Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The vacant lot on the outskirts of Seoul was filled not with crisp autumn wind, but with an unpleasant, humid energy. The gap that had opened between massive concrete structures—that was the entrance to today's target, the C-rank dungeon [Ruins of the Gnoll Tribe].

Somyeong readjusted the straps of the massive cargo bag slung over his shoulders. The bag, which looked about one and a half times larger than what ordinary porters used, was packed to the brim with assorted potions, rations, and auxiliary gear. It was a weight that would leave an average person struggling to even stand, but to Somyeong, it was lighter than a tuft of cotton candy set upon his shoulders.

"Oppa, are you really going to be okay? Tell me if it gets too hard, even now. I can bring more people."

Jina asked, watching Somyeong with worried eyes. In her hand was a longsword of considerable heft.

"I told you I'm fine. This is nothing. Did you forget how much I used to work out?"

Somyeong answered breezily, scratching the back of his head. 'Working out' was an understatement—this was the body of the Heavenly Demon who had brought tens of thousands to their knees. Though he was suppressing his demonic energy for now, every fiber of his muscles held strength tempered over a hundred years.

Just then, the sound of someone clicking their tongue came from behind.

"Good grief. Does he think this is some trail behind the neighborhood hill? Jina, I told you—you need to use a vetted porter."

A man in a blue mage's robe approached, leaning on a staff. It was Lee Hyeonseok, a C-rank mage. He looked Somyeong up and down with undisguised displeasure, then pointed at the F-rank license Somyeong was carrying and snorted.

"F-rank? And at the level of an unawakened civilian, no less? Bring someone like this inside, and the second a single gnoll pops out, he'll piss himself and bolt. Think he can even deliver a single potion properly?"

Beside Lee Hyeonseok, the tanker Park Cheolsu stood silently, a massive shield in hand. He didn't add any words of his own, but the look he gave Somyeong was full of suspicion.

Jina's brow furrowed instantly. She stepped in front of Somyeong and glared at Lee Hyeonseok.

"That's going a bit far, Hyeonseok. My brother can carry gear like nobody's business. And I already agreed to handle all the combat myself. Just focus on casting your spells on time from the back."

"I'm talking about efficiency. What happens to our party's reputation if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing's going to go wrong. I'll make sure of it. If you have a problem, you're free to leave right now."

Lee Hyeonseok flinched and shut his mouth under Jina's razor-sharp intensity. Even among fellow C-ranks, the presence of a melee dealer who cut down monsters on the front lines was something a mage could hardly stand against.

He grumbled and adjusted his grip on his staff.

"Fine, fine. Just don't come crying to me later."

Somyeong watched the scene unfold and let out a silent laugh. In his murim days, anyone who had dared run their mouth so brazenly in the Heavenly Demon's presence would have had their tongue ripped out and their limbs torn apart. But this was modern society, and more than anything, the sight of his sister getting angry on his behalf was strangely ticklish and amusing.

'How cute. Both that fellow and Jina getting all worked up.'

Somyeong hunched his back slightly and put on a smile so agreeable it bordered on groveling.

"I apologize, Mage. I'll follow along quietly and stay out of the way. I'm in your care."

"Tch. Just crawl along and stay out of my way."

Lee Hyeonseok shrugged smugly, as if savoring his victory, and headed toward the dungeon entrance. Somyeong watched his retreating figure and quietly matched his pace.

***

The moment they stepped inside the dungeon, the damp smell of moss hit them alongside the stench of animal droppings. Ruined stone buildings stood in irregular rows, creating an eerie atmosphere.

"Cheolsu takes point, Jina covers the flanks. I'll provide support from center. The porter follows in the back and keeps quiet."

The party began to move according to Lee Hyeonseok's directions. They advanced slowly, tense to the bone, but to Somyeong's eyes, everything was laid bare.

'Two behind the left pillar. Three in the gap in the ceiling. And......'

Somyeong's senses had already swept the entire dungeon. The monsters' ragged breathing, their heartbeats, even the crude traps they had laid.

For a man who had stood at the summit of the martial world, a dungeon of this caliber was easier than a stroll through his front yard. Somyeong held back a yawn and surveyed his surroundings.

Park Cheolsu, at the front, was carefully placing his next step. The stone slab on the floor where his foot was about to land was ever so slightly raised. It was a trap—the moment it was stepped on, poisoned arrows would shoot from the walls on both sides.

A gimmick that neither Park Cheolsu nor Lee Hyeonseok had noticed—not even Jina, who had the sharpest instincts of the group.

'What a hassle.'

While walking, Somyeong deliberately pretended to stumble and nudged a nearby pebble with the tip of his foot.

Clatter—

The pebble rolled along the floor and pressed down on the trap's stone slab just before Park Cheolsu's foot could reach it.

SWISH—!

"Wh-what?!"

Arrows suddenly shot from the walls and sliced through the air. Park Cheolsu raised his shield in shock, and the arrows bounced off its surface and clattered to the ground.

"It's a trap! Everyone, halt!"

Lee Hyeonseok shouted, his voice nearly a scream. The party members broke into cold sweats, scanning their surroundings. After a long silence, Jina turned around and scolded Somyeong.

"Oppa! Watch where you're going! What if you trip on a rock?!"

"Sorry, sorry. The bag's so heavy I think my feet got tangled. But hey, looks like we got lucky and found the trap early?"

When Somyeong laughed it off, scratching his head, Jina let out a sigh and shook her head.

"I swear, I can't deal with you. Still, we were lucky. You saved us, Oppa."

"What are you talking about?! It was just a coincidence. A porter with zero sense of caution."

Lee Hyeonseok grumbled, but Somyeong merely offered a thin smile. After several more covert assists like that, the party arrived safely at the dungeon's central plaza.

***

Dozens of gnolls had gathered in packs across the plaza. The hyena-headed monsters charged in, swinging iron pipes and rusted blades.

"Engage! Cheolsu, throw a taunt!"

With Lee Hyeonseok's shout, a full-scale melee erupted.

Jina was the first to charge out. Her sword glowed blue as it targeted the gnolls' throats with precision. Somyeong set down his cargo bag, crouched in a corner, and watched his sister fight.

'Hmm, not bad.'

Somyeong began evaluating Jina's swordsmanship in his head.

'Her strength is good, but her arcs are too wide. She's wasting far too much energy that way. She needs to cut three swings down to two if she wants to conserve her stamina.'

Jina's movements were bold and unrestrained, but through the eyes of a martial master, they were riddled with openings. She had a particular habit of letting her center of gravity shift forward when guarding her lower body. At that rate, when she faced a powerful enemy down the line, there would be a high risk of injuring her legs.

'Her shoulder muscles are too tense, too. If she keeps fighting like that for just three more years, her cartilage will be worn to nothing. I'll have to secretly correct her form at home later.'

Somyeong had already finished calculating which foundational martial arts to pass down for his sister's growth.

The battle was nearing its end. Jina and Park Cheolsu had cleared out most of the gnolls, while Lee Hyeonseok hurled fireballs from the rear, putting on a show of force.

"Haha! That was nothing! They said this was a C-rank dungeon, but it's tamer than I expected."

Lee Hyeonseok planted his staff and swaggered out into the middle of the battlefield. Dropping his guard when stragglers might still remain—an act of sheer arrogance.

That was when it happened.

Somyeong's eyes narrowed. In the thick darkness of the ceiling, a shadow was moving without a sound.

'A mutant assassin gnoll.'

It was a variant far smaller and faster than ordinary gnolls, one that knew how to erase its presence entirely. The creature hung upside down from the ceiling, targeting the crown of Lee Hyeonseok's head as the mage stood with his back exposed, cackling away.

Jina and Park Cheolsu were far away, too occupied with mopping up the remaining enemies to notice. No one had detected the danger bearing down on Lee Hyeonseok.

'Ugh, getting blood on my clothes would be a pain to wash. Mother just did my laundry fresh today.'

Somyeong let out an annoyed sigh. But if he let that irritating mage die here, the dungeon clear would fail, and that would put Jina in a foul mood.

Somyeong pretended to adjust his bag while scanning the ground at his feet. A rusty iron nail that had scattered from the earlier trap was rolling around nearby.

He flicked the nail up with the tip of his foot. The nail arced upward and slid between his fingers.

'Divine Finger Flick.'

A light flick.

A minute wave of energy, born from his fingertip, rode the nail. No sound. No light. The nail shot forward in a straight line without producing so much as a whisper of friction through the air.

At that very moment, the shadow on the ceiling dropped toward Lee Hyeonseok.

"SCREEEE—!"

Just as the grotesque shriek was about to erupt, the creature's head snapped backward in midair. A small iron nail had been driven clean through its forehead and out the back of its skull.

CRUNCH—!

"AAAGH! What the—?!"

Lee Hyeonseok screamed belatedly and collapsed onto the floor. Right in front of his feet, the hideous corpse of an assassin gnoll dropped with a thud. It had died instantly, without so much as a single convulsion.

***

Silence fell.

Jina and Park Cheolsu came rushing over in shock.

"What is this? That's an assassin gnoll! Hyeonseok, are you okay?"

Jina shouted, examining the corpse. Lee Hyeonseok was sitting on the ground, face white as a sheet.

"I-I don't know! It just suddenly dropped from the ceiling, and......"

"Huh? There's a hole in its forehead."

Park Cheolsu flipped the body over and frowned. In the gnoll's forehead was a hole, precise and clean, as if drilled by an awl. The surrounding bone had been reduced to powder, and the brain tissue was completely destroyed.

"Is there anyone among us who could do this? Hyeonseok, did you use a piercing spell?"

"N-no. I only used fire magic......"

Lee Hyeonseok stammered, equally baffled. Jina's gaze naturally drifted to Somyeong, who had been standing at the very rear.

Somyeong had his eyes wide open and his mouth agape, putting on a performance of sheer terror.

"Eek! Wh-what is that thing? Is that a monster?"

"Oppa, did you see anything just now? How did it end up like that?"

Somyeong shrugged at Jina's question and pointed to an old iron nail lying on the floor.

"Beats me. From what I saw, the thing jumped down and landed forehead-first right on that nail there. Wow, talk about lucky. Your ancestors must've been looking out for you, Mage."

"......It landed on a nail?"

Jina looked back and forth between the corpse and the nail on the floor with suspicious eyes. The nail was rolling around, smeared with blood. By any reasonable logic, the odds of a falling monster having its forehead pierced by a loose nail on the floor were slimmer than winning the lottery.

But there was no other way to explain the situation. Somyeong was simply patting his chest in relief, as if to say he was just lucky.

"I guess that's what it's like being a Gate survivor—Oppa, you were born with insane luck."

Jina tilted her head quizzically and sheathed her sword. Something felt off, but the brother standing before her still wore the same expression of a clueless bum who didn't know the ways of the world.

Lee Hyeonseok brushed the dust off himself and stood, looking embarrassed, clearing his throat.

"Ahem! Well, luck is a skill too. Anyway, looks like the situation's handled, so let's just get to looting."

He tried his best to appear unfazed, but his legs were still trembling faintly. Somyeong watched his retreating back and clicked his tongue inwardly.

'Next time I'll just let a little blood get on my clothes. What a hassle.'

Somyeong shouldered the heavy bag once more. On the way out of the dungeon, Jina kept glancing back, studying her brother's gait.

A hole too clean to have been coincidence. And her brother's posture, unnervingly steady.

A small seed of doubt sprouted in Jina's heart, but Somyeong just chuckled and gave her shoulder a light tap.

"Jina, how about pork belly for dinner tonight? I earned a little money, so it's my treat."

"Please, what money? I'll buy, so just get moving."

Somyeong grinned happily at his sister's nagging and headed out of the dungeon. The crisp autumn air had, at some point, softened into the gentle glow of an evening sunset.

"Another peaceful day."

Somyeong murmured. Of course, no one knew that the price of that peace was a starving wolf that had been about to emerge from behind the trees—crushed under the weight of his gaze alone, it had collapsed frothing at the mouth.