Pathfinder Jang Lee-hyun (2)
Finding the Monkey's Den was no coincidence for Jang Lee-hyun.
Brother once told me the monkeys didn't just hand over the Hwaan Geumjeong for no reason.
Hwaan Geumjeong (F)
The eyes said to have been gained by the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, after barely escaping the flames of the Eight Trigrams Furnace.
The higher the proficiency, the more hidden truths of the world the user can perceive.
Type: Holy Relic, Authority
Origin: Myth 'Journey to the West'
*Magic power cannot be used, causing a drastic drop in rank. Only limited functions are available (danger detection, riddle solving).
At the time they had brushed it off as a joke, but Jang Lee-hyun never dismissed Mun Su-chan's words lightly. He never knew when that memory might bring his brother a new opportunity.
And so, drawing from those memories, Jang Lee-hyun and Mun Su-chan had reached several conclusions.
First, the monkeys gave Mun Su-chan the Hwaan Geumjeong with a clear purpose in mind. Second, that purpose was likely connected to the relic's original owner—Sun Wukong himself. Third, possessing the Hwaan Geumjeong would greatly increase the chances of one day encountering Sun Wukong. And fourth, Sun Wukong was not as far away as they thought. The odds were high that he was somewhere in Korea.
That was why Jang Lee-hyun had gathered every legend and myth about Sun Wukong scattered across the world, analyzing them with meticulous care. Thanks to that effort, he was confident he could perfectly clear any dungeon connected to the Great Sage.
This was precisely how he had passed through the Monkey's Den without a single scratch.
Above all, he possessed the perfect set of eyes.
Mun Su-chan had turned the Cheongroe unit—no, the world's greatest search-and-recon team—into an unstoppable force with nothing but the Hwaan Geumjeong. Even without magic power, the relic was still the relic.
Besides...
This eye would be absolutely perfect on you. Combined with your traits, you'd devour everything in your path.
Mun Su-chan had repeatedly said the Hwaan Geumjeong seemed perfectly suited for Jang Lee-hyun. Back then, Lee-hyun had simply thought his brother was trying to dump the responsibility on him. But looking back now, it was clear Mun Su-chan had seen something even then.
“......”
That was why Jang Lee-hyun had sworn to himself that this time, he would find a clue connected to the main body no matter what.
His fist tightened until the knuckles turned white.
Several hours later.
CRASH!
The two massive trees that had stood like gates blocking the path finally toppled.
“It’s the boss room!”
“What? We’re already here?”
“It was hiding in a place like this? No wonder we couldn’t find it before...!”
The party burst into exclamations as they discovered the new clearing hidden among the jungle trees. The deeper they went, the fiercer the zombie monkeys resisted, leaving everyone visibly exhausted. Yet their faces were filled with excitement.
Not only had they opened the boss room that the higher-ups failed to reach in the past year, but—
“Doesn’t this look like a temple?”
“Legend? Myth? Whatever it is—damn, this is a jackpot!”
“Haha! Everyone worked hard.”
The clearing itself was enormous. Stone tablets lined the perimeter like walls, covered in murals of monkeys waging war. At the center stood an altar with a bronze brazier blazing with fire. Eight colossal monkey statues guarded the brazier like sentinels.
At first glance, it looked like a ritual site for some primitive tribe.
“Monkeys everywhere again.”
“Is there a monkey god?”
“Hanuman?”
“Sun Wukong too!”
“Sun Wukong is more of a trickster than an object of worship. Maybe it’s something like Huginn or Mashu?”
“Whatever it is, we’re definitely hitting the big time.”
Temples based on mythology were worth whatever price the market would bear.
Yet despite achieving such a feat, Jang Lee-hyun showed no sign of arrogance. He carefully scanned every inch of the boss room.
“What are you looking around for like that? You seem like you’re searching for something.”
Lim Won-young approached him.
Jang Lee-hyun offered a slight nod.
“The strategy isn’t complete yet. I’m checking for any other traps.”
“It’s a riddle quest, isn’t it? We could take a short break first.”
“We don’t know what form it will take.”
His blunt reply made Lim Won-young let out a dry laugh.
“Hunter Jang, did they also call you a workaholic back when you were in Cheongroe?”
Jang Lee-hyun stared at her silently.
“Don’t get mad at Deputy Min. I was the one asking him all sorts of questions out of curiosity. I had quite a few friends and classmates in Cheongroe too.”
“......”
“Any chance you’d consider joining White Burn?”
Jang Lee-hyun shook his head.
“I’m sorry. With a body like mine, I’d only be a burden.”
“You really don’t hold back, do you? That was a very firm no. Come on, think about it slowly. We’d help treat your curse however we can, and provide any other support you want...”
“I’m sorry.”
“You really did eat a pumpkin of determination, huh.”
Lim Won-young chuckled dryly.
But the more she looked at Jang Lee-hyun’s steadfast gaze, the more she wanted him. This is the man who was at the center of the Gangneung incident? The monstrous genius from the 17th generation.
In truth, Lim Won-young could never forget the major event from four years ago. Many of her friends and classmates had died in it.
The Gangneung incident. Even now, that so-called dungeon was still spoken of like a legend in the hunter industry.
A 4-star dungeon break could cause a national—perhaps even global—catastrophe. When the Ice Palace appeared in the middle of Jeongdongjin, the entire city of Gangneung and all residents along the eastern coast received evacuation orders.
The government issued a mobilization order to every guild in Korea and requested aid from overseas, focusing on forming a massive raid party.
And the unit urgently deployed at that time was Cheongroe.
Their mission was to delay the break as much as possible until the main force arrived.
But the break progressed far faster than the government had predicted.
Left unchecked, it would cause a massive disaster. In the end, Cheongroe had no choice but to attempt the raid themselves.
After suffering enormous casualties, they succeeded.
The spotlight Cheongroe received from both domestic and international media was overwhelming. They were hailed as heroes who saved Gangneung with minimal civilian losses.
The operations officer who led them—codename Jet—was practically deified.
Yet his real identity was never revealed, and he vanished from the media afterward, eventually fading from memory.
It wasn’t that the military had buried the story. The truth was that he had been discharged due to severe aftereffects, leaving no rumors to spread.
With a career like that, countless organizations would have fought to recruit him. But according to Deputy Min, even he didn’t know exactly why Jang Lee-hyun chose to become a civilian.
Not him, nor any of their mutual friends. The moment he was discharged, all contact had been cut off.
There must have been a reason. A reason he couldn’t stay in any military organization.
If Deputy Min was telling the truth, it meant Jang Lee-hyun had lived as a pathfinder for four full years while suffering from crippled foundational magic power and a disabled leg.
Just that fact alone showed incredible mental fortitude. How much blood, sweat, and tears had he shed to overcome two defects that would be fatal to any hunter?
Lim Won-young wanted to grant almost anything Jang Lee-hyun asked for.
Yet he had cut her off with a blade-like refusal before she could even finish laying out the conditions. It was enough to make her face burn with embarrassment.
“Or maybe—!”
She was still trying to persuade him when—
FLASH!
What the...?
For a moment, Lim Won-young saw Jang Lee-hyun’s eyes blaze with golden light.
And then—
“Team Leader.”
“Yes?”
“It looks like we’re about to be in danger. This place isn’t a temple.”
“...What did you say?”
Jang Lee-hyun’s sudden words made Lim Won-young’s face harden.
Jang Lee-hyun opened the Hwaan Geumjeong as wide as he could and examined the boss room in greater detail. The pain was so intense it felt like his eyeballs might burst, but this was no time to worry about that.
Statues covering their eyes, nose, and mouth. Murals depicting myths without any gods. A brazier burning without any offerings...
He had originally been searching for clues related to Sun Wukong, but the boss room was filled with contradictions that made calling it a temple seem wrong.
A god was supposed to be a perfect existence. If that was the case, then—
“This place is...!”
Just as Jang Lee-hyun was about to speak, a stinging pain shot through his eyes. It was the reaction that appeared when a sudden situation was about to occur.
He quickly shifted his gaze in another direction, and—
THUD!
He saw a hunter who had been pacing near the entrance take a steel arrow to the head, their skull shattering.
Combine the scattered clues to defeat the monkeys.
Lim Won-young, who had followed his gaze, shouted urgently.
“Everyone, combat formation!”
But then—
BUUUUUU—!
The sound of a horn suddenly echoed along the ceiling.
An echo that shook the entire jungle thicket.
And then—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...!
The moment the war drums signaling the start of battle rang out, every hunter felt a chill run down their spine.
“Everyone, lower your heads!”
Jang Lee-hyun saw the murals beginning to move strangely and shouted in alarm.
SWISH SWISH SWISH!
A terrifying rain of steel arrows filled the ceiling like a downpour, raining down on the hunters.
“Tower shields!”
Deputy Min and the other tanks rushed forward, stacking their tower shields like a fortress wall.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!
Fortunately, most of the arrows bounced off the shields, but the force behind them was so great that several tanks lost their balance and staggered.
Hunters who couldn’t make it behind the shields scrambled desperately for cover.
“Thank you, Team Leader.”
“No, this is our fault for bringing Hunter Jang to such a dangerous area. Damn it.”
Thanks to Lim Won-young’s help, Jang Lee-hyun barely managed to reach a pillar at the corner and avoid injury. But two more hunters who weren’t so lucky died.
Lim Won-young’s eyes burned with rage as she clenched her teeth. She quickly pulled out a cigarette and lit it. She wasn’t trying to look relaxed—this was to activate her skill.
The moment the cigarette caught fire, smoke spread out like thick fog.
GRRRRR—!
Legacy: The Days When Tigers Smoked. Summoning two Jangsan Tigers.
Two tigers with long, flowing white fur bared their fangs.
GROOOAR!
The two Jangsan Tigers charged into the boss room, attempting to destroy the traps. But the problem was that the traps were far from over.
CLIP-CLOP-CLIP-CLOP!
With the sound of horse hooves pounding the ground, ancient chariots burst out from the murals.
Monkey warriors riding in chariots pulled by three horses each struck at the Jangsan Tigers, pinning them down. Meanwhile, the remaining two chariots made a wide arc and slammed straight into the tower shield formation.
“B-block it!”
But the defensive line crumbled far too easily. To make matters worse, monkey soldiers began pouring out of the murals one after another, slaughtering the hunters.
They were armed with sturdy armor and weapons, making them incredibly difficult to fight.
“Aaaagh! Gah!”
“There’s too many of them... Aaaargh!”
“Everyone, stay focused! Fall back as much as possible!”
The hunters were all elites that White Burn was proud of, yet the monkey soldiers were far more vicious and cunning. They moved in squads of four, picking off the hunters one by one. Whenever someone tried to counterattack, the monkeys would flip into the trees and vanish, rendering skills useless.
In the blink of an eye, their force of over thirty had been reduced by nearly half.
At this rate, they would be wiped out.
“These bastards!”
Lim Won-young frantically spammed her skills to take down the monsters, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide. Unlike their small elite team, the enemy was an entire army.
This felt less like a 2-star dungeon and more like a 3-star—or even higher.
I have to find some way...!
At that moment, Lim Won-young saw Jang Lee-hyun suddenly sit on the ground and open the military bag he had been carrying.
What was he doing in such a desperate situation?
Yet Jang Lee-hyun focused entirely on his task with cold indifference. His eyes now radiated a brilliant golden glow like the sun itself.
‘Holy Relic: Hwaan Geumjeong’ has been used beyond permissible limits. Mental power cannot endure the strain.
Caution! If the holy relic overheats past its limit, the mental barrier may weaken, resulting in contamination by the relic.
Caution!
Accelerating calculations based on discovered information. Searching for escape route.
Like a soldier maintaining perimeter watch, he scanned the surroundings without pause. What he pulled from the bag was...
A gun?
It was the HK416, the rifle he had frequently used during training at the military academy.
Click. Click.
Jang Lee-hyun assembled the gun components in an instant and attached the scope.
That wasn’t all. On his left belt hung a KA-BAR combat knife and a kukri. On his right, he equipped flashbangs, smoke grenades, and frag grenades.
He looked exactly like a soldier heading into war.
So that’s why he brought the military bag!
CLACK!
The final sound of him pulling back the slide snapped Lim Won-young out of her brief daze.
In that instant, she realized it.
Was this man waiting for this very moment?
She couldn’t tell if it was intentional or pure coincidence, but the emotion that flickered across Jang Lee-hyun’s eyes was unmistakably ecstasy.
In truth, he was rejoicing.
These phenomena. It’s certain. We’ve reached the final gateway leading to where Sun Wukong is.
It was exactly as Mun Su-chan had described.
After four long years of waiting, he had finally seized this opportunity. He could not let it slip away.
Though his head felt like it was about to split open from the pain, Jang Lee-hyun pushed the Hwaan Geumjeong to its maximum and looked at Lim Won-young.
To pass through this gate, he absolutely needed her help.
“Hunter Jang, do you have a plan?”
Lim Won-young asked first, her expression deadly serious.
Jang Lee-hyun nodded heavily.
“Yes. I do. However, it’s a rather personal method.”
“Even so, you probably have far more experience with ‘this side’ of things than I do.”
Lim Won-young took a long, deep breath, then held out her brooch—the transmission item—and spoke.
“If I hand command authority over to you, what do you think? Can we get out of here?”
“......”
Jang Lee-hyun stared silently at the brooch and then at Lim Won-young, his eyes cold.
Tension flashed across her face.
“If the goal is simply to escape, there will be many people who will curse my name.”
“...?”
“We must at least clear the dungeon.”
“...!”
Lim Won-young’s face brightened with hope.