Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Jongno District, Seoul, the rooftop of the old Clock Museum.

With the Gate, where space itself shimmered like a heat haze, right before his eyes, Kang Hoon desperately turned his head. At the end of his gaze was his damned teacher, Lee Seong-ha, and Kang Hoon sent him the most pleading look in the world.

At that desperation, Lee Seong-ha gave him the brightest smile in the world.

“Go, brat. Today, my choice is you.”

“Hyung! Is this really the time to joke around?!”

At that line, as if Lee Seong-ha had become some kind of PoXmon Trainer, Kang Hoon shouted in anger. Lee Seong-ha laughed cheerfully, throwing his head back enough to show his uvula. Go Gyeol, who had been watching from the side with his arms crossed, stepped forward.

“Hey, stop whining and go in. We don’t have time.”

“Go Gyeol-hyung….”

“Or should I push you in myself?”

He was clearly smiling, but there was a murderous air about him, as if he might grab Kang Hoon by the collar and shove him into the Gate at any moment. Kang Hoon drew in a deep breath.

“Right. It’s not like they’ll kill me, right? They won’t kill me… right?”

Having desperately brainwashed himself, Kang Hoon finally steeled his resolve. He squeezed his eyes shut and threw himself toward the rippling Gate. Behind him, Lee Seong-ha and Go Gyeol also passed lightly through the membrane of space.

A thick smell of dust and rusted iron stabbed his nose. It smelled like stopped time.

“Wow….”

Kang Hoon let out an exclamation without realizing it at the unreal scenery spread before his eyes. Massive gears rose high enough to pierce the sky. It was the inside of an enormous clock that had stopped.

But his appreciation lasted only a moment. The reality that he now had to fight monsters that would burst out from somewhere within those grotesque structures dragged his heart all the way down to his feet.

“Now, the rules are simple.”

Lee Seong-ha, standing right beside him, spoke in the most cheerful voice imaginable.

“Go Gyeol and I will only watch from here. You’re clearing this Dungeon alone. Got it?”

In that instant, with the sensation of space twisting faintly, the presence of Lee Seong-ha and Go Gyeol slipped away. It was 'Observer’s Sanctuary(Sanctuary of Observer),' cast by A-Grade Gravity Caster Lee Seong-ha. Observer’s Sanctuary was his unique Skill, blocking all external physical and magical interference. Monsters would no longer even recognize the two of them.

“Hey, Lee Seong-ha! Is this really okay? He’s completely frozen!”

At Go Gyeol’s question, Lee Seong-ha jerked his chin toward Kang Hoon.

“Shut up and watch. It’s started. I should’ve brought popcorn. It’d be nice to eat while watching.”

CREEEAK.

An old and unpleasant sound of friction echoed through the inside of the clocktower.

From gaps in the walls and ceiling, and between the stopped gears, old brass dolls began crawling out. Eyes embedded with red jewels all turned at once toward the Dungeon’s only “intruder,” Kang Hoon.

“……!”

They were on a different level from the mannequins at the training center he went to with Lee Seong-ha.

Pure killing intent, making every hair on his body stand on end. At the overwhelming reality of living, moving monsters, Kang Hoon forgot even how to breathe. His legs stiffened as if they had taken root in the ground.

“Hey, he’s completely frozen. Wasn’t this too early?”

At Go Gyeol’s worried words, Lee Seong-ha snorted.

“Shut up and watch. That’s the first wall a Hunter has to overcome. Fear. Whether he breaks through it himself or gets eaten by it, it’ll end one of two ways. And if he gets eaten by it, you have to give up on making him a Hunter. A Hunter who gets eaten once can never be used again.”

CREEEEAK!

At last, the clockwork soldier at the front rushed in, spinning its sawtooth blade. Kang Hoon knew he had to dodge, but his terror-stricken body rejected his brain’s command.

Death rose right beneath his chin.

At that very moment.

“Don’t think. Feel. Then move!”

Kang Hoon’s voice, which he had heard so often throughout training that it had practically been nailed into his ears, flashed through his mind.

Instinct swallowed his frozen reason.

“Hup!”

Almost reflexively, Kang Hoon rolled to the side.

CLANG—!

With a chilling metallic sound, the sawtooth blade sliced through the spot where his neck had been a moment ago. Lying flat on the floor, he gasped so hard his lungs felt about to burst.

He was alive.

That one fact melted his frozen thought circuits.

CREAK!

The clockwork soldier that had failed its attack creaked as it turned its body. In that brief instant, Kang Hoon grabbed a sharp gear fragment lying on the floor. Then, without hesitation, he charged like a starving beast.

“Kraaaah!”

With a roar as if trying to erase his fear, he struck the clockwork soldier’s torso.

CRUNCH—!

A dull rupturing sound. The mechanical doll, having lost its power, rolled across the floor. The sensation carried through his hand was disgusting, but a far stronger sense of survival wrapped around his entire body.

“……Hah, haah…….”

He was afraid. Insanely afraid.

But he could fight. Those things were existences he could break.

That realization changed the light in Kang Hoon’s eyes. He glared at the remaining soldiers surrounding him.

“Yeah…… come at me, you damn pieces of junk!”

He used a massive gear as a foothold and leaped upward. Once he climbed onto a narrow metal platform, he could clearly see the soldiers below wandering in confusion. He had taken the high ground. He tore off an iron pipe fixed to the platform with brute force and gripped it in his hand.

Now he had a proper weapon, too.

Watching that from inside the Sanctuary, Go Gyeol let out a hollow laugh.

“What a fucking mess. Is that fighting, or is he just flailing?”

“That stupid bastard.”

Lee Seong-ha pressed his fingers to his temple and muttered a curse.

“If I don’t double his training time starting today, I’m not human. Look at that form.”

“Hey, it’s his first time. Why are you being like that? I think he’s better than I expected.”

As Go Gyeol said, after a desperate struggle rather than anything resembling combat, Kang Hoon took care of the last soldier. His eyes shone brightly from excessive adrenaline as he panted roughly.

“Hyungs….”

“It’s not over yet. Don’t let your guard down.”

No sooner had Lee Seong-ha’s cold warning ended than the entire Dungeon began to vibrate.

Wooooooong—!

The massive gears that had been stopped began moving with an unpleasant sound. Then, from the center of the largest clock mechanism in the middle of the clocktower, blue mana exploded outward in a burst of light.

Dozens of clock hands and gears clumped together, creating the shape of a giant human.

[Watchman of Time, Chronos Golem]

The boss had appeared.

Lee Seong-ha murmured with a satisfied smile.

“Now, brat. The appetizer is over. It’s time for the main dish.”

It did not take long for Kang Hoon to understand what Lee Seong-ha meant by the appetizer being over.

Wooooooong—!

The entire Dungeon howled like a massive living creature. The stopped gears all meshed and began turning at once, and explosive blue mana burst from the huge clock mechanism in the center of the clocktower.

Dozens of clock hands and gears gathered together with grotesque sounds. As though metal became flesh, and mana became veins. At last, the golem in the shape of a giant human revealed its majesty.

“……No way.”

A hollow groan flowed from Kang Hoon’s mouth. The dopamine that had been excessively secreted by the thrill of survival had gone cold before he knew it. What filled its place was bone-carving fatigue. He had only taken care of a few small mobs, but the muscles throughout his body were screaming. And yet the thing before his eyes was giving off an overwhelming pressure on an entirely different level from the clockwork soldiers of moments ago.

THUUUD—!

The Chronos Golem raised its enormous gear arm. Then, without hesitation, it struck down toward the metal platform Kang Hoon stood on.

[Gear Crush]

“Shit!”

Kang Hoon instinctively threw himself away. Right behind him, the platform he had been standing on crumpled like a sheet of paper with a thunderous noise. The shockwave alone made his body stagger. It had enough power to separate bone from flesh if it even grazed him.

“Hey.”

Inside the Sanctuary, Lee Seong-ha’s low voice rang out. His eyebrow was twitching faintly.

“Is that really a D-Grade boss? If that brat’s durability takes even one graze, he’ll go straight to the afterlife.”

Outwardly, he pretended to be calm, but his fist had already clenched so tightly it had turned white. The urge to release the Sanctuary and rush out to crush that tin can with a gravity field rose all the way to his throat.

But Go Gyeol stopped him by lightly gripping his shoulder.

“Leave him. He won’t die.”

Go Gyeol was different from Lee Seong-ha. He was coolly analyzing Kang Hoon’s movements and the boss’s patterns as if watching a screen.

“With that level of reaction speed, he won’t take a direct hit. What he needs right now is technique. Something that brat has to realize on his own.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the core in the golem’s chest glowed green. Then the broken parts on the floor wriggled as if they had come alive, beginning to take the shape of clockwork soldiers again.

“Fuck, they’re coming again!”

Avoiding the boss’s attacks alone was already too much, and now he had to deal with the clockwork soldiers closing in from all sides. Kang Hoon swung the iron pipe like mad and smashed the soldiers apart, but the more he did, the less room he had to respond to the boss’s next attack.

It was a perfect vicious cycle. Kang Hoon’s movements were visibly slowing.

“Hey, Go Gyeol. That bastard is exhausted. He’ll really die at this rate!”

Anxiety mixed into Lee Seong-ha’s voice. He was already on the verge of releasing the Sanctuary.

“Not yet.”

Go Gyeol firmly grabbed his arm.

“Lee Seong-ha, get a hold of yourself. If you go out now and break that thing for him, that guy will try to hide behind your back for the rest of his life, not just in the Tower, but even in D-Grade Dungeons. Is that what you want?”

“…….”

“Trust him. You’re the one raising him. Trust that guy’s survival instinct.”

Go Gyeol’s cold words cooled Lee Seong-ha’s boiling head. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist even tighter. Even in that moment, Kang Hoon was caught in a clockwork soldier’s self-destruct attack and staggered badly.

“Damn it….”

“Tsk. This won’t do.”

Unable to keep watching, Go Gyeol took one step forward. Helping and giving a hint were two different matters.

“Hey, Kang Hoon! Get it together! How long are you going to let the small mobs push you around!”

At the sudden shout, Kang Hoon’s shoulders flinched.

“Go Gyeol-hyung?!”

“Find the boss’s weakness! Look at how that tin bastard’s chest core lights up every time it summons soldiers! Every attack has a windup! Read it!”

Go Gyeol’s voice was like an ice pick. It forced its way into Kang Hoon’s mind, which had been growing numb from fear and fatigue.

“Weakness… windup….”

In that instant, Kang Hoon felt as if his mind had flashed awake.

Why had he not thought of it? The words Lee Seong-ha had drilled into his ears every time he taught him. “Fighting isn’t done with strength, it’s done with your head, you idiot!”

The light in Kang Hoon’s eyes changed. He narrowly dodged the charge of a clockwork soldier and focused all his nerves on the Chronos Golem’s movements.

Go Gyeol had been right. Every action the golem took had a clear “sign.” And now, the golem was drawing an enormous amount of mana, incomparable to before, into the core in its chest.

“It’s coming! The biggest one!”

“Dodge, brat! The front is dangerous!”

At the same time as Go Gyeol’s shout, the golem exploded mana toward the ceiling.