49
It didn't take much for the dramatic encounter to twist into tragedy.
"Keugh?!"
"S-Senior?!"
"Why are you suddenly doing this!!"
Despite the desperate cries of Strategy Team 2, Lee Da-young's whip flew mercilessly toward the members.
Lee Da-young's whip, like a living creature, freely changed direction at timings that seemed impossible to bend, and with a single swing, subdued all three deserters possessed by evil spirits.
'So this is a true High-Rank Hunter...'
Countless deaths followed before becoming accustomed to the speed of a Goblin Warrior. After such a process, having finally grown accustomed to that speed and thinking she could now track most things with her eyes, she realized just how great her arrogance had been.
"I don't think I'm in a position to say this, but aren't you trusting me too much?"
"Don't misunderstand. What I trust isn't you, but our Guild Master who trusts you."
She said she didn't trust her but trusted Guild Master Hong Ik-hyun who trusted her, but honestly, I couldn't tell what difference there was between the two.
"For now you've subdued them, but could I get an explanation of exactly what the situation is?"
"Yes."
Baek Woo-jin explained what he had seen—the faces of evil spirits overlapping on top of their faces.
"Then what about now?"
"It's the same now as well."
"That is certainly a bit unusual."
In cases of possession by ghosts—that is, commonly ghost-type monsters—it was generally the case that disabling the possessed body would release the possession.
However, the members before them, though clearly unconscious by anyone's estimation, were enduring without the evil spirits separating from their bodies. As if there was a mission they absolutely had to fulfill with those very bodies.
"You over there—no. As Hunter Baek Woo-jin said, these were the deserters."
While searching through the pockets of the unconscious men, Lee Da-young discovered intact flares and immediately shot them up into the darkening night sky.
"This would be amazing to use in a normal dungeon."
"It's actually a useful item when mass-hunting as well."
Baek Woo-jin looked up at the small sun that instantly lit up the sky and nodded. Seeing something like that, one couldn't help but be convinced.
"Is it expensive?"
"Worth 20 regular flares."
Lee Da-young found flares in the other two's pockets as well and tossed them all to Baek Woo-jin.
"If we make it out alive, I'll give you a few more, so just keep doing what you're doing now."
"Leave it to me."
Even without that, he had planned to do his best to get out of this creepy dungeon as quickly as possible.
"More importantly, what do you plan to do with these people?"
Honestly speaking, if they were complete strangers, killing them would have been the cleanest method. However, though they were meeting for the first time, they were undeniably talents belonging to the Hongryeon Guild, so he held his tongue.
"If no follow-up personnel arrive before that light goes out, I'll break all their ankles."
In a dungeon where other threatening monsters appeared, this could actually be a crueler choice than killing them directly, but based on what they'd seen while roaming around, they judged that no monsters other than evil spirits existed in this dungeon.
Even the evil spirits, for whatever purpose, didn't try to harm the bodies they possessed and tried to head toward the snow mountain, so if their ankles were broken, they would be able to safely breathe the outside air alive if the dungeon was successfully cleared before they froze to death.
Crack!!
When Lee Da-young swung her whip, the trees in the area snapped like straws and collapsed.
Having instantly turned over ten intact trees into logs, Lee Da-young used her whip to trap the unconscious members within them.
'No one came after all.'
When the small sun floating in the night sky disappeared, Lee Da-young climbed without hesitation onto the logs she had stacked and used her whip to crush all the members' ankles.
"But if we leave and follow-up personnel arrive, things might get a bit tangled up. Is that okay?"
"That's why I built that wall. It's an inverted triangle, right?"
"It is an inverted triangle."
When she wasn't conscious of it, she hadn't noticed, but looking again after hearing Lee Da-young's words, the log wall she had built indeed formed an inverted triangle shape.
"It's like a code from our side saying don't touch them."
As expected of a large guild, it seemed they had manuals prepared for situations like this.
"Then let's set off again."
Baek Woo-jin's party, with Lee Da-young at the lead, walked toward the snow mountain once more.
"Hahh, hahh!"
"Young lady. Just hang in there a little more."
Perhaps because of the information that the evil spirit-possessed members were heading toward the snow mountain, Lee Da-young's pace was much faster than before, and Hong Yeon-ha, who already seemed to have reached her physical limits, started panting as if she was about to breathe her last.
"I'll carry her. Since being with Hong Yeon-ha-ssi means there's no chance of being possessed by evil spirits, there shouldn't be a big problem."
"Then please do so."
Baek Woo-jin positioned his halberd behind him to create a support for Hong Yeon-ha to ride on comfortably and knelt on one knee on the ground.
"Phew, n-next time... it'll be different..."
"I understand, so just hurry up and get on."
Hong Yeon-ha glared at the back of Baek Woo-jin's head for a moment before gently climbing onto his back.
"Is it okay if I increase the speed a bit?"
"About twice the current pace should be fine."
"Alright. Then I'll run from here on. Young lady, please pay a bit more attention to managing the fire."
"I know, so just run!"
Lee Da-young immediately ran toward the snow mountain direction, and Baek Woo-jin followed closely behind.
"What if there are traps?"
"Just do this."
Whoosh──!!
Lee Da-young's whip, wrapped in blue light, extended forward as she ran, instantly destroying the surrounding terrain, and she repeated this process continuously.
'She's crazy.'
As long as one was human, one would inevitably tire eventually. From that perspective, Lee Da-young's actions were extremely reckless, but considering only the speed of pushing forward, there was no more efficient action than this.
Thanks to Lee Da-young, after advancing while destroying all the hidden traps, Baek Woo-jin's party covered nearly half the remaining distance in just one hour and arrived in front of the snow mountain.
"Are you okay?"
"Phew, I can manage."
She was a bit short of breath, but not to the point where she couldn't endure.
"From here, we'll have no choice but to walk up."
The snow mountain, which wasn't just for show, was accessible at its base, and above it, snow was piled high at an incredible height.
If they ran while destroying everything like they did in the forest, it looked like the perfect setup to get swept away by an avalanche and bid farewell to this world.
"The fire's going out."
"Can't be helped."
The branches they were holding had finally burned away completely, and darkness rushed over us as if it had been waiting.
Crackle!
Of course, Hong Yeon-ha immediately produced flames with her left hand and quickly drove it away.
"Hunter Lee Da-young."
"What is it?"
Baek Woo-jin pointed to the right, and Hong Yeon-ha reached her hand in that direction to illuminate the surroundings. Then, traces of someone having passed appeared on the thickly accumulated snow.
It wasn't at an angle that could be confirmed with the naked eye, but since Baek Woo-jin possessed expanded senses, he was able to discover it without missing it.
"If we head up this way, at least we know something will come out if anything does."
Lee Da-young took the lead, and Baek Woo-jin, carrying Hong Yeon-ha on his back, followed behind at a slight distance. And about halfway up the snow mountain—
"This time it's a cleric."
When they pulled out the person half-buried in the snow, the middle-aged man who had already become deceased was wearing a pure white robe with six pairs of wings engraved in relief.
"No external wounds, but there are traces of vomiting blood around the mouth. What do you think?"
"Possessed by an evil spirit, but rejection reaction? Something like that. It seems the body couldn't withstand it and collapsed on its own."
"Excellent. I had the same thought."
Our conversation ended there. Because as they neared the summit, traces heading upward were discovered in various places.
Thus, at the fastest possible speed, breaking through the snow that swallowed up to their thighs, they reached the summit and were finally able to discover it.
صشؤةتغػ
At the highest hill of the summit, a figure wearing a pressed black robe muttering something in an incomprehensible language, and a woman in a prayer posture surrounded by a semi-transparent barrier in front of them.
And countless corpses spread around the woman, and men and women in familiar outfits still continuing to approach her.
Whoosh──!!
Having finished assessing the situation, Lee Da-young's whip tore apart everything around it and extended toward the figure wearing the black robe. However, Lee Da-young's whip didn't reach its target.
Just before it could reach the figure wearing the black robe, a black energy current rising from beneath its feet blocked Lee Da-young's whip.
"Take care of the young lady."
Before even hearing the response from this side, Lee Da-young charged toward the figure wearing the black robe.
Boom!!
In an instant, Lee Da-young's whip, having closed the distance, flew toward the existence that appeared to be the mastermind behind all this at tremendous speed, but each time, it was all blocked by the black energy current rising from beneath its feet.
"Damn it... Our luck really is shit."
Hong Yeon-ha, who had been carried on Baek Woo-jin's back, came down and nervously chewed her fingernails.
"If you know something, say it now."
Upon recognizing that the situation was turning serious, Baek Woo-jin's original personality also popped out.
"Have you heard of a Linked Dungeon?"
"No."
Click!
"What the hell do you even know?"
"Don't get excited and just explain calmly."
"Hah!!"
Hong Yeon-ha roughly swept her bangs up with her hand, whose thumbnail she had bitten off and was bleeding.
"A Linked Dungeon is simply put, a Hidden Dungeon. A Hidden Dungeon with ridiculously high difficulty but generous rewards. And when you successfully clear it, it gives you a key to enter the next dungeon that continues the story. That's why it's called a Linked Dungeon. Got it?"
"Confirmed."
In other words, it was saying this was a dungeon even more difficult than Theme Dungeons, which already had much higher difficulty than normal ones.
In other words, it was like winning the lottery and absolutely having to claim the prize money, but to claim that prize money, you had to boldly trample over armed robbers waiting at the bank's front entrance to steal your winning ticket.
"Hong Yeon-ha."
"I'm thinking, so don't talk to me!"
Instead of talking, Baek Woo-jin pulled Hong Yeon-ha's waist tightly.
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
"Just stay still."
Baek Woo-jin, tucking Hong Yeon-ha under his arm, with his halberd hanging from his right hand, charged toward the woman offering prayers within the semi-transparent barrier.