Failed Dungeon Quest – The Hidden Search
The bell for homeroom class had not yet rung.
The students were chatting loudly about their favorite celebrities, the latest movies, the upcoming midterms, and all sorts of other topics.
The classroom buzzed with the usual white noise that felt like it was poking at your ears, just the way a real student’s classroom should be.
If Jin Soyeon had been herself, she would have been gossiping with her classmates until homeroom teacher arrived.
But something was off. Jin Soyeon sat with a slight frown, staring fixedly at her phone screen as if the messages might finally appear.
Because her childhood friend hadn’t shown up for class yet.
“He’s kind of late today. I wonder what’s going on with him?”
Jin Soyeon shook her head lightly, forcing a small smile.
“Why isn’t he coming?” She glanced at the time.
Oh no, it’s already that late.
“There are only five minutes left until homeroom ends….”
Homeroom teacher would be here soon. If he didn’t come, she might have to run to class late.
Her childhood friend had even received a perfect attendance award in middle school, so this sudden tardiness left her full of questions.
“He’s not reading my texts and not answering his phone. What exactly is he doing?”
She kept trying to contact him, but there was still no reply. Given her childhood friend’s personality, late-night sleep was unlikely.
Jin Soyeon just let imaginary question marks float above her head.
“……Everyone, take your seats.”
“Oh.”
He’s already here?
Homeroom teacher had entered the classroom first.
Hong Daye yawned once, her sleepy eyes sweeping across the students’ faces as usual.
“Attendance check… ah, this is annoying.”
Calling out each student’s number one by one was too much trouble, so Hong Daye muttered to herself and tossed a casual question at the class.
“Anyone late or absent today?”
“Teacher, Jinhyuk and Seol-hyeon aren’t here either.”
A male student answered, and Jin Soyeon’s head snapped toward him.
Wait, what?
Even Yu Seol-hyeon wasn’t here? Along with Jinhyuk?
Both of them late at the same time?
What the heck?
“Ah, they….”
She had already heard something from both of them. Hong Daye paused for a moment.
Should she say it or not?
Just for a second.
Did she really need to explain the reason?
Just sweep it under the rug.
“……They’re absent for personal reasons.”
“What? Both of them?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Hong Daye waved it off casually, not wanting to give exact reasons.
If she explained now, the class would bombard her with questions.
“They’re both absent? What happened?”
“What? Jinhyuk’s absent? He never missed a single class in middle school….”
“Seol-hyeon too? Today?”
The students erupted in a buzz.
Many of them were interested in the sudden absence of the two.
“Hey, wait.”
At that moment…
“Now that I think about it, those two met at a cafe yesterday, right?”
“What? Really?”
One of the students who had gone to karaoke with Jin Soyeon earlier lit the fuse.
The entire class brightened with interest at the revelation.
Two fresh-faced young men and women meeting outside the academy was open to many interpretations.
And the girl in question was Yu Seol-hyeon, ranked 1-1’s top beauty and a daughter of wealth.
The students’ interest only grew.
“Why would they meet? Is it a date?”
“Jinhyuk actually has it in him?”
“No way. Why is Seol-hyeon meeting Jinhyuk?”
“They’re the only ones absent today… suspicious. Hehe.”
“Boys will think strange things.”
While the class chattered on, Jin Soyeon remained completely silent.
Of course she had to be silent. She was lost in her own thoughts.
“Absent? Jinhyuk and Yu Seol-hyeon?”
The sudden simultaneous absence felt too coincidental.
So suspicion crept in.
“Is it pure coincidence?”
No, that didn’t feel right. The timing was too perfect.
The two had secretly met yesterday for some reason, and now they were both absent the very next day. It was too convenient to ignore.
“Oh, come on. Why isn’t he replying at a time like this?”
Jin Soyeon blamed her innocent phone.
If only he had answered, the unease wouldn’t have been this bad.
She couldn’t shake the strange feeling that something was wrong, even though the absence itself could be explained.
Maybe something had happened to him.
Or he was deliberately avoiding her calls.
“Wait, what am I thinking?”
Jin Soyeon shook her head hard.
Jinhyuk would never deliberately ignore her. There was no reason for it, and if he were avoiding her, he would have turned off his phone from the start.
Just a matter of not noticing the message…
“Huh?”
Suddenly Jin Soyeon’s thoughts cut off.
“Wait, hold on!”
Because new puzzle pieces were clicking into place inside her head.
“W-wait. Just a second.”
The person she liked.
A meeting at the cafe after school.
Both of them absent the very next day.
No reply.
What did all of this mean?
The puzzle pieces, which had been shifting on their own, were now racing toward one conclusion.
The clearer it became the more she didn’t want to think about it, the stronger the image grew in her mind.
But—
Ring. Ring.
“Ugh…!”
Jin Soyeon startled, shoulders twitching at the sudden message notification.
What? She was startled, after all.
She glanced at the screen. It was probably Jinhyuk.
She quickly checked to make sure homeroom teacher wasn’t looking, then peeked under the desk at the message.
Jinhyuk’s neat text appeared before her eyes.
“Yeah? Why did you call?”
The flat message made her slightly annoyed.
Why call at all?
Is he really asking because he doesn’t know?
“You didn’t come to the academy today?”
“Haha, I’m on sick leave. lol.”
Sick leave? Is he really sick?
He seemed perfectly fine yesterday. Jin Soyeon blinked in mild suspicion but sent another message anyway.
“What kind of sick leave? In middle school you’d come to school even with the flu.”
“Back then it was because of my transcript.”
At Jinhyuk’s words, Jin Soyeon gave a small, bitter smile.
He was always so careful about his transcript. Because of his union admission.
“Anyway, I’m taking medicine and going to sleep. Bye.”
“What? Wait.”
“See you tomorrow.”
“Hey!”
She sent another message, but he still didn’t reply.
There was still so much she wanted to ask.
“This guy really ignores my texts.”
“Really? That’s tough.”
The shadow of Jin Soyeon’s hair lifted. She slowly raised her head and found herself face-to-face with Hong Daye.
“Ahaha… um.”
Jin Soyeon gave an awkward smile.
She had probably been caught secretly using her phone.
“Who were you texting so intensely with? Are you dating?”
“No, no, Teacher.”
“Never mind. Put the phone away. Understand?”
“……Yes.”
While Jin Soyeon nodded slightly, Hong Daye rubbed her tired eyes and walked back to the podium.
She wasn’t the type to confiscate phones out of excessive enthusiasm.
“All right, homeroom is over. Everyone, prepare for the next class.”
Hong Daye waved her hand dismissively, ending the homeroom with a brisk “Prepare for the next class!”
Jin Soyeon stared at the scene for a moment before letting out a long sigh.
“Sick leave, huh… well, that’s possible. It’s possible.”
Right now she had no way of knowing whether Jinhyuk was really sick or not.
But Jin Soyeon had decided to believe her childhood friend’s words.
There was no reason for him to lie, and the chance that Yu Seol-hyeon was the reason was smaller than not.
So she would stop thinking nonsense and focus on her studies.
It was embarrassing, but she had originally thought of something foolish.
But she knew Jinhyuk well enough to know he would never do that.
Yeah, definitely.
So maybe she should prepare for the next class?
The next class was physical training at the training ground. It was going to be tough. She hated sweating from the morning.
“……”
Why was she so nervous?
Should she call it a woman’s intuition?
The uneasy, creepy feeling wouldn’t go away easily.
Something deep inside her was stirring restlessly, making her feel unsettled and irritated.
Why? This feeling she couldn’t explain rationally at all.
Jin Soyeon hated that sensation more than anything.
It was because she was unhappy.
Really.
***
Inside the Gaonnuri Clan headquarters.
Jinhyuk was fiddling with his phone.
Until now he hadn’t noticed because it was on silent, but messages and calls had arrived from Jin Soyeon.
What? Why did she send so many messages?
Could it be that he wasn’t going to school today?
“Jinhyuk.”
“Huh? What?”
“What are you doing?”
“Just got a message from Soyeon.”
“Oh?”
“Must be because I skipped school today.”
Jinhyuk sent a few more messages, then pocketed his phone.
He couldn’t just say openly, “Actually I’m going to hunt the dungeon with Yu Seol-hyeon, so I won’t make it to the academy lol.”
Anyway, it was something that would come out naturally in a few days, but if he told her now she would definitely interrogate him.
So Jinhyuk had simply made up the sick-leave excuse.
“So your business is done?”
“Yeah.”
“Then let’s go.”
He followed Yu Seol-hyeon forward.
Step… step…
How long had they walked?
They reached a meeting room.
“……Hm?”
“Oh, you’re here.”
“Ah, is that her? The student who received the certificate?”
Five heroes were sitting on chairs, whispering among themselves.
A mixed-gender team of three men and two women.
Team members for the dungeon exploration and rescue operation.
“It feels a bit strange to actually meet these people.”
They were characters he had encountered many times in the game.
If they were extras, they were just extra NPCs.
But as temporary allies during the Yeongdeung Mountain dungeon raid, their stats were surprisingly decent.
Their levels were also high.
That was why Jinhyuk had gotten a bus ticket after leveling up…
“You’re the kid who said you’d come today, right?”
While thinking something simple, a bright female voice spoke first. Jinhyuk naturally turned toward her.
A woman in her mid-twenties, with shoulder-length bob hair.
Let me see.
Her name was Han Seo-woo, right?
“Jinhyuk, let me introduce you. This is Han Seo-woo, the leader of today’s Yeongdeung Mountain rescue team.”
“Nice to meet you.”
With a brief introduction from Yu Seol-hyeon, Han Seo-woo raised her hand in a light wave.
“Hello, I’m Jinhyuk. Nice to meet you.”
“Oh, I see. Jinhyuk. I heard a little about you yesterday. You’re number one in theory, right? Did you study hard?”
Han Seo-woo nodded politely in response, but Jinhyuk knew she was not entirely pleased with the current situation.
Because she had formed the team by picking the best available heroes, and now an academy student had been added without warning.
A team organized for dungeon rescue and conquest shouldn’t be messing around with students.
In Han Seo-woo’s eyes it would be ridiculous, but she had reluctantly accepted due to Yu Seol-hyeon’s request, who was in charge of team operations and management.
“That person is Hero Park Sang-cheol, the vanguard… I mean, the tank of the team.”
“Hello, Jinhyuk. I’ve heard a lot about you. You received a certificate for your contributions to the monster extermination this time, right? I’ll look forward to working with you today.”
Park Sang-cheol, in his early thirties, approached Jinhyuk with a friendly smile and polite greetings.
His gentle and easygoing personality had made him well-liked among Gaonnuri Clan members.
“Yes, Hero Park Sang-cheol. I look forward to working with you too.”
“Aha, you don’t have to call me Hero. Just call me Uncle.”
Finally Yu Seol-hyeon introduced the remaining team members one by one.
Header, Oh Jeong-nam; Dealer, Baek San; Magic Support, Erina; and so on.
Jinhyuk had been introduced to all five team members.
In other words, a pretty solid squad.
Everyone was at least capable of carrying their own weight.
“Everyone, even though I explained everything yesterday, there may be some of you who still haven’t fully accepted why a student is participating in the rescue team.”
Some people looked unbothered, but Han Seo-woo had a slightly displeased expression.
“I’ll say it again. The dungeon-related materials I gave you yesterday are information on terrain, objects, environment, monsters, traps, scale, and videos that the previous team had gathered until now, all analyzed by Jinhyuk….”
Yu Seol-hyeon explained once more why Jinhyuk had been included and what role he would play.
Because the team members needed to be reminded before entering the dungeon.
After all, it was for securing at least some “plausibility” in what Jinhyuk would do next.
Of course, that wouldn’t prevent their doubts, but…
“……That’s why we accepted Jinhyuk as a team member.”
“Yeah, I get it. We can stop now.”
Han Seo-woo nodded casually.
To be honest, Han Seo-woo was a little annoyed.
Bringing in an amateur in a field full of variables was dangerous.
Moreover, a hero-in-training who had never properly experienced real combat would likely freeze stiff from the monsters’ killing intent.
It was a perfect setup for an accident.
“Oh, right. The kid said he had fought a monkey monster before?”
It was a hard-to-believe story, but…
The black-handed long-armed monkey was a rather powerful monster.
Even Han Seo-woo wouldn’t be confident against it one-on-one.
The students had defeated the monkey monster thanks to the help of high-rank Hero Hong Daye and a bunch of good luck.
The media said the students had combined their strength, but she couldn’t take that at face value.
Clearly, that Jinhyuk kid had gotten lucky with a bus ticket.
Still, surviving a fight with a long-armed monkey deserved respect.
“He’s probably experienced real combat with the monkey monster, so he won’t freeze from fear….”
Yeah, that was enough.
Honestly, Han Seo-woo hadn’t expected much from him.
She just hoped he would stay out of the way and cause no accidents.
“Great. Then let’s briefly explain the dungeon survey overview and finally check the equipment.”
“Okay.”
But less than two hours after entering the dungeon, Han Seo-woo had no choice but to change her mind.
Because…
“……Oh, wait? What is that kid doing?”
The scene the boy showed was beyond imagination.