Hidden Piece (2)
In the depths of the dark cave, a crisp clicking sound echoed through the silence.
Every security guard activated their flashlight at the same time, and the dungeon’s darkness suddenly lifted. Hidden structures that had been lurking in the shadows were now clearly visible.
“Oh…”
The cave walls were carved with the intricate, raised relief of a mythical beast.
Colorful ropes were tied to the tree roots along the ceiling.
Those were the seals used to contain ghosts.
Behind them, countless mischievous spirits were surely screaming with centuries of accumulated resentment.
Deputy Go blinked her large eyes and carefully examined every structure.
“Wow… Even I have quite a bit of dungeon-clearing experience, but I’ve never seen anything this eerie.”
She walked naturally toward Kang Seojun and spoke.
“The monsters that come out here are ghosts, right? When should we start watching?”
Kang Seojun answered without even looking at her, staring straight ahead.
“The area without those ropes and the beast carving is the domain of the mischievous spirits. Still, with our flashlights, they won’t be able to approach easily. Just be careful not to let your shadows touch the darkness. They can climb along shadows.”
“Ahaha…”
Deputy Go shivered slightly at the thought of the mischievous spirits climbing shadows and folded her shoulders.
“But this dungeon… It looks like one no one has cleared yet. How do you know the layout so well?”
Deputy Go’s question caused Seo Eunha to perk up her ears. She walked over to Kang Seojun’s side as if nothing had happened, her steps slightly off-balance.
“Um… Team Leader, that’s too close.”
“This is my formation. I have no choice if I want to protect you.”
Protection? More like surveillance.
Walking side by side with two women on either side of Kang Seojun, whose twisted legs made every step difficult, was no easy task.
He couldn’t drag his feet now…
His arms were needed for balance to walk properly.
While thinking this, he also wondered how to answer Deputy Go’s question.
He didn’t care if the guards suspected him, but he couldn’t show anything too suspicious.
Especially with Seo Eunha—if she saw him as more suspicious here, he might never reach the boss room.
Just as he was trying to come up with a reply that might earn some trust, his twisted leg caught on his own foot.
His body lurched to the right.
Kang Seojun swung his arms as if to catch himself.
CLACK!
“Eek…!”
The hand that had been waving wildly in the air landed on Seo Eunha’s nape.
WHOOSH!
“Hah?!”
Before Seo Eunha could even react, her body lifted into the air.
It was completely unintentional, but it was an excellent flip.
“Kyaa?!”
Seo Eunha was thrown onto the ground, and Kang Seojun fell on top of her, crushing her beneath his heavy frame.
BANG!
CRUNCH!
“Cough…!”
“Ugh…!”
A sharp stone had slammed into her back, and a heavy man had landed on top. No matter how high-ranking an A-class hunter she was, Seo Eunha’s breath was cut short.
“C-Cough…! G-Get off!”
Seo Eunha struggled to breathe and pushed Kang Seojun away hard.
“Wah—!”
Kang Seojun tumbled and rolled several times to the side.
A commotion erupted behind him, and Jin Serin and the other guards turned around.
“What?”
“Is something wrong?”
Deputy Go answered with a serious face.
“W-We thought you were dead!”
“Huh?”
“What?”
The words left Jin Serin and the guards stunned, and even Seo Eunha’s expression turned confused.
Deputy Go pointed at the wall.
“This.”
A pitch-black arrow was embedded in the wall.
“The moment Kang Seojun grabbed the team leader, it flew straight over our heads.”
“W-What…?”
Seo Eunha looked disbelieving.
She had been at A-rank long enough to feel the air, yet she had sensed nothing. Where had that arrow come from?
A guard hurried over and examined the arrow on the wall.
“This isn’t an ordinary arrow. It’s made of mute iron.”
“Mute iron?”
Mute iron.
A special steel favored by assassins because it hides mana signatures and leaves no wind resistance when fired.
Arrows made of it were especially known for not leaving even a whisper of wind.
“And it’s surprisingly high-purity. You probably wouldn’t have noticed it…”
Even if it was high-purity mute iron, and even if an A-rank hunter like Seo Eunha couldn’t detect it, it was believable.
But…
How had this man known about mute iron that even an A-rank hunter’s senses couldn’t detect?
The guard holding the mute-iron arrow looked at Kang Seojun with a puzzled gaze.
“Are you okay, sis?”
Jin Serin supported Seo Eunha.
“Y-Yes… I’m fine.”
Seo Eunha was dazed.
So… did he save me just now?
She had been suspicious of the man, yet she had received an unexpected, huge favor.
But the confusion didn’t end there.
Even while I was falling, I couldn’t react at all…
This woman had never allowed anyone—including academy classmates—to flip her so easily.
Yet the moment she thought she was caught, she had already been pinned to the ground.
The speed was one thing, but the angle and force of the pull had been so precise that she wondered if she would have been able to withstand even if she had reacted.
What kind of technique was that…?
Seo Eunha stared at Kang Seojun with bewildered eyes.
Kang Seojun was grimacing in pain, clutching his side and struggling to stand.
“Ugh…”
His face twisted with agony, as if his ribs were broken.
The pain was probably from the rough push Seo Eunha had given him.
His complexion was alarmingly pale.
Seeing this, Seo Eunha was flustered and apologized hurriedly.
“I-I’m sorry…! I panicked and…!”
“Cough! Haa… It’s fine…”
Kang Seojun grimaced in pain but spoke in a casual tone, waving his hand as if it were nothing.
“Let’s quickly finish up here.”
The sooner they left the dungeon, the better. His fatigue would only increase otherwise.
If my Luck stat hadn’t been 50, I would’ve been done for.
The trap from earlier had been a random encounter trap.
No matter how well Kang Seojun knew the dungeon, he couldn’t predict random traps.
Of course he had known about random encounter traps and had warned about sudden traps during the briefing, but there hadn’t been any traps at the start of the dungeon, so he had been careless.
If his Luck hadn’t been 50, one of them would have been seriously injured.
If that had happened, they would have turned back immediately, no matter how much they had cleared the dungeon.
Then Jin Serin’s event would have failed, they would have taken quest penalties, and they would have suffered enormous losses.
Even though they had rolled on the dirty ground and gotten covered in dust, it was a blessing that the situation hadn’t gone south.
“Let’s continue moving.”
They straightened out the formation that had been disrupted by the brief commotion, and the group began to move again.
However, the tension was now sharper than before.
Along the way, mischievous spirits rushed at them like flies along shadows, but they were torn apart like scraps by C-rank monsters.
After diligently fulfilling their roles and pressing forward, the group finally reached the front of the boss room.
Now they could breathe a sigh of relief.
There were no traps or monsters in front of the boss room.
Kang Seojun relaxed and said, “This is the boss room.”
The guards let out breaths of relief.
“We arrived earlier than expected.”
In reality, if they had taken the normal route, they should have taken three or four times longer.
The dungeon had felt short only because Kang Seojun had led them through shortcuts.
“The guide is excellent.”
“It’s a dungeon that looks like no one has ever stepped foot in. How do you find your way so well?”
The guards, who had extensive dungeon-clearing experience, knew this was Kang Seojun’s doing.
“But how do we open this door?”
Deputy Go pointed at the boss room door.
It was a colossal stone gate more than ten times taller than a person.
In front of it floated a giant brass cube the size of a watermelon.
A guard approached the mysterious cube.
“We have to solve this puzzle, right? But this… It’s the Ancient Language Cube!”
“Ancient Language Cube?”
“What? Ha… What bad luck.”
“What? I was hoping we’d get dungeon pay today, but now we have to go back?”
The Ancient Language Cube.
Among the puzzles that appeared in dungeons, it was famous for having an extremely difficult solution.
The difficulty of the Ancient Language Cube was on a completely different level from the common 3x3 color-matching cube puzzles sold in stores.
Those could be solved by elementary school students if they knew the formula, but the Ancient Language Cube had no formula at all.
It was divided into 15x15 blocks, and solving it wasn’t just about matching colors.
Each block had letters carved into it, and you had to create the correct paragraphs on every side.
It required deep understanding of both ancient language knowledge and cube principles, plus lightning-fast thinking—pure hell.
That was why dungeons with the Ancient Language Cube always required a specialist who studied it exclusively to clear them.
Of course, none of the guards could solve it, and they only exchanged helpless glances, wondering why they had come today.
“Ah…”
The one most disappointed was Jin Serin.
The spark in her eyes quickly dimmed.
At that moment, Kang Seojun limped forward.
“Please wait three minutes.”
“Huh? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to solve the cube.”
Before he even finished speaking, Kang Seojun started twisting the cube back and forth at lightning speed.
CLACK! CLACK-CLACK-CLACK! CLACK-CLACK!
“W-What are you—!”
“D-Don’t touch it like that!”
“If you mess that up once, even experts won’t be able to—!”
Kang Seojun ignored the guards’ panic and spun the cube faster.
The 15x15 cube turned at an impossible speed.
“W-Wait, isn’t this supposed to be locked?”
“J-Just a second. It looks like he’s solving it right now. If you twist it wrong, it won’t turn at all.”
“What? You’re solving it?”
“That’s too fast. Even experts can’t turn it that quickly!”
As expected, Kang Seojun had no knowledge of ancient languages or understanding of cube principles.
He had no lightning-fast brain either. His intelligence stat was only 8.
No matter how much of a veteran he was, he couldn’t memorize the sequence of a 15x15 cube.
Yet Kang Seojun’s hands moved unhesitatingly, manipulating the cube.
[Eye of Providence is analyzing the puzzle.]
The Eye of Providence was telling him the correct answer.
In Kang Seojun’s vision, countless calculation formulas flashed by.
He moved his eyes and hands at lightning speed, fitting the cube together.
After only two minutes, he had completely solved the Ancient Language Cube faster than the three minutes he had promised.
CLANG! PING!
A clear sound like a lock being opened smoothly echoed, followed by a mana device activating.
WOONG. GGGGGGGGG…
The cube vibrated, then the massive stone gate slowly opened, swinging to the side.
“It’s open…?”
“I-Impossible in under three minutes…?”
“T-That’s ridiculous…! World records are in the 40-minute range…?”
The guards looked at each other in shock, unable to hide their astonishment.
“H-How did that man…?”
Seo Eunha stared at Kang Seojun with an expression no different from the guards’.
“Ah…”
Jin Serin, on the other hand, stared at him blankly.
Then, very slowly, a smile spread across her face.
There was something fundamentally different about this man compared to the trainers she had met before.
A strange sense of anticipation spread through her chest.