A Living Sacrifice
A living sacrifice.
The ominous phrase sent a ripple of dread through the group. The faces of Lee Eunwoo, Park Dohyun, and the surrounding bodyguards twisted in sudden panic.
"W-What is this? What just happened? Should we pop an escape scroll?"
"Everyone, b-battle stations! Form up around the managing director!"
Should they flee immediately? Should they hold their ground and protect Eunwoo? And above all else, what on earth did it mean by a living sacrifice?
Fzzzt, fzzzzzt…!
A warm flare of orange light cut through the gloom, steadily cutting through the rising hysteria. Kim Musaeng, kneeling calmly by his oversized pack, had already assembled and struck a field torch.
"Keep your heads, everyone," the dungeon sherpa said, his voice even and measured. "It looks like a dungeon entanglement. It's rare, but it happens from time to time."
"A-An entanglement? Like, two dungeons colliding?"
In theory, it was when two separate zones merged into one—say, the 10th Dungeon folding into the 11th. In physical reality, it was an impossibility. Every dungeon was entirely quarantined behind its own dimensional gate, scattered across vast geographic distances in the outside world. Yet dungeons had never been bound by the laws of physics.
"Yes. Scientifically, it makes zero sense," Musaeng continued mildly, holding out the blazing brand. "Then again, nothing about dungeons ever does. Here, take the torch."
Even for someone like Musaeng, who had walked the razor's edge of dungeons since he was sixteen, an anomaly like this was exceptionally rare. But watching him scan their surroundings with casual professionalism had an immediate grounding effect on the party.
"Whew… Thank God we brought an ace sherpa along," Park Dohyun murmured, the tension in his shoulders easing a fraction as the other bodyguards visibly relaxed.
Musaeng offered no reaction, his expression carefully blank. In truth, he was hiding a deep spike of unease.
This isn't something to relax over. Entanglements usually only bleed between adjacent floors…
If this was the 15th Dungeon, any spatial overlap should have pulled from either the 14th or the 16th. Yet Musaeng knew both intimately. Nowhere across the lush woodland expanse of the 14th, nor within the sprawling ruined settlements of the 16th, did an ancient stone sanctum like this exist.
And 'The Lord of Serpents'? I swear I've heard that name somewhere before.
In the Awakened society, high-tier intelligence regarding the Tower and its corresponding dungeons was hoarded like state secrets. It was standard practice; nobody gave away proprietary raid data for free. Thus, Musaeng had to weigh the odds entirely in the dark. It was impossible to gauge the exact lethal threshold of this unknown space.
"Tearing an escape scroll and pulling out right now is an entirely valid option," Musaeng advised, testing the waters. "Or—"
"Wait, hold on! We're already in here!" Eunwoo blurted out, his eyes gleaming with sudden, manic excitement. "We need to at least record some footage, or drag something valuable back! Even if it isn't an artifact, this place is untouched! Right?"
To an ambitious heir, uncharted territory meant exclusive data—and exclusive data meant enormous wealth and prestige. Musaeng watched the raw greed flare behind the young director's gaze. After a quiet beat of calculation, Musaeng gave a slight nod.
"…Fair enough. It's a dungeon, after all," Musaeng conceded. "Though I must remind you: if this were the real Tower, stepping into an unknown anomaly like this would be absolute suicide."
Inside the Tower, you cleared the trial or you died. A dungeon, on the other hand, afforded the luxury of retreat scrolls. It was the only reason someone could even consider entertaining such reckless curiosity.
"I know, I know! Let's get moving already," Eunwoo barked, subtly drifting behind the front guard while trying to sound commanding. "Lead the way, porter!"
Without a word, Musaeng stepped forward. He raised the torch high, sweeping its glow across the wide stone corridor as he advanced one deliberate stride at a time. His eyes darted relentlessly across every detail—the mortar in the walls, the arches of the high ceiling, the ancient paving stones, the decaying crates and sealed urns tucked into wall niches.
"For now, this isn't a labyrinthine layout," Musaeng reported in a hushed cadence. "The floor patterns don't match standard pressure-plate mechanisms either, but keep it slow. Step only where I place my feet. Based on the architecture, the primary transit corridor should run along this axis."
"R-Right."
Before long, Eunwoo, Dohyun, and the rest of the security detail fell into lockstep behind the porter. Survival instinct overrode corporate hierarchy.
He's barely older than Eunwoo, yet he reads the terrain better than Section Chief Park…
We haven't been in this temple for thirty minutes, and he's already mapped the building's logic?
Just watch his boots. Step where he steps. Don't look away…
They followed him without question. The moniker of an 'ace sherpa' was not something handed out lightly, and Musaeng was proving why with every step. Of course, Musaeng couldn't have cared less about their sudden respect. He swallowed dryly, keeping his focus razor-sharp.
The narrow hallway abruptly gave way. As the torchlight spilled out into an expansive chamber, shadows danced across vast, imposing stone pillars.
"Brace yourselves," Musaeng warned, lowering his stance. "Judging by the layout…"
It was a grand crossroads, four broad hallways intersecting at right angles. Foes could descend from any flank. In both the Tower and its dungeon reflections, an architectural choke point like this meant only one thing.
"This is an encounter zone. Have your escape scrolls primed in your hands!"
A monster ambush was guaranteed.
Hssssssss…!
A sinister hiss echoed through the vaulted ceiling, rapidly swallowed by the violent, frantic fluttering of countless leathery wings. Musaeng's gaze whipped across all four cardinal directions in a split second.
"Incoming! Airborne bats from the ceiling! Spiders scaling the walls! Skeletal infantry dead ahead! Three species converging!"
A cacophony of shrieks and clicking mandibles shattered the silence as the horde surged toward them from the dark.
"Protect the director at all costs!"
Park Dohyun roared the order, planting his feet and immediately triggering his signature defensive skill, Grand Shield. A shimmering, translucent dome of force expanded outward, encasing their inner perimeter. With the combat tier of these monsters entirely unknown, sheltering the chaebol scion was his paramount duty. Eunwoo huddled deep inside the barrier, clutching his ornamental blade with wide, trembling eyes.
Musaeng stayed low inside the perimeter as well. In direct combat, a skill-less porter was useless, so he channeled his focus into tactical observation.
"Hrrraaaaagh!"
Krr-boooom!
A vanguard guard wielding a heavy sledgehammer brought it down with concussive force, shattering an advancing skeleton into flying bone splinters.
〈Crash〉, Musaeng noted silently. Blunt weapon enhancement. His innate trait must be a strike-type amplifier.
Because his own innate ability had remained the dormant, useless Transmit(X) for thirteen grueling years, Musaeng had been forced to study the Awakened around him just to stay alive. He knew every skill, its telltale magical signatures, and its precise applications.
And that over there is 〈Fire Wall〉.
To survive without power, one had to gauge the exact combat potential of both allies and enemies in seconds. In that specific regard, Musaeng's tactical analysis outstripped that of any high-ranking climber.
"Keep the armored spiders off our flanks!" another guard shouted, tossing a weak barrier of flame across the left corridor. Seeing how small the blaze was, Musaeng accurately pegged the man's trait at Pyromancy(E) or Spark(D) at best.
"I'll assist as soon as the airspace is clear!"
Thwip! Thwip-thwip!
A flurry of short arrows whistled toward the ceiling, striking true thanks to the archer's Hawk Eye. Yet the dark mass above hardly diminished. There were simply too many.
The archer's falling behind, Musaeng analyzed. If those swarms dive…
Before the thought could finish, dozens of monstrous bats slipped past the firing lines. Each beast was the size of a medium hunting dog, their fangs dripping with dark saliva as they slammed violently against Park Dohyun's barrier. The grotesque sight of snarling, winged horrors swarming inches from their faces was enough to make an ordinary person pass out from pure terror.
"Chief Park!" Eunwoo shrieked.
"I can engage them, sir, but dropping the barrier will leave you exposed to—"
Eunwoo blindly swung his rapier through the energy dome, but his timid, half-hearted thrusts couldn't reach them. All the young heir could do was vent his terror on his subordinates.
"Shoot them down, you idiots! What are you getting paid for?! They're right on top of—"
SKRRRRRRRRRRR—!
"Aaargh?! What is that?!"
"My ears! What's that screeching sound?!"
An agonizing, nails-on-a-chalkboard shriek sliced through the chamber like grinding iron plates. But before anyone could complain further, a bizarre spectacle unfolded before their eyes.
Skrrrrt! Skk-skk-screeeech!
The dense swarm of diving bats suddenly lost all sense of direction. They violently collided mid-air, crashed blindly into stone pillars, ricocheted off the magical barrier, and tumbled to the ground in tangled, thrashing heaps.
As the party stood dumbfounded, Musaeng's sharp voice cut through the ringing air.
"Strike now! Don't just stand there!"
"R-Right!"
Conditioned by reflex, Eunwoo and Dohyun lashed out, cutting down the dazed, writhing creatures on the floor. Yet even as they cleaved through the monsters, their eyes kept darting back to the sherpa in bewildered disbelief.
"H-How did you… What is that?"
"What kind of weapon are you holding?"
In Musaeng's hands were two thick steel spikes, which he was furiously dragging against each other to produce that ear-splitting racket. It was the sole source of the high-pitched friction driving the bats mad.
"Is that an artifact? What kind of artifact does that?" Eunwoo demanded.
Musaeng looked at him as if he had asked whether rocks were edible. "What? No. These are pitons for rock climbing."
He tossed off the explanation without missing a beat. "Deserts aren't just rolling sand dunes; rocky badlands are common. A sherpa always carries pitons. And bats are exceptionally vulnerable to localized high-frequency metal friction. Makes dealing with swarms much simpler."
He had neutralized an aerial crisis not with an expensive combat skill, but with common mountaineering gear and practical experience.
"You… use climbing tools for that?"
"If it keeps you alive, you use whatever's in your pack."
Musaeng's deadpan reply left both Eunwoo and Dohyun momentarily speechless. But the battle was far from over.
"Chief! These skeletons don't have mana cores!" the hammer-wielding vanguard yelled in frustration. "No matter how many times we smash them, they just pull their bones back together!"
Spiders were still scuttling along the walls, and the skeletal vanguard was already reforming from the dust. Musaeng didn't hesitate. He dashed toward the front line, snatching up a massive bundle of something sticky from the masonry with agile, practiced grace.
"Scatter them!" Musaeng shouted. "Separate the skull, the spine, and the pelvis!"
"I just told you, they reassemble instantly!"
"Just swing the damn hammer! Now!"
Though he didn't grasp the logic, the vanguard swung out of pure instinct.
KRAAAASH!
The skeleton exploded into fragments. In that exact fraction of a second, Musaeng flung his handful forward.
"See? It's just going to pull back toge—wait, what?"
The warrior trailed off, jaw slackening. The skull, knocked hard to the left, hit the wall and stuck firmly in place, wrapped in dense, grayish fibers. The pelvis, blasted to the right, remained pinned helplessly to the flagstones. The detached spine twitched feebly on the floor, unable to reconnect with its missing limbs.
"How did you…?"
"What do you mean, 'how'?" Musaeng grumbled. "There's spider silk all over the walls. Use it."
He had gathered the adhesive webbing from the armored spiders and used it to bind the severed bone joints before they could magnetically snap back together. In that moment, an undeniable realization struck every climber in the room.
To have this level of tactical improvisation… from a mere porter?
They don't call him the ace for nothing.
Kim Musaeng's survival expertise was beyond dispute. Keeping his senses locked on the shadows, Musaeng addressed the exhausted group with a dry grin.
"Dungeon monsters don't grant stat points anyway, so I doubt anyone here wants to hang around for extra hunting practice. Save the heroics for the Tower. Let's get out of here."
Even under pressure, he offered a light joke to ease his employer's nerves. Just as a relieved smirk broke across Lee Eunwoo's face—
The holographic script materialized again. It was a message they had already seen, so it shouldn't have been terrifying. It shouldn't have been.
"Ghk?!"
"H-Heugh!"
"Ugh!"
Choked gasps echoed through the chamber all at once. Without warning, an invisible weight crushed down upon them, as though local gravity had multiplied tenfold. Lungs seized, unable to pull in oxygen. Veins bulged violently along their necks and foreheads, threatening to rupture under the sudden spike in atmospheric density.
"Mana pressure surge…!" Musaeng roared through gritted teeth. "This isn't the 15th Dungeon! Pop the scrolls, now!"
This pressure was insane. It was at least the 50th Floor—possibly the 60th. It was an oppressive aura capable of dropping mid-tier climbers in their thirties straight to their knees.
Dammit, my arms feel like lead… But how is he—?
Park Dohyun, fighting with every ounce of willpower just to lift his leaden arms toward his dimensional pouch, glanced at Musaeng in shock. Though the sherpa was crouching low to brace himself, he was enduring the crushing pressure far better than seasoned climbers. It defied all common sense. But Dohyun had no time to ponder the anomaly.
"The sc-scroll! The scroll won't work!"
The scream came from Lee Eunwoo. His face had swollen an ugly, blotchy purple; had he not ingested high-grade mana resistance elixirs beforehand, his capillaries would have burst instantly under this sheer weight.
"What? Don't be ridiculous—"
Musaeng whipped out his own escape scroll and ripped it down the center. Nothing happened.
None may depart unless a living sacrifice is offered.
Upon selection of the living sacrifice, all remaining personnel shall be expelled.
Cold despair hung in the crimson letters hovering before them. Escape scrolls disabled? Inside a dungeon?
This makes no sense… Musaeng's thoughts raced. This isn't the Tower!
"A-A thacrifice?! How many?! How many doeth it need?!"
Eunwoo's eyes were squeezed into narrow slits by the swelling of his face, his tongue thick and clumsy as his words dissolved into terrified slurs. As if answering his desperate shriek, the system chimed once more.
One person. A single life was all it took.
Musaeng drew a ragged breath, forcing his eyes to sweep across the chamber despite the crushing gravity. The central altar. The bas-relief carvings along the walls. The sealed stone doors. An uncharted sanctum.
Every dungeon structure has a bypass mechanism. There has to be a switch…
"We're not sacrificing anyone," Musaeng urged, his voice strained under the pressure. "This mana spike might just be an environmental pulse. If we push further into the hall—"
We can find another way out.
That was what he meant to say.
"—Aaaaargh!"
A blinding flash of agony severed his words. Steel tore through flesh. Blood sprayed across the ancient tiles as deep, jagged gashes opened across his right thigh and forearm.
Lee Eunwoo—the very man who had trembled uselessly behind a barrier during the monster assault—stood before him, clutching a blood-dripping blade. His swollen, grotesque face was twisted into a manic grimace.
"The thacrifice! Thith one! Take thith one!"
"You crazy piece of shit—!"
Fury overwhelming the white-hot pain, Musaeng lunged forward to snap the brat's neck. But he couldn't reach him. Park Dohyun and the other three guards had already closed ranks, forming an impenetrable wall of steel between Musaeng and their young master.
"You haven't even… haah… climbed the lower floors," Dohyun panted, his blade raised, trembling under the mana pressure. "I don't know how you're… enduring this weight… but stay down."
"We're sorry," another guard gasped out, eyes averted. "Whew… whew… But the managing director's life comes first."
There was a fleeting trace of guilt on their faces, but it was drowned out by cold, pragmatic survival. And beneath that was an unspoken terror of Musaeng himself—a porter who, despite having no combat rank, was standing upright under a pressure that had brought veteran climbers to their knees.
"Are you out of your minds?! Agh… I told you there's another way! You don't have to—"
The moment the four bodyguards planted their feet firmly beside Lee Eunwoo, casting Musaeng out of their circle, the chamber trembled.
A blinding flash of white light engulfed the room.
When it cleared, the chamber was dead silent. Eunwoo, Dohyun, the guards—every last one of them had vanished, torn from the dungeon by the system's spatial expulsion.
Only Kim Musaeng remained, bleeding out on the cold stone floor.
Hsssssssss…
From the deepest reaches of the darkened hall, something colossal began to awaken.