Chapter 113. 13th Month’s Maze (2)
Kim Gi-ryeo imagined his final moments with a tense expression, when suddenly a voice came from the other side.
“Hello.”
A line not much different from his own choice.
Similar intonation. Similar speed.
But perhaps due to a difference in their innate vocal cords, the opponent’s voice felt distinctly different from his.
Immense awakening level and youthful voice.
If someone has as much as he does, wouldn’t they also have a heavenly amount of understanding?
*
“I apologize for the previous interview. You must have been surprised when I suddenly made that statement on TV, and I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize.”
Huh?
“I might say I misunderstood Mr. Kim Gi-ryeo back then. Uh… Honestly, I had no idea you were hiding your awakening level under the instruction of the Association President.”
Huh?
“But saying this is ultimately an excuse. At that time… I just heard that the Hunter was S-Class and foolishly fell into a sense of betrayal. If you’re that strong, you should help me out before I wear myself out. Well, in such a twisted mindset…”
Uh?
What is this? Did my prayer a moment ago actually get answered?
It had been five minutes since Kim Gi-ryeo had been trapped in the lone prison.
He’s currently engaged in an unexpected conversation.
And rightly so; as soon as Jeong Ha-seong was alone with him, he bowed his head and expressed his apologies…!
‘So, that’s why the sniper interview happened?’
The black-haired S-Class experienced a variety of emotions upon seeing Kim Gi-ryeo, who had captured the ‘Unavoidable Malice.’
At first, there was joy in capturing the monster.
Next, the expectation of Kim Gi-ryeo finally being active.
Lastly, a sense of betrayal over the fact that he was hiding the fourth S-Class.
How furious would he be if the man who had advised him not to overdo it was actually an S-Class pretending to be an F-Class?
‘Well, if another S-Class had shared the workload, he wouldn’t have to overwork himself…’
So, Jeong Ha-seong had declared that he would expose Kim Gi-ryeo’s disguise.
But as the following situation revealed,
“I’m sorry.”
Jeong Ha-seong sincerely apologized, saying he had no idea there would be such circumstances.
It seems this Earthling is quite convinced of the Association President’s ridiculous excuse…
‘I’m saved!’
What a relief.
If the excuse cooked up with the Association President had not worked, he would have been turned to ashes by the flames of an S-Class by now.
“Forget it. Why bother with such things?”
Kim Gi-ryeo shamelessly accepted the other’s apology.
At that, Jeong Ha-seong’s expression brightened slightly.
Such a lack of hostility in those eyes.
Could this really be the same person who was ready to kill him for interfering with his work?
‘W-What is this? I feel like the dangerous aura has dissipated.’
Kim Gi-ryeo momentarily panicked at Jeong Ha-seong’s mild attitude but didn’t dwell on the issue for long.
The other party was a Hunter who had returned after resting for a few months.
So this was a fully understandable situation.
‘That guy must have completely forgotten about me hitting him in the back after resting in such a nice place.’
Now, leaving that aside.
Since they had overcome the massive mountain of discord with Jeong Ha-seong, what was there to fear?
Without further delay, they sought to escape the trap.
They began analyzing and figuring out the area they were trapped in.
Clank, clank.
“First, the coordinates don’t seem far from where we were…”
“I’ll try melting the bars.”
“Don’t. Just stay still.”
Since this place was an EX-Class Dungeon, the traps resembled a kind of puzzle game.
As if testing the intelligence of a living being.
A cryptic prison filled with several hints and elements.
‘Are numbers the keyword again?’
Jeong Ha-seong tilted his head at the structure in the center of the room.
A round bucket with an opening on top.
It kind of resembled a well bucket used to draw water…
[3.5]
Those lowly objects had some numbers written on them.
Other than that, no peculiarities were discovered, making the situation truly perplexing.
But that was fine.
Here was a Great Mage with the ability to immediately grasp the structure of magic tools.
An insightful sorcerer could reach the answer without going through the intermediate process.
“Aha.”
Kim Gi-ryeo pulled something out from his coat pocket.
A small desiccant commonly found in new clothes.
“Desiccant?”
Whoosh.
Kim Gi-ryeo tossed the rubbish he pulled out onto the device.
Then, the bright red letters written on the pillar began to wriggle and reshaped themselves.
[3.49]
The number changed due to his recent action.
“What did you just do?”
“Function check. It’s a weight-related puzzle.”
“Ah…!”
“Let’s see. From the changed number, it looks like it’s in kilograms.”
Upon hearing this, Jeong Ha-seong seemed to have a glimmer of understanding about how to escape the prison.
“Does that mean opening the bars requires reaching 3.5 kg?”
Kim Gi-ryeo glanced at him with a black gaze.
“You need to be precise, including the two decimal places behind it. If the weight exceeds it, there’ll probably be a penalty.”
“Penalty?”
A brief explanation followed.
“This room… While it may seem empty, weapons are hidden within the walls.”
“…!”
“So be careful. And definitely don’t use any awakening skills. It’ll trigger the traps just like before.”
Tap, tap.
Kim Gi-ryeo knocked on the mottled walls of the prison.
Moreover, that wasn’t the only issue.
Not only was it troublesome to surpass 3.5 kg, but just reaching that figure seemed daunting.
“Among the things we have, is there anything that can match the weight…?”
If they offered all the clothes they were wearing, maybe they’d reach about 2 kg?
But what about the rest?
A moment later, Jeong Ha-seong was about to take out a potion to make up for the insufficient weight…
“Ugh?”
The S-Class finally stiffened his expression.
‘The item box isn’t opening.’
Most of his possessions were trapped inside the box.
“Why all of a sudden…?”
“There’s a strong spatial transfer around. So the item box is also locked. You have to go outside to unlock it.”
Skill prohibited.
Item box prohibited.
With even additional restrictions, this prison was indeed quite the tricky one.
“Ugh.”
Still, it seemed unnecessary to be that glum.
“Hey, even if the item box worked, your stuff wouldn’t touch it.”
“Excuse me?”
“Everything you have is top-notch, so why would you use it in a place like this? Break it down, distribute it… Ugh. Well, whatever.”
There was bound to be a more efficient method.
‘What should I do? Should I risk a penalty and use magic?’
At that moment.
As he was brainstorming ideas to solve the trap, a thought flashed through Kim Gi-ryeo’s mind.
“Oh! That will work.”
“Yeah?”
And for the method he came up with, he needed a sharp object—not the blunt Scream Stake, but something sharper.
“Jeong Ha-seong.”
The blond Hunter lowered his gaze to the other’s waist.
“Could you help me for a moment?”
There hung the red longsword that a hero always carries.
*
Meanwhile.
Outside the prison.
“Things definitely can’t continue like this!”
Currently, Esther and Seonwoo-yeon were practically beside themselves with worry.
Who would have thought two S-Classes would go missing again?
With no suitable means to chase the missing ones, they had been lying low to avoid triggering new traps…
But now they could no longer wait.
The ones who disappeared hadn’t returned for a whole 30 minutes.
‘Something feels off! Even without the S-Class status, Kim Gi-ryeo is a capable appraiser who can pass our guild’s trials!’
Overwhelmed by rising anxiety.
Esther and Seonwoo-yeon couldn’t hold back any longer and stood up.
From now on, whether alive or dead, they were going to scour every iron door in search of their comrade.
Screeeech, clank!
But at that moment.
Suddenly, an unexpected event occurred.
One of the eight iron doors connected to the hall creaked open.
“Huh?”
Soon after, two Hunters walked out from the opened iron door.
One was the South Korea’s Ranking No. 1 they knew all too well, and the other was the fourth S-Class who had found himself in the same trap.
“Mr. Gi-ryeo!”
“My goodness!”
The blond man jingled the key he held in his hand.
“Sorry for being late.”
At a glance, Kim Gi-ryeo looked no different from how he appeared when he first fell into the trap.
Truly, he was unruffled.
Even his long coat, which was fully buttoned up, showed no signs of dust.
“After breaking out of the trap, I found this key hanging on the inside of the door…”
For some reason, those in the hall couldn’t focus on the ongoing conversation.
“Excuse me?”
Because standing behind the F-Class Hunter was Jeong Ha-seong, whose face was pale as a ghost.
“Hunter Jeong Ha-seong! Are you okay?”
“Mr. Gi-ryeo, what on earth trap were you caught in? Was it dangerous?”
As they asked with worried expressions, Kim Gi-ryeo readily began to explain.
The trap he had been stuck in required filling a specific device with a set weight, and the benchmark was about 3 kg. Well, that and a few other things.
“Wait, then why is Ha-seong looking like that?”
Based on everything that had been said thus far, it was hard to understand why Jeong Ha-seong looked like he was about to die.
So Esther asked for additional clarification.
“Oh, that.”
Kim Gi-ryeo casually opened his mouth as if it were nothing.
“Honestly, I had a hard time persuading him inside. He just wouldn’t cooperate even though I tried to let him out right away…”
“Excuse me?”
“Skills were disabled. The item box was disabled. How was I supposed to create 3.5 kg with bare hands?”
He said this in a flat tone.
“I merely proposed a quicker way to get out.”
A quicker way to escape?
“Still, everyone carries mass with them.”
Until Esther heard this sentence, she had yet to grasp the gist.
“Anyway, I was going to match the weight with my body; I don’t get why there was such a ruckus.”
But as the explanation got longer, even the dimmest of minds began to pick up on things.
“What did you match the weight with?”
“With my body.”
“….”
“Specifically, my right arm.”
A momentary silence.
Esther and Seonwoo-yeon stiffened their expressions as they understood the implications of what the other was saying, while Kim Gi-ryeo continued with a nonchalant voice.
“But I had trouble preparing it alone, so I had Jeong Ha-seong do it for a bit.”
“….”
“To be fair, that Hunter’s been handling swords regularly anyway.”
And hearing this, it became all too clear what the national hero was shocked by.
“What on earth did you do to Jeong Ha-seong!”
Esther exclaimed, aghast.
But there was no change in the other’s expression.
He genuinely believed there was nothing wrong with his method.
‘Why is everyone in such an uproar? I mean, if you just use a potion, the arm will be fine. These primitive people really don’t understand profit-loss calculations.’
Flinch!
Kim Gi-ryeo accidentally turned his head, and Ha-seong jumped anxiously.
Seeing this, the F-Class Hunter immediately took action.
He stepped forward toward Jeong Ha-seong and spread out his hand.
“Hey, Jeong Ha-seong.”
Then, the blond man spoke with apparent frustration.
“Look. Your arm’s just fine, right? So stop being mad and let’s move on.”
“….”
“There was no choice back then. Honestly, if we stayed as we were, we would’ve either starved to death or been stabbed by the weapons in the walls.”
But at that moment.
As he observed Ha-seong’s face closely, another aspect came into view.
“Huh? What is it? You were just raising your voice earlier, and I thought you were about to explode with anger…”
Swish.
Kim Gi-ryeo leaned forward to scrutinize the Earthling. A conclusion came to mind.
“Are you… feeling anxious right now?”
The top predator of this planet was experiencing anxiety.
“Why?”
I matched the weight and recovered on my own, so that S-Class didn’t suffer any loss.
Kim Gi-ryeo genuinely looked puzzled.
But no answer came.
The opposing Hunter sat in silence like a mouse caught in a snake’s clutches.
Jeong Ha-seong, facing the alien’s bizarre behavior, fell into a considerable amount of fear.
“I’m sorry. Please give me a moment to calm down…”
Thus, a Great Mage inadvertently ended up threatening the sorcerer.
