Instant Dungeon (5)
The orcs around the barrier kept glancing about nervously.
Their faces tight with dread that something might burst from the deep forest, they clenched and unclenched their fists over and over. With every repetition their courage drained away, replaced by mounting anxiety.
What had the orcs fretting so anxiously was the scream they had heard only moments before.
When the orc centurion—a seasoned warrior—had let out a cry of pure agony, it was only natural that the rest would want to bolt.
The ones who still remained here possessed courage. Or else they simply lacked the wisdom to foresee and prepare for what was coming.
Rustle, rustle.
The sound of something parting the underbrush reached them.
As the noise drew steadily closer they all turned their heads at once. Hope brightened the orcs’ expressions.
It wasn’t mere wishful thinking; they had their own grounds for it.
An enemy would never approach while making noise.
—That was their pitifully flimsy reasoning.
What emerged from the forest was,
“Chwik, a human…!”
“Enemy! The enemy’s here!”
Naturally, Choi Yeon.
He slowly counted the orcs thrusting their weapons at him as if to skewer him on the spot.
“Twenty-nine? More left than I thought. Guess a scream alone wasn’t enough after all.”
With that he swung his left hand.
The orcs tightened their grips on their weapons at the sight of the round object sailing from his palm.
But it took only a heartbeat for their hands—whitened from the force—to go slack again.
Chwik!
A snort like a scream burst out.
“It’s the centurion’s head!”
“The centurion’s been done for…!”
“I knew it—I knew we never should’ve come into this forest! Chwiik…!”
The orcs fled in utter panic.
Not a single warrior stayed to swear vengeance; only terrified pigs scrambling to escape.
The sole proof they weren’t mere pigs was that they still clutched the weapons in their hands.
Tap, tap.
Instead of chasing the scattered orcs, Choi Yeon brushed the dust from his hands.
He could have pursued them if he wanted, but getting the rescue targets home came first.
Thump, thump.
From the shadowed depths of the forest, Ko Sung-yoon walked out.
“Whoa…. They really all ran away just like you said, hyung?”
“Usually when the top brass….”
Choi Yeon closed his mouth.
Under the gaze of the child watching him from inside the barrier, he decided to soften his wording.
“I mean, when the general… falls, the soldiers tend to run.”
“Oh….”
“If there was proper discipline it might be different, but half of them had already bolted, right? No need to care what anyone else thinks, so of course it ends up like that.”
“Ohh! I see!”
The rabbit ears bobbed enthusiastically up and down.
Though the mascot head hid his face, the fervent admiration—as if he were looking at someone extraordinary—came through clearly enough to make Choi Yeon feel awkward.
Should he add that any hunter could do the same?
He almost did, then stopped, somehow certain that Ko Sung-yoon would only marvel at his humility.
“Hello. You’re Chae-eun, right?”
Choi Yeon walked over to the child who hadn’t taken her eyes off him, Park Chae-eun.
Even though the orcs were gone, she remained inside the barrier.
Perhaps she still didn’t feel completely safe?
Thinking that might be the case, Choi Yeon sat down in front of the barrier—a little distance away, to ease her wariness.
“Yes, hello….”
Park Chae-eun greeted him while glancing at Ko Sung-yoon. She seemed more comfortable with the one she had met first.
Understanding that as only natural, Choi Yeon showed his upper arm.
“See this?”
On his left upper arm was the logo of Daejeon Jung-gu Office.
“Uncle is a hunter from Seonhwa Dongdae. I came to rescue Chae-eun.”
“Yes, thank you….”
“……?”
Somehow the child’s reaction felt off.
Wariness toward a first-time adult would have been understandable, but reacting like this even after being told he had come to save her wasn’t natural.
Ko Sung-yoon seemed to find it strange as well and squatted down beside Choi Yeon.
“Chae-eun. What’s wrong?”
“Rabbit uncle….”
“Hm?”
“Well… my dad said….”
Park Chae-eun whispered into Ko Sung-yoon’s rabbit ear.
Since he couldn’t pass through the barrier, his head was practically pressed against it.
She whispered very softly so Choi Yeon wouldn’t hear. Being right next to them, of course he heard every word.
“He said you have to look at a person’s eyes. That’s how you can tell what kind of person they are…!”
“Ah, um….”
A flustered sigh escaped Ko Sung-yoon.
Glancing over, he saw Choi Yeon’s mouth corners trembling faintly.
“…It’s okay, Chae-eun! Yeon-i hyung has squinty eyes, but he’s someone you can trust!”
Ko Sung-yoon decided to persuade her in place of the flustered Choi Yeon.
He considered it his role, having spent a little more time with the child.
He didn’t realize the words he used while persuading wounded Choi Yeon further.
“He might look a bit shady at first glance, but actually he’s super deep and generous inside! Every time we meet he takes the flyers without fail!”
Choi Yeon’s mouth corners trembled more roughly than before.
He endured only because he knew it was meant kindly; otherwise he might have jabbed a resentful finger into the other’s side.
Anyway, the persuasion worked.
Probably thanks to the way Ko Sung-yoon had scooped the child up without a moment’s hesitation and run.
“…Alright. Then shall we go back with uncle?”
“Yes!”
Park Chae-eun answered brightly.
The earlier wariness had melted away without a trace.
Thinking it was fortunate Ko Sung-yoon was there, Choi Yeon stepped toward the barrier.
Thud.
No—he tried to enter and was blocked.
“Whoa, hyung can’t get through either?”
“…Seems so.”
Only then did Choi Yeon examine the barrier properly.
He had heard Ko Sung-yoon couldn’t pass, but he hadn’t expected that he himself—a hunter—would be the same.
Come to think of it, the assumption that a hunter could pass had been far too vague.
The difference between a hunter and a civilian was only physical ability, total mana, and skills, wasn’t it?
If the barrier’s condition had been something like that, even young Park Chae-eun would have struggled to pass.
He placed a hand on the barrier and slowly infused mana.
“…Hmm. No good.”
He cleanly gave up.
Various methods floated through his mind, but not a single successful image formed.
Only the sense of a perfect barrier remained.
“Chae-eun. Can you come out and go back in?”
“Yes!”
Park Chae-eun did exactly as told.
She stepped out and back in, hopped out like a rabbit and went in again.
Then she ran with the barrier between her feet.
Unlike with Choi Yeon and Ko Sung-yoon, the barrier offered no resistance at all.
What the hell. Discriminating against people?
Complaints rose alongside the questions he had set aside.
Why a barrier existed inside a dungeon,
why only Park Chae-eun could come and go,
why it maintained itself without a mage—things he had shoved into a corner of his mind.
Simple answers followed.
Something he had never seen in eight years, with no similar cases anywhere else.
In other words: he didn’t know.
Gender, age, height, weight—the possible conditions were endless. There was no way to tell for now.
But he thought he understood why the barrier held without a mage.
“Chae-eun.”
He called the child who was running along the barrier while holding Ko Sung-yoon’s hand.
She circled around and stopped in front of him.
“…Yes! Did you call me?”
“Yeah. Can you dig the ground right in the middle of the barrier?”
“The ground?”
“Yeah. Uncle’s guess is that the medium keeping the barrier up is buried there.”
“Medium…?”
Park Chae-eun tilted her head.
She was still young and had clearly never heard the word.
Choi Yeon rephrased so she could understand.
“Like a magic ring.”
“Wow! A magic ring comes out of the ground?”
Haha, as if.
Choi Yeon hastily swallowed the words he almost tossed out.
For the sake of her innocence he kept quiet and searched the holster at his waist for something to dig with.
“Hmm….”
A shovel was too big, a dagger too dangerous, the throwing knives… coated in paralysis poison.
Oh no. Nothing suitable for a kid?
The obvious realization stopped his hand.
While he was still wondering what to do, the child had already dashed to the center and begun digging with her tiny hands.
Her drive was remarkably unhesitating.
“…And why does the ground dig so easily?”
Thud, thud.
Every time she pushed her hands in, the earth gave way far too readily.
If digging were that simple, the word “shoveling” would never have been invented.
Was it going too far to think someone had wanted the child to dig here?
“Oh! The barrier disappeared…!”
Ko Sung-yoon’s exclamation cut through Choi Yeon’s thoughts.
Just as expected, once the medium was pulled from the ground the barrier vanished.
Park Chae-eun, holding it high, ran over to them.
“It’s not a ring—it’s a headband! A magic headband!”
In her small palm rested a headband glowing green.
And,
“A sprout…?”
It was identical to the one Park Chae-eun already wore.
The only difference was how incredibly realistic the sprout looked—as if crafted by a hyperrealist artist.
“…For now, can you give that headband to uncle?”
“Why?”
“Huh?”
“Whyyy?”
“Uh, it’s not that uncle wants it for himself. Things that come out of dungeons have to be appraised and classified by the government. It’s different if you have a guild contract, but Chae-eun isn’t a hunter, right?”
“Yes….”
“And even though Chae-eun wouldn’t, there are people who secretly take dungeon items and misuse them. I’m taking it to prevent that too.”
“I see…. Then I can’t keep this magic headband?”
“Yeah, unfortunately.”
Choi Yeon smiled bitterly at the dejected child.
If the headband had been nothing special he could have simply given it to her.
But an item capable of generating a barrier would be B-class at minimum.
It wasn’t something he could casually hand to a child.
He had seen far too many hunters die untimely deaths because of high-rank items.
“Here….”
Park Chae-eun held the headband out weakly.
Regret dripped from her eyes as she looked at it.
“Thank you, Chae-eun. Instead, uncle will buy you a similar one.”
With that he reached for the headband.
Thud…!
No—he tried to take it and was blocked.
The headband’s own barrier stopped his hand.
“……?”
“Huh? No! I didn’t do that…!”
Park Chae-eun’s eyes went round with fluster.
The headband left her hand and floated into the air. As the barrier expanded, Choi Yeon and Ko Sung-yoon were steadily pushed back.
Choi Yeon tried holding his ground for a moment, then gave up and let himself be shoved away.
The barrier filled the clearing, stopped, and vanished with a whoosh.
Plop….
The floating headband settled gently back into Park Chae-eun’s hand.
My master is this child.
—It was as if the headband itself were saying so.
“…….”
Choi Yeon stood dazed for a moment.
With incomprehensible phenomena piling up one after another, his mind refused to work. So he decided to handle it the usual way.
Ah, whatever. The Dongdae Chief can deal with it.
Picturing Kim Jaesang’s smooth head turning red when he heard the story, he spoke.
“Chae-eun. For now, you keep it.”
“R-really? Is that okay?”
“Of course it is.”
Anyway I can’t carry the thing myself.
He swallowed the honest words.
“Wooow! Thank you!”
Park Chae-eun jumped up and down with joy.
She switched to the new headband and carefully buried the original one in the ground.
Watching her gently pat the earth with satisfaction, Choi Yeon said,
“I clearly said ‘for now,’ but it seems you’ve already forgotten that?”
“Yes, probably.”
As Ko Sung-yoon agreed awkwardly, the child came running over.
“Hehe, all done!”
…It does suit her well.
The main road was still packed with people.
Enough time had passed that the crowd should have thinned, yet instead of decreasing it had only grown.
The one bright spot was that it wasn’t solely onlookers and reporters—the obstructive sort—who had increased.
“Kim Minseok…!”
The hunter Dongdae Chief Kim Jaesang had requested from City Hall had arrived.
A man of lean yet solid build strode straight to the front of the dungeon.
As a City Hall hunter who operated across all of Daejeon, most residents recognized him and naturally cleared a path.
“Dongdae Chief, how’s the situation?”
“Still no word. Looks like they’re still searching.”
“Understood. I’ll go in right away.”
“Yeah, really appreciate it!”
Kim Jaesang clapped Kim Minseok’s shoulder a couple of times.
Even after just finishing a dungeon break in Geumsan-gun, the man was ready to dive straight in—reliable as ever.
Then—
“Uh, uh…?”
Manager Park Choong-jae’s dumbfounded voice floated over.
He wasn’t alone.
From the watching residents a chorus of “Wooow!” erupted.
Kim Jaesang understood the reason instantly.
He spun around and saw the familiar squinty eyes standing in front of the dungeon.
Beside him were a man in a rabbit mascot head and a little girl wearing a sprout headband—clearly the civilians who had been dragged in when the dungeon appeared.
“Already rescued them and came out?”
“Oh my, amazing!”
“Huh, our neighborhood hunter’s skills are pretty solid, ain’t they?”
“Heeseok’s the real deal, y’know. Even been up to Seoul and all. That boy raised him, so this much’s only natural, right?”
“True enough.”
Voices flew back and forth.
Kim Jaesang, mouth still hanging open, dashed over.
Kim Minseok followed quietly behind, feeling for some reason like a spare tire.
“Good work, Yeon-ah!”
“Yes, good work. But why are there so many people?”
“Civilians got dragged in, y’know.”
“Ah.”
“This much ’cause it’s our neighborhood. Anywhere else and it’d be chaos. Seoul? Total mess.”
As he spoke, Kim Jaesang looked over the rescued pair.
Especially the child held by the man in the rabbit head—he scrutinized her from head to toe.
Seeing Choi Yeon stroll out so leisurely, he had assumed no serious injuries, but with reporters’ eyes blazing he needed to check for himself.
Fortunately there seemed to be none.
Yet the way she kept stroking the headband and grinning didn’t look normal.
Not like a child just pulled from a dungeon, but like one who had received a long-wanted gift.
He pointed at her with a glance.
“What’s with this?”
“Uh, there was a bit of a situation.”
“…Nothing serious happened, right?”
“Probably not? I think.”
“What kind of talk is that?”
“It’s a long story. That—”
“No. Don’t talk here. Too many ears listening.”
Kim Jaesang cut him off urgently.
It was understandable.
Dozens of people stood around; even a quiet voice might reach sharp ears.
Reporters could snatch a few words, pile speculation on speculation, and run with it.
With not a single wound visible they probably wouldn’t invent anything outrageous—but they were a breed that always exceeded imagination, so caution never hurt.
“Anyway, good work, Yeon-ah.”
“If you know that, then some vacation—”
“Oh, you’ll go process the instant dungeon?”
“What? When did I say that?”
“Yeah, yeah. As expected, our Dongdae’s next ace!”
Kim Jaesang cleanly ignored him.
He led the two rescuees toward the waiting ambulance. Ko Sung-yoon and Park Chae-eun waved goodbye as they followed.
“Yeon-i hyung, thank you! I survived thanks to you!”
“Thank you! I’ll use the headband well!”
No, I didn’t give that to you.
Instead of arguing, Choi Yeon simply waved back. He planned to casually mention it to Kim Jaesang once fewer ears were around.
“By the way… when am I gonna catch all those orc bastards…?”
He muttered, glancing back at the dungeon.
Having to hunt down orcs that had scattered every which way made the future look pitch-black.
How to look at it so it felt a little less dark?
As he pondered, Kim Minseok stepped up beside him.
“Good work, Choi Yeon-ssi.”
“Why is Minseok-ssi here? You should still be in Geumsan-gun.”
“The Dongdae Chief requested support. Though it seems it wasn’t needed.”
“Ahh. I got lucky. Sorry for making you waste the trip.”
“Waste? The people were rescued safely. I’ll just think of it as getting a comfortable rest thanks to you.”
Kim Minseok smiled gently.
At that unmistakably good-natured smile, Choi Yeon’s mind lit up.
Found it—my compass!
“Minseok-ssi. Is the Geumsan-gun dungeon break still urgent?”
“No? By now it should be in the wrapping-up stage.”
“Then won’t you come in here with me?”
“Huh?”
“It’ll take forever alone. Even if you head back you’ll just be hunting monsters anyway.”
“That’s true.”
Kim Minseok nodded slowly.
Whether here or Geumsan-gun, monsters still needed killing.
Hunting simple C-class ones would be easier on the body.
“Hmm… then shall we? Since it’s a request from a peer and all.”
Seeing his peer agree while pretending reluctance, Choi Yeon beamed.
With a B-class hunter who had detection skills helping, orcs would take thirty minutes at most.
Grinning brightly, Choi Yeon entered the dungeon with Kim Minseok.