You Didn't Tell Me the Start of My Transmigration Was a Gate

Chapter 35 Part 1: Mutant

I roughly pointed towards the incubator. He stumbled for a moment while trying to pull himself up. He finally got up and looked inside the incubator himself, and he also checked the Queen Ant’s size. To know whether it was really about to hatch or not.

“… How long was I lying there?”

“About a day.”

“And the other ants?”

“I haven’t seen them yet.”

“Can you contact the others?”

He started speaking informally around me.

“I’ve been in and out of here, but the cell phones and the walkie-talkies are not working.”

“Oh.”

He pauses for a moment. “I’m sorry, I just got a little carried away and…”

“It’s okay, let’s just stop being polite with each other.”

Before the regression, Lee Eun-Woo would be a smiling stranger in front of others, but when we were alone, he would turn into a completely different person. At first, I couldn’t understand the meaning behind his actions, but now I think it was because he recognized my abilities in his own way.

“First of all, there’s royal jelly over there, so we don’t have to worry about food for the time being, but there’s also the problem that we don’t have enough water and we can’t just wait here forever.”

When I spoke to him casually, Lee Eun-Woo looked at me for a moment, but didn’t comment.

“What about the… Scroll?”

As expected, he would even ask me that. He must have made a similar guess to mine. I thought that the second scroll would be hidden in this queen ant’s chamber, too, so I scanned the area while he was down.

“I didn’t find anything.”

“Ha… Not here.”

Well, they wouldn’t normally let examinees crawl into this type of chamber. It’s a perfect place to starve to death, and the thought of that exit in the sky is enough to make my head spin.

“We have four days until the exam is over, we can only wait for rescue.”

“No. I have to pass the test this time.”

It was a strange obsession. But who would want to fail? However, one must still learn to accept the inevitable.

“Do you have a way to get up there?”

“..That’s…”

He fell silent, unable to think of anything. Well. Compared to his former self, he’s actually pretty fresh. It’s a sign of naivety to state your purpose when you’re in a crisis, and when you’re alone. I wonder how he grew up to be such a wiseass later…?

“Eat this first.”

I handed him the royal jelly. Even outside the gate, this royal jelly is a precious nourishing material and a very expensive luxury. After falling down and getting up, he must be hungry. Lee Eun-Woo accepted the royal jelly without a word. I picked one up, put it in my mouth, and chewed it. It was sweet and made me feel faintly full. Lee Eun-Woo wants to get out of here, so he needs to eat something to make an escape plan or fight the ants.

Flinch.

“What’s wrong?”

“… Nothing.”

Wait. It looks like the queen ant fetus in the incubator has moved…

‘That can’t be right. There’s still a long way left in its cycle.’

Yeah it’s ridiculous. I popped the royal jelly into my mouth, trying not to think about it. Lee Eun-Woo was a mage who specialized in lightning magic, so there was nothing he could do to help. It might have been different if he had been able to manipulate a variety of attributes, at least even at a somewhat lower level like Sun Ha-Rang. But in the end, it’s always better to specialize in one attribute if you want to become a high-level mage, so it was a natural choice for Blue Serpent. I couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but it was a little more than two days, and the ants were nowhere to be seen.

‘Don’t they have to take care of the Queen inside the incubator?’

‘The exam can’t end like this…’

“Why do you have to pass this time?”

That was a pretty big question. The Blue Serpent, which gave thousands of units for field trips, wouldn’t throw Lee Eun-Woo out just because he failed a test. Only a fool would dismiss a mage of this caliber in the first place.

“… You don’t know?”

‘Obviously I don’t know because you didn’t tell me.’

“I need to prove my worth.”

What more does he need to prove? I’m sure. Anyone with eyes that weren’t glazed over would be able to recognize his value… “I want to become a hunter as soon as possible…”

“Was that how you guys do it at the Blue Serpent?”

At the mention of the Blue Serpent, Lee Eun-Woo raised his eyes sharply.

“…Don’t say that name out loud.”

I knew he had an excessive obsession with Blue Serpent, but I didn’t know that he was already like this even before he made his Hunter debut. I thought being a Hunter naturally strengthened his sense of belonging to that guild. I didn’t want to provoke him, so I just shrugged.

“You seem nonchalant. Even in this kind of situation.”

“When it comes to survival, I’m already used to it.”

He seemed to remember that I was from the Yeonhwado Gate.

“Yeonhwado Gate…. You said your gun came from there, right?”

“I did.”

I nudged 「Noir」. My old comrade-in-arms.

“It looked so good. What’s the rating?”

“You don’t need to know that. Don’t even think about it. It’s mine, and no one can handle it better than me.”

I could tell… It’s been with me for over a decade after all.