Kim Heeyeon Enters the Dungeon
Kim Heeyeon stepped into the dungeon.
The instant she crossed the threshold, she saw Paranet charging straight at her.
"Wh-what? Agh!"
Paranet shoved her aside and let out a breath of relief.
Fwoosh—!
A pillar of fire roared up from the very spot where she had been standing.
"Hah. Know that you are in my debt, mortal."
"Uh, yeah. Thanks."
The lava field stretched on without end, vast beyond sight, and pillars of fire kept bursting up without pause, just as they had before. Paranet, consequently, had his hands full.
"Master! To the left!"
"Okay."
Fwoosh!
Heeyeon was another matter. Warn her and then move, and it was already too late.
"Hiyah!"
"Agh!"
Every time, Paranet had to throw himself in and haul her clear of the danger himself.
"Shove me gently!"
"Shove you gently and you burn to death. This is the best I can do."
"Then just throw yourself in with me."
"That, I refuse."
"……Well, thanks for the help anyway."
"Hmph."
Paranet was prickly with every human except Yujun.
"When does the dungeon environment change?"
"I told you last time. I was too busy staying alive to figure it out properly."
"Think harder. If you can't remember, you're going to keep eating Paranet's body slams."
"Ugh…… Then I guess I'll have to remember somehow."
Thud!
"Peril, mortal!"
"Aaagh!"
Heeyeon's eyes blazed.
"Why do you talk after you've already shoved me? The shove doesn't even mean anything then!"
"That, mortal, is because you are slow."
Whatever the case, surviving the fire pillars came first, and Paranet's part in that was essential. For now they walked, telling themselves something was bound to turn up.
And then it happened.
Out of nowhere, a message declaring a level increase appeared before their eyes.
"What?"
"Yujun, you too?"
"Did you level up?"
"Yeah. I jumped four levels at once."
"I-I have risen as well, Master."
In the moment the three of them stood there dumbfounded, the lava field that was the dungeon began to change.
The witch, Manuela.
Her eyes flew wide.
Who's invaded my dungeon this time?
Manuela drew up her mana, and the interior of every dungeon on the Continent streamed to her in real time.
Wait. That place is……
Manuela's mouth fell open.
"Ah, no! Anywhere but there. Absolutely not!"
The Source of Mana. It was the dungeon Manuela treasured above all others. If someone cleared it, the loss to her would be considerable.
Who in the world? I buried it deep underground on purpose, so it would be nearly impossible to find. Did an earthquake hit the residential district or something?
Manuela checked the intruder's face first. The moment she saw it, she startled hard.
"It's those bastards from last time!"
The very culprits who had slain Tot, the transcendent beast she cherished—two human players and an undead summon. The nerve of it. Once hadn't been enough; they had invaded her dungeon a second time. And not an ordinary dungeon, either. They had sought out hidden dungeons and hidden dungeons alone. Too neat to be coincidence.
"Of all times, when I can't even leave the Demon Realm……"
Manuela groaned, seething. It was infuriating. Unfair. Why now, of all moments? Being forced to do nothing but watch was suffocating. She wanted, this very instant, to crack the back of that human's skull—the one who had killed the transcendent beast Tot.
"No. Calm down. The Source of Mana is an unclearedable dungeon anyway. There's no way those wretches reach the end."
She said it aloud to herself, but unease, once it took root, did not pull free so easily.
"M-maybe I should set one more failsafe…… just in case?"
This time, it was a desert.
Their mouths went chalky and dry almost at once. Heeyeon fanned herself with one hand.
"Still, a desert's less hot than a lava field."
"I imagine so."
"Anyway, why did we level up?"
"No monsters around, so maybe you get a reward just for enduring the environment?"
"That tracks."
"I'd rather monsters showed up."
That would have suited Yujun better.
Whoooosh—. Whoosh!
A fierce wind of sand slammed into the party, and grit caked itself onto their skin.
"Bleh, ptoo! Ptoo!"
Sand had gotten into Heeyeon's mouth, and she spat. When she lifted her head and looked ahead, her eyes went round.
"Th-that……"
Not far off, something towered high into the air. A sandstorm. The gust that had just hit them was nothing beside it.
"What do we do?"
"We run."
"You can't get rid of that?"
"What am I, a god? If it were a monster, I could."
"It might be a monster."
"……What?"
That was an idea he had never once entertained. Who looks at a sandstorm and thinks monster?
"Enough nonsense. Run."
Strangely, though, the distance refused to open. The sandstorm only drew closer.
"Why is this happening? We're faster than it, aren't we……?"
Heeyeon gave voice to the doubt. Yujun let out a short laugh.
"Because someone did something to this dungeon. Magic, most likely."
"Magic?"
"Feels like a high-level mage's handiwork. Running won't mean anything."
Yujun stopped mid-stride.
"So what now? You said if it isn't a monster, you can't do it."
"I didn't say there was no way at all."
The sandstorm's force was tremendous. But if fleeing did nothing, the only choice was to meet it head-on. He opened his inventory and drew out a single item.
◈ A large-scale barrier may be established.
◈ Vanishes after a single use.
It was the same Regional Barrier Orb he had used in the fight against the dwarf zombies. Yujun shattered it.
Crack!
A thin film. The barrier swelled in a breath from the size of the orb until it blanketed the whole area around them, and the sandstorm crashed into it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boulders mixed into the storm hammered the barrier without rest.
"Yujun. We'll be okay, right?"
"It doesn't break easily. Don't worry."
Unimpressive as it looked, the Regional Barrier Orb was a Legendary-grade consumable. That one effect, at least, was certain.
"The problem is how long this sandstorm means to stay here."
"……It doesn't look like it's thinking of going anywhere else."
The storm hung over them as if it had swallowed the barrier whole, settled in as though it meant to stay for good.
And then—
"Cowards! Come out! Don't just hide in there!"
A vast, booming voice rolled in from beyond the barrier. Yujun narrowed his eyes. There was no one outside. They might simply have been hidden by the sandstorm, but……
"I said come out! Are you afraid of me? Hm?"
That didn't seem to be it.
"Heeyeon."
"Huh? What?"
"The sandstorm might actually be a monster."
"Huh? Does that even make sense?"
"You're the one who said it."
"I was just joking……"
In that moment, the sandstorm spoke again.
"Come out! How long do you intend to keep hiding!"
"It keeps calling. I'll step out."
"Be careful."
"Nothing to be careful about."
Yujun stepped beyond the barrier. The user and their party could pass in and out of it at will. The moment he was outside, the violent wind beat against his body. His defense was high enough that the blows did nothing—but his breathing was another matter, and he couldn't stay like this.
Keen Sense (A)
The sandstorm had not formed naturally. The moment he stepped into the storm itself, he felt mana gathered in a single point. He kicked off the ground and leapt. A fierce wind tried to drive him back down. It failed.
He found a sphere of mana about the size of a fist and swung his sword.
Shhk!
"Graaaagh!"
Absurdly, the sandstorm screamed. The mana sphere split in half. He judged that insufficient and swung again and again—across, down, on the diagonal.
Swish! Swish!
The sphere shattered completely.
Four levels, all at once. Yujun was just beginning to smile when Heeyeon, still inside the barrier, let out a cheer.
"This is insane! Yujun! I went up fifteen levels!"
Yujun's face hardened again. Being pleased over four levels suddenly felt foolish.
There's a level gap, so…… nothing to be done about it.
"Hm? Why the face?"
"What face?"
"You look like you're sulking……"
"I'm not. Must be nice, though. All those levels."
"……"
The environment changed again. Yujun sighed.
Are we going to have to repeat this over and over?
Well, it wasn't bad. If the levels hadn't been rising, that would be one thing—but they climbed every time, right before the environment shifted. This time, though, it was not another extreme biome.
A broad grassland, strewn with the corpses of every race. The clash of steel on steel, and screams close to shrieks, rang from every direction, and volleys of magic crashed down one after another.
"Th-this is way too out of nowhere," Heeyeon said.
"This isn't fake, is it?"
Yujun nodded.
"It's definitely not illusion magic."
This was different from the intermediate tutorial. Back then, the dungeon had reproduced something from the past. Everyone fighting on this battlefield was alive in the present.
And then—
"Kill them!"
"Wicked villains, come to invade the dungeon!"
"Waaaaah!"
The ones who had been fighting one another suddenly charged Yujun's party. He had expected as much.
"Paranet."
"Yes, Master!"
"Use Corpse Explosion."
"At once!"
Corpse Explosion (S)
Paranet detonated the corpses lying in the path of the charging soldiers.
Boom! Kra-boom!
The soldiers leading the rush were blasted backward.
Fwoosh!
Magic came flying at the party. Spells woven of several attributes at once were dismantled completely on Yujun's sword—swordsmanship refined enough to cut along the very grain of magic.
SSS-rank Swordsmanship really can do anything.
Even back when he had played War of the Gods, he had relied on a low-rank Swordsmanship trait. SSS-rank Swordsmanship was in another class entirely. Magic, curses, melee—none of it worked. Every soldier who rushed him died with his head taken off. Against an attack whose trajectory they couldn't even read, they had no answer.
So this is the trial this time.
It sat poorly with him, but there was no help for it. If he didn't kill them, he would be the one to die. Yujun swung without pause. Paranet fought while guarding Heeyeon. Her level had climbed, but she was still no match for the soldiers here.
Boom! Crash!
A battlefield—and one packed with people. Paranet's Corpse Explosion (S) paid off in full.
This place is a gold mine.
Yujun smiled as he cut down a blue-skinned troll. Most of their opponents were over level 400. Was there another dungeon like this anywhere?
A fair stretch of time passed that way. The players, once more than a thousand strong, dwindled until fewer than ten remained, and the messages announcing level increases slowed as well.
"Wh-what is that man?"
"I need to run, but…… this doesn't feel like my body."
The players lunged at Yujun with stiff, unnatural movements. He let out a long sigh and started swinging again. The remaining players of other races were finished off in short order.
That was the last of them.
His level had become 288.
Heeyeon and Paranet, who had started lower, gained even more levels than Yujun. And the dungeon began to change once more—from a wasteland battlefield where the stench of blood hung thick on every side, into a white void where nothing existed at all.