Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Uncharted Territory
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“Good luck.”
“I don't believe in luck. I believe in skill.”
Gregory and E Suo-lin exchanged farewells and parted ways.
They took up positions at the far ends of the passage, leaving the central path Bae Wang-sik was tackling.
Gregory had assembled a hundred people, a mix of Russian and European Awakened, while E Suo-lin formed a team of one hundred from China.
They were about to begin their assault on the passages.
“Friends. Just imagine how the Super Tanker will look at us if even one of us dies.”
“Yeah, he's not exactly the friendliest guy.”
“He's like a mafia boss who’s weirdly into charity.”
“He'll look at us like we're cheese that's been rotting in the fridge for three years.”
A few chuckles rippled through the hundred Awakened. Gregory didn't try to stop them.
In fact, this kind of atmosphere suited them. But then, one of his closest Russian hunters made a pointed remark.
“If even one person dies, it's on the leader's skill. Right? A matter of your orders.”
They knew about the traps and the level of the monsters.
They had built a much larger team based on that information, so their results had to be better than the advance party's.
“Damn it! Don't worry. If anyone dies, I'll be the first to go. Better that than dying of shame.”
The mood lightened up again.
“Let's go!”
The hundred hunters entered the left passage.
At the same time, the Chinese hunters entered their passage.
Led by two S-rank hunters, the Chinese team advanced without much conversation.
Like a disciplined army, they simply followed the orders of Wang Jin-chun and E Suo-lin.
Meanwhile.
Wang-sik stood before a wall.
“The path turns.”
The path, which had been straight, began to bend.
“A zigzag. Is it to increase the travel distance?”
The path turned at a sharp ninety-degree angle.
As the team tensed at the new environment, Wang-sik's skill activated.
—Fear Detection.
The Fear Detection skill had activated.
*Fear Scan.*
Wang-sik's vision turned gray, and a single spot glowed red, like an infrared camera.
The red shape was that of a small monster.
*A monster?*
The monster's movements were erratic.
“A small, humanoid monster, about a meter tall…”
Wang-sik took a step.
*Thwack!*
A thick dart struck Wang-sik's already-raised shield and fell to the ground.
In the direction he had turned, there was a monster with a green pipe in its mouth.
The B-rank monster, Poison Pipe.
Not a monster you'd expect in an S-rank gate, but one specialized in ambushes.
Min Ha-na immediately threw a fireball and took care of the Poison Pipe.
“Doesn't it seem a bit out of place here?”
“It's likely to conserve mana. Gates have a limit to the number of monsters they can hold.”
“Which means…”
“The designer is placing monsters deliberately.”
Another new technology had been incorporated.
Entrance blockade.
Environmental design.
Trap construction.
Monster placement.
This was a gate that incorporated four new technologies.
“We're moving forward.”
The winding passage continued.
Not only were there monsters, but also giant rolling boulders and places that spewed flames.
Each one was a threat, but Wang-sik calmly dealt with them.
Another hour passed like that.
At last, they arrived before a wide stone chamber.
“Stop.”
But just before the entrance to the chamber, Wang-sik felt a subtle flow of energy.
“Jang Jong-oh. Spatial Scan.”
It was Jang Jong-oh's special skill.
A rare skill usually possessed by Awakened specializing in reconnaissance, which Jang Jong-oh happened to have.
In Korea, he was classified as an assassin, but in reality, he was closer to a scout.
His guild had only promoted him that way to make him seem stronger. In fact, gearing himself for assassination had left him with an ambiguous set of abilities.
Nevertheless, in Korea, that alone was enough to earn him respect.
“Activate.”
Having regained his composure after a few battles, Jang Jong-oh immediately followed Wang-sik's command.
A blueprint of the surrounding space formed in his mind. Some areas were blocked by mana, but he could get a rough picture.
“There's a faint mana wall in front of our entrance.”
“So that was it.”
A wall blocked by mana. It was so faint he hadn't noticed it before.
That mana wall had trapped the monsters. This was the secret to their placement.
“So that's why they were terrified.”
Trapped in a confined space for so long, they were in a state of extreme fear. And given the Poison Pipe's nature, it attacked as soon as something appeared.
It was a trap that exploited the monster's characteristics.
“The fact that I sensed it this time means there's a much stronger mana wall…”
The stone chamber they were looking at was empty. Nothing appeared on his Fear Scan either.
“Everyone, back away.”
An unpredictable situation lay before them.
But they couldn't just not go through.
In times like these, there were only two options: send in someone skilled at reconnaissance, or someone who could handle any situation.
Wang-sik chose the latter.
“I need a shield. Make it as strong as you can.”
Three lights descended upon his head simultaneously.
Wang-sik took a deep breath and stepped toward the mana wall.
In that instant, a tremendous force crashed down on him.
*CR-A-A-ACK!*
An immense roar erupted from the shield Wang-sik held above him.
“Illusion magic?”
The chamber seen through the mana wall and the actual interior were completely different.
The background was the same, but the monster's presence had been concealed.
Naturally, anyone entering without knowing would have been caught in such an ambush.
“Dummycus. It's been a while since I've seen one of these.”
A stitched doll with visible seams was floating in the middle of the chamber.
The doll, with its glowing red eyes, met Wang-sik's gaze and swung its arm again.
It was a playful-looking motion, but the air in the chamber reacted to it.
The air coalesced into the shape of a giant's fist and flew toward Wang-sik.
*CR-A-A-ACK!*
Another deafening crash echoed as the air, blocked by his shield, dispersed in all directions, creating a gale throughout the chamber.
*Whoosh!*
Wang-sik extended his chains to counterattack. But the chains were stopped by the currents of air before they could even reach the doll.
“A troublesome one has appeared.”
Wang-sik raised his shield and backed away.
As he passed back through the wall he had entered, he saw his waiting team members.
“Hoo.”
Wang-sik caught his breath.
“It's a Dummycus. It has its own domain, so we're safe as long as we don't go inside.”
The Dummycus is the master of its space, but outside of it, it becomes just an ordinary doll.
“Dummycus?”
No one knew the name.
*Because it's never appeared before.*
Wang-sik was the only one with experience against a Dummycus.
He had raided a dark magician's laboratory long ago and encountered one back then.
The Dummycus is a type of dark magic, usually used as a guardian for important facilities.
Back then, it was at most a C-rank monster's level of power, but the one he just faced was at least S-rank.
A boss monster that dominates an entire space, no less.
*This means a dark magician was involved in this design.*
Creating and operating a Dummycus requires an immense amount of mana.
*They've only put in troublesome ones. This means they've analyzed us.*
Despite the serious situation, a smile played on Wang-sik's lips.
“But that won't work on me.”
Wang-sik took out potions from his inventory.
They were the ones he originally had, as well as the supplies provided for this raid.
“Take out all the potions.”
After collecting the team's potions, Wang-sik called for Sara.
“You can amplify their effects, right?”
“I'll do it if you tell me you love me.”
“I love you.”
Wang-sik answered without even looking at Sara. She pouted her lips.
“Why is it so easy? It's like you're buying something at a market.”
“It's a special gate sale. My love is dirt cheap inside a gate.”
Even as she grumbled, Sara was already using her skill.
“The effect will wear off in one minute. You know that, right?”
When the potions were filled with healing energy, Wang-sik gave the order.
“Throw them all inside. Make sure the bottles break.”
Following Wang-sik's command, all the potions infused with healing energy shattered beyond the illusionary wall.
The illusionary wall then wavered, revealing the true scene inside.
“W-what is this?”
A storm was raging within the Dummycus's space.
The scattered potions burned away, emitting white steam, and the floating Dummycus was flailing about aimlessly, as if it had gone mad.
“That thing's specialty is curses.”
To a Dummycus, its domain is like a physical body.
The doll serves as the brain, and everything inside can be thought of as the nerve cells or digestive organs that make up its body. That makes it easier to understand.
In other words, from the Dummycus's perspective, entering this space is like a foreign object entering its body. So, of course it would go berserk when people enter.
And they had just sprinkled potions filled with holy power on the Dummycus's body.
The amplified healing potions acted like a virus inside the Dummycus's body.
It wasn't just a foreign object, but a pain-inflicting pathogen that had invaded, so the Dummycus naturally reacted with frenzy.
“Get ready. We have to go in all at once.”
As Wang-sik raised his shield, all the damage dealers behind him held their breath and took their stances.
The raging storm vanished in an instant, as if it had all been a lie.
The Dummycus had overcome the shock of the potions. That's how powerful the dark magic it possessed was.
“Come in after three seconds.”
With those words, Wang-sik leaped in.
Having just expelled the potions' energy, the Dummycus couldn't react immediately.
*Pulse of Hatred.*
A giant heart appeared above the Dummycus's head.
Wang-sik used his taunt and raised his shield on the opposite side of the entrance, ensuring his team members had a clear view of the Dummycus's back.
As expected, the Dummycus unleashed all the energy in the room toward Wang-sik.
An intense storm blasted toward Wang-sik's entire body.
The team members who had just entered had to shudder against the destructive energy that felt like it would tear their skin.
The air currents alone were powerful enough to shred skin.
Just as the team, reeling from the disorienting shock, was about to retreat, a sharp voice cut through.
“Snap out of it!”
It was Min Ha-na.
A fireball she created struck the doll directly. As the pressure eased, the team members, recovering from the shock, began to pour their attacks onto the doll.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
The Dummycus tried to counterattack several times, but all its attempts were blocked by Wang-sik's defense. The doll took three more hits before it lost its power and fell to the floor.
*Whooosh.*
The raging air settled down.
The team members were about to approach Wang-sik.
*Whoosh!*
Wang-sik's chains wrapped around the fallen doll.
“Don't let your guard down until it's completely finished.”
The Dummycus tried to create another storm to escape the chain's debilitating effect, but Wang-sik's chains tore the doll to shreds.
Only then did all the energy that formed the space vanish.
Wang-sik ripped the doll completely apart and pulled something out from inside.
“Sara. A gift for you.”
Wang-sik tossed the item he took from the doll to Sara.
“Oh my? Are you proposing?”
What Wang-sik had thrown was a ring.
The ring that had supplied the doll's mana.
It was an S-rank ring.
“First, it has to be turned over to Russia. That's the rule.”
Despite obtaining an S-rank ring, Wang-sik followed the rules without any lingering attachment.
Of course, he could always ask for it back after the raid was successfully completed.
“Tsk. And here I thought I was getting a proposal inside a gate. I thought it was quite romantic.”
He had only given it to her because she was a Russian hunter.
“Inform Gregory and E Suo-lin of the situation. Tell them not to proceed recklessly. We're moving on.”
Shin Myeong-sik relayed what had happened to Gregory.
After relaying the entire situation, Shin Myeong-sik thought to himself.
*This is surprisingly easy.*
Once he got used to it, his fear of the raid was replaced by a confidence that it was manageable.
His gaze naturally shifted to Wang-sik at the front.
*Would it have been easy without him?*
The conclusion came easily. The deep shiver running down his spine was proof enough.
*And I tried to challenge a man like that.*
Even a newborn puppy wouldn't be so clueless.
*Should I just leave the guild? Or should I retire?*
He began to seriously contemplate his future.