Round 370

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After a brief seaside party with a short introduction, we returned to our daily lives.  

Working on the farm while admiring the vast, beautiful fields was more fulfilling and enjoyable than exhausting.  

“Hmm!”  

However, in the back of my mind, thoughts of the dimensional portal lingered.  

I had left it untouched since I wasn’t sure what consequences it would bring, but today, I finally decided to activate it.  

To prepare, I planned to call all the Seven Deadly Sins children after finishing farm work—along with the Kyler family and Frey as well.  

“Am I just an extra?”  

“Haha, I didn’t mean it like that.”  

Kyler, who came with Emily, shook his head as he looked at the gathered Seven Deadly Sins.  

“I was short-sighted. I am, indeed, just an extra.”  

“Come on, what are you saying? Kyler, you’re such a dependable person.”  

Amidst this lighthearted banter, I finally opened the dimensional portal with the curious children gathered around.  

Wooong—  

The air vibrated as the portal gradually revealed itself at the desired location. For reference, this was an open field a bit away from the village.  

“What is this?!”  

As if daring something to come out, Ara took a Taekwondo sparring stance toward the forming portal.  

I wondered what would emerge from the dimensional portal.  

[The dimensional portal is opening.]  

[It connects to a random dimension once a month. Once a dimension is connected, users can freely access it at will.]  

[Connected to Dimension 3-78.]  

[Entry is allowed once per day.]  

“Oooh.”  

A series of messages suddenly appeared in quick succession.  

Reading through them, I was able to grasp the general idea.  

But was that all? No additional explanations?  

“How is it?”  

“What does this mean?!”  

In response to Kyler and Ara’s questions, I roughly explained what had just appeared.  

“Hm, in the end, we have no choice but to check for ourselves.”  

“It’s not dangerous, right?”  

“If we go together, I don’t think there will be any danger.”  

Fortunately, the portal allowed for group transportation as long as I went in as well.  

After some deliberation, I decided that we would all go together.  

“Let’s go!”  

“Oooh! We’re going in!”  

Levi clapped its hands like a seal, patting its stomach.  

I picked Levi up and held it in my arms while grabbing the hands of the other children.  

We’re going in!  

We stepped through the portal.  

Then, another system message appeared.  

[You can stay for a maximum of 3 hours.]  

[After 3 hours, you will be automatically returned.]  

Oh, nice. The safety measures were solid.  

Though 3 hours felt a bit short, the automatic return feature meant we wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost.  

Beep— Beep— Beep—  

The sound of birds echoed around us.  

Looking around, we found ourselves in the middle of a dense forest.  

“Oooh.”  

Ara clenched her fists with excitement as she scanned the surroundings.  

—Shall we start by exploring the area, my lord?  

—Th-There’s nothing scary here, right?  

I nodded at Mammon’s suggestion.  

Frey clung tightly to my shoulder, glancing around.  

Luckily, we had Kyler, our survival expert, with us.  

With him and Ara leading the way, the rest of us followed closely behind.  

“Could this be a dungeon?”  

“Hm, not sure. Since it’s another dimension, it might not be a dungeon.”  

Answering Emily’s question, I let her pet Levi, who was resting quietly in my arms.  

After walking for a bit, a small animal scurried past us.  

It looked similar to a rabbit, but something about its appearance was unusual.  

The most striking feature was the horn on its head.  

—It’s one of Ashu’s friends.  

—Ashu’s friend?  

Ashu tilted her head in confusion at Mammon’s remark.  

How cute.  

“Huh?”  

“!!”  

Just then, Ara and Kyler, who were walking ahead, both let out sounds of surprise.  

“What? Did you find something?”  

“It’s a sparkling tree!”  

“?”  

A sparkling tree… Did that mean the World Tree was here?  

Looking at Kyler with a puzzled expression, he nodded.  

“If you climb this tree, you’ll see a massive tree in that direction.”  

Hearing that, we immediately started climbing the tree.  

The tree we were climbing was already quite tall, so it took a while before the view opened up.  

And just as Kyler said, a gigantic tree towered in the distance.  

“Whoa.”  

A dimension with a World Tree…  

But there were no signs of civilization anywhere nearby.  

Still, we decided to head toward the World Tree and climbed down.  

“Let’s go to the World Tree!”  

“Understood.”  

However, we only had three hours.  

Judging by the distance, it would take several days just to reach the World Tree.  

This dimensional portal didn’t seem all that useful after all.  

‘Hmm, let’s not judge too quickly.’  

We continued forward for about two hours.  

Along the way, we encountered small animals, but nothing significant happened.  

Just as I was beginning  to think we wouldn’t find anything within the short three-hour window…  

“Oh! There’s a person!”  

Ara suddenly called out to us.  

“A person?!”  

A person in a place like this?  

I glanced at the Kyler family in shock, but they looked just as bewildered.  

“W-Where?”  

“Over there! They’re looking around from the treetops.”  

“A tree?”  

We decided to approach the person Ara had spotted.  

Now, we had less than an hour left.  

As we got closer, Ara encouraged us, saying we were almost there.  

“Ah!”  

Around that time, Kyler also noticed their presence and nodded.  

“It does look like a person. But why would someone be in the middle of a forest like this…”  

As we cautiously approached, the other party seemed to have noticed us too.  

Whoosh!  

Thud!  

A figure suddenly leaped down from the tree.  

The mysterious person landed in front of us and spoke.  

“Wateka ktu inagobmidai.”

“Uh…”  

A native? Their attire was a bit unusual.  

It looked like it was made from leaves, yet it was clearly fabric.  

And there was something strikingly different about their appearance compared to humans—an almost unreal beauty.  

Noticing their pointed ears, I quickly deduced their identity.  

“An elf?”  

They closely resembled the commonly depicted elves.  

In fact, there had been a few recorded instances of discovering native elves in certain dungeons on Earth, but they were rare.  

“They don’t seem hostile. I’ll use a translation item first.”  

Kyler retrieved a translation item from his dimensional storage.  

Soon, everyone around us could communicate naturally.  

“…So they don’t understand my language.”  

The elf mumbled something, which we could now comprehend.  

“Greetings! I am Ara!”  

“Hmm?! You can speak my language.”  

“Hello. Thanks to this item, we can communicate for now.”  

As I carefully greeted him, his gaze shifted to me.  

“That’s a fascinating item. And your appearances are strange as well. Where are you from? Across the sea?”  

“Hmm, we came from another world.”  

I decided to be honest, though I wasn’t sure if he’d believe me.  

Scratching my head, I watched as the elf simply nodded.  

“That seems to be the case.”  

He believed it?  

“Your clothes, your features, and those accompanying you… I’ve never seen anything like them in this land.”  

“To be honest, I didn’t expect you to believe me so easily. That’s a relief.”  

“So, what brings you here?”  

“We didn’t really have any specific reason…”  

After pondering for a moment, I started pulling things out from my inventory.  

“Would you like to trade?”  

“Trade?”  

“Yes.”  

I hadn’t planned anything, but since we were here, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to establish a connection.  

I handed over some of my harvested crops.  

I wasn’t expecting much, but who knew? They might have something useful for me.  

“These are vegetables I grew myself. Please, try them.”  

“These look unusual. Is there a special way to eat them?”  

“You can eat them as they are. They taste good raw, but they’re also delicious when cooked.”  

“I’ll accept them gratefully.”  

Come to think of it, this elf hadn’t shown the slightest hint of suspicion from the beginning.  

His appearance and speech gave off a closed-off vibe, yet he seemed to accept everything without hesitation.  

How peculiar.  

“We can only stay here for three hours per day. Would you be able to meet us here again tomorrow?”  

“That is possible.”  

The elf began gathering the crops one by one.  

The more I observed him, the more I wondered—were all elves like this, or was this one just particularly unique?  

After packing everything up, the elf turned back to us and suddenly spotted Frey.  

“A fairy?”  

—Yeah! I’m a fairy!  

Frey proudly flapped her wings and declared.  

She always got snappy whenever she met new people, but that just made her even cuter.  

“A winged fairy… Could it be? A Fairy Queen?!”  

—Hmph! You’ve got a good eye! That’s right! I am the Fairy Queen!  

So fairies recognize each other.  

Was it because the World Tree was here?  

Still, he looked particularly shocked.  

His eyes remained fixed on Frey’s wings.  

“You mentioned returning tomorrow, correct? Please, I beg you, come to our village.”  

“Oh, yes, of course. But is there a reason related to fairies?”  

“Recently, the fairies living with us have all fallen ill. I do not expect the Fairy Queen to have a solution, but I was hoping she might.”  

So there were fairies here, too!  

And they were all sick?  

That sounded oddly familiar…  

“I’ll come back tomorrow to check. But for now, our time is running out, and we have to return.”  

“Understood. I shall escort you—”  

“Oh, that’s okay. We’ll automatically—”  

Before I could finish my sentence, a bright light enveloped us.  

[Your time limit has expired.]  

[The portal location has been set to your current position.]  

[Returning now.]  

I didn’t even get to say a proper goodbye.  

Well, since we could come back tomorrow, it wasn’t a big deal.  

Poof! 

We were back in front of the portal.  

We didn’t gain much, but the fact that we had met a different race made it an exciting discovery.  

“Tomorrow, we’ll start from the exact spot where we left the elf.”  

“That means no time will be wasted. And though it may take days to reach their village, it seems possible.”  

Just then, Emily checked something and exclaimed in surprise.  

“Only ten minutes have passed!”  

“Huh? What do you mean?”  

Only ten minutes had passed? What?  

Seeing Emily stare at her watch in shock, I quickly took out my phone to check the time.  

“What the…?”  

It was true—only ten minutes had passed.  

We had spent three hours in the other dimension, yet only ten minutes had elapsed here.  

“This is incredible. Time flows differently there.”  

“Ooooh.”  

Three hours had seemed like a constraint, but now it wasn’t an issue at all.  

“Elves are an extraordinary race. They create all sorts of spells and mysterious artifacts. If we befriend them, it will definitely be beneficial.”  

“You seem to know a lot about elves.”  

“I met them once before. Even then, they had a way of thinking that was strangely different from humans.”  

Ah, he must be referring to their lack of suspicion.  

Yeah, that was a bit unusual.  

“I hope they like what we brought.”  

“Elves primarily follow a vegetarian diet. Since we’re at it, it might be good to do some research on them.”  

“Ah, that’s a good idea.”  

Since solving the 8th-level Break incident, I hadn’t gone out much.  

It was about time I visited the guild again.  

I should ask Hyung Young-seong or the guild master about elves.  

There had to be some information available.

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