The Bloodgein's Wrath
The dull, rhythmic thuds echoed through the underground. Thump. Thump.
“Doesn’t sound like construction work,” I muttered.
The regular vibrations made my hairs stand on end and my heart pound. Just what the hell was happening down here?
The Dungeon Seekers took the lead and sprinted ahead. Even though we’d driven off the giant bats, the light from the Seeker Lanterns refused to dim.
“Aah...” One of the Dungeon Seekers let out a long, weary sigh.
Our party, arriving a little late, was left speechless by the sight before us.
“The base camp...”
The base camp that the dwarf Dungeon Seekers had supposedly set up. It was nothing more than a few tents, some food supplies, and a handful of tools—like a corner store carved into a hole in the wall. But to the Dungeon Seekers, it was an incredibly precious place.
And now that place lay in utter ruins, reduced to a pathetic wreck.
“Just what... happened here...” One of the Dungeon Seekers collapsed to his knees, strength leaving his legs.
Another one stared with wide eyes and growled, “It has to be the cave-dwellers! Those primitive savages from the caves!”
I slowly nodded. Looking at the wrecked base camp and the way the supplies had been looted, the culprit clearly wasn’t a monster. It was something humanoid. And something with intelligence.
I stopped the Dungeon Seekers who were about to charge straight down into the lower levels.
“You won’t accomplish anything by going down there alone.”
“B-but… our fellow Dungeon Seekers have disappeared! They might have been dragged off by those things!”
“Let’s try to think positively. Maybe they saw the cave-dwellers and ran away?”
Staring at the completely demolished base camp left a bitter taste in my mouth. I’d thought this job might go smoothly for once. But nothing in life ever comes easy.
“Explorer-nim. Please, I beg you. Help us find our comrades.”
“That’s right. We can’t just run away by ourselves. If they’re hiding somewhere, they must be waiting for help.”
At the Dungeon Seekers’ desperate plea, I took a moment to organize my thoughts. This wasn’t a place we could retreat from on our own. We needed their help too.
“Everyone, gather around for a second.”
I called the party members over and spoke.
“You all know the situation is bad. From now on, I plan to help the Dungeon Seekers search for survivors. Anyone object?”
The party members glanced at each other. But the conclusion was obvious. There was no way Roa or Maya would abandon people in trouble. Arin and Haneul barely had any say in the matter anyway.
“I think we should help.”
“...I agree. We can look for alchemy ingredients later. Helping the Dungeon Seekers comes first.”
Just as I expected. I informed the dwarves of our decision to cooperate. The Dungeon Seekers were overjoyed by the news.
“We will definitely repay this kindness!”
“How many people are missing?”
“The expedition leader, the workers, and the three explorers we hired as mercenaries.”
There were quite a few people we had to find. I warned the Dungeon Seekers in advance.
“Staying here too long is dangerous. We search for a reasonable amount of time, then we head back up.”
“But...”
“If the cave-dwellers really attacked the base camp, they won’t just leave us alone either. The underground is their territory, so we should avoid combat as much as possible.”
“...Understood.”
I signaled the party that we were moving out. We descended deeper into the dungeon.
The cave was pitch black, without a single point of light. Unlike the well-maintained mining paths the Dungeon Seekers had prepared, this place was almost completely untouched—an raw underground cavern. The cries of monsters echoed in the absolute darkness. The pale glow of the Seeker Lanterns. The stale, suffocating air and the sticky sweat clinging to our skin.
“Haa… haa…”
“You okay?”
“Don’t worry about me.”
Ever since we entered the dungeon, Maya’s attention had been completely fixed on Arin. It was understandable. The weakest member of the party always drew everyone’s concern.
“Footprints continue this way.”
A Dungeon Seeker easily found the trail. But the number of footprints was suspiciously high.
“Cave-dwellers.”
“Correct. These are the tracks left by the ones who attacked the camp.”
That was when it happened. The Seeker Lantern began glowing blue.
“Everyone, prepare for combat.”
As long as we had Dungeon Seekers with us, we would never be caught by surprise. This single advantage was why so many supervisors refused to remove them from parties until the very end of the game.
From far away, the voices of primitives rang out. The Dungeon Seekers’ faces hardened like stone.
“What are they saying?”
“...They’re demanding we return the treasure we stole.”
Just to be sure, I asked the Dungeon Seeker.
“You didn’t steal anything while doing your cultural research, did you?”
“Absolutely not!”
The Dungeon Seeker jumped up and down in place, furious. Many explorers were people with rather loose morals to begin with. Once they got used to killing monsters and sweeping up ownerless treasure, it became a habit. Plenty of them would wipe out native tribes and loot anything of value. The exploration guilds officially forbade conflict with dungeon natives, but how could the supervisors possibly know what the explorers were doing once they went underground?
The primitive voices continued from the darkness.
“If you return the treasure now, we will spare your lives… that’s what they’re saying.”
“We don’t have anything to return. What exactly do they want us to give back? Should we just give them a present instead?”
I glanced at the alchemists. Maya looked confused, but Arin immediately understood and rummaged through her potion bag. When Arin pulled out a Wildfire Potion, Maya panicked.
“Y-you’re giving them a potion as a present?”
“Yep.”
“...Is that really a present?”
Well. That depended on what those primitives did next. Whether we’d blow it up or hand it over nicely would be decided by how they behaved.
A moment later, a Dungeon Seeker shouted.
“Damn it! Everyone, get out of the way!”
Thump!
The same sound we’d heard several times before rang out. The Dungeon Seekers frantically sprinted down the narrow path. A massive boulder crashed down right where we had been standing.
“Fuck!”
What the hell kind of bastards were these? Were they trying to pull an Indiana Jones on us?
Crude stone projectiles flew at us through the darkness. They’d hurt if they hit, but they weren’t strong enough to cause fatal injuries. After all, explorers always wore at least the minimum amount of armor.
That was when it happened.
“Kyaaak!”
A sharp scream pierced the air. Arin, who had been trying to move quickly, lost her balance!
“Arin!” Maya cried out in horror.
Arin tumbled across the ground and began sliding toward a steep downward slope. She barely managed to grab onto a rocky outcrop, but she was practically dangling off a cliff.
“Ugh…”
“Hold on just a little longer! I’ll save you right away!”
Roa quickly pulled out a rope. But a Dungeon Seeker grabbed the end of it first.
“It’s too dangerous for you to go down. I’ll do it.”
“Dungeon Seeker-nim…”
The Dungeon Seeker bravely began descending the near-vertical slope, relying on nothing but the single rope. The small but sturdy dwarf displayed astonishing agility and reached Arin’s side in an instant. The moment the Dungeon Seeker pulled Arin into his arms, the primitives dropped another boulder.
I ran toward the party members.
“Get away from there! Everyone move!”
“But the Dungeon Seeker-nim—!”
I forcibly dragged the reluctant Roa and Maya away. The falling boulder barely missed us. With a deafening thump that shook the entire dungeon, the narrow path shattered into pieces.
“Kyaaaaak!”
“Arin!”
Arin, who had been barely hanging on, fell into the endless abyss below.
“No! Doran!”
The Dungeon Seeker disappeared into the darkness as if swallowed alive.
“Let’s run for now.”
The party members were sprawled on the ground, too stunned to move. I was the only one still thinking clearly. I had to lead them.
“If we stand around like this, we don’t know what’ll happen to us. Get up and run!”
Only then did the party members snap out of it. We fled until we were out of range of the cave-dwellers’ attacks. Once the narrow path ended, a wide open space finally appeared. At the same time, a loud commotion came from up ahead. It was firelight.
Shit… After the boulders, now it was close combat?
“Everyone, prepare for battle!” I encouraged the party.
Even if we had just barely survived one crisis, if another one came, we had to fight. Danger always struck without warning. A veteran explorer had to be ready to swing his sword no matter the situation.
I drew the sawtooth blade from my back sheath and held it forward. Haneul stepped to the front with her tower shield raised. Roa aimed her crossbow, ready to fire at any moment. Maya also pulled out a potion bottle and gripped it tightly.
A moment later, the owners of the firelight revealed themselves.
“Huh?”
The ones holding the burning torches were none other than explorers.
“You guys are…”
“Oh, fuck. Fellow professionals, huh.”
A dwarf Dungeon Seeker recognized them.
“It’s you!”
“You’re still alive, dwarf.”
The explorers hired as mercenaries by the Dungeon Seekers. Every one of them was wrapped in filthy, rag-like clothing. It was clear they hadn’t washed in a long time. The clothes they wore were stinking leather armor.
There was only one type of explorer who wandered around looking like beggars.
“Raiders.”
Street raiders. A guild made up of thieves, beggars, murderers, and fugitives who came to the dungeon to make some quick money. They had no rules and no discipline.
Suddenly, the Dungeon Seeker’s eyes gleamed with murderous intent.
“There were cave-dwellers up there looking for thieves. You know something about that, don’t you?”
At the Dungeon Seeker’s accusation, the raiders snorted.
“Fuck, how the hell would we know? Maybe you guys pissed them off by poking around their territory?”
“We didn’t do anything! We tried to establish friendly relations!”
“So what do you want us to do about it? Die together?”
I pulled the Dungeon Seeker back and pointed my sawtooth blade at the raiders.
“Hand it over.”
“What?”
“The treasure you stole from those primitives! Give it back!”
Clang!
The raiders drew their weapons almost simultaneously. Their eyes changed too. They now held the murderous gaze of killers.
“Well, well. We thought you were explorers, but you’re just robbers?”
“Fuck, you’re the ones who stole the treasure! Because of you, those primitives tried to kill us!”
One of the raiders spoke as their representative.
“Fine. I’ll apologize for that. In that spirit, how about we split the treasure we took? If you cooperate with us for now…”
Flap. Flap.
Kiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaak!
The raider couldn’t finish his sentence. The cries of monsters rang out. And they were very close!
Shit… is this hell?
Roa’s eyes glowed with golden light.
“Something’s coming!”
Red eyes glinted in the darkness. A horrifying scraping sound, like nails on metal. A beast with inverted wings and filthy black fur spun through the air like it was performing acrobatics before revealing itself.
It was a ridiculously huge bat.
◈ A massive bat that looks like it would never eat fruit. It spends all day flying around the cave hunting rats, spiders, leeches, and plump humans. While large, using it for food is not recommended. This filthy creature carries deadly diseases.
*This entity is Alive. Various traits that apply to living creatures are in effect.
*This entity is Warm-blooded. It is not sensitive to temperature changes.
*This entity can Fly. It does not trigger traps and can easily dodge melee attacks.
*This entity is Blind. Ordinary methods cannot blind it. Special methods are required to disable its detection abilities.
The giant cave bat glared at us with glowing red eyes. Its wing membranes were huge, but its body was roughly the size of a large dog. Still, it was fucking huge. And it wasn’t alone. It had brought friends.
Sharp, razor-like teeth glinted at the end of its long snout. Sticky saliva dripped from its split mouth. It crawled using its inverted wing membranes like forelegs and let out a skin-crawling cry. Dozens of them.
The raiders cursed.
“Fuck! Move, you bastards! We’re about to fight because of you!”
“Screw you!”
We stopped our standoff for a moment and put our backs together. It would be ridiculous if humans fought each other in front of monsters and ended up as monster food together.
“Let’s deal with these things first. Then we’ll see.”
The good news was that we had a total of eight people on our side. There were nearly thirty bats, but the number of humans wasn’t small either. If we stuck together and resisted—
That was when the raiders suddenly all sprinted toward the exit.
“Hey! Where are you going, you crazy bastards!”
“Hahahaha! You guys stay here and play with the bats! We’re leaving!”
Watching the raiders, I was utterly dumbfounded. Didn’t they just say the cave-dwellers were waiting up ahead? How the hell did they plan to escape alive? I was certain these bastards were Copper-rank. The fact that they had completely lost all sense of reason proved it.
“Hajun oppa!”
“Forget it! Focus on the monsters for now!”
I wanted to chase after those raider bastards, but the bats were staring at us with blood-red eyes. I couldn’t move. I hoped those sons of bitches would all die fighting the cave-dwellers.
I focused my mind. It was better to concentrate on the bats than fight on two fronts. The bats looked hideous but were manageable opponents. Our party had fought far more enemies than this. We weren’t the kind of party that would fall to some giant bats.
“See you on the surface!”
The raiders’ voices grew more distant. Their attitude was clear—they were going to escape, live well, and enjoy themselves. Typical behavior for street scum. Their personalities were just as filthy as their origins.
But something blocked their path.
“Aaaaaagh!”
One of the raiders let out a piercing scream. Two forelegs that gleamed strangely under the blue light emerged from the darkness. Densely packed fur. A hard exoskeleton reminiscent of crustaceans. Two large, sharp mandibles. And a pair of grotesque compound eyes that inspired nothing but disgust. An appearance that perfectly fit the name “monster.” It was a giant spider.
Shit. Bats and now spiders?
◈ A horrifying monster that could kill a hundred people with arachnophobia just by existing. If you don’t have a fear of spiders, encountering this beast might teach you the true meaning of terror. It is a wandering spider that doesn’t spin webs, but it is a fast and precise hunter of the caves. It grabs prey with its forelegs and tears them apart with its large mandibles.
*This entity is Alive. Various traits that apply to living creatures are in effect.
*Instead of bones, it is covered in a hard exoskeleton. It is a spider large enough to eat a human in a single meal.
The spider thrust its huge skewer-like claw through a raider’s torso from the darkness. The raider, now impaled like a skewered lamb, screamed as blood and guts poured out of him.
“Kuaaaaaaaaagh!”
The one who discovered the threat first always screamed the loudest. But screams and battle cries didn’t save lives.
“...This is insane.”
The raiders couldn’t do anything. They were a complete mess. How did these guys even think they could survive in a dungeon with that level of combat ability?
The giant cave spider moved with terrifying speed and searched for its next prey. It bit into a raider’s neck. The raider bled profusely from below his throat and screamed desperately.
“S-save me!”
There was no way to save him. Even if an alchemist’s grandfather came, he couldn’t be saved. Poor bastards.
I clicked my tongue as I watched the raiders collapse, bleeding out.