Chapter 40
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Why Ghosts Are Scary
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Suddenly, my entire field of vision was devoured by a blinding white light.
An intense flash seeped through my eyelids, stabbing at my retinas like needles, while a cursed hum droned in my ears, leaving them numb and ringing.
The moment I squeezed my eyes shut, a sensation hit me like my body was floating weightlessly in midair.
Gravity's pull vanished, up and down tangled into chaos, and even my sense of direction evaporated.
It felt just like being submerged in deep water—my limbs grew leaden, my heart pounded erratically, and a stifling heat welled up from inside my chest.
Then something solid touched under my feet.
Even with my soles planted, it didn't feel like solid ground.
A slick slipperiness, yet at the same time the cold, unsettling texture of bare bone without skin.
The instant I opened my eyes again, I knew it right away.
This was no place for humans.
It was crystal clear why hunters sealed dungeons off from civilians so thoroughly.
No matter how much they called it a "lowest-grade one-floor dungeon," the moment an ordinary person stepped foot inside, it became a living hell where survival was impossible from the start.
"Gasp... huff, heuk... b-breath...!"
The second I inhaled, agony seared through my lungs like they were burning up.
It wasn't air at all—utterly alien.
This went beyond high humidity or low oxygen.
Whoooosh—!
The gas rushing in through my nose and mouth clawed at my throat, raked my windpipe, and crushed my alveoli.
Like sucking in burning smoke, the stench of blood and mold clung thickly, rotting away inside my lungs.
My head spun wildly.
With no oxygen in my blood, my consciousness blurred and my vision warped into blackness.
My knees buckled—I was about to collapse right there.
"Hup—haat!!"
Cha Yunha, carrying me on her back, rolled fiercely across the ground and let out a sharp kiai.
Her voice sliced through the space like a blade, and in that instant, the white mist pressing in from all sides rippled like waves before—bam!—splitting apart and vanishing.
Just like that, breathable air returned as if by magic.
I sucked in a deep lungful of fresh oxygen, finally feeling like I'd clawed back from the brink of death as I gasped raggedly.
Steadying my heaving breaths, I looked around and realized we weren't in some empty foggy void anymore.
We were smack in the middle of a swamp.
The greenish mire sloshed stickily, and around Cha Yunha's legs—sunk up to her knees—a thick liquid was slowly creeping higher.
As the swamp wrapped around her thighs like something alive, a primal chill shot up my spine.
"Are you alright, Counselor Kim Seungbin?"
The A-Rank hunter's face was full of smiles.
As if this situation wasn't a threat at all, just everyday routine she'd seen dozens of times.
"That was a phenomenon called 'Demon's Mist.' It's a natural trap that occurs in lower dungeon levels."
"A trap...? Who made it? A monster?"
"Hard to say if it was 'made' or just 'spawned'... It's ambiguous. Because all of it—the dungeon creates itself."
With the mist dispersed, the landscape unfolding before my eyes grew even more alien.
The massive trees encircling us had roots twisted purple from the base up, their trunks as thick as building pillars.
The bark writhed like living skin, emitting sounds like it was breathing.
In that moment, the swamp we'd been trapped in sloshed as if trying to hold us, dragging Cha Yunha's body deeper.
"Hold on tight."
A short, firm command.
She sprang upward with explosive force, launching my body into the air like a shot put.
In that instant, branches from the surrounding trees whipped toward us like spears, but...
"Tch."
With a single swing of her arm, Yunha snapped them all like dry twigs—zero resistance.
"......"
That was when it finally hit me.
This was the dungeon's first floor.
And yet I'd nearly died from suffocation moments ago, every sight filling me with disgust and terror.
She, though, was hopping around like it was a stroll in the park.
"Here we are."
The spot where she finally stopped.
Right in front of us, a blue portal and a red one hovered side by side.
"Take the red portal for the upper levels, blue for lower levels or back to the surface."
I asked in astonishment.
"H-how did you find it so fast? In a place this huge...?"
Yunha shrugged with a smile.
"I'm an A-Rank hunter, after all. Getting lost on just ten floors? Ridiculous. Besides, the lower dungeon structure is still simple. After hundreds of runs, you start sensing the flow of portals intuitively."
Unlike her casual tone, a shiver ran down my spine.
The first floor—pure death and terror for me—was just 'warm-up' to her.
A moment later, Yunha set me down in front of the portal and wiped sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, speaking firmly.
"Counselor Kim Seungbin. The first floor was all environmental traps like mist and swamps. But from the second floor, 'spirit-type monsters' start appearing in earnest. Fights will be unavoidable."
I nodded.
"So that means the danger doubles from here."
"Yes. That's why I'll take the detour instead of charging straight ahead. A safe bypass should take about three days to reach the tenth floor."
At that moment, frustration boiled up inside me.
Three days.
With a patient waiting inside the dungeon, I couldn't drag it out that long.
"No. Let's do it in one day."
"...Pardon?!"
Yunha's eyes went wide.
"Counselor Kim Seungbin! I don't know what you're thinking, but getting attacked by spirit-type monsters isn't just about physical wounds!"
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yes! They target the 'soul' directly inside living beings like us! And if you get caught wrong—"
She hesitated a moment, then gritted her teeth and spat it out.
"For female hunters, their personality solidifies and gets excreted from the anus during climax, while their soul separates from the body! It's called the worst-case scenario: 'personality excretion'!"
I was speechless.
"......"
"I've seen it happen. One female hunter got hit by a monster, eyes rolled back, screaming 'Hic, heuk♥,' then her anus gaped open—splurt!—and a shiny crystal plopped out like shit. That was her personality. Her pussy gushed fluids in orgasm, and her corpse became an empty husk."
I was at a loss for words.
This wasn't just the fear of 'dying.'
Of all things, now 'personality excretion.'
Picture it.
Your lifelong self, ego, and memories—sharting out your anus like turds in a splattering mess, hitting climax at the same time, convulsing wildly until death.
"...Fuck, that's... way too horrific."
That was all I could say.
A nightmare where getting devoured by an orc sounded better.
Women might not get it, but if it happened to me as a guy... ugh.
But I wasn't planning some reckless charge.
I slowly pulled out my prepared item and held it out to Yunha.
"Don't worry. I'm not suggesting we just barrel ahead blindly. I came prepared for this."
"......?"
Yunha eyed the small glass vial I'd produced with puzzled curiosity.
A transparent bottle filled with a strangely shimmering yellow liquid.
Her eyes widened in an instant.
"...No way—!"
I nodded confidently.
"Yep. Exactly what you're thinking."
True to A-Rank form, she recognized it immediately.
Anyone would, really.
The moment I unscrewed the cap, an intense aroma exploded outward—not like human piss at all, but something brutally pungent.
No mere ammonia stink.
A far more vicious scent, laced with an insidious addictiveness: the unmistakable 'heat-bitch reek.'
While human urine is over 95% water, carnivores' piss—for marking territory—is packed with potent ammonia and sulfur compounds.
Wolves or beastkin literally claim domains and intimidate rivals with their 'personal scent.'
And what I held was none other than Yunarae's urine, brimming with that raw 'wild instinct.'
"Monsters are beasts at heart. Beasts bow their heads to a stronger scent."
As I spoke, Yunha's eyes lit up.
"Ooh...! So that's why you got it! From the next-gen S-Rank hunter, Yoo Narae... her urine!"
That's right.
The contents of this yellow bottle? Straight-up pee that Narae pissed right in front of me.
For the record, Hunter Association Korea Branch Chief Yoo Geumhui handed over this 'priceless' item.
When I asked how she got it, the old bat replied nonchalantly.
"You said you needed it, Counselor Kim Seungbin, so I had her squat and piss right there. She just let it stream out standing up."
...Spare me.
No need to visualize—I knew that scent all too well already.
Honestly, Narae herself would deny it, whining 'I don't smell!', but I knew better.
That faint whiff always drifting from between her thighs during sessions, sweat-mingled armpits, and the musky bitch-stink rising from her aroused pussy.
In the end, she'd unwittingly turned her most shameful body odor into a dungeon-conquering weapon.
Low-level monsters wouldn't dare approach now.
And so, we decided to put Narae's piss to very lewd, vulgar, and utterly practical use.