Relics of the 12th Floor

"A-Attack!"

The enemy crossbowman screamed in panic the instant his party leader collapsed, but it was Bennett's party that responded first.

Th-th-th-thud!

Crossbow bolts slammed into steel shields with harsh metallic screeches. Bennett had deliberately pelted the upper rim of the vanguard's shield before instantly snapping his aim toward the man's lower body. But his opponent was no amateur; even under heavy fire, the warrior read Bennett's gaze and dropped his shield to protect his legs.

Yet there was one critical factor the scavengers had overlooked: Bennett's party had a mage.

"Missile Shower."

Pale smoke billowed from the tip of Erika's staff before condensing into several sharp spears—short, thick javelins woven of pure mana. The fully formed Magic Missiles hurtled straight toward the shieldbearer.

Boom! Crash!

The explosions crumpled the shield inward. The unmitigated kinetic shock rattled through the handle and shuddered up the warrior's arms. Unable to withstand the searing pain, the vanguard lost his grip, and the shield clattered to the floor.

Desperately reaching out to snatch it back up, the warrior squeezed his eyes shut as another streak of magical light filled his vision.

"Damn it—"

Thwack!

The man's chest caved in as he collapsed limp to the ground. Standing right beside him, the second vanguard scrambled backward in sheer terror.

The enemy crossbowman leaned out and pulled his trigger. A bolt cut through the air with a dull twang, aimed squarely at Kyle, but Kyle deflected it with a calm, fluid parry of his sword. The crossbowman frantically fumbled to reload, but a standard crossbow was incapable of rapid fire. Before his fingers could even slot another bolt, Kyle stepped in and opened his throat.

Bypassed by Kyle, the remaining shieldbearer raised his shield to bash the swordsman from behind, but Edgar charged in like an enraged beast, throwing his entire weight into the man.

"Guh!"

The vanguard flew as if struck by a runaway carriage, crashing violently into the corridor wall before tumbling down. Dazed and disoriented, he scrabbled blindly across the floor for his dropped sword and shield, but Edgar's mace was faster.

Crunch!

Edgar crushed the vanguard's skull to splinters, then bellowed with swaggering bravado, "Who's next—whoa!"

Edgar whipped his reinforced shield forward just in the nick of time as a fiery orb exploded inches before him.

Whoosh!

"Huh?"

Edgar poked his head out from behind his shield with a puzzled expression. A translucent barrier of light had completely shielded him from the blast. It was Erika's protective ward.

"Are you all right?"

"I-I'm fine, thank you!"

Edgar, who had initially spoken to Erika with rough familiarity, hastily corrected himself into formal deference. Bennett walked past him without a word, raising Shooting Star.

Down the hallway, the middle-aged enemy mage who had cast the fireball was frantically waving his hands to weave another spell.

"Water Owl—gah!"

A bolt punched clean through the mage's sternum. He collapsed to his knees, his face twisted in agony, before slumping onto his side.

All that remained of the enemy party was a lone woman holding a short sword. Bennett reflexively aligned his sights with the bridge of her nose, then dipped the barrel of Shooting Star slightly lower.

Thwick!

"Ah!"

A bolt pinned her hand, sending her blade clattering to the floor. Clutching her bleeding wrist, she stumbled back against the wall as Bennett's companions encircled her.

"I-I surrender! I give up!"

"I have a few questions," Bennett said calmly.

"I'll talk! Just let me live, please!"

Bennett took a measured step forward. "The explosion that wiped out Jimmy's party. Was that your doing?"

"No! It was an existing trap! I'm a rogue, so I tried to disarm it, but gave up because it was too complicated!"

"So you hid in the shadows, waiting for anyone foolish enough to trigger it."

"N-no, that's not..."

Her desperate excuses died in her throat the moment she met Bennett's cold, impassive gaze.

"Where did you stash your haul?"

Bennett had noticed it the moment they engaged: this party was not wearing backpacks. No scavenger venturing into a dungeon to make a living would ever roam without storage gear. Unless they possessed rare sub-space pouches, it meant their packs were stowed nearby.

"I-if I tell you, you'll let me live, right? Promise me!"

Bennett silently lowered the muzzle of Shooting Star. The woman's face brightened with relief, and the words tumbled out of her mouth.

"I-if you go down the hall the way we came, there are men's and women's restrooms. We hid them in the last stall of the men's rest—"

Her jaw dropped as the muzzle of Shooting Star smoothly rose back up.

"You promi—!"

Thump.

A bolt drove straight into her heart. Slumping against the wall, the woman slid limp to the floor. A fleeting flicker of terror and hatred burned in her eyes before she closed them, exhaling her final, shuddering breath into the cold air.

Bennett glanced at his companions, but none of them raised a single objection. Even Erika, the latest addition to their crew, nodded in silent agreement as if this outcome was entirely natural.

Good, Bennett thought.

In his decade as a mercenary, he had seen teams fracture over moments like this. To Bennett, spare-the-enemy sentimentality was absurd. Who knew what vengeance a spared scavenger would plot once they returned to the surface?

"To the restroom first."

"Understood."

When they reached the facilities the rogue had described, they could not help but freeze in awe.

"This is... a restroom?"

Even though this world had fallen to ruin and sat abandoned for decades, the opulence of the place was unmistakable. The pristine porcelain tiles, the polished metal fixtures, and the immaculate layout looked like something out of a high noble's private estate. It was baffling to think that ordinary commoners had once used such facilities freely.

Edgar stared in a daze, muttering under his breath before he could stop himself.

"Man... I'd love to take a dump in a place like this just once."

"Edgar-nim, that's disgusting."

"E-Erika-nim!"

After a brief moment admiring the bizarre luxury of a pre-collapse restroom, they located the backpacks stashed in the rearmost stall. The ambushers had not gathered an immense hoard, but the bags were filled enough that the bottoms were nowhere in sight. On top of that, there were the weapons and armor stripped from the dead scavengers, as well as whatever scrapable gear remained from Jimmy's blown-apart party.

By the time they stripped everything of value, only half-naked corpses remained in the hallway.

"Moving out."

"Yes, sir!"

Rattle.

"Hm?"

Arriving at the entrance to the 12th floor, Bennett reached for the door handle, only to find it stubbornly locked. Unlike the doors on the 13th through 15th floors that swung open without resistance, this one did not budge an inch, locked tight by an internal mechanism.

Wait... looking closer...

The door itself was fundamentally different from the upper levels. It was a heavy, reinforced steel bulkhead built like a vault.

"Bennett-nim, look here."

Kyle pointed to a small device mounted beside the frame—an object Bennett recognized immediately. It was an electronic ID card reader, identical to the ones he had encountered in the Closed Prison dungeon. He did not know its technical name, but he knew the principle: tap the correct identification card against the sensor, and the mechanism disengaged.

Beep-beep.

"It's... not working."

Kyle, Edgar, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and Erika each swiped the cards they carried, but the red light flashed in refusal. Bennett stepped up. Unlike the others, who held only a card or two, he had collected an entire stack of identification badges from various corpses throughout the upper levels.

One of these has to have clearance.

"Let us ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠help."

Beep-beep. Beep-beep. Beep-beep.

Chime!

A crisp electronic chime rang out, and their faces lit up. Just as they were running out of badges to test, a heavy hydraulic clunk echoed from within the bulkhead.

"Don't push deep. Check the threshold first."

"Leave it to me!"

Edgar raised his reinforced shield and edged past the doorway. After scanning the corners of the threshold, he gave the all-clear signal.

"Clear!"

"Good."

Edgar took a measured step forward, and the rest of the party filed in behind him. The moment they stepped through, the heavy steel door clicked shut and locked automatically behind them.

Bennett swept his eyes across the corridor. At first glance, the layout seemed nearly identical to the floors above, but something immediately struck him as unnatural.

There are traps here.

At ankle height along both sides of the corridor walls sat compact, discreet fixtures. While there were no tripwires or metal cords connecting them, their positioning in common blind spots reeked of danger.

The moment Insight activated, scarlet laser beams that had previously been invisible sprang into sharp relief before his eyes. Beams of imperceptible light crisscrossed the hallway, tethering the mysterious explosive devices together. This was undoubtedly what had obliterated Jimmy's crew. Had Bennett not possessed Insight, he would have stepped straight through the blind grid.

How do we disarm this?

The simplest approach would be to throw a piece of debris through the beams from a safe distance. But while they might survive the blast wave behind cover, the thunderous detonation would echo through the entire facility, shouting their coordinates to every monster and rival scavenger within miles.

Worse, identical sensors lined the hallway at regular intervals all the way to the end. If triggering one set off a chain reaction, the entire 12th floor might collapse into a catastrophic fireball. Even Bennett could not predict the outcome of such an explosion.

"What should we do, Bennett-nim?"

"Hold on."

Bennett carefully scrutinized the surrounding surfaces until his eyes caught a subtle seam. Mounted flush against the wall in an obscure blind spot was another ID reader—tucked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠away where an intruder rushing down the hall would never notice it.

Confident in his hunch, Bennett retrieved the card that had unlocked the entrance bulkhead and pressed it against the reader.

Chime!

Instantly, the scarlet laser grid spanning the hallway blinked out of existence. Bennett signaled his party to stay back, scooped up a battered leather shoe lying by the door, and hurled it down the corridor.

Thud!

The shoe skidded across the floor without incident.

"...Disarmed."

"Are we good to proceed?"

"Not yet."

The corridor was safe, but the adjacent offices remained uninspected. While the hallway was a straight line, the cramped offices filled with desks and partitions were rife with blind corners and potential ambushes.

Hm?

Bennett eased open the first office door, his eyes narrowing. Contrary to his expectations, the room was completely stripped. Partitions, desk supplies, computers, even minor knick-knacks—everything had been cleared away into barren emptiness.

Nor was this room unique. Every office along the corridor had been methodically cleared out in the same manner.

The sole exception was the Commissioner's Office.

Passing through a small anteroom, they pushed through the double doors into an expansive executive office. Even here, there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were no traps waiting.

"Shall we search it?"

"Go ahead."

Bennett walked straight to the grand mahogany desk where an ornate nameplate rested.

Opening the desk drawers revealed luxury fountain pens and various high-end desk accessories. As Bennett gathered them, his fingers brushed against something beneath the clutter: a thin, flat slab of glass and metal.

What is this?

The surface was like a dark, glossy mirror that reflected his face. Bennett turned the unknown relic over in his hands. Though he did not know its name, people of this lost Earth had called it a tablet.

Guided by curiosity, Bennett probed the edges until his thumb clicked a slender side button. Faint light began to bleed through the black screen.

Words in the incomprehensible Dungeon Language flashed briefly across the glass before the display shifted into a home screen.

"What is that?" Kyle asked, peering over.

"I'm not sure myself."

Bennett pressed the glass with his fingertip. To his astonishment, the screen responded with gentle haptic vibrations wherever he touched. After several seconds of trial and error, he grasped the basic touch controls and tapped an icon, inadvertently triggering a saved video file.

— Breaking news!

A frantic news anchor appeared on the glass screen. Behind him stood a massive building emblazoned with bold letters reading: Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. While Bennett could not read the script, the police insignia stamped across the facade was identical to the crests he had observed throughout this dungeon.

— The government has just declared a nationwide evacuation order! All citizens are urged to move immediately into underground shelters where sunlight cannot reach! Emergency shelters and access conduits have been prepared beneath public facilities across every district, and an auxiliary shelter is currently active beneath the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency as well—

Growing accustomed to the interface, Bennett swiped across the screen to open another video clip.

— Controversy continues to escalate following a whistleblower leak alleging that Guseong Bio operates an unauthorized, covert research facility beneath its private correctional institute. While Guseong Bio has dismissed the claims as groundless, the evidence submitted by the whistleblower reveals...

The footage cut out there. Bennett could operate the device's basic controls, but the spoken broadcast and written Dungeon Language remained entirely beyond his comprehension. Still, recognizing that the glass screen was fragile, he carefully slipped the tablet into his Sub-space Pouch, where items were completely immune to external shocks.

Just then, Kyle walked over from another cabinet, holding an object wrapped in padded cloth.

"I found this in a hidden lockbox... Do you know what it is?"

The moment Bennett saw the weapon in Kyle's hand, his expression hardened.

A gun?

It was the first time Bennett had ever laid eyes on an authentic, intact firearm, but Balduin had described them to him extensively. In fact, the custom rapid-fire repeating crossbow Bennett wielded had been reverse-engineered from fragmented dwarven studies of these very weapons.

Balduin's raspy voice echoed in his memory:

"Real firearms are impossibly rare, kid. Finding one that's intact? Hell, you can't even find a rusted-out broken piece of scrap most of the time!"

Yet right here, resting in his palm, was a pristine handgun. It had a blocky, utilitarian frame that resembled a sculpted brick—a weapon known on pre-collapse Earth as a Glock.

Bennett handled the weapon with practiced caution. Though smaller, the mechanical logic was strikingly similar to his repeating crossbow.

Clack.

Ejecting the magazine revealed several live brass cartridges. Pulling the slide back, Bennett verified that another bullet was already nestled in the chamber.

"Perhaps..." Bennett murmured.

"Pardon?"

"Out of everything we've salvaged today, this single item might be the most valuable."

This was a weapon that could allow a seven-year-old child to bring down an armored knight or an accomplished mage with a mere twitch of a finger. While high-ranking aura masters and archmages possessed the reflexes to deflect or barrier against projectiles, anyone who let their guard down—or lacked elite defensive arts—would die before they even realized what struck them.

"Something this small can kill a knight?" Kyle asked in disbelief.

"Dwarves, elves, human nobility... any of them would pay an unfathomable fortune to own this."

Greedy excitement flared in the party's eyes. They had entered this lethal labyrinth to earn wealth; an artifact of such staggering value was beyond their wildest hopes.

"Did you find anything else?"

Edgar and Erika lifted their swollen sacks with broad grins.

"Since it's a chief's office, there was plenty of gold-trimmed stationery and luxury items. We took everything we could carry!"

Bennett nodded in deep satisfaction as he surveyed their haul. Though the 12th floor had been largely stripped, the relics they had secured from this single office dwarfed the combined value of everything they had scavenged on the floors above. The firearm alone was worth a small kingdom's ransom.

"Take a short breather," Bennett instructed. "We move soon."

"Understood!"

Outside, a cold wind howled across the desolate ruins of Seoul.

Whoooosh—

High above the fractured skyline, a colossal avian silhouette rode the turbulent night winds. Though erratic gales battered the city, the creature cleaved through the storm with effortless supremacy, propelled by the sheer aerodynamic force of its massive wings.

꒐ ꊰꄲ꒤ꋊ꒯ ꁝ꒐ꂵ.

The monstrous bird tilted its head, its crimson eyes suddenly blazing like burning coals in the dark. Having located its quarry, the beast shifted its massive wings and banked sharply downward.

Its descent was locked squarely onto the blackened, towering monolith below—the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.