Altar Dungeon (3)
Ko Sung-yoon looked up the slope.
The core that accepted the guide orb glowed red, and teal lights charged toward them.
But they never made it. They collapsed short of the mark.
Skulls were pierced by arrows; legs shattered under magic missiles.
The wraiths that escaped the arrows and missiles’ notice stayed standing—for a moment.
The sound of snapping branches soon died away.
“Oh… don’t you think we fought better than last time?”
“Yeah. We took them down a lot faster.”
“I think so too.”
After a brief exchange they turned to Choi Yeon, faces clearly hoping for an evaluation.
“Yeah. You did well.”
Choi Yeon said it while climbing the slope.
His calm praise wasn’t entirely satisfying, but they didn’t show it.
They had realized something in that moment.
We’re just hunter trainees. Is it really right to expect praise every single time we take down a pack of monsters?
The three of them looked at one another and nodded once.
Next time, they decided, they wouldn’t act so obvious about it.
Their teamwork was improving in more ways than just combat.
“…This one should be fine too.”
Choi Yeon tossed the core toward Ko Sung-yoon as if throwing it.
Ko Sung-yoon carefully caught it and his body gave a small twitch. He was worried it would make his head go fuzzy again…
“…Huh? It feels cool.”
“Cool?”
“Yeah. Here.”
He handed the core to Yu Ha-rin, who had asked the question.
The first core had left their heads foggy, but the second felt cool?
Did it give buffs as well as debuffs?
The questions chaining one after another were answered the moment the core settled into her hand.
“Sung-yoon, this isn’t cool—it’s cold.”
“Is it? It felt cool to me.”
The upright-walking white rabbit scratched its large, round head.
…Right. Of course it would feel cool with a mascot costume over his head.
“Ha-rin seems fine too.”
“I don’t mind the cold much.”
“Ah. I see…?”
Choi Yeon nodded slowly.
Then he simply stared at Seo Yun-jae.
Seo Yun-jae took a step back, realizing why.
“Ah, no way?”
“…….”
“Please spare me, Teacher….”
“Alright. It could be dangerous, so….”
Choi Yeon decided to let Seo Yun-jae’s desperate voice win this once.
In a dungeon you sometimes ended up alone, but deliberately preparing for that situation might have been too harsh.
“Then Sung-yoon, you hold it?”
“Yes. I’ll summon the guide orb right away.”
Ko Sung-yoon took the core back and immediately poured mana into it.
A red guide orb rose into the air.
Tap, tap….
It began sliding along, leading the way little by little.
Following the guide orb, they arrived at a large cave.
Unlike the previous two terrains, this was a passageway, so they fought wraiths at regular intervals as they advanced.
True to their unspoken agreement, after each fight the three acted as if nothing special had happened.
The effort showed, but they themselves didn’t notice. They thought they looked natural.
“…Another fork.”
“How many is that already?”
“Third one. This cave is insanely complicated. Without the guide orb it would’ve taken us days.”
“I heard that’s exactly what used to happen.”
As they entered the rightmost passage following the orb, Choi Yeon joined the conversation.
“Before the guide-orb summoning method was discovered, people had to search every corner of the cave.”
“What? Is that true?”
“Yeah. That’s why hunters with tracking skills were precious.”
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
“Good thing the summoning method was found, right?”
“Yes, really!”
Ko Sung-yoon nodded.
Just imagining wandering a cave full of forks without a guide orb made his vision go dark.
Seo Yun-jae and Yu Ha-rin felt the same; affection filled their eyes as they looked at the orb.
At that moment the orb shone brightly.
Not because of their gazes, but because a wide space suddenly opened up, freeing their field of view.
Just like in the forest and the swamp, the floor’s texture changed. Because of the ceiling there was no slope.
Whoosh…!
The instant the orb entered the core, arrows and magic missiles dropped the wraiths.
At the same time Ko Sung-yoon charged in and punched holes through them. The sound of snapping branches barely had time to start before it stopped.
The trainees simply nodded at one another.
“This time….”
Leaving the trainees pretending nothing was wrong behind him, Choi Yeon picked up the core.
The same drained feeling he got whenever Chief Kim Jaesang blocked him the moment he tried to head out on patrol at five o’clock washed over him.
It was a core that induced fatigue.
Choi Yeon was about to hand it to Ko Sung-yoon when—
“…….”
—he stopped.
He quietly studied the cave passage they had come through.
The trainees looked too, wondering why, and in that moment hunters appeared from the passage.
He sensed their presence. Wow, I didn’t feel a thing….
Voices flew toward the admiring trainees.
“…Damn.”
“There’s already a party that found the core.”
“Aigoo….”
The hunters muttered as if disappointed.
But their eyes said otherwise.
They were locked on the core in Choi Yeon’s hand and showed no intention of looking away.
Thud, thud. The hunters stepped forward.
“Unfamiliar faces. First time here, are ya?”
“Mind if I ask what that rabbit head is about?”
“Nice to meet you, real nice.”
The hunters approached, talking casually.
They clearly had no interest in answers, but the only one who found the attitude uncomfortable was Choi Yeon.
The trainees weren’t hunters yet and didn’t know what kind of place a dungeon was.
Thud.
Choi Yeon planted his foot hard.
The step, completely different from his usual silent ones, pulled every gaze toward him.
And then—
“Choi… Yeon…?”
—he achieved his goal.
The hunters’ eyes rose from the core to Choi Yeon.
“That’s my name, yes.”
“What are you doing here…? This is Munhwa-dong….”
“Personal business. Why, is that a problem?”
“No! No, of course not!”
Ahaha, the hunters laughed awkwardly.
Only then did the trainees notice the strange atmosphere.
“Hmm.”
“Aha, haha….”
“By the way, everyone.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Are you planning to keep blocking the path? Forever?”
“The path…? Ah! Sorry, sorry! Go ahead!”
“We got flustered because we were so happy to see you!”
They scrambled aside so fast dust rose.
Choi Yeon walked past them with the trainees. The entire time he never took his eyes off them, and the hunters’ gazes naturally dropped.
“…Teacher.”
Once they had left the hunters behind, Yu Ha-rin called softly to Choi Yeon.
“Yes?”
“You seem… famous.”
“I’m a Dongdae Hunter. It’d be weirder if they didn’t know my face.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course.”
“…Yes, I understand.”
Yu Ha-rin nodded.
Despite the answer, she clearly had no intention of believing him.
Click, click.
One by one the trainees fitted the cores they held into the altar. Seo Yun-jae, who had carried his the longest, felt so light he even giggled.
“Haa, I feel alive again….”
“…Oh?”
“Aha. So that’s how it works?”
While Seo Yun-jae felt his mind clearing, Ko Sung-yoon and Yu Ha-rin let out soft exclamations.
Three red beams shot from the cores set in the altar and merged into one.
As they fused, the boss monster that was summoned had a body like dry branches, with teal flames floating in place of eyes.
If it hadn’t been holding a dagger, they would have thought it was just a slightly larger forest wraith.
“The boss of the Cheongeun Dungeon—the Wraith Priest. Its nature is as similar as its appearance.”
“Priest…?”
“Yes.”
“It’s holding a knife.”
“It’s for the altar. If you get cut by that dagger—the Blade of Forgotten Rites—you get hit with a random F-rank debuff.”
“An F-rank… debuff…?”
The three trainees’ eyes turned to the Blade of Forgotten Rites.
The teal light unique to wraiths coiled around the blade, and as it moved slowly it left a faint, wavering trail, as if wanting to carve its path into the air.
Seo Yun-jae realized it first and shuddered.
“Don’t tell me….”
“Yes. Exactly that.”
“Ugh….”
While Seo Yun-jae groaned, the other two caught on as well.
Getting cut by the Blade of Forgotten Rites would leave their heads fuzzy, make them feel cold, or fill them with fatigue.
Crack!
The sound of snapping branches rang out.
The Wraith Priest, finished summoning at the center of the altar, twisted its neck as if to break it and looked at the trainees.
“……!”
Ko Sung-yoon moved first.
The moment their eyes met he charged the Wraith Priest and threw a punch.
Thud!
The fist struck its abdomen at the same time an arrow buried itself between the priest’s eyes.
But—
“…Huh?”
“No effect…?”
The Wraith Priest was unharmed.
Unlike the ordinary wraiths that died in one hit from physical attacks, it didn’t even have a scratch.
Mistaking it for just a bigger forest wraith because of the similar appearance had been their mistake.
Crack-crack!
The priest swung its dagger at Ko Sung-yoon, who had leaped right in front of it.
The white rabbit hopped clear of the blue arc drawn by the branch-like arm.
Despite the fairy-tale image, Ko Sung-yoon was in danger. The longer arms that held the dagger gave it a much wider attack range than a normal wraith.
If his leg strength hadn’t been strong enough, he might not have dodged in time.
The priest kept swinging and Ko Sung-yoon kept dodging.
“What do we do….”
Seo Yun-jae muttered low.
Even though the Wraith Priest was weak to physical attacks, Ko Sung-yoon and Yu Ha-rin’s strikes had done nothing.
His magic missiles would literally not make it flinch.
He could use other attack magic, but against a priest with higher magic resistance than a regular wraith, it probably wouldn’t work either.
“…Arrow Spread!”
In the meantime Yu Ha-rin released her bowstring. A mana-charged arrow split the air and divided into three.
The three arrowheads flew at a fixed distance and reached the priest’s arm.
The prediction that they wouldn’t even leave a scratch played out exactly as expected.
But it wasn’t useless.
The arrows slightly pushed the priest’s arm, creating a brief opening that Ko Sung-yoon seized perfectly.
Bang…!
The rabbit’s middle kick slammed into the log-like body.
The legs that had shown outstanding jumping power bent the priest’s frame.
“…It worked! It worked!”
Ko Sung-yoon cheered at the first solid hit.
Yu Ha-rin glanced at Seo Yun-jae. In a situation that hadn’t changed much, the difference between the one who had given up and the one who had tried something was stark.
Nod!
Realizing his role, Seo Yun-jae nodded.
This was a raid, after all, wasn’t it?
“Magic Missile!”
Seo Yun-jae cast the spell in a strong voice.
From then on the trainees’ strategy against the Wraith Priest proceeded smoothly.
Its behavior wasn’t much different from its similar appearance, so as long as they watched the wide attack range they were fine.
They were steadily stacking effective hits when it happened.
The teal light that had wavered faintly every time the blade swung suddenly stopped.
At the same time the trainees froze, because a familiar motion registered as a warning.
The motion their eyes and bodies had experienced was—
“Roll!”
—the Forgotten Touch.
The trainees shouted together and threw themselves into rolls. Blocking never even crossed their minds.
Behind the rolling trainees the Blade of Forgotten Rites crashed down savagely.
KWAANG!
The ground screamed in pain; stone fragments and dust flew up.
Tumble-tumble!
Then the wind pressure washed over them as they rolled across the floor. It was strong enough to create the illusion that it was kindly helping them roll better.
The trainees who had entrusted their whole bodies to the ground soon checked the situation one by one.
“…….”
A massive crater was visible.
The cracks spreading in every direction looked like screams carved into the earth.
If they hadn’t known the timing of the Forgotten Touch, if they had tried to defend instead of dodge… they probably would have been wiped out.
That was exactly why Choi Yeon had made them repeat it. The training had been to make them roll and dodge the moment they saw the Forgotten Touch, purely by reflex.
“Whoa….”
The trainees marveled at his foresight.