“Krr-r-r-rok!”
A painful roar echoed through the desolate forest.
The Ganghudeo’s sharp claws struck the front-line Hunter’s shield, sending sparks flying, but the monster was quickly neutralized by the party members’ organic cooperation.
Lightning-fast and keen sword strikes slammed into the Ganghudeo’s body repeatedly. Even the thick scales that had once seemed so solid were useless against such a perfect, coordinated attack.
In an instant, three Ganghudeo collapsed onto the cold ground with desperate screams. The dark red blood flowing from their struggling bodies eerily stained the yellowish earth around them.
‘Clean.’
Sang-woong muttered quietly to himself.
Ji-hoon Kim’s party was still as powerful and efficient as they had been during the days when he had served with them before his retirement.
“Good! No injuries, right? Keep moving forward!”
Ji-hoon called out briefly, leading the party.
They headed toward the depths of the dungeon, following the direction where the faint energy of the Dungeon Core emanated. They advanced without hesitation along an unknown path they had never set foot on before.
The atmosphere was better than ever. They continued their progress, handling the groups of Ganghudeo they encountered with mechanical precision and ease.
Whether it was two or three, or even five attacking at once, they posed no great threat to Ji-hoon’s party.
The Ganghudeo generally attacked with simple patterns, and the veteran Hunters easily evaded or blocked them before suppressing the beasts in an instant.
Sang-woong followed behind, providing moderate support for the party members’ battles. He had no intention of revealing his true strength just yet.
He merely watched as Ji-hoon’s party safely continued their hunt, preparing for any eventuality—specifically, ‘that moment’ from his past life.
His sharp gaze swept through every dark corner of the forest, scanning beneath the bare tree trunks and into the crevices of rocks.
Although he was on a familiar path that he had already experienced through regression, he could not afford to let his guard down for even a single moment until the terrible trap from his memories appeared.
The hunt was extremely smooth, and the team’s morale soared higher and higher with each successive success. Their hearts grew as full as their backpacks, which were becoming heavy with Mana Stones.
Ji-hoon also seemed satisfied with the party’s outstanding performance, a confident smile playing on his lips. The dungeon was as expected—no, it was much easier than expected.
They advanced toward the heart of the dungeon at an incredibly rapid pace. The unique energy emanating from the Dungeon Core was growing stronger.
‘…It’s here.’
Finally, Sang-woong sensed that they had arrived at the hiding place of the dungeon’s true threat, the source of a terrible nightmare.
The very place that had completely changed Sang-woong’s life.
The very place that had caused him to suffer through nightmares for a long time.
The very place where he had hollowly lost his one and only friend, whom he had thought would be with him for a lifetime.
Sang-woong’s fists clenched involuntarily.
His reason whispered for them to leave immediately and take a detour, but if he made such a claim without any justification, the party members would surely find it strange.
And honestly, Sang-woong himself didn’t want to avoid this place.
This time, he intended to thoroughly punish those cursed Hobgoblins who had driven his friend to death by grinding them to dust with his own hands.
Among monsters, Hobgoblins were a race notorious for being exceptionally intelligent and cunning.
Beyond simple group hunting, they were creatures that mocked their prey by carrying out organized cooperative attacks and even digging traps using the terrain.
That wasn’t all. They were more cruel than one could imagine. They treated Hunters as more than just prey—they treated them as a kind of toy to play with.
They enjoyed driving them into a corner and tormenting them bit by bit, making them taste extreme fear and despair before finally killing them.
Their notoriety was so widespread that there was even a saying that if you were captured by Hobgoblins in a dungeon, it was better to take your own life before you died a painful death.
The jaws of hell were waiting right in front of them, but the party members, completely unaware of this horrifying fact, continued to walk with steady and confident steps.
The dungeon raid was going far too smoothly. Every party member likely thought the same thing. Not a single one of them guessed that a hellish scene they couldn’t even imagine would unfold before them in the very next moment.
And finally, the place of destiny.
When they arrived at a massive clearing that he remembered being wider than a soccer field, a very faint and cold smile appeared on Sang-woong’s lips.
Then, everything began without warning.
“Aaaahhh!”
“The ground! The ground is giving way! It’s a trap!”
Rumble!
With a massive, deafening roar, the ground beneath their feet collapsed entirely. With desperate screams, the party members were helplessly sucked into a giant sinkhole.
Dust and gravel rained down like a storm, obscuring their vision.
Sang-woong was also caught in the vortex of the fall, but this was a situation he had repeated in his mind hundreds—no, thousands of times.
The moment he fell, he tilted his body and pressed his back against the cave wall, using friction to slow his descent.
Even in the midst of it, his eyes were quickly grasping the general shape of the surrounding cave and the positions of his falling teammates.
Crash! Thud!
Total darkness and despair descended simultaneously over the team members who had tumbled miserably onto the floor of the underground cave.
“What… What is this…? *Cough*! Everyone… Is everyone okay?!”
As expected, Ji-hoon Kim was the first to regain his senses and assess the situation. At his urgent cry, the voices of the Hunters began to be heard from here and there, mingled with groans.
“Yes, Party Leader… I’m okay!”
“Over here! Damn it, my leg is pinned under a rock! Please get me out!”
“Ouch… I think… my leg is fine. Damn it, I swallowed too much dust…”
“Ugh… Where… Where on earth is this…?”
The Hunters gradually recovered from the extreme shock and began to check on each other’s status with voices laced with pain. Fortunately, it seemed that no one had suffered an injury serious enough to be life-threatening from the impact of the fall.
However, their faces were filled with extreme fear and confusion at the sudden disaster.
The damp, cold air that pierced their lungs and the unpleasant silence that seemed to weigh down their entire bodies, both so different from the surface, overwhelmed them.
Ji-hoon quickly searched the surroundings. First, he looked up and tried to estimate how deep they had fallen.
A hole where the light from the surface faintly leaked in could be seen far above, but the slope looked too steep and slippery; getting back up would be no easy feat.
But it didn’t seem impossible.
He spun around in place, scanning the surrounding terrain. Gloomy darkness stretched endlessly before and behind him. It was a massive natural cave.
They had fallen miserably into the middle of some nameless cavern.
First, Ji-hoon gathered the scattered Hunters. He brought all the party members together, including Sang-woong.
“I know you’re all shocked, but we have to pull ourselves together and find a way out of here. This… this place doesn’t feel right.”
Everyone agreed in silence to Ji-hoon’s anxiety-laden words. They also instinctively wanted to escape this unpleasant, damp place as soon as possible.
It was just as they were about to carefully climb the wall, looking for a spot where the slope seemed gentle.
“Grrrrr… Grrr…”
A low, threatening growl that made goosebumps crawl down their spines echoed from the other side of the darkness.
The Hunters reflexively turned their heads toward the sound, and one by one, ominous shadows began to wriggle out from the deep darkness of the cave.
Greedy eyes gleaming like fluorescent lights in the dark, the sound of sharp claws scraping against solid rock as they approached, and grotesque forms dripping thick fluid from their jaws.
They were Hobgoblins.
The creatures were slowly and surely tightening their encirclement around the Hunters with greedy gazes, like starving predators. A low but murderous growling echoed eerily within the cave ruled by darkness.
“Of all things…! Damn it, Hobgoblins!”
A desperate lament burst from one Hunter’s mouth upon confirming the hideous appearance of the Hobgoblins.
In a dungeon they had considered so easy and manageable, the shock of encountering the very monster they didn’t want to face in the worst possible way was indescribable.
Furthermore, meeting them in a place that was essentially a dead end was enough to shake the Hunters’ morale to its core.
“Everyone… Prepare for battle!”
Ji-hoon immediately gave up on trying to climb the wall, quickly drawing his sword and stepping in front of the Hunters.
He knew better than anyone that trying to climb the wall clumsily now that the Hobgoblins had appeared would make them nothing more than living targets.
Showing an exposed back was practically a suicidal act. Even if they luckily managed to climb to a place where the Hobgoblins’ direct attacks couldn’t reach, the intelligent creatures would undoubtedly persist in preventing their escape by throwing rocks or stones.
Among the Hunters whose entire bodies were trembling like aspen leaves and freezing in extreme fear, only one person stepped forward calmly.
It was Sang-woong.
“Wow, this is totally thrilling. I feel like I just bought an all-day pass for an amusement park! Now, shall we have some fun?”
A desperate, life-or-death crisis. At the moment when the fear of death was slowly encroaching upon the cave, Sang-woong’s incredibly peaceful and relaxed voice rang out quietly. Not a trace of panic or fear could be found in his tone.
The team members, whose faces had been turning ashen with terror, stared at him with blank eyes as he stepped forward.
‘Does that person… not understand the situation right now? Or has he gone mad with fear?’
Their confused gazes swept toward Sang-woong all at once.
“Sang-woong, wait!”
Ji-hoon shouted urgently, blocking Sang-woong’s path. His gaze flickered with alertness toward the group of Hobgoblins before him and worry for his friend.
“It’s dangerous! I’ll take care of these guys, so you get back!”
Sang-woong gave a small smirk and lightly pushed Ji-hoon’s shoulder. His expression was strangely composed.
“It’s okay, Ji-hoon. Among everyone here, I’m the one with the most stamina left. And shouldn’t I show my skills at a time like this?”
Since he had intentionally stayed in the back during the encounters with monsters so far, it was true that Sang-woong’s stamina was intact.
However, that didn’t mean his victory was guaranteed against this desperate number of Hobgoblins. Sang-woong had been away from actual combat for a long time, and objectively, it was a fight with no chance of winning.
Just as Ji-hoon was about to argue further—
“Kraaaah!”
The Hobgoblins, dripping rotten saliva, rushed forward like a burst dam.