Sokoban
The scream tore through the cavern.
“Aaaagh! You son of a bitch!” One of the Raiders swung his mace in a brutal arc, smashing it into the giant spider’s front leg. The spider recoiled, body quivering from the unexpected impact. It had already dropped the Raider it was chewing on, but the man was finished anyway. He collapsed in a bubbling heap of bloody foam.
“Someone help him!”
I had no idea what the hell they expected me to do. I gave the only realistic advice I could.
“He’s already dead. Leave him and get over here.”
If they really wanted to help, they could go topside and toss some cash at his family later.
The giant spider, frustrated that it couldn’t swallow its fresh kill, lunged forward like a coiled spring and drove both front legs straight through another Raider’s shoulder.
“Fuck.”
The bats that had been watching the giant spider started shrieking in panic. Even if the Raiders wanted to help their comrades, the swarm of bats flapping in their faces made it impossible. I couldn’t tell if the damn things wanted to fight us or not.
“Oppa!”
“Stay calm. Keep the formation tight. If it breaks, we’re truly fucked.”
The Raiders were dropping like scarecrows in a storm. The spider weighed nearly a hundred and fifty kilograms. Just a charging body slam was enough to send a human flying. As long as the Raiders kept its attention, we had a chance.
One Raider tried to run. The spider proved it was faster, snatching him by the nape of the neck.
“Gaaah!”
His head twisted nearly 270 degrees with a sickening crunch. No human neck should bend like that. The spider had bitten down and was literally dangling him by the spine. Only three people had died, but the floor already looked like a slaughterhouse market stall, soaked through with blood.
“Haneul! Shield up!”
An excited bat swooped toward us. Haneul thrust her tower shield forward and met it head-on. Thud! Her arms trembled violently. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.
This was her first dungeon. Her first monsters. People dying far too easily. In this hellish place, Haneul had to rely on her comrades’ backs to survive. I wasn’t sure if I could be the one she trusted, but at the very least—
“Hah!”
I could be her sword.
I swung my sawtooth blade with everything I had, slicing through the wing of the bat that had bounced off her shield. The moment the serrated edge kissed it, the wing sprayed crimson in every direction and tore apart like a ripped stuffed doll.
“Get back in your cave, you bat bastards!”
The sight of blood drove the bats into a frenzy. One dove from above like a falling stone. Roa took care of it.
Twang!
The Guardian’s crossbow fired a bolt with perfect precision. It was powerful enough to punch through steel plate. The bolt drilled straight through the bat’s skull and turned its brain into mush.
Kiiiiii!
The bats screamed. They came at us in a shrieking wave.
“Die!”
But they couldn’t get past the iron wall that was an Ironclad’s shield. They slammed into it in their frenzy, yet they couldn’t pierce the steel and iron forged by human hands. Haneul methodically cut down every stunned bat that crashed against her shield with her gladius.
We were nothing like that disorganized mob of Raiders. We were explorers, tempered by real battles, armed with solid teamwork and a well-balanced party composition.
“Potion Explosion!”
Potion Explosion
Maya hurled a potion into the air. It detonated, sending a cloud of vapor boiling outward. Several bats froze solid mid-flight, becoming literal frozen bats. An Alchemist’s offensive potion—Evaporative Solution triggered by magic.
I swung my sawtooth blade at a bat trying to slip past Haneul’s tower shield. It barely dodged and kept coming. I stabbed the blade into the ground and began casting.
Concentrating, I felt thick green liquid gather at my fingertips.
Poison Arrow
The arrow of viscous, paralyzing toxin struck the bat dead center. It flapped wildly, crashed to the ground, and convulsed before going still.
“S-save me! Please! Help!”
The last surviving Raider came sprinting toward us, sobbing and screaming.
“Ah, fuck. Seriously?”
Right behind him, a giant cave spider covered in white fur was chasing him like a lunatic. I’d hoped it would pull aggro, but this was the opposite of helpful. What were we supposed to do when he brought the damn thing straight to us?
“Haneul.”
“Yes, Oppa!”
“Hold the line no matter what. Even if it feels like you’re going to die, endure. Maya will heal you no matter what, so trust her and hold on. Got it?”
“Yes!”
Haneul’s eyes burned with determination. A former squire turned Ironclad, she knew no fear. Even facing a monstrous spider, she didn’t flinch. A frontline class that met enemies with steel—Haneul was a true Ironclad ace. Her grip tightened on the tower shield.
The giant spider charged our party at terrifying speed. Haneul planted the bottom edge of her shield against the ground and angled it, bracing with all her strength. It was an Ironclad’s signature Endure skill. The moment she clenched her teeth and closed her eyes—
The spider leaped over the tower shield.
“Wait…”
I stared at the creature, momentarily speechless. A monster weighing nearly 150 kilograms had just launched itself into the air with pure leg strength. What it was aiming for wasn’t us.
It was the giant bat flapping overhead.
Shiiick!
Like a dog snatching a frisbee, the giant spider caught the bat in its jaws and stood proudly.
“What the actual fuck is this situation?”
Crunch. Crunch.
The gruesome sound of delicate bat bones shattering echoed through the cave. The spider immediately shoved its catch into its mouth. After devouring the bat whole, bones and all, it still wasn’t satisfied and charged straight into the bat swarm.
“Ah…”
The giant bats’ red eyes shrank to pinpricks. They flew around in a panic, desperately trying to escape the spider’s attacks. True to its nature as a skilled cave hunter, the spider scaled the walls and snatched them one by one.
Haneul cracked her eyes open and scanned the area.
“That thing… doesn’t seem interested in us at all?”
This was a roguelike world, not the actual game… but moments like this always reminded me of Dungeon Overseer. The overseers used to call random monster-versus-monster fights “god-tier interaction.” We’d laugh our asses off reading about it on the forums. Using monsters against each other was a legitimate strategy. In the end, in any roguelike, the one who survives is the strongest. The dead just become resources.
“Whoa…”
Haneul couldn’t hide her awe at the carnage unfolding before us. The very bats that had been attacking us moments ago were now fighting desperately to escape the spider. Or rather, flailing helplessly.
“Looks like that spider’s main diet is bats,” the ever-calm Alchemist offered a reasonable hypothesis.
“Then let’s use this chance to slip away.”
Giant bats and giant spider could enjoy their little war. We were leaving.
We moved quietly, careful not to draw the monsters’ attention.
We found a quiet spot and finally caught our breath. We hadn’t been in the dungeon that long, yet we’d already survived multiple near-death experiences. Was there no such thing as an easy dungeon? Fuck.
“Hajun.”
I was sipping water alone when Maya approached.
“…I want to go rescue Arin.”
The Dungeon Seeker spoke up as well.
“I want to save my little brother, too.”
Coincidentally, the two people who had been separated during the blood giant attack were each related to an Alchemist and a Dungeon Seeker. I drank in silence for a moment.
These people were willing to risk their lives to save someone else. It was probably only possible because they were family. Comradery in a dungeon… I didn’t like it. The risk of going back for them was too high.
…But if I suggested we retreat, Maya and the Dungeon Seeker would never listen.
Looked like we had to go down after all.
Just then, Roa returned from scouting. She tossed a hard lump of stone at me.
“This…”
“It gave me a bad feeling, so I brought it.”
I examined the stone Roa had thrown. I quickly discovered something astonishing. It wasn’t just a rock. It was a once-living creature that had been petrified.
A petrified lizard about thirty centimeters long.
“Maya. That alchemical ingredient you wanted to collect. What was it again?”
“Albite infused with the power of the earth.”
Maya sounded exhausted. I showed her the petrified lizard. She turned it over in her hands a few times before speaking.
“This… is it the curse of petrification?”
“The chances of finding that power of the earth have gone up significantly.”
In Dungeon Overseer, there weren’t many monsters with petrification abilities. Excluding mage-types, only a couple of creatures were born with it. The most famous was the Cockatrice.
A giant monster with a chicken’s head and a snake’s tail that breathed petrifying breath, turning enemies into stone.
“Then…”
“It also means our chances of dying have increased.”
The party members’ expressions darkened. I wanted to be optimistic, but there was no point. If a Cockatrice was really roaming around, the moment we encountered it, our party would be wiped out.
“Is the Cockatrice strong?” Haneul asked innocently.
“You know orc warriors, right?”
“I’ve heard of them.”
“A bare-handed troll can rip apart a fully armed orc warrior.”
“…”
“A Cockatrice has similar physical stats to a troll. Excluding its special ability. Pure physical strength alone.”
In short: Cockatrice = Troll > Orc Warrior.
I wasn’t sure if they remembered, but the monster that had wiped out our party before was an orc warrior. A single Cockatrice could tear apart three or four of them. That alone was reason enough to run.
But the truly terrifying thing about a Cockatrice wasn’t its specs—it was its special ability. Like most roguelikes, raw stats in Dungeon Overseer weren’t everything. No matter how strong your base stats were, a few debuffs could turn you into a useless wreck. What separated dangerous monsters from the rest was their special abilities.
The Cockatrice’s special ability: Petrifying Breath.
It used a breath weapon that turned victims into stone. If you got hit by a Cockatrice’s breath? You became a statue. And a statue was as good as dead until you returned to the city. In a game where every party member’s power mattered, completely neutralizing one person was basically telling you to uninstall.
Before the balance patch, Cockatrices were level 5. They would pop out right when you were fighting orc warriors and annihilate your party. The forums were full of posts about people quitting after meeting one. I’d died to them several times myself. That’s why we called them Weedwhackers. The nickname came from how they cut down all the newbies.
After the patch their level rose to 6, but they were still just as dangerous. Back then I’d thought, Why is this bastard level 6? Shouldn’t it be 7?
Anyway. A Cockatrice was a genuinely horrific monster.
“Maya. And Mr. Dungeon Seeker.”
“Please, call me Bori.”
“Alright. Bori. I’ll ask one last time. Even if it means dying in this dungeon, are you resolved to go down and save your family?”
I gave them time to think. But my consideration was unnecessary. They answered immediately.
“Yes!”
“I’m going!”
I nodded slowly.
I was the one who had broken through hundreds of ants to clear a dungeon. This time, I just had to avoid one Cockatrice. Rescuing the party members stranded underground while avoiding it was something only a veteran like me could pull off.
I’d show them what a high-level player could do.
“Good. Then our new goal is rescuing the stranded party members. Let’s move.”
After a short rest, we headed deeper into the dungeon. Less than thirty minutes after setting out, we came face to face with the true owner of the Sokoban abandoned mine.
Kwoooooooooh!
A hellish roar echoed through the tunnels. The party froze, scanning the area with tense expressions. Even though the sound came from far away, it was utterly terrifying.
“It’s a Cockatrice.”
I’d hoped my prediction was wrong, but bad feelings were never wrong. Suppressing the goosebumps crawling across my skin, I spoke to my comrades.
“Move as quietly as possible from now on. As far as the dungeon is concerned, we don’t exist.”
We advanced stealthily. Thanks to the Dungeon Seeker and Guardian’s detection abilities, we were able to spot the Cockatrice roaming in the distance.
Stiff crest. Sharp beak. Body covered in feathers. Soft-looking wings and a snake-like tail that hissed as it moved. That was the beginner guillotine. The nightmare of newbies. A Cockatrice.
Kwoooooook!
The Cockatrice roared. Several giant spiders were rearing up on their hind legs, confronting it. From a human perspective the giant spiders were monsters, but from the spiders’ perspective, the Cockatrice was the real monster. Unfazed by their threat, the Cockatrice trampled them. Perhaps some of its chicken instincts to eat bugs remained.
It skillfully stomped on the giant spiders’ legs, shattering them, then flipped them over. The 150-kilogram spiders were tossed around like toys, legs broken, bellies exposed. The Cockatrice swept the area with its torn eyes, then pecked open a spider’s abdomen and began to eat. The spider convulsed as its innards spilled out and died.
If there was a food chain in this dungeon, the Cockatrice sat at the very top of the pyramid. The spiders were next, and the bats were at the bottom. Watching it casually devour a giant spider sent a chill down my spine. It made me truly realize what kind of dungeon we had entered.
That thing was a monster whose physical abilities rivaled a troll’s.
“Goddamn it.”
Just thinking about playing tag with something like that made my head throb. We moved with extreme caution to avoid drawing its aggro.