The wide-open sky had changed into a dreary, dark ceiling.
From here on, they were inside the dungeon.
The entrance to the dungeon they had come through was now closed.
The hunters of the raid party stepped inside the dungeon, wary of all sides.
Seo Yeongho, the raid leader guiding them, raised a hand.
“Everyone, halt!”
After stopping the raiding hunters in place, he looked around the dungeon.
This was an Incubus Dungeon.
As befitted a dungeon inhabited by them, it carried the feeling of cold darkness and shadowed desire.
It was deathly quiet, yet the marble walls and the beautiful ornaments covering them were more than enough to enchant the human heart.
‘So they really are dream demons.’
Just as they tempted people, the interior was thoroughly filled with beauty.
An old-looking chandelier hung from the dark ceiling.
“Is that pure gold?”
Looking at the chandelier glowing gold and adorned with all manner of jewels, Seo Yeongho muttered without realizing it.
The chandelier was certainly beautiful.
The flames burning upward were the only source of light illuminating the dungeon’s cold darkness, and even within that darkness, they shone brightly, light and shadow subtly mingling as if putting on a dance.
‘Ahh.’
The sight was utterly entrancing.
It was probably worth a fortune, too.
Come to think of it, there were many expensive items here.
Even the carpet spread across the floor looked luxurious, and the gold coins and jewels placed on the table were enough to bewitch people.
Even Seo Yeongho, the raid leader, had been thoroughly soaked in that beauty, so the hunters beneath him were no different.
“How much is all that worth?”
“This dungeon is seriously a jackpot!”
Everyone began to picture a hopeful future.
If they could clear this dungeon, all those goods would become theirs.
There were close to fifty hunters participating in this raid alone.
It was no small number, but this many valuables had been placed only at the very entrance of the dungeon.
Then just how incredible would the gold, silver, and treasures at the center of the dungeon be?
Even if he had to split the shares with the hunters here, the crumbs that fell to him would not be insignificant.
As everyone was becoming drenched in bright hope, Seo Yeongho barely managed to pull himself together.
“Everyone, focus! A single moment of carelessness means death!”
Seo Yeongho shouted, refreshing the atmosphere.
In any case, if they subjugated this dungeon, those things would naturally become theirs.
“All buff-type hunters, activate your skills!”
An unknown dungeon.
That meant they had no choice but to advance based on the advance party’s experience.
The advance party had also said that when they first entered this place, they had been captivated by the beautiful sight before them.
They said that was as far as their memories went.
If what they said was true, then soon the charm of the succubi and incubi would begin targeting them.
But the Firebird Guild’s hunters had prepared thoroughly this time.
First, they had either equipped artifacts with resistance properties against mind control and brainwashing, or hunters with relevant skills had cast buffs on them just now.
And that was not all.
They had even brought along a hunter capable of using the rare power of divine force, few in number as such hunters were.
This raid party was the result of the Firebird Guild’s determination to subjugate the dungeon no matter what.
Just looking at the situation now, they possessed enough strength to easily block an incubus’s charm.
The succubus was a variable, but they likely would not fall so easily.
A dungeon steeped in terrible beauty.
Seo Yeongho and the hunters slowly began to move forward.
“……”
But it was so quiet that it sent chills down their spines.
As if even sound itself had died in this space.
Seo Yeongho did not let his guard down and continued advancing.
Before long, a massive door appeared.
Luxurious patterns were drawn on the door, and the handle was made of gold like the chandelier.
First, one hunter stepped forward and lightly struck the handle with his sword.
Nothing happened.
After confirming that nothing had happened, Seo Yeongho grasped the handle and turned it.
Creeeeak.
The door opened with quite a loud noise.
Three hunters entered first through the opening.
They were rangers who took the lead and scouted within the dungeon.
Perhaps because nothing had happened until now, their tension had loosened.
The three rangers met their end the moment they stepped through the gap in the door without any caution.
Whoosh.
The sound of something swinging, along with the rush of wind.
Together with that sound, the bodies of the three rangers collapsed.
“Fuck!”
Someone spat out a curse.
Because three people had died right before his eyes.
Seo Yeongho, too, stared ahead to grasp the situation.
And soon, one being came into view.
“A Death… Knight!”
A Death Knight.
An A-rank monster had appeared.
“Why is a Death Knight here?!”
One of the raiding hunters cried out in despair.
Just as he said, none of them had imagined that a Death Knight would be here.
The advance party had clearly said there were incubi and one succubus ruling over them.
But a Death Knight?
Of course, a Death Knight was an A-rank monster, and half of the nearly fifty hunters gathered here were A-rank hunters.
However, there was one difference.
The traits possessed by the hunters gathered here would shine when dealing with succubi or incubi; they had never even considered dealing with a Death Knight.
That was why they could not help but be flustered by the current situation.
“C-Captain! Orders!”
They had to retreat immediately.
This place was absolutely not an Incubus Dungeon.
Suddenly, Seo Yeongho remembered what the detection-type hunter had said earlier.
He had said he could sense incubi, but not a succubus.
‘Hmm.’
Perhaps that hunter had been so focused on the succubus that he missed the Death Knight.
But in the advance party’s account, the words “Death Knight” had never appeared.
And even now, looking around, he could see incubi, but he could not sense the existence of a succubus.
‘Don’t tell me….’
The one who had led the advance party was the guildmaster’s second son, Jeong Ujin.
And his older brother, Jeong Taeyeong, held the position of vice guildmaster in the Firebird Guild.
Within the guild, Jeong Taeyeong and Jeong Ujin were known as brothers with a good relationship.
‘Was it all an act until now? Jeong Ujin…!’
Seo Yeongho clenched his fist tightly.
Unless all of this was Jeong Ujin’s scheme, it made no sense.
They had said there was a succubus in this dungeon, but in reality, they could not even see the shadow of one.
Instead, there was a Death Knight.
Because of that, they had focused only on countermeasures against the succubus and had never thought about a Death Knight.
All of this had been a fatal mistake caused by trusting only the advance party’s words.
And what reason would the advance party have for giving them false information?
‘He’s driving guild members to their deaths just to push out his own brother?’
The current raid party was the product of the vice guildmaster’s preparations under the guildmaster’s orders.
The amount of money poured into this raid party was beyond imagination.
What if the raid party achieved nothing?
That would actually be fortunate.
All he would have to do was bow his head for a while.
But what if the entire raid party was annihilated?
Then the story changed.
It was not just about money.
This was a raid party with numerous A-rank hunters participating. If they were wiped out, the Firebird Guild’s prestige would plummet in an instant.
If that happened, the ones who would suffer the greatest blow would be the guildmaster and the vice guildmaster.
At the same time, it was only natural that even more responsibility would fall on the vice guildmaster who had planned this raid.
If Jeong Taeyeong were driven out of the vice guildmaster position, who would be next?
It was obvious without even looking.
It was clear that Jeong Ujin had envied his older brother and tried to steal the vice guildmaster’s seat.
Come to think of it, it had made no sense from the very beginning.
How had the advance party returned alive from the dungeon, and how had none of them suffered life-threatening injuries?
But now he understood why.
‘The advance party never even came this far!’
They, too, had encountered nothing on their way here.
Only after they opened that huge door had the Death Knight appeared.
‘We were deceived. Thoroughly deceived!’
In a way, it was chilling.
The advance party must have grasped the dungeon’s current ecosystem through several reconnaissance trips.
And yet they had hidden it thoroughly and planned this.
He had to inform the guild of this fact at once.
Seo Yeongho immediately gave orders to the hunters.
“Everyone, retreat! Maintain formation and fall back little by little!”
A Death Knight was an A-rank monster.
No matter how unprepared the hunters were for a Death Knight, they were also A-rank.
That meant they would not be overwhelmingly pushed back by the Death Knight’s attacks.
And what made a Death Knight troublesome was something else entirely.
“Grrrr……”
The hunters who had lost their lives to the Death Knight’s attacks began moving again.
They were no longer human.
They had been reborn as ghouls by the Death Knight’s skill.
“Don’t break formation, and deal with the ghouls too!”
The moment several hunters approached to deal with the ghouls—
Boom!
Bababoom!
Boom, boom!
“What the hell happened?!”
“The ghouls self-destructed!”
The ghouls had begun exploding.
“Fuck! There’s a Lich!”
Seo Yeongho bit his lip.
It was the worst possible situation: a Lich existed here as well as a Death Knight.
A Lich used a skill called Corpse Explosion.
It was a monster that used a troublesome skill capable of detonating any undead-type monster lower in rank than itself.
Some people knew Liches as only being able to explode skeleton-type monsters, but that was incorrect.
It had merely been distorted that way because Liches mostly appeared in Skeleton Dungeons. In reality, Liches could explode all undead monsters, including ghouls.
In the current situation, the raid party hunters fell into panic.
The Death Knight in front continued swinging its sword.
Hunters sacrificed to the blade became ghouls, then self-destructed and exploded.
It was an utterly maddening situation.
“Those advance party bastards said it was a succubus!”
“Succubus, my ass! A Death Knight and Lich combination? We never heard anything about this!”
Thanks to that, they naturally began resenting the advance party.
“Pour divine force attacks onto the Death Knight!”
If there was at least one fortunate thing amid the misfortune, it was that they had a hunter capable of using divine force.
If their attacks worked properly, they might be able to bind the Death Knight, even if only for a moment.
A Death Knight possessed the attribute of darkness, and divine force, an attribute of light, was its opposite.
That was why Seo Yeongho gave orders to some of the hunters.
The small number of hunters who received the order poured out pure white light.
However—
“What is that…?”
The Death Knight did not budge.
No, all of the divine force attacks were blocked by the shield it had raised.
“A maid outfit…?”
A maid outfit was attached to the shield raised by the Death Knight.
It was truly bizarre.
At the same time, every hunter lost the will to fight.
“Don’t try to maintain formation! Focus only on surviving, no matter what!”
Seo Yeongho cried out desperately.
Right now, the important thing was for even one person to escape this bizarre place alive.
They had to survive and relay information about this dungeon.
That this place was hell.
* * *
The Lich was holding a thick book.
It was the Inspector’s Notebook.
Even at this moment, when hunters had invaded, the Lich did not stop recording.
All it did was use a skill to explode the hunters the Death Knight killed once they transformed into ghouls.
“How is it, Lord Lich? This fragrant oil is extremely luxurious and gives the body a pleasant scent.”
As Azmo said that, he was applying oil to the Lich’s bones.
He brushed every gap between the bones without leaving a single spot untouched.
The Lich nodded.
“I am delighted that it seems to your liking. If it is you, Lord Lich, you are always welcome. Please stop by this place whenever you have time.”
At Azmo’s words, the Lich nodded again. At the same time, the Lich’s hand moved.
- This place has no faults to be found.
It was the moment Azmo’s dungeon was recorded by Inspector Lich.
As he oiled the Lich’s bones, Azmo could only marvel inwardly.
‘To think not only Lady Celia, but all of them are that strong.’
At the same time, he even felt reverence for that great being.
‘That person truly is my master. I can entrust everything I have to him.’
Azmo made up his mind.
* * *
- You have successfully supported the dungeon “Temptation of Illusions.”
- You have successfully repelled the intruders.
- You have successfully completed the additional mission.
- You may purchase the Lich’s Promotion Perk Package once.
- Azmo, master of the dungeon “Temptation of Illusions,” offers his dungeon to Master.
- You have become the first ruler to possess dungeons in two separate dimensions.
- You have acquired the trait “True Master of the Dungeon (EX).”
- Due to this trait, the following systems will be opened.
[Dungeon Monster Level-Up System] (Locked)
[Dungeon Monster Enhancement System] (Locked)
My smartphone suddenly began spewing out notifications in a frenzy.
I roughly checked the contents of the notifications and put the smartphone into my pocket.
Right now, I was inside a dungeon.
It was a dungeon I had come to in order to measure Maru’s combat power.
I wanted to check the notifications that had popped up one by one, too, but I couldn’t.
“Maru, get ready.”
A single mana wave I had been sensing for a while now.
At first, I had been uncertain.
But by now, I could be sure.
“Let’s clean out the rat first.”
It was time to get rid of the bastard who had been following behind me all this time.