Chapter 51: Dorneth's Beloved, Sharbadin
My heart sank heavily.
I had known from the moment I realized this place was the altar that the Crystal Mimic would eventually return.
After all, who else could have created the pile of mana stones in front of me?
The altar was where Dominic had first discovered the Mimic. To the Mimic, this place was nothing less than its nest.
‘I didn’t think it would come back so suddenly….’
I had let my guard down, distracted by the faint thudding noises and the fact that it had only recently retreated.
It didn’t even give me a chance to prepare—it just returned out of nowhere.
‘Where do I run?’
Exiting the pool wasn’t an option. For now, I crawled behind the pile of mana stones to get out of the Mimic’s line of sight.
‘Damn it, I can’t believe I’m playing hide-and-seek in a pool of blood.’
Did it notice me?
From the outside, the Mimic’s appearance resembled a gigantic treasure chest. It had no eyes or nose, just a massive mouth filled with sharp teeth and that grotesque, writhing tongue—its only visible signs of life.
I carefully observed it. Thankfully, it showed no noticeable reaction.
Its mouth opened and closed slightly, and droplets of blood fell to the ground.
The traces of its recent hunt.
These traces indicated that survivors were still somewhere in this place.
‘Is it using scent? Vibrations? Or all its senses to hunt?’
I thought about the behaviors of movie monsters as I slowly and silently crawled between the pools of blood, doing my best to avoid making a sound.
When I finally circled around behind the mana stone pile and out of its sight—
“...!”
I nearly cried out but immediately covered my mouth when I suddenly encountered someone.
I gulped down a scream along with the metallic taste of blood, but there was no time to process it.
At first, I thought it was a corpse.
But then, the figure, pretending to be dead, slightly lifted its head and locked eyes with me.
Her pupils quivered like a trembling aspen leaf as she stared at me.
“...Ah!”
‘No!’
As her lips began to part, I hurriedly clamped my hand over her mouth.
An elf. A female elf, at that.
If it were Fenry, she wouldn’t have looked at me with fearful eyes—instead, she would’ve bitten my hand like a wild animal.
Her brown hair and pale white skin were now stained crimson with blood, but her features were still discernible.
Wait… a female elf?
The moment I registered that thought, I hastily inspected her head.
If she was the woman I was searching for, then “it” would be there.
The object that Dorneth had given her as a gift—a symbol of Beneta.
The obsidian-adorned hair ornament.
It was the very item that had been discovered in Sharbadin’s remains.
And there it was, glimmering faintly in her blood-soaked hair.
Damn it, I found her!
‘S-Sharbadin!’
The woman Fenry had been so desperately searching for was now in front of me.
Alive, no less, and right in the middle of the altar where the Mimic roamed.
Though our meeting was entirely unexpected, I quickly collected myself and dangled the necklace around my neck in front of her eyes.
‘Fenry, Fenry.’
I mouthed the name repeatedly.
Sharbadin was a member of the Blue Rose, a crucial figure who served as a bridge between Beneta and Fenry.
Surely, she would recognize the necklace that Fenry always wore.
Moments later, her quivering pupils widened in recognition as she took in both my lips mouthing the name and the necklace.
Blinking rapidly, she looked at me and gave a small nod.
Thankfully, she seemed to understand my message.
The fear in her eyes quickly subsided, and tears began to well up instead.
Oh, for crying out loud, don’t start crying now.
Thud—
“...!”
A harsh ripple spread across the blood pool at that moment.
It was the sound that accompanied the Mimic’s movements.
I flattened myself to the ground, playing dead. Sharbadin curled up beside me, trembling uncontrollably. She seemed utterly terrified of the Mimic’s presence.
When no further changes occurred, I cautiously peeked out to observe the Mimic.
The massive creature shook its enormous body roughly.
Rumble, rumble—
Each time it shook, stones fell from its surface.
Red stones.
They were bio mana stones.
The Crystal Mimic consumed prey and, as a reward, provided mana stones to Dominic.
I had just witnessed part of the years-long exchange between Dominic and the Mimic.
Then—
Crunch—!
I saw something new.
The Mimic greedily devoured several of the red mana stones and began chewing them noisily. After some time, it spat out a single violet mana stone.
‘So that’s how the violet mana stones are made?’
It seemed to be a time-consuming process.
Clearly, violet mana stones weren’t something that could be produced easily.
I silently watched the Mimic’s actions for a while.
Once I felt certain about my observations, I exhaled slowly and stood up cautiously.
Sharbadin immediately grabbed my wrist, shaking her head in panic, but I reassured her and stepped out in front of the mana stone pile.
I deliberately exposed myself fully to the Mimic, standing stiffly as I awaited its reaction.
I was confident in my reasoning.
Crunch— crunch—
The Mimic, which had been devouring red stones and spitting out violet ones, eventually turned its massive body toward me.
My hands clenched into fists instinctively.
To be honest, I was scared shitless.
The Mimic’s mouth opened wide, and its tongue shot out suddenly.
Thud—!
With a thunderous noise, the Mimic surged forward into the air.
“...”
But it passed right by me and disappeared into one of the corridors.
“It didn’t see me.”
I recalled the Mimic’s puzzling behavior patterns.
Why it had suddenly disappeared when I first entered this area.
Why the corpses in this place were unusually intact.
‘And why Sharbadin has survived here all this time.’
When I connected all the dots, the conclusion became clear—red mana stones.
The Mimic didn’t have eyes.
So how did it hunt?
I had just witnessed the answer with my own two eyes.
The Mimic couldn’t detect me in areas saturated with the energy of the red mana stones.
I grabbed two handfuls of the stones and hurled them outward with force.
Clatter, clatter—!
The stones clattered loudly as they hit the ground.
Despite the noise, the Mimic didn’t reappear.
I repeated the action a few more times, each time observing the same result.
‘So it’s not sound, either.’
The Mimic wasn’t hunting using the five traditional senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch. Instead, it seemed to sense prey based on a specific type of energy.
The dense aura of the mana stones in this area must have masked my presence.
This was an important discovery.
I turned and approached the curled-up elf.
First, I needed confirmation.
“Are you Sharbadin?”
At my question, she nodded weakly.
“How long have you been here?”
“I-I don’t know… It feels like it’s been a very long time….”
Well, in a place like this, it would be difficult to track time.
From what she told me, she had been here ever since she was thrown into the pit.
That meant she had been in this hellish place for nearly three days.
‘Three days in this place?’
I glanced at the pile of mana stones, then looked back at Sharbadin.
By now, she should have succumbed to the madness caused by the mana stones. Yet she seemed perfectly fine.
Just as I began to wonder why, I noticed the obsidian hair ornament on her head glimmer faintly.
‘Ah, right—didn’t they say this obsidian was blessed by a dwarf?’
The obsidian, handcrafted by Dorneth himself, was designed to resemble a black rose.
Since Sharbadin was from the Blue Rose, he had imbued it with blessings and given it to her as a heartfelt gift.
Though I didn’t know the exact nature of the blessing, it was clear that the ornament had protected her mind all this time.
Still, even with its protection, Sharbadin would eventually have been sacrificed as prey to the Mimic.
‘There’s no visible way out of here.’
She would have tried to escape the altar eventually, only to be hunted down.
“D-Did Fenry come here?”
“Yes, she came with me.”
“Then… is she nearby?”
“You’ll be able to meet her soon.”
Sharbadin’s face twisted with emotion at the mention of Fenry. She was clearly holding back tears, trying to maintain her composure.
That moment made me realize just how strong this woman was.
‘It wasn’t just by chance that she captured Dorneth’s heart.’
Dorneth was a dwarven hero.
Winning the heart of such a figure wasn’t something mere beauty could accomplish.
She had endured three days in this hellish place, unaffected by the mana stones’ madness.
What thoughts must have gone through her mind as she waited for rescue?
And how had she survived all this time?
I glanced at the pool of blood, then gently wiped the crimson stains from her lips.
“You can cry now. The Mimic won’t come here.”
As if my words had released a floodgate, she broke down into uncontrollable sobs—a mixture of relief and despair overwhelming her.
Sharbadin clung to me, crying her heart out.
***
I didn’t know much about Sharbadin.
In the novel, she was simply a victim—a character who died, with no further details provided.
Dorneth’s beloved, Sharbadin.
Though her presence in the story was minor, her death triggered a chain of events that were anything but insignificant.
I thought back to her role in the story.
After her death, Dorneth, consumed by grief and vengeance, managed to kill Dominic, but he suffered catastrophic losses in the process.
Kamel seized the opportunity, launching Blyer’s army directly against Beneta. Dorneth suffered a humiliating defeat and died in battle.
This led to Beneta’s downfall.
In the aftermath, Fenry relocated her hideout, eventually discovering the altar and Sharbadin’s remains, following Dorneth’s final wishes.
‘The collapse of the altar revealed Sharbadin’s location.’
The hair ornament, enchanted with a tracking spell, played a key role.
However, the tracking function was useless in this place, which was sealed off by a barrier.
Only after the barrier was destroyed did Fenry find the obsidian ornament in the ruins and confirm Sharbadin’s death.
That black rose-shaped ornament later became…
‘The symbol of Fenry Chaser, the Dark Rose.’
The ornament’s name, “Dark Rose,” was given by Fenry in the future.
Sharbadin’s death marked the beginning of the main storyline.
Now, seeing her in front of me, speaking and crying as if pleading for salvation, felt surreal.
Had I changed her fate?
It was too soon to tell—danger still loomed—but her survival seemed likely to alter many aspects of the story.
“Are those who died here your escort knights?”
“...Yes.”
Sharbadin looked sorrowfully at the fallen bodies.
They were Dorneth’s personal guards, and they had worried about her until their dying moments.
“We were attacked near a village in Beneta. Half the escort knights died on the spot, and the rest of us were captured.”
She mentioned that the culprit was a small girl.
Sharbadin’s body curled up as she recalled the girl, her fear palpable.
That girl had torn apart half the knights with her bare hands.
A girl with monstrous strength…
‘Arena Huaton.’
It had to be her.
Sharbadin had likely crossed paths with Dominic’s forces while traveling through Laup Forest. After being taken to an experimental prison, she had eventually ended up here.
“Did you fight the Mimic to make it here?”
What caught my attention the most was what had happened at the bottom of the pit. She mentioned that after regrouping with some of the knights, they fought the Mimic multiple times while trying to escape.
They fought the Mimic?
That monster could deflect an enchanted dagger with ease. Even Dorneth’s elite knights wouldn’t have been able to harm it with their bare hands.
“The captain of the escort knights, Evirat, was a mage. I heard him say something… that the Mimic seemed to feel pain from magic.”
“You’re saying the Mimic is vulnerable to magic attacks?”
“Yes, but we couldn’t kill it.”
No matter how much magic they threw at it, they could only cause pain—it wasn’t enough to bring it down.
Interestingly, she also mentioned that the Mimic was capable of some form of communication.
Evirat had managed to exchange a few rudimentary thoughts with the creature during a standoff, after which he had led the group toward the pool of blood.
“He said it was the exit. But at some point, everyone started attacking each other. Evirat, the knights… they all lost their minds.”
Every one of the escort knights, except Sharbadin, had succumbed to madness and died.
If the Mimic had manipulated the altar’s power to achieve this, it was far more cunning than I had originally thought.
I had gathered a lot of information through Sharbadin, and the more I learned about the Mimic, the heavier my heart grew.
I had expected this to be difficult, but now it felt like an impossible challenge.
‘Defeating the Mimic won’t be easy. Is there another way?’
As I mulled over possible strategies, a thought suddenly struck me.
‘Wait, if anyone has information about the Crystal Mimic…’
Who would know the most about it?
‘Dominic Huaton!’
The moment his name crossed my mind, I hurriedly pulled out a notebook from my bag.
Dominic’s research journal.
The answer might be inside.