Chapter 171

Chapter 171

The Pegasus Raid Team set up a temporary base near the dungeon and went into rest.

Just because they had arrived at the place where the dungeon was located did not mean they could clear it immediately.

First, they had to secure an entrance into the dungeon and repair the broken vehicles.

They also had to rest sufficiently to recover their depleted stamina and wounds.

Lee Ji-ryeong shouted,

“Everyone worked hard getting here. We will begin clearing the dungeon tomorrow, so rest well for today.”

“Waaaah!”

“Rest!”

The Awakened burst into cheers.

For the sake of the Awakened, Lee Ji-ryeong brought out the precious food he had stored in subspace.

It was not the simple food they had eaten until now, but proper food.

It was a method made possible because time did not flow inside subspace. But not just anyone could use such a method.

Subspace items were not common, and there was no reason to put mere food into such precious subspace.

Most raid teams handled meals with convenient preserved food.

But Lee Ji-ryeong believed that the more dangerous a dungeon was, the better the people needed to be fed. It might seem like nothing, but it affected the morale of the raid team.

Especially on a harsh journey like this one, he needed to feed them even better.

They had been attacked by monsters twice, and deserters had appeared. Even the pursuit squad sent to capture the deserters had not returned.

Even if the Awakened said nothing, they must have felt that this dungeon clearing was different from usual.

The best way to erase anxiety was to feed them until they were full and give them sufficient rest.

When real meat, not cultured meat, appeared, the Awakened burst into cheers.

“Wow! Meat.”

“Fuck! It’s real meat.”

“Is there no liquor?”

Unfortunately, no liquor was provided. The Awakened enjoyed the feast as it was.

Zeon’s group also ate the generously provided meat with relish.

Levin chewed the meat and said,

“At this rate, we won’t need to take out the food we prepared.”

“We don’t know what will happen once we enter the dungeon, so it’s better to save it.”

“Kid, are you going into the dungeon too?”

“Then did I come all the way here just to watch from outside?”

“Hehe! That would be funny too.”

“I’m going inside.”

“Fine. But be careful.”

“You worry about yourself. Don’t go showing off because you trust your ability and end up getting stabbed in the back.”

“Don’t worry. A blade can’t leave even a scratch on this body.”

Levin answered as he swallowed the meat he had been chewing.

Mandy, who had been watching Levin and Briel bicker, carefully said to Zeon,

“Is there any way to know in advance what kind of dungeon it is?”

“I won’t know until I go in myself.”

“Is that so? If we knew beforehand, it would be easier to prepare.”

“If that were possible, there would be no reason to struggle with dungeon clearing.”

“It was just my wish. I know that much is impossible too.”

Mandy smiled bitterly.

Every time a dungeon was cleared, numerous sacrifices were made. But their deaths were forgotten far too easily.

Glory belonged to the survivors, and they enjoyed all the wealth and honor. Seeing that, novices and lower-ranked Awakened jumped into dungeon clearing again, and died.

A cycle that could not be called either vicious or virtuous continued endlessly.

Mandy wanted to break that cycle, but she knew too well that it was impossible with her ability.

Zeon said,

“Don’t think about anything complicated and rest well. Once we begin clearing the dungeon, we won’t be able to enjoy such luxury.”

“Yes! I should.”

“Then let’s sleep early today.”

Zeon immediately found a spot and lay down.

A dungeon was another world.

No one could know what dangers lurked inside that world until they entered it directly.

Rather than predicting the dungeon’s situation in advance, getting enough rest was far more helpful for clearing it.

After lying down, Zeon soon fell into a deep sleep.

Cha Jin-cheol watched him from afar and muttered,

“He really has it easy. To think he can sleep here.”

His voice was full of irritation.

Strangely, from the moment he arrived here, he had felt unpleasant. Cha Jin-cheol himself did not know the cause.

“Damn it!”

---

The dungeon raid team rested sufficiently until the next day.

Thanks to that, the Awakened’s condition had risen to some extent.

Lee Ji-ryeong decided to clear the dungeon today and announced it. Because of that, all the Awakened gathered in one place.

There, Lee Ji-ryeong said to Zeon,

“The dungeon is underground here. As promised, open a path to the dungeon.”

“It seems like an extremely powerful dungeon. Will you be all right?”

“You can tell that too?”

“It is only a feeling.”

“Is it something you can feel because you are a Sandmancer? A tempting ability.”

At that instant, Lee Ji-ryeong’s eyes gleamed eerily.

“Your ability is already remarkable enough.”

“Is it not true that the more abilities one has, the better?”

“There is no way to possess everything.”

“Why? Is there some law saying one cannot?”

“Excessive greed invites disaster.”

“For someone so young, you are old-fashioned.”

“Am I?”

“Our idle talk has gone on too long. Will you now open the path to the dungeon?”

“I will.”

Zeon nodded and stepped forward.

“So we’re finally seeing a Sandmancer’s ability?”

“Can he really dig out that much sand?”

All the Awakened looked at Zeon with eyes full of expectation.

Zeon stood where the dungeon’s energy felt strongest.

The grains of sand were telling him that a dungeon lay underground here.

“Whew!”

Zeon took a deep breath and raised his control.

BOOM—!

At that instant, sand surged up from beneath Zeon’s feet with an explosive roar.

The sand that shot up like a geyser surged terrifyingly toward the place where the Awakened had gathered.

“Whoa! What is this?”

“Fall back.”

The Awakened near Zeon panicked and retreated. But the sand surged even to the place where they had retreated.

Having no choice, the Awakened retreated even farther back. Even so, they could not escape the sand’s range.

At this rate, they would be buried in sand before they could even clear the dungeon.

Lee Ji-ryeong shouted,

“Everyone, retreat three hundred meters.”

“Whoa!”

“Damn it!”

The Awakened panicked and retreated farther than the distance Lee Ji-ryeong had ordered.

Fortunately, the sand did not surge that far.

“This is insane.”

“He’s moving that much sand. So this is a Sandmancer?”

A miracle was unfolding before their eyes.

Sand deep underground shot up like a geyser, and as the sand that reached the surface spread outward, a giant pit formed.

Ten meters, twenty meters—the pit grew deeper and wider.

RUMBLE!

The vibration caused by an enormous amount of sand moving shook even the Awakened’s bodies.

“Does this make any sense?”

“He may be a Sandmancer, but still...... Wow, fuck!”

A tremendous quantity of sand surged up from underground and poured out, as if a volcano were spewing lava.

Zeon stood in the air above the place where the sand was erupting.

Standing in midair on sand as a foothold, Zeon looked like the god of the desert.

Beads of sweat gathered on Zeon’s forehead.

Even for him, digging out this much sand was inevitably burdensome.

RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE!

The sand poured out endlessly, and the pit grew deeper and wider.

Ordinarily, sand had the property of flowing back down even if it was pushed aside. But the pit controlled by Zeon was different.

The sand that had been pushed away remained fixed and did not flow back down.

Lee Ji-ryeong pressed his lips tightly together as he looked at Zeon.

‘As expected, that ability is no different from cheating in the desert.’

In terms of pure destructive power, his own attacks were far superior. But when it came to versatility and usefulness in the desert, no awakened ability could match Zeon’s.

Zeon alone was moving an enormous quantity of sand that hundreds of Awakened could not have dug out.

It was a sight like a miracle.

When Zeon had dug out nearly one hundred and fifty meters of sand, it happened.

ROOOOAR!

Suddenly, black light burst out from beneath the sand, and a gigantic oval fissure appeared.

“It’s a dungeon.”

“There really is a dungeon.”

“Wow!”

The Awakened burst into cheers.

Judging by the size of the fissure and the density of mana, it was no ordinary dungeon.

The stronger and more dangerous a dungeon was, the greater the reward, so the Awakened cheered.

“Whew!”

Once the dungeon entrance appeared, Zeon withdrew his control.

Zeon landed as lightly as a feather in front of the dungeon entrance.

The Awakened, including Lee Ji-ryeong, gathered around him.

Lee Ji-ryeong looked at the gigantic fissure and said,

“Incredible. A dungeon of this level must be at least Grade A. Perhaps Grade S.”

“Whew! It will be just as dangerous.”

“The greater the danger, the greater the reward.”

“It seems my role is over now.”

Zeon shrugged and took a step back.

Lee Ji-ryeong nodded.

“It is enough that you found the entrance. From here on, our Pegasus Raid Team will take responsibility.”

“I look forward to it.”

“Withdraw to the rear and recover your mana. You look as though you have no strength even to walk after using all your mana to move the sand.”

Zeon’s face was pale, without a trace of blood.

No matter how much mana Zeon had, moving this much sand was bound to drain him.

In truth, Zeon’s mana was already showing its bottom.

If he had dug out even a little more sand, it would have been completely exhausted.

As Zeon staggered backward, Levin and Briel approached him.

“Are you all right, Brother?”

“Zeon!”

“Whew! I’m fine. Though I won’t be able to use much strength for a while.”

Zeon answered while gasping for breath.

His appearance was so pitiful that it was difficult to look at.

Because this was the first time they had seen Zeon struggle this much, Levin and Briel were flustered as well.

Zeon smiled at them and said,

“Whew! I’m really fine, so you two focus only on the dungeon.”

“Understood.”

“It is large and powerful. The moment you let your guard down, you will suffer irreversible harm. So all of you must be especially careful.”

“Don’t worry. From now on, I’ll protect everyone.”

Levin answered with a grave expression.

He believed it was now his role to protect the group until Zeon recovered his mana.

At that moment, Lee Ji-ryeong gave an order to the Pegasus Raid Team.

“The clearing team and I will enter first, and the base team will enter five minutes later. Then the West District Awakened and the exploration team will follow. Does everyone understand?”

“Yes!”

“Then from now on, we begin clearing the dungeon. Each of you is responsible for your own life.”

“Yes!”

The powerful voices of the Awakened echoed across the desert.

Lee Ji-ryeong glared at the dungeon entrance ahead.

Of all the dungeons he had cleared until now, this one felt the largest and most powerful.

Goosebumps rose all over his body, and his heart pounded more fiercely than ever.

It had truly been a long time since he had felt such tension.

Lee Ji-ryeong said to Bronson, the clearing team leader,

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Bronson bared his white teeth and grinned.

There was no fear on his face.

The clearing team was the core and assault force of the Pegasus Raid Team.

They had always opened the way through dungeons from the very front. To them, a new dungeon was not an object of fear.

It was nothing more and nothing less than prey to be trampled and conquered.

That was why Bronson and the clearing team stared at the dungeon entrance with faces full of excitement.

Lee Ji-ryeong pulled the trigger.

“Enter.”

“Waaaah!”

With a roar, they entered the dungeon.

It was the first step toward conquering an unknown dungeon.