To the Ancient Dungeon (1)
Outside, the snow still hadn't let up. But the voices carrying in from beyond the door were unmistakably human.
"Who would be out in a blizzard like this...?"
Yuri sounded puzzled. I was thinking the same thing.
"Is anyone in there? If you are, open the door!"
Then came the pounding — someone hammering on the shelter door. I opened it.
"So there is someone. I could sense traces of mana from this shelter, so I figured I'd find people here."
I looked at the man standing in the doorway. A skinhead — a massive foreigner, bald, wearing sunglasses.
A Hawaiian shirt and short sleeves...
That was no outfit for climbing through a blizzard. He was even wearing flip-flops.
By every visible measure, he looked like a man who'd taken leave of his senses. And yet the sight of him put me on edge.
If he made it to a shelter this close to the summit dressed like that...
He was an Awakened, no question. And not an ordinary one. And yet I couldn't feel the slightest oppressive weight of mana from him.
That left two possibilities. Either a deranged civilian with no power at all — or a fighter beyond anything I could imagine.
And the instant I saw that shaved head and those sunglasses, I knew it was the latter. A particular face had already come to mind.
"Minsu, who is that?"
Yuri called from behind me. Her voice had a bit of life in it again, probably thanks to the hangover cure. The moment I turned toward her, the man spoke.
"I saw traces of two people, so I figured you had a companion. Oho. A young man and woman spending the night in a mountain shelter? Must've been a lovers' elopement."
"Th-that's not—!"
Even as she protested, flustered, a strangely pleased look crossed Yuri's face.
"A lovers' elopement..."
She even murmured it under her breath. Afraid last night's events would come flooding back, I quickly addressed the man.
"A pleasure to meet you. Ernst Zierfield."
When I spoke his name, he lowered his sunglasses for a moment to look at me. The man — who had the look of a typical Germanic — regarded me with interest.
"Oho. So I've become that famous, have I? Even young people in a foreign country know who I am."
Yuri reacted to the name as well.
"Zierfield... the archaeologist Zierfield?"
She knew it too. Of course she did — no hunter wouldn't.
Beyond even SS-Rank Hunters, the Five Heavenly Stars stood at the very peak of the hunter world. Rivals to that height were the Three Demons and the Two Eccentrics.
Jang Gyesin, whom we'd encountered earlier, had served Talhonma Seomun Yeom. That Red Lake executive was one of the Three Demons.
And Ernst Zierfield is one of the Two Eccentrics.
That brief epithet and his appearance said a great deal about him. Eccentric — the word fit him perfectly. Zierfield was, quite literally, a weirdo.
Neither a light of the hunter world like the Five Heavenly Stars, nor a darkness like the Three Demons. The Two Eccentrics were apex hunters who moved freely according to their own purposes, unbound by such distinctions.
And one of them was the archaeologist Ernst Zierfield. I had never imagined I'd run into him here on Seoraksan.
In the original story, Si-woo doesn't cross paths with this man until much later.
It looked like chance. It wasn't. Yuri was here in Si-woo's place.
And I remembered the brief tremor that had shaken Seoraksan last night. "Archaeologist" wasn't just a nickname.
Zierfield was, in fact, a distinguished scholar of archaeology at one of Europe's most prestigious universities. Yuri's expression had grown tense as well.
If it's for archaeological research...
Hunter-world interests and factional power struggles meant nothing to him. If a dungeon was needed for his research, Zierfield would walk into it regardless of who owned it.
Naturally, that included dungeons belonging to mega-corporate guilds, international organizations, or even notorious villain syndicates. The fact that he was still walking around just fine said everything about his strength.
So it wasn't strange that even Yuri, an S-Rank Hunter, was on edge. An absolute powerhouse who transcended even SS-Rank stood right in front of us.
But Zierfield, wearing a grin that didn't quite match his massive frame, said to the two of us:
"If you snuck in here for a lovers' elopement, you've got food, right? Mind sharing a little with me?"
I nodded, a bit stunned.
"Oho. So you're both hunters, and you came here to train? Coming out to a place this harsh means you're both fairly capable Awakened, I take it."
The three of us sat around the brazier I'd built in the shelter.
I hadn't packed that much food, so I shared a spare cup of ramyeon and some sausage with him. He must have been starving, because he ate every bit of it with gusto.
He's good with chopsticks, too.
Well — he was a famous archaeologist who traveled everywhere. It wouldn't be strange for him to be familiar with Eastern culture.
I said to him,
"If that's not filling enough, you could squeeze some mayonnaise in."
"Mayonnaise? There are people who eat cup ramyeon in that insane way? You're kidding, right?"
At that, Yuri's expression went cold.
Zierfield was from Germania, another kingdom of Eyletan. Germania had undergone Dimensional Convergence with Earth across parts of Germany and Poland, much as Slavia had. Of course, Zierfield had studied at a prestigious German university, so he was fully assimilated as an Earthling — but unlike Russia or Slavia, Germany apparently had no culture of squeezing mayonnaise onto things.
Then he said,
"Kimchi, though — that's another story. You wouldn't happen to have any?"
And he ate the cup ramyeon with the packaged kimchi I'd brought just in case.
"Oh! Now this is Korean sauerkraut. Crunchy and delicious."
Yuri stared at him like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Russia and Slavia both had sauerkraut — pickled cabbage — but even after living in Korea for quite some time, Yuri still couldn't eat kimchi.
We exchanged a few particulars about ourselves. And when Zierfield heard Yuri's name, a look of interest crossed his face.
"Tarkovskaya? Don't tell me — are you of the same house as the famous Grand Duke Andrei Tarkovsky?"
Yuri's expression hardened at her father's name. Her relationship with Grand Duke Andrei was extremely poor.
And because of me...
When she refused to join the Snowfield Knights and founded Flame instead, her relationship with the Grand Duke had deteriorated to the point of rupture. I'd heard as much from Executive Director Maria.
Of course, after that, her achievement of S-Rank and Flame's continued standing as an S-Rank guild had apparently cooled the Grand Duke's anger somewhat. And the fact that Soso — daughter of Yeon Se-hwi, another of the Five Heavenly Stars — was in Flame was also a reason the Grand Duke had, to some extent, let Yuri be.
Out of consideration for the Heavenly Demon's face, that is.
There would be relations among the Five Heavenly Stars as well. Yuri answered evenly.
"I am his daughter."
"His daughter? That explains it. You didn't feel like an ordinary Awakened — so you're Grand Duke Andrei's heir. Wait. Then it really was a lovers' elopement, wasn't it? A high noble's daughter falls in love, but they can't be together because of the difference in station, so the two of them hole up in a shelter on this brutal mountain..."
Yuri's expression changed again. The displeasure that had been there when her father's name came up was now tinged with a flush.
Zierfield probably wouldn't notice that subtle shift. But I could see it clearly. His words had pleased her.
I quickly denied it.
"That's not it at all. The Guildmaster and I came to Seoraksan on official business."
And at my words, Yuri's face immediately fell.
"Is that so? The air between you two was so peculiar I assumed you were that sort of pair. Hmm. Even so — a man and a woman spending the night together in a sealed room on a snow mountain, and you're telling me you're just coworkers..."
This time Yuri ducked her head, looking embarrassed.
If this conversation went any further it would be a problem, so I asked Zierfield the real question.
"Then, Mr. Zierfield, what purpose brought you here? Someone like you wouldn't have come just for a hike."
Ordinarily I wouldn't have been in a position to question someone like him so freely. But true to his reputation as an archaeologist and an Eccentric, Zierfield didn't seem to care at all about the hierarchy among hunters.
"Ah, right. I've been prying too much into you two. Young couples' love stories are always interesting, you see. But I'm not here for a leisurely hike either. The Vatican dumped some leftover work on me."
Then Zierfield explained why he'd come. The Vatican — headquarters of the White Cross Church's Holy See.
The White Cross Church...
And the White Cross Church was the connecting link between the otherworld of Eyletan and the Earth of Aca Hunter. The Earth of Aca Hunter was, of course, the Earth of the novel.
In place of the Christianity that existed on real-world Earth, the White Cross Church served as this Earth's equivalent. And the White Cross Church existed in Eyletan as well. Two worlds that had existed in entirely different dimensions, sharing one god and the same mythology.
Moreover, the Holy See of the White Cross Church on Earth was a massive international organization rivaling even the International Hunter Association.
He called it leftover work, but if the Holy See is collaborating with Zierfield...
It meant there was something here on Seoraksan. Something in the ancient dungeon. Something beyond a mere Ancient Gear.
"Those priest types went on and on about some oracle from God — that an important holy relic might be unearthed on some mountain at the eastern edge of the continent, or some such."
At the word oracle, I grew more certain. Zierfield continued.
"But even if I am an expert with a shovel and a pickaxe, how am I supposed to find an ancient dungeon with a clue that vague? Gates spawn around here now and then, but looking at it, this just seems like an ordinary mountain. Damn it."
And Zierfield kept grumbling at me. Apparently the clues he'd received from the Holy See weren't much.
"So I've been wandering around this mountain and that in Korea, knowing full well it might be a complete wild goose chase. Well, at least on this mountain I got to witness a lovers' secret rendezvous, so it's been entertaining in its own way."
Despite my strenuous denials, Zierfield seemed to have already settled the matter of Yuri and me. And without paying any more attention to Yuri's reaction, I quickly answered him.
"Um. Mr. Zierfield. I think you've come to exactly the right place."
And at my words, Zierfield's shaved head gleamed.
"There's a method for finding ancient dungeons like this? Unbelievable."
The three of us left the shelter and traveled for quite some time.
Now we were clinging to a cliff face on a snow mountain in a raging blizzard. And none of us found this near-insane act the least bit strange.
For Zierfield and Yuri, it wasn't difficult at all. I, too, had Wind Cutter's help.
"It's definitely an ancient dungeon gate. We can go in now."
Zierfield looked as if he'd seen a ghost. Unlike ordinary gates, ancient dungeon gates don't emit demonic energy. That's why sensitive Awakened can find regular gates relatively easily, while even low-rank ancient dungeons go undiscovered.
Unless you're an Awakened whose mana sense is as extreme as Zierfield's.
But even for someone like him, searching all of Seoraksan was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Even standing right in front of the gate, I could barely feel the mana it was emitting.
And yet the one who'd found this gate wasn't Zierfield — it was me.
"This kind of analysis is something you'd only use in Dr. Seong's MCI theory. Taking the waveforms that form when a gate's demonic energy pollutes the atmosphere and applying them to an ancient dungeon's mana emission pattern? I'm an archaeologist, not a theoretical magic scholar, so I don't know the details — but how would a hunter like you, who isn't even Dr. Seong Chaerin, interpret something like..."
"I've assisted Professor Seong Chaerin with her research."
"Is that true? That doctor — the magic studies professors at our university have been begging just to have a conversation with her, and she never agrees to meet anyone. How did you manage that?"
Zierfield looked incredulous all over again. As he'd said, I had applied Dr. Seong Chaerin's theory. And by interpreting the waveforms from the MCI oscilloscope I'd received as a reward from the intern program, I'd found this gate.
The three of us passed through the gate. And Zierfield was about to be astonished by me all over again.