An Unexpected Gate
Ham Eun-yeong fidgeted, her voice barely above a whisper. "With the duel only four days away... shouldn't we at least do some team training to prepare for fighting the Ilseom Guild...?"
She seemed far more worried about the upcoming sparring match than the dungeon itself. So that was why her songs kept cutting off mid-battle. 'Hmm... Hayun's going in first, so she won't get hurt. As long as I do my part, there shouldn't be any major problems.'
The others didn't seem nearly as anxious as they had when they first heard about the duel. Though Yeon-hee tended to overshadow them, everyone gathered here possessed talent that placed them in the top one percent. They could all sense that my combat ability far surpassed C-grade. Even the fused No. 1 Brothers would give a solo C-grade hunter a hard time, and if I summoned the Dragon Sword on top of that, the reclusive sword fanatics of Ilseom Guild holed up in the mountains would probably have a heart attack.
"We'll need to practice against Arin, but I don't think we have to do it for days on end. How about we do it the day before the duel? I think just me and Yeon-hee will be enough."
'She's not assuming I'll take them all down by myself, at least.'
"Please don't let me get dragged into this."
Jua pretended to be weak, prompting No Hayun to scold her with clear displeasure.
"Stop trying to coast. You need to run simulations in your head too."
"Of course I will! But still, make sure I don't have to fight! I'm absolute trash against anyone who closes in for melee. My best bet is surrounding myself with rocks and waiting for a counter."
"That's entirely dependent on how you fight. Nothing's more dangerous to a hunter than a trapped mindset."
"Blaaah—"
"Ugh, how childish."
When Jua stuck her tongue out, Hayun recoiled in genuine disgust. Still, everyone seemed to take her words to heart. Even while fighting monsters, they began testing out various approaches.
'She must hear a lot from the Witch. Her advice is on another level—it's genuinely helping the whole team.'
Whoosh—!Thud!
'Okay. Fourth Hanjarling secured.'
The precious cooking ingredient known as Hanjarling only appeared once or twice a day. I snatched up every single one my senses detected and neatly stacked them in the warehouse.
"I always feel this way, but hunting with Yeon-hee is just so comfortable."
"Right? If we'd been running this with Bijeon Guild, we'd be suffering like crazy. We'd probably be stuck here for two whole weeks."
"What's wrong with our guild?"
"Be honest—you can see the difference, can't you?"
"...Yeah, I can."
After several days of nothing noteworthy happening, No Hayun looked thoroughly unmotivated. The exciting event she'd been hoping for never came, and repeatedly clearing a dungeon she'd already finished multiple times was simply boring for her.
I, on the other hand, was quite satisfied. Collecting materials for skeleton bombs and bones—the staple food for Wangwang—was a solid gain. But this flow of events felt strangely familiar...
It's not like only extreme situations help with growth. In that sense, perhaps No Hayun herself needed to change her thinking.
'When the Great Calamity appeared, it would've been better if Hayun had been there with Arin instead of me.'
She would have experienced a much higher world and would probably be acting more cautiously than she is now.
"Ugh—I'm so bored."
"?!"
"Hup...?!"
"Yah, don't jinx us like that!"
No Hayun had uttered the taboo phrase that must never be spoken inside a dungeon. Perhaps because of her desperate wish, an ominous wind began to blow as we neared the final stretch of our exploration.
'......Hm? What is that?'
Right before the boss fight, while we were replenishing our energy with the party, a small gate began to open within the range of my senses. I immediately informed my companions.
"Ooh! Finally! Let's go right now!"
"We should keep our distance and scout first—"
"I got it, so hurry up already."
No Hayun pushed me forward as if she'd been waiting for this. Everyone climbed onto the shoulders of the summoned beasts and headed toward the suddenly generated gate. Before long, we witnessed an astonishing sight.
"Huh? What are those?"
"People are walking out of the gate?"
People who were clearly East Asian were emerging from the gate one by one.
"Zhe shi nǎlǐ ya? (Where is this?)"
"Suǒyǐ wǒ cái shuō wǒmen bùyào màorán jìnqù! (That's why I said we shouldn't rush in!)"
Thanks to the system's incredible ability, I could naturally understand the meaning even though they were speaking Chinese. But the real issue was something else entirely. I had never once heard of people from another country flowing into a different dungeon through a gate.
'......What the hell is this new kind of bullshit?'
It was a party of six—three men and three women. They grew visibly tense upon seeing our party and the other hunter groups that were gradually appearing. The gate they had come through had already shrunk to the size of a baseball, so they couldn't return and were now helplessly surrounded.
"Damn it! Was this gate connected to another dungeon?"
"Now we've seen it all..."
They exchanged confused glances, sharing their bewilderment, until one stepped forward and spoke.
"Hey—! We belong to 'Steel Core' of 'Xian'!! A new passage appeared so we went in, and we ended up here! Can you tell us what dungeon this is?"
At the words of the burly woman who seemed to be their leader, the C-grade hunters—now well over ten teams—began murmuring loudly.
"Xian? Are they really Chinese? What the hell is going on?"
"Dungeons have been unstable lately... Are they even connecting to other countries now?"
"Ah... this is seriously not good. We already have enough hunters in the mountains."
"It's fascinating, but... it's dangerous, right?"
Yeon-hee looked intrigued, but every other party member reacted negatively. China had once suffered massive damage from Necrosquall, which possessed the highest combat power among all the Great Calamities that had ever appeared. Although that incident had greatly weakened them, China still maintained its status as a superpower. It was also the country with the most high-ranking hunters in the world.
As had always been the case between them and our country, there was nothing good to be gained from this connection.
'Still, it's just one small gate. For now, there shouldn't be any immediate problems. The future is what matters, though.'
If multiple passages like this appeared inside dungeons, allowing people from any country in the world to cross over, then even the somewhat managed dungeons would clearly turn into lawless zones.
'It might not even be other countries that become the problem... As time passes, perhaps other dimensions...'
Realizing my thoughts were getting too far ahead, I quickly shook my head and looked at the woman with light-blue hair who was now stepping forward.
"You must have taken a seriously wrong turn! This is Korea! This is the Frogfolk Dungeon!"
""?!""
At No Hayun's shout, the Chinese hunters from Steel Core looked utterly shocked.
— ······!
— ······?!
They exchanged heated words for a while. But soon they calmed their minds and began subtly gauging our strength.
Whoooong—
'Their mana control is incredibly delicate. They're only releasing enough mana that we wouldn't normally notice, using it to measure us.'
I was probably the only one here who had noticed. That was because, by our country's standards, they were all B-grade powerhouses.
'Doesn't seem like they're trying to attack us. If I were them, I'd approach as cautiously as possible too.'
Having determined that this dungeon wasn't particularly high-level, they finally relaxed a little and closed the distance toward us.
"Could you possibly help us get out of here?"
The leader of Steel Core made the request to No Hayun, who had stepped forward as our representative, in a surprisingly polite manner. They weren't asking for help finding the dungeon exit. They were worried about what would happen after they left.
No Hayun looked slightly disappointed by their unexpectedly courteous attitude, but she readily nodded.
"Well, I suppose this counts as an event in its own way."
"Did you just say event?"
"It's nothing. Let's go. Follow us."
'What exactly were you expecting? Did you think they'd pick a fight right away?'
No matter how strong they were, there was no reason for them to start trouble against a group of hunters several times their number.
We led them to the boss stage area.
"What? Why are there suddenly Chinese people?"
"That's what we'd like to know."
The management staff overseeing the boss fight looked troubled by the sudden development. After some discussion, we ended up unexpectedly teaming up with them for the boss battle.
"Shall we see how good these Chinese hunters are?"
"Hmph... They're probably nothing special."
But moments later.
The boss monster's head exploded in a single blow.
A Chinese woman wearing a massive power device on her forearm. When she swung her arm, the boss monster's face burst apart instantly. The explosive release of mana sent chills down the spines of many hunters who had been watching.
"......"
"They're strong..."
The Chinese hunters finished off every last variant Frogfolk in less than three minutes. Although they were a rank above us, their combat power was still impressively overwhelming. What stood out was their fighting style—they concentrated their power on a single person.
"Is that thing on her arm the 'Link' device developed in China?"
"I heard it's a device that can store a certain amount of mana. First time seeing one in person."
"It's not just for storing mana. It's a high-level piece of equipment that fuses the refined mana of all party members into one. They said China has a genius 'Inventor.' Looks like it's true."
After defeating the boss, they casually followed behind us as if it were nothing. Once outside the gate, the Chinese hunters were guided away by management officials. Before leaving, they didn't forget to thank us.
"Thanks. No Hayun of Bijeon Guild. I'll remember you."
"I didn't really do anything."
"I like your straightforward personality. Contact me anytime if you come to China."
"Sure."
Our feelings as we watched them leave were complicated.
"They weren't bad people, all things considered."
"The problem is that dungeons are becoming even more unpredictable."
"Well, it's just one or two gates. What could possibly happen?"
But that was only what we thought. That day, the same phenomenon occurred countless times across the world, and quite a few casualties resulted from conflicts between hunters of different nationalities.
The church, which now felt like our personal hideout. On our way back from the dungeon, we stopped by and suddenly noticed how excessively dark the atmosphere inside was. Yeon-hee said it felt like she'd be coming here often, so she used her summoned beasts to clear away all the randomly scattered chairs and everything else, pushing them against the walls.
"It's much more spacious now that we've cleared it out, right?"
"Clack clack!"
"Hoo—I'm nervous."
There was only one reason Yeon-hee was nervous. It was finally time to use the Mysterious and Auspicious Summoning Scroll she had obtained after completing the quest to defeat five hundred monsters by herself.
It was the quest reward she had received after going through all sorts of ordeals in the Dungeon of Nargul. A summoning scroll that might never be obtained again.
"Don't get your hopes up too high, but... at the very least, something on the level of the Dragon Sword should come out, right?"
"Clack clack!"