Dungeon Training (4)
Thankfully, the Anchor Potions I had scattered in advance seemed to be doing their job. None of the cadets had gone berserk.
They simply kept their full consciousness while pouring attacks on the students around them. Because of that, only a few cadets nearby had taken minor injuries, and the situation never truly spiraled out of control.
Bang—! Ba-bang—!
I fired healing shots at the wounded while glancing toward the cult spies. They were somehow being subdued under Baek Woohyun’s sword strikes. Having been through this once already, Han Yeoreum and Lee Hayun had also stepped up to look after the other cadets.
Fwoooosh—
While I held back the White Flame charging in from afar and kept healing the injured, a thought suddenly struck me.
…Then where was Chaea right now?
In the original story, Yoon Chaea didn’t die during this dungeon-training terrorist attack. That meant the odds of a cult spy being in her group should have been low… yet a bad feeling still gnawed at me.
Even my own group’s lineup had changed the moment I joined. What guarantee was there that Chaea’s side had stayed the same? Or had there really been no spy in her group in the original at all? What if she had simply been lucky enough to escape? Could I really count on that same luck holding now, with so many variables piled on top of everything?
The spies rampaging here hadn’t gone berserk thanks to the Anchor Potions. But if there was a spy in Chaea’s group, things would be completely different. They wouldn’t have been hit by any potion, so of course they would have gone full berserk. And a cult berserker was far beyond what first-year cadets could handle—even if one of them was Yoon Chaea, an original heroine.
The moment that thought landed, I frantically scanned the surroundings. Baek Woohyun, Han Yeoreum, and Lee Hayun were leading the cadets, gradually pinning the spies down. The White Flame had already closed to near range.
…I didn’t have time to stand around here.
These spies would probably be contained just fine without me. I had already healed every injured person in sight; there was nothing left for me to do. If I simply lured the White Flame away, this whole area would settle down and go quiet.
Ssssss—
Calculation finished, I drew the cold deep into my lungs through the scale in my mouth and sprinted straight at the White Flame.
Bang—! Ba-bang—!
I fired at the beast while frantically mapping a route in my head. Since I was moving alone, I didn’t need a wide path—just the shortest, fastest one.
Fwoooosh—
The White Flame’s heat punched through the Ice Dragon’s chill. After a rapid volley confirmed its aggro was locked entirely on me, I immediately cut hard and ran for the narrow side path between the cadet group and the monster.
“Hey! Yu Haneul!!”
A panicked voice shouted my name from behind, but the searing flames roaring right at my back swallowed the sound whole.
Thud-thud!
I drove my feet harder, faster. Every so often I snapped off another shot just to keep the aggro refreshed. How long I raced down that cramped, treacherous trail, I couldn’t say.
Whoooosh—
A sudden shift in the air behind me made me hurl myself sideways.
FWOOOOOSH—!
A White Flame breath scoured the spot where I had just been standing.
…What, did this thing think it was a dragon or something?
I scrambled up and kept running. A brutal sight filled my vision: the stalactites the flames had passed over were melting into liquid, dripping like water. The fire even bored straight through the wall, carving an entirely new passage.
Hissss—
Acrid smoke hit my nose. My throat grew hot; my vision swam. I slammed healing and purification into myself in rapid succession and forced my legs to move again. The soles of my shoes had melted sticky; every step clung. I wrenched them free with pure leg strength and kept going.
Corner after corner, wall after wall—after a blood-curdling chase, a steep downward slope suddenly opened ahead. The incline was nearly a cliff, studded with jagged rock shards and hanging stalactites.
“…….”
I hesitated only a heartbeat, then threw myself down the slope.
Speed built fast. Sure enough, my feet slipped almost at once; I lost my balance and went tumbling hard.
Thud—
“Agh—”
Scraped skin and slamming into pillars were the least of it.
Crash—
“Ack—!”
A blow to the head blacked everything out for a second before my mind rebooted. The world spun wildly through a flickering field of vision.
“Ugh—”
I was rolling too violently to aim a gun, so I just kept dumping mid-tier healing on myself raw. Hurt, heal, hurt, heal—over and over—until I finally tumbled onto the bottom floor.
“Aaugh….”
Momentum kept me rolling a few more times even after I hit. Only then did I manage to force my trembling body upright.
“Haa…. Haa….”
Spinning vision. Shaking legs. I dragged unresponsive feet forward one stubborn step at a time.
…There wasn’t a single place on my body that didn’t throb.
Ssssss—
I had clenched my jaw the whole way down, so the scale hadn’t flown out of my mouth, but it had shifted into a freer position. I rolled it back onto my tongue, sucked in cold air, and steadied my breathing.
Fwoosh—
There had been side effects, sure, but rolling down had been faster than running. I had opened a little distance from the beast pack.
Bang—!
I fired another magic bullet so the aggro wouldn’t drop and send the White Flame back toward the cadets, then pushed onward.
Whoooosh—
I rounded a corner just as the monster prepared another breath, and suddenly the view opened into a vast cavern.
And there—
Clang—!
Right in the center of my vision, bleeding, desperately swinging a dagger at a huge, grotesque monster, was Chaea.
Ah.
…A complicated tangle of emotions hit me all at once. First came pure relief that she was still alive. At the same time I felt a flicker of irritation at Yeon Hajin for not even knowing a spy had been in her group. Seeing the two cadets collapsed behind her still breathing eased my heart; watching Chaea fight herself bloody to protect them made me feel both a little exasperated and deeply grateful. Satisfaction that every bit of pain from rolling down that slope had meant something warred with the bitter thought that it might have been better if nothing had happened here at all, rendering that pain meaningless.
Bang—!
The gunshot healed her wounds. Yoon Chaea flinched and spun toward me.
“…Huh?”
Her expression went blank the moment she recognized me.
Ba-bang—! Bang—!
I immediately poured healing into Chaea and the two downed cadets behind her. The massive monster’s head-like mass swung toward me; then it abandoned Chaea entirely and charged, thudding heavily in my direction.
“W-wait…. Th-this isn’t….”
Leaving the flustered Chaea behind, I simply turned and ran.
Whoosh— Crunch—!
Hideous, writhing tentacles shot toward me. I felt their disgusting texture graze my skin—strangely damp and sticky—and recoiled hard, rolling away.
CRAAACK—!
A tentacle slammed into the cavern wall, splitting the stone with a sharp crack. Rock dust rained over my head. The instant I was on my feet I sprinted full-out.
Crunch— Crunch—
How long I ran, I didn’t know.
Fwoosh—!
The crackle of flames reached me from ahead. Rounding the corner, I saw the enormous White Flame waiting. Behind me the monster’s footfalls thundered closer.
Thud— Thud— Thud—
I gauged the distance and closed on the White Flame. The footsteps grew louder, accelerating until the creature was right on my heels.
Whoosh—!
I dodged a tentacle that skimmed my shoulder and poured on more speed.
Fwoooosh—
The White Flame’s heat seared my face. The moment the three of us—monster, me, White Flame—were packed into the tightest possible space, I twisted my body sideways and planted a foot.
Screee—
One leg skidded toward the White Flame from sheer momentum.
Fwoosh—
“Hhk—!”
Agony of flesh cooking blanked my vision white for an instant, but I clenched my teeth, spun hard around the monster, and bolted past its rear.
KREEEEEEE—!!
Too massive to stop its charge, the creature plunged straight into the White Flame. A mindless monster’s fitting end. I, however, was in no position to laugh.
Fwoooosh—
In a heartbeat the White Flame melted the thing down and came for me again.
Bang—! Ba-bang—!
I healed the cooked flesh and forced my shaking legs forward. Without the scale clenched in my mouth I wouldn’t have merely burned—I would have melted on the spot. Thinking of it that way, the searing pain was almost bearable.
“Ugh—”
…No. It really wasn’t that bearable. The leg was smooth and scarless after the healing, yet phantom pain kept echoing through it like aftershocks, and I felt like I was going to die.
…But what choice did I have? This had been the best option available.
Dragging those trembling legs, I retraced the path I had come. The cavern opened once more before my eyes.
“H-huh…?”
For some reason Chaea was sitting on the ground, staring blankly while tears streamed down her face. Her eyes flew wide when she saw me.
Fwoooosh—
Feeling the White Flame’s heat right at my back, I rushed to her. She startled and scrambled to her feet. I grabbed the lighter of the two collapsed cadets and slung them over my shoulder; Chaea, catching on, hoisted the remaining one.
Fwoosh—
The White Flame swallowed the spot we had just occupied. I drew a pistol with my free hand and fired a blessing over both of us. The trembling in my legs eased a fraction. I calculated our position and route in my head and chose a direction.
Three branching paths led out of the cavern. I dove into the rightmost one.
Destination: the only sealed space inside this dungeon—the boss room.
The White Flame roaring behind us was at least upper B-rank, easily A-rank if you were generous. A monster that should never have appeared in a B-rank dungeon in the first place. It only existed because someone had deliberately avoided hunting and pulled every mob together. The boss, by contrast, was a perfectly ordinary B-rank dungeon boss. Both were more than we could comfortably handle right now… but if I had to pick, the boss still offered better odds. Besides, we had to kill the boss to leave this place anyway. Given the choice between fighting a quasi-A-rank and a B-rank boss versus just the boss, the answer was obvious. By now Baek Woohyun’s group should have finished cleaning up; even if the White Flame’s aggro dropped, it wouldn’t be a major problem.
FWOOOOOSH—!!
“Haa…. Haa….”
I soothed my burning lungs with healing as we ran. My clothes were scorched in places I couldn’t fix, but I kept the burns themselves sealed with healing. At last a massive stone gate loomed ahead.
…We had arrived.
I poured every last scrap of strength into hurling myself through the narrow gap of the partially open gate.
“Ack—”
I rolled across the floor and looked sideways to see Chaea tumbling the same way. I pushed myself up and glanced back—
BOOM—!!
The stone gate slammed fully shut, sealing the White Flame outside. Instant darkness. But only for a moment.
Woooooom—
A deep vibration rolled through the chamber, and light began to bloom from behind us. I tore my gaze from the gate and turned around.
Rumble—
A lava giant well over ten meters tall was rising to its feet. Molten rock glowed crimson as it dripped from its body, melting the cavern floor into hissing smoke. Its eyelids lifted, revealing enormous pupils.
You have entered the Boss Room.
Encountering Lava Giant (B).
“Ha….”
I had steeled myself the moment we stepped inside… but locking eyes with that colossal gaze still made my body lock up, just a little.