Part 2
'If it's a labyrinth, they could’ve at least told me it was a labyrinth!'
Had his eyes not suddenly failed him, the documents had clearly stated it was an ordinary dungeon.
A labyrinth dungeon.
Jonghyeon had a rough understanding of labyrinth dungeons.
He had heard that in rare cases, the exit of a labyrinth dungeon was not where one entered, requiring one to find it like a maze, or that the exit location changed frequently.
'There were people who starved to death because they couldn't find the exit....... Should I just try walking forward for now?'
Jonghyeon gave up on finding the exit and began walking forward carefully.
What other choice did he have?
At the very least, it felt like a much wiser decision than standing still.
For a while, Jonghyeon walked forward like that, but in this straight passageway with no other paths, everything held its breath and made not a single sound except for his footsteps.
'Huu.......what?'
Jonghyeon wondered if the team that had entered before him had taken care of the monsters to some extent, but he soon shook his head and dismissed the thought.
'If that were the case, there would be monster corpses.'
Had about thirty minutes passed?
He wanted to check the exact time, but he couldn't.
Because his phone and watch had completely stopped working.
They seemed too intact to be broken; rather, they appeared to be interacting with the dungeon in some way.
'Damn it.'
As he walked, constantly looking his watch over this way and that, something began to come into Jonghyeon's view.
He could immediately tell what it was.
It was a fork in the road.
Iron-barred gates guarded the entrance of each path.
Walking a bit further to check, a signboard caught his eye in front of the barred gates.
The content written on the signboard had no explanation whatsoever—only exactly two words were written.
[Room of Training]
[Room of Items]
'Just what is this.......'
Crackle-crackle.
A small sound approached from behind.
Jonghyeon reflexively turned around, and the only passageway he had walked down was gleaming.
It was a blazing, flickering fire, slowly approaching from the passageway he had walked all this way to where Jonghyeon now stood!
'So I can't go back either?'
An ordinary person would have opened any door and entered as the flames approached, but Jonghyeon was cautious instead.
If he panicked and took random actions in this situation, all the consequences that followed would be his own responsibility.
As if having finished his thoughts, Jonghyeon nodded once.
Then he quickly opened one of the barred gates and swiftly moved inside to avoid the fire that had reached his back.
The moment Jonghyeon crossed the gate, the flames chasing him disappeared like magic.
What Jonghyeon had chosen was the Room of Training.
'Because there’s no need to go out of my way to acquire a new item.'
The many magic weapons circulating in the world.
Jonghyeon’s firm belief was that among them, nothing was as comfortable as a weapon he was used to.
Moreover, his weapon was an item into which he had invested all the money he had earned while working his second job all this time.
As if to prove his own thoughts, Jonghyeon lightly grasped the short sword at his waist.
More than anything, the decisive reason he hadn’t chosen the Room of Items was:
'The mark below.'
The mark where the floor had been scraped as the iron bars opened was evidence that someone who had preceded Jonghyeon had already passed that way.
'There’s nothing stupider than going somewhere someone has already entered.'
Even if there were items left there, he didn’t care.
Because he couldn’t guarantee they were weapons that suited him.
No, the odds were higher that they wouldn’t.
Because among the weapons that came out of dungeons, there had never been a short sword until now.
He remained wary of his surroundings, but aside from Jonghyeon’s footsteps, no sound could be heard in the passageway.
After walking for a while like that, what came into view was a wooden swinging door.
'What is it this time.'
Jonghyeon reflexively tried to worry about it, but upon thinking, there was nothing to worry about.
If he didn’t open this door right now, there was nothing else he could do.
Jonghyeon swallowed once and carefully opened the swinging door.
"Th......this can't be!"
Jonghyeon couldn’t help but exclaim out loud.
Swords, spears, shields, axes, blades, halberds, and so on.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that all the weapons visible in the world had been gathered here.
'Room of Training. And weapons.'
Even as a veteran, Jonghyeon wore an expression that said he couldn’t figure out this dungeon’s intention.
And suddenly, Jonghyeon’s eyes spotted a short sword among the many, many weapons.
Short swords had so few users in the current era that the weapon itself was difficult to find.
'Oho. So there’s even a short sword.'
Looking was fine, speaking was fine—there was no problem at all.
Then it was certain he had to do something with these weapons!
However, since he didn’t know what or how, Jonghyeon picked up the short sword he was most familiar with.
Sure enough. The moment Jonghyeon picked up the weapon, all the lights in the room went out and the weapons began disappearing like magic.
Ultimately, all weapons except the short sword in Jonghyeon’s hand disappeared.
At the same time, Jonghyeon reflexively began to survey his surroundings.
'It’s as if the dungeon is alive. Truly bizarre. This thing called a dungeon system.'
However, the dungeon, which seemed like anything could happen, merely changed its lighting to red and illuminated only three doors.
[Room of Fire]
[Room of Lightning]
[Room of Darkness]
Since the material itself was wooden doors, unlike before, he couldn't see behind them.
Naturally, worry followed in Jonghyeon’s mind.
As Jonghyeon looked at the Room of Training divided by door colors, that familiar sound began to reach his ears again.
'I think I know even without turning around now.'
Crackle-crackle!
Choices may be free, but time was not!
Jonghyeon couldn't stop worrying until the fire had come quite close.
But since standing still would obviously roast his back, he had no choice but to stop deliberating and open one of the doors.
Lightning.
It was Jonghyeon’s choice.
He couldn't withstand fire.
Fighting something of the fire attribute with his current body?
Jonghyeon had overcome the physical limits of humans to some extent, but he had no confidence against fire.
Electricity, on the other hand, was somewhat possible.
Among the dungeons Jonghyeon had cleared before, there was one with a trap to avoid electricity.
Since he hadn't been a veteran at the time, he had taken quite a lot of electric current.
But Jonghyeon, who had quickly focused qi throughout his entire body, didn't die even under fairly high-voltage current.
It hurt enough to kill him, though.
Jonghyeon’s choice was based on experience.
Entering through the blue door, Jonghyeon found it quite annoying that he had to walk forward again, but he moved his feet while thinking about how to deal with lightning.
However, he didn't see that the door behind him had turned black.
★ ★ ★
Had Jonghyeon walked forward for about five minutes?
The entrance to a square room came into view.
'That’s the place.'
The place, about the size of two neighborhood convenience stores put together, was covered in dark-colored stone unlike the passageway from before, and the lighting was quite dim.
'If I don't focus qi in my eyes, I won't be able to see properly.'
By focusing qi in his eyes, he could distinguish objects to some degree even in dark environments.
Jonghyeon had instinctively realized this skill and had been making good use of it since long ago.
When he focused qi in his eyes like that, the first thing to catch his eye was a stone statue.
A giant stone statue, about 2 meters in size, was looking toward Jonghyeon, and—
Zing—
light entered its eyes.
'Light? Huh?'
Before he could say anything, the statue suddenly manifested a spear and began charging at Jonghyeon!
'What lies at the end that...'
This dungeon, which seemed to possess intelligence, was different from ordinary labyrinth dungeons as well.
Even veteran Jonghyeon felt a hint of fear.
And more than anything.
Clang!
'This statue monster is no ordinary one!'
The statue monster right before his eyes was the problem.
The weapon the statue wielded happened to be a spear, and its long reach made fighting with a short sword disadvantageous; moreover, the space wasn't wide, so there were few places to dodge.
Nor was the statue's reaction speed slow enough for him to recklessly close in.
Wounds began to accumulate on Jonghyeon’s body.
Just grazing his legs and forearms with the spear thrusts he couldn't avoid left quite deep wounds.
Even the short sword he had taken from that room earlier was already beginning to chip considerably.
The speed of the statue's spear thrusts was, surprisingly, similar to the speed at which he swung his short sword.
Shhk!
'Tch. That one was really dangerous.'
Jonghyeon reflexively avoided the spear that grazed past his shoulder, but he got another scrape.
The pattern of the spear was visible. But even though he could see it, the tremendous speed made it difficult to do anything.
But if he kept fighting with bleeding wounds accumulating like this, he would undoubtedly tire out more.
'I don't like gambling, but...'
First, he needed to conduct one experiment.
Whether his own short sword could be used too.
His own short sword quickly grazed past the statue's waist.
Swish—
In this experiment, Jonghyeon had staked his life once, and as a result, he learned that his own short sword could be used too.
He had been inwardly worried that his own weapon might not work, but it cut properly into the statue.
Moreover, the statue unexpectedly even appeared to feel pain and be flustered by Jonghyeon’s attack.
'Calculations complete. One shot.'
After several exchanges of patterns, the statue brought its spear down hard on Jonghyeon from above.
Right at the timing when the statue swung and struck down with the spear.
At that timing, Jonghyeon quickly rolled backward and threw the short sword he had picked up in the room earlier at the statue.
Then the statue, appearing quite flustered, stepped back, grabbed the end of the spear, and quickly raised it upward to barely knock away the short sword Jonghyeon had thrown.
'Now!'
Having decided to use the gap when the spear shaft went up, Jonghyeon infused his exhausted legs with one last burst of qi and dashed behind the statue.
Around the time the thrown short sword bounced and lodged in the ceiling, the statue, having lost sight of Jonghyeon, tried to turn around following his movement.
But that small gap was the end.
Sshhk!
Jonghyeon, who had already gotten behind the statue, caught the spear shaft that the statue had raised with his left hand.
And just like that, he was stabbing the statue's heart with his own short sword.
Jonghyeon’s short sword pierced the statue's heart very smoothly, and the statue stopped moving immediately.
'I was thinking of cutting off its head, you know.'
The heart was the weakness of almost all monsters in dungeons, just like humans.
Of course, almost all creatures died if beheaded, but occasionally zombies or skeletons moved even after their heads were cut off.
In those cases, one had to find and stab the heart.
A confirmed kill was more advantageous at the heart.
Jonghyeon’s short sword was imbued with magic.
He hadn't known exactly what magic it was because it was described in magic terminology, but in any case, it could cut anything very sharply, and the edge wouldn't chip.
And the most important option—magic resistance.
As long as it wasn't magic of a higher class than the magic imbued in the sword, it could deflect most magic.
That alone was enough for Jonghyeon.
Magic was the greatest terror for an assassin like himself.
'And there's no magic stone either.'
He dissected the statue on the off chance, but nothing came out.
There was a door behind where the statue had first stood.
When Jonghyeon opened it, he saw stairs in the same passageway style as before, leading downward.
'I really want to get out of here now.'
He had no sense of how many hours had passed since entering.
Jonghyeon suddenly felt irritated at this dungeon system that wouldn't let him turn back.
Just as he was about to pass through that door.
-Ding! You have defeated the Stone Chamber Gatekeeper.
-As a reward, you have acquired the skill 〈Bright Eyes in the Dark〉.
When an unknown woman's voice was heard, Jonghyeon wore a rather bewildered expression.
Skill?
Skills were things that existed only in games to begin with.
For him, who wasn't even dreaming, to hear the word skill...
Curious about what had changed, Jonghyeon checked by stretching and making a fuss, but nothing about him had changed.
'What was that just now.'
Since there was no way back anyway, Jonghyeon had to move forward.
He felt it was somewhat unfair, but what good would it do to lament to a dungeon?
Then.
From the path leading underground, all the lights inside the dungeon went out!
Jonghyeon, quite flustered, quickly tried to focus qi in his eyes, but—
'So this is the skill's ability.'
Jonghyeon could tell even without an explanation.
That this was a skill.
It was fascinating that he could see his surroundings despite the absence of light.
Only now did Jonghyeon feel tremendous wonder at this thing called a skill.
Of course, his desire to get out remained unchanged.
How many minutes did he descend the stairs?
The passageway was shorter than Jonghyeon expected, and he quickly arrived below.
At the same time, having witnessed an incredible sight, Jonghyeon couldn't close his mouth.
---------= Afterword ---------=
I got scammed by the door!