It's My First Time in a Gate-3
It's My First Time in a Gate-3
The dungeon we crossed into through the Gate looked like the interior of a massive mansion.
Endless, tangled corridors stretched out before us.
It was the kind of mansion interior where antique wooden doors were scattered along the walls on both sides.
As we walked down the hallway, the doors on the walls would occasionally open, and monsters would pop out to attack. And the types of monsters that appeared were undead.
Undead like skeletons made of bone, and zombies with their entire bodies rotting away.
Honestly.
'[Mansion of the Dead], huh. I don't know which kid came up with that name, but it's truly an exquisite choice.'
Without a shred of tension, Kang Yeo-ryeong simply thought this while observing the dungeon.
Conversely, Kang Baek-ho and his two younger brothers were quite busy.
Unluckily, four of the doors sparsely located along the walls on both sides had opened simultaneously, and a massive number of undead had poured out.
Of course, there were only a lot of them. They weren't a threat.
"Haa-!"
Crunch!
With a shout, the head of the skeleton struck by Kang Baek-ho's sword burst like a mountain ginseng.
The skeleton's body, having lost its head, collapsed like a doll with cut strings and ceased to function.
After finishing off the last skeleton, Kang Baek-ho let out a deep breath and said.
"So, is it manageable?"
Kang Baek-ho said, turning to look at Kang Yeo-ryeong.
Perhaps it was because we had entered the Gate. The gaze looking at Kang Yeo-ryeong. The voice speaking to Kang Yeo-ryeong. And the gestures, and so on.
The slimy, sinister malice exuding from all of it had grown even thicker.
Yes. That's right.
Once you're inside a Gate, it's hard to run away no matter what happens to you.
However, Kang Yeo-ryeong didn't care.
She simply looked at the kid who used the name Kang Baek-ho, and the malice-filled desire displayed by Kang Baek-ho's two younger brothers, as if they were cute.
At the same time.
"I haven't really done anything, though. You guys are the ones working harder."
As if she knew nothing of the malice they were spewing.
Kang Yeo-ryeong just looked around, acting as if she found the first Gate she'd entered since becoming a Hunter fascinating.
Of course, that wasn't a lie.
The space inside the Gate was certainly fascinating.
Also, Kang Yeo-ryeong could understand how the Gate was structured.
When Hunters cross a Gate, they feel like they are passing through a thin membrane made of water.
Once you pass through that thin membrane, a world completely different from Earth reveals itself.
That is why Hunters believe the Gate is a kind of different dimension entirely separate from Earth.
However, having experienced it herself, Kang Yeo-ryeong could tell that was wrong.
The Gate was not a separate dimension completely different from Earth.
It was merely a kind of void zone situated between the dimension humans can perceive and the dimension they cannot.
A void situated between the 3rd and 4th dimensions.
Or perhaps a void situated between the 4th and 5th dimensions.
Simply put, if there were a large house with several rooms.
Earth would be the living room of the house, and the space inside the Gate would be one of the many rooms you could enter after passing through the living room.
The thin, water-like membrane felt when crossing a Gate is just the door to enter the room.
In other words, the Gate is not an invasion from another dimension, as is the setting borrowed in various novels.
It is merely a completely natural phenomenon occurring in the dimension to which the planet Earth belongs.
It is not an error caused by the intervention of a divine or cosmic being.
Perhaps that was why.
Kang Yeo-ryeong's interest in the Gate cooled slightly.
And one more thing.
'Yes, that's right. If it's made with this mechanism, I could conceive a Gate too.'
Kang Yeo-ryeong is a Mother. And a Mother is an adult.
Therefore, Kang Yeo-ryeong hid the fact that her interest in the Gate had cooled, and thought to herself while acting like Hunter Kang Yeo-ryeong, looking around here and there as if the first Gate she entered was fascinating.
Of course, she wouldn't conceive a Gate right now.
Considering the impact she caused when she conceived life last time, perhaps she shouldn't conceive a Gate.
No, life and a Gate are completely different things. So perhaps it wouldn't have as big an impact on the surroundings as when she conceived a tool.
Although she didn't know what kind of impact the space inside a Gate she conceived would have on humans.
Still. Yes.
That's right.
'I will try conceiving one someday, though.'
There will come a day when I conceive a Gate. Thinking that, Kang Yeo-ryeong looked at Kang Baek-ho and his two younger brothers.
The deeper we went into the Gate, the thicker the desire, wrapped in the shell of slimy and sinister malice, flowing from them became.
If a little more time passed like this, those kids would fully express their desires.
So, Kang Yeo-ryeong subtly shifted her gaze to look at the porter.
The porter, who still had a touch of freshness somewhere. Looking somewhat tired due to the harsh labor. With a slightly thin body. And the kid, with various old scars located all over their body that couldn't even be fully covered by clothes, was moving busily.
Perhaps because they had no unique traits or skills.
In a situation where they didn't know when a monster might pop out and attack, tension was visible in the kid's two eyes.
Nevertheless, the kid faithfully performed their role as a porter.
They ran around the remains of the skeletons and zombies that Kang Baek-ho and his two younger brothers had cleared, gathering things that could be sold for money.
The skeletons, which were just bones, were fine.
But every time she passed between the zombies made of rotting flesh, various filth smeared onto her pants.
However, she didn't even care about the filth on her clothes, just mechanically wandering between the corpses that had ceased to function, gathering things that could be sold.
As she was watching that scene quietly, a man approached Kang Yeo-ryeong's side and said.
"Hehe, Noona. Could you perhaps heal this?"
Kang Yeo-ryeong turned her head to look at the man speaking in a voice as servile as his smile.
He was holding a spear.
That meant he was one of Kang Baek-ho's two younger brothers.
So, his name was....
"I'm Shin Dae-jin, Noona."
"So it was Shin Dae-jin."
"That's right, Noona. More importantly, could you do this...."
Kang Baek-ho's younger brother, who introduced himself as Shin Dae-jin, subtly held out his right arm.
A small wound was carved into his arm. Judging by the shape of the wound, it looked like he had been bitten by a skeleton, but wouldn't a B-rank Hunter not even consider this a wound?
It was a little funny to ask for healing for a wound that was embarrassing to even call a scratch.
Still, since she was with these kids as a Hunter specialized in recovery and buffs.
Kang Yeo-ryeong placed her hand on the wound on Shin Dae-jin's arm with a soft, benevolent smile that reminded one of a mother.
And then.
【Mother's Touch】
She muttered the name of the skill softly.
Then, a warm yet soft light bloomed faintly from Kang Yeo-ryeong's hand.
The light that bloomed from Kang Yeo-ryeong's hand soon gently permeated Shin Dae-jin's wound.
Reciting the skill name. The warm light flowing out. The light gently wrapping around the wound.
Everything was just a simple performance, but the effect was certain.
Shin Dae-jin's wound disappeared in an instant.
Hunter. It was just a wound that would be laughable to call a scratch by B-rank Hunter standards. Even though it was a fairly serious wound by a normal person's standards, it didn't even take 1 second to recover.
"Wow...."
Shin Dae-jin looked at his arm, where the wound had disappeared cleanly, and marveled.
He knew she had a recovery skill.
But he hadn't expected the skill's effect to be this outstanding.
And what was it he said?
Something about how if it's this much, shouldn't she be an S-rank Hunter, not A-rank?
"It seems the Association didn't judge me to be at that level."
"Ha, those bastards at the Hun-hyeop, what should I say. It's just frustrating to watch them, you know?"
As Kang Yeo-ryeong smiled softly and said that, Shin Dae-jin grumbled and returned to Kang Baek-ho.
While doing so, he whispered something like, 'It's a jackpot, Hyung-nim,' and Kang Baek-ho also whispered in a low voice.
The more they whispered in voices too small for a normal Hunter to hear, the more the desire they exuded grew in size.
Once the desire started to swell, it could no longer be suppressed.
On the contrary, as time passed, the desire continued to swell, and the desire that had repeatedly swelled like that eventually burst.
The place where the desire burst was the moment we arrived at a kind of [Safety Zone] that exists in the [Mansion of the Dead].
[Safety Zone].
It is a safe area that occasionally appears in persistent/dungeon-type Gates.
It is a space where, strangely, monsters do not perceive you once you enter. Hunters use it as a base camp in persistent/dungeon-type Gates where they have to stay for a long time.
Of course, the kids' desire didn't burst the moment they entered the [Safety Zone].
It was the moment the porter set up the base camp in the [Safety Zone] that the kids burst their desire.
"Ha, fuck. I almost died holding it in."
Clatter-.
Kang Baek-ho looked at Kang Yeo-ryeong with words that didn't hide—no, couldn't hide—the desire smeared all over them.
In his hands, instead of a sword and shield, he held a chain made by weaving human bones. At the end of the chain sat a dull shackle glistening with a black luster, and the dull shackle was fastened to Kang Yeo-ryeong's right ankle.
"What is this?"
When Kang Yeo-ryeong asked, pointing to the shackle fastened to her ankle—the one that had been fastened to the kid who used to be a porter—Kang Baek-ho let out a hehe, sinister laugh.
"What do you mean, what is it. It means you're mine now."
While saying that, Kang Baek-ho explained with a sinister laugh that the chain with the shackle was an artifact, its name was the [Chain of Obedience], and its effect was to make the target wearing the shackle a slave who could not disobey his orders.
'Sorry, but I don't feel anything.'
However, those kids seem to think I'm completely caught in the [Chain of Obedience], and they're still letting out sinister laughs.
Laughter filled with desire made of lust.
Meanwhile, the kids have expressions like they want to ravage me right now, but unfortunately, that's impossible.
The moment the kids were led by their desire and tried to ravage me.
Graaaaah-!
Undead poured out and rushed in from all sides.
Skeletons and zombies. And ghouls.
Besides that, various other undead became a giant wave and swallowed the [Safety Zone].
"Wh, what are these!"
Kang Baek-ho, who had been rejoicing over making Kang Yeo-ryeong his own slave through the [Chain of Obedience], shouted with a bewildered expression.
It wasn't just Kang Baek-ho who was bewildered.
His two younger brothers were also thoroughly bewildered by the undead pouring in like a tidal wave from all sides.
Wasn't this a [Safety Zone]?
No, this place was indeed a [Safety Zone]. The [Mansion of the Dead] was a dungeon that countless Hunters had been coming and going from to hunt until now, and every time, this place had been used as a base camp for Hunters.
In other words, there was no way this place wasn't a [Safety Zone].
Nevertheless, the monsters were rushing in.
This was no different from the absolute truth that "water flows from top to bottom" being broken in an instant.
However, the kids' bewilderment was short.
Although the monsters perceived the kids in the [Safety Zone], that was all.
This place is the [Mansion of the Dead].
The rank is only C-rank.
Although there were only three kids, the kids' rank was B-rank.
No matter how many monsters rushed in, if the three kids combined their strength, they could sufficiently deal with it.
However, the kids didn't do that.
No, to be precise, they couldn't.
The kids had witnessed it.
The monster situated on the other side of the undead, who were tangled together and rushing in as a giant wave.
The body was made only of bone like a skeleton.
However, it wore a tattered robe over the bones, and in one hand, it held a terrible staff made by weaving various lives together.
Grayish magic power was surging from it.
"Lich-! Why is something like that in the [Mansion of the Dead]!"
Kang Baek-ho, who realized its identity, shouted in a voice filled with despair.
Lich.
A monster that reigns at the pinnacle of the undead world.
It uses various magic based on massive magic power, and even the weakest individual possesses power that surpasses A-rank.
That meant, even if all three kids were B-rank, it was the appearance of a monster they dared not handle.
[All of them. Bite. Them to pieces.]
When the Lich pointed its empty left hand at Kang Baek-ho and his younger brothers and gave the order, the undead's offensive became even more intense.
If you kill one, two take its place.
If you kill two, four take their place.
If you kill four, eight take their place.
The three kids eventually gritted their teeth and ran away from the endlessly pouring undead.
No matter how much they were B-rank Hunters, they were also human.
Even if they possessed power that transcended humans through awakening, the limit of their stamina was clear.
In the end, the kids chose to run away from here, thinking that if they kept dealing with the pouring undead like this, they would run out of stamina and die.
"You! You follow too... This fucking shit!"
Kang Baek-ho, who remembered Kang Yeo-ryeong belatedly, tried to give an order in a hurry, but it was useless.
The [Chain of Obedience], which he had discovered by chance and had been using usefully until now, was shattered to pieces, and only the fragments were rolling on the floor.
Naturally, the shackle fastened to Kang Yeo-ryeong's right ankle had also been broken for a long time.
For a moment, he was angry that the artifact was broken, but Kang Baek-ho took only his two younger brothers and left the [Safety Zone].
However, the kids abandoned the porter who had been restrained by the [Chain of Obedience] for a long time and then released, and me, whom they had tried to make a new slave.
Yes, that's right.
Humans are inherently.
"They were kids who valued their own lives more than anything else."
I do not blame Kang Baek-ho and his two younger brothers for abandoning me and running away.
Inherently, humans are like those kids.
'But why aren't those kids coming to me?'
Thinking that to herself, Kang Yeo-ryeong turned her head to look at the kid who had been a porter.
The porter, who was being chewed on by the endlessly rushing undead.
Although they had no unique traits. No skills. But perhaps because they had awakened and possessed magic power.
Even though their whole body was being chewed on by the undead, the porter was still alive.
And the living porter begged in a voice that was dying.
Please...
"...Save me...."
Ah, poor kid.
A poor kid who, despite finally becoming free thanks to unintended luck, could not fully enjoy that freedom.
Ah, really.
"You are a poor and unlucky kid."
Kang Yeo-ryeong, who muttered as if whispering, walked toward the porter.
Sapak. Sapak. Sapak.
As Kang Yeo-ryeong walked toward the porter little by little with a soft gait, the undead filling the surroundings split left and right, making a path toward the porter.
No, to be precise, the Lich had ordered it.
The Lich, who had called off the undead, looked at Kang Yeo-ryeong with the blue will-o'-the-wisp blooming in its empty eye sockets.
And Kang Yeo-ryeong arrived in front of the poor kid along the path made by the undead split left and right, and said.
"Do you want to live?"
"I... want to... live...."
"If you survive here. What do you want to do?"
"Re... venge...."
At the porter's answer, Kang Yeo-ryeong smiled softly.
And then.
"I met a poor kid when I went to the Hun-hyeop to register as a Hunter. That kid was swept away by the debris of a collapsed building, and their lower body was completely crushed. They had wounds that wouldn't be strange no matter when they died. So, I gave that poor kid a little help."
The porter could not understand what Kang Yeo-ryeong was saying.
In the first place, the porter was already in a state where it wouldn't be strange if they were already dead. Only the anger and resentment toward Kang Baek-ho and his two younger brothers, who had used them like a slave through an artifact, and the desire for revenge were holding onto the porter's breath until now.
Kang Yeo-ryeong.
I. Said, looking at such a porter.
"Ah, poor kid. Please, I hope you can achieve the revenge you desire."
With those words, I kissed the porter's forehead.
【Mother's Kiss】