Chapter 93

Chapter 93

The Awakened entered the dungeon.

As expected, the dungeon was a maze-type cave.

Like an anthill, it was pierced in every direction, making it impossible to determine a clear path. But no one who had entered the dungeon was flustered.

That was because they had a guide.

As if it were only natural, Shu Han stepped forward from the Inazuma raid team.

Shu Han was an experienced guide.

Do Su-yeol was fairly capable as a guide too, but in terms of rank and experience, he could not compare to Shu Han.

Since he himself knew he was lacking, he yielded the vanguard to Shu Han.

Shu Han sniffed and muttered,

“Sniff, sniff! What a foul smell.”

“How bad is it?”

“Terrible! It has been a long time since I smelled something this rotten.”

“Is that so?”

Koji’s gaze sank deeply.

He trusted the guide Shu Han greatly.

Every dungeon Shu Han had said smelled rotten had been extremely dangerous.

He said to the other Awakened,

“You heard him, right? Prepare yourselves thoroughly.”

“Yes!”

“Mm!”

The Awakened grew tense.

Although they had entered the dungeon together, they were not one team.

The Inazuma raid team, Jack’s raid team, and the Awakened selected from the slums.

Their identities were different, and their goals were all different as well.

Naturally, they could not unite as one.

They naturally split into three groups.

Zeon joined Jack’s raid team.

“We’re going.”

With Shu Han at the front, the Inazuma raid team moved ahead, followed by Jack’s raid team, and then the Awakened from the slums.

Zeon walked at the rear of Jack’s raid team.

His eyes were sharply scanning the cave.

‘The entire cave is made of sandstone. The height is roughly three meters, and the width is about the same. Are those marks on the walls claw marks?’

They looked trivial at first glance, but such small details provided quite a lot of information.

Suddenly, Zeon’s gaze turned toward a small stain on the wall.

At a glance, it looked like a shadow created by the light, but Zeon immediately realized that was not the case.

‘Rock Cordyceps?’

There was a mushroom called cordyceps.

It was named that way because it parasitized insects during winter and emerged like grass in summer.

Rock Cordyceps was named after cordyceps.

That was because its ecology was similar.

In rock, it parasitized monsters and moved, but in sand, it rooted itself like moss.

Even among rocks, it could not use much of its strength in sandstone, which was condensed sand.

By itself, it was not a threat to humans.

‘But it’s good food for certain monsters.’

Zeon thought of the monsters that could not resist Rock Cordyceps.

‘A size that can move freely through a cave of this scale. Claw marks on the walls, and Rock Cordyceps. It looks like the owner of this dungeon is that creature.’

Zeon identified the owner of the dungeon in an instant.

To share his information, Zeon spoke to Koji.

“Hey!”

“Shh! Did you not hear that you must stay quiet inside a dungeon? Maintain silence until I give an order.”

Koji looked at Zeon with a contemptuous gaze.

The others were the same.

“Tch!”

Zeon clicked his tongue softly and stepped back.

In any case, he had done what he could.

He had no guilt because whatever happened from now on was their responsibility.

At that moment, Koji sent a hand signal to Shu Han.

‘Have you figured out what kind of monster lives here?’

Instead of answering, Shu Han shook his head.

They were only at the dungeon’s entrance.

There was still too little information to identify the monsters living inside the dungeon.

Shu Han advanced carefully.

He did not know what kind of monster might spring out from inside the dungeon.

Before that happened, identifying the monster and informing the raid team was also one of his duties.

Sniff, sniff!

Shu Han smelled the air.

There was a passage with an especially sour smell.

‘We must avoid this place.’

The more a place was like this, the higher the chance that monsters were gathered there.

Shu Han led the group into the passage that felt the least unpleasant among them.

When they reached the middle of the passage, it happened.

Scratch, scrape!

A strange sound reached Shu Han’s ears.

He shouted,

“Monster ahead. Everyone, prepare for battle!”

The moment his words ended, two points of light appeared on the far side of the passage.

There was no one who did not know that those were a monster’s eyes.

Koji gave an order.

“Yuri! Attack.”

“Yes!”

Yuri answered and swung her fan.

Then blades of wind flew fiercely forward.

BOOM!

The wind blades struck the monster’s head accurately.

The monster let out a loud scream from the powerful impact and collapsed.

Kweeeek!

Yuri frowned at the scream echoing through the cave and muttered,

“It’s nothing special.”

She was a wind-type, in other words, a wind-element Mage. And she called herself a Windmancer. That was how confident she was in her wind-element Magic.

For her, dealing with a monster of this level was as easy as turning over her palm.

“Judging by the reaction, it is only a Grade D monster.”

“Good! Let’s push through at once.”

“This dungeon does not seem particularly dangerous.”

At Yuri’s words, the expressions of the Awakened brightened.

An Awakened of Yuri’s level was no different from a human measuring instrument.

With the recoil she felt in her hand, she could accurately distinguish the monster’s rank.

If Grade D monsters lived in this dungeon, the dungeon’s owner would be Grade C at most.

A monster of that level could be hunted easily enough by the Awakened who had entered.

The tension vanished from the Awakened’s faces.

Koji was the first to check the identity of the fallen monster.

“This looks like a mole.”

The monster felled by Yuri’s attack resembled a mole.

A giant mole with a shoulder height of two meters and a length of over four meters from head to tail.

At that moment, Zeon, who had been keeping silent, opened his mouth.

“It is called a Hell Mole.”

“You know this creature’s identity?”

Koji looked at Zeon with an unexpected expression.

Zeon let out a sigh and answered,

“Hell Moles are monsters with an unusually strong attachment to their kin. If one of them dies, the entire clan rushes in to take revenge.”

“That much is......”

“The problem is the number in a clan. A single bloodline can be made up of a few hundred at the least, and over several thousand at the most.”

“Hundreds? Thousands?”

It was the moment Koji’s eyebrow twitched.

Shu Han shouted urgently.

“Captain! I can sense monsters in every direction.”

“What?”

“We have to hurry. They’re closing in.”

“Everyone, prepare for battle!”

Just as Koji hurriedly gave the order, it happened.

Kieee!

Kuwaaah!

Hell Moles appeared from every part of the cave.

At the sight of the Hell Mole legion filling the tunnels pierced like an anthill, the Awakened looked horrified.

“What the hell?”

“Insane!”

The Hell Moles charged forward, radiating intense hostility toward the Awakened who had killed their family.

They looked like moles, but their speed was as fast as horses.

The Hell Mole’s greatest weapons were its large claws.

The claws, which could cut even stone like tofu, were a great threat in and of themselves.

“Fuck!”

“Block them! If they break through, we’re all dead.”

The Awakened each took charge of a passage and blocked the Hell Moles’ advance.

BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions echoed through the cave.

The Awakened unleashed their respective Skills.

Some swung weapons filled with aura, while others cast Magic.

Under their attacks, Hell Moles screamed and collapsed. But the expressions of the Awakened did not brighten.

That was because no matter how many they killed, Hell Moles continued to appear.

What made Hell Moles terrifying was that, like many monsters, they did not fear death.

The blood spilled by their dying companions acted as a catalyst that amplified the Hell Moles’ madness.

Consumed by madness, the Hell Moles charged at the Awakened in a frenzy.

There was another problem.

“Damn it! Grade C ones are mixed in.”

The Hell Mole legion they had thought to be merely a Grade D horde contained quite a few Grade C individuals.

BOOM! BANG!

They approached while blocking the Awakened’s attacks with their bare bodies. Then they cut down the attacking Awakened with their claws.

Slash!

“Kraagh!”

“Aagh!”

The Hell Mole pack clung to the Awakened who collapsed while spraying blood and tore into them with their teeth.

The Awakened disappeared into the Hell Moles’ stomachs in an instant.

Just like that, more than ten Awakened died in the blink of an eye.

Zeon watched the scene with cold eyes.

‘This is why Hell Moles are troublesome to deal with. A battlefield advantageous to them, madness that does not fear death, and durability that ignores most attacks.’

This was why swarm-type monsters were difficult to face.

To deal with swarm-type monsters, one had to understand their ecology completely and prepare perfectly. But they had attacked recklessly, which had caused this disaster.

Hell Moles also approached Zeon, who was standing still.

Two Grade C and three Grade D.

It was a fairly strong force.

Kueee!

Along with the Hell Moles’ unique cry, their claws swung.

At that instant, intense flames rose from Zeon’s entire body.

The Hell Moles screamed at the light, intense enough to blind them. No matter how degenerated their eyes were, they still had some vision left.

Fire Missiles pierced the heads of those Hell Moles.

Thud, thud, thud!

The Hell Moles’ heads were shattered.

Seeing that, Jack shouted,

“Fire! It’s fire. Their eyes are degenerated, so they’re weak to firelight.”

Fortunately, among the Awakened from the slums, there were a few who could use fire Magic.

Since they were lower-ranked Awakened, the power was nothing impressive, but the important thing was that they could cast fire Magic.

When fire Magic was cast, intense light was inevitably released.

The intense light dealt great damage to the Hell Moles.

Kueee!

“Now!”

“Die!”

The Awakened did not miss that opening and slaughtered the Hell Moles.

Koji cut down three or four Hell Moles at once with his katana, and Yuri swept them away with wind-element Magic.

Bai Lun, befitting his class as a Berserker, rampaged with only one axe in hand.

Jack’s raid team also steadily reduced the number of Hell Moles.

But no matter how many they killed, Hell Moles appeared endlessly.

They needed to find a breakthrough.

At that moment, Shu Han shouted,

“Captain, this way.”

The place Shu Han pointed to was a passage where an especially large number of Hell Moles were positioned.

“The dungeon boss is this way.”

The best way to collapse swarm-type monsters was to kill the boss. Then their command system would collapse, and the monsters would scatter.

Fortunately, Shu Han had found the boss’s location before it was too late.

“Good! Everyone, run where Shu Han leads.”

Koji cut down the Hell Moles blocking the front and ran.

Inazuma took the lead, the Awakened from the slums were in the middle, and finally, Jack’s raid team followed from the rear.

Zeon moved at the very back even among Jack’s raid team.

Each time he flicked his finger, a streak of fire split the darkness.

Each time, one Hell Mole died.

If he made up his mind, he could wipe out this entire Hell Mole legion by himself in an instant.

The reason he did not do so was partly because he did not want to reveal his full strength to them, but there was another, bigger reason.

‘This feels wrong.’

The Awakened guarding the dungeon had clearly said Zeon’s group was the first to clear it. But considering that, the Hell Moles’ movements were far too suspicious.

Just as humans developed while facing monsters, monsters also learned how to respond the more they fought humans.

The movements of the Hell Moles attacking Zeon’s group right now were the same.

‘They have fought humans before.’

Zeon’s gaze turned forward.

Shu Han was guiding them into the passage where he said the boss was.