The Cradle of Gintaion
“For my son, I will clear this dungeon, no matter what.”
Early in the morning, as Kim Yeo-won was at the guild gathering her equipment, someone approached her. It was Leon, the guild master of the small, elite guild, the Red Consortium.
“Yeo-won. Are you really going?”
“I have to.”
Kim Yeo-won’s reply was curt. Her tone was sharp, but Leon just shrugged as if he were used to it. This was how Kim Yeo-won always acted whenever she was facing something important.
“I don’t get it.”
For Leon, this was incomprehensible. He understood that she wanted to protect her family, but it wasn’t as if her son was going to die. Perhaps, for a non-awakened person, being expelled from the Shin-Shin Clan () might even be a good thing. What was even harder to understand was the Shin-Shin Clan itself and why Kim Yeo-won was still clinging to that place. It seemed like not a single person in that family was sane.
Zip—
Kim Yeo-won didn’t answer further. Instead, she shoved all her gear into her drag bag and pulled the large zipper shut. She hoisted the bag, which was nearly as big as she was, onto her shoulder and stood up.
“I’m heading out.”
“Don’t die, Yeo-won.”
“I have no intention of dying.”
Kim Yeo-won left the room and headed down the stairs. It was still early, so the guild was empty. As she headed toward the gate, she scanned the list of the raid party that Jiwoo had sent over.
“What on earth is he thinking…”
It wasn’t a proper party at all. It was a force that couldn’t even clear a standard S-class dungeon, let alone a GN-493688. The most baffling part was that an F-class hunter was included.
“Did he put him in just for show? If the budget was tight, there was no need to force it.”
She understood that the budget was tight. But that didn’t mean he had to fill every position. If escape was impossible, it was common sense to just leave the support slots empty.
“…No. He must have a plan.”
Kim Yeo-won shook her head. This was a child who had grabbed an A-class hunter by the collar because he couldn’t stand his family being insulted. Doubting him after knowing his heart wasn’t something a mother should do.
“…He does have a plan, right?”
Even so, it was a party that defied all logic. It wasn’t just the F-class hunter; the whole thing was a mess. Most of the hunters recruited had poor reputations in the industry. The majority were hunters with questionable character.
Because of that, they were hunters whose market value was subtly low. It wasn’t even a matter of cost-effectiveness, as their skills were mediocre. If it were going to be like this, it would have been better to reduce the numbers and pick decent hunters instead.
She had been agonizing over how to lead the raid as the party leader for quite some time when she finally arrived at the gate.
Even though she had arrived quite early, someone was already there.
“Mom!”
It was her daughter, Kim Eunji.
“Why on earth are you here!”
“You did it too, so why… How could I just sit still after hearing that?”
Kim Yeo-won had been shocked to see her daughter’s name on the list. She had tried to stop her. It was a dungeon where death was a certainty. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it, knowing her daughter’s intentions were the same as her own.
“Can we clear it?”
“I don’t know.”
Both of them were equally worried. But they had joined because of Jiwoo’s heart. And for some reason, they felt that if it were Jiwoo, he would have some kind of method.
“Still, he must have had a plan to say he’d do it—though the party is such a disaster. What do you think, Party Leader?”
Kim Eunji, who shared the same thoughts as Kim Yeo-won, asked about the party.
“He must have had something in mind. Even so, we should be able to reach the boss room. And above all…”
“Hello!”
Just then, a naive, sunshine-like voice rang out. A woman with pale, pink-tinted white hair was approaching the gate.
“We have an Unbound awakener.”
Lee Jiyoo, the Unbound hunter discovered by Jiwoo. She was in the party, possessing unrivaled abilities in healing and support. Just having a healer of that caliber was enough to put the hunters at ease.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Kim Yeo-won, the party leader.”
“I’m Kim Eunji! Your hair is so pretty.”
“Hehe… I’m Lee Jiyoo. It’s my first time in an S-class dungeon, so please take care of me.”
“It’s fine. Healers just need to stay in the back and heal.”
“I can do a lot more than just heal!”
Lee Jiyoo clenched both her fists. Something about her seemed a bit off. As rumored, it seemed she saw the world differently from ordinary people.
“I assume you’ve heard about the dungeon, Ms. Lee Jiyoo.”
“Yes. I heard it’s expected that escape from the boss room is impossible.”
“Do you have any thoughts on the cause?”
For this raid, Kim Yeo-won, as the party leader, had high expectations for Lee Jiyoo. Lee Jiyoo’s ability was, essentially, a counter to all methods except the physical. With her eyes, perhaps she could see the secret of this dungeon.
“I don’t know right now… but if I see it in person, I think I’ll be able to tell you for sure. Still, I think we’ll be able to escape.”
“Oh… as expected of an Unbound awakener.”
“…Hmm. Good.”
It was a vague answer, but she felt a little relieved. There hadn’t been a hint of falsehood in Lee Jiyoo’s expression when she said they could escape. If Lee Jiyoo was really there, it seemed they could avoid total annihilation like the previous parties.
‘I understand sending Hunter Lee Jiyoo as a safety net. But even so, the fact that clearing the dungeon is impossible remains the same.’
But that didn’t mean all the problems disappeared. For Jiwoo to win the bet, the dungeon had to be cleared regardless. Otherwise, Jiwoo would be permanently expelled from the family and this land.
‘He’s not a child who wouldn’t know that…’
Did he just give up? No. Jiwoo wasn’t that kind of person. Then what on earth was he thinking?
As the party members arrived one by one, Kim Yeo-won’s mind sank deeper into a labyrinth. Once all preparations were complete, Kim Yeo-won began the raid briefing.
“…We will proceed to the boss room like this. The goal is to reach the boss room without any casualties.”
The party members listened quite seriously. Even though it was a dangerous dungeon, they didn’t seem nervous, as if they had something to rely on.
“And as you know, we don’t know what dangers await us from the boss room onward. Honestly, you should consider the probability of death to be higher. Everyone is aware of this, right?”
Murmur, murmur—
At those words, the relaxed hunters began to murmur.
“We’re just going because we trust the party leader and Deputy Shin Jiwoo. You wouldn’t have joined this dungeon if there wasn’t a way to clear it, right, Party Leader?”
“Isn’t this something Deputy Shin Jiwoo brought from the Gangnam branch? He must have seen something to bring it here, right? Isn’t that so?”
“Yeah, if it were a death trap, would Hunters Kim Yeo-won and Kim Eunji have joined?”
“Exactly. Right, Party Leader?”
Kim Yeo-won sighed. They were pathetic. Most mediocre hunters were like this. They had luckily gained good traits, awakened, and become high-ranking hunters. In this day and age, where dungeon research is active, there’s little risk to one’s life as long as you run appropriate dungeons. They had no sense of crisis about fighting for their lives, nor any sense of duty to protect the country, living as hunters who were treated well and made a lot of money. They were different from the real, top-tier hunters.
“…This is why I hate running low-rank dungeons.”
Kim Eunji nodded as if she agreed. Hunters who reached S-class through blood and sweat were mostly like that. At least they had the mindset of a ‘real hunter.’ The sense of crisis that if they didn’t stop it, an S-class dungeon would explode and swallow the Korean peninsula. And the sense of responsibility. Those who only made money and ran easy dungeons were different from top-tier hunters. Even though this dungeon wasn’t a low rank, she had to be with these people due to circumstances.
There were a few more S-class hunters who had followed Kim Yeo-won and Kim Eunji. But it was hard to hope for safety with just them.
“…This is a place even I cannot be certain of. I have absolutely no guarantee that we will be safe in the boss room.”
In an instant, the gate was engulfed in silence. Most of the hunters had joined lightly after hearing that Kim Yeo-won and Kim Eunji were participating. And they thought there would be a way since Deputy Shin Jiwoo was in charge. If there were no way in the current state, they wouldn’t have joined. At Kim Yeo-won’s words, their expressions hardened one by one.
“…We will depart in 10 minutes.”
If it were Kim Yeo-won’s usual personality, she would have told them to leave if they weren’t confident. But in this raid, every single person was precious. If they gave up on the raid, Shin Jiwoo would be expelled. For Kim Yeo-won, there was no way back.
And 10 minutes later.
Should she call it fortunate? No hunter had left. They believed in their comfort until now and the uncertain abilities of others. And since the high reward of clearing an S-class dungeon was right in front of them, it was a waste and a hassle to turn back now. It could be called a type of herd mentality. They had cleared dungeons until now with the complacent mindset that ‘it’ll be fine~.’ Even in the face of real danger, their thoughts didn’t change easily.
Kim Yeo-won opened her drag bag and assembled her sniper rifle.
“We are departing.”
Kim Yeo-won hoisted the completed, massive sniper rifle onto her shoulder. And she took the lead, walking toward the gate. Entering the gate first and coming out last. That was the role of the party leader.
Whoosh—
A sensation that was unpleasant no matter how many hundreds or thousands of times she felt it. Along with the sensation of passing through a completely different material world, Kim Yeo-won passed through the gate.
She had wondered if there would be any hunters who would run away here, but every hunter had entered the dungeon. Inside the dungeon was a grayish-white space, so quiet it made her ears ring.
A long bridge stretched out right in front of where they entered. To the left and right, there were cliffs where the bottom couldn’t be seen beneath the clouds. And at the end of the long bridge, a temple was visible in the blur.
“We will advance.”
Each took their positions, and the party began to advance. According to the information from the first raid team, nothing happened while crossing this bridge. Still, she couldn’t help but be tense. In the quiet tension, the bridge ended, and a temple and a massive staircase leading up to the temple appeared.
And a single stele standing in front of that massive temple. On it, a sentence was written in characters that were not of Earth.
[— ——— ——The Cradle of Gintaion. Engraving the end and the beginning here.]
It was what they called the language of another world. Hunters could read most dungeon languages through their status windows.
“It begins now.”
Usually, dungeon inscriptions don’t provide special help for the raid. As always, the party passed the stele and entered the dungeon in earnest. And at the very back of the vanguard.
‘S-s-s-s-scary!!’
There was Jung Shin-woo, an F-class hunter who had never even run an E-class dungeon, let alone an S-class one.