The Party That Walked Into the Wrong Nest
He could only keep checking the time with mounting impatience, hoping the Awakers would get a move on and enter the Gate already.
“Good day. Some of you may be meeting me for the first time, and since we’re short on time, I’ll take the lead and say a few words.”
One armed Awaker stepped forward and broke the silence.
“I’d like to recommend Cha Seon-hu of the Cheonmyeong Guild as our leader. I’ve cleared several Gates with him before, and from my experience, he gave clear orders and was very reasonable as a leader.”
Every eye turned to one man.
The Cheonmyeong Guild was one of the five major guilds in Korea, a giant among giants, and Cha Seon-hu, the man being nominated, was a veteran who had spent years building a reputation as an A-class Awaker.
He set down his weapon and gave a light nod of thanks.
“Thank you for the recommendation. I’m lacking in many ways, but if you trust me and follow my lead, I won’t disappoint you.”
Establishing a command structure for a hastily assembled party was more important than anything else.
A few people looked displeased in private, but none of them had any real reason to question his qualifications, so everyone agreed to let Cha Seon-hu take command.
“Thank you. Then we’ll do a brief check and enter in thirty minutes. The Gate has already been open for quite some time, and because of the delay, I’m afraid I can’t give you much more preparation time. I appreciate your understanding.”
At Cha Seon-hu’s decisive order, the ten-man vanguard checked their weapons and armor without a word of complaint.
Exactly thirty minutes later, they threw themselves one by one into the shimmering curtain of the Gate.
Fwoosh—!
The moment their vision cleared, all of the vanguard’s faces twisted grotesquely.
“Cough! Is this poison⋯?”
A choking, acrid stench stabbed into their noses.
As a pungent, skin-burning acidic gas hung thick inside the dungeon, the party members instinctively suspected venom.
Cha Seon-hu narrowed his eyes and surveyed the area.
His gaze landed on webs that covered the ceiling and walls in dense layers.
“It doesn’t seem to be poison after all⋯ but this is a giant spider nest. It looks like acidic gas, so everyone should put on their gas masks.”
Cha Seon-hu’s expression grew heavy as he spotted the vicious webs strung thick through the long corridor.
Giant spider nests were notorious even among A-class Gates for being difficult, thanks to their overwhelming numbers, the giant spider’s tough hide, and the acidic webs.
“I’ve cleared giant spider nests before. Does anyone else here have experience with them besides me?”
At his question, only the Awaker who had recommended him earlier quietly raised a hand.
“Ah, we did work together at the Seoraksan Gate last time. Then I’ll explain the strategy first for those who don’t have experience.”
Cha Seon-hu carefully pointed to the webs spread across the floor.
“If you touch these webs, the slightest vibration will set them off and the monsters will attack. So before we go in, we should set fire to—”
After hearing his clear explanation, the Awakers swallowed hard, tightened their grips on their weapons, and nodded.
And then, before they had moved far in the tense silence, it happened.
When they drew close to the corridor where the nest truly began.
Cha Seon-hu, who was leading the way, suddenly raised one hand and urgently signaled for everyone to stop.
“Huh⋯? Why is this—?”
The words slipped out of his mouth in sheer bewilderment.
Where his eyes had landed was the cavern wall and ceiling, thickly layered with hideous webs.
Normally, giant spiders the size of people should have been clinging all over those sticky meshes, their disgusting bristles raised and ready.
But there were none.
Not on the floor, not on the walls, not on the ceiling—there was no giant spider anywhere.
“You said there wasn’t a vanguard that came in before us, right?”
Cha Seon-hu turned sharply to the party members and asked, his voice urgent but tightly controlled.
“Yes. We’re definitely the first team in. You heard the briefing outside, didn’t you? And because control began immediately after the Gate appeared, there couldn’t have been a vanguard that entered ahead of us.”
One of the party members who had recommended him as leader answered firmly.
Cha Seon-hu was checking once more even though he already knew the answer.
He readjusted his grip on his weapon, crouched slightly, and examined the webs and terrain on the floor with a sharp eye.
Did an S-class Awaker just happen to pass nearby and wander into the Gate? No⋯.
He shook his head.
The floor had melted black as though it had been drenched in scorching lava or some vile acid, and fragments of broken webs were scattered everywhere.
It was the trace of countless attacks by giant spiders, strong enough to gouge deep into the stone.
But the most shocking and bizarre thing was something else entirely.
There isn’t a single giant spider corpse.
If a fierce battle had taken place, there should have been severed legs, bursting fluids, or at least charred remains.
But in this tunnel leading in from the cave entrance, the monsters’ bodies seemed to have quite literally evaporated.
It was as though some enormous predator had appeared, swept through the passage from one end to the other, and devoured everything whole without leaving even a single bone behind.
If this were the work of an Awaker, there should absolutely be corpses left behind. This is⋯ what the hell⋯
Cold sweat trickled down Cha Seon-hu’s spine.
His instincts, honed by years of surviving deadly situations as an A-class Awaker, were warning him with brutal force.
Whatever unknown thing had passed through here, it was a level of danger he should never face recklessly.
Forcing their way forward like this would be no different from suicide.
But⋯ if we leave without even trying to clear it properly⋯
Cha Seon-hu’s feet refused to move easily.
To turn tail and run without so much as seeing the shadow of a monster, without even attempting a proper clear?
His prestige inside the guild would hit rock bottom.
No, it would become a topic of gossip far beyond the guild, and that was only a matter of time.
They’ll say I backed off like a frightened bastard. I can already picture how badly the younger bastards trying to climb over me will try to trample me. So⋯ should I really press on and take the risk?
He fell into a deep inner dilemma.
If they advanced blindly while excluding this unidentified variable, the chance of the entire party being wiped out would skyrocket.
“Cha Seon-hu-nim?”
At the voice calling to him while he stood frozen in thought, Cha Seon-hu snapped back to reality.
“Ah, yes. Sorry. There are some suspicious traces.”
“Suspicious traces?”
“Yes, here⋯ this area should normally be lined with giant spiders all the way through. The slightest touch to the webs on the floor would send acidic venom flying from every direction. But⋯”
Cha Seon-hu tapped one of the tightly stretched webs on the floor with the tip of his weapon.
At his sudden action, the party members reflexively gripped their weapons and shifted into defense, their nerves stretched taut.
But nothing happened.
No giant spiders burst out, and no venom came raining down.
“As you can see, even when I touch the web, they don’t react because they’re not there.”
One Awaker, who had been wound tight with tension, gave a shrug and replied lightly.
“If they’re not there, isn’t that a good thing? We won’t have to deal with the tricky ones, so we can push deeper faster.”
Cha Seon-hu shook his head firmly at the overly optimistic take.
“No. Not necessarily. A giant spider nest is supposed to have so many of them that, under normal circumstances, it takes more than four months to clear. Four months just to cut a path to the boss room. But for them to be missing inside their own territory, where the webs are this dense, is honestly strange.”
Cha Seon-hu’s grim warning about an unknown variable left a brief silence hanging among the party members.
But what finally broke that silence wasn’t their instinct for survival—it was their shabby pride.
“Let’s go in a little farther. We’d look like complete idiots if we turned back now.”
Once someone took the lead and voiced what everyone else had been thinking, voices of agreement burst out from all sides.
“That’s true. If we leave without even seeing a monster’s face or making any progress, there’ll be plenty of people laughing at us.”
To them, the gaze of other people mattered more than any unknown danger.
“And this isn’t just any Gate—it’s one that opened inside Seoul, the capital. You saw the crowd outside when we came in, right? Reporters were packed all over the place, waiting. If we back out now, our faces will keep showing up on SNS, and we’ll be a laughingstock for a long time.”
All ten people gathered here were A-class combat power, people whose fame and standing within their guilds were directly tied to huge sums of money.
They were afraid of the unknown danger, yes, but what they couldn’t bear even more was the public ridicule and loss of social standing that would come crashing down on them tomorrow.
“And this isn’t the first time this has happened, is it? Even when we know the Gate, there are always variables, and the danger is the same. Isn’t that just how all A-class Gates are?”
Everyone agreed with that.
In the end, their opinions fused into one.
“Let’s go inside.”
With a hardened expression, Cha Seon-hu nodded and moved forward.
Reasonable judgment had been paralyzed by the poison of pride.
And all of this conversation was being heard by Soo-hyeok from deep inside the cavern.
Three sinners. A-class. They feel stronger than Cheol-gamen.
To Soo-hyeok’s eyes, only sinners were visible.
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