Chapter 59: Mage and Alchemist (Rare)
Chapter 59: Mage and Alchemist (Rare)
“Trap… escape….”
“Caught in a trap. Escaped.”
Even though he was speaking in single, broken words, the male priest’s face was contorted in pain. But when I repeated his words, showing I understood, a look of relief flashed across his face. He seemed to be mistaking us for highly experienced Users.
The User gave a faint nod and haltingly continued.
“Comrades… betrayal… kidnapped….”
“……”
“Help…!”
I could see his eyes, which kept trying to close, trembling violently. Death was upon him, yet he was desperately holding on. Finally, as if he had exhausted all his strength, the priest uttered his last word, “Help,” and his eyes rolled back into his head. It seemed that seeing us and forcing out those words had consumed the last of his life force. As the priest’s body went limp over my lap, I heard the others gasp.
I gently laid him on the ground and closed his eyes with my palm. A solemn, grim atmosphere settled over us. Sol, in particular, had gone deathly pale, proof that she could never remain indifferent in the face of death. But there was no time to wallow in sentimentality. The priority was to piece together the keywords the User had left behind and deduce what had happened. I slowly repeated the words he had spoken.
“Trap. Escape. Comrades. Betrayal. Kidnapped.”
“Hyung. Could this be connected to the Vagabonds?”
Ahn Hyun, who had also heard the User’s words, offered his own theory, but I shook my head. While it was a possibility, for me, who knew the future, it wasn’t even close. After a moment of organizing my thoughts, I was able to form a hypothesis of my own.
The others looked anxious. Seeing them constantly wetting their lips, I felt the need to explain. As they waited for me to speak, I began in a quiet voice.
“At the entrance to the Black Forest. I told you there were other Users who came in before us, right?”
“Yes. I remember… Ah. Then?”
Ahn Hyun, who had nodded immediately, looked at me with a new light in his eyes. In our day-to-day lives, he could be remarkably dense, but in moments like these, he showed a different side of himself. Still, it was a hundred times more reassuring that his brain worked well in a crisis. I gave him a nod of confirmation and continued.
“That’s right. It seems that caravan discovered this dungeon before we did. However… for some reason, the caravan was wiped out. Or something just as catastrophic happened to them.”
“Th-Then, Oppa, what do all those words the User said mean? The…”
“Hmm…”
Trap. Escape. Comrades. Betrayal. Kidnapped. At Yoojung’s question, I began filling in the vague picture in my mind. Until then, I had assumed the caravan had been annihilated because it lacked a guide, but that prediction was clearly wrong.
The answer lay in recalling the corpse we saw when we first entered the underground. Thinking back, it was impossible for him to have died right at the entrance. There were no visible dangers nearby. That archer must have entered the dungeon alive. And he had almost certainly been acting as a guide for the caravan.
After organizing my thoughts, I spoke in a low voice.
“The caravan was likely heading in the same direction we are now. But if you look at the direction the User’s body was facing when he collapsed, his head was pointed back the way we came. Considering his lower body was torn apart and he had a large hole in his back, it means he was attacked from behind while fleeing. In other words, ‘trap’ and ‘escape’ mean they entered the dungeon, got caught in a trap, suffered a major incident, and were trying to flee back the way they came.”
“Then… what about comrades, betrayal, and kidnapped?”
“The User we saw at the entrance was an archer. He must have originally been a comrade in the caravan. But it seems he betrayed them for some reason along the way. The word ‘betrayal’ can mean many things, but if it was used inside a dungeon… it’s highly likely he ran away to save his own skin.”
As I finished explaining the keyword ‘betrayal,’ it was quite a sight to see the negative emotions swirling across their faces. But I had already told them to steel themselves at the beginning, so I offered no further warnings. Now it was time to explain the last word, ‘kidnapped.’
“And the final word… it seems some of the caravan’s Users were kidnapped by the Dungeon Master.”
“Is that even possible?”
I looked at Ahn Hyun, who was staring with wide eyes, and answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“Of course. The Hall Plain isn’t a game. It’s a real world. It’s not unheard of for alchemists to experiment on human bodies. Have you forgotten what kind of dungeon we’re in?”
At my words, everyone’s face turned pale.
*
We walked in silence for a while. If their Alignment had leaned toward Chaos, they probably would’ve demanded that we return to the city immediately. Sol and Yoojung, however, both leaned toward Lawful, so the consensus was to rescue the kidnapped Users. The male Priest’s final word—“Help”—had been effective. I didn’t have any objection; as long as we kept moving forward, I was satisfied.
The underground passage widened as we advanced. Walking through the seemingly endless tunnel, I raised a hand to stop the group. I had been maintaining Sensing more intensely and across a wider area than usual, allowing me to distinguish details one by one. Because I couldn’t guarantee the outcome of a dungeon battle, I decided to explain everything thoroughly before engaging.
“About 100 meters ahead, there’s a clearing. A number of monster packs are gathered there. There are over twenty of them… and the monsters appear to be Rengas.”
“Renga? Hmm… I think I’ve heard of them.”
“They’re monsters similar to doggies, about 80 centimeters to 1 meter in size. They’re very fast, and I’ve heard they have sharp, hook-shaped claws on their paws.”
“Correct. To add one more thing, a Renga’s tail can also be a powerful weapon. It’s not as flexible as a scorpion’s, but its destructive power is on par with their claws.”
I chuckled inwardly at Sol describing the Rengas as doggies. If the Rengas possessed intelligence and could express their emotions, they would probably riot at being called that. In any case, I nodded at Sol’s cautious answer, though there was one point I needed to address first.
“The problem is, the Rengas I’m detecting seem a little different from normal ones. Everything else matches your description, but… I’m picking up some that are walking on two legs.”
“Huh? That can’t be right! I was taught that Rengas are fundamentally quadrupedal. Could you be mistaking them for another monster? Ah! No, never mind. There’s no way Soohyun-oppa is wrong, so I must be mistaken.”
If it weren’t for that last part, I might have seen Sol in a new light. I sighed, watching her get completely ahead of herself.
“The claws, the tail, the body shape—it all matches. In any case, let’s go and see for ourselves. We have to pass through there to move forward.”
Ahn Hyun and Yoojung were just staring blankly at my conversation with Sol. Then I saw them catch each other’s eye and shrug. I suppose they couldn’t join the conversation if they didn’t know what we were talking about. This is why I told them to study.
The relaxed atmosphere ended there. As the distance to the clearing shrank, a fierce tension began to rise among the party again. I gradually quickened my pace until I was practically power-walking toward the clearing.
I had fought Rengas during my first run. They were perceptive but hot-tempered and incapable of tactical movement. The best approach would be to charge in, eliminate as many as possible, then switch to defense and lure the enraged survivors.
The others began to run behind me, drawing their weapons. If only we had an archer or a mage, we could have landed a big hit right away and followed up with a combo attack for even more damage. I felt a pang of regret, but it just meant I had to cover for it.
“Hyung! Are you sure you’re okay?!”
Ahn Hyun, who was performing the bizarre feat of deep-breathing while running, shouted at me in a powerful voice. Seeing him grip his spear tightly, it seemed his characteristic battlelust was surfacing now that a fight was imminent. I raised a hand to signal that I was fine and then explained our tactics in more detail.
“I’ll be fine as long as I don’t use more mana than I can handle. Don’t worry about me; maintain formation. Once we enter the clearing, rush the first group in sight, take them down quickly, and then fall back toward the wall. Rengas are fierce, but they’re simple-minded. If we retreat little by little, they’ll follow us. We’ll use the wall to keep them from surrounding us.”
“Yes.”
“Keep in mind that they might be different from normal Rengas. We’re going in now. The moment you see them, don’t hesitate. Just take out the ones in front of you.”
Normally, I would have thoroughly vetted our strategy and entered calmly, but this time, speed was life. Since they had a developed sense of smell, if we delayed, there was a high chance we would be the ones getting ambushed.
As I ran at full tilt, a square passage came into view, just as I had predicted. Beyond it, I could see a clearing with black soil. Without a shred of hesitation, I passed through the tunnel and entered the clearing. Inside, I could see at least twenty Rengas roaming about.
As expected, they were sharp. The moment I entered the clearing, all of the Rengas turned their heads toward me in unison. As they let out a cry that sounded like air hissing from a balloon, I chose my target in less than a second and kicked off the ground.
“Skit! Skit!”
Just as I was about to swing my sword at the monsters right in front of me, a spear shot past me with the speed of lightning. The spear cut powerfully through the air and smashed squarely into the faces of the Rengas that were just turning their heads. Seeing the Renga’s face cave in and shatter instead of being pierced, I felt a sense of wrongness. But then its body crumbled, so it seemed death was death all the same.
“That’s one!”
The spear belonged to Ahn Hyun. He had followed directly behind me and used his characteristic reach to launch the first strike. A haze-like energy shimmered at the spearhead, showing that it was packed with mana.
With the opening Ahn Hyun had created, I immediately changed direction toward the Rengas near his target and slashed fiercely. Though it was a surprise attack that caught them off guard, there was no way they could dodge my sword path, honed by years of experience.
The moment I beheaded two of them with a single swing, I understood the source of the unease I had felt earlier. First, there was no blood. And the sensation transmitted through my sword wasn't the feeling of cutting through soft flesh, but of slicing through a hard shell. This was… a chimera.
“Kieeeeeek!”
The ambushed Rengas seemed to be in a state of great confusion. Seeing them still milling about in disarray despite having noticed us, I was tempted to take down a few more. In the few seconds I spent debating, I saw Yoojung dash past my side.
“Wai—”
Yoojung was leaning her body forward as much as possible, charging a lone Renga that was some distance from the first three we had killed. I didn't even have time to stop her. She boldly held her dagger low.
Yoojung’s charge was good, but it felt a beat too slow. A sense of dread washed over me as I saw the Rengas slowly starting to regain their composure. Even the Renga Yoojung was targeting was already twitching the tail attached to its rear.