Changes Stirring in the Break Zone
“Arin.”
The air rippled faintly, and Arin materialized. Her appearance, as if she had simply emerged from the forest itself, felt natural—like she had already scouted the area and returned.
“Can you check the situation inside? I want to see if there’s any unusual movement.”
Arin nodded immediately. “Got it. Just a moment.”
The moment she finished speaking, her presence scattered into the forest. As always during reconnaissance, she left almost no sound or trace behind.
Shortly after, the air split again and Arin returned. Her expression was noticeably more tense than before.
“Something’s definitely off. There are way too many A-rank monsters inside.”
“How many are we talking about?” I asked.
Arin spoke calmly, as if recalling the scene. “Ogres, minotaurs, stone giants. All different types, and each group has at least ten or more. They’re moving in packs and even dividing territories to keep watch.”
I naturally furrowed my brow at her words. “A-rank monsters are usually known to act alone. Gathering in one place like this isn’t exactly common.”
Arin nodded in agreement. “That’s why it’s even stranger. There’s a gate right in the middle of their territories. The monsters are gathered around it, but they’re not encroaching on each other’s areas.”
“Like they’re guarding it?”
“Yeah. That’s how it looked.”
A brief silence passed.
“Let’s head back for now. What we’ve confirmed today is enough.”
The moment I turned around, I heard something rapidly piercing through the air behind me. I could feel a rough breath drawing closer without even needing to think.
I reflexively twisted my body. A dull explosion erupted from behind, and the spot where I had just been standing was now deeply gouged. If I had been even a beat slower, I wouldn’t have dodged it.
When I looked up, a massive figure revealed itself between the broken trees. An ogre. Its body was far larger than a troll’s, and the muscles running from its shoulders down to its arms swayed heavily with every movement. Despite its size, it moved much faster than expected.
“Jihoon, behind you!”
At Arin’s shout, the ogre kicked off the ground and charged again. Every time its feet struck the earth, the surroundings trembled. I rolled to the side to avoid the attack. Another impact immediately followed from behind. The ogre didn’t stop. It turned its body, adjusted its direction, and began blocking off any possible escape routes.
I widened the distance and fired a series of mana bullets. The compressed mana struck its chest and shoulders, but the creature only staggered briefly. Its speed barely decreased. Its skin was incredibly tough. While the mana did penetrate, it dispersed most of the impact.
“Its skin is too hard. I’ll need a moment to focus if I want to finish it properly.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll draw its attention.”
Flames gathered in Arin’s hand before shooting straight toward the ogre’s face. The fire exploded right in front of its eyes, blinding it. The ogre roared and swung its arms wildly. I didn’t miss that opening. Using telekinesis as a foothold, I launched myself upward. In midair, I twisted my body and coated my sword with a thin layer of mana. The mana sword took clear shape.
My landing point was just behind the ogre’s shoulder. The moment I drove the sword down, I felt a scraping sensation against its hard shell. It didn’t penetrate deeply, but the feeling of flesh being cut was unmistakable.
The ogre thrashed in pain, slamming into nearby trees and causing the entire area to shake. I used telekinesis to disperse the impact and barely managed to create distance.
“Now!” Arin shouted.
Flames spread across the ground and wrapped around the ogre’s ankles. Taking advantage of its momentary stiffness, I gathered mana into a single point. This time, I didn’t detonate it. Instead, I sharpened the mana, added rotation, and fixed it at the tip of my sword. Aiming for the right shoulder where I had wounded it earlier, I drove the blade in.
The sword tip pierced straight into the shoulder. The next moment, the mana exploded from within. With a dull bursting sound, the ogre’s right arm was torn off at the shoulder. Blood and bone fragments scattered everywhere.
The armless ogre howled in agony and began thrashing wildly, grabbing nearby rocks and hurling them in every direction.
“Arin!” I shouted while widening the distance. “Can you see the shoulder wound?”
“Yeah, I see it!”
“Then hit it hard right there. I’ll finish it from behind.”
That brief exchange was enough. We already knew what each of us had to do.
I stepped back into the ogre’s attack range, moving around to draw its attention. Rocks grazed past me, and its swinging arm cut through empty air. Meanwhile, Arin gathered her spirit power. The flames compressed and solidified into a massive flame spear.
“Ready, Jihoon!”
I charged straight at the ogre, accelerating. Just as it raised its remaining arm to crush me, its opposite shoulder was completely exposed.
That was when the flame spear tore through the air and struck the wounded shoulder dead-on. With the explosion, the ogre’s body was flung sideways. I didn’t miss the opening. I compressed even more mana into my sword, increasing its density. The outline of the mana sword grew even sharper. Then, I slashed deeply across its neck.
The ogre’s cries cut off, and its massive body collapsed powerlessly.
I lowered my sword, catching my breath a beat late.
“It’s over, Arin.”
Arin caught her breath and smiled. “Wow… Jihoon, we did it.”
“Yeah. The two of us took down an A-rank monster—an ogre. I heard it usually takes two A-rank hunters to handle one.”
“Our coordination was pretty good too.”
“Heh.” Arin chuckled softly. “See? I told you I’m essential to you, Jihoon.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Thanks to you.”
I continued right away. “Alright, let’s save the sentiment for later and deal with the corpse first. With this much commotion, we should get out before other monsters show up.”
Arin nodded. We spoke less and moved our hands more. Even as we stored the corpse in the subspace, the forest hadn’t completely settled. Distant presences seemed to have noticed the recent disturbance, twisting subtly.
“Jihoon. If monsters like that start moving in groups…”
“The inside will become truly dangerous. And if it doesn’t stay contained there, they’ll spill out to the outskirts. It’ll be a nightmare scenario.”
We didn’t say anything more. We had already confirmed everything we needed. Today was enough. We had verified what we came to check, and there was no reason to fight further.
As we left the forest, I glanced back at the interior once more. The forest had grown quiet again, but the silence wasn’t the same as before.
We exited the Break Zone just like that.
That evening, I met Yoo Mira. After briefly explaining the state of the Break Zone—excluding the fight with the ogre—she thought for a moment before nodding.
“I’ve heard about it too. The upper ranks at the Investigation Bureau have been pretty noisy because of this issue lately.”
“What about the guilds?”
“They probably know. At first, they deliberately managed the gates like B-rank ones to just harvest resources, but now it seems they’ve given up because they can’t handle it anymore. There’s even talk that they only cleaned it up on paper.”
“What about the Investigation Bureau?”
“They know too.” Yoo Mira gave a bitter smile. “That’s what makes it more of a headache. There are rumors that the guilds are bribing people to keep things quiet.”
After saying that much, Yoo Mira didn’t add anything further. It meant it was a topic that couldn’t be easily brought up even within the Investigation Bureau. I didn’t press her either. Right now, gathering more puzzle pieces was more important than jumping to conclusions.
We parted ways like that.
That night, after returning home and organizing my equipment and records, the air rippled gently and Elly appeared. The unique presence she carried after visiting the city still lingered faintly.
“Jihoon.”
I stopped my hands and looked up. Just from her tone, I could tell this wasn’t going to be a simple report.
“It looks like the side you were suspicious of was correct.”
After taking a short breath, Elly continued. “Tonight, there was some strange movement.”
“Strange?” I naturally straightened my posture. That single word alone made it clear this wasn’t something to brush off lightly.
“Where?”
“The outskirts of the city. Further out from the Cheongpyeong Break Zone—there’s an area with abandoned factories that people deliberately avoid.”
“If it’s there…” I briefly recalled the map. “It’s a spot that’s inconvenient for supplies and poorly monitored.”
Elly nodded. “That’s why it stood out even more. Trucks went in. Not just one—two of them, spaced apart.”
“Two?” I asked without thinking. “At night?”
“Yeah. They deliberately avoided overlapping. The license plates were all covered with cloth, and the driver’s seats were hidden so they couldn’t be seen from outside. It was too clean to be a coincidence.”
I took a moment to catch my breath and assess the situation. There was definitely something suspicious about it.
“What was the cargo?”
Elly paused for a moment. Rather than organizing it like a report, she seemed to be recalling the scene as it was.
“There were mana stones, mixed with items and equipment. I also saw several corpses. There were more than just one or two types.”
After a brief pause, Elly added, “Maybe because of that, I heard the word ‘auction’ in their conversation. They mentioned starting an auction in three days, and I also heard something about a dungeon core detector.”
“Where’s the auction location?”
“I couldn’t hear that. I was thinking of going back again, but…”
“No, it’s fine. Elly, let’s rest for today. You worked hard.”
“Yeah. You too, Jihoon.”
The next morning, after a simple meal, I returned to the area near where I had encountered the ogre the day before. The mana density was still high. Perhaps because of that, B-rank monsters didn’t approach this area easily.
After briefly surveying the surroundings, I turned to head toward the entrance. That was when both Arin and Elly tensed at the same time.
“Jihoon.” Arin’s voice lowered. “Something… is coming.”
Elly’s mana flared instantly. “Space is being torn open.”
The wind stopped. Even the sound of leaves that had filled the forest just moments ago suddenly vanished, as if cut off.
The empty space ahead warped slightly, rippling like waves before splitting open thinly. A naturally occurring gate. While not uncommon in the Break Zone, this type was always an exception.
Beyond the rift, a cold and heavy mana presence flowed out. I stood before it for a moment. Before my eyes could confirm it, my senses reacted first.
“It’s B-rank.”
As I spoke quietly, Arin swallowed beside me. “It’s opening right now? At this timing?”
Elly stared silently at the gate. After a moment, she stepped closer and spoke quietly. “The inside won’t be stable. Both its form and mana flow look rough.”
I nodded. It wasn’t different from what I had already sensed.
Four months wasn’t time spent without seeing gates—it was time spent no longer waiting for them. The rapidly rising flow had stopped, leaving only unorganized sensations within my body. And now, those sensations were reacting clearly.
“If it were a stable dungeon,” I said with a small smile, “there wouldn’t be any reason for it to be in the Break Zone in the first place.”
When I gripped the sword hilt, mana naturally followed. This time, I didn’t rush. There was no reason to run or be chased.
“Going in?” Arin asked. Her voice wasn’t light this time.
I looked at the gate once more before nodding. “Yeah. Now’s good.”
Elly didn’t try to stop me and stood by my side. The moment I took a step forward, cold air brushed against my ankles.
Crossing the gate, my stomach flipped once. It was different from the usual dizziness—the sensation followed a beat late after the passage ended.
The dungeon was larger than expected. Beyond the gate stretched a forest. It resembled the Break Zone, but traces of long neglect remained everywhere. The deeper we went, the more collapsed stone structures and deliberately placed formations became visible between the trees. I couldn’t be sure whether this place had originally been a forest or if ruins had been overtaken by one.
Monsters appeared as well. Orcs, trolls, and harpies moved while dividing territories. We didn’t stop. However, we avoided unnecessary fights. We detoured around large groups and quickly dealt with isolated individuals. Combat was brief, and we left no traces.
Arin cleared the path ahead while Elly handled the rear. I slipped between them and advanced toward the center.
The forest grew increasingly quiet, replaced by more artificial structures. We were getting closer to the center—that much was clear without needing confirmation.
We only recovered corpses and mana stones. Most items were left behind. Arin examined them briefly before shaking her head.
“They’re in bad condition. No signs of maintenance, and the mana flow is mostly dead. Not worth taking. Leave them!”
I nodded and passed by. Going a little further, a collapsed fortress wall came into view.