Easy, Right?
Grrrumble—
Out of nowhere, a hollow, hungry sound rang out.
A petite woman went red in the face and clutched at her stomach.
Maybe because the dungeon was so quiet that not a single stray sound could be heard, it felt as if the noise echoed extra loudly.
In fact, several hunters sitting nearby glanced over at her.
And then, just as quickly, they turned their heads back with weary expressions and stared at the ground.
Because even if they hadn’t made any noise about it, everyone here was hungry.
In a dungeon where no one knew what might happen next, they had even taken turns standing watch through the night to snatch whatever rest they could, but tension and hunger had piled up together until one by one, they’d reached their limit.
Whenever they found a gap, they had tried to locate the exit, but every attempt had failed.
From the fact that a huge monster large enough to make the ground shake — the field boss — was roaming around, it was clear the exit wasn’t far away, but…….
“Damn it. That thing isn’t something you’re meant to kill.”
“Maybe we should just close our eyes and charge through, ignoring it…….”
These were hunters who had already suffered one failed battle.
After judging that taking the creature down here would leave more than half of them injured and perhaps two or three dead, their leader had made the quick call to retreat.
And that was how they had ended up in the situation they were in now.
Seriously, how could our luck be this bad……?
Han Jihyun, mixed in among the group, let out a sigh so deep it seemed to sink into the floor.
In a maze dungeon, when there was some absurd monster like that, it usually meant the boss room itself was fairly normal. Sometimes there wasn’t even a monster at all.
In other words, the sensible conclusion was that this thing was a nuisance — one of those half-necessary, half-useless creatures you might as well ignore or might as well defeat.
The problem here was that one of the branching paths where the thing was roaming was likely to contain the exit.
By now, she and the hunters alike were in terrible shape.
From the accident that cost them their main equipment onward, the leader had kept making one poor judgment after another. It had all piled up, and now it had come to this.
It was the fatal weakness of a government hunter team trying only to meet its quota.
They weren’t a fixed team that moved together every time.
Not only the quality of the members, but also the command ability of the temporary leader, varied wildly, and that made them especially vulnerable to variables.
“Honestly, the walls are the enemy here. The walls, I’m telling you. Sigh….”
Beside her, a C-grade woman muttered while glaring at the vine-covered wall.
Han Jihyun had to agree.
“Honestly, if it were me, I’d want to punch a hole straight through.”
“……Can’t we do that?”
The woman asked back, sounding intrigued.
Everyone had been tackling the maze in the textbook way, so she had naturally assumed that was how it had to be done.
Seeing right through that thought, Han Jihyun gave a dry laugh.
“Of course, other people had the same question and tried it. The result was failure. Not just anyone can break it in the first place, and even if you do, the wall apparently regenerates in no time at all. It’s perfect for getting lost.”
“How impossible are we talking here…?”
“Who was it again? There was a famous story. An S-grade magic-type hunter once set a B-grade maze on fire, punched through the walls, and kept moving forward—then got lost himself. They said he wandered around for days before barely making it out.”
“My God…! What an outrageous wall.”
“That’s why it’s a maze dungeon, isn’t it?”
The two women let out a simultaneous sigh.
* * *
The alien vines, not some breed of Earth but grown from mana, had a thickness that looked abnormal at a glance.
Those vines had grown dense and tangled together, forming a natural barrier.
In front of it, a beautiful girl raised a slender arm.
She opened her palm and pointed it straight ahead.
The Hunter Instructor, who had been watching, instinctively stumbled backward.
And at that very moment—
Puuuuuuuuung———!!!
A massive shockwave blasted a giant hole clean through the wall!
Thud. Thud-thud-thud. Splintered plant fragments rained down like a sudden shower.
And the wall was not the end of it. The shockwave punched through one wall, then the wall beyond it, then the one beyond that, drilling holes in rapid succession.
In an instant, a straight path had been carved right through the maze.
The Hunter Instructor behind her, and even the hunters from the administration office waiting for orders, all stared at the scene with their mouths hanging open.
“Huh….”
“Th-this is insane….”
It was the kind of sight that made you want to deny reality even while looking at it with your own two eyes.
The storm of energy that had blown through in an instant sent hair and hems whipping violently in the air.
A few of them collapsed face-first to the ground as if they’d fainted.
Ueeek——
They couldn’t hold it back and emptied their stomachs. Mana nausea.
The Hunter Instructor’s back turned damp with sweat.
Then Ari, lowering the arm she’d raised, turned around and said, “If you just move forward like this, it’s easy and comfortable. Right?”
“…….”
“Instructor? Do you only evaluate people if they use a textbook method?”
“……N-no, o-of course not.”
Still not remotely in his right mind, the Hunter Instructor stammered helplessly.
Then Ari turned her gaze in another direction and asked, “Um…. Is everyone okay?”
“Ugh—”
“Cough, cough!”
……I’m going to have to practice minimizing friendly fire more.
She didn’t want to be judged as a leader who couldn’t properly guide her team.
They were all grown men, sure, but that just meant they were precious and needed taking care of all the same.
Mm, mm. Let’s try using my power a little more delicately.
With that inward vow, Ari shouted in a bright voice, “Everyone, don’t worry! I’ll work even harder!”
““…?!!!”
The hunters who had been standing still shuddered all over. The ones who had fallen to the ground lifted their heads again, mouths hanging wide open.
Just how moved were they that they couldn’t even get words out properly?
Watching their reactions closely, Ari straightened her shoulders with a proud air and puffed out her chest. Just trust me!
She clasped her hands behind her back and started walking with a light, bouncy step.
She looked exactly like she was taking a stroll through a park, not walking through a maze.
Then, all of a sudden—
Ari realized no one was following behind her and turned back.
She tilted her head to the side and asked, “Why isn’t everyone moving?”
““W-we are!”
“Ah, hahaha! We got a little too absorbed in admiring the masterpiece Lady Ari created!”
“Mm-hm.”
That’s a very nice way to talk, old man.
She smiled with satisfaction and proceeded along the path she had created herself.
Then, from behind her, the Hunter Instructor’s voice called out.
“A-Ari-nim?”
“Did you call?”
Ari turned around.
“W-well, that is…. Is this the correct direction? How are you so certain…?”
He asked, sweating profusely.
Ari blinked a few times.
“Instructor?”
“Y-yes.”
“Could you come a little closer before you say that?”
“…….”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit far to have a conversation?”
“Ha, haha. My apologies.”
One step, two steps.
“…….”
After hesitating, he took one more step.
He gritted his teeth where no one could see.
Damn it. My stomach’s turning.
Even if the distance had been close, the destructive mana that had surged out had only lasted a moment.
And yet that alone was enough to twist his internal organs so badly that he nearly dropped to his knees like the C-ranks had.
He endured only by repeating one thought: as an educator, he could not disgrace himself in front of a student!
At the same time, he burned with academic curiosity and asked, “So how do you know the direction is this way…?”
“I can smell the mana from Jihyun-sensei, so I’m familiar with this direction.”
“Pardon? Smell?”
“Yes! Mana is, by nature, a very sensory thing, isn’t it? That’s how I’m feeling and thinking about it.”
“I see…….”
The Hunter Instructor let out a low groan.
He understood the meaning of what she was trying to say, but he understood nothing at all about the principle behind it.
So this is why magic is a field of study that only keeps getting deeper the more you learn about it!
Before he knew it, he found himself admiring her all over again.
Then, glancing back, he saw the others following at a distance.
The vine wall with the huge hole in it still showed no sign of regenerating.
That meant the amount of energy involved had been truly monstrous. It would have been stranger if the dungeon’s characteristics hadn’t been warped by it.
So they resumed moving.
When they reached the end of the shortcut Ari had punched through like a wedge—
KWAAAANG—!!
Ari exploded with power once again.
“Ugh….”
“Nngh….”
The hunters clutched at their mouths and endured it.
That seems a little better than before… maybe?
Ari carefully observed their reactions.
To be honest, this wasn’t really her strong suit.
She couldn’t instantly turn it into something perfect, but she did want to try.
She focused on the direction of her mana.
Instead of spreading it out explosively in every direction, she concentrated it only forward.
Bang! Bang! Kwoaang!
Even the monsters that came rushing in after sensing the commotion were cut down in an instant.
With Ari out in front, the group advanced without hesitation in a straight line through the maze.
At that point, it no longer even deserved to be called a maze.
* * *
……Meanwhile, in Han Jihyun’s group, the government hunters.
“Doesn’t it feel like something’s rumbling from earlier…?”
“Hic! Jihyun, please don’t say weird things! Talking like that invites trouble!”
At Han Jihyun’s words, the C-grade female hunter jumped in alarm.
She wrapped her arms around herself and briskly rubbed at the goosebumps on her skin.
Then, soon enough—
Thud.
“I-it really is, isn’t it? I can feel the ground shaking.”
“Right? But it feels a little different from the field boss….”
Thud.
“What was that just now? Did everyone feel it?”
“The vine wall shook too.”
Thoooom.
The tremors grew clearer and clearer.
A clear sign that something was wrong.
The hunters hurriedly looked around.
Thooom!
“I-isn’t this some kind of dungeon anomaly?”
“What do we do…. Wahh….”
Thooooom!
The rumbling kept drawing closer.
Now it was large enough for anyone to feel it.
Han Jihyun and the female hunter beside her clung to each other.
Thud! Thoom! Thoooom!
They were trapped inside the dungeon maze.
All they could do was tremble.
Kuguguguung!