Chapter 5
Meanwhile.
The First Assault Team of the Cheongbaek Guild, to which Baek Seo-ha belonged, was making excellent progress through the B3-rank dungeon.
“It’s going quite a bit faster than expected. At this rate, we could probably finish by tomorrow.”
“I heard the advance team has already finished scouting the boss room. Let’s recover our stamina and then finish the raid.”
According to the scouting results, the boss of this dungeon was a Puppet Spider.
It was a fairly ordinary monster with neither particularly high nor particularly low difficulty.
The map had already been fully explored, so there was essentially nothing left to be wary of.
The leader soon gave the order, and Baek Seo-ha also began putting away her equipment, intending to end today’s raid.
At that very moment, the gemstone on the item hanging around Baek Seo-ha’s neck shattered.
“Oh, Seo-ha. That…….”
Chae Hwa-ryeon, who knew what it meant, widened her eyes in shock, while Baek Seo-ha unconsciously clenched her fists.
A dungeon? Is he trapped in a dungeon?
With the gemstone broken, the item’s effect allowed her to determine Baek Eun-ha’s current location.
The location was near their home.
Apparently, he had been caught in the vicinity when a dungeon seed bloomed.
Baek Seo-ha’s judgment was immediate.
……What can I even do if I go there right now?
Of course, that was only logical.
They hadn’t even finished clearing the B-rank dungeon they were currently inside.
The chances of her personally being able to rescue her brother through direct action were slim.
And yet, even as those thoughts crossed her mind, Baek Seo-ha’s body was already charging alone toward the dungeon’s boss room.
For someone who had lost even her parents in a dungeon incident, this was no longer something that could be left to reason.
“Baek Seo-ha! Where are you going? Stop right now!”
The guild members were thrown into confusion by the sudden development and hurried after her, but Baek Seo-ha was incredibly fast.
Kieeeek! Kiiik!
Annoying.
Although she knew where the boss room was, there were still monsters blocking the path.
Two Poison Spiders and three Spider Halos.
Each one was a B-rank monster, and none could be taken lightly.
But Baek Seo-ha knew.
I can wipe them all out.
If she went all-out, they couldn’t possibly pose a threat to her.
Boom!
Bang! Bang!
Fwoosh!
She tensed every muscle in her body, launched herself forward in an instant, and thrust her spear directly at their vital points.
The Poison Spider that had just been about to spew venom was instantly killed, three enormous holes punched through its body.
It probably hadn’t even realized how it had died.
That was how fast she had been.
By the time the group finally caught up with her, all they could witness was a display of skill that seemed to have reached the realm of the gods.
Fwoosh!
Poison sprayed simultaneously from two directions, while she charged through the gaps between it and the webs aimed at her from behind.
Slash!
She suddenly braked to feint, then narrowly avoided the foreleg of a Halo that had charged along the wall.
Boom!
Fwoosh!
Then came a lightning-fast thrust.
With a sound like a bomb exploding, the body of the Spider Halo burst apart.
It was the kind of acrobatic maneuver no sane person would ever attempt.
Yet its effectiveness was undeniable.
After this process was repeated several more times, there were no monsters left along the path.
It had been nothing short of a massacre.
“W-Was she always that strong?”
“…….”
Baek Seo-ha’s companions, who had hurried after her, could do nothing but stare with their mouths hanging open.
They had never seen Baek Seo-ha this violent and ruthless before.
As they continued following her as she advanced toward the boss room without resistance, Chae Hwa-ryeon thought to herself.
Could it be that her true ability has already reached the S-rank level?
After realizing that I had been dragged into an undead dungeon, I was immersed in a strange mixture of emotions.
And what greeted me was a skeleton wielding a crude sword.
“…….”
Judging by its appearance, it wasn’t a Warrior.
It was literally just a skeleton holding a sword.
Basic.
Default option.
Pure and unadulterated, like a five-hundred-won soft-serve ice cream.
“……Is this not a particularly high-rank dungeon?”
At least this could be considered a blessing in disguise.
Against an opponent of this level, I was confident I could handle it even with my bare hands.
Creak!
The skeleton apparently recognized me as an enemy, because it began approaching me on its tiny legs.
For some reason, I found its behavior extremely ridiculous.
“……You’re crossing the line.”
How dare it fail to recognize its venerable senior!
Whoosh.
Whistle!
I calmly waited for its attack, effortlessly dodged the skeleton’s sword swing, grabbed its arm and neck, and slammed its body onto the ground.
BANG!
Crack!
“Ugh.”
It was a little heavier than I expected, so a breathless grunt escaped me, but the attack had landed cleanly.
I tore the sword from the shattered skeleton’s grasp and finished it off.
Crunch!
“Pathetic.”
To be honest, I hadn’t expected to win quite so cleanly.
It made me feel a little proud.
Then I realized something strange.
I’ve wondered about this for a while now, but…….
Apparently, that peculiar mental side effect of mine didn’t occur when I was dealing with monsters.
“Heh.”
In that case, things were simple.
A dungeon where monsters as weak as these skeletons appeared.
My mental state was in perfect condition.
And there were no human debuff totems around.
“Hehe.”
Wasn’t this practically a situation where I had no opponents?
“This cold, weighty sensation…….”
The sword was rather crude and flimsy, but thanks to that, even with my current strength, it wasn’t difficult to wield.
It seemed the time had finally come to show off the swordsmanship skills that had once made even a Sword Saint yield a step to me.
Rumble.
Creak!
Creak!
Apparently, some enemies were approaching.
I confidently started walking forward.
But after confirming the identities of my enemies a moment later, I immediately turned around and ran for my life.
Tap-tap-tap!
“Gasp.”
Three Warriors, two Archers, and even a Mage.
Apparently, this dungeon wasn’t quite as low-rank as I’d thought.
“H-Haa…… Huu.”
Only after running until my mouth tasted like blood did I finally manage to escape the monsters’ field of vision.
As I ran, I realized that this dungeon was surprisingly large for one that didn’t appear to be high-rank.
And perhaps because it was an undead dungeon, the monsters didn’t seem to be spread out across the area.
Instead, they tended to move around in groups.
Otherwise, escaping like this would have been much more difficult.
“This is troublesome……”
It didn’t seem like such an incredible dungeon, but with how pathetically weak I was now, it was hard to imagine that I could clear it.
Not unless I had all three of the magic stones I’d brought with me.
But I only had one.
I’ll just wait.
If this was a dungeon of this rank, nearby Hunters would surely be called in and clear it before long.
Enduring until then shouldn’t be difficult.
I found a place between some pillars where I could hide and was about to enter when I noticed someone already occupying it.
“Eek! Ah! Y-You’re……!”
It was the schoolgirl who had followed the apprentice Hunter’s group earlier.
Damn it. Another debuff totem.
I resisted the emotional upheaval that inevitably surged through me and pulled my hood down even further.
Then I asked in an icy voice,
“Th-Those people from earlier…… Wh-What happened to them?”
This was seriously driving me insane.
The girl’s answer was quite unexpected.
Trembling all over, she recounted everything that had happened up until that point.
According to her, everyone else, including the apprentice Hunter, was either dead or missing, with their current status unknown.
It shouldn’t be a dungeon that dangerous. How did they all get taken out so quickly?
It was difficult to understand from my perspective.
Of course, even something as simple as a skeleton could be a dangerous enemy for the people of this world.
Honestly, it wouldn’t be particularly strange for an apprentice or rookie Hunter to struggle against two or three ordinary people carrying weapons.
It was a matter of experience, not physical ability.
But the apprentice Hunter from earlier had seemed to possess sufficient prior knowledge about dungeons.
For a group led by someone like that to be wiped out in an expansive and relatively quiet dungeon so quickly?
It wasn’t something I could simply dismiss.
“There…… There was something scary……”
“…….”
“A huge skeleton soldier suddenly attacked us. It came at us so quickly…… Hic.”
After hearing her words, I furrowed my handsome brows and fell into thought.
A huge skeleton soldier?
If what she said was true, then it was almost certainly a Skeleton Giant.
But even a Skeleton Giant, despite barely qualifying for it, was a B-rank monster.
There was no way one would appear in a low-rank dungeon.
A low-rank dungeon…… isn’t this?
Then what were the ordinary Skeletons and Skeleton Warriors I’d seen earlier?
Unlike Skeleton Giants, those undead appeared in low-rank dungeons.
However, what if they could all appear together in a high-rank dungeon?
There is a high-level undead.
There was no other explanation.
From skeleton soldiers all the way to giants, if the monsters weren’t originally part of the dungeon but were instead summons belonging to another entity, then everything made sense.
In other words, the entity that had summoned all of them was somewhere inside this dungeon.
Things are getting strange…….
If that were really the case, there was no way the nearby Hunters would simply form a rescue team and enter.
At the very least, a properly prepared force would have to gather before entering the dungeon.
The girl and I remained hidden, holding our breaths as time passed.
Two hours went by without any news of a rescue team.
Only then could I finally be certain.
This isn’t a low-rank dungeon.
Boom!
Boooom!
At the same time, heavy footsteps began echoing through the dungeon.
Footsteps carrying an enormous weight.
