Exploring the 48th Zone Dungeon (4)
Kang-jun’s eyes snapped open. His body, already wound tight and hypersensitive, was brushed by a sharp piing of mana, and there was no way he could stay asleep. This was nothing like the mana detection people usually spread around. …An uneasy premonition settled over him.
He sat up and lit his phone screen. 4:44 a.m. Of all the damn times, even the hour itself was ominous. He yanked the tent zipper open with a rasp and let the cold air wash over him, then gave his dazed head a light shake to clear it.
…A mana wave?
Kang-jun found himself making a prediction he really didn’t want to face. In the dungeon, mana waves only appeared when the structure itself was changing. Structural change meant new passages opening, or entirely new sections of the labyrinth forming…
It was the kind of phenomenon where a blocked flow finally burst free, so of course monsters would pour out through the newly opened paths. Depending on the scale, Class 1 or Class 2 evacuation orders would drop near the entrance.
And inside the dungeon?
Of course the dungeon wasn’t safe either. In short, they were fucked.
Shit…! Of all the rotten luck!
Kang-jun swallowed the curse that tried to claw its way out and clenched his teeth. Then he scrambled out of the tent and started waking his teammates. Those still wandering in dreamland snapped back to reality the instant the cold air hit them.
“Everyone up. Hurry!”
“Haaah…. What’s going on, Senior?”
Hye-mi, hair a tangled mess, tilted her head with dazed eyes.
“Just grab your gear first. Quickly!”
It was the first time Kang-jun had looked this urgent, so everyone snapped to attention. Something bad had happened—they realized it instinctively. The night watchers, watching the sudden commotion, wondered what was going on until one of them approached cautiously.
“Leaving already?”
“Wake up your whole team.”
“…What?”
His expression said, What kind of nonsense is this in the middle of the night? From his perspective, that was the only way to take it. Suddenly waking everyone?
“Why all of a sudden….”
“Because something’s going down right now… never mind.”
Kang-jun cut himself off and brushed past him. He went straight to the team leaders’ tents and pounded on them. The night watchers just stood there awkwardly, completely lost.
If it had been some nobody, they might have scoffed at the nonsense, but no matter how small the scale, this was a team leader speaking. Not a position where you could casually crack jokes.
“Ah, shit, what is it.”
The two team leaders stumbled out half-dazed. They frowned at Kang-jun. Still, given who he was, they didn’t dare say anything too harsh. The curt tone was unavoidable, though.
“What’s the matter at this hour….”
“I just sensed a mana wave.”
The two team leaders thought they had misheard. One shook his head briefly to clear it and asked again.
“Uh… what did you say?”
“A mana wave. There was one. We don’t have time for this. Get everyone combat-ready right now.”
The team leaders felt like this was a bolt from the blue.
“I didn’t feel anything.”
“Me neither….”
They shot him looks that said maybe he was mistaken. Waking people who were sleeping well for nothing and messing up the schedule wouldn’t do anyone any good.
Just then, from far away, a long kwaaaaaa roar rolled through the dark. The three’s gazes flicked that way for a moment before returning to each other. There was nothing left to argue about. They immediately bellowed at the top of their lungs.
“ALAAAAARM! ALAAAAARM!”
The campsite instantly descended into chaos. The two heroes also muttered “Ah, shit” and crawled out of their tents on all fours.
“Ah, what the hell is going on. Why wake me up too. If my biological rhythm gets messed up, are you gonna take responsibility?!”
The female hero glared up and down fiercely, throwing a fit. Her team members fretted around her.
“No, well… earlier there was a mana wave…. And they say they just heard monster roars.”
“For real? Not just mishearing while dozing?”
“They heard it clearly. All the team leaders.”
“…But I didn’t feel any mana wave.”
If that was true, it was one of two things. Either she had slept too deeply and missed it, or it was so faint even she could barely sense it. But the latter possibility was almost nil. There was no way others would feel a faint wave that she couldn’t….
The woman asked who had said it. The man pointed with his eyes toward Kang-jun standing apart. Her brow furrowed.
“That guy?”
“Yes.”
“Got it. …Go on.”
The detained team member scurried back to his place. The woman tightened her combat boots while grumbling about what rotten luck this was. Of all times, for something like this to happen when she had entered the dungeon.
Just then the male hero finished gearing up and approached the female hero with a tense expression.
“This is a bit dangerous, isn’t it?”
“It’s not like there’s only one or two of us here. If we slowly fall back while fighting, we should be able to handle it.”
“But there won’t be just one or two monsters either…. Wouldn’t it be better to just run?”
“Run where? Deeper in? It’s the same either way.”
The female hero dismissed it as nonsense. Seeing her show some confidence, he felt a bit relieved.
“Then… I’ll just trust you, Senior.”
The man tried to subtly hitch a ride on the woman’s coattails. Of course a fox like her wouldn’t miss such a petty trick.
“No such thing. Everyone survives on their own. On their own.”
Hmph, learning only the bad stuff. The woman lightly brushed him off and whirled around. Damn it, this bitch. Would it kill her to help a little. He also whirled around and returned to his own team.
Kang-jun’s team packed all their gear and armed themselves immediately—not just physically, but mentally as well.
“Senior, but what’s the connection between that mana wave and this?”
Apparently not the most model student during training, Hye-mi seemed not to know the meaning of a mana wave occurring in the dungeon.
“Usually it’s the aftereffect of the dungeon’s structure changing. Like a tsunami.”
“Ah. …But I didn’t feel anything at all?”
“If it spreads far, the wave weakens and you might not feel it. You know, from science class. Energy weakens inversely proportional to the square of the distance. …Anyway, there’s that kind of thing.”
At the mention of distance squared, Hye-mi’s face changed oddly. Her expression clearly revealed she had definitely been a liberal arts major back on Earth.
At those words, worry surged in Zixu’s eyes as well. She knew theoretically that such a thing existed, but having never experienced it herself, she had no idea how big the aftereffects would be. How dangerous an accident was when you faced it in ignorance!
Zixu stared blankly at Kang-jun’s face as he issued orders one after another. …Still, he must have a way, right? She couldn’t dare imagine him despairing and giving up. All that came to mind was the image of him overcoming any hardship and ultimately claiming victory with pride. …Someone might call it rose-tinted glasses, but she packaged it as firm belief. She believed in him completely.
Once they were armed, Kang-jun went back to the team leaders. He wasn’t hoping for protection. Just for mutual cooperation.
The three decided to fight while maintaining a suitable distance. If they all mixed together, the chain of command would get confused, so it was better to fight while maintaining each team’s system. Of course the two team leaders knew that too.
They’re coming.
After about thirty minutes, the positions of the bastards finally started being detected one by one. At first it was one, but soon it ballooned to three or four. That doubled again, then doubled again… and in an instant it was nearly twenty. Almost one per person to deal with.
If that was all, there would be no need to blow the situation up like this. The problem was that such groups kept coming in succession behind them. Of course, even Kang-jun had no way of knowing how many waves would come.
Fortunately, different species of monsters were closer to hostile relations with each other, so there was no worry of coordinated attacks. Occasionally it might look like a coordinated attack by chance, though.
The other teams also seemed to sense the monsters approaching, falling completely silent as they prepared for battle. Kang-jun looked at his teammates one last time and encouraged them.
“If you just do as we trained, no one will die. Trust me, and fight. Got it?”
“Yes.”
Vibrations began to be felt slowly from the ground. Kang-jun quickly checked the monsters’ mana amounts. The average level was a bit high. Basically around 170.
At the very back, 200.
The one following while maintaining distance from behind was around 200. Maybe the ones in front were moving to avoid that monster coming from behind.
Just then, a mana circle suddenly flared across the ground. Oh my. Hye-mi jumped in surprise for a moment. It was a buff. Not particularly useful, but better than nothing.
There’s a buffer.
Kang-jun felt strength surging through his body. Checking his stats, they had risen by about three to four on average. That was with the trait that increased buff effects by 50%—‘Wow, Doesn’t Die in One Tick’—applied. Roughly the effect of leveling up by about twenty.
Just from that little rise, his body felt lighter somehow. Getting addicted to buffs this early wasn’t good…. He had often witnessed cases where people developed dependence and stopped progressing. Their bodies became unable to live without buffs.
Of course, now wasn’t the time to be picky about cold or hot water. Whether buff or drug, if it could raise survival rates even a little, they had to do anything.
Thud thud thud thud. The monsters’ presence gradually registered in his hearing as well. That meant they had gotten that close. The moment he spread his mana, it bounced right back.
“They’re here!”
It was a monster that looked like a Velociraptor. The moment it entered sight, it leaped with all its might and slammed into the guards.
“Block it!”
Several individuals of the same kind charged in. Two of them latched onto Kang-jun’s team as well.
One was blocked by Ogre-nam, and the other Kang-jun beheaded in a single stroke. Zixu found it awkward to fire fire magic, so she just waited with her spell chant complete.
Kang-jun sliced and killed even the monster Ogre-nam was blocking, then checked the situation. Thanks to the buff, the two teams were blocking them fairly easily.
Of course, there was no celebrating just because they blocked this. They didn’t even know how many monsters were left coming after.
Monsters charged again. This time arthropod types were mixed in. There were ones that spat acid with a shiiik.
Roars and screams filled the air. Healers poured out heals frantically. Magic exploded here and there. Fireballs burst, whirlwinds raged. The surroundings instantly turned into a living hell.
The two heroes, far stronger than the others, especially shone. The female hero, a psychic, twisted and tore the monsters. The male hero also smashed their heads with a giant hammer.
“More coming!”
It was a relentless offensive with no room to breathe. Hye-mi had already used up half her mana. Zixu couldn’t just stand and watch either, so she flung fireballs at the approaching monsters. But since the distance was a bit far, her accuracy dropped significantly. And if she detonated them too close, there was a risk of the flames spreading to allies, so that was hard too.
In dungeon exploration, to help his teammates grow, Kang-jun had moved as passively as possible, but not now. One or two was one thing, but when they charged in hordes like this, he had no choice but to step up actively.
He moved like true lightning to cut down the monsters approaching his team. So Hye-mi didn’t even need to give heals to Ogre-nam, and she could catch her breath a little.
The teammates marveled as they watched monster heads or torsos get sliced with every flash. Zixu had clapped and said it was amazing when she heard he one-shotted a Death Knight well over level 200, but honestly it hadn’t really hit home. But seeing Kang-jun’s performance right before her eyes, she thought she understood why even the branch manager was so flustered around him.
This wasn’t something to measure in the category of genius. Hadn’t she herself been called a genius multiple times by the instructors at the Training Center? Even she, who had Awakened in the first week, couldn’t dare imagine such martial prowess. It was only a two-term difference, but this was way beyond excessive.
Zixu searched for a way to express his talent, and one word came to mind.
Divine Talent.
He possessed talent that transcended the human category.