Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 166
Chapter Title: 39. Sleeping with the Enemy (1)
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Dungeon.
An otherworldly space you could only enter by piercing through bizarre weather every night and using a golden orb.
It guaranteed at least a Unique item as a reward, but even those who had challenged it once found it incredibly hard to return for a second try.
That was because the dungeon's difficulty was sky-high, structured in utterly unpredictable ways.
Anyone who truly understood how vicious these dungeons were would see their revisit rate plummet.
Take right now, for instance.
‘At this rate, no one would ever want to come back to a dungeon.’
Young-woo stared incredulously at the dungeon portal, now quite close.
The portal was so enormous that its edges were no longer visible in his field of view.
Kwaaaa!
Just as the tower carrying the two entered inside the ring of light forming the portal's outer edge, the information for this dungeon finally revealed itself.
Paat!
[Temple of Valor]
| Dungeon Grade: Normal
| Difficulty: C
| Recommended Personnel: 6
“Recommended personnel: 6...?”
Young-woo’s face showed a hint of surprise, and Jeong-gu asked with a terrified expression.
“Why... why? What is it?”
“The number is twice as many as last night.”
[Pain of Iria]
| Dungeon Grade: Normal
| Difficulty: D
| Required Personnel: 3
The dungeon where Young-woo had played the role of noob hunter yesterday required three people and had a D-rank difficulty.
In contrast, this one recommended six with a C-rank difficulty.
Meaning it was harder than "Pain of Iria" and required more people.
“Still, it’s just a recommendation, right? So... it means we can go even without all six?”
“That’s the problem. It implies we might end up starting the dungeon short-handed.”
“......”
Jeong-gu, who hadn’t experienced a dungeon yet, only felt vague anxiety, but Young-woo was different.
‘Why recommended? Is this one without any required roles?’
As Young-woo broke into a cold sweat, the tower carrying father and son entered the portal.
Kwaaaa!
The surroundings seemed to dye blue for a moment, then plunged into pitch-black darkness.
Swaa!
No, more precisely, they had passed through the portal and arrived in an entirely different space.
The temperature and air felt utterly alien against their skin.
“W-What is this?”
Jeong-gu gripped his sword tightly and looked around, and at that moment, a faint light came on at the top of the tower still carrying the two.
Taat!
Only then did they grasp what kind of space they were in.
Gooo...
The sound of wind was distant, yet carried an immense sense of volume.
Young-woo and Jeong-gu were inside an unbelievably massive cave.
“Shit.”
Jeong-gu glanced down without thinking and trembled at the unfathomable depth.
“Where the hell is this...? Is it always like this?”
“Yes. Probably somewhere in outer space.”
Suk.
Young-woo looked up, and a tiny yellow dot entered his vision.
The moment he saw that ‘dot,’ he intuited what would happen next.
“That’s the entrance to the waiting room.”
“...Huh?”
“It looks like a dot from here because it’s still far away. In reality, it’s a hole exactly matching the size of this platform we’re on. The reason it looks yellow is the lighting inside.”
“How do you know all this so well?”
“Second time, remember?”
This was his first time in this dungeon, but he had similar experience.
‘The progression is the complete opposite of last time. Back then, we descended from top to bottom, but this time we’re ascending from bottom to top.’
It’d be a lie to say he wasn’t tense.
Everyone got scared in dungeons, but Young-woo especially had more to lose relatively, so this was no easy challenge.
‘No nekgui or goblins here. Can’t loot weapons to use. Have to make do with what I’ve got.’
Of course, he had quite a lot compared to others.
His current weapons: Mythic one-handed sword Bastard, Epic one-handed sword Dragon’s Legacy, Mutated one-handed sword Dullahan’s Sword.
And.
-Weeeing.
The Legendary two-handed greatsword ‘Golden Trajectory,’ somehow still operational even inside the dungeon.
Adding the Epic-grade bow ‘White Saturation’ draped over his upper body made five weapons in total.
Still, the absence of goblins was keenly felt.
“Why... why do you keep checking your weapons? Don’t tell me you’re not confident either? That’d be a problem.”
Jeong-gu’s face had turned pale blue now, and Young-woo chuckled at him.
“It’s true I’m a bit weaker here than outside, but don’t worry too much.”
“You little shit, you’re the one doing everything that makes me worry.”
As Young-woo and Jeong-gu bickered like this, the thing that had looked like a yellow dot earlier now appeared quite close.
Suuut...
As Young-woo said, the yellow dot was a diamond-shaped hole in the cave ceiling.
Yellow light was leaking from inside it.
“Oh... it really is a hole.”
“Wonder how many people are already there.”
“People...? Oh.”
Jeong-gu belatedly recalled that the world’s top fighters gathered here and gaped.
And around then.
Kuguguguk!
The tower, ascending smoothly, shook roughly and pushed the two up toward the hole.
Drdrdrdrduk, tip!
The tower’s top shape fit perfectly into the yellow hole without a millimeter of error.
“Wow, shit.”
Confirming there was another space above the cave ceiling, Jeong-gu looked around in disbelief.
This place, bathed in soft yellowish lighting from somewhere, resembled a Colosseum—a circular stone arena.
The arena’s diameter was roughly 500 meters.
And the height...
“Ah, what’s that now.”
Jeong-gu, sounding exhausted, pointed somewhere above.
Young-woo looked up to see a massive black statue crouched upside down in the ceiling’s center, at least 100 meters high.
Like a bat in slumber.
“That looks ominous even to me.”
This was a dungeon. Such things weren’t placed without reason.
“That could be our opponent.”
Young-woo said this as he quickly scanned the Colosseum.
Far away, on one wall of the Colosseum, he spotted three massive doors.
And people gathered in front of them.
“Those are the ones who arrived first. Let’s head there.”
* * *
Clank, clank.
Thud, thud.
The reason their footsteps differed was simple.
Only Young-woo was wearing shoes.
「Mirage」 - Unique Shoes
【30% chance to evade detection.】
Jeong-gu, meanwhile, was barefoot like any wild top swordsman.
“...How do you have everything?”
“Dad’s the one who’s lacking. Merchants must’ve sold shoes by now.”
Young-woo chided him like this, then glanced at Jeong-gu’s feet.
“Why didn’t you grab some sneakers? Staff would’ve brought them if you asked.”
“They’d rip soon anyway. I want graded ones like yours.”
“Then earn money hard and buy a pair.”
“......”
Their conversation ended there.
Soon, the gathered people noticed the new arrivals and turned their heads one by one.
But.
“The atmosphere feels off.”
Young-woo twitched his nose.
He smelled blood from somewhere.
And indeed.
Clank, clank.
A bit further, bloodstains were scattered on the floor.
A violent clash had happened before the dungeon even started.
‘Ah... this’ll be a headache today.’
Young-woo started to rub his head but held back, lest it seem provocative.
Because.
『Shandong Twin Evils』
『Go Ung Sword Dragon』
『Miyagi Sword Emperor』
All the swordmasters gathered here were from East Asian countries.
‘Shandong means China, Miyagi is obviously Japan. Last one, Go Ung... Taiwan?’
And adding two top swords from South Korea.
Anyone could see this was deliberately grouping neighboring countries.
“Huh...?”
“Koreans?”
The three East Asian powerhouses already in the dungeon flinched upon seeing the father-son duo’s titles.
Numbers had been fair, one per country until now, but Korea’s addition broke the balance.
“...Why two from over there?”
The middle-aged man titled ‘Shandong Twin Evils’ asked this, and Young-woo was about to answer politely but got annoyed and shot back.
“Why the informal speech?”
“......?”
“No respect in China? You don’t know me.”
As Young-woo advanced a step with the metallic clank of his Unique shoes ‘Mirage,’ the Legendary greatsword ‘Golden Trajectory’ followed, shifting a handspan in the air.
-Weeeing.
Only then did all eyes focus on the golden greatsword.
Realizing it wasn’t just floating but a weapon that moved on its own.
“Uh... flying swordsmanship?”
Shandong Twin Evils’ eyes widened like saucers.
Not just him.
Taiwan’s Go Ung Sword Dragon and Japan’s Miyagi Sword Emperor stepped back, inhaling sharply.
Jeong-gu glanced back slightly and muttered to himself.
“Shit, I must look like dog food.”
Then he turned forward again and slung an arm over Young-woo’s shoulder.
Thup!
“E-Enough of that, son.”
“......?”
Now Young-woo’s eyes widened.
“What?”
“We... have to progress the dungeon, so let’s not fight.”
Jeong-gu wanted to show these Asian powerhouses that he outranked the one wielding flying swordsmanship.
“What the...”
Young-woo started to frown and retort, but.
Kwaak!
The woman titled Miyagi Sword Emperor slammed her sword into the ground, stopping him.
“Before more swordplay breaks out, let me greet you first. I’m Huyama Tomiko from Japan.”
『Miyagi Sword Emperor』
Huyama Tomiko. 26, female.
Her innocent face made it hard to believe she’d conquered Miyagi Prefecture with nearly 2.2 million people.
That very innocence amplified her extraordinary aura.
“Yes... I’m Jeong Young-woo from Korea.”
Young-woo bowed slightly, and Jeong-gu greeted Tomiko too.
“I’m Kim Jeong-gu. And let’s not fight, us.”
Jeong-gu waved both hands as if to calm everyone.
Then the silent Taiwanese youth spoke.
“I’m Ryu Man-ho from Go Ung City, Taiwan.”
At the cynical greeting, Young-woo bared his teeth again, but Tomiko quickly interjected with a smile.
“You two seem really upset today. There’s a difference in stances on international affairs, so they argued a bit.”
Her ‘you two’ meant Taiwan’s Ryu Man-ho and the unnamed Shandong Twin Evils middle-aged man.
Taiwan and China.
Their strained relations led to swords being drawn almost immediately upon meeting in this dungeon.
“No wonder I kept smelling blood.”
Young-woo saw small pools of blood at Ryu Man-ho and Shandong Twin Evils’ feet.
It wasn’t obvious, but they’d clashed fiercely enough to wound each other inside their armor.
‘And this woman calling that “a bit” isn’t ordinary either.’
With the situation grasped, Young-woo pointed at the massive statue hanging from the ceiling far away.
“No one knows exactly what that is yet, right?”
Tomiko bowed her head regretfully.
“Yes... but it seems we’ll have to fight it soon enough.”
“I see.”
She’s a dungeon veteran.
Young-woo raised his guard against Tomiko while surveying the vast arena space, currently just an empty field.
“We’re still one short of the recommended number.”
He wistfully hoped the Sicilian man, Otavio, would show up as the sixth.
As Young-woo gazed longingly for the sixth participant, Tomiko pointed somewhere.
“High chance we’ll have to start with just us five.”
“Why?”
Young-woo tilted his head and looked where she pointed.
In front of the three doors lined on the wall stood a stone side table.
A thick book lay open on it.
‘That’s the rulebook.’
Young-woo intuited rules were written there.
It would play the role the bonfire did in the last dungeon.
Clank, clank.
Standing before the table with a metallic clank, the familiar numeric format appeared before his eyes, as expected.
[5/6]
Five out of six recommended personnel present.
And below it.
[00:00:08]
“Huh?”
A timer counting down the final 8 seconds to timeout ticked away.