Hidden Piece (3)
Kang Seojun and Jin Serin’s escort team stepped through the thick stone slab and entered the vast cave.
One of the guards muttered while maintaining his post.
“This place gives off a strangely heavy darkness.”
It wasn’t a misjudgment.
The darkness in this boss room was the materialized malice seeping from the dungeon boss, the Demon Buddha.
Concentrated for hundreds of years, that malice made even living humans feel an eerie chill.
“Creepy as hell.”
“Smells weird too…”
“Kind of like rotting corpse…”
Jin Serin clutched Seo Eunha’s arm and clung tightly.
“U-uncle…”
The ominous darkness itself tested the will of the living.
The escort team, all possessing at least C-rank willpower, could somehow push forward. But Jin Serin’s willpower was only a pathetic 17 points—barely C-rank. For a cadet it was high, yet far too low for veteran-level dungeon crawling.
Seo Eunha whispered in a troubled tone.
“If you cling too much, I won’t be able to protect you…”
“J-just a little…!”
Just as Seo Eunha tried to peel her away, Jin Serin grabbed even harder.
At that, Seo Eunha gave up the idea of letting go.
Yeah. Maybe it was better like this.
“During an emergency, don’t grab my arm and step back behind me.”
Jin Serin’s voice was low with embarrassment.
“U-uh…”
Kang Seojun and his group reached the center of the cave.
There stood a small shrine alone.
Amid the swirling darkness, the shrine looked exactly like a crouching evil spirit.
The space was unbearably oppressive.
The guards furrowed their brows and muttered among themselves.
“Smells like rot coming from here…”
“Ugh… what the hell is inside.”
“It feels freezing… ugh…”
That was their crude way of releasing tension.
“U-uhm… hah…”
Jin Serin forced a smile, though her face showed the physiological disgust she couldn’t hide.
Kang Seojun walked past them and approached the shrine.
He turned his back to it and clapped his hands, drawing everyone’s attention.
*Clap!*
“Before we start the boss fight, let me give a briefing.”
They had received a basic briefing before entering the dungeon, but since it had been so shallow, extra details were necessary.
The moment he mentioned briefing, the guards stopped chatting and focused on Kang Seojun.
“First, there’s a Demon Buddha inside this shrine. A statue of a cursed evil spirit. The boss fight begins the moment I start purifying it.”
“Purifying?”
One guard tilted his head curiously.
Purifying was the power to turn the writhing malice and every kind of impurity in darkness back into purity.
Only a hunter with special attributes like light-element magic or high spirit sensitivity could perform it.
“Wouldn’t it be impossible to continue here if we need purification instead of combat? Did we have the wrong assumption? Our team has no one with purification skills.”
Of course no one on the escort team possessed light-element or spirit sensitivity.
Such rare aptitudes were rare even in the world.
Kang Seojun answered as if it was no big deal.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle the purification myself.”
“Eh? You’ll do it personally?”
The guards erupted in commotion.
“A light-attribute user? No, a spirit sorcerer?”
“No… Team Leader. Who exactly is this person?”
“Weren’t you an academy freshman?”
Seo Eunha pretended to be clueless.
“……”
I don’t know either.
I really don’t.
That was his honest feeling, but he couldn’t say it out loud.
Knowing unregistered dungeons, reacting to the Mute Iron traps, solving the Ancient Language Cube in two minutes, and now possessing purification ability…?
If he listed more oddities—learning tactical skills, lacking a past, weird stat balance—there was no end to it.
By now, thinking further felt pointless.
“That’s not important right now. Pay attention again.”
There were some misunderstandings, but Kang Seojun didn’t correct them.
The only thing that mattered now was clearing the dungeon.
“Even if we start the purification, malevolent spirits will swarm from every direction in the cave like zombies. That’s when the boss fight begins. We’ll fight in defense formation the entire time. Since I can’t fight while purifying, the escort team must pay extra attention so that malevolent spirits don’t intrude into the shrine.”
The Demon Buddha inside that shrine was the food chain for the malevolent spirits dwelling in this dungeon.
Even if it was a ghost-type monster without a physical body, the world’s laws required it to consume something to exist.
Malevolent and evil spirits sustained themselves by feeding on malice toward the world. This Demon Buddha was overflowing with massive earthly malice.
Purifying such a thing was like setting fire to the field for the malevolent spirits.
So the moment purification started, every ghost in the dungeon would charge with bared fangs.
“Place all the Holy Water of the Beloved Saint I brought on the ground facing the shrine. More light means faster purification. Most of the approaching malevolent spirits are C-rank, so treat them like before, but B-rank evil spirits will occasionally appear. B-rank ones are hard to handle alone, so cooperate in pairs.”
Kang Seojun finished the remaining precautions and concluded the briefing.
“Everyone ready? We’ll start immediately. Any questions?”
No one asked.
But the guards were secretly curious about Kang Seojun’s true identity.
“All right. Starting now. Everyone to your positions!”
As Kang Seojun signaled the start of the boss fight, the escort team scattered into defensive positions around the shrine.
Seo Eunha guided Jin Serin.
“Stay behind me, miss.”
“U-uh…!”
Jin Serin trailed after her half-clinging.
Kang Seojun carefully checked the guards’ positions and the angle of the light before entering the shrine.
Inside the shrine was a chilling altar with a statue of a flame-like figure, its eyes blazing red.
Kang Seojun faced the Demon Buddha and pulled a small glass bottle from his pocket.
The beautifully crafted bottle contained sparkling light fragments and water.
It was the “Holy Water of the Beloved Saint” he had purchased from the Dimensional Shop.
*Clack!*
He stepped onto the altar and opened the bottle.
With a strained, hoarse voice he shouted.
“Purification starting! Everyone ready for combat!”
The guards replied in unison.
“Combat ready! You may begin!”
“Then starting! Purification beginning! Three! Two! One!”
Kang Seojun poured the Holy Water directly onto the Demon Buddha’s forehead.
*Chiiiieek!*
The water bubbled violently as if poured on red-hot iron, spraying steam everywhere.
*Kyaaaahhhahhhhh—!!*
At the same time, a scream that shook the entire cave echoed from all sides.
The water boiled through the statue’s head, and a red mist like blood erupted from the hole.
*Kyaaaaahhhhh—!!*
For the Demon Buddha, it must have felt like suddenly being hit with acid.
No matter how ancient the evil spirit, the Holy Water of the Beloved Saint had no counter.
If anything, the older it was, the more effective it became.
*Kuuguguuguuguu—!!*
Soon countless footsteps thundered from the floor and ceiling, growing louder.
“Ugh…”
“It’s starting…”
“Miss! Back!”
“F, fu…! I-I can help…! H, help…!?”
*Kwaaaaahhhhh—!!*
Soon something poured out from every crack in the cave.
Through the darkness, they appeared like black waterfall streams.
“They’re coming…!”
“T-too many…!”
“Barrier! Prepare for impact!”
*Uwoong!*
A spherical barrier enveloped the shrine in a faint blue light.
*Kyaaaaahhhh—!!*
The closer the black tsunami came, the clearer its vicious form became.
“Impact!!”
*Kwa-jik! Quak! Kwaaaak!*
The black tsunami slammed into the guards’ defense formation.
*Kyaaaaaahhh!*
“Cough…! Mana reflux…!”
“Hang on! Keep the barrier up!”
“Load the mana guns!”
“Malevolent spirits at 12 o’clock!”
*Kyaa!*
The guards swung their mana-infused cold weapons and poured out mana arrows the size of parasols.
Each hit created gaps in the black tsunami, but they sealed immediately, like slicing water with a knife.
“What’s with the sudden difficulty…!”
“It was too easy for a dungeon…”
The standard strategy for this dungeon was never a shortcut; it was slowly clearing the horde of malevolent spirits first.
The suffering the guards faced now was the price of the shortcut.
They had entered the boss room without reducing the swarm, so the boss fight’s difficulty had skyrocketed.
*Kyaaaaah!*
“They’re insane… way too many…”
“Barrier! Barrier!”
“Support at 3 o’clock! Rotate!”
“We don’t have time to reload! Draw blades!”
“Malevolent spirits at 9 o’clock!”
*Quak! Kwa-jik!*
“Ugh…”
“Shit…”
“Ah!”
They clashed for more than fifteen minutes.
No matter how physically superior the B-rank hunters were compared to civilians, holding out against a tsunami-like horde for long was impossible.
*Kyaaaaah—!!*
Eventually one evil spirit broke through the barrier and bit a guard.
“Ah!”
*Plop!*
Seo Eunha smashed the evil spirit’s head with her shield, then checked the guard’s condition.
“T-Team Leader…! Hic…!”
“Ah…”
The evil spirit’s teeth had sunk deep into the shoulder.
They would have to use potions and leave the spot for minutes.
“Deputy Go! Support at 3 o’clock!”
“Malevolent spirits at 6 o’clock!”
The enemies’ momentum was fiercer than expected and their numbers far greater.
The difference between dungeon and boss-room difficulty was heaven and earth.
The 3 o’clock barrier was already breached, and the other directions would soon meet the same fate.
Of course, they weren’t in life-threatening danger yet.
Seo Eunha had an emergency escape artifact that could take Jin Serin and the entire team out with her.
Only pre-registered personnel could escape through the artifact.
If she activated it, Kang Seojun would be left alone in this dungeon.
For some reason Kang Seojun didn’t seem like the type to die easily in this situation, but betrayal was betrayal.
Fearing that activating the escape artifact would leave a worse aftermath than letting the man die.
Even as he thought that, the situation deteriorated rapidly.
*Pak!*
“It’s breached at 6 o’clock!”
“Malevolent spirits at 3 o’clock! Team Leader!”
“You bastard…”
“F, fu…!”
Ugly as it was, they couldn’t hold on for even thirty more seconds.
In the end, Seo Eunha had to make a choice.
“Emergency escape…”
She raised her hand to the emergency escape artifact necklace and was about to pour mana into it when Kang Seojun dropped the last drop of Holy Water onto the Demon Buddha.
*Paahaaaahaaaah—!!*