Dungeon Mutation
I left the safe zone alone and wandered the grassland steeped in thick darkness.
The mana density has stopped rising.
The concentration of mana I could feel against my skin no longer swelled. It was a clear sign the dungeon itself had settled at C-rank.
Thank god it hadn’t spiked all the way to B. If it had, I wouldn’t be strolling around this casually right now.
I killed skeletons as I walked at a leisurely pace. Thanks to the mutation finishing, the mana inside the dungeon was far clearer to read.
Following the flow of mana, I could roughly sense the direction of the boss.
Boss is that way, huh.
I left markers so I wouldn’t get lost and walked for about another hour. In the considerable distance ahead, a medieval European-style castle came into view.
So that’s where the boss is.
That was when it happened.
Carried on the wind came desperate screams and the sharp clash of metal.
“Fuck, there’s too many of them!”
“Ha Seung-jin! Left side, watch the magic!”
“Kh!”
I tracked the source of the voices. There, in the middle of the grassland, a single party was surrounded by a swarm of hundreds of skeletons. The four hunters looked already at their limit, bodies stained with blood and dust as they desperately held on.
“Do-yoon, careful!”
“Seo-ah, the magic?!”
“I’m casting, just hold on a little longer!”
I drew a little closer and confirmed their faces—then I had no choice but to freeze.
Han Seo-ah? And Baek Do-yoon?
High school classmates. The so-called protagonists of the school back then. Baek Do-yoon had top-tier grades and was good at every sport; Han Seo-ah had been the object of everyone’s longing with her dazzling looks. I still remembered it clearly.
Those two are still stuck together even after becoming hunters.
They probably didn’t even remember my name. We’d been in the same class, but we’d never properly exchanged a single word.
I coldly assessed the situation.
Baek Do-yoon was somehow holding out with a massive shield raised, but even that was already at its limit. Han Seo-ah’s robe was torn in places as she gasped for breath.
The other teammates were in even worse shape. One was limping; the other looked like he couldn’t even put strength into the arm holding his weapon.
At this rate they’ll be wiped out in under a minute.
A moment of hesitation flickered through my mind.
Should I help?
Honestly, I couldn’t care less whether that bastard Baek Do-yoon died or not. But the thought of Han Seo-ah dying here felt a little wasteful.
After all, she had been my first love in my school days.
Back then there wasn’t a single guy who didn’t like Han Seo-ah.
Especially her radiant golden hair and clear blue eyes—they made her a one-of-a-kind existence.
I’d heard her mother was Russian. That was probably why her features mixed Eastern structure with Western coloring in such a mysterious way; every time you looked at her, you couldn’t help but admire it.
The only problem was that Baek Do-yoon stuck to her side every single day, driving nails into the chests of countless guys.
Under the pretext of being childhood friends, they’d built a solid wall. A regular student like me could only watch from afar.
Whatever. Might as well help.
I slowly drew my sword.
Hwaaah—!
Pitch-black flames swallowed the blade and writhed fiercely. Mana drawn up from my dantian flowed through my meridians and condensed at the tip of the sword.
I immediately kicked off the ground and shot forward.
“Seo-ah! No!”
Baek Do-yoon’s desperate scream rang across the grassland. His figure, blocked by the skeleton horde while clutching his massive shield and howling, flashed past me.
Dozens of skeleton knights raised their swords as one, about to bring them down. Han Seo-ah squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the death she couldn’t possibly avoid.
Kwaaaaang—!
A thunderous roar exploded as black flames burst outward. The ground shook for an instant, and the dozens of skeleton knights that had been about to crush Han Seo-ah were swept up in the fire and instantly scattered into bone dust.
“……”
Han Seo-ah, who had been waiting for death, slowly opened her eyes. What unfolded before her was an unbelievable sight. The skeleton knights that had been pressing down on them had evaporated without a trace of form, leaving only afterimages of black flame drifting in the air.
And at the center of it all stood me.
I turned my head and looked at her. Through her disheveled hair, her eyes were filled with shock and confusion.
“You okay?”
“Ah……”
Instead of answering, Han Seo-ah just stared blankly at me. Her beauty still overlapped perfectly with the image in my memories.
“……Who are you?”
As expected, she didn’t recognize me.
“Just a passerby.”
With that short reply I shot forward again to clean up the remaining skeletons. I dove into the bone horde blocking Baek Do-yoon and his teammates.
Kwajik!
The black flames wrapping my blade tore through a skeleton’s breastplate like paper. A fluid spinning slash that followed sliced the air, and the three skeletons pressing Baek Do-yoon were instantly separated into upper and lower halves that scattered away.
“Huh…?”
Baek Do-yoon’s eyes went wide behind his shield as he prepared for death. He wore an expression that said he simply couldn’t believe the monsters that had been driving him into a corner had turned to dust in a single strike.
I didn’t stop. I kicked off the ground, leapt into the air, and brought my sword down.
Kuuung—!
The moment I landed, black flame spread in every direction and swallowed the remaining stragglers. Where the fire had swept through once, only scorched earth and drifting bone dust remained.
The situation was over in mere tens of seconds.
I sheathed my sword and looked at Baek Do-yoon. He was staring up at me with his mouth hanging open.
“Snap out of it. Unless you want to die.”
At my indifferent voice, Baek Do-yoon flinched and trembled.
“Ah, th-thank you.”
“Save the thanks for later and follow me. If we stay here any longer the next pack will show up.”
Baek Do-yoon steadied his swaying body, grabbed his shield, and stood. Han Seo-ah also planted her staff with trembling hands and barely managed to get upright. The other injured men supported each other and prepared to follow behind me.
I took the lead without hesitation and started walking.
While we walked in silence, Han Seo-ah’s thin voice came from behind me.
“…Lee Seo-jun, right?”
“Yeah. Figured you wouldn’t recognize me. How’d you know?”
“You gave me chocolate once, a long time ago.”
I never expected her to still remember that. Back then I’d just casually handed over a single chocolate among a crowd of guys.
“You still remember that?”
“I’ve got a good memory.”
“Seo-ah, you know him? Who is he?”
Baek Do-yoon asked with a puzzled look.
“You don’t remember? Second year, the kid who sat in the back of our class. Always quiet, always staring out the window.”
Baek Do-yoon furrowed his brow as if digging through his memories, but still wore an expression that said he couldn’t place me.
“There was a kid like that……?”
To him I’d been nothing more than background scenery with zero presence. His reaction was only natural.
“Cut the chatter and keep up.”
Then the man who looked the oldest carefully opened his mouth while anxiously scanning the surroundings.
“Hold on a second. Where exactly are we going right now?”
“To the safe zone. My party’s resting there, so it’ll be safe for a while.”
“A safe zone… that’s a relief.”
“About an hour’s walk from here.”
I looked forward again and kept walking. Han Seo-ah drew right up beside me and carefully spoke.
“It’s late, but… thank you for saving us.”
“Don’t worry about it. You were right in front of me, so I helped.”
At those words Han Seo-ah smiled faintly.
“Still, I was surprised. I didn’t even know you’d become a hunter, and I definitely didn’t know you’d be this amazing. Honestly, that flame earlier… it was incredible.”
I pretended to be indifferent on the outside, but I couldn’t quite stop the corner of my mouth from twitching at my first love’s praise.
She’s even prettier than she was in high school.
I stole glances at her face and the tantalizing cleavage peeking through her torn robe without getting caught, then checked Baek Do-yoon out of the corner of my eye.
He clearly didn’t like the sight of me walking side by side with Han Seo-ah.
So they are dating after all?
Back in high school, whenever people around them asked if they were a couple, the two of them would draw a firm line and say they were just childhood friends.
But seeing how they’d stuck together all this time, the odds they were more than simple friends were high.
Now that I’d actually saved her, the thought that just rescuing her and leaving it at that would be a waste settled in.
I couldn’t take Han Seo-ah’s first time, but from the second time onward I’m claiming her.
While we walked in silence, my gaze kept drifting toward Han Seo-ah.
“Seo-jun, did you see any other survivors? Besides us, it seemed like quite a few teams had entered.”
Baek Do-yoon casually switched to informal speech and inserted himself between us. His transparent intention to put distance between me and Han Seo-ah made a hollow laugh slip out.
“Dunno. This is the first other party I’ve run into too.”
At my indifferent answer Baek Do-yoon narrowed his brows and started to open his mouth again. That was when the safe zone came into view, so I pointed at the cabin with my chin.
“There.”
The moment Han Seo-ah spotted the light of the blue barrier, the tension drained from her and she let out a breath of relief. The injured party members beside her also dragged their exhausted bodies and quickened their steps.
When we entered the cabin, Park Yu-jin spotted me and approached with a bright face—then froze when she saw the unfamiliar people following behind me.
“Huh? Seo-jun-ssi, who are the people behind you?”
“Picked them up while scouting. More importantly, where’s everyone else?”
Looking around, the numbers were short.
“Well…”
Park Yu-jin glanced warily at Baek Do-yoon’s group in the back, then leaned in close and whispered in my ear.
“While you were gone, that guy… he dragged people along, packed the gear, and left. Said they could get out just fine without you.”
“So they crawled out on their own two feet to commit suicide.”
At my cold reply Park Yu-jin simply nodded. They were bastards who’d only been alive thanks to me in the first place. Whether the ones who left lived or died was none of my business.
“You lot stop standing around and rest. Yu-jin, treat the injured.”
“Got it.”
While Park Yu-jin approached Baek Do-yoon’s group, handed out potions, and checked their wounds, I called Choi Jae-hyuk and Kim Ha-eun aside.
“For the time being, act like normal people.”
“When have we ever acted abnormal…”
Choi Jae-hyuk muttered as if he felt wronged, but I cut him off with a cold look.
“Think about everything you’ve done to me so far. You were no different from thugs rolling around on the street.”
“Ahem… well… we do feel bad about that.”
Choi Jae-hyuk cleared his throat and avoided my eyes.
“Y-yeah…. We just didn’t know you were this strong. Back then we were only being hard on you to help you grow…”
Kim Ha-eun chimed in from the side while carefully watching my expression.
“Cut the bullshit and don’t do anything weird. Unless you want to die.”
At my warning the two of them gulped and nodded. I turned and walked over to where Han Seo-ah was.
“You feeling okay?”
Han Seo-ah gave a light nod and smiled.
“Yeah, thanks to you I’m fine. I really thought I was going to die.”
I asked Baek Do-yoon next to her out of courtesy as well.
“You.”
“I’m fine too, thanks to you.”
This time Han Seo-ah cut in with a question for me.
“By the way… are you the leader of this party?”
“That’s right.”
“Already a leader—that’s impressive.”
“So you only came in with four people?”
“No… we noticed the dungeon mutation right away and tried to escape immediately. But the terrain suddenly changed and we got separated from the rest of the party. They’re probably all scattered by now.”
Han Seo-ah’s voice trailed off bitterly. Baek Do-yoon asked from beside her.
“So how long does this safe zone last?”
“Dunno…”
We’d already stayed in the safe zone for quite a while. Even I didn’t know when it would end.
[Han Seo-ah]
