Altar Dungeon (1)
The area in front of the E-rank Cheongeun Dungeon south of Munhwa-dong was thoroughly eerie.
It hadn’t even rained, yet the ground was damp, and the bare tree branches tangled together like spiderwebs.
The people were no different. Hunters clustered in small groups wore pale faces, dark circles under their eyes as thick as moss clinging to rock.
On any ordinary day, those hunters would have been unable to bear the weight of those shadows and would have hung their heads.
“…What the hell is that?”
“Huh… seriously…”
The hunters staring in the same direction let out flustered voices.
It was only natural. At the end of their gazes, something completely inexplicable was walking toward them.
Ppok-ppok, making cute little squeaking sounds.
“…….”
“…….”
Seo Yun-jae and Yu Ha-rin discreetly edged a little farther away from Ko Sung-yoon, looking embarrassed.
They had heard the explanation about the skill and understood it, but that didn’t make the stares any less mortifying.
If it weren’t for that constant ppok-ppok sound, it wouldn’t have been half as awkward…
Whether he knew what the two of them were thinking or not, Choi Yeon strode straight toward the dungeon manager with Ko Sung-yoon.
“Hello.”
“Yeah, hi… wait? Choi Yeon? What are you doing all the way out in Munhwa-dong?”
“I’m here to give these hunter trainees some dungeon experience.”
“Dungeon experience…”
The dungeon manager craned his neck and scanned the people behind Choi Yeon.
The man with the staff was a mage, the woman with the bow was an archer, and the rabbit… the rabbit was…
What the hell is with this rabbit kid.
“…This isn’t tourism, is it?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm…”
Faced with the firm answer, the dungeon manager looked the rabbit over once more.
It didn’t change the image. In his eyes, the rabbit still looked like an amusement-park mascot who had taken a wrong turn.
“…You sure about this?”
The dungeon manager whispered carefully to Choi Yeon. It was a matter of responsibility.
If a hunter brought trainees into a dungeon and something went wrong, the escorting hunter bore full responsibility.
And he was planning to take that rabbit in? They weren’t even particularly close, yet the manager found himself worrying.
“Yes, it’s fine.”
“…If you say so. All right, trainees? Fill out these safety pledges.”
The dungeon manager held out the forms, then added the usual words that were both useful and useless depending on the day.
“While you’re writing, keep this firmly in mind. The government takes no responsibility for anything that happens inside a dungeon.”
“…….”
“The safety pledge you’re filling out right now is the proof of that. So you all need to be careful, very careful… and yet…”
The dungeon manager’s voice trailed off.
His gaze had been stolen by the rabbit filling out the form.
The rabbit, whose fingers were fused except for the thumbs, gripped the pen and wrote, but control was clearly difficult—the pen kept bouncing out of its grip. Naturally the handwriting was a complete mess.
Still, it was good enough for permission, so they were able to enter the Cheongeun Dungeon right away.
The first one through the gate was Ko Sung-yoon.
He could react fastest to any unexpected situation, and an E-rank mascot costume could also tank a fair amount of monster attacks.
Seo Yun-jae and Yu Ha-rin followed without letting their guard down, mana gathering in the staff and an arrow already nocked on the string.
Watching them move exactly as they had been taught in the practical training program, Choi Yeon felt satisfied.
“What kind of dungeon is the Cheongeun Dungeon?”
Choi Yeon asked as he entered after them.
The three of them answered in turn as they advanced along the dark forest path that unfolded before them.
“It’s an altar dungeon.”
“And the clear condition?”
“Find three red cores, insert them into the altar, and defeat the boss monster that gets summoned.”
“So we should look for the cores first?”
“No. We have to find the altar first. The altar shows you the shape and locations of the cores. And…”
“And?”
“Carrying a core puts a debuff on you. Usually you get chills or dizziness, and in severe cases you start seeing hallucinations.”
“Correct. Last question. Why did we choose an altar dungeon?”
“That’s…”
For the first time, all three mouths closed at once.
Come to think of it, there were plenty of other dungeons. Why an altar dungeon of all things?
If they excluded monster-hunting dungeons because they had already experienced those…
Choi Yeon shrugged once and spoke as if it were nothing special.
“Honestly, no big reason. Statue-escort dungeons take forever, and there are no wave dungeons at E-rank or below.”
“What about a Holy Grail dungeon?”
“Ha-rin, are you keeping up with your homework?”
A question answered a question.
Homework? Out of nowhere…
“Ah.”
A spark went off in Yu Ha-rin’s head. During practical training she hadn’t been able to shoot her bow because she had mistaken goblins for humans.
“You chose this one instead of a Holy Grail dungeon because humanoid monsters appear here?”
“Yes.”
“Ah…”
Yu Ha-rin pressed her lips together slightly.
She ought to be grateful that he had considered her, but embarrassment came first.
She had been told it was understandable, yet she still hated that she had confused monsters with people.
“The monsters that appear in the Cheongeun Dungeon are called Forest Specters…”
Choi Yeon rolled his gaze to the right.
In a place where the trees blocked out all sunlight, a small cyan light flickered.
“…I’ll explain when we run into one.”
As he spoke, Choi Yeon’s eyes returned to the front.
The three walking ahead never noticed the light he had seen. They kept scanning their surroundings, but that was all.
Choi Yeon drew a dagger from his waist and flung it into the forest.
A silver thread of mana gleamed from the flying dagger’s hilt, connecting it to his palm. It stretched taut in midair.
Tung.
He tugged the taut line, and the dagger that had shot into the forest shadows came flying straight back.
At that moment Yu Ha-rin glanced behind her.
“Teacher? Just now… what did you do?”
“Me? I didn’t do anything.”
Choi Yeon hid the hand holding the dagger and played it completely straight.
She hadn’t seen the cyan light, the dagger, or the hand he had tucked behind his back, so she only tilted her head. It was strange, but she had no idea why.
“…Hey, there’s something over there!”
As Yu Ha-rin’s gaze swung forward again, Ko Sung-yoon’s voice rang out.
Seo Yun-jae looked where he was pointing and stuck out his tongue.
“What do you mean ‘something’?”
“Three big rocks… I think that’s the altar.”
“Huh? You can see it too?”
“Yes.”
“…What the. Am I the weird one for not seeing it?”
Seo Yun-jae muttered in disbelief and looked back at Choi Yeon, as if hoping to hear that he wasn’t the strange one.
“Yes, that’s the altar.”
But Choi Yeon did not give him the answer he wanted.
In truth Choi Yeon couldn’t see the altar either, but he already knew its location, so pretending was easy.
Now the only one who couldn’t see it, Seo Yun-jae’s shoulders slumped. They rose a little higher with every step closer to the altar.
“…They look like tombstones.”
Ko Sung-yoon remarked as he stared at the three rocks larger than his own body.
The other two nodded. Standing alone at the points of a triangle with no other structures, the rocks really did look like grave markers.
The fact that the dungeon’s monsters were called Forest Specters only reinforced the feeling.
“Oh… there’s a socket hole about midway up. This must be where the cores go. About fist-sized?”
Seo Yun-jae examined the altar and placed his hand on it. The mana circulating through his body discovered a newly connected path and flowed that way.
Wooong…!
In front of the low-vibrating socket, Seo Yun-jae’s mana gathered and formed a red orb.
It was a guide orb that would lead them to a core’s location.
“Well done. You’ve been studying ahead.”
“Of course.”
“And you’ve been keeping up with the stamina training too?”
“O…f course.”
Seo Yun-jae’s voice trembled slightly.
It wasn’t because he was lying; the memory of gasping for breath from lack of stamina had simply made him feel embarrassed.
Tak…
Choi Yeon placed his hand on another rock and poured mana into it.
After the same vibration, a red orb rose into the air.
The orbs floating in front of him and Seo Yun-jae kept twitching as if eager to head off in their respective directions.
“Hunters who make altar dungeons their specialty sometimes split up to search so they don’t waste time or travel distance.”
“Ah. That makes sense.”
“But if you three did that it would be suicide, right? So we’ll stick together.”
“Yes…!”
The three calmly agreed and set off following the guide orbs.
The orbs led them into the pathless, dark forest, and before long they came face-to-face with light.
The owner of the cyan glow was a mass of tangled dry branches and old tree bark. The floating lights were its eyes.
Choi Yeon explained.
“That’s a Forest Specter. For an E-rank, it has high magic resistance and is resistant to mental skills.”
“Whew, it looks more human than I expected…”
“Well, yeah. It looks like a human wearing wooden armor.”
“…….”
“It’s fine. You ended up shooting the goblins, remember? So you can shoot these specters too.”
“…Yes.”
“Go ahead.”
Choi Yeon extended his arm forward.
It was an invitation to shoot an arrow at the specter, and Yu Ha-rin stepped up immediately.
The tip of the arrow nocked on the string pointed at the cyan light.
Kkuuk…
The tips of the fingers holding the string quietly turned white.
Hoo, hoo, hoooo…
Her breath followed her fingertips. She grew calm, and then—
Tuwung!
She released the string.
The sound of the bowstring came as the distant cyan light toppled over. It was heavy.
“Wh-what…?”
Yu Ha-rin’s eyes went wide as she reached for the next arrow.
She could hardly believe that an E-rank monster had died to a single ordinary arrow with no skill attached.
“That’s normal. High magic resistance means they’re weak to physical attacks.”
“Ah, is that so…? It looked so much like wooden armor I thought it would be tough.”
“Yeah. First-time hunters get fooled by the appearance all the time.”
As he spoke, Choi Yeon turned his head. Cyan lights flickered here and there.
The three who followed his gaze jumped. They hadn’t realized at all that Forest Specters were all around them.
“Yun-jae, you take those ones.”
“…Yes, sir.”
Seo Yun-jae crushed down his flustered feelings and gathered mana.
Perhaps thanks to the staff, the cast finished faster than when he had taken goblin lives, and the Magic Missiles shot straight at the specters.
But—
“…They’re not dying?”
The Forest Specters were fine.
The ones that had fallen to a single arrow were now charging at Seo Yun-jae. The sound of tree bark clattering filled the forest.
“Then…”
Seo Yun-jae began casting again.
If one shot wouldn’t kill them, he would just gift them several.
His thinking proved correct. The specters collapsed after taking multiple Magic Missiles.
Yet he was not satisfied.
If his casting speed had been any slower and he hadn’t been able to fire the missiles freely, the specters would have reached him.
“How was it, Yun-jae?”
“Honestly, after seeing them die to one arrow I kind of looked down on them.”
“Yeah.”
“But they tanked four Magic Missiles… wow…”
Seo Yun-jae answered, then gave a light shiver.
An image of himself facing two specters alone had just flashed through his mind.
He would kill them. The problem would be what came after.
“Now it’s Sung-yoon’s turn.”
Choi Yeon turned to Ko Sung-yoon.
Ko Sung-yoon, who had been watching the surroundings, clenched his fists and answered.
“Yes! I’ll drop them in one hi—”
“Don’t one-shot them.”
“Yes…?”
“Dodge their attacks as much as possible, then kill them.”
“Uh…”
Why do I have to do that?
The question rose in Ko Sung-yoon’s mind. But his answer was not a question.
“Yes. I’ll do it that way!”
If Yeon-hyung said so, there had to be a reason!