“Ugh!”
“Pia—.” (Quiet at last.)
Ris, annoyed by Song Doyoon’s screams, manipulated the wind to cover his mouth.
“Pii—.” (Are you really going to just let him fall and die?)
“Not exactly… Just catch him properly.”
Thanks to Ris’s consideration, Song Doyoon finally landed safely on the ground, his limbs hanging limp like a frog pierced through the stomach.
“Roy hyung… you really are a cruel person…”
A voice dripping with resentment toward Roy came out in a gloomy tone.
Kuurururung—
But his resentful voice was swallowed by a deafening roar that seemed to tear the sky apart.
Song Doyoon, who had been burying his forehead in the dirt, suddenly raised his head.
By now, one of the cameras filming them had captured the strange phenomenon happening in the sky.
“Oh my god. It’s the Doubling Phenomenon…”
Kim Jaewoo’s eyes widened in disbelief.
He never imagined he’d witness a phenomenon that scholars had only debated in theory right before his eyes.
Two dungeons can appear simultaneously in close proximity, but a new gate opening inside a dungeon had never happened before.
{It seems… the entity overseeing the Continent of As is trying to destroy the world.}
Earth’s serious voice echoed inside Roy’s mind.
‘Why on earth?’
{That’s my question too… It looks like they’re using the dimension Earth exists in as a scapegoat to annihilate the Continent of As. Without doing that, such consecutive events couldn’t occur without attracting my attention.}
Earth hadn’t detected Joel Ritas crossing over here.
Searching through Joel’s memories revealed nothing suspicious.
Joel had simply been swallowed by the black gate and flung into this world.
They checked if there were others like Joel but found no trace.
Joel was still hovering beside Roy, occupying his body just in case he tried something strange.
{Hero! Right now, blocking that gate is the priority!}
It might even be fortunate the gate opened inside the dungeon.
A dungeon is like a third space, separate from real-world time and space.
What happens inside can’t affect the outside world unless monsters escape from within.
“Kiiiiiik~!”
The black gate flickered uneasily under everyone’s anxious gaze, finally starting to vomit out something inside as if it were spewing up.
“It’s Wyverns. We saw these last time.”
Kim Jaewoo tightened his grip on the black hilt.
Back then, he could only run away because he wasn’t strong enough, but now he was confident he could handle Wyverns.
“Kiiik!”
“Kik!”
“Kiiiiik!”
However, Kim Jaewoo’s expression gradually darkened.
“How many Wyverns are there…?”
The number of Wyverns carrying riders was different from last time.
Before, only one person and one monster came out.
The incident caused chaos among the South Korean Association’s leadership.
It was an unprecedented phenomenon with no known cause.
The production team initially tried to hide it but had no choice but to report it to the Association due to its seriousness.
They hadn’t leaked any information overseas yet, but if this happened again, it would be impossible to conceal.
“Please wait a moment!”
One of the staff carrying filming equipment caught everyone’s attention with a voice through the earpiece.
“Piiiii!” (Those bastards! We have to kill them all!)
***
Meanwhile, Ber, still maintaining his bird form, showed strong hostility toward the new monsters.
Especially the Wyvern Unit, which Kairus used to surround Roy and his comrades when they were cornered.
Ber, recalling that moment, couldn’t contain his anger and enlarged his body to full size.
Fwahrrr—
The intense heat radiating around made everyone except Roy and the Spirit Kings wipe sweat from their brows.
“Yes! Understood!”
Meanwhile, the production team, having received orders from headquarters, gathered Roy and the others.
“They say to temporarily suspend the jewel robbery mission and team up with the Roa Guild to handle the monsters pouring out over there.”
“We have to deal with them? What about the Association?”
Song Doyoon tilted his head, clearly not understanding.
The dungeon Doubling Phenomenon had occurred.
Surely, top-level hunters should be dispatched immediately.
“There’s a top-tier dungeon open right in the middle of Seoul, so the Association and other guilds can’t spare resources to come here.”
“Then… there’s no choice.”
Seoul still has the highest population density in South Korea.
With the Association headquarters and many hunter guilds based there, density has increased compared to before monsters appeared.
Safety was the highest priority now.
A dungeon gate opening there, where many casualties could occur, meant the city was certainly on high alert.
“That thing riding on top… it’s not a person, right?”
Kim Chan grabbed Roy’s arm anxiously. Handling Wyverns alone was fine.
The problem was the riders on their backs. But calling them people was questionable.
The ones who emerged last time from the gate turned into black ashes the moment they died.
Just like monsters.
“Yeah. So don’t hesitate at all. Wipe them out.”
They looked like people to Roy, but telling Kim Chan this wouldn’t help.
Hesitating would only endanger him.
These people weren’t used to killing, especially Kim Chan and the others.
Their enemies were monsters, not fellow humans.
‘…I’ll have blood on my hands again.’
Roy was, however, accustomed to killing.
Being hailed as a hero of the continent meant he had slaughtered countless foes in war.
Feeling bitter, Roy brushed his face with his palm.
By the time his hand dropped, his tangled thoughts had all sunk deep inside.
‘All I have to do is take care of them, right?’
{Yes!}
The Spirit Kings, sensing Roy’s determination, began to draw power.
“Wow. How many are there, exactly?”
Even now, Wyverns carrying riders kept pouring out of the gate in the dungeon’s sky.
The sky, already foggy and never clear, was now covered with Wyvern bodies, like a mountain of rocks hanging upside down.
Kuurururung—
“Hunter Kim Hanbom!”
Kim Hanbom was the first to act. His level was 332, the highest among the hunters inside.
Wyverns controlled by riders were far more threatening than normal.
Alone, they acted on instinct, recklessly charging, but under a rider’s control, they became like rational war machines.
“They’re stronger than I thought.”
Lightning burst from the tip of Kim Hanbom’s bastard sword, striking the horde of Wyverns.
The attack’s power was so immense the sky seemed to tremble, but only three Wyverns fell.
This was thanks to the riders’ coordinated maneuver to split left and right as soon as Kim Hanbom attacked.
“To clear a dungeon before even debuting? This is exciting.”
Even though they were inside the dungeon completing missions, the participants’ real goal wasn’t dungeon clearing.
They were here to be screened and earn the right to clear the dungeon.
Hunter Idols typically clear dungeons after debuting, alongside their fans.
“I do miss the buffs fans give, though.”
Despite the serious expressions due to the unexpectedly strong Wyvern unit, Song Doyoon now looked relaxed, like someone out for a stroll.
“Roy hyung, can you lift me into the air a bit? I’m too far from them.”
Song Doyoon, unable to stop his itching fingers, asked Roy.
The Wyverns were circling in the air after evading Kim Hanbom’s attacks, gauging the situation.
Kim Hanbom had leapt from the ground to strike as close as possible, but the distance was just too great.
Unless he could fly, throwing poison from this distance wouldn’t be very effective.
Poison’s potency decreases the further it spreads.
“Ris.”
“Pii—.” (I don’t really like this guy.)
Ris grumbled displeased, sweeping Song Doyoon up into the air on a breeze.
“Hyung! Don’t lift me as high as last time!”
Song Doyoon suddenly recalled being dragged onto Aqua’s ice pillar, soaring high into the sky.
“Do your best.”
“Pia—.” (Got it.)
Ris was naturally quiet. Because of this, he found Song Doyoon, who never stopped talking, quite bothersome.
When Roy, worried Ris might be rough, asked him to be gentle, Ris blinked slowly.
“Let’s see… what poison works best in this situation…”
Song Doyoon frantically rummaged through his cloak, searching for drugs.
The clinking of glass bottles and rattling of beads echoed loudly.
“Yeah. This will do!”
Poison users rarely use raw poisons collected from nature; they blend them to amplify their effects.
“I almost died after inhaling this not long ago…”
Song Doyoon stared at a transparent flask on his palm with a distant look.
Inside, a brownish smoke swirled like it was alive, ominous just to see.
“Ris, can you spread this widely where they are?”
He handed the flask to Ris, who was hovering beside him.
“If that’s the case, I might as well have stayed on the ground.”
Then it hit him: with Ris around, he didn’t need to get close to those monsters at all.
“Put me back down!”
Better not get surrounded and torn apart by the aggressive Wyverns.
“Pii—.” (Such a high-maintenance human.)
Ris flapped his wings with an air of annoyance.
A gentle breeze softly wrapped around Song Doyoon, setting him down safely.
“What kind of poison is that?”
“A very deadly one.”
Kim Chan approached Song Doyoon, who was stamping his feet as if checking the ground’s stability.
“How deadly?”
“Can’t even describe it… It’s the masterpiece poison I’ve made recently.”
Song Doyoon waved his right hand, lowering his eyebrows as if already mourning what was about to happen.