B-Class Dungeon
The tunnel after the path changed felt wrong from the very start.
It was much narrower than the original route, and the walls were slick with a thin layer of moisture.
The damp smell of earth mixed with the stale scent of old blood, making the back of my throat itch every time I breathed in.
Scattered across the floor were fragments of stone, like cracks that had split open in a hurry from some vote.
I stepped carefully between the gaps.
One wrong move and I would slip. The real problem, though, was not the slipping itself.
Every time I lifted my foot, the darkness ahead seemed to shift—just slightly.
It was not visible at first glance.
But the more I leaned forward, the more the air in front of me felt like it flinched first.
And that feeling was not just my imagination.
A low hum passed through the tunnel.
I flinched and pulled my shoulders in. My jaw tightened and a metallic taste spread across my tongue.
It felt less like I had stopped breathing and more like my breath had simply frozen in place.
Three small shadows that had been crouched ahead all retreated at once.
They were wolf-type monsters with gray fur standing on end.
Strictly speaking, they were lower-tier creatures that belonged in a B-class dungeon. Their fangs were sharp, but their bodies were only as big as my thigh, and though their eyes glowed red, their movements were clumsy.
Normally these were the kind of monsters that would swarm you with numbers or try to overwhelm you with sheer presence.
Yet the moment they saw my face, they tucked their claws away first.
One of them had been scraping the ground with its forepaw and suddenly stopped.
Another had been growling low before abruptly pulling its neck in and sidestepping.
The one in front met my eyes and, almost on instinct, turned its head away.
It did not run.
It did not charge, either.
It simply could not approach.
“...What the hell.”
Baek Sihyun’s voice came from behind me, low and steady.
“Stop.”
“Are you talking to me?”
“No. Them.”
She already had her hand halfway around her sword hilt, but she was not preparing to leap ahead of me. That was strange.
The person who usually read my body from the front had taken a step back today.
More precisely, she had not just stepped back—she had positioned herself directly behind me.
Lee Dojin was the same.
“Hey.”
He let out a short laugh.
“Standing behind you is surprisingly comfortable.”
“What is?”
“The view in front of you.”
I turned around, genuinely baffled.
Lee Dojin really was standing right behind me. At first I thought he was trying to block my path.
His posture said otherwise. He stood half a step back from my back, one hand on his sheath and the other resting against the wall.
It was the kind of position that treated me being in front as the most natural thing in the world.
Baek Sihyun had also moved a little farther behind.
“This side feels better.”
“No, what exactly feels better?”
“The line of sight is stable.”
Stable?
Me?
I gave them the most disbelieving look I could manage, but the two of them were even calmer than before.
More than calm—they moved as if having me in front let them breathe easier.
Baek Sihyun adjusted her angle while watching the left wall, and Lee Dojin scanned the blind spots over my shoulder.
It was not a formation meant to protect me.
It was a formation that put me at the front.
Another wolf burst out at that moment.
This one was a little bigger, with a scar near its eye and one missing tooth.
Even so, the moment it saw me it stopped dead. Its forelegs wobbled as if its strength had drained away.
Then it let out a short, whining sound.
Really.
Whine.
I twitched.
“That thing is scared right now, isn’t it?”
“Looks like it.”
Lee Dojin answered.
He said it like it was nothing, but his fingertips were trembling ever so slightly. His breathing had grown shallow, nothing like the arrogant front he had been putting up moments ago.
Still, he adjusted his stance to hide the tremor, standing behind me as if using my shadow for cover.
Baek Sihyun was quieter.
“No will to attack.”
“None at all?”
“Not none. Just lower priority.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means they consider the situation with you in front more dangerous.”
I shut my mouth.
Phrasing it that way only made me sound even stranger. I had not done anything, yet the monsters stopped first and the two of them treated it as natural to stand behind me.
I had no idea how much I was supposed to notice.
A low laugh came from behind.
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I closed my eyes for a moment.
Really, why were they standing behind me?
Shouldn’t I be the one receiving protection?
Yet my party members looked more comfortable positioned behind me.
Baek Sihyun moved in the direction my gaze pointed, and Lee Dojin drew his sword from behind me first.
The more I stood at the front, the more they treated me like someone actually useful.
I did not like it one bit.
Two wolves crouched low at the same time.
One turned its head toward the floor crack I had been crossing, then suddenly lost all strength from the waist down.
It was not kneeling. It was not submitting, either.
It simply lowered its belly, tucked its neck in, and hid its claws so they could not be seen—all without being able to leap forward.
The other one turned sideways completely, abandoning any attempt to surround us.
Instead it stepped aside toward the wall and let out a low, whistle-like sound.
It was fear.
But not the kind of fear that came from a boss surrendering.
It was more instinctive, shorter, more primal.
It was closer to an instinctive warning that said “do not touch” rather than a calculated choice in front of a stronger opponent.
They did not want to bring me down so much as they simply hated standing in front of me.
The reaction was as if getting even a toe closer would get them bitten by something.
Not understanding it only made me more frustrated.
I could not find any reason in my own face for why the monsters were scared.
I was not even making a scary expression.
If anything, my face probably looked like I wanted to run away right now, so why were they shrinking back first?
“Did I do something wrong?”
Baek Sihyun answered immediately.
“It’s the opposite.”
“Opposite?”
“It means the very fact that you’re standing in front is being treated as the problem, not anything you did wrong.”
Lee Dojin added casually.
“From their perspective, you’re blocking the path.”
“Then shouldn’t they move aside?”
“If they could, they already would have.”
The natural way he said it annoyed me.
I tried taking one step to the side.
The wolf took one step back at the same time.
When I looked right, it dodged right. When I looked left, it slipped left.
It moved as if simply avoiding facing me head-on was enough.
There was no actual attack.
Only watchful, held-back gazes.
Yet those gazes were all the more persistent for it.
Lee Dojin spoke quietly from behind me.
“See?”
“See what?”
“They react the moment you move.”
“That’s probably just coincidence...”
“If it were coincidence, they would have charged already.”
Baek Sihyun agreed quietly as well.
“They’ve been doing this the whole time.”
“All of them?”
“Yeah. Every single lower-tier monster.”
I looked around again at her words.
It was not just the wolves.
Several rat-type monsters that had been crawling along the outside of the cave had stopped at the tunnel entrance, and the insect-types that had been emerging from wall cracks had changed direction and hidden.
The moment they entered my line of sight, they fled immediately.
They hated standing in front of me, and they seemed to hate slipping behind me even more.
In reality they had simply given up approaching, yet that surrender somehow pressed down on the air throughout the entire tunnel.
Which made our party look even stranger.
Me in front, Baek Sihyun and Lee Dojin right behind, monsters pushed farther back.
What an absurd order.
I let out a sigh.
“No, why do you two keep standing behind me?”
Lee Dojin laughed briefly.
“It’s nice, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“Nothing’s sneaking up from behind.”
Baek Sihyun spoke, very briefly.
“It’s overwhelmingly stable.”
I actually froze at those words.
“How is that stable?”
“Because you’re in front.”
“That makes it more unsettling for me.”
“Not from our perspective.”
Her answer came so quickly that it only made it less convincing.
Yet both of them nodded at the same time, as if the conclusion had already been reached.
Me in front, the two of them covering my rear, monsters unable to pass us.
It was a bizarre tactic.
Extremely bizarre, yet it was working.
Then something rang out from far away.
Thud.
A sound like something striking the wall deep inside.
The wolves immediately flattened their ears.
The rat-type monsters pressed themselves to the floor.
Baek Sihyun and Lee Dojin both turned their gazes inward at once.
Only I remained frozen in place.
This hum was different from before.
Louder. Lower. Closer.
I could even hear the sound of something enormous drawing in a single breath.
At the end of the tunnel. Right in front of the boss room.
I closed my mouth.
And for the first time, I thought I understood, vaguely, why the lower-tier monsters were hiding so desperately.
They were not simply watching us.
They had already sensed the presence leaking from the boss room, and the moment that presence brushed past my front, their bodies instinctively tucked their necks in.
It was not that they could not charge.
It was closer to their bodies having already learned that they must not charge.
The moment I realized that, the entire tunnel grew even quieter.
Inside, there was still a greater terror whose name I could not yet give.