Chapter 238: The Overeating Incident (2)
Ahn Yoon-seung was a friendly individual who, if spared, would provide ongoing benefits.
Thus, taking this level of risk was certainly an economically wise decision.
‘Certainly.’
I muttered that sentence, which felt like a rationalization, as I took the first step towards the dungeon’s conquest.
As with countless disaster sites, it was now a race against time.
. . .
Wait a minute. Cancel that.
Forget about the whole race against time thing.
“Damn it.”
Well, why would I expect anything less?
I practically thrust myself into this monster’s nest, and a B-rank hunter would hardly be facing just a few monsters.
Grrr…
Just then, I heard the growl of a beast from somewhere nearby.
I quickly hid myself in a corner of the dungeon and swallowed nervously.
‘This is insane.’
To explain, I was currently situated about 3/5 of the way into a different world.
Thus, it was only a matter of time before I reached the presumed area where Ahn Yoon-seung’s team was trapped, with merely two traps left to deactivate.
However, as expected, I was now confronted with an unavoidable trial right in front of the next door leading forward.
“Grrk, grrk. Grk.”
Its forehead was encased in a sturdy shell like that of an armadillo.
Its nose curled upward like that of a wild boar, revealing its teeth.
And its legs, while somewhat unfamiliar in this world, were a six-legged amphibian that oddly felt familiar to me.
‘Ah, damn it. I swear I’ve seen this creature in a book, but I can’t recall its scientific name.’
It’s a monster.
Judging by its rank, it was an amphibian of about A-class mid-tier strength.
I couldn’t identify its classification since I didn’t carry an analyzer from Earth, but I was at least certain of one thing.
‘If I try to engage head-on, I’ll lose…’
No, I’m not joking—this is serious…
The difference between fighting with tournament rules and reality is huge.
Back then, there was a three-minute time limit.
Moreover, the goal was to break a pendant far less durable than a sorcerer’s body, which allowed for a comfortable victory.
But now?
‘With an F-class body, I’m supposed to take on an A-class monster? It looks pretty healthy too, so I doubt it’ll go down easily from poison!’
Chirp, chirp.
In the distance, I could see the peculiar creature wiggling its six legs, scratching the ground.
Like a zoo animal going through its typical routine, it was spinning in circles on its spot.
“Quack.”
And the position it was fixated on was the exact spot I needed to pass through—the entrance to the door.
I tried throwing a nearby rock with telekinesis to distract it, but for some strange reason, as soon as I moved a few steps away, the monster would return to its original position.
‘Ugh! This is so frustrating.’
After bypassing seven traps to get here, I had gracefully dodged the pursuit of a monster presumed to be S-class using stealth.
‘Guess there’s no way around it.’
After contemplating for a while, I reached the conclusion.
For once, there was no option but to charge through head-on.
Normally, I would have taken more time to contemplate and explore alternative routes, but there were survivors in the dungeon that needed rescuing.
‘It seems they’re managing to avoid the dungeon boss for now, but if Earthlings happen to stumble into traps without distinguishing them…!’
Chit.
I cast a glance in the direction of Ahn Yoon-seung’s team, then rolled up my sleeves.
Yet, despite this grave appearance, I wasn’t really that tense inside.
After all, I was weighing my options and preparing to take a shot at it.
Prrrr…
At least, according to my calculations…
I could beat that thing.
Having concluded my thoughts, I took a deep breath and channeled my magic power.
Thus began the fierce battle between an A-class monster and measly little David.
. . .
Nine minutes later.
Thud!
A massive chunk of meat was flung to the ground.
Simultaneously, I heard a tired sputtering, like that of a stranded survivor gasping for breath in the middle of the desert.
“Gah… Hah!”
The monster’s corpse had thin scratches across its shell.
Seeing its demise, I shouted loudly.
“You piece of crap!”
It was undoubtedly persistent!
“I did it!”
Just like that, as it is said, I unleashed my prowess as a great mage and successfully slaughtered an A-class monster with an F-class body.
But it wouldn’t be right to celebrate just yet.
That nine minutes included a desperate struggle that would be hard to behold with one’s eyes open.
Frankly speaking, I’d never encountered such an embarrassing battle in my life.
With an F-class puny amount of magic power, it was nearly impossible to penetrate the basic immunity of an A-class monster.
Attempting to cast magic on critical organs like the brain or heart disrupted my spells due to the enemy’s internal magic flow.
So instead, I relied on the [Hydra]’s deadly poison, stabbing into its mouth to inflict poisoning through its mucous membranes.
After weakening its immunity with the poison, I intermittently cast spells using my shadow material…
“Ha.”
By summoning a rock directly into the creature’s throat, I managed to achieve victory.
However, this method required precisely targeting a weak spot in the respiratory tract that had relatively low levels of internal magic.
To choke out a creature that was practically bouncing off the walls like a raccoon with a respiratory ailment was no easy feat—even for a great mage.
‘Damn it. After missing so many spells, my mana is running low…’
Huff, huff.
I don’t know how many times I slammed into the darn thing’s head, but the protective effect of the [Divine Tree Sapling] had long since worn off.
At this point, its coating was about to break, making any further fighting impossible.
But right now wasn’t the time to worry about that.
‘Time has dragged on terribly.’
Being left in a dungeon with an S-class monster meant…
It was practically like standing on a roof that didn’t match the walls.
Desperately focusing my senses, I observed Ahn Yoon-seung’s team gradually cornered.
So far, they had skillfully evaded the monster, but soon they would encounter the dead end of the dungeon.
Sigh.
I manipulated my neck muscles to swallow down the rising breath with force.
Afterward, I awkwardly shuffled to the front door and yanked it open.
However, the moment I made eye contact with the corridor leading further into the dungeon, I suddenly heard a whoosh, similar to sharp winds nearby…
Thwank!
Suddenly, a tremendous booming sound echoed in my ears.
That was the trigger for a dungeon spell activated by opening some stone door.
Like a rat trap, spiky rectangular tiles surged up from either side to eliminate any unfortunate souls caught in between.
To put it simply, I had just fallen into a trap!
“No!”
Crack.
By the time I realized the situation, irreversible damage had already been done.
Having been caught in the trap with almost all of my protective effects stripped away, my body… was in a literal mess.
Having been caught between countless spiky teeth, the flayed body was now in dire straits.
Shoulder, scapula, wrist, butt, ribs, thigh.
Bones were broken all over.
The spikes had entered deep, more than six centimeters, so there was no way my internal organs were safe either.
‘Damn it!’
Thud!
The trap that had done its job quickly returned to the ground.
But in doing so, the situation only worsened.
As the spikes pulled out of my flesh, how could my bodily fluids not spill through the new openings? As expected, my formerly white shirt rapidly turned red as blood flowed profusely.
Thud.
I quickly pressed my hand against the gaping hole in my abdomen, casting a hasty healing spell.
‘Ugh.’
Had I not been in a state of magic depletion, I would have easily detected that trap the moment I touched the door!
No, more than that,
In my prime, I could have effortlessly deduced the trap’s design from a hundred meters away.
With my strength exhausted from battling an A-class minion, my judgment had sharply plummeted.
Because of that, I failed to notice the magic concealed in the door.
“Ugh…”
Damn, this situation could be summed up in one word: desperate.
“Ugh heh.”
Crawling on all fours, I moved towards the nearest safe ground, propping my upper body against the corridor wall as I thought.
Though my expression appeared relaxed, my mind was racing.
‘I’ve made mistakes like this in my life.’
First of all, there are a few things even a great mage cannot do in this world.
One of these is resurrecting living beings.
‘Unless it’s about using a dead body as a golem. When it comes to restoring ‘another living being’s corpse,’ it’s a field that selfish Alphauri like me are particularly poor at!’
But what if Ahn Yoon-seung got mortally wounded during all this?
While channeling healing magic throughout my body, those thoughts crossed my mind.
Even in this unfortunate state, I had no serious issues with my survival. Luckily, my lungs weren’t entirely destroyed.
‘It was a good thing my protective effects were still somewhat intact.’
However, the overall extent of damage was severe, and it would take at least two days for a full restoration.
‘Since I had some money left over, I stocked up on recovery potions from Earth—except, I drank nearly all of them on my way here while deactivating traps.’
Plus, with that last hit, my protective effect had completely worn off, turning me back into an authentic F-class body.
What was I to do?
‘This is all Kim Gi-ryeo’s fault. If that guy hadn’t nearly died, I wouldn’t be stuck in this mess.’
Grumbling.
I attempted to blame someone else out of habit, then came to a conclusion.
‘Alright. Let’s abandon this body for now.’
Of course, that didn’t mean I would completely discard it.
The technique for controlling a golem was originally designed for the sorcerer to manipulate specific materials through mental signals rather than directly controlling one’s own body…
So, to put it metaphorically, it was akin to operating a very high-performance remote control.
A glimmer.
With my body half laid out, I rolled my eyes.
Then, within my view, I spotted the corpse of a six-legged amphibian.
Shortly after being reborn, I could not manipulate monster bones of any rank, but…
Now that my lungs were repaired, as long as I didn’t intend to fully utilize the creature’s powers, it shouldn’t be too difficult to stand it back up.
“…”
I closed my eyes.
Once my previously dark view lightened up again.
My height had drastically changed, and I could hear something breathing near my ears, gently shhh… shhh….
*
[[Web Message] ◐Safe sender number]
[S-Class Hunter Seo Esther. Please confirm and reply immediately.]
Meanwhile, outside.
The Korean Hunter Association was in chaos due to a bizarre mutation incident at a certain blue gate.
No one expected an S-class gate to appear so suddenly.
Flutter!
Soon after, a gigantic white mount appeared from the sky.
As soon as the Hunter Association became aware of the S-Class gate’s emergence, they immediately called their top hunters into action.
They rushed to call Jeong Ha-seong, who was in the middle of dinner at home.
They even diverted a perfectly functional aircraft to bring Korea’s second S-Class back.
She had originally planned to visit her mother, who had a thriving business in Vietnam, but now that plan was completely shot.
“Seriously, being an S-Class comes with its share of inconveniences.”
“Esther Hunter!”
“Yes. Hello~ It’s Seo Esther, who can’t even attend my mom’s birthday party that occurs once a year!”
Flutter.
Leaping down from her movement magic tool, Esther surveyed the waiting hunters and asked.
“So, what kind of dungeon is making me a disobedient daughter? Is this it?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Of course, Kang Chang-ho didn’t come, right?”
But when Esther mentioned someone, an employee from the association stepped forward.
“Kang, Kang Hunter is currently inside the gate.”
“Hmm?”
“We checked, and there is a record of an entry permission request in the association… He entered the [Unknown Cave] that appeared in Songpa about 30 minutes ago. So, he might not be able to confirm the summons right now.”
Kang Chang-ho is tackling the dungeon?
Even if the message was received normally, the chances of that hunter complying with the association’s orders would be low.
While the second S-Class of Korea casually overlooked the employee’s words.
Jeong Ha-seong quickly skimmed through the documents prepared by the association and muttered.
“The anomalous mutation was confirmed around 1:19 PM. Team Neo 3 led by Park Seung-hye entered early, and the confirmed appearance of an entity is an A-class Red Tentacle…”
In the last paragraph of that document, a striking name was written.
[Entry List: Park Seung-hye, Baek Ja-kyung, Ahn Yoon-seung, … (additional) Kim Gi-ryeo]
“Hold on. Excuse me. The name of Mr. Kim Hunter is already on the entry list—what does that mean?”
As Ha-seong questioned, the head of the Neo Sisters Guild stepped forward to explain.
This bespectacled man had witnessed firsthand how an S-class individual entered the dungeon.
“The one who first noticed this situation was actually Kim Gi-ryeo. He came to find Yoon-seung before we even contacted him.”
“He came to find him?”
“I heard there was some sort of meal appointment with Team 3.”
This was an emergency situation, so Jeong Ha-seong wasn’t interested in unnecessary details.
Thus, the manager of Neo swiftly moved to the main point without unnecessary descriptions.
“Anyway, Kim Gi-ryeo Hunter has gone into the dungeon first to deactivate traps. He said he would clear the way.”
“Excuse me?”
“Wait? Gi-ryeo is currently in that gate?”
Hearing this, both Jeong Ha-seong and Seo Esther, who was checking her equipment, immediately halted their movements.
After a brief pause, they began to express their grievances.
“Hey! No way! What kind of madness is this? How could you let someone go in there alone? That’s so dangerous!”
However, from the hunter association’s standpoint, it was a situation they couldn’t outright prevent.
“We… uh, there was nothing we could do. After all, this is an S-class mutant gate.”
“What does that mean?”
“Kim Gi-ryeo himself told us that it’s fitting to have at least one S-class inside for safety. Honestly, he has far better survival odds alone than with additional personnel…”
The random nature of monster numbers subject to change due to mutations.
And claims of ‘surviving more stably than others’.
All the ability users present had formidable hunting experience, so it didn’t take much for them to understand the immediate implications of the statements.
“…I’m not sure if I heard this correctly. Are you saying that Kim Gi-ryeo is holding the fort inside there as a buffer?”
Because if a survivor existed, the foreign world had absolutely not collapsed.
Because of that characteristic, during the early stages of Dungeon Shock, it was common for human beings to be used as pawns to temporarily delay disasters.
To put it differently, it was modern-day human sacrifice.
“Yes. The A-class Team 3 might fall into total annihilation at any moment.”
“…”
“Kim Gi-ryeo Hunter realized that if he stood by the entrance, he wouldn’t be able to evade the S-class monster’s resurrection forever. So, he decided to explore the interior a little before you two arrived…”
“Oh, that’s why…”
A moment later.
After fully grasping the situation, Jeong Ha-seong’s pupils trembled like a tsunami as he adjusted his grip on the Sword of Sunset.
But thankfully,
It seemed that the number one ranked hunter would not enter the S-class gate without separate preparations.
“Wait! Ha-seong! Stop, stop! Before going in, there’s something we need to discuss!”
The woman beside him, with droopy eyes, urgently clung to halt the number one hunter’s actions.
