Welcome, Freshman! (3)

"...C-can we... clear this dungeon? I-I mean... can we make it out alive...?"

Having the sharpest eyes of the group, Han Sora must have caught every grim detail of those corpses. Her face had gone deathly pale as she muttered her fears under her breath.

Just moments ago she'd been chatting away carelessly from the back seat — but the sight of that failed party had snuffed out her composure in an instant, anxiety flooding in to take its place.

"Don't worry, Sora. You've got me right here beside you and the oth— wait, what's that...?"

I'd started to pull her into a one-armed hug, ready to whisper something reassuring — but the words died on my tongue.

Fifty meters ahead, right where those bodies had been spat out of the dungeon, something else was unfolding.

Rumble-rumble...!

All of a sudden, people came pouring out of nowhere.

Well, "pouring" might have been a stretch — there were maybe a dozen of them. But where the hell had they come from? Had they been hiding in the brush?

The newcomers closed in on the corpses the dungeon had just ejected, swarming them in seconds.

...What the fuck is wrong with these people!?

"Someone cover Sora's eyes. She doesn't need to see this."

"Ah, okay!"

"W-what? Huh?"

The moment Seeun heard me, she clapped her hands over Han Sora's eyes. Sora looked bewildered, but it was still better than letting those sharp eyes of hers take in that grotesque spectacle.

I said nothing more and took the lead. A glance over my shoulder told the others to follow, and I carefully approached the dungeon wall.

The closer we got, the clearer the scavengers' conversation became.

"Fuck, this bastard's organs are completely gone. Did something dig them out and eat them? Heh heh heh!"

"Yo, this club's got a nice finish! Wait a sec, this is fucking... shop-grade? Jackpot!"

"This bag's a premium piece, right? Dungeon-made, looks like? Hell yeah!"

"This unnie's underwear ain't bad. Still in decent shape, so... thanks?"

Young men's and women's voices mixed together. Drawing closer, I confirmed it — they really were young. Some of them even looked barely out of their teens.

Of course, their clothes and appearance were thoroughly filthy. You could tell at a glance they hadn't managed to settle anywhere decent for a long time. Our own residents had only just clawed their way out of looking like that...

Anyway... I deliberately stomped hard enough for these uninvited guests to hear me coming.

Thud!

"Huk!?"

"Zombies?"

"N-no... it's people."

A dozen-odd corpse scavengers whipped around to face us. Some eyes held fear. Others held interest.

No — those were eyes swimming with naked greed. As if silently whispering at us:

'You dumbasses here to try your luck and end up as corpses too?'

That look — half a question, half a wish that we'd end up exactly that way — was deeply unpleasant. I'd wondered what kind of survivors were left in Gangnam... and aside from the subway station residents, every single group we'd run into was either bandits or corpse-looters. What a goddamn delightful cast of characters. Perfectly suited to the apocalypse, too.

"We're going in."

"Ah, yes."

"..."

"Shit..."

"Hmm..."

At my quiet murmur, Kim Seyeon, Han Sora, Park Seeun, and Yun Mina reacted in that order.

I decided to ignore the scavengers for now.

"Mmm... hold on a second, Orabeoni? Mind if I take out the trash real quick?"

Huh? Take out what?

The moment Yun Mina whispered that to me, she spun around. Since we weren't interfering, the scavengers had gone right back to their grim work — and she fixed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her gaze on them.

Then she raised her arm and pointed a single index finger their way.

Fwoosh!

It happened in an instant.

A firebolt shot from the tip of Yun Mina's finger — Elemental Arrow (Fire), one of the basic spells of a Mage-Elementalist.

It streaked through the air and buried itself in one of the corpses the scavengers had been busy stripping.

Whoosh!

"Aaaagh!"

"Fuck! Fire, fire!"

The corpse they'd been looting suddenly burst into flames, and the scavengers scrambled back in a panicked flurry.

Yun Mina... she's got a surprisingly fiery streak, doesn't she? Then again, deciding to ditch that Han Daegeon bastard and wait for us was already an extraordinary move — so yeah, she's been bold from the start.

"Y-you fucking bitch! You dare mess with someone else's hustle?"

"You lookin' to die?"

"Wanna become a corpse and get looted yourself?"

Listen to these assholes talk.

Surviving by stripping corpses, and they want to draw a line? Oh, that pissed me off a little.

BOOM!

I stomped down hard. Hard enough to crack the asphalt for real.

And Strength 19 turned my will into reality.

"Eek— eeeeeek!"

"W-what the hell!? That bastard just cracked asphalt with his foot...!?"

"R-run!"

Scramble-scramble!

The scavengers tucked their tails and fled the moment I flexed a little intimidation.

Those sons of bitches... talking shit about corpses? Living off the people who went into a dungeon and died, and they still have the gall...

"...Hoo. Let's go in."

"...Yes."

Carefully — and boldly — I placed my hand on the dungeon wall.

Of course, even this reckless-looking move had its reasons.

That notification had popped up right in front of my eyes, after all.

"If we get separated for any reason, regrouping is the top priority."

"Y-yes!"

"Of course, oppa!"

"Well, I don't think anything like that will—"

Before Yun Mina could finish, darkness swallowed everything in front of us.

"...happen at all, apparently."

Contrary to my worries, we entered the dungeon gathered in the same spot.

The moment the darkness that had blanketed our vision peeled away, what greeted us was a rather familiar university campus.

At the same time, the sky held nothing but darkness and crimson — and that backdrop made the campus atmosphere deeply unsettling.

Yeah. It looked like the kind of university you'd find in an old classic horror novel, the sort featuring monsters beyond human comprehension. The kind of school where the library might house a forbidden tome that summons eldritch creatures.

Except unlike those horror novels, this campus wasn't empty. Bizarre, grotesque beings prowled its grounds — things that were decidedly not human.

No, calling them living beings was a stretch. Their outfits certainly suited students or academic institutions, but...

No matter how you sliced it, something that looked exactly like a skeleton was hard to call a living creature. Undead was the right word.

And for a dungeon that had swallowed an entire campus, it looked surprisingly small. A real university campus should sprawl endlessly... but here the grounds were cramped, and only three or four buildings were even visible. Another one of those game-logic concessions, maybe?

"Huh? Freshmen!"

I was still taking in the bizarre dungeon scenery when one of the skeletons clustered over there suddenly opened its mouth and spoke. Looking right at us.

...It talks? A skeleton? Why? How?

"Oh, for real!"

"Freshmen, freshmen!"

"Are they coming to our department!?"

Clattering and rattling, they chattered among themselves in a language we could understand. And the content was surprisingly friendly — so unexpected that we could only stand there, frozen in place.

"But wait... those guys have skin!"

"They're covered in fresh flesh!"

"You're right, there's meat stuck on their bones!"

Huh? Something about this conversation just took a sharp turn into spine-chilling territory...

"How tragic can you get! They might get bullied like that!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Right, right! If you're not a skeleton, you get ostracized around here!"

"So true, it's too sad! So..."

So...?

"Let's peel it off right now!"

"Yeah, let's strip their skin!"

"We'll make them into sleek, clean skeletons just like us!"

Fuck. Of course a dungeon is still a dungeon!

The friendly glint in their eyes vanished. What replaced it was a madness befitting monsters. No — actual red light kindled in the hollow sockets of those empty skulls. That was killing intent, no question. Friendly killing intent. Wasn't that just delightful?

And then—

In that moment, their status windows finally appeared. So they really were undead?

More than that — the word (Dungeon) tacked onto their names was more than enough to send a chill down my spine.

Don't... tell me...?

"Sora, fire your arrows. Now — right now!"

"Huh? Ah, y-yes, yes! F-firing now!"

Han Sora fumbled for a second, then raised her bow and loosed a Multi-Shot. Three arrows from a Level 24 Archer streaked straight for the undead... university students' heads.

Tink!

Ti...nk?

"Ow!"

"What was that just now!"

"Something hit my head...?"

...Just as I thought.

These monsters were getting elite treatment just for being inside a dungeon. Looking at levels alone and underestimating them would be a fatal mistake.

"H-huh? O-only... one bar?"

Han Sora seemed stunned by how little damage her Multi-Shot had done.

A fair reaction. Those arrows — even with Yun Mina's help loading them with fire — had dealt serious damage to trolls before.

She'd even scraped together gold and bought a shop-grade bow for this. And yet against mere Level 15s, she'd only shaved off a single bar of health. Of course she was shocked.

But the answer was simple. This was a dungeon. Inside a dungeon, monsters didn't scale their HP and damage to a single character — they scaled to the number of people in the entering party.

Apparently that "dungeon" the Administrator had mentioned really did follow the concept of an instance dungeon. Famous MMORPGs used to build them the same way. Only a party could enter or interact with them, and while a solo player could still engage, clearing content at the same level range was flat-out impossible.

In other words, the easy path had just been closed off for our party. And what was the easy path? Obviously me going full rampage mode and wiping everything myself.

But under these conditions... protecting my companions while going on a rampage was nearly impossible.

"Seeun, focus entirely on defense."

"G-got it, Hoonie oppa!"

Seeun planted herself in front of Kim Seyeon, Han Sora, and Yun Mina like a shield. Lately she'd been fighting on the front line with me during hunts, but one look at the three monsters ahead seemed to snap her back to reality.

"I'll cast Sacred Armor!"

Kim Seyeon had caught on too. Instead of buffing only the two of us on the front line like usual, she draped Sacred Armor over the entire party.

In the meantime, the undead monsters that had been ambling toward us closed the distance to me in a hurry.

"Initiation time, freshman!"

One of them swung something clutched in its hand. That was — a bone arm. And it wasn't an animal's...!?

I raised my iron sword and blocked the strike.

"...!?"

This is pretty damn heavy. These bastards really are way stronger than field monsters of the same level! I could tell from a single block!

"Freshman, try this on for size!"

The other one — the one labeled 'Undead University Student — Medicine' — flung several objects from its hand.

Those are syringes! Twisting my body while still locked in a block, I managed to dodge backward.

"Kh...!"

Shit... one got me! A syringe was stuck in my shoulder. I yanked it out immediately. Damn, that stung enough to bring tears to my eyes!

W-why did that take so much? The minotaur only hit me for about 350! Even if these monsters are dungeon-spawned, they're only Level 15 to 20!

If I kept analyzing this carefully and playing it safe, we were going to be in real trouble. I decided to go all-out from the start, channeling the full force of Strength 19 into my iron sword.

Whoosh!

"Urgh!? This freshman is rougher than expect—"

Slash!

The undead student's voice cut off mid-sentence. Head and neck had parted ways. Good — at least their HP couldn't stand up to me!

Without stopping, I sprinted forward.

Not toward the other Level 15 undead — straight at the Level 25. The bastard that had thrown syringes at me!

"Oh no! Let me heal you!"

Bare hands... no, bony hands reached toward its fallen companion. Whatever that was, it was dangerous!

Slash!

I swung my iron sword again and sent that one's head flying too. Perfect — damage landed properly on this one as well!

So there is some kind of correction applied! But why did so much damage get through? Because they have no armor, maybe?

But right before I took its head—

"Ah! I just finished the treatment!"

—I heard it mutter that. Treatment just finished?

"Freshman! Act like that at the MT and you'll get bullied! You planning to finish college as a total loner, huh!?"

The Level 15 whose head I'd just removed suddenly stood back up with its neck fully reattached.

Insane — they've got a healer too? These bastards are designed to give people headaches!

"As your upperclassman, allow me to teach you a lesson!"

"I have nothing to learn from the likes of you!"

I answered its arrogant mouthing-off with equal heat and swung my iron sword again. Surely there wasn't some insane setting where they got stronger after reviving?

Slash!

Fortunately, its head came off just as easily as before.

...Oh, for fuck's sake! Looking closer, only the head is left? It wasn't like this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠before.

Did it have some passive that let it survive with just a head when revived? I brought my foot down on the still-twitching undead's skull.

Crunch!

Like stomping a monster to death in some horror game, I crushed the skull underfoot until it shattered. I needed to stop thinking of these the way I handled outdoor skeletons and wipe them out thoroughly.

"Hah... hah...!"

"Seeun, are you okay?"

"I-I'm sorry, Seeun! We couldn't deal enough damage...!"

"I had no idea they'd be that strong. My Elemental Arrows barely did anything! Am I just supposed to dump all my MP or what?"

While I'd been handling two of them alone, Park Seeun and the other three had apparently finished off the remaining undead.

But Seeun didn't look good. Her clothes were slightly torn, and she was breathing hard. Kim Seyeon must have healed her, since there were no visible wounds left on her body, but...

"You alright, Seeun?"

"Yeah, hah...! These things... hah... if I'd let my guard down just looking at their levels... it could've been bad! From now on... I think we need to go all-out with skills!"

Go all-out with skills. That was as good as saying that if we took them lightly and stuck to basic attacks, we'd be the ones getting wrecked first.

In other words, just like in an MMORPG — spam skills, tank properly, heal at the right times, throw magic — if we didn't fight that way, clearing this place was a pipe dream.

Faced with a reality harsher than anything I'd anticipated, a bitter taste settled on my tongue all on its own.