Light of Arad: Forerunner

Chapter 16

His mind was anxious, but he couldn’t act rashly.

This was because Van Balschut, who was standing next to Seria and the female fighter, was the commander of the Empire’s Iron Wolf Knights.

‘There’s a high chance that Harts, the vice commander, remembers my face. If I go up now with Van, it’ll only make things worse.’

In that case, should he have aimed for Aganzo, the greatsword-wielding Aganzo, who was next to them?

But even as Jinseong, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

‘The reason why Aganzo, who was always at the Moonlight Tavern, isn’t there— in the end, at that point, it must have been decided that Aganzo would always accompany the female fighter player.’

Then, what method was left?

Seria and the ‘character adventurer,’ the female fighter, were already walking up the stairs.

Aganzo, Van Balschut, and Lenny were also following closely behind the two.

They would soon pass through the forward base of the Iron Wolf Knights and head directly toward the top floor of Sky Castle.

‘Originally, there was no story where Lenny goes to the very top of Sky Castle. So what’s going to happen?’

Jinseong reviewed the story of the Dungeon Area: Sky Castle.

The player, an ‘adventurer,’ tries hard to defeat the final boss, Zieg Hart, but he continuously receives energy from a magic circle created by Bakal’s power.

‘I remember resisting together with Aganzo and Van. I also remember feeling frustrated that Zieg Hart wouldn’t die.’

And naturally, Lenny wasn’t part of that sequence.

Even though he didn’t remember all the quest dialogues, Jinseong, who knew the overall flow, had his doubts.

‘The role of realizing that Zieg Hart is being supplied with magic power… isn’t something Lenny would do. That was Seria—. No, it wasn’t Seria. The one who did that was—.’

Then it dawned on him.

Someone else was climbing up the now-empty Sky Castle, where there were no monsters left except for himself.

‘Sharan of the Mage Guild! Right, it was Sharan who uncovered Zieg Hart’s secret. And the one who safely escorted Sharan to Sky Castle was—.’

When he saw the two figures appear at the top of the stairs, Jinseong finally remembered.

More noticeable than the bald head was the red X-shaped eye patch covering his eyes.

‘…G.S.D.’

If you were a player who had played Dungeon & Fighter for a while, you would remember him— the NPC, G.S.D., who helped you level up through repeated hunts in the Dungeon Area: Sky Castle.

‘Since it was dangerous for Sharan to go to the top of Sky Castle alone, G.S.D. escorted her… that’s how it went. Yes.’

He was trailing slightly behind Seria, the female fighter player, Van, and Aganzo, but he would eventually catch up with them.

And if there was no one else climbing Sky Castle.

‘I have to somehow use Sharan and G.S.D.… I need to create a legitimate reason not to be chased out even if I’m discovered by the Empire’s knights.’

Jinseong bit his lower lip as he looked at the two NPCs.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with a way to target Sharan.

But what about G.S.D.?

‘He was once an instructor for the Ghost Knight class, after all. If I think back to the conversations we had back then, this might be the only option. The only thing I can test is—.’

He had to test it.

If he missed this opportunity, there would be no next time.

Thud. Jinseong finally made up his mind and stepped forward.

* * *

“Oh my?! A person in a place like this—?”

“…I sensed a presence earlier, but I thought it wasn’t a threat, so I was going to ignore it… seems I’ve changed my mind.”

Seeing Sharan startled and G.S.D. immediately gripping his sword’s hilt, Jinseong raised both his arms high.

“I feel embarrassed to say this, but I’m not a suspicious person.”

Sharan’s expression quickly changed at Jinseong’s attitude, which openly displayed that he wasn’t a threat.

“…We meet in the middle of Sky Castle, and you claim not to be suspicious? Who are you? And more importantly, considering that you were watching as Aganzo and the adventurers went up a moment ago and only now revealed yourself, how should we interpret that?”

She quickly deduced, as befitting the Guildmaster of the Mage Guild.

Jinseong’s eyes darted left and right, but ultimately, he had only one thing to say.

“I’d like to help, so perhaps… can I join you? You’re going all the way to the top floor of Sky Castle, right? To investigate the grand magic circle. Even if I look like this, I can handle the Dragonkin. Wouldn’t it be good to have one more person’s help at a time like this?”

There was no choice but to blatantly propose that they include him.

However, he later realized that it would have been better to pretend not to know about the grand magic circle.

“If you know about investigating the grand magic circle… then you must have heard our story from Hendon Myre. That makes you even more suspicious. You don’t have purely good intentions—.”

“I do have purely good intentions! I swear!”

“—Hmm, what should we do, G.S.D.?”

Jinseong literally shouted with all his sincerity.

Keeping her gaze fixed on Jinseong, Sharan asked G.S.D.

The man, who was blindfolded with an X-shaped red bandage and known as the strongest swordsman on the Arad Continent at this time, spoke quietly.

“I don’t know how you managed to contain the power of the demon 鬼 in your arm, but it’s clear that you still can’t fully control it. So, your claim that you’re capable of helping is probably not a lie.”

Jinseong was surprised that G.S.D. had instantly grasped the background of the body he had possessed, the Dark Knight, but the important thing was the positive tone in his words.

“Yes? Yes! That’s correct! It’s, um—.”

“However, we must be cautious. You should leave.”

“…What?”

The unfortunate thing was that the outcome wasn’t as positive.

G.S.D. began to walk away as if he had nothing more to say, and Sharan, who had been watching the situation, followed behind him.

Jinseong stared blankly at their backs.

Cautious? Does that mean they don’t trust me?

‘I get that they can’t trust me, but—.’

He couldn’t let this chance slip away.

If they needed to be cautious, shouldn’t he make them acknowledge that they needed to take him along?

Should he make them feel that they had to keep him with them?

“Grand Swordmaster Duncan.”

Jinseong said abruptly.

Both NPCs stopped in their tracks simultaneously.

There was a brief silence.

“…No way?”

Without any further explanation, Sharan seemed to understand what Jinseong had said, her eyes widening in surprise.

At the very least, the background setting that Jinseong remembered was working.

Currently, in Arad, no one knew what G.S.D. stood for or what his real name was.

“G-. G.S.D., sir? Is your real name…?”

Sharan even stuttered.

She might not have been entirely convinced that Jinseong was telling the truth, but she seemed to understand the significance of the fact that even G.S.D. had stopped in his tracks.

However, G.S.D. merely curled one corner of his mouth.

“I thought there were no longer any who would refer to me like that. I believed they had all vanished long ago….”

“Yes? So, you mean—.”

“There was a time when I was called that, but not anymore. And my real name isn’t Duncan either.”

“…I see.”

Sharan responded in a tone that implied she thought as much.

In any case, Jinseong had managed to confirm one thing.

“So how does he know something like that?”

“He doesn’t seem very old, but age doesn’t necessarily correlate with experience and knowledge.”

He had piqued their interest.

Jinseong answered with an awkward smile.

“Oh… haha, yes, that’s right. I heard it a long time ago, so I just thought I’d mention it.”

However, he knew that the time he had bought with this wouldn’t last long.

‘So this isn’t it. I remembered that when I was raising the Asura class, they used to call G.S.D. by that name… But then again, since it was never revealed, it’s only natural to think it was a pseudonym….’

He was also aware that ‘Grand Swordmaster Duncan’ didn’t explain what G.S.D. stood for.

Jinseong had to make his next move.

“Grand Swordmaster Duncan was just something I said to attract your attention, but I think I actually know why you use the name G.S.D. I might even know what it stands for.”

And this next move was something only Jinseong could say.

What does G.S.D. stand for?

What was it meant to abbreviate?

A question that any Dungeon & Fighter player might have wondered about at least once.

‘There were many jokes, like “Kim Seondal” or “Gamseongdom,” but almost no one seriously thought about it. Maybe because Neople didn’t care about it anymore, and that was just one theory that circulated….’

But Jinseong was different.

He didn’t just play Dungeon & Fighter to make money; he genuinely loved the game. So it was only natural that sometimes he would wonder, think about it, and even let his imagination run wild.

“…I don’t want to waste any more time.”

“Yes, let’s go, G.S.D.”

As he watched G.S.D. and Sharan turn their backs to leave again, Jinseong found himself about to speak out another hypothesis he had held onto alone.

Why didn’t he reveal his real name or what G.S.D. stood for?

Even so, he persisted in using the name G.S.D., which meant that he was waiting for someone.

Someone who could decipher what G.S.D. stood for.

In other words, someone who could understand it without needing any clues.

‘There was once a rumor that G.S.D. was Soldoros, wasn’t there? Of course, it was later revealed that wasn’t true, and there’s no connection in the actual story. I also thought G.S.D. might be Great Sol Doros at one point, but it’s ultimately something that couldn’t be true.’

G.S.D. wasn’t Soldoros. Officially, there was no connection.

But even so, in Jinseong’s mind, the link between G.S.D. and Soldoros had never been completely severed, leading him to think of—

Another direction.

“Grand Son from the Tower of Despair… what do you think?”

The Tower of Despair where Soldoros remained.

A mysterious place where time flowed differently from the outside.

‘In the game, you couldn’t freely converse like this, so I couldn’t confirm it, but I always wondered! What if! Maybe! I thought about it alone so many times.’

Could G.S.D. be from that place, or perhaps a descendant of someone from there?

Thus, G.S.D. could be a pseudonym that only someone from the Tower of Despair would understand, and no one else could even guess. Maybe that’s why he kept it a secret.

This kind of excitement and possibility born from pure imagination was one of the reasons Jinseong enjoyed Dungeon & Fighter so much.

Jinseong suppressed his pounding heart and focused on G.S.D.

Sharan smiled as she looked at Jinseong.

“I don’t know what that means, but you’re an interesting young man. I’ll give you credit for your imagination, so come by the Mage Guild later. We could have a lo~ong talk—… huh?”

She was about to dismiss Jinseong’s words as a meaningless joke, but she couldn’t finish her sentence.

At least Jinseong could understand what was on her mind.

“G.S.D.…?”

She was bound to be surprised.

Even Jinseong could sense the ‘gaze’ of G.S.D., who was blindfolded with a red X-shaped bandage.

“What’s so special about the Tower of Despair… G.S.D.?”

Sharan asked urgently.

But the elderly Ghost Knight said nothing.

Neither did Jinseong.

Only Sharan, with her eyes darting around in confusion, alternated her gaze between the two men for what felt like several minutes.

“I don’t know what the Tower of Despair is, and I’m not its descendant. But… I do want to ask you something.”

G.S.D. denied Jinseong’s statement.

“What is it that you want?”

Then he asked.

The sequence didn’t seem to make sense.

But Jinseong wasn’t startled or flustered by the situation and answered.

“I only want one thing. To climb Sky Castle with you, Sharan, and G.S.D. If possible, I’d like things to go smoothly—. Ah! How about we go with the ‘setup’ that I’m G.S.D.’s disciple? That would work, right?”

Jinseong’s purpose had been singular from the start.

“…Very well. What is your name?”

G.S.D. nodded and asked.

At that point, Jinseong hesitated for a moment.

“Just call me… Jinseong.”

This Dark Knight wasn’t likely the same character that Jinseong had last logged in with.

Shuuuuuuu—.

Jinseong heard a faint sound but paid it no mind.

He was just relieved that the NPCs didn’t recognize him by the nickname of his last logged-in Dark Knight character, ‘Madtak Jinseong.’

“Jinseong, Jinseong… Got it. Let’s go.”

G.S.D. murmured Jinseong’s name a few more times and began walking again.

Sharan, who had been gauging the situation, hurriedly followed him, occasionally glancing back at Jinseong.

The three began ascending Sky Castle.