The Ghoul Champion's End
"Consuming flesh restores stamina!"
"Seolchang—!"
Whoosh—!
Crash—!
No Hayun's ice spear finished it off, shattering the creature's head into countless fragments.
The battle against the White Company led by the Ghoul Champion has ended at an astonishing speed.
You have obtained the achievement [Rotten Corpse Cleaner].
It was a modest achievement that increased damage dealt to undead monsters by 7%.
'There are quite a few achievements to be had in Nargul. This one's the lowest tier among them.'
"Kyaaak—! What the heck is this right from the start?!"
"Puhi-hi-hit—! How long has it been since I last got an achievement, meow!"
Contrary to my assessment, my party members were hopping in place with joy the moment they received the achievement.
"Haha, this is one I never managed to get. Lucky you, Hayun."
"Hehe, I told you so."
Surprisingly, it seemed No Hayun hadn't obtained it either. She was receiving congratulations from Yeom Tae-seok with flushed cheeks.
"Ugh— Ilwol, are you going to collect theirs too?"
Yeonhee pointed at the ghoul corpses scattered on the ground, wrinkling her nose while pinching it shut. The moment they were defeated, the ghoul bodies had begun rapidly decaying, releasing a horrific stench.
'Ugh... Block it.'
I shut off my senses and, together with Zombie No. 1 and No. 2, began collecting the corpses. I couldn't work on these smelly things at home, so I wanted to finish it here. There were so many that I'd probably have to store them in my subspace for now.
"I see. So Ilwol is acting as a middle manager?"
Yeom Tae-seok clapped his hands as if he'd just realized something and spoke to Yeonhee.
Ilwol-gun? Don't use such strange titles.
"Huh? Ah, something like that... I guess?"
Yeonhee gave an awkward smile and half-heartedly agreed. She'd improved a lot, but dealing with unfamiliar men still seemed difficult for her.
"It's fortunate we encountered them in the early section. If we'd met them near the exit, it would've been quite dangerous."
"I don't know... Didn't it feel pretty easy?"
"No... This wasn't a force that should feel easy. As expected..."
No Hayun trailed off and stared intently at me. Had she realized once again that the battle had gone smoothly thanks to me?
"Hmm, Eunyeong-unni was in a bit of danger, but... we've always been like this? Ah, right! Unni! What was that earlier?!"
Bae Jua rushed over to Ham Eun-yeong and demanded she finally share some information about the hand mirror. She argued that at the very least, she should tell her fellow party members what effects it had, offering a reasonable justification.
"That... this... this is..."
The being that had emerged from the hand mirror had only pushed the monster back with great force, but its ominous aura and appearance made everyone focus on Ham Eun-yeong's mouth.
"...... My grandmother... said it was a demon she caught in a higher dungeon......"
......?
What? A demon? Those beings with dark attributes?
"... Hweeeee?!"
"What?!"
"A demon!"
The beings we called demons wielded a power called demonic energy, which was so ridiculously overpowered that they were extremely troublesome to deal with. While each attribute generally had mutual strengths and weaknesses, demonic energy held superiority over all attributes except light.
'Strange. I didn't sense any particularly alien energy.'
Though I'd only been with Ham Eun-yeong for about ten days, I'd been keeping a close eye on her. Not once had I felt any such sign. Even at the moment the hand mirror had activated its ability.
When I tilted my head in confusion, Yeonhee couldn't hold back her curiosity and asked me. In the end, I admitted that I had never sensed anything like demonic energy.
"Hoo...? So you can even detect demonic energy? That's... truly..."
Yeom Tae-seok's interest in me had gone beyond mere curiosity—he was now sparkling his eyes as if he'd discovered a mimic.
This is burdensome, mister.
"It was... purified..."
"Purified? The [Purification] we know?"
"Uh-huh..."
"But how is it still alive? Demons should be weak to purification-type abilities."
"It said it was alive, but not really alive... I don't know the details either..."
"Huu... Well, being trapped inside a mirror would be like that."
If the artifact's owner didn't know, what could we say?
'It survived even after being purified... Just how powerful was it?'
"There are no dungeons in our country where demons appear, right?"
"She... apparently went overseas sometimes... before the restrictions were in place."
Ham Eun-yeong's grandmother had been requested to help in other countries several times and had caught the being then. That was all we could learn, and the conversation about the hand mirror eventually fizzled out.
We each fell into our own thoughts as we set off again. They were probably wondering whether it was right to party with a woman who handled demons.
"Puhuh... What an interesting team..."
No Hayun chuckled to herself as if she'd lost her mind.
Our party composition was certainly unusual. There were hunters who handled monsters and demons, and one regressor skeleton. A rabbit beastkin wasn't common either. Was Jua the most normal one? With Yeom Tae-seok's light-attribute skills, at least some balance was maintained.
Since I was the strangest one anyway, I decided not to think about it anymore.
More than that, the skill I'd obtained from defeating the ghoul earlier was intriguing.
Consume
When consuming the flesh of a living being, stamina is restored by 5.
When consuming the flesh of a corpse, mana is restored by 5.
'......'
I flinched for a moment at the word "consume," but just as I'd managed to progress Irmaena's quest somehow, there would surely be a way to utilize this too. It wouldn't be easy, of course.
'Should I try tearing into some at dawn... Damn it...'
A wave of self-loathing hit me for an instant, but there was no choice. I had to adapt. It might be a skill that would help someday.
*
Thirty minutes had passed.
Step— Step—
We were still marching.
Swish—
The dried, twisted branches and leaves turned to dust and scattered chaotically in all directions. In this dungeon filled only with death, the only living, moving things were us, outsiders from another world.
"How far away are the other parties?"
A-rin was more wary of other hunter parties than the monsters. When I informed her there were two teams within 200 meters, the others also showed signs of tension.
'They're worrying about everything.'
With our current strength, we could easily chew up most C-grade parties at the bottom. It was clear who should be afraid of whom.
In reality, whenever we got close to another party, they often cleared the path for us instead.
"It's strangely hard to even see another person's nose around here."
That was why such words came out of Jua's mouth.
"There are fewer monsters than I expected. Has it been like this lately?"
Yeonhee casually asked No Hayun. Since she'd been coming and going here like it was her own home recently, her intuition was probably better than ours.
"It's been like this lately. Then suddenly variants appear."
"By variants, you mean the giant types, right?"
"Yes. Not the slightly larger ones that usually appear, but the real giant types. I've encountered them once."
She meant giant skeleton-types over 5 meters tall, not the adult-male-sized shield-bearing giants occasionally mixed into the Decurion.
"Despite their size, they're fast too, so they gave me quite a hard time. I should say I was lucky, really. Right?"
"Right. Even though I've been coming and going here for over two years, they've been appearing too frequently lately. Is the world really collapsing..."
In truth, the fact that "The Witch" had given Hayun the ring was more influenced by such variables.
Yeom Tae-seok clicked his tongue worriedly and refocused on guarding the surroundings.
After hearing Yeom Tae-seok's words, No Hayun spoke in a calm yet resolute voice, as if steeling her own resolve.
"That's why we need to work harder. If even we don't try, all these creatures will end up spilling outside. That would be too horrifying."
"......"
People looked at Hayun in surprise, but she scratched her face without avoiding their gazes.
'Why the sudden righteous act? It was just the other day that she attacked me out of nowhere.'
As someone who'd been directly attacked, I could only find it absurd. But I didn't show it.
Besides, everyone has multiple sides to them. She had been an incredibly annoying existence at first, but what mattered was that she was helping us now.
We walked again, sharing various conversations. The topic that caught my attention the most was, of course, the dungeon's anomalies.
"'Monster Drop,' which used to only occur on the second underground floor, has been happening occasionally on the first floor too."
No Hayun explained with a more serious expression than ever. The term "Monster Drop" she'd used was from a famous game, but the situation matched so perfectly that it had become the standard term.
"What... That wasn't on the internet."
"So you're saying monsters could suddenly pour out in huge numbers, meow?"
Just as A-rin asked in shock, it referred to the phenomenon where dozens or hundreds of monsters opened portals and burst out in surprise attacks. It hadn't happened ten years ago, but the frequency had gradually increased, and now it was appearing even on the first underground floor of this dungeon.
In other words, while walking like this, we could be surrounded by hundreds of ghouls and Skeleton Decurions. Just imagining it gave me goosebumps.
"H-how many times have you experienced it?"
"What? Monster Drop?"
"Yeah!"
"Twice...? Or was it?"
"Including the ones with me, it's three times."
Yeom Tae-seok shook his head and reminded No Hayun of her memory. Judging by his expression, it wasn't something that happened in just a day or two.
"Wow! But how did you survive?"
A-rin seemed to think Monster Drop was an accident that could endanger lives, and asked No Hayun with a hint of respect.
"Ahem— Well, of course. If I spread an ice field first, no matter what suddenly pops out, I can freeze it right away."
No Hayun shrugged slightly and put on an expression that said it was nothing, just trust her.
But Yeom Tae-seok beside her shook his head again and corrected her, saying it had actually been dangerous every time.
"Ah... Seriously. Why are you like this, mister?"
Thinking it made her look bad, Hayun whined at Yeom Tae-seok for no reason.
Yeom Tae-seok said that wasn't the case. He had probably been watching over Hayun since she was young. I could easily guess from the warm uncle-like gaze in Yeom Tae-seok's eyes when looking at her.
We passed broken and damaged gravestones in various places and entered a path where the ground was muddy like wet soil.
'Poison slimes appear here occasionally too.'
Slimes with poison attributes appeared in this terrain with a very low probability, so I couldn't afford to let my guard down.
Step— Step—
Our movement continued for another twenty minutes, and we were starting to feel impatient.
'It's not just around us. There are no monsters within a 480-meter radius.'
It was a similar situation to when we'd encountered the goblin village in the Goblin Dungeon before. When the number of monsters decreased compared to usual, other variables inevitably became more likely to occur.