Chapter 33 — The Key
Chapter 33 — The Key
Translation: GodTL
Everything happened at once. The Dragon Bone Sword devoured the Sword Remnants' energy faster and faster, its gray light swelling until the hilt bucked violently in my hand. I tightened my grip. It didn't matter. The weapon tore free as if my fingers weren't there and launched itself toward the central statue.
"Everyone, get out of the way!"
"W-what the hell?"
"What is that—?"
My warning made the other Hunters turn at once. From their expressions, none of them had ever seen anything like this either—a sword tearing itself free of its wielder and flying under its own power.
Hunters threw themselves aside as the Dragon Bone Sword screamed past them. Tae-seong began a spell, but he was a fraction too slow. The blade struck the statue—and sank into it with a single brutal impact.
The entire sequence had taken only seconds. It felt much longer.
My thoughts simply stopped. The sword had moved on its own. Not slipped. Not been knocked away. It had chosen a direction and gone. Before I could decide whether to chase it, retreat, or even understand what I'd seen, the battlefield changed again.
Every Sword Remnant froze.
"...!"
The wraiths that had been swarming us moments earlier hung motionless across the field. Then, as if responding to one silent command, every one of them began to rise.
"What... am I looking at?"
"My God."
"What on earth is about to happen...?"
No one attacked. No one even remembered to. Every breath around me seemed to catch as the black shapes climbed above the sword-filled field. Gates were full of impossible sights, but this felt less like a random phenomenon and more like the opening of something that had been waiting a very long time.
Then, a moment later—
"Holy shit...!"
The darkness inside the wraiths began to burn away. Black turned violet, violet bled into blue and gold, and within moments the entire sky shimmered with impossible rainbow light.
"Huh..."
Phones came out almost instinctively. I turned Sia's drone toward the sky. Then the Sword Remnants erupted in a flash so bright that the world vanished for an instant. When my vision returned, every wraith was gone.
"..."
After the wraiths abruptly disappeared, the Hunters looked back down. The Sword Remnants that had been appearing without end until just before the flash were no longer coming.
"Tae-seong, the time isn't up yet, is it?"
"No. We've still got about thirty minutes before the three hours are up..."
Tae-seong clutched his head at the Hunter's question. The monsters had suddenly vanished before the three hours were even over.
"I have no idea what just happened either..."
While everyone stood there dumbfounded, Tae-seong pointed toward the statue where my sword was embedded. "By the way, Min-jun, about your sword. What happened there?"
"I... don't really know either. I was swinging it like usual, and it suddenly flew off." I suspected it might have something to do with the Dragon's power, but I didn't know the exact reason myself. To find out what had happened, I headed toward the statue.
The sword had buried itself almost to the hilt, yet the statue around it was pristine. No cracks. No chipped stone. Nothing. A Dragon Bone Sword had struck at tremendous speed, but instead of damaging the statue, it looked as though the blade had slid precisely into a place prepared for it.
As I wondered about that, the other Hunters gathered in little groups to inspect the sword.
"My God."
"How did it go in so cleanly?"
"I know, right? How's that even possible?"
While the others marveled and took pictures, Tae-seong spoke up. "There was already a deep slot here."
"A slot that was there before?"
"Yes. I saw it when I first came here, about a year ago. There was a slot right around here." Tae-seong pointed to where the sword was lodged. I hadn't had time to examine the statue closely earlier, which was why I hadn't noticed. He searched through his phone, found a photo he'd taken before, and showed it to me. "Here. See?" Just as he'd said, a slot exactly wide enough for a sword had already been cut into the middle of the statue.
Tae-seong told me about when they'd first discovered it. "At first, we thought it was just wear from age, but when we looked closer, the edges were too clean for that." He'd been certain the slot had been made deliberately when the statue was built. He and the guild members who had raided the dungeon Gate with him back then had discussed what it might be for, but they'd never uncovered any secret hidden there. Someone had even shoved something into the hole, but nothing had happened, of course. Eventually, they'd let it go.
"But now that this has happened, I'm curious again. Why did your sword fly off by itself, Min-jun? And why did it land exactly in that slot?"
Juwon, who had been quietly watching beside him, offered a casual thought. "Looking at it now, maybe the slot was made for a sword from the start? It's a perfect fit."
Tae-seong shot him a reproachful look. "Why would anyone stick a sword in a statue for no reason?"
"Well, sure... but the hole fits so perfectly..." Tae-seong had taken an offhand remark seriously, and Juwon scratched his head in embarrassment.
"I'll have to tell Team Leader Jeong soon. The guild should probably investigate." Tae-seong muttered it nearly to himself, then looked at me and stepped aside. "But first, we'd better get your sword out, Min-jun."
"Oh, right." I wrapped both hands around the hilt and pulled. The sword slid free with almost no resistance. For half a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then a deep vibration rolled up through my boots.
The floor groaned.
"Aaaah!"
"Ah, shit! What now?"
Everyone screamed and scrambled away as soon as the shaking started.
Panic spread as everyone backed away, but one Hunter suddenly pointed. Only the earth around the statue was moving. Everywhere else remained perfectly still. The realization was somehow worse than a normal earthquake; this wasn't the dungeon collapsing. Something directly beneath us was opening.
A crack split the ground beside the statue. Stone withdrew in grinding layers, revealing steps descending into darkness.
"I'm getting tired of being surprised."
"... Wow."
The jokes died quickly. I stared into the staircase, and the darkness below seemed to stare back. There was no visible bottom, no torchlight, no sign that anyone had entered it before.
Garden of the Dragon Sword. A Dragon Bone Sword flying from my hand. The Sword Remnants transforming and vanishing. A hidden staircase opening only after I removed the blade. One coincidence was possible. Four was an answer.
This place had reacted to me.
Considering everything, it seemed highly likely I was the reason these things had happened.
If that was true, walking away now was impossible. Whatever lay beneath the statue was tied to the sword—and possibly to the power I was trying to understand. I was already searching for a way to persuade Tae-seong when a notification appeared in front of every Hunter.
System notice: The dungeon's rank and clear conditions have changed.
A notification appeared before my eyes.
Rank change: D → EX
Clear condition: Reach the lowest level of *'s tomb, then *.
The other Hunters began murmuring too. Apparently, the same notification had appeared for them.
"... No way!"
"EX-rank?"
"Then how the hell are we supposed to get out?"
"Tae-seong, what do we do now?"
The field erupted into chaos.
A moment ago, I had wanted to explore the hidden passage. Now the dungeon itself had removed the choice. EX rank meant the Gate no longer fit anywhere on the ordinary scale. It could be absurdly easy—or so dangerous that the ranking system had simply given up trying to measure it.
No one there believed it was the first possibility.
Worse, half the clear condition was unreadable. We were trapped inside an EX-rank Gate without even knowing what it wanted from us.
While everyone was in a panic, one Hunter suddenly grabbed me by the collar. "This is all your fault, isn't it? If it weren't for your sword, none of this would've happened!"
I could understand why he felt that way. The fear that we might fail to clear the dungeon and die trapped here could make it hard to think as calmly as usual. But that didn't excuse what he was doing. "Let go of me." I knocked his hand off my collar.
At the same time, Tae-seong and the other Hunters began trying to stop him.
"Seongmin, get a hold of yourself. Hey!"
"Kim Seongmin, what's gotten into you?"
"You think Min-jun trapped us here on purpose? If we can't leave the dungeon, he's stuck too!"
Only after the others pulled him back did the Hunter they called Seongmin come to his senses and apologize. "... I'm sorry. I know it's not your fault, Min-jun..." "It's all right. I understand." Once that brief commotion had passed, I pointed toward the stairs.
Tae-seong stared into the passage, jaw tight. "We go down. We don't have another option." He opened his Subspace. "Everyone prepares for the worst before we move."
At his warning, some of the Hunters swallowed nervously and began opening their Subspaces. A few put on additional equipment. After that incident in the Gate, Sia had upgraded all my equipment because she was worried something might happen to me. Still, if this was EX-rank, I ought to take out everything I could. I pulled out and equipped every artifact I could wear, and set aside a few elixirs, considered the best potions in existence.
Before stepping into the underground passage, I looked directly into the lens of Sia's drone. It had been recording since the raid began. She wasn't watching live, but at that moment the tiny camera felt like the closest thing I had to her standing beside me.
I'll come back.
I wished Sia could have been here beside me. Still, having that drone camera with me was strangely reassuring.
Then I turned toward the darkness below.
Whatever had been waiting beneath the Garden of the Dragon Sword had finally opened its door.