I Have Contracted Too Many Constellations

Chapter 19 The Abandoned Dragon’s Nest (2)

I didn’t know if Jacheongbi would accept my request.

Still, I had to give it a try.

She was the only one I had any connection with, so there was no one else to ask.

Knock, knock—

I knocked on the door with the name “Jacheongbi” written on it.

And then, I heard nothing in return.

Silence. No response.

I knocked again, but it was the same. No reply from inside.

What was going on?

Was she absent?

‘Should I go in?’

If there was no response, there must be a reason.

Either she was absent or something was happening.

Thinking that, I turned the handle and opened the door.

Creak—

What I saw when I opened the door was a room much cleaner than I had expected.

A neat room.

It felt like an ordinary personal office with nothing special.

The only things out of the ordinary were the potted plants scattered around the room.

The plants ranged from ones I’d never seen before to quite common ones.

All of them were in excellent condition, even brimming with vitality.

And in a corner, a woman was slumped over a desk, asleep.

It was Jacheongbi.

‘She was sleeping?’

She wasn’t absent or gone; she was just sleeping.

That was so like Jacheongbi.

She was sleeping on her desk, completely oblivious.

She was so deeply asleep that she didn’t even react when I entered.

She was dressed very lightly, too.

It was comfortable enough to be considered her home.

Startled by that fact for a moment, I approached her and gently shook her shoulder while speaking.

“Professor, wake up.”

She didn’t wake up. She didn’t even twitch.

I tried again, but her response didn’t change.

Maybe I needed to get closer.

Thinking that, I brought my mouth close to her ear and spoke forcefully.

“Wake up, Professor!”

“…?”

Only then did Jacheongbi flinch.

Her eyes were still hazy, unfocused as if she hadn’t fully awakened.

About ten seconds passed like that.

Finally regaining her senses, Jacheongbi shook her head and asked me.

“…Yoo Jinwoo? Why are you here…”

“…I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?”

She sat up from her slumped position and took a seat.

I did the same, sitting in a nearby chair.

Once we were settled for a conversation, I got straight to the point.

Jacheongbi didn’t like beating around the bush.

“Would you like to go to a dungeon with me?”

I explained the situation to her.

I had gained exclusive rights to a dungeon as a reward for subjugating a demonic species.

Due to the dungeon’s danger, I needed to take a professor with me.

I chose Jacheongbi as that professor.

After hearing the whole story, Jacheongbi asked me.

“Why me?”

Why Jacheongbi?

It was a reasonable question.

There were many reasons, but the main one wasn’t particularly special.

She was the strongest, and above all, we had a connection.

“We’ve only had a few conversations, haven’t we?”

“There aren’t many professors who would have a proper conversation with a student who was just in Class C until recently.”

“…That’s true.”

In fact, even calling it a connection with her was a bit ambiguous.

At most, we had a few conversations during class.

A few private conversations afterward.

But having conversations was important.

Even those few conversations were only with her.

Just like I said earlier, there weren’t many professors who would have a proper conversation with a student who was just in Class C until recently.

Now that I had moved up to Class A, it would be different, but I hadn’t taken any classes in Class A yet.

Jacheongbi nodded as if she agreed with my words.

Then she asked me again.

“So, who have you recruited?”

“C-Class’s Lee Se-ah, A-Class’s Sung Harim, and Jin Juha.”

“Oh, not bad. How did you recruit them?”

She seemed impressed by the team, looking more surprised than before.

Sung Harim and Jin Juha.

Both were top-tier students in Class A.

Accordingly, neither had many special friends.

Sung Harim had a friendly attitude towards everyone but always maintained a certain distance.

Jin Juha only showed her bright personality to Sung Harim.

Honestly, even now, I could only say it was pure luck that I became close to both of them.

They were people I barely managed to befriend through a series of coincidences.

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

After hearing about the team, Jacheongbi, who had been contemplating, accepted.

“But I’ll only intervene when it’s really dangerous. Other than that, you guys have to clear the dungeon yourselves.”

Her condition was that she would only act as a last resort.

It was only for the purpose of ‘staying alive.’

She wouldn’t help with the actual dungeon clear.

Some might say it was harsh, but I was actually satisfied.

‘I was going to ask for that anyway, so now I don’t need to mention it.’

Experience was important.

Even if it was a saga-level dungeon that I had never experienced before, it would definitely be helpful.

Just attempting to clear a saga-level dungeon itself was valuable.

Moreover, there was a special space starting from saga-level dungeons.

The reward room.

It was a room that opened after defeating the dungeon boss.

The rewards varied based on the contribution during the clear.

The higher the contribution, the better the reward.

The lower the contribution, the more useless the reward.

‘Many good things come out of there. I need to get them.’

Many of the artifacts Lee Shinwoo used in the original story came from the reward room.

Most of the items from there were useful.

Since there had been no attempts to clear a saga-level dungeon at this point, this was an opportunity.

An opportunity to become stronger faster than in the original story.

If an unexpected opportunity arose,

I planned to take full advantage of it.

#

With the professor secured, the dungeon clear date was set soon.

The clear date was two days later, on Saturday.

It would be a one-day trip.

The distance wasn’t too far.

Moreover, I heard the dungeon wasn’t very long.

“A saga-level dungeon, huh? I only visited one once while wandering around the constellations.”

One of the academy’s lectures, .

It was a fairly advanced lecture for first-year students.

Why was I taking this lecture?

It was because of Sacred Fire.

Basically, manifesting it as a skill was easy, but applying it was a different matter.

Proper utilization required it.

“Be grateful you’re included.”

“Grateful? As if you’d have anyone else to go with if it weren’t for us.”

“…That’s not wrong.”

Among those taking this lecture, the only person I knew was Jin Juha.

Sung Harim, Lee Se-ah, and Lee Shinwoo didn’t need to take this lecture.

Having finished today’s assignment, we were chatting for a moment in the back.

Both she and I didn’t have many people we could call close.

“Oh, I got permission for the tour at the constellation.”

“Really? That was faster than I expected.”

“We’re in the same team, Thunder Team 2. Is that okay with you?”

“Of course. Honestly, I was worried it would be hard alone.”

Thunder Team 2.

A team from the original story that Jin Juha belonged to.

Including Jin Juha, there were four members.

All four appeared in the original story.

They were extras with only a few lines of dialogue.

‘Were their personalities… okay?’

I couldn’t remember.

They had such a minor role.

Still, as far as I remembered, they weren’t bad.

“Want me to teach you a lightning attribute skill?”

While I was thinking, she asked me.

A lightning attribute skill?

Of course, I could learn it.

Though it would be much less effective than a skill bestowed by a constellation.

But why all of a sudden?

“There might be some discrimination.”

“Discrimination? In a large guild?”

“It’s worse because it’s a large guild.”

Her words made me think that it could be possible.

A constellation was a community of contractors with similar strengths and stories.

The same went for the other four constellations.

< Sacred Shield >, < Blue Sea > were the same.

Well… < Eightfold Path Temple > was a bit unique.

That’s a special case.

Most constellations had such characteristics, and their pride and unity were strong.

It was even more pronounced in large constellations.

‘I forgot because it wasn’t emphasized in the original story.’

In the original story, the protagonist didn’t get involved with constellations.

Partly because of his constellation,

And because Lee Shinwoo had no interest in constellations.

So I had forgotten about it.

It seemed it was a bigger hindrance than I thought.

“Yes, please teach me.”

“If I say I taught you, most will overlook it.”

In other words, she was offering to back me up.

Even though I knew in my head, I hadn’t felt that she was a person with a lot of power until now.

Seeing it like this gave me a different feeling.

In the later parts of the original story, she rose to the position of constellation leader.

Maybe it was because of her actions until now.

“When will we start?”

“After the dungeon clear. We still have plenty of time.”

After that, we continued to chat.

Jin Juha and I both talked a lot, so there was never a moment of silence between us.

We continued our trivial chats for a while.

After a moment of hesitation, she asked me first.

“Hey, you really have no feelings for Sung Harim, right?”

It was a familiar question, one Jin Juha had asked several times.

A question I was now very used to.

Recently, she had been asking almost as a joke.

“Why suddenly? You asked last time too.”

“Just a reconfirmation.”

But now… the atmosphere felt different, somehow?

Nothing had changed particularly, but something felt different.

It felt a bit more serious.

Though seeing her smiling face, it didn’t seem so.

‘It must be my imagination.’

“No, I don’t, so don’t worry.”

I answered her casually.

Jin Juha smiled faintly.

“That’s a relief.”

That answer too.

It felt different from before.