Into the Dungeon (9)
Turning the monsters into puppets with that massive magic circle had been an impulsive move.
I’d simply copied the method Mr. Eden, the great black magician, had used when he fought alien creatures.
So it really does work.
Once again, I found myself impressed by my Purchase talent.
To think I could recreate a comic-book hero in the real world.
Was there a more broken ability than that?
While I was still marveling at my powers, a man who seemed to be the field commander approached me.
“I’m A-class Hunter Kang Inseok of the Jincheon Guild.”
The guy who had been shouting for everyone to run now looked at me with obvious respect.
“What exactly are you? You don’t seem like an ordinary intern…”
BOOM!
Another explosion rang out from somewhere nearby.
Somewhere out there, people were still fighting for their lives.
Inseok let out a breath.
“This isn’t the time for introductions. Fine. So.” He looked at me and asked, “What do we do?”
An A-class Hunter had set aside his pride and was asking me for advice.
That told me how desperate things really were.
When I looked around, everyone was clearly exhausted from the brutal fighting.
There wasn’t a single person who wasn’t hurt somewhere.
They looked so drained they probably didn’t even have the strength to speak.
The only hope they had left was probably me.
A heavy sense of responsibility pressed down on my shoulders.
I knew the method.
Putting it into practice and succeeding were two very different things.
But still.
I had to win.
Because heroes never gave up, no matter what kind of hardship or despair stood in their way.
I turned and started walking.
“Follow me.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The place I led them to was the far end of Dongho Bridge.
It was the starting point of the overpass stretching across the Han River, relative to Oksu Station.
“Is there a gate here?”
“Not according to our investigation. Only in the Gangnam-gu area…”
“Then what about…” I cut off the Jincheon Guild agent and asked, “a hidden gate?”
“Huh? That would be…”
Like a dragon skin masking itself in polymorph, a hidden gate was a gate that had opened but had become invisible.
I reached into the empty air and poured mana into it.
Before long, an oval of pure white light revealed itself near my hand.
“This is the main gate.”
Confusion flashed across Inseok’s face.
“Tch. So you were hiding here.”
One of the agents pointed at the gate.
“How can you tell this is the main gate?”
Since I only knew it from information I’d gained in my past life, I decided to bluff my way through it.
“I can detect it with my ability.”
The moment they heard that, Inseok issued an order.
“Good. A few of us will go in and clear it out.”
If you closed the main gate in a multi-gate, the rest would shut down all at once.
Now that the method to end this was right in front of us, Inseok was getting excited.
“No. You can’t go in.”
“What?”
Inseok frowned and turned toward the voice.
The person who had been watching in silence stepped forward.
“It’s a closed-type gate, isn’t it?”
It was the Hunter whose arm had been bound up with a triangular bandage.
The severed limb had been roughly reattached, with bone and muscle barely holding together.
“I’m Lee Dohun, A-plus Hunter from the Superior Guild.”
He went on, “I owe you my life.”
Cream gave Ha Se-na a slight bow of his head.
She wiped the sweat beading on her forehead.
“I’ve only managed to stitch it together for now. That’s the best I can do. Once this is over, go straight to a proper hospital.”
Cream lowered his head.
“That’s more than enough. The Dio Guild really does have some skilled people.”
Jincheon and Superior.
If I compared the two guild masters at a glance, Inseok, with his dark stubble and rough face, looked like a tough guy, while Cream had the polished image of a gentleman who should have been wearing a suit.
“I heard you say it’s Hunter Choi Yongki? Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“Am I right about this being closed-type?”
“That’s correct.”
Inseok scratched his head roughly.
“Damn. And on top of that it had to be hidden? What a pain in the ass.”
As if in answer, the pure white gate rippled and seemed to swell even larger.
Crack.
It looked as though some enormous beast had just opened its eyes.
The gate’s white surface turned a blood-red color.
Beyond the thin membrane, a mass of monsters was crowding toward us, howling like mad.
“Graaagh!!”
“Gaaahh!!!”
They looked like ghostly figures wrapped in black cloaks, like the Grim Reaper himself.
The skulls hidden beneath those robes had no eyes, only hollow sockets where the nose and mouth should have been.
As if cursed by Satan, they twisted and surged, trying to cross over into our world with pure malice.
Inseok and Cream both grimaced.
“Disgusting. Those things make me feel dirty every time I look at them.”
“Same.”
The creatures on the other side were Baters.
They were ghost-type monsters that sucked at the human psyche like vampires.
Baters stole reason, tortured the mind, and attacked the darkness inside a person until they collapsed.
If you stayed exposed to them too long, you could end up living the rest of your life as a wreck.
Cream ground his teeth.
“So what now?”
Ordinary gates closed when humans went in and killed the monsters inside.
If the raid failed, the monsters would keep pouring out forever.
But closed-type gates were different. Humans couldn’t enter, and monsters couldn’t come out.
Strictly speaking, closed-type gates weren’t all that threatening to humanity.
They eventually vanished on their own.
In a few days, that red door would disappear without a trace.
But.
I can’t wait.
The longer we sat on our hands, the more damage the multi-gate would inflict.
I had to end this nuisance as fast as possible.
Inseok drew his sword.
“Then we force it open.”
There was another way to get inside.
If you tore apart that thin barrier serving as the boundary, entry would become possible.
The problem was that doing so would drag the Baters out into the world.
Cream stopped him at once.
“We’re already short-handed, and you want us to deal with those things too? No thanks.”
Baters were ghost-type monsters, so physical attacks didn’t work on them.
They could also fly freely through the air.
Even among high-ranked Hunters, few could fly.
That was one reason why dragon-class aerial monsters were so terrifying when they appeared overhead.
“Then what the hell do you want us to do?”
Growing impatient, Inseok raised his voice.
I stepped forward.
“I’ll go in.”
Silence fell heavily over the bridge.
There was a strategy that could close a closed-type gate in a short amount of time.
Single-handedly taking on and eliminating that many Baters.
It sounded simple, but it was anything but.
Neither Inseok nor Cream could have pulled it off.
“No.”
“That’s impossible.”
The heads of both guilds tried to stop me, but I didn’t care.
“Make a gap in the closed-type gate and push me through it. If you deliberately seal the opening from the outside, the Baters won’t be able to get out either.”
“That’s too dangerous.”
“You could die.”
They weren’t wrong.
If I failed, the closed-type gate would shut for good.
Not only would we never recover my body, but my soul would be left wandering the nine heavens forever alongside those evil spirits.
“I’ll do it.”
I repeated myself.
There was no other way.
Someone had to step forward if we wanted to escape this hell.
“To damage the Baters, I have to use my ability. I’m the only one who can do it.”
Inseok and Cream both looked grim.
Their hesitation didn’t last long.
“Sorry about this.”
“I’m sorry too.”
They apologized, probably because they felt guilty about leaving a job they couldn’t handle to someone else.
Yeah.
This is what a real Hunter looks like.
There were people like Seo Gwang-pal who abused their power.
And there were also true Awakened who fought to save the world.
“No need to apologize. I’m just grateful you’ve held out this long.”
Inseok and Cream asked, “Then what should we do?”
“We can’t just dump everything on the intern and stand around gawking.”
I pointed to the other side of the bridge.
“Hold the wave. I’ll close the main gate somehow in the meantime.”
They turned around.
“Hey. Whipped cream. You good with one arm?”
“No problem. You don’t even have any bullets.”
“What’s with you? I’m a swordsman before I’m a rifleman.”
Inseok raised his voice.
“You all heard me, right? Let’s squeeze out every last drop of strength we’ve got for the Dio Guild people here!”
As he turned away, he said, “Hey. See you when this is over. He said he’d buy us a beer.”
Cream gave me a small, dry laugh, then turned and left.
Once the Jincheon and Superior Guild members disappeared, only the intern and I remained.
I picked up a small stone and drew a line across the asphalt.
“Suwan. I’m counting on you to hold it there.”
With our overall strength reduced this much, they couldn’t hold back every single monster.
I intended to use Bang Su-hwan as the final line of defense.
“Yes, hyung. Leave it to me.”
An uneasiness crept into my chest.
If even this guy gets broken through… then…
I forced down my anxiety and kept going.
“Ha Se-na, cover the injured from Jincheon and Superior.”
“Got it.”
Before she turned away, I said, “Don’t die.”
It was only a short line, but I meant every word.
Lee Ji-jun waited for my orders.
“What is it this time? A three-meter spear? Or do you want me to whip up some homemade bombs and wipe those things out?”
Unfortunately, swords and guns didn’t work on Baters.
“Set up a barrier.”
If we tore open the protection around the closed-type gate, the Baters would come pouring out.
I needed something to stop them.
“Baters can’t pass through human blood.”
“That’s the first I’ve heard of that.”
“It’s in the handbook.”
“Oh, really?”
It was a lie.
It was one of the Baters’ secrets, and it wouldn’t be revealed for another five years.
“I’m asking you for help.”
I placed a hand on Ji-jun’s shoulder.
His white hair fluttered in the wind.
“You sly bastard. If you put it like that, how am I supposed to do anything but give it my all?”
Without hesitation, Ji-jun ripped both of his palms open with his own fingernails.
“I’m ready.”
I lifted White Revenge.
Then I drew a vertical line across the gate’s barrier.
Skrk.
I kicked off the ground and leapt.
Like a fetus being drawn back into its mother’s womb, I grabbed the thin membrane with both hands and slipped inside just before the Bater could emerge.
“Now!”
Ji-jun spread a curtain of blood.
Trapped inside the gate, the Bater and I tangled together.
“Kiiiieeeek!!!!”
The creature’s shrill scream pierced my eardrums.
Black commands wrapped around my body from every direction.
It felt as if countless snakes were crawling all over me.
My throat tightened.
There wasn’t enough blood reaching my brain.
I felt like I might black out at any second.
“Ghk.”
Black veins rose up over my wrists like spiderwebs.
I pressed my face against the membrane in front of me.
My temples bulged, and even the whites of my eyes had already darkened.
The Bater’s foul mana was gnawing me apart.
In the haze of my failing consciousness, old memories flashed by, and hallucinations spilled into my ears.
“You bastard!”
“Hyung, I want to quit school.”
“I was killed by a villain.”
My grandmother and my younger brother drifted away from my side.
And the horned monster that had ended humanity in my previous life spoke.
“Trash like you should disappear.”
At last, I heard his voice.
My father’s voice.
“Yongki. This won’t do.”
It was the version of my father who had never bought me a hero toy when I was a kid.
Back then, I hadn’t been able to say anything.
But once I grew up, I had finally talked back to him.
“Why not? Because we’re poor? I’ve got money now. I can buy whatever I want!”
“No. It’s fate. We can’t chase after what we were never meant to be.”
The words won’t do echoed on and on, as though they were trying to erase me from existence.
Won’t do. Won’t do. Can’t do it…
Only then did I understand.
Right. It was an illusion.
I had to keep my mind sharp and fight back.
Right now, I couldn’t use Judgment of the Superhuman or Infinite Acceleration.
Even if I could, they wouldn’t do anything to the Bater.
Allusion wouldn’t help either.
Psychic domination didn’t work on Baters.
The only thing that could damage them was sacred power or light attribute attacks, and that was beyond my ability.
Then there was only one thing left.
I closed my eyes and slowly moved both hands in a fluid, swimming motion, tracing circles in the air.
In the process, dozens, then hundreds of magic circles formed.
I immediately placed my hands against my chest.
One by one, the magic circles were absorbed into my body.
“Ghh!”
The sensation felt like my heart was burning alive, and my spine went numb with pain.
This was it.
The method of taking a psychic attack onto myself and bearing the strain.
Whether the Bater’s brainwashing would be more vicious, or Mr. Eden’s black magic would be more merciless.
Which one would win?
Father, you were wrong.
I’m going to choose the fate I want.
Thousands of magic circles pierced through my body like spears.