As soon as the sun rose, Kwon Taehan naturally opened his eyes. He clearly had not slept properly in the first place. Blankly blinking a few times, he asked with obvious confusion on his face,
“Morning?”
I quietly looked at him and answered,
“Yeah.”
Kwon Taehan got up a beat late. And the first thing he saw was probably not the completely ruined world beyond the window, but the massive Status Window filling his vision.
“Seo Jehyun” could not see it, but “I,” who was both the current me and an observer watching this situation, could.
Warning!
Objective completion rate is decreasing.
Save the world from destruction!
Kwon Taehan hurriedly pushed himself upright.
“Something, wait... wait a second. Something’s wrong, this isn’t right....”
Muttering to himself repeatedly, Kwon Taehan gathered up the artifacts scattered across the floor with trembling hands.
Kuuung—!
At that moment, a massive shockwave rang through the entire city. Kwon Taehan’s gaze slowly turned outside the window.
The sun hanging in the center of the sky exposed the city’s true state without mercy. Completely collapsed buildings, destroyed bridges, ruined roads, cars overturned and piled together at random, tiny figures of fallen people scattered everywhere.
As always, recognizing reality was painful.
At least for people like Kwon Taehan.
“What...? I don’t know what happened.”
“.......”
“What is this...?”
Kwon Taehan tightly clenched the hand pressed against the window. His short-cut nails scraped against the glass, producing an unpleasant sound. Slowly widening eyes met mine.
“Want to go check? It looks dangerous.”
“.......”
Emotion instantly flooded Kwon Taehan’s eyes. I could predict it already. Distrust, suspicion, resentment perhaps?
‘Doesn’t matter.’
The objective had already been achieved anyway.
Kwon Taehan and I headed toward the area where the Dungeon Break had occurred. The roads were broken apart in places, so getting there took considerable effort, but somehow we still managed to reach the starting point of the Dungeon Break.
It just took a little longer.
Once we arrived, the personnel mobilized to contain the Dungeon Break had gathered there. It seemed a major battle had just ended, and they had temporarily paused combat for an operations meeting.
The Hunters pouring potions over themselves all looked utterly wrecked.
The moment Kwon Taehan stepped into the area, countless gazes locked onto him simultaneously. The noisy operation site instantly fell silent.
Not that Kwon Taehan was in any position to pay attention to them.
“Dungeon Break....”
As Kwon Taehan muttered to himself, one Hunter strode quickly toward him. It was a familiar face.
A Haeseong Hunter around the same age who had coordinated combat with Kwon Taehan several times before.
“Where were you? Yesterday! Everyone was searching everywhere for you. Didn’t you hear the broadcasts?”
“.......”
“...Forget it. There’s no point arguing about that now anyway.”
Faint resentment lingered in the Hunter’s eyes as he spoke. But at the same time, they probably felt some relief too. Just Kwon Taehan’s appearance alone cut the tension hanging over the place by more than half.
You could tell just by observing.
In reality, it did not matter how valuable Kwon Taehan truly was. Simply having an “S-rank Hunter” present boosted morale by its existence alone.
Though apparently Kwon Taehan himself did not realize that.
The Hunter quickly explained the situation to him.
“First, our guild master is inside the Dungeon right now. Have you heard the explanation about the Dungeon?”
“...Explanation?”
“The Dungeon has a special structure. They said it occurred almost simultaneously worldwide, but they’re all the same Dungeon. The interiors are connected. There are just multiple entrances.”
At those words, Kwon Taehan’s eyes snapped toward me. Confusion once again surfaced on his face. He was probably terrified that the explanation I gave yesterday matched the actual situation perfectly.
Instead of meeting his eyes, I checked my equipment and put on gloves meant to enhance physical reinforcement. This time, there was no possibility of raising my personal rank just by sticking close to Kwon Taehan.
In other words, entering the Gate itself felt a little burdensome.
Even while Kwon Taehan stared only at me, the Hunter continued speaking.
“I think you’ll need to confront the Dungeon Boss inside rather than trying to stop the Break outside. Hunter Tae already entered as well.”
“.......”
“Hunter Kwon?”
Even when his name was called, Kwon Taehan’s gaze remained fixed on me and refused to move.
In the end, Kwon Taehan and I entered the Dungeon. The inside was suffocatingly quiet. I already knew what kind of Dungeon this was.
Kwon Taehan was probably checking the Status Window right now.
Even though he knew it was meaningless.
Thankfully, if Kwon Taehan remembered everything, that weak mind of his would probably have shattered into pieces and driven him insane by now.
And if that happened......
things would become troublesome.
The black sand crunching beneath my feet felt familiar. The sun was absent, yet the sky was excessively bright.
Because of the three moons hanging above.
Though honestly, even considering there were three moons, it was still unnaturally bright.
Fine grains of sand softly brushed against the soles of my shoes.
Then—
“Hunter Kwon...! Hunter, it’s you, right?”
A Hunter whose lower body had sunk deep into the black sand like a swamp, with only the upper half exposed above the surface, happily called out to Kwon Taehan.
“Please save me! The Dungeon keeps catching fire periodically, so it’s hard to avoid it. And the Dungeon Boss is dangerous too.... I’m scared night will come.”
“It’s still... morning.”
“No! That’s not what I mean. The Dungeon Boss keeps creating night.”
The Hunter’s eyes reddened as they rambled endlessly about the Dungeon. They seemed strangely excited from the heat.
Or maybe they had already lost their mind.
‘Already done for.’
The crazed Hunter stretched out an arm toward Kwon Taehan.
“Please pull me out.... Hehe.”
“Ah, okay. Just a second.”
Kwon Taehan tightly grabbed the Hunter’s hand and tried pulling slightly before freezing.
I forcibly pried Kwon Taehan’s hand away and let the entire body fall back down.
“.......”
“Let’s go. You know it’s impossible anyway.”
I did not know how they had survived this long, but there was no hope left. Kwon Taehan had not been surprised because the body was heavy.
Rather, it was the opposite.
The Hunter, unaware even that the lower half of the body was gone, stared at me resentfully as though unable to understand after I slapped the hand away, before pitching forward face-first.
After that, they never moved again.
Kwon Taehan’s hand trembled faintly.
The golden time for clearing the Dungeon had already passed. There had been too many Gates, which meant too many Dungeon Breaks.
Kwon Taehan knew that too, yet said nothing.
In the distance, an abnormally massive figure became visible. One hand held the reins of a horse, while the other stretched toward this place.
‘Selene.’
The goddess of the moon.
With a single motion of Selene’s hand, the entire land burst into flames.
Whoosh....
The instant we were engulfed in fire, Kwon Taehan hurriedly turned toward me. Without a word, I activated a Skill.
Torrential Rain (A) has been activated.
The rain falling from the sky evaporated before even touching the heat, but it was still better than before. Kwon Taehan had fire resistance anyway, so he would be fine.
He swallowed hard while staring at Selene.
“The Dungeon Boss....”
“Yeah.”
The heat carried by the distant wind brushed against my face. Just as my attention was stolen by the flames burning through the sand in an instant, Selene’s hand moved.
Following the direction of Selene’s chariot, the sky gradually darkened.
Night had come.
As the Dungeon sky that had been bright as day darkened, the burning moons became even more vivid. The gigantic silver moons almost seemed intent on reminding us this place was unreal.
Even Kwon Taehan had his attention stolen by them.
And beneath that moonlight, the lifeforms hidden within the sand awakened and writhed into motion.
Paaak—!
A gigantic centipede erupted directly beneath our feet and lunged toward Kwon Taehan.
Only to be swallowed by flames and crash to the ground.
But the truly dangerous thing was that “night” granted them regenerative abilities. The creature writhing beneath the flames eventually turned into black ash once the fire died down......
and then the torn pieces of flesh began twitching separately.
Kwon Taehan gritted his teeth and kicked the chunks away.
Countless lifeforms were approaching from directly ahead. Monsters resembling mutated lions, grotesque insect-shaped creatures, even things resembling the kelpie we had seen before.
All of them charged forward at once to devour living beings from outside the Dungeon.
Kiiieeeek—!
Blazing Flames (S) has been activated.
Whoosh!
The flames erupting instantly from Kwon Taehan’s hands stretched far into the distance and covered the land. They were clearly different from the flames created by Selene.
Even beneath the moonlight, the blazing red fire swallowed the Dungeon creatures in an instant.
Crackle, crack, crack....
Yet even after sweeping across the entire land, their lives regenerated once more beneath the moonlight and continued drawing closer.
I quickly abandoned any thought of acting independently and focused on supporting Kwon Taehan instead.
‘Binding only.’
Our elemental compatibility was terrible anyway, and no matter how large the gap in Skills was, I did not want to weaken Kwon Taehan’s power.
I pulled out Binding equipment and restrained the legs of one of the larger creatures, dragging it downward.
Jiiiiik—.
-Grrrk.
The creature dragged over instantly lost its shape within the flames. Whenever the defensive line weakened due to offense, I reinforced only those areas.
I slammed my fist hard into the head of a creature dragged over through Binding.
Thud!
Perhaps because of the gloves enhancing physical strength, the creature’s outer shell caved inward and thick fluid oozed out.
Without hesitation, I kicked the creature away.
Paaat, craaack!
Its body split into two writhing halves before burning away completely.
But no matter how many of these things we killed, it meant nothing unless Selene herself was defeated.
I lifted my gaze toward the three brilliantly shining moons and smiled.
The battle refused to end.
How much time had passed?
Light was gradually returning once again in the distance. A full night had finally passed within this enormous space.
At last, Selene became visible again far away.
Perhaps sensing something instinctively, Kwon Taehan stopped fighting and began running toward Selene.
The sky had brightened anyway, making further resistance meaningless. Unable to regenerate anymore, the severed monsters writhed pitifully before dying.
And then—
a voice covering this endlessly vast land rang out.
-Stop!
Not a sound heard with the ears, but one driven directly into the mind.
‘Selene.’
The “god,” having released the reins, pointed at Kwon Taehan and spoke once more.
-Stop.
And with those words, an enormous Status Window covered the entire land.
system: Stop.
Witnessing that gigantic Status Window, Kwon Taehan came to an abrupt halt.
Then the Status Window changed instantly.
Save the world from destruction!
Save the world from destruction!
Quest Failed!