Chapter 176
Chapter 176
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 176
Chapter Title: Russian Expedition (2)
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“Kyaaah! Help, please spare me!”
A desperate voice echoed from somewhere.
“Please! Spare me! Euheuhheuk!”
The woman’s cries were laced with unmistakable terror, conveying the dire nature of her situation.
“Run first!”
Bong Jae-young shouted as he broke into a sprint.
“What are you doing? Everyone, follow me!”
Usususu….
The dark forest remained chilling and eerie.
“Yes.”
“Yep!”
Kwon So-ye and Im Soo-jin followed right behind him.
Sssit! Sussisit!
Gi So-yul and I stepped into the darkness as well.
Finding her wasn’t difficult.
She kept calling out, revealing her position.
“Sniff, heukheuk! You came after hearing my voice! Th-thank you!”
In the corner of a large boulder.
A woman who appeared to be a Russian adult was shedding tears.
Her wrists, as she wiped her tears, were incredibly delicate.
Scattered minor scars and wounds marred her body here and there, making any onlooker frown involuntarily.
“What exactly happened?”
Bong Jae-young asked with a pained expression.
“I had… companions. While we were wandering through this strange fog that scattered everywhere… one by one, my comrades started disappearing…. Heukheuk.”
“What are all those wounds? Did someone attack you?”
“…Yes. It was some strange monster. It kept attacking until it heard you all coming and fled, I suppose…. Thank you again. Heuk.”
“I see.”
Bong Jae-young nodded solemnly, then flashed a slight smile.
“First off, I’m Hunter Bong Jae-young, world ranking 101. From South Korea.”
He extended his hand toward her gentlemanly.
“This dungeon is one I plan to clear, so you can rest easy now.”
She paused at his words, then her eyes widened.
“R-Ranking 101?”
“Hahaha, that’s right. Hey, Kwon So-ye!”
“Yes?”
“There’s a survivor here. What are you doing? Hurry and bring some emergency rations or a blanket or something. It’s cold out!”
“…….”
The druid Kwon So-ye pouted and raised her hand.
Thud thud thud!
A peculiar plant sprouted from the ground.
Its leaves gently enveloped her.
‘Acting like the hero all by himself.’
I mouthed the words, then tossed her a hardtack biscuit and jerky from my backpack. Tuk!
“Th-thank you.”
The Russian woman bowed her head and took them.
Zzirit!
Bong Jae-young shot a glance at Kwon So-ye’s suspicious attitude.
Then he stuck close to the Russian woman and began asking questions one by one.
How she ended up in here.
What kind of people her companions were.
What she’d seen in this dungeon.
“When I heard it was a dungeon no one had ever returned from alive, honestly, I got a bit greedy….”
“I see, I see.”
“Even pushing through that strange fog was for that reason. You never know. Maybe I’d get some fateful encounter with lightning-strike luck….”
“Hmm, I get it. That’s a moment a lot of hunters crave. Oh, where did that attacker go earlier?”
“That way. It disappeared down that path over there. As a ranker… you’ll avenge my comrades’ unjust deaths, right?”
“Hahaha, that’s nothing difficult. No need to worry anymore.”
While Bong Jae-young and the woman chattered away.
“Dong-hoon.”
Gi So-yul sidled up to me and whispered.
“Yes.”
“Is it okay to just accept a survivor like that inside a dungeon?”
“…Hmm, good question.”
Even if his rank was below mine, he was world 101.
I figured he had his own unique know-how and was watching.
‘But he’s more underwhelming than expected?’
Some might call it justice.
But I’ve never been one to trust people easily inside a dungeon.
Especially after learning there were intelligent monsters within.
“There are some suspicious parts, right? A woman surviving alone in a dungeon this brutal?”
“Her energy feels off too.”
“Right?”
I nodded.
“She seems to have only faint energy, but there’s this sense of dissonance from it?”
A scan with the Azure Purity Heart Method.
Virtually no energy could be felt in her body.
That struck me as even stranger.
How a woman with no power at all was still alive after an attack.
Plus, her voice was full of moisture.
But stripping away the content, there was no real fear or despair.
In short, acting-school level tone?
Yeah.
In moments like this, ambiguous as they are.
Tuk!
I lightly tapped my staff on the ground.
“You’re… calling that person, aren’t you?”
Gi So-yul played along knowingly.
“Yeah, whatever. Better to be sure.”
[Skill, ‘Teaching of the Ten Thousand Arts’ (SS Grade) is activated.]
[20 Qi is consumed.]
[‘Master of the Ten Thousand Arts’ appears.]
“Huh.”
The old man, looking around, let out a light breath.
“What is this place?”
“What’s wrong, Elder?”
“Just… it smells awfully familiar to me.”
Familiar smell?
Sssit!
The old man floated into the air and slowly rotated 360 degrees, surveying the terrain.
“As I thought, it’s that fog. Heh, how the hell does something like that exist in this world too?”
“What is it?”
I looked at him curiously.
“There was this guy. Back in the world I lived in, a bastard named Dang Hwi-pyeong. He handled Gu poison masterfully.”
“Gu poison….”
“Yeah, venomous bugs and such. Didn’t a few lurk in your Poison Fog?”
“Right.”
“It’s similar to what that guy made. That fog.”
“…….”
“The farts from the Gu poison he created took that form.”
“Farts?”
That stuff.
Wasn’t fog.
It was bug gas?
Anyway, one thing was clear.
Summoning the old man.
Was a good choice.
“Hmm.”
As I furrowed my brow, the old man clicked his tongue.
“That vicious stuff. It manipulates people’s minds. I eradicated it completely in our world… Seeing it again doesn’t sit well.”
“What about that woman?”
“That seductive wench?”
The old man glanced at the Russian woman.
“What’s there to say? You can tell at a glance she’s hiding nefarious intentions.”
As expected.
My instincts weren’t wrong.
“Why, why?”
Gi So-yul looked at me with curious eyes.
I nodded slightly.
“Ah.”
She nodded back in silence, thinking ‘as expected’ too.
Yeah.
That woman.
“Your name was Bong Jae-young, right? Such a cool name. But… when do we leave? I want to get out of here fast.”
Before long.
Her tears gone, speaking as if it were natural.
“…….”
Swik!
Gi So-yul gripped the dagger I’d gifted her.
“Wait a sec.”
I whispered.
“Just leave it be.”
“Huh?”
Gi So-yul tilted her head.
The dagger tilted slightly with it.
“We don’t even know which way to go, so striking now would be pointless.”
“Ah.”
She nodded.
“You mean let her lead us and see where she takes us?”
“Yeah. No need to move rashly and risk getting our tails cut.”
This place is vast.
Plus, it’s suspicious that someone like her is even here in a dungeon.
If she’s a trap.
I’d rather fall into it and head deeper into this dungeon.
“I can really feel how much you’ve grown.”
Gi So-yul released her grip on the dagger.
“This is a method only hunters truly confident in their skills use.”
“Confidence? I’ve always had plenty.”
My gaze, which had been on Gi So-yul, shifted back to Bong Jae-young.
He was standing, looking my way just then.
“Hey, Joo Dong-hoon.”
“Yes.”
“That path looks suspicious. Better to move now than rest here. Get ready.”
“Hmm… sure, whatever.”
I responded coolly.
I’m not keen on sharing a bed with the enemy either.
* * *
Someone once said.
More frightening than dungeons.
Than monsters.
Might be people.
Even fellow hunters.
‘Villains.’
The world is vast, people countless.
Villains are inevitable.
Hoping everyone in this world is kind and moral.
Statistically, that’s even less likely, isn’t it?
“…….”
We—more precisely, the Russian woman and Bong Jae-young’s party, plus Gi So-yul and me—halted at a certain spot.
We had no choice but to stop.
“What the hell….”
Bong Jae-young muttered gravely.
“Ugh.”
Kwon So-ye clutched her mouth in disgust.
Im Soo-jin and Gi So-yul turned their heads away slightly.
- Krurrruk!
- Gruk, grurruk!
Following the path led to a large clearing.
In that clearing, countless iron cages were piled up, and trapped inside were….
“H-How?”
Kwon So-ye muttered.
“How can anyone cage people like this?”
Indeed.
As if they’d experimented on humans?
The beings drooling in the numerous iron cages were none other than people.
“Damn it.”
The old man spat a curse.
“It’s exactly the effect of that Gu poison I saw before. Instead of stripping reason with poison, it amplifies and exhausts a human’s innate power. One dose of that Gu turns a third-rate warrior into first-rate instantly. Tsk tsk, what a nasty art.”
“…….”
The sight was horrific.
People with bloodshot eyes gnawed at the bars, adduk, adduk!
Their nails and toenails were already mangled, blood flowing.
Even amid it, their pain was so intense that tears never stopped flowing.
“…….”
Why.
In that moment.
I looked into the Russian woman’s eyes.
As expected, not a flicker of disturbance.
Thump thump!
My heart pounded.
My blood boiled.
“Excuse me.”
So I approached and asked.
“Yes?”
She looked at me with an innocent expression.
Sure enough.
Mysterious enough to tempt Bong Jae-young.
But to me, she wasn’t beautiful at all.
Why.
Because from her faint energy.
No matter how she hid it, the unmistakable killing intent seeped through.
Yeah.
She saw this moment as her opportunity.
Waiting for us to be mentally shaken by this gruesome scene.
But that’s only if I didn’t know.
I’m not just going to take it lying down.
“You said you entered this dungeon with comrades, right?”
“Ah, yes… that’s right. Heuk. Could my comrades have ended up like those people over there…?”
Her voice trembled disgustingly.
I grinned.
“By chance, what were your comrades’ names?”
“My comrades’ names…? Why….”
“Why. You’re struggling to make something up on the spot, so it’s hard to think of any?”
“Yes…?”
Her eyebrows twitched slightly.
At my question, Bong Jae-young stepped forward.
“Hey, Joo Dong-hoon. Interrogating a fragile survivor like that….”
“You’re calling her a fragile survivor?”
“Huh?”
“I thought as a ranker you’d have some judgment, but you need to sharpen your eye.”
I made my call.
There’s nothing left to learn from Iron Fist Bong Jae-young.
No respect left either.
No need to humor such a person.
Rice bends as it ripens, but bowing to anyone cheapens my value.
“What did you just say….”
Bong Jae-young gaped stupidly, but I ignored him lightly and turned back to the Russian woman.
“Amazing. Not answering a simple question like your comrades’ names is one thing. But why pretend to be frail when you have formidable skills?”
“…….”
At my blunt question, the Russian woman clamped her mouth shut and clenched her fists.
Panic was evident on her face.
As Kwon So-ye and Im Soo-jin looked back and forth between us in disbelief.
I grinned.
“Hmm, do you prefer conversations with the body over words?”
Hwaruruk!
In an instant, I raised my arm, gripped the God-Slaying Spear, and thrust at the woman without hesitation.
Fwoooong!
“Wh-what! What are you doing!”
Bong Jae-young shouted in surprise, trying to intervene.
But by then, the Russian woman had already revealed her true form.
Dodging my spear lightly, she twisted her lips oddly.
“Kekekekeke, how did you know?”
Wow.
What’s with that laugh?
I suddenly felt goosebumps all over.
Even knowing, that bizarre sound was chilling.
“I knew you were exceptional cutting through the fog… but impressive indeed?”
As she revealed her true self.
Sssit! Sussisik! Swik!
Numerous figures began appearing around the clearing.
Each one.
Exuding considerable presence.
“Fuu.”
I exhaled shortly too.
Finally.
The key to this dungeon was coming into view?