The Impossible Dungeon
“This is an impossible dungeon.”
Jung Shin-woo gasped for air, struggling to keep pace with the party. The group was alternating between combat and movement at a blistering speed. Unlike him, the other party members didn't show a hint of fatigue. They occasionally struggled when they encountered particularly formidable enemies, but Jung Shin-woo was the only one exhausted by the mere act of running.
“Jung Shin-woo? We’re almost there! Just a little more!”
As he fell behind again, Lee Jiyoo cast a vitality spell on him. With his stamina slightly restored, Jung Shin-woo began to run at full speed once more. Perhaps it was because she, too, had experienced being looked down upon as a low-rank hunter, but for some reason, she seemed to care for him more than the others, he thought.
Up until now, Jung Shin-woo hadn't been of the slightest help to the party. It would have been fine if he had just stayed out of the way, but in the last battle, he had nearly been killed by a flying shard from a Titan. He was a man who couldn't even protect his own body. His confidence plummeted. Still, determined not to be any more of a burden, he chased after the party with everything he had. He wouldn't have been able to maintain this speed without Lee Jiyoo’s buffs.
“Stop. We will rest here and then head straight to the boss room.”
After moving a bit further, the party leader, Kim Yeo-won, declared a break. It was the perfect timing, as the other members were starting to tire as well. Jung Shin-woo collapsed, nearly fainting.
“Huff… Haa…”
He gulped down water. The other hunters looked at him with pathetic gazes.
“I really don’t know why that guy even came.”
“Seriously. Did you see him earlier? Almost dying from a pebble. Heh.”
“I’ve never seen an F-class before. I didn’t even know they actually existed.”
He didn't want to hear it, but the temple was so quiet that their conversation carried clearly. Jung Shin-woo tried his best to ignore them and focused on recharging his energy.
“They aren’t even that special themselves… Tsk. Yeo-won. Are you really sure about this?”
Pi Yuri, an S-class hunter, asked Kim Yeo-won. Having trusted Kim Yeo-won enough to join her, Pi Yuri was also a hunter from the ‘Red Consortium’.
“I told you, it’s not okay. This is a dungeon where we could die.”
Kim Yeo-won spoke in a low, heavy voice. She had anticipated it when they set out, but the situation was even worse than she had expected. Most of the hunters in the party who were acting so relaxed were B+ to A-class. The few S-class hunters, including Kim Yeo-won, knew the gravity of the situation. Although it was an S-class dungeon, it was a small-to-medium scale, size 4. Furthermore, the path to the boss room had already been cleared. A normal S-class party should have reached the boss room long ago. With these amateurs mixed in, their speed had definitely slowed. It wasn't just an issue with the F-class. Of course, clearing the boss was out of the question. Most of them had never even attempted an S-class dungeon in the first place.
“…How about we escape now?” Pi Yuri asked cautiously. They could escape without any danger right now. But once they entered the boss room, there might be no turning back.
“No. We proceed to the boss room first. I will listen to Lee Jiyoo’s judgment there.”
Pi Yuri didn’t ask any further. She knew the situation between Kim Yeo-won and her son. And for now, they had Lee Jiyoo, an Unbound hunter. If Lee Jiyoo examined the boss room, she could determine whether an emergency escape would be possible during the boss fight. It wouldn't be too late to persuade Kim Yeo-won again after that. Pi Yuri believed that even Kim Yeo-won would take a step back if she truly saw death ahead.
A short while later, the party moved forward again. After two hours of non-stop movement, a massive door appeared at the edge of the temple. It was a giant door that rose so high its top was invisible. It was the entrance to the boss room. The only light in the space, which lacked any artificial illumination, came from the faint glow seeping through the cracks in the door.
“Lee Jiyoo?”
At Kim Yeo-won’s call, Lee Jiyoo approached the massive door. She stared at it intently. They were looking at the same thing, but Lee Jiyoo’s vision was tracking something entirely different from the other hunters. The world she saw was clearly quite different. And so was the danger she felt.
“…There is a very dangerous existence inside. It’s a level of strength I have never experienced before.”
“Does that mean escape is impossible once we’re inside the boss room?”
To Kim Eunji’s question, Lee Jiyoo shook her head. But her follow-up answer was ambiguous.
“I don’t see any magical power in the boss room itself that blocks escape skills. However, I think if that being starts to move, it would be easy for it to block a hunter’s escape skill. Whether we can dodge that and run away is something we’ll have to experience to know.”
“Hmm…”
“So, it’s not certain.”
“If only we knew what kind of creature the boss was…”
Kim Yeo-won fell into deep thought. Lee Jiyoo had given the best answer she could. She wanted a definitive answer, but demanding more would be shifting the responsibility onto Lee Jiyoo. Now, the decision rested in the hands of the party leader, Kim Yeo-won.
“Hmm… I don’t know. I’ll leave it to the party leader.”
Kim Eunji shrugged and leaned against a pillar. She was in a similar position to Kim Yeo-won, but she couldn’t force death upon the party members.
“Yeo-won. This is too dangerous a choice. It would be better to block it from the outside, even if a Dungeon Break occurs.”
“I know that.”
By the standards of a hunter, triggering a Dungeon Break was the correct move. Then, they could block the break with sufficiently skilled S-class hunters. There would be damage to the surrounding area, but it was better than losing precious hunters. However, if they did that, her son, Shin Jiwoo, would be expelled. And Kim Yeo-won and Kim Eunji bore some responsibility for that situation. A foolish son. He wasn't her biological son, but it was Kim Yeo-won who had left him to become this way. No. Thinking about it, Jiwoo had always been the same.
“…We are entering the boss room.”
“…Yeo-won!”
“Lee Jiyoo, I am not putting the burden on you. Just determine if escape is possible, and be prepared so we can escape at any moment.”
“Yes!”
Lee Jiyoo nodded with a bright smile. It wasn't that she was particularly conscious of the situation—she was just a person as pure as sunshine—but that smile gave them a little peace of mind.
“Yeo-won, are you serious? This is a boss that has wiped out parties much stronger than this one!”
“I know. But there must be a reason why he specifically organized a party like this.”
“You mean that famous son of yours? There’s a limit to that… This is impossible by anyone’s standards!”
“…I know. But I have to believe.”
Just as my son believed in me. Even though I’m such a terrible mother.
“I won’t stop you if you want to turn back. You can escape alone from here.”
“You…!”
Kim Yeo-won turned away firmly. Pi Yuri watched her back, her fists trembling. She couldn’t understand why the rational Kim Yeo-won would make such a choice.
“…Fine. But if you die, I’ll curse you forever.”
“If I die, I’ll be dead anyway.”
Even so, Pi Yuri followed Kim Yeo-won. She was a close friend she had been with for a long time. Because she knew Kim Yeo-won, she couldn’t run away here. She knew the reason for that choice, and she knew that Kim Yeo-won was the person who would make that choice the right one. She decided to think of that foolish stepson of Kim Yeo-won’s, whom she had only seen a few times, just once.
“See you if we make it back alive… Jiwoo.”
“We won’t die.”
Kim Yeo-won cleared her head as they stood before the boss room. It was a funny thing, considering who she had been until now. Had she developed maternal love? Jiwoo wasn’t even her biological son. It felt like a different emotion from maternal love. Whatever it was, she couldn’t just stand by after seeing his actions.
“If the decision is made, let’s go in! And we’ll be able to escape anyway. Because we have Lee Jiyoo.”
“I, I’ll try my best…!”
At least Lee Jiyoo said there was no immediate visible danger. The party, slightly relieved, reorganized their ranks and stood before the massive door.
“Entering.”
Kim Eunji, who was at the front, pushed the door with her giant gauntlets on. *Gugugugung…* With a massive tremor, the giant door began to move slowly.
“This is…”
The space beyond the door was a massive circular chamber. The ceiling rose so high it was invisible. Only endless darkness could be seen overhead. And in the center of the chamber stood a massive altar. Around the circular wall, Titans similar in form to the temple’s Titans stood in order.
“…I think that’s the boss.”
Lee Jiyoo pointed to the Titan furthest away. A Titan wearing a bizarre, unidentifiable crown and draped in a robe made of blue stone. The boss of GN-493688, ‘The Last Kinteon’.
*Kukung-*
At that moment, the entrance the party had entered through closed completely.
“…The door won’t open.”
The door didn’t move anymore. Just as expected, it was a structure from which one could not escape before clearing the dungeon. And at the same time, the boss laughed.
*Gugung… Guguguguk…*
With the vibration, the Titan’s mouth corners rose grotesquely. Wrinkles formed on the stone, shaping it into a bizarre, laughing expression.
“What is that… it’s scary…!”
Even Kim Eunji, who had always boldly taken the lead, couldn’t bring herself to step forward. This dungeon was completely different from any she had seen before. For some reason, she felt that they could never win against that boss. Instinctively.
“Lee Jiyoo! Escape?”
“I’m trying… but it’s impossible right now. The boss is interfering with my mana! It has completely dominated the mana existing in this space…”
“Damn it… so that means escape is impossible.”
“If we can distract the boss, we might be able to create an opening. It’s not impossible even now, but it will take time.”
Lee Jiyoo was already fighting the boss in a world only she could see. Lee Jiyoo was trying to disperse the dungeon’s malice and escape. The boss was interfering with Lee Jiyoo in real-time, trapping the party. It wasn’t that there was a special device. It was just the boss’s ability. Unlike other simple bosses, it simply possessed abilities that transcended hunters in every aspect.
“Anyway, it means we have to fight. That guy. With these guys.”
Pi Yuri sighed and muttered. It was so strong that she didn’t feel like they could win. It was an opponent against whom she couldn’t guarantee victory even if she brought the top hunters of Korea. And yet, the current party was a ragtag group. The only one they could trust was Lee Jiyoo. But she didn’t know how many would die before that.
“…There’s no choice. We die the same if we just stand still. Starting the raid.”
Kim Yeo-won, having made her decision, spoke. The party members took their places with tension. Among them, there were certainly those who regretted it. There were even those who hadn’t believed until now that they had entered without any countermeasures. No matter how much they cursed Shin Jiwoo and Kim Yeo-won in their hearts, there was no choice now. They weren’t fools enough not to know that creating infighting in the party right now was suicide.
“Hey… I don’t know! Let’s go!”
Kim Eunji shouted, slamming her two fists together. There was no way back now. Responding to that, the stiffened hunters nodded one by one. And, Kim Eunji began to move first.
However, the moment the hunters began to move,
“Everyone, duck!”
Lee Jiyoo shouted immediately, and the advancing hunters ducked their bodies in an instant.
*Kiiing-*
A chilling sensation passed over their heads. An intangible blade that had sliced through the air swept across the entire chamber.
*Slice- Slice-*
The necks of two hunters who hadn’t reacted in time were severed clean off.
“W-what…”
There was no time to be flustered. Before they could even realize the death of their colleagues, the Titans leaning against the walls began to move.
“Shit!”
“Weren’t these guys just decorations?!”
Over ten Titans began to stomp their feet. It was a vibration so intense that even hunters could barely move. Far from attacking the boss, it was impossible to even break through these Titans.
*Crunch- Crunch-*
And in that brief moment, hunters were crushed under the Titans’ feet. Hunters’ necks continued to be severed by invisible attacks.
“This is… Lee Jiyoo-”
“I-it’s impossible!”
At Lee Jiyoo’s answer, Kim Yeo-won fell into despair. This was not a dungeon that could be cleared. Would it be possible if all the hunters in Korea were mobilized? She couldn’t even be sure of that. It was a level where, even if a Dungeon Break occurred, they might need the support of other countries. But what was more frightening was the thought that they would die without even being able to report such a fact.
‘Really… this is impossible…’
Was it a foolish choice after all? Thinking about it, it was clear that clearing it was impossible. But if so, Jiwoo. What on earth did Jiwoo see to organize a party like this? If it were Jiwoo, he would never have done something like this without any thought.
“There must have been a reason…”
However, no matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t see what device Jiwoo had planted. It would have been more normal to think that he had organized the party just to have them die. But even so, Kim Yeo-won couldn’t let go of her belief. Even in a situation where death was certain, why did Jiwoo make this choice—
“Everyone, go to the altar!”
At that moment. Someone shouted. The owner of the voice was already running like a madman between the Titans’ stomping feet. It was the F-class hunter, Jung Shin-woo.