Chapter 41
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: 【Query Road】
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I woke up to a massive vibration. Sitting up immediately and looking around, I spotted the source of the shaking.
“Try talking shit one more time.”
“Y-you think this’ll be okay later?”
“Yeah. Totally.”
Crash! Red gems scattered everywhere. It looked like Hae-na was fighting someone. No idea who—it was a face I’d never seen before in my life.
Shifting my gaze right next to me, there was my brother. The moment I saw his face, the question that had been nagging at me spilled out.
“Brother, what’s this pact?”
“You just woke up... How’s your body?”
“Fine. So what is it?”
“......”
A deep sigh escaped my brother’s lips. He glanced around for a moment before quietly opening his mouth.
“I’ll tell you later.”
If he’d looked around before speaking...
“It’s related to that?”
There was only one thing “that” referred to between my brother and me. The novel.
My brother seemed to hesitate for a bit before nodding.
‘If it’s related to the novel, then it must be something written in the novel, obviously.’
I didn’t know what a pact was. So the pact must have appeared in the novel when I didn’t fight this tower lord and fought something else instead—meaning when my brother faced the tower lord alone.
“Hmm.”
I tried to recall past regressions, but there were too many where my brother had faced the tower lord by himself. Even narrowing it down didn’t help.
‘I’ll think about this later.’
For now, just knowing about the pact itself was satisfying enough.
I rolled my eyes around, surveying the surroundings. Quite a few people were sprawled out here and there. At the sight, I asked my brother,
“How much time has passed?”
“Not much. About an hour.”
“...Isn’t that a lot?”
My brother shook his head. I made a half-hearted face and sat there blankly, watching the fight like everyone else.
‘She definitely said she was going to negotiate.’
But if it was taking an hour...
“......”
Before I could even think about it, an unpleasant sensation washed over me. My gaze naturally turned to my brother beside me.
It seemed like they were raising the difficulty because of my brother.
‘...No, saving people is what matters.’
My brother gave me a what’s-wrong look. I said it was nothing and turned back to the front. Then Ji Hwa-yeon, who had been far off, walked over to me and asked,
“How’s your body feeling?”
“Fine.”
Ji Hwa-yeon made a somewhat awkward expression. Seeing that, I tilted my head as if to ask what was up.
“Han Ji-eon.”
“Yeah?”
“By any chance, are you not feeling any pain or anything?”
“...No?”
Ji Hwa-yeon let out a thoughtful hum at my response. After a short while, she spoke again.
“Han Ji-eon.”
“Yeah?”
“If you feel any foreign sensation in your body, take the antidote right away.”
“Huh?”
“Even if there’s no foreign sensation but you cough or get dizzy, take it.”
“Yeeeah......”
Caught off guard by the sudden lecture, I floundered, and Ji Hwa-yeon sighed.
“Kim Seo-young from the Association said you had knowledge that didn’t need any training... I didn’t realize it was only monster-related knowledge.”
“Huh? No, this time I was so focused on the fight that I forgot to check my condition—”
“That’s a lack of training too. Do you know what’s most important in training?”
“...Safety?”
“Yes. Safety. Why would someone who knows that do this.”
“......”
This time, it was definitely my mistake. I’d only ingested a tiny amount of poison and thought it was fine, left it alone during the fight, and ended up like this.
“No words for me, huh.”
I gave an awkward smile in response. Seeing that, Ji Hwa-yeon let out another deep sigh.
“I recommend you get some training as soon as we get back.”
“...Yeah.”
I couldn’t refuse. After all, I was only two or three months into being a hunter. If I had years of experience, they might overlook it as a fluke, but I was still a newbie. In other words, any mistake looked like a simple knowledge gap. Which meant I couldn’t turn down the training recommendation.
Thud thud. The ground still shook from Hae-na’s fight. The people around were totally engrossed in spectating.
“By the way, how many floors is the final floor?”
“Right? Let’s ask later or something.”
No sooner had the words left my mouth than—boom!—the sky split open, and a black hole appeared. As stairs formed one by one, I was wondering what that was about when a voice rang out.
—I have no intention of carrying you any further, so crawl up yourselves.
Looked like there’d be no time to ask what Ji Hwa-yeon had mentioned. The tower lord had no plans to show up in front of us anymore.
Hae-na’s fight stopped. She brushed back her disheveled hair and headed back to her guildmates. Her opponent did the same.
While no one was thinking of heading up, my brother was the first to step onto the stairs. Only after he took one step and nothing happened did the others follow him up.
I activated my Pattern and climbed the stairs too. Then—
“Wahak!”
Turning at someone’s shout, nothing seemed wrong. Wondering what it was, I kept looking back. Moments later, a few of the people climbing the stairs suddenly vanished. Some disappeared right on the first step, others after a few steps.
‘I’ve climbed quite a ways.’
Wondering what the rule was, I kept watching the people disappearing while rolling my eyes. One thing I realized was that those who’d contributed a lot to the clears had climbed pretty far up the stairs. Just my guess, though.
‘Maybe it changes based on contribution.’
For reference, I kept climbing. How far? ...
Clunk. I touched the black ceiling with my hand. Realizing it was blocked, I turned around to see my brother climbing.
My brother looked up at the blocked ceiling as he climbed too. Then—whoosh—right before reaching the same step as me, my brother vanished.
“......”
The area was empty. I was the only one left on the stairs, and the waiting area floor below was deserted too.
“What kind of trick is this.”
Being alone was nice. But doing nothing alone? Not so much.
Tap tap. I knocked on the black ceiling. It seemed thick—no sound but a dull thud—yet listening carefully, there was definitely a faint resonance.
‘A space.’
Tap. I dropped my hand from the black ceiling. Soon after—bam!—my fist that had gone down shot back up, smashing into the black ceiling. It cracked and shattered to pieces.
“I’m the only one being passive all the way.”
I climbed the newly revealed stairs. After going up through the hole and landing on the new floor, the hole vanished in an instant.
It was dark around me. But not pitch black. Looking around, massive gray walls formed a path.
‘Feels like I’ve seen this somewhere before.’
Ding-a-ling. A short alert sound rang out. I fixed my gaze forward to see what it was.
[Find the exit!]
[☆We hope your luck is tremendous★]
‘More nonsense.’
I stared piercingly at the towering wall for a moment, then—boom!—jumped high, scaled it in one go, and reached the top.
Landing on top of the wall, I surveyed the surroundings.
‘...Holy.’
No end in sight. Just gray walls and a dark ceiling filling everything, nothing else.
‘Find the exit......’
In this setup where even a shout would echo, finding an exit seemed harder than finding a needle in a sand dune.
‘Guess I need to find people first.’
I raised my hand halfway. Swish. A star seemed to form before scattering and vanishing.
“......”
I couldn’t use my ability. I’d tried using it as a signal flare to find people, but no dice.
‘No, there’s probably no one nearby to begin with.’
One basic rule for hunters exploring dungeons: if you can’t find the way, climb to the highest point. No one here would fail to know that, so if anyone was around, they’d climb the walls too. But there wasn’t a soul—or even a speck of dust—in sight.
“Then......”
It was a thought I’d had earlier. Maybe the steps where people vanished meant different difficulties. Or different locations.
From the current situation, my guess seemed at least partially right.
‘I don’t know about difficulty, but locations are different.’
What to do. While pondering, a weird noise came from below.
—Kee-eek.
I immediately looked toward the sound. Familiar creatures were crawling around.
‘Horror concept, huh.’
Corpses with twisted legs and arms crawled everywhere. Some big, some small. After a moment’s contemplation at the sight of those monsters, I reached a conclusion.
‘Nothing else to do right now anyway.’
Whoosh. I hurled my body downward. Spinning with the newly formed scythe, right before landing, I cleaved one monster in two.
‘Monster ranks are low, looks like.’
No issues with my immediate plan then. I checked for item drops from the monster and strode down the path.
—Kee-ee-eek!
One monster spotted me and crawled grotesquely toward me. I swung my scythe and killed it effortlessly.
My current plan was simple: kill every monster in sight. Killing monsters might trigger an event. Or reveal the exit. So it was the best choice right now.
How long had I walked? Looking back, the path was so blood-soaked I could retrace my steps without issue.
‘How many had I killed.’
Might not matter, but maybe something happens at 100.
‘Around 50, I think.’
Counting on my fingers, a monster lunged from ahead. Thud! I stomped its head.
“56 now.”
I kept walking. Not using my ability meant I wasn’t tired. If anything, it was boring as hell.
“...Ah.”
Then a sudden thought hit me, and I looked at the floor.
“Since I came up, down there’s the waiting area, right.”
I recalled the maze from the day I first met Park Woo-yun. It wasn’t huge, but smashing the floor led straight to the final boss room. Maybe the stairs were a fake, and down was the real exit. Those dungeons were surprisingly common. So...
I lifted my foot slightly. Took a breath, then—boom!—slammed it down. The floor cracked with a fierce vibration. But soon after, crackle—the cracks filled right back up like they’d never been.
Boom again! This time I stomped repeatedly before they could heal. But like a game effect, similar marks appeared only to heal starting from the first one.
‘Strikeout.’
As I turned to move forward without paying the floor more mind—
—Kirr?
—Kee-eek.
—Kick. Ee-eek.
Sounds from quite a few monsters. Probably drawn by the noise.
‘Fill up to 100 first, then think.’
Swish. I spun my scythe once before swinging at the swarming monsters.