An Early Encounter
Ashuran was known as a fair being who gave exactly as much as one received. That was common knowledge, so Kwon Baek believed it without a shadow of a doubt. What kind of reward awaited him? Just thinking about it made his mouth water.
"Khhuhuhuhuhuhu, kihihihihihik—"
"Hey, Kwon Baek. Stop that creepy fucking laughing and get on with it already! I need to go eat some chicken!!"
Even though the blue-haired young man was speaking to him with rude impatience, Kwon Baek bowed politely to the red-haired man and answered respectfully.
"Of course, sir. This is a long-awaited day, so please be patient just a little longer. Isn't today the glorious day we take our first step?"
"Ugh, fine, just hurry up—"
The red-haired man clicked his tongue in frustration and forcibly sat the branch leader down on the ley line connected to the barrier. Kwon Baek simply smiled at the man's rough handling and silently began the ritual to open the transfer gate.
We arrived at a horrific scene where hundreds of hunters were impaled on thorns and dying. To be precise, there were two hundred and three of them. Even in a dungeon that saw thousands of entrants per day, that was by no means a small number.
Some of the impaled hunters had been drained so thoroughly that only wrinkled, leathery skin remained clinging to their bones, like old dried persimmons.
"Uwek— uweeeek—"
One of the men in No Hayun's party finally vomited at the sight.
'Fucking lunatics…'
Even I, who had always been described as dry and emotionless in my previous life, found this difficult to stomach.
"Uuuup—"
Both Yeonhee and Helen looked like they were barely holding back the urge to throw up. The stench of death floating in the air must have been overwhelming.
"So this is the ritual of the Blue Eye that we've only heard rumors about? My god… anyone who could do something like this deserves to suffer forever, even after death!"
"Has the ritual already progressed this far?! So quickly? Didn't we move pretty fast? It feels like this was never something we could have stopped in the first place…"
"Whoever's behind this must be really impatient. Damn it!"
Even as our party exchanged words, our actions remained extremely cautious. That was only natural. Since these bastards had gone out of their way to prevent us from coming, it was highly likely they had prepared countermeasures for our arrival.
However, the moment I arrived, I spread out a pulse and confirmed that no threats had been prepared in the surrounding area. Instead, my attention was drawn to the faint, shimmering square border surrounding the area where the thorns were embedded.
'It's a barrier… Without a barrier specialist, this will be difficult to break.'
It's a barrier! To approach anything inside that square, the barrier must first be dispelled!
"What the hell? A barrier in an E-grade dungeon?"
"Can we break it using raw mana?"
The moment Lee Jiu announced the presence of the barrier, the thirty or so hunters who had arrived after us reacted with disbelief. It was understandable. Barrier mages were an extremely rare class, usually only appearing after a second awakening. Barriers were said to be incredibly complex and delicate puzzles. They required a gentle touch capable of calmly unraveling countless intricately tangled circuits of mana. That was the job of a barrier specialist.
Unless, by some miracle, a barrier mage was present here, there was no immediate way to extract the people trapped inside.
'A barrier of this scale in an E-grade dungeon… These bastards are seriously insane.'
An ominous sense of déjà vu sharpened my nerves more than ever.
"Oh my god… what is this…"
"Dear lord…"
"Can someone please explain what's going on?!"
The hunters who arrived later rushed over to our group, who had arrived first, and asked for an explanation. We told them we had only just arrived ourselves and knew nothing. That left only one course of action.
Search.
'There must be people nearby maintaining the barrier.'
The only option was to kill whoever was sustaining the barrier and force it to collapse. Of course, the people still alive inside would likely suffer unpredictable damage during the forced dispelling, but that was still better than sitting around doing nothing.
Hmm… If they weren't hiding in the sky, then they were almost certainly somewhere on the ground we were standing on. There was also a precedent of them operating from underground.
I quietly closed my eyes and focused my sensory pulse into the earth. The colorless wave churned through the ground and rapidly burrowed downward.
'Not here… Here? Over here…? …'
I searched all over for quite a while, but contrary to expectations, I couldn't find even the slightest trace of them.
'Huh? They're not here? That doesn't make sense.'
This was a barrier large enough to contain hundreds of hunters. There should have been a significant number of people dedicated to maintaining it.
Kkhhiiiiiiik...
The people trapped inside the barrier were in such terrible agony that they couldn't even produce proper groans.
"Doesn't seem like they're here?"
"No way!!"
The other hunters seemed to share my thoughts. They each used their own abilities to tear up the ground, but it was all in vain.
'They have to be somewhere nearby. If not underground, then…'
I withdrew my sensory pulse entirely and sat down in a proper lotus position on the ground.
"Whoa…"
No Hayun, who had been staring at me intently, let out an admiring sigh. It briefly irritated me, but the feeling was quickly erased from my mind.
I pushed my concentration to its absolute limit, starting from the area closest to the barrier and gradually expanding the range. With the pulse compressed to its smallest size, the efficiency of my senses reached maximum output.
'Where are you… You have to be somewhere close…'
The pulse swept over the area, feeding me every single movement and piece of information from everyone within range. If the acquisition of information was power, then I was undoubtedly the ruler of this entire zone.
'Found you…'
Those cunning bastards had been hiding behind a massive boulder some distance away from the barrier using cognitive impairment magic. It was common knowledge that the farther one was from a barrier, the harder it was to maintain. Even if the ones casting this barrier were only D-grade, this shouldn't have been possible. No wonder it took me so long to find them.
The fact that even I had trouble detecting them suggested they were using cognitive impairment items of much higher quality than the one Lee Young-chul had used—probably in large quantities.
(Ran! Ran!!)
(Speak gently, I can hear you just fine, Ilwol, you rascal. What is it?)
I informed Ran, who had been perched on my shoulder the entire time, of the enemies' location. The quick-witted little bird immediately flew over to Yeonhee and relayed the information.
Ran talked a lot and loved to nag, but she always knew exactly what needed to be done. After listening to the fluffy white baby bird's chirping, Yeonhee nodded vigorously and quickly passed the message to Helen. Helen then swiftly moved among the other hunters and relayed the same information.
Less than a minute later, we had completely surrounded the space where the enemies were hiding and began closing in.
Woooong—
The cognitive impairment magic flickered. It seemed the people inside had noticed our approach and were preparing to come out.
Swish—
The moment the hidden enemies began to reveal themselves, the waiting hunters charged forward and unleashed a barrage of skills.
I also withdrew my sensory pulse and hurled several Skeleton Bombs toward where the enemies were hiding.
BOOOOOOOOM—!!
With a tremendous explosion, the hidden enemies were clearly revealed. Dozens of cultists had been turned into mangled wrecks by the hunters' concentrated assault, though quite a few were still alive. The survivors quickly hid behind massive monsters.
The moment those monsters appeared, every hunter present froze in shock. Their appearance was instantly recognizable to any hunter.
"Fuck… Why are these bastards here…"
"Something… is very wrong here…"
The scene revealed after the cognitive impairment was shattered far exceeded our expectations. It was enough to freeze even the hunters who had been attacking like mad.
"Chyurakum! Chiik—!"
The creatures asserted their presence with their characteristic vocalizations.
Sssss—
KWOOOOOOOOOO—!!
A thunderous roar shook the battlefield. Everyone who saw them instinctively tensed, preparing to respond according to their own judgment.
"Orcs… That physique… They're Warrior-grade…"
"This can't be happening…"
"R-run… We have to run…"
Among the countless monster species, the dominant race known as Orcs. For some unknown reason, they had crossed over to this place. Moreover, these were Orc Warriors—a rank only reachable after the next evolution of Deonni. Each one was on par with the leader of the Blue Eye organization that had chased our party to its death.
More than fifty of them had already emerged, and more were still pouring through the gate.
'This is insane. Why would something like this suddenly appear? If you're going to trigger an event, at least give us a damn warning light, you bastards.'
It bore a striking resemblance to the Orc Legion Commander's invasion—the one I didn't even want to think about. It had come without the slightest foreshadowing, there was no way to understand how it was possible, and the invaders' combat power was overwhelmingly strong. The only difference was that the gate was extremely small.
'I should be detonating bombs to set up a formation in front of the gate… but with those monstrous bastards here, that's impossible. Should I at least spread this around?'
Contaminated Breath
Since it was an open space, the effect wouldn't be very strong, but doing something—anything—would make me feel a little better.
The ideal scenario would be to detonate all the bombs at once to deal massive damage, then have everyone coordinate an all-out assault to wipe them out, killing every Orc that came through the gate. But everyone in the area, including myself, had been rendered unable to attack any further by a single person.
No. It would be more accurate to say we couldn't even move a muscle.
A tall man with long red hair and strikingly handsome features. His proportions were so unreal that even Jin-gyeong unconsciously let out a soft "Wow…"
He stood over 190 centimeters tall with a lean, agile build. His face was etched with clear irritation as he stared directly at us. He looked somewhat tired, but that was irrelevant. He was an absurdly powerful being.
A monster who absolutely should not be here.
Drrrr—
Just from the faint aura leaking from his body, the hunters' bodies began trembling violently like aspen leaves. Their legs seemed frozen to the ground, completely immobilized.
More cunning than Orcs, possessing a cool intellect like a mage, and blessed with talent surpassing any other race.
'An elf…'