The Hidden Crack
Checking the card, it was the spirit sword looted from the dead Wrecker. [Chain Cut] Equipment Card ★★ A cutter that could slice through anything. It was the spirit sword of a Wrecker that had spent its life wrecking things. Fitting for a thieving bastard like that, but in the life of a hunter, equipment like this turned out to be surprisingly useful more often than not. Even outside of hunters, special forces and rescue teams carried cutters for all sorts of reasons.
Ssshhh. Ether flowed into the card, and a heavy cutter materialized in my hand. Crack! The iron bars that had refused to budge snapped like a lie. Tap, tap. Choi Yoo-ra clapped my shoulder. A signal to hurry. The monsters were seconds from crashing in.
Crack, crack, crack, crack. I cut through the bars as fast as I could. Behind me came the sounds of combat—shocks and impacts. Choi Yoo-ra and Captain Im’s squad were fighting the monsters while shielding me.
Done. The final bar gave way. The grate blocking the drainage channel dropped. Tap, tap. I tapped their shoulders to signal it was clear. Taking the lead, we slipped into the narrow waterway.
Thud, boom! Monsters slammed into the channel and walls. No chance. Not with those bulky bodies. This way. We swam along the glowing green line for a long stretch. Air was starting to run thin, but it was still manageable. Even ordinary people could hold their breath for over five minutes with good conditioning and training—awakened ones far more so. Even a 1-star with zero training could last five minutes. High-rank awakened could push an hour. No need to panic.
“Hah!” We surfaced into a pitch-black underground drainage tunnel. Torches along the walls made visibility manageable. “Everyone all right?”
“All clear.” Captain Im checked his men.
“I really thought we were dead,” Choi Yoo-ra muttered, shivering at the memory.
“Are you all right as well, Eun-seong-nim?”
“I’m fine.”
“Thank goodness. And thank you. We owe you our lives.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“By the way… are you a supporter, Eun-seong-nim?”
“Why? Is that a problem?” The words came out sharper than I intended. Damn.
“I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that guiding allies to safety is the sort of ability a supporter-type would have, so I was curious.”
“I don’t know either. Whether I’m a supporter or not. Judge for yourself.”
“If I offended you, I’m truly sorry.”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
The words were polite, but the irritation lingered. Inferiority complex, victim mentality—call it what you want. Supporters never got respect. Sitting? That was a luxury they could only dream of. What kind of lunatic would invest in raising a supporter? I admitted it: their market value was trash. There were too many of them. Out of ten awakened, four were supporters. Of the remaining six, three were dealers, two tanks, and maybe one mage. Rarity went mage > tank > dealer > supporter. Supporters were everywhere, contributed little in combat, had low growth potential, and their achievements were easy to overlook. Their combat power was abysmal, so they were always the weak link in front of other roles. That was the reality of supporters. Even I, who had reached the pinnacle as one in my past life, felt it. Others must have felt it worse.
Am I… a supporter? The question surfaced. What exactly was the role called Guide?
Status window. The command brought up my current state.
Name: Cha Eun-seong
Main Role: Guide
Sub-Role: (∞)
Class: Collector of Madness
Grade: ★
Still unknown. What Guide truly was. I would have to find out step by step, but even if it turned out to be a supporter role, I had no intention of living like before—used, dependent, and blackmailed by other awakened.
* * *
My sharp reaction cooled the mood for a moment, but it passed quickly. Survival came first. Being trapped in a fractured dungeon meant constant mortal danger, so we had to prioritize staying alive. Besides, a fracture wasn’t entirely bad. Especially here in the Cursed Fortress, it could even be an opportunity.
“Actually, this is good.”
“What’s good about it?” Choi Yoo-ra frowned at my muttered words.
“Because a crack opened.”
“A crack?”
“Ah, right.” Shit. I had forgotten that almost no one knew about cracks yet. A crack was a kind of hidden dungeon that formed inside certain gates. At this point in time, their existence was still unknown—and would likely remain so. Because…
I was the one who discovered them. I had been the first to find cracks and shared the information worldwide for free, hoping to raise survival rates and loot acquisition for hunters trapped in fractured dungeons.
“I have information. There’s something called a crack—a hidden dungeon.” I held up the [Search] card. “A hidden dungeon? Something like that exists?”
“How would I know? My ability is telling me.”
“Hmm.”
“My gut says we have to go.”
“Why?”
“Feels good.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Choi Yoo-ra’s face twisted. “Even if this crack thing actually exists, it could be dangerous. You want us to walk right into it? We’re already on death’s doorstep.”
“Then don’t come. I’ll go alone.”
“What?”
“If you’re not going, someone has to. It could be a lottery ticket. No way I’m passing that up.”
A lottery ticket. The crack that appeared in the Cursed Fortress carried low risk and high reward.
“You’re going to get yourself killed early,” Choi Yoo-ra said, genuinely worried. “And it won’t be just you. You could drag your teammates to their deaths too. You know that, right?”
“Probably.”
“And you still want to go? Without solid information?”
“When is anything ever certain around here?”
“……?”
“Dungeons, gates, monsters, rifts—none of it is predictable. Hunters themselves are unpredictable enough.”
“Hmph.” Choi Yoo-ra fell silent. That was how this world worked. Almost nothing could be predicted. Who could have guessed a fracture would occur the moment we entered this dungeon? Even I hadn’t seen it coming.
“Are you certain this feeling is reliable?” Captain Im asked.
“Yes. I am.”
“Then we’ll follow your lead, Eun-seong-nim.”
Captain Im’s squad readily sided with me. It wasn’t guilt from earlier—it was the expectation that came with a new type of awakened they had never seen before.
“What do you want to do?” I asked Choi Yoo-ra.
“Hmm.”
“Trust me this once. Following my advice hasn’t hurt you yet.”
“Fine. Where to?”
“Floor 7, coordinates 777, 777.”
The crack’s coordinates were always 777, 777. In a multi-floor dungeon like the Cursed Fortress, that meant the seventh floor.
“We’ll escort you.” Captain Im’s men reformed their protective formation and flanked me.
* * *
The Cursed Fortress had clear pros and cons. Its monsters gave far more ether than those in other dungeons of the same rank, making it ideal for rapid growth. The dungeon was also filled with objects that could yield various loot—dozens of secret rooms, chests, and even decorative armor that often hid valuable items. But the drawbacks were just as obvious: traps everywhere, a maze-like layout, and plenty of tactically disadvantageous spots. If we hadn’t known about the drainage channel, we would have been surrounded and wiped out. Still, that only applied to people who didn’t know the place. I did.
“Remember this. From now on, don’t even think about touching anything unless I say so. Unless you want us all dead.”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up already.”
Most objects in the Cursed Fortress were traps—jars, chests, furniture, decorations. Touch the wrong one and you got poison gas, arrows, collapsing ceilings, or sinking floors. Or nothing. But that was only if you lacked information.
Thud!Crash!
“You crazy bastard! I told you not to touch anything!” Choi Yoo-ra exploded as I kicked over a jar in the corridor.
“He’s actually insane.”
“Just end him already.”
Captain Im’s men muttered in disbelief. Choi Yoo-ra stormed toward me, fuming—then stopped. Something glittered among the broken shards.
“Let’s see…” I picked up the sparkling object and smiled. “Well, look at that. Etherium.”
Everyone fell silent, mouths clamped shut.