EFME 12

Not long after, Muyoung located a D-rank dungeon they could enter immediately. It was a small dungeon in Gwacheon.

Sunyul got into a car driven by Jaehoon, along with Muyoung. Heena and Haemin decided to follow in their own car.

Once seated, Muyoung asked Sunyul.

“Do you know anything about dungeons?”

“The basics, yes.”

Dungeons appear without any warning. They can take the form of a solitary door, or sometimes structures where a door might plausibly exist, like the entrance to a house, tower, or cave, are generated along with it.

Inside these dungeons, there are traps and roaming monsters. After a certain amount of time, the monsters inside either come out, or traps identical to those inside the dungeon materialize around it. To prevent this, Hunters periodically clear out the dungeons.

Clearing a dungeon means completing the dungeon quest provided by the system. Once this quest is cleared, monsters and traps won’t be generated inside the dungeon for a while.

At Sunyul’s well-organized explanation, Muyoung nodded his head as if to say he was correct.

“That’s right. And a dungeon’s lifespan is about a month to 10 years. Most dungeons disappear without lasting more than a year or two… but the one we’re going to has been around for about four years. It’s old for a dungeon, which means there’s a lot of information on it.”

“I see……”

“It’s also a dungeon with an easy clear condition, so don’t worry.”

“Okay.”

Jaehoon got goosebumps at the gentle explanation, so unlike the usual Muyoung. He drove, thinking he wanted to get out of the car as soon as possible.

The entrance to Gwacheon Dungeon D-432, also known as the Gwacheon Side Door Dungeon, looked exactly as its name suggested. A small iron door, as if painted green, stood solitarily in the middle of nowhere.

“It’s not always like this, but generally, the higher the dungeon’s rank, the more elaborate the structures around it.”

Seeing the fascinated Sunyul, Haemin stepped forward to explain.

“Really?”

“Do you know about the pyramids?”

“……Aren’t they the pharaohs’ tombs?”

He had seen it in a book recently. Haemin nodded as if to say he was correct.

“Yeah. In Egypt, there’s an S-rank dungeon structure that looks just like a pyramid. Though it’s a bit smaller than the real ones.”

“Usually, the structures around a dungeon follow the local characteristics. The insides of the dungeons are mostly a mishmash, though.”

“That’s fascinating.”

Sunyul’s eyes sparkled as he listened to Heena and Haemin’s explanations. Haemin was about to say that Sunyul was the most fascinating thing there, but stopped himself, scared of Muyoung.

“Alright, let’s go. Kim Jaehoon, you come in last.”

“Oh, sure.”

Muyoung strode into the dungeon. His body vanished without a trace. Following him, Heena and Haemin also entered without hesitation. Sunyul stood frozen, staring at the door.

“It’s okay, hurry up and go in.”

“What’s inside?”

“Just an ordinary field. It’s a peaceful atmosphere, so don’t worry. Kwon Muyoung went in first, right? He’ll be waiting.”

“……Okay.”

At Jaehoon’s gentle coaxing, Sunyul, full of tension, stepped inside the door.

And then.

“Huh?”

Contrary to Jaehoon’s words, pitch-black darkness unfolded. Suddenly dropped into a place with nothing, Sunyul panicked and looked around. But there was nothing around him…….

“……”

No, it wasn’t that there was nothing. Far in the distance, starlight was leaking through a torn fissure. The light of hundreds of millions, hundreds of trillions of countless stars was brilliant.

It was a beautiful sight.

But looking at the sight, Sunyul felt his breath catch as if he were being choked.

[The trait ‘Lost Child of Dimensions’ is activated.]

[You fall into a state of confusion due to the effect of the ‘Lost Child of Dimensions’ trait. In return, all stats are increased by one level.]

It’s painful. It felt like it would be more comfortable to have someone strangle him with their hands. It was suffocating, as if he were trapped in a very small space, as if he could never escape this place.

[‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ encourages you, saying you are no longer in that place.]

The constellation’s message rang out. Sunyul shook his head and sank to the floor. Curling up, Sunyul despaired from the depths of his heart.

But it’s right in front of my eyes.

This pitch-black darkness.

The rift that holds so many destructions.

The home he could never reach and never return to.

Everything…….

[‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ denies your thoughts.]

[‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ tells you to take just one step forward.]

One step.

Just one step was so difficult. How was he supposed to take a single step when he couldn’t even get his body to stand up in the first place?

It feels like I’m going to die. No, it feels like it would be a relief to die like this. But he couldn’t die.

“Ugh……”

Sunyul painstakingly got up. Pushing away the countless distracting thoughts that flooded his mind, he desperately thought about Muyoung. Muyoung, who had gone ahead, would be waiting for him.

Thinking that, the moment he took one step forward.

The scenery changed in an instant.

A river was flowing before his eyes. Willow trees were planted in a row along the riverbank, and white birds flew overhead. It was a very peaceful scene, just as Jaehoon had described before they entered the dungeon.

“Lim Sunyul.”

Sunyul felt a warm sensation. Muyoung was holding his hand firmly with his own large one.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, I……”

Sunyul couldn’t say anything, his lips just trembled. Most of the memories of what he had just seen and felt had evaporated, leaving only a vague sense of distress that was hard to explain.

Fortunately, Sunyul didn’t have to struggle to explain his condition. Heena had already given a simple diagnosis of his state.

“Looks like you got dungeon shock.”

“Dungeon shock?”

“Sometimes non-awakened people show symptoms of shock when they enter a dungeon. Are you okay now?”

“……Yes, I’m okay.”

Wiping away his cold sweat, Sunyul accepted Heena’s words. Muyoung took out a handkerchief and wiped away the sweat that Sunyul couldn’t get with his own hands.

“A kid who came out of a dungeon getting dungeon shock.”

Jaehoon said, as if it were fascinating. Sunyul smiled awkwardly and looked ahead.

You have entered a D-rank dungeon.

Current number of entrants: 5 (Capacity 24)

The dungeon entrance will close in 9 minutes and 12 seconds.

“Um, I’m seeing something strange.”

“Something strange?”

“It’s like a square window……”

“Even non-awakened people can use the basic system inside a dungeon. Try calling it up.”

“How?”

“Just think, ‘system window.’”

At that, a system window appeared before his eyes.

[Dungeon Conquest Quest]

Condition 1: Find the 4 orb fragments that exist inside the dungeon and place them on the hands of the goddess statue.

Condition 2: Hunt 100 or more monsters inside the dungeon.

Condition 3: After completing Conditions 1 and 2, hunt the boss monster that appears.

“Did it pop up?”

“Yes. It says it’s a dungeon conquest quest.”

“What are the contents?”

“It says to find orbs and place them on a goddess statue, and to hunt 100 or more monsters inside the dungeon. After that, it says to hunt a boss monster……”

“It appeared correctly.”

Heena and Haemin, who had asked as a test, fell into thought for a moment.

At the Ability Management Bureau, Sunyul had said that when he tried to call up his status window, it said it was ‘undergoing calculation.’ The Bureau had thought that was an excuse.

In the first place, it was an established theory that the system window only appeared for humans. The same went for the quest window. The fact that it appeared for Sunyul… meant that he was not a simple item.

‘I’ll have to think about this a bit more.’

Deciding to be cautious, Haemin checked his equipment. Although they were S-rank, Heena and Haemin had no decent combat skills. Their stats, except for magic power, were also on the low side.

Well, Muyoung and Jaehoon would take care of it. Still, just in case, he took out a few extra items.

Then, Haemin took a dagger out of his inventory and handed it to Sunyul.

“A gift.”

“……Are you giving this to me?”

“You should at least have a weapon when going into a dungeon.”

What Haemin took out was a B-rank dagger. Sunyul carefully accepted the dagger.

“I’ll use it carefully and return it to you.”

“No, keep it. I made it for practice.”

Haemin said it as if it were nothing, but a B-rank dagger made by him was worth several million won when traded for cash. Sunyul, who didn’t know that much, bowed his head, saying he would use it gratefully.

“Let’s get going now.”

When Jaehoon operated the Hunter watch on his wrist, a translucent window floated in the air. On it was a map drawn by those who had conquered the Side Door Dungeon in the past. Jaehoon carefully examined the map.

The dungeon’s structure was the same, but the quest content changed slightly. In the case of the Side Door Dungeon, the location of the orbs mentioned in the main quest always changed. The areas where monsters lived also changed a little each time. The boss monster, however, was always the same.

“Let’s cross the river first. The forest is the dungeon’s boundary line.”

“But how do we cross?”

As he asked, Haemin’s gaze turned to Sunyul.

Instead of a bridge, there was a stepping-stone path across the rather wide river. The problem was that the distance between the stones was quite wide.

Even without combat skills, Heena and Haemin, being S-rank, could cross somehow. However, for Sunyul, whose physical abilities were at the level of an ordinary person despite his strong regenerative powers, the distance was a bit too much.

“I can just carry him.”

Muyoung said, as if wondering what the problem was, and promptly lifted Sunyul into his arms. It was the so-called “princess carry.” Startled by his body suddenly floating, Sunyul clung to Muyoung.

As if he wasn’t a hindrance at all, Muyoung immediately crossed the river in an instant with light movements, still holding Sunyul. When Muyoung set him down, Sunyul stood with his feet firmly on the ground, his face extremely flushed.

“That was fun.”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you.”

While looking at the two as if they were some strange creatures, Jaehoon almost slipped. He managed to regain his balance and stand up straight, but still. He didn’t know why those two weren’t embarrassed, but the sight of them was truly…….

“You two get along well. Too well.”

Muyoung didn’t reply. Jaehoon gave a small smile to Sunyul, whose eyes were darting around, and then took the lead.

“Alright, then let’s move forward slowly while looking for the quest items.”

“What do the orb fragments look like?”

“It’s different each time. There will be light shining down or a sparkle around the area where an orb fragment is, so you just have to find that.”

“Okay. I’ll be sure to find one!”

Full of motivation, Sunyul did indeed manage to find one orb fragment. And not long after finding one fragment, a cloud of dust began to rise in the distance.

“Monsters.”

It wasn’t just one or two monsters. More than a dozen of them were rushing at them at once. Of course, even though there were many, it wasn’t difficult. This was a D-rank dungeon, and both Muyoung and Jaehoon were S-rank Hunters.

As the two of them began hunting the monsters in an instant, Heena used the [Whisper] skill on Muyoung and Jaehoon.

[You two, don’t kill one of them and herd it towards Lim Sunyul.]