Dungeon

Not only monsters emerge from portals.

Natural objects like water, trees, and dirt piles appear, as well as artificial objects like broken furniture and building debris. Sometimes the physical laws themselves change in areas near where portals open.

And among these, the rarest case was the dungeon phenomenon where the terrain, objects, and environment within a certain area completely transformed.

How rare was it?

Since monsters first appeared, you could count all such cases on one hand.

However, being rare didn’t mean they were any less dangerous.

Like how that unidentified city that appeared in Korea changed the ecosystem and atmospheric composition of nearby regions, dungeons contained dangers that could affect anywhere from a single country to continents, and potentially even the entire Earth.

When a dungeon is discovered, that country immediately enters a state of emergency and even nuclear weapons are seriously considered.

And right now, Yuseong was facing exactly such a dangerous dungeon.

Gulp.

Yuseong unconsciously swallowed.

Following Kasim’s guidance, they arrived at a cave located midway up a broad mountain range.

At first glance it looked completely ordinary, but the information coming from drones indicated this cave was anything but normal.

“It seems to get bigger as you go deeper and the walls have an artificial feel that suggests it’s a dungeon. What should we do?”

“What do you mean what should we do? We obviously have to go in.”

“Right?”

Unlike Kasim and Olga who casually entered the cave, Yuseong stood frozen in place, unable to take a single step.

“What’s wrong? Did you forget something?”

“…Can’t you see this?”

“See what?”

Dark, hazy energy was rising from the cave entrance, no, from the entire nearby mountain range as if it was on fire.

Though Yuseong had seen all kinds of energy until now, this was his first time seeing energy like this.

Ominous and disgusting energy that felt like it had been dredged up from a sewer, with a turbid and filthy color.

After hesitating, Yuseong finally steeled himself at Kasim’s repeated urging and stepped into the cave.

Having come all this way, he had to go in regardless of what awaited.

Movement was slow to watch for traps.

Amid the irregular sound of three people’s footsteps echoing, Yuseong spoke up.

“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve properly greeted you all. Let me formally introduce myself. I’m Han Yuseong.”

Though somewhat out of the blue, it was enough to break the ice.

As soon as Yuseong finished speaking, Kasim responded cheerfully as if he’d been waiting.

“Bard Kasim. Call me Kasim.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Kasim.”

“You spoke casually when we met before, why the formality now? We look about the same age, just speak comfortably.”

“Well, if you say so.”

Of course casual speech was more comfortable than rigid formality.

“Olga Petrova. You can call me Olga and speak comfortably like with Kasim.”

“Would that be alright?”

“When I hear formal speech it reminds me of a certain annoying bastard.”

Though she herself was speaking formally with ‘yo’ at the end of her sentences, Yuseong nodded, remembering how Olga had shown courtesy even to Ryuhei, the youngest among the users. ^[1]

There were only two people she didn’t show courtesy to.

Kang Changseok and Isaac.

‘She had a falling out with Kang Changseok over some big job he pulled in Russia in the past, and she dislikes Isaac for hitting on her.’

“What are you thinking about so deeply mid-conversation?”

“Ah, I apologize- I mean, sorry.”

“No need to be sorry. But can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“How did you get so strong so quickly? You subdued Isaac with ease.”

“I just had a slight advantage in strength and would’ve died without Bruce’s help, not sure what you mean by strong.”

Both Olga and even Kasim made incredulous expressions at Yuseong’s grumbling.

“He’s someone who’s been active as a user for over 10 years. Just achieving victory in terms of strength is amazing. How did you get such incredible power? Elixirs? Items? Skills?”

“It wasn’t just strength. You beat Isaac in magic power too, right? Though he may not have gone all out, given his personality he must have used a fair amount of magic power, and beating that…”

“Well, just the result of working hard on quests.”

That kind of strength couldn’t be explained by just working hard.

Though they didn’t know exactly how hard Yuseong had worked on quests, the same was true for other users.

Though their direction was slightly different, even Kang Changseok and Sophia who belonged to the Three Weak worked hard on quests.

The two noticed Yuseong had some secret but didn’t ask further.

He wouldn’t tell them even if they asked, and besides, the end of the passage had come into view.

“This is…”

The three people lost their words at the scene beyond the passage.

Expecting piles of undead or hellish scenes given that something was drawing undead here, the scenery before their eyes was completely different from expectations.

A space so vast it was hard to believe it was underground.

Inside was an enormous city.

Towers twisted like pretzels, curved buildings, and houses with free-flowing forms reminiscent of art pieces.

Though the architectural style was unlike anything seen on Earth, its beauty was no less than any Earth city.

‘While Dragonia feels like a mix of futuristic and fantasy cities, this is completely a fantasy city. The architectural style is so different that I’m not sure which level is higher, but in terms of size Dragonia is much bigger.’

Lost in thought comparing Dragonia and the city before him, Yuseong returned to reality at a heavy sound from beside him.

The source was Kasim.

After tapping the ground with a staff that appeared from somewhere, Kasim soon slightly furrowed his brow and said.

“No life signs. But there’s something else.”

There was no need to ask what that something else was.

Because those other things were charging toward them.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Hundreds of skeletons emerged from within the city.

At first Yuseong dismissed them as low-grade undead, but soon realized these were no ordinary undead.

Though there were hundreds moving, the skeletons matched their footsteps precisely as if they were a single person, and their equipment was on a completely different level.

While normal skeletons carried weapons made of bone, these had metal weapons as well as shields and full plate armor.

‘Wait a minute. Don’t tell me those are artifacts?’

Yuseong gave a hollow laugh upon sensing strange energy from the skeletons’ weapons and armor.

The fact that there were so many artifacts was shocking enough, but equipping them on skeletons was even more shocking.

While the three were still stunned, the skeletons that had now reached nearby stopped at a certain distance and their apparent leader stepped forward.

“This is a divine place. Those not invited cannot enter.”

Instead of the sound of clicking teeth, the skeleton spoke as fluently as a high-ranking undead.

After a moment of silence, at the urging looks from the other two, Yuseong stepped forward.

“We came to find something within this city. Could you permit us entry, even briefly?”

“This is a divine place. Those not invited cannot enter.”

“How can we receive that invitation?”

“This is a divine place. Those not invited cannot enter.”

Whether it was a golem-like being that only followed given orders, or had intelligence but chose to repeat the same words was unclear, but the fact that dialogue was impossible remained the same.

With an exaggerated shrug, Yuseong walked toward the unmoving skeletons.

And stopping exactly one step in front of the leader skeleton, Yuseong spoke in a low voice.

“What if we force our way in?”

“Only death awaits intruders.”

The scimitar in the skeleton’s hand drew a silver arc as it flew toward Yuseong’s neck.

Lightly flicking his finger to deflect the scimitar’s trajectory, Yuseong threw his other fist toward the skeleton’s head.

Boom!

“Huh?”

Bewilderment filled Yuseong’s eyes.

Though it was a light jab, 3,561 points of strength was nothing to scoff at.

In terms of power, it rivaled an all-out attack from a martial artist or knight-class Contractor.

Yet a mere skeleton had blocked his punch.

The skeleton with its dented shield lit blue flames in its eye sockets.

“Kill the intruders!”

With the sound of clicking teeth, hundreds of skeletons charged in perfect unison.

Instead of retreating, Yuseong activated Cloud Mist and threw himself into the mass of skeletons.

Toward the skeletons flailing in fog so thick they couldn’t see an inch ahead, Yuseong threw a punch with slightly more power than before.

Crack!

This time he could crush the skull without issue.

But the moment one skeleton fell, nearby skeletons immediately swung their weapons.

“Hck?!”

Startled by the unexpected situation, Yuseong immediately activated Asura Perception Way and tried to dodge the attacks.

‘There are no gaps.’

Yuseong’s eyebrow twitched as he realized the skeletons were perfectly covering for each other and eliminating all openings while trying to dodge with minimal movement as usual.

In this critical moment, Yuseong took the skeletons’ attacks head-on without budging an inch.

And the result was surprising.

Thunk! Thud thud! Thunk!

Whoosh.

Yuseong didn’t receive a single scratch from the weapons, while the attacking skeletons either crumbled apart unable to maintain their form or had their bones pulverized into powder.

The fog was just a side effect from the friction of multiple energies.

Cloud Mist was originally a defensive and offensive technique that wrapped the entire body in force to negate external impacts while simultaneously releasing force to subdue opponents.

Internal energy, magic power, and spirit power.

The skeletons’ attacks were far too weak to penetrate Cloud Mist deployed with these three energies.

Though he’d taken down six skeletons in an instant, Yuseong’s expression didn’t improve.

Because he saw the skeletons forming two and three layers of encirclement some distance away.

‘This is going to be annoying.’

Yuseong lowered his stance and crossed his arms in an X to cover his face.

He planned to use Shooting Star to break through their formation in one go.

However, he changed his mind at Olga’s shout just before activating Flash Step.

“Jump!”

Bang!

With an explosion, Yuseong’s form soared into the air.

Even with 349 points of constitution he could leap tall enough to clear most apartment buildings, and now with his constitution nearly tripled, it went without saying.

After landing while savoring the much longer hang time than before, Yuseong looked around and clicked his tongue.

In that brief moment he was airborne, everything had turned pure white.

Looking back and forth between Olga with her hands outstretched and the skeletons turned to ice statues, Yuseong casually activated Eye of Truth.

‘…What is this?’

Yuseong’s gleeful expression at the thought of stealing a new skill after Infinite Origin Force changed strangely.