Chapter 114

Seonwoo Yeon had a question.

Why was the fourth S-Class Hunter so merciless toward Korea’s number-one Hunter?

Judging by his usual behavior, Kim Kiryeo was not a bad person. He helped others and displayed little interest in personal gain. Yet whenever Jung Haseong was involved, something about him seemed to change.

‘Making Jung Haseong do something like that... Has he lost his mind?’

What had happened between them could hardly be called friendly.

Seonwoo Yeon always tried to understand the intentions of others, but that was never an easy task.

‘I don’t understand.’

Perhaps Kim Kiryeo was deliberately placing Haseong under pressure in order to draw out his hidden potential, just as he had done in Hadong.

Or perhaps there was some special reason he had come to dislike Jung Haseong.

Then again, he might simply enjoy meaningless cruelty, like a child tearing the wings from a dragonfly caught in his hands.

‘And then there was the way the Association President suddenly defended him at the press conference. There are far too many things I don’t understand.’

Seonwoo Yeon frowned as she studied Kim Kiryeo.

At that moment, the blond man standing at the far end of the room happened to glance in her direction.

Their eyes met.

He gave her a slight nod from across the hall.

That simple, polite gesture only made the truth more difficult to grasp.

‘Haa...’

His true awakening rank had been fully revealed during the third awakening test.

So why did he still seem so suspicious?

Why did she feel as though he were continuing to hide something?

***

Yahoo! This is exciting!

To put it in Earth terms, being accompanied everywhere by an S-Class Hunter was rather like having access to a premium private bus service, wasn’t it?

“Hunter Esther, shall we go in?”

“Yeonie! We’ll be back soon. Keep a close watch out here, all right?”

A short while later, Esther and I were chosen to conduct the first exploration beyond one of the iron doors.

As a self-proclaimed appraiser, I examined the entrance and confirmed that there were no further traps. With that settled, we began our cautious advance.

Moreover, although the situation might have been unfortunate for whoever had designed this place, we had been rather lucky.

“Oh my. A blue monster.”

“And there’s only one?”

This was a high-difficulty dungeon, one that housed formidable enemies even by EX-Class standards.

However, once the ranks of the selected challengers were taken into account, the outcome became fairly predictable.

“If it didn’t die immediately from the curse, it must be a boss-level creature.”

Then we entered the first chamber.

Boom!

Esther took out a coral-colored orb from her item box and activated its magic.

Drawing upon the power contained within the orb, she launched a compressed projectile of magical energy at the monster before us.

‘So she knows how to use attacks other than curses.’

Judging by the ease with which she handled the artifact, Esther appeared to favor this style of combat.

“What is that crystal orb called?”

Was that really the sort of question one should ask while standing face-to-face with a demonic beast?

I was carrying on a leisurely conversation without even bothering to look at the monster.

That was how overwhelming Esther’s strength was inside this chamber.

“This? It’s an item called the Dragon Palace’s Jewel.”

“It looks expensive.”

“It is. In fact, it was the first epic-grade item ever manufactured in Korea.”

Fwoooosh—boom!

The monster struck by the S-Class attack collapsed into dust.

Clang.

“I’ll collect it. Stay here.”

“What? It’s over already? Is there another trap?”

“I don’t think so.”

I walked through the darkness toward the key that had fallen to the ground.

Tap. Tap.

As my footsteps echoed through the chamber, I heard Esther continue our earlier conversation behind me.

“Still, no matter how expensive something is, how could it compare to Haseong’s [Sword of Sunset]? That isn’t merely an ordinary artifact. It was the very first legendary-grade item.”

Hmm.

[Sword of Sunset].

That name meant absolutely nothing to an alien archmage.

“And yet Kiryeo used that precious sword for something like...”

“What?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s leave the room.”

In any case, we completed our first exploration with surprising ease.

The chambers that followed were not much different.

“I’ll participate from this point onward.”

By the time we returned and reported what we had encountered beyond the first door, Korea’s number-one Hunter had finally regained his composure and joined the assault.

“What was inside that chamber?”

“Almost exactly what you described. There was a beast about the size of a wild boar. Once we killed it, a key appeared.”

Roughly three minutes later, I watched Jung Haseong’s group emerge from the second iron door.

There was a faint smell of scorched air, but both Hunters looked perfectly fresh.

Apparently, that chamber had simply been too small a vessel to contain the power of an S-Class Hunter.

‘Having a leader is the best!’

With such a dependable means of transportation at my disposal, I proceeded through the dungeon at remarkable speed, relying almost entirely on the abilities of the S-Class Hunters.

Red, blue, green, yellow...

We defeated every variety of mysterious gatekeeper prepared for us.

‘The colors indicate their elemental resistances.’

As the raid continued, I gradually came to understand the defining feature of these chambers.

I saw no reason to explain it, however.

What use was elemental resistance in the first place?

Jung Haseong had just incinerated the red creature guarding the fifth iron door—a monster supposedly resistant to fire—without leaving so much as a trace behind.

‘Terrifying.’

The raw power of an S-Class Hunter simply ignored the petty rules governing this dungeon.

They had been born with awakening levels far beyond the ordinary standard.

Moreover, Seonwoo Yeon was a capable mage by the standards of this world. As long as a monster did not possess resistance to her particular attribute, she could handle it reasonably well.

‘Hmm.’

Did that mean I was the only useless person here?

‘I-I worked extremely hard in my previous life. Surely I deserve to take it easy for a while?’

Squeak. Squeak.

Attempting to conceal my incompetence, I entered the seventh iron door.

Creeeak—clank.

This was the final chamber that did not require a key to enter.

In that case, the last clue needed to escape this gate had to be concealed behind the heavily locked eighth iron door at the end of the corridor.

***

One, two, three, four...

There were exactly seven keys.

“The number matches the locks.”

“It seems the room Haseong’s group was trapped in was one we were required to enter. Without clearing it, we wouldn’t have obtained enough keys.”

Several minutes later, we had finished exploring nearly every chamber connected to the hall.

Only one task remained.

We stood before the eighth iron door, the only entrance secured by multiple heavy locks.

‘This is wonderfully convenient.’

Since the chamber could only be opened after collecting every key, there was a high probability that a boss monster waited beyond it.

Even so, I felt no tension.

Standing beside me were three high-ranking Awakeners: two S-Class Hunters and one B-Class Hunter.

‘Hahaha!’

Besides, the rewards from this gate would probably mean little to people of S-Class standing.

If I played my cards correctly, perhaps I could claim them for myself.

Dreaming of a rosy future, I diligently inserted the keys one after another.

Each time I did so, another lock released its grip on the door.

“Ah. That’s the last one.”

Clang.

The moment I inserted the final key, however, the eighth door suddenly swung inward.

“Ugh!”

A cloud of black smoke burst from the open doorway and swallowed us whole.

Fortunately, the smoke was not poisonous.

It was merely a visual signal accompanying another spatial transition.

‘Wait. A spatial transition now means...’

As the darkness rapidly dispersed, I raised my head and surveyed our surroundings.

We had been transported into a mysterious chamber filled with square platforms arranged like the tiles of a chessboard.

‘Is this the boss room?’

Damn it!

I had assumed the final chamber would also limit entry to two people.

The fact that all four of us had been transported together came as an immediate shock.

But there was a second surprise.

The sound of beating wings had been echoing through the chamber for some time.

Brrrrr...

Crrrr...

Flap. Flap.

White wings.

Small bodies.

At first glance, the swarm approaching us in dense clusters resembled a cloud of moths.

But how could ordinary insects possibly exist inside a gate like this?

“Kyaak!”

“How many are there?!”

This was an emergency.

A vast number of monsters descended upon us the moment the battle began.

‘Hiiik!’

Normally, nothing was more effective against flying insects than fire.

Unfortunately, the chamber was far narrower than I had expected.

There was almost no room to launch a wide-range attack.

If Jung Haseong unleashed his flames here, the rest of us would almost certainly be caught in them as well.

‘I would rather avoid being burned alive or suffocating.’

Esther seemed to reach the same conclusion.

She quickly moved toward the center of the chamber and acted.

Srrrk...

She activated her awakening ability.

[Curse].

‘Good choice!’

Thud. Thud.

The instant the white moths were struck by Esther’s curse, they dropped helplessly from the air.

However, the monsters were not the only ones affected by her power.

There was another Awakener in the chamber who was not classified as S-Class.

“Aaagh!”

A scream rang out from the corner of the room.

‘Oh no!’

Seonwoo Yeon clutched her head, her face contorted in pain.

***

Haseong was furious.

According to the rule that had governed the previous chambers, only two people should have been permitted to enter.

At the very least, the B-Class staff member should have remained outside.

What was wrong with this damned gate?

Why did it insist on making people suffer at every opportunity?

“Staff member! For now, stay behind me...!”

Haseong wanted to protect Seonwoo Yeon, but there was little he could do under the circumstances.

A curse naturally possessed the ability to bypass the defensive effects of protective equipment.

Even if he gave the staff member one of his own items, it would make almost no difference.

“Ugh!”

Furthermore, even Haseong himself, despite being S-Class, was not entirely immune to the curse.

Nausea.

Pain.

And an unnatural ringing in his ears.

Who would have imagined that even brief exposure to the skill could weaken him so severely?

“Something is wrong! Where are all these moths coming from?”

Esther was equally confused.

Creeeak...

She had intended to maintain the skill for only a brief moment.

Yet the black void above them continued disgorging smaller monsters, as though deliberately preventing her from releasing the curse.

“Ugh...”

If the leader of the Magic Tower kept her ability active for much longer, the Association employee would suffer fatal damage.

‘No. In this situation, it would be better to kill them one at a time with a sword!’

Jung Haseong decided they would have to fight without using awakening skills, no matter how difficult it became.

Forcing himself upright, he raised his head, intending to persuade Esther to stop.

‘Huh?’

At that moment, however, something strange occurred.

While everyone exposed to the curse was groaning in agony, one Hunter quietly emerged from the northern side of the chamber.

“...!”

There was not the slightest sign of distress on his face.

Kim Kiryeo walked toward Esther at a steady pace, his posture perfectly composed.

It was unbelievable.

While the others were on the verge of collapse, how could he remain completely unaffected in the middle of such a violent storm of curses?

“You startled me!”

Tap. Tap.

Kim Kiryeo touched Esther lightly on the shoulder and whispered a few words into her ear.

Esther looked up at him in surprise.

A moment later, all of them were staring into the darkness above the chamber.

“Aha!”

As though she had suddenly understood, Esther activated a support skill and launched a sphere of magical energy toward the ceiling.

Boom!

The hidden device generating the monsters shattered instantly.

“As expected of you, Kim Kiryeo! You really are the best! How did you manage to identify exactly where the monsters were coming from in all this chaos?”

Esther appeared to believe that his [Appraisal] ability had allowed him to discover the source.

The national hero, however, saw the situation differently.

That man had just walked through the curse without flinching.

Which meant that he had completely disregarded the influence of an S-Class ability.