Chapter 67: 67

Act 1

“All of these are… . really?”

Aile’s previously cold-as-ice expression finally displayed signs of agitation . There was no need to even mention Keshunirn after he tripped on the bones .

Howal, entering the dungeon the last, grew utterly pale and hurriedly spoke . “I-I bloody knew this would happen . ” Perhaps he had sensed the off-kilter atmosphere because he turned around and tried to leave right away .

But then…

“Uh, uh? W-what is going on here?”

Howal’s voice as he tried to leave the dungeon through the entrance was trembling violently . He tried to wave his hands and insert his feet into the yellow gate behind them, but there was no reaction whatsoever .

“You can’t go through?”

“No, I can’t! What the hell is going on here?”

Even the comparatively calm Aile got flustered, and Howal was shouting at the top of his lungs . As for Keshunirn, he stood there wordlessly, his blank expression perhaps the result of him getting greatly shocked .

The so-called leader Keshunirn was far too frozen to analyze this newly developing situation, and Howal was noticeably getting scared . Only Aile seemed to have maintained her cool out of the three . She was certainly doing her best to calmly analyze the situation .

Her abilities were the best among the group, and she also seemed to be more experienced in attacking dungeons as well . Even if such qualities were discounted, her disposition naturally inclined towards being level-headed . Su-hyeun thought that was a type of talent as well .

And here he was, wondering why the difficulty seemed so low . As it turned out, that wasn’t the case at all . The companions he was supposed to attack the dungeon with were basically extra luggage, while the dungeon itself was also slightly different from the regular ones .

According to Su-hyeun’s knowledge, this type of dungeon only appeared much later in his own world . Since the dungeons’ entrances and exits weren’t the same, events of awakeners who didn’t adequately prepare beforehand dying commonly occurred .

It seemed that the stage for the current trial was one such dungeon .

Su-hyeun spat out a long sigh and kicked away the skulls near his foot . “Since we can’t go back, let’s go in deeper for the time being . I mean, we aren’t planning to starve ourselves to death now are we?”

There was nothing to gain by staying in this spot . All Su-hyeun wanted was to hurry up and pass this trial, that was all .

“Isn’t it better to be more cautious when making our next move? The difficulty of this dungeon is—” Keshunirm began .

“Never mind the difficulty; there is practically nothing we can do by staying here . ”

Su-hyeun cut off the words of deeply-scared Keshunirm . His reasoning wasn’t functioning properly after being affected by fear .

“What do you mean?” That question came from Aile, who managed to be the most level-headed out of them all .

“There are no monsters in the immediate vicinity . You can tell by there not being any reaction even after we made such a ruckus . ” The rest of the group nodded their heads after hearing Su-hyeun’s words .

For sure, if there were monsters nearby, then they wouldn’t have stayed away after hearing all the panic-stricken noises made by the group .

“But, if that’s the case, it doesn’t explain all these skulls strewn about this place . I think we’re currently in a garbage dump that the monsters use,” said Su-hyeun .

“Garbage dump?”

“Yes . They could be monsters that enjoy preying on humans, but their jaws aren’t developed enough to chew through human bones, like Man-eating Starving Ghosts or Silk Mermen . ”

The two creature types Su-Hyeun mentioned were monsters often found dwelling in cave-type dungeons that preyed on human beings . There was a good possibility that the monsters didn’t like having bones cluttering their territory so they dumped them in a single location like this .

“Also… . ” Su-hyeun stared at the skulls on the ground and continued on . “These people weren’t Awakeners . ”

“They weren’t, you say?” Aile asked .

“Even before the clothing near them began rotting away, their bones started decomposing first . I’m sure the monsters’ toxicity had a hand in that, but there’s a much higher chance of these remains not belonging to awakeners . ”

The companions began studying the skulls around them once more at Su-hyeun’s explanation . And sure enough, it was as he said .

Awakeners possessed a noticeably different body compared to a regular person, and their decomposition happened differently from regular people as well . As their bodies were far tougher, they also decomposed at a far slower rate .

“You… are right?” Keshunirm noted .

“How did you even notice that?” Aile asked .

“H-h-how is that even relevant? We’re all about to get killed, anyway!” Howal screamed .

The individual reactions of the three were quite different . As expected, the one stuck in the worst state of panic was Howal .

Thankfully, Keshunirn had regained himself quickly enough . As for Aile, she was consistently the most collected figure out of the lot .

In this type of trial, the achievement percentage would vary according to the number of survivors and the time spent conquering the dungeon itself .

“If you have calmed down sufficiently enough, let’s hurry . Whatever the case may be, we still need to find the exit, don’t we?”

When Su-hyeun said that, Aile completely regained her cool and nodded her head .

“Let us . I’ll lead from the front,” said Aile .

Su-hyeun stood side by side with her and began walking forward . Whether it was Su-hyeun remaining fearless in such a situation or Aile moving along with him, they both seemed to possess great tenacity and determination .

The “Su-hyeun” Keshunirn remembered — or more correctly Warrick — was never a brave and smart guy . It felt as if his personality had changed a little from a while ago, but now, he came across as someone completely different .

Even Aile didn’t hold much of a favorable impression of Warrick . From the get-go, this group came together simply because their goals aligned and not because they enjoyed each other’s company or anything like that — one could say they were a motley crew .

However, it seemed that Aile started trusting Su-hyeun somewhat after what happened just now . That haughty and talented woman was doing something rather unexpected .

“What are you doing, man? We better hurry up and go after them . ”

Keshunirn’s expression crumpled greatly at the voice coming from behind him . That gloomy, wispy voice always managed to ruin his mood every time he heard it . To make matters worse, Howal was still trying to hide behind him .

It was his fault for accepting a guy like this as a part of the group, saying that he had a bit of skill . Eventually, Keshunirn began following after the quietly-walking pair of Su-hyeun and Aile up ahead .

* * *

The dungeon’s interior was damp .

Drops of water fell from the ceiling to create streams here and there, while the chilly air tickled their skin .

The dungeon was so quiet that even the water drops could be heard so clearly . Not only that, but the interior was so dark that they couldn’t even see an inch in front of their noses .

“Uh, uh-uh?”

Howal tripped and began tottering . As he couldn’t see his front, he lost the sense of balance and his steps had become unstable .

“Are you alright?” Su-hyeun asked .

“I-I’m sorry . ”

Howal’s voice was shaky . It was pretty uncommon to see a rank B Awakener tripping over something regardless of how dark it was . In other words, that was how tense they were currently .

“Don’t be so tense and take it easy,” said Su-hyeun .

“Hiiieek!”

The moment Su-hyeun finished saying his piece, the howling of a monster traveled out from the deeper parts of the cave . It was an eerie, high-pitched screech like that of a ghost .

The deathly-frightened Howal was startled silly and hurriedly backed away, while Keshunirn swallowed his saliva out of sheer nervousness .

“I’m telling you, you don’t have to be so tense . ” Su-hyeun stared at Howal with unimpressed eyes and continued on . “I’ll be hunting them down all by myself, anyway . ”

“… . Wha?”

“Don’t even think about trying to help out, and stay put so that you won’t get in my way . ”

“Hey, you crazy son of…”

Rumble—

Howal was triggered by Su-hyeun’s words, but had to clamp his mouth shut after spotting dozens of flames that suddenly appeared all around them .

He wasn’t the only surprised one, however . The rest of the group was also the same .

Kiii-hihihihihi—

The screeches were drawing closer .

Su-hyeun started walking slowly towards the screeches . The other three stood there and simply stared at him .

They had instinctively realized that the dozens of flames appearing around Su-hyeun were created out of the concentration of magical energy one level higher than theirs .

Su-hyeun didn’t even care whether the other three were moving or not .

This trial was supposed to be about attacking the dungeon together with those people, but the thing was, it didn’t really apply to him .

Su-hyeun observed the monsters gradually entering his visual range . They were bizarre-looking bipedal fish creatures covered in scales . The land-bound monsters with the name of Silk Merman mainly called damp caverns like this one their home . They also appeared rather frequently in the entrances of yellow and green colored dungeons .

Compared to the yellow-colored dungeon Su-hyeun conquered for the first time a year ago, this one’s difficulty seemed to be higher . After all, only Lizardcops showed up back then .

“Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like I need to use my head . ”

Su-hyeun smirked deeply . The fact that the dungeon’s difficulty was high was actually a welcome piece of news for Su-hyeun .

If the difficulty were lower, he’d have been worried . A lower difficulty would potentially mean that besides attacking the dungeon, there was something else he needed to consider .

However, what the trial asked of him was clearer if the dungeon’s difficulty was quite high to begin with . It could very much mean that without any unexpected variables, he’d not really need to get crafty here . He rather welcomed such a straightforward trial like this .

The scales of the Silk Mermen were unexpectedly hard, but their magic resistance was also quite considerable as well .

Shu-kaaahk—

The moment he sprinted towards the Silk Mermen, Su-hyeun also unsheathed the sword from his waist .

The Silk Mermen’s bizarre-looking maws split wide open as they pounced on him . They seemed slow and lumbering initially but when they attacked, they did so with an explosive turn of speed .

Craa-aack—

Sliiiiiice—!

However, it was still too much of an ask to reach Su-hyeun . The moment he drew his sword, the Silk Mermen’s maws were sliced clean off .

He didn’t need to spend a lot of magical energy either . He only needed just enough to activate the magical blade already present within Gram .

The cleanly-bisected corpses of the Silk Mermen were soon discarded on the ground . However, these monsters lacked the fear of death and continued to pounce on Su-hyeun, not caring at all about the demise of their own kin .

Stomp—!

Su-heyun stepped on the head of a Silk Mermen that dashed in front of him and leaped upwards . Once he reached the ceiling of the cave, he quickly scanned the locations of still-surviving Silk Mermen .

He inwardly counted their numbers as per his habit and finished his preparation .

Su-hyeun’s figure rapidly dug in and struck them with his sword before leaping back up in the air . And so, after he rapidly scythed past the space and wielded his sword several times like this, the Silk Mermen ceased all of their movements .

Splaaaash—!

Fountains of blood exploded from the necks of the Silk Mermen .

The monsters with half-severed necks stopped moving and collapsed to the ground .

It was then that light leaked out from the dead Silk Mermen and entered into Su-hyeun’s chest .

[Warmth has been added to the Divine Beast’s Egg . ]

[The Divine Beast’s Egg has… . ]

“… . Uh?”

That was an unexpected reaction .

Su-hyeun then recalled the egg he had half-forgotten about stored inside his inventory .