17 – Part 1 of the End of the Tutorial
Morning came, and after everyone had breakfast, they headed towards the entrance of the dungeon. Upon reaching the dungeon’s entrance, Ahn Tae-woo spoke.
“… The entrance seems quite small compared to the size of the dungeon.”
“…. We will enter.”
Everyone had tense expressions. After all, except for Seo Yooju, no one knew what lay inside the dungeon.
As soon as they entered the dungeon, an alarm went off.
[You have entered the Tutorial Dungeon. You cannot leave until the dungeon is cleared.]
‘Is this the reason they said to challenge it only after growing strong enough?’
When I heard the guide’s explanation yesterday, I thought that if I didn’t feel like it inside the dungeon, I could just flee outside. But as expected, it wasn’t going to be that easy.
When I glanced back, the entrance was blocked by a transparent barrier.
“Once you come in, you might not be able to leave. They’ve made it damn tough, seriously.”
“That’s true, Miss. In reality, if you can’t clear it, you’ll definitely die… I was more worried about the darkness inside the dungeon, but fortunately, there are torches hanging at intervals, so that’s a relief.”
The fact that torches were hanging at intervals along the walls was a tremendous stroke of luck. Actually, I was a bit concerned about the illumination since the dungeon had a pyramid structure, but that eased a bit.
After a bit of walking, a staircase leading underground became visible.
“…This is quite different from the pyramids on Earth.”
As far as I know, Earth’s pyramids are structured to ascend towards the northern polar region.
The dungeon here, on the other hand, seems to be structured in the opposite way, descending underground.
“I’ll go down the ladder first.”
Seo Yooju spoke and began descending the ladder ahead. Others started descending the ladder one by one as well.
After about 3 minutes of going down, Kang Eeseo opened his mouth, expressing surprise at the fact that they still hadn’t reached the bottom.
“…Why is it so deep here?”
The end wasn’t in sight. Although there were torches at intervals here too, it was too dark to see below.
Roughly after 10 minutes of descending, the ground started to become visible.
Thump.
Kang Isuh swung his arm, seemingly stiff from climbing the ladder, and said.
“Oh, gosh… I thought I was going to suffocate from continuously climbing the ladder.”
As he descended, the first thing that caught his eye was the fact that this place was a cave. And the passage was quite narrow, to the point where it would be tightly packed if three people walked side by side.
Keyyyyyyy –
From a distance, the sound of a monster echoed throughout the cave. Upon hearing the monster’s sound, Seo Yujoo opened her mouth.
“…. Everyone, be careful. It seems that there are monsters from here on. Unless it’s an emergency, please conserve your magical power, Ha Eun and Yoon Sung. Junwi, Ho Won, and Hyun Jin will take the lead. We’ll move cautiously while maintaining vigilance. From now on, please speak in whispers or in low voices.”
“……”
Everyone started moving cautiously in silence.
******
After we had been moving for a while, something came flying towards us with the intention to attack.
Whoosh.
Thud.
Seo Yujoo swiftly repelled whatever came flying towards her with her spear.
‘…… An arrow?’
I was extremely startled by the fact that an arrow had been shot. Were there other people here besides us?
“No, it can’t be. We discovered the dungeon and camped right there, entering it the next day. There couldn’t be anyone else…”
While I pondered the arrow that had flown towards me, the others, except for Seo Yooju, also seemed very bewildered.
Before long, monsters appeared in front of us.
“Kek. Kek. Kek. Kek.”
The appearance of the monsters didn’t differ much from those outside. The only peculiar thing was that while the ones outside had a red-colored body, these had a green one.
And finally…
“Crazy! These guys are holding weapons!”
“What on earth… they know how to use weapons?”
Though they were small in size, these creatures held weapons like swords, shields, spears, and bows, typical of what humans would use.
“Damn… was this why we were advised to be adequately prepared before entering?”
Without delay, they charged towards us, shouting. The fact that they were armed was threatening, and another problem was that they were in a large number.
Easily over twenty of them.
Seo Yooju urgently shouted, “Everyone, prepare for combat! Watch out for incoming arrows, and those of you with ranged weapons, try to take out the ones with bows first!”
Fortunately, the narrow street made it somewhat manageable. Mr. Howon blocked the men with his shield, while Seo Yooju and Hyunjin stabbed and killed them in between.
Song Ha-eun summoned spirits and started picking off the men who were shooting arrows with Kang Iseo.
“Keaak!”
– Pwook!
“Ahk!”
“Hyunjin!”
Although Mr. Howon was blocking with his shield, a monster managed to stab through and Hyunjin’s arm was pierced.
Kang Iseo immediately pulled Hyunjin back, and Antaeu took his place.
“Hey, are you okay?! Yu Hyun, please tend to Hyunjin’s wound!”
“Yes, yes! Just a moment!”
It seemed like the blade had deeply pierced the area between his wrist and elbow.
“Hngg…”
“Just hold on a bit, Hyung.”
Light started to emit from Yu Hyun’s hand, and the wound on Hyunjin’s arm slowly started to heal.
“Hoo… Hwoook… Yu Hyun, thank you. I’m… feeling a bit better now…”
It looks like the pain hasn’t completely subsided yet. At least on the surface, the wounds seem to have healed.
“Yes…”
Judging from Yu Hyun’s expression, it seemed like a considerable amount of his magical power had been drained, making him look exhausted.
“Hey, you bastard… This much is alright, man! Take a break from behind. I, as the leader, will definitely kill all these monster bastards.”
“Hoo… You be careful too, sir. It’s definitely different from outside the dungeon, probably because those bastards are holding weapons.”
Looking ahead, Seo Yu-ju seemed fine, but Ho-won looked very tired. He had been continuously blocking the attacks from many bastards with his shield, so the damage had accumulated.
I shouted to Seo Yu-ju and Ho-won.
“Both of you, step back!”
Both of them listened to my words and stepped back.
I immediately threw flames at the bastards charging towards us, and as the flames engulfed them, the bastards following behind also caught fire, causing them to scream in pain as they ran into the flames together.
“Kieeeek! Kieeeeek!”
“Yi-seo, Ha-eun! Take this opportunity…!”
As the bastards were unable to easily approach us due to the flames, they understood my words quickly. Kang Yi-seo was shooting arrows to reduce their numbers, and Song Ha-eun’s spirits kept throwing wind.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, Song Ha-eun seemed to realize something and appeared to be asking the spirits for a favor.
The spirit ceased throwing the wind and simply blew it fiercely, spreading the fire backward.
“Kkeeeeek! Kkiyaaack!”
The screams of the creatures echoed throughout the cave for a while.
******
After the battle with the creatures ended, everyone slumped down in exhaustion.
“Huu… Shibaal… Isn’t it still the beginning? Why is it so intense?”
An Tae-woo responded to Kang I-seo’s remark.
“…At least the passageway was narrow. If it had been wider, we would all have died…”
It’s just my thought, but this tutorial dungeon was probably not designed to be cleared with more than 10 people. It must be because Seo Yu-ju is here that we are able to progress with this number of people. From what I saw earlier, the number of monsters Seo Yu-ju killed alone was similar to the number the others killed.
I asked Hyun Jin about his condition.
“Hyun Jin, are you able to fight? How’s your arm?”
“…. Thanks for worrying, hyung. I’m fine. It’s still a little painful… But in order for everyone to survive, we have to fight together.”
“Well, that’s a relief… By the way, Ha Eun-ssi, how did you manage to spread the fire with the wind? You’re amazing.”
“Yeah, Eonni. Thanks to you, there was less damage. You’re impressive.”
Song Ha-eun’s face turned red at the compliments from the others. She bowed her head and began to answer while fidgeting with her hands.
“That, that just came to me suddenly… Not really something I did well…”
“No, Ha-eun, it’s not your fault. Thanks to Ha-eun, there weren’t more casualties. And Yoon Sung, you did a great job too. You used your magic to keep those guys away.”
When Seo Yoo-joo heard my words, she seemed to think it was an opportunity to shift her focus onto me, and Song Ha-eun suddenly began to praise me.
“Y-Yes! Yoon Sung oppa used magic there, and I just… benefited from it!”
“Yoon Sung oppa?”
“Ah…! I’m sorry! I must have misspoken.”
“No, it’s okay. You can call me ‘oppa.’ Saying ‘Yoon Sung’ sounds a bit too formal. This is more pleasant to hear.”
During this moment, I needed to reduce the emotional distance with Song Ha-eun.
“Yes, yes! You can use ‘oppa’ too…!”
“Should I, Ha-eun?”
Upon hearing our conversation, Seo Yoo-joo’s expression darkened. As for Kang Yee-seo, after listening to the conversation, he started to tease.
“Ah, dungeons are collapsing inside. Is this some kind of sweet romance in a horror movie?”
“Yes, yes?”
“It’s not for Song Ha-eun. What’s wrong with Ha-eun? He’s the bad guy here. Look, my guess is spot on! He’d be in big trouble with the ladies back on Earth.”
Feeling a twinge of guilt, I began to look elsewhere.
“Hmm… Are you going to pretend not to know now?”
“…”
“Ahem!”
Mr. Howon suddenly focused his attention and spoke to Seyujoo.
“Anyway, it’s confirmed that the monsters have weapons, and the situation outside the dungeon is a bit different. What do you plan to do in the future?”
“…Well, I think the monsters might attack us a few more times.”
“May I ask why you think that?”
“It’s simple. If you think about it, this time, it’s not that we were discovered by the monsters, but it’s as if they knew our location and attacked us first.”
Upon hearing Seyujoo’s words, it became apparent that this time the monsters had attacked us as if they already knew our location, even though we hadn’t said anything while moving.
“In that case…”
“For now, we should move forward slowly and always assume that the monsters will attack. We need to think in advance about how to deal with them.”
“Then, what if we use my magic and Haeun’s spirit magic to block their entry, like we did this time?”
Seyujoo shook her head in disagreement.
“No, it’s not a guarantee that preventing an attack is the only condition for clearing the dungeon. You used magic this time since it was the first attack, but it’s probably best to save it for unexpected situations. There might be even stronger monsters ahead.”
“Do you see that?”
It’s either a boss monster or something similar.