Chapter 35
Chapter 35
Civil Servant Hunter’s S-class Resignation Log – Chapter 35
Eh? Why?
[The place where I live has no name, and I, its owner, also have no name.]
Pardon? No name?
[That's right. It might be because all of this is just your dream. Oh well. Without a name, we'll probably never meet again.]
Regret immediately surfaced on Se-ra's face. Never seeing this beauty again was such a shame, and even though she knew it was rude, she couldn't exactly press him when he said he had no name.
[That regretful? We only met once. It was nothing more than coincidence, so no need to feel so bad about it.]
Still, what can I do about wanting to see you again? Are we really never going to meet? There's truly no way?
As Se-ra pouted and grumbled, the man gazed at her intently with a peculiar smile, looking troubled, as if wondering what to do.
[I can't say for sure. Truthfully, I never imagined I'd get to see you like this.]
The man drew closer, slowly.
Up close, his height was far greater than she'd imagined. She had to crane her neck back quite a bit, yet she felt no intimidation.
His well-groomed fingers brushed lightly against her shoulder. In that instant, an inexplicable emotion bloomed in his deep green eyes.
[......But it might be better for both of us if we never meet again.]
Huh?
[So wake up from the dream now. Staying here too long isn't good.]
With those words, the man pushed Se-ra backward. Her eyes flew wide open as she reached out, but she couldn't touch the man, who wore that unknowable smile.
The carpet was right behind her, yet her falling body plunged into water with a splash.
[Farewell.]
Beyond her blurring vision, his full lips seemed to form those words.
Se-ra's consciousness sank swiftly beneath the surface.
* * *
Gasp!
Se-ra's eyes snapped open.
Even though she'd simply woken from sleep, she hacked and coughed for a good while, as if she'd been pulled from drowning.
Why? Why was breathing so hard? Had she dreamed or something?
......Ah.
That single worddreambrought it all rushing back.
The jeweled mansion. The dazzling beauty. The person who'd looked at her with that inscrutable expression.
Se-ra let out a gasp. It was a sight she'd never forget, even if it was just a dream.
Ah, what a shame. If only you'd let me see a little more. Do you shove people out of dreams just for sneaking in?
The mere thought filled her with regret; she tore at the blanket. Even if it was a dream, the uncertainty of ever seeing such a beauty again was too heartbreaking.
Ack, you scared me!
Lying on the bed, flailing her limbs about, Se-ra jolted upright at the sudden blare of her alarm.
Hold on. Why was the alarm going off now? The only morning alarm she had was...
No way, is this the wake-up call? D-Does that mean I woke up a whole minute early...?
She'd gotten off work late last night, and now she was up a minute early today?
The regret vanished, replaced by a wave of injustice; Se-ra flopped back down.
Nameless hottie, couldn't you have let me wake up just one minute later...
If only his face made up for it all.
Well, it pretty much did...
Se-ra shed a single tear of sorrow, letting it roll down her cheek.
* * *
Hard ore covered everything around her. Sparse plants grew here and there, but they couldn't hide the land's desolation.
The five unidentified planets hanging in the sky, and the colorful ores beneath them, had long lost their beauty.
Ja-rim had seen this landscape for far too long.
Truly, far too long.
I'm sick of it.
A flat, toneless voice leaked from her cracked lips.
Ja-rim burrowed deeper into the massive ore she'd been leaning against. A body once sunk into soft beds had grown accustomed to this hardness.
As her barren eyes, as if infected by the land's harshness, began to close
Ja-rim snapped upright at the system message floating before her.
Earth's system...?
More messages followed.
......Ah.
In that moment, Ja-rim definitely felt it. Somewhere in this vast expanse, a strange mana pulse emanating from beyond.
No illusion. It couldn't be. A gate linking to somewhere other than here had truly opened.
Finally.
Vitality slowly returned to her face, ancient as a great tree.
Ah, the moment she'd waited for, so very long, had finally arrived.
* * *
The strange call to the Association came just after lunchtime, right when drowsiness peaked.
Do Jun-young, maintaining his sharp mind even at this hellish hour, furrowed his brow at the call from the dispatched staffer.
The dungeon's rank can't be measured?
Yes! Even the mana detector's acting up. The gate looks like a normal blue one, though... This feels off. I think you need to come in person.
I'll head there right away.
Reporting the matter immediately to Association President Song Han-na, Do Jun-young decided to request aid from the guilds.
First priority: unmeasured rank meant high risk, so S-rank huntersideally those whose headquarters were nearby for immediate dispatch.
Thus, he called Cheongrang's Han Su-eon, deputy Jeong Ho-young, and crucially, the healer Yoo Su-eun.
Shouldn't the L-rank handle something like this?
Yoo Su-eun, arriving promptly under the agreement with the Association, grumbled the moment she arrived. Han Su-eon nodded in agreement, but Do Jun-young shook his head.
Hunter Kang Se-jun is currently handling a gate that appeared at Daegwallyeong.
Ugh, talk about bad luck.
The four S-rank hunters stood before the gate. Normally, they'd sense the dungeon's mana leaking through, but...
I don't feel a thing.
This is no ordinary situation. Measure it again.
At Jeong Ho-young's gesture, an Association official hurriedly pressed the mana detector against the gate. In that instant, an astonishing message appeared before their eyes.
Everyone's eyes widened at the garbled text.
This is seriously weird.
In the 12 years since the Cataclysm, countless dungeons had appeared and vanished, but none had ever shown strings like this. Even Do Jun-young, who read the World Dungeon Management Organization's weekly reports religiously, had never seen anything like it.
Which meant whatever was happening inside was far from ordinary.
The four checked their gear, ready for combat at any moment.
To reiterate: our goal is to scout the interior and reorganize a proper strike team later. Unless something exceptional happens, we avoid combat as much as possible.
Do Jun-young, clearly stating the objective was reconnaissance, not conquest, entered the dungeon with the other three. The dungeon's name floated before them.
* * *
And around that time.
Se-ra, blissfully dozing through a rare quiet afternoon, jolted in shock at the sudden message from the Administrator.
A consoling emoticon with tears? It sent chills down her spine the moment she saw itpure bad omen.
'What the...?'
Se-ra stared wide-eyed at the Administrator's message.
'When was the last time Elizabeth comforted me?'
Right, the day she'd one-shot an S-rank beast's head and earned the utterly cringe nickname Headbang...
The day she'd met that five-time regressor!
'Aaaah! Lizzy! W-What's going on this time?!'
'Not related to Lizzy?'
'That emoticon's fishy! Did you or didn't you? Say it plain!'
......
A chill ran through her. Dread stabbed her heart like a dagger.
What disaster now? Please, not another regressor-level crisis. She wanted to believe that. Even if the Administrator had only comforted her that one time, she clung to hope this was different.
But Elizabeth betrayed that hope. Se-ra's face drained of color.
'G-Good luck ritual! I need one!'
Good luck? She'd even ride a tightrope if it'd fix this misfortune. Please, let Jeong Ho-young bring a shaman quick.
* * *
The four entrants' faces hardened at the garbled system message.
No blind blades flying at us is a relief, but we still can't let our guard down.
Everyone nodded at Han Su-eon's whisper.
A tomb. Has any dungeon with that word ever been safe?
Nope. Not a one.
A dungeon's name reflects its nature. For instance, the 2-rank Serpent's Cradle of Slaughter got its name because it was where the boss beast spawned.
So what about a tomb? Especially one without even a visible rank.
We must ensure it doesn't become our tomb.
The dungeon was an ore field littered with rock fragments everywhere. But not a single one was intact.
Some had clean-cut edges, others bore signs of external force, and some showed impacts like something had smashed into them.
One thing's clear: this is a graveyard of ores.
Jeong Ho-young, skilled in scouting, traced the marks on the fragments. Her expression soured.
The cross-sections are too clean for a sword, but not blunt force either. Most ores share these unique traces.
Most? So high chance one person did all this.
One person smashed this many? Damn, bad luck followed us here.
Yoo Su-eun grumbled about coming for nothing. That's when Han Su-eon, who'd spread wide detection upon entry, pressed a finger to his lips and whispered softly.
Shh. I sense a presence.
The four dropped low, hands on weapons.
Unlike them, the enemy made no effort to hide, charging with terrifying momentumclose enough now to see with the naked eye.
Their eyes bulged.
Did someone sneak through the gate before us?
No. I ordered it fully sealed.
Then what's that charging at us?! A humanoid monster?!
Yoo Su-eun jabbed a finger at it like a spear.
It was a woman. Pale skin, tall stature, fluttering red hair, golden eyes fixed straight on them.
The approaching foe wasn't some grotesque lifeformit was unmistakably human in form.