Chapter 12
Chapter 12
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: The King of Gnolls
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The party first followed Park Han-yeong's lead to a new base. Just as she had said, the room was more than three times larger than the one Kang-seok and Seong Yu-jin had been using.
“Monsters hardly ever show up around here.”
There was only one path leading to the room. Seeing the waterway flowing in one corner, it seemed to have been designed as a resting place from the start.
‘The conditions are good, yet monsters stay away.’
There were two possibilities to consider.
One, it was the territory of powerful monsters, like the first bases on the lowest floor and the 10th floor, so weaker monsters didn't come near.
Two, Leif and his party had killed most of the monsters in this vicinity while clearing the dungeon.
In a game, monsters would respawn as soon as they were killed, so even if someone cleared a path, there would be no ‘hole’ in the defensive line. But this was reality. It was a definite possibility.
“The conditions are certainly good. There’s a waterway… and we can use that furniture for firewood if we break it up.”
Kim Kang-san also seemed quite pleased as he looked around the room. His gaze fell upon wooden drawers and chairs carved with rather antique-looking designs scattered about.
Kang-seok spoke.
“Then please rest here. As I said, Yu-jin and I will go scout ahead.”
“Right away, without resting?”
An Jae-min and Kim Nam-yeong were already sitting on the floor, and Kim Kang-san had also set his shield down, apparently intending to rest. Kang-seok shrugged.
“Time is gold.”
No, even gold was an understatement. Kang-seok and Kim Kang-san shared a literally bitter smile.
“I wish you good fortune.”
It was a phrase Kang-seok had never heard in the real world, and never expected to. He simply nodded in response to Kim Kang-san’s words. He then left the room with Seong Yu-jin, who was already prepared to leave, and Park Han-yeong, who was dawdling as if she didn't want to go.
The distance between the new base and the central room said to house the floor boss wasn't that great. As the crow flies, it was only about seven hundred meters.
However, they had to take a detour because of the walls in between, forcing them to travel nearly three times the straight-line distance.
Park Han-yeong, unable to use ‘Stealth’ while guiding Kang-seok and Seong Yu-jin, nervously glanced around, while Seong Yu-jin, shield raised, cautiously watched their surroundings with a tense expression.
In truth, if they were only considering ‘reconnaissance,’ it would have been better to leave Seong Yu-jin at the base. Park Han-yeong could use Stealth, and Kang-seok had his own incredible mobility.
It would have been faster for just the two of them, and easier to escape in an emergency. But there was a simple reason Kang-seok hadn't done that.
‘I can't trust them yet.’
The trio of grizzled gamers, with Kim Kang-san at their center.
It wasn't just about their combat prowess.
They were fellow Korean Players, met in this unknown world.
It wasn't strange to feel a sense of camaraderie and fight together. After all, Kang-seok himself had been with Seong Yu-jin this whole time.
But they had only just met.
It hadn't even been a few hours.
Given the large gap in combat ability between himself and the trio, it was unlikely they would try anything foolish, even thinking about the future. But one could never be sure.
‘I feel a little bad, like I’m being paranoid.’
Kim Nam-yeong was a bit disagreeable, but Kim Kang-san and An Jae-min seemed easygoing and good-natured.
Treating them like potential criminals made him uncomfortable, but there was no harm in being cautious.
And Seong Yu-jin’s combat strength was not to be underestimated.
Her various tanking skills, including her unique taunt, would be a great help in an emergency.
‘If things go south, I can just carry her and run.’
Park Han-yeong could use Stealth, so she could take care of herself. That left him and Seong Yu-jin, and carrying one person while running was no trouble at all.
Having organized his thoughts, Kang-seok refocused on the reconnaissance. He habitually bit his lower lip slightly.
A floor boss.
He had never encountered such a being on his way up. Leif Erikson's journal also made no mention of a floor boss.
‘If there’s only one staircase connecting the 5th and 6th floors, Leif and his party must have already defeated it.’
Did another one take its place? Or was Park Han-yeong mistaken about something?
Kang-seok looked at the back of Park Han-yeong's head as she walked in front. The truth was, he didn't fully trust her either.
He had known both her and the trio for too short a time to grant them his trust. The situation was different from when he had met Seong Yu-jin.
It was then that Seong Yu-jin, walking ahead, suddenly tugged on Kang-seok’s hand. When he asked what was wrong with his eyes, she gestured toward Park Han-yeong. Now that he paid attention, her breathing was ragged and her steps were unsteady.
Seong Yu-jin spoke gently to Park Han-yeong.
“Shall we take a short break?”
At her words, Park Han-yeong quickly turned around as if she had found salvation. She quickly nodded, her eyes looking as if she were about to cry.
“I’m sorry. This is the first time I’ve walked around without using Stealth.”
How long had they been resting in a small, nearby alcove? Having regained her composure, Park Han-yeong murmured softly. As she said, being without Stealth and leading the way had apparently sent her anxiety into overdrive.
Kang-seok asked.
“Ms. Han-yeong, have you never fought before?”
“I-I’ve fought a couple of times. I’d hide and then ambush ones that were wandering alone.”
So she wasn't completely inexperienced in combat.
Though they called them monsters, they were still killing animals much larger than dogs, almost human-sized.
Just as Seong Yu-jin had thrown up several times during her first battle, it was natural for an ordinary person to feel a strong sense of revulsion.
Park Han-yeong had already gone through that process.
Slightly revising his assessment of her, Kang-seok asked again.
“What about food?”
“I didn't get to say this earlier… but there’s a place near the base where mushrooms grow. I’ve been surviving on those for now.”
“There are edible mushrooms?”
Seong Yu-jin’s eyes sparkled as she asked. It was a natural reaction after eating nothing but tasteless beans every day.
“Uh, um. Yes. They’re not moss, so they must be mushrooms. They’re quite tasty when you roast them.”
Although Park Han-yeong stuttered and lacked confidence in her actions, she seemed to be surprisingly resourceful.
Kang-seok took another look at her. Her breathing was stable now, and she stuttered less when talking with Seong Yu-jin.
It seemed she had relaxed to some extent.
“Let’s get going again. I’ll take the lead this time, so just give me directions from behind. Yu-jin, you take the rear.”
“Okay.”
Seong Yu-jin quickly replied and took Park Han-yeong’s hand to help her up.
Before they set off, Kang-seok checked his remaining survival time. In the dungeon where day and night were indistinguishable, he used it to keep track of the days.
“Let’s hurry. I want to be back before the day is over.”
Kang-seok took the lead, with Park Han-yeong and Seong Yu-jin following behind.
***
Compared to the floors below, the 6th floor was much brighter inside. In addition to torches, there were other sources of light.
Lumps of light embedded in the ceiling and walls at regular intervals were the source. The principle behind them was unknown, but they were brighter and more numerous than torches, effectively illuminating the darkness.
How long had they been cautiously advancing through the corridor?
When they came to a fork in the road, Kang-seok stopped, as he had been doing, and looked back at Park Han-yeong. She spoke in a hushed voice.
“You need to be more careful from here. The right path leads directly to the boss room, but there are quite a few gnolls on the way. The left path leads to what I guess you’d call a ventilation shaft? Anyway, there’s a hole there that lets you peek into the boss room.”
It seemed Park Han-yeong had explored both paths.
The right was the route to fight the boss. The left was the route to observe.
The answer was as good as decided.
“Let’s go left.”
Unlike the right path, which was wide enough to be called a main road, the left path was narrow and had many turns.
They passed several small rooms sealed with sturdy wooden doors. Park Han-yeong opened the door at the very end.
The room immediately brought a warehouse to mind.
Though empty, it was filled with shelves, and a pile of wooden crates was stacked in one corner. However, it seemed to have been a long time since it was last used, as a thick layer of dust covered everything in sight.
Park Han-yeong pointed to a square hole in the corner of the room, a little more than three meters up.
“That’s the ventilation shaft. It connects to the boss room.”
Ventilation would certainly be important in an underground dungeon. Thinking back, he seemed to recall seeing a few similar holes on his way up.
As Kang-seok and Seong Yu-jin stared at the hole high above their heads, Park Han-yeong quickly added.
“If you stack the furniture over there and climb on top…”
Park Han-yeong’s words were cut short. It wasn't because she got nervous and started stuttering again.
With a standing start, Kang-seok leaped, then kicked off the air to jump a second time.
For Kang-seok, who could double jump, three meters wasn't very high.
It wasn't a desperate grab; he could jump to a height that gave him plenty of clearance.
The vent was large enough for a grown man to crawl through, so if he used Dash, he could probably throw himself inside in one go.
After a test jump, Kang-seok landed back on the ground. Park Han-yeong blinked in amazement.
“Wow, you’re much more of a ninja than I am.”
Jumping again in mid-air.
Impressed by the double jump, Park Han-yeong continued in a slightly raised voice.
“It’s just a straight path from there. I’ll hide here.”
The thought of going to the boss room was scary, but her words were also due to the size of the vent.
No matter how big it was, you still had to crawl.
What if several people went into a shaft like that and an unexpected situation arose?
The quick-witted Seong Yu-jin slightly raised her shield.
“I’ll stay here too. In a narrow space like that, you’ll be much better off moving alone. I might just get in the way.”
Seong Yu-jin could read the properties of items. But she couldn't determine a monster's stats just by looking at it.
“I’ll be back. Hide well.”
“You be careful too.”
Kang-seok nodded once, then took off the backpack he was wearing and handed it to Seong Yu-jin. He leaped lightly and pushed himself into the ventilation shaft.
Inside the vent, there was, of course, no lighting. Thankfully, it didn't get narrower as he went deeper, but the confinement of constantly being on his stomach was suffocating, and crawling forward was more strenuous than he had expected.
How far had he gone? He felt he must have covered at least fifty meters.
He saw light.
It meant the other end wasn't far.
Instead of speeding up, Kang-seok paused. He couldn't know what scene awaited him beyond the vent.
He had heard a rough description from Park Han-yeong, but he couldn't let his guard down.
This vent was quite large, to begin with. He probably wouldn't have much time to observe. If he was unlucky, he might even be chased by gnolls.
Kang-seok closed his eyes for a moment and focused his mind. After taking a deep breath to steel himself, he resumed his advance.
He could hear the voices of gnolls from the other side. It was mostly growls; he couldn't discern any language to understand their meaning.
There were a few of them near the vent.
According to Park Han-yeong’s information, the boss room's structure wasn't complex. It was a large room, fit to be called a hall, with a grand staircase, and the boss sat in front of it. Gnolls were positioned throughout the room.
She had said the vent faced the staircase directly, so he should be able to see the boss right away.
‘The best outcome is not getting caught.’
The Players, including Kang-seok himself, had already killed several gnolls. It was unlikely the floor boss was unaware of the Players' existence. But even so, it was better not to let it know its room had been spied upon.
Kang-seok pushed his body further forward. He could now see the other side of the vent quite clearly.
Just a little more.
That was the thought in his mind when it happened.
A powerful vibration shook the inside of the vent.
The shock was enough to make one scream in terror, but Kang-seok gritted his teeth and pushed forward.
He couldn't clearly grasp the situation outside the vent.
He could only surmise that something with immense power had struck the wall near the vent.
Holding his breath, Kang-seok looked.
Beyond the vent.
The staircase.
And the one who stood before it. A massive gnoll, in a spear-throwing stance, glaring at the wall next to the vent. Around it, other gnolls were either flabbergasted and fidgeting or prostrating themselves in fear.
It didn't seem to have been aiming for him. It looked like it had been aiming for something that had been on the wall next to the vent.
Having confirmed the floor boss's appearance, Kang-seok wasted no more time. He placed both hands on the vent walls and pushed. He shoved his body backward, then repeated the motion.
The things he had witnessed in that brief moment.
A height of roughly four meters. A helmet on its head, and partial armor protecting its shoulders and chest. A giant axe. A throwing spear. Fur as black as jet.
A monster that seemed like it could take on twenty ordinary gnolls without breaking a sweat.
Even as he moved to exit the vent, Kang-seok's mind was racing. He recalled the journal he had read so many times he could recite it from memory.
It existed.
A giant gnoll. The ruler of the gnolls in Labyrinthos. A being that Leif Erikson and his companions had found perplexing for its absence during their conquest.
Aden, the King of Gnolls.
It had to be him.