Playing Dead

Thud! A loud noise echoed as the cover slammed shut. That part was fine. But then the cover started shaking violently. It was the sound of those damn ants trying to smash through it with their mandibles!

"Shit! Goddamn it!"

How many ants were swarming down there? I couldn't even begin to guess. In that brief moment, I'd seen it clearly—countless starving ants clinging to the walls of the secret passage.

"It's dangerous!"

The moment Roa shouted, a black ant mandible burst through the cover. The worker ants had shredded the thick wooden lid in seconds.

Shit! These bastards were way too competent!

I barely avoided getting injured, but this was far too risky. I had to do something.

"Help me with this!"

The first thing that caught my eye was the bed. With Roa's help, I dragged it over the cover and hacked off all four legs with my saw blade.

Thud! The bed would hold longer than the cover.

"To the door! Run!"

Hissss... hissss...!

From every direction came the ants' threatening chirps. They'd heard the commotion and were converging on us. We had to move fast. First, back to the royal treasury to regroup...

"Oppa!"

Roa, who had dashed into the hallway first, screamed.

"Ants! There's a swarm outside!"

She was right. A patrol must have been nearby—they'd heard our noise and were rushing toward us.

What now? Just moments ago, clearing the dungeon had seemed within reach. Ants pouring toward the entrance. Ants pouring toward the exit. We were trapped.

"Oppa! Help me move this!"

Roa slammed the door shut and shoved a bookshelf against it. I threw my weight against it too. Once the door was blocked, the ants reacted just like the ones in the passage—frantically trying to chew through it with their mandibles.

Thud! Thud!

"Oppa..."

Roa whispered with a sigh. Her eyebrows trembled. She didn't finish the thought. She didn't have to.

How do we get out of this?

Can we even survive?

Alright. Stay calm. Think. There had to be a better option than becoming ant food. I couldn't tell Roa—my party member—to prepare for death.

Countless possibilities flashed through my mind. Ways to overcome this. Ways for just two people to survive against an endless swarm of ants.

Then, like lightning, one spell lit up in my head.

Right. A spell!

In a roguelike, the most important thing is situational judgment. Character stats, gear, luck—none of it matters if the player makes the wrong call. Even a max-level character can end up in a grave with one careless move. That's the genre.

An inexperienced player would be preparing to die right now.

But I had a way out.

"Roa!"

"Yes, Oppa!"

"Open the door!"

"Huh?"

"I need corpses! I'm going to kill the ones coming this way!"

Roa hesitated for a split second, but she didn't doubt me. She trusted me. If someone puts their faith in you, you repay it.

"Be careful!"

She immediately pushed the bookshelf aside. It crashed down, and ants began forcing their heads through the broken door. A black tide of them filled the hallway. Just looking at them made me dizzy.

"Hah!"

Roa drove her dagger between two protruding ant heads. One mandible twitched, then she twisted and the head came clean off.

I swung my saw blade too. The doorway was narrow, so only a few ants could attack at once. That was our only advantage.

Thud! Thud!

Behind us, the unmistakable sound of the bed splintering rang out. Time was running out.

Three corpses on the floor. Was that enough?

It was a gamble.

"Oppa! More ants are coming!"

Ants poured through the ruined bed like groundwater bursting from the ground. Others clawed at the door. Three dead ants lay at our feet.

"Roa."

I grabbed her as she finished cutting off another mandible and pulled her close.

"Do you trust me?"

It wasn't the kind of thing you say in a situation like this. But it was all I could manage.

Thankfully, Roa nodded.

I held her tight and cast the spell.

"Corpse Rot!"

Corpse Rot. Or Corpse ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Rot (corpse rot). A low-tier necromancy spell with limited practical use—mainly because of the penalty. I'm a Necromancer, but I rarely use necromancy in dungeons. The penalties for low-tier necromancy are too severe compared to its effects.

Necromancy draws monster attention. The disgusting stench of rotting corpses attracts them... that was the setting. But right now, I had to use it even if it meant drawing aggro. We'd already pulled every bit of attention we could anyway!

As I cast the spell, the corpses on the floor began decaying at an alarming rate.

"Ugh..."

Roa gagged at the horrific smell. I held her tighter. I was fine—Necromancers are immune to corpse-related mood penalties.

Hissss...

The ants recoiled in disgust from the rotting stench as well. Even the ones climbing up from below stopped advancing and backed away.

Good. I knew it would work up to this point. But the real problem started now.

I quickly grabbed chunks of the decaying ant corpses and stuffed them inside my clothes. I did the same for Roa, slipping a large piece into hers.

From here on, nothing was certain. This was pure improvisation.

"Oppa..."

Roa looked at me like she was about to throw up, but there was no choice. While the ants were still hesitating, this was our chance.

"Roa."

"Yes."

"Lie down on the floor."

While the ants retreated from the toxic rot filling the room, Roa and I quickly lay down, clutching the corpse pieces to our chests. She seemed to understand what I was doing—playing dead.

Ants had a habit of reacting sensitively to their dead comrades. Rotten corpses in the Ant Cave were bad for hygiene, so they disposed of dead ants without hesitation by throwing them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into the garbage dump.

We were using the unique stench that dead ants gave off.

Hissss... The corpse gas slowly seeped out.

The ants waved their antennae and circled us. They didn't approach, but they seemed to be discussing something among themselves.

I prayed silently.

Please. I smell like your friend. I'm a corpse. Can't you tell just by looking?

The ants lingered around their mostly rotted comrade for a long time before finally finishing their exchange. One worker ant calmly approached me and lifted my body with its mandibles.

I clamped my mouth shut to keep from making a sound. As my legs dragged across the floor, two more ants came to help carry me. The lead ant holding the "corpse" walked ahead, and I followed behind.

Roa was being carried the same way, following after me.

Shit. It worked. The ants had completely mistaken us for dead members of their colony.

Now then—where were they taking us?

Naturally, to the ants' garbage dump. The Ant Cave's storage room.

We were carried all the way down to the dungeon's lowest floor.

#

How much time had passed?

A vast chamber filled with insect and beast carcasses, rotten wood, cracked stone fragments, unidentifiable pupae, and slime. We'd arrived at the ants' garbage dump—the Ant Cave's storage room.

The ants tossed us aside like trash and casually left the room.

We lay still for several minutes.

"...Oppa?"

Roa spoke in a barely audible whisper. There didn't seem to be any ants nearby.

I brushed off the dust and stood up.

"You okay?"

Roa got up unsteadily. Being carried by ants for nearly six hours must have left her stiff. The ants weren't directionally challenged, but they hadn't gone straight to the dump—they'd wandered in circles first. I couldn't understand why, but I couldn't exactly read their minds either.

"Yes. I'm fine."

Aside from the foul smell clinging to our clothes, we were unharmed. We'd almost ended up buried in the Ant Cave. The method was disgusting, but so what? We were alive.

I looked around the ant garbage dump and fell into thought. This place seemed to be part of some facility built by the underground dwellers. Given the massive open space without walls, it might have once been an underground reservoir or wine cellar.

"Still... we made it this far."

Roa spoke with genuine emotion. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠We'd thought it was impossible for just the two of us to reach this deep, yet here we were.

"Let's find the elevator parts first."

The most urgent matter was reuniting with Jangcheok's group.

"And the carriage or the jewels... Ah, when are we supposed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠find those?"

We'd probably stumble across the requested items while searching for the parts, but finding anything in this enormous dump felt impossible.

We decided to split up and search.

"Call me if you find something."

"Understood!"

Roa answered energetically, clearly in better spirits after surviving death.

About ten minutes into searching our respective areas, Roa's voice suddenly rang out.

"Oppa!"

I'd told her to call if she found anything, but what she'd found was...

"What is it?"

"There's a person here!"

I hadn't expected a person. I hurried over to her.

"Whoa."

Roa had found a woman sleeping soundly among the piles of trash. She'd dug out a decent burrow in the garbage and was taking a nap inside it.

I finally recalled the quest information.

Colodo Jewelry Guild caravan. Raw gemstones. Two explorers dead, two missing.

If that was the case, the identity of the woman sleeping in this garbage dump was almost certainly one of the missing explorers.