Event Dungeon (2)
As soon as Ji-su and I vanished, the people around us fell into complete panic.
“It must be some kind of stealth skill! Search the area!”
Some began frantically combing the surroundings at one person’s shout, while others shook their heads.
“It’s a movement-type skill. They’ve already left this place…”
A few gave up with bitter expressions and simply walked away. During the search, arguments broke out and blades were drawn.
“You little son of a bitch, what the fuck did you just say to me?”
“If you’re so old, maybe I should shove my dick in your ear so you can hear better? Want me to repeat it?”
“You fucking bastard!”
“Kaaagh! H-help!”
“Kill them all!”
What a shitshow.
I sat inside the Cradle of Rest, munching on snacks while watching the chaos unfold around me.
“Whoa, look at that guy. He just shot some kind of sword energy from his blade. Yikes, so that’s what a half-cut looks like. What kind of vicious skill is that? Slicing someone in half from a distance… Ah, and now he’s all wobbly after firing it once. Must be a high-risk, high-reward type. Oof. He’s dead. Tsk tsk… poor bastard. What good is a strong skill and class if you end up dead?”
I kept commentating the scene while chewing loudly when I noticed Ji-su’s uncomfortable expression.
“What? Does it gross you out?”
“W-well… yes, Master. It really does feel disturbing.”
“You’ve been killing monsters just fine until now.”
“That’s true, but… there’s something about killing other humans that makes me hesitate. When I cut off that person’s arm earlier to take the treasure… it felt…”
“Other humans? That kind of thinking is exactly why you feel disgusted. You’re not the same kind of human as them anymore.”
“…Then what am I?”
Ji-su asked in a small, gloomy voice. I answered her firmly.
“You are simply my thrall. You exist for me, and you exist because of me. You are mine and mine alone.”
“….”
“You don’t need to waste time on philosophical questions like ‘who am I.’ Just remember that at the center of your world stands your master—me, Kang Min-gu. Got it?”
“Yes… Master.”
“Tell me what you’re really thinking.”
“Honestly, I don’t fully understand it yet… but I think I get the general idea.”
Oh? No curses slipped out even after my surprise command. Ji-su had grown quite a bit.
I stroked her head gently and continued.
“The value of all of you depends entirely on where I stand. If I rise above everyone else, then you, my thralls, will rise with me as the exalted thralls of Kang Min-gu. But if I become a pathetic loser, then you’ll just be the worthless zombie bitches of that pathetic Kang Min-gu. So all you need to think about is helping me become the highest existence possible. Don’t bother worrying about what you are. Understand?”
“Yes, Master.”
Hmm. That should be enough for now.
I tossed the empty snack bag onto the floor and stood up.
“Alright, let’s head out. We still need to find more treasure.”
“B-but there are still people out there…”
Just as Ji-su said, about five stubborn searchers were still roaming the area, refusing to give up. What persistent bastards.
I glanced at Ji-su.
“So you want us to wait here until they all leave? What if they’re still hanging around after dark?”
“….”
“Let’s go. Since we’re already in the dungeon, we might as well collect some side income too.”
“Side income?”
I flashed her a sly grin, opened the Gate of Rest, and stepped out with Ji-su. The treasure I’d stolen earlier was still clutched firmly in my hand.
The moment we appeared, the people nearby spotted us and came rushing over with shouts.
“Found them!! Those are the bastards who took the treasure!”
“The treasure! There it is! That guy’s holding it!”
They raised their weapons with clear intent to attack us immediately.
I’m not a psychopath, so I don’t go around picking fights and killing people first. But if someone picks a fight with me and threatens my life?
Well. That just makes them my side income.
“Kill them and take it! There’s only two of them!”
“W-wait! That woman…”
“What about her!”
“She’s… pretty.”
“Then kill her after you fuck her! No, fuck her first and then kill her!”
“The treasure is mine!!”
They charged straight at us, eyes glued to the treasure in my hand. From the way they were talking, I didn’t need to feel any guilt about killing them.
I gave Ji-su her order.
“Go, Ji-su. Go raise your master’s status.”
“Yes… Master.”
The moment she answered, Ji-su shot forward. Her sword slashed horizontally, slicing the man at the very front clean in two.
Schlick. His upper and lower body separated and collapsed instantly.
Yeah, that’s it. Good job, Ji-su.
When one man died so pathetically from a single strike, the remaining four hesitated and backed away from her.
Oh? That spot happens to be a minefield.
Specifically, the spot where I planted one of my mines.
“W-what the hell is this?!”
“Uaaagh! Get away from me!!”
“Kill it! Kill the damn thing!!”
Pathetic fools. Of all places to retreat, they chose right where Dong-seok was lying.
At my command, Dong-seok—who had been lying there like a corpse—grabbed their legs and began crawling up. The moment a dead body rose and attacked them, the panicked men started swinging their weapons at him without mercy.
“Kaaaaagh!!”
“You crazy bastard! You stabbed Jeong-hyeok too!”
“Fuck! That’s not the problem right now! That… that dead guy is…”
Dong-seok was slashed and stabbed from every direction, black smoke pouring from his wounds. Into that chaotic mess, Ji-su charged and began swinging her sword.
“Uaaaaagh!”
“Keurgh!”
In the blink of an eye, all four men were lying on the ground.
Safe travels, boys.
In truth, if they had properly organized themselves and used their skills to fight Ji-su, they wouldn’t have died so easily. But the sudden appearance of a risen corpse threw them into confusion, and they couldn’t mount any real resistance before they were all slaughtered.
Well, I’ll make good use of your gold and experience.
I walked over to Ji-su and Dong-seok, who were standing among the fallen bodies.
Ji-su was staring down at her own hands, head lowered.
“You okay?”
When I asked, she looked up at me, then gave a faint smile and nodded.
Good. It looked like Ji-su’s mind was properly armed now.
I turned my gaze to Dong-seok standing beside her. His entire body was riddled with cuts and stabs, black smoke still leaking out.
Honestly, I never imagined Dong-seok would prove this useful. From drawing attention to acting as a literal mine… he was incredibly convenient. If I had any spare slots in my thrall count, I’d want to raise another meat shield just like him.
Anyway, if I wanted to use Dong-seok again, I needed to heal him first.
I activated Siphon Hand on him. Since his wounds were quite severe, it took a full third of my life force to completely restore him.
Once Dong-seok was healed and the treasure was safely stored back inside the Cradle of Rest, Ji-su and I looted the dead men.
There wasn’t much worth taking. All their weapons were complete garbage in quality. They looked like the cheap junk you could buy from the shop for 10 to 20 gold.
Well, I suppose only someone like me would spend hundreds of gold on items from the shop. For most people, this was probably the best they could manage. They were probably too busy just scraping together the dungeon entrance fee.
I gave up on further looting and decided to move on.
“Where are we going?” Ji-su asked.
I brought up the map in front of me. All the golden and green dots had disappeared, leaving only a single white dot blinking at my current location.
“I want to check out where that green dot appeared earlier. I need to figure out what those green points mean. It’s not far from where we are now, so let’s head there.”
With that, I started walking ahead.
There were no people visible nearby. They must have all left to search for other treasures. Now that I thought about it, carrying a treasure around didn’t seem easy. They were too bulky and eye-catching. Unless someone had a skill like my Cradle of Rest to hide items, anyone who claimed a treasure would remain a constant target.
This really was an event dungeon designed to make people kill each other openly. The first and second dungeons had been made normally, so why was only this third one so viciously designed? I couldn’t understand it.
Anyway, we were almost at the spot where the green dot had been on the map. No matter how I looked around, I couldn’t figure out what it represented… Ah. Was that it?
In the distance stood a massive oval-shaped structure. The center portion shimmered with what looked like translucent blue water that kept rippling endlessly. It gave off a similar feeling to the gate we had used to enter this place.
“What… is that?” Ji-su asked.
I shook my head.
“I don’t know either. We’ll just have to go check. It feels similar to the entrance gate we used… Let’s go. We’ll find out once we use it. If my guess is right, that thing is…”
I ran toward the oval structure with Ji-su.
Up close, the building looked truly enormous. The rippling blue waves inside it were even more striking.
Ji-su spoke to me.
“I’ll go in first. We don’t know what might be inside…”
Hmm. Nice. It seemed Ji-su was gradually figuring out her role on her own.
When I nodded, she pushed herself into the rippling water. A moment later she stepped back out and told me,
“This… appears to be some kind of gate. It says it’s a tool that lets you instantly travel to any of the green dots marked on the map.”
Just as I thought.
I nodded again, and Ji-su continued.
“However… it requires a usage fee. 30 gold per use…”
Those thieving bastards.
No wonder there were so few people using such a convenient gate for moving between areas. 30 gold? That was more than half the dungeon entrance fee.
From what I saw on the map, the distance between green dots seemed to be at least 50 kilometers. That was a huge amount of time saved, but the fee was brutal. Were they telling us to use it or not?
Well, in the end, only those in a hurry or people like me with plenty of gold to spare would actually use it.
I pushed Ji-su back into the Cradle of Rest. No matter how much gold I had, there was no need to pay for two people.
I stepped into the gate. A refreshing sensation of cool water enveloped my entire body. It felt surprisingly pleasant.
As I enjoyed the feeling for a moment, a message appeared before my eyes.
> Entering D-Region Gate.
> Please state your desired destination. Usage fee is 30 gold.
A map then appeared in front of me. The northwest area at the top left was Region A, the northeast was Region B, the southwest was Region C, and the southeast where I currently stood was Region D.
When the treasure locations were first marked on the map, the place with the most golden dots had been Region A.
In that case, let’s go to A.
I spoke the words “Region A,” and another message appeared.
> Traveling to Region A. 30 gold has been deducted.
The cool water surrounding my body began to spin violently. I felt both my body and mind being swept away somewhere.
> Arrival complete.
After confirming the message, I stepped out of the gate.
The scenery that greeted me was completely different from Region D. Scattered corpses and bloodstains littered the ground in front of the gate.
I immediately opened the Gate of Rest and brought Ji-su out.
“Did we move to a different region? Oh my… so many bodies…”
“This is the area that had the most treasure. There must have been a lot of fighting. Alright, let’s start looking for treasure.”
“Yes, Master.”
Ji-su and I began searching for treasure together.
Even without the map marking them, finding treasure wasn’t particularly difficult. Wherever a treasure was, things were always noisy.
Sure enough, after walking a short distance in a random direction, we came across a very noisy scene.
It felt similar to the situation we’d seen in Region D. A group of people stood with their backs to a cliff, completely surrounded by a much larger crowd.
The difference from Region D was that the team holding the treasure was quite large this time. And they weren’t holding just one treasure—they had two.
A massive team of roughly thirty people was currently in a standoff with the surrounding crowd while guarding two treasures.
Now then… how should I go about stealing those treasures?