B-Rank Dungeon, The Witch's Forest (Part 1)
When I opened my eyes, I was not greeted by the damp stone corridors of Labyrinthos, but by a sprawling, suffocating canopy of ancient trees. The woods were so dense, so utterly choked with foliage, that stepping into them felt like walking into a wave of claustrophobia.
"Boss...! Ugh, my stomach is churning..."
Apparently, this was Selena's first time entering a dungeon. She clutched her temples, reeling from an acute bout of spatial nausea, while Yeong So-so had already acclimated, her sharp gaze tracing our perimeter. I stood with my jaw slightly slack, taking in the vast, imposing wilderness.
Damn, this place really is gigantic.
To be honest, I had half-expected cackling hags to leap from the thicket and bombard us with spells the second we crossed the threshold, but the woods were eerily tranquil. Then again, if memory served, entering parties were scattered at randomized coordinates throughout the zone.
Fortunately, the escape conditions for this dungeon were remarkably simple. All one had to do was locate any of the altars scattered across the forest and offer up exactly half of the spoils gathered from hunting. Compared to other nightmare dungeons, it was practically a stroll in the park.
Some of the dungeons I had cleared in the past still made my skin crawl.
Offer the severed head of a companion, offer three liters of your own blood... There were so many batshit crazy penalties back then.
By comparison, this dungeon was downright hospitable.
Shaking off the thought, we advanced deeper into the woods with our guard held high. True to form for a dungeon, roaming monsters soon prowled into our line of sight.
[Little Fairy (Lv. 25)]
[Fairy Dog (Lv. 26)]
Fairies no larger than a man's palm fluttered through the branches, accompanied by four-legged feral hounds acting as their familiars. Individually, taking them down wouldn't pose much of a threat, but there was an obvious catch.
"There's a fucking horde of them."
"Indeed there is," So-so murmured.
Their numbers were staggering. Just counting the ones darting between the boughs, there were easily twenty to thirty fairies. Add the hounds roaming beneath them, and the pack numbered closer to sixty beasts. Carelessly charging in was out of the question.
We gave them a wide berth and marched in another direction for roughly thirty minutes before Selena perked up.
"Oho—! Boss, look! Those few seem to have split off from the rest!"
A straggling cluster of three or four fairies hovered near a clearing. Hesitation was short-lived.
"Alright, here I goooo—!"
Selena has activated Javelin Throw (C+).
A spare spear slipped from Selena's hand in a blur of motion.
Pshhht—!
Cutting through the air with a piercing hiss, the shaft streaked forward and struck true.
Thwack—!
The javelin pinned a fairy greedily lapping nectar straight through a giant blossom. One shot, one kill. A clean, devastating strike.
Krrr—!
Poi—!
Poi—!
The remaining monsters snapped their heads toward us. Not so long ago, a cluster like this would have forced a bitter, white-knuckled scrap, but now things were different.
Slash—!
Crunch—!
Selena and I carved through the opposition with effortless momentum, cleaving flesh and impaling beasts. A few glancing blows slipped past my guard, landing sharp hits on my ribs and shoulders, but I didn't care.
"Hah, I can just patch it right up with Regeneration anyway."
Backed by the passive skill knitting my wounds together in real time, I swung my blade without the slightest fear of death. Within ten minutes, every last monster in the clearing lay dead at our feet.
"Boss! Can we sell these wings?"
"Yeah. They fetch a decent price, so strip every single one."
"Aye, aye~!"
Having gathered the monster parts, our greed thoroughly stoked by the promise of coin, we pressed on toward the heart of the forest.
"Whoaaa—!"
"Why the hell is a forest rigged with this many traps...?"
"A truly wretched place," So-so clicked her tongue.
The deeper we went, the more convoluted the hidden snares became, forcing us to slow our pace. Still, disarming them one by one, we steadily advanced toward the center.
After walking for quite some time, frantic shouts broke through the rustling leaves.
"Gah—! Pant! How much longer on that heal?!"
"Thirty seconds!"
"Get some healing on the vanguard too, damn it!"
"Fuck—! We're lacking DPS over here!"
Unlike our three-man party, a massive expedition came into view. Judging by their equipment and gear, they looked like a seasoned D-to-C-rank raid team. I wondered why a party of that scale was having such a miserable time, but looking closer, the answer was obvious: they had run headfirst into that massive swarm of fairies and hounds we had bypassed earlier.
It wasn't technically our fault, but knowing we had left the swarm to wander gave me a faint pang of awkward guilt. We held back, watching the skirmish unfold for nearly an hour. Based on their roster, they had the firepower to wipe out the swarm eventually, but...
"At this rate, a third of them are definitely dying, aren't they?"
"Your tactical vision has sharpened. My estimate was roughly thirty percent as well... So, most likely."
"Figures."
If we swept in and safely picked off those fairies, how much experience would we rake in? Just thinking about the level gains made the corners of my mouth twitch.
Glancing over at Selena, I saw the fierce gleam in her eyes. She had caught the scent of blood on the wind and looked ready to throw herself into the meat grinder at a moment's notice. Well, what was an adventure without the occasional spontaneous bloodbath?
Unable to contain my mounting excitement, I grinned.
"Let's go kill some things."
"That's my Boss! I knew tagging along with you was the best choice I ever made!"
"Of course you'd say that..." So-so sighed, though her hands had already settled on her weapons.
With our priorities perfectly aligned, we drew our steel and plunged directly into the chaotic melee.
"R-Reinforcements...? Or enemies?!"
"Reinforcements, so shut your trap and watch your front—!"
"U-Understood!"
Slash—!
Mid-sentence, I sheared a swooping fairy clean in half. Unlike a human's crimson spray, shimmering pink fluid gushed from its severed torso.
Wait... didn't the lore setting book mention that their blood is basically an elixir...?
Fairies were creatures nourished purely on the ambient mana of untouched nature. To them, their bodily fluids were essentially a concentrated essence, an organic panacea. In fact, raw fairy blood was a prime ingredient in brewing high-grade alchemical elixirs...
Acting on a sudden hunch, I snatched the falling half of the fairy and tipped its juices straight down my throat.
Item Fairy Blood (C) has been consumed.
Unprocessed raw ingredient detected.
Potency reduced.
Mana +0.05
Oh—?!
A burst of sweet, peach-like flavor flooded my mouth, accompanied by a fractional rise in my mana stat. In an instant, those annoying winged pests stopped looking like monsters altogether. They looked like fluttering bottles of free stat potions.
What adorable little treats...!
Gulp—!
Chug—!
Drip, drip—!
The battered adventurers stared in petrified horror as a man slaughtered fairies without missing a beat, tipping their dripping corpses back to guzzle down their blood like water. When three unknown adventurers had materialized out of nowhere, they had breathed a sigh of relief, thinking dependable backup had arrived. But this guy was...
"Whoa—! This shit is actually delicious?! Hey, you guys should try a sip!"
"I shall pass," So-so replied coldly.
"Boss... Even for you, this is crossing a line..." Selena grimaced.
With blinding swordplay, the man thinned the fairy numbers at an exponential rate, chugging down their blood like a demon possessed. Even if fairies were classified as monsters, none of them had ever witnessed a human acting so utterly rabid. They were beginning to wonder if the man standing before them was even human.
Of course, from my perspective, I had only one question.
They're literally flying elixirs, why is nobody drinking them?
I was genuinely baffled. I had generously offered them free stat upgrades, so what was with those horrified looks? Leaving good loot behind would be a waste of divine favor, so I shamelessly slurped up every drop I could scavenge from the fallen corpses. A cooling, invigorating rush swept through my core, unblocking my meridians and soothing my innards.
How much longer did we brawl, drenched in fairy blood?
Only after the crisp chime of a level-up rang out, followed by a double boost to my mana, did the chaotic battle finally grind to a halt.
The number of survivors was far higher than I had expected. A man who appeared to be the raid leader stepped forward, his expression brimming with reverence as he approached us.
"Thank you... Thank you so much for your aid...! If not for you, our party would have suffered catastrophic losses... Once again, you have our deepest gratitude."
"Hey, don't mention it. We just jumped in on a whim while passing through, no need to bow your head like that."
I reached down and hauled the bowing man back to his feet. The survivors were smiling, and having gorged myself on free experience and mana, I was walking on air.
"Please, take this as a token of our party's appreciation."
"Aigoo, you really shouldn't have! We didn't step in expecting a reward...!"
"Please, accept it. It's the only way our consciences will rest easy."
He slipped a heavy coin pouch into my pocket—exactly one hundred thousand gold. The unexpected windfall almost split my face into a shit-eating grin, but I barely reined it in.
"Well, if you insist, I'll gladly accept."
"Thank you!"
"No, no, thank you."
Swallowing my triumphant chuckle, I stepped back toward my companions. Unlike the battered, gasping raid party, we weren't fatigued in the slightest, nor had we taken any meaningful damage. Just as we prepared to resume our hunt—
A shrill, panicked cry pierced the clearing.
"T-The sacrifice isn't being accepted!"
"What did you just say?! What do you mean it's not being accepted?!"
"Exactly what I said...! We placed half of our gathered spoils on the altar as usual, but far from accepting it, the stone hasn't reacted at all?!"
Countless grim scenarios flashed through my mind. From simple, mundane blunders to catastrophic anomalies I had never witnessed firsthand—yet knew were fully within the realm of possibility.
So I stood still and watched. Watched what they were about to do, and the gruesome end that awaited them.
How much time had passed?
Schwing—!
Crunch—!
The adventurers, who until moments ago had shared warm camaraderie, suddenly drew their weapons with a clash of cold steel, turning on each other with bared fangs.
The worst-case scenario among all my dark premonitions had come to pass.
"Damn it all..."
The established exit condition had vanished. The rules of escape no longer applied.
A Dungeon Break had begun.