Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The inside of Shaft 972 was extremely dark.

The light from the lamp attached to his hat was not enough to fully illuminate the darkness of the shaft.

Zeon stood facing the wall at the dead end of the shaft.

Marks left by pickaxe blows remained on the wall.

They were traces left behind by someone who had entered before Zeon.

He could almost see the sight of a miner, who had entered this underground place where not a single ray of sunlight reached in order to mine Mana Stones, swinging his pickaxe down with all his strength.

Four miners like that had died here.

“Why?”

The miners would not have died for no reason.

There had to be something here that had led them to their deaths.

There was no such thing as an effect without a cause.

Zeon leaned the pickaxe against the wall and began carefully examining the inside of the shaft.

“The mana is dense, but......”

A great deal of mana had gathered inside the shaft.

If it had been before Zeon awakened, he would not have noticed it.

“Why is mana gathered only here?”

He had heard that side effects appeared when ordinary people were exposed to mana for a long time.

Cellular necrosis caused by mana oversaturation, the rapid aging of organs, and countless other side effects besides.

If what he felt was true, then the miners had clearly died because of the mana in this place.

Park Man-ho was an Awakened too, so if he had entered this place, he would certainly have felt that mana was excessively concentrated here. However, he had fallen into gambling and had not personally entered the shafts for a long time. That had to be why he had failed to notice.

The problem was why mana had gathered only in this place.

Zeon looked at the wall of the shaft.

For now, that wall was the only place worth suspecting.

Zeon picked up the pickaxe. Then he struck the inner wall of the shaft.

CLANG! CLANG!

The pickaxe struck, and sparks scattered in every direction.

Each time he swung the pickaxe down, the rock crumbled weakly.

THUNK!

He felt the pickaxe sink unusually deep.

“What is this?”

With a puzzled expression, Zeon swung the pickaxe down with all his strength once more.

BOOM!

With a tremendous roar, the wall collapsed.

In the place where the wall had crumbled, an oval space was rippling.

At the appearance of the space, which was especially black and alien, like the throat of a beast, Zeon’s eyes widened.

“What the?”

WHOOSH!

At that instant, a powerful force pulled Zeon in.

Before Zeon could even resist, he was sucked into the black space.

“Grrgh!”

The moment he entered the black space, he felt tremendous pressure.

Pain, as though his entire body were being crushed, swept over him.

His mind went blank, and agony crashed over him so fiercely that he could not continue thinking.

All he could think was that he wanted to escape this moment as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, that moment came quickly.

THUD!

The black space spat Zeon out.

Zeon rolled across the ground several times, then quickly got to his feet.

“What is this hellish scenery......?”

Until just moments ago, he had clearly been deep inside an underground shaft. Yet now, an entirely different scene stretched out before his eyes.

In the distance, he could see an enormous mountain.

The mountain, black as pitch, was spewing black smoke and crimson lava. The sky was filled with volcanic ash, and rivers of lava flowed across the earth.

All the plants had burned to ash, and the air was full of the smell of sulfur.

Intense heat rose from the earth where the lava had hardened. It was tremendous enough that the heat of the desert could not even compare.

In an instant, Zeon’s face flushed bright red, and sweat poured down like rain.

Before he knew it, his clothes were damp with sweat.

“Is this a dungeon?”

Zeon looked at the entrance to the dungeon that had spat him out.

The dungeon entrance was closing at great speed, as though it had fulfilled its role.

“Damn it! No!”

By the time Zeon ran over, it had closed completely and not even a trace remained.

“This is driving me insane!”

Zeon scratched his head roughly.

Entering a dungeon was one thing, but he had never imagined he would end up inside one so defenselessly.

Even in Neo Seoul, people made thorough preparations when conquering a dungeon.

They estimated the grade through the dungeon’s scale, then formed a raid party with Awakened suitable for that grade.

Even after entering with every preparation made, dungeons were places that produced tremendous casualties. It was only natural that he was dumbfounded after being dropped alone into such a dungeon with no preparation at all.

“This is truly a perfectly rotten day. How can I possibly be this unlucky?”

It was so absurd that he was beyond speechless.

Starting with Old Man Kleksi taking his Mana Stone from him for a pittance, then his ill-fated connection with Park Man-ho, and now being dragged into a dungeon without warning.

Everything was perfect.

As if a god who adjusted fate were personally directing the situation.

Zeon took out the hourglass he had placed in his pocket and looked at it.

“Is this the only thing I managed to gain, at least?”

As he fiddled with the hourglass, his mind calmed slightly.

Only then could he think coldly.

“First, I need to check whether my ability works inside the dungeon.”

Zeon bent at the waist and swept the ground with his hand.

Black grains stuck to his hand.

It was volcanic ash.

Zeon raised his control. Then the sand in his hand slowly rose into the air.

Fortunately, it seemed volcanic ash fell within the reach of his control, just like sand.

Zeon thought it was a relief.

It would have been troublesome if his greatest weapon, his control over sand, did not work.

The dungeon was filled with volcanic ash.

Weapons for him to use were scattered everywhere.

Zeon let out a sigh of relief.

At least it did not seem as though he would die helplessly.

The next thing Zeon did was check inside his backpack.

Fortunately, there were several days’ worth of food inside. It was a relief that the food had not spoiled or been ruined while passing through the dungeon entrance.

“With this much, I should be able to hold out for a few days.”

Now that he had confirmed there was no problem with his food, what remained was finding the dungeon’s exit.

The problem was that he had no idea where the exit was in this vast space.

In a case like this, there was only one method.

He had to walk around and check for himself.

“Most likely, it will be near the volcano, right?”

No matter who looked at it, the center of this dungeon was the volcano.

If so, there was surely a clue to escaping the dungeon at the volcano.

“Phew!”

Zeon took a deep breath.

His throat stung.

The volcanic ash drifting in the air was irritating his airway.

If he could not escape quickly, the volcanic ash would surely ruin his lungs.

Zeon took a piece of cloth from his backpack.

It was a cloth used as a substitute for a mask to prevent the inhalation of stone dust while mining Mana Stones.

When he covered his mouth and nose with the cloth, the pain in his airway lessened a little.

“Let’s go!”

Zeon moved toward the volcano.

---

The more he looked, the stranger it seemed.

He knew that a dungeon was a space where human common sense did not apply, but he had never known it would be a place this incomprehensible.

The enormous volcano visible in the distance was neither an illusion nor a hallucination.

It was a real volcano spewing lava and flames.

The scorching air and earth told him that all of this was real.

Sweat poured down like rain.

Even after awakening, he was in this state. If an ordinary person had been sucked into the dungeon, they would surely have died without lasting long.

“I can get out, right?”

Zeon prided himself on being stubborn in his own way, but before this harsh environment he was seeing for the first time in his life, he had no choice but to shrink back.

Even so, for now, he had no choice but to move forward.

“Mm!”

Zeon stopped.

It was because a gigantic river of lava was blocking his path.

Even though there was still quite a distance between them, the intense heat felt as if it would burn his entire body.

The river of lava was dozens of meters wide.

Leaping across it in a single bound was impossible for the current Zeon.

Zeon moved in search of a place where the width narrowed.

After going upstream for a long while, he found a place where the width was around ten meters. It was at least a distance worth attempting.

“Phew!”

Zeon stopped for a moment and took a deep breath.

With his current physical condition, he felt as though he could jump it. However, if by any chance he misplaced his footing or lost his balance in midair, he would fall straight into the river of lava.

If that happened, he would melt away without leaving even a fragment of bone behind.

Even so, Zeon had no choice but to prepare himself to jump.

After glaring at the river of lava for a moment, Zeon sprinted with all his strength.

“Haaah!”

Right before the river of lava, he leapt with all his might.

Like a bird, Zeon’s body flew through the air.

It was when Zeon reached the highest point of his leap.

GUSH—!

Suddenly, something burst through the lava and surged up toward Zeon.

“What the?”

Zeon looked beneath his feet in shock.

A huge gaping maw.

Bumpy skin filled with flame.

A long body like a snake’s, with four short legs attached.

It was a crocodile.

A giant crocodile hidden in the river of lava, hunting for prey.

Each of its teeth was the size of a person’s forearm.

Countless teeth like that were packed densely inside its mouth.

If he was caught by those teeth, Zeon’s body would certainly be torn apart in an instant.

He was in midair, so there was nowhere to dodge.

He tried to use Sand Blaster, but the sand was too far away. He would surely lose his life before he could gather it.

Zeon twisted his body in the air while gathering the sand.

SNAP!

By a hair’s breadth, the crocodile bit empty air and splashed back into the river of lava. But Zeon’s situation was not good either.

He had narrowly escaped the crocodile’s attack, but as the price for that, he had lost his balance and was falling toward the river of lava.

In the river of lava, that crocodile had its enormous mouth wide open.

If he could not stop his fall, he would be eaten by the crocodile.

At that instant, Zeon saw floating sand.

It was the sand he had gathered moments before.

Zeon instinctively imagined it.

He pictured making a foothold out of the sand floating before his eyes.

Imagination became reality.

A foothold made of sand formed beneath his falling foot.

TAP!

Without thinking any further, Zeon kicked off the sand foothold and launched himself away.

The sand scattered in an instant once its use was done, but thanks to it, Zeon was barely able to reach the opposite side. Though he landed on his back instead of his feet.

“Grrgh!”

At the impact that felt as though his whole body were breaking apart, Zeon groaned. But Zeon did not even have the luxury of feeling the pain.

ROOOAR!

The giant crocodile was coming out of the river of lava and approaching Zeon.

Sticky lava dripped down the crocodile’s enormous body.

“Damn it! A monster like this......”

Zeon hurriedly retreated. But the crocodile approached faster than he did.

Its legs were short only compared to its enormous body. They were thicker and larger than most logs.

Naturally, its walking speed was very fast.

“Sand Blaster.”

Zeon fired Sand Blaster. However, the stream of sand fired at high pressure failed to inflict any damage on the giant crocodile and melted instead.

The giant crocodile was emitting heat as intense as lava itself. Because of that, the sand melted in an instant before it could even touch it.

“Insane!”

Zeon’s eyes widened.

He had truly not expected his attack to be blocked so futilely.

The crocodile launched itself with unbelievable speed and snapped at Zeon.

Looking at its enormous mouth split wide open, Zeon could not react at all.

That was when it happened.

“To think you use sand. You have quite an interesting ability.”

A rough, hoarse voice suddenly came from the air.

Without realizing it, Zeon looked in the direction of the voice.

Someone was falling from the sky, piercing through the volcanic ash.

Like a bird with folded wings, the person descended at a terrifying speed, holding an enormous sword in his hand.

With the enormous sword leading the way, he collided directly with the giant crocodile.

BOOM—!

An explosive roar burst out as though a meteor had struck, and a tremendous shockwave swept over the area.

The shockwave sent the quietly flowing lava scattering in every direction.

“What the?”

Zeon covered both ears with his hands, his expression full of disbelief.

The giant crocodile that had been so threatening was crushed like tofu. Standing on top of the crushed giant crocodile was an old man of tremendous size.

From the old man’s eyes shot a gaze so frightening that it was hard to believe he was human.

The old man asked Zeon,

“What is your name?”

The voice, growling from deep in his belly, was more frightening than the giant crocodile.