Translator: Sudowoodo

* * *

Several days passed and Daun Jung was still alive in very good shape.

He was sitting in a corner at the bottom of the deep and shady pit, slowly enjoying a meal.

Chew-chew.

Gulp!

This smoked meat that came from dungeon animals tasted heavenly when softened with saliva.

Daun Jung finished a piece of smoked meat deliciously in a flash, licking his fingers clean.

“Whew!”

After taking a deep drink from a water bottle and leaning against the wall of the pit in a relaxed position, he could not feel a lack of anything.

He even found peace of mind, perhaps due to his full belly.

Leisurely in the truest sense.

The initial bewilderment and impatience had disappeared from Daun Jung’s face.

He had come to realize an unexpected fact during the past several days being stuck down here.

‘Has there ever been another time of safety like this over the past month?’

Ever since he was suddenly summoned to this strange world a month ago, Daun Jung had been under the threat of death every passing moment.

Horrible monsters attacking under the cover of darkness and death traps activating in moments of carelessness.

Later on, they had even experienced a tragedy of fellow companions killing one another.

Some murdered to take food or items. There were even psychos who simply ran amok out of a thirst for blood.

But what about now?

He was in his best condition, he had plenty of food too, but best of all there was none of those monsters teeming up above!

Being stuck in a trap actually made it so he was completely free from all other dangers.

Daun Jung chuckled at this ironic situation.

‘Who’d have expected being a producer would help at a time like this.’

The participants of the dungeon game naturally set each other apart into combatants and producers according to the ‘Skill’ they possessed, and among them Daun Jung was a producer because his one and only ‘Skill’ had nothing at all to do with combat.

Purification (Elementary Level 7)

– Cleanses the unclean.

The ‘Purification’ Skill had the effect of detoxifying harmful toxins and germs from the meat of hunted animals or monsters, which was Daun Jung’s main role that was acknowledged in the group.

In short, he was in charge of the food.

After the combatants engaged in a bout of hunting, Daun Jung would follow up by butchering and purifying the carcasses to provide safe food for his fellows.

That was why his ‘Inventory’ was always full of a significant amount of rations for his companions, even at this moment where he was isolated underground.

The Rabbit had demanded that Daun Jung starve to death, but he was more worried about his companions that had moved on to the next stage.

‘They must all be hungry, what with most of the food being on me apart from emergency rations.’

As he thought of his companions, there was one person who naturally came to mind.

‘Brother Seungwoo…’

One-armed Seungwoo Ryu.

Daun Jung owed truly a lot to him, the leader of the group.

Unlike himself, who only had just one half-assed Skill, Seungwoo Ryu had a total of five Skills.

He had continued to obtain new Skills throughout his battles against the monsters.

[I’ve seen many participants up till now, but Mr. Seungwoo Ryu really is outstanding!]

He was a master of combat — this even the Helper acknowledged — veritably invincible, cleaving through wind and rock, cutting across the monsters.

While he may lack an arm, he could very well be said to be the strongest combatant.

However… he was not one-armed from the beginning, in truth.

It happened roughly two weeks since the game had started.

He saved Daun Jung during a certain mission but at the price of an arm.

“Brother Seungwoo!”

“It’s fine. I was careless for a moment. Rather than that, Daun. Could you cast Purification on me so the wound doesn’t get infected?”

He could vividly recall Seungwoo Ryu grinning at him with a deathly pale face.

It was indeed as he said, truly just an unfortunate accident and not Daun Jung’s fault.

But from that moment on Daun Jung could only ever be a sinner before his companions.

“It’s nothing to mind about! My left hand was just a hanging ornament anyway. I’m right-handed, remember.”

It was Seungwoo Ryu who comforted Daun Jung even after losing an arm, and he also consoled their companions who were at a loss with his gentle smile.

Daun Jung felt infinitely grateful and sorry at his unchanging attitude.

But fortunately, at the moment the stage was cleared and Daun Jung came back to life from the edge of death, a miracle occurred.

[Survivor Full Recovery!]

[Mr. Seungwoo Ryu! You’ve become way cooler with two arms now!]

Those were the Helper’s words back at the time.

So what did that mean?

Just like how all of Daun Jung’s wounds were healed, Seungwoo Ryu’s severed arm had come back!

‘Thank goodness.’

Daun Jung could feel the guilt that was weighing heavily on his chest had lightened ever so slightly, and appreciation welled up in the place of faded regret.

Daun Jung bid farewell in his heart to Seungwoo Ryu… no, to all of his companions that had watched over and protected him, even when he was barely doing anything with only one Skill.

‘Thank you, thank you all so much… for everything until now. May you all survive to the end. Until we can meet again someday.’

And he vehemently murmured to himself as if pledging.

“From now on, I’ll survive alone without anybody’s help. No matter what!”

But he did not know that his words just now exactly matched with what the Helper asked of the participants when the dungeon game had begun.

He slowly got up.

Resting was over, and now it was time to move.

* * *

‘I can’t stay and rot inside forever, no matter how safe it is.’

There was no need to be in a rush regarding food, seeing that there was so much of it, but even that would run out one day.

In the end, he had to make his escape somehow before that happened.

As the Rabbit had said, however, escape was not easy in the least.

‘There are three ways in total.’

He glanced upwards.

The first method was to climb, but this was impossible from the beginning.

The basic structure of this trap was a very deep cylindrical hole. The surrounding walls were made of hard and flat stones, and it was hard to find any gaps in them to get a footing.

It would have been possible to climb up with all four limbs stretched to the sides if the hole was just a little narrower, but even that was impossible because it was too wide.

He also attempted rock climbing by sticking his fingers in the crevices of the walls, but the result was a failure.

He not only lacked strength, but the moss on the walls made it too slippery.

After struggling at it for a long time, he eventually had no choice but to give up and glare upwards in vain.

‘Though truthfully, there’s still a problem remaining even if I can climb up. How am I to handle the monsters that have come to life again up there?’

He was not a combatant.

Even Seungwoo Ryu, with his amazing prowess, would find it impossible to deal with the swarms of monsters.

‘In the end, this means I need somebody’s help to get up there safely…’

That was the second method. To sit still and wait for rescue.

This had a slight probability of success.

Daun Jung recalled what the Rabbit had said previously.

[Kick the bucket so you won’t interfere with the others playing the game, alright?]

It had mentioned the existence of other people playing the game.

A new game would begin since the dungeon was reset.

Perhaps it had already begun.

‘I haven’t heard the Helper’s voice in the past couple of days. Seeing as there’s no way that chatterbox is being quiet, it must have blocked me from hearing its voice.’

Whatever the case, if the game had begun, then it was inevitable that the new participants would pass by this place.

In other words, he would be able to meet them if he just hung tight for about a month.

‘I’ll ask them to help me out, and if I follow them to the next stage and join up with the others…?’

He paused at that thought.

‘… There’s no way that’ll be as easy as it sounds.’

Daun Jung knew how indolent his thinking was.

‘The chances of the newcomers being murderers or psychopaths. Or the chances of them getting the wrong idea about me instead and attacking me. It’s dangerous both ways.’

Carelessness was prohibited within the dungeon.

Of course, not all the participants were murderers and psychopaths.

Sometimes there were good folks like his companions.

But even the most virtuous person could kill — if ever the need to arose, that is.

In conclusion, he skipped the second method as well for the moment.

‘Then that only leaves the third method in the end…’

Daun Jung heaved a sigh as he shifted his gaze to the ground.

The ceiling was high, and to his sides were hard stone walls.

But the ground?

‘It’s dirt.’

In other ways, he could dig.

If going up is not possible, go down.

The idea was simple.

By first digging downwards and then upwards in a U-shape, he would be able to get outside; however, there was a deadline to this method.

‘I have to finish everything within a month at the most. The dungeon will be reset again when the game is cleared. Then the dug up ground will be reset again.’

He knew the road ahead would be a hard one just thinking about it, but it was a road definitely worth taking. Daun Jung had time to spare and plenty of food after all.

There was, however, just one problem.

‘I have no shovel.’

A sigh escaped his lips.

No matter how much he looked through his Inventory, he could not find a tool that could be used in place of a shovel.

That did not mean he could use his knife for cutting meat, so he thought he had to dig bare-handed… until the iron skewers stuck in the ground caught his eyes.

“This is it!”

He cried out in delight and began to pull out the iron skewers from the ground.

One, two, three… he pulled out a total of thirty skewers.

Every single one of them was hard and strong due to being made of iron.

He held one with both hands and stabbed the ground, and it did work albeit awkwardly.

‘Mm. If I trim the tip a little flat, I should manage to use them in place of a shovel? Though it’ll be worse than a trowel…’

But it was something.

Seeing the possibility of it working, he immediately opened his Inventory Window and took out one of the whetstones he used for sharpening his meat knife, then sat down straight away and began to whet the ends of the iron skewer in earnest.

Scrape-scrape.

He was very skilled working with the whetstone, thanks to the experience of maintaining the weapons of his companions when he had time.

After a while, the tip of the iron skewer was flattened to a satisfactory degree.

He dug at the ground for a test and sure enough, it worked a little better than before.

‘Hm. It’ll wear out in no time, but I can just repair it each time. And I have a lot of spares even if it breaks, so…’

And lastly, he tore a long strip off his t-shirt, wrapped it around the skewer’s body, and bound it tightly.

‘It would have been perfect if I had ranch gloves. Might as well increase the friction by doing this.’

He had finished all preparations.

It would be pure laboring from now on.

He felt a surge of irritation for a fleeting moment, what with having so much to do, but he quickly took out a piece of smoked meat to eat.

Saliva filled his mouth and endorphins dominated his entire body.

His heart grew tolerant again.

‘Meat is the bomb.’

“Now let’s go.”

Stab!

He began to shovel in earnest.

And so the vicious iron skewer that previously drove him to near-death began to make him a way out to life.

The objective: go diagonally upwards!

Release Rate: 3 Chapters a week

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