“So, every time it closes, the situation is different, right?”
Noh Ha-yoon, firmly grasping Lizardman’s protruding horn, asked.
“That’s right. What I experienced was in the Weasel’s dungeon. Their specs skyrocketed to absurd levels, making it only barely possible for me to escape.”
‘It’s Bisel’s dungeon… Only after the closure has the rating been raised to C grade.’
“What kind of phenomena happen when it closes?”
“The chances of mutants showing up skyrockets, or monsters that never appeared before suddenly appear?”
“It’s also been said that multiple exits can randomly generate!”
“That’s really terrifying. The risks of a dungeon break would increase significantly.”
“The worst-case scenario is multiple boss monsters appearing, but that has a really low probability.”
While that last statement about the bosses was true, there was one more thing to add.
‘Survival…’
Although I had never experienced a closure inside a dungeon, I knew from having gone through something similar outside.
The sky was filled with dark crimson clouds, and the monsters within my sensory range were merely gazing blankly at the sky.
Still, it felt better than that time…
‘… How many days do I need to endure this time? About 3 or 4 days, maybe?’
What I experienced during my hunter days was a month-long ordeal.
I recalled being trapped there with Hyeon Joong-gil, the leader of the Ilseom Guild, by coincidence.
Thanks to that, I developed a friendship with that guy, but honestly, the situation itself was incredibly painful.
No matter what I did, I couldn’t escape from the dungeon, and the only way to survive was to endure the period the system had informed me of.
Boom!!
“Whoa!”
“Isn’t that a collapse instead of a closure?”
“Don’t jinx it.”
The anomalies worsened, and the sensations I picked up were telling me it was no different from before.
The exit was more than a 30-minute run without resting.
But the anomaly had already occurred, and before that, the exit would be closed.
This isn’t going to work…
If I went to the exit just in case, and just like I expected, the gate was closed, it would just be a waste of time.
Moreover, the exit of this dungeon was formed on a stone altar, surrounded by a wide-open space teeming with monsters, increasing the likelihood that I would meet my end there.
‘It’s dangerous to be in the field.’
I had to move towards the closest hidden cave in the dungeon.
I took the lead and began to slightly veer to the right.
The party members followed me without suspicion, and so we moved in a completely different direction from the exit.
– Hey!
– Slow down a bit!
We shook off the monsters from the canyon that we couldn’t properly finish off, and there were people urgently following us.
– Can we come together?
‘……’
From my point of view, these were annoyances, but I needed to think long-term. Someday, we would have to fight together for the survival of humanity.
So… I couldn’t just heartlessly push away those who were desperately trying to follow us.
There were 43 of them.
I was curious how far they could keep up with our speed.
Not long after I took the lead, Yeom Tae-seok and Ah-rin simultaneously noticed something strange.
“Hm?! This isn’t the direction of the exit?”
“Right, the direction has completely changed.”
“Why is that? Il-wol?”
They had high trust in me, so there was a glimmer of hope that there was a reason for it.
But what could I honestly explain now?
Having experienced this as a person, should I just say that going to the exit now is too late?
In the end, I just kept running without saying a word.
As I remained silent, the expressions of my companions grew unusually serious.
“Is it dangerous to go to the exit…?”
“There’s always something when Il-wol goes in a different direction.”
“Is that so? Hmm…”
As if I were some kind of prophet, their faces and actions were fluctuating, reminding me of memories I had forgotten.
‘Back when I was a newbie, things like that were extremely tough.’
Expectations can be a poison for someone.
But if you can’t overcome that, you’ll just fall behind, and since I had talent, I managed to endure somehow.
So even if I momentarily failed to meet their expectations, I wouldn’t waver.
‘… It should be getting dark soon.’
Last time I experienced this, it was less than 10 minutes after it started. It’s been about 7 minutes since those dark clouds appeared.
My wait didn’t last long.
A ridiculous message popped into my mind, and everyone stopped running in shock.
[Quest – Dungeon Closure]
Clear Condition: Survive in the dungeon for a week.
“W-What! Are you crazy?!”
“How are we supposed to endure a week here? This breaks the balance!”
“Wow… Was there such a quest…?”
“Oh… I knew it…”
‘A week… that’s a bit long.’
That was the only thought I had upon reading the message.
Most of the people who read the message were in a near-panic state, but Yeon-hee and Noh Ha-yoon remained calm.
In particular, Noh Ha-yoon had her mouth agape with a face as if she fully expected this, which sent a slight chill down my spine.
‘Was this what she was expecting…?’
The vague expectation that traveling with me would lead to unexpected events.
‘Surely… we’ve been encountering strange things more frequently than usual.’
I didn’t know if it was because of me or because of Yeon-hee being the unique class. It could just be sheer bad luck.
The monsters that had been staring blankly at the sky began to move once the quest notification popped up.
And portals began to open everywhere in the dungeon.
‘Shit… They’re dropping monsters almost every 200 meters. Are you kidding me?’
From the sky, below the ground, and shimmering like a mirage, portals opened.
Monsters began to swarm out, rushing forward, and their goal was clear.
– Something’s coming… it’s coming! Everyone run! Damn it!
One hunter, appearing to be a guide, screamed at the top of his lungs as if he sensed something.
“……!”
Only then did the hunters, who had paused, start moving their legs again.
Diverting my gaze from them, I calmly pulled out a brown bottle from my inventory and handed it to Yeom Tae-seok and Noh Ha-yoon beside him.
“??”
They looked confused, but when I pointed to ‘Chehwa’, they soon nodded as if they realized.
I handed it to them because the units that were rapidly approaching us were just a mass of Specters and Ghosts.
“This has such an effect…?”
Having tasted it once, Noh Ha-yoon quickly consumed Irmana’s lake water. After all, she wouldn’t be applying it to her weapon, so drinking it to recover magic power seemed better.
“I don’t know what it is, but I’ll trust and use it for now!”
Yeom Tae-seok poured Irmana’s water onto his horrific mace and then headed straight for the Specter group that had already closed the distance.
Boom-!
The gigantic mace struck down two Specters simultaneously, annihilating them instantly.
“Uh?! It actually works! This doesn’t seem like Sacred Water, but what is it?!”
But we didn’t have the leisure to answer such questions while being chased by Ghosts and Specters.
“Can’t we pick up the pace?!”
“Come on, everyone, just a bit more!”
“Rrrr!”
The Lizard squad carrying our party members picked up speed.
“Go for it!”
Yeon-hee commanded the Screaming Mushroom additionally.
Soon the piercing scream erupted from the Screaming Mushroom’s mouth, causing the Specter mass to begin stopping one by one.
– Kyaaaaaaaaa!!
Along with the Screaming Mushroom’s shriek, the entire Specter mass was suddenly startled into retreat.
“Haha? Is this really a thing?”
“Looks like Specters have a weakness to the noise of the Screaming Mushroom?”
Of course, this detail was known only to seasoned hunters. It’s not like the Screaming Mushroom would usually be found in the same dungeon as Specters.
The Specter mass maintained a distance from us for a while before they must have decided it wasn’t worth chasing, as they vanished at some point.
And the Ghosts that were with them were cleanly defeated by Bae Joo-ah and Noh Ha-yoon. With two Sorcerers on our team, intangible monsters were not much of a threat.
In an instant, we defeated over 50 monsters and scored a jackpot by acquiring five Rage Runes, but we simply continued to run wordlessly.
Naturally, the 40-odd hunters following us were with us too.
‘They’re doing well to keep up…’
Like us, they were tormented by Specters and Ghosts, but they showed that they could shake them off without too much trouble.
As I was running, I sent a message through Ran.
“It looks like they’re suggesting to completely change direction to the right…”
“Eh?”
At the words Yeon-hee said, Yeom Tae-seok, who was running from behind, suddenly stopped.
Eventually, Yeon-hee had no choice but to summon her creatures.
Why does that guy keep stopping? It’s so frustrating.
Hastily signaling for us to go, Yeon-hee seemed agitated and flapped her arms.
“F-follow me for now!”
“… Sir Knight! Are we going ahead first? Since we’ve never suffered losses while following Il-wol, let’s take the bus this time too.”
“Me too!”
“……”
“Hey, let’s go!”
Joo-ah and Ah-rin gratefully trusted me, and Noh Ha-yoon shouted from atop the Lizardman, urging Yeom Tae-seok to follow.
Then Yeom Tae-seok glanced at our retreating figures for a moment before starting to run again.
‘This is the most exhausting part.’
I shook my head. If it weren’t for the entry limit in the dungeon, I could just go with Yeon-hee. With our strength, that would be more than enough.
Ah, but I guess support is necessary, so having Ham Eun-young following the orders wouldn’t be too bad.
Anyway, this quest wouldn’t just end as a simple survival game.
All the hunters who had entered here were seasoned fighters.
If it were a normal dungeon state, surviving for about a week would be completely doable.
‘There’ll definitely be tougher points ahead.’
And I suspected those tough points would most likely involve that guy sleeping in the second basement.
‘Nargul’
The ruler of this dungeon.
If he was summoned here, and not just one but multiple copies of him, this survival game would undoubtedly become a hellish difficulty.
He was the one leading the legion of death, seeing that he had the ability to continuously revive Skeleton-type monsters.
‘Being inside a cave might be better.’
That would be far easier than fending off enemies coming from all directions.
I wasn’t thrilled about constantly being pushed into narrow terrains, but the cave was relatively separate from here and might have little or no influence.
‘This direction feels right…’
Even though the distance was a bit different, it was still not drastically so from when I had been in the mine, so I was confident about the cave’s location.
‘I found it.’
“Where on earth are we going?”
“Hah… I don’t know. We just have to trust it.”
“Some other parties have split off.”
It wouldn’t be an easy choice to blindly follow us. I actually hoped the 25 hunters trailing behind would let up a bit.
But contrary to my expectations, they doggedly stayed close, and ultimately, they reached the destination I had aimed for.
“What’s supposed to be here?”
A once towering tree now lay fallen on the ground.
It was still over 3 meters tall even in its fallen state, and when I moved to its base and heaved it up, a doorway appeared that could fit a Giant Skeleton Soldier inside.
“Holy…”
“Wow— How did you know there was a passage here?”
“… Of course.”
The other hunters who had followed us were even more surprised than our party members. But we didn’t have time to gawk with our mouths hanging open.
Kyaaaaaaaaaaa──!
The undead’s screams were becoming dangerously close.
Just how many of them would need to scream like that to create such an alien sound?
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