Chapter 79: Chaos (2)
Chapter 79: Chaos (2)
Though her disappointment was palpable, Kang Yujin knew she couldn't prioritize her own desires given the current situation. After being seen off by Han Shin, she departed for Korea.
Since she was traveling via Grace’s Sanctuary, she would be back home in no time. Han Shin told her to contact him as soon as she arrived, knowing he would be seeing her again soon anyway.
Once Yujin left, Han Shin activated the Manager App to check the mana levels of the Dungeon Core he had harvested from the dungeon where they fought the Stone Beasts.
This isn't the mana level of an E-Rank Dungeon Core...
Grace and Laysia, who were looking at the screen from either side of him, fell into thought as they confirmed the reading.
It was something they were already certain of, but the Stone Beasts were absolutely not the kind of monsters that should appear in an E-Rank dungeon.
For nearly thirty years, the Evil God forces had been unable to hide the mana of the Dungeon Core, which served as the heart of any dungeon. The fact that this had changed was the most significant development.
"How did they hide the Dungeon Core's mana?"
Han Shin’s question went to the very heart of the matter.
They already knew that the Evil Gods were behind the creation of the Portals. Until now, these entities had followed certain laws, creating dungeons and sending them to Earth to create rifts powerful enough for even greater beings to cross dimensions.
The problem was: how had this process changed?
Originally, mana was a neutral resource used by both the forces of good and evil. Since its fundamental nature didn't change much regardless of who used it, it was considered a universal law that a monster with high mana—one strong enough to become a Dungeon Core—could not hide its energy.
Mana simply wasn't something that could be concealed just by wanting to.
And yet, this dungeon had clearly emitted the mana levels of an E-Rank, only for them to find Stone Beasts—monsters far beyond that rank—inside. Similar reports were coming in from all over the world.
To find even the smallest clue, Han Shin began to mentally replay their hunts in the last two dungeons.
"Was there anything unusual compared to our normal runs?"
After a moment of reflection, retracing their timeline in the dungeon, a discrepancy occurred to Han Shin.
"I think we encountered the monsters much later than usual..."
Since Grace had spent more time in dungeons with Han Shin than Laysia had, she reacted immediately.
"Yes. We did encounter them a bit later than expected."
In a dark dungeon, casting a Light Spell to illuminate the surroundings usually drew a lot of attention from monsters. Unless the terrain was enclosed like a narrow cave, monsters in open areas could see the light from a great distance and would often rush to attack immediately.
"The place where we fought the Dire Wolves was a forest... and the Stone Beasts were in the rocky hills..."
In a forest, visibility is somewhat obstructed, so a late encounter was plausible. However, the rocky hills were filled with massive boulders that were nowhere near enough to hide the spread of light. Furthermore, it was certain that there had been Stone Beasts near the path they had already walked.
"Hmm... something doesn't add up..."
Han Shin wondered if he was overthinking it, as it was difficult to draw a common conclusion from both cases.
In the case of the Stone Beasts, they hadn't reacted at all even as Han Shin’s party passed right by them. They only "woke up" and attacked much later, after the party had moved quite a distance into the corridor-like terrain.
However, the Dire Wolves were in a dense forest, which provided enough cover for a delayed attack, making it hard to use them for cross-verification.
That was when Laysia, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
"Dire Wolves have an incredibly developed sense of smell. It's actually strange that they didn't notice us sooner."
A Dire Wolf’s sense of smell was superior even to a dog's; they were known to react instantly to any prey entering their territory.
Grace agreed.
"Laysia is right. For Dire Wolves, they attacked us very late."
"Then... unless they were really far away, there must be a reason they were late to attack..."
As Han Shin fell into thought, Laysia added one more observation.
"We should focus on the fact that we didn't even realize we were being surrounded. In a place with thick woods and tall grass, they should have made some noise, but the moment we heard the first howl, Dire Wolves sprang out from every direction."
"Oh... you're right."
It was something he had overlooked as trivial.
When they faced the Dire Wolves, Han Shin had just awakened as a Dragon Knight and begun wielding the Power of the Dragon, making the battle incredibly easy. Because of that, he had subconsciously treated it as just another E-Rank dungeon and missed the details. Since he knew less about Dire Wolves than Laysia did, the anomaly had escaped him.
"Does this mean... in both cases, the monsters 'woke up' late?"
A hypothesis formed in his mind.
Just as the Stone Beasts hadn't reacted even when the party walked right past them, perhaps the Dire Wolves had been asleep in the brush or sealed in some way before being released.
As Han Shin, Grace, and Laysia exchanged ideas, they realized they were very close to the truth.
Just as they suspected, the demons serving the Evil God had developed a method to compress mana within monsters and had successfully implemented it.
It was a plan they had invested a great deal of time into.
They were confident that if they could disrupt the patterns the humans of Earth had grown accustomed to, it would cause chaos and slow down dungeon clear rates. This would lead to more dungeons triggering Dimension Bombs, eventually punching holes in the Dimensional Barrier.
While Han Shin didn't yet know the full extent of their intent, he had arrived at the truth of how they were hiding the Dungeon Core's mana to create dungeons filled with unexpectedly powerful monsters.
"Hmm... if that's the case, dungeons where it's hard to find traces of monsters or where they can't be spotted immediately are going to be very dangerous."
"Yes."
To be certain, Han Shin felt he needed to enter more dungeons and gather more data to test this hypothesis.
"I need to go back in and keep this in mind while I observe."
Grace and Laysia naturally agreed and prepared to follow him.
Grace felt a sense of satisfaction seeing that Han Shin was no longer just someone who received her teachings. She had acted as a sort of mentor to him since he became Tiamat’s Proxy, and now that she was a woman who loved him, seeing him grow in this way was fulfilling on both counts.
Hmm...
Laysia maintained her usual gentle smile, but internally, she watched Han Shin with great interest.
She had only known him for two days, but from the talent he displayed in battle to his willingness to listen to others' opinions, he seemed like a very attractive prospect.
Laysia was a veteran of many battles, and the way Han Shin had swung his Warhammer against the Stone Beasts earlier was practically flawless.
Only a month ago, he had been an ordinary person whose body was a wreck, barely able to walk, before contracting with Tiamat and becoming an Awakener. To have developed such skill in just over a month of actual combat was astonishing.
She had heard from Grace that he had a great attitude toward learning and a strong desire for self-improvement, which made her want to teach him even more. Now, she truly understood what Grace meant.
This was especially true considering Laysia had been a renowned Martial Artist before becoming a follower of Tiamat.
As a famous and skilled Martial Artist, many had sought her tutelage, and those experiences had made her quite picky about whom she chose to teach. However, Han Shin had already more than met her standards. Even if their relationship had started because of Tiamat, she sincerely wanted to train him.
"Han Shin-nim."
"Yes?"
Han Shin responded immediately to Laysia’s quiet call.
"If you have the time later, would you be interested in learning Body Arts?"
"I'd be grateful if you taught me. I'm sure it'll come in handy somewhere."
Any other Awakener would have found his reaction absurd.
Han Shin had already mastered numerous weaponry techniques, yet he accepted the offer to learn Body Arts without a second thought. For a typical Awakener, this was unimaginable; usually, there wasn't even enough time to master a single weapon.
However, because it had taken Han Shin a while to awaken as a Dragon Knight, he had felt the need to do whatever he could to improve in the meantime, leading him to learn various weaponry techniques from Grace.
Not satisfied with that, he had even studied the Weaponry Manual in Grace’s Sanctuary on his own. The fact that he was now ready to learn Body Arts from Laysia spoke to his abnormally high learning speed.
Grace and Laysia were both aware of this, but they kept it a secret from Han Shin. There was no reason to tell him, and they were curious to see how he would grow as he absorbed every combat style available.
"We'll start once the current situation settles down a bit."
"Alright. Let's do that."
Having agreed to learn Body Arts from Laysia later, Han Shin checked the time.
"Hmm... it's not quite dinner time yet. How about we hit one more dungeon before we eat?"
Han Shin didn't want to overexert himself, but he wanted to enter dungeons consistently. He felt a strong urge to uncover the cause of these anomalies to prevent further casualties, and with the Evil Gods lurking in the shadows, he felt he needed to get stronger as quickly as possible. He couldn't stand just sitting around.
"I will follow your lead, Han Shin-nim."
"Let's do that."
With everyone in agreement, the three of them prepared to head back into the dungeons.