________________________________________________
|[ Ding! System Activated ]|
|[ Crystals Found: 2 / 3 ]|
|[ Quest: Find 3 Yellow crystals ]|
|[ Quest ranking: Normal ]|
|[ Reward: Item box ]|
|[ Time: ??? ]|
|[ Penalty for failing: Deduction from Skill Max-level Growth ]|
|[ Time left: ??? ]|
______________________________________________________
Seung-hoo glanced at the window in front of him, then down at the two yellow crystals in his hands. The soft glow reflected off his fingers and the inside of his already overfilled bag. He shifted the strap on his shoulder and frowned.
"…There's no room," he muttered.
He looked up suddenly.
"Hey, Kim, think fast."
Before Kim could respond, Seung-hoo tossed both crystals toward him.
"Huh—?!"
The crystals bounced awkwardly against Kim's chest, slipped from his fingers, and clinked together in midair before he barely managed to grab them with both hands. He stumbled back a step, staring at the glowing stones in shock.
"What are you doing?!" Kim snapped. "Why give these to me? You're the one carrying the backpack!"
Seung-hoo pointed at the bulging bag on his back. "There's no space left. Put them in your pockets."
Kim looked down at the crystals, then at his robe. "My pockets are for spell scrolls, not mysterious objects you dig out of walls!"
"They're not mysterious objects," Kim continued, his voice rising. "They're crystals from a cave-type Rift. There aren't supposed to be materials here at all—not glowing rocks that should exist!"
The two stared at each other in silence for a moment, tension thick in the air.
"…Just don't drop them," Seung-hoo said flatly.
Kim clicked his tongue but carefully slid the crystals into his inner pockets, pressing them in as if afraid they might vanish. "If these crack, I'm blaming you."
They began arguing again as they walked.
"You never explain anything—"
"And you always overthink—"
"This is impossible, that's why—"
"Then stop shouting—"
"Enough."
Seo-yeon's voice cut through them sharply.
Both of them stopped.
She stepped closer to Seung-hoo, her eyes narrowed with interest rather than anger. "You fought those Mimics like a C-rank hunter," she said. "Yet you're registered as F-rank."
Hyun-wu scratched his head. "Yeah… no carrier should move like that."
Seo-yeon crossed her arms. "And then you just happened to find crystals in a Rift that shouldn't even have materials."
She tilted her head slightly. "You must have a skill. Something we don't know about."
Seung-hoo blinked. "I thought F-rankers fight like C-ranks?"
Seo-yeon stared at him. "…They don't."
Kim narrowed his eyes. "You've been acting strange since the first crystal."
The cave grew quiet again, broken only by dripping water and the faint hum of mana in the stone walls.
Seung-hoo exhaled slowly. "We need to find the tower now. It's probably been two days outside already."
Hyun-wu frowned. "Two days?"
"You know how Rifts work," Seung-hoo replied.
—Rifts have a different timeframe than Earth. One hour inside equals twenty-four hours outside—
"If we stay here too long," Seung-hoo continued, "they'll think we died."
Kim glanced around uneasily. "Then let's move."
Seung-hoo closed his eyes and activated Eye of Truth.
The cave changed.
Stone walls became transparent layers. Hidden paths revealed themselves like threads of light winding through the darkness. Blocked tunnels glowed faintly, and distant mana signatures pulsed deep underground.
Far ahead, something tall and structured stood out from the chaos of rock.
A tower.