When I looked into the mirror, my Craftsman Ability activated, revealing the detailed status of the item.

[Mirror of the Doppelgänger]

A special mirror that can fulfill your secret dream. Use it with caution.

“How do you use that mirror?”

Meiling asked.

“I’ll show you in person later.”

I replied, then took the mirror from Lumina and stored it in my inventory.

“Let’s leave the dungeon.”

We used the portal in the boss room to exit the Dollhouse.

We had entered the dungeon early in the morning, but by the time we came outside, the long summer day was already coming to an end.

I called Kim Sangsik.

[Yein?]

“Yes, Teacher. I’ve obtained the Demonic Relic we were after. Would it be alright if I come to your house now?”

[Well done. I’ll come pick you up, so wait near the dungeon.]

“Understood.”

After passing through the checkpoint, we waited by the roadside for about thirty minutes.

The same car I had seen yesterday pulled up.

The door unlocked automatically, and we climbed inside.

The three girls took the back seats while I chose the passenger seat.

“Ah! You scared me!”

Meiling shrieked halfway into her seat.

“Hmph. Jumping like a coward.”

I turned around to see Jody crouched in the very back row.

It seemed Teacher thought it would be easier to handle things if she came along rather than leaving her alone at the house.

“Who are you calling a coward?!”

“Who else but the one who just screamed?”

“You—!”

“Want to try me?”

“Meiling, stop.”

“Jody. Sit still.”

Seo Yui and Kim Sang-sik intervened, calming them both.

Once everyone settled down, Teacher closed the door.

“So, what kind of Demonic Relic did you find?”

“This.”

I took out the Mirror of the Doppelgänger from my inventory.

Teacher’s eyes widened slightly.

“A Unique-grade item… Worth an entire day, indeed.”

“We cleared the dungeon from the first floor to the fourth fifteen times. Honestly, it dropped sooner than expected.”

“You’ve done well. But how does it work?”

“I’ll demonstrate once we get to your home. Even in a car, there are eyes that might be watching.”

“Fair enough.”

Teacher nodded and started the engine.

“Have any of the Pursuit Troops from Advance appeared near your house?”

“No. So far, nothing unusual. According to Jody’s memory, the last place she saw them was Yeongdeungpo.”

“But the memory’s fuzzy.”

Jody’s voice came from behind.

“Honestly, I don’t even know how I made it from Yeongdeungpo all the way to Gwangcheon in Yongsan.”

“Maybe you swam across the Han River? The stench of fish was awful back then.”

Meiling muttered sarcastically.

“That possibility can’t be ruled out.”

Teacher’s words brought silence to the car.

“Though, if no news has reported a woman leaping into the Han, the chances are slim.”

Was he joking, or seriously considering it?

I couldn’t quite tell.

About forty minutes later, we were in Teacher’s mansion, seated in the living room.

I brought Jody forward and handed her the mirror.

“Hold this, and think hard about someone you’ve seen before—someone you’d be willing to live as.”

Jody nodded, grasped the mirror with her fur-covered hands, and closed her eyes.

Light, the same as we’d seen in the Dollhouse boss room, flared from the mirror.

Her figure began to shift beneath the glow.

Moments later—

Everyone’s eyes and mouths widened.

Even I was shocked.

‘She actually chose that form…’

Jody’s face remained the same.

But her arms and legs had transformed into those of an ordinary human.

No—saying she had “returned” to her original form would be more accurate.

Jody stared down at her arms and legs, trembling.

“Nam Yein! What kind of item is that?”

Meiling pointed at Jody, demanding an answer.

“What sort of mirror can restore limbs like that?”

Lumina, Seo Yui, and Teacher also looked to me for an explanation.

Jody was still staring at her body.

“It didn’t restore her.”

I looked at Jody as I spoke.

“The Demonic Relic, the Mirror of the Doppelgänger. When used, it lets you transform into someone you’ve seen before. But it only changes how others see you—it doesn’t change your true form. For example…”

I pointed at Jody’s right arm.

“To us, her arm looks normal again. But in reality, it’s still its original monstrous size. If you touch it, you’ll notice immediately.”

Hearing this, Teacher walked over without hesitation and reached for her arm.

Lumina, Meiling, and Seo Yui wore anxious looks.

Teacher’s hand froze a few centimeters above her arm—suspended in the air.

“As I thought… It’s still there.”

His expression was heavy, somber.

“Of course, since only the appearance changes, the side effects remain. If she gets agitated or feels threatened, she’ll lose control and be consumed by murderous urges. And in combat, she’ll revert fully to her true form.”

“In combat? Why?”

Seo Yui asked.

“It must be the mirror’s limit… I don’t know the exact principle. But if you fight or get attacked, the disguise is stripped away. Still, for daily life, there’s no issue.”

In truth, I was describing how it worked in the game.

The Mirror of the Doppelgänger was actually a novelty item that let you take on the appearance of NPCs.

When disguised, NPCs would speak unique lines to you.

But the disguise always vanished if combat began or if you were attacked.

Most likely because not every NPC had combat animations.

“You can use it as many times as you want. So if your disguise breaks, just find a private place and use it again. But that particular form…”

I gave her a regretful look.

“You’d best give it up. That appearance won’t help you evade Advance’s pursuit.”

“Yein is right.”

Teacher’s gaze was fixed on Jody.

“…I know.”

Jody slowly raised her head.

“Ah.”

Lumina let out a soft, pained sound.

Tears were sliding down Jody’s cheeks.

Seo Yui, and even Meiling, were struck silent.

Jody wiped her tears with her “normal” arm—though the droplets spread in the air before her skin even touched her face—then smiled.

“Thank you. I never thought I’d see this form again, even if it’s only an illusion. And with this item, I can avoid Advance’s pursuit. I’ll repay this debt, no matter what.”

“This wasn’t about a debt.”

Seo Yui spoke.

“You’re the reason I escaped Valhall. I only wanted to return the favor.”

“M-me too. I helped because I wanted to, so please don’t think of it as a debt.”

Lumina’s eyes reddened as she added her words.

Jody looked at the two of them intently, biting her lip to hold back her sobs.

At that moment—

“With a disguise, you could live here in this house.”

Meiling crossed her arms, then added bluntly:

“And for heaven’s sake, start bathing. Don’t go around stinking like a beast anymore.”

“Meiling!”

“Haah…”

Lumina hurriedly called out to Meiling, while Seo Yui let out a quiet sigh.

“……”

Jody’s face was burning red. The trace of emotion she had felt from Lumina and Seo Yui’s heartfelt words moments earlier had completely vanished.

“You’re such a pain.”

“What!? Like you’re any better! The only thing you’re covered in is bacteria!”

“You little—! I’ll kill you!”

“Jody!”

Teacher Kim Sang-sik shouted in alarm.

The effect of the Mirror of the Doppelgänger broke, and Jody’s arms reverted back to their monstrous form. She truly intended to fight.

“Go ahead and try! One Fireball and you’re finished!”

And somehow, Meiling already had her magic wand in hand.

At this rate, Teacher’s house was going to collapse.

“Meiling, stop it!”

I slipped my hands under her arm and gripped both her shoulders firmly.

“Jody! Calm down! Meiling was the one who helped you!”

Teacher wrapped both arms around Jody’s neck and one arm, restraining her with force.

“Sang-sik! Let me go! I’ll kill her!”

“Nam Yein! Don’t you dare hold me back! Let me go right now!”

Just as I thought things wouldn’t calm down on their own, Teacher spoke to me.

“Yein! My apologies! You’ll have to take a taxi home! I’ll send you the fare later!”

“Understood! Then goodbye! Senior! Lumina!”

“Ah, ah… goodbye!”

“I’m sorry, Teacher.”

The three of us dragged a furious Meiling out of the house.

“I don’t get it. What did I do wrong? All I did was say she stank—because she does! Why’s she mad at me? I spent all day running dungeons to help her, and she can’t even say thank you. Instead she blows up at me…”

“Ah, haha…”

On the taxi ride back, Lumina had to endure Meiling’s constant cursing at Jody just to calm her down.

I thought to myself that I should buy Lumina something later as thanks.

The day after we brought back the disguise item for Jody—

I took the three of them into a dungeon under the pretense of HAUT training.

It was the Seacave, a dungeon we had visited many times before. We were on the fourth floor.

“Meiling. Today, we’ll be hunting using your power.”

“If this is another one of those things where I have to ride on Seo Yui’s back, forget it.”

Suspicion filled Meiling’s glare as she shot me a look.

“Don’t worry. It won’t be like that.”

I spoke calmly while checking her stats through the Lens of Lavzahi.

Her Ability, Death Domain, was still stuck at Level 1.

Back when we went to the Ashen Plains for materials, I had asked Seo Yui to carry Meiling while she used Death Domain.

Thanks to that, we managed to wipe out a large swarm of monsters with ease—but the method had proven useless for earning Ability experience.

It must have been judged invalid the moment Seo Yui picked her up.

“All you have to do is stay where I tell you. Just keep Death Domain active.”

I handed her a wand.

The moment Meiling saw the dark, sinister aura swirling around the wand, her face twisted in disgust.

Ten minutes later—

With Meiling sitting inside her Death Domain, the rest of us were extremely busy.

Seo Yui went straight for the large or semi-boss insect monsters that wouldn’t die easily, drawing their aggression.

Lumina focused on clearing out the monsters that attacked from range.

As for me, once we reached the fourth floor, I could no longer deal any meaningful damage to the monsters.

So instead, I focused on support: throwing items to inflict debuffs, spraying Mana Potions on Meiling, tossing healing potions to Seo Yui and Lumina.

Meanwhile, the Seacave’s swarms of insect monsters kept crawling endlessly toward Meiling at the center of the Death Domain.

But the moment they entered, their strength drained away, and they soon died.

Then, from the egg sacs inside the corpses, newborn monsters burst out—only to crawl toward Meiling and die the same way.

For the record, the reason the monsters kept spawning endlessly was because I’d deliberately had Meiling trigger one of the Seacave’s traps.

Unless you fled the trap room to another chamber, monsters would keep appearing without end.

But that was exactly the situation I wanted.

The condition for leveling up Death Domain was this:

Since Meiling was Level 41, she needed to kill 300 monsters on the third or fourth floors to earn Ability experience.

The Seacave was perfect for this—its monster spawns were higher than most dungeons, and on the fourth floor, insect monsters multiplied when they died, producing even more.

Of course, my squad didn’t know this was all to level up Meiling’s Ability.

They thought it was just training for HAUT.

We had been holding the trap room for about thirty minutes when it happened.

“Oh!”

Meiling opened her eyes wide with a cry.

“Meiling! What is it?”

“What happened?”

Lumina and Seo Yui asked while fighting.

“……”

Meiling gave no answer, then closed her eyes again.

The next moment—

The Death Domain expanded.

“Ah!?”

“It’s gotten bigger?”

The two girls gasped in surprise.

‘It worked.’

I checked Meiling’s status.

Her Death Domain had leveled up to 2.

(End of Chapter)

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