chapter 95

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons - Episode 95

There were three paintings Gio had drawn some time ago.

“One was ‘The Breathing Sea.’”

Iser nodded as if he understood.

“That space connected to the ‘Kingdom of the Deep Sea,’ then.”

“It’s also a door in a frame.”

“I’m not sure it can be called a door, given how actively it moves...”

At present, in the ‘Deep Sea Temple,’ you could find a landscape painting called ‘The Breathing Sea.’

A visitor wouldn’t be able to find the flowing landscape painting at a glance, but Iser, even if he was only the second, was still, in his own way, the master of the dungeon, and he could clearly sense its existence.

“Anyway, that too was one of the dungeons you drew, Teacher.”

“Yes. Is it inconvenient?

Even I didn’t anticipate that linked part.”

“It didn’t seem to be much of a problem.”

Visitors like moths to a flame kept issuing challenges to the ‘Kingdom of the Deep Sea,’ but they were truly trivial, so they weren’t a very threatening variable.

As outsiders, they wouldn’t be in their right minds enough to notice the existence of the door, so there really was no problem at all.

“More than anything, it doesn’t feel incongruous, either.”

“Perhaps it’s because, unconsciously, I drew it while recalling the town where we lived together.”

“Do you mean Edlen Village?

It certainly did resemble it in atmosphere.”

At the time, the one who drew it was ‘Seo Gio,’ but even taking that into account, ‘The Breathing Sea’ resembled the atmosphere of the village where ‘Giovanni’ had lived far too much.

Perhaps Gio’s body, as he drew the landscape as if possessed, truly had ‘Giovanni’s’ soul residing within it.

Of course, it wasn’t certain.

After becoming a portrait, Gio’s life completely departed from common sense, and interpreting it all one by one wasn’t something Gio was diligent enough to do.

To say it again, Gio had no thoughts at all.

“I can’t say it’s completely the same.

I simply wanted to draw a picture, and by coincidence there happened to be a dimension that suited it.”

The world where Giovanni lived was ruined, and under Aria’s lead it became the dungeon called the ‘Kingdom of the Deep Sea.’

Within a dungeon so enormous it bore the name ‘kingdom,’ Gio had merely happened to draw a place that matched the scenery of ‘The Breathing Sea.’

“Anyway, it means the ‘Kingdom of the Deep Sea’ and ‘The Breathing Sea’ aren’t truly separate spaces.”

“Perhaps because of that, even though it was newly created, it didn’t feel foreign.”

Iser continued, as if muttering.

“It also made me feel reassured, that a space was created where I could find you at any time, Teacher.”

“I was sorry to have unintentionally touched your interior design, but if it didn’t bother you that much, then that’s a relief.”

“Interior design.”

“An English word, so I don’t really know it.”

“Earth’s words get interpreted by default, so I understood it.”

He simply thought that, for the scale of what he did, he used a very modest word.

“Anyway, ‘The Breathing Sea’ is being used like that now.”

Just having brought in new family members and being able to bring in seafood as much as he wanted was enough to give ‘The Breathing Sea’—where the sun god had been trapped—plenty of meaning.

The rich fish there tasted incredible no matter how you cooked them.

“After that, the two remaining paintings were ‘The Animal Kingdom’ and ‘The City of Emptiness.’”

They were ones he’d drawn quite a while ago.

“Among them, ‘The Animal Kingdom’ sometimes connects to the forest where I live, and living creatures from there occasionally cross over.”

“Living creatures—so not monsters?

There are also monsters that take the full form of ordinary beasts, but...”

“They definitely weren’t monsters. Like the clams you can find in the ‘Kingdom of the Deep Sea.’”

“If so, then it’s highly likely that, after an existing world already existed, the dungeon was overlaid atop it.”

“That’s what I’m expecting too.”

And to visit such a place, he would need the help of yet another ‘Gio.’

In that case, synchronization would proceed again, and he felt like he’d end up out of his mind again, so he was still refraining from visiting it.

“Compared to those two dungeons, this ‘City of Emptiness’ seems like a world I created completely from scratch from the very beginning, so I can’t help but worry.

After making it to this extent, leaving it abandoned as it is makes me think I’m unqualified as a parent, so it troubles me.”

It was an entirely different grain from ‘The Breathing Sea,’ which he’d already gone to and played around in, or ‘The Animal Kingdom,’ which he still hadn’t been able to visit.

Because it was too new a type of child-that-isn’t-a-child, he couldn’t even get a sense of how he should treat it.

“As you can see, it’s empty...”

“...That is true.”

Iser couldn’t help but agree.

“It’s very empty.”

Even though the forest of a crowded city was laid bare like this, it felt so hollow his mind went blank.

‘Is it the dungeon’s characteristic.’

If it were an existence of a strong rank like him and his older sister, it would only be a little draining, but if a human entered, unless they were quite strong, they wouldn’t be able to endure it.

‘...A dungeon greatly reflects the owner’s mental image.’

Here, Iser latched onto one misunderstanding.

‘It must also mean Teacher’s mental image is in such a state.’

That wasn’t really the case.

A dungeon basically follows the owner’s mental image, yes, but the dungeons Gio drew were closer to mere “paintings” than to such a community of shared fate.

He might have drawn them while fully immersed in a momentary emotion and delusion, but the mental image itself wasn’t reflected.

However, aside from Gio, he’d never even heard of such a case.

Because he had gained so much experience following his older sister, it instead became poison, and Iser couldn’t help but treat Gio’s condition as something to be watched carefully.

“Are there no monsters in this place at all?”

“From what I can feel, it seems there aren’t.”

“I can’t even feel the slightest living thing...”

“Because this painting is of a city; I didn’t draw any living creatures.”

“I see.”

Since the dungeon’s owner was also something with a self, when creating a dungeon it was rather difficult for there to be no living creatures inside it at all.

Even dungeons whose masters were undead were littered with monsters related to them.

‘...But this is too empty.’

Iser looked at the world filled only with achromatic colors.

The tall buildings were neat, sharp gray.

Even though their entire bodies were made of transparent glass, since the whole world was achromatic, the glass was the same, and the sky was covered in thick fog, with only faint light barely falling through.

There were boring right-angled buildings, and buildings that bore the unique curves of a bustling city... but even though it was filled with such diverse shapes, he couldn’t feel anything at all.

“...”

That it was a space vulnerable to humans didn’t matter.

But he couldn’t help worrying about Giovanni, the owner of this world.

“...Do you like this space, Teacher?”

“Since it’s like my child, there’s no way I could dislike it.”

“I see.

Understood.”

That Gio had this kind of mental image was something he needed to be wary of.

‘Even though he still sees himself as human, he has that much rank, so in a way it’s a natural situation.’

Even if gods directly made a dungeon, it would feel fuller than this, but wasn’t Gio in a state that couldn’t even be called such a god?

An exception was inevitable.

‘Whether he created it consciously or unconsciously, as my older sister said, he’s in a state of being a portrait that can become anything... so even this absurd emptiness could be born.’

It worried him.

“...”

“Iser?”

“...It might sound a little strange if I suddenly say this, but...”

Iser hesitated for a moment, then asked.

“Are you happy right now?”

Perhaps as expected, an answer came at once.

“Of course.”

“Truly?”

“Because I don’t make choices that won’t make me happy in the first place.”

“...I see.”

Then even then, on the day you died.

Even that choice was for your happiness.

‘I already suspected it, but it hits hard.’

Having lost his words, Iser forced his mouth open.

“...Then why did you visit this dungeon?”

“Because I don’t want to become a rotten parent who makes something and then doesn’t care about it.”

“You’re probably the only one who would treat a dungeon that way, Teacher.”

“Aria said a dungeon is a community of shared fate with its owner—then isn’t it family?”

“So to you, Teacher, family has that meaning... a community of shared fate.”

Mouthing his lips, Iser asked.

“Then how about trying to make monsters?”

“Ah, increase the family members first?”

“...It’s roughly the same meaning.”

A dungeon was usually made to kill humans.

It was born on the back of the intense emotion of enormous hatred toward a single species, but perhaps because Gio wasn’t normal, no hostility or killing intent that should basically exist could be felt in this dungeon.

“How you cultivate this dungeon will be up to your heart, Teacher, but if you want to care for it in some way, then increasing the residents would be best.

After a god creates a world, the thing they care about most is the residents, after all...”

At Iser’s words, Gio tilted his head.

“Isn’t it a bit difficult to call me a god?”

“You’re... not a traditional god, but, um, as a metaphor.”

It seemed Gio was underestimating himself.

‘He really hasn’t changed from before.’

But he had no desire to correct that misunderstanding.

The more indifferent Gio was to his own not-ordinary aspects, the further Gio’s limits would recede, and in the end he would be able to spend more time with them mermaids.

‘It would also lengthen the period where he thinks of himself as human, but...’

That didn’t matter much.

‘It’s not wrong, either.’

According to his older sister, their teacher was a black canvas.

No one knew what it could become.

“Have you thought about how you’ll make use of this place?”

“I still need to think a little more, but...”

“Yes.”

“It would be good if the family members increased, indeed.”

* * *

Drawing family members wasn’t anything special to Gio.

“But the family members I draw this time are going to live separately from us.”

“Gururuk?”

“I hope it’s a child who doesn’t feel lonely even when alone.”

The waterbirds Gio had drawn before were creatures that lived in groups.

Seeing the waterbird lake that had grown even more crowded—whether they’d reproduced among themselves or not—you could tell, “Wow, this really is group living,” and Honey also disliked being separated from her family quite a lot.

“So this time, I want it to be a friend with strong independence.”

Still, he didn’t want to just draw anything at random.

“I have pride as a person who draws, you know...”

“Koong?”

“It’s grandiose to call myself a painter, but anyway, ‘City of Emptiness’ is also one of the works I drew.”

“Gurur.”

“I want there to be residents that fit it.”

But residents that fit the ‘City of Emptiness’...

“...”

Gio, sitting in his studio chair and thinking quietly, soon opened his mouth.

“...An invisible man?”

An unseen office worker.

“It fits.”

“Guruk?”

“Doesn’t it?”

To Gio, born and raised a country person, a city was that kind of existence.

The air was turbid, and people swarmed.

They all looked similar, but in the subway and on the streets, they surged around in a rush.

On those inorganic faces, you couldn’t see emotion.

“When I first came up to the city, it was eerie enough to be a bit chilling.”

It was like a living, breathing horror movie.

To Gio, who had a delicate sensibility despite his looks, it was excessively bleak.

Now he could think, ‘The gears of society, worn out by fatigue, are getting off work again today,’ but when he was young, he couldn’t.

He even felt fear.

“But even so, I can’t draw people...”

“Koong-koong?”

“What do you take your dad for, son.

Your dad can’t make people.”

He didn’t want to be that special, anyway.

Even if he could, he would absolutely never have done it, and since he couldn’t do it in the first place, there was even less reason to worry in that direction.

“So, an invisible man.”

More precisely, a suit man.

“If it’s just clothes drifting around...”

“Gurur.”

“Yeah, that certainly can’t be called human.”

It was closer to a doll.

“...”

Just like how, the first time he saw city people, that was exactly how they looked.

“...Let’s see...”

Gio set his brush atop the ‘City of Emptiness’ before him.

“Still, if there’s only one, it’ll be too lonely.”

“Gururur.”

“It would be good if there were a bit more, but it’d be too hard for me to draw them all by myself, wouldn’t it?”

“Kkuk?”

“It’d be fun if they appeared on their own among themselves.”

It would be very fun.

The scale was far too big to be something for simple enjoyment, but for Gio, who had encountered new content, the unit of a project’s scale wasn’t that important a problem.

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons

Fantasy, Modern,