The dungeon, to Kal, was a place both familiar and unfamiliar.
Every time he came here, he would gain something, and then lose something.
And even if he was truly exhausted and planned to rest on the sofa—read a book, drink some wine, doze off a little—he would always find it hard to continue.
Because within just a few minutes, some strange incident would come looking for him, forcing him to take another bottle of energy potion.
Only when he took up his spear and fought again, achieving complete victory.
For his enemy was not only one person.
And although this place was called a dungeon, rather than calling it that, it was better to say that it was actually a comfortable and cozy basement.
Because while its decorations could not be called luxurious, they were warm and inviting.
Aside from three bizarre devices whose purpose one could "not tell at a glance," all of them built from wooden frames and iron forging, their shapes extremely odd, standing to one side and taking up a third of the space.
On the other side was a completely independent private leisure area.
Here there was a soft, comfortable, hand-crafted genuine-leather sofa, a tea table, and a display shelf placed against the wall beside the sofa. It was piled with food, utensils, and even red wine.
There was even a conspicuous bookshelf, filled with all kinds of books.
And behind it all, there was a workbench set against the wall, shimmering with a faint glow. The aura of magic flickered across it, and beside it, in the corner by the wall, the iron-forged chest was especially striking—one glance made it clear it was no ordinary item.
Even the three rooms at the far end of the chamber, which still looked like cells with iron bars blocking them, had interiors that, at first glance, looked more like an inn's warm and comfortable guest rooms than prison chambers.
All of it made this place seem more like a dungeon-themed couples' hotel built in a pure-prison style.
Everything above was what Kal found familiar.
As for the unfamiliar—Kal suddenly remembered that he had never actually brought a real prisoner here.
After all, the original function of this dungeon had barely been used for a few days before he himself transformed it into what it was now.
But today, it welcomed its first true "guest."
Yes—this place was not any dungeon inside the Red Keep of King's Landing, nor was it part of the real world.
Because this was Kal's game world, the dungeon at the bottom of the Dark Elf Sorceress's Terror Tower.
Here lived a Bat Harpy maid responsible for laying eggs, and a Troll security guard responsible for the Terror Tower's protection.
She was currently leaning against Kal's side, her face looking very satisfied.
But at this moment, she was not in a hurry to serve her master as she usually would.
Instead, she was staring curiously at the human male hanging before Kal—suspended and bound on one of the racks she often used.
The human male was hanging from iron hooks just as she usually was, but his head hung low, clearly unconscious.
Although she found it strange that her master had not spread and tied his legs the way he usually did with her, that was not important.
What mattered was that she wondered whether she had gained a new neighbor.
She asked Kal, her expression curious and full of expectation.
Hearing her words, Kal's face darkened. He decided to lock her in the long-neglected little dark room as punishment.
Only then did Kal have the time to look at the man before him—the assassin suspected to be a Faceless Man, whom he had knocked unconscious and captured before finally deciding to bring him into the game world.
Back in King's Landing earlier that day, during the chase with this supposed Faceless Man, Kal—seeking efficiency, or perhaps out of caution mixed with vented frustration—had chosen not to hold back at all, openly using extraordinary power in the real world.
Fortunately, he had not completely lost his reason and used that power with his true appearance, but had instead disguised himself as someone else.
As for how this assassin—now tied up and hanging on the torture rack—had entered the game world?
It was actually very simple: at the moment Kal battered him to the brink of collapse and then chose to finish with the Daze skill in order to capture him alive, a line of dialogue had suddenly popped up before Kal's eyes on his character interface.
[Capture the human before you?]
When Kal saw this line of dialogue appear in the real world, his brows tightened and his pupils sharply contracted.
Without hesitation, Kal directly chose [Yes].
And in the very next instant after he selected [Yes], the assassin before him really did vanish from his sight.
He appeared inside a space that Kal himself did not even know how to describe.
This space that could not be perceived or sensed was, in fact, the unique storage place used by game characters to hold living creatures.
But Kal had no way to use this strange space.
The only thing Kal could see—and the only interaction he could have with this space—was a single option listed under the special items tab on his interface: a choice called "Sacrificable Human," with a note stating that it was a living human with a potential threat.
And since he could not perceive or sense anything inside this place, Kal naturally could not use this theoretically creature-storing inventory space.
Only when he needed to use this special material—at the moment he spoke with the Sorceress or the Vampires and selected an interaction—could this living creature be materialized again from the item slot's information.
And it was precisely for this reason that Kal had never paid attention to this function before—or rather, had never even noticed it.
After all, the bandits he could capture in the game world were no different from the Bat Harpy's crystal eggs—materials with no distinction whatsoever.
Not only could they not be used on their own, he could not even take them out; they were nothing more than a ghostly prompt window.
They were not even as useful as the map or the ancient magic book—at least those two things allowed him to interact with them.
And most importantly, this was not the first time he had used Daze in the real world. For example, on the journey north to Winterfell with Robert, when he wanted to enter the game world, he had used this skill on the men of his Blackstone Mercenary Group.
But aside from giving them sleep of exceptionally high quality, it had never done anything else.
However, this time, after defeating an enemy, Kal did not know whether he had triggered some sort of mechanism, or whether the rules of the game world had become more complete due to a version update, which had led to this accident.
This time, the Daze skill had actually allowed him to capture an enemy in the real world, and even bring him into the game world.
This was a miracle Kal had never accomplished before.
But this miracle made Kal realize that perhaps, at the boundary between the game world and the real world, he had unintentionally pried open a crack.
Looking at the still-unconscious Faceless Man before him, and thinking over everything that had happened in this accident, Kal finally revealed a smile.
Then Kal picked up an iron bucket at his side, lifted his hand, and splashed the entire bucket of water onto the assassin suspected to be a Faceless Man.
Refreshing and invigorating.
After being knocked out by magic and completely losing consciousness, the assassin suspected to be a Faceless Man jolted awake under the shock of the cold water.
His awareness quickly returned, and his memory went back to the moment before he had been struck by magic.
Then he instinctively tried to move, only to realize that he had been tied up, his hands bound together, and his whole body hanging from an iron hook on a wooden-iron rack.
And the person standing before him—the one who had awakened him from unconsciousness—was Kal El, the very man he believed he had successfully assassinated, yet who for some unknown reason had survived and even tracked him down.
"Kal El… so it is Kal El who stands before a man?!"
Once fully conscious, and once he understood his current situation and saw clearly that the person before him was Kal El, the assassin who had targeted Kal felt a jolt of shock in his heart.
He never expected that he would end up in the hands of the man who was originally supposed to be his mission target.
Before his memory returned, he had thought he had been discovered and subdued by the priest of some unknown deity.
As his memory came back, he recalled that the man who could use magic and had defeated him looked as if he were nothing more than an ordinary coachman.
He subconsciously asked, "The man who wielded magic and felled this man—where is that one? What name does that one bear?"
The assassin recalled the final memory he had before his consciousness faded and hurriedly asked about it.
Although his situation right now did not seem all that ideal.
Seeing that the assassin suspected to be a Faceless Man, upon waking up, was—aside from being surprised that the one who had captured him was Kal—actually concerned about the man who had defeated him, Kal let out a cold laugh and casually tossed the iron bucket aside.
"You want to know who that man was? You want to know about magic?"
"That's not impossible. But you have to tell me your true identity—or rather, your name."
Kal looked coldly at the enemy he had captured in an unnoticed moment, a cold smile hanging from the corner of his mouth as he asked his first question.
Hearing Kal's words, the assassin—bound and newly awakened—gradually calmed down from his earlier shock.
He first glanced at Kal El, then took a look around the surroundings.
But as he looked at the strange decorations and the stone chamber that, under the light of the torches, appeared oddly bright as if bathed in sunlight, a trace of doubt appeared in the eyes of the Faceless Man.
Everything before him gave him an indescribably strange feeling.
Then he turned his gaze to Kal again, and instead revealed a faint smile on his face.
"Someone has no name, for someone is nameless, faceless, with no name and no identity. If this brings confusion, one may simply address someone as the Faceless Man."
"So, Lord Kal El, can the lord now tell someone what someone wishes to know?"
The assassin who called himself a Faceless Man recovered his calm with remarkable speed the moment he awoke.
He answered Kal's question, yet every word was filled with lies and probing.
Those deep eyes of his showed no ripple, like a bottomless pool.
But such tricks were useless before Kal—much less in a world that belonged to him. This was his domain, and it was also his territory.
However, Kal did not expose him. Instead, after hearing his words, he folded his arms, stroked his chin, and showed a thoughtful expression.
"'Someone'? An interesting form of address—if I recall correctly, it is a manner of self-reference used only by the Lorath people of the Free Cities."
"So, Mister Faceless Man, could it be that you still worship the Blind God Boash'i? From the sound of it, you seem to be a noble of Lorath?"
As a man who had traveled through quite a few places, Kal naturally understood Lorath—one of the nine Free Cities—so the very moment this Faceless Man referred to himself as "someone," Kal realized something.
Of course, these were all probing words on Kal's part.
Because after saying this, the corner of his mouth lifted slightly, and he stepped toward the Faceless Man who had called himself such.
However, the Faceless Man—who initially believed Kal had already fallen into his trap under his guidance—had no time to say anything before he was stunned by the scene before him.
He could no longer maintain that calm façade of confidence.
Those eyes of his, previously still as a deep, unmoving pool, now opened wide in shock.
Because as Kal stepped toward him, he suddenly realized that Kal El's figure and face were… changing.
Changing until they became the familiar image of the coachman.
Yet his shock did not end there, for the words Kal spoke next made the astonishment in his heart soar to an indescribable degree.
Kal let out a mocking cold smile, his gaze filled with disdain, and lifted his hand to pinch the assassin's chin as he slowly spoke a name.
"So then, Mister Faceless Assassin, let me guess—your identity's name should be Jaqen H'ghar, shouldn't it?"
"The one— the one?!"
Facing such a scene, the Faceless Man could no longer maintain his outward calm.
The wild trembling of his eyes revealed the shock raging in his heart.
But his shock did not end there.
Because after Kal said this, his appearance, his build, and even his voice began to change once more.
Until the hand pinching the assassin's chin became a small, rough girl's hand.
"Or should I call you Scarlett instead?"
Kal kept the hand gripping the assassin's chin exactly where it was, but his face transformed into that of Scarlett—the one whose head had been severed and whose facial skin had been stripped away.
But even this was not the end.
Kal continued changing.
"Or should I call you Hyde, the king's wine servant?"
"Or perhaps Bob, the sailor of the Pikeman?"
"And perhaps—"
Kal's transformation continued, but this time, he became a stranger.
A person with long hair—half white, half red—yet with no facial features at all.
"Someone… Jaqen H'ghar?"
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