Chapter 16

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Status: Very Unstable (2)

The deeper I entered, the more it felt like a maze. Gradually, the scenery became closer to that of a jungle rather than a forest. A new tree tenaciously had started to grow, its red leaves blooming in the space between the trees that were all tangled and dried up. That dense scene repeated. This was a purposeless maze created by the unnatural environment. However, I didn't worry about anything concerning getting lost. By just seeing it with my own eyes, I could naturally draw a map in my head.

As I walked in this manner, I began to see Orcs roaming in groups. Three, four, ... five. That was just the right number.

"Grooowl!"

It was they who had found me first again. Trying to surround me, they rushed as they screamed so loud it felt like my ears would tear. I breathed lightly.

[Acceleration!]

I split the wind as I jumped between them.

"Krrrrr!"

The guy in the lead bared his teeth and threw a stone ax, but before he could lift his shoulders, his movement was already clearly visible to me. The monsters in the dungeon all had a wild instinct wherein they could concentrate mana on their body parts each time they attacked. Although the flow seemed obvious, I had no intention of waiting to be hit.

[Air Jump!]

I jumped to an altitude above what was possible without an enhanced physical ability. The ax thrown by the Orc tore through the empty spot where I had been standing, raising its head a second later. However, my reaction was faster.

[Drop Attack!]

As if my gravity had suddenly multiplied several times, and I fell faster than I had jumped. Mana was concentrated at the tip of my toes.

Crush!

With my kick, a sound like a watermelon exploding resonated through the dungeon air. Its head burst and began to spurt out a fountain of blood. Evading the mess, I moved again as soon as I reached the ground. Next!

Dash!

I kicked off the ground. With just one step, distance lost its meaning and gradually narrowed. The panicked expression of the guy standing in the backfilled my sight. It made me feel as if I was reducing and expanding the width of the world at my will. I felt the pleasure of unfolding everything I had initially imagined in my head. The blade of my hand, wrapped around with mana in precisely calculated angles, hit the intended point accurately and broke the neck of my foe.

Smash!

"Squeal!"

I felt a chill of pleasure down my spine over having complete control over the body. I took the stone ax from the corpse's hand and threw it at the one hiding behind them.

Swoosh!

Hack!

The Orc collapsed with the stone blade embedded in its forehead. Finishing the remaining two didn't take long. Measuring their position, I leaped forward. A beat later, all the Orcs had fallen to the ground.

"Phew."

I began to ponder as I pulled out and absorbed the mana cores. After all, I still figured that I should have a weapon. It was impossible to continuously break the bone and smash a monster's skull with my bare fist. However, I didn't want to pick up and use their weapons. Once again, I felt it after throwing a stone ax, but these crappy artifacts were right for use when throwing. I felt that the mana's cohesion and absorption were much lower using this than when attacking with my bare flesh.

'A lot of things are supplied in the guild warehouse, but weapons are thoroughly monitored...'

There was no problem with using trash skill cards at will or receiving Mana potions for training purposes. However, taking in weapon-type artifacts was a completely different story. Not only did the procedure require approval by the Guild Master, but the supply of weapons that could be used in the first place was in a state that was less than the demands. It meant that there was no such thing as a useful weapon that hadn't yet found an owner.

Besides, at the level that the guild recognized me, they would only give me a training-level weapon. It may be similar to the level of this stone ax that I wielded now. So, the conclusion was that I had to get the weapon that fit me somehow.

'I need to find something as soon as possible.'

After that, I encountered a few more Orcs. In the process of battling, my movements grew better and better. The more I moved my body, the more I got used to it, and the more efficient it was for me to move. Useless movements were gradually omitted and converged toward the optimal shape. I enjoyed observing this process myself.

Meanwhile, it wasn't as if I was walking through the dungeon without a purpose, hunting the Orcs and collecting mana cores. As I proceeded, I closely observed the flow of mana in the dungeon. In the information I read before entering, the clearing condition was clearly stated as 'unknown.' I hadn't read any documentation on what the conditions for clearing this dungeon were. This was because, in the first place, this dungeon was only known after the normal clearing opportunity had been missed and it collapsed. However, some clues could still be inferred here.

I paid attention to the fact that mana's flow was heading to one place. Dungeons that gave off flows like this had what one would call a 'nucleus.' Breaking the nucleus was one of the most typical dungeon clear conditions, so that I would try that first. Besides me, most hunters who couldn't see mana's flow could also find it through experience, know-how, and knowledge of estimating the nucleus's location. However, for poorly qualified and inexperienced hunters, finding a nucleus was very difficult. Therefore, if the clear dungeon condition was 'nucleus destruction,' the chances of clearing them were very low.

-Another user has entered the dungeon!

System messages resounded in my mind without warning. It detected the gate's change and conveyed information that a hunter other than me had entered this dungeon. Any hunter exploring dungeons would earn experience. The message repeated it exactly four times, then stopped. Four more people came in apart from me. The maximum number of people in this dungeon was five, so the entrance was filled at its maximum.

'The timing that they entered is just amazing.'

Their identity was easy to guess. At some point in the future, until this dungeon collapsed, the government didn't know about its existence. The result was a disaster in Gyeongwon, where more than 10,000 victims were slaughtered. At that point in history, that was the single most deadly dungeon break, and society fell into a state of panic. The voice of criticism against the government was also high.

But there was more. Some facts revealed by the government's performance survey made the people angrier. According to a later official's statement, the dungeon was discovered in advance by a series of hunters before it collapsed. The guild named 'Optimus' bought the dungeons' information through the dungeon explorers and made it their private hunting grounds while the government didn't intervene. It was a so-called illegal dungeon.

They privatized dungeons to fill their greed. The purpose was mainly dungeon by-products...among them, the mana core. It was mined exclusively and sold to buyers who bought it at a higher price than the Korean government. The punishment was very strict when the law required you to report and sell all mana cores to the state, so they risked losing everything.

The Optimus Guild still took such a risk. It was illegal and selfish, but it often happened in modern society. The worst mistake they made was that they had missed the timing. When the dungeon, which wasn't cleared even though it was F-class and only farmed without boundary expansion, evolved to B-class, they didn't inform the outside world despite witnessing the change. Even if they didn't report directly to the government, they could've taken appropriate action even if they had only leaked such information to the media, but the fact stood that they didn't.

Instead, they wanted to secretly clear and take advantage of the B-class dungeon's clear reward. If so, it would've been better if they had succeeded in clearing and took the reward for themselves. However, they weren't able to clear it, and the dungeon collapsed as a result. The opportunity that could've saved over 10,000 lives was missed because of ego.

'They must have noticed that I came in first and are currently chasing me.'

The four additional people who just entered the dungeon must be the guild members. Since an intruder came into the hunting ground that they were hogging, a fire would've set under their asses. They were arrogant, greedy, but ultimately incompetent pieces of trash. I couldn't help but frown. I wasn't waiting, but I had no intention of avoiding them. It would be better for me to achieve what I had come here to do first, though.

'I better hurry up.'

*

"Squeal!"

"Kuaahhh!"

Even after that, I didn't avoid the Orcs, but I moved with the highest priority on reaching the nucleus. My movements, becoming more skilled as the battles were repeated, helped to shorten my work speed. So, after some time, I finally reached my destination.

"It's here!"

I found a giant living tree buried among dead vines. It was clear that the flow of mana throughout the entire dungeon was concentrated here. I raised my fist and broke it in two without hesitation.

Bang! Crush!

After the tree was crushed, a soft light leaked out of it. This was the core of the dungeon. Once again, without hesitation, I thrust my fist, penetrating the nucleus. Shortly after that, a message rang in my head.

-You have satisfied the clear dungeon conditions!

-Clear condition: Dungeon nucleus destruction.

-The boundaries of the dungeon are weakened.

Fortunately, my prediction was correct. If it was a rare case where the dungeon's core was present and the clearing conditions were different, the order of work would've been a little complicated. Now, it was time to get the clear reward. The message continued.

-The ranking of the user's contribution to the dungeon walkthrough is ranked 1st (contribution: 100%).

-The item 'Dungeon Key' is awarded to the user recognized as the first contributor.

At that moment, as a light flashed in front of me, an item appeared. To describe its appearance, it was similar to the steering wheel used to control a ship. Twelve large and small angular crystals that seem to serve as handles extended outward along a round rim that sparkled with bright light. However, unlike a steering wheel, the inside of the circular frame was empty, much like a hoop. It was awkward for me to see it with the naked eye, as it was something that only others had handled directly in my previous life.

I held it in my hand, floating in the air in front of me. System messages were continuously ringing out.

[Key to the Dungeon]

Item Description: An item given after completing a dungeon attack. Keys once used for any purpose are destroyed and cannot be reused.

It was a description that I was already aware of. Of course, the key was intended to be used to close the gate. It was also in a very unstable state, and it was impossible to spark any possibilities to reach other dimensions by expanding the boundaries. It was still too early.

-Additional rewards are prepared according to the user's contribution. Would you like to accept it?

Of course, I nodded, and as soon as I did, everything around me disappeared, and darkness surrounded me. I had heard the stories of many colleagues, but it was my first time to witness them personally.

"This is the space to choose additional rewards."

I rarely participated in dungeon explorations in my previous life, and I had never achieved enough contribution to receive additional rewards, so it was the first time I had ever witnessed it. It was a new sight, so I slowly looked around. I thought it was a dark similar to that of the Altar of Trials for some reason, but if to tell the difference...

I looked at the white crystals that filled the dark space like stars. It continued to fill up no matter where I look, up, down, and on both sides. Perhaps it was a few hundred in total?

-Choose a reward.

I could understand the agony of my colleagues in my previous life.

"Hmmm..."

Every single one of those many white ores was a reward. You had to choose only one of them, but it all just seemed like sparkling white light. It was no different from selecting a random box out of a hundred in the same wrapping paper.

"Oh, would this even mean anything?!"

When it came to rewards for such F-class dungeons, they were almost always F-class skill cards or inexpensive items with the equivalent value. All the more, the majority of cases weren't just F-class cards, but it was often useless trash cards as they chose random rewards. Where would the source of all of the cards stored in the guild warehouse come from? It was the stocks that were accumulated due to failure to draw a good one from this place.

The system messages replied in a dry tone.

-It is up to the user's free will to choose which of these rewards.

"Everything looks the same, though?"

-There are no duplicate rewards. It's all different.

"If it's going to be like this, I'd rather not make me pick. Anyway, everything seems the same, no matter where I look."

I couldn't carry on my complaints. There was silence for a moment. I blinked my eyes. And once again, I looked around.

"···Ah?"

My opened mouth couldn't do its job and closed again. I paused for a moment and then opened my mouth. I was embarrassed, so my voice trembled slightly.

"Perhaps... They aren't all the same?"

When relying solely on human vision, I could only see a sparkling white light, but when I concentrated, I could see what was hidden behind it. Each of them had individual and unique mana patterns.

Mana was dancing in different forms in the light.