Chapter 358

Before heading toward Do Yehyun, I emptied two potions in succession. I drank one, then poured the other over my wounds in several portions.

‘Fucking bastard, this hurts like hell.’

If it was going to be like this, I should’ve just ambushed him and killed him from the start. I’d stupidly shown my face because I thought I’d try handling things nicely, only to drag the fight out for no reason. On top of that, wounds caused by a Skill didn’t heal easily even when I practically drenched them in potion. I’d thought I’d only been cut lightly, but apparently the wound only looked thin while actually digging in fairly deep.

“Ugh....”

And maybe because I’d fought while switching between several flashy Skills, my overall condition felt like shit. I was wearing the mana-regulation artifact, but I could still feel a vague heat. It wasn’t that my skin felt hot. It felt more like the heat inside my body had risen. I undid a few buttons on my shirt and checked myself over.

‘Going one-on-one with the Dungeon Boss would be overdoing it, though.’

Still, the fighting itself had mostly died down, and my plan was just to take Do Yehyun and leave, so whatever. This much was manageable. Of course, that only applied if the route there was flat and didn’t have another fucking cliff like the one from earlier.

As I walked, I spotted Director Choi’s long sword and lightly kicked it with the top of my foot. With a light metallic clang, the long sword rattled across the ground.

‘It really is pretty useful when it matches well with the Skill.’

Watching Director Choi handle a long sword had made me wonder what Kwon Taehan would look like using one. I’d already seen it several times, but... the me from back then felt distant from the me I was now. Preparing for the future had value, but the present mattered too. Well, in that sense, the past wasn’t completely meaningless either.

I casually entertained one thought after another as I wiped Director Choi’s blood off my body. Maybe because it had only just gotten on me, it wasn’t particularly difficult to clean off. My cheek and jaw, which had taken a decent beating earlier, still felt numb, but that was all. Apparently my physical durability hadn’t dropped, because nothing had broken or twisted out of place. Once I spat out the blood pooled in my mouth, a strange stiffness settled over my entire body.

Even getting to where Do Yehyun was turned out to be a fairly major task. At least I only had myself to worry about, so the situation was a little better, but the ground had completely collapsed in places, leaving a fairly long stretch where I practically had to climb down while holding onto the wall.

‘There’s no way I’m ever getting back out through this route.’

The path hadn’t exactly been pretty to begin with, but I was pretty sure it had become this fucking awful because of me. I’d torn through the place pretty violently to draw aggro, and apparently the ground had simply given way.

‘Fuck, I didn’t think it’d get this bad.’

I cursed lightly to myself and kept walking.

The place I reached after descending several dozen meters below where Director Choi and I had been actually had a decent amount of light compared to the upper area. Not that it was bright and cheerful or anything. Rather, scattered beams of light struck the colorful minerals here and there, creating a dazzling sight.

‘Pretty.’

The minerals glowing in different colors created a fairly unreal landscape. Well, being pretty lost most of its value when touching them would poison you on the spot, but,

‘The minerals are poisonous? Isn’t this radiation?’

Maybe because the Status Window’s explanation had been so vague, I couldn’t be sure. No matter how tough an awakened person’s body was, I doubted it could block radiation too, fuck. Feeling uneasy, I walked as far away from the walls as possible.

Before long, their Status Windows came into view.

Name: Yoon Sua

Age: 23

Rank: C

Title: -

Primary Skills: Impact(C), Vibration(C)

Growth Limit: C

Name: Lee Euntae

Age: 26

Rank: B

Title: -

Primary Skills: Flowing Wind(B), Resonance(B)

Growth Limit: B

Name: Kim Jibin

Age: 26

Rank: D

Title: -

Primary Skills: Route Finding(D), Light of Conviction(D)

Growth Limit: D

Of course, there was also one Status Window I had no real need to check.

Name: Do Yehyun

Age: 21

Rank: B

Title: -

Primary Skills: Moonlight’s Blessing(S), Surging Wave(B)

Growth Limit: A

I roughly estimated where Do Yehyun would be and brought up the Dungeon Boss’s Status Window.

Underground Monster(D)

A being sleeping deep underground.

Its original form is grotesque, but it can blend into its surroundings like a shadow.

The monster looked like someone had dumped an entire basin of cement over it, and its body was sprawled messily across the ground. It didn’t look dead, but it didn’t exactly look like it had long to live either. Its main body had already been torn in half, for one thing.

Of course, the humans here didn’t look like they had much longer to keep breathing either.

Apparently they had made a decent amount of contact with the minerals while fighting, because the other two weren’t in particularly good shape either, including the Hunter Do Yehyun had said looked like they were going to die.

‘Should I just leave them?’

Judging by what they were doing, they didn’t seem to have any intention of killing the Dungeon Boss right away. Still, well, it was going to die eventually, so I could just leave when the timing lined up.

At that moment, one of the Hunters spoke.

“...Let’s move once the Director gets here.”

“.......”

The other bastard remained silent.

“When the Dungeon Boss dies, the Gate opens. And once the Gate opens, we have to get out, before it closes again. Then I don’t think the Director will be able to make it out....”

Hm.... They were getting along a lot better than I’d thought.

Unfortunately for them, Director Choi wasn’t going to show up no matter how long they waited. It would be faster for them to die over here and meet him that way.

“What if he’s dead?”

“This is a D-rank Gate! There’s no reason the Director would die. It’s not like he ran into the Dungeon Boss....”

“That’s true, but....”

“What if we pour the one remaining potion on the Dungeon Boss instead?”

What kind of fascinating idea was that? They wanted to save the thing they were supposed to kill?

Apparently the last one found it just as absurd, because they raised their head blankly and asked,

“...You want to save the Dungeon Boss?”

“We can keep it alive after binding it! I’m not saying we should bring the Dungeon Boss back to life. I’m saying we should drag out the clear time a little. So the Director can make it here.”

“Then what about Hunter Lee? If Hunter Lee doesn’t get out and receive treatment right now, it looks like they’re going to die.”

“That’s....”

The Hunter stared for a moment at the bastard on the ground who was practically foaming at the mouth, their eyes wavering uncertainly. Their hands were trembling too, so apparently this was their first time losing a teammate inside a Dungeon.

They probably hadn’t expected something like this to happen in a D-rank Gate they’d thought was a complete pushover. Judging by the state of the Boss, they seemed to have taken the Dungeon Boss down fairly easily too. Losing two teammates in a fucking pushover Gate. Of course, one of those was because of me.

“...Then let’s wait just a little longer.”

“Yes, yes...! He’ll probably be here in about five minutes anyway!”

Well, their baseless faith was admirably passionate, but that made things pretty inconvenient for me.

Watching the lunatic head over to pour a potion on the Boss, I finally hid behind a wall and spat out the Stealth Orb.

‘Should I just kill the Dungeon Boss myself?’

But with two Hunters pressed right up against the Boss, killing only the Dungeon Boss would be pretty difficult. Especially in my current shitty condition.

On the other hand, killing all of them would make the cleanup awkward. And right now, I wasn’t confident I could win flawlessly against both the still-breathing Dungeon Boss and the remaining Hunters either.

‘Ah.... I really don’t want to show my face.’

After all, the last time I’d done exactly that, I’d ended up in a whole fucking fight with Director Choi just moments ago.

Still, I didn’t think about it any longer. I deliberately made some noise as I approached.

“What was that sound just now....”

“......!”

The Hunter spun around with their face instantly brightening, only to become confused the moment they saw me.

“Huh...?”

I greeted them lightly.

“Hello.”

“.......”

The simpler the explanation, the better. I explained without delay.

“I’m Hunter Seo Jehyun from Haeseong. Since you might be suspicious, I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t come here as backup for the Hunter Association. I secretly entered for some personal research, planning to collect a few minerals and slip back out.”

Well, other than introducing myself, none of that was honest.

“The reason I’m telling you this is... because on my way here, I saw one of the Hunters from the Hunter Association dead, and I thought I should let you know.”

“What...?”

“It looks like the ground completely collapsed and formed a cliff. I found them below it.”

By now, they should understand more or less what I meant.

Sure enough, the Hunters’ expressions rapidly darkened as they understood me.

“So... you’re saying he died?”

“I tried to at least recover the body, but....”

I roughly lifted my shirt to show them the wounds Director Choi had left behind.

“The ground collapsed while I was there too, and I got caught up in it and injured, so it wasn’t easy. I’ve at least given myself some basic treatment with potions, but....”

“Mineral poisoning can’t be cured with potions.”

One of the Hunters cut me off and muttered with a grave expression.

‘Hm, I’m not poisoned, though.’

Still, that was an excellent excuse. I immediately went along with it.

“Ah, no wonder I’ve been feeling....”

“.......”

“I think we need to get out quickly. Is there some reason you’re having trouble dealing with the Dungeon Boss?”

At that, the two Hunters looked at each other. Well, things weren’t even ambiguous anymore. Now that it was certain, why keep dragging it out? To hurry them along, I looked at the Hunter sprawled on the ground and spoke with as much concern as I could put into my voice.

“That Hunter over there looks like they’re in much worse condition than I am. Shouldn’t we get out quickly?”

“.......”

“Ah, if you need me to, I can carry them.”

Just touching them wouldn’t kill me too, right?

I frowned as I looked uneasily at the half-dead Hunter. Only after quite a long while did someone finally speak.

“We... weren’t killing the Dungeon Boss.”

“.......”

“But like you said, I think we... need to leave.”

I’d thought it would be pretty troublesome if the younger, overly enthusiastic one objected, but fortunately, the fact that Director Choi was dead seemed to have shocked them enough to keep them quiet.

I nodded, then flicked my hand toward the Dungeon Boss. It meant they should go ahead and kill it themselves.

The Hunter’s gaze lingered on my face for a moment, and then light flashed as though exploding.

-Grrrk....

With that final death rattle, the thing that had looked like mud pooled in one place burst apart with a wet pop. Watching the remains trickle across the floor, I slowly raised my head.

‘Done.’

After confirming the exit Gate that would let us leave the Dungeon, I lightly hoisted the half-dead Hunter lying on the ground over my shoulder.

“.......”

“.......”

I’d expected them to start bawling outright, but apparently they were at least aware that they were still inside a Gate, because they remained relatively quiet and composed. As we walked toward the exit, with neither of them saying a word, I spoke as though the thought had only just occurred to me.

“Ah.”

“...Yes?”

“I’m not actually supposed to be in here....”

I quietly added while looking at the two pairs of eyes turned toward me.

“I’m really sorry to ask this, but I’d appreciate it if you kept this a secret. I have something to give you as well.”

At the same moment, I felt a hand lightly settle on my shoulder. I didn’t bother turning around. It had to be Do Yehyun.

Immediately afterward, I felt the wound on my abdomen begin to close. I smiled faintly and said,

“I couldn’t recover the body, but I did bring back one of his belongings.”

“.......”

“If you don’t mind, I’ll give it to you.”

Technically, it was a dagger I’d stolen because I wanted to use it myself, but well, if I wanted to keep their mouths shut, I should probably give them at least this much. I wasn’t particularly disappointed to part with it. Especially considering how well the first step had gone.

It felt like I’d given myself a small year-end present.