Team 25A climbed the stairs of the Temple.
The debris of the worn stone steps screamed as it was ground under the soles of their combat boots.
The Temple was quite high.
They had to climb nearly thirty steps before they could stand in front of the entrance.
A mass of light, surging with a red glow, lay before them.
It was as if they were looking into the eye of a giant Monster.
After exchanging glances, Team 25A entered the red light together.
‘This feels a bit different.’
It was a strange sensation, distinct from being transported through a Portal.
While a Portal accompanied various symptoms like a fading mind and the vision turning white, the entrance to the Temple felt like simply passing through a passage connecting two spaces.
“It’s cold.”
As soon as they passed through the gateway, Oh Song-hui rubbed her arms, wrapping them around her body.
Kim Song-cheol checked the surroundings while listening to that rustling sound.
First, a short hallway came into view.
At the end of the hallway, a vast, aged space unfolded.
Carved reliefs lined the walls in a single row, and thick pillars stood at regular intervals.
In the center of the wide space, an unknown structure floated in the air, rotating slowly.
“That looks like the path.”
Ser Gang-jin pointed into the distance.
Beyond the large space, a passage leading into the darkness was faintly visible.
“Let’s move while staying alert.
We don’t know what will come out.”
Kim Song-cheol warned the team members once again.
Unlike an F-rank Dungeon where most patterns were analyzed, information on this kind of Irregular Dungeon was still lacking.
Team 25A moved their feet cautiously.
There could be traps, or a Monster could suddenly jump out.
Kim Song-cheol kept his Mana taut with tension so that he could react as quickly as possible.
If someone poked him from the side, any Magic would likely burst out immediately.
Just as Oh Song-hui, who was in the lead, stepped out of the hallway into the wide space.
Drop!
A single drop of black liquid fell right in front of her feet.
Oh Song-hui did not miss it and sensed the liquid.
The moment she stopped dead in her tracks and slowly raised her head.
Splatter!
Black liquid poured down.
It had a texture like thick tar.
“…What is this?”
Oh Song-hui stepped back.
The team members stopped walking.
Kim Song-cheol also stared at the black liquid.
It was something he had never seen before.
He didn’t even have a clue what it was.
Drip, drop!
Soon, black liquid began to fall sporadically throughout the wide space as well.
It was as if several people were pouring black liquid from the ceiling.
At that moment, the liquid that had fallen first suddenly surged up and lunged at Oh Song-hui.
” “
Oh Song-hui backing away and a Magic Barrier being generated in front of her happened almost simultaneously.
Splat!
The liquid was initially blocked by the barrier, but it soon flowed over the barrier and shot toward Oh Song-hui again.
Slash!
Oh Song-hui instantaneously swung her sword twice, cutting through the black liquid.
“Slow!”
Oh Song-hui’s confident shout rang out.
But everyone knew.
Physical attacks did not work on this black liquid.
They could clearly see the fragmented liquid wriggling and merging back together.
“Magic Missile.”
Kim Song-cheol cast his Magic.
It seemed like the Magic Missile would strike the black liquid, but it brushed past it and flew toward the structure in the distance.
Clang!
Surprisingly, however, the Magic Missile failed to reach the structure.
An invisible protective shield was guarding the structure.
“That’s it.”
The Dodecahedron Structure.
Kim Song-cheol had already felt the wavelength of Mana emanating from that structure.
It was clear that the structure was breathing life into the black liquid.
“Ser Gang-jin, run!”
Kim Song-cheol shouted.
A Magic Circle was already rapidly forming around him.
“I’m going!”
Ser Gang-jin dashed toward the structure without hesitation.
The black liquid already poured into the space was swarming toward Team 25A.
It was a sight that would make anyone flinch, but Ser Gang-jin kept only the structure in his sight, as if the black liquid were invisible.
Splash!
The black liquid surged toward Ser Gang-jin as if it had been waiting.
However, Magic Barriers were created consecutively on both sides of him, creating a path toward the structure.
The liquid flowed down, blocked by the barriers.
The black liquid quickly climbed over the barriers and tried to squeeze underneath, but Ser Gang-jin was already gone.
“I think we need to do this quickly!”
Oh Song-hui shouted while cutting through the black liquid.
Cutting was nothing more than delaying the attack.
Mun Gi-jeong was also buying time by repeatedly firing Wind Cutters.
“Adjust the distance!”
Kim Song-cheol fired a Magic Missile toward Ser Gang-jin.
The Magic Missile brushed past Ser Gang-jin and dissipated upon hitting the barrier of the structure.
It was a Magic Missile intended to once again show Ser Gang-jin the location of the transparent barrier.
“Confirmation complete!”
Confirming the position of the protective shield, Ser Gang-jin raised his sword high and put all his strength into it.
Crash!
The moment Ser Gang-jin’s sword struck the shield, the transparent wall shattered into pieces with a clear sound.
“Smash it!”
Kim Song-cheol shouted.
Oh Song-hui and Mun Gi-jeong blocked the black liquid swarming toward the passage, and Kim Song-cheol cast Magic again to protect Ser Gang-jin.
“Take this!”
Ser Gang-jin swung his sword like a baseball bat and struck the structure.
Instead of breaking, the structure was pushed back violently and rolled across the floor.
At the same time, the wriggling black liquid spread flat on the floor and lost all movement.
As if it had never moved, it just flowed.
The situation was over.
Only then did Team 25A relax their tension.
“No simple Monsters are coming out?”
Kim Song-cheol shook his head as he looked at the black liquid sticking muddily to his soles.
Usually, in an F-rank Dungeon, a Monster appears, and the situation ends when you directly kill that Monster.
However, this Temple had a twist.
It wasn’t about the Monster itself, but about destroying a different structure.
“It’s not a difficult quiz, but it is quite annoying.”
Kim Song-cheol muttered.
” “
Oh Song-hui looked back and forth between Mun Gi-jeong and Kim Song-cheol, then spoke to Mun Gi-jeong.
“…Did you know too?
That we had to break that?”
“It was strange, wasn’t it?”
Mun Gi-jeong shrugged.
He might not have been as fast as Kim Song-cheol, who felt the Mana’s wavelength, but Mun Gi-jeong would have figured it out eventually.
“I really should stick with Mages.”
Oh Song-hui felt the necessity of Mages once again and shook her sword clean.
The black liquid stuck to the sword fell to the floor in drops.
Team 25A passed through the large space and entered a dark passage.
Kim Song-cheol lit the way with Light Magic.
The mass of light stretched forward, illuminating every corner of the passage.
“This is a bit suspicious.”
Ser Gang-jin muttered.
The passage was excessively narrow compared to the wide space behind them.
It was wide enough for only two people to barely pass through.
Team 25A was moving forward in the order of Oh Song-hui first, then Mun Gi-jeong, Kim Song-cheol, and Ser Gang-jin.
“It won’t be that malicious.”
Kim Song-cheol encouraged his team members.
Dungeons don’t try to kill Hunters indiscriminately.
Of course, one could die in the process of clearing a Dungeon, but it meant that they wouldn’t create an unavoidable trap in such a narrow passage.
Especially in an F-rank.
As expected, Team 25A emerged from the passage without any trouble.
What awaited them was, unsurprisingly, another wide space.
This time, no structures were visible either.
Furthermore, there were no Monsters to greet them.
There was only the space itself.
“What?
What are we supposed to do?”
Oh Song-hui’s voice echoed hollowly.
Kim Song-cheol, who was looking around the space, soon spoke.
“Let’s split up and investigate.”
Another puzzle must be waiting.
First, it was priority to find out what kind of puzzle it was.
The team members scattered in all directions and began to look for anything unusual.
They moved rocks and pressed bricks for quite a while.
“Over here!”
Mun Gi-jeong shouted.
The team members immediately flocked to him.
“What is it, what is it?”
“Look at this.
When I touched it, it became like this.”
Mun Gi-jeong pointed to a relief carving.
On the carving, two bright blue dots were marked.
It was the spot where Mun Gi-jeong’s fingers had touched.
“It glows when you touch it?”
Oh Song-hui swept her palm across the carving.
Then, only the area her hand touched emitted a blue light, and surprisingly, among the glowing carvings, a man riding a horse began to move.
With a lifelike appearance, he spurred the horse and jumped over the enemy in front of him.
Then he stopped exactly in the posture of landing.
It was the point where the blue light ended.
“Let’s send him to the end.”
“Okay.”
Following Kim Song-cheol’s opinion, Oh Song-hui ran forward with her hand against the wall.
The places her hand passed through glowed blue, and the man on the horse continued to gallop forward.
Soon, upon reaching the end of the carving, the man used the sword he was holding to cut a rope connected vertically.
At that moment.
Rumble!
With a loud roar, the wall opened.
A considerably large passage was filled with darkness.
And then.
Thump, thump.
Heavy footsteps were heard.
“…We should prepare for battle.”
Following Kim Song-cheol’s command, the Hunters took their formation.
Thump, thump.
A Monster emerged from the darkness.
It was a Stone Golem.
It was about 2 meters tall.
It wasn’t a very large size, but the problem was something else.
It was the Stone Golem’s defense.
“Ah.”
Kim Song-cheol let out a small exclamation.
Clang!
Kim Song-cheol first fired a Magic Missile and a Wind Cutter.
But as expected, only a few stone fragments scattered.
Its defensive power was indeed substantial.
While Kim Song-cheol continued to fire Magic to distract the Stone Golem, he pushed his senses to the limit to find the golem’s core.
Meanwhile, Oh Song-hui and Ser Gang-jin approached and engaged in close combat with the golem.
Since the golem was small, its movements were fast.
It was almost as fast as Ser Gang-jin, and it was a worthy boss Monster for an Irregular Dungeon.
‘Where is it?’
Kim Song-cheol pushed his sense of Mana to the limit.
It was his first time pouring all his focus into the sense of Mana like this.
And the surrounding Mana reacted to Kim Song-cheol’s will.
It was a strange sensation.
The Mana, which simply existed, blew in like a wind and whispered in Kim Song-cheol’s ear.
‘Solar plexus.’
Kim Song-cheol clearly understood that whisper.
“….Aim for the solar plexus!”
While revealing the location of the core, he fired attack Magic toward it.
As expected, there was no significant damage.
The stone was only slightly gouged.
The golem’s body was solid.
They would have to drag it out into a long-term battle as much as possible, chipping away at the outer shell and breaking the core.
However.
Crunch!
Ser Gang-jin’s sword, which was aiming for the solar plexus, got caught in the golem’s arm joint.
Ser Gang-jin panicked.
He should have let go of the sword and backed away immediately, but Ser Gang-jin pulled the sword one more time.
A single mistake.
The result was gruesome.
The golem’s other hand quickly reached out and grabbed Ser Gang-jin’s neck.
“No!”
Mun Gi-jeong’s Magic battered the golem’s entire body, and Kim Song-cheol’s Magic aimed for the golem’s joints, but it was not enough.
The golem lifted Ser Gang-jin up with one hand and slammed him straight onto the floor.
“Ugh!”
Ser Gang-jin, who hit the stone floor, bounced up about a span and then hit the floor again.
“Ser Gang-jin!”
Oh Song-hui’s piercing scream rang out.
“Damn it!”
Kim Song-cheol’s urgent curse followed.
Magic Circles repeatedly formed and vanished.
Each time, attack Magic was plunged entirely into the golem’s solar plexus.
Oh Song-hui increased her momentum even further and swung her sword at the golem.
But it was difficult for Oh Song-hui to hold the golem alone.
The difference in strength was too great.
Although the golem’s solar plexus was being gouged by Magic, the core was not yet visible.
At this rate, Oh Song-hui would surely collapse as well.
A single mistake leading to the collapse of the team happened in an instant.
Kim Song-cheol felt a sense of helplessness.
And then he made a decision.
‘Damn it.’
Whirrrr!
Kim Song-cheol’s Circle began to rotate at an incredible speed.
‘I’ll create a Circle even if I have to force it.’
It was an absurd idea.
But Kim Song-cheol could feel it.
The fact that he could do it now.
The suction power of Kim Song-cheol’s Circle absorbed the surrounding Mana with strange intensity, and that Mana yielded to Kim Song-cheol’s extraordinary Mana control and began to rotate in the reverse direction around the Circle.
“Urgh.”
Kim Song-cheol felt an intense pain.
The pain even grew larger and larger.
This was because as the rotational force of the forcibly made second Circle grew stronger, it failed to harmonize with the first Circle, causing the axis of rotation to go out of alignment.
“Aah!”
At that moment, Oh Song-hui was struck by the golem’s arm and thrown backward.
The golem quickly rushed toward her.
If left like this, even Oh Song-hui would suffer a serious injury.
“Please…!”
Kim Song-cheol’s muttered through gritted teeth.
At that moment, the Circle and Circle were aligned for a brief instant.
Kim Song-cheol did not miss that moment.
“Lightning Spear!”
A Magic Circle was generated in the air.
Crackle!
A spear of intense electricity emerged from the center of the Magic Circle and was shot toward the golem at a tremendous speed.
However, because he had used 2nd Circle Magic in an unstable state, the trajectory of the Lightning Spear did not move as calculated.
It was certain to miss at this rate.
A situation where a second Magic could not be guaranteed.
‘It has to hit!’
The moment Kim Song-cheol clutched his chest and widened his eyes.
Zzap!
Surprisingly, the trajectory of the Lightning Spear twisted and was sucked into the golem’s solar plexus, scoring a direct hit.
***