Event Dungeon (6): The Familiar Presence

A welcome message floated before my eyes.

It felt like I’d leveled up again surprisingly quickly after the last one. I opened my status window right away.

“Status window.”

I had finally reached level twenty-six. Nothing particularly stood out, except… Huh?

What the hell was that? Why was there so much gold piled up? And it wasn’t just the gold—the Soul Jar count had skyrocketed too. The numbers marked with + were the recent gains, which meant they included the souls and gold from the seven armed robbers I’d just killed.

That would mean that even before I took them out, I already had over fifteen hundred gold and more than five hundred souls stored up. How was that possible?

From what I remembered, the last time I checked my status the Soul Jar had been in the two-hundred range, and after blowing a bunch of gold on flexing recently I should’ve only had a few hundred left. Even if I added the gold from the five-man crew we killed yesterday and the robbers from today, there was no way it should exceed two thousand.

Let me think. The sudden spike in gold and souls definitely wasn’t from anything I’d done myself. So that left…

“Master? Are you okay?”

Seo Ji-su called out to me with worry in her voice as I stared silently at the status window. I closed it and answered her.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just give me a second.”

After reassuring Ji-su, I sent a telepathic message to the person I suspected was behind all this.

No response.

This bitch…

When I sent it more forcefully, she finally replied.

I felt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a vein throb on my forehead. Just you wait until this event dungeon is over.

I swallowed my rising anger and spoke to her again.

Well, that made sense. The only monsters in this event dungeon were goblins and goblin warriors anyway.

Got her. So you were the culprit after all.

I asked in a dumbfounded voice.

When I asked in disbelief, Juniel responded in a wronged tone.

Well… I had said that, but still…

Hmm… she wasn’t wrong. In a dungeon where multiple teams were roaming around, a woman traveling by herself—especially one as stunning as Juniel—would definitely attract plenty of scumbags looking to try something.

Still, fifty people… That was pretty extreme, even for her.

When I stayed silent, Juniel’s voice came through a little softer.

That was probably true. By now the rumor that you absolutely should not touch the crazy red-haired horned woman would have spread throughout the dungeon.

Anyway, the abnormally high amount of gold and souls had clearly come from Juniel’s actions. No wonder I leveled up again so soon after the last time.

It didn’t seem like she had done anything wrong. She had simply followed my orders, killed anyone who started trouble, hunted monsters diligently, and was currently holding the number one ranking.

I sent my thoughts to her with a slightly awkward expression.

She sounded a little sulky. I spoke to her gently, as if patting her head.

After a short pause, her reply came back.

With Juniel’s answer, I ended the telepathic connection. More gold wasn’t exactly a bad thing, and it didn’t sound like she was just mindlessly slaughtering people either.

I stroked Ji-su’s hair once—she had been watching me with worry—then headed toward the gate. A few people passed by, but no one started any trouble. They simply observed us from a distance as we walked past each other.

Ji-su and I killed time near the gate. We sat beneath a tree, and before long it was noon.

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

I immediately opened the map. Three golden dots were clearly visible at my current position. And… the two dots that were my target were clustered together.

“Seven o’clock from the C-area gate. Good. Let’s move.”

I summoned the Gate of Rest and opened the door, gently pushing Ji-su inside. I left the gate open. As long as it stayed open, the Cradle of Rest would remain fixed in this spot.

I could already feel the area growing noisy. With three golden dots gathered here, this place would soon be swarming with people. I threw myself into the gate without hesitation.

A refreshing sensation of water enveloped my body, and another message appeared.

“C-area.”

The water surrounding me spun violently. My body and mind felt like they were being pulled somewhere. Then, shortly after—

I hurried out of the gate, ignoring the message. When I checked the map again, the two golden dots that had been at seven o’clock had already moved to the six o’clock position. They were probably moving quickly to shake off pursuers.

I ran toward the two golden dots while sending a telepathic message to Ji-su.

“Good. I’ll move you again once the map time runs out, so stay put for now. Close the Gate of Rest immediately when I tell you.”

I ended the connection with Ji-su and kept running while watching the map. The two golden dots that had been moving quickly suddenly stopped and stayed in one place. They had either been surrounded by pursuers or were taking a short break. Probably one or the other.

I continued running while constantly checking the map. Before long the map’s duration ended, leaving only the white dot showing my own position blinking on it. But I had already confirmed the treasure location. I had seen the large crowd gathered there.

I stopped for a moment to catch my breath, then sent a message to Ji-su.

A short while later I summoned the Gate of Rest again. When I opened the newly created door, Ji-su stepped out with a bright expression.

“Master!”

“Nothing happened, right?”

“Ugh, it was insane. They kept accusing each other of hiding the treasures and started a massive battle… Quite a lot of people died.”

“The map clearly showed three treasures, but no one could see them, so that makes sense.”

“But this place…”

“Yeah, this is where the two treasures are gathered. See all those people up ahead? Looks like another standoff.”

I walked toward the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crowd with Ji-su. The atmosphere was a little different from when we had surrounded that guild last time. Unlike the tense psychological warfare of the previous standoff, a full-scale battle was already underway.

But the battle situation was a bit strange. There was a group of around thirty people, and standing in front of them was a single man fighting alone. A muscular man with his top off. He was single-handedly engaged in a fierce battle against the surrounding crowd.

The people behind him simply watched the fight with relaxed expressions, as if they had entrusted all the combat to him. Screams filled the air, limbs flew through the sky—this was a terrifying battlefield. Yet the muscular man continued to dominate the fight with overwhelming skill.

“Haaah!!”

When he swung his massive blade with a battle cry, the upper and lower halves of two attackers were sliced apart instantly. At the same time, he spun the blade back and cut through another person’s waist. Three men collapsed with their bodies severed in the blink of an eye.

The muscular man laughed heartily and continued fighting.

“Come on!!! All of you, come at me!!”

He moved freely in every direction. Everyone who tried to stop the muscular man was cut in half and laid to rest on the cold ground.

Ji-su watched the battle and spoke quietly.

“That man… he’s incredibly strong. And fast. But…”

“But…?”

“I don’t know how to describe it… The feeling is…”

I finished the sentence for Ji-su, who was struggling to find the right words.

“It feels familiar?”

“Ah, yes! That’s it! Familiar! Wait… how did you know, Master…?”

Ji-su looked at me with wide, surprised eyes. How did I know? Because I felt the exact same way.

The muscular man slaughtering everyone in front of us was definitely someone I had never seen before today. So why did he feel so familiar? I couldn’t figure it out.

While I was lost in thought, a mountain of corpses had formed around the muscular man. Once no one else dared to challenge him, he laughed and shouted.

“Come on! Is no one else going to attack? Look at this ring! This is a spatial ring! There are treasures inside it, you know? Two of them! Doesn’t it tempt you? Are you really not going to attack?”

So that was why we couldn’t see the treasures. He had a spatial ring after all.

Even after his provocation, no one stepped forward.

“If there’s no one left, does that mean I can start attacking you now?”

At the muscular man’s shout, the surrounding crowd began to stir and hurriedly retreat. Once most of them had fled, the people who had been standing behind him watching the fight rushed over.

“Guild Master, you’ve worked hard!”

“Yeah. You guys worked hard too.”

“We didn’t really do anything.”

“Thanks to all of you, we were able to collect two treasures. Still, we need to find more, but it’s not easy with all these people swarming us.”

“Don’t worry too much. There’s still plenty of time left.”

“Right. Leave the fighting to me and focus on finding the treasures.”

The muscular man spoke in a bold, refreshing manner. So they were a guild too. And he was the guild master. They seemed to have a pretty good relationship with one another.

Even so, I still felt that strange sense of familiarity from the muscular man. It was almost like…

I slowly began walking toward them.

“M-Master?”

Ji-su followed me with a flustered expression. The muscular man and his guild members noticed us approaching and watched us with wary eyes.

The muscular man spoke as he looked at me.

“Why didn’t you attack when I told you to? Only showing up after everything’s already over…”

His words stopped mid-sentence. He simply stared at me with an unreadable look in his eyes. The slim man standing beside the muscular man asked in confusion.

“Guild Master?”

The closer I got, the stronger the feeling of familiarity became. And then it became clear. This feeling was exactly like…

“W-Wait!”

The muscular man thrust out his hand and shouted at me.

“Don’t come any closer! No… I mean… please don’t!”

He looked at me with confused eyes, as if he couldn’t even understand the words coming out of his own mouth. His arm twitched like he wanted to raise the blade, but he seemed unable to follow through. Instead he began slowly backing away.

His guild members looked at him with expressions that said they had no idea what was going on. I smiled at him and spoke.

“Please don’t retreat. I came because I have something to give you.”

The muscular man froze in place. Would it work? It probably would. No—it definitely would.

I walked right up to the muscular man, looked him in the eyes, and said.

“That spatial ring. Will you give it to me?”

The guild members stared at me like I was speaking nonsense. Then the muscular man answered.

“I-I will give it to you.”

The guild members’ eyes widened as if they were about to pop out of their skulls.