The Jungle Fortress Tustosta
The moment I stepped through the portal into the Garwon Jungle Fortress Tustosta, confusion slammed into me like a truck. Where the hell am I?
I had definitely set the destination to Pespis Plaza—the largest auction house in the world—when I bought that expensive portal ticket. Yet the second I opened my eyes, all I saw was thick, overgrown jungle, sweltering heat, and sticky humidity that clung to my skin. Strange animal cries echoed from every direction—skree-skree-skraaaaw!—and the sharp, nose-piercing scent of phytoncides filled the air.
This is insane.
I couldn’t tell if it was a genuine portal error or just another one of Final Destiny’s signature spiteful patterns. What I did know was that I wasn’t anywhere near Pespis Plaza.
Is this the Lubul Jungle? No… even the game’s malice has limits. If it’s a jungle where I can barely survive in my current state…
I racked my brain and mentally unfolded the Final Destiny world map. Having sunk a huge chunk of my life into the game, pulling up a mental map was second nature.
The bizarre cries, the dense jungle canopy, and that faint metallic tang in the air. When I combined those three clues, only one answer came up.
Garwon Jungle.
It was a battlefield where countless kingdoms had once clashed. Even now, countless undiscovered magic landmines lay buried across the terrain. Yet the monster difficulty and environmental hazards were scaled for early-game players, and the experience rewards were generous. As long as you didn’t step on a mine, it was one of the best hunting grounds for rapid growth.
The problem is that I came here completely unprepared.
Normally, whenever I entered the Garwon Jungle in-game, I would bring a landmine detector, enough rations to last weeks, emergency teleport scrolls—just about every survival tool you’d see in a wilderness documentary. Dying once meant game over, so thorough preparation was non-negotiable.
Right now, all I had was a thick wad of cash I’d prepared for money laundering, a few simple drinks, and a boxed lunch. Perfect conditions for dying an anonymous death in the wild.
If this were still just a game, I might have considered killing myself to restart, since I was still in the early stages. No matter how I twisted the situation, the odds of escaping alive were abysmal.
I already confirmed that in-game bugs don’t work here, so a return bug definitely won’t either.
If that had been possible, I would have used every bug and cheat I could find to fly through the early game. A sharp, ridiculous animal cry cut through my thoughts—skree-kweek-kuruk-kuruk!
Time to move.
The cry seemed to warn me that standing around overthinking would get me killed. There’s no rule that says I have to die here.
I crept forward as quietly as possible, muffling my footsteps in case something hostile was nearby, and began searching for a place to hide. Priority one: conceal myself. Priority two: return to the academy before Monday no matter what.
Now that I knew the spiteful patterns affected every cadet, the longer I stayed away, the higher the chance the others would die. Even if I couldn’t protect them perfectly, I could at least prepare them.
While listening to those grotesque cries, I kept moving. Nothing was going the way I wanted. Not a single thing.
About four hours after being wrongly teleported into the Garwon Jungle, I managed to build a decent shelter by making full use of the survival experience I’d gained from ten years living in the mountains.
The meat’s actually pretty decent.
The source of those eerie cries turned out to be goragorani—creatures that sounded like a mix between a crying human and something designed to jolt you awake in the middle of the night. They looked and fought almost exactly like the roe deer you’d find in Gangwon Province, so if you killed them quickly, they posed no real threat.
But if you take too long, they’ll call in stronger variants.
Anyway, I now had food and a safe cave. The only remaining problem was the massive question of how the hell do I get out of here?
In the worst-case scenario, if I arrived at the academy far too late, most of the cadets could end up dead. Logically, I only need to keep the main characters alive… but the odds of them dying are still high.
They were the type who would always stand at the front because they were strong, which also meant they would die the fastest. On top of that, they were fueled by a sense of duty; they wouldn’t hesitate to throw their lives away. Especially now, while they were still arrogant enough to believe they couldn’t possibly die.
This is really bad.
It felt like I’d left a child by the river and could do nothing to help. I had to find the best solution as fast as possible.
Actually… there is one option.
It was a solution I had never seriously considered during normal playthroughs because I only had one life and the risk was enormous.
Solo clear.
Enter a dungeon, obtain a return stone as a reward, and use it to teleport back. Since Mirinae Academy’s coordinates would be registered, I could return straight there. I would gain dungeon rewards and escape in one move—killing two birds with one stone.
But the risk that came with such an ideal outcome was equally massive. The game had only brought me to the Garwon Jungle because it judged I could escape alone. It definitely hadn’t expected me to solo a dungeon. In other words, the difficulty would be exponentially higher.
“To do or not to do… that is the question.”
I was quoting a line from a classic masterpiece while deeply lost in thought when—
"Would you like to enter the field dungeon [Jungle Fortress Tustosta]?"
My body had already carried me straight to the entrance of the field dungeon, as if it had grown tired of waiting for my brain to decide. Here I can obtain a new hidden skill, collect the rewards, return, and prepare as much as possible.
Why fear maggots when you’re already in the ground? Worrying about the uncertain future was something only cowards did. If you had the heart of a beast, you charged blindly toward uncertain rewards. Empty your head and heat your chest.
“Enter.”
That was the truth of how to live life.
The field dungeon Jungle Fortress Tustosta.
Dungeons where every space is open like the Golem Temple are called field dungeons, and Tustosta was the most representative example. The visual resembled a military base—barracks, outposts, and monsters wearing military uniforms. The monster types varied, and fortunately there didn’t seem to be any named monsters.
Or maybe they just don’t come out of the barracks.
With enough power, there would be no need to take on low-ranking roles like sentry duty. Let’s do this.
Just as I was about to start scouting, a very welcome message filled my vision.
All stats increased by 20% for fairness.
Receive 5% less damage from normal monsters.
Deal 5% more damage against boss monsters.
Acquire a basic map of the terrain.
They actually gave me this.
I had been worried they might not even give me this much while screwing me over, but it seemed a sense of fairness still existed in this world. Some might call these bonuses mediocre, but they were hundreds of times better than nothing. Especially important was the last perk.
Since this was a field dungeon, understanding the terrain was absolutely essential. Receiving that information from the start was an enormous advantage.
Yeah, it matches my memories perfectly.
I compared the map with my memories and confirmed that Tustosta hadn’t changed much from the game. Given that it was built by early-game monsters in the middle of a jungle, the wooden fences and thorny vines were laughably crude.
When a large party attempted a clear, the standard strategy was to set the place on fire first and then pick off the monsters one by one as they panicked. But when clearing solo, you had to approach it completely differently.
The moment you were discovered or caught late and surrounded, death was instant. Therefore, the very first thing I needed to do was—
Camouflage and infiltration.
I hid myself in a spot where the patrol route of the outdoor sentries would pass by, then waited. Soon, three monsters approached.
“Kuruk-kuruk-chweek. It’s been a while since we last ate goragorani.”
“I still don’t understand what’s so tasty about them. They’re so tough.”
“That’s exactly why we eat them, kuruk-chweek.”
The moment the monsters arrived, I observed them carefully. Three orcs wearing armor. At most it’s wooden armor… and those helmets look cheap.
It was time to spin some spider silk.