Greenhouse Flower (2)
A narrow entrance barely wide enough for one person. Pitch-black darkness where you couldn't see ahead. Water trickled along the floor, making it look slippery as hell.
"……."
That explained why no one had discovered this place for decades. It had a perfectly plausible reason baked right in.
Go in there...? Bitterness rose in my throat, but I had no choice. That cave was probably the Sanctuary.
Sanctuary. After the towers appeared, dungeons sprang up all over the world. Sanctuaries were classified as dungeons but served as trial grounds, granting massive rewards to those who cleared them. Ha Yeon-si pushed right to the brink of clearing one, staking her life on it. But she wasn't chosen for the reward. Because of her innate nature and the meddlers who got in the way.
That unprecedented fiasco only fueled her rebellious streak, ultimately leading her—much later—to abandon the sword and pick up a staff instead. The worst possible outcome.
"What do you think? Feels like something's in there, right?"
Ha Yeon-si glanced back at me. Flecks of anger, irritation, and mischief danced in her blue eyes.
"Yeah, something's definitely in there."
Like a giant snake or some massive bug. Fuck. Bugs were my absolute nightmare.
"You're going in, right?"
"...Let's go."
Her aversion to those greenhouse shadows was something else. Dodging a tail was one thing, but she'd chosen a path that would make most girls faint just to shake them.
"Sweet. I'll take point."
Ha Yeon-si glanced behind us, then plunged into the cave without a second's hesitation. Her decisiveness was top-tier.
Before following, I turned back. Just in case, I activated Penetration faintly. Sure enough, there they were—alien presences detached from the surroundings. Up in the trees, behind us, under the bushes. Behind rocks, even camouflaged in the undergrowth...
Tsk... ninjas or what?
On the flip side, it was no surprise the intel guild was this good at shadowing. Her greenhouse detail would follow her into this cave, no doubt. But the Sanctuary's unique properties and the tightening space would make their job a nightmare.
"...Gotta say, starting as an orphan ain't so bad."
I muttered to myself and trailed after Ha Yeon-si.
Golden Horizon was, without question, the world's top information guild. Its leader, Ha Pung-hwan, was a high-caliber hero who'd achieved mastery as a mage with his family's backing.
Mage. They could manipulate physical and natural laws—everything except time itself. From the start, they were treated differently from regular heroes. Blessed with mana from birth, they could inscribe dozens or even hundreds of mana circuits on their bodies with minimal side effects. Plus, their innate mana had no limits for mana conduction, letting them wield multiple magic tools at once. A profession achievable only through pure talent, not effort.
That was a mage. There were barely 3,000 of them worldwide.
And among them, Ha Pung-hwan—counted among the top five archmages—was scowling fiercely in his office.
"...Connection severed."
His daughter, Ha Yeon-si, precious enough to hurt his eyes just looking at her. The tracking spell he'd placed on her had cut off.
That meant one of two things: she'd died, or she'd entered an unknown place where space-time was severed.
With the guild's elite protection detail shadowing her discreetly, death was unlikely. He'd handpicked them—all trustworthy.
So, probably the latter.
Beep.
His smartwatch chimed with an incoming message.
Ha Pung-hwan clicked his tongue the moment he heard the report.
Sure enough.
"...Ha, a Sanctuary."
His daughter didn't just inherit her mother's stunning looks—she'd gotten the wild, contrary personality too. Willful, rebellious, arrogant. Always hiding her true feelings behind a facade.
She'd probably done it on purpose, knowing the danger. Why couldn't she appreciate all this effort for her sake?
"Blood will out, huh. Rotting my guts just like her mother."
He wanted to respect her choices, but he couldn't. Someone had already left because of a trivial decision like that.
He had to protect the only fruit his wife had left behind. Especially if her talent shone brighter than his own.
"Team 1 Leader."
Ha Pung-hwan spoke into the smartwatch.
"Yes."
"Always assume the worst-case scenario. If you need backup, request it immediately—don't report first. She's my one remaining daughter. Protect her with extra care."
Chang Se-ho replied.
"Understood. We'll handle any developments and report after."
Ha Pung-hwan ended the call and pressed his eyelids wearily. The weight of guild leader duties and fatherly fatigue bore down on his shoulders.
The cave widened as we delved deeper. Like most dungeons, luminous moss lit the way—no pitch-black stretches after the initial dark.
Monsters appeared as expected. The first was a common cave dweller: the Thornvine Python.
"Oh! Monster! It's a snake!"
Ha Yeon-si seemed thrilled to spot a real one.
"Hey! I'll take it!"
She charged with her sword and struck the python. True to its name, its exterior was tough ironvine armor. Mana manifestation could shatter it easily, but normal attacks took work. Still, with no poison and low aggression, it wasn't too tough.
Clang!Clang!Slash!
Her sword barrage cracked the armor and split the flesh. Drunk on the thrill of the hunt, she yelled,
"Ha! Got it!"
More monsters spawned. I stepped up from watching, fists clenched. I could've just pummeled them into scrap, but I used mana manifestation instead.
Hummm.
Mana gathered on my fist and condensed.
Bam!
A light swing turned its insides to mush. It spewed blood and died. One hit.
"Whoa... what are you?"
Ha Yeon-si gawked.
"You're seriously strong... How's your bare fist that powerful? Wild."
She'd unconsciously downplayed my fists before, but her excited tone held no malice.
"Everyone's got talents. Mine's fists. That's why I can smash 'em easy barehanded."
"I struggle this much even with a sword... But that was mana manifestation just now, right?"
Sharp eye.
"Yeah."
"Tch, I swung a hundred times and never got mana manifestation..."
She had talent for mana conduction over manifestation. Mana conduction was essential for magic tools—talent trumped effort there.
"But didn't you use a spear before? Or nah?"
"Figured it out late."
"...Late?"
Her ears perked up.
"Yeah. Turns out my talent's fists, not spear."
"So you switched weapons?"
"Yep."
"Damn, took guts to switch. That can't have been easy..."
"Once I knew I had no spear talent, ditching it was a relief."
"Hmm, really...?"
She probed subtly, but I gave nothing. Still, these little nudges would stack up and sway her decision positively.
We pressed on. The deeper we went, the more monsters appeared. Looting mana stones and drops, we hit a dead end: a wall etched with geometric patterns.
"What the hell is this...?"
The trial activator. I scanned the patterns, then checked behind us. Faint Penetration swept every corner—no sign of the shadows yet. Probably the Sanctuary's properties or barrier at work.
We still had time before they caught up.
...Dizzying.
I cut off Penetration and thought. In the original story, Ha Yeon-si nearly cleared the trial, but the greenhouse crew interfered, costing her the reward. That hollow loss right at the finish line derailed her further.
Even without them, she probably wouldn't have gotten it. If my memory served, this Sanctuary's reward was one of the world's rarest evolutionary sub-weapons—a uniquely special one at that.
Someone blessed with mana like Mana's Worship could never wield it. Null attribute, anti-mana attribute, void attribute... many names, but the official one was this.
Void Tentacle.
Void Tentacle. The gear used by Demons.