Chapter 19

Black snake

Cold bodies were scattered across the red forest. The howling wind blew, sweeping Gye Yong-hwan's hair past his eyes wide open. The blood pool that had accumulated among the red bushes was hard to distinguish since it was all the same scarlet color. The mana core that was in their heart had disappeared without a trace. I checked the time with the terminal. In a little while, dawn would arrive in Seoul.

'I have to go back. But before that...'

There was also an option to quickly exit the gate and close the door before they approach, but I deliberately waited for them to approach. For what reason? First of all, it was a low probability, but it would all be for nothing if they had a Return Stone. Aside from that, there was one more thing. When I saw the message that someone had entered the dungeon, I already knew that Gye Yong-hwan was among them. I had read a testimony he was doubtful of his guild members. Afraid that they would smuggle the by-products without his knowledge, he never let the guild go on an exploration without him.

Grunt! Grunt!

I took out the mask slime and put it on Gye Yong-Hwan's face. I waited for a while, and after it acquired the shape of his face, I put it back on mine. After letting out an unpleasant grunt, my face completely changed to that of Gye Yong-hwan. Next, I grabbed his belongings and artifacts in order to prove my identity. I was now ready to move on. There was a feeling of softness around my wrist.

"Hm? Oh, yes."

Five snakes that had been entangled in a bracelet were now slithering after they untied themselves. I felt their anxious cravings in their movements. Thanks to Auto-Heal, which was activated just a moment ago, the deep cuts on my thighs were healed, and the guys seemed hungry because they had worked hard.

[Five Snake Bracelets]

Item Description: A bracelet made of five living golems modified from 'Epinape Black Snake.' The young genius succeeded in itemizing the unique 'Power of Circulation' of the species. Black snakes aren't easy to tame, but they are known to be loyal to their owners once taming is successful. The golems that inherit that nature will return some of the blood and flesh they ate to their owners and use it to replenish the blood you lost and create new flesh.

※ Be careful as it may bite the owner if you starve them beyond their limits.

'If they healed that wound, they have to eat as much as that again, right?'

I could see why the hunters' who had this bracelet before weren't left intact. Perhaps because they remembered the fact that I fed them properly last time, they were sending a sign with their bodies asking for food instead of chewing on my wrist, as they did to the former owners. I glanced at their movements and turned my gaze toward the bodies on the floor.

Hiss!

As I injected some Mana as a sign of permission, the snakes, which had been reduced in the form of the bracelet, inflated their bodies. Their heads and bodies grew to the size of an anaconda, though the tail was still small and curled around my wrist.

"Shaaa! Shh!"

The five black snakes slowly crawled through the grass. However, these guys didn't approach the prey right away this time. I quickly realized the reason and frowned.

"Ah, is this a competition?"

There seemed to be no problem with sharing the guys who attacked us on the way from the black market, but this time there were only four bodies. This amount didn't seem to satisfy them at all.

"Shaaa! Shh!"

"Hiss! Shh! Shh!"

To make matters worse, they even threatened each other with their mouths wide open and teeth exposed. However, they didn't attack.

"Hiss!"

The victor of the quarrel was quickly decided. The five snakes were of slightly different sizes and appearances when you looked closely. The smallest of them came back to me, flicking its tongue as if it felt beaten. As it approached, it gradually reduced its body and eventually returned to the original bracelet shape.

"Were you pushed out?"

A bitter smile came out. As a result, with the loser left out, the remaining snakes divided into four branches and crawled over the bush as if they each were assigned to a prey. By the way···

"Is that okay?"

I recalled the content of the message I saw earlier.

[Lorto's Dagger]

Item Description: ···It 'paralyzes the prey' just by touching it.

※ ...Poisoned prey must be consumed after going through 'detoxification by storing at room temperature for at least 2 hours'.

Whether all of those corpses were poisoned to death or died instantly in one blow, the poison must have spread in the process. Would the snakes become paralyzed if they ate them?

Even if so, the effect lasted only about 2 hours anyway, so I should leave them as they were. Then, they started to eat the corpses.

Crack! Crush!

But somehow, it seemed that the paralysis poison was also effective against living golems. Shortly after the meal was over, four semi-paralyzed snakes were crawling on the floor.

"...Come back."

By injecting mana into it, they forcibly returned to the bracelet form. If this happened, was the one starving the winner? If it were as the item description dictated, the paralysis would be resolved by itself, so it might not matter much. Anyway, since I now had fed the snakes, I began moving to the dungeon's opposite border.

[Acceleration!]

As I crossed the forest, I soon saw the gate that I entered.

'Before I go out...'

Holding Gye Yong-hwan's sword in my hand, I focused my mind and kept The Successor's Eyes in a state that could identify everything. In that nervous state, I broke through the shroud of light. A similar phenomenon to when I entered before overcame me. Darkness and dazzling light alternately covered me, and I passed through a tunnel of foreignness. Finally, my senses returned to normal.

Weeing!

There was the Earth's atmosphere. A familiar texture wrapped around my skin — the cold air of early dawn. A member of the Optimus Guild was waiting outside the gate. He was surprised to see me wearing Gye Yong-Hwan's face.

"Oh, brother!"

Since the number of people able to enter was five, Gye Yong-hwan would have brought at least five. So, it was natural that there was one person aside from the four who entered. I looked around with sharp senses. He had asked for a backup, but none arrived yet, and he was all alone around here.

"How was the dungeon suddenly cleared?"

He made an expression as if he couldn't understand what was going on. He must've seen the message change from the outside. The status changed to 'clear,' and then the number of current people decreased from five to one. The information must have been shared with other guild members.

"Did all the rest die? What the hell is going on inside...ah!"

Swish!

I didn't hesitate to slay him with Gye Yong-hwan's sword.

Thump!

He instantly collapsed. I approached the bleeding body and used one of my skills.

[Penetration (Rank: E)!]

The structure of the internal board of the terminal that he had on his wrist was visible. The terminal is worn by hunters also acted as a black box. Since they came for the purpose of dungeon exploration, the video recording and sound recording functions must be running. I wrapped my feet with mana and stepped on his wrist.

Kzzzt!

The terminal was shattered. I checked that the video and voice recognition gadgets were completely shattered. However, in the meantime, I didn't forget to carefully control my mana to protect a storage device the size of a grain of dust. Now, whoever checked this terminal would see the scene where Gye Yong-hwan was, for some reason, coming out of the dungeon and killing the guild member who waited alone.

The dungeon was suddenly cleared, and Gye Yong-hwan returned alone. There was even an attempt to destroy evidence. It was obvious as to what kind of hypothesis would unfold.

'Gye Yong-Hwan obtained a lottery-level reward that didn't fit in an F-class dungeon that was cleared strangely. Instead of sharing it with the guild members, he bagged it for himself and disappeared.'

There was a reason why only Gye Yong-hwan wasn't caught despite the worldwide arrest order in the previous life. This was because of his desperate parents, who continuously supported him in the moment of crisis. Although he had been disowned a long time ago as he was reckless, he was their youngest son, and the relationship between blood was indeed thicker than water. They had the resources to hide a person under the radar of the arrest order. The reason why I left no loose ends was because of them.

'It is a different story, from the perspective of the parents.'

The remaining guild members or his parents would try to find Gye Yong-hwan's traces instead of wandering in search of a third person who may have been here. Or, as they disowned him until now, they wouldn't bother to question his whereabouts. Either way, to prepare for any situation, his belongings in my hand would create evidence that Gye Yong-hwan was still alive in a foreign country.

'I have to hurry.'

Other Optimus Guild members must be heading here, and I had no intention of having yet another rowdy battle. I held the key to the dungeon, which I carried around on my shoulders, with my hands. There were still a few months left before the dungeon collapsed, based on the previous life, but it may have had some effect since I had already cleared it. There was no guarantee that it would collapse at the same time as before.

Weeing!

When mana was concentrated in both hands, the key to the dungeon glowed blue—arranged along with the hoop-like circle frame, the twelve crystals that used to serve as handles sparkled. Each crystal fired a mana ray toward the center of the circle, and twelve blue rays passed through the empty circle to meet in the center.

Woong!

Then, horizontally, a cylinder of clear light swelled from the circle's center. The preparation was over.

'This is the first time I've closed it myself. It's obvious, though.'

I pushed the dungeon key forward and inserted it toward the gate. The pillar of light that extended to the front pierced through the swaying surface.

'To close a dungeon, it was counter-clockwise.'

I held the crystal with both hands and rotated it slowly as if I were a sailor turning the helm.

Dreuk! Dreuk!

All of the twelve crystals slowly rotated to the left. As that happened...

Rumble!

A swirling pattern appeared on the surface of the gate along the direction of rotation. It wasn't just the gate, but I felt the sense that all the surrounding space and the flow of mana swirled like a spinning top in the same direction along with the rotation of the key. It was the same as when I had observed it before.

'Yeah. It felt like this. It's been so long.'

It turned. The moisture of early morning air, the hazy sky, the few starlights about to disappear shyly, the sound of my breath, the wind that tickled my cheeks, the flow of mana burning around, and the boundary of the dimension connecting other worlds...

Everything turned along the direction of rotation of the key. Round and round. After turning it by hand, the key continued to turn in one direction as if it had been powered. The vortex on the gate surface also rotated faster. Even though the surrounding objects held their place firmly and stably, I felt the illusion that the gate was sucking in something. How long had it been like that?

'The size is reducing!'

The fluctuating gate surface was shrinking. As it turned round and round, the volume gradually decreased, and the bluish darkness at dawn was covered by a bright flash. After some time, it finally became as small as the size of the dungeon key.

Chak!

Cling!

As if the full bloom petals were folding in, the twelve crystals surrounding the circle were sequentially folded into the circle. The body that made such a perfect sphere disappeared as if it was sucked to somewhere in an instant. That was it.

'I closed it.'

Like it had all been a lie, there was nothing in the place where the gate had been.

'The gate is gone.'

The excitement and sense of accomplishment crept their way up. There would be no disaster in Gyeongwon City anymore. At that moment that I felt so proud...

Ring!

The terminal rang without giving me a moment to appreciate the feeling further.

'At such an early hour?'

Well, whatever the time was, I could clearly guess who the other person was. I looked at my wrist and read the message on the terminal. My eyes widened.