Dungeon Clear
Morning of the sixth day inside the dungeon.
"…Let's go!"
The members of Team Venus, myself included, packed up the base camp and set out for the final battle with the Earth Dragon.
Lavenne, who already knew the creature's location, took the role of guide, while Kang-in hyung—our tank—took the lead with a haggard face.
The dark circles under his eyes were deep, and his cheeks had hollowed out enough to look pitiful, but I decided to pretend I hadn't noticed.
"This is it."
Following Lavenne's directions, we arrived at a massive cave nestled beneath a cliff of bare rock.
There was no need to go looking for the thing inside.
Thud-thud-thud—!
The ground began to tremble.
"───────!!"
Lavenne no longer needed to erase our mana signatures. Sensing the approach of its enemies, the Earth Dragon crawled out of the cave of its own accord.
"Somehow its color looks different from a few days ago. And it seems bigger, too…."
"It still hasn't finished molting completely, though."
Even looking at the bulked-up Earth Dragon now radiating a bluish glow, Lavenne told us not to worry—our side had grown far stronger.
"She's right. Even standing right in front of it, I don't feel like we're going to lose."
"Power… overflowing."
Hye-ji and Anika stepped forward slightly as they spoke, confidence written all over their faces.
"Shall we, Anika?"
"Mm."
Tap!
Anika and Hye-ji kicked off the ground at the same time and charged the Earth Dragon.
Kang-in hyung, our tank, did not join them. He stayed behind to protect Bo-yeon and me.
Fwoosh!
Closing to point-blank range, Anika and Hye-ji split left and right. Their movements were nothing like a few days ago.
Even the Earth Dragon couldn't track their speed. Moving in perfect sync, the two swung their weapons from either side.
Crunch!
BOOM!
"───────?!!"
The Earth Dragon screamed and thrashed in agony.
"Yeah!"
"……."
Hye-ji let out a cheer; Anika's lips curled into a faint smile.
This was nothing like a few days earlier, when their attacks had bounced harmlessly off its hard scales.
Their strikes carved and shattered the Earth Dragon's scales, delivering devastating damage.
It was thanks to the enormous leap in their stats after they had so easily raised their rank of existence.
Once they realized their attacks were landing properly, the two of them swung their weapons with wild abandon.
"──────!!!!"
Every time Hye-ji's dark crimson blade and Anika's lightning-wreathed hammer crashed home, the Earth Dragon howled in pain.
Even when it tried to counter, they either slipped past its attacks with light footwork or deflected them with their weapons.
Whoosh—
Sensing real danger, the Earth Dragon whipped its long, lizard-like tail like a lash and spun a full circle on the spot.
Rooooooar!
Its massive body swept across the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Tch!"
"……."
Hye-ji and Anika fell back to avoid the sweep.
But this time Bo-yeon floated a book made of light into the air.
"□□□□□□…."
The unintelligible chant spilling from her lips was longer than usual.
In truth, the one who had grown the most this time was Bo-yeon.
Through the rise in her rank of existence, not only had her stats improved—her existing skill, Record Speller, had climbed from B to A, unlocking new magic for her to read.
"■■■■!!"
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The instant the chant ended, the ground around the Earth Dragon split open, and a colossal arm of solid rock surged upward.
The arm came crashing down on the dragon.
BOOM!
"─────────!!!!"
Like a drunkard tased and pinned by the police, the Earth Dragon's body was crushed into the earth.
Seizing the moment, Hye-ji and Anika rushed in and poured on the damage.
"Incredible… They're completely overpowering that monster…."
Kang-in hyung, watching Bo-yeon, Hye-ji, and Anika fight, murmured in awe.
I nodded as well. The Earth Dragon's roar—the same roar that had driven us to the brink of death only days ago—now sounded almost pitiful.
Crunch! Slash!
Bang! BOOM!
With every wet tear of flesh, every heavy impact, the Earth Dragon's blood and scales sprayed through the air.
"Ha… The gap in levels just blew wide open all of a sudden, didn't it?"
A complicated light flickered in Kang-in hyung's eyes.
I thought I knew what he was thinking, but with the battle still raging I couldn't spare him any attention.
"────────!!!"
With a desperate thrash, the Earth Dragon broke free of the stone arm's grip, then whipped its tail again and fled from Hye-ji and Anika.
Crrrk!
Having somehow bought itself distance, its back rippled—and from that place, wings sprouted.
Proof that it had been truly close to becoming a complete dragon.
"You bastard! Where do you think you're running…!"
Hye-ji and Anika charged, but the creature's body had already rocketed into the air.
With Lavenne here we could chase it wherever it fled, but I wanted to finish it right here.
"Lavenne."
"Yeah, yeah. I know what you mean."
Lavenne nodded, and a thick mass of mana drained from the core of my heart. A geometric magic circle bloomed in her hand.
It was nothing like the magic Awakened used through Record Speller—a unique sorcery only Lavenne could wield.
"A lizard looking down on us from above? How arrogant. …Get down here. Now."
Fwoosh!
A blue beam shot from Lavenne's outstretched fingertips toward the sky.
"───────?!!"
The beam sliced through the air, half-burning one of the Earth Dragon's wings. Its body tilted, and it plummeted toward the ground in an instant.
BOOM!
Lavenne dismissed the magic she used as a leftover parlor trick from her inexperienced days, but in reality it packed this kind of overwhelming power.
The problem is the extreme mana cost.
Her magic consumed the mana of her summoner—me. Every single cast drained me nearly dry, so I treated it like a joker card. That was also why I hadn't used it the first time we faced the Earth Dragon.
"Nice assist!"
Hye-ji gave a thumbs-up and, together with Anika, charged the grounded Earth Dragon to finish it off.
Another savage assault. The Earth Dragon was being smashed to pieces.
I was just thinking to myself that we'd won when—
"─────────────!!!!!!!!!"
"Ugh…!!"
"Wh-what the hell!?"
The Earth Dragon let out a roar loud enough to shake the entire mountain, then suddenly burrowed into the earth and vanished underground.
Hye-ji and Anika were so startled they lost track of it for a moment.
"This bastard really does everything… Can't run to the sky, so now it's the ground!?"
Hye-ji muttered irritably, but the creature hadn't fled.
Rrrrrumble…
The ground shook again.
"……Damn it! Get clear!"
Grab!
Without warning, Kang-in hyung seized my arm and Bo-yeon's and hurled us with all his strength.
Whoosh!
As I flew through the air, I saw the ground where we'd just been standing heave upward.
The Earth Dragon we thought had escaped was bursting up through the earth.
"Kang-in hyung…!!!"
Caught off guard by a suicide rush that aimed to take us with it, Kang-in hyung tried to throw himself clear a beat too late.
BOOM!
Along with the erupting ground, his body was flung far away.
"You fucking bastard!!!"
Hye-ji and Anika rushed in and rained attacks on the Earth Dragon.
It had been a strike that disregarded even its own life, and before long the creature died by their hands.
Before that, Bo-yeon and I ran to Kang-in hyung.
The man who had saved us in that critical moment had lost his arm and a chunk of his right upper body.
"Damn it… Hyung…!!!"
The wound was far too severe.
Without the Staff of Life I carried and his own regenerative power, it wouldn't have been strange for him to have already died.
"Cough… Heh… A grown man crying…."
Kang-in hyung coughed up blood and laughed.
"You're laughing in this situation…?!!"
"Hic… Sunbae… Because of us…."
Bo-yeon beside me was crying.
I felt the same—guilt and the terror that we might lose him right here made me want to break down and sob.
"Bullshit… Cough… How is this your fault…? A tank did a tank's job."
Kang-in hyung kept laughing with a strangely satisfied look, as if he'd simply done his work properly.
Even as his face grew paler by the second, clearly feeling the shadow of death closing in on him….
"So quit sniveling… I'm tired, so I'm gonna sleep a bit…."
"No… Hyung, you can't sleep now…!! You fucking—please, stay with me…!!"
I was screaming like a madman at Kang-in hyung's eyes as the light slowly drained from them when—
"Enough with the melodrama. Move."
Lavenne cut in without warning.
"He's too good a stud to lose here… Take this."
Into Kang-in hyung's remaining left hand, Lavenne pressed a single book whose cover was old and discolored.
"It's this dungeon's reward. If you want to live, use it right now."
"……."
Had he heard her?
Light erupted from the book gripped in Kang-in hyung's hand.
Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do.
The temporary management post set up in front of the dungeon Team Venus had entered.
"……."
Sejong Academy instructor Jeong Hyeon-su stood before the dungeon with a haggard face.
"Um, Instructor Jeong… I understand you're worried, but at this rate you're going to ruin your health…. Maybe rest a little at a nearby motel or something…."
A woman who also served as an academy instructor spoke to him.
Today marked the sixth day since the Level Change had occurred.
She was worried about a man who hadn't taken a single step away from the dungeon gate, but Jeong Hyeon-su shook his head.
"…That won't be necessary."
A Level Change was an unpredictable disaster to begin with, and standing guard like this wouldn't change anything—yet as an instructor, guilt, responsibility, and a sliver of hope kept him from leaving the dungeon entrance.
The gate still hasn't opened….
If people were still inside, a dungeon gate wouldn't open. That meant the students who had gone in were still alive.
Please… please come back safe….
A desperate wish that had nothing to do with his own safety or responsibility—only a sincere concern for the survival of the students he taught.
As if answering that prayer—
"……G-Gate opening response!!"
The dungeon was opening.